OCR04327 - *YES* King's Quest 6 "Sailing on the Vaporwaves"

[Emunator]

Remixer name: MusicallyInspired

Real name: Brandon Blume

Email address: 

Website: brandonblume.com

Userid #: 10382

Name of game: "King's Quest VI - Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow"

Name of Arrangement: "Sailing on the Vaporwaves"

Name of individual song arranged: "Seagull Theme"

 

Original composer: Chris Brayman

 

Original Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuxCWvWBfhc

Seagull theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU4Za2_fXZA (not included in above soundtrack link as it was only in the CD version of the game and not the floppy version)

 

This was originally made for a community-effort King's Quest chillout remix album based on all the games in the King's Quest series. The remix follows the original theme but changes the time signature from 4/4 to 6/8 and features additional/alternate notation that's not in the original, though it follows the original melody very closely, which is what I love about the original song in the first place. It later changes the time signature and BPM trademark in vaporwave music to make it sound like a slowed down cassette tape or something. It's an experimentation in a genre I've not attempted before and I used some plugins that I don't normally use to get this sound. I'm very happy with how it turned out. Sounds very dreamy which compliments the relaxing nature of the original arrangement. It seemed like a perfect fit for this style and I was pleased enough with it that I thought it'd be a strong candidate to also fit the requirements for OC Remix. I hope you do as well. If not, thanks for giving it a listen anyway!

--

-Brandon Blume

 

[prophetik music]

fun original. i haven't ever heard it before.

the opening synth swells are nice, and the intro of the drums and bass sound good, although the drums and bass are a lot louder than everything else. there's some really weird panning at 0:35 and a few other places - it's hard to tell if that's intentional or not but it didn't seem so. i heard this in several other places in the track as well.

i like the brassy lead synth, although the other synths (especially the bass) drown it out a bit. the repeated little flourishes in the background are nice to keep it moving forward. nice transition at 1:37, set up by the chords going into it, and i like the mirroring in the lead at 1:55.

at 2:15 we get a break, and eventually that shifts to a recap with some interesting filtering on it to trim out the highs a bit more, and then it's done somewhat abruptly.

from a mastering perspective, this has a really warm feeling to it overall. i thought it sounded pretty solid throughout with the main exception being the occasional drops in the right ear that i mentioned before, and the bass in general being a bit loud and covering up some parts. i'd consider those nitpicks.

i think this sounds great. nice job.

 

 

YES

[MindWanderer]

What a nice, chill arrangement.  Nails the choice of genre, excellent choices of synths throughout.

The "weird" panning seemed intentional to me; it's a call-and-response from one ear to the other.

The break at 2:15 was indeed pretty abrupt, as was the ending.  That's my only major criticism, though.  Otherwise I like everything about this.

YES

[Liontamer]

Feels like I'm hearing a lot of generic FL Studio sounds & effects; that's not an inherent knock against it, but I've heard Rellik do very strong stuff with FL out of the box and this didn't feel like it was maximizing it in a similar way.

The note movements of the lead synth at :46 sound too mechanical and behind the beat. Solid percussion writing behind it though; just having some velocity variation with the cymbals was a nice touch.

Lesser thing, but the kick at 1:54 is too loud/grating and was getting in the way of the melody; that may have been exacerbated by listening on headphones, but it would be great if whatever's causing that effect was pulled back. Then from 3:11-3:22ish, the warbling effect sounded like it was slightly distorting; again, could just be me hearing it on headphones and conflating the effect with distortion, but it's at different levels in different places, so it felt like it briefly distorted.

I didn't have any problems with the arrangement's structure; they come in all shapes and sizes and nothing about the transitions felt abrupt. Nice SFX usage with the scattered seagull calls. I thought the switchup at 2:14 was a sweet idea to vary up the tempo and move back to the source melody with a fresh spin for the finish.

Not sure why the mixing is this muddy, Brandon, but the leads could stand out more while still maintaining a vaporware atmosphere, and that's my main hangup. Listen to FM84's Atlas album, particularly the instrumental tracks for example, to hear vaporware with more power & balance to it and you can compare what elements are brighter vs. more subdued. Obviously, OCR's production standards aren't as high, and this may pass as is, but still something worth examining. It's a solid arrangement concept, but the mixing's a mixed bag, IMO. Strong stuff so far, Brandon, and good luck with the rest of the vote.

NO (resubmit)

[DarkSim]

Lovely warm, fuzzy synths. A little generic, but definitely vaporwavey. Brass-style lead in particular isn’t too interesting from a sound design perspective, however the overall soundscape is cohesive.
The snare at 2:07 has too much reverb, so it softens the punch. Some of the toms seem to be too wet on the reverb as well, but it's not a dealbreaker.

Really like the ABA arrangement going from 6/8 to 4/4 across A sections. I was thinking that the melody was too fast for the style you were going for, but then in the final section it’s repeated in 4/4, which gives it a much slower, laid-back feel.

I can see why this might not stand up to more commercial examples of the genre, particularly from a sound design and production perspective, however I think what’s here is delightfully creative, and cohesive enough to get a pass from me.

YES

[Sir_NutS]

Ah, right on time, as I've been kind of hooked on windows 96 lately.  

The production here is definitely vaporwave-y.  Inbalanced mixing in vaporwave is kind of an acquired taste, as the majority of productions I've heard go for that super boomy mixdown excarcerbated by phasing, heavy compression and flanging effects.  It's not as bad here, but you get some of it.  It's supposed to sound a bit scuffed, as if it was recorded on an old VHS tape that had already been recorded stuff on it over and over.

Of course, we have standars that should apply to everything, so we can't really go around accepting stuff that sounds scuffed on most people's setups.  But luckily I do not believe this one is too bad on that front.   First, regarding the kick mentioned by Larry, these kind of heavy emphasis on drum transients both for kicks and snares are sort of like a trope for the genre, though I must admit this one overdoes it a bit.  The mix is mid-heavy, which I also expect from vaporwave productions but again, it cannot be overdone and I don't think it has been here, there is enough emphasis on the highs that I don't feel the mix suffers from it, and it helps keeping the warm tone.

The positives are that for some reason this song fits the vaporwave adaptation perfectly, something about the original just fits nicely here, I love that arpeggio at 2:25, that's the most vaporwave thing here hah.  The arrangement is very well done, if this song was shown to me as just a vaporwave original I wouldn't have noticed it was remixing anything (and I am familiar with the source).  If these are default FL samples, I think they've been put to good use overall, and they all fit together pretty well.

Overall I can see Larry's gripes with this one and I hear them, but I don't think they're egregious.  Just taking this track as a whole, it's over the bar for me, it does what Vaporwave is meant to do: create false nostalgic memories in your mind.

YES

Edited April 4, 2022 by Sir_NutS