Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

What u say?>

metaphist aka Paul Ford pauleford@gmail.com Forum ID #8822 Little Nemo: The Dream Master Ending Theme Shane Barber's remix of the final battle theme got me interested in Little Nemo. When I gave the game a listen, the ending theme just spoke to me, so I had to do it ------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/nsf/little~1.zip - Track 19 Opened up with some fairly interesting sounds. The ceats added in at :20 were pretty tame, but OK for the purpose of a buildup as the volume on it gradually turned up. Got to the source melody at :42. The groove was good, but the overall levels were too quiet, and there was definitely something missing here to really give the piece some full-sounding energy. The textures here felt a bit sparse with no compensation on some other level. You had a good concept with the dropoff at 1:24, but it would have been all the more effective had the previous section been fuller. You also some good, gradual rebuilding starting with the return of the percussion at 1:45, but the end of the rebuilding at 2:09 still seemed on the empty side. The ambient break from 2:33-3:25 was a bit long, but a cool idea nonetheless. Definitely fitting given the game being arranged. While the general groove was good, it was a bit samey after a while. Nonetheless, I thought the arrangement was pretty solid. There needs to be some tweaking work done with making the volume louder and the dynamics more effective. Still, no issue if this passes as is; if I'm seeming too subjective on this one, this should have a shot at getting some YESs. Definitely good luck with the rest of the vote, Paul. This is some of your most solid, accessible material yet. NO (refine/resubmit)

DJ AtukoManga Corey Waldusky AtukoManga@excite.com 27186514 Terrave (Things Fall Version) Final Fantasy VI Tina's Theme Been trolling the site for a long time and decided that I'd attempt something, and since I had this song stuck in my head, I went for it. Had been listening to Paul Okenfold and DJ Irene alot, so that's where the inspiration came from. Had a few friends do the VA for it, along with myself. Hope everyone enjoys. Used Sonar 5 with Pentagon and Dimension Pro. ------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff6 - "Tina" (ff6-201.spc) Solid intro. Beats and voices came in at :26. Voice-overs were...there. Not sure what the point was of having them in there, with none of them telling any sort of story or having some sort of theme to them. On the production side, some of the voices were getting drowned out, some were a lot clearer and more upfront. Repeating the voices past the halfway mark was kind of tacky, in that it seemed more like a cut-and-paste job rather than having any real reason for being structured that way. The SFX at 3:46 was also pretty n00bish. Is this supposed to be deep with the various voice clips, or is this supposed to be tongue-in-cheek? While I don't doubt one COULD find some sort of happy medium that works effectively, you haven't. You'd likely be better served to pick one motif and run with that. As for the composition, the escalation at :49 seemed to be the end of the buildup phase, leaving me pretty underwhelmed. Once everything built up, the textures were pretty basic. The interpretation of the theme at 1:12 was a very conservative genre adaptation with some VERY subtle (almost inaudible) countermelodic work underneath it. The 2:25-2:58 section was at least a more interpretive handling of that part of the source since the melody there wasn't so close to the original, but the rest (sans the voices) was a very cookie-cutter rendition of "Terra" in trance. There needs to be more interpretation here to make this a more unique arrangement. NO

With that amount of lead time, Jody, you very likely should have bought the tickets already if you actually want a good chance at group seating. I'd gather as many firm commitments as I could and purchase the tickets ASAP.

