Liontamer

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

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

Artist Name: shieldeater hi OCR, this track is my take on "Dr. Andonuts' Lab". the source is fairly minimal - mainly three melodic fragments over a drone. i build it out from there with guitar, bass, drums, strings, and reharmonizing with each repetition and adding a couple of "beatlesque" touches. it ends up in a place that feels a little warmer and more hopeful than the emotionally distant original, perhaps suggesting the possibility of reconciliation. hope you enjoy! Games & Sources This track arranges "Dr. Andonuts' Lab" from EarthBound (original composers Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka). There are also one or two brief quotes from other Earthbound material.

Artist Name: Zanezooked Original Decision RESUBMISSION of https://ocremix.org/community/topic/53085-no-myth-1-2-victory-at-madrigal/ My original submission received kind words for the arrangement but was criticized for the mastering and sample quality. Hopefully this revision addresses that. I also took the opportunity to make some other changes. List of changes: Quality string libraries are now used: Spitfire Abbey Road One Soaring High Strings and Legendary Low Strings for violins, cellos, and basses; Audio Imperia Areia for violas; and EastWest Hollywood Strings for tremolos and other special dynamics. (The brass, by the way, is Aaron Venture Infinite Brass, and the brief flute and piccolo are from Aaron Venture Infinite Woodwinds. The solo cello is the Audio Modeling SWAM Solo Cello performed on an Akai EWI USB.) Mixing and EQing was completely redone, track by track, using Izotope Neutron Mastering was redone using Izotope Ozone. The solo cello has been carefully EQed using reference recordings of real solo cellos, and placed in the mix better to make it feel more like an organic part of the whole. It no longer blares over the whole orchestra. In the mid-track crescendo leading into the triumphant stings, the female choir now sings a falling sequence, while the male choir still sings the original rising sequence. This signifies Shiver's fall into despair and Rabican's growing power over her. Also, a falling female choir sounds better—less shrill. The female choir has been redone using six AI voices from ACE Studio, layered together, and then layered with the original EastWest Hollywood Choirs. I had asked about potentially doing this in one of the threads about AI and no one objected, so hopefully this is okay. AI did none of the compositional work for me. The process of crafting the AI voices is exactly the same as the process I used originally with the sample-based EastWest Hollywood Choirs: I placed all the notes, assigned them phonemes, and then tweaked expression parameters to try to get something that sounds natural. The difference is that you can actually hear the consonants and syllables with the ACE Studio singers. This ad hoc choir wouldn’t work if the AI singers were exposed, but as part of a mix I’m pleased with how it turned out. At the end of the track I added an extra bar between the brass statement of the theme and the return to the piano and cello, to provide an extra breath. Original submission notes: I’ve been a regular visitor to OCRemix since 2002. A significant portion of my music library comes from here. So it’s with some trepidation that I send my first submission. And not only am I daring to submit to OCRemix, but I also have the hubris to remix the great Michael Salvatori and Mr. Halo himself, Marty O’Donnell! “The Siege of Madrigal” is a piano piece by Michael Salvatori. It’s one of two simple but gorgeous melodies Salvatori composed “in the style of Marty” which Marty O’Donnell loved so much he integrated in multiple ways into the soundtracks of their respective games (the other is “Unforgotten” from Halo 2, which saw a return as “Never Forget” in Halo 3). Marty loved “The Siege of Madrigal” so much he even hid it inside Halo, so for many people it’s known as “the Halo Easter Egg Song.” I heard it in Myth, though, years before Halo, so I know it as the song that plays as the war-weary, anonymous narrator describes a last-chance plan to strike the armies of the Dark and their leader, the Fallen Lord Shiver, and break the siege that is strangling the city of Madrigal. Myth is a game about small, desperate battles fought by a single battalion on the fringes of a greater, losing war, so we don’t directly see what happens at Madrigal; the player spends the mission running a diversionary raid to try to draw some of the enemy away from the city. But in the following mission briefing we are told what happened: This sudden, unexpected victory in the face of certain defeat is what Tolkien would term a eucatastrophe. It captured my imagination. I tried to tell that story in this remix. We start with the Siege of Madrigal theme in piano in its original C major, but with the rising quartet of notes between phrases removed to make it more hesitant. The addition of harmonic high strings underlines the uncertainty. At 0:30 a solo cello picks up the theme. Marty O’Donnell made the low cello the featured instrument in Myth, so this seemed appropriate. (Also, I love the cello.) The rising quartet of notes is restored, making the theme a little more hopeful. At 0:59 we get a sweeping string statement of the Madrigal theme, but the peak of the melody is lowered from A to F, making it more somber and unresolved. At 1:28 the piano comes back along with high string tremolos, but instead of finishing the melodic phrase with a D, it modulates into an unresolved and uneasy D#, taking us into the key Db, while we also switch from 3/4 to 7/8 time. The next part represents the “dream duel” between Rabican and Shiver. What’s a dream duel? It’s never specified. I imagined each duelist attempting to invade the other’s mind and plant thoughts that undermine their strength and open them to attack. Shiver’s weakness was vanity, which seems strange for a 1000-year-old undead crone who looks the part. But she wasn’t always an undead crone. So perhaps Rabican’s strategy is to remind her of what she has lost. She may be immortal, but is it worth it if this is how she spends eternity? Rabican’s persistent attacks on Shiver’s psyche are represented by a male choir and a creepy, guttural chant in Irish, with Shiver’s thoughts are represented by a female choir also singing Irish. Irish names and words are often used in Myth, though not very accurately—more for flavor—so this seemed appropriate. I used Google Translate and then found an audio pronunciation for each word, and I’m sure I mangled it, and it’s not like it’s understandable anyway, but hey, it gave me something to work with, and I thought it was cool. At 1:31 the male chant begins: At 1:45 the low cello starts an aggressive, grinding ostinato. This is the "Great Library” theme from Myth II: Soulblighter, by Marty O’Donnell. At 2:01 the female choir sings a fast, 7/8 version of "Fallen Lords" theme from Myth: The Fallen Lords, by Marty O’Donnell: 2:22: the men’s choir rises ominously, doubled in horns to give their line punch as Rabican pushes the blade as deep as he can: 2:30 the women sing, 2:37 men and women sing together: The section builds to a frantic crescendo and then the clouds part at 2:56 as the Madrigal theme returns with its high A restored. The low cello is still prominent but now rhythmically supports the triumphant tone of the strings. At 3:23 we get a final, driving reprise of the theme in full glory, with horns and trombones taking the melody, a soaring counterpoint in the trumpets, and a bodhrán (Irish drum) pulling us forward. At 3:51 we end with a final statement of the Madrigal theme on cello and piano, made hopeful by borrowing a high sequence from the earlier trumpet counterpoint. There’s an image from Myth I was thinking of here, a soldier standing on a battlefield, arms spread, face to the opened heavens. The battle is won. Weariness and joy mingle like the rain. (Madrigal would be utterly destroyed months later. But don’t tell our soldier that.) I hope this is an enjoyable remix! Games & Sources Myth: The Fallen Lords The Siege of Madrigal, by Michael Salvatori The Fallen Lords, by Marty O'Donnell Myth II: Soulblighter The Great Library, by Marty O'Donnell

