MindWanderer

I hate to be a negative Nancy on this, because the faux-performance is fantastic, the production is excellent, and the execution of the individual sections is beyond reproach. But everyone praising the sources flowing together seamlessly or naturally... I don't get it. It's not quite a medley, the transitions aren't as abrupt as all that, but several of them are really abrupt, and there's no integration of them into each other. It just flip-flops the whole time. Rachel, Tifa, Rachel, Tifa, Rachel, (Terra), Tifa, Rachel, Tifa, and then not much of an ending. Now, granted, it's hard to mix two themes together on solo piano, you only have two hands, but you did manage to do it a little bit with the Mako Reactor theme. While I do think that the chopped-up nature of it is a substantial minus, I don't think it outweighs the other strengths. I think it would have been much stronger as an arrangement of one theme or the other, but it is strong enough to pass. YES

These are both personal favorite sources of mine, though I couldn't easily imagine them going together. And it sounds like Emu struggles a little bit with that as well. The sound design is cohesive, but it still sounds like the two sources are chopped up and spliced together somewhat awkwardly, with a lot of filler gluing them together. If I were voting on this in the remix compo, I'd ding it for that. However, this isn't for the remix compo, and smooth integration of the two sources isn't one of the factors we judge on here. And what we do judge on is impeccable. The Asian sound design works fantastically (which we already knew works for Cosmo Canyon). The padding may be padding, but it's very good padding, and the little insertions of the themes' leitmotifs are brilliant. Sounds great, post it. YES

This is certainly a vast improvement on the repetition front. There's a lot of re-use of the main hook—a lot—but there's plenty more here. I particularly like the new last section, where the change in the harmony line changes the character of the hook. I'm not as big a fan of the big church bells, though; they sound off-key to me. I can't explicitly hear the brickwalling issue Kris mentioned, but I can certainly see it. There's just no reason for that kind of aggressive hard limiter. Please apply some proper compression instead. It'll make everything sound that much better. I actually think the bass solo is fine, given its length; the bass is rich and has a lot of harmonics in the mid frequencies that help it stand alone, for a little while. There's a lot of room for improvement here, for sure. I wouldn't mind seeing this get sent back for some tweaks. But I also wouldn't mind posting it as-is. YES

The bass dissonance stands out to me, as well. I think it's detuned in a problematic way. It's not an instant dealbreaker for me, but it does bug me. They're a little on the loud side, too. I see what Larry is talking about with the end being a little aimless, but I can tell what it's doing up until 4:18. After that it seems really chaotic, but it's only a bit over 20 seconds. The tail... what is with those pop/click noises? There's a music box motif in the beginning, but a music box would never make those noises. They sound like really awful clipping, or maybe a phonograph needle skipping. It's terrible. I really like the overall tone of this, and I think the arrangement is fine. The detuned bass detracts from my enjoyment, but doesn't eliminate it. I think the only thing I object to strongly is the artifact-like sounds at the end. That makes me a CONDITIONAL

Ooh, SID sounds. I love the tone to start off with, wondering why it got a NO already. And I do see why: the source usage is funny. It's hard to tell in the YouTube video, but I actually downloaded the MIDI you referenced (and attached it to this post for reference), and the harpsichord line is much easier to pick out there. And this is a remix of that line, not the main hook. It's an odd choice, but we allow this; it's not technically a standards violation. So let's move on to the other aspects of the mix. It's very loud, for one. Chiptunes, especially SID, sound a lot louder than other instruments of similar absolute volume, because they have basically no timbre, and thus use the full waveform "efficiently." That's something to watch out for. This makes it so that when things get dense, which pretty much everything after 1:34 does, it's kind of overwhelming, with everything slamming into the limiter full-force. It's especially shocking that things get so loud given how quiet it is for the first 44 seconds, even the drums; less dynamic range would be appropriate here. But the other main problem is the ending. There just isn't one. At all. I don't know if this was a render error or what, but we need to have something that sounds like an attempt at an ending and not the audio file just being cut off. It's too confusing. I don't think this is too far off the mark. An ending of some sort is mandatory, and you should work on the levels so there isn't so much difference between the quiet and loud sections and you're not hitting that hard limiter so hard all the time. But I think the arrangement and composition are fine. NO Edit: I could have sworn I downloaded the current version, but I guess not. This does have a fade-out ending. Not the most overwhelming ending, but it's better than nothing. I still have a beef with the levels; it especially bugs me how the drums in the intro are straight-up quieter instead of having the velocity decreased. It's not totally necessary with a synth drum, but it still sounds weird. I don't think the levels are quite a dealbreaker by themselves, though it's borderline. I can give this a YES (borderline) mi2escap.mid