Dear djpretzel, It is with great satisfaction that I submit a recording of my arrangement of the Chrono Trigger tune "Undersea Palace," called "Lit by Anglerfish," to OC ReMix. This project has entailed a great deal of labor, frustration, and learning; to hear its complete end product and share it with you gives me a wonderful feeling of closure and accomplishment. The piece is a heavy metal version of "Undersea Palace." The original idea came to me as I imagined an electric bassist playing the distinctive, piercing synthesizer part that underlies much of the original piece. In my mind I sped the part up, and I added an electric guitarist playing power chords that followed the main harmony that the strings play in Mitsuda's tune. The idea sounded cool in my head, so those were the first parts that I wrote and I built the rest of the piece from them. "Undersea Palace" is a big, dark, foreboding piece, so it lent itself to the idea of metal. Strangely, my arrangement sounds more lighthearted than the original to me. The two electric guitar parts and the electric organ part were played live by me, and the drums and bass were programmed using soundfonts. Making a five-part record single-handedly is one hell of a method of recording music; I don't think that I could recommend it to anyone. Better to have five real players, a recording engineer, and a studio. Unfortunately Tohru Iwao and Motoi Sakuraba were busy when I called them. Here is the link to my MP3: Sincerely, Alex Stuart (remixer name: Linearity) linforthewin@gmail.com OCR forum member #9791 ---------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Undersea Palace" (ct-308.spc) Dunno if that's supposed to be some sort of mallet percussion in the background, first used at :45, but it sounds like an ultra-muffly Windows sound. Which one, lemme look. ... "Ding." It sounds like you machined-gunned the "Ding" sound effect. In other words, it can't get any more bootleg than that. Let's never speak of this again. In any case, not bad. The lead tone is kind of weak; couple of the notes felt odd (around :35 and :37, but everything resolved fine). The way this is produced, the lead guitar, rhythm guitars and organ bled into each other, with the rhythm sounding pretty drowned out. Up until 1:16, (though the non-stop hats were annoying) the percussion writing was serviceable but flimsy-sounding and plodding in some ways, doing a poor job of driving the song forward. Plus it wasn't very audible. Sections like 2:19-2:34 and 3:05-3:57 felt empty as the textures got fuller, in part due to the percussion not getting the job done. For the latter section, you're relying too much on the rhythm guitar to fill out the soundfield. Everything needs some EQ love to better separate and balance the parts. The guitar Js would have some better crits on the electric guitar performance. Balance the parts better and strengthen some of the weaker aspects of the percussion and this would be in a lot better shape. The arrangement was ok, but it definitely overstayed it's welcome, with the sounds, textures and production techniques not really evolving in any way and repetition dragging things out. A lot of fat could have been trimmed off this. Beyond using the WIP resources here, you should have also given something like this a shot in Dwelling of Duels, since you played most of the parts live. As long as you ask for feedback there, you could get some from guys with a ton of experience making rock arrangements. With all that said, Alex, this was a pretty decent base that shows that you have the right ideas about interpretation. You've gotta get the energy level and dynamics working more in your favor, as well as the production, though the performances and/or multitracking could have also been tighter. Lots to work on for the future in terms of building up your core skills, but this is also a lot better than the typical first/beginner sub. You may want to see what criticism and advice you could incorporate into improving this track, but may want to move onto other work. In either case, keep improving and stay hungry for learning more. NO

Nah, it's not Chipamp. Chipamp doesn't even interact with Winamp recognizing the MP3 extension, just chiptune formats. I did a clean install of Chipamp on another computer just last night and everything was cool, as usual.

CHz reviewed the album last night over at VGF. Check it out and drop comments if you want. I've yet to check it out myself, but am going to pretty soon. This is definitely a unique album here in the Western side of the scene!

Memories... Here, there's all my MAGFest 6 news stories: http://www.vgfrequency.com/?p=178 http://www.vgfrequency.com/?p=236 http://www.vgfrequency.com/?p=403 Never pimped my own thoughts on MAG, but here you go: http://www.vgfrequency.com/?p=421 http://www.vgfrequency.com/?p=432 http://www.vgfrequency.com/?p=433 http://www.vgfrequency.com/?p=436 Enjoy.

Definitely stopping by to LOL at piration. LOAL.

