It's crazy how it probably started off as a random edit in an old lost DBZ forum and now it's become the most popular version of that song, even more than the original Faulconer track itself
I think the reason everyone thought this was the official theme was because the video never specified it to be a remix and credited the song to Bruce Faulconer. Also pretty much every fan cover of Perfect Cell’s theme bases their cover on this specific remix therefore everyone believing it to be the OG. This also being one of the oldest videos of Perfect Cell’s “theme” probably contributed to this.
An actual music producer reacted to the remix a while ago being tricked into this being the official song since a lot of people thought that is the case as well since they've never probably seen the DBZ dub
@zombathinlostleghackercat5233I remember this one popular anime song cover that has over 100m views and yet a lot of people tend to forget that it’s actually a COVER and not the original.
@@anthonyrios2300 I honestly don’t. I always forget how to spell it. All I know the entire video itself is an anime opening but it has the cover playing over. Sorry man. It’s honestly a popular song though. Lotta AMVs ive seen playing in it.
The real Perfect Cell theme was composed by Mike Smith at Faulconer Productions. He said he envisioned the song as "like a pimp, struttin down the street kind of thing." It makes sense, Perfect Cell does have some arrogant swagger to him.
So wild I literally searched for Perfect Cell theme just yesterday and read through the comments and learned this beloved song was a remix and now you drop this video. So freaking funny we are still talking about this after all these years 😅
"Of course we don't need to credit the original artist. They are so famous in our circle that EVERYONE will know of them and remember their work; why would we bother to write down their name?" - Everyone all the time for some unknown reason. It just keeps happening over and over.
You gotta know this guy is either just purposely vanished after he realized he was “famous” or he tried once to say he was the guy who made it then got hate and disliked because people thought he was a fake
This video is an example as to why i love old media like Dragon Ball that is still popular. It's sort of like a time capsule that lets us explore old internet mysteries like this. If this was for some obscure cartoon show that was airing in the 90s and is now lost to time nobody would even think of doing such amount of research
Trust me, there’s entire channels and subreddits and forums dedicated to finding info on old obscure cartoons too. But yeah so much more progress can be made when it’s for a ridiculously famous IP like Dragonball
Finding other people looking for the OG remixer on dead forums is like finding the skeletons of dead explorers while exploring an ancient tomb yourself. It does not bode well for you.
Hopefully you can get a response from Remisser. This is one of those niche internet mysteries I never expected someone to do such a thorough investigation on but I’m glad you did, hopefully this video gets a lot more traction from the thousands of fans that think it’s the actual Perfect Cell theme
Y’know, I heard the official Bruce Falconer score a few days ago on Spotify and immediately realized that there’s a clear and stark difference between that Cell theme and the remix. It didn’t fully dawn on me at the time that it’s a remix, but I definitely felt like something may have been up with the theme we all know and love. Lo and behold, here you are with this video in the same week I noticed a difference 💀 It’s almost scary how perfectly timed this is
The strange thing is, the remix sounds more akin to other songs in the Faulkner ost than the original. Listening to the vegeta theme, ssj3 theme, or super buu theme, its no surprise we were all collectively convinced it was the real deal.
Dude yes! Had the same thought. The original actually stands out from the rest of the Faulconer soundtrack, its very simple compared to the rest. Its like ALX(the guy who made this) really studied the rest of the soundtrack to make this fit. It sounds so similar in style to the rest of the songs. Imagine some of the stuff they could have come up with if they had him on the team!
Back in the early 2000s when DBZ was airing, I remember "bid for power" being advertised on an old fansite for DBZ news called "Planet Namek", but never knew what it was. Planet Namek mysteriously shut down and disappeared one day and I never knew why.
What a random topic for a deep dive - I’m here for it, and childhood memories unlocked. Absolutely remember this theme on some AMVs and one of the iterations on “DB Dress Up” back in the OG NewGrounds days. I also vividly remember having this MP3 as “Perfect Cell Theme (Techno Remix” that I downloaded off Limewire/Kazaa way back in the early 00s that landed on my first iPod and Zune. Brings me back, damn
Insane to me how nobody has ever delved deeper into how and why this came to be, it's such an iconic track that has stood time despite not getting that much focus. Funniest thing is how the original is super underwhelming compared to the remix
100% its Mike Shinoda who created the remix in 2002 right around the time LP's album Reanimation came out. The beats, the tempo, everything screams Shinoda. Reanimation had a Gundam Wing style mech on the cover, which lines up with both Gundam Wing and the Cell Saga airing on Toonami at the same time. My guess is the remix was made, and either didn't make the cut, or they couldn't get proper licensing from Cartoon Network or whatever to get it on the album. Regardless, Mike knew it was a banger, uploaded it to Livewire, which is where I first obtained it between 2002 and 2003. Then around 2004 when Collision Course came out is when I first heard the "Ft Minor" remix. Ft Minor didn't actually drop an album until 2005, but considering Mike Shinoda was just done remixing his A-tier with Jay Z I think its reasonable that he was experimenting with remixing old stuff, made the "Ft Minor Remix" and just like before just dropped that badboy to Live Wire. I'm 100% positive I had both burned to an MP3 CD and bumped them both in my Cutlass Supreme the summer of 2004, along with a handful of other early 2000's bangers and remixes.
That Kanzenshuu post you showed in the video is actually from one of the Faulconer Productions composers, Scott Morgan. He’s a pretty frequent poster on the board. Interesting how even he knows about it. Makes me wonder if the composer of the original theme, Mike Smith knows of the remix. He probably had the most contributions to the soundtrack after all. According to Morgan: “People would try to give me credit for everything because I was the one trying to speak the truth and was putting new stuff online lol. Nooo, it was Mike! He shaped the sound of the "Faulconer" score from day #1. I mean, that's not to say that Julius, myself, and Bruce didn't have major impacts too. We did. I just think Mike was the main force having established the sound of the project from the very beginning and then getting to the opportunity to just write, write, and write.” Scott Morgan does have his socials on his account so maybe he’s worth reaching out too.
