Mega Man: The Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet 2013

[DarkeSword]

Btw, I still don't see where this is written in the rules...maybe I'm completely missing it, but I can kind of understand why people thought they had an extra day last week

It's actually written in the first post. I make sure to always post the exact date and time when voting is ending. This is something I've been doing for a couple of years now.

[shadow24]

Thanks Darke for giving us an easy key to transpose to this round

[Magnetic Ether]

It's actually written in the first post. I make sure to always post the exact date and time when voting is ending. This is something I've been doing for a couple of years now.

Okay, I see it now. I couldn't find it before because I was looking under the voting section and in the social group. Ooops!

[Garpocalypse]

Listening Party going on now at #WCRG on esper

GET IN HERE!

[orlouge82]

I'm just going to go ahead and throw it out there, because I'm sure a lot of us have been thinking it. Are we going to get the Moon Stage from NES DuckTales?

Thanks, Darke!

Also, although I haven't gotten through everyone's mixes from this week yet, they all sound amazing so far. Great birthday present!

In the past in these compos, less than 50% of a given week's mixes found their way into my playlists in the long-term. Not true with this compo so far. I really hope everyone's able to keep up (or, even better, build up) the momentum. Also, Ecto, I can smell the Morse juices dripping off of your mix. I hope you took a shower afterwards.

Very excited to see what everyone comes up with The Moon stage next week (particularly excited to see what Wildfire comes up with, since I especially enjoy her mixes)!!

[SilvernixSP]

yo Darke, in the readme.txt you write 13 of 14 teams submitted remixes when it should have been 14 of 14, just want to let you know.

By the way, I have read the reviews and it was really interesting, I'm already working on that key signature thing and will try harder.

One person said I was using FL FPC default sample for my drum and he guest right, lol, ok, I try something else and better for the next time I will remix.

Finally, thanks Darke for the help with your 4 man combo tips, thats going to help me to not put 2 bass that are kinda fighting together. Will work also more on my percussion to try to make them less repetitive.

[Theory of N]

I'm disappointed it's the Moon instead of like...the Himalayas. But oh well. Now you guys are in trouble. I'm pulling out the big guns.

[Sir_NutS]

This round is really really solid. Good work everyone.

Lyrics:

(Chorus)

Use your powers to make things right

Protecting all of us

From the darkness into the light

Lets get dangerous

(Verse 1)

Girl, you touch me right

You take me from dark to light

Feeling, my balls are steamin

Gotta win the fight (of love)

Can you feel the love, the love (yeah)

(Verse 2)

I got with you when the feeling was right

Left with nothing you short changed my life

Don't know what to do I've still got feelings for you

But time has passed and the feeling is through

[timaeus222]

I posted my entry on soundcloud if anyone wants a higher encoding.

I was about to say something about 50/50 source usage since a lot of people seem to take that into account when voting, because this ties in VERY closely with "creating a good piece of music". But, that's nowhere in the rules. It just says the sources need to be integrated well. For my track, for instance, there's more Tengu man than the other source (probably somewhere around 65/35). But I wasn't about to try to force in more of the other for the sake of source usage and completely fuck my own structure. So I think people need to take that into account when voting too - 50/50 isn't in the rules. That being said, it'd be kind of stupid if someone went like, 90/10 or something, but just bear in mind that forcing one source into another when it doesn't want to go is NOT for the better of the piece.

Agreeing with this. I had 70/30 Darkwing Duck to Junk Man, so there. I kept Junk Man in there and well-distributed for most of the track though.

Edited July 29, 2013 by timaeus222

[DarkeSword]

I'm pretty much in agreement with Jameson; the idea, imo, should be to create a good piece of music and grow as musicians and producers. Some of the rules hinder this a bit

I was about to say something about 50/50 source usage since a lot of people seem to take that into account when voting, because this ties in VERY closely with "creating a good piece of music". But, that's nowhere in the rules. It just says the sources need to be integrated well. For my track, for instance, there's more Tengu man than the other source (probably somewhere around 65/35). But I wasn't about to try to force in more of the other for the sake of source usage and completely fuck my own structure. So I think people need to take that into account when voting too - 50/50 isn't in the rules. That being said, it'd be kind of stupid if someone went like, 90/10 or something, but just bear in mind that forcing one source into another when it doesn't want to go is NOT for the better of the piece.

