Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

This track was made to replace the original one as background music on a fan-remake of the game. This fan-remake have changed orientation and the track being a remix was no longer needed (I have made an original track in replacement). The goal of the remix was to extend the original track to make it less repetitive in game and to make it more dense and layered (more heavy and modern/orchestral in a sense), while keeping the overall sadness and tone. The mix was not tested in game, therefore the track can't really be put in a game like this as some elements/part would likely be too loud/present for gameplay. Games & Sources This is an extended remix of the Old Prague Hub in Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. The original track was composed by Kevin Manthei.

Cheers to Zack for another strong mastering effort. I was a solid NO last time, so let's see where the snow falls this time. The extended intro remains solid, and on the arrangement side, I'm basically on board. I like the texture overall at 1:41 when the source melody kicks in and I like the delayed sting writing working together with the wind lead. There's still areas where there's non-melodious/off-key writing that's impacting this. At 2:16-2:37 the pizz string writing off-key; if that were the only area, it's subtle enough that I'd let it go. The strings at 2:47 were too loud and dry, which exposed the sample, and the texture was too muddy; the strings didn't need to come in that loud and bury the supporting elements, like the mallet percussion, which practically inaudible, and then there's drum hits that still sound like they have popping/distorting going on. Still much too muddy. At 2:53, there's brass support underneath that all sounds like indistinct mud; zero clarity, so you have to be paying attention for that part to even really register until it gets even louder (and muddier) at 3:24. The piano transition's at 3:50's nice, but then we have that keyboard stuff at 3:54 and that sounds off-key as well, plus the tone of the part doesn't fit well, IMO, due to how stilted the timing felt (a problem all the way until 4:34). At 4:10, this is another section where there's loads of mud and it makes it very difficult to parse what's going on. The plucked dulcimer/harp-type stuff, whatever that was until 4:34, is buried. The booming bassline and vox padding are too muddy until 4:34 as well. At 4:26, I still dislike the lead due to how stilted it sounds. And then again with the stiff-sounding lead from 4:38-4:46; like 2:16, this writing was also more meandering and non-melodious but in a subtle enough way that I can look past it. Same issue with the music box stuff from 4:52-5:11; again, not egregiously wrong notes, and the tone's actually very good for that instrument, but the writing's meandering rather than melodic so it doesn't lead the listener in a direction. Good mixing/clarity for that closing section though, and solid sound designed for everything else. To summarize: * The arrangement aspect remains a pass. Now, most of the production/mixing sounds solid. * 2:53-3:47 needs less mud/clutter. Let the texture have more breathing room. * Pull back the string volume at 2:47. * The non-melodious writing needs tweaks. On the whole though, the structure and dynamics of the writing here are solid. * Some of the leads sound stiff to me, which may be a personal taste thing. Definitely a marked improvement in terms of mixing/decluttering things, so this resub's well in the right direction. Even if you need some time away from this for perspective, this one's getting closer and closer. No need to be discouraged; I think this has a place waiting for it, but some further refinements are needed to tip it over. NO (resubmit)

Not a fan of how lossy & crunchy the mixing feels; why so muddy? Nice textural shift at 1:08. Yeah, I just don't get the mixing, but I'm stubborn as a moose there; it sounds like someone had a boombox and then recorded the playback from that speaker. :-D Not that it would excuse it for me, but "Mooserun" doesn't sound like this either, so /shrug. No question the arrangement's strong, which is the Mazedude way. The arrangement's strong, so it's a squeaker for me. YES (borderline)

Original Decision This is essentially a resubmit of a track I created 10 years ago and subbed back in 2015: https://ocremix.org/community/topic/42221-no-aleste-2-msx-flying-high/. Not sure if it's the slowest resubmit in the history of OCR, but it's probably in the top 10 somewhere :) Anyway, back then I used a primitive sample library for some vocals, which was the main thing that the judges commented on. Fast forward 10 years, and technology (and hopefully my skills as a remixer) have progressed a lot, and I was able to replace the so-so vocals from back then with Synthesizer V vocals. The lyrics are still cheesy and limited/affected by what I could make work in the previous version, but I like it that way. Apart from new vocals, I also recorded a bit of guitar, polished up the lead parts, sprinkled some effects and subtle extra parts in there, cleaned up the mix and overall brought it the track into 2024. When comparing, the old version sounds a bit boring and limited and also rather woolly in the midrange. So hopefully this one fares better in the panel. At least now I'm finally able to cross this off my todo list and can continue with properly finishing and submitting another 10 year old track idea ;) link to the previous version: Games & Sources Aleste 2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleste_2), source is the first level music:

