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OCR01016 - Sonic & Knuckles "Deep Damp Sandcastle"


djpretzel
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Wooo! I remember Beatdrop talking about this awhile ago! Great to see that it's finally been posted! The rhythm section during the slower sections is almost rap like (which works well). This really sounds like something that would play well if they remade S&K as a 3D game (mostly because it kinda provides a bit more ambience). Gives a real great feel. I personally don't think it's Beatdrop's best, but still great work. :wink:

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Hrm...

I didnt like the way the melody take stabs.

I also dont like the part that plays on what sounds to me like some kinda distorted sitar.

Oww...no, sorry...the scratchings and fast paced sections do absolutley nothing for me...I do *not* like those at all.

The pads are good though...like those.

...sorry, BD, but I cant bring myself to like this one...not one little bit....*sigh*

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Well, Beatdrop was kind enough to share this mix with me months ago, and I have been enjoying it ever since. As DJP said in the intro, it took me a few listens before I really got into it, but once I got into it I loved it.

The progressions are well thought out, as there always seems to be the perfect amount of time between them all. The sharp builds lead very well into the sudden drops and I really enjoy the middle section (1:45ish-2:20ish). The eerie beeps and synthetic laughter always manage to make me smile. The ending works very well too. I'm usually not a fan of a quick conclusion. It often feels tagged on and too fast. But in this case it works very well with the final build, working up the power of the music and then silencing it completly.

But the greatest thing about this track? I am not familiar with the original in any way shape or form (I'm still looking for this game as I only got a Genesis three years ago). Yet I love it still.

While I have to agree with Eccles and say that this isn't BD's best work, I must also follow that up with "it's pretty damn good".

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While not bad by any means, this song doesn't exactly kick me in the pants. It pulls off what it wants to achieve, and for that I give it credit. Sample quality is a bit "meh" but you can't really fault someone for that. The beginning is fine, no qualms. But at 0:54 the song takes a big fall for me. Without any harmony it seems more like notes just...playing. Not too interesting a listen as the notes also seem to play disjointedly. And while the lead at the first fast section is awesome, I think some more harmony would have helped the fast section seem more "energized". 1:42 - 2:08 is just the bassline, by itself. Prett bland in my opinion. After the strings come in though, the song becomes more interesting and much tighter in terms of direction. The final fast parts are my favorite part of the song, thanks to the use of tons of background sounds. It makes for a great climax And the ending is sweet, with the wind blowin and stuff.

I think with more work and better samples this could've been awesome, but with such sparseness and a strangely "flat" sound over the whole song (almost like it needs more "body") I'm just not diggin' it...

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I think this mix is really great. I've only listened to it twice so far, and I liked it both times :P It's very creative, and as someone mentioned earlier, it has an incredible ending. My only gripe is that the synth at 0:55 sounds really weak by itself. But otherwise this is innovative, atmospheric, cool music. It's adventurous, but still enjoyable to listen to.

Fray.

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This level in the game used to scare the crap out of me when i was little, you know trying to keep the lights on in the temple or else the ghosts would getcha? Well whatever I thought it was a great song, yes it is a little lowkey but it's befitting of the level in the game. I personally think its a great remix of that song in particular

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This level in the game used to scare the crap out of me when i was little, you know trying to keep the lights on in the temple or else the ghosts would getcha?

I hated Sandopolis Zone because:

1. Too frikken long

2. Impossible to find any giant rings

3. Scary ghosts

But I liked the music. Especially for act two, when the bass line became much more loud, deep, and driven. I was even thinking that it would be fun to write a remix of it (of course it would be a midi, which means there's no way I'd ever get it on the site >P). Even though this was act one, I still liked it alot. I mean, it was quite slow, and possibly a tad bit boring at times, but it had a certain level of coolness to it. And then when the tempo change came and it went faster, the coolness turned to energy and got me pumped. It was really cool; I could tell from the beginning that this was a song you either love or hate, but I love it =D

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I think Beatdrop needs some new ideas for intros. Many of his mixes seem to begin with wind effects and wind-like atmospheric pads. Examples: CT Ruined Landscape, and that FFMQ Mountain Squaredance "too late" remix thingy.

Haha, you know, it's funny you should say that, because I was just thinking the same thing about a week ago when listening to some of my other songs. I did it on this one, and Ruined Landscape, and then I had crickets in the intro of my Super Thunderblade remix... and I can't remember for sure whose idea it was for the wind in the FFMQ song, but it really makes sense in that one anyway.

