OCR04833 - *YES* Shinobi 3 & Rise of the Robots "We Built an Edifice Towards a Dark Sky" *RESUB*

[prophetik music ⚖️]

previous version

*RESUB*

. . .Second time's the charm. . ? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Chimp approved, lol.

ORIGINAL DECISION:

COLLABORATORS:

• ZackParrish - *Live Steel Tongue Drum
• SableProvidence - *Live Dizi
• GameroftheWinds - *Live Alto Flute
• Chimpazilla - *Arrangement & Mixing Consultation / Mastering

#

Originally done for the compo Double Dose round of Meat n' Potatoes - 123, "We Built an Edifice" has since grown and expanded into something I feel is much more than what was its original intent and drive. Based on a heavy influence by one of my favorite Experimental Electronica groups, The Glitch Mob, this version of the song leans more heavily towards its spooky main source roots ("Inner Darkside"), partially because the plan was to have this submitted for Halloween 2023 (but that fell through, sadly). It's as if The Glitch Mob meets 'Tubular Bells' (most famously known as the theme to "The Exorcist" franchise) meets the 'X-Files' / Signals from Space & Stephen King's The Tommyknockers...with a sprinkle of Asian aesthetics and a bit of orchestra. Rise of the Robot's "Builder / Prime 8" plays a hefty role in this remix as half of its bass arrangement, and also as some of the bell/arps structure and harmonic, pulsing Trance chords towards the end, at the key change.

My hope is that people appreciate the vibe, and the emotions and metaphors present within, of a driving, unseen, demanding (evil?) entity or force turning one--or several people--into slaves of passion...building that epicenter, one's own Tower of Babel, to greater and greater heights, without rest; (hence the vox line that originates from the movie: Field of Dreams ;) ). In a strange way, it's very reflective of my own vices and artistic processes...and whether or not that's healthy or good is another story entirely. Creative approach-wise, this came half-spontaneously and half-experimentally, something that's grown and evolved over months of tweaking it here and there since MnP123. I just knew I wanted to kind of mimic Glitch Mob's unique style and approach when it came to their synths and bass/drumlines, and see what I could spark of my own flavors and spice to those techniques and facets of composition. Arrangement/part-writing-wise, it doesn't stray *too* far outside of the original source material, however, I did do quite a bit of shaking up the MIDI, changing some note structure for "Inner Darkside" at the midpoint of the remix, and incorporating more of "Builder / Prime 8"'s chords to match it. Hopefully the flow feels good in those spots, inclusive of the slow-down / chill-out after the high-strings riser / drop that drags us kicking and screaming towards that finale...still obsessively, and unrelentingly building on the 'dark tower' that's within every human soul. Every bit in this remix had a purpose, every brick being lovingly laid. This track was a joyful ride, albeit I'd be remiss to mention or say I was reluctant / scared to submit this...purely out of fear it might not gel with everyone's jam. But...nothing ventured, nothing gained--so we'll see, like with all my other submissions thus far. :)

Huge hugs and thanks to my collaborators, and their immeasurable advice on how to write for woodwinds and ideas on how to bring out this piece to its fullest potential. I'm always glad and proud of every collab I do, with such a wide-variety of talented and gifted musicians. This one is no different. ♥

Thanks for listening. :D

#

Parts of 'Prime 8 - Builder' Source Used:

  Quote

A) * 00:25 - 01:16 = chords acting as the main melody of 'BHF03/Prime 8 Builder'
B) * 00:39 - END OF SONG/REPEAT = 'beep boop'-sounding arps playing in-behind the chord structure
C) * 01:30 - 02:20 = steady humming reese bass in the background

Source Breakdown:

• 1.]  01:33 - 01:56 = a pulsing bass/synth thump mix plays Builder's (C) content -- you can hear it *just* above the marimba part in the sound spectrum, where it "thumps", and there's a triple "thump" @ 01:44 & 01:55. Acts as a soft, subtle prelude to the heavier bassline coming up, utilizing the same (C) content
• 2.]  02:30 - 02:50 = primary fuzz bass and its sub-bass counterpart plays slightly modified (C) & (A) content, that rides with melody (**modified for better flow from Inner Darkside's bassline into it); chords and bass were split between the fuzz bass, sub-bass and plucky thump
• 3.]  03:03 - 03:25 = tubular bell synths play (B) Builder content, unmodified except for key transposition
• 4.]  03:27 - 04:11 = Hybrid 3 trance chord sequencing plays (A) Builder content, acting as pads and rhythm / harmony to Inner Darkside melody; the plucky thump of (C) content also returns here, transposed
• 5.]  03:49 - 04:11 = (B) Builder content / tubular bells return for Outro (key shifted 3rd major/minor down with the rest of the remix), until 3rd loop -> Finale

