Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Agreed with Vinnie that it's case-by-case, but re: Haunted Hell, removing that mix had less to do with the outside sampling, and more to do with using the original game audio, as opposed to re-arranging it. The Fight Club music sampling didn't help either. Basically direct audio sampling of any kind needs to be sparing, but SFX and spoken word stuff is generally fine. When direct audio sampling of VGM or outside music becomes a foundation of the track, then it becomes problematic.

Got fixed soon after you posted, so I appreciate the lookout!

We have general album art by djpretzel, but it's still not 100% final, so I won't be giving it out. But eventually, it'll be out there.

I probably just transcribed it incorrectly. That fix will be live relatively soon. I'll catch up on older posts this weekend as well. So I've bothered Starla like 4 times about lyrics for "8-bit Eighties", and she LOL'ed it off saying there were only like 2 lines. But there are SO MUCH MORE LINEZ, DON"T LIE, GIRL! So we're going to either decipher her lyrics OR pester her into providing the actual lyrics! First stab with bootleg complementary airline headphones while juggling work! M-M-M-Mario He's the man Ooh, ooh Baby, touch and go [?] Go, Mario Ooh, ooh [?] Who you are [?] I love my mario He's such a good guy Mario! He's a sweetie too He's such a ? ? Mario... Will you marry me? Ohh, hey Mario, you're so fine You're so fine you blow my mind Hey, Mario Yeah yeah, hey, Mario M-M-M-Mario He's the man Ooh, ooh Baby, touch and go [?] Go, Mario Ooh, ooh [?] Who you are [?] So, Mario He's a ladies' man And a great dancer With a moustache Ohhh, Mario You're so cool So-so-so-so righteous He doesn't even break a sweat

Indeed, I'm really feeling the attention to detail here. Everything was always flowing and evolving. Excellent arrangement, and great textures throughout. All hail halc, our 9-bit overlord! YES

I figured. That said, I'll need WAVs (preferable) or already encoded MP3s & FLACs so that I can prepare the files. Let me know what I can get those and I can help move that along when I have time.

Who's in the what now?

Can't believe I didn't comment on this. I could see why someone wouldn't like the synths here, but I've always been a big fan of this track. There's nothing else like it on OCR. It makes great running music.

Contact Information * ReMixer name: HALO_ZERO * Real name: Cody Walton * Email address: walton.cody@gmail.com * Website: http://codywalton.com * OCR forum user id: 25433 Name of game(s) arranged: Yoshi's Island (SNES, 1995) Name of individual song(s) arranged: Level 1-1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ_hUgYKiv0 Additional information about game including composer, system, etc.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_World_2:_Yoshi's_Island Composer: Kōji Kondō 1995, SNES Link to the original soundtrack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ_hUgYKiv0 Your own comments about the mix: This one is pretty simple in theme. "What if Yoshi hosted a dance party show on MTV in the mid-80's?" Well, #1 it would be totally rad, bitchin', and tubular. #2, it would probably sound something like this. Hope you enjoy it! Cody Walton HALO_ZERO ---------------------------------------------------------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ_hUgYKiv0 - "Flower Garden" Heh. Well, the melody coming in at :09 certainly made this dissonant. As a child of the 80s, I heard my fair share of new wave/80s style stuff, so I get what you're going for, but it doesn't excuse this level of dissonance or the lack of cohesive textures. The soundfield had no depth to it, i.e. the individual sounds had no richness, were generally too dry, and there's no direction or focus here because the parts aren't properly balanced and because of the dissonance. The other judges will have more concrete ideas on how to fix this up, but it looks like it would take a lot of work to salvage something from it. Not sure you have the chops to do it yet, no disrespect, but I'd like to see how much you could improve this. You've been improving though, Cody, so do keep at it, and props for branching out in a different style than your previous subs. NO (resubmit)

