Liontamer
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ReMixer name: jnWake, minusworld.
Name of game(s) arranged: Final Fantasy Tactics.
Name of arrangement: Antipyretic for your Precipitous Apoplexy.
Name of individual song(s) arranged: Antipyretic, Apoplexy, Battle on the Bridge (names taken from the OCR site https://ocremix.org/game/279/final-fantasy-tactics-ps1).Link to arrangement: .Yet more stuff from Dwelling of Duels! This one's my entry for August 2023's Sakimoto month where me and minus got the gold medal
Sakimoto month was about picking songs composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto. Somehow, I had never played any game composed by him so choosing sources was a bit challenging, but a couple listens to the FFT OST (and a thorough check of the composing credits) was enough for me to pick a few tracks and I started writing a mini-medley of them. The title of the remix is a reference to the 3 sources selected ("Battle on the Bridge" is called "Precipitous Combat" in the official OST on vgmdb).Anyway, for this track I experimented with adding an orchestra into my usual prog. metal affairs and I think it worked out well. It was pretty challenging to write the arrangement (and my computer struggled with the samples...) but it was worth it in the end.For this track I collabed with minusworld for the second time. Like last time, he played rhytm and lead guitars plus bass. Real playing always adds a lot to these tracks, especially to leads. I particularly love the guitar solo he came up with!Source usage!00:00-00:37: This is based on the intro of Antipyretic (piano is doing a modified version of the "arpeggio" the strings play there). The 2 chords (G# and B diminished) are a small alteration of chords that play in the intro to Antipyretic (at the end of each "phrase").00:37- : Still based on the intro of Antipyretic...00:58-1:10: Guitar riff and melodies taken from Battle on the Bridge.1:10-1:16: The previously mentioned chords return!1:16-1:40: This section mixes a ton of stuff... The main melody is in both Battle on the Bridge and Antipyretic while the backing takes from both sources as well (piano from Antipyretic, rhytm from Battle on the Bridge). Violin/Flute arpeggios are from Battle on the Bridge.1:41-1:55: More of those arpeggios, now on guitar/synths.1:55-2:25: 2 takes (one metal, one orchestra) of a melody from Antipyretic.2:25-2:31: Horn section based on a part of Apoplexy. I like to imagine this represents the enemy forces get reinforcements or something like that.2:31-2:59: Rhytm guitar and strings play a melody from Apoplexy.2:59-3:13: Based on Apoplexy again, both chord progression and melody.3:13-3:37: Melody from 1:16 returns, now over a different chord progression.3:37-4:01: Apoplexy melody from 2:59 returns, over a more "epic" chord progression.4:01-4:26: Guitar solo! Same backing from 1:16 section.4:26-4:50: Synths and brass play a riff from Battle on the Bridge, with piano doing the Antipyretic "arpeggio" from the intro.4:50-5:07: The chord progression from the intro returns once again. I like that it sounds pretty dramatic by the end.5:07-5:22: Outro! Piano part is actually based on yet another track from the OST ("Shock!!~Despair"), but it was a very small quote so I didn't feel like adding it to the list. I believe it's also featured as the Game Over theme so it was a fitting end.Hope you like it! -
Contact Information
Username: timaeus222
Name: Truong-Son Nguyen
http://soundcloud.com/timaeus222
https://timaeusmusic.com/ - NEW DOMAIN AYO
ID: 24526
Submission InformationGames: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of SkyReMix Title: The True Final Fight!Consoles/Platforms: Nintendo DSOST Composers: Arata Iiyoshi, Hideki Sakamoto, Keisuke Ito, Kenishi Saito, Yoshihiro MaedaSource Tunes: "Vast Ice Mountain Peak", "Dialga's Fight to the Finish!" (attached)ReMix:- MP3- WAVComments:Something I had been meaning to do for a while was to load some good music into my phone, and among those included the Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky OST. One night, I had that on shuffle and randomly came across 'Vast Ice Mountain Peak' and started jamming to it (this is the theme that plays during the 5th Special Episode dungeon). I also recently have been watching videos from 8-bit Music Theory, and the one about how Octopath Traveler music changes keys was on my mind (I highly recommend you check that out!), so I latched onto that aspect of 'Vast Ice Mountain Peak' (0:36 - 1:11), and the gears were turning (see what I did there?).
From what I gathered, 'Vast Ice Mountain Peak' seems to dance between two keys that are a perfect 4th apart (something Octopath Traveler does a lot), and bounces two different motifs off of each other (one that rises and one that falls), which both maintain their intervals in the new key. There were also cool descending chord progressions which still manage to return to the original key.
