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Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015


DarkeSword
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I can't speak for anyone else, but while it was a very entertaining and creative run where we got to rickroll the rest of you for 9 weeks (high five to my Maverick Astley bros!), I'm also pretty beat and wouldn't mind a break. And a big shout out to Darkesword for again hosting a cool compo :)

 

Now all that's left is to vote for the last round, wonder how my team did in the rankings and polish up my songs and submit them before I start remixing some other tracks!

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This was a pretty fun compo. I got to try styles that I either hadn't done before or hadn't done in a long time. Surprisingly enough, 'Flight of the Peacock' was the track that took me the least time to write and finish (less than 20 hours???), and given that it's orchestral, it somehow took less effort than 'Mind Flip~', the metal/dubstep track I did, which took the most time (~36 hours) out of all three entries. :P By the way, I've since then updated 'Mind Flip~' (improved mixing, added variations after 2:30) and will definitely submit all three tracks to OCR. =D

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So I guess this is the postmortem, well I don't have much to add, other than some personal observations and feedback. I guess these larger community compos are a great tool for focusing one's energy on a given task. At first I really wasn't too keen on Toxic Seahorse, I 'm still  on the fence if the source material is a necessary component of good remixing ( will a track that appeals to you vs one that doesn't yield a better or worse track?), but the name of the game is resilience and improvisation in a timely manner and I'm mostly satisfied with what I pulled out of the source material. I feel that my tracks were underdeveloped, great starts or maybe chucks where I have an idea, but fail to be unified in a cohesive song.....real song composition, a good finished song, not great ideas strapped together. As for the the competition part of the competition, I wish there was a way to marry together the desire to win with the desire to learn production techniques. For me a big block was trying to incorporate suggestions from my teammates into my track...it was hard and (I'm not sure it this is totally accurate) but I feel like if I had the same DAW as my teammate I could have utilized their suggestions better or at least gleaned some production techniques from them, like really sharing ideas, but it felt hard to do that going from FL or Logic to Reason, I still have very little idea how to fully utilize my workstation  :-( and having someone who can fill the role of teacher and teammate ( with regards to the tools they use and how work with) to guide me along, while helping bring together the artistic side of music production with the technical part of it and would have really helped me matriculate to a high level of music production. Other than that, I loved toeing it with the heavyweights of OCR, while my teammates cheer me on, those rounds that got me feeling like a Rocky v Apollo I'll be remembering those for a while. I want to thank my team Zero Treble and say way to be on the ball with the voting each week and It was great working with you, let's not lose touch after graduation..... :D

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For me a big block was trying to incorporate suggestions from my teammates into my track...it was hard and (I'm not sure it this is totally accurate) but I feel like if I had the same DAW as my teammate I could have utilized their suggestions better or at least gleaned some production techniques from them, like really sharing ideas, but it felt hard to do that going from FL or Logic to Reason,

My suggestion is to focus on the concepts and not on the tools.  It's great to be familiar with one DAW, and in fact I would recommend to pick one and stick with it for a few years.  But concepts should be easy to translate no matter which tools you're using, and if you have a good grasp of the concepts you may switch between tools with ease.  If someone gives you feedback on your production, look for information on what causes these issues and what are the general solutions, not the settings you need to use for your particular tools.  For example, don't learn how the Maximus (I believe that's FL's Dynamics plugin) work, or use a bunch of presets for it.  Rather, read up on how dynamics processing works and you will master them all and easily understand (and find solutions to) the issues in your mix.

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At first I really wasn't too keen on Toxic Seahorse, I 'm still  on the fence if the source material is a necessary component of good remixing ( will a track that appeals to you vs one that doesn't yield a better or worse track?), but the name of the game is resilience and improvisation in a timely manner and I'm mostly satisfied with what I pulled out of the source material. I feel that my tracks were underdeveloped, great starts or maybe chucks where I have an idea, but fail to be unified in a cohesive song.....real song composition, a good finished song, not great ideas strapped together.

