The Vodoú Queen

Hey, kinda wanted to jump into this conversation because it seems interesting and I think I can add my own '2 cents' to it. I just started 'producing' music around early Sept 2020, and I can agree and feel a lot of what all of you are saying, even if I am new to this. I've noticed, between what I've submitted to MnP Compos and a music mix songwriting challenge this past December that, although I do try to branch out and 'conquer' different genres of music, be it New Age (the theme of the songwriting challenge), Synthwave, Hardcore, Techno, Rock--what have you--I always get the same commentary across the board, no matter what other constructive critiques or positives / negatives people perceive of my work: "You have a good / wonderful / cool / etc concept / understanding of drumwork and percussion and beat, and it sounds LO-FI / HIP-HOP"--which may or may not work with the theme or overall piece of the compo (as it seemed to have not with the song I submitted for the songwriting challenge). And I have a weird...duality with that and a slight negative complex now, and unsure what to do with it or how to deal with it. Like, in all honesty, I am proud that at the very least, even if my melody or harmonics is a bit off or dissonant (which I guess comes with the terf of being a newbie, something is going to be off with what you produce until you get the professional ear for it. Maybe any Jo-Shmo wouldn't know, but your peers will know where and how you fucked up, plus or minus their own bias and nuance when it comes to music tastes.) At the very least, I seem to understand beat and rythym enough to not have a complete dumpster fire on my hands. But it's kind of giving me a stigma that everything I do, no matter the genre, is going to have the same lo-fi / hip-hop-style foundation to it. I mean, is that a thing of growing into one's own style and I guess...trademark stamp of what makes their work, THEIR WORK, or...is that a detrimental fault to the learning process? It's a real bi-fold quandry. For example, I've listened to everybody's posted work on here (great stuff BTW), and even if they're described under different genre headings, I CAN hear a fundamental line of style that makes its impression on all your work, be it a string instrument you use a lot, or an orchestral undertone, or even the beat-work. And then I thought about it further, and juxtaposed that stance with multiple songs I hear across multiple singers / bands. . . I think we all have our own stamp to our music, that is fomulated over the course of us playing around and learning and even from our individual backgrounds. Like...I think WHY my music keeps coming out with heavy, snazzy beats as such is because I heavily grew up listening to African-American music, because I am Black. Literally since a baby I grew up listening to stuff like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, every Motown-song under the sun, and in later years, stuff like Lauryn Hill, The Fugees, Black Eyed Peas, etc. That's not to say I didn't listen to other genres. My Dad and Mom would play stuff like the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Dr Dre, Black Sabbath, and in my teens - early 20s I listened to a lot of different heavy metal and rock n' roll and electronica music, from Disturbed to Staind to The Prodigy to H.I.M. ...It's a conglomerate of all kinds of stuff, inclusive of VGMs and RMs. But almost a good chunk of all of that has the one foundational aspect: they all do heavy bassline and drumkit. Now pair that with the fact my father used to play and practice drumming in the house on a professional level. He never got into a band or anything, but the man knew his shit and even had different sticks and percussion kits, even if it was a hobby. So it's ingrained into my skull so much that even if I can shift in producing different genres of music, it's all gonna come out with similar bass & drum works. Now, is that going to be a detriment or problem in the long run? I don't really know. Is it the growth of my own style? Maybe? Hell, I am just as bamboozled as the rest of you on that stance. But I agree with Thunder and Bloo: I think in the long run, it's about building experience and making the WHOLE of a song as awesome as possible, not necessarily it's individual parts. If you're good at something already and that's your artistic stamp, let it be your artistic stamp. No one can take that away from you. It can only grow and blossom as you conquer different genres and make it your own. I've noticed every professional artist has this bent, whether it's a sample they use over and over across their songs (e.g. Snoop Dogg), or the beat (e.g. Savant), or even how they sing (e.g. Mariah Carey). P.S.: Sorry if this is a huge post, was in the middle of a thought-flow when I typed this up ROFL.

NP, I'll color inside the lines, just the colors might be hot magenta pinks and blues. >_>

I agree with AP, but I'm gonna try my best. Is 130bpm OK? It's not as fast as I'd like it (160bpm), but might be able to do some weird Sonic / Nightcore hybrid for the song.