Artist Name: Mellow Sonic Thought I'd try submitting that one too. The menu theme from Half-Life is quite nice, unfortunately too short and I decided to reinterpret a longer version of it. Games & Sources

Artist Name: Mellow Sonic I'm not really a big Assassin's Creed fan, but this Ezio's Family theme by jesper kyd is just epic. After hearing it, I thought I could play a bit of it. Now, after several attempts, I've finally finished the remix. All parts were played freely, nothing was sampled from the original! cheers! Games & Sources

Always been a fan of this theme. The sound design and writing of the beats at :23 felt somewhat vanilla, but there's solid enough heft to the beats. The sound design for the lead's also pretty vanilla & straightforward; again, it gets by, but could be more sophisticated. I liked the addition of the belltones at 1:10 to vary up the feel, followed by some subtle countermelodic writing added at 1:33, another strong and creative touch to offer some dynamic contrast. Good dropoff of the beats at 1:57, though this section sounded murkier/lossier than any other area of the track; that only lasted until 2:21 though, so that wasn't a huge deal in the big picture. The repetitiveness of the 2:44 was admittedly a little disappointing, but the lead had a slightly different tone, and then changed at 3:09 to a highr pitch, so that was enough to at least not be in cut-and-paste territory. Another subtle change in the tone and textures at 3:31 for the final section, all good stuff! There's room for more production sophistication, sure, yet that obviously doesn't discount the quality already here. Nothing wrong with working within a narrower dynamic curve as long as the arrangement is interpretive and substantive, so nice work to 7DD9 on the subtle, expansive development of this one. :-) YES

