prophetik music

This was originally submitted to the Final Fantasy month (November 2023) for Dwelling of Duels. I just had an idea to take Balamb Garden and make in the style of Pink Floyd; specifically Wish You Were Here. I didn't have a lot of experience arranging, mixing, or dealing with instruments other than guitar so I asked for some collaborators (anonymously of course) and I ended up working with some amazing musicians that really helped make everything happen! We may have not placed super high in the end -- I am beyond proud of what we did. Credits: The Rocket Knights - Rhythm Guitars, Arrangement pixelseph - Rhythm Guitars, Arrangement, Squall Connor Engstrom - Lead Guitars, Synth/FX, Mixing, Mastering DeLuxDolemite - Drums Siolfor the Jackal - Bass donut - Rinoa Games & Sources Final Fantasy VIII - Balamb Garden With inspiration from Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

I submitted a much rougher version of this one over 4 years ago, and finally got around to revamping it off-and-on over the last few months after digging up the judging feedback on it. It has synthwave elements, but mixed more like a rock track, as I don't particularly like the sleekness of modern synthwave-y music. I didn't like how straightforward my initial arrangement was, so I added a weird section with Seal of Time playing and then skipping on an almost mono-channel degraded cassette (yes, I know cassettes don't really skip like that, no I can't make straightforward music and I don't have a good reason why not!). The bassline is my favorite part, and still might be a smidge too loud, but I like it too much to bring it down or filter it any further. Most of the music I make for OCR has some kind of story embedded into the music, but not here. Just wanted to make a futuristic-sounding version of The Boy Who Had Wings. Speaking of futuristic, this is my first time using the new submission form. It's beautiful. Games & Sources Game - Ys III: Wanderers from Ys Source tracks - The Boy Who Had Wings and Seal of Time There's a large handful of versions of both tracks due to the game being made for several different platforms over the decades, but the melodies of all of them are pretty much the same.

track is mono. stereo is a requirement, so this can't pass as-is. i'll review it through anyways with that in mind. starts out with some bass fading in and eventually some hats. this is a pretty long intro - it's not until 0:45 that we even get a kick, and the snare doesn't come until 1:06. so that's a full minute at the beginning with admittedly some not-super-interesting synths to be listening to. there's some melodic content for the first time at 1:50 - that's simply too long of an intro without the synth work being sublime. at 2:20 or so you add an open hat on top of the existing hat pattern. you'll want to dovetail those together to more simulate a drumset being used - the closed hat sounds wouldn't play when the open hat is struck. this noodles for several more minutes before slowly winding down, but there's nothing else new being added. so, from an overall perspective, i think that there's a neat idea here but it needs a lot of execution help. the synths overall lack panache and punch and as a result are really generic and low-energy. the heavily repetitive background part (in the bass, the 404, and the little bell tones that accompany the bass) are just too repetitive - especially for an original that regularly changes it up! lower norfair has a ton of changes as the track goes on, and none of that is reflected in this remix. separately, it's very clear you're turning on and off channels rather than really crafting a shape for each section - the ending as instruments drop out really reinforces that. there needs to be a lot more intentionality to the overall shape of the piece beyond just clicking in and out boxes. lastly, from a mixing and mastering perspective, the piece lacks verve. the percussion is pretty bog-standard but there's no sidechaining or EQing to make it really pop, and the track overall feels quiet. i think this needs a lot more workshopping before it's ready to rock. there's a neat concept here, but there needs to be a lot of attention paid to the arrangement, to the synth instruments and what they're doing, and then to the mixing and mastering before this is ready for prime time. NO

starts out with some omnisphere patches and some truly stunning flute. the string parts right after that are equally lush and beautifully done - the gong is a great touch. piano carries the melodic material when it first shows up - this is a touch dry, i'd have expected it to be wetter based on everything else that's going on. there's a great crescendo to 1:16 where the strings show back up (i'm a sucker for low strings, i love the bass and celli focus here). this has a bit of a Pearl Harbor vibe to it. piano comes back at 1:39 and carries the melodic content through a nice orchestral swell before handing it off to the vins. there's some additive harmonic material here in the 2:15 area that's really nice. the B theme at 2:31 is carried also by the vins. there's a bit of sustain-itis through here where the backing instruments are mostly playing pad chords rather than moving lines, but there's a great payoff at 2:54. the flute here is absolutely the perfect thing to add, takes it to the next level. at 3:18 we get a significant decrease in energy and some new harmonic content. celli get a bit exposed here with their moving line and a late attack. there's some piano (again still feels a touch dry) to play through the last bits and finish the track off. this is excellent as expected. lush orchestration and some really incredible peaks. fantastic job. YES

