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OCR03481 - *YES* Dark Souls & Demon's Souls "Kindle the Soul"


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Pretty nice, it's a change of pace from Alex's normal style. Orchestral sequencing is more exposed but sounds good on first listen - drums get somewhat plodding by the end. Also needs an arrangement check ~ Emu

ReMixer - RoeTaKa
Name - Alex Roe
Email - 
UserID - 9374
 
Games Arranged - Dark Souls
Arrangement Name - Kindle the Soul
Songs Arranged - Firelink Shrine (and Maiden in Black from Demon's Souls at 4:35 onwards)
 
Comments:
 
The Souls games have become a pivotal series in my life, it's a strange feeling to know you owe a lot to a video game franchise. Demon's Souls will always be what made me feel accepted into the Souls community and have an insanely supportive fanbase on my YouTube channel. But Dark Souls helped me through tougher times, it's a game that set me straight when I needed it. It makes me really happy to know that my Souls remixes mean something to the people that play these games.
 
This time I have remixed Firelink Shrine. It's the last safe hub area of the Souls games that I haven't touched, mostly because I wasn't sure I could do anything with it that was worth doing. I've had some hard times with music lately and here I felt like I was returning to a younger Alex whose style I have neglected for a long time. I really enjoy chilled out music that has some emotion to it and I feel like it's a really natural thing for me to come back to. 
 
I did a lot of original material over the source but I tried to keep the original in tact with the strings and other elements. The drums might be a bit repetitive for OCRemix but I think they work. At the end of the song I used the hub theme from Demon's Souls when the drums drop out, it's mostly just to say that I like that song more haha but I think it made an enjoyable ending. I really enjoyed making this and I hope you enjoy it too!
 
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Yeah it's yet another awesome RoeTaka Dark Souls Remix.  This one is different from his usual style though, with a less straight-up symphonic approach.  The focus on the piano melodies and the supporting drums give it a much more relaxed feel than his other submissions.  This song however retains the high production quality that we're accustomed to from Alex now.

I am however having a very hard time checking for source here.  I know that the piano chords follow the original cello melody and progression, and the cello in the remix stays close to the original as well but other than that I hear a lot of original material playing on top.  I think the guitar is related to the small arpeggio in the original, just much more expanded, though I'm not sure about that one.  The original progression is retained throughout, so I don't think a per-second breakdown is needed because that's all that really is, but I'm not sure that is enough.  At 4:35 I hear the Demon's Soul theme being introduced and it goes on towards the end.

If other judges feel like the source is represented enough, I'm going to give it a pass, however I'm going to keep this one open, as the underlying progression is there in the strings (and sort of in the arpeggio?) throughout the song and the demon's soul theme is clear, but it's very hard to tell specially since there's A LOT of original material on top.

EDIT: 10/20 Thanks to Damonz for the source check.  this is then a clear 
YES

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  • Sir_NutS changed the title to 2015/07/19 - (2?) Dark Souls 'Kindle the Soul'
  • 2 months later...

Yeah, from what I gather, the source is primarily in both the harmonies that are played, as well as the fact that they come from sweeping strings, like they are in the game. It's arguable that the guitar arpeggio also follows the harp from the Demon Souls game, and the cello sometimes refers back to the melodic leaps that occur in the source.

RoeTaKa readily admits that there's a lot of original material above the source harmonies. I think what he was going for was keeping the "soul" of the source through using the harmonies, and expanding on it from there. This is a tricky call - on the one hand, the source really only HAD block chords in it with a small cello part in the middle, so "just including the chords and referencing that cello part" actually means nearly including the source verbatim. On the other hand, the original material above it sort of makes it his own thing - chords are universal, after all.

I can see why everyone is having trouble with this one, as it's a pretty grey area whether or not the chords alone would qualify as "source". There are a few parts that really go out in left field too, though - from 4:00 on the material transforms to something that I don't really recognize from either source. As it's a close call already due to what's mentioned above I'm going to give this a NO, but I'd like to see some more official feedback on whether or not chord usage from a source that is pretty much just chords qualifies a track as a remix.

--

EDIT: I feel like the error on this one - Emery seems to have grasped the source connections better than I did, and I'm glad for that. The material is from where he says, so that leaves no doubt from my mind on this one, since it does sound great, after all. Awesome work from RoeTaKa!

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2015/07/19 - (1N/2?) Dark Souls 'Kindle the Soul'
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  • 3 months later...

Here is my take on source usage:

0:00-1:44 Direct source usage
1:44-2:53 A-section chords
2:53-3:08 B-section chords (1:09 in Firelink Shrine)
3:08-4:00 Clear usage of B-section melody
4:00-4:34 B-section melody
4:34-5:47 Clear usage of Maiden in Black

Even if we do not consider the sections using only the chords, the count is still easily over 50%. And I strongly disagree that this ReMix only uses chords from the originals. There are melodies in both original tracks, and the ReMix references them directly repeatedly throughout the arrangement. To me, this is undeniably a YES on source usage. And everything about this track sounds great to me. The drums are repetitive, yeah, but this is lush, full of rich emotions, absolutely beautiful. I want to see this on the front page.

YES

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  • Sir_NutS changed the title to 2015/07/19 - *YES - TAG* Dark Souls 'Kindle the Soul'
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