OCR04419 - *YES* Okami "Into the Ocean, We Walk Peering Way Past the Snake" *PROJECT*

[Emunator]

•ReMixer name: TheBitterRoost
•Email: 
•userid: 32609

• Game arranged: Okami
• Arrangement name: Into the Ocean We Walk Peering Way Past the Snake
• Individual songs arranged: Inside the Water Dragon
• Composer: Rei Kondoh
• Link to original: https://youtu.be/LSv-MiYVEP0

• Recorded with drums, mics, acoustic guitars, DI bass, DI electric guitar through freeware amp sims, and a simple Synth1 sine/glass pad. Done for the Pixel Mixers’ Okami/Okamiden tribute album. This was one of my favorite songs from the game; I remember jumping and wasting time in the water dragon to let the song loop a few extra times. The melody struck me as “Opethy,” so I used their acoustic style as a springboard, leading to my usual wheelhouse of doom metal.

 

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Hello hello,

No problem at all. Much like a picture is worth a thousand words, I figured I'd bounce out a version of the tune with the original chopped/stretched over top of it. Here it is, I'll refer to it when using timestamps below: 

 

Overall, I shifted the tempo up from its original ~175bpm 6/8 to ~189bpm 6/8 to roughly match the feel of Opeth's song "Harvest" (where the pun in the title comes from <-- "into the orchard we walk peering way past the gate"). The guiding light for me through the whole song is the ghosty/sine-wavey synth that carries the whole way in both versions; I even used a very similar sounding synth sound in mine.

[0:12-0:40] Chords follow the ghostly synth; they don't exactly match source arpeggios in 2nd and 6th bar of the two 8-bar phrases, but stylistically fits better with the Opeth vibes.

[0:41-1:45] Lead acoustic follows source melody with some original-ish rhythm acoustic arpeggios. Dirty gtrs follow the "james bond" harp progression.

[1:45-2:07] Acoustics guitars follow source harp arps.
[2:07-2:38] Lead guitars follow ghosty synth (+harmony for 2nd pass).

[2:45-2:52] Pwr-chord walk-down = 1st three notes of the melody (ghosty synth), countermelody/harmony leads on top.
[3:28-3:51] Acoustics follow source melody.
[3:52-4:37] Lead gtrs follow ghosty synth melody, with some different harmonies on top to vary the feel from earlier iterations (e.g. 2:07-2:38).

[4:45-End] Rhythm gtrs follow and play around with harp progression, leads follow ghosty synth melody. For the latter half-time segment, they switch; rhythms now chug chords and the ghosty synth melody is arpeggiated and harmonized.

 

Hope this provides enough clarification of how I used the source material here. Let me know if you have any questions!
Also, I don't know what the timetable would be for this one, but it's about to be included in a licensed Capcom compilation album that Pixel Mixers is releasing soon. Would it be ok for this one to be released after that comes out so that a link to the album could be included in the post/YT video and such? I can let y'all know when that occurs. Thanks 

[Emunator]

I originally had this flagged for a direct post, but I'm struggling to connect this to the original source material outside of chord progressions. If anyone can successfully make that connection, this should be a pretty easy pass but it's just not clicking with me. 

[Chimpazilla]

It always throws me off when a remix is in another key from the original, no matter what else has been done to a source tune.  I hear a lot of source in this one but it probably warrants an actual source use breakdown.  Given enough source, this is an easy pass for me too. 

[Emunator]

The following was provided by the artist as a source breakdown, including an audio reference. Please keep this in mind when evaluating this track!

 

Quote

 

Hello hello,

No problem at all. Much like a picture is worth a thousand words, I figured I'd bounce out a version of the tune with the original chopped/stretched over top of it. Here it is, I'll refer to it when using timestamps below: https://www.dropbox.com/s/05rcig76cy76grq/TBR_Okami_Explainer.mp3?dl=0

 

Overall, I shifted the tempo up from its original ~175bpm 6/8 to ~189bpm 6/8 to roughly match the feel of Opeth's song "Harvest" (where the pun in the title comes from <-- "into the orchard we walk peering way past the gate"). The guiding light for me through the whole song is the ghosty/sine-wavey synth that carries the whole way in both versions; I even used a very similar sounding synth sound in mine.

[0:12-0:40] Chords follow the ghostly synth; they don't exactly match source arpeggios in 2nd and 6th bar of the two 8-bar phrases, but stylistically fits better with the Opeth vibes.

[0:41-1:45] Lead acoustic follows source melody with some original-ish rhythm acoustic arpeggios. Dirty gtrs follow the "james bond" harp progression.