fun idea for a track! there's a ton of goofy synth work right off the bat that is so fitting for this original. i'll note that the quant of some of the synths don't quite fit into the bass's swing - the swirly synths and subsequent tones at 0:56 are an example, and the big drum beat that comes in right after that also seems to be not quite on the same swing (there's a kick mid-measure every measure that i can't wrap my brain around). guitar work is fun, especially the stuff around 1:20. synth work at 1:41 sounds a lot like the beginning with a new groove under it. similarly, 2:17 again sounds very similar to 1:03. there's a big build through 2:33 for a big solo. the swing is dropped here and it's more straight throughout the band. there's a little bit of groove after the solo and it's done. this has some really fun design work in it. obviously the bass performance is skillful, although like i mention the swing changes occasionally and it's not clear if that's intentional. the synth work is appropriately goofy and has a lot of design time spent on it clearly. i found the repetition to be noticeable. the guitar and trumpet were great adds. i think this is closer than i expected. for a track that is predicated on groove, the track noticeably doesn't always settle into one. however it's mastered well, overall performed well, and it's a fine adaptation of the original. i don't want perfect to be the enemy of good, so for me that's a pass. YES

there is a lot of headroom to start this remix. would have loved to see a bit of compression on it. initial piano tone is gorgeous. the suspension at 0:25 is very nice. the initial performance of the melodic material is also very well-handled - i recognize it's a very conservative adaptation but it's beautifully managed. the broken chord at 1:29 and later is great how it pops out of the texture. 1:42 continues the gradual crescendo to the big climax section at 2:15, and this continues to be richly voiced. there's a significant dropoff at 2:31 and the arrangement becomes more introspective here. there's a final bit at 3:10 and it's done, a bit suddenly - would have preferred a longer sustain there. there is a consistent static sound that i believe is the sustain pedal's action or else some nervous movement by the performer. i've never heard that in a recording before. it is noticeable but not enough to make me want to reject this. certainly better than gould's humming. i think this a beautiful rendition of the theme, minor technical issues aside. there is a ton of patience taking to let the original's beautiful modal tonality shine out and to let the suspensions really sing through clearly. excellent work. YES

the chords don't map directly from what i can hear. that makes these blobs of chords inspired by, and not directly taken from, the original track. they may be highly different voicings and that's where i'm losing it. i really don't dig the idea of us trying to parse this ourselves, this should be an artist-provided breakdown to ensure we're not missing stuff in either direction. edit 2/8: i am teh dumb

love that bass to start. big hit right at 0:30 with some fun use of triplets in a squelchy low lead which made some neat polyrhythms. moves to a more martial tone quickly, displaying a lot of the same patience that past xaleph tracks have featured. there's some vocals (i believe this is xalephito, right?) at 1:32, and we then we have a break section at 1:45. time signature change at 2:10 which i like a lot - the original's time sig was always a high point and i like how you've adapted it here. drop at 2:27. the shaping work on the vocals through here is just great. there's a hard shift at 2:47 with some more polyrhythm stuff and a focus on CoT. i am not a reaction face guy but i audibly gasped when the tri-tone theme from CoT hit at 3:29. it was so perfectly prepped and executed. this is why i love vgm remixes. there's all this audio candy behind the scenes going on behind such an eerie theme, and then you've got the underlying bass beat that's inherited from xaleph's part trucking along under this great sound design. vocals at 4:56 are just what the track needed at that point. the extra post work to crisp up the note transitions really fit the track's style without taking anything away from the performance. the guitar in the background is just perfect too. we get the beat back right after it along with some fun bass blaps. when we got to the drop at 6:17 i assumed the track was done, but the last little bit did a great job putting a bow on the track. this is why i love this community. what a track. i would love to hear the 15-minute version. HOLY SHIT

