prophetik music

in listening to this entire thing with an open mind, i do hear where there's a few specific thematic references to the original track (1:05, 2:21 for example). there's also some highly transformative sections, like the repeated descending section in the bass line that occurs several places (example: 2:06), which i wouldn't have tabbed being from this without knowing the context but understand where you came from after reading it. however, most of the track isn't recognizable in the slightest. this isn't a matter of not understanding the serial representation of the set you're using as far as i can tell - it's just that most of this is unintelligible. what's the point of speaking in tongues if there's no one to interpret? there's some genuinely interesting ideas in here - 3:31 for example is a pretty ripping take on the initial descending melodic line, with the frenetic sfx in the background and the very fast (if extremely repetitive) drums. but there's no usage of song form anywhere in this, there's no real synth design, and for the most part the master is "same volume for everything throughout". it's more reminiscent of the Undertale flowey fight's inanity, but that was far more defined and intentional than this is. this comes across as wild musings more than an intentionally crafted work. ultimately this falls short of several elements of the submission standards, but 4.3. the most: sorry, but this isn't something that we can post here. NO OVERRIDE

opens with some detuned synths and a generally nostalgic feel. similar to the original, the beat subverts where the downbeat is initially and makes you realize you had the wrong feel in your mind, which is a fun throwback. the melodic content is pretty subdued and overall this is a very slow, loose rendition of the original. there's a break at 1:30 and that builds up from there for a while. the beat comes back in at 2:27 and it goes through the melody a bit more, and then there's some surprisingly ambivalent chords that play us off. this is a really low-energy track. i think that some of the j's will complain about the lack of forward drive, but i feel like this fits the feel really well. it's very patient and intentionally doesn't lean into the energy of the original, which i actually like quite a bit. i think this is over the bar. YES

This is a Christmas-themed remix to Undertale, because it just makes sense. It was originally made for An OverClocked Remix XVIII back in 2020. I wanted to submit it back then, but it was so close to Christmas that I just didn't... for some reason. I was in the mood to make something pretty and chill, something more hopeful and uplifting. You could say this a spiritual sequel to my old Zelda remix, "Solace." I released it as part of an EP back in 202, "Winter Pixels". It's a little looser and more lofi than my usual stuff, hopefully, it fits the new guidelines! Games & Sources Game: Undertale Source: Undertale Theme

opens with that creepy arp to start in a neat bell-like synth. melodic riff is in the pads initially with some big sweeps over top. the arp starts to double up and do some delay stuff with some rising action behind to escalate, drums that come in at 0:45 are kind of weak, but i see where they're going as you use them as an escalation element. the sausage starts to get made at 0:56 as the kick and bass elements come in more regularly. this track is super slammed in the feel despite not really having a ton of super loud elements, so it feels a bit oppressive, but i recognize that's both intentional and part of the style. it's nowhere near upbeat as i expected though given the big transition drums. 1:10-1:20 for example feels really empty, as does the section immediately following. 1:52 switches to a triplet feel (among other things), so it's a lot busier, but it's still just the beat, bass, melody in the pad, and arp repeating. i feel like there's not enough going on through most of these couple of sections. there's a big drop at 2:36 in energy, and the arp element is doing some hits in here. the off-beat part that followed was a fun feel. 3:09 hits and it's the same instruments as before but now they're doing different rhythms. still using the same synths after all this is starting to be tiresome, and the overall mastering is still super heavy so it's still feeling oppressive. to be clear - the variety you've implemented on the arrangement itself is really impressive. you're doing a ton of variety considering the melody itself is like 20s long. my issue is with the instruments being reused constantly and never changing, and with how empty several of the sections feel behind the melodic representation. we get to the end and it just kind of ends, and there's a cutoff on the synth instead of a fade. i wouldn't have minded something deconstructive to end this given how much you played with these elements throughout. i'm honestly not sure about this one. i love the arrangement. i don't like that it's four instruments throughout, and i don't like that there's a ton of room throughout for other stuff that doesn't seem to be capitalized on. it feels like this is the framework and it still needs the finishing bits. ? edit 12/3: ok, i slept on it, and i still don't dig the extended sections with so little going on, and i still don't dig the limited sound palette. kris's note about sidechaining is good too - that's why it doesn't feel like it can breathe (well, one of the reasons). so i think that a NO makes sense for me.

