*NO* Mega Man X3 "Sorrowful Bellows ~ An Ode for a Winter's Night"

[Liontamer]

Contact Information:

• Your ReMixer Name: The Vodoú Queen
• Your Real Name: Angélique Vodoú
• Your Email Address: 
• Your Website: https://thevodouqueen.newgrounds.com/
• Your User ID # on our forums: 37001

Submission Information:

• Name of Game(s) Arranged: Mega Man X3 (SNES)
• Name of Arrangement: "Sorrowful Bellows ~ an Ode for a Winter's Night"
• Name of Individual Song(s) Arranged: 'The Frozen City (Blizzard Buffalo Stage Theme)'
• Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site):

1. MEGA MAN X3 SOUND COLLECTION; Track 10 - Blizzard Buffalo (Frozen Buffalio) Stage; Artist(s): Kinuyo Yamashita; Release Date: 24 July 2018; Label: Capcom Sound Team

• Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site):

1. https://megaman.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Man_X3_Sound_Collection

• Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.:

I will start off by saying something fairly simple about me. . . and excuse me if I sound like a bovulating bovine for the extensive commentary below (haha, inside jokes...thanks @ Liontamer ).

I *love* cinematic orchestra.

I like orchestra in general. Ever since I was a kid, there has always something about the acoustics and variance of sounds and textures in strings, horns and woodwinds that drew me to works from Bach, Beethoven and Mozart--in particular--and movies which utilize full orchestra a lot back in the day (The Ten Commandments, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, etc) were my favorites. Growing up, I was exposed to a wide variety of musical genres, and in exploring my horizons as a musician / music producer, I adore trying out various genres and genre mash-ups. Although I am still seeking what *is* my "signature style", I don't think I would ever give up on using and composing a myriad of songs across genres, rather than just sticking to one or two areas of music.

That being said, I also have a tendency to make music with a singular goal in mind; that goal being to: tell a story.

It doesn't overly matter if the story changes in interpretation from listener to listener. That's the beauty of the Arts. However, in my mind's eye, I've *always* got a story to tell, a feeling to emote, a vision...that I would hope others would appreciate and enjoy, as well.

This remix of Blizzard Buffalo's stage theme, 'The Frozen City', is no different, and story-telling was a big catalyst for not only the way the song is arranged, but the genre I wanted to employ and master. Another major component was me trying to give it that 'Trans-Siberian Orchestra' grandiose, emotive, action-orientated feel. It may not have the rock n' roll and heavy metal influence and opulence they give (all the bells and whistles of hard rock married with orchestra, because I elected to stick with pure orchestra with synths rather than electric guitars), but I wanted to push for that pull and strength to uplift and give a solid foundation for the story-telling.

Mega Man--as a series--has always been one that has both fascinated me and I have been a huge fan of since the very first one for the NES. In honesty, on surface level, there's not a whole lot of story to draw from. It's very episodic, with "the same villain every week" vibe to it in each game. Same dude; be it Dr. Wily, or Sigma (and his derivative forms), or Gate (MMX), or Neo-X / Copy X (MM Zero), there's always some bent on destroying the world / mankind for some reason...be it general madness, a want for world domination, or reploid freedom. But I found--in curiously reading comic books and other stuff about the source material--it goes deeper than that, like many things in video games can do. And the one throughline that is present in and across all Mega Man media is that of great tragedy and sorrow. Blizzard Buffalo, (one of my favorite stage themes in the Mega Man X series), is no different...and as with many of the reploids turned Maverick, he was once a simple kind and gentle soul, who loved to make ice sculptures in his down-time acting as security for a ski resort, and who befriended a little boy in the neighboring village by turning his snowman's frown literally upside-down.

I decided to make a song dedicated and concentrated in those feelings of sorrow, and even the briefest elation to (temporary) joy in lieu of mimicking the tragedy for this reploid turned Maverick. I wanted it to be a poem--an ode (Ancient Greek tragedy)--complete with a Prologue, a Strophe, the Antistrophe, Epode and a further Epilogue akin to the stages of that kind of play. And, because I had done this for OCR's unofficial yearly Christmas album--(Volume 16...go check it out!)--mentally I made some parallels between Blizzard Buffalo and the dreaded Krampus demon from Xmas folklore, who comes in the night to punish misbehaving children. So...those are the metaphors and ideas that helped to formulate this piece, and I tried my best to describe these layered notions in my source breakdown write-up.

