*NO* Castlevania Adventure 'Stoker's Deathwish'

Hey djp, First submission here with a remix of Castlevania Adventure's Level 1 Theme. This is a 3 person collab between DJBren, ReaktorZer0, and myself.

Here is a link where you can download the song, Please leave anyone who views the judges decisions to download this in case it isn't passed.

http://lockdown.nbots.org/Castlevania_Adventure_Stokers_Deathwish.mp3

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

-Escariot, DJBren, ReaktorZer0

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/cv1.zip - Track 1

Heard WIPs of this one a while back. The sounds were pretty basic on the whole. The drums entering in :07 lacked any power behind them and sounded too fake; they didn't fill up the space particularly well, so as you listen to the mix, it sounded somewhat empty. There were only 2 alternating patterns for the percussion; needed more thought put into it. The synth on melody at :30 was generic as well and a poor choice.

The sound choices at large turned me off to the track as a whole; not to just bag on the track, as it wasn't absolutely terrible, but this was an example where a lot of elements could be in play, yet the track felt empty-sounding despite the clutter. If you want to make the best of generic sounds and samples, the arrangement is really going to have to be exceptional, and the production and performance have to be well executed.

I could hear arrangement here, but in terms of the melodic progressions, it was pretty conservative. 6:19? Y'all are getting pretty zealous for a remix here that doesn't have that many ideas in it. Needed much more variation and dynamic contrast if it was gonna go this long. This could easily have been half that length. The breakdown at 5:39 could been much earlier. Keep learning, bros.

NO

Nice to see ReaktorZer0 expanding and collaborating with some other people. This might be one of the better works I've heard from him in terms of polish. I actually found this entertaining and enjoyable on some levels. But my main problem here really is the conservative arrangement and basic execution. Try and mix it up more, add your own flava to the mix.

I actually liked the sounds in the mix, it reminded me of early 90s videogame music gems. Cool, enjoyable mix, and definitely good source material, but on the technical side of things this needs to be worked on more particularly by expanding the arrangement and adding more meat to the mix. I also thought the mix was overly long. This doesn't make the grade at this state, at least not yet. Keep it up bros, I hope to hear a collaboration from you three again. NO

the intro is neat but it doesn't work out after that. i get the impression from listening to this that the chemistry is out of balance.

the drums are really really lacking in all oomph. and the frankly, the synth doesn't make up for it. its ok for the percussion to be in the background if something else is driving but that neat synth lead i liked in the intro by midway through the piece is tired and no longer appealing.

the slight key change didn't save this one. the neat solo in the middle didn't save this, either... mostlyt because it went right back to where it was before...

sorry guys - decent effort but doesn't make the cut.

NO

Percussion has no punch! Everything still sounds splashy. I remember commenting on this back in the wip stages. There's a lack of balance here. Lots of things vying for attention!

BALANCE! It's so important when you're mixing elements together!

Aside from that I don't feel any kind of energy from this piece. It's sparse and high, and the sounds, while having a nice old school sound, aren't really that impressive.

The arrangement goes on long, but it doesn't feel like it's going anywhere; just going through the motions.

NO

Special note to future submitters: If you request that your mix's link be left in the thread once it's moved to decisions, please don't tag the file with OC ReMix in the title. Use OC Submission instead. Thanks!