Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OC ReMix and OverClocked University present Sophomore Year! September 11, 2018 Contact: press@ocremix.org FAIRFAX, VA... OverClocked University takes you back to school with the group's new album, Sophomore Year. Containing 8 great rock/pop/vocal VGM jams, the new release features OceansAndrew, DragonAvenger, Level 99 & Thomas Colegrove returning to form as OverClocked ReMix's official house band! The album is available for free download at http://ocremix.org/info/Sophomore_Year. Bringing together both new arrangements as well as enhanced versions of past OC ReMixes, Sophomore Year was made by fans, for fans, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by copyright owners; the games, characters, images, and original compositions are copyright their respective owners. "It's great to have OCU back in action with OceansAndrew leading the charge," remarked OCR community manager Larry Oji. "Whether it's giving Andrew and Stevo's past OC ReMixes a new coat of paint (e.g. Sonic & Knuckles, Ragnarök Online), or unleashing the new hotness like their Super Mario Galaxy and Chrono Trigger mixes, OCU always bring the hits through great game selections coupled with rocked out performances!" The album's selection of games includes: Chrono Trigger Castlevania II Sonic & Knuckles Chrono Cross NiGHTS into dreams... Super Mario Galaxy Street Fighter II; and Ragnarök Online. Sophomore Year is also OCU's third album, following 2014's Freshman Year and 2016's Spring Break DJ Set, with the group's previous albums tackling other hit games such as Undertale, Bravely Default, Ico, DuckTales, Star Fox, Donkey Kong Country, and several more top titles. 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). ### Download it: http://ocremix.org/info/Sophomore_Year Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Sophomore_Year.torrent Comments/Reviews: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/47583/

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

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

Download it! http://ocremix.org/info/Sophomore_Year Torrent it! http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Sophomore_Year.torrent

I wasn't borderline, but put me down with Nutritious for these crits. Solid regardless! YES

With a chill intro like that, I wonder how this dipped into NO territory in MW's opinion. Let's check it out. Source usage-wise, no issues picking out enough to get it well over 50%, so I scrapped my timestamps; it checks out just fine on that level. Everything seemed strong until the first section where I thought things got crowded. 3:43's section was really crowded with the "Midnight Wood" backing part getting pretty smothered - for example, notice how the bass barely registers; that only lasted until about 4:05. 4:07 moved onto "Stasis Awakening" while still referencing "Midnight Wood" underneath. Yeah, the overall sound definitely isn't awful, but when it's clear that the interplay between the two themes is important like this, you'd want the mixing to be clearer so that the different lines both cut through, and that's definitely not happening here. The whole thing has a rather distant and muddy sound to it -- seemingly not a lot of high-end -- and while the lead guitars wail and have great energy, they're taking up all of the space during the fuller sections and drown out the rest of the writing, which is probably sharing too much of the same frequency range; a musician judge can properly speak to that, particularly for this section. Nice dropoff at 5:43 focusing on just the "Stasis Awakening" melody before referencing to "The Last General" at 6:14 and then moving back to "Stasis Awakening" at 6:37. The final intense section at 7:38 is definitely mixed in a way where it's just mud and machine gun drumming, and it's just not clear enough. It's actually a bit better/more distinct once the type of machine gun drums changed for the 8:05-8:18 part of the crescendo. The final section of "The Last General" from 8:31 until the end was wild, but let 'im go, what's the problem? On a production perspective, I think the mixing should be improved before we roll with it. That said, the arrangement is tremendous and doesn't need to be touched; I don't know what MindWanderer is smoking, as there's nothing wrong structurally with the track. I didn't find any of additive parts of the gradual textural build until 2:28 to be abrasive or unpleasant in any way, so I'm not sure if his volume was just too high. It seemed like his comments on the unpleasantness would have most applied to 7:38-on rather than the beginning as they seem to indicate. I'm a conditional YES for now. If Peter can take another pass at the production to get this sounding clearer, mainly for the densest sections, I think it's an easy call otherwise. I feel bad not being in this one's corner quite yet, because I don't want the production aspect of our bar to be too high, but that side of it really does need addressing, IMO, before we could post it. But I want this posted in some form, this definitely deserves a place. Nice work so far, Peter. EDIT (10/3): On second thought, I'm listening again, and while I'm not changed on wanting the production to be cleared up/improved for the two fuller sections I mentioned, I'm not going to hold this back if we had no revisions. The arrangements too strong and the production -- while not optimal -- isn't fundamentally broken, so I can live with it as is. I wouldn't hold it against anyone voting NO or conditional along those lines, but I think we need to be reasonably permissive and not make the perfect the enemy of the good. Updating vote to a full YES.

