Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - Invitation Of A Crazed Moon [Revision] (Patreon)

Today's revision might be one of my favorite Castlevania tracks! This is a busy week for me (thank you for your patience commissioners!), so today's breakdown will be a short look at the respective orchestral/band mixes of this track.

Invitation Of A Crazed Moon - Orchestra Mix 

Invitation Of A Crazed Moon - Band/Synth Mix 

When combining an orchestra with any genre, you have to make some sacrifices. There's only so much sonic real estate in a mix, so you have to be choosy about what elements of your track you'd like to be more audible. Should an electric bass have more presence, or do you want to hear the celli & string basses more?

My philosophy is to prioritize all non-orchestral elements first, and then to highlight key orchestral sections to join the front line of the mix. As a stylistic choice, I'd rather have my piece sound like a member of its own genre, that just happens to have an orchestral backing track. (Rather than an orchestral piece with a small band playing in the exact same virtual concert hall).

So when you hear these two examples, listen to what stands out and what feels omitted from each part. 

Orchestra Mix:

The first thing to notice about this mix is that the low end is greatly subdued. This is to leave breathing room for the electric bass and kick. The trumpets, horn, violins and viola have a slight compressed, tinny edge to them, which sends those sections closer to the front of a mix to compete with the guitars, synth leads and more. These sections also make use of transient shapers to send them even closer to the front. 

Band/Synth Mix:

This mix sounds like your typical funky track. However, something subtly feels "off" about it. The arrangement is very sparse, and there's a lot of headroom that is meant to be filled by the orchestra. Most of this sparseness is due to the instrumentation and arranging choices themselves, relying on the bare minimum amount of tracks to get a feeling across.  

Finding this balance has probably been the most difficult part of my mixing experience over the past 10 years! I feel like I'm starting to get the formula right for it though. As always, if you have any questions about this piece leave them in the comments! <3