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Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

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Posts posted by Liontamer

    *NO* Mega Man 2 "Pixel Perfect"

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted · Edited by Hemophiliac

    Artist Name: JSONBach

    An orchestral arrangement of the Dr. Wily's Castle theme from Mega Man 2. I am currently learning how to use Spitfire's BBCSO. This was a study project, chosen because I love the game, and because I wanted something challenging. The quick articulation and speed make this tough to arrange for orchestra, so I have worked hard to make this work as a transcription more than a recreation of the original material.

    The orchestra is eventually blended with some authentic 8-bit synthesizers from the NES era, and the original audio is meticulously mapped (with hundreds of hand-placed cue markers) and then carefully stretched so that I can achieve a perfect crossfade. The original tempo of 180 is a bit too fast for an orchestra, so in the spirit of making an arrgement that I could transcripbe for profressional players, the tempo is lowered to 160 initially. That is subtly stretched to the original 180 near the end of the crossfade.

    Games & Sources

    Mega Man 2: Dr. Wily's Castle

    HAPPY SILKSONG DAY! OC ReMix and DaMonz present A Knight (for a Knight)!

    in Announcements

    Posted

    93-232.png


    HAPPY SILKSONG DAY! OC ReMix and DaMonz present A Knight (for a Knight)!

    September 4, 2025
    Contact: press@ocremix.org

    ATLANTA, GA... OC ReMix is proud to present DaMonz's A Knight (for a Knight), Canadian game developer & composer Emery Monzerol's earnest tribute to the celebrated indie platformer Hollow Knight, released in celebration of today's launch of long-awaited sequel game Hollow Knight: Silksong, scored by Australian composer Christopher Larkin. A Knight (for a Knight) features four mellow, lo-fi-inspired arrangements of music from the original Hollow Knight. The EP also features cello performances by Monzerol's mother Christine Giguère, making the EP a family collaboration. The visual artwork was created by Annie Doyon, creator of the album art for 2017's Mirror Image: A Link to the Past Remixed. A Knight (for a Knight) is available for free download at https://knight.ocremix.org.

    "Hollow Knight holds a very special place in my heart, because playing that game was a very crucial moment in my recovery from pretty severe depression," shared album director DaMonz. "Working in a big game company had been siphoning out my passion for a while, and Hollow Knight was the game that reminded me why I was doing what I was doing. I will forever be grateful to Team Cherry for essentially saving my life!

    A Knight (for a Knight) was produced to help promote video game music, was made by fans, for fans, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Team Cherry; all images, characters, and original compositions are copyright their respective owners.

    "This whole project initially started as just a single short lo-fi-ish remix just to mess around a few years ago," Monzerol noted. "Just as it so often does, it spiraled almost out of control in the classic loop of "just a little more", until it became the 4-track EP that it is now!

    A Knight (for a Knight) is DaMonz' sixth OC ReMix album in a director role. The EP's tribute to Hollow Knight, now makes the hit indie game the most recently released game represented by an OCR arrangement album. Also released under DaMonz' leadership were OC ReMix community albums Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening Remixed, Hometown Heroes: Town Themes Arranged, Mirror Image: A Link to the Past Remixed, Super Mario RPG: Window to the Stars, and an arrangement album for his Shuttle Rush indie game soundtrack entitled Shuttle Remix.

    About OverClocked ReMix
     
    Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form. Its primary focus is ocremix.org, a website featuring thousands of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans. OC ReMix operates under the umbrella and sponsorship of Game Music Initiative, Inc, a 501c3 non-profit charitable organization (EIN: 81-4140676).

    ###

     

    OCRI-0015 - A Knight (for a Knight)

    in Album Reviews & Comments

    Posted

     

    This whole project initially started as just a single short lo-fi-ish remix just to mess around, about two years ago I think. And just as it so often does, it spiraled almost out of control in the classic loop of "just a little more", until it became the 4-track EP that it is now!

    Hollow Knight holds a very special place in my heart, because playing that game was a very crucial moment in my recovery from pretty severe depression. Working in a big game company had been siphoning out my passion for a while, and Hollow Knight was the game that reminded me why I was doing what I was doing. I will forever be grateful to Team Cherry for essentially saving my life!

    Now, enough with the heavy stuff.