I think a minor part of the reason the names are generally visible are to make it easier for people interested in the artists to learn a bit more about them, but I could just be looking at it through my own prism. It's an interesting proposition, actually. I could see why you'd want that feature. I'll holler at djp about it. Dunno if it could be done, but it sounds like something vBulletin might be capable of. EDIT: Asked djp and the short of it is that it's doable but would require a fair amount of work. Probably not a priority at this point, but it's something to potentially keep in mind. if anyone has any more input on why we should or shouldn't implement this, please post your thoughts.

Can't speak for Tim, but I'd believe so. All part of the aspect of using more than one person potentially being viewed as an unfair advantage.

Well, the site is djp's creation and it means something for him to sit down to listen to every approved track and give his thoughts on it. It's almost a rite of passage, and a way to personally thank everyone who contributes. If your mix is approved, it will be on the front page and djpretzel will be the one commenting on it. If If I'm making that up, djp will ban me soon enough.

We've also just got too many songs to post. Some songs wait because they have issues that need to be addressed before they're posted. Which reminds me, I have about 5 people I need to contact on stuff like that. I don't think the wait time for posting to the front page should be as long as it is. I think we could even have something inside a month of total wait time and still have a very steady flow of songs given the percentage of acceptable songs. The main reason why stuff doesn't move faster. 1) The judges have lives. We have to have time to do this work on the side. We evaluate the songs in our spare time for free. The only incentive we have to evaluate material is because we want to. 2) I have a life. I mention myself separately because I'm in charge of the inbox that all of the songs are sent to. I basically took a 3 week vacation from Christmas Eve to yesterday, to work on other areas of the site, spend more time at my real job and just take some time off from judging. 3 1/2 years of it is plenty without a break. 3) djpretzel has a life. Normally he jokes that I don't have much of one, but lately that describes him. He's been busy for months working on improving the core of the site, plus he's overseeing most of the details of OCR's first professional game soundtrack. With that said, he always working on his real job as well as site stuff behind that scenes outside of posting ReMixes. We'll always get flack for it, because it's not visible to the casual goer. /shrugs Him being the only one that posts the material (which no one's thinking about changing, so it's not a suggestion that's ever gonna be considered. All boils down to, yes we all want things to work faster, but we're not getting paid, so pay us millions of dollars and then we'll post things the day we receive them. Maybe.

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=13594 * Your ReMixer name: Kautzman * Your real name: Michael Kautzman * Your email address: MKautzm@gmail.com * Your website: N/A * Your userid: 22695 * Name of game(s) arranged: N64 - Super Mario 64 * Name of individual song(s) arranged: Dire Dire Docks. * Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: Since the last time you've seen this it has gone through a ton of changes and the production quality is quite a bit better. Layering has been improved upon. Included a bit of panning to separate the melody lines from background. I've added a little more of something new and removed excessive repetition. Velocity has been normalized, something which should have been done from the get go and the piano has been sharpened. It's quite a bit better this time around and I look forward to your comments and opinions. One thing that I noticed a few people mentioned was the lack of bass. I tried to strengthen the support by bringing out the moving synth line starting at 0:08 and articulate it more in places (But I made sure it never comes over the top of what needs to be heard). I've experimented with adding additional support and it seems to clutter it but that may be showing my lack of experience with the production of something like this. Another aspect I worked on was being less conservative with the mix. A unique bridge was added and repetition was cut in it's favor. I messed around a bit with the drums to make things different, interesting and to put a bit of "spice" into the mess but the piece still remains relatively conservative (Same tempo, same ambiance etc.) For the sake of easy reference, if it matters, the original I submitted last time can still be found here: Enjoy, and once again, thanks for your time. Michael Kautzman ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The production was definitely a lot better balanced, though the overall soundfield still sounded a bit too murky here, IMO. The delay overcompensated for the relatively sparse textures. http://www.zophar.net/usf/sm64usf.rar - 09 "Dire, Dire Docks" Still the same e-piano intro. Percussion was different, with some kicks now. CHz mentioned them being panned pretty hard to the left and not being a much better percussion choice, and I've gotta agree. They didn't adequately fill out the background at all and seemed out of place with the overall mood of the song. Switching up the kick rhythm at 1:16 was a good idea, but still a poor choice of sound. "Huh?" at 2:05; that definitely came out of nowhere and didn't piece together well with the material that came before it. The interpretive take on the theme from 2:21-2:35 didn't harmonize well with the countermelody in the background. The original countermelody from 2:36-2:51 was actually pretty good; definitely clicking there. The tone of the countermelody brought in at 3:14 still didn't fit the mood of the track to me, but the writing there was good at least. I wouldn't have ended the track with that synth leading the way. It sounds too syrupy, not really fitting in the watery, ambient mood you tried to retain by sticking to the feel of the source so closely. It seems that the only effective harmonizations of your original ideas with the source tune came when you used the melody near-verbatim; however, it also made that melodic aspect of the arrangement boring. The verses were a little different just with how you repeated the partial melody before repeating with the full phrase, but the chorus was even more straightforward than that. Quoting myself from last time: I see how you tried to do more this time around, Michael, but I'm still left with the same overall impression. When you changed things up more substantively, the supporting elements tended to clash with the altered melodies. So you still have a ways to go in terms of experimenting and learning in order to get your part-writing and sound choices to be more cohesive when you take more creative liberties. Definitely keep at it in the community. This was a marked improvement versus the previous submission, mostly on the production side, but some on the arrangement side as well. You nonetheless still have a ways to go, and this likely isn't going be the track that takes you there. I'd call this one a wrap and continue moving forward with new ideas as you use the resources here and on other sites to continue improving your game. NO