opens with some percussion. the loop points are pretty noticeable with the first percussive element. it's super bassy and very wet to start, and there's a few harmonics (around 3.1k) that are hard to listen to in that opening section. bass comes in with the melody at 0:20 and it's just a massive blob of mass between about 45 and 200hz: it's very dense in here, and it feels pretty slammed especially in the left ear which is louder than the left. melody's in a percussive instrument, but it honestly sounds like there's more delay or verb response than there is melody. it's hard to hear where the attack is in the melodic instrument. as i listened to this opening section a bit more, i realized that i think that the original's playing real-time behind the added elements like synth, guitar, and effecting (just start the original's youtube at like 30s in). i think it's being chopped up and looped, but i think that's why it's so dense-sounding. the instrumentation elements are playing exact matches from what i can hear. we don't disallow sampling the original in remixes that we post, but we do require arrangement that is transformative. this is quite literally just the original audio with a small number of additional elements layered on top and a really, really bass-heavy master complete with huge reverb added to the entire thing. not only does not this not pass muster on the engineering side with the mix being so dense and boomy and most attacks not being able to be heard, it also doesn't pass on the arrangement side given that the arrangement is essentially not yours throughout. this isn't something that we'd be able to accept. if you wanted to rework it to feature your own instruments, and focus more on the arrangement (since there's essentially no personalization here), then that's something that we can work with. this isn't even a cover, though, it's the original track with something on it to discourage copyright detection. NO OVERRIDE

I wanted to make it feel a little bit more like you were really in the space that the song is trying to manifest. The original drums were the only part of the song that I decided to sample and leave basically untouched. They are the core and driving force of the whole piece. They keep you wanting to move forward through this jungle of sounds that occupy the rest of the space. I feel like the US OST of Sonic CD is woefully underrepresented today. Of course the original JP soundtrack has plenty of hits and a ton of staying power, but Spencer Nilsen's work has always shined in my eyes ever since I first played the game on the Sonic Gems Collection waaaaay back in 2005. I wanted to honor his and his team's work without deriving too much from the original concepts and charm. Think of this as a sort of "Sonic Mania-ified" version of the OG track. Games & Sources This is an arrangement from Sonic CD's US Soundtrack, Palmtree Panic by Spencer Nilsen. Very specifically, I based the song progression off of the version heard in the Sonic The Hedgehog Boom CD from 1994 -

@Chimpazilla @Gario @MindWanderer @Liontamer we got an updated version of this non-project lufia 2 track back in may and i'm sick of it sitting in the submission bin, so i'm doing this =) please update your votes with a quick re-listen of this track. it's changed significantly from what we originally YES'd, so while i don't think it'll get any votes flipped, i'd still prefer to have the updated version listened to before we rubber stamp it. per Docjekyll's submission: "Since my previous submission ~2 years ago, I have been working on improving my mixing skills in particular and I don't believe my previous submission is still a good representation of my best effort. So I'm resubmitting the same remix with generally the same arrangement, but with better mixing, smoother transitions and additional atmospheric elements."

opens with a half-time rendition of the melody. 0:22's where it kind of starts to get kicking. the synth guitar isn't super realistic but i like the idea, i think it feels fun. there's another time shift at 0:38 where it's in half-time, and we get another rendition of the first few bars of the start of the melody (pretty sure that's the same as the first time). there's some transitional material, and it runs through the same stuff as the first time through in the same order with the same fills and everything. there's a bit of change on the final ten seconds or so, a few chords to end it, and it's done. this is really short! it's like a minute of music repeated. i don't think there's enough adaptation here to fulfill our guidelines around depth of arrangement. i think the idea's fun - Mario Kart tracks are all so energetic, so i think this is a great idea for an adaptation - i just think that nowhere near enough has been done to make it yours instead of the original composer. from a mix perspective, the rhythm guitar instrument and bass are competing for the same area and it sounds muddy as a result. along those lines, the synth guitar doesn't really stick the landing either in the rhythm guitar department or in the lead. i think that a little more attention there would be needed (and a little less fast vibrato) before that gets closer to par. fun sound test idea! needs some more cooking before it's ready. i recommend the workshop forum or the workshop discord channel. NO

