Emunator   Judges ⚖️

This is an easy call. The production quality and performances are masterful across the board, and I truly don't hear a weak link. When the brass and strings come in, it's an instant classic - those sound truly stupendous. I have to especially shout out PocketCrow's mixing abilities here - you make this sort of production quality sound effortless. I really have nothing but praise to sing for this - it's a triumph from everyone involved and the artists who put it together. YES

Alright, so this might be a first - due to a misunderstanding, both Larry AND myself did full writeups for this submission without knowing it! So, here's my full commentary, now in review form! :D H36T continues his hot streak of modern cinematic reimaginings of classic JRPG themes, this time with a dramatic take on “Bonds of Sea and Fire” from Xenogears that leans into the idea of contrast on multiple levels. Although the final product that you’re hearing now is pristine and polished, the process wasn’t as straightforward as the end result might suggest - it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get here. I’ll let the artist explain: “Given everything I've learned since I've made this song, it sort of pains me that I can't revisit it easily. The original file is lost to the ether and while I could try and recreate some of it and do some new things here and there...some things are best left in the past and its time to move forward. Thus we come to this song, which if you know anything about Xenogears, sort of represents the past itself. The approach I used is mostly straightforward and adding pieces here and there that represent me as a musician and my influences. In that way, there is my past wrapped up in this song as well. The second half adds some newer elements and I see this as more of the "fire" to the first half's "sea." The end...is a bit unfortunate and I wish I could go back and fix some things and change others. But as with the past, there is no fixing this guy and he is who he is. So as god once said, "come as you are." and as such, I bring "Back to the Sea, Back to the Fire" for judgement! Maybe this old dog of a song will teach me some new tricks through evaluation.” Astute listeners may have picked up on the fact that, despite the submission letter suggesting that the project file was lost to the sands of time, what you’re hearing now is actually a resubmission. The first iteration was initially rejected by the judges panel, albeit in a split decision, with the majority of judges taking issue with the overall conservative nature of the arrangement, especially in the first half, as well as the “choir practice” at the end of the arrangement feeling detached from the rest of the piece. These are all critiques that H36T himself preemptively called out in his own submission letter, but after the first rejection, he dug deep within himself and his hard drive and was able to recover the long-lost file to take another stab at it. Nearly a year later, we got a revised version addressing the criticism from the first submission: “Another year, another resub! I've been pretty good so far at taking a second look at things and trying to correct errors and be more creative. Let's see if I can accomplish the same here. Funny story, in my original submission, I misspelled my own track. However, I actually liked the typo better! Something about blackening over the fire sounds cool. Anyway, though I thought I lost this track, it was sitting out in the open named something completely different. Unfortunately, that meant another track was lost LOL. Seeing as I don't know what track that was....I'm not too sad about it. As far as the update is concerned, I reworked the ending to be more related to the song at hand and added a bit more flavor in the middle. There are some technical mishaps here and there I'm sure but I'm not sweating them. Here is hoping you like this updated version! Until next time.” A little goes a long way here - the extra personalized touches really add a lot to the first half of the arrangement, such as the lush vocal padding, tasteful orchestral percussion fills, or the hint of tension between the flute and choir at 1:37 that alludes to the more overt dissonance that appears at 2:15 and 3:11. All of these minor additions keep the first half fresh; even though H36T plays it close to Mitsuda’s original source material, you can still feel the artist’s personal touch coming through. Around the halfway mark, we dive into a more personalized, dramatic approach featuring more original flute riffing and a very cinematic-sounding supporting string section. We finally wrap up with a grand cinematic swell of strings, choir, and flute that teeters on the edge of falling apart but ultimately finds a satisfying resolution in the end (the metaphor really writes itself here.) The contrast between original and source material, tonal and dissonant elements, relaxing and dramatic moods – between sea and fire, if you will – all adds up to a result that respects the intention of the original Bonds of Sea and Fire, while also taking it to a level that simply wouldn’t have been possible on the original PS1 hardware. On a personal level, I have to commend H36T for his persistence and willingness to approach feedback with humility and grace. Putting yourself in a position to receive intense criticism on a piece that you’ve poured your heart and soul into that ultimately results in a binary “yes or no” vote can be intensely vulnerable. However, he’s consistently proved willing to take that feedback in good faith and channel it toward becoming a better musician, while also not sweating the small stuff in the end. To me, this ReMix is a case study in what makes a successful resubmission - humility, persistence, self-awareness, and a little bit of luck all played a factor here and I hope other budding artists take note!