I think it's more likely that Remisser downloaded it from somewhere. Music5 just sounds like a lower bitrate version of the real version. It also sounds like it's been ran through a limiter or compressor (hence distortion), which Remisser might have done himself since he is experienced in music production. Every other song in the mod is taken from somewhere, so I think Music5 is too. It's still the best lead we have since he probably remembers where he got it from. Now whether that source is still online is unknown, but waybackmachine might come in handy in the case that it's not.
Remissier probably got it from a limewire link from some guy on an ancient DB forum which no longer exists. What's saddens me is the thought that there exists even more banger remixes from that guy but is now lost to time.
Damn. This takes me back to my childhood with how much of a wild, wild west the internet was during the late 90's/early 2000's. It also hurts to think about how much has been lost in terms of old forum contents. Sadly, I only used to lurk and only on a surface level back then so while I remember hearing that theme during the mid 2000's I certainly don't have anything that could help in tracking this iconic remix down.
Same man. This is why apps like Discord (and to a lesser degree Twitter with how often people like to wipe them) are a curse for preservation due to their serious lack of discoverability and archival compared to old forums and usenet boards. I hate how the Internet is becoming a collection of little walled gardens that are designed and expected to be ephemeral. Old forums were equally as suitable for both group and direct messaging, but with the added benefit that they were like a naturally-forming library and historical record. Every now and again I'll suddenly recall an old community I used to be a part of, and the majority of the time it's all still there, preserved, even if it be on the Internet Archive. It's crazy going back and looking at old threads and conversations I had almost completely forgotten about. I feel sorry that today's generation of web surfers will very likely be missing a huge part of their history; essentially anything that wasn't intentionally archived by community members or passed down through word of mouth.
I actually remember in the days of the early internet, I actually heard this version of the song first before I saw DBZ. Then when I actually saw the English Dub of the show on a torrent site in like 2008 I kept waiting to hear this version of the Cell theme, thinking the actual one by Bruce Falconer was gonna build up to this one. The original does sound like a sort of motif to the remix that it's hard to believe it's not official.
I was actually thinking of making a video about this very topic, but I'm glad someone did. Very well researched, more in depth than anything I could have done
This video was great. I just looked through your channel, and this seems to be the highlight. This video just took me through an entire side of Dragon Ball I’d never even heard of before. Thanks man, keep this up. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Also, regarding Remisser, I still think it’s possible. He has a history of making that type of music. And regarding why it’s the way it is, like you said, it’s probably cut down to loop better. Distortion is probably just for effect. I still think he’s the most likely candidate.
i think the distortion is due to file limit size. This was 2002 so most people were probably running this on windows 95 or 98. Probably 2000 or ME as well but they weren't pretty popular OSs. What i am trying to say is that there was most likely too many files so they had to make the audio quality worse to make the mod run and not fill the entire disk space
Another thing to note is that this was VERY much Toonami's style of music. I'm not sure if they ever did remixes for their title cards, but that's the exact vibe that stands out to me when I hear this remix.
I definitely remember downloading this through Limewire/Kazaa back around 2004 ish and it was named Perfect Cell Theme Remix. Was definitely impressed even back then i don’t really remember hearing any other Faulconer remixes
Same, I grabbed this from either Kazaa or Limewire. Collecting DragonBall music was a priority of mine. There's a slight chance I have a hard drive that still has it. But I don't have the proper cable to access it currently.
Damn, this brings back memories. The first dress up game was very close to the one I played with the cell theme, and that fighting game used to have the cell theme there as well. Really thought that was the cell theme, this is real sad to me lmao
Lol I was screaming the whole video, "I did all this searching already!" And then at 18:39 my post appears XD. Nice job though! Really enjoyed the video. Having worked on the show myself it was really apparent to me that it was a remix all along because I was there when Mike wrote the original :-)
This explains so much. I like the remix and it's a better arrangement overall, but I prefer the more electronic instrumentation of the original so I kept getting confused when I saw this remix labeled as the full thing.
Yeh I remember when I first found this remix on RUclips ages ago. It's so good that other people who remixed cells theme used that remix as the baseline.
It may be worth trying to reach out to Scott Morgan (one of the people that actually composed the Faulconer tracks) - he's written and performed a number of original high quality DBZ fan compositions and might be able to help you out. Also, and I'm not sure if he's still around, but CoyCoy88 did a lot of work isolating and identifying unpublished music from the DB series and movies and may be able to help. That said, I think the most likely explanation is that this is just yet another case of somebody's OC from some obscure fan forum sticking around long after the forum was closed/abandoned.
I have been listening to this remix for years. But I thought people knew that this version wasn't in the show. If I'd known I would have definitely made a video. Great job beating us all to it. You did a great job with research and the like stellar work here.
really nice video my guy, this deserves more attention. I remember hearing the theme on the same flash games you found in your search and that just unlocked a part of my childhood that was long forgotten lmao.
I was going to make a video along the same lines, and I hate to say it, but I think you would've blown it out of the water. Great video, and I'm glad someone got around to the topic.
