Liontamer

OC ReMix Presents Super Cartography Bros.! November 30, 2015 Contact: press@ocremix.org FAIRFAX, VA... OverClocked ReMix today released its 55th community arrangement album, Super Cartography Bros.. The album pays tribute to map themes from nine games in Nintendo's Super Mario series, and features 17 electronic tracks with an EDM focus. Accompanying the main "Radio Edit" version of the album are the "Club Edit" version, as well as a non-stop "DJ Mix" version edited by Aaron "Global-Trance" Wu. Super Cartography Bros. is directed by OC ReMixer and submissions judge Mike "Flexstyle" Birch, and is available for free download at http://cartography.ocremix.org. Super Cartography Bros. includes a deep roster of 15 musicians tackling soundtracks ranging from Super Mario Bros. 3 for the original NES all the way to Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U. Super Cartography Bros. was made by fans, for fans, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo; all original compositions are copyright their respective owners. "EDM is a genre near and dear to my heart. Video game music is also near and dear to my heart," remarked director Michael Birch. "I've been wanting to direct a high-production-value album for OCR that combines these two things for quite a long time, so when DarkeSword posted his ideas in the forums, I knew this was going to be the project for me." The album's cover artwork was designed by Maya "rnn" Petersen, who also created the art of For Everlasting Peace: 25 Years of Mega Man, OC ReMix's commercial album in partnership with Capcom. rnn has also been featured in UDON's series of video game tribute art books, including Mega Man Tribute. OC ReMixer and submissions judge Shariq "DarkeSword" Ansari conceptualized the album, loving "the idea of OC ReMix putting out something that was proudly and unapologetically "techno.'" In noting OCR's growing acceptance of longer musical arrangements, Ansari added, "I really wanted to see artists explore and expand smaller source tunes into big, sprawling electronic epics. This album has turned into something that's so unbelievably fun to listen to." 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. ### Preview it: http://youtu.be/S7Aeuge5-E0 Download it: http://cartography.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Super_Cartography_Bros.torrent Comments/Reviews: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/42255-

Preview it: http://youtu.be/S7Aeuge5-E0 Download it: http://cartography.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Super_Cartography_Bros.torrent EDM is a genre near and dear to my heart. Video game music is also near and dear to my heart. I've been wanting to direct a high-production-value album for OCR that combines these two things for quite a long time, so when Shariq posted his ideas in the forums, I knew this was going to be the project for me. I'm in the somewhat unique position of being invested in several different communities that all appreciate great video game music, so, for this invite-only project, I reached out to a lot of incredibly talented people. Many of these faces are well-known around OCR, but a few of them make their OCR debuts on this album. Thanks to friends from not only OCR, but also GameChops, RadioSEGA, the Nerdcore VPC group, and more, this is a well-stocked roster of ReMixers! Please make sure you check each one of them out individually, as they're all well worth following. Some notes on the direction process: To ensure continuity, yet make sure each artist's unique sound shone, I made sure songs were submitted as unmastered files, and then I mastered everything myself. I decided to have each artist submit a club-length version of their song as well as a condensed, "radio-length" version. This way, all the OCR listeners who would rather not listen to a minute or so of stripped-down song (as is traditional to have in a club-friendly track) before the meat of the track hits aren't left out in the cold. Of course, the DJ-friendly version had to be included on an album like this as well. There's also a third set of songs included in this download, and that is the DJ-mixed version -- I had my good friend and fellow DJ Global-Trance, real name Aaron Wu, turn in a continuous mix set of all the songs together. That mix is available as a single continuous file, but also cut up to be easily playable as skippable MP3s or FLAC files. By doing this, I wanted to ensure that this free release through a video game music website mirrored the quality of many high profile releases from EDM record labels around the world, which often include both full-length and DJ-mixed versions of the album. Heck, by including the radio edits, I've managed to cover a base that those labels usually miss! Never let it be said that OCR doesn't cater to a wide range of listeners. Overall, this was a real labor of love, but what sort of fan-made arrangement album ISN'T? I've been playing these songs in my car and in my DJ sets for nearly a year, and I can't believe how well it turned out. I hope that you find this release as enjoyable to consume as it was to produce! -Michael Birch (Flexstyle)

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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.

No. It was released as Mother on the NES in 1989, not EarthBound Beginnings. We usually associate tracks with the version of the game based on the artist's submission comments. For this, Zack explicitly said the source game was Mother on the NES. If the NES version of the game had been released in the U.S. with the title EarthBound Beginnings, then we'd call it that, but that's merely the title of the updated re-release for a different platform 25 years later.

