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OCR02051 - One Man and His Droid "Do Droids Dream of Ramboids?"


djpretzel
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Fantastic mix with WONDERFUL orchestral sounds.

Brandon: This isn't QLSO. As the writeup says, the artist used WIVI physically modeled brass and LA Scoring Strings, both of which sound way better than QLSO. This mix in particular sounds fantastic and pretty damn close to real. Also, EWQL is not for "pop", it's a library specifically designed for cinematic/Hollywood-esque music... about as far from pop as you can get. This is not the first time you've posted in a review thread making incorrect (and insulting) assumptions about the technical aspects of gear used in a mix. Knock it off.

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I'm not familiar with the source, but man does this sound nice - there is a quality to the orchestra you don't hear much around these parts.

In all honesty, this track seems pretty plain from an arrangement perspective, but it really has a structure to it that makes me think I could be hearing this in a game today - it's well done in that regard, and pleasant to listen to in the background.

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The arrangement sounds like a less-goofy Danny Elfman, and I'm DIGGING IT LIKE CRAZY. I've listened to the original source quite a few times since Rob Hubbard is one of the main highlights of having a C64 music player on the iPhone, and this does wonders to represent a different imagination of it. I can still feel the pressure that the original source tune evoked. The sounds you used are absolutely top notch, and while the mix is a bit repetitive at one point or another, so is the source, so you kinda stayed true to the feeling of it. Lopping this on my "Best of - Orchestral" playlist.

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  • 3 weeks later...

^I guess nobody mentioned it because it's so goddamned obvious what the title alludes to.

Yay some Hubbard love!

Personally I friggin LOVE Skate or Die and Skate or Die 2 music... Amazing stuff that needs more love.

QFE

The remix in hand has a very interesting sound to it. While most recent orchestral arrangements have a very movie-like sound to them, this one stays true to its video game roots IMO. I don't know what it is, but it just sounds "right", like a piece from some 16/32-bit era RPG.

And as was mentioned before, the samples are really, really good.

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I did an aural double-take when I first heard this. The orchestral samples are some of the best I've ever heard. The arrangement is really solid too, and the constantly-changing tone and pace really kept me engaged when I was listening. It seems to revolve around the excellent strings and the full, dramatic sound from the brass. Bonus points for the reference in the title. Good work!

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While I feel like the main draw of this track is the impeccable production and sample quality (I'll admit, I'm somewhat of a sample whore :-P) but the arrangement of this track goes a lot of places without feeling too stale. I'm getting some Mario Galaxy vibes from some of the orchestration, among many other things. Very diverse cinematic interpretation, while I do notice some of the copypasta that DJP alludes to in his writeup, I don't necessarily feel like it's a big problem ultimately.

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I could make a horrible pun with the remixer's name, but I'll refrain for everyone's sense of taste.

This guy, oddly named Dummy, has a very impressive (and likely just as expensive) batch of orchestral samples. I love orchestral arrangements that sound fresh from the recording studio. And not only does it sound great, but the music itself has a great energy and punch. Unlike many other symphonic mixes on the site, this one is not afraid to show off its low end and treat the ears with loud, deep driving bursts of rhythm.

I feel Droids Dream does start to become a bit repetitive by the end, but the strength of everything else outweighs this. Nice work! :-)

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  • 11 months later...

For all the C64 coverage I often see around here, it's rare that I see someone taking it in a more symphonic direction - fits the title really appropriately. The dynamic work is very solid - when it gets quiet it really shows its subtleties just fine, and with some articulations in place it starts to show life; I give a huge amount of credit to the string work here, very convincing work going on with those.

I've also been meaning to invest in the WIVI sounds for some time, and while the woodwind work has shown itself to fit very appropriately for the track, I kind of feel torn about the brass with the near-constant attack for them. Thankfully they've been handled well within the setting; a more straightforward setting (2 riffs and an ending) than I might expect for more recent mixes but still shining well on VGM otherwise undercovered. I might look into the sample bank once my wallet fills up again, though things might change as the future moves in.

Nonetheless, definitely a more different light in the field of C64 coverage, and I'm hoping you'll get to contribute to the site again in the future :)

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  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR02051 - One Man and His Droid "Do Droids Dream of Ramboids?"

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