Hi. I made bid for power and I just found out about this mystery. "BFP 4.0" is an unofficial spinoff so it being in there really isn't evidence of origin. The timing is right though. What probably happened is remisser made that song for the game before we got sued and had to remove all DBZ content, which is why it wouldn't be in the last official release which was 1.2. It would probably be in one of the beta versions from before then (though I doubt any of those are available anywhere). The other possibility is it was just posted on our forums which was one of the most popular anime forums at the time. Unfortunately those are very gone and not in a way that can be recovered. Just to be clear: I have no solid memory of this song. That was a long time ago.
Hi, first of all mad respect and thank you for working on BFP 20+ years ago! It inspired many of us to commit to similar projects in MUGEN and ESF, as well as eventually pursue careers in software engineering. I still own the very first BFP RC1 beta release (before you guys had to remove dragon ball content). The pk3 files date back to 10. Feb 2001 - 14. Apr 2001. bfp0.pk3 even has some content dating into 1999. If this is the version you are talking about, the contents of the music folder are only one file: yngwie_rock_the_dragon.wav from 01.01.2001. - it is a prolonged instrumental remix of the Rock the Dragon opening theme that ran on Cartoon Network back in the day.
If track number 5 is from 2002 Maybe the remix was actually made by one of the faulconer artist, likely the same one who made the original cell theme. Or someone who knew them They obviously couldn’t come out and say they did because of contracts and stuff. Edit: the only reason I give any credence to my theory is because of such a short gap between the song airing on tv to the public and remisser releasing it on that fan game. So the gap between them would be even shorter than 2 years If the remix came out like in 2006 or 2007, I wouldn’t even consider this theory
I doubt the Cell Remix as we know it today is from 2001/2. The audio is WAY cleaner than what old forums in the day would've had, which means the original creator re-uploaded the remix SOMEWHERE in the intervening years when internet audio and compression got better, or someone cleaned up an old remix and deserves at least partial credit. The Track05 version might well be a cut and edited version of the original, since it sounds much more of-the-time. So I think it might actually be a better lead to try and look into whoever 'remastered' it. If it was the original creator, you'll find them without having to trawl through long-gone forums, and if it wasn't, they might at least be able to continue the breadcrumb trail.
It would be pretty hard for the remastered version to be by someone else. The way you remaster music is to literally master it again. That means taking the original mulittrack and mixing it down to stereo again. The low fidelity sound would have been baked into the MP3 file itself, the bitrate. Tech to clean up audio in another way was very crap until very recently, and only a few people had the skillset to do it manually.
I, too, once believed this to be the official theme, before looking up the score myself a couple years back, realizing this never actually played in the show. I looked for “Perfect Cell Remix” on SoundCloud that same day, and the first result was the same track that many proclaimed to be the official until today.
Big blast of nostalgia with this vid man. Playing all them DBZ flash games in primary school 😂 Them Half Life DBZ games always alluded me I had HL on a disc but could never get em to work 🙁
God hearing this remix, I swear it unlocked a deep forgotten core memory in my brain. Like I hear it and my neurons light up trying to figure out where I heard it before because its just so familiar. Like if you were somebody who grew up during like the mid 2000s and watched Dragon Ball AMVs or edits then this theme is just seared into your brain.
Bro this is way to hilarious. Im to old bro, your telling me I lived long enough to have folks forget that, that remix was just that, a remix, hilarious
On the day of Akira Toriyama's death, YT recommends this video. Listened to that remix plenty of times, and I remember thinking "damn, quite a badass theme for DBZ", but never thought to look much into it. Great video dude, always nice seeing YT recommending small channel's videos, when they're interesting. I have a weakness for 2000's internet lost medias, rabbit holes, rumors etc... It's such a shame the tons of forums of anime, videogames and more are for the majority lost in times. They were such a big part of internet for us, back then. But nice that thys mistery got solved!
Holy crap, for YEARS I didn't even know it was "fake" until I came and checked years after. Even if it isn't official, it is the people's theme. Besides that, great investigation man, enjoyed the vid! ❤🔥
Man this brings back soo many goood memories.. I remember, I heard it in Bid for Power while playing. I used to play that during 2007-09 when I was a kid.. I never had a console till that time and that game was my first time ever.. playing a dragon ball z game on my pc.. it was absolutely amazing back then.. I used to take Broly and spam broly's rage, broly bomb and broly's burst All these powerful ki attacks on.. the Bots yes it didn't have a multiplayer but only against com but it was amazing, some 20 something bots all powerful in an All out battle.. and I'm Broly.. we're fighting.. and the battle is crazy.. it's fantastic.. and then the theme playss.. ta-dan-ta-tadan-ta-dan-da and i was amazed.. bro this game is amazing this song is amazing.. such good times.. i miss being a kid.. But guess it is what it is.. I love the fact though, that even after All these years.. I'm not alone.. thst there are thousands probably hundreds of thousands of people who still have fond memories of that era and cherish it.. And keep Dragon Ball Z alive within themselves.. after all thiss timee. Bcoz, let's be honest super and all this new stuff hasn't really been nothing like Z was nothing legendary.. nothing to cry over.. nothing to wish it never ends over.. super was.. just.. disappointing to say the least.. And I was losing hope that maybe Dragon ball will never be the same again.. But, here i was.. seeing soo manyy people and how they've had good memories with dbz growing up.. that it's still that cult, it's still that phenomenon.. it's not just an anime or a show.. it is a religion.. It was an Era.. it was a Once in a Generation kind of an happening.. that we were all a part of.. the legend of dragon ball and we all really lived it.. and that makes me truly really happy
I always knew that remix wasn’t the actual cell theme. Even though I haven’t watched original DBZ dub in like a decade, I listen to the faulconer score a lot and I know pretty well what is and isn’t from it. But I never knew there was such a mystery behind who made the remix. I would’ve just assumed that really old RUclips upload was the creator. Kinda reminding me of how years ago people didn’t know where the iconic SSJ5 image of Goku came from and all the myths surrounding that.
