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Arceace - Oh shit, this is freakin' awesome. That opening just raised some hairs, here, and the overall track delivers superbly with all that gating. The fact that the sources are quite well integrated certainly helps. With a stronger, meatier kick, a little less delay on some of the chips and a hair of re-mixing so the foreground pops out a bit more and I wouldn't be at all unhappy seeing it on the panel. That last chord being major was a bit of a funny way to end it, though - kinda clashed with the rest of the track. AxLR - I was interested to see what ideas you wanted to push, and this didn't disappoint. Very sample-heavy, very trippy, but y'know what, this is pretty cool. I can definitely see what you meant when saying you were worried that people might not catch the source in this - it does sound like something completely different. I think I'm missing the use of Airman (which could be corrected if you point it out), though I hear Metal Man clear as day. I'd say it's hard to argue that you don't use the sources in this, considering you literally sampled the sources to make something different. As much as I love OCR, it sometimes makes me sad that I know we'd never be able to accept something like this for a variety of reasons (direct sampling being the only source reference is a big OCR no-no, for example) - you can get some really awesome results if you open your mind to really making new music from older pieces. If the competition for this one wasn't one of my favorites of the compo so far I'd have been more than happy to send a vote your way for this one (provided you could point out where Air Man was in this). Nice work! Mak Eightman - Solid metal fare. I think the sources sound kinda funny in that genre, but it works well enough. Can't say the sources are lacking, and the production values are decent, so overall nice work. RonaldPoe - Ironically, I think this is how I imagine music for MM1 sounding like in a strict upgrade. The soundscape is pretty thin, though, with little bass to balance out the rest of the arrangement. I'm feeling that Fire Man is pretty lacking in this one, though. pixeltea - Nice. This one jazzes it up in a big-band sort of way, with some slick sax and piano action complimenting a more frentic overall arrangement. While the instrument samples don't make me all that happy, the arrangement and integration of the sources more than makes up for it. The interpretations on Crash on the piano were a real highlight of this track. You've got an excellent sense of how to handle harmony and change things up - looking forward to more from you, in this compo and elsewhere. Ridiculously Garrett - Slow and chill, this one's pretty good, as well. While the other track has a bit more going on with some of those reharmonizations and such, this one brings on the heat with a cleaner, thicker production, and it ain't like this one is lacking in the arrangement department. Yikes, this will be a really hard vote, from me - both of these are absolutely great tracks, and for different reasons. SuperiorX - Nice production values, and some great Ground Man. Not sure the Shade man was handled in the best manner, though; it's used as texture (which is cool), but the texture didn't seem to mesh well harmonically with the rest of the track. Aside from that, though, pretty excellent track. Supercoolmike - I'm glad you posted this - I think you had pretty strong potential to take this round with that gothic set-up. Tough to integrate Ground Man into it, but the soundscape was actually pretty cool. Alas, the downsides of being unable to finish! Thanks for giving this some love regardless.

I think another deeply valuable aspect of public feedback that hasn't really been touched on is that you might find out you're not as good as you think you are. Sometimes people on a forum are blunt and brutally honest, and as far as I'm concerned, that exposure is extremely important. Because hey, that's the way the world is, and if you really want to improve then you have to learn to be brutally honest with yourself. Sometimes, that's a practice that begins externally. When I was 19 and first starting out, I thought I was amazing. After having my ass broken repeatedly, learning just how much there was to know and breaking through that Dunning-Kruger wall, I was able to be MUCH more objective and honest about where I actually was, what my weaknesses were, and what to do in order to address them (or who to ask if I didn't know). If you already think you're the best, you don't have much incentive to improve, and without people giving me their honest impressions (musically experienced or not) I doubt I'd be half the musician I am today. Often it takes time to sink in, and sometimes people can be very averse to honest critique (I certainly was for a good while), but I find it to be another valuable part of the process. In this regard, I think feedback from strangers is much more potent than that of a mentor or teacher - finding out what your peers or the general public thinks about your art can be a powerful agent for introspection.

