Liontamer Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 (edited) ReMixer name: Astral Tales Real name: Ernesto Bernal Website: astraltales.bandcamp.com Submission Information Name of game arranged: Blue Shadow/Shadow of the Ninja Name of arrangement: Astral Ninjas Name of individual song arranged: Stage 2 Own comments about the mix: I loved this game when I was a child and this song comes to my head from time to time, so I had to pay tribute to it in some way. Creating this remix was a fun journey. Since the OST of this game has an epic feel to it, I decided to add some thrashy guitars and a progression of strings to make it big and epic. I also wanted to add some Japanese instruments, and ended up including the classic flute we all have listened to in these ancient ninja movies. As for the lead melody, I decided to add a synth to pay tribute to the 8-bit sound of the NES. It's a quite crunchy saw that worked pretty well and cut the mix in a cool way. Regarding the structure, I modified it quite a bit, as the original is pretty short, so I added and changed some parts to give it more coherence in a non-looped song. I hope you enjoy it! Cheers! Ernesto Bernal Edited 8 hours ago by Hemophiliac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 23 Author Share Posted September 23 Shakuhachis always win with me. :-) Seriously though, glad to hear someone else in the community finally touch this underrated soundtrack. The mixing here sounds lossy, but it's serviceable. Cool call-and-response treatment of the melody at 1:20. Wish there were more differences in the presentation at 1:47, which was a cut-and-paste of :20's section. Same with :51 vs. 2:18. 2:32 slowed things down for the final rendition of the chorus before a quick finish. Much like your initial version of your Gremlins 2 mix, there's stong, creative arrangement ideas but then too much is copied wholesale. You could keep the track interesting & engaging throughout by varying up the instrumentation, textures, and/or writing after 1:47. If the mixing can also have more high-end clarity, that would be nice, though it's not necessary. Good potential here, Ernesto! :-) NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted September 23 Share Posted September 23 opens with a pretty filtered feel to a shakuhachi and some strings, but it makes more sense when the guitars come in soon after. guitars and drums are huge volume-wise, but the strings fill in a bit and the lead is indeed a neat crunchy feel. the drums mostly are on autopilot outside of a few fills. there's some ensemble breaks for emphasis and then we're into some more copied elements, as larry calls out. i liked the half-time section at the end as a way to mix it up and help let down some of the intensity. i agree there is too much copy/paste. i'll also note that the guitars and drums are like twice as loud as they need to be to still be punchy - as it is, that's all i can hear most of the time. i think this is maybe 90s of solid material here that could easily be a three-minute banger with some more work to diversify and avoid repetition. as it is, there's too much repeated material right now. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted 8 hours ago Share Posted 8 hours ago Really cool vibe on this one, and I would love to see this on the site. However, there are some problems that should be addressed first. The drums are very repetitive and bland, playing a simple pattern that rarely gives a fill at the end of phrases. Melodically there's some embellishments that are appreciated, but the second half of the song is pretty much identical to the first, except for some half time drums at the end (which was a cool way to change things up). But before you know it, the arrangement is over with a whimper. The change-up in feel was good, it just came too late when it was needing to be done sooner. The production is handled mostly well, with minor imbalances as pointed out by prophetik. I would love to see the arrangement varied up with more time taken to look at the percussion and other places variation could be applied (such as melody or overall structure). I would also like to see this back as I feel this one has potential and want to see it on the front page with some changes. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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