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Mega Man & Sonic the Hedgehog - Blue Bomber Blue Blur Collision Competition

DarkeSword

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Ethan Rex Newbie

Ethan Rex

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REVIEW GET!

Yami - very very tame throughout, intro takes a bit longer than I wanted. Try to build to a musical climax to catch interest. Sonically i think you can spread the sounds out to make the mix less muddy. Diggin some of the pad work, this mix just needs some work in order to bring out some of the sounds.

Tuberz - Solid guitar work throughout, and the piece flows nicely in terms of arrangement - I'm diggin the variation and nothing sounds too awkward except for what mindwanderer said about the last verse.

jnWake - oh hell yeah this is groovy, i'm diggin the string stabs, but i'm not diggin the panning on some of the leads - it seems a tad too right with not enough on the other side to balance it out. I'm loving the synths you have as I always do. Things stay relatively the same throughout, and while I would've appreciated a few more change-ups, this is a good track.

MindWanderer - nice dark/eastern instrumentation at the beginning. After the intro, the soundscape gets a little bare, and like with jnWake's track, I think there's a little too much panning in the leads with not enough to counterbalance it in the same frequency spectrum. Things change up to keep it interesting, but I would've liked some more transitions as well as a musical climax (things stay at relatively the same level of intensity throughout).

Cosmic Sounds - also some nice dark sounds here in the beginning, the high strings sound a TAD humanized but considering the time constraints its pretty good. Piano is a nice changeup but sounds out of place sonically - it seems like it has a high pass filter on it that i'm not diggin. Would've liked a stronger ending as well.

Mr. L - I always love your pads, and your intro is pretty solid. Kick seems a bit too strong at places. Nice overall soundscape but it's hard to peg a distinct melody. Fade-out ending is done quickly and is kinda meh.

Cash and Change - Soundscape sounds kinda empty, which makes the panning on the bass sound awkward - I typically wouldn't pan basses as they are normally the foundation of a mix. First transition is solid, the second one is a little awkward and seems to come out of nowhere. Source usage is apparent but I would've liked a little more mixing of the two.

Source usage on my track for the convenience of the masses

That Toxic Caves intro is pretty much all the way through

:19 starts the Turbo Man Melody with the Spinball Bass

:38 the bass takes the Turbo Man Melody and Spinball is in the chip lead

:51 is that sweet bridge section in Turbo Man with spinball in the background

1:38 Turbo Man is the foundation for the bass solo

2:03 repeat of turbo man in the bass

2:17 E Piano is playing the Turbo Man bridge

Also it may just be me, but I'm not hearing the spectrum extremes, especially the bass part, but that might be my ears/headphones.

ANYWAY, good job to all those who submitted.

I should be able to pump out something this week.

I look forward to it ;-)

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Cash Newbie

Cash

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Thanks for the reviews! I just didn't have enough time to spend on my remix, this week should be better! I threw my mix together without much thought, I wanted to at least turn in something. That's why I named my remix "Quicker Than Marbles", because I made it so fast.

Edited by Cash
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Mr. L Newbie

Mr. L

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Thank you everyone for the comments / critiques! :smile:

I was quite fixated on the soundscape in this one, but unfortunately the melody didn't get the attention it needed; sorry about that one. :(

As for the kick drums - while I was listening to the song, I wasn't able to quite as clearly hear the kick drums in certain parts (despite being pretty sure I was using a high pass filter on everything 'on top'), so I tried layering another kick in those areas; at that point, it sounded "right", but... I guess that made it *too strong. :(

And for the sudden fade out... I had no idea what to do beyond there (as I mentioned earlier, I *did have a couple more ideas, but wasn't quite able to get them to work out)... so yeah. :neutral:

Okay, I've got some notes for my revisiting of this one!

Once again, thanks for all of the comments!

Edited by Mr. L
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WiFiSunset Newbie

WiFiSunset

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Cosmic Sounds - Rather slow and dramatic, this one. Fitting given the name, I suppose. Very deliberate pacing, though. Sounds like the soundtrack to an old movie, to be honest. Tough call here.

Thanks!

I always try to make sure that the name of my songs match the feeling that they give.

