Emunator   Judges ⚖️

1st RESUB Original Decision Mel Decision: arrangement, production Zack Parrish: alto saxophone, guitar, bass, piano, mixing, mastering GameroftheWinds: bass clarinet Emunator: percussion Lucas Guimaraes: effects, foley This track was a labor of love! What started out as a last-minute bonus track for Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora has evolved quite a bit with the addition of live guitar and bass, rerecorded saxophone, an entirely rewritten percussion section, and brand new effects to bolster the lo-fi vibe. I love writing lo-fi music, and when I was exploring songs from the FFVIII OST to rearrange, Fisherman's Horizon immediately stood out to me as a track that would fit the genre with it's softer, comforting feel. I felt like I could make it work in the short amount of time I had to create a track for the bonus disc on the album. With the help of Lucas Guimaraes and GameroftheWinds, I was able to include some live winds on the track. Since the release of the album, this rearrangement has gone through several iterations. Most recently, I've had the pleasure of collaborating with Zack Parrish and Emunator, who hopped in to expand on the existing parts. Zack especially jumped in head-first: he re(-re)-recorded the saxophone section, and played live guitar and bass for the track, replacing my previous virtual instruments. He also added some piano in the background to counter the winds. Emunator rethought the entire percussion section, bringing in a more dynamic beat to help move the song along while still keeping you in the groove. Finally, Lucas topped it off with some additional sound effects that brought in the right amount of ear candy. Zack hopped in on this latest version to completely redo the mix and master the track. I can't thank these guys enough for all the work they put into the track, along with multiple rounds of feedback to get the mix balanced just right. Their expertise and advice really helped me hear where this track needed to go in order to succeed, and Zack's efforts almost single-handedly pushed this to the finish line.

Primary Artist: jnWake Collab artist: Jabo, on guitars. Yet another tune from DoD! This one was my submission to 32 bit month on December 2023. I've always loved the music in Goemon games so I took the opportunity to remix one of them. Source I picked is more of a funky tune (dat bass) so I went for a funky approach rather than my usual metal one. Original track is actually 4 different tracks on the game, each one layering some extra stuff to the main sections of the song. Anyway, similar to my last submission this started as synth only but I eventually decided to add guitars so I contacted Jabo, who did an awesome job. The track ended up placing 2nd on this particular DoD contest so I think it ended up fine! K, so a little about the source before the breakdown. It basically consists of 2 sections, first a bass riff on E minor (with some G# and C# for funkiness), which lasts from around 0:00 to 0:17 in the video I linked and, second, a part that alters between E minor and C# minor chords (0:18 to 0:35 on the video). Repetitions of each section add new melodies like a synth melody on the second repetition of section 1 (between 0:36 and 0:53), a very pentatonic melody on the third repetition of section 1 (1:09 to 1:27) and a synth melody on the third repetition of section 2 (1:44 to 2:02). I use all of these in the remix! Now, I didn't use that many of the parts without modifying them so I hope this doesn't run into source usage problems... Anyway, here's a breakdown: 0:00 - 0:20: Bass riff based on the main one from the source, synths are somewhat similar to some from the source. 0:20 - 0:40: Synth lead based on the synth melody of section 1. 0:40 - 0:56: Based on section 2, somewhat straightforward but in 6/4. 0:56 - 1:17: Melody on synths is taken from part of the synth melody in section 1. 1:17 - 1:26: Bass riff returns! 1:26 - 1:47: More bass riff + the pentatonic riff on synths, 1:47 - 2:17: Same pentatonic riff but now played on straight 8ths. Lead guitar plays the same melody from 0:56. 2:17 - 2:36: Return of the chords from section 2, followed by a transition. 2:36 - 3:07: Synth solo! Bass riff uses many ideas from the main bass riff of the source... there's also a tempo bump. 3:07 - 3:24: Riff based on parts of the melody from section 1. 3:24 - 3:53: Repeat of the 0:56 - 1:16 section but with lead on guitar now (and higher tempo). 3:53 - end: Bass riff from synth solo repeats for the ending. Hope you enjoy! I had a ton of fun building the arrangement and playing the keyboard solo!

