What happens when everyone in band class wants in on your group's after-school jazz slam session? ;)

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Main Focuses this Round:

• * MIDI Instrumentation 'Realism' via 'Humanizing' all MIDI notes, Interplay & Balance (between Foreground, Midground, Background, Left & Right Speakers)
• * Sample Cymbal Runs & Drum Kit Syncronization
• * 7-Band EQing & Tweaks

Notes:

1. There is some 'freedom of expression' and 'improvisation' a la most jazz & blues forms, but keeping 'close to the collar' with the original (i.e. adding notes and layering notes here and there). I wish I could've done a bit more free-form expression, but it's rough and difficult to without an actual instrument to hand.
2. No heavy re-interpretations, 'going outside the box', or mixing with other sources (although it was considered with either "Spear of Justice" or "Waterfall" from Undertale, or perhaps "Ancient Chozo Artifact Ruins" from Metroid Prime, but it was out of my expertise to sync their time and key signatures properly with "Ruins").
3. A tiny bit of vol & pan automation, (if I got around to it, but was low on the priority list.)

Side-Note:

The bit of free-form 'creative' liberties of slightly mismatched drum samples patched together was reminiscent of, and I guess a bit of an ode to how my father used to free-style in drumming to songs, especially by jazz artists. He'd play around not only with consistent beat keeping, but frequent change-ups, utilizing not just a basic drum ensemble but other percussion attachments as well, like cowbells, triangles, wooden blocks / glocks, bongos, etc. As much as we have our differences (and I am no longer very fond of the man), he was very (in)formative in my early years of appreciating music.

This song is for him, although he may or may not ever get to hear it.

Man this one was a doozy...

 

As promised, I managed to incorporate both songs into this, as well as

a bonus third one.
 

Here's the song chosen, also from Estpolis 2 / Lufia II:

 

"The Final Battle" / "The Last Duel"

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYE9buVw3kM

 

Here's some TL;DR:

 

* Might've over-shot ambition / expectation-wise due to skill level

and DAW used, but it's my hope the idea behind everything came across

OK and people enjoy the piece.

 

* Tried to focus more on mixing and mastering, but had to formulate a

lot for the composition, which might've cut the time for the song to

'cook' a bit short, (plus I mistakeningly thought this was due on the

8th of Feb, not the 5th...so I'm just thankful the due date was pushed

back a bit to get this done.)
 

* This is heavily experimental
 

* The idea behind the song is it's supposed to be a sort of medley of

sorts, inspired by 80s cartoons and sci-fi / fantasy OSTs; it goes

from the hero's theme / journey theme to the evil-doer's theme /

march, and finally rounds off with a heralding of the hero's rise & a

sort of ending theme / victory fanfare thereafter -- hence the length

 

* If I had the ability to do sweet guitar solos during certain

sections of the composition, I would've, but the instrument VSTs for

electric-sounding guitars in BandLab are extremely poor quality and

pretty shitty

 

* Total time spent on the project: ~ < 2 days

 

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** FULL-LENGTH SONG IS ON SOUNDCLOUD **

 

https://soundcloud.com/angelique-vodou/rave-racer-lufia-ii-tekno-saviour-the-one-who-will-fight-to-the-last-duel-1

Welp, here's the fun story behind this little tid-bit, about how I re-did this song about 3-4 times before finally giving up and doing this in the end:

 

1. Scrapped the ‘dubstep / rave dance’ version I had an idea of because it was colouring too much outside the lines of MnP, and the song proved too complex / difficult for my pea-brain mind with BandLab Online's shitty limited selection of pre-made loops and samples and MIDI instruments to handle;
2. Scrapped the ‘fast Latin dance w/ blazing Spanish acoustic riffs’ (a la FF IX's Vama Alla Flamenco (de Chocobo)) because not enough time, and see above;
3. Settled for option 3 / 4. I tried, but some Chrono Cross songs are too complex to bend to my will without breaking the spirit of MnP.

TL;DR: 

 

Couldn't add much to the song besides a bit of drum & percussion creativity and a sprinkle of vox and ingenuity because of limited things to work with. The song took me, chewed me up and spat me back out worse off for it. My brain power is out of juice, haha.

