[GRMRB] [2018] Round 1 - Mega Man Bracket

[DarkeSword]

The Grand Robot Master Remix Battle

Voting for Round 1 has begun. The matchups are as follows:

Remixer and Source	VS	Remixer and Source
Arceace - Air Man	vs	AxLR - Metal Man
Mak Eightman - Fire Man	vs	Ronald Poe - Cut Man
Ridiculously Garret - Crash Man	vs	pixelchips - Tornado Man
SuperiorX - Ground Man	vs	Supercoolmike - Shade Man

Download the remixes from Round 1

The most important thing to consider when voting is how well the remix incorporates and arranges both themes. Production and enjoyability should also be considered, but this is primarily an arrangement competition. Everyone is allowed (and encouraged) to vote, including competitors. Everyone must adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct.

Please use this thread for remix reviews and feedback!

[Gario]

Arceace -

Oh shit, this is freakin' awesome. That opening just raised some hairs, here, and the overall track delivers superbly with all that gating. The fact that the sources are quite well integrated certainly helps.

With a stronger, meatier kick, a little less delay on some of the chips and a hair of re-mixing so the foreground pops out a bit more and I wouldn't be at all unhappy seeing it on the panel. That last chord being major was a bit of a funny way to end it, though - kinda clashed with the rest of the track.

AxLR -

I was interested to see what ideas you wanted to push, and this didn't disappoint. Very sample-heavy, very trippy, but y'know what, this is pretty cool. I can definitely see what you meant when saying you were worried that people might not catch the source in this - it does sound like something completely different.

I think I'm missing the use of Airman (which could be corrected if you point it out), though I hear Metal Man clear as day. I'd say it's hard to argue that you don't use the sources in this, considering you literally sampled the sources to make something different. As much as I love OCR, it sometimes makes me sad that I know we'd never be able to accept something like this for a variety of reasons (direct sampling being the only source reference is a big OCR no-no, for example) - you can get some really awesome results if you open your mind to really making new music from older pieces.

If the competition for this one wasn't one of my favorites of the compo so far I'd have been more than happy to send a vote your way for this one (provided you could point out where Air Man was in this). Nice work!

Mak Eightman - 

Solid metal fare. I think the sources sound kinda funny in that genre, but it works well enough. Can't say the sources are lacking, and the production values are decent, so overall nice work.

RonaldPoe -

Ironically, I think this is how I imagine music for MM1 sounding like in a strict upgrade. The soundscape is pretty thin, though, with little bass to balance out the rest of the arrangement.

I'm feeling that Fire Man is pretty lacking in this one, though.

pixeltea -

Nice. This one jazzes it up in a big-band sort of way, with some slick sax and piano action complimenting a more frentic overall arrangement. While the instrument samples don't make me all that happy, the arrangement and integration of the sources more than makes up for it. The interpretations on Crash on the piano were a real highlight of this track.

You've got an excellent sense of how to handle harmony and change things up - looking forward to more from you, in this compo and elsewhere.

Ridiculously Garrett - 

Slow and chill, this one's pretty good, as well. While the other track has a bit more going on with some of those reharmonizations and such, this one brings on the heat with a cleaner, thicker production, and it ain't like this one is lacking in the arrangement department.

Yikes, this will be a really hard vote, from me - both of these are absolutely great tracks, and for different reasons.

SuperiorX -

Nice production values, and some great Ground Man. Not sure the Shade man was handled in the best manner, though; it's used as texture (which is cool), but the texture didn't seem to mesh well harmonically with the rest of the track.

Aside from that, though, pretty excellent track.

Supercoolmike -

I'm glad you posted this - I think you had pretty strong potential to take this round with that gothic set-up. Tough to integrate Ground Man into it, but the soundscape was actually pretty cool. Alas, the downsides of being unable to finish! Thanks for giving this some love regardless.

