OCR01916 - *YES* Mega Man X 'Braincooler'

[Liontamer]

id 21613 Rozovian

Name of game(s) arranged? Mega Man X

Name of individual song(s) arranged? mmx-11 Chill Penguin

I call it... Braincooler.

It was originally planned to be something of a three track medley, which is why the name is alluding to Brainsick Metal. But... no. It just didn't want to go that way.

I've recently started trying to keep the number of tracks to a minimum, which is the same approach I had with Beyond Velocity and it seemed to work out well. Here I had to route my 7 midi tracks (and two tracks with audio loops) to a myriad of buses and auxes. That, plus the dozens of automation tracks made it a bit scary to work on towards the end.

I suppose I've found my style. Or a style, at least. Like EYOD, this is a bass-based track with long bends, long break-downs, key change... and eggshaker. Didn't expect the eggshaker to become such a success, but I don't mind. And here it is again.

It wouldn't have taken this long or turned out this good without the help of the WIP board, the #ocrwip channel, and the Judges that I turned to during the making of this.

Enjoy.

-rozo

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http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=mmx - "Chill Penguin Stage" (mmx-11.spc)

The beatwork was a bit plodding & underwhelming, IMO; I felt like there needed to be more movement to the piece. The mixing could have made the elements sharper and better separated. But this was still reasonably well put together.

The interpretation was conservative with the melodic structure while giving it a nice new mood, even if I thought the key change at 3:37 was weak. The last section did a good job messing with the melody a bit while retaining the source's rhythms.

I would have done some things differently, but this still has a lot clicking here, so I'm totally down. Not a tough call.

YES

EDIT (7/8): Whoops, forgot we had a revised version submitted since this version. No major changes, just minor modifications to some of the instrumentation and louder overall levels.

[Palpable]

Pretty easy YES. The opening beats did seem a little weird for some reason, but after a while it hit a groove. This is Rozovian's best production I've heard thus far, with the soundscape pretty clear and the sample quality pretty high. I liked the lead synth work a lot. Wouldn't have minded an extra element or two at times to complement it, but this had a lot of cool stuff going on, both ambient and in-your-face. Let's see some variation on your style next time, dude.

YES

[anosou]

I would have done some things d-d-d-d-d-d-d-differently-frently-ently-tly

Production was clean and crips but I thought it downplayed the melodies in favor of the quite bland beatwork. The synths are a bit thin but mostly from mixing I think, wouldn't hurt to have brought them more up front. Arrangement was still solid with a personal take on the source. Some decent expansion of the melody during the later part of the song but the new mood and backing kept it from feeling too conservative. Key change was a bit sudden for my taste though.

Overall it's a solid track that could've been just a little more refined but nothing's really holding it back. Keep up the good work!

YES

[OceansAndrew]

I agree that the first half was lacking a bit of excitement, but by the second half, there was a lot of cool ideas moving around. The bass overall was pretty cool, i loved the huge drops that were frequently used. The beat was really boring as it built up, but as more and more melodic elements started interacting, it became more driving and worked a lot better.

I thought the keychange was a little weak, but it worked; i just wish there was a larger build, or a melodic lead in to it. It seemed a bit abrupt as is.

Production was nice; good balance, clean and clear, and good textures. I've got no complaints here.

So despite what I thought was an average beginning, it really did pick up into something both creative and cool.

yes