prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

opens at a more sedate pace, which i like. drums are pretty thin in the mix - cymbals especially are practically just high sizzle, snare's very resonant as well and i don't hear the kick if there is one. there's a nice vibe right away to the track - the extra percussion is a great add. backing keys have a nice tone but probably could have been more active and creative in what they're playing - it's pretty rote throughout. the b part of the theme hits at 0:37 and it's a nice shift. there's a lot going on here tbh - i'm thinking the drums could stand to be a touch farther in the back (and the conga) to help balance it there. the rhythm guitar elements could also be farther back whenever they're playing, they're not a primary element and they're pretty loud. 1:25's a bit of a shift since the rhythm guitar drops and there's a marimba part playing. the marimba part is really not doing anything that's particularly idiomatic to the style - is it just arpeggiating octaves over and over again? - and if you're going to focus on something like that, make it say something interesting enough to stand on its own if it had to. there's another intro and a section recap at 1:49 - if you're going to repeat a section like this, consider mixing up the backing elements a bit to keep it distinct. 2:35's octaves in the marimba sound like what was in the back before. you've got a whole section here with just octaves playing - make it something! marimba solo, reference another track as a cameo, just mix it up a bit. that whole section is a real downer right now. 3:01's one more recap of the a theme, and there's some different guitar parts to mix it up which i like. rhythm guitar here is a touch loud still. one more recap of the intro as an outro with some extra guitar bits, and it's done. i like the overall concept. i think this definitely works, and all the added percussive elements really help make it stay fun. my main complaints are in the volumization of some of the elements (rhythm guitar is a touch loud, etc), the mastering on the drums (they're very high-dominant throughout and the kick is inaudible), how the marimba's used in a few sections (if it's gonna say something, say something interesting!), and some of the repetition like at 1:49. each of these individually is a fairly limited fix though so that's good! i think this definitely has a place on the site, just not yet. NO

opening is really fun with the guitar arpeggios over the synth, and then of course it goes absolutely balls to the wall immediately. obvious plini feel in the glassy arps with extended single-note guitar chugs and drums locked in. i made a stank face at my computer when i heard 1:02 hit, what a great feel right in this section. i love the lead guitar tone as well. 1:32 is a big transition section and a few of the notes in it don't fit the prior section's sustain, which is a bummer. there's a big build into 2:00 which is a pretty wild expansion section of the chord structure and opening arps in the original. i am gonna admit i lost the time signature plot in this section, i'd need it spelled out more to be able to keep track. it felt very free actually though which is a neat homage to the locale in-game. filthy riff at 2:59. the section between this and 3:30 was pretty wild as well but i could feel some outline of the B theme through there. big break at 3:46, which is needed by this point. 4:15's got some plini-style rhythmic elements outlining the C theme before we get a reprise of the A section in a super heroic vibe. there's a final fanfare and it's done. this is nuts, as expected. fantastic representation of a really great original theme. there's a few tiny bits and bobs here and there that i wasn't into but overall this is an incredible achievement. excellent work. YES

opens with some wide synths and bells. i can definitely hear the styx influence initially in the structure. i like the way you handled the original's echoing bass intro around 1:07, that's a clever adaptation. when the guitar comes in at 2:02, i think it's pretty loud there compared to what else is going on, but other than that i liked what was going on in there especially in the backing parts. the transitional parts that follow are kind of noodly and don't really flow super well - for example i felt that the transition into 2:11 kind of just happened (and that that section just was there to take up space), and similarly the transitions starting at 3:24 going from the synth lead to the guitar and then back to the guitar were janky and didn't connect well. there's some more melody noodles and some solo work, and then we walk the chords out the door. throughout the track, i found the kick's room sound/reverb to be pretty noticeable - more than the impact was actually in a few places - and that was not something i cared for. the thin lead synth that often was playing octaves was, conversely, lacking in verb so it came through pretty sharp. other than that, though, i liked the soundscape and approach that you did here. this is a really neat different concept that i haven't really heard much of, and it's fun to hear the proggy roots that you tend to lean towards represented in a new set of sounds. i think i'd have preferred more focus on the transitions throughout and in shaping the track a little more intentionally, but what's here is fun. nice work. YES

classic original. opens with the iconic arpeggio in some glassy synths, and opens up with some harmonic elements and a nice broad synth pad with some automation and interesting cutoffs. some glitching to add complexity as well. the melody comes in soon after and has an exciting drum build under. immediately after that, we get a certified bruh moment: the added guitar work here is nice and the bass has some fun slides on it. there's a nice break with some really cool resonance artifacts in there at 1:47. right after we get a big half-time original section that feels good and mean for a bit, before another break with some more sound design going on until 2:50 kind of gets back to the driving beat. i like the idea of having the bass on sixteenths but the drums on half-time. this whole middle two minutes of chopping back and forth is a great energy driver and feels great from a build perspective. and then we get the payoff at 3:33, and it's hair-raising, just what you wanted after all that up and down. it's really hard not to bob your head in this section. there's some odd choices around chords around 4:01 (but i like the changes to the melody there). 4:20 starts what feels like some descending action, and we truck through some chord progressions - but then it just ends? not prepared, not anything, it honestly feels like there's something wrong or we got an unfinished track. the cymbal crash is even clipped. this was a slam dunk until the last five seconds. there's no way we can post this with this ending. at least give it a sustain or hit the root or do a drum fill into it. what's here sounds incomplete. NO edit 10/25: the last 30s got a rework and there's more of an expected shape to the ending now. it's at least intentional now. it's enough for me. YES

