Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

From what I can tell here, this seems like genAI. Fuzzy overall sound, some good instrumentation in places, but it wanders around with wholly original sections that have 0 connection to Crystalis. Obviously not enough source too, which is an automatic NO. If it's genAI, begone. EDIT (9/28): Talked to RJ and apologized for mistakenly calling this AI; we don't want to discourage anyone who actually creating their music, and I'm definitely snakebit from the rash of genAI submissions we've gotten, including some that initially made it past the panel before we updated our guidelines. RJ graciously offered to share some things he looks for to help with AI detection, so I'll be sharing that with the judges when he sends that. That said, the lack of usage of the Crystalis source ultimately tanked this, so we'll reiterate that to approve VGM arrangements for OCR, we urge everyone for the majority of the arrangement to directly reference the source theme(s) for at least 50% of the track. The arrangement and interpretation of the VGM theme(s) needs to be the primary focus. Looking forward to RJ's next sub!

Says Hitoshi Ohori on sax for the Kingdom Hearts II soundtrack, but if you told me it was proph here, I wouldn't have batted an eye. :-) Beautiful theme. Definitely a straightforward arrangement, and we'll see where it goes, though offhand the reinstrumentation here does help it stand apart from the original. The light little bits of recording feedback do add some character, but not sure they should be in there. 1:31 has a subtle but noticeable shift in the energy by adding the percussive support and doubling the melody, which is the kind of stuff I was talking about in terms of needing some more personalization. Nice little guitar riffing/ornamentations from 2:37 until the end to add a last bit of flavor to close it. It's not my thing personally, i.e. I would have done something more boisterous with the theme, but that doesn't mean this isn't a substantive albeit melodically conservative arrangement approach. I disagreed with proph; sure, I'd personally like it with more complexity, but that's not required, nor do I think this approach isn't substantive enough without it. The reinstrumentation of the first half has a measure of personalization to the approach. Not enough to YES it if the style stayed like that the whole way, but then everything from 1:31 on for the second half pushed it over the line for me in terms of standing apart from the original. I don't think it should be turned down for needing more dynamics when that's more of a personal tilt to me. If I heard this on the actual OST, I'd say it did enough to feel texturally different from the other version. We ride... YES

Man, all the years I've known about Phantasy Star II, but I've never actually listened to this specific source before, this is awesome. In any case, Rick, I've gotta echo prophetik. This is under two minutes (read: underdeveloped), and it's sampling the original audio and (in your case, substantively but basically) building around it, which itself is a violation of our Submission Standards. We're looking for a true arrangement when you reinstrument & interpret the source tune, not a traditional remix where the foundation is the original in-game music/audio. No ending either, c'mon; at least make one instead of ending at a hard stop. Stick around and see what more you can learn from this community, Rick! NO

The arrangement side was previously a pass, so I'm side-stepping that and just looking at production. I'll say right off the bat, this still sounds massively cluttered. When the growling vocal word came in at :19 with no clarity, I knew this was going to be a tough hill to climb. EK's vocals at :30 sound so dry and untreated, and are getting swallowed up by the surrounding instrumentation, it really nerfs her potential impact if the vocals don't sound airier. Even Gregorio's vocals at :49 & 4:44 are really buried and I'm mainly just hearing the guitar's pushed way forward over the top of him until 1:26 & 5:03. The choruses at 1:26 & 2:41 sound noisy/cacophonous, this balancing doesn't make sense. The vocals never cut through and the guitar stuff is just massively overdriven to the point where it feels like the loudest parts are distorting. I did like the guitar parts from 2:22-2:39 & 3:37-3:55, those isolated bits were sounding aggressive without obliterating other parts. Anything texturally more busy than that was a hot mess. Vocals are buried. Guitars are overdriven. Textured are cluttered. Energy of the performances sounds strong. Arrangement's on point. As I lamented last time, Zach, I'm not a musician or producer, so I can't tell you how to rein this in, which disappoints me because I want this posted, it's a creative arrangement. Saying no may come off like I'm saying you're an incapable producer or a no-hoper when we all know differently; you're bold for working outside your wheelhouse. Though this doesn't need to have perfectly balanced, pro-level mixing, the mixing revisions still leave this far from where it should be; the parts lack clarity and they're not reasonably positioned/balanced. This is still promising, but it needs production TLC. I'd love us and/or DoD to hold a #workshop session where other community members work with you to tighten this up, because this deserves it. NO (resubmit)

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I liked the ominousness of the lightly warbling bassline, which subtly added a feel to this that I've never heard in a "Corridor of Time" arrangement until now. Instrumentation choices are nice, particularly the sustained strings (which would be awesome to hear done live). Lots of subtle textural trickery going on that fans of this theme will absolutely love. Right at 3:00, "Schala's Theme" arrived for some interplay with the backing of the main theme. For me personally, the string writing's my 1A feature, but the whole thing is a restrained yet dynamic treat. Great ingredients, but also cooked up by a great chef. :-) YES

