prophetik music

opens with airy pads and some nice vocal elements. there's the slightest bit of overlap to indicate that they're layered else i wouldn't have been able to tell initially that it's done with a synth. technology has apparently progressed amazingly, because this sounds fantastic. the beat and backing elements at 0:31 are great, tons of space in the bass and the drums are nice and tight. the main riff at 1:04 is a little heavy in the left ear, but i like how it's being played and i like the escalation at 1:22 in the backing elements. there's a recap in the vocal elements starting at 1:42 - essentially a verse 2 - with some extra ear candy behind it to keep interest. the chorus/synth led section right after it has a lot of fun new content as well, including the vocal elements. there's a break at 2:54 and the really dumb lyrics are a bit more highlighted here, but it's effective as a break in the beat and vibe for a bit before the verse content comes back again. i'd have liked the guitar parts to be a bit louder here, as it's the only new thing that's going on in this section. i liked the subsequent guitar/synth stuff at 4:00 or so a lot. it trucks through some more chorus content, hits the flying high phrase once more, and it's done. this is great! it's got superb mastering throughout, it drives forward throughout and doesn't get stale despite some repetition in content, and the vocal elements really work well. definitely an obvious demonstration of your progress as a musician. excellent work. YES

great original! really slow, glammy synthwave vibe right off the bat. i think the snare's both a little short and a little high for the style. the track kind of noodles through the melodic material in a pretty straightforward fashion until like 1:35 when we get some altered chords. a few of these aren't handled quite as well as i'd hope and are a bit crunchy. we do finally get the B theme of the melody at 1:54, with some vocal pads layering it. there's some more slightly weird harmonies at 2:20 (parallel fifths are in general a little weird to western ears) and then it settles back down to the opening synth lick again. around 3:00 we get a synth solo which is a welcome departure from the sameyness of the first few minutes. there's also a slight change to the drums and backing elements in this section, which is also a first in the track to my ears. 4:15's the fourth or fifth copy/paste of the opening synth line, with a little added vocal wash the second time through. there's a sustain on the bVII chord and it's done. i think my biggest problem with this track is that it goes nowhere and it takes over five minutes to do it. there is so much sameyness throughout. this is easily a three-minute track scraped over five minutes of bread, and beyond that it doesn't really ever change backing elements or beat or instrumentation or feel during that entire time either. the shape of this track is lacking, and it's very boring as a result. you've got some fun ideas here - i think the initial style is really a great idea, and i think the synth solo was really fun! - but it's just so much drab around it. mixing up instrumentation can really help with this, as can adding some sparks of color here and there with added elements that aren't playing the whole time, or with drum fills. i mean, the drums essentially play the same thing >95% of the track - i get it's a ballad, but something's gotta add some life occasionally. i really like the idea, and i think that your electro-ballad approach is a functional one. i think it needs more verve and a better sense of dynamics and movement to get out of the doldrums. NO

opens with sustained strings and ambiance. bit of a LOTR vibe in the soaring string line. the bass instrument here seems really out of place compared to everything else going on. at 0:56 we start getting the bassline from marathon 2, and at 1:26 we get the main body of that theme. it feels pretty 90s for sure, but not in a good way. the lack of audible sidechaining on the kick and the synth guitar being the only instrument over the bass really doesn't feel nearly as fleshed out as the original (or other stuff by psykosnik) does...there needs to be something else filling in the freq range so it doesn't feel so hollow. also, the bassline at 1:57 isn't quite the bassline from M2 at 0:30 - the note before the highest pitch in the riff isn't right. the rhythm's recognizable for sure though. there's about 30s of copy/paste, and then 2:41's onto a new vibe entirely. this has some really nice cinematic elements. the lead tone - is that a high cello? - isn't very idiomatic but it's very lonely and evocative, i really like it. the arp's attack is a touch heavy and overlaps a bit which is a downer at the end of that section. 3:45 is back to the marathon 2 techno again. this all feels straight copied from the earlier section, which is a downer. 4:28's a new section, which is nice, although it's still struggling with the same issue (nothing between the bass and much higher lead instrument, drums are boring, no mastering really on this section). there's a high sustain before a rhythmic ending that doesn't quite work and needs more workshopping. then we get some ambience and it's done. this is really ambitious! there's a ton going on here, and i think from a story perspective the arrangement works really well. there's some really beautiful elements (like in the opening and at 2:41), and some that's really blah and needs some beef, like the techno sections. i think that reworking and spiffing up some of your synth choices will help a ton, as will dressing up some of the techno sections. NO