It is my sincere and greatest hope that people can feel these things in listening to this remix, and I pray that the philosophical ride is enjoyable.   I had such a fun time making this song and working on it, learning new and interesting techniques in mixing and producing orchestral music (thanks to Hemophiliac)! It wasn't my first rodeo with the genre, but it *certainly* won't be my last. ;3 This is the first song in the dozen or so I've done since I started trying to make my own and remix music that I've decided to revisit and tweak with the new skills, techniques and knowledge I've gained about arrangement, composition, mixing and (post)-production. The changes between the two versions (this and the one from the Christmas album) are pretty stark in contrast--for the better, I believe--and I think in light of some forward-thinking on how successful this has seemingly turned out, I'll begin to slowly pull others from the backburner, giving them a tune-up, too. So stay tuned, and let's hope for the best. 

 

#

 

Parts from the Source Used (all adjusted to F#Maj/A#Min):

* The Frozen City (Blizzard Buffalo's Stage Theme, Mega Man X3) =

- [1.] Chiptune / Piano Synth (main melody, beginning @ 00:01)
- [2.] Bell / Chime Synth (pulse / intermittent harmony beat that turns to double-time, beginning @ 00:01)
- [3.] Percussive Beat / Drums (trio beat for rhythm, beginning @ 00:01)

- Original source song/material is 40 seconds long, before repeat.


Source Breakdown:

PROLOGUE // The Beast is Awake (a Quartet; 00:00-01:28, 90 BPM)-
* 00:00-00:16 = foley & SFX of a harsh winter storm paired with heavy walking mechanical feet, stomping and plowing through the deep snow
* 00:16-00:48 = bells play very slow, incremental counter-melody notes that are similar to [1] source melody. Two cello synths and violin synths play newly-written harmony to back newly-written melody (played by the harp starting @ 00:48), albeit both parts are based from [1] & [2] of the source material; glockenspiel is the main percussive element.
* 00:48-01:20 = a louder cello synth "joins in" with the quartet of synths and harp to play an additional layer of melody, adding to the movement and feel of Blizzard Buffalo wandering the harsh tundra/taiga landscape in search of prey.
* 01:20-01:28 = chromatic scale chimes and the solo cello plays us into the STROPHE, via transition.

STROPHE // The Beast Watches and Wanders (a Duet; 01:28-02:04, 90 > 80 > 40 BPM)-
* 01:28-01:56 = the main parts of the source are shown on full display here, a flute, piano, strings in pizzicato and the unique cello playing [1], and the harp playing a modified [2] (changed from whole notes to quarter notes to fit the 4-bar measure/meter), with bell and pad backing; called a "duet" due to the unique cello and flute taking a sort of 'center stage'-feel, in driving the melody.
* 01:56-02:04 = transition with very Christmas/church-styled tubular bells and a triangle hit, accenting Blizzard Buffalo's deep breath as he spots said prey.

ANTISTROPHE // The Beast Rampages, and then, Slumbers (a Waltz; 02:04-03:38, 138 BPM)-
* 02:04-02:36 = tempo picks up as the piano synths are now the driving-force of the main melody [1], backed by an original countermelody of the full string section in pizzicato; harp continues to back melody playing the modified [2] and breathy pad.
* 02:36-03:34 = strings swell to become a full orchestra piece of one full repeat of purely the source, including full woodwind section (piccolo, flutes, clarinets and oboes) carrying melody with the strings (violins, viola, celli, bass and double bass); harmonies are played by full horns (tenor and bass trombones, trumpets, french and tuba) with bassoons; soft choir pairs with the pad; full timpani, cymbals and snares fill the percussive line with tambourines and bells; marimba plays [3] of the source material, as the triplet note rhythm for the waltz flow.
* 03:34-03:38 = strings and other instruments slowly start to drop off to mostly pizzicato, spiccato, staccato and tremolo elements carrying the speeding up piano key hits that slide into the next transitional phrase, into the next song phase; Blizzard Buffalo has frozen innocents, and low on energy from his tirade, he is forced to sleep, and to dream of what he once remembered.

