Liontamer Judges ⚖️
-
Posts
15,058 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
173
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
8Tracks
Events
Blogs
Posts posted by Liontamer
-
-
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.
-
Artist Name: TheChargingRhino
This was originally composed for Pixel Mixer's PM Rockin' Mother series album. I exclusively used a VST called UVI to make this remix, and I decided to transform it into a sort of "80's remix" with synth basses and drums and various synths. Took a fourty-three second track and turned it into two minutes and thirty-three seconds of "head-bobbing funkiness". Threw in some cowbell from 0:58 to 1:54 (with pauses in-between), stacked two synth basses on top of each other (essentially combined a slap and funk bass) plus a few organ synths to change up that organ break in the original. I took liberties with the melodies for this, it sounds like the original, yet it sounds different too.
Source breakdown:
Original - intro, section A, organ break, Section A, Section B, Section A (cut in half), Section C/ending loop, repeat
My remix - bass and drum intro; organ break (extended); Section A (greatly extended); Section A repeat with harmonic melody and altered/expanded ending loop chords); (mostly) original section with organ break, altered organ chords, and original melody; Section B (altered); Section C (altered); ending
Games & SourcesGame: EarthBound (Nintendo, 1994, SNES)
Track title: Earth's Love Song (The Lost Underworld)
Composer: Hirokazu Tanaka, Hiroshi Kanazu, Keiichi Suzuki, Toshiyuki Ueno
Site listing for this - https://ocremix.org/song/26405/love-song-of-the-earth
Song Link: -
Artist Name: Gaspode
Tunic is a great game with a lot of depth, mysteries and even its own secret language. But what stands out for me even beyond the quality of the game is the soundtrack. According to its composer »Lifeformed« it was created over a period of seven years. When the story gets tighter you find yourself in a kind of production facility and the fitting music emphasizes the strange and threatening vibe. This is »Ooze control«, a piece that hits from the first seconds with its vast soundscape.
It took the main 16-notes-melody that starts around 0:49 and created something rather simplistic and bass-oriented. To include a bit of variety I used the part starting at 1:21 for the middle. Then the main melody return and gets faster and after that I added a solo on on top. I hope you like my remix and if you didn’t play the game already you should definitely give it a try.
By the way, here’s the source breakdown:00:00 – 00:14 Ooze Control (0:49) 14s
01:05 – 02:19 Ooze Control (0:49) 74s
02:25 – 02:40 Ooze Control (1:21) 15s
03:12 – 04:15 Ooze Control (0:49) 63s
04:16 – 04:30 Ooze Control (0:49) 14s
180s => 68,2%00:00 – 04:34 264s => 100%
Games & SourcesGame: TUNIC
Track: Ooze Control
Composed by: Lifeformed, Janice Kwan -
Artist Name: thebitterroost
Featured on this awesome Pixel Mixers LP! Go check it out 😤
First two playthroughs are pretty 1:1 but adding some guitarmony and such, then I take components of the song (some cool arpeggios and such) and doomify them one by one until they have been reforged with the power of mehtuhl 👹
Let this song hopefully stand as proof that a fingerpicked acoustic guitar + proximity effect = passable bass.
Drums/acoustic gtrs/workhorse mics/stock reaper plugs, guitars through Audio Assault’s (free!) Blacksun amp sim, bass through the free BoD VST, background MIDI arp twinklies courtesy of AiR Xpand! 2.
Games & SourcesBloodstained: Curse of the Moon, Level 1: Moonlit Blade
-
Great source tune choice with a very meat & potatoes approach, but as that compo has proved time and time again, there's more to interpretation with an arrangement beyond melodic changes. Smooth instrumentation choices throughout that certainly stood apart from the original song (though briefly exposing the blocky piano sample at 2:20 I could have done without). Everything flowed nicely, and the textural change-up at 2:49 was a thing of beauty. Sufficiently rizzed fo' shizz, so the call was easy peasy. :-)
YES
-
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.
-
@Deathtank No links to A.I.-generated music, please.
-
Artist Name: The Vodoú Queen
Finally, a Zelda arrangement in my grasp! MWAHAHAHA!!!
