Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Cool instrumentation choices. If you can get it sounding more fluid/humanized, the concept has legs. :-)

I've never heard the previous two versions, so I'm visiting this sub with fresh ears. I also voted on the revised version Seth included in his comments after he said he noticed the mixing was wrong. Opens up with a rise in volume of a pad, followed by some basic synths and claps at :13. The theme arrives at :25 and there's some decent density to start. The theme's there, but this is texturally scant despite all this volume. Volume doesn't equal fullness in terms of the writing; right now, the beats sound really barebones. Hits the chorus at :55 and there's countermelodic supporting writing until 1:22 that sounds off-key, though it's relatively quiet. The melody's quietly brought in from 1:36-1:47 in a way that also sounds sluggish and off-key, like it's being chorused or delayed; not sure what's going on there. Once it hit the chorus from :54-1:22, the interpretation of the source melody itself felt very minimal and straightforward. This combination of sounds doesn't make sense when the percussion, beats, and bass are so minimalist and basic, yet it's surrounded by this busy-sounding yet off-key ornamentation underneath the melody. 1:49 transitions into what's seemingly an all-original composition section where the volume's loud while the texture feels very basic. More off-key supporting writing underneath the melody from 2:18-2:46 that sounds pretty bad on headphones but might not stand out as much on monitors; this writing sounds like it's meant to be doubling the lead, but it sounds clashing the whole way through. I grew up on this theme, but I'm sorry if I'm not recognizing something taken directly from the theme from 1:49-2:18; I couldn't make out any connection. From 2:18-on, I don't recognize that stuff from the source tune either, but it's possible it's taken from some sort of quitter supporting writing in the source or I'm just ignorant in recognizing some sort of interpretation. The source melody could bear more interpretation and/or variation, the beat-writing is too simplistic, the beats do have some weight to the sound, yet they don't fill the soundscape enough to not let the overall track seem thin, and the densest section are filled with off-key writing adding noise instead of substance. The less dense sections work better on account of the lack of clashing background writing and are, arguably, the track's best feature, yet those sections *still* feel texturally empty, so it's a tough approach to get this to a place where it could rise above the bar here. (I see you in the community, so the links are more for posterity and for others who may see this feedback and want to take part). That said, Seth, Audiomancer tried 10 separate times with one track before his debut mixpost, so if you have the sticktuitiveness to regularly use the community resources on the Workshop forums and on the Discord server for more feedback and guidance, maybe you can be another success story. NO

It'll seem like I disliked the piece when I mainly hear lots of unrealized potential. This was texturally empty, just way too thin and simplistic, which was unfortunate after a very promising intro with a cool sound. The volume of the elements in play doesn't make up for the relative lack of complexity here. Finally some beats come in at 1:26 to thicken things up more, but the part-writing is very straightforward and lacks that next level of sophistication. prophetik said maybe there's not enough arrangement, and I get where he's coming from, but he's mistaken in how he attempted to articulate the issue. This is presented in a melodically straightforward manner, and that's fine. What was missing here was more complexity in the accompanying parts and more creativity in the sound design. This is already going in the right direction in terms of different instrumentation and different sound design, the combination of which does help this stand apart from the feel of the original, but clearly not enough yet based on prophetik's reaction. But this sounds like a work-in-progress, not a fully developed and finished piece. Something like Charlie Atom's "Toriel's Pain" isn't where our bar has to be, but it's a great example of a melodically straightforward rendition with way more attention paid to the detail work of supporting writing that adequately fills in the textures, and killer sound design. That's not the bar, but it's a genuine North Star. This is a solid start, Noga, but it still needs more writing complexity behind the melody and other sound design ideas to further personalize your take. Even if you don't end up reworking this one, you can definitely be proud of how far you've come with this. There's a lot of untapped potential though, so hopefully you keep developing your craft. If you haven't already, consider joining our Discord for more feedback and/or using our Workshop forum resources. NO (resubmit)

Great source tune choice, ripe for expansion. Vanilla-sounding synth to open things up, but obviously a stylized approach, so let's see where it goes. Melody arrives at :17, and the overall textures are basic but reasonably full, with the caveat being that it ought to further flesh out, IMO. Sampled amen break drums are brought in at :58 and those seem like a square peg in a round hole, but I'll live. Some added beats come in at 1:27 and this is definitely fuller, though melodically this is already very repetitive. 1:59 dropped out the lead and just had the countermelody with beat accompaniment, which was a good direction to create some contrast. Then 2:32 continues with a skeletal progression plus beats before finally getting back to the source melody on lead at 3:04, which feels like a cut-and-paste once the beats returned at 3:12. An addition to the beats at 3:32 for some more movement underneath. At 4:01, there was another countermelodic line added to the melody, but despite that I still literally said out loud "Enough already!" with this lead. If you're not going to vary up the melodic presentation, that's OK, but I'd argue at least vary up the instrumentation of the lead and/or countermelody lines more often to keep the overall feel from sounding too static. Even though the textural changes are a good idea, I'm still fatigued from the leading elements sounding the same practically the whole way and a relatively slower pace. This is a great start, Bionic! I'm interested to hear what the other Js think; I think from a genre transformation perspective, this is a pretty solid result, but it needs more sophistication and variation with the leads and sound design to really be strong and not drag out over time. NO (resubmit)