opens with detuned piano and some neat sweeping effects. that's a really neat effect at 0:27 on the filter, like gravitational lensing. there's some really delicate and pretty string work when they come in before 0:30 there. i also really like the snare when it comes in, there's a layered richness there that i really am into. 1:07's an escalation - it's still a little dense there (your bass instrument appears to have some overtones at ~96hz that are causing it to feel a bit dense, or maybe that's the low strings) but it's clearer than it was before, I think. there's some fun sfx after the 1:30 mark, and some neat rhythmic elements to keep it driving forward. the strings here started to feel a little copied in, given the repetition of the riff at 1:35 again at 2:00 or so. there's a staggered cutoff into 2:02's outro, and then it's done with some pingpong filter effects. this is a surprisingly broad adaptation of a completely different genre. there's a lot of little bits and bobs here and there that really add color to it. nice job. YES

looks like a lot of changes since the last time! that's great to see. the opening 7/8 groove is still great for this to highlight the arps. there is indeed a lot of distortion throughout, and as a result the track uses a lot of the audible freq range (much more of the high end than we usually see) - there's significant presence through 7khz which is really significant. the lead in particularly is boosted a lot, and there's a big spike at about 520hz and the subsequent octave (1040hz) when the instrument is around that C# range. it pops out a lot from the texture. i think having the lead be so heavily distorted/crushed as well really is a bit too much, the high-end noise is very grating after a while. 1:17's a shift with some panning elements. i think the lead distortion is more noticeable here - there's some high-end ring that's making my eyeballs itch. i like the doubling you add at 1:50 or so, but maybe just because it's not a distorted lead? also around here i noticed that the backing elements are roughly the same for the entire track up to that point. so i was looking for a shift to mix it up, and then at 2:06 it drastically changes! so that's good. it'd be nice to have that be more of a transition that ties the two sections together instead of just using the same lead and drums. i like the pacing of this section after the consistent beat - it's nice to have some slowdown. also - even this section is slammed against the limiter! the whole track is so loud, and this is just piano and a few synths, it shouldn't feel so blown. literally the entire track needs to go down by 3db. there's just no room to breathe. there's some fun synths and lfos at 3:34 as a transitional element and then it's back to a fuller section at 3:53. i wish the bass was a bit different here, but the extra backing glam helps this be not quite copy/paste from 1:50. there's at least some of an ending this time, which is also good, and then it's done. this is still very loud, and it's very distorted to the detriment of the piece, i think. most of the middle, from 1:00 through 3:20 and then 3:50 to the end, is visibly jammed against the limiter still. it just feels fatiguing to listen to. lowering the overall volume of every element so that it's not constantly hitting the limiter is going to help a lot. NO

