OCR04416 - *YES* Gabriel Knight "Shadow Hunter"

[Emunator]

Hello, OCR.

I hereby submit my remix of the main theme from Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.

 

It was created for a remix album of GK1 music entitled "Synths of the Fathers." The album is currently being crowdfunded for a vinyl release on Qrates with the support and encouragement of the original composer, Robert Holmes. 

 

Download track link: 

 

Remixer name: One Kid From Andromeda 

Real name: Troels Pleimert 

Remix title: "Shadow Hunter" 

Style: EBM/industrial/synthwave 

Album link (digital): https://onekidfromandromeda.bandcamp.com/album/gabriel-knight-synths-of-the-fathers 

Album link (vinyl): https://qrates.com/projects/26203-synths-of-the-father

Email address: 

Name of game arranged: Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers 

Name of song arranged: Main Titles

 

All the best, 

Troels

 

[MindWanderer]

Great grungy tone to begin with.  Sort of Daft Punk, but more gritty, and then there's the piano.  It does sound pretty saturated, though; it has fidelity almost like an audio cassette, and the instruments don't have a lot of room to breathe.  Of course, this is designed for vinyl---I don't know the medium well enough to know whether that means it'll sound just fine, or if the loss of fidelity from production and medium will compound and sound awful.

...I say this, then saw that the crowdfunding campaign is long over and is due to be shipped out next month.  So I guess that ship has sailed in any event.

Despite clocking in at over 8 minutes, there are a lot of original ideas here.  There's really only one repeated section (2:02-2:54 and 7:00-end), though it's a long one.  But overall, the whole track is on a really slow burn: the intro runs until 0:52, followed by another build-up that goes until 1:48; the real meat of the arrangement doesn't start until 2:02!  Some entire remixes aren't that long.  The bridge in particular, 4:12-5:48, sounds great but is a whole minute and a half of basically the same thing.

That said, each of those long sections does have a progressive nature, and is far more than just a loop.  They're longer than they need to be, but they don't really demand to be cut.

I think it would have been stronger with cleaner lines and by getting to the point a little quicker, but it stands just fine as it is.  I think your backers will be pleased.

YES

[DarkSim]

I'll be honest, the first 3 minutes of the track I was trying to figure out the time signature! Really interesting rhythms being employed here, and it's hard to pin down with the bass arp and percussion. I think it's still 4/4, but the last beat seems to come in early so it feels like the last one drags on longer. Regardless, I do enjoy more complex rhythmic structures, and with the solid sound design and effects, I didn't find the intro outstayed its welcome, even at over 2 minutes in length.

The first 'chorus' part from 2:05-3:00 sounds great. The soundscape is filled out nicely, the kick packs a clean punch, and it does feel like a satisfying end to the long build.

After 3 minutes, we get a comparatively ponderous section that didn't really do much for me until the piano came in at 4:50. It's understandable to drop things out for a break section, however the sparsity of this extended section, complete with the straight groove and vanilla-sounding synths, stands in contrast with what came before it. I definitely think it could have been shorter by about a minute to avoid dwelling on the lack of points of interest in that section. Once the piano comes in though, it does again sound very nice and full.

The final movement of this piece has a few false drops and stop-start moments, before that big chorus comes in again, leaving on a high. Listening to the source tune after the remix, I can clearly hear the inspiration, and was perhaps a little disappointed that all the things I liked best about the remix were present in the source. That said, it's clear that this is a huge enhancement to the original, and pays a fitting tribute to it. You've extended the running time by about 3 times the source's length, whilst keeping the arrangement and instrumentation similar enough to be clearly recognisable, and each section has a decent build that ends in a satisfying way. Can't ask for more than that!

YES

[prophetik music]

really interesting sound design at the beginning. sounds like it's in 7/4 or 7/8 for most of the first few minutes, darksim, depending on what you call a quarter. i personally like that it's more 2-2-2-1 than 2-2-3 or the other tired 7-forms we usually get.

there's lots of additive stuff going on in the first few minutes, and it sounds great, grungy in all the right places. i love the build at 1:55 and the subsequent change at 2:02 with the organish pad swelling under it - so good. the bell started to feel a bit old here (maybe using a real bell sample instead of pitching the one you used up and down) but the entire 'chorus' is meaty and sounds good.

there's a long atempo break and then a significant stylistic shift at 3:16 to something that sounds extremely 90s PC. i didn't care for this at all. when it gets more fleshed out, around 4:18, it's still driving the Sound Blaster vibe, but it feels less empty. the keys at 4:50 were a nice touch. there's some more layering at 5:20 or so with the choral pad, which really keeps the vibe in that same late 90s PC world, and that moves into another break at 5:49. 

6:17 brings back the intro style and beat, and features some fun static percussive elements. there's a drop and extended build to the final blow, and then an outro.

this is a really nice job overall. you really stuck with the 90s vibe throughout, and even if it's a bit long in some places and has repetitive ideas in some others, i think as a whole it's a great product. nice work.

 

 

YES

[Liontamer]

Very cool concept to turn this arrangement into dark EDM, and I dig the mixture of 7/8 & 4/4 time carried over from the original; gotta give credit as well for using all of the elements of the source tune, but not structuring it in the same way and letting the transitions breathe. Unlike DarkSim, I wasn't disappointed at all by that realization; you were very creative and purposeful in how you invoked the source tune throughout the piece, and I wasn't bored or otherwise feeling that this couldn't justify the length.

Melody at 2:02's insanely quiet, but I figure it'll ramp up; there it is at 2:16, a little more audible, but still competing too much to be heard and getting swallowed up. Nice usage of the bells as well to handle that supporting writing.

3:16's section has such a dated sound, semi-Dune: Spice Opera vibes, just a flimsier and more vanilla-sounding palette. Things filled out better around 4:13, but there's still significant empty space, where the synths, sustained strings, and beats all sound thin. The beats in particular sound plodding and bland in this area as well once you feel they're getting repetitive. Then the keyboard at 4:44 also lacked body and should have mixed to be more forward. This area's a bummer here, because it would sound more sophisticated and fleshed out with better effects.

5:16 had some choir vox added in, which is a positive, but then things sounded muddy until 5:49, where no particular part takes the lead and gives direction to the music; the beats seem to be almost the same volume level as the vox, piano, bassline and are competing for space rather than working in concert.

5:49 went back to the source's intro rhythms. I liked the bell instrumentation a lot, lots of body to it, though prophetik's point about the repetitive sound was on point. Things beefed back up at 7:00, and I'm feeling again like the mixing's imbalanced, with the bassline and bells being too loud over the melodic content, but we'll live. Rigid-sounding keyboard returned at 7:39 for the wrapup and was thin again for the finish.

I was going to reject this on first blush, because I felt 3:16-5:19 was noticeably thin on the production side and sounded more like a well underway work-in-progress that needed the finishing touches for proper fullness and balance. I had to relisten to this and reexamine how much of this track clicked vs. what didn't. It's not where I think this ultimately should be, but the overall sound palette is strong and the arrangement is also, so a NO would have been too drastic. I won't make the perfect the enemy of the good here when the arrangement is so creatively approached and the production's solid enough most of the way. The overall creativity of Troels's arrangement easily wins out for me. Count it!

YES