Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

This is Starblaze. Well, I'm actually just Evan now. Yeah, I think Evan will do just fine. I completed one of the few remixes I've actually attempted in the past few years about six months ago. Since then, my hard drive has crashed. I've reformatted, but I lost a lot of information. One of the things I lost was the FLP file associated with this song. While feedback is obviously still appreciated, there is little, if anything I can do if there are "acceptance-breaking" problems with my submission, which I imagine there will be. I'll be honest: I don't think this is amazing. I barely even think it's "good." It's the first piece of electronic music I have ever really completed (I am still more of an orchestra guy at heart), so there will be problems. You could probably argue that the drum line isn't various enough, or that my instrument choice is a little stale. I might even agree with any of those statements, so at least we will agree. In any event, this is a very simple, and yet somewhat complex, arrangement of various songs from F-Zero GX for the Gamecube. It is simple because it doesn't go crazy; I don't break any musical barriers, and stylistically, it's even somewhat generic. It's a bit complex because of the way the melody was composed; several songs were wrapped up and then "spit out" so to speak. Listen carefully and you can hear them all; "Infinite Blue," "Mute City," (which is more prominent; I wanted to make at least some of this a bit more obvious so that even if you can't hear what I'm trying to do, its 'arrangement' status is somewhat justified), and the victory music which escapes me in name at the moment. Fans of the game may recognize a few more goodies. If by some chance this remix is to be accepted, I would request that you change my name from "Starblaze" to "Evan Pattison." All other information is current and accurate. Thanks. Hopefully, I will become somewhat more active and begin producing more music.

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/index.htm Your userid (number, not name) on our forums: 2642 ReMix Info Name of game(s) ReMixed: The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: Epona's Song Additional information: While taking a break from working on "Let it Rain", I came up with this piece. It's short, relatively simple, but sounds really nice. From what I could tell, the thing most people seemed to have a problem with, in the WIP forum, was just its length. However, to add any more would violate the length-content ratio, so it's the length it's going to be. Considering that was the only particularly major problem, I was given a lot of hope for its success. I came across the idea of arranging Epona's Song at work, actually. I was pretty bored one day and started fiddling with the melody a little (with improvised lyrics, of course) and came up with the nuances for it that are currently in the piece. Before starting, I had thought about actually using the lyrics I had come up with for it, but I liked it better without. The name, "Epona's Pastorale", is somewhat of a play on words (pasture/pastorale). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 28 "Lon Lon Ranch" (27 "Ocarina ~ Epona's Theme") The samples were a bit exposed and rigidly sequenced with the piano from :22-:39, but that was a minor snag. Even until :59, the samples were a bit too exposed, a bigger than usual drawback when going for such an intimate, purposefully sparse soundscape. Otherwise though, the arrangement was nothing short of excellent IMO, and the production was solid enough despite the samples sounding weak in spots. I loved the several emotive variations on the source tune. The changeup at 1:55 with the strings moving toward the close was beautiful stuff and a strong resolution. A brief mix but with excellent dynamics, it says a lot in a little time. Nice work, Kenneth. YES

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/pinball.zip - Track 3 Pretty cool string intro. Once the melody kicked in at :15, the string movement and supporting piano both sounded a bit rigidly sequenced. When the beatwork took over at :32-1:03, the more "organic"-minded parts started getting obscured. The bell work sounded way too weak, but the writing was alright. The beatwork sounded pretty cheap and cookie cutter (and also too repetitive over time), and didn't mesh well with the other instrumentation at all. After a promising harp-like section starting at 1:20, those thin & exposed claps coming in at 1:35 simply sounded out of place as well. Nothing else to really point out aside from the ending being a serviceable resolution. Agreed with Vigilante, this is definitely a really cool concept and a great base of an arrangement. Frankly, I'm impressed at what you did with such a limited theme as well, Dillon. But the negatives of the flimsy samples, thin textures, rigid sequencing, and repetitive beatwork can't make up for a (merely) promising arrangement. if you devote a lot more time to enhancing your production techniques, developing more sophisticated support instrument writing, and creating more cohesive textures, you'd be well on the way to getting something passed in the future. Within the Workspace area of our forums, Use the ReMixing forum to ask questions and learn more about the sounds and programs you're using, and take advantage of possible community feedback in the Works-in-Progress & Releases forum. NO

