Liontamer Posted September 16, 2024 Share Posted September 16, 2024 (edited) Artist Name: TheManPF Additional artists: Zach Chapman; Angry Polar Bear (Chris Doughty) Worm time, I made this all the way back in 2022 for Dwelling of Duels' Dreamcast week, I never actually touched a Dreamcast, but I did play this game on PC, so it was my first pick because of familiarity. It also happened to be my highest ranking entry in DoD ever (tied with Rib Eye Rodeo), who would've thought? I didn't, I did the original version in 2 days, and it's one of my most straightforward arrangements ever, but people seemed to enjoy it. The original version was a solo project, however a few months after I decided to put out a "definitive" edition, something that makes this piece a little more "complete", I brought in Zach to help me with the bass, and Angry Polar Bear (how is he not in here already! how!!!) to help with some of the narrating bits of the original Wormsongs. Originally, this was just an arrangement of Armageddon's version of Wormsong, no vocals, but when I expanded on it, I added the original Worms' version to it, Chris gave it life by doing the narration for both parts, and I did some speedup tricks for the choruses to make it sound like a bunch of wormies singing (or chipmunks, whichever way you choose to look at it). In the end this feels a lot better about telling the legend of Boggy B in full, with all the drama and tension that entails. Arrangement wise this is as straight as it gets, I only had a week to work on this (which got reduced to a couple days because of work), and whenever I have little time, I always go back to my roots, lots of metal with symphonic bits, which is the usual style I used to make when I had a regular schedule on youtube, maybe I should go back to doing more of these? Who knows. Lyrics: This is a story of courage, honor, and Worms War had cast a shadow over their once-peaceful land Gunfire filled the air, as Worm turned against Worm Where so many had fallen, others knew they must follow For one such Worm, this day had already come When he was two, his father had left - never to return Three years he had waited for his chance to fight Three years of training, both day and night And though he was scared as he set off for battle He knew in his heart it was something he must do Three inches tall and armed to the teeth, a fine soldier he made And his name was Boggy B (We are Worms, we're the best, and we've come to win the war We'll stand, we'll never run; stay until it's done Though our friends may fall and our world be blown apart We'll strike with all our might, we'll fight for what is right Till the end) Many Moons have passed, since the Worms went to war Onwards and upwards, bigger weapons than before Boggy B took cover, he shivered on patrol The arms race crazy, simply way out of control Then his friend threw it, the latest device Boggy B went and got it, against all advice (What the...?!) His tail was split, and his energy lost How many more will this dreaded war cost? Then came the Nuke, and the disease tumbling down If the bug didn't get you, you'd probably drown But the Worms battled on, through hunger and pain Living to fight, just to victor again And now it's the curtain call, the final onslaught No better bullet could you possibly have bought But spare a thought for Boggy and with it his friend So fight with their honour, and fight until the end (We are Worms, we're the best, and we've come to win the war We'll stand, we'll never run; stay until it's done Though our friends may fall and our world be blown apart We'll strike with all our might, we'll fight for what is right Till the end) Games & Sources Games: Worms; Worms Armageddon Songs arranged: Wormsong (https://youtu.be/c0RlZsE3o6E); Wormsong '98 (https://youtu.be/fXl4WsFfI4Q) Original composer: Bjørn Lynne System: played on PC but apparently came out for Dreamcast as well Year: 1995 and 1999 Edited Wednesday at 01:01 PM by prophetik music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted September 26, 2024 Share Posted September 26, 2024 (edited) i played a ton of worms armageddon hotseat-style with friends back in the day. i recognized the '98 version right away. opens with a ton of gun sfx (trigger warning?) and strings outlining the initial arp that's in both versions of the game. drums, piano, and bass comes in soon after and are pretty peppy. the voiceover is solid - i like the pitch of it, it fits well into the overall feel alongside the strings. the chorus at 1:29 got a chuckle - the original worms singing in wormsong were similarly silly, so i get the idea but it still sounds so weird next to the more serious background. guitar solo into the big ritard was nice too - may have been a bit bright for the texture. i like the break after the solo, as a palate cleanser before the much more intense second half. this is a neat homage to the differences between the original wormsong and the '98 version. 2:36's transition is great, and of course the more intense backing guitar and other elements here sound great. the voiceover's a little more cluttered here - a bit more formant in the voiceover would probably have been enough to ensure it cut through enough. drums in this section are also a bit rote through maybe 3:55 or so. i liked the brass in the background, but found the guitar to be a bit treble-heavy through here, and it's hard to hear much outside of the rhythm guitar in this section. i liked the reference to the holy hand grenade and the outro sfx as well. this is a great idea and a fun track! there's some great elements in here that reference some of the more entertaining parts of the game. i appreciate the variety of styles you've got represented here in different measures as well. aside from some of the volumization and EQ notes, i think this sounds really solid from start to finish. certainly the