Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Nice lil' grandiose glow-up of the original arrangement with this opening orchestration. Vocoded vocals from :33-:40 were being suffocated; I know the original would do that sometimes for contrast, but that didn't click here. Male vocals at :40 by TheManPF are kind of bland as if they sound low effort in less processed spots ("Your girl is quite fair, oh she's an anomaly"), but the processing's OK, and they feel more stylized the rest of the way. At :56, the female vocals sound good, but the instrumental underneath feels hollow and thin; strings are extra quiet and there's some guitar that's also mixed like it's trying not to wake a sleeping baby. Clap groove from :33-1:41 is so meh; feels barren like it's just a WIP placeholder for the REAL beats that'll be worked in later. It quickly gets boring while also mixed in a way where it's louder than quieter-yet-more-interesting supporting instrumentation. Vocals from 1:48-1:56 are muffled. Again, the mixing's weird: vocals were quieter, you hear the bland clap groove more -- the xylo accents are alright. Transition section from 1:56-2:03 felt empty as well. At 2:03, the clap groove feels like a metronome, so placeholder-like. 2:48, the piano's in the uncanny valley. There's string and orch stab stuff later, but the textures just don't glue together well; a lot of the backing orchestration just feels like it's thin and incohesively, indistinctly mixed. Except for the clap groove, the writing's more sophisticated than you'd think, you just don't hear it well due to the mixing. I literally don't know shit, so I can't tell you how to fix it, but the potential's there. String accents from 3:48-4:03 feel too exposed and the lower sustains are also in the uncanny valley. Loved the brief guitar & synth soloing from 5:03-5:19. The vocals from 5:19 are arguably pushed down too much, again understanding that it's following the original arrangement, so I can live with that. The vocals are cool, both PF's and EK's, thanks to some creative and stylish effects. The integration of the numerous SMB themes is nice to take the arrangement to a conceptually higher level. I wasn't put off by the track being longer and felt the flow was fine. I'll definitely sound like I'm making the perfect the enemy of the good: it's a great concept, still needs another production TLC pass. Bland clap groove needs to be killed with fire and there's overall mixing tweaks that could clean this up and not make the backing instrumentation feel so thin, like it's an afterthought. I can definitely understand the overall strength of the concept being approved as is, and I tend to lean for ambitiousness over production. None of this is poor, and it sounds like I'm bagging on TheManPF's abilities and talent when y'all know I love his shit, including this re-ReMix concept. The overall production though (clap groove and imbalanced mixing with a hollow feel) is messy enough that I feel this could shine way more with another pass at it. Not ready yet. NO (resubmit)

Well, ain't this a relaxing theme! I appreciate you introducing me to it. :-) Alright, going for jazz, then. Saxes are extra honky. At :34, the saxes are even more exposed when they're not in unison. Yeah, the tone's not steady enough or strong enough. Piano at 1:45 sounds so blocky and the programmed drumming's OK but has an uncanny valley feeling to it in some spots that I can't better articulate. Vox at 1:53's an odd fit as well; probably just shouldn't be so robotic-sounding. The mixing of this doesn't make sense for me. I really like the organ-style part-writing, but the (well-written) bassline's more indistinct than it should be. Seems to lack some Lucas will think I hate him; the sax performances are a non-starter and only really serviceable in a sketch capacity. Sax is back at 2:43 and it's just honk-honk-honk... honkhonk honk-honk-honk. Need a sax assassin to critique you and get you refining your playing techniques. Conceptually, this is solid. This would have crushed it 20+ years ago around here, and I like what i hear in principle. However the sax performance is gonna need another pass. Another stab at the mixing would be worth it too, but if the live performances and articulations were on point with mixing like this, I would have passed this in a heartbeat. A fun arrangement, but if the saxes can't rise to the occasion as the leads, then this is hobbled, as much as I like the arrangement in a vacuum. NO (resubmit) EDIT (11/8): [/reads proph's notes now...] - YEP!

