Time for something EPIC.
I didn’t make the music, but I edited the clips from the Skyrim trailer and added the music to it, which I originally found here.
Vampire Killer, from Castlevania: The Arcade.
Originally appeared in Castlevania for the NES… welll it was in a computer game called “Vampire Killer” originally, but the NES game is a “remixed” version of that game.
Ahhhh, Vampire Killer. The music from the first level of the first Castlevania game. Right away it sounded unique, even on the beepy old NES sound chip. It’s what I like to call “spooky pop” - upbeat music using minor keys and a lot of interval work going on. Like it was classical music played like pop music, chiptune style.
This “spooky pop” became a staple in all NES era Castlevania games, the SNES version also had a lot of these types of tunes as well, and ties into the “Gothic Metal” classical/metal sounds of the newer games and the “synth spooky pop” sound of the game boy titles.
This version of vampire killer is from a little known Castlevania arcade game that used Wii-like motion controls in a first person game where you controlled the whip with the motion controller.
While the game was lack-luster, the music was amazing, most of it arraigned, studio recorded versions of music from classic Castlevania games.
This take on Vampire killer goes from a very “classical” sounding intro, into screeching guitars, driving bass and pounding drums playing the original NES theme, it then switches up the instruments and musical styles to a string quartet, a rock organ solo, a synthesizer, then a pipe organ solo, that fades to silence and then comes back in with the NES Castlevania theme sounding like music to an old black and white movie, with scratchy, tinny strings, that leads into a guitar solo and then the entire theme played again “nintendo rock” style.
The old NES tunes sound great arranged like this. The composers of the music for old NES games talked about how they had very little room to store their tunes so they had to make repetitive music that was catchy without getting too annoying, and the way the four channel sound was set up, the music seems like it was practically written to be played by a four piece rock band.
Then they make something like this, that takes that catchy infectious music and runs it though it’s paces in different musical styles and throw in some improvisation and solos, and it sounds amazing.
Castle Dracula, from Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (Xbox360, PS3)
Originally appeared in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS One)
This was the first music that played when you entered the halls of Castlevania as Alucard, the troubled son of Dracula bent on “ending his cursed bloodline” by killing his father in “Symphony of the Night”.
Symphony of the Night was the first “modern” Castlevania game, utilizing “Metrod” style exploration, an RPG style level up and item system, and spells that were pulled off with “Street Fighter” style d-pad and button combos.
The music was top notch, as usual for Castlevania games, the PS’s larger capacity CD storage medium allowed for very high quality syth samples to be used, that’s right, SOTN’s music was not redbook audio, but VERY high quality MIDI, the music in this game worked the same way music for SNES games did, that is, it used a synthesizer loaded with samples of notes from different instruments. This gave SNES games their unique “lo-fi” sound to it’s music because to save space, very small/short/low quality samples were used.
On the PS One, storage wasn’t a problem, so very high quality samples were used, the result was, the music nearly sounded like it was recorded in a studio on real instruments.
The original version sounded very much like your usual SNES action game type music with a “Castlevania” flavor, but with much higher quality instrument samples.
The version I have posted here is from the DLC level “Lord of the Flies” from Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. The level is a re-creation of the Castle Entrance and Alchemy Lab levels from Symphony of the Night.
This version is the same tune, but with much better instrumentation, the harpsichord and strings give it a 17th century flair, then the synths and guitars kick in. It comes off sounding a lot like an anime theme, but it’s definitely not a bad thing.
"Louisville is a place with no labels. It’s not the South, it’s not Chicago, and you don’t think of it as you think of New York or LA. It has some Southern romanticism to it, but also a Northern progressivism, this weird urban island in the middle of the state of Kentucky that has always provided a fertile, often dark, bed. For us, Louisville and the surrounding areas are the center of massive creativity and massive weirdness. The place has its flaws: You move away, but you’re always going to come back."
— Jim James (via the-sass)
(Source: tragedy-of-beauty, via glittertitties-deactivated20130)
This is an original song I wrote and recorded.
To answer common questions:
- That’s me singing
- I played all the instruments except the drums
- The drums were programmed using MIDI and high quality samples
- I used Adobe Audion to record/mix/master
The last few messages i got about secular music just demonstrates why most Christians get on my nerves.
I know many Christians listen to secular music, but what i mean is the attitude, not the disliking of secular music itself. The attitude of shutting yourself off and censoring yourself to anything non-Christian, its extremely ignorant, the world is like a vast buffet, but you want to sit there with your same plate of food forever.
Secondly exploring non-Christian things doesnt mean you have to believe them or whatever, its called appreciation of other cultures, other beliefs, other THINGS.
Get over it.
And closing yourself off to everything outside your own culture makes for a very narrow (and dangerous) worldview.
