Liontamer Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 Link - Project Folder Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7SHU9QrxpWSQklEWUZmYlk4N3M?resourcekey=0-zyzFS3R2C0uvbIvmenvYgw&usp=sharing - Direct File Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wevbZYuEfj-qCO_ijLnFh6rLjs-2B_U_&authuser=sabol.matthew%40gmail.com&usp=drive_fs This information is found in the README.md in the project folder Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Xaleph Your real name: Matthew Sabol Your email address: sabol.matthew@gmail.com Your website(s): https://www.animeremix.org Your userid (number, not name) on our forums: 458 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Super Mario Bros. 2 Name of arrangement: The Muu Dream Machine Name of individual song(s) arranged: Underground BGM (https://ocremix.org/song/229/underground-bgm) Summary Ok - so I wrote this 3 times. Mainly because my daughter didn't like the other two. I'm hoping she submits to the site soon-ish (maybe a collab?). In any case, I loved this theme when I played this game years ago. I always felt like it had a psytrance vibe to it and wanted to get around to mixing it. I was hoping to finish this for Mario month. Oh yeah - kids are older, and I have more music equipment now. It's been a while and you guys rock. Details Several less obvious additions from the source material are in the remix. The squeak at 1:15 through 1:39 is the bongos used in the song The original baseline is used in 4 different synths playing it in different parts of the mix. The quotes are from the public domain archives.org compiled from a list of public domain movie quotes. The bundle was from "Beaker Sample V2". I know the piece is psytrance and I could easily expand this out to a 7-minute-long piece to gradually evolve it. I wanted to keep it interesting for a wider audience and so it's a little more aggressive when it comes to changes. There are a few places where it feels like it's rushing through a story rather than enjoying it. Though there isn't a lot in the source material, I had plenty of source remix content I removed (see the rewrites) - and it was a decision to keep it relatively short. 0:05-0:48 I spent a lot of time with the psytrance basses to get the thump and the purr you hear at 0:27 and throughout the piece. I'm using 2 main synth basses with 2 matrix sequencers that automate synth controls and 3 direct automated controls. I'm not using any tools to loop/automate the baseline as I do quite a few custom things with it and wanted that control throughout the piece. I really wanted to push this concept of the dream throughout the piece, many of the sound effects (some from SMB2) and some are just dream/nightmare sfx either synth created or using the new Reason Mimic sampler. From the break at 0:48 and beyond, you'll hear this sfx. The final one that is subtle is the slow breathing (I used the maelstrom, bounced it, added some sfx, and slowed it down to make it sound like a digital dreamer). At 1:53 there is an sfx that's from SMB2 (thank you zophar's domain) that I use as a swell/crash. At 2:36, I was tempted to reach out to friend violinists or to get their consent to chop up some existing samples I had from prior recordings. What's here is sadly not a live violin. If the part was more involved, I would have reached out and set up a recording session. I still had a lot of fun writing the bridge and building it up afterward. 3:03-3:44, more original bass part I keep evolving 3:44-3:58, a lot of bouncing/freezing and manipulating to get that glitchy sound. I really wanted to tie back in the original theme before the ending. 3:58-end, That's me singing. The breathing is a little weird - but the whole song is, so yeah... I did a little voice modification (pitch shift + ~2 formant I think?). That piano ending was probably one of my favorite parts as the chord progression was a little interesting with the minor diminished chords. Mastering - I used -10 LUFS as the target. If this isn't loud enough or too loud, let me know. It's an easy thing to fix. I'm sidechaining the highpass and I'm using some Ozone Element tools. I'm no expert at mastering, especially my own mixes. If something is off, let me know asap and I'll correct it. Tools Used Reason 12.5.1 Subtractor Maelstrom Monotone Bass Synthesizer Kong Radical Piano Thor NN-XT for Reason FX - a ton of filters, compressors, Audiomatic was used a ton, Scream 4, Pulveriser, Quartet/Sweeper, Reason's various delay/reverb Glitchmachines Hysteresis Valhalla various fx (Echo/etc) xfer records - Serum 1.357 Izotope Ozone Elements 9 And wow - I started