No'ed: Mighty Final Fight / Mega Man 2 (Dr.Willy) / Captain Tsubasa 2 / Tecmo Cup

[Gario]

Originally Posted by Gario

I'd need to get familiar with the sources, myself, but if what is claimed is true about the slideshow effect then I'd say there is some validity to their claims.

Then you, my friend, is the best judge of it because that was the whole point. It should NOT feel like a slideshow if you are not familiar with the sources.

Alright, then let me give it another source-blind listen and give you my thoughts.

*listening*

Sorry, it's not COMPLETELY blind, but asking a VGM nerd to not recognize Wily 2-1 is like asking a Star Wars buff to not know the Darth Vader / Luke Skywalker spoiler (y'know, that he's his father)... it's just not possible.

Anyway, from 0:00 to 1:58 I felt it was very cohesive - things seemed to lead from one motif to another seemlessly, and the change up right after was a nice touch. However, due to the material it does sound like the first half and the second half are not connected.

I suspect that this is less due to the integration of themes (when I heard the Wily bits the integration was actually well done) and more to do with the fact that there is no form to the song - it does sound like one long stream of ideas rather than bite sized chunks of music.

Funny thing about remixes is that most of the time form is not an issue at all, since the source itself will provide a nice form to follow. When using multiple varying themes it gets dicey, though, since following one source will come at the cost of another source getting the proper recognition. Thus, in order to make a song using more than two or three sources you need to establish a form outside of the sources and make the music around that.

I don't mean to jack the thread with this, but I have an example of a track with many sources where I do just that. There was absolutely no way the song was going to sound cohesive otherwise - with that many sources, I needed to establish a form to follow outside of the sources (I went with a variation of a Rondo, by the way - ABACA).

I believe the issue the judges are hearing (and one I heard, too, despite not knowing what most of the sources were) was that it was pretty formless - it just moved from one idea to another without properly establishing the idea throughout. I'm not surprised that this single detail could merit a 'NO' from the judges - the foundation of a piece is very important in keeping a listener's attention, so if that's iffy to a judge then I don't think anything else will bring it back. It's pretty fundamental.

If you want to give it another go at any time, I personally suggest using the Wily section as a middle section, not the ending, as it sounds foreign as an ending. Instead, bring back the material from the first section (that is, 0:00 - 1:58... probably the latter half of it) and end on that idea (while integrating ideas from Wily and the other sources, to keep it fresh and interesting). Yes, this means that the song will be longer, but it will feel like a cohesive idea rather than something formless.

BTW, my suggestion simply turns your track into more of an ABA form - if you don't want to follow my suggestion yet still want to give it some work, feel free to experiment with other formal ideas and see what could work for you.

Well, that was a wordy post on almost a single idea. I hope it's pretty clear, though.