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sonic 2 (MS/GG) - undaground!!


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whew. i've been working on this for a while. much harder than the sonic mix from last month.

i had to pick something for my 2nd remix attempt that's somewhat beyond my current skill level. not that i HAD to but i did. maybe i work that way. i can't remember. ;)

 

where i'm doing music rn, there's this nasty resonance in the room and furniture and stuff whenever i play a low C. mix sounds pretty good to me on headphones, but i can't trust the speakers too much. so tell me about the sound if you can. i'm inexperienced with the harder rock mixing stuff, still.

but pretty damn psyched where this could go!! this might be my fav tune from any sonic game, period! and i've found it notoriously hard to arrange well (tried several times over the last 20 years!)

give the OG a listen; to me it's one of the best 8bit tunes out there. listen to the transposition +3 semitones at 0:38; i love that part. it works so effort- and seamlessly in 8bit, but i found it really hard to do well in an arrangement.

because i couldn't get it right, i used the stage intro jingle that sonic 2 has to segueway into it, at 2:10 in my remix (same thing the mix intros with. probly gonna change the intro.)

 

anyway....i think i'm halfway there roundabouts...

 

might be a lotta work still or very little, can't say. also depends on how crazy the finale is gonna be. the stuff 2:10 onwards basically feels more like finale already, so maybe i will re-use it later on and go a little lower energy before.

 

as i said, beyond my current level, so i'm trial&error-patchworking a lot. tell me what you think. too disjointed??

 

<3 nase!! (i am psyched ;D)

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Posted (edited)

hm, lotsa bots frequenting OCR these days huh? the thread view has gone to over 300, but only 23 soundcloud listens.

any opinions? i've found that i'll ditch or re-write the intro (less metal from the start).

it's gotta be 4:30 or 5 minutes long in the end...still some work. kinda worn out on it now, but i'll pick it back up. i hope :)

i think there's high potential to do more interesting funk/metal fusion stuff.

Edited by Nase
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On 5/14/2024 at 6:35 PM, pixelseph said:

Hi Nase!

My time to review the workshop is getting strangled by work this week but I will be popping in to give some more comments soon!

hi pixelseph!

to spare you some work: listening to this on my good speakers (back home from vacation), i can see it's pretty jarring.

i like this one for its creative choices, but the mix ain't there yet, and the arrangement is also gonna be some work.

so don't worry, i don't need detailed feedback regarding mixing because i can hear it myself now.

 

yeah but the potential is there. what an awesome source as well!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/24/2024 at 3:51 AM, Red Shadow said:

fwiw you're the reason i'm checking the WIP forums at all these days :]

diggin the bass lines in this!

well, it's kinda undead too...in comparison to all the tracks being posted on the main page, still!

i gotta do some more listening honestly, and give some feedback myself. this is the only site for this kinda stuff we got left really, after all! i try to stay off the net much to not get too sidetracked, but i really should do this more. it's good to try to breathe some life into the only good VG mix place we have left.

you should post something :) i can't remember if you made any music back then tho!

i'd love to find a way to get a tiny gust of flavolr going here....maybe some silly competition....when i find time and motivation.

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Posted (edited)

Listening with headphones. Overall, I like where this is going. Intro chords are fine, then the sudden funk is surprising but certainly not unpleasant. I think the shredding guitar slides in the intro section sounds a little disjointed sonically with the rest of the mix, maybe reverb-wise?

Character change after 2:18 is refreshing as it builds towards the current climax. I'm guessing that this is currently not the end and the echoing slide doesn't seem to fit right with what comes before. It just seems to end too suddenly. Maybe I just don't like that slide guitar. However, I think this is a solid little mix in terms of the structure that's there up until the end, but sonically it sounds a bit disjointed in the space.

So now I see that it's meant to be longer. I think it would work best in a modified ternary form, i.e. A-B-A*, with some pizzazz added to that repeat. As for that slide, I think the reason why I don't like it is because to me it sounds a bit "thin". Overall this is a good jam! 

Edited by Dyluck
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Just what I noticed during review:

1:12  - feels like there's phasing in the snare layers (?)

2:15 - the slide guitar bit is just a little loud here.

I am a huge fan of all of the instrumentation, it's really fantastic, but the mix does feel a little dry overall, and feel like it could stand to exist in a bit more of a 'space'.


Definitely worth seeing this through, super spiffy remix so far!

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Howdy, Nase! I'll echo the other commenters on the choice of instrumentation -- funk and metal is a great combo and you've achieved a working blend in the mix.

I can hear some crash cymbal hits (e.g. 0:45, 0:49, 1:20 and 2:21) that are either very dry or choked. If they are choked hits, they're unusually placed. A live drummer would have a hard time replicating that, so it pulls some realism away for me.

Good call on your decision to alter the intro. It's pretty jarring as is, but once it hits the funk, it's gellin'.

Good feel shift at 2:14-ish. As others have mentioned, keep an ear on the volume of the slides on that lead guitar.

