Sir_NutS

ReMixer name: FallenDreamer Real name: Jérôme Duford Userid: 35736 Link to the WAV file - Arrangement Name: Dream with me, will you? Games and Songs: The Legend of Zelda Title The Legend of Zelda : A Link to the Past Hyrule Castle The Legend of Zelda : Link's Awakening Ballad of the Windfish The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Song of Time Song of Storms Gerudo Valley Zelda Lullaby The Legend of Zelda : Majora's Mask Deku Nut's Palace Clock Town - Day 1 The Legend of Zelda : Wind Waker Dragon Roost Island Title Comments: I woke up one morning playing piano, and decided that instead of working on original compositions, I should try to make a remix to see how it goes, as I've never done it before. So I arranged a medley with a few of my favorite songs in the Zelda series.

ReMixer name: Michael Hudak Real name: Michael Hudak Name of game arranged: Banjo-Kazooie (Primarily). Banjo-Tooie, GoldenEye 007, and Perfect Dark (Secondarily) Name of arrangement: "Theme from Special Agents B & K (Season 3)" Name of song arranged: "Clanker's Cavern" (Primarily). "Rusty Bucket Bay", "Mad Monster Mansion", "Witchy World", "Atlantis", "Surface 1", "Chicago Stealth" (secondarily) My (awfully long, I'm so sorry!) comments: THE RUNDOWN: Special Agents B and K aired from 1983 to 1986. An undercover detective duo that would pursue mysteries sometimes flavored with the surreal or supernatural, the series was praised for its original premise and strong performances. Initially airing at 10 pm on Friday nights, the show was moved to a new time slot halfway through Season 2 and successfully found a larger audience. By Season 3, higher production values allowed for some episodes to be filmed on location in Tokyo, Glasgow, and Mexico City, and the theme song was altered in accordance with the show becoming more cosmopolitan. By Season 4, many in the cast sought to end the series and pursue new projects, and so the final episode, the 90-minute “Goodbye, Farewell and Guh-huh”, aired in May 1986. A pilot for a spin-off aired in November 1986, but “Cold War Mole: Bottles in Budapest” failed to attract eyeballs and was canceled by the network. THE ACTUAL RUNDOWN: Really been into the “80s” as of late. Join the club, I know. Trying to emulate those old songs is fun, because the sounds used were often quite sterile on their own, but there were so many little weird one-off noises and anomalies buried in the playing and the programming, so recreating those kind of “happy accident” moments can be a kick. Initially this was to be a song from a non-existent, cheesy 80s slasher flick, a-la “Sleepaway Camp”, but making everything sound creepy and Halloween-ish on top of the 80s aesthetic was just too limiting, so a mystery/detective show that's only about 25% creepy (still 75% cheesy) suited it better. I'd actually love to do a TV show soundtrack one day, so I sometimes think about what kind of shows would suit the music I write. The toughest part of the arrangement was incorporating a bunch of Grant Kirkhope's music and having it not sound like a medley, so I added more original of my own original music to dial down the fan service just a notch. Let me tell you tough, I am quite the fan. I reflected back on my salad days while writing this tune, and realized that from the hundreds of hours put into just Bond and Banjo alone, Grant Kirkhope might very well be my single most-listened to musician or composer, soundtrack or otherwise, EVER. I'd like to think it shows, too; I'm the kind of person who loves riffs and melodies more than “chords” (what ever are those?), and I think the wonderful music from 90s Rare, and Grant's stuff in particular, is PACKED with great melodies. They're imprinted into my songwriting DNA, in fact, so thanks Grant! You're the best! Hopefully you'll never get sick of 90s kids worshiping music you wrote decades ago. I also realized a couple of my favorite songs by The Clash - “The Call Up” and “Rock the Casbah” - creeped into this ReMix. Joe Strummer, the eternal homie, and my favorite singer. Thanks to him, too. --- As for Mr. Kirkhope's material that was used: From Banjo-Kazooie “Clanker's Cavern” - Descending chord progression used throughout much of the song. Main melody used in intro and choruses, obviously. The bridge in “CC” is also re-worked into the bridge of my song, in a different scale. “Rusty Bucket Bay” and “Mad Monster Mansion” used 2:08 - 2:15. From Banjo-Tooie “Witchy World” used 1:45 - 2:00. “Atlantis” used 4:23 – 4:38. From GoldenEye “Surface 1” (Itself a Bond Theme reworking. Perhaps doesn't qualify as music that can be used, but hopefully won't DIS-qualify the whole thing!) Used 0:30 – 1:00, roughly. From “Perfect Dark” “Chicago Stealth” used 1:15 – 1:28.

