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Artist Name: TheManPF Additional artists: Newmajoe; Michelle Dreyband; Ronin Op F; jnWake; Kev Ragone; pingosimon This is a smooth jazz/jazz ballad track that I submitted to Final Fantasy month in DoD in November 2023, where it placed 6th out of 31 tracks. I'm not much of a jazz guy, but I can dig some jazz ballads or smoothy jazz vibes every now and then, and in particular Scarlet's Theme from Final Fantasy 7 Remake stood out to me. When I was playing, I remember being in absolute awe when I reached chapter 16 and stood in front of the window of the highest building in Midgar and looking at the starred night sky, in the middle of what looked like a 7 star hotel, with this playing in the background, the vibes are just immaculate. Naturally, it made me want to cover this ever since, and when I finally got the chance, I decided to keep the vibes faithful to the original. This kind of remix is what I like to call an "extended cover"; basically, what would this sound like if there was a "full version" of it? (even though there's already a full version, whoops). Basically kept the first half or so very very faithful, with a few changes in instrumentation (mostly sex I mean sax). After the first chorus, it goes into an original bridge with lots of solos, before coming back for an original second verse and a new second chorus, with some chord changes on the way to make this spicier. It's not the first time I try to reimagine how a track would sound if there was an extended version, but it's the first time you'll see me submit one of these. Obviously for this one I gathered a MASSIVE team of SUPER TALENTED MUSICIANS. I had all of them thought out like a year in advance, I knew exactly who I wanted to collab with, and they all delivered beyond my expectations: Joe is playing tenor sax, of course this isn't nearly the first time I collab with this guy, but he's one of the most insanely talented people I know, and sax is his thing, he both played the lines I wrote and lines he improvised himself during the whole song that spiced it up so much more while also keeping it smooth. He also sang a little backing vocals in the choruses for support. Michelle Dreyband is someone who I've heard sing several times but I couldn't get to collab with her much until now, she has a gorgeous voice and an excellent technique, she's mostly classical-trained, but I knew immediately that she had a voice that would fit this perfectly. Ronin Op F is my violin go-to. He's complementing the whole song with a lot of live violin lines to help it give more movement, you may have heard him play like an absolute crazy madman in Rib Eye Rodeo, but here you'll hear that he can easily play smooth and relaxing lines just as well. He also improvised his own violin solo. It's criminal that I haven't collabed with my latino brother jnWake before, he always does these crazy proggy songs with lots of synth noodling, but he's also an excellent pianist, and I invited him to lay down both rhythm and improvised melodies, and he did an excellent job. Kev Ragone is someone that surprises me is not in OCR already! He's not exactly a newbie, he's involved in numerous music projects both in and out of DoD, he's one of the most prolific VGM drummers I know. This is my first time collabing with a real drummer, and by god the work of this man is insanely good, he laid down his groove so fast and so clean, he had a whole ass take just mere days after I sent him the arrangement and it sounded great already even before I actually started mixing! You could say Kev is the MVP of this song. This is one of the few tracks where I don't have Zach playing bass (sorry buddy ):), mainly because for this one I recruited Pingosimon, also known (and credited) as Andre Beller, someone who doesn't have much in OCR but just like Kev, he's a very well established shizzie. He helped me by playing the mother-fucking UPRIGHT BASS, and it sounds as beautiful as you would expect. I arranged, wrote (patial) lyrics, mixed, played guitar and sang backing vocals. A cool thing about this one is that it's the first full cover I've done that's 100% live, no sequencing at all, and I'm very proud of how this one came out, so go get a drink, sit back and enjoy the view from the top. Lyrics: [VERSE 1] Fireworks to light up your night sky In a flash, life and love can go awry Let me take you higher Fulfill your desires Stilettos and lingerie, both Complement, supplement [PRE-CHORUS 1] In my grandeur I'm all-natural Beneath this crimson dress In my splendor I'm all-natural Beneath jewels and finesse And elegance [CHORUS 1] What you see is what you get Only passion, no regrets Only triumph, I've got nothing to hide So sit back and enjoy the ride [VERSE 2] Fragrances that spice up, fill the air Suddenly heart and mind start to race Let me pull you closer Only for a moment Candle lights and chardonnay, oh Ornament, compliment [PRE-CHORUS 2] In my grandeur I'm all-natural Behind this fine attire In my glamor I'm all-natural Beneath pearls, opulence Extravagance [CHORUS 2] What you need is what I got Only heaven, without a thought Only fire, 've got all you desire So don't hold back, let loose and Sit back and enjoy the ride Games & Sources Game: Final Fantasy 7 Remake Songs arranged: Scarlet's Theme (https://youtu.be/aJmvKezjCoo) Original composer: Tsuyoshi Sekito; Mitsuto Suzuki; Nozomi Toki System: Playstation 4; Playstation 5; Windows Year: 2020

