Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

[WillRock]

Source tune for next week?

[DarkeSword]

 

This is a Mega Man X competition. Elec Man is from Mega Man Classic.

[DarkeSword]

Music is up.

[WillRock]

This is a Mega Man X competition. Elec Man is from Mega Man Classic.

Honestly can't figure out if you're serious or kidding around XD

[KingTiger]

Source breakdown! (I've had this typed up on my computer waiting for the remixes to be posted )

 

 

I focused heavily on using the chords from the gauntlet source, but I also used other melodic/harmonic elements from it and my Maverick’s theme. I used a key that neither source is in (fm). Here’s a full source breakdown by source section:

 

chord patterns in Sigma Palace (using Darke’s YouTube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3yJ29Uq8q0):

• 0:12 - 0:25, used in the verses
  
• 0:24 - 0:47, used in the chorus/hook
  
• 0:47 - 0:58, used in the middle of each verse
  

 

 

melodic stuff in Sigma Palace (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyIFODbDK5M):

• rhythmic strings from 0:10 - 0:12, I used the top notes as the foundation for my baseline in the verses, but I simplified it from two 1/8 notes on each note to a single dotted 1/8 on each note. Also the bass in the bridge, changed to 1/4 notes
  
• french horn from 0:23-0:24, this is the synth at the beginning and middle of each chorus
  
• strings that repeat from 0:24 - 0:47, I used the top notes as the baseline, again using dotted 1/8s instead of the original timing (which is a rest and then three 1/4 notes)
  
• harp from 0:47 - 0:52, should be pretty obvious, it’s the synth that plays at the end of the first 8 bars of each verse
  
• descending string patten from 0:55 - 0:58, the synth that plays at the end of each chorus
  

 

 

melodic stuff from Crescent Grizzly:

• melody from 0:03 - 0:06 & 0:22 - 0:25, the synth bit at the end of the first half of each verse
  
• the resonant-shifting, same note synth from 0:07 - 0:09, the super fast rap before the last chorus - there’s a synth doing something similar under my rap
  
• melody from 0:13 - 0:22, there’s a staccato synth part that occurs throughout each verse that does this; specifically, it’s in the 3rd, 11th, and 27th bars of the 1st verse, and the 3rd and 11th bars of the 2nd verse
  
• melody from 0:26 - 0:32, this is a background synth line in the 2nd & 3rd choruses
  
• the contrapuntal melody from 0:32 - 0:44, this is the synth line in the 2nd verse, the 3rd set of 8 bars (the “different” part of the verse where I start out rapping “anxiety runs high in this town”)
  
• the chordal melody from 0:45 - 0:57, this is actually in the bass under the “different” part of both verses… I cut short the notes that are held longer and doubled the speed of the source
  

[Anorax]

It's bedtime and I've got an 8AM class tomorrow, so I'm going to make this quick (so I won't give an in-depth source breakdown—I apologize in advance).

 

From the Maverick theme, I took the opening arpeggio and used it as the opening arpeggio for this round's mix, tweaking it to fit the meter and chords (but still having semblance to the original). The lead was used more as a decorative touch rather than a melodic focus point, with the exception of the closing phrase.

 

I adhered more to the chord structure of the Sigma theme than my Maverick theme (although that doesn't say much), adding in concert snare and timpani as a nod to the source (as well as the mangled violin at the end of the opening phrase).

 

Aaand I deeply regret the vocal bit, but what can you do?

[Garpocalypse]

In no way was my remix for this week written as super-liminal messaging for a project album that is recruiting remixers.  Right here actually: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/39653-streets-of-rage-album-next-check-in-may-3rd-2015/

 

C'mon.  If anyone assumed such a thing.. How dare they.  

 

I mean.  Come on!

 

...Cooooooooooooooome on!

[Troyificus]

In no way was my remix for this week written as super-liminal messaging for a project album that is recruiting remixers.  Right here actually: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/39653-streets-of-rage-album-next-check-in-may-3rd-2015/

 

C'mon.  If anyone assumed such a thing.. How dare they.  

 

I mean.  Come on!

 

...Cooooooooooooooome on!

 

Looks like the new forums have done a number on the layout of your first post, Gar! Might want to look into reformatting it at some point

[Garpocalypse]

Looks like the new forums have done a number on the layout of your first post, Gar! Might want to look into reformatting it at some point

 

haha.  Yea i'm leaving it that way cuz I am a chaostisist.  Fits well with the theme of the game. 

[KingTiger]

haha. Yea i'm leaving it that way cuz I am a chaostisist. Fits well with the theme of the game.

You're a secret member of Knuckles' Chaotix?

[Garpocalypse]

You're a secret member of Knuckles' Chaotix?

 

If you are making a reference to my Pro-Sega agenda.  ...then yes.  

