Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

The little accenting sounds brought in at :13 are too piercing, IMO. Actually, the sweep from :53-:58 was grating too. It's not pleasant on headphones; the highs should be cut. More of the same issue from 1:17-1:38. Love the brief dropoff at 1:38, then some beats return at 1:49 to give it more direction & drive. At 2:10, the change in the melody was briefly meandering, but no big deal. Nice lil' transition sound at 2:20 to the sustained synth line; love the subtle dynamic here. The highs should really be pulled back so this doesn't sound so piercing on headphones, but that's no reason to hold it back as is. The adjustments have made this sound much more cohesive; I didn't have any reservations of this sounding like a WIP this go-around, and the subtle dynamic curve works very well here now. Nice work channelling a mysterious and delicate approach to the source, Brad! :-) YES Edit (3/26/25): From 1:07, the accenting sounds are still piercing, moreso from 1:17-1:38 when the pattern's more active, but less so than before. :-) It's slightly less of an issue from 1:49-2:20, but still going on there as well. I'm still at a point where, ideally, they'd still be adjusted, but still not at a point where my vote's conditional.

Hell of a throwback palette; awesome sound design for the intro. Ramp up at :34 was very muddy but thankfully only lasted until :42 (again from :50-:57); still, I had to throw on a control track to make sure my headphones setup wasn't jacked up. Arrangement-wise, it has huge energy and good textural evolution to keep things dynamic. The drop at 1:59 followed by the tension right afterward until 2:29 was tremendous. Wasn't expecting the instrumentation shift around 2:27, but it still works. More old disk drive action to transition into glitching, intensity, and density for the final minute. We definitely appreciate you sending in some old gold, Jack, and thanks for being a part of the exemplary, creative arrangements that have made OCR what it is. :-) YES

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It took a while for the theme to overtly kick in, but it was there in full force at 1:30 (earlier around :45 during the buildup). Moody, snowy, lo-fi, sleigh bells... I'm digging it. Sets quite a nice scene. Not sure why proph thought other Js may ding it for not having forward momentum; it's lo-fi. Not that the genre particularly matters for me; there's lots of ways to approach an arrangement and this has enough dynamic contrast, so I don't mind the mellower approach and more low-key energy. :-) Glad you sent this in, David! YES

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The mixdown still isn't ideal in that some of the backing bass elements are quietly mixed, but the overall presentation's stronger. Lead at :17 is better, and the dropoff at :33 was nice contrast, where the texture became clear and you also threw in some accenting SFX. Nice transition sound at :57 as well. The dynamics and sound design are feeling a lot more cohesive this time around. Good pulsating/warbling sounds at 1:22 that were changing volume and moving around the stereo field to add flavor to the presentation during the break section until 2:01. The lil' SFX at 2:03 was too loud as well as the glassier sounds starting at 2:04, which were shrill; nothing dealbreaking, but should be adjusted. Lead at 2:35 was a little bland, but had some modulation on it to spice it up, and the final section had good subtractiveness to the instrumentation for the finish. You should be proud of the progress you've made, and it shows that pushing through and learning by doing has brought you farther faster than overanalyzing things and being caught in analysis paralysis. You've also made OCR history; no one's ever had this many resubmissions of a track to finally make it through, yet the proof's in the pudding of your persistence paying dividends. Wanted to check this out in case I was going to dispute it, as I hadn't been a YES yet throughout all these revisions, but here we are! YES

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US! OC ReMix = 25 YEARS OLD! 4,500 ReMixes later, video game music is STILL an art form! We've got a celebratory Zeal mix by JSABlixer from the upcoming anniversary album TimeShift, and we'll be doing lots more over the course of the next year to celebrate the creativity and impact of this powerful community! Thank you to everyone -- past, present, and future -- who have made OverClocked ReMix what it is. Please share some positive memories on how you discovered OCR, artists and tracks you love (original VGM OR ReMixes), let's go! :-D

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Not sure why it's an audio match in Vimeo; maybe @jnWake also published their track on paid music services? We're fine with it being used as long as it's credited to both the artists & https://ocremix.org (per our Content Policy, so that anyone who likes what they hear can then find it). :-)

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Resub 8 (previous decision) Resub 7 Resub 6 Resub 5 Resub 4 Resub 3 Resub 2 Resub 1 (after Direct Rejection of original 2012 submission) Artist Name: Audiomancer, Aka Eric I added some drum fills, and brought out the highs some, I think I fixed the "behind a pillow" problem mentioned by judges the last time around:) I also added a slight boost to the 200 to 300 hz range, as suggested. Games & Sources Dragon Warrior 4, Chapter 4, Mara and Nara's walkabout theme, with a little bit of the battle theme.

