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When I went into Serious Monkey Business, I was really looking forward to my favourite tunes for one of my favourite VGM soundtracks and how they got treated, and expected that I would go out with a pin in something like Stickerbush Symphony or Bayou Boogie or Krook's March as my favourite ReMix on the album. I did not expect it to be this, an electro-pop children's song sung in Mandarin to Snow-Bound Land. Despite not being able to understand the words, the fact that it has a treatment like a children's song captures the nostalgia I have for this game, and especially thinking of the nature of those words. The song makes me ache viscerally for those days parked in front of my my portable CRT at the end of my bed, trying to find every last bonus barrel and DK Coin, washing myself aurally with the amazing soundtrack and exploring the world Rare had crafted. Music transcends language, and this proves it.

I entered the PRC as AlexSmith. I just want to say thank you to Rexy for hosting the competition. And thank you Bundeslang for the dedication to continue to host it. Although I haven't entered in recent years, I had a lot of fun making music for this competition and appreciate everyone who entered.

I'm afraid I have to agree with all the criticisms above. The flute is painfully loud and bright, the clarinet performance is squeaky, the soundscape is thin and lacking in character, and the overall arrangement is short and underdeveloped. That's not to say I dislike everything here! The non-clarinet performances are solid, the concept is very good, and the arrangement that is there is well-done. The flute riffing is a highlight. But the issues mentioned above are critical ones. NO

Welcome to Game Set Mash!!, a team-based, long-form competition format for the OC ReMix community! Current Status I'm gathering interest here on the forums and in our Discord and I'd like to start in July depending on if we can get some sizable teams. I would love to have around 6-7 people on each team to really get the spirit of collaboration going. What are the games we're remixing? The time around we're celebrating the music of Yuzo Koshiro! This legendary composer has such a wide breadth of work, and for GSM3 we're going to mix the pulsing beat 'em up beats of Streets of Rage with the sweeping JRPG scores from Etrian Odyssey. Streets of Rage - Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2, and Streets of Rage 3 Etrian Odyssey - Etrian Odyssey, Etrian Odyssey 2, Etrian Odyssey 3 Each franchise features more games than just the initial three, but for the purposes of this competition we're going to limit to those first games. What are the rules about teams? I want to make things easy and accessible for people to participate, so there's no maximum on team size, but I'll be asking people to do their best to even out the teams once we have all of our participants signed up. There are no rules about who has to be a primary arranger for a track from week to week. Teams will be free to organize and determine how each of the three remixes gets covered. Using your teammates for collaboration and feedback is highly encouraged. Game Set Mash!! is run primarily on OCR's Discord server, so you need to make sure you join up there. I'm new to GSM, how does the competition work? Participating remixers will form 2 teams of at least 3 members each. Each team will be assigned a set of 3 games. The competition lasts 6-7 weeks, with 10-day mixing rounds alternating with 4-day voting periods. At the start of the mixing round, each team will choose and reveal 1 source tune from each of their 3 games. Each source will be paired with another source from the opposing team, for a total of 3 pairs. Each team will be responsible for writing 3 remixes for the week that combine (or mash) both source tunes in each pair. At the end of the mixing round, we'll upload the remixes and have a community vote. Voters will vote on the 3 remixes that did the best job of mashing the two source tunes together. Teams will accumulate a score based on how many of the community votes they win. In the next mixing round, we'll rotate which games get paired up with opposing games.

Hey everybody! Howz everybody doing? I've been working on some big projects as of late and haven't had much time to post here. One of them was my first original composition for Orchestra. I've been composing since 2001, but my music has only been for my own instrument (The Organ), Piano, Choir, or Chamber ensembles (not counting my videogame music arrangements). I decided to compose this piece in November, and completed it in late April. The Moon, and/or Moonlight has often been an inspiration for music: Beethoven's Moonlight Piano Sonata, Debussy's Clair de Lune, Dvorak's Song to the Moon from his Opera Rusalka, to name but a few. So I decided to write something in that vein, and have since completed it and made the video for it. The piece is in three parts: After an ambiguous, ethereal opening, the Romance begins proper. An Oboe d'Amour plays a melody; the central piece of the whole composition, with Orchestral accompaniment. After a brief Horn solo, the music melts into the second section: A Violin and Piano duet, again echoing the original melody, before building up to full orchestra. The Piano helps transition into the third and most active part of the work, culminating in a massive rendition of the Plainsong Chant Divinum Mysterium, before the Orchestra slowly warms down to a serene conclusion, punctuated by a descending melody which begins the piece in the introduction. The piece is going to be premiered on YouTube on June 30th at 21:00 UK time (16:00 EST), and the link to the premiere is below. See you all there! Premiere of A Moonlight Romance, Op.17