I remember that Goku dress up game with the silver hairstyles from AF, but I had no idea where the silver hair even came from. I feel like p2p file sharing like Limewire or Kazaa might also have been a factor to how mysterious the Cell remix is, kinda like the vocal Zelda theme remix wrongly attributed to System of a Down or Dir En Grey's "Sea of R-slurs".
Absolutely this! I first found this on either Kazaa or Limewire. And there's a SLIGHT chance I have a hard drive that might have the original mp3! If I can buy the proper SATA cable and sift through that thing, there's a chance that file could still be there and have some details with who originally uploaded it. I KNOW that I had it years before RUclips ever existed.
Seeing that dragon ball dress up game and hearing the perfect cell theme at the same time is probably the strongest feeling of nostalgia I’ve felt in a long time.
In Mexico we just had the same music Japan had. And Cell’s theme was a low pitched piano combined with violin, it had horror vibes. That Cell theme talked about in this vid doesn’t match the orchestra that usually played in DBZ dating all the way from the original DB. I thought it was one of the many custom tracks that the American dub had.
05:15 See now….. you just unlocked a core childhood memory with this. I would’ve NEVER thought about this game again. I used to play the mess outta this 💀
Okay but fr the song goes stupid hard and as a music producer it's still very impressive, a solid ass production. And for 2002? Insane. Dude was definitely ahead of his time. I plan on making a metal/hardcore cover of it, if yall wanna sub and stay updated feel free to. The shit is just asking to be covered . This was a good video , thanks for sharing your detective work. Hope we find out more soon
you just reminded me of how fun Bid for Power got sometimes. Sure it was archaic and I was even playing it despite also having the budokai tenkaichi games but a young DBZ fan is never tired lol
Loved this video. I definitely downloaded it from Newgrounds back in the day, so my money would be on Remisser. No idea why he would have deleted it though.
i never knew i could be so enthralled by a video dedicated to digging up the hidden lore of a remix made 15 years ago (as of now) and yet here i am desperately wanting answers
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
I wonder how the man who made the remix feels. He walked in, composed one of the most popular DBZ songs ever, then decided to live in the shadows.
real
Thank you.
Or he's dead.
dead on the inside for making a masterpiece
Noob-saibot did this , 😂
It's crazy how it probably started off as a random edit in an old lost DBZ forum and now it's become the most popular version of that song, even more than the original Faulconer track itself
lmao yeah
I, like many people, were tricked into thinking it was the original track because i wasn't a 90s kid
it's amazing too
@@ros9764I wasn’t either, but I never even heard it till this year.
It's more famous than most official tracks
Legend has it Cell himself composed this perfect piece before he was disintegrated by a 9 year old.
it feels like Cell did compose this
Well Cell was only 3 years old so I guess that makes him the youngest song artist to drop a BANGER like that one 😂
11*
@@ArtemiyStarkGohan was Nine (stated to be 16 by the narrator after the boo arc time skip) and Cell was 6
@@CodeOhtsutsuki i remember that Piccolo said about "11"🤔
I think the reason everyone thought this was the official theme was because the video never specified it to be a remix and credited the song to Bruce Faulconer. Also pretty much every fan cover of Perfect Cell’s theme bases their cover on this specific remix therefore everyone believing it to be the OG. This also being one of the oldest videos of Perfect Cell’s “theme” probably contributed to this.
An actual music producer reacted to the remix a while ago being tricked into this being the official song since a lot of people thought that is the case as well since they've never probably seen the DBZ dub
@zombathinlostleghackercat5233I remember this one popular anime song cover that has over 100m views and yet a lot of people tend to forget that it’s actually a COVER and not the original.
@@arsenal4739You remember what it was?
@@anthonyrios2300 I honestly don’t. I always forget how to spell it. All I know the entire video itself is an anime opening but it has the cover playing over. Sorry man. It’s honestly a popular song though. Lotta AMVs ive seen playing in it.
@@anthonyrios2300 lmao just found it. Renai Circulation. Has 165m views lol.
The real Perfect Cell theme was composed by Mike Smith at Faulconer Productions. He said he envisioned the song as "like a pimp, struttin down the street kind of thing." It makes sense, Perfect Cell does have some arrogant swagger to him.
He has that Perfect Swagger
Still mid tho.
The exaggerated swagger of a bio-android
He got that Super Saiyan swagger
@@gespenst1329bro honestly thought he did something with this comment
So wild I literally searched for Perfect Cell theme just yesterday and read through the comments and learned this beloved song was a remix and now you drop this video. So freaking funny we are still talking about this after all these years 😅
It's not coincedence
Algorithm
"Of course we don't need to credit the original artist. They are so famous in our circle that EVERYONE will know of them and remember their work; why would we bother to write down their name?" - Everyone all the time for some unknown reason.
It just keeps happening over and over.
Those people, years later: Fuck...
We need a fan music booru
@@PosthumanHeresyYeah, we need it
You gotta know this guy is either just purposely vanished after he realized he was “famous” or he tried once to say he was the guy who made it then got hate and disliked because people thought he was a fake
Perhaps
This video is an example as to why i love old media like Dragon Ball that is still popular. It's sort of like a time capsule that lets us explore old internet mysteries like this. If this was for some obscure cartoon show that was airing in the 90s and is now lost to time nobody would even think of doing such amount of research
real
Trust me, there’s entire channels and subreddits and forums dedicated to finding info on old obscure cartoons too. But yeah so much more progress can be made when it’s for a ridiculously famous IP like Dragonball
>Show Up
>Remix a major villain theme
>Usurp the original in popularity
>Refuse to elaborate
>Leave
Ocean dub!