[1:45-2:07] Acoustics guitars follow source harp arps.
[2:07-2:38] Lead guitars follow ghosty synth (+harmony for 2nd pass).

[2:45-2:52] Pwr-chord walk-down = 1st three notes of the melody (ghosty synth), countermelody/harmony leads on top.
[3:28-3:51] Acoustics follow source melody.
[3:52-4:37] Lead gtrs follow ghosty synth melody, with some different harmonies on top to vary the feel from earlier iterations (e.g. 2:07-2:38).

[4:45-End] Rhythm gtrs follow and play around with harp progression, leads follow ghosty synth melody. For the latter half-time segment, they switch; rhythms now chug chords and the ghosty synth melody is arpeggiated and harmonized.

 

Hope this provides enough clarification of how I used the source material here. Let me know if you have any questions!
Also, I don't know what the timetable would be for this one, but it's about to be included in a licensed Capcom compilation album that Pixel Mixers is releasing soon. Would it be ok for this one to be released after that comes out so that a link to the album could be included in the post/YT video and such? I can let y'all know when that occurs. Thanks 

 

 

[prophetik music]

not much melodic content in the original, really - it's mostly done via the top note in each arpeggio. there's a single descending line, and a shamisen-esque line, and that's pretty much it.

in terms of the remix vs. the original, i could hear most all of the correlations that were called out by the remixer in their breakdown. 2:45 was more of a stretch IMO, and the solo actually had some elements of the melody in it too which was fun. 

from a mastering standpoint, there's some unevenness in volume (the solo guitar is really loud), i wouldn't mind a touch less kick beater tone, and a few times where the EQing for the acoustics to make them clearer made them a bit uncomfortable, but overall it's mastered clearly and well-performed. the sextuplet kick stuff was great =D the fade-out at the end is way too long IMO, probably should be done around 5:40 instead of almost another 20s of nearly inaudible stuff.

this is way awesome and sounds great. nice work.

 

 

YES

[MindWanderer]

I hear the connections well enough to trust the breakdown and Brad's verification.

Production sounds fine to me.  Everything is clear, and while I recognize Brad's concerns about volume unevenness, I wouldn't even bring it up, it's so minor to me.

There are about 3 seconds of silence at the beginning that could be pruned out, and frankly I don't see the need for a fade-in.  While I dislike fade-out endings, this one was executed just fine, and while I wouldn't lop off a full 20 seconds of it, I would lop off 10 seconds.

The arrangement and performance are top-notch, of course.  It sounds weirdly like a medley at times, with some slightly abrupt transitions, but the whole is still plenty cohesive.

YES

[DarkSim]

Interesting fade-in! There's a little warm white noise in there that I'm not sure about, but then the instruments kick in and the white noise is drowned out. When the track quietens down, it's audible later, so possibly a recording artefact?

The first minute or so I felt like there was space in the soundscape for another instrument to come in, and you didn't disappoint with the electric guitar! Chunky rhythm, clean lead, and then it rips in with a cool solo at 2:59. Mixing is a little loud on the lead there, but it's a solo, so why not? I've got some minor mixing gripes with the hi-hats from 1:30-2:36 - they just sound disconnected from the rest of the drumkit. Set them back in the soundscape a little more and they'd sound more cohesive as a unit. They sound better later on in the track though when things are busier, so maybe you've mixed it in the busy section and left the settings from that.

Those nitpicks aside, this is a cracking track. Love the 6/8 time signature and this style works so well with the source tune. Can't say I listen to much 'doom metal', but I was pleasantly surprised! The mixture of acoustic and electric guitars adds depth the the performance, and of course there's the gratuitous bass drumming section in there for good measure.

Great track, and the fadeout ending is actually quite fitting and didn't bother me as much as fadeouts usually do thanks

YES

[Liontamer]

The source tune has such a slow tempo, so speeding it up 2x helped me understand the melody more easily. I'm thankful for the source usage breakdown, though once you get to :42, the actual melodic arrangement is super straightforward and clear, so I'm not sure what would throw anyone off. [Looks closer...] Oh wow, TBR bounced out an "explainer" track, that's handy, though I feel bad he felt compelled to show us that, EMU, when it's not a liberal arrangement.

Man, the acoustic guitar work in here was gorgeous and clicked so well with the electric guitar and airy line. A little blip in the timing at 2:21, but it shakes off quickly.

The 3:50-4:43 section was too crowded to me, and the different components weren't sounding out clearly; it doesn't make passing the track debateable, but I think it could have been mixed in a way to not have the texture sound so indistinct.

Beautiful, lush source tune choice, and given an energetic, grungy transformation by thebitterroost. Awesome concept with killer studio chops execution!

YES