Emunator Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 (edited) Hello, My name is Charles (artist name: ec2151) and I am submitting my remix of the soundtrack for the Namco arcade game "The Return of Ishtar" for inclusion on OCremix. I look forward to your review. All important information is below, thank you. Contact Information ec2151 Charles Heinrich https://soundcloud.com/ec2151 18829 Submission Information Game Title: The Return of Ishtar (Namco, 1986) Remix Title: Ishtar's Embrace Tracks remixed: "Main Theme," "Roper," "Opening Music" Composer: Junko Ozawa; Soundchip: YM2151 Link to the original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=894MoDyMufE Your own comments: This piece of music celebrates the Namco arcade game The Return of Ishtar on the occasion of its 35th anniversary. Released in the summer of 1986, the game was a direct sequel to the influential Tower of Druaga. The Druaga series' influence runs deep, as you can find its DNA in the bones of the action-RPG genre, from Zelda to the Souls series. Return of Ishtar, which sees the series protagonists Gil and Ki trying to escape the tower after the death of Druaga in the previous game, boasted many innovative and strange features for an arcade game, including forced cooperative play, a password continue feature, leveling up and stat management - all amidst a sprawling rpg dungeon that required players to collaborate, sharing maps, hints, and secrets with one another. I have been a fan of the series and its musical score, by Junko Ozawa, for some time, and I wanted to pay homage to the sequel which is overshadowed by its famous predecessor. Ozawa's original music of Ishtar is in turn both calming and adventurous. I wanted to write a remix that transported you into the world of the series while keeping with those two moods. Thus I decided on a fusion of synthetic sounds and world instruments, where you (and the goddess Ishtar) would 'emerge' through the cloudy soundscapes to peer in on the adventurers, offering guidance and encouragement (a methodical remix of the 'Roper' theme). The rousing horn fanfares signals the start of their quest (a remix of the game's 'Main Theme'), which slowly builds in pace and intensity as more instruments and percussion enter. This leads to a final soothing section (a return of the 'Roper' theme), offering one last benediction before calmly fading out. Gil and Ki, encouraged by the goddess, continue on in their quest to bring light to the world. While I've played piano since I was 5 years old, and have been blessed to write music for several indie games (notably Demon's Tilt), it has always been a dream of mine to submit to this site, ever since I first discovered it as a small child browsing for game music online in the early 2000s. OCremix played a large role in my discovery of music and my formation as an artist. This site's composers and artists were the standard by which I judged my own music in my formative years. I hope this remix passes muster! Edited April 1, 2022 by MindWanderer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 26, 2022 Share Posted March 26, 2022 Really looking forward to hearing this, as I'd never heard of the game or soundtrack before. The way the backing instrumentation was mixed from :42-1:04 was muddy/indistinct, but I'm not sure why. The layered synth leads from 1:03-1:17 were pretty vanilla-sounding. Then from 1:17-1:59, you don't have a good sound to the lead because the levels essentially remain fixed at the same volume throughout AND the timing's too mechanical-sounding. Shifts over to a brass lead at 1:59 that sounds extremely fake and exposed; same with the string synths doubling the melody underneath, so you've got lots of parts in the uncanny valley that also sound relatively thin. Yeah, it's a pretty solid sound palette, especially the backing instrumentation, but the writing doesn't work sounding so robotic like this. As electronic as the original sounds, it doesn't sound so rigid in terms of the timing. I like the tempo, pacing, and overall sound palette, so IMO you don't need to redo the arrangement itself, but humanizing the the timing and employing more layering underneath the leads would help mask some realism issues with these sounds. Very promising stuff, Charles; even if you've moved on from this one, I hope you continue submitting and would love to see you posted on the front page! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 interesting writeup. thanks for the background. a glance at the waveform for this one shows it needs compression badly, and it's apparent on first listen. the track starts with a straightforward pad and some (obviously sequenced and chrono cross-reminiscent) electric bass with very little high end. there's some bells and a reed lead, and a fun electro loop and some hand pans come in to give it some variety at 0:42. the palette is very dull here - all the instruments sit in a low range with very little representation above 1khz, and there's no rolloff below 40hz, so there's a ton of db spent on notes we can't really hear. there's some sfx that don't sound within the mix either. it's got a real ps1 vibe to it. there's some pretty bad cymbal samples and rolls (the cymbal roll into a gong hit sounds really poor tbh), a brassy lead (again very ps1 sounding), and some accordian-style leads which are a bit loud going through melodic content. this just keeps making me think of chrono cross in a way that i can't believe isn't intentional, so i'm leaning towards excusing some of the sample issues like the brass lead and some of the string pads. the ending is well written and even finishes with an FM-like bell, another thing i associate with ps1 sounds. there's a long tail that should be cut. from a sample perspective, i actually think this is fine. it's intentionally low-poly in a charming and simple way. there's some really bad ones that need to be fixed - those cymbal rolls are really not great, and there are a few sfx that just don't make sense aurally like at 0:50 - but the rest are not distractingly bad. my main issue is the mastering, which is very dense throughout. there needs to be first a full EQ pass on most of the leads and percussion parts to brighten them up and remove the sub-40hz content, and then another full volume pass as instruments are consistently misaligned from a volumetric perspective. some automation is likely needed. once that's done, compression will help further brighten it and prevent it from feeling so quiet throughout. in terms of arrangement, i didn't specifically have issues with a robotic feel, but i can see what larry's going at. adding in some space for the mix to breathe after long sustains in the lead for example will help open it up a bit. fix the mastering and the cymbals and i'd probably pass this. humanize it a bit more and i think that this will be something really fun. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 The lo-fi instrumentation here certainly is... something. I don't think it's even PS1-quality; I think it's more similar to 90's Sound Blaster audio. "Charming" isn't the word I'd use. The cymbals aren't great, but they're fine IMO. The gongs do have a problem in that they have enormous tails---so long that they're still going 10 seconds later when the next gong hits. Given that it's clearly, obviously fake, I don't see how niggling with humanization is meaningful. It's not like robotic timing breaks verisimilitude. I also don't have a problem with the mastering, for the most part. Everything can be heard comfortably at one volume level. Things do get a smidge mushy at the crashes. That said, my setup doesn't has as much sub as proph's does, but I can see in a spectrum analyzer that yeah, there's no rolloff at those frequencies. And I can hear enough of the sub to know that's why Larry had a problem with 0:42-1:04. That's an issue that will clearly need to be addressed, making this a Conditional at best. And there is indeed a long tail that needs to be trimmed by about 7 seconds. Proph's also right in that there are no highs here. I didn't even notice at first because the crude PC music this is imitating usually had the same problem, but it's still true. There's enough reason there to send this back, but in closing I'm going to add that I'm just not a fan of the aesthetic choice here. I don't think it's close enough to a specific chipset to work as an homage. To me it just sounds like you're trying to remix on a 386. I can't even tell how much of it is intentional. If this is resubmitted, even with all of the above issues fixed, I'm personally going to have a hard time YES'ing it because I just think the palette sounds bad. It doesn't mean I wouldn't, and it's not a dealbreaker, but it'll be harder to hear the strengths of the arrangement despite it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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