OCR04737 - *YES* Streets of Rage & Revenge of Shinobi "Hydraulic Beat"

[Emunator]

VOTE ON THIS VERSION (revised April 19)

Hi OCR. For some background, I was doing vgm covers on Soundcloud from 2012-2017 or so and then submitted a (rejected) remix fresh out of college around 2018. After that I focused more on original content, incl. doing music for a VN called Validate, but I thought it'd be fun to try subbing again now that I have a better understanding of producing, arranging, etc.

Source Usage
I've been submitting WIPs of this one in the Discord for close to a year on and off. I know the biggest point of questioning is probably going to be the source usage; I've added it up a few times and it's roughly 65% source. It's a long-ish remix of a pretty short source so here's a breakdown, timestamped:

0:00-0:45 | Ambience, then "The Street of Rage" main theme kicks off the melodic part at 0:23, then riffing.
0:45-1:11 | The synth bass and percussion from the "A" section of Stealthy Steps.
1:11-2:15 | Full arrangement of the "A" section of Stealthy Steps.
2:15-2:58 | Flourish and original bridge inspired by Revenge of Shinobi, e.g. Ninja Step.
2:58-3:30 | Full arrangement of the "B" section of Stealthy Steps.
3:30-5:05 | Mostly modulations of the source. The piano/guitar echo the "bongo" melody, and at 4:13 the theremin echoes the bass melody.
5:05-5:30 | Ending lick is riffing on the Stealthy Steps "A" section bass.

There's only a few external references, all to Yuzo Koshiro:
- At the 0:08 mark of Ninja Step, there's a high "charang" stab which gets referenced in the remix at 3:50 onward.
- The bassline of Ninja Step gets used by the synth bass and low-octave piano starting around 4:21.
- At 1:08 of Attack the Barbarian, there's a quick square lead melody which gets referenced around 3:52 and again and 4:11.

Production
I think Streets of Rage 1's soundtrack gets overlooked a lot because its arrangements come off as simpler compared to 2 which is why I thought it would be a fun source to expand on. Production-wise, I wanted to achieve a fidelity closer to Streets of Rage 4, but with some "90s arranged CD version" elements i.e. Sound In Action to help it feel more like a throwback. The remix also has the same BPM as the source tune (90) because I wanted to keep it downtempo/funky like Streets of Rage 1 and Revenge of Shinobi compared to 2/3/4 being more inspired by Detroit techno.

The arrangement is also somewhat based on in-game context; Stealthy Steps is the BGM for Level 6 which is an industrial/factory stage. The preceding level is a sunset boat/harbor stage hence the helicopter/siren ambience, and the 3:30-5:05 section was meant to be more repetitive so it could be used for the boss fight at the end of the stage.

For instrumentation, I'm using a lot of instances of FMDrive and FM8 to recreate Genesis synths; the only thing sampled directly from the game is the "bongo" loop that starts at 0:50 in the remix and it's been processed/chopped up a lot. The more original instruments are mainly using u-he's Diva/Hive/Zebra2 or a MicroKorg, and the piano is a tweaked version of the Hammer Klavier from zircon's Impact Soundworks company. I mainly do progressive electronic so this is a pretty hot/dense mix for me, and it was definitely a challenge to give everything enough breathing room. Including master bus FX it was something like 150 VST instances total.

Extras
I'm around on the Discord pretty often so if you need anything or have any questions feel free to let me know. I do graphics stuff too so I made track art for the remix (for Soundcloud etc), I'm not sure if it could be included anywhere on the site.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Adrian

Stealthy Steps:

Ninja Step:

 

Attack the Barbarian:

The Street of Rage:

[prophetik music]

sfx noodling to start. remixer plays with the main theme a bit before getting into Stealthy Steps. beat comes in at 0:49 and is appropriately angular for the synths around it. bass is super FM and has some real grumble in it which is fun to hear. interesting lead comes in at 1:33 with some heavy buzz and movement to it - really liked this one. the snare's a bit bright but i get why you had it so meaty throughout.

cruises through some transformations of the theme for about a minute after this section, then noodles a bit around with what sounds like a theremin. at 3:30 we get into a much more developmental/transformational section. there's some interesting chord work in here to keep it moving forward and at least one key transposition for a while. around 4:46 it starts to back off some more until we get a short recap of Stealthy Steps. it ends pretty abruptly after that. i wouldn't have minded a bit more prep going into that.

this has some really interesting synth work throughout! it's muddy in spots - you forgot to roll off the sub-40hz content throughout, so there's more 5hz content than 40hz at a few places - but overall i can hear what's happening in each section and the things that are going on are interesting to listen to. this is a fun track. i'm going to conditional it simply because i believe dropping a rolloff on the main is easy, but it's definitely a pass.

 

 

CONDITIONAL

3/15: updated version is cleaner down low but still has stuff happening at 10hz and below. i am still a conditional but tbh this is good enough for me to go as-is if it doesn't get fixed.

