MindWanderer

I'd guess they'll wait to see what comes out of it--how many "good" (in their ad guy's mind) tracks there are, with how many different artists/characters, etc. If they get just a couple they like, maybe trailer/music videos; if they get more, who knows? I just hope they use whole tracks and not snippets. Ten seconds of one of these would be kind of defeating the point.

Folks probably felt it was too close to call. I almost didn't vote myself. Honestly everyone deserves to move on this time.

That one's the best I've heard on this whole thread. Although Can't Touch This Battery was pretty darn good too.

Awesome entries this week, guys. My vote's going to come down to personal preference, I think. Everyone had great production, great source usage, great arrangement in general. Is it just me, or does Oni's sound clip "Death Awaits!" sound an awful lot like "Yes! Oh, wait."

Yeah, it was kind of like that. Only lower-pitched. And with fish.

That's pretty slick. Might well have voted for that one.

FWIW, the tracks that made into my daily shuffle playlist are Red Chamomile, Wily's Inferno, Blast Counter, Far From Home, and The Fall. The tracks that made it into my permanent collection but not my everyday playlist are A Swarm of Voxels, Hornet of Legend, Splash Damage, The Root of All Things, Dr. Wiwwy Polarized, Magnus Divinicus Chiptunicus, and The Knight Who Says ROCK! I don't think I voted for many of those--either there were entries I thought were technically better despite my not liking the genre, or I felt other entries made better use of the sources--but these are the ones I enjoyed the most.

My reviews for the week: Vega/Fei Long: I enjoy electric guitar stylings a great deal, and DusK's was fun and enjoyable, but there were also quite a few moments of dissonance. Hemophiliac showed some great production quality, and while I'm not as big on the style, I think the musical quality was better here. Both entries had some difficulty in integrating the two themes, DusK's in no small part because of the instrumentation choice; Hemophiliac's entry had that long transition from 1:06-1:30, but the second transition was the best of both pieces. Akuma/Sakura: BlackPanther showed great production, but Sakura's theme just didn't belong in that. Even with the changed key, it's just too cheerful, and the fact that it was kind of buried in the supporting instruments didn't help. I think this would have been a strong piece with just Akuma, but of course that's not the point here. Jewbei made great use of the fact that Sakura's theme is more melodic by having Akuma play a supporting role here, and while normally I like both themes to share the stage, here it worked pretty well, and made for a solid piece of music. Rose/Balrog: Amazing production from Mr. Covenant here. Nice twists where it seemed like each theme was going to be with one instrument, then switching it around. By far the best demonstration this round of what a "versus" piece should be like: both smooth alternation and harmonizing one theme with the other. Just a stellar entry. Which is unfortunate for Main Finger, because his entry was excellent as well. If I was ranking all the entries this week, I think his would have been my second. It's not my favorite style, but production, composition, and use of the themes were all solid.

Great music, everyone. My votes ended up being heavily influenced by how well, and how overtly, each song used the two themes. Brandon's and pH's, in particular, were great songs, but their uses of their opponent's themes were too subtle IMHO. It was a lot easier to hear them when I switched to better headphones (they're practically inaudible with cheap ones), but even then I think it's better when it's easier to hear both themes.

Yeah, it is 89 themes total, counting Tengu Man 8 twice.I think it seems like fewer because many of the most successful participants, especially in the elimination tournaments, pick popular themes. A lot of more adventurous choices were eliminated early. It's a mixed blessing either way. Cerrax and Will did amazing things with the two most remixed RM themes in the series, which I would have thought were tapped out of potential. GRMRB 1 was my introduction to the amazing Tornado Man, and there's room for more. But I never want to hear another Spring Man mix as long as I live.

No, I think Wily won. Otherwise the robot masters would be battling each other by now.

Special shout-out to Gario for Rudy's Electronic Temptation. Easily my favorite piece of the album, and no mention of it so far in this thread.

