OceansAndrew

oh ho hoo, i don't hear anything klutzy about this playing! lololol Though it's a pretty basic theme and variations, the playing is excellent, and the sound is pretty good as well. The final movement was the most creative of the group, and threw in some nice rhythm changes. Not a groundbreaking mix, but very enjoyable.

Great stuff, both nuanced and powerful. The emotional range is great, and the balance is about perfect. The brass is great, and there are a ton of details packed in the background to support the melody. Nice source, excellent production of it, you can't go wrong.

Starting off smokey and subdued, but picking up and adding additional themes from the soundtrack later on, this is a pretty awesome mix. There's a nice use of pretty high quality samples, very tasteful and musical, and a lot of interpretation via counterpoint lines. When things get busier, the synthetic nature of the track is a little more apparent, but it's still good to go. I think if you really knew the soundtrack well, you'd get a lot of additional enjoyment out of this track; it's fun to hear the various motifs appear.

Seeing some of these reviews has sortof scared me into not wanting to hear this one... but here goes.. ... .. yes, this is pretty bad.

Someday I'm going to meet Dale North and give him a super enthusiastic high five, followed by a kind of awkward silence. The intro to this is beautiful. I love the piano sound, I love the backing strings, I love the percussive touches. I love the delicate nuances throughout. This is basically the perfect ballad sound for me, and one of my favorite mixes by Dale. It's inspired me (though probably not that obviously) in a lot of my own music, and I could (and have) listen to this track for hours on end. Absolutely love it.

1. Review every mix on the site before we hit remix 2000. 2. Be a good papa.

In this mix, the sound quality is lacking in some areas, but there are so many great surprises in it, with a ton of new chords- It gives the impression of a new song, and I think the new chord progressions work really well with the existing melody. The rhodes is great, and the solo violin is actually pretty good as well. Though it doesn't progress a ton, there is a lot of ground covered in this one, and if it would have had the production to back up the arrangement, this would have been a stand out classic. As is, it's still more than worth your time to check out.

Pretty split opinions on this one. I think a bit of humanization on the leads would make a world of difference in improving the sound of this. The sounds are well chosen and processed, but the percussion is wimpy, and the main melody and counterpoint is just so stiffly presented that it really holds this one back. I absolutely love the filtered pads, however; what a beautiful sound. The fact that it's tied to a great chord progression earns a big ol' ^__^ from me.

i'm checkin tis out- i'l let you know if i do any mixes with it.

not only does it rock, but youtube supports timestamps now! O_o

There are a few songs that got me into OCR, and this is the frontrunner, along with AE's Soap and Water, and Ziwtra's Willed Assault. Great synths chosen for this, and nice sections as well. There isn't a ton of additional material here, but it's such a great rendition of one of my favorite themes, for me personally it doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. Nostalgia bias +100 Disco Dan is my hero.

Beautiful work, but the clipping detracts a bit. Dynamics and the subtle ambient noise makes this a great piece. The samples are well used, and though the solo cello and some of the earlier brass was a little bit ragged in comparison, the flute solos and then the huge build at the end were awesome. There's a lot of subtleties to this one, and the additional parts and flow of the track are great. This is nice work.

A little too repetitive for me, but what is here is good. The track does progress texturally and there is a lot of arrangement personalization, but i'm not sure the source is melodically strong enough to support this style of mixing. Production is great, and i think the soundscape is great, but there really isn't a huge hook or anything. Good but not great stuff from the super-prolific AnSo.

This mix has a very interesting sound, with the synth that sometimes morphs into a guitar. The beat on this is really catchy, and though a little more separation between parts would have strengthened this, it's still an inspired sounding mix. I really like the melody on this one; it's cool and has good motion, and combined with a cool synth backing and a great beat, makes a pretty awesome mix. Recommended!

