prophetik music Judges ⚖️

September 10

i suspect this may be using suno. i will ask before listening to a 12 minute piece.

edit 9/15: sure looks like it. NO

September 9

lol, what the heck

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opens with a pretty standard transcription method - brass for fanfares, winds for accents, low strings for chords. the brass articulation is surprisingly good for this - i really expected it to sound like machine guns. and the flute articulations are nice too. the solo violin that comes in around 0:16, doesn't sound very realistic initially - it needs more vibrato, if you can add it - but the schmears that come in right after sound pretty good. the cymbals in the backing in the quiet section at 0:29 are a bit much.

this picks up with more well-articulated strings around 0:35 - the marcato is almost overstated there - and it comes back around into a similar scoring as the opening. trumpet note at the end of the run at 0:46 doesn't sound right. i liked shifting the melody to the brass right there though, and then letting the winds take the melody for a bit.

we start to hear the crossfade at 1:11, i think - the lead instrument there sounds pretty buzzy, and even more at 1:24 the buzzy nature of the lead starts to cut through. the backing elements are very close to the opening section, which is highlighting an underlying issue with this arrangement - it's short but there's a lot of repetition in how things are scored and represented. on cue, 1:35 has the same crescendoing violin line as earlier.

we do finally get some new material at 1:57 - i liked the interplay between the trombone and winds. soon after around the 2:05 mark we get more of the backing original synth tones. by 2:31 it's the original for 30s (or close enough it doesn't matter), and then there's a fadeout.

from a conceptual standpoint, this is a really clever idea. i love the idea of a crossfade into the original synths as part of a classical work - easily the farthest from those tones we can get despite having a lot of similarities (non-vibrato violin or flute vs. sine wave, for example). in terms of execution, the instrumental realization is pretty solid in most places too, with uncanny valley elements really only popping on some of the overly-marcato strings and the solo violin. my issue though is that the arrangement uses a lot of repetition of the same short blocks of harmonic content over and over. for a track that only has original material for 2:10 out of 3:05, we shouldn't only get eighty seconds of original material before there's repeats.

i will note as well that the crossfade idea is neat, but it should be more obvious when it starts to show up, and then slowly ramp up from there (that is, start slow, speed up in middle, end slow - logarithmic fade). i really only hear it in the lead initially, and then suddenly everything gets replaced. separately, having 20% of your piece being original audio isn't a positive - i understand referencing it for maybe 10s, but not so long.

taking another crack at the arrangement so it doesn't repeat itself so much and then separately cutting down the original audio at the end would be enough for me. as it is, there's too much repetition.

NO

The Vodoú Queen · September 8

loads of sound design and sfx clips to start. a beat starts to surface at 0:27, and the rhythmic foundation for the original N64 track can be heard in the patterns being played here - an interesting idea. there are steadily more melodic elements added in until we get to the break at ~1:02, and then 1:21 is where we start hearing more of the melodic material again. there's some alternations in here, and notably the choice of notes at 1:40 and 1:47.5 are a half-step off of the key (should prob be Eb-F instead of D-E to avoid the D-Ab tritone)). this is real intense for the most part and a toe-tapper of a section. i really like the super-heavy electro bass through all this. a mid-range element is added around 2:04 that feels a little too much and makes it a touch too dense, but overall this is a neat section. the melody coming in as a break near the end of it is a good glue section. between that initial part and the deconstruction that happens after, around 2:30.

we get a wildly unexpected stylistic transition at 2:58 into...i guess hindi trap? the bassline here is really fun. this noodles quite a bit but is recognizable. there's another unexpected break before a short exploration of the opening few bars of the venom stabs, which morphs into a more brickwalled intense section of venom's stab section. there's way too much going on here and it's hard to hear any one thing, but i guess that's fitting for the style. the ending's a bit of a letdown after that level of intensity, but it's a fine ending and wraps the track.

this is a surprisingly straightforward arrangement of the venom theme, for the most part. there's some really wild exploratory sections that probably could have been integrated better with more patience applied to the transitions, but what's here is interesting and approachable.

YES

edit 9/15: listening again with some of the context from subsequent votes. wake and chimpa are right - this is so very hot when compared to other edm. i didn't notice how much the high mids especially were pushing on my ears until i came in fresh. cosigning their votes.