So, the main thing I did at 0:35 - 1:10 is riff on those two motifs, but in a different sequence/structure than in the original. I also used the 'Time Gear' motif from 'Dialga's Fight to the Finish!' as a hook (1:11 - 1:28, 2:31 - 2:48) that was layered with the chorus (1:28 - 1:46, 2:48 - 3:06), mixing in a few other lines from that song (EX: 1:06 - 1:10). I kept the general structure from the original for the most part, at the climax (1:46 - 2:31), because it was just too good.
Among the tools I used were the usual culprits --- Zebra2 primarily (pads, bass, arps, leads), with accomplices being Super Audio Cart (flute), Resonance: Emotional Mallets (Pipeharp), Juggernaut: Cinematic Electronic Scoring Tools (sweeps/risers), and Black Octopus Leviathan (drums/sweeps). I also utilized stuff from kiloHearts Essentials (Bitcrush + Ring Modulation on the drums), as well as SNESVerb (on the snare). One of the notable things I did from the sound design side was automate the ring modulation frequency on a snare to create that sweep at 0:26, something I picked up from zircon's Arcology livestream in Mar 2023.
In a way, this immersive take actually hearkens back to an old submission I sent in to OCR regarding 'Dialga's Fight to the Finish', wayyy back in 2010, but dramatically improves upon it in a harmonically-striking fashion. This now became probably one of my personal favorite ReMixes I've ever done! With that, I hope you enjoy, Pokémon fans!Extra Info:
Source Breakdown:0:00.00 - 0:35.59 = Vast Ice Mountain Peak + rhythmic variation (0:00.00 - 0:35.59)
0:35.59 - 1:04:21 = Vast Ice Mountain Peak riffing (0:35.59 - 1:11.15)
1:04.21 - 1:11.15 = Dialga's Fight to the Finish riffing (0:11.35 - 0:16.13, 1:05.08 - 1:08.32)
1:11.15 - 1:46.71 = Dialga's Fight to the Finish Hook + Chorus (0:19.89 - 0:39.36, 0:00.00 - 0:16.13)
1:46.71 - 2:31.15 = Vast Ice Mountain Peak Climax (1:11.15 - 1:55.58)
2:31.15 - 3:06.71 = Dialga's Fight to the Finish Hook + Chorus (0:19.89 - 0:39.36, 0:00.00 - 0:16.13)
3:06.71 - 3:24.50 = Dialga's Fight to the Finish Outtro (0:19.89 - 0:39.36)
35.59 + 28.62 + 44.44
= 108.65/216.67 = 50.15% Vast Ice Mountain Peak
6.94 + 35.56 + 35.56 + 17.79
= 95.85/216.67 = 44.24% Dialga's Fight to the Finish! -
Sean TartagliaPokemon Stadium 2Lil CupLittle Cup BattleHajime WakaiI originally did this arrangement around January 2019, if I remember correctly. I made a new mix in March of this year that's floating around on youtube, but when I went back to it a few months ago I felt it was too thin and wanted to do an overhaul, so if the result is well received, this is the definitive version in my mind. I wanted the drums, bass, and horns to be much thicker and crispier, so I tweaked the EQ slightly and fattened up the horns. I also doubled up the horns and panned the doubles the opposite direction of the original, which gives the stabs more piercing power. I slightly lowered the reverb, but I kept the super super slight slapback delay as it was, which I think compensates for them being a bit drier. The baritone hits like a truck now, and oh man, it really fills out the sound. Pushing these up also ups the saturation, which makes it much more tight and crunchy now. The biggest risk is riding the loudness wars line, but I think pushing it to where the signal starts to fuzz gives it a bit of the edge the old mix needed.The bass is pretty much 1:1, with some fills here and there, because it really holds the original track together. A lot of the elements of the original track are hyper hard panned, which gives that groove a lot of weight, and Hajime Wakai shoved it way up in the original mix to the point it's really a counter melody. The original track had a deep, very wide ebass, courtesy of my favorite electric organ emulation, Lazysnake, but I recently grabbed the great JP-8P emulation, the PG-8X, to use some classic roland sounds, and the old b3 preset on that thing is really punchy, which pierces through the mix better than the lazysnake, which muddied up the low end more.The drums are also much tighter, though I didn't do much more than trim the EQ for the cymbals a bit more so the snare would pop a bit more in the mix, then threw some final EQ on the master bus to crisp up the cymbals at around 8kHz, shelf the bass at the sub 100Hz range while highlight the bass above 100Hz. It's a bit closer to that position in the mix drums would be in 60s rock, funk and soul (my favorite music aside from grindcore :p), so I think it works out nicely.Pumping these up also lets the organ and guitar feel much more like they're floating through the mix, a sort of quality where the main melody points weave in and out of the overall mix, kind of like peeking through the harmony rather than standing on top of it. I wanted to play the guitar part intially, but I never really got around to setting up a studio environment, so the samples will have to do. If I did I'd probably give it a bit more grit and the attack might be more pronounced... my first love is surf rock, and my favorite players are mclaughlin and bloomfield, so I guess in your mind you can swap the chorusy sound of the samples with something that has a bit more bite (I used to get called out for this a lot when I played at jazz clinics back in the day, no one liked my tone :p).Maybe I'm going crazy, but since 2019 I've gone through so many mixes of this track that I've started to question myself about if what I even like in the mix is what I hear when listening to other music. I mean, I know what I want, but I seem to keep making the mistake of comparing my sound with others and thinking it's inherently deficient. Then, when I start to feel that it's all wrong and I need to rework everything, when I go back and listen a few days later, I hate it and instinctively go back to the mixdown I originally did before the I made those changes. I just want this track to be out of my life, so it can be judged by an ear other than my own, otherwise I won't be able to get over this, and I'll keep mixing it forever. Hopefully people like it, otherwise I really did just waste all that time tweaking everything for nothing.
