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Voting Guidelines Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Mega Man game and the other from a Mega Man Successor game. In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance): The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 2 Remix Pack (MP3). For your reference, here are the source tunes for Round 2. Mega Man 4 vs. Gravity Circuit Pharaoh Man Theme of Ray (Optic Circuit) Mega Man X4 vs. Mighty Gunvolt Burst Cyber Space Beyond the Watery Vortex Mega Man Zero 4 vs. 30XX Ciel d'aube Slave to Duty (Midgard Boss 1)

Howdy, here's my track. The source is Kirby's Epic Yarn - Snowy Fields https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XhjH2RCEQ1ECXwpORlO01gn2Z5UIwJpx/view?usp=sharing There's a nonzero chance I'll send a tweaked version down the line but mentally it's good to get this off my plate by sending this verison.

That synth and percussion work is glorious. The shift from the opening to the main beat in the middle was cool, and it makes sense to shift back at the end. Damn good arrangement for a very nice ReMix.

This also would have fit nicely. RoeTaKa's got the mood nailed based on the number of times he already showed up. :-)

Interesting chord options in that sample. I suppose I should've been a little more clear on my approach. I'm going more into a direction of non-functional harmony. I'm trying to get a blend of diatonic and non-diatonic, hence the A♮ in my composition. But I will consider the options you provided. That third chord sounds the most promising to me. It's unfortunate, though, because the E and E♭ is a bit jarring. But even with open voicings, I was hoping that it'd sound a little more pleasant. I'm trying to create a "desert" theme, but without going the stereotypical route. Anyway, thank you for your input. I appreciate it.

I didn’t come back to OCR after a 15-year hiatus (not unless you want to count a direct rejection from Larry himself), but I did come back to arranging VGM after a 10-year hiatus along with @pixelseph and joined OCR in so doing. I did the same thing you’ve already done: revisit and old completed project and do it again, only with better tools and more experience. In our case, Seph had done a few tracks with Team Dogfight for Homestuck, I took audio production courses in community college, and the two of us played in a few bands between 2012 and 2022, even did some studio recording time. We had a massive knowledge gap holding us back that we needed to fill before we felt comfortable coming to the community and revisiting old material got us back in the saddle, so to speak. Snappleman shared some wisdom in the Discord and I’m inclined to agree: if you’ve got any old backburner projects you didn’t finish, you could pick one of those up and see if you can complete it now.

Glad to see you wanting to get back into the swing of things musically. Don't forget to join the Discord server! https://discord.gg/ocremix - More folks are offering you advice there too. :-)

Random Hero! a name I havn't seen in ages (I LOVE your Squirrel Outta Hell Count Batula arrangement!) I only got in the mix game within the last 5 years ish, and my samples are terrible midi so I don't have much advice, just wanted to pop in and say I'm a fan!

Hey there old timer. The last time I did any serious music arrangement work regularly before the last couple of years was back in the first half of the '00s. I know where you're coming from. Technology now is at the point where I can make the kind of things I want to make easily and cheaply compared to 20+ years ago when it was all locked away in ivory towers and you couldn't just "go on YouTube to learn how to do something". If you still have a grasp of the arrangement fundamentals – and judging from your past contributions you did then and I doubt it's left you – you'll be fine. I have learned so much in the past few years through osmosis and from trying things out. That's the most important thing. Try things out. Like Zack said, join the Discord and hang out. There's usually a regular WIP commentary night called Office Hours on Wednesdays, but even outside of that, the #workshop is always active. Make stuff, see what others think.

Join the discord and mingle. Workshop is a great spot to rediscover yourself.

I was out of the arranging game for most of the last decade due to burnout and just not being able to harness any inspiration, and I'm back into it as hard as I ever was in the 2010s and I think I'm making my best stuff ever now. So yeah as long as the muse has grabbed you again you'll be fine!

