1. We Built an Edifice Towards a Dark Sky
   TheVodouQueen
2. Rise of the Inner Darkside
   TheVideoGamer
3. Vodou Ninja Meets the Gamerbot
   Wassup Thunder

All ya'll doing both sources makes me look lazy or something XD. Love the different ways you folks approached the mixes.

VodouQueen: Very evocative atmosphere with Inner Darkside taking the lead. Your inclusion of BFH03 parts were clever and fit the mood of the piece as a whole. And spooky vocal samples and whatnot. Impressive take on mixing the sources, well done.

VideoGamer: As always, your drum work is immense. Liked your use of BFH03 (what the heck does that title mean, anyways?) as the base, it's right up your alley. The Inner Darkside parts worked well, a well done arrangement, really.

Wassup Thunder: Thematically faithful takes on the originals with fun variation and a bit of mixing parts. Dig it. Enjoyed the instrumentation especially of Inner Darkside, you did good with a mystic atmosphere (those synth choirs sold it, especially.) Your BFH03's ambiance (noise, sfx, etc) was impressive, and that dancy last bit was fun, go salvage it for an original or something.

1. Come the Machines
   Souperion
2. We Built an Edifice Towards a Dark Sky
   TheVodouQueen
3. Rise of the Inner Darkside
   TheVideoGamer

It was a delight listening to everyone's work this round. Everyone giver yourself a pat on the back! This round pitted ninja against robot for musical supremacy, and everyone won!

Souperion: You produced a wonderfully gritty, dark vibe for the Loader them. I greatly enjoyed the blend of the FM bass, the chugging guitars, and dark strings. The mechanical pulse of the rhythm and percussion kept the song flowing great. The strings added great variety and higher sound spectrum to the track. The guitar and bass maneged to sound distinct and complimentary. And I loved the psychotic sfx roiling around in it. Great work.

TheVodouQueen: You made an excellent medley with Inner Darkside as the basis. The percussion elements are a lovely assortment of rhythms that keep it going. The woodwinds stand out in the melody, adding an organic effect to the synthetic bass and chords. The Builder's bass works too well into it. And lovely use of the chords and other parts of the Builder to add some spooky spice! Great work. Also, I love the title.

TheVideoGamer: I love that your medley uses the Builder as the primary basis. With TVQ's Shinobi centered mix, you two complete the duality of the compo! Anyways... Wonderful builds up and progressions through your piece, it's got excellent landmarks. Soundmarks. You get me. You faithfully, and personally, reflavored the Builder's rhythm and bass, a thrumming springboard for the rest of the composition. Weaving the Inner Darkside in added an exotic, delicate touch to the robotic grittiness, a lovely effect. A great listen, and a great work.

I also loved hearing the different sirens we all used XD

1. Vodou Ninja Meets the Gamerbot
   Wassup Thunder
2. Rise of the Inner Darkside
   TheVideoGamer
3. Come the Machines
   Souperion

Great round, guys!

Here we go!

----

1) 'Vodou Ninja Meets the Gamerbot' - Wassup Thunder

Pros:

* The Japanese motif, with taiko drums, koto, reed flutes, etc. is absolutely gorgeous and spot-on for the most part. It still keeps the kind of sinister, creepy intrigue of the original song, whilst building up in the same soft intensity music tends to in Japanese theatre. Even the violin and synth intertwined was real good stuff, and as usual, your improv and expansion on the harmony line with the violin is fantastic. And I really like the synths and SFXs from the 2nd part of the medley.

* I do like the dualistic intent you gave in splitting the songs apart, and making this more of a medley--as you say. The lead up to 'BFH03 Builder' is quite smooth considering, and I didn't find it jarring--or its general vibe misplaced or too discordant of a hard shift from the Japanese vibe from earlier.

* It didn't give you any brownie points for it, but just wanted to point out the cute title. :) Thank you--I'm humbled by it and it gave me a bit of a chuckle, and I am sure VG approves as well. xD

Critique:

* At 5:20 you start introducing back some elements from your Japanese motif'd 'Inner Darkside'. What worked for me was the synth matching the song's melody to the beat of 'BFH03' (it starts at about 5:26). What didn't work for me was the synth of 'Inner Darkside's' top loop stabs (it starts @ 5:20). It might've been the notes / key that it was adjusted to, but it didn't mesh as well. For me, it clashed with the 'Inner' synth and 'BFH03' bassline.

