jnWake   Judges ⚖️

It doesn't sound too exciting but maybe something like "Timed Hits" as a reference to the battle system. I tried to look for an official name for the timing system in it but I didn't find anything with a fancier name than timed hits haha. EDIT: Seems they're called "Action Commands" in newer games (Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi), but that sounds even lamer.

I realized very early in the compo I had made a terrible choice with my Maverick. It's a cool theme but it has no melodies so making it recognizable was tough. At least, the cool chords progressions were put to good use!

Yeah, it was fun. I couldn't really pay much attention to it in the last 3 round set sadly because work and other stuff, but I really enjoyed the other weeks. Plenty of awesome tracks and rickrolls.

Another level! Mystery House Bounce: 15EA-0000-0048-B42C . Based on the Mystery Houses from 3D World. Clear quick challenges to beat the level.

Made another level. It should be hard but fair. It's about falling Thwomps and platforms that act as umbrellas. Name: Under the Thwomp. ID: 7D5F-0000-003F-B84F. I'll try playing the ones here tomorrow.

I played your clock level Lemon. It was very cool. Loved the concept and the decoration! Uploaded a third one: Bullets in Koopatlantis. A tricky underwater level with bullet bills. There's a pretty hard to get 1-up near the beggining. ID: 6FB6-0000-003A-ED9A.

Woops I had way too much work this week and didn't even get to listen to the round entries. Naturally I didn't vote either (although the thought of doing a random vote crossed my mind haha).

I made a simple level with Koopa Shells: 551C-0000-0032-58EF. And a second one, mainly Goomba jumps: D075-0000-0034-B953.

Somewhat. First section has the bass playing D and the lead playing mainly on D minor (notes you pointedout above) but there are some places where the lead plays a B instead of Bb. Second section has the bass going D, C, Bb, A. Third section has more of a moving bass but core notes seem to be D, G, Bb, A. You can figure out chords on top of that but the song doesn't have chords as background so...

jnWake Palace Of The Beast (Slash Beast in Sigma Palace [X8]) Straight Outta RAGE (Flame Stag in Sigma Palace X8) Requiem for a Reploid (Shield Sheldon in Sigma Palace [X8]) X-Square

Quick impressions! Had to travel this week so I haven't had much time to listen to stuff. Es-cop-pay - Nice mood! Production values are good and the voice sounds super clear. If I'm getting the source usage right it's pretty creative. Arrangement feels very repetitive though. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Maverick - Nice intro, some of the samples seem of slightly low quality but I dig the vibe. Neon Tiger with the wah lead sounds cool. I like that you used most of the X8 theme in different parts of the arrangement. A tad short though. With more development I'd have definitely voted for this one. Subtle Haystack Tibulation - What the hell is this title haha. I like the use of guitars to give the source a rocking style. I think they could sound more powerful though. The rhytm in 1:21 is weird, seems like the drums and guitars are in different time measures and it sounds odd. In the 2:14 section I feel it gets way too crowded and notes start clashing way too much... Overall it has creative ideas but it seems you tried to cram way too much stuff in here. The moody Never Gonna Give You Up in the ending is amazing haha. Straight Outta RAGE - Not feeling the RAGE in the intro haha, but I dig the relaxing mood. E. Piano sounds sweet. Very creative use of the sources and definitely one of my faves so far. One thing I didn't enjoy that much were the crushing or whatever effects in the drums. They were nice at first but they get tiring fast. Awesome change to the piano break. Second half drags on a bit but the song is very good overall. Palace of the Beast - Nice! Feels like I'm playing a PS1 RPG here haha. Guitar kind of breaks that feeling a bit but the menacing mood is cool. Great use of Slash Beast with the brass, I like that you actually changed the melody to fit the chords (something that many people forget to do and end up with clashing notes). The song then continues with similar but awesome ideas. My favourite of the round probably, very creative use of both sources and great production. If forced to nitpick I feel the drums have too much reverb for the style you aimed for. Chiral - As usual, bringing the funk! The leads sound awesome. Production is clean and the arrangement is fun. However, and as much as I dig the song, I felt other entries used the sources better (maybe just by being longer songs haha), so this isn't getting one of my votes. Beached Whale in Miami - Nice staccato synths. Sadly, this is ridiculously short... I guess it could be a pretty cool song if finished. Requiem for a Reploid - Someone had to make a dramatic song eventually! At 0:23 I almost thought you were going to use Metal Gear Solid's theme haha. Orchestra sounds very nice and chords are very interesting. Mixing Shield Sheldon into such a dramatic mood is a bit hard though since that song is so happy sounding. It fits sometimes but other times it doesn't fit that much sadly. I really like how this sounds, production is clean and instrument selection is great. The usage of Sheldon's theme around 2:20 is very very nice. It reminds me of the PS1 Rayman game (the first one). For the outro I thought you'd go with a super crescendo using that last Sheldon melody so I was a bit disappointed with the calm finish haha. Victory at the Palace of Rejects - For some reasons all your songs sound very similar haha. Production is clean but the arrangement lacks some exciting. To put it bluntly I feel the percussion is very lacking and even boring. Actually I believe this is what usually puts me off about your songs. Leads are fine and have some interesting ideas but drums and bass tend to be slow and without much variation. You should experiment more with that to give your songs a more exciting edge. Leap of Faith - Bass is surprisingly low for your songs Brostock! Awesome rocking mood as always. Your lead playing has been getting better and better lately, especially your vibrattos. The intro riff and it's repetitions are very cool, maybe my favourite riff of the round haha. Overall this is classic Hakstock, nice guitars, cool bass, rocking mood and fun leads! I have to say production seems worse than in your other entry haha. The drums, to be specific, sound less powerful than I'd expect. Rise of the Sigma - Another dramatic song! Some nice chords here. Probably my fault but I barely hear Spark Mandrill. which is weird since it has some pretty recognizable melodies. I like how this sounds but I feel it's lacking in the source usage area. As usual, voting was rough.

