Liontamer

With the FF7 project on the horizon, I aim to be there to cover things. Which means they're gonna be a podcast of some sort coming soon. With that said, the format of the podcast will be similar to the old radio show in that I want to spotlight all aspects and sites of the community, as well as original material. But the time will be nowhere near as long. The podcast will be about luring the chilluns into OC ReMix, but also touching upon everything else. How long would you be willing to listen to one podcast of the show? And perhaps more importantly, how long do you think a n00b would be willing to listen to a one podcast of the show? Any viable feedback is appreciated.

Any new news on the Storm WIP, esteemed sir?

Guy gets his muzak used at E3 and he carries himself like a pimp daddy. Welcome aboard. I'll hit you up regarding refinements to the arrangement, but yours is a very solid base so far, and of course really catchy. Great treatment of the Spider-Man theme. Thanks for joining up!

This is dopez.

I mentioned it on Hipster, please! but I'm extremely jealous of anyone and everyone that'll be at the video shooting.

While it lasted though, we did appreciate everyone banding together for the lulz.

--In the event this makes it onto OCR, please don't post it until the Radical Dreamers project is complete.-- Contact Info Your ReMixer name: Abadoss Your real name: Kenneth Edward Keyn Your email address: Abadoss@yahoo.com Your website: http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/ Your userid (number, not name) on our forums: 1901 ReMix Info Name of game(s) ReMixed: Radical Dreamers Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: Frozen Flame Link: Additional information: For me, "Frozen Flame" always seemed out of place in the Radical Dreamers soundtrack. It's not by much, but it seemed to be of a different stock than the other pieces. Perhaps it has something to do with the waltz feel or something else. I'm not entirely sure the reasons behind the difference are all musical. Anyway, I joined the Radical Dreamers project some time in February 2007. Seeing as how I was somewhat of a late-comer, I didn't have a whole lot to pick from, but, to my relief, Frozen Flame was among them. Thus my journey began. I set out to work transcribing the piece in its original form so I could study it and see what made it tick. I then tried various re-orchestrations to hear what certain parts would sound like on different instruments. I then played around with a few musical forms before settling on something a little latin jazzier. I build the arrangement, getting feedback from the other members of the project along the way. With the exception of the style and nuances, it's fairly straight forward. My personal favorite section is circa 1:42. Oh, and yes, I know about the flute's vibrato. Unfortunately, Garritan Personal Orchestra's flute has two settings: vibrato and no vibrato. Please know that I picked the better of the two. That said, I used Finale 2007, Garritan Personal Orchestra, Garritan Jazz and Big Band, and Audacity to create this piece. The name is rather unimaginative, as it's spanish for "Cold Fire". LT EDIT (10/13): For most of the piece, the melody is carried by the flute. However, it's been modified rhymically - i.e. augmentation and diminution. Hope that helps. I'm screwed. ------------------------------------------------------------------ http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=rd - "Frozen Flame" (rd-10.spc) Good source selection. I was only particularly familiar with the very beginning of the theme myself. Hey, "Portal to Open Grounds" is pretty interesting too! But back on course... The overall feel is definitely a departure from the original. Not sure how it felt straightforward, but I only got the connection to the source once the arrangement reached 1:01, though from about :42 things sounded similar. I'll have to familiarize myself more with the source and get back to this one. EDIT (10/20): I'm finally clear that Ken used the entire verse (starting at :07) from the source before moving onto the chorus, funking around with the rhythms and progression of the verse moreso than the chorus. After counting the notes in each section of the verse (glad I'm very familiar with this theme) and following the melody here, I was able to more easily decipher the interpretation from :07-:27 covering :00-:14 of the source. There was a little more, but I'm good. :41-1:24 arranged the chorus very nicely before shifting to another iteration of the verse from 1:24-1:57, and back into the chorus at 1:58. Great changes at from 1:37-2:00 compared to the first go around. The second chorus felt too retread-ish and could have used some other ideas. The ending at 2:48 was too cheesy for my taste, and the last few seconds (2:44-2:49) felt like the samples were on the exposed side, which made that string run finish sound very weak; clearly not the intent. Overall though, I FINALLY got where the verses were coming from, and I can lay this one to rest. Though I wish the choruses had more pronounced variation from first to second, the differences in the verses were good. Can't help but feel that the arrangement was still underdeveloped on account of the second chorus, as there was a lot more potential to exploit for that section and with more material afterwards. So a little underwhelming on that level when I take a step back. Still, the the whole arrangement was pretty interpretive at its core. Definitely enough substance here from my vantage point to get the duke. YES