we talked about this internally and ultimately made the decision to reject this due to the format (six discrete tracks that transition into each other). we've had a few of these where it's a full EP or album submitted as a whole and done this as well. if you'd like to submit your individual tracks, please separate them with normal start/end points and submit them separately. Seven Songs for 7th Saga is an example of this. NO OVERRIDE

definitely more of a darkwave approach than the original. there's no real intro - this is into the melodic content right off the bat. instrumentation is clearly more retro intentionally. the opening minute plus is just the same melodic ideas repeated with some added complexity each time in the backing elements. we get the 'chorus' themes at about 1:13 in a really odd lead that's got some attack modulation on it that makes it feel a little late. this continues to repeat for a while - we're at nearly two and a half minutes of this loop now, i think this is six or seven times through - and we finally get a break in the beat at 2:25. most of the synth elements are the same here and this is just a matter of dynamics. there's finally something different at 2:50 when some of the backing elements start to loop and we get some build elements into the big hit at 3:14. drums are double-time here, and there's some slightly changed backing elements. i liked the acid bass here a lot, and there's a lot of space in the backgrounds in between some of the rhythms which i really liked a lot. this section feels a lot peppier. at about 4:03 the beat backs off and we're back to coasting through the earlier soundscape towards an outro. there's one last chord and that's it. this is a lot of repetition. you've got a few synth lines playing literally the entire course of the song with hardly any changes throughout. that's just too much repetition. the layering build you've got through the first two minutes plus can work, but you need to be very judicious about how you're bringing in elements, what those elements are, and how you focus on them. leaving your synths on autopilot and not even automating volume to bring elements in and out of the texture, let alone automating some movement on really base-level synths, just results in a cluttered texture that feels like we've heard it before. the track is essentially one 24s loop that is initially a bit deconstructed and then repeated a lot. the change at 3:15 was great and really mixed it up, but you need a lot more of that level of change for this to not feel like a sound demo. there's not even an intro or a real ending. from a mix perspective, most of the elements are clear, although i noticed that the voiceover is buried quite a bit (boosting the formant of that audio clip would help it cut). also i noticed that there's not a lot of content over like 1k pretty quickly - this is a very dark, gloomy mix from a freq perspective. i think that works stylistically, but it makes the few elements that do have content up there stand out a lot. balancing that out might make for a more cohesive track. i would need to hear more arrangement and less repetition before i'd be willing to pass this. NO

nice wall of sound up front. the blues riff that forms the basis for the bassline of the course themes sounds really neat next to the really heavy background. there's a bass guitar transition right off the bat, and the vibe at 0:32 really felt like the Terran tracks from StarCraft 1 with how angular the drums and guitar are. i agree that going with Course Selection right away helps a lot. we get a big kick at 1:26 into the main part of the track, the Stage 1 and 2 tracks, and these are more straightforward. there's a much bigger section at 2:35 that's pretty intense, and it drops off right away into a half-time section for a bit to mix it up before hitting the short outro. the track ends fast enough that it's surprising and i think i'd have rather had that be a bit more settled. overall this is a fun romp through several themes from a classic game. i was not initially expecting it to be as cohesive of a medley based on the number of tracks and the length, but it does a nice job outlining the music and adding some new flair to it. YES

