DragonAvenger

Wes and Andrew really nailed this. So happy to hear you improving your productions, as your arrangements are usually excellent to begin with! As mentioned above, the string stabs are probably one of the things that stick out the most as sounding fake and needing some improvement. I also felt like the bass didn't quite fit as well into the rest of the instruments as well, but this is still a nitpick among nitpicks. Nice work, keep improving that production! YES

Andrew's assessment is pretty spot on. I definitely liked where you took this, and the overall pace is executed pretty well. I think it would have been nice to have a bit more of a changeup in the backing patterns and drums, but the piece still manages to keep interest, and seems shorter than the 4 minutes that it is. Kind of a silly name, though YES

Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Dj Mystix, Princess Clairey Your real name Mansoor Nazar, Claire Yaxley Your userid 11757 (DjMystix), 47187 (Princess Clairey) Submission Information: Name of game(s) arranged: XenoSaga (Epsiode 1) / Legend of Dragoon / Xenoblade / Super Street Fighter II Name of arrangement: Unbreakable Heart Name of individual song(s) arranged: XenoSaga - Episode 1: kokoro Legend of Dragoon : If you still believe Xenoblade : Gaur Plains (night) Super Street Fighter : Cammy's Theme Composer(s) : XenoSaga : Yasunori Mitsuda, Yuki Kajiura Legend of Dragoon : Takeo Miratsu, Dennis Martin Xenoblade : Yoko Shimomura, ACE+, Manami Kiyota, Yasunori Mitsuda Super Street Fighter : Isao Abe, Syun Nishigaki System : XenoSaga : Playstation 2 Legend of Dragoon : Playstation Xenoblade : Wii Super Street Fighter : Arcade + multiple consoles Sources breakdown: 00:00 - 01:23 - Original Writing 01:24 - 02:07 - XenoSaga (Kokoro) 02:08 - 02:49 - Legend of Dragoon (If you still believe) 02:50 - 03:31 - XenoBlade (Gaur Plains - Night) 03:31 - 04:04 - XenoSaga (Kokoro) 04:05 - 04:57 - Super Street Fighter (Cammy's Stage) 04:58 - 07:30 - Legend of Dragoon (If you still believe) Sources: XenoSaga - Spirit [kokoro]: Legend of Dragoon - If you still believe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvDfIcMI3M4 Xenoblade - Gaur Plains (night): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bc7ivSn7sI Super Street Fighter - Cammy: OCR Workshop link: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?p=815130#post815130 Comments (Claire): When DjMystix asked me to do a second vocal submission, I literally jumped at the chance. His work always has a professional sound to it and he knows how to blend music and vocals without one being way more dominating over the other. I also knew that he would expect nothing but the best from me and would not let me be lazy! I have to admit, mixing two songs together in a kind of Glee style mash up seems very ambitious, but he's totally pulled it off in my opinion. I very much enjoyed providing my vocals for this track and being giving the opportunity to sing things my way and put my own spin on them. If I say so myself, the end result is pretty amazing! Comments (Dj Mystix): For eternity (probably eversince I saw first trailer of XenoSaga back then), I thought that "Kokoro" (XenoSaga) and "If you still believe" (LoD) can be mixed into one track and even the lyrics would make sense. So here I am trying to re-imagine both songs into one. I started the song with some original writing to set the mood of the song. I could write original stuff between vocal breaks as well but that's not what I usually do so xenoblade and cammy are just supporting elements here I wouldn't even call it a remix of Xenoblade or Street Fighter. They are only mentioned to ensure credit is given where it is due. Both Xenoblade and Street Fighter are there to keep the listener's interest level up (since the mix is 7.3 minutes long). This is still mainly a XenoSaga/Legend of Dragoon remix. Claire, once again, has done an amazing job. Her vocals made the song 10 times better than what I could do without them. She went an extra mile to record supporting elements (adlib etc.). I love how she improvises a lot and always try to make the song her own. I, myself is surprised how well the two songs (from totally different games) work together. We hope you enjoy this track. Thanks for listening One special mention of Claire's comments in the workshop thread: "I'm adding this one to my mp3 as I want my baby to hear my singing way before she is born... that's right, I am pregnant! My first baby, a little girl, is due in September. I can't wait!! I need to do more singing so she can get used to it. :D" INCREDIBLY HONORED!!

