MindWanderer

I hear the source very clearly, so no doubts there. I'm not a fan of the dirty drum samples, which make the soundscape sound more cluttered than it really is, and 2:32 sounds severely dissonant to me, but otherwise this is pretty hot stuff. A good choice for the album's mixflood when it comes out. YES

2000 hours is over 83 consecutive days, so I'm not thinking he got there in two months. Perhaps you meant 200 hours, which I'd consider excessive for an adult with a child. I put in a couple of hours a day at the absolute most; more often than not the number is zero. There's a reason why they're talking about adding video game addiction to the DSM (not exactly using that word, because they have a very specific definition of what "addition" means, medically). Gambling "addiction" is called "gambling disorder," for instance. The term under consideration right now is "internet gaming disorder," which of course misses the point in a lot of ways. But it's definitely true that video games, designed in certain ways, can hit those reward triggers in the brain.

This is how you orchestrate a simple source! Heavy use of the original melody, but each time it repeats, it's layered or altered into something completely unique. Pulling over five minutes out of that simple loop sounds like it would be tricky, but Mathieu makes it sound not only easy but natural. Production quality is way up there, too. It's unmistakably artificial, especially the brass, and the attacks on the strings are consistently slow, which causes the quick violin runs to get a smidgen muddy, but I'm nitpicking here. Overall this is gorgeous. Let's get it up. YES

I can't argue with any of what Gario said, but I will break it up into two parts, as the first two-thirds (up to 6:00) are drastically different from the last third. The first part is largely a subtractive approach, removing a lot of the depth and complexity of the source and replacing it with some simple, often thin, vocals. It's not a good trade-off, and while it's a cool idea, it comes off as a downgrade of not only the original, but of Rebecca's usual heavily-orchestrated work. The second part largely reverses the issues in the first part. There are a lot of layers going on, some of them quite complex, but many of them have a lot of reverb and long decays, as well as conflicting frequencies, that blend everything into each other. Both parts are, also as Gario mentioned, overly quiet for a bombastic orchestral arrangement. It's also mostly lacking in the low end that gives arrangements like this a lot of their power. This is less an issue in the second part than the first, but strangely, with all those layers, they mostly all reside in the mid to high range, aside from some brief kettle drums. There's a good foundation here, but the first two-thirds of it need additional content, creativity, and depth, while the last third needs to be less muddy, and nearly all of it needs more low-end and could benefit from more volume. NO

Bloodlines, a.k.a. Divine Bloodlines, is the theme of Richter Belmont. Normally when folks join in between when I announce a check-in date and when that date arrives, I give them some more leeway about meeting it, but since you've admitted you'll probably need some more guidance, yes, please aim for March 31.

Sure! I hadn't been familiar with your work, but "Down the Rabite Hole" is definitely up to par and compatible with what we'd be looking for. Did you want to claim a track?

First of all, this remix needs an actual name if it ends up passing. The arrangement is quite conservative, with up until 1:04 being an almost exact cover, and the rest retaining the melody and structure of the source using guitar and bass instead of the source's strings (in most cases, a 1:1 substitution, after an inexplicable and jarring key change). Genre conversions are often acceptable as ReMixes, but there should be some re-arrangement or re-orchestration going on, not just an instrument swap. The only significant transformation is in the percussion, and that's not dramatic. Production-wise, things could be cleaner. When the guitar starts in at 0:03, it carries with it a background hiss, white noise that stays with it throughout. It's very pronounced when one guitar is exposed, e.g. 0:03-1:18, 1:08-1:14, and 2:03-2:18. I don't know guitars, but on other audio equipment I would suspect cheap or faulty connectors or interfaces. When it goes into full-on rock mode at 1:22, the frequency spectrum becomes very limited. There's very little high-end from this point on, possibly because of an overly-aggressive low pass filter, or possibly because of that extremely low key shift combined with the equipment issue I'm guessing might be there. Your performances are great here, but the production really needs a lot of work. I'm less dead-set against the arrangement, but even with solid production I'd be borderline on that aspect of it at best; we generally look for interpretation and originality than what's demonstrated here. NO

Hard to argue with anything those gentlemen said. Above all else, the EQ is just not doing this arrangement justice. I actually liked the violin section, although there was too much sizzle to the drum sequencer there. I'll also add to what Nutritious said, in that the riffing in the last third of the track did get a bit meandering, and it would have been nice if it had tied back into Decisive Battle at the end. Work on that production and I think you'll have a gem here, but this isn't it yet. NO (resubmit)

