Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Ramped up at :45 and the soundscape felt kind of distant, lacking some highs; nothing holding this back, as it's going for a darker, synthwave-inspired style, even if I do like my sharpness. Very cool fusion of the themes; if you weren't familiar with these themes, you'd assume there was only one source tune with the way everything connected so seamlessly together. I particularly enjoyed the guitar work throughout, which added loads of herbs and spices here. Nice job, team! I love team! EDIT (10/23): Had no problems with the previous version, and this one sounds good too. YES

How very un-Western this Gunman Clive source is. Alright, that caught me off guard, not gonna lie. Mega Man/"Get a Weapon"-style blips at :11? Alright, that caught me off guard, not gonna lie. Nothing's making sense around here. Brass from 1:12-1:18 was a slight weak link in terms of realism, though the way it danced around the stereo field was a nice touch that also mitigated the realism issues. A ding against the strings in here (e.g. 2:49-3:00) as well. Nice job taking those opening riffs from the original and keeping them in play for most of the first 2/3rds, which also kept the solo section grounded in some reference to the original. Awesome rock/synth fusion by jnWake & minusworld that brought entirely new dimensions to this source tune! YES

Loads of fun dynamic contrast, and I was impressed by the different styles that arose from the different sections of the title theme. String sequencing from 1:46-2:07, 2:53-3:21 & 4:31-4:52 exposed the sample too much, the attacks and sustains are suss :-D; pretty much any time that sample was present (though less of an issue at 1:46 due to the lower volume), there was a quality disparity with the other strong instrumentation. The only chink in the armor here. Aside from that, you can just sit and listen to the bass, the drums, the guitars, the piano, whatever you want to fixate on, and enjoy the detail work behind everything. This never stays in one place too long; interesting changeups at 3:32 & 4:52 in particular. So much strong musicianship on display here from TheMan, Zach & Joe! YES

ReMixer Name: Pixels & Paradiddles, Hemophiliac Real Name(s): Seph and Josh Brown Email Address: Game Arranged: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IV Name of Arrangement: Psycho Giant Names of Individual Songs Arranged: Crazy Motorcycle Chase, Within the Giant Link to Submission: (.mp3) (.wav) Comments: Submitted for Round 1 of DarkeSword's Game-Set-Mash!! Final Fantasy arrangement competition, pitting Team SNES vs Team PSX to mash together a source from the SNES era Final Fantasy titles and a source from the PSX era titles. This week paired "Within the Giant" from FFIV with "Crazy Motorcycle Chase" from FFVII. Seph and I leaned hard on our symphonic metal approach for this one, taking inspiration from ...And Justice for All era Metallica (sans the inaudible bass) and contemporary Mastodon. Hemophiliac contributed an organ riff transitioning the A section of "Within the Giant" into the A section of "Crazy Motorcycle Chase." Conceptually, we married a scene BGM from one game with a cutscene/minigame BGM from the other and turned them into an epic battle sequence. May the best mix win for the compo, but in the meantime, thanks again for checking out our work! ~Paradiddles (Josh)

Wouldn't have thought to put these two pieces together, so I love the compo idea promoting other unique concepts like this. Exotic strings at :59. What can I say while listening through other than that this is a smart arrangement with polished performances. Will vote for you this one time. YES

Opens up ultra-conservatively but tastefully presented; I'd argue that if it stays like that, there should be more aspects of interpretation involved, but we'll see where it goes. Something about the mixing of the vocals is not working here either; they sound too muffled, which starts to be more noticeable around :58, and is very apparent by 1:08; what happened to any high-end sharpness? I'm going to ignore the ESL nature of the sampled vocals' lyrics; others hearing non-native vocalists in other language may harp on that, but not do so for languages they don't know. The tone of the vocals is really nice though, and I really liked that flourish from 2:01-2:25, along with the subtle countermelodic writing underneath it (not the staccato strings). The drums brought at 1:45 sounded so dry compared to the rest of the instrumentation though; they felt very stapled on top with 0 synergy. Bowed strings underlying the vocals from 2:01-2:50 (then back again from 3:15-3:43) were bone dry and exposed the fakeness of the sample; need some wetness to the sound to give it some body and mitigate the realism issues. Electric guitar first used from 2:25-2:51 had a decent tone, but very mechanical timing that hugely exposed the sample and broke the immersion; same with the grungier guitar from 3:15-3:42, and the guitar leading from 3:42-4:00, it all sounded way too rigid with the timing. Even the brief choir vox at 4:07, the way the notes changed sounded very mechanical. The strings ending it at 4:15 were more emotive though. I really enjoy the concept; this presentation isn't as cohesive as others. There's too many parts in place where the production TLC hasn't been applied to glue these parts together as a unified-sounding performance; they often didn't sound like they were sharing the same space; some parts were more spacious and distant, others upfront and dry, and then we had rigid timing with some parts, as the guitar and vox timing toward the end should be better humanized. If you can refine several of these smaller issues that are adding up, I can get behind it; great potential here and I do enjoy it more and more as I loop it. This feels like a situation where the arrangement is in place and just needs the final production and mixing polish; you may need some time away from it to have fresh ears on how the parts sound, but, no matter what, I'd say don't give up on it; I definitely want to see this posted in some form. NO (resubmit)

