*NO* SimCity 4 "Jacaranda Dreams" *PROJECT*

[prophetik music]

((PART OF TIMESHIFT, PRIORITY REQUESTED PLEASE FOR PROJECT RELEASE DEC-11-2024))

I was inspired by the OCR albums of yore where the director also made a contribution to the tracklist, so it seemed appropriate that I, too, do a "captain's knock". I thought through what VGM of the last 25 years has influenced me, and it quickly became apparent that I should do the game that's ingrained in my soul. SimCity 4 has to be the sole game that I've played and metagamed the most out of any.

Terrain is, undoubtedly, my favorite source from the soundtrack. The Humble Brothers created a progressive symphotronica that builds through the Locrian and Lydian modes, really pushing the modes' inherent tension, before releasing it all with a beautiful, lilting Ionian major melody played on a fiddle, and then returning from whence it came. Its percussion lines are incredibly detailed and layered. This was my natural choice; but how could I work out such a daunting source? I spent ages trying to figure out its melodic and rhythmic structure, bashing notes out on my piano until I located them. The harmony was trickier to work out, but once I discovered I could make stems in FL Studio, the way was clear: I had solved a 20-year-old puzzle I'd had (I may have even cried a little). Given Terrain's sheer majesty, there was simply no way that I could "elevate" the source, so I figured the best I could do was to pay tribute to it with my own symphotronica: take its structural elements and rework them, make references to its many highlight moments of its percussion line, and give it all a theme to work around.

Jacaranda Dreams is so-called because the main city of the main region I have played in the game is called "Jacaranda". Moreover the name is an entendre: SimCity is about town planning, it led me to pursue studies of it at a university level, and the university I attended is well known for its jacaranda trees. Sadly, for various reasons, my university studies were not to bear fruit. It is from this chapter of my life that I drew the piece's theme: hope, hope lost, and new hope. I applied these three moods to Terrain, and changed its ABCBA structure to BAC — my TimeShift, if you will.

The first part of the ReMix takes the suspended chords of Terrain's Lydian sections and makes them its running motif. To add variation to this section, and as a further nod to the game, I took one of the ostinatos from Jerry Martin's By the Bay, also from SimCity 4. I also took its choice of reeds to be my lead instrument: oboe. After a collection of original oboe melodies (like various attempts at getting my studies to work), the ReMix moves to the dark Locrian section. The original has a call-and-response between an electric guitar sample and a female voice, so I swapped the two and exchanged the guitar for the oboe. The lyrics are in Latin, partly as a nod to Simlish, but also thanks to my upbringing in a church choir it felt like a natural choice for the limited notes available. I panned my voice through the opening, painting with the phrase "Ubi est spes?" ("Where is hope?") like searching for it. I also emulated that grating guitar sample with my vowel changes. I've also loved distant lo-fi vocals, so that had to be done too. With the realisation, "Abeam" ("I should leave"), with the lo-fi getting dropped, the ReMix then finally reaches that beautiful Ionian melody (after a delayed build-up: I expect fans of the original will be waiting to hear that line, too). I celebrate that melody with the addition of some countermelodies, percussion references, and giving the melody to a bass clarinet at the climax for the oboe to then counter. This last section draws some inspiration (but no material) from Jerry Martin's Magic City from SimCity 3000.

There's another layer to the tribute here, that to OverClocked ReMix. The kick drum that forms the booming bass fundamental is none other than zircon's from ISW's Groove Bias. And melodically...if you know, you know. ;3

90% of the samples are from Spitfire Labs, either directly or through its BBC Symphony Orchestra samples, with the bass clarinet coming from the Alpine Project. The only things I had to pay for were FL Studio 21 and Kontakt 7; the samples themselves were free. It was put together with a pencil and eraser on score to identify the original's ideas before being expanded in FL Studio.

Thanks must go to my fellow artists on the project for giving me feedback all the way from the first eight-bar sketch of the string ensemble to the final version, and especially to those who've heard it in the various Office Hours sessions, particularly Seph, Josh, Hemo, Emunator, prophetik, VQ and Adrian for their ideas and criticism. This is my first time arranging with a full-blown proper DAW with samples rather than digital music paper and manually typing in MIDI values, and their guidance has been priceless. Since the very years this ReMix talks about I wanted to contribute something musically to OCR, and now I have been given the chance. I hope you enjoy.

((LYRICS:

LATIN

Ubi est spes?
Ubi est spes?
Ubi est spes?
Hic non est.
Hic non est.
Abeam. Abeam. Abeam!