I definitely voted on the original submission but I don't recall it very clearly, so I'm going into this resubmission essentially with fresh ears. The intro hits us immediately with some tense, brooding analog buildups. The bass frequencies feel sparse and underpopulated but it leaves room to grow off of, and could easily be chalked up to a stylistic decision. I'm just used to hearing cinematic tracks like this with a bigger sub presence. Many of the synths and individual elements feel exposed and I can't help but feel like some sustained drone/ambiance used throughout the piece would help make this much more rich. At 2:15, the soundscape starts to flesh out and I'm feeling this more - it's a slow burn, but we got here. Your sound selection across the board is pretty great, feeling modern and in-line with Aquaria's aesthetic, but bringing some of your own flair to the table as well. It's simultaneously retro and modern. I do recall the previous submission feeling quite aimless in terms of arrangement, so I'm happy to say that doesn't seem to be the case here. The dynamic curve is much more deliberate and makes for a much more cohesive experience. The spoken word interlude is great from a conceptual level, but the vocals feel far too loud and don't blend in with the rest of the sounds. They feel pasted on top, and this highlights a general issue I'm having with this arrangement: I don't think that reverb and other creative mixing effects were utilized effectively to glue all of your elements together. Take the delay tail on the word "Aquaria" at the end of the poem. It feels like you're trying to create an atmospheric delay throw, but because there's so little diffusion on your delay, it actually feels more like you're just looping the sample over and over again, and it breaks the immersion for me. This is tough for me - the arrangement and sound design are strong points here, but I still am left feeling underwhelmed by the atmosphere and immersion due to certain elements (specifically the vocals) feeling too loud and inconsistently mixed with the rest of the soundscape, and a general sense of sparseness in the mix due to limited bass frequencies and lack of padding elements. I do think this gets by on the strength of its arrangement and concept, but I still think there's room for improvement on future submissions if you approach this style again. YES (borderline)

I hard-disagree with the idea of rejecting this on the grounds of the ending - I think it's fine and I've certainly heard the tape stop/record skip ending used in other contexts both in and out of the OCR sphere. "Mass of distortion" feels like a hyperbole compared to what I'm hearing, it's just some tape warble effects and saturation. That decision feels like like a stylistic decision to me, I'm very surprised to see this with a NO vote on solely that reason. Ending aside, this track represents a significant improvement over the original submission. This boasts a much fuller soundscape that better matches the production quality and richness of the material that inspired it. The drums could still stand to be a little more organic and humanized (most drum kits in this style were sampled from actual live breaks rather than sequenced, and there's certain times you can really tell that this was programmed in manually from one-shot samples) but it's lightyears ahead of where it was in the last version. Thanks to the revamped mixing, you can even hear elements like the wonderful vocla harmonies that, apparently, were always in the arrangement but never really grabbed my attention before. It's a vibe. YES

Not going to rehash the source usage debate at length, it checks out. I agree that the overall feeling of the production is flat, which is a shame because the arrangement is pretty dynamic and covers a lot of territory ranging from cinematic to synthwave to rock. The instruments and synths are all well chosen, but the overall mix doesn't really instill a lot of character into the parts you've written. Chimpazilla called out the lack of high end sparkle and I agree with this - some light tape saturation or an exciter on certain elements would bring back some warmth and character that this is missing, either on the master chain or at the mixbus level. In addition, the rhythm guitars feel almost pasted on, notably starting at 2:09. It almost feels like the rhythm guitars were sequenced with how rigid they are, which is a shame compared to the lead guitar which is far more expressive. I think this is something you'll look back on a year or two from now and hear a number of ways you could have improved this, but even in its current state, it's certainly serviceable! And the arrangement is very strong, so I have no problems passing in its current form. YES

Y'all, I think we're overthinking this one. It's a jam band roots rock arrangement, a little bit of slop and grit is good for the soul. The only thing that I would consider to really be worth noting on the technical side would be the overall compression/master quality, which leaves very little room to breathe and makes this sound a little less pleasant than it could. I didn't even find the ending to be too abrupt - the song has already said what it needs to say by that point. Viewing this through the lens of a jam band playing this at a dive bar or in a garage rehearsal space, this accomplishes what it sets out to achieve just fine in its current state. This isn't trying to be a perfectly pristine studio-quality recording and I don't think we should be judging it by those standards. YES

Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes, Emunator ft. Stemage, Chromatic Apparatus NOTE: THIS TRACK IS FOR THE PIXEL MIXERS SILENT HILL ALBUM. IF THIS IS APPROVED, DO NOT POST UNTIL THAT COMES OUT. Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, Master Emunator - Production, Mix Stemage - Guitars Chromatic Apparatus - Cello hey you know how I do something different for each cover? Apparently this one's twist is 'giving it a more conservative treatment'. Half-joking aside, I don't think there's a whole lot too interesting to say about this one. I grabbed Stemage, CA, and a mandolinist. My big goal with this track was to have it be my return to Pixel Mixers albums. And then, well, a lot happened during this and a lot happened after this. The very, very short explanation to a long story is I just wanted this track over with. But then I thought about it later - I don't think it was just that. I know I've often harped on other people for having their arrangements be too conservative, but there's just times where the original source tune already lends itself well as a song instead of an infinite loop. Kaze no Ne from Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is a great example of this. I've brought it up in DoD reviews that both arrangements I've heard of that track are very conservative. But I always emphasize: That's not inherently a bad thing if you know to make other elements stand on their own. Okay, that's enough talking about structure. So my original vision of this was a combo between psychedelic rock and synthwave, which we met in our weirdness. In my journey to get this track over with (delays in performers, bit of a block with the arrangement, etc), Wes (Emunator) offered to help with the mix. Funny enough it only started as drums, but it turned into the full thing. Then he passed it to me to wrap up. Also worth noting, this is my first track with Stemage since Hallucinatory Province. That's like, a 6 year gap in-between tracks. Yeah... uh, we definitely need to keep doing more psychedelic songs together (I was going to say "Psychedelic stuff" but that might have other implications.) I'm trying to make my gaps in-between working with collaborators less long, whoops. ? I hope you all enjoy!

Artist Name: BurningMagma I grew up playing the My Singing Monsters games in California ever since I was a kid, so I wanted to make a tribute for the series, and try to bring in that tropical vibe to the original songs. Also, I was inspired by another ReMix, titled Dovahkiin in Jamaica. It's amazing to see how far the franchise has come and how it impacted my childhood! Anyway, the VST plugins I used were: Instruments: Zebra 2, Kontakt 7, Kontakt Factory Library 2, Shreddage Drums, Shreddage 3.5 Stratus Free, Pearl Concert Grand, Freelodica, and Vintage Organs Effects: Fruity Limiter, SampleX v3, kHs Gain, Fruity parametric EQ 2, Fruity Reeverb 2, Raum, Initial Dynamic Eq, Ozone 11 Equalizer, Pulsar w495, and SSL Native Drumstrip v6 I hope you enjoy listening to this track as much as I enjoyed making it! Games & Sources Games: "My Singing Monsters Playground" (no quotes) by Big Blue Bubble Composers: Dylan Cole, Sam Clark, Tom Meikle 0:02 to 0:15 - the bass is a reference to the Air Island theme from 0:00 to 0:15 0:08 to 0:15 - original piano! 0:15 to 0:22 - the lead corresponds with the Water Island theme from 0:27 to 0:41 0:22 to 0:28 - the second part of this lead goes with Water Island again, but from 0:13 to 0:27 0:28 to 0:41 - in the background, you can hear a variation of the Hub World theme from 0:28 to 0:41 (hey, same timestamps!) 0:41 to 0:55 - the lead corresponds with the Air Island guitar from 0:41 to 1:08 0:55 to 1:08 - this part of the lead goes with another part of the Air Island theme, and it's from 1:35 to 1:49 1:35 to 2:01 - original melody! Sources:

Hot damn Michael. You know sometimes when you can't quite find the words for why something sounds amazingly produced, but you can feel it on a visceral level? That's what the production on this track does to me. Every single sound feels deliberately placed, and there's not a single space in the frequency spectrum that feels neglected or overemphasized. "Empty but full" is an absolutely perfect way to describe this, and I think you've made some tremendous strides in the quality of your mixing and mastering to help achieve this effect. The better frequency balance, spatial presence, and attenuation of harsh frequencies is absolutely felt here. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this sort of triumph simply wouldn't have been possible a year or two ago, and it speaks to the level ups that you've made as an artist in that time. Even the arrangement itself feels like it flows more naturally than some of your previous genre-bending mini-suite sound design experiments. Would it be going to far to even describe this as a pleasant listen? I don't think so. I'm not sure how you do it, but keep doing it. YES!!!

