Liontamer

ReMixer name: XMark Real name: Mark Hall E-mail: xmark3@yahoo.com Website: http://abstract-productions.net/ userid: 13079 Name of game: Contra Name of individual song: Assault on Galuga An entry in the January 2008 Dwelling of Duels free month. A medley of several songs from the Contra soundtrack done in the style of an action movie soundtrack. ------------------------------------------------------- Along with Kidd Cabbage, Stemage, Chunkstyle and others, XMark was one of the guys I wish I got to meet more formally at MAGFest 6 a couple of months ago. Mark and I got to talk briefly, but hopefully at 7, I'll be able to hang more with him and a lot of great Shizzies. http://www.zophar.net/nsf/contra.zip - A bunch of 'em While the execution lacked on some levels, the writing was great, and showed off how surprisingly well Contra could be adapted to both orchestra and symphonic rock. I could be ignorant of some pro arrange albums doing it already, but I've never heard an approach like this. For the orchestral intro, the sample quality felt serviceable initially. Over time though, stuff like the extremely thin and fake-sounding brass and rigidness in some of the brass and string sequencing stuck out. The guitar joining in at 2:34 could have been better; the guitar performance felt a little sluggish from 2:45-2:52, not quite locking together with the other parts, and the parts should have been better separated to let the guitar shine through more when it was supposed to take the lead. I like how there was no fear from Mark going out of his musical "comfort zone" as it were and doing a lot of orchestration. With more experience under his belt, only obtained by continuing to do what he's doing, the execution on a concept like this would be deadly. Given stuff I've heard as far back as FF6 "Cyanide", I don't have any doubts that Mark could gradually take it his sequencing skills to that level with more trail and error. But as is, this absolutely solid arrangement could use some work with the sequencing and articulations on the strings and brass to achieve a more natural, human sound. You should definitely talk to anyone you know who could give you good tips on this and resubmit this; I'd love to see this up on the site in some form. It's really a sophisticated, unique take on Contra that just needs some TLC with the execution. NO (resubmit)

CONTACT INFORMATION: ReMixer Name - butterfliesforbreakfast Real Name - Tyler Esposito, Luke Odom Email Address - butterfliesforbreakfast@gmail.com Website - http://www.myspace.com/butterfliesforbreakfast User ID - 23408 SUBMISSION INFORMATION: Name Of Game - Super Mario Bros 3 Name Of Individual Song - End Theme System - Nintendo Entertainment System Comments - We were sitting around at band practice once when we started talking about how great some video game music is, especially the tunes that get overlooked. One of the songs from our childhood that always left an impression was the End Theme for Super Mario Bros 3. Perhaps it was because of the feeling of joy we had upon completion of the game, but that song always stuck with us. ------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb3.zip - Track 25 (:34 into it) The mixing and separation of parts should be better, the drums were too basic, and the textures should be more complex and cohesive. By 1:01, the arrangement already felt repetitive. The changeup from 1:45-1:59 was only a brief respite from the repetition. You've really gotta do a lot more creatively with the theme. Adding that overly quiet, fake-sounding vox in the background at 2:24 doesn't get the job done as far as variation or dynamic contrast. Needs more instrumental variation, more melodic interpretation, more dynamic contrast, more evolution; more substance. What was here was a decent base, but it wasn't nearly developed enough. There's good potential, but you need to actually explore it. NO

I love the thread merge function. I always welcome complaints about posting speed. It means djp gets outside pressure to post more music! But yeah, everything's pretty much answered above. And that's the way it be.

I'm assuming the track title got cut off in the email attachment - LT Remixer Name: Kayge Real Name: Khristopher Grant Email: calvinhobz@gmail.com Game Arranged: The Legend of Zelda Song: Underworld Theme This song was made using Garageband, very low budget (I know), but I still think it's a nice piece. ------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda.zip - Track 4 Not bad. Too reliant on those repetitive beats to carry much of the track. Though the 1:02-1:32 section wasn't reused later, 2:04's section was in many ways a retread of :31-1:02 & 1:32-2:04, only with the string section at 2:36 completing the melody it played and some other minor differences. Let's watch the retreading and think of ways to get more mileage out of the ideas through more creative means. I liked the overall feel when the beats weren't in play; when the beats were involved, the droning repetition and lack of cohesion with the other instrumentation knocked this way down. The other aspects of the arrangement were a lot more promising. NO (resubmit)