Poor Final Fantasy V--such a great game, such a great soundtrack, and almost totally unknown in the West. This is one of my favorite tracks from it (though I have many). Orchestration and arrangement is typical strong Tripp fare, although there are some unusual harmonies (like 2:02-2:05) that take some getting used to. Balance could stand to be improved in places, as Gario said. My biggest beef is with the drums that start at 2:00, which are excessively loud, rich, and resonant for orchestral percussion, especially playing over the quiet woodwinds and strings. He's right about the strings being too quiet, too, especially in comparison to the celesta and harp. The drum actually bugs me a lot--it's one of those things that's hard to ignore once you start paying attention to it--but I don't think it's quite a dealbreaker. I'd prefer it to be fixed but I can live with it. Everything else is fine. YES

There are some cool, fun ideas here that made a lot of it enjoyable to listen to, but it has quite a number of issues as well. First, volume and balancing. It's mastered quite loud, and has some pumping and clipping issues. The drums are especially loud, most especially the kick, which is throbbing and distracting. I know that's what D&B emphasizes, but this is too much regardless. Second, structure. It's pretty repetitive, with each section looping for a few times more than is welcome. There are also large-scale repeats: 1:55 basically loops back to 0:44, and then, after a breakdown, 3:23 loops back to 0:55. There are some minor variations in each loop, but they're quite subtle and very hard to hear at all. I also personally think the SFX in the intro are overkill. It's also kind of odd that they're used so substantially there and then never return; some of it is actually used quite well and meshes well with the music, and could have been integrated into the body of the arrangement. It's just too much, too quickly, and then it's over. So yeah, I liked a lot of the specific arrangement choices in isolation, but there's not enough original substance for almost 4 1/2 minutes of music, and the balance needs some more work. NO

Oh, man, this arrangement literally gave me goosebumps. Lots of variation just in the treatment of the simple Gaster's Theme, and the insertions of dark versions of Hopes and Dreams and Megalovania worked perfectly to extend the theme while keeping the feel intact. And the natural, slightly flawed performance helped make it much more evocative. I will say, however, that balance was problematic, being heavily skewed towards the bass end in many places, most notably during the Super Mario World cameo at 0:42-1:00, where it's actually hard to listen to. I think the strength of the arrangement and performance are enough to pass this, although I wouldn't say no to some more EQ work. I definitely want this on the front page in some form. YES

There's definitely a lot of cool stuff going on here, and I enjoyed much of it. I do think the sound design is... not necessarily weak, but inconsistent. There are some very simple synths juxtaposed with some nice new age sounds, and they don't blend well together. Likewise, I don't think the balance is inadequate per se, but I do think there are sections where different parts are fighting for attention. Sometimes this is because the melodic emphasis and the percussion and wubs don't line up (e.g. 1:20-1:30), sometimes it's because the accompaniment is an autopilot and doesn't continue to jive with the melody (e.g. 2:10-2:32). Mostly I can hear everything clearly, but it's confusing. I think it's more an arrangement issue than a production issue. Between the meandering structure and the strange combinations of sounds and patterns, I think this is below the bar for me. Where it works, it works really well, but too much of it doesn't. NO

All right, time for another deadline: Saturday, March 31 I have three entries that are complete or nearly complete, and they're all pretty fantastic. It would be a grave injustice to not get them into an album. @ThePlasma, @ibeginwiththeendinmind, @Steele, please send an update my way or be cut. @Chernabogue you know where you stand and what I'm waiting for. I'll see if I can do some more recruiting.

Can't argue with any of that. As a score, it's quite nice. I could easily see this in the background of one of the mellow sections of, say, a Silent Hill game. But as a piece of music to just listen to, the repetitive arrangement and textures don't have much to hold a listener's interest for its duration. Great foundation, but it needs more built on it. NO

Orchestration is up to Rebecca's usual high standards, but I don't feel like the humanization and production are quite there. The contrast in humanization is quite strong because the live woodwinds are placed up against the mechanical strings and other instruments. 0:51 is an example of an especially jarring moment. Then, 1:20-1:27, 1:31-1:39, and 1:50-2:00 are mixed in a confusing way, and come out sounding unclear. This also has a bit of medley-itis. 2:20 and on doesn't sound like part of the same arrangement. There are no common themes between the sections before and after that part, and the pacing is different. There's also about 11 seconds of dead air at the end that should be cropped out even if this passes. Sorry, but I think this needs another pass on humanizing those instruments and balancing out some of the cluttered sections, and I feel like the last third of it either needs to be integrated more meaningfully or dropped entirely. NO (resubmit)

Anyone know for sure how this is pronounced? The trailer never says the word. Lah-boh? Lay-boh? Labbo? My wife's reaction was priceless. She got the email from Nintendo and asked if I knew anything about it. I said it was easier to watch the trailer than to explain it. Her jaw kept dropping lower and lower. When it ended, "WE HAVE GOT TO GET THIS!" I had thought it was a neat toy but wasn't planning on buying it, personally. Score one for Nintendo.

