Liontamer

Thanks for the thorough explanation & details, J. Hopefully that's what'll help him get his files in order. That said, our fans seriously do not need to be engaging in this much work to have our files make sense, so I can't WAIT to have these fixed files released. My updated files are 1 album, 1985 tracks in my iTunes. I'll have to host some for people to look over once again so I can make sure all bases are covered, but they're basically as good as they're going to be.

I don't quite understand what you wrote. How about posting some screenshots to better illustrate the problems?

Sup with this?

Hahahaha! Nice. What a subtle shot!

And the original composer...is...FEELIN' it! http://twitter.com/SotaFujimori/status/5255469568360448 Fujimori-san wanted more info, so I gave him some quick help. Really glad he liked Amy's mix enough to ask the masses to help him find out more! Nice work!

I thought the sounds were fine and I didn't think they were too close to the original. Shariq's POV wasn't invalid; there were certainly moments that were close to the mood & feel of the original, but enough of the arrangement had a different enough sound for me to be OK with it. This had a Genesis/Sonic 3 deal going on with the lead at :34, which was cool. As for the brief talking underneath, that wasn't an issue. The production was generally solid. I thought 1:09-1:35's section was an area where more of a build or energy increase would have worked nicely. I see the mood you're going for, but overall, the dynamic curve felt too flat. I'm not saying get crazy with 2000% more grace notes and loud shit, but this needs something extra. I also felt the transition at 2:04 was pretty uninspired as well; the change-up with the sources didn't flow at all, so the higher pitched arrangement of the 2nd source sounded out of place with everything that came before it. Sounds like a WIP that's mostly there, but isn't quite ready. Hate to do this to ya, as you are a 9-bit superstar, but I think this is only 80-85% there. Some quick tweak and this'll posted with no problem. That said, good luck with the rest of the vote. NO

True. I'm not used to using iTunes for natch tagging since I don't normally use it and MP3tag is just a much better tagging program (being that tagging is its sole function). I highly recommend everyone download MP3tag. It'll already be done in the new torrent, so you won't actually need to do anything. Excitement!

Tyler...you're my hero. I'll totally check your lyrics out later to see if everything's kosher. If you (or any fellow Spanish speakers) would be willing to take another look and just make sure accents, punctuation and all that are totally proper, I'll definitely add in both sets of lyrics. Especially given that Sinergia aren't community regulars and it's been a long time since anyone took a stab at it, I was worried I wouldn't have something for that mix. So on behalf of OC ReMix, THANK YOU!

2 of the 3 you linked were already in the first post. A year ago. Kingdom Hearts, I'll have to just listen for any changes from the lyrics of the originals. For Thieves of Fate's tracks, we'll have to ask prophetik.

Thanks for clarifying, y'all. Well, as far as my project for re-tagging every individual ReMix for re-release, we won't need compilation checked in iTunes, because everything already will have OverClocked ReMix as the album artist. Thus everything should be grouped. I've actually been tagging the Album Artist field for recent ReMixes. Try any of the last hundred ReMixes in iTunes and that field should be filled out. Ryan, to answer your question, you could have downloaded MP3tag and batch tagged every mix with "OverClocked ReMix" as the album artist before dropping them into your iPod and you'd have been pretty much set. You wouldn't have needed to use the compilation field.

In a word, yes.

The intro sounded pretty awkward due to the notes from the plucked instrument. I thought the simple clap pattern didn't fill things out enough and had no synergy with the other instrumentation, so I was glad when it dropped out at 1:00. The quiet pizz strings at 1:00 sounded slightly behind the beat, but perhaps that's just me. The jerky, exposed string sequencing at 2:28 and 2:38 was painful to hear. The bowed strings during the verses were solid, but the articulations there also could have been refined. Not that the sequencing was terrible overall, but achieving more natural-sounding articulations for your organic instrument samples is something you need to work on. Aside from that, I thought the instrumentations and textures were solid, particularly the multiple cool percussion accents. Overall, Drew certainly gets the job done with this laid-back, very personalized interpretation. That said, this is a great start, and I hope we hear more from you stepping outside chiptune sounds, just to see where else that takes you. YES

Haha! Apple Lab.

Nothing but solid stuff here, even taking in mind the legit points on sequencing & panning brought up by the fellow Js. The fade at the very end cut off a little early instead of totally fading to 0, but that was also very minor. A great addition to The Root of All Evil, and hopefully an indication that Brandon's internalizing the level of source usage & interpretation needed to get a sub passed. Very relaxing. Put it on for your lady. Don't tell her what the title is. YES

Still waiting for answers to my previous questions. Can anyone answer them?

