ReMix:Star Ocean: The Second Story "The Healer of Worlds" 4:28

A lot of times these days, the judges panel gets praise for constructive critique and encouragement (we try our best). But, sometimes, in order to not have potential wasted, you just need to threaten some bodily harm, am I right? Mission accomplished, as the panel's internationally known miscreant & ticking time bomb, Emunator, told ZackParrish in no uncertain terms that his ass was on the line if Zack didn't finish his Star Ocean orchestration and get a great live Irish whistle performance from E. Jesús Chic Acevedo. This is 100% corroborated by Zack's submission comments:

"Started this originally as a challenge to try and make a remix/arrangement in 2 hours again but was met with failure as I had only reached about 2 minutes into the piece before reaching the end of that sprint. Shared what I had with Emunator, who teleported to my house somehow and threatened me if I didn't finish it. Fearing for my life, I obliged and spent several more weeks working on it off and on in bits and pieces... sometimes sharing it in the Workshop and getting feedback from Hemophiliac and some others in private. Eventually, I tapped on the shoulder of Jesús once again for some Irish whistle treatment and he delivered as always. I've always loved this particular theme ever since playing the game originally back in 1999, because of the tragedy of Rena's background story. No spoilers. I have played around with different ideas for it before, but, apparently, it took a spontaneous sprint to really get anything solid down and then a threat from a kind lunatic to buckle down and finish it."

We have it on good authority that Zack is scared of Emu to this day. :-O With the evil judge's pressure hanging over him, Parrish managed to stand and deliver. Judge prophetik music opined, "this is excellent as expected. lush orchestration and some really incredible peaks. fantastic job." Based on that initial judge feedback, Emunator briefly put on a façade of being a nice person in order to share his reaction:

"I'm not sure who Jesús Chic Acevedo is but every time he shows up on one of your songs, it instantly becomes a favorite. The initial string swells hit like a ton of emotional bricks before going back into a more delicate waltz. Ahhh, the dynamics on this track are superb. Incredible use of atmospheric elements combined with a more traditional orchestra setpiece. I was listening through this track and thought I was coming up near the end, only to find that I was barely halfway through, and I mean this as a compliment! It speaks to a very economical use of your arrangement, making sure that there is never any wasted time or dull moments - every movement feels like a whole world unto itself.

Yeah, this is really good. Some of your best work to date."

"Emotional", "delicate", "atmospheric"... you can just tell Emunator's *seething* at how well he felt Zack pulled this off. ;-D Emu's certainly right though; Jesús's performance was on point as always. And boy, did I love the tone when things downshifted at 3:18; Zack's string writing together with Jesús's Irish whistle were drop-dead gorgeous at 3:32; legitimate goosebumps there. With a solid cinematic expansion of the Rena theme, it feels like Zack's got another movie cue ready for whenever an OVA or film comes out! :-)