Liontamer

ReMixer Name: Northmusic Real Name: Steve Imbordino Email: northmusic@hotmail.com Website: http://www.northsounds.com User ID: 22382 Source: Judgment Day from Final Fantasy Song Title: The Last Hour Comments: Hello, I'm a local musician in the Chicago land area (Aurora Illinois to be exact). A friend of mine turned me onto OC Remix a few weeks ago. I've always been a fan of video game musicians (some of the most unrecognized artists in the field to be honest), and was happy to see such talented musicians paying tribute to some great work that's been done over the years. That being said, my friend gave me a copy of Judgment Day, and asked me to try my hand at doing my own arrangement. The final product is attached to this email. While I know I'm not at the same level as most of the musicians on this site, I tried to keep the original composition structure in tact while giving it a more modern feel. Thanks in advance for the time spent in reviewing it. Best regards, Steve Imbordino http://www.northsounds.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- Dale North will kill you for taking that URL. http://tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 413 "Judgment Day" The sounds are reasonably well-balanced, though there's not too much going on. Maybe it's just me, but I found the lead synth at :10 to be ultra-bland and cheap-sounding, on account of being so exposed. The strings weren't much hotter, but did trail in a way to help them sound more realistic. No major dynamic shifts in the composition, though there were subtle changes/additions/subtractions in the instrumentation that helped the piece evolve somewhat. That's undermined by the repetitiveness of the melodic arrangement. I did like the bassline though and the groove was decent, but the melodic interpretation is near-0 with no other substantially compensating arrangement or interpretation techniques used besides the genre change. Then essentially a rinse and repeat of :10's section with the melody at 1:43. In other words, you've really got to do more, and really develop this piece. Check out section 4 of the Submission Standards for more info on how you could further personalize the arrangement. Stick around here and use the ReMixing and Works forums if you haven't done so already. Good base here though, Steve. There's a lot that could be improved, and I'm sure my comments make my opinion pretty negative, but that's just because I'm focused on what's lacking. You're ahead of most first-time submitters. Looking forward to hearing more from you. NO

Since I've voted on everything, the forums are obsolete. They could melt for all I care!

Don't forget the tornado. It can be killed by an arrow.

Thanks a lot for the kind words. Big Giant Circles truly made those vocals work. One of the funnier criticisms of that track are people complaining about my vocals being non sequitur, as a lot of people believe they're simply made up for the song. Why would I waste an opportunity to do my own small tribute to Nomura after reading his great interview excerpt? When in doubt, Wikipedia has all the inspiration you need.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Frog's Theme" (ct-119.spc) Gotta readily admit, super pwnt here, as I had even rechecked this one after Vigilante's vote and didn't get any red flags here besides the melody. The reason several of the instrumentation ideas seemed new was because they just didn't stand out at all for me in the original. As alluded to earlier, clearly I didn't like this theme enough to really have it click with me vs. the arrangement, despite the unapologetic description of the sub letter. But going the full cavity search here and deconstructing this with the individual SPC voices clearly showed too much verbatim usage of the parts from the original, just given a nice sound upgrade, so the structure is clearly too similar and uncreative. Let's attempt to redeem it with... The breakdown: *Voice 1 (brass) = melody essentially used verbatim from :33-1:05 & 1:21-1:52 *Voice 2 (woodwind melody) = melody essentially used verbatim from :33-1:05 & 1:21-1:52 *Voice 3 (high reverbed string 1) = not ripped anywhere, AFAIK; pattern is similar to voice 7 *Voice 4 (high reverbed string 2) = not ripped anywhere, AFAIK; pattern is similar to voice 7 *Voice 5 (low reverbed string) = feels like it from :17-:33, but not used, AFAIK *Voice 6 (military drums) = pattern essentially used verbatim from :07-:49 and 1:05-1:51; seemingly different stuff from :49-1:05 though sounded similar to :45-1:01 of the SPC, so that could have been ripped. *Voice 7 (boomy drums) = pattern essentially used verbatim from :33-1:05; still used the same way until 1:51 but very obscured due to the other instrumentation added after 1:05 If this track is exactly the way you want it, that's fine. Don't change a thing. But if you're interested in getting this passed as an OC ReMix, you need to take the theme in new directions that don't rely this heavily on copying the parts of the original and merely beefing up the instrumentation. For example, uniquely rewriting the supporting instrumentation and reinterpreting the melody and countermelodies. Although limited, the added embellishments and new part writing are definitely cool, especially the brass upfront from 1:21-1:57. The comparatively more interpretive intro (note: comparatively) from :00-:17 was a highlight as well. So you had some brief ideas going in the right direction for what we're looking for, Markus. Definitely read Section 4, Part 2 of the Submission Standards for more information and details on ways an arrangement treats the source material to fit with our creativity standards. NO

