What was I thinking getting into this? I suppose I felt it was time to give myself a challenge. I wanted to create something different from a standard video game cover. I wanted to do something over-the-top, epic, extraordinary, while at the same time conveying the overall mood of the game as accurately as possible in one giant yet compact medley. And a challenge it was. I really pushed my arranging, playing, recording, mixing, and production skills to new places with this one. I feel that coming out of this, I have improved significantly in all these areas. So why Pokémon Colosseum? Out of all the games that I've played, Colosseum had a soundtrack that really stood out to me. It has a distinctive, unifying mood to it, something that isn't easy to accomplish in a video game soundtrack. Another feature that really unifies the soundtrack is the sharing of small motifs across the different tracks. Not immediately noticeable though, but enough to subconsciously make the correlation. And of course it has some bitchin' guitar solos. Many thanks to Mr. Tsukasa Tawada for composing this fine music, it was truly a pleasure to play.
Tracklist:
1. Title Screen - 0:00 2. Main Menu - 1:41 3. Shadow Pokémon Lab - 2:15 4. Pyrite Town - 3:03 5. The Under - 4:07 6. Friendly Battle (First Battle) - 5:08 7. Normal Battle - 6:08 8. Cipher Peon Battle - 7:04 9. Relic Forest - 8:06 10. Mt. Battle - 9:08 11. Ending - 9:47 12. Final Battle - 10:14 13. Ending (Reprise) - 11:21
Gameplay footage courtesy of chuggaaconroy and ka6Scope
What was I thinking getting into this? I suppose I felt it was time to give myself a challenge. I wanted to create something different from a standard video game cover. I wanted to do something over-the-top, epic, extraordinary, while at the same time conveying the overall mood of the game as accurately as possible in one giant yet compact medley. And a challenge it was. I really pushed my arranging, playing, recording, mixing, and production skills to new places with this one. I feel that coming out of this, I have improved significantly in all these areas. So why Pokémon Colosseum? Out of all the games that I've played, Colosseum had a soundtrack that really stood out to me. It has a distinctive, unifying mood to it, something that isn't easy to accomplish in a video game soundtrack. Another feature that really unifies the soundtrack is the sharing of small motifs across the different tracks. Not immediately noticeable though, but enough to subconsciously make the correlation. And of course it has some bitchin' guitar solos. Many thanks to Mr. Tsukasa Tawada for composing this fine music, it was truly a pleasure to play.
Tracklist:
1. Title Screen - 0:00 2. Main Menu - 1:41 3. Shadow Pokémon Lab - 2:15 4. Pyrite Town - 3:03 5. The Under - 4:07 6. Friendly Battle (First Battle) - 5:08 7. Normal Battle - 6:08 8. Cipher Peon Battle - 7:04 9. Relic Forest - 8:06 10. Mt. Battle - 9:08 11. Ending - 9:47 12. Final Battle - 10:14 13. Ending (Reprise) - 11:21
Gameplay footage courtesy of chuggaaconroy and ka6ScopePokémon League (DPPt) Relaxing Guitar CoverDr. Pez - VGM2023-07-17 | _Pokémon League_ from Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum arranged for solo guitar ______________________________________________
❤️ *Support future projects:* On Patreon: drpez.ca/patreon With a donation: drpez.ca/donateKofi ______________________________________________
Fair warning that this one is quite a bit different than my typical content on this channel. Truth is I've been wanting to do a solo guitar cover for years, but never really had the confidence in my chops nor the right song to make a solid attempt at recording something.
After finishing the DPPt medley with its hundreds of individual recordings and the struggles of trying to make them all mesh together, I felt an intense desire to do a complete 180 from that workflow and do a bare-bones, single-track arrangement where the focus is on the performance rather than the production. After combing through all the tracks that I didn't manage to fit into the medley, I came across this piece, and almost instantly after fooling around with it on guitar, the arrangement just sort of fell into place with the basic structure being more or less complete after an evening of playing. That's when I knew that this was the one.
It feels rather odd releasing this to the public, with all the imperfections in my playing on full display and no accompanying tracks to cover them up. The insecure part of me worries that it may alienate part of my audience that's expecting more produced covers, but on the other hand I'm happy I chose to record this as a lot of good came out of the process, like finally getting a good clean sound (something I've struggled with forever).