ReMix name: With The Gold Comes The Curse Game: Wild Guns Source: Gold Mine stage ReMiXer: ilp0 I made this remix for the Hiroyuki Iwatsuki tribute compilation called IWADON (http://iwadon.com/), but I failed to finish this on time so it's not on the compilation. It's finished now so I'll try to post it here... It's got some James Bond theme song influences and some western moods too.. -- ================================ Ilari Nieminen -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX6XXGzoy7g - "Gold Mine" In a vacuum, I love the track. It's cool, and no one can doubt Ilari's arrangement & production skills. That said, I don't feel this used the source enough to be the dominant portion of the arrangement. The track was 4:22-long, so I needed over 131 seconds of source use for it to be above 50% and pass it. The source usage breakdown I had was :28.5-:45.25 (-2.2 for rests), 52.5-1:11 (-3.8 for rests), 1:11-1:19, 1:20.75-1:27, 1:30-1:36, 1:39-1:44, 2:03-2:10, 2:32-2:41 (-4 for rests), 2:46-2:51 (-2 for rests), 2:52-3:02, 3:24-3:30, 3:38.25-3:44, 3:52.5-4:10 ...which came to 109.25 seconds (41.7%). There was also a section from 3:05-3:23 which may have been very, very loosely based on the chorus, but it was too liberal, IMO, and didn't sound as if there was a direct connection to the source. Arrangement-wise, I needed more overt usage of the source tune, but I will say that the original sections all pieced together seamlessly and would make anyone thing those parts were also from the game soundtrack. I'm really digging this as a listener, but, as is frequent with Ilari's music submissions, he really walks a fine line between using the source material enough vs. getting more indulgent with original, non-VGM-based sections. Sorry that I can't vote in favor of this one, but I always look forward to your stuff. NO (resubmit)

All the tags (in the comments) field have the source names.

Quoted for co-signness. :'-( Agreed on the production crits (which weren't major, but worth noting). And the arrangement being too straightforward and undeveloped (not even breaking 90 seconds). Needs more substance. I'd be more down with the vocal melodies were more interpretive and this had some further development. NO Extended version? brentalfloss cameo? Balls? Give us somethin' more! We wanna feel the Backfire, so icy hot!

Looks like the top of the paper for the case got frayed up a little bit, but I'm certainly interested, Ryan. If you have a price you think is fair, lemme know and I'll pony up via PayPal.

Mixing-wise, this was muddied up by the booming percussion hits brought in at :39. They were so over the top, it almost went into parody mode. I'd definitely pull that back, or anyone listening to this with a sub on will explode their equipment. That could be pulled back some without adversely affecting the overall sound you're going for. I didn't like any of the exposed clap usage at 1:42; but at least they were pushed into the background at 1:52. The mellower instrumentation at 2:32 was a VERY welcome changeup. The sequencing and textures weren't the best, but they ultimately got the job done, even though it's really on the low end of what I'd accept. I'd like to see some tweaks on the issues I mentioned, but even if that doesn't happen, I think what's there was serviceable. The arrangement definitely succeed in personalizing & expanding the source tune, adding varied, well-written percussion, and creatively weaving the source with occassional original melodies and countermelodies throughout. I didn't agree with Jesse's crits on relying on the drumwork too strongly, I just thought some levels should be tweaked so that this clicks more strongly. But what's here ultimately gets it done. Way to stay persistent with these resubs, Wina. Welcome aboard! YES (conditional)

Coo. Looking forward to it!

Cynical as hell. F that. It was an interesting video. Good luck to Halo: Reach! Move them units!

Remixer name: The Smitchens Secret Identity: It's a secret to everybody. Website: www.soundclick.com/thesmitchens UserID #: 37826 Game: Super Mario Bros. Song: Death Title: A Fugue for a Plumber Since Passed Afterthoughts: I've wanted to submit something to OCRemix for a very long time now, but never quite got around to it until one faithful day where I heard a theme in my head while I was standing around at work, just sorta looking around. It was the theme that plays when you die in Super Mario Bros. And I thought to myself, "I bet I could make a fugue out of that." So I did. I present to you "A Fugue for a Plumber Since Passed". ------------------------------------------------------------ http://ocremix.org/chip/2098 - Track 8 Honestly, this isn't bad, but it sounded so stiff and mechanical that there's no way I could pass it. Compared to a live fugue, the differences are immense: . That's not to say the standard is playing it live , but you need more humanity in the "performance."I appreciated how you changed the notes of the original jingle around with the various instances of the "Player Down" theme, but, even then, I thought the well basically ran dry on the variations you came up with. Playing the jingle variations in the same tempo most of the time didn't help. The tempo changes that were there didn't really incorporate the source theme; not that that was necessary, but it would have broken up the monotony of how the theme was used throughout the rest of the piece. Dhsu's shown in the past that you can take a jingle (in his case, from Castlevania) and really expand upon it with much more creative variations, compared to what was here. This is a great concept, but the overly mechanical feel, weak dynamics and stylistic repetition made it a NO-go.