a general statement - going forward, in your submission emails, it'd be great if you'd include source breakdowns for tracks that include more than one original. it helps with clarifying source usage and making sure we don't miss references. i'm saying this because i don't hear Builder's Stage in this at all. sfx to start. some tempo-synced FM bells as well. slowly builds adding in a variety of elements that are super disparate which is interesting. there's a beat at 0:36 which is very boomy (not sure about that kick drum's room tone and boominess, it's really distracting and takes up a lot of room). build continues until the actual beat hits at 0:59. the groove when the shamisen (?) playing the shinobi riff comes back is really hip, and the combination of instruments playing the lead here is a fun combination. 1:57 is a short break, and then we're back to the shinobi content with some new sounds. the beat comes back at 2:30 and it's a little bass heavy here - there's a lot in the 60-100hz range between that fat pad and the deep kick, so it feels muddy there. 2:50 is a break with some sfx, and then we get some fun winds going into a (very different) section at 3:26. i found this transition to be abrupt and it took my brain a minute to get it around the key change. the amount of what feels like static through here too was kind of weird and i didn't quite get the reason behind so much fuzz in the soundscape. i'll admit i didn't like this section at all. this fades down and maneuvers through an outro. as expected, this is a highly crafted track throughout. i always find your tracks to be explorations in texture that happen to use game music as the framework that you're draping all these different blips and blurbs over, like the skeleton in a paper mache. this one is no different - you took a [honestly pretty weird] original and schmeared a bunch of really interesting textures and concepts over it, and for the most part it works. i still think that section at 3:26 is something that drags the overall product down, and the mastering overall is boomy and lacking in crispness, but the track as a whole demonstrates creative arrangement alongside a far-reaching ear for originative synth work. i think this is definitely above our bar. YES

oh man, look at that audio sausage! right off the bat - you've got a ton of sub-40hz content that needs to be EQ'd out. also the drums are so loud i can't even hear the original through much of it. the track is fun distorted drums (that probably don't need to be so loud, you can be distorted and big without overvolting everything like this) with the original under it essentially unchanged to my ear for the first 1:30. after that you start to do some new stuff, which is great! it's too little too late, however. there just isn't enough transformative arrangement throughout the track. even if the mastering and mixing was good - which they really are pretty rough - this wouldn't be near enough to pass. i recommend muting your drums and make something that's fun to listen to with just the synths that isn't [the original plus a stutter synth]. once you've got that, then the drums are the thing that makes the track great! then you can actually work on mixing the parts together so that they compliment each other. NO

beat first hits at 0:09. some muted synths early on, and we get some lead instruments at about 0:28. some more fun arpeggiated stuff at 0:46, and soon after get the mute city melodic content and then the top gear melody. i admire the patience to wait that long to bring it in. there's some layering of the parts through here that doesn't quite settle right in a few places. additionally, even with the panning you added, it's still hard to hear the individual parts between the two leads as they're similar synths in the same audio range. the mute city melody comes in again at 2:16 after a break and really fits the vibe - this is probably my favorite part of the whole track. the beat drops at 2:51 and it trucks through the mute city melody one more time before some sfx, and it's done. i'm a little split on this one right now. on one hand, the groove is really nice with a lot of ear candy, and mute city parts are great. on the other hand, i don't particularly care for the section at 1:21 at all as it sounds messy and it's hard to pick out what's happening, and there are other areas where the freq ranges are pretty saturated and it starts to bother my ears after a bit (like at 2:20). i'm also not a huge fan of the not-ending. overall i think this is over the bar but fairly close. i think the style and the genre adaptation bring it over the finish line. YES

intro riff is appropriately funky. at 0:11 it takes a second for everything to mesh together. there's a bit of a mix of swings - the hats have a harder swing than the synth lines do, which makes it a bit jumbly initially - but it still sounds neat and i especially like the lead's tone. this quickly transitions to a much broader section featuring a time sig change and some broad synth pads. the funk comes back at like 1:25 and the groove is still a little disjointed, but the space in the overall track here helps balance it a bit. we get a sustain in the guitars that quickly goes Plini-ish at 1:51 and then takes off. i love this upbeat section. it's short, but the soaring guitars are so good. it comes back down (still feels like Plini) and then we get a significant tempo change and some soloing. the melodic material is back at 3:07 with the ascending lick that's then harmonized, and then some great guitar work. there's some bass riffs and it's done. what a fun take! there's a lot of exploration of what's honestly a pretty basic original, given that it's just a bass riff and some synth flourishes. this really branches out and does a great job. YES

i heard a pre-version of this that had far louder bass, and this is much more balanced now. the saxophone sounds notably better too - tone is far less overblown, it's more in tune, and there's some nice vibrato in several places. there's been some touchups to the bass clarinet too - notably the really rough unisons are cleaned up entirely. great to hear this one cross the finish line. nice patience and great work everyone. YES