Perhaps not technically dissonance, but when the two parts play together, they make some, to my ears, unpleasant harmonies. They probably technically aren't dissonant, but the unusual harmonies combined with the, frankly, obnoxious sample instrument made for a pretty unpleasant combination. They might have sounded smoother given prettier instruments, and the instruments might have sounded better if they were used in a more traditional combination, but as they were I couldn't go for it.That's be best I can do with the language I know. Perhaps someone with a more technical background can put better words to what I'm trying to say.

My comments: Magnus Divinicus Chiptunicus: Amazing production, and a very enjoyable piece. The combination of chiptunes with the background soundscape was excellent and memorable. My one gripe is that the Wily themes and Magnet Man were so dominant. I caught Schala's theme and a hint of Dust Man, but I'm not sure where Blizzard Man was. In any other round, that would probably have dropped a piece out of my top 3, but since everyone struggled with this, it gets a pass, and my #1 spot. Bubble Man's Requiem: Despite the unabashed dominance of Bubble Man's theme, this piece makes exemplary use of all 4 themes. It's like Wily Battle 10 and Bubble Man were the original pieces to be used, and Elec Man was used as a binding agent. Snake Man is a little forced, though--if you intend to submit this, it might be worth considering just taking it out. It's not bad, per se, and given that you had to use it, it's fine, but it's kind of unnecessary taken independently of the compo. On the other hand, once the production is cleaned up (the one thing keeping this out of my #1 slot), it might sound better. Amp: Q: What happens when a remixer who normally goes all over the place is asked to work with 4+ sources? A: Not a whole lot--this is clearly a pH piece, with all that means. However, a bit of schizophrenia is par for the course this time, so he's in his element, and this is perhaps his best submission of the compo. Good soundscape, solid use of all 5 themes, although Charge Man is in the forefront most of the time and Needle Man seems to be in the back seat. I'm not a fan of glitches, but there aren't many. Overall, a challenge accepted and met. Sweet Wet Nectar: Hornet Man and Splash Woman domimate, but all 4 themes can be clearly heard and work reasonably well together. I'm not a big fan of the synth samples used here, and that's probably the one thing that kept me from enjoying this more. Also a minor thing: the soundscape felt shallow and a bit busy; pulling something out to a lower register might have sounded better. In the Reading...: Classic Willrock, with the Air Man jams I've been waiting for this whole time, and the Rock of Halc, hard to go wrong. So why didn't I rank this higher? The opening and ending are pretty weak, IMHO, with an odd choice of instrumentation and some dissonance. It also suffers from a lack of coherence, with several awkward transitions. There's a lot about this piece that I liked, but it just didn't come together as a whole for me.

I don't know his reasons, but it's genius. Those are exactly the games I would have chosen (MM2 doesn't have a Wily Battle theme, and the >8bit themes do not impress me), and using 3 other sources instead of 1 makes up for the fact that they're short. Especially because there shouldn't be anyone having an "off week" this time, I'm really looking forward to this one.@Lucavi00: Not 5? That's possibly the best of all.

Since we're sharing opinions about soundtracks, I'll chime in. I actually really liked MM5 and 6. Gravity Man, Charge Man, Napalm Man, Stone Man, Plant Man, Blizzard Man, Knight Man, Centaur Man, Yamato Man, Tomahawk Man, and Flame Man are all personal favorites, not to mention Dark Man, Wily 5, the final battle in 5, and Mr. X. I never liked any of the themes done in more than 8 bits, except Shade Man and Slash Man, until they were done in these compos. I still don't care for 10, and 1 is hit-or-miss. But yeah, more love for MM4. There isn't a theme in there I don't like. I also wish The Wily Wars was a legal source, there's some amazing stuff there (despite being 16-bit). Edit: LOL, just realized I listed almost everyone from MM6. Poor Wind Man.

