OCR03577 - *YES* Castlevania Legends "My Beautiful Vampire Hunter"

[djpretzel]

Obviously I love NutS... wait strike that, rephrase... this is def. solid, but I'm not that familiar with the source, and it's not as flamboyantly modern on the production side as some of Mike's other stuff, so I didn't DP. -djp

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Sup guys, Mike here with another remix.

It's been quite a few months since I submitted anything, I was busy with my first (hopefully soon-to-be-released) solo album so I didn't have as much time for small projects.  I'm back into it now so here's the first remix of many I'll be sending out in 2016.

This is a remix of Castlevania Legends - Stage 4 (Highest Castle Floor) for Game Boy.  This is without a doubt the most overlooked Castlevania game of all.  It's even been disowned by Iga himself, forever banished out of the classic castlevania timeline.  It's a pity because I did like the idea behind the lore of this game, with a female protagonist (Sonia Belmont) being the hero this time around.  

As I have a knack for overlooked games (not in small part to my participation in PRC over the years) I decided to give it a go.  In fact, this started as an idea I had for the PRC anniversary (Free round) but I didn't get the time to do it for that week.  Plus I still don't have a Castlevania remix on the site yet so this will complete my personal list of must-have-an-ocremix games.  

About the production, this remix is a house-y take on the theme.  I tried to keep things simple and didn't want to go the hard-edm route I tend to go most of the time.  This is rather a softer kind of remix with more focus on ambience and not in speaker-destroying synths, instead I went with a softer palette than usual.  The ambience in the past is not static and I made sure it's constantly changing, sometimes blissful while in other occasions choirs and pads join up to produce a bit of a more ominous or dark feel, which fits a Castlevania Remix.  Thats not to say, however, that it'll make people stand still.  I try to keep a constant, solid danceable groove throughout the track and a pretty meaty bass to keep things moving along.  Synths are of my design as usual.

 

As for the arrangement I didn't stray away too much from the original however there's plenty of additions in the harmonies to identify, a new fitting bassline, as well as some soloing which I've been having more fun with lately, now that I have a working keyboard.  Although I didn't go as far from the original as usual there's really very little content that is exactly the same as the original, and will be apparent to the attentive listener.  All in all, this isn't my most complex remix but at the same time it's one I am quite happy with, and I think it does justice to the original soundtrack which I think deserves much more attention.

Here's the remix: 

Here's the original: Castlevania Legends Music (Game Boy) - Highest Castle Floor (Stage 4)

 

[Gario]

Well, this is a pretty conservative arrangement. It's as Sir_nutS says, there are little changes all over that make it pretty distinct, but the source is unmistakeable. The pacing of this arrangement is also completely different - whereas the source is fast paced, this track takes a more chill'd pace.

I hear tons of synths in the background of this, doing tiny little things in the background almost constantly. Unfortunately, many of the synths in the background are so wet that the smaller flourishes in the background become incredibly difficult to hear, which makes a lot of the song sound the same, from part to part (even though it actually isn't).

I like the drums that you use in this, but the primary beat sounds like it has a little copy-patsa action going. The break in the middle changes it up, but overall the pattern is pretty similar throughout. I love the bass drum used, though I think it could punch through just a little bit more.

The bass notes in the square seem to have a few odd choices throughout the song, which while they sound intentional, they also sound off. Since the bass repeats the moments I'm thinking of also repeat, so I'll point out the first time these bass notes come up. At 0:40 the chord is based on scale degrees 5/7/2, but the bass remains on scale degrees 1/3, so it sounds odd there. At 1:10 the bass does a little arpeggio of the root chord, but the third is raised for no reason that I am aware of, so it sounds very out of place in comparison to the rest of the track. The chord that's being played there is also 5/7/2, so it's strange (but not completely odd) that the bass arrpegiates 1/3/5 there.

There are a few notes in the background that clash against the harmony as well, aside from the bass moments pointed out above. At 1:09 the bass does a cool thing with that 7th scale degree where it raises up, but there's a texture in the background that holds that lower'd 7th scale degree that clashes with the bass. It'd be best to simply drop the note in the background texture (or change it to something else completely), in order to resolve this conflict. At 2:06 there's a lowered 2nd in the harmony that doesn't sound good, nor does it sound intentional. It should be changed to a normal 2nd scale degree note.