Pretty crunchy original dnb writing to start. Oh, bummer, at :57, it's the beginning of snippets of the source audio itself being used, then it's fully brought in on top of the beats from 1:29-2:14. It'll sound like I'm saying we dislike the track when it's a fun remix (proph means it's not an arrangement). We're called OverClocked ReMix (capital R, capital M) as more of a brand name that sounded cooler than "arrangements", so people interchangably call things "remixes" here when that's not what we're actually doing. I'm sorry to say in this case here though, Stavrin, we're *not* a traditional remixing site, we're an arrangement site, as in the source material is played back or performed on different instrumentation, not directly sampled and not just note-for-note. This falls outside of our Submission Standards, but it's still an enjoyable remix for sure! If you'd want to learn more about making VGM arrangements, join our Discord and/or use our Workshop forum resources. NO Override

Cool cover, Jonathon, and thank you for sending it our way. :-) I appreciate you running down the various instrumentation aspects involved, which was very creative to use here. prophetik's right that, although this is a brilliant cover, this is essentially a find-replace of the source's part-writing with your (strong) sounds there's no structural difference with this version vs. the original, including just hitting the loop point at :53 and repeating the same stuff for 2 more loops. We're looking for substantial interpretive and transformative aspects of arrangement, even if an arrangement is otherwise melodically conservative. In the writeup for this ReMix, I link 10 other examples of melodically conservative yet overall transformative arrangements we've posted https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04414. If you're ever interested in fleshing out a more developed, evolving arrangement, your instrumentation and mixing already sounded very solid! Join our Discord and/or use our Workshop forum resources if you're not against taking that kind of journey. NO

The claps in the intro were wearing thin, so I'm glad they bowed out. JSABlixer's take in the NO Show chat was accurate for me; the first half was interesting, yet the second half didn't keep me hooked and ran out of steam. proph felt the sampled vocal integrations were solid, though they felt more stapled on top for me. The drums, which were solid samples, eventually felt like they were mostly on auto-pilot of just changing every few measures at cutoffs that just seem too squeaky clean; nothing feels organic/human about the part-writing, it's feel very gridded out, like OK a few bars of this, then change the entire patten a few bars later; I wish I could better articulate that, but I do hope you'll ask around about it. The second iteration of the melody could use more distinct variation or difference from the first besides the lead sound. The piece's overall tone doesn't distinctly stand apart from the original enough; it's not non-existent, but it's not enough. Right now, this is more about the additive part-writing, which isn't a comparatively distinct enough presentation from the original. There's definitely a place for an approach like this, as H36T has shown several times with other ReMixes; this needs more something/anything substantive/different. I'm open to whatever direction you might be willing to take this in, if interested. NO (resubmit)

Original Decision RESUB 1 Artist Name: Seth Skoda Based on an online argument about genres not making a difference. I previously turned Death Egg Zone's music (also from Sonic & Knuckles) into a trap-ish beat just to prove the point, and it got a lot of attention. So... I started going in on other tunes. I zeroed in on Flying Battery Zone a little more, as that's my favorite tune from the game. Found the good future remix on VGmusic.com, thought it would be cool to include a little bit of it in my mix. The section starting at 1:22 and ending at 1:49 contains the counter melody and 8 bars of the backing from the good future remix. I hope this isn't a deal breaker, as it's otherwise my own derivative work. Was gonna mostly go EDM with some synthwave, but then I messed around with some 808 bass and it turned into much of the same modern hip-hop sound that I was using at the time. This final mix shows a little bit more of the original intent than previous mixdowns with the 80s drums and synths running alongside the more modern 808 kicks and hihats. I am very satisfied with how this turned out, and I hope it finds its way into many playlists of Sonic Music/VGM remixes. All that being said about the mix itself, I discovered this website in the mid 2000s and knew that one day I'd have what it takes to get a posted ReMix of my own on this site. This is my third time trying to get High Voltage posted; hopefully it's the charm. Games & Sources Sonic & Knuckles - Flying Battery Zone Act 2 Composer: Howard Drossin

I'm just commenting on the revised version. It's not an apples-to-apple comparison, but I was wrong about "Hunter's Community Chest" way back and I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice. Obviously, this has more energy and dynamics to it, particularly for the 2:39 section, yet this is also a fairly low-key presentation most of the way. The time sig change and deliberate pacing were very effective, and I love the instrumentation throughout with these amazing textures. Such a smart treatment of the source, this is excellent, Brad! :-) YES