ReMixer name: wblackall Real name: Whitaker Blackall Email: wblackall@gmail.com Site: www.WhitakerBlackall.com UserID: 36156 Games arranged: Super Mario Bros., 1, 2, and 3 on the NES Various songs from each game, including overworld themes, underworld themes, star theme, and more. Here's a blog post I made about the song: http://www.whitakerblackall.com/blog/mario-montage-of-funk-blog/ I spent multiple days working on this and tried to make it as funky as possible, all while connecting each song seamlessly. ---------------------------------------------------------------- A ton of themes The overall production and instrumentation was pretty solid. Not the most realistic stuff I've heard, but capably executed; you used what you had very well. That said, "connecting each song seamlessly" did not happen here. I'd totally be down with a medley arrangement like this IF the themes were connected seamlessly, but there were so many jarring, awkward transitions and none of the themes got fully developed. It's a fun listen, but the arrangement wasn't cohesive enough to pass. I would have loved to have heard something twice as long to give the themes more room to be explored and also allow more room for smoother transitions. NO (resubmit)

Strong stuff; more polished than your past subs. The melodic source usage was obvious for sections like :00-17, :50-1:23 & 2:22-2:55. Meanwhile, the progression of the chorus was used from 1:25-1:41 & 2:57-3:20, making the source usage clearly more than enough, unlike your past mixes. Had no issues with the anvil, since that seemed to be worth bringing up. Gotta agree with zircon in that this was a great source. Definitely a nice pirate/adventure feel to this one, Jorge. I just caught the remastered version in the inbox and had to shoot a comment here after taking a listen. Great work, keep them coming! YES

Hello Larry, Thank you for taking the time to review my song. If it's not too much of a bother.. I have finished a nice mix of the Yoshi's Island theme music. If you have some time, maybe you'll find this one more to your liking. ReMixer name: Paper Sailboat Name: Christopher Paine Email: chris.paine@gmail.com Website(s): www.thesixtyone.com/papersailboat, or www.papersailboat.ca User ID: 30822 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES) Yoshi's Island Title Theme (Garden of Peril remix) Composed by Koji Kondo Thanks! Christopher ------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV8WyFhQtvI - "Yoshi's Island" :30's section sounded cramped, with something flooding the low end, especially in the left channel. Some beats came in at 1:00 that sounded sampled. The light electro-synth on counter-melody at 1:20 had several dissonant phrases that didn't make any sense; also, I can see how that was derived from the ethnic countermelody of the original. The track coasted for quite a while, from 1:00-2:51, with no melodic activity. Not sure why, but where's the beef? Gotta give some more substance somewhere beyond using the countermelody for nearly 2 minutes with basically nothing else going on. 2:51 finally went back to the source (as well as using the water & nature SFX directly sampled from the source tune's intro). 3:39 brought back those sampled beats to move things forward, but the ideas from before were being retread. The textures throughout the mix weren't bad overall, but the basic structure here was using just very brief melodic passages of the source, then dropping that out and coasting for a while. The fullest sections sounded very crowded & muffled, and the arrangement didn't feel substantive enough. And a random shot of light drums at 5:39...oooook. I'd recommending cleaning up the muddier sections, seeing what other references you can add to the more minimalist sections to tie this to the original more strongly, and less wholesale rehashing of the prior ideas for the last couple of minutes (otherwise it's hard to justify nearly 6 minutes of music). Not a bad start. NO (resubmit)

Remixer name: -InSomnis- Website: www.thesixtyone.com/mattpanay or www.flickr.com/mattpanay Name of game arranged: Mass Effect Name of song arranged: Vigil Remix Title: Vigil Impromptu Comments: This is a 5 minute or so improvisation on the core melody of the title theme to Mass Effect. The game took story-telling and character development to a height that very few other franchises can even hope to achieve, so I will always have a special place in my heart for the crew of the Normandy. The title screen gives me goosebumps, even to this day, so I felt the need to learn the melody on piano. I hit record and played around on the theme for around 20 minutes, choosing this 5 minute excerpt to represent the arrangement as a whole. It drifts away from the melody quite often, but not in a way that is unpleasant. (I hope.) Thanks! -Matt ----------------------------------------------------------------- - "Vigil" Some info on where the source melody was in play would have been helpful. But either way, there wasn't much I could overtly connect to the original besides some mood similarities. IMO, the production/stereo choices did not benefit this; the whole thing sounded aimless and directionless. As much as one can get wrapped up in "Vigil", that track did have a melody and direction. As long as you enjoyed making this piece, that's great, but it's not for us; the ties to the original aren't there enough, if at all, and there's no cohesive direction. NO