I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea but hopefully it will resonate with some of you as it did for me. I'm curious to hear what you guys think!Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Music MedleyDr. Pez - VGM2022-11-29 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/DPPtMp3 ❤️ Donate (receive a FLAC copy in return!): http://drpez.ca/DPPtDonate 🌐 Twitter: http://drpez.ca/twitter 🌐 Facebook: http://drpez.ca/fb __________________________________________________
Where to begin with this one... Pokemon Diamond/Pearl hold a special place in my heart so I feel like it's fitting that they're the subject of the most complex project I've taken on to date.
From an objective standpoint, the 4th gen games were a significant step up from their predecessors. Technically, they saw a number of benefits thanks to the DS's hardware. 2 screens? Now battles are more immersive since the UI is confined to the touch screen. Wireless communication? Now we don't have to connect a janky cable in order to battle. Wifi? _You're telling me I can trade with people all over the world?_ Coming from 3rd gen, it can't be overstated how massive a deal these improvements were.
More relevantly, 4th gen saw a massive step up in the music department thanks to the DS's beefed up audio system: the developers now had 16 channels of audio at their disposal compared to just 6 on the GBA, and you better believe they took full advantage of it. Gone were days of simplifying arrangements to fit the confines of the hardware - now the composers had the freedom to go hog wild with the instrumentation, and on some tracks it really shows, with layers upon layers of musical texture woven into the arrangements.
For a cover artist, that presents a big challenge; compared with previous generations, a typical track could easily take on average twice as long to arrange, record, and mix, if staying true to the original instrumentation. Anyone that's familiar with my channel knows that that's precisely what my covers are known for, so that accounts, in part, for what took this project so long compared to the Ruby/Sapphire medley.
Personally, the gen 4 games were probably the ones that I sunk the most time into out of any other generation; between the underground mines, GTS, and vast post-game content, there was always something to work towards. They were also one of the last that I played to completion before "growing out" of Pokemon in general. Perhaps that's among the reasons that I felt driven to really give this project everything I had to make it the best that I possibly could. In a strange way, this seems like a kind of closure to that period of my life.
The lengths I went to pull off some aspects of this project were borderline madness that had me questioning if it was really worth it. Among them: learning new instruments, renting a grand piano, practicing weeks on end to pull of short, but extremely challenging lines, tinkering with obsolete software to get video playing on the DS - really detail-oriented stuff, of which a lot wasn't 100% necessary, but really ties the project together IMO. I also went out of my way to find the best guest performers that I could to do justice to the variety of instrumentation found in the soundtrack and to hopefully realize the vision of what the composers had in mind when they wrote the music.
Regardless of how bumpy the development of this project was, the final product is something I'm proud to have worked on, and I hope you enjoy it too.
If you thought the Elite Four were clever, just wait until you meet these brainiacs...
This one's been a long time coming. I've had requests to cover this tune since I first starting doing Pokemon covers. I started working on an arrangement some years ago but it kind of fizzled out after struggling to find not only a unique spin to put on, but also a way to wrap it up as a full song without repeating anything too much. After the success of the Ruby/Sapphire medley though, the demand for this tune was revived once again and that gave me the push I needed to finally follow through on my arrangement; this was definitely one of the more challenging ones I've done but I'm quite happy with how it turned out overall!
That wasn't the only thing delaying this one though - a little fun fact is that this cover was produced during a dynamic time in my life when I was relocating, so half of it was produced in my familiar studio and the other half was produced on a completely new setup built from the ground up. Most notably, you'll see me playing everything on my old gear, however all the leads you hear were recorded on a totally new guitar, which I can't wait to properly showcase in a new video.
The fact that everything was mixed on a completely new/better monitoring system also did wonders for my ears, revealing some shortcomings of my previous work and as a result I think this is easily the best sounding mix I've done to date.
