Hard Rock Rhythm Masterclass: Ken's Theme from Street Fighter II

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#1

This piece gets me incredibly pumped every single time! I eventually decided to transcribe it (did my best to convert the SNES chiptune sounds into Guitar and Bass parts), and recorded my own version of it (yes, the internet definitely needed one more rock cover of this :wink: ):

Despite the apparent simplicity of the parts, I feel like I learned a thing or two about playing rhythm guitar in a rock/hard rock style. The bass is for the most part simple but powerful, and programming the drums was great fun (I took some liberties there - using as a starting point a Midi file by Anthony Bouchereau: http://anthony.bouchereau.free.fr/).

I want to highlight some cool things about it, and why I think (if you are a rock or metal guitar player) you owe it to yourself to learn all the parts:

The Upbeat
A lot of the tune relies on anticipating the next beat — most chord changes happen on the “And of Four” - i.e. on the upbeat. This gives an incredible forward energy and groove to the piece.
At the same time, one has to be very careful to not anticipate too much, otherwise it won’t sound groovy at all, just rushed!

The rhythm guitar riffs
I absolutely LOVE the little melodic riffs that the rhythm guitar is doing underneath the main melody. At face value it’s just a bunch of dyads (2-note chords) where the higher note moves back and forth, played in short stabs with a lot of syncopation and emphasis on the upbeats.
How hard can it be? Well, the part is not hard to learn, but it’s pretty hard to make it sound good and tight with the rest of the rhythm section. My first attempts were so out of time it physically hurt me to listen back to them :smiley:
I feel like the process of tightening these parts (simple as they seem) made me a better rhythm guitar player.

Also, it’s incredible how good it sounds to just arpeggiate a 7th chord once in a while (B section at 00:32 onwards).

The “laid back B section”
In the rare occasions when a chord suddenly lands on the “One” (downbeat), like at 00:32, you immediately get a feeling of “dramatic slowdown”, even though the tempo has remained unchanged. This is further emphasized by the drums going half time.

Note however that the second half of this section does instead start on the upbeat (00:39) — it took me a while to realise that this was happening while transcribing and playing the piece — it almost escaped me. But now I really appreciate how this subtle change gives an extra edge to the second part. We are still laying back, but we’re slowly building up that energy again and getting ready for an epic conclusion!

All in all, the laid back B section prepares us perfectly for what is coming next. Then, the C section totally delivers the goods (and more!).

The Melody
For both A and C sections, the melody starts on beat 2. This allows you to fully feel the power of the rhythm section upbeats without distraction. I am appreciating more and more how powerful it can be to have a pause in the melody where most people would expect your “main note”, if that makes sense.

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#2

It is really indicative of the period especially in aspects of what what doors were opened up musically with 16bit consoles and the western musical influences in Japanese culture - It might as be a loudness song or prototypical power metal. The musical sensibilities weren’t new - you hear the attempts and a lot of similar motif’s with 8bit processors which to me is absolutely amazing, and amazing still that you hear this up until modern consoles, they were just able to be expanded on.

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#3

Totally agree! I find the 16-bit tracks particularly inspiring in this respect. Since they were composed with limited means, they made the most out of sparse* arrangements that translate really well to distorted guitars and bass.

*here I’m using sparse in the sense of “using only a few instruments / limited number of voices”. It can of course still sound very full. Probably there’s a better word out there :wink:

#4

It just goes to show how important the musical aspect was to the whole experience both the sensory and visceral especially when you think about how many resources had to be allocated for that one aspect.

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#5

this is great! what is your recording set-up? what’s your rig; interface; etc

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#6

Always happy to talk about gear :grinning:

Interface = Motu M2
Rhythm amp sim = Kuassa Clarent (orange sim)
Lead amp sim = mercuriall Reaxis
Bass amp sim = Aurora Mammoth + octaver at 10%wet to add some bottom end
Drums vst = MT power drums with a very good preset I bought from a website called “mix ready” (yes I use presets)

(Yes, I have an amp sim problem…)

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#7

@tommo do you have just the drums only backing as well?

#8

man, that rhythm tone is an Orange sim? maybe I should think again about getting a Dark Terror.

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#9

Sure thing!

I could also export the midi but our Forum platform does not allow to share it. Let me know if you’d like to have it and I’ll share it some other way!

Yep! Here’s the isolated track (bit more noisy than I thought, but works well in the mix so hey :slight_smile: )

Here’s the settings. The IR is a “perfect blend” of I forgot what by Kristian Kohle:

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#10

I always have time to hear the song that goes with everything. Thank you for sharing!

Edit: I don’t know why I was thinking about Guile but this is even better as Ken is my SF main! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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