Garpocalypse

@DarkeSword How about if we up the stakes for the last round of this competition? I think it's only fitting that the competition director should grant whatever wish the winner desires amiright? If I win I get to take your place as guest judge for a month.

Whoah.. Wait. What? Those numbers can't be right. This track was my take on new jack swing, which a much younger Garpocalypse was infatuated with back in the day, and the reception of it seems to be better than I was expecting by far. @SuperiorX Almost all of the synth parts utilized UVI's Darklight IIx which is a collection of sounds taken from the classic Fairlight. The patch I think you are referring to was Slap Bass Wah or something along those lines. I think it sounded frog like enough to title the track based on it. UVI really has a solid collection of quality stuff in their Vintage Vault. @Jamphibious It's too early to be talking rematch already! We still have some votes coming in! Honestly though I think you did a great track with some more faithful and familiar interpretations of the sources.

No idea what's going on but this competition suddenly going dark with 2 completed entries being held for almost 2 weeks isn't a good sign. @DarkeSword If Round 6 isn't up by wednesday night I will be withdrawing and most likely re-purposing my track.

Did a spot check. Only recognized three so far. Higher Confidence: Star Ocean 3/Valkryie Profile Confidence in the Domination. (pretty much a rip) TenguBlaster: MegaMan 8 Saturn Version. Tengu Man Stage Refuge: Phantasy Star III Town Theme I know I heard First Place somewhere. I want to say it was a Sega racer of some sort but I can't place it. Then again I might just be confusing it with that Do-op Do-op song from the muppets...

Going on a week now since Round 6's tracks were due... any updates @DarkeSword??

It's the Emulator II Shakuhachi which was a patch used in a lot of 80's music like the start of Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer and Sadeness from Enigma and a sound I wanted for awhile. I finally was able to get it when I picked up UVI's Vintage Collection which includes all of their retro synth romplers. My only problem with UVI's EMU II Shakuhachi patch is that it's fairly limited and unflexible due to the sample used in the rompler not having much of an attack. Fast passages don't sound like anything regardless of the attack settings on the interface. Sustains though sound ok though and you know how much I like those :). For this competition I aimed to emphasize one retro synth with each mix. My round 6 entry makes use of the Fairlight CMI IIX rompler. glad you enjoyed it!

Mak noooooooooooo! You just had to push arceace to get something in didn't ya? :] I kid, arceace did some solid work and there's no way I'm getting through this jamphib match up unscathed... looking forward to the round getting posted. Just don't disappear for 3-5 years again. We gotta do a jet moto or twisted metal remix at some point.

subbed. @Jamphibious, may the winner's legacy be fulfilled and the loser anguish in purgatory of the deepest and darkest sub forums at OCRemix. :]

Yea I was really looking forward to this match up with you since it was these compos that made me a fan of yours in the first place. Got something special planned for this round. ...Here's hoping it all comes together. :]

This decade? Seconding The Witcher 3. First game had charm and a fantastic soundtrack but wasn't all there. I remember towards the end of the game it would crash about every 30 seconds. The second game was fun but felt too small. The third game made me remember what it was like to have a game that resonated so well with you which I had not experienced since I first played FFVII all those years ago. (it's awesome not overrated) Runner Up would be Overwatch i guess. Didn't want to play that game at all the first time I I saw it but somehow I managed to sink almost 500 hours of my time on this planet since it launched. Soldier 76 for life. oh and uhh freedom planet... because it's better than undertale.

As long as Singletrac classics like Twisted Metal, Warhawk and Jet Moto make the list I'll be all over this one.

