Liontamer

My wife loves K-soaps, so I can say without hesitation that this source tune indeed sounds like a song for the tender moments of a Korean drama. Loved the shift into the guitar as lead at 1:24, with nice violin backing. When the flugelhorn came back in at 1:55, I'm glad Logan went for more interpretation; it could have easily just retread the same performance dynamics as before and came off disinteresting, so it was good to hear the arrangement continue to develop rather than rest on its laurels. Awesome ornamentation provided by the string plucks toward at 3:10 the finish. Lovely performances, y'all! YES

The opening piano's serviceable though exposed; the timing's rigid enough where it was noticeable, including when it comes back at 9:18. "Suck a Sage" arrived at :59 and the mixing was lossy-sounding and messy, with the stabs from 1:06-1:15 sounding like they were distorting; solid enough power with this section; the performance felt somewhat stilted until 1:52, though certainly not anything where it would be below OCR's bar. TMNT "Going Up" was thrown in from 2:18-2:34 with a pretty shrill synth. "Star Base" theme was also in there at 3:03, with some more interplay from the shrill synths; part of the issue with those synths was them sounding so much sharper than the guitar, which was a weird contrast where they didn't sound like they occupied the same room. The Goemon source at 5:23 felt like a jumpier transition; at the "Ninja Rap"-style cameo at 5:47. There's "The Parasprinter" at 6:01 with a seamless transition, and I dug the brief doubling of the melody with the chiptune line at 6:37; nice touch! Organ's piercing, mostly around 8:05, along with the Eastern wind instrument at 8:50, some more examples of an imbalance with some of the sounds. So yeah, almost everything's lacking high-end sharpness, and some of the synths had too bright and/or shrill of a presense in contrast, but it's an otherwise solid presentation. Would love another mixing pass to smooth some of this out if at all possible, yet the arrangement & performance are enough to carry it. YES (borderline)

There's a more serious tone to the arrangement, but does so without making the theme feel dark. Some nice weight to the bass writing, which established a nice groove. Good depth to the soundscape; everything sounds full, and I enjoyed how various lines would trail off. Oooh, nice ending too; it can come off as too sudden, but I dug that last set of stabs, as it were, which was a nice surprise. Glad you picked this one back up; I always trust your work, Eino, so I'm glad you found the creativity and confidence to get this to a point where you were happy with it. CHOO CHOO

I'll need to time this out later to figure out what primary game this piece would be classified under. There was a moment around 1:49 where the theme interplay was clunky for a segment, but overall it's a solid arrangement and flows pretty nicely between the themes. The bowed strings could use an upgrade, but overall solid performances and nice textures between the live and sampled instruments. Always good to hear the birds let loose in terms of the SFX; long may they continue. YES

I'm so thankful people in the community love these themes. I was initially scared to dig in, just because it's so many source tunes, but I actually recognized all but the MvCI theme, since I played MMX1 and the community's arranged all of the other themes at some point. Veni's video is also extremely helpful in showing the timing of all of the source tune references, and there's no major melody changes, so everything's straightforward as far as observing the source usage. Opens up with some fakey, but serviceable piano. Transition around :35 to MMX5 was fine, but there were some lines with a lot of unpleasent buzziness. The structure's not feeling interpretive with MMX5, so it's more about enhancing the textures. Good transition into the MMX1 Zero theme, and then into MMX5's X vs. Zero theme. I also liked the smooth change in the drumming with the brief change into the MMX3 theme before going back to MMX5 and then switching out to the MvCI theme. All good attention being paid to making these transitions feel smooth by keeping the backing instrumentation consistant. Another cool change around 5:23 to the MMX1 Demo theme followed by the MMX4 theme. The transition to the MMX7 theme felt abrupt, but not by much. If you'd told me this was all one extensive, proggy composition, I'd believe it, so kudos for gluing it all together in a cohesive way! The mixing could be clearer, and I don't like the underlying buzziness at all, so I'd love for it to be tweaked, but it's not bothering me enough to NO this or go conditional YES. The strength of the arrangement carries it. YES