NO

September 5

opens with light instrumentation. the bass is notably boomy, almost to the point of being distorted, and it's heavily in the left ear so it feels unbalanced. guitars and voice feel suuuuper organic - like they're right there next to you, and the intentionally not-perfect vocal approach is so good, right out of a cafe. drums are probably too complex throughout this entire opening section for the style.

1:17's section is a significant transition, and IMO it isn't prepped as well as it could have been - it feels very sudden, and it stays in this lighter, simpler feel for a while so it's surprising. the vocal work here is way more involved than i anticipated as well - 1:41's got a zillion parts, i'd love to know just how many recordings that is! - and although i don't understand a thing that's being sung, i still got a smile on my face during it.

there's a short solo, a recap with some source and an interesting reharmonization in the end of it, and one more solo to cap it off. there's a neat riff at the end of it.

so the song itself is overall pretty cool, and feels very real and present to me (outside the panned bass being so heavy in the left ear). but my issue is source content and non-VGM content.

for the source element, if i'm not mistaken, there's 59s of source to start, 17s at 2:22, and that's it. the chord progression at 2:06 is imo too generic to count, but the last chord progression has some more of the characteristics of the source and so i'd count that, which would be 25s more. that does get over the 50% guideline, barely.

for the non-vgm content, almost a third of the song is directly from a non-vgm track. we rejected a nine-minute track for having a minute of non-vgm content in the past. based on that example, i think this breaks the rule stated in 3.3. in the submission standards. which is a bummer because this is a neat idea! if this was the main theme from Zelda arranged in a style reminiscent to waters of march, then i'd be fine with it. but as it is, i don't hear any of the main theme in that 50ish-second section at all, so it's just a cameo which unfortunately we specifically try to avoid.

bummer! but a fun track. thank you for sharing.

NO

September 5

This started as an idea in my head for the DoD Brevity Month before the theme was announced and then i saw my idea was not eligible. When Koji Kondo month was announced i knew i might try to do this, but the whole thing got fast tracked when Matt mentioned wanting to sing more in portuguese. That was my cue to get the ball rolling. /
So, what is this?

This is the Zelda overworld theme, in brazilian bossa style, and the lyrics are translated from the classic "Rabbit Joint" cover from way back in the day. The lyrics were translated by me and its a localization not a literal translation, however, if you throw then in google translate its wasy to see the origin.

During the arrangement process Matt mentioned how much he loves Tom Jobim's Águas de Março, and that it wasn't that different from the Zelda theme. So we got to work and managed to sneak a bit of Águas there, this time, the lyrics are completely original and created by me, as a hyrule-parody of the Jobim original. Sprinkle some solos here and there, and this is the result: Águas de Link. a cover of a cover that is not really a straight cover. Hope you like it aswell.

Credits:
tibonev: arrangement, guitars, bass, drum programming, lyrics
Mattmatatt: arrangement, guitars, vocals, mixing.

Lyrics:
Link, ele vem para a cidade
ele vem salvar a Princesa Zelda
Ganon a raptou
a alegria roubou
mas volta quando Link salva o dia

Link, encha seu coração
para usar a espada do poder
e quando estiver mal
uma fada virá ajudar
então seja corajoso e não seja um covarde

É pote, é gema, é um belo rupee
é uma galinha assassina, um link sozinho
é um arbustro cortado, é o link olha só
é a zelda, é o leever, é lynel e armos
é o dungeon de água e a fada maneira
ganon chefão, vai acabar com a zueira.

Link salvou o dia
Ganon está morto
A Zelda está livre
e o nosso herói é o
Link! e o seu nome entrará para a história!

Source breakdown:
0:00 - 0:10 - Intro Chords (Source)
0:10 - 0:17 - Intro Melody (Source)
0:17 - 0:59 - Main Melody (Source w/ re-harmonization on the first verse)
1:00 - 1:17 - Original Transition Part
1:17 - 2:05 - Águas Part (Jobim Parody)
2:06 - 2:22 - Solo 1 - tibonev
2:22 - 2:39 - Main Melody (Source)
2:40 - End - Solo 2 - Mattmatatt

Games & Sources

The Legend of Zelda - Overworld - Koji Kondo

prophetik note: found this version of the song mentioned above:

September 4

fun original.

