prophetik music

in listening to this entire thing with an open mind, i do hear where there's a few specific thematic references to the original track (1:05, 2:21 for example). there's also some highly transformative sections, like the repeated descending section in the bass line that occurs several places (example: 2:06), which i wouldn't have tabbed being from this without knowing the context but understand where you came from after reading it. however, most of the track isn't recognizable in the slightest. this isn't a matter of not understanding the serial representation of the set you're using as far as i can tell - it's just that most of this is unintelligible. what's the point of speaking in tongues if there's no one to interpret? there's some genuinely interesting ideas in here - 3:31 for example is a pretty ripping take on the initial descending melodic line, with the frenetic sfx in the background and the very fast (if extremely repetitive) drums. but there's no usage of song form anywhere in this, there's no real synth design, and for the most part the master is "same volume for everything throughout". it's more reminiscent of the Undertale flowey fight's inanity, but that was far more defined and intentional than this is. this comes across as wild musings more than an intentionally crafted work. ultimately this falls short of several elements of the submission standards, but 4.3. the most: sorry, but this isn't something that we can post here. NO OVERRIDE

if this is a brand-new project, i don't know if it counts as a resubmission. opens with some organ outlining the chords and the opening melodic line. there's a stutter synth here that doesn't really fit the organ and voices, but then an edm beat comes in so it makes more sense. beat feels pretty cluttered - the snare has a lot of low content, kick feels unfocused, there's several low synths in this section, and the fills feel like they're layered on top instead of being different things the drums are doing. 0:27 has the melodic content come in for the first time in full. i really don't care for this lead as it's very occluded and hard to hear what it's doing. i do like the call and response concept that's going on there though! there's a break right after this for a bit, and then we get a new lead at 0:55. and then another new synth bass at 1:09, and another new lead at 1:23! it's a lot of change in a short period of time. it's ok to lean on one tone to help to tie sections together - this feels a little too bouncy between ideas (although i like the ascending arp a lot, and the 404 bassline that's right after it). there also continues to be a lot of drum fills that are complex and dense, and a little less there might be ok - a few well-timed tom hits are better than the same complex fill over and over. there's a break at 1:47 - and then a bigger break at 2:02, with some sound design on the transition. this goes into an outro that repeats the opening idea, and it's done. after hearing it, i'm remembering this one from when i voted on it in 2022 (and several times before). i think you've got a lot better overall sound quality than you did last submission! i'd like to see more cohesiveness from section to section, a few of the more complex leads reined in, and a lot more work on the drums - less of the same big complex fills and more intentionality about what it's doing. NO

all five previous submissions most recent rejection It has been some time since I have taken a crack at this track. This one is a brand new project, and I tried to use some of what I learned on my Twisted Systerz submission. It's the first walkabout theme from Dragon Warrior 2. I give thanks for the time and consideration ahead of time:) Games & Sources

opens with some detuned synths and a generally nostalgic feel. similar to the original, the beat subverts where the downbeat is initially and makes you realize you had the wrong feel in your mind, which is a fun throwback. the melodic content is pretty subdued and overall this is a very slow, loose rendition of the original. there's a break at 1:30 and that builds up from there for a while. the beat comes back in at 2:27 and it goes through the melody a bit more, and then there's some surprisingly ambivalent chords that play us off. this is a really low-energy track. i think that some of the j's will complain about the lack of forward drive, but i feel like this fits the feel really well. it's very patient and intentionally doesn't lean into the energy of the original, which i actually like quite a bit. i think this is over the bar. YES

This is a Christmas-themed remix to Undertale, because it just makes sense. It was originally made for An OverClocked Remix XVIII back in 2020. I wanted to submit it back then, but it was so close to Christmas that I just didn't... for some reason. I was in the mood to make something pretty and chill, something more hopeful and uplifting. You could say this a spiritual sequel to my old Zelda remix, "Solace." I released it as part of an EP back in 202, "Winter Pixels". It's a little looser and more lofi than my usual stuff, hopefully, it fits the new guidelines! Games & Sources Game: Undertale Source: Undertale Theme