ENGLISH

Where is hope?
Where is hope?
Where is hope?
It is not here.
It is not here.
I should leave. I should leave. I should leave!
))

((This part is for Larry's stopwatch. "Source" refers to Terrain, "Secondary" refers to By the Bay:

ReMix: 0:00 - 0:06 -> Source: 5:22 - 5:36
ReMix: 0:07 - 1:47 -> Source: 2:08 - 2:46 (original material in oboe line)
ReMix: 0:57 - 2:00 -> Secondary: 0:13 - 0:26 prominent, but present through the rest of By the Bay (xylophone, modified to fit harmonically)
ReMix: 1:47 - 2:22 -> Source: 4:14 - 4:48
ReMix: 2:12 - 3:16 -> Source: 0:00 - 1:05
ReMix: 3:16 - 3:35 -> Source: 0:59 - 1:05
ReMix: 3:35 - 3:59 -> Source: 2:47 - 2:59
ReMix: 4:00 - 5:28 -> Source: 3:00 - 3:49 (original countermelodies, expanded harmony)
ReMix: 5:29 - 5:49 -> Source: 3:50 - 4:01
))

---

Games & Sources

SimCity 4 - Terrain (by The Humble Brothers [Ken "hiwatt" Marshall, Traz Damji]): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCfimZEArAQ

SimCity 4 - By the Bay (by Jerry Martin): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6l1CsqZtnk4

Other soundtrack composers for database completeness: Anna Karney, Bob Marshall, Kent Jolly, Kirk Casey, Marc Russo, Michael Land, Robi Kauker, Walt Szalva

Edited Monday at 06:02 AM by Hemophiliac

[prophetik music]

opens with some percussive elements (bit of machine gun in there), and some lovely swells in the strings. this section feels a touch compressed whenever the orchestral percussion hit. oboe isn't particularly realistic (reminds me of the FFXII soundtrack actually) but i like what it's saying. good use of a complex scale for some of the runs. the chromatic elements at 1:32-1:34 aren't quite there.

this progresses through some more oboe noodles until we get to a break at 2:13 when the voice comes in. i think the voice part is a touch loud as it comes in - being farther in the distance i think would fit the very spare backing elements better. i like the processing on the voice however, it fits into the texture well. the oboe's a bit more exposed here as well. when the octaves come in at 3:32 it's clear that it's been heavily pitch-adjusted - make sure when you do pitch adjustment you don't take out the natural drift in your voice, or it'll sound robotic.

through 3:45 we start to build back to an orchestral setting. there's some repeated elements that have showed up a lot by this point (the descending tom fill, the hand percussion loop), so the small changes you've made here are really nice. i think this section really needs a lot more to distinguish it from the first two minutes - the bass clarinet lead section is nice, but overall it feels very much like the opening section where it's string pads and an oboe noodling on top. it's also pretty hard to hear what's going on in those melodic elements in some places. more dynamic backing elements, an updated hand percussion loop, more rhythmic elements in the background - this would all help a lot to keep it moving.

the track just ends after the source melody is over. there's a final note and that's it. some prep and outro after nearly six minutes of music would make a lot of sense there.

i think that there's some really neat ideas here. this is definitely an interesting reimagining of a classic tune and showcases some great concept work. i think there's some execution elements that need to be corrected before it's ready for primetime. the middle third drags and needs some balancing, and the last third needs something to give it more verve.

 

 

NO

[Liontamer]

At :18, the overall style and mood of this felt so close to the original. Though it sounds enjoyable to start, I was wondering where the differences would come from. Looks like it's original writing from the oboe at :48 that's meant to be the key; its sequencing's alright to me but it's definitely a stiff-sounding sample, so it could get dinged by others more for that reason. (Also, I see what you did there at 1:39).

Vocals brought in at 2:14 to add another dimension to things. At 2:34, the vocals should have taken longer to fade out; same at 2:47, 2:55, 3:08, 3:21, 3:28, 3:36. The way the vocals drop out each time makes them sound very raw/untreated in that final second; forgive me for not being able to better articulate what's going on there. First three notes of the bowed strings at 3:52 were super-exposed, though that was very brief.

Arrangement-wise, when you side-by-side this with the original, this can sometimes feel like a more stripped down take; I was wanting this to stand apart more from the original song in terms of the mood, but this is more about textural changes instead of major energy shifts. The percussion here's more simple and subdued, and while proph's not wrong in any of his critiques (samey percussion, oboe realism, vocal treatment taking some of the humanity out of it), I think what's here is effective enough to get by as a more subdued but different enough take. We'll see what the others say.

