[Benjamin Briggs]

Originally Posted by orlouge82

Thanks to you, Snake Man will forever be on my trail

snake man, snake man, snake snake man man

[Gario]

Snake, snake, snake, snake, snake...

[zach72]

Originally Posted by chthonic

raging reptiles

...So I heard you like dem aeroz titles

[Benjamin Briggs]

Originally Posted by zach72

...So I heard you like dem aeroz titles

oh wow that was totally accidental hehe

[prophetik music]

i just mailed mine now, because i forgot to send it in yesterday =( i wasn't around my system until now. worst part is that it's been uploaded for a day and a half =(

[Hylian Lemon]

Originally Posted by Gario

Gario = Prick.

I'm glad we agree

Originally Posted by Ectogemia

Hooray for Current Events for making a last minute "comeback"!!

no thanks to hylian lemon for his pseudovote (: (;d

c:

I guess I am too

[SuperiorX]

Originally Posted by prophetik

i just mailed mine now, because i forgot to send it in yesterday =( i wasn't around my system until now. worst part is that it's been uploaded for a day and a half =(

Well if the file and/or your upload server is timestamped then hopefully Darke will make an exception, since it's been done for awhile already. It's only a few hours after the deadline and he's out of town anyway so it would be s shame if it's disqualified!

EDIT: Completely unrelated, but I realized as I was typing this message your sexy sax from "Round the Cape of Good Hope" was playing off the Wild Arms album. Nice work BTW.

[Rexy]

You sure it wasn't prophetik who won round 6? Because that's what i did when i did a vote tally during the contest itself.
Whatever, everyone knows that the REAL winner of rounds 2, 4, 6 and 8 is ME because my sig images are absolutely seductive. >:]

[Brandon Strader]

Originally Posted by Rexy

everyone knows that the REAL winner.... is ME

we are winrar

[Helios42]

Continued from part 1

As a worthwhile side note, since in was discussed earlier: My voting style is mostly based on two things.

For 'overall feel of the song' I tend to focus less on subjective things like how much I liked it. Rather, I try to focus on the cohesiveness of the song, how it flows, and the level of depth it builds. Soundscape and tone are important in that, too. Obviously, I still have to to enjoy it a little bit.

Perhaps the biggest factor to me, given the nature of these competitions as well as what I most enjoy about video game music, is the arrangement of sources. These sources are catchy! I love it when they're woven together, but it's also important to maintain some recognizability. When voting on this, I tend to look for mixes that transition/weave the sources together well. Also important is touching on the source. It doesn't have to touch on all of each source, but at least the majority, and certainly all of the major parts. Also, I like to see a balance between creativity/uniqueness and that all-important recognizability. Overall, I think this issue is probably the most important to me in deciding my vote, but thankfully, it's usually one people do really well on. Then I start to weigh in the overall feel of the song.

All along the way is production. However, I think it's important to note that I don't focus on production as much as others seem to. First off, this is mostly because I'm not very technically skilled at music, so I miss a lot of the smaller, more technical production issues. But, in the larger sense, production is really only the surface layer so I don't focus on it as my main issue. The use of source and overall enjoyability take precedent over production. I vote on production mostly when it's lack affects the recognizability of source or the overall feel of the song. It's important, to be sure, but only in the same sense that grammar is to language. In language, the grammar is not the point, the idea is. In music, production's not what I like most about voting, and it's really only a thing because it's needed to fully articulate the ideas behind it. Long story short, a high level of production is vital to best express an idea, but I'm not going to vote for a song just because it has perfect production. It's only a part of my voting, and it's something more present throughout my decision making, rather than something I look at specifically.

And without further ado, my thoughts on Round 8's tracks! I listened to them in a random order, because I've listened to them in the same team order for most of the rounds. I'm going to write them up in that order, because that's the order my notes are in :P

The Return of Gansta Man Loved the starting swag - and it had some intertwining of themes to boot! 0:48 - 0:58 was really just perfect. It wasn't too quiet of Crash man, as has sometimes happened in the past. Yet the subtleness was there, and good for the tone, as well as just plain cool. I really liked the clarity at 2:07 - 2:33, stopping the background beat for just a little worked well, and then building it back up was awesome. Overall, the tone was spot on and the cover of Crash Man was really good. Sometimes all the things going on felt a little superfluous, so those might be a little more focused. Also, the reverb might be a touch too much in places. But overall, a very enjoyable piece!

