OCR04683 - *YES* Balatro "Upping the Ante"

[Liontamer]

Artist Name: Mattmatatt

I decided to make a chill shred arrangement of the original tempo of the Balatro main track. It's a fairly straightforward arrangement but in doing so I also played all of the nasty arpeggios and leads at full speed on my guitar, and then added some additional solos at the end of the track. 

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Games & Sources

Balatro - Main Theme at the original tempo before its slowed down in-game.

Composer - Luis Clemente

LT Edit: Here's the in-game speed version as well:

[Liontamer]

Yeah, this is a straightforward pass, fun stuff, Matt! :-)

YES

[prophetik music]

opens with a really dense soundscape - tons in the low mids, so it's hard to hear what's going on. the guitar/synth stuff is great, well-played. i liked the extra panning elements that showed up on the second time through the melodic material. 1:01's arpeggiated stuff is pretty excellent, and emphasizing the uprising countermelody there from the original is the right choice.

there's a lighter section at 1:24 with some nice long-tail reverb doing some neat stuff. there's some call and response solo work for the last thirty seconds and then it's done.

the drums spend most of the song doing one of two loops which is a disappointing choice - there's a ton of room for clever writing there and it wasn't taken advantage of. the mastering is also pretty dense throughout even after the synths and lead guitar come in - the bass synth is overwhelmingly loud, fairly high all considering, and then there's some spikes in the low mids that cause it to feel very dense (the rhythm guitar or synth, whatever that is, that's probably the culprit).

i think that this is pretty straightforward, but there's a lot of little flourishes and fun elements added outside the solo work that makes this great. i wish the mastering was better but this is good enough to pass as-is. if it gets conditional'd or NO'd, i'd say that it needs some more arrangement in the drums and backing elements so it's not so repetitive there, and needs another mixing pass (at least turn down the bass synth and give it some attack so it's not so oofy).

 

 

YES

[Gario]

Haha, I've been a bit stuck on this game lately (great game, highly recommended for any roguelike fan), instantly knew the source since it only has one song playing throughout. Dunno how the source does it, but it never gets boring. Just oddly pleasant throughout, so let's see what your track brings to the table.

Pretty straightforward arrangement - almost too much so. If the guitar work didn't wank out from time to time I'd have probably rejected this, but you do have a lot of fun with that guitar. I think the performance could have had a tighter performance, since it sounds like it lags behind the synths from time to time, but overall it's alright.

I love the overall atmosphere - it just jams out and has a good time with the uptempo track. The timing of the source was probably tricky to work with since the time signature of the source is unusual and shifts freely, but you do a pretty good job jamming with it. I think the issue I have is pretty negligible, so nice work!

YES

[Emunator]

This is an easy pass, not surprising considering the artist involved! I also found the soundscape to be too dense, largely as a result of the bass being mixed too loudly, which admittedly detracts from the chill vibe you were going for. That said, this gets by on the strength of the tone shaping on your guitars/synths, and some of the fun shredding around the arpeggios that ramp up the energy and keep my interest held.The soloing reminds me a bit of Tim Henson from Polyphia, especially on their latest album when it is coupled with more chill, pop-influenced backing tracks.

YES