OCR01180 - Commander Keen IV 'man sieht sich galaxie'

[djpretzel]

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

[ella guro]

FUCK YES! COMMANDER KEEN!!11

Actually, i never really played these early id games...

BLASPHEMY!

Ahh, nice. About the best you could remix this tune, I think. If I have anything more coherent to add, I'll say it tommorrow.

EDIT: It's obviously tommorrow now. Anyway, I'd say this is probably my favorite mix of the past few months. It's pretty obvious to hear the Kraftwerk influence here, and it's done while still staying nostalgic (that high pitched synth is so great :) ) and mixing in some pretty neat jazz piano in here and there.

Analoq also gets bonus points for the fake German accent on the "Goodbye Galaxy" part. The only thing that tops that is the piano part at the end, which is perfect.

So yes. Great job overall, and nice work expanding upon the original and fitting it into this genre while still doing it justice. That's something that I really think was missing from his Doom mix (but then again, I love the original to this a lot more than the original Doom tune for that mix). All in all, this is probably my favorite thing analoq has done.

[Chris McGee]

Yes! Commander Keen! I used to play this game all the time!

On to the mix. I love it. Another very chill mix for the night of OCR4. That first lead synth is so nostalgic. Awesome job, analoq.

[Mazedude]

Aha, sweet. Awesome. Very nice mix - put a big ol' smile on my face. I played these games way back when, but seeing a mix here caused a little of the "oh - wait - I played that game, I remember, but... dang I can't remember the music". And the mix brought it all back, thank you!

Dang, I've mixed a ton of Robert Prince stuff, yet I forgot he did this. Heh, neato.

-Mazedude

[Evilhead]

I haven't played this game either, but it doesn't keep me from enjoying this great mix! I'm always a big fan of analoq's mixes and this one is no exception. Everything sounds great, especially all the crazy computered-out vocals. Thanks!!

[The_Alieo]

THANK YOU ANALOQ!!!! :D :D :D Ok I got that outta my system. This mix bring back much memories. Commander Keen was the bomb, for most of us who had computers during the pre-pentium period, and has to be one of the best games ever, great game play, great music.

[DJBobtheGoat]

Gotta say, I am never dissapointed when analoq releases a new mix. He is by far my favorite remixer. Not sure what it is, though I'm inclined to say it is the personality of his mixes that make me worship them so intently.

[Putzy]

I loved the Commander Keen games and I love this song. That lead synth was a great choice and gives this whole mix an airy, transporting quality to it.

[Coucou]

Part1 (beginning to 3:06):
Good groove (bass, rhodes, and rythm),
excellent synth and even better piano!
I also like the beat break @2:11,
BUT:
I really do not like the intro (30 first seconds);
I'm sorry, I can not stand the voice there.

Part 2 (3:06 to 4:14):
excellent Kratfwerk-like arrangement with
original and perfect vocoder.
I also find the arpeggiator sehr gut.

Part3 (4:15 to end)
nothing negative to say about that old piano ending.

Very, very, very good mix, IMHO.

[LightCecil]

Gotta love the vocoder. Makes me think of a barbershop quartet of robots. Man. it's all comin back like.. because of this mix. I started playing all the dooms again, and i got heretic too. Gotta grab the old Appogee titles again...

[DukeNukem007]

Bobby Prince music rocks, as does Commander Keen!!! Love most of this remix...really weaves together a bunch of tracks from the game well. I normally hate lyrics in remixes of wordless songs, but most of the stuff here was well place. Good work.

Gotta love the vocoder. Makes me think of a barbershop quartet of robots. Man. it's all comin back like.. because of this mix. I started playing all the dooms again, and i got heretic too. Gotta grab the old Appogee titles again...

Heh...I finally got a good DOS shell for XP so that I could actually hear the sound or even play these old-school games a few weeks ago...and can't get myself to stop playing Duke Nukem II and Major Stryker, which are even better Bobby Prince music works (hint, hint for those who want to remix.)