Ya know, that might be an interesting angle to take Magical Dreamers.... >_> Especially if my first idea falls through. Happy Hardcore. Would have to watch my tempo tho so not to break the rules.

I'll hit ya up then on that offer. I'm mixed between putting any in this time around, but I'm happy to grab some free mp3 or wav vox if you got em, for future use. Bandlab's are fun and all but admittedly some are just plain bad and most are only good for rave or techno or nightcore type stuff cause it's kind of high pitched, chipmunk squeak. Works sometimes, but agreeably, need to broaden my palette.

@Dextastic Would be an interesting challenge to see if you don't fall into doing electric guitars for the main parts like the song leads / encourages to use. Just like apparently I shouldn't fall to using vocals / vox every time / every song.

Ah, found the midi on the site... Sad thing is, as much as I love this song and every other song from the Chrono series, I'm unsure if I'll be able to pull anything off with this on Bandlab Online. It's probably the most complex midi I've worked with... Possibly too complex for my novice self. Not quite sure what to do with it. :/ Outside of limited instrumentals from the midi side I'm almost always working with loops, and outside of extremely simplistic samples, I'm stuck.

Good round

Vote's in. Hope it made it, (said it did). I saved a Notepad file of it just in case.

I'll make my vote tonight. ...still tired and pooped from all the cooking I did for Xmas dinner. XD

Heya! I'll let this be my first time joining in on the PRC fun. Think I'll stick to VG remixes, but put a unique spin on whatever themes / sources I use. Will be my first time conglomerating songs together across a series of games to make 1 song. Hope it works out. >_<

I mean, I love the entire SoulBlazer trilogy and played all the games (even though my first and favourite by rose-tinted shades is Illusion of Gaia.) I like the Tears of Lance (Sad Theme) from Gaia, and always thought the Terra theme from Terranigma was jazzy. As well as Angkor Wat being oddly one of my favourite place themes out of the trilogy. So I wouldn't mind a round dedicated to the three games.

Welp, that's mine in, in a few minutes. @Souperion & @HoboKaThank you, so much, for the opportunity to remix this song. It truly is beautiful. Never noticed it when I did play Secret of Mana. I'm glad I got to notice it now. ♥

@APZX Congrats getting yours in.

Meanwhile I'm still trying to figure out what to do for 2 different songs due basically back to back, this and one for a songwriter contest. Feels so intimidating, again, lol. (In a good way--gotta step up the game.)

Well, here's three hearts: ♥♥♥, to along with those cookies, for VG, Soup and Hobo. Anyone else can have some hearts too, IDM. @HoboKaIt's all cool. :3 @SouperionDon't worry about it. But thank you for understanding the sentiment. Nothing like a good paradigm shattering to get one's butt into gear, though. Look where it's got you now! It's not at all conceited. Like I said before, everyone deserves what they got and everyone deserves a big round of applause for some excellent stuff. ...Now I am just itching to start on the new MnP. >.> You picked a good one, even if sadly I never finished Secret of Mana, haha.

Hey. No, you didn't insult me. I took a step back and re-analyzed what you said. I am soaking in everything, trust me. It just sounds like I'm a bit hot and annoyed, but am seeking to learn and listen, and sometimes I sound rough and angry at that person giving the commentary due to it. If anything, I'm being tough and annoyed at myself, not you. *Big hugs* It's cool, we're all awkward af. It's why we be here congregating and all. I understand where you're coming from and listening. I take all of this in good faith. Thanks again taking the time out to clarify to the max like you did. ♥ I very much appreciate your 2 cents. It's more like a dollar-fifty for me. xD

I understand. I figured it was mainly about the length, and I agree. I had some reservation about its length in making it, but figured I'd try and see where it went. But thank you for your kind words. I'll see what I can do next time to curb the enthusiasm on the length, (so far a lot of what I've made is too long, for what it's worth.) But understandable. Thanks for clarifying.

