Liontamer

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11351 Your ReMixer name: Joren de Bruin Your real name: Joren de Bruin Your email address: ayato_kamina1@hotmail.com Your website: - Your userid: Can't find this, forumname= Tensei-San Name of game(s) arranged: Castlevania II and a bit of III Name of individual song(s) arranged: Bloody Tears and Beginning Remix Name: Roar! O, Mighty Vampire Killer! Link to Remix: http://www.tindeck.com/audio/my/kmsz/Roar--O--Mighty-Vampire-Killer- Well I've said pretty much everything you need to know about this in the initial submission, so I'll just point out the differences with that one: I did all the mixing and mastering myself this time, and IMO it worked out decently. One big complaint was the general lo-fi feeling caused by a narrow stereo FX, but I'm pretty sure that's more than fixed now. Apart from that I upgraded several of the cheaper sounding components (Most notably the drums and strings), and tried to make the weaker aspects of the mix (bass, kick drum) more audible. Anyway, I hope you like it Joren -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/nsf/castle~1.zip - Track 2 http://www.zophar.net/nsf/castlev3.zip - Track 1 Some side comments first. The timing of the piano intro was awkward; mechanically sequenced yet off-time. The piano chords from :37-:43 still sound wrong. I was a big fan of the drum programming here; nice and varied as well to drive the track forward, evolving alongside the general dynamic of the track. Most people who submit apparently think this is the least important thing in the world. The only thing I wasn't feeling there were the machine guns drums from 3:13-3:39; they sounded like they were distorting. The ending also cut off abruptly. Now it could be my download, or it could be the Tindeck upload; but no matter what, I hate cut-off endings. If this was from your side, you should have tested your track to make sure it uploaded properly. I'm feeling you on these instrument improvements, they're definitely noticeable. The overall mixing is still pretty bad on this one though, which is something I'm confident you'll pick up properly in time with advice and trial & error. But right now, this isn't getting the job done. Lots of the highs are blistering, and there's poor separation of parts during the fullest sections. I'll leave specific recommendations to the music Js. So in short, the arrangement to me was on pretty solid ground. Don't be discouraged, I remember when SnappleMan was at this same point in his early material on OCR with "Killer Dokko", i.e. solid arrangement ideas, weak production. This isn't terrible, but hopefully some other Js can dig deeper on why the soundscape sounds so off. I don't think this is on a nitpick level though. NO (refine/resubmit)

Yeah, we'll see what to do about potential Wiki accounts, though I may end up adding everything. I'd rather 2 or 3 of y'all worked in tandem. Getting this moving is added onto my to-do list.

The judges decision can help you with that.

Yeah, I remember when the list wasn't alphabetical and Makke asked if we started from the top and worked down the list. Why would we do that? And why would we judge alphabetically? When you look in Decisions, does that look like we're judging alphabetically? Maybe we should vote alphabetically by judge handle as well. Big Giant Circles, CHz and DarkeSword have to vote first, in that order. Think it through, y'all. Don't worry Heath, we just rejected your mix.

This isn't to put you down or anything, but at the skill level you're currently at, I wouldn't resubmit this without solid WIP feedback of the revisions from notable names and/or some direct feedback from a judge on how strong the revisions are. You wanna really spruce this up before attempting the resub.

Remixer name: Vidilian Real name: Vidal Spaine Email: vspaine14@hotmail.co.uk Game: Fire Emblem 7 Songs: Athos' theme, Silent ground and Knight's Oath Composer: Yuka Tsujiyoko System: Gameboy Advance Fire Emblem games definitley have underated soundtracks imo. Probably because the games aren't that popular. I love them though and wanted to do a remix of songs from the first game of the series that I played, 7. I tried to make a sort of epic lullaby. Relaxing yet epic at the same time. All done with a PSR1500 keyboard so I'm sample quality of some of the intruments and the choir is good enough. My second attempt at getting a mix on the site. I've improved quite a bit since the last mix I feel, but we'll see.

