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OCR04629 - *YES* Mega Man 2 & Double Dragon 2 "A Breath of Fresh Air"


Liontamer
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Hello,
 
Here is a new Elrinth & PsyNES collab remix, it has been a long time since the previous one! If this gets submitted to the site, it will be an OCReMix exclusive, never released anywhere else! Probably later on my youtube/soundcloud too, but not in a while.

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  • Name of game(s) arranged - Mega Man 2
  • Name of arrangement - A Breath of Fresh Air
  • Name of individual song(s) arranged - Air Man Stage
  • Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.
    This remix was started by Elrinth back in 2013 I think. Elrinth made a really good start for the remix and I thought we could finish this pretty quickly... but here we are, 10 years later :D

    We had big plans back then, but all fell apart I guess.  We were supposed to make a Mega Man 2 remix album, and I was planning to do a Mega Man 3 remix album myself (both may still happen, but who knows when). Sadly the collaborations work got slower and slower for various reasons and in the last few years it's been only me trying to finish the unfinished remixes we started and this is one of them. 

    In the intro part there's some double dragon mixed in there by Elrinth, but not enough to actually take over the airman-part. It also comes back later around the 2 minute mark.

    I think the first version of the remix Elrinth sent to me was already like 2 mins long. After that it's been mostly me remixing the tune, adding effects and length etc. There were a few times Elrinth still added some stuff, but can't really remember what. The 04:40+ part is actually taken from my first PsyNES Mega Man 2 Air Man remix that I made back in 2009! Holy poop, it's been a long time. Elrinth just actually said that it's his favorite part of the remix. :)

    Oh well, that was some comments and history about the song/our collaborations. Hope you all enjoy the tune!

    Love from Elrinth and PsyNES! 💗 Renoise still rocks 😎
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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2023/08/24 - Mega Man 2 & Double Dragon 2 "A Breath of Fresh Air"

Definitely has some shrill sounds to open up, and then the pulsing beat is also too loud, IMO. I can look past it, even if it's too much. Interesting beats at 1:02. The bassline is arranging the Air Man melody, but it's mixed in a way where you can't hear the differing notes well enough, so, functionally, it doesn't really count; anyway, that was brief until the main melodic line arrived at 1:14.

IMO, the mixing's needlessly abrasive with these saw leads, but not to a point where I'd reject this. Nice brief dropoff at 2:20. Not a melodious break section at 2:27; the writing could have been more melodious and more interesting, but it's not very long and the melody fades back in at 2:49 to pair together with it.

3:15 has some different original writing that briefly references the source until winding back with the main melody at 3:42. Very nice dropoff at 3:59 to ice the pads and leave some cleaner textures fronted by chiptune, which was an awesome changeup in the feel of the track. Nice job layering up the chiptune lines at 4:24-4:37 to fill things out before simplifying the textures again; VERY cool dynamic contrast for these final sections heading towards a ramp up for the finish. Heard the DD2 cameo again at 4:56, and I liked the subtle vox-like padding added in there as well.

The mixing's not ideal, and I felt the writing of the 2:27 wasn't catchy, but those are two lesser issues within an overall strong arrangement. I could see some Js wanting another mixing pass at this; the way I look at it, if the source files were gone, this arrangement's strong and needs to be included. This is going to sound as if I thought this was a borderline call; this gets way more right than wrong. I'm fully on board; nice work, boys! :-)

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2023/08/24 - (1Y) Mega Man 2 & Double Dragon 2 "A Breath of Fresh Air"
  • 3 weeks later...

there's some playing with time in the intro which is fun. then the beat comes in, but it actually hasn't at 0:47, and is super confusing to hear what's going on! it took me several listens to get the hang of what was going on there before the 1:03 mark when the beat actually hits. there's actually not a ton happening when the melody's cooking at 1:20 or so - it's just drums, bass, and lead with no pads. it sounds surprisingly empty behind all the verb and room sound. 

1:54 is a nice break and build. 2:27 has some notes that i'd call not ideal overall, but i like the idea of having a break section that's different before layering in the melodic elements again. 3:16 does a nice job mixing up what's being played without changing synths too much, and agree with larry about 3:59 - feels real old-school there, as does 4:38 when the lead's doing the melody/chording stutter pattern. the ending isn't anything special but it's fine.

this is a nice take on a neat track. i agree with larry that it's certainly not mixed perfect, but it's fun and has some clever arrangement ideas that give it more staying power than i initially thought it'd have on first listen.

 

 

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2023/08/24 - (2Y) Mega Man 2 & Double Dragon 2 "A Breath of Fresh Air"
  • 3 weeks later...

When I saw what games you were combining, I knew instantly which track from Double Dragon 2 you were using. Best track in the game, IMHO, and so unique compared to the rest of the soundtrack. I don't know what it is about Mega Man that makes everyone put game SFX in their tracks, though.

2:26-3:05 is a pretty big chunk of repetitive mud. Six loops of the same melody on top of an extremely cluttered soundscape. I could make out some differences between the loops, especially the last two, but I had to pay close attention and I could tell there were layers I just couldn't make out.  1:40-1:52 and 4:24-4:37 have some weird syncopation in the percussion that I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around.

I don't think those are dealbreaking issues, though.  It's a great idea, and well-executed overall, though there is indeed a lot of room for improvement on the mixing front.

YES

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  • MindWanderer changed the title to 2023/08/24 - (3Y) Mega Man 2 & Double Dragon 2 "A Breath of Fresh Air"
  • Liontamer pinned this topic

That's.  A.  BIG.  Kick.  So big.  So, so big.  WHAT DID YOU SAY you'll have to speak louder, this kick is just so so big.  I mean omg, what a big kick this is.  Did I mention the big kick?

Those are some huge saw stacks.  So many frequencies.  All of the frequencies?

Master is LOWD.  Sounds crispy, but could be all the saw frequencies?  There are so many of those.  They are a little hyped in the high-mids which hurts my ears a little.

The mixing could be better.  A lot of these huge saw sounds are overly shrill, abrasive, as Larry pointed out.  The volume-balancing is fine, but some of the shrill could be tamed and I'd be a little happier.

The arrangement is stellar, the mixing of these themes is terrific.  The writing is great.  Lots of fun little variations as the piece moves along.  A little repetitive here and there, but not dealbreakingly so, for me anyway.  I love it.  

And huge kicks are the best kind of kicks.

YES

 

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2023/08/24 - *YES* Mega Man 2 & Double Dragon 2 "A Breath of Fresh Air"
  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR04629 - *YES* Mega Man 2 & Double Dragon 2 "A Breath of Fresh Air"
  • prophetik music unpinned and locked this topic
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