[analoq]

hey, anyone remember how i used to post reviews of my own submissions that included all the details of how i made it? well i thought i'd do that again, i know at least a few people took interest in the many details that went into constructing my 'sound', so here goes:
(i'm leaving out the bread 'n butter stuff like compression/eq/reverb unless it's specific)


exposition 0.00
the writeup already explains the 'what' and 'why' so here's the 'how': for the background, i made an inharmonic ring modulation sound and distorted it. i ran this distorted signal through a filter with the cutoff being automated by a saw lfo. i manually changed the speed of the lfo as i recorded it then finished it off with some spring-style reverb.
as for my voice, i sent it overdriven through my Sherman Filterbank2 in bandpass mode, manually automating the cutoff and later added a slap delay.
the idea for this exposition came from “69 Police” from the Ocean's 11 OST.

intro ~0.20
fading in is a typical rhodes ep softsynth with phaser, tremolo and reverb. this brings in the main progression of the whole piece, which is B F#m7 Emaj9 Gmaj9 Fm11.
the bass is a simple triangle wave through a hipass filter but with a stereo slap-delay & no feedback; it attacks on one side before it does on the other.

first chorus ~0.40
when the chorus comes in, the triangle bass is doubled with an electric bass sample that i removed most of the overtones from. The net effect is, the bass is electric on the low end, and a triangle on the high end. i like.
the lead sound was made using FM, portamento, and.. i can't remember the rest. whatever.
as for the percussion, i combined (paid for) 808 hat/shaker/clap samples with some of my own kick and snare patches and further combined my snare patches with acoustic hiphop kit snare samples. together this creates a unique backbeat. There is an automated chorus and pan on the 808 sounds that changes throughout the rest of the track.

bridge ~1.11
i add a slap delay on percussion elements (maybe not the best choice) that fades out by the end of this section.
tremolo'd acoustic piano (free) samples play a variation on the pyramids' theme from CK4. the piano sound here is the one i'm least pleased with, i tried a different piano sound, an organ sound, clavs, but nothing fit perfectly.
on the repeat, it's the same, but with me improvising. i only quantized certain parts of this solo. i like how i used the maj 7th at the end of the phrase.

second chorus ~2.12
i keep the 808 hatwerk but replace the kick and snare with ones i sampled from a (paid for) drumloop. i (lightly) distorted and lopass'd this track and automated the filter envelope cutoff & resonance.
The pad that fades in is a patch i designed on my virus. It uses a few sawtooth waves and a sub-oscillator through a 12db/oct lopass, the cutoff of which is both modulated by a saw lfo sync'd to 8th notes and manually by me throughout the phrase.
on the repeat, you've got me playing guitar. i bandpass'd the signal through my sherman (manual automation) and overdrove the signal on my mixer for analogue distortion. the result at that stage was too abrasive, so i eq'd out some of the highs and ran it through a thick phaser.
and then there's the synthetic string glissando sound, which is fast pulsewidth modulation, fast to the point where it just starts generating side-bands and sounds out of tune. this sound is stacked and layered an octave apart about 6 times for real phatness. heavy reverb did the trick. cool sound.

”euro” section ~3.13
i describe this section as a cross between Kraftwerk's “Autobahn” and Styx's “Mr. Roboto”
leading in is a ringmodulation + FM sound that is manually automated. and fading in as it fades out is a detuned saw arp through my sherman's filter envelope.
then the “goodbye, galaxy” coming in, note by note until it makes full chords. i used the mda talkbox for the vocoding and some virus sawtooths as the carrier signal. I had to compress this track really hard to get it to fit right.. i also eq'd it to take out some of the “ringyness” but some of it is still there.
i come in with more of my percussion patches here (different ones than earlier). i like whitenoisy snare sounds.
the bass and the styx-like leads were all detuned saws at varying degrees and through the sherman. I used the sherman a lot on this section because i wanted an authentic (hybrid) analogue sound.
finally, the logic bitcrusher sends this whole section into its 8-bit demise.

piano solo ~4.14
this is the same piano sample from earlier, but with different compression/eq/reverb settings. i didn't quantize the recording or even play against a click track. it's all me! though i didn't get it right until the 3rd take... i wanted this part to sound gershwin-ish, like the end of 'rhapsody in blue'. you can hear the similarity.
a tremolo creeps in as the phrase ends.

as for the title, Compyfox assisted me with that. it translates roughly to “See ya, galaxy.”
cheers.
edit: many typos!