Great round! I have it down to my top 6, and out of 9 that's pretty darn good. Cutting 3 and ranking the others is going to take a lot of thought. Splash Damage: I have to say I'm really surprised to hear something so traditional from Brandon, nowhere near as adventurous as his earlier entries (not a good or a bad thing, just a thing). Overall, the arrangement is very nice--that it's pretty heavy on Splash Woman over Wily is my only complaint here--but to my ear there's an issue with balance. For instance, the woodwind sound at 0:17 takes a fraction of a second to build up to full volume, and the song is fast enough that this results in many of the notes being too quiet. Some of the guitar sounds seem like they're cut off just a couple of milliseconds too soon, too. I'd love to hear this one polished just a little bit more: great blending of the themes, good flow (abrupt ending, though), and all around pleasant. This could easily become my favorite Splash Woman take. Mega Breeze: Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of this style. It seems that Will has two modes in these compos: big, loud, and epic, or smooth and dreamy. I much prefer the former. Not much integration of the themes here, it's mainly Air->Wily. There's nothing bad here, but nothing wows me either. If the same arrangement had been done in the same style as Showdown or Air-Cossacks, I might feel much different about it--there's definitely some fun stuff going on on the Wily side. flames of youth: Smooth and dreamy again? The Dust Man intro is a little quiet up against the rest of the soundscape, but it's very nice. I wish there were more of it before Wily cut in. It really gets buried under the Wily riffing in the middle--great elements, just not put together as evenly as I'd like. Final Stand in the Castle: Oh, there's some sweet music here. The samples and production could use some improvement, and some of the notes seem off-key, but I enjoyed this anyway. That guitar solo is maybe just a little too nuts, but it's otherwise awesome. I'd really love to see this get some more love--another minute or two of length, a bit of cleaning up, and this would be gold. We Were Once Robots, Then We Took a Megaman To The Knee: This is a huge improvement over Zach's earlier work, really exciting and enjoyable. Really excellent integration of the themes. There are a few off-key moments, I'm not a huge fan of all the instrument choices and samples, and that ending is just sad, but there's a great arrangement here. Take this through WIP and I can see it ending up being fantastic. Disconnect: Hm, Belmont's singing seems a bit off-key here, which I wouldn't ordinarily mention for a singer but I know he usually does better on this front. Maybe my ears are just off today? Anyway, it's hard to appreciate this as a stand-alone piece when it's so similar to both of his earlier entries. It also doesn't help that We're The Robots is a really complex piece, and trying to mix that with Cold Man and a repeating song structure is a big challenge. Cold Man ends up with the short end of the stick, I barely hear it. If you plan on getting it posted, it might be better not even trying to include Cold Man. It's still good, but it's going to be very hard for me to rank it semi-objectively. Night Train to the Deep Jungle: Well... it's a lot better than Zero's first entry, I'll give it that. But Search Man's a bitch, I'm not sure how much even the best remixers would be able to do with it. With some better samples, a more liberal arrangement, and about 30 seconds less talking, the Wily part might actually be pretty good. Raging Reptile: With Serpent's Spiral coming out last week, the Snake Man-shaped void in my personal collection has been filled, but there's always room for more. This one has an interesting take on We're The Robots, but I'm not sure that bringing the two themes together worked very well. They mostly alternate until the very end, and it's a little forced there. Again, nothing objectionable here, but nothing that makes me sit up and take notice, either. Derailed at Wily Temple: Now this is adventurous. Schizophrenic, even. There are some Asian influences, but they're mixed in with a lot of other... stuff. I can't really give a good review here because it's so varied, I'd have to go segment by segment. I will say that several of the Charge Man parts are pretty similar to PH's earlier entries, but there's a lot of new takes on the theme, too. I know that's not very helpful, but this piece is so strange that I don't have any coherent thoughts about it.

I'm not totally sure what you mean by "inaccurate." If you mean basing my votes on anything other than the music, then no, I don't do that. That's one of the reasons I wrote reviews for a while, at least for my top 3, so that the reasons I picked them would be clear. The criteria I use may not be the same as others', but from the discussion we had before, it seems like few of us use the same criteria as anyone. And what one person enjoys, another will not, and enjoyability is a stated criterion for voting. I actually try really hard to be objective, and have voted for several pieces, like Liquid Metal and Riding the Avalanche, that I didn't even like, but I thought were technically good. If I voted for the artists of whom I'm a fan, then I'd be voting for Will, halc, Nutritious, prophetik, Akumajo, and Ben Briggs--just to mention the names I recognize off the top of my head--a lot more.