ReMixer & real name: Eino Keskitalo e-mail: Names of games arranged: Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap Name of Arrangement: Vastentahtoisia muodonmuutoksia Names of individual songs arranged: Vs. Dragon, The Dragon's Trap Sources: 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5L4EIKljCM 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScoAICcNJNY MP3 link: FLAC link: Hello dear panel! I'm continuing my journey of polishing up my old work in progress arrangements for submission. This one dates all the way back from 2009, from People's Remix Competition round 156! https://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/PRC156 It was always a fun track I was pretty pleased with. I recorded live bass, guitar and keyboard on top of a non-standard sequenced drum kit. The recording quality was bad, playing was out of time, and the keyboard sounded atrocious! Regardless, the result was a fun short jam, based on music from a game from my childhood, with lots of fond memories of friendship and family attached to it. And the game is still pretty great to play, and the music is still an example of eight bit gold. For the polishing work, I mostly replaced the synth jamming with a couple of synth presets that come with Renoise. I did leave the original playing as a quiet layer in there. As far as the guitar goes, I "reamped" it to give it a lot more brightness, then pushed it to the background in the mix as it was both hissy and lacking in high frequencies. I also doctored the timing quite a bit and completely dropped it for some parts. It's there for colour and a bit of rhythm - I don't have a guitar to re-record at the moment. The bass playing however I was reasonably happy with - I just EQ'd it, fixed some of the worst timing issues (but not all, so it's organic and garage-y) and added a bit of distortion here and there. I was actually pretty pleased and surprised I was able to "rescue" the track up to this level of quality! I hope it's good enough. I also hope you don't mind it being so short - to me, it doesn't need to be any longer. It's a good homage to a game I actually have played substantially! (That's the case for only less than half of my OCR tracks still.) Big thanks to the Workshop hero Hemophiliac for a couple of listens and good comments, which pushed me to do a couple of extra rounds of mixing tweaks.. for example, one of the synths got some chorus effect automation added, which was a very nice additional touch to the track overall and gave it some variety that makes the overall impression nicer. cheers --Eino

I watched through a pair of the most recent videos back in 2019, and it didn't sound like Kegy was using other OC ReMixes beyond "Gypsy Jazz". But I'm happy to look through any other specific Kegy videos that you offer up; if there are other OC ReMixes they used, we should be able to identify them, I'm just not sure if he any others.

I reached out to Je via email, but it was missed, so I forum PMed him yesterday wth the same comments and was able to then get a hold of him; sharing our convo: I hinge my decision-making the most on "identifiable and dominant," which is why I end up lovingly timestamping and stopwatching stuff. Part of it is showing the artists that we're actually paying attention to their tracks and understanding what they did. Part of it is to sanity check that they aren't just doing their own thing with a small amount of VGM usage in there. In my opinion, the VGM source material must always be the dominant/majority component of any arrangement. My personal guideline for this is identifying the source tunes in use somewhere within the arrangement for at least 50% of the track's duration. For this specific track, for example, consider sliding in the first two notes from the source melody (you use it from :35-:36) -- but more quietly or with a different sound -- as a background element underneath at 1:30 or 1:39 until 1:48 when the full melody returns at full volume. That would be enough to nudge the source usage over the 50% mark without making big changes. For the timing, the sound could trigger either at, say 1:39 at the same time as the lead sound, or at 1:40, almost like a call-and-response in between the two flourishes at 1:39 and 1:41). That's just one potential idea, with the intention being invoking the source just a bit longer. For me and sometimes other judges, if it's 49.99%, that's automatically a NO, but some judges will entertain stuff below 50% and go with their gut. It always safest to be at 50.01% or above. But artists can and do range all over the place in terms of how much of their arrangement is actively referencing the source tune at any given time, so as long as the VGM "dominates" the arrangement, invoking the VGM from anything from 50-100% of the track's duration is welcome and allowed. You don't have to necessarily have to add wholly original sections; as long as the presentation is personalized enough, people often do refer to the source during 70-80% of an arrangement. It's up to the artist! Hope to see you in the Discord for sure, Je, it's a great community there, and I always enjoy your work! -Larry To summarize: 1) 227 agreed that my timestamping was accurate and matched how he described things in his submission comments; 2) 227 is OK with whatever decision we reach and has a clearer understanding of the source usage expectations/guidelines; 3) Unless he changes his mind, since he changed DAWs, revisiting this track is effectively a no-go; and 4) A failure to more quickly resolve the decision -- or at least communicate the issues -- may result in our inability to obtain a revision, which we'll need to address.

