Spakku

Heh, nice work with the update to the middle, those transitions were quite slick. Horns sound like crap, though. Ending didn't really work, but you already know that. Lyrics are noticeably clearer, though I still can't get a lot of them. I did pick up that it's supposed to be Link, though, and it's an oddly grown-up-sounding voice for that particular Link.

Upon further reflection, when I wrote that it "it felt dead" I was listening to the part with the bells. The way they stop completely dead exactly one second after they're rung notches up the unnatural feel pretty significantly while it's happening; bells resonate. Also some of your synths need more emphasis than you give them, particularly the ones replacing what I can only assume is some kind of electric violin in the original, the layered descending notes that are more or less the melody for the first segment. In the original they're loud and energetic-sounding and play end to end; yours drop all of these traits leaving the most prominent sound of the first half sounding, well, boring. That new high woodwind-sounding thing near the 3:00 mark is terrible and needs to die.

You can't just cut me off like that! At least warn us there's no ending next time.

The hell, man? I thought Tindeck froze up, there! The fuck kind of an ending is that?

I dunno, maybe it's the samples you're using. There's no enthusiasm. Can't listen to the update now, more on that later.

The funk bass coming in after the strings voxes and bells has me confused. I don't know what you're trying to say by using these fancy church-y noises, to begin with, and it the follow-up certainly doesn't clarify. More importantly; during the funk bass section the timing seems all kinds of screwed up, otherwise there's no noticeable technical issues. Man With the Machine Gun is one of my all-time favorite battle themes. It took weeks before I realized that Laguna was supposed to be uncool, thanks to his crazy-awesome theme music. Your mix just isn't cool. Too computerized, I think, most of it feels dead.

I liked it okay but I'm worried for it. Obviously you'll have to lengthen the thing, and I'm worried you won't be able to do much of anything with such a short loop for source material and such a clear, all-covering, basis to start with. No matter how many ways you could mix it within the same style it'd be hard to not make it sound monotonous, I'd think. Sounds like the middle of a bigger whole, especially given the intro and outtro being so identical. Like it's bookended by acts 1 and 2 of Flying Battery. Or the James Bond theme.

I think I picked out an instance of the word "labyrinth". And maybe "underground" at one point. Which is to say that the vocals are quite hard to hear. EDIT: Slightly clearer in the second half.

If you're planning on just changing the arrangement and not modifying the timing or melodies at all, that's not going to be original enough to submit. If you are planning on changing more aspects, this is a pretty poor way to judge how it will turn out once you do make the thing. We don't know how these instruments will sound in their final roles.

Cutting silent after the intro and raising in the lead like that is pretty cliche. Maybe that's just me hating on the genre, though, I'm not really a fan of trance music. All I've got to say, this time 'round. Nice improvement.

That took a weirdly long time to download. Intro sounds terrible. Worse than the original. Really you could have just pasted in a recording of the original for better effect than what you did. Lead melody loses a lot of its old punch when you have only one synth playing it. I guess you're doing that in the beginning to further contrast it from the more intense parts, but it just doesn't sound good when it's singular. Repeating the lead melody so many times in rapid succession de-emphasizes it pretty fiercely; I keep waiting for an original lead to take over.

Looking back that was like the opposite of constructive... I hit something of an issue unintentionally, though. I said it sounded right out of F-Zero GX. I'm actually picturing Cosmo Terminal: Trident when I hear this. This sounds exactly like background music, the thing never steps forward. I know it's a hell of an obstacle when you're working with a BGM source, but this ain't finished 'til you overcome it. All of your instr-, er, samples are in the same harsh-sounding range, nothing stands out. You need that guitar you mentioned earlier, I think, something to grab the attention. Also, that hit at 3:30 sounds ridiculous. It's not the right kind of attention.

Yeah, stabby's definitely better for this. Sounds way happier, despite the violent-sounding name. A little more variation would do it a world of good. Despite the electronic arrangement it sticks to the source something fierce.

It sounds really cool, it conveys the racing aspect if only because it sounds like it came outta F-Zero GX, but I'm not feeling the sword aspect at all. No fear, no aggression, which is kind of amazing considering it's such a mean arrangement. The instruments - well, sounds - provide all the negative emotion, distinct from the rest of the song. It's kind of like painting a landscape of Hell, the place is horrible, but the painting is rather peaceful in spite of it. Your song is in a scary, angry place but it manages to only really convey "going fast". This is all good stuff in my mind, actually, I guess I'm more critiquing your title choice.

I think I'm hearing some issues with timing (hard to tell exactly with so much going on), there's scattered dissonant notes all through (more in the beginning), and your background sounds are too loud.

I mean it sounds like you're only using one sample. Normally I'd be saying "samples," it felt weird.

When I heard just "Mario" the last thing I was expecting was Mario RPG or Yoshi's Island. Your sample (singular as far as I can tell) is pretty bad and, like Neko said, there's some dissonant notes. Despite the shortcomings and the fact that it's a medley at all, which I almost never like, there's something kind of charming about it. I'm wondering what kind of arrangement you're going for though. Not everything's going to transition as easily as all-piano.

Sounds better than before, the original melody makes for a pretty nice intro. Feels to me like it wants to transition into something else the way you have it, though; up to 1:15 it sounds like it's prepping to bring in a new lead melody or at least a shift in tone. Kind of anticlimactic at about the point you realize it's just going playing the chords. And the chimes are definitely a little off key.

I don't know how to answer that, exactly. It felt like the arpeggio was too prominent in the second version, maybe louder, and that seemed to upset the balance.

I hear it now, but it sounded better the other way I think.

If I sounded offensive, I didn't mean it that way. I swear very casually.

Fuck if I know, you're the artist.

Way too much intro. Playing the melody completely straight doesn't work at all with your "trancy/dance vibe" it really just sounds like you pasted it on top of an unrelated song. Mix it up a little.

I guess this song just sounds kinda empty without that little tune bit that comes in at 0:40 and 2:17. It's hardly a lead melody, looking back, but it's the part that stands out most when I try to recall the song. That tune really wouldn't work with the rest of this arrangement, though, so no more complaints about it from me.

I like the beginning, it reminds me of Terminator. I'm not able to remember the source very well, but I'm not really hearing any kind of melody in this and I know Metroid Prime don't skimp on melody. Nice, though.