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Hi Goodman! What's here is an excellent mixdown of an immaculate vibe. Nothing I'm about to write in this vote is going to alter that opinion! I agree with Liontamer that this is a much more straightforward remix of the source, where our standards look for additional rearrangement to pass the bar. Below is my stopwatch timestamps for what I feel is source usage (which the sampled audio won't count toward). With 3m:28s (208s) of runtime, I'm looking for roughly 104s of recognizable material from the source track; ideally, it's using as much meat from the source as possible. This one is relying a lot on that Intro 3-note melodic motif while never really adding in the harmony voice from the source, nor diving into the arpeggio of the A or B sections fully. Aside from the transitional tag going from the A section to B section (@ 1:48, @ 2:19, etc), there's not much else that I can directly hear as a strong enough tie. We don't typically count bass note movement or the chord progression as source usage unless they are atypical, which is not the case here. Again, the execution of this track is undeniably good and I don't doubt that it would see success outside of OCR. It just doesn't have enough juice for me to sign off on it being above the bar. NO

Hey :) thank you so much! glad you liked it. yes i am very interested in joining your album collab. do you have more informations? have a nice day :)

Hey dude, if you are down maybe consider joining the Halloween album collab? Just noticed this and your ghost and ghouls mix and thought you could be interested. Anyway, I like the sound of the synths you used!

Song #04 has been played on this week's workshop already. Constructive criticisms and compliments are allowed. 03 rainy night.mp3 04 catharsis.mp3

I re-listen to Threshold of a Dream from time to time and I wanted to check in and show my appreciation for this track. Does the intro take some cues from the final dungeon theme of Zelda II, or is that just me?

Fantastic.

Ghouls ’n Ghosts - Title Theme Remix

Really something beautiful; I was smiling the whole time listening. I love how the essence of EarthBound is captured, whilst transforming it at the same time into something completely new and fresh.

I would also be down to help

Really liking this. Let’s call these done!

That's an intense source to do a remix of! Very hectic and wild. The remix is much tamer. I like the idea of doing this as an EDM or trance mix. Right away I can tell that this artist is fairly new at producing. But, everyone starts somewhere! I remember being at this stage myself, very well. I'm not going to go into an extensive critique; this track as the other two judges have mentioned will do better by going through our workshop process either on OCR's forum or in our Discord server workshop channels. There's a lot to learn here. The guys above me have given some great advice already, and you'll get more of that in the workshop and they can give you feedback in realtime as you progress, without having to wait through our judging queue. Good luck, keep at it and hang in there! NO

Fantastic remix, but something's up with the MP3 download - at 0:50 it skips ahead a few seconds.

I'd love to help if possible.

Begins with a few percussion hits and then comes the source's intro. Right away this sounds a little off, the bass is playing static E notes while the melody (covering the higher guitar part from the source) is on C# minor. Now, E is part of the C# minor scale so it's not like it's dissonant but it sounds odd, you'd generally have the bass on the root for a riff like this (like the source does). It's of course valid to have a different approach but it needs to lead somewhere otherwise it just feels wrong. The percussion pattern is also fairly strange, with "snare" hits on 2-3-4 but not on 1, creating a beat that's not easy to follow. At 0:27 we move into a higher pace for the second part of the initial melody. The percussion pattern is even weirder than before, it's not really fitting for any kind of EDM mood. This section continues for a bit, following the source's melodies until we reach the next part of the source at 1:01. Similarly to the intro, the bass is playing D# notes that don't really fit the melodies on top. At 1:05 we get a few melodies from the source but one of them seems to have wrong notes (the one starting at 1:08 features a regular D which doesn't fit the key this cover has attempted to be in). 1:11 has the arpeggio section of the source, which inexplicably keeps the upbeat rhytm. Finally, we move to the last section from the source. The note at 1:29 (A#) seems unfitting. Finally, at 1:49 the track simply cuts-off, without a real ending. I don't want to sound mean while saying this but this cover is way below the bar at the moment. On production, the synth samples used are all very simplistic, we usually ask for a more modern sound. Percussion samples are also simplistic but, more importantly, unfitting. The "clap" you used for snare won't really work on a proper arrangement. On arrangement there are several issues. First is the fact that the bass and melodies rarely fit well together. Second is the fact that there's several wrong notes in the arrangement. I get the feeling you got hold of some MIDI files of the original and kinda slapped them together haphazardly, not taking proper care of keeping everything on the same key, which is why the move to C# minor caught me off guard at the intro, since the original is on F minor. Third is the percussion writing, if you want to make trance or any form of EDM you need a beat that's steady and easy to follow, a snare hitting on basically every quarter or 8th note is not that. Finally, for OCR standards we ask for more interpretation, this track was very conservative in regards to source usage. As prophetik said, you should give the Discord workshop a go and ask for help there, especially regarding basic arranging and production tips. NO

Should we like keep you updated on progress or tell you what we are going to do at some point? Or is it like, once your finished just send it your way? I know we also need to get all the tracks mastered too...

