Liontamer

Nobody does; it's poo that they don't. Cool find on the show though!

OHSNAP AHPPY BIRFDAY BROWN BR0! ... ... ... ... ... Sorry man, it... got a little heated back there.

I've heard loads of conservative covers with a lot less personalization than this. I don't think I'm just being a sucker for the performances being solid. I agreed with the crit about the soundscape being too thin at times, and it should have been fuller, but it wasn't a huge deal for me. The transitions here didn't bother me; everything there was pretty smooth instead of jarring. There are some notable personal embellishments of the themes, and a LOT of original supporting ideas involved in the interplay between the two guitars that are absolutely not in the original themes. Together with the sum total of the different instrumentation, tempo changes, new dynamics and overall different mood of the performance added up to more than an overly simplistic cover to me. This doesn't rely on melodic interpretation, but the other tennants of arrangement are there enough for me to be more than fine with this. In short, I disagree VERY strongly with these NOs. Rejecting this on arrangement grounds goes against our standards and is a huge mistake. YES

Copied from my review in the WIP area: There's a lot going for it, though I still think the Spring Man connections end up sounding tenuous because they're based more on rhythmic similarities instead of the actual melody. Justin seemed to be willing to give my structural suggestion a go (which doesn't factor into my vote either way), so I hope he keeps at it on this one. Cutting the fat on this would help significantly. NO (resub)

Because we already have over 1,000 avatars, and forum avatars will always be 498th on my mega big list of OCR & life priorities.

O ye of little faith. Besides, time only matter in the USA!

The SMW Overworld section had me worried a bit, as the arrangement was obviously cool, just very cover-ish, even for a pure mallet percussion adaptation. Luckily after the transition to the SMB3/SMB Water combination, the arrangement had some more interpretation. It's conservative, but the arrangement was definitely personalized and expressive. The transitions were a little jumpy, but nothing was awkward, and the overall flow was fine. Big props to David and crew for an extremely fun mix! YES

MP3 tagging/encoding programs from ye olden days were just weird. There's not really any involved explanation other than some programs added weird metadata, and that'll be taken care of in the new torrents. Someone who's familiar with the quirks of programs used in 2000-2003 might know the actual answer.

Compared to the first version, the new lead at :45 has a less default-type sound, but the way the note changes slur so heavily undermines the melody. At 1:17, this could stand some sort of switchup for the lead sound in order to keep things fresh. Or keep 1:17 the same and change the :45 lead. I'm gonna keep saying it until something else comes along, but that same main lead going for pretty much all the 4+ minutes got old. It's old. Get away from it. Maybe alternate between some more like what you had in v1, only somewhat more more expressive. At least then you could have some actual sonic variation with these leads. The new stuff added at 2:01 compared to the last version doesn't work. The orch stabs were super tacky and didn't have any synergy with your other sounds. IMO, I don't think they work at all, but if you really must have them in there, experiment with pushing them a lot more in the background rather than upfront, to accent the more important foreground writing. The structure (basically A-B-A-B-C- was still pretty repetitive without creative enough dynamic contrast, so I have the same criticism as last time. It just seems like after 2:01, you have the exact same textures, the exact same lead, the exact same groove, exact same arrangement of the source material being repeated wholesale. But now there's needless orch stabs, lead doubling and tons of grace notes being added to create differences for the sake of verse 2 not being exactly the same, yet it doesn't have any flow. IMO, this just overcomplicated things without actually improving it, and it's something a lot of developing artists are guilty of when they feel locked into a certain structure. Not feeling the key change at 3:33 either, and the chorus at 3:48 basically gets the same crits as 2:01 (just added notes & effects over basically the same groove, same instruments, same arrangement ideas being repeated a third time.) I still really like the core ideas here, so I hate to come out and seem like "EVERYTHING IS WRONG" when this base sounds pretty cool. I love the bassline, and the opening 45 seconds sounds cool as hell. I love the crystalline countermelody at 1:15 as I've said before and the bubbly support notes (e.g. most audible at 3:48). I like the arrangement ideas, they just end up sounding too repetitive in the long run because it's the same sounds, tempo, beats, writing with little real evolution past 2:01. Structurally, you could probably just go buildup-A-B-C-B-wind down and cut some of the fat out of this instead of letting it drag for the 5 minutes. But you need more variation with your lead sounds and the core groove. Instead of slapping new coats of paint on the same ol' leads and melody via effects, doubling and grace notes, change the actual lead itself and think of other new melodic variations or integrate other areas of the source. If it's just too frustrating and the constant tinkering makes you feel like this track is getting away from what you want it to be, Justin, then forget about working on it further. But if you think you can actually develop this more, then move away from this v3 and start back at square two. I think you can, otherwise I wouldn't have spent half an hour of my limited time to listen to this. I still like the potential here.

