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Cataloged in MusicBrainz!

Since this is a tough round to call, I'm taking the extra time to write reviews and collect my thoughts.  As usual, I may come across as overly critical, but on the whole, this was an exceptional round.  Going to be some strong competition in the Dracula bracket!
The Witching Hour: Production-wise, OA delivers, as always.  The A->B->A/B->B arrangement is pretty typical for these compos, and I could have done with more blending earlier on.  The blending itself seemed a little awkward--the elements were interleaved but never seemed to really interact with each other.  It's a real shame, too, because I feel like the treatment of the minimalistic Castle Center, a tough source to work with IMO, was exceptional, and I would have loved to have seen it get some more melodic components added to it. I Never Drink, Wine: Very thin soundscape, unfortunately emphasized by direct comparison to OA's mix.  The buildup to the opening at 0:32 was weaksauce, and again at 2:31.  Not much use of Castle Center that I could hear.  Interesting use of clips from Dracula, but, except for the title quote (which had no backing music), they were pretty muddy and I couldn't understand the words. The Fury within the Wicked Heart: Orchestral/rock fusion is a favorite genre of mine, but I don't feel this was the best execution.  The chugging overdriven guitar doesn't play well with the orchestra, and there are quite a few places where their notes seem to clash or go off-tempo.  The guitar is a little too loud, too.  It's a little repetitive in places, e.g. the intro goes on for a little too long IMO.  The two themes weren't blended together very well as far as I can hear, it's mostly Heart of Fire -> Wicked Child with some original sections.  Maybe some aspect other than the melody is being blended, but I'm not hearing it. This Wicked Heart of Mine: You did a great job here of intermixing the two sources, although it sounds like you found some of the key differences challenging.  I actually had to listen to this several times to catch which segments were part of which source--they're interleaved so thoroughly that I kept thinking it was sticking to one source when it was really using both closely together. Interesting decision to really focus on the intro of Wicked Child, at the expense of the body of that song, but I think it worked pretty well.  Lyrics get seriously repetitive; I feel this would have benefited greatly from real ones.  It feels like the balance is heavy on the high end; if you revisit this (and I hope you do), I'm hoping someone in the Workshop can comment on that more specifically. Don't Cry for Me, Vampire Killer: Not a big fan of most of these melodic variations, personally.  Just a matter of taste.  I felt like the intro and breakdown had the strongest production quality, and that the melodic sections were pretty thin.  Might just be a poor choice of lead.  Basic A->breakdown->B arrangement structure, no interplay between the two sources.  The "hiccup" at 3:10 seems unintentional, since it happens only once, so it sounds like a skip. Dracula's Madness: Interesting departure from your usual chip-heavy style.  Not really my thing, but it's well-executed for what it is, certainly up to your standards if not your style.  I just wish you'd managed to get Bloody Tears in there earlier--even incomplete, I might have voted for this if it met the compo's basic concept.

How apropos for a vampire themed remix competition, WarMachine and Jorito are ........ neck and neck (Yaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!) 

Not sure if I was one of them (I tried), but if 50% of the names are wrong it probably means the instructions are too difficult or unclear
Or as Sun Tzu put it: "If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, then the general is to blame. But, if orders are clear and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their oficers.”

Yes, I'm still among the living, just haven't had much time to partake in the thread...Its funny since working overtime on this remix I found myself emulating the Count's habits. Sleeping all day, up all night, avoiding all daylight, leaving my dwelling only to feed and terrorizing the illiterate peasants of Walachia in the late 1890's.  I'll swing by tomorrow and see how everyone's doing, Night. 

Finally got the main body of my track arranged, now to add all the bells and whistles!*
 
*Disclaimer: Track may not contain bells or whistles.

Finally got the main body of my track arranged, now to add all the bells and whistles!*
 
*Disclaimer: Track may not contain bells or whistles.

I thought Bug! was a Sega Saturn game.  I'm pretty sure we're getting our Sega systems completely mixed up here. xD

Among the games I got for the PS1, I'd consider Klonoa a 'hidden gem' as hardly anyone got it, but to me it looked so beautiful and had a very unusual engine at the time - I mean, it works like a 2D platformer but the paths wind around a 3D map and could just cross over with each other at any time.  The presentation looked really lovely for a PS1 game at the time, and to this day it's still one of those few games that make me cry at the end.  I say try it out!

Wasn't Bug! on the Sega CD?
 
I loved Jersey Devil! I remember it as being quite difficult, though this a 20 year old memory so I could be wrong
My hidden gems:

Finally got the main body of my track arranged, now to add all the bells and whistles!*
 
*Disclaimer: Track may not contain bells or whistles.

6/8 and 12/8 are pretty much the same thing, it's just whether you think of the "bars" as having 2 or 4 beats. It's more natural for me to think in 4 beats.
I've done 2 songs in 12/8 and have one more that's on-hold. Everything in that meter feels super bouncy and fun, even if it's in minor key!

More or less.

Dronebone, I totally get what you're saying in that it could be improved. The production could have been better. The four live performances could have been better. If the five of us were to get together and make a remix now, we could probably do something that sounds much cleaner, much more professional.

But here's how I see it: listening to music doesn't always mean listening to pristine studio recordings; sometimes it means listening to your buddy's band rock out in his garage. Do they sound as pristine as what you hear on the radio? No. But does that at all detract from the fun? Not at all.

