Emunator

This is a mix for the upcoming album 'BadAss Volume 3'! ReMixer name: pu_freak Name of game(s) arranged: Chrono Trigger (SNES) Name of arrangement: The Dark Defender Name of individual song(s) arranged: Magus Confronted Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: For BadAss 3, my aim was to create an album of mixes that make you feel evil, sinister, or twisted. To achieve that, people should either have something bombastic or epic in their mix (like the Imperial March), or make it creepy and twisted. I've always used one example for the latter category: the 'Blood Theme' from Dexter. To that end, I wanted to make a mix of my own in 'Blood Theme'-style. The mix starts the same as Magus' Castle theme, with brooding low strings and howling wind in the background. However, when playing the real Magus theme, I only use the two chords that are present in the Blood Theme (two chords that are twisted in itself). In the 0:29 - 1:20 part, I've used music bells that are very close the the background motif used in 'Blood Theme'. I couldn't do much else in terms of recreating the Blood Theme-vibe, since incorporating non-VGM is unwanted of course, but I think it's enough to remind people of the Blood Theme and to give the same creepy and twisted vibe. To increase the twisted feeling, I've made a dynamic panning and volume for the music bells, and the music box later in the mix. Furthermore, some intstruments (most notably the piano at the end) have a chorus effect, making them sound more distorted. Big differences in volume throughout will - hopefully - also instigate an unsettling effect and the mix featured brooding strings throughout. The uses of music bells and music boxes should also add to the creepy feeling. In terms of vibe, this mix combines the feeling of my Pokémon track on OCR and my Gilgamesh mix from BadAss 1. The mix is a bit shorter than usual for me, but that's because you can only do so much with two chords (and I even cheated once at 1:16 by using two other chords). I've not fully used the source (which has to do with the very limited chord progression I could use), but the source is very recognizable I think. I've been more on the liberal side of OCR - this is no exception - but I think people will have more ease recognizing the source here than in my Pokémon track. In any case, good luck with the judging! Source: - Magus Confronted - Blood Theme (For reference only - not actually featured in the remix)

I just got this message from Mak earlier today before this hit the panel... anyone have any ideas here? I've never heard of anything like this, but it may explain why the mastering is not improving.

Hey dudes! Love your previous work, and I firmly agree that Nier has one of the most mindblowing soundtracks of any game from any modern game console. It's really beyond incredible and I'm glad that you guys were inspired and brave enough to tackle it. I got excited when I first downloaded this becuase I've heard some really effective melodic dubstep lately that fuses beautiful vocals and lush soundscapes with aggressive basslines and pounding drums. Listening to your track, I think you absolutely nailed 1 those things, did a solid job with 2 of them, but fell a bit short on the remaining one. I'll go into more detail on each of those points below. The vocals are absolutely on-point, and I have no complaints there. Katskachi nailed the performance, especially the accent, and like you said, it's difficult to believe this wasn't an officially-released acapella. I'd like to see them mixed a bit more loudly and possibly with touch of a grand concert hall reverb to give it just a bit more of an epic feel, but that component of the mix was a slam dunk in my opinion. The drums are solidly produced and varied, not much to say in that respect! The hi-hats are the only part that stick out to me as rigid, maybe a little massaging of the velocities would help that part not stick out so badly. The dubstep wubs and fills are a little bit generic, it's a bit of a mixed bag but I feel like your bass work is serviceable at its core. Nothing that I haven't heard before, but I think it works here on a writing level. The mixing poses some problems that I will get into a bit later. The one part of this track that I think is really lacking is the rest of the soundscape... To be blunt, it's pretty empty most of the time and I can't help but think how amazing this would sound with some lush, evolving pads to fill things out. The part of your mix that I think got the closest was from 2:48 - 3:04, where you begin to introduce some string swells and choral vocals, but even that felt like it was missing a strong low-end presence to fill out the track. Most of your padding elements play only in high octaves and are mixed very quietly, and it feels like you missed an opportunity to make a really detailed, texturally-compelling remix. Conversely, I think your bass mixing is way too loud and up-front... there's very little subtlety, even for the genre. The normal bass that fills out the track when the aggressive bass isn't present, however, is relatively quiet and lacking in sub-bass frequencies, so those portions of the track feel even emptier by comparison. A quick nitpick - the strings work fine as a backing element, but the articulation when they take over lead-duty from 3:05 - 3:29 is not very realistic at all. A patch with a more natural articulation and a quicker attack would suit you better for that section. The lack of humanization is hurting that section, unfortunately. I'm going to link to a reference track that you may or may not be familiar with - take a listen to this and compare the depth of texture with your mix and I think you should see what I mean. I know you're not going for exactly the same sound, but in my opinion, if you could achieve more of a balanced soundscape like this, with the dubstep bass mixed lower (but still audible) a more dominant sub-bass presence when the wubs aren't involved, and more thought put into fleshing out the rest of your track out through pads, delay, or other effects, you'd have an absolute monster of a remix on your hands. I certainly don't want to imply that your track needs to be on this level in order to pass our panel. However, right now the thin soundscape and overly-loud bass patches are not doing proper justice to your vision here, IMO, and hopefully having a track to reference might better explain what I'm getting at with my feedback than words can. Hope this wall of text isn't too intimidating or discouraging - on the contrary, I see a LOT of potential in your mix and a strong foundation, especially with the amazing vocal performance. As an avid listener of your previous mixes, I know you can create some very full-sounding mixes (your Phoenix Wright arrangement comes to mind) and I'd love to see you take a second pass at this with some of this feedback in mind. If this doesn't end up passing the panel and you're willing to revisit, feel free to reach out to me directly and I'd be happy to provide more personal, specific input on this track! Good luck! NO (resubmit!!!)