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Artist Name: Azina Summer is a time of nostalgic memories, and the original version of Lazy Afternoons perfectly represents that. But Roxas' life was only 1 year and 7 days long. My arrangement opens after that, in the last moments of his life. The piano holds the tonic, G, in the bass as often as I could get away with as an expression of Roxas' desire for things to stay the same. My guitar work in the first half is merely the melody reprised on guitar. In the second half, I offer two harmonies that follow the melody strictly; the intent is to musically illustrate what could have been had Roxas, Xion, and Axel been able to have their own summer. As well, the arrangement opens up to accent strings and a soft, pulsing synth to support the three primary parts. The title itself is a reference to Lizz Robinett's lyrical adaptation released in 2016. Games & Sources Game: Kingdom Hearts 2 Composer: Yoko Shimomura Youtube:

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Artist Name: Pipko Fanfare I love how the original source really captures the awe and majesty of coming face to face with infinity, and wanted to recreate that feeling with a cinematic orchestral take on it. The arrangement for this one came together quickly but production was more involved since I had very specific ideas of how I wanted everything to sound. Getting the dynamics just right on both the micro and macro level was going to be critical to this piece's success, as was subtle tempo automation to let the rhythm breathe properly. Games & Sources Original source: "Escape Velocity" by 65daysofstatic for the game "No Man's Sky"

Artist Name: RJ Van Xetten D.A.W. Used: FL Studio 2024 Plug-In's used: Spire, Serum 2, Sylenth1, and Fab Filter suite for Mastering, along with other native VST's within FL Studio Original NES composition by Yoko Osaka - Shyron Town Theme Remix Arrangement produced by Rigoberto Lopez Jr(A.K.A - RJ Van Xetten) Games & Sources This is my rendition of the Shyron Town in Crystalis. When I first played this game as a child this song was one of the most memorable pieces in the whole game, and it stuck with me always. Once I became a music producer I always wanted to make my own rendition of it. This is my "Techno Festival" rendition of it. I hope you all enjoy it!

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On headphones, this sounds extremely fuzzy and lossy throughout. From what I get back using AI-identifying tools, this person's catalog is AI-generated. Don't have the cycles to entertain this. I don't consider AI-generated music to be arranged by the submitter, so to me it always fails OCR's ownership test. We need to add big honking text on the submission form itself saying we don't accept A.I. Human-made (i.e. human-sequenced and/or human-performed) music, please. NO

From what I get back using AI-identifying tools, this person's catalog is AI-generated. Don't have the cycles to entertain this. I don't consider AI-generated music to be arranged by the submitter, so to me it always fails OCR's ownership test. We need to add big honking text on the submission form itself saying we don't accept A.I. Human-made (i.e. human-sequenced and/or human-performed) music, please. NO

Will need a unique title if approved -LT Original Decision Artist Name: Zach Chapman Features Earth Kid on lead vocals, Gregorio Franco (who doesn't have an artist page on OCR yet) doing the harsh vocals, themanpf on guitars, and jnWake (also no artist page) on synths and keys. This song was made for Dwelling of Duels' April 2025 Rhythm Games Month. Originally this track was going to be even more faithful to the original, but I only know one female singer who can also do great harsh vocals and she was too busy that month to collab, so instead I split the vocals up between the leads and the growls, landing on Earth Kid and Gregorio for each, who are both fantastic. The other shift in the song's direction came mostly from jnWake, who took the keyboard parts I sent him and added several synths without ever being asked. Anytime you hear a synth in the song - echoing the intro riff, in the background of the interlude, the synth solo before the third chorus - is all stuff that he did entirely himself. That helped to give the track its own identity, and I love what it added to the song. TheManPF killed it on guitars as always, and also put up with me sending him about 20 different drafts of the mix for feedback over the course of the month, as I'm still pretty awful at the production side of things. Other than that it's a largely faithful cover, with some minor changes to the guitars, and more major additions to the drums and bass (which I played). Since the last submission I've made a whole lot of changes to the production that I won't list out because there's too many, most of it isn't interesting, and I've forgotten half of it by now. But it should sound better. Also some more stuff added to the drums, like the ride cymbal during choruses to keep the beat. Shoutout to Seph for letting me bounce a few mixes off him for some final changes - during which I learned what sidechaining was, so that's neat. Games & Sources This is a cover of "Stygia" from the rhythm shooter Metal: Hellsinger, composed and performed by Two Feathers, the developers of the game, featuring Alissa White-Gluz, the lead singer of the metal band Arch Enemy.

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