Ahem, *evil C H A O S-filled cackles* aside, welcome to my take on Dragon Roost Island! Done for Pixel Mixers' upcoming Wind Waker: Songs of the Great Sea album, it was an absolute blast, pleasure, and I feel very lucky and grateful to have been able to snag the opportunity at such a popular track. It's definitely one of my top 10 favorite in the entire Zelda franchise / library, starting all the way from Gen 1 - the NES, and I certainly did not hesitate to put my all forth on this one.
I still remember to this day the wondrous joy I got out of encroaching upon the land of Dragon Roost for the first time as a teen playing Wind Waker on release (damn, I feel old, lol.) Those castanets...that Spanish flamenco guitar, that Calypso-island, con brio beat. For years and to this day, no matter the medium, the context, or the remix this track has undergone, it still fills me with that excited whimsy and odd...happy-sensation of FINALLY finding land after aimlessly sailing across the vast Great Ocean for hours on end, and getting to explore! I don't know why this song in particular hit me like it did (most of the WW OST did, TBH, with how flavorful, colorful, rich and full of expression all the tracks were), but I seriously got hooked when--about 9 years after Wind Waker's release--I stumbled onto an outstanding EDM artist called Ephixa, who did a couple of dubstep Zelda remixes , and those songs were a BIG influence and impetus on me wanting to tackle some of the same iconic Zelda tracks, years later.
I'm not entirely sure HOW to describe the process and making of this remix, as it all kinda came through in a blur; (I've been on an incredibly weird high and tizzy with a veritable hill of VG remixes for albums to conquer, lately, and with all that comes a lot of emotional peaks and valleys and moments of doubt and procrastination and banging my head against the proverbial wall to "make it before I break it [me]"...so. . . it's kinda hard ATM to string a coherent thought on that said process, when it's a lot more about feeling it sometimes than strategic planning--even though every mix I do has a fair share of plotting-things-out, as well.) As an old, not-born-in, but-raised-in Floridian resident myself, it's like being in a hurricane on the beach-front (and it's a WILD experience, let me tell you!) Not being fully musically-trained in the theoretical sense makes...writing it all down, laced in the jargon and the gear and the FX and the programming - for those music science nerd-out-types - all the more difficult and a struggle, haha. But, the major thing I was assured of in making this remix was that I wanted to strengthen my EDM-game. The only clear voice in my head the whole time was: "make your mark on this, sweetheart ♥."
And I hope I did, as I do with all my mixes to-date.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the wide variety of artist takes on DRI, both on here in OCR, and in the wider realms on Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, etc. I know most of them seem to take the form of Orchestral / Acoustic, or EDM, but I tried my best to make this one a unique and different spin. Is it Jungle? Maybe a lil', mostly Drum n' Bass-centric. . . Is it Tropical House? Well, it's got a very Polynesian-infused sauce, with various garnishes and spices borrowed from House, Dubstep and Trance. . . I don't know...but I'm sure Mr. Hemo or Mr. Liontamer will label this one another host to the 'experimental'... ;)
Once again, I don't know what to call my work, or what to label it as, or how to espouse on 'how I did it all' with the fancy words and theory techniques and the music sheets, but its roots run deep, and I hope people listening to it find it to be that same, equal, captivating and explorative feel (and a banger), with that same level of wonder and awe I felt back in 2003 upon reaching the shores of the place that is known as Dragon Roost Island. :)
Games & SourcesTHE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE WIND WAKER OST; Disc 1, Track 38 - Dragon Roost Island; Artist(s): Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi and Koji Kondo; Release Date: 2003; Label: Scitron Digital Content & Nintendo
-
2 hours ago, Bowlerhat said:
Hello helloooo,
I'm trying to remove a banner at the top of my artist profile, but I just can't figure out how. I believe I've checked everywhere, but besides the option to change or delete my profile pic I can't find any option to change or delete the banner. Does anyone know where this option is?
Thank you!
PMed you for more info
-
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.
-
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.
