Liontamer

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

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

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

Solid combination of themes; the tradeoffs provided some good textural and dynamic contrast. With such a thorough source usage breakdown, I just needed to quickly see that it made sense and then enjoy the production. Good meat to the beats here and a spacious soundscape throughout. You can just chill out to this. YES

Loads of great arrangement ideas in there; this never stays in one place and explores the source theme incredibly well. Production felt impactful, loads of good sound design, and the overall mixing was spacious and clean. Great job by VQ & Rockos! YES

Interesting synths to open up. The production feels very simplistic, but it could certainly go places. By about :30, I wasn't optimistic it was going anywhere. OK, some more percussion is added at :40 and the track's almost a third over without having gone beyond the introductory melody yet. Melody comes in at 1:09, and this approach feels so barren despite everything going on; unfortunately, there's no movement here, nor does the track feel melodious; prophetik had good advice on sticking with the source's melody as is, not altering it, until you figure out how to build synnergy with the underlying chords. Then at 1:49, things are repeating, albeit with a new sustained supporting/padding line underneath it. Minor differences between interations aside, this was relatively unvaried and underdeveloped. A good work-in-progress, Sean, it's just not yet a fleshed out and sufficiently developed arrangement; definitely see what more you can do with it. NO

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Fingers crossed you make it 5. EDIT: Send something in!

I'm reticent for a brief moment because Kris is a friend and it'll come off like I hated this and feel it's not able to be improved. Still though, the dagger goes in. The lyrics don't fit this, IMO, which is a dealbreaker. I can't explain it in theory terms, so maybe someone else can; for me, the lyrics almost never clicked with the instrumental. It's most obvious around 1:03 ("Let me be your love"), but to me it's pretty much anywhere when they're in tandem with the arranged VGM (the original section of 1:25-2:10 was not a big deal with the minimal source usage until 1:39, and I liked "'Cause we're gone" at 2:40). The sampled lines felt very shoehorned in due to not fully following the direction of the source tune. Not sure if you'd can auto-tune them to better harmonize/fit with the melodies of the instrumental. If this doesn't make it as is, it's up to you what direction you'd want to go in, whether that's going instrumental, writing original lyrics and getting vocalists to do something fitting, reducing the amount of these sampled lyrics to limit the awkward textures, or finding other sampled vocals (or just vocal lines) that work better. The arrangement's all good, and the sheen and polish of the sampled vocals sounded very pro. However, the combination isn't working, the synnergy isn't there. NO (resubmit)

Kicks at :20 are distorting and don't sound good as a result; they stand out less as you loop this and get acclimated, though the distortion point still stands. I want the lead at :40 to be cutting through more (rather than competing to be heard vs. the beats), but what's here is OK. 1:42 repeats the intro, then 2:04's a copy-pasta of :40 for the melody (though with original piano writing also supplementing it rather than just the bassline writing). Aw man, 2:25's also just a cut-and-paste of 1:00 until 2:48. Good ending section at 2:48 though. This is a close one for me, because the arrangement's very interpretive, but then the track structure's utlimately too repetitive. I do realize this is a beat; this still needs more variations used somehow from 1:42-on to have this sound fully developed as a standalone arrangement. It'll sound like I'm saying your previous mix is now the bar you're held to, that you need to employ the exact same tactics, or that you need to do something drastic to update this; having heard your BotW piece, I know you're fully capable of presenting that variation somehow. Whether that comes from writing variations, adding a vocalist or sampled vocals, adding or changing some instrumentation, I trust your judgement and abilities. To me, it feels like a pretty easy resubmission candidate. Great base here, Joe! NO (resubmit)

OK, I'm enjoying the silliness of the chiptune-style opening. The guitar sequencing so mechanical-sounding and exposed from :48-1:19; it's a pretty big quality disparity compared with other samples. Good new variations and original section as a break from the chips & beats until 1:50. Back to the chip lead at 1:50; I would have liked the chip writing and then the brass writing at 2:14 to not get cut-and-pasted like this, because it made the track feel underdeveloped and repetitive, when it would have been easy enough to provide writing variation of those leads somehow, rather than just interplay them with each other. I do appreciate the transformation of what's there with this theme; fun energy, and the overall mixing sounded good. I may be pushing for a revision that can't happen given the age of the track. To secure my vote though, Zack, we've gotta improve the realism of the guitar from :48 and vary up the lead writing from 1:50-2:40 to meaningfully differentiate the writing and/or instrumentation there somehow. NO (resubmit)