Contact Information Username: H36T UserID:37144 Website: https://www.youtube.com/@H36TRemasters Submission Information Arrangement Game: Final Fantasy VIII Name of Arrangement: Kiyomi Song Being Arranged: The Salt Flats Hello there, back with another submission from FFVIII. I really should have tried to go for the big album but oh well! Anywho, here is a song from a not so popular track, a track I don't even have a great love for in "The Salt Flats." I can't exactly recall why I started working on this song but it probably had to do with how minimal it is. Knowing myself, I saw a palette to work with and began to juxtapose my vision on top of it. What is that vision anyway? Well it brings me to the title Kiyomi. I'll spare you the Japanese lesson but Kiyome no Shio or Kiyomejio is the word for purifying salt. The pure part is also sometimes used in spelling Kiyomi--a girl's name in Japan. For me this song evolved into an image of earth, who I've named Kiyomi, and her being purified from all that's been done to her. Some sort of mystic, powerful force that triggers wide spread eradication of danger when it senses things have gone too far. Sort of invokes FFVII vibes rather than FFVIII. With that metaphor in mind the song goes through phases of a calm that has this essence of gloom. Then erupting into different phases of energy and finally ending on a feeling that is a bit uncertain as to how things will turn out. I think trying to use different instruments while remaining cohesive was probably the hardest part. I've had some feedback about some funky chords here and there but I couldn't think of alternatives and I liked it personally so I stuck with that as well. Other than that, this was a journey for me to make and I'm curious if I was able to send people on one as well. Until next time! Harlem, out!

Contact Information: Your ReMixer Name: The Vodoú Queen (ft. Zack Parrish, Aeroprism/Sébastien & Xaleph/Matt Sabol) Your Real Name: Angélique Vodoú Your Email Address: Your Website: https://thevodouqueen.newgrounds.com/ Your User ID # on our forums: 37001 Submission Information: Name of Game(s) Arranged: Final Fantasy IV (SNES) & Final Fantasy VII (PS1) Name of Arrangement: "Mechanical Delights (NeverEnding Love Mix)" Name of Individual Song(s) Arranged: 'Within the Giant' & 'Crazy Motorcycle Chase' Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site): 1. FINAL FANTASY IV OST; Track 42 - Within the Giant; Artist(s): Nobuo Uematsu; Release Date: June 14, 1991; Label: Square Co./NTT Publishing 2. FINAL FANTASY VII OST; Track 22 (Disc 1) - The Chase / Crazy Motorcycle; Artist(s): Nobuo Uematsu, Minoru Akao; Release Date: February 10, 1997; Label: DigiCube Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site): 1. https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Original_soundtracks_of_Final_Fantasy_IV 2. https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII:_Original_Soundtrack Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: ---- Contributions: The Vodoú Queen -- arrangement, synths, electronica drums, vocals, SFX, mixing, mastering, production Aeroprism -- arrangement Zack Parrish -- lead guitar & metal drums Xaleph -- harmonic guitar & rhythm guitar COLLABORATORS [FEAT.]: Zack Parrish = *Live Lead (Clean & Overdriven) Guitars, *Live Rhythm Guitars, *High-Octane Metal Drums (for 'Crazy Motorcycle' Interlude), *Snares, *Additional Arrangement Material for Key Change / Outro Sections, *MIDI Clean-Up & Post-Production Guidance / Assistance / Corrections, *Mastering Limiter ADDITIONAL ACCOLADES & CONTRIBUTIONS: Aeroprism / Seb -- for some of the original arrangement and composition of the pads and bass-structure. Both have been heavily modified and I know he doesn't feel like this piece "represents his [part of the] work" anymore, due to the number of changes and iterations to the tracks, but his collaboration with me during GSM, Round 1 was essential, inspirational, and I appreciate both his efforts and his patience whilst making the beats. Xaleph / Matt -- for his takes of the distorted and rhythmic guitars for the CM Section in the original incarnation of this remix, during GSM, and also for his advice with mixing and producing. He did those original recordings in such a short amount of time for me, when it was down to the wire before final submission, and his enthusiasm is always infectious. I admire his production skills and versatility with various forms of EDM and Heavy Metal. Also, shout-out to the GSM 1 FF SNES crew/gang. Go Team LockeNES! WOO! ♥ And to our opponents, as well, Team PSX--for keeping us on our toes and forcing us to step-up our game. ...In the end, I learned it wasn't about the polls and statistics, but the friends and journey made along the way. Also-also, super ecstatic and glad that I finally got to do a remix of one of my favorite songs from my favorite Final Fantasy game, IV. # <\\: WELCOME TO EBLAN INDUSTRIES, TERMINAL NUMBER: 190791. . . PLEASE HOLD ON TIGHT. FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS, AND KEEP ALL APPENDAGES INSIDE THE VEHICLE AT ALL TIMES. THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING US AS YOUR TRANSPORT TODAY. . . ...WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THE я1đ3. ://>

