Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

The core beat pattern at :11, :34, :45, 1:30, and 2:05 ended up overused by the end, but there were enough changeups in the part-writing supporting the source melody to make that beat repetitiveness a non-issue. Kind of crunchy when it comes to the mixing, so some of the supporting writing was obscured, but nothing beyond a personal preference nitpick there. Nice formula for source tune personalization, primarily done by never letting the instrumentation or textures rest on their laurels for too many measures. The end result was that this packed a lot of evolution in its short runtime. We'll see if the other Js agree that the treatment was substantial enough, given how short this is. Folks may also notice that the track loops perfectly, which was also a nice touch. :-) YES

Cool contrast of the bright, bubbly theme being given much darker undertones. Y'all pulled it off well! Lots of effective changes in the instrumentation and textures to keep the piece evolving. Really strange direction to take it in, but it's embraced wholeheartedly, so you've sold it to me. ;-) YES

It'll seem like I disliked the piece when I mainly hear lots of unrealized potential. This was texturally empty, just way too thin and simplistic, which was unfortunate after a very promising intro with a cool sound. The volume of the elements in play doesn't make up for the relative lack of complexity here. Finally some beats come in at 1:26 to thicken things up more, but the part-writing is very straightforward and lacks that next level of sophistication. prophetik said maybe there's not enough arrangement, and I get where he's coming from, but he's mistaken in how he attempted to articulate the issue. This is presented in a melodically straightforward manner, and that's fine. What was missing here was more complexity in the accompanying parts and more creativity in the sound design. This is already going in the right direction in terms of different instrumentation and different sound design, the combination of which does help this stand apart from the feel of the original, but clearly not enough yet based on prophetik's reaction. But this sounds like a work-in-progress, not a fully developed and finished piece. Something like Charlie Atom's "Toriel's Pain" isn't where our bar has to be, but it's a great example of a melodically straightforward rendition with way more attention paid to the detail work of supporting writing that adequately fills in the textures, and killer sound design. That's not the bar, but it's a genuine North Star. This is a solid start, Noga, but it still needs more writing complexity behind the melody and other sound design ideas to further personalize your take. Even if you don't end up reworking this one, you can definitely be proud of how far you've come with this. There's a lot of untapped potential though, so hopefully you keep developing your craft. If you haven't already, consider joining our Discord for more feedback and/or using our Workshop forum resources. NO (resubmit)

Oh wow, all the years I've heard EarthBound's music, I don't think I've ever listened to this one. Didn't recognize it, but it's a nice piece! This arrangement in an of itself feels like original game music when it comes to the overall sound quality and fidelity, like late-stage SNES soundtrack music from a different palette than EarthBound. By going this route though, lots of humanization, expressiveness, and production options were sacrificed. SNES vibes aside, the opening sounds still feel super basic and vanilla, but it's potentially all in how you use these sounds, so we'll see how that plays out. The timing of beats feels very locked to grid with a plodding core pattern (:01-:57, 1:38-2:17). The first verse at :17 the leads felt relatively lively despite being programmed in, but the overall sound is very silted, there's not really any getting around that. Organ at 1:06 was very flimsy-sounding, but it's meant to sound more stylized. I don't know music theory, and my ears aren't primed to pick out wrong notes, but, unlike prophetik, I didn't a single thing that stood out as bad/wrong notes, I just heard supporting writing lacking direction and synergy (e.g. :34-:49, 1:54-2:09). Machine gun drum kicks from 2:24-2:25 that are fleeting but do sound low-quality. The arrangement does go for a more upbeat feel but when prophetik said "what most of the instruments are saying is bland or looped a lot - like the drum patterns and backing organ", that's correct to me, and I'll go back to the stilted timing and plodding beats. It's cool for a chiptune aesthetic, but it also feels very limited instrumentally. I've heard fan-made 8- and 16-bit-style chiptunes and MIDIs all sound more fluid and expressive than this, so I'd have to see something like that done here. The goal seems to be to stick to SNES soundtrack-level sophistication, which is fine, it just falls outside of our production standards, IMO. There's good potential in your music-making as long as you keep at it, Rhino. NO