 

Feels bad, man.

 

It's a bit (way more) laid back and minimalist than my usual flavour--and the sounds might be a lil' too sharp--but my brain's melted to a puddle due to current events at present IRL. However, I hope it's fun to listen to nonetheless, at the very least. ♥

This is a bit of a showcase piece to go along with 'The Rain Won't Stop the Beat'. Aesthetically, it is practically a sister-tune to it (insofar as a more Eastern / Japanese beat). But practically in every other way, it's far different, in tone and tempo. It's like...the Yin to Rainy Turtloid's groovy Yang.

Since we could turn in up to 3 songs, I decided to post this one too, as a kind of hmm, "celebration" of sorts of me coming out of my proverbial shell again and striding out for new horizons with my artistic stuff. This is actually the 3rd song I've ever produced, after a remix of Metal Gear Solid 3's 'Snake Eater' and NieR's 'Song of the Ancients', and it is my first ever original song. I try to be real proud of it, considering I had 0 clue about anything to do with DAWs, loops, VSTs, LFOs, SFXs, samples, midis, etc, and literally jumped into the deep-end of the pool with no life preserver. I just went on the internet, spun a wheel with which MM series I should do and the 'type of stage' (is the Robot Master a fire-type, or water-type, etc), got pinned with MMX & Wood/Forest Maverick, and here we are.

It's also the first of a series of things I was going to do in my spare time, sort of 'What Ifs...' scenarios where if I made a song for a game / franchise, how would it go? So to go along with the kinda weird Mega Man (X / Zero) theme, I present this. :)

Welcome to the Stage of Halcyon Hare - Buried Angkor Wat.

Hope you enjoy. ♥

I said originally in my post for this PRC that I was going to go buck wild and crazy and try doing a 4-in-1 song remix of Castlevania themes. Although I still have the WIP, I quickly found that although I'm loving what I've done so far for it, I feel like I need more practice in the more technical and 'musical' (harmony & melody) side of music production before I step into that territory. I want it to be polished AF, and real awesome, and because Castlevania is one of my all-time favourite VG franchises, I wanted to put my best and all into it and not come at it from a completely n00b standpoint and do the classic and genre-defining songs no justice (plus, I found it to be quite overwhelming to get done within a week and a half or so, with being busy with Xmas & New Year's).

 

And so, I defaulted to something I can do a bit of professional practice on whilst producing something cool and fancy and a bit different. :) Bundeslang sparked this idea in me after seeing and listening to his 'Snakemania' (Mega Man 3) piece, so I decided to make a remix of the stage theme from one of my favourite Mavericks in the whole MMX series. ;) Hope ya'll recognize the tune, and apologies if it sounds a bit wonky at all. This will be my first time utilizing a 7-band EQ to its fullest!

 

I thought the title was apt for New Years as well. ;) Let's not let the rain stop our beat.

 

Keep jivin' and groovin' into and through 2021 fellow musicians!

In winter's night, on the solstice, this is the music by which the wolves howl to, where ice becomes tintinabulation, and wind the flute of the soul.

 

Lyrics (based on Ethereal Vox vocal chops):

 

'Little girl, all night.

Sister for life.

Go rest, alright?

(Ohhh, ah ah ah ah ah ah ahhh...)

Go rest, alright?'

 

The remix of ‘A Wish…’, done in the styles (and inspired by) the band God is an Astronaut, and The Wingless' (from OCR) song, ‘The Scarlet Halls of Night’: https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01459. It's a mix of a classical waltz and more ambient electronica, to try and shift gears a little and see if I can do things that are much more softer, quiet, and thought-provoking.

 

I want to say more, but I shouldn't until voting is over. . . Maybe I will afterwards. ♥ TY for listening. It was an honor and experience in remixing this song.

 

It gave me a lot more meaning to make this song than I thought the exercise / challenge would. . .

Inspired By: Infected Mushroom & this song from the band I never heard of before. :D

♥ Samus Vibin' in the Jungle Underground ♥