All Activity

No reason to hold this one in suspense more, my fellow Js have identified exactly my thoughts. I don't think the instruments in and of themselves are bad choices, but I do think something is missing that would make them shine more - whether that's with saturation or other effects would be up to Matt. The arrangement overall works, but individual sections feel plain and last too long; as an example, :42 - 1:25 feels like it's said all it needed to say by :53, such that by the time the pitch ramp comes @ 1:14, I'm pretty fatigued by the repetition instead of enjoying the transition. 2:36 - 3:30 is another example - the section has changes inside it, but nothing in those changes feels like a compelling reason to have the section run as long as it does. The big pay-off at 3:30 loses all its steam for me since I was expecting something like it 30 seconds prior. This isn't too far from passing, it just feels like it's stuck between being a sketch and being fully realized. A tighter focus on managing the low-end and mids as Chimpa suggested, as well as tightening up the arrangement, would get this over the line for me. NO (resubmit)

Two sources that don't have a lot of melodic content - can definitely see why this is presenting source problems with my fellow judges. The piece isn't doing itself any favors by saving the most straightforward quotes of the source until the very end of the piece (the bassline rhythmic structure from Howling Gears being used only on the outro, for example). In times where a source has too simplistic a melody, or its defining features are in other facets of the piece (rhythmic structure, sound design, etc), it becomes much harder to nail down the tie between the remix and the source. And the spirit of Rule 3, as jnWake outlined above, is to make that distinction as clear as possible for the audience. On the panel, we're then tasked to ask, "when I listen to this section, am I making a connection to the source somehow?" Anyway, that's my preamble, onto the vote. It's a rare (and welcome!) vote on a VQ track where I don't have qualms with the production. There is some mud in the low-mids when all the layers start to coalesce (1:51 - 2:30, 3:50 - 4:25, 5:11 - 6:00), but it's not pulling me out of enjoying the track, so I'll live. I also agree with jnWake that the arrangement flows nicely - it certainly takes its time with basically a 2-minute slow burn intro, but the transitions between sections are excellent and the writing straddles the line between enough variance to feel developed and enough repetition to feel cohesive. The biggest problem the track has is source usage, as my fellow Js have noted. Both source tracks have a similar challenge to overcome from a remixing perspective, in that their actual melodic content is sparse to my ear. Howling Gears A has a single actual melodic phrase that I can pinpoint - the diminished leap in the synth. VQ's changed the interval to be something more palatable in the soundscape, but in doing so, I think it changes the character of the phrase enough that it's no longer easy to connect it back to Howling Gears. The arpeggiated runs in Howling Gears B are more clearly delineable, and they're woven in better. That leaves basically the rhythmic structure (the groove), not the notes, of the bassline, guitars, and drums to draw from in Howling Gears. Nidavellir's Shout has the portamento synth line as a melodic figure, as well as the even more melodic melody @ :26 in the source and B section melody @ :48. To my ear, the first 2:30 minutes of the piece is Howling Gears B (the modified arpeggio is the biggest tie, and even that feels tenuous to me), with the guitar coming in with the altered Howling Gears A melody around 1:12. If I am really listening for it, I can hear the Latin groove of the source's bassline at 1:50, but again, it's tenuous. 2:50 - 3:09 is much easier to identify as Nidavellir's Shout from the melody; I can't count the ostinato as the chord it outlines is not unique enough to Nidavellir's Shout. 3:10 - 4:27 comes back to Howling Gears B with the melody front and center in the guitar, and 4:32 - 5:11 returns us back to that modified Howling Gears A. 5:12 - 5:50 has no connective tissue that I can identify, and then we get the groove of the source bassline in the bass from 5:50 - 6:10. Timestamping gives me 233 seconds out of 376, or ~62% source if I include the tenuous spots, ~51% source if I don't (194 seconds out of 376). What it's coming down to, for me, is that I have to strain to hear the sources in this piece when our standards ask for very clear and identifiable - dominant, even! - source use. I think this is arranged and produced well, but all of the connective tissue just doesn't come through enough for me to pass this one. I would need to hear more clearly defined ties to the source, preferably early on in the track (within the first minute or so). NO (resubmit)

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Hi uh just trying out this website, and figuring out how it works, so yeah HIIIIIIIIIII

Some things did if you were in on the joke.