LINK: General Information ReMixer Name: Key Jay Real Name: Jamaal Ephriam Email Address: Your website: http://keyjayonline.com Your userid: 11547 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Kingdom Hearts II Name of arrangement: Weight of the Other Promise [Overdrive Battle Mix] Name of individual song(s) arranged: The Other Promise The track takes a more up tempo approach to Roxas's theme blending elements of both his calm and battle theme together while also introducing original brass and wind section arrangements where traditionally, the song was mostly comprised of strings and piano. Rhythm also has more of a D&B feel to it as well. Structure wise, theme C doesn't play till much later in the song (2:22 and then again at 3:45) rather than directly after the iconic theme B (0:32 aka F,A,E ...etc.). I only vaguely touch on theme A in the beginning. Interestingly enough, the arrangement also takes some inspiration from PSO2 and FF13. ENJOY!

Hi dear Judges! I hope you are all doing well. Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Chernabogue Your real name: Alexandre MOUREY Your website: chernabogue.bandcamp.com Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Name of arrangement: Infinity Name of individual song(s) arranged: Boss/Robotnik's Theme Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site): Masato Nakamura/Genesis Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: This track is one of my all-time favorites as Sonic 2 was one of the first games I ever owned. This arrangement is part of my Sonic trilogy EP, THE ROBOTNIK REVOLUTION, which covers the music themes of Sonic's nemesis. Sonic 2's Boss Theme has always sounded very goofy to me, that's why I tried to make it as menacing and eerie sounding as I could. I'm very proud of it and hope people enjoyed/will enjoy it! Hope this is all good and this one goes to the front page Cheers, -Alex

This is not bad, but it has some pretty evident issues, mainly in the mix and performances. The production feels pretty lopsided here, some sections feel like they lead is getting buried and nothing is taking precedence, except for the drums which are very upfront. There is some very heavy and obvious ducking on the guitar parts and the mix as a whole around 1:32, and in the second guitar section the balance seems off regarding the lead guitar vs everything else. The mix feels very bottom-mid heavy, which causes the rhythm guitars to get lost most of the time. Due to the subdued mix the climaxes don't hit very hard and fizzle out. Regarding the performances, it doesn't feel like there's a lot of detailing done in the sequencing of the orchestral instruments, they feel pretty robotic overall. That's not necessarily a dealbreaker in an arrangement where the orchestral elements are used as a backdrop for the guitars and the rock arrangement, but in this one they're pretty upfront and exposed a lot of the time due to the inadequate mix, and as such the failings are made evident. I feel like if this was mixed well I could consider giving the instrumentation a pass, but I think some work in that front would be appreciated either way. NO (resubmit)

For some reason, I keep coming to this track, listening, and then something comes up where I can't finish my vote. So let's get this done now. Bluelighter has shown us he has a particular, distinctive arrangement style that is a bit quirky, whimsical, and also compelling. This one is less on the whimsical side than usual but still boast an interesting arrangement that's not your usual epic orchestral arrangement. This has some extra flavor of having strong egyptian tones, as well as a bit of a celtic touch thrown in for good measure. Some interesting arrangement choices with the time signature changes that work out very well and kept me interested all the way. The production is ok, though I found some busy sections were a bit too wet for my taste. Solid stuff. YES

Love it. Definitely getting a psychedelic vibe from this, though not quite at Disraeli Gears levels, sorta more like something between Abbey Road and Dark Horse. Also reminds me a little bit of the style of K. Praslowicz's mixes. Still quality stuff, lovely performances, great adaptation and the arrangement is varied, utilizing the different instruments to complement the lead melodies bringing this arrangement to life. Reading through the other Js votes, I see there was something about super high frequencies. I don't hear them in this version (though I can't hear anything above 18-19k due to age), but I did check with a visualizer and I don't see any huge peaks. YES