opens with hugely loud snares and some synths behind it? and then the guiitars come in and i realize it's just very big arena-style mastering. the track sounds hugely scooped out - there's nothing in the mid range that i can hear, and it feels super blown with how noisy everything is. there's a ton going on in the low range where the bass and bottom string of the rhythm guitar are overlapping. i can hardly even hear the kick's beater tone, just some oomph from the bass end of it. opening synths are outlining the first part of the melodic line, if i'm not mistaken, without any of the rhythm. there's a break at 0:47 before we get back to balls-in-the-wall at 1:04, aping 0:55 in the original, i think. it plows through that material with another break at 1:49 for a few bars before building back up for the final blow at 2:04. the section from 2:04 through about 2:24 at least is straight copy from 0:17-0:47 outside the end fill, which is disappointing (for example, compare the fill at 0:39-0:40 to 2:26 and then compare the prior 20s or so for each spot). then there's one last fill and it's done. this is certainly a different feel from the original! i like the idea of throwing out the rhythmic elements entirely and just focusing on the pitches with a raging inferno of a band behind it. i think the overall shape of the track is solid too, with the different breaks in the piece and a shifting tone in the middle at 1:33. i think the mastering sounds really rough, though - i get wanting it to be this grungy, dirty tone, but it's so muddy down low (and normally I'm not the guy that cares about that!). the synth overpowers everything except the snare almost completely, and then the guitar, bass, and drum toms and kick are just sitting on top of one another. there's also a lot of sub-40hz content which is contributing to the mess. lastly, and this might be more personal preference - i didn't care for the guitar just strumming through the chords for most of the song. there may be more going on and it's just blown away by the synth being so loud, but the guitar really doesn't feel like it's doing much besides providing chorded background (and mud in the basement). i'd have wanted to hear it more involved in the arrangement instead of being on autopilot. i love the idea - i really do. i currently think this is enough arrangement ultimately if it was mastered better, but the mastering really drags it down. NO

Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, Master Minusworld - Production, Guitars, Bass, Synths, Mix MegadudeXD - Drums Source Breakdown: (It's in minor key, OG is in major ) - All melody is in the lead synths 0:00 - 0:20 - Intro [ORIGINAL] 0:21 - 0:48 - A Section [0:12 - 0:24] 0:49 - 1:04 - Modified B Section Transition [0:25 - 0:39] 1:05 - 1:52 - B Section [0:25 - 0:39] 1:53 - 2:06 - Original reprise 2:07 - 2:43 - A Section [0:12 - 0:24] the title and music tells all Games & Sources Delfino Plaza - Super Mario Sunshine

I cut lots of parts and converted the really dynamic pieces into an AutoChip Pulse rythm. I will be making more. Enjoy! Source: DJ Sofad 0:06 to 4:56

for those that care, i put a slightly altered new version above. i made some very subtle changes based on critiques around the opening bass drones and a freq pop that kris called out. i also backed off the sidechain just a bit to balance it better, at least partially by lowering the volume of one of the arps in the higher-energy section.

haha, this is a really fun vibe right away. it's fast enough that the words are really hard to make out despite the processing and multiple takes, so that's not great, but the backing elements are super high energy. i can hear some of the vocal lines overlapping themselves. some of the slower sections (pleasure, adrenaline for example) has very bad prosody (that is, where the words land in the melodic line). i get that the melody's all over the place, but it's still important to have a song make sense when you sing it. i am also gonna say that i really don't care for the tone of your voice in this track. i've heard you sing in other tracks, i think, and i didn't find it to be nearly this grating. maybe it's the processing and style? or the octaves in most of the sections? but i found the tone of the vox in this track to be very pointed and tough to listen to. backing kick doesn't have nearly the amount of beef i'd expect for the feel, and the snare also feels pretty lackluster. the lead guitar sounds dope as expected, and the solo and synth work sounds great. from an arrangement perspective, this is a super fun take on the original two tracks. they're both very high-energy and this keeps that, and there's some neat dovetailing in how they fit together - i'd never have known that they weren't the same song without the original youtubes to listen to. i think the execution though is a little on autopilot - there's not a lot of changes to the backing elements throughout, the drums are super basic (every fill is just the same descending sixteenth toms), and like i mentioned before the prosody of the words in the slower sections is very unnatural. i think this might be the first time i've ever NO'd your work =( i think this is just really uneven right now. there's certainly some high points here but overall i don't think this one is ready for prime time. for a YES vote, i'd want to hear less repetition and mailed-in arrangement in the backing elements and drums, i'd probably want a rework of the lyrics and where they fall so that they're more fitting to the melody line, and i'd want to see/hear some attention to the vocal processing so that it's not so pointed. NO