starts out with some sfx and some crazy motorcycle sounding arps, with the first real hit starting at 0:29. there's not a ton of bass body in this section but there's some really fun stuff going on in the higher ranges with some of the sparkly synths. Into the Giant is the melodic content here, with some purposefully glitched out tones. we finally get the beat at 1:11 with a clearer melodic synth. the beat comes and goes, which i thought was a little confusing, and there's a few funky notes at 1:37 in the backing tempo-synced stuff. the B side of the melodic content continues after this section. we get a glitchy transition alarm section, and then we're in crazy motorcycle. this was a fairly abrupt transition. heavier guitar sounds great, and i love the stutter effects on it especially. lead guitar sounds just a touch ahead of the beat - maybe this stem was dropped in a bit ahead? - and the beat-no beat-beat-no beat pattern continues here and kind of saps energy as it happens. there's a ton going on behind the lead guitars and 2:58 is probably one of my favorite parts of the piece - i love the density of what's going on with that screaming guitar over the top. more sfx (the one sounds like a chainsaw, although i know it's a motorcycle...funny visual either way). there's an extended build with Into the Giant building up to a big, consistent, end to end run-through the melodic material which is great, and then it goes up to another level with the guitar lead at the end. bringing back the guitar really ties the two major sections together, this was a great choice. the ending is sudden though and not particularly prepared - that's a downer, this was really trucking and then suddenly's done without even a downbeat. from an overall perspective, i thought the arrangement is really solid overall and i feel the track is mixed well. there's not many times i think to myself that something's out of balance or getting buried in the mix, which is pretty great considering how much is going on throughout. i definitely think this is above our bar. nice work. YES

gonna just talk about source usage first and then get back to it from there. within the first minute, the arrangement is primarily The Depths and it's...pretty conservative? the original is tons of space. if you drop the beats and the bass in this remix, it's basically what The Depths is for a minute solid. it just doesn't 'start' until the big bass fart at 0:28. i really like the inspired synth choice at 0:55 to pick something that sounds like the big bass blat while also sounding like the orchestral pizz plus air sound in Dive to the Depths at 0:39. this explores those sounds until about 1:30. Dive to the Depths has more melodic content, if you can call it that, and that starts around 1:30 in the remix. the primary elements from this original are the initial flourish in the piano, the flute at 0:08, and celli, and the orchestral pizz. those are used regularly in this remix after the 1:30 mark. based on the writeup from Gaspode, and taking into account the volume of space in the originals as compared to how spread out the main elements of this remix are, i think this is enough. timestamping this would be silly due to the amount of not-music in the originals, so i think we need to err on the side of a more inspiration-based perspective. i think that there's a preponderance of the elements that made the originals unique represented in this remix. if anything, peter's intentional lack of transformation of the tones of the original elements helps make the correlations more clear than they would otherwise. this absolutely could have been farther out in left field and still been close enough for me. regarding the remix itself - what a fun track. you do an excellent job retaining the mystery and space (and, dare i say, timelessness, that is, the lack of a feeling of time progressing) of the original remix. there's a ton of exploration here especially within the drum work that really does a great job of emphasizing and reinforcing the original elements. my only nits would be that i wished for the synths at the end to sustain a bit longer. i also think i'd have preferred a deeper, lower kick tone with more subbass content to help emphasize the name of the original. these are preferences however and do not affect my vote. you get a hearty approval from me, bravo. YES

thank you for the very clear breakdown. synthwave vibe is clear right off the bat, and i love the minor version of the main melodic line. the flute is a nice layer on it as well. there's a little less going on in the background than i'd have expected based on the influences, especially at 0:32 where it's just buzzy mono synth, drums, and bass behind the guitar. the A melody comes back quickly and is layered again with flute and this time sax. i really like the articulation elements that are used here. i will note that i think all of the leads are a touch loud in the mix. the sax section after that is great, and the flute section right after is also great as a palette cleanser. there's a short falloff and then a slick sax solo. the tone is a bit treble-ly and maybe doesn't need to cut so much through the mix in this particular section, but what it's saying is dope and i love it. guitar solo after it is also fantastic and i love the mirrored sections. after the solo section, at 2:50 we get some layered melodic lines starting at different times as well as a rising tempo-synced pad in the background that really does a great job building up to a final big note. there's a few rhythmic elements and then it's done. this is a great blow from start to finish. i didn't consider it to be too transformative given the very minimal source tune. taking the piano melodic line and combining it with the initial chord-blip-blip section in the piano to make a singable melodic line is a fantastic idea and it's executed in a cohesive and successful manner. the track sounds good from a mastering perspective, and most of my complaints are nits at most. nice work. YES

