*NO* Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, 4: Oblivion & 5: Skyrim "The Elder Scrolls Violin Medley"

[Rexy]

Greetings, OCR Team.
I'm Vladimir Kuznetsov, producer behind World Beyond - an instrumental soundtrack music project, also representing my collaborator Marica Vilibic, a talented violinist and singer from Croatia, with whom we do film and videogame music covers. We would like to suggest this new instrumental medley for review.

Contact Information
•    Remixer name: World Beyond
•    Real name: Vladimir Kuznetsov
•    Your website: www.worldbeyond.net
•    Userid: 31732
Submission Information
•    Name of game(s) arranged: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
•    Name of arrangement: The Elder Scrolls Violin Medley: Nerevar Rising (From "Morrowind") / Reign of the Septims (From “Oblivion”) / The Road Most Travelled (From "Morrowind") / Dragonborn (From “Skyrim”)
•    Name of individual song(s) arranged: Nerevar Rising, Reign of the Septims, The Road Most Travelled, Dragonborn
•    Original soundtrack music composed by Jeremy Soule.
•    The idea to create this cover came from Marica, as she was willing to record the violin on top of an orchestral instrumental track. I liked this idea very much but  instead of covering just one song from the TES soundtrack I tried to write a medley that would seamlessly transition between the most notable themes of the series. When the draft was done she played her part in one take as best as she could and I fine-tuned the track around it. At the final stage of production I tried to make the original audio sound more cinematic, using significantly less compression, much more reverberation and a mellow, warmer EQ profile.
Violin:
•    Violinist name: Marica Vilibic
•    Email address: mvilibic@gmail.com
 

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Emunator

[prophetik music]

this is beautifully played, well orchestrated, pretty well mastered (there's some obvious compressor brickwall going on between 1:30 and 1:45, and again around 2:32, if you look at the waveforms), and overall an attractive and entertaining package. unfortunately it doesn't have even a little arrangement as defined by our site. this is what i'd term a realization or transcription, meaning that you cribbed something wholesale from another track. covers are certainly fun and enjoyable, but we don't post them on our site.

from the Submission Standards:

Quote

2. Your arrangement must be substantial and original.

• Submissions must be different enough from the source material to clearly illustrate the contributions, modifications, and enhancements you have made. Acceptable arrangement often involves more than one of the following techniques:

• Modifying the genre, chord progression, instrumentation, rhythms, dynamics, tempo, or overall composition of the source material
• Adding original solos, transitions, harmonies, counter-melodies, lyrics, or vocals to the source material

• Taking the original game audio and simply adding drum loops or using an existing MIDI file and assigning new instruments does not qualify as substantial or original arrangement.
• Submissions must not include any sampled audio, including sound effects, from material owned by Square Enix or its subsidiaries.
• Submissions should be long enough to convey arrangement; generally, this requires at least two minutes of material.

i'll point specifically at the second and third bullets here. you've essentially taken the same chord progressions, at about the same tempo, in the same genre, with roughly the same instrumentation, playing roughly the same rhythms and dynamics, and added no original content, harmonies, or counter-melodies to this track. there's some transitions as required between the individual songs, and those are well-handled, but unfortunately this is just outside the scope of OCR's content policy.

if you wished to make a version of this that was within our content policy, i'd suggest starting with either a different ensemble focus (ie. a chamber group) or some altered chords and time signatures. these are simple modal themes that are exciting and majestic in their implementation but could really be even more powerful if represented as a mournful dirge in a related minor key, for example, or based in an altered time signature (the dovahkiin theme would be particularly good in 4/4 or 7/8, IMO). just some thoughts, certainly not requirements for posting.

thanks for the submission! this is a very fun track to listen to.

 

 

NO

[Rexy]

The production values are indeed lovely - with a well-performed violin part, powerful articulations on the backing parts, and careful attention to the levels and dynamics.  The mastering direction feels crisp and clear but a touch heavy on the high shelf and making it feel stuffy.  As long as I can hear the part-writing, it's all fine.

As Brad pointed out, the similarities in style, chord progressions and pacing make the arrangement way too problematic in comparison.  The structure going from source to source like this doesn't help things either, as it hardly leaves room for further interpretation of the individual sources.  But - and a positive but - I heard a personalization attempt, all thanks in strength to the backing orchestration.

It starts with some part swaps for the first two Morrowind iterations and the more march-like subtractive writing at 1:07 that combines the Oblivion version's backing feel and the Morrowind melodies together.  The Oblivion end section at 1:50 also involved some additional part writing with the backing harp adding a cameo of the next source in sequence - "The Road Most Travelled" - and string ensemble doing fast eight-note runs.  That mentioned source was a more subdued original, which in turn had a more dramatic build at 2:15, favoring a busier string and percussion section.  The Skyrim version also has a thicker brass section providing a pad and a countermelody at the same time, something that, again, the original didn't have.

So from what I heard - modifying the backing composition, utilizing transitions, differing in dynamics, and briefly using two sources in tandem is indeed a great start that complements the strong production values.  But at the end of the day, it still sounds like a bunch of enhanced covers strung together, which makes it miss the mark here on OCR.

It'll be nice if you take a look at the arrangement guidelines, see which of the techniques you could use to offer your unique spin on the source(s), and utilize your studio magic as you did here.  Vladimir, I'm all for seeing you on board as an artist in the future should you go in that direction.

NO

[Emunator]

I've been holding off on this one for a while because I hate to reject a track that is clearly well put together, well-performed, and by all measures an enjoyable listen, that doesn't meet the standards of interpretation that we're looking for at OCR, but I don't want to keep this languishing for any longer. I love this in a bubble and want to commend your musicianship, but the two judges who have already chimed in have the right call. No shade intended, and I certainly hope to hear something from you with a bit more of an interpretive take in the future! 

NO