I wasn't familiar with the sources, so I had to take some time to wrap my head around them and fully follow the arrangement. It's mostly the different sections of "Grasswalk", with the appearances of "Demonstration Mini-game" at :47, "Loonboon" at 2:33, and "Final Wave" at 2:58. I did also hear the influence of "Wave 1" from the unofficial, fan-made PvZ2 Reflourished expansion soundtrack during the swing section. Great transformation into an 8-bit chiptune, with careful attention to varying the different NES-style sounds. I actually wasn't put off by the instrumentation sounding samey; if you're familiar with NES sound combinations, this is extremely varied, especially by not holding to standard NES channel limitations. This isn't a mere demake, it's a full-on interpretive arrangement with some extra themes woven in. The limited mixing was the "weak" point here, but the sound's authentic and the arrangement's fantastically spirited. Very nice job, Blixer, welcome aboard! YES

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:00-1:33.5 (bassline from 1:14-1:32 of source; plus melodic arrangement I recognized from :13.5-:18.75, :20.5-:35.5), 1:33.5-1:53.5, 1:55.5-1:57.5, 1:58.5-2:11.5, 2:13.5-2:25.5, 2:33-4:06.5 (drums), 4:06.5-4:33.25 (drums & melody) The opening guitar chugs that are at the foundation of the piece derived from the bassline from 1:14 to 1:32 of the source, which carried all the way until the chorus was referenced at 1:33. 1:33's section was shrill, but I'll live. I may be underplaying other references 2:33-4:06, as I didn't recognize any of the melodies being used anywhere, so I'd love a judge's or Lucas's clarification there. It's not the way I would have preferred to reference the source most heavily, but in concert with the melodic references, it's alright. Not my cup of tea, but capably done, so no worries about me not being the target demo. YES

Halloooo. This is based on two tracks from Metroid Prime: Hunters (2006). 1) Minor Enemy Encounter 2) Guardians Battle Theme This arrangement is called Bounty Gunner. My artist name is Tachy Bunker https://youtube.com/Anuman 38707-tachy-bunker - Tachy

I could listen to "Memoria" all day but not really remember the melody well, and I'm not sure why, whereas "Edgar and Sabin" is hugely memorable for me. Regardless of my source tune opining, I enjoy the fusion here! Percussion brought in from 1:09-1:37 & 2:38-2:52 somehow felt underwhelming; not a big deal, but something felt missing there. I did like the one percussion part from 1:37-1:57 though; didn't know what it was, but the sound was unique, as well as the placement in the soundscape. This was a good example of giving "E&S" a darker edge, and the tradeoffs with "Memoria" flowed very well. Cool instrumentation throughout, and solid dynamics. You could argue things were getting too cramped from 3:06-3:37 for the big finish, and some parts were feeling obscured, but the textures were full and I could make out the distinct part-writing well. Nice energy here! YES

ReMixer name: ZackParrish Real name: Zack Parrish Email: Website: zackparrish.com User ID: 29013 Name of game: Final Fantasy 6 & Final Fantasy 9 Name of arrangement: "Heads or Tails" Name of song: "Edgar and Sabin" (FF6) & "Place of Memory - Memoria Theme" (FF9) Composers: Nobuo Uematsu Link to track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02jw5lkM638 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFfMzqAMOsI Comments: Did this one for Darkesword's Game Set Smash competition. Was interesting making the two themes play together but wasn't too challenging since it just ... kind of worked bouncing them off one another. Memoria makes a great counter to E&S, and the opening 'melody' of Memoria also has the same interval pattern that E&S plays over and over again, so those two bits worked quite nicely together as well. Was quite a challenge throwing this together but managed to do it in 3 days.