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Artist Name: Xaleph Arrangement: Main Arranger: Xaleph Co-Arrangement: Zack Parrish (2:43-3:31) Mastering: Zack Parrish Instruments: Electric Guitars (both leads, rhythm) [Non-7/4 parts: Ryan8bit 99%, Xaleph 1%] + 7/4 Electric Guitars Zack Parrish Drums (Paradiddles) Piano + Organ (Xaleph) Acoustic Guitar (Zack Parrish) Banjo (Zack Parrish) Foley -> "There's an encoder" (Zack Parrish) This mix has a bit of a story. So it started off with me wanting to do a mix again with Ryan8bit when I first came back from my long hiatus. I couldn't get a hold of him until like a year later, and one year after that we decided to do a Mega Man mix. We initially were thinking using dueling guitars - Zack joined, and then we wanted Metal drums, and who else is better at that than Josh? With 34 mains / 43 total tracks in DoD, and the quality of some of the tracks, we knew it was going to be a tough competition and were thrilled to get third. The version here is a better master than what we had previously submitted as we had more time to master (I gave Zack like 30 minutes initially). Thank you all who joined this last minute! Games & Sources Mega Man 3 Skull Castle 5 & 6 theme (Zophar -> Dr. Wily's Castle III / Fortress 3) Wily Boss theme (Zophar -> Wily boss / guardian battle) Title/Intro theme

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Clear pass despite the production issues. Digging the approach and wanted to co-sign. :-) YES

"Bloody Tears" - 1:18-1:36, 2:34-2:55, 3:33-4:25 "Maridia" - 3:04-3:30 = 117 seconds or 40.20% overt source usage Yep, whatever you did with the Maridia Rocky theme, congrats, it's unfortunately not recognizable in the first half. :-D I did hear the CV2's "Bloody Tears" melody from 1:18-1:36 & 2:34-2:55, even though it wasn't listed as a source tune, but "Purification" only arranges the intro of that song, not the verses, so this should have been DQed from the compo if "Purification" was the CV source, no? Maybe there's another Aria of Sorrow track also arranging "Bloody Tears"? There's Maridia finally from 3:04-3:30. Back to "Bloody Tears" from 3:33-4:25. Really dunno where this source breakdown even comes from, because the times and instruments don't match what's been given. I'm just confused, which doesn't mean I'm not being obtuse here, but just chiming in to say this didn't immediately make sense to me. To me, the instrumentation quality's solid enough, but the dynamics can feel pretty flat here despite the obvious gradual build when you skip around from section to section and better notice the changes in textural density. I'm willing to say that I also thought it was too dynamically flat on my first listen, but on repeated listens, I was fine with how it subtlely builds, and I'm OK being outvoted. There was a change at 3:04, albeit with no real transtion, so the switch felt awkward; see what you can do to smooth that out. To me, I'd just need a more accurate source breakdown, but if this source usage was explained better to me, and it was all in place re: sufficient & recognizable source usage, then I could pass this as is. For now though... NO (resubmit)