Yeah. I want to emphasize this. The point is not to have 50/50 balance, but to use elements from both pieces meaningfully.

[DarkeSword]

[ectogemia]

Source breakdown:

0:00-0:25: original

0:25-1:00: one of the organs is playing the first half of the Cold Man melody almost verbatim, albeit they're arranged as the root notes of various funky chords

1:00-1:52: Moliarty's Tower theme with some embellishments and harmonic interpretation + additional wankery and ornaments + the alt#9 chord in the turnaround that my Robot Master's theme and Moliarty's Tower both coincidentally share.

1:52-2:24: Cold Man's melody played as in 0:25-1:00, but everything is modulated up a minor 3rd. Original trumpet solo.

2:24-2:49: reharmonizing of the 2nd part of Cold Man with the Cold Man melody via trumpeto

Yeah!

Edited July 29, 2013 by ectogemia

[Jivemaster]

Yeah. I want to emphasize this. The point is not to have 50/50 balance, but to use elements from both pieces meaningfully.

Lol now you tell them Darke XD

[SuperiorX]

Oh wow, yeah there are are A LOT of solid tracks this round!! It's going to be hard for me to pick which ones to vote for! I'll definitely try to post some quick reviews later this week because I feel bad for not doing it last week, and I know personally I like hearing what people have to say. But yeah, great job everybody!

I also posted my song to Soundcloud in 320kbps in case anyone was interested: https://soundcloud.com/superiorx/lights-out

I was definitely going for a more smooth funky vibe, which I think I pulled off well. When I showed it to Amphibious earlier in the week he said it sounded like an 80s crime drama theme song, haha

Edited July 29, 2013 by SuperiorX

[Brandon Strader]

Why do we gotta submit as WAVs instead of MP3? Are you gonna secretly try to make an album out of this or something?

[timaeus222]

I was definitely going for a more smooth funky vibe, which I think I pulled off well. When I showed it to Amphibious earlier in the week he said it sounded like an 80s crime drama theme song, haha

Actually, I was somewhat thinking it had a Phoenix Wright vibe, so that isn't too far off.

Also, I thought about the arrangements a little bit more, and I changed my vote after hearing my top choice mixes again.

Edited July 29, 2013 by timaeus222

[Gario]

Man. Once the next block rolls around, I really need to figure out a way to teach some of you guys about identifying the keys of the songs you're remixing and putting both tracks in the same key for your remix. Also need to get some of you guys past just doing two separate remixes and tacking them together; remember, the goal is to make one cohesive song. Someone unfamiliar with the sources should not really be able to tell that you remixed two piece of music together.

I want this year's WCRG to be a lot more educational. Maybe a bunch of us (noobs and vets alike) can all sit down in a Google Hangout during round 4 and talk about arrangement techniques, sort of a Wily Castle Master Class. Interested?

If you need help with that, I'm down with giving some help in that area.

Also, yay, moon.

[timaeus222]

I want this year's WCRG to be a lot more educational. Maybe a bunch of us (noobs and vets alike) can all sit down in a Google Hangout during round 4 and talk about arrangement techniques, sort of a Wily Castle Master Class. Interested?

Yeah, I'd be down for that. I've got some good tips I could share.

Edited July 29, 2013 by timaeus222

[MindWanderer]

I was really hoping for the African Mines, I had a good idea for that one. Depending on how the rest of this compo works out, I may do it anyway someday. But I have a pretty decent idea for The Moon, too.

Also need to get some of you guys past just doing two separate remixes and tacking them together; remember, the goal is to make one cohesive song. Someone unfamiliar with the sources should not really be able to tell that you remixed two piece of music together.

My way of thinking about it has always been:

• Someone unfamiliar with either source shouldn't be able to tell which parts are from which source, or even that two sources were used.
  
• Someone familiar with both sources should be able to pick out which parts are from which sources without the use of a breakdown.
  
• Someone familiar with one source but not the other shouldn't be able to tell which parts are from the source they don't know and which, if any, are completely original.
  