Too liberal? Too liberal! No way? No way! - LT Mixer name: Bren Forum name: Bren Game: Sonic CD (US soundtrack) Track: Stardust Speedway - Bad future (included in the zip) Title: Lightspeed Marathon Too far from the original? You decide. Originally I wrote this as a side project, not necessarily a remix, and just kept adding more elements from the original. It was always intended to sound similar to the original, but what I'm wondering now is if it's close enough or not for it to be accepted as a remix on OCR. If it's not, then at least I hope you'll enjoy listening to it. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sonic the Hedgehog Boom - (02) "Stardust Speedway-Bad Future" Wouldn't mind zircon or another theory guy to deconstruct this, but from an interpretation perspective, I indeed thought it was too liberal once I compared this with the source. (Thanks for providing it, BTW.) The source had melodies to use, and I didn't hear them in play here at all as far as I could tell. What's here is stylistically similar to the source but that's it. I'd even argue the overall instrumentation and feel copies the original too closely. If the melodies had been close, it might as well have just been the Sonic CD song. The arrangement itself is also way too repetitive and underdeveloped, beyond a key change and some added guitar on top at 2:12. More variation and development of the concept would have been great for the track in general. Production-wise though, the best work I've ever heard from you, Bren. A bit cramped, but everything was otherwise sounding pretty good. I've heard some pretty weak sounds from you in the past, but everything seems to have taken a nice step up in terms of the treatment. So really, I don't see enough at all to make this a viable arrangement or different enough with the sounds to give this a unique, personalized style. Ultimately, that makes it pretty cut-and-dry as far as the standards go, but you had an idea of that yourself. Mainly wanted to praise the production strides you've made here. Looking forward to future work from you that's less liberal and more overtly interpretive. NO

Not sure if uninstalling Norton leaves behind stuff, but it shouldn't really matter once you do. Definitely ice it, it's a total piece of shit. A shame too, Norton himself hasn't been involved the company for years. Definitely explore AVG and other CNET recommended virus-protection programs. As for other related security programs, ZoneAlarm is cool and AdAware is good as well.

Nah djp, I don't think you're grinchy badmen. Child's Play is definitely a unique and creative cause, but when you put it into perspective, I would rather give money that would go towards medical care or research that would potentially have a more long-term impact on the quality of life of children. But if you wanted to take a cynical perspective, one could argue (I didn't say prove) that giving money to children's hospitals or research funds would not primarily/substantially go to the cause you want them to and may be siphoned off by bureaucracies and management. One aspect of why Child's Play may appeal is because donators feel sure that the systems and games they sponsor or contribute towards will end up in the hands of a sick child and not a middle manager. Does that mindset promote long-term help for children? No, even though I agree that giving toward hospitals and research should be the better of the two choices. I'm not saying you wouldn't give due diligence, but in order to reassure the more cynical of potential donators if you indeed go the charitable route, it's critical that the proper research be done to make sure that any cause considered is very transparent with how donations are spent, and that you also provide access at one's fingertips to that information.

Tim's brother Geoff did Altered Space, but Geoff's work is also fair game for the project.

Yeah, anyone looking at tracks, make sure to run 'em by me first just to make sure they were composed by Follin. For Lemmings, track 08-22 are the real gold. Even you if don't choose to participate, you should download those and check them all out; I don't think you'll be disappointed at all. They're all very well-written, IMO.

I agree with djp that TO can't just insist these tracks be included. Redlight needs to agree to be included, especially with possible plans to make promo copies of this album as well, which IMO adds another dimension to things. No, that's an implication you made. The nature of the Doom II sources had no bearing on whether those tracks would be allowed on the project itself, just the OCR main page. Plus, I can't emphasize enough that we on staff haven't decided what to do with the overall Doom situation. I have my opinion but that's only based on one aspect of the situation. You have concluded that we have some sort of finalized stance, which we're far from having. Where TO was 100% wrong was in stating that those various tracks were already deemed ineligible for OCR. Despite what he said, they weren't. It wasn't decided then, it hasn't been decided now. The Doom II soundtrack having some mainstream-derived sources is common knowledge among many fans of the game, which is why I don't believe TO felt the need to say so beforehand. That also explains why, by extension, he wouldn't believe that someone would be mad about that fact. But that's only an inference and I could be dead wrong, so TO has to explain his frame of mind there. While it definitely would have been better for all involved for TO to have highlighted the issue earlier in the project thread, he did as soon as he realized the implications for his project and that he hadn't made light of the issue to everyone on board. While I can understand that you wish you knew of a potential controversy re: eligibility for the main page, saying TO intentionally deceived you is 1) assuming bad faith and 2) reaching. If TO knew anyone would have been upset regarding the source tunes mixed and could have instead directed them to other source tunes, he would have. And if he really wanted to deceive anyone, he easily could have: 1) Just waited for the project to be completed AND released, essentially locking in the tracks, and only then make light of the issue 2) Waited for you to submit the track, and only then make light of the issue 3) Not make light of the issue at all Again, let's not assume bad faith. This "deception" conclusion is definitely not correct. You guys need to shake hands or hug or something. No matter what, there's nothing so deep going on here that we can't be friendly and mature.

