Liontamer

Pretty sure I heard the voices sampled in the start of WWE's Gangrel entrance theme quietly bookending this piece, but maybe it's just me. I'm coming into this fresh, having not heard the previous submission (nor have I read anyone's votes here), but boy these Marathon sources sure are catchy; pure 90s dance energy, the Marathon Infinity track in particular. Opens with some solid strings around :05 with an extended intro that I'm not immediately recognizing, but seems taken from one of the sources somehow. I do, however, recognize that phat lead at :56 with the first few notes of "Durandal"; nice presense, it's just filling up the space in a huge and impactful way. OK, now I'm hearing how this could have gotten NOs when the (very bland & boring) clap groove comes in at 1:26 and sounds too loud/bright/upfront, then from 1:56-2:11 & 2:26-2:41, the texture is so thin and empty despite the volume. Bummer, as this is piece definitely well in the right direction; it's a shame you have corny grooves here that are making the writing seem too simplistic. The electric guitar sample at 1:41 has very stiff, quantized-sounding timing, so while the sample's tone is thin yet decent, it sounds extremely stilted and exposed; even moreso on its return at 3:43. High strings from 2:39-2:45 sounded super fake also. On the other hand, the sweeping SFX from 2:26-2:35 was a nice touch (among other well-integrated sound effects). I dug the string leads at 2:55, which had more of an e-violin feeling the way they were produced; great tone to those! 3:45 was another example where there's a great energy ramp-up, but then the mixing's imbalanced; way too much emphasis on the (vanilla) beat pattern while the bassline's registering but quiet, and the high strings are very robotic-sounding and exposed, as well as behind the beat/slightly off-time. I'm unsure if this was checked on headphones, but the issues stand out on them. For every section that sounds solid enough though, you have others that are imbalanced, so this should get another production pass for some TLC. Same with the parts that sound very robotic with their timing, mainly the electric guitar, the higher bowed strings, and the overly simplistic and plodding clap groove (which need more body and sophistication to bring energy). I can somewhat understand why this is split based on the arrangement's potential, though I think these YES are way too lenient. The arrangement structure's fine, but the mixing & production aren't getting it done at all. I'd ask a ton more question on the Workshop forums and/or in the Discord, because your current tools aren't being used to their fullest potential. Even though my vote isn't close with this as is, Zane, it's a good base here, don't drop it! NO (resubmit)

Man, I would have sworn I chimed in on this. Excellent old-school soundset from MkVaff and an incredible extended intro and build. Loved the popping-style feel of the percussive sounds in the back. The organ cameo sounded great! A great groove with just the right amount of gothic spices here and there. Dug the electrosynths and you just appreciated how fluidly MkVaff evolved the textures; very creative combinations of organic- and electronic-sounding instrumentation throughout!

Hey, quite a lot of groove for the old-school ReMixes! You could argue that it should evolve more, but it's catchy enough where that's not a substantial problem, just a subjective one where you wouldn't MIND the track having some more variation. The piano's suuuuper fakey, but has such a quaint, nostalgic quality to it, it's a total throwback. Bass has some solid tone for its day as well. Although some of the sounds show their age, LeeBro's twinkly "Hidden Palace" countermelody found in the intro sounds really posh. Holds up very, very nicely for the pre-OCR00500 side!

Man, what a transformation. Listening to the source tune gives a whole new level of appreciation for the groove and intensity laid out here. VERY nice work, Rob!

Serene and sophisticated.

A thing of beauty. :-)

Given Pete's "typical" upbeat style, this one's quite the eye-opener for his range as a musician. Awesome orchestration, and I dug the finish with the piano, which resolved things nicely. :-)

The piece does generally stay in one gear, but it ebbs and flows nicely within that gear. Cool lil' mood piece, and an interesting direction to take it in, going instrumental and more of a groove-based vibe. Loved when the beats dropped out to let the lush textures shine through as well.

When the strings hit, I was like "Whooooooooa! This is my favorite part!" and then even more cool instrumentation kept dropping in as things kept shifting. Very dynamic and, at nearly 5 1/2 minutes, it does a great job evolving and justifying the length. Fun energy!

Awesome intensity from BMC_WarMachine's guitars, which were a huge highlight! Voice clips, mallet percussion, and spooky sounds were super on-point as well. Strong collab, boys!