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RebeccaETripp
Rebecca Tripp
https://www.youtube.com/@RebeccaETripp/videos
ID: 48262
Game(s): Threads of Fate
Song Title: Birth of KnowledgeSongs Remixed: Book of CosmosHere’s a link to the file:This is my second "Threads of Fate" aka "Dewprism" arrangement. It's a remix of "Book of Cosmos", originally composed by Junya Nakano. While I'm a fan of Nakano's style, and this game's entire OST, for some reason, I've rarely gotten around to doing covers for ToF! So, this was a nice change of pace! The vibe and instrumentation was heavily inspired by various SimCity OSTs! This track was nominated and voted for by my patrons on Subscribestar. If you'd like to have some influence on what music and other projects I create each month, you can subscribe to me as well. Here's a link: https://www.subscribestar.com/rebeccaetripp -
ReMixer Name: ZackParrish
Real Name: Zack ParrishEmail:Website: zackparrish.comUser ID: 13667Additional contributions: YamiName of games arranged: Final Fantasy 5, Final Fantasy 9Name of arrangement: Freya's CurseName of songs arranged: Cursed Earth (FF5), Freya's Theme(FF9)Composer: Nobuo UematsuLinks to source:Comments: Did this mashup / mix for the Game Set Mash compo, second round. Was to mashup Freya's theme and Cursed Earth and... originally was supposed to be a collab with Yami but he had to work out of town that week so while the track was mostly done when he was finally home and able to add anything, he still sprinkled some seasoning here and there. It was fun and stressful at the same time because I knew my likely competitors were Seph and Josh because if I were them... I would've picked this same pairing as well. Hope you enjoy it.
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Hello everyone,
this is my version of the main theme of "tears of the kingdom".
Thanks
Link to my submission :
Re Mixer : Onirik Dreamer
real name : Karim Ajroud
email :
website : https://onirikdreamer.com
Link of vidéoclip :
user id : 38210
Name of game arranged : The legend of Zelda, Tears of the kingdom
Name of original track : Main Theme - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Composer : Manaka Kataoka Yasuaki Iwata Hajime Wakai Takuro Yasuda Riyu Tamura Soshi Abe
Arranged : Manaka Kataoka Yasuaki Iwata Hajime Wakai Kosuke Yamashita)
Name of my track : Hyrule's hopes
Additional information about game : 2023 (SWITCH)
Link to the original soundtrack : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yuKMCPzokA&t=2s
Your own comments about the mix : I love this piece, so beautiful and intricate. I modestly tried to make a more personal and electronic version. -
Main ReMixer name: TheManPF (User ID: 35318)Submission:Game: Graffiti KingdomName of arrangement: Down Where Evil Dwells (El Hijo Del Diablo)Songs arranged: Final Battle (https://youtu.be/-aonDr-Odog)Original composer: Yasunori MitsudaSystem: Playstation 2Year: 2004Comments:This arrangement was done as part of the Yasunori Mitsuda month in Dwelling of Duels back in July 2022, and got 11th place out of 26 tracks.I never played Graffiti Kingdom (or any Mitsuda game, for that matter), I purposefully looked for what looked like the most obscure source I could pick and found this little game called Graffiti Kingdom that has some pretty cool tracks. "Final Battle" plays in the true final boss, which as far as I know seems to be the son of the main villain, the devil.For this arrangement, I basically go through the whole source in 3 "loops", with the 3 sections of the original playing in order and repeating two more times, each time adding something new or transforming it in different ways. The image I get in my head from this arrangement after finishing it is the idea of someone's slow descent into hell, which is why it starts creepy and tense, and slowly gets heavier.This is a solo project, I did all the arrangement, sequencing, mix, guitar playing and a bit of lowkey vocals. Everything that is not guitar or vocals is sequenced VST and/or samples.
