Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

prophetik did some comparisons and said this wasn't very Nujabes-adjacent; not that he was saying it mattered to the vote, but I'm clarifying for Lucas and others that whether the stylistic objective was achieved or faithful is immaterial to the decision. Noting the inspiration for our reference is definitely appreciated. I disagree with Chimpa's assessment that the source tune's more implied than played, since it was clear as day to me; totally was jazz expansion grounded in the theme, and I'm all for encouraging it. Got worried at the transition into soloing at 1:08 not because I didn't like the idea, but because I was hoping things would wind back to the theme, but that finally came back at 1:56, so those source usage worries got erased. I liked the piano vamping using the source theme as the foundation. Chimpazilla called this an "unchanging backing soundscape", which I didn't agree with. The backing has a nice sound but did feel autopilot-y due to the beats; there's nonetheless still a lot going on behind the lead because you hear the bassline move around to accompany the melodic movements and the quieter supporting piano chords. Maybe it felt samey due to the rhythms being similar throughout, even though the notes changed?? While I can see the point about wanting some beat variation, there's lots of overall movement in the track, so I'm not hung up about this beat at all and didn't feel it was a meaningful ding amongst the overall picture. prophetik said the mixing made it sound like it's something that your neighbor's listening to, which is a fair enough point, but I didn't hear anything in this mixing that obscured any of the writing or made it a difficult listen. On a sound design level, there's the faintest tapping from 1:56-2:14 and then a metallic rustling I'm picking up on from 2:20-2:39 that sounds like a chain jingling a little. It's all very quiet, but I appreciate the subtle bits of texture and character they add here; just nice small details that I heard in my headphones. I was like "man, these judges are high for rejecting this", then the track just stopped deader than Kelsey's nuts at 2:42. Bro, what? Huh?!? Is THAT a Nujabes tactic? (Does it even matter if it's a Nujabes tactic? Because it doesn't to me. :-D). Other than an ending, what more is this needing to do? The melody's arranged nicely in an arrangement-solo-arrangement sandwich structure, the mixing's fine to me, and the backing writing does have a beat that can feel repetitive but has meaningfully more than that going on. Bump these others; I love the concept, beats are phat, arrangement is strong. Juuuust needs a resolution for the finish and I'm on board. Wish I could YES it on a conditional level and encourage more votes/POVs, because I feel like the positive qualities here were undersold and encouraging things to be more complicated than they needed to be arrangement-wise, but I can't lay down a vote I don't actually agree with just to extend things. To me, minus the ending, this is solid, transformative stuff and a creative treatment. NO (resubmit)

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Thanks to Shariq for going back to the original context of when this Standards revision came into place. I'll just say for the record that it's up to the panel to interpret and even potentially revisit or reshape the guidelines; I'm OK with the rough usage limitations we have now and don't want to change them. I want to be clear in my POV that while the Strauss quote is legendary (big Ric Flair/wrestling fan here), and I could potentially let that cameo go on its own (or a BTBAM cameo quote on its own), we shouldn't be making many exceptions saying that any non-VGM is so popular/ubiquitous that we could overlook extensive usage. The Strauss usage being 30 seconds already feels to me like it's more than "extremely limited" usage; even if it were used for a minute, and even if the arrangement is 8 minutes long, I'm choosing not to look the non-VGM cutoff as a proportion, but more of a time limit. It'll sound like I'm saying there's 0 wiggle room/flexibility, and I'm sure you can find ReMixes posted since this added guideline that could run afoul of this (one of which we'll revisit). But "extremely limited" feels to me like cameos only, not dedicated or extended non-VGM sections.

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Mixing's was feeling indistinct until 1:41; nothing hugely dragging it down, but it wasn't ideal. Also didn't like how the source melody on strings got buried by the lead synth at 2:02; at least the bassline's registering the theme as well. Piano sample at 2:40 is thin and mechanical-sounding; yes, at 2:57, please, go away, piano, don't come back. Better guitar stuff after that. Mixing on the strings at 3:34 is too soft and doesn't let that part be audible enough, but the overall treatment of the theme remains strong. 4:14 seems like this may be the section referencing "Between the Buried and Me", at least all the way 5:08, maybe until 5:45. "3. Any incorporation or arrangement of source material not from games (mainstream, classical, etc.) should be extremely limited." Also taking the Strauss into account from :24-:59, I've gotta go NO just based on that guideline, which is unfortunate, but one of the fun things about DoD entries (invoking other rock songs) that's only cool at OCR in smaller doses. The arrangement's a pass otherwise, so maybe like 30 seconds of non-VGM arrangement would be cool with me, but going beyond that's a non-starter. :'-( It's a solid track; if you were open to an OCR edit, would love to have it posted in some form! NO (resubmit)

