Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Love the opening with the lush sounds and water SFX; very cool feel to start. The beat comes in at :37 and it's surprisingly tame, one of those tracks where the beats have no meat and sound like a plastic bucket's being hit. Meanwhile, all of the other instrumentation and sound design is so strong, so the beats are an unfortunate quality disparity. Nice drop at 1:43, though this is full of amazing ear candy. By 2:04, I was also tired of the beats, so I'm genuinely glad they dropped out for something else by 2:13 (followed by the first usage of "Infinite Blue" at 2:19). Ah man, beats back at 2:29. Another great dropoff at 2:42. Don't let my focus on a weaker element take away from the fact that this arrangement kicks all sorts of ass. Look at those last creative arrangement ideas at 3:15 before referencing the verse at 3:28. Wow, awesome, Dean. Amazing energy and dynamics throughout. The beats needed more body & heft, but that doesn't take away from this being a super-fun thrill ride! YES

The track was 2:24-long, so I needed to make out the theme for at least 72 seconds. Since this is a gimmick arrangement, I just wanted to check that the source tune was in play enough. I found what I needed! :02.5-:10.5, :13-1:09, 1:30.5-1:35.5, 1:49-2:04.75 = 82.75 seconds or 57.46% overt source usage Also, 1:44-1:47 = Honnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnk One weird goose honk amidst an otherwise sound concept and performance. I... SEY YES P.S. Honnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnk! LT Edit (7/11): Sorry, guys, I'm listening again, and the sax control is indeed too unsteady. I was too nice, which I'll never be again! I'd love for you to try this again, if you're willing to re-record it.

A bunch of goofs goofin'. YES

The source tune feels like Ghosts'n Goblins with beats; I dig it. Track was on the crowded side for me. It's not muddy in terms of parts stepping over one another; the different parts actually seem fairly clean, but something about how they all form this texture makes the track seem cluttered and less sharp than it should. Maybe the grimier/crunchier sounds that start around :04 could have been saved for the repeat of the verse & chorus at :31 or later at 1:18, which could have made the middle seem like a subtle escalation of the energy instead of a retread. From 2:29-on, I would have liked to have heard something new with the textures and writing ideas to make for a stronger close, especially after the dropoff section at 2:00; right now, ideas (albeit creative ideas) are cut-and-pasted with the same sounds and intensity (e.g. verses at :03, 1:18 & 2:43); instead of feeling like a satisfying bookend, the lack of variation in places made the finish repetitive and disappointing. That said, maybe other Js won't mind the structure as much as I did. It's still a solid arrangement by Ernesto with driving energy! YES

I may have misinterpreted what I saw on Discord, but I thought I saw Ben saying something about how he wasn't sure about submitting this piece. There wasn't anything about this that threw me for a loop as far as our arrangement standards, nothing that would give me pause to pass this. The beats and sequenced electric guitar at 1:42 both had a stilted sound to them. Drums at 2:10 didn't fit; they're mixed in a way where you don't get any body to the snare hits, mostly just the snap; it's odd, but another judge likely can explain why all that doesn't click. It's serviceable enough, and I do like you branching out with your instrumentation, but I'd love some sort of improvement there, as it's the weakest link. Back to the ethereal soundscape afterward though, and it was smooth sailing from there. The lead and source counterelody at 3:13 were nice alongside the original writing, followed by the piano and shimmering percussion at 3:46, all great sound design stuff. What an amazing trailoff for the finish. Cool! YES

We've attempted to touch base twice but have never heard back, so let's just keep voting as is, please.

I'm super biased because I love the source tune so much, so I just wanna hear it like this. I'm liking the opening sound design, and the delay effects to give the first section a differnt feels, then fun phasing stuff at :45. The sequencing can feel stilted but there's charm and intention in the overall sound. At 1:06, we get a basic core DnB beat pattern; Roch, I think there's way to spice this up provided you talk to the right people, but we need to take the plodding training wheels off of this beat-writing, because it's a weak link. Good variations of the leads to keep the theme treatment fresh throughout! YES

The track opened up very similar to the original track, but it's near-7 minutes, so there's lots of runway to play with in terms of getting more interpretive, and it was evident it did that not too far along. Not the best samples in terms of realism, but llots of fun instrumentation changes, additive supporting writing, and fun embellishments and soloing elements here and there throughout to give this a distinct character from the original. Making this last without dragging out would be a challenge, but it's asked and answered by T.O.! YES

