Author Topic: Music - Lightforce Remix  (Read 3276 times)

Offline Mánagarmr

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Music - Lightforce Remix
« on: December 12, 2015, 11:40:03 pm »
I dunno how many of you guys are retro music nuts, but I decided to give my old musicmaking skills a go again. I went with remixing the lead theme to the C64 game "Lightforce" by FTL in 1986. The theme is composed by the legendary Rob Hubbard.

Quote
Song info: Remix is composed and arranged by Tobias "Moonshine Fox" Linder (AKA Mánagarmr of Totally Legit Gaming) using FL Studio 12. Project time is approx 5,5 hours.

My remix.
Original SID song.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2015, 12:11:40 am by Mánagarmr »
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Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: Music - Lightforce Remix
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2015, 03:59:14 pm »
Geez! Don't y'all critique at once!

;)
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Offline eRe4s3r

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Re: Music - Lightforce Remix
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2015, 02:19:41 pm »
Well.. you asked ;P

Not a fan of the original at all.. I dunno why but these songs always have way too high BPM and way too high pitched synth for me to enjoy (probably because cheap synths back then couldn't do low freqs.) . I do like my table to vibrate and the melody to flow through my bones.. if you get my drift. This doesn't happen with high pitched synths and the playful detail level of the audio here.

Your remix is better, but it could have done with more bass and clearer beat and a more fundamental restructuring of the original melody, maybe even changing the BPM to something less nightcore level'ish. Which considering I am tone deaf.. is all I can say ,p
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Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: Music - Lightforce Remix
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2015, 03:46:58 pm »
Well.. you asked ;P

Not a fan of the original at all.. I dunno why but these songs always have way too high BPM and way too high pitched synth for me to enjoy (probably because cheap synths back then couldn't do low freqs.) . I do like my table to vibrate and the melody to flow through my bones.. if you get my drift. This doesn't happen with high pitched synths and the playful detail level of the audio here.

Your remix is better, but it could have done with more bass and clearer beat and a more fundamental restructuring of the original melody, maybe even changing the BPM to something less nightcore level'ish. Which considering I am tone deaf.. is all I can say ,p
Hey, any criticism that's more detailed than "this sucks!" or "AWESOME!" is welcome. xD Thanks!
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Offline eRe4s3r

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Re: Music - Lightforce Remix
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2015, 04:29:28 pm »
Hehe ;) I know how it feels to sit there twiddling thumbs after tons of work and receiving tons of views and zero real feedback.. it's why I don't up stuff on DeviantArt anymore.

I applaud your skills and the time you put into this... is what I am saying. Although I am definitely NOT a retro (game) music fan. And with retro I mean pre-1990 since we gotta specify this nowadays or people assume pre-2000 ;p I enjoy that today we games with great musical scores that add to the immersion.. beyond simple synth doodling that is.

And hey.. you did a lot more useful stuff with this than I did today.. I just spent 7 hours coloring and fixing scan artifacts of an old comic (manga) I have sitting in my archives .. page 7 of 196.. which is to say, I spent 7 hours on that 1 page and am not even half-way done (it literally starts with a complex river/nature scene and 2 people, splashing water, rocks in water, fishes and so on.. and manga hair that's "half-half" shaded with no clear outline )and then I looked at the next page and lost all my drive. ... so yeah. (Old manga scans have often horrible scan artifacts .. so it's not like I was stuck with colors for that long, the problem was the scan had TONS of dots and shading and incomplete lines (makes "magic" tools in Photoshop break) in horrible quality so I was facing the proposition of having to literally REDRAW everything or hand-draw all the outlines just for colorization) anyway.. OT ;P

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Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Music - Lightforce Remix
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2015, 05:42:43 pm »
Hehe ;) I know how it feels to sit there twiddling thumbs after tons of work and receiving tons of views and zero real feedback.. it's why I don't up stuff on DeviantArt anymore.

I applaud your skills and the time you put into this... is what I am saying. Although I am definitely NOT a retro (game) music fan. And with retro I mean pre-1990 since we gotta specify this nowadays or people assume pre-2000 ;p I enjoy that today we games with great musical scores that add to the immersion.. beyond simple synth doodling that is.

