prophetik music

what a stack of performers credits! excited to hear this one. percs come in at about 0:07, and we get a bass and piano groove at 0:15. more horns are in at 0:30, and we get a variety of stabs and rhythmic elements through this section the Menu theme. guitar in particular is really set into the mix well here, it's hard imo to balance an electric in a jazz stack and it's done well here. 1:25 is the next section the sax parts are more active here. drum work in here is particularly impressive. after a percussion break, there's the title material again and then the menu. i agree that the string licks could have been messy but they're well-done. the track as a whole is a lot brighter and louder in this section and it's fun to hear everyone doing their thing here after how light some of the earlier arrangement was handled. there's a final flourish and it's done. this is an interesting idea for what's essentially a melody-less remix. i think this definitely hits the mark. it's more backing track for a las vegas montage than it is standalone track, but i think that's fine given the goal here. nice job realizing the underlying potential in such an odd place. YES

wall of sound to begin. the synth stuff going on is hard to hear in the beginning. 0:41 is where the full band comes in. the arpeggio is in the lead guitar initially (a little surprising the drums didn't ape the original's rhythmic elements), and that moves into the 'melody' of the original which really isn't much of a melody. it stays balls to the wall for a while as it maneuvers through the original's theme elements. i liked how the oboe and bassoon's melodic material in the original was handled in the guitar here. we finally get a break at 2:24, really just from the beat as it's still going pretty strong. there's another tom groove coming out of this section, and we finally get a texture change when we get some harmony in the lead guitars. this guitar tone is both really loud and doesn't appear to have much room sound on it so it doesn't quite settle into the texture like the first one did. 3:27 has the melodic line in a lower octave with the faster arpeggiated line above it layered in. most of this section is recap of material from earlier without significants change to how it's presented, especially 4:00. there's a build at 4:32 and then we get one more short section of rawk before it's done. ending is a bit sudden. there's not a lot of dynamic contrast in this overall - it's pretty heavy the whole way through. that said, i think overall the mixing and mastering sounds good and only has a few nitpicks about how it's handled, and the arrangement does a decent job handling the (pretty non-melodic) source material in a way that's recognizable and isn't just a cover. so this is a pass by me. YES

neat idea for a remix. sfx and some flute to start, then oboe and harp among others come in quickly. serenade of water (or rutela, it's the same initial ascending line) is the first theme i hear, and it's realized in a moving, flowing manner that i'm assuming is influenced by the source context so that's neat. there's a notable tempo change at 1:38. flute work going into 2:39 was really nice. the percussion right after it, at 2:48 sticks out of the mix a little since it doesn't really have the same sound stage as the rest of it. there's a weird note or two at 3:32 and a few sections after it. i wondered how you'd convey the out-of-time elements of the water temple, and the live elements there really make it work. the lush orchestration continues for some time, and by this point i'm really aching for some dynamic contrast at all. the orchestration is pretty, but there's been little to hold my interest that's not just "oh, there's a theme concept there" - there's few rhythmic elements in the backing parts so the track is a lot of sustains and similar orchestration noodling around. as a backing element to a visual work, this kind of approach can work, but for a standalone piece there really needs to be some meat under all the salad. this is a typical rebecca piece, which is to say it has some beautiful orchestration, it's quiet and not fast, it doesn't have much dynamic contrast, and it competently portrays the themes represented. the themes are worked together so that transitions aren't obvious and flow smoothly. it's certainly above our bar. i appreciate the extra work done to make this much louder than previous submissions. YES