In character of actual Perfect Cell
Finding other people looking for the OG remixer on dead forums is like finding the skeletons of dead explorers while exploring an ancient tomb yourself. It does not bode well for you.
Hopefully you can get a response from Remisser. This is one of those niche internet mysteries I never expected someone to do such a thorough investigation on but I’m glad you did, hopefully this video gets a lot more traction from the thousands of fans that think it’s the actual Perfect Cell theme
Hope he's not dead
It's taken a year for the *A lgor I thm* to get to it
Y’know, I heard the official Bruce Falconer score a few days ago on Spotify and immediately realized that there’s a clear and stark difference between that Cell theme and the remix. It didn’t fully dawn on me at the time that it’s a remix, but I definitely felt like something may have been up with the theme we all know and love. Lo and behold, here you are with this video in the same week I noticed a difference 💀 It’s almost scary how perfectly timed this is
Thats crazy cus I literally just played the Cell theme for someone and they guessed that it was a sort of final boss villain theme 💀
The strange thing is, the remix sounds more akin to other songs in the Faulkner ost than the original. Listening to the vegeta theme, ssj3 theme, or super buu theme, its no surprise we were all collectively convinced it was the real deal.
Dude yes! Had the same thought. The original actually stands out from the rest of the Faulconer soundtrack, its very simple compared to the rest. Its like ALX(the guy who made this) really studied the rest of the soundtrack to make this fit. It sounds so similar in style to the rest of the songs. Imagine some of the stuff they could have come up with if they had him on the team!
Also wanted to add, it even has similar cues from the Imperfect Cell theme too. It really does fit Cell better than the original song lol
Back in the early 2000s when DBZ was airing, I remember "bid for power" being advertised on an old fansite for DBZ news called "Planet Namek", but never knew what it was. Planet Namek mysteriously shut down and disappeared one day and I never knew why.
What a random topic for a deep dive - I’m here for it, and childhood memories unlocked.
Absolutely remember this theme on some AMVs and one of the iterations on “DB Dress Up” back in the OG NewGrounds days.
I also vividly remember having this MP3 as “Perfect Cell Theme (Techno Remix” that I downloaded off Limewire/Kazaa way back in the early 00s that landed on my first iPod and Zune.
Brings me back, damn
Insane to me how nobody has ever delved deeper into how and why this came to be, it's such an iconic track that has stood time despite not getting that much focus.
Funniest thing is how the original is super underwhelming compared to the remix
They kinda fit Cells different moods. The remix gives me Cell fighting vibes while the OG makes me imagine Cell toying with his opponents.
That shit would’ve been insane in the show. Cell is the most gangster character in DB
100% its Mike Shinoda who created the remix in 2002 right around the time LP's album Reanimation came out. The beats, the tempo, everything screams Shinoda. Reanimation had a Gundam Wing style mech on the cover, which lines up with both Gundam Wing and the Cell Saga airing on Toonami at the same time. My guess is the remix was made, and either didn't make the cut, or they couldn't get proper licensing from Cartoon Network or whatever to get it on the album. Regardless, Mike knew it was a banger, uploaded it to Livewire, which is where I first obtained it between 2002 and 2003. Then around 2004 when Collision Course came out is when I first heard the "Ft Minor" remix. Ft Minor didn't actually drop an album until 2005, but considering Mike Shinoda was just done remixing his A-tier with Jay Z I think its reasonable that he was experimenting with remixing old stuff, made the "Ft Minor Remix" and just like before just dropped that badboy to Live Wire. I'm 100% positive I had both burned to an MP3 CD and bumped them both in my Cutlass Supreme the summer of 2004, along with a handful of other early 2000's bangers and remixes.
God I can now hear it
Funny enough kavinsky also sampled Japanese Cell Theme for the song Rampage.
Honestly I can believe it
You mean lime wire right
No I mean the orange mtn dew
That Kanzenshuu post you showed in the video is actually from one of the Faulconer Productions composers, Scott Morgan. He’s a pretty frequent poster on the board.
Interesting how even he knows about it. Makes me wonder if the composer of the original theme, Mike Smith knows of the remix. He probably had the most contributions to the soundtrack after all.
According to Morgan:
“People would try to give me credit for everything because I was the one trying to speak the truth and was putting new stuff online lol. Nooo, it was Mike! He shaped the sound of the "Faulconer" score from day #1. I mean, that's not to say that Julius, myself, and Bruce didn't have major impacts too. We did. I just think Mike was the main force having established the sound of the project from the very beginning and then getting to the opportunity to just write, write, and write.”
Scott Morgan does have his socials on his account so maybe he’s worth reaching out too.
When you bamboozle the original author with your remix, you know you're a GOAT.
I think it's more likely that Remisser downloaded it from somewhere. Music5 just sounds like a lower bitrate version of the real version. It also sounds like it's been ran through a limiter or compressor (hence distortion), which Remisser might have done himself since he is experienced in music production. Every other song in the mod is taken from somewhere, so I think Music5 is too. It's still the best lead we have since he probably remembers where he got it from. Now whether that source is still online is unknown, but waybackmachine might come in handy in the case that it's not.
Remissier probably got it from a limewire link from some guy on an ancient DB forum which no longer exists. What's saddens me is the thought that there exists even more banger remixes from that guy but is now lost to time.
I hope that someone comes public with this remix
It's so good it's unreal
Unironically that song and the DBZA version of day of fate are the only songs I listen to
@@RNGuiceodd taste in music mate
I know right?