Remixer: Trenthian Guitars: brOtherSynthe Forum id'izzle?: 6010 I think maybe? erm.... oh yeah! Game Remixed: Wizards and Warriors Songs : medley! Title of the Remizzle: Wizards in My Armor (Warrior in My Long-Johns*) *see entry 6 in our fantastic offer. Id like to offer you a chance to 100% FREEEEEEEE do somthing or other. Listen to our exciting commercial offer. What is included with your subscription? 1. Vanished Princess (read: Varnished) 2. Medieval Electric Rennaissance Disco Butt-Rock 3. Trenthian Singing for the lulz 4. Brothersynthe Guitar Solo 2. Electric Recorder Solo. 5. WEARY! 6. It's More likely than you think. ------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.zophar.net/nsf/wizwar.zip - Tracks 1, 11 & 2 Badass. The drums were the weak part of the mix, as I thought the steady beat kept the time nicely and moved things forward, but droned on like a robot after a while and wasn't as interesting as the rest of the composition. The harmonized lyrics also could have been a bit more upfront, but they were otherwise handled very well. The arrangement as a whole was extremely excellent. John's vocals were handled pretty well, and the harmonization was solid. Taking lessons from Star Salzman on improving your vocal technique and production? Man, I remember that Perfect Stangers theme arrangement you made, and those vocals were HARSH. The electric recorder solo from 3:01-3:43 was very swanky, followed Basdass guitar solo from the anthropomorphic Brothersynthe from 3:42-4:16, both on top of the source's progression. Could have been mixed a bit better, but god damn that was some impressive stuff. The lyrics at the very end had me laughing out loud when I paid attention to them and acually heard what you saying. A lot of people are gonna get a kick out of 'em. Otherwise though, the serious parts of the lyrics were also very well written and coneveyed great imagery of the game. Not a necessity of course, but some closed-minded vocal haters (FUCK YOU!) will at least lay off when the lyrics are relevant to the game. Thank you, oh gracious Lord, for thine son Trenthian of Trenthia. Plus it's the first Wizards & Warriors mix in 4 years, which is a blessing in and of itself from the Supreme Being. Wouldn't mind a shower and message of the mixing on this one to get it sounding cleaner and sleeker, but this is still a gem of an arrangement. YES

name: Shaun Wallace avaris.studios@gmail.com remixer name: avaris 88369 Game: Final Fantasy XII Company: Squeeenix Composer: Hitoshi Sakimoto Source: Game Over http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/sony/ps2/index-af.html Remix: Inishmore is a little island off on Ireland. While I have never been there the pictures seemed peaceful and serene place. It felt like a [;ace that was a little detached from the world. When I first heard the song I obviously had just kicked the bucket in the game…I thought I could win without paying attention to the gambit system. I heard this tune and instantly fell in love with it. The mix started out as an experiment to write something in 6/4 and sequence some early 90's alt rock ballad drums. (Candlebox, Gin Blossoms, Goo Goo Dolls etc…) As the song progressed over time I started getting creative with audio, FX, and tons of automation on send amounts and synths. I kept working on it and it grew into what it is today. I recorded audio from the reverb send and added tons of further processing to widen the sound. The intro is a fade in from the recorded reverb to the actual mix. The string patch is actually about 6-8 layers of sounds ranging from your generic cello to European instruments from QL Rare. Many of the sounds were run through Vokator set up as send. I had the dynamics processors on as well as the compression on the Vokator. That send effect is mainly responsible for the feel of the mix. The crackling is from Live's Vinyl Distortion effect run through the string patch. All of the synth work except for the bass (FM7) is a nice lil synth called Feldspar. Composition was done in FL while the instrumentation and production were done in Live. Big thanks go out to Tensai-San, OA, Malcos, and Jewbei for critiquing the song as it was nearing completion. Sorry for the long write up, there was a lot of inspiration and new tricks that went into this mix. Thought it'd be cool to share a few of them. If I need to find a picture for the game just PM me. Thank for listening. ~Shaun -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.noderunner.net/~llin/psf/packs/FFXII_psf2.rar - 207 "Game Over" Brief, but very nice source tune. I'm definitely interested in seeing how you can build enough off of this. The instrumentation derived from the source plays it very close to the original. Sounds like you were trying to emulate the original, but broaden the instrumentation. The cymbal shots (first used at :32) sounded a little out of place; too clean compared to the other instruments in the soundscape, plus IMO you overused them. I'd like a second opinion on whether the cymbals were working or not. The other percussion, like the rim hits, were good though. The composition was otherwise pretty cool, and some of the phrasing had some passing similarities to Shnabubula and GrayLightning. 1:59 started getting a bit more interpretive and expansive with the source, which was good. Good original writing from 2:27-2:43. From a compositional perspective, you clearly owe a lot to the original, as it was easy to use it in a fairly straightforward manner. As such, the writing tends to be a lot stronger and more cohesive that what I've heard from you in the past, though much of that is because of holding to the structure of the source. But you've been improving gradually and you were able to both get some good variations out of the source and make the arrangement to expansive enough to properly personalize things to me. Just refine the cymbal usage and production and you'd be good to go, IMO. Subdued but swanky, this has come along nicely, Shaun. Good luck with the rest of the vote. NO (refine/resubmit)