[MindWanderer]

• Razor Wind: You know a remix nailed it when you listen to the completely original opening chord progression and know what Mega Man theme it's going to be without looking.  And what would a Mega Man compo be without heavy use of 8-bit Mega Man SFX?  I do have a beef with some clashing notes here and there, and I agree with Gario about that last chord, but otherwise this is pretty darn good.  I hope to see a tweaked version of this in the judges' inbox at some point.
• Digital Redemption: Gario's better at picking out subtle source usage than I am.  I barely hear Metal Man hinted at here, not enough that I'd notice if I didn't know it was supposed to be there ahead of time.  Same with Air Man--it's more a suggestion than an actual appearance.  The arrangement was also really repetitive, quiet, and static.
• Dopamine: Classic Mak here.  There are a few clashing notes, and the shift to minor key was a bit surprising.  A smidge more repetitive than it really needed to be, and the ending was a little lackluster, but overall a quality remix.
• Fire Truck: Yeah, the thin, static soundscape really brings this down.  That last phrase of the main refrain doesn't sound quite right.  And yeah, it sounds like a one-source remix, and a conservative one at that.
• Thunder-Crash Tornado Fusion: Strange opening, it's like walking into the middle of a session.  When Tornado Man is in the lead, there's some solid interlacing of the two themes. That's what I come to these compos for!  On the other hand, the sections with Crash Man in the lead sometimes seem a little out of place.  Excellent instrumentation and production.
• Crash of the Tornado: I'm amused that both of these remixes are jazzy, and the same length down to the second.  Soundscape seems just a little flat--the lows could stand to be a bit beefier.  This is an excellent arrangement, but bearing the voting brief in mind ("the most important thing to consider when voting is how well the remix incorporates and arranges both  themes"), I can only vote one way.
• Empty Desires: It's actually a solid start.  I wish you'd had time to get around that block.  Funny thing is, I can totally imagine Ground Man's theme, slowed down, used as harmony to what you've already built out here.
• Drill Bits: I agree with Gario: cool ideas to integrate the two sources, but there are some harmonic fumbles along the way.  Could have been pretty awesome if you'd managed to finish and give those clashing notes another pass.

[pixelchips]

Going to give my thoughts on some of these arrangements!

First, my opponent's song, which I was very excited to listen to:

"Crash of the Tornado" by Ridiculously Garrett
-LOVE that funky bass, and the percussion is really good too!
-The piano and keyboard add a really nice flavour, I'm especially loving the chord progression on the grand piano
-I really enjoy the disco vibe when the Tornado Man part first kicks in!
-Some nice reharmonization going on around the middle section
-Staccato strings are always a fun addition to funk/disco

I really enjoyed this one, had me bopping my head from the very start - and it only got better and better the more I listened! Definitely a worthy opponent, seriously awesome arrangement. I think yours is superior because of its overall cleaner production and higher quality sound libraries, great work!

Now I'm going to give my thoughts on each arrangement I personally feel wins its match-up.

"Razor Wind" by Arceace:
-The slow build-up for the intro was a really cool effect
-Love the way you sampled those classic sound effects, makes for quite a funky, retro beat!
-The synths sound great, loving the chord progression - and personally I like the last chord!
-Both songs are integrated quite nicely - doesn't feel like it leans to heavily towards one song over the other

"Dopamine" by Mak Eightman
-I like the choice of genre here, suits both songs quite well - I also like how it alternates between a more grungy sound and a lighter feel
-Intro does a good job of adapting Fire Man's weird, wonky groove
-Both themes are well integrated, and tied together with that cool guitar riff

"Drill Bits" by SuperiorX
-I like the 80s-ish beat and that cool bass sound
-Overall a very catchy, funky vibe
-While it does seem to lean more heavily to Ground Man, I like the subtle incorporation of motifs from Shade Man's theme

 

Those are just my opinions on the winners, but I really enjoyed listening to every single entry! Good job everybody!