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Goedenavond,
Submission information:
Name of Game(s) Remixed: Final Fantasy 8
Name of Arrangement: Moments [Synthwave remix]
Names of songs arranged: Fragments of Memories (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrPQnadegBs )
Link to the remix:
Remixer name: Jorito
Real name: Jorrith Schaap
Email:
Performers:
Sirenstar: https://ocremix.org/artist/17241/sirenstar
Lucas Guimaraes: https://ocremix.org/artist/16119/lucas-guimaraes
Credits:
Jorito: arrangement, lyrics, guitar, mixing, production
Sirenstar: vocals
Lucas Guimaraes: alto saxophone
JoyDreamer: lyrics
Comments about the mix:
Jorito:
This is an updated version of the album version, with a new saxophone recording, some mixing tweaks and a different mastering chain. Rest of the notes are from the album liner notes.
We were a few weeks before release of the SeeDs of Pandora album when a few of the remixers were like "Hey, why is this not the biggest OCR album? Let's give it a final push and create some more music!". That idea sounded intriguing to me, and a good excuse to make some more music. Since all the tracks that were not part of the first four discs were already taken, the only option was to remix a track that already was done before for the album. And what better thing to do than to (again) remix one of your own remixes?
For this track I decided to lean into my arrangement of "Fragments of Memories", and specifically the minor key I used in the first half of "Moments". Also, given the short amount of time and my fondness for the genre, I couldn't resist turning it into synthwave once again. Since there were already lyrics for "Moments", it made a lot of sense to make it a vocal remix too. Fortunately Natalie (Sirenstar) was once again on board to provide some kickass vocals for it, as well as some voice acting with lines gracefully borrowed from Ellone's in-game script. Structure-wise it's a bit different from "Moments" though; while I was able to use the verses as-is, I felt that what was a bridge in my original remix would serve better as the chorus for some more oomph, and I had to repurpose the original chorus as the sax solo (courtesy of Lucas Guimaraes). An interesting arrangement puzzle, for sure, but I think it worked out well in the end. This also happens to be the first track I actually played the lead guitar myself on. Needed too many takes and editing help, but it's progress!
So there you have it, an unexpected remix of a remix that I hope you'll enjoy and makes you go "Hey, did I hear this before?" in a good way. Many thanks to my collaborators Natalie and Lucas for joining me on this one!
Sirenstar:
If you can take a track like "Fragments of Memories" and make it a e s t h e t i c, I think it's simply proof of the solidity of the source material. However it's also very much Jorito's skill as a producer, which should not come as any shock and or surprise to anyone at this time. (See: rest of album) He isn't gonna say it but he said I could write whatever I wanted. CATS.
Synthwave is one of my favorite genres, both as a listener and a performer. The voice acting was pretty fun too. Hope this album helps you re-live the story of FF8
Lucas Guimaraes:
Jorito was going for a similar vibe as The Midnight. As soon as he mentioned that, I offered him my Saxophone skills. I've known Jorito for a long time, so getting to perform with him was rad.
Grtz,
Jorrith -
Hallo,Submission information:
Name of Game(s) Remixed: Final Fantasy 8
Name of Arrangement: We are the Winners
Names of songs arranged: The Winner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o-LDWCYAg4 )
Link to the remix:Remixer name: JoritoReal name: Jorrith Schaap
Email:Performers:Numoon (Jamey Roberti, , https://linktr.ee/numoontalk)Sirenstar: https://ocremix.org/artist/17241/sirenstar Cyril the Wolf: https://ocremix.org/artist/5473/cyril-the-wolf Dewey Newt: https://ocremix.org/artist/18034/dewey-newt Credits:Jorito: arrangement, lyrics, guitar, production, mixingNumoon: lyrics, rap (Raijin)Sirenstar: lyrics, vocals (Fujin)Cyril the Wolf: vocals (Seifer)Dewey Newt: tromboneTSori: trumpet(Based on album eval one evaluator found it difficult to relate it to the source. To help alleviate that I provide a link to an instrumental () so you can hear how much of the source track is used through the remix, particularly the staccato strings, the marimba and the (interpreted) chord progression)Comments about the mix:Jorito:This track kinda started out as a joke, with Darkflamewolf, Natalie (Sirenstar) and me brainstorming a bit about a potential rap track. We were asking ourselves what it'd be like if the Balamb Garden disciplinary committee (consisting out of Raijin, Fujin and Seifer) would corner Squall and his party somewhere and do a bit of a taunting rap battle, in the vein of those Epic Rap Battles of History some people might remember from earlier Youtube days. Sounded like an interesting and a bit silly, crazy idea, and of course that's exactly what's needed to get me on board.After evaluating the available tracks, we selected the Victory Fanfare as something that could potentially work as a 90s inspired hip-hop rap track. I quickly laid down some foundation by resampling the original Fanfare and chopping it up with some oldskool production techniques (a lot of fun to relearn that) and turned the pretty repetitive remainder of the source track into the backdrop for rap and other vocals.I already managed to cast Natalie as Fujin, who, apart from uttering angry single syllables in the game, seems to have a hidden talent for some epic Fergie-style vocals. Finding somebody who could write appropriate rap lyrics and perform them was a bit more difficult, but with some help I managed to find Jamey (Numoon), who also did an epic job on performing as Raijin, with just the right amount of taunt and philosophical meandering, ya know? Lastly, Cyril completes the Disciplinary Committee as Seifer, and while his appearance is brief, it does make quite the impact
