OceansAndrew Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 ReMixer name: DeathOfRespect Real name: Peter Hague Contributing musician: Karl Deuble (guitars) Email: deathofrespect@gmail.com User ID: 33899 Game arranged: Kick Master Songs arranged: The Witches Forest (Sector 1), The Bottomless Crevasse (Sector 4), A Long Way Home (Sector 7) Composer: Nobuyuki Shioda Publisher: Taito Year released: 1992 System: NES Comments: I can remember there being certain video games in which I would hold my fathers mini-tape voice recorder up to the television to capture the blips and bleeps called video game music. The playback sounded like crap, but at least I could hear tunes from Mega Man, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, and Kick Master anywhere I wanted. Huh? Wait, what was that last one? Kick wha? Most people have never heard of the side-scroling RPG gem from Taito known as Kick Master. The cut scenes, leveling up, attainable magic, level of difficulty, and music left quite an impression on me when I was young. Especially the music. I decided to ask my band mate Karl Deuble if he would be interested in reworking a heavy version of a portion of the soundtrack. At first listen, the Kick Master OST, although very short (each song clocking in at about 20 to 30 seconds long), seems to lend itself to face melting solos (with arpeggios and finger tapping galore), but after playing the sections one by one, we found ourselves really liking the groove of it all. (That, and Karl can't help himself from finding the heaviest possible scenario of any melody.) In order to combine sections from different songs, we decided to adjust a few notes to stay in key with surrounding sections. We also took quite a few liberties with a couple riffs and sped up every section from The Witches Forest (Sector 1) to match the overall track tempo. This is a style of music we both enjoy playing and feel confident in our skills to execute,mix, and (Kick)master this montage. What we ended up with was a "insert any heavy metal sub-genre here" kind of track. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did recording it. Track Structure Breakdown: 0:00-0:55 Inspired by the first section of "The Bottomless Crevasse (Sector 4)" 0:00-0:13 0:56-1:21 First section of "The Bottomless Crevasse (Sector 4)" 0:00-0:13 1:22-1:33 Second section of "The Bottomless Crevasse (Sector 4)" 0:14-0:26 1:34-1:43 First section of "The Witches Forest (Sector 1)" 0:00-0:09 1:44-2:22 Second section of "The Witches Forest (Sector 1)" 0:10-0:27 2:23-2:47 Inspired by first section of "A Long Way Home (Sector 7)" 0:04-0:10 2:48-2:50 Third section of "A Long Way Home (Sector 7)" 0:14-0:17 2:51-3:03 Second section of "The Bottomless Crevasse (Sector 4)" 0:14-0:26 3:04-3:16 Second section of "A Long Way Home (Sector 7)" 0:11-0:14 3:17-4:00 Inspired by the third section of "The Bottomless Crevasse (Sector 4)" 0:37-0:40 4:01-4:29 Mix of "The Bottomless Crevasse (Sector 4)" 0:37-0:40 and third section of "A Long Way Home (Sector 7)" 0:14-0:17 4:30-5:00 First section of "A Long Way Home (Sector 7)" 0:04-0:10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 The arrangement here is excellent, feeling like a fully cohesive song rather than a collection of different sources, and the metal approach works very well with the source. The guitar performances were excellent, and the drums were interesting and varied. Production is decent but has a few overall issues. One, things seem a little overcompressed, with not a ton of peaks, but the main issue i'm having is there is some hard clipping in the clean guitars on the intro. That needs to be fixed up for sure. Take a look at them, and pull them back where it is needed. Overall I love the track and think it has a ton of promise. I do think the production needs some tweaking, but maybe the other judges will feel differently. Good luck! No, please resub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I can definitely agree that the arrangement sounds very cohesive overall, and I have no qualms with it overall. Production is in definite need of some work. The clipping in the beginning is very noticeable, and the overall compression needs to be toned down a tad. Please fix this up! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 The arrangement ideas here were great, and there were some really creative ways in which the melodies were used. Programming/playing was great as well. Unfortunately, this is an OverCompressed ReMix, which also makes it difficult to give you any further production advice. Most likely, there are some mixing issues you will need to sort out in order to get everything sitting clear and not have the compression clamp everything down so much. The drum samples sounded a little weak to me, but it's hard to say without hearing them in isolation. Please take another look! (Also, nice mix title.) NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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