opens with some big, effected synths right in the front of the stereo field. drums are very treble-heavy initially (outside the kick of course) - there's a lot of 10khz+ content in those hats and snare. the beat kicks at 0:42 alongside some sfx. there's not a lot going on initially outside the kit - just bass and an arpeggio stab, and we get a 303 added in after a bit. this section goes on a touch longer than i'd expect given how little's there. we do get a transition into a more chippy, distorted sound around 1:27, and this functions as a break until the drums come out of the closet again at 1:52. there's some pretty hyper bass work initially and then we get a recap of the earlier fairly-thin section from 0:42 (which is the A material from the track).

there's another break at 2:35 with the B material, and some sonic theme-adjacent material at 3:00. this builds up and is eventually The Big Chorus at 3:20. i still don't feel there's enough going on in the backing elements for this section - there's nowhere near the intensity or beef of some of your reference tracks for the backing elements. they're very bland and smooth, and that contrasts negatively with the angular lead and aggressive drums. the lead rises to a sustained peak, and then it's done.

i think what you have here is a really neat idea. the original's two-phase approach and intense, slow melodic line fits a dnb approach really well, and you've got a pretty solid overall shape for the track with a good amount of breaks and intense sections. what i don't feel is in place yet is the actual payoff sections - almost every section of this track feels like it's missing something. the opening big section at 0:42, like i said earlier, is just kit/stabs/bass, with nothing in the middle of that. similarly, the big hit at 1:40 is the same instrumentation and has nothing in the in-between area until 2:15 - and that instrument is both hard to hear clearly due to modulation on it and is pretty low in itself. last example is the big payoff chorus at the end, at 3:30 - the backing material are these big, bland block chords in pads. this should be the most intense, invigorating section of the song, and most of what i can hear are overly-loud pads.

so i think that you need to take another look at each section and find something to make it interesting and compelling. listening again to Hold your Colour and In Silico, each big payoff section that they have in their songs has simple instrumentation (like you have), but each element is uniquely compelling in their own right. finding a way to hit that balance here is what you're missing right now.

NO

The Vodoú Queen · August 28

opens with some filtered arps and wide synth elements - i really like this opening feel. the sfx panned to the sides might be a little loud on headphones. i don't hear any of Howling Gears in this opening section, although the arp is reminiscent of the B section as you stated. same issue at 0:36, i don't hear that pattern either, but i do catch the bassline when it comes in at 0:52. the guitar part is playing something that's reminiscent of the piano in the original after this, but to my ears the piano's playing an octave, and the guitar is playing a maj 6th.

2:35's a big shift, and shout's b melody is indeed present although i don't understand at all how it fits into the setting that's already present when it does come in. it sounds like it's in an entirely different key (the backing elements really look like Bb to me and shout's b melody is being played in Fm). the following guitar-led section is easier to understand and more obviously maps to gears.

there's a big dropoff here before it gets back into gears again as interpreted earlier. there's a big filter that hits at 5:11 and doesn't sound like it goes away for a long time here - the bottom end feels like it's missing until almost 6:00 for a few seconds.

this goes some pretty wide-ranging places, which is neat. my main concern is the source usage, because i don't hear it in extended stretches of the track. i am gonna need to do some timestamping on this because as-is there's not enough source.

?

edit 9/4: thanks to jnwake for more in-depth analysis. even with the expanded source notes above, i just can't grok most of the connections that are called out. i would need more explicit, present instances of source material before i'd be able to consider this one. i also think the track would benefit from some more intentionality in the sections, but overall do agree that the track is generally well-produced and quite listenable.

NO

August 27

this doesn't even need more comments than the source being not present elsewhere than the opening - this isn't pokemon music, it's an original track inspired by the original. this doesn't have a place on this site.

NO

August 27

lot of mud in the opening section. vocals are super warbly and have a distorted tone that is an easy tell for ai vocals right now. in general the arrangement is not really based on the original at all, but more the concept of the character. there's also, again, a number of notes that are 2-3x longer than a human could hold. it's a fine original track if you like fake music, but the utter lack of source material means it doesn't have a place here.

NO

August 27

those exports are low-poly, FYI, larry.

source usage is a dealbreaker as liontamer mentioned. melody line on the verse for this track fits less than the vocals on the other tracks. there's a lot of weird transients especially noticeable around the 1:35-1:45 section and again the hats/cymbals sound really janky, they're just noise.

