Liontamer

Soundscape sounds lossy, and I don't like the buzziness starting at :46 from one of the lines that's brought in. The core beat that takes over at 1:01 & 3:04 was boring to me, but it only lasted a few measures each time, so I'll move on. The synths do have that old school Euro flavor to them, so if you told me this was featured on Remix.Kwed.Org back in the day, I'd take it at face value. Just picking nits here; the overall interpretation and mixing both are solid, so there's no reason to hold it back. YES

Agreed with prophetik that there could have been other moments of dynamic contrast here with either a break from the vocals or more textural changes, though the shifts from sung vocals to spoken do provide contrast. To me, the flow's jaunty, the arrangement's still transformative enough, and the vocal performance is solid, along with the production and mixing. Nice to have bass writing with some presense as well; it was more just boomy without much attack, but it still helps fill out the soundfield well, so I'm OK with it. Disappointed that there was no real ending; just fashioning a more definitive conclusion with a few more seconds -- for example, with the mallet percussion -- would have capped this well. Nice team-up by Colorado & Sébastien! YES

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Main ReMixer name: TheManPF (User ID: 35318) Additional artists: evilsonic; Ronin Op F; Zach Chapman; Ian Martyn; Newmajoe Submission: Game: Cuphead Name of arrangement: Rib Eye Rodeo Songs arranged: High-Noon Hoopla (https://youtu.be/w3ReqY8-QQU) Original composer: Kristofer Maddigan System: Windows; Xbox One; MacOS; Nintendo Switch; Playstation 4 Year: 2017 Comments: Hell yeah we're doing Cuphead AGAIN, this time from the DLC, and the track I meant in my last submission as my actual favorite from the whole soundtrack. This arrangement was done as part of the Wild West month in Dwelling of Duels in June 2023, and got 1st place out of 25 tracks (my first gold!!). The arrangement itself is very faithful, High-Noon Hoopla is already a very high-energy country song with lots of noodling, so I got a bunch of my buddies on board to rock hard on all of our instruments and bring the energy of the source up to 11. This one is more country rock, with a few changes in instrumentation (sax, melodica, distorted guitars, acoustic guitars) and a bunch of new solos and slightly different structure. Really, it's more of an excuse to get a bunch of very talented people to do what they do best. Here in the team is evilsonic, who actually took a load off my shoulders and was in charge of the mix this time, he also played all of the acoustic guitar AND a slide guitar solo. Ronin Op F did all of the insane violin playing in this track, seriously, it might be the hardest violin line he has ever played. He also of course improvised his own violin solo. Zach Chapman played all of the bass, as he always does in my tracks. Ian Martyn played piano, including, of course, a piano solo, as well as providing some YODELING that you hear in the intro and middle of the track. Newmajoe added a bunch of stuff including sax solos, melodica embellishments, and extra vocal flairs. I did the usual, arrangement, electric guitars, sequencing, no mixing this time, but I like to think of this one as a very group-focused effort, we like to call this group "Insane Cup Posse".

ReMixer name: Zach Action Real name: Zach Herrmann Email: UserID: 30456 Game: Chrono Trigger Name: "Strain On You Insane Diamond" Source: Strains of Insanity / Confusing Melody I know everything there is to know about FFVI (within reason) and was always hesitant to even start Chrono Trigger out of fear and anxiety of knowing NOTHING about it. In the last couple of years, I did indeed pick it up (only to never finish it) and I remember being immediately struck by this odd song in Magus' castle. I attempted a Nine Inch Nails-ish remix of it, in the style of Reznor's more ambient instrumentals, but it was incredibly boring. After all, the source music is about as short and vanilla as you can get: a constant Bb bass drone (duplicated in a high register as well), alternating diads of C#/Ab and Eb/Bb, and the occasional "laugh." I don't really remember what took this remix in the Pink Floyd "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" direction, but, if nothing else, what perfect titles to blend together! This remix is basically blending the constraints and basics of "Strains of Insanity" with a condensed reinterpretation of Parts I-III of the Pink Floyd song. There are just a couple of times in the middle section where the chord changes to Eb for change and effect. Otherwise, the song lives on the Bb root note and the alternating diads, with the occasional guitar "laugh" (I'm really pleased with how the laugh sounds in the third section). There are no real melody or theory connections to the Pink Floyd song; only the instrumentation and the overall SOUND. I suppose this submission may lead to some interesting discussions on source usage due to its addition of different melodies, but the source material has NO melody to speak of, and this remix retains all of the structure, chords, and mood of the original. I look forward to the judges' responses! (and to the eventual posting of my approved FFVI track!)