@@nazm16 I just don’t listen to music
@@RNGuiceyou remind me of my 8yo self
Damn. This takes me back to my childhood with how much of a wild, wild west the internet was during the late 90's/early 2000's. It also hurts to think about how much has been lost in terms of old forum contents.
Sadly, I only used to lurk and only on a surface level back then so while I remember hearing that theme during the mid 2000's I certainly don't have anything that could help in tracking this iconic remix down.
Same man. This is why apps like Discord (and to a lesser degree Twitter with how often people like to wipe them) are a curse for preservation due to their serious lack of discoverability and archival compared to old forums and usenet boards. I hate how the Internet is becoming a collection of little walled gardens that are designed and expected to be ephemeral. Old forums were equally as suitable for both group and direct messaging, but with the added benefit that they were like a naturally-forming library and historical record.
Every now and again I'll suddenly recall an old community I used to be a part of, and the majority of the time it's all still there, preserved, even if it be on the Internet Archive. It's crazy going back and looking at old threads and conversations I had almost completely forgotten about. I feel sorry that today's generation of web surfers will very likely be missing a huge part of their history; essentially anything that wasn't intentionally archived by community members or passed down through word of mouth.
I actually remember in the days of the early internet, I actually heard this version of the song first before I saw DBZ. Then when I actually saw the English Dub of the show on a torrent site in like 2008 I kept waiting to hear this version of the Cell theme, thinking the actual one by Bruce Falconer was gonna build up to this one. The original does sound like a sort of motif to the remix that it's hard to believe it's not official.
In any case we can all agree that it goes HARD
The lengths this man went to, playing dragon ball dress up just to find this song, incredible content
Incredible job man! I got this video on my homepage and only realized halfway through that you were a small youtuber!
Keep up the good work
Bro you are asking the right questions so its worthy of a sub
I was actually thinking of making a video about this very topic, but I'm glad someone did. Very well researched, more in depth than anything I could have done
You don't know that lol you could do it too believe in your self you should make a video showing your perspective
This video was great. I just looked through your channel, and this seems to be the highlight. This video just took me through an entire side of Dragon Ball I’d never even heard of before. Thanks man, keep this up. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Also, regarding Remisser, I still think it’s possible. He has a history of making that type of music. And regarding why it’s the way it is, like you said, it’s probably cut down to loop better. Distortion is probably just for effect. I still think he’s the most likely candidate.
i think the distortion is due to file limit size. This was 2002 so most people were probably running this on windows 95 or 98. Probably 2000 or ME as well but they weren't pretty popular OSs. What i am trying to say is that there was most likely too many files so they had to make the audio quality worse to make the mod run and not fill the entire disk space
@@ros9764interesting too know
Dope, this version has definitely been a welcome mystery of the net. Classic Remix 4sho. Great work tracking this
Another thing to note is that this was VERY much Toonami's style of music. I'm not sure if they ever did remixes for their title cards, but that's the exact vibe that stands out to me when I hear this remix.
I definitely remember downloading this through Limewire/Kazaa back around 2004 ish and it was named Perfect Cell Theme Remix. Was definitely impressed even back then i don’t really remember hearing any other Faulconer remixes
Same, I grabbed this from either Kazaa or Limewire. Collecting DragonBall music was a priority of mine. There's a slight chance I have a hard drive that still has it. But I don't have the proper cable to access it currently.
8:16 Cool to see my comments here!
Even though we don't (yet) know 100% as to who made it, the fact it slaps so good to this day is really incredible!
Damn, this brings back memories. The first dress up game was very close to the one I played with the cell theme, and that fighting game used to have the cell theme there as well. Really thought that was the cell theme, this is real sad to me lmao
5:03 this right here was the first time i ever heard the song and i dont regret being exposed to this fire of a remix
Lol I was screaming the whole video, "I did all this searching already!" And then at 18:39 my post appears XD. Nice job though! Really enjoyed the video. Having worked on the show myself it was really apparent to me that it was a remix all along because I was there when Mike wrote the original :-)
Omg amd the creator stepped forward I see! Amazing!
This explains so much. I like the remix and it's a better arrangement overall, but I prefer the more electronic instrumentation of the original so I kept getting confused when I saw this remix labeled as the full thing.
Ive deadass dreamt this remix before thats how subconsciously convinced i was that this was official
Thank you so much for this video. Not everyday you get great content like this.
Yeh I remember when I first found this remix on RUclips ages ago. It's so good that other people who remixed cells theme used that remix as the baseline.
It may be worth trying to reach out to Scott Morgan (one of the people that actually composed the Faulconer tracks) - he's written and performed a number of original high quality DBZ fan compositions and might be able to help you out. Also, and I'm not sure if he's still around, but CoyCoy88 did a lot of work isolating and identifying unpublished music from the DB series and movies and may be able to help. That said, I think the most likely explanation is that this is just yet another case of somebody's OC from some obscure fan forum sticking around long after the forum was closed/abandoned.
Another comment pointed this out, but that Kanzenshuu post at 18:39 was written by Scott Morgan himself. He's just as lost as the rest of us 😂
11:48 amazing that you actually solved the mystery in this video and didn't even know it
Lol true, big
As someone who has the entirety of the Bruce Faulconer soundtrack available in my Spotify playlists I feel like a baller for already knowing this 😎
I have been listening to this remix for years. But I thought people knew that this version wasn't in the show. If I'd known I would have definitely made a video.
Great job beating us all to it. You did a great job with research and the like stellar work here.
13:40 bro I was NOT expecting that transition into NBA cell 😂 I about spit out all the Nerds candy I was eating
Dr. Gero got Michael Jordan's, LeBron James's, and Charles Barkley's DNA to create the ultimate basketball player
Your the man and a real fan for going through all that
really nice video my guy, this deserves more attention. I remember hearing the theme on the same flash games you found in your search and that just unlocked a part of my childhood that was long forgotten lmao.
