Chimpazilla Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 (edited) Hi, For your consideration, here is a Remix based on Castlevania themes 'Silence in the Daylight' (Castlevania II) and 'Chandeliers' (Super Castlevania IV), with a few of my own themes intermixed. Looks like I have missed the 2015 Castlevania tribute...perhaps this could be a candidate for 2016 Let me know if you have any questions or need additional details. cheers & thanks - Brandon Contact Information OC Remix User Name: brandonx76 Name: Brandon Klopp Website(s): 1. https://soundcloud.com/brandonx76 2. https://www.youtube.com/user/wrightguyz Your userid: 33021. Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Castlevania Name of arrangement: "Silence in the Mix - Halloween Theme" Name of individual song(s) arranged: Silence in the Daylight / Chandeliers Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: A project I've been chipping away on for a few years. Always liked the Silence in the Daylight theme, but wanted to take it on a bit of a departure. I included original themes and eventually wanted to bridge to the Chandeliers theme. Since this is halloween type music, I wanted to include a nod to some of the themes from the music works of John Carpenter, as well as another game (Ys) during it's dark cave sequences. Edited June 11, 2016 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Man this is a tricky one. On one hand you've got some excellent musicianship thrown in here, but on the other hand there are some questionable production and structure issues. First, some of the instruments are pretty bland and flat, such as the synth at 0:18. The structure of your song is really bipolar, sometimes the transitions are just genius (like at 1:26, 1:50, 2:26) but other times the track does a full stop into nothing of importance and builds up to barebones sections (2:09, 3:01, 3:21). The whole 3:20-4:20 section, while had ok melodies, felt like too much meandering and too detached from the other sections of the song. On the bright side, those drums and bass are tasty. I liked the diversity in your arrangement and the performances. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the transitions from that groovy beat to piano solos with orchestral elements, and I loved your arrangement ideas that took the original into new territory. I'm very torn on this one. I'm leaning towards a NO because of the structure and transitions, and some of the weak sounds. I feel like if some of the fat is cut this mix would be an easy pass for me. I am going to let this one sit for a while, and leave my thoughts for other Js to see in the meantime. Also, I checked your soundcloud page Brandon, and I think you have mixes in there that are potential OCR material, I.E. I liked your Rygar mix a lot and with some small fixes it can be ocr material IMO. Consider submitting those too in the future. (Revisit pending) Revisited 10/06: I will go with a NO on this one. My remarks still remain true after further listens and the comments raised by the other Js ring true to me. Maybe a rework is in order here as like I said before the musicianship is present.NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Yeah, immediately hitting me is the super generic synths that start out pretty blocky. I think a revision to change out some of the synths and get things flowing a little smoother is in order. I also felt the soundscape tends to feel a bit empty overall. Some backing pads and a bit more in the lower end/higher end would help that out. In regards to the arrangement, there's a lot of good stuff going on, though I think at times the track gets to be a little aimless (2:24 being an example). I also think making some of the source themes a little more prominent for more of the track would help out here as well, as I felt like the source usage was a little low overall. I feel like this is a good track for the WIP forums. You've got a really solid start, and I think there's a lot of great material, but some of the fluff needs to be trimmed and the production needs a bit of an overhaul. Good luck! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 Interesting arrangement, if a bit random. I'm not sure if I'm following the logic behind the form of this one - it doesn't seem to have much direction or flow to it. There are certainly great ideas in it, but they don't quite make a cohesive song. Those samples, though, sound almost general MIDI, in many cases. The bass synth has some nice meat to it, but the slap bass sample, strings, along with many of the samples just don't sound up to par. There are free samples on the internet that sound far superior to what you've used, so take the time to hunt them down and upgrade your sound. The piano sounds great, though, so kudos. The bass seems to be in the foreground of the mix, while leaving things like the theme a bit behind it. Generally the production is pretty clean, but I'd suggest mixing it in such a manner where the melody and important themes are in the front of the mix. While it might be an artifact that comes with using inferior samples, you don't seem to fill the space very well throughout the song. Your bass instruments don't have enough bass, and your leads don't fill the mid or upper range up. Deia's suggestion of using pads would help dramatically in filling the gaps in the song, and I'd suggest looking into giving your bass a little more bass EQ, as well. While I like that specific instrument, I do feel it's lacking a little in the lowest range where it should matter most. Yeah, I don't think I can pass this one, as of yet. It's nice to hear you incorporating both themes like this, and in many spots you blend and transition them very well. Overall, though, it doesn't feel like a coherent piece - it's more like a bunch of cool little ideas taped together to varying degrees of success. The samples also drag this down quite a bit, and the empty soundscape contributes to my vote, as well. Deia has a great suggestion in checking out the WIP forums here - I always encourage people to check them out, as there's always room to improve your craft. Good luck! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted June 9, 2016 Author Share Posted June 9, 2016 The drums plod for the most part, and the mix seems empty quite a bit of the time as other Js have mentioned. The piano section at 1:17 is particularly sparse, so is the section beginning at 2:50, those would be great opportunities to throw in spooky sfx and/or atmospheres or even some unique drumming. The arrangement is quite awkward, I think bridging the disparate sections with atmo, padding, or even sfx would tie things together very nicely. I agree that the synths sound pretty generic, they could be made more interesting with filtering, distortion, phasing, or other processing, or by simply replacing the sounds with more interesting ones. I also find it distracting that the main melody takes a backseat to the bass quite often, leads should be brought forward in the soundscape. The kick and snare both sound really thin and they both lack impact. I'm liking the spooky 80s vibe you seem to be going for, and the arrangement shows quite a bit of creativity, but there is a lot more work needed to get this up to par. Drop into our workshop forums if you haven't yet, you might get some very helpful advice there. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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