Emunator

^ Yeah, all my top played songs are either DKC3 project mixes or old stuff from The Wingless, Protricity, and Vigilante <3 I've got a soft spot for chill tunes. I don't have any songs that I've listened to as much as Cody has though, his counts are insane.

WIP 1 - http://tindeck.com/listen/ripz WIP 2 - https://soundcloud.com/emunator/phendrana-drifts-wip WIP 3 - https://soundcloud.com/emunator/metroid-prime-phendrana-drifts WIP 4 - https://soundcloud.com/emunator/sub-zero-phendrana-drifts I'm kind of at a loss with this mix but I thought the soundscape was turning out pretty solid and I'm really proud of the improv piano take I did so far. Any thoughts on this?

OK, listening back I definitely see where the YES's are coming from and I think I was being too nitpicky initially on an issue that, overall, doesn't impede my enjoyment of the track. I'm comfortable passing this even though I think the critiques are still valid. YES

Hey dudes this is super-duper cool, I like how seamlessly you guys blend chiptune and chiptune-esque sounds to the point where I can't tell what parts of this could actually be produced out of an old NES soundchip and which ones couldn't. It's pretty neat Love the original writing you guys threw in here too, it fits perfectly.

Updated piano sample.

I actually wanna step in here and say that we don't really judge songs like this. While it's very true that, as a listener, you wanna hear something unique from a source that's been done a million times already, but as a judge we do have to put that aside and be objective and treat each remix the same as it applies to the standards, whether that source has been done once or a dozen times before.

I'm posting here just so I can see Yellow Yoshi and Green Yoshi right next to each other. <3

I like this guy Fantastic album dude, you know I've been a hardcore fan ever since your first few wips and thankfully the full product is just as solid. Your most cohesive effort yet, I'm gonna be rocking this for a long time to come!

What IS the source on this? I'm only seeing an Elec Man link in the OP but it seems pretty clear that there's more to the remix than just that. Can we please get a clarification on source usage in this mix from the artists themselves? I'll leave a full vote later because there's several production issues I need to cover as well, but something tells me that another source is being used in this mix.

Woah woah, tell us more about this!

... shit. Can't find a bad bit about this. I'm legitimately impressed and I'm surprised I didn't notice how good this was when I first heard it on DoD. I think you've found a genre where your vocal range and style can really excel and the results sound fantastic. Orchestration is awesome, very realistic and well-produced. You keep the source pretty up-front at all times, even when the vocals aren't present. Yeah, this is awesome. Love the personal background behind the mix, too. YES

Despite having such a simple, vanilla soundscape, you're able to conjure a pretty unique vibe from this remix. The arrangement itself is solid, you move through melodies at a smooth, natural pace. The breakdown that Deia pointed out is the only sore spot that I think could be ironed out without killing your momentum so much. Fadeout didn't bother me too much, but it's not a very strong choice either. 12/30 - redacted the point about the few bars missing a melody, listening back it's not really an issue. Main issue here is your drums in general. I don't feel like your samples are really clicking with the rest of the soundscape and the writing doesn't gel with the arrangement. There's not a lot of synergy there and it's hurting the track significantly. Please send this one back to us with some revisions, I like what you did but it's gonna need more polish before it's mixpost-ready. NO (resubmit!)

This is a tough vote, cause there's a lot of merit to your track, particularly in the arrangement, which dances around the Brinstar theme with a lot of tact and creativity while still keeping the source apparent almost all of the time. Despite all the points I'm about to run through, I enjoyed listening to this. However, there's a few issues I'm catching here that I think are worth noting. Across the board it sounds like you're using pretty much stock samples, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but in this case a lot of your percussion sounds just come off as amateurish. The clap in particular is very cheesy and kind of kills the mood for me, since your drum loops are too simple to really disguise any weaknesses in your samples, and at times like 4:26 when your clap is most exposed it's particularly bad. I don't mean to rag on an element of your track that's clearly not the main focus of your track, but between the overly-simple writing and generic samples, it's dragging this down for me. On the topic of samples, your piano is not the best either, though you've processed it reasonably well. Sometimes the delay that you've used on it gets out of hand, and the same goes for your electric piano and other elements throughout the song. I think the liberal use of delay gives this remix a pretty unique character, but at times like 3:56 or 4:36, things just get too busy when you combine the delay from multiple melody lines with the rest of your track. At 3:19/4:44, I'm hearing some noticeable distortion on your piano, that's really distracting Overall, this is a pretty cool track and I definitely think it's worth making a resub. It might require a sizeable amount of work to make these changes, but I think the track would be better off for it so that these production issues aren't detracting from your strong concept/melody writing. NO (resubmit!)

Pardon my brevity but I can't see any reason why this wouldn't pass. This is friggin' sweet, the performances are spot-on and the soundscape is very innovative and clicks a LOT better than I could have ever expected from reading the sub letter. Source usage sounds fine to me, it's always there even if it's just a background arp playing while Sam's doing his own thing on the piano. This is probably the easiest call I've had to make in my time as a judge. YES

Oh yeah, this sounds much better, mixing-wise There's still some balancing issues, namely the guitar which feels too repressed throughout the mix, but overall everything is coming through loud and clear, it sounds like a TOTALLY different song now! I still think the conservativeness of the arrangement is a problem, but you do have a great deal of extra/altered countermelodies and slight changes in rhythms/melodies that help push the vote in your favor. It's pretty damn close though and I would really like to have heard some more personalization, but I'd say this just barely eeks by. I'd love to hear what the other judges think though, my opinion is still kind of on the fence. YES (borderline)

