Emunator Posted December 15, 2023 Share Posted December 15, 2023 Artist: Gaspode One of the first games I played on the Amiga was Menace, a side-scrolling shooter with a great soundtrack. The main theme in the game is only about 2:45 min. long, but it contains a lot of energy, melodies and changes to play with. The title-theme is a little bit slower. And between the main and the boss theme there’s the iconic danger-sample which sets the mood for the boss. I tried to integrate all three themes in my remix. More info about the game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menace_(video_game) Games & Sources: Name of game(s) arranged: »Menace« Name of individual song(s) arranged: »Title«, »Main Theme«, »Boss Theme« (don’t know if these are the real titles) Track list: 0:23 == 1. Title - David Whittaker 3:53 == 2. In-Game - David Whittaker 6:45 == 3. Boss - David Whittaker Title Theme: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted December 16, 2023 Share Posted December 16, 2023 Nice opening and close with the "Danger" voice. Sound design was underwhelming, for example the opening synths at :05, the leads at :58, 1:05, 2:31, the beats feeling metronome-like at :52, 1:16, 1:28. Lots of portions (e.g. :58-1:22, 1:28-1:39, 2:31-2:54) felt too stilted. The arrangement's no problem at all, Peter, yet the sound design and sequencing is undermining the energy, IMO. Would love to hear another pass at adding personality and fluidity here. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 beat hits at 0:10 and is particularly dank. lots of darker, detuned tones used. it's an interesting palette, but i see why larry says it sounds underwhelming. i like the switch to the double-time beat at 0:43, but really don't like the super-wide juno lead as the beat is super crisp and it's very wide and sloppy-feeling. there's also not a ton going on in the soundscape outside the lead, bass, and drums there. there's a shift at 1:40 to the next theme, and it functions as a nice break. the arp section at 2:06 was straight out of 1997 and i liked that. the beat picked up at 2:25 amidst a flurry of key changes and trucked through some more melodic material before we get a recap and then an outro. the outro coming from the half-time beat is a little low-energy, but it's still doing a fine job settling the track. the last chord (possibly unintentionally?) goes from major to minor at the very end which is not something i cared for. i actually think this is really fun. the detuning throughout is a stylistic choice and really fits the vibe you're going for here. nice work. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 I agree with proph, for the most part. The sound design is underwhelming but adequate; the saws and orch hits in particular are fuzzy and lack impact. The whole thing doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind whether it's mellow synthwave or driving synth rock. The weirdest part is the ending: we're clearly out of danger, so why is the voice back, yet sounding so calm? That said, while it violates genre and mood expectations, I think that's a subjective criticism and not an objective one. It's not my cup of tea, but I don't think there's any part of our standards that it falls short of. It's a novel arrangement of the source material, the production is clear, the sound quality is good. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 I really like this arrangement and concept, and the synthwave instruments are used well. I understand Larry's vote though. Like most of Gaspode's productions, the sound design falls just a bit short; it could be crisper, cleaner and more impactful. It certainly isn't bad enough to sink the vote, imo, but it would be great to bump the production up to the next level on these awesome arrangements. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 This is a total throwback. Almost feels like it would be what we would call a "sound upgrade" for the time period the game came out in. While I understand why Liontamer felt the sound design is underwhelming there's still things Gaspode did to liven up the synth choices. There are multiple filter sweeps that are either programed to hit the top or bottom of their peaks and valleys right on the beat. They are either automated by hand to do that or tempo-sync'd. That tells me there was at least some thought and care put into those decisions rather then presets chosen. I agree with everyone else that they could be improved but do not detract from the overall piece. The sources are well adapted and the book-ending with the "danger" sample is a great choice to start and wrap up the piece. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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