ReMix:Mega Man X3 "Anoplophora" 5:38

Jewbei writes:

"First I will like to take a moment out to thank bLiNd & Jade for being so hard on me in helping me to unleash my true skill I really needed it. y'all are like my guardian angels or something :D. It took nearly 2 years but i finally got everything down pat without you guys i dunno what the hell would've happened. This track was influenced by bLiNd's Jade Catacombs & iio- Rapture (Armin Van Buuren's Remix) I took what I like from those tracks and combined it with my own style I didnt really expect for it to come out sounding very uplifting but im happy that I was able to pull something like this off.

Before my mix Pretension was ever posted I use to doubt my abilities as a Trance Producer and I was very intimidated by OCR's standards but now I know everything will be fine from this day forward. Expect to hear more from me! And be on the lookout for my Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 Remix. Until next time.....Peace!"

James has a great, positive attitude and he's definitely improved a lot over the last few years, so *I'd* like to thank Jordan & Jade for helping him out, too, because it's meant more rockin' mixes. The problem with the first version of this trance MMX3 joint from Maverick Rising was lack of source, or more specifically the source-to-original ratio being too skewed towards the latter. Shariq wrote:

"It's an extremely solid trance piece but there are large sections where, like Vinnie said, this is pretty light on source. I'm not really one to stopwatch things, but when an entire third of the mix (2:43~end) is basically just non-source trance filler, there's a problem. As much as it pains me, because I love the source and I love trance, I gotta say no."

This gets tricky because judges need to allow for some of the stylistic aspects of certain musical genres while at the same time ensuring that VGM of some sort is still the dominant focus of the arrangement. In this case, it was outside their comfort zone, but thankfully Jewbei resubmitted. This is an aspect of the standards that some might find trifling, preferring the patented "as long as it sounds good, it should be posted" mentality, but we need some sort of a rubric/methodology for determining whether something is or is not primarily a VGM arrangement, that's going to be subjective by its very nature, and we think our standards work pretty darn well most of the time. Of this revised cut that places more emphasis on arranged material, Emunator writes:

"Killer track James, you've got your game nailed down at this point."

Larry adds:

"Anyway, the source was indeed used throughout, with some pretty liberal usage of the chorus, but everything coming out way over the 50% mark with a quick check. The arrangement felt a bit repetitive ...but the interpretation was still well-developed and substantial, with some nice mixing. Everything clicking nicely, James; glad you stayed on this!"

The sweep/build at 2'01" is epic, and definitely a highlight. Nice title, too. Great energy and clean lines make for a rock-solid electronica ReMix that doesn't get too awful fancy but works its magic in doing the familiar things WELL, which never goes out of style.