*NO* Doom 'Aria of the Damned'

[djpretzel]

Contact Info

Remixer Name: Hemophiliac, pixietricks

Real Name: Chris Roman, Jillian Goldin

website: www.onehemophiliac.deviantart.com www.fayhaven.com

Remix Info

Game remixed: Doom

Song remixed: e2m6

comments:

This song has just given me nightmares...chromaticism really can be difficult to analyze sometimes. I guess i just made it a bit less chromatic in my arrangement.

My idea was to make something very much like "the ghosts are singing". I'm glad Jill volunteered to help me out with the vocals in this mix. She brought something, that i couldn't capture with mere sequencing. Much thanks to her!

[DarkeSword]

The strings sound oddly synthetic along side the female vocal, but that's a minor gripe.

I like how well the choir sample meshes with the real vocal lead. The balance is just right. I'm also enjoying the cinematic quality, even if the instruments sound a bit fake.

The entire track could be brought up in terms of volume, though its a minor gripe. Wouldn't mind getting a fixed version if this passes.

Nice arrangement. YES

[Liontamer]

http://www.doom2.net/~doomdepot/music/doom%201%20&%202%20midis.zip - "E2M6 - Halls of the Damned"

Man that source tune sucks. It just drones on and on and on. Meh. Anyway, I heard this mix a while back when Chris was using sequenced female vox, and that was already in the near-passable category, so it'll be interesting to see how Jill's involvement played a part now.

Nice string opening. Wow, Jill coming in at :08 is near-exactly like the vox Chris had in play before, except providing the human touches. Props to Chris for sequencing it so nicely last time and Jill for mimicking it while giving the vocals that quality nudge. Oh this is gonna be good. Still waiting for the source tune to get involved here after the intro, and there we are at :47, though that first string there made some sort of glitchy noise. While I thought the volume was alright, DS's other minor issue were spot on regarding the strings sounding fake in contrast with Jill vocals (though still functioning nicely).

There were initially a lot of spots I didn't recognize as being arranged from the source though. :47-1:17, I recognized, and 1:46-2:16 messed around with the notes but was recognizable. The vocals from 3:08-3:23 were obvious as well. Not even half the mix.

2:16-3:07 was way too liberal for me with those strings, and those should have been more prominent behind Jill from 2:47-3:07. The arrangement of the source for that area is just not a focal point. I'd willing to give you the nudge, but I'd need a fellow J to clarify how the source usage is overtly apparent in some of the section of the mix I didn't mention. Otherwise, my gut says borderline-NO for being too liberal. Well done, but right now I'm on the bubble.

Abstain

[Sam Ascher-Weiss]

I agree with bubbleman here. WOW SHOCK! The melody is being used very infrequently, and when it is used, it begins on the root instead of the fifth which gives it an entirely different quality. It's very easy to detect the original when ever it occurs because the chord progression has to get "interesting" in order to accomidate the extreme chromaticism. When the melody is gone we mainly just hover around Bb Minor. For this reason, not only would including more of the melody make this mix passeable in terms of interpretation, but it would also make it much more intruiging harmonically judging from the sections where the melody was actually used.

So so so so so, you only used the melody a couple of times, and when you did you changed it's location from the fifth to the root and kept it in one place [bb - though same notes as Eb version for source] while in the original it travels [Eb, Ab, Db, Bb]. On it's compositional merits alone, this is MOST passeable, but more source = necessary. Cool stuff regardless!

n0

[Liontamer]

Alright, so I PMed Chris my comments and asked him to fill me in on any other arranged sections I might have missed:

there is a little bit after 1:17 where the theme is in the piano for a short while, but it's more a derived version rather then, "straight" as you might want.

when i was making the song, i may have been going in the wrong way in terms of the arrangement, because the original was so repetitive. i was basically trying to stay away from the repetitive nature of the original. so basically i was trying to use the theme multiple times without making it repetitive...hence the multiple versions of the theme in the song. meh, i tried =(

Well, just to make one thing clear, because I don't really like the inference; I'm not looking for or preferential towards "straightforward" arrangement of the material. I'm always preferential towards creative but recognizable arrangement of the source material involved, not conservative arrangement.