[Ridiculously Garrett]

I loved every single entry.

I really enjoyed listening to pixeltea's more jazzy approach to the theme and I gotta say, as a piano player, that interpretation of the Crash Man bits were really slick. Awesome job, I especially loved the super crazy bass on tom runs during the Crash parts as well. And that modulating upwards bit at the end had a cool effect. Was a really cool listen!

Mak Eightman's metal version took the cake for me, lots of awesome groove in there. Those weird modulating synth sounds in the beginning were a treat to add to the grunginess of this one.

I would love to have voted for AxLRs submission, but due to the voting guidelines, I had to vote the other way. Arceace's track was much more uniform in arrangement imo (though if I had to choose a favorite it would probably be Digital Redemption).

SuperiorX's submission was nice and funky, with some super weird chords. It reminds me of another song, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Chiptuney and funky, this one sounded nice and thick.

[AxLR]

Since I voted, let me give you my opinion as well :

• Razor Wind: I concede you my vote, you deserve it well. As Gario suggested, your kick is a little bit too weak, making it stronger or adding a short-attack bass would have reinforced your drums.
• Dopamine: A lot of energy, a lot of headbanging when I was hearing this. Metal fits Mega Man very well (yea this is a dad joke - I can, I actually am a dad -, or should I say bad?) which was well enough to give you my vote.
• Fire Truck: It was a tad too calm, in my opinion. I like the way you shaped your sounds, though, It has a professional feel behind it.
• Thunder-Crash Tornado Fusion: This is very Persona-like. I really "didn't see it coming" (lol did I tell you I was a dad?), but still very cool to hear. I may be picky about the sax that is maybe too much for this music, but that's me complaining, objectively this is a very nice work.
• Crash of the Tornado: OOOH, funky! Rythm was very well handled, and this was me shaking my butt on my seat for 2:48. Although your battle with pixeltea was maybe the one that made me hesitate the most, I must say that both are really well put remixes and that you got my vote solely because I have a crush on funk.
• Empty Desires: That's really sad that you could not get that done on time. It actually could have made me vote for you. it's well put together and I really felt like 0:59 was really too short xD If you finish that remix, I would gladly hear it.
• Drill Bits: I really enjoyed your chord progression, and I really liked how well It jams together. This would have been a really cool battle, but you got my vote by default.

Note that since each remix ( except mine because I'm a madlad lol) incorporated very well their theme, I didn't feel the need to comment on that.

And now, for some responses :

• Gario : Thanks for these nice words, but I didn't go by the rules and I deserve my defeat. AirMan is indeed included into the remix and it's not quite silent  xD And as much as OCR accepts or not my remixes, in the end, I sill will make music as I like it ^^. I'll let you search a bit more if you are curious but in case I'll give you the sampling guideline I gave to DarkeSword to prove that I indeed used both themes in my remix. It's just There.
• MindWanderer : Yup, The point is, I didn't see how I could arrange them without one being dominant over the other. And since I wanted both to be present I got stuck thinking. To the point that I said " Screw it, I'm gonna be sampling, chopping and screwing". My goal was to create an original theme that would still fit in a Mega Man game, based on the two imposed themes. So yeah, didn't respect the rules and couldn't think of anything better than that I gave my remix just to see how people would react to this or how many time before they find out what did I sample and when x) I knew I'd be losing anyway.
• Ridiculously Garret : Thanks, though I added too much reverb on my had which makes me cringe each time I hear my remix, but thank you for your nice words too

It was fun even though I actually didn't know how to read the rules, at least I enjoyed hearing those nice remixes.
Are all the entries going to be in an album in the end? That would be lit af

 

Edited August 22, 2018 by AxLR
Screw my text

[Mak Eightman]

Well, I'll try to say at least something.

Please don't take my words as a rant/taunt or whatever bad. I'm bad in finding proper words, due to my bad english. So I just say what i feel. 

