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Level 99 - Radiance (Mario Kart 64 - Rainbow Road LOL THERE IS VOCALS!)


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Aight, so I started work on this in...March, I think. Originally just a solo thing, Ben Briggs then insisted on adding stuff (he still has to, I only now just finished the song structure). Emunator may or may not add stuff as well. diotrans was originally going to have a part too, but instead of including a violin I decided to expand the lyrics more to make three verses and choruses, with a different end chorus.

Lyrics (WITH EXTRA CHEESE!):

Up in the sky

Where radiance abounds

There is a

Luminous road

Hearts race away

Suspended seamlessly

It is a

Sight to behold

We're on our way, let's go today

because we might be

the only ones to ever be

Up off the ground, with arms around

holding me tightly

there's no where else I'd want to be

The path is paved

With colors filled with light

They cast a

Radiant glow

No end in sight

Now that you're here with me

Let's chase the

Eternal rainbow

Forever long

You've held your hand in mine

Together

Journeys unfold

We've crossed the line

While we would love to stay

Our ride has

Come to a close

It's not the end, so don't pretend

We've solved the mystery

There's so much else that's left to see

Across the stars, this world is ours

The only reality

There's no where else I'd want to be

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

The whole thing is nearly source verbatim with the guitars playing the chord progression and the vocals carrying the melody. Basically this whole song is just me right now with the stuff from others coming soon!

Source:

Current version: http://level99.thestuffoflegends.net/Stuff/WIPS/Level%2099%20-%20Radiance%20(WIP4).mp3

Thoughts?

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Everything fine here but I got one little thing to nag about ->

What would the world be without automelodyne ... come on everybody -> have some self confidence in your voice and singing.

Try to get the notes straight and if your off a little - then be off. Thats what makes you unique among all those plastic produced pop song casting automation machine clones. How I hate it every time I hear the algorithm kicking in.

Imagine Neil Young today - they would have killed his singing to death by ironing out every wrinkle of it.

Be brave, be yourself or hide the tuning to a degree it isn't so easy to spot. And I really think your voice can do without that.

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Normally I am not a fan of acoustic jams, but I like this one! You mentioned that you decided against adding a violin to this song, but I think a violin would be a fine addition. You could have it play the chords with the acoustic guitar in the background most of the time, but then give it a counter solo during the acoustic duet. Also the violin could, with a few fills, outline the phrases a little more. I think it might add some fullness and diversity. Next you throw in some bongos and BOOM, a full acoustic set. I hope this was relatively helpful. Keep up the good work! :D

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This is why we need a Mario Kart album, and this could be the ending song! :-D

I say keep the autotune and get a better take on the stuff that wiggles a lot

working on this now btw

Wait, he used autotune? :<

I know it sounds a little weird, probably due to filters and whatnot, but autotune?

Stevo wouldn't dare...

ok ok he would, but that's beside the point :D

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This is excellent by itself and a great start (middle?)! I agree with whoever said adding a violin would make it better. I had a hard time hearing the source tune until the non-vocal part and I think it'd help a little.

No other real critique-- just encouragement to finish and submit it. :)

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I'm definitely CHIPPING away at it...

LULZ I C WAT YOU DID THER.

But back to the mix....great job! I loved the harmonies at around 2:00ish, and the vocals are sweetly executed; it kinda sounds a little like Green Day (in a good way).

Actually, I was just playing this game and thought this would be a good song for someone to ReMix...get out of my head.

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Chiptunes? Really? That's the exact opposite of what I was liking about this piece. Backup focals, yay! ...

With my untrained ear, I can't tell which parts are Chiptunes. Or anything that's auto-tuned, for that matter. Would someone mind filling me in? I love learning about this stuff.

Also, I take back my comment about the violin and not hearing the source tune. If there's a lot more to be added to this mix, I think it's going to come out to epicly awesome, it'll bump "For You" (Wily, Mega Man 2 remix) as my all-time favorite remix.

