Emunator Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 Hello OCRemix, After posting on the "Post your game remix" forum, I wanted to submit a song from my album to confront it to a new audience. Contact Information ReMixer name : Black SeeD Email : Website : https://blackseedbm.bandcamp.com/releases Userid : 37884 Submission Information Game arranged : Pokemon (Red&Blue and other versions probably) Name of arrangement : A Scent of Lavender Song arranged : Lavender Town Comments : Hello everyone ! This track is part of my album of remixed video game tracks in an atmospheric black metal way (you can find the whole album here : Black SeeD - Farplane of Memories (2021)). The goal of this track and the album in general was to work with songs on which I felt that I could emphasize melancholic themes with my favorite music genre. This one also has some original melodies to make it a whole song and not just a cover. The original Pokemon theme is distributed through the whole song, pretty much with all instruments at some point kind of as a "ghost melody", at least that's the feeling I tried to give. I hope you'll like it ! Thanks a lot ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted June 4, 2022 Share Posted June 4, 2022 I gravitated to this track since I recently remixed Lavender Town myself. I love that theme, with its childlike dark vibe. I haven't heard of "atmospheric black metal" before but that seems to be an appropriate way to remix this tune. This mix accomplishes the atmospheric goal quite well I think. The arrangement goes on a bit long for my liking, feeling quite repetitive by the end, but I can see this track filling out the soundtrack for a long scene in an apocalyptic movie. The track is mixed well enough I think, although it ends up sounding mostly leadless (where there are definite leads, they are buried in the mixing, but it seems that the goal here is not to have leads generally, and where they exist they sort of come and go in the soundscape). There certainly is enough Lavender Town source here. I love the variations on melody and chord structure throughout the arrangement. I'm glad there's a short breakdown to change up the dynamics briefly. The guitar and drum performances are excellent and the section following the breakdown really slaps. The mixing is slightly flat but it's getting the job done. Ugh, fadeout ending, I prefer a real ending to wrap up all the musical thoughts, although the fadeout is not a dealbreaker. If I had one request for this track it would be more and more-prominent leadwork. I'll be interested to see what others have to say on this track, but for me it's a YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted June 15, 2022 Share Posted June 15, 2022 I personally never understood why people like the Lavender Town theme. I find it more grating than creepy. And then I hear this. Holy crap. I also haven't heard of "atmospheric black metal" as the name of a genre before either, but I sure recognize this. It's been in a lot of dark games I've played recently, like Oxenfree. And this source is an excellent use of the style. One of those "didn't know I wanted it until I heard it" moments. The leads being buried is fine by me; it increases the atmospheric presence and is typical of the genre. I agree that the mixing is slightly flat; it's hard to avoid in this genre, but the leads could be a bit brighter, and you've got some hard limiting going on for large chunks of the track that could use some breathing room. There's even some pumping in the loudest parts, most audibly 4:11-5:10 but also 2:28-3:55 and 6:08-7:07. Fadeouts are also almost always undesirable, but this one bothers me less than most. Atmospheric stuff can fade out, it's fine. Not great, but fine. Yeah, I'm good with this. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted July 7, 2022 Author Share Posted July 7, 2022 I was a major advocate for this track when I heard it on the Workshop forum and I’m beyond thrilled to hear it hit the panel! Atmospheric black metal is highly underrepresented in the OCReMix catalog but it’s a genre I’m personally quite familiar with and fond of! Typical black metal production relies on harsh frequencies and an overall lo-fi aesthetic that often runs counter to traditional production conventions, but the atmospheric sub-genre - and this remix in particular - subverts that by rounding out the frequency spectrum with a lush bass presence and softer high frequencies. However, the aggression and distortion that is a hallmark of the genre is still very much present in the drum sequencing and wall-of-sound that builds as the arrangement progresses. Of particular note is the section beginning at 4:11 when everything finally lets loose into an barrage of blast beats and wailing guitars. This section does a fantastic job of capitalizing on the tension that had been built up thus far. The Lavender Town melody is present throughout nearly all the track, floating like a spectral entity over the arrangement, often hinting at its presence through chord progressions and references without always explicitly announcing itself. This level of melodic expansion and creative liberty is almost necessary for an 8 minute arrangement to keep things from running stale. It’s bleak and atmospheric, but the dynamic curve feels very much deliberate. If I had to nitpick anything, the drum sequencing can feel robotic at times when you have quick repeated kick patterns; a touch more work on humanizing the velocity and timing, or mixing the drums slightly further back in the sound field would have mitigated this. Aside from that, I’m actually not sure how much of the instrumentation here is sequenced; it all comes together quite cohesively and sounds pretty realistic.. I’m very happy to give this my personal signoff and see that the rest of the panel, so far, is in agreement too. I hope this isn’t the last submission we hear from this album! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted July 7, 2022 Share Posted July 7, 2022 Guitar was annoyingly buzzy in the intro, but that didn't seem to last beyond :16 for whatever reason. Good instrumentation and mood otherwise, even though the soundscape was lightly distorting at times. Mechanical timing of the lead from 2:57- exposed the sample and sounded blocky/rigid. Not digging the machine gun drumming from 3:26-3:56, which had no round robin or anything to help it not sound extremely fake; meh. More muddy stuff from 4:11-5:10 & 6:08-7:19 (before the track then started fading out) that, IMO, didn't sound good. More blocky timing and absolutely no high end, so the instrumentation was turning to mush while also sounding unrealistic due to rigid timing; this goes on for way too long relative to the length of the track. Not sure how Emunator couldn't tell this was sequenced, when both the drums and guitar sound locked to grid. I really like the arrangement concept, which was expansive and interpretive, and I also didn't feel it was over-long, so that doesn't need to be touched. IMO, I could live with either the blocky timing or the overcompression by itself, but not in tandem, so I'm going to recommend Black SeeD take another production pass at this. While there's a lot that's positive here, I'd argue the other Js were too nice and collectively didn't bring up (or notice) the full extent of either core issue. Good luck with the rest of the vote. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 14, 2022 Share Posted July 14, 2022 man, pkmn gen 1's soundtrack just sounds like booty. it's so grating throughout. i don't know how i never noticed that. this has a really fun, rich intro and takes its time getting anywhere, which is nice. the guitar at 0:58 is too loud and stays too loud compared to everything else (a few db down would do wonders with making everything feel more together for the entire length of the track). there is a big uptick in energy at 2:27 that sounds like it's straight off of We Lost The Sea's Departure Songs album. the part at 3:26 didn't sound particularly machine-gun to me, it's not like mike mangini's doing dynamics on his double bass pedal. it did feel a little blah in there in terms of not really doing anything with that energy. there's a short break and some huge blastbeat at 4:10. the bottom's a bit muddy here but not more so than i've heard on pro tracks. i will agree that it is pretty square with the quantization, but again for highly technical tracks it's not totally out of bounds to have a rigidity to it. this is a neat track. i would say that i wish there was more exploration tonally of the theme (there is a lot of repeating the same ideas ad nauseum), and i'd have preferred to hear more of the backing parts and synth leads and less of the lead guitar and kick/snare. but as a comprehensive piece of post-rock i think this does a good job exploring a really weird melodic concept in a pretty accessible and tonal fashion. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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