Liontamer

And who are you? The thread police?

If you read Shael's post in the beginning of the thread, this mix did not break the urban theme. Shael said he realized through this mix that the concept of "urban" was even broader than he realized.

The file: ReMixer name: ekikoo Name of game(s) arranged: TMNT 2 - The Arcade Game Name of individual song(s) arranged: -Burning Building -Freeway -Technodrome -Sewers (nes) -Boss music -Krang -Shredder Additional information about the game: Composer: Keizou Nakamura System: NES, Arcade Link to the original soundtrack: Own comments: First I decided to make guitar based versions from some of the songs heard in the NES game TMNT2. After hearing what the game sounds like on arcade platform I took some elements from there too. The only problem with these compositions is the short lenght and the endless looping, which gave me the idea to string them up into a medley-ish form. Recording and mixing was done with Cubase SX2, synths use free VST instruments like Synth1, Organized Trio and some General MIDI-based sounds. I recorded guitars with Boss GT-8's S/PDIF-connection. It's pretty hard to get state-of-the-art sounds with my gear, but I tried my best since I'm new to mixing. I'm pretty pleased with the playing, there are some crunchy grooves in there but the lead parts could have used more vibrato. ------------------------------------------------------------- I FTPed the arcade soundtrack versions of the sources, so check that out as well if you'd like. As mentioned in the sub letter, the version of the game being mixed is the NES version, and the Sewers theme is exclusive to the NES version. http://akumunsf.good-evil.net/T/Teenage%20Mutant%20Ninja%20Turtles%202%20-%20The%20Arcade%20Game.nsf - Tracks 109 (Burning Building) [:01-:52], 114 (Freeway) [:52-2:12], 117 (Technodrome) [2:12-3:01], 111 (Sewers) [3:01-3:43], 96 (Boss) [3:43-4:12], 99 (Krang) [4:12-4:50] & 97 (Shredder) [4:50-6:03], 106 [6:06-6:18] The performance was a little too loose, but that negative would have been offset by deeper textures. As is, the bassline, cymbals, and occasional countermelodies had no presence, so the lead sounded really lonely and made the overall treatment of the themes feel too stripped down, IMO. The drums alone didn't adequately flesh out the background, leaving the soundfield relatively sparse and empty. Pad it out with something. The drum writing had some decent fills, but generally was too plain and basic during the verses. Spice it up more and take it to another level. Arrangement-wise, some pretty straightforward rock adaptations pieced together with little-to-no transitions. The lack of cohesive transitions from source to source prevented this from having a great flow. Some areas seemed fine (:52, 3:43, 6:03), some changes were too jarring (2:12, 4:50), and some weren't terrible but weren't great (3:01, 4:12). Fun stuff, and performed fairly well, but didn't apply much interpretation or development to any of the themes beyond the genre adaptation. After "Freeway", 1:40-1:57 had some soloing over the top of the backing writing of that source, before going back into the chorus, but there weren't any other major moments like that. You can apply the criticisms here to this piece or future submissions, but for a medley like this to pass, the themes need to be interpreted more substantively, they need to be cohesively pieced together, the mixing needs to not marginalize your supporting instruments, and the soundscape needs to sound fuller. NO

Attached is a submission of mine called Snowboardin' Sonic My ReMixer name is: Willrock07 My real name is William Harby The game arranged in my remix is: Sonic the hedgehog 3 The individual song arranged is: Ice Cap Zone Ok, I have done some research into production and arrangement and have been using the WIP forum to improve the quality of my remixes. This is the subsequent result. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for your time. --------------------------------------------------------------- http://project2612.org/download.php?id=61 - IceCap Zone 1 The synth at :06 was on the generic side, but not a huge deal, as it was gone quickly. :12 brought in the opening part of the melody. The soundscape was murky, but fairly purposeful. While some of the higher-pitched stuff was pretty loud, the overall levels still felt pretty quiet. The source melody at :25 played it straightforward, but then moved into some original stuff from :38-:53 over the arranged backing writing. 1:04 had a good dropoff, followed by more soloing style writing from 1:17-1:30, then a quieter original section until 1:43, followed by more synth soloing style stuff until 2:22 finally went back to the source. 2:23 built up into another iteration of the theme at 2:35 that was a bit more personalized, but basically the same ideas as before for altering the melody and leading back into the original writing on top of the source bassline at 2:47. Got more original writing over the source bassline from 3:01-3:27. I would have made the bassline a little louder so it played a more integral role, but no big deal. Nice ending at 3:27 with some interesting effects. The overall dynamics were alright, though running with basically 2 drum patterns made the track feel too similar throughout, and the arrangement dragged some despite being only 3 1/2 minutes. I also think you need to use the IceCap theme more prominently here. The original sections were cool and pieced together well with the IceCap melody, but you focused too much on original stuff over the bassline rhythm from the source, and not enough on creatively arranging the core ideas from the IceCap theme. The parts that used the IceCap melody itself weren't hugely interpretive and were exceptionally brief compared to everything else in the song. Nonetheless, I thought the overall energy and mood managed to be good. Good base so far. You've already come a pretty good ways. This wasn't borderline-level close to passing, IMO, but as long as you keep working towards improvement, you have the potential to be a consistent contributor based on this. Keep working on it if you'd like to take another stab at it, William. NO (resubmit)

