Liontamer

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Seemingly a non sequitur intro; not recognizing anything for a while until the melody at :59, but there's lots of runway here, and the string-like lead sounds OK, like it's blended with chiptune. Abrupt change in the SFX at 1:10; doesn't sound good when it's jumpy like that. Lone synth at 1:23 sounds awesome as hell, like VRC7 chiptune stuff, then it's joined by another line at 1:37. The sample voices are cheesy to me; not offensive, but not fully cohesive. The piano line's VERY stiff though. In contrast, the VRC7-like line had a vibrato-like effect on it that humanized it (rather than sounding like inhuman sustains for each individual note). That said, I really like the tone there of that chippy lead, and there's lots of room for expansion and variations. Wait, hold up. :'-( After the (abrupt) change in instrumentation at 2:42, things fell apart, IMO. Brass sample was very exposed as unrealistic coupled with a spooky-line that doesn't really mix with the gravity of the sampled voice work, then adding in some lonely-sounding kicks, then a change to a very mechanical-sounding organ line at 3:03 and some bizarre FM-synth writing around 3:08 that was kind of atonal. Sleigh bells added at 3:20, huh? Then very robotic-sounding organ and drums that both needed to sound denser at 3:28 and this texture is scattershot. Then a bubbly, brighter FM line's brought in at 3:39, then some castanets at 3:51 with machine gun triggering on them (no velocity variations) that exposes the sample, and just none of the sound design has synergy, no flow, no direction. Not sure what part that it coming in at 4:06, but the timing on that's also very quantized and devoid of any fluidity. At 5:01, I'm digging the more understated instrumentation, but once it gets louder and more involved. I also liked the electronic string sound from 5:15-5:24. Back to overly quantized writing at 5:43. Some sort of blippy percussion stuff added at 6:18 that doesn't have synergy with the string stabs, which aren't particularly melodious. Choir at 6:35 adds a lot of mud, not a lot of direction. Whatever buzzing line was introduced at 7:12 just cluttered up the soundscape; if it's meant to sound distorted, OK, but it comes off as messing up the texture rather than adding any stylistic flavor to it. The organ like at 8:05 seems like it's doubled by some sort of weird robovox-type lines, I'm not sure. Not sure what can be done here. Past a point, I didn't hone in on how well the voice clips fit because there's so much that's not working that it didn't need to be focused on. I can see why prophetik said they're overkill. Same for the source usage; I ultimately didn't need to track it or even grok it because it was a moot point due to these other issues. Even if this wasn't so stiffly timed, the instrumentation doesn't click or mesh together either. It really doesn't matter what the genre is, it can't be in state of musical rigor where everything sounds quantized, otherwise it's a non-starter. The only difficulty in offering this feedback is the possibility that it's taken on a personal level as opposed to assessing this piece of music. It's always offered in the attempt to lift you up to a higher skill level instead of tear you down. You often have good ideas, and have had plenty of arrangements you've helmed approved. I stand by the strong praise for your Lufia II album track, which was awesome. It'll sound like I think you shouldn't or can't make good music; it's a matter of understanding where your weaknesses are and instead actively playing to your strengths. To me, it feels like some of your work very much needs needs a governor in the form of a co-arranger/co-pilot focused on musicality, production, and cohesion. And, as I've said before to HoboKa, I don't believe your current pitch perception is where it needs to be to effectively executive very interpretive arrangement concepts; to stay effective, color more in the lines with melodically conservative approaches, and make your instrumentation, ornamentations, and sound design be the primary ways you personalize your arrangements. In the meantime, spend more time on your pitch perception, and study up on how to make sequenced music sound more fluid. NO

Wish it had composer credits!