There's not much to the arrangement in terms of interpreting the source melody, creating dynamic contrast, or pleasing textures. I didn't feel like the opening synths were particularly musical, and the synths were super-generic. Not really much depth to the textures here, and everything's just super-thin with holes you could drive a truck through. The chip elements first used at 1:53 were an OK way to add some original writing into the picture, but were there for a cup of coffee since it was only about 20 seconds. The track abruptly cutting off lacked attention to detail. We're not inherently against simpler tracks with mellow moods and slower tempos, but you still have to create a pleasing sound. Sorry, man, I don't really have much I can say on the positive side. There's effort here, but 0 polish. NO

The mixing definitely isn't great here. It's not necessarily a dealbreaker, but there's almost no high-end clarity here, so the leads don't cut through the foreground, and the rhythms guitar, while powerful, add a ton of mud. That said, this is a very spirited, well-performed rock cover. I see what DragonAvenger is saying about repetition, but I felt the personalized sound of the performance demonstrated the interpretation we look for (in combination with other things). The "HUAH" voice at 1:55 was too loud and clean compared to the rest of the track, and sounded stapled on top of it. Is that orchestration at 3:01 being added in? Sounds like some nice brass accents, though that AND the padding line at 3:15 both just sound like indistinct mud. Solid ending, though we'll definitely need a proper version where the tail isn't cut off. The mixing being so imbalanced and unclear hurts an otherwise strong, energetic rock cover. Tighten that up, Michael, and fix the ending or just re-render it so the end isn't cut off, and THEN let's get this posted. Close, and I won't be mad if it passed as is (with the ending fixed), but I feel the mixing is currently below the bar. Awesome work so far, so let's get the last bit of (important) detail work taken care of. NO (resubmit)

Powerful sound and well-personalized! Coolio. YES

The opening beats weren't my style, but I dig the arrangement's creativity throughout. It's cramped in places (e.g. 2:54-3:11), but that wasn't a huge deal, and the parts usually had room to breathe. Structurally, it's pretty melodically straightforward, with very nice variance of leads and supporting instruments to keep things fresh while constantly keeping the theme in play. Nice work as a tag team! YES

The metallic percussion's just sampled from the original audio, which already is a ding against it vis-a-vis the standards, because it's pretty wholesale sampling with no changes. I agreed with Emu on the balance being off, and when the sampling was in play, it was just way too loud over the top of everything else. The driving beat of the sampled material didn't click at all with the ambient material. IMO, get rid of the extensive SPC sampling (which is only cluttering the piece), and then focus on more melodic development & variations of the arrangement, as well as more dynamic contrast. NO

There was an obvious sour backing note at :36, but otherwise pretty solid. I thought the percussion, while varied, was kind of vanilla; another J may be able to articulate why that is. A little loose in places, but it's pretty purposeful, and the personality of this shines through. Pretty subtle & cool usage of the chip tones as well; it accents the piece and works well without sounding gimmicky or forced. Cool stuff with some rough edges that add to the flavor! YES

Kris looped me in on Dylan's request to revisit this. Does anyone have a different opinion on their vote based on this?

This man gets it! McRIB!

The overall sound was pretty thin, but arrangement was creative. The opening flourish sounded pretty fake; the brass here's not great (not horrible either, just very exposed as unrealistic samples). Even when it's busy, the lack of realism of the instrument tones & articulations stand out. But on the arrangement side, there's definitely some additive writing and good personalization of the theme through the added original writing and the orchestral adaptation. Back to the production, for example, the strings at 1:51 are unfortunate; they just sound thin and fake. Actually, all of 1:51-2:24 was pretty exposed. It's too bad; if your attention to production matched your writing and creative vision, you'd be nailing it. It's not merely the sample quality, Daine, which seems iffy but potentially passable. Much more importantly, you're just not doing anything to mask/mitigate the realism issues of the samples, and that drags the production quality down of an otherwise nicely personalized cover. Some careful reverb or delay could help in that respect. NO (resubmit)

I download any file whenever available. However, Flex is right that sometimes the stream itself is perfectly fine to make a decision. If I were to YES something off a stream, it would be conditional on getting an actual copy of the file, since we'd have to post an actual MP3. Nothing more to add.

Make the file downloadable, which solves the problem.

Anyone can post there. If something doesn't belong there and isn't an OCR project, the thread is moved, no big deal.

I'm not hearing any of this at all, only what sounds like vague stylistic similarities. What is the "motif" timestamp from the source? :29/:36? Sounds like a rhthymic similarity where the notes aren't the same. At 3:15-3:30 with the leads (:51 of source), it sounds like a rhythmic change, but the notes seem different, not just transposed. Help me out with more details.

Just PM me a link to it.

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Interesting combination of two step-cousin themes, not unlike DaMonz's "Medieval Koopa Jam" weaving Super Mario 64 and Jazz Jackrabbit 2 together. Here's how I broke down the source usage, for reference: Castlevania 64 - :40-1:00, 1:20.75-2:22, 2:53-3:02.5 = 90.75 seconds Super Mario World - 1:20.75-1:32, 1:41-1:51, 2:11-2:40.75, 2:43-3:02, 3:27-3:56 = 99 seconds Will co-sign on these YESes. A bit thin, but the arrangement's smart and creative!

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What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix. Incredible voice sampling, for one thing.