That is... aside from "Twin Seeds Flyby" by Level99. (Dude... you are so awesome in your compositions...)

EDIT: Any chance at a MK64 Remix Project? This could be so, so epic...

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Firstly, wow. I did not expect this kind of response for what I had so far. While I definitely realize the general stigma about vocal remixes and brace myself accordingly, the feedback has been completely unexpected and phenomenal. I'll do my best to get to all of the generally main points made in the comments, so if I missed something you specifically mentioned, let me know :)

Aside from some lyrical 'nasalness' at times (which sounds like a stylistic thing to your singin'), sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

It holds its own without everyone else, so I can't wait to hear what they contribute!

Yeah, you know me, Bobby. I do have the ability to control the general nasalness of my voice, and while it wasn't completely intended here, I wanted to shoot for an upper diaphragm vocal tone. Something that would be as light and sparkly as the subject matter, so if there's any particular phrases that you feel are over-nasal, point them out and I'll re-record to see how they sound moving a bit more away from the nose. Though yes, I think this style does suit the song. And thanks for the encouragment! Gotta do something while finishing up the Muffins tracks and waiting for other brass ;)

Sorry, this will be the most unhelpful post ever but I just wanted to say I absolutely love this. :D Great stuff.

That's flattering and helpful enough to know that I'm on the right track! Thanks!

Brilliant. I'm sure the others will add something awesome to this as well but as it is right now i love it.

Keep this version as some sort of stripped-brokendown acoustic remix of whatever the final version ends up sounding like. Just an idea.

*saves* *plays*

Well, I mean, now everyone who wants it DOES have this version, right? :D I do believe that, from what Ben has shown me so far, the version with additional instrumentation will be my preferred one, I'll gladly render a final minus that stuff with any changes I made to the guitars and vocals. Thanks, DiG!

I like it! This song sounds like it belongs on The Ataris' "So Long, Astoria".

Aww man, I used to love The Ataris. I'm a genuine pop-punk-rock writer at heart, so this is a very flattering comment. Thanks!

Everything fine here but I got one little thing to nag about ->

What would the world be without automelodyne ... come on everybody -> have some self confidence in your voice and singing.

Try to get the notes straight and if your off a little - then be off. Thats what makes you unique among all those plastic produced pop song casting automation machine clones. How I hate it every time I hear the algorithm kicking in.

Imagine Neil Young today - they would have killed his singing to death by ironing out every wrinkle of it.

Be brave, be yourself or hide the tuning to a degree it isn't so easy to spot. And I really think your voice can do without that.

You make very valid points that I myself stand by as often as I can. I did use Roland V-Vocals to iron out some of the rough spots in the vocals, since I'm being a perfectionist about how the vocals sit with the guitar tones. If you could point out the places you're hearing the "autotune sound" kick in, I'll try to iron out the issues. Additionally, I'll consider doing a re-take of recording, singing along with the tuned vocals so I can nail the pitch as close as possible, and using that. Not a promise due to time but it is definitely something that could work. Thanks for the feedback!

One of these days, Stevo should play at a coffeehouse somewhere in DC, playing this and other acoustic stuff. I'd pay to see that!

Great Remake!

This is why we need a Mario Kart album, and this could be the ending song! :-D

Wait, he used autotune? :<

I know it sounds a little weird, probably due to filters and whatnot, but autotune?

Stevo wouldn't dare...

ok ok he would, but that's beside the point :D

Yeah, I would. Philosophically, I'm against the flagrant use of autotune to turn someone with no vocal talent into a star, as is evidenced by our culture's current trend of making any youtube gutterdweller who can download GSnap and vaguely talk on key an overnight celebrity. When it is used subtly enough, especially for people who have decent to fairly good voices that have some landing or holding issues, I'm okay with it. The less noticed, the better, and the less used, the better. Using it as a vocal aesthetic such as in dance music is also fine. For me, I realize I don't have the most amazing voice in the world: it is maleable and I have great control over the sound of it, but my ability to be onkey is sometimes off by a few cents and, for a song like this one, it also helps reach the kind of tone I wanted.

