Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

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.

Good job, y'all. Be sure to read http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6716 once you visit that area of the forums.

Excellent. The track's already come a long way in just PRC99, so I'm looking forward to seeing how else you spruce it up. Definitely keep us informed of your progress and welcome aboard.

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

Props on getting the pass for this one, Ryan.

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

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

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

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