I see what they did thar - Deia Remixers: JoePotato28, TheGuitahHeroe Song remixed: "Final Ganon Battle" ( )Game: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Remix Link: Remix title: Ganondorphine JP28: I've known Jamison since we both started remixing, and it's about time we collabed on something. Anyways, I made the House sections, trying to give them a Daft Punk sort of feel, while Jamison worked on the Dubstep sections, giving it a swdngvksjdbv sort of feel. I wrote a large portion of the song, while Jamison worked his magic with the production. so yah thats it TGH: First off I gotta say, Joe is a damn genius. He has a serious knack for taking weird sources, and making them even more weird, and in an AWESOME way. Kudos to him for arranging most of this mix. The workload pretty much goes like this: of the three sections (pretty distinguishable), it went Joe, me, and Joe. The project was a few months in the making and Joe and I are both pretty proud of the result. It’s by far the weirdest remix I’ve ever taken a part in making, haha! Hope you guys dig!

Contact Information Your ReMixer name PsyNES & Elrinth Your real name Jari & Nicklas Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile PsyNES = 20309 Elrinth = 23898 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged Mega Man 2 Name of arrangement Acid Flashbacks (MM2 Flash Man ReMix) Name of individual song(s) arranged Flash Man Stage Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc. Elrinth picked up one of my unfinished remixes and merged it together. Then he send it back to me and I got pepped and made the rest of the tune awesome. We made this with Renoise and this is a taste of what's to come under 2012. ----------

Contact Name: Tyler Gill Email: Forum Userid: 24506 Submission Game: Super Mario 64 (Super Mario Bros.) Arrangement Title: Through the Bay Songs: - Dire, Dire Docks (Super Mario 64) - Overworld Theme (Super Mario Bros.) - Water Theme (Super Mario Bros.) (Though it may have been transformed out of recognizability) Comments Dire, Dire Docks has always been one of my favorite songs. But the level that I knew the music from was really Jolly Roger Bay, which was the first level in Super Mario 64 I ever played. Through the Bay is inspired by that level. The idea was to have the song journey through the different sections of the level. Originally, there were going to be three sections - one for the beach and dock, one for the water, and a final one for the cave. Each of these sections would blend the Jolly Roger Bay theme with the traditional Mario theme for each of those three locales (Overworld, Underwater, Underground). Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out a good way to get the Underground Theme to fit into the Jolly Roger Bay theme, but each of the other two themes made it in. Source Breakdown 0:00 - 0:16 (Original) 0:16 - 0:38 SMB: Overworld Theme 0:38 - 0:56 SM64: Dire, Dire Docks (A Theme) 0:56 - 1:25 SMB: Overworld Theme 1:25 - 1:39 SM64: Dire, Dire Docks (Intro) 1:39 - 2:11 SM64: Dire, Dire Docks (A Theme) 2:11 - 2:31 (Original) 2:31 - 2:56 SM64: Dire, Dire Docks (B Theme) 2:56 - 3:07 SMB: Water Theme (influenced by, at least...) 3:07 - 4:29 SM64: Dire, Dire Docks (A Theme) 4:29 - 4:37 SMB: 1up Sources SM64: Dire, Dire Docks ( )- There were three main themes from the source that I used, and this is where they are in the YouTube link: 0:00 - 0:21 Intro 0:21 - 0:41 A Theme 0:41 - 0:56 B Theme (I sincerely hope you know these themes. They're here just for completeness' sake.) SMB: Overworld Theme ( )SMB: Water Theme ( )