It's Black SeeD, so I'm making two assumptions: 1) the musicianship won't be in question and 2) at some point, the mixing's going to be flooded enough that it'll make me question it. Beautiful opening with Freya's theme delicately performed on acoustic guitar, which was combined perfectly with the rain SFX. A synth line got added in the background at 1:49 and initially didn't sound right; some of the sustained notes on it briefly seemed pitchy/off, but not a big deal. The instrumentation and soundscape suddenly changed completely at 2:35, which got my attention (and Chimpazilla's too) for the sheer abruptness. IMO, the melodic lead still definitely should have stayed clean and upfront, because we're left with a kind of quality disparity when it comes to this piece's sharpness, but I'll live. Back to the acoustic at 3:21, but sounding distant like the way 2:35's section was produced, since there was no bright melodic lead on top of the soundscape as with the intro. OK, we're halfway through and I haven't gotten an extremely cramped metal section yet, so I'm waiting for the othe shoe to drop. 4:29 definitely sounded lossy/muddy, but it cleared back up some in stages starting at 4:40, so I'm OK with it. At 5:14, the melody returns, and things have a distant/lossy sound where machine-gun drums are in effect, but it's nothing where I can't get past the mixing choices. Things switched back to cleaner at 6:45 for the finish, and I genuinely don't understand why the track can't be mixed in that manner the whole way through. That said, the mixing choices aren't ideal, but they don't harm the track; being a "get-off-my-lawn" old man about some metal mixing, I didn't have any major problem with this. The arrangement and performances are excellent, and the mixing's solid enough despite my personal taste for sharpening up the more distant-sounding areas. I'm happy to be wrong about my assumption here. YES

I've had pieces that I didn't fully appreciate until after they were posted. It'll sound like I'm saying I don't listen to ReMixes to enjoy them; lots of times, the role of a judge is more analytical and detached from pieces, determining if something meets our arrangement and production standards. Now that I've had the opportunity to really loop this, I'm just blown away by this piece's atmosphere. It's a crystalline gem of an arrangement. Absolutely beautiful work, Peter, this is a treasure.

Not that it has Hamauzu's sensibilities in there, but I was getting some Hamauzu-adjacent vibes from this Mitsuda composition. Very cool source tune choice! The bowed strings aren't majorly dinging this, but had a noticeably stilted sounded. The drums and kicks seemed a bit too loud, but it's just a nitpick. Where do I recognize that subtle sweeping SFX brought in at :31? Mega Man X? In any case, loved the bassline presenting that anchor to the source tune at :31, allowing you to riff and build over the top of it until 1:10. Loads of good sound design things swirling around with this one. I do wish the bassline cut through more at 1:44, because that writing's very good and helps give the piece more movement. Great dropoff at 2:03, followed by some grungier guitar at 2:21. At that point, I'm feeling like a confident spy's breaking in somewhere and easily dispatching evil people getting in their way. Then they spot a tricky hallway at 2:41 and collect themself before the action gets going again at 2:56. I could entertain myself all day setting VGM arrangements to movie action. The stiff-sounding strings interfered with the intended tension and energy of 2:56-3:22's section, which had some amazing guitar soloing. Another strong dynamic shift at 3:22, just a textbook example of a 10-second change that serves as a great energy reset and transition to another intense section with different textures. The leads started feeling too distant and the soundscape messy from 4:06-4:45. Nice closeout idea with the plucked strings from 4:45 and the final ethereal effects. I like the variations on the theme throughout; very creative way to get mileage from this one! YES

You deserve a moldy orange for these brass, string, and choir samples. And who farted at 3:57? Other than those more minor things, it's hugs, kisses, and an acknowledgement of a strong fusion of themes for the arrangement and great guitar work. YES