As far as the aforementioned piano on support starting at 1:20, I also thought that was too liberal (and too quiet). I wouldn't necessarily throw in the towel like Chris seems to be doing already here, but unfortunately I'm a NO (resubmit) on this. Considering that I wasn't really challenged on how my vote broke down the source arrangement involved, I'm fairly sure there were no other issues to examine for me. While I respect the effort here, because this is still excellently put together, the mix should be less liberal than this, otherwise it gets by too much on liberal motifs where you can't gleam any connection to the source material.

The arranged sections I recognized were beautiful, and of course original or excessively liberal material within the track obviously isn't off-limits, but the balance between those two concepts is skewed towards original and unrecognizably liberal material.

[Harmony]

Having recently met Jill, listening to this has me smiling in wonder at how such a powerful reverberant voice comes from such a petite woman. 8th wonder of the world I guess. The orchestral meat of this mix is nicely done as well. I’m going to have to agree though that the arrangement here is too liberal for significant portions of the mix. I think that Larry’s initial breakdown was more than fair and I don’t hear any source usage that he missed. The sections that are derived from the source (especially the piano takes on the theme) are very creatively handled. Great work but I can’t let the arrangement issue slide.

NO

[The wingless]

zomg. Another gurl in ocremix? gimmie gimmie gimmie.

I'm not sure if the Mantle of "most radical remixer" belongs to me, but I'm pretty sure I'm in contention for it. So I understand what it is to push the envelope, and to be judged on the merits, "wtf? wur is teh Maridia theme?"

On the whole, I agree with Shane (god rest his smutty soul from the panel). On its own merits, this gets a critical hit sort of YES. But with such radical liberties taken with the source, it has become in fact, an original piece. And that, we simply cannot abide by.

So, judging by the talent already overflowing from the creator, it should not be a Herculean task to ask him to rewrite the song as per the original.

Overclocked Originals gives it a YES

Overclocked REMIX gives it a RESBMIT

[The Orichalcon]

Since I first heard this mix I thought it was very liberal on the remix front. The actual source material doesn't make an immediately apparent appearance until we get to the string stabs around 2:08, and even then they only last for about 15 seconds before we head straight back into the original composition.

The production of the piece is fairly above average. The strings that come in at the beginning are hauntingly beautiful, and then as pixietricks' singing comes in I can't help but think of a funeral progression (not a bad thing,) or an abandoned church. Either way, it's a very emotional piece and achieves this almost tragically beautiful feeling relatively smoothly. The quality of the strings and piano in the piece are slightly above average. The reverb is apparent in the piece, but not overpowering or drowning the mix. The marching drums that come in around 2:08 were a nice addition, they make the mix feel more solid. From 2:20 I was hoping the mix would build up a little more, perhaps with the introduction of a woodwind instrument to keep the theme going (even bagpipes sound like they'd fit in well here.)

Pixietricks does a good job with the opera-style accompaniment to this piece. Towards the end the singing becomes a little too overpowering and piercing, though she holds her notes remarkably well and would impress any fan of opera singing.

The arrangement of the piece is an issue in terms of how much of the source it uses. The most apparent parts as mentioned before are the string stabs from 2:08 as well as the following choir backing which I think are cleverly brought in, though the mix needed much more of this. Pixietricks' singing flirts with the main theme of the source around 0:58 and again around 3:10. The piano that comes in at 1:50 is also an interesting interpretation of the source, but apart from that it's mostly original for the entire mix.

Overall, the production of the piece is reasonable, the emotion of the piece is amazing, but the mix severely falters on the arrangement front. There's precious little of the source tune in the remix and while it's a fairly basic source, it has room for a more clear-cut interpretation than what we see here.

NO

[GrayLightning]

Congrats TO for your first review.

Now as far as this mix: I personally feel there was little source material to work with, so with any kind of expansion in this context would sound liberal. I'm personally torn on this one and at this point I can only abstain per the rule of, if one isn't sure, we should go the conservative route. I agree on some level that this is overly liberal, but given the context, I'm not sure what the alternative is. I believe (my personal pov only) in this case it is a case of subjectivity.

Still, I think Hemo and pixie deserve to be applauded for one great piece, despite it's subjective shortcommings of which I can only objectively abstain or borderline No. Hemo keep at it and don't be discouraged, you've made tremendous progress in the last few months. You will be making it to OCR soon with quality work of this level, minus some of the compositional issues. Finally, Pixie, splendid contribution as always.