Phonetic Hero

What the hell man, this is too good

MY MAN!! This is SO sick dude, such a great remix. You killed it on the arrangement, and your collaborators really took it to the next level. Love this track man!

I love this track, especially the Metroid Prime noise sfx in the opening - you guys nailed the vibe. Re-inspired to work on my MP patch bank for Serum. Excellent stuff.

Obviously I'm no good at timely responses either haha. Thanks for the info! I probably won't be buying the hardware, though If I can find a way to emulate it I'd love to have the patches to use for myself. The closest I've gotten is making patches myself that are in the Metroid Prime ballpark, mostly with Serum - might have to make it a pack for download at some point!

I for one definitely agree with this analysis - 8-Bit Music Theory is a Legend with a capital L. I've been watching his videos to pick up new concepts and gather my inspiration before tough work sessions for a while now, extremely useful resource

The most succinct way I've ever heard it put is that music theory is DEscriptive, not PREscriptive, and it's stuck with me ever since (thanks Adam Neely!)

Cool stuff man! I have a bit of experience with Prime-inspired music myself, always great to see like-minded musicians I think that bass in the beginning of the first track could use some refinement, it strikes me as too dry and over-the-top for a MP track. I also like plain sine waves without the layering for most of my MP leads, but that's more a matter of personal preference. I think things sound a lot more cohesive at the 1:15 mark - aside from maybe some more percussive texturing, this part works great for me! I think the second track works better for me overall, you've used the patches that were used in the MP OSTs really effectively. I'm not sure I'd make the track as long as it is without much structural change, but if you like it, keep it! If you don't mind my asking, how did you get access to the original synth patches used in the games? Did you buy the old hardware or are you emulating things somehow? Nice work, keep it up!

Wes I fucking love your music, don't be so hard on yourself

Hell yes

Love the source choice Personally I've never been a big fan of the "double build" approach to a track's introduction, the first build always ends up feeling superfluous to me. If it serves a purpose for your creative vision though, leave it in! The rest of the arrangement sounds great! I love the build to the climax with the choir, and the more urgent feeling of the chord stabs at 1:25. This template sounds like a winner to me.

@AngelCityOutlaw Thanks man! Just to quickly clarify, there aren't much of any RPG elements in Wargroove - it's much more like Advance Wars in that units don't gain experience or level up, and instead you build units each turn and have to understand which units are effective against each other. Victory comes from toppling an opponents HQ or taking out their commander. Wargroove also has a really good critical hit mechanic that relies entirely on unit positioning rather than chance (with conditions being different for each type of unit), so while it's pretty easy to pick up, the strategy gets absolutely wild. It was really fun watching the beta testers go at it with each other and develop new strategies that I never would've thought of.

I had the pleasure of writing the music for Chucklefish's Wargroove, a spiritual successor to old-school tactical games like Advance Wars: Being a huge fan of tactical games myself, this was a bit of a dream gig and I'm extremely proud of how the tunes turned out. Wargroove is available on Steam, Humble, Switch, and Xbox One/Windows 10 (w/ Xbox Play Anywhere). The soundtrack is available on my bandcamp and on Steam as DLC (can also be bundled with the game for 10% off!). It'll also be available on all major streaming platforms by the 15th. Hope you love both the game and the soundtrack!

So does literally every piece of music ever

I'm not saying there won't be people who don't like everything you do, because of course there will. I'm saying that the people who don't care for your original work but DO like your remixes weren't going to be drawn to your original work anyway, so it's not a "loss" in terms of your audience. On the flip side, there are people who WILL like both who will have only heard of you because of your remixes. Being sour about someone liking one thing you do and not everything you do is stupid and a waste of energy imo

I write for games full time, but I still see a lot to be gained from arranging. So yes! I still remix when I have the time. I'll try to be concise for a change: You get to make a piece of music you enjoy listening to (and perhaps learn what exactly it is you enjoy in a piece of music) You get to study that piece's structure, harmony, etc. and apply what you learn to your own originals (though I find straight transcription to be even more useful for learning) You get to practice strengthening your weak points without the pressure of writing an amazing original melody/chord progression/bassline/drum groove/whatever, since it's already done You get to learn how to reuse pieces of a track to improve your arrangement game (mostly for soundtracks or theme-related albums, but it's been extremely useful for me in a work setting) I think in terms of potential for musical growth, there's a LOT to be said about arranging, and I think the inspiration and forward momentum someone can get from an existing tune/game they love is also an important part of the remixing game. For what it's worth, I don't find the "is it mine?" debate to be very useful. Something I consider MUCH more important when I make a remix (or any piece of music) is "do I like listening to it?" EDIT: I also think looking at building an audience in terms of remixing vs. originals is silly. Those who will be interested in your originals will be interested regardless, and those who won't, won't - it's not a matter of "splitting your audience". If a remix was what got the ears there to listen to your other music in the first place, it can only help