Remixer Name: The Vagrance Real Name: Samuel Day E-mail: Samuel.Day@gmail.com Website: www.myspace.com/flimusicparty UserID: 15461 Name of Game: Chrono Trigger (I know...I know....) Name of Song: Corridor of Time. Comments: I've always wanted to do a DnB remix of this song, and this is not my first attempt as there has been at least 4 other start-ups that totally sucked. I really felt going a liquid/atmospheric route would be best simply because that means I don't have to devote half my time to the bassline. Plus it gives me an excuse to use the hotpants loop which is about as close to pixie dust a drum loop can get. I could explain some of my choices made in the song, but I've always been told that if I have to explain a part of the song for others to like it, then I didn't do my job. If this doesn't pass the panel though, give me a chance to explain some parts of the song out to you guys -------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Corridors of Time" (ct-304.spc) Interesting intro. Time warp, indeed. Things picked up at :22. Not sure where the original writing added in from :43-1:01 was going. Apparently nowhere. 1:17 briefly alluded to the main melody. I wasn't sure about the weird synth brought in at 1:28, but it definitely contributed to the eerie nature of the track. The writing underneath the chorus from 2:12-2:23 didn't seem to be in the right key with the Time Circuits melody; maybe that's just me. The cymbal shots at 2:50 & 4:41 decayed too quickly, IMO. The overall mixing was a little muddy, but things were aight. 3:01 featured some spoken word sampling Phil Borges. There was a seemingly unintentional skip/pop in the vocals at 3:23 (can you fix that?), but otherwise a cool addition. Wouldn't have minded them a little less buried in spots, but the stylistic choice was perfectly fine. I could make out the major majority of what was said without having Borges' speech in front of me. Probably the only major thing that got to me and made the mix drag was the DNB beatwork feeling too repetitive, which ended up being a dealbreaker. There were some dropoffs of the beatwork, so there were some more pronounced instances of dynamic contrast. But oftentimes, I felt like that drumloop was getting killed out there. You were leaning on that loop too hard and it made the energy level and creativity of the beefier sections seem too static to me, as it actually ended up compressing (so to speak) the dynamic range of the foreground writing. If you really like that breakbeat pattern that much, perhaps use 1 or 2 different effects on it within the course of the track (e.g. :10-:21) or come up with some slightly different rhythms. I could see this getting some YESs, and I otherwise liked the overall arrangement, so I almost went that way, but I'd like to see something done with the beatwork to not let this one inadvertently drag out. Great potential here. If this isn't the one, just keep at it, because you're going in the right direction, bro. NO (refine/resubmit)

Man, I'd say bundle the best into an digital EP, have a visual artist remix the Origins album cover, and $ with all the dudes getting their cut, because most of these winners are sick. I thought the vocals in ChRoNiC's were mixed too low, so it was hard to fully appreciate the effects on 'em. But otherwise, ridiculously awesome. Even if you don't do it for $, get this organized as a formal package and release it yesterday.

