Lie Mf B

I definitely recognize the whole "medley vs. cohesive songs" discussion. I love progressive rock as well, especially the older sort (including solo jams that drag for years) and I often enjoy tunes which go from one part to another. At the same time, I often wonder why progressive rock artists bother to make separate songs at all, when the last minute of one track has just as little in common with itself as it has with the next track. (So Jethro Tull really hit it on the nail when they just released one 40 minute song over one album back in '72.) Anyway, personally I would love to hear some more repetitions and expansions of some parts, but it's a 7 minute medley and it works really well at that. And don't worry about OCRemix. This is a good place to get comments and critique and to find people on the same scene, but the path for passing the judges and getting posted is very narrow and a lot of great music doesn't get through. Naturally, as you've already discovered, there are other places, and it seems to me that the people who really care about music in a wider perspective don't lose a minute of sleep over OCR. Congrats on your success on youtube, btw! ... Och jag ser förstås att du är svensk! Kolla in min musik om du har lust (rock/funk/prog-versioner av mestadels NES-låtar [har en WIP av Jewel Man här]) och hör gärna av dig ifall du vill samarbeta nån gång, eller bara snacka tv-spels-musik eller musik i allmänhet. Jag försöker ägna så mycket tid som möjligt åt musiken och letar alltid efter folk med samma inriktning. Rock on! Henrik

Great song! I love it! Very hard to come up with ideas for improvements. I like it as it is. Love the screams that start around 1:15. Perhaps some more changes to the rhythm would make it more varied.

Sounds cool, especially the rap/vocals. Reminds me of the Red Hot Chili Peppers among others. Congrats on the success with your album! I might be interested in collaborating, if I'm able to contribute in a suitable way. Click my banner below if you wanna listen to what I've been doing. I'm currently working on a new album, and I got my latest WIP -- of Jewel Man from MM9 -- here. I'm putting a lot of time into my album, but I will think about this a little bit more. The best thing would probably be if more people than me could do some of the music, especially the drums.

------ New version with new ending uploaded Jan 13 2009 ------ I'm surprised no one seems to have given this tune a shot. It's definitely one of the best in Mega Man 9, IMHO. This one is sort of a semi-heavy 70s prog-rock version, I guess. I'm not sure if I should keep the coda that starts around 2:29. It was kinda spontaneous. And it will probably not fade out when I'm finished with it. http://www.update.uu.se/~lidbjork/dvd/LieMfB_-_MM9_Jewelman_mixdown_2009-01-13.mp3 Here is the source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MCTauMvYH4

That is so true. I got a bunch of great songs - many from OCR - on my harddrive that I never listen to because I never bother to listen to one track. And mixed playlists I only listen to rarely, like when I'm gonna have a party or something.

Ah, great tune! Nice vintage vibe both in the tune and the video. Cool idea with the ol' organ drum machine -- certainly shows that a funky litte song doesn't need state of the art samples or instruments.

Yeah, indeed they're cool songs. I've never played any of those games -- I just got the ideas from friends who said they had cool music. Apparently, Silver Surfer is a pretty shitty -- and difficult -- game. That song proved difficult to remix as well. But I'll see when I get working on it again.

Thanx for your responses, all. I started making a new drum track but it only made the sucker worse. Now I'm just leaning towards processing/mixing/editing the current drums, maybe re-record the odd part here and there and keeping it there. I recently decided to leave it off the new album I'm making and putting it on a separate outtakes or "odds & sods" kind of album. But when I'm listening to it now, I kind of like it... I guess I should just give it a rest for a while.

You hit it on the nail there. This is exactly how I like to do it. An album makes it possible to take a little riff or melody and just make something short that fits on the album, and you don't have to worry about making a song with a conventional structure out of everything just to please the "shufflers" or OCR. Wow, thanks! I'm glad you liked it. I've improved a lot technically since I made that album over three years ago, but I find it difficult to repeat some of the spontaneous enthusiasm and "vision" I had when I recorded it. Today I'm focusing more on making new music rather than selling that one, but I'll burn/print new copies if there is interest for it, and I'll gladly sell one to you for a decent price. I should probably make a thread for selling it here on the forum. (I do have a "donate money and receive a copy" link on my website but I guess people haven't noticed or cared about it.)

Interesting responses. I'm definitely an "album guy" myself, and I totally agree with suzumebachi about what makes a good album. (Pink Floyd and Led Zep made great records in the era of concept albums.) I succeeded better than I hoped for (regarding cohesiveness, flow and variety) when I made my Nintendosploitation album. Right now my sense of direction is not quite as straight, but I'm definitely staying in the album route, trying to achieve cohesiveness and variety on a new cd. I've sold/given a bunch of CDs of Nintendosploitation, but in just three years I've noticed that the interest for small independent artists on CD has waned, with downloading taking over. So that's why I'm keen to hear what other people think. It seems, however, that the interest for album in the remixing community is still quite big.

Hi Reyn! Cool to see you show up here! Your playing and how you execute your one-man-band performances are original and very inspiring. Love your organic (or "authentic") sound and style ... very refreshing in the remixing community. I saw you at Back In Time Live in Stockholm this year and you were easily the best act of the evening. This was the highlight, IMHO: That's The Way It Is Keep rockin'!

I've been playing Nintendo tunes for a few years now, and I usually have a goal of putting the songs I record on a more or less coherent album. I like the album format because that's what I grew up listening to, it makes it more exciting when releasing music and I like hearing whole albums than just single short songs if the artist is good. But I feel silly for keeping finished songs on my harddrive when people keep asking me "when's your album done?", just because I wanna release a whole album. And it just seems pointless and old-fashioned sometimes, especially when people download everything and don't buy an actual record with a cover. But do you people here actually like the album format for remixes?