Honestly, I hate you guys. I don't think I will ever recover - physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually - from the smackdown this track put on me in the first GSM competition. I put out what I consider to be one of the best pieces of music I've ever made, and you just stomped all over it with your stupid synthwave bleeps and psytrance bloops. It's perfectly viable to reject a track on the grounds that it hurts my ears, so why not on the basis of it hurting my feelings? NO ... ... fine. It's good. Really good. I find that the team atmosphere of GSM lends itself to tracks that can sometimes feel like a mashup of everybody's ideas, "executive boardroom style", and I can't say that this doesn't feel that way to an extent, but you exercised such a great level of creative control over the parts that you have that it absolutely works in this track's favor. It feels like an adventure, and psytrance is the perfect musical foundation for this kind of approach. It's a genre that relishes in its buildups, breakdowns, and unexpected hard stops and left turns, and man you've got a lot of them here. It helps that every section of the track is engaging and brings something new to the table, but you transition so expertly between them that the time just flies by [Editor's Note: I wrote this out unironically and forgot the name of the remix title. Any puns are entirely coincidental.] This absolutely does not feel like 6 and a half minutes long. A well deserved victory my friends! YES

Wow, thank you all so much ? I made this track on a whim and needed convincing to even submit/publish it at all, I'm really pleased to see such a positive reaction to it.

Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes, Charles Ritz Previous Decision: https://ocremix.org/community/topic/52750 Here's my whole writeup from last time: That said, uh, what about this time. Okay, I was a bit devastated when this got rejected at first, I won't lie. But more because I didn't know *how* to approach some of these problems. My main takeaways that J's didn't like was: -Drums were repetitive -Mastering wasn't blown out enough -Ending was too abrupt I had some ideas for the ending, but frankly when I submitted this I didn't really understand the concept of pushing things through a clipper. If there's a judge comment I've learned THE MOST from, it's Prophetik specifically saying "Blown out mastering". I don't know how, I don't know why, but something about his comment made me resonate with what needed to be done. So I went back a few months later when I knew I was ready to revisit this. I reworked the drums ENTIRELY over several sessions. Emunator helped me with some awesome sound design advice. He even offered to step in on drums! That'll have to wait for another time, but I'm sure ya'll have been seeing my name with him at least a *couple* of times. After I'd got the drums locked in, I went back and redid the mix. It was mostly about raising background instruments up so more awesome background elements could have their chance to shine. Y'know, not JUST the drums. So you can actually hear the Oboe and vocal tracks now! AFTER that the mastering was pretty simple. Everyone I've shared it to dug it. I guess ear training's been paying off? I know this track definitely taught me the more creative things I can do with a compressor. ... I've got nothing else. Uh, go buy a copy of Through the Sacred Realm so you can support the Decolonizing the Music Room charity. Which honestly was half the reason I redid this track for OCR in the first place. Putting the spotlight on a good cause. :) Games & Sources Kakariko Village from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes ft. David Russell, Alejandro Espinoza & Louie Aronowitz For once I'm not really going to bother with a source breakdown since the melody is most of the time there and it barely drifts into original stuff. I'll be happy to oblige if requested. Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, Mix, Sound Design David Russell - Piano Alejandro Espinoza - Bass Guitar Louie Aronowitz - Drum Set I figured I need at least one single from my Volume 1 re-release of old tracks, yeah? This track was originally on BUDDIES: A Tribute to Banjo-Kazooie (BEAR SIDE) before being pulled from distribution. So what's the story with this one? Well, I wanted to do a jazz trio in the style of Hideaki Hori. Specifically his cover of Pure Imagination. Funny enough, I think this is the only time I've been particularly inspired by another cover. So I made the sheet music and arrangement pretty simple and gave the three a lot of room to improvise. The result? Hoh man, calling me the mix engineer on this is almost a far cry. I feel like I didn't even have to do anything. It was just some slight gluing together and adding in some sound design. That's it. One funny production story from this whole track is when I asked David Russell about doing it. I don't remember the specifics, but he was like "surprise I already did it" and I was just like "what." - I guess when the arrangement and idea is inspiring enough that really pushes people to record. One thing I love doing, absolutely *love* doing with covers by now (as clear for anyone familiar with my music) is taking a classic tune and really flipping it around. It's one where I enjoy a lot of the process behind it, like really digging deep into the source material and understanding how it works, but also the end product. Getting everyone to go "What the heck, how?!" and create something that (hopefully) inspires. I hope you all enjoy! Games & Sources

