DuckTales - Control Room

[Gyrick]

I was searching through some of my old files and I came across this mix I started a while ago and (I guess) stopped working on. It seems to be the start of the Control Room theme from the Ducktales NES game. Now, I guess I have two questions:

1.) Is this worth actually working on?

2.) If so... what do I do with it? I really don't want to mix the moon theme in it (I do like the moon theme, but it seems to be the most common one done).

http://gyrick.googlepages.com/ducktalessample.mp3

Apparently, what I did was make the piano part in 3/4 and the rest in 4/4/ I kinda like how it sounds, to be honest.

It's only over a minute, so it won't take too much time out of your life. Any suggestions would be nice. Thanks.

[chumble spuzz]

1) Yes, absolutely.

2) That's a tough call...the Amazon and Moon themes are really the most memorable, at least for me, anyway, but they seem like they'd be tough to fit in with what you've got going here. You might try playing around with the Transylvania theme...Or, you could go full-medley, in an "around the world in one song" sense...

Hope you find something!

[Flashman85]

I agree with the medley idea, but I think you can still ostensibly call it a Control Room remix instead of a general medley. What if you wove a snippet of the music from each level into the main Control Room theme? Sort of like you're actually playing the game, looking at the map screen and scrolling through each of your options, and a little sample of each stage's music comes out each time you look at a different stage. You could keep returning to the main theme after each snippet, or you could keep the main theme playing softly in the background the whole time.

Or something like that.

See, I'm trying to live vicariously through you because I don't have the skill or equipment to make my own remixes.

[Rozovian]

It's basically the same chord throughout, you can get a lot of variation from changing the chord. You don't even have to do it often, I would be fine with the same chord until the last section (so far).

So...

1) Yes

2) Remix it.

Writing a chord progression based on a few notes in the melody can work, or adapting the melody to a nice chord progression you can come up with can work just as well. If the melody doesn't fit the chord, change the melody, or the chord. it's a remix, not a note-by-note exact remake.

Some technical complaints would be that the piano could use a subtle reverb... actually that applies to all the non-percussion instruments in this. Some volume mixing would be nice too, and with that I also mean EQ, not just volume level, panning and compression.

Something else you should do is to play with the drums. You've got a nice 80's-like snare here, I have no problem imagining how this would work in something of an 80's style. Or, you could figure out a different sound you want for it, try to make your drums sound like that. Not just the sounds themselves, but the drum writing too.

This could be good, and even if it ends up a failed remix, you can learn so much from it that it's definitely worth doing. Good luck.

[glasfen]

There is a lot of potential in this soundtrack, including some uncharted territory. So far no one's touched the Transylvanian, African Mines, or the Himalayas themes.

What you have so far is solid. Blending in other themes, as solos or melodies, will certainly spice it up. And Rozo makes a good point about the style.

Looking forward to updates!