Fans go pro: how OC ReMix put its stamp on Street Fighter II HD Remix (original) (raw)

The musicians and fans at the popular site OverClocked ReMix were given a …

The voices of our youth grow up

For many people, "video game music" is something that lingers faintly behind the gunshots and the sound effects of a modern video game, barely noticed unless it's so bad that it actually degrades the gaming experience. But there are a few folks out there who get video game soundtracks stuck in their head at an early age, and as they mature and develop their own musical talents, they find pleasure in giving new life to the iconic music and themes that many of us grew up with. Born out of memories of long hours spent in front of our televisions with the Sega Genesis, or of listening to our first sound card on our IBM compatible, game music has become culture for those of us who came of age immersed in gaming. And thanks to sites like OverClocked ReMix, that culture is being celebrated and expanded.

"OverClocked ReMix (www.ocremix.org) is a not-for-profit website dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and promotion of video game music, with a focus on posting fan mixes and arrangements. Artists can submit their own ReMixes of classic and modern game soundtracks, from consoles, handhelds, arcade, or computer games, in any musical genre, from rock to jazz to orchestral to trance," David Lloyd, the creator of the site, told Ars. David started the site in late 1999 to give the fans of games and game music a place to gather and to express themselves. The site now features over 1500 free MP3s and ten album releases, and it continues to grow along with the enthusiasm of the community.

The new, refreshed graphics of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix needed a fresh, edgy soundtrack.

Recently, something amazing happened. Capcom had been preparing an updated version of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Store. The update, called Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, is a look back at one of the most popular and well-received iterations of the franchise, with all new art and high-definition backgrounds. The OC ReMix crew was then given a job that was perfectly suited to its talents: creating new and rethought versions of some of the Street Fighter repertoire, which contains some of the best-known themes in gaming, for this updated release. For a game music remixer, it doesn't get any better than this: official permission, artistic freedom, and inclusion in a big-name title.

Ars Technica sat down with four members of the talented OCRemix crew to talk about the site, their work, and this amazing opportunity. The four members of the OC ReMix team taking part in this roundtable discussion are:

In the following interview we'll discuss how to manage a large community when dealing with a company and a big-name property, the challenges of staying true to a song while putting your own stamp on it, and what Capcom rejected from the remixers. The story is an amazing mix of enthusiasm, talent, and artistry that shows how the fan community is ready to stand up and give back to the industry. We hope you enjoy it.

Fan content gets official

First, how did the OC ReMix team get this job? It seems like for someone who loves game music, taking a crack at the soundtrack to such an iconic franchise is something of a dream come true.

Shael Riley: Rey Jimenez from Capcom actually contacted me about it after he heard the Super Street Fighter II Turbo tribute compilation album that I'd directed, Blood on the Asphalt. Lacking the context of someone familiar with OverClocked ReMix and other similar fan arrangement sites, he made the understandable mistake of assuming I had written and produced all of the arrangements on the album myself—which would, of course, make me some kind of impossibly versatile and prolific genius. I explained that over twenty different artists from the game music arrangement community, only one of whom was me, had contributed arrangements, and that if he'd like to get permission to use their music, he might go through Dave.

Dave had recently enacted an End User License Agreement at OverClocked ReMix that could, conceivably, grant Capcom license to use the arrangements from Blood on the Asphalt without the necessity of contacting all of the artists involved, some of whom had become difficult to reach during the year since the album's release. Once Rey got in touch with Dave, Rey expressed interest in having some of the pieces revised, and some replaced entirely. Dave became instrumental in organizing that; he has an impressive contact network of musicians willing to do pretty much whatever he asks of them on short notice.

David W. Lloyd: We tried hard to ensure that working with a large fan community was as close as possible for Capcom to working with a single composer. We didn't want to squander the opportunity by risking drama or miscommunication. It wasn't always a particularly democratic process, but I feel that we were both responsive and flexible: we adapted to working with Capcom, not the other way around, and everything went rather smoothly. I feel like we reached a good balance of involving a lot of artists from the community, each working in their own style, while at the same time achieving a polished, consistent final product on relatively quick turnaround. As a "prototype" for game companies working with the fan community for game soundtracks, I think we set a very positive precedent.

How much did you look at the graphics and play before writing the music? Do you feel like the HD Remix has a specific feel that should be reflected in the music?