Arranger's handle is Death by Accident, so arrangement would need a unique title if passed -LT Hi my name is Adrian, I have as a hobby to make remixes of video game themes. Some one recommended me to sent it in this web site, i sent you one of my works. I have more mixes to share, but first i want to study your web site to kwon how is it works. Thanks

In my defense... I am putting in the effort to fix issues with these before submitting. Whoever mastered this album let the peaks go over 0dB ReMixer name: ZackParrish Real name: Zack Parrish Email: Website: zackparrish.com User ID: 29013 Performers: My computer Name of game: Super Smash Bros. Brawl Name of arrangement: En Garde Name of song: Online Practice Stage Composers: Not a clue who wrote this... Link to track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz3YN5Vy1ik Comments: Took a 20 second loop and turned it into 3 minutes of ...whatever this is. Hodge podge of chip, guitars, trumpet and whatever else I used. I don't remember anything about producing it because it's been several years since then. Was part of the Harmony of Heroes album.

The track was 5:11-long, so I needed to identify the source tune in play for at least 155.5 seconds for the VGM to be considered dominant in the arrangement: :02-1:20, 1:39.5-1:58.5, 2:17.75-3:44.25, 4:22.75-4:41.75 = 202.5 second or 65.11% overt source usage There could be more that I was overlooking and undercounting. I just timed it out to map out what I recognized at first blush and not overlook the level of source usage while being bowled over by this musicianship. Weird lil' blip of sorts around 2:07 when the cymbal gets muted in an abrupt way; very minor thing. Great performances, strong energy, very intense peaks, excellent dynamic contrast throughout, loads of changes in the lead guitar tones to provide variety, and the treatment of the source tune was excellent. If you need pro-grade official arrange album quality stuff, call Mauricio. Incredible work! YES

Kidding... I don't have that many tracks up my sleeve... Nor would I submit some of them... ReMixer name: ZackParrish Real name: Zack Parrish Email: Website: zackparrish.com User ID: 29013 Performers: Psamathes - Vocals Harp - Harpsibored Cello & 2nd Harp - Chromatic Apparatus Name of game: Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Name of arrangement: An Endless Sleep Name of song: Skytown Composers: Kenji Yamamoto (I), Masaru Tajima, Minako Hamano Link to track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P7jdnU06ew Comments: Wrote this as part of the album Harmony of a Hunter Returns. Wasn't a huge fan of the source track but the director REALLY wanted it on the album and nobody was staking a claim pretty far into the production of the album... so I took charge and worked on this track. Director also really wanted to use Harpsibored and Chromatic Apparatus for their harping abilities and having never worked with a harpist before.. and having a sudden change to work with two of them... I write two harp parts as a ... sort of duet. I then did my usual thing stacking orchestral bits and bobs, atmospheric mumbo jumbo, a choir, etc... ultimately put a cello part in there when I found out Chrom also played the cello(Ace fellow that one)... and then the director yet again convinced me to use ANOTHER person and put me in touch with Psamathes so I swapped out the fake choir with her voice on... several tracks. She didn't disappoint and gave the track some much needed life in the second half. Eventually I decided why not add some acoustic guitar as well, so took out the guit and recorded a couple of parts being Psam's vocals. I'm sorry to all 3 of them for not submitting this sooner... they did awesome and I can't thank them enough for their contributions.

hello, This is my submission. Thanks OD Link to my submission : Re Mixer : Onirik Dreamer real name : Karim Ajroud email : website : https://onirikdreamer.com https://www.youtube.com/@Onirikdreamer Link of vidéoclip : user id : 38210 Name of game arranged : Metroid (Nintendo Nes) Name of original track : main theme (Hirokazu Tanaka credited as Hip Tanaka) Name of my track : Samus legend Additional information about game : Nintendo (1986) Link to the original soundtrack : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-U3sVX2G3w Your own comments about the mix : I love this piece and I wanted to add electronic and dynamic, cool and energic touch to it, i hope you like it.

