Ghetto Lee Lewis

Maybe because it's actually in D minor?

Submitted. I had to rush a lot of things at the last minute, between Jason getting sick, getting asked to work extra days this week, as well as dedicating the first part of the week to brushing up on piano. I wasn't planning on doing the vocals myself, but I had to get something in there for the amazing lyrics Jason wrote. Here are the lyrics: Caine Train Verse 1: Caine Train's coming, The people get in line, 'Cause they always, Gotta do a line. The mad conductor, Yells all aboard get on, The Ghetto man says, We gonna run it 'til dawn. Breathing death through a straw, Down a one-way lane, On the Caine Train. Run by one deranged man, Known as GLL, Conductor from hell. Verse 2: People think they're, Always in control, They don't realize, How little they know. People go get on, And never get off, Until they reach, The very last stop. White rain filling the sky, It always snows, Where the Caine Train goes. Running all through the night, Over rails of rust, On white coal dust. Chorus: Caine Train, In its own lane, Not just the whistles go blow. Insane, On a death train, Filled with Faces full of nose snow.

Ghetto Lee Lewis Requiem for a Reploid (Shield Sheldon in Sigma Palace [X8]) Es-cop-ay (Crescent Grizzly in Sigma Palace [X8]) Straight Outta RAGE (Flame Stag in Sigma Palace X8) Rock Hard Mandrills

I'm working on something really fun for this round. I hope people will like it.

fixed!

Great theme for this week. I'm really excited to go up this time around. BTW, does that drumroll in the beginning sound vaguely familiar to anyone?

Ghetto Lee Lewis Space Base (Shining Hotaronicus in Final Weapon [X4]) N0v0r G0nn0 Dj0nt Y0u 0p (Crystal Snail in Final Weapon [X4]) Mind Flip~ (Cyber Peacock in Final Weapon [X4]) Rock Hard Mandrills

Man I really hope your track is as good as you say it is. I'm really excited to hear the entries for this round

Still way better than actual Lady Gaga.

Rock Hard Mandrills - Ghetto Lee Lewis X's Demise (Spark Mandrill in X-Hunter Stage 1 [X2]) Laser Power (Shield Sheldon in X-Hunter Stage 1 [X2]) (Don't Wanna) Hurt You (Gravity Beetle in X-Hunter Stage 1 [X2])

I am totally down for this, although I think it should be every team, not every participant.

Oh I noticed the part on the vocoder the first time around

You actually need at least 19 simultaneous basses playing if you ever want to get a full sounding mix.

If Jason and I have time we could probably help. I'm pretty good at rapping, and Jason is fantastic with lyrics. By the way Overclocked Collective is pretty damn awesome.

The problem with mixing as you go is that if problems result from arrangement issues (for example, trying to put 6 instruments into the same octave), you just wasted all that time for nothing trying to mix them all. Mixing is so much easier when everything already makes sense in the arrangement.

I've been meaning to get back to you, but couldn't find your post, lol. On the whole your arrangement feels really chaotic. The dynamics on the drums go all over the place, and so do the melodies. I think that would explain why it made me feel uneasy. There doesn't really seem to be much semblance of song structure either. The drums themselves are really boomy. The problem this creates is that rather than emphasize a rhythm that drives the song, the drums are just kind of there in the background muddying up the harmonic textures going on. You can make drums punchier by using compression intelligently and placing your microphones closer. Also eliminate as much reverb as you possibly can. You don't seem to have a proper type of mic for the kick setup, so the punchiness isn't coming through at all. The melodies in the song just seem to go all over the place constantly. You should always place emphasis on a single melody, and use the other instruments in the mix as backing instruments to make the main one stand out more. Your bass need to interact and compliment the drums to drive the song. I think your bass has too much distortion on it muddying it up so it doesn't really establish any rhythm. Then again maybe you were going for a chaotic/ambient sort of style. Unfortunately I think a lot of people are going to find it very hard to appreciate that sort of thing in this compo. Listening again it sounds like a lot of things are being compressed together very badly. A word of advice, don't ever apply a master compressor until the very end during final mastering. You should always fix issues in the arrangement first, THEN apply EQ to individual instruments to separate them. Finally when you're trying to get rid of an occassional peak in the final mix you can apply some light compression. To be honest when I mixed this week I didn't EQ anything until Friday or Saturday after my entire arrangement was already finished. All I did pretty much was balance the loudness on everything. As a result mixing and mastering was super quick and easy.

Yeah midi's are posted, check the post I just edited.