The bitrate is too high, but we can get a re-encode if this passes - LT OA Kirby Dream Land 2 Hirokazu Ando · Tadashi Ikegami Bad Ending Theme 14963 Original: The original GB version is mixed really crappily, with the counterpoint cranked, and the melody buried. Even so, it's still one of the best songs from the Kirby series. ----------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/gbs/kirbydl2.zip - Track 36 Though some of the sequencing still sounds too rigidly timed, for example right in the intro, you're definitely getting better. Wasn't even a significant issue, unlike the Phoenix Wright mix. The breakdown from 1:32-1:47 felt a bit aimless due to nothing melodic taking the forefront. Interesting thing, I'd say you made your melodies. Loved the piano writing thrown in from 2:06-2:42, which created some surprisingly good textures with the rock instrumentation. Just a really intelligent, sophisticated arrangement, adding a lot of depth to the original. Very deserving of that DoD gold trophy for last month's Kirby competition. The artistic growth shown through this and the previous Terranigma submission was impressive. You better be doing your own production, son! YOU BETTER BE! Dare I say it, Andrew, you might very well be coming into your own... YES

ReMixer name: General Knowledge Website: www.myspace.com/generalknowledge Userid: 23393 Remix Title: Dark Castle Game: Super Mario World (SNES) Song: Castle Theme (Koji Kondo) I'd just finished making a Drum 'n' Bass track and decided to make a quick and dirty bootleg of the 'Castle Theme' from SMW. I wanted the track to punch in very quickly; it's aimed very much at the dancefloor, and although some may view the arrangement as repetitive, it's fairly typical of the genre (I kept the length of the track down to keep it engaging). The name itself is a reflection of the tone of both the original and the remix, and also a cheeky reference to a certain Mac classic! In terms of instrumentation, I selected a lofi sounding synth for the iconic arpeggiated line to conjure up memories of the original immediately in the listener. The sub bass in the track was heavily distorted and low passed as is typical in dnb; I really wanted the bass to hit hard on the drop and mixed it as high as I could without it swamping everything else. While I feel there could have been some more variation in the later revisits to the main theme, I was very conscious of keeping it as recognisable as possible for the listener, and as dancefloor friendly as I could. The mix was challenging due to the drums and lead synth competing for space as a result of the delays and reverbs used. However, I felt it was important to achieve that kind of sound for the melody line synth, even if perhaps the drums are a little low in consequence. ------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=smw - "Sub Castle BGM" (smw-15.spc) The main criticism was that, indeed, the arrangement of the source tune felt repetitive in the long run without some new ideas showing up, plus wasn't overly interpretive in the first place. Also, the beats felt totally stapled onto the track and didn't mesh with the other sounds. Sounded like some preset beats, if nothing else. The bassline was pretty decent though. Otherwise, you need more substance and evolution in the melodic interpretation and the drumwork needs to sound like it shares the same room as the other sounds. There's potentially other things to criticize, which other Js can touch on, but those were the 2 killers. NO

Orig: http://vgmusic.com/music/console/sega/saturn/nid_ss_01.mid Composers: Fumie Kumatani, Naofumi Hataya, Tomoko Sasaki Year: 2008 That was boring... -------------------------------------------------------------- NiGHTS Original Soundtrack - (02) "Gate of Your Dream" Part of the reason I felt this used enough of the source material was because of the way Skryp retained the (quiet) beat pattern of the original (two pairs of beats on 1 and 3 in "Gate of Your Dreams", if I understand that correctly), but beefed them up and expanded their role. It was viable arrangement to me since the tone and general pattern was derived from the source tune. If those drums hadn't have been involved so integrally, I would have NOed the arrangement for being too liberal overall. The instrumentation and mood of the arranged source melody didn't differ too much from "Gate of Your Dream", but the melody itself was greatly expanded compared to the source, albeit too liberally at times. The overall feel of the piece was decidedly different from "Gate", with Andrew dousing it in his glitchy spices. Mellow and chill while being slightly off-kilter. A pretty good example of an arrangement going way out there in a liberally expansive sense without losing site of the original and going off the rails. Good stuff. YES

Zeiram spotted me with my hoodie on a couple of weekends ago near the Pentagon City mall, but that's different from someone I don't know recognizing the logo.

