prophetik music

opens with synth toms and a pulsing, driving beat centered around the chord progression outlined by the original's opening elements. there's a bit of melody at 0:32, but it's hard to hear to under the existing arpeggiating instrument. there's a break at 0:52 that admittedly sounds like something out of chrono trigger for a bit. i noticed here that the drums were pretty auto-pilot for a while both in terms of what they were playing and the fills being used. starting at 1:12 we get the melodic line from the original around the 2:10 mark for a bit. there's a break in the beat right after this for a bit, and then we get a copypasta of 0:22 (this sounds 1:1 to my ears, right down to the too-quiet melodic line) and then later of 0:52, and then 1:12 as well. so that's a lot of completely repeated material. 2:51 is some new material from the original for a few seconds, and then the track kind of peters out - no fill into the ending, no chord resolution, and the instruments seem to stop at different times. i think this one isn't quite done yet. first of all, it's just over three minutes, and more than a minute of that is a direct copy from earlier in the song. that's too much clear repetition - do something different! this can be as simple as mixing up your leads, changing a few chords, adding some countermelodic material, or updating the backing elements. along those lines, i found the drums to be extremely basic and same-y, even for a style that usually uses a base loop for most of a song. mixing up the drum fills so they're not rote and altering the beat for the middle a bit will make returning to it later that much more impactful. another issue is the not-ending is a real letdown. lastly, i'll call out that the melodic material at 0:32 isn't really audible, and it'd be great to get that bigger so that the correlation is more obvious. i do think this has legs for sure! i love synthwave versions of winter themes, i think there's something about the nature of the synth tones usually used for this that fit really well. i'd love to hear this with some more variation to the track and some extra ear candy in your approach. the workshop would be a great place to get some other feedback as well. NO

my original vote had issues around the need for volumization, some drum EQ work, repetition, and some sections that were lacking in energy. opening still feels light on the bass and kick, and the snare is a touch loud even when everything's playing, but it's not as bad as it was in the last mix. the vibe is still really fun. i think the guitar part at 1:25 is new, right? that's nice to have something else happening there. there's some sfx in the recap at 1:49 too which is fun. i'm noticing the instances where the drum parts are not quite in line more this time around. 2:35's still kind of static with the marimba octaves - i wish we could get something simple alongside that to make it less static. overall, i think my main mix complaints from last time - the very loud rhythm guitar and the weird-feeling drums - are a lot better than last time around. i think the levels throughout are much more balanced, and i think there's some added content that wasn't there before. i don't think this is perfect, but it's much improved overall, and i think this is probably good enough to get it over the line. if it isn't, i'd focus more on helping the overall feel of the track not to feel like there's too much repetition, and getting more dynamics overall in the work. YES

original decision Arrangement: Mel Decision Bass: darmock Guitars: Siolfor the Jackal All percussion: DeLuxDolemite This arrangement was created for Dwelling of Duels' Party month in September 2024, and got 9th place out of 24 tracks. This was my first month participating in DoD. I had a bit of trouble figuring out what to arrange—some of my first choices didn't fit all the criteria—and fell back on the first Mario Party on N64, since I'd recently played that with a friend. Yoshi's Tropical Island is a jam, and got me inspired to dive in the prompt. While it's a fairly conservative arrangement, I've taken a more laid-back approach to the piece's beach vibes. This is the kind of party where you sit back and relax with a piña colada in hand or bust out the grill. Collaboration, not competition, you know? I've subbed the steel drums for guitars performed by Siolfor the Jackal, added some additional movement to the bass, performed by darmock, and added a bunch of additional percussion including a full drum kit part, all of which was performed by DeLuxDolemite. DeLuxDolemite also improvised a conga solo for the piece. In place of some of the default percussion from the song, I subbed in some samples from Mario Paint and Yoshi's Story. With the guitars, bass, and percussion, I did more processing of live instruments for this track than I have on any previous track and learned a lot about mixing everything. The drum kit was especially a learning experience; instead of working on one or two midi tracks, I have audio tracks for each section of the kit. This piece also inspired me to go out and buy some additional percussion instruments so I can play some myself in future arrangements. In fact, I've already recorded some for the next DoD prompt. :) I focused on redoing the mix from scratch for the resub, paying close attention to how the rhythm guitar and drums to address judge feedback. I also added a few spots with steel drums to reinforce the marimba per @pixelseph’s suggestion. Games & Sources "Yoshi's Tropical Island" from Mario Party 1, composed by Yasunori Mitsuda

@Liontamer @Emunator updated version in first post with slightly reduced high freqs on shaker. enough?

opens with a much slower and relaxed vibe than the original, for sure. melody comes in at 0:19 and there's some fun altered/extended chords in there that i don't remember from the original. this is definitely a city pop feel, i agree there. i appreciate the tight tone of the drums as well. there's a recap of 0:19 at 0:57 (it does sound exactly the same for maybe 20s), and some altered chords for the second half of the A section in the vibes. there's a bit of a break, and then we're into the B section at 1:35. there's some wooble on the leads here that's a neat idea - i didn't notice it in the earlier section. this section kind of just trucks through the material before getting back to the A side as fast as possible, at 1:54. it's a little noodly there, but the track finds where it's going when it gets back to the A material. around here i started wanting a bit of a break, and while we get a bit of one with yet another copypasta of the second half of the A section from earlier at 2:32. and then more copypasta - 3:00 is 1:35 again, with some changes on the second half of that section. 3:29's a recap of the opening, and this is also copypasta. this block repeats for a while and then fades out. so most of the second half of the track is repeated exactly =( i think this is a nice idea, and i like the execution of it in terms of synth choices and instrumentation. it's a real nice vibe. but the repeated material is excessive. one or two sections repeated is one thing, but this is half the piece. i think it's fine to repeat concepts as long as you're mixing up the next time it comes around - however that's not what's happening here. get me some variety! and then i'll be very happy to pass this. NO

