Posted 2005-02-28, evaluated by the judges panel


S|r NutS, whose previous three submissions were of Sonic tunes (albeit from three different Sonic titles on three different consoles), ventures into Nintendoland for some coverage of Ryu Hayabusa's second NES adventure. The ReMixer writes:

"So yeah as Usual from me, I made a Trance Remix of this tune. Only that this time is not too much of a synth mesh. It has some touches of house and ethnic, with some parts that concentrate on the use of melodies using pianos, flutes, and some other stuff. My electronica stuff is here anyways, as it wouldn't be me without it. I decided that the original was a bit simple and tried to add more counter melodies to give it more depth and rhythmn, as well as new stuff to complement it, I think that at the end the result was a mix that flows very well between the genres."

Mike always delivers solid, hard-hitting trance, and this is no exception; here he uses the first half of the mix to establish a traditional, competent trance structure, with layered percussion that adds some bongos and syncopation to the action, but mainly relies on the same staccato hook. He starts changing things up more in the second half, though, with a break at 2'38" that gives the flute some time to shine while not overpowered by synths, and then enters with a dirtier, rising, filter-crazy riff. S|r NutS is one of those guys you'd never wanna get anywhere in the vicininty of a Sherman Filterbank, as there's every indication he'd be stuck twiddling knobs in fits of epileptic glee and bursting the eardrums of all around him mercilessly. In a good way. Volume here is a bit high, but it's not subtle music, and when there's a bit more nuance going on which requires decibel normalcy to catch, the ReMixer dials it back a notch as needed. Larry took issue, however, and had some specific recommendations:

"My suggestions would be to eliminate the piercing frequencies (flute), achieve a bit cleaner seperation of sounds so you can hear the supporting elements better, beef up your synths a bit (the keyboard in particular), and make a more coherent freestyle section from 2:38-3:04."

I'm not sure about beefing up the synths, myself, as it sounds like they're already what's for dinner, but the other comments/ideas are where I'd have headed myself in providing feedback. It's pretty clear from past submissions though that Michael has a sound that he likes and that he's pretty intent on sticking with. When he does enough within his own margins to make a track sustainable, usually via paying more attention to the arrangement, the results are still very enjoyable, even if the production sometimes lacks EQ polish and has a few irregularities to it. That being said, analoq and Binnie didn't think things were noticeably uneven, so user experience may certainly vary. I personally like the variety that's achieved in the second half of the mix, but would like to see more thought towards pushing some of those musical ideas up the stack so that they appear earlier on - better to grab interest and proove you're not on auto-pilot right off the bat than to raise the bar later on when the hasty may have already reached incorrect conclusions. At any rate, I can't see fans of trance and/or Ninja Gaiden tunage not digging this, and it's another winner from S|r NutS.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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Marmiduke
on 2009-10-22 08:08:49

With trance, it's either powerful or it's nothing for me. Thankfully, this one knows when to inject itself with a bit of buff when it needs to and really pounds the melody. I really enjoy the balance between the hard and soft, the tough and the delicate textures in this one. That's what stood out for me most. Bongos up against the strong electronic beats, flutes versus dance synths. And the best thing is, both sides comes out the victor because none of the instruments seem undercut or hampered by the others.

While I did find the piano and the flute were played somewhat hard and shrill at times, I think this is a very accessable, easy to embody trance mix with a strong focus on melody and variation. Which just so happens to be one of my favourite things ever. So, Sir_NutS gets a gold star from me. Score.

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OA
on 2008-03-06 10:59:13

Pretty cool stuff; Nice production, and great variation on keeping the theme fresh. The percussion throughout is pretty interesting, nice bongo work, and the flute melody is pretty nice.

I think the flute might be too piercing, I am listening at half volume and it still hurts. Everything else is fine though, volume-wise, and that gated synth is really nice.

Overall this is a really strongly crafted song, and works pretty well as trance. It has enough tricks to keep things interesting, and is pretty danceable.

Check it out, yo.

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Ichitootah
on 2005-04-24 18:51:46

This is pretty standard, good Nuts stuff, but there are a few moments that really shine.

Very clean intro, but quickly gets more complex. I prefer more melodic electronica, and this definitely fits the bill.

I particularly enjoy that phrase around 3:24 and 3:38. Awesome.

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DeepChild
on 2005-03-30 14:55:04

I'm currently on a downloading spree, but I had to stop and take a moment to tell you how impressed I am with this work. While I am a huge fan of the source material, this track inparticular, I think your remix brings out the best parts of the original and really cranks up the intensity exactly where it should. The flow and drive of this piece is absolutely superb. This is how a techno remix should be done. You don't overwork the background to the point that it drowns out the original essence of the piece, and I think that is a weak point of many of the techno remixes that I have heard thus far. Kudos and well done!

