*NO* No Man's Sky "In the Shadow of the Crimson Eye"

[Liontamer ⚖️]

Artist Name: Pipko Fanfare

I love how the original source really captures the awe and majesty of coming face to face with infinity, and wanted to recreate that feeling with a cinematic orchestral take on it. The arrangement for this one came together quickly but production was more involved since I had very specific ideas of how I wanted everything to sound. Getting the dynamics just right on both the micro and macro level was going to be critical to this piece's success, as was subtle tempo automation to let the rhythm breathe properly.

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Games & Sources

Original source: "Escape Velocity" by 65daysofstatic for the game "No Man's Sky"

Edited 2 hours ago by Chimpazilla
closed decision

[prophetik music ⚖️]

opens with light strings and some winds for the melodic movement. the original's tempo feels a touch slower and definitely has more push-pull than this one does - the couplets here are closer, which condenses the piece's feel more than i'd expect. dynamics on a per-instrument basis are very good early on. the light gong usage at 0:33 is really nice, very subtle yet expansive.

0:51 is the shift from the early couplets to the block chords in the original. i did not particularly care for the scoring of these chords, especially the high violins. this is very uncanny valley (violin harmonics usually wouldn't move in chromatic patterns like this, especially back and forth) and the spacing of the chords is very wide and unsupportive of most of the middle ranges. the original's blocks are very effective at increasing intensity through simplicity, and i don't feel that the representation here does the same thing as well beyond just playing louder.

1:07's where the 'melody' comes back in. this is a lot of block chords with the main movement being in the melody line and in the countermelody in the winds and harp (a synth in the original). the big, uniform block chords serve to metastasize the energy somewhat instead of either leading somewhere or establishing a drone like the buzz in the original. the addition of brass at 1:32 is a great payoff cadence, albeit very sudden and unexpected based on the scoring to this point. there's some echoes of this idea, and a final chord.

this is a difficult vote for me. i feel strongly that it's pretty hard to represent a track in a similar genre and feel, and if you're going to do so, you need to add something truly significant that doesn't exist in the original. i don't feel that's what's going on here. if anything, i'd argue that the opening section especially does not have near the same nuance and subtle character that the original's opening does, and separately that there's little outside of the ending echo section that doesn't exist in the original.  lastly, this is essentially 95s of music, which condenses the original's spacing - which you called out as being a key thing you liked about it - down quite a bit. i think that's in conflict with your stated goal.

a yes vote here is a tough definition (like i said, i found this one very difficult to put into words). as it is, reducing a ~3 minute original to roughly 1:30 with some falling action at the end is a tough sell. finding ways to add some extra breadth (and breath!) to the work would help a lot, and separately approaching it with a more interpolative eye for countermelodic, harmonic, and rhythmic material would really help to expand the perspective and body of the work.

it's definitely possible i'm too in the weeds here. it's a beautiful piece to listen to. some of the scoring decisions are fantastic - the brass fanfare, the addition of harp to the winds at 1:07, the scoring of the final chord with the brass where it is, the gong usage at 0:33. i just don't think there's much pipko in it right now from an arrangement perspective. i don't even think there's as much 65daysofstatic in it right now as the original.

 

 

NO

[Liontamer ⚖️]

Opens up with some uncanny valley orchestration that sounds... aight. There's effects on everything to give it some depth and mitigate the realism issues, though it's not enough to prevent lack of realism from standing out as soon as this started.

Hard to articulate but at 1:07 when it transitioned into the more grandiose texture with these high strings, the volume was too quiet for the energy of the part-writing, if that makes any sense; obviously, this shouldn't be clipping, and I'm not saying "just turn the knob one higher", because it's actually pretty shrill. But something about the layering of the parts should have been fuller and more cohesive. The high strings were always very exposed as being a sample, but the articulation around 1:10 was the worst offender. A little better texture at 1:32, though it's pretty muddy until 1:39. Something about the way the strings at 1:45 and winds at 1:51 were produced made them feel like they weren't in the same room, even though I hear the stereo placement being different; again, difficult for me to articulate. There's some sort of light pop at 1:59 that needs to be eliminated as well.

The bar isn't "now, go find some live players!", and this possibly could have passed like this 20 years ago. That said, I do wonder how much this could be improved to humanize these sounds and make the textures less shrill, more cohesive, and with more realistic ambiance, because that's the real hangup for me, not the arrangement, which in a vacuum is fine, no problem with it. Needs some more finesse with these samples, Pipko, but it's a good concept. For something so short, this needs to be closer to firing on all cylinders.

NO (resubmit)

[Chimpazilla ⚖️]

Interesting.... I agree this is lovely to listen to, but it's a reduction of the source song down to almost a little soundbite.  The instruments don't sound perfect to me sample-wise but they don't sound terrible either (other than the four string notes at 1:45 which sound extremely fake since they are so exposed). 

This is a nice little comp, but it seems almost more like a short trailer or teaser or proof-of-concept and not a full track, at this short length.  Half of this arrangement is buildup, one big swell and a soft outro and it's done.  It just doesn't feel like a full arrangement, although it's a very nice start.

NO