Hey guys, This is my version of Sakura's theme from SFA2, which is a bit of a fan favorite track if I am not mistaken. The point of departure here was, like my previous submission, using sounds similar to (or inspired by) the og CPS-2 board, but I took a song in a very different direction than the original: it's slower and a bit more wistful. In retrospect, I think it sounds a bit like City Pop ballads? Games & Sources Stage Sakura - Street Fighter Alpha 2

opens with just drums, before we get an FMy bass and some distorted drum elements. it was a touch confusing what was going on in the drums at first, but once the more electronic/effected elements came in, it was more clear what was going on. coming in fresh, the opening drums sound strange due to the effecting on them, but they do fit better once i have context. melodic material comes in at 0:16. i like the distortion on the melody line, and i like the little harmonic shouts in each ear when they come in. i don't like that it's pretty static of a sound with no lfo or delta on sustained notes. there's some backing elements here - bells and an organ maybe? - and they're very oofy and heavily verbed while the lead, drums, and bass don't have any verb that i can hear. those backing elements really feel surprisingly dense. being in the same range as the melody doesn't help, and when they go lower for the second part of that first melodic phrase, it sounds very dull and congealed. the cymbals throughout this section are also essentially just static - the part at 0:30 is actually kind of shrill. mixing up the lead at 0:49 is a good idea - it has some delay on it and sounds so different simply because of that bit of effecting. it also doesn't have anything that helps the sustains sound less grating, which is disappointing. 1:20's a recap of the melody. 1:30's the same as 0:49 to my ears, outside the panning of the melodic blurbs, but there's some minor added harmonic elements on the back half that help it not be completely copied. 1:50's a big dropoff - i wouldn't have minded a more gradual falloff there. the bells in this next section are nice but the hard panning felt a little weird in headphones. at 2:16, animal got tired of the slow dancing at Fozzywig's Annual Christmas Party and kicks it off for a bit, but after one pass, it's back to being quiet again with another hard transition for a bit before it builds back up for one last blow. at 3:01, we've got (i think) the fourth time we've had the melody in the same instrument coming in with the same ascending line. luckily this time there's some changed elements in the melodic representation, but this would have been a great chance to mix it up and not do the same sound again. there's the ascending single chord bit and it's done. the different background synths end at different times, which i'm not sure was intentional. for a track that's 3:30, it's surprising that the texture is the same for almost three of those minutes. the loose, heavily reverbed organ and bells in the background alongside the very not-verby lead, bass, and drums never changes. combined with the lead never really changing after that first change at 0:49 makes for a very static soundscape, and it got tiresome after a while. the melody's always in the same range, it's almost always represented the same way with only minor changes until the very last time, it always has the same chords, and while the backing drums do mix it up and do some neat stuff, the rest of the arrangement feels like it's missing some development. i liked the concept of the quieter sections to help give the band sound punch when it comes back, but in my opinion the first break comes too late (feels like it should be at least 30s earlier in the mix), and the transitions in and out of each section are very abrupt. the energy management feels lacking as a result. some transitional elements would help a lot to manage that, as would giving those transitions a bit of time to breathe. i think you've got some really interesting ideas here, and there's obviously a lot of craft that's gone into the drum work especially. a set of backing elements that more closely fits the soundscape, some more intentional and careful transitions, and more attention paid throughout to making the melody line unique and different each time it's played (via instrumentation, lfo on the synths, altered chord work, more personalization, changing ranges...) would really move the needle on this one. as it is right now, it feels like you're close but not there yet. NO

For the Tetris Attack / Panel de Pon album project. When reviewing the Tetris Attack / Panel de Pon soundtrack, this track immediately stood out as a bop. Of all the tracks, it resonated with me the most as a drummer. I already loved the original drum part, so it felt like the perfect choice for the "drum kit" highlight on the album. I started with a basic arrangement, honing in on the drums. To emphasize their presence in the remix, I decided to feature both an acoustic and electronic kit—using ML Drums for the acoustic elements and crafting my own electronic kit from chip drum samples and sound effects. After several iterations of the drum parts, I asked @paradiddlesjosh for feedback on MIDI programming and articulation, refining the feel to make it as realistic as possible. With the drum tracks starting to lock in, I moved to refining the rest of the arrangement around them. The energy felt a bit one-note, so I experimented with softer, dreamier sections to add contrast and break up the loop. This also gave me a chance to explore different drum textures and the full range of a kit. Once everything was in place, I fine-tuned the mix to really make the drum parts shine, with valuable feedback from members of the OCR community. Games & Sources Game: Panel de Pon / Tetris Attack Song: Lip's theme / Demo