Artist Name: jnWake As usual, another DoD competition gone means another submission by me (wonder how long I can keep it up). Anyway, the monthly theme was "David Wise" so I took the chance to cover something from Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, one of my favorite games and soundtracks. My picked source was "Amiss Abyss", one of the game's water levels which, as is Wise's tradition, features a beautiful atmospheric theme. For my own take, I decided to keep the atmospheric and pretty side, so I went with a chill approach. I also summoned my "we have Emunator at home" powers to add some sound design flourishes, as I sadly didn't have enough time to actually recruit Emunator and collaborate again. In any case, I'm very happy with the final product, which ranked #8 in a very stacked month. Now, time for a breakdown: 0:00-0:11: Piano intro, the melody's taken from the strings at 0:26 in the source. It's kind of a random background element in the original but I made it a central element of the arrangement for some reason. 0:12-0:20: Atmospheric-ish build-up. Naturally, there's an Aquatic Ambiance cameo here with the arpeggio and the bass (I used the actual soundfonts from the game for this). 0:21-0:53: My take of the first main melody from the source (begins at 0:09). Main change is a different chord progression to sound a tad more melancholic. 0:54-1:10: Second main melody from the source (begins at 0:25), main change is that I inserted a repetition. 1:11-1:26: Similar to the 0:12 section, but now also features a Lockjaw's Saga cameo. 1:27-1:52: Third (at 0:43) and fourth (1:01) main melodies from the source. Main change is layering them together instead of one being just after the other. Just like in the original here, the fourth melody is played by an accordeon-ish sample which is also taken from the DKC soundfont! 1:52-2:33: Fifth main melody (at 1:17) from the source on piano. Some more Lockjaw's and Ambiance in here as well. At 2:17 we get a variation of the same melody on synth and later on strings. 2:34-3:11: First, a repeat of 0:54-1:10 and then a variation of the fourth main melody featuring many key changes. 3:12-end: Sixth and final melody (at 1:48) from the source, first on piano and then on synths. Section at 3:36 is a variation of the ending of this melody, once again featuring many rising key changes and another Ambiance cameo to end. 3:58 reprises the atmospheric build-ups from earlier in the track to close. Hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Source: Amiss Abyss

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At :18, the overall style and mood of this felt so close to the original. Though it sounds enjoyable to start, I was wondering where the differences would come from. Looks like it's original writing from the oboe at :48 that's meant to be the key; its sequencing's alright to me but it's definitely a stiff-sounding sample, so it could get dinged by others more for that reason. (Also, I see what you did there at 1:39). Vocals brought in at 2:14 to add another dimension to things. At 2:34, the vocals should have taken longer to fade out; same at 2:47, 2:55, 3:08, 3:21, 3:28, 3:36. The way the vocals drop out each time makes them sound very raw/untreated in that final second; forgive me for not being able to better articulate what's going on there. First three notes of the bowed strings at 3:52 were super-exposed, though that was very brief. Arrangement-wise, when you side-by-side this with the original, this can sometimes feel like a more stripped down take; I was wanting this to stand apart more from the original song in terms of the mood, but this is more about textural changes instead of major energy shifts. The percussion here's more simple and subdued, and while proph's not wrong in any of his critiques (samey percussion, oboe realism, vocal treatment taking some of the humanity out of it), I think what's here is effective enough to get by as a more subdued but different enough take. We'll see what the others say. YES