Contact Information Remixer Name: Jennerstein Real Name: Jared Ong E-mail address: jaredong@gmail.com Website: www.jongmusic.com Userid: 24986 Submission Inforrmation Name of Mp3 submission: City Corner Lullaby Name of Game Arranged: Final Fantasy VI Name of Individual Song Arranged from Game: Kids Run Through City Corner Comments: Having heard both McAffe's arrangement and Uematsu's piano arrangement of the piece, I tried to compose this lullaby arrangement as a homage. My intent was to add a quiet slightly lilting feel by altering the melody in places (making it a bit more melodic) and making subtle changes to the chord progressions. My harmonic modifications are mostly found in the A section of the piece, as a walking a bass line down from the root. Originally, I planned on making more extensive chord modifications to the B section, but my attempts took the flow away from the piece and I kept the the main chord pattern intac instead. The mix was made using a Motif ES6, and ProTools. I'm a keyboard, so I played the piece directly into ProTools and made final tweaks and edits on the midi notes itself. Thank you, Jared -------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff6 - "Kids Run Through the City" (ff6-120.spc) Piano tone was on the thin side and exposed the fakeness of the sound a bit, but on the whole it was fine and held up nicely throughout the listen. Heard a light click/pop at 1:46. There's clearly personalization to the arrangement, but the overall feel was still pretty conservative IMO. It's not that the piece was arranged or produced poorly; far from it. But it didn't particularly distinguish itself to me as a unique piano interpretation of the theme; rather it sounded like a fairly boilerplate piano arrangement. Without implying that you need to go full-on towards a hugely interpretive arrangement, Jared, this could have interpreted the theme more thoroughly and integrated more ideas of yours to further brand this as a unique interpretation. I've got no hate here, and it could just be me not quite feeling this yet, so good luck with the rest of the vote. Even if this doesn't make it, you've clearly got an ear for arranging, Jared, and I'm glad you found out we weren't just a MIDI site. Whichever way this goes, it's a solid piece of music, and I hope we hear a lot more from you! NO (resubmit)

This is the mixed version of our "Still Alive" arrangement as performed in our Spring '08 concert. The link to the MP3 and song information are as follows: Remix Name: Live from [sUBJECT HOMETOWN HERE] Remixer Name: Gamer Symphony Orchestra Games Arranged: Portal, PC, 2007 Individual Songs Arranged: Still Alive Email Address: UMDGSO@gmail.com Website: www.umgso.com Comments: GLaDOS, the artificial intelligence who serves as the antagonist of Valve's "Portal", is unique in the depth and complexity of her personality: She is split up among a number of different personality "cores", all of which conspire to create her character. GLaDOS, voiced by opera singer Ellen McLain, is also unusual in that she was called upon to sing "Portal"'s closing song, "Still Alive", written by Popular Science's "Contributing Troubadour" Jonathan Coulton. We decided to explore GLaDOS' manifold personality through our orchestra's own sonic diversity, letting "Still Alive" meander through a variety of different sound worlds, each shedding its own light on the Coulton's infectious melodies and on GLaDOS' elusive nature. This song was recorded live at the Gamer Symphony Orchestra's Spring Concert on May 13th, 2008. For more details, please visit our website at www.umgso.com . Please let us know if we need to set anything else up (remixer profile, etc) before you make your decision. Thanks! -Justin Johnston Advertising/PR Officer University of Maryland Gamer Symphony Orchestra ------------------------------------------------------------ This is only the second Portal submission we've ever received. The first one, it didn't make the panel and you really don't wanna hear it, I assure you. Sucks if that guy eventually reads this somehow. Portal (Game Rip) - "Still Alive" Really cool to have witnessed this live at the University of Maryland. Since Jen Johnston's lead vocals were obscured too much in the live performance, I made sure to tell Chris Apple to just make sure those vocals were loud and clear in the released version and to make sure to send this over! In the post-production, I would've made Jen's vocals a little less dry, but not a huge deal there. The whole thing was a little quiet actually, but was still mixed reasonably well; it was just a lot beefier to hear in person. The lead vocal mic also needed a pop shield, but it didn't majorly hurt the overall product. Everything after 1:15 sealed that this wasn't just going to be a straightforward orchestral cover. A bit rough around the edges, but an overall strong live performance full of good unorthodox ideas befitting a truly unorthodox source tune. Awesome way to cap off the night by the GSO. Thanks so much to Justin and the entire GSO for inviting djp and myself to check this out. Some of the performances were pretty spotty to start the show out, but overall they did a good job and showed off the strength and potential of the Gamer Symphony Orchestra concept, something I'm surprised no one else at the university level has really tried to push, since it's clearly a hell of a lot of fun. Clearly when you want the first Portal mix on the site, you gotta do it big. YES

I think Andy's post in the rejection of "Amazon's Afterwork" made a good point in that, assuming the % source usage is cool, it's not just about the source usage, but how it's used in relation to other wholly original parts. My reasoning on this one ends up being the same as zircon's on that one. In this case, we all heard the usage of the chords, but they imply rather than show and that's just not good enough for me to satisfy both "identifiable and dominant" usage of the source. People talk about context, which is fine. The issue with that is the potentially slippery slope of "context" where one can now use a lot less of the overt pieces of the source tune and then merely use chords to allude to it and "make up the difference." Will wait to hear what Malcos and zircon end up saying. Though song quality is not what this debate represents, I'm sure once the thread goes out that some people will be ignorant (read: stupid) and believe the entire debate was an argument on whether OC ReMix thought this mix was good or bad. I'm looking forward to it!

