OceansAndrew Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 ReMixer name: Siesta Lane Real name: Gary Delisa, Brenden McBride, Kenneth Hughes Email address: Website: http://www.soundcloud.com/siestalane Userid: 49312 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Mega Man 2 Name of arrangement: Heatseeker Name of individual song(s) arranged: Heat Man Stage Comments: Long time listener (of OCR), first time submitter. I wanted to do a rock interpretation of one of my favorite VG soundtracks, Mega Man 2. I chose Heat Man's theme for two reasons. First, it was challenging. The song is very short compared to most of the other Robot Master themes; this meant I had to be more liberal and dynamic with my arrangement in order to keep the song interesting. It's also a little bit out of my comfort zone, musically; a few of the songs from Mega Man translate very easily into rock, but Heat Man's theme is almost like drum-and-bass (in my opinion). The second reason I chose this song was because it was one of Mega Man 2's less-frequently remixed songs. I thought it deserved some love! I hope you enjoy. Guitars were done using an Axe-FX II, and drums were done on a Roland TD-10 (with Addictive Drums). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted August 1, 2012 Author Share Posted August 1, 2012 The leads sounded a bit ahead of the bass and the beat overall, and the rest of the performances sounded fine, if a bit plain. The arrangement concept is good, but I think the execution is a bit too repetitive, and the beat gets stale fast. Adding some fills and mixing up the beat would do a lot for keeping the song sounding fresh. The rhythm guitars are blocked out in a simple powerchord whole note progression which could have been made a lot more exciting with some extra rhythm; have them play along with the drums for some parts, or double the bassline. Overall this is a good foundation, but a lot of details and interest needs to be added. The idea of the slow build to the end was a good idea, but the drums should have built too, for more excitement. I hope you keep working on this one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Andrew said a lot of what I have to say. What sticks out to me the most is the rhythm guitars and their frankly boring straight chords. As-is they sound like they're a little loud in the mix, but I don't know if it's just because of how plain they are or if it's a balance issue. I also will echo OA on the drums; they could use some more fills and change-ups to enhance your arrangement. Overall you've got some fun ideas on how to add to Heatman's theme, but I do think that things get a bit repetitive. Some kind of structure change like a breakdown might help vary things up, and possibly taking out some of the parts that are similar will help that repetitious feel. The ending also feels a bit sudden and out of place from the rest of the mix. I'd work on a better transition to what you've got already or consider something else. Hope I didn't come off as too harsh here, I think you've got a great start to a mix, but this one needs some work before it's a pass. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 This gets really messy really fast. It's right when the guitars start playing sustained chords that everything starts mashing together. You've got a ton of guitars all sitting in the same space, all vying for attention. There is no balance here at all. Chiptune intro is hokey and totally unnecessary too. Drums get really repetitive and your bass starts doing something loud and weird around 2:30. The arrangement itself is pretty repetitive. You've got about 1 minute's worth of material stretched out to three minutes. The solo is too early in the mix and there's a lot of repetitive material after it. A solo is what you use to break out of an established pattern to keep things fresh. Using it so early means you've already run out of ideas. Not good. You need to look at a bunch of things with this mix; instrumentation and mixing as well as part-writing and the construction of the piece. Needs a lot of work, IMO. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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