Artist Name: Matt Frequencies Hey, I've been a follower of OCReMix for many years, play a lot of the music found here in my DJ sets, and wanted to give something back to the community :) The first big inspiration here is Rux Ton's Lavender Town remix "Club Lavender" which has had a lot of airtime at local nerd raves to a lot of headbanging success, he was actually the first mix that really got me thinking about OCReMix as a source for dance music! The second inspiration is a lovely downtempo mix of Lavender Town by Emdasche, from the Yesterday's Journey album. While listening to it I couldn't help beatboxing a little dnb break. I've been listening to a LOT of Sub Focus and Dimension recently, and "Timewarp" enters as the third major inspiration here, and the source of the idea for those nasty slamming bass bites that come in at 2:35. Structurally this is pretty similar to the Dimension remix, but sticks to its own vibe mostly. Also a big shoutout to PrototypeRaptor's Chaos Nightmares, which gets a HUGE amount of airtime in my shows, which led the way to video game DnB for me. Hope you catch this message, you rock! Composition wise, this was all made in Reason 13 from scratch elements, no samples. I chose a few strong synths I liked plus a string chorus element, with some atmospheric risers and did a lot of nonsense with reversing samples, one of my favourite things to drop in a track to help progress it along. I had timewarp open as a reference track to help get the structure and timing right, and though it could *probably* use a bit more in the high end to keep the energy up I also kind of like the darkness of it, I find a lot of dance music feels like getting your head sawn off in the club these days. Games & Sources Lavender Town - Pokemon Red

Artist Name: Yorgishmorgi VGM Title is work in progress, by the way. I was inspired by the Yukihiro Jindo (and outsourced composer for Falcom, who does arrangement albums) arrangements of other Ys tracks and wanted to sort of apply that to Overcome the Rocky Path as it is one of my favorites. The overall DNA of my arrangement is about the same to the original, except I included a prog-influenced extended solo section, and a second extended "chorus." I tried to give the track a proggier edge to it, even using "Alex Lifeson" chord on the rhythm guitar right before the second chorus kicks in. Anyway, hope you enjoy it and I'll happily be awaiting a response! Games & Sources The original piece is a field exploration theme from Ys VIII, an Action RPG developed by Nihon Falcom. It was composed by Takahiro Unisuga of the Nihon Falcom Sound Team.