opening is sfx. guitars are highly stereo separated when they come in, it's a bit distracting especially in the right ear. when the drums come in they're playing fun stuff, but they sound extremely notched into the soundscape so it's hard to hear the kick especially. the bass is the only thing in that freq range, and a glance at the spectrum analyzer confirms that in general the bass presence is way higher than i'd expect. cymbals also are pretty bright and cut through a lot. what the drums are playing is dope however. rhythmic elements in the arrangement come in at 1:30, and we get what is kind of a chorus at 1:47. 2:31 definitely sounds like a castlevania remix all of a sudden - the galloping guitars and fast drums are just straight out of 2003 OCR for me, so that's super fun, especially when we get the arpeggiated bloody tears-esque line at 2:58. the arrangement blows through some reprise material and then is done. this is a fun track! the mixing is bass-lite overall - looks like the big peak for the bass is in the 60-100hz area, and there's a surprising amount of sub-40hz content that i couldn't hear but was apparently clogging up some of the soundscape. the piece also overall just doesn't have a ton of dynamic contrast, but consistently changing up the beat and what's going on in the backing parts really helps keep it moving forward. the arrangement itself is fun and i enjoy how it continues to weave elements together as the track goes on. i think this is a great example of each of your unique talents. YES

my last vote criticized the overall lack of dynamics caused by a blown-out master, and the lack of drive as a result. sfx to start, and then some keys in the right ear. the chair sfx is super cool, as is the contrast between the clean piano and the heavily distorted other elements. this builds with adding some percussion and the iconic arp in the background. the clave is really loud when it hits, and i wouldn't mind if that was less. the bass hits at 1:08 and it's appropriately meaty and distorted. more percs build in alongside some noisy elements until the melodic material surfaces from the grime at 1:31. lead's probably too loud here but i like the vibrato and tone on it. there's actually not a lot going on under the melody - there's the arp, some percs, and the bass. we get some organ at 2:10 which helps flesh out the soundscape some more. there's a drop at 2:25. the pingpong sfx continues here (might be a good time to let that go somewhere else for a bit), and the keys stick around and start doing some new stuff which is welcome. the lead is here too and is way too loud as a result (there's no shift in volume from the previous iteration)...this was a good opportunity to do something different with it, maybe consider that. there's a significant 'something different' right after it though, in the piano at 2:55. it's not particularly idiomatic (there doesn't appear to be any velocitization to make it realistically played) but it's some fun tones. it keeps trucking until the melodic material comes back in at 3:26, and continues going well past until we get other instruments again at 4:02. this section is probably too long as a break - it felt like switched to an entirely different piece, and i lost track of what was going on in the first third of the piece quite a bit. i like the concept a lot, but the combination of non-idiomatic playing (ie. obviously sequenced) alongside a repetition of the very loud melodic line played the same as the previous several times really lost me. moving some of the elements in the piano to other instruments as this section goes on may help tie it to the first and third section better. there's a recap at 4:06 - again, the melodic line just feels played out at this point, mixing it up really would help - and then we get sfx for the remaining 45s or so. i actually liked the outro but felt it needed to be set up better. we go from groove with percussion and instruments to just a sustained bassline almost instantly, and some subtractive work here to set us down there would have been welcome. i think this is a huge improvement over your last iteration. that had some neat ideas but was essentially unlistenable with how much clipping it had. this is a much more functional work with proper dynamics and contrast, and that's great. at this point there's still too many unintentionally rough edges to the arrangement and mix that i think need to be sanded down before they're ready for primetime, but you've got this one on the run for sure. i'd love to hear some less reuse of elements throughout (particularly the main melodic line, any updates to that as the track goes on would be great), a trimmed-back or otherwise updated bridge section so it doesn't feel like it's so different from the rest of the song, and some continued attention to volumization of the leads and percussion. NO edit 4/24: this has iterated multiple times in the last few months, so i'm back to do another read on this. i still think the piano bridge is too long (and the tail on the delay's so loud it's hard hearing what's attack and what's tail), but overall this has had a lot of nuance added that i can hear to the various elements so that they're more a part of the piece vs. layered bits. the shorter length helps control that a lot as well. i think this is over the bar but only just. YES