Whoa, OK, I think one of us got off on the wrong foot. I am unsure what you're trying to say here. I had nothing against his stylistic choice, and--for that matter--love Mick Gordon's work with Doom (which is obviously where the inspiration came from). We all came from some stylistic choice that requries some form of discipline or know-how to achieve, so trying to say "only real musicians and music aficionados will probably understand" is a bit of an umbrella misnomer that is sounding, sorry...a bit borderline pretentious? As someone coming from art and writing, that's almost equivalent of trying to defend, let's say, a piece of abstract art and saying "only we of [insert field here] would truly understand," and that's a bit much when all I said was it came out muddy. And I am unsure how you're trying to direct that towards me or anyone else coming into this. I am not taking this as a personal attack, I was seeking guidance and further clarification to some of the comments. That's all. I don't know you either, but it's a bit much to come at that angle. I asked what was the difference, I neither said Nick did not deserve it nor did I categorise it as "unwanted background noise." And I don't know who you're referring to as the 'random general consumer' in this, on a thread, in a forum, dedicated, as you said, for "video game nerds and music nerds to come together," but now it is sounding like something it probably shouldn't. :/ I hope I am not misreading you. OK I misread you a little bit, and for that I apologize.

BTW I didn't rip the midi. I literally had to input each note and adjust its length manually, with a mouse, and no keyboard. I looked at a piano reel on YT to get the 3-4 track basis of the song, and doubled it for more instrumentation. I struggled like hell to get the midi to function with everyone else but people heard the slight drag (with the sax especially), regardless. I tried to take that weakness and turn it into a strength to make it feel like an almost realistic jazzy sax playing over the rest of the song but...I guess not. Oh well I tried. xD Also I am unsure what was meant by the percussion / beat overshadowing anything. I did not get that sense of it, but it might just be me.

Hm... Maybe it's a good time to ask the question, since part of my perplexity since yesterday followed some of the comments I received on my work. ...Where exactly did I go wrong? Sorry, I am not trying to offend in saying this, but I see most peeps praising Nick's work for near the exact reason why mine was downplayed and frowned on some. The "it's way out there and wack", "non-conservative" approach, but mine fell short by comparison and I am at odds in trying to rake my brain and track to see why. I agree with Hobo's assessment about the discordant sound from 5:00, but am unsure how or why mine was somehow so out there that people did not even recognize the song until much later than expected (the opening bass for Red Soil Brinstar starts about 1:00-1:30). Like no offense to Nick's work, I found it muddy coming out of my speakers too, and I almost did not recognize his source either. Perhaps it's a difference in tastes at this point. ^^; And to answer someone who asked the question, no, the song wasn't a full medley. Yes, it was a full (albeit, I suppose, sorry), lengthy song, and the only bit of it that people seemed to deem it as something different entirely is the mid-section, where I took a dive into the Green Brinstar chords in trying to add a bit of spice to the track. ...Seemed that failed, however, seeing as half the people hated the vocal chops and there's an air that somehow I did and didn't go full-monty with the lo-fi sound (which also confuses me). ...I'd just like a bit of clarification as to how what Nick and I essentially did panned out for one but not the other, so I know where I went wrong and how to improve. ...Where people returned to his and enjoyed it more but seemingly, frankly, just got tired / exhausted with mine. I hope this didn't come off and sound offensive or angry. I'm disappointed, but neither of those, lol.

Omg can you imagine? ...I'd been frustrated as hell in my younger days, haha.

This is fantastic and love the remixed SNES-style songs (wish there were a few for Zoda's Revenge as well)! Really wish the game had more love than it had gotten and went on to have successful sequels from there on out. (Would've been fun to maybe control Micha or to be able to switch characters in a Secret of Mana / Illusion of Gaia-style, or something in later installments!) Brings back great childhood memories. Thanks for the share! I'll keep it in mind next time I peruse BandCamp for sure.

A big GJ to those who won; congrats to everyone who participated. Still open for more in-depth critique if anyone wants it. Sorry for the late / small response. A bit in the perplexed range today, lol.

My votes are in. I did comment on my choices from 1st to 3rd in a generalized, overall way, but if further, deeper analysis / critique is needed or wanted by the artist, I can post them here after a re-listen or two. ♥