I YESed this before, and it's even better now. The bass is still a little loud, but it's a nice full soundscape, and it moves through ideas at a good pace, to a solid ending. There is some overlap between the chip arp and the steel drums, briefly, and the whistle lead is definitely too quiet, but otherwise I can hear all the parts clearly. I'm not picking up any problematic pumping. I concur that there's room for improvement in the mixing, but I think it's above our bar, I don't agree with the complaints about emptiness or overcompression, and if Larry thinks that bass is buried, something's wrong with either his setup or his ears. YES

I'm so used to only the intro, main theme, and victory theme being remixed that it's actually weird for me to listen to a remix of other tracks bookended by the stuff I actually know. It sounds great, though. The crashes cause a little bit of pumping in the louder sections (1:39-1:48, 3:30-3:50), but otherwise production is great, performances are great, arrangement is great. YES

Source usage certainly is the elephant in the room. I can catch suggestions of the source material, but they remain suggestions, and they're not very long. However, even with a source breakdown that justified it, I'd have a hard time passing this. It's a very slow burn, spending whole minutes on grooves than barely vary; even for vaporwave/trance, it needs to be more engaging. The drums are indeed LOL-worthy, being barely audible. As proph said, it's very quiet, except for the one tire-screeching section, which is far too loud in comparison to everything else. The soundscape is quite narrow, with a lot of sub (which I can't hear on my setup, but I can see it on the frequency plot) but no mid-bass or highs to speak of. NO

Thanks for the breakdown. It was needed with this many sources involved, especially since the main hook is somewhat liberally interpreted. And that hook is needed, since it ties the whole thing together. I only found a few sections to be noodly non-sequiturs, notably 1:06-1:45. Most of the "noodly" riffs blended in as fun solos, and I think they work great. The ending was fine; a bit abrupt, but better than half of what we get. Sounds great, with mostly solid performances (just a few minor flubs here and there), and a creative approach. Strong work. YES

The interplay between the two sources is much more complex than Larry's "breakdown" suggests; the two themes trade places frequently, to the point that it's difficult to tell which is which at times. I don't think the two sources are similar at all, other than that they're both waltzes, so good job blending them together as if they were. The relentless beat of the piano is indeed a detraction. The two sources do have stronger, more consistent beats than most classical waltzes, but not nearly to this extent. Anyone actually dancing to this would get pretty bored: there's nothing there for them to work with. Still, that's the only reservation I have. Strong work overall. YES

Agreed with the above. I don't think it does enough to stand apart from any of the three versions for our standards. Only about the last 30 seconds leapt out at me as something really different from the source material. (Also the tail of the last note is cut off.) For the record, this would need a different name to be posted. Sounds great, just not what we look for. NO

I was going to say virtually the same thing as Brad. Epic, engaging, and diverse. A little muddy in the busier sections, notably with the rhythm guitar eating up all the space that the orchestral instruments need to breathe. And there are some sections where the melody and the accompaniment don't seem to be on the same page about what they should be doing. These are small issues, though, and don't stop this from being a YES

Wow, that modulated detuning. That... that's a choice, for sure. A very loud choice. As Kris and Brad pointed out, it's actually pretty conservative up until the halfway point. The instrumentation changes, but not the mood or pacing, and I'm not picking up any original part-writing. If it were just the first half, I'd agree with Brad 100% about it being too conservative to pass. The second half is definitely not too conservative. The connections to the source material get much more tenuous, but they're there. If this were just the second half, I'd want a breakdown with timestamps, but the first half easily (too easily!) takes this over the 50% mark. Unfortunately we haven't had a consistent voting consensus regarding arrangements like this (which we get fairly often), which are too conservative in the first half and too original in the second half. We've passed some of those and rejected others. This isn't even a particularly extreme example of that sort of issue. So that's certainly a weakness, but not a dealbreaker. Source usage is clumpy but overall sits in the safe range. While I'm in agreement with the judges above that I found this unpleasant and didn't enjoy it at all, I'm not really finding anything that's a standards violation. The synths vary quite a lot, and while they're technically "vanilla," they're chosen in a genre-appropriate, consistent, mindful way, and they're used in clever, engaging (if abrasive) ways. The soundscape gets thin frequently, but again it's intentional and done for aesthetic reasons. I do think the ending (5:17+) is weak, with only two instruments for nearly a minute and then an extremely abrupt end, and if I had one objective reason to say NO to this, it would be that. But out of a 6+ minute piece, I don't think that sinks it. I certainly respect a NO vote here, but I can't justify giving this one myself. YES

