prophetik music

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

interesting variety of originals. beat hits at 0:07 and doesn't look back. i love the big build section at 0:20, and the melodic section at 0:28 is great - i love how angular it is. there's a ton of sfx and other weird glitchy sounds going on in here which add to the energy, although admittedly i really don't like the panning sfx that jumps between ears. we go through a transitional section with a bunch of new sfx brought in, and another big build section. this lands on a copy/paste from 0:28-0:42 at 1:04. after this we get our first break - needed, at this point, this has been a ride already! - at 1:18. there's some nice pads here and the Out of This World piano part. after some booga chicka super zombie sfx, the first melody is back but it's mixed up this time and not a copy (at first, the panning sfx come back at 2:00). there's another break with some parts mixed up from the first break, and this goes into an outro with still more appropriately-themed sfx. what a ride! this is obviously intentionally silly in some parts but still comes across as a competent, rollicking exploration of a neat original. the energy stays up the whole time which is really nice. fun track. YES

neat original, never heard of this game. opens with a distant beat and some delayed arps. there's some static on here that comes in and out a bit which was confusing for a second. the beat hits at 0:24 and is very synthwavey, with sidechained bass and some detuned leads. the initial presentation of the melodic elements are pretty straightforward. the fm lead that comes in around 1:10 is stylistically right in the pocket so that was neat. there's some nice glassy arps that come in later as well that i thought fit well. there's a bit of a drop at 1:58 that brings in some nice wide pads as a contrasting element, and that functions well as a break. 2:21 brings back the kick and bass riff, and it starts to build back up again. when it comes back in at 2:44, this is to my ears the same as 0:24 exactly, and the subsequent section with the melodic lead is the same also until 3:27. there's a bit of a shift here to bring back the fm lead with some modulation on it, and that functions as an outro. this is overall a pretty straightforward representation of the middle. i think there's a heavy reliance on the melody line (as opposed to countermelodic elements or harmonic elements) to drive the track, and i called out the ~40s section that was straight copy. but overall i think this turned out pretty good aside from those issues. i like the slightly slower beat as the track settles into a groove right away and stays in it, and i think the variety of synths used was a positive. i would have definitely liked to see more personalization of the melodic line, or addition of other harmonic or countermelodic elements, to make this more your track. as a whole though i think this is over the bar. YES

i think i know enchanted esper better than the original, interestingly enough. starts out with some tempo-synced effecting on the guitar and a very slow, arena-like sound. keeps the original 7/8 time signature. most of the opening section is pretty straightforward outside the genre adaptation. there's a break at 1:21 with a super dope guitar arp element, and then we get the band sound back together at 1:45 for another blow through the melodic content. there's a few changes here but not a ton (i loved the doubled melodic line up an octave though). after this we again get a similar break as at 1:21, but this time the drums are driving it forward a lot more, and that build-up keeps going for a while. there's no payoff, though, as it hits 3:49 and is into the outro. from a mixing perspective, this one overall has a solid band tone that is clear and doesn't ever get in the way of itself, although i can't really hear a bass instrument. there's not much bass at all, in fact - bass peaks at 70hz? that seems pretty high - and as it nears the end the lead guitar gets a little shrill. outside of that though there's a really clear design for the band tone and it's enjoyable. the arrangement overall is pretty conservative - there's not a ton going on in the track that isn't in the original already. in fact, i'd go so far to say that while this does adapt to the genre really well, there's virtually nothing that's played by instruments that isn't word for word what's in the original. with that in mind, though it kills me to write it as this sounds so fun, i don't think there's enough arrangement here to pass our guidelines. this feels like a cover in a different genre, and that doesn't demonstrate the transformative arrangement that we call for in our standards. altered chords, manipulation of the melodic or harmonic elements, rhythmic variations, added original content, or even manipulation of the time signature would have been a huge plus in your favor here, but ultimately i just don't think there's enough. which stinks because this is a really enjoyable listen. NO edit 9/11: i spent another bit of time listening through this and i'm not willing to hold it back based on arrangement. i think there's enough here. in fact i think there's more than i caught the first few times i listened through that, so that's on me. YES