ReMixer Name: AlanGee15 Name: Alan Garcia Website: http://www.youtube.com/alangee15 UserID: 49349 Game: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior Arrangement name: "Blanka in Brasil" Song name: Blanka Theme Composer(s): Yoko Shimomura, Isao Abe, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi Comments: It has been 20 years since the release of SF II: The World Warrior and to this day I have always sang and shared my passion about the music composed by the three composers involved in the game. The one I have always been most passionate about is "Blanka's Theme". I always dreamed of hearing this song arranged in a very African/South American way. This tune was written with the time signature in 4/4, but syncopates to a 3/4 time by use of triplets. I knew doing this would really bring out the beautiful melody I love and also make room for some solid percussion as the foundation to the tune. Taking the melody are nylon guitar and piano. A synth voice is used to support the acoustic instruments. Traditionally, the foundation of this song is the bassline. But since the bassline really was written as a support to the unique chords of the song by holding a pedal to the root note, I gave it to an African instrument known as the 'Kora' and had it be an arpeggiation of sorts. Thank you for giving all VGM composers/arrangers/remixers the opportunity to spread their passion and an opportunity to be heard. ----------

This is a pretty cool source, even though I only know it through Project Majestic Mix's Trance Album. Your arrangement has some personal twists and overall the arrangement is changed from the original, but it remains fairly close to the source, both sonically and in terms of the melody lines. I think Andrew hit it on the head that it's obvious that you have some talent here, but haven't honed it into our standards quite yet. Hopefully some finessing will do the trick, and I'd like to hear this again from you! NO (resubmit, please)

There's really little to add to what Andrew has already said here. I do like some of the personalization you added to this track, and I think you could definitely take it further. Overall the soundscape needs to be expanded and improved on more, and it will take some work in that aspect. I recommend listening to some trance artists that you like and hearing how they fill out their sounds and make everything so big. NO

Timestamping this one to my tastes of source I count. 0:11-0:12 (I know, lol) 0:36-1:09 1:28-1:52 1:55-2:02 2:12-2:19 2:30-3:03 Larry would probably count less than that, as some of those connections are a bit tenuous at times, but I'm comfortable saying this is squeaking by the 50% mark here. I felt like the arrangement overall was a little understated here, and the relative shortness + the understated made me wanting more by the end. That being said, the arrangement has some nice countermelodies and the arrangement did a lot of expansion and interpretation. The overall laid-back feel was a nice departure from the original as well. Production is clear, and overall the levels were pretty good. I'd have suggested bringing the piano back just a touch, and adjusting the reverb just a little to get it to fit into the soundscape better, but that's a pretty small nitpick. I wasn't really digging some of the whooshy sound effects you used; they encroached a bit too much into the arrangement for me and didn't really add anything when they did. Overall I felt that the soundscape did also feel a bit same-y throughout the entire piece, but I also didn't really mind that as much. It's a lot of little things, and I don't feel like they really add up to a NO here. I'll also admit to not being blown away (mostly due to the sparser use of the source), but I think there's a lot that people will enjoy out of this mix, and am OK with giving this a nod. Good luck on the rest of the judging! YES (borderline)

Awesome! I am actually in the process of making some OCR craft stuffs myself. Keep tuned on that, but I can also show off something I made a while ago that I haven't used much: You can also see it's application in my signature (for now until I change it because I'm lazy).