Shael Riley: I directed the artists working on Blood on the Asphalt explicitly to create arrangements that would sound appropriate if heard during actual game play; that was a happy accident. Once that tone was established, then everyone working on the new material—the material arranged specifically for HD Remix—had an understanding that the tone would be consistent with the pre-existing material. So yeah, I think there's a specific feel that the music reflects and should reflect. I described it to the artists working on Blood on the Asphalt like this:

The arrangements contained herein have been designed to be evocative of dark, pseudo-romanticized urban imagery: abandoned playgrounds and crowded street markets; back-alley block parties and hole-in-the-wall bar dives, scenes that are, I hope, befitting of a tribute to one of the most iconic games in arcade history.

Andrew Aversa: Even after HD Remix was announced, there were few available visuals until recently, so I think that most, if not all, of the music was written based on our knowledge of the original Super Turbo and its characters. While I haven't played the beta yet, I have seen gameplay footage. Based on that, I feel like using Super Turbo as a base for our music was fine; HD Remix really captures and preserves the feel of it.

This can be answered by anyone on the team, or everyone: when you first had this gig locked down, what song or themes were you instantly excited about working on?

Shael Riley: Zangief's theme is pretty much lodged deep in the part of my brain that connects to the spine. I remixed Zangief's theme in a way that would be a little edgier and more urban than the original, designed to be performed on bass and distorted guitar. I arranged from memory in MODPlug Tracker: an antiquated and functionally outmoded piece of open source software that I have the distinct misfortune of being most comfortable composing in. After that, I exported to MIDI and sent the MIDI data to my then-bandmates Beefy, Adam!, Glenn Case and DJ Snyder. Glenn has since left the group, but he provided the track with a nice, down-and-dirty guitar and bass performance. Adam!, on drums, and Snyder, on turntable, wrote their parts from scratch, as I hadn't provided any rhythm tracks in my MIDI. Beefy actually wrote and recorded a vocal version of the track, in which he raps, but that's not something you'll see in the game; we'll probably release it later as a free download from our website (thegrammarclub.com). Anyway, Adam mixed his drums, some additional guitar he recorded himself, Snyder's turntable, Glenn's guitar and bass, and some basic synth work from my original MIDI demo into the final product, "Red Cyclone." I'm totally proud of it. I'm lucky to work with those guys.

Andrew Aversa creates his mixes (including
his Fei Long track for HD Remix) from his apartment studio outside
Philly. Weapons of choice: FruityLoops Studio, using a Korg X50
synthesizer along with Quantum Leap RA, impOSCar, and Zebra 2 plugins.

Andrew Aversa: Initially, before we got the official announcement, all the BotA remixers got a cryptic email from Dave and Shael. They wanted to keep the whole thing under wraps as much as possible. However, as soon as they wrote that all the remixers needed to set their tracks to the original tempos, I had a strong suspicion that HD Remix was involved somehow. When the news officially came out (via a Capcom blog video showing HD Remix gameplay with a BotA track), I was really pumped to include "Flying Heaven," my Fei Long remix.

David W. Lloyd: As mentioned, a lot of the themes were already done, and only required modifications. Of the tracks that Capcom needed completely new material for, I jumped on E. Honda's theme from the beginning. While I'm much better with Ryu, Ken, or Chun-Li, I've always loved Honda's bath house stage, and his theme—while similar to Chun-Li's—is pretty kickin'. Because I was coordinating the whole effort, I didn't have a lot of time to work on my track, and I presented a final version to Capcom pretty late. My arrangement was much faster, and featured harder-edge, techno production that was much angrier than the original.

E. Honda gets aggressive, Vega gets a groove

Have you come up with something for the game, listened to it, and just said "No, this is not what we want at all"? How strong of an idea of what the music should sound like do you have from the jump? Is it more trial and error?

David W. Lloyd: Actually, while I was pretty happy with my initial, aggressive techno take on E. Honda's theme, it was one of the few pieces that Capcom rejected. While at the time that was something of a downer, in retrospect I'm glad, because it forced me to redo things in a style more appropriate to the stage. Rey emphasized that while he liked my first take, they wanted something with more traditional Japanese elements, since Sumo wrestling and bath houses are iconic Japanese elements. They had the benefit of seeing how the themes actually played in-game, and I took their word that my first attempt wasn't right. I went back and took a more subtle approach, incorporating shakuhachi and koto more prominently, and things seemed to click better. So that one was definitely pretty trial-and-error, but also a great learning experience. What works as a standalone arrangement isn't always what's best for use in an actual game.