Nah, I mean, what was the setting where all those people inquired about the mix? Were you guys at a party? What was going on, and what were some reactions to the track?

Remixer name: atari2600a Real name: Email address: atari2600a@yahoo.com Website: http://mtac.profusehost.net/ (painfully unfinished) UserID: 20484 Game remixed: Sonic The Hedgehog (Genesis/Megadrive) Songs remixed: Green Hill Zone atari2600a http://mtac.profusehost.net/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- http://project2612.org/download.php?id=36 - "Green Hill Zone" 2:14-long, I was ready to break out the Form Rejection Letter when I was very pleaseantly surprised. Up until, the arrangement was pretty liberal, but the underlying progressions felt derived from the source. Listen to the padded notes in the intro (usually repeating the same two notes, until the phrasing was completed with the final two notes from :30-:34). Then from :34-:50, that changes to a warbly ambient-type synth that uses the similar pattern derived from the background of the original, repeating from :50-1:06. I'm not trying to give that stuff a free pass on account of liking the track, but I'd need a theory buff to explain how the connection was there. The synth bassline also had a pretty liberal spin on the "Green Hill Zone" theme in the foreground until 1:06. Nothing overtly dealing with the source until after 1:06, but all of that was pretty well-written and had some tenuous connections so it gets a small degree of credit in terms of using the Green Hill theme. From 1:06 until 2:14/end though, the usage of the source was completely overt, which was good. The usage of the Sonic sound effects was really creative, and the writing on all levels except the percussion was interpretive and well-varied. For such a brief track, it was important that the arrangement be not be retreadish at any point, and, except for the percussion, you delivered. My main complaints were that the main percussion track brought in at :34 repeated ad infinitum until the end and that the sound balance could be tweaked a little. I can live with the sound balance, as the arrangement is otherwise well-developed and solid, and the Green Hill melody is audible enough versus the other sounds. But if you could pull back the percussion a little bit and add some variations to the percussion patterns, this would be a shoe-in. I think we should push for the drum tweaks to get it on more solid ground, especially in light of how brief the track is. Might pass regardless, as the arrangement is impressive, IMO, and the issues here may not seem weighty enough versus the strengths, so good luck with the rest of the vote. If this doesn't pass, definitely refine it a little bit, and resubmit this so it can go up on the front page! NO (borderline)

My lady, ThatPaige, wrote up on the VG Frequency blog about her love for this track. She knows what she's talking about. This track is the business. You don't know jack about OCR if you haven't given this a listen. It's required downloading.

And I just posted on Reyn Ouwehand's new C64 arrangement album "The Blithe, The Blend & The Bizarre". It's extra swanky. Check out ze blog, and once you get a look at that cover, you know it'll be some crazy stuff. The previews for the album are solid, so check it out!

After mailing Greg about the production criticism, Greg hooked it up with a new version that sounds sleeker, like ze majestic puma. Thanks for taking another look at this, Greg.

It's a one time thing to inform people of posted submissions that have used the WIP boards. Not sure if you weren't clear on it, but locking a thread can't bump it, only posting can. As more people post, the locked threads will naturally fall off of page 1 of WIPs. I don't believe we ever had our URLs in that style to begin with. Also, all of our game database URLs have a / at the end anyway.

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11085 OK I changed the string sample, brought out the oboe, and raised the master volume a little bit. hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhere it is:

Watching the time attack for this game, this mix would have fit very well in place of the original. A great upgrade arrangement that THANKFULLY did its own thing in the second half to save it. Very well put together, and always a enjoyable listen, Ryan. Don't listen to Vigilante about your orchestration. He smells like cat pee.

The complete version is now available here and any further reviews can be posted here.

That's clearly implied, Nitpiq Ansari!

