X Men: Children Of The Atom - Character Select

[ShadowBlade]

So Native Dialect's remix of "On the blackbird" inspired me to make a remix of a COTA song myself. This game was a fond memory of my childhood.

This clip is about 1:28 long so far. I have it up to about 4 minutes including sections where I'll do some solos etc. but I figure there's not much point in uploading all that just yet. So what do you think so far? What should I do to make it not crap? Is it even worth the effort of getting it sub-worthy?

Turn it to 11

Oh, note the silence at the start, I plan to do a pickslide intro there.

[Native Dialect]

Hmmm....

1) Well, right off the bat, I like the choice to reinterpret it as a guitar song. It evokes the old 90s X-Men animated series theme song. It sounds like something straight out of Shuki Levy's music book. The mix sounds excellent so far. If you are really adamant about adding to it, I suggest creating a medley, perhaps finding a way to integrate the character select song with the theme song from the 90s cartoon. To that end, your piece will have a theme. But it is just a suggestion. As it is, you have enough faithfulness to the source, with enough interpretation, to make this a very enjoyable mix.

With that said...

2) I don't think you have to lengthen it. Themes that are already short, should really be left short. I know that is considered a sin against all that is holy, here on OCR, but I don't think every remix of a brief loop needs to be the next Climb Hazard Rush. The character select theme is memorable, not just because Capcom used it twice (once in Children of the Atom and again in X-Men vs. Street Fighter), but because it is so brief, with a melody so simple.

Of course, I am probably the lone voice on that thought. But I say keep it short and simple. After all, the song is literally the same seven seconds looped over and over again. Does that really need to be turned into a four minute track?

[ShadowBlade]

Hmmm....

1) Well, right off the bat, I like the choice to reinterpret it as a guitar song. It evokes the old 90s X-Men animated series theme song. It sounds like something straight out of Shuki Levy's music book. The mix sounds excellent so far. If you are really adamant about adding to it, I suggest creating a medley, perhaps finding a way to integrate the character select song with the theme song from the 90s cartoon. To that end, your piece will have a theme. But it is just a suggestion. As it is, you have enough faithfulness to the source, with enough interpretation, to make this a very enjoyable mix.

With that said...

2) I don't think you have to lengthen it. Themes that are already short, should really be left short. I know that is considered a sin against all that is holy, here on OCR, but I don't think every remix of a brief loop needs to be the next Climb Hazard Rush. The character select theme is memorable, not just because Capcom used it twice (once in Children of the Atom and again in X-Men vs. Street Fighter), but because it is so brief, with a melody so simple.

Of course, I am probably the lone voice on that thought. But I say keep it short and simple. After all, the song is literally the same seven seconds looped over and over again. Does that really need to be turned into a four minute track?

Thanks! I was also planning on throwing in a bit of Gambit's Theme from X VS Sf actually. I think that using cartoon themes is against OCR guidelines though. Sad if that is true because I thought of using that in a bit of a solo.

Actually.....even if it's against OCR guidelines nothing says it has to be submitted. I could make this like the ultimate X-Men guitar medley song lol

[Native Dialect]

Now that I wouldn't mind listening to. a Five minute medley of awesome X-Men tunes, would totally rock. Also, OCR does have stringent rules about themes featured in non-video game media (e.g. movie themes, television themes, licensed music). Throwing in the Gambit theme might be a nice substitute.

[Level 99]

I have such fond memories of this game, being a Saturn kid and all. I remember only correctly doing the Akuma code ONCE out of probably a thousand tries, so I am very familiar with this theme.

Translating to a guitar-based mix is a great choice, however, there are a number of things you should address regardless of whether or not you would want this as a sub-worthy song:

1) The mix kinda...just...starts. It is actually kind of jolting. Even if you want the rock right in your face immediately, you need to give the listeners a chance to get used to the volume level and somewhat brace for impact. Starting with some flashy drums for a measure or half a measure should do the trick, and allow for the timing of the first guitars to not seem so sudden. It would probably do well considering the original starts with drums, just take that and basically make it more elaborate and rocky then BAM, guitars just happened.

2) The mix sounds too close to the original as of right now. It has pretty much the same feel, except for the guitars and the new section you added. The new section, while nice, needs to be a bit more elaborate.

3) Drums need some major work. There's practically zero transition from section A to section B and back. Furthermore, the sound could be improved with either a new kit or more selective processing on each drum.

4) Is your current arrangement live guitars or sampled? The timing offsets tell me they're live but copiously repeated. If they're live, consider doing multiple takes of the same sections so that things don't sound as static. If they're not live, then I would HIGHLY recommend getting a live guitarist for this.

5) If you want your arrangement to become more sub-worthy, I would think that another original section where you change the basic chord structure would be good, happening after the second B section. Section C, as we'll call it, could act like a bridge and differentiate the arrangement considerably. Right now, I would think your fully fleshed-out arrangement could be something like this:

Intro -> Section A -> Section B -> Section A with solo wankery integrating melodies from various COTA stages -> Section B with solo wankery integrating melodies from various COTA stages -> Section C (Bridge) -> Breakdown and Buildup -> Section A -> Ending

Those solo wankery areas would be a perfect spot to put solos that include integration of other areas of the soundtrack, making things both more original AND more source-referenced at the same time

6) Can't tell with my current headphones but what are you using for bass?

7) We can talk about overall production after your arrangement quirks have been worked out.

Don't be discouraged: I listed a lot that can be improved and changed but you have a solid foundation and picked a great sourcetune. Excited to hear where you can take this.

[ShadowBlade]

Guitars are live. I play them lol. Like I said I was going to do a pickslide or something for the intro, drum intro is in the original and you said the mix is so far too close, so I'm still working on that.

Yeah the drums. I'm trying to find drum samples that would really work for rock music as all the drummers I know personally are crap lol.

bass is just a synth.

The idea for the arrangement sounds like a sweet idea actually. For the breakdown section.......could be a more ballad type interpretation of Gambit's theme?

Damn, there's actually probably a lot I could do with this lol

[Native Dialect]

I had assumed that this track was just a rough cut that was meant to demonstrate the direction you were taking, so I left a few things unsaid, on the assumption that you would naturally address them without being told. After reading Level 99's comments, I felt that I should add some critical commentary on the structure of the arrangement.

1) If you are a fan of the current drum kit, you should at least consider adding reverb or doubling the pattern by creating the same instrument in a second channel. You can adjust one channel for the left ear and another channel for the right ear, giving a nice stereo sound.

2/) The original song is heavily polyphonic. Granted, this seems to be a rock interpretation, and rock only requires a bass, a guitar and a drum to sound like rock, but it would not hurt to take on more of the polyphonic aesthetics of the source material.

In the source, you have the bass synth. a second synth for harmony (sounds like a guitar), a horn for the lead, an orchestra hit and the drums. You do not have to use those exact instruments, but you should find some way to fill the soundscape in a similar fashion. Speaking of the soundscape, perhaps you can also add some panning to this mix.

Good luck. As I said before, I already like the take you have on the track. I think the mix is great. I hope my suggestions are constructive rather than destructive. Keep up the work, my friend.

Also, you may wish to look at an existing remix of this track. There just so happens to be one on Youtube. Granted, it is more of a cover than an arrangement, but from a technical standpoint, it exemplifies my points about reverb, stereo and polyphony.