opens with a big city beat and some similar synth swoops and string elements. the backing elements sound almost like they're just the original downtuned with the beat over top. in fact, they sound like that so much that i don't think there's any arrangement here at all. unfortunately i don't think this fits the Standards as a result - there's no transformative arrangement at all here. section 4.2. calls out this track's arrangement technique specifically as not being what we host here. it's a cool beat! but there'd need to be a lot done to make it fit as a result. NO

i'm going to proceed on the assumption that i'll reject this track, then 😄 opening is so instantly funky. boss 1 is so weird and this is a surprisingly approachable and tonal version of it. matt's guitar work is stunning - i love the constant motion, very mathrocky. the shift at 0:48 is well-timed to give a break after that first absolute banger of a solo. the rhythmic elements that come in at the end of this section are great also. i loved the interplay of the synth playing the lead at 1:40 and matt's guitar underneath it doing constant motion insanity. nice drum solo section! good tie back to the jazz roots underneath the complexity, and a great way to transition to the break at 3:19. there's a final blow through some of the chord progressions and then it's done. i wouldn't have minded a final chord to help tie it together, but this isn't bad. easy vote! this is a straight banger, with superb artistry shown in the three performers. excellent job conveying a really weird original in an approachable and consumable manner. YES

opens with air sweeps and some creepy piano noodling around the fortress theme. we get some heavy guitars and drums at 0:32 alongside a pretty mean synth bass (what an interesting combination). snare is really bright and cuts through the mix really well in here. there's a shift to a more electronic-focused groove at 1:21 with a ton of space in the drums especially - this sounds so good, the really tight drum mastering makes it absolutely cook. 1:35 is awesome. there's the first break at 1:47 with a bit of a solo break and then we get the guardian progression complete with chromatic scalar runs right after. there's a great drum fill and then 2:30 is a full shift Algorithm-style to four on the floor for a bit before shifting to 7/4 and having some fun with acoustic guitar and a turned-off snare. some signature zack orchestral work and we're in another break at 3:31 with some voice clips. the kick is a touch aggressive here without the guitars, but it sounds great when it switches to doubletime when the guitar comes back in with the backing melody from the guardian theme. 4:43 is another destination point, everything really comes together so well there with the title theme. one last break at 5:10, with...banjo and rocking chairs? and then we get some electrograss for a few beats before the banjo gets chopped up to oblivion and play time is over. is it a xaleph piece if there isn't a section with just a kick, bass, and snaps? so we get that requisite part out of the way and then build back up the energy for one last big blow. drums in this last section are so good. i wish there was just a little bit more prep for the ending, and then it's done. this is outrageously good, such a layup. josh's drum work is superb - this is easily the best i've ever heard of his music, just so technically proficient - and the mastering job done on them to tighten them down so far so as to let the musicality and space shine through is just perfectly done. it's great to hear ryan on an OCR track again too - he's got a great style that meshed so well with the electronic elements to augment and not overtake them. this is a triumph. superb work. YES