7/8 is a clever vehicle for a track based on arpeggios. the intiial arpeggios are nice and buzzy, and the subsequent lead and kick are also pretty lo-fi. i didn't care much at all for the kick's tone at all since it crushed everything against the limiter every time it hits, and the mix really sits hard in the 300-350hz range where there's some huge spikes so it's overly dense and hard to differentiate what's going on. i think i'd like the instrumentation and the distortion that's all over the place if i could hear the individual parts more. there's a big shift at 0:50 where it goes to 6/8 and drops the percussion for a bit. again this section is turbo-slammed against the limiter so it's hard to hear what's going on. it goes back to 7/8 at 1:17 and noodles through the flute part - i like the playing with time you do in this section quite a bit. there's a triplet line over top that i really like too. after this, the track very suddenly ends, which was a real disappointment since the vibe was really solid. there's some silence to trim too. overall this is really jammed against the limiter throughout, and like i said everything's sitting in a similar range which makes it hard to differentiate what's going on. some light panning would help there too but ultimately this needs work with volumizing and the kick needs to be sidechained to prevent it murdering everything else every time it hits. i believe backing off the distortion just slightly would help with the similar range issue too since it'd allow more fundamental tone to make it through. i love the concept and i love the synth choices, it just needs some mastering love. NO

interesting idea. initial cortez riff is right off the bat. this is a natural genre adaptation imo from the original, still goofy like the game but way heavier than the PS was able to do. i actually think the dirty vocals are a bit loud relative to the truly awesome backing parts. there's some really fun lyric/music elements in here. the stomp section and the d-d-d-die section are really well done actually, and the harmonized section at 1:46 reminded me of the fall out boy song about what you did in the dark. it's also a lot more narrative than i expected based on the description. there's a big break/shift at 3:19 which does a nice job of breaking up what had been over three minutes of just continual balls-to-the-wall for a while. i expected a t-pain mansion-wiscansin rhyme for the rhyme between n-sane and again at the end, but it still sounded fine. this is really fun! the rock itself is super enjoyable - i can definitely see people asking for an instrumental version of this - and the vocals overall are well-handled. i actually understood most of the dirty stuff which is a first. what a fun track. YES

lot of sfx and tempo-synced stuff to start, in particular a lot of panning elements. most of the first 45s are heavier in my left ear. i don't think that's intentional. there's a significant build into 0:55, and the first big hit of everything at 0:55 also sounds a bit weird - the bass peaks at like 70hz instead of 30-35hz like i'd expect. is there a filter on this that's cutting out subbass content there? there's also a big notch around 350hz and i can kind of hear the scooped mids there. paging resident primate @Chimpazilla for help with what i'm hearing. apes together strong. the flourish at 1:08 that's mirrored in a lower instrument is a neat idea. there's a break at 1:23 or so that again has a lot of tempo-synced stuff going on, and especially the swooping effect got a little irritating after the first few times i heard it. the beat comes back after that and quickly goes back to the tempo-synced quieter stuff - some very fast transitions there. there's an interlude with chips at 2:07 that again sounds hollow with whatever filter's on it, and a half-time section after that that i really dig, and then another half-time section that's different and i dig that a lot. this is a great break section, still featuring some of the tempo-synced stuff but really shifting the vibe a lot. the heavily distorted synth that comes in at 2:55 was >9000x louder than i expected and was probably too much. the following trap-adjacent (pitfall?) section with the funky hats is again a neat change in style. it's very busy and probably could use a bit of trimming down/volumizing down stuff that's less important (just a little, this part is honestly real close). there's a big build into 3:38 that really subverts expectations with the drop. nice use of the vocal clip to further that subversion. eventually it picks back up at 3:50 and goes through the melodic content from Towering Mountain. the transition out of that section (or lack of one) is pretty jarring. the following perc-less pad section loses a lot of energy fast, and the following detuned bell vibe is pretty minimal and felt like it lost some direction. i did like the shifts to chords that were added to that melodic snippet. i admit that i would have been very fine with a short outro after the section ending at 4:05 - the last section is very different and there's not a ton tying it to the first 80% of the track. i think that there's a lot of little things here that, if corrected, would result in a really ridiculously great track. i am particularly interested to see if we can figure out why the opening sounds like it's missing part of the freq range. that said, it's a really fun listen and does some super creative stuff with musical elements and especially with synth effects, although the mastering needs work. i think this track has a place on the site, if not now, then eventually. YES

