Wrong Castle=Castlevania 64 + SMW

[YoshiBlade]

This is one that may have gotten too bloated. I love the Castle Center theme from Castlevania 64, I enjoy the Castle theme from SMW. I wanted to take the gothic horror style of Castlevania and collide it with the happy go lucky stylings of the mushroom kingdom, with a healthy dose of Glitch added in for taste. I mean circuits WOULD fry if two diametrically opposing games were to meet, right? So the glitchy aspects, I wanted to keep as random as possible, with out totally destroying the source material hoping it would blend the two sides in a blurry line in between the differing sources, like a xenograft transplantation. To be honest, it feels like a story line from an "imitation horror" story like

"The Thing" or "It" its as if something is trying too hard to make you comfortable lulling you in with a pleasant seances of ease, yet harboring horrors beyond imagination.........I might be over thing this one.

Castlevania

SMW

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-lesuer/wrong-castle

Edited August 23, 2014 by XPRTNovice
rozo already MRed

[timaeus222]

There is an uncanny similarity in the chord progression. You can hum the SMW melody over the CV intro and it works, but the chord progressions are not the same. If that's what caused you to try this, nice find! They're both in an F harmonic minor scale, but CV is playing in the Aeolian mode while SMW is playing in Ionian mode.

We get to source usage at 0:40 - 1:00 (CV). 1:00 - 1:20 felt plodding for me though; I thought the 'retrigger' went on for too long with no variation, and it exposed the autopilot drums. If you're using a loop at 0:40 - 1:20, you might want to glitch it up too so it doesn't feel like the drums were overlooked.

Enter SMW at 1:20 - 1:30. I wouldn't count 1:30 - 1:46. The chords are being covered up by the glitching, so even if they counted, they're not audible enough. More SMW shows up at 1:46 - 1:51. Then it hangs out in the gated chord progression at 1:51 - 2:11, and comes back in a melody at 2:11 - 2:21. If you wanted to count 2:16 - 2:21 as CV's 1:07 - 1:11, I don't think it's close enough; it sounds more like SMW. That's the problem with combining sources like these---they can get so similar that you have to be more conservative in parts to give strong connections to one specific source over the other, and right there, it's definitively SMW.

2:22 - 2:42 somewhat resembles a chopped up SMW arpeggio, but I honestly wouldn't count this. It's too different. It's similar in the chord progression, but not close enough in the actual notes IMO. Nice granular effects though. 2:43 - 2:48 sounds vaguely CV-esque, but I don't recall it in the source. Nice blending of granular delay with the door creak; pretty cool. 2:58 - 3:41 becomes this huge gap with no source usage, but good glitch flow. Overt SMW at 3:41 - 4:10.

Overall...

Source Breakdown:

0:40 - 1:00 = CV Chords

1:20 - 1:30 = SMW Melody

1:46 - 1:51 = SMW Melody

1:51 - 2:11 = SMW Chords

2:11 - 2:21 = SMW Melody

3:41 - 4:10 = SMW Arpeggio

20 + 10 + 5 + 20 + 10 + 29 = 94 secs of acceptable source usage IMO

= 37.6% source. Not nearly enough for OCR, man. Gotta have a less liberal approach. Good approach. Just needs more connection to either source tune's actual notes.

Production's good enough, but I'd recommend touching up on any drum loops you may be using right now to make them less copy-pasted.

[YoshiBlade]

Wow first and foremost thank you timaeus222 for taking the time to listen( Im beginning to think you're the only one who responds to my post Yes Yes Yes the melodies blend so nice, but I cannot claim it was a forethought. I have tried to write/remix music based on planning chord progression, but found that, though it takes longer to do the hunt and peck for each sound to see if it jells, the results are usually feel more natural. The Cv material was easy to blend as most of Castle Center is a strong backing track with alota blunted, less treble more pad sound and SMW was very sharp and( to my ears) clicky high timbre sounds. "It's too different." I know you probably were referring to a comparison between the sources and the remix, but TBH If there is one descriptor I hope to sum up my mixes, it is that. Too weird to be ignored, to bad to be admired. Either way thanks for the Input!!!