Full Credits Ridley Snipes - co-arranger, producer, engineer Xaleph - co-arranger Emunator - co-arranger ZackParrish - additional bits and bobs JSABlixer - additional bits and bobs Notes My first GSM track! ...was kind of a messy ride seeing as I wasn't even supposed to be "leading" this one originally. I use that term loosely, because I really served more as the organizational hub / engineer and because "someone had to steer the ship I guess" haha. I'm chalking that up to being just part of the learning curve of working in a high-pressure team setting (thanks GSM, hate love you). I wasn't starting from a completely blank canvas though; within the first day, Xaleph had already hooked me up with a slew of stems suitable for a suspenseful intro and the rising organ toccata. I immediately was inspired to grab a quote from Aliens and get to work on crafting some kind of drop. From here I worked mostly with Wes, trying a few different hiphop/EDM combinations before we settled on this weird spacey/worldy take on drill. But, it quickly became painfully clear that we were much more interested in just making a Red Soil Brinstar drill mix than a true mashup. And don't bring any more vampires into my office! So naturally, to remedy this, we called Xaleph back in and just started sampling the hell out of everything. Turns out Xal was sitting on a treasure trove of public domain samples from old movies (and Sesame Street) that we just couldn't resist using. I guess Ripley was talking about vampires, not xenomorphs :P About 80% of the material past the organ buildup was his design - he really saved us from this being a Brinstar-only mix. That and he was also able to recycle some cut parts from Zack and JSABlixer that had since been written out while me and Wes kept shifting gears. All in all it wasn't pretty, but we got the job done LOL. Wes and I actually had more-than-half a mind to not submit this and opt to rewind and make it the Brinstar mix it always wanted to be, but I think the spirit of GSM got to us in the end and we thought it'd be more fun just to ship it as-is. Cheers! Games & Sources

Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes ft. TSori & TheManPF SOURCE NOTES: 0:00-0:24 - Intro from original (0:00-0:12) 0:25-1:15 - Section A from the original (0:12-0:59) 1:16-2:19 - Section B from the original (1:00-1:24) 2:20-2:48 - Section C from the original (1:25-1:57) - A little more subdued 2:49-3:48 - Section A from the original but with a variation (0:12-0:59) Credits: Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, Production, Synth Solo TSori - Trumpet TheManPF - Guitars So has anyone checked out Chain Attack by Pixel Mixers yet? It's a pretty sick Xenoblade album comp. It was also my first track with coming back to Pixel Mixers. The whole story behind this track is a silly one, hoh boy, strap in. I was planning on doing it myself, but then I realized the "two collaborators" rule this track had. TSori was itching to play something on trumpet, and I knew PF would be great with guitars thanks to my experience with him in Dwelling of Duels. I gave them a lot of freedom. PF some lose instructions, leads, and chords. and TSori the melody to mess around with. And then this track picked up REALLY fast when TSori said "I know this feels uncharacteristic from me, but it feels like there's too much trumpet" so we changed the structure to fit that. Introducing the trumpet at :50 seconds in was a risky move, but it definitely paid off. Giving the trumpet a break and doing a synth solo halfway in was also DEFINITELY the right call. I was a bit uncertain about my soloing skills, but this might be one of my favorite solos I've done! I loved the master so much after spending weeks away from it that I was like "What if I did a redux for OCR". I think the original is pretty good(it's become a few people's favorites on the album ?) but this gives it a lot of that extra production oomph! And it was fun to go back and forth with Hemophiliac learning small little things to make the productions, and future productions of mine have a bit more oomph. Revisiting old tracks I've done used to be a dread, but now that I know more about the process and more about how to not overwork something that's working, I'm having a lot more fun! Rest assured, this is one of the first of many old tracks of mine you'll see reduxed. Uh... What else? Funny enough, TSori and I had a conversation about Emunator's "Gold Soul" (which might not be posted before this), and TSori was telling me about how he felt a good name for it would involve starting a journey, while mine was more like a return back to home. Enter this arrangement. I've only played a few hours of Xenoblade, so I had to brush up a bit on the Refugee Camp. I noticed a quest titled "The Road Home" and felt that was a very fitting name for this arrangement. Coming back home and seeing that nothing is quite ever the same before - picking up the pieces from where parts left off. I hope everyone enjoys this at least half as much as we loved making it! Games & Sources In the Refugee Camp - Xenoblade Chronicles