Link link to song (wav) Contact Information Your ReMixer name(s): colorado weeks, Aeroprism Your real name(s): Colorado Orpilla-Weeks, Sébastien Your email address(es): hello@coloradoweeks.io, aeroprism@gmail.com Your website(s): coloradoweeks.io (colorado weeks), nekoprism.com (Aeroprism) Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: 37659 (colorado weeks), 35780 (Aeroprism) Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy IX Name of arrangement: Salut Voisin! Name of individual song(s) arranged: Welcome to Our Town (Final Fantasy IV) and Not Alone (Final Fantasy IX) Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site) Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPrel8i7RV8 (Welcome to Our Town) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ob36mdEV_w (Not Alone) Comments: Salut, mes voisins! This was our entry for the final round of Game Set Mash 1. This piece was a mashup of "Welcome to Our Town" from FFIV and "Not Alone" from FFIX. Because one of the sources was a town theme, we decided to pay tribute to Fred Rogers' and Johnny Costa's work on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Prior to the beginning of the round, colorado initially had their heart set on writing a "joke" track. As the round and the song continued to progress we found that what we had written went in a completely different (sincere) direction. colorado weeks did the arrangement, and Aeroprism performed the vocals. The lyrics were initially written in English by colorado, but Aeroprism graciously translated them into French for some chansonnier flair. We hope you enjoy! Lyrics (French with Aeroprism's English Translation): Verse 1: Salut voisin, comment vas-tu? Ça fait si longtemps qu’on s’est croisés Ton visage me manque depuis un moment Je me demande où sont passées, toutes ces années Hello neighbor. How are you? It’s been so long since we passed each other I missed your face for a while now I wonder where all those years have gone Verse 2: Salut voisin, comment vas-tu? Étais-tu parti à l’aventure? On dirait que maintenant, tu es si fort, Racontes-moi ce qui te donne si fière allure Hello neighbor, how are you? Were you gone on an adventure? It looks like you’re so strong now Tell me what gives you such a proud look Pre-chorus: Même si on ne s’est pas si souvent vus Tu n’en resteras pas moins un ami très cher Even if we didn’t meet very often You’ll nonetheless remain a dear friend Chorus: Peu importe où tu vas Peu importe le chemin que tu suivras Ici sera toujours chez toi Voisin je suis avec toi Oui, voisin je suis avec toi No matter where you go No matter what path you follow This will always be your home Neighbor, I am with you Yes, neighbor I am with you Verse 3: Salut voisin comment vas-tu? Je sais que les voyages peuvent être durs Tu peux te reposer un moment Il ne faut pas repartir si tu n’es pas sûr. Hello neighbor, how are you? I know that journeys can be hard You can rest for a while You should not leave if you’re not ready. Pre-chorus: Même s’il y a la guerre ou le mauvais temps Mon ami pour toi j’aurai toujours un moment Even if there’s war or just bad weather My friend for you I will always have a moment Interlude (Spoken): Grâce à toi, chaque jour est unique, enrichi de ta présence Il n’y a qu’une personne au monde exactement comme toi, et c’est toi! Et les gens peuvent t’aimer simplement comme tu es Je suis toujours content de te voir voisin, à bientôt. Because of you, each day is unique, enriched by your presence There’s only one person in the world exactly like you, and that’s you! and people can like you simply the way you are. I’m always happy to see you neighbor, see you soon! Pre-chorus: Maintenant tu dois continuer ton voyage Je serai toujours ici pour toi, mon ami Now you must continue your travels I will always be right here for you, my friend Chorus: Peu importe où tu vas Peu importe le chemin que tu suivras Ici sera toujours chez toi Voisin je suis avec toi Oui, voisin je suis avec toi No matter where you go No matter what path you follow This will always be your home Neighbor, I am with you Yes, neighbor I am with you Last Chorus: C’est le moment de ton départ Je suis si fier de te voir grandir À ta prochaine visite viens me voir Cher voisin je suis avec toi Oui, voisin je suis avec toi It is time for you to leave I am so proud to see you grow On your next visit come see me Dear neighbor I am with you Yes, neighbor I am with you

Download link: Contact Information ReMixer name: T.O. Bassett Real name: Teo Bassett E-mail address: Website: https://www.youtube.com/@TOBassett Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Undertale Name of arrangement: Moving Out Name of individual song(s) arranged: Heartache, Fallen Down Link to the original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xflkF-sqNaM Your own comments about the mix: This is part of a full orchestral/progressive rock reimagining of the Undertale soundtrack that I wrote over the course of five years. It was going to be released by Materia Collective as part of the game's five-year anniversary, but the plans fell through due to Covid-19, so I ended up releasing it separately later. For Heartache, I wanted to take full advantage of the orchestra medium that I was focusing on to write something that sounds very powerful without introducing any extraneous instruments; the album is divided into suites encompassing the main areas of the game, and I wrote the suite focused on the Ruins to be focused on pure orchestra with some influences from anime and classic RPG games, to reflect how the game is still lulling the player into believing that they're playing a conventional RPG at this stage of the story, before varying the formula much more wildly later in the album, in the parts where the game really starts to make clear what it really is. Specific influences include Joe Hisaishi, Nobuo Uematsu, Marty O'Donnell, Shinji Miyazaki, Nightwish, and Tarja Turunen's album "The Shadow Self". The structure mostly follows the original composition, but I had specific artistic intent with each section. It opens with a tense buildup leading directly in from my arrangement of "Home", hinting at the main ostinato with the harp and string sections before revealing it in full with the bassoon. I shortened this part a bit for the version that I'm sending to you, as most of it only really makes sense if you're listening to it directly after Home. I kept the "fakeout" partial introduction of the main melody and subsequent second buildup from the original soundtrack, because I felt like it was a great reflection of both the human and Toriel being reluctant to fight before actually doing so. I had a lot of fun with the drums and percussion during the bridge at 1:37 (as well as the rest of the arrangement), and you can hear me playing around a lot with different types of legato articulations at the same point, because I was so happy to have a string library with those capabilities. The piano solo from 2:20 to 3:07 is actually the main melody and accompanying piano parts played in reverse (without actually reversing the audio), with some embellishments to give it a bit more structure and melodical sense. I did this to represent a pivotal point of the story and gameplay integration, if you excuse the spoiler: I've witnessed many players who hadn't yet figured out that they don't have to kill anything by the time that they fight Toriel end up killing her and feeling guilty about it, then reloading their save to try again without killing her. The game even acknowledges you doing this. So the reversed piano melody represents the player "going backwards" by reloading their save to fix their mistake. This is followed by a reprisal of the initial buildup, with more driving percussion to emphasis the feeling of determination to "do it right, this time". After this is the main melody only through the strings, mostly because I just loved how the strings sounded and wanted to give them a chance to show off on their own. Then follows the final chorus to end the fight, bringing the full orchestra back in. This is, finally, followed by a short excerpt of "Fallen Down", as plays in the scene directly after the pacifist end of the fight where Toriel hugs the human before leaving. I wanted to represent this scene to end out the entire suite, because it feels like an important moment of character development for Toriel, to me.

Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Bryan EL Your real name: Bryan EL Your email address: Your website(s): www.bryanel.com Your userid: 34748 Submission Information Link to remix: Name of game arranged: Sonic the Hedgehog Name of arrangement: Industrial Dystopia Name of song arranged: Scrap Brain Zone Original composer: Yuzo Koshiro (Game Gear / Master System) Link to the original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSUZZXGbipc&t This has always been one of my favorite game soundtracks from my youth. I tried to reimagine the original melody in a slower but more powerful trance genre while keeping the retro vibe of the sound.

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp https://www.youtube.com/@RebeccaETripp/videos ID: 48262 Game(s): Skyward Sword, Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, A Link Between Worlds, Oracle of Seasons, Minish Cap, Twilight Princess Song Title: Sun and Mist Songs Remixed: Faron Woods (SS), Lost Woods (LttP), Minish Woods (MC), Sacred Grove (TP), Lost Woods (OoT), Tarm Ruins (OoS), Lost Woods (ALBW), Forest Temple (OoT) Here's a link to the whole medley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh0I9rmeEyU Here's a link to the file: This Legend of Zelda forest medley is my gift to you all! It contains most of the forest and woods themes from the LoZ series. I had the help of three amazing performers in this arrangement, including Gamer of the Winds on flute and piccolo, Medlix on oboe, and Steven Higbee on ocarina. I highly recommend checking out their channels, as they've all produced many beautiful tracks! Here are links to their works: https://www.youtube.com/c/GameroftheWinds/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/Medllix/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/StevenHigbee/videos From YouTube: 6:44 Faron Woods (SS) 8:11 Lost Woods (LttP) 9:20 Minish Woods (MC) 9:54 Sacred Grove (TP) 10:10 Saria's Song (OoT) 10:54 Tarm Ruins (OoS) 12:00 Deeper into the Lost Woods (ALBW) 12:50 Forest Temple (OoT)

Your ReMixer name : Vylent (formerly Silent Ice) Your real name: Darryl Cummings Your email address: Your website(s): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfPwY-HjR-f-UV8cCZyG6qQ Your userid: 23989 Name of game(s) arranged - Street Fighter 6 Name of arrangement : Psycho Businessman Name of individual song(s) arranged : JP's Theme - The Plunderer Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. : (Capcom Sound Team for the album, Yoshiya Terayama for the track) (PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox Series X/S) Link to the original soundtrack (https://vgmdb.net/album/131185) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMZq8Ycgo6U Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, how the source material was referenced in the arrangement, etc. Capcom had been releasing character themes as part of their marketing up to the release of Street Fighter 6 and upon hearing JP's theme, I thought to challenge myself on producing an arrangement I was proud of in a day's time. Psycho Businessman is a short and admittedly simple rendition of some of the melodies heard in the original theme (with an emphasis around what is heard at the bass drop of the original) along with some of my own interpretations of the character's energy. I wanted to invoke the feel of a regal businessman who exudes video game Boss energy.

We're evaluating the English version, but all versions of the arrangement are included for reference. Would need a real title if approved. -LT Hi I'm Basic Bronze Sonic (real name: Nathan Armstrong), and I would like to submit my remix of Pangu Lagoon 1 from Freedom Planet (2014) Sorry if I do something wrong, this is my first time submitting a song onto OC ReMix Tracks: English - Instrumental - Spanish - Japanese - (If you want to keep it to one YouTube upload, upload the English version) Business email: Personal email: Name for arrangement: Pangu Lagoon 1 Remix Name of song remixed: Pangu Lagoon 1 Game of origin: Freedom Planet (2014) Original composers: Woofle, Strife, and Dawn Michelle Bennett My website: Forum: 38765-basic-bronze-sonic My YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@basicbronzesonic My personal comment on the remix: A remix (vocals and all) of one of the best songs to come out of Freedom Planet! (sequel game has way better music though) The vocals are easy and the songs an absolute bop, it's the one song that feels like it came from a game separate from Freedom Planet. (which I absolutely enjoy) Anyways hope you enjoy the remix of Pangu Lagoon 1

