Starphoenix

This time we've got some Zelda BOTW. Hope you all enjoy.
 
 

A couple years ago, I released Zest Quest, an original album about fruit planets. Since then, I’ve decided to make more music set in the same universe, and I just released number 2!
 
Expedition to PL21-13
 
It contains a mishmash of retro sounds with an emphasis on things that sounded purple to me, paired with a story about unpaid interns searching a swampy alien planet for a robot sent by their ancestors hundreds of years ago. If you’re into flavor text, there's a full description on Bandcamp, and the album download comes with a 5-page PDF of log entries.
 
The original concept for the album had no narrative context...but it turned out that giving it a story and connecting it to Zest Quest unleashed a rush of motivation. Now I’m looking forward to all the possibilities for fleshing out this universe. Hope you enjoy!
 

The Workshop doesn't have a direct effect in the judging process in the sense that, we don't go look at the workshop thread and feedback for every single mix (I do it for some though).  But it does serve as an indirect help in the sense that every track that doesn't meet the bar and reaches the queue adds more time and work to the panel and thus slows the queue down.  When a track is approved by a workshop moderator, which again, go through the same interviews, tests etc. as judges, it has a very high chance of making it through the panel and makes evaluation quicker and easier.  It also saves time and headaches for the artists, as submitting a song, waiting X months only to get it rejected is not ideal, most artists would've moved on from that track already into new things, or even evolved beyond what they showed on that track and probably wouldn't be that keen on going back to it.  The workshop feedback is supposed to be more immediate to help you fix issues in a much shorter timeframe, but again, that's not always working as intended because the workshop staff can get burnout or life gets in the way and that queue gets clogged too.
Anyways, it doesn't hurt to show off your track in the workshop or even join the workshop discord channel and ask for a listen there, possibly get some feedback and have a better chance at making it past the bar, especially if you're new to creating music or don't have a posted remix yet.  Even though I should have a good idea of where the bar is, I always try to get a friend to listen to it and tell me if it's good enough or check for issues.

Hats off to both of you. These are two AMAZING tracks that remind me exactly why I was excited to see this competition return!
@Jamphibious The saw stab chords gave off a dark, almost JSR vibe. Production is tight, and both sources are easy to pick out in the arrangement. Absolutely love this track!
@Garpocalypse When the intro kicked in it felt like the opening level to a 90’s arcade beat-em up game. This song has been on repeat the past couple of days!
Cannot really give much in the way of feedback. Voting was very, very difficult. Great job, peeps!

Congrats to Jam on a track well done, and all the other Protomen that advanced! You guys produced some solid tracks this round, and I look forward to the next! Any additional feedback I can put towards my track for the final release is appreciated (I'll work on the clipping issues, Garpocalypse). Just shoot me a PM, or something.
If anyone has an itch to tackle the Grenade Man theme, let me know. Might be game for a friendly, depending how my schedule shakes out the next week or two. Going to dive into Round 3's entries this weekend and leave reviews.

I was happy with what I was able to do last round with what time I had available but I definitely felt my mix was a little "safe".  Didn't venture too far outside my comfort zone.  Starphoenix had a more interesting take to me so I threw a vote that way.  Definitely keep it up!
I was a little bummed that I didn't get Flash Man originally but looks like I get a shot at that theme after all.  I'll see what I can muster up this week, considering I'm remixing my first and second picks now.

Hope everyone has fun with the source! I’ll work on getting a bonus entry up by the deadline.

I plan on expanding on the arrangement of my 1st round track and touching up some things over the coming weeks, so if there is any kind of final compo release planned, I'll have that for it assuming timing works out.
Looking forward to the upcoming rounds, I still need to leave reviews for the Protomen! Overall what I heard was really good, nice job guys!

Unfortunately nothing ever came together. I had some major writer's block. Believe me, even if I had a hot pile of garbage WIP, I would've turned that in to at least have something 
I'm excited to hear what you came up with!

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.   

