Pokemon-Vermilion City...Vermillion-aire?

[YoshiBlade]

So remix of Vermilion City here, huge departure from the normal here, Posted 2 remixes with no feedback and now I'm dredging up musical madness, from the deepest recesses of my battered brain made crazy by 3 weeks with no critiques on the other mixes I posted. Don't believe me Im losing my musical mind? Then this track should clear up any linger doubts of my instrumental insanity I'll even throw in some gibberish free of charge....."PokeMon?!?! Pokemon?!?!? With the Poke- and-the-Mon and Waug-Uag-uag-uag-uag!!!"

Remix- https://soundcloud.com/yoshiblade1/verm

[Skrypnyk]

Calm down there Cosby, feedback is on the way. (If my internet feels like working)

Neat beat. 1:00~ sounds really awesome.

Wow, colour me impressed.

This is pretty great stuff. I was a little concerned with 0:22~0:53 upon first listen. The arpy popcorn synth seemed like it was just playing random notes. It still kinda does after a few more listens. It feels like a weird transitional piece from :22-:53.

Your soundscape after :53 is fantastic though. Cutting out various instruments, feedback delays, panning, love it love it love.

The popcorn returns at 1:59~, repeating essentially what played at :22. Again, feels weird. I'm guess that that is the source of the original arrangement? I played pokemon so I thought I would be familiar with the original source but I keep listening to these sections and they keep feeling slight weird and aren't bringing back nostalgic memories.

and that is really my only grip with this. The popcorn synth melody just seems a little too random, it isn't playing something that is easily accessible or catchy, I'm guessing it has to do with the original source melody and how that was written. It's a shame I'm not more familiar with the source material.

[timaeus222]

Yeah, what is with 0:22 - 0:53? I don't hear Vermilion City in there, I hear a vague interpretation of the credits theme, I suppose---not that close, though IMO. I'd consider that both original and unfocused. Instead of a call-and-response type of melody, you have a call-and-call type of melody. You started half an idea, then repeated it rather than finishing it, so it doesn't resolve.

I don't really hear Vermilion City anywhere, actually, until 1:36 - 1:59, in the background, barely. Yeah, this sounds pretty liberal. The kick is a little strong in the fundamental. Nice otherwise. Seems like your best soundscape so far, despite this being pretty original.

Edited October 27, 2014 by timaeus222

[YoshiBlade]

Sanity......returning....the fog that clouds my mind.....lifting......the urge to buy extended warranties.....vanishing. Ok so GB version of Vermillion City, clocks in at just about 126 BPM, The remix clocks in at 90 BPM so that is Strike 1 for the distance from original. The Vermilion City theme starts in a :22 trading the "Horse riding, Giddyap!" western style of the original for a more relaxed easy going chip sound, Strike 2. GB tracks are simple creatures,so the hook had better be simple and identifiable, Strike 3. The body of the source material is mostly in the Popcorn and the up-and-down chugging chip synth that starts at 1:58, with some flares here and there, does it make the source more identifiable? Either way, I set out to make an omelet, got scrambled eggs....still good though.

"Seems like your best soundscape so far, despite this being pretty original."

"Cutting out various instruments, feedback delays, panning, love it love it love."

Thanks you Timaeus, Thank you Skypnyk. I really am driven to remix VGM, for that sake of remixing, so it feels good, to have made something good, but I can't help but feel like I set out to climb Mt. Everest and ended up on the peak next to Everest, equally high altitude, just not Everest. Either way Thank you for the feedback!

[timaeus222]

Sanity......returning....the fog that clouds my mind.....lifting......the urge to buy extended warranties.....vanishing. Ok so GB version of Vermillion City, clocks in at just about 126 BPM, The remix clocks in at 90 BPM so that is Strike 1 for the distance from original. The Vermilion City theme starts in a :22 trading the "Horse riding, Giddyap!" western style of the original for a more relaxed easy going chip sound, Strike 2. GB tracks are simple creatures,so the hook had better be simple and identifiable, Strike 3. The body of the source material is mostly in the Popcorn and the up-and-down chugging chip synth that starts at 1:58, with some flares here and there, does it make the source more identifiable? Either way, I set out to make an omelet, got scrambled eggs....still good though.