opens with some moving clarinet, and that moving line quickly passes between each part. this unfortunately highlights the difficulty in chamber music that's remote - it's so hard to truly pass off lines like this in an even fashion, although you do a decent job here. 0:35's sustains are a nice change. the repeated notes under those sustains really needed more intentional dynamics in the performance. there's another recap of the moving lines moving around with 'pizz' underneath them, and this sounded similar to the opening but voiced differently. there's a few obvious mistakes in the bassoon line at 1:22, although admittedly that's a tough range. i really liked the passing-off of the phrasing at 1:27. the following section has some more counterpoint which is nice. i'd have loved to hear even more interweaving of parts here, and especially some more dimensionality - spreading out the ranges a bit to fill in the chords instead of having everything so tight would have really added space. the chorale section at 2:09 is another space i'd have loved to hear with more range on the parts. shifting to ensemble articulation at 2:23 was really nice too. i wasn't as big a fan of the subsequent silence in the sax solo - it loses some energy and then tries to get right back into it, and loses something in the process. there's some more consistently moving counterpoint for a few more seconds, and then we get one last chord and it's done. from an execution standpoint, the arrangement is overall really solid. i appreciated the contextual changes between the articulated elements and the more sustained sections. there's enough repetition of concepts to hold onto without being overly repetitive, and there's a nice payoff at 2:09 with the chorale (although i'd have liked to hear more range explored on the instruments there). from a performance standpoint, i found the alto to be both too present in the mix and too sharp a tone as compared to the other instruments - a touch of EQ to tone down the edge on it would have really helped it mesh better with the other instruments. intonation across the board is fine but not stellar, and timing is pretty darn good considering the recording method. i think this is definitely a good representation of the medium and the original. performance is pretty good considering it wasn't done in-person and the arrangement has a lot of good contrast. nice work. YES

opens with keys, bass, and some limited drums. the keys in particular don't really speak very well and it's hard to hear what they're doing. everything's pretty slammed - especially the bass and kick are causing other instruments like the cymbals to distort audibly. melodic material comes in at 0:34. same drums from the intro are underneath. this trucks along through the A and B themes (the more smooth melody and the arpeggiated section), there's some fills and new patterns at 1:43 which is nice, although the instrumentation is staying the same here. at 2:08 the first drum groove is back, and the honestly the feel here is pretty hip with whatever the plectral instrument is behind the keys. the drums are just so bland. melody comes back at 2:43 way up high - this would have been a perfect chance to mix up the lead with something else. it goes through the melody the same that the last several passes have done, which feels tiresome at this point. the mix goes through the same A/B pattern that second time, there's a bridge-like section that i can't hear what the melodic material is, and then that bridge section turns out to be the outro and repeats several times copy-paste style until a fadeout occurs. this has some moments! there's definitely a fun feel to it in several spots. right now the mix is really blown and hard to hear, so that's a problem. and separately, the arrangement has some nice bits, but overall it's the same thing twice through and then an outro. i'd like to hear some use of dynamics (ie. breaks in the beat), a more logical song form, and less repetition. NO

this reminds me of something i'd hear on echoes. i don't think it makes sense to do a timing walkthrough on this, so i'll summarize. the timbral expansion here is significant and reflective of other heavily adapted arrangements we've had in the past. i appreciated the use of the entire sound stage throughout, and the willingness to explore elements that in general we don't see explored (mostly timing elements, a 180-degree soundstage, and some phase concepts). i agree with chimpa that the arrangement is fine and we don't need timestamps - in fact, had the chords been altogether different but consisting of the same pattern and roughly the same function, i'd still have said it was OK. i think that this is an excellent example of a style that we don't see near enough, given the volume of ambient/non-melodic tracks on popular soundtracks. i would have loved even more messiness and exploration in the first half, to be honest. but what's here is great and i appreciate it a lot. YES

my last vote centered around the oppressive feel of the mix and the limited sound palette, as well as some of the extended sections with a minimal amount of stuff going on. opens with some nice creepy arps and some woobly pads around the lavender town arpeggio. melody is there right away in some lower synths, and there's some sfx and a slow build into when it all hits at 0:56. the kick and bass have more punch this time than the last time i listened. the melody is carried by a distorted synth that feels kind of bland initially. there's a break with just some bass and snare at the 1:33 mark, and then another build (very similar but not quite to the first one) into a big bass triplet/gallop section. the track still feels kind of empty through here as it's primarily [bass and drums] and [arp] and [lead], and there aren't really a lot of other things to fill up the middle of the soundscape. there's a big style change at 2:25, led by a new bass groove, but it only lasts a few seconds. the subsequent break has a lot more body to it than it did the first time around, and the build has a lot more verve. i'd have liked a different kick fill than the last two. 3:13 is back to a similar feel as before - and, most damningly, it continues to use the same five or six elements. it's the same reversed arp tone, the same sweeps, the same lead tone, and the same bass riff as what started at 2:25. there's only so far you can stretch the same few things, no matter how much rhythmic variation you give each element - it really just sounds like you're alternating previous loops. 4:15 brings back the rising aleatoric sound with some heavily gated pad synths carrying the melody, but they're hard to hear. there's some subtractive elements for the ending, and it's done. it again cuts off hard instead of having a true fade. i think that, from a mastering perspective, this is a lot more listenable now. it's still loud and aggressive, and that makes sense from a stylistic perspective. my issue is that at no point does it actually feel upbeat and intense. all of the lead choices are very bland, and the lack of variety of sound choices behind those leads really makes it feel very rinse and repeat. separately, there's rarely a time where i feel the soundscape is filled out - i'm pretty sure there are pads going, but i rarely can tell they're there, and there's such a huge divide between the high arp sound (that never ever goes away) and the bass/kit that it's hard to connect them. i do think it's possible to use five instruments over a five-minute song and make it work. this track isn't doing that - there's enough variety in what's being said, but who's saying it becomes stale quickly. if you trim back some of the repetition (this track could probably be 3.5 minutes max pretty easily), and then focus on more intently crafting your soundscape and your lead choices especially, i think you'd have a much stronger track overall. NO