NO

August 26

man, this could have been really cool if it was not so obviously fake. from a concept perspective, tying an a capella arrangement to luigi's humming in this ost is great. but the words are obviously not written by a person, and the source doesn't come back after the first 30s.

NO

August 26

not enough source again. there's some fun stuff in the actual vgm sections, even if they're not real instruments. lyrics are better than some of the other tracks this dude submitted (although the whole verse around the 3m mark is nonsense), but i agree they're kind of tired by halfway through the dozen. the section at 3:33 has a bunch of conflicting notes even without the vocals going 110% over a bunch of strings, and that slide at the end is pretty silly. same with the sustain at the end of the song.

NO

August 26

there isn't enough source to pass the standards. the sax parts sound generated with how buzzy they are. this is so frustrating because they're fun songs to listen to, but the artist is trying to cover up just how much they didn't do. craig stated that he played many instruments and used tools to cover the other elements, and specifically stated he didn't use genai to make the track. i do not believe him and do not believe we should accept future submissions without clear proof that he's creating future stuff himself.

NO

August 25

i'll note that the 'arranger' explicitly avoided responding about who actually wrote the arrangement. they stated who played the instruments but did not clarify who wrote the overall track's arrangement.

the track doesn't have enough source so it's a definite no. separately the text is word salad, like larry said (although the joke about going to call mario at the end is admittedly funny), and all of the overheads for the drums are just static. the guitar work is solid throughout, i'll note, and i liked the aggressiveness of the opening section and specifically the altered chord at 0:24 was a fun idea. it's too bad the rest doesn't have anything to do with zelda.

NO

August 21

original is one of my favorites from FF7.

opens right away with stutter synths and some recognizable samba-adjacent rhythms in the percussion. the cosmo canyon bassline is there as well but not particularly present. the melody line comes in at 0:19 in what i think is an electric guitar, and there isn't a lot of personalization. guitar doesn't have a lot of body to the tone or verb/delay/chorus to fill it out - part of this might be how it's being recorded. the chorus section of the melody line has a lot more going on, mostly in the drums (there's some really sick stuff happening here in the drums). 1:36's got a solo section which is pretty fun. there's a comp section for a bit and then the melodic line comes back in for a recap. there's a fadeout after this repetition of the entire verse/chorus structure, and it's done.

the whole mix sounds like it's been recorded on a smartphone - there's a big hole around 2khz across the board, and each instrument sounds like it's missing something. i think the main issue is just the actual mics being used for the recording, or the recording technique. this is a shame because this is a badass version of the theme! there's so much fun stuff going on, especially in the performance. the original plods in a pleasing, old-world way that makes the build at the end of the chorus exciting, but your version has so much more vibrancy to it throughout thanks to the clave rhythms.

i'd love to have heard more variety in the stutter synth - it keeps hammering a lot throughout without much change, and there's definitely room to mix up the backing elements the second time through the melody. a real ending would be great. i also would love to hear more personalization of the melody line, as what's here doesn't take advantage of, for example, the long sustains at the end of each line in the verses. and i'd love an ending, although a fadeout is not a huge problem.

but ultimately what's keeping this one back right now is the sound quality. the individual instruments simply aren't recorded at a level that would be acceptable for this site. finding a better way to record - or instead sequencing instruments - would be needed. another option is to use this as a template and get some other folks who have the ability to record or sequence elements to replace what you can't do yourself at a high level.

what a fun track! i'd love to hear it with better sound quality and a few tweaks to the soundscape.

NO

August 20

really old school original here, been ages since i've heard it.

opens with some wide, very forward saws. there's a lot of verb and this is really blown out so the lead instrument has an overpoweringly present sound that obliterates anything behind it. there isn't any arrangement on this opening section to my ears that isn't in the original - i think it's even in the same tempo.

there's a repeat of the main chorus section with the 'kick' sfx playing faster, but aside from articulating it on sixteenths, there's no change again. so again, there's no arrangement here unfortunately. and then the loop cuts as it's about to loop back to the middle somewhere - so no ending.

unfortunately this doesn't fulfill what we're looking for in terms of arrangement. i'd encourage you to take a look at our submission standards, notably section 4, and utilize the workshop forums and discord to get some guidance on how to work towards a more complete arrangement that'd fit what we're looking for on the site.