There are a lot of little issues with this track, but the overall feel of it is actually quite solid. A poor note here and there wouldn't affect me much, but having so many notes sound off is throwing me on this arrangement. The wet reverb levels of some of the instruments are also getting in the way of the cool background elements that you have to keep things fresh, so it ends up sounding like it's all the same (even though it isn't!), so it would be a good idea to decrease the reverb and/or release of your extra wet instruments. The drums also seem a little lacking in variety, in the overall pattern it uses - changing it up once or twice more would help get more mileage out of this. It's good stuff, but a lot of little things added up to my vote on this one.

EDIT (04/20): This applied to v1; there were significant changes made that addressed many of my grievances. Apologies for not returning to this one in a timely manner.

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[Sir_NutS]

Alright I updated the track, get it here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AttiFhzqbCiXiFpQn-y66ISVNSS2

-Bassline notes changed around
-Some slight changes in the drum EQing, also changed the drums in one of the sections for variety
-Slight embellishments nobody will notice.

[Chimpazilla]

Ah yes this one.  The arrangement is conservative enough, plenty of source there.  The track has that classic 80s-inspired-yet-fully-modernized sound I've come to expect from Sir_Nuts that he does so well.  Soundscape is full, kick is pumping, and there's tons of soloing and fun writing details going on.  

I have to admit I agreed with Gario about those bass notes.  The revision here is much better although my ears still tell me a note or two is off here and there.  Certainly not enough to bring down the entire groovy track!

YES

[DragonAvenger]

I like that this is a drastic change of mood and pace from the original. The source is definitely recognizable, andthe new elements as a ton of character. I agree with Greg that some of the sections feel a little repetitious with the percussion in particular, but there is enough variation that i don't feel like it's too much on autopilot. Couple of interesting notes in the bass as well, but I only picked them out twice and they weren't egregious.

The style change and overall groove are excellent and i really enjoyed hearing a source that hasn't been heard around here

YES

[Jivemaster]

Evaluating the newest version from the link provided. Straight up, a few odd notes stood out to me as the song progressed (mostly the backing synths "conflicting" with the other parts/bass, at places like 0:32, 1:04, 2:58, 3:12). These weren't completely jarring, and I imagine some of these are due to the original source material, but I felt these could have been changed up a tad to fit with the other parts better.

Arrangement wise things progress well, the breakdown at 1:20 was a great addition and helped to change pacing a bit near the mid point, as did the later solo portion.

Production was a bit on the airy side. I felt some of the drums (the kick in particular) could've been a bit clearer and some busy parts of the track did swim in reverb a bit too much. I noticed the end cut off before the reverb tails could end, would be good to get a new render of this before posting to fix this.

Overall this isn't too bad - I'm used to Mike's more recent stuff which is more polished. There are some niggling note problems here which are the biggest problem for me above all else. However I don't feel them to be deal breaking, and they do add help in retaining the evil feel of the source game.

YES

[Liontamer]

I never heard v1, so I'm just voting on v2.

At :14, the bassline entered, but sounded very quiet; not sure if its levels were too much in v1, but it's arguably too muted here; I know it's a difficult balance to strike, so I wouldn't be shocked if messing with it caused more problems than it solved; not a dealbreaker issue anyway. At :28, there's some chippy-sounding supporting counter-melodic writing in the background that was ultra quiet; really not sure what the point of the inclusion of that writing was if it's effectively inaudible, but what was audible did properly fill up the soundscape and arrange the theme well, so that also wasn't a dealbreaker issue, though it was one that could afford to be revisited.

After the brief dropoff and rebuild (1:11-1:43; nice work there), the core groove first introduced at :28 returned at 1:43, and I felt it was plodding and could have been spiced up and varied at that point (and/or at 2:15/2:39). There was a brief change from 2:33-2:39, but then it was back to the same beat pattern; dynamically, the piece feels flat. I'm certainly not saying it needs to be much wilder, and I have 0 problem with it passing as is, but it's ends up sounding too repetitive at its core for me.

At 3:25, the track abruptly cut off without fully dropping to 0, so watch that.

Close here, and there's no question the interpretation of the source tune itself was a pass. But the foundation of the track dragging on ended up undermining the interest of the piece as a whole. I'd like to see one more pass at this from Mike to keep the main beat pattern from coasting so long, and if he wanted to revisit some other minor issues, then go for it.

NO (refine/resubmit)

[MindWanderer]

There's a reason this game is overlooked--it was developed by Konami's Nagoya studio, so their usual music team had nothing to do with it (nor was the storyline of their creation, so it wasn't so much banished as never included to begin with).  As near as I can tell, its composers (Kaoru Okada and Youichi Iwata) have nothing else to their credit, and certainly nothing on OC ReMix.