Originally the track featured a resampled and chopped up version of the original game's music, but of course that's not acceptable for an OCReMix album. I recreated the entire fanfare part and managed to recruit TSori on trumpet and Dewey Newt on trombone to perform the parts and fill out the team. Managed to sneak in a quick guitar recording in I did myself as well to round out the last parts.All in all this was a very interesting track to tackle and I'm really proud of what we've managed to create. Big thanks again to all my collaborators, this track wouldn't exist without you!UPDATED COMMENTS (2/11/24): Updated wav for We are the Winners because it seems stuck in evaluation. Emunator gave me the feedback from the judges panel so far, and I tried to address it. Mostly did some volume rebalancing, some side chaining and removing the vinyl plugin from the master that made it lose all the highs. Hope this fares better!Numoon:As a retro gamer and rapper, I actually never played FF8. I did extensive research and let the feel guide my lyrics.Sirenstar:Inspired by 90s hip-hop and the Natalie Portman rap
Cyril the Wolf:Jorito has asked me for voice overs before so when he needed someone to be an irritated Seifer I was more than happy to join in. I never thought of myself as a VO person but it seems to be something I can do
Grtz,Jorrith -
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.
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Despite a 320kbps MP3 being sent in, the opening sounds distant and feeling like a low-quality render due to the lack of high-end sharpness/clarity.
Theme arrives at :47, and I liked the arrangement of it, but this soundscape sounds so lossy. 1:04 drops out the intro's sounds and moves the tempo up a touch, then it's supersaw city at 1:18 with some loud thumping beats that had very nice heft. That said, the soundscape's too flooded; some claps were added around 1:25 and practically don't even register; the only reason I noticed them was because I'm actively listening for textural changes; you only audibly hear the clap once when the other sounds drop for the transition at 1:45.
The transition at 1:45 felt awkward/sudden, but I'll move past it. I do like the loose way the theme's arranged there; it's a style I'd never heard before and a pretty unique sound to apply to this theme. Pretty lonely lead there though; some beats entered in at 2:01, but it was a very barren sound until a (relatively brief) cut-and-paste return of the saw section at 2:18.
From what DarkSim was saying, it appears as if multiple parts are occupying the same frequency range, which could explain why it feels to me like the supporting part-writing doesn't provide enough textural glue and makes the textures feel very simplistic/basic. If you compare to something like Pimp! Code's "You Know", that's cleaner, so you can make out the supporting part-writing (which is subtle like yours) more easily. The arrangement approach is good, the mixing just needs more clarity and refinement, IMO.
NO (resubmit)
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I see how the intro's underwhelming, and the sampled guitar chugs at :20 sound so rigidly timed with repeating attacks/intensity that don't have any round-robin to at least somewhat humanize them. Before the organ joins in at :28, those chugs sound bone dry and untreated. Loved the doubled/layered lines from :07-:10 though, that's an awesome sound.
The tremolo strings at :47 sounded good, but then hit those longer attacks again at :49, so that's no good. Look how exposed the guitar sample sounds at 1:42 as it ends. The lead at 1:50's also very mechanical-sounding. Piano at 2:27 sounds good though; still fakey, but it's mixed very well, so it sounds way more realistic in tone (and less rigid) than more exposed parts like the guitars (or even the piano at :12, less so at 1:28). Final section at 2:58's just way too rigidly timed and lacks any fluidity until 3:29, both the guitar and piano.
It feels like the effort's all in the arrangement, just not in the sequencing detail work. I love the arrangement, and this doesn't need live performers, but this does need more fluidity/humanization in the sequencing, and this strongly shouldn't pass as is. It's a mock-up with a completed composition, and those fundamentals are strong, but it's now awaiting the production polish. Without it, I'm a no-go.
NO (resubmit)
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At :44, the textures's too muddy, IMO, but certainly nothing seriously dinging the piece, especially in light of the tremendous arrangement ideas, really ratcheting up the energy level of the theme.
Loved the padding from 1:15-1:47 that added a nice warmth and contemplative tension to this section. There's also some sadness in the strings from 1:48-2:19, which I appreciated. They sounded similar to a favorite of mine from the FF7 album, The Orichalcon & bustatunez' "Rare Square". Great adaptation of this theme into something that sounds like a stress-filled cinematic cue; this is maybe the part where things look bleak, immediately followed by the hero sucking it up and trudging on, so I got some good imagery here.