The lineup: * Biggoron - organ, keys; solos at 2:31, 2:58, 3:58 * newmajoe - alto saxophone, bari saxophone, auxiliary percussion, additional saxophone arrangement; solos at 3:18, 3:44, 3:58 * minusworld - guitars, bass, drumkit programming, arrangement, production My entry from "Franchise Fusion" month at Dwelling of Duels in June 2024. I was originally going to take a break from this competition because none of my fusion ideas really jumped out at me... until I was on an 11-hour drive without an audiobook to listen to. Left alone with my own thoughts (scary!), I had a revelation: Death by Glamour and Fight Against Smithy both used orchestra hits as a pseudo-melody and had basslines that would mesh well together. The part I kept hearing in my head ended up being 1:26-1:39 in this track. This kind of music isn't my bread and butter; I knew I would need Biggoron's help at a minimum. Even though it was the middle of the month and halfway through the competition, I reached out and surprisingly, he was willing! Biggoron suggested I contact newmajoe, who also came aboard! Biggoron and newmajoe are DoD's dance and funk legends and often come as a pair, so much to my surprise I was able to work with them both for the first time on this track. They were both awesome to work with (and just in general, awesome) and added a ton to the arrangement. Joe did extra aux percussion that I never planned for, and did all the bari lines as well as additional alto lines. He threw like 200% at this and it's better for it! Thanks again, Joe! A cleverer arranger than me (or one without twin toddlers 🥴) might have been able to weave the themes together in a more natural way, like jnWake's "Ambience of the Forest" from the same DoD month. I am neither, so to sketch an arrangement quickly I decided to make the arrangement a "versus", where one theme is featured, then the second, and finally a solo battle into a conclusion. In practice, this ended up being Mettaton with Smithy cameos, Smithy with Mettaton cameos, and then an all-out brawl until the end. :) I had to draw on the Armed Boss theme as well, since Smithy itself doesn't have much melodic content. Though simple, I'm happy with the arrangement outcome because I feel it celebrates these beloved VGM OSTs without straying too far from their identity. Here's the detailed outline: * Smithy organ intro * Mettaton intro, trimmed (I never realized how long the intro is in the OST!) * Mettaton A with Armed Boss cameo * Mettaton B into Armed Boss melody * Mettaton C * Mettaton loop point into Smithy bassline, Smithy orchestra hits * Smithy intro on bari sax * Smithy A * Smithy B with Mettaton B cameo * Smithy C with Mettaton A piano line on other instruments * Smithy D into organ solo * Smithy bassline vamp * Smithy bassline ramp with Mettaton A arpeggios into synth solo * Guitar solo over Armed Boss bassline (Smithy strikes!) * Alto sax solo over Mettaton A bassline (Mettaton strikes back!) * Guitar solo 2 (Smithy retaliates!) * Alto sax solo 2 (Mettaton counterattacks!) * Solo trades - (this was a freeform section for each musician, rather than something themed) * Mettaton C * Mettaton loop point into Smithy bassline Some notes on the solos. While working on the arrangement, we kept calling this track the "Walkoff" in reference to the scene in Zoolander where Zoolander and Handel have their "walkoff" modeling competition. Smithy and Mettaton are goofy villains and the idea of them competing invoked Zoolander imagery for all of us. I felt like Smithy might have been that kid who enters a high school talent show with nothing but an electric guitar and no backing band, which reminded me of the scene from Back to the Future where Marty McFly imitates Van Halen... so Van Halen ended up being my inspiration for the solo. I also tried to imitate the sound effects of Smithy's attacks in Guitar solo 2: Sledge at 3:36 and Meteor Swarm at 3:40. Joe wrote in the DoD discord that he used two references in his solos: The first solo references Hot House by Dizzy Gillespie, and the second solo uses a pattern of chromatically descending third borrowed from David Sanborn. And... why yes, you did hear MEGALOVANIA at 4:03 courtesy of Biggoron! :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy our take on these treasured VGM tunes! Games & Sources Undertale - Death by Glamour (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMDFhjpMTEY&list=OLAK5uy_l6pEkEJgy577R-aDlJ3Gkp5rmlgIOu8bc&index=68) SMRPG - Fight Against an Armed Boss - (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9XiSaJbgVA&list=PLNvQcJ1tQe2RIkds3WWsOQ7LyKzMlewba&index=19) SMRPG - Fight Against Smithy - (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O9Hcy8SVs4&list=PLNvQcJ1tQe2RIkds3WWsOQ7LyKzMlewba&index=57)