I wasn't a huge fan of the key change later on, but it grew on me. Solid interpretation. This laid down a nice subdued groove but definitely added a lot more substance and emotional weight compared to the SNES original. Nice work from Eric that holds up very well; good job.

Couldn't disagree more. The melody repeats, but the textures are evolving and developed the whole way through. That's why it could manage only being 2:32-long. This was one of the few judges decisions I've come to realize I was wrong in voting NO on. Whenever something passes in light of a NO from me, or the vote is close, I tend to revisit the mix to make sure my opinion hasn't changed. There've been maybe 4 decisions out of 1,600+ that I've ever found fault in, and this was one of them. I believe I told Martin this a few years ago, but it bears mentioning again. I was spoiled with the older VGMix version of this track. When he subbed this version, the original synth playing the melody at :19 was pushed a lot farther into the back, replaced upfront with the funkier synth. I was too focused on how the older lead was fairly inaudible, and thus wasn't feeling like the source melody was used enough in that first half of the mix. Binnie was right in pointing out how the melody was there on that other synth, but it didn't click with me until after this got posted. Martin had no hard feelings, and I'm glad all's well that ends well. I'm definitely a big fan of this one, and this does a great job adding a lot of beef and additional substance to Follin's original work. Follin has marveled before at the quality and skill in what some arrangers have done to his work; I can only imagine he'd feel the same way about this one.

Pretty solid old-school material. Loved the sound choices for the introduction. Once things picked up, the track was on the empty side due to the drums not filling out the back by themselves, but the overall execution was pretty solid. A little dated, but it still holds up pretty well.

Weird, I can't say I've actively listened to this in full until tonight. Alex did a great job here connecting his original grooves with the Metalman material. Solid stuff.

Sounds nice, but enough source usage? Gonna need a breakdown...again! - LT * ReMixer name : AeroZ * Real name : Sebastian Freij * E-mail address : sebastian_freij@hotmail.com * Your website : www.myspace.com/freijman * Name of game : Seiken Densetsu 3 * Name of individual : Female Turbulence Comments: Hey guys. I've been trying out some new things this times. Added some cello on it with automatised effects. Tried to blend the cello with the lo-fi sound. It's quite a long track, so I had to encode it quite hard. Well, this is the result. If you want a high bitrate of the track, just let me know. Cheers! /Seb LT Edit (2/21): Just got the breakdown from Sebastian on this one:

You get a cookie! Pepperidge Farm. Chessmen. Horsey piece. Enjoy!