starts out with an absolutely slammajamma'd version of smart race. it's really loud. there's surprisingly little bass content as well. the sidechaining is so strong so as to be distracting. i didn't hear berdly (but it's close to smart race so maybe i missed it) and then it's quickly into queen. pandora's palace hits at 0:55 i think, and we're already through at least three tracks before a minute's done. there's finally a break at 1:23 that's so fast that i can't really hear what's going on, and it gets intentionally muddier as it goes along, 1:50 is big shot, with a recap of pandora's palace intermixed. this is pretty intense through here and very loud again. we get some more recap material at 2:30 with the same instruments that they showed up with the first time around. there's another filtered break at 2:54 and again it blows through some recap material quickly before berdly finally shows up in the piano at the end. i didn't catch cyber's world and the megalovania and don't starve references are short enough i don't think we'd bother registering them. this is...really loud! it's so sidechained and compressed it's hard to hear what's going on in some places. but i'll admit the way that the themes are interwoven near the end are really slick. there's some fun call and response stuff that i really enjoyed, and the pace overall of the track is solid. i think that the arrangement is good and the mastering is good enough (i believe my response to it is more personal preference than actual issue since everything can be heard pretty well). so i'll call this a yes. YES

this appears to be fifteen and a half minutes of the original audio from the games stitched together. unfortunately this isn't what we host at this website - we host arrangements of the original material, not clips of the originals mashed up. take a look at section 4.2 of the submission standards to see what kind of material we generally accept. NO

agree that the initial piano really not realized in a particularly realistic manner. there's no adjustments for velocity that i can hear. strings at 0:25 aren't particularly realistic either. in fact, the more that it goes, the more i believe that this doesn't actually have any arrangement here - it sounds almost entirely like the midi was dropped into different instruments and that was that, at least through 1:17. instrumentation at 1:17 is dry to the extreme and doesn't appear to have any room tone. it's hard to hear if my earlier critique around arrangement is accurate here since i can't really hear half the instruments. then we get to 1:43's full orchestra realization, and it's still the the same direct representation of the original midi in different instruments. there's still no velocitization or volumization done. there's finally some real arrangement at 2:10 - the oom-pah is great! what a fun idea. very good realization of the tone of a calliope, and a lot of character. the percussive hits are a little over the top. but it's nice and ives-y for a bit then hits a huge final chord in the organ that also sounds great. i love everything after 2:10! there's so much character and attention paid to what's going on that it's surprising that the first two minutes are so rote. i could have lived with maybe two of the variations total, but two solid minutes of just pasting the midi into different channels of an orchestral sampleset is too much. there isn't the normal care we'd expect to ensure that the instruments are used in an idiomatic fashion and there's no velocitization - every note is exactly the same attack and volume as the previous one. that's straightforward work to ensure that the instruments are playing a line and not just tooting out what's in the midi, and we expect at least that much here. beyond that, the significant shift in styles throughout (which is neat, it's nice to hear a variety of timbres instead of the same six synths for an entire track) needs more work to make it all sound as if it's coming from the same place. the xylo and harpsichord idea is fun, but it sounds like it's from a totally different recording spliced in due to lacking the same room tone/reverb as the initial strings, and the strings at 1:43 again sound like they're in a different world. more care is needed to craft a convincing soundstage. there's fun ideas here! this isn't there yet. NO

this is a great track for this genre adaptation idea. starts out pretty loud, feels like the limiter's working overtime. it's also heavy in the right ear - the bass doesn't appear to be center, but is in the right with the lead. i listened to parts on just one ear and then just the other, and the right ear's far heavier in both content and in volume. it feels pretty unbalanced. lead guitar tone and performance however are great. there's a lot of personalization in the lead performance. drums break at 1:13 which is a nice choice. the track goes through the A section once more and then it's done. there's some intentional and some unintentional amp stuff at the end from the sound of it. this is very short. the lead part is really fun and the genre adaptation is great, but with very short pieces (two minutes is a hard cutoff for most judges), you need everything else to be firing on all cylinders to count it. in this case, the performance is great and i love it, but the mixing is odd with how heavily panned the lead and bass are, and the mastering is not great because the limiter's getting pounded. this needs to have another pass where you're pulling back all of the elements so that the limiter's not constantly engaged when the bass is playing. that's going to let each individual element shine more. i don't think my concerns would take very long to correct, but they're enough to hold a very short piece back. would love to hear this again however with a clearer master (and maybe a bridge!?). NO

