Lie Mf B

Wow, you have good ears! Upon close listen, I noticed some of the things you pointed out, but not all of them. I'm afraid they'll stay that way, though. It comes with the rock 'n' roll.

Thanks a lot for your extensive response. And it always makes me happy when other people point out things that I've thought about myself. I agree about the "hollow" sound. I think it comes partly as a reaction to my many dense and "crowded" mixes with many instruments. But I think I'll try narrowing the stereo field a little and thicken the EQ, while keeping some "sense of space". And "recorded in bits" ... you bet! The channel window in Audition looks like a rag carpet, as with all my songs. But this usually goes unnoticed when one listens to the song. I think the fragmented feel of this track stems more from the structure/arrangement, the many guitar and keyboard parts. I might rerecord the wah-wah keyboard solo with another sound to knit the thing together more. Thanks again! Feedback like this is wonderful when you record albums!

I could do Dive Man. In fact, I've already done it. But if Toma wants to do it (as listed), no problem of course. Here's my remix: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18388

Sounds good! Great piano sound! I don't really know what else to say. Nice change of pace among all the metal remixes. I haven't heard the original tune, so I can't comment on the actual rearrangement or whatever.

Nice remix! Sounded better than I expected. A metal version of the MM2 Wily theme isn't exactly a revolution in the remix community, but the song is excellent in itself so why not. If there's anything to criticise, it may be that the track is a little too generic metal to stand out. I want more surprises! But the bridge that starts at 2:00 is really nice, and you got some great guitar harmonies that start early in the track. Keep up the good work!

I think you are totally right in concentrating on traditional instruments. Even if you end up making music on your computer, you will have tons more musical feel if you have experience playing instruments. And if the majority of the people here program their drums, you will stand out if you actually play real drums (although the possibility may be limited for such a large and loud instrument, as is the case for most of us). In the end, what program you choose isn't that important, as long as you're comfortable working with it, especially if your sounds come from traditional instruments and not the software itself. What is more important than specific software are general production techniques, i.e. recording, processing, mixing, mastering, etc. Remember -- Fruity Loops and Cubase may be the biggest on the scene for the last 10 years, but channel mixers, EQ and echo units have been around for 50 years, and the modern piano for 200 years...

New version, november 2012: This old track has been resurrected and freshened up considerably with completely new drums. Have a listen and tell me what you think of it. Original (and obsolete) post: ----------------------------- I'm working hard on a long new album of retro rock/progressive/funk versions of NES songs, and I'm planning to post most songs here, one at a time, to get some constructive criticism before they're finished. So here's one of them -- a 3-minute medley of a few stages in Lifeforce. I'm especially curious about what you think about the tempo and the timing of the rhythm/drums in this one. http://www.update.uu.se/~lidbjork/dvd/LieMfB_-_Lifeforce_mixdown_2008-10-19.mp3 (Please don't spread the song on the internet before I get the chance to release a final version.) Thanks in advance! Mutherpluckin' B http://lidbjork.homelinux.org/nintendo

The retarded ending was very spontaneous ... but I'll wait until I sequence the whole album before I do anything with it. That voice is actually Alex Harvey of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. I sampled some drums from one of their songs, to which I added some of my own drum sounds. So the voice is a little bonus stuck there in the drum sample. I can't adjust it independently, but if I raise the drums, the vocal will be a little louder.

Thanks very much for your comments everybody! I'll lower the guitars a bit, to get the drums out slightly. Still I want sort of a "guitar assault" mix. The panned guitars are part of my style, partly to get a live sound, partly because my rock 'n' roll influences from the '60s and '70s (even '80s and present) commonly feature that kind of mix. Also, I often tend to make dense mixes with many instruments, so I try to encourage myself to make passages with more space. Besides, I don't agree that any single guitar parts are hard-panned in this song.

That is actually the opposite to the old rock 'n' roll saying, "You gotta fake it 'til you make it." Which means, you can't learn how to write songs without trying to interpret or imitate other people's music. That's basically how every super star musician alive today started out (ask the Beatles or the Stones). So from a general point of view, I don't agree with the quoted post. But to make good and original re-interpretations of video game music, it helps very much if you have already developed a style. Personally, I've faked my favourite artists' rock 'n' roll songs for years, and my style stems entirely from my old music heroes. This dictates my video games covers both conciously and unconciously. Sometimes I deliberately steal passages from Led Zeppelin and Hendrix songs, while the rest of the time it's impossible for me to play in any style other than what has come from years of listening and faking. At the same time, I enjoy "faking" the original vgm, sometimes making my songs "conservative". So I guess you could summarize a basic remix school as such: 1. Develop your style from music you like. 2. Possibly write original music to consolidate your style. 3. Make video game remixes and notice how your style comes through. 4. Get accepted by the OCR judges if your style is strong enough (combined with technical skills).