OCR gets enough vocal flak as it is. While I'm not condoning autotune across the board, it has its uses, and here I felt it was warranted. Roland V-Vocals allows for less autotune "snapping" and more of an analyze and selectively curve method. I bet you weren't expecting this long an answer but HEY, YOU GOT IT! (answering the MK64 album later in post)

I was enjoying this, but then the solo came in and the source really hit me. Love that part! With some chippy goodness to reinforce the source all over the track, I'm sure it'll sound even better.

1 small thing on the lyrics, site to behold = sight to behold /grammarnazi :nicework:

It's funny. I'm getting the vibe that some people are having issues hearing the melody except when the guitar is playing it. The vocals throughout the song follow the melody exactly, except there are parts where things are brought down or up an octave to help keep a note flow consistent. So really, if people can hear it in the guitars, they should totally be able to hear it in the vocals. However, I guess final judgement should be reserved until after Ben does his thing. Thanks for the feedback! (also fixed the word mistake. Those lyrics I posted were from my scratchpad anyway so I'm surprised there's not more mistakes in there than there are)

With my untrained ear, I can't tell which parts are Chiptunes. Or anything that's auto-tuned, for that matter. Would someone mind filling me in? I love learning about this stuff.

Also, I take back my comment about the violin and not hearing the source tune. If there's a lot more to be added to this mix, I think it's going to come out to epicly awesome, it'll bump "For You" (Wily, Mega Man 2 remix) as my all-time favorite remix.

That is... aside from "Twin Seeds Flyby" by Level99. (Dude... you are so awesome in your compositions...)

EDIT: Any chance at a MK64 Remix Project? This could be so, so epic...

There's no chiptunes in it yet, Ben's gotta get a render out once he's done so people can hear it. He's showed me some of his ideas and I really like them, can't wait until they're fleshed out. As for the autotune, if you hear a voice "slide" unrealistically, as if a computer were controlling the pitch to snap it back onto the right note and key, that's the algorithm working. Autotune basically takes vocal information, processes the notes as they are being sung, and intelligently (based on either user-selected chords, keys, scales, or general best-estimates) modulates the notes without affecting the tone or texture of the voice. It can be realistic or unrealistic. Look up a tutorial on Gsnap if you want to see how free autotune works.

Much appreciated on the other comments, and I absolutely love Robbie's Wily mix as well. :D /flattered

And finally, a MK64 album? I believe there was someone trying to get something like that off the ground in the past year or so, but it died for some reason. I'm personally taking some time off from directly managing projects to help facilitate other in-progress albums reaching completion, helping the staff evaluate albums before they are to be posted, and doing various other things to keep the place running smoothly. Not saying it won't happen, just saying that I wouldn't be able to lend my hand to its conception in the near future. If it does get off the ground by someone and they wanted my mix on it, I'd gladly allow it.

AGAIN THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR TIME AND FEEDBACK YOU ARE WHAT MAKES WORKSHOP AWESOME

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And finally, a MK64 album? I believe there was someone trying to get something like that off the ground in the past year or so, but it died for some reason.

Yeah, that was me, but it flopped- there was cross-angst between me and Brandon S, and it involved trolling with a lot of egg pictures, and other issues tanked the project.

I should probably try to resurrect it sooner or later...

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I absolutely love this, and I don't even know why. Its just got such a happy feeling to it, as Mario Kart is supposed to have :)

Really like how you layered the guitars, and the "ooh"s about a third of the way into it.

I can hear the autotune in a few parts, such as the word "radiant", the beginning of it sounds slightly autotuned, but if it hadn't been for a previous comment, I wouldn't have even have noticed it, because its really subtle.

Excellent job! :D

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