opens with some stacked fifths pad and an interesting filter sweep sfx. i agree that the initial lead doesn't punch through at all, there's gotta be something on it to make it pop. there's a little movement on the drums which i like pitch-wise in a few of the fills, but i did notice that the same snare fill got used several times before the 1:00 mark. there's a nice break at 0:50, well-timed, and i liked the smaller kit there for a bit. around this point i really felt like the lead was a placeholder and was waiting for the real instrument to come in - it just doesn't sound strong enough to be a lead at all. there's a fade transition at 1:08 that i really didn't care for - reminded me of the sample tracks i used to hear on myspace =P i'm too trained to assume fadeouts are endings, it felt strange as a transitional element. 1:09's got a neat rising element which was fun to hear. still no change to the lead by here, and there is not much going on from a pad perspective on this section so it feels a bit empty. i liked the rhythm of the percussive elements matching the melody, that was fun. 1:28's got some more updates on drums which was fun to hear, and there's some playing with sample duration in here too which was a neat change. 1:58's a recap of some of the earlier material with some new ear candy to catch, and then we get some descending action at 2:19. introducing new harmonic material right at the end of the track and then fading without a resolution or prep might not be the best idea - at the very least, providing a more clear closing point to the track would help a lot. i love to see you branching out! i think that, like gario said, a big element to change would be to beef up the initial saw lead that's used throughout, and to focus on setting the soundscape up better (being careful about pad usage, consistent verb usage, and spacing within the freq range throughout). i'd also point out that there's not really a strong direction throughout the piece - it feels like a bunch of disparate parts. identifying a way to pin everything together better and lead from section to section would help a lot, i think. NO

opens with foley and voiceover elements, As Is Tradition for a VQ track. i don't know where the melodic material happening behind the voiceovers comes from. some more elements come in around 1:50 and there's some keyboard elements that are lacking in velocitization, but there's some interesting textures being used here as more and more orchestral elements come in. there's a transition around 2:40ish with some horns, and they don't sound great - really blatty and far away, i think there's some extra processing on them that's causing them to sound more distant and lacking in attack than you'd expect. there's a hard shift at 3:03 to the organ as a lead instrument. there's a bass with some attack modulation on it, and a few other elements added in like some strings and bells as a percussive element. this instrumentation doesn't blend at all with the prior section, it lacks intensity as compared to the original and what's been brewing in this remix so far, and i honestly am having trouble mapping it to the original as more than just the chord structure if even that. the chords that enter with the vordt theme also feel transformed beyond where their relationship to the original is not apparent. most of these instruments have a lot of bass content as well and they've overlapping a lot (an issue i run into with organ often). this noodles through the chord progression, continues to feel muddy and indirect with motion, and then hits a big section of falling action at 4:56. 5:42 is the Holy Blade section. the representation here again feels like there's no clear direction for a while, with the instrumentation kind of all doing its own thing and not coming together to a cohesive thing until 6:20. i can hear the adaptation of the Holy Blade descending riff here much clearer, which is good. the original's intensity and verve isn't present, which is kind of an interesting albeit confusing correlation against the fairly intense vocal lines and speed increase at the 7 minute mark. the entire section starting around 7:20 is probably the most cohesive section you've got in the entire piece, but i'd say that also it's still rife with similar issues as before, like the big buzzy bass instrument taking up a ton of frequency range and a lead that's hard to hear what's going on, and overall it's wandering instead of feeling like it's got a driving melodic element that's leading it. there's a sudden break and then the end comes out of nowhere. overall i don't care for most of the direction of the work at all. i feel it's way more focused on the voiceover than on the music in the first several minutes and a few significant chunks after that (like between a quarter and a third of the track feels voiceover-driven). separately i feel it wanders throughout without focus on a melodic element or even a timbral element - there's no direction, and so it's hard to keep track of what's going on. the majority of the work, it's not clear where the music is coming from - it's either so heavily transformed or reduced that i can't map it. lastly, in several sections including the organ part at 3:03 and the holy blade section, there's a lot of overlapping elements in similar frequency ranges, so it's hard to understand aurally what's going on where. i'd be remiss to say that i just don't get a lot of the dynamics and 'story' of the work overall. there's some neat building action through the first few minutes, but the release of that energy is...the horn section around 2:40, which doesn't use it at all. then there's another big build into the organ section, and that almost immediately disperses the build into a chordal exploration that i had trouble identifying where it comes from. similarly, the end of this section falls off almost immediately into a big voiceover-focused section that actually has no music playing for several seconds in it. the shape and macro direction of the work is not clear. these are not easy fixes. i think that making the correlations to the originals in the earlier sections will make the volume (and volume) of the voiceovers more palatable, even if i think most of them are gross-sounding (not a horror fan, sorry). i think that really taking a critical eye to the organ section at 3:03 and EQing and/or changing instrumentation and instrument ranges so as to avoid some of the overlapping freqs will make that section easier on the ears. i also think that taking a look at the sections where the references to the original are basically just chord changes (long sections, like the two minutes after the organ comes in, or most of the minute before that) with very modified moving lines above them, and finding ways to tie those clearly and directly to the original will help a lot. lastly, finding ways to more consistently handle the builds and releases of the energy you build up in some of these sections would help immensely. i kept feeling let down when builds and ensemble crescendos didn't go anywhere - it happens four or five times at least throughout the work. it's going to sound like i didn't enjoy much of this at all. to be honest, i didn't! but it's not required for me to enjoy the piece in order to critique the technical and arrangement elements. right now the scope and vision feels too big. i think overall that this needs a lot of transformative work to reign in the wilder bits and focus it more, so as to be more effective at conveying what you're trying to convey. right now it's a wildly imaginative, visionary, probably over-extending attempt. NO