2011 Five-Track Holiday Preview!! Click Here! Full download of "mojo gogo" by prophetik Merry Christmas or Happy Whatever-Else-You-Celebrate everybody, we're very excited about this and I think this should give you a great taste of some of the best tracks on the album Enjoy! Bash the Bastards! (Bonus Time SNES) by WillRock & Level 99 Wonderfall (Waterfall SNES) by mv Cornfed Kong (Rockface Rumble GBA) by zykO ft. diotrans & Diggi Dis Sea Breeze Concerto (Stilt Village GBA) by Monkey Kong ft. David Wise mojo gogo (Jangle Bells SNES) by prophetik

No sir, the surprise in question will stay secret until release day

Got some nice preview material coming your way tonight courtesy of Cody and myself, I know it's been a long time since we've shown anything or given any updates on the project and that's largely due to a lack of progress on the backend, but tonight we'll be releasing another video preview with 4 never-before-heard songs, and we'll be showing off a full track as well Stay tuned! I gotta say, I've been digging through my folder of DK3 project-related stuff, and I'm thinking we'll need to release a "Komplete Edition" of the project since putting all of the material that we've got into the official .torrent would just be overkill. Here's a list of all the goodies we've got to release: FLACs and MP3s in both gapless playback and individual track form. A Bonus Disc with 9 additional remixes and 4 alternate versions/karaoke versions of other album tracks. Official album artwork package 6 additional claymation dioramas depicting various scenes from the game (you already saw one of them last Christmas!) Custom sprite artwork banners for every track on the project, plus an additional poster made for Christmas 2009 and the tracklist image you see in the original post currently. Various other unused art assets or sprite art. Official project trailer, and 5+ different video/audio previews A dozen or so WIPs that were never seen to completion. Some other things that may pop up. This special remastered platinum collector's edition retails for $59.99, but through this special TV offer it can be yours for the low, low price of-- *shot* Seriously though, this project is massive and it's dawning on me just how much stuff there is relating to the album. It's crazy. Stay tuned for later tonight when we unleash a flurry of other preview materials for your enjoyment!

Thanks for a really easy vote. I liked the first version and this one improves things across the board, I didn't even realize how much potential was stashed away in that early version until I heard this. Gorgeous piano writing, sounds so much better with these new samples. I still feel like your drum writing isn't as epic as it could be, some 80's ballad-style tom fills would really tie the last synth solo together, but it's a minor quibble. Not much to say here, I'm so glad this one came back around as I think it's one of your strongest arrangements to date YES

Ewww, some nasty distortion in the left ear whenever the harp plays, it's really distracting >_> That would definitely need to be cleaned up. I'm actually liking how this one starts off, your instrument choices are sparse but there's a playfully devious quality to the arrangement, and the source riffs play really nicely with the new bassline. I'm not gonna beat around the bush though, the synth solos are just not working in their current form. I hate to throw out words like "weird" when it comes to judging songs because I understand how subjective these things can be, but they are pretty weird When the synth first enters and the melody it's playing is still rather tame, it actually works in my opinion but the solos that follow are just too out there to really sit right with the rest of the track. Aside from that, your sample quality isn't much far above the quality of the source tune, which is definitely an area to work on. Getting some stronger-sounding samples would help improve the overall sound quality and fill out your soundscape more, which is too thin and underdeveloped in its current state. Hit up the workshop forums where the mods and other members will be able to give you more pointers on how to improve the quality of your mixing and perhaps get your hands on some better-quality samples as well. Lots of work here, but there's a lot of merit to your unique style of remixing too, so keep working on music and refining your abilities! NO

Larry, I totally get what you're saying and I'm glad we got a very critical opinion that pointed out exactly what was right and wrong with the mix for Justin to get the kind of detailed feedback he's been seeking. I don't disagree with anything you've said, but at the end of the day I feel like this has reached a point of polish that it's above the bar, even if there's some parts of it that are fundamentally weak. I know for a fact we've passed weaker mixes that weren't as enjoyable or solidly produced as this. Compared to a lot of Justin's previous work, I think this demonstrates a lot of creativity and originality. The lead is very unconventional and I can see how people might not like it, but on the flipside it's just as likely that people will enjoy the unique choice. The bassline is super-groovy, and I think there's more than plenty of changeups and little personalizations throughout the whole arrangement to compensate for the fact that the lead doesn't really change up much (though I'm inclined to argue that when the lead switches octaves, that alone is enough to give it a completely different feel.) It's not without its faults, and whether or not this passes I hope you listen to what Larry's saying because all of his advice WOULD make this song better. I just feel like it's good enough as-is and there's no flaws that inhibit my enjoyment of the song so much that it would warrant rejecting it. Good luck, however this turns out. YES

Hahaha, I love the little coin noise in the intro, that's fun. After reading Larry's comments on this mix and another mix that was nearly rejected for being too coverish, I'm pretty much ok with signing off here, as well. There's a great deal of personalization in the performances alone, and having so many performers on the track creates moments where performers can go off and do their own thing briefly to freshen things up, so ultimately this is far enough from the source to pass it. There's some flubs in the beginning where the timing doesn't sound quite right, but fortunately as you go on your performances sync up better and it sounds like there's more confidence across the board. Good stuff, I very much enjoyed this YES

Sweet, it makes me incredibly happy to change my vote here too. YES

I've heard it through judging channels, and omgggggg. I'll be straight up in saying that I'm generally not a huge fan of brutal metal, but I can't stop listening to your mix. It definitely ranks up there with my favorite metal songs of all-time, and I have no doubt that people will appreciate the work you've done dude