And, yes. I had no time to learn language. Sorry.

Razor wind.

Cool sounding. Catching flow and clear understanding of happening. Glitchy stuff sound right in place. Can't say something useful from production side. Nothing bother me while listening. I'm OK with last pitched hit, cause i like it. Brings some natural ending to unnatural sound, from philosophycal side. 

Digital redemtion.

I do not have any enthusiasm or interest, as expressed above. Sorry.
Sounds like actual chiptune. And that's not good. Overall composition kinda senseless. It just moves to the end and nothing happening. I can't even take it as an ambient for my sound perception.
Sources just mixed. I can't catch anything familiar, except some notes. I mean, I can hear something form both sources, but just because I'm trying to hear em.
I checked your original stuff and I wonder why you made something like this. Cause your own music is interesting. 

Dopamine. 

Oh, wait. That's mine. It rocks! in beginning, but then it just suck.  

Fire truck.

I can't call it a ReMix actually. I can hear both sources at the same time and not sure you've changed anything. Soundscape is empty and.. You know, I have a feeling, you just was too lazy to make something. Sorry if I'm wrong, but if im right you need to reconsider your attitude to similar competitions. You have my vote, just because voting for myself is bad. Sorry.

Thunder-crash tornado fusion.

Ah.. Fusy-jazy track! Tough to vote. Sources are there, production is natural(some freq cleaning needed). So in this matchup you've lost my vote due to lack of enjoyability. That dissonant piano is very cool, but it's more like "see me playing and get out of here". 

Crash of the tornado.

Well, as I said. Very cool stuff! Great percussion, amazing bass, piano, strings and organ is the cherry on da cake. And sources well introduced. Best track in this round for me.

Empty desires.

Promising introduction. I'm sorry that you did not finish it. The only complain I had is the lead. I just don't like it sounds. Personal taste i guess.

Drill bits

Same boat as a first track. The only thing I'd suggest is to make bass notes a bit shorter when they in a pair. Ahhh. I hope you understand. Nice one! 

[DarkeSword]

58 minutes ago, Mak Eightman said:

You have my vote, just because voting for myself is bad. Sorry.

You are absolutely allowed and encouraged to vote for yourself if you feel that your remix is the better one. There is NOTHING wrong with voting for your own remix.

[Mak Eightman]

37 minutes ago, DarkeSword said:

You are absolutely allowed and encouraged to vote for yourself if you feel that your remix is the better one. There is NOTHING wrong with voting for your own remix.

Thank you for pointing that. But It's how I see fair play. Plus,my opponent spend his time and put some effort, I think that's fair.

[SuperiorX]

I realized this is my first compo with the new forums! Having this separate voting thread with the poll setup makes tracking votes and reviews sooooo much easier than the old format. Love it! First round was pretty awesome, nice job everyone! A few quick thoughts from me:

Air Man vs Metal Man

• Arceace:  loving this song! Probably my favorite one of the round. I love the atmosphere in the intro and the hints at each of the themes. The integration of Metal Man into the lead was groovy - nice use of SFX too! I felt the arrangement meandered a little there in the middle after the Air Man segment (~1:30ish mark), but things were groovin' again come ~2:00. Overall a very nice sounding song, I enjoyed it!
• AxLR:  Nice use of the retro low-fi sounds. I echo Gario's thoughts on the atmosphere - trippy & sample heavy, in a good way. Sources were definitely harder to pick up on, but I enjoyed this for what it was!

Fire Man vs Cut Man

• Mak:  good stuff! Standard rock/metal affair - I thought the guitar work was really well done and the integration of both themes was handled well too. Very fun song!
• Ronald Poe: soundscape is pretty thin and I'm only hearing the one source, keep at it!

Tornado Man vs Crash Man 
ahhhh this was the toughest matchup!!!!