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

Hello, This track was originally arranged for the Pixel-Mixers album "Djjinstrumentals" - a tribute to the music of Golden Sun, to be released soon. My choice was to remix "On That Night, 3 Years Ago", which is a track i really like. For my remix, i wanted to make something like 'synthwave prog' because a lot of sound choices and design are very synthwave-ish, but most of the track feels more like a prog track, with odd meters and never really 'settling' on a 4/4 groove for long periods of time, and that is not very much synthwave. Added lots of synth layers, to add movement to a source that is very centered around the bass, added guitars and new parts and solos. Insipired by early 80s soft-prog such as Asia (the band, not the continent) and Styx, the final result is something that think can stand on its own, but of course, that is for the judges to decide. :) Source / Arrangement Breakdown. 00:00 - 00:40 - my own parts - inspired by the chord progression 00:40 - 01:07 - my own melody, over the source's intro bassline. 01:07 - 01:27 - source intro 01:27 - 01:47 - variation of the source intro, mixed with my own part. 01:47 - 02:11 - source melody 02:11 - 02:37 - my own transitional part 02:37 - 02:55 - source melody 02:55 - 03:14 - variation of the source intro, mixed with my own part. 03:14 - 03:35 - source melody 03:35 - 04:00 - my own solos 04:00 - 04:42 - my own melody, over the source's intro bassline. 04:42 - 05:14 - source chords as an outro. Games & Sources Golden Sun - On That Night, 3 Years Ago:

updated version in submission thread This is remix started in 2012 for the original version. At that time I wasn't ready to produce proper Drum & Bass but I would periodicaly try my best. I never finished the song but I still liked it for a while. I pretty much don't remember anything precise about inspiration from that year. Fast forward today, I fired up the project in late 2023 to replace all the drum sound with my new knowledge of how Drum & Bass works and how to compress drum properly. I was still on the edge with this one so I completely removed the drumstep bridge in the middle to redo it and cut the last repeat of the song since it was repeating the first verse with nearly no variation. I got my Electric guitar and started jamming on the newly written drumstep part. I also used my new favorite plug-in, Rift, to add some flavour to my synth and expand the soundscape. Also this added various element you would find in a psytrance. After that I went back to the intro, added some more psytrance element and wrote a second bridge that bridges the first bridge and the last part (Yes 2 bridges before the comeback.). And this version sat on my drive for a while. Fast forward again to July-August 2024. I picked my guitar and added those crunchy riff all along and now I was satisfied with the result. Went back and forth in the workshop for some fresh listening of other people and applied the correction needed to this Final version. This remix took a while but the wait made this a really polished song compared to what it was 12 years ago. Never too late to finish a project! I hope you enjoy as much as I do. (By the way, master is loud.) Games & Sources Chrono Trigger - Schala's Theme

