Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Adding composer credits here for posterity: 0:00 "Vah Medoh 2 Terminals" (BotW) Yasuaki Iwata 1:13 "Eagle's Tower" (LA) Minako Hamano 2:12 "City in the Sky" (TP) Toru Minegishi 3:27 "Astral Observatory" (MM) Koji Kondo 4:13 "Revali's Theme" (BotW) Yasuaki Iwata 5:12 "Rito Village" (BotW) Yasuaki Iwata 6:04 "Crimson Loftwing" (SS) Mahito Yokota

Adding composer credits here for posterity: 0:00 "Ballad of Gales" (WW) (WW individual credits unknown) 0:16 "Title" (WW) Kenta Nagata 1:54 "Wind's Requiem" (WW) [WW individual credits unknown] 2:03 "Sheikah Tower" (BotW) Manaka Kataoka 3:32 "Wind Temple (First Phase)" (TotK) Masato Ohashi 4:47 "Wind Temple" (WW) [WW individual credits unknown] 6:06 "Palace of Winds" (MC) Mitsuhiko Takano

Artist Name: iyonUK Shadow of the Beast, Amiga. The original theme remixed. When the title screen has finished rolling and the game is eager to get started. Games & Sources The main title theme to Shadow of the Beast from the glory days of the Amiga. Just given a classic trance feel, saws and squares For The Win...

Original Decision Artist Name: Azina *RESUBMISSION* https://ocremix.org/community/topic/59313 As far as arrangements go, this begins with only small shifts. Fae-like playful piano accents electric guitar performing the harmonic structure typically played on piano. This continues until the second loop where a heartbeat rhythm is established in the low end, and choir-esk vocals underpin the very prominent main melody. The piece ends with a demure "victory theme" of my own making. Extra notes: Care was taken towards preventing the -2dB hardclip and other conflicting lows. Significant time was put into trying to keep fullness of sound while also clearing all that up. Hopefully it comes through! Games & Sources The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toru_Minegishi Link to the composer; apparently he's the one who composed the gamecube startup sound.

The steady drumbeat plodded, IMO, but there’s more than enough solid arrangement going on elsewhere that I can look beyond the core perc pattern being underwhelming. The bassline also seemed the most in the uncanny valley, but has a solid enough tone that I recognize from other music. I enjoyed the interpretation overall; it definitely puts an unexpected genre transformation on it while also feeling like a very comfortable fit in this style. Cool stuff, Garrett! YES

Nice source tune choice, and an excellent rock expansion. There were moments where I felt the melodic lead should have been more upfront compared to the drums, but no big deal. Nice job varying up the instrumentation and textures to keep the presentation fresh, helpful for a relatively short source. The original soloing during the ending section was another highlight. Mauricio always does a great job fleshing out relatively brief themes and giving them a massive power upgrade. :-) YES

The piano sound’s in the uncanny valley, though it’s nothing I haven’t heard in something like To the Moon’s music, and the sample articulations are reasonably solid. Not sure why MkVaff hesitated on this one, but thankfully he didn’t overthink himself out of sending this in; it’s a lovely piano take on the source! :-) YES

Love this source! The intro of it sounds like a lost Sonic CD (J) Good Future mix. :-) ad.mixx killing it as always with his arrangement ideas, lyrics, and vocals. Here’s hoping his musical hiatus is only temporary, as his unique vocal style and amazing lyrics always impress me, and it makes sense this was part of a judge-involved clean sweep of DoDs top 4 that month; not bad for folks from a teknomanga site! Chimpa’s production, mixing, and ear candy kept this sounding incredible throughout. Everything’s in its right place, relatively minimalist yet spacious and lush. If y’all are ever interested in actually arranging Sonic CD, you’d crush that too! YES

Impeccable stuff. I got literal chills on my arms during the final seconds. Top-tier goodness from Lucas, Zack, and the twins, unreal! :-) Y8S!

Chronolicious. :-) I disagreed with the intro box not sounding good; I was definitely here for it and it sounded fitting for the mood of the intro, no qualifications necessary. I didn’t make out any "Schala" but heard "Radical Dreamers" usage around 2:17, so someone else can clue me in on where that was overlooked for "Schala". Everyone handled their parts beautifully. Special shoutout to roqdrummer for really sophisticated perc work that had major synergy with the rest of the performers. Epic treatment, BBB and crew, this was amazing. YES