Hello, OCR! Round 2 for the wubsteps! Although it's more like Melodic or Harmonic dubstep now, I think. Seriously though. NieR. It's all I have to say, or should say. Probably, IMO, the best soundtrack of 2010 easily, and quite possibly one of the very best of the entire last generation. Keiichi Okabe didn't just knock it out of the park with this soundtrack, he knocked the park out of the city and into orbit. Ever since 2010 we had the idea of remixing one of the songs, specifically this one (Kainé theme) but honestly, the mere thought of it depressed us. How could we ever top it? Well, we can't. We realised that this month and just decided to go with it and honor/tribute to it as best as we can. Luckily we had help! Katskachi is an amazing vocalist who, initially, made me think she just grabbed an acapalla from the void in the internet and sped it up. Really talented individual for sure. Couldn't have done this without her! Details: Your ReMixer name: Digital Element a.k.a. DigiE. Your real names: Maurice Willems & Sanjay Sampatsing. Your email address: Your User ID: 2761 Additional details: Name of game(s) arranged: NieR (PS3, Xbox360). Name of individual song(s) arranged : Kainé Escape, Kainé Salvation -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gilH6f2hHk (Escape) -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDftyQ96ZVs (Salvation) Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc. Since the song is in 3/4, drum and bass turned out to be a challenge we couldn't tackle. Dubstep is more suitable for this since the rhythm is pretty slow, but 'violent' or rather, has a big impact. Since the source itself is such a melodic brilliance of a thing, it seemed like mixing dubstep with orchestral backing and slowing it down (yet speeding it up more than the original, how about that) would work out nicely. We think it kind of did. We hope you agree! It feels weird writing this. It feels weird knowing we tried to remix NieR. I say tried, because I'll never accept whether it's any good or not. We like the song, we like the result, sure, but the source is too god-tier to believe it actually accomplished anything. But again, we hope it did! Enjoy the song, guys and girls! <3 Remix Name: Kainé Absolution. With kind regards, DigiE.

