Liontamer

Remixer Name: Uboichi Real Name: Uub Jacobson User ID: 10339 Game arranged: Kingdom Hearts 2 Song arranged: Darkness of the Unknown Composer: Yoko Shimomura System: PS2 I haven't got a clue what gotten into me when I decided to arrange this piece for 2 pianos. Not because it's a crazy idea ('cause it isn't), but more because I started with this arrangement about 8 months ago. It's so long ago that I simply don't remember why I started it. When I first got close to finishing this piece my computer broke down. It was horrible, I couldn't make music on my PC anymore! So I saved some money every month for a few months so I could buy myself a brand new PC. But that saving took me so long that I didn't have my PC untill last week. So if anyone remembers this being on the WIP forum, this is why it took me so long to finish it.

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3057 Link to ReMix - Dreamstone Legend (may need to right-click and use Save As to get clean playback) Contact Information * ReMixer name - J.B.Garren * Real name - Jeremy B. Garren * Email address - jbgarren@mail.utexas.edu * Website - http://home.actlab.utexas.edu/~garrenjb/music.html * Userid - 22713 Submission Information * Name of game arranged - Chrono Trigger * Name of individual song arranged - Battle With Magus * Original by Nobuo Uematsu, Noriko Matsueda, Yasunori Mitsuda, SNES * Link to the original soundtrack (if needed) magusbattle.mp3 * Comments - Although I doubt anyone will recall, a much earlier version of this work was declined for submission two years ago. Looking back, I can see why, although I suppose that is simply the nature of experience. Having recently come back to it and spent time reworking it, the piece is now significantly different and significantly better. In this work I wanted to create tension and weight in between the dark descending theme typically associated with Magus and the more heroic theme that appears later in the original. One result of this is that the music never settles into a groove, but is in a fairly constant state of change up until the conclusion, perhaps like an actual battle. I suppose good wins in the end. The work often approaches full orchestral, although certain elements, (such as the much debated guitars), drag it back to a somewhat more electronic feel. Certainly there are plenty of Chrono Trigger remixes already out there, and already a few dealing with my source theme. Despite this, I have an invested personal stake in Dreamstone Legend, considering how much time and effort this project has sucked out of me. I may have gone through more versions of this song than any other I have ever crafted. In any case, I would like to finally call this piece done, so I hope you enjoy it. -J.B.G. ----------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Battle with Magus" (ct-224.spc) Really loved the tenseness and subtle evolution of the intro; very excellent. Some beats were added in at :45. I thought the fast strings at :47 were a bit exposedm as well as mixed too quietly, but we'll see if there are any differing opinions. The Slayer-ish electric guitar synth at 1:03 sounded a little annoying to start, but was worse 1:12 when it was given a more substantive role. I dunno who decided this was a good substitute sound for a real electric guitar, but, shit, it's always bad. It creates a big quality disparity compared with the other sounds. Even looking at your WIP thread, you knew it wasn't working right. So why would I think it works? The times that synth works the most effectively are when it's not used in the role of an authentic electric guitar. It's used fairly decently here, but it's not melodious, a lot of the velocities sounded very similar, and the sequencing felt too perfectly timed, leaving the sound very robotic-sounding. Unfortunate, given that the other parts were clicking so well. The piano at 1:57 had similar sequencing issues that exposed the sample. The soundfield felt somewhat cluttered and could be sharpened up with some EQ work, but it wasn't much of an issue. There were other, smaller details that might be covered in other votes. But the main crit from me: find a better guitar or other sound in place of that Slayer-ish stuff, make sure the sequencing is on point, and IMO you'd have this track clicking strongly enough on all levels. I'm not saying steal Niggasamples, but there's gotta be either a way to produce the synths better or find a more suitable sound. Big Giant Circles might be able to make suggestions on working with Slayer, or sounds similar to it, to achieve a better result. Solid base, J.B., don't be discouraged if this doesn't make it as is. This needs some fine tuning, but you've definitely improved your game since the last time I've heard your work. NO (resubmit)

I've now sent everyone the email to everyone letting you guys who participated know what the status is. Like I mentioned, any questions/comments/etc, please let us know in the thread! Thank you all for sending in some quality AMVs!

I'll try to check into the aforementioned issues this evening if possible.

Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good! - 01 "Last Rites/Loved to Deth" http://www.zophar.net/gsf/cvaos_gsf.rar - 10 "Clock Tower" djpretzel was saying that he personally felt 40 seconds worth of non-VGM-based arrangement (in this case, Megadeth's "Last Rites/Loved To Deth") for a near 4 1/2 minute submission was still too much, so we'll see what happens from his side if this passes. The rule on outside source usage hasn't been tested much since "A Star Freezes Over." Objectively, the usage fitting thematically with the arranged game music shouldn't be a factor as to whether it's viable, and should never be used as an argument. Any artist worth their salt should be able to make the arrangement of a non-VGM source fit comfortably with the VGM portions. Anyway, the track really got underway at :43. On some level I can understand zircon's criticisms about a lack of dynamic contrast and lack of aggression, but nothing felt like a dealbreaker here or even a significant problem in the slightest. While there were some more interpretive sections, the arrangement felt a lot more like an expansive cover rather than a drastic reinterpretation, so I would have liked to have seen more risks taken with the structure. Regardless, still some solid stuff here; very easy to see how this placed so high for DoD's Castlevania month. Not much to say other than that this was a solid rock cover. Not to shit on zircon at all, but what's the problem? I agree it could be more dynamic, but what's in place here sounds good nonetheless. The volume and production aspects David mentioned are a non-issue with me; I thought this was well above our standards. But this had :43 seconds' worth of Megadeth as part of a 264-second arrangement or 16.287%. I know we don't have a percentage threshold, but if djp's not comfortable with this amount of usage in spite of this passing, then I'm fine with a veto. Hate to NO this, but looking at our wording in the Standards ("Any incorporation or arrangement of source material not from games (mainstream, classical, etc.) should be extremely limited"), about 1/6th is too much for me to call extremely limited. I'm making it very clear, that this is the only reason I'm voting NO. If djpretzel clarified that this amount of mainstream usage is allowed, I'd be more than happy to change my vote. If the track is rejected, David, please consider submitting an edited version without the Megadeth intro, or with an abbreviated cut of the intro (e.g. starting from :26 or :31). I think this is a well-performed piece and would love to see it up in some form! NO (resubmit)

Haven't listened to the previous version. http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=rd - "Facing" (rd-12.spc) Right off the BAT, too trebly. Weird how it seems to be murky, then the higher frequencies are just so biting and grating. Unacceptable as is; these issues are over the top and ruins the soundscape, so it would need to be fixed up. The guitar part at 1:16-1:42 sounds really awkward and not very harmonious with the other instrumentation. The 2:20-3:01 section should have been cool, but the piano in the background sounded really thin and cheap, and got buried at 2:33 as the track ramped up. Meanwhile the treble was over the top and the track turned into a mess of noise, when the guitar wank should have been cleaner-sounding and dominating the foreground without the drums getting in the way. Instead, it was fighting the other sounds for the listener's ear. More of the same issues from 3:10-3:24. I'm not even convinced the lo-fi sound of 3:28's closing section, a good concept, was even on purpose given how lo-fi and imbalanced everything sounded, which is sad. I'll be honest in that the production is so distracting and the source tune so hard to internalize, that I don't have a good bead on where the interpretation is much of the time. If someone can spell it out better, that'd be great. But the production issues aren't something that's going to be fixed with some quick tweaks, so this is already a NO (resubmit). C'mon bros, clean this bitch up.

Tag stuff up to the best of your ability, just to help ID your track when you send it. Reagrdless, we tag everything up once it passes. Don't worry about that.

He needs to "seriously" stop trolling people. He's so bad at it, he ruins it for the rest of the forums.

You can check out the posted mix here: http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01683/ Review it here: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14725 Enjoy!

I'm gonna run slightly counter to CHz's first sentence, as the implication is that ReMixing arrange album tracks isn't kosher. I know what he's getting at, but maybe djpretzel can clarify. AFAIK, there's nothing inherently wrong with that as long as your arrangement is different enough from the arranged source tune, and, more importantly, still connects strongly enough to the original game track as CHz mentioned. I mention that second part, because some pro arrange album tracks can get pretty liberal themselves. A liberal take on an already-liberal arrange track could result in something too far off from the original game music.

*SMACK* I'm a mod. I can off-top ANYTHING I WANT. In all seriousness, I just think it's a double standard how he interacts with people he perceives as higher than him on the food chain, but for the purposes of trolling a n00b, he switches to off-putting, lazy internet speak. As is, no in my opinion. If the drums weren't on auto-pilot, the track would feel a lot more cohesive. The point of it seemed to just be a quick mix though, so on that level I wouldn't change a thing. The style/presentation seems different enough to me, but that would be up to the panel at large in confirming that.

Well, indeed it is. Why thank you, good sir. /clicks stopwatch YES

Why are you typing with proper capitalization and punctuation in this thread, but then: "look kid dont take this the wrong way but i dont care about mario and halo together so stop being rude and immature k" ...basically typing this holier-than-thou trolling nonsense in another thread. What did I tell you? I'm gonna have to kick your ass later. Ugh. Anyway. ReMixes of ReMixes are fine, they're just judged in a tougher manner. Section 6, Part 5 of the standards covers this. That rule is more to discourage ReMixers from submitting mere production upgrades of their older mixes. But we're always open to ReMixing (i.e. substantively interpreting) a previous ReMix or other arrangement as long as there are enough ties to the original game music the existing mix is based off of. Following up zircon's post, we've actually got 2 ReMixes of ReMixes. Yeah, judges come and go, and there's definitely no normal length of time they stay on board. Even I don't keep track of average time on the panel. But we've had many on board less than 1 year, and then you have guys like Vigilante (nearly 5 years) and myself (nearly 4 years) who have been on for a dog's age without stepping down for a hiatus. I'm proud to say that I've voted on 99% of everything put in front of me. Just going with my initial feeling, not looking at any names or lists, most Js tend to give somewhere in the realm of 2 years. Like zircon mentioned, stepping down is pretty much gonna be either lack of time despite interest, or lack of interest despite time, as the job can wear on anybody. If you want a job that pays $0, takes up a fair amount of time if you dig into it, where some will trash your qualifications, your character, and your objectivity, and where the workload NEVER lets up no matter how hard you work, it can eventually cease to be personally fulfilling. For me though, I'm not even close to that point.