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Nice source tune choice; I appreciate you introducing me to this! Sounds lossy to start, without high-end clarity. Heard a light pop at :28, just FYI. Source's melody kicked in at :42, and this mixing's pretty rough. The kicks sound upfront and dry, louder than the lead guitar and too metronome-like. I'm glad the bassline's nice and audible, and the keyboard part at :42, while blocky-sounding, had a good throwback tone to it. From 2:11-2:25, the texture opened up, but the sampled sustained strings were super exposed and sounded pretty poor; earlier from 1:11-1:42, they're still audibly lacking humanization too but it's less in your face vs. when all you hear is the strings. They fit better in the texture as a less audible supporting part afterward. A sampled choir line came in at 2:54-3:22 and also sounded robotically timed and artificial, just like from :21-:35 when it was first used. Too sudden of an ending at 3:23; with such a quick decay of the final note, it felt rushed and abrupt. If the final note can have a proper trailoff so that it breathes, that would be a nice-to-have. I'm in line with the others than the arrangement's melodically conservative but has an interpretive presentation, so I'm cool there and there wouldn't need to be any changes. The timing & sound of rigid samples (e.g. choir, strings) needs to humanized, and the mixing needs another pass for a clearer sound and more cohesive texture. Good base here, Hunter! If you still have the source files available, this is certainly worth putting some additional time into it to see how much further you can improve the production. NO (resubmit)

The water & bird SFX lasting until :32 was tasteful and well-integrated. That 3-note padding line first brought in at :38 almost sounds like a very low-key choir. There's also added original writing at 38 that wasn't in v2 of this WIP. Considering that you retread the theme at 1:06 and 2:04, you could have held that additive original writing until then to give you somewhere to go dynamically (if you're going to have a longer arrangement). Overall, it's a solid, chippy sound that feels meaningfully personalized. Keep developing and evolving this!

Sean C Sean Conner Burga https://soundcloud.com/sean-conner-69491080 ID: 38764 Game(s): Donkey Kong Country Song Title: Water Monkey Songs Remixed: Aquatic Ambience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5rAjOjTGtc Hi, as you can probably see I'm really new to this website. I sent this song to a friend and he said maybe I could try submitting it to this website. This looks like a fun community and if nothing else I'm sure it's a great place to get feedback and connections. I tried to touch on this song because when I sent another song to my brother he kind of figured out I was using the same notes from this song but it was from a more hard-driving synth-rock kind of song, but it made me think maybe I can see what I can do with the actual Donkey Kong Country song. I just kind of thought...how could I make this even more ambient and minimalistic sounding?

Contact Information Joe November Joe Thomas SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/AGRPw; Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6RfNW5CQCqkdgYZXOpyZ1W?si=PN0aqW-WSRW2pors2aczAw; Bandcamp (Music | Joe November (bandcamp.com)) Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile 34557 Submission Information Mega Man 2, NES What's the Rush, Man! Quick Man Stage Original Composer: Takashi Tateishi. System: NES. Release Date: December 24th, 1988 (492) Mega Man 2 (NES) Music - Quick Man Stage - YouTube First of all, I wanted to make a beat that someone could rap to; so, keeping the BPM between 80-100 was key (it's 94 btw). Second, I wanted to interpolate elements of the Quick Man stage without jacking the audio sample in its entirety to make my beat unique, and third it was important for me to play it a different key from the original. Plus, there is a story being told based on my early experiences playing Mega Man 2 on NES back in the day. The intro depicts excitement and wonder as you enter Quick Man's stage for the first time. I interpolated the main rhythmic lead from the actual Quick Man stage, and you can hear it in the very beginning of my beat. It was important that it persisted throughout the entire song. I started playing chords with the Rhodes and when the root composition came together, I kept hearing Kashmere Stage Band's “Picture of Innocence" horns in the intro. Then, when Quick Man does his signature taunt move before the stage begins, it motivates you even more to beat him (thus the verbal taunt in the intro). The first verse is an alliteration of playing the stage with no knowledge of how to beat Quick Man. Once you arrive to his boss room, that’s when you hear that “Quick Man!” clip as if it’s like “Yo, there he is!” (it’s a sample from Ren & Stimpy’s Powdered Toast Man character going “Quick man, cling tenaciously to my buttocks!” LOL) The first chorus depicts the grueling battle itself, but since you’re not really equipped to defeat him then unfortunately you die. The scratching you hear in the chorus (“too-too-too-too-too quick”) is from DJ Quik’s “Get At Me”. I used synth pads to interpolate the chorus from the Quick Man stage in my chorus to build tension. I bridged the chorus with the interlude using a drum break from Jamiroquai’s “Just Another Story” along with the intro drop from the Mega Man 2 theme song. The interlude you hear next is saying, “I just read in Nintendo Power that Quick Man is vulnerable to Air Man's Air Shooters, and I just acquired them!” That’s why you hear the pause sound in this part, to make sure it’s there and you’re ready to rock with it. I also wanted to interpolate some of the background music from the Air Man stage by using piano in the second verse as sort of an echo to the weapon you have in your back pocket for this boss. Now you’re equipped with the Air Shooters, so into the chorus we go but this time the outcome is different… you are victorious! (thus, the signature death blow sound you hear) and then the sound when you leave the stage after beating the boss. The vocals you hear at the end are from a British group called AZUR (off topic: the bass player for this group was the same bass player for the early Jamiroquai’s albums, Stuart Zender). The feeling I wanted to invoke with the sample was “Hey, I did it!” as you’re off to the next Mega Man 2 stage. And... fadeout!