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

I’m always attempting to give my best description of what I’m hearing, and hope it can provide some degree of worthwhile insight, but since Chimpa’s a mastering engineer and I’m not even a musician, I’ll almost always defer to her as far as articulating what’s potentially going on with a track. :-)

Cool lo-fi adaptation of the source tune; sounds lovely to start. Good textural escalation at :27. I dug the lil' rhythmic plucked string-style accents brought in at :40; those were a subtle element, but a sophisticated touch to add some swing and depth to the texture. From 1:07-2:02, whatever got added in was adding lots of murk and mud, which made this less enjoyable. I listened to a control track just to be sure it wasn't me (djp's Revenge of Shinobi "Consent (Make Me Dance)", for reference). IMO, I don't see what making things so murky does to make the track an optimal listen. Even at :40, there's a relative indistinctness/mud to the texture that's obscuring the part-writing (e.g. the cool percussive rhythms from 1:36-2:02 are pushed down too much, and the rain SFX -- which was more audible/discernible in the intro -- turns more into a dull crackling, like an egg on a frying pan). Loved the gentle outro, including the clanging metal SFX and the effects on the lead; the sound design's excellent. The arrangement's lovely & rock solid, and I like the track, yet I'm a stickler on this mixing, especially with the track being so brief. I just rejected another track for similar reasons, and had to bust out a control to ensure I wasn't wigging out here. I'd still love this on the site, but if we somehow couldn't get another version, I'd regrettably say NO (resubmit) as is. As much as Wes hates my old man ears -- and I'm well aware I can't get infinite passes on that -- it needs another mixing pass, IMO. EDIT (6/20): New version sounds better! It's still murky from 1:07-2:02, so I'm still old-man-ears about it, but it's notably less (accidentally overdriven), rumbly, and muffled across the board, so count me in. :-) YES

IMO, this is still lossy-sounding and lacks proper high-end sharpness/clarity. The fuzziness from 2:41 was intentional, yet still felt like soft, unwanted distortion that was cluttering up the soundscape. Wasn't a fan of the piano handling the OoT Title melody at 2:06, mainly because it sounded so close to the original music, it felt like it was sampling the original audio. Compositionally, by around 2:50, things were plodding and I was waiting for something else to develop. On the whole, the arrangement is on solid ground despite the meandering, but I'm not on board yet with this mixing. It'll come across as me disliking Everybody Man's track -- IMO, it's too boomy in the lows and the whole thing is too murky and indistinct, particularly from 2:24-on, enough so where I'm unfortunately going NO (resubmit) for the time being. If this makes it as is, I can understand that, however, I feel the production side merits one more pass.

I like the subtle lil' swirl effect on the opening sound; nice and engaging opening playing with the rhythm of the source and with some very cool sound design. The imagery feels like a scientific/technological experiment going on that has a lot of futurist potential. 3 minutes in, the rhythm keep going as it did from the start, yet it doesn't plod at all, then the textures started to get subtractive and wind down starting at 3:08. Contemplative as advertised, I love the mood this sets! :-) YES

Feels like a throwback right from the get-go; sounds straight out of a mid-90s PC game where you're stopping by a village. :-) I'll sound glib as if I didn't enjoy the track or feel it's not worth a "full" vote. proph summarized this well. There's too much repetition, and the arrangement -- while going in the right direction of transformation -- was too repetitive in a cut-and-paste feeling way. The sampled guitar tone was decent albeit obviously not humanized, and the timing was too rigid. It's too tough to really get beyond the issues adding up when taking into account the arrangement not feeling fully developed & evolving relative to what we're presently looking for. Great base here though, Justin, and I like the way this is a more intimate and stripped down texture; would love to hear another pass at this to further vary up the arrangement as well as humanize the timing. NO (resubmit)