This was my entry to Dwelling of Duels' Party Month in September 2024 where it placed 2nd. 🥈 Lineup: * @jnWake - Piano, Synths * Roland N. Laracuente Martínez - Bass * @minusworld - Arrangement, Production, Guitars, Drum programming Technically, Connor Engstrom also provided ~4 bars of arrangement as well - I will comment later whether he wants to be credited. 😆 This is relevant because Connor and I have wanted to do a Plini-inspired epic prog submission to DoD for a while. However, Connor had a month of intense commitments and insane curveballs that kept him from being as involved as he wanted. I was on the hunt each month as DoD themes were announced for a good tune to apply some whacky prog rhythms to, and I finally landed on Space Land from Mario Party 2. The source has an interesting rhythmic backbone with a strong pulse that makes it feel like a 4/4 march, but with subdivisions into triplets for the melodic lines and background arpeggios. Yes, technically this is 12/8, but keeping these dual rhythmic ideas separate made it easier to progify this arrangement. Harmonically the source is in the Mixolydian mode, which makes it easy to (ab)use the VII-I transition, which sounds epic. :) Here's a map of all the ideas I stole... I mean... paid homage to. :') * Intro - [I'll Tell You Someday Intro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8cGceHp9lU) * A section - [Glass Bead Game](https://youtu.be/V8IVroLfizI?feature=shared&t=94) * B section - Lots of different Plini tunes * C section - [Electric Sunrise](https://youtu.be/Rv_a6rlRjZk?feature=shared&t=79) * A' section - [Macchina](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4UZmc4jeRw) by Sungazer * A'' section - [Salt and Charcoal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3tjQ8tR7pw&start=32) * Transition - An attempt at copying 😆 [Somervilleans](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHMG1OqNujc) by Poh Hock * B' section - A piano re-harmonization idea from @jnWake * Transition 2 - Dream Theater influences... guess I can't escape it 😛. @jnWake comes in with an awesome spacey synth solo too! * Clean chords - [Inhale](https://youtu.be/BpOJyPdolck?feature=shared&t=28) * Palm mutes - [Glass Bead Game](https://youtu.be/V8IVroLfizI?feature=shared&t=345) * Alternating guitars - [Glass Bead Game](https://youtu.be/V8IVroLfizI?feature=shared&t=166) * A section reprise - just... make it epic Once again, I used kishotenketsu to guide my arrangement, roughly dividing it into four sections: Theme (Intro, A, B, C), Theme Development (A', A'', Transition, B', Transition 2), Twist (Clean chords, Palm Mutes, Alternating guitars), and Theme Reprise (A section reprise). I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I didn't intend for this track to sound like an epic space journey, but that's exactly how it sounded after all the parts fit together! The way I write these kinds rhythms is by improvising rhythmic sequences and refining it if the "pulse" doesn't feel right. For example, I might play 9 eighth notes, 1 rest, then 3, 2 rests, then 5 and so-on; then I may modify it to be 8, 1 rest, 4, 2 rests, and 5 if the first version doesn't sound good. I try not to repeat sequences, or I will have the sequence repeat after a long-ish number of measures. This idea is on display in the A section and Palm mutes (and my FFX Thunder Plains remix, and my Chronopolis remix, and my Mole Knight remix... yeah you get the idea :) ). I've been really digging Sungazer lately and I wanted to work in a nod to their music, which turned into the A' section. The final result isn't as technical as Sungazer's exploration of hypertuplets, but I think it captures a similar vibe and fits the space epic theme well. The "backbone" of this section is the square wave arpeggios which follow the exact same pattern as the A section, but start to get chopped up as the section progresses. Underneath, I wrote an insane bassline which moves the pulse around using a similar idea mentioned in the above paragraph. Roland absolutely slays this part, playing my demented rhythms with ease. 😆 I honestly couldn't tell you what the time signatures are here - in the DAW it's marked as 6/12, which absolutely no notation software would accept. 🤣 I had to notate it as 3/4 at a slower tempo. Effectively, the square wave arpeggios which used to be triplets are now the main beat unit, so when tracking I would count to 12 along with the arpeggios. @jnWakeprovided a lot of ideas, many of which were kept; many of which were scrapped. 😆 Notably the piano arpeggios he sent me for the Intro, and revisited throughout the track, are inspired by the song [Hydra by Toto](https://youtu.be/sPecS5Y8PfY?feature=shared&t=197). He wrote this awesome jazz piano bit over the B section that I really liked, sounded too busy to me over the lower dynamics, so I "compromised" by chopping off the first half. 🤣 He supplied some pads and arps throughout as well. @jnWakealso wrote the B' section, which was an improvised reharmonization of the melody. I liked it and added guitar and bass parts. But his most "important" contribution was the sound clips. We kept joking that some movie quotes would go well in the Clean chords section. Before the deadline he sent me the sound clips and I dropped them in without hesitation. 😆 Of course, @jnWakealso does the epic synth solo in Transition 2 and the synth fills in the A section reprise. Often, I play on his arrangements, so I'm glad we were able to work out another opportunity for him to play on mine! Roland absolutely nails the bass parts in this track, as well as providing some tasty fills throughout. 🤘 I met him during the VGMCon Charity Album Jam in April where I played on some of his Motoi Sakuraba arrangements, so I knew I wanted to invite him to play on my next DoD prog arrangement... which finally happened six months later. 😅 OK, I think that's it from me! I hope you enjoy "In Space, No One Can Hear You Party"! Games & Sources Mario Party 2 - Space Land (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdort7dA7JE)

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

Hi OCR! Here is a piano arrangement of « Batallia Down » and « Rabao » from FFXI and one extension. I’m a big fan of Mizuta’s work on this universe. After some tests on Batallia’s theme, I’ve thought I could get sthg interesting. Rabao well marry with Batallia, by similar harmony and rhythm. So, I’ve integrated some elements of this theme. Overall, the arrangement came naturally. The main difficulty was to find the good tempo. Indeed, first half with Batallia was thought much slower; and Rabao faster. I’ve reduced the difference to the minimum, but I’ve kept a minor variation of tempo at the transition. I’m not accustomed to play in this style; this arrangement was fun to make :) Enjoy! Guillaume BREAKDOWN Part 1 0’00 : intro Batallia 0 -> 0’34 Part 2 0’20 : Batallia 0’34 -> 2’00 a) 0’20 soft b) 0’50 more rhythm Part 3 1’23 : Batallia 2’00 -> 2’30 Part 4 1’49 : Rabao 0->1’00 & 1’00 -> 1’50 A little faster Transition 2’34 : Batallia 0 -> 0’34 Part 5 2’45 : Batallia 2’30 -> 3’40 More distant to the original, rhythm and harmony variation. And an “improvisation” at 3’10 on these harmonies. Part 6 3’23 : Batallia 2’00 -> 2’30 Arpeggios, harmony variation First tempo Part 7 3’52 outro : Batallia 0 -> 0’34 Similar as intro, but with chord more developed Games & Sources Remixer name: Bluelighter Real Name: Guillaume SAUMANDE Mail: guillaume.saumande@hotmail.com ID forum: 21840 Game & Songs: Final Fantasy XI & Batallia Downs Final Fantasy XI Rise of the Zilart & Rabao Composer: Naoshi Mizuta

