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I'm working on my Overworld remix and it's turning out interesting, to say the least. I think I'll need a few collaborators for it haha.

•••• UPDATE! BONUS TRACKS •••• All initial tracks have now been claimed! We did it, we got there folks. OK OK, so we're not out of the woods yet. Tracks are still being worked on and there's as ever a ton of behind-the-scenes stuff to take care of but we've hit a real target and milestone, methinks. Since this is the case we're opening up the remainder of the tracks from the OST. They're predominantly short tracks, loops and events which, though not integral to the album add some nice spice to the game. We're opening them up as a cherry on the cake, if you will. If you're familiar with Terranigma you may have noticed that none of the "resurrection" tracks feature in the following list. That's because @jnWake has already offered to do a resurrection medley as the last track on the album. Anyways, as many of these new tracks are just a handful of bars they make great medley fodder. So if you want to, you can claim multiple for a single remix. OK they are as follows (click on track for link): Origins (Intro movie theme) The Gaia Stones (Situation Theme) Shopping (Shop theme) Amusement (Minigame theme) Race in Mushrooms (Minigame theme 2) Mysterious Pit (location loop) Entrance (situation loop) My Beloved Loire (Trigger event loop) Defeat (Game Over event) Fanfare (Item acquired event) Go to Rest (Sleep event) SO! Just to reiterate, there are now more tracks available! And as I say, these are optional, for fun and in no way conductive to the success of the album. I've added this to the OP as well. So once again... get claiming! In other news there's just a couple of days until the next submission deadline for some of you. You should know who you are. I PM'ed you a week or so ago. Looking forward to hearing your works! Happy mixing peeps!

I just wanted to say that I made the second deadline. I hope everyone is having fun with this ...

How so?

Most of MZM's soundtrack is decent (I especially love the spoilery moment near the end when the Brinstar theme shows up again, which never fails to elicit a wide grin), given GBA limitations, but I also have an issue with Norfair's theme, and it's all got to do with the arrangement, which is terrible compared to the original. In the first phrase, the interval between the main melody and its countermelody playing a major third below contrasts sharply with the bassline, which is playing in an entirely different key, starting a minor second below the countermelody. This sounds wonderfully alien and dissonant, while still melodic (compared to, say, Ridley's Lair, which eschewed a melody entirely). In contrast, MZM plays literal block chords with a bassline an octave or two below it. That's it. Nothing alien or bizarre about it. I suppose it fits the new atmosphere (less "bizarre alien planet" and more "descending into a lava pit") but it's absolute garbage compared to the brilliance of the original. Hip Tanaka knew what he was doing. On a related note, AM2R suffers from a few of the same issues, particularly the tunnel theme (which is actually one of my favorite bits of Metroid music), though in this case it's the opposite problem that Norfair had. In the original the bassline was a strong tonic, giving the main tunnel a good, strong, grounding that was needed between the eerie atmospheric side sections. The bassline in AM2R is built on the dominant, which weakens it considerably. In general, the AM2R tracks are decent, but somewhat generic-sounding in terms of synth quality. I think they need a little more bite.

Over the years, I've written a fair number of original songs. Some got done, some got half-way finished, and others didn't get beyond even the first 15 seconds. But I kept making them, and going back at times to work on ones that I'd started, but never finished. Oddly enough, it was while I was working on a remix last year that had way too much original stuff to be a remix anymore (for Vampire Variations III) that I finally just said the hell with it, cancelled that remix so I could make it a wholly original song, and began listening to the done and unfinished tunes I'd made in the past. I began thinking about which ones I'd like to tackle in terms of updating and/or finishing, and wound up doing not only that, but writing several brand new songs that came to me as I was working. The end result, is "The Journey Vol.1." This is an album with music that was inspired by various parts of the novels I've been working on, covering moments that were happy, sad, and points in-between. The style of the music is basically classical or ensemble, with piano, orchestration, and even some chamber-esque music. I'm pretty proud of the end result, and can't wait to get going on Vol. 2 once I've given myself a little break (this was WAY bigger of a project than I thought it would be). You can find the album on both Bandcamp and CDBaby (link coming once it's live) for $5, with 11 main tracks and 2 bonus tracks. Here's the first single from it, "A Mother's Last Lullaby." https://soundcloud.com/dragonwolfdesign/a-mothers-last-lullaby With that, here's a link my Bandcamp page. Hope you guys enjoy the album https://dragonwolfdesign.bandcamp.com/album/the-journey-vol-1 http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mtyankovich1

Maybe listen to Banjo Tooie's version of the same source for some ideas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAw-ZXwUUTA

Fun fact: that song is directly based on Kecak, the Balinese monkey chant. The rhythm is exactly the same, only faster, and the "kac" samples may have been taken from a real performance. I thought of remaking it once with a more classical feel and part of part of the percussion replaced with anvils. XD

I'll mention this in the write-up. In fact, I'll probably quote myself. Hello, future me! S'good stuff; obviously plays it a LITTLE loose with sources, but I didn't have to work too hard, plus the breakdown helps. Also obviously a different style/sound for timaeus, which is by & large done quite well, with an emphasis on the agile & delicious fretless bass. If I had to nitpick, I'd say the only weakness might be the snare part, as it pertains to the overall drum part - would have liked more dynamics on the snare, more accent & grace notes, to really give it that shuffle & syncopation, beyond what's present. As it stands, snare sits at the same velocity for most of the track and doesn't vary much, and the drum part could have a little extra pizzazz/humanization/panache, and I think the way to achieve both those goals would have been weaker accented snare notes filling in some of the gaps with extra syncopation. That's my VERY specific criticism, but it's easily outweighed by all the other righteous & highly enjoyable stuff going on, so.... YES

Not much to say here, solid mix, tons of personalty. Fusion jazz adaptation works well for all the sources. I liked the pacing changes throughout the song, specially towards the end. The fretless bass is playful and supports the arrangement well. Good blending of all the sources, easy pass. YES

Hot damn, that source breakdown! That's very helpful, and I'm hearing the source in most of the parts you specified. I'm not sure about the Sand Canyon parts though, that seems a bit far fetched to me, but the count is still juuuust over 50% even if we don't consider those. I think source usage is okay here, but it's very borderline so I think someone else should also check it in depth to make sure. Otherwise, I'm definitely hearing the Birdland influences, nice work on that! I'm loving the fretless bass, it definitely is a key instrument in order to get that sound, IMO. Good leads, too! Overall, a well-produced, strong arrangement. Really nothing to say here, I think it's great work. Unless someone else points out that source usage isn't appropriate, this is most definitely a YES

Just paneling this because the source usage can get very noodly and even by T's count, it's pretty close. Otherwise I feel like this is direct-post quality. I will flesh this out more later.