Opens up with more textural depth than the previous version, lots more oomph, but it's loud and crowded. At :23, when that countermelody comes in, I immediately reacted like "this sounds too loud and too bright". At :31, the bassline does resonate, so I hear it, but it's still being buried. The dropoff section at :46 with the Toad "whoa-whoa-whoa's" is so annoying; I definitely hate you for it. (Seriously, good change in dynamics.) This mixing's definitely too muddy now, I'm afraid. At 1:02, the chip-like countermelody just sounds like it's adding busyness to the texture; maybe there are parts with overlapping frequencies, I dunno. The musician Js can hopefully hone in on what I believe I'm hearing as issues. The kicks at 1:31 are so loud, they sound like they're clipping/popping. Then at 1:48, the melodic line's absolutely steamrolled over until the louder synth at 1:56. Too loud and too busy. If you can pare back the levels appropriately and ensure parts aren't getting obliterated, this would be stronger. Watch the lack of a proper fade-out too; the ending just cuts out (though we can always fix that if need be). Good writing and textural improvements, Cameron, but not yet mixed properly. It feels like if this got YES'ed, it would be with at least one conditional vote. This is moving in the correct direction though. NO (resubmit)

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Arrangement's a nice progression of these 3 themes. The mixing's muddier than it should be, so I wouldn't mind another pass. That said, I wouldn't want to hear :47-1:36's bowed string samples being more exposed, so I guess it'll do. Didn't think the snare tone at :45 fit well either. Nice dynamic shift in the energy at 1:35. The timing of the synth from 1:59-2:22 felt too rigid when a more fluid sound could have clicked more, but the pacing's meant to be deliberate. Nice pensive sound at 2:51 with the shift into "Fading Memories", and the bowed string writing sounded stronger there as well. Though the piano timing was stilted to me, I really dig the interplay of all of the elements for the 3:37 section as well; there were a lot of good areas that could be focused in on, and I found myself rewinding things back to pay closer attention to each element. Nice choice of sources by OA that connected well together. It'll sound like I'm saying the rock aspect was a weak link; the introduction up to :45 was such cool stuff from OA that I'd love to hear a lot more from him in that style without the rock, because it was a stylish new wrinkle in his game. YES

Being glib will make it sound like I hated this. The piano sounds too mechanical and thin, which is a non-starter. The arrangement's cool, and this may pass as is if something like https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03527 is any indication of the solo piano bar, but I'm never gonna be in favor of it. If this can be reworked for the sampled piano to have a richer tone/more body and more humanized/fluid timing, I'm game. Though the arrangement easily gets it done, now we just need the sound quality side tightened up! NO (resubmit)

Nice tone with the dual geetars; conservative but inherently transformative via the much more additive writing of the accompaniment. We'll see if it opens up creatively in any other ways. At 1:31, I was waiting for something else to happen with the arrangement to further break it out compared to :08 and wasn't hearing it. Anything with further melodic variation and/or performance dynamics would have made this stronger, IMO. It took until the 3-minute mark for me to hear ideas that ventured into something new with the presentation. Cutting out an iteration of the verse would be a good thing if there's not going to be any tangible differences. It'll sound like I can't get on board with a deliberate tempo, or need some very wild dynamic shifts, or think Justin's performance was below par; IMO, the concept and arrangement approach is valid, but the lack of dynamics over time didn't justify the length and made things drag. :'-( We'll see if it comes off as just being my personal taste rather than the consensus. If this doesn't make it as is, would you be against another take? NO (resubmit)

I disagreed that this isn't a valid arrangement concept, as the source's rhythmic bassline groove right at the start is the foundation of the song and is present for most of the arrangement. Source tunes aren't solely about melodies. It's perfectly valid to invoke that groove and build around it the same way the source tune does. The original kind of coasts and evolves, and this is meant to do the same. However, I do feel like the evolution's too understated and that the core instrumentation doesn't work. Opened up with snare drums that felt very stilted and didn't match the texture of the other instruments, which dragged the piece down. Kicks at 1:52 sounded like they were slightly (though briefly) distorting. Good changeup of the energy at 2:14, and I liked the presense of the electric guitar line. The percussion brought in at 2:24 doesn't sound bad, but still feels like it doesn't really fit the overall texture. After the vox drops out at 3:17, I'm feeling like the tone of the percussion parts again doesn't click with the other instrumentation. Around 4:47, you make things more active around the beat and a new original lead comes in at 4:57, but I feel like I'm hearing the same foundational textures that don't fully click as the base of the track for most of the way; very tepid sounding percussion that doesn't mesh together with the ethereal sounding stuff for about 5 of the 6 1/2 minutes. If you can't refine the sound design with this instrumentation, H36T, it's not going to get off the ground, but the potential is certainly there. NO (resubmit)