interesting concept. opening is drums and then an unholy scream from the depths of hell, which is apparently a guitar? i see where the doom influence showed up. the synth lead is huge and i love it, just a big mass of sound with this eldritch abomination under it playing 'chords'. the ambient section is a creative way to use the melodic material. it's tenuous but i'm tying the background kick and the octave jumps in the bass to the A elements of the airship theme. there's a big build through 2:13, and then we get to the koopa kid theme. this is again a more tenuous relationship but it's also metal af so i'm good here. the more rhythmic elements are great contrast to the beginning and the ambient section, and the goofy transition at 2:55 into the triple section at 2:58 is great. speaking of which, the recap of the airship theme is superb. what an incredible moment that is. after some more A theme from airship, we get some more drum bangs and it's done. this is really interesting! the connection to the originals is certainly there, although it takes some listening to wipe all the dirt off your windshield before it's obvious. the extra time spend fooling with the guitar tone certainly paid off as well as it sounds ridiculous. this is a great job. nice work. YES

neat original! i didn't vote on the first decision. comments about the soundscape and verb application above apply to me too. percussion across the board doesn't sound like it's in the same world as the synths but the toms are particularly dry. the rest of the verb is like 10x longer than i'd expect too, the tail's super long - i actually think this is more the problem than the percs, since in a vacuum later the percs do have some room tone. the chords that come in at 1:08 are neat, but i wish they'd come in earlier. the lead at 1:22 has such a long tail that it takes a while to fade, and it's moving stepwise in Gm. that wouldn't be too big a deal except the third chord in the short background chorded instrument is a flatted II chord, and so at 1:24 it puts an Ab major chord under an A in the lead line. it's definitely a bit crunchy but wasn't a super big deal to me since the chorded element is so short. the percussion here and the bass writing is actually pretty fun, and i like the call and response through this section. it feels like there isn't quite enough there though - another instrument is needed somewhere where it won't compete with what's happening. this repeats over a few times and then we get a breakdown at 2:17. this was needed by here so it's well-timed. the same issue that was described above happens at 2:30 except this time it's the bass and the lead, and this is more noticeable since the soundscape is emptier. the same riff in the lead and the same lead riff are used here repeatedly, and it's not until almost 3:15 that we get anything new. this is a perfect section to really change up the vibe or instrumentation, coming out of the break, and staying the same is tiring from an auditory perspective. the track felt like it was approaching the end after 3:45 and then it goes for another minute doing the same thing, no solo or anything to mix it up. this is too much repetition - we're talking five minutes of bread and only three minutes of butter. trimming this back a lot would help a ton. so this is a very long rubber stamp. consider changing up the notes that conflict, take some more time to trim back the arrangement to just be the best parts and not also a ton of fat along the edges, flesh out the bass and percs writing for later in the track, and consider how you can continue to iterate what the song's saying throughout so it's not so repetitive. also consider toning back the synth reverb's tail and normalize the soundscape a bit so that it's not so diverse. NO

i don't know a single person who thought bravely default's ost wasn't outrageous. there's some incredible tracks in this ost. starts with some sfx and then immediately really leans into the lofi super-modulated sound almost instantly. it almost sounds to me like this is the original sampled but it's hard to confirm that (material is from 0:59 in LoRF). the melodic material is almost completely lost at 0:21 while a clicky sound is most of the soundscape, and this persists until 1:25, which is a significant portion of the piece. we then get a recap of the initial stuff from 0:06 that appears to be an exact copy. 1:40 appears to be that same copy with the section at 0:21 layered on top of it. this layered approach of copied material persists until the end of the piece. there's a fade-out and it's done. whether or not this is directly sampled and detuned from the original, well over half the piece is copy-paste from earlier in the track, so this isn't going to get a vote from me. it's a cool idea for a single loop and then it's obvious what's going on, and it just keeps repeating until the end. unfortunately that doesn't satisfy our requirements for transformative arrangement. there needs to be more development than just repeating two sound clips. NO