I really admire your persistence with this arrangement, and the strides you've made between versions are definitely yielding promising results. The core vibe is still intact, it doesn't seem like your sounds have drastically been altered since the first version, but you're steadily improving the quality of your processing and what you do with those sounds with each iteration. The arrangement is really strong and the additional bridges and writing are fantastic. 1:50 is a highlight for me and showcases some really great writing on your part. There's a clear dynamic curve and each section feels like it brings something new to the table. The question now is, is this over the bar in terms of production quality yet? I think this is a marked improvement, but there's still a very static quality to many of the elements in the track that doesn't align with what you seem to be trying to accomplish with your arrangement. My assessment is that the song structure is more of a brooding slow-burn that relies on subtle changes to ramp up the energy over time, rather than major jumps in dynamics. On a macro scale, you've got this down well, so I'm not suggesting changing anything about the overall arrangement, but what I'm hearing is a lack of fluidity and progression within individual segments. For example, the first minute or so feels very stagnant - once the loops come in, they stay pretty much consistent until you move onto the next section. This feeling persists across the entirety of the track. All this to say, I think this would be much more successful if there was more development and dynamics within your sections. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, but where I'd look first is with filter sweeps and subtle volume automation on your instruments or instrument busses. For the first minute of the track, for example, instead of starting off with all of your instruments at full volume, you could apply a low-pass filter to your instruments and gradually automate the frequency cutoff higher over time so that the track unfolds more gradually and keeps the listener's interest better. You can also invert this and filter out certain instruments later on in the arrangement when you're trying to wind down the energy. Or, you can find parameters within your synth patches that you can subtly adjust over a certain stretch of time. I'd especially suggest applying some of these techniques to your bassline, which simply doesn't hold my interest because the writing is so simple. Focusing on your microdynamics within smaller chunks of the song will help overcome some of the simplistic sounds you're using, and align the overall experience with what you were able to accomplish with the arrangement as a whole. On a separate note, I still find some of the drum sounds to be lacking. The clap around the 2:30 mark, for example, feels very stock and unprocessed, and I just don't think it fits what you're going for. The rest of the track is very atmospheric, but the drum sounds don't feel like they live in the same space and actually break the immersion. The hi-hat shares a similar problem, though it's masked better when you have rhythmic arpeggios going, such as 2:58. Through creative reverb (in addition to your room reverb), subtle delay, or any number of other creative effects that should be available with nearly any DAW, you can take stock drum sounds and transform them into something more interesting and suited for your track. Additionally, using unconventional percussion sounds from foley libraries or other sound sources, or layering in percussion loops that are going to have more of a groove, can also help make your drums feel more organic. I know I've suggested a lot here and don't want to be overly prescriptive with what you have to do with the arrangement, but at the same time, I ultimately feel like the combination of pretty basic sounds and the lack of movement/evolution within those parts is keeping this from reaching its full potential. You can get away with using basic, "vanilla" drum and synth sounds, but you've got to do a bit of extra work to make them sound engaging and I don't think this quite reaches that goal yet. There's a million ways to tackle this problem, and I just threw out a few possible solutions that I would personally explore, but I do feel like it is a problem that needs to be addressed. Great arrangement that's absolutely worth the work you're putting into it though, I hope to see this yet another time if this doesn't pass as-is! NO (resubmit!)

The mixing is not the most polished I've heard, I definitely second the notion that the drums are walking all over the rest of the track and there's a substantial amount of mud elsewhere. The sax programming isn't the most realistic in the world. The intro is quite abrupt and startling. But man, what a strong concept and a huge step up in terms of interpretation and arrangement compared to some of your earlier submissions that I remember hearing from years ago. You had a really clear vision and executed with a clear amount of passion and respect for the source material, both Donkey Kong and T-Square. All of the sounds in the band complement each other wonderfully and the arrangement is just chock full of creativity. I love this, I've never heard this source done this way before and I'm glad you chose to send this our way. Really great stuff! YES

It's The Plasmas covering Doom, I'm pretty sure I know what this is going to sound like without even reading the submission letter or clicking on it. ... yup. That's what I expected. And it rocks. The lead guitar work especially carries this through, but all the elements of the band ensemble are carrying their weight. I'm actually not sure where the complaints about the guitar tone or mixing is coming from, maybe there's a subjective preference at play here because I love it. Sounds rich but simultaneously gritty, the drums are lively and pack a punch, and the bass is audible. Nothing more to say, you're consistently churning out great work. YES

Yup, this tracks for me. Rests and negative space are a form of source usage, and that especially applies here. Love this source material and what you've done with it, it feels totally identifiable without having to bust out a stopwatch or a magnifying glass. The ramping intensity over time is palpable, even if you can't pinpoint exactly where exactly it picks up, which contributes to the feeling of unease that you were going for. Emptiness, but with urgency, is a great descriptor. YES

