1. Smaller Silver Surfer
   Hylian_Lemon
2. Ride the Sky
   Nutritious
3. Silver Tainted Rock
   andyjayne

Wow, we have some quality submissions here, and voting has been all but easy, but for me, the clear winner was Hylian Lemon.
I love the way Smaller Silver Surfer has the cinematic flair going on, coupled with the mischievousness and quirkiness already demonstrated in HL's pokemon remix for PRC 97. The acoustic instruments, the well-interpreted arrangement, and the driving breakbeats all meld together perfectly with the cute little backstory HL has thought up.
I'd go as far as to say HL's already gone a long way in developing his own personal style, and it won't be long before people will be able to recognize his music without looking at the title and the artist. Good job indeed, Hylian Lemon, why aren't you an OCRemixer yet?! =P


Now, deciding the second place was a lot harder than the first, so it's a really close shave, and I had to go against my bias for musical genres in voting. While I really have a soft place in my heart for the guitar shredding and capable drum track in Silver Tainted Rock, I decided that while there are some very nice ideas and sections that just plain RAWK, the arrangement is not nearly as interpretative as Nutritous' Ride the Sky.

Ride the Sky comes over as a bit more subtle, and I'd almost say more 'mature' alternative to Smaller Silver Surfer, though Nutritious doesn't spare any effort with the ominous orchestral intro and the 'Genre-hopping'. The arrangement is very effectively used here, though I feel that in some sections (01:04) the soundspace was a bit on the empty side, but the tempo change made up for that.

Consolation prize goes to Chickenwarlord. Too bad you couldn't really do much with the source, but it happens to everyone, so I'm sure we'll hear a really cool arrangement from you sometime soon.

1. Smaller Silver Surfer
   Hylian_Lemon
2. Ride the Sky
   Nutritious
3. Silver Tainted Rock
   andyjayne

Smaller Silver Surfer: Excellent style, very original take on the source material.

Ride The Sky: Very close to SSS in terms of originality and style, but a little too crowded here and there.

Silver Tainted Rock: Great rock track, but a little repetitive.

Ivory Surfer: Too simplistic and MIDI sounding.

1. Ride the Sky
   Nutritious
2. Silver Tainted Rock
   andyjayne
3. Ivory Surfer
   Chickenwarlord

Ride the Sky - Obvious first place here. Nutritious blew us all out of the water with this one. Great arrangement and production.

Silver Tainted Rock - There were some original sections sprinkled here and there, but overall this remix stuck to the source a little too much.

Ivory Surfer - Same problem as above, but I think you did a slightly better job of mixing up the source. Still, the remix sounds really empty. Would've sounded better with some more instruments to add interest.

1. Smaller Silver Surfer
   Hylian_Lemon
2. Ride the Sky
   Nutritious
3. Silver Tainted Rock
   andyjayne

Smaller Silver Surfer: I do love how you tell a story through the music. It's fun listening to this and picking up on which parts of the song correspond to the story ("it's sped up, this must be when Chibi-Surfer is flying on his surfboard!"). Although I'd like to know where sucky normal kids can purchase rocket boots. No complaints about this mix whatsoever.

Ride The Sky: I would have liked this a lot more had it stuck to one particular style, rather than the three that we got. I definitely prefer the 1st half of the mix, the slow, instrumental laden portion is right up my alley. For the last 40 seconds of the mix, it just seems like there's too much going on at once and it sounds a bit jumbled.

Silver Tainted Rock: Well, the quality sounded fine to my untrained ears. PRC does DoD? Well, I do love the guitars in this mix, but I can't say I'm a fan of that lead synth. Definitely prefer the sections without that thing. I particularly liked the slower section from the 2:40 mark. The mix probably went on a bit longer than it necessarily had to, getting slightly repetitive in the process.

Ivory Surfer: Oooh, piano-led track. Love those. The mix sounded a bit muffled in places, and as you said, it doesn't stray very far from the original.

1. Silver Tainted Rock
   andyjayne
2. Ride the Sky
   Nutritious
3. Smaller Silver Surfer
   Hylian_Lemon

I'll always have a soft spot for rock remixes, which is probably what put andyjayne's on top for me. Honestly if I could have made it a three way tie though I would have. And that's not to say that Chickenwarlord's was bad either. I'm happy I came back to PRC when I did.

1. Ride the Sky
   Nutritious
2. Smaller Silver Surfer
   Hylian_Lemon
3. Silver Tainted Rock
   andyjayne

As I already gave feedback on the 3 I voted on, I'll keep it brief.

