ReMix:Seiken Densetsu 3 "March to High" 3:19

By Mak Eightman

Arranging the music of one song...

"Level Up!"

Primary Game: Seiken Densetsu 3 (Square , 1995, SNES), music by Hiroki Kikuta

Posted 2018-11-01, evaluated by the judges panel


We hope you're enjoying a third helping of Candy Corn, but take a break and enjoy this symphonic metal march of doom from Mak Eightman (Max V. Kravchenko), off of Seiken Densetsu 3: Songs of Light and Darkness. Album director Rozovian writes:

"There's a couple of jingles on the soundtrack. Not all got remixed, but this one did. Mak makes leveling up not just a sweet stat boost, but something monumental and epic. And why shouldn't it be? Just imagine this metal- and electronica-infused march playing while selecting which stat to upgrade. Arrangement-wise, it's variations on a fairly simple repeating model, and it's fun to examine each repetition to hear what's different. And every so often, there's something, like at 1:30, that breaks from the pattern and you wonder how the track will make its way back to the source. A fun listen."

So one thing should definitely be clear: this is a thrilling ride, a very enjoyable build from symphonic march into synth/guitar wall-of-sound assault, and just plain old fun. That being said, it was very divisive on the judges panel due to being a liberal extrapolation of a minimalist source. We've posted mixes based on extremely short source tunes in the past, and it often involves similar debate - because of the nature of a minimalist "jingle," augmentation is essentially required to make the transformation into a longer song form, but this also creates a friction with regard to source utilization and interpretation vs. outright synthesis of new, tenuously-related material. The judges definitely grappled with this and it remained polarized but was eventually approved, 7-4. The four dissenting votes felt strongly that this was too liberal an arrangement for so short a source, which is a combination of dependent thresholds that I can relate to giving due consideration. Shariq laid down his reasoning:

"My issue is not with the source tune but with the extremely liberal take on that source tune. For shorter "jingles" like these, there's less material to work with, so straying from that material is way easier to do."

Sometimes the material is so minimal that almost any combination of notes could be mentally backflipped into being an arrangement, too. As the final vote, Vig explained his counterargument:

"We generally agree that this particular source should be eligible for OC ReMix, but if that is so, how else would we expect someone to remix it within our guidelines? If you think about it, in spite of excessive instrumentation, he really doesn't even introduce very much new melodic or harmonic content. It's all just extrapolation. There's no new B section or anything that he tacked on, there's maybe a counter-melody and a solo. It's all just the source."

So once again, I'm spending a lot of time on the judging process, but the track itself is a blast, and you're gonna love it. The guitar in particular has this giant, menacing presence that cuts through everything, and I ended up liking the acid-style synth bass more after I got used to it. The flute and its solo are lovely and impart a bit of prog on the affair, and I dig that Mak used both the brief fanfare from the source as well as the ensuing, repeated motif - there wasn't much there, but it's all been captured.

And of course, much has been added. Mak was asked to take a short jingle and turn it into something new, and something a bit... more. He's done that, and while the end result might pose certain challenges to our evaluation criteria, few subjective processes are perfect. Max takes a small seed, plants it in an orchestra pit, throws synths & guitars in there, and injects enough original writing to build a superstructure around it. This approach can certainly butt up against our standards, but in this case the presiding sentiment was that source connectivity was sufficient. And, once again, it's a dope track you're gonna have fun with :)

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 3 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
avatar
CJthemusicdude
on 2024-05-01 19:29:05

This is quite the epic remix for a Level up tune! Those chuggin guitars around 1:05 were MONSTROUS for sure. This was definitely a bit of an oddity at times, but that made it interesting. Great job on this remix!

avatar
Mak Eightman
on 2018-11-04 08:57:48

Hello to all!

At first I wanted to wait for someone to leave a couple of comments, but then I remembered that my work is not very popular ;)

So, I want to share my feelings.

I did not expect that this composition will pass. Due to various production reasons.
But what I especially did not expect that this mix will cause such a discussion about source usage.
I even feel guilty in some sense.
I apologize for taking so much time from the judges.

After reading the "judicial battles", I finally managed to specifically explain for myself why I stopped submitting my remixes and I hardly will.

As I said, I did not think that this mix will pass, however, I consider this mix to be my best to this day. And, the funny thing is, if this one hadn’t passed, I would have stopped submitting already then. Not very logical, but true :)

Vig very accurately described the course of my thoughts in the process of writing this composition. The original part was only a guitar solo (if you can call it that). Everything else is source, reassigned in places.

I never say where and how the source is used. If this needs to be clarified, then I did not meet the OCR standards. What comes out at the end is what I feel(including instruments and sounds choice) while listening to the source. This is true for any of my work (and not only mine, I assume).

Many thanks for such a detailed trial, which(all of judging processes) finally helped me to understand why I don’t want to submit my remixes anymore. I still appear in some competitions or projects. I think this is enough for me. OCR will not lose anything with my departure from the posted remixes.

I came to this decision a few years ago, but now at least I understand why. It means a lot to me. Thanks guys! Not sarcasm, I am sincerely grateful.
You are doing a very big and useful job!

I'm still here .. I'm learning, crawling on the forum and pop up from time to time;)

Don't think I'm offended. I'm actually very happy right now!! 8-O

Thank you!

avatar
djpretzel
on 2018-11-01 16:26:07

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Seiken Densetsu 3 (Square , 1995, SNES)
Music by Hiroki Kikuta
Songs:
"Level Up!"

Tags (10)


Genre:
March,Metal,Symphonic
Mood:
Aggressive,Energetic
Instrumentation:
Bells,Electric Guitar,Flute,Strings,Synth
Additional:

File Information


Name:
Seiken_Densetsu_3_March_to_High_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
5,987,969 bytes
MD5:
8fbccd1e6557328a836ac6326afa0bc7
Bitrate:
237Kbps
Duration:
3:19

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