Old and New

For the past week we’ve seen the continuation of established compos, and the launch of new ones. The World Warrior Remix Royale reached the voting stage for round 3 of the Hadouken Bracket. Both combatants pitted a Ryu theme against a Chun-Li one, but each resulting arrangement had its own distinct flavor: Ghetto Lee Lewis expressed a mellow piano groove backed by a beat, while Gario shook up the dancefloor and led this track with searing synths. People’s Remixing Competition 216 found a rescue in the form of a lone remix of the game Monkey Hero put up by Chickenwarlord, who admittedly created it due to the lack of turnout. 

The Sonic Zone Remix Competition began its recruitment period and planned to keep it open for two weeks, but interest was such that it locked at 32 participants in no time at all. SDCompo round 66 saw some revisions in its rules: the submission stage was extended to six weeks, and now allows the use of four VSTs – Synth1, daHornet, Crystal, and TAL NoiseMaker. At SolidComposer a new 3-hour compo cropped up by the name of “do what you do” stating its rules as not much more than that: "play music-you got three hours to do what you do".

LLCompo: Battle 13 spoke of the Illuminati, coupled with a description that effectively collapsed under the weight of its own conspiracy theories. The introduction for the night was narrated by WVI and s1rnight, who traded off top secret info about [REDACTED] only to be partially cut off by The Price Is Right. The regulars each had their own take on the theme, including MaxVdub’s “spooky” falling fifths progressions on guitar, PowerFail’s blues rock track “The Blueminatti”, and incorporator’s industrial track uniquely titled “illuminati”. Some new LLCompo entrants also appeared such as liquidwind putting on a chiptune spin while Clunkst made an intriguing suggestion to “Google illuminati backwards”.

JHCompo on Tuesday tried out some extended functionality by embedding a photo into the theme description; “Ancient Temple” was accompanied by a Mayan pyramid. skyndileg went to work sending his drones to do his bidding by way of a “Working Song”. At “Furg’s Temple" Clunkst put together quirky sonorities propelled by contant arpeggios. Maraki layered a soundscape out of various strumming takes, culminating in fast paced electronic frenzy. Clockwerk took some “Mayan Acid” and slid into a foray of ambience and hand percussion. Finally liquidwind directly referenced the assets of the photo for the round, thereby hinting at the fact that he had suggested the picture in the first place.

Thursday’s OHC lost its mind when it described the moment when one has lost perspective: a “Mental Breakdown”. On that note dusthillguy immediately uploaded his signature-style off-the-wall composition spanning 15 seconds. The listening party only became more random from that point as BrandonS talked about Final Fantasy II being amazing, and TheMisterCat formatted his lyrical text as a cumbersome scroll. The OHC organizer starla sent along a song of her own, backing her vocals with arpeggios and a glitch groove that would not be out of place in Tron 3. Trancient introduced a “NOHC” concept involving taking one’s own previous entry, polishing it and sending it along for a new listen. At the end of the night Jakesnke17 snuck in late with an ethereal soundbed and thick drums that was well worth the delay.

Composer Spotlight on Mirby

Taylor Brown aka Mirby is perhaps best known in the video game music community for her journalistic pursuits. She has written numerous articles reviewing arrangement albums as well as interviews with remixers. Mirby has also collaborated with members of the community for original material and for VG-based fan works. More recently she is heading the Final Fantasy remix project Audio Engineering, covering all the Cid themes from the series. I asked Mirby a few questions about her influences, her creative goals, and her short-lived ReMixing Bout compo.

Mirby revealed that her earliest exposure to music was probably as soon as she came into the world. She explained that, “My dad was a bassist in a band, so music has always been a big part in my life. The band was disbanded before I was born, and due to a drunken mishap they weren't signed. That said, my brother and all his friends (henceforth referred to as my brothers) are musicians, so through them I learned all sorts of things. In fact, if it weren't for them I might not have any interest in making music at all.” She felt that this early experience influenced her current work: “Since all my brothers did was jam sessions, all my music is basically just made as I go. Adding in what sounds good, tweaking things to make it just right... they definitely influenced me as a musician.”

It's been noted that Mirby’s solo work carries a heavily improvised style, sometimes implementing on-the-fly keyboard riffing. She elaborated that, “When I can, I like to mess around with whatever music-making thing I can; keyboards are usually what I use, but I did recently make a nice rhythm via the ocarina in Ocarina of Time 3D, and have since figured out how to play it on a keyboard. When I'm actually recording, I stick to FL Studio and soundfonts. I've found quite a few good ones, and am slowly getting more familiar with the track. I also have a friend who is willing to record live violin, so that's cool too.”

Mirby has participated in a number of compos, and eventually organized her own, Mirby's ReMixing Bout. When asked what her motivation for joining compos had been, she said, “I think I first learned about them because of JHCompo. I'd never really made music in a short time frame before, so having that restriction really inspired me. One Hour Compo is also great fun because it's half the time and thus double the rush.” She also explained why she started her own competition: “I just have a lot of tracks I want remixes for. That's literally the main inspiration for it. But thanks to my Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story remix of Plack Beach, I have been inspired to make my own remixes now instead of purely original stuff.”

She is currently organizing a Final Fantasy Cid tribute project, and described the experience of bringing artists together for collaboration: “I have a few WIPs so far, so it's going well. Considering I got all the main Cid tracks claimed in just ten days, I'm rather amazed. I guess that everyone likes Cid, so that's good.” At the time of the interview, the album was simply known as the Cid Tribute Project. She joking mentioned she had an idea for a fake cover: “Everybody Loves Cidolfus with FF12 Cid on the front.” It was later given the title Audio Engineering: A Cid Tribute Project.

Mirby revealed some of her current plans for her outlets, known collectively as Mirby Studios. “I'm always up for an interview with a remixer. Other projects include the numerous games I've been working on and have never finished. Whether I do finish those someday or not is still up in the air.” She noted that her collaboration with Wildfire remixing Subrosia’s theme from Oracle of Seasons is coming together. Regarding composition competitions, Mirby concluded that, “Basically, compos are good. If you're looking to improve on your skills, find a compo and participate. I didn't learn as much in FL Studio just messing around as when I had time restrictions. There are plenty of competitions, so it's not hard to find one.”