opens with some very verby choir and organ synths. acoustic comes in soon after, aping fingerstyle. the attack on this guitar vst doesn't really sound super realistic for this (it's a weird combo of hammer-on and nail picking), nor does there seem to be much velocitization on it. there's a resolution at 0:59, some bells and sfx, and then drums building into 1:23 where we get some distorted bass guitar and rhythm guitar. the drums here are very verby, which lends to an arena feel. the bass again doesn't have much in terms of velocitization on it, which makes it feel very robotic. the rhythm guitar is panned pretty widely, or is stacked, and either way doesn't quite have enough distortion on it to cover up that it's not super realistic. the lead guitar comes in with the melody soon after and is really loud compared to everything else - it completely wipes every other instrument off the map and needs to be turned down a lot. there's a bit of a break at 2:10 for a few seconds, and then we get some ensemble rhythmic stuff as the lead does some runs around Light of Silence. these runs don't sound super realistic mostly because of the attacks - there's no mix of picking and hammer-on. if it's possible in your vst to do that, you definitely want to look into varying that up. the vibrato that's put on the lead in a few places, like 2:35, sounds weird because it starts at the attack instead after a bit - set that lfo to start after a bit so that it's not modulating the attack right after it's picked. 3:10's a palate cleanser with the world revolution chords, and then we get a recap of the manoria cathedral melodic material. it sounds like the lead here is repeated from earlier based on how it's handling vibrato. this section is arrangement-rich and really fun. i love the stacked chords at 3:55 and how impactful that is. 4:28 is another manoria recap - this theme is getting a bit played out by this point, but you do keep it different by passing it around between instruments which is a good choice. 4:52 is the start of a ritard that causes some really weird transformations in the audio - is your reverb tied to steps instead of seconds for duration? i'm wondering if that's what's causing the modulation - and then at 5:10 we've got a recap of the opening section, and it's done. this is a great arrangement! there's so much going on and i love that. despite never leaving 4/4, it has a real proggy feel to it. that said, the instruments absolutely are letting you down here. this track is screaming for live guitar, and while normally i wouldn't say "you need live instrumentalists to make it on the site", this track 100% will benefit from live guitar at least if not also live bass and drums. i know you're in tight with some great performers, so i'm wondering if you'd be able to work with them to get some real instruments in here instead of the fake stuff, because quite simply a guitar vst will never do what you're asking it to do without mentat-level abilities in industry-leading tools, whereas half of the guitarists in the community could do this in their sleep. with that in mind, i'm not going to spend time talking about mastering, since i do feel strongly that this will change a lot when you revisit it. as it is, the instrumentation isn't good enough to pass as real or fake enough to pass as synth rock as-is, so i'll not pass this yet. but i'll definitely pass it when it comes back around and slays me with sick guitar riffs =) NO

artist: prophetik music mass effect is a series with a number of unforgettable moments. the first time you open the galaxy map and see the different places you'll be exploring the first time in mass effect 1 is one of them. this theme is just absolutely perfect for capturing that sense of exploration and wonder and i've always wanted to do an arrangement of it as a result. i intentionally didn't want to focus on a bumping beat with real drums, or a synthwave-esque approach, as i've been in a bit of a creative rut lately around that. instead, i focused on more interesting combinations of synths with rhythmic elements, and played around with some of the chord progression under the melodic material. i mostly used omnisphere for this. Games & Sources Mass Effect series (mostly 1 for this) - Uncharted Worlds

opens with some wide synths and an articulated bassline element that's pretty hard to hear and parse. the synths are playing a stylized version of the melodic line in fifths which sounds really weird initially. i don't see at all how this opening section ties to the rest of the piece, and i really didn't care for whatever the synths were playing, and i couldn't really hear what the bass instrument was doing at all so it sounded very tuneless. i don't think this opening fits in the slightest and didn't have any idea where it was going from here. 0:25 is a dramatic shift in style as a more traditional guitar approach comes in. lead guitar is pretty heavy in the left ear and the bass is hard to hear although i can tell it's there somewhere. there is a huge block of mud between 40 and 80hz and that's making it real hard to hear anything specific down there - i believe this is due to the rhythm guitars being really low and in the bass range and playing constantly (ie. no rhythmic variation). this trucks through most of the melodic lines in a row and then starts a solo section at 1:09. each of the first few licks in the solo end on a weird note which is unfortunate because the following harmonized solo part is fun to hear. there's a djenty section starting at 1:55 that's pretty mean and rhythmically heavy. the panning here is really extreme and it sounds kind of strange as a result. 2:14's got a melodic line over a proggy, fast section in the rhythm guitars, but it's a bit hard to hear the backing elements since the lead guitar's so loud. this continues into the section at 2:25 - the lead parts are so loud compared to everything else that i can hardly hear anything under them. there's a sudden drop off to electronic elements. these are the outro and the track quickly trails off after this. i don't think the opening and ending fit the rest of the track at all - there's essentially no audible synth work in the main body of the mix, so why start and end with them? there's nothing to tie them to the rest of the work. the main rock portion of the track was fun to listen to if straightforward initially, and then there's some solo work that again is interesting but had some weird notes. the lead guitar is also very loud and left-ear heavy throughout, which caused some difficulty in hearing what was going on in conjunction with the low-end mud that was throughout. i think that overall the arrangement was fairly conservative but enough to do what you're looking to do. i don't think the production is there yet - there's some EQing needed on the low-end guitars and bass and kick, and the panning is pretty significant right now. beyond that, there's some leveling that needs to be done in regards to the lead vs. the rest of the track - probably you need some automation to adjust the later sections down without touching too much of the solo section. i also think the opening and outro, which at ~40s is a fair portion of the work and doesn't make a lot of sense what it's doing, needs attention. so this is a no from me, dog, but i think you've got a good basis here to continue to improve. NO