Which game is this primarily arranging, Metroid Prime? Would y'all mind timestamping this so we can highlight the way things trade off between the themes? Thought I voted on this. Pretty epic! YES

Original writing at :03 was SO LOUD over the top of the Pictionary base, it pretty much drowned it out until :17. :'-( I can tell at this point that I'm not going to be enjoying the mixing due to the levels feeling too LOUD. It'll sound like I'm saying the production was jacked or below the bar; IMO, the leads are OK, but feel too dry and loud. There's probably a way to give the texture a warmer, more cohesive sound to it that I'm just not knowledgeable enough to convey, but hopefully a musician J can. Arrangement-wise, this is awesome and that carries it. :-) YES

The bass was too buzzy, and 1:59-on was too flooded for my tastes, so you all stink for that! Other than that, I get where you were going, arrangement-wise. :-) Dunno why the end faded out so fast, but it was too quick, so consider fixing it to let that final moment continue to fade down for a few more seconds. YES

Rancho Relaxo over here! Zack & Seph's guitar performances sounded extra classy. Are y'all trying to melt up the ladies? :-) YES

Opens up with some very fakey piano, but the tone has some character. Wind lead at :17 has exposed attacks, though those also had character. Beats at :31 felt kind of hollow and the panning being so wide was questionable on headphones; I wouldn't mind it as much if things ended up being recentered after a brief instance of very wide panning, but since that never happened, that's a problem, IMO. At 1:34, the chorus line on those airy belltones was too loud relative to everything else; it sounded piercing. From 2:01-on, things were again too loud and piercing. I did like the sound design in a vacuum, but the track's too shrill and abrasive, particularly in the right ear. The countermelody added in on guitar from 3:07-3:20 felt like too little too late in terms of differentiating the melodic presentation. It'll sound like I'm saying this wasn't creative or well in the right direction. Right now, despite good, gradual escalation in the textures -- arrangement-wise, the melody was on auto-pilot, so the track still plods as a result; consider introducing other variations of the source melody, even if it's just varying the instrumentation rather than the writing. as everyone else has said, great potential here, Hitrison! I hope you're willing to see what more you can do with this and will consider resubmitting it. :-) NO (resubmit)

Whoa, I'm lovin' it! Aaron's layered vocals sound awesome, and I love how comfortably the lyrics fit with the melody, something that can be easily taken for granted until you hear someone perform vocals too rigidly in time with a source melody. The instrumentation was lush, and the textures built up nicely in the first minute. Man, y'all even made a key change sound seamless and non-disappointing (hey, I can be a key change hater). The end at 3:34 wound down too quickly, so I dunno if it could be touched up to let things resonate and breathe, otherwise, this was perfect. Y'all should seriously consider doing a Touhou EP and selling it at Comiket; this would go over extremely well there, this is so cool! :-) YES

Oh snap, jungle! Definitely never would have expected this genre from either of you, which is a kick and half given how long we've all been working together. :-D I've got a soft spot for this genre because of Liquid Neon's old ReMixes; it's wonderful hearing this genre executed with an unprecedented level of sheen around here. This source tune was perfect for it! P.S. "It's pronounced 'Bouquet'!" :-) YES

The mixing wasn't as sharp as I'd have liked, but it wasn't a huge deal to me. Great comping & vamping throughout, and Joe on beatbox was a great touch. Let these guys cook all day! YES