Velocity and timing go a long way towards making an authentic sounding performance so don't overlook that. The best sample libraries take the attack of each instrument into account whereas the cheaper libraries often have 0ms of attack across all of their samples. i.e. you hit a note and get the result immediately without any startup. Take your bass pizzicato's for example. They are RIGHT ON THE BEAT which does not work well with an emotive piece of music like this. A bassist has to anticipate the moment that the string has to be released in order to come in at the right time which means he has to take the physics of his own instrument into account as well as playing off of the emotion present at the moment in the music in order to sound appropriate. There's anticipation and some hesitation there with every pluck and your sequencing needs to reflect this. If you think you can put static midi into a better sample library and have it come out the way you want you are going to be sorely disappointed. It's more along the lines of the better the sample library the more time you will need to spend detailing each instrument which WILL take hours and hours to get as authentic as possible. I would stay far away from symphobia if you want any sort of flexibility. IMO it's overpriced for what it is and you would be far better off with the older East West QL Symphonic Orchestra which you can pick up on the (relatively)cheap these days if you time it right. http://www.soundsonline.com/symphonic-orchestra

Subbed. If I can say anything about this track is that it probably won't be confused with my greatest work ever. :/ Life hit hard this week and I had to rush to get something in. I did however recently acquire UVI's Emulator II Rompler, which is my favorite 80's workstation, and did the entire remix exclusively with it (except for the drums).

Very busy week so this is going to be a more subdued series of Rage Reviews for this round. SEGA MAN: Couldn't get more 1994 if you tried. Awesome remix. My only problem with the mix as a whole is that it ends. Bonus points for the sampled MJ voices throughout the groove. DRUNK MAN: You're right the fraises are weird but in a good way. Awesome solo at the end. Crashed a House Party on Fire: I'm probably not the best one to comment on this mix as I'm not overly into the heavily sidechained house music styles but the clash of very very competent human piano playing against the rest of the soundscape took some getting used to the first few listens. Nice ritardando at the end. Good work!

Round 2 RAGE REVIEWS ...part music critique, part semi-psychotic rambling Unbalanced Trism, you've improved a ton since the last time I heard your stuff on one of these mega man compos. The middle part of this remix gave me serious flashbacks of Metallica's version of the Blue Oyster Cult Classic Astronomy which I enjoyed the hell out of. After giving it a few listens it seems like all of the melodies from Top Man are there and Tengu man was adapted to fit the rest of it. All in all this would work well as part of a Twisted Metal Ost. Nice work! NEXT! Groove bomb Vs Grenade Powered Honestly a great matchup. Both tracks are really well made and groovy AF. Groove Bomb Gotta admit I was really excited to see jamphib sign up for this thing and he did was an awesome remix that doesn't disappoint. The different themes were all used very well and i'm loving that bass part. The one thing i can say bad about it is that the highs definitely stick out too much for my tastes but everything is very well balanced otherwise. Curious as to what cans you use mix on. If they are sennheiser's you have to be careful of the infamous "sennheiser veil" which could cause you to boost those highs. Great remix! Grenade Powered Locamotive I really dig what you were going for. Kind of a night time dreamy take on a similar style as jamphib's. Loved the background diddles. Nothing bad I can really say about it other than you made it apparent what side of the loudness war you are on. :/ There is a LOT of clipping on your track here but the cool thing is I wouldn't have noticed it so much if not for popping it into audacity. Good work, going to keep this one in my playlist Planet Killer 2019 What did you do here? Put on a wig, Call yourself Pat Benatar and shape broadband noise into a "remix"? I couldnt' tell if I was listening to a piece of music or hearing someone fry eggs! NEXT!! Glassy Haze Interesting soundscape. The combination of samples and synths make it like you were attempting to go for a Prodigy esque remix. Maybe the drag in the strings was intentional but it's a good idea to sync up your samples with the groove using the midi time offset in your DAW so that the attack of the strings comes before the beat. Most string instruments take a solid 30-50ms to get the string vibrating and since that is a feature of well made orchestral VST's you need to compensate for that if you are doing a tight electronic track. I'm hearing a lot of clipping throughout the track. A quick glance in audacity is showing a large amount of red. For a quick solution I'd recommend using something like Gclip to snip the transients off of your percussive elements but honestly there's a lot of mixing practice that you could use this remix for. Try taking some noise and cut it across 4 different faders using a multiband, scramble the volume levels by using different output settings on a plugin then use the faders to try to get as close to the original noise as you can. Warning that this will fatigue your ears quick but you'll get use to hearing for highs mids and lows seperately. Keep at it! Frozen Sky Good job with the sources. Outside of some occasionally awkward harmonizing it's a cohesive enough of a remix. Mess with the attack settings on that bass as it is lethargic and severely lacking. With percussion that tight such a soft attack on the bass doesn't work well and robs a lot of energy from the remix.