    - DaMonz

    cover.png

    *NO* Sonic the Hedgehog 3 "Massive Arms"

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted · Edited by pixelseph

    Artist Name: Matt Frequencies

    It's been 6 months since I last had a go at submitting - in the meantime, I've been refining my style, and a lot of life stuff has happened, so feeling brave enough to have another bash.

    This track is kind of a 'magnum opus' moment of all the things I've learned in the last period - everything is new, synthesiser wise, no sampling of the original track. 

    I've leaned into writing 'stories' in music, and this song was a prime candidate for that - a very dual natured song, a hostile dangerous theme contrasted against a heroic moment, I've always seen it as a tug of war between Sonic and Robotnik - so I decided to extend that out, instead of looping it, this song tells the story of that massive clash up on the Death Egg with each main section having a different focus and meaning. I've called it "Massive Arms" because of the epic cinematic vibe I was going for.

    Technically, this was made in Reason 13, with the main organ, choir and bass tones coming from my 1991 Yamaha TG100 I inherited from my brother. The lead square and guitar tones are the Europa rack instrument, and the drums are a combination of sets that I've enjoyed using in my other songs, one a bit darker/meaner than the other. Lots of sidechain and automation going on in here.

    It's still a very highly compressed song as I made it to use in my DnB sets when I DJ live, and it needs to stand up against some of that really intense music from the likes of Doctor Werewolf or Pendulum, both of which I used as references for mixing, but hopefully this time around - a bit less fatiguing to the ears.

    The biggest technical shift for me has been learning to use the stereo field to really help things stand out where they need to, and there's a LOT of that going on in this track, so I hope you enjoy the ear candy!

    Games & Sources

    Sonic 3 - Big Arms (Final Boss) - 

    *NO* Animal Crossing "Just Another Loan"

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    The track was 3:49-long, so I needed to hear the VGM used for at least 114.5 seconds to consider the source material dominant.

    :00-:33, :42-:48, :53-1:44, 2:03-2:37, 2:46-3:48 = 186 seconds or 64.35% source usage

    A good clip of the source usage was from the bass as a supporting part, but this was the only track among the 12 that invoked the source tune throughout most of the track. If you further explore (presumably human-made) music-making further, this was a more connected end result, relative to the original VGM, and thus the most cohesive piece of music among the group.

    Dynamically, the sections still felt fairly repetitive aside from different lyrics (though the GenAI vocals do a decent job of creating different variations and inflections, all things considered), all of the instrumentation and vocals had a warbly/buzzy quality throughout so the mixing quality's not strong, and the lyrics come off like trope-y GenAI again (including the spoken-word aside as a conclusion, enough already).

    NO

    -----------------------------------

    Checklist:

    - Warbly vocals
    - Lyrics also feel AI-prompt generated, too on the nose with the rhyming, always extended character meta-narratives
    - Dynamics possibly undercut by limiter on volume

    Sorry if my perception of this undersells how much actual human-generated content is there, Craig. If I had to bet on it though, this comes across like prompt-generated lyrics and the song structure isn't dynamic enough to feel like it's mostly Craig's direct input on this.

    I definitely don't want a trend of people sending AI-generated content here, no matter how good it ends up being. The aim is to highlight skill, intention, and creativity with human-created, human-written, human-produced music. When you take human decision-making out of the equation, even if the end result sounds good, it wouldn't be people genuinely creating the music.

    -----------------------------

    Alright, so I've listened to all 12 tracks and wanted to give some other thoughts that go broader than the submission.

    1. I can't take Craig's claim at face value that these tracks weren't substantially, majority, or totally GenAI. That means compositionally, not just the lyrics or vocals. 
    2. I recognize that people will want to use it as a creative outlet, it makes music "creation" more accessible, and it can be made with good intentions, and we'll potentially get more AI-related submissions in the future.
    3. We have already approved a track using AI elements. Synthesizer V was used for the vocals in https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04711. That was a case where a musician licensed their voice for the product (rather than AI being trained on stolen content). The arrangement had been previously made/submitted a decade earlier (the first version's linked in the writeup), and this was an upgrade in the sampled vocal quality, not generative writing. There can be ethical instances of AI usage within a product. That said, context is everything.
    4. GenAI content is against the spirit of music I personally want to hear, even though it'll continue to improve and evolve. I've gone down the rabbit hole some to find VGM arrangements involving GenAI. Some sounded promising from a music quality standpoint and were, structurally, more in line with VGM arrangements we'd accept in terms of source theme usage. Even this Animal Crossing submission sounds like a viable enough concept.
    5. GenAI content could eventually become sophisticated and/or ubiquitous enough that it cannot be effectively screened or identified. (What about cases where someone claims to have referenced GenAI music for creative ideas or as a mockup that's then performed by real musicians? I suppose we cross that bridge when we get there.)
    6. Even if there came to be ethical GenAI music (i.e. that only legally trained on approved/licensed/permitted content and was transparent in sourcing/crediting), that wouldn't be a human-created work.
    7. IMO, we should explicitly add a clarifying bullet to part 2.1 of the Standards to say that we don't want tracks involving generated part-writing, composition, or arrangement, that we only want human-created music.
    8. I'm disappointed at a future where we'll need to be more forensic, more skeptical, and less trusting about the steps used to create music.