opening piano is appropriately muted. the harmonic strings are a nice idea. this section appears to be cribbed directly from TSoM. there's some cello that comes in at 0:30. it's not a great sample quality, but it's being used well here. some more articulations here (and the space that comes from articulations) would be nice. there's orchestral strings at 0:59, and again the sample quality isn't great. there's a bit of sustain-itis going on in the upper strings - it's hard to hear the melody underneath the huge sustains, so both some volumization and maybe some more creative part-writing there would be helpful. 1:32 we get a significant vibe change (this maybe could have been set up better). the ostinado mentioned above at 1:45 comes in, followed by female choir. most of the instruments in here have a swelling quality to them that's common in lower-tier samples, so it's hard to hear where some of the notes start and end as a result. there's a very frenetic build to 2:57 where the madrigal theme comes back. the solo cello being so much louder in the middle range than the entire orchestra is a little confusing from an auditory perspective. there's some better partwriting this time around, which is great. 3:50 is a recap of the madrigal theme one last time, and it's done. this is a really interesting arrangement that's unfortunately let down by sample quality throughout. you've got some really stellar concepts here - the combination of themes, the partwriting at 3:23 is great, and the underlying story of the game influencing the arrangement is super fun. from a quality perspective though this just isn't there, which is sad because clearly a lot of work went into making what you had go this far. i would love to hear you work with someone who can realize this more fully, because it'd be a highlight of the catalog if that was done. NO

this whole ost is really striking, just like the game. piotr musial is superb. the sustained string harmonics about a third of the way through are so eerie. starts with some plucks and sfx. the violin almost sounds straight out of the game. piano isn't quite in time and has a wrong note right off the bat. big hit at 0:33 with a bit of a beat and what sounds like hammers. it picks up at 0:58 and i essentially can't hear anything but the beat and the piano at this point. it's not a particularly idiomatic piano performance either. there's some more sfx at 1:24 of a speech with similar percussive elements under it - again the percussion is so loud i can't hear anything else. the percs drop off at 2:04. it's still just the strings playing roughly what's in the original track the same way, and piano mirroring it. there's a false crescendo in some really nice rhythmic strings at the very end and then a hard cut to the piano. i think this is a neat idea, but i can't hear anything for the middle half of the piece. it's just too loud. this needs a significant revolumization across the board, especially around the percussive elements which are just way too loud. that whole section is super boomy, and some EQing especially on the big boom fx you're using will help lighten the sonic load there while still keeping it punchy. separately the piano overall sounds like it's just perpetually at 127 velocity and machine-guns several times. there needs to be a lot of attention paid to the piano to make it more realistic in the performance because right now it does not sound realistic at all. all that said i really like the concept. there's some really need ideas here in terms of the instrumentation and your approach, and a lot that ties into the game in interesting ways. it's hard to realize that though with the mixing all over the place. spend some time EQing out extra stuff, turn everything down quite a bit, and then use compression to keep it feeling strong. NO

writeup is hilarious =) really funky opening. tons of modulation on the keys and i'm here for it. bass patch is great, just a little bit of grit. percussion initially is really stylistically accurate as well. 1:14 has some fun guitar stuff and some new percussive elements which is nice. bass work there is clever. there's a drop at 1:36 and it goes to just pads. we start to get some hint of the dirt that's about to hit and it builds up to 1:59 which has both a tempo change and a big style change. 2:10 was great, i love the way you sit back in the groove so far for this one. there's a final bass hit at 2:51 and then it's just growling its way out the door after that. there's some fun new textures brought around just in that last bit. it ends on a V which is a bit unsatisfactory but works fine. this is an easy vote, as expected. excellent work between the two of you. YES