There's an absolutely tremendous amount of ambition on display here, good lord. I appreciate the reference tracks that you provided that show how you brought influence from Japanese city pop and funk-fusion together along with some heavier rock/metal riffage and solos on the guitar into something entirely unique and original. For everything that falls ever-so-slightly off the mark, there's a dozen others that absolutely nail it, and the miscues are heavily outweighed by the ambition and creativity at play. Man, if something like this can't pass our bar, I don't know what chance the rest of us have. I don't think any of the feedback provided here is inaccurate, and especially on the performance side, there's some room to tighten it up, but I think it needs to be weighted in context of how much the track gets right. Nothing I hear is egregiously bad enough that it sinks my listening experience, not by a long shot. Sure, in a perfect world, it would be great to get some of these issues resolved, but let's imagine that the source files were lost and the artist was simply unable to make these changes, which is how we need to consider each submission. Would it be better for this to never be heard by the rest of the community because the technical side isn't perfectly executed? I think rejecting a track like this would signal that it's better to just play it safe and stick fully within your comfort zone rather than try anything remotely ambitious or out of your comfort zone, and I strongly believe that OCReMix is a better place when we encourage people to shoot for the moon. YES

100% this. There's so many great ideas brought to the table by the arrangement, but the mixing feels like a first pass because of frequency buildup in certain low-mid ranges that is creating an unpleasant balance in the mix. Additionally, I'll also cosign that the level of certain lead instruments/vocals is causing them to sound disjointed from the rest of the soundscape, which could possibly be exacerbated by reverb levels not being dialed in appropriately across your instruments. The only other thing I'll add is that the sweep up around the 2 minute mark didn't quite hit the mark for me in terms of the way it cut off abruptly. I think if you play with your volume envelopes on your sample or layer in something with a bit more of a tail, it could be more effective. This is more of a personal suggestion than anything and certainly not a dealbreaker. Great concept and a lot of daring ideas here - just a few technical miscues that you should be able to iron out with little problem. Let's see this again! NO (resubmit!)

This is a banger. Your voice and flow reminds me a LOT of El-P. From a pure technical perspective, this is some of the best rapping I've heard in a hot minute on the panel. The pop-punk vocals add a very fresh, modern flair, I really wasn't expecting that but especially on repeat listens, I enjoyed it. There's a lot to love about this arrangement, and there was a lot of care put into making sure that both the beat and the vocal performance is dynamic and cohesive, never feeling like you just dropped some unrelated bars over a beat that happened to sample a Castlevania. The extra effort goes a long way. There's a few technical issues I've heard - the snare feels significantly louder and sharper than the rest of the percussion, and the piano sample feels exposed and weak, but that's not a huge deal. I think the detuning that MW called out feels like a feature of the genre, I've heard plenty of beats that apply a slow pitch envelope to the 808 like this and although it's definitely (intentionally) detuned, it doesn't feel like it's written out of key at all. Good stuff!! YES

With respect, I think this suggestion is a totally valid approach to arrangement that would also yield good results, and this feedback could be really helpful during the workshopping phase. But that's not the approach the artist chose to go with, and I don't think there's a case to be made made that the approach that Matthew did use is somehow objectively bad. It's progressive and unconventional in the approach, and there is a level of "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" to this track, but I think it's a totally valid creative decision. Even if it's not how you'd approach arranging this yourself, I feel like this sort of feedback is veering way too far into "subjective preference" territory and I don't think that's what our job at the panel is or should be. This feels clearly above our bar to my ears. There's a wealth of talent on display with the live performances and programmed instruments across 6 and a half minutes. There was clearly a great deal of effort put into the transitions so that, despite the many different ideas brought to the table, it doesn't feel like completely different songs pasted together haphazardly. The mixing is also handled competently, with no single idea or section ever feeling like it comes up short on technical merit. YES

@MindWanderer Check out the new version here and see if this addresses your concerns!