Great source tune choice, ripe for expansion. Vanilla-sounding synth to open things up, but obviously a stylized approach, so let's see where it goes. Melody arrives at :17, and the overall textures are basic but reasonably full, with the caveat being that it ought to further flesh out, IMO. Sampled amen break drums are brought in at :58 and those seem like a square peg in a round hole, but I'll live. Some added beats come in at 1:27 and this is definitely fuller, though melodically this is already very repetitive. 1:59 dropped out the lead and just had the countermelody with beat accompaniment, which was a good direction to create some contrast. Then 2:32 continues with a skeletal progression plus beats before finally getting back to the source melody on lead at 3:04, which feels like a cut-and-paste once the beats returned at 3:12. An addition to the beats at 3:32 for some more movement underneath. At 4:01, there was another countermelodic line added to the melody, but despite that I still literally said out loud "Enough already!" with this lead. If you're not going to vary up the melodic presentation, that's OK, but I'd argue at least vary up the instrumentation of the lead and/or countermelody lines more often to keep the overall feel from sounding too static. Even though the textural changes are a good idea, I'm still fatigued from the leading elements sounding the same practically the whole way and a relatively slower pace. This is a great start, Bionic! I'm interested to hear what the other Js think; I think from a genre transformation perspective, this is a pretty solid result, but it needs more sophistication and variation with the leads and sound design to really be strong and not drag out over time. NO (resubmit)

Like proph said, this takes you on a journey, and it's a strong example of retaining the melodic fundamentals but giving this a different mood via the instrumentation. The sound palette's not my personal taste, though the throwback feel of the synths definitely gave this some 80s energy with some cinematic flair. A Short Hike fans are gonna be feasting with the amount of subs we've gotten from it recently. :-D YES

need to confirm name if accepted as artist has changed the submission record's name several times -proph Artist Name: Toxicsquall I undertook a remix project of this composition, beginning with the importation of the original MIDI data into ODESI and DJ Studio. From there, I applied structural rearrangement techniques and modern audio mixing processes. To give the piece a distinctive Brazilian influence, I incorporated local elements such as the cavaquinho, cornetas, traditional percussion (batuque), vocal layers, beatboxing, and prominent basslines. This remix serves as a personal homage to Brazil. While not aiming for hyper-stylised grandeur, I hope it provides an enjoyable and culturally rich reinterpretation of the original. Source breakdown (from comments): 00:00:00 The chordal touches originally played on piano are now reimagined with vocal samples and funk-style sounds. Words like "vai", "chão", and the made-up term "Garchãopi" are introduced. "Garchãopi" is a pun blending the Portuguese word "chão" (floor), often heard in funk music, with the Pokémon name "Garchomp" due to their similar pronunciation. 00:00:39 This part is a rearrangement of the original song, keeping the piano and other instruments but with a funk beat in the background. 00:01:11 At this point, I introduce a Brazilian accordion and use some "builder" effects to add progression. 00:01:25 Here, I transition from funk to a more pagode-style rhythm typical of Rio de Janeiro, while still retaining funk elements to maintain a consistent rhythm. 00:02:00 This is an original section of mine that blends pagode, samba, and funk, with some harmonica (gaita) flourishes added in. 00:02:29 Once again, I start with a loud "vai!" and switch instruments to cornets and saxophones, preserving the song's structure—what was once played on piano is now interpreted by different instruments. 00:03:33 An original segment using playful vocal effects like “tchu” and “tchã tchã” along with the instruments introduced earlier. 00:04:33 We return to the structure of the original track, but now include more Portuguese words, such as “vai”, “desce”, “sobe”, “chão”, and “Garchomp”. 00:05:36 Cornets are reintroduced, and I build up the tempo for a crescendo that reestablishes the song's core structure using the cornets, much like a cinematic character entrance. 00:06:22 Subtly, I introduce the word “chão” in a rhythmic pattern in the background while the cornet continues playing. 00:06:42 The style now shifts to Funk Paulista, moving away from previous references to Rio funk. Heavier bass, synthesised sounds, and distorted low-end frequencies begin to dominate. 00:07:26 I maintain the original structure, but instead of piano, I use synthesisers and merge in elements of Funk Mandelão, technofunk, heavy bass, beatbox, and syncopated hi-hats with rhythmic 2 & 4 beats (kick-snare-kick-snare). Games & Sources The original battle theme for Champion Cynthia, featured in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, was composed by Junichi Masuda, widely recognised for his work on the Pokémon series’ iconic soundtracks. I applied structural rearrangement techniques and modern audio mixing processes, incorporated local elements such as the cavaquinho, cornetas, traditional percussion (batuque), vocal layers, beatboxing, and prominent basslines.