i'm going to actually do a vote on this rather than just drooling like my fellow judges opens with some super interesting ensemble goofball arpeggiated chord stuff. i like the ensemble here. we get some melodic content at 0:24, with an eclectic combination of instruments. the guitar's a little not in the mix compared to the rest here. when the beat comes in at 0:36, i can definitely see the J Damashii comparison. the vibe is excellent, guitar especially. imo the drums here are sticking out of the mix more than i'd expect, but the brass and strings are just so great. the flute is indeed too quiet when it comes in after 1:00. this trucks along until 1:25 when we get some delicious rhodes stuff. rhodes is quiet and brass is a bit loud here. there's a drop at 1:56 and the vibe/celeste/bell thing is doing some really fun stuff here. when the melody comes back in at 2:06, the flute's again a bit quiet. there's a funky note in the background at 2:11 in the strings - sounds like the strings are playing a Bb when the flute's playing an A (i think that's supposed to be a predominant to the Ab chord that comes after it, so i'd assume it's supposed to be a fully diminished 7 chord...so, the flute's playing a B double flat, technically). it happens again at 2:22, Bb next to B double flat, but closer so it bites even more. there's a big drop at 2:30 and the string work there is nice. overall energy is much lower here. there's some delightful percussion through this as well. 3:11 is a guitar lead section and i love the tone. it's mixed a little quiet, so when it goes lower all i can hear are sustains in the background. 3:50 has a lovely string tune that is straight out of a disney movie. this functions as an extended outro. there's some guitar notes here that are a bit out of tune. it settles down nicely into a final sustain and it's done. this is a great track! it's super thematic and the style is nailed pretty much across the board. those crunchy notes are unfortunate and i'd love to see them fixed before release, and there's a few times that the lead is stuck behind the (admittedly usually pretty interesting) backing parts. overall though this is a superb work and clearly represents a ton of work. nice job. YES but plz fix those notes

my original vote centered around the mixing and mastering elements, or lack thereof. opening is a lot better mixed, although there's still a surprising amount of extra-low content in the freq analysis. the instruments sound much more together than i remember the original sounding. sustain at 0:31 is a little questionable - didn't notice that the first time around. i also don't remember noticing that the flute doesn't use much vibrato - i think that's a mistake, vibrato helps a lot to hide intonation issues. bendir at 0:39 is still a little dry and in the fore, especially compared to the flute. the swell at 1:07 into the trombone lead is gorgeous. drums sound a lot better this time around. there's still a lot of beater tone on the kick, and the bass is a bit overstated for the context, but it sounds a lot more a part of the ensemble this time around. i didn't remember the fake decrescendo at 2:37, but i can't say i care for that as much - i think the timbral reduction you did naturally there was enough. the recap as an outro sounds beautiful. the last chord maybe could have come a bit sooner. i think this is a lot better overall. the arrangement as a whole is still really fun - there's great interweaving of the lead instruments, the piano work is excellent, and the ensemble works better in ear than it may on paper (flute and trombone is a surprising combo!). i think this still isn't perfect but that's fine, it's over the bar this time around. YES

agree with Flex. this isn't "a little repetitive", it's half a track. if anything, it being jordan is why i gave it a ? at first when he resubbed the second version.

i like your description of the theme. i agree very much with it. starts with some sustained pads and tempo-synced stuff. there's a neat bass that comes in at 0:29 and this builds up to 0:57 when we get the first big hit in the kick. to my ear, the theme doesn't really come in until 1:16, but i like the approach there. there's a short building section without lead until 2:15 when the strings come in. there's some doubling at 2:33, and the melody comes back at 2:51. there's a drop at 3:31, and the mix goes through the chord progression of the original twice more, and then it's done. my concern here is the source usage. the track is 4:09 long, and i only recognize the melodic content from 1:16-1:54 and 2:51-3:31 - about 30% of the work. the chord progression of the original is used from 1:54-2:2:51 and 3:31-4:07, so it'd hinge on if that counts or not. i think so, since in the past we've used chord progressions that were unique (which this is, it's not something generic) and used earlier in the remix so as to establish that progression. so, with that said, i'm all about this. i love the way you play with time - the initial pattern in the kicks that's in 4/4 but is kind of 7+9 is great. i also like the anticipatory chord movement, moving on the last half-beat of the measure. it keeps it moving forward despite the lower-key approach overall. i think the string work also adds a lot. this is a fun listen with a great realization. YES