No fan-made torrent yet, but most removed stuff is here: http://www.doulifee.com/Storage/OC_Removed/

I liked it too. Too bad the arrangement structure was mostly derived from a VGMusic MIDI.

Yeah, I already knew about that one. Dunno when we'll redo the 1-1000 torrent though. That'll eventually be fixed. Thanks for the reminder!

It has no effect, as it is massive. Larger than entire continents.

I agree with you!

We might as well be OnlyChords ReMix at this point.

You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog You're A Man Now, Dog

Sure, it's 5 years old, so it's technically not representative of the bar, but even so, the main 3-note pattern of the synth at :25 is taken from the Brinstar melody, and that's present for most of the mix as the foundation. I already signed off on this back when I helped do Lockdown 1250. Liberal, absolutely, but I don't see why you needed to bring it up as something that wouldn't make it now, when there's no issue. Right, but you know just as well as I do that when we signed up for this, we're here to at least do our best to be objective about a subjective art. Obviously, we can't be 100% objective, but we can do our best to be. It's my job to generally put feelings aside, and, when it's dicey, to get detailed and work from there. In terms of overt source use, I'm not trying to be the timestamp robot. But it's very important, in trying to be fair across the board to every single artist, to have an objective cutoff point. When you say 40% usage could potentially be good enough for one genre but NOT good enough for another, that's exactly what's unfair and inconsistent with that kind of standard. And yeah, for this particular mix, we're actually now into a subjective argument on said "objective" cutoff point, i.e. whether those solos over the chords are substantive enough. But I'd rather start from a fixed point and argue around that, instead of a ridiculous and arbitrary free-for-all where 33% use is OK for one guy, 25% for another, 50% for me, 45% for that guy, and 40% for someone else. It's a terrible precedent when the VGM is potentially used for only the minority of the track, there's no clear basis on what's enough, and then it simply boils down to "does judge X like listening to it or not?" That level of subjectivity should not be part of this process if we're to claim and believe we're fair to everyone who submits to this process.

http://www.ocremix.org/info/Frequently_Asked_Questions#How_do_I_get_the_ReMixes.3F

Lollerskates. Nothing wrong with proving the source usage is actually dominant. luv u 2

I don't see anything good about not explaining oneself. Too much "feeling," not enough justification. New judges: It's always better to explain why you're YES or NO, for the benefit of the other judges, the submitting artist and anyone else who may read what you say.

The OneUps Mustin, Anthony Lofton, Jared Dunn, Greg Kennedy, William Reyes, Tim Yarbrough contact@theoneups.com www.theoneups.com Street Fighter II Sagat This is off of our newly released Volume 2 album. I added our arrangement to the Bad Dudes' "Thai Guy" compilation for the heck of it since we were already doing it. If accepted please promote The OneUps Volume 2 by sending people to www.theoneups.com and to www.oneupstudios.com/ous_005.php. Thank you! -m Mustin Manager The OneUps www.TheOneUps.com Contact@TheOneUps.com ------------------------------------------------------------ http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=sf2 - "Sagat Stage" (sf2-21.spc) Could go either way on this. Sounded pretty cover-ish. The melody and countermelody were pretty straightforward, but there was new part-writing in the background. Though I liked the new stuff added on top, the arrangement dragged for me on the 3rd playthrough of the theme at :52. After the 4th iteration, we hit a good original section at 1:29. Loved the rhythmic change to the Sagat bassline at 1:48, a really nice touch. Heard a quick improv riff based of the Sagat theme from 2:14, which was also nice; loved that whole section. 2:37 retread the previous arrangement ideas with some minor changes. If the first minute and a half of the song wasn't basically that same section several times over, I would have been perfectly down with that close. Cool track, and it's live and skillfully performed the entire way, but looking at it vs. other stuff we've passed, to me this ultimately seemed repetitive and underdeveloped as an interpretation. It's a cool cover and the soloing was sexy, so, in a vacuum, I love the track. I own Volume 1 and I'm buying Volume 2 down the line, but at the same time, I can't sign off on this one. No hate on a YES, but objectively speaking I've gotta go NO. I'd love to promote Volume 2 via a ReMix release, as was Mustin's intention, but it's probably gotta be via a different piece. :'-( NO (resubmit)