EPODE // The Beast Dreams (a Jig; 03:38-04:31, 180 BPM)-
* 03:38-03:50 = two pianos play this newly crafted, modified version of [1], complete with a key shift from F# to A#m to denote not only the change in emotion, but the change in dance to a happy, elated, Christmas-spirited one; harp and dulcimer (carried over from the previous section, but changed from a mini synth to a fingered synth) simulate the marimba's triplets, but are shifted to a more upbeat rhythm of 6/8 timing (double-time on the 3/4); one piano is the melody and the other is countermelody (a more chorded structure).
* 03:50-03:53 = incoming choir synth, denoting the "epodical" call for the singers to come together in unison; they "sing" chords following the melody, but continue from their previous F# counterparts, simply at higher octaves, more towards the front of the soundscape and higher in volume.
* 03:53-04:21 = a celeste and pizzicato viola chime in to match the two pianos in a culmination to the finale.
* 04:21-04:31 = jig section fades to a solo piano after the crescendo to the repeat, changing from the source melody back to reprise the beginning harp melody once more (the original, newly-written melody that starts @ 00:48, beneath the celli and violins); Blizzard Buffalo dreamed of his past, of crafting delicate and intricate ice sculptures and playing happily with the village children, but now. . . .

EPILOGUE // The Beast Stirs unto Nightmare, then Sleeps Once More (a Music Box Solo; 04:31-05:04, 90 BPM)-
* 04:31-05:04 = from the end of the previous section, the foley & SFX start up again, winter winds blowing and Blizzard Buffalo grunting and panting in his unrest; the music box ditty, made up of a light key synth, music box synths and a hand bell play us out to the finish, continuing to reprise the harp melody from 00:48 till the end. He sleeps once more, only to stir once again and walk the path of (and as) a waking, unending nightmare.
 

---- MORE INFO / FURTHER NOTES ----

STROPHE ("Turn, Bend, Twist") = is a concept in versification which properly means a turn, as from one foot to another, or from one side of a chorus to the other. Praising and glorifying the beauty and power of an event or an individual intellectually and/or emotionally, (in this case, the subject being Blizzard Buffalo), the song matches this distinction, with the flute and cello providing an almost ethereal, enchanted envisioning or reimagining of the once-kind, yet powerful being, carried by the "song on the winter winds" from the PROLOGUE.

ANTISTROPHE ("A Turning Back") = the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east in response to the strophe, which was sung from east to west. The strophe, which dwelt in triumphant accents on the beauty, power and ecstasy verse, is answered by the antistrophe, in a depressed and melancholy key, and can also be symbolized through ancient dance (hence the song's waltz tempo and cadence, use of F# as a melancholic key, as well as the heavy tone and almost dire seriousness of this section).

EPODE ("Singing To/Over; An Enchanter") = completion of the movement. In Ancient Greek odes, at a certain point in time, choirs, (which had chanted to right of the altar or stage, and then to left of it), combined and sang in unison, or permitted the coryphaeus to sing for them all, while standing in the center. In this remix, the song stresses the point of the coming end by said unification and differentiation of the melody, countermelody and harmony elements introduced earlier on, culminating in a dream-filled state in thoughts to happier times and greener pastures for the reploid before turning Maverick. The epode of the song is also emphasized by the increased volume and influence of the choir synths backing the jig-like dance, as if the "choir" has come together to sing the last stanzas in unison.

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by Liontamer
closed decision

[MindWanderer]

Wow, that's a... detailed explanation. I don't think that much was needed for us to understand what you were getting at! There's clearly enough source material even without every little connection being spelled out, even though the opening is a very slow burn.

When the main melody does kick in at 1:28, the background is very wet. I couldn't even tell what instrument it was at first, because each note is blending into the next. At 2:04 you can finally tell it's pizzicato strings, but that section also introduces some very wet pads of some sort which get very muddy in their own right. At 2:41 the backing is a positive wall of sound: I can hear the lead and percussion clearly, the brass less clearly, and everything else is a wash.

