ReMix:Genshin Impact "I Picked the Wrong Test Subject" 5:21

First things first, judge Joe "XPRTNovice" Zieja is actually Wriothesley's voice actor for the English version of Genshin Impact, and he's running a Kickstarter RIGHT NAOW to support an original music video he wants to make while cosplaying as Wriothesley! There's some amazing rewards on tap beyond just the music and video, including Joe's voice acting courses, so head on over to his Kickstarter (1 week left) before you miss out! Someone on YouTube recently complained that we hardly have modern game representation these days, so we definitely need to step it up, especially since we currently have at least 15 modern games among what we're waiting to post. OK, you people want some modern games??? We can do that, thanks to Rockos's glitchy, bassy, beat-laden, d'n'beast of a Genshin Impact arrangement that he, wouldn't you know it, made for love:

"This one song was made for a kinda surprise to my wife. This came out absolutly of nowhere. She was in love with the music when playing the game and going to Port Ormos area during game daytime. I decided to remix it with my drum and bass or, what I like to call it, rock and bass surge.

This one has the energy + the groove in it. The source is being played a lot and changes from fast pace to slow, groovy bassline style with psytrance glitched stuff going on.

The goal was to have at the same time a good balance of energy and feel-good kind of music. I also had to practice a lot for the guitar parts since it is going at a blazing fast 180 BPM. The solo (4:21-4:44+) in itself was cheated in the making in the sense that I didn't play it live, but every part was played on my real guitar. Just had to use clever recording and sound placement.

I went a lot on the glitching effect side. Mostly heard in background pad and sometime on front element. I used the Rift plugin, experimented with a lot of settings, and created some automation to go with it. I liked creating the 0:45-1:06 part where there is the main melody glitching and behind is a low-passed bass meaning imminent drop. It has this "It's coming" feeling to it.

The source in itself plays as follows:

* Intro (0:00-0:44 Remix) plays the main intro melody of the original track (0:10-0:30 OST) and at the same time plays the end (1:31-1:42 OST) of the original in the background.
* (0:45-1:06 Remix) Is the build-up and plays the original 5 first notes of what I consider the main melody found at (0:50-0:52 OST).
* After that, the part from (1:06-1:48 Remix) plays the main melody of the original (0:50-1:31 OST).
* (1:49-2:53 Remix) Alternate between the intro melody of the soundtrack and the main melody while at the same time playing the end of the OST (0:10-0:30 alternate with 0:50-1:31 + 1:31-1:42 OST).
* (2:55-3:14 Remix) use the end of the soundtrack (1:31-1:42 OST) as a build-up to lead into another alternate version of intro + main melody.
* (3:15-3:59 Remix) = (0:10-0:30 alternate with 0:50-1:31 OST).
* (4:00-4:19 Remix) Is back to main melody with a little, small time change where the melody starts.
* (4:20-4:42 Remix) Is a guitar solo while playing the end of the soundtrack (1:31-1:42 OST) this time as an arpeggio.
* (4:43-end Remix) This arpeggio is then added with pads that reflect the end of the original OST.

I felt the need to have timestamps and explanation since this game is not in the OCR database, hence the song might not have been heard a lot. So, judges might like this read-up as they listen.

I really hope you like this track full of changes as much as we do."

These source usage breakdowns aren't just helpful for the judges, they're invaluable for serious listeners who like to understand the construction of the arrangements, so a tip of the cap to Rockos for the informative details. Judge MindWanderer initially thought that some of Rockos's original writing ideas had merely been adapted from the source, so he was pleasently surprised once he truly understood the level of interpretation involved:

"This is a great example of how to do original writing that fits right in with the original. I kept re-referencing the source tune thinking that the remix was too conservative, and it's absolutely not — the writing is just so smooth that it feels like the additions were always there to begin with. The new solos are an absolute delight, full of infectious energy."

Gotta love it when original writing ideas have seamless synergy with the VGM arrangement side of things; everything in Rockos's drum-and-bass treatment feels like a natural (albeit transformative) adaptation if you wanted to swing the pendulum in that direction, as fellow J prophetik music attested to:

"ok, that intro is super evocative right off the bat. 0:45's goofiness is a good building element too, there's clearly a lot more going on under the filter and i was really anticipating hearing the hit, which was worth it when i got there. [...] the melodic presentation at 1:06 and subsequently at 1:27 is great.

there's a funky breakdown at 1:49 that's got some neat stuff going on outside of the melodic material. it wound up being longer than a breakdown and was more just where the track went - the zippy synth at 2:50 was probably my favorite part.

there's another extended build to the big hit at 3:17, and the half-time beat is fun alongside the nasty subbass. [...] the beat comes back and we get the melodic material played through once before the guitar solo (which is imo too quiet). a dropoff outro and it's done.

i don't have a problem with the drums. the way they're used is idiomatic to the style (a la Pendulum's In Silico album). when the big name dnb bands are doing the same pattern for most of their songs, i think it's fine to use it as-is here.

[...] overall this is a banger. looking forward to listening to this on a system with a serious subwoofer. nice work."

If you've got a great sound system, this is a LOUD one, so fire it up and let us know how it goes. Chimpazilla also praised this, saying "I love the energy, creativity and the fun sound choices in this arrangement", so did Rockos *really* pick the wrong test subject here? From the sound of things, Rockos experimented on the great compositional base of a truly lovely original theme and employed particularly creative variations of the leads throughout to keep the theme treatment fresh! Hopefully you'll dig the hustle and bustle of Rockos's vision as much as he and his wife, KezyCP, did! :-)