Liontamer Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 LINK TO THE SUBMISSION: Your ReMixer: EAR Your real name: Weston Ahern Your email address: Your website(s) https://djear.com/ Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: 22858 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2004 Name of arrangement: The Simulation Name of individual song(s) arranged: Tier 3 (Duelist Kingdom Finalists) Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site): Composer: Credits In-Game list "Sound: Toshihisa Furusawa, ARY" System: Gameboy Advance Year: 2004 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Release dates: Japanese - Feb 5, 2004 // North American - Feb 10, 2004 https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Yu-Gi-Oh!_World_Championship_Tournament_2004 Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site): Here is one of several YouTube uploads - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL043509C5AB2485A2 Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc. A long, long time ago in 2014 - a friend of mine (Bandit the Raccoon) dropped a song titled "Simulation" (https://bandittheraccoon.bandcamp.com/track/simulation) on an album of original tunes I thought was amazingly cool. If memory serves - they approached me a while later to remix one of their tunes for an upcoming remix EP they were planning to release. I chose "Simulation", was given stems for their song to work with - and for whatever reason at the time (because I just can't remember) I decided to remix it in the style of the music from the PS1 2.5D SHMUP Einhänder <3. Bandit and I are both huge Einhänder fans and I think it was kind of a show-offy thing I wanted to do. So I experimented with some sub-bass I could only really test in my car and some fun breaks and rave stabs - and threw in a couple of vocal samples from the games enemies and the *ahem* companion satellite that provides your mission updates between stages (and a siren!) - mostly because I had been a very clever boy and found a way to rip the audio files from my disc. (I think I shared them with a few other fans later and they are now much more widespread around the internet, lol. Suffice to say, I got the "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" I was looking for at the time. ^_^) Fast-Forward to yesterday (2023) Bandit is reworking their albums and "Simulation" - and asks me if I still have the original project files and can do a new edit of the track with some newly re-worked stems and arrangements. As it turns out, "Simulation" was from a GBA Yu-Gi-Oh! game and less 'inspired-by' more.. 'cover'. They wanted to re-work the tune and breathe some more originality into it. So - while I'm happy to hand Bandit the newer Rework with modern mastering and a much more experienced me's understanding of EQ and ways to improve the original track , I asked how they would feel of my submitting the older 2014 version to OCR now that I know it's from a game - and they had no problems with that at all. (I still enjoy it quite a bit so I don't think it's loosing much.) ---- As far as who did what: The opening arpeggio loop that plays throughout is from Bandit's stems. A synth loop at 01:07 is from Bandit's stems. A piano melody at 04:01 is from Bandit's stems. Everything else is my own design. and all the stems have been tweaked a bit with some FX & EQ to fit my remix. The EDM producer in me felt the original title of "Bandit - Simulation (EARs Remix)" was pretty accurate to conventional song titles since I thought it was a remix of their (now apparently COVER) "Simulation: - but in this instance - since I don't know how OCR would handle something like that, I'm proposing "EAR - The Simulation" to differentiate this song from the new, less-Yu-Gi-Oh! version I reworked for Bandit. This 2014 remix is still a significant deviation from not only their song "Simulation" - but also the ACTUAL source on the GBA. Yes, very confusing, have fun with that? Even if not accepted, this has been a fun couple of paragraphs to write and a fun story to tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted June 21, 2023 Author Share Posted June 21, 2023 The track was 4:40-long, so I needed to hear the source tune in effect for at least 140 seconds for the source material to be dominant. :00-1:49, 2:33-2:54, 3:39-4:27 = 178 seconds or 63.57% overt source usage Such a weird story of accidentally backwards parking into realizing you made a VGM arrangement, which is fun! Started getting cramped at :33, then really cramped at :44 when some sort of sustained string line was thrown in, then some thick bass was added at :54... alright, everything dropped out to give the bass some space at 1:04, and that was much better. Source melody arrived at 1:16, surrounded by the heavy bass drops and some breakbeats until 1:49, then the source references disappeared for now. Good energy and clarity with the sounds around the 2-minute mark. The supporting line from the source was brought back in from 2:33 to 2:54; it's more a quieter component of an otherwise original track with all of the other writing, though that's