weird original! it's got a lot of swagger, you're right. speaking of swagger, there's a ton right off the bat on this one. the initial melodic presentation is right away and it's appropriately balls to the wall and full of saxophones. there's some wicky-wah guitar in there too and that's such a funny transposition compared to the heavy backing elements and wailing horns. there's a break at 1:01 and some ensemble stuff which is super fun to hear. then we hear a bass solo/drum break - excellent bass playing in here! really fun - and a solo that's all angles and hard turns. i love it, it's very weird. the drum interlude after it is wild too - just really out there, and not what i expected at all but clearly inspired by the opening. there's another run through the verse with some wild hardpanned guitar silliness - great way to keep it moving and new - and a bit of ensemble blow to take us out. my main nitpick in this would be that the taiko under the bass solo are so boomy i can hardly tell what they're doing. i like the idea but that needed to have most of the bottom taken out, because it's a mudslide with the bass down there. overall though the band sound is superb - i can always hear what is going on - and the arrangement is great! such a fun approach to an original i've never heard before. excellent work. YES

cinematic pad opening with the aforementioned reverse choir effect. the augmented fourth triad that gets used throughout is a really interesting element of the original and i like that you really lean into that as a melodic anchor amidst all the swirling pads. similarly, the super-rhythmic approach with the arp and delay on it is a neat way to keep it moving while there's all the ear candy around it. we get a real beat at 1:24 and the bass blat right before it is a great transitional element that comes right from the source. the snare in this section is my favorite part. there's a bit of overworld theme around the 2:40 mark that's a fun easter egg. we get some time through the 'chorus' with riju's theme at 3:02, and i really like the lead instrument choices there. there's some twang to it that's really neat to catch. there's some sfx outro and it's done. this is, as expected, superb. the sound design is just next level throughout. excellent work. YES

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

opening is very Halloween. there's some chillstep-adjacent crunchy percussive elements in there initially. we get a big hit at 0:23 with some heavily panned elements and what feels like triphop percussion. i really like the washes of sound used through here. i think the percs are a bit too in the fore compared to some of the other elements and so sound a bit out of place, but i like what they're saying. piano comes in at 0:54 and there's some really cool delayed guitar work in the background here. break at 1:24 with some voiceover work. the backing pad in this section is superb - there's so much movement and body to it. big build into 1:54's synth-led section. this is much more aggressive and i like the sound a lot. the lead synth may be a touch loud here. there's a recap of the b theme melodically here with the repeated notes in the keys. the window dressing around this section is again really solid. the track then kinda stops - there's no real ending, it just falls off after the last chord and is done. i think the lack of ending was a letdown, but overall this features some super dope atmospheric work. i think the voiceover is handled really well and that the overall shape of the work is great. nice work. YES

intro hit at 0:04 is great. the solo synth's a bit loud, but i love the vibe of the keys and drums behind. arpeggios section at 0:20 or so was just awesome. we get the first real band section at 0:32. i like the use of the arpeggio in the background to tie it together. 0:53's slower melodic section was perfectly timed after all the faster shredding earlier. 1:53's a nice settling point to work as a launching point for some fun solo work. i also liked the stacked fourths chord model for your descending progression near the end of the second solo. i think this second lead was a bit too trebley for me, but other than that this was really fun. after some transitional work, 3:00's got a recap of the earlier section with an outro, and it's done. this is outrageous as expected. you didn't need to go this hard. excellent job. YES

really wide panning right off the bat, with virtually no room verb/sound on the guitars. drums are pretty far back in the mix and don't have any body to them. they're playing fun stuff but i just can't hear the kick at all. bass is essentially unable to be heard as well. you've got a ton of mud in the 100-200hz area that needs to be EQed out, mostly in the lower guitars. scooping them harder will help a lot. overall a lot of EQ is needed. the track doesn't technically clip but it's clear that it's right up against the line repeatedly, that's something else that should be addressed so that it's not the guitars pushing it there but rather a combination of elements. the arrangement is also too short. there's not really a ton here aside from the adaptation to the style. we require more transformative arrangement than what's shown here - adding more of your own flourish to the track will help a lot, as will finding ways to extend the duration of the track without having it just be repeated material done the exact same way. there's not even an ending here, which could have helped extend it. i think that DoD's environment would help a lot to up your mastering game. the workshop discord/forums here also would help a lot for identifying how to get more meat out of your guitars and drums and better balance the individual parts. NO