Loved the synth and vox-like line doubling the melody from 2:36-2:45. Nitpick: the thin electric guitar tone then added in at 2:51 sounded underwhelming; the corny-sounding delay and the way the guitar was panned hard had it sounding thinner than it should have; more resonance/depth to that sound would have improved the final section. Awesome dropoff section at 3:12; great lead sound, and the all of the industrial & electronic sounds underneath; nice screeching sound from 3:21-3:28 as well, some good sound design there.
Loads of dynamics here, and just a strongly expanded fleshing out of "The Stage Is Set". Probably Zack's best example from this album of why he deserves some film scoring gigs. A nice ride here!
YES
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The bassline of the source is very quietly referenced from :20-:29. Melody kicks in at :33 and this is definitely loud. The soundscape's not sizzling, but the kicks are so much louder than the synths. Kind of an odd mixing result where there's shrillness to the synths, but there's no sharpness to the overall soundscape; it makes it sound like we got a low bitrate MP3 encoding rather than the WAV.
Some faux electric guitar added into the back at 1:10; it's actually good that it's not upfront, because it sounds too mechanical, so it just adds some texture without exposing the sample.
Dropoff at 1:40 was a good idea to vary up the intensity of the track until restoring it with totally different instrumentation at 2:05. The lead synth line from 1:40-1:52 shouldn't have been so quiet compared to the synth warbles, but it's more prominent at 1:54. Love the brief groove at 1:54-2:04 as well.
Shrill stuff at 2:05 and then particularly at 2:18 when the synths joined in, which hurt the final flourish section before the signoff with the car SFX.
The arrangement's creative and interpretive enough that I can get past the non-ideal mixing. Strong usage of these sounds, lots of textural variation, and fun, driving (no pun intended) intensity throughout. I do wish the mixing didn't make it a closer call than it needed to be though, but I'd prefer not to make the perfect the enemy of the good.
YES
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I immediately disliked how the drums were mixed here. The snap of the snare has no depth to it, plus it's mixed so much louder than the vocals and guitar, so the comparative volumes of these parts didn't make sense. I guess you're in the drummer's seat.
Aside from that, it's a strong arrangement with strong performances, a fun and instrumentally expansive journey!
YES
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I appreciated the source tune breakdown.
Agreed that the cello from 1:28-1:44 got pushed down too much. Other than that, loved the tradeoff of the themes throughout the arrangement. Awesome performances and textures. If you haven't nagged Gareth Coker and Bear McCreary to check this out yet, Daniel, what are you waiting for, an invitation?
YES
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What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.
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Despite being from 17 years ago, I'm sorry for the exclusively negative comments I gave you way back; quite the banner example of how not to give feedback; zircon's was so thorough that I'm confident I let his heavy lifting excuse my frustration at the level of arrangement interpretation not being there. Even for a cover, I'm sure there was something positive I should have highlighted to offer you encouragement, since it was a great source tune choice. I'm glad you didn't let my douchey feedback stop your musical journey.
Ever since being introduced to the soundtracks by Quinn Fox and djpretzel's arrangements, I'm always happy to hear OG-Phantasy Star stuff get treatment, so it's a cool creative focus, and unique relative to what others are doing in the scene. Though I've known PS4's intro theme since being a newcomer OCR fan, I've never heard "The Age of Fables" until now, so we'll see what we've got.
Right from the opening, the piano sample sticks out; there's some body to it, but it's so blocky and sounds very unrealistic. The synth handling the melody at :13 sounded extremely vanilla and defaulty. I disagreed with MW's assessment that the production quality was good; the samples, as they're currently used, aren't getting it done, and unfortunately make this less energetic and driving than the original song. On the plus side, the countermelody that was briefly there from :40-:54 had a very nice yet understated tone to it; very low-key but a strong part in terms of improving the texture.
At 1:06, the texture was filling out more, and I do realize that there's 7+ minutes on the clock, but the relatively empty texture isn't working. At 1:46, some defaulty-sounding warbling synths at least add some energy, even if the sound isn't sophisticated. The drum sampling and drum writing at 2:00 were very underwhelming; lots of volume, and certainly writing flourishes there, yet it still sounds extremely plodding and metronome-like because of the snare ("one-TWO-one-TWO"). Skip around almost anywhere from 2:00-6:14 and you'll see how long the beat pattern plods on; it needs a more interesting pattern as well as more variation in how it's presented.
Riding this out until about 3:15, the texture is still very simplistic and empty despite everything going on. Because the sequencing/timing feels so blocky and there's not adequate warmth to any sounds or some sort of padding to help glue it together, you hear every individual part firing off, but the overall flow and synnergy isn't there.