The following link leads to my submission to OverClocked ReMix, entitled "Searching the Woods". CONTACT INFORMATION Remixer name: Olarin Real name: Bradley Mellen Email address: olarin42@yahoo.com Website: http://bradleymellen.com OCR forum userid: 23257 SUBMISSION INFORMATION Game name: Final Fantasy 6 Song name: The Phantom Forest Composer: Nobuo Uematsu I've been meaning to put together a submission to OCRemix for a long time; recent purchase of a brand new iMac with Logic Studio made it much easier to make recordings, and the recent SquareSound competition gave me an arbitrary deadline to go ahead and get something together for. Everything in the arrangement was recorded by myself on double bass, violoncello, and guitar. -------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff6 - "The Phantom Forest" (ff6-115.spc) From my comments back when I judged this for SquareSound's Nobuo Uematsu tribute competition: Now that I know it's multitracked, I feel even better about my comments. Could have been tighter, and the instruments sounded a bit distant, but overall this was good. Very personalized, interpretive take on the source tune. As I mentioned, some parts of the performance felt a little too loose; the harmonization from :40-:44 (and 1:33-1:36 in the background) fell a bit flat IMO. Some moments in the comping felt odd, but everything resolved well. Overall, pretty solid. My score didn't necessarily belie that (the competition was fierce), but this was one of the standouts of a packed contest. Hopefully the other Js feel this is good enough as well. Certainly hope we hear more from you, Bradley! YES

Contact Info *Mike Dissonant *Michael Isel *rockfreakmike@yahoo.com *User id (19903) Submission Info *Super Mario bros, Super Mario 64, Super Mario World. *Underground BGM, Hazy Maze Cave, Sub Castle BGM Doing this mix was soooo much fun!!! It was one of those "Based on my own Enthusiasm" moments were everyone thinks you've fallen out of your tree because you haven't done anything else except mix. Honestly I can say this is the fastest completed mix I have ever done, 2 weeks. That's probably not a lot to all you expert mixers out there But for me, that's pretty fast. My reccuring thought while mixing was "What if Koopa finally made the most badass Dungeon/Castle ever"? Well anyway here it is, This mix is called "Koopa's new Dungeon". Enjoy everyone . P.S. To C.T snokins, the Donkey Kong Mix is next! --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Track 2 ("Underground BGM") http://www.zophar.net/usf/sm64usf.rar - 14 "Cave Dungeon" http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=smw - "Sub Castle BGM" (smw-15.spc) :29 was just the start of some extremely empty material. There's just no body on this, either in the front or in the back. Even brief moments like leaving the empty drums alone from 1:34-1:39 and 2:49-2:56 sounded totally beginner-ish. 1:38 moved over into some original material. 1:58 was a little better in that now you had another major element come in and help fill things out via that synth. But the sound balance was off, with the synth lead being way too loud and thin; it didn't mesh well into the soundscape and sounded stapled on top, plus the timing on it wasn't smooth at all. The Bowser sound effects at 2:54 just came off as cheesy. Better energy with the "Sub Castle BGM" theme though, going for a more aggressive approach, though I'm not sure why the guitar work was produced with such a lo-fi sound once the electrosynth came back into the picture (loud as ever) at 3:33. It just created a quality disparity between the sounds, where they didn't sound like they were in the same room so-to-speak. Probably the best textures resulted from 3:59-4:19 with the chorus of "Sub Castle BGM"; why can't the rest of the track be put together that effectively? Some tweaks in the sound balance and more sophisticated textures throughout the track would lift this up a lot. Think about putting in some more time on this one. Keep at it, Mike, you continue to show potential. NO

Yep, false advertising.