i didn't vote on the original but did listen to it, and voted on the resub. my complaints were around the over-simplification of the track (ie. not enough to call it a remix) as well as some technical issues. interesting sfx elements in the opening, outlining the chord structure of the original. keys and an original-adjacent bass element playing the arpeggiated opening section, in one of the minor modes. i like the approach at 1:29 with the very nice higher keys. separately, this entire opening section through 2:15 has some timing elements that are mildly irritating to me - the keys and bass synth aren't always in sync. 2:15 or so has some much larger chords that really stick out of the mix. they filled up the soundscape a lot but didn't feel much louder - lot of mids there. there's some pretty strings after this that do some fun ideas to outline the melodic structure. there's some timing stuff in here that's a little confusing to my ears. there's a reversed cymbal hit at 3:15 that does a superb job transitioning into a last runthrough of the melody before we're done. i think there's a lot to like about this track. there's a fullness of character that wasn't in the last two versions, and most of the issues i had with those have been alleviated. nice work. YES

opens with a fairly dry piano that's more in the left ear. flute comes in at 0:17 and really feels like it's in a different place - totally dry and doesn't fit the piano at all. there's some drums and other elements that come in at 0:32, as well as static and a choir. the overall feel is still very dry despite the big drum and choir tones. melody comes back in at 0:45. there's some fun arp stuff going on in the right ear, and some rhythmic static elements that are probably too panned in the left. taiko and choir comes back in at 1:03, and this feels like more of the same that we've heard up to this point. we get some new material at 1:34 with a more synthy lead (sounds like it's played exactly as the original does). it's hard to hear the exact notes being played here. there's a bit shift at 2:00 on the button, with a very treble-driven drumset coming in. there's a lot of the same here - same taiko, same lead still - but there's some fun new elements like the guitar coming in. i like the idea of the drumset but it's very treble-heavy and not pleasant to listen to. this continues on a bit of a loop for a bit until it hits 3:22, and then the same piano and static elements play us out. you've got some really neat ideas going on here. i like very much the layering of organic (piano, choir, taiko) elements with electronic (the hyper-compressed drums, the static, the mellotron flute). there's a very specific feel being evoked and that's hard to do. overall though there's not much delta on this piece. you've got the same piano being played the entire time, the same mellotron lead playing the same stuff the whole time, same taiko, similar ideas with the static in the left ear, etc. there's a nice shift at 2:00 but it becomes clear quickly that this shift is still doing the same thing overall, just with mildly different window dressing. i'd love to hear more focus on the guitar, on shifting away from the elements that drove the first minute, and expand out a bit from the original method you used to represent it. from a technical perspective, the track is panned very widely, and that's hard to listen to especially on headphones. the taikos are also completely crushing anything in the 100hz range so the low end is pretty dirty. there's more balance later in the track which i think sounds better, but reducing some of the super-high content overall and especially in the left ear (there's a spike around 3khz that's really bright to me) would also help. i think you've got a lot of good ideas here! i'd love to hear more development and less reuse of the same elements over and over for nearly four minutes. i'd also like to hear a bit more attention paid to EQing of various elements to help notch them in next to one another. but you've got good bones here. the workshop forum and discord channel would be a ton of help fleshing this out, i think. NO

such a creepy original. opens with some very verby, quiet piano playing the arpeggio. there's some new bass and chordal content as well. melodic material comes in right away in a very delayed glide lead with some nice envelope on it. some (again, very wet) percussive elements come in at 0:36. the long tails on every synth start to bite you a bit at 0:45 as the chromaticism in the melodic line get banged up against the sustained chord elements. there's a bit of a break at 1:05, and we get most of what we already heard again. this isn't quite copypasta but it does sound like the same patterns in FL were used again in slightly different timings. bass instrument drops by maybe 1:46 for a bit, and then we get the descending chord pattern once more as an outro. there's no real ending, the patterns just end and there's some natural fade from the reverb. i think this is an interesting idea! lavender town wasn't particularly gloomy in game, but it's a neat aesthetic to attempt here. unfortunately there's not much arrangement going on that i can hear - it's mostly the original melody and arpeggio played straight through with the descending line in the bass. beyond that, most of the synths sound dull rather than creepy or engaging, and the track overall is pretty short to demonstrate the level of transformative arrangement we normally look for in remixes. i'd encourage you to take the time to really expand on the interesting chromatic elements that this track provides - that is, to include more leocb in the arrangement and less masuda - and to then find some new ways to represent them within the track. this definitely is a great start! i think you'd find a lot of help in the workshop forum or the workshop discord channel as well to find ways to expand this. NO

