Palpable

I get where Larry's coming from, but thought the guitar was pretty interesting throughout, adding a good bit of interpretation and flair to the simple melodies. Some countermelody stuff would have sealed the deal, definitely, but what's in place is good enough. Beat was solid and fun to listen to - a little repetitive, but had fills, so it wasn't static. I thought Juan pretty much hit exactly the style he wanted to hit, and it's interpretative enough. Fun song! YES

I feel like there are some seeds of a remix here, not a full remix. I like minimalism, but I think there has to be some detail to make up for the sparseness or simplicity, and I wasn't getting it here. Good atmosphere, no knocking that. Some samples that have more nuance and clarity to them would help out, or just adding more elements, if you feel that wouldn't alter the piece too much. NO

Well, my job is done. See you suckers later! Ahem... Disc 2: Beyond Absentminded - I always love hearing vocal mixes, especially mixes with multiple vocal parts, and this one doesn't disappoint. The guitar part fifths (I think those are fifths?) in the middle are a great addition, a little unsettling. A deceptively simple, well-done song. Summoned Without Reason - This song throws us into the thick of it right away. Nothing wrong with that. The lovely synth and chime parts contrast the high-energy backing track nicely. Another great Sixto solo pretty much clinches this as a standout track. Middle-Aselia Biology - Nice mood-building and woodwind work; like Rexy's first track, I like the ideas even if the production could stand to be improved. Cold Memory - Beautiful atmosphere, nice interplay of instruments. Love the subtle ambient washes and bells peppered in there. It would easily fit into a modern RPG. Simplified Design - Solidly put together rock song, with good energy and crunch. Sorry to say, but I thought some of the small detours in here like the detuned piano and horn blast didn't work, which was disappointing, because the detours are the really unique elements. The rest of it works. Just Go - Another standout for me, a gorgeous mix of atmospheric orchestral work, beats, and the Greatest Guitar Tone Ever. I gushed enough in the decision thread. City of Vigor - A moody piano piece that shifts between loneliness and optimism. The chords are pretty and they transition naturally - the shifts never feel sudden. Not that ambitious a song, but good for what it is. New Technology - Can always count on Overcoat for some textures I've never heard before. I really like the wavering thing coming in at 0:23, the slightly distorted beat, the gated synth that gets up in your face at 2:25. Head-melting. Horizon's Walk - I love how staccato the song is without losing its natural, live feel. Very comparable to Craig David, if you've heard him. It's neat how the piano and acoustic guitar fill out the song throughout, playing a background role, yet are still distinct and beautiful if you pay attention to them. Riddles in the Dark - Another ambitious juxtaposition of electronic beats with natural instruments (= good segue!). Lot of unexpected but engrossing changes, like the jazzy piano halfway through and the harsher textures and double-speed towards the end. It's hard to believe all that fits in one song. As Time Goes On - Sexy sax and lonely vocal over an intriguing backing track built of tremolo guitar and organ. Somehow it works. There is some melody clashing, but I enjoyed the unique mix of sounds and emotions in this in spite of that. Deity - Trance like this would almost seem out-of-place on this album, but the piano in the beginning and the dark mood tie it in. High energy and epic without being too flashy, very easy to listen to, even at seven minutes. Sweet Dreams - Just kidding, this is easy to listen to. Lovely way to round out two discs full of darker material and some harsh elements. Very soothing and expertly-played - this is fire-side music.

Heh, touche. I guess the projects here have not entirely reflected the most popular games either, so maybe that's not the best indicator of whether a project will work.

People don't check the Requests forum that often I'd wager, but even then the Golden Sun games were somewhat overlooked and it might be tough to drum up support. The fact that we have only 2 remixes of it is pretty telling. There are games like Mega Man 2 and FFVI that have more than 30 remixes each that still don't have projects. Also I loved the games but to be honest, I don't remember a lot of the music, so maybe that could be the case for others... I'd still encourage you to not get discouraged and to feel the community out. It could succeed as a small project if you are a good organizer and can find the interested parties, but I think probably there isn't enough interest for anything big.

Looking good! I used to love reading the comments while listening to the song when we had the last.fm player, so if/when we get something streaming back, that'll be really cool. Is there any reason you don't want to also have the reviews tab at the top? I liked having access to the thread without scrolling down.