Contact Information * Cosmic Frog * Joakim Jönsson * e00ie@hotmail.com * http://www.myspace.com/electronicfrog * 21281 Submission Information * Sonic The Hedgehog 3 * IceCap Zone * System: Sega Genesis Composer: Bobby Brooks ? * http://www.vgmusic.com/new-files/Icy_Memories(XG).mid Well I was looking through some remixes here and I saw a remix of this track. So I thought ' hm I should try to remix this to ', so I did. I made it with some darude insperation but I usual go for my own style. I used Fl Studio to make this track and with some vsti instruments, for example Refx Nexus.. ( submission file: ) Enjoy... ---------------------------------------------------------- Just noting that this mix wasn't a rip of the referenced VGMusic MIDI, so no worries there. http://project2612.org/download.php?id=61 - IceCap Zone 1 I'm certainly interested in what the other Js think, as I may be too harsh on this one. If y'all feel this is good along the lines of "AmberTrance" for simply being solid even if not blow-away, then lemme know. The genre adaptation was by-the-numbers to me, but had decent dynamics and was pretty solid for what it was. I just felt this wasn't very interpretive with the source material beyond. 2:44 was a good chance to do something new/different that would have given some more variety, but it basically went back to the same ideas. This isn't poor by any means; the production/effects weren't unique, but the sound quality was solid. That's not to discount what interpretive and expansive writing is already in place, but I just feel there needs to be more interpretation of the IceCap theme beyond the conversion of the track into trance, as most of the overall structure and feel is the same as the original. Would have been gold in ye olden days, but the interpretation bar has gone up. NO (resubmit)

Hello, it is Ryo Lion. I received mail of Japanese use agreement from Mr. Jahan, and he has understood at last. - Since file size was over 6MB, it lowered to 160k bps from 192k bps. - matter name: -- Ryo Lion real-name: -- Takahashi RYO mail: -- spfw64k9@biscuit.ocn.ne.jp site: -- http://ryolion.net/ original: -- Chrono Trigger original melody: -- Corridor of Time Comment:-- I thought that I would arrange in when since it is the music of Mr. Mitsuda's characteristic beautiful melody line. The arrangement which follows the last form aimed at fusion of an acoustic guitar and MIDI. Finally, it appreciates towards people of OCR. ---------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Corridors of Time" (ct-304.spc) & "Chrono Trigger" (ct-102a.spc) I liked the soundscape, but aside from the (awesome) percussion sequencing, I felt like the melodic structure and some of the supporting structure was too similar to the original. The original material from 1:39-2:14 was pretty good. Nice reference to the "Chrono Trigger" theme from 2:52-3:09 and 3:47-3:53. Back into the Zeal them at 3:10, basically more of the writing from the first section. I'm just walking away with the feeling that the "Corridors of Time" feels too cut-and-paste from the source (booooooo!), but the original percussion, deeper production and original sections gave this a different character than the original. A bit more on the upgrade side than what I'd want personally, but I think this has its merits relative to the standards. Don't have a problem with this going either way. YES (borderline) EDIT (2/5): Thinking more about CHz's vote, it just feels like the sections close to the structure of the source simply seem too cut-and-paste derived from the original. There are some good interpretive sections, and also some good original sections. But after letting this marinate, I can't get behind this one; it tows a dangerous line in terms of lifting structural aspects wholesale from the source material. NO (resubmit)

Email Disco Dan. His contact information is right on his ReMixer page and forum profile. Barring that, find the contact info of herograw and Ramanisence on the boards and ask either of them if they might have it.

Mattias is the ripe old age of 19 today! This guy's got somewhere like 84 mixes waiting to be posted. Keep up the good work, Swede!

I think it was more meant to emphasize that they receive the right to post the track to their archives once you enter, but you're right in that there's no other way I can see to interpret the usage of the word.