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Retro Remix Revue (New Album Coming Soon)


gamermcchester
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I mentioned this in another thread but conversation meandered off-topic very quickly... Just wanted to know if anyone had seen or heard about this yet?

http://www.n4g.com/industrynews/News-184393.aspx

I'm curious to see what other tracks they are going to have on the album.

UPDATE: The Retro Remix Revue album is out now. It sounds great. I got it off iTunes but you can also get it off Amazon...

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Remix Title: Unknown

Original Song: Chemical Plant Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Genesis)

Sound Quality was questionable... synths were not varied, which was a big minus considering how closely to the original most of it sounded. If the instruments were indeed played live, it was not done to great effect: it's as if the musicians were attempting to emulate the sequenced feel of the original, and it ironically did not sound played by humans at all. The solo section, the only part of the piece notably distinct from the original, was very short lived. I would mix every part louder in order to give it more kick, and really try to rock out with the piece rather than keeping it so tame.

NO

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Not much arrangement from the originals, but it's not bad.

I think most people, or anyone not on OCR wants to keep it close to the source material - actually that's the main offense to people against this site, is because we take the source and fuck with it too much - I think a higher number of people would rather just hear good covers than OC Remixes.

I don't know if I'd pay for this though :V I'd rather buy THIS instead, because Hunz fucking rules.

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Remix Title: Unknown

Original Song: Chemical Plant Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Genesis)

Sound Quality was questionable... synths were not varied, which was a big minus considering how closely to the original most of it sounded. If the instruments were indeed played live, it was not done to great effect: it's as if the musicians were attempting to emulate the sequenced feel of the original, and it ironically did not sound played by humans at all. The solo section, the only part of the piece notably distinct from the original, was very short lived. I would mix every part louder in order to give it more kick, and really try to rock out with the piece rather than keeping it so tame.

NO

I'm pretty sure those are all like 30 second sample clips from longer tracks... except the mario world track, which seems to be the full thing... so as far as the solo in chemical plant zone being "too short" and not "varied" enough in the synths, you're only hearing a fraction of that track; very hard to judge both those things off that small of a clip.

If you want it louder, turn your speakers up, and remember, streaming audio clips off of websites are very compressed... shouldn't be a problem when the album comes out.

And I have to agree with OverCoat on the fact that too much alteration of the original source isn't always good; i'm happy to hear the tracks more as they were intended to sound instead of another fruity loops beat with me saying "i think i recognize the melody to that song." breath of fresh air if you ask me.

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Remix Title: Unknown

Original Song: Chemical Plant Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Genesis)

Sound Quality was questionable... synths were not varied, which was a big minus considering how closely to the original most of it sounded. If the instruments were indeed played live, it was not done to great effect: it's as if the musicians were attempting to emulate the sequenced feel of the original, and it ironically did not sound played by humans at all. The solo section, the only part of the piece notably distinct from the original, was very short lived. I would mix every part louder in order to give it more kick, and really try to rock out with the piece rather than keeping it so tame.

NO

Well I guess while we're in judge impersonation mode...

:roll:

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If this gets uploaded at gamemp3s.net it would somehow justify a download. Especially since I can bet my right testicle they've downloaded quite a few OSTs illegally themselves even though they've only remixed tracks that are avaliable in chiptune format. :)

but yeah, quite talanted guys but leaving out most things I love about VGM arrangements. Some of the solos are fantastic, no doubt.

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Somehow justify you stealing it?

And Pezman, a judgefgt review after hearing a sample?

You guys disappoint me :(

This is really good stuff. Give it another listen.

gamermcchester, change the title to have "Retro Remix Revue" and not something so generic!

When the previous thread mentioned this site, I wanted to find out what was going on pretty quickly. Turns out the producer of the project called me and we've been talking a lot about the project since then. I'm totally behind this and am not ashamed to admit I wish I could have made some of this stuff myself or that I wish my band sounded this good.