ambient opening. first big pile of crunch at 0:25 is nice and it continues to creak in and out for a while. there's some plucks that sound like the intro arp in the original around 0:42. the extreme clipping is making my eyes twitch - there are ways to get distorted and beat-up textures without just cranking it past the 0.0 mark. there's a beat that comes in around 1:31, alongside some other percs. there's a melodic element that comes in at 1:47. i like the distorted tone on it, but don't like how blown out this area is as it loses a lot of depth of tone. there's a lot of low mid content below maybe 200hz that's probably unneeded and is causing it to be really cluttered. i agree with chimpa that this section is slow-burn but not in a good way - since there's zero dynamics possible with the overblown backing elements, there needs to be either melodic or rhythmic elements to keep interest. there's little to no rhythmic elements through the entire song that aren't repeated for the entire breadth of the track, and there's little melodic elements that aren't present in the original. there's some piano that comes in around 2:55, and then some sustains and sfx to finish it for the last 40 seconds or so. a gritty, lo-res texture works very well for this original. ultimately, though, this is a pretty boring remix. the slow tempo is a good choice imo but the lack of dynamics (or really even contrast), interesting rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic elements, and even basic elements of mastering really shoot this one down. there's simply not enough to hold interest for 4+ minutes, and what's there for those four minutes is gritty in a bad way and so blown out that you can't actually hear what's going on most of the time. to be clear: i'd love for a heavy, slow-burn industrial mix of this track, as i think it fits perfectly. just turning up all your mastering channels to +6db isn't how to do that though. it's hard to make something sound dirty and covered in rust, and i think this is what you were going for - it just needs more attention to mastering to make those channels sound like that without just cranking them up so the master clips. NO

Game: Flowstone Saga Song: To The Ruin Mastering by Chimpazilla! She rocks! OA put out a call to folks to do remixes of the soundtrack for this game as a promo situation. I personally thing OA is the best thing since sliced bread, so I jumped on the opportunity right away. I listened through the OST a few times and this was one of the songs that stuck out to me. I liked the rhythmic elements and how they added energy to a slower track. I also liked the bridge section, which reminded me of the Beauty and the Beast score =) I probably haven't done a remix that wasn't a requested thing of me since the Chrono Cross project, so it's been several years. I am nowhere near as fast as I used to be, and historically the act of grinding through that lack of familiarity has been a real difficult thing for me to overcome. I had already told OA I'd do a track, though, and shame is a powerful motivator, so I pushed through and made something that I'm proud of. Then Chimpazilla took my stems (eventually, after several technical missteps on my side and some render glitches) and made the track sound awesome. This is primarily Omnisphere and Addictive Drums, with some Gladiator for a few of the leads. I used whatever older version of FL Studio was still on my computer. I did get midis of the parts from OA but used them as guidelines only due to how FL imported and quantized the files (ie. not well). This might be the last track I do on my discrete music PC...my poor i7-870 was struggling to handle all the processing-heavy verby leads.

phasing ping pong pad to start, and a fun whistle synth. kick comes in at 0:33 with some hats, and then the rest of the kit at 0:47. nice synthy drumkit. melody doesn't actually come in until spartan time, and it's accompanied by some guitar chugs. sounds like the time signature changes around 1:45, and then we get a double-time section that adds a lot more energy. i like the idea of changing time sigs in here since the melodic material is unique but repetitive, so this helps mix it up a lot. beat drops out at about 2:49 or so, and we're left with a pretty unique pad and some strummed guitars. the melody's back at 3:49 in the guitar (which sounds just a touch ahead throughout this section) until we're in an extended outro. my primary concern here is the use of source. there's a lot that relies on the chord progression. i heard clear melody from 1:18-1:48, 2:19-2:49, and 3:49-4:20. the outro section from 4:27 through the end at 5:03 is the tail of the melodic material, i think, so i can count that if i'm feeling charitable. that's only 42% source, so it comes down to if i'd be comfortable counting the extended chord progression patterns, switching between the Em, Cm, A, and whatever B chord that is. the original is primarily between Em and Cm. for example, the middle section from 1:48 to 2:19 would count if we just looked at those chord progressions, and that'd squeak by. i think i'm comfortable including that particular section in the breakdown given that it's the same timing (ie. not switching faster and going to other chords) as the original. that'd give me enough there. with that in mind, i think this a pretty neat idea. i like the concept of switching time signatures in a song where the original has a clock ticking, and i think the execution overall sounds solid. nice work. YES