arpeggio is in the piano right off the bat, much slower. really introspective texture initially. melody comes in at 0:31 and is beautifully articulated and realized. the overlapping vocal lines in the background form an interesting pad as they fade in and out, and there's some nice suspensions in there too. the initial runthrough of the melody is done at 1:48, and we get some more three-note snippets until it's done. the melodic representation here is articulated the same as the original and sounds very close to the original, so the artist is right - this is indeed pretty close to the original, but i don't think i'd call it a cover. the backing elements really flesh out some of the simple beauty of the melody line. whenever i think of how to handle conservative arrangement, i have to approach it from the perspective of "does this say something different than the original". often covers are just spicy versions of the original track. i don't think that's the case here. think about how Death On The Snowfield feels so different from the original despite being very, very similar to the original's basic structure. in this case, you take a track that is easily described as earnest or hopeful and make a much more introspective, rainymood-ish version of it. while the melodic content and chords aren't different, the significant changes in instrumentation and realization added to the sfx really make for a new work. this is pretty enjoyable. nice work. YES

submission email game is on point. initial beat is super 2002 in a good way. big snare comes in at 0:15 and then the melody's soon after. the vox sample took me by surprise but it's exactly as cheesy as i expected. i liked the shift of the beat right after that - it punches pretty hard and the melody snips in there are nice too. there's a break at 1:17 with a bunch of filtered elements. this goes through a run of the melody complete with faux-chorus pads, i love this vibe. there's a false build at 2:10 that opens up soon after to the first big beat again. this is 1:1 with the original starting at 0:15, I think, until the big transition at 2:54. after that is very similar to 0:47 but slightly different, until eventually the leads are doing different stuff for a bit. we get a break/outro starting at 3:25 and it's done. i would have liked to not see quite as much copy/paste at 2:25, but it's only 25-30 seconds and the section right after is similar but not exact to earlier. overall though the track has a great beat and hits hard. i like the sfx usage and the melodic content usage is fine. nice work. YES

classic original. starts with tampura drone and flourishes in the flute and sitar. remix really starts at 0:37 to my ear. percussion drops a bit at 0:55 for the first presentation of the melody. it's a pretty thin texture here - the hand drums are very clear and crisp, and the sitar's doing its thing, and the flute's got the melody, and that's it. it builds up a bit naturally by adding in a larger variety of drum hits. 1:34 adds some vocals - are these you? this was essentially one run-through of the original. 2:07 goes back to the first escalating chord pattern. it's still a pretty thin texture here, but the more heavy reliance on the drone and using the flute for some more solo stuff is nice. there's some more exploratory stuff through this section which was a good change to stretch out the remix scope a bit. eventually the vocals come back in again. 3:40 is another break with some more flute soloing and then it's done. this is actually pretty tough for me. on one hand, there's some really virtuosic flute playing which is fun to hear, the hand drums are interesting and well-realized and super crisp and clear, and i really appreciate the really light soundscape due to the smaller number of instruments. on the other hand, it's basically twice through the chord progressions and then a drum hit for an ending, and the entire first runthrough is pretty conservative. the sitar is also not particularly idiomatic throughout, and there's even some of what sound like sample retrigger spots that don't sound realistic at all. overall i think this is above our bar. from a realization and mixing standpoint, i like the soundscape a lot, and the flute performance is really great with a ton of really fun flourishes added. i'd have loved to see more alexis in the realization of the melodic line, like what you do halfway through the second run of the melody, and less original - you clearly have great ideas, so let them out more often! YES

