*NO* System Shock 2 'cy-AMP'

Yo,

Since my last submission is through the panel already, I figured it's about time submit another one. SO HERE WE GO!

Game: System Shock 2

Original Songs: Med-Sci: Science Sector, Operations D, Hydroponics B/C, Engineering: Coolant Tubes

This is a medley of four of the five upbeat tracks from System Shock 2. I left one out because it had nothing to it except some drums, a bass line, and some little filter changes. Nothing I really needed to include. This medley completely ate my computer alive. Had to do it in two chunks--which I mixed together in Sound Forge--because each individual chunk used up 95-100% of my CPU. Goody gumdrops.

Anyway, enjoy it.

-Beatdrop

First off, the opening voice clip is cheesy and unnecessary. Then, the main synth comes out of NOWHERE and is very jarring, and not in a cool, SURPRISE kind of way. Sounds like a mistake. Then the MedSci tune comes in with a patch i'm not too fond of. Through the entire MedSci portion of the medley this is simply an attempt at an upgrade, and if you'd listen to the original, it isn't actually an improvement. This pattern continues through the entire arrangement. It suffers from medleyitis greatly, as each tune is connected either with a drop-out of all percussion or by the 4 on the floor. The percussion is very noisy and dominant, and it is very abrasive. It straight up hurts my ears to listen to.

I am intimately familiar with the System Shock 2 soundtrack, I was an avid player and listened to the soundtrack in my car all the time. I can tell you from experience that this is nothing but an attempt at a sample upgrade and conversion to 4 on the floor dance music. There are so many cool things missing that were in the originals that I can't say this in any way improves or even expands upon the original. The..... "thing" at 1:10 almost bastardizes the original song for me. It doesn't fit into the context of anything else going on. It's just like "HEY LOOK AT ME I'M A TRITONE". The original handled the progression much better.

3:08 is a nice change of pace, and is easily the best part of the song. We finally get some interesting percussive work, and some nice interaction between melodic and harmonic elements. However, since this section is the part most similar to the original, I can't consider this a strong point.

Then, after all this, the ending just....craps out. No attempt at bringing the listener out of the "trance" that 4 on the floor electronica is generally intended to do, in my experience. There are effective, abrupt endings - this is not one of them.

2:54 has some cool filter work though.

Overall, there is a noticeable amount of good synthwork here, but mostly it's just more of the same with regards to "dance/techno/electronica", whatever you want to call it. There's no attempt to make this track original from a production standpoint, and it certainly doesn't deviate enough from the original to pass by virtue of arrangement. Listen to the SS2 ST and you'll hear what I mean.

NO

-D

Personally I like the synthwork and drum sound. There are some cool, harsh textures, that really work well. However, I'm not a fan of the ridiculous amount of arpeggiation going on here. This mix can be summed up in 16 syllables: "doo de DAH de doo DAH doo de DAH de doo DAH doo de DAH doo." Add drums. Repeat. Granted, its a staple of the genre, but I think a stronger focus on more melodic aspects of the source material would help with the arrangement aspect.

I like the texture a lot, but arrangement is lacking. It's not an execution thing, it's a concept thing.

NO (revise+resub)

http://www.ttlg.com/other/jukebox/ss2.htm - MedSci1: Science Sector (:09-2:00), Operations D (2:11-2:45), Hydroponics B/C (2:34-4:03) & Engineering A: Coolant Tubes (4:03-4:37)

Played this one on VGF39, so I was waiting for it to come our way for a while. I hate to come across as flippant and mean Dain zero disrespect, since I thought this was a good track for what it was, but this had absolutely no chance to meet guidelines as is, from my view.

The arrangement was way too conservative and suffered from total medley-itis here, as this was nothing more to me than a stylized cover most of the time. Not creatively expansive enough with the additions and certainly not interpretive enough with the source material whatsoever.

Not gonna bitch much about the sounds as they're weren't so bad, but it could definitely get grating at points. Gotta go beyond a mere genre adaptation, especially give the similar style of these originals; hell, you know that. I'm sure you feel this track went beyond that, but in all honesty, I'm not sure why you'd feel this could pass like this. Sorry, bro. Looking forward to whatever you've got next however.

NO

I agree, the arrangement part is the main and for me the only issue here. I'd like to see beatdrop resubmit this with a more expanded concept/arrangement, cause I really like everything else. Not my cup of tea music, but this has a lot of impressive aspects, and the synths and drumwork were quite enjoyable. Pretty sophisticated production skills on display to boot.

No, resub please.