THIS IS NOT UNBREAKING MY HEART! :'-(

Animated ones, never. Even custom avatars should be game related, but anime/cartoons/comics/movies, pretty much anything is fair game as long as I like it. We focus on VG stuff, but we have a few others. I think Ty wants Hulk Hogan custom; I can do that tomorrow. Since he made it in the first place, that's cool. Danimal Cannon may kill him though; he's using it too! Will get to the Warcraft stuff when I have more time to sit down and add the group. It's not too laborious, but it does take a little bit of time to add them all in.

Unbreak my heart. Say you'll love me again.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=sm - "Brinstar Overgrown with Vegetation Area" (sm-19.spc) One of my regrets of this past MAGFest was not being able to hang a little bit with Jon, who's definitely one of the promising rock remixers who's checked out OCR and hook us up with some good submission. He's had a good run so far in the DoD competitions, and he told me how he's working on improving his production skills Yeah, I just wanted to panel this to show off to the panel the step up Jon has taken since his CV4 mix, "Death Stroke", in terms of having it clicking on all cylinders this time. One criticism, I thought the synth from :53-1:15 sounded on the amelodic side and hurt that section. Other than that, solid programming and performances, great energy and interpretation the whole way through. I'll leave it to any of the guitar Js to provide legit insight into where your performance could use improvement, but I thought it was above bar, and that's all I'm concerned about. You're only getting better, bro. Definitely looking forward to more! YES

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ts - "Town" (ts-32.spc) Lead at :38-:57 was too quiet, something that's carried over from the DoD listening party at MAGFest. I would have positioned it a bit louder. The separation of parts could have been a bit better, and the sample realism on stuff like the piano stuck out a bit sometimes, but I was loving the textures. Genteel and intricate. Perfect for some green tea with SnappleMan's mom. Great instrumentation and tone variation in the second iteration of the arrangement to build things up with a bit more energy and keep things fresh. I've gotta say, I was impressed. Hopefully you mixed/produced this on your own. While the sound balance and clarity could have been improved, this was a substantial step up from your past material. But other than that, Andrew, no comments; they'll just sound dumb when this gets rejected YES

When in doubt, always ask the submitting artist for more info. Here's Nick's elaboration on the source involvement for you theory majors :

Why would allow anything I thought was too ugly? Nah, they wanted them exclusively for themselves. If you ever want one, you've done some major heavy lifting on the avatar project (and mascots project); I'd have no problem giving you one. I haven't asked, because I've noticed you switch around a lot.

Nah, to clarify, anyone can submit avatars to be added. Doesn't matter who you are. But if you want a custom avatar that only you can use, you need to been established in the community from my point of view. Guys like F4T4L, Dhsu, and The Orichalcon all have custom avatars because they've all contributed to OCR with their ReMixes, and they all made their avatars themselves. No offense, but why am I going to let someone have their own exclusive avatar, if I don't know that they're gonna stick around in the community or give back something in the way of music? It should be noted though that with so many avatars, if you have a pretty rare/esoteric one added, the odds that it will be used by a lot of people are low.

Sure, Daria, I'll give all of you guys an email today to personally let you know what the status on everything is. Since djpretzel basically controls all the web aspects of the site, he's got to be available to make everything happen. There's definitely no harm in asking what the hold-up is, and I agree that results should have been rolled out by now, so that we can give everyone props, and be ready to send out prizes!

The user, though I don't think that was ambiguous.

1. No, and it's not up there on the list of things to do. They already got revised a year or two ago. Unless you have good ideas on names after 10K posts, which I don't think djp wanted anyway, I don't think we're doing anything on that. Dafydd already did a good job answering 2 and 3. Clarifying 3, the only way you can get a custom avatar is to have some sort of standing in the community to me. Then you'd have to make it and have me approve it.

The only overt source usage I'm getting are the sections I acknowledged in my vote. On another listen, I'm hearing the chords being vaguely alluded to and being played over from 1:23-2:05, but that's way too minimalistic of a usage for my bar. For me, the source tune was marginalized to the point of unrecognizability in that section, and I wouldn't count it. After that, the track just seems to break down (in terms of placing any source connection) and I didn't hear anything vaguely "Maridia" until 3:14. I'm glad Vig feels he's hearing the connections distinctly during the soloing, but since I'm definitely not, I'm set with my decision. I'm down with letting the vote ride for more opinions (we certainly could use some), but I'm keeping my vote a NO.