*NO* Mega Man 9 & Adventures in the Magic Kingdom 'Space Pirate Attack'

[Chimpazilla]

Remixer Name: KingTiger
Real Name: R. Corey Oltman
Email Address:
Website: KingTigerMusic.com
UserID: 13997

Names of Games Arranged: Mega Man 9 & Adventures in the Magic Kingdom
Name of Arrangement: Space Pirate Attack
Name of Individual Songs Arranged: Mega Man 9: Galaxy Fantasy (Galaxy Man stage); Adventures in the Magic Kingdom: Pirate Island
Additional Game Info for Adventures in the Magic Kingdom: system - NES; composer - Yoko Shimomura (my phone just tried to autocorrect "Yoko" to "Yolo" - epic fail); published 1990 by Capcom
Soundtrack for Adventures in the Magic Kingdom -

(you can ask DarkeSword all about it)

Link to ReMix:

Additional Comments: I made this mix for the WCRG 2013, and apparently, several people really liked it! I immediately put it up on the workshop forums and started getting some great feedback, which I put to good use. I then shelved the song for several months (as I did all my music projects, actually), and finally got back to work on it about a week and a half into the month of May. I spent a week gathering new feedback and making revisions before I was satisfied, and here it is! There's a wee bit of funk (and I do mean wee), and lots of aggressive builds and drums and so on. It hits hard and takes no prisoners (just like a space pirate)!

Now, the story behind WCRG 2013 is kinda interesting... First off, DarkeSword surprised everyone (and pissed off a good number of folks) by making the competition's participants mix their chosen sources with songs not from Mega Man games, but NES Disney games that Capcom had published. I myself (and I imagine some others) found the first Disney source (Pirate Island from Adventures in the Magic Kingdom) a bit difficult to work with, but I made the best of it, and everyone was pretty pleased with the results of their efforts, if not with the means by which it all happened. After the first block of the competition, everything returned to normal (as much as you can consider anything in that compo "normal"), and I later went on to write a well-received rap for block 3 about the whole thing.

(BTW, gotta give a shout out to my compo teammates, ladyWildfire and Sterling Ortiz! We were able to earn fourth place on the compo, thanks to our consolidated efforts. Also, anyone who reads this should also go check out *all* the great tracks from WCRG 2013: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44149 They're all great!)
Thanks,
~r. corey oltman, aka KingTiger

Edited May 13, 2015 by DragonAvenger

[Chimpazilla]

I find this to be a good mix of the two themes, nicely done there! I think that first kick hit is unnecessary. Drums are nice and punchy. Good mix of instruments, although sometimes the leads are a bit quiet, especially the square.

Good arrangement, good melodic variation in the writing. Nice use of glitching, subtle and effective and not overused. The wubs at 1:02 are so soft and quiet, I wish they had been more intense, but they are appropriate. I really like the final section beginning at 2:55, great soloing (and I love the widening at 3:17) and string stabs in the background. Overall, I like it.

edit 4-22-15: Since Larry disagreed with me so strongly I decided to listen again. I can see where he's coming from about the snare, it is a unique sound and is mixed in a sort of strange way, but I don't find it out of place with the other instrumentation. I don't agree that the beats are static, I hear lots of variation, especially in the kick, with the snare keeping the beat nicely. Sorry Larry, I am not sure why you think it plods? Maybe because the snare is so prominent (and oddly mixed) and it is the anchor element of the beat. (Ok listening AGAIN... I do hear that the same pattern has been used often, but it's a good pattern and it is broken up often with glitching or effects or other things. I had to listen quite closely to get "plodding" out of it.) [Haha Larry, this beat is to me as those chimes are to you!]

Anyway I do agree with Larry on two other counts, the track is dry overall and I wonder if that is what is causing the soundsape to sound thin. The synth choices are also on the generic side. But even with all of this said, I still think the track has a great level of creativity and what is here is mixed well even while being a bit on the dry side. These crits don't hold it back for me.

YES

Edited April 22, 2015 by Chimpazilla

[Liontamer]

Yikes. I usually enjoy Yoko Shimomura's work, but I definitely didn't like the "Pirate Island" theme. Not catchy at all. Anyway, I wasn't bothered by the opening kick, but I can see why anyone would recommend to get rid of it. Arrangement-wise, the basic source usage breakddown was...