    *NO* Super Smash Bros. Melee "Smash Bros. Showdown"

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    The track was 3:14-long, so I needed to hear the VGM used for at least 97 seconds to consider the source material dominant.

    :01.75-:25, :26-:33, :39-:45, 1:07-1:19.75, 1:25-1:29, 2:01.5-2:03.75, 2:36.25-2:38.75, 2:48.75-3:09 = 68 seconds or 35.05% source usage

    The lack of direct source usage & substantive arrangement is an automatic dealbreaker for me.

    NO

    This one was, to me, the clunkiest piece of the set. "Bros." not being pronounced "Brothers" at :52 feel like an AI giveaway, but I digress. Choppy flow on much of the lyrics, and the shifts from occasional VGM references to all this unrelated stuff didn't flow together well at all.

    -----------------------------------

    Checklist:

    - Minimal VGM arrangement, mostly unrelated composition
    - Any direct VGM arrangement is very straightforward and brief
    - Warbly vocals
    - Lyrics also feel AI-prompt generated, too on the nose with the rhyming, always extended character meta-narratives
    - Staid, limited drum writing
    - Dynamics possibly undercut by limiter on volume

    Sorry if my perception of this undersells how much actual human-generated content is there, Craig. If I had to bet on it though, this comes across like prompt-generated lyrics and the song structure isn't dynamic enough or connected enough to the original VGM to feel like it's mostly Craig's direct input on this.

    I definitely don't want a trend of people sending AI-generated content here, no matter how good it ends up being. The aim is to highlight skill, intention, and creativity with human-created, human-written, human-produced music. When you take human decision-making out of the equation, even if the end result sounds good, it wouldn't be people genuinely creating the music.

    *NO* Donkey Kong Country "Donkey Kong's Fallout"

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    The track was 4:30-long, so I needed to hear the VGM used for at least 135 seconds to consider the source material dominant.

    :00-:50.5, 1:35-2:12, 2:56-3:03.5, 3:20.5-3:42, 4:17.5-4:28.5 = 110.5 seconds or 40.92% source usage

    The lack of direct source usage & substantive arrangement is an automatic dealbreaker for me.

    NO

    Easily the most interesting genre transformation and another rarer example where the music during part the verses at least sounded adjacent to the source music, with backing patterns from the original in play on bass even when lyrical melodies weren't related to the source. This one's actually also the only example where I heard the vocals partially arranging the source theme. Much more of the source usage was from the bass usage rather than melodic arrangement. No surprise the chorus was disconnected from VGM, given the precedent of the other music. Aside from the lyrics feeling tired (because it's the same meta-narrative concept every time), this was the most interesting result, so that's something.

    -----------------------------------

    Checklist:

    - Minimal VGM arrangement, mostly unrelated composition
    - Any direct VGM arrangement is very straightforward and brief
    - Warbly vocals
    - Lyrics also feel AI-prompt generated, too on the nose with the rhyming, always extended character meta-narratives
    - Staid, limited drum writing
    - Dynamics possibly undercut by limiter on volume

    Sorry if my perception of this undersells how much actual human-generated content is there, Craig. If I had to bet on it though, this comes across like prompt-generated lyrics and the song structure isn't dynamic enough or connected enough to the original VGM to feel like it's mostly Craig's direct input on this.

    I definitely don't want a trend of people sending AI-generated content here, no matter how good it ends up being. The aim is to highlight skill, intention, and creativity with human-created, human-written, human-produced music. When you take human decision-making out of the equation, even if the end result sounds good, it wouldn't be people genuinely creating the music.

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