http://follin.quiteajolt.com/ I'm looking for fresh meat for the most important project in OCR history (Disclaimer: to me), the Tim Follin project, which will be OCR's first composer tribute, involving arrangers across communities. Seeing as how Follin is known moreso for his music than his games, though he has some really well-received games under his belt, I've hosted all of the MP3s of his material available from the Gamingforce Forums project led by niki. Get all the MP3s at the link above, follin.quiteajolt.com, hosted by CHz. CHz says it's ok to rape his bandwidth (i.e. I'm claiming he said it's ok). If you're an arranger and need suggestions, please let me know. I'd like to get at least 15 arrangements total and am currently at 8 not counting WIPs. Please download everything and give 'em a good listen. Look, a bootleg listing of what's a available, including 2 short films by Follin. Gotta catch 'em all or something to that effect! Altered_Space_-_GB/ 24-Oct-2007 23:28 - Atari_ST_collection/ 25-Oct-2007 12:08 - Bionic_Commando_-_Am..> 25-Oct-2007 10:45 - Body Counting 248kbp..> 25-Oct-2007 12:23 29M Bust-A-Move_4 _-_GBC/ 25-Oct-2007 00:31 - Ecco_the_Dolphin_-_D..> 25-Oct-2007 10:46 - Equinox_-_SNES/ 25-Oct-2007 02:40 - Firearm_-_unreleased/ 25-Oct-2007 12:42 - Ford_Racing_2_-_PS2/ 25-Oct-2007 11:13 - Future_Tactics_-_PS2/ 25-Oct-2007 11:14 - Gauntlet_III_-_Amiga/ 25-Oct-2007 11:55 - Ghouls_'N_Ghosts_-_A..> 25-Oct-2007 11:14 - LED_Storm_-_Amiga/ 25-Oct-2007 04:18 - Lemmings_-_PSP/ 25-Oct-2007 11:17 - Magic_Johnson's_Fast..> 25-Oct-2007 11:18 - Originals/ 25-Oct-2007 12:55 - Pictionary_-_NES/ 25-Oct-2007 11:18 - Plok_-_SNES/ 25-Oct-2007 11:56 - Puzznic_-_Amiga/ 25-Oct-2007 11:23 - Rock_N'_Roll_Racing_..> 25-Oct-2007 11:21 - Silver_Surfer_-_NES/ 25-Oct-2007 11:21 - Sky_Shark_-_NES/ 25-Oct-2007 11:22 - Sly_Spy_-_Amiga/ 25-Oct-2007 11:22 - Spider-Man_and_the_X..> 25-Oct-2007 11:25 - Starsky_&_Hutch_-_PS2/ 25-Oct-2007 11:25 - Target_-_Renegade_-_..> 25-Oct-2007 11:26 - The Sun Circle 248kb..> 25-Oct-2007 12:36 31M Thomas_the_Tank_Engi..> 25-Oct-2007 11:28 - Wolverine_-_NES/ 25-Oct-2007 11:28 - ZX_Spectrum_collection/

You can give your congrats to Radiowar on his debut OC ReMix, by checking it out here and leaving your comments in the Review thread here. No thanks to me!

