OceansAndrew

a really well done mix, with a great texture. The melody on it's own isn't super hooky, but when combined with a nice soundscape, it really appeals to me. The snare is a bit too hardcore for the track, and the samples are showing their age a bit (though that guitar sample still sounds pretty great), but overall this is a really charming and well done mix. Recommended for all, be sure to check this one out.

samples are pretty lofi, but treated in a way to really work. I was enjoying the triplet feel on this, and though i am not incredibly well-versed in the earthbound soundtrack, I enjoyed this mix. Nice work!

smooth and chill, floatin' up there in the clouds. Nice expansion of the original, takes a lot of additional risks that pay off. Good soloing, and while the production isn't astounding, it works well enough.

I agree with just about every choice made on this- the original melody is so good that it's best to super-embellish it while keeping it mostly intact. Great attention to detail here, some really excellent ideas, all packed together with a great groove, and an excellent source. Fantastic, I love it.

Lot of cool percussion in here, and the choir samples that were hard panned were pretty sweet. I wish certain aspects hit a little harder, like the kick, and some of the synths, but overall, great stuff. the counter melodies and crazy creative touches really make this stand out and it's got enough detail packed in to make each repeated loop of the track reveal something new. Good stuff.

Sure is a busy life. I enjoyed the quirkiness and creativity of this one; though the production is weakz. I think some reviewer dudes are a little overly harsh considering the intent of the mixer of having some fun.

I agree, i'm not hearing Ronfaure in the slightest. What it sounds like the most to me, is the forest temple with very minor changes, like a little soloish run. It has plenty of other things added, but nothing that really embellishes the source itself. It's used as a backdrop for original writing, which can be good, but when the source is just a few chords, it becomes a stratch. The sounds used are lofi, but not really offensive. I might even say a little bland, though it was nice that you omitted the annoying noise that reoccurs in the forest temple source. There is a distinct lack of sonic depth, however, and it detracts from the overall presentation. Overall I just see the arrangement as being too similar to the forest temple. There is some decent embellishment, but besides the chords, it doesn't use any other source. sorry dude. no