Subbed. Hope everyone likes 5 minutes of static.

Just trying to work in how many times I can say blade runner in a single sentence since blade runner 1 and 2 and the blade runner shorts were awesome because blade runner. It's a cheap joke.

Still have some work I'm going to put into my track so knowing me I'm going to push it right to the last minute of the deadline most likely. All I can say about my track right now is I've put more time into it than I planned to and that everyone will probably think that I've watched bladerunner, blade runner 2049, blade runner 2022, blade runner 2036 and blade runner 2048 way too many times this year. ...and yes I have. Also played a few dozen hours of Outrun 2019.

Just saw this too. Can't believe it's finally happening. While not exactly the form I was hoping the game would take it's still as exciting AF to see the IP revived.

2018's Mega Man Compo-of-some-sort Round 1 Rage Reviews! Razor Wind Very nice use of the themes and sound fx! Great Energy throughout and the mixing is solid! Only nitpick I can make is that the ending is a VERY abrupt one note cadence with almost no decrease in energy in the phrase before it to signal the end of the remix! Great listen! Most competent use of the stereo field in the round i'd say! NEXT!! Digital Redemption Listened to this over and over trying to pick out metal man's theme but for the life of me i'm not hearing it! NEXT!! Dopamine Great Rhythm Guitar tone! Only dig is that the lead is on the overly fuzzy side for my tastes! Themes are recognizable! Awesome remix! Why you don't do more Dwelling of Duels compos is beyond me! :/ NEXT!! Fire Truck Right off the bat that bass is really bottom heavy and unrecognizable in the mix! I'm afraid to hook up my subwoofer cuz i'm worried it's gonna be all subs....! Themes are recognizable so good work on keeping things familiar! Biggest issue for me is that there is no real use of stereo throughout the entire remix! By that I mean no expansion/contraction which was omnipresent in Razor Wind! For the most part good work! ...NEXT!! Thunder Crash Bass hangs slightly to the left which was off putting until I realized a few seconds in you were going for a live jazz band on a stage kinda thing. Nice work on selling that! Actually... is it a live band?! Surely a week is too short a time to detail such great humanization on all of these instruments...! Great remix! Regardless If you were able to write AND get a band together to practice this OR detail this much interpersonal energy with midi in a week is a real accomplishment!! ...Unless you are just a very competent keyboard player! NEXT!!! Crash of the Tornado Very funky! Dig the use of the strings throughout even if they could use some more detailing! Enjoyed this mix. Get back to me in a decade I might be able to vote on this matchup then! NEXXXTTT!!! Empty Desires Ah Shademan, my source for the first mega man comp I did back in the day. Allright I'm going to get real here. No gratuitous exclamation point use. Good that you subbed your WIP in the end. Only crit isthat outside of some really thick mud you had a very nice vibe going for what you had. Sort of reminds me of DJP's Marble Zone remix. what's it called... Love Hurts i think? If you do finish this send me the link because I'd like to hear what this ends up being. Drill Bits Very well developed remix! But it fades out...! And it only has one bass...!!! You know you need to layer those things right?!! NEXT!!

While I feel largely the same way, I was referring to nintendo's recent crusade against ROM and Emulation sites which is threatening to cut off everyone's ability to play games from long lost IP's across multiple generations of consoles. It was murky waters for sure but as I've become mostly a retro gamer nowadays the bad ports and ad nauseam re-re-re-releases of the same games don't cut it for me. Yea the Dreamcast had the last run of Sega first party games that still looked, played, and felt like Sega games. Now if you'll excuse me i'm going to load up the Shenmue re-release to play some Hang on.

Mak I'd love to point you in the direction of some great Sega Saturn, Neo Geo and TurboGrafx 16 games... but right now I don't think i'd be able to without bringing up a whole lot of anti-nintendo drama along with it. ...and i don't think that would be appropriate in a Mega Man thread :p Long story short. Mega Man 8 was better on the Saturn. Tengu Man's stage being why. Come at me bro's....

@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.

Just wondering if there are any plans for a weekly listening party.