Fun track, and a good collab between all three of you. The intro was kinda silly, and I think it felt a little forced, but aside from that, this track was a lot of fun to listen to. Overall it's pretty chill, but it does a lot with the themes that I could hear, and I'm diggin it overall. YES

I think Justin pretty much hit all the points I would want to in this. The sounds overall are servicable, but they definitely could use some tlc to bring more life to them. Aside from the drums specifically, I'd look into adding some more humanization to the parts. The arrangement is fairly simple and gets repetitive pretty quickly. There's a lot you can do to switch around the parts and melodic lines, and maybe consider fooling around with the harmony or adding some counter-melodies. And I'd pull the vocal clips You've got a start here, but I won't lie; this is going to take some work. I'd suggest hitting up our WIP forums to get some more advice on ways to bring this up to par. NO

Nice main source to pick, it's super emotive. Right off I'm feeling like the intro really isn't connected to your main piece, and feels overall extraneous. I can see what you were trying for in terms of a dramatic opening, but I'd like to see it have a better tie-in to what you are playing for the rest of what's going on. After that you open into the song, and the arrangement is really close to the original for an entire run through the source. It's a common formula to start close to the source and add more touches as you go on, but I think you're staying too close here for too long, and overall the track needs more to be done sooner to break away from the cover-syndrome. Once the second time hits through there's a lot more interesting stuff going on, and I think you get a nice sound and emotion going on. I'm a little confused that your submission letter says you wanted to incorporate "several other melodies", when the only other one you made us aware of is the other Not Tomorrow. I'm also a bit confused on your comment that you used other versions of this song. If that's the case and none of this writing is yours originally, we'd definitely have to no-go it as it's not your own interpretation of the piece, but someone elses. Regardless, as-is this needs some adjustment on the arrangement before it is viable for passing, and hopefully we can get some clarification on your comments as well. NO (resubmit) A random catch, but there's a sour note at 3:12-:13. It's not super noticeable, but after a few listen-throughs I'm hearing it

The source was really nice to listen to! Definitely a good find here. The opening of your mix had me really excited, because it starts out with a creative take on the source, and had a lot of promise for what was to come. I think for the most part you hold up on that promise by creating a sweeping orchestral arrangement that holds a lot of emotion in it. The arrangement was well-personalized, and the overall flow worked very nicely. I felt the ending didn't quite hold up to the rest, but still got the job done. Production overall feels a bit muddy at times, and I think if there's anywhere you need to improve on it would be there. That being said, I don't think it's a dealbreaker for this track, but something to think about for the future. I like this a lot, and am glad to see people reaching into the world of ios games! YES*Changed below*

The track is a lot of fun to listen to, but I think there are a few things that are preventing this from passing, and I'm not sure if they are fixing or worth fixing for what you have going here. First is that the arrangement generally is either extremely close to the original, or too far away to be recognizable as an arrangement of the theme. The middle section where the theme does come back in has some nice mixing between the theme and your own variation to it, but it doesn't stick around long. The other big issue is that the theme is played on a sound that is pretty close to the original, to the point that calling it an upgrade is a bit of a stretch. Don't get me wrong, the sound works for what you're going for in this song, but looking at how close the melody is played along with the sound used just puts it too close to the original (when it is playing the theme). It could be argued that the mix is pretty sparse as well, but for what you are going for I do think it works in context. I do think this is a fun song to listen to, and what you are going for is achieved well here, but I don't think it's a match for OC ReMix. I didn't hit on the fact that you mention a lot of references to other songs as well, which puts this further away from our standards. I hope you write something else in the future that will be a better fit and sub it, this was pretty cool as-is! NO

Man, I am SO torn on this. The first half is definitely very conservative, and if it weren't for the second half being truly excellent this would be an easy call. Like Andrew, I do think that this does get the job done, but if it turned out to be a no and others ask you to cut down a bit on the conservative first half I wouldn't mind. Good luck on the rest of the votes! YES (borderline)

I'm definitely in

I'll call it a personal preference, but I wasn't really feeling the combination of the two sources much at all. The transition into Flashman stuck out particularly as awkward for me, but overall I don't think the two are a good match. I'm curious what the third judge thinks, but I will say that aside from the transition and some of the repetition that I'm hearing, I won't let that aspect of the mix vs. my personal feeling hold it back. However, like Wes has said, the sounds are just very basic right now, and the mix is definitely being held back by them. I'd love to hear you reach out and get some new samples, free or otherwise, to expand your library and give you more to work with. I also think that you can finesse some of the parts to sound less mechanical as well. The percussion is a bit loop-heavy, and could have more fills and details to make them stand out. I'm with Wes on this one, it's just not where it needs to be right now. Sorry! NO (resubmit)