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

Lord Gwyn's Age of Fire is an orchestral arrangement that completely reimagines the noted piano work of Motoi Sakuraba. While effectively a bar-for-bar translation, the meter has been shifted from 3/4 to 7/8 time. The result is a far more energetic and cinematic remix, embellished with new harmonies and counter melodies. The title infers a programmatic retelling of Gwyn's Age of Fire from the perspective of the primordial serpents Frampt and Kaathe. While otherwise maintaining the original formatting of Sakuraba's work, each section has been augmented in some way by the various colors of the orchestra to convey the theoretical high and low points of Gwyn's reign. The composition was made entirely with the following VST plugins: Spitfire Audio - BBC Symphony Orchestra Professional Spitfire Audio - Albion One EW Pianos Gold Bosendorfer EW Hollywood Fantasy Voices DAW - Studio One Audio Mixing - iZotope: Ozone 10, Neutron 4, Stratus3D Reverb Wave SSL G-Master Buss Compressor Thank you in advance for your time. I hope you enjoyed listening. Games & Sources Game: Dark Souls Track title: Gwyn, Lord Of Cinder Composer: Motoi Sakuraba Original style: A lament for solo piano

This track was made to replace the original one as background music on a fan-remake of the game. This fan-remake have changed orientation and the track being a remix was no longer needed (I have made an original track in replacement). The goal of the remix was to extend the original track to make it less repetitive in game and to make it more dense and layered (more heavy and modern/orchestral in a sense), while keeping the overall sadness and tone. The mix was not tested in game, therefore the track can't really be put in a game like this as some elements/part would likely be too loud/present for gameplay. Games & Sources This is an extended remix of the Old Prague Hub in Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. The original track was composed by Kevin Manthei.

Cheers to Zack for another strong mastering effort. I was a solid NO last time, so let's see where the snow falls this time. The extended intro remains solid, and on the arrangement side, I'm basically on board. I like the texture overall at 1:41 when the source melody kicks in and I like the delayed sting writing working together with the wind lead. There's still areas where there's non-melodious/off-key writing that's impacting this. At 2:16-2:37 the pizz string writing off-key; if that were the only area, it's subtle enough that I'd let it go. The strings at 2:47 were too loud and dry, which exposed the sample, and the texture was too muddy; the strings didn't need to come in that loud and bury the supporting elements, like the mallet percussion, which practically inaudible, and then there's drum hits that still sound like they have popping/distorting going on. Still much too muddy. At 2:53, there's brass support underneath that all sounds like indistinct mud; zero clarity, so you have to be paying attention for that part to even really register until it gets even louder (and muddier) at 3:24. The piano transition's at 3:50's nice, but then we have that keyboard stuff at 3:54 and that sounds off-key as well, plus the tone of the part doesn't fit well, IMO, due to how stilted the timing felt (a problem all the way until 4:34). At 4:10, this is another section where there's loads of mud and it makes it very difficult to parse what's going on. The plucked dulcimer/harp-type stuff, whatever that was until 4:34, is buried. The booming bassline and vox padding are too muddy until 4:34 as well. At 4:26, I still dislike the lead due to how stilted it sounds. And then again with the stiff-sounding lead from 4:38-4:46; like 2:16, this writing was also more meandering and non-melodious but in a subtle enough way that I can look past it. Same issue with the music box stuff from 4:52-5:11; again, not egregiously wrong notes, and the tone's actually very good for that instrument, but the writing's meandering rather than melodic so it doesn't lead the listener in a direction. Good mixing/clarity for that closing section though, and solid sound designed for everything else. To summarize: * The arrangement aspect remains a pass. Now, most of the production/mixing sounds solid. * 2:53-3:47 needs less mud/clutter. Let the texture have more breathing room. * Pull back the string volume at 2:47. * The non-melodious writing needs tweaks. On the whole though, the structure and dynamics of the writing here are solid. * Some of the leads sound stiff to me, which may be a personal taste thing. Definitely a marked improvement in terms of mixing/decluttering things, so this resub's well in the right direction. Even if you need some time away from this for perspective, this one's getting closer and closer. No need to be discouraged; I think this has a place waiting for it, but some further refinements are needed to tip it over. NO (resubmit)