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

opening is pretty similar to the original. the lead flute never takes a break - their poor lungs! - and there's none of the fun articulations the original has, so that's a bummer. right ear's a bit heavy initially due to where the instruments inhabit the soundstage. there's some more instruments coming in at 0:28 - typical scoring rhythmic elements in the violins and brass. it gets a bit muddy in here with all of the sustains, and this trucks through the melody again a few times before reaching a break at 1:24. the break is a big shift and it's a neat idea - there's a lot more patience and interpretation with the melody here, and the execution is suitably styled so that it fits. we also finally get a section without the melody line at 2:07 or so when the harpsichord analog comes in alongside the bass instrument doing the same pizz from most of the rest of the track. the same violin rhythmic motion and the same brass swells from before come back in (really sounds the same when A/Bing it), and then the same melodic material in the same instrument comes in at 2:59 again. so there's a lot of repetition coming out of the first minute or so. the voice line gets layered in as well for a bit. the ending is just a ritard and then it's done, there's no sustain or wrapping action. i think there's some really fun ideas here. obvious the general concept works well - you've got some scoring elements alongside the very singable melody, you've got a neat bridge section that's very earthy and period appropriate, and the track has a good shape to it. i think however that having almost half if not more of the track being repeated from the earlier section, when that earlier section was highly repetitive as well, is not a great choice. there's not a ton of personalization on the melodic representation in that first or last third either. i think for this to pass, you need the second half not to be a direct copy of the first section. you may wish also to change the melodic representation so that it's not just solid sustains forever, which isn't particularly realistic. you also may wish to do some more work so that each instrument doesn't play exactly the same thing throughout (the bass pizz for example). NO

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

definitely more of a darkwave approach than the original. there's no real intro - this is into the melodic content right off the bat. instrumentation is clearly more retro intentionally. the opening minute plus is just the same melodic ideas repeated with some added complexity each time in the backing elements. we get the 'chorus' themes at about 1:13 in a really odd lead that's got some attack modulation on it that makes it feel a little late. this continues to repeat for a while - we're at nearly two and a half minutes of this loop now, i think this is six or seven times through - and we finally get a break in the beat at 2:25. most of the synth elements are the same here and this is just a matter of dynamics. there's finally something different at 2:50 when some of the backing elements start to loop and we get some build elements into the big hit at 3:14. drums are double-time here, and there's some slightly changed backing elements. i liked the acid bass here a lot, and there's a lot of space in the backgrounds in between some of the rhythms which i really liked a lot. this section feels a lot peppier. at about 4:03 the beat backs off and we're back to coasting through the earlier soundscape towards an outro. there's one last chord and that's it. this is a lot of repetition. you've got a few synth lines playing literally the entire course of the song with hardly any changes throughout. that's just too much repetition. the layering build you've got through the first two minutes plus can work, but you need to be very judicious about how you're bringing in elements, what those elements are, and how you focus on them. leaving your synths on autopilot and not even automating volume to bring elements in and out of the texture, let alone automating some movement on really base-level synths, just results in a cluttered texture that feels like we've heard it before. the track is essentially one 24s loop that is initially a bit deconstructed and then repeated a lot. the change at 3:15 was great and really mixed it up, but you need a lot more of that level of change for this to not feel like a sound demo. there's not even an intro or a real ending. from a mix perspective, most of the elements are clear, although i noticed that the voiceover is buried quite a bit (boosting the formant of that audio clip would help it cut). also i noticed that there's not a lot of content over like 1k pretty quickly - this is a very dark, gloomy mix from a freq perspective. i think that works stylistically, but it makes the few elements that do have content up there stand out a lot. balancing that out might make for a more cohesive track. i would need to hear more arrangement and less repetition before i'd be willing to pass this. NO

nice wall of sound up front. the blues riff that forms the basis for the bassline of the course themes sounds really neat next to the really heavy background. there's a bass guitar transition right off the bat, and the vibe at 0:32 really felt like the Terran tracks from StarCraft 1 with how angular the drums and guitar are. i agree that going with Course Selection right away helps a lot. we get a big kick at 1:26 into the main part of the track, the Stage 1 and 2 tracks, and these are more straightforward. there's a much bigger section at 2:35 that's pretty intense, and it drops off right away into a half-time section for a bit to mix it up before hitting the short outro. the track ends fast enough that it's surprising and i think i'd have rather had that be a bit more settled. overall this is a fun romp through several themes from a classic game. i was not initially expecting it to be as cohesive of a medley based on the number of tracks and the length, but it does a nice job outlining the music and adding some new flair to it. YES

opens with some stacked fifths pad and an interesting filter sweep sfx. i agree that the initial lead doesn't punch through at all, there's gotta be something on it to make it pop. there's a little movement on the drums which i like pitch-wise in a few of the fills, but i did notice that the same snare fill got used several times before the 1:00 mark. there's a nice break at 0:50, well-timed, and i liked the smaller kit there for a bit. around this point i really felt like the lead was a placeholder and was waiting for the real instrument to come in - it just doesn't sound strong enough to be a lead at all. there's a fade transition at 1:08 that i really didn't care for - reminded me of the sample tracks i used to hear on myspace =P i'm too trained to assume fadeouts are endings, it felt strange as a transitional element. 1:09's got a neat rising element which was fun to hear. still no change to the lead by here, and there is not much going on from a pad perspective on this section so it feels a bit empty. i liked the rhythm of the percussive elements matching the melody, that was fun. 1:28's got some more updates on drums which was fun to hear, and there's some playing with sample duration in here too which was a neat change. 1:58's a recap of some of the earlier material with some new ear candy to catch, and then we get some descending action at 2:19. introducing new harmonic material right at the end of the track and then fading without a resolution or prep might not be the best idea - at the very least, providing a more clear closing point to the track would help a lot. i love to see you branching out! i think that, like gario said, a big element to change would be to beef up the initial saw lead that's used throughout, and to focus on setting the soundscape up better (being careful about pad usage, consistent verb usage, and spacing within the freq range throughout). i'd also point out that there's not really a strong direction throughout the piece - it feels like a bunch of disparate parts. identifying a way to pin everything together better and lead from section to section would help a lot, i think. NO

