Rush'n Attack - Stage 1 (NES) (PRC430)
Outline
Source: Rush'n Attack - Stage 1 (NES)
"My source is Rush'n Attack Stage 1 (gotta love NES/Arcade era soundtrack naming conventions!)
I searched among old NES and SNES tunes for the next tune, and came across an old childhood memory: Rush'n Attack, an old konami military-vibe side-scroller arcade of jumping, knifing and shooting bazookas. I found out the game was really well received and acclaimed in its time. Anyhoo, It's first stage theme has some nice melodies, with a kind of militaristic vibe. I really appreciate good old fashion NES era melodies. It's short, but has like 4 small sections that I think will be great to mess around with. Have fun with this one!"
(Wassup Thunder)
Resources
Rules
Deadline is Wednesday July 28th 2021, 10:59 AM ThaSauce Time (18:00 UTC, 20:00 GMT).
Check the following site for the rules:
https://sites.google.com/site/bambombim/prc
Check the Ocremix thread for more information (you can post questions there. It is also the place to post a song if you're not able to use this page):
https://ocremix.org/community/topic/50641-prc430-the-first-stage-rush-n-attack/
After uploading, please check if your song plays and can be downloaded and played without problems. Only upload MP3 Files.
It is not necessary to use ThaSauce. You can upload the song anywhere you want, but I must have a download link. So if you use SoundCloud, don't forget to allow downloads, otherwise your song does not count as an entry or bonus mix. I will still use ThaSauce as a possible place to submit songs and upload all the songs to the ThaSauce page to have the songs at one central place.
If ThaSauce is down, please also submit the song somewhere else with a download link and post the link in the Ocremix Thread.
Entries (4)
Inspired by symphonic metal by bands like Within Temptation and Delain (but European sopranos are too expensive). I was trying some actual EQ work to blend the busy soundscape and let it boom out a bit better (you be the judge.)
Takes it's name from the U.S.A. army motto (This we'll defend). Straightforward, trying to be epic and courageous without breaking sound thresholds.
I guess this is what happens when the Green Berets decide to do a little pirate/waltz-inspired ditty at the Tsar's outside garden party...
...And yes, it's a play on the word "Russian", since the game takes place during the Cold War and all... Also is a play with the main character of the (apparently?) Rush'n Attack (2011) sequel, 'Ex-Patriot', which bombed horribly with critics, but maybe not so much with the average game player.
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Genre(s): Classical Waltz / Orchestra (with a Calypso / Flamenco-styled Shanty at the Midpoint)
BPM: 55
Key: C Major
Tracks/Channels Used: 16
Mood: Elegance
Focuses This Round:
* Writing Counter-Melody & Additional Harmony Lines
* "Baroque" Composition (VGM Orchestral Remixes)
* Playing with VST / Instrumental Dynamics
Notes:
- This is me after studying up on sweeps, cadence, swells, etc. informative of classical music to try this on, as well as how to do counterpoints in music (counter-melody + additional harmonies).
- Many thanks to Wassup & Harlem for their help and guidance; I do like a ton of classical music and listen to quite a lot of Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss, but I never quite sat down and deconstructed their music on such a technical level.
- Apologies for the song being a bit long, was doing a shit ton of putting research, method and theory into practical application and playing around a lot. This was more an exercise / challenge to see what I could do with a relative short, simple and looped bit of NES MIDI to grow it into a full, brimming orchestra, even if it's synthesized.
- Annoyed at the track & VST limitations of BandLab Online (AFAIK, for example, you can't load in your own VSTs), but did the best I could given what I've got.
- Played a lot with panning, layering each track / instrument to a specific level to try and attain the effect of a full orchestra around an auditorium. Took a lot of me trying to remember basic music theory and band techniques from junior high school to remotely try and pull this off...
- Percussion and drums (of a realistic value) was extremely difficult to pull off due to them being a mix of what I could find as loops and sampling.
- I did the panning, but not a lot with volume mixing individual instruments because I didn't want to accidentally make something too soft or too loud (outside of normal EQ). In hindsight, I really had a long think over doing auto vol play and mixing for even more dynamic highs and lows between tracks--and maybe in future, and depending on feedback, I'll come back to this and do that, along with messing with hit velocities, quantizing and legatos / humanizations on a note-by-note basis, but I thought against it so not to add too much on my already complex plate (plus would probably need a hell of a lot more time since I'm not wholly used to it.) BandLab has that stuff but it all goes r/whoosh over my head ATM...
Hope people enjoy. :)
The project file is listed at 20bpm lol, however it's actually around 60bpm. I decided to really slow it down, and make it very much like an adventure. The original source tune is a nice well written rock-ish melody, while i made the opposite of that. Put it this way, unless you speed up my track, it's very much taking all the melodies into a different context. It's very spacious and has a heavy 80's drum sound using as much reverb as possible. It's a combination of synth leads, and very wide key/bell sounds. The drum sounds are also treated with reverb. I also added orignal sounds not in the MIDI to make it more thick textured, as we are dealing with only 4 channels of audio in the NES (5 if you count the DMC channel). The only other things i added to the track were counterpoint melodies, solo lead synth melodies and a voice sample of Commando, because you can tell this video game was inspired by that. I mean everyone knows Arnie right? All in all it's a very different almost 180 direction with this arrangement, and i hope you enjoy it.
My Bonus entry (Don't vote for it).
I busted out my orchestral vsts to work at a military march vibe. I slowed the composition down to aim at an almost pensive, reflective style, more (dare I say it?) cinematic composition. Had imagery of dramatic military scenes from various movies in my head. This turned out long, 5:40 or so, but I kept finding ways to change instrumentation and emphasis as I went, so I believe the experience doesn't stagnate. It was fun to take a really fast piece and explore it at a lower BPM.