I want this year's WCRG to be a lot more educational. Maybe a bunch of us (noobs and vets alike) can all sit down in a Google Hangout during round 4 and talk about arrangement techniques, sort of a Wily Castle Master Class. Interested?

I doubt I'd be able to fit that into my schedule, but I'd love to listen to it afterwards. I can get things into the same key by ear most of the time, but I don't always know what key I've gotten them into. And chords are the same but harder.

[Troyificus]

That's amazing. The final round requirement should be that every team has to do this for the group remix

[Tuberz McGee]

Well I'm up this week.

Needless to say I'm freaking excited. <3

Let's bring my A-game.

[Troyificus]

Well fuck. Just listened to my submission and found that I left a scrap piece of music at the end. So much fail!

[ectogemia]

I doubt I'd be able to fit that into my schedule, but I'd love to listen to it afterwards. I can get things into the same key by ear most of the time, but I don't always know what key I've gotten them into. And chords are the same but harder.

Sounds like a little music theory would set ya straight

There's a limited number of chords out there (if we're keeping things simple), and scales follow consistent patterns of intervals. Spend a week or so really drilling the intervals found in basic triads and 7th chords and also common scales like the major scale, minor scale, harmonic minor scale, and pentatonic/blues scale. That should make it pretty simple to identify the key of a song and even to figure out the chords. Each chord has a "quality" to it (major/happy vs. minor/sad) as well, so that helps to narrow down which chord is being used in a piece of source material (are you hearing a happpy or sad-sounding chord? The answer will narrow down the notes/intervals which can be in the chord). Checking out the figured bass/Roman numeral system of chords in a scale is a really helpful tool when writing chords because it puts each chord in a natural scale into context with respect to "quality".

So a major scale is w-w-h-w-w-w-h (w = whole step; h = half step), and the figured bass representation of the triad chord scale (playing the scale in order where each tone is the root of a triad) would be I-ii-iii-IV-V-vi-viio where a capital is a major traid, a lower-case is a minor triad, and the o means it's a diminished triad. 95% of the time, when the chord changes, the next note in the melody is going to be either the root or 3rd of the chord beneath it, sometimes the 5th or 7th, but only occasionally a different interval. Things get dicier when you add in 7ths, but with triads, that's nearly always true. The biggest exception to that is probably suspensions in which the melody or chord may have a 2nd or 4th instead of a 3rd going on until the suspension resolves into a 3rd.

Ok, I'm babbling at this point, but you catch my drift. Also keep in mind that the last point I tried to make about deriving the chord from the melody isn't always going to work in more creatively composed pieces Gotta develop that ear to really hone in what you're hearing/writing. Myself, I improvised on piano a ton after I posted my first terrible remix in the workshop forum a couple of years ago to develop my ear to become a more competent musician. Nothing is more important than the ability to make sense of the music you hear through your ears and in your head.

Edited July 29, 2013 by ectogemia

[DarkeSword]

Someone familiar with both sources should be able to pick out which parts are from which sources without the use of a breakdown.

Yes.

I saw a couple of guys posting breakdowns once voting started for Round 2. Honestly, you shouldn't have to justify your arrangement by explaining it; the arrangement should be enough on its own. People should be able to listen to the song and hear the source usage.

I was talking to Larry about this a few nights ago in the Judges Chat. We were judging remixes and I had to vote NO on a piece that sounded fantastic but was incredibly liberal on the source usage. It was very disappointing actually, and I said to Larry, "Man, I know OCR is about arrangement and reinterpretation, but sometimes I want to tell these guys to stop trying so hard and reign it in a little."

I want you guys to be careful about going so far down Arrangement Road™ that you feel like you need to start writing out breakdowns every week just to justify your interpretations. Voters shouldn't have to listen to your remixes while reading the play-by-play to just get an accurate picture of your source usage.

Please keep in mind that I'm not saying, "Don't post breakdowns." That's silly, and you're free to do so if you wish; it can be valuable to other artists to understand the techniques you're using. But don't write a liberal arrangement, post a breakdown, and then be disappointed when voters don't "get" what you were doing.

[DarkeSword]

Why do we gotta submit as WAVs instead of MP3? Are you gonna secretly try to make an album out of this or something?

You submit WAVs so that I can encode everything consistently.