*PROJECT - OCR TIMESHIFT ALBUM* COLLABORATORS: gravitygauntlet - ADDITIONAL LAYERED SYNTHS, DRUMS & COMPOSITIONAL VSTI Rad Decision - ARRANGEMENT TRANSPOSITION TO F#M; ADDITIONAL SPOOKY SFX JSABlixer - ADDITIONAL GAMEBOY TRANSITIONAL SFX . . .Bloodborne Kart, anyone? :D Taking "Ol' Skool" VGM leitmotif into the modern age, this remix of Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 sources is the love-child of my immense passion and intrigue for the SoulsBorne-series of games created by FromSoft, fused with the games of my generation that SoulsBorne may take influence from (i.e. Castlevania). I felt it appropriate for the TimeShift album to give these sources a sort of..."vintage coat of paint", with the delicately curated soundscape and design, to make it feel as if "this is Souls-like, but--" GameBoy Advance or Nintendo 64; and it has felt like such a wonderful way to showcase and marry the concept of time (by honoring both a NEW and an OLD game franchise), and how both have, and still does, shape my being, my pursuits and my life. At 36 years of age (at the time of writing this), I've lived long enough to see the span of video games grow and flourish across *so many* different genres, eras and consoles, and *still* witness and enjoy them to this day. This goes for OverClocked ReMix as well, as both a site and a purveyor of the finest quality VGM remixes--having had built a library of them and skulked around the site for decades at this point, (practically since its inception, back when I was in late-junior high / early-high school!) Being able to meld my adoration for the old and the new within this has been a blessing, an honor and a joy, and I hope others will cast aside their weak flesh and join us Beasts of the Old Blood for the danse macabre of merriment on this dark-lit moon night. <3 This song is not only in dedication to OCRemix's 25th Anniversary celebration, but to...someone special and personal, who is extremely and very dear to me. . . He got me into the SoulsBorne series years ago, we've shared lots of fun times in general together since meeting on Final Fantasy XIV and sharing in our mutual love of both franchises, and hopefully many more to come. Ten plus years knowing him, and so many more of me knowing about OCRemix. I am so thankful to have become a part of this community and the VGM-sphere as a whole. This is my gift to everyone in it, however-- -- Kaz, this one's for you, with my deepest, heartfelt love and respect. Cheers everybody, enjoy, and a big thank you to all who listen to this song now and forevermore. Big hugs and shout-out to EVERYONE as well who were involved in the TimeShift project Discord, collaborated with me on this, or just lent ears for feedback and helped out. Y'all are the true all-stars and champions here. Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart. # SUMMARY OF THE REMIX: A hauntingly 'jovial' church ceremony and dance -- this remix has seemingly turned from an overtly horror-trope-y, slow death requiem march/choral mass to a more German classical opera/French Baroque, stately Castlevania 64-style arrangement, by changing it from the Dm -> Bm of the original main source (Ludwig's boss themes) into F#m. My hope is the wonderful mixture of realistic cinematic instrumentation and percussion as the bedrock / foundation, with the very modern Hip-Hop / R&B spin and structure on a chiptune platter of cherries on top are both saucy and unique for the sources used. One other note--besides SFX and atmospheres used, and the VO, *everything presented here* in the remix arrangement was hand-written by me via MIDI piano roll. Not a SINGLE line of drums or beat or instrumentation is a loop of some kind unless I made it from scratch. :) This will also be my first mix in actually writing CCs on MIDI lines for orchestral dynamics and expression. :D So, indeed, onwards and upwards. <3 A big thank you to those in the Discord chat who helped me to learn how to do it. REMIX INFLUENCES & INSPIRATIONS: 1980s Slasher Flicks (Halloween & Nightmare on Elm Street, specifically--you can hear it in the Intro's keyboards/piano, chiptune and staccato/spiccato strings hitting the fast bouncy plucks as countermelodies/counterharmonies to the