Liontamer

Having played this one a bit as a kid and also researched the soundtrack for names, I'm really familiar with this game's music and was excited to see a medley in the queue. The robotic & blocky-sounding timing of the electric guitar synth was the dealbreaker here; it doesn't have the tone of a real guitar and just sounds very exposed and unrealistic. Look into something like Impact Soundworks' Shreddage series. As far as the other instrumentation, a lot of the proggy jazz-style drumwork didn't have any synergy with the electric guitar. Mixing-wise, I thought the drums should have been pulled back some to start, but then at :30 you had the title theme's main melody start up and the textures immediately felt empty; it doesn't mean you add in part-writing for the sake of, but a musician judge can speak more to what you can do here to properly fill out your textures. Right now, the textures felt half-filled for many sections despite the volume of the piece. 4:00's section was also a victim of this relative emptiness and lack of synergy with the drumkit, really starting at 4:07. Many of the transitions were OK, but some of the transitions like 1:47 to "Labyrinth: Area 0" were just abrupt and broke the flow of the track. It's OK to submit medleys, and having some jumpy transitions isn't an automatic DQ, but keep in mind that the piece should flow like one cohesive idea overall. DaMonz's Kirby Super Star "Fluffball Rampage" is a good example of this in a similar progressive vein to your track, and I want to be clear that I'm not saying that none of your theme transitions were good. Meanwhile, the bass writing here almost didn't even register in my ear until 1:48, and I'm wearing headphones. And then after 1:48 the bass was booming -- problem was, it's all super low-end thumping yet no clarity to the sound. 2:54's transition to "Labyrinth: Area 6, 9" wasn't horrible, but also wasn't smooth. At 3:00, the chip elements were too loud and bright/clean compared to the guitar, which sounded pushed back and muddy. That said, I liked the writing of the section, with the original chip writing sounding really energetic and combining your own ideas with the VGM. The quick but smoother transition from "Master Monster A" to "Dungeon: Corridor 21" theme at 4:41 was given some thought to the flow. The complete drop before 5:13 starting was a genuine transition into the "Mission Complete" ending theme; a little abrupt due the instrumentation change, but at least thought out. I liked the way that theme then smoothly shifted to the "Game Over" jingle at 6:12; good finish, though it probably didn't need the SFX in there right at the end. I'm looking forward to the other votes on this, but I'd put the issues in this order: 1. The guitar synth timing has to be humanized or this is DOA. 2. Fill out the emptier sections with some sort of padding. 3. Make sure your instrumental textures are cohesive; some of your instruments need to be changed. 4. Smooth out some of the more jarring transitions. 5. Clean up/re-balance the mixing. This is an ambitious piece that's not well-executed yet and doesn't fully flow, but it shows off good potential, Jeff. Hopefully the musician judges can better speak to how you can improve this and I hope we hear more from you. NO (resubmit)

Contat info: Remixer name: Being Jayadev Real Name: Jeff Jarjoura Website: www.facebook.com/beingjayadev UserID: 34583 Submission Info: Game Arranged: The Guardian Legend Name of Arrangement: Miria's Legacy Songs Arranged: 1: The Guardian Legend (title theme) 2: Message Room 3: Area 0/ Naju Gateway 4: Taking Off 5: Corridors 7, 8 17 & 18/ Alien Sector Flight 6: Areas 6 & 9/ Crystal Sector 7: Bonus! 8: Corridors 9, 10, 19 and 20 9: Boss Theme 1 10: Corridor 21/ Final Flight 11: Ending/ Staff Roll 12: Game Over Commentary: Here's my first submission. I've been a fan of this site since the early days. I've been playing with music production as a hobby since 2012 and I'm proud to present what is likely the best thing I have produced thus far. The Guardian Legend came into my life through a very special friend during the classic NES years and I was always floored by the music. Through the years, I became very fond of innovative progressive rock through bands like Dream Theater, Blind Guardian and the genius producer Arjen Anthony Lucassen. I have arranged 12 select tracks from TGL in a prog rock themed anthem that I hope tickles your eardrums. I would have liked to include more of the original soundtrack, all of the music is incredible. I considered every single track for part of the compilation. In the end, a stream-of-consciousness approach revealed a very natural progression in their original keys. I hope you enjoy it! Namaste! Being Jayadev I have included the file as an attachment, but here is a link to a shared Google drive folder with the same file: LT's note: open the video in it's own tab and view the video's comments, which you click timestamps for the original songs.

