ReMix:Mega Man Zero 3 "Frosty Wilderness" 2:59

At just under three minutes, this short-but-sweet wintry jam from timaeus off An OverClocked Christmas v.7 provides a walk through a synth-pop/ambient wonderland:

"It's not often I completely reinterpret the style of the source track. I tend go with my gut feeling on how VGM should be remixed in terms of atmosphere, and that usually turns out to be close to how a remastered version would sound, but this time it's got sort of a cinematic vibe to it since I brought the tempo down a lot and turned it into a progressive ambient big beat remix. It's nowhere near how the original track sounds, and I'm very glad I went for this approach. You might notice some Chrono Trigger thrown in accidentally (even though I have practically zero history with that game). :P

This is another look at my "unique sound palette," so to speak. In my free time, I had designed patches on u-he Zebra2 for fun, and for this ReMix, and I ended up using a good portion of them, such as the pads, bells, arp, and pseudo-sync lead (it smells like one, it feels like one, and it even tastes like one, but it wasn't made using traditional oscillator sync). I actually quit on this remix twice because of the lack of inspiration and because the bass mixing was tremendously difficult (you can see why at 1:55!), so I don't have a clue how I still ended up finishing it. Pretty glad I did. Hope you like this dreamy, light-hearted take on this source from my favorite game in the Mega Man Zero series!"

He said it better than I could, although when I think of "big beat" I generally think of something more explicitly EDM-ish, whereas you'll probably have trouble dancing to this if it takes the form of anything other than gentle swaying ;) Palpable writes:

"timaeus' latest track has a heavy zircon vibe to it - it's laid back and chill but still weighty, thanks to the powerful panoramic synth, guitar, and string elements that are used. This is the kind of song you'd hear as you climb the last few meters to the top of the mountain. The breakdown at 1:37 was a real highlight: crystalline piano over top warm swirling pads and some subtle reverse FX. Very classy, polished stuff."

The first half of this mix definitely eschews prominent percussion, whereas the second builds up a beat that is indeed big; plenty of nice synth programming details and varied timbres, which is a general strength of the artist but is especially evident on this track. Good stuff, more transformative than some of Truong-Son's other arrangement while still maintaining his style & technique!