Rozovian ad.rozovian@gmail.com #21613 "Eat Your Own Dust" F-Zero (snes) Red Canyon This was a track I've had on my mind for a while, and had worked out the melodies months before inspiration struck. When it did I pieced the whole thing together in a couple of days. Then it took me a lot of tweaks and exports (mostly exports), and then... here it is. I got some crucial feedback on the #ocrwip channel, Tensei-San deserves a particular mention in the submission letter. For anyone needing help, music critique, or general feedback, use the channel. -rho --------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=fz - "Red Canyon" (fz-03.spc) Yeah, I remember giving comments on the WIP. Good stuff so far. The background of the theme was brought in at :06 and faded up nicely, adding in some beats at :35. After the beats came in, and the stuttering synth didn't stand out anymore, I realized the overall sound quality was a lot murkier than the WIP I last heard. Didn't seem like a huge enough problem to criticize until the lead came in at 1:09. The synth lead for the melody at 1:09 was getting obscured thanks to the cluttered mixing. Interesting use of what sounded like a repurposed guitar synth. Cool stuff at 1:50 with the liberal arrangement on top of the source's beat pattern, though the lead was arguably a bit shrill. Not a big deal, but you may want to touch that up. Nice dropoff of the beats from 2:51-3:26. The key change at 3:26 wasn't a bad idea in principle, but at this point the arrangement should offer something different/contrasting rather than basically going back to same ideas and structure. I liked the very ending though, the last few seconds were a good close. The production could stand to be refined a little, but was good overall; just needs some tweaks. The arrangement and dynamics were pretty good, but I'd argue the length doesn't justify the overall repetition from 3:26-4:53/end. One could argue this could have wrapped up around 3:26. Besides the key change, the arrangement felt like an extended dose of more of the same (melodic arrangement, beats, tempo, dynamic changes) and dragged as a result. We'll see how the others feel though. Definitely a strong effort, with some interpretive ideas. Beyond the repetition concerns, just touch up the production so there's less clutter, and this could be good to go. NO (refine/resubmit)

We'll definitely contact the mixer to find out more, but if he had the original MOD file (and that is out there because I used to have it), he probably wouldn't need to timestretch stuff. He could deconstruct it however he wanted and do new effects, same as sampling an NSF or SPC.

You have to create your own sounds and those sounds need to sound distinct enough/unique enough from the original to stand on their own. Even if everything using the source tune was recreated from the ground up here, he might as well have used the MOD, since the sounds and even some of the effects would have been copied to ape the original. The same way if someone wrote their own NSF and made the Mario "Overworld BGM" as close to the original as possible, they might as well have not made it. I'm not trying to sound absolutist about it, but the opening of this track seemingly gives away that it's sampled. Definitely open to more POVs or I wouldn't have paneled this and asked for confirmation.

IMO the backing writing from 2:09-2:34 is too different from the source. Compare it to :39-1:05 of "Cyan," just voices 6 & 8 of the SPC, the low strings and drums. Saying it's acceptable source usage just because of the chord connection is too dicey. Listening again, I'll totally give it up to 3:14-3:34, as it's the string & drum notes without the stutter, so that's a lot more direct. My fault for missing those. But even claiming both sections were OK and adding the additional time Palp could have handed out, this track still wouldn't be over 50% source usage by a couple seconds. And I'll go more liberal for the riff at 4:15-4:20, which puts it up to about 41.4% overt source usage. Not to insult, but when you go YES and shrug it off with "I don't specifically care what's there or for how long, it sounds similar, so I feel it's OK," it's not objective enough or displaying any kind of consistency that can be carried from vote to vote. Most of the soloing (1:45-2:09, 2:34-3:02) happens over the writing from the mix's intro, which isn't from the source at all. How is that even connected enough? Someone needs to justify, in terms of theory and A-to-B connections from source to original, how the Cyan theme is used here the majority of the mix. This case isn't identical, but this seems like a similar situation to Villainelle's mix. There's a reason I stick to 50% overt source usage as a cutoff point, and it's because 1) the source music being tributed the majority of the time needs to be paramount and 2) not declaring a cutoff point and allowing feelings, whims and personal preference to justify anything from 33%-49% adds too much subjectivity and bias to the process. We need to be fair not just to one submitter, but, by extension, to everyone else who submits their music. I'd rather argue around whether or not something makes the 50% mark than trivialize how much actual VGM needs to be involved.