jnWake

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.

Not a big deal but the thread in the voting section says Round 2 and it should be Round 3 I'm pretty inspired for this week's track. I hope my skill delivers haha.

Just in time for Round 3 I'll post my thoughts on Round 2 entries! Arsonist - I don't particularly like this track tbh, sorry ;_; Production-wise it's fine, the percussion is fun and the instruments are clear. I like the rhytm in the intro and the first sections with Mammoth's theme are cool. The guitar sample is crappy though. The rhytm change near 1:30 is cool but after it the song gets a bit stale. Source usage isn't particularly strong in the arrangement since it's basically Mammoth with a bit of Doppler near the middle (and the bass is pretty unfitting here imo). Tiger Millionaire - Intro is cool, very unique sounding. Production wise it could be better. The drums sound very crushed and the soundscape feels muddy, making it hard to understand what each instrument is doing (too much stuff going on in similar sections of the spectrum). Source usage is cool, especially with the variations on Neon Tiger's theme (a source that I find terrible haha). The second half starting with Doppler is pretty cool. Nice song, I feel production could be improved but it's neat. Arma Gonna Topple That Dopple v0.1 - The v0.1 in the title says a lot about the song. It's very barebones in production and arrangement. Transitions aren't very strong and I'm pretty sure there are a few off-key notes in some melodies. This is pretty unfinished and it shows, sadly. MMMDop - My favourite from the round! I like the chip sound, reminds me of Shovel Knight's soundtrack (intro makes me think of the water stage in that game). I don't have much to say about this since it's pretty good IMO. Arrangement is great with some very clever uses of both sources together and production is, for the most part, super-clean. Break near 1:30 is very cool and almost a trademark in Willrock's songs haha. Guitar playing is cool too. Change at 3:13 is very good and the arpeggios in the 3:39 solo are amazing. Very nice work! I Don't Run At All - From the get-go production seems rushed. Guitar lacks power and the drums are very low. Vocals sound nice, even with the rickrolls haha. Ending with the clean guitars is really cool. Source usage is great and fun. I like this song, with a better production it'd be one of my faves of the round. Is é mo aingeal imithe - Another of my favourites! Instruments used in this song are great. Source usage is cool and production is pretty clear. The only complaint I have with this song is that some instruments sound weirdly tuned, especially the piano and the choir-ish samples seem to have weird tuning. Also, there's a bass note in the first riff that is very dubious to me. In any case, that's a bit of nit-picking since this is cool. Red Shifting Drift - Yet another one I liked a lot! This feels like typical Gario to me, energetic song with many chip and electronic elements. Production is cool and the arrangement is fun although I felt it dragged on a bit. I felt MMMDop was an overall stronger song so this one got my second place. Thermoception - This one is interesting. The playing in the instruments is cool but also feels a bit loose as if you missed some timings or something. Arrangement is very cool with some very clever mixes of both sources. I'm not really sure what to say, it feels nice and the arrangement is good but it lacks some polish. It was definitely a contender on the strength of the source usage though. Winter Weather Advisor - Very interesting armonies here. Brass instruments are very fake-ish but the writing is amazing. I also really like the piano and e. piano writing. Drums are uh... unique I guess? I can dig them in some parts but I really dislike them in others haha. This song grew on me with a couple listens but I'd still change the drums to be easier to listen! In any case, it's pretty good and interesting. Just Give me a Minute - It's clear this was rushed. It has the potential to become something good but right now it's a bit messy. Production is muddy and the song is super short so uh, that's that. Last section (like final 10 seconds) is very good! Dark Times, Happy World - Not a very big fan of this one. While production is clear, I feel the arrangement lacks excitement or something to carry it. Right now it's just, to me, a few melodies that go after the other without much structure behind them. Sources were easy to identify but weren't used in interesting ways IMO. Beetle Dopplerganger - My song! I rushed the mixing and some of the writing but I feel it turned out decent haha. I may fix it in the future. Tropical Relaxation Method - Very nice song. Mood is unique and source usage is interesting if a bit too liberal (reason why I didn't vote for it). The part with Peacock usage was very good and I'd have liked to hear more of that (especially of the progression in 1:26). In any case, super creative arrangement and nice production! Like before, sorry if I sound harsh or nit-picky!