This wasn't "let's sit down and make the best damn remix ever" sort of thing; it was more like "hey, we got five remixers here in Andy's basement, so let's throw a track together." It was a jam session between five buddies.
It is entirely possible that my perception of this remix is biased by the fact that I consider that jam session to be one of my most treasured memories, but when I listen to this track, I wouldn't change a single thing. Not one waver of Jill's voice, not one aspect of Andy's production, not Mike's cheesy lyrics, not Steve's 3AM rapping, not my off-rhythm guitar playing, not one single thing would I change.

If I were in Taucer's shoes, I wouldn't want to change much either; there are five collaborators, so y'know, it might be best to just go for as good as you can manage without pulling some of them in for more and more fixes.
That aside, I actually haven't heard this since I heard zircon's Phasma Elementum, which was like, 3+ years ago (when I heard it, not when it was released ), so let's see.
Yep, Jill is still killin' it with her tone, and she only got better in the later years. Shonen Samurai makes it sound somewhat parody-like, in a good way. Almost talk-like, but not like he wasn't motivated, and not so flat that it felt unenthusiastic. A bit more like he maybe didn't understand the message of the song but wanted to sing it as well as he could anyway. Sure, I can see sometimes the lyrics are trying to fit into a large number of notes (yet a short time span), but it's not "phoned-in at best" or even "cringe-inducing". At worst I'd say it's occasionally awkward, but clearly not so bad that they might as well not be there...
As it stands, it's right on the edge of the typical production standards in 2006 IMO. Maybe it wouldn't pass today, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it should have been further revised before final submission in 2006. Still holds up well today, and well worth listening to.

Music isn't always about refining things to sonic perfection.... see The Velvet Underground.... or the entire genre of punk, for that matter
Sometimes it's more "of the moment"... as was the case here, imo.
I think certain types of arrangements just tend not to even HAPPEN at all when everyone involved is thinking about pristine perfection or whether adding/removing a given element will make a song more appealing to a wider audience... it's not about saying you couldn't have made improvements at the time if you knew then what you know now, if I'm getting @Geoffrey Taucer right... it's more about some of those types of tweaks & that type of finesse ruining the vibe that birthed the arrangement in the first place.

This assessment could not possibly be further from the truth.

As for the rest of the post, I'm sorry you didn't like the song. It is, looking back on it after ten years, probably not up to the standards that any of the five of us would shoot for if we were to make it today, but if I were to go back and redo the song all over, I wouldn't have wanted to do anything different.

Round 2; FIGHT!

Round 2; FIGHT!

Hello.
 
I have gotten really interested on producing both orchestral and rather melodic dubstep/drumstep styles lately and have tried to fit them them all into single tracks, and i was wondering are there people here interested on same category? I would be interested on hearing of such productions and discussing about them in general
What about just producing only orchestral and or only melodic dubstep or drumstep? I was suggested to come visit here from DSF ninja community in hopes of advice for building full on orchestral music, well i have in fact already tried to compose some full orchestral pieces already on my own, but my compositions have been rather short so far so i have mostly only made them as intros on my tracks with virtual instruments mostly from Native Instruments and then just started making beats and sound designs after that with an faster tempo, here is my latest example:
 
So any opinions or advice on that? I got already one useful advice on which i totally agreed: the part on around 1:50 in the track, on which i stop the orchestral intro and started making the verse and chorus, i first lower the tempo even lower down from 110bpm for few seconds and then lift it up to around 160bpm so i can make faster almost drumstep style track, but that precise part does sound kind of.. off, because the super saw sound design sounds weird while speeding up.. so should i make the part on which i change the tempo totally quiet and/or at least faster or with different sounds.. or should i just try to make full orchestral tracks as in keeping the 'intro' of my tracks out and making dubstep and drumstep and orchestral separate, trying to fit too much into single tracks can be kind of.. weird.. what do you think?
Well then again on my own opinion, i like to try to fit lot's of stuff into my productions because for example the orchestral intro does bring rather exciting feeling into the track but then when it changes into dubstep/drumstep, it does have some sort of other feeling which makes me enjoy making the production.
What about mixing and mastering? I have sucked at it especially earlier on and have tried to practice it more alongside with sound design and build practice and am not super familiar with chords either in general how they actually work, so far i've mostly just tried playing them on my midi keyboard or adjusting them otherwise in piano roll which would sound about right. 
My choice of DAW is Fl Studio 12 which seems to be my kind of workstation in all other parts except it being really hard on my CPU (annoying lag sometimes when there is lot's of stuff happening at the same time and CPU peaks at 100% usage) so don't know if any other would be better on that part but not in the set of mind on changing daw as FLS has best workflow for me at least and am familiar with it so i am trying to only get my productions sound better to people in general and i think that changing daw ain't the solution for that

What are you on about, Strader? There is no "salt" in this thread so far except, ironically, this post of yours complaining about it.
No one's stopping anyone from "liking" anything. Opinions are also not required to be positive and most people thus far would appear to agree that this is a weird marketing tactic selling over-priced goods and cringe-worthy poses. Like, I seriously can't imagine why anyone would have a problem with this thread unless they have a personal involvement with this campaign or an infatuation with Lightning that they feel is being attacked.  

Usually I'm the one who decides on the source tune when I collaborate with people.  I kinda want to mix it up and let the other person do the deciding lol.  Uhh...so long as the source has a MIDI, I cannot transpose by ear =p

A good point! Did you have any source in particular in mind?

Could be a good excuse to collaborate finally =p

*EDIT* Just seen that I should have PM'd Odai instead. My bad!