Quake 2 Soundtrack - 7 "Quad Machine", 2 "Operation Overlord", 3 "Rage", 4 "Kill Ratio" & 9 "Descent Into Cerberon" First off, I don't wanna take away from the coolness of a family playing as a band and on top of that playing some VG music. That's pretty badass, and I like what y'all are doing. Nonetheless, this arrangement is still a ways off from anything we'd accept. The arrangement is way too conservative and uninterpretive. The textures here are emptier and simpler than the originals. I can't even lie, it's hard to tell where one source track ends and another begins. But the arrangement basically just crams near-verbatim covers of all 5 source tunes within its 6:52 length. The multitracked performance could be tighter, but was certainly decent. There's just not much interpretation here. On top of that, the track tends to get boring after a while. Aside from some very minor changeups (e.g. 6:11, the ending), it's mostly the same instrument combinations going on at the same intensity for a long time without any major dynamic contrast to keep the song evolving and interesting. It needs more substance over the long haul than this. I'd look forward to something else from you guys, but I'd say keep the site's standards and guidelines more in mind. NO

beatmania IIDX 7th style Original Soundtrack - (29) "traces" Sorry Fernando, I'm still liking the potential, but it's still not yet realized. Can't wait until your sound design matches the ambitiousness of your arrangements. With this overhaul, the track's unfortunately left feeling very empty in the background and overly loud in the front, moreso than the first submission, IMO. I voted with "refine/resubmit" meaning that there definitely didn't need to be an overhaul of the approach, but rather some tweaks to make it passable. The arrangement is still good, but the sounds still lack meat and depth despite all the changes. You need something to fill out the background more effectively, and your sounds still need to be toned down in volume as well as balanced more effectively against each other. Perhaps hound zircon for advice. NO (refine/resubmit)

http://project2612.org/download.php?id=61 - Lava Reef Zone 1 & Lava Reef Zone 2 Drums are still too dry and bland, the piano is still rigidly sequenced, and the sax definitely has its moments where some lower notes sound off. It's just a matter of needing more practice, as the flow of the sax unfortunately still sounds rather unpolished. That's really the short of it. Liked the new bell-type instrumentation used at 3:06 to create more sonic variation. Piano at 3:35 sounds out of place when it abruptly showed up for the last couple of seconds sounding really bright yet mechanical. You can take it either good or bad, the arrangement is fairly strong. The live performance part just isn't up to snuff yet, IMO, in that it's too inconsistant, plus the finer details of the sequenced material need to be cleaned up for a more natural sound. I have to say though, Bobby, you've shown improvement with each resub. While I wouldn't recommend resubbing this one soon (otherwise you'll end up getting sick of the song), you show the potential to have a mix passed down the line as you continue to improve. Conceptually, your ideas are good, and the execution is gradually but markedly improving over time. Keep up the progress, but perhaps put this one on the shelf for now as you explore other arrangements. NO (refine/resubmit)

The Legend of Zelda ~Takt of Wind~ Original Sound Tracks - 259 "Aryll's Theme" & 256 "Ending" The usage of both themes is pretty underdeveloped. Nice piano intro gradually moving into the vibe-type stuff and strings. Seemed aight for the first half before transitioning into some very ugly brass and piano performance work at :48 moving into the slightly different "Ending" theme (not the "Staff Credits" theme). Once things picked up, the sequencing was exposed as really rigid and the brass and bass had no meat on 'em. Accordian at 1:07 sounds really bright compared to the roomy piano resulting in a huge quality disparity. They should at least be produced so that they sound like they're in the same room. So yeah, definitely an inconsistant track in terms of the sample quality, plus the arrangement is really underdeveloped. Some arrangements can pull off under 2 minutes, and this isn't one of 'em. Good base, and you certainly show potential, but this isn't close to the bar yet. NO

We had two of these 2 or 3 months ago, both here and at VGMix. Russ is seemingly the ONLY one who gets these threads. Everyone else just get mentioned in the broader "Whatever happened to...?" threads.