Dizzamn, Michael posted a much-improved version over at VGMix via some great advice from Dennis about a week and a half ago. Why did you not send this newer cut in while this was still in the judging process? You gotta keep me aware of situations like this, as we could have replaced the version you sent with the more recent one. :'-( It could still use a little bit of refinement with the production as some of it gets pretty cluttered, but it was a much stronger piece than what you sent us. Definitely keep working on it and send it on back. I'd love to see you make a front page comeback, Mike.

Dat's essentially what it's emulating. I kill u!

Never any rush from me. Tis upcoming, and that's good enough for me. The only person I put on deadlines is myself.

I've just posted regarding another interview from Tales of Shadows, this time putting the questions to Sephfire. If you can be persuaded, leave comments. They are currently my lifeblood. Meanwhile, the content flows like wine over at VGF thanks to efforts of beautiful people like The Lady (who likes "Cerebral Rose Jam") as well as the smelly likes of no-good miscreants such as CHz and Dhsu (who, for the sake of being contrary, likely spit upon "Cerebral Rose Jam"). Keep an eye on the next few days for more from the latter two. Dhsu recently discovered his own tribute that he's gonna share some comments on at my behest. And why not? It isn't often that you get that kind of fan recognition. Like I warned David though, it also means there's yet another rival AZN PIANO PLAYER!~ for him to be aware of. Just when he thought all he had to do was kidnap the Video Game Pianist...

Keep an open mind; it's a doozy - LT ReMix: Escalloniaceae (version)+ Link: http://www.duke.edu/~jfw7/DemanusFlint-_Escalloniaceae_(version)+.mp3 ReMixer name: DemanusFlint Real name: Jonathan Wall E-mail address: jfw7@duke.edu Website: http://www.duke.edu/~jfw7 Userid: 2200 Name of game ReMixed: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island Name of individual song ReMixed: Yoshi's Island (Title Screen) I request that the link to this file remains if the ReMix is rejected. Comments: Well, after five or six years of reading and listening to OCReMix I finally decided to submit something. While there have been tons of examples of really interesting dance or techno music, plenty of neat rock tracks, some well-done orchestral pieces, and some swingin' jazz tunes, I still feel like there is a lot of musical territory that OCR has (as yet) left alone. This piece is an attempt to branch out into genres that have never been explored by many other ReMixes. This piece is, at heart, lo-fi organic drone, inspired by artists such as Fursaxa, Organ Eye, and Avarus. The mbira has a Yuka & Yoshimi influence. A lot of the field recordings and loop-based composition have their roots in Noah Lennox, Eric Copeland, and David Portner, and the distortion is inspired by Daniel Higgs. Basically, without that gratuitous name-dropping, this piece represents a lot of what I listen to. Nearly every track in this piece was recorded by me, whether I performed them live or created field recordings. The bass and toms are synthesized, but every other track is as purely organic as I could make it. While it has been confirmed that other people enjoy this piece, I do understand that it may not follow the standards that OCR has already established. It's simply my wish to see a great site with plenty of great songs grow into what I consider great genres of music. Let me know what you think, and if you think it can be salvaged be sure to point out how! Thanks so much! --Jonathan --------------------------------------------------------------- The part of the source first used starts at :24. http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=yi - "Yoshi's Island" (yi-03.spc) Now to me, this is a bunch of noise. And I don't mean to sound close-minded on it, because I'm not. I can roll with this approach, and realize that it's a purposeful one. Yet the way everything's put together, it's difficult to pick out any one part vs. all of the others. Keep in mind, this stuff would be less of a factor in the face of a kick-ass interpretation of the source material. But... Aside from the source melody though, there's nothing else with arrangement value in terms of interpreting the source. On top of that, the few parts you have playing the source melody and percussion essentially do so verbatim compared with the original. The percussion might as well be direct sampling with how close it sounds. There's very little interpretive substance here besides adding all the various loops on top; if you mentally peel them away, you're left with very little substance in terms of your interpretation of the source. Whatever little arrangement value may have been present from 3:26 until the end was lost among a lot of noise. If you're going to go this route where you go for more of a wall of noise, I think it's still necessary to produce so that it doesn't attack the ears. It seems to me from your WIP thread though, that this came out how you want it, so, on that level, more power to you. But if you'd like to provide more interpretive substance with the actual source tune and not hinge nearly everything on the surrounding sounds, then tone down the ear-breakage portions also and try again. This is something different and that's cool, but there's gotta be that balance between honoring the framework of the chosen genre and effectively interpreting the original VGM material. NO

More background information please.