OCR04819 - *YES* Super Metroid & Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow "Infected Waters"

[Emunator]

Contributions:

Xaleph: composer/arranger/lead

• Song structure, planning, coordination, design
• 0:39-3:51 Psytrance, sfx, synths, bass, notation, editing, etc (anything not listed below)
• 3:51-4:44 Supporting percussion and bass
• 4:59-end Synths, Bass, Sfx, chiptunes (anything not listed below)

Emunator: composer/arranger

• intro -> 1:06 (all until rhythm, then gated choirs)
• 1:45 -> 2:12 (crying angels piano)
• 3:51 -> 4:21 (holy piano, distant vocals)
• 4:57 -> 5:40 (toms + digital bell maridia arp)

Zack Parrish: composer/arranger/guitarist

• 3:51-5:26 (guitars: electric and acoustic)
• 3:51-4:44 (orchestra: violin 1/2, viola, cello)

Lunarice: sound design / sfx / synth design

• 0:33-0:39 synth sweep + bubble sweep
• 1:19-2:12 underwater sound, muddy steps
• 3:51-4:04 + 5:39-5:52 holy sfx pad
• Designed sound used for
  • 0:39-0:52 light bubble sfx
  • 0:52-1:06 bubble percussion
  • 2:55-3:48 bubble sound provided was used as the percussion/glitch effects

Audiomint: Female Voice and Sound Acting

• 1:06-2:05 (singing + gated singing)
• 1:06+ "Well"
• 3:50 "What is this place?"

Lucas:

• Bell midi at 5:26-5:52
• Impact sfx used at 5:39

(There was a lot of content in this song from each of the artists, I appreciate their contributions and apologize if I missed something!)

Source Usage:

0:40-2:05 Maridia
1:06-1:33 Purification melody comes in and out (volume controlled) - high bells/sine wav
1:59-2:12 Purification melody
2:15-2:56 Purification melody abridged (shortened and given the supporting rhythm for the beat)
2:27-2:30?  the stab synth is the maridia melody part/structure sped up and different rhythm/style
2:54-2:56 I finally finish the Purification melody line that started at 1:59 to complete the phrase
3:22-3:35 Very soft mid freq purification melody in staccatto - double hits like purification has it
3:35-3:48 Same melody bumped up an octave
3:52-4:46 (breakdown 2): It's a combined melodies from both, low guitar playing purification mid/top playing with maridia.
4:47-5:26 electric guitar playing purification very fast + synths that support maridia melody
5:26-end both parts playing again till end (modified to fit both songs) (thank you emunator for the midi)

Planning - we based this on a story as described below here is a clip from the readme file:

## Main remix
D#m
145 bpm

### Story
So what's the story of the song?
We're team metroid, so I'm 100% going to do this from a Samus perspective
I was initially going with more of an ice/frozen theme and them deep sea to make it cold, but that's not going to work with the castlevania approach
Samus is in a cave - get's ready to dive into the water (Intro)
Samus is in the underground water, tension builds up (Build up 1 + 2)
Samus gets to an air pocket, albeit tiny (Breakdown 1)
Samus goes back in the water, it's more crazy (Build up 3)
Samus finds an opening out of the water above her and it's part of some ruins with a holy shrine (Breakdown 2)
The next part of the water is where holy water has mixed with the cave water - she dives in
and thinks go crazy here (Build up to Outro)
and then final outro
she is out of the cave and is looking back at that crazy situation of dark alien waters + holy water (Outro)

Games & Sources

Super Metroid - Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area)

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Purification (Bloody Tears just really slow and very slightly different)

[prophetik music]

lots of opening foley and neat sound design elements. love the gated vox pad with the very slow bell arp from the maridia theme - that's a really neat combination. bass here is great - i look forward to the bass work on every track xaleph's on. there's a break at 1:33 that eventually features some audiomint, which sounds great. beat's back in at 2:15 and it's really trucking this time. the purification melodic content really fits this more aggressive approach well. there's some breaks for different instruments as fills occasionally that don't quite fit the soundscape as well as others - the piano at 2:40 is really dry compared to the backing elements, for example - but overall this is really catchy.

3:10 backs off the melodic content a bit in exchange for some more sfx and storytelling. there's some...pitched water drops? this was an interesting choice, not my favorite sound for some reason. huge vibe shift at 3:50 - this is more diablo than anything, with the long-tail guitar work and arpeggiating elements. i love how this combines the two themes. the pulsing bass here helps drive this forward really well. there's some guitar arpeggiated elements at 4:46 that lead into a electro-rock section that literally had me do the pacha perfect face. the hyper-compressed vibe of this section is great, it's so robotic after all the organic sfx and sounds that have been used. there's some bleeps and bloops to finish it off and we're done.

i love the story of this track. there's a ton of vibrant mind-pictures that you can hear from each section, and there's so much energy flowing throughout. it's also very refreshing to just be able to not worry about the mix or the overall master and just enjoy the flow that you've got going on. superb job, this is a new favorite.

 

 

YES

[Liontamer]

Sly psy goodness! Nice job, everyone. :-)

YES

[Chimpazilla]

How did this submission reach the BOTTOM of this list.  WOW.  Ok let's get this one wrapped up.

Awesome intro, and when the psy hits it is truly excellent.  The melody is played so delicately, as it should be in psy.  The soundscape is huge, and the sounds vary as the piece moves along.  Matt's daughter's vocals are heavenly, both plain and gated.  I'm loving all the foley throughout the piece.  So many snippets of sounds!  Awesome varied arrangement.  Mixing and mastering are the best they could be.  FABULOUS TRACK.

YES

[MindWanderer]

Yep. Amazing sound design, and so much fun with a wild palette. It just does so much, and all of it is good. I'm highly amused that you decided Purification was close enough to Bloody Tears that you're just going to go all-in on that. (I personally think Bloody Tears also needs a credit here---it's just a little too on-the-nose.)

Awesome work, no hesitation here.

YES