holy crap, this is a 262mb wav. i am not going to go through and timestamp somethinig >750s long, so i'll call out my general thoughts. i'll note that usually medleys get judged harshly here since it's hard to do something transformational with 30 seconds per song. as a whole, you've certainly got some stuff in here that's significantly arranged, but there's also a lot that's just a cover and that's not great. the mix is super treble-ly. this is probably due to using whatever synths you're using to simulate everything. i grabbed a random 30s section and the lowest bass content was at 68hz and then it was hard scooped under that, and there was a lot concentrated around the fundamental freqs through maybe 250hz before it started to drop off like expected. this is not a great freq balance and my ears confirm it - it's very dense in the mids and there's no bottom to the track at all. i can hardly hear a kick, and while i can hear the bass regularly because there's no pitched instruments aside from the guitar leads and the bass, there's no meat to it. speaking of lack of backing content, there's no backing elements. it's all lead guitars, occasionally a synth lead with the guitars doing rhythm elements, and a bass and drums. i don't consistently hear any rhythm guitar behind the lead, backing synths that aren't doubling the lead parts outside of a few sections, countermelodic components, etc. it makes for a very bleak and empty soundscape despite some fun drum programming in a few spots and some neat synthy guitar work. i'll note that it does get better as the track goes on, but i shouldn't need to listen for eight minutes to get some synth flourishes in the background. the synth guitars throughout sound like synth guitars, which can work, but it sounds pretty vanilla here. this really needs either some more intentional and better-sounding guitar elements, or else a shift away from synth guitar as the lead entirely. from an arrangement perspective, there's a lot of drum loops. each song's got its own loop, but they essentially don't change for the entire section. the fills that i hear are fun, but again, you can't just be on autopilot aside from transitions. there should be some more variety in there to make it less obvious that it's programmed. i think there's some really fun ideas here! some more love and intentionality to the guitar and drum programming, fleshing out the soundscape some more, and then starting over on the mixing and EQing would do a lot. NO

"That is to say I think this track rules but I'm prepared to be humbled by the judges." TIME TO OIL UP! aside: i went to listen to the original while downloading the track, and it started autoplaying over Youtube. Let's just say that it started right after the initial percussion lick in the original, and the stylistic difference was a surprise =) initial hit is ZOMG YES RAWK, so much so i actually missed the melodic content! it's mixed quietly. there's a half-time section at 0:32 that felt like new material, but then the more aggressive section at 0:48 does some subtractive stuff to the lead which is a fun idea and works great. this goes back to the half-time stuff that i think is new, which is a bit concerning since we're at 50/50 new and remix material right now. 1:42 is, surprise, an aggressive section with the melodic material being represented again by a cutdown version of the melody. in an effort to subvert expectations, though, you go to the original section again, but this time it's louder! it again transitions between the melodic riff and the descending line a few more times (quicker transitions) and then it's done. i posted an ask around where the descending line that first shows up at 0:33 comes from. as it is, i think that part's original, and so that means this is >50% original material, and that means that it can't be posted in this current state. that stinks because i think the track is super fun to listen to and i like the subtractive method of arranging the iconic melodic line of this track. NO DEPENDING ON RESPONSE edit 1/10: the remixer confirmed it's original. i think there's too much original in the work as a result. whether or not it's over 50%, it feels like all the important parts in the mix are based on that original section. so this is a NO from me, dawg. it'd need to have some of that original stuff trimmed back so it's not so close to 50%, or else emphasizing the remixed content more.

i last voted on the first resub of this (out of three! we never see this level of commitment!). my NO vote was primarily based on the significant mastering shortfalls. it's changed a bit since then so i'll approach this fresh. choir into a pretty big band sound to start it off. it's real loud right off the bat and doesn't have a lot of treble in there. there's a fun 404 bass going on that i like, but that high resonant lead tone is really offputting. there's a break at 0:33, but it's hard to grok what the bell lead is playing because it's so loud that it's getting squelched pretty hard. it goes back to the intro instrumentation before another break at 0:57 for the B content. the A content picks back up with a new lead and some tempo-synced pads behind it. there's a lot of personalization here, but the verby string-adjacent lead sounds odd since it doesn't sound like it should be louder than everything else going on - the timbre feels weird. there's a dropoff at about 2:10, and a ritard at the end to finish it off. this feels loud throughout. everything feels crushed as a result there's still a notable peak at 70hz and a ton of consistent content through 350hz, which means you've got a lot of stuff in the same shelf competing for the same space. this is probably why it feels so loud and dense. i also didn't notice any panning - even a little bit can really open up the sound stage to make things more differentiated. beyond that, i like that you're changing leads up to keep it interesting, but some of the leads you're using are not particularly suited to the style you're going for here. i find presets nice to find a general idea of what i'm looking for, but getting into the preset and customizing it from there is where the magic happens and i'd encourage you to try that more. i think your arrangement is fine. the realization and subsequent mixing/mastering of it is where it's being held back right now. NO