This arrangement feels kinda messy. Like the structure doesn't get the listener anywhere, it just feels too consistent throughout. The drums are just kinda there doing their thing and don't communicate well with the rest of the parts. Some sections feel like too much is going on and that the instruments are just doing their own thing (~1:20). Not sure about the accordion cutting out so suddenly at 1:35. I think this needs some changes arrangement-wise, to bring everything together cohesively, it doesn't sound literally random but it does lack direction. The production also could use a second pass to separate everything better frequency-wise. The performances were alright, it just needs more refinement. NO (resubmit)

I like it. Punchy drums, dreamy EP, and the arrangement was pretty damn good. I love the production in this one, super clean, loud but no pumping whatsoever, nothing feels smashed here. Only nitpick I could mention is that the bass is a bit hard to hear in some sections, the sub is there but not the character. But really, it's a very small issue. There's really not much to say about this one other than it was a very easy pass for me. YES

I wasn't part of the previous decision, so coming in fresh on this one. wow, someone shamelessly using synth guitars in a modern arrangement. I like them! they somehow work here and they're kinda cute. Not a fan of any of the bitcrushed effects (static/voice clips etc.) as they don't seem to mesh with the song quite as well. The mix is ok, stuff is clearly separated although instrument balance is sometimes off i.e. around 3:30 the rhythm guitars kinda overpower the lead, or at least occupy the same frequency space enough so that the lead melodies don't get the priority they need. The arrangement is ok, I kinda dig the tempo changes, and the structure changes after the first run through the original melody. There are some nice sections with cool bass and piano writings that I actually kinda liked more than the big, fuller sections. This is a very close one for me. It seems like the other Js took issue with the synth guitars but honestly I kinda like them here. Without that issue I think I don't have a lot of things that I can honestly say that need to be corrected before this can pass. Some of the mix can be cleaned up further but it's ok as-is. YES (borderline)

Artists: Sir_NutS, Stephen Kelly Name of the games arranged: Shadow of the Beast System: Amiga Name of the arrangement: 89 is the new 19 Name of the individual songs arranged: Welcome / Forest / Stage 1 Wav: Mp3: Original: Get comfy folks, I have a lot to say. Shadow of the Beast is kind of an obscure game in most places, (Me, remixing an obscure game? no way!) but back in the days it was a big deal for the European micro computer scene. There was simply nothing like it when it comes to graphics and sound, it was sort of the "Crysis" of 1989, at least for home computers. The detailed graphics paired with an art style between Roger Dean and H.R. Giger, amazing special effects like the endless parallax scrolling featured on the first level, and finally the excellent, brooding soundtrack by David Whittaker made Shadow of the Beast a game that pushed past the Amiga's limitations. The game launched in 1989. I've done some research for the exact date but I came up empty. Even documentaries on the game don't have an exact date so, I'm just releasing this on this year to coincide with the game's 30th anniversary. Now, this track is a double tribute, as I've taken cues from some of my favorite songs from Giorgio Moroder (The Chase, 74 is the new 24, Racer) and let it influence my style, so this is half my usual retro style mixed with Moroder's catchy sense for writing and tropes. He's had a lot of influence on how my music has evolved in the past years, so it was only a matter of time before I paid him some tribute in one of my mixes. The mix's title is a reference to him and one of his tracks, as well as the game and its anniversary. There are no ostentatious synth brass chords to be found here, I switched those for a lot of filtered synth lines and a driving bassline. For the vocal clips I brought in the always reliable Stephen Kelly. This song is long compared to my recent submissions, and also slightly on the repetitive side, but that's by design in order to get the feel I was going for. This also marks my comeback to using Reason devices thanks to Reason 11's rack device which I can now load in Bitwig, and which I took advantage of to create some of the synth leads you hear here. I hope you guys enjoy it.