Sean Tartaglia SRW Alpha/OG1/OGs Timbre and Its Changes Time Diver Takuya Hanaoka (as a member of Salamander Factory) (He wrote the original Alpha version, which was arranged a few times after that, so to cover my bases I'm providing all three available versions) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7eWeCaKQ-0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUcPcSpTBFA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXrJgMGMOIo (The version that led me to write this arrangement was the GBA OG1 version, but I think they're all close enough to each other they might as well all be credited, since I tend to think of them all as the same track in the end.) ________ This one was a spur of the moment decision that I needed to just put out quick (I started on the 14th and finalized everything by the 19th, spending the rest of the time double checking the mix :p). I was dumping MIDI sequences from the GBA games and I was taken with a certain quality of the opening of the track that came off differently compared to the OGs and Alpha versions I'm more used to. Years ago I played the dreamcast version of Alpha (with the godforsaken loadtimes on EVERY SINGLE BATTLE ANIMATION) on original hardware, and I played OGs the moment I could emulate PS2 games (I wasn't modding a ps2 back then), so when I thought about all of the versions, I realized that I hadn't bothered playing the original GBA games for more than 15 years at this point. Not that they're bad, but the older handhelds are harder to sit through these days, especially so for OG1/2 after we recently just got the PS2 OGs ENG fan translation (which I'm replaying alongside the great translation we finally got for W). Because of this, I wanted to go back and see how they sequenced a lot of these tracks in the GBA comparison to the original versions of these tracks I knew well from the original versions, and I honestly really liked how this track was sequenced in the game. It was between this and Fallen White Angel, Excellen's theme, since both have earworm openings, but I had a very strong idea of what I wanted to do with Time Diver, whereas my initial thoughts with the other were a bit too close to the OGs arrangement. Basically, once something enters my head, it sticks with me until I exorcise it by making it happen. If that was too much already, when it comes to talking about what I write, I'm long winded, bear with me here. Part of this track's reason for existing is just conceit. I really wanted to start cutting my teeth with FM and FM adjacent synth, and this allowed for me a place to work with it; after all, why wouldn't a time dive sound like FM? Around the last few months I was listening to a lot of the FM VERTEX compilations, because one of my favorite vgm composers, Toshiya Yamanaka, contributed tracks (among others... Yack. is on there, of course, but Masahiro Kajihara's track, "Pathos," is incredibly good, as is Saori Kobayashi's "Golden Blvd. 1992" on vol. II), and it brought me back to that sound I always wanted to work with, but never had the synth knowledge to really do, especially since FM is a notoriously finicky method, with the standout music being associated with "specialist" composer-programmers (Ryu Umemoto, Tim Follin, etc.) It's not full FM, there's certain sounds I want that I can't quite get with either FM or subtractive synthesis alone—at least with my current skillset—which is where I use Xenfont's subtractive synthesis to combine some soundfonts made from FM synthesis and shape the sound to a certain thing I want, then layer it with FM patches for a final effect. Maybe it's more like an arcade game where I can make use of FM and PCM than something like the Genesis where I'm limited by memory. I used Xen-FMTS 2 and Xenfont for everything. Owing to their intended use for experimental and microtonal music, I get more complex and interesting timbres from these in comparison to other FM synthesizers through being able to alter tunings and having the option to emphasize certain partials over others. All the leads and chorus guitar are built from samples mixed via xenfont, which I treat like a poor man's D-50. For the leads I chose this method over FM because twisting soundfonts into new sounds via ring modulation deteriorates the signal quality, creating very interesting sounds comprised of wild transients and disintegrating waveforms. Layering two different types of sounds like this also leads to different registers having completely different timbral and tonal qualities; for example, a lead might have a thin, nasaly wasp tone around C5, but above C6 it might start to break up and produce unstable bell tones that have no sustain. When you layer two leads and the upper one has these properties, then all of these qualities cause it to weave in and out of the harmonic texture in what I think is an interesting way. Pads are purely FM, and bass is a mix of both methods, but the the drums are the most complex, layering both types, as well as raw samples, in six parts. Two general midi drum kits (power and dance) were combined together, run through ring modulation, and filtered to get that ping-pongy sound. These form the upper layer, sitting above Alesis HR-16 samples, which I mostly use for the kicks, closed hats, and sidestick. The fourth, fifth and sixth are metallic tones that replicate cymbals, which, due to the complex operator algorithms and tonal modulation of tunings in Xen-FMTS 2, allows for a variety of ride, bell, and splash tones by mixing various timbres found via various pitch parameters, and they can even be used as inharmonic pads. All of these are separated prior to being sent to their FX channel, where I crush the signal to get a sound akin to sampling drums on a yamaha chip, though with a bit more memory space. Aside from some slight reverb and delay, I wanted to do all on board FX for these, since the Xen synths have robust chorus and flanging options that work better with the final sounds than exterior FX plugins, which seem to muddy the mix more... though that's most likely more due to my limited mixing prowess. I've written computer/MIDI music before, but I consider that much different, since we tend to work with samples and sounds that, to some degree, attempt to replicate instruments or voices; however, this sort of music where we work with new, synthesized sounds, and all of the ways you can manipulate them throughout the process of composition, arrangement and mixing, is new for me. I've been working on these patches for a few months, using MIDI tracks as testbeds, basically treating it like running them through a rompler up until now, and while I'll probably keep tweaking them, I think they're doing the job here. Perhaps I got a bit too carried away with the portamento, but I wanted to try to recreate certain qualities I liked about Watanabe's leads in Border Down and Senko no Ronde, while focusing on the qualities I like in a tone, namely accentuating of the airiness of the higher harmonic partials, as well as dense, complex harmonic textures. Hopefully those qualities are apparent in the leads, and I was successful there, at the very least. Anyway, some comments on the work itself: The melodic line is pretty much all that I kept from the original track. The harmonic content is similar, but most of what accompanies the line is new. Sometimes if I'm working with something, I like to get the score itself and work with the material as is, like you would when arranging a piece of music for a different instrumentation, but here, because the entirety of the track was already in my head after years of listening to it, I sang it and transcribed that. That keeps the core material the same, but alters the interpretation of it, like in the study, practice, and performance of any piece of music. Michael Finnissy likes to talk about that distinction between arrangement and transcription, where the assumption of the musical material into one's head and then putting it back out creates something new, distinct from what it was... in essence, the same material, but in a new form, like in the opera transcriptions of Liszt or Chopin, where they write in response to the listening to, and their memory of, the music in performance. It makes all the difference in the end. The original is pretty brisk—the MIDI sequence I dumped from the GBA version clocks in at around 140bpm—but when I reinterpreted it, the melody felt a bit more languid... a bit more forlorn (if I were to imply something about Ingram as a character). The result sits at around 127-128bpm, but features sections where the time lowers to around 119. It's a bit more bittersweet than the aggression found in the original. Perhaps because of this, for some reason, in the reinterpretation it felt like going straight to that chorus section was too soon, so I ended up altering the form from the opening riff-verse-prechorus-chorus-opening riff-verse-prechorus-chorus... of the original track with a opening-verse-break-verse-prechorus-chorus-outro The longer opening and break add what I think is more tension to the track, and fits well with the slower, moodier quality of the melody. The opening itself has different notes, but retains the same F#-E-F# motif, so despite being different, you should be able to identify it. Again, the melody is the same, with certain rhythmic alterations and some extra ornamentation added. Overall, when I really look back at it, it just feels like it should work this way, with the chorus being used as the climax of the track itself, especially since the track isn't looping (though you can loop the outro back into the verse sections very easily). I actually was a bit concerned about this initially, because I felt like not repeating after the chorus, yet repeating the verses twice, was only really working with half of the composition; however, the verse is my favorite part of the original track—I love how the profile of that line flows—and the chorus is more like a resolution of it to me, so I decided this structure was best for my own personal interpretation; though, it's not really up for me to say if it worked in the end. Often you're too emotionally or philosophically or mechanically invested in something to the point that you tend to not see if it was actually a success or not, and that's when it comes down to someone one else to determine it. As always, we'll see later... I'm happy to have done my part. As for the name, I'm not good with track names, so there's an Exivious reference there I guess.