Wanted to chime in on this locked gold, because non one actually responsible for evalutaing music has commented. Just because a song ALSO has an arrangement done by a J-Pop singer on the official/original soundtrack DOESN'T mean that that track is invalid for arrangement. Any track originally created for use in a video game is eligible material for arrangement at OCR. By extension a rearrangement of a previous arrangement of material originally written for a game is also fine. If someone wanted to base an arrangement off of Rikku's "1000 Words", that's perfectly fine, because the material that track is based off of is music created for a game. (example: http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01164/ - based off of The Black Mages arrangement of "J-E-N-O-V-A"). This rule also allows someone to arrange a previously made ReMix. While Thin Crust's example of "Melodies of Life" and "Eyes on Me" were wrong, he inadvertantly raises some valid questions. The Doom series and GoldenEye 007 have some tracks that were based off mainstream music, but we've decided not to remove already posted that arranged material like that, since those arrangements were made by the artists and taken by the site both in good faith, but we've been tighter on evaluating stuff like that since then. By panel consensus, BTW, Tetris has been allowed despite being traditional music. Overall though, when the situations aren't ambigious, we emphatically do not allow arrangements of music not originally created for a game, and that's stated as such in the Submissions Standards and Guidelines.

Glad we heard good news! All's well that locks well!

The only one that matters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Year_2525

Yeah, I'm not surprised at that.

If a submission actually makes it, djpretzel tags the mix with the relevant ID # when the mix is actually posted on the front page.

What he said.

Max Payne - (02) "Max Payne Theme" The bitrate is too high at 208kbps VBR, so it would have to be reduced to 192kbps or below if it were accepted. The extended intro's based off of 1:30-2:18 of the original, starting at 1:18. Sounded like original stuff up until then. Transitions into the familiar melody of the source at 2:11. I was feeling this last time around, and still like it today. The instrumentation is decidedly minimal, but what little is there is good from 2:40-onward. It was called cheap last time, but didn't create a poor-sounding texture IMO. From about 2:11-2:40 though, things were too empty. Cool stuff like the backing string and piano plucks are still barely audible in comparison to the vocals. More (or LOUDER) instrumentation could be added to the picture to flesh out the background further without disturbing the overall vibe of the song, a very reasonable criticism from last time around. I thought the mutitracked vocals were solid. Others felt they were too rough-sounding last time, but I thought they came together well enough on both occasions. The vocal swell at 3:09 was a but much, but overall it's an unorthodox performance style that I can't recall hearing many times in the community, and one that's executed well enough despite having room for improvement. If this doesn't make it again, one reason is because the backing instrumentation is too spartan again. The vocals I had no huge issue with. I thought the concept was good, the arrangement was interpretive, and the execution was good enough. Nonetheless, Neil, you're probably gonna get nailed with the same issues here that were present the last time around, and they were reasonable criticisms the last time around. YES (borderline)

That's politics and philosophy. PPR.

For Christ's sake, not again please: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=177159&postcount=11

Space Cadet Pinball OSV - Pinball.mid Yeah, I gotta apologize too, I didn't have time to comment on this privately either when requested. The changes are relatively minor, like you said, so many of the issues that were there last time are still around. Opening piano is still too mechanical, as well as the guitar-synth sequencing. The drums are indeed too dry and plodding like BGC mentioned, thus not fleshing out the track as much as you need them to. I appreciated the attempt the change things up on the arrangement side at 1:45 for this version, but felt like the new interpretive writing ideas here weren't very cohesive, IMO. 2:13-2:33's section felt pretty weak. Sounds like you were trying to come up with something different for the sake of not being too repetitive, but the new writing wasn't melodically strong. Returned to some of the previous ideas at 2:34, heading back into the chorus at 2:52 with some additional writing put on top. Decent ideas here to create a semblance of contrast from the pervious iteration of the material, though it still felt a bit too similar. Ending at 4:10 probably should have trailed off longer; felt too abrupt IMO. I don't feel I gave the arrangement side enough credit last time around as far as personalization goes. You need to finesse the performance side of it a bit more so it doesn't sound so static, plus follow BGC's detailed criticisms on the drumwork. Definitely worth another try, and sorry again for not being more attentive to the PM box. Try to contact me or other judges on IRC for more realtime feedback if you need it, Brendan, in the event that you plan to work on it further. NO (resubmit)