Cool original; very lush initially. Interesting opening to the arrangement, with lots of tension. Piano cameo at :20 was too bright in tone to work as transition instrumentation; totally out of place. A choral of Azmodea's vocal lines come in at :42 sounding dry and pitchy, and mixed too loudly; they chorus half-decently, but you hear a lot of wavering, and then you hear some lines drop out as others' notes hold longer, which feels sloppy and disjointed. The tone's actually not terrible, but often sounds squawky. The vocal blending at 2:08's section sounds noticeably smoother, but it's a matter of degrees because the same overall issues are still there; loud, dry, pitchy, different voices noticeably dropping at inconsistant times. Vocals ended at 2:50 and the track basically bookends with more orchestration of the source. Arrangement-wise, it's straightforward, but I could get behind this concept as interpretive enough. The instrumental's solid to me even though prophetik's critiques make sense. The vocals pull it down. I'm not sure their tone fits this piece, but it's not produced well enough (or with enough attention to detail) to bring synergy to the piece. The original has one voice, and while this doesn't need to mimick that approach, you could probably get more out of less with fewer layered voices and be able to smooth them out and/or mix and match the best segments. Agreed with proph at the potential here, Moebius, worth continuing on with it. NO (resubmit)

I've only heard the updated version in terms of forming my vote, but I did have the initial sub, so I heard the minor issues and am glad they got smoothed out. Sounds fun right off the bat. CLAPS aplenty for some spicyness! For me, the mixing felt a bit bright but I'll live. Solid instrumentation tradeoffs to keep things engaging. Hell of a fleshing out of the theme, y'all! Flute solo at 2:05 was indeed fun. Fun theme choice, good personalized execution, solid mixing where every element could be appreciated! YES

I need to better understand how the melody of the source is used here, because it's not standing out to me here. Doesn't quite feel like the original melody's being followed. There's 1:55 of the source at 1:53 of the arrangement, something that's a more overt connection. I'd say try to hit the source's melody more closely, but if I'm just deaf and not recognizing very straightforward melodic or rhythmic arranging, let a brother know. In any case, opens up with some bread and butter synths, but also a guitar line; interesting build, though I'm not optimistic on the genericness of the lead, which also has too much of a stiff sound. New lead at :43 that has a good tone, but sounds really blocky/mechanical. Same with the running line at 1:18; paired with the relatively simplistic beats, the whole thing feels too locked to grid, which undermines the energy and makes the groove feels very plodding, even though there are a number of textural changes going on that would potentially help this feel dynamic. Still needs more beat variation, textural complexity, and a less plodding feel. The boring beats drag this down, and there's too much repetition, but I like the potential. Something like Eino Keskitalo's Deus Ex arrangement "Sadevakio" is a good example of using "mechanical" sounds and fixed/steady timing yet still coming off more vibrant. Maybe another J can explain why that one has more energy to it compared to this and what techniques that entails. NO

Opens with a pretty loud pop that would need to be fixed. Nice fade-in of the source melody at :19, with a stylish lead. Good addition of the shakers at :46, which added a lot of personality. Beats added in at :54 worked so well with the padding, the textures were gradually building in a nice way, leading to the dropoff at 1:15. 1:52 hit another area of the source and the stuttered, layered leads there were a nice touch of sonic variation before going back to the previous gliding lead. Solid instrumentation/sound design, albeit somewhat cramped/muddy; seems like it's too loud but could be pulled back some. The groove is enjoyable, and I like how the source tune sections were referenced. (Thank you for the breakdown!) Not sure why proph didn't connect the parts to the arrangement, but I didn't have that same problem and thought this did a great job incorporating the source. I recognized it from :19-1:14, 1:52-3:29, 4:42-6:39, so that was way over half. Assuming that we can't get a revised version to pull back the volume some, I'd still roll with this. The pop at the beginning can also be trimmed off if there's no other version of this available, so that prevents this from getting a conditional vote. I'm good on this one; could argue that it could be slimmed down a minute or so, but that doesn't get in the way of an otherwise creative arrangement. Nice job, Inwayn! YES

Alright, sounds like a straightforward piano adaptation to start. Vox comes in at :18. Seems like it may gradually rise and take some turns. Plucked guitar joins in at :49 with original writing; not the most focused initial section until 1:11, though it then gets a little more interactive with the source arrangement. Arrangement-wise, I respect the approach, which was more additive with original writing, but also had some reasonable interplay & interpretation via the vox and guitar; proph brought up some sections feeling too straightforward, and I hear what he means, but there's no dealbreakers in going this route; nothing to touch there, IMO. The instrumentation's deep in the uncanny valley though, so I wish it had a more natural, humanized sound. It doesn't need live performers, Justin, but some production TLC for a richer tones and more fluid articulations would put this over the top for me. Definitely use the Workshop forum and/or Discord channel to see what more could be done to get some more refinements in place. NO (resubmit)