a valid approach. Source melody returned at 3:39 and had good presence once again. Man, those bass drops never get old; always a good, weighty sound. Cool to hear the source's final section referenced at 4:01 to provide a fresh idea toward the close; though the dissonance with the string sustains was odd, it didn't sound jacked up, and was brief enough to give some tension for a few brief moments before a nice close at 4:24 with the fade out providing a bookened similar to the intro. Thanks a lot for telling me about this one; I'm very glad you sent this over! Good old gold from EAR with big early 2000s energy that packs a lot of power! YES EDIT (6/21): I can see why MW was disoriented by the intro, though I didn't have a problem with the stereo effects/panning when listening on my headphones. Did take another listen though to be sure I didn't gloss over that point. My original vote qualified when the source tune started and stopped, but I've added in a source breakdown up top to make it clearer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 I'm going to be upfront here: this gets a NO from me within the first 2 seconds. That ping-pong audio is out of control when listening on headphones. It's literally giving me motion sickness. So the rest of the remix is going to get only a cursory review from me because I can't stand to listen to it more than once. It's easier to listen to when the ping-pong isn't exposed, but it's still there and I can't handle it. I have some concerns with source usage. The groove is certainly similar, and in several places it makes use of the bass of the source turned into melody, but I'm not picking up a lot more than that. I'm not able to do a detailed breakdown myself due to the aforementioned problem, but I encourage other judges to do so. Otherwise, production and sound quality seem mostly fine. Nice techno trance tones, good full soundscape. Not a fan of the piano at 4:02+; in a rich soundscape, there's no room for a piano to breathe, and it sounds tinny. Otherwise no complaints here. I wish I could do a more detailed analysis, but it wouldn't affect my vote. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted June 22, 2023 Share Posted June 22, 2023 Ping pong delay doesn't bother me in the least, on headphones or speakers, so I will NOT be a two-second NO. I like it, in fact! Thank you Larry for doing a source timestamp. Ooooh, DnB breakbeat time! I love that, and the vocals are cool. What is this bass doing, wow! I love the completely varied breaks being used, they sound so different from each other in a good way. The main breakbeat is mixed well, as the shuffle is completely audible and with great presence. Everything is mixed well in fact. I'm loving that 303 that starts at 1:49 and again at 3:12, nice and squelchy. This track is mastered extremely loudly, hitting -5.7db RMS, but I don't hear any artifacts. I think it would be easier to master if the sub-30Hz frequencies were cut out (I'm looking at you, pitchbend bass). It's a busy mix, but I hear everything just fine. Lots of fun ear candy and textural variations. I hear the piano at 4:02 just fine, mostly because the tone of it is so different from the buzzy sounds making up the rest of the soundscape. I find this mix weird and cool and fun! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 6, 2023 Share Posted July 6, 2023 ping-pong doesn't bother me. it's initially a touch disconcerting but fine once everything else gets going. initial groove is catchy, and the bass has some really fun drops right off the bat. we get the whole deal at 1:18 for the first time. the drums are really not in the same room at all as the rest of the remix which is drenched in verb, but it still sounds pretty neat. the bass is bananas - i am the same as the remixer, i can really only hear them on a big system, not headphones - but it's a treat, and i don't mind the loudness at all. the first real groove is at 1:47. the 303 bass is nuts and i love it. the melodic elements kick in after this (yeah, i'll still count the first minute and a half too) and as expected they're realized with a really weird synth that's fun to listen to. the subsequent lead synth at 2:55 is not one i particularly care for, and it keeps going for ages so that was a drag. 4:01 features a neat half-time groove and some really weird detuned-feeling chord and synth work. then it just kind of ends. this is loud but it's super clear and checks most of the boxes for me. neat work. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted August 31, 2023 Share Posted August 31, 2023 Damn, the rhythms on this thing are nuts across the board. The sound design here feels very Yu-Gi-Oh! to me before even listening to the source. The 2:55 changeup will be YMMV for listeners but I for one loved it. The piano at the very end serves as a great coda to wind things down after 4 minutes of insanity. I love this, it's a fantastic showcase of a lot of ideas that are neatly tied together despite a very chaotic presentation. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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