Artist Name: Azina As far as arrangements go, this begins with only small shifts. Fae-like playful piano accents electric guitar performing the harmonic structure typically played on piano. This continues until the second loop where a heartbeat rhythm is established in the low end, and choir-esk vocals underpin the now gently distorted main melody. The piece ends with a demure "victory theme" of my own making. Games & Sources The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toru_Minegishi Link to the composer; apparently he's the one who composed the gamecube startup sound. Oh, it just embeds here, I didn't think it would do that

Artist Name: 7DD9 This remix is about exploring Dr. Eldon Tyrell's pyramid in the Blade Runner universe. Vintage synths have taken over to create the proper atmosphere and mood for the listener. My love for this type of creation is strong as an old school guy and as a Blade Runner and Vangelis fan of course. I remember when I was a kid, I would wake up in the morning and run to put the cassette to load the game and listen to its music for hours. ...So Rick Deckard this time meets the Scarabaeus Astronaut... Games & Sources Game : Scarabaeus (1985) Music Soundtrack : Main Theme Original C64 composition by Csaba Nagy (perhaps) Scarabaeus, known in America as Invaders of the Lost Tomb, is a computer game released for the Commodore 64 in 1985. It was written in Hungary by Andromeda Software and distributed in the UK by Ariolasoft. Original tune :

You're a real one for this tribute; thank you sincerely for it! I only knew of Stéphane Picq's work through the 90s Dune game soundtrack (boy, you'd do a great job with any of those themes too -- check out Dune: Spice Opera!), so I appreciate being introduced to more of his work. Great energy with this original. Pretty crunchy intro; I liked the feel better when that cleared up at :51. Nice stuttering/gating/fuckery from 1:04-1:17, that was fun! As soon as I was typing out "Great rock treatment", we hit a purely electronic section at 1:30 that was also cool before a rocked out transition at 1:50. Ah man, the acoustic cameo at 2:57 was so cool. Love the back and forth integration of the guitars; this is a wonderful example of a fusion piece where seemingly disparate instrumentation goes together so well; love the chimeric style and flow here, not unlike "Speedy Guitar" or "Behold the Winged Cathedral" in its own unique way. :-) YES

With Michael, you learn to trust the process. Interesting and immersive sound design experimentation per his usual, that's a given. Nice mileage out of these minimal themes; how you sonically beefed them up AND built around them was impressive. :-) YES

Pretty crunchy original dnb writing to start. Oh, bummer, at :57, it's the beginning of snippets of the source audio itself being used, then it's fully brought in on top of the beats from 1:29-2:14. It'll sound like I'm saying we dislike the track when it's a fun remix (proph means it's not an arrangement). We're called OverClocked ReMix (capital R, capital M) as more of a brand name that sounded cooler than "arrangements", so people interchangably call things "remixes" here when that's not what we're actually doing. I'm sorry to say in this case here though, Stavrin, we're *not* a traditional remixing site, we're an arrangement site, as in the source material is played back or performed on different instrumentation, not directly sampled and not just note-for-note. This falls outside of our Submission Standards, but it's still an enjoyable remix for sure! If you'd want to learn more about making VGM arrangements, join our Discord and/or use our Workshop forum resources. NO Override

Cool cover, Jonathon, and thank you for sending it our way. :-) I appreciate you running down the various instrumentation aspects involved, which was very creative to use here. prophetik's right that, although this is a brilliant cover, this is essentially a find-replace of the source's part-writing with your (strong) sounds there's no structural difference with this version vs. the original, including just hitting the loop point at :53 and repeating the same stuff for 2 more loops. We're looking for substantial interpretive and transformative aspects of arrangement, even if an arrangement is otherwise melodically conservative. In the writeup for this ReMix, I link 10 other examples of melodically conservative yet overall transformative arrangements we've posted https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04414. If you're ever interested in fleshing out a more developed, evolving arrangement, your instrumentation and mixing already sounded very solid! Join our Discord and/or use our Workshop forum resources if you're not against taking that kind of journey. NO

