ReMix:Sonic CD "Road Trip" 4:34

Newcomer KingTiger (R. Corey Oltman) debuts with this plucky house/dance electronic mix from Sonic CD: Temporal Duality! I actually arranged the very same source for the album, but my limited foray with Reaper (short version: I've switched back to Cubase) resulted in a pretty non-traditional lofi/ambient take that slowed things way down & was rather abstract. I personally thought it was kinda cool because I envisioned it as actually floating/walking in space - something deliberate & expansive. Ultimately, KingTiger's approach is probably a bit more FUN, although it represents a lot of hard work & perseverance through revisions:

"I am extremely proud to be a part of the Sonic CD project on OCR, and very proud of how this track turned out. I've always been pretty good at creativity in my musical arrangements and compositions, but my production/mixing has always been a bit lacking. Thankfully, the Temporal Duality project is staffed with some very knowledgeable and very helpful folks, and, thanks to their great input, I have grown immensely in those areas, as is hopefully demonstrated in this remix.

All that aside, Sonic CD has always been a bit of a underground favorite of mine - "underground" because it was rare for me to be able to play it, seeing as I've never owned a Sega CD. I was able to play the Sega PC Windows version for a while, and when I discovered the existence of two separate soundtracks, I tried various things to get my PC to play the Japanese soundtrack in place of the US one, with limited success.

Imagine my joy when I discovered the re-mastered re-release of Sonic CD on Steam, complete with the option to switch between both soundtracks! Not only did this re-kindle my love of the game but also inspired me to make this mix of one of my favorite levels and favorite tracks from the US version of the game.

This is a rather house-ish remix, with some lo-fi bits and lots and lots of added flair. I hope you all enjoy it!"

A bit of a slow burn, this mix gets better & more interesting as it progresses, with the ReMixer continuing to add new elements and apply new effects. It's not the easiest source in the world to work with, speaking from experience, and I like this approach of stretching things out and letting them develop while keeping the beat going strong. Palpable writes:

"...once the drums are added, this picks up. There's quality detail work all over this and once the scratching and glitch sections come on, this starts to gel a lot better. Some fake strings enter the picture as the B-section melody is used, and the sequencing is clearly fake, but it sounds fine in the context the remix is painting.

By the end, I was impressed how much mileage was eked out of the Speedway Present melody, which gets the most screen time by far among the sources used. Overall, this is quirky and creative with some really pretty moments."

I liked the melodic variations at 2'12" - nice way of superimposing more structure/development to the passage. Chimpazilla offers a nice play-by-play:

"The pace of this starts out feeling a bit plodding, after hearing the source, but picks up pretty well after the intro. The sounds are really good, even with the stiff sequencing. The glitching, vocal, and scratch effects are dynamite. Lots of nice little synth fills. Track is mixed quite well. The arrangement is fairly straightforward. Bass has good presence and nice upper-end buzz. Synth strings work well. Fun soloing. Piano is a nice addition at the end. The bridge/breakdown at 1:21 is a bit plainly written, but it'll work. I'm liking this a lot overall."

KT definitely leans on some FX to move this along, but there are also plenty of compositional ideas at play, and the combination of the two justify the 4'34" duration and lend the piece form & motion. Excellent debut from KingTiger, who upped his production game for Temporal Duality & came through with something enjoyable and substantive!