ReMixer name: jnWake, minusworld. Name of game(s) arranged: Final Fantasy Tactics. Name of arrangement: Antipyretic for your Precipitous Apoplexy. Name of individual song(s) arranged: Antipyretic, Apoplexy, Battle on the Bridge (names taken from the OCR site https://ocremix.org/game/279/final-fantasy-tactics-ps1). Link to arrangement: . Yet more stuff from Dwelling of Duels! This one's my entry for August 2023's Sakimoto month where me and minus got the gold medal Sakimoto month was about picking songs composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto. Somehow, I had never played any game composed by him so choosing sources was a bit challenging, but a couple listens to the FFT OST (and a thorough check of the composing credits) was enough for me to pick a few tracks and I started writing a mini-medley of them. The title of the remix is a reference to the 3 sources selected ("Battle on the Bridge" is called "Precipitous Combat" in the official OST on vgmdb). Anyway, for this track I experimented with adding an orchestra into my usual prog. metal affairs and I think it worked out well. It was pretty challenging to write the arrangement (and my computer struggled with the samples...) but it was worth it in the end. For this track I collabed with minusworld for the second time. Like last time, he played rhytm and lead guitars plus bass. Real playing always adds a lot to these tracks, especially to leads. I particularly love the guitar solo he came up with! Source usage! 00:00-00:37: This is based on the intro of Antipyretic (piano is doing a modified version of the "arpeggio" the strings play there). The 2 chords (G# and B diminished) are a small alteration of chords that play in the intro to Antipyretic (at the end of each "phrase"). 00:37- : Still based on the intro of Antipyretic... 00:58-1:10: Guitar riff and melodies taken from Battle on the Bridge. 1:10-1:16: The previously mentioned chords return! 1:16-1:40: This section mixes a ton of stuff... The main melody is in both Battle on the Bridge and Antipyretic while the backing takes from both sources as well (piano from Antipyretic, rhytm from Battle on the Bridge). Violin/Flute arpeggios are from Battle on the Bridge. 1:41-1:55: More of those arpeggios, now on guitar/synths. 1:55-2:25: 2 takes (one metal, one orchestra) of a melody from Antipyretic. 2:25-2:31: Horn section based on a part of Apoplexy. I like to imagine this represents the enemy forces get reinforcements or something like that. 2:31-2:59: Rhytm guitar and strings play a melody from Apoplexy. 2:59-3:13: Based on Apoplexy again, both chord progression and melody. 3:13-3:37: Melody from 1:16 returns, now over a different chord progression. 3:37-4:01: Apoplexy melody from 2:59 returns, over a more "epic" chord progression. 4:01-4:26: Guitar solo! Same backing from 1:16 section. 4:26-4:50: Synths and brass play a riff from Battle on the Bridge, with piano doing the Antipyretic "arpeggio" from the intro. 4:50-5:07: The chord progression from the intro returns once again. I like that it sounds pretty dramatic by the end. 5:07-5:22: Outro! Piano part is actually based on yet another track from the OST ("Shock!!~Despair"), but it was a very small quote so I didn't feel like adding it to the list. I believe it's also featured as the Game Over theme so it was a fitting end. Hope you like it!