Whenever I vote, I like to pretend/assume that there's absolutely no way the track can be revised, because it forces you to decide if it's above the line or not, rather than judging it on what you think the track's potential is after a revision. I agreed with Chimpazilla on the sax mixing not feeling as integrated in the soundscape. That said, it's not something that stuck out to me without it being pointed out by her first, and I can also totally live with this. Performance sounds great for our bar, not just the sax, everything else too; though the higher notes on the piano clearly expose the sample's limitations, the piano and upright bass overall sound good as well, this completely clicks for me. When I heard this on The NO Show, I qualified things by mentioning that I'd need to hear this on my setup, as it was possible the mixing issues would stand out more; just off of that listen, it was sounding like a YES to me. Now that I hear it for myself on my headphones, this is lovely, lovely, intimate smoky jazz. Great weaving of the source themes, hugely personalized. IMO proph's higher-level sax skillz make performance flaws stand out more for him than the average bear, making him too tough on it, especially because the arrangement's very substantive, which we both agree to. This isn't HonkSax™ and this overall execution isn't anywhere below our hobbyist bar. Hyperbolic for a reason, because I'll come off like I'm browbeating Brad or flipping a table. 100 out of 100 times -- not 99 out of 100 -- something like this should be approved or it means our collective bar needs recalibration for being too tough. Are we gonna mess this up? :-P Pipko, April, Lampie, kudos! :-) YES

The claps in the intro were wearing thin, so I'm glad they bowed out. JSABlixer's take in the NO Show chat was accurate for me; the first half was interesting, yet the second half didn't keep me hooked and ran out of steam. proph felt the sampled vocal integrations were solid, though they felt more stapled on top for me. The drums, which were solid samples, eventually felt like they were mostly on auto-pilot of just changing every few measures at cutoffs that just seem too squeaky clean; nothing feels organic/human about the part-writing, it's feel very gridded out, like OK a few bars of this, then change the entire patten a few bars later; I wish I could better articulate that, but I do hope you'll ask around about it. The second iteration of the melody could use more distinct variation or difference from the first besides the lead sound. The piece's overall tone doesn't distinctly stand apart from the original enough; it's not non-existent, but it's not enough. Right now, this is more about the additive part-writing, which isn't a comparatively distinct enough presentation from the original. There's definitely a place for an approach like this, as H36T has shown several times with other ReMixes; this needs more something/anything substantive/different. I'm open to whatever direction you might be willing to take this in, if interested. NO (resubmit)

I heard the source being used most of the way, I just timed it out to make sure I wasn't being bowled over by the great musicianship. :25-:36, :39-41, :51.75-1:02, 1:04.5-1:13, 1:16.5-1:42, 1:42-2:06, 2:08.5-2:18.75, 2:21-2:36.5 Weird intro that felt totally disconnected from the source (heard some faint allusions to it, they're there), but there's the melody brought in all swagged out at :25. OK, this definitely was never a direction I would have expected. If you like your arrangements melodically conservative, you'll hate this. If you're more cerebral with them, you'll appreciate the transformation, the clever genre change, the subtlety of the source in places, and the fun with passing the theme across the different instruments. Sounds awesome, mo.oomunator! A super transformative approach for sure, this is dripping with character. :-) YES

Difficult source for me to wrap my head around; it happens. Thankfully the lil' repeating pattern anchoring the track's taken from the source and ends up being the foundation of the piece, so that makes the source usage checkbox easy. At 1:52, the repeating pattern dropped out until 2:11 and made way for some even darker, more ominous sound design choices. Loved the sound design evolution and experimentation throughout, it's a wonderful trip! :-) YES

