Mazedude
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Posts posted by Mazedude
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The odds are very good that I'll actually be in New York at that time... hmm. Ironic, eh?
If I'm in town I'll try and stop by. Otherwise you guys have a blast!
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Hehe, Mickey Mousecapade. I owned that one back in the day.
The Adventures of Bayou Billy. I remember one day I got in the zone, and I actually beat it. And it only happened once. But man, was that sweet.
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Mazedude digs. Mazedude's wife also digs.
Excellent blending of preserving both the original material and bringing in new improvised sweetness. Killer work with a classic theme that doesn't get enough attention.
- Mazedude
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Indeed, very nice work. Oftentimes when playing the game I would pick this as the music over the typical theme. The speed and movement of the melody made for more of a frenetic play, especially once ya hit the higher levels and those pieces just kept getting faster, faster, faster...
I was impressed. Very nice pacing, and - as has been said - it definitely felt like a story amongst itself, and that's a very good thing. Excellent orchestration, good variety in balance as to who had the melody vs the accompaniment, and so on. And definitely a great original theme to apply this style too. Good work.
-Mazedude
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As one of the few who has tackled the style, I am quite pleased to see more industrial remixage on the site. Definitely quality stuff here. Very nice balancing of the effects vs the percussion vs the arpeggios vs the chunk guitar and so on. Very nice buildup throughout the overall piece too, pulsing in and out, getting a bit bigger and heavier each time. That's hard to pull off without it going overboard, so good job.
Only 2 small notes of constructive criticism... 1, the melody line. It was always "behind" the groove. I was really hoping that atleast once it would take the forefront via a screaming lead, or an electric guitar solo, or even in some manner of distortion of the original flute sound, but... nope. Didn't happen. Ah well. And 2, the ending seemed just a tiny bit anti-climactic. At first it sounded like it was fading out, and I was like "what?!" ... but then it kinda mellowed out and died out with some soft melodic stuff. For a piece like this I dunno, I just kinda felt like it needed a loud "boom!" at the end, or atleast one last powerful chunky guitar hit or something.
Anyways, that's my 2 cents. Again, I'm very happy to see more industrial mixage on the site. I wonder if this will make good driving music? I'll have to find out.
-Mazedude
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I'd like to announce that I have in fact used this incredible music in a stunt demo, for a new website I just designed. This is the first time I've edited to a game remix; usually I pick kickass hard rock and commercial techno for that kinda work, so kudos Prot. Enjoy.
http://www.latrampolinerental.com for the site
http://www.latrampolinerental.com/video/TrampolineDemoMQ.mpg for the video
Mazedude
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Aha, sweet. Awesome. Very nice mix - put a big ol' smile on my face. I played these games way back when, but seeing a mix here caused a little of the "oh - wait - I played that game, I remember, but... dang I can't remember the music". And the mix brought it all back, thank you!
Dang, I've mixed a ton of Robert Prince stuff, yet I forgot he did this. Heh, neato.
-Mazedude
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Take a sec a read the description on www.mazedude.com guys - this track is supposed to be a direct mimic and homage to Jeroen Tel, aka "Wave". Why do ya think I called it Turtle "Wave", hmm?
-Mazedude
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For any trackers who are curious to see how this was constructed, I have posted the original IT file on www.mazedude.com. Considering the samples, it's not as huge as most of my files, and it's kinda a fun one to watch, hehe.
-Mazedude
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Hmm, methinks I'll do a little bit of explaining here, to answer the unasked questions -
The reason it's called Oldskool is because it's done entirely with 8-bit low quality samples from the oldschool tracking days of the late 80s and early 90s. Pioneers like Skaven and Purple Motion rocked the demoscene with songs such as these: they didn't use the highest quality sounds, but they used a LOT of them, and often with so much attention to detail and such speed and accuracy that it was mind-boggling. That's what I tried to do here... I don't think I made ANY of the sounds in this - they were all swiped from the songs of the now non-existent "Demoscene". And thus, they were all used with everchanging patterns and sporadic intermittence, completely with the also-oldschool screaming synth lines... (that are so, SO fun to make, hehe). So, that explains the style - it's really more of an inside joke to me and my tracker brethren than the remixing community, but I gave it a nice industrial edge to still make it satisfying.
And regarding the ending - has anyone noticed that if you're listening to this in the background and you hear a fadeout, you can't help but ask "wait a sec - which fadeout is this? The real one or the fake one?" They're identical baby! I fake ya out once, then I do it for real the next time. I dunno, I think it's a unique way to end a tune. I like it.
So there's what Mazedude has to say on his own tune. Hope I've been somewhat informative - if you want to hear any original oldschool tracks, go to www.hornet.org and search for Future Crew, Skaven, Purple Motion, or Necros, and check out their tracks. You'll see. Later dudes!