thanks for the resub! i really liked the arrangement concept and some of the set pieces in the original mix, but didn't like a few of the synth choices which i found bland and thought some of it needed EQing/reinforcing elements. track opens with some really big broad strings which sound very rich, so that's fun. there's some more sfx at 0:50ish as the strings glitch their way out, and we start hearing the Durandal synth with the ascending motif. the beat comes in at 1:26 and we get into the blootering of alien backsides. i admittedly like the nastiness of the Durandal synth more than the subsequent synth choices, which still feel bland and rote. there's some repetition in this section too which i still don't care for, but i like the transition at 2:43 and that section just as much as i did before. this section is great. again, the transition into the techno section is also great. this time through the techno stuff feels a little better and less rote. there's a final hit and some sfx, and it's done. i don't care for the middle minute or so - that more upbeat section just feels really dull when it should be the energy highlight of the entire track. i get that it's a 90s feel, but at least those 90s techno vibes had more verve to them - this feels more like a framework than a finished section. i'm a bit torn on if it is offset by the great opening and the section at 2:43, which feel really expansive and introspective. i think that, in the interest of not making perfect the enemy of good, this is probably above the bar. i think it sounds solid and there's no big holes in the arrangement. YES edit 2/19: we used this track for our recent judgetest, and i spent a lot of time listening to it as a result. the more i listened to it, the more i felt that the middle was just not there. there's a lot of promise in the opening, but i think that i ultimately originally settled on the wrong side of the bar (in that it was close but not there, instead of barely squeaking by). that middle section needs more verve, better guitar tracking, and stronger instrument choices. i'm changing my vote. NO

opens with that creepy arp to start in a neat bell-like synth. melodic riff is in the pads initially with some big sweeps over top. the arp starts to double up and do some delay stuff with some rising action behind to escalate, drums that come in at 0:45 are kind of weak, but i see where they're going as you use them as an escalation element. the sausage starts to get made at 0:56 as the kick and bass elements come in more regularly. this track is super slammed in the feel despite not really having a ton of super loud elements, so it feels a bit oppressive, but i recognize that's both intentional and part of the style. it's nowhere near upbeat as i expected though given the big transition drums. 1:10-1:20 for example feels really empty, as does the section immediately following. 1:52 switches to a triplet feel (among other things), so it's a lot busier, but it's still just the beat, bass, melody in the pad, and arp repeating. i feel like there's not enough going on through most of these couple of sections. there's a big drop at 2:36 in energy, and the arp element is doing some hits in here. the off-beat part that followed was a fun feel. 3:09 hits and it's the same instruments as before but now they're doing different rhythms. still using the same synths after all this is starting to be tiresome, and the overall mastering is still super heavy so it's still feeling oppressive. to be clear - the variety you've implemented on the arrangement itself is really impressive. you're doing a ton of variety considering the melody itself is like 20s long. my issue is with the instruments being reused constantly and never changing, and with how empty several of the sections feel behind the melodic representation. we get to the end and it just kind of ends, and there's a cutoff on the synth instead of a fade. i wouldn't have minded something deconstructive to end this given how much you played with these elements throughout. i'm honestly not sure about this one. i love the arrangement. i don't like that it's four instruments throughout, and i don't like that there's a ton of room throughout for other stuff that doesn't seem to be capitalized on. it feels like this is the framework and it still needs the finishing bits. ? edit 12/3: ok, i slept on it, and i still don't dig the extended sections with so little going on, and i still don't dig the limited sound palette. kris's note about sidechaining is good too - that's why it doesn't feel like it can breathe (well, one of the reasons). so i think that a NO makes sense for me.

sprechstimme is a great way to put it, and i'm surprised i didn't make that connection myself.

opens with some percussion. the loop points are pretty noticeable with the first percussive element. it's super bassy and very wet to start, and there's a few harmonics (around 3.1k) that are hard to listen to in that opening section. bass comes in with the melody at 0:20 and it's just a massive blob of mass between about 45 and 200hz: it's very dense in here, and it feels pretty slammed especially in the left ear which is louder than the left. melody's in a percussive instrument, but it honestly sounds like there's more delay or verb response than there is melody. it's hard to hear where the attack is in the melodic instrument. as i listened to this opening section a bit more, i realized that i think that the original's playing real-time behind the added elements like synth, guitar, and effecting (just start the original's youtube at like 30s in). i think it's being chopped up and looped, but i think that's why it's so dense-sounding. the instrumentation elements are playing exact matches from what i can hear. we don't disallow sampling the original in remixes that we post, but we do require arrangement that is transformative. this is quite literally just the original audio with a small number of additional elements layered on top and a really, really bass-heavy master complete with huge reverb added to the entire thing. not only does not this not pass muster on the engineering side with the mix being so dense and boomy and most attacks not being able to be heard, it also doesn't pass on the arrangement side given that the arrangement is essentially not yours throughout. this isn't something that we'd be able to accept. if you wanted to rework it to feature your own instruments, and focus more on the arrangement (since there's essentially no personalization here), then that's something that we can work with. this isn't even a cover, though, it's the original track with something on it to discourage copyright detection. NO OVERRIDE