I have to admit I was biased against this within the first second. First of all, my moodbar visualizer looks like this: That's a track with basically no dynamics for a full three minutes. Now, not every type of change shows up on a visualizer like that, but it's not a good sign. The other thing was the lo-fi faux-vinyl crackle that runs through the whole thing. I'm not a big fan of lo-fi effects in general, but in this case it's particularly loud, and seems to be intentionally designed to cover up that lack of dynamics and depth. It's not doing this track any favors. So, on to the arrangement. Nice mellow e-piano take on the source material. Odd to have clean-sounding drumstick taps with an obviously synth drum kit. Other than the change in tempo, instrumentation, and the occasional "breakdown" sections where the drums cut out, it's structurally the same as the original. It's two loops of the A section, two of the B section, and another loop of the A section, after which it ends abruptly. While there's no single thing here that's a dealbreaker, it's underwhelming overall. It's 3 minutes of a constant, static groove that doesn't really do anything interesting, either with the source material or by means of interplay with its own motifs. It's a solo e-piano piece that uses a static effect to fill out a thin soundscape. I'm left feeling like this is a proof-of-concept and not a completed arrangement. There needs to be more depth and more variation to hold the listener's interest. NO

The overall impression I get is that of a composer who didn't know exactly what they wanted to do, so they did everything, and didn't commit to anything. We open with a vernal shakuhachi-led bit that then changes to trombone and violin. Then there's a break and it becomes a piano solo, to be joined again by violin and trombone. Then another abrupt transition and we get a fullly orchestral interstitial. Then it becomes orchestral metal; altogether there's about 45 seconds of what comes across as an "intro" despite being well into the arrangement already. It stays like this for the longest period yet, but it's still not long before we go into a quiet trombone solo with some minor orchestral accompaniment (with a flute that sounds almost like a square wave); this part, 3 minutes in, is the first section that gets past the Overworld theme. The next section is also simple orchestration, bringing the shakuhachi back, but the tone is cinematically dark and creepy now for some reason. That transitions into metal again, but drops the orchestral element almost completely. After that, we stay creepy, but the lead is a synth for the first time. Finally, we have some sections that are consistent with earlier ones: metal that continues in the same vein as the bit two sections before it, and then a bookend going back to the shakuhachi. Then it just ends, not ending on the tonic or anything else conclusive. It's also worth noting that the Overworld theme is quite short, just a few measures long, so it's hard to not make it repetitive. This remix does the right thing by using other sources to mix it up, but it takes 3 minutes to start doing so and doesn't do it much. Mostly it's that same overworld motif over and over again. On the plus side, the performances are great, and the production is solid (no small feat for orchestral metal; 1:45-2:50 is a real highlight). I do think the orchestration gets a little simplistic and thin at times, notably when it's orchestral instruments without a full ensemble, e.g. 2:58-3:34. But overall it's quite good in that respect. Ultimately what this feels like is a start at an Overworld arrangement, then a re-start of a different Overworld arrangement, over and over (with a bit of the castle theme in the middle). It's simultaneously repetitive (in terms of melody) and disjointed (in terms of orchestration and style). This needs more work put into making a coherent, dynamic piece that holds the listener's interest without throwing them for a loop every 30 seconds. As an example, if you cut out everything before 1:25, and instead of changing genres at 2:58, stuck with it (keeping the castle theme in either full orchestral or orchestral metal style), you'd have a great foundation up through 3:34. Build on that and you could make something really solid. Just an idea of how you could hold onto the best parts and build off of them. NO

Great arrangement. Pretty conservative overall, but it takes a lot of dips and twists that keeps it fresh throughout. There is some room for improvement on the performance front. There are off-key notes and squeaks sprinkled throughout. I don't think it's enough to push it below our bar, but it definitely sticks out as a weakness, and I can imagine it bothering listeners with a good sense of pitch. Still a lot of skill on display here. Overall a fun take and an entertaining listen. YES

Is the title "The Lonely Loner" or "The Lonely Lover?" The post has the former but the filename is the latter. Nice little synth-rock ballad from Will. Sounds as good as you'd expect. Nothing to complain about here! YES