courtesy of the track mastermind, and all-around good guy, Jay: Alright...where to start. This track, Zeromus, was originally conceived by me and OA as the finale track to the FF4 project Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption. And later blew up to be something well beyond either of our control. It is a result of all the people around us in the project and actually came together rather haphazard. We never could have imagined a track like this from the start. We started only knowing we wanted it to be faster and more intense than the original and were already planning on having Justin (Nutritious) come in for the orchestra. I originally had the idea of just a bombastic instrumental but when Andrew (OA) started talking about using vocals is when it took off. We first had the idea for just a female vocalist and came up with the concept to have the lead be the embodiment of the prayers from the storyline in the game. Naturally we now needed the voices of the prayers, and who better to enlist than all the members of the project as a collective choir. I went and tracked down every single person from the project to enlist. About 22 people were able to come through and I am proud to say I used every track given to me from all the singing (Larry the Liontamer included) to the spoken word section during the female entrance. In a rough order of who supplied the most material the choir is made up of: Children of the Monkey Machine, DragonAvenger, Vampire Hunter Dan, Moonlapse, audio fidelity, OA, The Prophet of Mephisto, bustatunez, Mazedude, Level 99, Liontamer, theultravisitor, Loka Lafevre, Nathan Rich, Long Dao, Wiesty, Rozovian, Hy Bound, AeroZ, Abadoss, Avaris, and Ramaniscence. We were able to get my composition teacher’s wife actually who came though and did a fantastic job as the lead female. Marcin Bela, my teacher was a big help for the song who guided me with lots of feedback and was the one who suggested the key change. How the male lead came about was kinda by accident. He showed me these tracks where he was screaming his guts and I took note of that later coming to the realization that this track could use a real Zeromus antagonist to heighten the drama and intensity. And the track from there became the rock opera epic that it would become. I ended up taking over the direction of the track and laying down a bare-bones template for OA and Nutritious to follow. They did a fantastic job really bringing everything out I hoped for for the track. Andrew (OA) helped out with a lot of the arrangement, did all of the guitar work, and together, he and I wrote the lyrics inspired from the game. I generally wrote the female and male leads, and Andrew wrote the background Zeromus narrative and choir parts. Connor (Cyril the Wolf) improv’d the breakdown section where he loses it and helped out with a line or two of the other parts. I wanted it to be fresh for him to do that improv so I actually begged him to wait months and months to not listen to the track and lose the feeling of it being a fresh take. Thanks Connor! I am also rather thankful for Justin not killing me with all the tempo changes and modulations that made his job a complete nightmare. You did an awesome job buddy. The plot here is simple if you know the game. Cecil and crew do battle with the ultimate bad guy who is living on their moon, that is the most hateful son of a gun around - Zeromus. He actually is killed before their eyes but is brought back to life; which is where the lyrical narrative from Zeromus comes from in the whispers and background screaming parts. In the story, everyone is knocked down and it seems like all hope is lost but what ends up happening is everyone on Earth is wishing and praying that the group will defeat this evil. It is their words of encouragement that ultimately guide the group to victory and which is the premise for our arrangement. We have the lead female (embodiment of the prayers) enter accompanied by the choir’s words of inspiration to make the connection of who she is. From there we have the narrative being delivered by the choir and Zeromus who actually goes back in forth with the ones fighting for the future of the planet. We have a section where the two trade off with different levels of intensity with their backing arrangement signaling their contrast. The chorus comes in as an actual battleground section where the instruments enter together and fight for dominance. The first time around we find Zeromus quite powerful and unrelenting. Which gives way later to his own breakdown in our breakdown. We then take a moment to reflect with the choir almost losing the hope to go on. But find the strength and from there ramp back up for battle and in the 2nd chorus to find Zeromus losing control and ultimately the battle. The original source is littered throughout every section of the mix. The Breakdown where Zeromus losing it being all based on expanding that awesome dissonant syncopated section from the source. The only original section comes in the chant which is actually a borrowed section from OA’s previous track ‘Eminence Gris’ uniting the two together but still keeping with the motif of the source bassline through the progression. The OCReMix edit sadly needed to be cut short for the sake of quality and lost this section but it is included on the final release. The mix was quite complex with about 255 choir takes maxing out my logic session and another 100+ tracks counting busses in the final mix. I tried my best but was fortunate to be able to get some help from zircon in the final stages. I sent him all the tracks with my volume automation and he tweaked things and mastered the track to get things to where you hear it now. Thank you Andy. Other people to thank are Gary Earl and Audix for their awesome feedback that helped the track and for their stabs at mastering the track which were all fantastic in my opinion. I really think this is the only track in the world that is actually deserving of something this ambitious and it is again the result only because of the people around me. This track has been a wonderful testament to what the community can accomplish together and I am so thankful for everyone; it became ultimately what it wanted to be and was out of my hands. I would also suggest checking out the ff4 website for some extra bonus tracks inspired by this mix. Justin (Nutritious) is doing an arrangement focusing on the orchestra and voices with him actually taking over the part of Zeromus in an operatic way. And I am putting together an atonal version where all the parts will be played with just grand pianos. CotMM is also putting together an extended version of his take on the source. Who knows what else may come up. The entire list of people connected to this track are as follows: audio fidelity, Nutritious, OA, lisabela, Cyril the Wolf, Children of the Monkey Machine, DragonAvenger, Vampire Hunter Dan, Moonlapse, The Prophet of Mephisto, bustatunez, Mazedude, Level 99, Liontamer, theultravisitor, Loka Lafevre, Nathan Rich, Long Dao, Wiesty, Rozovian, Hy Bound, AeroZ, Abadoss, Avaris, Ramaniscence, Marcin Bela, Gary Earl, Audix, and zircon Breakdown of credits: audio fidelity: arrangement, lyrics, drums, synths Nutritious: orchestra OA: guitar, arrangement, lyrics lisabela: female lead (prayer), and supporting female parts Cyril the Wolf: male lead (zeromus) Zeromus Choir: Children of the Monkey Machine, DragonAvenger, Vampire Hunter Dan, Moonlapse, audio fidelity, OA, The Prophet of Mephisto, bustatunez, Mazedude, Level 99, Liontamer, theultravisitor, Loka Lafevre, Nathan Rich, Long Dao, Wiesty, Rozovian, Hy Bound, AeroZ, Abadoss, Avaris, and Ramaniscence. special thanks: Marcin Bela, Gary Earl, Audix, and zircon

bada-bump! if there is any info I can convey to people to assist in their decision on here, feel free to ask. I'd vote on this but i can't.

Completely stellar arrangement, I was into this track from the get-go, and there was a ton of variation that kept the mix ever-evolving, and absolutely rockin. No complaints here in the slightest. Production is a bit mixed, with some sections sounding pretty good, and others being unbalanced. I think the reverb comment is relevant, and Zircon's EQ tips for the low end are spot on. The only sample that I personally feel absolutely needs improvement is the synth guitar that comes in later on, and that might be better served with an actual guitar player. If that's the route you want to go, hit me up, i'll totally rock out some chords for you; otherwise i'd say it's passable but not amazing. Overall really close, and I encourage you to fix up the few issues this has and resub- it's way close. no, please resub

