Castlevania Tribute

Okay so this track actually has dick-all to do with Castlevania, so don't go in expecting a remix of classic themes or anything.

What this is, basically, is me having some time on my hands and some pent-up frustration from Symphony of the Night kicking my donkey on the PSP. I LOVE the Castlevania series and have played basically every game that's ever borne the title. I'm obviously also a fan of the music, so I thought why not try my hand at writing something of a Marius "tribute" to the style of the original Castlevania music from the series.

The result is basically what I was aiming for

i didn't know i was listening to you when i heard it..i was sighing to myself "another wanna be"(dont be offended i'm sure i get this too) but then i heard really cool drumming sounds, and great production, and melody kicking in without shame...what can i say..if i could pay for this i would.

Hey Marius, I like it. :thumbsup:

What sounds did you use and which program to get those sounds? I like that instrument you used but have no idea what it was.

hehe, nice one... didn't really expect something like this from you :D

I just can't understand some peoples fixation with midi-sounding music :P

lol Nice!

A very creative little exercise.

The closest i have to some of these sounds are on an old '81 Kawai keyboard i have :P

You're a true gaming fan, i appreciate your tribute. Fun stuff :D

I just can't understand some peoples fixation with midi-sounding music :P

It's all good when you're using it artfully :D

Hi everyone!

The J: I can totally understand that initial reaction of yours, but I'm glad I managed to turn it around as the track progressed!

Bachian: Yours is a very long-winded question to answer...my current sound library is approximately 410GB in size, and I pick and blend from a wide variety of constituent libraries to make sure my mixes have a unique "Marius" sound to them. That lead instrument that I'm assuming you are referring to is a synthesized electric guitar patch from a library called Slayer — great little VST. As for the program I use, it's all performed by me into Logic and rendered through Kontakt plugins using the above-mentioned collection of libraries. Hope that helps!

ThePhantomOftheOpera: I have to say that I'm quite happy to hear that you didn't expect this from me. I like being able to surprise people. In any event, my work requires that I be EXTREMELY flexible, stylistically speaking, so this kind of thing is really not to be less expected than an orchestra piece from me. It all depends on what the client wants, and I aim to be at least adept at as many genres of music as I can.

As for peoples' fascination with MIDI-sounding music, I think what you mean is actually the synth-sounding stuff, since MIDI itself doesn't sound like anything at all. The appeal of synth material though is just that it's a different kind of sound, unfettered by the mechanical and physical limitations of real instruments. Plus, they sound cool. They're also a throwback to the early days of game music (in this case) when composers didn't have the luxury of being able to use awesomely realistic samples...they had a few synthy tracks and had to make sure the music could carry the idea through sheer melodic and acoustic strength. Certainly a method worth exploring; keeps us from getting lost and hiding in the strength of our sound libraries and forgetting to write music that's actually good in and of itself.

Duncan: I'm happy someone appreciates the tribute — I am definitely a gaming fan, and it's good to have like-minded people around. You should totally use some of those sounds from your keyboard and write something fun with them. Even combine them with an orchestral sound, the result is always fascinating. Experimentation is key.

Thanks a whole lot to all of you for your comments — I'm really happy you enjoyed it! :happy:

Hey Marius i've never played Castlevania... i'm a playstation boy :-) But I like this - I like it when people stray from boring old orchestra VSTs and experiment with sounds so good on ya. I actually really like the synths you've used.

It's a good tribute!

The best thing about it is that it goes through a good deal of progression, so that's really good ^^

The synths I think were a little powerful for me though. It stuck out too much. Is there a softer version of that synth that plays the melody?

great job! It would be realyl cool if you could see some of my work!

Marius, really different sound to your previous compositions i've heard, and it does sound like it would fit into a certain retro platformer game... ;)

I would be happy to platform to this music as BGM haha, although it sounds like it would be a pretty frenetic game.