Liontamer

Earth Kid: Final Fantasy VII was my very first RPG, which I started playing at age 7 back when it first came out. It absolutely changed my life. I had a blast playing the remake, too, and the new original song, Hollow, blew me away at the end. The lyrics - which are essentially about grief - resonated with me personally. I'd wanted to cover it for a while and I first had the idea 3 years ago, but was finally able to finish it last year. The style of this arrangement was influenced by classic rock ballads with folk elements. I played the Irish bouzouki, piano/keys, accordion, harp, and got some practice with belting, which I've been doing a lot more of over the last few years. Erika contributed guitars, bass, and drums, and really helped bring my vision to life. I couldn't have pulled off the sound I wanted without her! I also incorporated a couple of references to other FFVII tracks. The harp arpeggio (...harpeggio?) during the guitar solo is inspired by the Prelude, and the one during the second bridge was modeled after the harp part in Dear to the Heart. During the second and third choruses, the accordion (doubled by the harp and mellotron) briefly quotes the melody of On That Day, Five Years Ago. I realized while arranging that the chord progression in the chorus kind of worked with that minor key version of the main theme, so of course I had to do something with it. I've been wanting to explore rock and metal genres more in my music lately (going back to some of my old roots), and this was a great outlet for that. It was a very cathartic song to work on, and I loved playing and singing it. I poured my soul into this track, and I hope you enjoy it! Erika: This track was a lot of fun for me to play on. I usually only do distorted rock/metal styles, but for this one I also played acoustic and clean electric. I enjoy how the layers turned out with the acoustic and electric guitars stacked on top of each other, it really adds some depth to the rhythm section of the arrangement. I also did something new for me, which was writing and playing a 3 part harmony for the guitar solo. I rarely do harmonies on my solos, so going for a 3 part was a fun way to change up the way I usually approach solos. My exposure to FF7 is much more recent than EK's, but I still have this fondness towards the game that is similar to that of games I played 20 years ago. Getting to work with her on this arrangement was a blast, and I'm very proud of how the song came out! Credits: Earth Kid: Vocals, Piano, Irish Bouzouki, Accordion, Harp, Keys (Mellotron, Organ), Arrangement, Mixing Erika Richards: Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass, Drum programming, Mastering www.youtube.com/EarthKid www.youtube.com/@ERichards Games & Sources Game: Final Fantasy VII Remake Composer: Nobuo Uematsu Lyrics: Kazushige Nojima Sources: Hollow On That Day, Five Years Ago: Prelude: Dear to the Heart: Note: Hollow is the primary source, with small quotes from the other listed tracks.

Artist Name: BronxTaco I actually covered the entire soundtrack in the same megadrive chiptune style, but singled out this track for submission as its the one where I deviated the most from the original material. I expanded the original 18 second loop to repeat 4 times with a build up in complexity and then reducing back down before finally looping. I belong to a community of Spelunky obssessives who speedrun all 3 games in the series - after hearing these tracks quite literally thousands of times it was actually quite a fast process convert them into these megadrive versions. I made them using the software Deflemask. Games & Sources The track is called Lush (or sometimes Jungle) from the original Spelunky game (referred to as Spelunky Classic). The original track is a short 18 second loop written by Jon Perry. https://hsmusic.wiki/album/spelunky-classic/

Agreed that the kick's way too loud and distorting the track. Will echo Hemo's comments that this is a fun cover, it just doesn't present much difference with the original song, so there's very little to distinguish it as a creative interpretation of it, at least from the lens of OCR's arrangement standards. Feels more like a traditional remix, so maybe it samples the original's chippy-style instrumentation, I'm not sure. I did enjoy the other instrumentation surrounding the chip though, so this is a successful cover aside from those kicks!