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Artist Name: Argle Finally a truly new remix. Not just old, or old-new, but new new. It's from my favorite ARPG and one of my very favorite games ever, Grim Dawn! GD is the perfect amount of complexity and build crafting for me, without tipping over the line into needing a master's degree in Excel spreadsheets for something like Path of Exile. Anyway, the track seeks to answer the question, "How much distortion?" To which the answer is, Yes. I may not have many through lines as an artist but a style I enjoy revisiting periodically is the "cinematic industrial" vibe of my Metroid Prime or FF6 Fanatics tracks. The moody OST of Grim Dawn seemed perfect for this. I didn't set out to use an EDM style four-on-the-floor beat from the beginning, but I gave it a try for something different than the aforementioned tracks. I think it works? To be honest I'm not actually aware of artists that make music in this combination of styles. It has to exist other than me right here. The crazy thing is I think I've remixed a game that's truly unrepresented, not just on OCR but seemingly everywhere! Terrible. I have at least 2 other source ideas that I would definitely do so mayhap I will revisit this game... I don't normally include source breakdowns but this is a bit murkier than my usual fare so here it is: 0:25-1:00 (source: 0:20-0:27 strings) 1:00-1:22 (source: 1:34-1:41 harp) 1:24-1:48 (source: 2:03-2:25 guitar) 1:48-2:12 (source: 2:25-2:31+ piano) 2:12-2:33 (source: 2:03-2:25 guitar) 2:33-2:58 (source: 1:34-1:41 harp) 3:00-3:24 (source 3:05-3:32 horns) 3:24-3:37 (source: 2:25-2:31+ piano) 3:37-3:55 (source: 0:20-0:27 strings) Games & Sources Song: No Man's Land

Original Decision RESUB 1 Artist Name: Seth Skoda Based on an online argument about genres not making a difference. I previously turned Death Egg Zone's music (also from Sonic & Knuckles) into a trap-ish beat just to prove the point, and it got a lot of attention. So... I started going in on other tunes. I zeroed in on Flying Battery Zone a little more, as that's my favorite tune from the game. Found the good future remix on VGmusic.com, thought it would be cool to include a little bit of it in my mix. The section starting at 1:22 and ending at 1:49 contains the counter melody and 8 bars of the backing from the good future remix. I hope this isn't a deal breaker, as it's otherwise my own derivative work. Was gonna mostly go EDM with some synthwave, but then I messed around with some 808 bass and it turned into much of the same modern hip-hop sound that I was using at the time. This final mix shows a little bit more of the original intent than previous mixdowns with the 80s drums and synths running alongside the more modern 808 kicks and hihats. I am very satisfied with how this turned out, and I hope it finds its way into many playlists of Sonic Music/VGM remixes. All that being said about the mix itself, I discovered this website in the mid 2000s and knew that one day I'd have what it takes to get a posted ReMix of my own on this site. This is my third time trying to get High Voltage posted; hopefully it's the charm. Games & Sources Sonic & Knuckles - Flying Battery Zone Act 2 Composer: Howard Drossin

I'm just commenting on the revised version. It's not an apples-to-apple comparison, but I was wrong about "Hunter's Community Chest" way back and I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice. Obviously, this has more energy and dynamics to it, particularly for the 2:39 section, yet this is also a fairly low-key presentation most of the way. The time sig change and deliberate pacing were very effective, and I love the instrumentation throughout with these amazing textures. Such a smart treatment of the source, this is excellent, Brad! :-) YES

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Well, gawddang, I love the sources and I love this. Feels like something one of the composer bands like Zuntata could have envisioned. I’ve got nothing to say but YES. That’s gonna make this writeup tough! :-)