OK, I'm going to be that guy who disrupts things way after the fact, but after listening to this again with Vig's vote in mind, I really oughta revise my vote to a NO. Sorry, Josh, but I feel my original vote was way too lenient, and geared more towards the arrangement at the expense of the production. There's still a lot of good-sounding elements, yet while I didn't agree with Vig in full (I disagreed with this being a "standard dance adaptation"), the following really stuck out: From a sonic standpoint, indeed, there were just too many sections with average production & textures that didn't fully lock together. For every portion where something clicked, the next section would lack cohesion. When you treated the source conservatively and just gave it your personal sound, it actually managed to click better than when you got more interpretive. :00-:26 - Very generic sounding breakbeats & synths. :26-:39 - Better stuff with the piano coming in, even if the synths were a bit generic & grating :39-:52 - Really generic saw for the melodic lead; the melodic variation compared to the original was OK, though it sounded like altering the melody for the sake of it not sounding like a complete copy, rather than sounding like a cool melodic variation. :52-1:18 - Much cooler lead. The textures really clicked nicely here. The breaks were a little vanilla, BUT everything was mixed so nicely that the breaks and bass provided a really nice background role, locking things together without exposing the sounds. You had those same strengths from with a different (but also good) lead sound from 3:30-4:09 to finish the track. 1:18-1:44 - The boom-tss added here briefly seemed stapled on top, but as things moved forward, that too settled in nicely and enhanced the sound. 1:44-2:10 - The piano writing was somewhat meandering. And the saw with the melodic variation for the sake of variation, both seemed awkwardly written. Neither part was particularly melodious or posessing direction. 2:10-2:49 - The BOOM at 2:23 was pretty cheesy, but not a huge deal. The more conservative melodious take on the source there until 2:49 ended up sounding the best. After that, many of the past ideas and textures repeated, so that basically covers it. Ultimately, taking a harder look at this and having another good POV made this difficult to sign off on taking another look at it. Sorry, bro, but if my opinion changes with more information and better insight, I've gotta call it fairly and honestly. NO

This source tune certainly wasn't one of them. Once you've heard 30 seconds, you've heard it all. That said, Mitch, you have the right idea going for an expansionist approach, going for adding a lot of different musical ideas here and there to help evolve the piece. That said, you should do more to actually vary the repetitive source melody as well, not just the soundscape. The piano sequencing at :57 was very unrealistic, BTW. Anyway, this IS a good start though, bro. See if there are more ideas you can bring to the source tune besides the things surrounding it and resubmit to see how much you can improve it. NO (resubmit)

There was some call-and-answer stuff that I couldn't hear in the left channel, so maybe something's brokededs. I'll check into that, but otherwise it's awesome. Nice job with OCR's new biggest super collab EVER. Suck it down? YES

Totally not my speed, but very well done! Indeed, the source is all over this (:05-1:10, 1:34-2:40.25, 2:52-3:28 on just a cursory listen; way over). Brutal. Almost everyone will hate this. And I love that. YES

Gotta agree with OA. Definitely a very cool source tune choice that I'm glad you put on my radar. I thought the arrangement felt a little static as far as the overall soundscape. There were different sounds being employed here and there, but the production and sound palette got old as the track went on. The machine gun drumming swell at 3:56 sounded like it clipped/distorted at the finish, but it wasn't a huge deal. That said, I'm feeling what I'm hearing overall, DarkSim, and this was a solid expansive take on the original. Very glad to see yet another new game get some love! Hope to hear more great stuff from you. YES

The source breakdown of the melodic stuff that I could make out was :00-:56.5, 1:24-1:26, 1:50.5-2:03, 2:04-2:23.5 or 88.5 seconds of a 2:58-long arrangement or 49.71%. There were a lot of original sections with a loose stylistic connection to the source that I love but don't count, and I was waiting for some of the source's backing patterns to show up in the original sections, but aside from some similarities it didn't happen. One reason could be that the patterns were really difficult to make out due to crowding. That said, I'm willing to give it a pass because of the Game Boy Tetris-style backing pattern from 1:37-1:49. Absolutely loved the track, Don. Whenever we get a ReMix that flips the original game on its head, I love it! YES

