I take your comment as a compliment! I actually never felt the original one as being "sweet," so I suppose I didn't take it in that direction.

I do tend towards very raw sound, or at least ones which give the impression of being raw. When I get a set of stems which are well created, such as these, I can't help but try to bring out the qualities I appreciate in the stems, rather than trying to cover up "flaws."

I've been having fun with any drum related instrument lately, it's a bit of an addiction. Glad it sounded okay.

Thanks for listening and leaving your words!

Thank you for listening and leaving a comment! Regarding "Timbo/Aaliyah" I actually have no idea what you mean. I don't listen to pop music, aside from that which was made quite some time ago (60's through 90's mainly). Since this was simply a remix of someone else's song for a competition, and I did not succeed, then I probably won't take your advice to change the mix. Probably will delete it soon to make room for more songs! Thanks again!

Hello Wayne! It's good to hear from you! This is definitely not my usual style, but since it was composed by someone else, I can forgive that... ha ha. You're nice to compliment the mix when compared to the original and other remixes. The claps were in the stems, and I was making an effort to use them all... partly because I had only heard the original once before making this. I thought it might help give more of a nod to the original that way. They do however sound pretty artificial though, I agree. Having the midi files was really helpful, since I could do some hardware sound design with the composition in mind, at least without a bunch of thought and analysis. I appreciate you taking a listen and leaving your words!

Thanks for listening and leaving the kind feedback! I guess I never though of an Asian influence in this, but I suppose I understand the reference. Looks like you won the comp, and I congratulate you for that! They were fun stems to work with!

It's not really my song originally, so I can't take credit. Just a remix for diversion and changing my thought processes. Thanks for listening!

Hey there! Thanks for taking a listen to this! I didn't place well in the competition, but that is to be expected. I'm glad you prefer this to the original, as I do too. I tried to add a lot more variation than the stems had in them... I'm not one to get bored, except with repetitive music. :) I really appreciate your support and your comments!

Hey friend, good to hear from you today! The original song was just labeled as "electronic," but with the raise in tempo and some other aspects of the mix, I felt that "trip hop" represented the song best of the choices we are given. Golden Ookami did provide some MIDI files for this remix pack, and I used a couple of them. I also did some custom composition for some of my MIDI instruments to compliment it. Most of the credit goes to Golden Ookami though, since pretty much every audio stem he provided was used in this arrangement. It was a fun one to keep me working on music while transitions are going on. Thank you for taking a listen! I look forward to a message from you! Take care!

Hey buddy! Good to hear from you on this one! Of course I did not place high in the compo, I kind of expected that. I rarely work at a slow tempo like this, and it's been a while since I remixed... just needed some diversions and a wake up call. I think my biggest struggles recently are due to FL Studio... their plugin delay compensation seems pretty well broken in recent releases. Before v12, I never even thought about PDC, and in fact did not know that it was even there. Now it seems to take hours simply getting things in sync unless I use all native plugins (suck). I'm learning to adjust my workflow though. "The walk through your town..." That's funny... my town (literal city) looks like it has been carpet bombed right now! There is more construction now than any of the thirty or so years I have lived here. Big holes in the ground, empty lots, all night construction beeping, gravel where there were sidewalks, main road closed to let fracking trains through, blacktop smell permeates the air, and tweak is the real big underlying business. It's pretty hellish. Hope you are well!

Great work running the competition! You got a lot of good submissions! Thanks for listening!

Thank you Jamid for the continued support! I didn't really expect to win the compo with this one, but I needed some diversion and different ways of thinking... it helped. I'm glad you enjoyed hearing this! Thanks much!

Thanks buddy! I didn't win the comp, of course, since I was out of my element, and I mostly did it for diversion... but I'm still happy with the results. I'm glad you enjoyed listening! Thanks for the comment!

Thanks for taking a listen! Happy that you got a good reception on your remix! Was a fun sort of challenge, and not something I would usually do. Thanks for taking a listen and commenting!

Steve, thank you so much for the continued support! It seems that I can always count on you to listen to what I've been working on, and that makes me happy! Trying to get back in the zone on original works, and working with some other people's stuff has given me a new outlook. Hoping that the originator of this song likes it as well. Thanks again!

Hey Buddy, thank you! It seems that you had a different name when this comment went to my email. It's good to make the connection for real now. It's been enjoyable to do some work with other people's songs lately... it always seems to help me think in new ways and experiment, and it's been a while. Hoping to get some real work done on my own stuff now, since the nearby meth lab is no longer taking my voice and health. I'm happy with how this mix turned out, and I'm hoping that the originator digs it as well! Thanks for listening and leaving a comment!

To be honest, I only heard the original once, a couple of weeks before making this. Instead, I took the stems and midi as a constraint, and did what I felt like with them. There are actually no DIY synths present in this composition, but only some tracks recorded from MIDI gear, including Zoom RT-123 and Microkorg. Those are my go to MIDI gear, as I've been using them both for nearly fifteen years straight. I wanted this to be acceptable to all sorts of listeners, so I did not use any noisy modular or circuit bent stuff. On top of that, psychedelics are not something which I'm accustomed to integrating with my DIY gear. "Midnight's Travel" to me in recent weeks has been strictly to visit the crack head next door, in order to ask her to turn off her flood light or to bring her howling dog inside. I'm a day shifter now, so when people keep me awake until 2 AM I get annoyed. I haven't done a remix in a while, but I'm happy that you liked what you heard here! It seemed liked a vacation from the things I normally would do!

Thanks buddy! It's not a style which I'm accustomed to doing, but since the stems and midi were in good form, I thought I'd give it a try. Was kind of a good way to take it down a notch from the serious times of late. Was fun to do a remix for a change instead of hosting one, as I used to do them all the time. I appreciate you always being there to listen and give support!

Like yourself, this isn't my normal comfort zone. It is, after all, a remix of someone else's work. When creating electronic music, I rarely work below 130 BPM, and sometimes go as high as 200 BPM. I would never classify something like this as techno, and would never do something intentionally techno below 128 BPM. This remix is 116 BPM, which was up from 110 of the original. Trap is pretty much not my thing, but I have tentatively developed an offshoot, called "trip trap" which is different from trap in the way that drumstep is different from dubstep. Genre doesn't matter much to me, especially when the sounds are electronic. Vocals or real instruments are going to have much more bearing on my genre judgment, but beyond that, a synth is a synth. So... yeah faster tempos is what I usually do as well, but time stretching loops too far makes them sound rubbish. Thanks for listening and leaving a comment!

Hey Domenico! Good to hear from you today! It's interesting that you found it darker than the original, and listening again, I guess I can hear what you mean. With the "midnight" theme, I suppose that makes some sense. This remix used all of the original wav stems, so a lot of the credit goes to Ookami. I did however take one shots of some of his instruments in order to make the composition more complex. Also raised the tempo to 116 instead of 110 BPM... enough to give some energy without too many artifacts. I think the arpeggio I made on the microkorg may be part of the carpenterish feel that you get... using keyboard tracking to control the LFO modulation rate gives a pleasing time shift, with a touch of tension. Ookami's leads in this stem set were quite awesome, and I felt the need to use them all. It's great to have you back around the site, and it was pleasing to read your words. Thank you!