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OCR03951 - *YES* Mega Man 3 "Rock the Masters"


Gario
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ReMixer name: bsolmaz13

Name of game: Mega Man 3
Name of arrangement: Rock The Masters
Name of song arranged: Stage Select
 
Comments: I've always loved this short classic tune and wished many times it was longer and had more variety to it. So I set out to create just that myself. The track starts out in an 8-bit style -even gets to a recreation of the original at one point- and suddenly evolves into something modern. Essential to me was to add and alternate between enough newer elements so the track and it's samey (although awesome) melody doesn't get too repetitive. Also important to me was that I kept using 8-bit channels/instruments throughout the modern part to create some sort of retro-modern hybrid which I really like. I hope everyone else does too!
 
 
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Oh hell yeah, this is a kickass arrangement of a really short source. I'll be the first to admit that the arrangement meanders, but the quality of the chips and blending of nice meaty drums with other modern synths more than make up for it. The source is in this in spades, but it avoids playing the same thing twice.

Fill in another gap to my favorite Megaman game soundtrack with this excellent little tune? Yes, please!

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2018/08/02 - (1Y) Mega Man 3 'Rock the Masters'
  • Sir_NutS changed the title to 2018/08/02 - (2Y) Mega Man 3 'Rock the Masters'
  • 1 month later...

I love the creativity of this.  The harmonies and twists on such a beloved source definitely gave me feels.

That said... it's awfully repetitive.  I hardly noticed at first because I'm really into the source, but the 8-note refrain gets repeated verbatim over, and over, and over, and by the end I couldn't overlook it any more.  The opening twists it a bit, but it quickly settles into the same version.  It goes back to the variant in 1:46-2:05, followed by a respite from 2:05-2:24, but that's it.  There's a ton of variety in the accompaniment (although the single triangle used sort of as a kick gets very old), but the main 8-note melody is used a whopping 44 times!  The two simple variations used in the intro are used 18 times put together, and the last part of the source is used 7 times.  Looking just at the melody, this is actually more repetitive than the already short source.

Even though I enjoy this a lot, a big part of why I enjoy it is because of the source material.  If this were based on some other soundtrack that I wasn't attached to, I'd come down hard and unequivocally about this level of repetition.  If I'm going to be objective and consistent, I can't treat this any differently, so I have to give it a

NO

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This track is an excellent treatment for a 10-second loop!  The combination of retro and modern synths sound clear and engaging, there's a healthy balance to all instruments, and no doubt the source material is present almost all of the way through.

That simple melody has also been altered and twisted in so many ways that the only way to make a case against repetition is to dissect the track part by part.

  • Obviously, no set of 8 bars in the chiptune intro (0:00-0:48) are identical, with the first four variations building things up slowly - drums and backing melody, a more active bassline, harmonies, then the fifth repetition had the source material mostly played straight with the drums and bass muted for the last two bars.
  • 0:48-1:07 has the groove's foundation with the more modernized synth work coming in, with this measure of 16 bars having the first half dedicated to the melody repeating the first four bars of the source before doing the entire thing in the second half.  Also, that same melody has harmonies riding over the top.
  • 1:07-1:26 has the harmonies of the previous section replaced with a new original melody riding over the top, and the percussion has an additional meatier hi-hat over the top of the previously established beat.
  • 1:26-1:45 has the bass changed back to the triangle wave as heard in the intro, the secondary melody part has changed to a sweeping arpeggio, and the beat has open hi-hats brought in.
  • 1:45-2:05 has the melody restored to the variant as already heard in the intro, with a cool call-and-response between solo voice and harmonies.  The bass is back to what it was in the central groove, but the drums instead were changed to a break to add tension for the next segment.
  • At 2:05-2:24, the melody is almost entirely new with only the last beat of the fourth and eighth bars mirroring the source material.  It's the only segment in the track that is like that. 
  • 2:24-3:02 sounds almost just like the 0:48-1:26 section before it, but there are a couple of subtle changes.  The fill at 2:42 is a new addition that relies on open hi-hats to segue to the melody part, and the harmonies had extended over to the second half of the section rather than staying with the first.
  • And of course, 3:02-3:23 has the previous part, but with the backing rhythm muted and the drums calming down for the ending.

From what I've witnessed, I can conclude that no two variants of the theme are indeed identical and it's all of these details together that have proven the source material has had a substantial amount of arrangement.  Combined with the robust framework and clean production, it's one I can easily see on the front page - so good job with handling something so short!

YES

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  • Rexy changed the title to 2018/08/02 - (3Y/1N) Mega Man 3 'Rock the Masters'

i don't have any problem with the arrangement on this one at all. i think saying that the melody's 8 notes is selling it short - it's clearly used combined with other elements to make a pretty consistent eight-bar melody that's doing a nice job of expanding on the source. the backgrounds are varied, interesting, and well-balanced overall, and there's a bunch of fun drum programming to top it off.

there's not a lot of dynamic variety, the triangle kick drum gets a little repetitive by the end, and it probably could have been 30 seconds shorter. these all feel like nitpicks to me. i love the vibe and i love the willingness to tackle such a (great!) short source. nice work!

 

YES

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  • 2 weeks later...

Chiming in after the fact, but wanted to quickly co-sign on this. Production was reasonably clean, and while the arrangement is gimmicky, that's not a pejorative. Good job getting a lot of melodic and textural variations out of this to justify the length. The ending was a too sudden, so I wish that was more thoughtful, but this clicks overall. Welcome!

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR03951 - *YES* Mega Man 3 "Rock the Masters"
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