After that comes the epode, which I had to look up. Thanks for the vocabulary word! It's an interesting take on the idea: an epode usually takes a different meter from the rest of the poem, and it's usually an irregular meter, which you interpreted here as a change in tone and some random-seeming note choices. As with a poetic epode, all the main themes are present here, in condensed form. It's very weird to modern ears, but makes sense in context. Unfortunately is still has that morass of instruments serving as a backing, which is at this point quite loud and distracting.

I really enjoy the arrangement here. It's very unique and fun. But I can't get over the backing, which is just echoes on top of long tails on top of white noise. Clean that up so I can hear actual notes and you'll have my vote.

NO (resubmit)

[Liontamer]

The source was used from 1:27.75-3:38 = 130.25 seconds, then 3:38-4:31 was based on the original, but changing the notes into dissonance instead of melodiousness, so the level of source usage was fine.

Intro was OK in a vacuum, albeit disconnected from the source; fun little audio exercise there though. 1:11-1:20 though, the plucked strings weren't melodious, only meandering.

OK, here it finally is, "Blizzard Buffalo" at 1:27. Hearing lots of residual hiss/white noise on the woodwind lead, and the soundscape's not sounding clean. I liked the cello line though, that added some nice body to the piece. Clock SFX at 1:55 was lossy-sounding. At 2:04, I actually like that washed out technique in principle (see: https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00347), but everything ALSO sounds too far away here, and there's also some crunchiness (2:29-2:31 had some light crackling/distortion come through).

The attacks and bow movements from the strings brought in at 2:35 sounded super mechanical and exposed, and that lasted a while until 3:38. The sustains didn't sound good, and you had jerky note changes like in the chorus (e.g. 3:22-3:33) that sound so blocky and completely take you out of immersing into the track. Meanwhile the drums first brought in at 2:41-3:33 sound so muffled.

Whoa, from 3:38-4:31, what's going on there? We're told it's supposed to sound "happy" and "elated", but it doesn't sound melodious at all, which makes it come off as a terrible resolution section. Whatever transposition was attempted wasn't working, full stop. The mood & tone of this is fine, but these notes aren't. This needs to stay melodious with the theme treatment, and don't be afraid to get some other ears on this if melodiousness is gonna be a question.

Then there's a super thin lead at 4:21 noodling around, while some (thunder?) noise quietly but very abruptly entered in; smooth this out. Then loads of louder hiss briefly appear from 4:31-4:36, I guess as part of the wind-up SFX, so this sounds sloppy twice in a matter of seconds with noise/hiss akwardly dropping in.

The final music box type stuff from 4:36 also felt disconnected from the rest of the piece, but it was brief and the SFX bookends with the beginning; there's no inherent problem with it, but the shift into it would have flowed a lot better had the prior minute of dissonance not cut the legs out of the rest of the arrangement.

It'll come off like I hate this track because I felt lots of things weren't cohesive; it'll sound like I feel you're bad at taking creative risks. It's a good arrangement concept, but a number of things were undermining it. The portions of incoherent dissonance, poor articulations, indistinct mixing, and audible hiss were needlessly tripping this up, in that specific, descending order. If the dissonance and articulations can't be improved, I can't roll with this. While I don't believe rehabbing this is impossible, these issues felt very obvious in the first place, yet VQ's alarm bells surprisingly didn't go off when they should have. It's a creative arrangement and a good base to work with, Angélique. It may make sense to put this one on ice for a bit and come back to it after some distance.

NO (resubmit)

[prophetik music]

lmao, this writeup is nuts! thank you for the detail, although maybe half of it belongs in a tumblr post more than here. not a big deal either way.

intro is primary SFX that isn't super balanced between ears. 0:48 is where stuff starts to come in. the violin sustains feature an extremely slow attack and a weird filter on it so they don't sound particularly realistic. this section definitely feels like it's meandering a bit, and while i understand theoretically where you're going, it doesn't clearly relate to the original even from a subtractive perspective without having the actual original melody there to tie the countermelodic material.