The opening piano sequencing doesn't sound terrible, but it should be more realistic. The electronic elements were pretty loud yet very lossy sounding as they took over at :20. As soon as things started getting kind of muffly and distorted at :28, I knew I was in for some trouble. At :41, the synth lead and everything around it sounded so lossy and lacking high-end clarity. At 1:08, we hit the main section with a very tepid lead and some generic saws. At 1:22, the sound were changed up with the saw as lead and the bubbly synth behind. Really generic vanilla sounds. There was also no solid-sounding percussion or anything filling out the background to anchor & drive the track, so the texture felt so empty despite the volume being loud. At 2:03, the sounds were still a bit generic, but at least you had a nice pad that filled out the background properly, and the gated synths did combne well with the piano (which still was too exposed unfortunately). The transition to "Dearly Beloved" at 2:30 didn't flow with the arrangement ideas before it, and neither did the return of Roxas's theme at 4:20. A rather awkward combination of themes for this music style. I couldn't disagree with OA more, the integration and flow wasn't there. It was just an ABA structure, and not a smooth one. Following the return of Roxas's theme at 4:20, the structure was basically a copy of the opening, only the deconstruction of elements rather than the build. You're definitely better than the average first time submitter, but there's no conhesiveness with the writing and the production was weak. Until you learn how to properly structure an arrangement and build a soundscape, you're at a ceiling as far as the music you're making. You've got a ways to go, Christian. Hit our ReMixing forum and get to asking questions. Keep at it. NO

The quotes the beginning were too quiet. Will had that meh snare drum he generally uses, but it's was only half-bad this time. Not a terrible fit as it has been in some past stuff. The rest of his stuff was gold. His influence on this definitely had a very cheesy feel. Pretty manic take on these themes, a lot of people will be feeling this, but it won't be for everyone. I thought the sequenced piano stuff from 2:07-2:19 was a brief but big low point as far as the execution. Way too fake and unrealistic sounding. Y'all shouldn't have let that slide, given how talented you guys are. That's all I gotta say. Good work, Pokemanz! YES

The main cymbals (first used from :11-:33 & :46-1:07) sounded like white noise, they were so loud and sizzling. That stuff should be pulled back. The other production criticism mentioned by the Js are valid, I'm pretty sure, but they didn't bother me. Other than that, this was pretty strong stuff. I agree with OA that some sections could have been condensed and that the shortness of the source was part of the reason for that. Nontheless, the arrangement really evolved nicely and the dynamic range that followed after the opening 90 seconds was a pleasant surprise. Nice job, Andrew, a lot of people are gonna be loving this. MetalvaniaX, this is one guy to watch! YES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffppQY6EviE - "Passing Breeze" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M2b2sPSlN8 - Stage 4 (Shinobi [arcade]) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKioo26jA_4 - "Magical Sound Shower" The fadeout of the druming/chanting SFX was a little too sudden at :29. Just a small detail. For the purposes of source usage, the intro doesn't count as part of the song, so I'm considering the track 8:15 long, not that the arrangement ended up being in question. I'm almost convinced the other gems on the OutRun soundtrack will never get covered (I pray for something new on VROOM). That said, "Passing Breeze" is my clear favorite on the soundtrack, so I understand why it gets this love. This is an example of doing a good job holding to the structure of the source and giving it your own personalization, and it works nicely. Nice soloing over the bassline progression at 2:31 & 3:32, though the bass was a bit quiet to hear. The brass & piano samples weren't the most realistic, but everything still sounded fairly realistically sequenced and humanized. The bass soloing in that section was solid as well. Oh man, when Dave posts this, he's gonna start smiling as soon as the bass hits that Shinobi cameo at 5:00. I was grinning like a cat, that is some classic Sega stuffs! Awesome! Oooh, "Magical Sound Shower" cameo at 5:37, followed by some very liberal arrangement of "Passing Breeze" on top of the MSS progression. Man, even that lae in the game, just more and more twists and turns, completely justifying the length of the track. Just more and more ear candy to enjoy. Again, even though the instrumentation wasn't the real thing, and lacked some sonic depth as a result, the overall execution was strong and enjoyable to listen to. On the negative side, the key change at 7:18 was sloppy sounding and not as smooth as it should have been, and the melody at 7:35 felt like the notes were a bit off as well. 7:41 proceeded to get the song refocused and in proper key for the finish. The fadeout was admittedly a copout, and that's speaking as someone who doesn't inherently have a problem with fadeouts. That said, a minor thing in the big picture. Nice work, Juan! Whenever time permits, we'd love for you to submit something again! YES