*NO* Castlevania "Simon's Madness"

[Liontamer]

hello,
I'm French and don't speak English very well, this is my fourth submission, I hope my request is correct. Thanks

Link to my submission :


Re Mixer : Onirik Dreamer
real name : Karim Ajroud
email : 
website : https://onirikdreamer.com
Link of vidéoclip :
user id : 38210

Name of game arranged : Castlevania (NES)
Name of original track : Poison mind (composed by Kinuyo Yamashita & Satoe Terashima)
Name of my track : Simon's madness
Additional information about game : 1986 (NES)
Link to the original soundtrack :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb2VQmWQ-J8
Your own comments about the mix : I wanted to make a more energetic and electronic version of this theme while keeping the general atmosphere of the original track.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Liontamer
closed decision

[Liontamer]

Nice SFX opening. Nicely personalized sound upgrade opening here; it's such a short source tune, so I'm hoping we hear something substantive in the treatment. Ooh, nice switch into a clubby sound at :35, with good balance and a thumping beat behind it. And a switch into another iteration of the theme at :51 without the beats and a totally different sound palette, very cool textural and intensity change until 1:15. Back to the club beats at 1:15 in a higher key, then some (very fake) piano as lead at 1:31. The sample doesn't sound great, but it's brief there, and produced in a way where I'm not drawn to the lack of realism. 1:51 started dropping things out and circling back with the thunder SFX as the finish.

IMO, the arrangement approach is 100% fine; it's melodically conservative and instrumentally expansive/varied -- similar to https://ocremix.org/community/topic/51491 -- which is allowed. This is only 2:18 long, so it's important to not be too repetitive or underdeveloped with such a limited time to work with (and such a repetitive source tune). The source tune is just the melody ad nauseum, so Onirik did a nice job varying up the presentation of the melody with different leads and textures, along with various SFX inclusions, and tweaking some rhythms, to keep things fresh. The ending's doesn't fully go to 0, but we can fix that. A short and sweet example of getting solid variations out of a limited source, Karim! Good luck with the rest of the vote!

YES

[Chimpazilla]

WHAT, I CAN'T HEAR YOU LARRY OVER THAT ENORMOUS KICK DRUM ok I do love a meaty kick.  I agree with Larry that there are a lot of fun ideas in this short little remix.  Love the storm sfx. The piano is indeed fake but with those fast note being played, who cares?  The crash samples and white noise are not the greatest and they are quite loud and a bit cheesy.  I do like the spooky intro and the heavy beat when it begins.  This is a cute little remix, arrangement is interesting and there's enough variation and ear candy to keep things fresh.  The trucker's gear shift at 1:16 is a nice touch.  Let's do this.

YES

[MindWanderer]

Eh... I've been listening to this for a while now, and that basic arp is playing nearly the entire time.  It gets old really, really fast.  The only time it takes a break is in 0:49-1:15.  Even if, on paper, 26 seconds of break out of a 2:18 piece were enough, subjectively it's just relentless.

There are some cool ideas, and I love the beat, but I do think it's ultimately too much of the same thing.

NO

[prophetik music]

intro has some interesting (if common for Castlevania remixes) sfx, and the arpeggio going pretty hard.

there's a fat club kick and percs that hit at 0:35, and that feels pretty good initially with the arp in the background. there's a bit of a cut with the bass goofing around and doing some funky stuff, and then there's a key change and the arp comes back (same instrument, same octave, same stuff). that transitions to a keyboard and then back to the same synth. there's an extended outro with the arp and sfx, and then it's done on a chord.

this is...not really enough arrangement. MW's right to point out that the arp is hammering away for >75% of the piece, and it's mostly in the same instrument, in the same octave as the original, and there's little variation there. what's more, the original has virtually nothing aside from that arp and a sustained bass tone, so this is essentially the original being repeated with a beat under it. this feels very much like a cover, and isn't transformative enough to really call it a remix. a 30s break in the middle (around 0:50) isn't enough to change that.

arpeggiated source tunes are hard to arrange - i've had some experience, like with the face temple remix i did a decade or two ago. there are a lot of ways to add your own feel to the track that aren't just layering in the same arpeggio. adding in a unique solo line, practicing subtractive arrangement by dropping out parts of the arp, extending the arpeggio rather than just keeping it between a few tones, and actively passing around the outlined chords between instruments would have all been helpful ways to mix up this tune and not keep it so similar throughout. ultimately, though, this just doesn't have enough transformative arrangement. there's nothing that makes this uniquely yours. it's also so short that even if you did have something unique, it'd be a flash in the pan.

so, in short, this needs more arrangement to it. i think it sounds good (although choosing to just keep repeating the arp really got tiring after a while) from a mastering perspective, but there needs to be more variation from the original to avoid being called a cover.

 

 

NO

[XPRTNovice]

Long story short - I love this, but it's not enough of itself. Aside from a keychange and adding some drums, this seems to me to be more of an sound-upgrade of the source than an arrangement. The arp carries for almost the entire tune with barely a few moments rest. 