Thought about this one for a while. I think the arrangement is there, although it's not my favorite to listen to. The dubstep elements are mostly well-done, but I don't know how well it really fits into the arrangement. Regardless of that, I thought the arrangement does have some pretty good moments where the original gets a fresh light. Overall I think the song is strong enough to pass, although I'm curious what the other judges will have to say. Oh, except the ending cuts off suddenly. Gotta fix that. YES (conditional)

I voted, but it looks like you already hit your mark

This is a tough call overall. There is personalization to the mix, and it covers at least Noveria well (I'm having a tougher time connecting to Uncharted, but I do believe it's in there). I do think that this starts to stagnate after a bit, however, and could use something more varied to push the interest level up towards the end. I think even having more varied drumwork might be the key here for me. Other details, like having just a little bit of rhythmic variation on the bass would also help add to the intricacy of the piece. Also, having that background pattern change up, which might even be the root of the whole issue, now that I listen to it further. Production overall is pretty clean, although I think the bass might be a touch loud, and the backing piano a tad muddy as things really are moving. Personally, I think it's a close call, although I could see other judges being less in favor of the arrangement. I'm going to give this a resub, and hope you address the many small things that are adding up here. NO (resubmit)

Gotta say, I can see the other J's crits, but I think the bigger picture stands that it's still a pass in my book. YES

Cool source, and I like the idea behind what you're going for here. I don't think your execution is coming across as well, however. For starters, this is quite loud, and once it hits full volume, it stays there for almost the entire song. Bringing this down a couple of notches would be a good start, and having more variation in the sound levels will help keep things more interesting. Some other production issues I noticed were the opening having a rendering glitch, and a lot of the track feels very mechanically sequenced. Working on humanizing the parts will give you some more emotion in what's going on. The sounds in general are also a bit bland overall. Personally I wasn't feeling the soundscape as is, and would like you to experiment with some other instruments to see if things will mesh together better. The arrangement is very straightforward from the original. There is some expansion on the instruments and a bit on the drums, but it remains very close to the source and the repeat sounds almost identical to the first time through. When the piano came in at the end I was hoping that more would go on there and show some of the personalization you can add to the source; I was disappointed! More along the lines of what you started there would be a good start to adding your own voice to the melodies and getting closer to our standards. Cool Pokémon cameo, though. There's a lot to work on here, and I hope I didn't come across as too negative. I'd start working on your arrangement to make it more your own, and move from there to the production, where you can see where you might want to add or change instruments to get different sounds out of your ideas. Use our WIP forums for some more advice. Good luck! NO

Definitely a fun submission, I love how you worked with the upbeat feel of the original. Right away the bass sample stands out as mechanical due to it being on it's own. I'd love to have that humanized a bit to really start off the track on the right foot. Once other instruments kick in it's not an issue, but it's definitely exposed right at the beginning. In terms of the rest of the synths, I think everything is a bit generic, although the instruments are complimenting each other well. More variation and change-ups might be the thing that really helps keep the energy up, as the same soundscape started to wear on me. What's killing this dead is the arrangement. It is overall pretty coverish, but I did really like the subtle personalizations that you have on the melody line and other parts, but you follow the structure of the original exactly, and then everything repeats...twice. There's just not enough arrangement here for what we look for. As it stands, even if your mix only played through once, it would need more in terms of expanding on the melody, backing, or structure (or all three!) to get a pass. I do think you have a start here on some of the ideas you have to make it your own, and I think you can definitely take it further. Listen to some mixes recently posted and compare them to the original sources to get a feel for some ways those mixers have approached their sources. I'd also use our WIP boards to get some more feedback and advice. Good luck! NO