bladiator

Happy b-day, big guy. Don't drink one for me .. I can take care of that myself.

Thanks for all the feedback, guys. I've already got a collab partner slated, so they can make up for shattastic sampling and drums.

That's pretty cool.

"Team Gato" was a golden moment on the road so far. As well as Russell Cox's "Evolutionary" which was stupidly momumental, although it did (as the reviews say) just sorta fizzle out near the end. Still epic.

Ooh, good call. I think breaking it down to what the intro was like is a much better idea than what I did. And I also like the idea of having the hits go with what the other instruments are doing ... but drums are not at all my forte, so I'm going to let someone else more skilled than I take care of that. Thanks for the feedback from both of you!

So here's something I've put together. For the most part, the actual samples and drums and stuff are crap, but I'm planning on collabing with someone on those parts. I just really need to know if goes in a useful direction. By the time the remix is done, are you left thinking, "That's it?" or "Hey, that journey made some sense."? http://bladiator.vgpiano.com/music/timescar.mp3 Thanks in advance. Unless you don't post, and then no thanks.

I've finished off the first CD and working on the 2nd, so my counter started over on the mp3 player. I figure I'm up around the 200 mark right now. Ducktales - Amazon Session was a really nice change of pace along the way. Very cute.

I loved this mix. It definitely got a 3 times through listen as I went through all the songs. Very lighthearted and upbeat without a random need for crazy dissonance to "spice" it up (except for a few times in the solos, but I guess I'll let that go). There weren't a lot of surprises here, and I don't have a problem with that. It started happy, ended happy, and made me happy. Nice work.

OK, I've finally burnt through all the Chrono Trigger remixes (most of which I enjoyed immensely, because I love the theme song). Although, a lot of them were just straight up ... the theme song. Quite a few were very .. cover-ish. I'm up at about 130 or so right now.

Yet another review on my way to 1000, this is one of the first ones I got to that finally opened up a breath of fresh air and made me sure I wanted to keep going. Great beat, fresh funkiness served up djp style. This with its counterpart "Fill More Freestyle" by McVaffe really showed an early different perspective on the same tune.

So far in my race to 1000, this is easily the worst remix so far. Yes it evolves, yes it creates a scene of imagery. But it evolves just about as fast as prehistoric man from a protozoa, and it conjures up imagery of me sitting long and hard on the crapper in a meditative state. If this is such an obscure song that THIS was well thought out upgrade to it, then I never want to hear the original song. If this is a piece that sounds like it comes straight from an epic moment in a movie, then I need the movie to accompany this because I can't get enjoyment out of this alone. Sometimes music that is part of a movie soundtrack only belongs with a movie and cannot standalone. I feel that this is one of those pieces. CotMM for the most part is higher on the food chain than this regarding his remixes.

And speaking of the first 1000, I went back and saw that my first remix was 1257. I'm so new school. And here I thought I "went back" and stuff. ;_;

OK, on my trip to 1000 I found that HAD already written a review for this song, but again, this is a fantastically written remix. The drumwork never gets old. He keeps it exciting the entire piece through as opposed to my own drum looped-ness. The build up at the end is fantastic. It gets more and more complex, adding layers upon layers and then drops them all out again and starts thumping the bass and then building back up a SECOND time. And even though this would seem to get repetitive, it's the part I look forward to every time. The central section where the theme gets obscured and starts just wandering around through some dissonant harmonies was a part that had to grow on me, but the more I listened to it, the more I appreciated how he had to do quite a bit of original work on that section as opposed to just staying on the melody all the way through. Great segue to get back to the B section of the theme. I can't say enough about this song. It's really well written and I wish he had stuck around and done more. Oh, and I feel like it gave new life to the overused theme (although I really enjoy the theme).

Alright, I've passed through Chrono Cross which was quite the tasty experience (the only video game OST that I own), and now I'm moving into Chrono Trigger. I tell ya, A World Awaits Chrono by J:\ Drive is up near the top of the list for best of the first 1000. I've always liked that one. I'll go write a review for it (if I haven't already .. I listened to that one A LOT back in the day). Also, I think the Orgmas query would be pretty sweet, as long as it isn't too much work for yas.

I've begun writing some reviews. Some of them are going to be a bit in depth; most of them are probably going to be "THIS SONG IS AWESOME." That's all I really wanted as a remixer I think. Call me the next Bummerdude.