• Ridiculously Garrett:  groooooovy - I loved your instrumentation and the overall vibe of this song. That EP  I live for this kind of low-fi jazzy/funky music. I liked how the EP kept the track moving forward and the string stabs on the melody line were very fitting. It reminds me a lot of the stuff Amphibious makes, which is also right up my alley.
• pixeltea:  this one was sooo good too! Ironically kind of a similar style to Garrett's, just much faster paced with a swingy jazz style. Sax sounds a little fakey, but I thought it fit the atmosphere well enough. I really really dig the arrangement and the chord progressions. Piano Crash Man parts were the scene stealers for me

Ground Man vs Shade Man

• supercoolmike:  thanks for turning your song in good sir! I liked what you had going. The atmosphere was really eerie and I liked the use of the piano and pads in the intro. The lead your chose for Shade Man was really cool too. I wish you had had the time to finish it up and integrate Ground Man too. Good start!

Thanks all for the thoughts on my song! Yeah it definitely relied more on Ground Man, but as others referenced I used the Shade Man motifs as ancillary supporting melody parts. It was harder to integrate than I thought it would be at first. The lead at 1:13 did do a direct interpretation of the Shade Man motif too. I wish I had more time for it, maybe I'll work on it some more after the compo.

[Dextastic]

How long do we have to vote?

[DarkeSword]

Voting will close Sunday night. Shouldn't take you too long.

[Dextastic]

I don't know the themes very well so I need to study  

[Garpocalypse]

2018's Mega Man Compo-of-some-sort Round 1

Rage Reviews!

 

Razor Wind
Very nice use of the themes and sound fx! Great Energy throughout and the mixing is solid!  Only nitpick I can make is that the
ending is a VERY abrupt one note cadence with almost no decrease in energy in the phrase before it to signal the end of the remix!
Great listen! Most competent use of the stereo field in the round i'd say!  NEXT!!

Digital Redemption
Listened to this over and over trying to pick out metal man's theme but for the life of me i'm not hearing it!  NEXT!!

Dopamine
Great Rhythm Guitar tone! Only dig is that the lead is on the overly fuzzy side for my tastes!  Themes are recognizable! Awesome
remix! Why you don't do more Dwelling of Duels compos is beyond me! :/ NEXT!!

Fire Truck

Right off the bat that bass is really bottom heavy and unrecognizable in the mix! I'm afraid to hook up my subwoofer cuz i'm
worried it's gonna be all subs....! Themes are recognizable so good work on keeping things familiar! Biggest issue for me is that
there is no real use of stereo throughout the entire remix! By that I mean no expansion/contraction which was omnipresent in Razor
Wind! For the most part good work! ...NEXT!!

Thunder Crash
Bass hangs slightly to the left which was off putting until I realized a few seconds in you were going for a live jazz band on a
stage kinda thing. Nice work on selling that! Actually... is it a live band?!  Surely a week is too short a time to detail such
great humanization on all of these instruments...! Great remix! Regardless If you were able to write AND get a band together to
practice this OR detail this much interpersonal energy with midi in a week is a real accomplishment!!

...Unless you are just a very competent keyboard player! NEXT!!!   

Crash of the Tornado
Very funky! Dig the use of the strings throughout even if they could use some more detailing!  Enjoyed this mix. Get back to me in
a decade I might be able to vote on this matchup then!  NEXXXTTT!!!

Empty Desires
Ah Shademan, my source for the first mega man comp I did back in the day.  Allright I'm going to get real here. No gratuitous exclamation point use.  

Good that you subbed your WIP in the end. Only crit isthat outside of some really thick mud you had a very nice vibe going for what you had. Sort of reminds me of DJP's Marble Zone
remix. what's it called... Love Hurts i think? If you do finish this send me the link because I'd like to hear what this ends up being. 

Drill Bits
Very well developed remix!  But it fades out...! And it only has one bass...!!! You know you need to layer those things right?!!  NEXT!!