I'm thrilled to finally be able to send this one in! Spelunker(NES) was a game I remember playing a lot as a little kid. It was impossibly difficult, and beyond frustrating, but I kept coming back to it. Maybe I just liked the concept, maybe it was a need to face the challenge, maybe I simply enjoyed the music in the first level, maybe all of them. Arranging Stage 1 in this style was one of the first ideas for a ReMix I had, but I decided it was beyond my abilities starting out. Over the next few years, I kept coming back to it off and on trying out different ideas, but I couldn't ever seem to get past the first minute (rather like the game itself...). I actually came up with the title very early on, and liked the whole spelunking/tropical island pun so much that it helped motivate me to not give up. Last November, I tried bringing in some other sources and finally broke past that 1 minute barrier. Pretty soon I had several sources involved and thought "how cool would it be if I could use all ten of the tracks from the OST in this in some way.", and it worked! While the majority of the ReMix is taken from stage 1, all nine of the remaining tracks on the OST make an appearance in whole or in part somewhere in this ReMix (that source break down was a beast). I'm joined on this project once again by a stellar cast of collaborators who brought this idea to life: Classical Guitar: GuitarSVD - Always a great guy to collaborate with . He took center stage here and turned out his usual great performance Acoustic Guitar: Reuben Spiers - I hadn't gotten to work with him since the Golden Sun album. Electric Guitar: SiolfortheJackal - Who did a great job creating a slide guitar sound without actually having a slide or having tried it before. Hand Percussion: Sean Hanson - I actually didn't write any hand percussion, I just told Sean roughly what I was after and he delivered! Steel Drum: MarimbaMatt - This is the second time Matt's given me a great performance on a hard-to-find percussion instrument that elevates the whole track. Drum Set: Kenny Jr. - I can't write drums to save my life. Fortunately, Kenny can. I sent him a part that approximated the style I was after, and he rewrote it into a real drum part, providing a great performance to boot! Piano: ZeldaRocks - Xander's bailed me out with piano parts on both this track and "Green Glade Groove" ( actually recorded at the same time). There's no overselling how great it is to have someone who can churn out solid performances in short order. Trombone: DeweyNewt - Frequently, he serves the vital role of being the bass anchor in my brassier tracks. Bass and Mixing: myuik - He put in a truly heroic effort mixing this track between other obligation and challenges over the course of many months, in addition to taking some time to shine on bass. He modified the bass part pretty heavily to give it that little something extra. And naturally, I rounded out the ensemble on trumpets. A huge thank you to all of my partners on this track for helping me finally turn this concept into something real! It is always a blast working with each of them, and this track would be dramatically different (and not near as good) without their creative and performative contributions. Without any further ado, I hope you all enjoy the sounds of subterranean submersion in "Cave Diving". Thank you, TSori Games & Sources: Cave Diving Source Break Down Spelunker (NES) ReMix Source Time Instrument Track Time Link 0:00-0:005 Trumpet Title Theme 0:00-0:03 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUvxItZeMYM&list=PLD51E5D6230C3FDFC&index=1&pp=iAQB8AUB 0:05-1:02 Nylon Guitar (with Steel Drum&Trumpet) Stage 1 0:00-0:18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC-dlAnURBY&list=PLD51E5D6230C3FDFC&index=2&pp=iAQB8AUB 1:02-1:07 - ORIGINIAL - - 1:07-1:14 trumpet Ghost Appears 0:00-0:03 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnTNEn_o9pA&list=PLD51E5D6230C3FDFC&index=9&pp=iAQB8AUB 1:14-1:16 snare drum mimcs gun sound that chases away ghost in game - 1:16 - 1:40 piano Title Theme 0:10-0:22 1:40-1:45 piano Title Theme 0:31:0:34 1:45-2:04 Steel Drum Doords Unlocked 0:00-0:06 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tVroScIreE&list=PLD51E5D6230C3FDFC&index=6&pp=iAQB8AUB 2:04-2:14 Bass Game Over 0:00-0:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCkN60jwkL4&list=PLD51E5D6230C3FDFC&index=8&pp=iAQB8AUB 2:14-2:22 ORIGINAL 2:22--2:33 Trumpet (with Steel drum) Stage 2 0:00-0:06 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wuop02VTn4&list=PLD51E5D6230C3FDFC&index=3&pp=iAQB8AUB 2:33-2:46 Nylon Guitar Stage 1 0:00-0:18 Trumpet Stage 2 0:00-0:06 2:46-2:51 Nylon Guitar Lost Life 0:00-0:03 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK-YfCDS_wM&list=PLD51E5D6230C3FDFC&index=7&pp=iAQB8AUB 2:51-2:56 Nylon Guitar Stage 3 0:00-0:05 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZg-RRxnHGw&list=PLD51E5D6230C3FDFC&index=4&pp=iAQB8AUB 2:56-3:03 Nylon Guitar and Steel Drum Stage 4 0:00-0:11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGPK9g2KMCE&list=PLD51E5D6230C3FDFC&index=5&pp=iAQB8AUB 3:04-3:11 Trumpet original loosely based on stage 3 - 3:11-3:30 Piano Ending Theme 0:00-0:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCMpCKtonCI&list=PLD51E5D6230C3FDFC&index=10&pp=iAQB8AUB 3:30-4:03 Nylon Guitar Original trumpet Stage 1 0:00-0:18 Stage 2 0:00-0:06 steel drum Stage 1 0:00-0:18 Original 0:13 5% Source 3:50 95%