[Romero]

analoq,

I'm pretty speechless - this is the first Keen remix I've ever heard and it's one of the best remix i've heard in general. Just astounding.....I'm a big fan.

Brought a tear to my eye. It's been 13 years since I worked on a Commander Keen game. :)

I have several Keen MP3 (MIDIs played through a Roland Sound Canvas) if you'd like to remix any more.

Thank you!

BTW, some of my other favorite remixes are the "Secret of Spram", Chrono HiVoltage, Chrono TeamGato, anything Zeal, Chrono sines, Booster Tarantino, Chrono Time Management, Wolf3d Nazi Requiem, Castlevania2 CV2K, Chrono Time Chill, and many more. Really, anything SoM or Chrono is automatically a favorite.

[5hfifty]

Wow, I love this mix. I remember posting a request for a Keen mix ages ago.

I'm a huge, HUGE Commander Keen fan, always have been. I still have all of them, and I refuse to install any OS later than 98 so I can still play all the old DOS games.

This mix is terrific, thank you analoq. :D

And g'day Romero.

[LightCecil]

*is sad*

I can't find my oldies disks! Someone must have tossed them or something. How... horrible. All I can find now is the CGA version of Keen 4 demo off 3DRealms' site. And the original trilogy, but still only the demo.

for anyone interested in playing older games on linux or newer windowses, DosBox is perfect. it's almost complete. all areas are emulated between 80 and 100 percent, and i tested it. it works marvelously.


I'm still sad that I have to stick with demos till i find a place that has the full versions. Anyone know a place?

EDIT: The Keen GBA game looks like it's awful.

[Chris McGee]

UPDATE:

This mix was linked to on the front page of 3dRealms Official Website. (http://www.3drealms.com) If I were you, analoq, I would be pretty freakin' proud John Romero, even if he sucks, listened to my mix.

[ella guro]

UPDATE:

This mix was linked to on the front page of 3dRealms Official Website. (http://www.3drealms.com/index.shtml) If I were you, analoq, I would be pretty freakin' proud John Romero, even if he sucks, listened to my mix.

Fixed the URL.

EDIT: that works too.

[analoq]

analoq,

I'm pretty speechless - this is the first Keen remix I've ever heard and it's one of the best remix i've heard in general. Just astounding.....I'm a big fan.

Brought a tear to my eye. It's been 13 years since I worked on a Commander Keen game. :)

I have several Keen MP3 (MIDIs played through a Roland Sound Canvas) if you'd like to remix any more.

Thank you!

BTW, some of my other favorite remixes are the "Secret of Spram", Chrono HiVoltage, Chrono TeamGato, anything Zeal, Chrono sines, Booster Tarantino, Chrono Time Management, Wolf3d Nazi Requiem, Castlevania2 CV2K, Chrono Time Chill, and many more. Really, anything SoM or Chrono is automatically a favorite.

WOW!
many thanks, john. what a wonderful suprise to get priase from one of the men behind one of my favorite game series!

cheers!

[Chris McGee]

Congratulations analoq. I guess this is what being a remixer is all about. :D

[ekm]

I only ever had the shareware version of Commander Keen 4, but lord knows how much time I spent playing it over and over... and over and over and over.

The village music always rocked my ears, and your version is no exception. Nice job, analoq.

Dopefish lives!

