ReMix:Tenchu: Shadow Assassins "It's Raining Zen" 3:14

Hallelujah!! Love the mix title ;) Lest you think we're posting two timaeus222 mixes back to back, this arrangement of Tenchu: Shadow Assassins & Street Fighter X Tekken (a first for BOTH games on OCR!) is primarily from AngelCityOutlaw, with timaeus assisting. The two collaborated earlier this year back in July for an excellent Metroid Prime EDM arrangement - let's see what they're up to this time:

"We're back. This time, timaeus fixed up some production issues, added some more percussion, etc.

I've wanted to do a serious collaboration with timaeus for quite a while. Initially, I had suggested remixing Nina Williams' theme from Tekken 3, but that never went through. One day, I started jamming along to "Rain" from Tenchu: Shadow Assassins and the Street Fighter X Tekken end credits. I noticed some similarities in melody from the songs and realized I could do something of my own with it. After working on some rough MIDI composition and arrangement, I just had to show timaeus. We kept sending the file back and forth for several weeks, expanding and improving upon the song. I always love collaboration, because it's just too much fun to see what the other person is going to add to your ideas and what you can add to theirs!"

timaeus adds:

"ACO took the reins on the source interweaving here, and he did the majority of the arrangement and some of the mixing. I fleshed out the soundscape and did the sound design, mixing, and mastering. First time I satisfactorily finished a mix under a hard knee limiter, as I normally opt for the other kind. :)"

An assertive FMish bassline anchors the majority of this track, with searing synth leads flying overhead and a soundscape that initially feels too narrow, but then widens out nicely at moments like 0'59" - I was waiting for things to span out a bit more, and was happy when they did. Larry writes:

"SFxT plays a lot more of a supplementary, background role here, but augments Tenchu's "Rain" theme nicely. The lead synth for the melody was a bit tightly timed, and I thought the compression was more than necessary, but the overall package clicks together well enough. If there could be some further production tweaks before we posted this, that could fix a few minor things, but this is a solid piece! Good job, bros."

Judges definitely had more nitpicks on the production side of the house; I agree that the arrangement is kickin' and does a good job of integrating the themes, which were compatible to begin with and a nice, insightful choice on Chris's part. The first minute of the mix feels a little narrow to me in terms of the stereo field - it eventually widens out, but that's mainly because of the pads, and I think some of the core melodic/rhythmic ingredients being panned more distinctly would have been an improvement. I don't say this often because I don't like second-guessing too much, but I also do feel like a totally different drum kit - something more flagrantly electronic, for instance - might have been preferable. Having picked those two nits, I otherwise fully embrace the groove - sounds a little like something Yuzo Koshiro would do, even though neither game was composed by him. Especially nice work on the synth lead, which has an electricity & life to it that do the arrangement justice. Nice follow-up collab from ACO & Truong-Son, and great to see not one but TWO new games get some attention!!