Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

@Snorb: Dude, I swear, if you record yourself whistling Jijy no Rag while playing the guit, I will download it, love it, keep it and treasure it until the sun runs cold

As for PS3, again, it's a matter of preference. To me overall, PS2 has a better OST, as you both agreed on, the electro feel was perfect for a sci-fi game. I believe however that the most powerful tracks belong to PS3. The overworld theme will always be that single PS song to make me smile and dream. I feel that the remix I made of it does not do it justice, I should try and improve it when I gain enough skill with Reason (my music software). Still, PS3 has some really, really terrible tracks that use grating instruments sounds noise.


@Bragatyr: Again, we agree and see eye to eye. You have to admit though, Smooth McGroove has uncanny talent. Some of my friends listen to his stuff over and over, I don't, but I can certainly give credit where it's due.

The internet is full of gems like that, I don't know if you've heard of Malukah, she has the voice of an angel and talent like you wouldn't believe. She doesn't come out with a new cover every week like our friend McGroove does so, she quickly faded from the spotlight (reminds you of anyone?) because internet is a fickle beast that must be fed novelty every Friday lest it goes back to making troll memes.

Anyways, I listened to my Prologue and Secret Ways mixes again to see what could be done. Secret Ways is largely more preliminary than I'd wish to admit. The only thing done so far is writing down the tracks on a simple piano. Prologue however is a little more fleshed out and could very well become my new toy for a while. It is however very simplistic and I wonder if I couldn't mix it with another smooth song, like "power" perhaps, or any other suggestion you guys might come up with.


Phantasy Star remixes forever!

Oh yeah, I love Smooth McGroove myself. I just think it's funny and depressing when someone uploads a VG cover (or better yet, when I do) and someone inevitably says, I like this, have you ever heard of Smooth McGroove, he does video game covers?! I mean, I would imagine half the population of the earth has heard of him and liked him at this point, but like you I like a number of other VG artists just as much, including Lara and Taylor Davis and Verdegrand, just to name a few of the more popular ones.

I mean, one of the more common criticisms of his work is that it's too slavish to the original, which I personally like, I tend to prefer faithful arrangements, and his are about the most faithful you can find, but I do like the artist to play around with the main idea occasionally, and there are certainly musicians and remixers who do that a lot better.

Working on Prologue, I'm giving it a little apocalyptic feel. So far, not bad.

Pretty awesome stuff. I got my own remixes i been doing for my fangame, can't wait to share some samples. I take more of a "the same but better" approach is all.. so it sounds rather similar to how it did on the genesis.. but way better.. or.. to me it sounds way better.
I am also a fan of a more organic approach... rather than synth instruments, i use instruments like guitars, brass sections.. strings.. and the like.
Can't wait to share what i got going.

You're approach works to though, it's more of the "familure yet different" approach to remixes.. that's the vibe i get anyhow...

Like, i can tell what a song is.. but sounds very different at times. Not a bad thing though, just different.

Still funny how OCRemix has rejected my remixes because they were too close to the original. By definition, a remix has to be different from the original, otherwise you're not remixing but doing a cover, which is fine to if you're into that. Though a cover of a video game song sounds silly, especially if you cover a 16 bits game song, there is not much room for personal interpretation. I've seen plenty of people importing midi tracks, adding a drum loop or swapping 2-3 instruments and call it a remix.


As for my current project, I spent a good 2-3 hours on it yesterday. PS2's "Prologue" is of course too short of a song to make a full remix so I've parsed the entire PS2 OST and picked four more candidates to be mixed in, like I did with Deadly Mota except, a lot smoother this time. So at first, I decided that "Power, Never Dream, Exclaim and Violation" would be possible candidates. However, I find that "Never Dream" and "Exclaim" are either too complicated to be include in a larger song or I simply don't feel they really belong well.

So for now, the three songs to mix together are "Power", "Violation" and of course, "Prologue".

As usual, thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

Myup. Bragatyr, thank you SO much for steering me away from my roadblock and into this other remix.

Worked a whole 3 hours tonight as well after the kids went to sleep.

It's beautiful, sad, grandiose and soooo melancholic, I am getting chills, lots of it.


A remixer's love for his work is something awesome. <3

*sighs some and nods* We define what is what differently.
To me a remix is just changing something.. be it instruments, or flow.. or style.. taking something and making any kind of change to me is what makes a remix a remix...
"I've seen plenty of people importing midi tracks, adding a drum loop or swapping 2-3 instruments and call it a remix. "
The way you put that makes it sound like what i'm doing is .. pretty lame honestly.

*shrug* I told you I commended your skill with attack and velocity, as well as your choice of instruments. What you did with that piece you posted has nothing to do with midi-kids opening a midi file, adding a drum loop and tweaking a piano, then calling it a remix. You added value to the original. It's how you work.

I entirely remix. Since I can't read music, and since I can't play a piano/keyboard to save my life, I start by writing the base melody note by note (an excruciatingly tedious process). Then the fun begins, I change the song, adapt it to my ideas and turn it into something I envision. It takes me hundreds and hundreds of hours to do so, it can quickly become a monster of a project, but it's what I do and I do it because I love doing it.

Look on YouTube, check for PS remixes. You will easily find songs that are clearly not midi files, but that have next to no value either. Horrible remixes mashed up on a keyboard in ten minutes with no regards for intro, finale, transitions or even consistency.

For many people out there, music is not easy to appraise. I can't remember how many times I changed something major in a remix and people around me went "I don't hear anything different". You can create a terribly average product and a lot of people will praise it because the rules are less easy to understand, more complex and subtle. And even ignoring that, remember that in every trade, there are those who love to do their work and those who simply love the praise they can get by taking the shortest route.

Stop worrying about what people feel about your technique and enjoy what you do. You said it yourself, you are proud of that piece you posted. Proud = good.

Aeroprism wrote:Myup. Bragatyr, thank you SO much for steering me away from my roadblock and into this other remix.

Worked a whole 3 hours tonight as well after the kids went to sleep.

It's beautiful, sad, grandiose and soooo melancholic, I am getting chills, lots of it.


A remixer's love for his work is something awesome. <3

Ha ha, no prob, it's sounding awesome, looking forward to hearing it. Oddly enough, on the subject of which songs to include, I'm more of a purist when it comes to remixes, I really tend to prefer single songs to medleys. Most people love them, but for some reason I tend to like to concentrate on one song when I'm listening. That's just my preference; I would love to see you do just the Prologue, while expanding on what's already there, because I think it's really interesting material and I know you could work with it, you did really good work with the Motavia Field theme and the PS III town with Love Song for Gwyn.

It's hard to get overly creative with a 38 second loop but I can take a look.