Ok! Thank you very much for the feedback, i will send my remix of the Asgore's theme of Undertale instead Contact information: Remixer name: Gabriel Busarello Remixer real name: Gabriel Dell'Agnolo Busarello Email: Website (Facebook page): https://www.facebook.com/BusarelloGabriel Submission information: Name of the game: Undertale Name of arrangement: The Spooky King Name of individual song arranged: Asgore's theme Composer: Toby Fox Link to the original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKLxc2NsNcg Comments: This is an orchestral version of the Asgore's theme, with the intention to change the mood of the music for something more "halloween style", spooky, etc. Remix: Sincerely, Gabriel Busarello.

Cool vibe with fun sound design choices; I initially thought some additional elements earlier on wouldn't have been a bad idea, but the texture's actually filled in very nicely once you pay attention to and appreciate each individual part. Super clean stuff. Later you have the nice rhythmic change at 1:45, which was a nice idea to keep things moving, and you filled in the textures even more to altogether bring more intensity ahead of the crescendo-ing beats at 2:06. The arrangement certainly stands on its own, yet since it's from a Mickey Mouse game and I've heard the source, it somehow still feels kind of quaint. LOVE that another Master System game is getting some coverage; awesome choice, Eino! YES

Eventually, yes!

Love the opening with the lush sounds and water SFX; very cool feel to start. The beat comes in at :37 and it's surprisingly tame, one of those tracks where the beats have no meat and sound like a plastic bucket's being hit. Meanwhile, all of the other instrumentation and sound design is so strong, so the beats are an unfortunate quality disparity. Nice drop at 1:43, though this is full of amazing ear candy. By 2:04, I was also tired of the beats, so I'm genuinely glad they dropped out for something else by 2:13 (followed by the first usage of "Infinite Blue" at 2:19). Ah man, beats back at 2:29. Another great dropoff at 2:42. Don't let my focus on a weaker element take away from the fact that this arrangement kicks all sorts of ass. Look at those last creative arrangement ideas at 3:15 before referencing the verse at 3:28. Wow, awesome, Dean. Amazing energy and dynamics throughout. The beats needed more body & heft, but that doesn't take away from this being a super-fun thrill ride! YES

The track was 2:24-long, so I needed to make out the theme for at least 72 seconds. Since this is a gimmick arrangement, I just wanted to check that the source tune was in play enough. I found what I needed! :02.5-:10.5, :13-1:09, 1:30.5-1:35.5, 1:49-2:04.75 = 82.75 seconds or 57.46% overt source usage Also, 1:44-1:47 = Honnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnk One weird goose honk amidst an otherwise sound concept and performance. I... SEY YES P.S. Honnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnk! LT Edit (7/11): Sorry, guys, I'm listening again, and the sax control is indeed too unsteady. I was too nice, which I'll never be again! I'd love for you to try this again, if you're willing to re-record it.

A bunch of goofs goofin'. YES

The source tune feels like Ghosts'n Goblins with beats; I dig it. Track was on the crowded side for me. It's not muddy in terms of parts stepping over one another; the different parts actually seem fairly clean, but something about how they all form this texture makes the track seem cluttered and less sharp than it should. Maybe the grimier/crunchier sounds that start around :04 could have been saved for the repeat of the verse & chorus at :31 or later at 1:18, which could have made the middle seem like a subtle escalation of the energy instead of a retread. From 2:29-on, I would have liked to have heard something new with the textures and writing ideas to make for a stronger close, especially after the dropoff section at 2:00; right now, ideas (albeit creative ideas) are cut-and-pasted with the same sounds and intensity (e.g. verses at :03, 1:18 & 2:43); instead of feeling like a satisfying bookend, the lack of variation in places made the finish repetitive and disappointing. That said, maybe other Js won't mind the structure as much as I did. It's still a solid arrangement by Ernesto with driving energy! YES