Cool song. It got a remix in the MMX album right? Seems I may take mixing for X-Square this week.

I'll continue timaeus' reviews, but focusing on Round 1 first: Wanderforce: Production here is great. I'm not much of a dance/electronica/whatever this is called guy but I dig this. I really like how the pads sound. Regarding the arrangement, I can very easily identify the Antonion usage but Palace Ground (while identifiable) felt underused in comparison. In any case, not much feedback to offer here since this actually sounds pretty great (maybe a tad too long though? haha). Magma Flow: Soundscape feels very sparse in the intro. Probably intentional but it felt a bit boring. Well, actually, not much happens in the track in its entirety... I feel the arrangement lacks variety since the same beat with the same background and slightly different leads gets a bit tiring quick. Production-wise it sounds good if a bit unbalanced in volume terms (percussions are pretty high). Rolling: There's something about the production that feels a bit muted here, a bit hard to explain. It fits with Walrus' theme so maybe it was intentional though! Anyway, this is the first appearance of vocals this round and it's great. Harmonies sound good even if the voices seem a bit tired. I also like the integration between the two sources, very clever and nicely pulled off. Not a big fan of the glitch effects in the voices, don't feel they add anything worthwile tbh. I enjoyed the bass too, nicely played. Some notes and chord progressions in the 2:17 sectin sound a bit iffy but nothing too major. Great job overall! Smoothlike Fellow: I can barely begin writing and this is over. Sigh. The E. Piano and synths sound nice but not much happens in the track sadly. My Beerly Beloved: Nice mood in the intro. I'd have honestly changed the last chord of Blizzard Buffalo's theme and let it stay in the previous rather than following the source to perfection, feel like it would have sounded better for the mood. Voice is pretty cool here too, the effects made it sound dreamy and chilly. Source integration is pretty good here too. Great track! Electric Moves and Cephalopod Grooves: This is way more calm than what I was expecting from SuperiorX, especially with a rocking track like Volt (or Volk?!) Kraken. I don't really like the bass patch used in the song sadly, it lacks punch. Overall I feel the track is a tad too slow (and short!). Source usage is pretty good though. Toxic Seas: I like how the song gains energy near 0:47, very welcome. As pointed out before, the kick is lacking presence, which is key in this kind of music. Snare is also a bit tame. The soundscape gets a bit cluttered near the 2:00 mark with too much stuff going on. Arrangement-wise, Seahorse usage is very very straightforward and Palace Ground is barely there (is it even there? haha). I feel you could've experimented more. Firefly: Intro is sweet, a pretty smart use of Hotarunicus. Production is pretty good (and loud) although I don't like the sound of the hats, seem low quality. Some of the melodies from Palace Ground seem a bit forced here but besides that source usage is good if skewed towards Hotarunicus. This was a strong contender for my third vote, especially for how groovy it is haha. Hidden in the Palace Grounds: Intro is so weird haha, feels like playing some old PC game. I'm not sure what to offer as feedback. I'm not big on melodies being so focused on low tone instruments and the arrangement doesn't have much direction. Production is pretty clean though and it's easy to identify both sources. Bounce Too High: This track stands-out a lot this week! Nice groove at the intro. Synths and bass are damn good too. I really like this track, it's pretty fun and entertaining. I'm a sucker for slap tones. I have to wonder why you didn't ask me to play the synths though (my excuse for not asking anything was being sick btw)! Very nice one. Sigmandrill Palace: This has potential but seems super rushed. Mood is cool and the weaving of the sources is interesting, shame it's so short. Sorry if I sound mean or too nitpicky, I'm trying to be as honest and helpful as I can. I'll post Round 2 impressions later.

jnWake - X-Square MMMDop (Slash Beast in Doppler Stage 1 [X3]) Red Shifting Drift (Boomer Kawanger in Doppler Stage 1 [X3]) Is é mo aingeal imithe (Flame Stag in Doppler Stage 1 [X3])