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OCR01672 - F-Zero "The Freedom of Zero"


djpretzel
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Great conceptual mix. I love it. The vocal pitch bending worked beautifully, and your girlfriend has an awesome intercom voice. (Add that one to the resume.) The Barenaked Ladies white guy rap was wicked awesome as well. Overall a really chill mix, great work all 'round. Win.

Black power!

I'm as white as rice on a paper plate with a glass of milk in a snowstorm. Stupid peer pressure.

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You know, I was really going for a 311 vibe. However, I've heard this mix compared to Sublime (great thing), Star Salzman (great thing) and now, thanks to Dave's writeup, the world leans towards a comparison with the Barenaked Ladies. The more I listen, the more I hear it so I'm not gonna knock it at all...as long as I can get in tune with Sailor Moon cuz' that cartoon has got the BOOM anime babes, that make me think the wrong thing ;-)

I'm as white as rice on a paper plate with a glass of milk in a snowstorm. Stupid peer pressure.
No worries mate. I hereby grant anyone who quotes Damon Wayans in casual conversation the much envied privilege of of using the exclamation:

Black Power!

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This is a really great mix, ranking among my favorites on the site. I'm always amazed at how universally musical and enjoyable all your tracks are, Harmony, especially considering your modest selection of tools - I've heard a lot of "expensive" sounding remixes of some of these F-Zero themes, but your interpretation tops 'em. My favorite elements of the mix are the vocal parts, predictably, though the instrumental fits it perfectly.

My only criticism is that the velocities of the snare 'fill' between beats 2 and 4 could have been slightly reduced so they're not as emphasized as those primary hits, and your own vocals could have been brought up a little bit in the mix. But these are really minor and subjective, and don't detract from the greatness of the mix.

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haha, this is fantastic. There's so much style injected into this. If I haven't ever mentioned it around here before, I know I keep telling myself this over and over, but Dragon Song is one of my favorite mixes on this site. Since discovering it, I've been awaiting a new Harmony track. I've also been awaiting a new vocal track. Two birds, one stone. Bam. This track is sweet.

EDIT: oooh, I just read your post where you mention that you were going for a "311 vibe". That's awesome! I'm a huuuuge fan of 311, so it's no wonder that I dig this track so much.

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I implied the reference specifically as being made to a sampled guitar, when it wasn't sampled. Just like how e-penis refers to your fake penis.

Black power!

sort of like how Larry is an e-judge? *zing*

but as to pertaining to the mix in question, the beginning had me a bit iffy, but then right at 00:39 it grabbed my attention and made me want to listen onward.

k i'm already well over my post count for the year, here's to 2009!!

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It's just too cheesy. The voice isn't bad and the arrangement is kind of interesting, but the lyrics are like I'm listening to some sort of F-Zero musical - and not in a good way.

EDIT: I'm sorry for being an asshole about this. And besides me being mean, I was full of shit - this is actually good stuff.

Edited by oakthielbar
I was an asshole
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The instrumentation, singing, and quality are all very good. I think old-school F-Zero fans will have the best understanding of this remix. Otherwise, I don't think that I would've enjoyed the transition into the mute city and "race finish" themes as much, but I thought it was really cool. Very unique mix and may take a few listens before you really appreciate it.

It's a little bit over-the-top, especially with the female attendant/announcer character, but that may be icing on the cake for a lot of listeners.

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Brandon makes awesome music. This was a favorite from the first time I heard it. Some particular highlights are:

-The announcer--totally awesome non-melodic vocal inclusion, and the performance is spot on!

-drums (snare in paricular) adds a quirky and fun vibe - song really has a personality of it's own built upon a great groove

-The general direction of the track - the mix makes me feel like I'm having the time of my life at a theme park or something.

-The vocal slide. I'm totally going to rip that off at some point in the future :D

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Sometimes I wish the creativity shown in your songs were more spread out, Brandon, so that we could have more mixes from you! But instead, we have to settle for a few incredible songs bursting with ideas. This one has so many memorable moments and a very loose, relaxing vibe. I love songs like this that morph through different styles so effortlessly. My only complaint is that sometimes the parts (some of the vocals near the end) are hard to hear, but it only irks because the parts are so good. This song still kicks serious ass.

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I really love the source tunes used, so I was expecting a lot from the mix, and I wasn't let down. The arrangement of the tracks is good, as are your vocals, but what really makes this mix special to me is the announcer. This gives the ReMix a very unique feel and is simply a brilliant idea.

The only gripe I have is that your voice is drowned a little in the part from 1:36 on; it should be standing out more.

Great ideas, great work.

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  • 1 month later...

Pros and cons...

Music was nice and mellow... until the lyrics started.

Don't take this personally? I just, ME MYSELF, do not like to hear lyrics on tracks that were meant to be lyric-less. It ruins a piece when something that isn't supposed to be there is forced on there by aspiring artists that think they're embellishing something with their own lyrics that don't even appear in the game. And on top of that, I DIDN'T like the pitch bends in the vocals. Can't people sing without the need for electrical enhancements? SOMETIMES it's cool, but like, I thought that was too much, even for lyrics. :tomatoface::tomatoface:

Other than that, I liked to hear all the different variations of musical styles. Different instruments, esp. the jazz tremolo organ. My favorite part starts at about 2:05 when it kinda goes into rae-gae/ska and I hear a familiar melody. Mute City is one of my all-time favorite F-Zero tracks. Always brings back memories of playing my SNES after school. The back-ground voices are actually a nice addition. It was a SEXY voice. Mmm hm. 3:27 has a nice relaxing feel to it. Again, could do without the vocals. If there were less vocals, and the cool parts would be longer I'd like this piece more.:<:<

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I just, ME MYSELF, do not like to hear lyrics on tracks that were meant to be lyric-less

....

The back-ground voices are actually a nice addition.

Thanks for the comments KogeJoe, but don’t you think it’s kind of weird to throw out a blanket statement about not liking when things are added to a song that weren’t in the original when you’re on a remix site!? If remixers only used what was in the original song, then we would all do super-conservative covers (a.k.a exact copies) and this would be a very boring place. I find it even stranger that just about every time someone has given me a comment about never liking lyrics in songs, they qualify it with “but I liked your lyrics” or “I thought these lyrics were a cool addition.” What’s up with that?

In any case, I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to help a number of people re-examine their preconceptions about lyrics in songs (even if they don't know or admit as much). Hopefully, future remixers will hear a few less “I hate lyrics in remixes” comments as a result. In fact, tearing down all musical preconceptions is one of my favorite contributions of OCR to society at large. Gotta love this place :)

OverClocked ReMix -- Obliterating “I hate [blah] in music” comments since 1999.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Curiously enough, I'm not 100% fond of lyrics in my remixes either, depending on the original source. But that's mostly because I'm a nit-picky bastard who changes his preferences in music like normal people change their socks. XD

All in all, I've got to say that although the lyrics felt a little superfluous to me, I will certainly concede that you did a positively kickass job with the lyrics, regardless of how I feel about them as a part of the song. Your girlfriend also provided the voice of the shuttle announcer very convincingly, so additional props are in order there.

Overall, this was an unexpected, but pleasantly so, direction for an F-Zero mix, and adding the fact that it was a medley makes it even better.

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I thought this was great. The vocals blended in rather well with the song and the announcer saying where they where going was a good idea, in my oppion. It made it more of like you where either on the track racing or going on a monorail to the race itself. It got the song into the mode and blended the multipule tracks rather well. This is one of my favorites of this game, and up there as one of my top favorites over all.

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