Thanks for the replies. I'm already working on a new drum track for this. The ending will get a look-over, especially when I've decided what song will come after this on my upcoming album. There's quite a lot of work left for the latter, so there's plenty of room for improvement.

Thanks again! Seems like the overall style of this remix is appreciated. But I will shorten the piece somewhat. Question: Should I delete one iteration of the "verse/chorus", and keep the first guitar solo (starting at 1:50)? Or should I cut that solo instead? (My coming album will have a thousand guitar solos.)

Thanks again! The feedback from the both of you made the vision I already had for this song clearer. I've already tried -- unsuccessfully -- to add other instruments but decided to let it stay as a stripped down guitar rocker. Instead I'll cut it a bit to balance the song and make it more concise. Giving the guitars and bass more presence will be easy. Drums will be redone with a better sound and more energy. To be continued...

Thanks for your feeback! You're definitely talking about the things I've been wondering about. Except your time designations don't make a lot of sense. When you say "between 2:30 and 2:40", I suppose you actually meant 2:30 and 3:40? If so, I agree with ya -- that part feels kinda tacked on and I should probably remove it. (And keep an outtake or something on my site.) This must be the first time ever I manage to get the darned drums louder than the guitars. It's usually the other way. But I'll balance it in the end. This mixdown was pretty quick. By the way, I hate the drums in this remix, and I'll probably rerecord them for the fourth time, with a different soundfont.

This is my problem child... I've spent a couple of years now trying to give it a decent upbringing, and it still has problems. Starting as a Van Halen-influenced 80s rock thing, it has turned into more of a '70s kind of tune along the way, I guess. My main question is how the sucker flows -- if any parts are redundant, if it gets too long. But let me know any thing that comes to mind. http://www.update.uu.se/~lidbjork/dvd/LieMfB_-_Airman_mixdown_2008-11-20.mp3 Thanks in advance!

Yeah, the organ is ok. The drums sound worse. Sax sounds fine. The clip is so short that it's difficult to comment on it. But you seem to know pretty much what you're doing. Rozovian's advice is good -- focus on the arrangement and, well, improvise some and don't worry to much about instrument sounds. Good luck!

Nice instrument sounds, nice mellow tune. The strings that come in at 0:27 are a bit too high and harsh in the mix compared to what's heard before that. During the second half of the song I begin to crave some variation. It all feels like a great buildup that doesn't really go very far, even though the strings and all have a pretty clear melody. Maybe one just has to listen to it a couple of times and it will grow. The percussion could also be slightly more prominent and varied. Now it works best in the beginning before the lead instruments take over. The ending is effective and works fine.

The SMB1 tune was fine, but not really original at all. The tune is over-remixed in general since long ago, and it has to be a very groovy and re-arranged remix if I'm gonna like it. The SMB2 song is a lot better. Pretty funny indeed. I like it, and I don't think the drums are that bad either. They work quite well in this simple tune.

Here's my third WIP for my upcoming album: a frantic rock version of the first song in the Silver Surfer (NES) soundtrack, coupled with a piece of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (also NES) and a little bit of Sweet (70's glam/hard rock band). It needs polishing here and there (there's a couple of broken cymbals, for instance), but let me know your impressions. http://www.update.uu.se/~lidbjork/dvd/LieMfB_-_Silver_Surfer_01_mixdown_2008-11-05.mp3 Thanks in advance, Mutherpluckin' B http://lidbjork.homelinux.org/nintendo

Cool song! Yes, it sounds very digitalized and lightweight, pretty 80's. The snare is thin, very mid-range/treble heavy, but it fits with the style. The only things I have to say have already been said: pan the instruments more for a wider stereo field, and perhaps throw a bridge or something in there to really lift the song. I dig how you made sort of a Roland concept remix here.

Oh yeah, we may very well see each other in the foobar! I studied DVP before I jumped off the wagon, but I have friends in the Update computer society there.

Thanks again, ya'all! I've been looking into most things mentioned, but there isn't much I wanna spend too much time on in this track. I've raised the bass frequencies, narrowed the stereo field a bit, raised the drums slightly. Might fix some timing issues here and there. I will probably re-record the break in the middle to make it better. I've also considered stripping the intro and just make smooth succession jam kind of intro to get rid of some of the mess there. Depends on the preceding track on the album. Either way, I think this is the weakest track of all of the album tracks recorded so far, and it might not even make it to the album. (Will be on my site eventually, anyway).

I'm no expert in the field, but if you want to get into game music specifically (rather than different areas of music), it will help if you are into game design in more general terms. That way it will be easier to find work and contacts in the business. But it depends, of course, on how much interest you have in game programming, 3d modeling, and all the other aspects of game design. They're all huge fields, just like music. Time, interest, effort and luck are big factors indeed. It's never wrong to ask, and your question isn't embarrasing at all. Performance may be a familiar term, but exactly what it means isn't always clear, since we're all creating music in so many different ways. I would say it means HOW something is played/recorded, rather than WHAT you're playing. As Another Soundscape pointed out, you may compose a good piece of music, but then it gets down to how it is executed. Obviously, the composer and the performer of one song are often different people. Playing a song on guitar is a clear example of a performance, but I guess you could also say that producing/mixing is a way of performance, especially in our computerized field of music.