I can literally smell a human sinner here. For this incredibly grave sin, you should regularly repent and synth hard! ... Dude, 15 years? Were you in a creative coma as a musician, snoring away comfortably like a huge Flemish Giant flopped into the cozy meadow, or were you somehow on the run from the Mafia or something? I mean, hey. I'm also kind of a pro at picking up an old remix from over 10 years ago and completely remixing it or rewriting the composition (simply because I've just started getting into music, composition, mixing and mastering around this time). But if you haven't done anything musically in all these years, you've really let yourself go and metaphorically left your passion in your bum bag. ... Nevertheless, welcome back to the club. ))

@Uffe von Lauterbach No problem. There are said to have been people who once tried to create soundscapes with dodecaphonic music. ;) But maybe let's approach it according to the rules of conventional harmony. You wrote that the piece is in E flat minor. This means that the following notes occur: Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb (B), Db. An Emaj13 chord contains the following 7 notes: E, G# (Ab), B, D# (Eb), F# (Gb), A, C# (Db). This means that only 5 of these 7 notes in the chord are part of the scale. And that obviously creates this brief dissonant interlude in the soundtrack. So you can either change the chord or the key to make this little passage sound more harmonious, although I would definitely modify the chord to match the key. I created an audio sample with 4 little piano chords for ya (everything arranged from the lower to the higher notes). Chord 1 >>> your Emaj13 chord that doesn't really fit your chosen scale (just for comparison) >>> notes: E, G# (Ab), H, D# (Eb), F# (Gb), A, C# (Db) Chord 2 >>> a highly depressing chord (but fitting your scale) >>> notes: Eb, Gb, Bb, Db, F, Ab, B Chord 3 >>> a little bit less depressing chord with a tiny spark of hope (fitting your scale) >>> notes: Eb, Gb, Bb, Db, F, Ab, Db+1 (1 octave higher than the previous D) Chord 4 >>> a rather inviting chord with a slightly eerie undertone of impending death (fitting your scale) >>> notes: F, Ab, B, Eb, Gb, Bb, D# It sounds like this: Piano Chords.mp3 Perhaps you should check whether one of these three chords would be more suitable for the critical part of your track. ... Have fun and good luck with your composing. ))

Cool approach giving these themes a darker mood and harder edge. To me, the high end of the sequenced bowed string lead was shrill, but I'll live. Love the blocky percussion accents thrown in here. Really interesting shifts in the textures in tandem with the theme tradeoffs. Small detail, but what great tension with the usage of the heartbeat SFX at 2:42; very menacing! I wanted the core beats to have a thicker sound, but the overall sound design and mixing hit hard and had a wide sound. Really strong way to personalize the treatment of the sources, timaeus, this sounds like you had a blast experimenting with some bold sound choices. :-) YES

Okay, Timaeus, you got me: I was definitely headbangin'. 😆 Always appreciate the solid source usage breakdown. Love the personal touches on the Ice Path melody and bassline, as well as the filter automation and sfx usage. There's a residual shimmer on the bongos from the comb filtering that I think actually does help them fit in at 1:09-1:21 and 2:27-2:40, but my strong acoustic drum and percussion bias might be why. Reasonable minds may differ. Nice work! YES

some creepy bass effects to start, but the ice path bass line is clear right away when it comes in. there's a filtered build that's clearly going to go hard, and it hits at 0:41. band sound is a big, aggressive vibe that feels like it's in half-time, and there's some really fun gating and effecting to keep it feeling like that even through the initial break at 1:09. bongo tone is really unexpected and tbh doesn't feel like it fits into the rest of the super-synthetic vibe. the team rocket theme comes in right after this and really fits the feel well - what a great combo. there's a bit of a break at 1:36 that's more of a drop and build - again, excellent work combining in the team rocket theme here - and at 1:55 we get a transition back to the ice path melody. this transition into this was a little rockier (no pun intended) in that the key didn't make immediate sense in my head listening to it. there's a big fall-off after this section at about 2:40, and we get some sfx before a slam transition back to team rocket for a few seconds before we close out on the ice path bassline again. this is a fun ride! i really like the approach and how intense it is without relying on a fast tempo to bring the energy. there's a ton of details hidden in here that are fun to explore. excellent work combining two great themes. YES