Reminds me of Art of Noise - The Ambient Collection. It's darker and less melodic though. I like it very much.

This is a wild romp through the Virulent source indeed, very creative and avante-garde. I like it, there's plenty of source and it's a fun listen. This version is not my master, and this master is as jnWake pointed out quite overhyped in the high mids and highs. The premaster was already quite heavy in those regions, as my master still indicates, but this master is screaming in the high mids and highs to the point of pain. The limiter has been cranked so high here, and also oddly it is limited at -1.2db which seems odd to me. I agree another shot at the master would be appropriate here. I'm happy to provide my master but that is absolutely not a requirement. NO (resubmit)

Mario Kart 64 Winner 2025-09-14 2256.mp3 Ended up changing the middle section quite a bit harmonically because it was not satisfying to me. These Mario Kart tracks seem to go really well with some melancholy blended in. I was not satisfied with the transition and piano solo. I'm also playing around with a sine lead that I may use for some contrast between piano lead in beginning, not sure I'm totally down with it. I still need to vary drums a bit I think. I worked on humanizing synth chords and bass; I don't mind these being as repetitive but maybe can add some variations here and there to break it up from the initial copy/paste. I dialed reverb back just a bit because it was a bit too intense.

Some of the Star Fox 64 themes have such weird melodies, Venom being a standout in that sense... In any case, we begin with some pads and voice clips. Backing is doing material from N64 Venom. Source quotes at 0:27 become quite evident. There's some fun toms (I guess?) here, with tons of effects applied that make them sound quite interesting. As usual in your tracks, there's A LOT going on in terms of sounds. Things build-up for a bit and it starts becoming very very LOUD, the waveform shows the limiting very clearly and the LUFS stabilizes around -7dB with occasional peaks of -5 and such. Around 0:55 the Venom 64 usage becomes even more evident with the additional synths. We get a transition with a voice clip around a minute in and then focus on a quick synth bass. Really love the dark electronic sound of that sample. At 1:22 the source returns and we get some nice moments of heavy electronica until a more syncopated section at 1:48. After that we get more heavy electronica with additional synths and tons of loudness. While the mix is clear sounding it also feels very heavy on the high frequencies (easy to check with plugins like SPAN). Section with violins at 2:16 is fun, nice change-up. We then return to more quotes of Venum with a lot of percussion and such. Around 2:51 there's a break and we move to SNES Venom for a few seconds before a cool variation of Venom N64 with Venom SNES as backing. Track then continues with quick changes and all sorts of Venom quotes. This is kinda like prog EDM at this point! At 4 minutes we get another voice clip transition and then we return to the mood of 1:22 and it's loud and busy as hell. There's another voice clip transition and the melody from 2:16 returns before the track closes off with some stabs. On arrangement this is super cool, I have no idea how one would label this but I'd describe it as dark prog EDM. Source usage is clear and there's a lot of fun and creative usages of the original themes. Some transitions are a tad abrupt but I don't really mind them, I feel this generally flows well and is quite interesting to listen to. Well done! On production I'm mixed but mostly because of one particular thing. Let me start with the positives though. Sound design is great, there's a lot of cool effects and fun treatment of the samples (like those toms in the first minute). Percussion is punchy and the bass, when it matters, stands out great. I also generally feel that the mixing is well done, with most individual things being easy to hear. There's 2 things that bother me about the production though. First, the mix is very very heavy on high frequencies and that makes listening to the entire track a little tiring on the ears. You use a lot of synths and it's easy for all those bright sounds to layer together and create a huge mass of shrill sounds that can get rough, I'd recommend trying to balance it out by ducking high frequencies on many of the samples. My main gripe, however, is that the master is ridiculously loud. A look at the waveform will clearly show that the limiter is being quite aggressive and checking with a LUFS meter indicates very high levels for most of the track. As a reminder, submission standards claim "Volume levels should be normal compared to the average recording". Overall, while I think the arrangement is very very cool and the production is 90% there, I feel this needs (at least) a second pass on the mastering (although looking at balancing the higher frequencies would be great too). I understand that electronic genres want to be very loud sometimes but IMO this is way too much, especially for the length of the track. NO