[DukeNukem007]

analoq,

I'm pretty speechless - this is the first Keen remix I've ever heard and it's one of the best remix i've heard in general. Just astounding.....I'm a big fan.

Brought a tear to my eye. It's been 13 years since I worked on a Commander Keen game. :)

I have several Keen MP3 (MIDIs played through a Roland Sound Canvas) if you'd like to remix any more.

Thank you!

BTW, some of my other favorite remixes are the "Secret of Spram", Chrono HiVoltage, Chrono TeamGato, anything Zeal, Chrono sines, Booster Tarantino, Chrono Time Management, Wolf3d Nazi Requiem, Castlevania2 CV2K, Chrono Time Chill, and many more. Really, anything SoM or Chrono is automatically a favorite.

Woah...it's nice to see a major programmer like THE John Romero on this website...I've always liked your work, as I do Bobby Prince's. Some of my first games ever included your Defender clone for Apple II, "City Centurion," lol...long before the Commander Keen or Doom or other works.

UPDATE:

This mix was linked to on the front page of 3dRealms Official Website. If I were you, analoq, I would be pretty freakin' proud John Romero, even if he sucks, listened to my mix.

Not to threadjack the review, but comments like these make me doubt all the "this site is illegal" comments I sometimes see here.

And again, I'm sure Romero already knows this, but Bobby Prince rocks!! I'm hoping for works from his other games to be remixed, as I've said a number of times.

[Dhsu]

If you were a fan of the old Commander Keen series, and if you like music remixes, then you should definitely check this out. You can download the mp3 here, and you can visit the website where this and many other game music remixes are hosted at http://www.overclockedremix.com
Hahaha...www.overclockedremix.com.

[chokst~1.bat]

Heh... didn't think I'd ever see the day when someone remixed a Commander Keen song - very cool. I've always loved this game! :D

I wasn't as impressed with the "chill" feel of this remix as most of you. Some sections seemed kind of repetative, minimal or uncreative... like the intro (beyond the vocals), how the bass stays exactly the same from 0:24 until 3:05 (!!!), how that background synth (and drumloops) at 3:10-4:15 don't really change up at all, and how the 0:41 lead doesn't really "expand" upon the original; for example. The instruments also felt a little too filtered and/or trebly for my tastes.

My favorite section is probably 2:12-3:05, it's a nice buildup that catches the feel of the original song well for me; especially near the end. I liked the rhodes instrument introduced at around 0:25, the way it goes all haywire at 4:14, and the piano at 1:12-1:52 was a nice touch too. Using two instruments that keep alternating for the theme at 3:36 (with the string and vocals entering the picture) was a nice idea; but the loopy synth and drums in the background get pretty annoying after awhile.

Still, it was great to see a professional interpretation of a Keen 4 song with some new twists to it! I'd give this mix a 7/10. ;)

[Less Ashamed Of Self]

There's a lot of cool stuff going on in this mix, I have no complaints really. It's got more guts than a lot of the techno's you'll find on the rest of OCR. The bass effect at the beginning is tough and constant, the robot voice is fitting (as are it's words), and instruments play an excellent spacey interpretation of the original melody.
Reminds me of Luke Vibert meets Felix Kubin, Kubin's German and therefore has a lot of German vocal samples and Luke Vibert loves the space theme, he had quite a few tracks with effects like this.
Good work.
Oh, and heh, Commander Keen; you can't top that. (As if everyone else on this thread hasn't mentioned this already...)

[AndiNo]

As I first listened to it I thought it would be silly, but the more often I listened to it I heard how good this song is.
This is very nostalgic and reminds me of Commander Keen, although I'm still able to play it via DosBox. :D
Please do more remixes of this! But perhaps you can leave the voices out next time :wink:

btw: Perhaps I'll try to program a "Commander Keen" myself one day. And then, who knows, some good music would be great :wink:. Although your music isn't good for ambient, but for hearing outside because it has solos and so on. But keep on working on this! :D

[Dhsu]

UPDATE:

This mix was linked to on the front page of 3dRealms Official Website. If I were you, analoq, I would be pretty freakin' proud John Romero, even if he sucks, listened to my mix.

