OCR03362 - *YES* Metroid 'Lucre'

[djpretzel]

Cuts out entirely for a bit; creative sound design as always, need dat arrangement analysis.

-djp

 

REVISED VERSION (silence removed, upfront source usage added)

ORIGINAL VERSION

 

---

 

Remixer name: Redg
Real name: Brent Wollman
My website: https://soundcloud.com/redg-sound
UserID: 41181

Game arranged: Metroid
Name of arrangement: Lucre
Name of individual songs arranged: Ridley's Lair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcRXxqFd9d0)

Remix link: 

The dragon lies ruined in his lair, but the depth of his lust will form new incarnations. I could never truly see until I strained to view the perfect shadows he languished. My eyes were open wide to find their value in a pitch black eclipse. Ears deafened by the screaming vacuum, his dying rage.

Source usage is straight up . . . Opens with the main melody and persists with arp figure

[Emunator]

Excellent sound design, Brent. This is a head-spinning arrangement that really captures the feeling of uneasiness that comes along with entering an unfamiliar boss's lair for the first time. I dug the minimalist beats, I couldn't pick up any discernible rhythm from the patterns so they ended up feeling more atmospheric than anything, but it worked for me regardless!
 

I'm curious what the logic was behind the nearly-15 second-long pause in the middle of the track. I don't mind the idea of a full dropout but doing it for that long with no texture or atmosphere to fill the void just doesn't work for me. I'd love to hear the logic behind that, but I'd really love to have that trimmed down to a more manageable length.

 

Other than that, I'm on board!

 

YES (cond. on trimming silence)

[OceansAndrew]

Cool sound design, some great reverse synth stuff at the end that is super interesting.

 

I thought the beats were underwhelming overall, and the huge silence in the middle isn't compelling, but the arrangement seems fine. As a song i'm not really feeling it, but as an academic exercise it's pretty cool. While I don't really enjoy it, it checks off all the boxes so if the middle is trimmed down to 1 second or so, i'll vote yes on it.

 

 

No, please resubmit

[Clem]

adding to OP:

 

this piece is an exploration of the ridley character. i was thinking about his various appearances throughout the metroid canon . . . a space-faring pirate repeatedly resurrecting. living and dying on intergalactic corruption.

 

the silence represents shame of defeat (samus whups him every time)

 

Edit:

 

(start-0:51) source

(0:51-1:12) no source

(1:12-1:37) source (arp fig)

(1:37-1:55) no source

(1:55-2:44) source (arp again)

(2:44-end) no source 

 

thus 2 minutes of 3:16 feature source usage

[Chimpazilla]

Gotta love that Clem style, this style is 100% unique!  I love the granularity and extreme sound mangling.  As usual with Clem, the source is obscured quite a bit, but it's there, yes it is.  

The loooooong silence in the middle, while I get that it is a stylistic choice, is a dealbreaker for me.  Gotta add something to string it together, even just some atmo or even some beeps or just SOMETHING so we know the song hasn't ended.

This track, and Clem's style in general, is an acquired taste, certainly.  I acquired a taste for Clem's style early on so this isn't a problem for me!  But yeah just bridge that gap.

YES (conditional on bridging the complete silence)

Edit 3/17/16:  I hear more source, and the complete silence is gone.  This is a track that actually forces me to revisit the definition of music as the "arrangement of sounds across time" because that's literally what is happening here.  This track is really more like one long atmo clip than what I'd call a "song."  That said, I love it.  This track punches into my chest and rips my heart out, then shows it to me still beating before eating it in front of me.

YES

[Liontamer]

Track was 3:00-long discounting the extended silence, so the theme needed to be involved for 90 seconds for it to be dominant.

Upfront - :00-:14.5, :31.5-:51 = 30 seconds
Stabbing - 1:11.75-1:23.75, 1:25-1:30, 1:33-1:37 = 21 seconds
Quiet/Incidental - 1:54-2:11, 2:12-2:36, 2:38-2:43.75 = 46.75 seconds

Not sure what's up with 16 seconds of silence (1:37-1:53). I mean, I see Brent's explanation, but it's still too long. Even if you died in the game, it wouldn't take that long to get back into the game, if that analogy makes sense.

In any case, I'm actually going to take a different and rare tack on this. IMO, the usage of the theme from 1:56 until the end was too marginalized and subordinate to the other sound design and I felt that this went against the arrangement standards with the source theme needing to be both identifiable AND dominant for most of the track.

This is a very unique scenario, at least for me, and I don't mind if this track passes at all, but IMO, the second half's usage of the theme should have been more present. That's all I would need to go YES. The sound design was cool, and I also thought the mega-pregnant silence should be trimmed.

NO (resubmit)

EDIT (3/17/16): Heard the new version, so here's the new breakdown:

Track was 2:55-long, so the theme needed to be involved for 87.5 seconds for it to be dominant.

Upfront - :00-:16.5, :19-:24 (timing) :31.5-:53 = 34 seconds
Stabbing - 1:11.75-1:23.75, 1:25-1:30, 1:32.75-1:37, 1:39.25-1:56 = 37.5 seconds
Quiet/Incidental - 1:56-2:28.5 = 32.5 seconds

The balance between the source being upfront vs. quiet/obscured is much better. And with the pregnant silence gone, everything's good to go. Thanks to Brent for being willing to take another look at this. Good, dark stuff.

YES

Edited March 17, 2016 by Liontamer
revised vote

[Palpable]

I love you, Brent - no one sends us stuff like this. The downside of going this far off the deep end on OCR is clashing with the standards, and I can definitely see Larry's point. I was even tempted to side with him, but there was almost no melodic focus in this track at all, so the very little you had was enough for me. I feel like the unorthodox approach you take for remixing also suits the Metroid OST very well, so it's possible on some level that is making me feel more of a connection (maybe tackle Earthbound sometime too!). Pretty much it sounds like if you cut the silence down a bit, you'll have a bunch of YESes and you can count me in that camp too.

 

YES (conditional on cutting silence)

[Nutritious]

Man, sometimes I don't really feel qualified to judge certain tracks that I come across.  Not because of the quality of the original piece, but more from lack of experience with certain genres (or non-genre's?) to give me a bit of a goal-post to judge a track by.  This would be one of those tracks.

This is a very creative, somewhat off the wall, take on the original.  It starts pretty straightforward in its adaptation of the original, then gradually morphs into it's own form.  Through the last half, the backing sequence is used to anchor the source connection.

I'm a bit iffy on the source connections as to whether the backing pattern is enough to qualify as "dominant", but my gut feeling is that it's a clear enough, central part of the mix to fit the bill.

But I do have to co-sign again on the silence crit.  Not trying to beat a dead horse, but it honestly sounds like the track cuts out by accident and suddenly comes back in later.  I'd like to see the silence trimmed down, but also perhaps at least a semblance of a lead-in to make it sound integrated.  The same lead-in crit could be made for the 2:45 sudden (shorter) drop as well.

I don't like going conditional on tracks, but if there ever was a good candidate I think this is it.  

YES conditional on silence

[DragonAvenger]

Yeah, really modern take on the source here. I can see where everyone's qualms are coming from, and it definitely takes an open mind to appreciate this. I'm on board (taking that silence down is needed though), though I don't particularly see this becoming a fan favorite. I found it to be a pretty fun and even a bit spooky outside-the-box track!

Yes (conditional)

[Emunator]

@Clem, thoughts on this? Would you be willing to consider revising based on the feedback here?

[Clem]

new version

[OceansAndrew]

nice version.

 

Yes

[Emunator]

YASSS