[SuperiorX]

21 minutes ago, Garpocalypse said:

And it only has one bass...!!! You know you need to layer those things right?!!  NEXT!!

please never let this die

[Ronald Poe]

I know I'm going to lose but at least I got some constructive criticism. I'm not going to give up remixing but rather step up my game. How can I make my soundscapes better/less thin?

Also I'm aware my signature Trance style isn't for everyone but I'm going to improve, not change myself completely.

[pixelchips]

I'm so pleased to see that the reception to my song has been positive! Despite the fact that my competitor seems to be the victor (well deserved, I'd say), I'm proud of my arrangement.

Interesting to see the varied reception to my instrument samples. Feedback was a little all over the place on whether it was realistic or not - which isn't a bad thing, I really appreciate the range of opinions. I was indeed going for a live band sound, so I'm glad to hear my efforts at humanization worked in my favour. (But my sax VST is probably the worst offender for fake-sounding instruments...)

I'm happy everyone seems to like how I integrated both themes. I worked really hard on balancing both songs and especially trying to get those piano parts sounding just right, so I'm glad it paid off. Also, I tried some new things in terms of harmony and chord progression, which seem to have turned out pretty well.

MindWanderer raises a great point - I probably could have gone for a better introduction, it is rather sudden which detracts from the live performance feel I was attempting. I think my biggest next step is brushing up on the overall production - my track definitely could have benefited from a cleaner mix.

This is my first OCRemix contest entry, so thank you all for the fantastic constructive criticism 

[Dextastic]

4 minutes ago, pixelchips said:

I'm so pleased to see that the reception to my song has been positive! Despite the fact that my competitor seems to be the victor (well deserved, I'd say), I'm proud of my arrangement.

Interesting to see the varied reception to my instrument samples. Feedback was a little all over the place on whether it was realistic or not - which isn't a bad thing, I really appreciate the range of opinions. I was indeed going for a live band sound, so I'm glad to hear my efforts at humanization worked in my favour. (But my sax VST is probably the worst offender for fake-sounding instruments...)

I'm happy everyone seems to like how I integrated both themes. I worked really hard on balancing both songs and especially trying to get those piano parts sounding just right, so I'm glad it paid off. Also, I tried some new things in terms of harmony and chord progression, which seem to have turned out pretty well.

MindWanderer raises a great point - I probably could have gone for a better introduction, it is rather sudden which detracts from the live performance feel I was attempting. I think my biggest next step is brushing up on the overall production - my track definitely could have benefited from a cleaner mix.

This is my first OCRemix contest entry, so thank you all for the fantastic constructive criticism 

I thought your entry was frigging incredible and while I loved Ridiculously Garrett's entry too I though you had this round in the bag. I was pretty surprised when I submitted my vote and saw you lagging behind.

Your mix wasn't super clear like most modern pop/EDM productions are, but I thought it captured the live jazz/big band feel perfectly and in fact your mix isn't too far off from how that kind of stuff is usually mixed.

[MindWanderer]

On 8/26/2018 at 7:18 PM, Ronald Poe said:

How can I make my soundscapes better/less thin?

In this case, bass.  There's just not a whole lot of bass going on here. There is a bass synth, but it's used for sparse punctuation, and it's pretty quiet.  Generally you want some bass that's more sustained somehow, either with reverb, delay, or just notes held longer.  You can also add a pad that covers the mid-lows.

[Mak Eightman]

Just now, MindWanderer said:

In this case, bass.  There's just not a whole lot of bass going on here. There is a bass synth, but it's used for sparse punctuation, and it's pretty quiet.  Generally you want some bass that's more sustained somehow, either with reverb, delay, or just notes held longer.  You can also add a pad that covers the mid-lows.

I suggest move this conversation to another place. As for the subject, I agree. Bass line is out. Take I close look at 200-800 Hz diapposone. Bass lift at thisese freqs or adding some new instrument for that space may change overall soundscape.