OCR04812 - Legend of Zelda & LoZ: ALttP "Zelda by Lamplight"

[Liontamer]

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

[shodan]

This is a marriage between a completely failed attempt at some kind of purely atonal take on the dark world dungeon theme, and a few other (original) themes I had laying around that I couldn't think of anything to do with. The top end of the part at :53 is mostly original, and just happened to work very nicely with the dark would theme in the cello. The parts I'm most happy with, though, are the takes on the original dungeon theme at around 2:03 and 2:44. The original is dark and dissonant, but I think it makes for a very beautiful theme (granted, it took completely altering the underlying harmony). 

The reference to "Ganon's Message" wasn't even intentional, but I've probably listened to the soundtrack often enough that it made its way into the piece unconsciously. I was actually confused for a minute when @Liontamer pointed it out before listening again and realizing what I did. The opening at .35 was intended as something more like a canon on the creepy tremolo riff in the dark world dungeon theme, but I realize now that this motif itself is actually only an alteration of a similar motif in Ganon's Message. Koji Kondo does this quite a bit -- the soundtracks are full of references to or alterations of ideas from other themes, or other soundtracks (I firmly believe that the ascending arpeggios in the ALttP light world dungeon theme are a direct reference to the ascending arpeggios in the original Zelda dungeon theme). This actually makes synthesizing all of the different themes much easier.

I definitely get the general opinion of the intro. It's a bit out of place, but when I had started writing, I was treating the piece more as some kind of serialist exercise. I got some good material out of it, but nothing that I could manage to turn into an entire composition. I kept a few bars in the intro as a bit of a joke, but I think most people are right that it doesn't really add much. I actually agree with the panel that if I were to submit it over again, I would probably just leave it out.

As for the strings: Some physical modelling, some samples. A few places actually have some different sound sources layered on top of each other. The trick to making solo strings samples/models work is that you have to micromanage absolutely everything. Most of the work is in fine tuning the dynamics and making sure things like attack and vibrato sound good. I'm not actually a string player, so I think I did a pretty good job, but some things didn't work so well now that I listen to everything again (e.g. the attack of the violin at 1:10 sticks out to me now as especially grating).

[Crulex]

I quite enjoyed this, and while I can understand where others may not have cared for the intro, I liked the joke. This is a very solid arrangement and the strings sound very good. Love the way the dungeons were used here. Really nice debut mix.