The different BPM doesn't make it unrecognizable by itself. It's the notes you chose and the order in which you arranged them that did it. The 'style' you reinterpreted in also has nothing to do with its connection to the source. Still the notes you chose and the order in which you arranged them. The interpretation also doesn't have to be butt-simple despite it being of a Game Boy tune, as long as it reminds someone of the source tune.

(Since 1:58 sounds like 0:22, the recognizability doesn't change between them)

Basically, it seems like you arranged the notes in a way that feels circular in its flow. If we presuppose that you picked the first melody to use at 0:22 and 1:58, then it sounds like you took its first half, took a few notes out (let's say the first few), added a few original notes around them (i.e. left and right sides), and repeated them like a polymeric chain rather than just taking the entire melody and changing the singular notes in the melody that make it most memorable into little fills here and there.

tl;dr: you overmodified the connection to the source tune. I'm not suggesting "keep it simple", but try referencing the source tune as you keep modifying your interpretation of it and check to see if it still sounds similar enough that you can tell you're listening to the original in some form.

----

Let's assume the first note is a C and we're in a C Major scale for Vermilion City.

Then the first half of the first melody is:

C _ F E D _ C-D E _ (

where _ = some sort of rest and hyphens refer to connected eighth notes.

The second half of the first melody is:

C _ F E D _ C-D C _ (

)

So the 'call' in the 'call-and-response' is C _ F E D _ C-D E _ , and the 'response' is C _ F E D _ C-D C _ . The only difference is that the D resolves to a C, the root in the key, whereas if it tried to resolve to an E, people naturally want to hear another half to the melody to finish it; i.e. it feels incomplete.

One way you can simplify the melody is if you decided to take out the [C-D] in the call or response. The only thing that's different is that there's no more D as a neighboring tone, and there's no C that connects to the neighboring tone, so you go from a three-note phrase to one long single note.

Since the [C-D E] and [C-D C] are what change in the melody between call and response, [F E D] is memorable. So, if you decided to take out the [F E] and make it just a long D, it sounds like a different melody with the differences between the call and response portion of it retained. It's sounding less like the original now. It gets into more of a gray area already. If you take out both [F E] and [C-D], all you have left is:

Original

C _ F E D _ C-D E _

C _ F E D _ C-D C _

Modified

C _ D___ _ C___ _

C _ D___ _ C___ _

That's oversimplified. You can see that it's just three notes, which could correspond to any game in the world. Now if you modified it in this way:

Original

C _ F E D _ C-D E _

C _ F E D _ C-D C _

Modified

C _ G F E _ C-D E D

C _ G F E _ C-D C D

It starts to sound more like the first half (the memorable part vs. the portion of difference between the call/response) of Final Fantasy 6 Setzer's Theme at 0:14 - 0:18. i.e. you would have changed the melody and made it recognizable as a different melody.

Edited October 27, 2014 by timaeus222

[YoshiBlade]

This is the feedback I strive for, and thrive on. It was not my intention to make it seems like the 3 strikes were on your feedback, so if that what you felt I apologize. I was illustrating after looking at the mix, there were 3 points that ,at first glance, would not be readily apparent and may come into focus after the fact, but the nature of any art is that the audience will have the final word. As a side note the version I was remixing is the GB version, It is uncanny how the remix sounds like I'm try to emulate the GBA version, especial with those bass and toms, it was not my intention.

GB -

( the paper notation I found says 126-BPM, but the actually music feels closer 123) I prefer the electronic clarity of this version.

GBA-version drops the BPM down to 116-ish adding some layers and small changes, TBH its sounds muddy, like it was recorded through a can...not my first choice for a source.

The GB version, again, the song is really only 40 seconds and after looking at the sequencer I did indeed leave off one of the four tracks so it may not be as pronounced, but the piano roll looks very cut and paste-ish, very similar to the original with few modifications , but I now see how it might not sound similar. Thank you Timaeus thorough feedback is what makes my music better.

P.s Polymer science? Chemist or Chemistry Major? Chemistry was a former hobby, so erie good call on the comparison.

[timaeus222]

P.s Polymer science? Chemist or Chemistry Major? Chemistry was a former hobby, so erie good call on the comparison.

I did a Copper-Pyrazine Metal-Ligand polymer lab a few weeks ago, so I guess I had that on my mind. I'm a Chemistry Major.

Edited October 27, 2014 by timaeus222