OCR04692 - *YES* Elden Ring "Goldscourge" *PRIORITY*

[Emunator]

Artist Name: Emunator, Hotline Sehwani

Credits:

Emunator: Arrangement, production, keys, mixing

Hotline Sehwani: Arrangement, production, original concept, mastering

Comments:

Emunator: This track is one of four collaborations that Hotline Sehwani and I did for "Elden Ring: Tarnished Shadows," an album of lo-fi/chill arrangements from the Elden Ring soundtrack to celebrate the launch of the Shadows of Erdtree DLC. After a successful collaboration on our Undertale lo-fi release, we immediately jumped back in and got to work on some more. He sent me four initial demos with melodic ideas and rough instrumentation, which I then fleshed out into full songs, and passed back to Hotline for mastering. It was an extremely smooth collab process that yielded results that I'm super proud of! I hope you check out our three other collabs and the rest of the project, too!

With this project, I wanted to explore the more acoustic side of lo-fi music, fusing traditional chillhop beats with a more melancholy, gothic sound palette. With Final Battle particularly, it was a challenge to transform such bombastic source material into something that respected the spirit of the original while still being something you could throw on as study music. I had to approach mixing differently than I would normally for an orchestral track, where you can confidently slam your peaks to the max.. I had to be a lot more delicate with the approach here, relying more on rhythmic variation to bring energy rather than massive sweeping orchestral statements.

Arrangement-wise, we kept it short and sweet, with a rug-pull ending that is meant to mirror the experience of fighting in Elden Ring, where no matter how confident you are, you are always only one hit away from sudden death. Time to hit replay and try the battle again ;)

Hotline Sehwani: Our goal for "The Final Battle" cover was to transform the triumphant battle theme into a more mellow and somber vibe. The song begins with subtle wind chimes, capturing the calm before the storm, and ends in a similar fashion. To listen to the album now on your favorite platform: https://music.hotlinesehwani.com/erts

[Liontamer]

Cool lo-fi adaptation of the source tune; sounds lovely to start. Good textural escalation at :27. I dug the lil' rhythmic plucked string-style accents brought in at :40; those were a subtle element, but a sophisticated touch to add some swing and depth to the texture.

From 1:07-2:02, whatever got added in was adding lots of murk and mud, which made this less enjoyable. I listened to a control track just to be sure it wasn't me (djp's Revenge of Shinobi "Consent (Make Me Dance)", for reference). IMO, I don't see what making things so murky does to make the track an optimal listen. Even at :40, there's a relative indistinctness/mud to the texture that's obscuring the part-writing (e.g. the cool percussive rhythms from 1:36-2:02 are pushed down too much, and the rain SFX -- which was more audible/discernible in the intro -- turns more into a dull crackling, like an egg on a frying pan). Loved the gentle outro, including the clanging metal SFX and the effects on the lead; the sound design's excellent.

The arrangement's lovely & rock solid, and I like the track, yet I'm a stickler on this mixing, especially with the track being so brief. I just rejected another track for similar reasons, and had to bust out a control to ensure I wasn't wigging out here. I'd still love this on the site, but if we somehow couldn't get another version, I'd regrettably say NO (resubmit) as is. As much as Wes hates my old man ears -- and I'm well aware I can't get infinite passes on that -- it needs another mixing pass, IMO.

EDIT (6/20): New version sounds better! It's still murky from 1:07-2:02, so I'm still old-man-ears about it, but it's notably less (accidentally overdriven), rumbly, and muffled across the board, so count me in. :-)

YES

[Emunator]

@Liontamer Great feedback, I re-mixed the song and scraped out some of the mud and I think we're in better shape now. Check it out!

[prophetik music]

opens with detuned piano and some neat sweeping effects. that's a really neat effect at 0:27 on the filter, like gravitational lensing. there's some really delicate and pretty string work when they come in before 0:30 there. i also really like the snare when it comes in, there's a layered richness there that i really am into. 1:07's an escalation - it's still a little dense there (your bass instrument appears to have some overtones at ~96hz that are causing it to feel a bit dense, or maybe that's the low strings) but it's clearer than it was before, I think.

there's some fun sfx after the 1:30 mark, and some neat rhythmic elements to keep it driving forward. the strings here started to feel a little copied in, given the repetition of the riff at 1:35 again at 2:00 or so. there's a staggered cutoff into 2:02's outro, and then it's done with some pingpong filter effects.

this is a surprisingly broad adaptation of a completely different genre. there's a lot of little bits and bobs here and there that really add color to it. nice job.

 

 

YES

[Gario]

Alright, so I'll compromise my weekend and likely next week of playing Elden Ring's expansion to give this some attention, okay? Sound good? Good, let's go.

Interesting style for this arrangement, I don't hear it too often on OCR. It's short (maybe a tad too short, given the style), but with the time it has it does complete a musical thought so that's not a bad thing. That first minute is rich and full of detuned piano goodness, and with the lighter accompaniment that child choir does a good job standing out. I think the second half starting at 1:08 the backing instruments are still too cluttered, though. It's a combination of things that is catching my ear - from at least three instruments sharing the same range (that piano, the strings, and the lower end of the choir), and the piano sounds like it holds the pedal for too long, letting too many notes ring all at once. At 1:35 things open up a bit, but that piano pedal is still creating a lot of mud in that lower middle range.

I really like the idea of this one, but I think being too cluttered in about 40% of the track is too much for me to give a pass. I recommend lightening up on that piano sustain pedal (or not use it for a track with this density), and perhaps shifting registers for the strings so that it doesn't share the same register as the piano if it's still causes issues. I think what mixing issues it may have had have been resolved, but the middle of the track needs some breathing room in the mid EQ range so I hope some of these suggestions can help.

NO

[Flexstyle]

y'all way too picky with the mixing these days...this is perfectly acceptable for the genre and it's a great flip. Yeah the elements could be separated more, but the combination all works, and it gets the point across effectively. 

 

YES

[Chimpazilla]

This track is so very lovely.  At 1:07, when the strings enter, the soundscape gets very full and busy, because the strings are playing a fast melody at the same time that the choir is singing a melody and the harp is also doing a melody, so it is hard to know what to focus on.  There is no way to mix this any better while that many busy things are happening.  Each instrument part seems to be trying to be priority rather than supportive or countermelody.  No element is truly taking a lead role, which also leads to the crowded and unfocused feeling. 

The track is currently mixed as well as possible, given this many elements at the same time.  With this second wav upload, the mixing is not the problem.  Personally I feel that any section of a song should have a lead element for the listener to focus on, unless the track is truly a background cue, in which case the elements should sort of run together to form a uniform soundscape without anything even trying to poke through, so it ends up more of a vibe than a proper arrangement.  This arrangement however is straddling both worlds which is what makes it sound too busy for my taste.  These are notes for Wes for next time. 

Is this ideal, no.  Ideally some of the elements should be dropped at the 1:07 section, and something lead-like should be added.  Is this dealbreaker for OCR though, no.  It's a lovely emotive song, short but sweet, full of feels, and people will love it.

YES