opens with some very light washes of sound and some sfx. the build eventually includes some understated bass, piano, acoustic guitar strums, and percussive elements. the original's fairly repetitive, and overall this rendition keeps some of those repetitive elements and just slows them down some. there's a light wobble on most of the instruments used, and overall it's a very cozy sound, lots of autumnal warmth represented. there's an extended outro and it's done. this is a style that i don't go for at all, in general, but what's done here is a consistent representation of the original in a new feel that somehow also doesn't lose the hopeful vibe that permeates the OST track. nice work. YES

opens with a driving beat and some low bass synths. we do finally get melody at 0:31, in a backing synth i can hear the A theme. the 'chorus' section i agree doesn't appear to have a melodic line until the glidey synth comes in at 1:09. that synth does the B theme with some extra fanciness on the lines. this whole first section has a great synthwave/darkwave vibe to it. we switch to double-time and it's driving a lot more now. i like the space in the bass for sure. the A section doesn't appear to have melodic content in it for this half of the track. the guitar solo is over the B chords, i believe, and there's some licks in there that are from the track but overall is just a fun solo. right after the solo, we get a ritardando and fadeout, and it's done. in terms of overt source usage, i hear melodic content from 0:31 to about 0:53, 1:09 to 1:28, and a few snippets in the guitar solo like at 2:35ish. the chord progression and some of the motifs are present in several spots throughout, though. for example, the ascending triads at 0:21 are reminiscent of the B theme's beginning, the opening in the bass is similar to the A theme's opening, etc. but overall i just don't think there's enough direct references to the original for me to say it's 50%. there's certainly a lot of little bits here and there, but there's nearly a minute in the middle where there's nothing (not even really a melody or solo happening, just groove), and the guitar solo only really references anything near the end. i think that if i'm missing some source here and it's actually present, this is a yes. as is though i'm not sure the chord progression (which isn't overly unique) is enough to call it source-dominant throughout. NO

i honestly don't have much to say here that i haven't written fifteen or twenty times already. you go through a bunch of zelda tunes in a row, and there's not any dynamic contrast or depth of range in the representations. your use of live performers and lots of percussion (which is easy to sample) does a good job covering up the limits of the orchestral samples used. the arrangement intermixes well with the use of various instruments to handle the melodic material, you add some countermelodic material occasionally, and the tracks are quiet but nowhere near as quiet as they used to be. there's no energy in any of these arrangements ever, but they do what they say on the tin and they pass our criteria overall based on that. YES

wild original as expected. big brash drums and bass samples used here. the limitations of the tracker are immediately obvious as it's kind of a dense soundscape, and kind of muddy, but chris gets so much out of his tools. the melodic material in the brass sounds fantastic - i love the little vibrato on the end of the sustained notes. there's a screaming sax solo at around 1:10 and some other funky synth work through 1:40. there's a bit of a break there and then we're back full speed at 1:43. there's some more ensemble work with the organ carrying the scalar melodic theme for a bit, and a shout chorus at 2:31. it blows through some ascending fanfare elements and then it's done. tracker music isn't my thing by any means, but it's easy to see the skill here. this is an energetic and appropriately quirky approach to a crazy track from a fun soundtrack. YES