opens with foley and voiceover elements, As Is Tradition for a VQ track. i don't know where the melodic material happening behind the voiceovers comes from. some more elements come in around 1:50 and there's some keyboard elements that are lacking in velocitization, but there's some interesting textures being used here as more and more orchestral elements come in. there's a transition around 2:40ish with some horns, and they don't sound great - really blatty and far away, i think there's some extra processing on them that's causing them to sound more distant and lacking in attack than you'd expect. there's a hard shift at 3:03 to the organ as a lead instrument. there's a bass with some attack modulation on it, and a few other elements added in like some strings and bells as a percussive element. this instrumentation doesn't blend at all with the prior section, it lacks intensity as compared to the original and what's been brewing in this remix so far, and i honestly am having trouble mapping it to the original as more than just the chord structure if even that. the chords that enter with the vordt theme also feel transformed beyond where their relationship to the original is not apparent. most of these instruments have a lot of bass content as well and they've overlapping a lot (an issue i run into with organ often). this noodles through the chord progression, continues to feel muddy and indirect with motion, and then hits a big section of falling action at 4:56. 5:42 is the Holy Blade section. the representation here again feels like there's no clear direction for a while, with the instrumentation kind of all doing its own thing and not coming together to a cohesive thing until 6:20. i can hear the adaptation of the Holy Blade descending riff here much clearer, which is good. the original's intensity and verve isn't present, which is kind of an interesting albeit confusing correlation against the fairly intense vocal lines and speed increase at the 7 minute mark. the entire section starting around 7:20 is probably the most cohesive section you've got in the entire piece, but i'd say that also it's still rife with similar issues as before, like the big buzzy bass instrument taking up a ton of frequency range and a lead that's hard to hear what's going on, and overall it's wandering instead of feeling like it's got a driving melodic element that's leading it. there's a sudden break and then the end comes out of nowhere. overall i don't care for most of the direction of the work at all. i feel it's way more focused on the voiceover than on the music in the first several minutes and a few significant chunks after that (like between a quarter and a third of the track feels voiceover-driven). separately i feel it wanders throughout without focus on a melodic element or even a timbral element - there's no direction, and so it's hard to keep track of what's going on. the majority of the work, it's not clear where the music is coming from - it's either so heavily transformed or reduced that i can't map it. lastly, in several sections including the organ part at 3:03 and the holy blade section, there's a lot of overlapping elements in similar frequency ranges, so it's hard to understand aurally what's going on where. i'd be remiss to say that i just don't get a lot of the dynamics and 'story' of the work overall. there's some neat building action through the first few minutes, but the release of that energy is...the horn section around 2:40, which doesn't use it at all. then there's another big build into the organ section, and that almost immediately disperses the build into a chordal exploration that i had trouble identifying where it comes from. similarly, the end of this section falls off almost immediately into a big voiceover-focused section that actually has no music playing for several seconds in it. the shape and macro direction of the work is not clear. these are not easy fixes. i think that making the correlations to the originals in the earlier sections will make the volume (and volume) of the voiceovers more palatable, even if i think most of them are gross-sounding (not a horror fan, sorry). i think that really taking a critical eye to the organ section at 3:03 and EQing and/or changing instrumentation and instrument ranges so as to avoid some of the overlapping freqs will make that section easier on the ears. i also think that taking a look at the sections where the references to the original are basically just chord changes (long sections, like the two minutes after the organ comes in, or most of the minute before that) with very modified moving lines above them, and finding ways to tie those clearly and directly to the original will help a lot. lastly, finding ways to more consistently handle the builds and releases of the energy you build up in some of these sections would help immensely. i kept feeling let down when builds and ensemble crescendos didn't go anywhere - it happens four or five times at least throughout the work. it's going to sound like i didn't enjoy much of this at all. to be honest, i didn't! but it's not required for me to enjoy the piece in order to critique the technical and arrangement elements. right now the scope and vision feels too big. i think overall that this needs a lot of transformative work to reign in the wilder bits and focus it more, so as to be more effective at conveying what you're trying to convey. right now it's a wildly imaginative, visionary, probably over-extending attempt. NO