Wow, excellent source tune. I'm always worried when I see a submission with a 5+ minute source tune that I'm unfamiliar with, but I really enjoyed listening to the original. The source usage in your track is surprisingly straightforward and easy to pick up on, the string patterns in the original translate really nicely to rhyhtm guitars. Based on your previous couple of submissions, I was expecting to hear more of the same problems present here in terms of mixing and overcompression, and to an extent they still are present here. However, I actually found the production here to be a little bit less unrelenting than I'm used to, so that was nice Your leads were clearly audible and not nearly as buried in the mix, and although this might sound a little bit subjective, I didn't feel as much ear fatigue as I did on tracks like 'Technomagmar.' Curious to see how this sits with the other judges. The synth pads from 2:12 - 2:33 were pretty lame, if I'm being candid. Very bland patch without much subtlety to them. The synth that doubles up with rhythm guitars for the rest of the song after that also feels unnecessarily dry and doesn't really contribute anything to the track.The rest of the synths aren't much more interesting, but aren't quite as up-front and dry so they don't really bother me as much. I don't mean to be a dick, but your synth work is not really adding anything to the track here, and I think that's an element of your music that could stand to improve across the board. Your guitar chops are solid as always, and this time, I don't think the mixing sinks it dead in the water for me. But those synths... They're not a main focus of the mix so I have a hard time rejecting this track on those grounds (especially since I feel like this is on-par with some of your other recently-posted mixes) but I really think that part of your mixing toolbag is lacking and it would be really great to see you take your synthwork to the next level in future submissions! YES (borderline)

ReMixer Name: DusK Real Name: Dustin Branscum Email: Website: http://www.itstartsatdusk.com User ID: 24328 Game: Guild Wars 2 Arrangement Name: "The End of Madness" Songs Arranged: "Battle on the Breachmaker", "The Nightmare Within" Platform: PC, Mac Composer: Lena Chappelle, Maclaine Diemer Release Year: 2012 Source 1: https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/guild-wars-2-battle-on-the Source 2: https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/the-nightmares-within Comments: BOSS FIGHT! The idea behind this one was to create a sort of modern-style boss music for Scarlet Briar (one of the big bads in GW2) utilizing her actual final boss music, but in a genre completely different from the source. Along the way, I ended up incorporating elements from "The Nightmare Within", which never actually appeared in-game but was used in the trailer for a content release. This was a lot of fun to do, as Lena and Maclaine's music usually is (I'm up to 7 released covers of their music right now), because it's quite a bit more melodic than many of Soule's works for the series. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this piece. Under-repped VGM fo lyfe! #WeMissYouMokram Source 1: https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/guild-wars-2-battle-on-the Source 2: https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/the-nightmares-within

I don't think I've been happier to see anyone's name in the submissions inbox than this. Skrypnyk is one of my favorite remixers - despite having produced only a handful of remixes, every submission has been singularly memorable in its own right. The original 'Escape into the Twilight' was my introduction to Skryp's work and has remained in my listening rotation for the last 7 years, so hearing a proper reprise is a real treat for me personally! This version utilizes most of the same building blocks as the original, but the heightened emphasis on drums and the swirling, bugged-out effects really shows how Skryp has evolved as an artist in 7 years time. Glitches are plentiful but tastefully-implemented without relying on simple dBlue glitch patterns, and never compromise the mood of the track. One particular detail I loved was the little audio clips that are barely audible throughout the track, contributing to the dreamy atmosphere and creating some very memorable moments when they "peek through" the rest of the soundscape. The detail work absolutely makes this track for me and helps it stand comfortably apart from its predecessor. Source usage is tricky here - this actually feels more liberal than 'Escape into the Twilight,' and that track was already called out by the panel for toeing the line with source usage. Part of the reason is that there's very little overt source usage for the first two minutes of this mix. Hmmm... seems like a source breakdown is in order. Song length is 4:21, the first 3 seconds and last 5 are dead silence so I'm measuring based on 253 seconds of material: :04 - :36 - Background arp from source [32 s] 1:45 - 1:53 - very faint whistling of the 'Dreams, Dreams' source [8 s] 1:53 - 3:23 - main 'Gate of Your Dreams' motif on piano + background arp occasionally [90s] 3:39 - 3:47 - whistling again [8s] Total: 138 seconds / 253 = 54% source usage The whistling is a very low-mixed element in the track that I didn't even pick up on first listen, so I can see how that might not count in some judges' eyes. Also, I was pretty generous with the 90 seconds of usage because of how heavily modulated the melody was, but the backing arpeggios on the music box definitely helped keep that section tied to 'Gate of Your Dreams' most of the time. Because of how minimalist the source is, I'm inclined to give this the benefit of the doubt on source usage. It certainly FEELS like a 'Gate of Your Dreams' remix to me. One last thing - I know Skrypnyk always gets his exports as close to 4 minutes and 20 seconds for... reasons, but this cuts off very abruptly a few seconds before that so I'm not sure if that was a deliberate choice. Not sure if I'm feeling that, any chance we can get a cleaner fade on that last note? Really curious to see how this vote goes, I'm obviously a huge fan of this track on a personal level, but despite the liberalness I still objectively think this would still be a wonderful addition to our catalog. Good luck duder! YES