Not a fan of how lossy & crunchy the mixing feels; why so muddy? Nice textural shift at 1:08. Yeah, I just don't get the mixing, but I'm stubborn as a moose there; it sounds like someone had a boombox and then recorded the playback from that speaker. :-D Not that it would excuse it for me, but "Mooserun" doesn't sound like this either, so /shrug. No question the arrangement's strong, which is the Mazedude way. The arrangement's strong, so it's a squeaker for me. YES (borderline)

Original Decision This is essentially a resubmit of a track I created 10 years ago and subbed back in 2015: https://ocremix.org/community/topic/42221-no-aleste-2-msx-flying-high/. Not sure if it's the slowest resubmit in the history of OCR, but it's probably in the top 10 somewhere :) Anyway, back then I used a primitive sample library for some vocals, which was the main thing that the judges commented on. Fast forward 10 years, and technology (and hopefully my skills as a remixer) have progressed a lot, and I was able to replace the so-so vocals from back then with Synthesizer V vocals. The lyrics are still cheesy and limited/affected by what I could make work in the previous version, but I like it that way. Apart from new vocals, I also recorded a bit of guitar, polished up the lead parts, sprinkled some effects and subtle extra parts in there, cleaned up the mix and overall brought it the track into 2024. When comparing, the old version sounds a bit boring and limited and also rather woolly in the midrange. So hopefully this one fares better in the panel. At least now I'm finally able to cross this off my todo list and can continue with properly finishing and submitting another 10 year old track idea ;) link to the previous version: Games & Sources Aleste 2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleste_2), source is the first level music:

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

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

I’m always attempting to give my best description of what I’m hearing, and hope it can provide some degree of worthwhile insight, but since Chimpa’s a mastering engineer and I’m not even a musician, I’ll almost always defer to her as far as articulating what’s potentially going on with a track. :-)

Cool lo-fi adaptation of the source tune; sounds lovely to start. Good textural escalation at :27. I dug the lil' rhythmic plucked string-style accents brought in at :40; those were a subtle element, but a sophisticated touch to add some swing and depth to the texture. From 1:07-2:02, whatever got added in was adding lots of murk and mud, which made this less enjoyable. I listened to a control track just to be sure it wasn't me (djp's Revenge of Shinobi "Consent (Make Me Dance)", for reference). IMO, I don't see what making things so murky does to make the track an optimal listen. Even at :40, there's a relative indistinctness/mud to the texture that's obscuring the part-writing (e.g. the cool percussive rhythms from 1:36-2:02 are pushed down too much, and the rain SFX -- which was more audible/discernible in the intro -- turns more into a dull crackling, like an egg on a frying pan). Loved the gentle outro, including the clanging metal SFX and the effects on the lead; the sound design's excellent. The arrangement's lovely & rock solid, and I like the track, yet I'm a stickler on this mixing, especially with the track being so brief. I just rejected another track for similar reasons, and had to bust out a control to ensure I wasn't wigging out here. I'd still love this on the site, but if we somehow couldn't get another version, I'd regrettably say NO (resubmit) as is. As much as Wes hates my old man ears -- and I'm well aware I can't get infinite passes on that -- it needs another mixing pass, IMO. EDIT (6/20): New version sounds better! It's still murky from 1:07-2:02, so I'm still old-man-ears about it, but it's notably less (accidentally overdriven), rumbly, and muffled across the board, so count me in. :-) YES

IMO, this is still lossy-sounding and lacks proper high-end sharpness/clarity. The fuzziness from 2:41 was intentional, yet still felt like soft, unwanted distortion that was cluttering up the soundscape. Wasn't a fan of the piano handling the OoT Title melody at 2:06, mainly because it sounded so close to the original music, it felt like it was sampling the original audio. Compositionally, by around 2:50, things were plodding and I was waiting for something else to develop. On the whole, the arrangement is on solid ground despite the meandering, but I'm not on board yet with this mixing. It'll come across as me disliking Everybody Man's track -- IMO, it's too boomy in the lows and the whole thing is too murky and indistinct, particularly from 2:24-on, enough so where I'm unfortunately going NO (resubmit) for the time being. If this makes it as is, I can understand that, however, I feel the production side merits one more pass.