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Glad to see this back again. Opens up with a nice fade-in of strings and cool sampled female vocal line. Whoa, woodwind at :32 isn't winning any realism contests, for sure. :-D It's serviceable, but it did jar me to start. Nice addition of the low pizz strings and male vox at 1:01 behind the lead. Piano accents sounded fake, but quiet enough to not stand out too much and were tastefully produced. This is so reminiscent of my first vote nearly 21 years ago when I NOed Koelsch1 for the same kind of thing going on with his woodwind lead, though his got shrill and had some trills that majorly exposed the samples. Brass at 1:46 was also fairly anemic, but became a little more forceful not too long after coming in. Nice lil' percussive thump as a transition to the organ and vox padding up the texture after 2:13. Nice countermelodic writing going on with the brass underneath the woodwind for a stronger finish. It's not humanized-enough sequencing, so any uncanny valley criticisms are valid, but for a mockup, which is where I believe our hobbyist bar is, this is alright. If this doesn't make it as is, it's not because of the structure or arrangement, which are already well personalized and dynamic, it's for the production. This is solid enough though, I'm not being smacked in the face with any terrible-sounding samples, just cognizant enough at the fact that it could be better humanized. All that said, the instrumentation choices, particularly in tandem, demonstrated a lot of care and intention, and the execution's cohesive enough! Good job, Eric; I know you'll stay with this and improve it further if this doesn't make it, you've got the sticktuitiveness we wish everyone had. :-) YES

Thank you for laying out the source tune order, Gregorio. Been a fan of this OST since hearing Beatdrop's ReMix of the first stage! Right from the intro, it has an intense sound, though it feels like the soundscape's lossy and crowded; what I'm mainly hearing is the countermelodic backing parts and then the lead synth's upfront, albeit quiet. The drums are great when I concentrate on hearing them. Not ideal mixing when the guitar chugs are drowning a lot of other parts out, but I can make out stuff enough where I feel it gets by. Nice transition at 1:42. When lots of elements dropped out and the texture was emptier from 1:42-1:57 as a contrast, things didn't sound cramped. I haven't read the other votes yet, but I hope I'm not the only one pointing this out. At 2:24, the transition was sudden but seemed to flow smoothly from the previous theme. The melodic synth was a lot louder and more upfront as the lead, which made me wonder why the balance of parts felt so off in the opening verse for the stage 1 theme. 3:09's theme change basically had no transition, which was disappointing. Another sudden theme change at 3:52 and the medley-itis charges feel more and more valid as this moves along. There was at least a quick transition at 4:37, but very minimal and still a big break in the flow. Whatever those snap sounds were from 4:37-4:51 were too loud yet lossy-sounding, just really coming through too loudly in my headphones. The mixing isn't ideal and does meaningfully ding it -- it's arguably causing ear fatigue from just making this so loud yet cramped most of the time -- but I'd still pass an otherwise-cohesive arrangement mixed like this. It already got invoked before, but I'll quote the Submission Standards again: Here's how I felt about the transitions: 0:00-1:42 - "Solo Sortie" smooth transition 1:43-2:23 - "Counterattack '91" smooth transition 2:24-3:08 - "As Wet As a Fish" abrupt transition 3:09-3:52 - "A Submerging Titan" abrupt transition 3:53-4:37 - "Dream of a Labyrinth" abrupt transition 4:38-5:54 - "Return of the Creature" smooth transition 5:55-6:12 - "To the Next Zone" In other words, 3 smooth theme changes, 3 abrupt ones. We don't require 6 smooth, developed theme changes for a pass. I'm just summarizing how a fair amount of the track felt like a basic medley structure without enough flow in the theme changes to make the overall composition feel cohesive enough. Indeed, this is a well-performed and sequenced rock adaptation of several Super R-Type themes, but it's not presented as a cohesive & uniform enough musical concept where it doesn't primarily feel like 7 (amazingly amped up) covers stitched together without enough flow from theme to theme. I definitely appreciate you submitting this, Gregorio, with this intensity and great soundtrack choice. I'm a NO for this fitting our arrangement Standards as is; if there was openness to fleshing out the transitions between themes, I'd love to hear this resubmitted. It'll sound like we don't want any medleys, when in fact we've got a ton of medleys on OCR, but there's more intention to making the overall track feel like one cohesive, developing, evolving idea rather than jumping quickly from theme to theme. Whether it's with this piece again or another arrangement, I hope you'll keep submitting more of what you're creating, you definitely have a spot waiting. :-) NO (resubmit)

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Artist Name: Bionic Leaves Synth-wavy sounds with an early nineties amen breakbeat. I thought it fit the melancholy of the melody well. Games & Sources The Guardian Legend (Compile, 1988) Composer: Miyamo Shant (Masatomo Miyamoto & Takeshi Santo)

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