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OCR04410 - *YES* Undertale "NoMercy"


Chimpazilla
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Dear OCRemix community!

I believe I have finally made something that I can submit to OCRemix. I have carefully read the submission instructions. Although it is clearly stated that "chiptunes" are discouraged, I still wanted to give it a shot as some of the my favourite remixes in this community are chiptunes already! I have provided all the required information as a list below, including a OneDrive link and a short paragraph about the inspirations. Looking forward to your feedback.

Kind regards,

Nedim Gökhan (Nwgo) Aydın
 
ReMixer Name: Nwgo
Real Name: Nedim Gökhan Aydın
E-mail: 
Websites: none
User ID: 34259
 
Game: Undertale
Title: NoMercy
Arranged Song: Megalovania (originally composed by Toby Fox, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDgQdr8ZkTw)
 
Comments:
There is an artist called "Paptircem", who started an online challenge where she prepares a music sample by following the poll results on Instagram and followers respond with a cover/remix to that. I have made a chiptune remix, the community and the artist liked it, which encouraged me a lot. I have been listening to chiptunes since my teen years and since 2 years I have been specifically reading, watching, learning and working on chiptunes in my free time. This semester, my work at university did not leave me any time to produce anything satisfying, thus I have made a poll on my own instagram and asked for songs that may sound nice as chiptune. One of my students suggested Megalovania, which excited me a lot since I've recently completed Undertale and loved it. Megalovania is an amazing low-bit, chiptune-ish song which blew the minds of thousands of fans around the world. I was planning to do simple, a few minutes long projects in a few days for each suggestion, but Megalovania took 3 months to fully satisfy me. There are lots of arpeggios and short, plucky notes here. The song starts with the notes from the bridge part of the original song. We hear the original melodies from the song that are re-arranged with chiptune instruments, which ultimately changes A LOT to result in an original scramble of notes and tones, still respecting the original scale and melody. In the final part, there are faint non-chiptune sounds (choir, cello and flute) used. I had a final fight clip on my mind, including the infamous "No Mercy" fighting scene, flowey's fight, gathering colorful hearts and the final scene of full pacifist ending where all the heroes were watching the scenery. I wanted to name it "NoMercy" since I wanted to put the feeling of "constantly increasing pressure" and a constantly transforming badass boss fight. Tried to fill it with my feelings, I hope I could do it in the correct way.
 
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  • 1 month later...

Chiptune, eh? Let's see what we've got. Doesn't sound as if it's meant to be 2A03 authentic in terms of channel limitations, but the sound palette is accurate and that's what really counts when it comes to that NES chiptune feel. Mixing sounds clear enough, so I'm optomistic there. The challenge vis-a-vis OCR's standards will be substantially personalizing the arrangement while creating a full enough atmosphere. 

About a minute in, with the first verse arriving, the percussion pattern felt plodding, though the rest of the voices were solid and the beats themselves have a good punch.

I liked the more interpretive writing from 1:24-1:33, then a slowdown arrived at 1:37; pretty smooth downshift there at 1:42 (nice faux-explosion transition sound thrown in there too), followed by some much more interpretive handling of the theme.

Nice chorusing of the lead at 2:21 for the closing section, which gave a brighter sound and was a technique that hadn't previously been employed for a fresh finish. The last hanging note could have trailed a little longer, but no big deal.

In the first half, they had me, not gonna lie, i.e. based on the first half, I THOUGHT this might not get interpretive beyond the chiptune adaptation. Everything post-1:24 was a lot more interpretive, and that carried this over the line, IMO. Nice job, Nedim, we'll see how the others feel!

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2022/07/01 - (1Y) Undertale "No Mercy"
  • 2 weeks later...

The opening sounded overly simplistic to me, so I had concerns to start off with.  Then some nice harmonies, okay, we're getting somewhere.  The glitching was a smidge too glitchy for my taste, but it served to add an interpretive element.  Percussion was simple and definitely didn't seem like it came from the same chipset, and it was too loud, but good energy.  1:07 is a great example of where the snares in particular are too loud; some of the detail work here is almost inaudible.  2:02-2:21 is also poorly balanced, and several parts are unclear.

The one thing that prevents me from passing this wholeheartedly is those loud snares.  While I'd certainly prefer to get a version with that issue corrected, I don't think it's quite a dealbreaker; I can hear most of what's going on, and the production isn't otherwise problematic.  Good writing carries this over the bar, IMO.

YES

Edited by MindWanderer
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  • MindWanderer changed the title to 2022/07/01 - (2Y) Undertale "No Mercy"

intro is a fanfare through the chords, with some immediately glitchy/riffy melodic material. the drums come on at 0:33 and as MW said, the snare's really loud. the mix goes straight through the initial descending melodic line straight out of the track, but then adds more harmony and runs around the one minute mark. there's some noodling and arpeggiation to drive it forward, and then more of the glitchy stuff at about 1:30. there's a ritard at 1:42 and break, and we're in a rhythmically complex section that goes through the descending melodic material using the attack of the synths to keep the drive going. there's a recap of the initial fanfare at 2:22, and the track uses this as an outro.

there's a lot of complexity added here. i don't feel like this kind of 8.5-bit approach really touches some of the chiptune tracks that other big name artists have put out - volumization is critical for this type of track and the balance isn't really there throughout - but i think the arrangement is interpretive enough, and the lead choices sound fine. i feel like megalovania's excellent melody carries this more than the remixer's work, but what's here is just over the bar in my opinion.

 

 

YES (megaloborderline)

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  • DarkSim changed the title to 2022/07/01 - (3Y) Undertale "NoMercy"

Classic source tune. Classic 8-bit synth choices as well, although as Larry says, you've not restricted yourself to the channel/waveform limitations of the NES, allowing for some more creative expression when it comes to sound design.

I enjoyed the glitching and flourishes from 0:27, although when the beat comes in, the percussion is definitely mixed too loudly. Typically with chiptunes, it's easy to pick out individual elements, particularly the melody, but I find the white noise in the snare is bleeding into a lot of the tonal content. You can still pick everything out, but some extra EQ and mixing attention on the percussion would go a long way here.

The slowdown into half-tempo section is really cool, and then there are some nice layered sounds at play as the track builds back up to the finish. Despite the lofi sound palette, you've got a nice warm, rich sound, particularly in the slower sections where the beat isn't so prevalent.

Overall it's a very enjoyable track that I'm sure will please fans of the original. Not without its faults, but a great debut nonetheless.

YES

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  • DarkSim changed the title to 2022/07/01 - *YES* Undertale "NoMercy"
  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR04410 - *YES* Undertale "NoMercy"
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