-Mazedude
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Hmm, well - given all that's been said, perhaps I'll say a few words about this piece myself...
Firstly, massive thanks for all the fan comments so far, both good and bad; I totally appreciate 'em and always bear them in mind for the future. That said, this piece right here wasn't intended to be one everyone would like, or even intended to be better than my others, but rather; it was a ton of experiments all at once.
To start off, I was kinda happy at the prospect of creating the first Wolf 3D mix on the site, as I really loved the game back in the day. I designed my own levels and everything... ah yeah, good times. And, it was the predecessor to Doom, which I've also covered plenty of, so it makes sense.
Secondly, I was responding to numerous requests. Some people wanted intense Nazi militaristic mayhem, some people wanted a sad and touching rendition of the War theme, some people wanted me to do something like Blood Bath (combining different game themes into 1 mix), and what I personally wanted to do was to dabble into the film-score genre of electronica-orchestral. If you listen to the Title theme of the movie "The Negotiator", by Graeme Revell, you'll be able to see how I kinda modeled this after that, loosely.
Thirdly, in conjunction with the style, I needed to experiment with my new orchestral samples. Having worked with real orchestras, I personally am not a huge fan of synthesizing orchestral material, because even with the best of samples it still always sounds fake. But, I got these new Gigasamples, and felt it was worth a try. Eh, parts sound good, parts don't. Ah well, it was a first experiment.
Also, I wrote this piece in 2 days. Sequenced it one night, post-produced it the next day. In retrospect, I shoulda taken a little more time to give the electronic beat a bit more variety, and the ProTools post-production isn't layered 100% to my satisfaction... but, ya know, for just a video-game remix, I'm not gonna make a big deal out of that. Maybe later I'll go back and fix that.
Regarding the usage of Hitler, well - actually, that speech was part of a bunch of war sound clips I gathered for a Rush-n-Attack mix I had in mind but never got around to. When writing this one, it just seemed like the perfect icing to the cake, so to speak. Huge thanks to Compyfox for giving me a translation - I was vaguely worried that it was going to contain some blatently horrible insults like "Death to the Jews", or something that I certainly wouldn't want to put in a released remix, heh. As it is, I'm fine with it, and have no quams about using it. As mentioned, it's merely History. On the same token, jabs can be made at American history that we certainly aren't proud of, so it's in no way a present-day National or cultural jab. And besides, Hitler was IN Wolfenstein 3D, so... it works.
So... there ya go, there's what Mazedude has to say on his own remix. It was a multi-level experiment, I and think I pulled it off pretty well. Not super-great or anything, but pretty good. For now, I like it.
-Mazedude
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When it suddenly breaks to fast mode, the bass and the low piano double on the bassline to Level 1. Other than that, helluva good job guys.
-Mazedude
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Haha, nice, I've been hoping for a Guile mix for a while now. I started one myself, but never got around to finishing it. However, I must say the OneUp Mushrooms did a kick-ass job of the theme live in Concert at MAGFest.
As for this mix, I like it, for the most part. I kinda woulda liked it a touch more aggressive, but for what it is it's good techno. Nice mix from a production standpoint, enough variety throughout... personally I woulda like a bit more variety and counter-melody work on the lead, or even some harmony here and there. It's great the first time it's presented, but if it had come in a second time with all sounds of adlibbing screaming synth line going on, that woulda been sweet.
All in all, nice work. I woulda liked it a lot more if it had gotten more intense percussion-wise and melodically as it went on, but ah well. And DJP - please finish your mix too.
I might be doing some SF2 stuff sometime here myself as well. Nobody's done Sagat's theme.Rayza, I really did your Credits Theme mix too. More than this one, actually, just for your reference.
Flash kick!
-Mazedude
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Hey hey, no one bash this classic piece of DJP goodness! Ya ever look at the "favorite mixes" threads this sucker always pops up. It's original, hilarious, and funny too! Stands out nicely from DJP's other stuff too. Yeah, this is a great, a classic, a distinctive OCR timepiece, and always puts a big ol' smile on my face.
Rather surprised there aren't more reviews of this one.
-Mazedude
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Aye, this is quite nice. The first time I heard it was a little taken aback by the soft intro, but after hearing it on the whole and stuff - very good. The orchestral/breakbeat fusion can be hard to pull off, but he did it nicely.
I even got this tune on a roadmix now. Nice driving music, depending on the mood.
Good work man!
-Mazedude
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Hmm - there shouldn't be that clipping noise you mentioned at 2:15 Ryckster - try redownloading it from http://listen.to/mazedude and see if it's still there - coulda just been a downloading glitch. It happens.
As far as releasing my samples - oh ho ho... I only do that if asked REALLY nicely man, I fashion a ton of those completely from scratch. And, some I take from CDs and flip 'em around, add effects, etc...
