Emunator Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Arrangers/Composers: Xaleph, Aeroprism Performers: Lead Guitar: Zack Parrish Vocals: Audiomint Rhythm Guitar: Xaleph The plan was pretty simple for us and it evolved into a much more complex song. I'd start off the song, Aeroprism would have the slower mid part, and then we'd combine things at the end. This worked great except we had a 15 minute long song. I spent a lot of time working with Aeroprism to move his parts to combine them with mine sooner. The goal was to follow the rules of the competition where it's a Mashup and not a Medley. Even still, there is a Red Wings part in the intro and a CoT part in the mid, where I put in some RW parts to keep the song cohesive. I kept true to the 7/8 (we notated 7/4) and 6/8 parts (we converted part of the CoT to triplets in 4/4 or just like 12/8 I guess... but the end part to 6/4), so there are several time signature changes throughout this song, which made it complex (but to be honest, I think it helps the song flow, so it ended being an added bonus). The main reason for delay of submission was that I had Audiomint use the wrong mic when recording the first time. With the correct mic, you can much more easily hear the words (plus some side chaining and transient shaper work). The words are very simple (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c8vdlApsoonfGoLU8cKiBewAL0MWmgw5/view?usp=sharing I recommend looking at the image because it's hilarious, that's Audiomint's handwriting - previous page was her playing with lyrics but we agreed to keep it very simple and not verbose. That's Korean for the "meow" sound for those who are curious): Quote Time Flies before my eyes. Passing by, never have enough time... I keep the source RW rhythm moving in various parts (bassline, synthwork in CoT uses RW parts) I wanted to use guitar as a kickback to Powerglove's "Red Wings over Baron" which I've liked for a while The 7/8 part is a very abstract version of the 7/8 part of redwings but I think it fits well. Both Aeroprism and I use Reason so it made collaboration a lot easier than usual. We looked at possibly doing a synthwave version as we still have 9 minutes of unused content. More files / mp3s with id3 tags and project files can be found in the project folder: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-TaETOVchF09ghl83Goh7KViP6R8Tysa&usp=drive_fs Anyways, thanks to the collaborators, our team, our competitors and to DarkeSword for holding the competition. We had a blast with this song and it only took a few days to write. I find it interesting how some of the better songs happen when it's condensed focus time (or Compressed Time, lol) rather than spending months on a song. I do think to get to the point where it takes a few days, you have to go through some of the longer time in learning, but once you have a process, it's pretty fast and reliable. - Xaleph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 love that bass to start. big hit right at 0:30 with some fun use of triplets in a squelchy low lead which made some neat polyrhythms. moves to a more martial tone quickly, displaying a lot of the same patience that past xaleph tracks have featured. there's some vocals (i believe this is xalephito, right?) at 1:32, and we then we have a break section at 1:45. time signature change at 2:10 which i like a lot - the original's time sig was always a high point and i like how you've adapted it here. drop at 2:27. the shaping work on the vocals through here is just great. there's a hard shift at 2:47 with some more polyrhythm stuff and a focus on CoT. i am not a reaction face guy but i audibly gasped when the tri-tone theme from CoT hit at 3:29. it was so perfectly prepped and executed. this is why i love vgm remixes. there's all this audio candy behind the scenes going on behind such an eerie theme, and then you've got the underlying bass beat that's inherited from xaleph's part trucking along under this great sound design. vocals at 4:56 are just what the track needed at that point. the extra post work to crisp up the note transitions really fit the track's style without taking anything away from the performance. the guitar in the background is just perfect too. we get the beat back right after it along with some fun bass blaps. when we got to the drop at 6:17 i assumed the track was done, but the last little bit did a great job putting a bow on the track. this is why i love this community. what a track. i would love to hear the 15-minute version. HOLY SHIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 I love DarkeSword's competitions because of mixes exactly like this. Compression of Time? A meh track on a stellar OST, never gave it any thought. Using it in a supporting role for a Red Wings remix? Works perfectly. Fantastic job here of mixing the two sources together. I could pick some nits. Nearly every "lead" instrument is muted or flattened and lacks the oomph expected of that role. There isn't a real meaty lead except for a few moments, like the opening violin and 2:23's trumpet. As a result, the track doesn't seem to have any "hooks" or have anything catchy about it. Even the vocals have a soft quality to them, and don't sing a melody, despite occupying the space normally filled by a lead. This isn't objectively wrong, but it does make this hard for me to really sink my teeth into. But as I said, that's more a matter of personal preference, and it's the only criticism I can come up with. For what this tries to do, it's a triumph. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 Honestly, I hate you guys. I don't think I will ever recover - physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually - from the smackdown this track put on me in the first GSM competition. I put out what I consider to be one of the best pieces of music I've ever made, and you just stomped all over it with your stupid synthwave bleeps and psytrance bloops. It's perfectly viable to reject a track on the grounds that it hurts my ears, so why not on the basis of it hurting my feelings? NO ... ... fine. It's good. Really good. I find that the team atmosphere of GSM lends itself to tracks that can sometimes feel like a mashup of everybody's ideas, "executive boardroom style", and I can't say that this doesn't feel that way to an extent, but you exercised such a great level of creative control over the parts that you have that it absolutely works in this track's favor. It feels like an adventure, and psytrance is the perfect musical foundation for this kind of approach. It's a genre that relishes in its buildups, breakdowns, and unexpected hard stops and left turns, and man you've got a lot of them here. It helps that every section of the track is engaging and brings something new to the table, but you transition so expertly between them that the time just flies by [Editor's Note: I wrote this out unironically and forgot the name of the remix title. Any puns are entirely coincidental.] This absolutely does not feel like 6 and a half minutes long. A well deserved victory my friends! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Aw, poor Emu! I can totally relate to the feelings of inferiority that this track must have inspired. Because it's all kinds of freakin' amazing. HOLY SHIT indeed. Somebody here is a psytrance expert. The elements go together so well in this mix; all the synth stuff, the ethereal vocals, and grungy guitars. The arrangement is excellent, everyone's ideas fit together so well. The mixing and mastering are top notch. I could listen to the 15 minute version too. Just truly awesome. My one nitpick would be just a couple of db louder on the bass. YES PLEASE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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