"Distortion World" sounds like something Michael Hudak would arrange, and "Battle! (Giratina)", while not the same sound palette, sounds like something Shnabubula could have written, so I'm enjoying the hell out of these source tune choices. Oh snap, EDM. OK, I definitely didn't expect that at all. At :50, the lead synth's bland and not melodious at all and the timing is very robotic & blocky. Not sure the warbling bass writing works here either; it doesn't sound offkey so much as its writing just doesn't have synnergy with the rest of the music. Too bad, because the way its produced sounded pretty good, with a nice rumbling undertone to it. At 2:25, the little popping noises bouncing around the stereo field were needlessly disorienting, which could be exacerbated on headphones. Not even sure if it was just caused by a sample error. Like proph, even with the minimal breakdown, I'm not really grokking how the themes are used; would need timestamps of what sections from the sources are being referenced. It'll sound like I'm saying I need the arrangement approach to stay very conservative; it feels like whatever character the source tunes had inadvertantly got sapped out of here and didn't get replaced with anything. Ending was also super flat, just sputtering out. Definitely latent potential, so I hate to sound so critical, but it's not coming together yet besides the solid beats and bass creating some good energy. More potential on the production side than the arranging side right now, but you need both. NO

Opens up with a bright energy, so it's seeming like a decent genre cover to start. Textures start to thicken around :20, then the bass comes in at 33 and it's adding a somewhat indistinct rumble. The textures and part-writing are feeling pretty vanilla, very by the numbers. At only 2 minutes, this needed to be more dynamic and developed. Ending was super flat as well. Not poor musicianship, but in terms of the approach, too basic and plodding. Would love to hear what additional ideas could be added to put more personality into it; the potential is there, and it's such an underrated source tune. NO

Pretty thin sound palette and well into the uncanny valley for me with these articulations; it felt like the timing of everything -- the drums, the brass, the higher and lower bowed strings -- didn't have the fluidity I've heard in many of Bluelighter's other works. It's an interpretive orchestration and perhaps my bar's too high. This sounds too much to me like a mock-up though without decent enough humanization. I don't make music, so I don't know how easy or difficult it would be to refine what's here, but again, I've heard better from Bluelighter; maybe it's a matter of adding more reverb/room ambiance, something along those lines. If this doesn't pass, I hope he'd be willing to revisit this, it certainly has a place here. :-) NO (resubmit)

This one bypassed the judges panel. I hate Zach [sic], so I didn't want him to get any feedback beyond mine. :-) /s

Artist Name: TheManPF Additional artists: Zach Chapman, Shea's Violin Coming in hot from DoD's alien month, did you know there are aliens in Bloodborne? Apparently a lot of people didn't. Anyway, I've been wanting to cover this game for a long time, and Amygdala has always had one of the most badass themes in my opinion, and had it stuck in my head pretty much all year, so when this month came I went aaahhh screw it I'm just gonna do it and see what comes out. I'm going a bit back to my roots with this one, this is straight up symphonic metal, it's the genre I've done the most and I feel most comfortable in, and it's from a Fromsoft game also, of which I have had toooons of covers done in this same style for youtube a few years ago, it's been a while since I've done one of these and I think I improved my sound a lot since then, so I was interested in seeing how one of these would come out now. Zach is bringing in the fat end as always, you know he has to be here, he just has to, he's pretty much my other half now, he's also another massive sucker for Bloodborne and everything Fromsoft. Shea helped me in this one ripping some SUPERFAST violin and cello lines, this is a very orchestral and horrory track that needs those Psycho-strings to really work, so I'm glad she managed to pull it off. I did guitars and etc. Happy Halloween 2025 if this passes Lyrics: None, wtf? ): Games & Sources Game: Bloodborne Songs arranged: Amygdala (https://youtu.be/BihcP_GduOk) Original composer: Cris Velasco System: PS4 Year: 2015

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FYI, I've only listened to the revised version. Something about the balance feels off. The guitar adds clutter to me, BUUUUUT, it's not a great sound as is, so you actually wouldn't want it more exposed. I still feel your dNb beat writing's missing some sophistication in how it's produced and the core snare pattern (first at 1:04) still sounds plodding. Forgive me for not being able to articulate it well; it feels like the way it's mixed makes the writing seem more simplistic than it is. Maybe another J will be able to glean where I'm coming from and/or reference some good genre examples to listen to. The writing from 3:59-4:05 sounds off-key; it kinda, sorta resolves, so I'll live, but it's still off, so I would rather it got tweaked before we posted. Regardless, the arrangement's strong, and I really enjoy the creativity of the "Schala" melodic treatment as well as most of the other instrumentation choices. YES