Rise of the Triad - Suck This Remix | Astroverse Dimensions

Hi there, I'm following the OCRemix for some years now and all I can say is THANK YOU. Thank you for the Music and the Thank you for reminding me on my Childhood. It's been years since I played piano and even doing music on my own. Instead I'm doing dancing theater as leader with story writing, choosing music doing the most stuff. I created some nice things in my spare time then. I wished I had the time to remix stuff and implementing my feelings to it. The Story so far - the music is great - and the Arrangements very very nice and shiny to me. They carry really deep feelings and emotions... Thank you ❤️

I'm working on a collaboration, and I'm usually confident with my composing skills. But I need a second opinion to see if this sounds correct to anyone else. I'm using other VSTs instead of one for a piano, but for this, I'm using a piano VST for better hearing with the treble and bass. This piece of music is in E♭ minor, 5/4 time, 110 BPM. Here's what I'm asking about: The beginning has arpeggios, and to me, when it reaches the 11 second mark, the E♭ note that starts there sounds correct, because I think the off-kilter bassline helps. But I'm wondering if it sounds correct to anyone else. At the 29 to 31 second mark, I added notes to ascend back up to the E♭ note, because without them, it didn't sound right to me. But maybe they could work without those notes? And I understand that at the 28 second mark, the Emaj13 chord is probably an odd choice for. That's really there to leave the music unresolved. But this is something I also am wondering about. Does the Emaj13 leading into the B6/E♭ at 32 second mark sound right to you? I'm trying to figure this out. Again, the track is meant to hold tension, which is why the chords at the end of each melody aren't being resolved.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

It's in a good way :-) Redg is also known as Brent Wollman on OC ReMix and he does very eclectic music.

May as well drop this link here... http://coop.herograw.net/ocrquirks/index.html

I assure you it did not make sense back in the day. Nothing did.

So... Backwards pantsless hugs were an invention from Soup. The "logic" is that sperm are microscopic things meant to dig through cells so any male to male hug is a weird risk. Hugs should be backwards. The pantsless portion escapes me but it made "sense" back in the day.

Cool concept! But I agree with proph in his assessment that the sections don't really pay off, they each build fairly well but what they build to isn't satisfying. I feel like there's a lot of great ideas here, arrangement wise, but as he said there's something missing in almost every section. The sections also become repetitive as they move along, as the same patterns and instruments repeat over and over. These sounds are strange. They sound dated to me, but more than that they sound dry and midrangey which makes this less pleasant to listen to than it could otherwise be. I think these timbres could be processed to sound much better than this. The drum kit is weak, which is a shame for DnB, and the drum samples themselves are not fitting for DnB. I hear zero sidechaining so the piece lacks groove. The master is extremely and unnecessarily loud and somewhat overcompressed (I'm pretty sure that pumping is overcompression and not sidechaining!) Ok I just read the writeup and you've said there's sidechaining, but I don't hear it, it's not being utilized to its full potential. The low end feels so weak to me, and this also makes the heavy midrange sound even more midrangey. Looking with an imager I see the lowest range (150Kz and below) is somewhat stereo spread, which is causing the low end to feel weak and unfocused. This arrangement has a lot going for it, just needs more mixing TLC and some arrangement and writing adjustments to get it where it needs to be. NO

Helloooo I recently moved back to my beloved tropical hometown and decided to celebrate by making an EP of quirky, sunny tracks. The work is vaguely inspired by the Mario Kart DS OST, so expect some soundfonts and retro-sounding synths. Enjoy! LINK: https://banana-trash.bandcamp.com/album/go-go-kart-ganbareeeee Cover art was done by Tex! www.youtube.com/@oOTxaiOo soundcloud.com/textunages

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

🪐👀🌌

Remembering Masashi Kageyama. 🫡