tons of personality right off the bat. the intro does a great job setting the feel for the rest of the song. there's a lot of interplay in the parts in the first trip through the A theme, which is fun. the B theme at 1:00 has a lot of movement behind it as well, which is a great contrast to the slower melodic material here with all the sustains. there's a few points where the lead guitar feels a bit stilted (1:36 is one spot), and that's my main complaint in the first half. i'd have liked to hear a more singing tone from the lead. there's a fun muted section as a section break, and we're back to the A theme at 2:09 in a lower register. the tone of the lead guitar here is great, and the octave of the melody here allows the lead to sing out a bit more. the lead around the 2:55 is again more stilted and that's not ideal, but the counterpoint is really fun and constantly moving. we're into an outro around 3:33. there's some odd timing right there, and again right at the end. ending is a short recap of the first few notes of the melodic line, and it's done. overall i love this concept. FFV's usage of the theme is different from earlier FFs where the main theme isn't just the overworld theme but also is used in various ways throughout so much of the OST, and so the constant movement of the arrangement is a great callback to the ways the game uses the audio originally. there's a lot of character in the performance as well. the overall mix is treble-heavy to my ears and emphasizes some of the less smooth attacks a bit more than i'd like, but taken as a whole it's a great arrangement of a great original. i particularly liked the middle section, starting at around 2:09, and how you shifted styles so significantly without losing the feel. nice work. YES

I have one rejection on this site, and it is for another arrangement of this same theme. The sole reason for the rejection... track felt too short. I had considered picking back up where I left off with that one but anytime I crack open the project for it I just stare blankly at the screen for a while and then move onto something else. Well, enough is enough. I decided to just start over from scratch one night and do an arrangement for 4 guitars. I hadn't intended on roping anyone else in on this one but after writing all the parts I found myself uninspired to learn all 4 of them, and coincidentally perform / record them. Thankfully after a spontaneous conversation on OCR Discord pixelseph excitedly forced his way into the project as a second guitarist and well... I'm glad he did because the small nuances of his style made for a great accompaniment to my own parts. If you need a guitarist make sure you keep him in mind. Stellar guitarist and super friendly. Hopefully completing this will appease my mind for the other failure: https://soundcloud.com/zack-parrish/our-tale-begins-main-theme Specific creds: Lead Acoustic - ZackParrish Rhythm 1 - pixelseph Rhythm 2 - pixelseph Baritone - ZackParrish Games & Sources Final Fantasy 5 - Ahead on Our Way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQkzvOlMT5Q

Artist Name: leocb I remade the base tone and melody on FL Mobile, mixed and changed the instruments to make it as gloomy as I possibly could. This is my first submission, feel free to reach out if I missed something. Hope you like it! Games & Sources Original composition based on Pokemon Red/Blue Lavender Town.

Artist Name: Hitrison This song was made in Ableton Live, and attempted to keep some of the ambient feel with the main ostinato being played on piano, but most tracks I work on end up being a bit noisy and/or intense and this is no exception. There were no samples from the game or any other media in the song, but I did use Sonic Bloom's Mellotron (https://sonicbloom.net/free-mellotron-live-pack-bundle-10-packs/) pack for the main melody flute and choir as well as some Taiko drum samples (https://www.subaqueousmusic.com/free-taiko-drum-rack/), and I recorded a few guitar tracks: an ambient noise track in the background (basically just rattled a bracelet on the headstock of my telecaster) and a melody track in the second half. The first half of the track is an ominous buildup, and the second half a trebly explosion. Games & Sources The song is "Lower Brinstar" from Super Metroid, composed by Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano. It's a somewhat slow, almost minimalist ambient piece.