I loved every single entry. I really enjoyed listening to pixeltea's more jazzy approach to the theme and I gotta say, as a piano player, that interpretation of the Crash Man bits were really slick. Awesome job, I especially loved the super crazy bass on tom runs during the Crash parts as well. And that modulating upwards bit at the end had a cool effect. Was a really cool listen! Mak Eightman's metal version took the cake for me, lots of awesome groove in there. Those weird modulating synth sounds in the beginning were a treat to add to the grunginess of this one. I would love to have voted for AxLRs submission, but due to the voting guidelines, I had to vote the other way. Arceace's track was much more uniform in arrangement imo (though if I had to choose a favorite it would probably be Digital Redemption). SuperiorX's submission was nice and funky, with some super weird chords. It reminds me of another song, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Chiptuney and funky, this one sounded nice and thick.

Razor Wind: You know a remix nailed it when you listen to the completely original opening chord progression and know what Mega Man theme it's going to be without looking. And what would a Mega Man compo be without heavy use of 8-bit Mega Man SFX? I do have a beef with some clashing notes here and there, and I agree with Gario about that last chord, but otherwise this is pretty darn good. I hope to see a tweaked version of this in the judges' inbox at some point. Digital Redemption: Gario's better at picking out subtle source usage than I am. I barely hear Metal Man hinted at here, not enough that I'd notice if I didn't know it was supposed to be there ahead of time. Same with Air Man--it's more a suggestion than an actual appearance. The arrangement was also really repetitive, quiet, and static. Dopamine: Classic Mak here. There are a few clashing notes, and the shift to minor key was a bit surprising. A smidge more repetitive than it really needed to be, and the ending was a little lackluster, but overall a quality remix. Fire Truck: Yeah, the thin, static soundscape really brings this down. That last phrase of the main refrain doesn't sound quite right. And yeah, it sounds like a one-source remix, and a conservative one at that. Thunder-Crash Tornado Fusion: Strange opening, it's like walking into the middle of a session. When Tornado Man is in the lead, there's some solid interlacing of the two themes. That's what I come to these compos for! On the other hand, the sections with Crash Man in the lead sometimes seem a little out of place. Excellent instrumentation and production. Crash of the Tornado: I'm amused that both of these remixes are jazzy, and the same length down to the second. Soundscape seems just a little flat--the lows could stand to be a bit beefier. This is an excellent arrangement, but bearing the voting brief in mind ("the most important thing to consider when voting is how well the remix incorporates and arranges both themes"), I can only vote one way. Empty Desires: It's actually a solid start. I wish you'd had time to get around that block. Funny thing is, I can totally imagine Ground Man's theme, slowed down, used as harmony to what you've already built out here. Drill Bits: I agree with Gario: cool ideas to integrate the two sources, but there are some harmonic fumbles along the way. Could have been pretty awesome if you'd managed to finish and give those clashing notes another pass.

I think @Gario pretty much shares brains with me at this point. Yes, all this. Having a mentor is good and if you find someone who can help like that, go for it. But don't let that be your only avenue for learning. Public feedback can be useful too, because It potentially could provide a greater number of fresh ears. In principle it is probably easier to obtain (if the mentor would be hard to contact, which he/she probably will be because he/she is only one person who has a life). It opens you to potentially inexperienced perspectives that you should digest, which likely provide for you a realistic experience on how your music may sound to a general audience. The main problem with public feedback is of course that sometimes, you have to filter it and figure out who is actually saying what, because more experienced people might either speak with jargon, or less experienced people might say what they think they mean without actually projecting what they meant. That's the chance you take, and I am quite glad I took that chance for 2+ years... Fortunately, when I got public feedback, the people who came in (Flexstyle, Gario, Phonetic Hero, Chimpazilla, DaMonz, . . . ) knew enough, and I will fully admit that at the time it was I who needed to learn more! And it was because I took that chance and met those people, that I had extra motivation to keep coming back! So, for me personally, public feedback (forum feedback) was more important than mentor feedback. I don't think I had a real mentor (besides the Judges), more like I had some friendly collaborators...