Basically I just use the methodology explained in https://www.puremix.net/video/creating-space-with-reverbs.html (it's a paid thingie):
1 - One reverb with just early reflections. Typically I use this mostly for live recordings (that usually are close mic'ed) to give them a bit of distance from the mic. It can sometimes also be handy to phatten up a tone at times, but it's primarily in use for recordings.
2 - A plate reverb that's typically used to create distance. I use this one on most of the instruments, with varying send levels.
3 - A hall reverb for 'height'. Typically I only use this for lead instruments and sometimes for snares and claps.
Not quite the same setup as I use, but more or less based on the same concepts and it's free, so this might be useful:
It's a setup I've been working with for close to 2 years now, it works for me and essentially I have 3 preset channel strips for it now where I sometimes just change the reverb to a different preset. Otherwise I just call it a day and move on.
As for getting messy with multiple reverbs, not really. If you apply things subtly and smartly (and very important, EQ the reverbs!), it'll sound fine (IMO). Here's just an example of a sparser track I did with this setup: 
 

Ah, so many newer games in here.  Give me 8-bit Mega Man any day.
Groove Bomb: Groove indeed!  I'm tapping my feet to this one.  It is a little static, though, with not many changes in energy or sound palette.  Still, it's a lot of fun, and you integrated the two sources cleverly and smoothly.  Ending is a bit abrupt. Grenade Powered Locomotive: There seem to be some off harmonies here.  The changes between the two sources are frequently abrupt, and the Charge Man sections don't seem to fit as well.  Nice soundscape, though. Glassy Haze: The timing on the strings in the opening is slow.  It takes over a minute to get into the meat of the arrangement at all, and even then the energy levels seem subdued throughout--the whole thing sounds like one long intro.  Overall it seems thin and incomplete. Planet Killer 2019: 2019?  More like 1989!  The highs are a little subdued, but otherwise I'm loving this epic 80's soundscape. The arrangement is a lot of fun, although the usage of Top Man is pretty subtle.  A few notes seem off, though.  The lead is frequently buried, partially due to conflicting frequencies, and partially due to synths with similar timbre stealing each others' thunder.  Could do with some more dynamism in energy level.  But I'm hoping to see a polished version of this on the panel. Unbalanced: This is mixed awfully quietly.  The two sources weren't really integrated at all.  I did like the key transformations and the performance, though. Frozen Sky: I can tell you struggled with integrating the two sources, but you put forth a valiant effort.  The arrangement is quite static, though, with unchanging energy levels, a drumline that switches drums but not patterns, and not much variation in instrumentation.

Great job Protoman Bracket! A lot of great mixes. Unfortunate that Gario and Realme had to drop.
Very brief thoughts:
Groove Bomb - You never disappoint when it comes to Mega Man compo tracks! Have always loved your stuff, and Groove Bomb is no exception. Great job combining both sources, especially the accenting you did around the 1:41-1:53 mark. Love it! Grenade Powered Locomotive - Had a lot of fun and frustration creating this track. Originally my goal was for something reminiscent of Txai-style swing jack, but it never really developed. Still, much more pleased with this showing compared to my last compo... Planet Killer 2019 - Holy darkwave, Batman. Once the 0:40 mark hit, my fists were pumping like a madman while waiting for my Tron bike to show. Tengu Man is clearly identifiable throughout the track, but at points I struggled hearing Top Man. Not as familiar with his theme, so it might just be me. Production is killer. Great job! Unbalanced - Honestly thought it was game over coming off Garp's track, but you held your own. Could pick out both themes pretty easily. Track is a little static throughout, and the drums could probably afford to be moved a little farther back in the mix. Still, awesome job man. Glassy Haze - Arrangement really sounded like two MIDIs crammed together. There was also some disharmony happening at points. Think it might have been the bells?  Frozen Sky - A lot of really great ideas in here. Though I'm not as familiar with MM7's Robot Master themes, each theme is identifiable, so I can hear where you're trying to take them. Good job.