Contact Information Username: timaeus222 Name: Truong-Son Nguyen http://soundcloud.com/timaeus222 https://timaeusmusic.com/ - NEW DOMAIN AYO ID: 24526 Submission Information Games: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky ReMix Title: The True Final Fight! Consoles/Platforms: Nintendo DS OST Composers: Arata Iiyoshi, Hideki Sakamoto, Keisuke Ito, Kenishi Saito, Yoshihiro Maeda Source Tunes: "Vast Ice Mountain Peak", "Dialga's Fight to the Finish!" (attached) ReMix: - MP3 - WAV Comments: Something I had been meaning to do for a while was to load some good music into my phone, and among those included the Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky OST. One night, I had that on shuffle and randomly came across 'Vast Ice Mountain Peak' and started jamming to it (this is the theme that plays during the 5th Special Episode dungeon). I also recently have been watching videos from 8-bit Music Theory, and the one about how Octopath Traveler music changes keys was on my mind (I highly recommend you check that out!), so I latched onto that aspect of 'Vast Ice Mountain Peak' (0:36 - 1:11), and the gears were turning (see what I did there?). From what I gathered, 'Vast Ice Mountain Peak' seems to dance between two keys that are a perfect 4th apart (something Octopath Traveler does a lot), and bounces two different motifs off of each other (one that rises and one that falls), which both maintain their intervals in the new key. There were also cool descending chord progressions which still manage to return to the original key. So, the main thing I did at 0:35 - 1:10 is riff on those two motifs, but in a different sequence/structure than in the original. I also used the 'Time Gear' motif from 'Dialga's Fight to the Finish!' as a hook (1:11 - 1:28, 2:31 - 2:48) that was layered with the chorus (1:28 - 1:46, 2:48 - 3:06), mixing in a few other lines from that song (EX: 1:06 - 1:10). I kept the general structure from the original for the most part, at the climax (1:46 - 2:31), because it was just too good. Among the tools I used were the usual culprits --- Zebra2 primarily (pads, bass, arps, leads), with accomplices being Super Audio Cart (flute), Resonance: Emotional Mallets (Pipeharp), Juggernaut: Cinematic Electronic Scoring Tools (sweeps/risers), and Black Octopus Leviathan (drums/sweeps). I also utilized stuff from kiloHearts Essentials (Bitcrush + Ring Modulation on the drums), as well as SNESVerb (on the snare). One of the notable things I did from the sound design side was automate the ring modulation frequency on a snare to create that sweep at 0:26, something I picked up from zircon's Arcology livestream in Mar 2023. In a way, this immersive take actually hearkens back to an old submission I sent in to OCR regarding 'Dialga's Fight to the Finish', wayyy back in 2010, but dramatically improves upon it in a harmonically-striking fashion. This now became probably one of my personal favorite ReMixes I've ever done! With that, I hope you enjoy, Pokémon fans! Extra Info: Source Breakdown: 0:00.00 - 0:35.59 = Vast Ice Mountain Peak + rhythmic variation (0:00.00 - 0:35.59) 0:35.59 - 1:04:21 = Vast Ice Mountain Peak riffing (0:35.59 - 1:11.15) 1:04.21 - 1:11.15 = Dialga's Fight to the Finish riffing (0:11.35 - 0:16.13, 1:05.08 - 1:08.32) 1:11.15 - 1:46.71 = Dialga's Fight to the Finish Hook + Chorus (0:19.89 - 0:39.36, 0:00.00 - 0:16.13) 1:46.71 - 2:31.15 = Vast Ice Mountain Peak Climax (1:11.15 - 1:55.58) 2:31.15 - 3:06.71 = Dialga's Fight to the Finish Hook + Chorus (0:19.89 - 0:39.36, 0:00.00 - 0:16.13) 3:06.71 - 3:24.50 = Dialga's Fight to the Finish Outtro (0:19.89 - 0:39.36) 35.59 + 28.62 + 44.44 = 108.65/216.67 = 50.15% Vast Ice Mountain Peak 6.94 + 35.56 + 35.56 + 17.79 = 95.85/216.67 = 44.24% Dialga's Fight to the Finish!