Original Decision Well I'm back, and thank you to the Judges for both being kind enough to suggest resubmitting and giving detailed feedback to action! So same story as last time, this is heavily inspired by what I'm listening to currently and right now that's Mandidextrous (Techno on My Mind) since she's in town this weekend! The other big thing that landed between last time and this is Reason 13, with an integrated sidechain tool that absolutely rocks for intuitive use, plus I discovered the Europa synthesiser rack extension (basically Serum for Reason). So with that in mind - addressing judge feedback and with a LOT of back and forth courtesy of the workshop channel on discord: - Stripped back the sausage significantly, removing the limiter and backing everything back to 0db before starting the mix again. - Added heaps of automation through the entire song to help drive build/decay elements and move the narrative along (yes it has a narrative - we arrive in Lavender Town, discover the truth of the tower, run from some ghosts and end up battling Sabrina - but did we win? At what cost?) - most significantly, totally replaced the bassline in the first section with a big filthy reese bass, cribbed from Neuro DnB. A friend dubbed it Neuro Hardcore. - added a couple extra layers of synths and relaxed out the main arp/chime sound to reduce the total overload. It's still heavy hard club music but maybe not quite so oppressive now? - this one is directly responding to Rexy and the fast triplets - added a phaser element to give that section some motion, but also rebuilt it to use a hand crafted laser effect (heavy modification of the earlier mentioned reese). In fact all of the synths have now had manual intervention to remove that "stock" feeling brought up by Liontamer. I think the end result is... Well, nowhere near what I originally intended this track to be, but it's a lot of fun to play loud and dance to (and make stinky bassface to in that middle bit 🤣), and I think it delivers on the promise of the extra long buildup at the start now. As bonus for me it mixes really well with Techno On My Mind so yay, I can play it in sets! Crossing fingers and toes, look forward to hearing back from the judges! Apologies for the external link, I still can't get the uploader to play nice. Games & Sources Pokemon Red - "Lavender Town"

my last vote was pretty flip-floppy, but ultimately i settled on the side of the crunchy chords being too much, and the repetition in the backing parts and the execution of some of the synths needed work. opens with some spacey stabs and eventually a nice meaty bass tone. melody comes in on the guitar at 0:41 (it's a bit loud initially) and then is passed to the lead synth with some rhythm guitar underneath. the first break hits at 1:22 and i especially like the tone of autopanning arp here. there's one more short recap of the melody in a middle voice at 2:02 (probably could start a touch louder) and then we get some guitar solo work. there's a bit of a bridge which works well to mix it up a bit, and then some more handing off of the melodic content before some outro content that goes on a bit longer than i'd have expected. i think this is a lot more cohesive of a package this time around. the variety of drums especially really helps each section take on a voice of its own, and the 'fixed' chord elements allow the track to speak cleaner. YES

This is a resub, original submission thread is here: Changes: - Changed the chords on the melody, as requested. - Re-Recorded the clean guitars to fit the new chords. - For the main lead synth, re-recorded the leads to be less 'stiff' and changed delay/reverb settings. - Changed the balance of the lead synths volume - Changed the low pass on the lead guitar - Re-did the bass line - Re-did the guitar solo - Changed the balance on the hi-hats - Changed a lot of the drum patterns Mix breakdown stays the same: 0:00-0:33 - slightly changed version of chord progression from source 0:41-1:22 - original source melody 1:22-1:30 - altered chord progression 1:30-2:02 - new arpeggios with different backing and variation bassline 2:02-2:11 - original source melody 2:12-2:26 - new guitar solo 2:26-2:42 - original melody 2:42-2:50 - altered chord progression from source 2:50-2:59 - new guitar 2:59-3:06 - original melody 3:06-3:31 - new arpeggios over the original chord progression 3:31-3:50 - slightly changed version of chord progression from source Games & Sources Earthbound - Twoson