YES

[Emunator]

Loved this arrangement when I heard the first WIP back in Workshop Hours, and I love it now. Never would have guessed this was a Sim City arrangement, wonderful choice of source.

I have very few gripes until the vocals come in. I love the creative textural addition they add, but man they are LOUD in certain frequency ranges. I think there's a confluence of issues at play here - the panning is very wide, there's a specific frequency where the vocals peak as they're panning, they're rather dry and don't have any sort of reverb/delay trail to blend them in with the rest of the song, and the overall volume is loud on top of that. This is a showstopper for me because of how many times it repeats, it's honestly distracting in a way that has nothing to do with the actual quality of the vocals and everything to do with how they're placed into the song (which is a good thing - this should be easier to fix!)

Beyond that, the orchestration quality was solid enough to pass my bar, with some dings for realism on the lead instruments (oboe/bass clarinet specifically.) Those two instruments are also panned right on top of each other, mixed quietly, and drenched in a lot of reverb, so while the writing seems to suggest that they're harmonizing or doing more of a call and response, they feel more like they're stepping on each other more often than not. I think you need to evaluate the volume levels and stereo field placement for those leads specifically to make sure they have their own space in the mix to accommodate what you're doing with the arrangement.

Overall, this piece has a strong vibe to it and is easy to get lost in, in a good way. There's some very emotionally impactful moments and a lot of layering to the orchestration that shows how much care went into bringing this to life. There's really just two core elements that aren't clicking, and unfortunately because they're such critical aspects to the song, I can't sign off on this in its current state. I think you could get this up to par without much fuss though!

NO (resubmit!)

[Chimpazilla]

What interesting original source tunes, full of mystery, and so is the remix.  I love the emotional vibe that you've got going here, very creepy and melancholy.

I feel like the entire first two minutes of the remix are so repetitive; the backing chords (awesome as they are) just repeat over and over, verbatim.  The oboe lead with original writing is a nice touch, but it is mixed in quietly and distantly (a lot of reverb and no predelay), and the oboe patch is not very believable.  During these two minutes, nothing else of interest is happening, the tabla groove is the same all the way through.  There are some drum hits and rolls but they are comically quiet, and with no variation, they are the same each time.  Some drum writing variations, and some extra elements or ear candy would really make those two minutes more interesting.

I love the weird transition at 2:13!  But that same phrase repeats a lot of times.  As this section continues, I realize that it isn't a transition but a section unto itself, and nothing else very interesting is happening as this section moves along.  That feels like a lost opportunity to really advance the arrangement with additional elements, if not percussion or ear candy, at least some dreamy atmo or textures could come in during this section, to really accentuate the emotional vibe.  The filtered vocal during this section does have some loud midrangey frequencies as Emu pointed out.

At 3:52 the string patch isn't keeping up with the fast note pattern due to its attack which is a tad too long for that section of writing.  Other than that, and the oboe and bass clarinet not sounding real, the rest of the instrumentation works well enough.

I agree with my fellow Js that this arrangement has a ton of promise, it is really interesting, creepy and emotional.  But it's not quite there yet in terms of production.  I agree with Emu that this arrangement could be brought up to par with just a few tweaks and additions.  Hope to hear it again!

NO (resubmit)

[Hemophiliac]

Well this certainly has come a long way from it's first steps last year. I'm happy you've gone from being a long-time fan to diving into producing and arranging, to now submitting! The vibe on this one is dark and contemplative, it creates an almost haunting atmosphere at times. I think for that aspect of things you've done a good job creating that feeling. In a macro-sense I like how the whole piece is laid out and how it flows. Your singing was done well, and the effect of filtering added more eeriness to go along with the other elements. At the same time too, the vocals are very loud and feel very on top of the other parts rather then sitting in the same space and same mix. The formants are loud as well specifically in the range of about 1,800~3,500Hz. If there's a boost there from an EQ, I suggest to reduce it some.

I feel like there's a lot that could've been done to help the piece feel less static and propelled forward.

The background elements sound okay, but the focal melody lines are very exposed letting us hear how sequenced and unreal they are. Barring better samples or a live performance from the oboe and bass clarinet extra attention to humanization would be needed to make them work better in a soloist's context (more attention to velocity, dynamics, timing, phrase lengths). Also there are percussion rolls that get the "machine-gun" effect (IE: hi-hat rolls 0:18, 1:08 concert tom, 2:23 piano roll). At times the leads do also wander about and noodle. Not the worst I've heard, but it definitely could be improved upon.

Right now, there's a lot of issues adding up rather than one singular large issue to focus on. There's a great concept here, however; it needs better execution of production/humanization, and consideration of how to reduce the static feel and noodling.

NO