"A Road Twice Traveled" Justin Lincoln www.kabukibear.com I'm sorry, I don't know my number. :X

The snare drums at 3:15 didn't quite fit, but that was a case where the texture had thinned out and exposed the sample more. Somewhat muddy/cramped, so I'd prefer another mixing pass, but the arrangement's strong enough no matter what, so I'm on board. Nice job squeezing so much juice out of this theme, Mauricio! YES

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Too many fundamental shortcomings. Like others mentioned, the track starts with 0 introduction or build-up, and the drum mixing is imbalanced. All of the sequenced parts sound stilted and the arrangement is underdeveloped and repetitive, certainly nothing justifying an extended cut. The track took too long to even get to the melodic portion, then once you got to 2:14, about a minute’s worth of loop went on for four for no reason. Would have loved some further variations, textural changes, or other arrangement techniques to be employed to help justify the length. Even if this were a brief cut, the way the samples are used lacks sophistication and humanization, and the arrangement ideas are too minimal. I’m sorry to not have positives to point out beyond the kudos for entering the arena, Jeremy; as a non-musician, I respect that you’ve made this piece happen. Without further compositional/arrangement ideas or production polish, however, this is very far from a developed concept, just something in the early work-in-progress stages. NO

Ow, my fuckin' head. :'-( JUST KIDDING, I'm fine. Short stuff, but good, intense sound design, and well varied. YES [ Ow, my fuckin' head!!!!!!!! :'-( ]

Hey there! I would like to submit a Zelda remix! Contact Information Your ReMixer name: bash explode Your real name: Jesse Your email address: Your website(s): https://bashexplode.com Your userid: 35060 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Name of arrangement: Great Fairy's Tribulation Name of individual song(s) arranged: Great Fairy's Fountain Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, how the source material was referenced in the arrangement, etc. I started this remix out as a beat battle for a Twitch stream and produced up to the first drop in 2 hours. I thought it came out pretty awesome, so I decided to finish it. I've always loved The Legend of Zelda series and ALWAYS wanted to create a remix of a track from Ocarina of Time, so everything at that point fell into place. I did all of my own sound design for synth patches and composed via MIDI, then arranged it in a hybrid mix of genres combining Future UKG and Dubstep/Riddim, which I tend to do in a lot of my tracks. I chose this route because I wanted to do something a little more high energy than the original and what others have done in the past. I also fully mixed and mastered the track! I hope some of the Navi/Ganondorf/Link sample usage is okay, I checked the standards and it seemed like it met the criteria. Hope you enjoy!! Cheers, bash explode

Artist Name: jnWake Collabing artist: Jabo. So, about the arrangement. I made this for Dwelling of Duels' Final Fantasy month. When the month started I wanted to do something creative and/or obscure, but as soon as I sat down on my keyboards my hands took over and started playing the FFVII Boss theme and I was like "ok, we're gonna do this". After all, as much as I love trying to cover less known stuff, there's also value in taking a popular track and trying to make it your own. Initially, I was going to make this a synth-only cover of the track (to separate it from the usual guitar driven rock approach) and even wrote the entire arrangement like that, but DoD shenanigans led me to eventually recruit Jabo on guitars. We switched some leads from synth to guitar and added some rhytm guitars here and there, which honestly improved the track. It's not straight up metal all the time and instead switches from synth focus and standard metal, which gives it a somewhat unique flair IMO. Anyway, the track eventually placed #3. I got some feedback related to drum volume so I made some changes and that's what you hear now! Source usage: Original track is pretty varied, so I'll try to make a detailed explanation to make judging simpler! Original can be basically separated into 5 sections: A (0:00-0:24) B (0:24-0:41) C (0:41-0:52) D (0:53-1:04) E (1:04-end of loop) Now, for the remix: 0:00-0:30: Based on A. 0:30-0:40: Chord progression from A. 0:41-0:53: Arpeggios from B over different chords. 0:54-1:04: Variation over the second part of B. 1:04-1:32: Variations over A (Jabo snuck JENOVA's melody in here). 1:33-1:55: Solos over the chord progression of A. 1:55-2:18: Riff based on bass from C. 2:18-2:32: Lead from C over a different chord progression. 2:32-2:54: Based on D, changed chord progression again. 2:54-3:17: Main melody from E, changed chord progression again. My fave part of the arrangement! 3:17-3:54: Melody based on the backing strings from E. Ends with arpeggios, just like the original (different arpeggios tho). 3:54-end: Repeat of the intro. Hope you enjoy! Games & Sources: Game: Final Fantasy VII Source: "Fight On!" https://ocremix.org/song/130/fight-on YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_GUWdkJQgw

'Twas fast. Revised mix in the first post.