And hey.. you did a lot more useful stuff with this than I did today.. I just spent 7 hours coloring and fixing scan artifacts of an old comic (manga) I have sitting in my archives .. page 7 of 196.. which is to say, I spent 7 hours on that 1 page and am not even half-way done (it literally starts with a complex river/nature scene and 2 people, splashing water, rocks in water, fishes and so on.. and manga hair that's "half-half" shaded with no clear outline )and then I looked at the next page and lost all my drive. ... so yeah. (Old manga scans have often horrible scan artifacts .. so it's not like I was stuck with colors for that long, the problem was the scan had TONS of dots and shading and incomplete lines (makes "magic" tools in Photoshop break) in horrible quality so I was facing the proposition of having to literally REDRAW everything or hand-draw all the outlines just for colorization) anyway.. OT ;P
  1 it sounds fine I'm not generally into game music unless it happens to be playing while I'm actually playing the game personally
2 your making a 196 page long manga? not to state the obvious but that's probably going to take you a really long time still good luck.
c.r

Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: Music - Lightforce Remix
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2015, 07:55:43 pm »
Hehe ;) I know how it feels to sit there twiddling thumbs after tons of work and receiving tons of views and zero real feedback.. it's why I don't up stuff on DeviantArt anymore.

I applaud your skills and the time you put into this... is what I am saying. Although I am definitely NOT a retro (game) music fan. And with retro I mean pre-1990 since we gotta specify this nowadays or people assume pre-2000 ;p I enjoy that today we games with great musical scores that add to the immersion.. beyond simple synth doodling that is.

And hey.. you did a lot more useful stuff with this than I did today.. I just spent 7 hours coloring and fixing scan artifacts of an old comic (manga) I have sitting in my archives .. page 7 of 196.. which is to say, I spent 7 hours on that 1 page and am not even half-way done (it literally starts with a complex river/nature scene and 2 people, splashing water, rocks in water, fishes and so on.. and manga hair that's "half-half" shaded with no clear outline )and then I looked at the next page and lost all my drive. ... so yeah. (Old manga scans have often horrible scan artifacts .. so it's not like I was stuck with colors for that long, the problem was the scan had TONS of dots and shading and incomplete lines (makes "magic" tools in Photoshop break) in horrible quality so I was facing the proposition of having to literally REDRAW everything or hand-draw all the outlines just for colorization) anyway.. OT ;P
You know, as torturous as that sounds, I think you're actually having a lot of fun ;) My girlfriends are both artists and I know how giddy they get when they draw something they like ^^

But yeah, "starting over" is the worst part of any project. I just finished this song the other day, started a new project, plopped some notes in (it sounded horrible, as always) and just went "Ugh...later". xD
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Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Music - Lightforce Remix
« Reply #7 on: December 15, 2015, 11:07:26 pm »
Hehe ;) I know how it feels to sit there twiddling thumbs after tons of work and receiving tons of views and zero real feedback.. it's why I don't up stuff on DeviantArt anymore.

I applaud your skills and the time you put into this... is what I am saying. Although I am definitely NOT a retro (game) music fan. And with retro I mean pre-1990 since we gotta specify this nowadays or people assume pre-2000 ;p I enjoy that today we games with great musical scores that add to the immersion.. beyond simple synth doodling that is.

And hey.. you did a lot more useful stuff with this than I did today.. I just spent 7 hours coloring and fixing scan artifacts of an old comic (manga) I have sitting in my archives .. page 7 of 196.. which is to say, I spent 7 hours on that 1 page and am not even half-way done (it literally starts with a complex river/nature scene and 2 people, splashing water, rocks in water, fishes and so on.. and manga hair that's "half-half" shaded with no clear outline )and then I looked at the next page and lost all my drive. ... so yeah. (Old manga scans have often horrible scan artifacts .. so it's not like I was stuck with colors for that long, the problem was the scan had TONS of dots and shading and incomplete lines (makes "magic" tools in Photoshop break) in horrible quality so I was facing the proposition of having to literally REDRAW everything or hand-draw all the outlines just for colorization) anyway.. OT ;P
You know, as torturous as that sounds, I think you're actually having a lot of fun ;) My girlfriends are both artists and I know how giddy they get when they draw something they like ^^