Electropuncture Awesome start! 0:16 - 0:22 had some amazing spunk and was executed flawlessly. Great effects in the first half minute and some of the most interesting cover of the Wily 1 source this round. And then... 0:39 - 0:41. Amazing use of old school sound effects. This is how they should be used. Not just as a nod to source, but as a really catchy sound that really adds to the piece. Also quite the smooth transition. I like how you kept the unique Wily 1 interpretation layered in the background, lead to some excellent cohesiveness. Great use of reverb in most places. 1:39 - 1:52 was an interesting shift, and lead to a more straightforward touch on both sources. The 1:39 - 2:24 area could use a little polish I think, but really added to the piece and somehow fit very well. 3:06 continues the trend of spectacular sound effects, dat health bar was something else. Last 10 sec or so could use a little work, but it doesn't detract from the piece. I mentioned earlier that I narrowed it down to 4, just had to decide on order (which figures out which one I sadly do not get to vote for) This is one of those.

Current Events Is that a Sephiroth reference at the beginning? Either way, sounds really cool. Good style here, lots of energy. The breakdown at 1:14 - 1:43 was great. The Wily 1 source is used really well, and the Elec source leads to a very catchy song. I feel like there's perhaps a little too much liberty with the Elec Man. It's really hard to place, but there is a fair amount there. It leads to a really great style, but I think that the piece could use a slightly more recognizable cover that guides the listener to how it's being used. Still a really great remix, though!

Tomahawk's Final Chapter Cheesy start, but I loved it. I liked the effect, but Tomahawks voice was a little too gravely. That could have been toned down a little. I liked the use of chip source to indicate the "Time Machine". Good touch on the wily source from 1:23 - 1:48, though the evil laugh needs a lot of work. Guitar Tomahawk source was epic. I felt like the middle was highly polished. Some of the chip areas could use some more polish, specifically 3:05 - 3:18. The ending, from a technical standpoint was executed well. I liked the desperate piano touch to the self-destruct. Overall though, I felt like there were a couple things that keep me from really enjoying the effect. First, the lyrics are too specific, which causes them to feel shallow. There isn't a whole lot of room for listener interpretation, but the actual sequence described is very straightforward. Lends itself well to the overly cheesy feel, but this shallowness limits the enjoyablity for me. Finally, and this may be too specific, but I think it might be stepping out of bounds to actually kill off Dr. Wily. It would have been better if that ending was left more vague, because actually killing off Wily just seems a little much. Anyways, I enjoyed the song and the actual music fit in really well.

Towering Shade Awesome style with this one, the two are mixed very well in with a very cool tone. I noticed a strange blip at 0:08, nothing major but it stands out. Awesome beat to the whole thing, that was well done. The transition at 0:56 worked really well. 1:34 - 1:39 stood out as particularly awesome. Overall, I would have liked to see more meshing of the two themes together, because I think that would be really cool sounding and would really make this piece a hard hitter.

Cruise Control Superb Wily cover in the first minute! Pretty darn epic start. I almost would have liked to see Napalm come in at around 1:08. 1:31 proved to have an abrupt transition, at least it felt that way to me. The lull in the middle took a few listens to fit, but it does work. I'm not sure it adds a whole lot, but that could just be me. The rockout from 3:00 - 3:30, on the other hand, is made of pretty substantial epic, and mixes the sources very well. This definitely is one of my 4 that I am deciding between for my votes. Very polished!

Subarctic Nightfall Overall, I think this piece needed to do more with the Wily source. However, I still did very much enjoy the remix, the soundscape in particular. 1:20 - 1:45 was some amazing buildup, but the Wily source in it could have been more distinct without hurting the tone. And perhaps more of a climax would have benefited this piece. But it was a lot more focused and cohesive this time, which is a good improvement. I don't think this one is quite as good as Northern Lights, which had a lot of creativity, depth, and things to keep my attention. But Subarctic Nightfall does improve in some key areas, specifically the focus. It just suffered from a lack of climax that so plagues the quiet pieces. It's hard to do, but even the quiet pieces need to have something they build up to. Even if that remains quiet, it can still be really epic. Northern Lights is a good example of this succeeding. Overall though, Subarctic Nightfall was quite good.