Give it a chance! OCR isn't the only thing out there and it doesn't have to be the only thing you like you know...

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Somehow justify you stealing it?
Wasn't too hot on the Chemical Plant clip, but the Mario World and Street Fighter clips sounded great. Yeah, I dunno why people are getting so down on this. There should be a place for more coverish stuff like this. I even thought the Mario World clip had some sizable additions.

I'm not against the music per say, I just don't like people charging for what other people composed. We don't what VGM turning into the pop-industry, do we? Though in the pop-industry the composer actually gets paid :/ That's why a free download would justify getting it. Stealing it if it's licensed, not so much. Though this is my highly personal view on morale so don't go through the roof about it, these guys are fantastic instrumentalists and if people are willing to pay for it, good for them! But IMHO you can find arrangements that are both more interesting and around the same quality for free at OCR.

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I was planning to post myself but was too busy adding the album to VGMdb: http://vgmdb.net/album/10191

I'm not trying to be holier than thou, but I just hope everything is licensed. Nothing really justifies stealing the album, but if it was licensed, I could see a handful of people deciding to plunk down the cash to do the right thing and formally support it. Nonetheless, lack of licensing hasn't stopped a lot of people from releasing pay albums, and most companies (if not all) and composers haven't felt compelled to take legal action over something that doesn't cut into their bottom line. (It may even help it, due to conjuring up good feelings about their companies, games and music, but that's mere speculation.)

I thought the samples sounded pretty good. Pez, you're smoking something good if this is inhuman-sounding. This didn't have to be the second coming; these were some fine covers. I also don't see what's inherently wrong about doing covers, and I'm the biggest proponent of interpretive game arrangements besides djp. They're not just playing the stuff like robots, they had to learn the parts and perform everything cohesively. Besides, there's definitely some good soloing/new part-writing in the Super Mario World piece to add some more personal flair to the arrangement, so I'm sure that's the case for most of these.

Jeez. :lol:

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I'm not against the music per say, I just don't like people charging for what other people composed. We don't what VGM turning into the pop-industry, do we? Though in the pop-industry the composer actually gets paid :/ That's why a free download would justify getting it. Though this is my highly personal view on morale so don't go through the roof about it, these guys are fantastic instrumentalists and if people are willing to pay for it, good for them! But IMHO you can find arrangements that are both more interesting and around the same quality for free at OCR.

Haha, maybe this is me showing my naivete, but I figured it would be licensed. Yeah, I definitely wouldn't pay for something that wasn't. But assuming it is licensed... I got no problems with people charging for stuff. Sure, this site among others has plenty of free arrangements at the same levels of quality (or higher), but if people want to pay for their arrangements, more power to them.

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Haha, maybe this is me showing my naivete, but I figured it would be licensed. Yeah, I definitely wouldn't pay for something that wasn't. But assuming it is licensed... I got no problems with people charging for stuff. Sure, this site among others has plenty of free arrangements at the same levels of quality (or higher), but if people want to pay for their arrangements, more power to them.

Yeah I figured they were unlicensed and that kinda goes against what I believe. It was mostly that. As I said, these are fenomenal covers.

"Calm down now Anso, they ain't hurtin' nobody." :3

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Some of you are being too picky, no offense. This stuff sounds fucking awesome. Excellent quality. I enjoyed most of the samples there, and hopefully the full versions are just as good as the Mario World one. Count me in!

"If it's not an arrangement, then it sucks" and "if it's not free, then it sucks" are pretty close-minded philosophies. If Video Games Live Vol. 1 album is any indication, then fans are willing to pay for good-sounding video game music. It's more of a reason to spread the love. Ironically, free stuff do have their limitations as well.

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Not all of these are "covers" as many of you seem to think. Unless a recording is note-for-note identical to the original, it would be considered an arrangement, not a cover. From what I could hear, most of the samples expanded a lot of the melodic content that existed in their original counterparts, thus, making them arrangements. Conservative arrangements? Sure. But they are arrangements, nevertheless.