Hey guys, Thought I'd toss this remix your way all though it may be a bit too cheesy for your site. There is a small site by the name of Vs compo where (among other things) us crazy remixers do one on one battles with one another. We pick a game, a song, and the time to do it in. I posted an introduction to myself there saying that I couldn't think of who to challenge or what game to try so I invited them to come to me instead with an idea. Little did I know that a certain someone by the name of KungFuFurby would accept my proposition and hit me with remixing something from the SNES version of RevolutionX. But hey, I wanted a challenge right? His explanation was basically that he wanted to see if we could make something good out of a game and soundtrack generally regarded as horrible . How could I not at least try? Yes, I am aware that half of the soundtrack consists of lo-fi Areo Smith songs and the other half is pretty awful. In case you haven't figured it out by now I am obviously nuts . Also, I am pretty sure that the way in which I used in-game sound fx and voice clips will have some of you cringing or at least wondering "What the hell man!?!" My reply to you is simply this. They were there for me to use, and given the oddity of the game in question how could I not? I think it's pretty cool and hilarious at the same time, but I am no OC judge and there is probably good reason for that . In any case, I mixed 2 songs together. "Inside Club X" and "Outside club X" and threw in some original improvisations all over the place. I really added a ton here. I hope you at least enjoy it! Oh, and if you're having trouble locating the SNES source that's no problem . http://mystro88.googlepages.com/revx.rsn Well, I look forward to comments from you guys on this one. If you "no" this I guess I could see why. I think "De- De-De De-De D-D-D Destroy!" could be insanely catchy. The title of this one is called "Music is a weapon" for obvious reasons. Well, I guess that's it then. Man, it'd be rad to see this posted but somehow I sort of doubt it . Oh well, thanks for taking the time to listen and give feedback. Take it easy, Jredd-

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7741 Sup OG, So, in the time since I last subbed this particular track, I've tweaked it quite a bit. It's for the Tales project, so, on the off chance it gets accepted, it needs to be on lockdown. Here's the link & info! Remxer: The Joker Name: David L. Puga Email: Jtown_music(at)yahoo.com Website: www.myspace.com/davidlpuga Forum#:8669 (I think) Track: Cold Memory Game: Tales of Phantasia Song: Freeze Additonal: Summoning of Spirits Project track. Comments: Since the last time I submitted, I tweaked the arrangement considerably. Not so much in the first half, just added some string lines & tweaked arrangement. Though, the second half is almost completely new. Not so sure I did a good job on the new age-ish drums, but, I dig'em. What else... this is really the last & final version I'm gonna do of this track, so hopefully it'll pass. Hope you guys dig it! Later lates, David

I just want to leave a side note that you don't necessarily need to get overzealous with adding new things in a vertical way, but more varying things horizontally. The source tune should not get completely lost in any revision of the arrangement. As I mentioned, it would be nice to get a little bit more of the source in the foreground aside from the intro and ending.

I've been voting on everything for 3 1/2 years. "I'm a legend, bitch! I'm a legend!" P.S. Watch us fall behind again.

Still dislike that organ intro. YES-able, but the sax performance lacks a lot of polish for the first verse. Things feels a lot smoother on that level later on. 2:51 was just sour though. I hope zircon gave you notes or a breakdown on what he did Brad, so you can apply that knowledge to future work. This is definitely a lot more balanced, with the other instrumentation locking together nicely, and the individual parts being very distinguishable. Nice rebalancing of the whole thing to let Brad's solid, creative composition shine through properly.

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12914 worked on it like hell... hope this one qualifies. Remixer Nick - Lep666 Real Name - Shai Buskila Game - Raptor: Call Of The Shadows Original Track Name - Level 6 Remix Name - Eclipse -------------------------------------------------------------- Raptor: Call of the Shadows - Level 6 The intro still sounded pretty good. The string attacks at :31 were more serviceable, along with some decent brass support, although the soundscape was still to swamped up during those fuller section. The percussion at 1:07 was ok, but still felt a bit out of place. The new string work from 1:33 was ok. The volume effects from 1:38-1:43, didn't make much sense, with the last string writing from 1:41-1:42 sounding awkward. The brass samples first used at 1:43 sounded a bit flat. The strings at 2:24 were a bit jerky with the attacks but were serviceable. The acoustic guitar awkwardly cut out at 2:50. Well, they say fools rush in, and I feel like you resubmitted too fast given the vast amount of criticisms last time. Use those forums like I mentioned last time, get feedback before you rush into hitting us with it again. You're still moving in the right direction, but the polish isn't quite there yet. NO (resubmit)