Larry Oji: Jimmy Hinson (a.k.a. Big Giant Circles) also had an alternate take on Zangief's theme that didn't get picked up. OC ReMix still benefits from these arrangements, though, since we should be able to repurpose them for our site. If Dave and Jimmy have the time, they'd make great additions.

Wait, you said that the site still benefits from mixes that Capcom rejected. Did you ask for permission to post the finished works or rejected pieces from HD Remix on the site before you took the job, or do you still have to ask Capcom for permission?

David W. Lloyd: Capcom were cautious but ultimately pretty flexible with the contract we signed, which covered the material actually being used in the game. Our contract allows us to distribute the music from HD Remix ourselves, independent of Capcom, as long as we don't charge a profit. Similarly, the contract allows them use of the material within the game, but prevents separate distribution/sale in album form. We're hoping the game is popular enough that Capcom takes an interest in producing a commercial CD, in which case a new contract—and possibly extended versions of the tracks—would be necessary. Ultimately, everyone wins: we retain the ability to treat the music as fan works and make it freely available online, and Capcom gets what we think is a pretty badass soundtrack for free.

Do you worry that remixing the classic tracks will leave a bad taste in fans' mouths? It's so easy to accidentally take too much liberty with that which some hold dear. Where do you draw the line on creative license with an established melody?

Shael Riley: Normally, when you're arranging a song as a personal project, you really don't have to worry about what anyone's going to think. If you have a vision for a track, and you follow it, it could be a great track regardless of how conservative or liberal you arrange it. I've heard great arrangements of songs from NES games that are, essentially, note-for-note covers with heavy metal instrumentation; I've also heard arrangements that blew me away by extracting a single motif from a song and writing entirely new accompaniment throughout. When you're arranging for the commercial release of an established franchise, though, you do have to worry about your interpretation being too liberal, and it's not something you can really put to a litmus test. You just need to be mindful that you're re-working an existing piece, not using it as a starting point for an original composition.

Big Giant Circles (Jimmy Hinson) used
FruityLoops Studio and Native Instruments Kore and Komplete software
for his ReMix of Guile's stage. Here he poses wearing his official (and
surprisingly affordable!!) OC ReMix shirt.

Andrew Aversa: This is absolutely something that we have to deal with on a regular basis. I directed a remix album centered on Final Fantasy VII's music, Voices of the Lifestream. Because it got downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, I ended up seeing a lot of complaints that the remixes strayed too far from the original... and some that said they didn't stray far enough! It's impossible to please everybody, but I tend to lean toward creating interpretations where the "feel" of the original track is still preserved, but there are a lot of new parts and variations to make it fresh. This still gives a remixer a lot of leeway to be creative with the overall style, instrumentation, tempo, etc.

Larry Oji: I had full faith in our team, so I don't worry about the reception of the soundtrack at all. I didn't before the beta release, and I'm certainly not worried after it. We've got some of the best musicians around, and OC ReMix has been a trusted name for high-quality video game arrangements. You don't build that kind of reputation by warping original tracks beyond recognizability, otherwise the nostalgic connection is lost. At the end of the day, I want people to believe that the new music was a core reason why HD Remix was worth the wait. Since the beta came out, I've gotten feedback on the Capcom Unity forums, and the overall response from fans has been great. Meanwhile, Capcom's VP of Strategic Planning & Business Development, Christian Svensson, relayed a story where he showed some people the beta and the first thing they mentioned liking wasn't the new art, but the OC ReMix soundtrack. He also described the music as "impactful," so I'm extremely pleased. I'm confident that the majority of fans will love the direction we took things in, so I hope the rest of the development team agrees that we put out a good product. If producer Rey Jimenez and lead designer Dave Sirlin are on board with the soundtrack, I'm a happy camper. And when we get more soundtrack work, I'll be an even happier one.

The original tracks were in MIDI format I assume (or some other low-bit brand of music) and now the full tracks are obviously remastered. How much access were you given to the original files? What kind of technical process is involved in translating a old MIDI-like mix into something that still sounds the same but is clearly quite a bit more complex. What kind of tools do you use to accomplish this?