arrangement is great. excellent work. YES edit 1/29: comments about the mixdown and plosives are correct on re-listen. lack of punch is notable and a problem. the voiceover probably needs the formant boosted in the heavier sections to help it speak. NO Edited Wednesday at 01:01 PM by prophetik music bar readjustment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 I'd have to time out the music to be sure it's arranging the sources for more than 50%, but the overall concept seemed solid. Strings at :05 sounded really bright/piercing yet had no clarity, which didn't bode well for the overall mixing. Immediately not feeling the drums at :29, which sound super duper hollow and fake, which dragged down the overall cohesion. The drum writing should be more punchy and interesting for the first section (and somewhat in the second half like proph noted), but otherwise the writing throughout the tracks seems cool and doesn't need to be touched as long as the source usage is dominant. Piano at :29's also very mechanical-sounding, then the string sustains are particularly exposed from :38-:48. Voiceover at :48 seemed to be occupying some of the same frequencies as the music, because it wasn't cutting through to the foreground. At 1:01, some bowed strings entered the background and the soundscape felt muddy. Lots of clarity issues. Vocals moved over into chipmunk stuff at 1:28 (I know it's Worms-inspired); they weren't understandable at all (less so than the source's vocals), but I'll live. Shift at 2:13 to the Worms 98 version of the source. Around 2:27-2:37, was hearing lot of plossives and heavy breath, like there was no pop shield for the recording mic. From 2:45-3:05, the voiceover's completely bowled over by the music. Maybe on monitors this didn't sound problematic, but on headphones it sounds like mud. This is a cool concept, but poorly mixed. I'd argue the voiceover stuff felt too similar to the original sources, but I'll live, since the music itself is transformative. The sample realism issues I had didn't make a difference in the second half, but definitely hurt the first two minutes in a significant way. Needs more production TLC before we can roll with it. Good base here, regardless! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted Monday at 03:45 PM Share Posted Monday at 03:45 PM Totally on Larry's side (twice in one day? What a world we're living in) in terms of the string mix - the writing is great, but the articulations used feel too sluggish and lack the proper transient to really cut through the mix. Once the rest of the instrumentation kicks in, the impact of this issue is mitigated. As I go through this, I think the overall mastering on the track needs some attention. I don't usually comment on mastering in my votes, because usually I can isolate frequency balance issues to specific instruments, but in this case, I think the whole thing is just too bright. You can hear this in the drum kit, the sibilance in the voiceover, and the harsh tone of the strings and guitar that leads me to believe that there are mixing issues being accentuated by a mastering chain that's not ideal for your arrangement. Seconding the crits on the drums, those just don't hit like they should. I don't have any issues with the writing, but the kick has a lot of audible click, the snare lacks presence in the mix and feels like it's scooped out of the midrange too much. The rest of the kit sits alright, though the cymbals are extra harsh due to the issues I mentioned in the last paragraph. The voiceover is a great addition, my only issue is with the mix - for the first half, it feels like it sits too far forward in the mix on certain words, which suggests a lack of compression and volume shaping to get more consistent peaks. Then, when the rhythm guitars enter, they are getting totally lost. I don't envy your job of having to mix that, but the VO noticeably goes from too audible, to not audible enough. I'd do some very selective EQ cuts on the rhythm guitars wherever the fundamental frequency of Chris's voice resides. The arrangement is tremendously dynamic but the mixing and mastering is causing problems. I haven't touched much on the arrangement and performances because those are rock-solid - your high placement in the month should speak to your success on a conceptual level and I absolutely enjoy everything you brought to the table here, but the mixing/mastering needs some TLC in my opinion. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted Wednesday at 05:58 AM Share Posted Wednesday at 05:58 AM So this is fun, I enjoy the whole concept of the piece. Holy hand grenade included with that. Mr. Chapman's bass performance is excellent, and I found the voice-over fit nicely. What isn't working is the mixdown. It's lacking a lot of clarity between parts, and missing crispness. There's a tilt towards the top-end of frequencies making everything much brighter. This in turn is making the bass lose some weight. With an awesome performance from Mr. Chapman, it's a shame it gets overshadowed and overpowered by the top end. Emunator is right to point out the specific instruments that are the biggest offenders of top-end crimes. The final section 2:39-4:50 really stepped up the energy nicely (adding the synth a nice touch), but the mix is so unclear that it's tough to tell what's going on. I don't know exactly what it is but everything just isn't sitting together and feeling cohesive as it should. I suspect there's some amount of compression or something in the master that's adding to the issues. There's a few plosives in the voice-over 2:24-2:39 that could be tamed, while they were not terrible; should be addressed. The arrangement was done well, but this battle was lost in the muddy trenches of mixing. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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