Game: NiGHTS into dreams... (Sega, 1996, SAT) ReMixer(s): Skrypnyk Composer(s): Fumie Kumatani, Naofumi Hataya, Tomoko Sasaki Song(s): Gate of Your Dream Way back in day I had thought about doing a NiGHTS EP where I'd find 6 or so people to remix Gate of Your Dream in their own style, compile the mixes together and release a 20-30 minute EP dedicated to this one tune. Though I never did pursue this, Level 99 had started up his own NiGHTS project and had approached me asking if I wanted to be apart of it. I remember asking him not to tell anyone about my contribution to the album. What I meant by that was I didn't want to be credited at all with this mix. No mp3 tags, no linear notes, no mention on the site, nothing. Not that I thought my mix was bad or wanted to pull an Alan Smithee, but I thought it would be unique if the album ended with a hidden or anonymous track, and see if people would be curious enough to figure out who was behind it. The original idea at the time was to create two mixes, one being bright and fun, the other being dark and eerie. I never got around to creating the darker mix and have since lost interest. This remix is sort of a reprise take on my Escape mix where I resample a few elements. I wasn't fully satisfied with the remix that ended up on the album. I liked the idea, didn't like the execution. I've spent the last two weeks going back and touching up a good portion of the mix, rewriting some parts, polishing the mixing, etc. etc. Side note - some things to edit on the artist page: - no longer with deviantart - new homepage: http://skryp6.com - new e-mail: ^ - new YouTube channel with unfortunately wacky link: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBEPvToEq3DIpP8AW3rZAPg Sources: (brief cameo)

Didn't even think to test this last night, but WOW! The mobile version of the forums is really so much better than it was (i.e. nonexistent!) That seems to be the biggest improvement here by far!

Making a note here that the Review Threads no longer link back to their respective remix pages, and same with forum profiles linking to artist profiles!

Very interesting approach, dude. Really, your treatment of the two sources is pretty straightforward, like most of your other Seven Years material, but the strength in this arrangement lies in how you merged the two sources together seamlessly and adapted it to a much more high-fidelity, expressive sound pallet. Your sample quality is really great - production and sequencing is a bit rough around the edges, but nothing too bad. I agree with Chimp, this is too underdeveloped and short though! Especially ending on a slightly dissonant, harsh sounding flute section, I would have really liked for that section to function as more of a breakdown before building back up into a beautiful climax that's more texturally similar to what you did in the first minute. The way this ended didn't leave a great taste in my mouth. Need more meat! NO (resubmit!)

Hmmm... normally I appreciate your off-the-wall approaches to mixes but I have to be honest that this one isn't working for me. The first 2 minutes of the track suggest a lot of potential with the deep horns jusxtaposed with the distorted synths, but your beat/arrangement is actually pretty static and there's not a lot of development happening once it kicks in, sonically. I feel that those parts need more interesting syncopation, beat patterns, changeups to the brass... something to catch and continue to hold my interest. The last minute of the track is not really compelling enough or fleshed out enough to stand on its own to really stand as nearly half of your arrangement. Again, cool textures and ideas but they don't sound nearly as fully-realized as your normal submissions. Not doing it for me dude NO

Solid resubmission! Reading over my original vote from 4 (!) years ago, I obviously liked the bulk of what I heard, and that hasn't changed in that time! I still think the meat of this track is rock solid, and the addition of some proper lead instruments in the intro was just what the doctor ordered While I know you've learned a TON over the past 4 years since this track first debuted, and I'm sure you could do a lot more with this if you were to rebuild from the ground up, this is comfortably above the bar. Production is ace, the lead writing is interpretive and classy. Memorable moments such as the classic Fanfare transition at 1:36 show that you've always had a great ear for crafting creative, inspired arrangements that demonstrate a level of nostalgia and appreciation for the Zelda universe, even when you first started out making music YES