Nice lil' grandiose glow-up of the original arrangement with this opening orchestration. Vocoded vocals from :33-:40 were being suffocated; I know the original would do that sometimes for contrast, but that didn't click here. Male vocals at :40 by TheManPF are kind of bland as if they sound low effort in less processed spots ("Your girl is quite fair, oh she's an anomaly"), but the processing's OK, and they feel more stylized the rest of the way. At :56, the female vocals sound good, but the instrumental underneath feels hollow and thin; strings are extra quiet and there's some guitar that's also mixed like it's trying not to wake a sleeping baby. Clap groove from :33-1:41 is so meh; feels barren like it's just a WIP placeholder for the REAL beats that'll be worked in later. It quickly gets boring while also mixed in a way where it's louder than quieter-yet-more-interesting supporting instrumentation. Vocals from 1:48-1:56 are muffled. Again, the mixing's weird: vocals were quieter, you hear the bland clap groove more -- the xylo accents are alright. Transition section from 1:56-2:03 felt empty as well. At 2:03, the clap groove feels like a metronome, so placeholder-like. 2:48, the piano's in the uncanny valley. There's string and orch stab stuff later, but the textures just don't glue together well; a lot of the backing orchestration just feels like it's thin and incohesively, indistinctly mixed. Except for the clap groove, the writing's more sophisticated than you'd think, you just don't hear it well due to the mixing. I literally don't know shit, so I can't tell you how to fix it, but the potential's there. String accents from 3:48-4:03 feel too exposed and the lower sustains are also in the uncanny valley. Loved the brief guitar & synth soloing from 5:03-5:19. The vocals from 5:19 are arguably pushed down too much, again understanding that it's following the original arrangement, so I can live with that. The vocals are cool, both PF's and EK's, thanks to some creative and stylish effects. The integration of the numerous SMB themes is nice to take the arrangement to a conceptually higher level. I wasn't put off by the track being longer and felt the flow was fine. I'll definitely sound like I'm making the perfect the enemy of the good: it's a great concept, still needs another production TLC pass. Bland clap groove needs to be killed with fire and there's overall mixing tweaks that could clean this up and not make the backing instrumentation feel so thin, like it's an afterthought. I can definitely understand the overall strength of the concept being approved as is, and I tend to lean for ambitiousness over production. None of this is poor, and it sounds like I'm bagging on TheManPF's abilities and talent when y'all know I love his shit, including this re-ReMix concept. The overall production though (clap groove and imbalanced mixing with a hollow feel) is messy enough that I feel this could shine way more with another pass at it. Not ready yet. NO (resubmit)

Alright, sounds like a straightforward piano adaptation to start. Vox comes in at :18. Seems like it may gradually rise and take some turns. Plucked guitar joins in at :49 with original writing; not the most focused initial section until 1:11, though it then gets a little more interactive with the source arrangement. Arrangement-wise, I respect the approach, which was more additive with original writing, but also had some reasonable interplay & interpretation via the vox and guitar; proph brought up some sections feeling too straightforward, and I hear what he means, but there's no dealbreakers in going this route; nothing to touch there, IMO. The instrumentation's deep in the uncanny valley though, so I wish it had a more natural, humanized sound. It doesn't need live performers, Justin, but some production TLC for a richer tones and more fluid articulations would put this over the top for me. Definitely use the Workshop forum and/or Discord channel to see what more could be done to get some more refinements in place. NO (resubmit)

Opens up with a bright energy, so it's seeming like a decent genre cover to start. Textures start to thicken around :20, then the bass comes in at 33 and it's adding a somewhat indistinct rumble. The textures and part-writing are feeling pretty vanilla, very by the numbers. At only 2 minutes, this needed to be more dynamic and developed. Ending was super flat as well. Not poor musicianship, but in terms of the approach, too basic and plodding. Would love to hear what additional ideas could be added to put more personality into it; the potential is there, and it's such an underrated source tune. NO

This one bypassed the judges panel. I hate Zach [sic], so I didn't want him to get any feedback beyond mine. :-) /s

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

This was more or less a 50/50 joined effort between Gabe and myself. It was one of the tracks on the Phazon Mutations album from Respawned Records. Games & Sources Super Metroid - Crateria Surface