[Glitchtale x KH Remix] Lord of the Castle ~ Bete Noire (GLITCHTALE 5TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL)
483//Alrighty. This needs a little bit of context. On December, there was a Glitchtale Showcase, wherein I made a tune for said Showcase. However, I only sent the 'Alpha Version' of the remix - and thus here I am, 2 months later, with the 'Completed Version.' And just in time as well! For it is Glitchtale's 5th anniversary!
I have a weird relationship with this particular remix. On one end, this is currently my most ambitious musical project to date (7 minutes?!) And to combine both Glitchtale and Kingdom Hearts? What kind of insanity plagued me 2 months ago?!
On the other end, this was... really tough. And the end result was something I ended up saying: "Well, it ain't my best - but it sure was ambitious." ARGH! It all sounded better in my head! If only someone could invent a machine to read brainwaves or whatever, and translate them into a song!
I digress. Hopefully you enjoy this monstrosity of a musical project, and it goes without saying... Happy Birthday Glitchtale! (Oh and thanks for using the Alpha ver. of this song for the Showcase :P)
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DDD Notes
[Crescent Dream ~ Eternal Dream]
Based on these original compositions:
Lord of the Castle - Yoko Shimomura
Bete Noire - NyxTheShield
"GOOD. LORD.
There I was, complaining about how it was hard to combine 'It's Raining Somewhere Else' and 'Sakura Sakura ~ Japanize Dream' because it sometimes sounded like 2 kids arguing over each other. BOY. These two compositions I tried combining basically hated being next to each other! They were just so VASTLY different.
Lord of the Castle was slower, more orchestral and had an 'epic' mood to it - fittingly so, because you're fighting the final boss in a grand, heroic battle to the death. Bete Noire was much faster, electronic and had an 'uneasy' mood to it - reflecting Betty's nature to prey on your fears and uneasiness as you fight her, to what seems like no foreseeable good outcome. So naturally, you try combining both moods and you've got a song that essentially doesn't know what to do with itself or how it wants to feel. Is it unnerving? Or is it heroic? Do you feel like you're gonna lose? Or do you feel ready to save the day? This song basically teeters on the edge between both worlds... and therein lies my ultimate solution:
It was gonna be a futile effort in combining both songs the same way I did with 'It's Raining Somewhere Else ~ Japanize Dream'... Occasionally, I found opportunities to mix the two simultaneously, but in the end... they needed to stay worlds apart. Ultimately, the only way I was gonna make this work, was to tell a story... The rise and fall of Bete Noire.
You can (hopefully) hear the progression within the song: beginning with a sense of uneasiness, as Frisk first fights Betty and is quickly defeated by the power of FEAR. Then the music picks up, as Betty fuses with Akumu and becomes stronger and more rampant - defeating Mettaton, Asgore and Toriel. The music then becomes desperate in Betty's clash with Sans, slowly dying down as Betty herself perishes by Gaster's hand. Then it ominously kicks up again when HATE reveals itself... Finally, it takes a heroic, hopeful turn in the end, when Chara stands up to HATE in what seems like the final showdown - in the finale episode "Hope".
With that in mind, I was able to create a remix I was reasonably happy with in terms of how it sounded and its progression. There was just one little problem left...
I knew NOTHING when it comes to writing Rock/ Metal pieces, nor did I have the equipment or means to make it sound authentic or 'excellent'. I am packed with nothing but synths, and synths is what I used to simulate the 'Electric Guitars'. Inevitably, it made the guitars sound... cheap. But that's the price one pays for not paying at all (for a real guitar). But with some tweaking here and there, I made it sound at least serviceable in what it was trying to sound like. As for my knowledge with the genre I was trying to tap into, it was a learning process that took time... It's also kind of evident in the song itself, sounding more interesting towards the end, because it was around that time that I started to know what I was doing... (sort of). I was debating on whether to fix up the earlier parts to also sound more exciting, but I felt that it would've taken away from the song's overall progression if EVERYTHING sounded 'exciting'. So I left the earlier bits as they were.
So overall? I know I've been a bit self-critical... But I guess that's just how I am. I take my 'Animating-Perfectionism' into my music, which is obviously not as good as my animations... and sure enough, my absurdly high expectations aren't met. But that aside, I'm very happy with how this turned out. I pulled off a Kingdom Hearts remix for crying out loud! And Camila used it! (to an extent).
Hope you enjoy! And happy birthday Glitchtale!"
-Theking35