Chimpazilla Posted September 27, 2014 Share Posted September 27, 2014 (edited) ReMixer name: Amphibious Real name: Jordan Michael Reed Websites: http://amphibious.bandcamp.com/ https://soundcloud.com/jordan-reed UserID: 44489 ReMixer name: SuperiorX Real name: Matt Keller Website: https://soundcloud.com/superiorx UserID: 28286 Name of games arranged: Mega Man 4, Mega Man 6, Mega Man 9 Name of arrangement: Dynasty Name of individual songs arranged: Pharaoh Man Stage (MM4), End Credits (MM6), Plug Man (MM9), Jewel Man (MM9) Comments from Amphibious: The WCRG 2013 was a really exciting time. I had a blast making all of my arrangements, but this last one was certainly the one I was most happy with. I had a lot of themes to incorporate, and collaboration was encouraged, so I reached out to my teammates to get some material from them. Sadly Gario couldn't contribute any of his fantastic chip leads due to some time constraints, but I tried my best to makes some leads in his place! Jewel Man was his robot master and it was fun to work in. SuperiorX was able to contribute the pads and piano bits throughout, and what he did worked wonders for the overal sound of the mix. His robot master Plug Man was another great theme to add in. I'm very happy that my team members picked what they did, in the end I feel I was able to work all of our themes together in a coherent way, with some of their melodies weaving together at times. I tried a lot of new things with mixing, lead layering and the like in this mix, and I'm very happy with the results. I've always had a thing for chill, down-tempo mixes, but doing something upbeat and high energy like this was really fun and hopefully I can keep experimenting with new styles! It's been a while since I worked on this track and I needed to reorient myself with the sources myself For reference, the only part of the Mega Man 6 credits theme is from 3:04 - 4:42 in this video, since that's the part that Darkesword wanted us to use. 0:00 - The 3 note motif repeated in the piano throughout the intro uses the 3 note pattern of the Pharaoh Man bassline. 0:07 - Plug Man's main melody comes in harmonizing with the Pharaoh Man motif. 0:29 - 0:48 - Somewhat of a repeat, slowly building and adding little flourishes in the melody and such. 0:49 - 1:01 - First melody of the Megaman 6 credits theme. 1:02 - 1:16 - Melody is repeated, with a backing synth that is playing the bassline of Pharaoh Man in a higher register 1:17 - Pharaoh Man melody is used here, with a sort of liberal rhythmic alteration. 1:31 - Pharaoh Man melody continues, but with small parts of the Plug Man melody spliced in where there were rests before. I do this splicing of melodies together a few times in this song, and its a little hard to explain now that I'm trying to do so But I'm hoping you can hear what I mean. 1:45 - 2:00: The B-section Jewel Man melody comes in as the end of this sort of chorus section. 2:00 - 2:17: A reprise of the intro bit, shorter and with more melodic flourishes courtesy of Superior X. 2:18 - 2:46: The 2nd "verse", again using the first melody of the Mega Man 6 credits theme, with some slight variation on the ends of phrases. 2:47 - 3:01: The 2nd "chorus", but this time the roll of Pharaoh Man and Plug Man are reversed. First three notes of Plug Man happen, then Pharaoh Man interrupts with a quick motif. Then after then next few notes of Plug Man, it transitions into a part of the A section melody of Jewel Mans theme. This repeats twice. 3:01 - 3:15: The chorus ends the same way as the first time, using the B section of Jewel Man again. 3:16 - 3:45: This is the first time I use the B section of the MM6 Credits theme (Heard at 3:28 in the video I linked earlier in this message). I felt this acted as a good bridge section for the whole piece. 3:46 - 4:00 - This is a sort of climax part, I tried to do a cool guitar solo but its pretty minimal, and uses a part of the main Pharaoh Man melody that is echoed by some synths. There's also some liberal bass noodling for some reason. 4:00 - End - Another reprise of the opening, as it slowly fades away. I've never really done a full breakdown before so sorry if this is at all confusing! Let me know if further clarification is needed. Needless to say, after writing this all out I realize just how all over the place my source usage was. But I wanted to try mixing melodies together instead of just having one after another to make it more intricate. All the themes are used a fair bit throughout, they just have A LOT of interplay between them. A bit of a different writing style for me, but I like how it turned out! Hopefully it's all good for y'all. Thanks Comments from SuperiorX: This was the final mix for our team "The Beat Masters" in the WCRG 2013. Jordan asked me to contribute some pads and piano parts, and I was happy to oblige. Unfortunately due to time constraints I wasn't able to do as much I wanted, but luckily Jordan provided a solid starting point that I just expanded on a little bit. I ended up contributing the piano bits and the LFO and airy pads that you hear in the intro, the bridge (2:00 section), and the outro. I also layered a subtle synth instrument on top of the piano melody at 2:00 for a little extra pizazz. I'm really happy with how this track turned out and hope to collaborate with Jordan some more in the future! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MM4 Pharoh Man: MM6 end credits: MM9 Plug Man: MM9 Jewel Man: Edited October 29, 2014 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexstyle Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Oh man, this is tasty! I'm definitely hearing bits of everything in there, nice job combining all those sources. Dat snare is teh thickness, synths are on point, love all the noodly bits. Just a really nicely done package overall. I don't really have a whole lot to say for this one other than.... YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 (edited) Smooth intro. One thing I'll mention straight off the bat is the reverse hat that plays regularly every bar at the start (and through most of the mix) gets a little annoying, I think it is possibly mixed a little too loud. I'm not putting a major mark against the mix for it, I just wish it was softer and perhaps varied in tone a bit. Beyond that production quality is solid enough for me. This is a very Sonic sounding mix. The instrumentation is very nice. The synth leads and keys in particular work well together across this track. I really enjoyed the short lead guitar portions near the end as well, they were a nice change from all the synth work. Those kinds of changes should be implemented more often by artists, it keeps arrangements fresh. Speaking of the arrangement, I found the track quite interesting and varied. It did actually feel like it ended a little too soon for me, but leaving people wanting more isn't a bad thing. There are quite a few sources in here and I'm not having major problems hearing them, but I haven't done the math. I believe there is ample usage. Overall I'm quite happy with this track. YES Edited October 28, 2014 by Jivemaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 (edited) the reverse hat that plays regularly every bar at the start (and through most of the mix) gets a little annoying, I think it is possibly mixed a little too loud. Yeah I think that's an open hat, and I agree it is too prominent and loud. Also, I feel like the bass timbre's upper end conflicts sometimes with the other instrumentation, at 0:47 the bass crunch against the lead synth almost sounds distorted. I hear this issue in the densest sections, such as 0:47-1:16 and 2:18-3:13 and 3:16-3:45. Not a huge problem, just something I noticed. That upper end could be eq-automated down during the densest portions, that would help. The arrangement repeats itself, but you've added some sweet changes, solos, etc. keeping it fresh. I love the guitar solo, kinda wish there was more of it. Honestly I don't know these themes and I still need to really examine these sources. I'm going to do that before giving my final vote which will be YES. edit: silly me, I had the wrong source linked for the ending credits theme, no wonder I didn't recognize it, we all good now. Rather smart integration of these themes, respect! YES Edited October 29, 2014 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Just sanity checking the source usage. I didn't recognize some of the stated connections from Jordan, but I could ID just over half, so I'm cool with it. The track was 4:38-long, so I needed to confirm the source usage somewhere in at least 139 seconds of the track for the source usage to be dominant in the arrangement. :00-:01.5, :03.5-:05.25, :07-:12.25, :14.5-:16.25, :18.25-:19.75, :21.75-:27, :29-:30.75, :32.25-:34, :36.5-:41.25, :47-1:16, 1:45.5-1:49, 1:52.75-1:56.25, 2:00-2:01, 2:03.5-2:05, 2:07-2:12, 2:18-2:30.75, 2:32.5-2:47, 2:47-2:48.25, 2:54.5-2:56, 3:01.75-3:05.5, 3:09-3:12.5, 3:16.25-3:44.5, 3:49?, 3:59.75-4:01.75, 4:03.75-4:05, 4:07-4:12.25, 4:14.5-4:16.25, 4:17-4:18.5 = 142.5 seconds or 51.25% The groove was smoove, and the source tunes were bobbin' and weavin' throughout. Pretty cerebral stuff as far as examining the arrangement, but when it comes to the flow, it all melts like butter. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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