OK, I'm seeing Scuba Divers mentions and whatnot. WHO IS MAN ENOUGH TO MAKE THE FIRST OC REMIX OF THIS, SO WE CAN POST IT SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON? P.S. This theme is hilariously incredible, I don't care what anyone says!

Pre-order: http://www.eminenceonline.com/store/soulcaliburv.html It's got a pretty awesome lineup of composers through Creative Intelligence Arts (that I, in no way, shape, or form, had any hand in ) If you caught me Easter egg'ed in Kotaku's Booth Babes of Tokyo Game Show piece, that's because I was promoting this upcoming soundtrack. For you OCR folks, the soundtrack's got both Andy and Jill on there with some epic music, and it's got friends of OCR Hiroki Kikuta, Hiroaki Yura and 18-year-old (way too good at muzak) Tomoki Miyoshi in there, live performance from the Eminence Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Choir, and tons of other awesome composers. Hit the pre-order page to lock in for the album now. PayPal will automatically handle the conversion to Yen, so if you have the dollas to pop for an international soundtrack, definitely get it! The deluxe package is going to be pretty sweet!

That was brutal/awesome.

The time for that has come and gone. Make a 15.

This joint is FONKY! [sic]

The source material sounded pretty sterile (not that I hated the original track), but Sam really added a lot of energy and grooviness to it. Gray wasn't a fan of the production as much, and some of the samples could sound richer, but I thought ultimately it was fine, and Sam really knows what he's doing when putting together his arrangements.

Loved this one back when it originally came out. Not many pieces like it on OCR that have this 1920's/Gershwin style. An excellent interpretation and criminally overlooked just because of the game. Nixdorux is never one to skip.

Surprised I never commented on this. The quality's only a little bit dated in the big scheme of things, but this was still a beautiful piece that I'd love to hear performed on a live piano. Great haunting stuff from Matt that had subtle, but excellent dynamics and showed off his range when viewed alongside his other mixes. A old favorite of mine.

Nah, it was just too long at 18 lines. If I could have combined more, I would have!

Indeed, a really fantastic mix here. What the samples lack in realism (not that they were horrible, you just can tell they're not live players), this arrangement makes up for with brilliant interpretation and dynamics. If you wanted to hear an orchestra perform this theme live in concert, this would be a wonderful arrangement to work from. Nice work, Steven!

Oooooh, drama, where do I sign up! I talked with Dan about this one way back at Nerdapalooza, so my bad for not voting on this earlier. I was talking to djp about it and he agreed that the commentary here was slim and deserved more, so our fault about that. That said, this whole song is purposefully presented as a travesty, both with the ideas and the execution, so I'm not sure how a NO (or a NO with short ROFLOL commentary) is a surprise, but let's look at it. Overall, I liked the arrangement ideas. That said, the sound of the execution is too weak, by design, for me to pass. The robo-vocals being mostly impossible to understand without the lyrics definitely took this down some as well. We can laugh about how it's probably better than you actually can't understand the lyrics, but the robo-voice effect just hits a weird (and crappy) middle ground where the lyrics sound like poorly attempted words and without going all the way toward Animal Crossing gibberish. So getting into it, whatever that first loud synth is at :08 is just brutal to listen to; it's done like that on purpose (durr), but it still sounds too loud/abrasive/default/amateur/ghettofabulous/poop. OA mentioned transitions being weak, but I didn't agree at all. 1:02 to the strings sounded swanky as hell. Dayum, didn't know you rolled like that; nice work there. 1:46 and 2:07 (announcing the changeup even) were perfectly fine as well. The 3:03 transition back to the Galaxy Man melody was fine. Not seeing many problems. 2:29 was the one (and only) jarring change. The transition was (purposefully) weak, but not a big deal in the big picture. That said, the vocals were definitely mixed into the music the worst for that section, coupled with more loudly mixed, over-the-top ugly, vanilla default synths. Meant to be horrible and pulling it off nicely, it just doesn't make for a something that actually sounds good. So the main issues for me: 1) The robo-vocals were too unintelligible, 2) the robo-vocals were also significantly cluttered by the synths for the 2:29-3:02 section, a decent chunk of the track, and most importantly 3) the purposefully jacked abrasive synths throughout most of this actually sucked so bad, it hurt the listenability too much. It's not sophisticated on purpose, but for here, at today's bar, it can't sound that jacked. A purposefully bad ROFLOL travesty track that wins at sounding terrible doesn't necessarily make it a win for here. Independent of whether it's hilarious or not, it still has to have reasonably sophisticated sounds and overall quality for the pass. No hate, but sorry, Dan. I still would spoon you like a brother or other bald-headed non-family member. NO

This game actually has some pretty good cuts on it! Checking out the original tracks makes you really appreciate the depth of the arrangement here. Awesome work, Justin!