Anyway, hope you enjoy; let me know what you think and feel free to put out suggestions for what you'd like to hear me take on next. I've got my hands full with another project that will probably take the rest of the year, so I won't be putting out anything else until then, but I can promise you it will be worth the wait ;)Pokémon RSE - Elite Four Battle Music CoverDr. Pez - VGM2019-08-15 | 🎵 mp3: drpez.ca/rseE4mp3 🌐 Twitter: http://drpez.ca/twitter 🌐 Facebook: http://drpez.ca/fb ______________________________________________
You asked for it, you got it - here's the number one requested track out of those that didn't make it into the Ruby/Sapphire medley: youtu.be/tApcs3I9Tmk
It was admittedly quite difficult to draw inspiration for this one, so I ended up settling on a faithful, true-to-the-original version, maintaining as many of the details of the original track as possible. This also a direct response to the overwhelmingly positive feedback on the Ruby/Sapphire medley, where I incorporated a similar strategy that many of you seemed to appreciate :)
Once again, a big thanks goes out to Marc Papeghin for absolutely nailing the trumpet and horn parts. Be sure to check out his channel: http://www.youtube.com/MarcPapeghinPokémon Ruby & Sapphire - Title Screen Music CoverDr. Pez - VGM2019-01-18 | Watch the full medley here: youtu.be/IwInqrN_auU
A cool little feature I incorporated into the arrangement of the Ruby & Sapphire medley is that it begins and ends on the title screen music; halfway through the theme I break into the rest of the medley and reprise it again 16 minutes later. Here's what it sounds like pieced together as it was originally written!
This one's been a long time coming... Ever since my early days of YouTube I've always toyed with the thought of a 3rd gen medley. I guess the urge finally reached a critical level last year when I decided to finally give it a shot.
Ever since I played it for the first time, Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire have held a special place in my heart as one of the most enjoyable games I've played, due in large part to the incredible soundtrack. I think most of us would agree that the remakes fell flat when it came to capturing the feels of the original, so I made it my mission with this medley to do just that: not only to capture the spirit of the originals, but to add to them in a tasteful way that respects the vision of each song, as well as attempting to tie them together in one cohesive piece of music.
No aspect of the arrangements was overlooked, from each roaring trumpet line to each background synthesizer, which I spent excessive amounts of time trying to perfect. I sincerely hope that I did the soundtrack justice and I hope you enjoy this little journey through the world of Hoenn as much as I did making it.
A huge thanks to all the guest artists who made this project possible, with a notable mention to Marc Papeghin on the brass, the only person I could possibly imagine to do the infamous trumpet parts justice. Please check them out below:
(EDIT: Since lots of people are asking, the drums were sequenced with the help of Superior Drummer; no one performed them!)
Track List:
1. Title Screen - 0:00 2. Littleroot Town - 0:57 3. Oldale Town - 2:09 4. Petalburg City - 3:00 5. Route 104 - 3:33 6. Fortree City - 4:20 7. Rustboro City - 5:24 8. May - 6:00 9. Rival Battle - 6:18 10. Gym Leader Battle - 7:58 11. Trainer Battle - 9:16 12. Route 110 - 11:23 13. Route 111 - 12:29 14. Slateport City - 12:43 15. Route 120 - 14:00 16. Ever Grande City - 15:39 17. Title Screen (Reprise) - 16:20
______________________________________________________ *Lossless quality FLAC delivered via email; check your spam folder if you don't see it in your inbox after 30 minsThe soundtrack of Ocarina of Time, but its a prog rock concept albumDr. Pez - VGM2017-09-18 | What would Ocarina of Time sound like if it was written in the style of a prog rock concept album? "Tempo of Time" is a medley by myself and @Marc_Papeghin that seeks to answer that question.
So a little background on how this project came to be:
Marc and I have had a history of collaborations dating back to ~2013. After several of these, it became clear that we had what I thought was some pretty cool musical chemistry, so I pitched the idea of a collaboration; since we were both fond of these big, prog-epic style medleys I thought it would be cool to write and co-produce one together. The idea, in essence, was to take the music of one video game and turn it into one big, flowing piece of music. Funny enough, the "prog" part of this project wasn't explicitly the genre that we were going for when writing it, but due to our common prog influences, that's the form it naturally took (and I'm sure the prog fans out there will be able to pick out more than a couple references hidden in there) ;)
So why Ocarina of Time? Besides its popularity, OoT in hindsight was the perfect candidate for such a medley: for one it tells a great story, complete with a time-traveling hero fighting his way through a world full of mysterious creatures in order to rescue a princess from the grasp of evil. Most importantly though, the soundtrack and its connection to the story set a gold standard for video games, with timeless classics to be heard throughout the game. Even better, it's clear that Koji Kondo himself was inspired by prog rock as evidenced by the musical style of some of the compositions.