Lately, I've been listening to a lot of alternative R&B (artists such as FKA Twigs, Banks, Drake, and The Weeknd) and wanted to write a remix that took some influence from that style and married it with my signature chillout style. This originally started out as a remix of Aquatic Ambiance, but I quickly found that the melodies from Forest Interlude fit much more naturally with the style I was working with. You can still hear a lot of residual elements from that first attempt (the opening bell melodies at :38, the breakdown at 1:02, and of course the iconic pitch-bent flute/piano at 1:47 and other scattered points in the song) but over time this grew to be a Forest Interlude mix done in the washed-out, watery style that you'd expect from an Aquatic Ambiance mix. Hopefully it's not too jarring! This shares some similarities to my previous submission, Laguna Tides, on the surface, but this time around I tried to amplify the moodiness to create more tension than I have in previous mixes. I went to extra lengths to use more sound design and effects throughout the mix, as well, to keep things fresh and create various singular moments for the listener to latch onto. Overall, I believe this is one of my most sonically-cohesive, detailed arrangements, and my best production work to-date. Hopefully you agree! Sources: /

I'm intimately familiar with this source tune and lately I've been getting deep into this futurebass/chillout style you've adapted it to, so on a personal level I was really excited to hear this track. Reminds me of some of the more chill songs off of Madeon or Porter Robinson's new albums There's a couple things holding this back from being ready to post, in my opinion. First, the gating/sidechaining effect that you use on a lot of your sounds is cool, but I think it needs to be applied more sparingly. It knocks out so much from your soundscape that there's often times where you're sitting on a lot of dead space, and it's rare that the song sounds truly fleshed out. 2:51 is a good example of where this song shines, if you could get more of your remix sounding like that, I think this remix would be much more effective. I'm hearing some significant distortion being caused by the filtering you used in your intro/outro, that's something that needs to be looked at and tamed. Your drums are genre-appropriate but also very dry, I think a touch of reverb might improve the sound here. This is especially noticeable during the breakdown around 1:40. On the note of that section... the transition into it really doesn't make sense at all. It feels like it comes too soon in the arrangement and does not flow smoothly at all in or out of that part. There's a lot of issues present, and truthfully I believe it would take a LOT of work to get to a passable state, but I really enjoyed the concept of your track and would love to see this again someday. Thanks for submitting and good luck in the future! NO

Contact Info Remixer - Bass-Sick Name - Lion Cardenas-Heath Email - Site - Soundcloud.com/bass-sick Submission Info Game - Donkey Kong Country 2 Arrangement name - Forest Interlude Composer - David Wise Link to Original -

Wow, this is a very emotive track - I can really feel the power and heart behind your performance. By OCR standards, what I'm hearing is mainly a straightforward cover of the original source adapted to guitar without a lot of original writing or added dynamics, which would unfortunately make it a rejection in my book, but I wanted to panel this to see if other judges might give your adaptation more credit in terms of personalization from the source. To your credit, the rhythm guitar parts gradually become more intense as the arrangement goes on, but I don't really feel like it's enough to push it over the edge, especially when the arrangement is so short... To me, this seems like a very nicely done cover, but unfortunately not what OCRemix is looking for. Definitely interested to hear others' thoughts. Great work on the cover either way, Chris! NO

MP3 Link: Name of Remixer: Geeks and Guitars Real Name: Chris Chirico Email Address: Website: http://www.youtube.com/user/geeksandguitars Userid: 53743 (geeksandguitars) Submission Information Name of Game Arranged: Breath of Fire II Name of Arrangement: The Two Winged Princesses Name of Individual Song Arranged: Left Unspoken Additional Information (OC Remix Song Link): http://ocremix.org/song/14598 Comments: This is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite games. In my opinion there are few tragedies found in video games as powerful as that of the two winged princesses of Windia. Breath of Fire II and its soundtrack are very underrated and I really wanted to let this song shine, so I came up with this acoustic arrangement. This is my own arrangement and recording and I have played all instruments myself. I have a different mix with drums and bass that I've posted to my YouTube Channel, found here, but I decided to submit this acoustic mix to OC Remix, which I have not posted elsewhere. This is my first submission to OC Remix ... please be gentle! Thanks for listening! ------------------------------------------------------

This is brutal...ly loud. My grandpa ears can't handle it :-\ Seriously, killer arrangement with a lot of energy and great rhyhtm/lead parts, but most of the same critiques from my last vote on one of your mixes holds true... The master track is overcompressed and way too loud, and while I appreciate the effort to integrate synths into your track, the patches you used are pretty generic, mixed dry, and lacking in expression. Your arrangement and playing chops are solid, but I think you need to make some improvements to your mixing game when tackling remixes in this genre. NO (resubmit!)