OK, I'm ready to try this. TRACK-BY-TRACK REVIEW. I wish I was familiar with either of these games, so I could say anything about the arrangement of the sources, but I can't. With four discs, I also can't really get into the detail I do on votes, so I'm just gonna highlight things I thought were unique for each track. Have to say, awesome sequencing on the whole project, there were a lot of good transitions. Disc 1: The Unholy Wars - Intro is a great mislead, especially knowing that dhsu had a part in this. Thought it would be more piano-focused, augmented by light instrumentation. Should have known Sixto would throw in massive guitar and synths pretty soon, bombarding my ears. Great track to open with. Crisis Healing Salve - Typically remixes that blend orchestral instrumentation with guitars tend to be bombastic, so I thought it was cool that this track was more scaled back and moody, almost like chamber music. Haven't heard many songs like this. The Koan of Drums - I actually think this one of djp's weakest tracks of the last few years, though his quality tends to be pretty high and there's still a lot to like here. The blend of ethnic instruments with light electronics hits an interesting subset of emotions, and there's some cool moments, but it's not as full sounding as it feels like it should be. Airborne - Very wistful, playful track, and I think it's pretty different from the typical piano arrangement we get, which tends to be darker. Good stuff, well-played like dhsu's stuff usually is. Arche Angel - With its short length and background-y sound, this comes off like an album interlude, but it's still a pretty track. I like the way it winds down. Chronometrical - The clock ticks are a great element to build a track around. I like how rigid a lot of the synths and drums are, which plays up the mechanical nature. Great mood and chords; I thought the fadeout ending could have been more interesting though. Setting Sail - Cinematic and bombastic, very strong melodies and composition. Reminds me of several classic movie scores. I have no idea how much of this comes from the original game, but TheDeath did an excellent job selling it. One of my favorites from the project. Mirror Image - A little disjointed, but boy, does it kick ass at 1:04. I appreciate the hazy, uneasy mood that is trying to be reached in the beginning and end, and the mix of instruments is interesting, but I don't think it was quite pulled off. Frozen Heart - Loud piano, but a great beat and vibe. Very crisp production. The detuning of some instruments gives it a interesting, unsettling mood, similar to Mirror Image. Momentary - Feels like another interlude, but again, not a criticism. Thought the piano could have had a fuller sound, but I liked the gentleness and brightness of the song. Gentry is a Five Letter Word - Nice segue from the previous track. I hear a lot of good arrangement ideas here, and 5/4 done well is always fun to hear, but the instruments could be higher quality. Sequencing is solid though, for what is used. Wind Dry My Tears - The guitar tuning bothered me a little, but there's some nice playing and arranging here once I got past that. Cool change-up at 3:05. Slow and sad, good way to close disc 1. Other discs to come another day.

Main melody never changed, which was disappointing, but actually my biggest criticism with the song is the similarity to Clamato Fever! The way the beat drops in at 0:19 is pretty much dead on, and it's just a very similar structure and style, going half speed at the same parts and even adding a guitar synth at 1:53. There was a cool solo at 2:18, which added some originality to it, and I liked the new staccato synth, but this needed more than that to differentiate itself IMO. I'm glad you guys were inspired by the game, but it sounds too inspired to me. NO

They're MODs. Starts off very similar texturally and melodically to the original, and slowly differentiates itself starting at 0:39. Took until 2:15 for this song to really set itself apart (with a brief sneak preview at 1:27), at which point I was liking it a lot more. Back to the opening samples at 3:26, and then at 3:40 you introduced a section that was nearly a dead ringer for 2:28 of the source. Then there was a long fadeout that awkwardly broke back into the opening samples. I wasn't feeling it enough, Tim, sorry. I thought it was too slow and conservative a build-up to get to the really original parts you added, and I especially didn't think you did enough in the first 40 seconds and the last 50 to give your song its own feet. Larry, don't think that the similarity to [bGC edit] Forgone Rejuvenation* is lost on me, but the opening and closing sections of this song sound almost identical to sections of the original, which I don't think you could say about any part of Foregone Conclusion except maybe the first 30 seconds. I also just don't think the arrangement or production is as solid as that song, and maybe if they were it'd be easier to overlook the intro and outro here. NO (resubmit) * A UT sub we passed that also involved heavy sampling