MM9 - :13.75-:27, 1:02.25-1:42, 3:22.5-3:35.75

Magic Kingdom - :34.25-1:00.75, 1:42-2:27

Both (Magic Kingdom in foreground) 2:27-2:41

Both (equal levels) 2:41-2:54

Although Chimpa's down with it, I really disliked the drum tone at :33; it's punchy, but it sounds like there's a padding part missing to fill the gaps in the texture and keep the soundscape from sounding thin. IMO, the overall texture sounded sparse despite the volume and busyness of the other writing. Even when the additional supporting line joins in at :47, there's an overall emptiness to this piece due to the dry, hollow anchor beats. The two patterns they use are also very rigid, plus the beats are so exposed that it's easy to tell how repetitive it is, with it having the basically same two writing & velocity patterns for every measure during the verses and bridges.

Things got pretty cramped from 1:29-1:42; not a huge deal, but watch for things getting too cluttered. Not digging the Pirate Island section at 1:42-2:10, mainly because the theme is bleh (just personal taste), but because every part seems really dry. 2:27-onward sounded better with the added countermelodic line added to fill things out more, and also de-emphasize the rigid sound with the sequencing. Good dropoff idea at 2:41; it was a nice textural change. The combination of the MM9 and Magic Kingdom themes was super quiet and practically might as well have not been in there given the volume, but no big deal since both sources were used in spades elsewhere. Why bring back that dry drum groove at 2:54, when it's plodding and exposed?

I thought the synth design for some of the non-chiptune leads was on the vanilla side, but serviceable. The beats needs more of a snap to them, more variation, and some more spaciousness to their production, to click more with the other instrumentation. Some of the detail work on the production side isn't there, and I felt the overall execution was a step below where the bar is. IMO, this is a solid far-along late-stage work-in-progress-level piece, Corey, with an already solid arrangement, but give it more fine tuning. if this doesn't make it as is (which I think it shouldn't), you can still get it there.

NO

EDIT (4/22): Clarified that the snare pattern specifically was what was repetitive.

[Palpable]

Definitely not a fan of that snare. It doesn't sound very strong, and I think needed to be layered with something bigger in a track like this. When it's first used in the halftime section or in emptier sections, it's especially weak. With lots of other instruments in play, the snare isn't as bad, and I think it sounds perfect on fills, but it's not great overall. Everything else was solid. I didn't think the instrumentation was particularly inspired or out-there, but serviceable. Mixing of the two themes was good but the solo section was the only section that really captured my attention. I also wasn't bothered by any repetitiveness of the drums because it seemed like there were enough other elements to focus on. A little bit of a tough decision because the snare isn't a huge deal, but at the same time I'm not particularly wowed by anything here except the solo, so it stands out more. I think a great production can make up for a decent arrangement, and a great arrangement can make up for a decent production, but what I hear here is decent arrangement and production and it doesn't feel right to pass it. Sorry Corey.

 

NO (resubmit)

[zykO]

what stands out immediately is that you bedded the two sources together and came up with something that isn't an abomination! sometimes, the trick to merging multiple awkwardly fitting sources (as would be expected in a compo) is to give one the lead and let the other follow; the mix doesn't have to be 50-50 or fair (in other words, to hell with that annoying pirate island theme lol). you sorta did that...

what stands out in a not so good way is how boring the orchestration is :\ the track doesn't feel like it does anything or goes anywhere right from the get-go. then there's that snare. first of all, what snare? lol the only reason i know it's a snare is because it occupies the space where a snare normally would be but otherwise, i can't get with it; there's no pop to it. what's more problematic is that it plays a huge role in the beat, it basically carries it. not a good look. as far as the rest of the instrumentation, i'm not digging anything beyond the chip solo... which by the way, ROCKED. 

it is just lacking energy for a piece that basically needs it to function.

NO (resub)

[DragonAvenger]

In the end I'm agreeing with the no side that the instrumentation is kinda selling this track short. I think you did a great job merging the two sources so that they sound cohesive together as a piece, and the solo is definitely a great feature of the track. The instrumentation and dry soundscape really suck the energy out of the track, however, and I found it difficult to keep focus on it at times. I'd love to hear you use some other synths in here and maybe change up the leads to have a bit more power to them. I'm not really in favor or against the snare sound, though I think varying it along with some of the other instruments won't hurt you in any way, so if the other J's aren't feeling it might as well see if you can spruce it up a bit

 

Send this back!

 

NO (resubmit)