Ha! Just BARELY over the size limit (6,295,424 bytes), I think this is the closest I've seen someone get over exactly 6MB (6,291,456 bytes). http://www.zophar.net/nsf/kidicar.zip - Tracks 1, 2, 3 & 10 Yeah, I remember this arrangement from last time around. To me, this was a marked improvement, but not on solid enough ground yet. It's definitely too quiet to start. Even with an orchestral dynamic in mind, the intensity of the performance during the intro make this volume level sound unnatural. Nothing a volume raise on my site couldn't fix, but this should still be looked into. The full-stop transition at 1:43 wasn't a big deal as a 1-time thing. I've eased off of coming down as hard on medley-itis since the last time around on this, in that, if the arrangement is substantive enough, I'm not bothered by abrupt-level changes as long as the overall presentation feels like a cohesive-enough unit. Generally, I got the sense of that here, though even 2:39's transition was too abrupt. The soundfield definitely felt cluttered from 2:11-2:27. Definitely agreed with zircon re: the drums at 2:57 not contributing much due to their volume. All the drumwork still felt out of place to me, though less so than last time. As to many of the technical aspects zircon cited, I wouldn't be able to ID most of those things if I tried. Those didn't affect my vote, but it sounded like good insight and production advice at a deeper level that could be useful. The sample quality sticks out, mainly the brass. The string work and woodwinds were handled better, though I heard some mechanical sequencing with the woodwinds in particular. Though I wasn't as bothered by the lack of realism as zircon, it's nonetheless still a significant issue that affects the listen. For something where brass is so integral, the quality there in both sequencing and tone needs to be stepped up. But really, much of the instrumentation sounded thin and inhuman, undermining the strengths of the composition. Those are unfortunately still the dealbeakers on this one. Wish this could be refurbished with more realistic sequencing and some stronger sounds, but even if not, James, I'm looking forward to your next works, no matter what they are. NO (resubmit)

Your ReMixer name – Navij11 Your real name – Jacob Naviasky Your email address – jnav@nycap.rr.com Your website – http://navij11.com/ Your userid – 20089 Name of game(s) arranged – Kirby and the Amazing Mirror Name of individual song(s) arranged – Opening Theme Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. – System was the GameBoy Advance, I could not find the composer. Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site) - Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc. – This time I took a very cautious approach, unlike usual. I asked about the song on the forums, and they offered helpful tips on how to improve. This was meant to be a stylized piece, modeled after intelligent drum and bass from the mid to late 1990s, and I was attempting to emulate the well known artist Omni Trio. I think it came out well. This track is deceptively repetitive, and if you think that this song is too repetitive, then you are not listening right. To listen to this song: Get a comfortable pair of headphones and sit in a nice chair. Close your eyes and drift away. I swear that this will make the song much more enjoyable then simply staring at the blank putfile screen for 3 minutes. Enjoy guys, I worked hard on this one J Link to song: -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/gsf/KirbyTAM.rar - 02 "Legend of the Mirror World" Well, the source is definitely arranged and in here pretty much the whole time, but is plays more of a background role to the beats and original writing on top. Kind of Ninja Tune-ish in terms of style, if y'all have heard of that label, only this is a lot less coherent of an idea. Not really anything melodic going on. Sure I am. Pretty much all of your support elements are repeating ad infinitum, especially the percussion & bassline. It's mostly just minor additional and subtraction of elements giving the track its dynamic curve. I see what you're saying, and agree with you to some extent. From a vertical building standpoint, most of this arrangement doesn't have much to do with Kirby, but what's there is surprisingly interpretive given how simple the source is. It's hard to fully get behind this though when the source tune is given such a peripheral role. I'm probably a lot more enthusiastic about this sub than most. This is almost nailing that Ninja Tune style. I'll be keeping it. A little bit more development of the source tune, Jacob, including potentially giving it more of a foreground role somewhere would be good. This doesn't need an overhaul, and I'd like to think we're open enough to an unconventional arrangement approach like this. With that said, using the source as more of background role doesn't discount the overall expansive approach of the arrangement as being uninterpretive, but it does have the tendency to make the source inclusion seem more of an afterthought rather than the focus. Very close to YESing this. The addition/subtraction composition style did help, but ultimately the cruise control of the instrumentation pushed me just under the borderline. We'll see how the others feel. NO (borderline/refine/resubmit)

This more recent news piece gives more information on the victims and nature of the recovery of the five men, including Reuben: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/313696/1/.html

I was there!

Posted on VG Frequency, just a summation of the events via the articles we saw, but also includes links to Reuben's various locations on the internet if you want to see and hear more of his work.