Link: Remixer name: MaxStack User ID: 38704 Game: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim System: Windows, various consoles Name of arrangement: Dragonwave Original Name: The Song of the Dragonborn The game is already on the website. Anything is better in synthwave. -- https://maxstack.rocks/

The sounds felt basic in places, but I'm digging Forrest's textures, which bring a lot of character by personalizing the instrumentation. At 1:58, I was hoping the textures would dramatically fill out more, because the core drums plodded, but it was still OK, and the drum dropoff at 2:24 was overdue. Drums came back at 2:49 after a rebuilding section. At this point, I was wanting to hear some more ideas to play with the leads or supporting instrumentation for the final minute. There was enough of a textural transformation that nudges this over the line for me after the last minute came off comparatively underwhelming and underdeveloped; that'll sound like I dislike the end, when I instead felt there were more opportunities to evolve the ideas even further and employ more dynamics for either a big or diminuitive finish. The overall transformation still works for me, and feels like an example of using some relatively boilerplates sounds and effects to nonetheless develop something cool. I don't think this will skate by, and I'm intersted to hear some other perspectives; that said, enough works for me that I'm good to go for this take. YES

Hearing H36T's arrangement approach is somewhat formulaic, which can sound like a knock against it. It feels like the genreral formula is a melodically conservative structure with relatively similar instrumentation to handle the melody, then lots of textural exploration and expansion via original instrument and vocal clip additions. If you like, you like, if you don't like, you don't like; I can appreciate it. Basically has an extended intro until the source theme finally comes in at :53.5 and stays in play the rest of the way. The second half from 2:23-on was more interpretive with the added drumming, whispy vocals, tense strings and gradual escalation helped shore this up from an arrangement standpoint. The last 45 seconds were arguably getting more indulgent, but I personally didn't have a problem with it; it helps complete a nice arc. YES

I emailed the original composer, Kamil Orman-Janowski, about the original track, so we'll see if we hear back. EDIT (8/17): Kamil got back to me right away after I reached out yesterday, but unfortunately, this piece is ineligible because it wasn't used as in-game music. (If this trailer track ever gets put into the actual game, we'd then consider it eligible.) NO Override To fully explain for anyone reading this, the source tune fall outside of our guidelines for acceptable source material, which makes this arrangement ineligible for OC ReMix: I'm sorry for the unreasonable wait, Michael, just to be told no on a technicality. While I haven't analyzed the arrangement (so I can't confirm if this treatment is too liberal), the musicianship certainly isn't in question; it's well-performed & well-produced and sounds great. If you have something else from your body of work you'd be willing to submit, we can expedite it to account for the time this took, and definitely want to see you posted again!

Amazing source tune choice. It sounds like something straight out of 2000s New Japan Pro Wrestling. The track was 4:10-long, so I needed to indentify the theme for at least 125 seconds for the source material to be considered dominant. This was transformative enough for the adaptation to piano, with its ornamentations and all that, that I may have overlooked lots of other direct references to the source. I'll just time out what I heard on an initial look: :00-:10, :28.75-1:01, 1:07-1:21, 1:31.5-1:48, 2:03-2:32, 3:19.25-3:52 = 134.5 seconds or 53.8% overt source usage No worries there on invoking the source theme enough, just doing a trust-but-verify to tick the box. The sound quality of the piano's firmly in the uncanny valley, so it's definitely not my cup of tea, but at least the piano tone has a reasonable amount of body and the soundscape sounds nice and roomy for it, letting the sustains resonate. It's got good energy and dynamics to keep the presentation as vibrant as it can be. I'm not a gambling man, so I definitely wouldn't have bet my chips on a return from The Coop; what a pleasant surprise! It looks like a welcome back to the front page. YES

Thanks for the arrangement breakdown. People get so antsy with medleys though; I'll have to look at revising the wording in the Submission Standards so that, if it's currently not clear enough, it's not a source of overthinking and stress. The structure here flowed just fine, and it's clear that it's not just an instance where themes stop and start with little-to-no flow or transitional glue. Nitpick time: * The opening piano is noticeably blocky (most noticable at 6:39) and lacks body, but it's serviceable enough in concert with the other instrumentation. * I'm finding that jn's recent pieces have a common production feel where 1) there's noticeable (though not majorly detrimental) quality disparity issues with some sampled instruments vs. live ones, and 2) the soundscape can feel thin despite enough activity going on, which I can only assume is a result of the mixing choices (though I'd love to be corrected/informed by a musician J on that). You can listen to the Okami "Waka Waka" sub and get the same takeaways; they sound good, but could sound more vibrant. * The drumkit had a great tone, and I can hear how the writing's not metronome-y at all, but those parts still felt plain sometimes; would love another perspective on that. * As for one thing here that may have contributed to thinness, the bass writing barely registered most of the time, which was unfortunate; it's there, but generally doesn't cut through or take up appropriate or meaningful space. Nitpicks and nice-to-haves aside, this is a strong arrangement, buoyed by the live performances from Lucas, Greg, and Ivan. Good stuff, jn! YES