*NO* Mega Man 2 'A Warmer Farewell'

[djpretzel]

Alex Roe aka RoeTaKa.

MegaMan2 - Ending Credits.

" Hi, finally got to doing a remix I enjoyed after a while. This is of the ending credits which was rather sad, but in this I create it much more brighter, happier, in a consonant style. It's very much a band style which I've been trying to hit on harder for the last few months like getting the right strumming patterns in the piano roll or getting arrangement parts right. Obviously a live sound feeling aswell. Anyways, don't really have much else to say, other than I'm still just using FL4 and ST2 if anyones curious. Cheers"

[danny B]

If I was to nitpick, I would mention the very clicky and artificial "guitar" sound. I would also mention the very loopy nature of the drums. The strings are also very much artificial, with very little done to try and mask the electronic sound.

But more than the myriad of nitpicks I can make, I would just have to say that the whole thing is just...well....a mess. The different sections don't really have transitions, or any kind of logical order. They just kind of....exist in the primordial ether that is the Mix. It's hard to discern a chorus, bridge, anything. Hell, it's even hard to hear the original. It seems like a convoluted attempt at a more "off-center" arrangement that went a bit wrong.

Besides the fact that the song has little variety, and sounds like the same thing for almost 4 minutes, it doesn't really espouse the original in a new light as much as rehash it in an oversimplified, bland package.

I'd chalk this one up as experience and move on.

NO

-D

[Liontamer]

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 22 ("Ending")

Covered this one in late May for VGF:

Liontamer]Roetaka - Megaman 2 "A Warmer Farewell" [VGMix2 #4129]

The atmosphere is a bit muddy and some of the chords sounded odd, but this was a pretty interesting arrangement of MM2's ending theme. Alex definitely put together an unorthodox approach in arranging it, so much so that I can honestly say it'll both put some people off and leave others struggling to make the connection to the source at times. The track dragged on a little bit throughout the last minute on account of the backing beats simply repeating themselves, but the assessment of how well the arrangement here was pulled off is not necessarily mine to make. Alex is certainly a non-OC ReMixer to keep your eye on as he's been improving his skills gradually.

Well, now that this has hit the panel, the assessment at how well the arrangement was pulled off is in fact mine to make. I would definitely hone in on all of Dan's criticisms, Alex, because they were spot-on. There really isn't much in the way of structure or order here, and the arrangement may alter the original, but doesn't do it very coherently in the big picture. I didn't have as much trouble hearing the source tune in play as Dan might have, but I see where he's coming from, as this took some very liberal turns most of the way.

The repetitive percussion would need to be addressed, and the piece would need to be given more solid structure. It's a cool freeform-ish piece, but it definitely drags on and the lack of organization was a detriment. I didn't feel it was bad or I wouldn't have pimped it, and I actually encourage others to head to VGMix to check it out.

Nonetheless, I agree with Dan that, unless this could be given quite the overhaul, you should call this one a day and move onto new work. Try for something around 3 minutes long, as you're prone to making pieces that have some good concepts but nonetheless overstay their welcome. Quality over quantity. Keep at it.

NO

[Sam Ascher-Weiss]

I'm going to try to stay off this subject but I just wanna say a couple of things about the chord progressions in this song. You open up with a pretty interesting one: Amajor, Bmajor , F#major , Bmajor, F#major, Amaj7, Dbmajor, Abmajor, Dbmajor, Abmajor. Those are simple chords but the sequence is somewhat unusual and it sounds great. This continues until 1:02 where from here until the end of the song there are pretty much only two chords: Abmajor and Dbmajor [the Gb in the bass under this one should go]. A song can work with only two chords but it's especially hard to deal with coming out of such an interesting progression. It's like false advertising. That's all I'm gonna say on the theory end of things.

On to the arrangement. It seems that the density of sound is consistent throughout. There is always alot going on. Every register is occupied from start to finish. There is also always one instrument playing whole notes and from 2:35 on it's a high pitched string playing C, Db, Eb, Db over and over and over and over. Try leaving some sections more open. You can have one part where nothing is happening in the bass and then another where all the action is in the lower frequencies. You could have a section where everything is staccato and then one where all the instruments are only playing half or whole notes. The point is you can't always have all of these things going on at the same time especially not for three minutes and fourty eight seconds straight. One thing you do well in this regard is occasionally removing and varying the strength of the percussion.

I'd love to hear more stuff harmonically like from 0:00 to 1:02 but that's more personal and I can't fault you for choosing to stick with the Dbmajor, Abmajor thing instead. All this really needs is more clarity. Go through the song and pick out which layers are really necessary and which ones you could do without. I think there is a passable mix here but it's just being smothered right now by the constant action on all fronts.

NO (Resubmit)

[The wingless]

omg. stfu Shan. Nobody wants to hear your fancy muzak theory

roffzlz, jk. a/s/l?

The first thing that hits me is that all the intstruments are at the same volume. There's little to no heirarchy of sound. EQ that shiznit. Especially at the bridge, where the drums overpower the improv of the piano by a lunar margin.

Everything else sounds really nice, but that EQ stuff is a dealbreaker for me. If you can create a pleasant range of sound, I'd okay it. But for now, you get the soulcrushing NO