NO

August 14

i really prefer the normal too-many-words writeup from lucas =P

opens with some spanish-style acoustic guitar and shakers, and gets to the melodic material at 0:40 alongside the addition of hand percussion and rhythm guitar. the backing elements take a few seconds to get settled in and are a bit shaky for the first ~30s, but they lock in around when the harmonized melodic elements start around 1:05. the rhythm guitars are also heavily panned which is more noticeable on headphones, but overall the band sound here is fun. the strings that come in around 1:32 are really nice and subtle, and add a surprising amount of warmth.

1:57's a recap of the Velvet Room theme section from the original, and i like the tremolos on the sustains as a method to convey the held notes. there's a nice break around the 2:48 with just the earlier strings (they sound a touch behind the beat when they're isolated like this), and the following chorus functions well as a build (the marcato strings help here) into the solo section at 3:40. sounds like dueling solos to me which is something i have always enjoyed. there's one more recap of the Velvet Room theme, and a sustained chord for the end, and it's done.

this is a fun ride! the simplicity of the instrumentation really shines out here and allows the performances to be the main focus. i thought the rhythm guitar was slightly ahead of the beat throughout, which made slower attacks in the strings and the groove of the drums to sound a bit weird sometimes, but overall this is a really enjoyable take. i particularly liked the way you were able to use several different sections from an original that is pretty long and has a lot of variance between sections. nice work.

YES

August 12

in my last vote, i called out the need for EQing and volumization to avoid clipping, but loved the arrangement.

i love the delicate opening guitar work, with so much variety in how the instrument's being used. the fluttery, glassy burbles around the 1:00 mark are really nice. there's a bit of a break at 1:23, and we get a new feel coming out of that when the melody comes back at 1:35. the vocals are just light and distant enough to really add flavor without being able to focus on them - the spacing is really nice. there's an outro that's pretty rhythmic, and it's done.

this is now a lay-up in my opinion. mix is far better, approach is simple but beautiful, and the vibe is great. nice job!

YES

August 8

opens with the descending arp of the original in a funky 80s-feel synth. beat comes in at 0:15, and i can definitely hear where you're trying to go with this. the piano that comes in at 0:27 is painfully square and robotic unfortunately, and the sample isn't great either. the offbeat pops fit the concept well though. melody comes in at 0:39, and there's some nice panning on it to help it feel more organic in the way it moves. the backing is very static until 1:24 when there's a short break - i'd have liked to hear more to mix it up, especially given that there's only a few instruments playing and not much to keep it unique.

the chorus uses a new beat which is nice, but the piano especially is starting to really grate as it's doing the same thing most of the time and it's tiresome to listen to. the piano solo at 2:13 is nice. there's a percussive element in the left ear that is notably far away from anything else in that side and it sticks out a lot.

there's another chorus, and what initially feels like an ending until it's made more obvious that it's a transition into more of a shuffle. 4:02 brings in a lot of other elements that don't really get explored much. there's some distance put into the overall tone, and then a single chord finishes the song off.

it really seems like you approached this with a goal of simplicity and a patient approach, and i think that's a cool idea for this. i really think this is too stripped back, and separately what's here isn't used to full potential. i think that adding even a single countermelodic element would add a lot to the work overall, and separately (and more importantly) there's so little personalization or velocitization applied to anything outside of the synth blats throughout. the block chords in the piano for example don't change dynamics or approach ever throughout, and the lead instruments also do not have clear examples of velocitization outside of one specific color note in the piano solo. along those lines, each major section has a clear sound that's established in the first bar which doesn't change throughout that entire section. it's too repetitive and it becomes very obvious very quick.

i think there's too much repetition throughout, and not enough personalization especially to the backing parts. this needs another pass.

NO

August 6

really neat original. that short synth tone is really unique.

opens with some bells and ambient synths. it doesn't sound like most of the things being played are the original, but rather following a similar structure. the beat comes in at 0:28, and the strings that eventually come in also are outlining a descending pattern that isn't the same notes or particularly close to the original. same with the eventual synth arp.

beat drops around 1:22 for a bit, but comes back unchanged. there's a recap of what just happened, and the opening bells come in too, but still no source. we get something that's again reminiscent of the original at 2:03, but all that includes is movement from the 5 to the b6 and b7 - none of the 5 b6 4 5 pattern that permeates the original, and also none of the little 7-8 lick that stands out in the original as well.