Opens up sparsely with the piano to set the stage for the strings at :24. I like the tone of these samples to start. Let's see if this branches off anywhere interesting. The feeling's a bit stilted over time, but still retaining my interest about 1:15 in, and then things subtly pivot. Not sure if some of the quiet vox padding is slightly & briefly off-key in places, but it could have just been my ears playing tricks on me. Things drop off some at 1:44, and this section's not a bad idea in principle, but it didn't need to go on until 2:14, it could have dropped a few bars and gotten back to the melody more quickly. At 2:14, we get another iteration of the source melody and at this point, the stilted sequencing/timing of the leads and piano was standing out more and I was wanting the arrangement to have more dynamic contrast and more humanization. Speak of the devil, there's an attempt to vary up the presentation with some kicks at 3:39. The beats were too boomy, slightly off-time and had 0 synergy with the other instrumentation, so I was glad they didn't last too long. Pretty anti-climactic end to that theme though, unfortunately. 4:06 changed over to "Theme of Aya". Everything's still very robotic-sounding; somewhat understandable given the source material, but there's more depth to the sounds in the original, whereas these lead sounds are very thin/tinny and the beats are very metronome-like. Be sure to watch the ending cutting off abruptly. There's room to achieve a richer texture with your instrumentation; cool source tune choices, regardless, and I liked hearing your rendition. Lots of room for growth and development, I hope you keep at it!

There's definitely potential, just from an OC ReMix arrangement standards lens, to be more interpretive with the treatment of the composition. That said, from a sound design perspective, this already personalizes the theme quite nicely, even if we're looking for additional aspects of arrangement. Too bad the track also has no real resolution; there's definitely more runway available to iterate on the theme further, perhaps get more interpretive with a second verse. Cool sound upgrade, peshti!

Not sure if the source tune is ineligible for OC ReMix due to being a licensed track not written for the game; would be a shame if so. Super classy source tune, so let's see what's up with this treatment. Breakbeats! Interesting giving the brass a more muted sound and leaning more on the breakbeats and piano, but everything's balanced well, IMO, so none of that observation's a complaint. Interesting to build around just one or two melodic segments, but there's enough textural dynamics to retain my interest. I can see some saying 5 minutes is too long and that it should change up more or explore other areas of the theme. To me, this could use some further variations, however, the interpretation of the theme's already substantive enough. Cool approach, and always love to hear the Rukunetsu spices in play!

The opening doesn't stand apart from the original much, so I'm interested to hear how it branches out; this is just viewing it from the lens of OC ReMix's arrangement standards. The female vocals have more outward power & strength compared to the original song (not better or worse, just a slightly different tone). Loved the lead strings up until 2:00; nice richness to it. Acoustic strings at 2:13 also sounded nice. Piano at 2:27 was obviously sampled, but had reasonable body to it, even if it was too obvious it wasn't real; same critique for the strings at 2:42. The dynamics are there; you could argue this should be even more dynamic, but within a relatively narrower range of contrast, it definitely does its thing, especially with the beats arriving at 3:26 for the big finish. This have a nice added level of intensity & density to distinguish it from the original. Cool stuff! IMO, go ahead and submit this, Mellow Sonic! :-) https://ocremix.org/community/submissions/

I like that the beats have a kind of swung rhythm, but they do plod after a while. New section at 1:04 dragged a lot and the texture felt too empty; the overly fake-sounding string sustains, piano, and kicks all hurt this on a sound quality level. I like the string writing at 1:42 in principle, it's just an ultra fakey sound, and the placement is so loud compared to everything else. Cool rhythmic change at 2:01. I wish the textures were more sophisticated or better padded, because there's so much empty space due to how thin the instrumentation is. Could use more melodic usage of "Hidden Palace" as well. It's a start!

