*NO* Yoshi's Island 'Dream an Eastern Peace'

[GrayLightning]

Rexy pm'd me about this since it wasn't in the panel. This is from the current batch. I'm adding this with the rest since URL seems to be working now. -Gray

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CONTACT INFO:

ReMixers: Prophecy, Rexy
Real names: Jason Miller (Prophecy), Bev Wooff (Rexy)
Emails: dj_prophec@yahoo.com (Prophecy), bev.wooff@gmail.com (Rexy)
Prophecy's Website: http://www.prophetikmusic.com
User IDs: 5176 (Prophecy), 7528 (Rexy)

REMIX INFO:

Remix title: Dream An Eastern Peace
Game covered: Yoshi's Island (AKA Super Mario World 2/Super Mario Advance 3)
Song covered: Castle & Fortress
Song link:

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This track is remembered by many as the winning submission for the Peoples Remix Competition 48 (or v2-22). Since that stage the track has been given a few production evaluations to eventually reach its OCR Sub version.

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Rexy wrote the master arrangement, and I formatted/produced it to create this song. The final product is essentially a simple prayer for the peace in the Middle East. I attempted to sing/chant in Hebrew, and Arabic. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.
---Jason "Prophecy" Miller of http://www.Prophetikmusic.com/

So yeah, I'm nowhere close to Mario's biggest fan, but I love the music score. When announced for PRC 48 I wanted to give it my all, and working with Prophecy has made an exciting ride from start to
finish. Whether you reject this or not, you can't deny the fact that the intertwining of our skills was a blast, and who knows; we may even collab again in the future. Thank you, goodnight and god bless.
Peace out,
-Rexy-

~~~

P.S. Should this song get passed, we request that Prophecy's blurb gets used in the writeup. Thanks again, and have a nice day :)

[Vig]

some of the vocal clips are awesome.

unfortunately this song has very little going on a lot of the time. there's the beat, andmaybe one harmonic instrument playing two note harmonies.

there's really barely a song here without the drums.

NO

[GrayLightning]

Vig hit the nail on the head.

The vocals are indeed nice. But I have to agree with vig, with the main criticism point. The mix has very little substance beyond the really nice beat/percussion and lead. I also thought the mix could have benefitted from some sort of evolution. It seems to be in a state of no change throughout, then repeating the previous passages later on in the mix with little change/evolution.

Sorry guys. Hate to no you guys. :( I think it's really pretty and a cool listen but I don't think it's ready for primetime yet per the above statements. NO

[The Orichalcon]

As has been said, this mix has some very nice beats, which is expected from Prophecy. Beyond the choir pads playing in the background, there's not much else substance to this really. The vocals are nice, well mixed in. It almost has an enigma sound to it. But it needs something more. I'd suggest bringing in maybe an accoustic guitar, or something else sharp that can play the main melody, or at least parts of it earlier in the mix to keep this mix interesting all the way through.

The arrangement when compared to the original is pretty well done, it's a nice leap from the haunted-mansion style waltz of the original over to the eastern sounding remix you have going here. It does need a little more adhesion to the source though, and I think bringing in some extra backing for the duration of the mix (like an accoustic guitar) would really give this mix an edge.

Treat us all to a favour and give this one a little more attention to push it into that real eastern sound that makes these types of mixes so addictive to listen to. The production is great, the sound is great, it just needs that little bit extra.

NO for now. Resubmit please.

[Liontamer]

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/yoshi.rsn - "Castle & Fortress" (yi-10.spc)

Been a little while since I closed a vote. Nice change of pace. Ironically just talked with Bev about this piece being on the panel last night. Heard this as part of PRC48, but otherwise hadn't analyzed it.

First thing I'm hit with is some nice volume. Swirly pad action going on at :32 that I'm also liking. Tracks lacks clarity from the get-go, so I disagree on the production being solid. Everything sounds muffly and indistinct. Sounds way better on my laptop speakers than my headphones, but on my headphones it's a huge problem.

Cool break at :57 with the vox SFX. Really feeling the beats coming in at 1:11 to add some power and drive to the track. You simply mentally remove the reverb here though, and I gotta agree with the others that the texture is lacking.

Weird, I'm liking this a lot more than the others, at least on paper, though I'm still put off by the lack of clarity and separation of the sounds. Too dull and muddy. I think you can clean it up and still retain a powerful sound. "Chekan Winter" did a better job on that level.

I like the vox at 2:51, but it needs to cut through more. Sounds like Bev given some processing, but I honestly have no idea what it is. Anyway, the woodwind lead handling the source tune arrangement is absolutely buried in the other sounds and doesn't stand out in any way, so that needs to be fixed. Overall, whether it's vox or woodwind, the source melody has a very hard time taking its rightful place in the foreground, so clarity and sound balance both need to be worked on.

By 4:03, the track starts dragging. The groove is decent, but variation in the style or beat patterns at some point is necessary to keep things interesting. Like Gray said, for a mix this long, it's pretty weak to just retread the past ideas for such a lengthy period of time without more overt development and evolution.

Good stuff in place so far, Bev & Jason, but it needs further work to pass. This one was groove-biasing me nicely though, so I hope you don't call this a done deal.

NO (resubmit)