The brief transition writing to "The Age of Fables" three seconds before 3:46 felt like a bare mininum idea to stitch the two themes together. It'll sound like I'm saying you need to drastically overhaul the mood of the piece; the change in source tunes was a good opportunity to, for example, slow down the tempo, change the instrumentation, drop out the beats, or briefly change the genre. It could have served as more of a break in the established mood, which would then refresh it if you went back to it. Even with the lead-in to the "The Age of Fables", there could be allusions to that melody in the background while "The end of millennium" was still in the foreground. Right now, it's the same kind of vanilla synths, blocky piano, and plodding beats, but no meaningful change in the dynamics or textures, so there's no reset.
I'll quote MW again, because he said it very well: "You don't need to play an entire loop with one sound palette for the listener to get the idea, and that's especially so when the differences between two loops aren't massive, and you don't need to play through an entire loop verbatim every time. You have spans of several minutes where the drum loops or piano arps are unchanged, which causes a lot of listener fatigue."
4:48 finally began to interplay the two themes together; that could come much earlier. Very repetitive feeling to things, with a dropoff finally happening at 5:56; agreed with the others that these sections go on too long without evolving. 6:24 iced the main beats and started the final section for a big flourish, or so I would have thought. The ending at 7:04 wasn't bad, but it was relatively abrupt, including the final fadeout.
prophetik really dove into what's not clicking here and spoke to various way to handle it; I didn't read his vote before making mine, yet we're simpatico on what's not working here. I appreciate these source tunes, and the effort is there to expand them.
TL;DR - the sound design needs drastic improvement, the timing needs humanization, the core beat pattern shouldn't plod and coast, and the lack of dynamic contrast can't justify the indulgent track length. It would take lots of effort to revise this in a way where it could pass; you can do it, it would just take a lot of personal growth and an aggressive approach to soliticing critiques and improving the sound design (which doesn't require pricey software/gear).
Though I can't give you hyper-targeted, actionable advice (NOT a musician here), the OCR community is a wonderful place to run your ideas by people and get detailed feedback, which is often difficult to get from YouTube and even pro-audio communities. I'm glad you're in our Discord and joining the Game Set Mash!! compo, Sébastien. Stick around here and extract everything you can! Surrounding yourself with other experienced artists can help break you out of some habits and obtain valuable outside critique and recommendations on how to improve the cohesiveness and interest of your concepts. I'm looking forward to your next submission and hope you'll continue on with us.
NO
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The opening strings definitely strained for realism, but are OK. Small thing, but you hear a breath at :14 at the end of the flute. The piano from :16-:29 felt off-key with the bass the first time I heard it, even though it's repeated again at :36 and seems fine in the background; it's fine once I got used to it. Melody kicked in with brass at :36. The realism of the instrumentation's not great in some places (bowed strings, piano at 1:32) but are more than enough to get the job done. There was a banjo line in here too with good writing, but it was buried; a shame.
Felt like a cut-and-paste of :36's section at 2:28, but not a big deal overall with the level of interpretation, and 2:47 raised the energy for a big finish.
I can understand why MW had a problem with the mixing. It's not a dealbreaker to me, but it feels like it's clipping; very loud part with the flourishes at 2:14 and 2:48, among many, many other places. If we couldn't get another version, I'd lean toward keeping it, but I can 100% understand how this version as is could put someone off with the way this is mixed. The arrangement carries this beyond the mixing and sample realism issues for me. Proper mixing of this track without the shrillness would have made this an easy call. Very spirited interpretation the overcomes a few unfortunate drawbacks that had nothing to do with the writing.
YES (borderline)
EDIT (11/4): 2:14's still unpleasent, and 2:51-3:00's not great. Still, less shrill equals less borderline.
YES
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Hmm... certainly a good sound as far as the genre transformation...
At :12, there's almost a soft pop; same at :21 but softer, seemingly tied to way the whistling was recorded; not a big deal. My favorite sections from an arrangement perspective were 1:12-2:16 and 3:06-4:41; it's a fascinating transformation to the spaghetti Western style. The build-up from 3:14-3:24 was an epic transition.
3:24's section was shrill; not sure what part was doing that, but wasn't a pleasant sound. There were other areas where the highest frequencies felt potentially piercing, even with the whistling, but it's not significantly hampering the experience. Amazing concept by Brendan and crew!
YES
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Cool source tune choice, and I also liked the PSP arranged version. I hear the dated aspect of the sounds, and none of that would be a problem here given how cohesively they're used, so an arrangement in a similar vein of instrumentation realism (again, coupled with cohesive execution) would be fine, IMO. Back when Slightly Dark was a thing, this track may have been included in one of their winter/snow music compilations; there's certainly a touch of faint familiarity to it, at the very least.
Watch the end of the bow movements of the strings at :11 and :20, which was exposing the sample as too dry compared to the other parts. :39 felt dissonant, but it was brief. 1:12 was pretty clearly dissonant, and I'm definitely not understanding what's going on here as far as the energy and flow of the composition. 1:43 went for a more genteel sound, but dynamically, there wasn't huge intensity to 1:12's section before that, so the subtle contrast isn't effective, IMO. No idea what the line at 1:30's doing either; it doesn't have a bad tone, but there's no synnergy to what it's doing and how it fits into the rest of the texture.
