*NO* Blood "Fate of the Damned"

[prophetik music]

This was made exclusive for the Halloween and it has a dark and spooky mood.

Synthesizers used for the cover.

You can download the track from the link below,

[removed]

---

Games & Sources

Game : Blood (1997)

Blood is a 3D first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by GT Interactive
and developed using Ken Silverman’s Build engine.

Music Soundtrack written by Daniel Bernstein and Guy Whitmore.

Original track : Fate of the Damned

 

Edited 4 hours ago by jnWake

[prophetik music]

opens with wide pads, a growling bass, and some bell-like instruments. whatever instruments are playing up high are doing something that consistently clashes with what's below it, and similarly there's occasionally a growl down low (like at 0:21 and 0:28) that's colliding with the bass. the texture clears up a bit at 0:44 or so, and then moves to the b theme at about 0:59.

1:27's a recap of the original melodic material. this is probably the first time we don't essentially have what's in the original relayed directly with slightly new instruments. the mix is still cluttered and over-dense, but at least it's different. 2:26 starts an outro section. this progresses towards an unresolved bVI chord and then it's done.

there's very little arrangement going on here that's not just replacement of the original instruments. separately, the mix itself is pretty dense, with a lot of audible limiter engages and several elements that run into each other. this needs a lot more attention in the arrangement department before it'd be above the bar there, and separately needs some more focus and EQing in the mix to prevent it from being so messy-sounding.

 

 

NO

[Chimpazilla]

Very conservative arrangement, in fact the artist did mention that it is a cover.  This arrangement is too conservative for OCR, although I like this direction for a spooky remix.  Cool listen for Halloween, but I agree with proph that the mix is extremely dense, and I hear the limiter pumping as it gets engaged on the big hits.  Very cool idea for a remix but needs a mixing/mastering overhaul and needs to be more than just a cover for OCR, it needs some writing personalizations along with the new instrumentation. 

NO

[jnWake]

What an odd source you picked, very fitting for Halloween!

Anyway, this begins exactly like the source, with more modern sounds of course. There's a very deep menacing bass and some heavy saw synths setting the mood, with a bright synth on the back and the main melody playing as well. Some hand percussion joins on the second repetition and starts adding elements on each repetition. Mix here is quite busy, all elements are loud so nothing truly stands out as the "main element". In fact, the main melody is arguably the least present element. It's also a loud mix. Around 0:44 we move to a second section that's similar to the second section of the source, although the timings are slightly different. Around 1:00 we move to a new section, based on the 3rd one from the source... Basically, we're keeping the same structure as the original. Mix continues to be very busy and it's hard to pick out the main melodies. There's a new section at 1:27, once again following the source's structure. After a little less than a minute we reach a break/transition at 2:24 and then the track ends on some bright synth arpeggios/melodies.

On the arrangement side, as other judges pointed out, this is more akin to a "remaster" than a "remix" (at least, this site's definition of "remix"). Structure of the cover is basically the same as the original (bar the ending) and melodic elements are almost 1:1. Now, don't get me wrong, this is a valid approach, but OCR is dedicated to posting stuff that reimaginates the source in some way. For example, if structure/melodies/chords aren't changed much, maybe the genre is changed and that adds enough of a new spin for a cover to fit the site. Here, however, you went for the same "genre" and mood than the original.

On the production side, I enjoy the samples you picked, they're fitting for what you set out to do. There's a constant creepy/unsettling feel that's very well done. I also enjoyed the small sound effects you used in a few places (like that bass dip around 1:56). That said, the mix itself is extremely busy, everything is super loud so it's hard to focus on any particular element. It's a "wall of sound", but not in a good way.

Overall, this is a nice "remaster" of the original. However, that's not really what OCR posts. That said, there's definitely space to improve the balancing on the mix.

NO