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OCR02614 - *YES* Mega Man 2 'Light Your Way'


OceansAndrew
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Artists: Neblix feat. AMT

Real Names: Nabeel Ansari (feat. Austin Thresher)

http://neblixmusic.wordpress.com

Userid: 24123 and 9241

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS INCLUDE: Neblix, AMT

AMT was featured as the electric guitar player here (both rhythm and lead). All synthesizers, mixing & mastering, drum production and acoustic guitars (VST) are mine/by me. The arrangement is written by me with some sweet guitar improv by Austin.

Arrangement Title: Light Your Way

Game: Mega Man 2

Sources: Flash Man and Wily Stage 1 (I'm not going to link to these and if you have to look them up I will personally come to your house and punch you in the face)

Comments:

Neblix - "I really dig this track. I modeled it after Pendulum's "Witchcraft" and it turned out great. This is also the first song where I am using the "MusicLab RealGuitar 2" Acoustic Guitar VST. I love it, and it's a pretty good tool in my workflow.

Did this mostly in the Friday (night) before it was due, and it caused me a lot of stress. Thankfully, I was able to finish it in time for my first round in the Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet. I'm pretty proud of the mixing and arrangement in this piece,

and I'm also glad AMT helped out with guitars. I would've been in a tight spot without him around. He did some sweet improv which helped keep the arrangement fresh. I realize these are overmixed sources, but hey, what about my debut mix? :P"

AMT - "It was awesome working on this, because Wily 2 is one of my favorite tracks. Neblix seriously needs to not do things last minute next time, but the end result was still kickin' rad."

-Nabeel "Neblix" Ansari

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  • 1 month later...

Wow, that's a wall of sound. I'm sensing a lot of strong compression on this one, but fortunately since you kept your master volume relatively low, this isn't particularly painful to listen to, and fortunately all of the individual instruments are readily discernible. I don't really have any problems with the mixing here, it's pushed hard but it definitely gives the drums the necessary raw strength they need to survive in a harsh D&B climate. It's brutal, and I love how it sounds.

Overall, the performances are pretty spot on. The only issue I had was the fast-picked guitar riff right before the drums came in, which I don't feel was up to par with the rest of the live-performed elements. Minor quibble but it does kind of break the illusion in a song full of otherwise-perfectly-timed elements.

Arrangement wise, I like what was done a lot. You merged the themes very tastefully so that each source is given its time in the limelight, but there's occasional moments of crossover that makes you second guess exactly what you're listening to. Another very small issue is how cut-and-paste some of the material feels (in the outro, it's obvious that you guys were strapped for time and had to slap something in) but at the same time, in the body of the song you cover plenty of melodic ground and you've got plenty of solos and original writing to fill in the gaps between source usage.

Honestly I like this quite a bit. Much more than when I first heard it in the compo, to be honest. Glad to hear this one come through again though, it's a pass for me.

YES

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Very solid entry by Nebs in a round I also participated. The Pendulum influence from Witchcraft is clear here.

Drums sounded good, if a bit rigid at times. Synths were solid and guitar sounds were well sequenced and produced.

I remember hearing this during the competition and thinking the mix was excessively bright. It sounds like you've toned down the brightness in this version, which is good. That said, the mixing focus seems to be on lows & highs with quite a bit of room in the mid frequencies to fill this out to get a more powerful & balanced sound. Overall, mixing is good, but could be better.

Arrangement wise, this hits all over both themes, with both interspesed together smartly. Way to weave all of this in, especially at the last minute.

I think this really shows how far Nabeel has come in such a short time. Makes me jealous of people getting invovled in mixing so young (I didn't start until my mid 20's), so the potential for him and other like really is enormous.

YES

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  • 2 weeks later...

you've definitely improved so much since "Heaven Awaits", which is more or less the only thing I'd heard from you since before this compo. in agreement with the mixing quibbles the other judges mentioned, but this was a pretty solid arrangement overall, with some quality synths/samples and nice performances by AMT. nice job guys.

YES

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Yeah, other judge quibbles are valid points you should improve on in your next mixing endeavors, but overall this is quite solid, especially the meshing between the two themes. I'd also add in that the bass is just a little overpowering at times, but otherwise it's a great listen and a interesting take on two very-oft mixed themes.

YES

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