opens with some next-room kicks and bass, and builds up some percussive elements over time until 0:31 when we get the nightmare battle theme with pulsing bass underneath. there is little adaptation on this initial presentation - it's almost exactly from the original. there's a transition at 1:16 and it's into the middle of Final Battle, i think. this is mostly based around the middle section with the descending chord progression, but in 4 instead of whatever the original was in. i found the brass bit at 1:46 to be a bit strident. there's a recap of Nightmare Battle at 2:07 with some wind fish bits interspersed and the game over theme making a cameo at 2:38. 2:40's ganon's message, i think? in the organ, and subsequently some bits of light dungeon, i think. there's a few small bits of the miniboss battle lead at the end, and it fades out over the course of maybe 15 seconds. the section from 0:31 to 1:14 and again from 2:07 to 2:23 are, to my ear, straight from nightmare battle with a very small amount of blurbles added in to mix it up and some bass/drum. the chips even sound mostly the same. that's approaching dealbreaker territory right there. the opening 30s are just a bass/kick buildup, as well, so that's a sizeable chunk of the remix that isn't really arrangement. most of the other track callouts except for Final Battle were just cameos, but the adaptation of Final Battle was way more involved, although i'd have liked it if more of the actual track was included. from a mixing and mastering standpoint, i felt that most of the time each instrument was clearly balanced and spoke well, with the exception of the organ stacks being way loud compared to everything else. that felt like it was volumized for the quieter section with no automation to balance it. there's also a lot of sub-40hz content that just served to fill up the mix instead of give it a booty, i'd have liked to see more rolloff in the lower freqs. the overall dynamics are varied however and there's a good shape to the track. i don't think i can pass this with the amount of material cribbed straight out of Nightmare Battle. if there was even the slightest bit of variation in what was represented there - maybe adding some alternative patterns in the bass around transition points, or personalizing the 'lead' part - then i'd be ok with this and it'd be a pass. or even if it was only like 20 seconds. but it's like a quarter of the song depending on where you put the start and end points. i think it's a bop! add more metatron to the nightmare battle section and i'm good with it. it's probably a ten-minute fix for someone of your caliber if you want to do it. NO

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

i would actually say exactly the same thing about where i am right now as a musician =) opens with some arpeggiated elements and the concept of a beat. we start getting the funkiness that i associate with damon's music soon after. 0:22 has some other instrumentation coming in - there's some really fun filtered attacks on a lot of these synths and that causes some neat soundscapes to pop up here and there. melody starts in a woody vibe sound at 0:44, and it's a little far back and to the left so it's harder to hear. reducing the vibrato on it too will help it pop forward in the mix more - kind of like the wind instrument that comes in after it (i think i have that vst also, it's a classic!). this section's a touch loud, i think, and everything feels a bit squeezed but just a bit. fun fill going into the drop at 1:50, and this leads into another recap of the melodic material. 2:15 brings in the B theme, and the transition here is a little sudden. this might have been an opportunity to change up the drums some more. 2:58's another transition, this time to a more muted feel as the track starts to wind down. some sound design here or even a cymbal on the transition would have helped. the ending is similarly unprepared and just kind of happens, which is a real bummer as i think it really would have benefitted from a real ending. it's fun hearing how damon's style has changed over the years, and also hearing what's stayed the same. i really like the focus on fun drums and unique textures. the lack of an ending is a big deal for me, but i think what else is here is enough to carry this over the bar. YES 2/2 edit: adding in some more transitional elements and a real ending makes this so much better. bravo. still a yes but much stronger.

opens with some wide synths. the kick rhythm is a little confusing as there's no beat here to hang your hat on, so it's not clear where the down beat is initially. the melody comes in at 0:24, and you're right, it is questionable. polytonality is a technique i recognize, but it really doesn't work here - it just sounds off-key outright. 0:49 is where the track seems to be more settled. there's a recap of the beginning with some low synth blurbs at 1:13, and those synths kind of step on each other since they're all in the same freq range. the beat picks up at 1:38 and this has a pretty neat vibe once it gets trucking. i'll admit i don't really hear the original in this section. 2:27's lead synth doesn't really make a ton of sense to the rest of what's going on around this section, and it's so highly embellished i definitely wouldn't have caught that it's a reference to the opening without calling it out. right after the main riff here, the track just continues hammering that one note for a pretty long time without significant adds. the melody comes back finally - again, pretty heavily ornamented - and then gets some weird notes around the 3:28 point before the track is suddenly done. so right off the bat - i think that the arrangement has legs. you've got some really creative concept work behind each part of the track (to be honest, probably too much - if a book is needed to understand a 4-minute piece, you're not doing enough as the arranger). there's a lot of padding that can be trimmed, and you need to work on transitions and the opening sections so that they're approachable and understandable. that said, the instrumentation isn't close to being there. if this is supposed to be using some retro sound chip, ok, but evaluating this as a pickup piece of music, the audio quality isn't up to par. there's buckets of free stuff that's better across the board out there, and separately there's a lot of mixology you can do to get better sounds out of the instruments you're choosing. i think that some serious time in the workshop discord would help a ton on this, and i think that some time spent finding ways to get better sound quality from all of your instruments is helpful too. you can do nostalgic with real synths and make it sound like a modern song still. NO