we get another break at 2:44 with some choral elements, but the same taiko and synth elements in the background are still there. we do get some more unique strings after this when the same beat comes back in again, but nothing from the original. there's a fun stutter effect in the strings near the end, and then it's done with the arps fading out (over a very long time, this probably should be shortened by half if not more).

unfortunately this doesn't really appear to be a remix of the Cradle Under the Star theme, but rather something inspired by it or reminiscent of it. there's no actual original material that i can hear in the track you've submitted. so that's a dealbreaker right there. separately, it's really obvious in here where you copy/paste each individual element's block of material - the synth does the same thing every time it shows up, the beat is the same, the taiko element is the same, etc. even the fake scream transition sfx is used repeatedly. that much repetition becomes really noticeable really quickly when you listen to something more than once. spending the extra time to make each entrance of an instrument unique is absolutely worth it. if this was a complete arrangement of the original, i'd probably still reject it due to how muddy and overly dense the representation is, and how much repetition is used.

i think that the original's neat and there's definitely legs for this style of arrangement. trimming the fat and making it more clearly related to the original will definitely help craft a better overall product.

NO

August 1

the synth riff is immediately recognizable. i also like the big bass and the fun 90s synth guitar near the end. the arrangement itself is definitely nowhere near developed enough for us, unfortunately, although i like the changes you've added in the second half. an easy and quick way to expand the arrangement would be to have some chordal movement right away - going from the Fm to, say, a Db chord within the opening 30 seconds, then to a Bb or Eb would help move the progression along a lot and add a surprising amount of breadth to what you've got here. i actually don't think you need melodic material, although that's another easy way to add uniqueness to an arrangement - i think that just varying the chord progression (or, y'know, having one at all) earlier in the piece would be enough. that'd lead naturally into breaks and builds as well, and some level of added dynamics would also really help the track not feel same-y throughout.

kick sounds a touch heavy next to the bass, and imo layering the bass with a less noisy version with more fundamental would help give it a bit of punch that it doesn't have.

some window dressing and this is probably good enough for us. just needs more body to the arrangement and you'll be there.

NO

August 1

opens with some vocals over guitars. the guitar parts sound really nuanced and nice here, and the vocals sound pretty indie. there's a huge build into 0:46, and i love the pause on the chord that is used for this. band tone is great and in your face, especially the kick beater which i really like. bass guitar tone is lost a little.

the characteristic CT funk sound starts at 1:05, and there's some fun backing elements here to keep it fresh. lead guitar at 1:36 sounds fantastic. the panned rhythm elements in this section are IMO too panned and are distractingly wide, but i like what they're doing. there's a big break at 2:03 with some nice percussive elements and little blurbs in the instrumentation. the vocals here form a nice pad to everything else.

another big build into 2:37, and i again like how driving and heavy the kick especially is here. 3:02's a hair-raiser, and the immediately following section is fantastic - that first chord is excellent. layering in the synth lead from earlier with the last piece of the melodic content as part of a harmonized end line is great. there's a final chord and it's done.

what a ride! the opening was a little worrisome given the vox sounding pretty meh, but this takes off and never looks back. i really enjoy the overall shape of the piece and the highs are just perfect. excellent work.

YES

July 18

this song again has over a minute of silence after it, similar to your Song of Storm submission. please trim the silence off of the end of your tracks before submission.

opens with the original's arpeggio in the piano to open, with a slower overall tempo. 0:14 brings in the melodic line in the cello. there's a few other elements brought in at 0:28 and it gets pretty overwhelmingly loud for a bit. the piano break after is straight from the original and doesn't sound modified, and then we get a full band sound at 1:15. there's some fun elements here - the electric guitar's tone is great, and i like the downtempo feel in the bass. none of the instruments sound particularly real or balanced as everything's just layered in, but the idea is fun. the melody drops and the arpeggio is in the guitar for a bit before a sudden stop, and it's done.

from an arrangement perspective, there's not a lot here that isn't in the original. i like the band feel that comes in at 1:15, but there's no new countermelodic elements, no personalization or chord changes - nothing that is Hupusu, just stuff that is Alexander Brandon but in new instrumentation. so that'd need to change before this could be considered. separately, the instruments are not particularly good - there are way more free options out there that'd really improve this, including string and piano soundfonts and VSTs - and the mix is dense because everything's just layered in with no effecting or compression or EQing. so there's a lot to work on here! but i think that the feel you get at 1:15 is great, and a good example that you know what you want to get to and it's just a matter of learning the steps along the way. i'd encourage you to take a look at the Workshop discord or forum on the site so that you can get some suggestions and start learning to improve.