Hello all! This video is by my group Ebb and Nova, and I welcome all feedback. A live in studio duo acoustic arrangement of "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire" by The Ink Spots, featured in the Fallout video game and TV series. Wasn't sure if this qualified for video game music! YouTube video here

Howdy, Seth! I had to dig up the source for your track; it's always a good idea to include a link to the source for your arrangement as it helps the listeners compare. I can for sure hear Act 1 in your mix; if you also added stuff from Act 2, that would be good to know as well. Slick transition from the original audio at 0:06. The synced slapback delay on the snare and cymbals is a nice touch. Interesting kick/sub fills like at 0:27 and again at 1:08. Good hi-hat work throughout. The lead at 1:16 is a refreshing change-up, though the sustained pitch-bend ending of that lead fell a bit flat for me. Speaking of endings, there's an audible pop at 2:08 and a hard cutoff of the reverb tail. Keep cookin' on this one and you'll have a banger for sure. :)

I really like the trap approach to this remix and I feel the instrument selection works well in the track. I found the mix to be a little messy. For instance the closed hihat sounds a bit strong or machine gun like in some places. I found the sound selection to be very close to the source in many places, which may not be a bad thing, but I do think that additional development here could go a long way. I think there are some cool ideas here that would benefit from more development and possibly deviating from the source more.

This goes hard! Direct sampling is gon' get ya the ire of judges, but I 100% get what you're going for. You flipped that mofo pretty gud, tho the sub is a bit outta control, accentuated by the machinegun triplet. Loving the Drill hats and lingering 808, grooving in sync with the source. It's a joint fo sho, but you already know it ain't gon' be to everyone's taste. Hope you keep working on this Seth. Peace.

Hi, I know I'm not a fan of Trap nor an expert in it but I'll give an opinion. It's a competent sample flip but unfortunately OCR usually expects a bit more personalization. Currently I can still hear the source's samples in it but I feel changing the samples/instruments to something else (even a different soundfont) would help both distinguish the arrangement from the source and highlight the personal embellishments (such as the Trap beat itself). Sorry if I sound harsh, I just think it's too conservative at the moment (both in arrangement and instrumentation). That being said, I'd prefer that you keep at it because the idea behind the mix (a Trap remix of a classic Sonic theme) and the general groove are quite good.

The track is a lot of fun to listen to. I really like the trumpets and synths used within the track. The percussion overall sounds nice too. At 1:26 I found the tambourine a bit forward and overpowering to my ears; possibly a bit static or repetitive too. Overall I'm really liking the track and its direction.

I'll need to check out Reworks That Matter, 'cuz I want to experience the orchestral elements you cut out. I love the electronic and orchestral elements you've blended with this arrangement. Those timpani rolls are *chef's kiss.*

This is such a spicy track, and is super upbeat. The tempo change in the later half of the track is very enjoyable, and all of the different synth selections are dialed in well, evolves nicely, and is just super fun overall. The sources are great choices, but I'm not familiar with the source, either. There's really only two things I could maybe note: -The snare in the first half does feel a hair dry, and wonder if sending it to a reverb bus could maybe help with this? -The sub bass on your kick is coming in really thick/present (at least on my Yamaha HS-8's, with the subs on a -4db shelf @ ~500hz), and could maybe stand to help balance out the overall mix a little more if the sub region of the kick was dialed back a super little bit. This track definitely stands on it's own two legs, so admittedly, these are more nitpicks over anything else. Absolutely fabulous stuff here~

The original was cheery, now this is bright and flamboyant! Brass samples are everyone's bane but they sound great here (tell me what you use plzkthx). Great groove in the strings around 0:40-1:13, and overall the track evolves very nicely. The breakdown works very well along with the shift to the synth sound, though I feel like I want something mid-wise there as bass and lead are quite far apart. But once the second synth comes in it's all good. Symphotronica ahoy. Speaking of which, I want to hear those trumpets again to bring closure to the mix as I feel that something upbeat like this needs a marriage between the symphonic and the electronic temporally. This will be something I hope to throw into my driving playlist once done.

Howdy, Audiomancer! Dyluck and mo.oorgan provided some effective feedback already, so I'll echo those sentiments. The arrangement's short, fiery, and sweet. I dig the swing on the hats at 1:14. Really helps build that energy back up.

This is quite a bold take on the source material, though a bit safe arrangement wise, which is fine by me. The instrument choice/craft give rise to an authentic Italo-disco experience. I wasn't shocked by the amount of bass, which imho is a-propos as a defining feature of the genre. Likewise with the sound quality/character of the synths, which are intently vintage, thus enhancing the feel you're going for. You might wanna introduce some variation as you expand the remix, as the source material gets repetitive like a lot of tunes from the era. But Italo-disco tend to also cruise on, so be extra careful not to make your arrangement redundant in the process. And of course have fun. :)

I'm not familiar with italo disco, but I'm liking the overall sound. I also really like the sound selection and synth work in this track. I found that the cymbals may be a bit forward and static. I feel more variety could be useful in the track, but overall I think its going in a great direction.

