Protomen - the Comm ~ View topic

Joined: 18 Jun 2006 Posts: 30 Location: Los Angeles

to answer some questions, i think the timeframe we're talking about is probably 85-92ish. my brother was the one who owned the systems. we had famicon and pc engine. once the systems got popular, it was easier for us to get some of the games. around the time that i really started playing games, super famicon had come out, so my brother pretty much left the older systems to me. that's why i'm almost positive that the tape the will of one song is from is probably all famicon and pc engine recordings. i'm not 100%, but i think the game music that cuts will of one off (with the 'sword' sound) is legendary axe ii. between my brother and i, we had tons of games, so anything would be fair game.

with respect to serizawa, i didn't post this thing to discredit the protomen or what they are doing. but after debating over the song and the game music, it does kind of tarnish my opinion of the band, seeing how there are so many nes cover bands that i've come across online, it was kind of refreshing to find a new take on something nostagiac only to find out that it's not as original as you thought it was. it sort of leads to more questions about the integrity of the rest of the songs.

Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 400 Location: Monsteropolis

Well, I enjoy the music, whether it's ripped off some crappy old game or not.

Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 226 Location: Sweden

The thing is though, it's not really a rip, if they indeed took some parts of this sound, it's what we call a Tribute. Same with the Killing in the name of - Rage against the Machine bit mentioned in the other thread. There's a difference between ripping off and tributing by using tunes, and The protomen is without a doubt in the second group. I mean, what's wrong with a bit of familiar sound to songs that's actually about Mega man Razz

So does anyone think that the similarities are just TOO strong to be something that was withdrawn from unconscious memories of playing this game, whatever it might be, from childhood?

Anyone think that, assuming this 8-bit clip is genuine, it wasn't done intentionally?

Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 456

I do not believe it was done intentionally, since it's been stated that the Protomen and lofi have checked all the bases, and have made sure that they aren't violating any laws (with their work). If they copied the music, they would be.

Plus, if this is music from a PC Engine title, that would explain why no one in the US who posts here has recognized it, and would also prove that the Protomen could not have heard it (unless they actually had a TG-16).

I owned a TG-16 and I do not know the piece.

Site Admin Joined: 01 Jun 2006 Posts: 98

Soyen, PM me.

We should coordinate travel plans.

Joined: 18 Jun 2006 Posts: 30 Location: Los Angeles

is it not intentional copying though? the songs are identical. i understand the idea of a tribute, but it's still copying is it not?

also, i think after re-listening to it, the song before it is soldier blade. i'm not 100% though.

Joined: 23 Aug 2006 Posts: 15 Location: United Americas

I think it is fairly obvious that it is a blatant ripoff. There is no way you can listen to the songs all the way through and not hear that they are the same thing(aside from speed). I just think it is even worse that they have all said that they never ripped off a game, because then they are just liers.

Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 226 Location: Sweden

A tribute to classic childhood memories isn't the same thing as as rip-off.
Not as far as I'm concerned anyway.

Joined: 07 Sep 2006 Posts: 4

First off I like to say I tried my best explaining the following comment about all this, I'm never good at explaining things:

When I heard 'The Will of One', I did feel like I heard it before but after hearing this piece I know I didn't hear it from here and I felt something was wrong with this mysterious mp3. So I studied it a bit.

I have an mp3 of a the Beverly Hills theme song done in NES style. I also have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles song done in SNES style when the song originally was only done for the NES and and Arcade.....so making The Protomen song into a NES like style can be done.

So I do find it a bit fishy for that around 1:33 of the mp3 changes style to something different. Most NES games that I can think of didn't do this probably because I think at the time they couldn't handle to make the music in the same structure of music performed by music artists.

Instead of breakdowns, solos, etc., all of them were design to be like a minute and a half songs looped until reached a certain point of the game instead. I never heard a NES song that would have a slow breakdown and then change the original feel of the song. Its like listening to a 'real' song for the background music for a video game.

Also usually when you do hit a certain point to like fight a boss, the song would be 'chopped off'. If he reached some part that enabled this slow part of the song, how could it change into a different song so smoothly? That must of been some good timing.

In 2:18 of the mp3 sounds convincing that he was about to fight a boss, it did cut off the song and changed into a boss theme type of song.

I'm not accusing him for faking this but its just something I couldn't help noticing and thought I should share this. I'll also search since I'm curious about this.

Joined: 18 Jun 2006 Posts: 30 Location: Los Angeles

i can understand the arguement about in-game music. i'm 100% certain the will of one song came from the start up screen of a game and not from the game during play. i didn't really do that very much because you get all of the game sounds mixed in and it kind of screwed up the recording. pretty much everything on the tape is title screen music. aside from taking a picture of the tape itself, i don't know what else you want me to do to prove that it's genuine.

Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 226 Location: Sweden

I believe you, you have no reason whatsoever to fake it, and if you had, you're on helluva musicmaker :p

Joined: 07 Sep 2006 Posts: 4