Metroid Prime "Adrift Eternal" 5:30

The third edition of DarkeSword's Game Set Mash!! has officially kicked off, a Koshiro-centric compo featuring mashup arrangements of Streets of Rage vs. Etrian Odyssey! It's time to celebrate with a pair of successful GSM2 Metroidvania tracks by Team Gun, first with Emunator & ZackParrish leading a meteoric mash-up of Metroid Prime with Symphony of the Night:

• Emunator: Arrangement, programming/orchestration, production, keys, mixing
• ZackParrish: Arrangement (from 2:51-end), guitar (electric lead from 0:00-:42, acoustic from 1:08-1:21, electric lead from 3:08-3:24), additional orchestration (choir, percussion, harp, flourishes), mastering
• Lucas Guimaraes: Guitar, synth, additional percussion, spoken word (from 2:51-3:25)
• Ridley Snipes: Guitar (electric lead from 1:34-1:50 and 2:17-2:24)
• Xaleph: Synth bass (from 0:59-3:26)
• Ronald Poe: Effects chain ambiance

I feel like Emunator's somehow singlehandedly keeping us stocked with music, this being his ninth front page appearance already this year and now 50 all-time, wow! It makes sense he's come through so many times, because he's clued us into a little secret -- compos make Emunator obsessively super-productive:

"Something about the Game Set Mash!! competition always pushes me into overdrive. I can linger on a far less complex track for years, but as soon as that 1-week deadline comes into play, I will immediately put aside all my life obligations and let scope creep take over. This time, though, with the combined power of Team Gun at my disposal, I actually had a fighting chance at getting something done. The final product reflects 60 hours of my own work over the span of 1 week, and an untold amount of feedback and contributions from the rest of the team.

This is not the first time I've remixed "Phendrana Drifts" - it's my favorite theme from the Metroid universe and I knew I wanted to do something with it during this compo, but level up beyond what I was able to do back in 2013. I wanted to capture all of the different feelings that I get from the Metroid Prime universe - isolation, hostile environments, dramatic storytelling, and epic cinematic moments - all in one arrangement.

Production-wise, everyone's contributions really tied this together. Bass wizard Xaleph programmed some incredible synth bass that keeps things exciting during the first half, and Ridley Snipes busted out the axe for a couple of perfectly-timed guitar punch-ins. I was struggling to come up with a way to bridge the primarily electronic first half of the track with the more cinematic second act, so Lucas Guimaraes put together a whole sketch for that section, including guitars, synths, and a really cool spoken word interlude that now serves as the connective tissue that links this whole arrangement together. I also have to shoutout another Team Gun member Ronald Poe, who wrote some countermelodies that unfortunately didn't work in the arrangement, but I did feed into a big effects chain to create the Phazon-esque ambiance you hear in the outro and throughout the track.

For the back half of the arrangement, ZackParrish pulled out his classic "MIDI skeleton" approach where he writes out a mockup melody/countermelody/chords/bassline without instruments or articulations, and I expanded that into something fully orchestrated and produced. This was easily the most challenging and rewarding part of the process - I've worked with orchestral elements in songs before but this was by far the farthest I've gone in terms of programming an orchestra and was very pleased with the result. We bounced it back one more time for Zack to add some incredible programmed choir and some additional cinematic flourishes across the track, as well as a diverse array of guitar solos to tie it all together.

I'm tremendously proud of what our team was able to put together in such a short time, and how much I learned in the process. Suffice to say, I think this expands on all the ideas I had back in 2014 when I produced "Sub-Zero" and brings a lot of new tricks to the table as well!"

Props to Team Gun for working so well under the gun, with folks collectively pitching in countless ways to help the instrumentation, textures, and overall flow sound cohesive! All of the translunar tinkering under compo-induced duress seems to have done the job, according to judge prophetik music's play-by-play:

"opens with some very delicate harp and orchestral elements. first real focused element is the cello at 0:42. the surrounding percussive elements are really nice. we get a lofi beat at 1:00, and some really filthy bass underneath the acoustic guitar. there's a bit hit at 1:16 that sounds awesome, and the iconic descending riff at 1:31.

2:25's a tonal shift as the beat gets moving a bit more and the different elements all get some neat automation to drive the tempo. the bass especially here is just so good. the voiceover is indeed a good transitional element, and the orchestral stuff at 3:25 is really rich as a second phase of the track. there's a big break at 4:00 - really the first major break in the track - and the delicate choir here is nicely handled. we get orchestral percs and horns at 4:25, and the last bit of melodic material as it trucks towards a final big chord. there's a variety of elements as the track fades out, including the iconic metroid ascending line, and it's done.

this is a really neat fusion of cinematic orchestral writing alongside really meaty electronic elements. it's hard to hear something of this scope and then post a bunch of nitpicks, as if they could really drag something like this down to the level of us mere mortals. excellent job, as expected."

Pretty epic! Gotta agree with proph, ain't no time for nitpicks here, we're shooting off into space~! As we drift away, then-judge MindWanderer closes us out, effectively summarizing just how immensely interpretive the arrangement approach and melding of themes turned out to be:

"Really neat arrangement here. I love it when remixers get creative with motifs and transform them into something else entirely, and the gorgeous orchestrations carry this that much farther. The blending of Lost Painting into Phendrana is icing on that cake.

Production is mostly top-tier [...] Fantastic work overall."