While I’m here logged back into this account after *checks comments* two decades and change (cripes!), I figure I might as well comment on some of my favorites. This is, hands down, one of my absolute favorite mixes on the whole site. It is a true go-to feel good track for me and always makes me smile. I never played the original game so this was probably my first time hearing the source way back in the day and I can genuinely no longer hear the tune without thinking of this mix and its goofy but charmingly crafted lyrics. That’s the mark of a really good remix, IMO. I know vocal remixes were/are(?) a bit divisive but I’ve always been a fan of what the OCR community has come up with on that front. This one holds up really well even all these years later. FYI the video link seems to be broken rn, though?

Went to my absolutely ancient middle/high school email account just to recover my password for this site so I could finally leave a comment on this song (after having written one up a few years ago on my work computer when this first hit the homepage, hehheh.) ‘Cause yo this really slaps. I don’t know the source and also don’t know anything about music terminology so I can’t put into coherent words what I love about this but it’s just. Really good. It really does feel sort of grand and bittersweet, I think you nailed the vibes. It’s like a melancholic walk through the corridors of a cold castle or something. The way the intro drops in is sooo choice. Was the sound starting at 1:51 (and showing up a little bit before that too) the manipulated crowd noise that DJP mentioned? Cause I super dig that part too. It registers to my ear as sometimes human and sometimes something mechanical and I think that’s really cool. And of course gotta love when the choir kicks in near the end. I LOVE a good choir. Great stuff!

as someone who tried to do this yearly (and only managed for 3 years (3 eps of 3 songs for 3 halloweens does sound kinda cool though), i love this idea, i have a couple of songs i'd like to do, i just need to pick one. but count me in. also, if you need help with the website/hosting/whatever, let me know, i might be able to help.

I'm in, leaning towards something original instead of a remix but maybe that will change after i go through my game music archives. Maybe something along the lines of my old BABY SHARK remix could work, because there's nothing more horrifying than baby shark...

Oooooh.... me thinks this might be a great place for choirs / singers doing banshee / ghost / goblin etc vocals to have lots of fun. Teeeheeheee. Very interested in singing on and/or arranging vocals for a track on this:) - Bonnie Bogovich the weird lady who runs The Bwak Choir co-founder of Super Smash Opera https://blackcatbonifide.com

I really love this triplet bassline! Very cool trancey vibe going on here. I hear sidechaining on the bass, I think, but nothing else. Adding some sidechaining on your other elements (pads, plucks, even the lead) in varying amounts will make this soundscape groove all that much better. This is not a dealbreaker issue for me, just something I'm pointing out. The lead that you are using is a rather wide saw sound, and it's not wowing me as a lead. This sound would do better as a backing or countermelodic element than a lead. It melts into the soundscape rather than rising above it to carry the melody. There is definitely repetition in this arrangement, 0:45-1:00 for example, is just the same thing over and over without anything of interest happening there. That's a lost opportunity to do something surprising for your listeners. The lead writing remains the same throughout most of this arrangement with no variation from how the source plays the lead motif. I'd love to hear some more personalization on that motif now and then as the piece moves along. From 1:15-2:30 it is just the same thing over and over with a few elements added along the way but with that lead sound and writing never changing, it feels very long and repetitive. The transition into 2:30 is very awkward with nothing bridging it. 2:30-2:50 is very simple with nothing of interest happening. That would be a great place to add some surprising element like a new arp or sfx or some automated filtered stuff or some weird spoken vocal. Then there's a halftime drum groove over an 1/8-note bassline, then with zero transition we are into a slower section at 3:10 which feels so weird, is that synth doing a swing pattern? I can't entirely tell but the pulse there feels clunky. At 3:30 there is yet another feel and groove. The synth playing the pattern is the same one that has been playing throughout the entire track so far. The autopanning at 3:45 is too fast, it would have more impact moving more slowly across the stereo field. At 4:00 there is a new lead sound, with personalization on the source motif, finally! I like this writing, and I like the lead sound much better than the first one although it's still not a super strong patch for a lead and ends up feeling a little washed into the soundscape. This section is cool though. Zero transition into an extended outro. This arrangement has a ton of cool ideas in it, but it does not sound or feel cohesive to me. There are so many patterns, speeds and vibes, and the transitions between the sections are nonexistent so the listener can't prepare or anticipate the next thing. The sounds are not super sophisticated and they are used very repetitively. I feel like either the arrangement should either be shortened, or more variation should be introduced as these longer sections go on and on. NO

Decided to keep it short and sweet this time! But I could see it making sense to extend the ending further!