Not to threadjack the review, but comments like these make me doubt all the "this site is illegal" comments I sometimes see here.
Well, Romero didn't compose Keen's music. Although in this case, it's okay anyway because Bobby Prince doesn't mind, therefore implying consent (but it'd still be safer to get it in writing). However, just because one guy is okay with other people messing with his compositions doesn't mean everybody else will.

[DukeNukem007]

UPDATE:

This mix was linked to on the front page of 3dRealms Official Website. If I were you, analoq, I would be pretty freakin' proud John Romero, even if he sucks, listened to my mix.

Not to threadjack the review, but comments like these make me doubt all the "this site is illegal" comments I sometimes see here.
Well, Romero didn't compose Keen's music. Although in this case, it's okay anyway because Bobby Prince doesn't mind, therefore implying consent (but it'd still be safer to get it in writing). However, just because one guy is okay with other people messing with his compositions doesn't mean everybody else will.

Yeah, I was referring more to the fact that it was linked on the 3drealms website, not anything specifically related to Romero. And I agree that copyright stringency varies from person to person; I'm a huge Calvin & Hobbes fan--Watterson lives about 3 miles away from me--and I've seen a lot of C&H websites get shut down that barely break any rules.

[snarfoogle]

This is indeed a glorious day. Now the world shall know of Keen.

The remix is quite excellent, as well.

EDIT: And Apogee MEANS action. If you wanted to put a visual to this mix, I found something nice on the 3DRealms website: http://www.3drealms.com/fanstuff/images/ckcollage5.jpg

Fits perfectly, don't you think?

[Amayirot Akago]

Excellent resurrection of a classic tune. My compliments, analoq. You really made my day when I first listened to this song.

Except I'm wondering... what does the voice at the start of the song say?

[AndiNo]

@Snake101
Look at the decription of the remix: :D
http://www.ocremix.org/detailmix.php?mixid=OCR01180

i'm not feeling too good,
about this one,
some kind of surreal expression,
surrealist expressionistic?
whatever.

moving on, 960 galactic alphabet,
960 galactic alphabet!
are you here? please!
thank you.


@analoq
I think the opinions are clear:
You will have to remix another Keen song, as Romero suggested! PLEASE! :D :D :!:
[even if you have to be sick again :wink: LOL]

[Amayirot Akago]

Yeah! Another remix would just be awesome. Maybe the tune from the cave (the same tune from Catacomb 3D).

[Guest]

Finally, a Commander Keen remix. I'm listening to it right now. Looking forward to some more Keen remixes.

keep up the good work analoq :)

[SmudgeTheFirst]

Well, what can I say. This is one of my most favorite remixes so far! Although it's kinda strange, the voice cuts seem to strangely add to the song. I was suprised to see such an old game posted, but very happy. :mrgreen: Overall, I'd give this two thumbs up. Ahh... the memories... :P

[jordex]

Holy shit this is good!!!!!!

Really that's all there is to say, just download it!!

nice ending

nice galaxy style

nice everything

[RazorVayne]

HOLY F@#$ING HELL!!! I dunno if it's my absolute favourite OC ReMix, but it sure has a pretty good f@#$ing chance of being the best!!

God, that music just brings back so many memories of all those awsome Apogee games and other MS-DOS games!!! I wanna play some right now!

[Tomilius]

This is great. I grew up on Commander Keen. Excellent ReMix! I hope there are more of them.

[Pikeman332]

I also grew up on Commander Keen loved em all keep em comin'

[Dionyseus]

I never played this game, but this mix is cool.

[Advenith]

This was the first video game I ever played. :) For me, that makes this my favorite mix.

[analoq]

thanks guys (:

oh and here's something i noticed recently (http://commanderkeen.ytmnd.com) :lol:

cheers.