Lastly, it's pretty well known that the soundtrack of OoT has been covered to death in the VGM community, so it presented us with an challenge/opportunity to really get creative with the arrangements and try to do something that's never been done with the soundtrack before. Some may prefer more the traditional arrangements, but I hope that many will also appreciate the unique spin we tried to throw on this classic.
This medley wouldn't have been possible without the help of the following talented guest musicians, so be sure to check them out!
(Everything else performed by myself and @Marc_Papeghin )
Tracklist: 1. Title Screen 0:00 2. Hyrule Field 2:03 3. Market 4:00 4. Fairy Navi 5:12 5. Battle 5:59 6. Song of Storms 7:47 7. Zelda's Lullaby / Interlude 9:50 8. Song of Time 11:00 9. Shadow Temple 12:27 10. Chamber of Sages 16:40 11. Boss Battle 18:23 12. Ganondorf Battle 19:51 13. Gerudo Valley 21:39 14. Ganon Battle 24:05 15. Tempo of Time / Finale 26:18
Original Soundtrack composed by Koji Kondo
Arranged and produced by Dr. Pez and Marc Papeghin
______________________________________________________ ¹Lossless quality FLACs delivered via email; check your spam folder if you don't see it in your inbox after 30 minsPokemon Sun/Moon - Hauoli City Music CoverDr. Pez - VGM2016-11-20 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/hauoliMp3 🎼 Tabs/sheet music: http://www.drpez.ca/tabs
With the release of the new Pokemon games comes a new batch of tunes to cover! Listening to this tune seems to have the uncanny effect of melting all your worries away...Pokemon B/W 2 - Champion Iris Battle, Metal Guitar CoverDr. Pez - VGM2016-09-05 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/IrisMp3 🎼 Tabs/sheet music: http://drpez.ca/tabs
Hope everyone's enjoying the holidays! I decided to do something seasonal considering the time of the year. Admittedly, this one was a bit rushed so some of the transitions may not be as smooth as they could have been, but I hope you enjoy anyway!Pokemon Trading Card Game - Normal Battle, Band CoverDr. Pez - VGM2015-10-15 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/tcgnbmp3 🌐 Twitter: http://www.drpez.ca/twitter 🌐 Facebook: http://www.drpez.ca/fb _________________________________________________
A big thanks to Mitch and Carlos for helping out on this one! We had a blast covering this under-appreciated tune from from the spin-off game, Pokemon TCG.
Hey all, although a few days late, this concludes my month of weekly covers by request. Lots of great requests this year but I had to save the best for last!
A big thanks to the awesome musicians backing me up, be sure to check them out:
The second request of the month comes from a series I'm not at all familiar with, but due to the large number of requests for this one, I decided to give it a shot! This is one of the shortest covers I've done, and while I would have liked to expand on it a bit, I got the feeling that this one would work great as a TV series intro, so I decided to arrange it as such: short and to the point with a big layered Hollywood-style mix.
Hey all, if you missed the Facebook post, June is going to be a month of weekly covers by request, and this is the first installment. Never thought I'd be doing a surf rock cover, but ever since I've got my Telecaster I've been looking for a good song to showcase it so here we are! I'm actually surprised with how well this one turned out; this is the first time using my new Vox AC15 in a cover so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I easily got a nice twangy tone that I think fits perfectly for this tune!