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Cool opening; you just know this is gonna rock. Pretty good for the lead arranger hating the source games, Lucas. :-D YES

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The opening lead is really buzzy; it adds a lot of trailing mud in the high-end frequencies that ends up crowding the soundscape, even though, texturally, there's not much going on. Same with :19, that other line is too muddy. The dropoff at :33's probably my highlight. There's care put into varying the textures, but the overall timing of things still feels stilted and locked to grid, so the energy of the writing is undermined by the rigid timing. Even the stutter synth from :58-1:13, the effect feels passe pretty early on because of the overall timing feeling too robotic. I'm sure prophetik explained it best, as an experienced musician, but despite all the activity going on with the beat-writing, the beats also plodded. Consider examining tutorial or workshopping videos on beatmaking in FL Studio, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHOI0c-w_sE The sound design is an improvement from many iterations ago, yet it's going to need some further leaps. You actually can make strong stuff with FL presets, so you don't need different sounds, just better use of what's already available. Listening to something like Rellik's "Mirror and Transparent" from way back, it's all default FL sounds and effects, yet the flow of it all is so much more vibrant: https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01475. It'll sound like I'm saying Rellik's the bar, when that's well above it, or that you need to adopt his specific writing style. That said, this is still very far from having the writing or production sophistication to get this close to the bar. Keep doing more research & workshopping, and keep learning. NO (resubmit)

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Dense, and potentially valid to criticize on that account, but nothing interfering with my ability to make out the partwriting. Mauricio really shines at taking these iterative, pattern-heavy sources and applying his brand of expansively epic & dynamic heavy metal! YES

That's some good lo-fi! Super chillax with that hint of menace present from the original. Excellent original writing additions at 2:33 for the gradual yet very noticeable rise in the energy level. Nice lil' bitcrushed sweep-style SFX at 4:12 to transition into a sparser soundscape to cruise to the finish along with the supporting synth that came in around 3:59 providing a new texture. Excellent example of coasting with a groove but allowing the arrangement to still substantively evolve! It's wonderful to hear from you again, Reynald, it's been a minute. :-) YES

Just timing out the low-hanging fruit of what I recognized from the source: 1:09.5-1:44.5, 2:02-2:19.5, 2:36.75-2:54, 3:03-4:08.5 Sounded like a pretty extended intro segment without much reference to the source, but after 1:09, it was there most of the way, so the source usage not being enough wasn't a factor. Short and sweet, I thought the melodic and rhythmic variations were creatively done. Some of the sound design could have been tweaked, but it's more of a personal taste thing, so I won't bother timestamping it; besides, the overall sound design and mixing are solid and give a good amount of energy to the arrangement. It's ready! YES

"It wasn't pretty", but it was pretty good! ;-) YES

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The bass is too boomy, IMO, and chews up too much space as a result, but it's not a big deal. Don't recall the voices around 2:04 being in there before; they didn't add anything due to being so quietly mixed, but didn't detract, so we'll say it's a wash there. /checks track Is there an actual ending/resolution this time? It's so bleh, but it's there this time. :-D I agreed with MW's comments on how it would have been easy to make it resolve better, but I'll live with what's there. YES

Nothing wrong with others making these kinds of compilations, but they shouldn’t be monetized. Happy to take playlist suggestions; perhaps someone can create them for us to post on our own YouTube. :-)

We don’t want A.I. music: We don’t have a means of easily or accurately identifying A.I.-created music; if there are free services for that, let us know. The two “Red Brinstar” A.I. prompts that you linked as examples didn’t spit out any actual arrangements of that theme. Would have to try other VGM-related prompts to see how much of a threat they are.

Nice extra weight to the introing chords compared to the original. After noodling around with original writing during the build and then some source chords at 1:00, I appreciated the melody finally kicking in at 1:15. GOTDAYUM, these kicks! :-D Ease up on an old man. :-) Nah, these are cool, adding some extra juice to the picture. The beats are shaking my car, so this'll go over well with the bass demographic. Dig Niki's featured strings and I liked the way those underlying "Midna" chords played an important part of connecting this to the source and providing tension as well. YES

It gets’er done. The sounds feel stilted; enough to undermine it, but not enough to sink this. Let’er rip! :-) YES

Wow, great experimental concept per your usual, bro! Love the different sound combinations! Appreciate the source usage walkthrough just to clarify things, even thought the source usage was very straightforward. :-) YES