I may have misinterpreted what I saw on Discord, but I thought I saw Ben saying something about how he wasn't sure about submitting this piece. There wasn't anything about this that threw me for a loop as far as our arrangement standards, nothing that would give me pause to pass this. The beats and sequenced electric guitar at 1:42 both had a stilted sound to them. Drums at 2:10 didn't fit; they're mixed in a way where you don't get any body to the snare hits, mostly just the snap; it's odd, but another judge likely can explain why all that doesn't click. It's serviceable enough, and I do like you branching out with your instrumentation, but I'd love some sort of improvement there, as it's the weakest link. Back to the ethereal soundscape afterward though, and it was smooth sailing from there. The lead and source counterelody at 3:13 were nice alongside the original writing, followed by the piano and shimmering percussion at 3:46, all great sound design stuff. What an amazing trailoff for the finish. Cool! YES

We've attempted to touch base twice but have never heard back, so let's just keep voting as is, please.

I'm super biased because I love the source tune so much, so I just wanna hear it like this. I'm liking the opening sound design, and the delay effects to give the first section a differnt feels, then fun phasing stuff at :45. The sequencing can feel stilted but there's charm and intention in the overall sound. At 1:06, we get a basic core DnB beat pattern; Roch, I think there's way to spice this up provided you talk to the right people, but we need to take the plodding training wheels off of this beat-writing, because it's a weak link. Good variations of the leads to keep the theme treatment fresh throughout! YES

The track opened up very similar to the original track, but it's near-7 minutes, so there's lots of runway to play with in terms of getting more interpretive, and it was evident it did that not too far along. Not the best samples in terms of realism, but llots of fun instrumentation changes, additive supporting writing, and fun embellishments and soloing elements here and there throughout to give this a distinct character from the original. Making this last without dragging out would be a challenge, but it's asked and answered by T.O.! YES

The source usage is basically the whole track, referencing some sustained lines from the original until :53 and going on from there with the actual melody afterward. The source tune itself has some unpleasant dissonance/clashing that's carried over here, so I guess I can't ding it that bad, but I'll have to live with it. This sounded flooded in the zone, so to speak, where the soundscape was getting muddy until 1:42, but it wasn't anything dealbreaking. Around 1:55, the lack of percussion or something driving this forward made the piece feel like it was dragging, and the rigid timing on everything didn't help things not feel plodding. The driving beat finally was brought in at 2:36. Weird effects on the lead at 3:02 that were messing with my ears in a very unpleasant way; the relative volume of the leads didn't make sense and seemed to be pushed way under the underwater-sounding countermelody. More piercing sounds at 3:52. Arrangement-wise, this does get it done in terms of transforming the theme. Even if the mixing isn't ideal as is, I'd rather post this than not, and would be glad to see if Tyler could give this another mixing pass. YES

I’ll say that this could evolve more, so I could see someone else feeling that the track was ultimately too repetitive or at least droning. That said, I dug it. It’s indeed a great source tune, and Peter’s treatment was very lush with subtle textural changes, and a crystalline sound that demands your attention. It’s a great piece to veg out to. YES

Cohesive combination of the themes. I’ve heard it with so many arrangements in the community, but when the sound is so lush, you almost think “Dayum, this is almost too good for such a simple composition”, but that underscores how catchy VGM can be and how much it deserves the glow-up. Loved the rhythmic change at 1:16 the most, which provided a nice feeling of movement here. Peter’s stuff is rubber stamp good to me. YES

Fun journey! Strong sound design, nice vocal moments. Matt always delivers, and it’s a genuinely meaningful milestone to have our first father-daughter collaboration too! YES

Cool! Some of the initial original writing was too noodly, but no big deal. Good variations of the sounds and textures to provide the distinction compared to the source. Clean sound, with fun use of the sample club vocals and in-game voices as well. Was initially worried it might not feel interpretive enough, but I’ve also heard enough of your work now to feel confident that it wasn’t going to be a problem, so I’m glad that was the case. I enjoyed! YES

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