http://akumunsf.good-evil.net/B/Base%20Wars%20-%20Cyber%20Stadium%20Series.nsf - Track 1 Hahaha! Cool original intro, extremely loosely based off the style of the intro from :00-:06 of the source. really feeling the distorted-style SID-esque synths. The Doctor Who samples added a weird element to the track. Source melody was brought in at :31. The simple percussion at the heart of the groove, but effective enough to keep it moving, with some good fills at each measure. Great subtle escalation with the added beats at :31, more instrumentation at :48, then moving up the melody really beefing up the role of the pad at 1:03. Drops it back a little at 1:19, before the breakdown at 1:35. Very effective dynamics, IMO. Ah, at 1:36 I see where you got the mix title with another Doctor Who sample. Breakdown continued with original writing from 1:51-2:07, before moving back into the source with some arpeggiated support and gradually escalating the track yet again at 2:23 & 2:39 before taking it down a notch again at 2:55 to get the track on its way to wrapping up. So in terms of the melodic usage in a 3:43.5-long mix, it was there from :31-1:33 & 2:07-2:54, or 1:49's worth, about 48.77%. Close, but no cigar at that level. But the intro caught my attention, so I inquired with zircon: Thanks a lot to zirc for taking time out to help me with my questions. Though I hear the influence, the arrangement's simplified bassline intro of :00-:14 compared to the source tune's :00-:06 intro felt like too tenuous of a connection where I can't give it credit. But the usage of where the source melody wasn't in play (:00-:31, 1:36-1:44, 1:51-2:07, 2:55-3:43) was pretty substantial, enough to nudge the source usage above the 50% line if given a sort of "partial" credit. I leave that to the theory experts. I feel like if I YESed, it would be because I heard what I wanted to hear. I indeed hear a connection, but there's something to be said about it being so liberal that it might as well be original. I'd much rather see something tweaked in the arrangement to make the connection decisively stronger and bump it above the 50% threshold with a few seconds more overt source arrangement. It's a really cool track, no mistake about it. If there's an aspect of viable arrangement that I'm missing, please let me know. As is though, I'm sticking to what I can directly make out, and that's not enough to place the majority (even a slim majority) of focus on the source material. Even 49.99% overt source usage just isn't enough to me given how I interpret the Standards. NO (dancing on the borderline)

By his 2nd "Super YES" post, BGC knew it was fake, but otherwise...

I've yet to update the Queue thread, but it's already on the panel.

I've written about it for the pimpage; enjoy.

Today? No.

As of now, yeah.

Hi there! This is my first remix submission to you guys and actually it's one of my first attempts at covering videogame music. The source material is in my opinion, a colossal achievement in the chiptune department. I still remember the first time I played this and how I was blown away by the overall quality of the soundtrack. Since then, I always wanted to remix one of these tunes, so I'm glad I finally got the opportunity. I must say that I had my work cut out for me though.. I had a hard time with the intricating melodies at first. I think there may be a bit too much melodies layered on top of each other in the original tune (Ex. 0:08). So I mainly tried to isolate the different tracks instead of putting them althogeter and confuse the listener. I also down tempo'ed the whole track so that it would fit the symphonic feel I wanted to give it. I must appologize for the use of drum loops, I edited all of them to break the repetitiveness but found myself a bit limited overall. I learned my lesson for next time. I hope it'll pass the test so that more people get to know that awesome game.. Thank You! Yan ----------------------------------------------------------------- Link to remixed file: Link to original chiptune: Your ReMixer name : Rakadam! Your real name : Yan Thouin Your email address : Y_thouin1@hotmail.com Yan.thouin@ubisoft.com Your website : --------------- Your userid : 22317 Name of game arranged : Gaiares Name of individual song arranged : Original: Mission 4 Remix: The TOZ factor Additional information about game : Composer: Shinobu Ogawa System : Sega Genesis ---------------------------------------------------------------------- http://project2612.org/download.php?id=24 - "Mission 4" Catchy source tune. Cool opening as well. Piano brought in at :10 sounded was already pretty exposed and could be better humanized. Not sure why it wasn't in the foreground of the piece, as it was the melody, but the counter-melodic writing from the guitar and strings seemed derived from the source as well. The drumloops were a negative, not so much in that you used them (as I don't feel they were a crutch), but because the various pattern didn't sound like they were in the same room or of the same sound quality when they'd switch off. Frankly, the patterns also weren't very strong in the first place and I felt they didn't really integrate well with the other instrumentation. Not sure why the soundscape had to be this murky most of the time, as lots of details are lost. Besides the source melody, for example, the bowed string part in the background from 1:06-1:29 is almost completely buried. Stretches such as 1:51-2:36 dragged out due to no one element given the piece focus with everything being quiet yet at similar volume levels. Lots of sound balance issues the whole way. A decent base, going in the right direction in terms of concepts that would make for good OC ReMixes. I think it shows off legit potential as an artist. Hopefully the other Js can give some more pointed composition and production advice. Keep working at it and use the ReMixing and Works forums at the site to enhance you skills and seek out fan feedback if you aren't doing so already. NO