Artist Name: Zach Chapman Contributing artists: Me - arrangement, mixing, mastering, bass - https://www.youtube.com/@zach-esque TheManPF - guitars - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0ze45nN-uvYhBoeI96gZgg NewmaJoe - saxophone, vocals, lyrics, beatboxing, bonga, tambourine - https://joenewman.bandcamp.com/ Ian Martyn - keyboard - https://linktr.ee/IanMartyn Ronin Op F - percussion - https://linktr.ee/roninopf Lyrics: It's the real Deal We keep it on the DL We got slick flowin' and the fit funk feel You courting controversy, I'm the in-house polemicist My drive's more mega than an overclocked Genesis How do I do it? Is it born or bred? I could check the DNA but I'm a lousy geneticist But either way, yea, it must be said Yo, my rhymes is so funky I gotta call a hygenicist It's just the emphasis I place with such an eloquence My excellent intelligence demands no further evidence But if I sense the listener has got incredulous I got a chorus, let me introduce the elements You just don't know what we're doin' We locked in the rhythm, the rhythm is just groovin' You just can't hear what we're sayin', uh But you gettin' what we're playin' at I got a chorus, let me introduce the elements You just don't know what we're doin' We locked in the rhythm, the rhythm is just groovin' You just can't hear what we're sayin', uh But you gettin' what we're playin' at Just don't know what we're doin' We locked in the rhythm, the rhythm is just groovin' You just can't hear what we're sayin', uh But you gettin' what we're playin' at Games & Sources Game: ToeJam & Earl Track: Big Earl Bump, by John Baker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqhG2cbX6eM

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

Artist Name: TheManPF This is more of a recent one, Dwelling of Duels was doing their Sega Genesis/Mega Drive month and I was in the mood for doing something very high energy, poppy and happy, mainly because I was listening to Babymetal. After looking through several soundtracks (I never played a Genesis game, surprise surprise) I found the soundtrack of the original Puyo Puyo for the Mega Drive, and boy does it fit exactly what I wanted to make. This ended up being quite EDM-ish, Trance-ish, Eurobeat-ish-ish? I don't know, I'm not familiar with electronic music subgenres, but I was mostly chasing the sound of Babymetal's "Iine!" (which literally translates to So Good! in japanese), so naturally I also add a lot of electric guitars, and tried to have a pulsing sidechained beat with the rhythm guitars for a great groovy effect. I can't sing kawaii vocals though, so instead I settled on something more akin to Eiffel 65, live but heavily processed, to add more to the electric feeling. For this I constantly change between different sections of both Brave and Final, purposefully ordered in a way that makes sense as a pop structure. I wrote original lyrics for it that would hopefully present the same cheesy feelgood-y vibe that Iine! has, and I also played the original guitar solo from Final note for note (and yes it took a lot of work to learn). This is also a solo project, and while it placed 11th in DoD, I was pretty happy with it. Lyrics: Let's go! Puyo, let's have a good time Faster that you can say [Puyo Puyo SFX] Neon lights flash, earth-shattering sounds Amplify how we feel, so Let's go! Puyo, let's have a good time Faster that you can say [Puyo Puyo SFX] Quick reflexes, colors jump all 'round Electrify and we feel so right The sight, the taste, the touch, the smell Overflowing Pleasure, adrenaline, delight Overloading My mind warping reality Psychedelic Let go your cares away (So good, so good) So good I party till the morning So good I feel over the moon So good I have my woes behind me Scream my heart out I feel so good Let's go! Puyo, let's have a good time Faster that you can say [Puyo Puyo SFX] Rapid movements, rainbow reflections Magnify how we feel, so Let's go! Puyo, let's have a good time Faster that you can say [Puyo Puyo SFX] Pulsing heartbeat, fire in our eyes Purify and we feel so great The sight, the taste, the touch, the smell Overlapping Pleasure, adrenaline, delight Overtaking My mind warping reality Psychedelic Let go your cares away (So good, so good) So good I party till the morning So good I feel over the moon So good I have my woes behind me Scream my heart out I feel so nice So good I party till the morning So good I feel over the moon So good I have my woes behind me Scream my heart out I feel so good I feel so good Edited yesterday at 01:12 PM by TheManPF Games & Sources Game: Puyo Puyo (Sega Mega Drive) Songs arranged: Brave (https://youtu.be/06tH5Qosjrc); Final (https://youtu.be/8oaDWL-1W20) Original composer: Masanobu Tsukamoto; Akiyoshi Nagao System: Sega Mega Drive mostly but also a shit ton more Year: 1992

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Quick co-sign on the excellent atmosphere here. The piano tone has realism issues, but nothing major. Very cohesive sound for something that was a very start-and-stop process! My man tinkers too much after submitting. :-P YES