-
Artist Name: Unknown Pseudoartist feat. jnWake, minusworld, Pixels & Paradiddles
BASIC INFO
Game: Tales of Phantasia
Composer(s): Motoi Sakuraba, Shinji Tamura, Ryota FuruyaLink to the original source version:
Not very relevant, but here's also a link to a piece of game footage showing the voice clip (from the PSX port) used in the end of my arrangement (and the title). Just though that nonsense was too funny lol https://unknownpseudoartist.com/tmp/imgonnadousedhaos.mp4
CREDITS:
jnWake: lead keys
minusworld: guitars and mixing
paradiddlesjosh: drums
pixelseph: bass
Unknown Pseudoartist: arrangement, base programming, ideas, etc (aka everything else lol)----
STORY / BORING DETAILED NOTES:
Well, here we are again, 1 year or so after my first attempt of submission getting rejected. And yeah, not gonna lie: the main reason why I now decided to try with this one is because it's a funny coincidence that 3 artists involved happens to be recently joining the OCR Judges team. Not that this would have any impact on its (dis)approval, but it was just too funny not to try.
This particular one is not as important (in a personal/emotional level) as the one I submitted the first time, tho, plus I got help on the mix from someone else, so it won't affect that hard if this gets rejected again. I think it is good enough, but of course I though the same about the other one yet...
Anyways, for what is worth... this track was that typical scenario of: "this source is sooo cool... I can't understand why no one else arranged/covered/remixed/whatever it before! so I'll just try something myself!". I had some ideas on my head for very long for a mostly djent style arrangement, full of crunchy guitars and virtuosistic synths and a very dark atmosphere. Oh, and, believe it or not, but for the intro the initial idea was to be more like a weird mix of "surf rock" and some goth/dark vibe before moving to metal. I don't think that worked as expected, but for the rest... I think all went really well and just as expected.
Also as a curious fact, the basic arrangement was done sometime in mid/late 2022 as a silly shitpost alt track for Dwelling of Duels. It's hard to explain for anyone not familiar with my past on music, but let's say it had a decent but 100% MIDI base and leads were performed by a... let's say unusual instrument lol. The basic cool ideas were already there, tho, and I was personally proud of my work even though it hadn't a proper shape.
So the real action started sometime around mid/late 2024. I had a bunch of diverse Tales of Phantasia arrangements, both new and old and not-so-new ones. Tales of Phantasia is a game I simply LOVE dearly and it has one of the best VGM soundtracks ever made, in my opinion also Sakuraba's greatest work ever. And it always saddened me a bit how "Fighting of the Spirit" is pretty much the only source that gets enough love by VGM artists all around the world, while the rest of the soundtrack gets largely ignored despite so full of cool stuff too. And yeah, I know of OCR's own "Summoning of Spirits" and that's also why I appreciate Kyle's work organizing that album (also, Sixto's version of "Second Act" is still among my all-time favorite Tales of Phantasia covers).
So my plan was to reunite all these arrangements, improving the old to sound as best as I could do, recruiting real instrument performers for the arrangements that were still 100% programmed, etc and release everything as a full album, and eventually also upload videos for each individual track. I'm still pending more than half of the videos, but the actual album was already released at December 16th and it's all free in Bandcamp: https://unknownpseudoartist.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-phantasia-a-metal-tribute-to-tales-of-phantasia
When it was the time to go more serious with this particular track I'm submitting to OCR now, I had pretty clear the team I wanted for it. jnWake and minusworld are frequently teaming and collaborating for each other's works and both fits incredibly well on the style and ideas. Couldn't think of more proper keyboardist and guitarist, seriously. I also talked with Seph about joining as a bassist because his bass tone is just perfect for what is mostly a low-tuned, deep and heavy as heck track. Josh was the latest incorporation and it was somewhat close to the album's release, but it marked a huge difference for better. Before that, the arrangement had my own keydrummed improvisations that were sloppy as heck. Josh took the base and elevated the whole track to the infinitely superior level with his drumming work.
So that's how both recurrent teams joined together in an arrangement initially made by a pseudoartist lol. And now the result is what you see (or rather hear). That kind of "cover I wanted to hear for long but nobody else did, so just had to start it myself".
The original source is prog and complex as heck, and it was a pain to deal with, especially because the unusual time signature, and I'd expect performers to have a real pain with it also because the fast, proggy leads and rhythms and stuff. But of course, counting with such talented artists, one can only expect a cool result of this. I had a hard time trying to get the mix to sound decent enough, tho... so that's when minusworld offered to help. In just a short time he already got a mix that sounds a lot better than what I struggled so hard for weeks.