The percussion work was creatively written, but still sounded robotically programmed. The "do-bop" vox brought in at :19 was brutal, and that kind of overly fake & exposed triggering style only works in select contexts. Using them prominently, especially for long-held notes, is a mistake. The chiptune accents first used at :45 were a nice touch though, while the mallet perc from 1:14-1:33 was rigidly timed, but had more of a tail to the sound which (only partially) mitigated that realism issue. The synth sax from 1:33-1:59 was very poor as well, with very stilted timing and 0 meat to the sound. Also, this isn't the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 game itself; this arrangement is meant to be a standalone piece of music that's fully developed, so don't just loop it, employ some additional variations. The arrangement goes in the right direction as far as personalizing the sound, Bradley , but there's no polish to the execution. Refine the sounds/articulations, re-look at your mixing per the other Js crits, and develop the arrangement beyond the 2-minute mark. NO

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The arrangement breakdown checked out (THANK YOU, bro!), and that's all there is to it. Direct post quality, but just needed the sanity check. Nice work, Truong-Son! virt's originals were full of infectious energy that translated well from these themes to your own unique fusion of the two! YES

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That's the plan!

The dryness of the pizz strings from 1:12-1:47, and even the string accents first brought in at :25, was pretty brutal and short-sighted. The thing is, I'd probably go conditional as well, but I don't feel this is a conditional fix. A musician J can correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like there would probably need to be a more involved fix; IMO, the pizz strings were so upfront that it wouldn't be enough to just slap some delay on them, you'd need to adjust other things with the mixing in conjunction with addressing that first problem. Scratching my head at the complete lack of transition to the more upbeat dance stuff at 1:49, along with the massive volume disparity. There's gotta be some sort of effort given to an actual bridge from one aesthetic to the other, even just some sort of sweeping SFX to tie it together. After 1:49, the textures sounded really cramped and muddy until the dropoff at 2:48, then again during the fullest section from 4:08-5:06. The boom-tss beats starting at 3:13 felt pretty basic and vanilla in terms of the writing and sound design, but I'll live. Would have liked something more sophisticated with the writing, but what's there was serviceable. The dropoff back to the piano only at 5:07 also felt very awkward and disconnected. I see what was attempted, but it doesn't work at all. Watch the ending at 5:47 not being given enough time for a full fade; the track abruptly cuts off at 5:49, so watch the render and get everything in there. This arrangement started off very conservatively, Kare, so I was worried on where it could go, but at least the DDR-style stuff later on presented interpretation. That said, this still needs some work to refine what's there. I thought both the transition into and out of the energetic sections were abrupt & low-effort, and the string dryness was a must-fix, NOT a nice-to-have. The volume disparity has to be addressed as well, and the fullest sections shouldn't sound cluttered. Let's not get sloppy with the detail work. NO (resubmit)

I agreed that the string articulations were weak (with 4:03-4:22 being a particular offender), but I'd argue we (really) need to get some TLC on more of the articulations here. Not sure how anyone can hear, for example, the brass/wind/string combinations from :22-:54, the brass alone from 2:14-2:48 (and later on), or winds alone from 3:29-3:42, and not want to send this back for polishing. The arrangement's solid, but the treatment of these samples needs refinement. It's not that I dislike this piece, but I'm a pretty solid NO. Let's get this touched up, THEN posted up. NO (resubmit)

Just quickly timestamping this, the music was 3:44-long, so I needed at least 112 seconds worth of source usage for it to dominate the arrangement: 1:01.5-1:21.5, 1:22.75-2:47 = 104.25 seconds Then you had lots of scattered references to the source, like right at :07 that I didn't feel like counting the bits and pieces of, since there were a lot of small gaps. The source usage definitely checked out. There definitely seemed to be some light distortion in places with the sax, so it would be nice if that was looked at, but it was nothing dealbreaking. I also agreed with Gario on the jazz to nerdcore rap transition feeling abrupt, but it wasn't a big deal in the grand scheme and the overall presentation was cohesive enough. Let's go! YES

Issues first: something about the bowed strings in particular was in the uncanny valley territory of realism. 1:12 had an odd note, but we'll live. Not sure what the snapping noise at 4:26 or the last note at 5:16 was either, and the ending fadeout was way too fast, but, again, we'll live. I also checked all of the potential off sections that MindWanderer timestamped, but wasn't bothered by anything he cited; busy in places, sure, but overall it sounded fine to me. That said, I feel his pain; I too have had the issue where I just can't get past some iffy-sounding constructions and can't get on board, so it definitely happens. Otherwise, this was a pretty strong arrangement, Hassan! I enjoyed the constant "Ballad of the Goddess" variations throughout, and the way you intertwined "Song of Storms" in places was very creative. It does wander at times, but the ride is a fun one. YES