Chickenwarlord's was basically a MIDI with some minor changes/noodling and really flimsy-sounding everything. We've all gotta start somewhere.

Of the top 3, Andy's was roughest on production and the least interpretive. His was personalized to a good degree though, so it's not like the track was broken. His had good energy. The way he copied Follin's chromatic runs at 2:01 was really nice. Cool new section at 2:28 that wasn't in the WIP I heard. Glad he took my suggestion of developing something else in the arrangement rather than just looping the beginning and calling it a day. Something with a bit more melodic direction for the lead there would have been cool. Besides, he basically looped the first section later. :-) Good potential though. He should get more feedback on it.

Ben's had really cool arrangement ideas as well as instrument choices. I'm glad he took some of my criticisms to heart in terms of varying up some of the instrumentation to keep things fresh. The brass at 1:21 was pretty flat and could have used more layering. The other brass at 1:36 was a good idea conceptually but again sounded flimsy. Beefing those up would only work alongside better EQing to seperate the parts more and keep things from mudding together. There was a LOT of clutter and overlap during 1:21-2:06. Smooth transition at 2:24 to the strings. Creative stuff.

Justin's had the best arrangement and best production. Solid intro, with orchestral sounds I've heard a billion times, but all sounding pretty polished. The brass remined me Vurez's style. The bassline at 1:03 was still REALLY robotic and inhuman sounding. There's gotta be a way to work on that. 1:06 was also a little too empty; perhaps boost the cymbal work there for just a couple of seconds, then drop it back down to the levels they're at now once other stuff comes in. Very hot transition at 1:44; the snare drum and bass both leave a lot to be desired. The brass also could have sounded more grandiose somehow, perhaps with some light layering. Nice electronic segued at 2:21 as I told Justin before.

No slight towards Andy's but it was good to hear some arrangements of this theme that weren't rock. Rock has been the genre du jure for arranging this theme, so it's good to hear others remind me that that isn't the only approach one can take.

1. Silver Tainted Rock
   andyjayne
2. Smaller Silver Surfer
   Hylian_Lemon
3. Ride the Sky
   Nutritious

andy-Strong piece. A bit too much like the source at first, but gets into a good groove soon.

Hylian-wind chimes(?) a bit loud. Good arrangement overall.

Nutritious-Jumps around a bit (likely a result of the three ideas you mentioned). Still pretty solid, with a strong trumpet lead.

1. Smaller Silver Surfer
   Hylian_Lemon
2. Silver Tainted Rock
   andyjayne
3. Ivory Surfer
   Chickenwarlord

This was an extremely hard competition to vote for. I think all entries were very well done.

Hylian lemon did a great job telling a story with his mix. I could follow along what he wrote while listening.

Andy also did a great job. I think he captured what Tim was attempting to do with the original song. It's not my particular style of music, but well put together.

Chickenwarlord probably had the track closest to the original in timing and notes. I think it was well done, but could've been interpreted/developed further (it sounds like he didn't have time). This was actually my wife's favorite song out of the bunch (including mine, lol) so goo djob :)

1. Smaller Silver Surfer
   Hylian_Lemon
2. Ride the Sky
   Nutritious
3. Ivory Surfer
   Chickenwarlord

Smaller Silver Surfer - voted this first because it was a good arrangement of the original yet didn't stray too far. I'm not fond on the drums, but the rest of the instrumentation is cool.

Ride the Sky - reminds me of something from halo up until about 1:46. From this point it goes down hill, I don't really like the styles of the following sections and whilst it incorporates more of the source I think the arrangement of the original seems slightly out of place, especially after the great intro.

Chickenwarlord - some good ideas here but a lot is taken from the original. The arrangement and production are generally weak and I don't really like the style but some of the new parts are cool.

1. Silver Tainted Rock
   andyjayne
2. Ride the Sky
   Nutritious
3. Smaller Silver Surfer
   Hylian_Lemon

Andy Jayne's was the best of the four. It sounded great. There should be more like this.

Nutritious' was good too, but not good enough to be first place.

Hylian Lemon's was better than chickenwarlord's, so it gets third. And fourth is, well, whatever's left.

1. Smaller Silver Surfer
   Hylian_Lemon
2. Ride the Sky
   Nutritious
3. Silver Tainted Rock
   andyjayne

Hylian Lemon - Really fun to listen to. Lots of original stuff in it. My only gripe is that the accelerando towards the beginning seemed a tad awkward.

Nutritious - Sounds a little bare in places and has a bit less continuity compared to SSS, but still is very fun to listen to.

andyjayne - Solid mix.

Chickenwarlord - Not one of his better mixes.