Confirmed, we lost him. http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_180302.html Our thoughts go out to Reuben's family and friends.

Yeah, all the info seems to confirm him, including last online activity at various sites. Hoping for a miracle, but I fear the worst.

You need to provide music. Forget CHz, the box art may lead to some interest due to the weird imagery of the game. But you're not doing your request any justice without an audio link.

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/zelda.zip - Track 88 Track 88 according to CHz anyway. Can't get this GBS to play at all. Any other GBS, all good. This one, no dice. "Face Shrine" regardless. Let's see what's up. Starts off pretty quiet. I can already see what Vigilante was talking about with the levels being too low; they hardly even register here. Not a huge deal though. I just turned it up, and it sounded good. Beautiful writing on the intro so far. The sax reverb also threw me off; something like this but a bit cleaner would work better, as this didn't sound even in the same universe as the other instrumentation. I'd tone it down a bit so that this meshed better with the soundscape. Ugh, 1:56. C'mon Brad, with this ultra-mechanical piano. Did you break the project file? No way something that mechanical is gonna get by. You gotta be better than that, and you know it. Give it the human touch. The sax production at 2:35 somehow sounded even more far-gone than the first verse. That's just baffling. If the rest of the soundscape had somewhat of a wash on it, this approach could work better. But there's nothing like that going on, just some light room-style reverb. Thicken up the back or thin out the front. Interesting touch at 3:12 with the brief performance noise. The strings suffered from the same realism issues, though definitely nowhere near as badly as the piano. The strings were a lot more serviceable, and were couched reasonably well in the soundscape so as not to be very exposed. The taper of the last few seconds around 4:47 needs to be touched up to not expose the sample. The ending itself was well written, but IMO the strings needed more volume, energy and tension to resolve this strongly and memorably. As is, the finish falters. Agreed with Vig, the arrangement is pretty solid. Beautiful concept, pulled off ok, with the silky sax performance obviously making the track. If you polish this up properly, you got it. If you can't, you don't got it. That's the short of it. NO (refine/resubmit)

ReMixer Name: Garret Graves Real Name: Devin Paquette E-Mail Address: metalgarret@gmail.com (same as above) Forums ID: GarretGraves Song: The Antagonist Remix Of: Boss Theme Track from: Mega Man 3 (NES) Comments: I composed a metal remix for the boss theme from Mega Man 3 because I've been playing the main melody over and over on guitar for years just as something to fiddle with. Playing it brought me back to my old childhood days of doing nothing but playing guitar and playing Nintendo with my friends. So I decided to combine my two loves in my life. Metal and video games.I tried composing a remix before but it turned out badly and there were many mistakes in the rhythm I came up with. That was a few years ago. Now that I've become more educated in music, I thought I'd give it another go with a completely revamped version of my old one with more accuracy to the original track. I ran into some problems with this. Primarily the lead guitar being in tune with the rhythm guitar during the main theme. I'm GUESSING that's how the original sounds. I kept analyzing the game version to get as close as possible and I don't know if it's possible to get anymore accurate with a metal sound. The other thing is, to get the file to at least VERY CLOSELY comply with the submission instructions, I went with a bit rate of 160kb. I'm still slightly over 6megs. (6.38 to be exact) I'm hoping this isn't too much of a problem. The only instrument not being played by me are the drums. I used Fruity Loops for those. I also harmonized any guitar part possible that didn't totally obstruct the song. If anything it gave it just the right amount of color. Anyways, enjoy! -------------------------------------------------------------- We're not gonna post stuff over the filesize limit. We've had people ask being even closer to 6MB. If we make one exception, we have to make any exceptions. Nice try though. Doesn't hurt to ask, but nah. Just noting, if you wanted to get closer to the original, you could have used the NotSo Fatso plug-in for Winamp and disabled whatever channels you needed in order to isolate what you want. http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - Track 13 ("Boss") Aside from the audible recording hiss, nice original opening. I'm a sucker for guitar work with those type of serene effects. Here's it's pulled off pretty nicely. Moved over into the source tune at :55. 1:21-2:06, the rhythm guitar and drumwork here were serviceable, but otherwise bland IMO. You're trying to get close to the style of the original, but to me you've sacrificed interpretation and personal flavor in the attempt to mirror the original. Hate to say it, but I'd argue you sacrificed energy as well, as I felt the original, as simple as it was, was more driving than this. That's not to say or imply this is poor, but the supporting instrumentation isn't that powerful, and could use more bite. Also, if you're gonna play the melody straight, you should be compensating with some creatively written support instrumentation. That's just in keeping up with the arrangement/interpretation bar we have here. Moved over into some original material from 2:09-2:36. 2:37-2:59 featured some soloing on top of the background pattern of the source tune, before moving back into the source from 3:03-3:15. Then some wholly original material before finally going back to the source from 4:15 until the end, again with the straight melody and bland support instrumentation ideas. I definitely felt like the original sections were a good ideas in concept. While they didn't sound out of place alongside the arranged portions, many of them didn't lift up the overall track either IMO. Sections like 3:28-3:50, they're just kind of...there. You could probably think up something that fits better and is more exciting. Pretty good first sub, Devin. There's a lot of good things in place, but this still hasn't realized its potential by a long shot. When dealing with the source, you can stand to do a lot more with it creatively, rather than just adapting it for a rock piece. Change the melody, the rhythms, the support, anything to spice this up and give it a more unique flavor. The original sections/solos can't be the only really new material offered up, as they have nothing to do with the source tune. NO