Belltone at :09 & :20 that accented things sounded off-key, so I was wondering if that meant more stuff would be iffy later; I'd say it comes off enough like a sound needing to be tuned with the rest of the music that you should change it. The claps at :41 were too dry and upfront, and the sequencing was feeling too stiff, particularly the strings at 1:13. I did like the personalization of the theme though, this just needs more fluidity. Same with the guitar at 1:34, it's just too stiff and exposed. Agreed with prophetik that the ending felt too abrupt. This is fair and pretty much where I fell on this. Great personalization ideas, just needs more polish, with a lot of more minor things adding up rather than any singular glaring problems. If you can humanize some of the timings and fashion a genuine ending, that would go the longest toward tightening this up, but, provided you still have the source files and the desire, please see what you can do about everything that's been critiqued. Good base here, Damon! NO (resubmit)

Not gonna belabor the point. Great combination of the themes, with FF9 taking the lead. Loads of dynamic contrast through the instrumentation and textural changes. Strings in the first half felt a bit behind, but not in a way that dinged the piece or made anything questionable. Strong stuff for the compo! YES

Speedy lil' thing, this one; hoping that means lots of substance is packed into the short runtime, since the intro until :47 felt repetitive. Soundscape was also on the dry side (just an observation, rather than an issue). After the redux of the main verse at :59, I was disappointed to just hear the melody play through several more times with only some minor ornamentation and doubling going on; it's not feeling like a substantial enough transformation. Basically an ABABA format, but once you get to :59, you've effectively heard the whole piece, so the development's too limited. The additions to the textures were subtle enough that they didn't make a meaningful difference in the presentation. If the source files are still available, consider adding more to the textures or changing the instrumentation from verse to verse, or getting more interpretive and/or varied with the composition of the melody and chrous. There are loads of ways you can further develop this piece without feeling like you're drastically overhauling it, and, provided you weren't uninterested in revisiting this, I trust your abilities to handle it. It's got a good energy to it, Spad3s, and it's great to hear from you again! NO (resubmit)

Man, there ain't nothin' to this theme. OK, it's a mood loop, cool; should make identifying the source usage a cakewalk. Also makes it easy to see where this arrangement pivots, which I assume will be Rebecca adding herbs and spices. /listens Yep, cool! I wished the bowed strings were more melodious rather than tense, but that's just a personal taste thing. I also wonder why the soundscape sounds muddier than expected, not that the mixing was a dealbreaker issue. Otherwise, this is cool. Good personalized instrumentation and more textural evolution than the source tune. I enjoyed the second half more as it felt more playful and varied, and I do hear the SimCity influence. I enjoyed! YES

Apologies, Janet; it'll come off as me hating the track; quoting prophetik to co-sign his POV. This is totally fine as an ambient soundscape with subtle textural changes, but it's not a substantive arrangement of Freya's theme. This would need some melodious content to more overtly tie to it to the source theme. Cool in a vacuum, but it can't pass our arrangement standards for identifiable and dominant usage of the source material. Been a Children of the Monkey Machine fan since I was a newbie fan; we're open to avant garde stuff... as long as the other aspects of the Standards with the arrangement and production are met. NO