I agree with Larry's numbers, except I'd also count the small bit at 3:58-4:03. 3:27-3:41 felt too liberal to count. But I must round differently than Larry, because that put me at 139/277* seconds, or 50.2%. When it's that close I hate stopwatching it anyway, so I pretty much went on feel, and by that it's a YES. It's cool to see you stepping out of your comfort zone, Jimmy, and totally succeeding. There are a couple moments that break up the flow like the introduction of the underground theme at 2:08, but for the most part I really liked your original writing and thought it made the sources sound like one piece. YES (submit more) *subtracting four seconds o' silence at the end

I think I had an issue like this with some of my old projects, when I upgraded. For me, every note was playing at C5 regardless of the notes I entered. This solved it, could be what you're dealing with too.

Yep, that's exactly what I did too. I thought that was cool.

Awesome to see this working. Now I can finally figure out who some of these crazy cats are!

I think the scenes relating to Alex are the only time we ever see how Ben truly feels about something (and only a few of those), so this was a great episode, and an important one for showing he is a redeemable character. Every other time in the show, I can't tell if he means what he says or is just acting to achieve his aims. I figured we would eventually get an episode like this, but I thought it would be closer to the end of the series.

Ha, I never knew that caps lock did that. There have been times I wanted that function. Thanks, Zephyr.

Wow, looks and sounds great! Keep it up, dude. Share the game itself once it's finished.

Can't believe I missed this one somehow, but I guess it happens when I spend so much time on panel stuff that doesn't get direct posted. Glad I got to hear it in the process of tagging, it's fantastic stuff. It ended up with a very unique set of tags, which pretty much describes how creative the mix is. Great blending of disparate elements to form something totally cohesive.

Hehe, it was intentional.

Excellent beat, cool programming and effects on it. It really is the star. Liked a lot of the sound design choices, though the synth lead in the chorus didn't work that well for me, for some reason. A lot to like here.

After we finish the first pass, I definitely want to get people to come up with new tags for us and double-check certain things. I think already we're missing some mood tags that could be good to have.

Man, I love the patches used in this, most of which djp hit on too. The jazzy writing works great in combination with those sounds - very refined work, you guys.

Since zyko was the only conditional on this, and there were six YESes, I've switched this to YES, no conditional.

I liked your band's expansion of the original, turning this into more of a jam. It felt a little directionless though (as jams can) and I would have liked more dynamic contrast, especially in the drums which played about the same level the whole song. I liked the ambient noise too but sometimes those dominoes got loud enough that you'd have to give them collaborator status. The recording was good, but mixing was too out-of-whack. All you can hear for most of this song is the keyboard and drums. The cello and bass were barely audible even during their solos. I don't think it's polished enough that we can take it. Sorry, Bardley. (Heh, that was a typo, but I think I'll leave it.) NO (resubmit)

Tempted to give you the YES just for the mix title. Very cool sound design and effects going on here, but I thought the mix was a little empty and simplistic. 0:33-1:37 doesn't evolve much, holding the same patterns and just increasing the intensity of the drums. Would have been nice to see another instrument in there. The piano chorus was a cool change, though again, felt empty. By contrast, 2:18 and onward felt more filled out with the resonanced synth. The ending was basically a retread of earlier sections, combining the two sections. Would have been nice for the piano to play different notes each time. Pretty much, I just want to see more variety. Mood and style is great and the song does evolve, but not enough, and the way the source is used is pretty static and falls back on repetitions too much. NO (resubmit)

Very cool arrangement, it's pretty easy to see what you were trying to do with it. I liked what you did with the piano a lot, the runs and the high notes were very pretty. Harkened back to the source every time it seemed like it was getting too far away. You definitely did make this stand apart. But yeah, production-wise it's not there. The instruments don't sound realistic enough, simple as that. Piano felt too upfront and overwhelmed the other instruments, and the snare also sounded distant. You obviously put effort into making the piano articulations sound humanized, but there were moments that stuck out, like the intro. At some parts the left hand or right hand also sounded too loud compared to the other. The WIP forum might be able to help you along with this one by pointing out the weak spots. I think this is most of the way there though, continue working on it! NO (resubmit)