opens with some very light pads and sonar hits. band hit starts at 0:58 and features the melodic content over the top. guitars seem a touch hotter than i'd expect here, but the synth elements carry the melody clear enough. 2:11's the first break. the synths sound roughly the same as they did with the heavy guitar underneath, so maybe backing them off there a bit would have been good. the band comes back in at 2:36 and there's some countermelodic elements in the high guitar which are nice (but a bit hard to hear). drums through here are pretty boring until around the 3:30 mark. There's a bit drop-off at 3:50 and then further at 4:01, and it switches to being synth-led again. the long pad attack here is really obvious and i didn't care for that at all. the shift to Arthas comes at 4:26 and it's a nice change from what you had going so far. the feel is much heavier and the blastbeat is a good change from before which was getting dry. this does the audio sausage thing for a bit until 5:36 when it shifts back to Invincible. there's some repetition here - the last minute or so is similar to 2:36 - and then it's done. from a mixing perspective, you do an excellent job of ensuring that everything's audible and clear all the time, even through the blastbeat sections. it's so impressive. overall i found this more synth-led than other tracks i've heard from you, and i think i preferred when it was more guitar-driven. i think you leaned on the synths to make this not "black metal with a vgm track layered on top", as opposed to your previous submissions which were more holistically composed. this is still a fun track and it's definitely handled well - i just don't think the arrangement was quite as solid as your previous tracks. it's still over the bar and is a great listen. YES

wild original, really fun ride. opens with an organ-like arp and some really fun electro vocals. the build into 0:41 is great, i was ready for a bop and it's a half-time groove. there's a great track outline here in this opening section - the intro verse and refrain flow well into the second verse and refrain. i think there really could have been a nice break there though as there's a lot of words in the opening sections. there's some fun modulations around the 'wasted all of this life' section, and the one right after as well. there's another verse/refrain package and a repeat of the earlier 'wasted all of this life' section, and a final verse to finish it. the track feels like it goes by pretty quick! i think that's a byproduct of how wordy most of the lines are, and there not being an instrumental section throughout. that said, there's a lot of really fun ideas in this. as expected there's a lot of musical complexity in the original, and the way you adapted this into a vocal track is seriously impressive. i also think that ad.mixx's approach with the intentionally heavy autotuned vocals really works so well - there's a codependence between the pad-heavy backing elements, the restrained drums and bass elements, and the vocal parts, i can't imagine they'd work so well together if this was clean vocals. the master's so clean too, as expected - it sounds fantastic. really fun track. excellent work. YES

12-minute inspirational work without timestamps or words? =( good thing i have listened to a bunch of post-rock. their production is fairly consistent with what i'd expect from a band that stylizes themselves as having modern classical influences. the opening drone is fully 20% of the work's length. i would have much rather heard the original's voiceover, to be honest. opening glock works surprisingly well with the heavily distorted drone. opening guitar tone is beautiful too, the backing part's light filtering really is very nice. there's a great build into 1:50 and a nice delicate approach to this section - the triplets are a great choice. i always think of bLiNd's approach to this track as the definitive version, so it's fun to hear a significantly different feel. 2:44's when the build starts a bit. continuing to include the glock is nice here, and the bass tone is really nice too. 3:23's texture just sounds loud to me. i like the idea and the frenetic, energetic drive that the drums have through here, but there is some artifacting that is not pleasant to my ears. following the big section, we get a very patient outro in a similar vein to the initial drone. i'm reminded of some parts of Bon Iver's self-titled album in the mastering and approach of this remix. there's an earthiness to the arrangement that is much more personal than some highly-curated, uber-mastered tracks we've gotten recently. this is a neat idea and i really appreciate the patience it takes throughout to express what it's saying. YES

big guitars with a ton of huge verb to start. i love how arena this feels at first for an opening. 0:39 brings in the Hu Lao Gate theme in the bass initially, and then the aforementioned guitar riff is right after. this is a pretty straightforward runthrough of the theme with rock drums instead of the silly electro drums in the original, but there's more verve in some of the harmonic elements than in the original. the electronic sfx are a little curious, i didn't really get where those were coming from. i was wondering how you'd do the stutter and...you did exactly what they did, so i guess that makes sense =) there's an interlude that's wildly different from everything else in the original, and then we're back to the original structure for some ridiculous solo work (like, holy crap, this is outrageous!). keytar solo is also superb as expected. after the solos we get a bit of the A theme, the same stutter effect as before, and it's done. not really an ending. i think this is a fun track to listen to. you're right in that the original is a solid foundation for crazy soloing. overall the arrangement is really close to not being enough for our standards - there's so little that you're adding that's different to make it not a cover with sick soloing. i think the adaptation to the style and adding in some extra harmonies here and there, alongside the pairings of the intro and interlude/bridge section, make it enough. from a mixing standpoint i can hear everything easily and the guitars have a lot of meat, so that's great. i'd love to hear more arrangement on this - there's so much that could be done with such a blank canvas of original material - but this is probably over our bar right now. YES

