Liontamer

The premise and the trombone performances were both cool. The performance could have been tighter but it was above the bar for what we're looking for, IMO, so that was good. I liked the soloing ideas over CV3's "Demon Seed" particularly from 4:03-4:53. Many of the transitions (e.g. 1:10, 2:18, 4:53, 5:49) were too abrupt and made the medley incohesive; for the standards here, medleys should basically flow like a single track. Obviously, a few jumpy, disjointed transitions can happen, but there were too many here. Obviously, this is meant to be a subdued piece with the focus on the leads. That said, the textures ended up sparse and the backing instrumentation doesn't really fill things out enough. Dynamically, this was pretty flat; no matter the source tune or rhythms, the energy level settled at middle of the road and stayed there. It's interesting, but too flat over the long haul, IMO. The other Js can let me know if I'm being a grandpa; I like smoother jazz, I'm not against this style, I just don't think the soundscape is filled out enough, that the transitions are smooth, or that it's dynamic enough of a piece over the course of the 8 minutes. It can't easily be redone due to it being live and needing to assemble everyone, which is a shame, but that can't affect the vote. NO

Remixer name: The LoBros Real Name: Christian Lopez Email: Userid: 51503 Submission- Name of Game(s) Remixed: Primarily Castlevania 3 (Akumajou Densetsu), also Circle of the Moon (for Game Boy Advance), and also a brief quote from Castlevania 2. Name of Arrangement: Castellum Ossium Names of songs arranged: In order- 1. Evergreen 2. Beginning - A brief quote of Bloody Tears (Castlevania 2) in Brian's (Sax) transition into... 3. Demon Seed (C Minor Solo Section) 4. VK2K2 (Vampire Killer 2002 from Castlevania Circle of the Moon for Game Boy Advance) 5. Clockwork (Arrangement inspired version also from Circle of the Moon) 6. VK2K2 7. Beginning 8. Evergreen Info regarding arrangement: Hello OC Remix community! Long time listener, first time submitter... Castellum Ossium (We just call it "Castlevania") is a studio-produced recording which appears on the newest LoBros (Christian and Salvador Lopez, yes brothers, and yes we both play trombone) album entitled Photo Booth Time Machine. I arranged the piece and it was debuted on mine and my brother's recital at the University of Arizona in 2008, and it wasn't until we decided to record an album that we decided to dust off the cobwebs and throw it down in the studio. I chose to arrange Castlevania due to its neo-classical/neo-baroque compositional style, which I thought would be easy to turn into a medley, plus it is badass music. The arrangement features some of Tucson, AZ's finest musicians including Salvador Lopez (Tenor Trombones), Christian Lopez (Bass Trombone, Arranger, Producer), Brian Hicks (Alto and Soprano Saxophones), Daniel Mendoza (Bass Guitar), and last-but-not-least Adam Ackermann (Drum Set). Hope you enjoy it! --------------------------------------- - "Evergreen" - "Beginning" - "Demon Seed" - "VK2K2" (it's actually from Harmony of Dissonance, not Circle of the Moon; both soundtracks are on the same physical OST release) - "Clockwork" (Circle of the Moon)

Donkey Kong Country, thanks to being able to listen to the music when you paused.

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dat heeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaat!

In before day change in Tejas! [sic] BIRFDAY! SIXTO! YOU ROCK THE EARF! \m/

More than you're worth. EDIT: Seriously, don't threadbreak.

I wasn't bothered by the piano and felt the delay on it gave it enough airyness and presence to downplay the timing being rigid. I felt the drums at 2:46 were a weak point and thought something softer but with more bite and a less muddy sound could have worked better. The melodic variations were also a bit awkward on the first listen, but it was fine; certainly nothing that harmed the mix in any meaningful way. Really nice cameo solo by VikingGuitar as well; welcome aboard, Erik! The soundscape was a little too muddy for my tastes, but certainly nothing that was a big deal. Meanwhile, the arrangement was handled beautifully. Nice ending as well. There's room for further polish and cohesiveness, but only by a little. More quality from Chris, plus Erik with the assist! YES

That's definitely where I fell on this one. The piano had some issues, yes, but the arrangement and overall sophistication carried it. This was a good example of following the structure of a source tune closely, but working to present one's own spin on it by forgoing the driving beats, adding good original writing ideas and employing clever tradeoffs with the S&K "Lava Reef" theme. I'm super late to the party with my vote, but I'm still glad I arrived in time to enjoy the show. YES

We already account for this in the submissions standards, exactly because of situations like this:

It's all pretty much open spaces and the buildings are mostly immediately adjacent to one another, with businesses and restaurants all around. You pretty much HAVE to drive there/be there on purpose as the area's way down what's essentially a private road. It's a pretty upscale environment. You know it.

Yeah, that's a known issue with how games on similar platforms work. Need some extra coders. I haven't forgotten this, though it'll be a while before it's all fixed, since I want to carefully go through these. Once the systems are corrected in the actual mix tags in the next torrent update, then I can focus on working with djp to correct the database. Interesting idea. This likely wouldn't happen for years, but I'll at least give things a look as far as matching up characters to games. If djp ever has free time to code something like this, maybe it could happen. Not likely, but I like the idea. Good catch. Fixed.

Tell other people to review it, fool.

I have rated! If you heard the album, definitely drop some review & 5-star action its way!