Around the 2-minute mark, things felt sparse with the basic beat in place, but that was more of a nitpick and things filled in well at 2:52 anyway. It could hit harder, but it's meant to be a moodier piece. Cool exploration of the theme! Wonderful to hear GoldenEye 007 repped again, finally! YES

Interesting... so the original's basically just a groove. Sounds like there's a lot of room for vamping and expansion, or textural variations, so we'll see what route CJ went. Loud and the lead's slightly piercing, arguably, but nothing bothering me. CJ's truly got a penchant for loud tracks that don't feel like they're overdriven. Nice lil' sweep transition into the distant-sounding guitars at :52, then dropping some "paintball" voice clips while mucking around with the stereo field. So, the textural variation route it is, and he's done a great job with it! proph mentioned the beats not changing, but I didn't even notice because the overall textures never stayed in one place. I mean, you can listen to Tupac's "How Do U Want It", where, once the beat's established, it hardly ever changes (it does occasionally, like in CJ's piece), but it's fine because everything else around it evolves; obviously a different kind of track and featuring vocals, but the development fundamentals don't change on account of that. Ooh, a skulky-style dropoff at 1:50 which set up a gradual rebuild, culminating in intense beats at 2:19. Man, this is awesome. The final moments at 2:38 nicely gave some prominence to the odd timing (for me, anyway) of the beats compared to how they lined up with the melody. Loving it! It would need to be even grungier and more militaristic, but this has amazing Command & Conquer-style vibes. CJ could do this formula all day and I wouldn't get tired of it, because he really knows how to explore a theme and vary up the presentation. :-) YES

A pretty effectively structured medley. The riffing/vamping on the "Course Selection" theme was a pleasant surprise and it seamlessly transitioned into the stage BGM that's the game's signature theme. Soundscape lacked some highs, but Zack held everything together well with the mastering. Great performances from Siolfor and Serrin's Toes. The ending felt too sudden, and I would have liked a smoother transition into the stage clear jingle, but that's not enough to hold this back. Big riffs, big drums, big energy! YES

Siolfor the Jackal: Arrangement/Mixing/Guitar/Bass Serrin's Toes: Drums ZackParrish: Mastering This is my track from the Iwata album! I didn't realise I had to submit it myself, and this is actually my first proper submission 😅 This is essentially a medley of the main tracks from the game. At first it was just going to be the Stage themes, but I kept adding other parts because it was fun. TSori convinced me that the racing theme needed a metal treatment, so I did my best to oblige. I kept most of it pretty true to the source, mostly changing bits to make the riffs feel heavier. I did extend out the the course select theme a bunch as a little break before the metal comes back in full force. I really wanted to add a little bass solo in there because we don't get enough of them, and then the rest of that section was crying out for some guitar lead. The two stage themes are mostly the same, but stage 2 has a variation in the second half that I incorporated. It felt like a good place to up the intensity a bit before finishing off with the cheeky little Stage Clear jingle. I think I said as much in my album notes, but my goal was to make something messy and loud for a post-apocalyptic racing game and I think I achieved it! Got to once again thank Hemophiliac and Zack for their support and patience, this was a tough track for me to get finished and they got me over the line. Games & Sources Game: Mach Rider Composer: Hideki Kanazashi Source tracks are in order: Title Screen, Course Selection, Stage Theme 1, Stage Theme 2, and Stage Clear. {Title Screen} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ 0:01 to 0:17 ] {Course Decision} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ 0:17 to 0:22 } {Stage Theme 1} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ 0:22 to 2:37 ] {Course Selection} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ 2:37 to 3:25 ] {Stage Theme 2} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ 3:25 to 6:44 ] {Name Registration} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ 6:44 to 6:57 ] {Stage Clear} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ 6:57 to 7:01 ] {Game Over} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ 7:01 to 7:04 ]

Artist Name: Mike Norvak My interpretation of Unholy Voices on a Darksynth approach, a more upbeat version compared to the original. It has also some break beat influences from the nineties in the climax of the song. With this one I tried to recreate classic FM sounds and vocoded/autotune synthetic voices/choirs for a somewhat "rudimentary" mood out of a FM chipset to give the remix a dark fantasy atmosphere. This remix is part of REDOOMED, so check it out if you enoyed it! Games & Sources Daniel Bernstein - Unholy Voices. From Blood (1997)