But yeah, "starting over" is the worst part of any project. I just finished this song the other day, started a new project, plopped some notes in (it sounded horrible, as always) and just went "Ugh...later". xD
while the train is on the rails I might as well ask you how long does it typically take to compose a song?. ps I'm probably misinterpreting this but you 2 girlfriends? if I'm not then all the more power to you but its not a typical thing which is why I'm curious?
c.r

Offline Captain Jack

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Re: Music - Lightforce Remix
« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2015, 04:48:28 am »
I dunno how many of you guys are retro music nuts, but I decided to give my old musicmaking skills a go again. I went with remixing the lead theme to the C64 game "Lightforce" by FTL in 1986. The theme is composed by the legendary Rob Hubbard.

Quote
Song info: Remix is composed and arranged by Tobias "Moonshine Fox" Linder (AKA Mánagarmr of Totally Legit Gaming) using FL Studio 12. Project time is approx 5,5 hours.

My remix.
Original SID song.
God, I read that as RON Hubbard, which gave me an entirely different initial impression of this.

Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: Music - Lightforce Remix
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2015, 06:54:24 am »
God, I read that as RON Hubbard, which gave me an entirely different initial impression of this.
That's...quite a different person indeed. xD

while the train is on the rails I might as well ask you how long does it typically take to compose a song?. ps I'm probably misinterpreting this but you 2 girlfriends? if I'm not then all the more power to you but its not a typical thing which is why I'm curious?

It varies wildly in time. A completely original song (not a remix but an own composition) can take anything from days to months depending on how much of the song is already "in place" in my mind. Usually I have a drum loop or a particular melody in mind and I'll start working from there. I'd say on average at least a few weeks in real time, but perhaps A week in actual work hours.

As far as remixes goes it also varies on how popular the particular song is (more other remixes to draw inspiration from, listen to melodies, actual notes etc) and what platform it's from. NES songs are the easiest as the NES can only play 4 channels of sound and each channel is locked to a particular waveform. This makes it extremely easy to export each channel individually for easy listening and analyses. C64 is the worst with only 3 channels, but each channel is individually reprogrammable in real time to play any kind of waveform, and even mixes of waveforms. So you really have to listen to the entire thing at ones and mentally sort out melodies, loops, drums etc in your mind. But in general, most remixes take far less work than an original song as you generally already have a feel for what you're after with it and the melodies are already there.

And as far as the personal note goes: No, you're not misinterpreting. I'm living in what we jokingly call a "casual long distance non-exclusive triad". Me and my girlfriend Nina have lived together earlier for about 7 years or so, and have been a couple for 10 years with a break of about 7-8 months a few years ago. We were both suffering pretty badly from mental issues, but we've gotten better and it was never love that was the problem. Now we're much healthier and we're back together, but we're not living together as we don't want to risk stressing out our healing mental health.

Nina has known Jossu (or Johanna) for a couple of years as they're both digital artists and met in an online community for DA's. Over time, a deep friendship formed and it started growing into something else. I got to know Jossu via Nina and we quickly became friends and there was a subdued attraction there as well. We kinda "clicked". But as I was in a relationship with Nina, I simply set those feelings aside and remained friends.

Nina eventually approached the subject that she was starting to feel "something more" for Jossu, and I admitted that that was the case with me as well. When Jossu was going to visit Nina one summer it all kinda became apparent that we needed to talk about this. Nina didn't feel comfortable living alone with Jossu for two weeks without me, and I didn't feel comfortable with it either after what we'd discussed. So we straight up told Jossu about it and she was delighted as she was having feelings for us as well. So the agreement was that as long as we're together, we're all equals. Jossu is as much my girlfriend as Nina is while we're together.

The problem is that Jossu lives in Finland while we live in Sweden, so we felt it extremely unfair to "lock" her to us after only meeting once (albeit we'd known her for long online) and when she's in another country. So while Nina and I are exclusive to eachother (no other girls/boys allowed), Jossu is not. She doesn't have anyone else and aren't interested, but should someone drop in her lap, she's free to pursue a relationship with them.

We're still hoping will sort out the mess of living apart in two countries with lives of our own somehow, but it's a logistical nightmare. So while it's like this we're trying to make the best of it.

Sorry about the wall of text, but it takes some 'splainin' :D
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