Also, please use more natural instruments for ACZ than the ones you've used for these remasters.
I don't know if I want to mess with ACZ1 as it's already in a pretty good spot. I'll keep it in mind if I do ACZ2 though.
Greenflower Act 1 sounds like the opening to a 90's sitcom. The new additions sound really out of place with the existing song, especially the section with the quieted percussion.
The GFZ1 cover is a big departure from what we have now, but this is mainly because its flaws merited extensive reconstruction. The lead of the original was very grating, the song's tone was rather depressing and the chord progression overall was kind of awkward. What I mainly wanted to do was balance the optimistic keys with the more "tragic" ones, as well as get rid of the stupid F minor switch in the second half to improve the segues. Increasing the tempo made the tune overall more upbeat, so the quieter percussion in the next half seems to work well as a contrast; it also reflects the fact that this is a tutorial level which is not particularly demanding of the player.
The melody's second instrument and split into counter melodies helped to keep the timbre fresh, but the 90's sitcom syndrome might be a byproduct of some of those earlier elements; in particular, I think I may have went a little overboard with the melody's third set of bars (notably the accidentals), and the additional instruments probably could have been introduced a little more slowly. Even if I weren't to do anything about that, I think I would still choose this version over the original if I were in someone else's shoes.
Deep Sea Act 1 sounds alright, but I feel like the lead instrument doesn't fit well with the otherwise acoustic-ish instrumentation. The new synth melody overlaying the song started to grow on me the more I listened, but man does its transition back to the beginning feel weird. I think it isn't exactly your fault--moreso it's an issue with how the song's chord progression was already written and how you're trying to maintain it. The major chords at the end don't segue well back into the beginning of the song, and it's probably less noticeable of an issue with the original track since it doesn't even try to smoothly loop back into itself. Anyway, I'd recommend trying to make the instrumentation meld together better, either by shifting things to a more acoustic sound or a more digital sound.
I'll look into it.
Red Volcano Act 1 is pretty good! I like what you did with the bassline; it goes the song a bit of an extra rock 'n' roll kick. The new background melodies blend in with the existing stuff, too, though the chords near the end seem contrary to the melody. If I had to make one suggestion, I think it'd do the song well to give the bass a little extra reverb and the orchestra hits some echo.
I was also suspicious about the ending chords, but I'm not sure how to fix it yet. I have bad experiences with bass reverb, but I have like three separate basslines so it probably wouldn't hurt to try it on just one of them. I'll look into the hits.
I don't feel like Red Volcano Act 2 or Egg Rock Core sound good at all at the beginning, but it's not because of your remastering--rather, those songs have some really bad dissonance that makes them grating to listen to. Red Volcano's issue is the parallel fifths in the leading background chords and the quick-paced chords after those are constantly a minor third apart. Really, the harmonies in those songs are just poor and could use a lot of tuning up if you feel up to the task. Beyond the first parts though, they do sound a bit better.
I had a feeling that the dissonance was intentional, so I kept it in. I don't have much to go on for RVZ2 anyway, so I'll keep it as is until we have a playable demo of the act. In the future it will probably need to be looked at more.
The brass in the Super Sneakers track sounds kind of over-the top, ahaha. It's an intense tune, sure, but now it sounds kind of silly.
Yeah, not proud of this one right now. The only obviously good thing about it over the original is the percussion. Need to patch it up at a later date.
As a general comment, I don't think these remasters necessarily have better production values than the original soundtrack does. It sounds... on-par, just without the use of any traditional midi sounds. Some zone soundtracks you didn't touch on yet, such as Techno Hill and Egg Rock, still have higher-quality instrumentation and orchestration than these remasters. That being said, it's not like there's no room for improvement, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this project goes from here.
I'm not interested in touching on Techno Hill or ACZ1, since I think they're technically and compositionally competent and don't have a lot of room for improvement. However, I think the benefits of purely remastering tunes are more apparent in the Special Stage cover; the original tune had a decent composition but certain elements such as the melody line were muddier. With my tools I could add sharper instruments with more depth, and also make minor tweaks to the melody to make everything flow a little better.
Egg rock is... a mixed bag. Notwithstanding their already absurd volume levels, the entire thing is just one giant solo. I'm not happy with it from a compositional standpoint.
