ReMix:Flowstone Saga "Ruins of the Future" 3:49

Music theory whiz, PC builder aficionado, and undisputed MVP of the OCR Judges Panel prophetik music returns from a 3-year remixing hiatus with this high-energy, retro-tinged cover of "To the Ruin" from Flowstone Saga. Although he's had a number of features on the front page within that time span, it was this arrangement that actually broke the drought when he answered the call of duty from fellow ReMixer and composer OceansAndrew and shook off the rust with style. He writes:

"Mastering by Chimpazilla! She rocks!

OA put out a call to folks to do remixes of the soundtrack for this game as a promo situation. I personally think OA is the best thing since sliced bread, so I jumped on the opportunity right away. I listened through the OST a few times and this was one of the songs that stuck out to me. I liked the rhythmic elements and how they added energy to a slower track. I also liked the bridge section, which reminded me of the Beauty and the Beast score. =)

I probably haven't done a remix that wasn't a requested thing of me since the Chrono Cross project, so it's been several years. I am nowhere near as fast as I used to be, and, historically, the act of grinding through that lack of familiarity has been a real difficult thing for me to overcome. I had already told OA I'd do a track, though, and shame is a powerful motivator, so I pushed through and made something that I'm proud of. Then Chimpazilla took my stems (eventually, after several technical missteps on my side and some render glitches) and made the track sound awesome.

This is primarily Omnisphere and Addictive Drums, with some Gladiator for a few of the leads. I used whatever older version of FL Studio was still on my computer. I did get MIDIs of the parts from OA but used them as guidelines only due to how FL imported and quantized the files (i.e. not well). This might be the last track I do on my discrete music PC... my poor i7-870 was struggling to handle all the processing-heavy verby leads."

Brad, do yourself a favor and build yourself one of those fancy PC's that you've been helping the rest of the community put together for the last decade! Or, as judge Flexstyle put it, "Maybe get you a new PC that isn't almost old enough to drive a car though? :P" Hardware limitations clearly didn't hold Brad back from crafting a banger here, though, with a little help from Chimpazilla on the final mixdown. The track is brash and loud, but never skimping on clarity or punch in the process. Omnisphere is, in my opinion, one of the most timeless tools a music producer could have in their tool kit. Brad manages to make it sound classic without feeling dated in the slightest. It's a feast for the ears, especially when considering how drastically different it is from the source material in terms of genre!

This song evoked something slightly different for each judge who evaluated it, with Liontamer suggesting it "would sound perfect in a rhythm game", while I found it evocative of old demoscene/keygen music. Flexstyle further sang praises for Brad's arrangement, calling up yet another comparison:

"I'm loving that sixteenth-note bass and synth action here. Giving me flashbacks to the old Windows Pinball app for some reason. Mix is clean and the master is clear (great job, Kristina!). This takes the very organic source tune and really switches it into a space-age jam. A space jam, if you will. Hey, that's a pretty good name...someone oughta copyright that...hmm...anyways. No nits to really pick -- the arrangement is always moving somewhere, the sounds are pleasing to my ears, and that ritardando on the ending works really well."

No matter how you parse it, prophetik is back in top form here. He's brought a palette of retro sounds into the modern age, in much the same way that Flowstone Saga itself captures all the tropes of 16-bit gaming and improves upon them with modern game design sensibility and quality of life improvements. In both cases, it's a real treat for fans both old and new alike!