The arrangement is good enough but the mix is not. Feels very pedestrian in its execution, some tracks sound dry, and even though the song is very loud, the soundscape ends up feeling very thin and lacking warmth. It feels very raw for some reason. Also a lot of of ducking due to compression, noticeably in the synth solo. The drums have too much presence IMO. I think this needs a second production pass, relaxing the mastering and bringing some warmth to it while bringing the different instruments/tracks together cohesively. NO (resubmit)

Wow, what a fresh take on this classic tune. Never thought I'd hear it performed and transformed this way, so you're already getting tons of points for originality here. The performances are great, albeit a bit loose at some spots, like when the guitar is contrasted against the banjo, it can seem a bit out of time. I like the inclusion of the electric guitar for the small flourishes. Some sections in this feel pretty intimate, such as the solo/expansion around 3:20. Overall excellent arrangement and quality performances. The production seems clean and without glaring issues. It feels like it has a lot of open space which fits the mood. The vocal chorus sections are probably my biggest issue with the production as they seem a bit too exposed for my taste and some sections (i.e. starting at 3:20) drag their usage for too long and feel too static. I don't think this drags the piece down too much though. The added sfx work well with this piece as well, together with the ambient pads. I really enjoyed this. Super original and with a great delivery, one of Reuben's best for sure in all aspects. YES

I didn't listen to the old version, but this sounds good to me. Production is fairly clean if a bit muddy at places. 1:45 for example, the guitar lead get obscured by the background and all the other elements, and in general I think the low-mids could be cleaner and have more separation but overall, pretty good. The arrangement is solid and the performances are some of the best I've heard from Ryan so far. Lots of energy and it didn't get bored at any point, with well-placed breaks. Minor issue I would've liked changed is that the song starts way too soon after the Capcom logo jingle, kinda messes up what I think the idea for the intro was, that this song is what plays as an intro to the actual game. Anyways, minor complain there. Solid stuff. YES

I have to disagree with some of the production critiques here. The soundscape is thin but that's absolutely fine for Trap. Some Trap tracks are very minimal, and not having layered synths and a big soundscape that fills the entire frequency spectrum is absolutely fine for the genre. I do think the synths instruments lack punch, which is an entirely different thing. You can make a trap track with just your 808 drums, a sine bass and a lead, but everything needs to be punchy to have some impact, and I think the synths here are too weak to carry the arrangement. Also, the "hey" samples were kinda out of place in this arrangement, I would try something else. I also think the arrangement is fine, sufficiently interpretative and the adaptation is interesting. But I don't think it's ready for the front page without working more on the mix to make your synths stand out, as they're kinda weak and vanilla sounding. The amount of instruments and synth lines used is fine, just make them richer and punchier. NO

Hey, never heard this soundtrack before, but I like that song a lot, very sega. I like your version a lot too, it just has the issue of being a bit static. But I like the sounds you used, I don't think they're vanilla at all. The mix is fairly balanced, and the groove is as funky as the original. I think there's enough shakeups/breaks/modulation goodness for me to give this a pass on interpretation. Whenever I thought the track was getting stale you brought something new up for me to enjoy. The ending was a bit of a letdown though. So I'm going to go against the tide here and give you a pass. It's close, but I think you've done enough to both differentiate your mix from the original track and also to make it interesting. YES (Borderline)

Simple but beautiful. The original is well represented here and expanded properly. While the original song had an adventurous vibe to it, this remix is more on the exotic/sublime side due to the instruments and adaptation. I think it's very impressive that you managed to pull this off with a minimal set of instruments yet everything sounds pretty well detailed and humanized. The main melody is repeated quite a bit, but most of the work of the interpretation is carried by the harmonies, background elements and structure. My only complain is that, again, this song has a ton of unused headroom and I had to turn my volume up. It's less noticeable in this song because there's a reduced dynamic range compared to other remixes from Rebecca but it's still an issue. Nothing like a dealbreaker tho, just something I'd like to see addressed in the future. YES

Pretty much my thoughts here. The strings were a sticking point for me here, the attack and decay curves didn't sound too natural, very obvious. I think both the strings and choir can work if used with less presence but they come to the forefront a lot in this piece and makes the humanization issues too obvious. I don't have a gripe with the rest of the arrangement, it's pretty sweet and to the point. Also I won't go onto another rant about how this track is mastered too low and there's a lot of wasted headroom and how this is a recurring issue... oh wait I just started again. Yeah, we don't want it to be limited to the max EDM banger style but, a little bump is all we ask so there's not a huge difference between Rebecca's tracks and the rest of the mixes on the site. NO