Cast: * minusworld - arrangement, production, guitars, bass, VSTs * Development of Avoid - guitar solo at 2:59, additional rhythm guitars * Biggoron - keytar solo at 3:27, keytar leads I spent many, many hours farming gate captains in Dynasty Warriors 2 and 3 for stats. As a result, the Hu Lao Gate theme is seared into my brain. When I started submitting to Dwelling of Duels this song was on my short list to cover when the right DoD theme fit. The source tune is such a banger that I didn't want to change much. The structure is pretty simple, using the tried-and-true method of turning an ABC game loop into ABC twice, but with solos! * Intro (Map Theme) * ABC (Hu Lao Gate) * Interlude (original bit + DW3 opening cinematic) * ABC with solos I always found the juxtaposition of ancient China with 80's rock hilarious, which spawned the title "Anachronistic Axes". In keeping with that title, I wanted this track to be a celebration of the axe! The guitharmonies in the source tunes were already a great bedrock. I added a Mr. Big-style interlude between the ABC parts, invited Development of Avoid for an insane guitar solo, and also invited Biggoron specifically for a keytar solo... since the keytar is axe-shaped. B-) Hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Intro: Map Theme (aka Oppression v2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foN3LZfMypc Primary source: Hu Lao Gate (aka Jump into the Battlefield v2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blVCdQ1-Ecs&list=PLiLjrJxEE-t_nsyrdn-FgdQZaR7dBgvg_&index=24 Also this bit from the intro cinematic is featured in the Interlude: https://youtu.be/bSh8qDwC7jw?feature=shared&t=23

there is a version in the submission comments from 4/13. make sure you're listening to that version. @MindWanderer @Chimpazilla just fyi as this is from after your votes.

several seconds of silence to trim off the beginning. opening is a really delicate synth arp and pad with some cinematic orchestral celli. the iconic whistle lead is represented at 0:17, and there's a synth bass in there under the celli as well. we get a beat at 0:31 and some more cinematic orchestra stabs. there's no rolloff here so there's some mud down bottom that's a little distracting. lead here is played by a flute, and is played as the original is with no personalization. i hear the ghuzeng in this section at 1:25 but it's not particularly idiomatic - it's used in a western method through here with no multi-articulations and no vibrato, so it's basically a steel harp or piano here. there's a few of the pitch wiggles at the end of phrases though which is a nice add. there's a falloff at 1:49 that isn't particularly prepared, and we get the same feel as back at 0:31 for a bit. the same flute lead section as back at 0:47 plays with the ghuzeng from 1:25 layered on top. this felt pretty copy/paste until the riff at 2:28, and continued feeling like that after this section until 2:48. there's a very patient outro after this section. i liked the more atmospheric feel of this outro. overall i think there's a lot of repetition in the last half of the piece. virtually everything between 1:53 and 2:47 is repeated content with no changes outside of a two-second descending riff in the ghuzeng. that's too much. i like the overall feel of the track, and the groove you have going is a neat idea. hearing no personalization on either major melody line along so much repetition, however, is tough. i'd love to hear more BronxTaco shining through on most of this track. it feels like all the best parts are cribbed exactly from the original. i think your instrument choice overall is neat, and i'd love to hear you explore that more - just like you do in lower brinstar in the game! adding more personalization and breadth to your approach will only improve your arrangement here. i feel like this is really close, and i understand if other judges don't feel the repetition is as big of a deal. for me to pass it, i'd want to hear more personalization throughout, and for that repeated section to not be a straight copy of the previous section. change some instrumentation, add some new countermelodic material, mix up the chords a bit, change your approach a bit, just do something so 30% of the song isn't the same as another part. NO

track has about 2db of headroom. starts fairly simply, between the bass, countermelodic element/pad, drums, and lead. there's some eventual arp movement added and extra chordal elements, and it then shifts back down to a simpler layout before looping. this is, unfortunately, not really what we do in this community much. we do have a lot of chiptune arrangements! but this is very straightforward, with few changes to the original outside of some very minimal added countermelodic elements. this does not demonstrate transformative arrangement, and is closer to a cover. beyond that, it's only really about 1:11 of music before it loops, and that's nowhere near enough material length-wise to pass our bar. i would encourage you to read our submission standards and review what kind of stuff in general we put on the site. this has some interesting ideas! but it'd need to be fleshed out a lot more and probably would need some post processing to make it less grating in the lead before it'd be something that we'd consider. NO