Sean Tartaglia https://vocesnaturalis.com/ Pokemon Stadium 2 Lil Cup Little Cup Battle Hajime Wakai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C2EfU1s0t4 I originally did this arrangement around January 2019, if I remember correctly. I made a new mix in March of this year that's floating around on youtube, but when I went back to it a few months ago I felt it was too thin and wanted to do an overhaul, so if the result is well received, this is the definitive version in my mind. I wanted the drums, bass, and horns to be much thicker and crispier, so I tweaked the EQ slightly and fattened up the horns. I also doubled up the horns and panned the doubles the opposite direction of the original, which gives the stabs more piercing power. I slightly lowered the reverb, but I kept the super super slight slapback delay as it was, which I think compensates for them being a bit drier. The baritone hits like a truck now, and oh man, it really fills out the sound. Pushing these up also ups the saturation, which makes it much more tight and crunchy now. The biggest risk is riding the loudness wars line, but I think pushing it to where the signal starts to fuzz gives it a bit of the edge the old mix needed. The bass is pretty much 1:1, with some fills here and there, because it really holds the original track together. A lot of the elements of the original track are hyper hard panned, which gives that groove a lot of weight, and Hajime Wakai shoved it way up in the original mix to the point it's really a counter melody. The original track had a deep, very wide ebass, courtesy of my favorite electric organ emulation, Lazysnake, but I recently grabbed the great JP-8P emulation, the PG-8X, to use some classic roland sounds, and the old b3 preset on that thing is really punchy, which pierces through the mix better than the lazysnake, which muddied up the low end more. The drums are also much tighter, though I didn't do much more than trim the EQ for the cymbals a bit more so the snare would pop a bit more in the mix, then threw some final EQ on the master bus to crisp up the cymbals at around 8kHz, shelf the bass at the sub 100Hz range while highlight the bass above 100Hz. It's a bit closer to that position in the mix drums would be in 60s rock, funk and soul (my favorite music aside from grindcore :p), so I think it works out nicely. Pumping these up also lets the organ and guitar feel much more like they're floating through the mix, a sort of quality where the main melody points weave in and out of the overall mix, kind of like peeking through the harmony rather than standing on top of it. I wanted to play the guitar part intially, but I never really got around to setting up a studio environment, so the samples will have to do. If I did I'd probably give it a bit more grit and the attack might be more pronounced... my first love is surf rock, and my favorite players are mclaughlin and bloomfield, so I guess in your mind you can swap the chorusy sound of the samples with something that has a bit more bite (I used to get called out for this a lot when I played at jazz clinics back in the day, no one liked my tone :p). Maybe I'm going crazy, but since 2019 I've gone through so many mixes of this track that I've started to question myself about if what I even like in the mix is what I hear when listening to other music. I mean, I know what I want, but I seem to keep making the mistake of comparing my sound with others and thinking it's inherently deficient. Then, when I start to feel that it's all wrong and I need to rework everything, when I go back and listen a few days later, I hate it and instinctively go back to the mixdown I originally did before the I made those changes. I just want this track to be out of my life, so it can be judged by an ear other than my own, otherwise I won't be able to get over this, and I'll keep mixing it forever. Hopefully people like it, otherwise I really did just waste all that time tweaking everything for nothing.

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp https://www.youtube.com/@RebeccaETripp/videos ID: 48262 Game(s): Threads of Fate Song Title: Birth of Knowledge Songs Remixed: Book of Cosmos Here’s a link to the file: This is my second "Threads of Fate" aka "Dewprism" arrangement. It's a remix of "Book of Cosmos", originally composed by Junya Nakano. While I'm a fan of Nakano's style, and this game's entire OST, for some reason, I've rarely gotten around to doing covers for ToF! So, this was a nice change of pace! The vibe and instrumentation was heavily inspired by various SimCity OSTs! This track was nominated and voted for by my patrons on Subscribestar. If you'd like to have some influence on what music and other projects I create each month, you can subscribe to me as well. Here's a link: https://www.subscribestar.com/rebeccaetripp