 

Some pretty awesome mixes this round.  I kinda dig how everyone threw in elements of what was being discussed last week in their mixes.  

 

Choirs?  Check

Epic Metal?  Check

Rap Vocals?  Check.

[WillRock]

so.... listening party soon?

[Ivan Hakštok]

Maybe tonight at around 7PM EDT?

[KingTiger]

If you are making a reference to my Pro-Sega agenda. ...then yes.

I was thinking more along the lines of chaostisist = Chaotix.

Im not really pro-Sega, per se, but I am pro-Sonic

[SuperiorX]

I was thinking more along the lines of chaostisist = Chaotix.

Im not really pro-Sega, per se, but I am pro-Sonic

The clique called Chaotix

[KingTiger]

so.... listening party soon?

/backontopic So is this happening?

[Ivan Hakštok]

Happening in around 20-30 minutes, I have some stuff to do so I won't be able to start it exactly at 7PM EDT.

[Ivan Hakštok]

Sry for the double post, just posting the listening party logs. Thanks to timaeus for sending these since I had some connection problems in the middle and lost a chunk of the logs:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/93696675/SFRGRound5Party.txt

[timaeus222]

Oh, my bad; my mouse was Kensington, not Logitech.

[Jamphibious]

As much as I'd love to have done a real glitch-hop track, I was mostly just going for the hop  Threw in a bit of wackiness just for fun though.

[Usa]

Thanks for the log, Ivan Hakštok!

 

…and sorry to those who found my mix a bit loud, it got clipped quite a bit during the MP3 encode because I forgot to add the -0.1dB margin when mastering it, so the MP3 version sounds a bit rough in comparison to the original WAV file.

[Anorax]

<WillRock> “lets talk about the song!” *song ends*

[KingTiger]

Lyrics!

 

 

[Ok, there’s no way out, there’s gotta be a way out!]

[Look, here’s something! “Es-cop-ay.” I wonder what that means? It’s funny, it’s spelled just like the word “escape.”] 

 

 

{chorus/hook}

escape route

hiding from the great unknown

cause I am an actor and life’s a show

don’t hate you

but when the scene’s unscripted

all your good, can you please restrict it?

get straight through

all I want is the end

like being average is the trend

create truth

it’s easy to fail the test

when you are so afraid of success

 

 

{verse 1}

complete the trial to the very end

and you know it’s final, can’t be done again

but I know I’ll lose it on the final test

I’ll never prove myself on this quest

what’s the point of even going through this

open door I’ve been appointed to

I’ll only fail and fail again

hey look, the trail opens up ahead

 

so now I’ve got something to decide

try it, or throw away my life

I don’t think I can handle the strife

but the other way, well, it cuts like a knife

through butter in my imagination

guess I really should be patient

until my confidence comes around

and I really can’t let my family down

 

I gather my strength and push on through it

I hope I make it, I hope I do it

but then I trip and stumble and fall

*sigh* I knew I couldn’t do it at all

you can try your best to encourage

but it only serves to discourage

I won’t throw myself in the bottomless pit

but now you plainly see where we sit

 

self-defeat is the name of the game

cause it’s not so neat to fell ashamed

cause there’s always the chance that I could fail

so I’d just rather not set sail

I’ll push it aside and get on with my days

I’ve got too much pride so I’ll just stay the same

and you know what’ll happen? Ill just forget

and do it all again the next chance I get

 

 

{verse 2}

don’t know what I mean by “escape route”?

well, give me a minute and I’ll show you

gotta prepare, make sure I’m ready

endless reparations for when I’m unsteady

huh? what? I guess I can go now

um, but, I really can’t show how

great I am if you don’t give me time

how spaced I am if you don’t give me mine

 

think about driving your car in traffic

think about how far there is havoc

defensive driving 101, now

always looking for the way out

disaster’s right around the corner

I’m passionate as a hoarder

of all these moments that could go wrong

count em all up, they’d be a googol strong

 

anxiety runs

high in this town

you never know

when it’ll come around

if there’s chance I won’t succeed

that’s when it will come and get me

I can’t do it, see, I cannot be

the man that you really need from me

 

maybe something will cut through the noise

maybe I should go play with my toys

what? no, don’t call me a boy

now let’s pretend it’s the fall of Troy

if I try harder, it might happen

sudden clarity, instead of trapped in 

a box I built myself, now strapped in

safe and secure, try to free me - I’ll zap him

 

 

{bridge}

if I press on every day

then maybe I will find a way

and if you think you know then say

how to make this thing go away

I need to find some clarity

but everywhere I look, I see

chaos, confusion, and deceit

who is there who can help me?

 

need to find my confidence

my faith in God never made sense

because everywhere that I went

I let others invent me

but now I have to find time each day

to put my foot down and I’ll say

that I will stop being afraid

of my mistakes I’m unashamed

 

 

[Let’s go!]

