Your in for a treat, in my mind it’s pretty ace anyway.
Just some hiphop tie ins here and while the first one isn’t strictly hh, man that guy can mix, has an ear, tons of skill and an extensive knowledge of hiphop and has done great things in that relm but also crazy stuff like flying out to Brazil to crate dig and I love the incorporation of music from different parts of the world he does, plus it was all done live with only one turntable, one mixer, and a loop pedal
2 Likes
Thoroughly enjoyed that, amazing. Thanks!
1 Like
Full Notes:
1 – The audacity to use Navi so extensively (and still have it work!). Nice loping groove, love the kick pattern. I wish there was more of a switch-up between you main and boss sections; it sounds like playing a timed quest with the timer running out at the end
2 – God this is smooth. Luxurious bass, strings recognizable but well chopped, lovely layered snap/clap/snare. I also like the loose groove of the “boss” section and wanna hear how much further you would have pushed it if you’d taken your spare 30 seconds.
3 – Your rhythm section is the star here. Classic 90s-style groove, and that reverse on the and-of-one sounds so good. Another one where I wish the boss section had another element or two to really differentiate it from the main beat
4 – First half felt like neo-soul in the best way. Silky smooth. Props for finding your Rhodes and sax analogs, good use of chime. Boss section is perfectly fitting, nice switchup without totally breakout out of the original mood. Do the button presses at the beginning mean you played some of those parts on a 64?
5 – I really like the interplay of the ocarina and pizz strings here. In the boss interlude, I really like your bass riff. Vocals are technically rule-breaking, but my big knock against it is the repetition.
6 – I like your main sitar riff and the hi-hat ratchets that go with it. Boss section bassline and drums sound appropriately dark and wicked! I wish your arrangement wasn’t so busy at every layer, as it causes clashes and starts to sound chaotic, especially in the A section
7 – Good drunk drums, and that snare pops. I like your use of the sweeping strings, especially in the transition between sections, plus the glitchy parts of the boss section. It’s not quite what I would think of as a “boss” section, but I forgive it for that great transition
8 – Got me swaying! Kick and bass are doing hero’s work in the A section, and I love the timeout for the plucked riff. In the boss section, great usage of that piano riff, and the dnb switch is fun
9 – A grand tour of Hyrule. Well chosen chops and loops throughout, the Mario quote make me laugh, and I LOVE the drum groove in your boss section. I only wish the different parts of the A section had slightly smoother transitions
Votes:
Master Sword: 4
Kokiri Sword: 8
Deku Stick: 2
Honorable Mention (Rupees?):
7, 9
10 Likes
#1 : 2 - Clean mix and the chop are so precises. It really fit well together like it was an ingame music. No doubt I put it first. I’m proud of my beat but the 2 explode my skill.
#2 : 4 - Another clean mix, it’s run very well and the boss section is by far my favorite boss section. If we should judge by boss section only, 4 would be my first choice easy.
Then it come many contender to #3… I say 7. The mix is perfectible. The water sound is too loud and I feel the global master too compressed maybe. I don’t know there is something that make me a bit of ears fatigue. Maybe the hats or the high freqs too present. Apart from the mix / master that can be improved, the beat is well articulated. I like this chill vibe, not really a boss section but it’s a cool variation at the end with the kind of guitare. Keep working you are on the good way to make bangers!
8 Likes
4 Likes
Thanks for the reminder!
@Yabba
@Unifono
@1-2
@malus_mons
Hope you can find the time to vote!
By the way, I’ve listened to the playlist multiple times now, absolutely love all of your creations! Well done 
2 Likes
thanks for the reminder!
I go with:
Master sword: #7
for the super sweet chilled vibe and sloppy drums
second #9
for being the most creative. Great journey, all sorts of boss levels
third #4
for the end part, which I love. Nice punchy mix
HM:
#5 great beat, very well produced
#8 also very creative use with various sections
Great playlist overall. Enjoyed it a lot again. Always impressed by the results of these battles
3 Likes
Yahaha!
Oh wait, wrong game
M. Sword #4
You must be from the west coast of hyrule, really captures that vibe, vocalesqe melody line plays out like a gliding moog sound on a classic 90s west coast track, the way the ocarina section was chopped gave me a rhodes vibe. Breath sounds pushed with the rhythm and and were integrated very smoothly. Boss battle was so grovin! Especially liked the percussion plucky liquid sound going on here and ending with a reverse was a nice touch
2 #7
Drums were a bit loose for my taste in the beginning, then locked in nicely. The star here was the tone on the samples. Bliss. Sounded like some classic old sampler fairy dust was sprinkled on them. Great use of filtering on this. Wish the boss battle was more obvious than riding out the main sample with additional element. Super classic beautiful rough and really liked the riff at the end
3 #3 sweet boss battle. I liked the way the strings were cut, and the bounce on the drums. Boss battle was the jam here, and such a great transition into it. Nice outro, sounded like the boss was defeated
Hm
#6 digging the eerie sound onto this one, liked the way the ocarina was pitched around. The aggressive cello/upper bass sound on the boss section was menacing and my favorite part
#2 very sweet sound on this track. I really liked the boss section and the kind of jazzy drums that went with it. Just wish this part played out longer, it was so good but felt a tease then left so quick, a bit more of this may have moved it up my list.