I had to turn this up a little louder than normal to hear the detail work here. When things kicked in at :13, the pacing felt stilted, but we'll see how this goes. Nice dropoff at :42, with a rebuild starting at :56. Things were still feeling relatively empty, and I feel like the bassline from :56-1:24, which had a great tone, was creating muddyness. I can appreciate the way it creates textural contrast with what comes before and after it though. Once that part dropped out at 1:24, the texture got much clearer. I'm liking the ornamentation throughout. Pratically a cut-and-paste of :28 at 2:06, just for 15 seconds before hitting the winddown finish mirroring the intro. It's going to sound like I'm saying this needs to be sped up to be at the original tune's tempo, but this feels too slow. Maybe increasing the tempo some could mitigate the stilted feel of the sequencing here. There's a lot of good details here, so I'm OK with this as is, but it does feel like the potential's not fully realized. YES (borderline)

Your ReMixer name: CJthemusicdude Your real name: CJ Cunningham Your email address: Your website: https://www.youtube.com/@CJTheMusicDude Your userid: 1149 Name of game(s) arranged: Sonic & Knuckles Name of arrangement: Ghost Touch Name of individual song(s) Sandopolis Zone Act 1 Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site): https://youtu.be/sT6POlmybPw Your own comments about the mix: I really like that crunchy genesis FM bass. I also like panning.

Nothing too complicated, but it's a nicely slowed down rendition with some nice ornamentation via the guitar, SFX, and voice clips. 1:42 was another iteration of the melody but a different key and with some doubling, followed by the chorus at 2:06 with some subtle differences. See, I don't need ZOMG drastic differences; subtle but meaningfully observable differences are more than enough to get it done re: arrangement development in my book, since the overall tempo, instrumentation, and tone of the source tune are markedly different. Low-key, but substantive enough of a treatment. The ending was POOOO because it ended relatively abruptly, but we'll live. Nice to hear a slower concept from Alexis that I don't have to ding for being too repetitive or underdeveloped. YES

Remixer: LXE Name: Alexis Gelinas Email: Website: instagram.com/lexadex_yo 38753 -- Earthbound Days Gone By Onett This one is a laid back lofi bop with bass synth, electric piano, mellotron, and backing guitar, and loads of ambience. I played this game a lot as a kid and this subtle reharm is nice and nostalgic I think.

This track came from the second round of Game Set Mash! Compo from the forums, run by Darkesword. On that particular week Final Fantasy 7 was matched against Final Fantasy 6. Tifa vs. Forever Rachel. I started working on this piece very quickly after the sources were revealed and ideas really flowed fast. That was a good thing because it also happened to be the same week as I was having a major certification exam scheduled so I was also studying a lot. My plan was to get a barebones piano sketch/structure in place so I could that off to H36T to orchestrate and shape the feeling and color of the piece. That ended up happening as well, and it came out lovely. But something in me still wanted to keep it as an expressive solo piano piece. After that week was over, I went back in and added a lot to the arrangement to make it stand on it's own compared to the compo version. I extended one of the sections out to hold it's feeling for a longer period, added additional embellishment and interpretation, and even a small cameo of Terra's theme snuck it's way during this time. The title "Steeling Hearts" is double meaning both with usage of stealing and steeling. Locke was a thief and therefore the stealing came into play. Steeling referring to hardening and toughening, exactly what both Tifa and Locke had to do to move on and deal with their situations after trauma. Solo piano was quite the challenge to undertake. I hope people will enjoy this! Source breakdown: 0:00-0:23 Forever Rachel 0:24-0:31 original bridge to next theme 0:32-1:08 Tifa's theme 1:02-1:05 and 1:19-1:22 Mako Reactor intro in the left hand (big octaves) 1:09-1:21 Original material 1:22-1:27 Tifa's theme 1:28-1:58 Forever Rachel 1:59-2:14 Tifa's theme 2:15-2:19 original bridge 2:20-2:38 Forever Rachel 2:39-2:41 Terra's theme cameo 2:42-3:01 Tifa's theme 3:02-3:12 Forever Rachel with some interpretation 3:13-3:19 Tifa's theme Games & Sources: Final Fantasy 6 - Forever Rachel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWfdEj9jHDM (main source) Final Fantasy 7 - Tifa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO_ftxA28Y8 (main source) Final Fantasy 7 - Mako Reactor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZH6coTxDTo (cameo of the intro only) Final Fantasy 6 - Terra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObccgHQdos0 (cameo of the melody)