Still quiet by 1:59's section; yeah, this approach is confusing, because it's been so quiet without enough dynamic contrast, then there's more dissonance/clashing from 2:17-2:36. 2:54-3:01's brief lead doubling was thin, exposed, and unfortunately felt like a flea playing a violin; there's too much of quality disparity there with how inorganic it sounded compared to everything else.
Not gonna lie, when I heard the light tapping start up at 3:14, I busted out laughing; it's legitimately a great sound, no issue there, but as far as this composition goes, there's working within a narrower dynamic curve, and then there's staying too narrow. Is there no substantial contrast employed here? Is there no arc? The closest analog I can think of is something like Quinn Fox's "Orange October", which has more dynamics: https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00796. OK, the taps drop out at 3:41, and there's a quiet reprise of the theme. And then more dissonance around 4:04 with the glassy lead for the finish.
Like prophetik, I didn't get much melodic material from the original at all in this either. There's genuinely interesting sound design potential, Sean, and I actually wasn't bothered by the panning, but if sections of writing aren't in the same key without you realizing it, it's unfortunately a non-starter. These soft and subtle dynamics may click better when the writing's all in the same key, so if that can be done, I'd be down to hear another version.
NO
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Always love the pointilist melodic style used in the opening, so I'm certainly ready to follow along. The way the piece brightened up with the SID-like line at 1:19-1:38 was awesome. Also love how vibrant these beats are until the dropoff at 1:38. VQ vocals hop in at 1:47 and added a brief break section before even more textural trickery capped off the finish. I didn't have any issue with how this was produced; good sounds, good grittiness in places that was totally intentional and added character, loads of great sound design that'll no doubt inspire others down the line. He's got enough polish to where this didn't feel like a WIP in any way; very cohesive realization of the vision with a very interpretive rendition of this theme. Fun to see Zack say this was a burnout track; him dropping his defenses and not overthinking the process led to a heightened, speedier state of creativity and productivity!
YES
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Opens up very slow. Looking forward to hearing how this develops, because this intro's got me intrigued. The vox timing seems a little off, but the mood is good. Drums enter in at :55, sounding pretty fake, but serviceable. 1:23 gets slowed down and dissonant, and I'm awaiting where the transition's going to go; Still slow at 1:54 and it felt like there could have been more a pivot there. 2:25 drops out the drums entirely in favor of an organ, and pushes the countermelody way up for a different feel. The organ line rises nicely over time to start become overbearing (in a good, contrasting way) by 2:47. The synth line drops out at 3:00 as things start getting more subtractive. At 3:36, the organ drops out, and we're left with the opening pattern until the finish.
It's a different approach that Onrik Dreamer's recent piece, which was groove-based, but the overarching strategy isn't too different, i.e. stick with the theme the whole time and provide variations through textural evolutions. If you focus on the melody or the countermelody's instrumentation, both of those change over time.
This totally would have flown in a huge way back in ye olden days, which isn't to say that it fails today's standards. Where's Children of the Monkey Machine when we need him on the panel?
It is a limited & repetitive source tune, sure, so I can understand how slowing it down and working with it in this way could be viewed as droning/boring or feel too repetitive. The arrangement value comes from these textures never staying in one place, even though you may think they are. To me, Justin does a nice job dropping lines in and out, and varying the textures to have a piece that just morphs around over time, never settling into any one mood for too long, while having a dark vibe throughout. Loop this some and you can appreciate the subtles ways the soundscape evolves on a greater level.
IMO, the other Js are underselling the positives of the arrangement; it's tough to get mileage out of this, and Draconiator's been completely short-changed so far. I also didn't feel the mixing/production did this concept a disservice; it's dark, ghostly, gloomy, and unsettling; it could absolutely fit in a next-gen Castlevania with a mood like this and morphing textures that aren't cut-and-paste loops. I may not be able to win the day here, and that's fine. To me, these NOs didn't step back to appreciate how transformative the theme treatment was, and undersold the low-key textural changes over time. We shouldn't be turning this down, and I think it's a shame to tell Justin it needs a major overhaul when it's a creative approach to begin with.
YES
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Brief arrangement, but a short and sweet treatment of a relatively brief theme; could be more, but doesn't need it. Lots of flute vamping loosely inspired by the source over the bass and simplified melody of the original. The piano was blocky, which fit the style fine, but sounded way too exposed during the fadeout, which made for a weak finish at 2:13. That said, very transformative treatment with enough subtle textural variations. Good bass presense, fun percussion, and a bouncy, jazzy take! Nice work, Alexis!
YES
*NO* Mega Man 2 "What's the Rush, Man!"
in Judges Decisions
Posted · Edited by prophetik music
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