Topic: The "Descent RAVE" project

[Alieo]

Nitro Ratzez!:

http://www.planetdescent.net/index.php?action=media;sa=item;in=718

[Scyphi]

Heh, it's a definite improvement over the original song.

[Kaiaatzl]

Am I the only one who liked the original Ratzez, Glut, and Rusty?  (Apart from Alieo).

I seriously don't remember anyone else ever saying that they liked those songs -- in real life or online.

[Scyphi]

Oh I like them, mildly. I don't think they're the best songs in the world and all three could stand slight improvements IMO, though, so... *shrugs*

[Alieo]

Quartzon Beach:
http://www.planetdescent.net/index.php?action=media;sa=item;in=723

[Scyphi]

Hmm...I liked the first bit of it, but when it got into the more hard rock portions of the song, the two started to clash too much, to the point it was more noise than music.

Pity, though, I liked the direction you were trying to go with it.

[Alieo]

Umm, I have to disagree with you Scyphi. I like this mix and don't think it was bad at all.

Anyone else think it was a "pity"? 


On another note...

Raw Power:
http://www.planetdescent.net/index.php?action=media;sa=item;in=724

[Scyphi]

Hmm...didn't like this one either, for the same reasons. 

Now that I think about it, though, it might be because both of these songs involve a fair bit of hard rock, and I've never been a fan of hard rock. So maybe I'm just not a good person to be judging these.

As for the last song being a "pity"...what I meant was that I liked the idea, so much so, I wish I could say that I DO like it, and the first, I dunno, half minute I think (give or take) was really good. But the rest of the song just lacked the right...cohesion. The two weren't fitting together so well anymore...

I dunno, I don't know if I can explain it in any way different than that.

[Kaiaatzl]

The drums sound wiiiieeeerrrd.

[Pumo]

Am I the only one who liked the original Ratzez, Glut, and Rusty?  (Apart from Alieo).

I seriously don't remember anyone else ever saying that they liked those songs -- in real life or online.

Just for the record, I like Ratzez and Glut very much since the very first time I listened to them on the D2 redbook, back on 1997!

(in fact, my favorite D2 redbook songs are ColdReal, Ratzez, Glut, Haunted, RUDescent & Robot )

[TechPro]

The drums sound wiiiieeeerrrd.

I gotta agree (speaking of "Raw Power"), except that I know what's wrong with the drums in this (thus I can't call it weird, just wrong). 

• The drums aren't in sync with the main Descent music and are quite out of rhythm and constantly off-beat (with occasional times on the beat), plus the added drums are over-powering the main Descent music.  Sounds a bit like the session drummer was trying to do a thrashing drum solo the entire length of the song.
• The additional guitar action is going all over the place as if the guitarist was trying to do frilling complex licks one after the other ... through the entire piece.

These items really, really detract from the original Descent music (which seems to be playing only as a background) instead of enhancing it.  All the mystical, expansive, 'spooky' feel of the original Descent music is lost and covered up by the constant rapid drumming and frilly guitar action.

In case you couldn't tell, I didn't like it.  Sorry. 

[-<WillyP>-]

I have to agree with TechPro. Sounds like a when you are in the middle of two people with radios on different stations. O.0

[Alieo]

The "Time for the Big Guns" track (A.K.A. D1 Game22 Redbook) was THE single most hardest song to align with another song. Nothing I have sounds like it, except for that Monaco track from Twisted Metal:Head-On which gives it a swing beat or whatever. If anyone has ANY suggestions as to what would possible sound good with this song, let me look it up on YouTube, or provide a YouTube URL and paste it here, and I will try that combination. Nothing I have works with this one apparently.

It is such an oddly patterned song. The program I use defines it at 99.96 BPM. But is that the first, more fast paced part, or is that the slower 3/4ths of the song. This one I think is the only song that does not have a consistent beat to it. Again, recommend something and I will try it. It's basically the last one I need to do a mix for.

[Kaiaatzl]

The midi format usually defines tempo based on the beginning of the song.  However this is not the midi version -- it would depend on how your software calculates it for songs with tempo changes.  My thoughts would be that if it only gives one value, it's either the beginning or an average.  For most songs, I don't see why it would need to look at more than the beginning -- since most popular songs do have the same tempo throughout.  I'd recommend looking at the midi file instead if not for the fact that the remix is probably a different tempo.

However, I'm pretty sure this song is really all the same tempo.  Because the end two sections are half as fast as the beginning, these phrases basically just take two bars where the beginning would have taken one (that doesn't necessarily mean that all the phrases are two bars in length though! ).

[Alieo]

Beat matching really isn't the only challenge with this song... it's the genre... I don't know what would possibly sound good with this thing! It's heavy metal. I already did the MIDI one and it's mildly satisfying (you can hear it in the rave album). But this one? Yikes. By the way, the program I've been using is called "Virtual DJ Home." Every mix I've done is through that, and it does do a good job beat and key matching two songs. However, sometimes, I'll put two different MIDIs together (i.e. two different Game22s together, like an OPL3 and a high quality OGG) and it'll have two completely and totally BPM measurements that do not line up at all.

If someone wants to "contribute" a mash-up remix of the redbook of Game22 (Time for the Big Guns) with anything (that sounds good) and upload it, I will be glad to include it in this Descent RAVE album.