Unipulator

laf is it "legal"? heh i just wanted to get all preachy, can't you let a man preach?

none of my friends like the distorted piano and i knew most folks here wouldn't either, but as for the whole point of this song, i felt it was the right, if not the _prettiest_ sound. humor me for a moment ... ... see, the zeal theme is like the aging matron of game remixers ... it's been around forever, and has told its story time and time again. now, its voice may be strained and weak from overuse, but it is no less capable of imparting great emotion, as it did to me the first time i heard it, just as it did the hundredth time. sometimes the straining, cracked voice of an old granny warbling an old tune can move someone more profoundly than the clear treble of a naive new diva singing about new love. the zeal theme is that old granny to me, and when i listen to it, i reconnect with the time long ago when i realized that game music can have a very special power. that distorted piano may be a weak old granny humming as best she can, but the synth, bass and drum thickness beneath her singing is how that weak voice actually makes me feel. i feel that zeal is the absolute epitome of great game music, and as one of the most well-traveled representatives of this art, it deserves the attention it gets. i didn't think twice about finally paying tribute to it.

This mix has addictive, limitless energy... all the benefits of crack but without the wife-beating. But doesn't it seems as though some of the chords have been changed for the worse? Every time the first theme comes to a close, the harmony seems to dissolve. Here's the nerdy part: in the original, the final chord of the theme is this great 2nd-inversion (F# on top) d major over an E bass, but here there isn't even a chord, just that F# over an F# bass. Obnoxiously technical, but after all that lush shit that F# always seems pretty lonely.

This track is a great combination of why-the-hell not spontaneity, and evenly- and carefully-measured mood. Eccentric, but effortless and talented eccentric, not random eccentric. I enjoyed this almost as much as Frosted Mini-Chex and it left fewer dishes to boot. Great work!

Thanks so much for the positive feedback, I sincerely appreciate it. For this track I used an old Korg X3 ... even though these patches are 10 years old, they seem to work appropriately for this kind of music. Don't throw away that obsolete gear! Anyway, thanks again for the encouragement. -ew