Rexy Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 ReMixer and real name: Michael Hudak Game arranged: TLoZ - Majora's Mask Name of arrangement: Machine Wash Song arranged: Great Bay Temple (and a hummed bit of Astral Observatory in the outro) Link to song: My SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-513303599 Inspired by the music of the Raster-Noton label, especially that of composer/sound designers Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai. It's a little far-out, so maybe a reference track might make sense of what I was trying to do with Machine Wash. Also, about 60% of the sounds here are from the absolutely awesome Glitchedtones library. They had a big holiday sale, which led to what was in my head for well over 2 years finally getting made. I went through several iterations of this, each one less extreme than the last in terms of high-frequency dbs. I mixed this primarily with Sony MDR-7506s, but the average OCR listening might be using earbuds, and I don't want to, uhh, kill them. I'm hoping this current version is acceptable! It was a fun experiment to contrast the bone-dry and ultra-wet sounds here. Hopefully they juxtapose in all the right ways. This piece is based much more on (poly)rhythm and "riffs" and less on melody than what I usually do, so that was fun to dig into as well. I'm humming the Astral Observatory theme (from earlier in the game) at the end, because why not get whisked away through a dungeon of waterways, alarms, and frayed wires, only to pop out of a fountain thing and see some random guy walk by? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted January 30, 2020 Author Share Posted January 30, 2020 Michael, only someone as insane as you can make a remix like this! "Great Bay Temple" has less of an emphasis on melodic content and way more on rhythm, so I can see why you opted for the Raster-Noton-esque direction. I can recognize the source throughout and how you used it - the toms and hi-hat rhythms of the original provide the bulk of the familiarity, as did one of the organ polyrhythms making occasional appearances and the other banging through like an explosion at 2:12. With so many textures used, you also took the chance to splice the rhythms and use so many effects that not one section here sounds identical to another. It's well and truly what I would call a "work of art" in VGM remix form - something I almost called another one of your tracks before. Naturally, as the emphasis is on the sound design and glitch tones, one can't also assess the production values in a traditional context. The sounds have their places in the mix, and the frequency emphasis changes depending on textures used. There is one problem that is in the way for me right now, and that is the sine bell tone that starts appearing on fourth notes from 0:13. Despite your efforts to cut back on the high pitched frequencies, the way it cuts through the mix makes it fatiguing to listen. It'll be less grating if you can either bring the volume down or lower its pitch. It's otherwise a great artistic direction and one of the coolest things I've heard from you. But before it gets posted, I'd appreciate you taking five minutes of your time so you can tame that percussive tone and re-render. You've blown minds on the front page before, and with this, I know you can do it again. YES (Conditional on volume for one instrument) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted February 6, 2020 Share Posted February 6, 2020 This is the coolest thing I've heard in awhile. The bits of source, melodic and rhythmic, are used so well here. I'm not having any issues with frequencies like Rexy is. There are a lot of grating frequencies in here and none of them are bothering me at all in context. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 what a great track this is. i don't think it'll ever be anyone's favorite remix, but it's absolutely solid in that it accomplishes what it set out to do in a really interesting and unique way. one of the things that musique concrete like this can struggle with is connecting with the listener. it's easy to just be totally noise and not truly make something that's listenable and able to be related to. this does a great job of using a motif (the opening rhythmic pattern) to give the listener something to hold onto throughout the track while still going a bunch of different places and exploring a bunch of different ideas. really creative work here. i love it! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Well, that was certainly... interesting. I largely think you achieved what you set out to do. It's creative for sure. The one thing I was waffling on was the click sounds. They're quite loud and irritating. I found them far worse than the buzzy "bell" Rexy mentioned. However, your inspiration used nearly the same sound, if slightly quieter. I'm fine accepting this as it is, for what it is. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 (edited) Man, what a great way to take a pretty boring dungeon track and make it super interesting to listen to. Certainly not going to be anyone's favorite, but I really appreciate how you used the repetitive motif as your base and built around it. Really fun, I hope to hear more from you! YES Edited February 22, 2020 by DragonAvenger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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