Cave Story OSV - (30) "Zombie", (15) "Run!", (31) "The Last Battle", (22) "Quiet", & (35) "The Way Back Home" Cool stuff to start off with. The percussion writing's plodding in places (e.g. the sections with non-stop cymbal work and the boring snare shot repeating ad nauseum). And without a substantial bass presence, the track's incredibly empty. Definitely revisit the mixing of this one. Like zyko also mentioned, the tone is incredibly lacking, which undermines the energy level your writing is going for. Dunno why, but the lead guitar performance tends to sound stiff in some places. Not too many comments on specific areas of the track as the arrangement was generally good. Cool changeup at 3:36. Wasn't a fan of the changeup at 5:57 to "The Way Back Home" on any level, as it abruptly got really syrupy sweet and didn't fit thematically with any of the preceeding material; possibly a jarring key change, I wouldn't know. The arrangement of the various themes is aight, though I thought the overall dynamics were pretty poor. Aside from the source tunes changing, the track chugs and chugs away for 7:23 without enough significant changes in the instrumentation combinations or energy/intensity level to keep things interesting, especially in the latter half of the piece. I'm gonna leave the sub comments on the encoding quality up because there's nothing to be self-conscious about, Kris. The current encoding quality on this sub may be a bit lossy, but sounds perfectly reasonable for the site standards, BTW. LAME VBR is recommended by many for encoding purposes, so perhaps give that a shot. Try a few different VBR encodings with different bitrate ranges and see what gets the closest to the 6MB threshold. Revisit the mixing (more lows and highs) and provide stronger dynamics, and this would be in much stronger shape. NO (resubmit)

The full version was uploaded before OCR01500. There was never any announcement, I just noticed (while going through lockdown stuff) that the previous version had cut off and checked Benedikt's homepage to see if the mix was indeed only 2:16 long.

Hate to cut ya short, but unfortunately "nah". http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2360

1) Nah, there's nothing like that (personal descriptions) available, though it's an interesting idea. Basically, the most the public knows about the various judges are from the tracks they've submitted to the site. 2) Not quite sure what you mean there. We download the songs, and we listen to 'em. If you're talking about the criteria we use for judging, then What qualifies as a 'ReMix' and How are submissions judged? are the principles and guidelines we keep in mind when evaluating submissions.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 319 "Aeris' Theme" I thought TO's POV was a bit dismissive. Sure the track's rough, but the concepts are alright. Decent intro joined at :07 by some distortion 'n beats. The arrangement needs to be more interpretive, as the melody's basically used verbatim whenever it's in play. Get more interpretive with the theme beyond the genre adaptation you're doing by using these sounds. Faux-guitar almost never sounds good in these arrangements, but it wasn't too bad in here, though the sequencing was pretty mechanical. Not sure what was up with 1:05's section playing the melody so strangely, but it became recognizable at 1:17. Went back to the faux-guitar at 1:25 for the last section. Ending at 2:08 was pretty "I give up"-ish. Make a real one. The textures were fairly simplistic and needed to be fuller, and the arrangement was limited due to the length. Sounds like a decent concept that doesn't have the polish or development needed to hang here. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff5 - "Ahead On Our Way" (ff5-1-01.spc) Cool opening. A bit generic with the sounds, but some reasonably good effects/processing to make things sound more unique. Beefy drums came in at :30 with some cool writing. Ooooh, nice changeup at 1:04. Very nice. Cymbals got more active at 1:36, though the e-piano doesn't really seem to be going anywhere with the comping. Just personal taste, but one reason it felt that way was because the e-piano tended to bleed into the other sounds and not stand out. Drumwork and other rhythmic sounds dragged after 1:51, before moving back to :31's section with a guitar synth added and the original lead scaled back. Yeah, I think the composition could be improved a bit, but the production is where this needs help the most as your sounds tend to bleed together. Nice first sub. NO (rework/resubmit)

"Not a site project" means this goes here now.