opens with some sfx and a gliding synth that really apes the CAoS track well. starts to get some more body around 0:30 and again at 0:54 as it starts to get some beats. beat hits at 1:18 and there's a really fun ambiance going on - the 4/4 influence is clear, but there's some playing with time which is a neat idea. i like the way the bass is used throughout this entire section. 2:14 is a more aggressive feel - continues being pretty spacey in the backing elements, but the bass is more aggressive. the extra distortion edge that's showing here in the bass is really nice. 2:38 is an extended break and feels so metroid - something about the arps and chorused bass really just piques that memory. there's a nice build through 3:35 into 3:45 to a chorus section. there's some extra metroid melodic material as it drops off a bit going into 4:15, another key change, and then we get some outro elements as it trucks back through some source material to get to the end. this is a layup. the CAoS melodic material is indeed meandering, and your idea to use it as a verse with the Prime track being the chorus was inspired. there's a bunch of subtle production techniques being used throughout which is really fun to hear as well. overall this is a great example of the inspiration that can come from a short timeframe to work on the bones of a track. nice work. YES

big beat right off the bat, love the bass synth especially. we get a fuller beat at about 0:29 and some nice subtle backing elements until the descending melodic motif comes in at 0:44. 1:14's another representation of the A theme, just without the arpeggiation. i didn't care for this FM-y lead quite as much, i found it to be a bit grating. 1:44's a bit of a drop and the melody's still going - this might have been an opportunity to drop it, but we get one more playthrough and then it's done by 1:58. there's a bit of a break of countermelodic material and then the FM lead's back for another go. the B theme makes an appearance at 2:57 and continues through another beat drop and build, but quickly is set aside for the fm lead again. this keeps hammering until 4:11, when we're in the outro of the track. it does show up right before the end too. this is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the original, primarily focused on the A theme, and it has a great beat and some fun backing elements to keep it moving. there's a few breaks and they show up in the right times. my main criticism is that the A theme just keeps getting repeated over and over (using a synth i didn't personally care for), which gets tedious maybe halfway through the mix. if it changed synths a few times (instead of just once at the beginning) or wasn't used so consistently with no breaks for most of the mix, it wouldn't have been as big a deal, but imo that's really dragging the overall product down. this is, i think, over our bar. the mix is solid and the beat has a great body to it. i wish more attention had been paid to repetitive elements, but other than that i think this is an enjoyable track and fun to add to the site. YES

opens with classical guitar. this isn't particularly realistic nor does it attempt to sound idiomatic, but does fit the original's style. this entire first section through 0:42 is, to my ears, direct from the midi. we then get a great variations sections that focuses on the eighth-two sixteenth pattern, then steps down through the circle of fifths in a descending pattern. this section is awesome from an arrangement perspective! i love the variations concept here. 1:07 returns to the midi and goes almost completely straight from the midi again, and we get a repeat of the previous variations section from 0:42. 2:14 is a new section that's essentially 0:42 in major, which is a fun turn of idea. there's a repeated fanfare section to end it on a cadence, and we're done. this is a really fun idea! i can't imagine that this isn't doable with performers - it'd just take a bit of patience learning to arrange it, but it should be eminently doable with live artists. that'd fix my number one issue here, which is that it doesn't sound real at all. you do a lot more with dynamics than i'd have expected, but ultimately the lack of idiomatic playing makes it pretty clear. separately, the arrangement has great ideas but isn't ready for primetime yet. the repetition of the first minute or so in its entirety is too much copypasta, first of all, and the inclusion of the original midi for the first 40ish seconds with no changes is probably a standards violation right there. if you were to instead add some countermelodic or contrapunctal elements to that first 40s, then change it up further when you repeat the first minute (both the theme and the variation), that'd be more than enough arrangement for me! but as is it's not enough. this is such a fun idea! i'd love to hear it with a more realistic depiction of classical guitar and a more involved arrangement. NO

