Mario Kart 8 - Harbor of the Future Past (Toad Harbor)

[NeonXMusic]

https://youtu.be/UBK02HiVlVo

This is one of my favourite themes from Mario Kart 8. So catchy, beaty and beautiful. I also got this as a suggestion not too long ago from a supportive listener. Thank you!

I really enjoyed every second writing this one, even the transcribing was fun! Then to orchestrate and arrange as I wanted was true joy. Easily one of the most fun of all remixes so far! So many parts to work with and improvise from. Had a blast putting together everything, but I won't hide it was also a hard time! I had to work my hours with this one. Many solos and special chords I wanted to integrate and fuse with the original tunes.

As you can hear I made it sound a lot like some 80s movie theme along with my ordinary instrumentation such as lead synths and atmospheric pads. There is also a finger snap mixed with claps present during a short section. I used that because that particular section made me think of Coconut Mall for some reason, and that theme contains a bit of finger snaps and claps as well

Also couldn't resist using a sampled sound from Mario Kart 8 of Toad himself, "let's go"!

So where the inspiration for this come from? Well, all the 80s music I listened to in my life, playing a lot of MK8 some years ago, and also much from a very special band I listen to now and then called Frost*. It's mix of musicians from other bands gathered to create some darn good music! I really recommend them to you guys who like progressive rock, they are really something else! Listen to their album Hyperventilate and you'll know what I mean.

Remember, this is NOT my Halloween remix this year, I released that one last week lol!

I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

/Neon X
 

[WillRock]

Sounds good man! Very well mixed, simple but very deliberate sound design, some neat personalisation on the leads and overall just a chill rendition. 

Production critiques...that  opening arp felt a little exposed and dry by my ear and I wish the track had a little more variety in it's sound design. One more different lead synth would probably help with that. As it is, it feels just a little more static than it could do, but overall this is solid. Btw they're nitpicks, you can take them or leave them hahaha. 

If you wanted to try submitting this to OCR as it is, I'd give it a shot. If you were serious about getting posted I'd consider throwing a little more variation in your source repeat in the last 40 or so seconds just to be safe, but this is pretty solid stuff!