I love when people have the attitude of being willing to learn. 9/10 of the time, these are the people who really succeed. My only really big sticking point with this mix is the string sample, especially when it's exposed in the beginning. the sound is grainy, and the attack is weaksauce. I agree with Vinnie that the arrangement could stand a little more variation, but there is definite changeups in the backing track, as far as rhythms and textures. The fact that almost every instrument is always playing does sortof blend the sections together a bit much, but the rest of the arrangement is great. Production was overall pretty good in a sortof indie rock vibe, I was definitely feeling it, though I do think boosting the higher frequencies a bit certainly wouldn't hurt to add a bit more sparkle. Drums were nice, and live bass really made it feel lively. Overall this was a really good sub, and just needs some minor tweaking and i'd happily pass it. I really encourage you to tidy this up a bit, it's really close. If you have any specific questions, hit me up with a PM on OCR or AIM. no, please resub

A fun and playful arrangement of the theme, this is pretty great stuff. Velocities are a little rigid, but everything about this was really well done, the youtube link with the sheet music was a nice touch. Solos were great, and the connection to the source was pretty apparent almost all the way through. You definitely made this one your own. Production was clean, and if this had more velocities in it, it'd be even stronger. I just wish the final chord resolved a bit more, but it's still easily passable to me. Great work. yes

Completely intense arpeggios here, I tried to keep up, but just couldn't maintain the endurance for the entire thing. Awesome syncopation in some sections where the bass is completely rocking out. I guess that could be said for the entire track the entire time, where there are brief moments to take a rest during transitions, before jumping back into the fray. Awesome stuff here, definitely recommended.

thanks for the heads up- i gotta get this

when does this come out? i thought it wasn't until next month?

This is ridiculously awesome. It threw me a bit at first because the great syncopated bit from the source wasn't present, but there was so much other new stuff going on that even a line i'd have normally feature in my mixes was gone, it worked really well. Halftime sections were absolutely brutal, I loved it. Production just made it all that much better. Crisp and punchy, with some great slightly distorted drum sounds. yes

Some pretty rockin ideas- i loved the sword slash sound as a snare, and the other effects added were pretty excellent as well. The slowdown transition was good, but not seamless, i'd have added a more pronounced slowdown. As far as arrangement, I agree that it's more vanilla than i'm used to hearing from halc. There's a fair amount of personalization. via arpeggios and some sfx and harmonies, and the new bits fit well, but yeah, not halc's best. yes (borderline)

Production on this was really nice- cool sounds that worked well together, and nice crisp drums. Arrangement was good, with some nice variation, but for every move that was made that improved the mix, I think one was made that brought it down. The section where the 8 note riff goes into a half time feel was really cool, and I liked that a lot, and a lot of the crazy super-delayed saw pads were great. I do think the track went too long for OCR, as I think it was abut played out by the 2/3 mark, and the vocal samples were overused. I think a few of them are fine, but some just seem like they were added to pad out the track running time. I'd suggest making a 'radio edit' of the track that trimmed it down a bit, and removed some of the vocal samples. It's close, but I feel the weaknesses outweigh the strengths. no, please resub

kicked up the BG elements in the verses, quantized my opening hi hat, and adjusted a few other levels.

Everyone should listen to Rama because he is right.

These guys definitely know how to rock- a totally badass track. Those triplets in the rhythm guitar at 1:33 are so great. Definitely a \m/ moment. I hope a lot of people check out this track despite it not being FF or Chrono. It Uematsu, so it might get the attention it deserves. Either way, way to pwn, guys, totally excellent track. Mighty indeed.

This mix has a nice atmosphere, i liked a lot of the synth choices, and the piano cut pretty well. Interesting of how an ambient track can get kindof rocked out a little, and there's no melody to speak of, but it makes decent background music. I'm inclined to agree with DJP that it's a poor choice for a song to remix, but it was well done at least.

Crazy mechanical, but that lends itself well to the complete mania this song produces. The updated version is quite a bit better, but i sortof prefer the original lead synth. Cool to see Rama had a history before he hit it big and started living large as a member of the Scuba Divers. If you just ate a ton of sugar and need a soundtrack to go nuts to, it doesn't get much better than this one.

Some pretty cool concepts, and I dig the beat, but I don't feel they always gelled, mainly due to a lack of bass in a lot of frequencies. Some bass synth comes in at some point, but it sounds like it needs more. Flute solo is nice stuff. Samples sound a bit dated, but nothing kills it. A decent mix.

wow, and I thought *I* was a bad rapper; these canned vocalists sound pretty bad. :/ Vinnie hit a lot of points pretty well, especially regarding the percussion and the mechanical piano. SOme of the synth stuff was nice, but besides the vocals, there wasn't near enough arrangement, and it ended on a bit of a weak note. Keep at it though, there was definitely some stuff in this mix I liked, specifically those synths. no