I will download every Marathon 1 music remake I can find, listen to them on the open-back studio headphones I got for music class at university, provide an overview of each song, notes on every song by every artist, and rank them.
So far, I've collected and taken notes on 3/4 of the remakes from:
•the original, of course!
•Dr. Craig Hardgrove - all songs plus 4 alternates
•Aaron Freed - all songs
•Chibi USA - all songs
•Homicidal Ham - all songs except What About Bob?
•Cannibal Whore Feast - half the songs
•Tobacco - half the songs
•Mark Sumner - 7 of the songs
•Nicholas Singer - 3 songs
•Hamst3r Alliance - Splash
I've also downloaded packs from Cubic Circle, and that one on Simplici7y. I see there are a couple more here on the Pfhorums. Let me know if you have a favourite remake you'd like me to include!
Things I will be listening for:
Faithfulness - Does it include every line, does it skip notes or melodies, or is otherwise missing something? Note this criteria may go totally out then window for Nicholas Singer's and some of Craig Hardgrove's complete rewrites.
Embellishment - How has the artist richened the texture with new lines, ornamentations, and instruments?
Balance - Is the rhythm too loud or melody too soft, is some important line hard to hear or some annoying instrument overpowering?
Mood - Although extremely subjective, how does the music move me to feel?
Quality - Are there whines, hisses, clicks, stereo issues, poor dynamic range, or sound like it's been through an excessive low- or high- pass filter? These are things I will likely pick up on more with my studio headphones and keen ear that you might not notice when playing on a laptop while slaughtering Pfhor.
Of course the best remixes of each song may be considered for inclusion in M1R, provided I can obtain permission from the artists. Especially, if the song is good and provides a different mood, I may use it for an alternate branch or maybe even dynamic music if we can get Lua to do that. So far this includes just Craig Hardgrove and Hamst3r but I hope to include more. Tobacco and Homicidal Ham have stood out so far as good candidates.