Liontamer Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 Hello, I've been a follower of OCReMix for several years and have decided to try my hand at a piano arrangement. Contact information: Real name: Peter Smith Remixer name: SoUnDoLe email address: ihatelibby@hotmail.com userid: 2661 Submission information: Game: Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, GBA, 2002. Piece arranged: Chapel of Dissonance All soundtrack information is already on OCReMix ReMix title: Chapel Gymnopodie Additional information: This is a gymnopodie modelled after structural style of Erik Satie's gymnopodies. While not the only writer of them he is certainly the composer who pretty much defined all the form's features, especcially in regard to tonal language based on colouristic harmony. I have taken the main 8 bar melodic motif from Chapel of Dissonance and given it a new context and harmonic sense, used improvisations springing from it and melodic alteration devices derived from the original motif. It was recorded by pianist Vatche Jambazian(who should probably be credited in the write up if this is accepted) performing on a Steinway & Sons piano in the East Recital Hall of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, on the 11th of July, 2008. I hope that you enjoy it. --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/download_file/8168 - (10) "Chapel of Dissonance" Needed more than 91.5 seconds of source usage to pass. The theme was in full effect from :14-:35 & 2:03-2:54. There was some seemingly original writing and rhythms in the style of the source, but I heard pieces of it overtly from 1:00-1:07, (as well as hanging notes continuing the melody ending at 1:07 with 1:13-1:16 & 1:19-1:22), then liberally arranged from 1:22-1:45. That breakdown is definitely open to interpretation, so draw your own conclusions, but as long as 1:22-1:45 checks out with you, this used the source enough. A higher encoding would have been nice; this was lossy as all get-out, but serviceable. Some judges might complain about the left-hand writing being too similar throughout and the lack of a more pronounced dynamic curve, but it wasn't a problem to me; it was a purposeful choice and, to me, it fit the style and mood, similar to Radiowar's "Lanterns." It's somber & melancholy and the interpretation was strong enough. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 The arrangement is simple but interpretative. The new left-hand chords add a lot and I even liked the liberal 1:22-1:45. On the other hand, it borders on overly simplistic. The left-hand writing was static and even for a dirge, I would have liked to see more movement there. This might be the most minimal remix I've thought had a shot of passing. The recording quality is definitely not as high as most piano arrangements we have on this site. The overall sound is muted and reminiscent of older, live piano recordings. I feel like the simplistic writing combined with the mediocre recording quality makes this a NO. I just don't get an overall sense that this meets the bar. It's close though and I could see this passing. Good luck, Peter. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 I like the eeriness of the remix, real mood-setter music. Staying minimal is cool, but I felt like there was probably too much so, considering the tempo, there's a lot of dead space. Not saying you have to throw too much in there to jazz it up or anything, but it's a little bit on the dull side. BTW, just to clarify, I don't mean to say that minimal = dull. Minimal music done right can still be really engaging. I sped the remix up about 3x and it gives a good idea of what I'm talking about. There's just... not much there. The terminal flaw though, is the production coupled with the encoding. You should have rendered at 192kbps, and you DEFINITELY should have normalized. As it is now, I normalized your track, and I'm stuck with all this audio noise from the compression since it's at such a low bitrate. Not a bad submission, I recommend expanding it a little more, then asking someone in the WIP forum or something to clean it up and normalize it to a decent level. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 Beautiful left hand chords, even though they don't do much else. I did enjoy the arrangement, its quite liberal but after checkin larry's breakdown I'm cool that there's enough overall usage. It is very simple melodically, but the harmony choices were great for the style and you explained your choices coherently. I do have issues with the recording quality though. On the one hand its too quiet and noisy. On the other hand the lower quality in some way adds to this colour of the tone. I get the feeling that if this were a crisp and dry recording, it perhaps wouldn't sound the way it does, which is imo quite nice to listen to. I guess the only major issue I have is the volume, but as Jimmy mentioned, just boosting the volume adds noise which we definitely don't want. My suggestion would be, if you have the original wav, normalise it properly and resub. I actually like the odd boxy-reverb colour of the sound that the (hate to say it) poor recording technique has created, but there's no excuse for low encoding. NO resub plz (We have a steinway at the uni, lovely things) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 I have a steinway at home, I love that thing. In your face Cain. Also, I love Eric Satie. Anyway, this is beautiful. While the arrangement is very minimal it is also very effective and never boring. Some additional movements in the right hand, perhaps triplets or something challenging and emotive (think Debussy, Deux Arabesques but only the right hand) will help it but I don't think you need to do much with the arrangement. Some chromatic movement to get to your desired notes is also great for adding some extra tension. Production is a mess however. The enconding gives this a horrible colored noise on top that just shouldn't be there. Since it's quite a short piece you should be able to get away with 192kbps. I liked the ambience in the sound but blending it with some closer mic'd sound would make the piano sound fuller and really make the steinway worth it! I urge you to re-record this, perhaps with some additions in the right hand for that extra movement but most of all to get the production over the bar. It's a beautiful emotive piece arranged in a clever way but it needs that extra push in the production area, trust me it will be worth it. NO(for the love of all that is holy, resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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