The original idea for turning this into a battle theme was based on the first "tutorial" style battle in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where you are in the school yard and proceed to have a turn-based snowball fight to learn the basics. By adding in some higher ends with the use of analog generators and additional samples, I wanted to bring a more nostalgic wintry feel that's accentuated in certain sections and more subtle in others. My track 0:00, source track n/a Since this is a battle theme conversion, I wanted to convey a build-up of tension similar to that of the first 17 seconds of the [REF1] adaptation with a bit of an industrial energy, given we might be stretching the boundaries a little to provide them with basic augmented reality. Battle preparations, taking their places on the field outside Seventh Heaven. Unrelated to the source material but it helps convey the additional discordance that is being introduced. My track 0:24, source track 0:13 The first reference to the main motif in Barret's theme, using the same notes as the original but with less separation between them. This could be considered to be one of the most contentious points of this track but after much contemplation, I do feel that this off-key mix of the lead and rhythm sections compliments everything that comes after it in my submission. The first 37 seconds from [REF3] has a great build-up and was one of the main inspirations behind bringing together the same tones of Barret's Theme while also introducing some discordance and disparity between the notes. Reducing the time between the notes also accentuates this greatly. You could consider it as a warming up phase of the battle - participants haven't really found their footing yet and are fumbling a few of their throws. You can't expect to perform perfectly from the very start and "feel the flow" as a certain character would say, referencing a previous comment about "Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL". My track 0:49, source track 0:39 This is my interpretation of a more traditional upbeat JRPG progression - possibly something you'd see on the Super Nintendo in a game like Chrono Trigger with those organ samples. I do enjoy making some interesting transitions to other similar styles where possible, without ruining the cohesion too much. I hope that it doesn't jarring when dancing between multiple ideas within a single track such as this. In this instance, I think the transitions do make sense and it's something that I continue to explore within compositions and arrangements such as these. My track 1:13, source track n/a 0:49-1:10 from [REF3] showed that I wanted to have a classic lull in proceedings - something to begin building the tensions once again as I feel that is particularly important when it comes to battle themes as opposed to general area or town tracks. Music from the Halo and Spyro the Dragon franchises showed me how important that was when it came to the works composed by O'Donnell/Salvatori and Copeland respectively. Having something that constantly "all-out" constantly active would be far too much for the listener and it's almost impossible to keep up that level of activity without losing what really makes your track sing, introducing too much repetition or adding melodies for the sake of it. I do enjoy employing negative space where possible - less applicable with battle themes but very much underappreciated in atmospheric tracks too. My track 1:38, source track 1:05, 1:27 The middle of the track also serves as the very meat of the experience - what I feel really makes this a battle theme. The contrast between the high notes once again and that lower-pitched lead along with a slightly more "active" bassline are what brings this entire sequence together. There is still a slight mix of hopeful yet combative energy coming from this. Maybe it's the determination that is such an important trait of being a member of Avalanche, never to give up regardless of one's position however bleak it may look. It also makes a callback to the very end of the loop during those overlapping lead chords which I think works particularly well and isn't overpowering. The repositioning of this element of the source track allows us to add our own interpretation of an outro. In the second half of this section, the complexity is reduced and the higher notes are removed, allowing for a more natural progression to the following section - a second lull in proceedings. My track 2:27, source track 0:00 A cheeky little callback to the very beginning of the source material. A chance to cement a wintry feeling by introducing a clean high-pitch square instrument with a touch of reverb. Also a chance to dance around the keyboard a little too! I beefed up the bass too by introducing a low guitar sample which adds a nice counterpoint to the especially higher octave blips from that square. While it references the beginning of Barret's theme, it also vaguely resembles that of the lower notes included in the main motif but this may have been by design from Uematsu-san. My track 3:01, source track 0:13 The second callback to the main motif in Barret's theme, this time without the disparity between the lead notes and the bass/chord tones to convey a culmination of everything that's happened up to this point. It's getting to the end of the skirmish and everyone's ready to battle one more round to see who is victorious! Also including an additional slightly heavier counterpoint to the lead instrument to really drive home that upbeat energy at this point. My track: 3:26, source track n/a "Wait, what's that in the distance - is that part of the simulation or are those people really running in fear towards our location?" A harsh reminder that yes, this is still the Sector 7 slums and some things have or will never change. One minute, you can experience utter joy but at any moment, that euphoria can be stripped from you entirely, leaving nothing but the reality of your existence. Shinra still know about your location and things won't stay the same forever - for better or for worse. My track: 3:35, source track n/a The question remains - is Avalanche able to prevent Shinra from dropping the plate that exists above Sector 7's entirety? Instead of looping around to close off the track, I wanted to leave a question for the listener to ponder as a small cliffhanger. A very short and minor reference for the ending sequence 0:44-0:54 from [REF2] helped to shape this. While it doesn't carry the same sense of "almost" impending destruction or loss, it is still somewhat unnerving. Video references: [REF1] 壱番魔晄炉 Battle Edit (Mako Reactor 1 - Battle Edit) Reference [REF2] Dead End (Final Fantasy VIII) Reference [REF3] 忍びの末裔 Battle Edit (Descendant of Shinobi - Battle Edit) Reference Games & Sources Source track: Barret's Theme (Final Fantasy VII) In a way, I think Barret's theme from Final Fantasy VII has been associated with the beginning of the game, almost a part of the tutorial if you will. The original track is very friendly and upbeat which I feel matches the energy of the start of the game - a successful raid on the Mako Reactor and Cloud, along with the friends in Avalanche, has safely made it back to the (currently) safe slums. They are a very close-knit group whom I believe would definitely enjoy playing competitive sports and other games outside with each other, especially with the younger generation like Barret's daughter Marlene. Now, I know that the Sector 7 Slums are part of the Midgar undercity and many of those residents would never see the light of the surface but if it ever did snow outside Seventh Heaven, this would be the battle theme that played while both teams attempted to pelt each other with compressed snow. Maybe some snow was able to be miraculously preserved with Mako energy after shipping it in from the Icicle Inn from the northern continent or with all their technological advances, a simulation could be developed that converts a small area into a playing field, much like the augmented reality duels from the "Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL" anime. I know, it's a bit of a reach with it being the slums but I would feel that a close unit like Avalanche might put together some funds for something like this for the younger generation, especially given Barret's relationship with his daughter Marlene. He's just a big old softie with a tough outer shell for sure. As the original theme is more a summation of Barret Wallace's overall character, I wanted to skew it towards a battle theme with additional instrumentation and more traditional percussive beat. To do this, I wanted to take some additional inspiration from Nobuo Uematsu's recent arrangements for FF7R. There were two tracks that really stood out for me that take an original area theme and turns them into an incredible battle theme, coined the "Battle Edit" - "Descendant of Shinobi" and "Mako Reactor 1" from Final Fantasy VII Remake. The adaptations from Uematsu-san were what inspired me to try doing something along the same lines. They are an absolute masterstroke in how to turn a cheerful, slower-paced track into something incredibly hype-inducing and combative in nature.

