Egoraptor's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mega Man X2 - Flame Stag Stage]

Cool.

To address TsarBomba's comment, I really enjoyed the sfx from the game. It was a pleasant surprise, and it really brought me back into the feeling of the game when the hardcore rocking took me out of it a little. I can see why some people would not enjoy it, but as a Mega Man fan listening to a song made for Mega Man fans, it was awesome. :)

I wanna say starting off that I'm not a metal fan, but I can appreciate sweet metal tunes. This is my favorite of your Mega Man tracks because it fits the most. Flame Stag's level was totally metal, and all the arrangements transitioned well and everything was tight, accurate, and rockin'. The melody wasn't lost in all the bassy chugging and you could follow the tune really well. Then you added in that arpeggio melody halfway through that added this fullness to it, that really made the tune rockin'.

The drum machine was distracting, that cymbal crash is a little too piercing for me and sometimes I'd just think to myself "God I wish that cymbal would shut up so I can enjoy this."

I don't think that you can make just any tune metal, though I think with some skillful rearranging, anything is possible. What I've seen though is that your Mega Man metal tunes are pretty close to direct ports of the original sheet music, which is fine if you're playing instruments that match the originals, but you give them a strong metal boost, and a lot of the feeling and catchiness of the tunes are lost in that.

Lemme give you an example... Have you ever heard the Alph Lyra smooth jazz remixes of the Mega Man X songs? Those are great arrangements of Mega Man tracks that aren't just note for note remixes of the originals with a jazzy drumbeat in the background, they are complete reimaginations of the songs. They used the key, some of the melodies, and then just wrote around them as a base. Listening to them is a total delight, and for Mega Man fans it's really swell to hear those familiar melodies in a different light.

This song is your strongest (Mega Man remix), I think, because the original tune was already written in a Metal style, but the other tunes you redid weren't. I think you need to do some reworking when adapting songs into a metal style. I've heard your stuff and it's obvious you have the talent and ability, it's just a matter of pulling it off. :)

Good luck!

DarKsidE555 responds:

Egoraptor? Reviewing music? You gotta be shittin me!

Well...thanks a lot for the long and very detailed review...don't you got stuff to work on!? Stop listening to my Mega Man mixes! Shuu you! >:(

Anyways, lets get this over with, shall we? ;)

It's a nice surprise that you actually listened to a couple/all? of my Mega Man remixes/arrangements. As for the drums. I know about the problem here. It was actually the first time I tried some mastering on one of my tunes. The result was more or less pleasing. A plus was that I could push some frequencies and the loudness a bit in the direction I wanted to...the letdown was that I fucked up the dynamics. The cymbal really is too loud/high and I can understand that it's distracting. If you compare this with my Mega Man X2 - Zero's Theme v3 you'll hear a much clearer melted drumline with the rest. Mistakes are there to learn, ya know. ;)

To be honest...you're the first person that mentions a minus in the feeling/catchiness. I do understand this but a lot of feedback that I've recieved so far tells me the opposite, so you're pretty much alone there. :) Of course it's ALWAYS a matter of taste and it's clear that not EVERY Mega Man tune can be metalized...Though, on the other hand...there are so many "crappy" techno remixes out there and I'm just one of a few musicians that sees something else in those tunes. It's not that I'm a hardcore Mega Man fan myself. ;)

I hardly bend myself to sheet music. It's all tabbed out by me and as you can hear with my Mega Man X2 - Zero's Theme v3, it's nearly a complete original song.

Sure thing I've heard about Alph Lyra but I intend to give people a taste of the original and then go into my own little version of the song. It's just my way of "doing" it. We're all trying to be original after all...right?

Tell you a little secret...I'm currently only satisfied with only four of my remixes/covers. I like to provide quality stuff - playing and soundwise and I only think that my newer arrangements stand out a bit. That's why I didn't record stuff for a good while now. I wanted to come clean with a couple of things for myself. But I'll start to record again this week so watch out, there will be more.

Aaanyways, I should end this in depth analysis for now. ;)

Thank you very much for your time listening/reading/reviewing.