OCR04433 - *YES* Paper Mario: Color Splash "Paint It Black" *PRIORITY*

[Emunator]

Main ReMixer name: TheManPF (User ID: 35318)

 

Submission:

 

Game: Paper Mario: Color Splash

Name of arrangement: Paint It Black

Songs arranged: Black Bowser's Castle

Original composer: Takeru Kanazaki and Fumihiro Isobe

Systems: Wii U

Year: 2016
 

Comments:

This arrangement was made as part of Dwelling of Duels February competition (Mario month). The arrangement is done in New Age style, inspired by the album "Unearthed" by E.S. Posthumus, particularly the songs Antissa, Harappa, Ebla and Pompeii. The style is mixed with Black Bowser's Castle theme from the game and incorporates choirs and heavy use of string sections and orchestral percussion to represent the evil in Black Bowser's heart. Lyrics are taken from "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones and translated to latin.
 

Lyrics:
Aspicio intra me
Et vide cor meum nigrum

(Paint it black)
(Paint it black)

Video rubrum ostium
Volo autem eum pictum nigrum
Nullus colorum amplius
Volo ut convertat nigrum

Aspicio intra me
Et vide cor meum nigrum

Video rubrum ostium
Volo autem eum pictum nigrum
Nullus colorum amplius
Volo ut convertat nigrum

Aspicio intra me
Et vide cor meum nigrum
Red ostium meum video
Fas est pictum nigrum

Nigrum, nigrum
Nigrum, nigrum

Volo videre pictum
pingitur nigrum
Nigra nox
Nigra nox
Nigrum sicut calculus
Volo videre solem
Delevi de caelo
Delevi de caelo

(Paint it black)
(Paint it black)

 

[Liontamer]

Loved TheManPF's Stray mix, so thanks for submitting again! I'm not getting any synergy from the drums within this orchestral rock setting, which don't really fit to me, especially the kicks sounding out too loudly.

The mixing's not great. IMO, the orchestration's way, way too quiet (enough to be a dealbreaker) and the drums are too loud. I had to turn the track up just to hear the orchestration. The choir's a gimmick, but a fun one.

I do like the arrangement concept and don't feel that needs to be revised. The choir sounds nice and forceful, particularly for its final section. But also I'd say the mixing needs another pass to rebalance it, then it could be good to go. The drums need to take a back seat, and the orchestration needs to have presence. Right now, the choir fills up the soundfield, but the orchestration doesn't.

It's probably a delicate balance, and I'm happy to hear from other Js if I'm seemingly making too big a deal out of it. Right now, the concept is awesome, and the case could be made that its strengths should outweigh its flaws. Despite some very strong ideas, it's not quite ready for primetime, but I'd love to have this posted in some form.

NO (resubmit)

[MindWanderer]

The drums are a little dull, but I feel like they're overfiltered if anything.  I don't think they're too loud by any stretch.

As for the orchestral mixing, when you have an orchestra and rock instruments and synths and a choir (even a vocoded choir), something's gotta give.  I don't think this could have been mixed much better.  It's not perfect, but I can hear everything I think I'm supposed to be able to hear.  And the sections take turns being more or less audible.

Where I do think this lacks is depth.  There's no trebel and no bass.  The kick, bass guitar, brass, and cello sections have no oomph to them, and the cymbals and violins have no high end to them.  Letting them expand more into those high and low frequencies will give them more space to breathe, and give you more freedom to EQ other parts around them, and add clarity to the whole thing.

That said, is it a dealbreaker?  Not for me.  And not just because we're trying to get this into a mixflood, either.  I'd love to see it improved upon but I'm satisfied enough.

YES

[Chimpazilla]

What an amazing idea to take the Stones' lyrics and translate them to Latin.  I am digging the 6/8 feel that you achieved with the drum beats, it is subtle but adds a tremendous amount of groove to the piece. I agree with MW that the drums sound over-filtered if anything; certainly they are not too loud.  To me the drums fit in fine, and could even be a tad snappier.  The orchestration here is great; all instruments are sequenced and humanized well enough.  This is a very full and busy mix, and I also agree with MW that there is a lack of overall mixing depth; the lows could be lower and highs could be more present, but this isn't a dealbreaker. The choir is an interesting device and adds nice texture to the layers of soundscape.  I love the little squelchy synth bits.  What is this, vocoding?  Oh cool, what an unexpected and interesting element!  Did Daft Punk drop in for a cameo? The guitar at 3:48 sounds excellent.  I wish it were a little more audible.  It can be difficult to mix an orchestral arrangement as often it sounds like a giant wall of sound since so many elements are doubled/tripled/quadrupled/etc. and many elements play in a similar frequency range, so while I wish the mixing were cleaner, I'm not disappointed by what I'm hearing.  Outro is a perfect wrap-up to the piece.  This arrangement is too creative and well crafted not to go with it.

YES

[prophetik music]

love the concept. and the original is nuts, i'd never have guessed this was from a mario game.

the inspiration for the track is immediately recognizable - the beautiful strings fading in, the wall of latin text, the groove with guitar and synths underpinning it all remind me immediately of ES Posthumus. the groove on the drums is especially great. the choir moves a touch slow essentially the entire piece, which i'm not a huge fan of, but the adaptation is great and the execution is surprisingly effective.

there's a big break at 2:22, with some ping-ponged autotuned singing - another ESP inspiration that admittedly didn't do it for me. around 3:00 we get another repetition of the 'chorus' section of the piece. i know ESP tends to do a lot of repetitive tracks with tons of copy/paste, but i'd have liked something to mix this up a bit. maybe different orchestration or instrumentation to keep this part unique.

another break at 3:45 and a slick guitar solo. love the extra distortion on the verb, it sounds really great.

the last 30 seconds is a good outro that serves to wrap the track nicely.

i agree with the previous judges that it's not mastered as crisp as i'd like. it still sounds solid though so i'm definitely on board with a positive vote here.

 

 

YES

[DarkSim]

Soon as I saw the title I thought of the Rolling Stones song, and translating the lyrics into Latin is a fun idea that works really well in the epic orchestral/choir style. It also ties in perfectly with the context of the game, so it's kind of a win-win-win!

The opening choir sounds great, and then when the heavier elements come in, the piece really starts to take shape. There are a number of interesting mixing decisions on show here. Other judges have mentioned the seeming narrowness of the frequency range - the highs in particular seem to lack some clarity, and also individual instruments seem to lack presence when it feels like they should be chunkier. The rhythm guitar around the 2 minute mark is backing off to allow the deeper strings room, but it sounds very thin as a result. Certain elements also seem to move around the stereo space with a slow LFO, which can be a little disconcerting when listening on headphones. The arp at 3:30 and the autotuned vocals at 2:27 were particularly noticeable for this. Those vocals didn't quite fit the vibe of the track I thought, sounding more like 'Blue' by Eiffel 65 than anything Black

Guitar solo was awesome, could have done with standing out more in the mix, but it fit really well. The "Paint it blaaack" vocal treatment at the end worked great - I kinda wish you'd done this type of distortion for the 2:27 section now!

Overall though it's an ambitious idea that's executed well. The drawbacks aren't big enough to drop this one below the bar, and I love the concept behind it.

YES