"Forbidden Area" is a great source tune choice to work alongside Metroid music and definitely feels like Super Metroid music from another mother. :-D Very cool opening sound; that chirping-style lead was interesting, albeit the high-end felt a bit hot. Metroid Prime theme on belltones sounded off until it resolved at :59 and I understood where it went. Good bass writing (and presence) during the CV melody from 1:17-1:41. Nice breakbeat writing. Very effective dropoff at 2:39, though it felt like the track meandered until the MP melody came in at 3:14. Pretty cool how full the texture got when the bass beefed up at 3:44; cool contrast for a stronger finish! Count it! YES

Artist Name: Mel Decision This piece was inspired by Emi Meyer's cover of Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls that appears in Blue Eye Samurai. I loved the tolling of the bells followed by the heavy intro. I had the idea of starting off with a choir that trails off into bells, before pivoting to a metal mix of The Cathedral. The loop for that theme is exceptionally short, however, so I dug into parts of Light of Silence, which appears inside the cathedral's dungeon, and then bits from World Revolution, which plays during one of the final boss battles of the game and slotted nicely into place with the rest of the mix. I wanted to keep the instrumentation fairly minimal for this mix, so I stuck with drums, guitars, an organ synth for timbral contrast, and occasional choir to really dig into the cathedral feeling. Outside of EQ and compression, the processing was fairly minimal—mostly reverb, a little chorus, and some short delay. This piece probably ended up being 20% arrangement and 80% fiddling with guitar VSTs to make them sound more natural. Props to the Sages & other remixers during office hours for all their feedback and advice around guitar tones, amps, and humanizing guitar midi. The tips I learned were both immediately applicable in this piece and also helpful for some other WIPs I'm tinkering with. I would have loved to get some live instruments playing on this track, but going all-in on VSTs did allow me to learn a lot more about programming guitars, which I'm grateful for. Hopefully I was able to bring some semblance of realism into the parts.t Games & Sources Chrono Trigger: The Cathedral by Yasunori Mitsuda: entire source, 0:00–1:10, 1:34–2:10, 3:22–3:46, 4:28–end remix Light of Silence by Nobuo Uematsu: 0:06–1:05 source, 2:16–3:10 remix World Revolution by Yasunori Mitsuda: 0:25–1:18 source, 3:10–3:22, 3:47–4:28, 4:40–4:52 remix

Artist Name: jneen-collective Like pretty much all my music, this was made in Renoise, with classic MIDI sounds dressed up for a more modern aesthetic. I do my best to keep my tracker music having a *tight* feel, which involves mostly making sure note-offs are very carefully set, including for drums. This involved a lot of sub-line shenanigans, which I'm starting to use more for that kind of feel. The swing was accomplished with manual note-delay commands, which I find gives me the most flexibility. Global swing is convenient, but it's hard to make exceptions to for things like the prominent 32nd-note run in the melody, or sometimes notes that want to swing a little differently. The different source tracks in here were weirdly easy to combine, as they pretty much all employ the same half-step-planing harmony, albeit with slightly different harmonic rhythm. Only a few places needed to be fudged to fit. In fact, with one notable exception, the whole thing was diatonic enough that I could use (approximately) 6-diminished voicings to create rich harmonizations of the various melody lines. Folks in the discord were very helpful in nailing down a more satisfying ending than what I originally had. Much thanks to pixelseph and ronaldpoe for their feedback. Hope you enjoy it! Games & Sources Hi all! Finally ready to toss in this arrangement of "Mysterious Forest" from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening[1]. I'm not exactly sure who composed this particular track, but the sound team on that game was: * Kazumi Totaka * Minako Hamano * Kozue Ishikawa I've also included reference to a couple of tracks that a player will encounter when playing through this region of the game, namely "Witch's Hut" [2] and "Power-Up" [3] (the annoying music that interrupts Mysterious Forest's natural groove... but it's ok I kept the bassline going in this version)

