Castlevania: AOS VS TROS (MnP139)
Outline
Congratulations to Souperion for winning MnP Round 137! Round 138 was a New Year's Special, so most of the rules were relaxed for that round, and no bonus entries were to had. Now Souperion and I entered, and under the rules Souperion cannot select a source twice. So source selection was passed on to me. Technically this means i won MnP Round 138, but only by default. More info about the rule change below. Because Round 138 was a New Year's Special Round, this meant that Souperion had to move his pick to Round 139, and whoever won Round 138 would have their pick alongside Souperion's effectively making this a Double Dose Off (That honour went to me). As a result, Souperion and Me both got to choose their own source for this month's MnP source!
Here's what Souperion said about his pick:
"I totally fell off in checking OCR over the holidays, so I'm just now noticing your previous verdict on MnP 137. If it is still the case that I now bear the responsibility of submitting a source for MnP round 138: Ruined Castle Corridor from Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow. I experienced the GBA Castlevania trilogy not too long ago, and this was one of my favorite tracks in them all." - Souperion
GAME: Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow (GBA)
SOURCE: Ruined Castle Corridor
And here's what I have to say about my pick:
"I went for a Shinobi game, just because i feel like theres a lot of underrated tunes in the series, being left untouched. Granted i went for the most famous game, however i did probably go for probably the least remixed. Revenge of Shinobi is a game that is very simple in design, but is extremely fun to play. There's not much to the game, but you do find yourself playing it a lot, and just having a good time. It's not a game that expects you to focus, but rather for you to just let time go by. It's a fun time waster, that i've played, but not yet completed. It's not something that i would seriously want to dedicate my time to. If you are bored, this is some fun time to kill. Now this is the first Shinobi game made for a Console, if you don't count the unlicensed NES game in the same year. This is mostly considered a Sequal to the first Shinobi game, with Shadow Dancer being almost like a Spin Off. Enough of the game though, we need the music. Crafted by our finest Yuzo Koshiro, this score is his transition from Synthpop and Funk, into more House and Club Music of the era. At the time he had only gotten a glimpse of house from his time abroad, and was mostly working with the Synthpop sound based on what he was listening to at the time. He would perfect the Club Music formula in Streets of Rage, and eventually move onto harder styles in Streets of Rage 3. This track i've picked is actually the most simplest of the bunch, and the most overtly rave centric of the bunch. Tracks like Run or Die and Sunrise Blvd are more overtly in the Rock and Funk Category, whereas Ninja Step is a dance piece. It's also the one with little to no melody, and honestly not much chords either. It's funkiness comes from the drum programming, it's cutting synths and various syncopated licks. It's a lovely tune, that is worthy of expansion. I picked it, for you to be creative with it. It's a blank canvas for anything for you to add. I'm gonna wrap it up here, i hope you do this one justice!" - Me (TheVideoGamer)
GAME: The Revenge of the Shinobi (Sega Genesis)
SOURCE: Ninja Step
Deadline: 19th March @ 1PM
Closing Date: 21st March @ 1PM
Vote Ends: 28th March @ 1PM
MnP ARCHIVE - made by Trism 
Resources
Rules
MISSION STATEMENT
The goal of Compo: MnP is to promote that "meat and potatoes" conservative approach to remixing: this includes the mood and composition of source tunes. It is up to the remixer to create their own personalization, or to simply give it a sound upgrade. Moreover, the compo is a great opportunity to hone your remixing skills and give video game music the respect that is due. SOME reinterpretation is recommended, but not required.
MnP Instructions/Guidelines
Rules for Picking a Source:
- All video game sources are limited to the 6th generation of video game consoles and earlier. This was due to community consensus, where people preferred to remix more retro games, than newer games. 6th generation includes: GameCube, Xbox, PS2 and Dreamcast.
- I'm now restricting big name franchises (Such as Zelda and Mega-Man) to one source per year. This is to encourage more obscure games, that not many people will know about to be picked.
- Make sure you provide me both a video and a MIDI of the source in question.
- In the event that someone wins both a normal round and a special round within the span of the each other (E.G Person A wins both Round 137 and Round 138, with Round 138 being a special round.), then the win will automatically go to the runner up and or the 2nd entry (If there is less than 3 submissions). If there is only one entry, which happens to be the winner of the last round, then i will pick a source, just so we can move onto the next round. This process was designed, so everyone gets a fair chance in submitting a source/winning. Ask questions if you are unsure, i am always here to help.
Guidelines:
- Modifying the Source is fine, so long as it doesn't sound completely separate from its original intent.
- If you're gonna do a genre change, at least make sure the original aspect of the source is not lost.
- Tempo changes are fine, as long as it's not a big change. I'm talking like, going from 80bpm to 140bpm.
- Submissions must be at a maximum of 20mb (keeping in step with ThaSauce's file size max), and submitted as a MP3 file.
- Only 1 entry per participant. Previous winner cannot participate but can submit a BONUS entry.
- Try to avoid making quality-based comments on submissions until after the Round is concluded. It is to avoid a Bias in Votes.
MISC/TIPS
- When picking a source tune, make sure it has a MIDI to make people's lives easier.
- In-game sound FX are permitted, so long as they don't comprise the whole track (i.e. replacing entire MIDI tracks with just sfx)
Entries (3)
Got about a quarter way, and blanked out, so i decided to just roll with what i have and share it. I would have worked more on it, but i decided that i've already won quite a few rounds, so it doesn't bother me if i loose. This is more of a synth kind of cover, with a sort of distorted beat, as i wanted to try something different. Enjoy!
I stayed in the same harmonic progression and cues with the source but I start at a lower bpm and take my time during the intro and the first loop to get into the original bpm. Then it consists mainly of playing around with a lot of VSTs, with some additional harmonizations, a bit of counterpoint.
At the intro, I wanted to start with a cliché organ & harpsichord intro to get into a Castelvania-like atmosphere, then I played the slowed-down main melody and introduced more and more intsruments and then dissonance until it becomes unbearable, to finally get into the source's loop.
The first loop stars with a slightly increased tempo, bringing relief with cello & viola playing the melody. I aimed for a more epic / adventerous feel around here and the horns getting some parts. I used the woodwinds to add a bit of color, and to reinforce the melody especially when it was in low-mid octaves.
At the interlude I introduced the bass guitar to set the source's groove into the song, and in the second loop where I finally reach the original tempo, and put the horns in front. I also introduce rythm guitars to start to get into the power metal feel I felt appropriate for the theme.
Lead guitars get in during the interlude of the second loop and then I basically tried harmonized the melody as I would imagine a Blind Guardian song would do, up to the interlude of the third loop, then I ran out of ideas and felt the song was already long enough, and ended it by slowing it down.
THIS IS THEVIDEOGAMER'S BONUS ENTRY DO NOT VOTE, I MEAN IT, I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN IF YOU DO.
Since nobody's gonna remix the Revenge tune, i'll do it. The lesser known Revenge tune, but equally as awesome. Also probably the only track in the OST that is a full on ravey like piece. This is why i picked it, because it wasn't as popular, so it made more sense to remix it. The track is to me original a full on electro piece, in the style of Hashim, Cybertron or any other 80's electro artist. It's a little simple, so the goal is to keep it interesting despite it's simplicity. I wanted to strip it down, instead of adding more stuff, because i wanted to keep it funky. The bulk of the interest is in the form of a 303, that modulates throughout, otherwise it might end up being too repetitive.
All in all i really like what i've done here, i was grooving very hard to this. Hope you do too!