The original source is the "penultimate boss theme". You know, that typical boss theme for the main antagonist when they are not in their actual final form yet. It's not uncommon for such penultimate boss battle themes to be arguably more interesting than the actual final battle. Final Fantasy V is a good example of that, and although this might sound like a controversial opinion, I think the same about Final Fantasy VII despite so many people loving One Winged Angel so much.
There's a very annoying moment that happens often in such battles against "the bad guy", Dhaos. And it's when he goes past your main protagonist (Cless) and starts attacking the rest of your party. That's a moment when you feel like "ok, now i'm gone". He'll throw his signature laser and your whole party might be dead in a matter of few seconds.
This frustration and desperate moment is exactly what I wanted to express throughout the music mood around 2:04 - 2:20. After the blast beats and chaotic stuff, at 2:36 you are practically dead. But still, at 2:42, your mate Chester brings the comic role in an unexpected role pretending to still beat Dhaos (the japanese voice acting says: "I'm gonna douse Dhaos!". That's taken from the conversations in the skits in the PSX port and I just though that nonsensical sentence was too funny to use as a title and outro).
You can think of this last thing like Vegeta in the last battle against Majin Buu in Dragon Ball Z, still bratting about going to kill him even though he's that weak and wounded. Then finishing the track with a ba-dum-tss because the bad joke. I know this kind of irrelevant shitpost details and references are not everyone's cup of tea but that being such a short part I wouldn't expect to hurt anyone.
Other relevant timestamps to talk about... while the arrangement is mostly kinda conservative regarding the notes (not the structure, tho, which is pretty differently organized), there's a few original stuff after 1:35, first on guitars (mostly divebomdbs and whammy stuff) and later (1:50) on synths. The later was my own improvisations on keyboard, although obvious jnWake played all the other synths (the really complicated ones) by his own.
Then there's the intro, initially planned as some kind of "dark surf rock" or "post punk" vibe or whatever, but accidentally coming to a somewhat different direction but still dark as heck, just like how I like it. I'm not that happy with the backing strings + choir there, but I think in general all fits the mood well. The next section, between 0:32 - 1:02 is the most conservative but still trying to keep it interesting (ie: doubling the leads the second time). More of the same with the later couple of sections.
It's not my most liberal arrangement ever, but I think it goes past the usually demanded "ammount of originality" in OCR. Even more so since it's arranged in a style that is not exactly like the original source, the structure is generally different enough and there's still place for some totally original ideas here and there. And so far probably the only existent remix of this source (unless we count Sakuraba's live band medleys, which he used at least once in his shows).
Anyways, that's all, I guess. Whether this gets finally approval or not, I hope you like. For any fellow fans of this fantastic game and its wonderful soundtrack, and without any pretension to spam my work, I'd totally recommend checking my album, Songs of Phantasia. It's full of cool stuff beyond the iconic "Fighting of the Spirit" (great track but so much of good stuff in the rest of the OST too!), and while mostly relying on metal as a base there's plenty of variety and interesting ideas there. My mixing skills still needs a lot to improve but I think all sounds overall good and totally listenable.
Okay, cutting the wall of text, now for real!
Games & SourcesGame: Tales of Phantasia
Original source title: Conclusion
Link to the original source version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEnu4hlQPIc -
Artist Name: Matt's Keys
This remix is inspired by synthwave and rock music styles. I tried to remain faithful to the source material while adding some new elements, including a keyboard solo and additional guitar melodies.
Games & SourcesSource tune: "Under the Stars" from Final Fantasy Tactics.
Original soundtrack composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata.
YouTube link:
-
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.
-
Artist Name: 8055 LEVEL
Since I was a kid, I always wanted to hear a more aggressive dance version of the music from the encounter with Benny and Clyde in River City Ransom. That music always got me pumped up and made me want to shake my ass. I tried to lean into that feeling when writing $3.50 x 2...
I avoided using too many SFX from the game in my remix, or doing a whole lot of post-production to tweak effects, with the exception of the coin sounds at the end. Otherwise, this was all produced on my Yahama RM1x. Hope you like it!
Games & SourcesRiver City Ransom on NES.
-
I’ve only listened to the new version with the “proper” ending.
Loved it, loved it! Was jamming to this in my car and appreciating the textural twists and turns here. Nice work varying up the tone of the guitar and the drum patterns to keep things from getting stale. Wonderful sonic expansion of the source.
