Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

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

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

As far as the production/mixing, I see what Chimpa's talking about, but I wasn't bothered by the panning or levels of anything, at least enough where I think that should hold this back. As far as the arrangement goes, I agreed with the theme not being present in the second half. I needed at least 95.5 seconds overt source usage in a 3:11-long track for the VGM to be dominant in the arrangement: :00-:57.5, 1:07.25-1:11.75, 1:14.5-1:35 = 82.5 seconds or 43.19% overt source usage I tried to give as much credit there as possible. The arrangement of the first half was conservative, but personalized well, and there was a lot of smart usage of not just the melody but the bassline and backing patterns as well. The performance was expressive, yet laid back, so the mood here was excellent. After 1:35 though, 1:35-1:53 just follows the chord progression, but doesn't explicitly use the theme in a way I could recognize, then 1:53 until the end didn't sound connected to the source at all, and never circled back to it. So that was it for the DuckTales theme usage. Going back to the theme's not required for the song structure, but in this case, not doing that at some point in the second half meant the Himalayas theme wasn't the dominant part of this piece. Even with brief returns of a backing line here and there during all that soloing, that could have been enough to keep the Himalayas theme in play a little longer. The track's awesome in a vacuum, but we would need some more Himalayas theme used in the arrangement to make the VGM dominant in the arrangement. If you were willing to revisit this, you could add a bit more of the source tune somewhere and this could easily pass. Sweet piece though, Henrik; your musicianship's never in doubt. NO (resubmit)

I don't have anything to add on the production criticisms, but I agreed with Chimpa on everything she touched on re: production and arrangement. I loved the industrial SFX, though the saw & electrosynth leads were very vanilla/cookie-cutter and definitely dragged on as the piece continued. That said, it was coming across like a conservatively arranged but solidly personalized cover for the first 1:24. Things kept going, but I felt like at 2:07, we hit stagnation as far as the energy level of the writing, the arrangement/interpretation of the source melody, and the textural/instrumental variations. The track ultimately sounded very repetitive: same leads, same textures, same writing, same basic energy level for the 5+ minutes. Like Chimpa was getting at, Bryan, this needs more development and dynamic contrast. NO

Palpable has helped polish up some sequenced piano pieces in the past. He may not be available to do any of that while he's in Vietnam, but he may have some advice or suggestions that Mike can apply. I don't want to imply that a live performer is the main or only way this can get posted; it ain't.

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The arrangement is structurally straightforward but slowed down nicely while presented with a more contemplative feel. The string work serving as an original countermeloody at 3:02 was too stiff, IMO, but otherwise Alex really nailed the cinematic approach. I also would have liked 3:30's section not to initially sound like a retread of 1:26's, but there was more intensity for the latter due to added part-writing, so it wasn't a big deal. The softness of 4:24's close was nicely crafted as well. Alex continues to demonstrate his ability to create emotional arrangements. Nice work! YES

Funny to read Chimpa saying "I'm not sure how well these two themes go together" and "I have no suggestions on how to make it flow better, simply because of the disparity of the two themes" because Shariq has already shown those themes can be combined pretty well. Yeah, the transition at :55 isn't smooth or connected at all thanks to the abrupt key change. It just sounds like one song ended, then a clip of another unrelated song started. All that would have been needed was an added chord at :53 as a final note to truly transition it from one song to the other, instead of such a clunky shift. Just noting I heard some quick distortion or pops at 1:22, 1:26, 2:40 & 2:43. The soundscape was arguably too compressed, but I could make out the various parts well enough. The machine gun drums from 3:42-4:08 didn't add much IMO, since they weren't very audible, but I'm glad they weren't too loud and obscuring other parts, so I guess I'll take too quiet over too loud. 4:24's transition from "Departure" back to "For Endless Fight II" was a lot smoother compared to :55's transition the other way around. I'm a little let down that it just sounds like a cut-and-paste of the intro, but that was minor in the big picture when the rest of the arrangement was solid. The decay of the final string note ended too quickly at 4:58; watch those details. It's not perfect, and the lack of an effective transition at :55 was needless, but otherwise this was a solid rock adaptation of "Departure" with great energy and reasonable mixing. I'm cool with it. YES

Just holler on when you're trying to drop it and we'll work on it. Good to see some action for a very overlooked OST!