Perfect Pepe.
@@megamillion5852comrade
I was going to make a video along the same lines, and I hate to say it, but I think you would've blown it out of the water. Great video, and I'm glad someone got around to the topic.
this is such a crazy video, amazing work.
Hi. I made bid for power and I just found out about this mystery. "BFP 4.0" is an unofficial spinoff so it being in there really isn't evidence of origin. The timing is right though. What probably happened is remisser made that song for the game before we got sued and had to remove all DBZ content, which is why it wouldn't be in the last official release which was 1.2. It would probably be in one of the beta versions from before then (though I doubt any of those are available anywhere).
The other possibility is it was just posted on our forums which was one of the most popular anime forums at the time. Unfortunately those are very gone and not in a way that can be recovered.
Just to be clear: I have no solid memory of this song. That was a long time ago.
Hi, first of all mad respect and thank you for working on BFP 20+ years ago! It inspired many of us to commit to similar projects in MUGEN and ESF, as well as eventually pursue careers in software engineering.
I still own the very first BFP RC1 beta release (before you guys had to remove dragon ball content). The pk3 files date back to 10. Feb 2001 - 14. Apr 2001. bfp0.pk3 even has some content dating into 1999. If this is the version you are talking about, the contents of the music folder are only one file: yngwie_rock_the_dragon.wav from 01.01.2001. - it is a prolonged instrumental remix of the Rock the Dragon opening theme that ran on Cartoon Network back in the day.
Good video. You did a lot of research into the subject. Hopefully we'll find out the answer someday.
If track number 5 is from 2002
Maybe the remix was actually made by one of the faulconer artist, likely the same one who made the original cell theme.
Or someone who knew them
They obviously couldn’t come out and say they did because of contracts and stuff.
Edit: the only reason I give any credence to my theory is because of such a short gap between the song airing on tv to the public and remisser releasing it on that fan game. So the gap between them would be even shorter than 2 years
If the remix came out like in 2006 or 2007, I wouldn’t even consider this theory
With such a short gap, either the original artist made it which is a faulconer guy
Remisser made it
Or some other unknown person in between
i had the entire DBZ collection on VHS and DvD, so i wasn't that surprised when you played the remix lol
I doubt the Cell Remix as we know it today is from 2001/2. The audio is WAY cleaner than what old forums in the day would've had, which means the original creator re-uploaded the remix SOMEWHERE in the intervening years when internet audio and compression got better, or someone cleaned up an old remix and deserves at least partial credit. The Track05 version might well be a cut and edited version of the original, since it sounds much more of-the-time.
So I think it might actually be a better lead to try and look into whoever 'remastered' it. If it was the original creator, you'll find them without having to trawl through long-gone forums, and if it wasn't, they might at least be able to continue the breadcrumb trail.
It would be pretty hard for the remastered version to be by someone else. The way you remaster music is to literally master it again. That means taking the original mulittrack and mixing it down to stereo again. The low fidelity sound would have been baked into the MP3 file itself, the bitrate. Tech to clean up audio in another way was very crap until very recently, and only a few people had the skillset to do it manually.
I distinctly remember finding it in 2002. It was definitely noteworthy for being of much high quality when most was just MIDIs back then.
i have a big feeling that other producers remade the track and ended up sounding like the track we know today @@Neo-Midgar
Nah, I had this on my hard drive in 2002-2004. I downloaded it from either KazAa or limewire. And it wasn't compressed, it was high quality mp3.
@@SaduraDubstepyou'd be wrong, because I had it too.
I, too, once believed this to be the official theme, before looking up the score myself a couple years back, realizing this never actually played in the show. I looked for “Perfect Cell Remix” on SoundCloud that same day, and the first result was the same track that many proclaimed to be the official until today.
I was blown away when I found this out like a few months ago.
This is great content make more like this. Really brings me back to those geocities days and the dbz gifs
BRO I USED TO PLAY THAT DRESS UP GAME
SOMEONE FINALLY MADE A VIDEO ON THIS YES!!!!
Perfect cells remixes glorious and bro deserves more clout
Keep making more fire content bro, this is heat. Maybe more investigating type vids?
Big blast of nostalgia with this vid man. Playing all them DBZ flash games in primary school 😂 Them Half Life DBZ games always alluded me I had HL on a disc but could never get em to work 🙁
You did good bud. You should consider being a lost media youtuber
Bro keep up this type of content it’s entertaining and interesting af keep it up
Interesting. I'm in a similar loop for a lost Zelda soundtrack. Good luck to you too my friend
God hearing this remix, I swear it unlocked a deep forgotten core memory in my brain. Like I hear it and my neurons light up trying to figure out where I heard it before because its just so familiar. Like if you were somebody who grew up during like the mid 2000s and watched Dragon Ball AMVs or edits then this theme is just seared into your brain.
I knew what remix it would be before I even clicked the video, it's legendary 😂
Awesome to see a video covering it.
This just makes me feel nostalgic for not just ancient dragon ball forums from like 20+ years ago but old forums in general
Bro this is way to hilarious. Im to old bro, your telling me I lived long enough to have folks forget that, that remix was just that, a remix, hilarious
Bro made one of the most iconic songs on RUclips. So iconic that we thought it was official.
This is exactly what I wanted to see today.
What do you think Cell was doing for 7 days before the Cell Games? He was making some badass themes that's what.
😂😂😂
On the day of Akira Toriyama's death, YT recommends this video. Listened to that remix plenty of times, and I remember thinking "damn, quite a badass theme for DBZ", but never thought to look much into it.