Anyway, a couple of things about this remix:

I do agree with some people in that it's a bit sparse, but that was mostly intentional since I wanted it to be sort of creepy and deserted, just like the level. In all honesty, after a couple of weeks while this was on the panel, even I started to wonder if maybe I should have just submitted something better and left this one out, but I've been meaning to do this song for a long time (actually completed another slower version, but scrapped it and started anew after I realized I couldn't figure out how to change it to make it longer and more interesting) and decided to go ahead with it anyway.

I can't remember for sure (and I can't check at the moment), but I think I used some of the default FL4 drum samples because the fit the sound I was looking for (and some of the newer samples aren't all that bad). The synth lead during the faster parts is WASP, the FM synths are all mda DX10 (pretty much the same thing as Fruity DX10, but without the snazzy graphical interface), and that's about all I can specifically remember off hand.

The tempo changes are only a difference of about 15 bpms or so as far as I can remember, but the drums shift into cut time to make it seem a lot faster than that.

Uhhh... and that's about it. I'm not sure (since I can't access my hard drive from here in Iowa :?), but I don't think I have anything really new ready for submission. However, DDR fans might be glad to know that I'm thinking of remixing something from the game, possibly AM-3P or maybe Healing Vision if I'm feeling extremely inspired.

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Soo close yet so far. IMO the only thing keeping me from liking this song is the fact that most of it is too slow. The only section of the song that I liked is from 01:21 to 01:41 when it gave me the hope that the rest of the song would go at a pace that would keep me interested in the song. Unfortunatly it would return to its slow pace and before the song is even over it was ruined for me. If it was at a constant medium or high pace then it would have been a remix to rival that of JiveMaster's.

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Beatdrop, doing Healing Vision would be astounding. Would it be too much to ask for you to do the Angelic Mix version of it? AM-3P would also be pretty excellent.

Anyway, this remix made me go back and listen to the original Sandopolis songs, and they have more merit than I originally gave them credit for...they had good melodies. I don't know that I really feel that in this, though. It takes close to a minute and a half to get to the actual melody, where it takes center stage only briefly before dissolving back into incoherent atmosphere again. It just doesn't keep the coherence of the melody for long enough for me to like this mix. But, it got me to listen to the originals, so that is pretty awesome.

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In full context, this remix sounds quite funky and that must be what Beatdrop wanted to accomplish. At times sounding like something straight out of a videogame (in terms of simplistic melodies and scratchy effects of the music quality), sometimes sounding like a funky backdrop of a rap music (near the middle, there's a nice beat reminiscent of a cool little jazz/rap melody), and at times it started sounding ORCHESTRAL!

My only gripe is how the mix ends a bit abruptly, but that's only a little gripe.

I can't quite put a finger on categorizing this remix into a particular category like trance, rap-theme, pure techno and such, and that's the biggest compliment there is for this remix so far as I'm concerned.

Fun little mix to say the least!

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It's very interesting.

The only thing keeping me from loving it, as it has been mentioned, is that it's so slow and... empty... at times. It does sound more like background music than something you would listen to by itself.

I'm still liking it, I'll keep it. (It takes a lot for me not to like a song anyway)

EDIT: I remembered wise words I heard once -

If you don't like a song, turn it up (repeat as needed).

- so I did and I'm loving it! The bass seems so much cooler.

I recommend listening to this one with the volume up high.

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Well, sorry I didn't go into a 7 page long dissection of the song just to say I didn't like it. I think it saves us all time and page space if I'm just bluntly objective. :)

You'd save us even more time and page space if you simply didn't speak. :roll:

Now that that's out of the way, on to the mix! I like this one a lot. I particularly like the minimal sound it has. Sometimes it's too tempting to keep piling on sounds until none of the individual parts can be fully appreciated. In the first 13 seconds I thought I was listening to a Throbbing Gristle song, and then I was reminded of the new cEvin Key/Ken Marshall album The Dragon Experience (those are both complients, btw :wink: ). If you were considering revisiting this tune at any point, my only suggestion would be to stave off your impatience and evolve the groove instead of speeding it up. On the other hand, the fast parts are catchy, so that would be a tough call. Maybe it could become a two-part remix? You could use a drug theme... part one: k-hole, part two: tweaking. Ok, i'm just rambing now.

Good mix, Beatdrop!

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  • 4 weeks later...

My normal complaint with Beatdrop's songs is that they lack the kind of polish that I prefer - I'm not much of a minimalist person, I like when there are lots of things to listen to at one time. However this song is so goofy and whimsical, with liberal use of whatever pleases, I cannot help but love it! If the workings of my mind were to be put into music, it would likely sound like a cross between this and Adhesive Boy's "Da Phunky Forest".

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  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR01016 - Sonic & Knuckles "Deep Damp Sandcastle"

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