*NO* Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin 'Dark Reflections'

[Gario]

Howdy folks,

 

Remixer name: Jorito
Real name: Jorrith Schaap
email: 

forum id: 3899

 

ReMixer name: Tuberz McGee
Real name: Callum Kennedy
e-mail: 
forum id: 13677

 

ReMixer name: BardicKnowledge

Real name: Ryan Thompson

e-mail: 

forum id: 12956

 

Name of Game(s) Remixed: Castlevania
Name of Arrangement: Dark Reflections

Names of songs arranged: 

 

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: Banquet of Madness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qcOtuw7qBI)
Castlevania Legends: Vampire Killer (Final Battle) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgmkCme5wLg)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Dracula's Castle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsMxsMbN2Gc)
Castlevania: Wicked Child (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7PFm7mrdVY)
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest: Last Boss (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdb0B2XbM_Q)

 

Link to the remix: 

 

Comments about the mix:

 

This was the track I did for the final round in the Castlevania: Cacophony of Incarnation compo organised by MindWanderer. I duked it out against OA, me representing Dracula and him representing Simon Belmont. 

 

This track was quite the challenge in that MindWanderer provided us with a lot of Dracula themes to mix with your own source but a lot of these tracks are pretty quirky and mostly consist out of scales, arps and suspense devices, not the melodic content I prefer to work with. Ultimately I narrowed down the list of 17 tracks to the handful that had a bit of melody to work with and decided to use more than the 2 required sources as well as my opponent’s track. Hey, it’s a final so we should do something spectacular, right?

 

As for genre, I was inspired by Nightwish. Of course that means chugging guitars and orchestral elements, and that meant again bribing Tuberz McGee for some guitar work. Fortunately he could make a bit of time for it despite the short deadline, and it really helped a great deal in making the track come alive.

 

After compo the thing that really stood out like a sore thumb to me was the tenor samples in the original. So I asked around for a tenor that could do Opera like vocals, and after some asking around I reached out to BardicKnowledge for vocal assistance. With an actual vocalist on board that meant the track could have lyrics too, so I wrote up some cheesy dark lyrics featuring Dracula as the protagonist. After compo was also a good time to polish up the mix, add the extra suspenseful measure at 4:05 and the demonic chants at the end.

 

So there you have it, a journey through the track and through Castlevania land. Big cheers to Callum and Ryan for collaborating with me on this track and channeling Dracula’s energy to make it the dark tribute it’s supposed to be!

 

Lyrics:

 

Revived once again,
I, Dracula, return.
The dark beckons me.

Give up the fight,
open your heart,
let your demons rip you up inside.

You cannot hide,
there's no salvation,
your blood and your soul, they are mine.

Risen from the grave,
I'm again alive,
to conquer your souls and your hearts.

Ruin and despair,
deep within mankind,
reflections so dark feeding me.

Children of the night,
hearken to my call,
let chaos be wrought on this world.

 

Give up the fight.

Give up the fight.

Give up the fight.

 

Source usage:

0:19 - 0:38: melody heavily based on Wicked Child intro
0:38 - 1:16 - intro from Banquet of Madness
1:55 - 2:14 - melody A from Wicked Child
2:14 - 2:33 - Vampire Killer (Final Battle)
2:33 - 2:52 - melody A + B from Wicked Child
2:52 - 3:33 - Vampire Killer (Final Battle) + Wicked Child counter (2:52 - 3:12)
3:36 - 4:04 - Wicked Child
4:14 - 4:33 - Dracula’s Castle (SotN)
4-33 - 5:02 - Last Boss (Simon’s Quest)

 

Cheerio,

Jorrith

Edited April 18, 2017 by Liontamer
closed decision

[MindWanderer]

I admire how ambitious this is, and there are definitely parts that work, but ultimately I think it tries to do too much.  The transitions at 2:14 and 3:15 are a little awkward, but from 3:35 on it turns full-on medley.  The operatic section from 4:16 comes out of nowhere--we hadn't had vocals for 3 minutes, since the quiet intro, so it's quite jarring here, and rather loud, especially from 4:50 on.  The Nightwish-esque chant at 5:00 is similarly out-of-place.

At several points, such as 2:02 and 4:16, the accompaniment doesn't go along with what the melody is doing.  I don't think they're clashing notes per se, but they're sort of oblivious to one another, with mismatching patterns and energy levels.

The vocals are off-key in many places, e.g. 0:53, 4:39, 4:43, 5:03.

There's a lack of highs in 1:55-2:24 and 2:33-2:42 that make the mix sound empty.  On the flip side, the highs at 2:24-2:33 and 2:52-3:30 are quite muffled and muddy.  The female vocal is also somewhat buried.