Enjoyed listening to these. Nicely done VG/HH heads
3 Likes
Side note: did anyone else find this one extra challenging, I love the idea of chopping the game sounds but they had a certain quality I found a little more difficult to work with. I was glad the symphonic version was in play as well as the original soundtrack
Also, I saw a couple people mention they felt the rules were too restrictive on this in a limiting way. Other than wanting a little more than 2:30 on the time limit I did not find this a problem at all, so I’m just curious if anyone wants to chime in on which part they felt was holding them back. Personally felt the boss battle was such a cherry on top of this challenge and I tip my hat to that, although I was looking foreward to hearing more
than we ended up getting, but admittedly I held back a little bit on this too and originally had a crazier boss battle and, ended up going with something a little simpler.
how did everyone else who made a track or ended up not making one feel on this?
3 Likes
To be honest, I do so many of the Mission Briefs that I don’t find limitation with the challenge, but much rather myself.
Part of it is that while I do like hip hop, I listen to way more EDM. So I don’t have good instincts to carry the extra way to a good beat.
2 Likes
I was thinking, and I should be clear.
We need more restrictive challenges.
They make us better producers, but they also bring our shortcomings into the light.
Anything can be produced from anything. But not everybody can produce everything.
1 Like
On reflection I don’t think it was to restrictive, I think I went about it the wrong way.
Firstly I’ve been waiting for a “games” and especially “Nintendo” theme for a while as I really love game music, but despite being a lifelong Nintendo fan the N64 was the console I skipped and went to the PSX darkside. As a result I’m not super familiar with Ocarina of Time despite it being considered by many the greatest game and soundtrack of all time so was initially stuck for ideas.
I then got really obsessed with this 8 bit music theory video about how the themes were composed and started trying to write something using Koji Kondo’s composition rules. My lack of compositional skills + having to build it using N64 samples meant it ended up really twee and I hated it so I abandoned it.
I then decided to start with the alternate time signature section as that sounded really fun. I got something I was quite happy with, but again found using the N64 samples restrictive so I ended up having to decide if I wanted to compromise what I was making or make something I couldn’t use for the competition. I decided on the later and ended up making this instead:
Which I’m quite pleased with, but ended up not really being relevant to Zelda in any way.
By this point I was running very low on time and didn’t really want to just mash up a couple of orchestral samples into a generic hiphop beat so I decided to sit this one out.
The two experiments I did were both very interesting and educational so despite not actually producing anything I could submit I’m very happy with my engagement with the challenge.
7 Likes
Nice varied selection of beats 
my vote.
Master #2
Love the chops and little changes in the main sample and the release at the end.
Great beat.
Kokiri #7
Nice lazy drag on the drums and pleasant sample choice, and a great use of it.
Deku Stick #5
A pleasant Jazzy feel, like how punchy the chops are.
Nicely done to @Jedilicious for the set up and concept
An enjoyable listen and battle all round.
Personally I enjoy the rules and limitations.
6 Likes
Same here, limitations were fine. I lost momentum because of the holidays, and when i got back in to some kind of rhythm i ran out of time… oh well on to the next one!
Btw great job to everyone who got one out!
3 Likes
I did agonize over whether or not I could use a chop because of extra background sounds I wasn’t able to eq out. Turned out not to matter in the mix!
Perhaps, but this is fun. I like it
3 Likes
I defo felt like the focus was way too narrow for me personally but that’s in no way a pop at @Jedilicious, I also feel, and again this is imho that the narrower focus led to less submissions than we usually see and maybe discouraged other forum members from taking part… 🤷
3 Likes
No worries
I hope that we can keep experimenting and playing with the briefs. Keeps the creative juices flowing 
3 Likes
For the record, I really liked this brief. I did find it a bit more of a challenge than I had anticipated, but I think that’s a good thing.
The 64 sounds were for me harder to fit into something that still had a hiphop sound to it, I tried several bits from the source material which is excellent especially composition wise and has a nostalgic sound, there was just a distinct sonic character to it that was tricker to balance in with the hiphop context for me. Props to anyone who made that work smoothly. For some reason I think I could have worked 8 or 16 bit sound more as it’s very videogame sounding but thats just a guess as i havent tried it. Modern games have not in the same way of a hardware signature sound and the 64 midfi game sound left me confused🤔
Enjoyed this one quite a bit and it was all about experimenting for me and kept my creatives flowing for sure. Thanks @Jedilicious
2 Likes
@monquixote nice 5/4. Thanks for putting it up here
I was also thinking of using the 5 note limitation thing and knew I probably didn’t have the time to work that with samples. That said some melodic sample pitching may have found its way in anyway.
This mission made me think a little different and I liked that, kind of solving a puzzle that link would come across. This one felt a bit like playing a videogame
Appreciate people responding with their takes on things. I like making these tracks, I like listening to what others make, and I like the discussions around not just techniques and gear technical things, but also the thought processes, ideas, frustrations and everything else that went into making these tracks come to life