Rayagon

Very glad to see this on the front page. I've had this bad boy since it was shot up onto vgmix, and I've always thought of it as a great piece. Here's an insight on how cool I think this is: on my mix CD (dorkily titled "RAD MIX") I have this track right before Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. It takes a really strong song to lead in to Comfortably Numb, many songs can't handle it. This one does the job perfectly, and that is high praise. I have no beef with the lyrics at all. Maybe at a few times they can be a little cheeseball, but definitely not cheese factory. The "lone wolf / battle plan" section that DJP had issues with I had no problem with. Overall, the track is an almost transcendental experience (I don't know if I'm using that word right and I don't even care). Very surreal, very cool. Flowing and beautiful -- like the aforementioned "Numb". This track gets top props from me.

This is funky, funny, and cool at the same time. SO much respect goes out to Mazedude for creating a genre-defying shot at the heart of badness. Mazedude crossed the line -- it's so bad it's good. He ventured past the point where up is down and good is bad. He is one with all and everything now. Here's my question, though. Take a look, on the description page, at the composers for this game. It took THREE FUCKING PEOPLE to write the original score?

This song is one of my favorites of all time. There's so much heroism compacted into that short verse. It's one of those songs that stirs you around when you hear it. For the most part, this mix did it justice. The electric sounds were top notch... the strings were okay (the upper register of these was a little iffy, but no big deal). My main problem with this arrangement is that some of the power (for me, anyway), was lost in the non-accented lower chords. Emphasis, of course, is going to be on the main melody, yet the juxtaposition between the sweeping melody and the bass clef chords is what makes this song so evokative it's chilling. I felt that this mix put the bottom counterchords too low or too covered to really balance out into those wonderful harmonies that this song has. At first, with the punching staccato strings down low, it is fine to have these lower chords somewhat neglected, but by the end, in my ideal mix, they would be much more noticeable and developed, possibly even entering up into the upper register to drive the point home even more. Still, there are mad skills abound here. It's obvious this mix took thought and time, and it does show. Though I have a dream of how to make this as effecting as the original (in a remixed way), I'd recommend this.

Real, beautiful, passionate. I haven't heard klutz's other stuff, so I can't speak to the whole "it's the same as the other ones" argument. All I know is that he's given this theme a wonderful pair of hands to flow through. I've listened to the original recently -- this adds in a nice, sad touch to it. Almost like nostalgia for 600 AD. I listened to this on loop for a good half hour: this is my new brooding song. There's immense talent here. Generic style or not, this guy has IMMENSE talent. Hope he keeps it up.

You've chosen a beautiful piece of music, and done it ultimate justice. I've just done my own mix of this, and I listened to yours again, and realized I didn't have sheiss on your wonderful adaptation. The melody is poignant and haunting, and you've got a great sense for heightening that sense.

I've heard some music samples with that NES feel to them, trying to capture the old school NES sound quality and make a pleasing, intricate piece of music at the same time. This is almost a paradox -- imitating a very elementary music output system and attempting to make it deep and complex. With some, the final result sounds like a monkey trapped in a prison cell with a 1990 Yamaha, pounding away at the poor keys over and over again in a sharp and piercing synth. Instant Remedy has not only evaded this pitfall, but has managed to take the form to an entirely new and outstanding level. His samples are full and satisfying, but have that crisp NES synth feel to them, and his composition, while following the original, has been layered with counter-melodies and riffs that I notice anew each time I play it through my headphones. Amazing work.

This mix is very, very smooth. I have it on my mp3 player right now, it really gives the mood of the scene well. This is the "enclosure" theme, when Snake's just blasted Sniper Wolf's lungs out, and she gives this big rambling speech about the Kurds and sniping in general, if I'm not mistaken, and you've done it justice. I'd have to disagree with Kaijin, when the main MGS theme overlayed over the other theme, I just about pissed myself. Sorry for the ineloquence, but that is the best way to describe the feeling I got when it came in -- you orchestrated it perfectly. That guitar is definitely slick, well-done, and well-harmonized. Excellent job, Vigilante.

Thanks, Seattle Overcoat.

I'm sorry if this has already been asked -- I set out to read the entire 25 pages of pure Fruity Loops but I bailed at around page 8. My question is that of a true newbie. When I import MIDIs into FL (ver. 3), how do I replace the midi voices with better samples? I've tried dragging the samples from the browser over to the track, and sometimes it works, most times it doesn't. Is there a toggle that I need to switch to replace MIDI voices with sampled voices, or the FL voices? Thanks, and I apologize for my musical and technical illiteracy.

This is a union of two masters, and it shows. Combining ambient and sweeping elements with just the damn guitar blazing away, Ailsean and Kaijin kick this old melody all over the place. I've heard Ailsean's stuff in the past, mostly of the site formerly known as VGMix, but I hadn't heard of Kaijin until I checked out his Terra mix from FF6, and realized in one instant, "hey, this guy kicks ass". My one suggestion would be the blast the opening guitar solo a bit more, but then again what do I know -- they're the virtuosos. Nice work by both artists.