Hi, Here's a new Mega Man remix I've made, which will be on my next album release, which I'm currently working on. I don't really consider it a WIP, but I'm open to suggestions for improvements for the album release. Comments are always greatly appreciated. mp3 here: http://www.update.uu.se/~lidbjork/nintendo/LieMfB_-_Sky_Diver_Inside_Her.mp3 If you enjoy it and want to hear more of my music -- NES songs with a retro rock/funk sound -- check my site out: http://lidbjork.homelinux.org/nintendo Cheers!

Ok, I'll check it out. I've been mostly into Nintendo music, especially since the well of NES tunes never seems to run dry, but sometimes I've thought about digging into Sega as well. Only one Sega song on an album of NES music would be odd, but I'm open for trying a remix some day. Thanks for the tip, I'll check Sonic 3 out.

Hey people! So cool to see that you're spontaneously bringing my music up, almost three years since I released it. Thanks a lot, it warms my heart! I haven't showed my face much here or at VGMix lately, but I've kept my webpage up, I still play a lot of music, and I'm actually at work on a follow up to "Nintendosploitation" -- when time allows me. Work, school and other activities take their toll, but I record when I get the chance (and pray that my neighbours won't finally assasinate me). The next bunch of songs will be slightly more guitar oriented and more '70s rock and progressive than funk. But still with some funky riffs and stuff. I might post some in the WIP forum some day. I also got a few "single" songs up on the webpage, that are more acoustic oriented (something I just experimented with). Anyway, thanks again for the appreciation! And thanks for reminding me that I gotta sneak some more Led Zep and stuff into my music. See ya!

Thanks a lot for your replies, people. I'm happy that you enjoy it. I'm working on a new mix and it really helped to EQ that bass a bit.

First, let me say Thanks a lot for a very helpful response that made a lot of sense. EQ, panning, volume, mixing in general is a big interest and a big challenge for me and love to get constructive advice like yours. Second, my production values are still a bit "1971" if you get my drift. Think Iggy Pop, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones from 35 years ago... So what many people would consider "muddy", I actually see as "funky" and "organic". But I still want to do a good production and nothing too extreme, so comments like yours are, again, very helpful. You're also probably right regarding the crowded mid-range. My recordings tend to get pretty mid-rangy, both because of my instruments and recording equipment, and my mixing. I do think a lot of modern rock musicians tend to forget the midrange, but I still think I'm doing it too much myself sometimes. So I will try to lower that bass -- make it more bassy. (It actually plays the melody during the chorus, so I think I wanted to bring that into the front before, but to hell with that...) I've also noticed that the bass is what really changes between people's sound systems... Just going from speakers to headphones can make a lot of difference. So it's kind of difficult to balance, and I really appreciate people's critique. Regarding the acoustic guitars, they're already very mid-rangey, especially the regular acoustic has been EQ'ed a lot. So I think that rather than moving those further to the middle, I'll focus on getting the bass out of it all, and the fiddle... Funny that you mentioned the cowbell, when a friend of mine begged me to put one into the song. And I tried, but didn't think it really fit. Will try again, though. Again, thanx for the advice!

Great remix! One of the best I've heard in a long time. You really get the best out of those acoustics. A bass and some woody sounding drums to back it up would be awesome, but only if they really sound authentic. Those guitar tracks sound so organic and have so much feel that a stiff programmed rhythm could ruin the whole thing. I suspect that the judges could reject it on those grounds, but anyway, I like it a lot as it is now and will listen to it again and again. Good job!

I just made this remix ... Basically it's finished, but I'd love to hear what you people think about it -- if it would stand up to the scrutiny of the judges. Anything I should change, add, improve...? It's the Amazon level of Duck Tales for NES, with acoustic and electric guitars, a Dobro, an electric bass, a fiddle soundfont and a simple front-porch-stomp kind of drum track. mp3 here: http://www.update.uu.se/~lidbjork/nintendo/LieMfB_-_I_en_stulen_Amazon.mp3 More of my remixes (mostly '70s funk-rock-oriented) are here: http://lidbjork.homelinux.org/nintendo

Yeah, awesome! Great organic, genuine feel to it (on top of what everybody else said)