docnano

Wow, these are chock-full of personality. I especially love the Fairy/Kokiri arrangement, so full of youth, magic, and a bit of mischief. I agree that some of the harmonic changes to Kakariko are a little hard to swallow. I hope you plan to clean these up and make a compilation out of it. I'd love to hear more polished versions of all of these.

Very nice, and certainly more respectful of the original than my piano remix of this tune. It reminds me a little of the Sound and Drama arrangement, but with divergent, tasteful interpretation and a more sensitive approach.

This mix packs as much variety and energy as Samus's own arsenal. I love the unexpected change-up at 2:39 in particular. Regardless of whether it's "pure" dubstep, I could have kept listening for several minutes longer.

Head-spinning indeed -- this is no light listening! The arrangement and production are fantastic. If I listen to it a few dozen more times, I might start to hear all of the source references. As it is, I do hear both of the themes pretty clearly throughout ~half of the mix.

As far as dubstep goes, I actually like this quite a bit. There are a variety of sections with different styles; it's not a wub-wub/boom-crash-fest throughout, so it actually holds my interest, unlike most stuff in the genre. And I do hear the source throughout most of the track.

LOVE bebop jazz in particular. I tinker (and fail) from time to time. It's the whole improv thing. But we still need to find something to collab on. Also, just for kicks, here's a comparison of volume levels across three piano recordings I have, two of them being professional recordings: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0ByCPbTAe4OkKNjk2MWM0MjMtMGM3Ny00OTAwLTk0ZTEtNjlmNDFiOTcwMjRi&hl=en_US So, volume-wise, I think my mix falls safely within the norm for even professional piano recordings, even though other aspects of the production are sub-professional.

Thanks for the comments so far, everyone! I pretty much went crazy with the interpretation of this one, so I understand concerns about it being too liberal. I agree with djp that it can be tricky to apply the same standards across genres varying from hip hop to impressionism and beyond... so, glad this one made the shave. SubNormal, definitely appreciate the comments about production. I still have plenty to learn!

I doubt I'd be shocked. My first accepted mix (still not posted) took months of work, on and off, and another one took even longer. Keep at it...

Thanks for the feedback. I'll play with the transitions at some point, and maybe add some more development in that middle section or leading up to it. Nice idea to join it with the Kokiri theme, though I do want to keep it pretty brief, plus I've been thinking about writing a separate Kokiri arrangement to follow this track.

What a terrific treatment of this theme. You transformed a fairly arhythmic ambient track into a real toe-tapper, which is great. There's enough development to keep it interesting. I think you've also achieved a pretty good balance between too many and too few instruments at a time. Suggestions that come to my mind: 1. The bass synth is a little static for my taste. If you chose a bass sample with more of an distinct attack-decay it might be more interesting, otherwise you could experiment with adding some automation (phaser, frequency cutoffs, EQ changes over time, stuff that I'm not too great at myself). 2. The toy piano or glockenspiel is pretty dry. Maybe you want it this way, but I think a tiny bit more reverb wouldn't hurt. 3. Piano is nicely written but the performance sounds mechanical to me. It sounds like you might be using some different attack velocities, but IMO there should be a bigger contrast between accented and non-accented notes. 4. The last minute or so seems fairly repetitive. Maybe if you introduced a different solo instrument instead of the organ? Or changed up the drum beat/added some accent percussion? 5. Ending is cute but to me comes across as weak with that particular bass sample. Keep up the good work, and welcome to the forums!

WOW, liked this way more than I expected to. Held my attention all the way through with its strong lyrics AND musicality. (rating: arbitrary number/same arbitrary number)

Interesting start here. I like how you interwove the SMW and SMRPG themes, and later other combinations of the themes. Stuff to work on, arrangement-wise: The part where Saria's Song first comes in comes off as a bit abrupt (a case of medley-itis, methinks). Also, I think you go a little overboard right now with the splicing of different parts of the themes together, particularly later on. Maybe it would be ok if you varied up the instrumentation and harmonies more, though. The main electric piano instrument (and others) should also be humanized with more varied articulation and dynamics. I like the ideas you have started here, keep working on it!

Here's something I recently wrote as part of a putative Zelda impressionist piano remix album: The performance needs more polish, and I'm not 100% satisfied with the transitions, but the piece is mostly there. I might submit a more polished version of this to OCR at some point, but I'm curious as to whether the length (1:22 << 2:00) could be a problem for acceptance.

I'm in a trance, wanna take off my pants and... dance! Seriously, killer mix Will, and one of my favorites from you (out of many).

I still love that high point in the violin at 1:17. Congrats on your first post, Chris, and your first "full-fledged" post, melody. Great job!

How lovely! You nailed the "flying" vibe. Really dig those vocal touches, and the synth/guitar work is top-notch. Seriously, can't stop listening to it.

In the first few seconds I was preparing for an unremarkable rock mix, but then the jazz influences, swift dynamic/texture changes, and mixed meter parts came in... the result totally kicks ass. I love it! 61!

Happy birthday!

I'm speechless. Terrific work, you two.

I usually get tired of dubstep after a minute or so, but this knocked my socks off (and thrust my bare feet into a fuming vat of acid)! There are one or two sections, in particular 0:23-0:39, where there are some interesting rhythms but it feels a bit empty to me. Even if it's meant to be a break from the mayhem (and we need it at times), I think you could add some subtle pads, effects, and/or rhythm variations to the existing parts to give it more momentum. GREAT JOB

Nice medley/arrangement, well done! Any chance a high-quality recording of this will be available in the future?

Well, on the flipside, I'm definitely not a fan of changing things just for the sake of change. I find that I'm usually less conservative with arrangements when I'm tinkering on my keyboard, as opposed to deliberately dropping notes into a sequencer.

That may be true, but this arrangement is almost like a transcription. Some original sections or tasteful variations on the melody wouldn't hurt. Then again, you might bring out some distinct character with the actual performance, and a more interpretive Aveh section would definitely help. Nothing rubbed me the wrong way from 2:12-2:14, but the part immediately after that seems unfinished. I'm not sure how you're planning to get into Aveh (and will it retain the "dance" feel of the source?), but at the very least you'll need a ritard preceding the fermata, I think. In lieu of a ritard/fermata, you might consider keeping the momentum going, and ending with some crescendoing bass notes/fifth chords on the beat to establish the rhythm for Aveh. I'll PM you if I come up with anything halfway decent. Got some new samples that might give me more inspiration. EDIT: Just for kicks, here's what I meant by splitting up the moving line (sorry to beat a dead horse). I'm using the solo French horn and trombone settings in EastWest, so they should be within each instrument's range.

Cool. This is definitely more of a cover than a remix at this point, but maybe that's your intent. I'd love to hear a more even distribution of the moving harmonic lines across different instruments around 1:24, other than just french horn (I think it's french horn anyway ). I think there's an opportunity for some more creative writing for the backup parts. Maybe. Can't wait to hear it played live! You guys are always awesome.

I believed this was SoaD for the longest time. XD Short 'n sweet, this is one of the most memorable early OCR entries, and one I'll be listening to for years to come.