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As far as the levels go, they're low, and this could use a remaster, but I wasn't really put off by that. Overall, I like the arrangement, and I agreed with DA on the sense of dread there. I have no idea if this was played in live, but the whole track sounded stilted. And as the track became more forceful from :32-:48, 2:19-2:33 & 2:56-3:33, the realism limitations of the piano soundfont were very exposed, and things sounded even more blocky and mechanical. IMO, it's very important that good solo piano arrangements are also firing on nearly all cylinders when it comes to the production. This should have been even more humanized and emotive through more careful production, particularly of the track's more forceful sections. Given that the source files are gone, Dylan, if it's possible to manipulate that MP3 and re-mix it to obscure the stiff timing, go for it. Otherwise, it's a cool piece, but just needed that additional level of polish to smooth out the timing. NO (resubmit)

Can't say I have much to add, Rakesh. The extremely rigid sequencing, lack of panning, repetitive beats, imbalanced instruments, and lack of dynamic contrast anywhere all add up to a straightforward reason this isn't close to making it. The only positive here is that the attempt is made to add some sort of distinct take on the source tune, along with some cameos of "In a Snow-Bound Land." Super rough stuff. NO

When it's Hylian Lemon, I just need to break out a rubber stamp. YES OK, wait. Lemme listen... /listens /checks arrangement /checks production Confirmed. When it's Hylian Lemon, I just need to break out a rubber stamp. (Kidding, of course, but nice work!) YES

No problem here!

In effect, you're saying disable it all, because you're saying that it's currently handled in an incomplete way. All of the parent-child song relationships in the DB cause the same thing to happen, e.g. http://ocremix.org/song/660 where usages of LoZ:OoT's "Zelda's Theme" also appear on the Zelda 3 song "Princess Zelda's Rescue". djp will have to add some lines in the song information to display the name of the parent or child songs as well. That said, I'm OK with it as is, not because I want the connection to be unclear, but because it errs on the side of displaying more music. Everything will get there eventually, as far as what's displayed.

I don't think we need to disable those relationships. At some point, djp can add a sentence to all Song pages with something to the effect of... Note: This list also includes ReMixes assigned to other songs which derive from this song. ...and that basically covers it.

We're likely not going with 7/7 due to needing some additional time to finalize things (not only djp's track), but this one's definitely up next and my current focus. Soooooon(-ish) is definitely the deal, so we're calling it Summer 2015. Be prepared for it!

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No, that's right. We have parent-child relationships in the database for some songs. That unused FF2 song was later re-purposed in FF6 as "The Magic House", so ReMixes of "The Magic House" will also appear in that FF2 song entry. We currently don't display any information to that fact, but it's another thing (very far down) the to-do list.

I was a fan of the arrangement from the start, and that remains a pass. The production isn't ideal, but IMO, the drumwork shouldn't be louder than the leads. I also thought the panning was WAY too wide during the rock sections, enough to where it was a meaningful problem; people on monitors may not mind, but on headphones it's disorienting, and I'm generally pretty permissive with wide panning. Some of the sound here was dry in places, but serviceable; it's a much better thing to have than the other way around like the clutter all of the previous versions. The quiet section from 2:21-2:52 still didn't make sense; I get the intent of the dynamic contrast, but the way that section is produced doesn't sound like someone's playing in the distance, it just sounds like the master volume was cut, which is just careless and doesn't make sense. Hated the synth triggering at 3:03-3:13, which just sounded ridiculous, but it was brief. The remaining issues I mentioned, particularly the panning, make this a NO (resubmit), but this is close now, and Chimpa's right on the strides that have been made this time around. IMO, this still needs further tweaks to be above the line, but it's in great shape regardless. Anthony, you NEVER give up, and it's working.

Co-signed in full. Read it again. I was about to YES this, because the arrangement is very interpretive in shifting it to the reggae instrumentation, so I could also see some YES's with the feeling that the creativity compensates ENOUGH for the repetition, especially with the grace notes here and there. However, 2:20-3:15 going copy-pasta tipped it to a borderline NO. If you could improve the brass realism, that would rock, because there's a significant realism disparity with that vs. any of the other instrumentation. Get the track sounding a little clearer (partly by getting bass mixing under control as well), and (most importantly) add some more variation to the picture for 2:20-3:15 and you're golden, Jorrith. Great concept here, and if this passed, I wouldn't be upset at all, because it's really close. This is 90% of the way there, for me, at least.

Already sounded very lo-fi as soon as the track starts. Also, why are the beats louder than everything else, and why is there no high-end until a semblance of it at 1:15? The beats/hi-hats have that interesting drum machine style, but the downside is there's no velocity variation like Emu mentioned, and IMO nearly all of the instrumentation feels pretty stiff besides some of the looser e-piano/organ leads. The beats also don't do enough to fill out the background, so you have portions like :28-:59 & 1:15-1:50 where the texture is too thin and dry; the strings used at :00 and 1:50, for example, were an effective way to pad things out. By the way, that little piano cameo from 1:40-1:42 was WAY too robotic; watch the detail work there. Take Emunator crits into account on drum sequencing, but don't forget to add clarity to the soundscape as well. It's a cool concept, and the arrangement is well in the right direction, Will, but the track needs fullness and mixing polish. Good potential here. NO (resubmit)

1) S'lot of work, but that's the intention. Less so the live stats (at least initially), more the automated aspects of submitting a track. 2) No time soon. It could be years from now. djp can speak to it with some actual detail, but we'd need someone who could code it. 3) I assume that would be part of it, even if not at first.

You weren't kidding about the mixing being "tricky"; it feels rushed. IMO, the volume's too loud overall. The opening from :00-:14 sounded crowded as hell, and the orchestral elements were completely drowned out until :15. Once things moved to the main melody at :15, I still felt most of the supporting writing was either muddy or obscured; it doesn't sound horrible, but it's definitely not optimal; you almost wonder if there's any point having some of the supporting parts in there if they're not distinguishable. But you can sure hear that snare, since it's too loud and upfront. The snare tone is also not the right fit for this piece. :46-1:13 was somewhat less cramped than what came before. The frog SFX was a nice touch, even though it was pretty buried and easily overlooked. Nice break with the Magus theme from 2:00-2:32. The string decay at 2:28 seemed abrupt and exposed the sample, but the writing of that part was good for that section. This should be more epic than the end result, but the indistinct, cluttered mixing prevents this from reaching top-tier execution. This is mixed reasonably enough for me not to NO it, but it's not by much despite the excellent arrangement because a significant portion of the detail work is washed out. Would love to hear another pass at the production before this was posted, but as is, this gets by with the arrangement carrying it. YES (borderline) EDIT (12/9): I'm still OK with this. The plastic bucket quality of the drums definitely doesn't work here and stuck out very poorly in the intro, but the issues I had with that drum tone were mitigated when the soundscape got filled out more. The arrangement still carries it for me, and I didn't have the issues others are having with timing. The production tweaks didn't make me feel stronger about the call since the drums are such a drag. It's cleaner, but it's still borderline.

Revised version 12/6/15 Howdy Game: Chrono Trigger Source: Frog / Magus (Just the intro is at 2:00 in the remix) Title: Masamune Link: I'm a fan of Frog (Glenn) and his quest to wield the Masamune to defeat the Magus, among his other various goals. I wrote this on a whim Saturday (September 20th, 2014), recorded the guitars on Sunday and reamped them on Monday to finish it off. Mixing and mastering is a little tricky when the instrumentation is so thick with the orchestra, but I struck a good balance, kept the orchestra kinda upfront, but also have a fierce metal component in there. Sounds triumphant and classy, just like Frog himself.