Liontamer Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 Artist: 744 In keeping with the not-intentional theme of submitting two themes from the same game in a row (FTL and now Super Metroid) here's my first-ever attempt at drum 'n bass. After having listened to the Unreal Tournament, Bomberman Hero, and Orbo's Odyssey soundtracks a bit too much, and having gotten very stuck in a DnB kind of mood, I ditched two previous attempts at covering this theme and started over a third time. Since this piece doesn't do a lot with regard to chord modulation, there's some orchestral breaks and switches between a rock beat and back to DnB to maintain some variety. I used some of the Xtreme Lead and Proteus 2000 patches used in the Metroid Prime soundtracks. There's a specific one used in the Metroid Prime 2 multiplayer battle mode theme, which is itself a remix of the Brinstar jungle theme, and a choir patch used in the Meta Ridley theme from Prime 1, to add some...authenticity, is the word that comes to mind? These sounds have that bespoke "alien planet" sound to them and ooze pure Metroid. I also decided to give Logic's new Beat Breaker a shot, and naturally immediately went overboard with stuttering glitch effects just because I was having probably too much fun playing around. I tossed in a few lightly processed sound effects from the game as an accent where they seemed appropriate (credit to "latranchedepain" and sounds-resource.com for making those available from a quick search.) I'm not great at track titles, so enjoy a dictionary word relating to poisons from plants! Other track title suggestions I received included "Green Kill Zone," "why this room pink," and "PLANTS" so I think "Phytotoxin" is acceptable enough in comparison. Thanks to the folks in the Discord (esp. Hemo) for some useful feedback, and thanks for listening! -Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 track appears to be intentionally limited to -3.5db. initial vibe is much more upbeat. bass is surprisingly high. there's some fun bitcrushing effects right off the bat. the first real break section at 0:34 hits nice with the orchestral element there. this kind of trucks through on autopilot until 1:18 (nice break going into this section) when the beat drops and it goes to a very rich interstellar-style orchestration. i like the tempo-synced synth there to keep it moving. after ridley peeks through the bookshelf at his past self, he apparently learns guitar - i liked the change in style here, it's a good change and was needed by this point. the theremin lead is too resonant up top and cuts hard through the mix, but other than that i liked the idea. there's a short break, then some breaks, then at 2:18 we get some intentional detuning around some of the synths alongside some glitchiness. it's a fun idea that visualizes the title. this escalates until 2:57 when we get more theremin lead and orchestration, which fades out over time. this is a nice trail-off. the orchestration comes back with more rich chord blocks at 3:10, and eventually picks back up with the guitar as well. guitar sounded notably dry here, but other than that i liked this again. the theremin lead here is filtered a bit and it's nowhere near as resonant as before. there's a lot of noise going on starting around 4:24 - are you riding a crash cymbal? is that what that is? - but it is still fairly clear what's going on. there's a final big hit, we get more interstellar orchestral chord stacks and rhythmic synth, and then it's done with a tape stop. we seem to have gotten a ton of this original in the remix bin over the last few months. it's been great to see how different they all are. this is no different - i think the highly technical dnb alongside the big cinematic scoring elements works great. kudos on continuing to do different stuff and not stick with a single vibe. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Funny how you can often tell what track a Super Metroid remix is remixing just from the title. Some nice synthetic DnB. Classic but still effective. Very tasteful use of SFX. I'm not the biggest fan of the fake guitar, but it does what it's supposed to do. Soundscape is a little bass-light most of the time, until the piano fills that role starting at 3:25. No major issues, though. Good job. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 The bassline's mixed in a way where it's present, but sounds indistinct; it should have cut through more. Drum and bass with no bass. :-P Piano at :57 was very fakey, but it's alright for the style even if it's not my cup of tea. I dug the string writing at 1:19; cool approach to the chorus that I'd never heard before in an arrangement, ever. Wasn't liking how loud the drums at from 1:44-2:06 were, but they didn't last too long. 2:18's section was empty, but it does provide textural contrast. The glitchy sounds though were cool and added nice tension up to 2:57. Lots of creative textural changes throughout that kept the presentation interesting. The electric guitar chugs needed more body to them, but I'll live; gave some Duke Nukem 3D vibes. Not gonna play by play the rest, but sufficed to say, I dig cinematic strings, and I had mixing nitpicks come back for the end with the drums I wasn't digging. Love the sudden finish too, that'll catch people off guard the first time around. Nitpicks aside, Ben, super creative arrangement with tons of personality. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 Let's start with the good stuff. The rhythmic expansion on both the drums and the synth arpeggios is wild and carries the song on its own. On top of that, your arrangement goes a ton of places and never feels like it grows stagnant, which is a major risk for the genre. Orchestral and piano elements are integrated with a lot of care to showcase some really great original writing that bridges together the sections of Super Metroid material. Really expansive arrangement. I recognized the Metroid Prime 2 multiplayer sounds before I even read your submission letter, that did a great job of drawing me into the Metroid universe. The arrangement is killer. I generally agree with the same nitpicks that the other judges called out - the bass is lacking in personality, movement, and harmonics to the sound itself. To put it plainly, it's just a boring bass, and because so much of it is written at higher ranges, there's just not a lot of presence. I would personally have suggested picking a different bass tone entirely with some glide/modulation to it so it can express some personality, or if you were really committed to a simple bass, consider adjusting the octaves so that you're actually hitting the sub regions, and then employ some light saturation/waveshaping/distortion to thicken up the harmonics of your bass just slightly. Aside from that, the sample quality was serviceable but not blowing me away, especially the guitar, which could have had a much thicker tone to suit the track more appropriately. Easily skates by on the merits of a super creative arrangement and some great rhythmic work all around - not without its flaws, but clearly good enough here and I'm glad to see you pushing the envelope with your own skillset. Keep em coming! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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