Liontamer ⚖️ Posted July 2 Posted July 2 Artists: Pixels & Paradiddles (pixelseph, paraddidlesjosh), Zack Parrish, Cyril the Wolf Okay this time this really is your Dracula's castle After swearing off of doing a main for Dwelling of Duels this year to focus on other projects, they went and hit us with a second-month-in-a-row of double-feature themes that cross-pollinate with Pixel Mixers - namely, Nintendo DS/3DS Month (PM's is Handheld Games month 😃). And, y'know, we simply must clown around with our fellow metalheads for some Castlevania after how fun GSM2 and David Wise month was last year! This is the cursed fruit of this month's labors: an 8-minute progressive metal journey, complete with vocals from Pixels and Cyril! Timestamps with source usage included after the obligatory Stats for Larry Nerds! STATS FOR NERDS: Key: E minor, E harmonic minor, A major Time/Tempo: 4/4 @ 142 BPM, 7/8 @ 172 BPM, 6/8 @ 74 BPM Credits: pixelseph - lead guitar, lead vocals, lyrics, arrangement paradiddlesjosh - drum programming zackparrish - rhythm guitar, acoustic guitars, organ, mixing, mastering cyrilthewolf - bass, backing vocals VSTi Used: Native Instruments Vintage Organs, BFD Drums BFD 3 (core library, Sabian Vault) VST Used: Nectar 4, Neoverb, Ozone 11, Sonitus Delay, Sonitus EQ, Heavyocity Gravity, SDRR2, Guitar Rig 7, Kontakt 8, Sonitus Compressor Pixelseph's guitars recorded using a Line 6 Variax JTV-59 through a Line 6 Helix LT interface; vocals recorded using a Scarlett CM25 mk-II through an SSL 2 interface. Zack Parrish's acoustic guitars recorded using a Taylor 224CE-K and Kremona Verea on two Shure SM81s through a Scarlett 18i20 interface; electric guitars recorded using a Schecter Hellraiser C-7 FRS through a Scarlett 18i20 interface. Cyril the Wolf's basses recorded using a Yamaha RBx765a through a MXR Bass Compressor -> Tech21 SansAmp VT Bass into an Audient id14 mk-II, clean DI recorded using a Rupert Neve Designs RNDI; vocals recorded using a Sennheiser 865e through a Saffire Pro40 ADAT into an Audient id14 mk-II SOURCE USAGE: Intro (:00 - :42) - Demon Castle Pinnacle D section [1:51 - 2:02] Interlude 1 [chorus riff] (:43 - 1:17) - DCP Theme [:04 - :11] Theme 1 (1:17 - 1:31) - DCP Theme [:04 - :11] Verse 1 (1:32 - 2:25) - DCP A section [:12 - :54] Prechorus 1 (2:26 - 2:35) - Cursed Clock Tower [:56 - 1:03] Chorus 1 (2:36 - 3:05) - DCP Theme [:04 - :11] Theme 2 (3:06 - 3:19) - DCP Theme [:04 - :11] Verse 2 (3:20 - 4:12) - DCP A section [:12 - :54] Solo 1 [organ] (4:13 - 4:42) - DCP B section [:54 - 1:23] Prechorus 2 (4:42 - 4:51) - Cursed Clock Tower [:56 - 1:03] Chorus 2 (4:52 - 5:20) - DCP Theme [:04 - :11] Bridge (5:21 - 6:44) - A Fleeting Respite B section [:54 - 1:26] Re-Intro (6:45 - 6:56) - DCP D section [1:51 - 2:02] Outro (6:57 - 8:32) - AFR A section [:10 - :54] LYRICS: Black, black out the sky now Storm clouds made of bats Hunters of blood, purging weakness Hide the light Hide in plain sight Hide on your own Still, still as a statue Gargoyles alive Harpies and gorgons On the war path Look away Medusa’s gaze Turn you to stone Take in darkness Dracula’s essence Beyond undeath Beyond judgment Belmonts, demons, Vampire heathens, Whip cracks, undead Hunter: hunted Souls, souls for the harvest Screams and gnashing of teeth Nothing but chaos everlasting Circle of moon A portrait of ruin The dawning of sorrow Death, death of the world Death of a selfish aristocrat And his lavish Castle halls Castle walls Castle falls Take in darkness Dracula’s essence Beyond undeath Beyond judgment Belmonts, demons Vampire heathens Whip cracks, undead Hunter: hunted Games & Sources Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Demon Castle Pinnacle (uses the Theme [:04 - :11] in 7/8 (choruses) and 12/8 (pre-verse/theme riff), the A section [:12 - :54] for the verses, the B section [:54 - 1:23] for the organ solo, and the D section [1:51 - 2:02] for the intro) Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - A Fleeting Respite (uses the A section [:10 - :54] for the outro and the B section [:54 - 1:26] for the bridge) Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Cursed Clock Tower (only includes a brief quote of the CV3-inspired stabs @ :56 - 1:03)
prophetik music ⚖️ Posted July 16 Posted July 16 opens with sustains and some (kinda cheesy) descending organ blocks. this is a nice patient intro that'd be home on several of the tracks off of Systematic Chaos by DT. the bass riff into band riffage with the tight kit behind it into a more complex version of the same thing is a classic escalation mechanic. bass tone in here is excellent, really like the bite. vocals come in at 1:31. seph's clean vocals here could use more bite in the tone imo, or even possibly a touch of distortion to add some edge. the guitars are so biting here as is the backing vocals, so something with more edge would have worked really nice. the diction and pitching is great though, even through the melismatic passages. the electric squeal in the right ear at 2:13 is unsettlingly loud and hurt my ears, it's a cool idea but needed to be quieter. i did the "ooh yeah" face at 2:25 - that double-time ensemble section right there is great, and it flows well into the 7/8 section right after it. there's a slam transition at 3:04 into...more of the same band stuff, which was a little surprising - i really expected an exploratory section after such a significant transition. there's a crunch at 3:49 that i thought was clipping but was just backing vocals being fried. after 4:00ish we get the ensemble section we've been waiting for. the organ here maybe needed a touch more room sound on it as it felt pretty dry (might just be the density of the backing parts). there's another 'chorus' section and then we get into an extended break section. this starts with a Tristram-esque acoustic section around the second part of Fleeting Respite that is beautifully recorded and played. i liked the detail on the drum work here as well. there's a