Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

F-Zero GX/AX Original Soundtracks - (224) "ZEN (Aeropolice)" The pads were a bit too murky/saturated for my tastes, but that's a delicate balance, and this was fine as is. The belltones-type leads were a little trebly, but I liked the writing on them. The synth lead at 1:08 was something I'd expect from the Japanese arrangement, though a note went sour at 1:22 as it modulated. Also thought the writing was odd from 1:30-1:34, 1:39-1:42, 1:47-1:50, and, to a lesser extent, 3:28-3:30. You were trying to alter that melody, but it didn't click to me at all, same as AnSo noticed. To me, that's a one of those small yet jarring/dealbreaker-level issues that's reasonably fixable. I'm gonna push for the fix. Arrangement-wise, solid; I was definitely enjoying the groove laid out here, as you retained the melody and rhythms of the original while going for a much more subdued take. Like AnSo said, there could have been beats or something else added, but that would change the character of the mix in a way that's not necessary. Fix up those odd notes and you're good, otherwise it's a NO. YES (conditional) EDIT (11/3): After letting this one marinate for a while (this one's great to put on repeat, IMO), I'm used to the odd notes, and ultimately they're fine. I'll live, so funk it, though I can definitely see why I reacted so strongly on the first listen; the notes really stand out the first few times. However, it's not worth a conditional vote over a small detail that became a non-issue upon repeated listens, so I'm fully in support of this one. YES

Thanks for not capitalizing the C in OverClocked in that sig banner, Andrew.

Yeah, I agree on all those levels regarding the dark color scheme of the lists and was thinking the same things (doesn't match the other areas) as well last night. Unless the rest of the site is getting modified on this level, which I don't believe is the case, I'd rather see the light color scheme back in place. Dave mentioned to me he liked some of Shadow Wolf's comments regarding the screenshots, and I agreed that the games list looks too cold as well. The headshots of the various composers is a good example of how another area was spiced up, so it makes sense to bring back the screenshots as descriptors for the games as well, which also looks more consistent overall.

Uh, no you haven't. ReMixer. Just like it says below every ReMixer's name in their posts.

I'm not saying it's a moot point, but Nintendo's own PR says that the DSi is meant as a supplement and not as a replacement. Grab dat money!

Yeah, seems like a mistake offhand, but perhaps there's more to it. Hopefully. Reverse compatibility is pretty important. Then again, I suppose they figure the DS catalog is deep enough now, and frankly, most people buying the DSi are just upgrading and would still have an earlier incarnation to use for GBA games. Exploitative, sure, but there's not gonna be an uproar, so what of it? Wasn't really much in the vid that interested me directly, as I'm not into those saccharine-looking Japanese characters shown in, what, 40-50% of the footage. Nice Mario arrangement in Wii Music though; definitely looking forward to hearing the full cut on that one.

Not to say the idea won't be considered, but the explanation on what's currently in place is that they use the same shorthand names used in the database.

I think that thread got pruned. We'll catch up on associating ReMixes with songs down the line, but it's admittedly not a huge priority. As far as adding new songs, most games lacking song names are from games with no formal soundtrack releases and no way to extrapolate formal titles for the tracks. We'll may eventually institute something that compensates for that by simply allowing unofficial track titles, so definitely feel free to banter some ideas on that level.

You're lucky I saw this.

Amber of Nerve.com felt this was a winner. Congrats, guys! http://www.nerve.com/CS/blogs/61fps/archive/2008/09/30/what-s-in-my-mp3-player-castlevania-ii-quot-castle-of-tears-quot.aspx

He does.