Artist Name: minusworld My Dwelling of Duels entry from Forest vs. Jungle month, where it placed 4th (behind Hemo's arrangement debut at DoD!) The squad: * Xander Plute - flute * Roland N. Laracuente Martínez - bass guitar * Cyril the Wolf - lead vocals * Nalani "Unfocused in IA" Proctor - vocals, choir * me - arrangement, production, guitars, VSTs While searching for sources to cover for Forest vs. Jungle month, I actually found that I wasn't connecting with very many. Macalania Woods from FFX is one of my favorite VGM tunes, but it's a little chill for my style. Many forest themes were on the slower side, and many jungle themes were outside of my wheelhouse for the DoD deadline. I found this tune for Noctilum and was like "whoa." Now, I am actually one of maybe 10 people on the planet who played Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U, but for some reason the music wasn't something that wedged itself in my memory. But, the tune was awesome and I had actually played the game, so I decided to go for it. The daytime version of this song is already so good, so I decided my approach would be to just extend it into a listening experience you might hear on a Two Steps from Hell album. The source has a rock band, an orchestra, cool hand percussion, tons of electronic ear candy, and of course, vocals. Given the DoD timeline, I wasn't confident I would be able to do everything justice at the mix stage, so I made the decision to cut a lot of the electronic components and focus on the band, orchestra, and vocals. I ain't no Emunator. :) I knew I wanted to introduce the vocals at the end of the arrangement to elevate their impact, and I knew I wanted to add a funky flute solo because why not? With these ingredients, my initial outline was to treat the source's prominent flute melody like a "chorus" and do two build-ups to both, with the flute solo between them. If you drew the dynamics as a line from left-to-right, it would look like two right-leaning mountain peaks. The source has daytime and nighttime variants, so I borrowed some elements from the nighttime tracks to make the final arrangement. I cut the electronic, Terraria-like intro from the daytime version altogether and ended up with this. I'll label the source daytime and nighttime sections, then use them in the arrangement map. Daytime * Electronic intro * A section (strings, flute lead) * B1 section (tense strings) * B2 section (slap bass, flute lead) * Chorus A (vocals) * Chorus B (flute melody) * Transition 1 * C section (palm muted guitars, flute melody) * D section (female vocals + flute lead) * Outro ("whoa-oh"s) Nighttime * A section (string, flute lead) * B1 section (marimba) * B2 section (add percussion) * Chorus B (flute melody) * Chorus C (low flute + brass melody) * C section (flute melody) * D section (flute lead, quiet "whoa-oh"s) * Outro * Arrangement - Source * A section (strings, rhythm guitar, flute lead) - Daytime A * B section (strings, marimba, djent) - Nighttime B1, B2 * Chorus B (AG melody into EG + flute melody) - Nighttime Chorus B * Funky flute solo - n/a * C section (palm muted guitars, EG melody, flute solo extended) - Daytime C * D section (female vox lead) - Daytime D * A' section (rhythm guitar, synths) - blend of Daytime A and B1 * B' section (flute lead) - Daytime B2 * Chorus A - Daytime Chorus A * Chorus B - Daytime Chorus B * Chorus C - Nighttime Chorus C * Outro - Daytime Outro I asked Xander to improv the flute solo, and he extended it into the C section which I thought sounded awesome. I felt that section was lacking before I got his solo, so it was awesome to hear he had already solved the problem for me! I was planning to track bass myself but ended up traveling for 10 days of the month... Roland can handle anything and his playing style has a really nice attack that I knew would be excellent for what I wanted on this track. He totally killed it. Fun fact, the vocals in the source are actually samples. But real vocals are better, so I asked anonymously in the DoD discord for a singer and when Cyril responded I knew he would bring the lead singer energy needed here since I am familiar with his covers. And bring it he did, sending me not one, not two, not three, but seven stacked stems to give the part the energy it deserves. ONE BY OOONEE! Unfocused in IA also responded to my request, which ended up being a welcome surprise because I didn't initially plan on having female vocals. I sent her the choir VST renders and she shot me back some stems which I loved so much I mixed it as the feature for the D section! It was a complete joy to work with everyone on this track. I'm grateful to you all! I hope listeners find something to enjoy in this take on Noctilum, and check out the source if you haven't! Games & Sources Xenoblade Chronicles X - Noctilum Day, Noctilum Night These two tracks are together on the soundtrack as "N木ig木ht木L", which is also where this arrangement title comes from: > The three "木" in the track's name are a reference to the character "森" (mori), meaning "forest," which is composed of three "木" characters. cf. https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/N木ig木ht木L https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re9-5p8ApBA

Very beautiful intro; this is going to be a nice interpretation, you can tell off the bat with this swung feeling to the rhythm. Cool stops of the swing at 1:25 & 1:36 for nice bits of contrast, then sounding a measure more forceful at 1:48. Smooth transition at 1:56 in the brief pivot to "Ceremony of the Gods", and then another seamless shift to "An Irrevocable Past" at 2:56. Love the delicate and measured yet personalized piano approach, Guillaume, you make it sound effortless. :-) YES