On my trip through 1-1000, when I hit this piece I knew exactly who wrote it due to his fanaticism about x-mas music and video game remixes. Once again, even being a non-Christmas keeping kinda guy, I always really enjoy these mixes. This one is very much a distinct rift between the video game theme and the "Merry Little Christmas" theme. That being said, it's some real smooth stuff. Early on the violin melody floating above the other accompaniment struck me instantly as a trumpet, and when I finally realized it was a violin, I found myself wishing it WERE a trumpet. Ah, samples in 2001 aren't what they've become! Then near the end with the slow wind down with a one-note piano melody playing the lead and the e. piano playing backup ... that is just so relaxing. Another great piece by Dale, and an oldie too! Glad I came across it. Even as a curmudgeony old non-Christmas guy.

I didn't know what I was getting into with the dry piano sample and the funky trumpet solo early on, but then when the vocals came in I was hooked. Awesome use of rhythms, and I think djp said it best when he mentioned that it felt like the song was built FOR the lyrics. I especially enjoyed the use of panning on the vocals ... I kept wishing that the song was longer. Nice work.

So I had this random need to go surprise my gf and eat breakfast with her this morning, and she lives 30 minutes away (and work is farther than that after I go over there) so I made it through another 20 or so songs. I've hit a pocket of REALLY good stuff. At least in my taste. Simon's Symphony by ... well, what used to be DJ Crono just totally rocked my face. Fantastic hip-hop by this guy. I just wish he could have been privy to our samples now a days. Merry Little Christmas was an obvious Dale North-ism, and I really enjoyed that one (like all his laid back piano/e piano hits). This is one of the few so far that I heard and knew who'd done it. And then Crossfire by Marc Star really did it for me. Although it was only 2 minutes and some change. So I had to listen to it a couple more times. Dreamer was good as well, and Another Inspiration by SP. Oh, and Scriabin's Long Library from CV has long been a favorite of mine and now was no exception.

...holy crap.

Update: I've turned the corner into the Castlevania mixes, and some of my favorite rock mixers apparently got started a loooong time ago. This is some more familiar territory, and I'm getting back into the groove. I thought I was going to die in a sea of reverbed, detuned synths for a while there. Thank you, goat.

Really nice piece. The break around the 1:00 mark made me think something was going wrong with my car and freaked me out. The electric guitar shredding is the same stuff you've used throughout your mixing career and that's A-OK in my books. The classical guitar intro and outtro were really tasteful, but that transition back in the outtro at about 3:49 made me want to poke my eye out. But seeing as how I know the way you've grown, I don't mind it too much.

I was thinking while listening through that I keep seeing the BGC threads about review love and that I could probably do that pretty easily. The ones that make an impact on me make enough impact that I remember the name (or least half the name that I can see on the display). And I'm also a lover of some of the old mixes. I decided to try this because I know I've grabbed a handful over the years of the old stuff because I heard so much about them. And I'm not trying to put down the mixes that I don't enjoy ... I remember when I first started writing music: it all sounded the same, and it was bland (moar liek blandiator, mirite?), and I thought I was awesome because I had a midi tracking program and none of the other kids in my town could write music like me. But eventually you get better and you realize "wow, I started from some real humble beginnings." I think it's cool to see how a lot of these remixers really grew into their talent. I just got to your hillbilly Bubble Bobble remix (which is one of my cult classics), but then after 3 more remixes of the same tune I wanted to throw the CD out the window. And remix it myself. 949 to go!

Went through another 6 or so on the way to another work location. I can't tell who has written the remixes because my display just barely gives me the whole name. It's kind of interesting to not have that type of bias on the song right away. I'm having to come here later and see who wrote them. Diet Thirstquencher by Beatdrop gets my nod on this latest group of songs. Bahamut: You ain't kidding. It really does give me a different perspective. And I also can't even imagine what it would have been like if a zircon or a star salzman or a bladiator (tee hee) came along years ago with one of their big songs.

So, I just got a new car and it happens to have an mp3 CD player in it. I decided that this would finally be my chance to listen to every OC remix known to man. I downloaded both torrents and have so far burnt the 1000 mixes onto 5 CDs. Now while I'm on the road (which is A LOT of my job) I'm going to listen to them all one after another after another. Unfortunately, they aren't in order from 1 to 1000, but just in alphabetical order by name of the game, so I'm not getting the real deal on the "from the first to the last" that I had wanted. But still, I'm seeing how it goes. In this thread will be my assessment of said journey.... So far I'm 38 songs in and I'm kinda let down. Actraiser gave me a few good pieces, and I heard a Blaster Master song I enjoyed. Otherwise, I've been dying. Oh, and Bahamut Lagoon. TO ONE THOUSAND!!

Congrats guys. I'm going to sit around and do nothing. Enjoy your second job.