It took me two listens to the source to be able to focus on the melodic leads and not get distracted by the interplay of the supporting writing, but it’s a fun source theme. Great performances throughout. Would have liked TSori’s trumpet lines to be doubled by himself or another instrument more often, because there were times the tone of the trumpet didn’t integrate as well with the other parts, to a lesser extent the same for Ronin Op F’s strings, but it may just be my personal preference. I also would have liked Jabo’s bass to be more audible, but I’m listening to this on my phone rather than my headphones, so forgive me if my perception is off. Thanks for the source breakdown. Very strong presentation, with just as much going on dynamically as the original. :-) YES

There’s a liveliness/verve missing from here compared to the original, which may make it seem like I just want any arrangement to stick with the mood or style of the original. I can’t articulate what’s giving me that feeling, however, the samples are much less in the uncanny valley than the previous version, so that’s really what I was hoping to hear! Definitely on solid ground now, and thanks so much for being willing to revisit this one. :-) YES

Artist Name: ad.mixx, Chimpazilla Make A Note ad.mixx comments: I really loved working on this one! It was fun writing the lyrics and arrangement. Chimpazilla absolutely killed it with production, though. I sent a purposefully stripped down arrangement to Chimpazilla and basically said "go nuts." And go nuts she did. The song wasn't too much to speak of until she did her thing. Even though I did quite a bit of the writing and arrangement, any instrumental and production/mixing work on this track can be completely credited to Chimpazilla. I knew to trust her instincts and she absolutely delivered and more. Truthfully, this may be the last you hear of my (and Yua's) singing for a while due to personal issues, but I think this is a good note to leave things off for a while. I really enjoyed making this, and I really appreciate all the work Kristina did to bring this work to life. As a final note, lyrically this song has many meanings. But, the main purpose of the words is to be a love letter to all musicians, including those on OC ReMix and Dwelling of Duels. I know we all have our struggles, and I know we have things that hold us back, but we do make mountains move. And we do strike hearts. Many OC ReMixes have impacted my life more than you can know. They have also saved my life more than you can know. Whether they have lyrics or not, I can feel your feelings in all of your songs. So this one goes out to you. Keep making music! Chimpazilla comments: Aaron gives me a lot of credit, and yes I did a ton of production on this track, but the concept, arrangement, lyrics and vocal performances/processing are 100% his. Aaron is an excellent writer, singer and arranger, and I am privileged to work with him whenever possible. I appreciate his trust in me so much. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that ad.mixx sent me his stems for this track last January, and I worked on it right away and then got busy with other things so this track went on the back burner for months. I finally got to a point where I had time to revisit it very recently, and then we finished it up within just a few days. I shared the track with Emunator, and he let me know that Persona 5 was on the list for July's Dwelling of Duels compo. Nice coincidence! Wes suggested we submit it. I resisted, thinking more of it needed to be live than just the vocals, but Wes urged me and Aaron to submit it, so we did. The track took fourth place, which I think is pretty good, considering the genre isn't typical DoD fare. People liked it a lot anyway! We submitted a gorgeous zebra to a horse contest, so fourth place (out of 25 entries) is not too shabby. Aaron and I are very proud of Make A Note and how it did in July's DoD, and I appreciate Wes for pushing us to submit it there! Aaron is a joy to work with, he's talented and super nice. I know he may not be doing much music in the near future, but I'm hopeful he will work through his issues and get back to making the music he loves. When that happens I'll be right here to collab more tracks if he asks me to! Thanks again Aaron for your trust and friendship! Lyrics: Make a note, this one got me in the right mood I can fight it if I know I got the right groove I can keep it up if I know I got the right weed If I can switch it up, then I know I got the right beat We make the mountains move We shake the earth with a kick and a boom We are the "I'm too cool" We keep the rhythm movin' through the room They say boy know your worth I'm just not ready for change But you always come crawlin' back for More and more it hurts And then I'm never the same Does this mean you don't remember We make the mountains move We strike the earth with our hearts and our wounds We are too goddamn cool We keep the bodies movin' through the room They say boy know your worth I'm just not ready for change But you always come crawlin' back for More and more it hurts And then I'm never the same Does this mean you don't remember (x2) Keep me in motion Keep me in the mood so we Don't look so broken we Don't need it to be crude we Wanna feel your soul bleed Wanna feel your everything so Don't stop the beat please Don't stop our hearts from breathing We make the mountains move We shake the earth with a kick and a boom We are the "I'm too cool" We keep the rhythm movin' through the room Make a note, this one got me in the right mood I can fight it if I know I got the right groove I can keep it up if I know I got the right weed If I can switch it up, then I know I got the right beat You can blame it on yourself if you never make a move Or you ichi ni san, times up, reapproved Mos def this one feelin' like the right groove Most def this one got me in the right mood Games & Sources

