DragonAvenger Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 *for the sigma fortress project* EDIT: a small reminder, this should be credited as Sir_NutS feat. Usa Hello there, NutS here with another track. This is a remix of Izzy Glow (Shining Hotaronicus) stage in Mega Man X5 and Sigma's Fortress (Palace Ground) Stage in Mega Man X. So this is a glitch hop remix of these two themes. It's always a challenge to mix two themes in any sort of EDM genre, because not many are melody-oriented, and there's quite a lot of melody to implement when fusing two themes together. However in Glitch Hop you have certain liberties with your arrangements that lend to songs with plenty of melodic content. This song is heavily influenced by the likes of Haywyre, who do a lot of funky/jazzy glitch stuff while adding tons of solos and structure variation. For this remix I used Bitwig and every sound is of my own making, except for the piano which is sampled. 90% of the sounds are made with a single synth, Serum. I created my own wavetables for some of these, a couple out of chopping up kick drums, even. Usa (Daniel Lippert) helped me by performing the solo at 2:22, for which he used his Andromeda A6 hardware synth and his amazing talent. As far as the arrangement goes, it's mostly Izzy Glow, but I managed to intertwine the main melody of sigma's fortress in the melodic parts, and the harmonies in some of the backing sections. I changed the focus of some of the instruments, for example, the original guitar riffs were translated and modified into the piano harmonies, then those were also translated, modified and chopped into the various different synth bass sounds and... well, stuff, that make up the drop. The second section of the original received the same treatment later on. For Usa's solo I had to modify and add some extra jazzing-up to the backing parts, bass and the drums to keep up with his insanity. This remix was originally made for the Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015. ------------------------ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 Just a note that the death sound works perfect. Had to note that first. I love the jazzy feel that you guys kept with the track. It adds a lot of character to the mix, and I really enjoyed the groove. As mentioned the track is almost all Izzy, but I did manage to catch some of the Sigma stage in there. I'd probably need some time stamps to really pick out more but I had no issues with the source usage as it was. The backing parts are all really well tailored to the melodies, and everything flowed well together. Nice work here to the both of you! Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Mmm, interesting chord choices. Not a sequence that I particularly like - that cluster you use throughout sounds a little sour to me - but I can't fault it for much other than a pedantic melodic clash in the texture prior (piano texture uses a lowered 5th right before the cluster hits, leaving a weird combination in the ear). I do wish you branched out with the chords in this track, though - there are a lot of opportunities to explore many different chord combinations with the two themes you used, but you stick with the same progression throughout, save for at 1:46 - 2:03 and 2:38-2:55. Even if you enjoy the combinations, variety is the spice of life - the underlying structure ends up sounding too static. The portion at 1:46 - 2:03 doesn't really make musical sense. The chords don't seem to have any direction behind them, and the lead just noodles around, loosely playing the Sigma portion. I wasn't clicking with that at all, I'm afraid. Sigma's theme also is played out at 2:30, and the chords don't seem to work well with it there, either. That theme is not clicking in this arrangement at all. The production on this is impeccable, though. The growls sound amazing, and the synths all sound perfect for the track. A lot of the pointillistic sampling that occurs in this blend very well together. Overall, the textures and synths create a very nice, cohesive soundscape. The vocoded vocals add a nice touch to it, as well, and the subtle pitch rise on the Megaman death sound is a nice, subtle touch. Drums are on point, strong and solid. This is a tough one for me, because the overall production values and custom synths sound great, but I'm really not clicking on the arrangement. If it were just the chords, I'd brush it aside as personal preference, but the non-changing nature of the chords makes the underlying structure sound static, and the blending with Sigma's theme just misses. I'm leaning heavily on a NO for this, but I'll give it a day or two to sink in a bit, see if I'm missing something on the arrangement, or see if someone else can make more sense of it in a following judgment. EDIT: I'm still not feeling the chords, but everyone else seems to think they rock, and upon listening to them again there's really nothing objectively wrong with them, either. The issue is probably personal taste, in this case - there's really nothing else that I have against this (the overall production values are amazing), so I think this deserves a pass. Nice work on this one. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 I do feel like the chord sequence sounds slightly off from what I would expect, like it was transcribed wrong, but in the world of remixing there isn't necessarily a problem with changing chords. It's a pretty crazy song so the strange chord clusters worked for me, and there was more than enough going on that I didn't think the chord repetition was a problem. I liked the switch in feel between the more normal piano sections and the crazier stuff. It took the melody a long way. The gliding synth lead also was a great choice here, and Usa's work was impeccable. I even liked the section Gario singled out as not making musical sense, so pretty much I got exactly what you were going for here. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 There's some high-end clarity missing here for that sharp, crystal-clear sound, but it's not a big deal here. Pretty transformative treatment of the Izzy Glow theme just from the rhythmic changes. Pretty sweet groove. I didn't hear anything questionable with notes besides the underlying synth from 2:48-2:55; no big deal there. Easily one of the coolest, funkiest mixes in OCR history; I love the approach, guys! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 Whoa that vocoded "rock it" is awesome. Very cool, chill, groovy groove. Man, I love Serum. These sounds are nice, care to send me over a preset pack? Please? Such tasty processing. Omg that drop. Excellent detailing. Dem growls. When one hears such sounds, what can one say. Holy hell, what a cool song. Going in my favorites folder. edit (20 minutes later): Thank you Mike for the preset pack! ALL OF THE YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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