It is an Fsus. Edit: I just posted the midi's I worked on. Sorry, they're not 100% complete, but should be enough to help people get started. Part One Part Two

Well I kind of did a whole midi from scratch on this song, so I understand what's going on pretty well. Yes, the key is C minor. The intro uses a chromatic downward progression to build tension, but technically all the melodic notes can still fit into the C melodic minor scale neatly. There's a transition that's probably throwing people off. The song suddenly goes into an E flat minor chord. It is a very brief modulation used to build tension for just that chord (jazz music does this all the time, by the way). Then it goes into D flat major or F minor, which smooths the transition back to C minor (though there's one part which goes I think E flat minor, D flat, then F major, before going back to C minor).

I did notice that the volume of my track is about 50% of the original. It's not a big deal, but just an FYI. I also compared it with a 320 kbps mp3 I rendered and yes, still 50% volume.

Warning: The following reviews are influenced by the consumption of alcohol and in no way reflect the views and opinion of team Rock Hard Mandrills KingTiger I can definitely hear where Jordan helped out with this. The mix is very full, and the arrangement keeps progressing and evolving and staying interesting. It's for the most part very groovy and a fun song to listen to. Some of the sound choices I didn't care for much though, and there wasn't really a part of the song that stood out for me. Darren Smith I'm not quite sure what to say about this one. The sound choices were really weird, some of the drums seemed kind of pretty off, and the arrangement just kind of seemed to be going everywhere. I guess it had kind of a creepy/mysterious kind of vibe to it. Definitely a creative track though. Jorito I feel like you really liked bLiNd's track from week one and decided to go in a similar direction (Dubstep evolving into DnB just a coincidence???) I really like that you vocoder-rolled us this week. I thought that was extremely clever and different. Overall I must say this track was pretty enjoyable. Lots of energy and kept interesting. Also it seemed a little less repetitive than bLiNd's mix from last week (even though it's not quite as warm and full on the production side). ladyWildfire Lots of really big neat sounds in this one. Solid arrangement, big beats and some catchy grooves in this one. Although I felt like the arrangement could have used more, maybe some emotional instrumental solos or some vocals. Ghetto Lee Lewis Definitely the worst song in this whole competition so far. too much reverb, nooby chip sounds, and way too much going on to constitute a coherent arrangement. Oh who am I kidding? xP I have to say I'm very grateful for the help I got this week from Will and Jason. I'm very happy how everything came together. Great work guys! Amphibious I feel like this is one of the most solid mixes of the week. Very groovilicious and funky, and yet pretty relaxing too. Maybe just a little bit too relaxing, could have taken some more risks this week, given the mix some higher energy and easily had one of the top tracks for this compo. Anorax Really nice arrangement this week. I love the direction and vision this song has going for it. Unfortunately I think the execution could have been a lot better. The song seems to have quite a few mixing and production issues. Could have used more energy as well. Usa Thought the song started out pretty nice, and then I began getting pretty bored. But then BOOM, suddenly the song picks up a bunch of energy, and then begins to die off and get boring again, but then OMG IT GETS EVEN MORE UPBEAT AND GROOVY. I really love how Usa and Sir Nuts worked together on this to create a really interesting and fun song that takes the listener by surprise into a magical adventure of ear candy and drugs. Definitely one of my favorite mixes of the week. Supercoolmike I gotta be honest, for like the first minute or two of this song I felt uneasy, and then I realized the theme was "a centipede's burden". Well centipedes certainly make me feel really uneasy. I think you really nailed that if that's what you were going for. Not the most enjoyable mix for me at least, but a solid arrangement nonetheless. The Hiryuu I feel like this song was inspired by Willrock's song from last week, between the chip sounds and crazy guitar solos. I have to admit some of the guitar licks in this track are really incredible. This might be the first and/or last time I ever say the guitar in this song sounds way too quiet. It has a lot of really major production issues. If the mixing in this song were better it could easily be one of the best songs in the compo. Pu freak Frankly I really wasn't impressed at all when I first started listening to this song. As a pianist, I am extremely picky whenever I hear other people perform. However, it wasn't long before my opinion changed. Obviously everything in this song is performed live, not some sequenced crap (yes, I have an utter seething hatred for sequenced piano, or mediocre execution). The arrangement continues to get more and more emotional and keeps building up energy and evolving. 6 minutes is a long time, and I was cursing the fact that I drank strong alcohol content beer before playing this song, yet I couldn't tear myself away from it until the very end. This is definitely by far my very favorite mix of the week. I had never heard of Pu freak before this compo, but now I definitely want to hear much more.

Oh are we waiting on Shariq to turn something in?

I just realized I messed up the filename badly. It should be Rock Hard Mandrills - Ghetto Lee Lewis feat. Jason Covenant & Willrock - Caffeine Shoveling Hunter Turtloids - (Rainy Turtloid in X-Hunter Stage 1).wav

My body is ready.

It's in my favorite key to play piano in, C minor, and also a style I love playing with. I freaking love you right now Darkesword. I hope to hear a lot of epic entries this week. This should be the best round yet.