Artist Name: Argle So, uh, here's... something. It started back in the spring when I idly thought, what would be the most inappropriate thing to turn into a beach song? The first thing that came to mind was, Dark Souls. Obviously Dark Souls. There had been a DS track I've wanted to cover for a long time, the character creation theme, which has a wonderful Resident Evil typewriter music feel. At this point it was only an idea, a lad's springtime passing fancy. But once the right name for the track occurred to me, the bit HAD to be committed to. So, I present something utterly stupid. Not in like a General Grunt way, obviously comedic in nature, but in a "why??" kind of way. The thing is though, just because this idea is goofy AF doesn't mean it wasn't also hard. On the contrary. Whatever could be said to be in my wheelhouse, Latin jazz is not one of those things. So committing to the dumb bit was actually very challenging! The other challenge of the song was, even though the original is 5+ minutes long it's basically the same motif over and over with various atmospheric layers, aka nothing that would help me in a beach rendition of it. So this remix was an exercise in taking that short motif and reworking it in a bunch of different ways that keep it from getting dull but remain coherent. It shows up in obvious ways (nylon guitar @ 0:24 and 1:53, guitars @ 0:48, vibraphone @ 1:40 and 2:30, piano @ 2:06), but it's also lurking in the vibraphone at 1:18 even though it's mostly buried in favor of the piano solo. So... um... enjoy? (??) Games & Sources

Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement Zack Parrish: Guitars, Bass, Additional Parts(strings), Mixing, Mastering Pixelseph: Guitars Paradiddlesjosh: Percussion for the post, tag "Lucas Guimaraes, The Crazy 8ths, Zack Parrish, Pixels & Paradiddles" or put Crazy 8ths first hi everybody this is my first post on oc remix did i do it right. Games & Sources

Artist Name: Ridiculously Garrett This is an arrangement of "Zora's Domain" in a straight ahead style. This arrangement was originally inspired by the city pop genre. The track is created using MIDI sounds from Bitwig Studio and some samba percussion samples. We start off hearing the iconic introduction played by the synthesizer which has high reverb. A drum fill transitions us into a tight, lower reverb setting at 00:13. 8 bars later and we hear the melody played by a soft, yet bright synthesizer sound. Accompanied by some close voiced, colorful piano chords over a bass pedal on the tonic. The chord progression follows the original composition completely with no changes. Another thing to note which continues to develop throughout this arrangement is the influence of bossa nova/samba on this arrangement. You will hear the bass play on 1 and 3, a staple to bossa nova. You also will hear two different bossa claves hard panned in both ears. At 01:27, we get our first chorus continued by the synthesizer. We hear the drums play a low tom on beats 2 and 4, a common samba rhythm usually played on a similar type of pitched drum. Addition of ride cymbal and some elongated bass patterns gives it more of chill feel. At 01:57 we get a quick break from the melody. At 02:13 we get a reference from Ocarina of Time's "Title Theme" to start us off in a piano solo. The solo plays for the rest of the section, and mostly follows the original main melody with some slight variations. At 03:03, we return to the chorus as a breakdown. At 03:27, we play the chorus one last time with the groove back in, this time ride is flipped to playing on downbeats instead of offbeats, just a little funny detail with no major significance. At 03:51 I really start to develop more of the bossa influence. The track remains in 4/4, but the synthesizer plays a 3 over 4 cross rhythm. This is a very common rhythm in bossa nova claves and percussion and was probably replicated in the claves previously in this track. The synthesizer soon morphs into another common syncopating samba rhythm at 04:03. The chord progression changes from I-IV to I-bIIV. A subtle change, and honestly not really that noticeable. The bass pedal changes to the dominant giving it an unresolved feel. I added 3 samba instruments in the section: caixa, repique de anel, and repique de mão. These were edited to sound more like swishing wave, so if it doesn't sound like super clear, tight percussion, this is why. The groove carries us to the ending with variations in the bass. Slowly the synthesizer reverberates more and more to give that diving feeling until ending on a single, reverberated, open piano chord. What would it be like to dive into Zora's Domain? This track demonstrates just that. An ecstatic dive into the vast, serene freshwaters of the domain. Games & Sources Game: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Release Date: 1998 Composer: Koji Kondo Source Tunes: "Zora's Domain", "Title Theme" Source Links: 1. "Zora's Domain" 2. "Title Theme"