*PROJECT - OCR TIMESHIFT ALBUM* COLLABORATORS: gravitygauntlet - ADDITIONAL LAYERED SYNTHS, DRUMS & COMPOSITIONAL VSTI Rad Decision - ARRANGEMENT TRANSPOSITION TO F#M; ADDITIONAL SPOOKY SFX JSABlixer - ADDITIONAL GAMEBOY TRANSITIONAL SFX . . .Bloodborne Kart, anyone? :D Taking "Ol' Skool" VGM leitmotif into the modern age, this remix of Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 sources is the love-child of my immense passion and intrigue for the SoulsBorne-series of games created by FromSoft, fused with the games of my generation that SoulsBorne may take influence from (i.e. Castlevania). I felt it appropriate for the TimeShift album to give these sources a sort of..."vintage coat of paint", with the delicately curated soundscape and design, to make it feel as if "this is Souls-like, but--" GameBoy Advance or Nintendo 64; and it has felt like such a wonderful way to showcase and marry the concept of time (by honoring both a NEW and an OLD game franchise), and how both have, and still does, shape my being, my pursuits and my life. At 36 years of age (at the time of writing this), I've lived long enough to see the span of video games grow and flourish across *so many* different genres, eras and consoles, and *still* witness and enjoy them to this day. This goes for OverClocked ReMix as well, as both a site and a purveyor of the finest quality VGM remixes--having had built a library of them and skulked around the site for decades at this point, (practically since its inception, back when I was in late-junior high / early-high school!) Being able to meld my adoration for the old and the new within this has been a blessing, an honor and a joy, and I hope others will cast aside their weak flesh and join us Beasts of the Old Blood for the danse macabre of merriment on this dark-lit moon night. <3 This song is not only in dedication to OCRemix's 25th Anniversary celebration, but to...someone special and personal, who is extremely and very dear to me. . . He got me into the SoulsBorne series years ago, we've shared lots of fun times in general together since meeting on Final Fantasy XIV and sharing in our mutual love of both franchises, and hopefully many more to come. Ten plus years knowing him, and so many more of me knowing about OCRemix. I am so thankful to have become a part of this community and the VGM-sphere as a whole. This is my gift to everyone in it, however-- -- Kaz, this one's for you, with my deepest, heartfelt love and respect. Cheers everybody, enjoy, and a big thank you to all who listen to this song now and forevermore. Big hugs and shout-out to EVERYONE as well who were involved in the TimeShift project Discord, collaborated with me on this, or just lent ears for feedback and helped out. Y'all are the true all-stars and champions here. Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart. # SUMMARY OF THE REMIX: A hauntingly 'jovial' church ceremony and dance -- this remix has seemingly turned from an overtly horror-trope-y, slow death requiem march/choral mass to a more German classical opera/French Baroque, stately Castlevania 64-style arrangement, by changing it from the Dm -> Bm of the original main source (Ludwig's boss themes) into F#m. My hope is the wonderful mixture of realistic cinematic instrumentation and percussion as the bedrock / foundation, with the very modern Hip-Hop / R&B spin and structure on a chiptune platter of cherries on top are both saucy and unique for the sources used. One other note--besides SFX and atmospheres used, and the VO, *everything presented here* in the remix arrangement was hand-written by me via MIDI piano roll. Not a SINGLE line of drums or beat or instrumentation is a loop of some kind unless I made it from scratch. :) This will also be my first mix in actually writing CCs on MIDI lines for orchestral dynamics and expression. :D So, indeed, onwards and upwards. <3 A big thank you to those in the Discord chat who helped me to learn how to do it. REMIX INFLUENCES & INSPIRATIONS: 1980s Slasher Flicks (Halloween & Nightmare on Elm Street, specifically--you can hear it in the Intro's keyboards/piano, chiptune and staccato/spiccato strings hitting the fast bouncy plucks as countermelodies/counterharmonies to the mains @ 2:19) Phantom of the Opera (e.g. the pipe organs) Hammer Horror (Dracula, specifically--lines and FX of VO utilizes Francis Ford Coppola's 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' [1992] dialogue and wolf howls @ 5:21) Castlevania (N64/GBA-era: examples - 1, 2, 3, 4) Goosebumps / Are You Afraid of the Dark? (90s references & vibes) Old 1930s-50s radio plays, cinematics and horror/sci-fi dramas (e.g. War of the Worlds, hence the voice acting and VO FX) Black Violin # SOURCES USED AND THEIR PARTS (EVERY SOURCE TRANSPOSED FROM Dm/Bm TO F#m, BY COURTESY AND HELP OF RAD DECISION): Main Source - Ludwig - Accursed & Holy Blade: [P1] 00:00 - 04:18 / [Transition & Interlude for Boss Cutscene] 03:03 - 04:18 = Ludwig the Accursed; [P2] 04:19 - End = Ludwig the Holy Blade Father Gascoigne Boss Theme (utilizing the horn and bass stabs that start around 00:20) Cleric Beast / Vicar Amelia Boss Theme (utilizing the choir lines starting @ 00:15) Vordt of the Boreal Valley Boss Theme (utilizing the choir lines starting @ 01:48) SOURCE & REFERENCE BREAKDOWN: 00:00 - 02:42 = Modified / expanded version of Ludwig the Accursed's first few bars of its melody line and chords, stretched to become the intro and building operatic landscape for the piece 01:24 - 02:05 = FATHER GASCOIGNE bass stabs w/ Ludwig solo violin & chiptune melody 02:19 - 02:42 = repeated pulsing arp piano & string hits [spicc & stacc] are reminiscent of and take inspiration directly from the theme of the movie Halloween; the sound palette of the keyboard synth hits & chiptune plink-plonk are a reflection of the same motif used in the original Nightmare on Elm Street theme 02:32 - 03:03 = FATHER GASCOIGNE rising horn section present as a transition assist 03:04 - 05:41 = LUDWIG THE ACCURSED, in full 03:52 - 04:34 = VORDT OF THE BOREAL VALLEY choir present (from Phase 2 of his original boss fight source); starts out being heard by the soft choir synth growing louder and louder, and then becomes the organs, timpani & percs (marimbas, xylophones & hand bell hits) as part of the larger swelling, ebb and flow orchestra set; other instruments, tubular bells and chimes continue the remainder of LUDWIG THE ACCURSED up until the source's transitional break 04:56 - 05:42 = LUDWIG'S cutscene / transition Interlude 05:24 - 05:42 = CLERIC BEAST choir present; crescendos in-behind the Dracula lines, and the rising tension, chattering strings as part of the LUDWIG transition into Phase 2, HOLY BLADE 05:42 - END = LUDWIG THE HOLY BLADE, in full [switches up to a brief +3 semitones up / Minor Key Change @ 08:33-34 - 08:48] 07:36 - 08:05 & 08:12 - 08:52 = CLERIC BEAST choir chords return as the trancey, pulsating, zappy synth stings, which are paired with the synth choirs as part of the finale ---- * NOTE -- ALL VOs [except the Dracula VA insert] COME FROM BLOODBORNE AND ITS DLC, THE OLD HUNTERS, BY THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS - Micolash--Host of the Nightmare, Vicar Amelia, Father Gascoigne the Hunter and Ludwig the Accursed. ** Instrumentals were layered with gravity's own VSTi renders, playing similar MIDI content; Rad Decision assisted with adding ghostly, haunting winds and howls, as well as key transposition duties; you can hear JSA's contributions towards the end of the remix, where underneath Ludwig's dialogue are GameBoy noise/static sweeps and crunch paired with the scary, rising strings and other accompaniment as part of the transition to a faster BPM. Games & Sources BLOODBORNE - THE OLD HUNTERS Original Soundtrack; Tracks 4 & 5 - Ludwig, The Holy Blade & Ludwig, The Accursed; Artist(s): SIE Sound Team / Ryan Amon, Tsukasa Saitoh, Michael Wandmacher, Yuka Kitamura, Cris Velasco & Nobuyoshi Suzuki; Release Date: 2015; Label: Sony / Bandai Namco BLOODBORNE Original Soundtrack; Track 4 - The Hunter [Father Gascoigne] & Track 5 - Cleric Beast [Vicar Amelia]; Artist(s): SIE Sound Team / Ryan Amon, Tsukasa Saitoh, Michael Wandmacher, Yuka Kitamura, Cris Velasco & Nobuyoshi Suzuki; Release Date: 2015; Label: Sony / Bandai Namco DARK SOULS 3 Original Soundtrack; Track 6 - Vordt of the Boreal Valley; Artist(s): Nobuyoshi Suzuki and Yuka Kitamura; Release Date: 2016; Label: Sony / Bandai Namco