Soul Aquas: Nice harmonies on the low end. Definitely going to try for that myself in the upcoming rounds. Aquatic Base is so minimalistic that when you arrange it at all liberally, it instantly becomes unrecognizable, and I think that happened here. Not a fan of that ending, it feels like you kind of ran out of ideas. Overall a really lovely piece, though, I look forward to hearing more like it. I appreciate the chance to go up against you, and hope to do it again!

Having played the cello for so many years definitely helps when it comes to harmonies xD. Try thirds or fourths when it comes to harmonies on the low end, this isn't always the case, but it helps give the low end some substance :).

The ending was more of an "outlook toward the future" feel. I actually finished this 2 days before the deadline, so, it is finished xD. (I just, work really fast when it comes to Orchestra :)).

I'm glad that you liked it, and you will hear more just like it throughout this competition.

Now, if only I can find some solo cello and violin soundfonts......

REVIEW GET!

Cosmic Sounds - also some nice dark sounds here in the beginning, the high strings sound a TAD humanized but considering the time constraints its pretty good. Piano is a nice changeup but sounds out of place sonically - it seems like it has a high pass filter on it that i'm not diggin.

Wow....good ear in regards to hearing the high pass on the piano :). I may post this in the WIP Forum later, and really would like to know which sections are humanized; and how I could fix that, Thanks.

As for source usage:

00:00 - 00:49 is Aquatic Base (just like the ending)

00:50 - 1:22 is Mega Water S

1:37 - 2:10 is Aquatic Base

2:13 - 2:30 is Mega Water S

and 2:31 - (the end) is Aquatic Base

I'll post my reviews later.

Edited by Cosmic Sounds
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jnWake Contributor

jnWake

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It's review time!

Yami - Intro Kick is a bit too agressive when compared to the rest. Can't recognize any source until 0:57. Lead at 1:32 is a bit drowned (and some of the bends are a bit risky, almost off-key). To be honest, the mix isn't very interesting, but it doesn't sound bad at all.

Tuberz McGee - Love the intro! Nice rocking guitars. The kick drum feels a bit sloppy. Prison Lane is clear in the intro. The transition to Needle Man is very natural. You mixed the sources pretty well, nice job!

Mr. L - Nice pad the intro, seems to be typical of you :-P. Heavy dissonance at 0:23... I don't agree with the lack of melody mentioned by others, piano takes care of it nicely in my opinion. Biggest criticism would be that the pads drown out the rest of the instruments a bit too much during the mix.

By the way, if you feel the kick drum is hard to notice, try two things: sidechaining and boosting the higher frequencies. It's almost silly how much the kick gains with a good click.

therex - Nice song! Ridiculously energetic :-P You went a bit overboard with the delays in my opinion though. Also, the first transition to Turbo Man's C section is a bit too sudden. The solo is super fun!

Cash and Change - For some reason your opponents never show up (like in the Maverick competition!). This is mainly Marble Zone and also mainly a bass... There's some terrible dissonance when Quick Man starts fading in, you should just transpose the song to another key instead of forcing it in its original key. Overall, this sounds like you grabbed a midi of Marble Zone and one of Quick Man and just put one after the other...

MindWanderer - Distortion guitar sounds straight from MMX3 :-P This could really use some pads to create a more interesting mood, it feels really empty now. Bass at 2:48 seems a bit off. Overall, it sounds very empty all the time, drums aren't very powerful and there's nothing that gels the mix together.

Cosmic Sounds - Interesting mood created at the beggining, even with the not very good string sounds. The piano with delay was a nice experiment. Mega Water S sounds very unfitting with the slow mood of the song though.

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Cash Newbie

Cash

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Cash and Change - For some reason your opponents never show up (like in the Maverick competition!). This is mainly Marble Zone and also mainly a bass... There's some terrible dissonance when Quick Man starts fading in, you should just transpose the song to another key instead of forcing it in its original key. Overall, this sounds like you grabbed a midi of Marble Zone and one of Quick Man and just put one after the other...

Like I said, I ran out of time to do anything descent. For a while I didn't think I'd even submit anything, I threw something together at the last minute. Though of course your criticisms are completely valid.

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Mr. L Newbie

Mr. L

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It's review time!

