OCR04613 - *YES* Cuphead "La Danza Macabra del Tren de los Muertos"

[Liontamer]

Main ReMixer name: TheManPF (User ID: 35318)

Additional artists: BadHairlineProductions; Ian Martyn; Daniel Romberger (dannymusic)

 

Submission:

 

Game: Cuphead

Name of arrangement: La Danza Macabra del Tren de los Muertos

Songs arranged: Railroad Wrath (https://youtu.be/e_G_sGaJFpQ)

Original composer: Kristofer Maddigan

System: Windows; Xbox One; MacOS; Nintendo Switch; Playstation 4

Year: 2017

 

Comments:

"The Danse Macabre of the Train of the Dead" is an arrangement I've done for the Pixel Mixers album "The Great Tale of the Little Ones Vol.3", a collaborative album with several remixes of indie videogames. I've always wanted to do a Cuphead cover, and especially Railroad Wrath (which used to be my favorite track from the game before the DLC came along) which I always envisioned as a dark, creepy, sort of melancholic but also heavy as fuck song, representing the passing of the train of the dead. It also ended up being quite bouncy (as commented by the project lead: "makes me want to dance and headbang at the same time").

 

BadHairlineProductions did the bass this time, and he actually recorded THREE basses: the bass through most of the song is double-tracked (!) with two different bass tones, while a third one was used for a fantastic bass solo (!!!).

 

Ian Martyn was responsible for all the piano parts, including all the accompaniment and also a killer improvised piano solo in the first half.

 

Daniel Romberger is what you would call the "guest musician" on the track, you'll probably know him best as the Trombonist for The Game Brass, however, this time he has joined me for an improvised Theremin solo!

 

I did all the arrangement, sequencing, mixing, and guitar playing.

 

Lastly, even though they're not part of the specific submission (I mastered this version myself), I want to credit the team behind the album where this was included:

 

- Production: Hashel (https://open.spotify.com/artist/3S3WG...)
- Mastering: Erika Richards (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6xxdfWO4IdAGOzjTWLpB8g)
- Artwork: Troisnyx (https://www.troisnyx.co.uk/)

 

Link to the full album: https://fanlink.to/TheLittleOnes

 

[prophetik music]

this soundtrack was always so confusing to me. i love the jazz but it's all played so ahead of the beat, really never sat right to me.

some sfx to get it going. initial vibe is primarily piano and bass, with various other instruments layering in over time. once the drums get going around the 1 minute mark, this track starts to feel more cohesive. the guitar part is pretty quiet throughout and the bass is very present, which is an odd mixing choice. for example, in the big section at 1:42, i can barely hear the guitar the entire time, but the bass is clearly audible. there are also several times where the aforementioned bass isn't quite 100% on with the piano - it'll move to a new chord a half-beat before the keys do (like at 0:28 or 0:34).

2:42 is the first real break in the groove, with some big swells. 2:57 the beat comes back, and the guitar here is so noisy that it's hard to hear what's going on outside of the lead string part. the bass solo is great as expected, and the guitar solo sounds good too. 3:53 the melodic content comes back and then we get a...theremin solo? i can dig it! melodic content comes back and it blows through to the end.

from a mastering perspective, the mix is very dense between about 50hz and 250hz - there's a ton of presence there from a lot of instruments, and it makes the mix sound very tiring and heavy despite the light, forward-driving approach the beat has. i think there's a ton of room for more active EQing of individual parts here, as well as trimming the fat on the freq-expensive instruments like the rhythm guitar and the bass.

i have mentioned a lot of critiques of this mix, mostly from a mastering perspective. i think the arrangement is fine but not anything really transcendent, and i think the mastering overall is not great but not terrible. so i'm pretty ambivalent about it. overall it's played well and it's a fun track idea, so i think i'd lean towards the side of posting it.

 

 

YES

[Liontamer]

Cool SFX to kick the piece off, and I liked the delicate chromatic percussion first used at :27, which was a nice touch and great as part of the introductory segments.

The arrangement's over the line, so I'll go into the issues. The bowed strings are way in the uncanny valley; extended sustains like the ones at 1:07 or "bow movements" like the ones at 2:05, 2:34, and especially 3:50 & 4:22 sound bad if you're focusing on them. Same with the rigid sound of this General MIDI-esque piano at :14 and 1:13, it's woefully thin and exposed enough where I'm thankful it's a backing part instead of being a lead anywhere in this. I wish I could say the same for the strings. Anything that could have raised the sound quality of the strings or piano beyond WIP/mock-up level would have been welcome.

Good sound design otherwise. The electric guitar soloing at 3:18 sounded nice, followed by more aggressive electric guitar from 3:28-3:53 that was so well performed. The guitar and percussion writing sounds a lot stronger, so kudos to those parts really filling up the textures nicely. The bass writing was good, but often didn't cut through enough, so while the frequencies were nicely filled in by the bass, more distinct-sounding notes would have improved the texture, IMO.

The piano and strings are disappointing, but the overall product is strong enough, so while I'd personally love another pass at this, I'm not going to hold it back; it's still a fun, dynamic arrangement, with quite the interpretive treatment!

YES

[MindWanderer]

The cluttered mid-lows stood out to me as well, especially after 2:57, and it does indeed make the arrangement sound more static than it otherwise would.

Otherwise, this is a fun, original take. Less Latin-inspired than I expected from the name, more focusing on the cheesy horror aspect of it, but that's not an objective complaint.

I'd definitely like cleaner mixing but I also don't think it's a dealbreaker.

YES

[Chimpazilla]

The mixing could definitely be cleaner, the mid lows are indeed very dense.  I think this is a fabulous arrangement, although I have a complaint that is going to be a bit hard to describe.  The drum groove is upbeat and dancey, but the music is not, so it is giving me an odd feeling of disconnectedness.  The music itself has very little groove, although the drums are suggesting groove.  Maybe if the bass were mixed more audibly it would help because I think the bass is playing a groove pattern that compliments the drums but it is so quiet.  The strings and piano are very loud, and they have no groove (and no sidechaining, which would have definitely helped) so it just sounds like a flat wall of sound.

The strings are in the uncanny valley and they are so loud, but sequenced well enough to get the job done.  The live instruments are played really well although the piano sample isn't the best and the bass is mixed too quietly.  The guitar performance is excellent.  Mastering is on the loud side but adequate.  I completely disagree with Brad that the problem is with the mastering; the problems all stem from the mixing of the track.

This arrangement is over our bar but I'm pretty borderline on this due to the substandard mixing and the odd groove issue I have described.  I'm pretty sure the issue is 100% due to the unbalanced mixing.  But the arrangement and concept carry this for me.  The guitar and theramin solos are highlights.

YES (borderline)