Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

The source tune is all about taking that melody and going 6 minutes with lots of changes in what's surrounding it, and I felt this arrangement did a solid job with the same approach, with the textures constantly evolving. Electric guitar soloing at 4:18 was fun; the slowdown at 5:06 was sudden though and could have used a few extra bars to breathe. Minor things, but I felt like the guitar strumming was too loud compared to the actual melody. The escalation at 2:26 was pretty interesting. Though the melody was getting crowded out by the bassline, electric guitar, and percussion, it was reasonably audible enough, IMO. Bassline sounded pretty sweet, always throwing in some new writing ideas there to keep things fresh. Chimpa wasn't quite on board, so I was expecting some sort of noteworthy issues dragging this down, but I heard almost none of that whatsoever. I wasn't bothered by the piano timing and didn't feel the percussion was too simple or repetitive. I agreed with the hats (in particular from 2:27-3:29) being distracting; there's some sizzle to them that doesn't sound right. There may have been some very brief spots where the performance wasn't as tight as it should have been, but IMO it was very brief, enough that I didn't feel compelled to timestamp anything. All in all, this sounded very much like a professional Japanese arrange album piece as far as the concept and presentation. Rejecting this would be pure nitpicking, IMO; the arrangement's a pure pass, and this is definitely cohesive enough. It's not to sound like I'm pressuring anyone who would go NO, but I would argue if I ran it by djp, he'd say there should be no way something like this got rejected. YES

IMO, the arrangement seems fine (I'd need to time it out just for my sake), but this is overcompressed. Machine-gun drums at 1:26, 1:42 & 2:51/3:02 were just adding a bunch of noise. Agreed with Emu on the synth parts being vanilla; they're pretty bland and lifeless, he's right about needing to raise the game there. The only reason the synths don't drag this down to NO is because they're so obscured by the compression and clutter; if the synths were more exposed, they'd ALSO be dragging this down. The interpretation and energy are great, Dustin, just give the mixing & levels another pass; the overall texture can still have power while parts also have room to breathe. I didn't feel the production matched other stuff we've posted recently, as far as this much compression being good enough, but I could be outvoted. Good luck though. If this doesn't pass, give the synths more personality and the parts some headroom, and this production would be on fully solid ground like the arrangement is. NO (resubmit)

S'all good. Just making sure we're still in business.

Agreed with Chimpazilla on the dry snare at :33; the kick was good, but the snare sounded flimsy & WIP-like with no meat/body to it. I was so glad when it dropped out at 2:19, and equally sad when it (expectedly) returned at 3:08. See what you can do to beef that tone up and/or push it back in the soundscape, whatever may work. Theme comes in at :56 and sounds conservatve but solid, followed by more interesting variation at 1:07. The guitar chugs behind it were solid because they were placed in the background in a way that didn't expose them too much, so props on that. Good dropoff from 2:20 before gradually building back into the original verse structure at 3:09. There were some minor grace notes and changes to the melody to smartly make the final verse different before the finish, so any repetition concerns weren't founded, though some more dynamic contrast across the board would have been welcome. Subtle thing, but I also really liked the gradual close from 3:38 as elements left, and the volume started dropping; very cool way to end it. I was on the fence about the weak snare, but the rest of the presentation was solid enough for me, including the other beats, plus the snare's is surrounded JUST ENOUGH by other elements where it barely blends in enough. While I'd like that dry beat to be changed before we posted this, I'm not gonna hold this back when everything else was creatively on point and above the bar. I can understand a NO, but I'm on board, so let's go. YES

Didn't agree at all about the production being a dealbreaker -- not even close. IMO, Jivemaster had the best critique on the mixing, i.e. there could be improvements with the mixing, the voice sample could/should have differed more the second time around, but overall, it's an easy pass anyway. Source usage was well above 50% of the duration of the track, so I didn't need timestamps, but just going on the most overt part and ignoring some of the melodic variations that were more about rhythmic similarities with totally different notes, I heard the source from 24.5-45.5, 1:03.75-1:41, 1:49.5-2:00 & 2:21.5-3:41. The arrangement was fire. Awesome work, Paul. YES