I like the subtle lil' swirl effect on the opening sound; nice and engaging opening playing with the rhythm of the source and with some very cool sound design. The imagery feels like a scientific/technological experiment going on that has a lot of futurist potential. 3 minutes in, the rhythm keep going as it did from the start, yet it doesn't plod at all, then the textures started to get subtractive and wind down starting at 3:08. Contemplative as advertised, I love the mood this sets! :-) YES

Feels like a throwback right from the get-go; sounds straight out of a mid-90s PC game where you're stopping by a village. :-) I'll sound glib as if I didn't enjoy the track or feel it's not worth a "full" vote. proph summarized this well. There's too much repetition, and the arrangement -- while going in the right direction of transformation -- was too repetitive in a cut-and-paste feeling way. The sampled guitar tone was decent albeit obviously not humanized, and the timing was too rigid. It's too tough to really get beyond the issues adding up when taking into account the arrangement not feeling fully developed & evolving relative to what we're presently looking for. Great base here though, Justin, and I like the way this is a more intimate and stripped down texture; would love to hear another pass at this to further vary up the arrangement as well as humanize the timing. NO (resubmit)

Which game is this primarily arranging, Metroid Prime? Would y'all mind timestamping this so we can highlight the way things trade off between the themes? Thought I voted on this. Pretty epic! YES

Original writing at :03 was SO LOUD over the top of the Pictionary base, it pretty much drowned it out until :17. :'-( I can tell at this point that I'm not going to be enjoying the mixing due to the levels feeling too LOUD. It'll sound like I'm saying the production was jacked or below the bar; IMO, the leads are OK, but feel too dry and loud. There's probably a way to give the texture a warmer, more cohesive sound to it that I'm just not knowledgeable enough to convey, but hopefully a musician J can. Arrangement-wise, this is awesome and that carries it. :-) YES

Rancho Relaxo over here! Zack & Seph's guitar performances sounded extra classy. Are y'all trying to melt up the ladies? :-) YES

Opens up with some very fakey piano, but the tone has some character. Wind lead at :17 has exposed attacks, though those also had character. Beats at :31 felt kind of hollow and the panning being so wide was questionable on headphones; I wouldn't mind it as much if things ended up being recentered after a brief instance of very wide panning, but since that never happened, that's a problem, IMO. At 1:34, the chorus line on those airy belltones was too loud relative to everything else; it sounded piercing. From 2:01-on, things were again too loud and piercing. I did like the sound design in a vacuum, but the track's too shrill and abrasive, particularly in the right ear. The countermelody added in on guitar from 3:07-3:20 felt like too little too late in terms of differentiating the melodic presentation. It'll sound like I'm saying this wasn't creative or well in the right direction. Right now, despite good, gradual escalation in the textures -- arrangement-wise, the melody was on auto-pilot, so the track still plods as a result; consider introducing other variations of the source melody, even if it's just varying the instrumentation rather than the writing. as everyone else has said, great potential here, Hitrison! I hope you're willing to see what more you can do with this and will consider resubmitting it. :-) NO (resubmit)

Whoa, I'm lovin' it! Aaron's layered vocals sound awesome, and I love how comfortably the lyrics fit with the melody, something that can be easily taken for granted until you hear someone perform vocals too rigidly in time with a source melody. The instrumentation was lush, and the textures built up nicely in the first minute. Man, y'all even made a key change sound seamless and non-disappointing (hey, I can be a key change hater). The end at 3:34 wound down too quickly, so I dunno if it could be touched up to let things resonate and breathe, otherwise, this was perfect. Y'all should seriously consider doing a Touhou EP and selling it at Comiket; this would go over extremely well there, this is so cool! :-) YES