Contacted the artist to double check if any sources were used beyond the Halo theme; activated his forum account weeks ago, BTW - LT Remixer: "Sweendrix" Real Name: John Sweeney Email: Sweendrix@yahoo.com Website: www.youtube.com/sweendrix User ID: Sweendrix Original Game Arrangement: Halo Series in Acid Rock/Electronica Format Name of Song Arrangement linked here: Dawn of a New Age: 2nd Movement (*Dawn of a New Age recieved over 50,000 hits overall online between Youtube Video, Myspace Video, and Aol Video) P.S. I have joined OcRemix.org because I am a passionate gamer and even more passionate musician. I am running into problems when I try to post, specifically, it seems that I am not allowed to post. I would very much like to join this community and have much that I can offer. Any information on what I must do would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy the original music I have provided. It was done completely with leg work...all guitar parts, bass parts, and keys were played for the entirety of the song by Sweendrix. LT EDIT (10/6): Source info from the artist. It is an original blend of the original chant from the first halo, as well as "Unforgotten" from Halo 2 and 3, accompanied by several new takes on various dynamic elements from the games soundtracks. This is actually part two of a three part series...that I have entitled "Dawn of a New Age." The third movement...is coming along really well, but i'm not really posting it anywhere, as it is mostly an original piece and is written around an idea I have for a film set inside the Halo Universe.

These are in-game tracks with negligible changes. I'm not seeing the point in listening to these over original tracks. Seriously, what is the point of these?

Remix Name: Symphony of the Angel Remixer Name: DJ Mana Real Name: Mike Astarb Email: manamaniac@gmail.com or ma14133@students.salisbury.edu Website: manamniac.newgrounds.com User ID: 25270 Game: Secret of Mana (SNES) Songs: Angel's Fear, Close Your Eyes Genre: Classical Comments: This song was made using Finale and Adobe Soundbooth CS3. I've been listening to a lot of remixes for about 6 years now and after seeing the panel at Otakon 2008 I decided that I'd get going on my own remix. This is the first song I'll have submitted to OCRemix but I've had a bit of expreience submitting some of my earlier work to newgrounds. -------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for attending the Otakon panel, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I hope to be there myself next year! http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=sd2 - "Angel's Fear" (sd2-01.spc) & "Close Your Eyelids" (sd2-44.spc) Not sure what was up with the first 45 seconds or so. Seemed like it was meant to be the players tuning, but the constant pregnant pauses just sound awkward because there was no room ambiance. The "Angel's Fear" section was adapted well for small orchestra, but try to offer more interpretation ideas within that. 2:32 used "Close Your Eyelids" for the finish, although the way it was arranged wasn't particularly melodious, IMO. The ending at 3:00 was extremely anti-climactic; not really any resolution to speak of. Good stuff for a first sub, but not cohesive enough yet. Develop the arrangement ideas further and throw in more interpretive ideas to give it more of your own voice. Also, refine the flow of the "Close Your Eyelids" section and give the piece a legit ending and you'd be in a lot better shape. Definitely hope you consider revisiting this, and hope to hear more from you. NO

Rozovian ad.rozovian@gmail.com #21613 "Beyond Velocity" F-Zero GX (Gamecube) Zen (Aeropolis) Shortly after finishing Eat Your Own Dust, I had the melody for Zen in my head. The source is actually really simple when you ignore all the effects. I just listened to it, extracted all the source elements I could find, and this is the result. A lot of tweaking went into it, so I'm really understanding the expression "10% inspiration, 90% perspiration". Once again, I got some help from the #ocrwip channel, tho the most helpful feedback came from the J's.

I remixed "The Battle Of Final Destiny" from Earthbound: Eponymized Alexis Gelinas alexis.gelinas@gmail.com myspace.com/finaltrespass 25573 Game: Earthbound Song: The Battle Of Final Destiny aka Giygas Battle Comments: This is my first remix, and I had a lot of fun making this song, but I don't particularly like the Earthbound soundtrack all that much. This song just happened to be a really catchy prog rock type and it was begging to be done. Hope you like it. ---------------------------------------------------------------- I'm assuming the first section of the source is straight from Mother. The rock section of the source arranged here kicks in at :52. Wow, that's really good for an SPC. http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=mo2 - "Pokey Means Business!" (mo2-129.spc) I liked the personalized approach to the performance to start, but the structure was basically verbatim with the source for a lot of this, which was a negative once the instrumentation went for heavy rock in a similar style with the original at 1:20. Gotta go beyond the cover route on that level. The mixing was on the sloppy side though (e.g. :31-:47, 1:19-2:41), and the stereo quality needed to be at 44kHz. 2:01-2:06 had really weak percussion. There was loads of needless distortion and clipping as well. Jesus, did this go through The Devil's Preamp? Man, I hope you got a decent master recording of this, because the volume and mixing on this render were fucked up. The opening started off hot, but the sound quality quickly went downhill once things got beefier. Too bad. NO