* The mesh of elements from 6:03 onwards (adjusting some instruments and 'BFH03' beat to become the Japanese motif) was great! Wasn't big on the ending glitchy sound though. I think that's more a personal taste issue than an actual major issue in-and-of-itself.

* Kind of sad you reserved a lot of the interesting weird little SFXs and soundbytes for the 'BFH03' side of things. Would've been nice to have either some of it incorporated more with the beginning and 'Inner' portion of your song, or just general Japanese Noh or Kabuki sounds with it. 'Inner' seemed more straight-laced than 'BFH', and unsure if that was intentional / by design. I just feel a bit of imbalance between the two songs in that sense--where the latter melded elements in its portion but the former didn't at all. Maybe adding a bit of 'BFH' bassline via deeper, more vibrato strings (like upright bass or cello) into your 'Inner Darkside' towards the medley transition might've gave us listening to it a bit more preparation for the exchange, and a bit more impact when it happens. :)

2) 'Rise of the Inner Darkside' - TheVideoGamer

Pros:

* Damn man, you never cease to amaze me. You really need to teach me how you do / work your percussion and basslines (once I get out of using the BandLab training wheels and work with something like FL or Cakewalk). :( I love the beat, I love the build-up... Solid heavy bass. The works. Huge improvement on the source, too. All around good shit. <3

* Wasn't expecting the way you introduced 'Inner Darkside' into the song. For a bit I was like: "when's it coming?" Was anticipating it the whole time, but when you dropped the stabs @ 3:11 and I heard the light percs, it felt good to listen to. And yes, it matched extremely well, and I can tell no work was really even necessary to achieve the effect.

* I loved the synth, percs and bells you used for 'Inner' as well. Gave me them good goosebumps, they did!

Critique:

* I think what dropped the ball for me with making this a first pick is that not much expansion or improv was done to 'BFH03 Builder' besides the beginning build-up (with the bongos, etc), key / tone shift @ 5:04 and the addition of the synth, percussion and melody lines from 'Inner Darkside', as well as it's a faster BPM than the original of both. The melding of the two was very creative, the beat's groovy as hell, and the synths, stabs and percs you used for 'Inner' was superb. Just think, even though it's MnP, 'BFH' sounded for the most part like 'BFH' but with better sound quality and bass robustness. I think even the 'uh uh uh' male-voice sample comes from 'BFH03' originally? Nothing wrong with a bit more of 1:1, but IDK--I think just hearing all your previous work made me jaded and now expectant of a lot of use of a wide variety of sounds and samples you tend to introduce into your electronica.

* I am a bit on the fence about the ending, with the big rock drum crash and outro. It's personal preference, but I think having the voice sample and the bongos peter out in a fade to the end would've sounded better. Maybe with some added percs from 'Inner'...

* That's basically my only big jitter bug about the song. Both you and Wassup melded elements of the songs to fairly opposite, but extremely impressive effect. It was very, very difficult to pick between the two, but I chose Wassup simply because of the more dynamic genre change he did for both songs.

3) 'Come the Machines' - Souperion

Pros:

* Oooh, this is a very aggressive, heavier metal change to 'BFH03 Builder'. I like it. :) The bassline is great!

* I have a lot to say about your song from 0:00 till about 1:20 or so, but after that point I really like the instruments you used and the vibe going on. The SFXs are cool too. :D

* I like the wobbly, radio-sound, fade-out ending to the song.

Critique:

* The drumkit is too soft, for the genre attempt / intent you're going for. I mean soft in volume a little bit, but mostly too soft in velocity and too far into the background. There's also not a lot of change-ups in velocity hits of the snares and cymbals.

