1. My Life Is Insane
   Necrox
2. Critical Hit - Piano
   zachaction
3. Take the Battle to Them
   Zorrakh

Necrox - whilst it IS on the cusp of being MnP, there is MAD effort and skill put into "My Life Is Insane" and it shows - very campy with a topping of bad ass motherfucker. The pacing and mood is mostly intact, which is key for me, so yeah, you get 1st pick from me Necrox - you're getting better!!

zahaction - Hey "Critical hit Piano" pretty good - the MIDI, granted is pretty hard to work with being a super high tempo. The piano sample does the trick mostly though. Nice use of reverb. And yes, I certainly did notice the aformentioned humanization tweaks. Nice man!

Zorrakh - a straight up, fairly well produced orchestral take - reminds me of the older OCR stuff like Ghouls 'n Ghosts "Swimming In Guts". Nice work :)

RonaldPoe - hooooooooooo boy. Eccentric is definitely the key word here. Y'know RonaldPoe, if you build up your sample library your style could really shine. But as of now, you're better off sticking to the theme of MnP . On the plus side, this was entertaining to listen to. Hmm...kinda has a "Children Of The Monkey Machine" vibe...an older OCR mixer who isn't active these days.

1. My Life Is Insane
   Necrox
2. Critical Hit - Piano
   zachaction
3. 2nd Battle of Legends
   RonaldPoe

FIRST - My Life Is Insane - I really like the energy the drums and percussive-ness of some of the instruments give off. This sounds like how a Super Smash Bros. arrangement of the source track would be, as well as giving off a Kirby vibe. I think it's the higher-ranged instruments.

SECOND - Critical Hit - I like the crispness of the piano, and I appreciate the faithfulness of the source material. I'm wondering if a variance in dynamics would help strengthen the piece, especially in between different sections to help bring contrast as well as even more liveliness to the arrangement that's already there.


THIRD - 2nd Battle of Legends - The instrument choices are unique, and I like the staccato bass note. It's a little difficult to make out the source track, but I can hear it now and again, although I am not too familiar with the source. Picking up the tempo a little might help to keep up the excitement as well.

1. Take the Battle to Them
   Zorrakh
2. My Life Is Insane
   Necrox
3. Critical Hit - Piano
   zachaction

ZORRAKAH

Not a bad orchestration of this. It sounds like a decent way to flesh the source out. The instruments sound pretty fake, but overall I enjoyed this nonetheless. Great ending, by the way - nice to hear that victory music tie things up, there (it literally pushed you to first, in my book).

NECROX

Aww yeah, I like them phat beats and the strange flute-like instrument. The arrangement is quirky, bouncy and keeps my attention with those changes in instrumentation. I have some reservations about the drumming in this (none of it is terrible individually, but it doesn't blend well).

ZACHACTION

That is... literally impossible to play with the spacing that comes up, lol. This one was probably ripped from the MIDI with the instruments replaced with pianos, which for this compo isn't bad, per se. Next time, though, make at least a few adjustments to make sure there isn't something going on in three distinct registers (pianists don't have three arms!). Dynamics, velocity editing and sustain (for pedal) would help add a human touch to the whole thing, as well.

ROLAND POE

Interesting concept, but I'm keeping in mind that this is a MnP compo. This is a pretty liberal interpretation for something like this. I can make the source connections from time to time, but it doesn't really hit the spirit of this competition well for me.

1. Take the Battle to Them
   Zorrakh
2. 2nd Battle of Legends
   RonaldPoe
3. Critical Hit - Piano
   zachaction

I didn't really get RonaldPoe's take but I still liked it better than a simple piano transcription.

1. Critical Hit - Piano
   zachaction
2. Take the Battle to Them
   Zorrakh
3. My Life Is Insane
   Necrox

Sticking with the mnp theme, I felt that zach's rendition was the only one that captured the intensity and energy of the original piece. Zorrakh's remix was good (and I swear a few of the later FF games have battle themes in this vein - I'm not sure, I haven't played them much), and had a perfect ending, but felt too mellow to me to take the first place spot. Necrox's remix was a little too silly for me, and I had a hard time picking out the source material in Ronald Poe's track.