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RWS 1-2 - ReMixing With the Stars: Season 1 Episode 2: Origins of Home Gaming

MindWanderer

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MindWanderer Proficient

MindWanderer

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So that's 4 submitted (TheRexAsaurous, Cash and Change, Kuolema, and Tuberz McGee) and 4 confirmed dropouts (Zerothemaster, Trism, Xarnax42, and DrevanZero). Ouch. But at least everyone is accounted for. I'll have the download up, minus shadow24's bonus mix, up around 12.

I've never heard the Ultima IV PC soundtrack before (it's different from the NES one, which was released too late to qualify for this compo), I'll have to check that out. I forgot Ultima was quite that old! Gyromite should be fun, I was hoping someone would pick it. Very short but catchy ditties.

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Magnetic Ether Newbie

Magnetic Ether

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Hm... not what I was remembering, but there are apparently several versions of that theme in the game. Not sure which one was the actual inspiration.

Ah, I haven't played the game, only know the source from various mixes and covers.

Whenever I've heard a cover of it though, it's been that song that's cited as the source.

Guess we should wait for Rex to clear it up?

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Ethan Rex Newbie

Ethan Rex

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Stream of consciousness reviews!

Tuberz: Nice intro here, guitar tone sounds nice. Some of the synths don't mesh with the guitar's as well, but it still sounds pretty good. Sounds like a little chippier take of the Black Mages version, which is a very good thing. Dug the silence at around 2:55, but I wish it hit harder when it came back in. Soloing sounds siiiiiiiiick braaaaaaaaaah. Overall pretty nice.

TheRexAsaurous: Here's a little background on my track. The song is supposed to tell the story of two friends drifting lazily across the sea in their boat, reminiscing about old troubles they've faced on the waters. Eventually, they come across a storm like that they've never seen before. Through some miracle they manage to break through the storm's grasp, and continue drifting through the sea without a care in the world. Overall, I wish I had a little more time to flesh out the second half better, but life and school happened and I unfortunately couldn't get to it.

shadow24: Pretty cool intro. That bass synth needs some work, and the sound's clash sometimes (they don't mesh and sound like a cohesive piece at times). I like the feel though, its got a sort of Earthbound eccentric-ness.

Kuolema: Nice retro vibe right off the bat. Nothing sounds too messy, but there is a lot of stuff going on. Not really diggin the sound at 1:32 - feels like there's too much reverb or something like that. Link sample made me jump in my chair. Overall, a nice mix, and a nice title!

Cash: Not sure how I'm feeling about the synths here - bass sounds a little too bassy and the lead sounds a little vanilla. I can hear a little dissonance at times as well. Definitely diggin dat organ though. :D

Lotta nice work, plus I love the sources. What a great episode!

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Magnetic Ether Newbie

Magnetic Ether

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Kuolema: Nice retro vibe right off the bat. Nothing sounds too messy, but there is a lot of stuff going on. Not really diggin the sound at 1:32 - feels like there's too much reverb or something like that. Link sample made me jump in my chair. Overall, a nice mix, and a nice title!

Haha, sorry I scared you!

Thanks go to wildfire for the title. I pretty much burst out laughing when she sent it to me :grin:.

I guess I should give a little bit of background for my mix too.

I'd been wanting to remix The Minish Cap for a long time and after doing some searching for a source just decided to go with it.

I'd never done chiptunes before though, so I didn't really know where to start.

Originally the track was going to start out 8-bit and then morph into something else, but wildfire though it would be fun to try and make it completely chippy, so we ended up making this (which I think is way more fun than what it would have been otherwise).

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Tuberz McGee Newbie

Tuberz McGee

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And just so you people know, Callum has ridiculous potential. Future OCR superstar. I'm calling it.

Second'd yo

Thirded, easily. Dude's one of the sickest.

Guys. I'm gonna cry. <3 You're all so lovely. :')

I'm so glad I get to be a part of a community like this.

And I'm even more glad I get to be a part of this Compo! :D

Yáll submitted some pretty sweet stuff.

- Callum

xoxo ily gossip goat

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Magnetic Ether Newbie

Magnetic Ether

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I'm not voting, because I loved all of them and my heart cannot cope with the pressure.

/ispansy

Mmm...pull them out of a hat or something?

I know what you mean though...I'm having a really tough time deciding. If you aren't going to vote, maybe you can write some reviews instead?

Since Rex asked...

Cool Side of the Mountain: This is a pretty 'chill' mix :P. Love the drum beat/bass you've got at the beginning.

I'm also not a huge fan of the lead synth, but the arranging is pretty cool. I like the original sections a lot.

I definitely agree with Rex about the organ. I actually would have liked for it to have a bit more of a presence in the mix.