Andrew Aversa: Actually, none of the remixed music for this soundtrack was created using the original audio directly. We all had access to it in the form of "SPC" files (the SNES sound format) but generally our process involves using audio workstation software, like FL Studio, Cubase, and Sonar, to create something from scratch using the game audio only as a reference. I own a library of about several hundred gigabytes of audio samples, as well as a few dozen virtual synthesizers that I drew on for my own Fei Long remix. Once I identified the original theme's melody, rhythms, and chords, I basically rewrote everything in FL Studio with lots of new material.

David W. Lloyd arranged E. Honda's stage
using Steinberg Cubase 4, East-West Colossus, and other plugins. He's
pictured here working in his living room studio on his latest mix, a
waltz from Doom 2.

David W. Lloyd: The "ReMix" in OverClocked ReMix is a bit of a misnomer; 99 percent of what we do—what the site is all about—is really arrangement and not traditional remixing. Most of the time, we're going by ear, without any sort of notation or MIDI source material, and basically rebuilding a song from scratch. While it's certainly harder this way, I feel like it results in a more intimate relationship with the material, where you have to listen at least a few times over just to get the basics down. Often, I'll even be arranging at the same time I'm transcribing, intentionally changing what I'm hearing to fit the arrangement I've got in mind. Other times I'll go entirely off of memories of the piece from many years ago, which can be blurry, resulting in something more... impressionistic. We all work differently, but most of us use the original pieces more as an inspiration than a literal foundation.

One of the unique aspects of the audio in Street Fighter is that every character has his own music, and that music is representative of his personality. Guile's got his Americana, mililtary style rock, Vega's got his Flamenco Spanish flavour, and so on. Did you try to further accentuate these differences with the new mixes?

Andrew Aversa: The original Blood on the Asphalt was designed from the start to have a gritty, urban feel. The remix of T. Hawk's theme was really the only exception to this, so that's why all of the BotA material is beat- and rhythm-centric, whether that means hip-hop or electronica. However, even within these bounds, I think a lot of us tried to work in ethnic styles or flavors representing the characters. For example, I use a Japanese koto and shamisen prominently in "Flying Heaven", which of course fits Fei Long well. The original version of "Flying Heaven" actually had a quiet section with a shakuhachi, another traditional Japanese instrument, but that part got cut for the final game edit.

Larry Oji: With such great source melodies, the ReMixers were able to run with modern sounds and focus on embellishing the energy and style of each theme how they saw fit. Since Andy mentioned T. Hawk there, I actually felt Don Muritz (a.k.a. Vurez) really hit upon "urban" in a different way than the rest of BotA. "New Mexican Thunderbird" went for urban in the context of a traditional Mexican marketplace with a touch of cinematic flair thrown in, and he nailed it.

Guile's remixed theme is new and was arranged by Jimmy Hinson with guitar by Justin R. Coleman. I named it "Combat and Service" from a phrase in the National Security Act of 1947, which created the U.S. Air Force, because it suits Guile to a T. Jimmy's remix definitely plays up the Americana roots of the original with added power, depth and some very progressive drums.

You also mentioned Vega's theme, Ben, and that's one of the more distinct changes in the game that's gotten lots of attention. José E. Felix (a.k.a. José the Bronx Rican) turned it into a laid-back, hip-hop groove with a tight bassline called "Spittin' Narcissism," and some fans have said it didn't fit the character. But a lot of hip-hop is about bragging, bravado, dissing people and claiming you're the best at what you do, so I felt the energy there was very much in the spirit of Vega, his smug attitude and how he carries himself above the other fighters. It's still got a Spanish style acoustic guitar and some excellent strings, so I felt José pulled off an unexpected take on the theme that still made a lot of sense and managed to stay loyal to the character. I'm glad Capcom ran with it.

Shael Riley: Larry and Andrew really said it: I was pleasantly surprised with more than one of our artists in terms of their ability to bring elements of a character into his or her theme music, while still staying within the genre guidelines we'd established.

Is this the first commercial project for gaming that OC ReMix has worked on? Have you been approached by other companies since the HD Remix has been announced? It seems that with so many classics being redone or placed on the services like Xbox Live or WiiWare, you have services that could be in unique demand.

David W. Lloyd: This is our very first commercial project, but it's a big one, and we hope it'll be the first of many! Though our involvement in HD Remix has been public knowledge for a while, I think it would be premature for other developers to approach us before they see exactly what we can do. Hopefully this release will open some doors. As you point out, XBLA, PSN, and WiiWare are revitalizing both the independent game development scene and also encouraging a lot of remakes, and we think OverClocked ReMix is in a great position to contribute to both of those trends.

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