There also seems to be a rendering error--the file's metadata says it's 5:21 long, but it cuts off suddenly at 5:07.  Edit: Using the original link, there's still a small error--it cuts off at 5:17 but still thinks it's 5:21 long.  The last 5 seconds are just a super-long, super-quiet fade-out, though, so there's nothing missing.  Doesn't change anything else I said, though.

If you'd still like to submit this, I'd recommend redoing the arrangement and simplifying.  This still sounds like you were forced to use a bunch of sources you didn't know what to do with (which is true, but you don't want it to sound like that).  If you want to do operatic rock with a growling chorus, do it soon after the introduction, not four minutes in with two new sources, or don't do it at all.  I especially enjoyed 0:57-1:54 and 2:43-3:12, so I'd personally like to hear more like that, but the important thing is that it be more consistent.

NO

[Gario]

Oh shit, that file rendering error is my bad... I'll fix that link when I get home.

SORRY, forgot about that - use his link for now.

[Jivemaster]

A great number of changing sections in this one. Your combination of source tunes has worked well here for the most part. Vocals provide great contrast and help set the mood of the track during the opening sequence. Guitar playing is solid, with some great tones, riffs and wailing. Drums are probably the weakest here, with the kick sometimes blending into the background, however attention to detail is there with regards to their sequencing. Panning across the stereo spectrum feels a bit narrow.

You have a number of parts playing during each section - some parts get a bit too busy (especially when we pass 3:00). Accompanying instruments (strings, choir) are complementary to the main melodies but do get lost in the background quite often. There are a couple of dissonant notes in the piece, most notably at the end vocal section, but nothing I feel is completely jarring and off-key (4:35 occasionally pushes the boundaries), and most are required to fit the theme. Vocals in the final section are a bit loud compared to the rest of the mix, where all other parts (apart from the guitar) become lost. Mixing is a bit mushy - lots of parts are stepping on each other, some sections have guitar unnecessarily loud compared to other sections, and frequency space is shared a bit too much in the mids. This is particularly apparent later on in the piece.

For me mixing is the biggest issue here, I'd like a pass across the track to fix some of the levels to avoid drowning out sections unnecessarily. It sounds like there is too much glue pulling the parts together - perhaps ease back any master bus compressor you might have and let things separate. Otherwise the team has done well here with what I believe is a mostly solid arrangement with its own personality.

NO

[Sir_NutS]

Yeah, I don't hear offkeys in this one, the vocals dip momentarily in some sections, but not at the timestamps MW mentions.  I do hear some dissonance, which is for the most part, in taste, although pushed slightly towards the end.  I've found Castlevania tracks to be rich in this aspect for the most part, so I pretty much expect some of it in remixes as well. I think the feeling of a Nightwish track was definitely nailed for the most part, although some sections drift away from this style.  I didn't find this jarring but transitions definitely could be smoothed out, or perhaps sections like 2:15-3:13 could be adapted better into the proposed style.

I do have to agree with the mixing critiques that Joel has provided, the mix seems like could use some clarity and better balance.  The last section seems to expose the vocals too much, while the mix gets overwhelmed in other sections, with different instruments trying to share the same space in the frequency spectrum.  I don't think this one is ready yet, and needs a second production pass, while taking in consideration smoothing out the different sections so the change in styles and mood isn't as pronounced, this is minor however, and some of it expected when trying to merge so many sources.

I do agree with MindWanderer in that some dialing back in trying to do so much would benefit the track's coherence, but that's up to your (collective) artistic vision for this one.

EDIT: I would like to hear Larry's opinion on this one before closing.

EDIT 4/18: Listened again to this track today, and after reading the other J's opinion I have to stand by my initial thoughts and ask for a revision on the prouction side of things.  Also, the feeling of having sections that don't quite fit with the overall mood of the track, or the Nightwish-styled metal (the sections around the middle of the track) was more prominent on subsequent listens and now I really think some fat needs to be cut for the track to feel more cohesive and complete.  My previous comments also stand.

NO (resubmit)

[Gario]

Wow, I'm actually quite surprised on the votes for this. The mixing isn't perfect, but I don't find the mixing to be at all deal breaking. The vocals are put a bit to the front, but honestly if they weren't put to the front I'd be surprised, and otherwise it's not difficult to parse the other parts behind it. I hear (and see, in the waveform) some overcompression, especially toward the end, but it isn't so extreme as to kill the entire track. If Jorrith went back to tweak it I'd be happy, but I wouldn't want to reject the track entirely because of it. I'm not hearing any wrong notes or bad dissonance, either, and the vocals seem to be pretty darn good, for the style they're going for (they land a cent or two flat from time to time, and goes a bit sharp at 5:01, but I don't think the standards for vocals are THAT restrictive on here).