Simple and straightforward but it has charm. I think this is a clear cut case of not enough interpretation from the artist to really make this remix his own. If this was an adaptation to a different genre/vibe, I think I could overlook the lack of development a bit more but this retains sorta the same style. Again, pretty charming but I think you can make this track more of your own expression than what we have here. Also nothing against the artist or this remix, but ProJared is scum (also, his voice in this is kinda distorted/loud, could be toned down a bit). NO

As for my vote, I like this one. It's sorta synthwave-influenced, and keeps things conservative for the most part. The sound design is alright, albeit feeling like an upgrade over the original instruments instead of a completely new adaptation. I think this track shining point is the merging of the two themes seamlessly and in a non-medley way, really really well done in that front. Overall solid track which managed to fuse these two extremely popular songs into a coherent and enjoyable arrangement. YES

I've updated the thread with a new link. The artist contacted me with the following: @Liontamer and @Gario feel free to do a quick check to see if the last version has the fixes and it's not messed up.

Wow, what a ride!. This starts pretty atmospheric and chill, but evolves into some pretty hard-hitting progressive metal over time. I could nitpick this track here and there but I think the only valid concern for me is the repetition. The original isn't that long, and this remix extends for almost 10 minutes, so repetition is bound to happen but I think enough was done on the arrangement's side to keep this from feeling on autopilot. It's almost 10 minutes but it really didn't feel like that, you took a lot of care in the slow buildup, building the motifs block by block until the (extended) climax at around 4:03. Great performances and clean production complete the package. YES

Just for the record, this isn't my arrangement @Liontamer. It would have way more 80s synth brasses if it was mine.

The mix here is very inconsistent, the intro arpeggio is quite loud, but ducks away the moment the song starts in full, it's a bit of a big contrast here because the arpeggio is bright, loud and high-frequency rich but when the song kicks in everything sounds very muffled. There's a distortion effect first appearing around 0:29 that sounds like some type of digital distortion applied to a sample, possibly downsampling, and I'm not sure it fits or contributes to the betterment of the mix... but then again this could also be the sound effect of Bowser's fireballs too. I'm not sure but either way I don't think it's very good. The arrangement is very repetitive and outside of the adaptation I'm not hearing a lot of contributions to the interpretation. There may be some different harmonies involved but they're very hard to make out due to the messy mix. I get you went for an intentional noisy approach here, but you can have a noisy "clean" mix. Bands like Tool or The Glitch Mob, use noise and droning, uncomfortable textures a lot but it's all very cohesive within the mix. Not asking for uber professional quality mix but I feel this could be brought up to our bar which is much lower than that. The file we got also has several seconds of silence at the end that should be cut. Not a bad idea here but needs work on the mix balance and expansion of the original. NO

The volume is very low here, and this is a recurring issue with Rebecca's tracks, so I'm going to have to go on a bit of a rant here for a while: I understand the need to keep the dynamics intact and wide for an orchestral track like this, so the instruments remain as expressive as possible, but there's soooo much headroom here, it's just wasted. Please consider compressing your tracks just a little to bump up the overall volume, if you don't want to limit your master and keep it safe from clipping. Compression doesn't mean it will automatically lose all dynamics or sound like the latest EDM banger; it will make it easier for your listeners to appreciate your track. You have a delicate touch for arrangement and mixing so I think you'll be able to properly handle a bit of compression for your master. --Rant Over-- Now, this arrangement is very repetitive, but Rebecca tries to counter that with the swapping of instruments and added layers and harmonies. I think it sort of works, but it doesn't help with the overall static nature of the arrangement. I really didn't feel the track got anywhere over time and the repetition made it feel like the arrangement was standing motionless for me. I honestly had to fight my impulses of checking out after a few listens. The production otherwise is ok, some of the fuller sections when the track crescendos for a climax, it can sound a bit muddy, but in general I didn't catch major issues with the sequencing or mix. Overall I feel this track is too static and at times it can feel stilted. Adding to that the issue with the low volume and it feels like it's starting to tip the scales. Maybe I'm being too harsh on this one, because it's not as bad as it sounds, but I can't help but feel that this needs to be shorter and more dynamic in its arrangement and pacing to make it good. It's a very close decision, and I'm going to have to decline. NO