I don't have much to add to Gario's comments. The balancing takes some unexpected turns in places, but it never makes anything hard to make out. I would add that the main hook gets repeated on violin a few more times than I'd like; in particular, 3:02-3:57 is mostly quite similar to the first pass through the same section and I'd have preferred more in the way of variation, especially since it's the most conservative part of the remix. That's my biggest concern, though, and I don't think it's reason enough to send this back. YES

Holy reverb, Batman! Definitely in accord with Larry about the vocals overwhelming the source, in no small part because of that massive reverb applied to the vocals. Plus the source is mostly piano, a sonically greedy and hard-to-mix instrument, and they're both fighting with chorus, woodwinds, electric guitar--everything other than the lead vocals is extremely muddy, and I can only hear bits and pieces of many of the instruments. I think the arrangement is probably fine. The piano is extremely conservative, but the addition of the vocals and the accompaniment is good enough--insofar as they're actually audible, which mostly they're not. And I felt like the vocals meshed perfectly well with the instrumentation, although Gario's comments about the performance are worth emphasizing. Give the mixing a solid workover and this'll have my vote, but for now I have to give it a NO (resubmit)

I actually found Castlevania 1 and most of Ninja Gaiden (up to the last boss) to be easier than Mega Man 1. Castlevania 1 is only hampered by the full-commitment jumping and huge knockback, but it's slow-paced and easily predictable. Ninja Gaiden without Jump & Slash cheese is bad, but with it it's again easily predictable. Mega Man 1 is full of complicated disappearing block patterns and fast, random bosses.

It's long, but it doesn't wear out its welcome. Lots of cool ideas, great sound design. I wasn't bothered by most of Gario's crits, although the repeating 16th notes of the bass do leap out once your attention is drawn to them, and they do get really monotonous. I don't hear anything that should keep this off the front page. YES

Very nice orchestration. It's a little conservative, but as Rebecca usually does, there's a great deal of extra depth added via additional instrumentation. Using the female vocals as harmony instead of melody was clever, and makes it all the more striking during the short part where it does take the lead. The male chorus at 2:29-2:44 doesn't blend well with the other instruments and sounds dissonant, but otherwise I don't have any significant concerns here. YES

There are some interesting ideas here, but the vanilla synths, repetitiveness, pumping, and clipping aren't doing it any favors. Sorry, I don't really have much to add--this is just quite a ways away from primetime. NO

The syncopation is a little odd in places, hard to get used to but not objectively bad. And yeah, the lead is quiet in a lot of places. There's some pumping (1:09 really stands out), and I found the sidechaining in the climax distracting. Fade-out ending, blargh. More importantly though, I think source usage is a problem. What I get is: 0:04-0:26 0:57-1:24 2:21-3:01 (drastically transformed and unrecognizable out of context) 3:54-4:24 Total: either 119 or 79 seconds out of 280 seconds = 42.5% or 28.2%. And I feel like that third section is an extreme stretch to count. Otherwise I think this would probably be OK, but unless someone can point out more source, I have to give this a NO

The textures are definitely on the static side, especially that bass. Speaking of static, I really wasn't a fan of the white noise wash that the arrangement opens with (and appears in a few other places). However, it's perfectly adequate by our standards. Mixing is fine. It's definitely creative and transformative enough. It's not very exciting, but it's a quality, mellow jam. YES

I don't think the lack of low-end is as egregious as Gario described, but it definitely is lacking, especially for the genre. You have instruments that should be covering the lower bass range but don't, and the effect is to make them feel insubstantial; in some cases, it's hard to tell what the instrument is because its key frequencies have been muffled. This is a comparatively easy fix, so it should definitely be something to bear in mind. As for humanization, it's sort of in the uncanny valley, unfortunately. Some of it is so obviously fake that it sounds like a 32-bit game soundtrack, which is generally OK, but the sample quality for most of the instruments is high enough that the mechanical articulation is jarring. On the other hand, I've heard much worse; the settings you chose might be overused, but they're pretty good choices most of the time you use them. The worst offenders are in the accompaniment, not the leads, so it's not unbearable. The arrangement is also very solid, and it's a effective, creative take on the source. I think the production quality is high enough, if only barely, to effectively communicate that arrangement in an enjoyable way without any dealbreaking flaws. I would love to see this improved upon but I'm OK giving this a YES (borderline)