Just noting, don't get overenthusiastic in regards to revising this. It doesn't need an overhaul.

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4152 I hope I understood correctly from the new standards page that ID3 tags aren't necessary, here goes: - Icarus Evolution Contact Information * James George * maestrodeclure@aol.com * www.soundclick.com/jamesgeorge * user id=3557 Submission Information * Kid Icarus * Title theme, Underworld, Overworld, Fortress, Boss Theme, Ending Theme * Composer: Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka, system: NES * http://www.flyingomelette.com/kidicarus/kidicarusmidis.html Comments: I think this is what...the third time submitting this? maybe the fourth... I felt the title "Icarus Evolution" was appropriate because listening back on each version shows how far this mix has come. I just returned from a trip learning from Chris Bacon and James Newton Howard, so I wanted to take a stab at trying some sequencing tricks I learned. Thus, I beat this ol' dead horse some more. I think last time the comments were mainly: the transitions stink, and something about "medleyitis". May God bless the creator of that word with seven years bad luck, and gas, lots of gas. This piece was originally 10 minutes long, then truncated to fit time and size, so yes the transitions are admittedly not as I would have them. As for medleyitis, I deliberately approached this as a medley, not an overture. While I do recognize that creating a true medley would go against the actual purpose and criteria of OCR, I do also feel that the shear amount of work I've put into this also speaks for itself. I really felt there was a genius to the Kid Icarus soundtrack, and I wanted to showcase that while still doing my best to make it my own. Here's hoping I fall on the other side of the fence this last time; I can promise I won't touch this f@#$ing music ever again, ha ha. Bonus if you accept this: finally you can tell every whining complaining SOB that ever had their "perfect mix" rejected that there's good reason and point to this work. j/k

BIG Man Brandon McKinnon bossmanstudios@yahoo.com The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Hero of The Wind Overworld Theme I was playing Wind Waker, and I heard this theme. I really liked it, and I thought it was something a little more obscure than the Gerudo theme. I wanted it to start off kind of evil and menacing and end up being happy and triumphant. I believe I accomplished that. It breaks it's own mold, too. To me it sounds like something you might hear at a Blue Man Group concert. It has synth elements along with live samples, and it leans towards hip-hop some, too. ------------------------------------------------------------ The Legend of Zelda ~Takt of Wind~ Original Sound Tracks - 103 "The Legendary Hero" There were some good interpretive takes on the main Zelda source, usually involving the supporting instrumentation being changed, but also some good melodic interpretation. Other times though, the melody itself couldn't have been more by the numbers. Interpretive will always serve you better around here. The orchestration was decent. The "hip-hop" parts definitely were not. You can't throw some overly simplistic beats in the background and call it hip-hop style. I'd joke that you were offending half of me, but weak execution of music offends all of me. I kid. So the opening was a decent concept, but very poorly executed. I hate to say it, but the whole orchestral/hip-hop thing ain't working at all for ya. The sections just don't piece together well. You'd have been in a better position if you had stuck with orchestration. Even though many of your samples don't sound that hot, you generally had some good composition ideas. Not yet solid enough for me to pass even if this was just orchestral, but just saying you showed some skill on that level. Keep at it. NO