The mixing wasn't clear, with the backing guitars until :14-:28 just adding clutter, IMO; Not sure why the panning was so wide with that stuff either; it's disorienting on headphones. Better stuff at :28 with the source tune more straight up, though the basic, metronome-ish backing drumwork quickly got repetitive. The timing/multitracking of the chorus from 1:09-1:37 was noticeably loose; an acquired taste maybe, and worth pointing out, though not something I'd necessarily ding the track on if the interpretation was solid. The adaptation to rock is decent, but it's too straightforward of a cover. You'll need to get more interpretive with the source material or more expansive with the part-writing to add your own observable touches; don't wait until 2:34 to throw in something that shows off more of your personality in the performance (and helps your rendition stand on its own). The drumwork also needs to be more varied and fleshed out; the writing for it was too simple and repetitive. There's nothing bad here, Christian, but this needs more development and interpretation of the source theme. NO

It's difficult to go anywhere with a source like this other than additive, but there still should have been more interpretive work done with what little melody the source tune had via some sort of rhythmic changes or grace notes, just something else there to further develop the arrangement. Right now the only differentiation in the source usage over time was dropping the melodic part out and leaving the beats, which wasn't much in terms of development. The gradual additive approach employing original lines was commendable, Jens, but the entire texture was so minimal and skeletal, and never really filled up the soundscape at any point. The beats had some bass presence but were otherwise pretty empty. It's a decent groove, but there just isn't much substance to this as a standalone piece of music. NO

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For me the 1:22 transition to Zelda's theme from OoT was abrupt, IMO, and the worst offender of the structure here. I actually disagree with Gario about Alex achieving "absolute perfection" as it were with his pieces -- not being a hater -- but I didn't have any hangups about the instrumentation execution or volume relative to the bar, and obviously Alex should take in the critiques of the Js on those issues to refine his work. It's not something I would have focused on, but Gario was right about the brass and string humanization being a sticking point and sounding samey. Otherwise, the arrangement was lovely, and I disagreed with Chimpa on the pacing or tempo feeling rushed. Nearly everything clicked well, and the energy and creativity in the orchestral approach were strong. A great way to bring Breath of the Wild to OCR! YES

I wouldn't mind a volume raise, but didn't mind the level, so I'm not condition on that. The arrangement was straightforward and well over 50% of the piece, so I didn't need to timestamp anything. The opening piano sample was exposed with a thin/fake tone, so watch the detail work on that when there's nothing else in play; it was just a few seconds, but was the opening, so start strong as far as the production. The pacing and mood were pretty deliberate, arguably droning, but some good instrumentation and subtle textural changeups over time kept this from feeling repetitive within this narrower dynamic curve. Nice additional of the female solo & choir vox 2:32 for that added level of activity in the final section. Not my cup of tea personally, but Jaka nails the mood here very nicely. YES

As soon as the beats started from :11-:29, it felt like the beats were pumping and causing the levels of the leads to be constantly duck; frankly, it sounded pretty annoying and didn't sound stylized. The ducking's not as pronounced and thus not as big of a deal for most the rest of the track. The initial breakbeats from :32-:52 were a bit of an awkward fit only because that sampled pattern is so generic and stuck out as not really feeling like it was written for the arrangement; I don't mean to make it sound like a bigger deal than it was, just something that hit me having heard that pattern a lot before. Wasn't digging the beats, which picked up more for the :53-1:13; they just sound hollow like hitting a plastic bucket and don't fill out the soundscape well, yet too loud and upfront compared to the other instrumentation. Nice drops at 1:13 & 2:08, creating some good contrast after the (great) guitar work and the breakbeats before that, respectively. Swanky stuff from 2:19-2:40 with the jazzier synth work and claps, then shifting over to another rock section. The little note accents behind the guitar from 3:01-3:11 got buried when the writing there would really complimented the guitar; why bother having it there if it's not going to register? I 100% get the criticisms on the ducking, but for me it was only a notable deal from :11-:29 & (to a lesser extent) 3:11-3:30 and, at least for me, didn't hugely strike me as a dealbreaker on my headphones. Overall, the arrangement was creative, varied and dynamic, and doesn't need to be touched. I wasn't blown away by the percussion, and felt like the production was thinner/emptier than it should have been, but the arrangement carries it. I'd love to hear an improved version before we posted it, but I'm OK with this passing as is. If it doesn't make it as is, Faseeh, just tighten up the mixing with some of the feedback in mind and we can definitely get this up in some form. YES (borderline)

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