OCR04675 - *YES* Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess "Unseen Realities"

[Liontamer]

Artist Name: Gaspode

Midna, one of the best characters of all time from »The Legend Of Zelda«. Her theme is strange and mysterious and it seems as the individual notes are always moving in a different direction than you expect. So it’s the perfect theme from another reality, the twilight realm.

I started this theme with the pulsing sound that starts at the beginning of 0:19. From there the remix evolved into something dark and slow like the original theme. The part with the violas in the center was played with an synthsound at first. But I decided to work once again with Niki Yaghmaee, who did the violin lead on my Metroid remix »Frozen Echoes«. This time he played viola and violin and took the quality of the piece to another level.

Basically this remix was almost finished a few weeks ago but I tweaked and optimised little bits almost every day until I finally was satisfied. So here it is, my bow to an awesome theme in an awesome game. I hope you will enjoy it.

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Games & Sources

Name of game(s) arranged:
»The Legend Of Zelda – Twilight Princess«

Name of individual song(s) arranged:
»Midna’s Theme«

[prophetik music]

i like your description of the theme. i agree very much with it.

starts with some sustained pads and tempo-synced stuff. there's a neat bass that comes in at 0:29 and this builds up to 0:57 when we get the first big hit in the kick. to my ear, the theme doesn't really come in until 1:16, but i like the approach there. there's a short building section without lead until 2:15 when the strings come in. there's some doubling at 2:33, and the melody comes back at 2:51. there's a drop at 3:31, and the mix goes through the chord progression of the original twice more, and then it's done.

my concern here is the source usage. the track is 4:09 long, and i only recognize the melodic content from 1:16-1:54 and 2:51-3:31 - about 30% of the work. the chord progression of the original is used from 1:54-2:2:51 and 3:31-4:07, so it'd hinge on if that counts or not. i think so, since in the past we've used chord progressions that were unique (which this is, it's not something generic) and used earlier in the remix so as to establish that progression.

so, with that said, i'm all about this. i love the way you play with time - the initial pattern in the kicks that's in 4/4 but is kind of 7+9 is great. i also like the anticipatory chord movement, moving on the last half-beat of the measure. it keeps it moving forward despite the lower-key approach overall. i think the string work also adds a lot. this is a fun listen with a great realization.

 

 

YES

[Chimpazilla]

I love Twilight Princess so much.  The game has so many amazing and haunting themes.  What is so interesting is how they re-used the primary motif again and again, in different ways.  They have done this in other games too, one example is A Link Between Worlds.  They used the same motif in every dungeon in Lorule, but the styles they used were so vastly different that it was hard to notice at first.

To Brad's motif timestamp above (1:16-1:54 and 2:51-3:31), I will add that the first four notes in the intro (0:00-0:09) are straight from the source's intro (two repetitions of two notes).  Those two notes appear again at:  0:57-1:02 and 1:07-1:12 and 2:05-2:09 and behind the fast violin run from 2:33-2:42, and again at 3:31-3:41 and 3:50-4:00, and there is motif from 4:00-4:05.  The chord progressions are hinted at throughout the piece wherever melodic content is in play so I'm sure more source could be sussed out if needed.  There are more instances of the two note progression but I am excluding those included in Brad's timestamps since he has already counted them (where the primary motif is playing).

I agree with Brad that source use is on the light side here, but with those extra seconds added in, the source amount is now 54%..  (Brad's motif timestamps are 78 seconds, and mine are 57 seconds, total 135 seconds out of 251)

I love the energy of this piece, the bassline sounds synthwavey, and the drums are great.  The live violin is just gorgeous, I love it.   The timbres Gaspode used fit the theme and vibe so well, the piece is melancholy yet groovy.  Gaspode and I share a love of Zelda games, so he is my homeboy.

YES

[MindWanderer]

Interesting dark tone, somewhat similar to the original, but obviously with synths, and with jarring off-beat percussion. It's off-putting, but clearly intentionally so. Great sound design.

The violin bridge is indeed a highlight, and I wish we'd gotten more of Niki's performance. It sounds off-key when it's reprised at 3:12, though.

The ending is pretty abrupt. Again, I imaging it's intentionally disconcerting, but it still feels unfinished.

Most of what I dislike here is a matter of preference and is probably on purpose. Everything that's supposed to sound "good" does sound good, except for maybe those clashing violin notes. Strong work overall.

YES

[Liontamer]

Nice extra weight to the introing chords compared to the original. After noodling around with original writing during the build and then some source chords at 1:00, I appreciated the melody finally kicking in at 1:15.

GOTDAYUM, these kicks! :-D Ease up on an old man. :-) Nah, these are cool, adding some extra juice to the picture. The beats are shaking my car, so this'll go over well with the bass demographic.

Dig Niki's featured strings and I liked the way those underlying "Midna" chords played an important part of connecting this to the source and providing tension as well.

YES