I like how you cleaned this up as compared to the original.  The original has a problem where it has two lines trying to be the lead at the same time and stepping all over each other.  This is much more enjoyable in that respect.  And the riffs on the original melody are fun and creative.

I'm having a rough time with the clashing notes, as other have mentioned.  0:32, 1:46, 2:06, 2:08, and 2:29 are the ones my ears catch without careful listening. But they are indeed there in the source as well, where they're even more noticeable, so yay, I guess?

I see where Larry's coming from about the arrangement being a little plodding, and I definitely do feel it could benefit from changing things up a little more.  In particular, 0:28-1:11 and 2:12-2:54 are virtually if not actually identical, about 42 seconds, nearly 20% of the mix.  I don't feel like that beat quite wears out its welcome, but it does get awfully close.

Overall, not Mike's finest work, and I'd certainly say more power to him if he wanted to make it a little more interesting in the repetitive places and see if there's anything that could be done about those off notes.  But I have no problems giving this a

YES

[Nutritious]

(V2 judgement)

Tough call here.  I'm hearing the aforementioned clashing note combinations as well.  Not a huge deal, but I can imagine it could get annoying on repeated listens (it actually is now because I'm looping it...).  That shouldn't be a tough fix.  Track cuts off way before the last note ends, so that needs to be fixed up.

Overall, the track felt hot in the high EQ range and a bit undefined in the mid-low/lows.  The synth leads especially have some frequencies that could be tamed with some narrow EQ cuts in the 4K-ish range.

Repetition in the beat didn't bother me as much as Larry, but I would agree there is some for additional variation.

I think this is pretty good as-is, but there are several easy fixes that could be put in place that would make me more enthusiastic about it.  I can see it either way, but for me

NO resubmit, please

[DarkeSword]

Bassline could be a little louder initially, but it picks up later so I'm fine with that. I'm not feeling the weirdly written solo starting around 1:46; seems to just doodle around without any strong melodic ideas, and I don't feel any kind of build in intensity. A bit repetitive as well. Other Js have outlined issues with EQ as well; I don't feel the need to restate. Give this one another look.

NO, resub

[djpretzel]

First, hats off to all judges for critical listening & detailed observations. For the NO votes, I see two strains:

1. "Weird notes"/intonation, from Gario
2. More production/structure related (repetition & meandering solo) from Larry, Shariq, etc.

Regarding the first, there's definitely still some funky stuff going on, and I'm not gonna lie, it's hard for me to track... at no point does it sound obscenely questionable, but it's certainly doing things one wouldn't expect in the genre. That CAN be a good thing, and usually is, and it certainly kept me interested, but I suppose the question is: does it work? To which I'd say.... it doesn't NOT work It doesn't strain my definition of what sounds musical, intentional, and expressive that much. I've no doubt you could go full music theory as @Gario did and have more informed conversations with more context, but my go-with-yer-gut Dubya take on things is that it doesn't upset my stomach and I was still groovin'... FWIW.

Production/structure crits, I agree with in substance, but not extent; they feel like legit areas that could have been improved, but not showstoppers.

Mike's gonna get us a version where the ending doesn't cut off abruptly, which I DO think is potentially a camel's back-breaking detail that deserves to be addressed. Otherwise, I'm down.

Yes (conditional, but Mike's said he'll revise the ending)

 

[Gario]

Yeah, to be honest I haven't looked at this again since the update, so my intonation issues that I had prior are not nearly as big an issue. There's still one or two moments that sound strange (2:06 still sounds off, for example), but the other sour notes have been fixed well enough. The bass drum seems to come through well enough in this version, as well, so that's pretty cool.

The soundscape is still a little messy, but the majority of what threw me off before has been addressed. For the sake of completeness I'll flip my vote on this one, as well - solid stuff, here.

YES

[Sir_NutS]

On 4/20/2017 at 4:19 PM, Gario said:

Yeah, to be honest I haven't looked at this again since the update, so my intonation issues that I had prior are not nearly as big an issue. There's still one or two moments that sound strange (2:06 still sounds off, for example), but the other sour notes have been fixed well enough. The bass drum seems to come through well enough in this version, as well, so that's pretty cool.

The soundscape is still a little messy, but the majority of what threw me off before has been addressed. For the sake of completeness I'll flip my vote on this one, as well - solid stuff, here.

YES

K, that note was a whole step above the bass note, not exactly incorrect but it could indeed clash a bit.  I changed that in the new version to be the same note as the bass and pads and Gario gave it the thumbs up, and also fixed the ending error.