Ivory Tower The piano solo made a great soundscape for the two sources. This soundscape leads to a really creative touch on Chill man from 1:06 - 1:20. I love how that ended up sounding. Again, the sources were touched on very well, Wily 1 works well with piano, apparently. I love the mixing that goes on from 2:30 - 3:05. Overall, a good, subtle piece that I will enjoy listening to. For my vote, however, I think there are some others that just slightly pull ahead of this one, specifically in their creativity with the source. Ivory Tower definitely plays it safe, which I think was important to how this piece functioned as a whole, so I have no qualms with that

Top This I liked the style at the start of this, which had just the faintest hint of Wily source. I agree with Rozovian, the Top Man source was, in parts, a little hard to catch. Where it shows up, though, it's very interesting. But in parts of the middle it felt as though it could have been explored a lot more. I like the effect it creates, though - now that was something interesting. I would just have liked to see some coverage of the top source that wasn't as muffled. The Wily source, however, was covered very well and made for yet another really catchy and creative touch on that source. This round certainly had some really creative, and awesome, covers on the source. Back to Top This - really great song that falls very closely to Ivory Tower in my voting. Very close to my vote, but there were a few songs that took a lot of risks that paid off. Love listening to Top This, though!

Synthesize This! Lovely Plant source here. 0:46 - 1:18 had some awesome mixing of the themes and some great stuff is done with both sources. Between 1:18 - 1:57 there's a lot of great creativity going on that works out very well for both sources. The synths that come in at 2:12 - 2:28 are really catchy and have great buildup effect. What's more, the buildup does not disappoint! 2:30 - 3:14 is INCREDIBLY upbeat and wonderful. I like the repeat of mixing that we see from the beginning back again at 3:38 - 3:44 after that lovely journey we have just taken. And the ending theme at the ending... ahh, I loved it. The ending follows up Wily 1-1 so well (and I've even seen it done before). Synthesize This! really stood out to me by taking both sources to the next level, which is probably the defining characteristic of the 4 I'm considering, of which we now have 3.

Drag me Up (to Heaven) Excellent touch on Magnet Man, really refreshing yet very fitting. Add to that a VERY creative touch to the Wily source and you have the makings of an exciting start. Loved the layering of themes we got at 0:55 - 1:08. Layering the two together is a great way to segway into meshing of the themes while still giving nods to both individually. 1:33 - 2:40 really compiled that meshing well. And I loved every minute of it because I knew where both the themes were without having to search for them. They just flowed over my eardrums in sonorous harmony. This, in turn, segwayed into my favorite part of Magnet Man - it's climax, which serves as the climax here as well (an impressive feat, climaxing a song that had such a great start). I don't know if I have the words for this, but I'm going to try. I found it incredibly powerful how you tied in the pure magnet man inside the already beautiful integration of themes. Stylistically, it works so incredibly well into one of the best examples of my ideal mix. You're a champ, Gario! Obviously, this was in my top 4.

Alright, decision time! I keep coming back to that idea of 'top 4' which is weird in a 'vote for 3' competition. It's not a special number, I just come back to it because I felt that those 4 rose to the top very clearly after my first listen and stayed there after 4 listens. They all just had such creativity while keeping both sources clear, yet also intertwining them together in wonderful joy. Spirit of the competition, right there.
I knew deciding between them was gonna be tough, so I put it in the back of my mind til now. As I went through writing my reviews, it helped me identify key factors that helped me decide, as it always does. I think Cruise Control, though wonderful, falls into that hard 4th place category. Just had some areas that could be improved and doesn't quite have as much creativity as the other three. Just as much epic though.

Tn writing my reviews, the rest falls into place. Drag me Up is just so pristine as to demand my 1st place - it flows so well!!! Such creativity and energy, too! Love it!

Then I think Synthesize This! falls next. Again, great energy! Lovely creativity. I liked the cohesive flow of Gario's just an atom more, so 2nd it is for this one!

And then Electropuncture, which was also creative, lively, epic, and cohesive. It has a few spots that I think deserve to be polished, but like I said. A scant few flaws in production, so long as they don't hinder the ideas behind the remix, can be overshadowed by stellar creativity, source use and integration, and epic overall feel.
Electropuncture is just so darn catchy!