ReMix:Touhou Fuujinroku: Mountain of Faith "Temple of the Omnisword" 5:24

TOUHOU TIME!! HeavenWraith (Antanas Palaitis) wins an award for persistence & dedication, having revised this mix five times based on panel feedback. It got better each time, and while there were still things that the judges were pointing out that I myself agree with, the revision/evaluation process definitely worked and resulted in a high-energy, blisteringly-fast, too-many-notes (not really) rock/metal arrangement that maintains the upbeat tempo of the source but makes things decidedly edgier & more aggressive:

"Went for Demetori-style progressive metal, though, I'm sorry, I'm not a godly guitarist like Teramae Masaru, so bear with me. Overall, it was a fun work, took a lot of tweaking, but I'm quite satisfied with the result. Followed some of the advice from the judges and enhanced clarity in the mix, sharper side-chain compression here and there, and went through the mix with an EQ scalpel. With huge help from Timaeus, the track received a thorough EQ surgery and sparkles more than ever."

Palpable writes:

"Right off the bat, I'm liking the mixing job courtesy of Timaeus. Definitely at a good volume level and clarity; in fact, I think I hear details that I haven't noticed before. Some of the problems are still here, like strangely dry synths and a quiet section that loses a little too much energy, but most of this is as good as it can be. Your vision is finally getting sold - the craziness makes a little more sense, because it sounds more purposeful. I think I hear something coming.... could it be? ...... yes, I think it's a......... YES!"

Well said, Vinnie. I weighed in on this one as well, so now I get to judgequote myself, which makes the angels cry:

"Energy is through the roof... musical caffeine! Some of the sections Larry identified COULD have used a bit more polish, but they breeze by so fast that it really didn't bother me much. This has been revised several times and this incarnation feels ready for prime time, to me; there's perhaps a tendency to see multiple revisions and be a little more sympathetic, but I don't think I'm doing that nor do I think it's necessary for this mix as it now stands."

Well said, me; with subsequent revisions, it's harder to remain objective, because I think there's something in most of us that wants to see persistence & hard work pay off. Nevertheless, we assign neither advantage nor disadvantage to repeat submissions, and do our best to evaluate them consistently relative to the standards. Here's a question: Would an "omnisword" make an "omnislash"??? Makes sense to me... Congrats to Antanas for sticking with this one & as Palpable said, selling the vision - a high-octane, crazy-fast vision that embraces all things Touhou and gives the original mucho gusto!