My submission is a bit on the unusual side of things. Think of it more like an audio short story rather than a MnP thing directly. It is Halloween after all, I had to do something...unique.
Before I go any further, due to limitations with ThaSauce I am unable to this track here in its full quality. If you want a HQ version the links for a high quality MP3 and FLAC will be directly following this. I did try for as high of a VBR MP3 as I could manage, but it is 96kbps on ThaSauce.
MP3: https://www.mediafire.com/file/jkxd6hj4cqh2ryf/The_Mandela_Effect_HQ.mp3/file
FLAC: https://www.mediafire.com/file/96n10rq2txf77kg/The_Mandela_Effect.flac/file
And if folks want to listen to the tracks on their own I can upload those separately and provide links if desired ;)
So, what I have done? I have lost my mind, that is what I have done. Most of the remixes are really just redoing the originals, all of them, rather than working out a full remix. I did try and add my little bit of special color here and there, but overall they are all pretty close to the original. Though I would be remiss if I did not mention the addition of the spooky elements. That is right though, this 28 and half minute BEHEMOTH has all the sources in it with a general spooky factor to each one in some capacity. To add even more spookiness to this is a Creepypasta! The entirety of this Creepypasta is spread throughout and as the piece progresses more and more lucidity to the spookiness comes into play and more of a story is told as one comes to pay attention. So, without further delay get on your horses, get something to drink, and bring your popcorn because this is a long one. The sequence of the tracks also sorta plays into the overall story as well.
Sources in order and kind of what I was thinking for each.
- Ghosts n' Goblins: All right lets be fair for a minute. The game is brutally hard, but that music just BEGS to be made sorta old timey like from a terrible record player with comically cheesy instrumentation and total jank.
- Spinals Theme: This is where I start to introduce some of the spookiness to the entire thing. Remix really isnt anything special other than just trying to make it harder hitting and a bit more aggressive in terms of overall sound. But there are plenty of evil laughs here to make you wonder if something bigger is going on, or maybe it is hinting at something...
- Damned: I really did not do a whole to this other than play with some additional instruments and just trying to make it a bit more ominous. Thematically it is really meant to serve as a bridge and kind of be a bit of a ride down in energy before the next track. And it really did not sit right with me to add any spooky elements to it. The piece on its own is quite unsettling.
- Mad Forest: I love the old school Castlevania soundtracks because you just slap on an organ and youre grooving. In reality this is a slight remix, but with pretty much everything turned up to 11. It has an organ, it has bass, it has drums, it has some spook, I even have it pushing the poor master compressor enough to make it pump purely because I like the sound of it doing so! 11 indeed.
- Dead Sea: This one is pretty low key, but I really tried to bring out some of that inherent uneasiness underlying the piece a bit to really start the story off...
- Ceremony: This one is meant to be both beautiful and at the same time scary. The spook-factor does not really come from the music as much as the implications of the additional elements. It makes one wonder if there is more to this than meets the ear...
- Concrete Cave: This is sort of like Castlevania in the sense that I could not think of a good way to integrate this properly into the overall story arch. So, it is sort of done in this faux 90's style, but with werewolves. Perhaps the supernaturals among us are having some fun...
- Gothic Neclord: I sort of tried to pull a second Castlevania on this one because it is just so much fun! Everything is not turned up to 11 though. The biggest change here is that I opted to keep the drums out until the second half. Or maybe it was a vampire who felt that they were starting to get into their groove. Again it seems the supernaturals among us have maybe started to notice that things are not quite as they seem...
- Haunted House: All right, I just tried to make this one as creepy as possible. It is almost like the first attempt to summon the evil originally did not work out too well, but some folks who know what they're doing got it right...
- Undercity: This piece just begged to be the last one. It is almost comically over the top perfect for this. It is just too much fun. It is almost like something is waking up...
The Creepypasta is Candle Cove, and was recited by me. What you're hearing is some lo-fi processing to make it sound like it is a found recording from some dubious source. Also, to give the different characters some differentiation I also did some pitch shifting. But I really wanted those parts to have a bit of character on its own.
Happy Halloween folks!