Liontamer Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 From TheManPF Additional artists: Zach Chapman; Nemo Fairlight This arrangement was done for December's theme in Dwelling of Duels "32-Bit Era", it placed 17th out of 23 tracks, so, not so hot lol, but I believe the quality for this track is definitely there, and the divisiveness comes from the nature of the style/genre of the arrangement. I arranged all versions of Dr. Neo Cortex's theme from the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy into a tight nu metal/hardcore punk structure, mainly inspired by the music of Maximum the Hormone (who you might know from making music for Death Note and Chainsaw Man, among others), it's very aggressive and heavy, particularly with extensive use of harsh vocals, this is my first time doing screams and growls, and while it took a lot of practice, I think they came out pretty decently. I also incorporate female clean vocals in certain sections to give contrast, and also because it's part of the style that Maximum the Hormone has, which is an extensive vocal variety. I basically took almost all of the motifs from each version of Cortex's theme and organized them in a way that I thought would fit best as a rock/metal structure, originally I was only going to do Crash 2's version, but I found that 3's version had a lot of very interesting sections that I could also exploit, I end up crediting Crash 1 as well because some of the motifs originate from there even if they're repeated in the other 2 versions, there's also a riff in the intro with 8th notes followed by triplets that is only present in 1's version, which I also used in my arrangement. The lyrics are very simple and goofy, mostly referring to Cortex in the first person and how he tries very hard to deal with Crash but is seemingly always unable to, and throws tantrums as a result. I also threw in the Aku Aku invincibility jingle in the middle of the song for good measure, mostly just because I thought it would sound cool. Since this arrangement incorporates motifs from all 3 games, you could also say this is an arrangement from Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, the soundtrack is almost the exact same, and I do take some variations from the remaster into this arrangement as well. The name of the arrangement comes from Cortex's full name (Dr. Neo Cortex) and is also a reference to another song by Maximum the Hormone, called A•L•I•E•N. I don't have much else to say about the arrangement without letting the music speak for itself, but I'll once again credit my good friend Zach on bass, who is always by my side come hell or high water, and Nemo for providing me her awesome melodic vocals. One last thing, I don't know if requests for specific judges is a thing that OCR does, but if possible, I would love it if Rexy was able to vote in this one (: Lyrics: Small as a cockroach, world’s biggest head I bring life and destroy what I create Plans for world domination A master operation Creation, marsupial mutation “Looking dumb with a big N on his forehead” Now you’ll get a taste of death Beat it, bandi-bandit Who’s the smartest brain? Beat it, bandi-bandit Who’s the most N. Sane? Beat it, bandi-bandit Who’ll thrash and complain? Beat it, bandi-bandit Now I shall bring you pain Won’t let you laugh at me Won’t let you outsmart me Stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp Stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp You won’t escape from me You won’t get rid of me Stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp Stomp squash crush bash smash crash Please just let me win this Please just die already D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Die! D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Die! D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Die! D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Die! Listen now, you’ll do as I say (You’re mine now) Even if I’m on my own You’ll never see the last of me Crash Bandicoot! Blast, desperate situation Unlikely cooperation Frustration, foiled manipulation “Looking dumb with a crystal in his hand” Now you’ll taste the revenge of the evil mask Uka-Uka Aku-Aku Invincibility GO! Please stop running away Please just give it to me D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Die! D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Die! D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Die! D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Die! Listen now, you’ll do as I say (You’re mine now) Even if I’m on my own You’ll never see the last of me Crash Bandicoot! “Defeated again, it’s not fair, maybe I should retire to a nice big beach, with a nice big drink, and a woman with nice, big… bags of ice for my head” Please just let me win this Please just die already I might just be a bit N. Sane But in the end I will always be back again Games & Sources: Games: Crash Bandicoot; Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back; Crash Bandicoot: Warped Songs arranged: Cortex's boss theme from all 3 games (https://youtu.be/lcF3OFr2K8E) (https://youtu.be/s67WsTvbASU) (https://youtu.be/HKI1tOMsSHw), Aku Aku invincibility jingle (https://youtu.be/hdjnUEJ42aI) Original composer: Josh Mancell System: Playstation Year: 1996, 1997 and 1998 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 interesting idea. initial cortez riff is right off the bat. this is a natural genre adaptation imo from the original, still goofy like the game but way heavier than the PS was able to do. i actually think the dirty vocals are a bit loud relative to the truly awesome backing parts. there's some really fun lyric/music elements in here. the stomp section and the d-d-d-die section are really well done actually, and the harmonized section at 1:46 reminded me of the fall out boy song about what you did in the dark. it's also a lot more narrative than i expected based on the description. there's a big break/shift at 3:19 which does a nice job of breaking up what had been over three minutes of just continual balls-to-the-wall for a while. i expected a t-pain mansion-wiscansin rhyme for the rhyme between n-sane and again at the end, but it still sounded fine. this is really fun! the rock itself is super enjoyable - i can definitely see people asking for an instrumental version of this - and the vocals overall are well-handled. i actually understood most of the dirty stuff which is a first. what a fun track. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Really fun arrangement, and equally fun lyrics. I'm not into growls and can't understand them (is pronouncing short E like long I a thing? Never heard it before. Lots of weird vowels), but I like everything else about the composition. Production might have been one of the things DoD voters dinged you for, though. The instruments are inconsistently produced, with most of them sounding like they were recorded in pristine studio sound booths, but the drums sound more open-air. And of course the overdriven guitars being full-panned is a tell. EQ is light in the highs; the cymbals sound filtered, and there's not much else in that range. The female vocals seem quiet at 0:36 and 3:04 because they conflict with the saw synth there. Definitely room for improvements; most notably I'd prefer a mix that sounds a little less canned, a little more organic. But overall this does a lot more right than wrong. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 I remember this from the DoD event! From what I saw when going around the DoD Discord, the reasons for the low placement sounded like a mixture of source choice and vocal hate, which sounds par the course, but that's something that can easily get thrown out of the window over here. So, arrangement. We got apparent use of the three variants throughout - the intro from the Crash 3 variant, before going into the Crash 2 variant at 0:19, the Crash 1 variant intro for the break at 1:01, then going right into the second half of the Crash 3 variant at 1:13, through to the second half of the Crash 2 variant at 1:58, back to the Crash 3 variant at 2:54 that echoed the usage at 1:13 as a chorus hook, then into turning the second half of the Crash 1 variant in a doom metal approach, complete with thinning textures before getting back into cranking up the anger of the Crash 2 variant at 3:46 with the last bits of the Crash 3 variant for closure. That was honestly a very long run-on-sentence, but source use is extremely evident, transformed to fit the genre, chopped into pieces to befit the structure, with a variety of different vocal deliveries - and as echoed, the Dethklok-esque "d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-die" bits were awesome to me. The invincibility part was a great way to calm things down at 2:22, as did the usage of the dialog in the normal ending of Crash 3 at 3:33 before suddenly cranking up the tempo at the last stretch. And yes, I echo your decision on the lyric writing - this is Cortex at his angriest. :D Such vocal performances also had to shine through cleanly recording-wise, and they did so alongside the guitars and overall production. Everything feels cleanly mixed, and the words are audible, but I also echo MindWanderer's concerns about the dirty-sounding cymbals. For me, this hiss is more noticeable when the hi-hat is open and could sound more aesthetically pleasing if there was some EQ shaping to scoop out some of that sibilance and add a pinch more air to it. To your credit, though, nothing else in the instrument field touches them frequency-wise, so it's more like a nitpick than a dealbreaker. I don't see anything here that can hold it back from a mixpost perspective on OCR. You have a very creative vocal metal mix, which I felt put my own take on this source to shame. Great going! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexstyle Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 This is gonna get so much hate on YouTube, lol. Not that I'm immune to vocals of, er, questionable taste in my own posted mixes, mind you...this mix kinda hits me in the same sort of feels as that linked track, actually. It's from a contest, it's got some love-it-or-hate-it vocal work, tongue firmly in cheek, and inside genre jokes firmly in hand. It's got some high energy guitars, a good source tune, and a fun vibe overall. Let's dig in -- source tune, yep, I hear it clearly. Love the little cameo of Aku Aku in the breakdown, that's a nice touch. Guitars are performed well. These are easy boxes for this track to check, and so far so good. Honestly, most of my nitpicks with this track are going to come down to two things: mix, and vocal performance issues. Let's start critiques with the vocal performance, as this is much more of a subjective thing. First off, yikes, those vocal cords have got to be FRIED after that performance! VERY rough, although they're par for the course in the DIY punk flavor sort of performance. Clean vocals are good but a little lacking in confidence at times, which leads to notes feeling a little weak in some phrases, but they do the job plenty well. Nothing here that would specifically PREVENT a YES vote from me, so let's move on to the next area of... Production. This is where things get a little dicier. The guitar tones are pretty good, bass sits pretty well in the mix, but the drums are definitely cymbal-heavy as mentioned before. Vocals are uneven throughout as well -- sometimes they're buried underneath the rest of the mix, sometimes they just lack some clarity, and sometimes the panning of doubled vocals could stand to have been given a little less stereo width in order to make things more cohesive. Vocal tracks overall would have benefited from some more compression and EQ and stereo field love to smooth things out. So, overall we've got: - a fun concept - metal-horns-worthy guitars - pretty good drums - plenty of source throughout - a good arrangement - some questionable mix decisions - Those Vocals (tm) I think that means we're over the bar. There are warts on this track, and it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it has its own charm and is a good arrangement. Let's send 'er to the front page! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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