mains @ 2:19) Phantom of the Opera (e.g. the pipe organs) Hammer Horror (Dracula, specifically--lines and FX of VO utilizes Francis Ford Coppola's 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' [1992] dialogue and wolf howls @ 5:21) Castlevania (N64/GBA-era: examples - 1, 2, 3, 4) Goosebumps / Are You Afraid of the Dark? (90s references & vibes) Old 1930s-50s radio plays, cinematics and horror/sci-fi dramas (e.g. War of the Worlds, hence the voice acting and VO FX) Black Violin # SOURCES USED AND THEIR PARTS (EVERY SOURCE TRANSPOSED FROM Dm/Bm TO F#m, BY COURTESY AND HELP OF RAD DECISION): Main Source - Ludwig - Accursed & Holy Blade: [P1] 00:00 - 04:18 / [Transition & Interlude for Boss Cutscene] 03:03 - 04:18 = Ludwig the Accursed; [P2] 04:19 - End = Ludwig the Holy Blade Father Gascoigne Boss Theme (utilizing the horn and bass stabs that start around 00:20) Cleric Beast / Vicar Amelia Boss Theme (utilizing the choir lines starting @ 00:15) Vordt of the Boreal Valley Boss Theme (utilizing the choir lines starting @ 01:48) SOURCE & REFERENCE BREAKDOWN: 00:00 - 02:42 = Modified / expanded version of Ludwig the Accursed's first few bars of its melody line and chords, stretched to become the intro and building operatic landscape for the piece 01:24 - 02:05 = FATHER GASCOIGNE bass stabs w/ Ludwig solo violin & chiptune melody 02:19 - 02:42 = repeated pulsing arp piano & string hits [spicc & stacc] are reminiscent of and take inspiration directly from the theme of the movie Halloween; the sound palette of the keyboard synth hits & chiptune plink-plonk are a reflection of the same motif used in the original Nightmare on Elm Street theme 02:32 - 03:03 = FATHER GASCOIGNE rising horn section present as a transition assist 03:04 - 05:41 = LUDWIG THE ACCURSED, in full 03:52 - 04:34 = VORDT OF THE BOREAL VALLEY choir present (from Phase 2 of his original boss fight source); starts out being heard by the soft choir synth growing louder and louder, and then becomes the organs, timpani & percs (marimbas, xylophones & hand bell hits) as part of the larger swelling, ebb and flow orchestra set; other instruments, tubular bells and chimes continue the remainder of LUDWIG THE ACCURSED up until the source's transitional break 04:56 - 05:42 = LUDWIG'S cutscene / transition Interlude 05:24 - 05:42 = CLERIC BEAST choir present; crescendos in-behind the Dracula lines, and the rising tension, chattering strings as part of the LUDWIG transition into Phase 2, HOLY BLADE 05:42 - END = LUDWIG THE HOLY BLADE, in full [switches up to a brief +3 semitones up / Minor Key Change @ 08:33-34 - 08:48] 07:36 - 08:05 & 08:12 - 08:52 = CLERIC BEAST choir chords return as the trancey, pulsating, zappy synth stings, which are paired with the synth choirs as part of the finale ---- * NOTE -- ALL VOs [except the Dracula VA insert] COME FROM BLOODBORNE AND ITS DLC, THE OLD HUNTERS, BY THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS - Micolash--Host of the Nightmare, Vicar Amelia, Father Gascoigne the Hunter and Ludwig the Accursed. ** Instrumentals were layered with gravity's own VSTi renders, playing similar MIDI content; Rad Decision assisted with adding ghostly, haunting winds and howls, as well as key transposition duties; you can hear JSA's contributions towards the end of the remix, where underneath Ludwig's dialogue are GameBoy noise/static sweeps and crunch paired with the scary, rising strings and other accompaniment as part of the transition to a faster BPM. Games & Sources BLOODBORNE - THE OLD HUNTERS Original Soundtrack; Tracks 4 & 5 - Ludwig, The Holy Blade & Ludwig, The Accursed; Artist(s): SIE Sound Team / Ryan Amon, Tsukasa Saitoh, Michael Wandmacher, Yuka Kitamura, Cris Velasco & Nobuyoshi Suzuki; Release Date: 2015; Label: Sony / Bandai Namco BLOODBORNE Original Soundtrack; Track 4 - The Hunter [Father Gascoigne] & Track 5 - Cleric Beast [Vicar Amelia]; Artist(s): SIE Sound Team / Ryan Amon, Tsukasa Saitoh, Michael Wandmacher, Yuka Kitamura, Cris Velasco & Nobuyoshi Suzuki; Release Date: 2015; Label: Sony / Bandai Namco DARK SOULS 3 Original Soundtrack; Track 6 - Vordt of the Boreal Valley; Artist(s): Nobuyoshi Suzuki and Yuka Kitamura; Release Date: 2016; Label: Sony / Bandai Namco