I think this is the one that's grown on me the most. I've been liking it more and more each time I listen to it.

A Passing Dream 2: Great stuff here, plus props for working on a shorter schedule than the rest of us!

There's a lot of source to work with so it's cool that you were able to use so much of it. The chiptune/rock combination works really well in my opinion. I especially love how you did the intro; Those arpeggios really make me visualize a waterfall.

At first I wasn't sure about the disharmonious guitars at 2:15, but I kind of started to like them on subsequent listens. I would have loved for the synths to start to detune at that part too to make it sound really cacophonous.

After 2:54 I find the background stuff to become a bit grating, but I love all the soloing and stuff you've got overtop.

Overall this is a rockin' piece with lots of energy.

Remembering the Storm: The original riff at 0:12 is great. I've heard quite a few covers of this song, but none quite like this!

I also like the changes you made to the melody at 1:10, though I would have liked to have heard a bit more of that.

Love the bass at 1:37 and the melody changeup. Also love the secret and overworld references at the end.

The...chiptune parts that keep fading in left and right at the beginning (I have no idea what you would call them) sound really cool, but I think they can be a bit loud and distracting.

In general, the energy in this is really uplifting and fun. It totally sounds like it goes with the cute graphics that Wind Waker uses.

Mostly I just wish it was longer!

2 Sizes, 4 Swords, 8 Bits: Ehh, it's okay I guess.

I don't really like the beginning anymore...

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MindWanderer Proficient

MindWanderer

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Sure, I'll share some opinions.

2 Sizes, 4 Swords, 8 Bits: Amazing job of using the NES sound spectrum authentically while creating a deep and varied soundscape. Lengthy without being repetitive; it has a good flow and progression throughout. Overall I'm just really impressed with this one, although those four notes at 0:15 are just slightly grating, I have no other complaints. It really exemplifies the theme of the month.

A Passing Dream 2: A bit coverish, but the source is so long that it's really tempting to just cover. The piece does go above and beyond the source, it just takes a while. The instrumentation lies somewhere between 8-bit and the original, which was slightly chippy for the era anyway. I do like the marriage of guitar and chip; while I was hoping that Tuberz would treat us to a modern rock version of an early-80's source, this is pretty darn good too.

Cool Side of the Mountain: Taking such a short source and spinning it out for 2 minutes is quite a challenge, and this does get a little repetitious. The original content works well but isn't as much as I would have liked. Perhaps one less pass-through of the source at the beginning, or some more off-the-wall rearrangement as it looped through would have helped. The end was a bit abrupt, too. Still, there are some good ideas here, and I'm glad that someone tackled the challenge of ancient source material.

Remembering the Storm: Definitely late-NES instrumentation, and a far deeper soundscape than it was capable of, but that's forgivable. A lot of fun, a really good and complex arrangement overall. I'm not crazy about the thin part from 1:10 to 1:30, but overall it's a really rich, interesting mix and I enjoyed it a lot.

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Ethan Rex Newbie

Ethan Rex

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Since Rex asked...

<3

Remembering the Storm: The original riff at 0:12 is great. I've heard quite a few covers of this song, but none quite like this!

I also like the changes you made to the melody at 1:10, though I would have liked to have heard a bit more of that.

Love the bass at 1:37 and the melody changeup. Also love the secret and overworld references at the end.

The...chiptune parts that keep fading in left and right at the beginning (I have no idea what you would call them) sound really cool, but I think they can be a bit loud and distracting.

In general, the energy in this is really uplifting and fun. It totally sounds like it goes with the cute graphics that Wind Waker uses.

Mostly I just wish it was longer!

You and me both - I'm planning on working with this as well as my round 1 GMRB track (/shamelessplug) and hopefully expand on a lot of what I didn't have time for.

As for the fade-in chip arps, that was supposed to convey the rain that signifies the coming of the "storm" part of the story/song. Listening back it DOES sound really loud at the end of each sweep.

Remembering the Storm: Definitely late-NES instrumentation, and a far deeper soundscape than it was capable of, but that's forgivable. A lot of fun, a really good and complex arrangement overall. I'm not crazy about the thin part from 1:10 to 1:30, but overall it's a really rich, interesting mix and I enjoyed it a lot.

Yeah, I was trying to go for a modern meets old-school feel to help reinforce the idea of the NES's anniversary, but since I didn't have time to expand that second part it came out sounding more "8-bit with some modern sounds" than a "present meets past" type of thing.

The thin part was supposed to be the calm before the storm, but re-listening I can tell that it seems more unintentionally sparse then on purpose.

I'm really glad you guys enjoyed the track. It was probably one of the most fun tracks of mine to make, and Dafydd's feedback really helped to steer this in the direction it went.

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