No, but I do have the memory of having to get past all those bazillion-hit-point pogo stick things, then having to make those perfect, niggly jumps while keeping the fire pillars frozen in just the right places, then running out of platform beam and having to climb up and down ladders to farm refills.But my thought was the same as DarkeSword's: The theme is simple and short, which means all you skilled remixers should be able to go to town with it, and use your robot masters to their best effect. It wouldn't be my top choice for remixing by itself, but added to another source could be great, probably better than the lengthy Wily themes from MM 7 and 8, which had a constraining effect IMO. I'm excited. In other news, some comments about my top 4 choices this week, partially in an effort to narrow it down to 3. Actually, I started with 6, but as I wrote, the top 4 became obvious; even though I enjoyed the others greatly, the technical quality wasn't as high, IMHO. Black Alleycat and Float: Very similar, smooth pieces. One more jazzy and the other more orchestral, but I have about the same feelings regarding both of them: excellent instrumentation and production, very professional. Excellent, seamless integration of the two sources. Black Alleycat is a bit repetitious, and Float has a bit too much "whitespace" for my taste, but both are par for their respective genres. Also I have a bias for exciting music, but I'm trying to not let that influence my vote. A Swarm of Voxels: Now this is exciting! It's adventurous in ways that sometimes work great, other times less so, but overall a lot of fun to listen to. The integration isn't quite as smooth as the above, feeling a bit more like alternating sources at times, but with two lengthy, complex sources, that's hard to avoid. A bit more length would have helped, IMHO, with some more time to play around with individual elements. WHICH ONE DO I SHOOT?!: Also exciting and fun, great treatment of Gemini Man, even though it uses some of the same "variants" used in earlier entries. Also, while the integration is more of the "alternating" variety, it's my favorite treatment of the Wily theme this week; most entries did it more "straight," but this is more arranged, and arranged well. If this loses my vote, it will be because of the glitchy stuff in the middle, especially the "chopped" aahs, of which I'm not a big fan.

I for one would really like to participate in this next year (time permitting)--I've seen the growth of others, and I'd really like a piece of that myself. Collaborating with someone who's actually half decent would be a great experience, but if only 6 teams or so are allowed to participate, I'll probably pass so that more good music can be produced. The GRMRB is also something I'd like to do, but what will happen is that I'll lose and be eliminated in the first round, and that's not as helpful as this format would be to me.

Just going to justify my top 3 this week: Red Chamomile: Best melodic integration of the two themes, IMHO. There's something slightly jarring about the drums, mainly in 0:03 to 0:18, but overall this felt like perhaps the most polished and planned piece this week. Air-Cossacks!: Definitely not Will's best work, but apparently his "shit" is still pretty good. Good use of both sources, decent integration, good variety. Villainous Revelry: A real challenge, integrating these two very different themes. The beat gets a little old, but the melody is pleasant and the production value is high.

I was envisioning a "There Can Be Only One" round, where each person has to make a mix using the themes of all three team members, no Wily theme. In other news: Nice job this week, everyone. There's an abundance of excellent mixes this week. Nothing that makes me jump up and go "whoa!", but very, very solid performances all around. Good production, great arrangements, excellent use of the source material. I'm having a very tough time voting. Too bad I don't really care for this Wily theme....

They're actually in the "Comments" section of the ID3 tag. Right-click on the song in the file list and select "Properties" or "Audio," or use the "File Properties" option in your music player.

Bah, I don't care what y'all say. It wasn't meant to be a put-down. They play Kenny G in elevators, and Kenny G's a badass. @chthonic: We just had this conversation. Nearly everyone who voiced an opinion said that they vote mainly or purely based on how much they enjoyed things, regardless of the compo guidelines.

You could just a easily call it soothing, or calming. There are negative connotations with every genre if you ask someone who doesn't care for it.