ReMix:Guild Wars 2 "One Wintersday Night" 3:34

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

An OverClocked Christmas v.9 is now available at http://williammichael.info/aocc/aoccv9.html!

AOCC has been running for 9 of the 16 years OCR has been in existence, offering up seasonal arrangements & originals from the community! I definitely recommend checking out the whole series, including this latest entry arriving JUST in time for boys & girls who've been naughty OR nice - we can't really tell, plus it's free anyways ;) To celebrate, we've got DusK (Dustin Branscum) with another Guild Wars 2 arrangement, chanelling a Trans-Siberian Orchestra vibe for some epic wintry rock/metal:

This one came at me kind of suddenly. This year, I really wanted to do a track for An OverClocked Christmas, but as The Coop was recruiting, I couldn't think of any solid track ideas for the album. I thought about covering some Christmas song, and giving it the vocal DusK treatment so everyone on the Internet could rip on it and ruin the Christmas spirit, but my current circumstances don't give me a whole lot of opportunity for vocal tracking right now, and I already have a remix idea for what little live recording time I can find.

So I took my Disney World vacation pretty much entirely sure that I wasn't going to have a track for this year's Christmas album. And then it happened. As I was watching the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra started playing. And at that moment, I remembered; Guild Wars 2 has a seasonal, Christmas-style track.

It was at that point that I realized that I could totally remix that track in a style reminiscent of TSO. I started thinking of ideas on the plane ride back, and almost the moment I stepped into the door, I started putting it to DAW. The result is a little heavier than much of TSO's stuff, but I still feel like I accomplished what I set out to do rather well.

As with DusK's previous GW2 mix, the source is from an expansion, this time 2012's Wintersday: The Wondrous Workshop of Toymaker Tixx. Dustin didn't even have to tell me the inspiration - I first listened without reading his comments, and instantly picked up on it. As he says, this mix hits a little harder and has a bit more edge, but TSO fans & fans of high-energy rock/metal instrumentals in general should be pretty happy. Liontamer writes:

"There were some mixing issues I noticed. I thought the percussion behind the leads needed more power. During the verses, the melody and countermelody tend to share the same frequency range. The strings from 1:18-1:41 were well-written, but bled into the background instead of being a clearly audible accent... That said, all those production issues aside, the arrangement is strong, and there's a definite synergy with how all of the parts come together that makes this a go. "The Great Toymaker" by Lena Chappelle is absolutely beautiful, and you succeeded in taking her wonderful melody, retaining a few of those yuletide touches, and giving it a more forceful spin with a different kind of energy through the TSO influence. :-)"

Well said; merry xmas to those celebrating & happy holidays to all from everyone at OCR; check out AOCC v9 for MOAR MUSIC, and kudos to Dustin, The Coop, Dyne, & everyone else involved with the AOCC series!