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I broke it down just so I'd know what game to classify this under: 0:04-1:07 - "Mipha's Theme" (BotW) - Yasuaki Iwata 1:18-2:24 - "Lake Floria" (SS) - Hajime Wakai 2:24-3:01, 3:03-3:38 - "The Great Ocean" (WW) - Kenta Nagata 3:03-3:42.5, 4:55-5:01 - "Ballad of the Wind Fish" (LA) - Minako Hamano 3:52-4:27, 4:46-4:57.5 - "The Wind Fish Awakens" (LA) - Kazumi Totaka 5:04-5:09, 5:11-5:23 - "BotWF" variant 4:27-4:46 - "Water Side" (BotW) - Hajime Wakai YES, as a formality. I enjoyed. :-)

Silly as hell. I chuckled. :-) YES

Artist Name: shodan A chamber arrangement of several dungeon themes from the early Zelda titles. This era of dungeon music was very chromatic, so I saw it as an interesting exercise in getting the themes to play well with each other. Started out as something closer to a serialist experiment, which wound up being unlistenable. In the end, not atonal, but flexibly tonal. There are some original ideas in here, but the major motifs that glue them together are clearly lifted from these three pieces. Begins with a slightly dramatic interpretation of the dark world dungeon theme, and the chromatic tremolo motif occurs frequently. Then moves onto a much lighter take on the NES dungeon theme. Closes with a brief reprise of some of the first ideas, incorporating light and dark world dungeon themes. Games & Sources Legend of Zelda (NES) - Dungeon theme (composed by Koji Kondo) Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) - Sanctuary Dungeon (composed by Koji Kondo) Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) - Dark World Dungeon (composed by Koji Kondo)

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I'm digging the dark, deliberate weight of the bells, liked the textural changes at 1:20 & 2:56 for the choruses, and appreciated the backing guitar going meedeley-meedeley-meedeley the first time and then screeeeeeech the second time, during those choruses. Some Js claimed the drums plodded, yet to me, the overall textural complexity amidst the slower tempo meant the drums as written were working very well. From 2:54-3:48, the drum kicks with varying intensities was a very subtle yet nice touch, so the relative drum-writing sophistication was on point for me. Loved the final winddown at 3:48, with the warmest most upfront tone yet for the guitar lead yet and beautiful cymbal work. There were so many low-key yet overt ways the textures were varied up over the course of the piece (if you're paying attention). Whatever ways this could be improved would just make a solid thing better. Nice debut, Pipko; definitely a lot of be proud of here! :-) YES

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It’s still 4/4 throughout.

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Awaiting the eventual "Old Fogies from IRC" thread :-D Feel free to join the Discord server! https://discord.gg/ocremix

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I'd have to time out the music to be sure it's arranging the sources for more than 50%, but the overall concept seemed solid. Strings at :05 sounded really bright/piercing yet had no clarity, which didn't bode well for the overall mixing. Immediately not feeling the drums at :29, which sound super duper hollow and fake, which dragged down the overall cohesion. The drum writing should be more punchy and interesting for the first section (and somewhat in the second half like proph noted), but otherwise the writing throughout the tracks seems cool and doesn't need to be touched as long as the source usage is dominant. Piano at :29's also very mechanical-sounding, then the string sustains are particularly exposed from :38-:48. Voiceover at :48 seemed to be occupying some of the same frequencies as the music, because it wasn't cutting through to the foreground. At 1:01, some bowed strings entered the background and the soundscape felt muddy. Lots of clarity issues. Vocals moved over into chipmunk stuff at 1:28 (I know it's Worms-inspired); they weren't understandable at all (less so than the source's vocals), but I'll live. Shift at 2:13 to the Worms 98 version of the source. Around 2:27-2:37, was hearing lot of plossives and heavy breath, like there was no pop shield for the recording mic. From 2:45-3:05, the voiceover's completely bowled over by the music. Maybe on monitors this didn't sound problematic, but on headphones it sounds like mud. This is a cool concept, but poorly mixed. (EDIT - 2/1/25: "Poorly mixed" for you relative to what I've previously heard from you, not "poorly, shittily mixed, this is trash." This IS currently messy.) I'd argue the voiceover stuff felt too similar to the original sources, but I'll live, since the music itself is transformative. The sample realism issues I had didn't make a difference in the second half, but definitely hurt the first two minutes in a significant way. Needs more production TLC before we can roll with it. Good base here, regardless! NO (resubmit)

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