Let's start with the good stuff. The rhythmic expansion on both the drums and the synth arpeggios is wild and carries the song on its own. On top of that, your arrangement goes a ton of places and never feels like it grows stagnant, which is a major risk for the genre. Orchestral and piano elements are integrated with a lot of care to showcase some really great original writing that bridges together the sections of Super Metroid material. Really expansive arrangement. I recognized the Metroid Prime 2 multiplayer sounds before I even read your submission letter, that did a great job of drawing me into the Metroid universe. The arrangement is killer. I generally agree with the same nitpicks that the other judges called out - the bass is lacking in personality, movement, and harmonics to the sound itself. To put it plainly, it's just a boring bass, and because so much of it is written at higher ranges, there's just not a lot of presence. I would personally have suggested picking a different bass tone entirely with some glide/modulation to it so it can express some personality, or if you were really committed to a simple bass, consider adjusting the octaves so that you're actually hitting the sub regions, and then employ some light saturation/waveshaping/distortion to thicken up the harmonics of your bass just slightly. Aside from that, the sample quality was serviceable but not blowing me away, especially the guitar, which could have had a much thicker tone to suit the track more appropriately. Easily skates by on the merits of a super creative arrangement and some great rhythmic work all around - not without its flaws, but clearly good enough here and I'm glad to see you pushing the envelope with your own skillset. Keep em coming! YES

Fun sound palette that feels way out of your wheelhouse to start this off, but once we get to the meat of the arrangement this settles more into the kind of territory I've come to expect from Gaspode. Not a lot to say about this. While I was initially confused by MindWanderer's implication about wanting it to be more "acoustic" and less "electronic," I think I get what he's getting at. I also found the percussive and sampled elements to be the most enjoyable part of this, and found the synths to be a little static and unexpressive compared to that. The synths simply don't match the same level of energy or swing as the rest of the instruments. All that said, it comes together in the end and forms a package that's quite clearly over our bar. YES

This is stunning and immaculately produced on every level, you were able to squeeze a lot of mileage out of your instruments to not only carry the melodic aspect but also contribute texture to the piece as well. A very fitting solo debut to showcase your wicked level of talent with your instruments. CA, you are a treasure and the community is so lucky to have you involved in it! YES

Artist Name: Gaspode Spring is coming. Time for some positive vibes. This time in form of five different hometown-themes from The Legend Of Zelda. Because the only place in a big adventure, where you can relax and don’t constantly have to fight Ganons minions, is at Home Sweet Home. Games & Sources Wind Waker Outset Island Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi, Kōji Kondō https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toTKXTRpKL4 0:40 – 0:55 1:35 – 2:08 2:08 – 2:24 (in the background) 3:32 – 3:42 (in the background) Ocarina Of Time Kokiri Forest Kōji Kondō https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ6Fq-LfDZQ 0:55 – 1:34 Links Awakening Mabe Village Minako Hamano, Kozue Ishikawa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh6Rm5Jp02U 2:08 – 2:40 Twilight Princess Ordon Village Toru Minegishi, Asuka Hayazaki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSzW0GGRGnI 2:40 – 3:12 Skyward Sword Skyloft Theme Hajime Wakai, Shiho Fujii, Mahito Yokota, Takeshi Hama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX5mYCrMm58 3:12 – 3:48