7/15: i apparently misunderstood what conditional was (that is, it's a no until fix, not yes with reservations). this is passable, i'd just prefer the low end get trimmed before release. i'm updating my vote based on this.

YES

Edited July 15 by prophetik music

[prophetik music]

new version in the comments of the submission form.

[MindWanderer]

I've been waffling on this one for a while. It's a clever and passionate blend of the four sources, with a lot of consideration going into it.

While there's nothing hugely objectionable about it, there are a few things holding back. The sound design doesn't change up much over the course of the 5½ minute arrangement; although there are a number of instruments and a few SFX used, the synths are pretty vanilla and same-y. The saw "bass" (which sits pretty high for a bass) in particular is overused, and the kick/snare/hat are nearly omnipresent as well. The overall energy doesn't change much, either, nor does the soundscape. It gets a little noodly and uncoordinated in places, too. Despite using 4 sources, I find myself losing interest by the halfway mark.

I feel bad for NOing this, because the overall arrangement and thought are pretty good, but the sound design and lack of dynamic interest are really dragging it down for me.

NO

[Liontamer]

On 3/14/2024 at 8:13 AM, prophetik music said:

CONDITIONAL

3/15: updated version is cleaner down low but still has stuff happening at 10hz and below. i am still a conditional but tbh this is good enough for me to go as-is if it doesn't get fixed.

Just to be clear, when you say "i am still a conditional but tbh this is good enough for me to go as-is if it doesn't get fixed.", that's not a conditional vote, that's a borderline YES. :-P

I didn't make out any of the brief "Ninja Step" elements mentioned in the comments, so if any of the Js wouldn't mind helping a brother out... (9/18 EDIT: No worries, I hear it now.)

Cool sounds for the intro. The lead from :23-:48's no good, a very stilted sound, but the overall sound design's interesting even if I don't like that one part. Can't go wrong using a lot of sounds similar to the original music courtesy of FMDrive, yet this is far from sounding like a cut-and-paste or simple sound upgrade of the original source tune.

Melody arrives at 1:12. At this point, the lead sound design's actually feeling flat and unexpressive in some ways until the change in leads at 2:05. It's nothing that's putting me off from voting in favor of this so far, but there's some flat or underwhelming parts.

A little comping style variations on the melody from 2:37-2:59, which was good. The soundscape's somewhat cramped, but I can make out the part-writing OK, so no big deal. That higher synth at 3:22-3:30 & 3:41-3:52 is another example of a flat-sounding part. Piano line at 3:30 was cool, and the orch stabs added some cheesy but OK flavor. Love the shimmering outro sound and how it stylistically bookended with the intro.

I do understand how MW went NO in terms of feeling like things didn't dynamically vary enough, because these heavy beats are pretty pervasive and the track's generally pretty texturally full, so it can come off like it's just hammering the listener. Nonetheless, this has enough textural changes to get by, carried by interpretive arrangement/presentation and reasonably solid sound design (despite some "mixed bag" feelings). Looking forward to hearing more from you, Adrian; nice job letting this simmer. :-)

YES

[Chimpazilla]

I am assuming the bulk of this remix is Stealthy Steps.  That's what I hear the most of, and the beat is the same as Stealthy Steps throughout the majority of the track.  I also cannot hear Ninja Step.

I like the granular intro with the sfx a lot!  Neat way to set the mood.  The volume and intensity ramp up until the drop at 0:45.  I really like the gritty soundscape that's set up and the varying sounds coming in and out as things move along.  I really like the inclusion of the phone beeps, super cool sfx.  The beat really never changes which unfortunately gives a very repetitive flow to the track overall, but there are so many instrumental and textural changes happening that I'm ok with it.  A few variations of the drum fills would have broken up some of this beat repetition, the same fill each time is not the best choice.

There is definitely too much sub-30Hz content in this mix, which is causing a loss of mastering headroom, and the master is overly compressed as a result of including these inaudible frequencies.  By rolling off these subs, the master could be driven even harder without risking overcompression.  But I don't hear overcompression artifacts, in this case "overcompression" means that the track's dynamics are overly flat, due to these sub frequencies being included in the master.

 

Overall, I love this.  Tons of variation and fun sfx and writing, great vibe and mood.  I'm going with this one.

YES

[Hemophiliac]

There's a lot to like here, and I'm so glad you worked on this as much as you did over the last...I dunno...year?  I remember how close the sound design was to feeling like an upgraded version of the Sega chip. With that said, the sound design here is so cool.  FM-grit mixed with industrial sound effects and a constant beat. Hydraulic Beat is a fitting name.

I have to echo what Chimpazilla said about the drums, they really need more variation throughout.  Patterns and fills both changing up slightly go a long way to making a track move forward without feeling repetitive. I'd also like to echo what was being said about the sub-bass content. You have got to roll off those lows completely.

The real highlights are the textural changes throughout the piece, they carry the arrangement.

YES