[Ah!]

[Here’s Brucey!]

[Jason Covenant]

I think the team Maverick Astley is taken very seriously by Rick Astley....  I feel Rick Rolled

 

   I believe I can shed some light on this, by providing a little bit of their backstory:

 

   The illegitimate offspring of a 12-person jury and a Dorito chip, Jorito spent much of his childhood convicting marijuana aficionados while simultaneously providing their sole source of nourishment. He had difficulty making friends as many people feigned interest in him solely to satisfy their munchies. But Fate had more in store for Jorito than simply staring out from jury boxes at white people with dreadlocks. Indeed, Fate Johnson introduced Jorito to Rick Astley changing his life and the world forever.

 

   Jorito wanted to be everything Rick Astley was--everything that everyone around Rick Astley was. He started hanging around schools in a tan trench coat and sunglasses, serving alcohol to empty auditoriums whenever school was out. For some reason, the police didn't like this very much and tried to arrest him. He attempted to wall-jump off a chain link fence to escape, but the police still captured him. The convicter became the convicted.

 

   The warden had it in for Jorito. Having lost his mother to unhealthy snacks, the warden took his chance at a bit of revenge placing Jorito in the same cell as the deranged killer, Tuberz McGee. Tuberz had a host of untreated mental illnesses, all of them contributing to his extreme violence. Perhaps most dangerous of all was the violent rage he entered at the sight of uninjured people.

 

   Jorito entered the cell cautiously. The heavily-muscled Tuberz appeared to be asleep. Jorito stepped as quietly as he was able, but a loud crunch sound resulted anyways. He cursed his Dorito heritage. Tuberz awoke to the noise and looked right at Jorito.

 

   "You look yummy. What's you? A 12-person jury or Dorito?"

 

   "Both, actually."

 

   "You mostly look like chip." Tuberz didn't enter a violent rage at the sight of Jorito, despite Jorito being uninjured. Jorito concluded McGee's rage must activate only when he sees pure-blooded uninjured humans.

 

   "So, uh, what're you in for?"

 

   "Man laughed at Tuberz. Man got tubed."

 

   "Oh, well that's uh...uh..." Jorito stammered.

 

   "Then jury convict Tuberz but Tuberz escape. Jury got tubed."

 

   "...An entire jury!?"

 

   "Then another jury convict Tuberz, but Tuberz escape again and tube them too!" McGee's anger seemed to grow with each word. His steady drool turned into a turbulent sputter. His veins bulged and his face reddened.

 

   "You know, I consider myself much more Dorito than the, uh, other half of my parentage..." Jorito hoped his quaking fear didn't show on his face.

 

   "TUUUUUUBE!" Tuberz punched a hole into the wall with steroid strength, ripping out a metal pipe with tremendous force. He proceeded to demonstrate violent "tubing" motions with it, reenacting his myriad murders.

 

   "Uh..."

 

   "Tuberz HATE JURIES," he shouted, unable to contain his rage, before his eyes glazed over and filled with tears, "and.....and juries hate Tuberz. Why they hate Tuberz?"

 

   "I don't know. I, for one, like you a lot."

 

   Tuberz paused his bawling. "You like Tuberz?"

 

   "Yes. I think you have a terrific personality."

 

   McGee appeared dumbfounded by Jorito's claim and stared at him blankly, ".....All of them!?"

 

   "All of wha--oooohhhh....yes, all of your personalities."

 

   "Tuberz like you too. Tuberz help you escape."

 

   "You can do that? How?"

 

   "Tube." Tuberz proceeded to break down the wall with his fists, revealing a chute, probably intended for laundry. Tuberz ripped a hole in it large enough for a person to fit through. "You go in now."

 

   "Hold on. Let's say this takes us outside. What will we do then? If we don't have a plan, we'll just be caught and jailed again."

 

   "We go see my friend, Evktalo. He help."

 

   "Ok, I just hope he knows we're coming."

 

   "He know. He wait for Tuberz," McGee said, before lowering his voice to a whisper, "But Tuberz must warn you something about Evktalo."

 

   "What's that?"

 

   "He completely insane."

   (To be continued in Part 2.)

 

[Eino Keskitalo]

Man I'm so grateful for my teammates. First round, I had a decent submission that the other beAstleys made so much better. This time I'm embarrassed to say, I had super ambitious ideas I couldn't really have realized in even half-finished form without the hard work from the team, especially Jorito on the production end.

 

Here's the source breakdown for our piece.

 

For Frost Walrus I used the second theme:

intro 0:00-0:15

Drum intro pays tribute to the timpani roll from the start of the Sigma source (Jorito made this a lot better).

Chord progression on the bg strings is from 0:01-0:12 of the Sigma source. It's played at about double speed, so in compensation it's played twice. The chords keep climbing upwards on the second go. The delayed guitar at 0:10 plays the string riff from Sigma 0:10. It's not sped up like the chord progression, so it starts a bar earlier (lasting two bars instead of one).

