ReMix:Legend of Mana "Nocturnal" 3:11

Our first featured ReMix of Legend of Mana comes from Platonist (Jonas Loman) in the form of a throwback dance/trance track with atmospheric ambient intro/outro & some well-executed changeups:

"This one is old, so if it sounds old, it's because it's old. Well, at least the intro loop is. I wanted to leave that part intact, because stubbornness, but I had to polish it a little bit at least. The arrangement beyond that is new and pretty straightforward; a trance beat, some strings and a PWM chip lead that I've overused. :'D I tried to make it not loud, because that's probably the most common complaint I've gotten over the years, and since the loudness wars are over anyway I decided to master it to -14 LUFS with a -1dB true peak headroom. As usual, sequenced in Schism Tracker - because I *want to* and you can't stop me?"

Judges turned down the initial & subsequent revision, but accepted the third version - the edit history serves as an interesting artifact of the creative/evaluation process:

1st Resubmission:

• Switched to high-pass filter on the piano-arpeggio just as the lead is about to hit to reduce muddiness.
• Let the more intricate bass line from the build-up stay throughout the trance bit. Raised the lead one octave after one iteration to add more development.
• Edited intro buzz-synth with a fade in and slightly less in-your-face once it's there.
• Fixed the attack on the string and made it a little less abrasive overall.
• Better/cleaner mix overall (hopefully).
• New breakdown section with a solo & original writing after 2 iterations -- that beat then continues into the outro.
• Removed the animal noises.

2nd Resubmission:

• No intro that is identical to the outro.
• No more synth string.
• More usage of the flute-esque lead (it's actually a bass sample, but hey!)
• Less muddy and better balance.

"This is probably my last revisit of the song. Hope it goes well. Cheers!"

And it did :) This has a bit more of a dance/eurobeat vibe than trance to me, personally, but I found the bookended ambient bits a nice & exotic addition and the drop @ 1'06" added some needed oomph. As is often the case, Gario's evaluation comments provided a lot of insight on this final revision, relative to its predecessors:

"Seeing that I was the sole voice of approval last time, it's no surprise that I enjoy it even more this time around. I will give credit to the other votes, though - sending it back was the right decision, as this is much more dynamic than the other version. I could still see an argument that the mixing is still a bit of an issue, but it doesn't at all sink the track (I didn't think it did last time, either).

It went from a shaky pass to a solid one, in my book - lots has been done to make the arrangement more dynamic, and everyone listening is better for it. Let's get this thing on the front page."

Any time anyone says "in my book" I think of Stuntman Mike from Death Trap. It's good to finally have a Legend of Mana mix, it's great to see revisions & evaluative back-and-forth resulting in stronger work, and in just three minutes Jonas manages to set a mood, build it into an EDM jam that lands in a nice retro space, and then work it back down from whence it came, with some cool chromatic percussion & pads. Enjoy!