Mr. L - Nice pad the intro, seems to be typical of you :-P. Heavy dissonance at 0:23... I don't agree with the lack of melody mentioned by others, piano takes care of it nicely in my opinion. Biggest criticism would be that the pads drown out the rest of the instruments a bit too much during the mix.

By the way, if you feel the kick drum is hard to notice, try two things: sidechaining and boosting the higher frequencies. It's almost silly how much the kick gains with a good click.

Thank you for the comments, jnWake! :smile:

I love using a pad as an intro - to me it just sets up the atmosphere / soundscape for the rest of the song; at this point, it's pretty much a tradition. :P

And thanks for the tips on the kick drum - I'll have to try that if the issue arises again!

Once again, thank you!

Edit: Ah... dissonance... :(

Can't believe I missed that...

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Rexy Contributor

Rexy

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Gotta have to say, there's been some solid efforts sent through for Round 1! I can definitely see there being a close call for the therex / jnWake matchup - in fact both entries surprised me a lot - but otherwise it's very thrilling stuff! I'm going to pimp a few entries on SEGA Mixer Drive tomorrow, and will continue to keep an eye on the contest's development throughout its run.

In vote related news, Tuberz still needs to vote in the other two matchups for his vote in his own to be counted. Get on it, skipper! :P

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Ethan Rex Newbie

Ethan Rex

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I just sent him a message on Facebook reminding him of this.

Plus, the Turbo Man in the Toxic Cave matchup is currently tied, so there's that too.

1) Tuberz votes for one person

2) Darkesword votes for the other

3) The compo explodes in mutual victory

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Cash Newbie

Cash

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Mine is coming along reasonably well. Production still isn't nearly where I'd like it to be, but it's an improvement over my previous efforts, due in part to some advice from a hedgehog who will remain nameless. It'll be a fun listen, I think.

Yeah, get ready, mine is coming together nicely. Don't be fooled by my last entry, I put in enough time this round.

EDIT:

By the way, DarkeSword, is the art in the first post meant to be a signature? Also, any chance we could get a separate image for each team?

Edited by Cash
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Xarnax42 Newbie

Xarnax42

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Looks like I'll be working off the laptop for the whole compo... :( The really sad part is that I haven't found a setup with this one to record usable vocals. Was hoping to have a couple vocal tracks over the next few weeks, but now I don't know if I'll be able to. Another long week at work, but I'm off now through Monday, so I should be able to make a reasonable showing these next two rounds.

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WiFiSunset Newbie

WiFiSunset

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Everyone had a lot of great mixes this Round. I'll try to post my reviews in this post tomorrow, but I will say that jnWake and therex's song will be extremely hard to make a decision on. They're both Excellent.

Edit: I'll try to do some reviews for Round 2 when the mixes come out. Since I wasn't fully able to for Round 1. Some comments that I can think of off the top of my head.

jnWake: You're mix is fantastic. It makes me think of Turbo Man driving with the sun setting in the background. I'm definitely going to check out that chord.

Mr.L: You're mix is extremely ambient, and I like the pads and kicks in it. One of my favorites from this Round! :)

MindWanderer: I find it interesting that our songs opened out in pretty much the same way xD. I like the Ethnic instrument in the beginning, an ehru I believe. Overall it's a great piece. :) Also, I'm curious about the title of your song, is it a reference to someone/thing? I'm curious to know.

Myself: I forgot to reverb the strings xD, which is why the piano may sound out of place sonically.

Out of curiosity; Could my song make it on OCR? (arrangement-wise). I may post it in the Workshop later on.

Edited by Cosmic Sounds
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Ethan Rex Newbie

Ethan Rex

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It looks like Theory of N isn't going to be able to get a track in this week, either. :? Apparently, squirrels invaded his house so he hasn't been on his PC in a while. He'll elaborate on what exactly that means when he makes his triumphant return.

I'm brimming with anticipation

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Tuberz McGee Newbie

Tuberz McGee

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It looks like Theory of N isn't going to be able to get a track in this week, either. :? Apparently, squirrels invaded his house so he hasn't been on his PC in a while. He'll elaborate on what exactly that means when he makes his triumphant return.

The squirrels should help him with his mix.

Everybody has to sample squirrels next round if we are to stand a chance.

Also, subbing now. :D

Hope y'all enjoy.

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