Firstly I want shout out to TheVideoGamer for a wonderfully made midi. Wouldn't have made this without it. I've never played this game personally and while I do love racing games, I can't say I have any desire to go back in time and try this out. The song felt like a nice canvas to paint my aesthetic on in a way that is conservative maybe constructively but in atmosphere is transformative (I hope). The original is a lot more gritty and has that hard, club techno vibe you'd hear in Blade or something like that. I think what I ended up making is a lot more ethereal in a way but not too much either. This is flawed in its own way (drums lol) and not for everyone but I think this where I stop with it before I move onto the next one. Was very fun getting outside my comfort zone! Games & Sources: Game: Group S Challenge Track: Cut the Corner

I've come up with a new receipe! Two great tastes that taste great together! donut (Warp Whistles Music): clarinet, arrangement, mixing lobby (Warp Whistles Music): flute endlessrepeat: piano Since everything was recorded, I wouldn't be able to redo anything other than the clarinet parts (I'll own up to my own garbage that may need to be taken out) but there probably is a decent amount of stuff I could fix if need be in the project that wouldn't require rerecording. Games & Sources: Octopath Traveler - Cyrus, The Scholar Final Fantasy XV - Valse di Fantastica

Funny what bugs people in different ways. I never would have picked up on the drum, hat, and arp patterns not lining up—I can barely notice it even when listing for it—and it certainly doesn't bother me. Also funny that we got two submissions for this source in close proximity, when I'd never heard of it before. (Well, I have played Earthbound, but decades ago.) It's a fun, light, dynamic arrangement. Lots of interesting elements, easily enough to keep the listener engaged for the full 5 minutes. Although it's ironic that it fades out, suggesting that the arranger didn't manage to stay engaged themselves! I actually didn't really like 4:05+; it feels like extra ideas that the artist didn't manage to squeeze into the main body of the remix and just tacked on at the end. Otherwise, this is strong stuff. I think structurally it could have been improved, but all the pieces are there. YES

That waveform isn't even sausage links. It's a kielbasa. Just one long sausage. proph has this right on every front. There's not enough interpretive arrangement for what we look for; it's mostly just an instrument swap, with a little bit of complexity added to the percussion. Three loops of the same thing and a fade-out. And the overall sound is washed out and steeped in way too much reverb. I'm afraid this just isn't what we look for in the personalization, instrumentation, or production aspects. NO

Yep, that pad was the major barrier to this getting passed, so swapping it out clears the way. Oddly, I'm still in disagreement with my fellow judges about one point: Since the source consists of a pad, two notes, and a laugh effect, I don't think there's any amount of arrangement that could be considered a remix just using the pad and the two notes. The votes above at most mention the adaptation of the laugh in passing, but it's used as a recurring motif that repeats many times throughout, sometimes worked into the melody, sometimes in the backing, and I think it's a critical part that really helps tie it in. If I hadn't picked up on it, I would have voted NO on this. With it, this is an easy YES

Pretty darn good, especially for a week's (plus) worth of work. It's a clever way of mashing the two themes together, and the overall tone is great. It is a little more subdued than I'd prefer. There's a lot of presence in the sub-base, but not so much in the audible bass range. There's not much in the highs, either; other than some occasional leads, there's a pad in 3:29-3:56 (where there's no bass), and that's about it. It's not uncommon for the genre to go for long stretches with a shallow soundscape, though, so it's not a dealbreaker. Not much to complain about here. Well done. YES

Yeah, I normally hate the lo-fi approach, but it works here. It's deliberate and tasteful. Nice ethereal soundscape, and I agree that the vocals are perfect. I would have preferred an ending that didn't just trickle off like that, but in an arrangement like this, it's not a mortal sin. YES