I wanted to make it feel a little bit more like you were really in the space that the song is trying to manifest. The original drums were the only part of the song that I decided to sample and leave basically untouched. They are the core and driving force of the whole piece. They keep you wanting to move forward through this jungle of sounds that occupy the rest of the space. I feel like the US OST of Sonic CD is woefully underrepresented today. Of course the original JP soundtrack has plenty of hits and a ton of staying power, but Spencer Nilsen's work has always shined in my eyes ever since I first played the game on the Sonic Gems Collection waaaaay back in 2005. I wanted to honor his and his team's work without deriving too much from the original concepts and charm. Think of this as a sort of "Sonic Mania-ified" version of the OG track. Games & Sources This is an arrangement from Sonic CD's US Soundtrack, Palmtree Panic by Spencer Nilsen. Very specifically, I based the song progression off of the version heard in the Sonic The Hedgehog Boom CD from 1994 -

opens with some sfx, but gets back to the melodic content right off the bat in the background in an altered fashion. some tasteful electric keys bring us to the intro of the vocals at 0:31. vocals sound untreated, but i like the variety of backing vocal elements brought in. there was some intentional wavering in the pitch, and i don't think it all quite works (1:02's just too indistinct to work imo). 1:07's a vibe shift, clearly more of an aggressive feel as it builds up towards the percussive hit at 1:36. some of the textures around the 1:45 range are pretty interesting. the live vibes add a lot. this whole section thematically fits the game but really doesn't feel tied to Starjump at all. there's another chorus where the untreated vocals seem more intense and obvious, and the vocals sound even more Lin-Manuel Miranda than they did before. there's some very nicely handled bells as it fades towards a faux ending, and then we get the intense banging chorus that we've been waiting for the whole song. this section not being swung was a little jarring to me (fitting!) and the deconstruction of the vocals over time was nice as well. i was on the fence for source usage on this one for a bit. the original's just a broken chord arpeggio for the entire track, so with the initial transformation you did to that pattern, i felt it was getting lost in some places. i think you tied it back in pretty well throughout with some of the voicings and especially the ending, however, and the whole package overall definitely feels more Starjump than individual sections do. i also was on the fence because i really didn't care for the vocal performance initially. in general i don't care for this style of spoken-word half-singing, and even after listening several times i don't think there's really a melody - learning the song and repeating it wouldn't really be singing, but more theater. i found myself being more open to it when i thought of the whole work as a performance instead of a recording. i wish the vocals were better treated - there's a lot of room sound on it which flattens the feel a lot. from a creative perspective, though, whoa. there's so much variety and clever interplay of parts over the four minutes of runtime. the vibes performance as well is perfect for this kind of quirky track. celeste continues to inspire some really creative and unique works and this is no different. nice work. YES

i'm not voting on this because it's my project. but i never felt this was a particularly developed arrangement. the soloing sounds like it's for another song. it's cool that he found the original loop though and the track is mastered real well. it was kind of funny because i asked jordan specifically to join the project because i needed a banger track to fill out the flame side of the album and then he came back with something significantly different than what i'd expected.

@Chimpazilla @Gario @MindWanderer @Liontamer we got an updated version of this non-project lufia 2 track back in may and i'm sick of it sitting in the submission bin, so i'm doing this =) please update your votes with a quick re-listen of this track. it's changed significantly from what we originally YES'd, so while i don't think it'll get any votes flipped, i'd still prefer to have the updated version listened to before we rubber stamp it. per Docjekyll's submission: "Since my previous submission ~2 years ago, I have been working on improving my mixing skills in particular and I don't believe my previous submission is still a good representation of my best effort. So I'm resubmitting the same remix with generally the same arrangement, but with better mixing, smoother transitions and additional atmospheric elements."

opens with a half-time rendition of the melody. 0:22's where it kind of starts to get kicking. the synth guitar isn't super realistic but i like the idea, i think it feels fun. there's another time shift at 0:38 where it's in half-time, and we get another rendition of the first few bars of the start of the melody (pretty sure that's the same as the first time). there's some transitional material, and it runs through the same stuff as the first time through in the same order with the same fills and everything. there's a bit of change on the final ten seconds or so, a few chords to end it, and it's done. this is really short! it's like a minute of music repeated. i don't think there's enough adaptation here to fulfill our guidelines around depth of arrangement. i think the idea's fun - Mario Kart tracks are all so energetic, so i think this is a great idea for an adaptation - i just think that nowhere near enough has been done to make it yours instead of the original composer. from a mix perspective, the rhythm guitar instrument and bass are competing for the same area and it sounds muddy as a result. along those lines, the synth guitar doesn't really stick the landing either in the rhythm guitar department or in the lead. i think that a little more attention there would be needed (and a little less fast vibrato) before that gets closer to par. fun sound test idea! needs some more cooking before it's ready. i recommend the workshop forum or the workshop discord channel. NO

we talked about this internally and ultimately made the decision to reject this due to the format (six discrete tracks that transition into each other). we've had a few of these where it's a full EP or album submitted as a whole and done this as well. if you'd like to submit your individual tracks, please separate them with normal start/end points and submit them separately. Seven Songs for 7th Saga is an example of this. NO OVERRIDE