DeepChild

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Arcana
on 2005-03-30 00:29:51

Just my cup of tea! The usage of the acoustic-style instruments gives this a bit more variety than your average hard trance song. Lots of changeups keep this from getting too repetitive. Piano at 2:00 is subtle but really adds a lot, for example.

I don't have a problem with the levels, myself. Yeah, it's loud, but that's okay.

Only real complaint is the fact that it ends so suddenly. Yeah, yeah... 6 MB limit and all, but a bit more of an outro would have been appropriate.

But overall, a very enjoyable track and I look forward to hearing more from you. I have a few things I can learn from you, S|r NutS. Great work!

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Greenspectre
on 2005-03-04 22:17:12

It's been a LONG time since I found a song at OCR that I liked enough to download (though way back, I DID download a few hundred or so- just not liking much of the newer stuff) But I gotta say that as usual, Sir Nuts kicked my ass (or my nuts rather) so I gave this a listen and now it's sucking up another few megs of hard drive space :) Thanks very much for the awesome listening experience Nuts :D

*PS- Looking forward to your Introduction to Heaven makeover! I already have that song on a CD*

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Sir_NutS
on 2005-03-02 14:13:29
Very nice. Excellent choice of sounds too. It may not be as fast and hardcore as Sprinting Riffs, but it's a lot less repetive and very atmospheric. But this sounds more like house to me than trance. Still great though.

The ReMixer writes:

"So yeah as Usual from me' date=' I made a Trance Remix of this tune. Only that this time is not too much of a synth mesh. It has some touches of house and ethnic, with some parts that concentrate on the use of melodies using pianos, flutes, and some other stuff.[/quote']

So yeah, this is more house than most of the stuff I do, but not much like club house, it leans more toward hard trance. :wink:

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Devyn
on 2005-03-02 12:38:05

Very nice. Excellent choice of sounds too. It may not be as fast and hardcore as Sprinting Riffs, but it's a lot less repetive and very atmospheric. But this sounds more like house to me than trance. Still great though.

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- Myke -
on 2005-03-01 23:13:55

As Always this song is good. I'm not going into details why it is good. but its is.

*Cough* please Sir Nuts. *cough* please be my savior and make a remix of Ninja Gaiden 3 stage 4-1. *cough* *cough* *hint hint*

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Red Shadow
on 2005-03-01 17:39:25

Quality trance from andrus_nuts.gif as always. Love it.

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Navi
on 2005-03-01 13:02:29

The usual quality one can expect from the Sire of Testicles. Hot beat, great sound. Haven't heard the VGMix version, so no point of comparison, but I like.

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Txai
on 2005-03-01 11:08:38
Oustanding, Sir Nuts. Typical of your style of electronica...

Of course. I remember 'A New Ray of Light' by S|r_NutS and Sadorf.

Very cool things going on this remix. I never played the game. But I remember this music. Wow! Beautiful flute. Nice beats. The elaboration and the process of this song are great. I love the other resources too. Definitely some freaky stuff.

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Rexy
on 2005-03-01 02:23:34

You've gone a good job on this, Nuts. Definitely a more refined effort since the VGMix version when it came to the mastering (more than likely to be noticeable on the drum effects, the lack of clipping and some synth pad improvements) and it still stands as one of the more creative variations on the theme I've witnessed (i.e. it's not a rock arrangement like the thousand others I've heard :P).

I saw where Larry was coming from with the flute EQing though, but I don't see that to be a big problem. I'll be sure to keep a grasp on this for a while. ;)

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Corporal Eschebone
on 2005-02-28 23:10:40
-Introduction to heaven is getting a major makeover. Stay tuned.

Ah, now you got me all excited. :)

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Sir_NutS
on 2005-02-28 23:00:53

thanks, I just wanted to add some things.

-For those who got the Vgmix version and liked it, get this one. Its been improved a lot over the old version.

-At last! I'm pretty happy about this because since I started remixing 5 years ago, my wish was to get a ninja gaiden and a megaman song in ocr, and well, only the megaman remix is left :D

-Introduction to heaven is getting a major makeover. Stay tuned.

-Thanks to sadorf for the help with this mix ^_^

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (Tecmo , 1990, NES)
Music by Keiji Yamagishi,Mayuko Okamura,Mikio Saito,Ryuichi Nitta
Songs:
"The Parasprinter"

Tags (5)


Genre:
Trance
Mood:
Instrumentation:
Electronic,Piano,Synth,Woodwinds
Additional:

File Information


Name:
Ninja_Gaiden_2_Ashtar's_Desires_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
5,001,465 bytes
MD5:
e89e0b5ece7cb7f75eb4f8d31f2a9a97
Bitrate:
156Kbps
Duration:
4:10

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