8-Bit Metal - feedback on 1st album content

[8-Bit Metal]

Hi everyone,

I have been recording and releasing songs under this 8-Bit Metal project for a while, and now that I've enough material to compile it, I'm going to release the songs as an album in a ZIP archive with cover and booklet in print-it-yourself form for those CD fans. I'd like general feedback on my work so far, as I feel I've closed a first step of "exploration", ie trying different things, and I've a few ideas on what worked the most and what didn't work so good, so I'm willing to see if people share that or if there are unexpected reactions.

Here's a list of the tracks and the game on which they're based. None of them are covers. I only did one, and it's Where All Things End (Doom Castle from FFMQ). It's been submitted to OCRemix, but the rest here is original work. Everything is available at my website (http://www.le-ludophile.com/melomania.htm) with lyrics, or on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/8bitmetal).

In the Year 200X (Megaman 2)

Thirteenth Zodiac (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Bloodlines (Castlevania)

Saving the World Barechested (Contra)

The Founding of Booty Bay (World of Warcraft)

Moon Sugar + The Devil and the Incarnate (Morrowind)

Behind the Mask + Beyond the Mask + Hatred Eternal (Final Fantasy IV)

Thanks for listening and I look forward to reading your feedback!

[Dash Myoku]

Thirteenth Zodiac, Bloodlines and Behind the Mask.

Those are the ones I tired to listen to. I must say, they're really good...up til the singing comes in. I wasn't expecting it with Thirteenth Zodiac and when it happened, I was like "BAAAAH WTF IS THIIIS!!!"

Ok, maybe I didn't say it like that, but still...it threw me off. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but 8-bit compositions + Singing don't sit well with me. But, if you're familiar with any sort of "Vocoder" plugin, you could mix your voice with the 8-bit so it fits better. Well, I'm not sure that it'd fit better, but that's what I'd try out before settling on my own voice to work with the 8-bit aspect of the tracks.

Again, really awesome compositions, I'm just ify on that singing.

[Ceps88]

Great stuff man keep up the good work!

[8-Bit Metal]

Great stuff man keep up the good work!

Thanks! I've listened to your stuff - very different, but I like it, very laid-back. However I have a silly question: what are you going to do when you write your 11th or 12th song? Name it "Asteroid 0A00A420" ? You're going to run out of planets!

maybe it's just me, but 8-bit compositions + Singing don't sit well with me. But, if you're familiar with any sort of "Vocoder" plugin, you could mix your voice with the 8-bit so it fits better.

Thanks! I did get a good bit of feedback like that, especially from fans of video game music / chiptunes / electronic or techno. On the other hand metal fans don't seem to mind. So I guess it's whether you think of my music as "8-Bit music with some metal thrown in" or "Metal music with some 8-bit sounds thrown in". Now of course I'm not a pro singer so the performance itself probably doesn't help my cause.

I think my best work with the vocals so far is "In the Year 200X". Actually, I think it's the best song to listen to first to get the gist of what I do. Mmmh. I'm going to shuffle around the Myspace player list. Since a lot of people have told me that maybe it'd sound better with modulated/computerized/robotic vocals, I'm going to try it in a future song. I just have to find a good game to make use of that context.