Hey everyone! It has been a while. I hope all is well. Due to some big changes in my career, my focus shifted a bit from making music for the past a couple of years, so I have been relatively quiet on the forums. I wanted to return with a new and improved style, so I took some time to read over comments and feedback from previous WIPs and posted songs, and really tried to figure out what I'm lacking in comparison to other remixers (A LOT). I also wanted to learn more about FL Studio, mixing and mastering, and how to use my Native Instruments samples better. I'm still struggling a bit, but I think I am making good progress. Now, as far as my remix is concerned, I have been having trouble trying to decide exactly what genre this mix would fall under. Maybe, chillhop(ish)? I really don't know... I just make music that feels right, ya know? I made 3 different versions of this particular remix, and I think this version is my favorite one. Though, this is a remix of a Sonic Frontiers song, it was actually inspired by the "Rusty Ruins" track from Sonic 3D Blast (Sega Saturn ver.) and one of my older remixes that was posted waaaaay back in the day, "Day & Night." In previous remixes, I struggled making my music sound natural and non-robotic, so this time around, I focused on adding more variation to note velocities and timing. I still suck at playing my midi keyboard, but I decided to keep some of the minor mistakes and imperfections in the mix, and move away from grid-based composing. I hope you all enjoy the song! Thanks. Games & Sources Sonic Frontiers - Theme of Koko: proph note: this is the same thing for almost 2min and then has a B section at 1:54 that i almost missed

opens with what i think is ~30 of a joke, and then gets into the actual arrangement, so i'll start from there. opens with an expanded version of the dark world dungeon. there's some nice passing of the initial four-note pattern initially, and then a highly interpretive version of the dark world dungeon theme. this more outlines the chord structure and references the main riffs than it does directly arrange it - there's a lot of the original in the cello for example, but not a lot in the leading voices. there's a rhythmic and dynamic resolution around 1:57, and it starts referencing the ascending arpeggio riff from the NES dungeon. the melodic line here is roughly the same shape as the original's melody line that eventually comes in, but it's certainly more inspired by than it is the original's material. there's some octaves here that i didn't really care for in the scoring, actually - i would have much preferred more fleshed-out chords, at least partially because it wasn't obvious to me why those notes were being emphasized with octaves. the third section starts at 3:12 with some really fun disjointed and differently-timed ascending patterns. the cello here is overpoweringly loud for at least the first 20s or so. there's some resolution elements and it's done. there is what i think is some unintentional phasing going on throughout. later edit: this is apparently endemic to the samples used per the remixer, so it isn't something that we can correct easily. i also don't really get the first 35s and wouldn't mind if it was just from the true start of the piece that we posted. that said, what's here is a really interpretive and interesting take on several dungeon themes. there's a lot of complex arrangement going on here, and it's well-performed. what's here is still over my bar for execution as it's enjoyable and has a lot of depth in the performance and arrangement. YES

wild original. it really goes all over the place. opens with some water sfx, and then we get the chips to get it moving. there's a lot of long-tail verb on this to my ear and it sounds pretty spacey as a result. as far as i can tell, the opening two minutes or so are mostly the same notes as the original, with new instruments and a few extra backing elements put in there. it isn't until the two minute mark that we get something that'd be considered to be really arrangement and not just instrumental replacement. there's some exploration of the arpeggio section that the original ends on at 2:30, and then it fades out. unfortunately i don't think there's near enough arrangement to consider this. i actually like a lot of the choices you made (admittedly not all of them) for instrumental replacements, and i think what you've got here is a lot more listenable than the original. however the vast majority of this is dave rogers's arrangement and the synths are pretty close to his choices too, which really doesn't get this past the 'cover' stage. i'd love to hear this with more intentionality in the arrangement throughout - instead of switching between sections because the original did, make it more of a musical approach where you're choosing what to emphasize and what to stick with. separately, i'd say that there's a lot of fleshing out of the backing elements throughout that this needs. since you're not limited to a few channels, i'd suggest you expand a lot more! there's a lot of meat on that bone in my opinion. i think what's here would be something that the cpc fan community would be into. unfortunately it just doesn't meet the arrangement requirements for our site. some changes could definitely raise it to that bar, but may move it further away from your artistic concept. so it's up to you how you'd want to proceed. i certainly hope though that you'd consider revising it to meet the submission standards though! NO

