Liontamer Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 (edited) Artist Name: CJthemusicdude Cheetuh Men. Games & Sources: Name of game(s) arranged: Cheetahmen II Name of individual song(s) Main Theme Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site): Edited June 5 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 submission email game is on point. initial beat is super 2002 in a good way. big snare comes in at 0:15 and then the melody's soon after. the vox sample took me by surprise but it's exactly as cheesy as i expected. i liked the shift of the beat right after that - it punches pretty hard and the melody snips in there are nice too. there's a break at 1:17 with a bunch of filtered elements. this goes through a run of the melody complete with faux-chorus pads, i love this vibe. there's a false build at 2:10 that opens up soon after to the first big beat again. this is 1:1 with the original starting at 0:15, I think, until the big transition at 2:54. after that is very similar to 0:47 but slightly different, until eventually the leads are doing different stuff for a bit. we get a break/outro starting at 3:25 and it's done. i would have liked to not see quite as much copy/paste at 2:25, but it's only 25-30 seconds and the section right after is similar but not exact to earlier. overall though the track has a great beat and hits hard. i like the sfx usage and the melodic content usage is fine. nice work. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Retro sound palette, but it fills the soundscape. I could have stood for a more sophisticated lead especially, but it does the job. Really fun approach to this strangely iconic track. Unfortunately, I think proph undersold the repetition problem. It's nearly wholesale copy-pasta from 2:15-3:25, 70 seconds of a 228 second mix, over 30%. I think I pick up on some tiny differences between the first and second loops—an extra harmonic layer in the last section, maybe?—but they're so small I'm not sure I'm not imagining it. And that's just too much. I'd love to hear this revisited with a more different second half. More modern sound design wouldn't go amiss either, but that's not the dealbreaking issue for me. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 The groove does get stale around 2:54, but to me the overall level of interpretation's just fine with me; this was meaningfully expansive and I enjoyed the rhythmic changes. I have no doubt that if we asked CJ to consider further developing this, he could do a good job, but I didn't feel it was necessary. Repetition and interpretation are important to weigh together, and this is a totally different feel than the original song. Never not a fan of using Streets of Rage voice SFX, though at 2:54, I'd have used something different there to vary things up. Mixing-wise, this could have also been clearer/cleaner, but aside from lacking some high-end sharpness, the instrumentation's weighty and impactful. MEOW WOW for the Cheetahmen! :-) YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted April 22 Share Posted April 22 Do Chee-TUH-men carry glowsticks for weapons? These ones do. Fairly thick and full sound design from the get-go and that's the biggest strength of the track. The synth lead is borderline vanilla for me, but for some reason it doesn't seem to be focal point of the track and other instruments take over often enough that it doesn't become and issue. Would've liked more melodic embellishment or variation to change it up from the first source during 2:54-3:25 to help give the final recap something to differentiate itself and/or add more energy to it. Because it was a short section it wasn't a huge deal for me because it's gone so fast. The added lower harmony in the build up to the final recapitulation 2:49-2:54 did at least give a very subtle variation from the first initial build ~0:39-0:45. The production is strong, and your interpretive melodic rhythm changes were appreciated. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 This may be the grooviest 8bit original tune I've ever heard, holy shit. Ok on to the remix. Beefy kick right out of the gate, blowing my ears in, in a good way. Retro sound palette for sure but it sounds great. Oh man, this beat hits hard. Love it. The production on this track is ace. Unfortunately, I have to agree fully with Mind Wanderer. The repetition in this arrangement is too egregious. I cut the track in Cubase at 2:16 and layered 2:16-3:25 over the section of 0:00-1:16, and they are identical, with two exceptions: the intro of 0:00-0:15 is double the length of 2:16-2:23 (with clap entering halfway through), and there are a few extra notes written into the lead writing at 3:02-3:10 compared to 0:53-1:02 (with the same lead instrument as before). That's a very tiny amount of variation. I soloed each part back and forth multiple times and could not find any other differences. Darn it, I really like this track, but that's too much repetition. I'd love to hear some real variation introduced into the second half, enough to distinguish it from the first, then this will get my hearty yes vote. Guys, we recently voted NO on a track by bLiNd for overuse of repetition, even after he went back and made subtle changes that just were not enough variation because what he changed was the exact same type of sounds. This track is even more blatant repetition than that track was. This one should not be getting YES votes at this time, just my $0.02. NO (I really dig this, please vary second half, and resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted May 30 Share Posted May 30 PrototypeRaptor's take on this same source is an all-time classic, so let's see what you've done with it... We're treading a lot through the same 4-on-the-floor hard electro territory but you've definitely managed to bring something unique and groovy to the table. A little less hard-hitting, a little more vintage synth design. Unfortunately, the repetition at the end is too wholesale to pass the smell test - there's plenty of room to add some more substantial variation to the structure here, especially when the overall track length is so short - you've gotta squeeze a little more out of the concept here. Chimpazilla broke it down perfectly! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted June 3 Share Posted June 3 (edited) Cheetahmen never gets old, and this does a good job giving a nice, hard coat of paint. The style feels a bit oldschool, but I'm old so I like it just fine. Great start and the bridging material does a great job at breaking things up, and the production values are up to OCR snuff. I stand with Mindwanderer and Chimp, though, in saying that the last third of the track has too much direct repetition for OCR. If you want to present a similar idea, that's fine, but give us a good reason to come back to the material, something to justify coming back to such similar material, or else it just sounds like you're stalling for time. Promising start, but this needs to give us a reason to listen to the last minute or so of the track rather than copy the first section and paste it at the end. NO Edited June 3 by Gario Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexstyle Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 18 hours ago, Gario said: Cheetahmen never gets old, and this does a good job giving a nice, hard coat of paint. The style feels a bit oldschool, but I'm old so I like it just fine. Great start and the bridging material does a great job at breaking things up, and the production values are up to OCR snuff. I stand with Mindwanderer and Chimp, though, in saying that the last third of the track has too much direct repetition for OCR. If you want to present a similar idea, that's fine, but give us a good reason to come back to the material, something to justify coming back to such similar material, or else it just sounds like you're stalling for time. Promising start, but this needs to give us a reason to listen to the last minute or so of the track rather than copy the first section and paste it at the end. NO See above for my exact feelings. ALSO NO (resubmit with a cooler back third pls) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPRTNovice Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 Man thank you for introducing me to this cool ass source. I've never even heard of this game, and this is an 8-bit BOP. This is a great mix. I love the vocal callouts, I love the mixing. THe track is full without being overbearing. We've got some good room to dance without the repeats being draining on my patience/ear. We get a nice break at 1:21 for a few seconds as we build back in, with the chiptuney stuff in the ground being fun. And oh look a modulation. Nice. I'm really not a dance guy, and repetition bothers the hell out of me, but it's funny to me that I'm at odds with other judges on this one re: repetition. Could you have done more with the last third? Yes. Would I have loved to hear that? Yes. Do I think you should do it? Yes. But does it make it so that it doesn't pass the bar for OCR? Nah, I don't think so. It's a YES from me. If you WERE to try to turn this from a B+ into an A, I would just nod to the comments of the other dance afficionados here - variety, storytelling, and an ending worthy of the first two thirds of the piece rather than the sort of flop-over-dead one that you've got in there right now. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 This track is easily a 2000s-era-style EDM adaptation, all with filters and gnarly synths. I approve of the sound design, with synth choices of that era and effects shaping things over time, and those Streets of Rage "uh" sound clips starting from 0:46 and 2:55 made me feel thrilled for apparent reasons. It's so well mixed to do what it did that I can't find any issues sticking out. Let's see the arrangement, though. Luckily, whether it's just the bass and some layers, or more obvious uses of the melody, the source quota is evident, and the build up a semitone at 1:32 made a great segue into some modulation before getting into the source's C section. It's definitely a more vintage approach to interpreting it, and I can be down with it. Of course, there are two weaknesses. I can live with the weak cop-out ending if that is the only problem. But the third minute with copypasta is the big sticking point. I do agree that the section from 2:24-2:54 is too blatant aside from the use of brief harmonies transitioning into the next section, as is the section at 3:10-3:25. I do, however, approve of overlaying the A section melody and B section arp on top of each other starting from 3:02, which briefly happens before the B section goes back to full force at 3:10. Eight seconds cut from Mindwanderer's 70 is still just over a full minute of this stuff, so I would've liked to have seen more done to let this section stick around. Honestly, this track is almost golden, but I want another reason to hear that last stretch rather than copying something over with minor layer tweaks. You could change up melodies, add different percussion, or add different pads—anything. I know you can do this, CJ. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 Killer track but needs more variation in the back third. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts