Liontamer ⚖️ Posted June 15 Posted June 15 Artist Name: minusworld My Dwelling of Duels entry from Forest vs. Jungle month, where it placed 4th (behind Hemo's arrangement debut at DoD!) The squad: * Xander Plute - flute * Roland N. Laracuente Martínez - bass guitar * Cyril the Wolf - lead vocals * Nalani "Unfocused in IA" Proctor - vocals, choir * me - arrangement, production, guitars, VSTs While searching for sources to cover for Forest vs. Jungle month, I actually found that I wasn't connecting with very many. Macalania Woods from FFX is one of my favorite VGM tunes, but it's a little chill for my style. Many forest themes were on the slower side, and many jungle themes were outside of my wheelhouse for the DoD deadline. I found this tune for Noctilum and was like "whoa." Now, I am actually one of maybe 10 people on the planet who played Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U, but for some reason the music wasn't something that wedged itself in my memory. But, the tune was awesome and I had actually played the game, so I decided to go for it. The daytime version of this song is already so good, so I decided my approach would be to just extend it into a listening experience you might hear on a Two Steps from Hell album. The source has a rock band, an orchestra, cool hand percussion, tons of electronic ear candy, and of course, vocals. Given the DoD timeline, I wasn't confident I would be able to do everything justice at the mix stage, so I made the decision to cut a lot of the electronic components and focus on the band, orchestra, and vocals. I ain't no Emunator. :) I knew I wanted to introduce the vocals at the end of the arrangement to elevate their impact, and I knew I wanted to add a funky flute solo because why not? With these ingredients, my initial outline was to treat the source's prominent flute melody like a "chorus" and do two build-ups to both, with the flute solo between them. If you drew the dynamics as a line from left-to-right, it would look like two right-leaning mountain peaks. The source has daytime and nighttime variants, so I borrowed some elements from the nighttime tracks to make the final arrangement. I cut the electronic, Terraria-like intro from the daytime version altogether and ended up with this. I'll label the source daytime and nighttime sections, then use them in the arrangement map. Daytime * Electronic intro * A section (strings, flute lead) * B1 section (tense strings) * B2 section (slap bass, flute lead) * Chorus A (vocals) * Chorus B (flute melody) * Transition 1 * C section (palm muted guitars, flute melody) * D section (female vocals + flute lead) * Outro ("whoa-oh"s) Nighttime * A section (string, flute lead) * B1 section (marimba) * B2 section (add percussion) * Chorus B (flute melody) * Chorus C (low flute + brass melody) * C section (flute melody) * D section (flute lead, quiet "whoa-oh"s) * Outro * Arrangement - Source * A section (strings, rhythm guitar, flute lead) - Daytime A * B section (strings, marimba, djent) - Nighttime B1, B2 * Chorus B (AG melody into EG + flute melody) - Nighttime Chorus B * Funky flute solo - n/a * C section (palm muted guitars, EG melody, flute solo extended) - Daytime C * D section (female vox lead) - Daytime D * A' section (rhythm guitar, synths) - blend of Daytime A and B1 * B' section (flute lead) - Daytime B2 * Chorus A - Daytime Chorus A * Chorus B - Daytime Chorus B * Chorus C - Nighttime Chorus C * Outro - Daytime Outro I asked Xander to improv the flute solo, and he extended it into the C section which I thought sounded awesome. I felt that section was lacking before I got his solo, so it was awesome to hear he had already solved the problem for me! I was planning to track bass myself but ended up traveling for 10 days of the month... Roland can handle anything and his playing style has a really nice attack that I knew would be excellent for what I wanted on this track. He totally killed it. Fun fact, the vocals in the source are actually samples. But real vocals are better, so I asked anonymously in the DoD discord for a singer and when Cyril responded I knew he would bring the lead singer energy needed here since I am familiar with his covers. And bring it he did, sending me not one, not two, not three, but seven stacked stems to give the part the energy it deserves. ONE BY OOONEE! Unfocused in IA also responded to my request, which ended up being a welcome surprise because I didn't initially plan on having female vocals. I sent her the choir VST renders and she shot me back some stems which I loved so much I mixed it as the feature for the D section! It was a complete joy to work with everyone on this track. I'm grateful to you all! I hope listeners find something to enjoy in this take on Noctilum, and check out the source if you haven't! Games & Sources Xenoblade Chronicles X - Noctilum Day, Noctilum Night These two tracks are together on the soundtrack as "N木ig木ht木L", which is also where this arrangement title comes from: > The three "木" in the track's name are a reference to the character "森" (mori), meaning "forest," which is composed of three "木" characters. cf. https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/N木ig木ht木L https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re9-5p8ApBA
Liontamer ⚖️ Posted June 16 Author Posted June 16 Well, gawddang, I love the sources and I love this. Feels like something one of the composer bands like Zuntata could have envisioned. I’ve got nothing to say but YES. That’s gonna make this writeup tough! :-)
prophetik music ⚖️ Posted June 20 Posted June 20 we reviewed this on the 6/18 NO SHOW. we all really enjoyed this. particularly i enjoyed the bass and flute elements - felt the flute really fit perfectly, and xander did a great job with it. i'll admit i thought that 0:47 was gonna be in 7/8 when i heard it first =) the shape of the track is great, and there's excellent energy throughout both in the arrangement and in the performances. i wish there was more of an ending, but that's a personal preference. i'm not going to do a full writeup since you can listen to the live show, but this is an easy vote for me. YES
Chimpazilla ⚖️ Posted June 20 Posted June 20 I have found it impossible to remix anything from any Xenoblade source as the music is too detailed and perfect, and the arrangements are complex and usually long. This one is no exception. One day I'll try one! Maybe! This arrangement starts out super strong and stays balls to the walls all the way through. The first 30 seconds are VERY conservative to the source song, so I was initially concerned, but after that point the remix arrangement took off in some amazingly creative directions. All of the performances are excellent. The ending is anticlimactic and ends on an odd note with no resolution, and that is disappointing, but other than that, this arrangement rocks so hard. The strings from 0:31-0:46 and again from 2:30-2:47 sound alright as a pad, but would be better with some automated swells to make them sound more natural and real. I love the pad at 1:31 so much, the cool jazzy vibe in that section up to 2:00 is a highlight for me personally! The vox in the next section are really nice too. The guitars and drums and flute are all awesome. This is a truly excellent take on this complex and beautiful source song. The production is good, things are very well balanced and mixed. The master is a bit dull though, and could have used a touch of harmonic exciter to bring out the sparkle. YES
paradiddlesjosh ⚖️ Posted June 26 Posted June 26 It's pretty clear this one's well above the bar. Source usage seems to check out, performances are superb -- Xander's flute solo at 1:31 is a real treat, Roland has a showcase of textural approaches to the bass part throughout, minus's guitar work is on point as usual, and Cyril and Unfocused in IA brought some lovely vocal takes to bear -- and the mix is tight. I think we can all agree the ending is weaker than we'd like, but it's a nitpick. NIce work, y'all. YES
pixelseph ⚖️ Posted June 28 Posted June 28 This one was a particular highlight in the No Show as it fired on all cylinders from the jump, and only really started to let me down on the ending. On subsequent relistens, I'm satisfied with how it ends - it's set up by the passage right before it, though that wasn't obvious to me on the first listen through. Excellent performances from all involved in an excellent arrangement. YES
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