The changeup at 2:05 was odd, sure, but I didn't have any real issues following the rhythm, so let's go. Nice way to personalize these themes, Mike. Welcome aboard! YES

I suppose I'll add some more comments then. I didn't mind the GM-quality of that synth until 1:40, but it being obscured helps it (a lot); no issue criticizing it, although I'd say the mud actually helps downplay (not eliminate) exposure issues. The little string stabs first used at 1:00 were also pretty fakey. Production-wise, it is imbalanced, but the perfect is being made the enemy of the good. On balance, much more works with this arrangement as is, and I can live with the mixing not being ideal.

:15.25-:28, :38.5-:44, 1:18.75-1:32, 1:48-2:07, 2:13.5-2:37, 2:52.75-3:06, 3:18.5-3:47, 3:58-4:07, 4:18.5-4:31 = 141.25 seconds or 50.99% overt source usage My timestamps just cover the more obvious melodic references; the arrangement had other references to backing writing or at least chord progressions throughout. The theme finally arrived in a bigger way at 1:19 after the lengthy build. The accompanying electric guitar chugs were weak-sounding and exposed the sample, but were at least serviceable. The shift back to the source's intro (2:50-2:52) was awkward, but we'll live. 3:05-3:18's writing felt like it briefly went off the rails, but you get used to it on subsequent listens and it wasn't a huge deal. All that said, I particularly enjoyed the unorthodox usage of the theme when the piece followed the progression of the theme without the melody. Production-wise, it's not the greatest execution, but my issues were a few instances of samples lacking realism/depth. Otherwise, the instruments/samples were used reasonably well, and the track had a full soundscape. Unlike the other Js, I didn't feel the mixing choices were a dealbreaker. They're not ideal though, e.g., the melody at 1:19 not being louder and more upfront. But I didn't hear anything disqualifying this re: production because the part-writing was still discernible to me with no problems. Especially with an arrangement this creative, we need to be more permissive on production, or we're taking that half of the bar too high, IMO; I've been guilty of that as well, so let's be mindful of it. YES

Quick and dirty vote. Rocked out, loved the arrangement. Was initially concerned at the theme being quiet and de-emphasized at first when it came in at :20, but it eventually took the forefront at 1:40 for the rest of the arrangement, so no issues there. Great energy and loved the title too! Looking forward to the next one, Mauricio! YES

We've gotta get Guillaume a piano someday. The sample's solid, but for me it's in the uncanny valley in terms the realism of the sound. That said, this was very elegantly handled, and simply great arranging for piano. Beautiful and an easy, breezy call! YES

The track was 3:24-long, so I needed to hear the source tune used for at least 111 seconds for the source tune to dominate the arrangement: :00-1:07.25, 1:41-2:18.75, 2:41-3:10.5 = 134.5 seconds or 60.58% source usage Just timing out the source usage so I know I'm not being swayed by the production. Never heard the first version, since it wasn't inboxed by me, so I'm coming in fresh. The main melody synths (:14) were pretty vanilla, so I didn't like the lead, but that was more of a personal taste thing. The track was produced in a way that filled out the soundscape well despite the lead. That said this was a very creative, varied and expansive take on the theme. Along with good original writing transitions that fit together with the arrangement sections, you did a great job changing up the textures, instrumentation, and even the volume of the source theme usage to vary up the presentation. No matter what the first version sounded like 5+ years ago, the growth you've demonstrated here is clear. Nice work, and great job keeping this concept alive and better realizing its potential. Welcome aboard, Maksim! YES

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

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

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

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

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

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