[timaeus222]

Wow first and foremost thank you timaeus222 for taking the time to listen( Im beginning to think you're the only one who responds to my post Yes Yes Yes the melodies blend so nice, but I cannot claim it was a forethought. I have tried to write/remix music based on planning chord progression, but found that, though it takes longer to do the hunt and peck for each sound to see if it jells, the results are usually feel more natural. The Cv material was easy to blend as most of Castle Center is a strong backing track with alota blunted, less treble more pad sound and SMW was very sharp and( to my ears) clicky high timbre sounds. "It's too different." I know you probably were referring to a comparison between the sources and the remix, but TBH If there is one descriptor I hope to sum up my mixes, it is that. Too weird to be ignored, to bad to be admired. Either way thanks for the Input!!!

I think you should continue working on this. The ideas are cool. I for one am a big fan of glitch music. I think all this needs is more source tune love and some more drum variation. Worth a shot!

Edited June 27, 2014 by timaeus222

[Rozovian]

Summer and Workshop Mod stuff clearly don't mix. A mod should've commented on this way earlier.

The submission standards say the source has to be "dominant". I hear more source in there than what Timaeus has in his breakdown of the source usage. I'm inclined to say this is okay in that regard.

It takes a while to get started, gets going all right, but doesn't go anywhere. I'd like to hear some big reprise of a previous part after 3 minutes in, big and loud. Maybe that's not the arrangement you're going for, but it seems like the track could use at least something like that instead of tapering out into random bits. It sounds like you've just shoved all your unfinished glitches and source transcriptions to the back and forgot to take them out after the track ended proper. There's a lot, not just from the ending, that you could cut to make a more streamlined track. Or you could inject more source into those bits.

The sound design is simple but works well during the glitchier parts, but the more exposed simple synths at the end seem out of place. Drums have a nice sound, but end up sounding a bit too loopy for my liking.

I wouldn't expect this to pass. I don't get the structure. It doesn't feel like one complete track. Cool stuff, but not quite there imo.

[Uffe von Lauterbach]

I took a listen to the two original tracks and heard what I'm sure you heard the first time you thought of this idea. It's interesting. I feel like I heard more Mario than I did Castlevania. If you could transcribe the rest of the melody from the Castle Center, no doubt would it blend perfectly with the Castle Theme. I personally would love to have a go at taking these two and creating a remix of my own, but then I'd feel like I was ripping your idea off.

[YoshiBlade]

Wow, thanks for the compliment, as for the "ripping (me) off" under no circumstances did I get into remixing( or music for that matter) to horde ideas and lock them down as only MINE!!! I would be humbled if i were to inspire someone to remix a track. That's why I do it, it puts me somehow closer to the games I love and from that point on Im not some one who just played the game, I feel I was part of the game, not to piss on it and call it my territory. So "rip off" away and produce a track that makes mine sound like a cat clawing its way up a chalkboard, good luck!

[Uffe von Lauterbach]

Wow, thanks for the compliment, as for the "ripping (me) off" under no circumstances did I get into remixing( or music for that matter) to horde ideas and lock them down as only MINE!!! I would be humbled if i were to inspire someone to remix a track. That's why I do it, it puts me somehow closer to the games I love and from that point on Im not some one who just played the game, I feel I was part of the game, not to piss on it and call it my territory. So "rip off" away and produce a track that makes mine sound like a cat clawing its way up a chalkboard, good luck!

I recently came across two Nintendo songs that have a similar rhythm, so I may end up creating something out of that. Of course, I may have to read the rules again, because I'm not sure if mashups are allowed, even if they're remixed. Anyway, I wouldn't say your remix sounds like a cat clawing at a chalkboard as your remix was very pleasing to my ears. It even made me smile a bit.

[timaeus222]

I recently came across two Nintendo songs that have a similar rhythm, so I may end up creating something out of that. Of course, I may have to read the rules again, because I'm not sure if mashups are allowed, even if they're remixed. Anyway, I wouldn't say your remix sounds like a cat clawing at a chalkboard as your remix was very pleasing to my ears. It even made me smile a bit.

Mashups are fine, as long as they're executed well enough. Obviously case-by-case, but it's not simply rejected right away if it's a mashup.

[Eino Keskitalo]

YoshiBlade, I like your attitude!

Of course, I may have to read the rules again, because I'm not sure if mashups are allowed, even if they're remixed.

If you mean mashup as in combining two or more sources, that goes on all the time. If you mean sampling original audio, that I believe should generally be treated carefully, but a couple of recent tracks do sample the original songs extensively: Eclipse Apocalypse and Powerglove (It's So Bad).

Sorry for off-topic. =)