For anyone lazy, the sources: "Chrono Trigger" - main source "Guardia Castle - Pride & Glory" ("Courage and Pride") - :56 "At the End of Time" ("Brink of Time") - 1:11 "Frog's Theme" - 1:19 "Magus Confronted" ("Battle with Magus") - 1:26 "Schala's Theme" - 1:34 "Secret of the Forest" - 2:11 Though there weren't any big structural changes to the melodies of anything here, I felt there was plenty of personalization in this arrangement in the different instrumentation, occasional tempo changes, new supporting writing, and creative integration or pairing of other theme cameos. Instead of an A+B+C+D format, there were some references to other themes, but done in a way to combine most of them with the Chrono Trigger theme's backing pattern (e.g. 1:27-1:56), not just stopping and starting different themes with no flow. I had no problem with that arrangement structure. On the production side, the drums were (arguably) too punchy in places (e.g. 2:28-2:54), and there's something lacking to fully fill out the track, like it's missing some sort of padding or something to fill the gap. Other than that, I felt this was a solid orchestration with more than enough interpretive techniques. Let's go. YES

PMs or admin@ocremix.org are dedicated methods of communication, I gots 'em. I don't need anyone's dedicated presence, I just need a link to where you have the WAVs online. It can be from Google Drive, Dropbox, whatever. Literally whatever.

Guys, what is the holdup on getting me the WAVs? If someone's hard drive goes, the album is gone... So Rozo or Meteo, whoever has the WAVs, give me the WAVs. Hook me up!

I asked djp about it, and he'll see if this issue is resolved when we move from IPB 3 to IPB 4. Definitely agreed it's needlessly annoying.

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Still sounds good. Fire it off!

OC ReMix Presents Final Fantasy II: Rebellion! June 8, 2015 Contact: press@ocremix.org FAIRFAX, VA... OverClocked ReMix today released its 51st arrangement album, Final Fantasy II: Rebellion. The album pays tribute to Final Fantasy II, released by Square in 1988 for the Nintendo Famicom (a.k.a. the Nintendo Entertainment System). Featuring twenty-one tracks from eighteen artists, Rebellion represents the fourth directorial endeavor of OC ReMix's most frequent contributor Brandon Strader, and is available for free download at http://rebellion.ocremix.org. Like Random Encounter before it, Rebellion includes a diverse roster of musicians honoring composer Nobuo Uematsu's influential work by arranging it in a number of styles, including piano, folk, funk, breakbeat, and jazz with a strong focus on guitar and heavy metal. Rebellion was made by fans, for fans, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Square Enix; all original compositions are copyright their respective owners. "A great album is the sum of its parts as much as any social movement or revolution is the culmination of efforts from brave individuals. I'm eternally grateful to the artists -- without your hard work and sacrifice, this album would not have been possible," said director Brandon Strader. "To the fans -- I hope that listening to this album fills you with as much joy as it has given me these past several years. Thank you for the rebellion, and may our random encounter continue to bring us liberation." 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/JMy-icaL6RQ Download it: http://rebellion.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Final_Fantasy_II_-_Rebellion.torrent Comments/Reviews: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/41181-

Preview it: http://youtu.be/JMy-icaL6RQ Download it: http://rebellion.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Final_Fantasy_II_-_Rebellion.torrent A great album is the sum of its parts as much as any social movement or revolution is the culmination of efforts from brave individuals. The sheer amount of dedication that went into creating Rebellion will be difficult to properly appreciate; many of the involved artists worked on their music for months. Some of them worked on particular songs for over a year. At the end of this journey, it was the combined vision, talents, and dedication of each artist that created an album with its own personality. A smooth experience that seemingly has its own narrative, from one song to the next. I'm eternally grateful to the artists that returned to work on Rebellion after the completion of the first album, Random Encounter. I am equally grateful to those who are making their first appearance, and those who have chosen to be on the final album covering Final Fantasy 3. Without your hard work and sacrifice, this album would not have been possible. To the fans - I hope that listening to this album fills you with as much joy as it has given me these past several years. Thank you for the rebellion, and may our random encounter continue to bring us liberation. - Brandon Strader

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Note, we'll need a different arrangement title, because what's here is essentially the official name of the source, i.e. "Tomboy Princess's March." Props for actively distinguishing yourself from Sugiyama's Symphonic Suite version. When Nate says, "The music grows dynamically with the whole orchestra as she attempts to prove herself," you absolutely get that imagery from the way things shifted at 1:07 and continued to intensify all the way until 1:30 finally topped off the energy level and stayed there until 2:05. Short arrangement and melodically conservative, but it personalizes the source nicely and says a lot! YES

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