Original Decision Artist Name: Bluelighter Hi OCR, Here is a new version of my orchestral arrangement of “Madam Boss Fight” from Remember me. Last decision is here : https://ocremix.org/community/topic/54110 Main upgrade: Review of instruments, attack or position in bars, to make them sound more in rhythm Better samples for strings arpeggios (pt2) and better humanization on these (notably by reinforcing notes on beats) Low quick notes at pt5 cleaner (low brass and low strings) Roles of instruments on different parts clearer : pt2 & 3 arpeggios in background, idem for high quick notes at pt 5c Reduction of some accents (notably transition pt2-pt3) to get a better balance Enjoy, Guillaume BREAKDOWN Part 1: 0’00 intro soft -> based on the melody at 2’16 – 2’38 wink to rhythm effect -> based on 3’00 – 3’10 Part 2: a) 0’26 : strings arpeggios -> based on 0’00 – 0’20 b) 0’37: addition of French Horn as a melody -> based on 1’13 – 1’50 Part 3: 0’50 arpeggios continue and brass play the melodic line -> based on 0’20 – 0’52 Part 4: -> based on 1’13 – 1’50 a) 1’20 : bass by strings, some dissonant effects with winds and xylophone b) 1’37 : addition of the melody by celesta -> based on 0’20 – 0’52 Part 5: -> based on 3’55 – 4’30 a) 1’57 rhyme elements by brass -> based on 3’55 – 4’20 b) 2’20 Reminder of the melody presented in intro ->based on 2’16 – 2’38 c) 2’30 transposition with dissonant orchestra effects -> based on 4’20 – 4’30 Part 6: 2’45 -> based on 5’10 – 5’30 Part 7: 3’07 variation on part 5 -> based on 3’55 – 4’20 Part 8: 3’20 soft, reminder of the melody played in part 3 -> based on 0’20 – 0’52 Games & Sources Remember me & Madam Boss Fight

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Artist Name: Seth Skoda 2016: I was already making beats while renting a room in a boarding house. Dude in another room said I should make Death Egg Zone into a beat. So I did. Started the intro with Lollipop by Lil Wayne as the style base. Mixing was a hot mess, but mission accomplished regardless. Fast forward to 2024: I hear a song that blows me away with its retro vibe and use of FM synthesizers: Million Dollar Baby by Tommy Richman. Like, this beat is fire. Best hip-hop/R&B I've heard in a very long time. I start working on a SEGA Genesis version of the song (for my YouTube channel). I upload a demo of the cover as a short. Mid-2025: I get an overnight job, which gives me more time to work on music. So, I'm doing stuff, resub High Voltage, get rejected. Meh, I'll get it next time. Then, something clicks in my head to completely redo my remix of Death Egg Zone. But this time, I'll use Million Dollar Baby as the style base. I can literally hear it in my head. I get to work on it and post a demo in the OCR Discord 2 hours later. Other people there approve. Some number of hours of work later, here we are. I hope y'all enjoy this. BTW a little inspiration to do this based on Cannon Fodder "Cannon Straits" and Sonic Colors "Everybody Wants To Rule The Wisps" which are also style-based remixes. Games & Sources Source tune is Death Egg Zone Act 1 from Sonic & Knuckles. I believe this one was written by Howard Drossin like other music in the game.

Artist Name: ThePlasmas One of my favs from Altered Beast, a game that I played a lot when I was a child at the local arcade. I tried to do a straight-to-the-face rock song, including some harmonies, guitar soplos and a very powerful drum beat, that's how imagined the ost if a rock band played those songs live. Games & Sources Source: Altered Beast, SEGA Platform: Arcade OG Track Name: Closed In Upon Me / Swamp & Palace Theme (Round 2 & Round 5) Composer: Tohru Nakabayashi Link to OG song:

Artist Name: CrazyGroupTrio I tried to capture the feel of the game Clock Tower and using the fairly simple song Cradle Under the Star, making the arrangement simultaneously upbeat and haunting by mixing orchestral sounds with synth, and using some samples from the original game. Games & Sources Cradle Under the Star from the Super Famicom game Clock Tower. Music is composed by Kōji Niikura.