ReMixer Name: DusK Real Name: Dustin Branscum Email: Website: http://www.itstartsatdusk.com User ID: 24328 Game: Pokémon Arrangement Name: "Technomagmar" Songs Arranged: "Battle (Vs Trainer)", "Battle (Vs Gym Leader)", "Opening" Platform: Game Boy Composer: Junichi Masuda Release Year: 1998 Sources: Come on, you know them already. Link to ReMix: Comments: Get it?! "Technomagmar"? It's a play on words or something. Real instruments are the shit. Don't fuck around. Pokémon Yellow was my favorite Game Boy game. I practically obsessed over it. My brothers and I shared it, but I got a hold of it first, so my brothers had to play a character named Dustin. HA! From a "I want to do this" standpoint, this is a remix that's roughly two years in the making. From a "okay, I'm gonna do this" standpoint, this is kinda recent. Not as recent as my Titanfall remix ( and I kinda wish I could have used those greatly improved tone sets for this track), but recent. Originally, this track was just straight up metal. But I wanted to go off the beaten path, and create something a little closer to the feel of the soundtrack. Using several "keyboardish" synths, I set out to make that happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jmty_NiaXc - Battle (VS Trainer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OO5VAKk0d8 - Battle (VS Gym Leader) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdJQopRuH1E - Opening

First off, I gotta give you props on your arrangement here - even for a 6 minute arrangement you still manage to pack in a TON of ideas and pretty much eschew any direct repetition, without feeling unfocused. Some highlights for me include the great synergy between the bass writing and the engaging beats, the square synth soloing, and the occasional introduction of that iconic Ruby/Sapphire trumpet sound Lots to love here. The source usage is definitely an issue - I'm not having any trouble hearing how you adapted the Littleroot source when it is present, but the bigger problem is how many extended breaks you have throughout the song and how often the source usage that is present becomes marginalized in the mix by other non-source elements. It's a bold, ambitious attempt but by OCR standards, I think you fall short on source usage. I won't spend too much time retreading the production issues Kristina brought up but they're spot-on critiques that need to be addressed before this track is ready to be posted, as well. I find it hard to suggest a resubmission on this track because it sounds very complete as an arrangement as-is, but if you were able to polish the production and sample quality in a couple of troublesome places, and were willing to make the source usage more dominant in the arrangement, this could stand a good chance at passing. Regardless of whether you send this back, I appreciated the effort that went into this arrangement and hope you continue to send more stuff our way! NO (resubmit)

Another cool, crunchy guitar/synth jam from Eino! I find your stuff growing on me with each successive listen. Although your tracks generally seem pretty texturally straightforward to me at first listen, there's a deceptive amount of craft and detail that goes into each arrangement that makes them enjoyable. This track is no different. Love the use of distortion effects and lead guitar tone. I feel like your guitar work is outshining the synths in terms of expressiveness, but they fit pretty nicely regardless. Overall, this is firing on all cylinders - the only reason I paneled it was because some of the source usage went off rails at times, and I wanted to make sure it jived with everybody else. Eino himself said it was more liberal than usual, but the breakdown seems to check out for me. Quality work! YES