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We have a request from Teo to clarify the comments for improvement (their letter below): Hi, I saw on your website to appreciate e-mail this address if I'd like clarification or to reconsider a judge decision about a submission. I'm T.O. Bassett - I submitted an arrangement of Death by Glamour (from Undertale), by the name of "Everyone Craves (Death By Glamour), in January. The judging thread can be found here: https://ocremix.org/community/topic/52239 The submission was rejected, a few days ago, but I'm honestly very confused about why it was, as the posts in the judging thread seemed conflicted about the reason for rejection, including some rather bewilderingly incorrect information about the arrangement. I'd like to ask if it would be possible to reconsider the decision after correcting this information, or at least some conclusive information about what the problem is. I apologise that the following is quite long, but, because of that, I wanted to be as clear as I possibly can about what I would like to address about it. First of all, I do really appreciate the kind words that you all had about this - particularly as you all seemed to like the guitar work a lot. This is something that I'd like to use a lot more in the future. I promise that I don't intend this to be an insult to any of the judges, and I apologise if it comes across this way, but I've read through the judging thread several times and I have to admit that I'm struggling to get much information out of it that I could use for improvement, because a lot of it seems conflicting and opinions on exactly what is wrong seem to vary a lot. I'll touch on a few of the minor points, but I'll focus mainly on the summary that I was given in the e-mail, in that the two things holding it back were the "unrealistic" samples and repetitiveness. -I admit that I feel that the repetitiveness of the track was greatly exaggerated. One judge even claimed that they overlayed all of the verse/chorus rounds and found that they're identical, which is absolutely not the case, because I recorded them all by hand with different instrumentation and made sure that I never used a pattern more than once, aside from some of the backing rhythm work in the guitar, bass, horns, and violas (the only other things that were "copied and pasted" were the drums, and I even made sure to change those up every time I copied a pattern from a previous verse); and the short post-chorus orchestra section that only features twice. I even asked for the opinions of several musicians and non-musicians afterwards and they agreed that they could plainly hear the differences between all of the sections. --The second verse (2:30-2:57) replaces some parts of the orchestra with a glockenspiel, and adds some call-and-response from the percussion section, mostly the timpani and piatti. ---One embarrassment that I'll concede to is that, at some point, I apparently managed to add one or two of those call-and-response patterns back into the first verse, which wasn't intentional but has also gone unnoticed in over a year since releasing this track publicly, so I didn't think it important enough to re-release it with that changed. The entire album is two and a half hours long and took five years from start to release, so a few mistakes crept in that I felt were minor in the context of the whole album. --The second pre-chorus (2:57-3:25) switches the dynamic between the guitar and orchestra and has the guitar playing the lead with the orchestra backing it up, as opposed to the orchestra in the first pre-chorus (through violins, violas, flutes, trumpets, and horns) playing the lead while the guitar fills out the sound through rhythm and chords. --The second chorus (3:25-3:52) builds on the percussion from the first chorus by taking the way that the drum kit built up in the first chorus and expanding on that (the first chorus features only hats and rim shots before building lightly by adding kicks, and the second chorus starts from that point and builds more dramatically by changing to more complex, breakbeat-inspired kick and snare rhythms. The e-piano is also introduced, playing high, broken chords to lead into the keys solo afterwards. --The post-chorus (3:52-4:06) is the same as the first one, but I don't feel that it's long enough to feel too repetitive and serves as vital tension release for the quieter chorus. Removing it and jumping straight into the keys solo after the second chorus would have felt disappointing. --The third pre-chorus (5:36-6:04) was written to be similar to the second one, just re-recorded to not be a cut-and-paste job, as leading to an ending here would have been anticlimactic. However, the final chorus (6:04-6:31) is vastly different from the others and I'm particularly confused about how that went unnoticed. The percussion section is entirely changed to match the energy of the verses, much more of the orchestra joins the chords than just the horns and violas in previous choruses, and the guitar in the lead plays a completely different countermelody to the previous chorus melody. I do appreciate that the flute was at least noticed there, and yes, I admit that I had some trouble mixing that in after switching from EWQLSO to Berlin Woodwinds, as the library is much more realistic and versatile but also much quieter. --The ending (6:31-end) only lingers on the post-chorus section for a few seconds before the guitar continues in another short solo, leading to an end that I intentionally wanted to match to the original track to match how abruptly Mettaton runs out of steam at the end of the boss fight. --This will be more subjective, but I'd also like to mention that the length of the track is an artistic choice to match the style of music that I'm fitting it into; the album as a whole is a symphony and progressive rock work made with the sensibilities of a live album recording and a story-based symphony, and prog rock and live rock performances are generally known for longer, improvised works. The structure and length are also meant to represent Mettaton's character and the structure of this particular boss fight, as Mettaton demands that the spotlight stays on him more than anyone else while the human is essentially trying to take it from him. I feel that rejecting music based on a common artistic quality of a particular genre may lead to stifling self-expression, and there are many classic and influential albums that would be rejected, were they subjected to the same standard. --Overall, I don't feel that anything regarding the length of the arrangement goes against OCRemix's submission standards guide, as all points under the Arrangement section are met, and all melodies apart from the solo sections are easily recognisable from the source material. -The claim of unrealistic samples is going to be much harder to refute because there isn't much that I can say that doesn't boil down to "I don't think that they are", but... I honestly don't think that they are. I originally wrote an entire version of the album using East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra, because it was all that I had, but orchestra libraries have come an extremely long way since then, so I shelled out to replace that with a combination of Cinematic Studio Strings/Brass/Piano, Berlin Woodwinds, Berlin Percussion, and Audio Imperia Nucleus to fill out any gaps. I then completely rewrote the album from the ground up to accommodate those new libraries, as simply slapping them into place on the original tracks wouldn't have worked at all. During this re-recording, I recorded each of the instruments or instrument sections manually through a weighted MIDI keyboard and then added keyswitch articulations manually afterwards, making sure to use every articulation that was available to me at least once in order to learn and showcase them. This is the first time that anyone has said that it doesn't sound realistic, and I've received some comments before from people who were surprised to learn that it wasn't a live orchestra. --I feel that rejection based on the quality of the string section library is not consistent with the OCR submission standards guide. While I'm still unsure about how they sound "unrealistic", the standards guide only says that sampled elements must be "reasonably sophisticated", which I'm sure you can agree is exceeded in this arrangement. --I refute the claim that I used no articulations in the orchestra through the track. In the strings alone, I used staccato, staccatissimo, spiccato, marcato, varying legato and slide transitions, and trills, and also made constant use of the library's mod wheel capabilities to vary the dynamics. --The claim of the "fake-sounding guitar" at 4:33 in particular took me completely by surprise. It was never intended to be a guitar in the first place, and isn't played in any way similar to how a guitar would be. It's an electronic organ run through an amplifier and distortion rig, something that's very common in both 70s/80s rock music and progressive rock. One of my favourite things to write is tradeoff solos between guitar and keys players. The track's been heard thousands of times since I finished it, and, as far as anyone has said, this is the first time that anyone has interpreted it as anything else. After reading this, I went back to ask for other people's opinions on what they thought that the instrument was, without telling them what it was, and everyone that I asked said that it was either an organ or a synth. No one thought that it was meant to be a guitar. Why would I use a real guitar through the entire track and then suddenly switch to a poor imitation of one for thirty seconds before going back to the real one? -I'd also like to touch on comments about the mixing. I will say that yes, I'm much better at the composing and playing side than the mixing side, and this is a much more minor point than the others, but I'd like to make two points about that: --This is a point that's difficult to make without the context of the rest of the album, but the album is primarily a symphonic work with progressive rock influences, and the "band" side of the rest of the album is much more minor. As such, I intentionally mixed it to be heavily focused on the orchestra. This includes the panning - I noted some comments about "strange" panning choices in the lead orchestra instruments, but they're panned naturally to match the typical orchestra layout that they were originally recorded in, as it felt far more uncomfortable to me for the layout of the orchestra to suddenly change between tracks. The only exception in this arrangement is the guitar, because I wanted the guitar to represent Mettaton's "it's all about me" attitude and be trying to take the spotlight for most of the arrangement. --Specifically because of my own ear for mixing, I was constantly seeking opinions on how the mixing sounded through the whole process of writing the album. After a lot of tweaks, I was told by many different people that the state of the mix sounded good at this point, so I'm very surprised to hear that some of the judges seem to think that it's that bad. The only thing that I personally wasn't too happy with was how the timpani didn't have as much impact as in the EWQLSO version. In the worst case, I can resubmit with a "radio edit" version that I made that merges the first and second verse/chorus rounds, and I suppose maybe remove the "Last Episode" intro because that seems to be a big point of contention and was just meant to lead in from the previous track on the album. I'd be disappointed that it's missing some of the nuance in the way that those sections build up, and the transition to the second verse at 2:28 that I'm particularly happy with. Admittedly, after working for five years on getting this album released, I'm a bit exhausted by the idea of redoing it yet again, but I do want to work with the OCR team to have a version that you would accept, as has been a goal of mine for about the last fifteen years. However, I would like to ask you to at least reconsider the decision, first, as I'm concerned that the points that I was given as reasons for rejection aren't consistent with the OCRemix Submissions and Standards Instructions that I read before choosing which track to submit. While I understand that standards rise as technology does, and that OCRemix wants to maintain high standards as such a long-running aggregator of video game arrangements, I'm also concerned that the reasons that I was rejected point to an unfeasibly high standard to maintain. This is part of an album that was requested by Toby Fox to be released through Materia Collective and Fangamer as part of the game's fifth anniversary. Those plans unfortunately fell through due to Covid-19 and I released it separately, later, but (and I promise that I'm trying to word this without sounding like I have any kind of ego), it's surprising to me that the album would be good enough for all three of those parties but not for OCRemix. Once again, I apologise for how long this e-mail is, but thank you very much for your time. Thank you, -T.O. Bassett