I want this month to be about experimenting and getting out of my musical comfort zone, and I can already say that it's very refreshing trying something completely different. If you have a request you'd like to make, see the announcement post here: facebook.com/Drpez12/posts/831897736891605Pokemon DPPt - Legendary Trio Battle, Metal Guitar CoverDr. Pez - VGM2015-05-27 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/dpptTrioMp3 🌐 Twitter: http://www.drpez.ca/twitter 🌐 Facebook: http://www.drpez.ca/fb _________________________________________________
So far 2015 has been about finishing up old projects on hold - the drum track for this one was written a whopping 3 years ago, and surprisingly, was good enough to use without changing anything. I went about recording this one in a slightly different way in that I started tracking instruments without having a concrete arrangement. This ended up producing some cool spur-of-the-moment ideas, and I think I might start using this way more in the future.
About the song itself: one of my fondest memories from 4th gen Pokemon was encountering Mesprit in the wild and hearing this music: The initial confusion of silence accompanying a wild encounter, followed by realization after the music fades in...
This one is interesting as it's one of the only themes that was written for a specific Pokemon, which is kind of ironic considering how difficult it was to encounter Deoxys back in 3rd gen. Of course this has changed with the release of the ruby/sapphire remakes, which has exposed more people to this great theme. This is also probably the most work I've put into a single cover. I really wanted to convey the dark/mysterious nature of the music, and I took some liberties with the arrangement in order to do so. Hope you enjoy!Pokemon RSE - Team Magma/Aqua Battle Metal Guitar CoverDr. Pez - VGM2015-01-06 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/rseTeamMp3 🎼 Tabs/sheet music: http://www.drpez.ca/tabs
Easily one of the most badass songs from the 3rd generation. Still getting used to the new guitar, so the lead sound could use some work, but let me know what you think!Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness Music MedleyDr. Pez - VGM2014-09-28 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/xdmp3 🎼 Tabs/sheet music: http://www.drpez.ca/tabs
After the positive reception of my Pokémon Colosseum medley, I proudly present to you, after many months of hard work, its sequel, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.
Admittedly, I was reluctant to the idea at first. Pokémon XD didn’t have the same unifying feel to me as Colosseum; the musical themes are far more diverse in XD, so creating a medley out of it would be much more difficult. However after some critical listening of the soundtrack, I realized how it was genius in its own way, and knew that I was up to the challenge of re-creating it.
Incorporating guitar into predominantly guitar-less music is always a challenge, but in order to maintain the original feel of the soundtrack, I decided for this one to give it a little less prominence and instead allow some other instruments to shine, such as the keyboards and brass section. At this point I have to give a special mention to Marc Papeghin for his generous contribution to this project. The brass section really makes the soundtrack and this medley wouldn’t have been possible without it.
All in all I’m very pleased with how this turned out. I feel that this project is my defining work and that I’m a better overall musician after completing it. Once again thanks to Mr. Tsukasa Tawada for providing the world with this excellent music.
Be sure to check out all of the talented guests that performed on this medley:
After working together on the Fusion Dragon collaboration, we noticed that we make a pretty good team, so we decided to get together for another collab. This one was suggested by Ashikodrum, and credit goes to him for the arrangement. We hope you enjoy!
Here is a collab with a few members of the video game band, Tetrimino. You can listen to an alternate mix of this cover on their channel here: youtube.com/watch?v=xvFmiYjKtIo
**All credit for this arrangement goes to S.S.T. band**
To celebrate the release of Pokemon X/Y, I decided to make a new cover from the games! Listening through the few available tracks last week, I chose this one because it's pretty much a classic Pokemon battle theme. It's got all the elements that make a great battle theme (driving rhythm, soaring melodies, blazing fast licks, etc.) which makes me glad that Pokemon has stayed true to their roots with this one. What do you think of the new music in Pokemon X/Y?Pokémon GSC - Cherrygrove City Guitar & Accordion DuetDr. Pez - VGM2013-09-22 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/cherrygrovemp3 🌐 Twitter: http://www.drpez.ca/twitter 🌐 Facebook: http://www.drpez.ca/fb
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I always got a small town feel for this city so I wanted to arrange this one in relaxed/laid back style to complement that feel. Hope you enjoy!
I also experimented with some new acoustic recording/mixing techniques for this one and as a result I think this is my best acoustic tone I've gotten. Let me know what you think!Golden Sun - Fusion Dragon Progressive Metal CoverDr. Pez - VGM2013-08-05 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/fusiondragonmp3 🌐 Twitter: http://www.drpez.ca/twitter 🌐 Facebook: http://www.drpez.ca/fb _________________________________________________
Final battle theme from Golden Sun. A big thanks to Ashikodrum (drums), HatTrax (bass), and Marcpapeghin (brass) for lending their skills for this one. Be sure to check out their work!