classic original. opens with some sfx and a screaming guitar riff. lots of verb on everything. bass has a really weird tone - the fundamental isn't the loudest element, so i'm guessing it's been layered with something to make it fuller (the distorted tone somehow isn't the only bass tone there?), or else a super-notched EQ. that opening section sounds very strange as a result. the petrucci-esque guitar that comes in right after is fun, and it's also super loud but the bass sounds better with it. it sounds like none of the instruments are in the same room - lead has a ton of verb on it, rhythm and bass don't, and drums have some arena long-tail verb on them. lead guitar riffs at 1:00 sound great. tom groove going into 1:29 sounds like a fill pattern that got reused a lot - doesn't really feel like a tom groove, although i like the idea. 1:29's drums are the same as the opening - guessing the chips are as well. i like the addition of strings that happens partway through this section. it adds a lot to the feel. 2:27's section is the same as 1:00 (backing is the same, lead is up an octave initially). that said, i love the escalating elements of this section, and it's easily the best part of the piece. the opening in the bass is enough for me to say no on this, and the subsequent reuse of drums throughout isn't a great thing either (although i do like most of your fills, they really feel nice and keep it rolling forward a lot). i'd love to hear some more variety in the drums and fills in the first half, so that the second half (which currently has a lot of repeated parts) can stay the way it is now. you may also want to consider unifying your verb throughout so that the instruments sound like they're more in the same area. this is a fun track! i don't think these tweaks would really take a long time to execute on, so hopefully we see you back soon. NO

when this came up ~18 months ago, i voted on this with primary criticisms being the balancing, frequency overload in the low mids, and the arrangement feeling meandering due to lack of dynamics. opens with the ghost castle arp and a ton of really fun sfx work. some very industrial stuff is going on pretty far away, and the title screen's surprisingly chromatic melodic line comes in at 0:29. it's neat how well that works among a very spare background. the riff at 0:47 goes on for a long time and gets a little tiresome fairly quickly (that synth's delay effect was cool in small doses but is irritating with longer lines, especially since it's in one ear hard). percussion drops a bit going into the textural shift at 1:16 - there's some new drums here as well, which are pretty hard to hear (especially the kick). the aquaduct arpeggio with the delay effect is back in the right ear and it's way louder than everything else. it gets toned back later which is good. this continues to wander around with the aquaduct theme in the front for a while. i found this section to be lacking in direction still. there's a simplification at 2:07 alongside a time signature shift, and we're back to just the kitchen sink effects alongside the ghost castle theme for a bit. this section is neat with some of the counterpoint between the melody and counterpoint, but it feels underbaked both because of how thin it is here as compared to the drums chiming merrily along, as well as because it's the same synths as most of the rest of the song at roughly the same volume. it's hard to pull out that this is more or less important than other sections. i still find the transition at 2:37 confusing as well - it really sounds like the song suddenly ends, and there's no real prep or anything set up to come out of it either. the synth work immediately following that break featured a few shifts that i found made it easier to pick out what was the most important. the texture here also feels more fleshed out. i didn't like that the lead instruments for this section were mostly in the right ear instead of centered. there's some fun stutter effects on the leads later on also that i liked. i don't think my opinion on this has changed yet. i still don't like the weird cut at 2:37, i still think the middle third drags, and i still think the lack of dynamics is a negative throughout. i don't remember the panned lead instruments before, but i find that to be irritating as well (i found myself turning my head regularly to the right to 'hear' the lead better) - in fact i think the piece is over-panned throughout. from an arrangement standpoint, i think that you would be well-served by being more intentional bringing out the melodic lines you're trying to have us trace. you've got three sources, and tbh i think they work really well next to each other, but with that comes an imperative to be very intentional about how you emphasize and define what's where without losing the general song-form structure that you're using. the story here isn't as clear as it should be, and a big part of that is that the natural ebb and flow of a track isn't here due to there being little dynamics. i'm fine with a track that doesn't have a clear melody, but what is melody should be cohesive and readily apparent, and that's not happening here right now. i do think you've fixed the mix a lot - i remember before the bass being totally overwhelming above everything else, and then all your instruments were very tightly mashed against each other. i think the bass is probably a bit overcorrected, but overall i found the mix to be passable aside from the panning stuff. my concerns are mainly with the song form and arrangement elements. i have a lot to say here and it probably sounds like i hate it. i don't! i think there's some really neat concepts here, and a lot of overlapping back-and-forth stuff that reminds me a lot of old-school remixes that i loved. i just...i got done with the full listen a few times and just didn't remember a thing that happened in the middle of the piece outside of that panned synth being so annoying. that's not a good thing given the interconnected nature of this remix. the track doesn't go anywhere for an extended period of time. i actually think this is a fairly straightforward fix - just cutting some cruft out of the middle and emphasizing your melody more via non-delayed leads is probably enough. NO