And some I steal. Those I don't mind sharing. Just e-mail the Mazedude@aol.com and cross your fingers.
As to the rest of the comments - thanks a bunch guys. Keep it up and I might do yet another Doom 2 mix one of these days, bwuhahaha!
-Mazedude
-http://listen.to/mazedude
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Usually I'm not a fan of happy hardcore... ah, but this is great. Brings back memories. Who didn't try FOREVER to beat Street Fighter 2 with just 1 credit? Or for that matter, defeat M. Bison on level 7 with every character just to see the ending? Man - 40something tries to do that with Zangief, man... getting mad, throwing the paddle, screaming, and trying again - those were the days. But when ya actually do it! YES! Happy! Ya stare at the screen with a big grin glued to your face as ya watch the character's ending you fought SO hard to see. And this music, well - this music adds the final touch. When this played along with the final credits, you KNOW you made it. Yeah.
This remix just amplifies all those memories. The happiness of victory. Yay!!! Fun.
-Mazedude
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Ya know, in general I don't care too much for the simple straightforward rave-techo beat that goes on here...... yet for some reason I dig this remix quite a bit. I dunno, maybe it's cause I loved the game, but there's just something about this that's happy and bouncy. I listen too closely, and I see that the synths are out of tune and the beat barely changes, but in the background... it's quite smileyable. Yep. Nice.
-Mazedude
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Dude... very, very diggable. I wasn't a huge fan of this when I first heard cause of the blend of synthy lines with latin instruments, but man - it's grown on me. Very fun, very groovy. The effects and filter-flangy stuff on the synths does add a lot too. The piano seems almost laid back too, and that - played against the relentless beat - creates a perticularly interesting mix that ya can't help but want to move to.
One complaint I could make is that the flute line isn't that interesting... If I were to do it I'd throw in trills, and short poppy stuff mingled in... and ooh, some trumpet and brass pops to accent that coulda been fun too. But yeah, that's just me.
Nice tune man. Groovalicious.
-Mazedude
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How deliiightfulllly spooky... I really appreciate this one. Having played the game just a little, the taste it left me with matches up with this mix perfectly. The mood it sets is so great... melancholy, yet tensed up on the edge. The intermittent static is great. Makes ya feel so... unsafe. And scared. It's not easy for music to do that ya know. Course we also got melodies and themes mingled in, so it's better than just ambient "I'm gonna jump out and surprise ya any second" kinda scary music. Yep, this is better.
Boy, I really rambled there, but all in all - I like this one alot. Perfect mood-setting, nice use of the game music, and excellent mixing. I listen to this one more than any other CotMM mixes too, I have to say. Whether that's good or bad I'm not sure, but I love this mix.
-Mazedude
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Bwuhaha... boy, this one grows on you. When I first heard it ya know, I was quite biased, cause - I remixed the same level. And I did it first! Competition, heh. Anyways, yeah - this one is quite good. The heaviness is great - gives it a relentless sense of marching forward. Deadly, evil, creepy, and musically diverse to make the full song a nice listen as well as a great mood setter for the background. And that growl sample is awesome. That one sound strategically placed where it is throughout seriously adds a TON to the mix for me when I listen. Very cool.
-Mazedude
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So, soooo sweet. Makes ya go "aaaaaahhhhhhh........".
Ya know, I've been kinda wanting to make a nice pretty remix at some point here... and I always think to myself "ya know, I should make a pretty remix sometime, like that Secret of Mana mix Mustin and Kassie did..."
Then I listen, and realize how beautifully simple it is, and yet still pulls the heartstrings. Wow. This is just beautiful. If only we could hear it with real orchestral instruments sometime... ahh.......
-Mazedude
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Ah, a truly cool remix. Ya know, I played this puppy in my apartment when I was down in NYC, and my room mate who's a R-n-B Hip-hop singer perked up and popped in the room with a "whoa - dude - what is that?! That's nice!"
I agree... that bass just grabs ya from the get go - and everything else in there just flows nicely. The vibe lines are fun, the electric piano thing is simple and adds a nice balance to the mix, and the intermittent strings give it a nice overall tone. And that shaker thing in the mix - is that a real maraca? Sounds like it. Very cool.
I like this one a lot. Smooth, yet edgy... hip hop, jazz, whatever, it's nice. And I haven't even played the original.
-Mazedude
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Silly rabbits, I used a LOT of Doom 2 themes in this one. 'tis a Medley of sorts. Kinda my little game here to see if anyone can correctly count the number of levels I worked into the mix. Go for it.
-Mazedude
OCR01586 - Shadow of the Colossus "Snowfall on Forbidden Lands"
in ReMix Reviews & Comments
Posted
I concur. I just beat this game as well, and listening now after the fact is pretty cool. Excellent arrangement.