The opening soundscape sounds crunchy from :49-on when it's just meant to sound crystalline. The bowed strings until 2:04 actually felt like they were needlessly crowding the soundscape, so I was glad when they dropped out. 2:26 shifted into an awkward chippy lead, and texture felt too lopsided toward that, feeling pretty empty until 2:54. I'm getting a lot of high-end sizzle, but not clarity and sharpness with these textures. The phasing lines from 3:39 were crowding out other stuff, and the soundscape genuinely felt very messy until around 5:24. I get how it's tied into the track's title and gimmick; it was initially unpleasent listening to the "Compression of Time" melody de-sync for such an extended period of time with the countermelody until 4:10, but I got used to it and appreciate that part of the gimmick. Something about how this is piece is mixed causing the parts to sound abrasive, competing with each other to be heard, and lacking synergy instead of gluing together, and it's apparent for me as early as :54. Very awkward, abrupt addition of beefy kicks & claps at 5:05 that I'm assuming was intentional while feeling like a sloppy mistake. I listened to the reference tracks, but I'm admittedly not understanding where this all connects stylistically. The ending section at 6:07 was a beautiful, extended winddown where you could really bask in the sound design; opening the soundscape back up was a help, and the strings were a highlight there. The loop point was also a nice idea. Obviously, Wes knows how to make good music, and I like the arrangement in a vacuum, so it'll feel like I'm not giving him grace on some stylistic choices. Production-wise, this had some similar mixing issues with his recent DKC submission that he later ended up revising; the levels during the most intense areas were too hot and need to be pulled back, and the overall mixing is actually undermining the writing and textures, IMO. I apologize at my inability to isolate and describe the issues. It may take someone more knowledgeable to articulate what can be done about this in a way that Wes can work with. No matter what, I'm a stickler. Until we receive a more balanced mixing of this that lets the parts breathe and interact with synergy, I be a stickler. [sic] NO (resubmit) EDIT (11/9): Being right can be a curse sometimes. ;-D If I can be a dad or judgevet for a minute, if you can be honest with yourself, it's easier to then be honest with other people. Even though Wes is my friend and colleague, I wouldn't have gone to the trouble of being anything less than honest and forthcoming with my critiques. Mixing's on point now, so let's go! YES