Sure it does.

super pendant

Interesting opening. The drum writing was OK, but sounded pretty empty; the pattern was also too repetitive during the verses. Meanwhile the guitar was also too dry and the performance was on the stiff side. Interesting usage of the bells to accent things; good stuff there. The piano sound and sequencing was solid as well. In general, I'm feeling the arrangement, but both the percussion and electric guitar sounding dry and stiff ended up underming the personalized arrangement ideas a bit. It's not incompetantly performed or anything like that, but I'd argue that on balance it doesn't quite flow smoothly enough. You need some padding in the background to glue the elements together in the soundscape; in particular the guitar sounded stapled on top of everything instead of sitting within a larger soundscape. I'm very familiar with this theme and how it's structured, and I'd also say that while this was a good cover with personalization, but there could be some additional dynamic contrast. There's definitely some subtle up and downs (much like the source), but the guitar lead combined with the drums during the verses ends up sounding too similar in the overall tone and energy after a while with no other instrumentation really evolving around it. You could take some of the other ideas you had outside of those sections and apply similar ideas during different iterations of the main melody and chorus. Promising stuff so far, Jeremy. NO

ReMixer name: thejeremymenace Website: soundcloud.com/thejeremymenace thejeremymenace.bandcamp.com Name of game arranged: Streets of Rage Name of arrangement: Glass Knuckles Name of song arranged: The Streets of Rage --------------------------------

It's so good (and so needed), I added it to the FAQ. http://ocremix.org/info/Frequently_Asked_Questions#Super-pedantic_OCR_Style_Guide

I refuse to pop in! (i.e. I have made contact!)

It's automated based on whatever parameters vBulletin uses to flag potential stuff. I check through them every few hours and approve the non-spam. I don't quite get its selection process either, but just be patient.

Nice sound here, Morgan. While the multi-tracking was a bit loose at times, this piece was not without skill and charm throughout. The structure of the source was obviously maintained here, which means it's arguably a bit repetitive. That said, the variations and trade-offs between original countermelodic writing and doubling the melody coupled with the personalized live performance put this on solid ground for me. While the theme itself repeats, nothing was cut-and-pasted repeated. A good example, IMO, of a short-and-sweet cover that's personalized enough to get the nod. Some further development in the form of melodic variations or weaving in wholly original sections would have made this a much easier sell, and this falling under just 2 minutes may make some people double take. But successful arrangements come in all shapes and sizes. Not the strongest YES in the world, but it gets it done enough. YES

If this passed and the source files were available, we would need an MP3 (not M4A) with 192kbps or VBR1 encoding - LT CONTACT INFORMATION: ReRemixer Name: Greyvoice Real Name: Morgan Mills Email Address: SUBMISSION INFORMATION: Name of Game: Super Mario 64 Name of Arrangement: "Welcome 64" Name of Song: Super Mario 64 Select File http://ocremix.org/song/1029 -There's something infectiously hopeful and welcoming about this particular song. It seems to say a lot of things, despite its brevity. I wanted to do a rendition of it on the ultimate nostalgic instrument, the acoustic guitar (with a hint of mandolin). Hope you enjoy. -------------------------------------------

Hahaha, I see how you were attempting to call this a "Funky's Fugue" arrangement, but the melody's VERY distinct on that and you've changed it to the point where it's not actually a VGM arrangement but an original piece with rhythmic similarities. Yeah, I grew up on DKC and love it, but I agree with Vig that the change to the melodic progression of "Funky's Fugue" rendered this attempt at interpretation as too original to count ANY of it, IMO. However, though I didn't stopwatch this, the "Aquatic Ambiance" usage was recognizable enough that I wouldn't necessarily call this too liberal of an arrangement; there was certainly some substantial, overt VGM usage in the second half. The mixing was off; definitely VERY muddy like OA & Vig pointed out. It was pretty bad/poor the whole way through; the mixing was even worse from 1:49-on. Let me be very clear though, the writing and instrumentation was cool, it was only the mixing that was a problem. Oof, the choir brought in at 2:17 definitely had slow attacks and otherwise sound super fake with the note transitions. AH, there's "Aquatic Ambiance" at 2:44 to finally bring in an overt usage of DKC music. The use of the sax at 3:13 was good in principle, although the sequencing clearly exposed how fake the sample was despite the effects in place. I hate to say it, but the fakeness of the sax sequencing was kind of brutal; it's just way too exposed. Also, the tick-tick-tick-tick of the beats was too loud and upfront; pull that back some. The writing wasn't bad at all, but the muddiness and imbalance among the parts was a large mess; 4:07-5:01 was a glaring example of the imbalance with how the sax "lead" was swallowed up by the bassline, beats and chiptune-ish pattern. Rough stuff with the choir returning at 5:01, again with the super laggy attacks and overall unrealistic sound. There were a lot of cool writing ideas in place, Clint, so the arrangement side wasn't the weak point. But the (really) poor mixing killed this dead, and the weaker aspects of the sequencing added to the issues preventing this from having a chance as passing. I hate to pile on, but I don't think I've heard something this poorly mixed and disparate compared to the arrangement potential in a long time, which was a shame. It's a decent premise with potential that's nowhere near being realized. You've really got to compare the mixing and production of this song to other music in the same vein that you like, Clint, and really focus on achieving a cleaner, more polished & balanced sound. NO