Artist Name: Ridiculously Garrett Source Tune: "Katamari Stars" Composer: Hideki Tobeta Release Date: March 18, 2004 This song plays in the Constellation menu of Katamari Damacy. It's a dubiously simple tune. However, when you break down each melodic idea and motif, there really is quite a lot of material to use. This arrangement is designed in the boom bap style, others may call it simply 90s hip hop or jazz rap. I'm a very large fan of specifically East Coast hip hop from the 90s and its many artists, like A Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, Big L, Lord Finesse (from D.I.T.C.), etc. This style sees heavy use of jazz record samples. The following arrangement contains no samples from actual jazz records. It is arranged more with a "live" jazz quartet setting in mind. Instead, the arrangement contains a mixture of MIDI controlled virtual instruments via Bitwig Studio's sound library and drum, vocal, and saxophone samples from Erik Jackson's "Fat Pack": https://hiphopdrumsamples.com/products/erik-jackson-fat-pack?_pos=1&_sid=45e126cd3&_ss=r I've decided to title this track "Cosmic Knowledge" as a common phrase in 90s hip hop is "dropping knowledge." Basically meaning "imparting truth or wisdom." This track does not follow the original arrangement section for section. Instead I opted for an ABACDA format. There is vinyl noise in the background - this is intentional and not a defect in audio quality or rendering. I start off with a bass line which you do not hear in the original composition. I decide to then separate the original introduction into 3 separate melodies at 00:22. You hear the guitar arpeggio in the A section, and I've designed it to be a record scratch part in line with the style. Accompanying it is a single saxophone note - this type of saxophone sampling is heard all throughout 90s hip hop. This plays for 8 bars and then goes into the B section, where we hear the two other melodies. Return to A section at 01:30. Then in the C section at 01:55 we the get the main melody twice. Bass line changes in line with harmony. The D section at 02:40 carries us into the climax accompanied by a vocal sample which I have applied rhythmic auto pan and record scratch. We return to the A section at 03:48 where we finally the melodies of the A and B section. One final refrain with saxophone and piano taken to a final lone vibraphone chord at 04:34. Arrangement follows a philosophy of "keep it moving." I strove to change the melodies/instrumentation about every 8 bars. This pulls from class arranging techniques of 1950s "hollywood music" from the likes of Paul Weston. Drums remain consistent throughout with various fills, though not copy and pasted. Each section recorded individually. Same goes for piano backing. Bass line is copy and pasted, however, I feel this is important to keep the style grounded as there usually isn't much variation in this regard. Lastly, piece is pitched down to -0.22 cents. Because vibes. Please enjoy. 🙂 Games & Sources Game: Katamari Damacy Source:

I got to sit in on BrOA listening and sharing thoughts in person with Hemo about this one during VGMCon, which was an awesome moment I was honored to witness. Needed to give some distance on this one to better wrap my head around the source, but Hemo explained it for me, and after listening to it again, I'm cool on the source usage. I read through everyone's POVs, and I'm surprised that only Emu a little and Wake touched on where I felt the main issue was, which was the drums, namely the writing. They felt stilted and bland, and lacked synergy with the other strong instrumentation (both programmed and performed). I can hear why some Js thought the reverb/effects were too much; wasn't ideal, but didn't do anything to hurt the track, IMO. I also had 0 issues with the trumpet mixing relative to any other part-writing. The piano writing was an excellent touch throughout, and I really liked the contrast of the synth lead at 1:23 handling the melody compared with TSori in the previous iteration; great contrast, and I thought the dynamics of that worked very well. Also liked the shift in energy at 1:56; the bass kicks were providing some good heft, though the other occasional drum beats still felt vanilla. Not sure if there was round-robin action going on with those drums either; even if there was, it didn't sound like it from what I could tell. Weird lil' sample retriggering thing at 3:19 that would be nice to iron out, but wasn't a big deal. Nice approach to the theme, TSori's performance was strong, the piano stuff (including ambient noise from movement) and synth writing were all good, and the shift at 1:56 was a personal highlight. I get why this has YESs, and if anything, I'd think my issues would be in the minority and that the other NOs have weird reasons for NOing, but here we be. :-D So this is where I'm unhelpful. The other NOs brought up mixing stuff that I felt was overwrought and overstated, stuff where I agree with pixelseph was a feature, not a bug. I'm not sure what the other Js expected from the energy level here, but I thought the overall dynamics were fine. But for me, the drumbeats have a static, bland, plodding feel to them that's undermining the otherwise solid energy here. There's a rigidness to their writing/timing that's not clicking here, so this would need to be reworked somehow to not sap verve away from the overall presentation. To me, this is 85% of the way there and the other writing and production choices don't need to be touched. Eino Keskitalo's "Sadevakio" is such a great example of a track with mechanical timing that still sounds very fluid and expressive, including his beats. I'm sorry that I can't better articulate it, because it'll sound like I'm saying the energy level needs to be picked up/ramped up, when it's more about the fluidity and flow of the drumming, not the speed and activity. If this doesn't make it as is, you're more than capable of groking something from checking out that piece to level up the drums here. NO (resubmit)

Not the worst samples in the world for a quick mockup, Hupusu, but sending a 26-second ringtone isn't a fully developed arrangement by any stretch. :-D If interested, develop it into a full arrangement and see what you can do about improving the instrumentation quality. For being a quick hit of the theme, it's a nice genre transformation. Hit the Workshop forums and our Discord if you're genuinely curious at making complete songs. NO

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