 

Well, it depends on the person, but for me personally, I don't think it translates into a better or worse track; rather, I might make a track that is imbalanced in favor of a source tune I find fits better into my approach at the time. I actually haven't played any Mega Man X series games, so I have literally no attachment to any particular source tune other than what I hear right as I pick each one.

 

I pick it based on how I think I can transform it and adapt it to multiple different genres---that is, what parts of it I can alter the rhythm of, or use a new tempo for, or change the mood of, etc (in fact, throughout this compo, I did all three at some point). The important thing for me is that I pick something that doesn't make me think of only adapting it to one type of feel, like only funky remixes, or only dark remixes, or only fast remixes, etc.

 

Whether or not it appeals to me though, is kind of a matter of both musical use and personal likes/dislikes, IMO. Honestly, at first it appealed to me only out of its flexibility for interpretation. I initially did not like Cyber Peacock, but I came to love it by Round 4 and then really got something I loved in Round 7. At that point it appealed to me both musically and personally.

 

So, perhaps try to figure out your skills in terms of what you can do well and what you have trouble with. If the track you pick is something that you think fits you well, then give the track some time. Work with it for a while, get it in your head, and maybe you'll progressively figure out a way to transform it more creatively than the previous times you work with it. Maybe it isn't a fit. It happens. No risk, no reward, I suppose.

 

For reference, what I think is that from my Round 2, to Round 4, to Round 7 entries, my arrangements were improving in terms of incorporating both sources in a suitable way. I took a risk, and liked the reward. I didn't think it fit my interests at first, but it grew on me. Like a good fungus. B)

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I walked out of this compo liking Crystal Snail more than when I entered this compo. I love that proggy groove so much. 

It's the opposite for me, I still like my theme and it's my favorite X4 track, but it's not that easy to remix, at least for me, I always used the same patterns because the rest didn't quite fit into the compo themes

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I walked out of this compo liking Crystal Snail more than when I entered this compo. I love that proggy groove so much.

That's hard to believe, since I saw your initial Maverick selection:

1) Crystal Snail

2) Crystal Snail

3) Crystal Snail

4) Crystal Snail

5) Crystal Snail

:P

In my case, I never played any MMX game (nor Megaman for that matter), so I didn't have any real connection with these Mavericks. I started out with Gravity Beetle as 'okay, I can work with this' and that hasn't changed that much I guess, since I still find the first half of the track a bit weird and still like the second part :P

Anyway, good stuff, looking forward to the tracks for the final round!

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i supposed i missed the last round by a misunderstanding, so i only have 2 done and im more proud of the first one (Arsonist) than the jumpstyle one i did.  All you guys are mega talented and I really enjoyed listening to everything so thanks for the good times <3

 

Really enjoyed both of your mixes, though Arsonist was definitely one of my favorites from the entire compo.  Hope you can join another in the future!

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only 9 rounds truth I've had very well with you, for this is the best 2 months of my life, since I became the account in OCReMix Forums first I felt a little shy because many people are not in my country (Chilean) and I used translator because my English is bad but moderately and acostubre me .... I want to congratulate them for their enormous effort and people who suffered were there but never gave up it makes me happy, as Mr. Shariq "DarkeSword" Ansari says "In this competition there are only winners," this has been comment will thank me for reading 

 

I want to mourn but my tears dried

 

 

  SleepingMario.gif       

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That's hard to believe, since I saw your initial Maverick selection:

1) Crystal Snail

2) Crystal Snail

3) Crystal Snail

4) Crystal Snail

5) Crystal Snail

:P

Well aren't we all glad that I ended up with Crystal Snail? 

I'm happy with the amount of vocal love that this compo got. However, if this compo has taught me anything it's that I am becoming a busy man. I had barely any time for anything through its duration. University is kicking me in the balls and I still have one more year (hopefully honours). 

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