The source usage is basically the whole track, referencing some sustained lines from the original until :53 and going on from there with the actual melody afterward. The source tune itself has some unpleasant dissonance/clashing that's carried over here, so I guess I can't ding it that bad, but I'll have to live with it. This sounded flooded in the zone, so to speak, where the soundscape was getting muddy until 1:42, but it wasn't anything dealbreaking. Around 1:55, the lack of percussion or something driving this forward made the piece feel like it was dragging, and the rigid timing on everything didn't help things not feel plodding. The driving beat finally was brought in at 2:36. Weird effects on the lead at 3:02 that were messing with my ears in a very unpleasant way; the relative volume of the leads didn't make sense and seemed to be pushed way under the underwater-sounding countermelody. More piercing sounds at 3:52. Arrangement-wise, this does get it done in terms of transforming the theme. Even if the mixing isn't ideal as is, I'd rather post this than not, and would be glad to see if Tyler could give this another mixing pass. YES

I’ll say that this could evolve more, so I could see someone else feeling that the track was ultimately too repetitive or at least droning. That said, I dug it. It’s indeed a great source tune, and Peter’s treatment was very lush with subtle textural changes, and a crystalline sound that demands your attention. It’s a great piece to veg out to. YES

Cohesive combination of the themes. I’ve heard it with so many arrangements in the community, but when the sound is so lush, you almost think “Dayum, this is almost too good for such a simple composition”, but that underscores how catchy VGM can be and how much it deserves the glow-up. Loved the rhythmic change at 1:16 the most, which provided a nice feeling of movement here. Peter’s stuff is rubber stamp good to me. YES

Fun journey! Strong sound design, nice vocal moments. Matt always delivers, and it’s a genuinely meaningful milestone to have our first father-daughter collaboration too! YES

Cool! Some of the initial original writing was too noodly, but no big deal. Good variations of the sounds and textures to provide the distinction compared to the source. Clean sound, with fun use of the sample club vocals and in-game voices as well. Was initially worried it might not feel interpretive enough, but I’ve also heard enough of your work now to feel confident that it wasn’t going to be a problem, so I’m glad that was the case. I enjoyed! YES

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Link to submission: MP3: WAV: Remixer Name: Veni Mortem Real Name: Venicia Jenifreya Email: Website: https://venimortem.carrd.co/ User ID: 38540 Name of Games Arranged: Mega Man X Series (Primarily X5, but including X-X7) Name of Arrangement: Zero Alternatives Name of Songs Arranged: "X vs Zero" (Mega Man X5) "Zero" (Mega Man X) "Zero" (Mega Man X2) "Zero" (Mega Man X3) "Opening Stage Zero (Sky Lagoon)" (Mega Man X4) "Opening Stage Zero" (Mega Man X5) "Awake Road Again (Highway Stage / Zero's Theme)" (Mega Man X7) "Demo (Zero's Speaks, Variable X)" (Mega Man X) "X vs Zero" (Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Version) You can find a YouTube upload here, which is fully timestamped, including visual cues, to follow along with each part of the medley! Comments: This was a huge project for me, having worked on it off and on for a few years. This was requested by my good friend and long time Patreon supporter Zorky, who is a huge fan of Zero. Initially he asked me to cover X vs Zero from X5, but as I started working with it, my ideas for it continued to grow. I first noticed that the rhythm of the strings section in the first segment of X vs Zero past the intro, had a similar rhythm to Zero's theme from Mega Man X, so I started by recreating the Zero theme melody with the same violins I was using, and beat the BPM with a hammer until it sounded right haha. Once I had that in, I just kept finding little ways to fit the other themes in here and there, wrapping them all around the tempo and rhythms of X vs Zero, to finally result in a sort of celebration of the character, and the series as a whole! X vs Zero is one of those tracks that just always stuck with me, and I've always considered it one of the greatest action compositions in gaming. As a music composer/producer myself, it just spoke to all of my composition sensibilities and was one of the few instances where a track made me think "Wow, I so wish I had made that one!" hahaha. So when the opportunity came to arrange it, I just had to give it my all and show my love for everything involved! Closing: If there are any issues with the files or any of the information, please let me know and I'll correct it as soon as possible! This is my first submission to OC Remix after many many years of listening, so I hope I got everything right! Thank you all so much for everything you do! Timestamped video of submission with source breakdown:

Remixer name: The Coop Real name: M.T. Yankovich E-mail address: Website: N/A UserID: 4510 Game arranged: Thunder Force V Arrangement name: "Guardian Unknown" Song arranged: "The Justice Ray Part 2" Song composers: Hyakutaro Tsukumo, Tek Tek, Tomomi Otani Game system: SEGA Saturn Thunder Force V OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yPWibjhBWo Comments: Greetings folks. Yeah, it's been many, many years since I submitted something, but I figured I'd throw caution to the wind and... here I am. This is a piano-arrangement of the song "The Justice Ray Part 2" from the Tecno Soft game, Thunder Force V on the SEGA Saturn (it's on the PS1 as well, but I grew up with the Saturn version, so...). Besides the drastic change in terms of musical instruments used and tempo, I also did a little shuffling to the original song's structure, moving some sections of it around to fit with the more somber-at-times tone of my arrangement. I still tried to capture the energy of the original tune at times as well, giving the song a chance to swell, fall back, and whatnot. It this remix was inspired a loooog time ago, when I was trying to do an orchestral remix of the same TFV song. That remix was basically finished, but it fizzled out in the end. A little while later, I tried to do a piano-solo version, but that too fizzled out after it got pretty far along. That piano-solo remix sat dormant for about 13 years, and I eventually found it and decided it was time to get it done. I sat down, reworked what I'd written, and finally finished it. The song title is inspired by the glitchy speech that comes up as the game warns you of the approaching final boss, and the on-screen text that reads, "Area Guard Name: Unknown." I've attached a 192kb/s MP3 of the remix to this email, and here's a link to the same file on my Dropbox account. I've had this account for years, so it's not going anywhere (I hope)... Thanks for taking the time to listen to it, and... well, here's hoping! -TC

Link Greetings! It's been a long time since I've submitted a new track. I hope you like it Requested info below. CONTACT: Remixer name: OverShield Real name: Dean Kontos Email address: overshieldmusic@gmail.com Website: I don't have one, but here is my YouTube and Soundcloud: https://www.youtube.com/@overshield9729 https://soundcloud.com/overshield_official User ID: 33724 SUBMISSION: Game Arranged: F-Zero Name of Arrangement: Project Blue Name of Song Arranged: Big Blue Inspiration: The main inspiration for me is always nostalgia. F-Zero has been one of my most beloved game franchises ever since I was a child. It has incredible music that always matched the fast paced energy of its racetracks. Big Blue is no doubt one of the best songs within the entire franchise and it has always been high on my list to put my own twist to it. This remix mainly focuses on the classic original theme of Big Blue that we know and love. However, big F-Zero fans may notice some parts of the song taking direct inspiration from some of the lesser known alternate versions of the Big Blue theme within F-Zero GX (e.g. Infinite Blue and Arrange versions). I hope you enjoy it, as I tried to tell a story throughout the different sections of the track (pun not intended). Thanks for your time. Best, Dean

Your ReMixer name: Pixel Pirates Your real name: Tobaunta Torkelsson & Fredrik Vinterstjärna Your email address: Your website: pixelpirates.nu Your userid: 37469 Name of game(s) arranged: Castle Crashers Name of arrangement: Four Brave Heroes Name of individual song(s) arranged: Four Brave Champions

Contact Information Your ReMixer name : Rockos Your real name : Roch Côté Your email address : Your website : None Your userid (number, not name) on our forums : 44017 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged : Genshin Impact Name of individual song(s) arranged : Port Ormos (Day) Name of the remix : I Picked the Wrong Test Subject Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc. : This one song was made for a kinda surprise to my wife. This came out absolutly of nowhere. She was in love with the music when playing the game and going to Port Ormos area during game daytime. I decided to remix it with my 'Drum and Bass' or what I like to call it 'Rock and Bass' surge. This one has the energy + the groove in it. The source is being played a lot and change from fast pace to slow groovy bassline style with psytrance glitched stuff going on. The goal was to have at the same time a good balance of energy and feel good kind of music. I also had to practice a lot for the guitar parts since it is going at a blazing fast 180 BPM. The solo (4:21-4:44+) in itself was cheated in the making in the sense that I didn't play it live but every part were played on my real guitar. Just had to use clever recording and sound placement. I went a lot on the glitching effect side. Mostly heard in background pad and sometime on front element. I used the Rift plugin and experimented with a lot of settings and created some automation to go with it. I liked creating the 0:45-1:06 part where there is the main melody glitching and behind is a low passed bass meaning imminent drop. It has this 'It's coming' feeling to it. The source in itself play as follow: Intro (0:00-0:44 Remix) plays the main intro melody of the original track (0:10-0:30 OST) and at the same time plays the end (1:31-1:42 OST) of the original in the background. (0:45-1:06 Remix) Is the build-up and plays the original 5 first notes of what I consider the main melody found at (0:50-0:52 OST). After that the part from (1:06-1:48) plays the main melody of the original (0:50-1:31 OST). (1:49-2:53 Remix) Alternate between the intro melody of the soundtrack and the main melody while at the same time playing the the of the OST (0:10-0:30 alternate with 0:50-1:31 + 1:31-1:42 OST). (2:55-3:14 Remix) use the end of the soundtrack (1:31-1:42 OST) as a build-up to lead into another alternate version of intro + main melody. (3:15-3:59 Remix) = (0:10-0:30 alternate with 0:50-1:31 OST). (4:00-4:19 Remix) Is back to main melody with a little small time change where the melody starts. (4:20-4:42 Remix) Is a guitar solo while playing the end of the soundtrack (1:31-1:42 OST) this time as an arpeggio. (4:43-end Remix) This arpeggio is then added with pads that reflect the end of the original OST) I felt the need to had timestamp and explaination since this game is not in the OCR database hence the song might not have been heard a lot. So judge might like this read-up as they listen. I really hope you like this track full of changes as much as we do. Wav: Original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KknZcH0rvBY