writing this at 11pm and it's now 3:25am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 8, 2023 Author Share Posted March 8, 2023 (:00-:17), :21-:26, :34.75-:40.25, (47.75-58.75), :58.75-1:01, 1:05.5-1:08, (1:08-1:15), 1:15-1:57, (1:57-2:07), 2:07-2:20.5, 3:03-3:44, 3:51.75-3:57.5 I was coming up source-light based on just listening for the SMB2 source, but the sweeping sound at the very beginning that's used 3 more times later on in the track sounded like the Super Mario World castle theme melody (timestamps for those in parens), so I asked Xaleph if that was inspired by it and he said "Yeah, since the source material didn’t have a ton, I listened to a lot of different Mario songs. The goal was to make the song "feel" like a Mario song. So the sounds and sweeps/fx chosen was aimed to support that theme." Alright, with that additional connection in place, I'm OK with approving this on arrangement grounds for adequate source usage. We just posted another strong version of this by Tab Newflax, so it's always intriguing for me to hear darker takes on this SMB2 theme. Very lively instrumentation and absolutely killer production; everything sounds vibrant & impactful. Funny to read how the seemingly female vocals in the final original section were Matt pitched up and effected; very cool! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 OOOOOOO PSYTRANCE... one of my favorite genres, and a perfect choice for the cave theme of Doki Doki Panic aka SMB2. Thank you Larry for the source timestamp because beyond having the feel of the source it feels light to me as well. I love this arrangement. I feel like some of the sounds used are on the vanilla side, for example the pluck at 0:21, the synth at 3:18, and I'm also not a fan of the synth guitar. The production is really very good, other than a few weakish timbres. But that's a massive nitpick. There are also excellent elements; all the drum work in the piece is top notch and the track is loaded with ear candy. This arrangement has so much creativity and variation and energetic shifts and dynamics all through the piece. I love the vocal clips. I love arrangements that set a mood and tell a story. The writing variations on the original theme are awesome. The outro is so different from what came before that it feels a bit tacked on. But I love this overall. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 Not many remixes of this source; it's very short, and hard to make much out of. And yet here we are, with nearly 5 minutes that isn't really repetitive at all. I mean, it is trance, so there's some repetition to it, but there's a lot of trance that goes on way, way longer than this does. Nice soundscape, with a rich bassline and kicks on the bottom and an eclectic mix of sounds in the top. I didn't think any of the sound design was phoned-in; even when there are simple waveforms, they're chosen judicously and are steeped in reverb. I do think the ending was a little unsatisfying: there's an ending section but then it just sort of stops. That's my only criticism, though. This thing is aces. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted March 9, 2023 Share Posted March 9, 2023 The sound design, particularly in the bass patches, is legitimately professional-class work for the psytrance genre. I was floored from the first seconds of this arrangement from a purely sonic perspective, but what really left me feeling satisfied was the way that the arrangement evolved over the 5 minute duration. Though we frequently return to the same motifs and sounds, there are simply so many bits of sound design and unexpected stylistic deviations that I couldn't possibly summarize all the ways you personalized and developed your concept (thankfully, you did a lot of that heavy lifting for us in your submission letter - it was a joy to read about your creative process and inspiration!) I'm on probably my 10th listen at this point and am still finding new things to love, and appreciating all the clever ways that you flipped and reinterpreted the source material into something entirely new. Psytrance is a genre that is defined by two diametrically different qualities: extremely nuanced, atmospheric sound design, and raw, primal energy. Your arrangement delivers on both in spades, marrying pristine production quality with a dynamic arrangement. I'm truly enamored by the end result here - I'm not sure what secret psytrance dojo you've been training in for the 15 years since your last submission, but the results speak for themselves! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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