Chimpazilla Posted September 24, 2016 Share Posted September 24, 2016 (OLD) EDIT: New, louder link, as provided by the artist. Contact Information Remixer Username: Furorezu Real Name: Daniel Florez Preferred E-mail: User ID: 33297 Name of games arranged: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past Name of arrangement: Hyrule's Deadly Palaces Name of individual songs: Palace Theme (Zelda II), Hyrule Castle Theme(LttP) Source materials: Palace Theme (Zelda II), Hyrule Castle Theme (LttP) Comments: Ever since participating in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy's Legacy of Music contest, for which I created a surf rock version of the Final Fantasy theme, I had the desire to create more remixes in that style as I have been a big fan of surf rock and find it incredibly fun to play. I toyed around with taking a few songs and jamming out to them but until November 2015, didn't come up with anything substantial. That month, I decided to start recording some of my ideas more seriously and flesh them out a bit more. Hyrule's Deadly Palaces was one of those ideas. I first recorded my ideas in Audacity using a drum machine I found online. Hoping to get a better sound, I started learning on how to use Reaper and have been working on rerecording my ideas in hopes of getting better at making great-sounding music. What inspired me to use these two songs in particular for Hyrule's Deadly Palaces is that I'm a big fan of the Zelda series and its music. It's what actually got me to start playing the guitar 8 years ago and has kept me going since. I chose the palace theme as my first foray into remixing Zelda's music because of its energetic nature, a trait commonly seen in surf rock by artists like Dick Dale, Daikaiju and Man..or Astro Man, and my memories of playing in the Super Smash Bros Temple stage just to hear the song. The remix is primarily based on the palace theme but while jamming out to create its solo, I realized that I could segue pretty easily into LttP's Castle theme because of their similar melodies. The fact that both songs are based on palaces in the Zelda was just the icing on the cake so I decided to incorporate the two songs into my remix. I've had a ton of fun creating this song and will certainly continue to experiment with surf rock for a good while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted September 24, 2016 Author Share Posted September 24, 2016 Whoa, surf's up! I love the approach here. I'm getting a "Secret Agent Man" vibe from this. The performances are great, but I'm not totally sold on the production though. I don't hear a lot of low end and the track could be louder overall. The drums, particularly the kick and snare are very minimized. What do you think, other Js? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Surfin' through Hyrule's Palaces... Very awesome 'Pipeline' sound to it - I loved it. Fun fact: my dad was (and still is, when he can be) a surf dude. He was one of the Palos Verdes beach boys who helped pioneer the whole surfing craze in the 60's, so I'm actually SUPER familiar with this style, growing up with it. The arrangement works great, with those surfer solos and licks, as well as some of those 'pipeline' runs. The sources are well tread, but there's just... so much love put into the details. The twangs, the extra runs, the style of the solos, etc., just all scream with that surfer style, and I love every bit of it. There's a heavy over-reliance on reverb that permeates the entire track, but a lot of the music at the time (Pipeline, Secret Agent Man, Beach Boys music, etc.) had that tendency, which in this case helps with the authenticity. The drum mixing, as mentioned by Chimp, is light, but again that's consistent with the style that you're going for, here, so I'm not going to consider it a fault, per se. I hear some pretty loose playing throughout the track, but for the most part that adds to the surfer charm. I will mention that the slides at 0:28 & 0:33 go excessively sharp, though. That's not a stylistic mistake - don't use style as an excuse to get TOO sloppy in the execution. It's no dealbreaker, but it IS something to be aware of. Overall, the 'issues' that I have with it generally come with the genre, here. I understand if others have some issue with them, but I hope they consider that you wouldn't get the sound that's achieved here without those 'issues'. The biggest thing that I still hold against this (and, incidentally, is the easiest to fix) is the levels of the track overall. It's a very quiet track, but considering there are only one or two places where the highs spike it's incredibly easy to gain a lot out of this: amp the entire track to its max (gaining ~0.344dB), do a soft limit @5dB, then amp again to the maximum available. You gain a lot of volume with virtually no quality degradation. I love this track and think it would be an amazing addition to OCR, but I will add the condition of doing a quick limit and volume increase before passing this. It's a literal three minute fix using Audacity on the export, so I please make that fix for us! YES EDIT: Got a fix sent in. I could argue it could be even louder, but I appreciate that he gave us a decent 2-3dB boost, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 What a great adaptation, this works incredibly well when brought to the context of surf rock. The arrangement is very very good, with the new original sections fitting the progression very well. I would've liked a return, or a nod to the original motifs towards the end, as the track seems to shift from the original sources to only new material towards the end, but that's a nitpick. I think the only real issues with this track lie in the production. The drum sequencing is great, varied, and fitting, but I think the balance is not where it should be, hats and cymbals are at a good level but kicks and snares seem just a tiny bit low, also the track overall could be a couple dbs louder. The mixdown is not perfect either BUT I think this works in favor of the authenticity of the adaptation. A completely clean mix could ruin some of the illusion this is trying to create. IMO, the track could be posted as is, however I'm borderline because the balance and loudness levels could be brought up for the betterment of the song. I feel this one is tilting over to a borderline YES but, if we could get the artist to improve production slightly, that'd be great too.YES (Borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 Deliberately imitating an older style that was originally produced in a way that wouldn't be up to modern standards presents the judges with an interesting challenge. If this were an original surf song produced for a modern audience, or if, for example, it appeared in a modern surf movie, the mixing definitely wouldn't be up to par. But if the conceit is that this was an undiscovered song from yesteryear, it holds up. That could be taken too far--if this were deliberately done as, say, a demo tape recorded in someone's garage, I don't think I'd bite--but this is good enough for me. I'd personally prefer it if that conceit were abandoned and it aimed for a cleaner modern standard, but that's a matter of preference. Arrangement-wise, the surfing elements are well-done and add more than enough to consider this an original arrangement. I too would prefer that the first and second halves weren't quite so distinct, but they're similar enough in style and execution that it's not a dealbreaker. Hang loose, bro. YES (borderline, production improvements above recommended) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 Really little to add here. The arrangement is pretty fantastic, and I've personally been wanting to combine these themes together for a long time (albeit not in this style!). Really creative take on the track, and as Flex said the details really make it. The production overall is a little loose, and to some extent it adds character, but a touch of clean-up wouldn't hurt either. I will add my YES (borderline) to the list here. Nice work and good luck on the rest of the votes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 :02.5-1:58.5 (Z2), 2:40-3:09.25 (Z3) Not sure why the soundscape sounded so quiet and distant. I agreed with Gario that the overall levels need to be raised before this should be posted. I had to more than double the volume I normally listen just to hear this at a regular listening level. That said, once I boosted the volume and could hear the detail work, it was obvious this was fine in terms of sound quality, and also wasn't actually distant-sounding. There could be some further clarity here, but certainly nothing meaningfully off about the mixing here once you hear this at the proper volume. Aside from that, the energy here was disjointed and fun, and it's a great surf-inspired adaptation. Arrangement-wise, the combination of Zelda 2 with 3, while not intertwined, pieced together nicely through the original section at 1:59. Nice job, Daniel!YES (conditional) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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