DragonAvenger Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 (edited) Submission of "Red Retaliation", part of The Joker's "BadAss Volume 2" project. Mirror 1: Mirror 2: Contact Information * Your ReMixer name: Torzelan * Your real name: Joachim Sandberg * Your email address: * Your website: http://torzelan.com * Your userid: 16578 Submission Information * Name of game(s) arranged: Demon's Crest * Name of individual song(s) arranged: The Infinite Demon * Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc. New PC that is not a nightmare to work audio with! New microphone with no noise too, finally got to experiment with layering together a little "one man choir", been wanting to try that forever! Fun times! Been on a bit of a black metal kick again lately, listening to and being influenced by bands like Naglfar (old favorite!) and their former vocalist's Profundi (newly discovered favorite!). Coincidentally, this was also my first time entering Dwelling of Duels, and for their "Free Month" in October the Halloween spirit was in full swing... ...so you can imagine how this track ended up happening. Spent more time than you'd believe researching the games for the lyrics (Gargoyle's Quest is also referenced). A couple of days later I was surprised to find it posted on Destructoid (long time reader) and even more surprised to see it received well considering the rather niche-within-niche genre going on here; yet another couple of days later I was contacted by The Joker asking if I wanted to have it on the second BadAss album. Well, I'm glad he asked because I never put two and two together to realize how much sense that made. So, another spit-shine later, here we are and I'm submitting in hopes of finally giving Steve Pordon's old Demon's Crest arrangement some company! DAW used is FL Studio. Drums are Addictive Drums (Metal ADpak) with some additional (free) sample layering, female choir is a Papelmedia soundfont. Rest is recorded with the following things: Washburn XB100 MBL bass, Ibanez RG7321 (rhythm) and Jackson Kelly KE3 (lead) guitars through a PodXT, Prodipe 49C MIDI controller (VSTi: Church Organ 2nd), RØDE Podcaster mic. * Lyrics Demon wings on winds of vengeance Returned, to claim what was lost Guided by the eternal flame Gift of honor, from The Bringer of Light True warrior of the Makai Rightful bearer of the crests Demon dragon was slain for the last So the six could be as one Backstabbed in the moment of truth False pretender to the throne Left to die, fallen from grace Somulo once more awaits This time no back will be turned Claws and fangs prepare This time none shall be left standing As a path is carved in blood Weak traitors shall reap what they've sown And the hierarchy be restored Open wide the gates of hell Red Blaze coming home -- Joachim 'Torzelan' Sandberg http://torzelan.com --------------------------------------- Edited August 21, 2013 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Woah... Badass energy, but seriously thin mixing. This sounds extremely scooped. Before the guitar comes in there's almost no midrange at all. Listen to how much louder the hat is than either the kick or snare. That ain't right. Even the guitar lacks body. I'd love to pass this cause your musicianship is awesome, but the mix is seriously lacking. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 (edited) Great source tune choice. I'd love to hear someone turn it into an alternate version of Mario Kart 64 "Koopa Castle," MK64 instrumentation, rhythms and all. Now... I say this with no personal insult intended, but... :19 is a bunch of bullshit. What in the world happened? The screamo stuff and mixing makes no sense whatsoever and sounded as if I turned the preamp on Winamp to +12db and everything was just flooded and distorted. It's gotta be crazy when I'm checking other tracks to make sure my computer AND ears aren't broken. It's a great arrangement, but the way it's produced/mixed is just sillyness. Pull it BACK. Source melody comes in at :45 and it's just buried behind the vox and drums. Even when the unintelligible vocals come in, everything was just mud and volume. I'd be begging someone like Sixto or something to see what they think. Again, great arrangement, Joachim, but the overboard mixing choices that are intended to enhance how intense this is just ended up swamping and undermining the whole thing. Once that's fixed, it would be such an easy pass. NO EDIT (9/6): I was reaching out to Joachim today to potentially get a revision for this mix, and he mentioned he thought I was bashing the vocals. I wasn't, but I was glad to get the chance to clear up what I meant : just don't call anything that isn't specifically screamo "screamo", i don't even know what to compare that to... it's pretty much the ultimate insult to anyone else (and it doesn't feel good to be "judged" by someone who apparently does know/care about the difference) Just to clarify for the peoples, I didn't know that was an insult, sorry. I wasn't using it as a pejorative, and until today I didn't know it was considered a separate genre OR that it's more about emo music. OOPS. Now I get why that could be taken the wrong way, that's my fault. I'm referring to more the power & intensity of the vocals, but I don't meant that the performance/lyrics/creativity isn't substantive, just more that the vocals are meant to be way out front, SUPER intense, and less about being able to understand each word (which isn't required for OCR, by the way). Again, sorry for unintentionally insulting your approach; I'm down with all genres, so I don't want you to think I was just trying to wave off black metal. As far as the decision, and how the production factored into it, Torzelan mentioned he wasn't sure that some of the production inherent in the genre fits OCR's standards. "black metal" style often has stylistic choices that simply clash with ocr which is a bummer sometimes but i understand. i guess it's like the super old techno/trance argument i read about ages ago where there were tracks submitted that were not bad but by the nature of the genre the arrangements sounded too generic (or something) I think that old techno/trance argument is more about being too repetitive, but everything goes on a case-by-case basis. For this mix, IMO, it's just about the different parts all being at the same high volume, it was near impossible to hear the details in your composition and performance, enough to (in my opinion) undermine what you were otherwise going for. I think it's definitely possible to do black metal and have it sound loud, intense, aggressive and all that while at the same time not having all of the parts mud together. Thankfully, while asking Joachim if he could somehow revise this piece before BadAss 2 came out, he let me know about his problem with what I said, and (I hope) I was able to clear things up so he could understand where I'm coming from. BTW, artists, if your track is being judged and you see something written that that pisses you off, don't hold it in. Contact the judge who set you off first and see if you can make sure there's no misunderstandings. But if the judge is being a jerk about it when talking to them (they shouldn't be, we're not out to be mean), then make a thread on the forums and have at it! Edited September 6, 2013 by Liontamer added comments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted August 21, 2013 Author Share Posted August 21, 2013 Not much to add to what the other two have already brought up. There's a lot of potential here, and I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it is to try to get the production right on this, but right now it's not there yet. There's definitely some balance shifts that are needed to make the parts a little cleaner and let the parts come through better. Definitely want to hear this again! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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