Artist Name: Aaron Lehnen Created unique sections, extrapolation of melodies and chord changes. Juxtaposing various themes and extending harmonic structures. Heavy usage of double bass metal drums and 8 string djenty guitars. Multiple harmonies re-imagined through various instruments and ranges. Harmonized guitar sections/solos. Synthwave portions mixed with Prog/metal Games & Sources Metroid is an adventure platformer released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986 and the NES in 1987. In this game, you play as bounty hunter Samus Aran on her first mission to defeat Mother Brain on planet Zebes. Platforms: FDS, NES Year: 1986 Developed by: Nintendo Published by: Nintendo

Oooooh, for this Shinobi 3 source, I get why it's breaking Chimpazilla's ears in our #judges chat; that line brought in at 1:29 of the source. I 100% hear the dissonance; there's something about it though where's it not THAT bad for me; my mind's playing it to me like the way you'd THINK it would sound if that line were melodious, which might make 0 sense to say; I'm unsure of if there's a musical term for this dynamic. :-) The beats at :25 are mixed in an odd way; a nice, booming presence, but sounding on the lossy/no-high-end side, so it's not benefiting the texture. Then some light claps or layered finger snaps, whatever they were, came in and also sounded very lossy and also very flimsy and dry. I liked the transition sound at :57, but then the mixing of the next section also felt off. The light clacking percussion part added at :59 was too flimsy, then some beats added in at 1:10 sounded beefier, but again very lossy-sounding. The buzzing synth line brought in at :59 is practically buried once other elements are added at 1:13. The string line at 1:13 initially sounds decent, but gets way more exposed from 1:33-1:55. The overall sound & flow of the track is serviceable, but even by 1:33, it's pretty repetitive; 1:10-1:55 could be cut in half. MindWanderer's correct that the melody, as presented now, drags out over the course of the track; there may be other ways to present it to better maintain the interest. 2:07 changes up the textures more, but, from 2:11-2:52, lines begin to step over one another and competing to be heard, it's too messy, cluttered, and indistinct, due to that part added at 2:11. From 2:29-2:40, there's some clashing writing from whatever line was handling the lead before the part shifted back to the source melody at 2:41. Lots of quiet indistinctness from the bass writing as well from 2:30-2:50, where it's filling in the space some, but you're not making out any individual notes. Back to the source melody at 3:03. Key change at 3:25 that sounded really clunky. I dunno any theory, so while I can't articulate it, the transposition of the part-writing taken from the source isn't clicking. I've said this to HoboKa and think it's the same for you; when you play it straight with your source tune transcriptions, it's fine, but often when you try to deviate in big ways, it opens up the potential for non-melodious writing. Dunno what that instrumentation is with kind of a light phasing effect on it, but it's just creating clutter, and when it briefly drops out during transition phrases like from 3:46-3:48, it makes it more apparent how awkwardly it sits in the texture just adding noise. Much better texture at 4:11; less was more there, both in terms of having a direction and the textures sounding clear enough, so it was an effective finish. I didn't catch any of the Rise of the Robots writing; I'll check it later, but it didn't affect anything from a source usage standpoint. To me, when the textures are fuller, you're inadvertently adding a ton of clutter and making it difficult to follow along, even though the core melody is repeating so much (and could use other variations), and the off-key sections (2:29, 3:25) dragged this down as well. Hemo made a good point that everything right now seems to pull emphasis away from the live parts, which come off extremely subdued. Like MW, I agree there's good potential here, but it'll need a mixing reboot, undoing the off-key writing, and maybe some further melodic variations (not necessarily changing the notes, it could be the instrumentation), in that order. The first two are necessarily, the third may not be but is worth exploring. Unpolished is an apt word for it that MW used; we don't need perfect polish, but it'll need more than this. Lots of good potential here. :-) NO (resubmit)

Man, I hate this slow shit... when's it gonna GO somewhere? (Kidding. :-P) I definitely hear the Skrypnyk influence, not just in the music, but in the effects and audio sampling of the kiddos playing and yelling at one another. A classy, mellow mood that breathes, clicks, ebbs, and flows. :-) YES

Carl Sagan is an agnostic demon, so we shouldn't use his quote. (Kidding!) Yeah, no problem here, if jmr would want to use it.

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

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

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

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

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