opens with some sweeping leads. there's some distortion on them initially that's nice. there's a hard cut to beat at 0:26 with a very overtone-y bass, and soon after we get the descending motif again. i liked the gated effects on the wind synth at 1:05. the next forty seconds or so are mostly exploring textures with similar synths that we've already heard in different combinations - there's not a lot of direction to it, and by maybe 2:00 it starts to feel like we've heard things before even if we haven't heard that specific combination at that point. 2:31's got some burbling synths in the background that are pretty neat. it trucks through a bit more material before it very suddenly just ends with zero prep, just a short fadeout on a sustain. i think i have two main critiques with this track. first is that all the elements by themselves are interesting, but many of them don't really feel like they fit next to each other consistently. for example, the left-ear burbling synth that we first hear at 0:56 playing a single note for a bit comes back repeatedly, and each time it feels like it's not in the mix at all. it either has too much reverb next to the kit and bass (1:19) or like it's too dry when next to some of the other very swooshy, reverb-heavy leads (2:31). similar statement about the hats and some of the white-noise percussion. the second issue i have is that we hear, like, eight synths throughout the entire track, and they all play one thing, and that's it. they're brought in using different combinations, there's lots of variation in them individually, and there is to my ear no section that's exactly the same, but it all feels the same because we've heard everything by a minute and a half in and then it's just different combinations until the non-ending. honestly this one is pretty close despite those critiques and the entire lack of an ending. i like the synths you're using and think that they're doing interesting things individually - i just don't feel this is cohesive enough to really track overall. the lack of a focus on melodic material or a general dynamic shape to the song also hurts it. i'd love to hear another version with a stronger, more directed vision, both in the aesthetic and effecting of the synths and in the use of melody and dynamics to pull together the track. NO