I really like Jorito's adventuring bassline here. I put a little pause at the end of the intro, because I felt repeating the chord progressions in this and the next part warranted a little breathing room.

"verse" 0:15-0:40

The bg strings play the progression from Sigma's 0:14-0:22. Again it's played at double speed, and repeated four times this time. Lead violin mostly plays the highest note of the progression on the first go. Violin (and bass, nice) play the little upwards horn motion from Sigma's 0:24 at 0:28. Jorito seems to have incorporated that bit to the bassline quite nicely. At 0:35-0:40, there's the first bit from Frost Walrus, the downward arpeggio on the violin (from 0:00-0:08 of FW). Didn't apply the rhythmic feel where the first note starts before the beat.

Jorito's bass adventure continues, and I really like Callum's guitar riff for this part too, with it's kinda polyrhythmic feel.

chorus 1 a 0:40-0:52

Based on 0:24-0:47 from Sigma. The descending string staccatos are handled by guitars. Structure is kind of halved: instead of ABABABAC it's ABAC if that makes sense. Note choice at 0:46 not so good in retrospect. I'm not sure if the chord progression from that part is in there somewhere.

The theremin-like wailing in the background uses the upwards horn from Sigma's 0:24, climbing up, and at 0:50-0:54 it comes back down with the FW downwards arpeggio.

The bassline is from FW's B part at 0:26. I use the bassline a lot around the arrangement. The rhythm guitar riff also seems to follow it! <3

chorus 1 b 0:52-1:04

Structurally a repeat of chorus 1 b. The descending string staccato notes are there in the eight-note guitar riff, 3rd, 5th and 7th notes, rhythmically in the same place as in the original riff. FW B part bass continues.

At 1:00, the thereminlike in the background plays the keyboard riff from FW B part (0:27). The violin riff at 1:03-1:05 is based on the Sigma string riff from 0:10.

bridgeish 1 1:04-1:19

Based on 0:48-1:00 from Sigma: the chord progression, the upwards scale at 0:48 and the chromatic downwards scale at 0:56 are used. I can't remember if the violin lead is supposed to be based on FW lead at 0:34.. The keyboard riff from 0:27 is played very quietly on the bacground at 1:12-1:14. 1:11-1:18 the FW B part bass line is there again. 1:18 I felt the structure needed a little breather again.

"let's prog" 1:19-2:06

The clean guitar riff is the string riff from Sigma 0:10, the last 16th note dropped off. The bass line is again based on FW B part bass line. At 1:27 you hear the FW keyboard riff from 0:27, followed by the downwards arp melody from the start of FW. 1:32, Jorito's organ solo, which references the keyboard riff. 1:52, the chord change from FW 0:04. It bears to mention Jorito extended this part to a good effect.

Really like the riff Callum wrote for this part!

bridgeish 2 2:06-2:31

Structurally, it's the same as "bridgeish 1", only played twice. On the first pass, the upwards scale is played by violin (quite far in the background), and on the second pass, it's the guitar. The chromatic bit is played only in the end, during the second pass. At the start, organ plays the melody at 0:34-0:40 from FW, and sounds really great, good job by Jorito there. 02:12-> the keyboard riff from FW, violin plays something in the background, probably also based on the FW melody the organ plays (maybe 0:46-0:52). Didn't take notes at this point anymore. Then, organ returns, playing the second variation on the aforementioned FW melody.

chorus in 7/8 2:31-2:58

The clean guitar plays the string staccato figure from Sigma, sped up. I'm afraid the writing for the guitar isn't quite spot on. 2:41-2:47 violin figure is based on the upwards scale at Sigma's 0:48. 2:53-2:57, the violin is supposed to reference FW melody at 0:34.

Jorito shortened this part to a good effect. I also like how he kept the bass quite simple here.

coda 2:58->

Chord progression from the intro of the Sigma tune is used here again, repeated through the coda.

FW has this whole-note line 0:00-0:27. This is played by the wailing synth, at 2:58-3:11 it's in a "wrong key" if that makes sense, then the later half (3:13-3:24) is at "correct" pitch. In the later half, the downward FW arp is also added, as is the related chord change, and the Sigma intro chord progression adjusts itself to it. Finally, the bell-y synth plays the string riff from Sigma's 0:10.

I'm a bit surprised that several people in the chat log thought the piece doesn't have an ending. I like the effect of an unresolved chord at the end of a tune (I suppose this is like that) - maybe it doesn't quite work here, perhaps since the piece is a bit short (esp for all the prog rock influence) and the idea (something like "unfinished business") isn't quite conveyed but just feels abrupt.

And that concludes my essay. Edited September 2, 2015 by evktalo