Leaderboard

HAHA! This mix is so weird, so creative, so eclectic, and is everything I love about VGM and remixing. Bravo!

Portal was always one of those game series that had a strong musical identity for me, and I can still hear it underneath this ReMix even with the upgrade with a faster retro sounding EDM base, which is cool. I think what I mean by that is that I feel like this mix not only rearranges the source, but also builds and expands on it, making it the artists own while keeping it recognizable. These kinds of mixes are some of my favorites, where the balance between nostalgia (well, as much nostalgia as you can get from a game that really isn't old enough to be described as "nostalgic") and original direction hit just right and ultimately make a song better in my opinion. Great stuff, man!

I remember this from the album eval, and my commentary is pretty close to the same as before: the arrangement suffers from having a density/business to it that gets stale over time, but the instruments are always changing so I can't quite say the arrangement gets 'static'. There's just no place for the ears to rest for a moment and appreciate what's going on, is all. For some reason there's a bit of a focus on the left ear, as well - more instruments seem to fill that side than on the right side. Neither of these are crushing issues, though - just a bit tiring for the former issue and a bit distracting for the latter, once you notice it. The arrangement itself is certainly all there, and I can't complain with the production quality. Great work - it's certainly a solid addition to the SoM album! YES

The mix feels super busy right off the start. Not the cleanest production here, but it doesn't completely break down. Loved the arrangement and those short time signature change breaks. Also any vocoding is a plus for me. I think this song could've used a break somewhere, it's too busy ALL the time, and it gets very tiresome towards the end. Even a 15 second section where things calmed down would've improved the listening experience tremendously. I need to mull over this, as I'm borderline right now. I'll finish my vote later.

Quite a busy track here, things kick off fairly suddenly with guitar and brass riffing. The groove developed over the course of the first minute of the track was gradual and well executed. 1:24’s vocoder break was great and unexpected. The subsequent synth solo and organ afterwards were a cute addition. 2:47 presents us with another solo, and a short vocoder section closes us out. The song feels like it crams in a large amount of content for the tidy duration. A couple thoughts after listening - while things were quite busy through the course of the mix, there wasn’t really ever a time where the soundscape was too full, which is a testament to good mixing. A slightly more developed intro and outro would have been to the track’s benefit, as I feel things started and ended a little too quickly. I also felt that while the source was there, it would’ve been good to have thrown in some verbatim use of the main melody as opposed to the faster more embellished version found here. Otherwise, solid job. YES

I was not expecting such an energetic and unique take here, and I actually had to take a moment to adjust. Nice work on pulling off such a radically different (and fun!) take on this source. I do think the second half suffers from being over-cluttered, but I was able to hear the main parts clearly enough and it doesn't bring it even close to a NO. Hopefully someone can confirm our correct, but I think this source was the one that Kikuta said was his favorite when he was asked (by me!) at the Otakon Q&A years ago. Fun times and this mix is lovely. YES

This arrangement is certainly a lot of genre-defying fun, just what one would expect from these two. There are a few production oddities. The brass conflicts with a few of the other instruments, the robo-voice especially. There are some strange dips in volume periodically, making it sound like the track is starting to fade out just for a second before coming back in. This especially stands out because the arrangement is overall lacking in dynamic variation--there aren't any gaps, breakdowns, or any other breaks to prevent auditory fatigue from setting in--so those small volume changes are more pronounced. I don't think either is a dealbreaking issue, though. This is still clever and fun, and the production is more than adequate. We'd need lyrics before posting this, of course, but otherwise I see no reason not to. YES