OCR02155 - *YES* Mega Man 9 'Daft Drafts'

[Palpable]

GAME: Mega Man 9, Megaman & Bass

ARTIST: zircon

SOURCE: Mega Man 9 - Thunder Tornado (

), Megaman & Bass - Cold Man (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIsKKrMVlHM)

REMIX NAME: Daft Drafts

LYRICS:

"Hurricane, tornado

We got a cold weather front coming in, yeah

This winter spell, I will end sooner

Because my wind don't ever stop

Don't ever stop"

This was my second round entry in the first Grand Robot Master Remix Battle competition, run by Darkesword. I really had a blast with this contest and went out of my way to try different styles for each round. My robot master theme was Tornado Man, so in the second round, where my opponent was Cold Man, I had to mix both themes together. I decided to do a very smooth, 70s-style remix inspired by Daft Punk and Joshua Morse (again!) but only after tons of failed attempts at transcribing the Cold Man theme, which is actually really complex.

I'm really proud of this remix in particular, since the chord progression was very difficult to smooth out, but I think the end result mixes the two themes seamlessly. I also spent quite a bit of time playing in live parts, particularly the synth solos, bassline, percussion breakdown and of course, the vocals. Please note this is probably the only time you'll ever hear me sing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

, Cold Man

It's Andy, so first-class production and arrangement are expected and that's definitely true here. This is catchy, jazzy, funky, beaty, smooth, and other adjectives - very easy song to like. The sticky wicket comes down to source usage which runs a little low before counting the chords. By my tally:

0:07-0:23

0:31-0:36

0:38-1:10

1:49-1:54

1:56-2:28

That's barely under 50%, but with chord usage it's well past that. With such a distinctive chord progression, even though slightly modified, I have no problem counting that stuff.

YES

[zircon]

Y'all doubting me! Here's the breakdown.

REMIX - SOURCE

0:07-0:23 = 0:32-0:44, straightforward from Cold Man.

0:24-0:31 = 0:32-0:44 - The chords are straight out of the original Cold Man, and as Vinnie said they ARE extremely distinctive. The vocoder line however is also arranging the melody of the original, though the word "tornado" transposes some of the notes. Hum my vocoder melody over the original melody, or imagine the original melody in your head as you listen to the remix. For example, the original melody, in F#, starts like this:

F#, F# - G - A A

Whereas my melody is F#, F# - A. Same rhythm, just leaving out the G which is only a passing note. The fundamental movement of the melody is the same.

The 0:31-0:38 that follows is more liberal but again, just try putting the two melodies on top of each other and you'll hear that they're very similar. My melody ADDS some passing notes but it keeps the important rhythms and notes from the original melody. So, it's a variation.

0:38-0:54 - 0:00-0:10 from Tornado Man.

0:54-1:10 - 0:05-0:14 from Cold Man.

1:10-1:40 - These are the 0:32-0:44 chords from Cold Man, BUT I'm not just using the chords. The voicings are such that the top notes of each chord follow the original melody. Also, the rhythm of the chords is played to the rhythm of the melody. So again, if you sing the Cold Man melody on top of this section, you'll notice that all of the notes match up EXACTLY with my chord stabs. So, while I'm not using every note from the melody, I'm following it exactly and using the same rhythm.

1:40-1:55 - Same as earlier

1:56-2:12 - Same as earlier

2:13-2:28 - 0:13-0:23 in Tornado Man

2:28-3:06 - Chord variation of 0:02 in Cold Man. This is probably the most liberal chord part since the chord rhythms don't follow the melody exactly, whereas earlier they do, but it's still very distinctive. ALSO, the bass pattern (A, A, C D C D) is playing the beginning of the main Tornado Man riff at first, then its playing the next part in a 'walking' disco-style pattern (A, A, A G E G G#), which is also Tornado Man. There are some variations too, but listen for those 2 riffs and play along and you will hear that's what the bass is.. based on

[DarkeSword]

Yes!!! I loved this song in the GRMRB. Very groovy, great source usage, extremely cohesive considering the two differing source tunes. I love the vocoded vocals.

Very nice!

[Jillian Aversa]

^ That's more than enough source for me - not that I ever doubted it...

YES

[DragonAvenger]

I'm down with it. Good stuff.

YES