* The grunge guitar riffs @ 0:40 or so clashes with the bass and drums. I'm unsure what's up with it. I think it sounds very unnatural, is the problem. Too synthy, and might've helped to be at a midtone or higher register (hence the clashing, cause everything is low; it's what APZX tends to call the song having 'no space', or whatever, which I think partially means not enough variation on the tonal or volume spectrum.) The more eletronica / synth elements aren't meshing well with the rock-elements, and they're...sounding too similar...if that makes sense? :(

* So yeah, I think a lot of the issue with the song is, especially before 1:15, too many things on the lower register and it's all sounding washed and mish-mashed. I am picking up a lot of interesting elements, like certain blips and percs, and some playful changes in the melody and harmony from the original song, but it all gets overwhelmed with each other, sadly. Like the differences between your version and original 'BFH' are cool and I really like them, but they don't shine to their greatest potential because they're too busy fighting with each other. I also think the emphasis of your song should've been more on the guitar than the strings (after the 1:20 mark), and they might've been flipped in their role (the guitar carrying the main melody and being the louder, more pronunced element instead of the harmony, and vice versa). Again, I like your direction with 'BFH' and it's very creative compositon, and a nice genre that fits with the song...just trying to think of ways to improve upon it based on listening to a lot of heavy metal and grunge bands (which I think is the rock genre you're trying to simulate here).

1. Vodou Ninja Meets the Gamerbot
   Wassup Thunder
2. We Built an Edifice Towards a Dark Sky
   TheVodouQueen
3. Come the Machines
   Souperion

After listening i think Wassup Thunder should get the win.

From the top.

Souperion - The electric guitar defiantly suits the arrangement, and really makes this more gritty, i'd say more so than the original. I love the strings here too, very intense and urgent, reminds me of the CDI version. The melody arrangement, is amazing, and suits it to a T. I also dig the synths too. If i had to point out some problems, a big one comes to mind, and that it's way too far from the source. This borders straight into PRC territory. I want you to remix it sure, with your own spin and melodies, but i don't want the original to loose it's feeling, and at times i feel it does, because it's drowned in a sea of interpretation. Also to be more about the music, i feel the drums aren't as intense as they could be. The drums could burst into the scene, with a whole load of power, but instead it feels soft and just background like. The rest though is really great, and the electric guitar is a huge standout. That makes the track for me. Well done!

Wassup Thunder - This one does not pull any punches, you really managed to go to town on both sources in the full 7 minutes. I dig the Asian instrumentation, goes really great, with the Shinobi feel! I also love the atmosphere here, it's just very much, how i would interpret the style of Shinobi. It's great that you managed to morph the melody into a great coherent rhythm, because in the original, it was loose, meaning it doesn't strongly define itself in a time signature. The developments are great, the arrangement is awesome. Now if i had to point out some flaws, a big one comes to mind, and that for me is the transition. What we have here is a remix of Shinobi, and then a remix of Rise of the Robots. Why not both? Why don't you mix elements instead of just making 2 tracks in one. Not saying that's a bad thing, but it could make it more of a blended experience (Or 1 source would have been fine). Also, a little more minor in this critique, but i feel when the heavy synth parts come in, the drums feel flat. A kick could work, something with oomph, and a more exciting snare. I do like how things change though, it's not just the source in it's purity. On a positive note, the melody writing is excellent. You took an ostinato in Rise of the Robots and really turned it into something. All in all, this was quite a well rounded journey, that kept me engaged for it's runtime. Well done!

TheVodouQueen - I've heard partially of TheGlitchMob (Mainly the name), but i've never actively checked out their music, so i might be going into this blind. I did research these guys though, but again this is all blind. As for the track, i love the idea. I really dig the beats, very heavy and industrial like, but kept in a straight-forward way for a really nice groove. The melody works well here, you managed to keep the vibe of Shinobi intact, i didn't feel like i had lost anything in that regard. The whole thing is really great, but if i had to point out some flaws, i found 2, and it's mainly the blending of the source. The Rise of the Robots source doesn't feel like it fits in the Shinobi Melody. It might be me, but the chords feel out of key. I don't know, when i get towards the end, it feels more smoother and less rough, but at the start it feels off, i don't know. Maybe it's because i'm hearing more Shinobi, and less ROTR, the prospect of ROTR is masked. Also i feel there are parts that are a little too consistent for my liking. Not so much loud, instead more so, i feel it could have more smoother dynamic changes. Again i don't know these guys as much as others do, and maybe repeat listens might help me understand it more, but as of now, this is all i can say, based on how i listened to it. I love the originality here though, especially the way you blended the melodies. Probably the most unique of all of the arrangements here. Well done!