But I WILL say that the production is fantastic. I think it's well balanced, and the patches used are great. The space is filled nicely both from a L/R perspective and an EQ perspective; it's full and rich and well done. There's just not enough arrangement here for me to think this is passable. 

 

NO

[DarkSim]

OK I've listened to this 4 or 5 times now, and I really like it. I think it's a great example of how to make a game music ReMix with some fairly basic techniques and loops and, with some decent production, make it sound cohesive and catchy.

First off, the source tune is short, but I love the way you've achieved the syncopated effect when the groove hits at 0:36 to give the track some real bounce. Good choice of drum loop, and although the percussion is largely loops with some cymbal hits and ins/outs, it reminds me of my early remixing days, and is effective. Nothing wrong with doing the basics well!

I hear the arrangement critiques, and while I agree that more could have been made of this, the syncopation, break, and key change are all arrangement decisions. On top of that, the ReMix is short and sweet, nothing feels like it's dragging on or overused, and although it left me wanting more, it's a satisfying package.

There are loads of things that I'd have done differently, but judging what's in front of me, I'd have to say that this one gets a pass.

YES

[Emunator]

I find it funny that Larry compared this to the Spider Man track, which I also just voted on, because I feel almost exactly the same way here. I mean, the original source material is effectively just the arpeggio, so it feels valid to lean heavily on that, especially when you do subtly change up the way it's presented (key change, shifting the layering on the piano to give it a different level of prominence in the mix at different times.) I also feel like the breakdown at :49 really adds a lot to the arrangement approach, and probably tips the scales in your favor, even if the production is rough around the edges. I'm okay with this!

YES

[Gario]

So I can see this arrangement working - there is a version of this that I could easily say YES to, but this has some items holding it back.

This is essentially variations on a theme, which for such a short theme is a great way to approach it. The opening is conservative to establish the theme, then it varies the theme once the idea has been cemented - perfectly fine way to arrange the song, has a good length for such an idea, and it has some nice production (mixing and the like). Also meaty drums, we all like those.

The idea of variations is to move away from the idea, though. It goes in the right direction at 0:52, using some nice subtractive arranging, but returning to the same style shifted a key at 1:16 isn't enough variation. This track has a good start, but it plays too safe with the source material for it to be engaging as a variation track, so it all feels like it's staying in the same place and retreading the same music over and over again.

The instrument quality isn't the highest but it's on the threshold of passable, but the music just doesn't go anywhere. If you're gonna do variations really explore how you can vary the source and take it in new directions, but otherwise perhaps think about what you want the music to do over the entire track and make some music with the source, because at the moment it just sounds like the source textures repeating themselves with a kick in the back.

NO

[DarkeSword]

I think prophetik's vote articulates everything I think about this track.

You're working with a short source. That's fine. I don't think your efforts in expanding it are enough. That ostinato just dominates too much of this track. This is barely past 2:18 and I still felt worn out by the end.

When you're expanding a short source tune like this, there are a few ways to approach it:

• just add an additional source tune for variation, i.e.get a melody from another Castlevania track and adapt it to work with the chord progression here.
• focus hard on an evolving soundcape with lots of automation on your synths so that you're manipulating the texture and energy levels of the piece.

In either case your piece needs to have more of a contour. I appreciate the switch up where it's the bassline for a while but it's not enough.

I think you're relying too much on the thunder SFX at the end too.

NO

[Rexy]

This arrangement sounds precisely like what Greg said - variations on a theme, which makes sense with the 7-bar loop.  Production-wise, it's a basic dance club sound, but your EQ and layering techniques have done a lot to bring your instruments' presence out.  I like your ideas about putting in sweeps and cutting textures when appropriate.  However, one suggestion for the future would be to see if you could apply a similar sweeping envelope on your instruments to change their tone on the fly.  Given that you're using a piano as your arp here, that suggestion wouldn't make sense right now - but it could serve a purpose with texture variation in the future.

You've used it to build the idea in the opening build, then when the beat kicks in at 0:36, you've got your chance to go in with the bass shakeup, further digested at 0:51 with the source's bass going from legato to staccato with its writing.  The ideas at 0:36 and 0:51 are combined at 1:16 with the key change, then start winding down at 1:36 with thinner textures over time and a slice of thunder sound effects.

While I appreciate the minimal nature, the stagnant arp serves as a problem - and combined with the similar groove throughout, I'm also in the mindset that there's not enough arrangement here.  There are different ways to vary things even further.  As Darke said, additional source cameos could work in addition to the whole evolving landscape thing - though I also feel dropping or doubling up on some notes can be a superb different arrangement technique.  It's worth experimenting and seeing what else you could do.

To summarize, I do like the direction where this is going, but if there's a way to change up that arp further to fit the idea of variations on a theme, I'm all for listening to another revision—best of luck on your future work.

NO (resubmit)