Dj Mokram

Quoted for emphasis.This is pretty much a reality in the web/dev sector already. Now with voice cloning, music industry majors won't hesitate to copy-paste an artist voice and generate a fictional appearance to broadcast to billions for 1/100 of the cost. Fake AI-fluencers are already fooling hundred of thousand of 'perfectly sane' human beings. Likewise in the game industry. None of the execs cutting massive corners, firing humans in droves mass-exodus style, will think twice about pushing a button if it can instantly generate an entire game's soundtrack (or a full game, period) for a fraction of the cost/time it would take a philharmonic orchestra to do so. And they will still sell it full price. And people will still buy it. TLDR: let's all enjoy the 'good times' while AI drinks up the oceans and turns the planet into a giant desert, for fun and profit.

Same proverbial boat as Emu, Flex and CtW. It's a cool idea that might get me out of the retirement home for misunderstood remixers, hopefully before the next solar eclipse.

Opening both the 2012 and 2024 versions side by side in an audio editor, you can tell from the waveform data alone how much extra effort had been poured into this remix for over a decade. Let's listen! On the prod aspect of things, I ran analysis with a Blackman-Harris function, both 128 and 512bins on linear and logarithmic scale, to positive results. Spectrum analysis didn't make me fall off my camel either, you've got nice stereo separation and likewise no alarming RMS. However I counted more than a 150 clipped samples throughout, which might be related to that enthusiastic -12.23db LUFS integrated with a 6LU loudness range (accounting for DC offset as well). Either slightly limit your master bus output just to be safe, or keep rocking the '0db sample peak' lifestyle. Up to you. Arrangement-wise, there's been massive improvements in texture, sound choices, dynamics and overall balance from your 2012 original, pioneering mashup. Melodies are less muted, the mix sounds clearer throughout and the soundscape is so much fuller now. Imho, your greatest success here is instilling new life and movement into the piece, making this revision much more engaging to listen to. Case in point the first section from 0:15 to 1:00, where the industrial percussions have increased in presence and intensity compared to the 2012 version. But conversely, the source's melody is also more prominent and distinct during that part, which creates an interesting contrast, rather than an irritating dichotomy. The second section from 1:15 has undergone a shocking transformation, where the melodic material used to timidly defer to the classic Roland drum kit, but is now emboldened and confidently riding shotgun with the rhythmic bed from 1:32 to 2:05, before the eerie, melancholic twist of the original remix metamorphoses into an array of decisive stabs complemented by surgical percussion hits, which now makes the 2:05-2:38 section hugely more climactic. As for the ending section from 2:40 onward, I applaud the pivotal choice to swap instruments for the lead which confers it an exotic yet contemporary quality, meshing beautifully with the thunderous drums in this dreamy yet tangible soundscape. There's a lot of subtlety and detail about this arrangement that people hopefully will notice and appreciate. Like in spite of the whole remix being centered around a repeating leitmotif and written with a singular sound palette, you can distinguish the theme associated with each source in relation to its time period and cultural inclination. Which to this day remains a testament to your ability as an arranger to assimilate material from different sources, then interpret them with both cohesiveness and distinction. I can still revell in the care that went into creating this ambient/industrial tribute with delightful Deus Ex influences, yet I also realize that such flavor might not suit everyone's tastes, and might be looked down upon in some leet circles... In any case, it's wonderful to see you revisit and reinvigorate this old work in such an elegant fashion, so many years later. I can only commend your diligence and consistency in the pursuit of this ideal, in the spirit of Ryu Hayabusa. May this labour of love capture the judges' hearts and ears, just as it captured mine back on Game Duels. This truly made my day, thanks for sharing this Eino.

Would love to jingle the bell once more, if life permits.

Congrats to @Souperion and @TheVideoGamer! Amazing entries from everyone (Hleet included) and many thanks for the feedback as always. Now what delicious, third rate remixes am I gonna cook with the brand spanking new wooden spoon Bundeslang graciously awarded me? xD

Vote is in. Always a blast coming back to this compo, seeing everyone having fun and challenging themselves still. <3

Props to @HLEET for digging up this fine tune. Made my nostalgia tingle.

Thanks for pulling at my heartstrings with this very special game/soundtrack.

Would love to be a part of this once more, if life allows.

Here's an Hip-Hop/EDM arrangement of 'Petrolith Castle' from Skyblazer (SNES), made for AOCC v14. Happy Holidays.

Ditto. And mad props to @The Coop for keeping this tradition alive and crafting amazing pixel artwork year after year.

Will definitely enter this round, if life lets me have fun for like a minute.

Gonna echo what @TSori said, this year's been rough enough as it is. If it's just a case of selecting another, less-controversial OST and starting PLT2 over fresh, then so be it. Nobody can fault you for prioritizing your own well being. Hang tight @Trism.

Here's a chill hip-hop/electronica arrangement of the 'Save Theme' from Resident Evil 4. Happy Halloween.

It's so inspiring to see you've still got the resolve to go forward with this project despite multiple setbacks. Hopefully you've recovered and are feeling better. Great sound upgrade that preserves the late 80s, early 90s rock aesthetic, complemented by a well rounded mixing/prod. Looking forward to hearing more.

The round's been plugged on Discord. Mad props to AxLR on the quick turnout! Looking forward to a few moar entries.

Featuring the most tragically poetic typo in the history of this compo.

Just my opinion, but I don't think there's anything wrong with either of those 2 new rules you suggested. Stopping at the 6th gen makes the compo more inclusive in regard to skill ceiling, sound quality and VST/libraries requirements. PRC is already dedicated to lesser-known games, which means that if you went with popular VGM instead, it'd make both compos complementary rather than a challenge not to step on each others toes every round. Bit of advice tho: if you're gonna helm any kind of community event, it is literally your job as an organizer to plan for a successful turnout. Starting with (and I've said it a few times already) advertising your compo to make sure there is participation. In the age of Discord servers, especially when contestants come from the same artist pool in a buried forum subsection, relying on the same 3 people to carry every event, year after year, isn't realistic. Everyone's interests shift, as do life's priorities and even enthusiasm has limits.

Though using the samplepack was more or less the point of this round, @Dextastic track was really amazing. Congrats on the win!

Voted! Let's hope we can keep the participation streak going. Happy to help.

Yeah, that'd be my bad. Was talking with Trism and he mentioned a slowdown in the recruitment, so I alluded to it maybe being affected by "the allegations", unaware that he and Dai didn't know about it. Trust me, the last thing I wanted was to derail the first OCR project I'd gathered the courage to join in seven centuries. So sorry guys, send all the tomatoes my way.

Nice turnout! For what it's worth I also advertised the compo on discord, and if that's cool with @Bundeslang I'll try to keep doing so in the future.

A tiny little minimalist house arrangement of 'Factory Tour' from Kirby 64. Had fun making this, thought I'd share.

Don't worry about it, no offense taken or anything. It's all good man. :)

Count me in! ...for reals this time.