*NO* Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia 'Somniatis'

[Chimpazilla]

Contact info

• Remixer: Tim Sheehy
• Real name: Tim Sheehy
• E-mail: 
• http://www.timsheehy.com
• UserID: 106

Submission info

• Name of game arranged: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
• Name of arrangement: Somniatis
• Name of individual song(s) arranged:  "Wandering the Crystal Blue"
• Comments: This arrangement had been collecting dust for years despite being nearly complete, so I pushed myself to finish it up. It's still not the arrangement I wanted it to be, but if let that stop me, nothing would ever get done. Still, I think it stands up to the original pretty well. 

 

[Emunator]

I can't get enough DS Castlevania action. Love these games so much. This mix is very solidly conceived, I'm digging the juxtaposition between the gothic-style bells and strings that have become a trademark of Castlevania soundtracks, and the grungy, distorted garage rock instrumentation. It's an unconventional blend on paper, but actually feels quite natural the way you executed it. The string sequencing was a highlight, it's actually pretty tricky to sequence orchestral lead instruments in with live instrumentation and still maintain the illusion of realism, but I think you struck a nice balance here. Nice work.

I feel like you might have gone a bit overboard with crunching your drums, but I get the feeling it was done intentionally so I can look past that. Other than that, I can't find much fault with this arrangement. Pretty easy pass in my opinion!

YES

[Chimpazilla]

This is a really great arrangement of this source, with great performances.  Interesting to take this arrangement from 3/4 to more of a slow 4/4 or even a 6/8 time signature.  

 

The violin is a highlight for me.  The guitar work is really very good.  The drums are good too, but I can barely hear the kick, and there is some lo-fi effect on the kit, most notable on the snare, that I think is intentional but to me it just sounds distorted.  Regardless, great mix.

 

YES

[Jivemaster]

The first thing that I'm hearing in this mix is quite a bit of crunch, like the track is smashing against master bus compression or a hard limiter at too strong a level. This is most apparent when listening to the quivering of the crash where it wobbles with no room to move, and in the harder snare hits. I'm away from my audio analysis software atm, but if this is confirmed, we'd certainly need a version mastered less hot than this to post.

This aside, I had a few problems with the mix having a bit too much bass across the board, where parts were verging of the brink of cloudiness in the low end. It's not a deal breaker on its own, but it is messing with the mixes clarity.

Arrangement wise I like what you've done here, things are interesting for the most part and you have broken the soundscape up nicely with varied instrumentation.

While the mastering is where it is (at least fore me), I cannot green light this. If it was mastered less hot so the mix could breathe, I'd be on board. For now it's a

NO

[OceansAndrew]

The bass is a bit too loud in this overall, which is negatively impacting the headroom and the rest of the sound, but I think this is a really nicely performed and executed mix. That bass is too impactful right now at it's current volume; adjust it and i'll flip my vote!

 

No, please resubmit

[DragonAvenger]

Definitely agreed with the bass being a bit too strong here. I also felt it was a bit strange that the lead guitar is panned to the right somewhat strongly. The panning of the other parts is totally cool, it just feels strange when it is the lead. No one else seemed to have an issue with it, and I don't find it to be terrible, but it does seem a little weird.

 

I think this can be fixed relatively easily and sent back to us!

 

NO (resubmit)

[Clem]

I’m not hearing problems with the bass level here. In general I would say the production is well done, expansive and dynamic across the freq spectrum. The drums are crunched and stifly sequenced, and the overall volume is tweaked a little too heavy, but these significant details don’t quite break the deal for me. The organic blend of orchestral and rock elements is ultimately convincing.

 

YES

[Liontamer]

Perhaps it's just my opinion because I judge on headphones rather than monitors, but to me the panning is simply too wide, particularly the electric guitar & strings on the right side) and it makes the whole listen imbalanced. I didn't have any issue with the bass levels at all, and I thought the arrangement was a solid, smoove rock arrangement. Some of the string samples felt exposed (e.g. 1:56-2:03), but moments like that were brief, and I really dug the instrumentation overall. Some might poo on the finish being abrupt, but it wasn't a big deal, IMO. Tweak the panning so it's more stereo, and I'm cool with this and would just change the vote. Awesome piece and strong instrumentation choices, Tim.

NO (refine/resubmit)

[Flexstyle]

I'm gonna second Liontamer and push for a re-think of the stereo field. Let your lead instruments take center stage, with backing instrumentation balanced around them. I've got no EQ issues (okay, maybe the low mids could use a *bit* less), and the drums sound pretty cool to me--yeah, super compressed, but it works. Wouldn't hurt to back off a bit on the comp but not gonna kill my vote as-is.

 

Should be some really simple fixes, honestly. I look forward to seeing this one back soon!

 

NO (please resub!)

[Palpable]

I wasn't totally feeling this one. Panning aside, the strings and drums really didn't have a great sound. The strings were pretty weak and synthy and I didn't think they were strong enough to take lead. The drums OTOH were overly crunchy, almost sounding lossy. Live guitar playing was great and almost sounded out-of-place because everything else had a synthetic quality to it. Arrangement was cool for sure, and I'd love to see another version of this that addresses the problems I heard.

NO (resubmit)