few weird notes that don't quite fit in the end of it, but it's mostly not a problem. there's some more of the organ stacks around the big guitar slams (organ doesn't sound 100% in time), and some classic whoa-oh cyril stuff, and the backing guitar rhythm in here sounds pretty dope. i wouldn't have minded more verb on the vocals to help them be more choral and less like Hear N' Aid. we get a guitar solo after this that is excellent, and then a sudden ending that isn't particularly prepped. ending is kind of a let-down after such a big work - i'd actually have been fine with a fade-out as it's stylistically appropriate, but even a bigger fill going into that ending would have been nice. this is a huge undertaking and it's a fantastic result. from a compositional perspective, this is superb - there's a ton of interweaving of the different elements, it's super fun without being medleyitis, there's loads of creative adaptation throughout, and the performance of it is excellent as well. the mix is overall really solid as well despite all the parts - there's a few nits here and there, but overall this sounds professionally produced. superb work. YES pixelseph 1
Hemophiliac ⚖️ Posted August 3 Posted August 3 This one feels more like a riff-based approach compared to previous works I've heard from you guys. I found the approach to be very surgical in the chopped-up nature of the source usage. You might want to use some cautery on that riff, it's leaking BLOOD. 2:14 the vocal grunge held note crossing into the guitar pinch squeal was absolutely rad. My initial concern with this was the amount of source usage, but after quite a few listens and going back-and-forth between arrangement and source there's plenty. I was thrown off by taking the small bits from the source and turning them into riffs to be used. It's like Frankenstein's monster, taking the best bits from the source that you liked and pieced them back together into a new amalgam of audio. Acoustic guitar section was an awesome break and contrast from the heaviness surrounding it. Transitioning back to the heavy bits was done well and felt great to get back to them after the acoustic contrast. The ending does come out of nowhere, that was disappointing. Something about either the arrangement or mixdown made the vocals feel somewhat more isolated from the other parts and less supported. Not sure which contributed specifically to that feeling, but I wanted to point it out as it was the one thing throughout the track that did bother me some. Aside from the ending, the arrangement itself was handled masterfully, the production was clean, and the performances were very nice. YES pixelseph 1
jnWake ⚖️ Posted August 4 Posted August 4 (edited) I remember this one from DoD (well, it wasn't too long ago haha). You guys already provided a pretty thorough source breakdown so I won't comment that much on that. Anyway, this begins with heavy guitars and a rock organ doing silly chords on top. There's something slightly corny about the organ sound that I can't really decide if I hate or love, but I generally love distorted organs so I'll go with that! At 0:44 we move into a heavy bass riff which is arguably one of the most liberal uses of the sources in here. As proph mentioned the DT vibes are insane, the riff at 1:18 feels straight out of one of their albums. Vocals enter around 1:30 and the usage of backing vocals also gives me heavy DT vibes. The note at 1:45 seems weirdly loud for some reason. Often in mixes we comment on vocals being buried by the instruments but here I feel there's a bit of the opposite, I think they could use some more compression as there's the occasional vocal peak that takes over the mix a tad. Riff at 2:25 is very cool. I hadn't commented on it yet but drum writing is insane, so many cool fills and details. Riff change around 3:05 is awesome but I found it odd to return to the same melody on vocals instead of changing it up for this section. Nice change-up at 4:00 and nice organ solo afterwards! As a mega nitpick I missed some more chords and slides on the organ solo for maximum organ cheese. There's a repeat of one of the main melodies around 4:52. There's a much needed break around 5:25, impeccably recorded and performed. This lasts around a minute and after a repeat of the intro we get into a "woaahh" section at 6:57 that sounds really good. Honestly the track could've ended just here. The guitar solo was cool still, nice ending! On arrangement this is really cool. I love how you took the sources and used them as "musical material" for your ideas. Some people are nitpicky about covers keeping the spirit of the original but I always enjoy the musical exercise of building something different with the musical ideas of the sources. My main nitpick about the arrangement is that it takes a lot of time for the break to arrive and there's a lot of repetition on the vocal melodies (DCP A section is sang a toooon of times), but still that's far from a dealbreaker. On production this sounds great, although I have a few nits. Main one is that there's points where the vocals take over the mix for a couple seconds. Second is (and I know Josh will hate me for this) that I feel the snare has too much high frequency content and I think that may be causing it to sound a bit squashed. If you look at the track waveform in some parts (as an example, the repeated hits around 1:17) you can see it peak very clearly on snare hits and if you isolate frequencies (I used a multiband compressor) you'll notice that the snare stands out a ton around the 1.5k-3k range. This is no way a dealbreaker but something that caught my ear. Other than those small details this sounds great, guitars and bass in particular have nasty tones that I love. Overall, this is a really good track! 8 minute tracks are tough to pull off and although I have some nitpicks this is clearly way above the bar. YES Edited August 4 by jnWake
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