For the second video in my month of weekly covers, I decided to do something easy in order to give me time to work on a more complex cover for next week. I also decided to do live takes for this one, hence why you see the microphone in this video. You can be sure to expect more Animal Crossing covers in the future!
'Been listening to some bluegrass lately, so I tried to make cover in that style. I've been wanting to cover this for a while but I didn't have a solid arrangement. After my last cover with Songe, I felt that I could make a decent arrangement as it was in a similar style. This one is based off of the GSC arrangement.
Note: the mandolin isn't mine. Thanks to Jani for letting me borrow it.
Here's another GameCube-era Pokemon cover. This has got to be one of the trickiest leads I've played so far! I decided to keep the arrangement as close to the original as possible.Pokemon GSC - Lavender Town Lullaby Guitar CoverDr. Pez - VGM2012-07-14 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/gsclavendermp3 🌐 Twitter: http://www.drpez.ca/twitter 🌐 Facebook: http://www.drpez.ca/fb _________________________________________________
There's a lot of mixed opinions regarding the GSC arrangement of Lavender Town due to the fact that it was made less "scary". I for one love it and think that it's fitting given the circumstances of the games.Pokemon DPPt - Champion Cynthia Battle Metal Guitar CoverDr. Pez - VGM2012-06-21 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/cynthiabattlemp3 🎼 Tabs/sheet music: http://www.drpez.ca/tabs
The first time I walked into The Lumpy Pumpkin playing Skyward Sword, this song immediately caught my attention. I noticed it consisted entirely of instruments that I already played, so it was naturally the perfect song to cover. The only problem with it was the last part, which I wasn't too fond of, so I replaced it with something I'm sure all of you will recognize ;)
Also a special thanks to Mike for playing the brushes.
I just recently finished playing Majora's Mask for the first time. Easily one of the best games I've played, and I knew I had to cover some of the music so I thought Clock Town would be a good place to start. I wanted to make this cover as traditional as possible to capture the mood of the town, and I think I did a pretty good job. Hope you enjoy this one as well!
A big thanks to Ferdk for doing this collab with me! This was the first true collab for both of us, so it was a new experience. We both had a blast making this medley and are really happy with how it turned out, so we hope you enjoy it as well!
After a long absence of acoustic covers, I've finally made a new one! Hopefully my mixes are starting to sound more professional :) The accordion actually wasn't intended to be in this cover when I first arranged it, the guitar was going to take the main leads and some organ for the second leads. However I had a lot of trouble mixing in the lead guitar in for the rough copy (even with the guitar lead I included for the final mix I had to make a lot of adjustments to make it sit right), so I decided to try throwing some accordion in there, and it sounded great. Come to think of it the song is almost desingned for it! The result is my best sounding cover so far. Hope you enjoy!Wild Pokemon Battle (Johto) Metal Guitar CoverDr. Pez - VGM2012-01-21 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/gscwildmp3 🌐 Twitter: http://www.drpez.ca/twitter 🌐 Facebook: http://www.drpez.ca/fb _________________________________________________
This is a remake of the very first Pokemon guitar cover that I posted to this channel. One of the coolest songs from any Pokemon game IMO, so I'm happy to finally have redone it.
This was originally intended to be the very first Pokemon cover I uploaded to this channel, but at the time, it was too much for my skill level. The arrangement is based around an orchestra, so I had a lot of fun arranging for all the different instruments, as well as incorporating guitar into the mix. This is also the first video where I use my new amp, so you should notice a big change in sound quality from my previous electric guitar cover. Oh yeah and I play accordion!
The music that plays in Viridian City, as well as Pewter City and Saffron City. Based on the Heartgold/Soulsilver Remix, by request.New Super Mario Bros. Main Theme Guitar CoverDr. Pez - VGM2011-06-23 | 🎵 mp3: http://drpez.ca/nsmbmp3 🎼 Tabs/sheet music: http://www.drpez.ca/tabs