(Source: meow--zedong)
Suppressed Report Found Busted Pirate Site Users Were Good Consumers
In June, police across several countries raided the operators of streaming video links portal Kino.to. This massive operation was one of the largest of its type and site admins and users alike were branded as enemies of the TV and movie business. However, it now appears that in respect of the latter group, the opposite was found to be true.
The June raids against Kino.to, which involved as many as 250 police and other authorities, dwarfed even the 2006 raids against The Pirate Bay.
Following the event the Kino.to site displayed notices which stated that the site had been “closed on suspicion of forming a criminal organization to commit professional copyright infringement.” While noting that several operators of the site had been arrested, it also criticized the site’s users.
“Internet users who illegally pirated or distributed copies of films may be subjected to a criminal prosecution,” read the warning.
But were the site’s users all criminals hell-bent on destroying the movie industry? According to a report from Telepolis, a recent study found the reverse was true.
The study, which was carried out by Society for Consumer Research (GfK), found that users of pirate sites including Kino.to did not fit the copyright lobby-painted stereotype of parasites who take and never give back.
In fact, the study also found that Internet users treat these services as a preview, a kind of “try before you buy.”
This, the survey claims, leads pirate site users to buy more DVDs, visit the cinema more often and on average spend more than their ‘honest’ counterparts at the box office.
“The users often buy a ticket to the expensive weekend-days,” the report notes.
In the past similar studies have revealed that the same is true for music. People who pirate a lot of music buy significantly more music than those who don’t.
Obviously it would be of great interest to see the report in full, but it appears that is not going to be possible. According to an anonymous GfK source quoted by Telepolis, the findings of the study proved so unpleasant to the company that commissioned the survey that it has now been locked away “in the poison cupboard.”
GfK says it has a policy of not revealing who they conduct research for if their clients don’t want to be exposed. However, they do carry out research for the movie industry. Telepolis go a stage further and call that work “lobbying”.
The GfK source says that the study shows “If you download films, you have an increased interest in the cinema”, which only highlights how stupid it would be for the authorities to carry out their implied threat of prosecuting Kino.to users.
You know, I remember reading a few years back that the real reason the music and movie industries were so up in arms about torrents and file sharing sites was that they were an alternate distribution method that could potentially cut them out of the business.
This seems to support that theory.
Taste is such a silly thing to argue.
Musical taste, artistic taste, literary taste, all of it. It makes absolutely no sense to me to attack someone simply because they like, or do not like, similar things as yourself.
I dislike Justin Beiber. I really don’t like him, his messages, his sound, or his lyrics. However, I refuse to attack someone because I happen to dislike their sound. Quite frankly, I think the kid can sing. There’s a reason he makes tons of money, and sells numerous albums, and has loads of fans—no matter their ages. I don’t enjoy much Metal, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to erase the entire genre from my realm of enjoyable possibilities simply because I do not enjoy what little I have been exposed to. I love Lady GaGa, but so what if someone else doesn’t?
I refuse to jump down someone’s throat because they have not read, or do not like, Harry Potter. Similarly, I will not degrade or belittle a person because they have read, or enjoy, Twilight.
Just because someone does not like your favourite band does not mean they have absolutely no “taste in music.” Just because someone dislikes a show you happen to enjoy doesn’t make them stupid. Just because someone is vocal about their distaste regarding your favourite book and/or author doesn’t make them the scum of the earth. Basically, it breaks down to this: Just because someone has a different taste than you does not mean their opinions or personal preferences are any less valid.
The pretentious attitudes I see floating around Tumblr a lot—hell, floating around anywhere you look, really—are annoying. I’m not trying to keep people from criticizing me for my personal taste when I willingly put it out for the world to critique, because ultimately that will always happen. It’s simply just a minor point of irritation I needed to get off my chest.
EPIC orchestral arrangement of “Wicked Child” from the original Castlevania!
I’m in a Rush mood tonigh!
So it’s gone like this:
Freewill (Damn, those lyrics man! - great riff too)
Limelight (Such amazing lyrics, these guys had their shit together!)
Trees (The last verse of this one always cracks me up)
The Spirit of Radio (Dude! That part where they go into reggae! It gets stuck in my head!)
Red Barchetta (Which is a FUCKING amazing song by the way)
Working Man (fuck, the guitar is fucking amazing in this one!!! - and that fucking solo!!!)
Fly by Night (I love this song so much, reminds me of when I first left my ex-wife, Just listen to the lyrics, it’s beautiful man…)
“Ruined Castle Corridor” from “Castlevania: Harmony of Despair”
One of my favorite pieces of music from a video game, ever, probably because it Sounds like Bach on electric guitars.
Decided to make some music tonight, an arrangement of one of my favorite pieces of music from a video game:
“Chandeliers” from Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
Recorded with Cakewalk Music Creator, mastered in Adobe Audition 3.