#

**ADDENDUM: I had done quite a bit of cutting of unnecessary parts that were causing the fuzziness / overstuffed feeling, re-balanced where in the mix parts were sonically, and shifted around how the Shinobi III hook functioned ("passing the buck" between the Moon Guitar / Pipa combo VSTi track with a sequenced synth track using Surge XT's Drum One, to lessen the feeling of it being "overly repetitive" whilst maintaining the remix's rhythmic beats in those sections. Strengthened the basses, tuned up the live performances, ripped out the old mixing and pre-master processing for new everything, including automations and adjustments to FX chains. Any parts that sounded weird with "sour notes" were also fixed, workshopped in #Workshop in the Discord and twice in two separate Office Hours with the Sages. Had further convo with Chimpa on this as well, seeing as the source(s) blew up her mind previously, I wanted to make damned sure this time around they were clearer, conciser, and made sense in the context of everything despite the East vs West slight clash in writing and how weird Inner Darkside is to begin with (even tho I still love the song and it's one of my favorites from the game's OST--sue me, I suppose; it blew up Xaleph's brain, as well, FWIW). New drum loops were also made, half of which were composed and written from scratch by myself (including the kicks, taiko drums, perc and shaker bits), and the few sampled ones I used I scoured the universe and Hell for so they matched way more with the Glitch Mob aesthetic AND made sense in context with the entire piece.

Let's...hope for the best, then. Huge shout-out and hugs to everyone who helped giving this some ears on it, and Chimp for the mastering efforts and latest feedback. ♥

---

Games & Sources

SHINOBI III: RETURN OF THE NINJA MASTER (REMASTERED) OST; Track 11 - Inner Darkside; Artist(s): Hirofumi Murasaki, Morihiko Akiyama & Masayuki Nagao; Release Date: 06 May 2022 (DIGITAL) / 2016 (VINYL); Label: Data Discs (DATA) & SEGA

RISE OF THE ROBOTS OST; Track 5 - The Builder's Stage Theme; Artist(s): Richard Joseph, Jason Page & Brian May; Release Date: 22 December 1994; Label: Time Warner Interactive

[prophetik music ⚖️]

i YES'd this last time but noted a few elements that i wasn't into.

i still think the opening kick is too boomy (this might be a headphone adequacy issue here, there's a ton of subbass there). i still like all the interplay between the elements. there's less low-mid density which is nice. the outro's kind of all over the place, and without the backing elements the shamisen loses some luster. overall it's still a noodly melody that isn't for everyone, and there's still a lot of static and that's not my favorite backing element. but i like the complexity and find the creativity to be evident in a lot of places. this is still a pass to me.

 

 

YES

[Chimpazilla ⚖️]

In my original vote on this track, I heard the potential and also the amount of love, effort and detail that went into the production, but I felt that there were too many ideas thrown in at any given time, and a lot of the parts sounded so random and didn't mesh well together, and it was exhausting to listen to as a result.  It doesn't help that the source song is somewhat odd melodically.  But VQ had already received some excellent guidance from the Sages to help her uncluster this arrangement, and then she reached out to me for further advice.  It already sounded much better to me, but I was able to help her get it mixed even a little bit better, and then she had me master it.  I think it sounds significantly better and I can now appreciate the vision that she originally had for the piece.  The positive aspects of the sound-design and writing all shine through now without anything being overshadowed, and I really like it!  And others will as well. 

The result is a dreamy, groovy, Eastern-themed soundscape that sounds really full and open yet loaded with fun details and ear candy, telling a story as it moves along.  I love the vocal clips!  Just a great track.

Thank you for your trust, VQ, and this was fun to work on with you!  Good job!  Definitely "Chimp-approved," let's go!

YES

[Emunator ⚖️]

I'm coming into this fresh-ish, having not voted on the original track. What I'm hearing is a well-balanced, punchy mix with some really cool delay-based atmospheric effects that give this a totally unique feel, despite using a pretty traditional set of complementary instruments. There's a tremendous amount of personality and swagger here, and enough going on that, even though the beat is fairly low-tempo and unassuming, it still propels the arrangement forward and makes for a track you can really bob your head to. The arrangement breezes by, running through a lot of ideas but still managing to remain cohesive, and not feeling like you just threw everything at the wall indiscriminately. It's a really great piece that came together well.

I find a few of the synth elements to be a little shrill, partly due to the octave that they're written in, but in the future this could also be mitigated with a dynamic EQ or compression to tame those frequencies. It's also worth considering lowering the range of bells and flutes specifically, which tend to have some of the most shrill high harmonic content, but this is hardly a dealbreaker - just a comment for the future.

Great work on the resubmission!!

YES

[Liontamer ⚖️]

Voted on the last version, so I just wanted to see what was up with this one.

Nitpicks: The bassline from 1:10-1:53 was SO QUIET, not sure what the point of that was. There were still some piercing highs during 2:06's section as well.

Definitely more attention paid to varying up the instrumentation, with 3:48's area being the most standout example of that. Thanks for the effort to remove the non-melodious cruft as well.

Solid improvements!

YES