NO

July 18

this is 26 seconds long with 28s of silence after it. it's a neat tech demo concept but isn't close to what we could accept here unfortunately. there's nowhere near enough development of arrangement to meet our arrangement requirements, and the instrumentation isn't what we'd expect to see either.

i'd encourage you to review the Standards - notably points 1.2., 4.2., and 5.2 - as they detail what we expect for our site.

if you fleshed this arrangement out some more and looked into some of the free VSTs and sample packs that are available on the web, i definitely think you could turn this into something legit! but what's here isn't there yet. consider the Workshop discord or forum for additional resources.

NO

July 18

This song was originally created as a way for me to learn how to use LFOs, as I've been comfortable in DAWs for years, but never really produced anything meaningful--and if you can believe it, never knowingly used LFOs. Serum 2 had dropped a few weeks prior to me starting on this, and everyone lost their minds over the plugin, going as far as crashing the download servers. I wanted to not only familiarize myself with Serum 2, a tool that the entire amateur music industry seemed to collectively soil its pants over, but also to learn how to use LFOs in a way that is both textbook and also wide-breadth application, so that I can use them more in future projects. I also really, really like Half-Life, for all its janky glory in 2025. It's a formative game for me.

The core, lead synthesizer to the remix, audible from beginning to end with very little breakage, is based on something not even the original composer created: it was a stock sample from a trance music sample disc from the mid 90s. I decided to recreate it from scratch so that I could manipulate it as I saw fit. Given the game's propensity to use samples for a large part of its soundtrack, I feel it necessary to clarify that there are no samples whatsoever from the original game song in this remix.

The lead synthesizer alone utilizes six LFO channels, each on a different programming (retrigger, duration/how many bars, etc.) to automate its various textures and filters. This was the point of the exercise. Nearly every other track in the song uses 2 to 4 of their own LFO channels, and the rest is either sampled (sourced from my Splice back-catalog, 909 kits, or whatever else I had onhand) or oscillators tweaked to imitate the timbre of real instruments (the electric guitars, for example, are not sampled guitars--they're distorted and shaped sawtooth oscillators).

The original song is a lot simpler, and has a more obvious A-B-C sequence of structure, like verses to a lyrical song, but not really. I decided to try and unify some of these sections together so the song sounds less like four separate ideas concatenated together, and more like a song that evolves and riffs on the same cool sequencer lick. Thus, the song is more of a buildup, reaching a bridge section which drops most of the percussion except for a Daft Punk-esque tambourine, and a crescendo climax which integrates faux electric guitar and the heavily chorused/flanged synthesizers typical of Half-Life music.

Vocals are a mixture of scatting/improv vocal samples and a gospel choir thrown in there, because it's the closest in feel that I could think of to match the as-yet-unknown vocal sample of the original song.

For mixing, I tried to ensure each instrument channel had an EQ register of its own, but there was always bound to be some overlap as instruments sound pretty bland and unconvincing without their harmonics. The climax of the song had to be compressed to ensure all the loudness of the various lead instruments coalescing together didn't destroy anyone's speakers. This part is the weakest part of the mix by far, but Half-Life 1 music is very in-your-face and dare I say aggressively 90s, and I don't feel bad about it being loud--I just hope it doesn't lose too much of the plot.

I'm not a music producer, I just like OCR and Half-Life. I'll accept any feedback and make changes as the review staff see fit.

Games & Sources

Game is based on the outro/credits theme to Half-Life 1
- Original song here
- HL2 also sampled this song for its own credits theme, but it was fairly different in that version, different enough to be its own song (and very short, only around 30 seconds)
- Both songs are by Kelly Bailey
- The main synthesizer hook, audible from the very beginning, in the original game's soundtrack was a sample from the disc entitled Trance Formation: Creative Essentials Sampling CD - Volume 6, track 19, sample 3, "Trippy Seq. 3 F 120." This sample was recreated in my own style for the remix. A large quantity of samples are used in the HL1 soundtrack, none of which are used in this remix--I tried to source my own or create my own. A list of known samples from the original song can be found here.

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