Wait, are we asking if it's better to get one-on-one, personal training from a professional over random public feedback? I'd think that's almost comically obvious - of course it's better to have one-on-one teaching from a professional (assuming the professional is worth their salt). If you can afford personalized training and education, that's the way to go. That's sort of like saying a healthy balanced diet is better for you than McDonalds, because of course it is. However, the caveat is pretty easy, here - also like a balanced diet vs. McDonalds, it's better if you can afford it, and it's better if you can dedicate the extra time required for it. Many casual artists simply don't have those kind of resources, and unless they push toward making it into a profession it's difficult to justify the time and financial investments required for such one-on-one interaction. Sometimes you can get lucky and get some attention from a willing professional for funsies, but outside of that you've got to put in some real resources in order to get something like the one-on-one mentoring you're talking about. You won't get as much out of something like public feedback, sure, but getting less out of it is certainly different than getting nothing out of it. With online forums and chat servers today it requires much less investment from an artist - dropping a quick link and asking "Thoughts?" is faster and cheaper than sitting with a mentor to discuss your music. tl;dr of course personal mentoring is better than public feedback, but public feedback is more accessible, and it's better than nothing at all (provided my caveat I presented earlier).

The Grand Robot Master Remix Battle Voting for Round 1 has begun. The matchups are as follows: Remixer and Source VS Remixer and Source Arceace - Air Man vs AxLR - Metal Man Mak Eightman - Fire Man vs Ronald Poe - Cut Man Ridiculously Garret - Crash Man vs pixelchips - Tornado Man SuperiorX - Ground Man vs Supercoolmike - Shade Man Download the remixes from Round 1 The most important thing to consider when voting is how well the remix incorporates and arranges both themes. Production and enjoyability should also be considered, but this is primarily an arrangement competition. Everyone is allowed (and encouraged) to vote, including competitors. Everyone must adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct. Please use this thread for remix reviews and feedback!

Going to give my thoughts on some of these arrangements! First, my opponent's song, which I was very excited to listen to: "Crash of the Tornado" by Ridiculously Garrett -LOVE that funky bass, and the percussion is really good too! -The piano and keyboard add a really nice flavour, I'm especially loving the chord progression on the grand piano -I really enjoy the disco vibe when the Tornado Man part first kicks in! -Some nice reharmonization going on around the middle section -Staccato strings are always a fun addition to funk/disco I really enjoyed this one, had me bopping my head from the very start - and it only got better and better the more I listened! Definitely a worthy opponent, seriously awesome arrangement. I think yours is superior because of its overall cleaner production and higher quality sound libraries, great work! Now I'm going to give my thoughts on each arrangement I personally feel wins its match-up. "Razor Wind" by Arceace: -The slow build-up for the intro was a really cool effect -Love the way you sampled those classic sound effects, makes for quite a funky, retro beat! -The synths sound great, loving the chord progression - and personally I like the last chord! -Both songs are integrated quite nicely - doesn't feel like it leans to heavily towards one song over the other "Dopamine" by Mak Eightman -I like the choice of genre here, suits both songs quite well - I also like how it alternates between a more grungy sound and a lighter feel -Intro does a good job of adapting Fire Man's weird, wonky groove -Both themes are well integrated, and tied together with that cool guitar riff "Drill Bits" by SuperiorX -I like the 80s-ish beat and that cool bass sound -Overall a very catchy, funky vibe -While it does seem to lean more heavily to Ground Man, I like the subtle incorporation of motifs from Shade Man's theme Those are just my opinions on the winners, but I really enjoyed listening to every single entry! Good job everybody!

@Trism. Should be a good matchup! Cant wait to see what you come up with for these sources. I'm excited to have the saturn version of the tengu source. Going to try out something new with it.

The download is in the public voting thread. Get er' done.