Great job Protoman Bracket! A lot of great mixes. Unfortunate that Gario and Realme had to drop.
Very brief thoughts:
Groove Bomb - You never disappoint when it comes to Mega Man compo tracks! Have always loved your stuff, and Groove Bomb is no exception. Great job combining both sources, especially the accenting you did around the 1:41-1:53 mark. Love it! Grenade Powered Locomotive - Had a lot of fun and frustration creating this track. Originally my goal was for something reminiscent of Txai-style swing jack, but it never really developed. Still, much more pleased with this showing compared to my last compo... Planet Killer 2019 - Holy darkwave, Batman. Once the 0:40 mark hit, my fists were pumping like a madman while waiting for my Tron bike to show. Tengu Man is clearly identifiable throughout the track, but at points I struggled hearing Top Man. Not as familiar with his theme, so it might just be me. Production is killer. Great job! Unbalanced - Honestly thought it was game over coming off Garp's track, but you held your own. Could pick out both themes pretty easily. Track is a little static throughout, and the drums could probably afford to be moved a little farther back in the mix. Still, awesome job man. Glassy Haze - Arrangement really sounded like two MIDIs crammed together. There was also some disharmony happening at points. Think it might have been the bells?  Frozen Sky - A lot of really great ideas in here. Though I'm not as familiar with MM7's Robot Master themes, each theme is identifiable, so I can hear where you're trying to take them. Good job.

Sorry to see 2 competitors drop out. Hopefully you two will participate in some friendlies as the tournament progresses.

Round 2 is up and voting is open.
 

*Sigh*
Yeah, this didn't happen. I'd give a million reasons why, but at this point it'd just be excuses filling in for what was just regular ol' irl exhaustion. Still look forward to the entries, though, and can only apologize repeatedly for not stepping up like everyone else here has.

Subbed. 
Hope everyone likes 5 minutes of static.  
 

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. 

My track will be posted closer to the submission deadline. Not really happy with the way certain parts sound, and need to still create an outro... All in all, will have something tonight. Look forward to hearing the rest of the tracks.

Got around to submitting my track today since I wont have any time available tomorrow to work on music.  It was definitely tricky finding a way to work the two sources together given how different the mood and feel of them are but I reached a decent compromise I think.  Excited to hear the rest of the tunes this coming round.

I realized this is my first compo with the new forums! Having this separate voting thread with the poll setup makes tracking votes and reviews sooooo much easier than the old format. Love it! First round was pretty awesome, nice job everyone! A few quick thoughts from me:
Air Man vs Metal Man
Arceace:  loving this song! Probably my favorite one of the round. I love the atmosphere in the intro and the hints at each of the themes. The integration of Metal Man into the lead was groovy - nice use of SFX too! I felt the arrangement meandered a little there in the middle after the Air Man segment (~1:30ish mark), but things were groovin' again come ~2:00. Overall a very nice sounding song, I enjoyed it! AxLR:  Nice use of the retro low-fi sounds. I echo Gario's thoughts on the atmosphere - trippy & sample heavy, in a good way. Sources were definitely harder to pick up on, but I enjoyed this for what it was! Fire Man vs Cut Man
Mak:  good stuff! Standard rock/metal affair - I thought the guitar work was really well done and the integration of both themes was handled well too. Very fun song! Ronald Poe: soundscape is pretty thin and I'm only hearing the one source, keep at it! Tornado Man vs Crash Man 
ahhhh this was the toughest matchup!!!!
Ridiculously Garrett:  groooooovy - I loved your instrumentation and the overall vibe of this song. That EP  I live for this kind of low-fi jazzy/funky music. I liked how the EP kept the track moving forward and the string stabs on the melody line were very fitting. It reminds me a lot of the stuff Amphibious makes, which is also right up my alley. pixeltea:  this one was sooo good too! Ironically kind of a similar style to Garrett's, just much faster paced with a swingy jazz style. Sax sounds a little fakey, but I thought it fit the atmosphere well enough. I really really dig the arrangement and the chord progressions. Piano Crash Man parts were the scene stealers for me Ground Man vs Shade Man
supercoolmike:  thanks for turning your song in good sir! I liked what you had going. The atmosphere was really eerie and I liked the use of the piano and pads in the intro. The lead your chose for Shade Man was really cool too. I wish you had had the time to finish it up and integrate Ground Man too. Good start! Thanks all for the thoughts on my song! Yeah it definitely relied more on Ground Man, but as others referenced I used the Shade Man motifs as ancillary supporting melody parts. It was harder to integrate than I thought it would be at first. The lead at 1:13 did do a direct interpretation of the Shade Man motif too. I wish I had more time for it, maybe I'll work on it some more after the compo.

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.

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.

Protoman bracket will go up tomorrow. Got distracted by some other things today.

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