Over the filesize limit, but we'll deal with that - LT Red Tailed Fox, zyko caio moraes ferreira , waleed hawatky wmhawatky@yahoo.com www.zykomazika.com zelda, again. this time, it's a really fun collaboration with my buddy caio from beautiful rio de janeiro. a beautiful mixture of ideas here, i believe; he came to me with the body and soul... a gentle, wispy forest musik that tripped me and transported me. what i heard was excellent zelda forest music and instantly fell in love... we cooked up a structure to the track over instant messenger but then his hard drive crashed and all we had of this track was a mix down of one full cycle of the A and B sections of the track he had concocted. i played surgeon the rest of the way and this is what we've got the intro is actually borrowed from my remix "The Woods of the Invertix" from way back god knows when. hope you dig it. ---------------------------------------------------------------- I knew I recognized that intro. Let's see what's there. http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 35 "Lost Woods" & 64 "Water Temple" In my opinion, the sum total should sound more cohesive, but clearly this was clicking for the major majority. Caio's bassline work felt retread-ish given what I've heard in "Brinstar Bonsai Garden" and other (more relevant) slower originals he's collabed on with Malcos and Shnabubula, but that was a more minor criticism. Nice usage of "Water Temple" from 1:43-2:09. Heard the same animal SFX used here as I did in Caio's rejected DKC2 sub "Fixbit Forest". Went into some pretty liberal interpretations from 2:36-4:05, but always grounded in working with the "Lost Woods" theme which was good. Whoa, really jumpy change at 3:11; I'd check the source files there and fix that if possible; not sure if some Js will let that slide before it went up. Awkward move in the same vein back to "Water Temple" at 4:22 for the finish. The finish there wasn't cohesive but was interesting. Good stuff, and I'd argue fairly solid synergy. Since the filesize is too large anyway, let's double check if we can get those jumpy transitions fixed, 3:11 especially. YES EDIT: Vote changed. See below.

Terrible answer, but pretty much all of them are worth checking out. SF1 and the original SF2 are probably the only ones I'd skip, but you should mess with those just to see how they play.

Your ReMixer name: Psycho Scapegoat Your real name : Steven Creaney Your email address : psychoscapegoat@hotmail.com Your website http://scapegoat.selfip.com Your userid :17266 Name of game(s) arranged : Megaman X Name of individual song(s) arranged : Storm Eagle Theme Having played Metal for years (see links below ) I always wanted to hear this song much heavier. I’ve heard versions, but they didn’t quite have the thrash that I wanted. I’ve been working on this song for just under a year, having submitted 2 previous songs (neither were much good lol), I wanted to take my time and really work on this. After building up my equipment and learning a few tricks, I decided to take another stab at submission. Other work: http://www.myspace.com/thegreatshowdown http://www.myspace.com/psychoscapegoat2 --------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=mmx - "Storm Eagle" (mmx-16.spc) Once the track picked up at :08, the EQing felt like there was something substantial missing in the highs. Not sure if that was a sour note in the chorus at :20. Also can't shake the feeling that the rest of the chorus was skipped at :28 & 1:06 because it would have been too difficult to perform, but that's ultimately neither here nor there. Otherwise, the performance was still solid for a first sub though not overly strong. The original section from 1:26-1:55 was a bit aimless, but that's alright; it was at least a good idea in altering the dynamics of the piece. The soloing section at 2:02-2:36 was a mess. The sequenced electric guitar came in abruptly, sounded cheap, and was buried in the murky soundscape. Also, it was peppered with wrong notes that didn't mesh with the rhythm guitar playing Storm Eagle's foundation at the base of the track; mostly from 2:10-2:17, with 2:25-2:36 ending on a stronger note. Though I thought the textures were a bit bland, and that this wasn't intense enough to be considered metal, this was still a fairly decent rock mix. With better production, this could be taken up a few notches, perhaps to a passable level. Good base so far, Steven; sincerely hope you'll consider resubmitting this one. Use the ReMixing and Works forums to ask for help on improving your work and showing off your tracks for fan feedback in the future. NO (resubmit)

Hey there, here's a link to download the remix, let's hope u like it... 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 Interesting intro. The string attacks sounded jerky and unrealistic, and the piano used from 1:31-2:02 sounded robotically performed. Too much volume and too much reverb struck me immediately at :30, not helped by some obvious distortion around :44. The soundfield was way too swampy and cluttered despite not much even going on with the textures. Despite the relatively brief length, the arrangement felt fairly complete despite being underdeveloped. The arrangement was headed in the right direction in an interpretive sense, but there still could have been more melodic interpretation as well. Work on your production more though. Creatively, you're already headed in the right direction, so you need to ensure the presentation is smoother and better balanced. Use the ReMixing forums to ask questions about your setup and what programs you use, then post material in the Works forum for fan feedback if you can obtain some. NO

...'cuz I am the enforcer. (November 2nd)