what a dope original! never heard it and it's awesome. starts out with some pretty static tones, but the beat comes in at 0:11. initial writing is pretty faithful to the original. the drums aren't quite what i expected given the original sound concept. the bass is pretty active and the lead is very basic initially. there's a recap at 1:06 and some repeated material (everything from there to 1:24 outside of adding the ascending arp flourishes in a few places). the following section is also very similar to the original outside of a few added flourishes. there's another repeat at 2:00 and then it repeats the opening section and fades out. i like the concept here! i think there's a bit too much repetition for a piece that's only 2:10. i think the style survives the genre adaptation pretty well, though, so that's fun! i think there just needs to be more arrangement here - less ANARCHY TAKAPON and more Nuac. i'd also like to hear the drum mixing bring the drums out, assuming you're willing to use modern mastering tools and you aren't explicitly going for a GB-realistic sound. NO

oh man, i just love darren korb's compositional style. thanks for giving me a reminder to listen to all of his soundtracks today. opens with some highly filtered pads that have a lot of motion on them, which is fun. there's some tempo-synced elements that come in at 0:30 - very patient opening - and some piano. beat comes in at 1:05 in a way that i didn't expect, which is fun. bass is highly filtered, almost sounds like it's next door vs. in the room with us. piano performance has some jazz elements in how the melodic material is rendered which is nice. 2:05 is a new feel, between the new beat and the really effected wind synth (i can't really describe it). that's out quick though, because it's soon after into a much more ethereal section noodling with that wind synth and sustained rain sfx. beat is back at 3:01 and this is a cleaner soundscape, focusing on the keys. the subtle tempo-synced gated synth in the background is nice. the drums and backing elements fade down over time, leaving just the keys and bass eventually. and that's a wrap. this is a great adaptation of a really fun original. i was very curious how you'd be able to replicate what is essentially a guitar groove with some big string swoops with what you opened with, but this is definitely a super interpretive arrangement of a motif-driven original. your arrangement is just full of space, which i think is a really neat parallel to the game itself. excellent work. YES

track appears to be intentionally limited to -3.5db. initial vibe is much more upbeat. bass is surprisingly high. there's some fun bitcrushing effects right off the bat. the first real break section at 0:34 hits nice with the orchestral element there. this kind of trucks through on autopilot until 1:18 (nice break going into this section) when the beat drops and it goes to a very rich interstellar-style orchestration. i like the tempo-synced synth there to keep it moving. after ridley peeks through the bookshelf at his past self, he apparently learns guitar - i liked the change in style here, it's a good change and was needed by this point. the theremin lead is too resonant up top and cuts hard through the mix, but other than that i liked the idea. there's a short break, then some breaks, then at 2:18 we get some intentional detuning around some of the synths alongside some glitchiness. it's a fun idea that visualizes the title. this escalates until 2:57 when we get more theremin lead and orchestration, which fades out over time. this is a nice trail-off. the orchestration comes back with more rich chord blocks at 3:10, and eventually picks back up with the guitar as well. guitar sounded notably dry here, but other than that i liked this again. the theremin lead here is filtered a bit and it's nowhere near as resonant as before. there's a lot of noise going on starting around 4:24 - are you riding a crash cymbal? is that what that is? - but it is still fairly clear what's going on. there's a final big hit, we get more interstellar orchestral chord stacks and rhythmic synth, and then it's done with a tape stop. we seem to have gotten a ton of this original in the remix bin over the last few months. it's been great to see how different they all are. this is no different - i think the highly technical dnb alongside the big cinematic scoring elements works great. kudos on continuing to do different stuff and not stick with a single vibe. YES