OCR04462 - *YES* Super Metroid "Submergence"

[Liontamer]

Super Metroid has this nice atmospheric, uncertain, mysterious theme that really nails the lonesome feeling the game has. I wanted to capture that lonesome feel in kind of a more dramatic way than the SNES was capable of in 1994 (not that it did a bad job at all.)

I had this project sitting around unfinished for a long time; I’d thought it had been maybe two years or so...but I checked and the file creation date was late 2014! Originally it had been completely orchestrated, but it was kind of plodding, a bit too contemplative, and just generally slow and boring. There wasn’t any expressiveness to it, having been a lazy transcription, and it just sounded flat. I swapped to more realistic-sounding orchestra libraries and added some expression, but it still sounded a bit monotonous. A suggestion from a friend was to make it into a “montage,” which I didn’t understand at first. He said “like what if there was a four-minute-long Metroid movie trailer that you needed to score? Add an action scene,” which then resulted in the more upbeat guitar section, which I feel adds the variation that was needed.

 

The end result is that it does sound like a montage. It starts sounding lonely and dark, then gets a bit determined with a military snare and a pulsed bass synth. Then follows the action scene and a little bit of electric guitar noodling, maybe representing the boss fight against Draygon. Then there’s an atmospheric section — maybe Samus is exhibiting the trope of walking away from an explosion she’s not looking at before a fade to black — with long sustains with the Metroid title motif behind it. Here, I used a couple sounds that were used in the Metroid Prime trilogy soundtracks for atmosphere, but kept them relatively subtle (thanks @SynaMax, for pointing out where to find said sounds, by the way.) Afterward, the lonely oboe then comes back to lead into the ending with the piano closing things out (where the Metroid title motif briefly shows up again.) I spent many hours crafting automation of both instrument parameters and the overall tempo to get the orchestrated bits to sound as expressive and as human as I could achieve, and I think it works well enough. This was also a very difficult mix production-wise; for a long time things just sounded like mud, more mud, and "oh hey I think there’s a melodic line in there behind all those strings but I can’t be sure” but after a few more hours I got it cleaned up pretty nicely.

 

I swear that submitting so many water-themed mixes is not intentional; that’s just how things kind of worked out. It’s just that water level themes are (usually) awesome (even if the levels themselves are often more frustrating…)

 

Once again, thanks for taking the time to listen, and for all you do!

 

Original piece: ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvAu58MtF5Y )

I’ve seen disagreement as to whether the original piece is called “Lower Maridia,” “Maridia 2," or “Maridia (Swampy Caverns)” but it looks like OCR has it listed as “Rocky Underground Water Area” so I’ll go with that.

 

Link to submission: (  )

 

“Submergence”

Remixer name: 744 (or sevenfortyfour)

Real name: Ben Brownlee

e-mail: 

site: 744music.bandcamp.com (and sevenfortyfour.bandcamp.com)

forum userid: 34405

[Liontamer]

I may have misinterpreted what I saw on Discord, but I thought I saw Ben saying something about how he wasn't sure about submitting this piece. There wasn't anything about this that threw me for a loop as far as our arrangement standards, nothing that would give me pause to pass this.

The beats and sequenced electric guitar at 1:42 both had a stilted sound to them. Drums at 2:10 didn't fit; they're mixed in a way where you don't get any body to the snare hits, mostly just the snap; it's odd, but another judge likely can explain why all that doesn't click. It's serviceable enough, and I do like you branching out with your instrumentation, but I'd love some sort of improvement there, as it's the weakest link.

Back to the ethereal soundscape afterward though, and it was smooth sailing from there. The lead and source counterelody at 3:13 were nice alongside the original writing, followed by the piano and shimmering percussion at 3:46, all great sound design stuff. What an amazing trailoff for the finish. Cool!

YES

[Gario]

Well this track certainly goes places, I'll give it that - and I generally really enjoyed where it went. I thought this would be a highly atmospheric yet relatively conservative arrangement at first, but those pad sweeps at 2:40 with that almost Metroid Prime lead in the background were both unexpected and fantastic. Production is also top notch, with a nice, rich soundscape to keep with the spirit of the source.

The only point against it would be the guitar performance at 1:41 - 2:26 - there was a lot of lag where the notes landed. Some of it sounded intentional, almost rubato, but most just sounded like they landed a fraction of a beat too late. Ideally these kinds of performances could either be tightened up or the landings could be adjusted or quantized post production, but at the end of the day it doesn't sink an otherwise fantastic arrangement.

And fantastic this arrangement is; the slow build-up of instruments, the rich soundscape, the sweeping pads, it all works and works very well. I think it has a home on the front page as is, regardless of my nit picks.

YES

[Emunator]

I also remember seeing you express doubts about this in Discord as well, but listening to this, I don't think you needed to worry. Whatever minor issues there might be with the realism or fidelity of the sequenced instruments is more than covered by your incredibly dynamic and creative arrangement. I don't know exactly where this started out, but I think the film score approach was executed masterfully, helping you stretch a lot out of a relatively minimal source tune without ever feeling like you're simply treading water. If you phoned in the arrangement, the production nitpicks might have held more weight, but thankfully, you nailed the part of this that you really needed to get right.

YES

[prophetik music]

oh, that opening is really great. the nuance with the volumization and variety of instruments is so good, very detailed. i particularly like the barest hint of squelch on the initial arp's attack. 1:05 sounded like straight out of a 90s PC game, which is a fun coincidence. again, the nuance around the bass volume compared to other stuff going on is brilliant. 

1:42 brings in a synthy guitar - really feeling the 90s PC vibe. i didn't hear any real timing issues outside of one run that sounded intentionally timed differently. i wouldn't have minded more of a bass presence on this section, as it's a while until the bass comes in. the snare also is a bit loud, but that's a nitpick. there's an extended fade before some more glittery pads sweep in - again demonstrating real patience in the process of the work. the major chord at 3:03 was a nice touch. at 3:15 we get the "Ein Anderer Abschied"-sounding oboe coming in again, and there's an extended outro after that from about 3:46 onward that just slowly progresses through the melodic content one more time.

i love the breadth of this piece. there's a variety of significantly different timbres, unexpectedly combined into neat groupings, and it all comes together primarily because of the space and patience the arranger uses to allow each section to breathe appropriately.

this is a great track, and an easy vote. excellent work.

 

 

YES