Furthermore, it's pretty sad that OCR wouldn't accept quality material such as this because the arrangement is too close to the source. Being a matter of personal taste: conservative, in the middle, and liberal arrangements can all be enjoyed. It'd be awesome to see a website put together that accepts great arrangements regardless of their relation to the source.

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Furthermore, it's pretty sad that OCR wouldn't accept quality material such as this because the arrangement is too close to the source.

We've been through this before on the forums. There's nothing wrong with OCR's purpose and mission of interpretive arrangements. The only reason some people feel it should broaden its scope is because it's the most visible/downloaded community of fan musicians, which creates some sort of obligation to spotlight any appealing arrangements. That would be a bad reason to abandon its mission. OCR's popularity is strong because it just features interpretive arrangements and not covers/conservative arrangements.

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I agree that OCR should not change its policies, etc. But I think the biggest problem, and I think this might be what Morse was also trying to express, is that it's sad that a lot of people who come here tend to think that the OCR site standards are the end-all standards and practices. It's frustrating when I know for a fact that the important people on this site like djpretzel, zircon, Liontamer and others can and do enjoy arrangements outside of this site's standards.

It's nothing against the site (at least for me anyway). It's about people having closed minds. :(

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I agree that OCR should not change its policies, etc. But I think the biggest problem, and I think this might be what Morse was also trying to express, is that it's sad that a lot of people who come here tend to think that the OCR site standards are the end-all standards and practices. It's frustrating when I know for a fact that the important people on this site like djpretzel, zircon, Liontamer and others can and do enjoy arrangements outside of this site's standards.

It's nothing against the site (at least for me anyway). It's about people having closed minds. :(

Absolutely, it's about close-mindedness. Dave stresses we're not the be-all-end-all approach to VGM arrangement; interpretation is our way--one way--of tributing the music. So to see others crap on this album for being cover-ish seems pointless, when that was the intent of the artists. They wanted to play it fairly straight and then throw in some embellishments to sweeten the deal, and this is how they pay tribute. There's nothing wrong with this approach at all. Hell, I want that Gambit cover on my project! :lol: I oughta holler at them.

OCR is really large within the VGM arrangement community, and obviously I think that's great. But who knows how the general public feels in the cover vs. interpretive debate. In terms of what would appeal more to the general public, conservative approaches may be more popular, but then again interpretive stuff wins a lot of people over as long as the source tune is paramount. I'd actually love to know more about what casual fans prefer.

Mustin (Joe Cam too, if he's reading), you ever holler at Colin Sanders? One of his bands, Over the Map, had a great cover/conservative version of some Mother 3 tracks. It was too close to the style of their source track from the Mother 3i arrange album, so we had to reject it, but the song itself was pretty cool. They reminded me of The OneUps a little. Tell him I sent you his way if you message him.

Too many over-remixed tunes, not enough under-represented songs.

Ten of the twelve remixes are songs that have been done lots of times. The only two that stood out were the Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge and the Mari Paint ones.

I know they're popular and all, but come on, show some variety.

Well, that's certainly a compelling reason for you yourself not to be interested; I can't take that away from you. But in a vacuum, which is how a lot of casual fans will encounter this album if they promote it right, the variety is there and this is a nice spread of several top games.

Sure, if they had a more eclectic tracklist, it might grab your attention, but the fact of the matter is that they're trying to sell this and Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog sell more than Elevator Action and Journey to Silius.

Don't hate that player, hate the game.

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Too many over-remixed tunes, not enough under-represented songs.

Ten of the twelve remixes are songs that have been done lots of times. The only two that stood out were the Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge and the Mari Paint ones.

I know they're popular and all, but come on, show some variety.

Both Dr. Mario tracks and Rainbow Road have been done "lots of times"?

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