Molto parmigiana con mozzarella! I like the overall sound of the mix and I think you've captured the genre fairly well, as well as translated the source tune nicely. I feel like that chord at 0:08 and 0:16 has something off harmonically or there's some pitch wheel that's been left on so that it doesn't land back where it feels it should go, perhaps in the instrument behind the bell synth. Once it gets going post-intro it feels a lot better. The breakdown at 0:33 works well, but I feel after things come back in I want more presence in the low-mids including in the second breakdown. Once the arps come in around 1:27 I'm satisfied there, so perhaps have something in that range in the soundscape beforehand? Pitch bends after this point work really well. Outro sits very nicely. Short and sweet, but I'm left wanting some more. Not necessarily in terms of length but in terms of sonic depth.

1:00 - The keys feel pretty static here, and think some kind of movement would be warranted here. 1:15 - Really love the rhythm here 1:25 - I feel like there needs to be some kind of "pay-off" in the high end here. This is definitely a great concept, and an absolute bop. I'd recommend giving the snare some reverb in a separate bus. I know you mentioned that was not working too well, and I used to encounter that a lot until I started cutting everything below like 400-500hz after the reverb on that bus, as well as taking out some of the 2k-5k range, and then a smooth curve on everything above like 13k-15k made a huge difference for taming reverb busses. The last thing I'd note is the bass is suuper thicc here; without looking at a freq analyzer, it sounds like either the 2nd harmonic of the sub, or it's overall level may just be a tad too high. All to say that I really like the vibes going on here :)

I like the added bounce a LOT. also the arpegiator fluttering around in the background near the 1:30 mark. the outro feels really tasteful and self-possessed. nice track!

The metal/funk hybrid is an interesting direction and very fitting for the source. Loving the organs. The intro and early section appears to have an identity crisis of sorts, in spite of being quite fun to listen to. The arrangement seems to reach its most engaging and steady form starting from 2:15 onward, which if you're looking to extend/double the remix duration, could work as a gateway point between two halves of the arrangement. I won't comment on prod as I personally prefer to finish writing the song before focusing on the mixing process. But as mentioned I did enjoy this freeform jam of my favorite song from Sonic 2 GG, with the Boss Battle being a close second. Looking forward to where you take this next. (^-^)

I'm not very familiar with sonic 2 or the source, but it sounds like a great track. I like the overall direction of your remix. In its current state, I found that the synth sound that starts at around 1:10 feels a bit buried. I'm enjoying the percussion in the track, but found that it was a bit buried in a few places. As far as the arrangement, I found that some of the transitions were a bit sudden, for instance the intro into the first section at :06 seemed a bit sudden to me. Overall really like the direction.

Howdy, Nase! I'll echo the other commenters on the choice of instrumentation -- funk and metal is a great combo and you've achieved a working blend in the mix. I can hear some crash cymbal hits (e.g. 0:45, 0:49, 1:20 and 2:21) that are either very dry or choked. If they are choked hits, they're unusually placed. A live drummer would have a hard time replicating that, so it pulls some realism away for me. Good call on your decision to alter the intro. It's pretty jarring as is, but once it hits the funk, it's gellin'. Good feel shift at 2:14-ish. As others have mentioned, keep an ear on the volume of the slides on that lead guitar. I'd love to see where you take this mix from here! I'm not very familiar with the MS/GG version of Sonic 2, so it's cool to hear some deep cuts and hidden gems--er, emeralds. :P

Just what I noticed during review: 1:12 - feels like there's phasing in the snare layers (?) 2:15 - the slide guitar bit is just a little loud here. I am a huge fan of all of the instrumentation, it's really fantastic, but the mix does feel a little dry overall, and feel like it could stand to exist in a bit more of a 'space'. Definitely worth seeing this through, super spiffy remix so far!

Listening with headphones. Overall, I like where this is going. Intro chords are fine, then the sudden funk is surprising but certainly not unpleasant. I think the shredding guitar slides in the intro section sounds a little disjointed sonically with the rest of the mix, maybe reverb-wise? Character change after 2:18 is refreshing as it builds towards the current climax. I'm guessing that this is currently not the end and the echoing slide doesn't seem to fit right with what comes before. It just seems to end too suddenly. Maybe I just don't like that slide guitar. However, I think this is a solid little mix in terms of the structure that's there up until the end, but sonically it sounds a bit disjointed in the space. So now I see that it's meant to be longer. I think it would work best in a modified ternary form, i.e. A-B-A*, with some pizzazz added to that repeat. As for that slide, I think the reason why I don't like it is because to me it sounds a bit "thin". Overall this is a good jam!