opening piano part is a touch ahead of the beat from where i'd expect it to settle into the groove. band sound comes in soon after it and it's really nailing the vibe - i like the tone of the snare especially. the funky altered chords are a fun addition as well. 0:46 is a nice adaptation of the 'chorus' material from the original, and the string machine that comes in at like 1:01 is again really in-style. 1:20's transitional chord concept is a good way to shift us down in energy a bit for that break, and then it's off to the races again. there's a bit of repeated content and then a neat solo section that's based around the concept that opened the piece. there's a quick half-time triplet section that goes into a very fast outro resolution bit, and we're done. this one's easy =) excellent work adapting a track that's lacking in melodic texture without just comping on the chords the entire time. there's a lot of clever instances where you either updated the chords or the melodic bits while keeping the other the same, and the consistent juxtaposition helps keeps the energy up despite the minimal amount of content in the original. YES

this is a significant improvement over the last version. the vocals fit into the mix way better than before in terms of EQing. they're still super fast and hard to understand, but the song itself is fun enough that i found myself looking past that at all the fun stuff going on in the background. drum parts overall feel a lot better as well, there's a lot more content there than there was the first time around. this isn't perfect by any means but i think it's a fun take and a really neat arrangement - like i said in my last vote, i wouldn't have believed these were two different original tracks. this is over my bar. YES

Yet another new DoD month, yet another new submission. This one comes from "Party Month", where you had to pick a game that can be played locally by 4 people. I picked Smash Melee and then picked a theme from a single player mode (woops!). It was kinda by accident really, I didn't think too hard about that part but it's funny. Anyway, the theme from the "Break the Targets" mode is a banger so I've been wanting to cover it for years and I took this chance to do it. It's an upbeat theme with just a few sections and for the arrangement I went with keeping the pace and adding some jazz-ish flair to it. It was pretty fun to arrange and play. It came out 1st on the competition so I assume it's good enough! From the source I want to highlight a tiny melody that plays at 0:27, since it's something I expanded a lot on the remix. When sources are short you kinda need to expand them as much as you can! Breakdown: 0:00: Intro directly based on the source's intro, although the rhytm is a bit different (basically, the original begins with a chord a 16th after the first note, I put the first chord an 8th after the first note). There's a break where the 0:27 melody plays and then we move into some more variations of the intro, with a few keyboard solos. 0:43: A quick ascending run, taken directly from the source. 0:46: Based on the second part of the source, changing chords and rhytm. 1:13: Repeat of the intro with some rhytm/chord changes. 1:28: A small break, featuring a cameo from Melee's main theme. Rhytm kinda inspired by zircon's remix of Trophy Tussle. 1:41: Synth lead based on the piano solo from the source, chord progression is "original". 1:55: A repeat of a previous part. 2:08: Another ascending run! 2:12: More variations over the main rhytm, but now I play it exactly like the source. Features a keyboard solo! 2:39: All of this is based on the 0:27 melody. 2:46: Outro. This is quoting Frost* (I've mentioned this band before), from a track called "Milliontown". Hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Source is Break the Targets from Melee:

original vote Resubmitted with several small tweaks including more varied drums, harder hitting kick and snare, vocals more front and center and less grating, small edits to the glitch effects, and overall volume balancing. Games & Sources Game: Puyo Puyo (Sega Mega Drive) Songs arranged: Brave (https://youtu.be/06tH5Qosjrc); Final (https://youtu.be/8oaDWL-1W20) Original composer: Masanobu Tsukamoto; Akiyoshi Nagao System: Sega Mega Drive mostly but also a shit ton more Year: 1992

opens with a pretty fat bass and kick, and the basic four-note motif in a higher synth. a secondary bass element comes in on the off-beat (really feels like it could have used some quant to shuffle that farther back in the beat) soon after. there's some more lfo sfx, and then we get a very interesting synth at 1:27 with a wild attack on it. we get a bit of a break at 2:07 - the bass line is still going, but the rest of the track is dropped - and soon after transition back into another additive building section. the bassline's getting a little tiresome by this point so i wouldn't have minded a shift in that break. this builds up with a variety of elements, mostly metallic-feeling, and at 3:24 hits the big blow of the track. i would have loved to hear more new stuff in here, maybe something that's more explorative of the four-note motif, but at least there's some chordal shifting in what's going on. 4:42's the beginning of the end, and we get one last representation of the motif through the chord progression before it's done on a slow, distorted sustain. i really like the rhythmic focus to the track. there's no way you were going to write some orchestral etude off of the limited melodic content of the original, so focusing on the rhythmic elements of it and translating them in various ways is a nice idea. i think we could have used some more variation in the middle third of the track, but overall this does some neat stuff and explores new areas in the original. YES

opens with some sweeping leads. there's some distortion on them initially that's nice. there's a hard cut to beat at 0:26 with a very overtone-y bass, and soon after we get the descending motif again. i liked the gated effects on the wind synth at 1:05. the next forty seconds or so are mostly exploring textures with similar synths that we've already heard in different combinations - there's not a lot of direction to it, and by maybe 2:00 it starts to feel like we've heard things before even if we haven't heard that specific combination at that point. 2:31's got some burbling synths in the background that are pretty neat. it trucks through a bit more material before it very suddenly just ends with zero prep, just a short fadeout on a sustain. i think i have two main critiques with this track. first is that all the elements by themselves are interesting, but many of them don't really feel like they fit next to each other consistently. for example, the left-ear burbling synth that we first hear at 0:56 playing a single note for a bit comes back repeatedly, and each time it feels like it's not in the mix at all. it either has too much reverb next to the kit and bass (1:19) or like it's too dry when next to some of the other very swooshy, reverb-heavy leads (2:31). similar statement about the hats and some of the white-noise percussion. the second issue i have is that we hear, like, eight synths throughout the entire track, and they all play one thing, and that's it. they're brought in using different combinations, there's lots of variation in them individually, and there is to my ear no section that's exactly the same, but it all feels the same because we've heard everything by a minute and a half in and then it's just different combinations until the non-ending. honestly this one is pretty close despite those critiques and the entire lack of an ending. i like the synths you're using and think that they're doing interesting things individually - i just don't feel this is cohesive enough to really track overall. the lack of a focus on melodic material or a general dynamic shape to the song also hurts it. i'd love to hear another version with a stronger, more directed vision, both in the aesthetic and effecting of the synths and in the use of melody and dynamics to pull together the track. NO

immediately recognizable opening, even with the cimbalom. the track feels very early PC with the vocal patch, which is a fun coincidence. it's a very spare atmosphere you've created here - often only a few individual notes playing at any given time, and a surprising amount of unison up front in the couple of instruments you're using. 0:50 brings in some more activity, and the cimbalom really works well for this realization. 1:18 adds in the choirs in unison with the low strings, and i like the idea but think the execution isn't quite there. it's just too robotic in the cimbalom and doesn't sound particularly realistic in the strings/choir. the cimbalom-only section after this has some more velocitization on it which is nice, but it's audible where the velocity pattern repeats. the subsequent building section at 1:57 is nice, but the partwriting is pretty simplistic in here and heavily weighted towards my left ear. there's a wrong note in the bass at 2:21, and a few (probably but not sure) notes that aren't in the key soon after in the middle voices. this shifts to a new section at 2:35 and how consistently the cimbalom has been hammering away at roughly the same volume and attack speed throughout the song becomes more noticeable in here. the lack of true velocity changes (particularly to more quiet tones) is starting to grate by this part. there's some intense building action until the big hit at 3:26, and this section sounds pretty exciting. it's also very muddy and boomy due to the orchestral toms being used. there's some neat evocative feels in here but overall the use of heavy unisons and no part-writing in the supporting lines really kills the energy for me. it ends with a kangling note that is cut off, and it's done. this is a really neat idea! i think there's definitely legs in the arrangement - the combination of old-world instruments is a really neat one. i think first off that there's a lot of room for partwriting that isn't just unison strings and choir layered, especially with the richness of the chords uelman uses throughout. separately, i think that there's a lot more room for nuance in all the instruments - most of them feel like they stay in the same middle range of velocities, and there's no dynamics in the instruments as a result. a track that is so intentionally sparse in instrumentation needs to then be super careful in how it uses those instruments, and i don't track that here. i think this is a great one to bring to the workshop or a wip review and have some folks talk about how to flesh it out a bit more without losing the feel. right now though i don't think this one's where it needs to be just yet. NO