Great video dude, always nice seeing YT recommending small channel's videos, when they're interesting. I have a weakness for 2000's internet lost medias, rabbit holes, rumors etc...
It's such a shame the tons of forums of anime, videogames and more are for the majority lost in times. They were such a big part of internet for us, back then. But nice that thys mistery got solved!
Holy crap, for YEARS I didn't even know it was "fake" until I came and checked years after. Even if it isn't official, it is the people's theme. Besides that, great investigation man, enjoyed the vid! ❤🔥
I always figured that halusatwin was the original creator of this remix bro has been in the dbz remix game for years and is an amazing talent
Man this brings back soo many goood memories.. I remember, I heard it in Bid for Power while playing. I used to play that during 2007-09 when I was a kid.. I never had a console till that time and that game was my first time ever.. playing a dragon ball z game on my pc.. it was absolutely amazing back then..
I used to take Broly and spam broly's rage, broly bomb and broly's burst All these powerful ki attacks on.. the Bots yes it didn't have a multiplayer but only against com but it was amazing, some 20 something bots all powerful in an All out battle.. and I'm Broly.. we're fighting.. and the battle is crazy.. it's fantastic.. and then the theme playss.. ta-dan-ta-tadan-ta-dan-da and i was amazed.. bro this game is amazing this song is amazing.. such good times.. i miss being a kid..
But guess it is what it is.. I love the fact though, that even after All these years.. I'm not alone.. thst there are thousands probably hundreds of thousands of people who still have fond memories of that era and cherish it.. And keep Dragon Ball Z alive within themselves.. after all thiss timee.
Bcoz, let's be honest super and all this new stuff hasn't really been nothing like Z was nothing legendary.. nothing to cry over.. nothing to wish it never ends over.. super was.. just.. disappointing to say the least.. And I was losing hope that maybe Dragon ball will never be the same again..
But, here i was.. seeing soo manyy people and how they've had good memories with dbz growing up.. that it's still that cult, it's still that phenomenon.. it's not just an anime or a show.. it is a religion.. It was an Era.. it was a Once in a Generation kind of an happening.. that we were all a part of.. the legend of dragon ball and we all really lived it.. and that makes me truly really happy
I always knew that remix wasn’t the actual cell theme. Even though I haven’t watched original DBZ dub in like a decade, I listen to the faulconer score a lot and I know pretty well what is and isn’t from it. But I never knew there was such a mystery behind who made the remix. I would’ve just assumed that really old RUclips upload was the creator. Kinda reminding me of how years ago people didn’t know where the iconic SSJ5 image of Goku came from and all the myths surrounding that.
Its from the ocean dub!
Awesome video. You deserve more subs!
Do I sense an underrated channel?
Jokes aside, I'm amazed you have less than 500 subs with this quality of upload.
I subscribed just because of the spyro music. You're a legend
I remember that Goku dress up game with the silver hairstyles from AF, but I had no idea where the silver hair even came from.
I feel like p2p file sharing like Limewire or Kazaa might also have been a factor to how mysterious the Cell remix is, kinda like the vocal Zelda theme remix wrongly attributed to System of a Down or Dir En Grey's "Sea of R-slurs".
Absolutely this! I first found this on either Kazaa or Limewire. And there's a SLIGHT chance I have a hard drive that might have the original mp3! If I can buy the proper SATA cable and sift through that thing, there's a chance that file could still be there and have some details with who originally uploaded it. I KNOW that I had it years before RUclips ever existed.
Seeing that dragon ball dress up game and hearing the perfect cell theme at the same time is probably the strongest feeling of nostalgia I’ve felt in a long time.
sick video man, tysm for making this i'd never even thought about the origins of this GOATED track, fucking loved this man keep it up
In Mexico we just had the same music Japan had. And Cell’s theme was a low pitched piano combined with violin, it had horror vibes. That Cell theme talked about in this vid doesn’t match the orchestra that usually played in DBZ dating all the way from the original DB. I thought it was one of the many custom tracks that the American dub had.
It's a remix of one of the custom tracks from the American dub.
oh my god, db dress just hit me with big wave of nostalgia
Very much used to think this was the original as a kid
05:15 See now….. you just unlocked a core childhood memory with this. I would’ve NEVER thought about this game again. I used to play the mess outta this 💀
Okay but fr the song goes stupid hard and as a music producer it's still very impressive, a solid ass production. And for 2002? Insane. Dude was definitely ahead of his time. I plan on making a metal/hardcore cover of it, if yall wanna sub and stay updated feel free to. The shit is just asking to be covered . This was a good video , thanks for sharing your detective work. Hope we find out more soon
I'm tryna hear the cover, keep us updated!
The funniest thing is Mike Smith (guy who made the perfect cell theme) described making the song as “pimp music”
This is the most interesting video I’ve seen in a while
you just reminded me of how fun Bid for Power got sometimes. Sure it was archaic and I was even playing it despite also having the budokai tenkaichi games but a young DBZ fan is never tired lol
This is such a clever idea for a video, wow. I've been wondering about this
Fuck, I was so excited thinking Mike was the originator of this legendary mix.
Ay great video! Keep it up homie ❤
Loved this video. I definitely downloaded it from Newgrounds back in the day, so my money would be on Remisser. No idea why he would have deleted it though.
Hope this blows up and more people join the search, we must find the og author!
i never knew i could be so enthralled by a video dedicated to digging up the hidden lore of a remix made 15 years ago (as of now) and yet here i am desperately wanting answers
Thank you so much for making this video I've been on this shit for the last 3 years
I remember playing that dress up game and hearing that theme in like 1st grade lol