I like the OCRA album idea of Jorito but I also don't want my song to sit there for like 2 years haha. I think releasing it as soon as you have the current tracklist done is good and maybe you could do a part 2 next year or something if you want to cover more lost gems.

Already voted, will try to post comments on the tracks later.

jnWake Sins of the Syndicate (Gravity Antonion in Final Weapon [X4]) Vector Point Engineering Sigma Fortress (Blizzard Buffalo in Final Weapon [X4]) N0v0r G0nn0 Dj0nt Y0u 0p (Crystal Snail in Final Weapon [X4]) X-Square

Reception to my track in the listening party was better than I expected. That makes me glad I wanted the drums to be "thinner" to fit the sort of old prog rock mood of my track but I clearly could've done it better. That applies to all the mixing since I did it awfully quickly haha. When I first wrote the arrangement I planned to use chiptunes instead of guitars and stuff but my total ignorance about chiptunes forced me to change instrumentation on Saturday night so I couldn't ask Brostock or Hyruu to play. In any case, if either of you are interested in recording tracks for better sounding versions I'd be glad The whole song is in 3/4 by the way, except for like 4 bars in the 2:30 transition that are in 4/4. I'll be posting more detailed impressions later but I really liked the tracks this week. Lots of creativity and different styles. I particularly liked the first sections of Flex's track, super cool mood. I also enjoyed the crazy metal-whatever-genre-it-was song, the choir thing by Jason (I have no idea why you were so down on it haha) and timaeus' crazy glitch song. Neat use of the C/B/A# progression there.

Now you feel my pain with Ground Scaravich.

Next time you need spanish you should contact me. I'm a native speaker after all (also chilean haha). Is there anything still open for this?

I'm glad I went last round haha. This source seems very tricky.

Subbed. As always I ended up rushing the mix but oh well. At least I can say it's interesting? Could use more polish though haha. Source usage may feel a bit strange since the song is in 6/8 but I hope you guys can follow where I used the sources... Intro is a variation on the bass riff from Final Weapon btw. It's the same notes in a different rhytm.

Mine went from me wanting to try to use chiptunes to almost completely ditching them in favour of prog rock influences. It's sounding pretty strange right now haha.

I got some sudden inspiration that is making me change some things in my track... I think it's sounding cool though. Got some inspiration from Marillion's and for this week, so expect some 6/8 shenanigans haha.

jnWake - X-Square Caffeine Shoveling Hunter Turtloids (Rainy Turtloid in X-Hunter Stage 1 [X2]) Cloud Hopping (Spiral Pegacion in X-Hunter Stage 1 [X2]) X's Demise (Spark Mandrill in X-Hunter Stage 1 [X2])

I love this type of chord progressions. I didn't entirely dig the guitar solo though, it had some cool melodies but a lot of senseless (in a way, it was still fitting with the chords haha) wankery.

I've written nothing on my DAW yet but I have the arrangement sort of planned haha so it's going well I believe.

Song indeed begins in C minor. However, the organ plays C minor with major and minor 7ths in the following bars, making that chromatic progression Lee mentioned. Section with the main melody is still in C minor, adding minor 7th, major 6th and minor 6th in the following bars (essentially, highest note of the chord goes C, Bb, A, Ab). Then there's a bass riff that is in Db minor for two bars and F minor for two more bars. Song essentially repeats once before a new change. Final section is on Db minor and chords are Db minor, Gb major/Db and a weird one that feels like Fsus but I'm not entirely sure.