Dense and intense, this is strong stuff, PANJ! Definitely send along some more, we’d love to see it! :-) A BIG welcome aboard! \m/
YES
EDIT (9/12): Not so fast! :-D SInce I judged this one in the car, I didn't hear the fuzziness of some of the instruments or see the spectrum analyzer image of this being hard limited like many A.I. tracks are. The drums are in the uncanny valley and seem to be the most A.I.-like aspect of this, where none of the cymbals in particular sound clean, everything has a fuzzyness to it, but it stands out more when there are quieter, more isolated parts of the track. Plugging this into an A.I. detection tool says it's likely generated AI, and the user's music on YouTube and Suno indicates the same. A lot like the slew of genAI city pop arranged VGM, there's some catchy stuff in there, so it's a shame it's not human-made. AFter seeing their genAI music on their YouTube, I asked the artist about this track and got no response, though I know they saw my question. :-P
I don't consider AI-generated music to be arranged by the submitter, so to me it always fails OCR's ownership test. We need to add big honking text on the submission form itself saying we don't accept A.I.-created music. Human-made (i.e. human-sequenced and/or human-performed) music, please.
NO
-
Mixing-wise, this could be adjusted so that there are more obvious leads; sometimes, there were areas where two elements were working in tandem, but neither felt like they were leading the way, which made the track feel less focused than it should have.
That said, this was still well-produced with a ton of heft, and I really enjoyed how well Mike personalized his sound compared to Mendelson’s already awesome original. It was a treat as the track went along hearing how Mike interpreted so many distinct sections of the source. Good stuff! :-)
YES
-
I’m with it, although the beat pattern quickly plodded, so I would have loved more variety with that part of the writing. Not as fluid and developed as many of Wake past works, but that’s a much higher bar than OCR’s; otherwise, this was solid, and a nice squeezing of juice out of such a quick cue. :-)
YES
-
Grandiose is the word. :-) Epic work, bros!
YES
-
-
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.
-
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.
-
On 12/10/2024 at 3:21 PM, DarkeSword said:
I'm just gonna say that the source is valid.
- It was written specifically for the series.
- It made its way into Pikmin 2.
- It represents Pikmin in Smash.
We can call this a Pikmin 2 remix.
Just following up on this, the song was only referenced for 2 bars sung by the Pikmin in Pikmin 2 as an Easter egg, but the full song was used verbatim as a stage theme for SSBB, so we'll actually associate this with Brawl. :-)
-
Diggin' the piano at 2:36, and then we get bwomp chicka sweetness along with added string synths at 2:44; fun little detour before going back to rocking out. Hitting the melody with the synth lead for the finish was the perfect nostalgia cap on this one. Just a fun treatment throughout with Jabo and Ivan adding tons of textural depth, and all the requisite Wake synth spices that bring forth life. :-D
YES
OCR04933 - *YES* Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask "Do You See?"
in Judges Decisions
Posted
Artist Name: Michael Hudak
October 26th of this year will be 25 years since Majora’s Mask was released in the US, and I wanted to make something for that milestone. Astral Observatory has a beautiful chord progression that I figured could lend itself well to the post-rock/ambient/whatever experimentation I’ve been doing recently. A major influence here was the album “The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid” (which might be a good alternate title for this remix...) by Stars of the Lid.
There are two halves that juxtapose each other in intensity and mood. I don't think one side would work without the other with how I mixed and arranged them. I worked to get Pt.1 to sound analog and not synth pad-y; there are pianos, trumpets, and strings run through several reverbs (Reason’s RV7000, Synapse’s DR-1, Valhalla Shimmer), with external LFOs slowly altering settings like diffusion rate and pre-delay time. I took only the wet signals and blended them and then processed them further. I needed the chords to do the carrying while I focused on timbre and texture. Pt. 2 is a second movement of sorts, and has the piano playing (and altering) the melody.
The AO chords are played throughout the entire song, albeit very slowly, aside from a brief detour from 1:10 to 1:22, and then from 6:40 to the end. Long fade-out but I think it fits the tempo. Listening again, maybe I could’ve made this even slower…
Hopefully the chord progression is noticeable enough to pass, but I will leave that up to the judges of course.
The source is "Astral Observatory" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0krxH0dWhU by Koji Kondo. You may know of him.