The backing strings that mimic the theme (at 2:27) sounds pretty mechanical, and due to the swelling attack it has it's nearly undetectable. It's an interesting way to connect to a different source, and it would work, but as it stands it has no presence or body. The track works without that part so it's not a noticeable issue, but if that backing were made more salient it would make the portion sound more interesting, for sure.

I'm feeling the issue that the track sounds like it's trying too hard to put too many sources into it at once (as the middle sounds like filler for the beginning and end sections), but the middle's not too far removed stylistically from the beginning and end to be too distracting, and the transitions do a lot of heavy lifting to make the track sound cohesive.

If we could get a better mixed track, I'd be all for it, but on its own it's not nearly far enough below the bar to warrant a NO, in my opinion.

YES

[Liontamer]

I disagreed with MindWanderer's criticisms on the arrangement structure feeling too much like a medley in places. The theme change at 3:15 was sudden, but fine to me as the tempo and overall rhythm held in place before shifting to the dropoff 20 seconds later. Same with 2:14 changing themes while retaining the same backing writing and tempo as the glue; it just sounded like prog rock writing to me.

I'm reminded of 2 particular past votes: 1) Jorito's original version of his Contra mega-collab and 2) audio fidelity's Final Fantasy IV mega-collab; in other words, this is an awesome, ambitious arrangement that's not mixed well. At :38, Ryan's vocals seemed distant, which didn't make sense, but I wanted to see where it went. Odd note as Ryan dropped down at :52 which should have been smoothed out. I think the female supporting vocals could have been mixed more forward to register in the ear better, but the combination of male and female vocals up to 1:18 combined beautifully.

At 1:18-1:37, the bassline did register, but to me it was practically inaudible. The padding parts from 1:37-1:47 also might as well have not been there. The energy of the guitar work at 1:55 sounded awesome, but like the vocals at :38, the guitar leads seem far away for no apparent reason. The string accents from 2:24-2:33 were a nice writing touch, and I think them being more audible would have exposed the sample; that said, they were still buried, and it happened again from 2:52-3:12 (with the strings there feeling slightly out of sync with the lead as well).

Even from 3:12, the string work sounded so soft and wasn't significantly registering in the overall texture; I hear it, but it not really contributing anything meaningful due to it being so pushed down behind everything else.

I wasn't bothered at all by the vocals returning at 4:12; they were there at the beginning, so it's not any sort of surprise to hear them return. Great energy from Ryan here as well. The rock instrumentation was really muddy and indistinct though, particularly starting at 4:33 and getting worse as more parts would add in (female vocals at 4:42, machine gun drums at 4:49, big crashes at 4:51). All of the writing and energy here is amazing, but the mixing doesn't do it justice.

That said, the mixing is far from ideal, but I'm with Gario that it can pass as is. You have part-writing that was obviously getting pushed back and minimized, but texturally I thought the track was clear enough to pass and is bolstered by a very strong, creative arrangement. Unlike Gario, I'd have no huge problem with this being rejected due to the mixing, so if Sir_NutS or anyone listens several times and can't go YES, I get it. But with an arrangement this strong, I can let this level of mixing go; regardless of how it fares, this really needs another pass at the mixing to shore it up, but again, I think it's serviceable enough in light of the arrangement making up for it. If the track just sounded like indistinguishable mud, it wouldn't matter how good the arrangement was. Right now, this is just a case where the supporting writing isn't totally washed out, it's just not as present and clean as it should be.

YES (borderline)

[Chimpazilla]

Wow, tricky vote here.  I am listening and have read all the votes above.  What I am hearing is a track that sounds overcompressed and yet not loud enough (limiter ceiling too low), all the way until 3:35, then there is this super quiet and clean piano, followed by a horrendously loud section with comically loud/dry vocals.  I feel like the arrangement, odd as it is, is cool and quirky, but the balance and compression issues are ultimately putting it under the bar for me.  It feels like too many cooks in the kitchen and the head chef went on break instead of overseeing this cake getting made.  Needs another pass at the mixing/mastering, then it will be good to go.

NO (resubmit, please)

[DragonAvenger]

I do feel like there are too many melodies in the center section, and it feels a very medley there. I wish that that had been singled out to only a couple themes instead of so many. It ends up feeling cluttered and unfocused, which is enhanced by some of the mixing issues. Ryan sounds good here as always, though I agree that he isn't mixed super well into the track and stands out a bit too much. 

I do like the energy of the track overall, and I think cleaning out some of the fluff melodies would really help the track feel much more cohesive and would strengthen the arrangement immensely. I can see this going either way, good luck!

NO (resubmit)