Contact Information * CrackMasterK * Kenneth Boxall * KennethBoxall@hotmail.com * www.vampirefreaks.com/cimmarian Submission Information * Castlevania * Vampire Killer * I wanted to compose somthing for everyone....here is my first attempt --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/download_file/8801 - Track 2 This went in a minimalist direction, generally provided by only two instruments at once at nearly any given time (three from 2:52-3:04), and altering the rhythms. Cool first effort, with some fairly solid sounds. The final section at 3:28 was a cut-and-paste from 1:18-1:42, which was a letdown. The very ending cut off in the middle of the last notes fading out, which was sloppy. Had there been more melodic interpretation beyond the rhythmic changes, I could have been down. The original writing additions fit fairly well here, but, as is, I still need some more arrangement substance with the melody, especially in the first half. Not sure if the other Js will be completely put off by the minimalism, but I thought it was a novel approach. See what more you do with this idea, Kenneth. It's a promising concept so far. NO (resubmit)

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17859 Hey judges, PrototypeRaptor aka Jonathan Paulsen here again.... so which one of you ordered the scrubbed up mix again? ...oh, right, all of you...(*backhanded*) I'll admit it, it was a pain to clean. BUT PAIN IS JUST WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY, and now I have a shiny new mix of phoenix wright that I hope does the source justice (haha). List o' changes: -Piano changed to a rhodes and humanized -Vinyl effect added to spots -mixing in general made less bass heavy -drum loops changed, more driving in verses -the awful string attacks are fixed and actually go in tempo with the music INFO: game: Phoenix Wright (original) source: Objection 2000! link: http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/ds/PWAA_Objection_v2.mid This is downtempo Trip Hop ala Massive Attack. It's dirty. It's low fi. It has a harpsichord AND a rhodes...and string stabs. The drums don't even try to be real. In fact, they mean not to. Did I mention the fuzz and noise? It's ridiculous. Unbearable. ...and I love it. thanks for listening, Jonathan Paulsen (PrototypeRaptor) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ha, the tone of the very first note in the intro instantly reminded me of The_Orders' "Jillian Goldin REMIX", so you ended up making me listen to that a few times instead of judging. Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten Original Soundtrack - (06) "Ryuichi Naruhodo ~ Objection! 2001" Definitely some substantial improvements. 1:31-2:14 was on the beefy side, and could be called cluttered, but I thought the separation of the parts was OK. 3:18-4:02 was cluttered as well, IMO. Wouldn't mind hearing better separation of those areas if it was something you'd be willing to revisit. The way the source theme was handed, it would play the first half of the verse, then do the second half in an ultra liberal way upfront. The harpsichord still played the straightforward melody in the back to keep things grounded, though it was fairly marginalized to me. Not a huge deal. Solid work, Jon. You've definitely made me flip, so nice work. You really addressed the issues here, and the arrangement was that much stronger as a result. YES

http://vgmdb.net/album/10507

Hello this is my epoch remix I called it 'Hypercorruptor' Contact Information Your ReMixer name glitshn (my account is edugeldres... Your userid 23998 Submission Information * Name of game(s) arranged chrono trigger * Name of individual song(s) arranged epoch ------------------------------------------------------------- Hyadain put me onto the strength of this theme, so I'm interested in what you got. http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Wings That Cross Time" (ct-310.spc) I could hear the arranged melody being used a bit during the intro, but it was so quiet, it was marginalized. 1:34-2:00 finally went into something more overtly melodic, but the lead was still extremely quiet. 2:00-2:28 used some generic drumloop, with the lead continuing to be buried. Push the melody more upfront. 2:28 finally hit the most overtly Chrono Trigger sounding stuff, with kind of a Phantasy Star Online vibe from the thick bassline. 2:54 went back to those drumloops, boo. 3:07-4:05 actually sounded really cool with some nice string accents; I could have seen Shna doing something like that if he took a slower-tempo approach. Too bad the mixing was so poorly balanced. Scrap the crappy default drumloops, ice some of the more nasally/abrasive synths and rebalance the parts porperly, and this could shine a lot brighter. Interesting ideas at the very least, Eduardo. Keep at it! NO

