*NO* Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker 'Earth Temple Trance'

[Gario]

RebeccaETripp
Rebecca Tripp
http://www.crystalechosound.com/
ID: 48262
Game(s): Wind Waker
Song Title: Earth Temple Trance

Songs Remixed: Earth Temple

Comments: this is a very old track of mine so It’s not as good of quality as some of my newer work, but I figured what the heck!

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Rexy

[MindWanderer]

Unfortunately, you're right, it's not as high quality as your newer work.  It's extremely quiet throughout, and quite conservative and static until almost the 3-minute mark.  A lot of the instrumentation is mechanical, and the ensembles are a wall of mushy sound.  I'm glad you sent it in anyway--you never know--but I don't think this one passes muster.

NO

[Liontamer]

I actually didn't have a problem with much of the instrumentation, so I honestly don't get MindWanderer's criticism; yes, it's not as polished sounding and realistic as some of your later pieces, but it's cohesive enough to pass today's bar.

I liked the original writing included alongside the source during the introduction; with such a minimal drum groove, there aren't as many interpretive directions you can take it in. That said, once the original writing arrived at 1:11, it was much louder than the source tune beat and majorly de-emphasized the source tune. The original & source parts didn't have synergy because of the volume disparity, and that ended up tanking this for me. In the arrangement section of the Standards, it says "The source material must be identifiable and dominant", and it's just not dominant here.

In short, the drumming of the source tune would have to be mixed in a way to stay more audible and participatory, and the arrangement would need to work in interpretation of the source tune itself. It's actually doable with a percussion-focused source, so never say never. Enjoyable track, but I think the concept manages to fall outside of OCR's scope due to taking all of the emphasis away from the source tune.

NO

[Rexy]

In a vacuum, the instruments here do sound lovely and cohesive.  Considering the source material is percussion-heavy, those sounds needed attention out of the gate, and you got the ambient space and atmospheric feeling all worked out.  Again, quietness is a recurring irk, but based on how much the dynamics built up after the 2-minute mark, it's not a big deal in this case.

But here's the problem with interpreting a percussion-heavy source - making sure the source is dominant.  Melodies are already minimal in the source, but there's more emphasis on rhythm.  You got the right idea early on with the hand drum groove getting expanded right from the get-go.

But the main issue with the arrangement is the interpretive BGM side of it stopped too soon.  There's some lovely additional percussion working well alongside the source's core elements - but at 1:12, the emphasis swung in favor of cinematic string, harp and flute writing.  It's not usually a problem, but it did push the core source elements way too far into the background.  That's not even at 30% of its duration, and it stays that way until the end.

It's a tricky source to arrange as it is, but there are a couple of ways to go around it and still make it feel like a Wind Waker remix:

• As Larry said, you can incorporate the minimal melodies in the source onto pre-existing timbres - or even focus on arranging more of the percussion.  But again, you may be limited if you don't feel confident enough.
• Another method is to incorporate some different Wind Waker BGM into the track, or just Zelda BGM in general.  It's a less risky move to pull off, and it can fill out the melodic space that the original writing is currently occupying.

It's always a good idea to send music over and see where it goes, definitely - but in its current form, the arrangement cuts it short.  If you ever get a chance to revise it, go over the track and see what you can do to make the source material more dominant.  It's a pleasant listen, but it's just not there for OCR yet.

NO (resubmit)