can definitely see how these themes fit together. opens with the chord progression from A Truth Revealed in some very fake choir samples, but quickly fleshes out the arpeggio with some better writing. the guitars come in with some elements of Zanarkand before shifting to the KH2 track. there's a much more active lead guitar part through this entire section than i've heard in the past from you, and i can't say that i think it's a positive development. the counterpoint part in the guitar seems needlessly complex and isn't really doing melodic stuff most of the time, so it's hard to pin down what it's playing around. for example, at 1:55 it's clearly outlining the Zanarkand theme, but it's hard to clarify that because nothing's actually playing the melodic line. this gradually builds in intensity until we're at full-on blastbeat at 2:29. this section is more in keeping with how you've represented themes in the last and this is more approachable and consumable. there's a bit break at about the 3:00 mark, and the chords from Truth Revealed come in. there's still a reliance on the choir samples here, but they're written much better so they're more listenable. there's a chord change at the end that is kind of awkward at about 4:07, and the time changes into a triple meter here as well. there's some creative chord work in here that doesn't sound 100% in line with itself, and i will admit it's hard to keep track of what's happening here. this needs more clarity in the writing. 5:20 opens up the beat to 5, which is an interesting idea, and then explores more of the melodic elements in this new time. 6:13 or so goes back to the intro for some of the ensemble work there, and it noodles around until we get a complete drop at 7:06 for the ending. overall this is a lot more uneven of an arrangement than past remixes have been. it's much harder to track the melodic material through the very complex chord elements you've added, and i found myself straining even in sections that were clearly FFX (which is an OST i know very well) to identify what was going on where. i think the idea makes a lot of sense, but in execution there's major sections where i just have no idea what's going on, and the added contrapunctal work in the lead guitar in several sections just sounds needlessly complex. i think this one needs some more work to clarify the harmonic backdrop and improve the clarity of the arrangement. NO

lot of big names on that list. starts out with some big sfx and distortion elements before settling into to some very gothic architecture with the cello and keys alongside the distorted cinematic percussion elements. vocals at 0:37 are stunningly similar to the original - what a great choice of collaborator, and the lead guitar here sounds incredible next to the vocals. we get the really raw band sound at 1:14 and it's appropriately huge and intense for like five seconds. i love the patience shown there. next verse is at 1:23 and it quickly kicks back to the big metal band sound. the singer's timbre doesn't quite work with the band sound here simply because it's so delicate compared to the backing elements. it's audible because of the mixing but i'd have preferred more meat to her tone there. the patience again show at roughly 1:50 through the next verse reminds me a lot of Blue Man Group's first album - there's a lot of interesting interplay between percussive and plectral elements here. i start to hear some of ridley's vocal processing at like 2:48 and that's some interesting work. it helps keep it moving forward so that's good given how slow the bpm is. we finally get a full-throated singer with the band at 3:14. i think this is a little blown still - it's hard to really pick out what the vocalist is doing here with how oppressively loud the guitar elements are, i keep losing the tone amidst everything else. it's still super exciting and a good payoff section. there's another bridge/backoff section after this that's pretty extended, again showcasing patience and not just blowing through the concepts. the string work here is really pretty, and the build into 4:55 is great. this chorus is a little less oppressively loud and i found it easier to hear everything that was going on. after this is all falling action, which as expected doesn't go quickly given the pace of the overall track. there's a lot of interesting distorted elements in here. there's a wobble in the vocalist's line right at the 6:00 that i think is unintentional. other than that it's a fade with some juicy reversed elements and then it's done. as expected, this is super dope! the list of collaborators was intense so i knew it would be a pretty big effort overall, and it's turned out great as a result. i have nitpicks as expected for such a big undertaking, but overall this is superb. you did a great job of capturing the feel and unnerving vibe of the original in a totally new format. excellent work. YES