I'd love to see where you take this mix from here! I'm not very familiar with the MS/GG version of Sonic 2, so it's cool to hear some deep cuts and hidden gems--er, emeralds. :P

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I'm not very familiar with sonic 2 or the source, but it sounds like a great track. I like the overall direction of your remix. In its current state, I found that the synth sound that starts at around 1:10 feels a bit buried. I'm enjoying the percussion in the track, but found that it was a bit buried in a few places. As far as the arrangement, I found that some of the transitions were a bit sudden, for instance the intro into the first section at :06 seemed a bit sudden to me. Overall really like the direction.

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The metal/funk hybrid is an interesting direction and very fitting for the source. Loving the organs. The intro and early section appears to have an identity crisis of sorts, in spite of being quite fun to listen to. The arrangement seems to reach its most engaging and steady form starting from 2:15 onward, which if you're looking to extend/double the remix duration, could work as a gateway point between two halves of the arrangement. I won't comment on prod as I personally prefer to finish writing the song before focusing on the mixing process. But as mentioned I did enjoy this freeform jam of my favorite song from Sonic 2 GG, with the Boss Battle being a close second. Looking forward to where you take this next. (^-^)

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hey, that's a bunch of very sudden great feedback all at once! ha.

this one is gonna be a lotta work for me to get it as good as can be.

unless i get a stronger laptop over here, i'll have to finish it next winter because i started it on that pc in southern italy where i've been for jan-may. i have the project file here in case i wanna get another good studio pc.

the ample sound guitars and waves keyboards and stuff are just crushing my crappy netbook.

i *might* try a rework with 10-15 year old vsts. but probly just do new mixes with them in the meantimes.

 

it's a great tune right dj mokram? i really think that for some reason it's not ez to arrange with modern instruments at all...like it was written to perfectly fit the PSG chip.

i think Boss Battle is a far fourth or fifth looking at the whole soundtrack, BUT when Boss Battle first hits after underground, i agree that it's totally badass. the experience of first playing Sonic 2 on GG/MS as a young one is something to behold! that little nasty crab thing down the ravine on the right with bouncing cannon balls incoming from the left, and no rings in the stage for safety....fucking horror show for a kid!! 

maybe one could do a medley of the first 10 minutes of play of sonic 2 that culminates in the boss battle. incorporating the stage intro and stage won jingles. i think there's too few remixes that directly incorporate the real time experience of intense gameplay sequences! and sonic 2 was really intense.

stage 2 is very unique as well...very chill vibes for sonic. the music as well as the hang glider prop. that damn hang glider took everyone a lotta tries i think. totally untypical for sonic as well, but it worked!

and that's sonic 2 for GG/MS kinda...very untypical, sort of the most interesting sonic game. ymmv.

 

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Dude, that paraglider level was something else. Rain above, spikes below, no rings, questionable controls. GOTY 1992. xD

Aqua Lake had pretty great music and so did Sky High zone. Green Hill was a bit meh compared to the Megadrive version tho.

I don't think Undaground Zone is hard to arrange in a modern way. Case in point I did a mash up of it with Chu Nan from Sonic Word like a decade ago for the Sonic Zone compo, in the style of Platinum's Vanquish by Masafumi Takada. If you're curious I can try to do an edit of it with only the Sonic 2 GG parts, and update this post with a link.

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something interesting i've just discovered: the boss themes for the MM and GG systems are actually different! i prefer the GG version personally

then my actual favorite track from the game would be crystal egg zone, just for the lead synth

Edited by Red Shadow
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Posted (edited)

So cool, Shadow; i vaguely Remembered the same After my Last Post. And wasn't sure If i fantasized that!

I think i First played Sonic 2 at my cousin's Place at mby Age 6, on her MS, and then properly played It on my GG Age 7. My dad was Always fascinated by new gizmos and that`s why i could enjoy that colorful, battery sucking gameboy.

Yeah i mean the GG version. It was so cool, Like a "drop the bass" Moment in a club i Guess. Even though it's Not the greatest piece looked at in isolation, It fit the game 1000000% 

Give It a spin on emu It you havent!

 

DJ M: sure!! Show me!

Edited by Nase
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10 hours ago, Nase said:

DJ M: sure!! Show me!

Ok, here's the edit with only 'Underground zone' parts, but some voice clips from Sonic Unleashed too (which original remix was choke full of): https://app.box.com/s/qgweqg79zhxstq9ue13xwixid3ds4to3

 

Btw, if you're interested in checking all the amazing mash-ups that came out of that compo, the album is here: http://www.darkesword.com/sonic/music/szrc-complete.zip

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On 6/15/2024 at 1:41 AM, Dj Mokram said:

Ok, here's the edit with only 'Underground zone' parts, but some voice clips from Sonic Unleashed too (which original remix was choke full of): https://app.box.com/s/qgweqg79zhxstq9ue13xwixid3ds4to3

 

Btw, if you're interested in checking all the amazing mash-ups that came out of that compo, the album is here: http://www.darkesword.com/sonic/music/szrc-complete.zip

Ok, pretty liberal. Yeah i think this can be remixed lotsa ways Like almost any Song, But If you stay Close to the structure of the OG It can be very hard to give It the same Impact Like the original. (0:38 esp )

I Just think It works so well in 8bit and some workarounds are needed to make It awesome in faithful But modern clothing.

 

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