Original Decision Artist Name: Zanezooked Howdy judges! Here’s a resubmission of my Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity remix. I put my original mix up on Youtube at the same time I submitted it here. It was well-received in the Marathon community. Hamish Sinclair even featured it on the Marathon’s Story site! That was surreal as I’ve been reading that site since my first forays onto the internet as a teen in the 90s. Your feedback here was largely positive about the arrangement but negative about the production and mixdown, especially the balance of sounds and general muddiness. I tried posting this revision to the workshop for feedback but got no replies. :( So I did my best on my own. I do think it sounds much crisper than the original. Changes I made in response your feedback: Re-mixed pretty much everything, and changed a lot of the EQs. Added more sidechain compression on the kick (there was some originally, but not enough) Took treble off the bass, especially when the guitar is present. Added a de-resonance step on the master chain Swapped the bass in the opening sequence for cello and bass strings. Prophetik found the synth bass there out of place, but I still wanted something in the low end to provide variety from the wall of pads and environmental sound. I really like the result! Changed some of the drum rhythms Fixed the wrong note pointed out by Prophetik Other changes: Shortened the song by cutting out the reprise of the M2 theme after the middle string section. It now ramps into the guitar rendition of the M∞ theme. Restored a high cosmic echo trail effect after the guitar parts which was supposed to be in the original mix but got lost when the plugin’s license reset I should mention that the goal of this remix is to capture a certain Marathon “feel.” It’s not meant to improve on or sound like the source Marathon songs, which are amazing as-is. It’s intended to take those themes and give them another showing, in a setting that’s different but still evokes what Marathon feels like as a whole — which for me includes not just the original Power of Seven (Psykosonik) music but also Craig Mullins concept art and the philosophical rantings of a rampant artificial intelligence intent on escaping the closure of the universe. I’m not going for a pristine sound, but a dense sound awash in spaciousness, layers, and grittiness that evokes cosmic vastness, ancient mystery, and aggression. Judging by the reception of my original version in the Marathon community, I think I did manage to capture the vibes! So I tried to retain that in this revision, while working to remove muddiness and improve balance. I hope this new version is up to OCRemix’s standards! Source Breakdown: The title of this remix is Lh’owon, after the planet on which most of the action in Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity takes place. It’s ancient homeworld of the S’pht, though it’s currently populated by a garrison of the Pfhor, who enslaved the S’pht a millennium ago. Its extensive ruins hide clues to the fate of a tribe of S’pht lost thousands of years before the Pfhor arrived. Oh, and the planet’s sun currently imprisons a Lovecraftian elder god of chaos which will devour the universe if freed. The first minute of the remix is about soaking in the ambience on this unspeakably ancient, largely ruinous planet. It starts with some literal ambience recorded directly from the game (and drenched in reverb, as if heard from within one of the rock-like structures you run around in). Pads and strings play the theme that the background synths play at 0:30 in the Marathon 2 source song. The strings fade away with an irregular loss of signal. Into this planet’s system comes the rampant and only possibly insane artificial intelligence Durandal in a captured Pfhor dreadnought; he sets about bombarding the Pfhor garrison from orbit and teleporting his pet cyborg security officer (the player) around, flooding an outpost with lava over here, saving enslaved humans over there, and then going on an extended archeological dig into the ancient S’pht ruins in search of a weapon that can give Durandal the dominance and universe-outliving immortality he hungers for. At :55 we start to hear the encroaching orbital bombardment, and at 1:25 the security officer arrives and starts kicking alien appendages. A synth grinds out the guitar progression from the beginning of the Marathon 2 title music, then a recessed guitar takes up the melody. After this, a synth bass plays the bass from :30 in the source song, before the cycle repeats. At 2:39 the strings return to provide a pause in the Total Carnage, playing the theme from Marathon Infinity. The security officer is discovering the oldest remnants of the S’pht civilization, far older than humankind—and some of it is still sentient. Though he doesn’t yet know it, the fate of the cosmos is at stake. At 3:45 carnage returns as the guitar plunges into the Marathon Infinity theme, while high strings and a buried choir provide a sense of spaciousness and age. Games & Sources Marathon 2: Durandal Marathon Infinity

Love this source, always glad for an excuse to listen to it! Right from the jump, I’m liking the genre transformation. During the chorus from :32-:46, the lead comes off very flat. The sound design and balance isn’t ideal, but it’s not awful. 1:20 would have been a great place to change the lead sound for more variety there. Dropoff at 1:36 that was super-barren but gradually built back up starting at 1:50; this needed something else to fill the texture out more without being too much. A bunch of cacophonous supporting writing from 2:00-2:08 and 2:24-2:32 that needs to be reworked; has no melodiousness to it plus the synth choices already feel old by this point, so, surprisingly, there's fatigue for me with this sound design even though a lot of time hasn't passed. At 2:08, the sound design and intensity are similar to around :56; it’s not really going anywhere new or dynamic. 2:32 messed around more with getting subtractive and varied with the presence of the melody. 3:04 revisited the style of the opening to bookend the piece, then did a little bit more original writing at 3:20 that wasn’t melodious and felt like a flat finish. I’m in the same camp as proph; there’s transformative ideas, but the track relatively too flat and repetitive in how it sounds despite effort given to varying some textures. Needs different leads, more filling (some gentle padding of SFX here or there), and smoothing out some non-melodious moments. The core of it is promising, so definitely worth revisiting to see what more could be done, provided the interest was there. You can have arrangements with a steady energy, but the dynamism has to come in other ways, and that’s not been pulled off here despite some tactics going in that direction. NO (resubmit)

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