The opening beats that faded in sounded on the weaker side, but I did immediately like the overall energy behind this. I'm not sure what about this mixing isn't working; right now, the clubby beats are so much louder over the melody, though it can be a stylistic thing. The quick transition at 1:38 was kind of awkward, but still OK in my opinion. I didn't mind the downward key change at all. Nice extended SFX from 1:39-1:59, though I wish you didn't use it verbatim again at 2:49, as that was a great spot to present that same kind of warbling sound effects idea with some differences. By 2:18 though, I'm thinking you've got to vary up these 90's style club beats, they're dragging out with their writing being so repetitive during all of the verses, which was undermining the dyanmic contrast you were otherwise attempting with your textures and SFX. The club approach is very cool, Karim, and well in the right direction of handling this source tune with personalized interpretation. However, as the other judges have said, you need more variation in the writing and textures; I'm confident you can do it, my friend! NO (resubmit)

Wow. Opens up way too loud, compressed, and distorted. 20 seconds in, this is unfortunately already a guaranteed NO on production, which is a shame. Lots of shrill, piercing synths, and then even a moment from 1:22-1:24 of exposed beats and claps that feels like General MIDI stuff. When I say this, it'll sound like I hated the track or that I think you have no shot at future success; I'm merely evaluating what I hear now rather than your future potential. This has loads of energy, just 0 effort given to mix or balance this, and I'm channeling Gordon Ramsey when I say the way it's currently produced sounds absolutely dreadful. It's clear this wasn't listened to on any headphones before submitting this. Even with such a high encoding (274kbps), this sounds like a 64kbps encoding. I appreciate prophetik being able to drill down on the arrangement. It's not often that MindWanderer and I BOTH appear to be in the dismissive camp; it's difficult to even begin to closely analyze the writing, when the way this is mixed is so difficult to listen to. Not much to be done here, Max, even with a potential overhaul, but prophetik's advice can be applied to future tracks, and there's still value in this as a learning experience, especially one that you can look back on down the line to appreciate your progression. If you're not using our Post Your Game ReMixes forum and/or #workshop channel in our Discord for feedback, you're doing yourself a disservice. Please avail yourself of those resources, dust yourself off, and keep at it! NO

Opens with some decent heft, although the lead synth sounds kind of flimsy, then gradually gets steamrolled by the rising volume of the beat from :24 until :36. Machine-gun beats from :51-:53 didn't sound good. After the transition at :55, the countermelody sounds off-key for every 3rd and 4th bar per measure until changing the writing at 1:43 (and not from 1:22-1:26). Slight slowdown leading into 1:58 transitioning back to the source's intro. From 1:11-1:43, the more sustained string-like synth leads sound somewhat shrill and locked to grid, which undermined the flow of the piece. Yipes, that sweep from 2:05-2:20 started off so abrasive; save my old man ears! Aw man, back to the off-key countermelodic writing from 2:29-3:01; this stuff is relatively minor, but it's there enough that it becomes a dealbreaker because of how often it's there. proph and MW are saying the piece isn't transformative enough. I don't mind what's here being melodically conservative as long as there are enough aspects of interpretive arrangement involved. To me, this is going well in the right direction with beefed up textures and additive writing compared to the 8-bit original. To me, this is a reasonable sound upgrade with some additional ideas, but just needs further development and variation (along with rewriting the clashing countermelody mentioned before). Good potential here on this one as well, Karim. Once again (same as your Tetris piece), keep developing this, and don't submit it again until after you get feedback from either the Post Your Game ReMixes forum or the #workshop channel in the OCR Discord server. This one is also a strong foundation, Karim; I would hope that you're not discouraged by this rejection as much as enthused by the positive comments. NO (resubmit)

Not that often that I'd just quote and concur, but prophetik's summarized this very well; this is too repetitive and plodding, and would need to do more to stand apart from the original track. We do have plenty of more melodically conservative arrangements [e.g. https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04414 and all the other OC ReMixes linked in the writeup's second (non-quote) paragraph], but their sounds are more personalized and varied than this arrangement's approach. At 2:40, Adrian, you've essentially heard it all, and the first 2:40 was essentially a close cover adapted for this soundset, but without much further development or interpretation. I'd definitely recommend comparing recent OC ReMixes of themes that you're familiar with to get a sense of the aspects of interpretation we're looking for. NO