1:28 is where we start to get some original melodic material, and the main enemy of this piece becomes clear - the super-long and obviously artificial tail length of the reverb. 2:04's backing parts are very active, and the extended verb on them alongside the melodic piano's reverb is just a total mess. it doesn't sound dreamy or ethereal, it just sounds like a kid plunking assorted notes on the piano with the pedal down perpetually (is it clear i have three? because this is every music time ever for us).

there's a big shift at 2:41 to some more meaty instruments. the strings lead-in at 2:36 is a dramatically different timbre than the rest of the work at that point - more flexible dynamics would help a lot. the verby keys are still in the background to the mix's detriment here. the instrumentation is not particularly complex either. there's not any writing i hear that is utilizing different rhythms at all, meaning it's just big elephantine blocks of chords moving around. if it was all strings in unison over a backing part, i'd get the puccini influence, but that's not what's happening here - this isn't a string tune. this is not benefiting from overly simplifying the rhythmic elements. additionally, the snares are too far in the back - they'd have more snap to them if they were in a real orchestra; here you just get the room sound and no attack.

3:23 adds more rhythmic writing in the melodic writing - but again, it's all these huge blocks of tone rather than contrapunctal writing. this is more of the same of the previous section, in that the lack of interesting countermelodic or backing writing is holding it back.

3:38 shifts dramatically again to a pretty random-sounding set of instruments doing random-sounding things. i did not get 'jig' from this section at all - there were no common jig patterns used here (ie. dotted quarter three eighths, or four sixteenths eighth followed by eighth four sixteenths), although the section was indeed in 6/8. i also found the various non-chord tones used to be ill-fitting with a sustained chord pad in the background.

4:45 goes off the rails a bit more as the sfx comes back in and the music-box runs down, but it's a cute idea. this kind of keeps noodling until it's done.

i think larry's complaints about it being disjointed are very fitting. there are some individual high points here, but they're not cohesively fitted together, and while it's thought-out and clever, the macro arrangement and shape isn't enough to lift the major issues (too much reverb in sections, low-quality instruments, elementary part-writing, truly incoherent arrangement in some sections) past the bar. if this was realized in a near-realistic fashion i'd still probably say it was too scattered - so that tells me that my main issue is just that while there's a lot of source available here 'on the page', an arrangement is more than a scrapbook page with assorted things glued to it. the overall disinterest in viscidity is the biggest issue.

i also think some time away from this one will work wonders. i'd recommend doing some active listening of compositions that mirror what you're trying to do here. find why you like them, and what elements in them stand out as being remarkable. do your best to find examples in the modern lexicon rather than going to the far edges of the media multiverse to get them. then compare those elements that you enjoyed most with how you realized them here, and see what differences pop up. i think you'd find that the heavily scattered approach you used here is to the piece's detriment rather than it's benefit.

 

 

NO

edit: i received some feedback that this writeup was not-well received by the remixer. on a readthrough, i can definitely see how my writing could have been taken poorly. i wanted to address a few points that could easily be taken from it that were not intentional. please note that i haven't modified the above vote at all at the time of this edit.

• i think the extended writeup is fine here. my thought with the intro was that most people don't read submission emails, and so by extension all that writing wouldn't have an eventual audience. i think the writeup is detailed and very helpful to understand the admittedly complex piece, and just figured it should go in a blog too so it's not lost.
• my last statement, surrounding music listening, was intended to be a developmental technique for audiating and understanding what causes our own writing to sound different from accepted standards. most pro musicians have rockstar mastering and synth skills, and understanding why your track sounds different from someone doing a track in a similar style is a helpful tool that i've found to be very useful over the years. i meant nothing more by this.
• in general, i approached this writeup from the (apparently incorrect ) perspective that the remixer was a classically educated composer, and so i responded like i would to a compositional student. i certainly could have been far more specific in critiques rather than calling out generalities, and i separately should have highlighted some of the real positives in the track, like the complex song structure and sophisticated voice demonstrated throughout.

i responded directly to the remixer on discord in more length. i'll be more careful going forward in my writing to use prose that is less likely to be perceived as denigrating. we are all here to improve and to develop our skills, and i should be helping with that and not discouraging from that.

Edited August 15, 2023 by prophetik music