Contributions: Xaleph: composer/arranger/lead Song structure, planning, coordination, design 0:39-3:51 Psytrance, sfx, synths, bass, notation, editing, etc (anything not listed below) 3:51-4:44 Supporting percussion and bass 4:59-end Synths, Bass, Sfx, chiptunes (anything not listed below) Emunator: composer/arranger intro -> 1:06 (all until rhythm, then gated choirs) 1:45 -> 2:12 (crying angels piano) 3:51 -> 4:21 (holy piano, distant vocals) 4:57 -> 5:40 (toms + digital bell maridia arp) Zack Parrish: composer/arranger/guitarist 3:51-5:26 (guitars: electric and acoustic) 3:51-4:44 (orchestra: violin 1/2, viola, cello) Lunarice: sound design / sfx / synth design 0:33-0:39 synth sweep + bubble sweep 1:19-2:12 underwater sound, muddy steps 3:51-4:04 + 5:39-5:52 holy sfx pad Designed sound used for 0:39-0:52 light bubble sfx 0:52-1:06 bubble percussion 2:55-3:48 bubble sound provided was used as the percussion/glitch effects Audiomint: Female Voice and Sound Acting 1:06-2:05 (singing + gated singing) 1:06+ "Well" 3:50 "What is this place?" Lucas: Bell midi at 5:26-5:52 Impact sfx used at 5:39 (There was a lot of content in this song from each of the artists, I appreciate their contributions and apologize if I missed something!) Source Usage: 0:40-2:05 Maridia 1:06-1:33 Purification melody comes in and out (volume controlled) - high bells/sine wav 1:59-2:12 Purification melody 2:15-2:56 Purification melody abridged (shortened and given the supporting rhythm for the beat) 2:27-2:30? the stab synth is the maridia melody part/structure sped up and different rhythm/style 2:54-2:56 I finally finish the Purification melody line that started at 1:59 to complete the phrase 3:22-3:35 Very soft mid freq purification melody in staccatto - double hits like purification has it 3:35-3:48 Same melody bumped up an octave 3:52-4:46 (breakdown 2): It's a combined melodies from both, low guitar playing purification mid/top playing with maridia. 4:47-5:26 electric guitar playing purification very fast + synths that support maridia melody 5:26-end both parts playing again till end (modified to fit both songs) (thank you emunator for the midi) Planning - we based this on a story as described below here is a clip from the readme file: ## Main remix D#m 145 bpm ### Story So what's the story of the song? We're team metroid, so I'm 100% going to do this from a Samus perspective I was initially going with more of an ice/frozen theme and them deep sea to make it cold, but that's not going to work with the castlevania approach Samus is in a cave - get's ready to dive into the water (Intro) Samus is in the underground water, tension builds up (Build up 1 + 2) Samus gets to an air pocket, albeit tiny (Breakdown 1) Samus goes back in the water, it's more crazy (Build up 3) Samus finds an opening out of the water above her and it's part of some ruins with a holy shrine (Breakdown 2) The next part of the water is where holy water has mixed with the cave water - she dives in and thinks go crazy here (Build up to Outro) and then final outro she is out of the cave and is looking back at that crazy situation of dark alien waters + holy water (Outro) Games & Sources Super Metroid - Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Purification (Bloody Tears just really slow and very slightly different)

Mel Decision: arrangement, production VARIA: percussion, piano, sound design, and miscellaneous sfx Moebius: chorus Cyril the Wolf: mastering My entry for round 2 of the second Game Set Mash!! compo. When listening through the Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow OST, the dreaminess of Purification gave me instant thoughts of Enya and that "Pure Moods" album commercial I must have seen hundreds of times on TV growing up. Luckily the other team chose "Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area)" from Super Metroid, which is also pretty dreamy. I queued up some Enya and ended up using "Only Time" and "Orinoco Flow" as my main reference tracks. I transposed both of the source songs into the same key and brought in a bunch of major chords in my arrangement to lift the mood, and tried to mimic some classic Enya vibes, like reverb drenched pianos, plucky string ostinatos, and arpeggiated harps. I had intended to write and record vocals for the track, but that never came together. Instead, I layered choral parts using Spitfire Audio's "Epic Choir," and also 8Dio's "Liberis Choir," courtesy of Moebius. I relied on piano and pan flutes to carry the melody, since that felt genre-appropriate. VARIA wrote a nice piano countermelody that helped break the monotony of the flutes. They also put together several layers of percussive, harmonic, and effect tracks that gave the piece depth and polish, such as the driving snare that comes in towards the end. Finally, I passed the track off to Cyril for mastering. Had a ton of fun collaborating with folks on this track. A++ would GSM again! Super Metroid: Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Purification Games & Sources Super Metroid: Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area) 0:17–1:10: Melody (Pan pipes) 0:04–1:10: Accompaniment (Pizz strings) 2:02–2:40: Accompaniment (Pan pipes, piano, harps) 3:38–4:10: Accompaniment (Piano) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Purification 0:31–1:10: Accompaniment (Harps) 1:22–1:50, 2:40–4:42: Melody (Pan pipes, piano) 2:02–2:40: Melody (Bansuri) 3:08–3:35: Accompaniment (Harps) Those are specific quotes, the block chords and other harmony were largely drawn from the chords/arps being played in the songs, or we've written new countermelodies and harmonies to go along with the source material. There's probably some stuff I'm missing, it's kind of a jumble...and sometimes we're playing parts from both songs at once, since I transposed them into the same key.