Just gotta get the guy to drop that n00b 07 stuff from the name - LT Remixer Name: Willrock07 Real Name: William Harby Email address: will.rock@hotmail.co.uk Userid number: 24181 Game Arranged: The Legend Of Zelda: Links Awakening Songs Arranged: Tal Tal Heights Mountain Range Legend Of Zelda Main Theme Name Of Submission: Mountain Of Dreams Own Comments: The Legend Of Zelda: Links awakening was the first game I played and completed so this game is very important to me as far as games and remixing game music goes for me. The loved the music from the game, but the stand-out track for me was tal tal mountain range, probably my favourite video game tune. When I started remixing video game music, I started with the tal tal mountain range, and this is my second attempt at the theme. It took me a month to get it right and I hope you agree it was worth it. I decided to call my remix 'Mountain of Dreams' I hope you enjoy this arrangement guys! ------------------------------------------------------------ The GBS set never works for me now, but I know both sources well enough. http://www.zophar.net/download_file/8106 - Tracks ? Definitely a marked improvement versus your other subs. The synth first used at 1:01 was piercing at times, and should have been pulled back. Moved over into "Tal Tal" at 1:16 with a fairly straightforward take, but some good personalization of the theme. Around the 2-minute mark, the main beatwork was plodding due to the repetition. I think if the volume was pulled back somewhat or tone of the beats was different, the repetition would have been marginalized. The break section from 2:20-2:33 felt aimless on the first listed, though it's not bad. Interesting call-and-answer style stuff from 3:32-3:44. The ending phrase at 4:21, I would have resolved differently at 4:27; what was in place now took a lot of steam out of the ending; I can hear the higher note that would have worked better in my head. The ending also cut off during the fade at 4:35, so that has to be fixed. No hate on the arrangement. IMO, the core beat pattern introduced at 1:11 overstayed its welcome, some melodic ideas could be tweaked to improve the flow, and some of the supporting instrumentation was marginalized, but the overall ideas and execution were both creative and solid. Dunno how the others will feel, but I definitely enjoyed the ideas here. The overuse of the core beat pattern hampered it, but otherwise very good stuff in terms of the melodic interpretation. I'm definitely looking forward to your continued improvement. YES

Of course not. That would mean it's video game music or something. In any case, the debate really should be about whether being able to articulate theory is critical to being a good musician. Good musicians have an intrinsic understanding of theory regardless. Not being able to articulate or understand theory literally limits the ability to communicate, but that's not part and parcel of being able to make good music as an individual.

Well, the way the argument's structured is intentionally and needlessly divisive. Music theory is excellent and a great tool, and also isn't mutually exclusive from enthusiasm, so it's not like they can't and don't coexist. That being said, you don't need to know or be able to articulate music theory to create good music, and I've heard music theory "experts" put out boring material. If you had to pick one, then enthusiasm wins, but I think it's short-sighted to, as your opposing POV implies, disregard the benefits of one side just to make the choice for the other. Especially if your choice is theory, which is the wrong choice. The moment one points out a successful composer without theory knowledge or the ability to write their own sheet music, your argument doesn't hold.