[Liontamer]

Who knows if we'll get anyything that sounds like this ever again. Props to Aaron for making such a unique piece. Back when this debuted for the OCR4 flood, I enjoyed pretty much all of the new mixes that were a part.

djpretzel's Revenge of Shinobi "Consent (Make Me Dance)" was my 2nd favorite and it actually took me a few loops to really appreciate the funked-out electro goodness.

But this one grabbed my ears from the very start. The intro effects and vox were unique. As SOON as the music faded in, I had been hooked.

This track was smooooooooooth to start. And when it switched gears with some more agressive beats, it ended the track with a lot of power. analoq, top of his game.

Nowadays, the guy jokes that he's lost it. If even 1% of our submissions ever "found it" the way this guy did...

[Antipode]

Agreed on all counts. This is in my top 10 from this site without a doubt.

[Ascendancy]

Awesome.....there's no need to comment with words, let your ears do the talking =D 10/10

[Tmansdc]

The intro with the distorted voice, the funky/groovy bassline, and the piano outro are all wins in my book.


Analoq seriously needs to do some more stuff.

[ella guro]

You know, sometimes I feel like analoq used to make the same mix over and over. I almost always like his mixes a lot cause he does what he does really well, but they're usually variants of the same thing. Phat rhodes-ish sounds, funky bassline, relaxed 4/4 beat, slightly jazzy. It's not a good or bad thing really, just an observation. His mixes are weird, funky little self-contained worlds. You could be an incredibly talented musician and still never achieve that kind of assurance and uniqueness in your sound that analoq has (or at least had...from what larry is saying) in his.

This is one of my favorites of his. He just throws a bunch of different ideas into one pot and they work while still sounding very much part of the same world. The crazy fx at the beginning and the distorted talking might be my favorite part, if not for the very nice brief piano outro (I also really like the way the piano was sound processed to sound kinda distant and lo-fi). The Kraftwerk references are kinda goofy, but he pulls them off with a straight face and they work.

Commander Keen 4-6 were so great, more mixes! Especially more like this!

[Nutritious]

Amusing intro from Analoq here, you really can hear how sick he sounds. Production is very clean and I love the generally chilled vibe. Good use of multiple EPs/Rhodes specifically, which work very cohesively with the drums and bass. Nice changeup at 2:35 with something unexpected. The synth string stabs in particular really appeal to me for some reason. This song's been on my OCR playlist for quite some time and won't be leaving any time soon.

[Marmiduke]

Wow, what a reinvention of the original tune. Takes what is probably the most memorable song it in the entire Keen franchise into a completely unexpected direction.
Cool Euro krautrock sort of vibe going on. I think the voicework makes the piece myself, but it would work adequately enough without it too. The synths are excellent and are right where they need to be in terms of volume and pitch. What's great is that there is atmosphere without compromising coherence or variety. The diversity of ideas, sounds and textures is amazing.
It's quite a unique track, and not one I would have thought would appeal to the vast majority of listeners. But this thread has proven me wrong, to my pleasant surprise. Good to see awesome music get some much-deserved respect.

[OA]

Interesting and funky take on the source, and the vocal stuff really keeps it fresh and unique.The first listen caught my attention because of the talking, and the beats and synths kept my attention to the end, and before I knew it, I was hitting repeat.

The relaxed feeling this has is infectious, and I really enjoyed it.

[Skinner3D]

Agreed with the people who commented before. :D Fun, unique, sweet rendition.
I didn't know the backstory until I read it just now. It makes it even more fun to listen to this song.
We definately need more Commander Keen remixes. :)

[Sansato]

We definately need more Commander Keen remixes. :)

No arguments there. From what I've heard so far, the games have quite a quirky selection of music. This ReMix is quirky as well, but in the best possible way. The distorted dialogue intro definitely caught my attention, while the rest of the song kept it from escaping until the very end. Good shtuffs.