Me too. What're you gonna do, though - lost the coin toss. I sure hope Realme moves forward, though; would be a real shame if I didn't get another crack at it sometime down the road 'cause he didn't move on, so I'm rootin' for ya, Realme! *Sigh* Welp, Cloudman it is. I'll do my darndest with it, for sure. On the bright side, Freezeman is a great theme, so not all is doom and gloom from me - I got a great match-up, lol.

As a big fan of @Garpocalypse's work I am suitably hype about my matchup.

Timaeus did say that he wouldn't value a mentor's word more than anyone else's. That's true, but my personal experience is that teachers, good ones anyway, are usually way harder on their students than anyone else because it's their job and your failure reflects badly on them. People on forums can just ignore you if they don't like it and don't want to beat you down, etc. I had a kung fu instructor, shop teacher, etc. who were all hardcore on the students and it was for the better. There is also a flipside to this and it all keeps going back to what I've said about experienced people actually being the minority in public feedback: Some people think they are, and are really good at passing themselves off as gurus when in reality, they're no better (sometimes worse) than the person they're criticizing. Not to say they may not still be correct in their criticism, but I've seen or been on the receiving end of this quite a number of times. YouTube is especially full of bad advice/blatantly incorrect information from musicians who have many followers, and no one calls them on it because they like the person's music and don't know any better. That can also be a downside of a teacher, too. I don't disagree at all with your point about the accessibility, because that would be stupid, although I'm willing to bet that a lot of these people could throw a bit of money into this no problem. A lot of people will throw down money on new sample libraries, video games that cost 80 bucks, etc. but comparatively, how many do you think own books on composition, theory, orchestration, etc? How many have bought or subscribed to one of the online masterclasses (there are some good ones out there)? How many will spend a bit of cash to spend an hour or two on skype with someone like JJay Berthume for one-on-one feedback and lessons? How many out there have spent (or their parents have spent) 600 on a new Ibanez, but have never taken a single guitar lesson? Comparatively few, I suspect.

Music and voting is up.

As someone who has recently been in the category (may still be) of "barely play a coherent phrase", the feedback I have received from the WIP board and random mixers have been extraordinarily helpful in learning musical concepts I would not have figured out on my own otherwise. The only problem is this forum tends to be rather inactive.

Outsider opinion: I see a mentor as somebody you talk to regularly. You have an open line of communication and they help you grow in depth. I see feedback like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing who asks about it. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of people will look at the spaghetti, but move on without saying much. Some comment on it, but it's not a regular thing if they don't really know about the type of spaghetti you threw at the wall. A mentor eats the spaghetti with you, and also helps you learn how to cook better spaghetti. (Sorry I've had a craptastic day and want to have some fun here.)

This was absolutely amazing! So so relaxing. Lurelin village is one of my favorite on BOTW's soundtrack as well. You captured the chill beach vibes perfectly! It actually made me exciting for my trip to San Diego in a few weeks. Great job. I don't really have any criticism, I loved it.

Perhaps I'm biased, but I'd argue that feedback is more often than not helpful when someone is specifically asks for it, no matter the skill level. However, if no one is asking for the help and they're just sharing their music it can be counterproductive to point out all of the track's flaws. It took me a few years to realize this myself, but if you pour your critique of someone's music when they're not asking for it, it can take the fun out of the craft and possibly drive people away. Context is important, so if you want to be helpful pay attention to what the artist wants from you. It sounds a little counter-intuitive saying even experts can benefit from critique, but given the right circumstances it can help make things go faster. Sometimes, for example, if I'm working on something and I need a fresh set of ears I ask for some feedback (I haven't written anything in months, so you'd likely not notice nowadays). It's harder to accept feedback when you're more seasoned, but you can still get some use out of it if you remains somewhat humble about it. Most seasoned musicians will likely fine tune the track eventually, sure, but it can help make things go faster if you just let more fresh ears listen to something and give some honest feedback. So yeah, if people are looking for feedback it's quite helpful for them when they receive it no matter the skill level, but it's markedly less so when they're not looking for it.

Submitted my track! I got a lot of cool ideas out during this. Good luck to everybody who participated in Round 1 of GRMRB!

whenever i want to feel like a young'n again i listen to this remix.