Hey my name is Fru, my email is , my user ID is fru. This is a remix from Mega Man 3 on the NES. It is a remix inspired by the Hardman stage. The title is 'Hardman - Hard as Nails Remix'. The main inspiration for the track came to me while listening to Nine Inch Nails (hence the title of the remix), they are easily my favorite band and I really love their distorted electronic sound, so I decided to recreate it and incorporate into this remix. The music from Mega Man 2 and 3 has always been great fun to remix, so I see no reason not to keep churning them out! Many Thanks Fru ------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - Track 5 ("Hardman Stage") Seems like a cool enough intro, liberally handling the bassline of the original (isolate the triangle channel from :00-:12 of the source to hear it), though the beats coming in at :16 were plainly written, followed by some more plain beats at :25 surrounded by some cool sounds. The melody finally came in at :57. Some issues with the volume again for one of your submissions, IMO; aside from the beats, everything felt too quiet. The arrangement was decent, but dynamically speaking, it felt plodding. The core beats at :25 almost never changed up, and the textures and energy felt too similar throughout. The verse at 1:00 simply repeating at 1:41 was a slight negative, but I liked the move into some different parts of the source at 1:57 which changed up the flow. That being said, it settled right back into the same groove from 2:06-2:22. At 2:38, the track revisited the writing of the intro, i.e. the liberal take on the source tune bassline with some beats and cool sound effects playing around the stereo field. This time around, there was a lot more activity going on with the various sound effects for the finish, creating a good contrast with the intro. I liked the overall style of the track more and more as I listened to it several times, but the beats at the foundation of the track were simplistic and the overall dynamic curve wasn't pronounced enough. The energy level doesn't have to change drastically, but better evolution/development within 1:00-2:22 would make the track a lot more interesting. Maybe I'll come across as nitpicky, so we'll see what the other Js say. This is getting there, but it needs more to put it over the top. NO (resubmit)

That's fucking TEAMWORK! [/Tenacious D]

In a strange instance of synchronicity, David, with no provocation, actually sent in a new version with improved mixing and the Megadeth intro removed about 90 minutes before djp posted. Awesome! Cuz honestly, we were ask him if he could do these things anyway. With the new version, the volume issues are taken care of. Plus the removal of the Megadeth cover intro doesn't bump into the issue of using outside source tunes. An excellent track, and glad that the issues with the outside music usage didn't have to get in the way of showcasing this greatness. YES

Yeah, no worries, that was his mistake in interpreting my panel vote.

To curb that talk now, djp purposely chose to do this for free. It's legally easier, plus you probably wouldn't be listening to OCR do the soundtrack right now if we didn't offer to do it for free. That being said, I'm glad at the choice!

Props to Steve Pordon & Children of the Monkey Machine for their excellent new Solstice mix, "Demnos Inquisitor", which Steve conceived for the album. Thanks a lot guys, this is a great addition!

Don't get me wrong; I'm not just trying to be "rah-rah community!" on the fact that the music is involved. I just thought the groove there worked in-game, in spite of some of the criticisms I've read. If José felt like he could thematically improve on it, and the leeway was there on Capcom's side, I'm cool with that. But I still enjoy it as is. I'm also glad the music is being well-received overall!

Yeah, I saw that comment on the Capcom blog and I was annoyed. So I'm here to request to José to disregard any rap/hip-hop haters re: Vega. The strings are still Latin, the overall vibe is still Vega's stage. It's a remix for a reason, and it sounds good. Watching the in-game footage, it clicks, and that's what's important.

I'm definitely proud to have this one on Dirge for the Follin. For those that know this excellent theme by Tim Follin, the arrangement almost never loses sight of it, and this was definitely very gritty, purposeful, well-produced stuff that took the theme in a dark direction. Matt hit me out of nowhere with the mix, and I've got Steve to thank for his vision for the track and getting this one going. Congrats to Matt on the birth of little Lauren, and to both Steve and Matt for working back and forth to get this ReMix going and making their OC ReMix front page returns after some long hiatuses. It's great seeing so many old schoolers back in action! Great job, y'all.

I hate you.

Just noting that the background music for the GameTrailers video are two OC ReMixes by Norrin Radd and McVaffe, but not from HD Remix.

True, but since that's the situation, it can't be helped. When I have some free time, I can watch some Raptor playthroughs on YouTube and try to formulate song titles, but it's a very low priority.

What source tunes are mentioned in my vote?

Now that the online version of this month's EM is available, you can check it out here (!): http://emusician.com/tutorials/overclocked_remix/