(revision 1/21/2024) (old version) ReMixer name: Astral Tales Real name: Ernesto Bernal Email address: Website: astraltales.bandcamp.com Submission Information Name of game arranged: Gremlins 2 The New Batch The Videogame Name of arrangement: Astral Office Name of individual song arranged: The Office Theme Own comments about the mix: I always found that this song had a naughty nature that conveys quite well the personality of the Gremlins. It had that "horror" taste to it, but also some funny characteristics, exactly like the movie. It's a blend that we usually found in the 80s, and it was a bit of a challenge to translate into a remix. I decided to give it a cyberpunk twist (after all, the leader of "the new batch" had a mohawk, right?). When exploring with different sounds, the song asked me for a heavy and nasty rhythm section, so I added some powerful bass lines and heavy rhythms. The chaotic and naughty nature of the Gremlins was approached with a crazy lead that plays the main theme of the song, and finally I added two softer parts to help the tune have some dynamics that helped to give some variety and contrast against the madness of the main sections. I hope you enjoy it! Cheers! Ernesto Bernal

Hello! My name is Jon Paul Sapsford, and I'm a musician from Chicago and I love doing video game remixes. You have recently featured the duo I am a part of, Error 47, and our remix of the Gabriel Knight theme (though, I need to give credit where credit's due, that was 99.9% Troels' doing. He had an absolute vision with that one. I just put a little polish on it). A while back we all put together the first (of soon to be 3) King's Chill album, and my synthwave take on Girl in the Tower from King's Quest 6 was lucky enough to be the closer to the album. I enjoy listening to this track quite a bit and am very proud of how it turned out, so I figured I'd see if you all would enjoy it as well. Thank you for your consideration and all that you do for great video game music! Download track link: Remixer name: Jon Paul Sapsford Remix title: Girl in the Tower (King's Chill Remix) Style: Synthwave Album Link: https://spacequesthistorian.bandcamp.com/album/kings-chill-vol-1-vibin-makes-the-soul-go-higher Email address: Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/studiorion Direct youtube link: Name of game arranged: King's Quest 6 Name of song arranged: Girl in the Tower Original Composer: Mark Seibert Source tune with vocals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69M2iiI__XQ Source tune instrumental:

Super Metroid has this nice atmospheric, uncertain, mysterious theme that really nails the lonesome feeling the game has. I wanted to capture that lonesome feel in kind of a more dramatic way than the SNES was capable of in 1994 (not that it did a bad job at all.) I had this project sitting around unfinished for a long time; I’d thought it had been maybe two years or so...but I checked and the file creation date was late 2014! Originally it had been completely orchestrated, but it was kind of plodding, a bit too contemplative, and just generally slow and boring. There wasn’t any expressiveness to it, having been a lazy transcription, and it just sounded flat. I swapped to more realistic-sounding orchestra libraries and added some expression, but it still sounded a bit monotonous. A suggestion from a friend was to make it into a “montage,” which I didn’t understand at first. He said “like what if there was a four-minute-long Metroid movie trailer that you needed to score? Add an action scene,” which then resulted in the more upbeat guitar section, which I feel adds the variation that was needed. The end result is that it does sound like a montage. It starts sounding lonely and dark, then gets a bit determined with a military snare and a pulsed bass synth. Then follows the action scene and a little bit of electric guitar noodling, maybe representing the boss fight against Draygon. Then there’s an atmospheric section — maybe Samus is exhibiting the trope of walking away from an explosion she’s not looking at before a fade to black — with long sustains with the Metroid title motif behind it. Here, I used a couple sounds that were used in the Metroid Prime trilogy soundtracks for atmosphere, but kept them relatively subtle (thanks @SynaMax, for pointing out where to find said sounds, by the way.) Afterward, the lonely oboe then comes back to lead into the ending with the piano closing things out (where the Metroid title motif briefly shows up again.) I spent many hours crafting automation of both instrument parameters and the overall tempo to get the orchestrated bits to sound as expressive and as human as I could achieve, and I think it works well enough. This was also a very difficult mix production-wise; for a long time things just sounded like mud, more mud, and "oh hey I think there’s a melodic line in there behind all those strings but I can’t be sure” but after a few more hours I got it cleaned up pretty nicely. I swear that submitting so many water-themed mixes is not intentional; that’s just how things kind of worked out. It’s just that water level themes are (usually) awesome (even if the levels themselves are often more frustrating…) Once again, thanks for taking the time to listen, and for all you do! Original piece: ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvAu58MtF5Y ) I’ve seen disagreement as to whether the original piece is called “Lower Maridia,” “Maridia 2," or “Maridia (Swampy Caverns)” but it looks like OCR has it listed as “Rocky Underground Water Area” so I’ll go with that. Link to submission: ( ) “Submergence” Remixer name: 744 (or sevenfortyfour) Real name: Ben Brownlee e-mail: site: 744music.bandcamp.com (and sevenfortyfour.bandcamp.com) forum userid: 34405

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game(s): Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Breath of the Wild Song Title: Moonlit Woods Songs Remixed: Lost Woods (BotW), Forest Haven (WW) Faron Woods (TP), Inside Forest Haven (WW), Korok Forest (BotW) Here’s a link to the file: This is part of a much larger medley that I made a little over a year ago. Here’s the whole medley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh0I9rmeEyU I gave it a different ending and made it shorter! Most of the winds were performed by Gamer of the Winds, Medllix and Steven Higbee. Here are links to them: https://www.youtube.com/c/GameroftheWinds/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/Medllix/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/StevenHigbee/videos

Your ReMixer name: Lucas Guimaraes Your real name: Lucas Guimaraes Your email address: Your website: https://twitter.com/Thirdkoopa - knew nothing better to link for this Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: http://ocremix.org/community/profile/33965-thirdkoopa/ Name of game(s) arranged: Final Fantasy VI Name of arrangement: Live For A Who / Oh War of Evil Name of individual song(s) arranged: Terra's Theme Other people that helped: TSori .wav: My comments: This is a Mirror Duet Arrangement of Terra's Theme from Final Fantasy VI. Mirror, you might ask? Inspired by Mozart's "Der Spiegel" (https://youtu.be/ybiuRzpkaMA) except with a VGM arrangement. This means that my part, when flipped upside down, is the sheet music to TSori's part. Let me tell you: Mirror Arrangements are HARD. When TSori came to me with this arrangement idea, I knew I had to try it out. I was hooked once the puzzle element clicked with me. This took a lot of revisioning to get this sounding like Terra's theme. I'm attaching the sheet music (One of the few times I see myself doing this) to really help get across why this gimmick is so hard. Every note was essentially writing two notes. Once we got the arrangement down, it was really about practicing. Since it was initially made for the Pixel Mixers contest deadline, we knew one thing: We had to keep it simple. This allowed for plenty of time to rehearse the piece and go over the mix and master a few times. I had a lot of fun making this track, and I really hope you all enjoy it. Certainly a VGM First! TSori Comments: One of the things that makes collaborations with Lucas so much fun is that he likes wacky ideas as much as I do. He also happens to be far better at executing them! So, when I pitched the idea of a "mirror/table duet" style arrangement to him, I knew he'd find a way to make it work. The arranging process turned out to be a lot of fun. We traded drafts back and forth a few times, building on each others' ideas until Lucas arrived at this final arrangement. As Lucas said several times it often felt as much like solving a puzzle as it did arranging. Ultimately I am very pleased with how this turned out, and I hope it makes for a unique ReMix. The title also took a bit of thought. The goal was to find one that would spell different phrases read forward and backward, both of which had to be at least somewhat relevant to Terra. So we ended up with "Live for a Who" for our amnesiac heroine and "Oh War of Evil" alluding to her former life as a living weapon.