ReMix Name: Qwaetl Email: legendofzelda@live.nl User ID: 33814 Game: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Song: Gerudo Valley -------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 68 "Gerudo Valley" The soundscape got pretty cramped at 1:02. The samples weren't bad, I'm just not hearing much more than a sound upgrade with a constant drum beat behind it. Arrangement-wise, there wasn't much interpretation of the source tune. When you did try to do your own thing with the string writing at 3:23, the sequencing sounded a bit rigid as well as WAY too shrill. Not bad as far a cover-ish sound upgrade, but it needs more interpretation going on to make it here. NO

CONTACT INFO Radeitsu Cory Wanderlich Blackclienterra@aim.com (no website) Radeitsu SUBMISSION INFO Kingdom Hearts 2 Scherzo Di Notte Composer: Yoko Shimomura http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZiVsSxY7k0 (original track from game) Me and my friend (who will be posting his version on here too) decided to have a remixing competition. We plan on having more competitions with different songs from different games. when i made this i wanted to take the song to a whole different level. me and my friend we able to make it any genre we wanted, im actually expecting them to sound quite alike lol. we wont be hearing eachother remixes till his is done too (he has till 7:30 tonight) We also want people to judge whose is better (hence "competition" lol) so be honest and brutal. --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZiVsSxY7k0 - "Scherzo Di Notte" This didn't sound awful overall, but something was absolutely jacked up with the treble. The highs from the cymbals practically sounded like they're clipping the entire time. Why were they mixed so loudly? The sequenced brass and piano also didn't sound great either; not even close to terrible, just somewhat exposed as not being realistic enough due to the sequencing being too rigid. What instruments got added in at 1:54 that created that buzzy effect? Whatever it was was a good idea in principle to vary the instrumental textures, but the mixing was off again. Not a bad arrangement. The clear goal was to go for textural/instrumental variations of the source tune, and the overall approach wasn't bad. However, after you get past around 1:10, you're basically hearing the same couple of leads trading off every few seconds and the overall sound started getting stale. Also, the production approaches brutality. Hopefully the other Js will have some specific recommendations on how to improve the mixing/balance here so this doesn't sound so messed up. This is a good base, Cory, so hopefully you're willing to revisit this piece if you're still interested. You might very well be able to take it to the next level with some additional work. Good source tune choice. NO (resubmit)

Original Decision: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20556 Definitely Koopa Evahn Evan P aterriblebeast@gmail.com myspace.com/epuchalla 4791 Super Mario 64 Koopa's Theme Koji Kondo source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWF9mDIw8NI I originally submitted this almost a year and a half ago. I didn't really intend on submitting it again because I was working on a different new mix, but I'm taking a break from that one so I figured I'd send this one in. It ... can't really even be compared to the old version. heh. The old version had a lame drum loop. This new one alternates between two sets of live drums. The big epic ones were played by my friend Paul. We recorded those in a small theater at my school. The other drums I played, recorded in a small room. There's a cool little reggae-ish section, for the guitar solo. I also added some mouth percussion (clicks and breaths and shit) during the bass effect battle. The synths don't suck in this version, either ... Today, just before submitting, I had an idea. Put the song on tape, then bring it back to digital. I don't know if it really made a big difference, but I think it sounds pretty bitchin', so I might even do it for the whole album. It's not quite as loud as the straight-digital mix, but I didn't limit it as much when I sent it to analog, so this version actually has a little more breath to it than the album version. And I added some tape flange to the intro while I was at it. Just for giggles, here's a link to the old submission (); I found it on one of my demo CDs. Yeah ... I can't believe I sent that in either. Sorry guys ... Anyway, hope you guys like this. Oh yeah, here's the album this track comes from. It's free, yo. Love, Evan --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWF9mDIw8NI - "Koopa's Theme" The overall soundscape sounded lo-fi and distant when things picked up at :09; I'm not sure anything was gained production-wise, putting the song to tape. The timing of the lead at :13 and :26 was slightly off, which prevents one from totally getting into the piece. Sudden changeup to more laid back stuff at :43. The guitar performance at :51 also had some very brief, minor timing issues at the very beginning. Back to rock at 1:19, with the lead again sounding slightly behind at the start of the transition. There was the aforementioned voice stuff at 1:27 while handling the source theme chorus in the background, then it went back to the rock at 1:45. Can't say the transitions had enough flow to them, not that they're terrible. There seems to be something missing that I'm not able to articulate, so I'll wait for more points of view and listen some more to this. EDIT (9/30): Gotta co-sign with the other 3 Js on this, who did a great job of articulating the various issues. I like your style Evahn, so don't be discouraged on submitting more music, bro. I loved you Mario 3 mix, and I know you can get some more stuff passed as long as everything's clicking. NO