Definitely a unique spin on a theme where only the best will do. Way to kill it, Jon! Great work putting this together!

OC ReMix Presents BadAss: Boss Themes Remix Album! December 6, 2011 Contact: press@ocremix.org FAIRFAX, VA... OverClocked ReMix today released its 30th arrangement album, BadAss: Boss Themes. The album, directed by OC ReMixers David "The Joker" Puga and Pieter "pu_freak" van Os, features 20 artists producing 18 boss theme arrangements from eighteen different games in a variety of dark, gritty, foreboding styles and genres. BadAss is available for free download at http://badass.ocremix.org. This album was made to show exactly how BadAss these antagonists are, and honor them with music befitting of their villainy. BadAss was made by fans, for fans, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the publishers or developers of the original games; all original compositions are copyright their respective owners. "The concept of an album made up entirely of boss themes conjured up a certain feeling; a certain state of mind. The album needed to encapsulate the idea of bosses by featuring dark, visceral, and aggressive tracks," said album director David Puga, whose efforts have resulted in fusions of rock, orchestral, piano, industrial, electronica, ambient, house, and metal in tribute to some of the baddest men, women, shadow organizations, and otherworldly creatures to ever wreak havoc in games. "We're unleashing hell on an unassuming populace! Can you feel it?! Can you hear it?! That’s the sound of ass-kickery of a magnitude previously unheard of!" Twenty artists collaborated on musical tributes to some of gaming's biggest evildoers, including: Sephiroth, Kefka, Jecht, Gilgamesh, and Ultimecia (Final Fantasy series) Vergil (Devil May Cry 3) Laughing Octopus (Metal Gear Solid 4) Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong '94) Luca Blight (Suikoden II) Nightmare (Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening) Dr. Wily (Mega Man 3) Dracula (Castlevania series) Astaroth (Shadow Hearts: Covenant) Cobra (G.I. Joe) Ridley (Super Metroid) Saren (Mass Effect) Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time) King Dedede (Kirby Super Star). Following the release of OCR's faceoff against The Bad Dudes in Heroes vs. Villains, BadAss is OC ReMix's second album angled toward video game villains, and the first completely focused on the dark side of gaming history. "We searched the planet for the most BadAss of artists to contribute," said assistant director Pieter van Os. "BadAss, as an album, is really something to be proud of. I think everyone with a taste for BadAss music will love the result of our effort!" About OverClocked ReMix Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form. Its primary focus is ocremix.org, a website featuring thousands of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans. ### Preview it: Download it: http://badass.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/BadAss_-_Boss_Themes.torrent Comments/Reviews: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=37891

Preview it: http://www.youtube.com/embed/HjV0fIXFtgI Download it: http://badass.ocremix.org/ Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/BadAss_-_Boss_Themes.torrent BadAss. Hardcore. Ass-Kickery, if you're dirty. These are the words I used when I officially announced BadAss back in March of 2009. The origins of BadAss begin a few years earlier. It was 2006, and a guy named Pi_R_[]ed decided he wanted to make a project that was nothing but boss themes. Kanjika joined up as the co-director and they made a good push with it. I eventually joined up, as did pu_freak. This incarnation was called Crescendo to Chaos, and while it was a great concept, it still felt like something was lacking. I always felt that it needed to be harder, grittier, and simply more evil than it was, you dig? The concept of an album made up entirely of boss themes conjured up a certain feeling; a certain state of mind, and this wasn't delivering it. Crescendo to Chaos eventually went defunct. Where many saw a loss, I saw a glimmer of awesomeness. With the encouragement of Kyle Crouse and the support of my assistant director, pu_freak, I re-launched the project with new guidelines: "Everything must be BadAss! Can you hear me, damn you?" The album needed to encapsulate the idea of bosses by featuring dark, visceral, and aggressive tracks. The name was changed to BadAss for obvious reasons, and here we are today. I'd be remiss not to thank KyleJCrb, evktalo, and everyone else at the KNGI Boards for all their contributions, so thank you guys! To every artist, ReMixer and graphic artist alike, I salute you! You all indeed are BadAsses. We're unleashing hell on an unassuming populace! Can you feel it?! Can you hear it?! That?s the sound of ass-kickery of a magnitude previously unheard of. We're not just gonna win, we're gonna change the game! We are BadAss. Hope you enjoy the ride! -The Joker

Time for a new thread for Volume 2!