This song gave me memories of the battle music from other jrpgs I played as a kid like Tales of Symphonia. I aimed to capture the style of rock with orchestral elements that I loved from games like that. My title for it is a reference to Act Raiser, as I read this game is a spiritual successor of sorts to the Quintent trilogy (Act Raiser, Soul Blazer, Terranigma).

Brass and guitar take the lead for the most part while strings do accompaniment and chords. For the part B of the song I wanted to really bring out the contrast of the different section, so I lowered the intensity and brought in a high reverb piano. After repeating the normal progression with good ol' melodic variation, I switched it up on the Part B to make it the climax with the guitar on the lead. Then I reprised the piano part for a gentle breath before ending with a variation on the Part C's stabs with a heroic sounding twist. Then I sheath my sword and go home!

I just upgraded the sounds and did absolutely nothing else.

I said I would try and Trance-ify this and I did! Or at least half-ish. It has some Trance-y type sounds in there, but what I really tried for with this was an almost beautiful yet energetic track. I will admit that this is a fairly liberal interpretation of the source. I reworked the chords (they're not that far off). I also took a little bit of inspiration from the source to do a little bit of a victory fanfare-ish sort of thing.

Given that this is such a short source I think what I did is kind of fair. It is not necessarily MnP, but then again I have always viewed MnP as more of a throw s*** at the wall and see what sticks kind of thing. At the end of the day all I really want is for folks to turn it up and enjoy some tunez ;)

And I just realized that I did this incredibly quickly...Sorry folks :(

Re-upload! I said I would probably revisit the mix, and I did. Basically, started from the ground up with it. There is a bit more overall dynamic range and I am not pushing the limiter quite as hard. The short term LUFS are about the same though. There is also a bit more space in the track all over. The original had so much energy from the upper of the end of the bass that it basically left no room for anything else. Further, there is some more clarity in the track with the leady sounds providing a lot of the top end energy and the pads really filling out the missing spaces. Could probably spend another lifetime tweaking the mix. But at some point you just gotta stop.

Something totally out of my repertoire. Acoustics, more guitars than usual. No big orchestra, Asian strings, or metal. Dunno how to classify the thing, but I think it has some good bits.

I called it solo because of it's middle section. I felt like doing a Doors "Light My Fire" inspired middle solo, but more synthetic. It's very wild sure, but i feel it helps elevate the looping nature of the song, since it only lasts for about 30 seconds in total. I also decided to add a intro to hype you up into the song, as well as a simple fade out ending to bring it to a close. It isn't anything major, in terms of revolutionary sound, it's just more of a mere upgrade, however the solo is the whole point of this composition, kind of what brings it together. All in all like what i've done here, hope you enjoy!

you and seven other couples take to the floor. the scent of hairspray and roll-on body glitter hangs heavily in the air. you can see the hunger in everyone elses' eyes; like you, they've been training for months for a chance at the top spot. can you and your partner catch the eye of the judges, and can you remember to smile?

this was a love letter to my amateur ballroom competition days, and all the fierceness (both colloquially and literally, these were some beautiful, scary motherf--ckers) from my fellow competitors. shout out to my older brother, who broke a shelf with all of his dance medals and trophies. sadly, i never really placed much higher than a certificate of participation.

i really wanted to tap into the aggressive spirit of competitive dance; juxtaposing a social dance (salsa) with a battle theme was extremely fun. i don't think it's quite salsa enough to be considered salsa, but i think you can dance to it if you really tried (i was able to get a couple of steps down to it)

EDIT: tempo was really bugging me. i originally had it at the original 143 but it was too fast to dance to, so i slowed it down to 130 before submitting. now it's a slightly speedier but still dance-able 135.

coloradoweeks was very much correct...this tune absolutely lends itself to a latin groove! Their bonus entry inspired me to go this route!

As a jazz drummer I love playing the bossa nova among other latin type grooves. The real earworm for me in this song is the part where it switches to 2/4 and 6/8, programming an Afro-Cuban rhythm over that part was INTENSELY satisfying. Takes me back to my time playing in jazz ensembles in college! And, as much as I love drum programming, I am anxiously awaiting my drumset to arrive so I can start tracking live drums. It's currently on a shipping container outside the coast of California.

I did not deviate from the source much at all, outside of the introduction, the bass line, and a few harmonic liberties. I add subtle changes after each repeat, and ultimately fade out with the track reverb and delay automated to the max to give it an ethereal finish. Made over the course of about 5 hours, I hope you enjoy!