Snare is a bit too piercing, but otherwise this is a pretty slammin track. There isn't a huge melodic hook to grab me, but the rhythms are great, and the synths chosen are creative and cool. I love the distorted and gated synth, it adds an awesome texture to the proceedings, and has a really unique character to it. Melodically it repeats a lot, but there are a ton of other variations to keep things moving along and progressing, as well as some really cool transitions. Even the sound clips, which are normally frownworthy from me are mixed in a way as to not be distracting, but more like a rhythmic background element. I think the ending was a bit weak, and could have been perfect with a large build leading to the SFX outro that it had, but it wasn't so weak as to cripple the rest of the track. It took a few listens to really get into this one, but I can recommend it after closer inspection. Check it out, guys.

some of the transitions were a bit wonky, but this is some classy stuff. The quirkyness is obviously turning a few o fyou off, but at least you can recognize the quality. Personally I think this track is the bomb, and even though some sections sound a bit spastic with the samples used (second theme melody specifically), it's solid and cohesive. Nice slowdown and then the super strut groove for the closer. I always dig the craziness mazedude can kick out, and though some tracks grab me more than others, this is some distinctly classy stuff.

The mix starts out really weak, but I figured i'd listen all the way through, just to be fair, and i'm glad I did. Though the percussion is excessively loud and sounds to be clipping, the beat is hot, and the track works pretty well. What could use a little work is some humanization on the piano, harpsichord, and the contrapuntal synth. Not enough to kill the mix by any means, but it does make it sound a little dated.

Vintage Ryan8bit. This is before his tone got really good, and his production improved where it could really show it off. This is pretty muddy when everything is playing at once, but the arrangement is nice. I dig the slowdown and the general concept. A little too rough for me to really get into, but it's cool to see stuff from way back in the day. Seems to me that back then Ryan was singlehandedly holding down the OCR rock fort, waiting for the rest of us rock remixers to get it together and start making more tracks.

This mix takes awhile to get to the meat of things, but once it did, it was pretty good. Doom music tends to be way groove heavy and not too into the melody, and this was no exception, but there were enough components to keep things interesting for a decent amount of time. I especially love the distorted sonar ping. Things do grow stale after awhile though, and it isn't really repeat friendly, but it was fun while it lasted.

Killer stuff, some of the samples seem a little weak, mainly the strings, but otherwise this is top shelf stuff. Lots of excellent percussion that sounds huge, gated synths everywhere, and excellent transitions. Really all you could ever want in a good FF7 mix, and there is even more with a lot of string stabs and some synth counterpoint stuff. Not as crazy or crisp as Intense Color, but in the same catagory, and definitely something that's going to be heavily played by me.

Starts out really slow and not terribly well-produced, has a lame fade out halfway through, and then fades in to something actually pretty good. I'm not feeling the super mechanical drumming, but i do like the panning and guitar playing. Nice harmonized parts over a good chugging rhythm. I've never absolutely loved anything from the metroid soundtrack with maybe the exception of the ending theme, but you do alright here. The first half is trash, the second half is decent. I think i'll give this one a pass overall, sorry.

Hot arrangement that is brought down by it's dated samples. Even as is, it's still a pretty effective mix. I love the upbeat nature of this one, and even with the weakass samples, and bland production, there is a ton of personalization put into all the parts, and lots of velocity and mod changes. I seriously can't tell if the guitar is sequenced or live. That's care put into a lead line. While nothing will top the moon theme as my favorite track from the game, this is a pretty solid entry too, especially considering the age of the mix. Nice work

The samples are super weak on this one, but there are some new harmonic additions, and the melody itself if a classic. It slowly develops, and the mood changes from a bit melancholy to something a bit more hopeful. The additional partwriting is great, but I can't help but wish this one was revisited with some better samples. It's still enjoyable to listen to for me, but I think a lot of people would be turned off by the high end GM sound. Check it out and see which camp you fall into.

Pretty synthy sounds, but the arrangement covers pretty well for it. Nice driving and layered percussion; it's really clean sounding, like fresh fallen snow. Good breakdowns and a middle section that expands things a bit, and then back to the main melody. This soundscape really does lend itself to racing through the snow, but the feeling of being safe while doing so. Perfectly captured, nice work.

Easily my favorite track on the project. Nice rubato-heavy piano intro that builds just a little and quickly but effectively transitions into guitars. Great production on the lead and rhythm tones, and the drums have a great sound as well. The rhythm playing is the star here, precise and crisp, though i'd prefer to hear more lead guitar tone rather than the synth. The trading of leads is fine to keep things mixed up, but if I had Sixto's lead tone, i'd probably never touch a synth again. Solos were pretty good, nice phrasing, and the usual Sixto chops display. Ending was a little abrupt, but it was thoughtfully completed. Great track, but i'm sure you don't need my recommendation to grab this one.