djpretzel Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 To djpretzel and all the other OC Remix judges--what's up? Well, after being a fan of your site for a year or so now, I finally managed to get my band together and cut a PHAT track of--you guessed it--Shadow Man's theme from MM3. The recording is a live recording of my band, "The Institute for the Advancement of Funk and Soul". We are a funk initiative conceived at Stanford University last year, and consisting of drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, and sax. My name's Stedman and I play the keyboard. Anyway, I really hope you guys enjoy this number. Contact Info: Remixer Name: The Institute for the Advancement of Funk and Soul Real Name: Stedman Wilson, Baiju Bhatt, Dylan Alegria, Mitchell Wilcox, Leslie Finger Email: funkhaus@stanford.edu Website: www.institutefunk.com Link to song: Remix Info: Remix Name: "Shadow Man's Band" Game Remixed: Megaman 3 (NES) Song Remixed: Shadow Man's Level Comments: There's little doubt that Shadow Man's music is among the funkiest of all the Megaman 3 tracks. But just how funky would it sound with a NASTY fender telecaster screeching out the melody? REAL FUNKY. If Shadow Man had a band himself, this is how they'd break it down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - "Shadowman Stage" (Track 9) ACK! That distortion on the geetar at :11 is purposeful but not kosher with me. Just a minor gripe. Anyway, y'all are seriously funkin' things up. I loves it! Good funk cover of the Shadowman theme that brings an energy we rarely see at this site. Excellent drum activity in the back; that was one of the highlights to be sure. I was hoping you guys would break out into some freestyle work, and there it was at 2:21. Great stuff on top of the Shadowman theme bassline that really pieced together well, including the slowdown at 3:13 to move back into the source tune coverage at 3:25. Good stuff with the organ-style keyboard doing slight variations on each iteration of the source tune during the bridge as well. Although others might focus on the general performance, I felt production was the weak point. I thought the track was too heavy on the low-end, and the lead guitar could have been louder compared to the rest of the instruments. Sloppiness on the sound balance should have been addressed with some post-production. On the arrangement side, practically everything comes together well for something that initially seems loose and unstructured, but is deceivingly cohesive. Nice energy & nice performance. I checked out your site and it looks good. Pretty unique, but memorable. Congrats on some cool shit, and I hope your fanbase gets a nice boost on account of this remix. I'll keep an eye out for your material for radio play, and good luck in the future getting your name out there inb the event this doesn't make it. Haven't seen any further game music material at your site, but I hope some additional remixes are in your future. Hot shit, boys and girls. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 This is a painfully obvious NO the problems with this mix are so glaring and crippling it pains me to have to list them. I think i'll do it in order of appearance, K? 1. The saxophone is VERY flat. It just hurts to listen to it, the whole song thru. Guys, next time you record something, remember to tune up first. 2. The guitarist has poor tone. aside from possible equpitment shortcomings, this is mainly the result of the guitarist picking too stiffly, like he's trying to kill his guitar. ick. it's especially evident in the begginning. 3. The bass consistently plays a bad note every time thru the verse. the first time is at :32. It plays a blues change, it goes to the 4. The rest of the band, and the song, do not. The bass player makes this screwup each time through the chorus. it's embarrasing. 2.5. The guitarist has no rhythm, and makes LOOOTS of rhythm and note clambakes like at :34, :36, :47, etc. 4. The organist has really bad timing. I would say he struggles to stay with the drummer, but i dont think he's really trying. Maybe that's harsh. He's not ALWAYS off, but there are some egregious offenses particularly around 1:41-2, 2:37, 3:04. Aside from the clear mistakes, the rhythms he comps are often poorly chosen and repetitive in my opinion. 1.5. The sax plays notes incorrectly and at the wrong time. :54 (slip) 1:08 (wrong note [repeated mistake]) 2:15 (off rhythm). Really just needs to tighten up. 2.75. The guitar solo is really sloppy. i refuse to believe that this only bothers me because i play guitar. i mean, 2:29, 2:35, 2:52, 3:00+, come on! off rhythm, off pitch, repetitive bends, doesnt hit the notes, please tell me i'm not the only one who hears this! I wont even get into my qualms about production or arrangement. This mix has serious performance problems. The sax and guitar need to tune up and tighten up, The bass player needs to wake up and stop hitting the same WRONG change every damn verse, and the whole band needs to play the way a BAND is supposed to: TOGETHER! I really think larry should reconsider his vote. This kind of sloppy performance has no place on OCR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny B Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 I'm definately torn on this one. For one - I hear a lot of what Jesse is saying. However, I don't think it's nearly as bad as his scathing review indicates. I'm simply not hearing any appreciable amount of rhythmic flubs (caused by the ENTIRE band) that bring down the mix as a whole. I don't agree that the "changes that the bass doesn't make correctly" or whatever actually negatively impacts the song. Overall, it's a decent arrangement that is unfortunately plagued by some pretty major issues. The guitar is straight-unnacceptable. Jesse covered that well enough. Check his review to find out why. I didn't think the rhythm was as bad as he did, but it's still definately shaky. The organ is on most of the time - only rarely can I catch it being blatantly off. The bass is totally fine by me. No wrong notes, bad changes, etc. The drums are easily the highlight of the mix, however - they are pushed into the back of the mix. If they cut through better and actually had some decent volume, i'd be much more impressed. The sax is most definately out of tune. It isn't a HUGE issue, but it's definately not dead-on, A-440, and all that jazz. Basically, what we've got is a very decent cover of this tune, with kickass drums, solid bass, acceptable organ, and a good sax performance except for the tuning. The guitar must be fixed. That alone would stop this mix from acceptance. However, there are other factors that contribute to its rejection, most notably the production. It's like Larry said - very low-end heavy and lifeless. Did you use any compression on anything? Doesn't sound like it. I don't think I hear a multitrack recording for the drum kit either. At the very least, get a good stereo image and the kick/snare individually mic'ed. The snare has no snap and the kick is not very defined. These basic recording issues turn me off to the whole deal right from the start, and while there are definately good things about (most of) the performances and arrangement - it can't be saved. Ending isn't too impressive either. Give me something conclusive and creative....don't leave me hanging. Get a decent recording, get the parts down until they're way tight, and you've got a winner here. NO -D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The wingless Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 There are too many technical recording-syncing issues for me to pass, though I love what I hear, regardless. Rerecord this shiznit in the studio (read: your Dad's garage. Mind the Blue Hybrid) and resubmit As is: NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zykO Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 here is another track that i could have gone on for days about because i love to pick apart guitar tracks into its bare essentials but whaddya know... jesse already went and did that. i have utterly nothing to add but constructive criticism... you have to be more careful with your guitar work. its too sloppy. try working out kinks in your rhythm work before recording... in other words, learn the rhythm of your song it seems intuitive to me that you'd be aware of the rhythm of your own creation. also, there's no need to pick like you're killing the strings. i have nothing more to say that won't simply echo vig's review. the good news is that i really enjoyed it but then again, i like sloppy, rough-around-the-edges sort of things and there are a lot of good ideas that are right on the doorstep in this arrangement but just not polished enough to be accepted here sorry but you have to be a little tighter than this and if you're going to be loose by choice, bring something to the table that is stunningly innovative or catchy to counter it... i NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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