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17593 Remix: Yggdrasil Speaks To Me Remixer: Meteo X (or Meteo Xavier) I am resubmitting my remix of Valkyrie Profile's EPIC POEM TO SACRED DEATH and REQUIEM FOR A PREDICAMENT which also contains a leitmotif from THEME OF RENA. I have literally pushed my computer to its limits (in terms of memory and processing) to fix this as per the judge's suggestions and I think I got most of it down. The only part I'm not absolutely confident in is the string section using THEME OF RENA. I used every string instrument I had and that's the best I could come up with. Again, the central idea for this remix was to envision a mission of Valkyrie Profile where Lenneth and her Einherjar needing to find Yggdrasil in a forest surrounded by evil. She and her warriors get chased by the many evil spirits as she makes her way through the forest, getting hopelessly lost and starting to panic when, lo and behold, she stumbles onto Yggdrasil (marked by the change to REQUIEM FOR A PREDICAMENT). Therefore, again, this song is supposed to be a dark forest theme and I listened to a lot of Yasunori Mitsuda and tried to keep a lot of Motoi Sakuraba's signature song stuff (loud strings, loud crashes, overemphasis on dark sound and reverb and such) intact. I left the song trailing off from there to signify the end of a chapter. Thank you again for re-judging my re-submitted re-mix. --------------------------------------------------------------- I was OK on the arrangement before, so I'm not planning to say much on that level here. Nice work on this resub. Some parts felt a bit abrasive with the high end, but, overall, things were refined very nicely. The relatively rigid sequencing of the plucked string was positioned so that it didn't draw much negative attention from me. The writing and mixing from 2:23-2:49 could stand to be refined, as the timing seemed slightly off and the soundscape was too murky IMO. It's OK for the sounds to bleed together somewhat, but I thought it was a bit much there. Nonetheless, everything after that for the final section closed things out fine. The ending was anticlimatic, IMO, not for the fade, but just the overall energy and direction, but I'm more than cool with the overall package. Not quite seeing why this shouldn't make it, but if it doesn't, I think you've got things in place for an easy resub. Good luck with the rest of the vote. YES

Dear OCR Staff, Lasercat I here. I believe that it was fall of '06 when I first stumbled upon the thriving online community that is Overclocked ReMix; I instantly fell in love with the site. It wasn't too long before my friends and I formed a "band" with the intention of becoming a well-known contributor to the OCR archive. After a few months of busy high school schedules and procrastination, I feel that we've finally gotten our act together and are ready to truly become part of the site. Recently, we adapted the aspiration to create the first accepted submission for /Super Mario Galaxy/. The song in question is a mix of the /Battle Rock Galaxy/, entitled /Geo Logic/. It was made exclusively with Logic Express 8, but in the future we plan to use a combination of other programs (FL) as well. We hope that this will help The Lasercats make a good first impression on the rest of the community. Hope you enjoy it! Trevor Burch Lasercat I of the Lasercats ---------------------------------------------------------------- Super Mario Galaxy Original Soundtrack Platinum Version - (111) "Battlerock" The claps brought in alongside the beats at :42 sounded very flimsy, and the beatwork ended up sounding pretty basic and repetitive over the long haul. Develop the percussion writing some more. Don't mimic the original, but keep in mind how much more interesting that kind of drum writing is and spice yours up with some occasional deviations from the straightforward groove you have here. If you want to retain this groove, it might be as simple as adding in another supporting part to handle some fills. Wasn't feeling the sound choice of that warbling synth line in the background used around 1:23; it was OK relegated to the back, but didn't sound good upfront, IMO. Good use of volume and panning there though to really make it travel around the stereo field. A dealbreaker negative here was that the mixing was also very cluttered from 1:26-3:24. The ideas you use to play with the dynamics were good in principle, so look at doing more detailed EQ work to better separate the parts. 2:06-2:24 was particularly bad, and things didn't completely clear up until 3:24 when you dropped some elements out. The string articulations at 3:37 were flat out awful, and I say that as someone who enjoyed the potential of the piece. You can't let details like this slide; the strings didn't sound realistic in the slightest. Sour note from 3:41-3:42 as well. The strings didn't sound any more realistic at 3:50, but, by playing sustained notes, they functioned like a pad, downplaying the lack of realism. The sequenced acoustic guitar at 4:05 also sounded like MIDI-quality; again, totally unrealistic. We're not looking for uber-expensive sample quality, but you've gotta out more care into the velocities to at least sound realistically sequenced. The piano also could have been improved, but was less of an issue. Nice organic percussion stuff tastefully accenting the finish. A subtle touch that worked very nicely. Again, nice use of panning there. In principle, good instrumental variation ideas that freshened things up for the finish. I don't think this needs a major overhaul on the "Battlerock" melody, given the other efforts at personalizing the arrangement, but more melodic interpretation would definitely help this as you played the melody pretty straight the whole time. Also, spice up the percussion pattern and clean up that messy soundfield. You're clearly paying attention to some fine details, but that's not extending to the entire presentation yet; you've gotta focus like laz0r and get it to that level. Keep at it. NO (resubmit)