Hello, here's another submission of an arrangement from the Game Boy 25th Anniversary EP project for consideration as an individual release. ReMixer & real name: Eino Keskitalo e-mail: forum id: 20708 Names of games arranged: Mega Man II (Game Boy) Name of Arrangement: Miljoonamiehen muistelmat Names of individual songs arranged: Title theme Source: MP3: FLAC: This is another PRC tune I decided that the Game Boy EP project would motivate me to finish. This comes from the quite recent round number 270. I had won PRC268; I picked a theme from Death Rally for round 269.. no mixes seemed to appear. As an incentive of sorts, I promised to make an entry for the next round. Yami won that round with a pretty sweet, mellow electronic tune and chose the title theme from Mega Man II. I started early figuring out a couple of bass lines, and when the finishing rush came about I recall spending about a day recording bass, guitar and clavinet over copypaste drums. It must have taken more than a day surely though, I just don't work that fast. All the feedback from the compo version was citing problematic structure & flow so I worked to fix that, thanks to everyone who commented. Extra cheers to the round winner OneUp, who seems to have been a fan of this one. Post-compo I added two synth tracks from my Roland SH201, padding it up a bit + replacing some of the constant guitar noodling. Pretty much everything apart from the drums was assembled from live takes, with lots of the usual editing & patching I do. This was a very fun track to do, kind of back to alt/Finnish rock roots for me. Finishing it in time for the GB EP was a bit exhausting but I'm happy I got it done. Thanks to Brandon & Alex for running the EP & giving direction. Especially thanks to Brandon for the idea to slap some effects on the guitar here and there. And as always, many thanks to my fiancé Pirjo for insight & support! She remarked that this sounds much like our old band Claudius, which was a surprise to me, but it's true. Back to roots indeed. Source breakdown: Source link: The source has been transposed half a step. 0:00-0:11 original intro/bridge 0:11-0:30 "fast verse", bass follows verse chord progression (0:00-0:22 in the source); guitar lead plays the verse melody (0:01-0:20 in the source); 0:26-0:30 synth plays the ascending line at 0:21-0:22/0:37-0:38 in the source half-time (19s) 0:30-0:47 "half-time verse", bass variation on chord progression; guitar noodling loosely based on the verse melody (17s) 0:47-1:06 "fast verse", synth & guitar play the verse melody; the synth plays the ascending line half time at 1:04-1:06 (19s) 1:06-1:19 "chorus", clavinet plays the source riff from 0:22-0:37; synth plays the ascending line at 1:18-1:19 (13s) 1:19-1:38 "fast verse" synth solo based on verse melody (19s) 1:39-1:56 "half-time verse", guitar noodling loosely based on the verse melody; synth plays the ascending line at 1:54-1:56 half time (19s) 1:56-2:05 original intro/bridge; the synth plays the ascending line at 2:05 (1s) 2:05-2:37 "chorus", bass solo! source on the clavinet; ascending line at 2:36-2:37 on synth (32s) 2:37-2:58 original intro/bridge 2:58-3:17 outro, original 3:17-3:46 outro, verse melody references on guitars at 3:21-3:24, 3:26-3:29, 3:31-3:33, 3:35-3:37 (15s) Source usage: 154/229 seconds (67%). Even if counting the half-time verses & the synth solo with only say half source usage, detracting about 27s, it's still at 55% prominent source usage with 127/229 seconds. It's a bit less source usage than I realised while making the piece, that long ending jam sure has an effect there. Aaand that'd be all. Cheers!

I had to do a double-take to make sure that this source tune was actually from Guild Wars. Pretty cool backstory behind how a song like this made it into a game like that Anyway, this track started off pretty deceptively and shifted through a couple different styles before settling into a fidgety electro house style. Pretty creative approach here to adapting the source, the mix of acoustic and electronic sounds is actually very interesting and produces some unique textures that I haven't heard in a mix before. Pretty engaging beatwork and cool modulation on your synths leaves a lot to like here. I've got a couple of gripes with the track though. After :51, you pretty much settle into a mode that doesn't change up or break down until the end of the song, and uses a lot of wholesale repetition of parts (for example, the section that begins at :51 repeats several times throughout the track with very little variation.) Maybe I'm missing some of the more subtle changes throughout the remix, but my initial impression is that this is a very conservative with too much direct repetition. Production-wise, things are pretty abrasive and overcompressed, I would recommend easing up on your volume levels just a bit so this isn't so harsh on the ears... not too much, because loudness can definitely work in your favor for an aggressive electronic track, but I think you overdid it just a bit. Arrangement is the big point that needs to be addressed here, along with some additional finesse to the production, I think this has some potential but it's not quite ready yet. NO (resub)

Remixer: Burningsticks Name: Tobias Löfkvist Email: Game: Guild Wars 2 Arr: Sunny Balalaika Original track: Sunny Glade ( ) I used an old balalaika I found to record this track, therefore the name! thank you!