This is an easy one for me, this was one of my favorite entries from this Dwelling of Duels month. The first couple of minutes introduces an already fresh spin on the source material, and it only gets stronger as the track progresses and you cut into a more progressive jazz fusion style at 2:17 that reminds me of David Benoits 'Urban Daydreams'. From there, it's smooth sailing through incredibly fluid soloing and unpredictable funk progressions. The breakdown at 3:42 was a contender for the most memorable moment of the track, but honestly, this thing is chock full of them. I think DarkSim hit the nail on the head with the hi-hat - it's just a very sharp sample so it cuts through the mix, but if you used more of a brushed jazz kit, I think it would have sounded fine. On repeat listens, I do think the cut at 4:06 was a little disconcerting but I can't argue that the additional noodling you introduced during the last minute of the track wasn't worth the extra runtime - it totally was. HELL YEAH

Wow, there's some black magic piano production wizardry at work here, this sounds fabulous now! There's a limited number of moments where the piano still falls into the uncanny valley, but at this level of polish, we're just taking minor pitstops into the valley rather than living in it. Much improved, my friends! YES

Artist: Troyificus *RESUBMISSION* OK, let's try this again. As before, this has been made for 'An OverClocked Christmas v.XVII' I took the judge's comments on-board, had a sulk about it, got over myself and returned with a righteous fury! And promptly fell flat on my face again when the wonderful @Hemophiliac told me in no uncertain terms that it still wasn't up to standards. Following which, after so much back and forth that the poor guy is probably sick of the sight of my name, it's reached this point. I'm happy with it, he's mostly happy with it, this is the version that's being submitted to the album, so I'm trying again with the illustrious judge's panel. Happy holidays! Source breakdown: 0:00 - 1:16 source 1:17 - 1:35 original, with source elements added 1:36 - 1:53 original 1:54 - 2:12 source 2:13 - 2:48 source, with interpretation and embellishments added 2:49 - 3:06 source, but it's a repeat of the intro with the descending arpeggio added in

@Liontamer @DarkSim VQ provided a modified version here, please review to see if it changes your votes or introduced any new issues! It's still good for me

Sent these votes to Ivan to see if he's interested in making any tweaks or proceeding with the vote as-is! EDIT: Ivan wants to let the vote proceed as-is.

I told myself I wasn't going to vote on any GSM tracks due to my participation in the competition (and the fact that this track solidly beat my entry in round 1...) but since this seems to be lingering without any votes, I think it's been long enough that I can be objective. Let me put on my objective hat... ...it's lit. This is an easy, easy vote, Zack brings his usual level of high-quality cinematic sound design, with a heavy emphasis on texture and rhythmic movement throughout the arrangement. The fusion between the two themes is creative and seamless. Especially for a 1 week endeavor, this is truly impressive and speaks to Zack's abilities as an arranger and producer. YES

The intro immediately sets the mood with a loose acoustic guitar that evokes the melancholy of The Last of Us, before the choir takes us somewhere even more adventurous and mystical. As I've come to expect, you are rarely content to hover around the same musical idea for long, but it always connects cohesively in the end. Tremendous vision and ambition throughout the whole arrangement, and the execution is solid enough to support it! On a technical level, the mixing feels cluttered and compressed to a degree, the vocals and sound effects appear to be the culprits and could possibly benefit from a subtle low-frequency cut to clear out some of the mud. The vocals occasionally do feel loud compared to the other elements. The ending also came out of nowhere and didn't quite feel properly paced. Just a few minor notes though, this is easily enough for our bar. Congrats! YES

I definitely feel like this is an improvement overall, despite not fully hitting the mark on the mixing. On future attempts, I would employ more surgical volume automation on your backing parts, or sidechain your leads to your rhythm synths more, because there's moments where your leads still don't feel like leads (the flute especially gets buried) but you don't really have anymore headroom to work with to make those louder - you need to make sacrifices elsewhere. It's loud and a bit overcompressed, so if you wanted to keep working on it, there's gains to be made. All criticisms aside, this is definitely still a super-fun twist on the source material, adapting it to a new stylistic palette and introducing a ton of fresh ideas. It's a fresh spin that feels totally fresh. You've peppered a ton of creative ideas throughout the arrangement, including the walk-down at 1:29 which is incredibly engaging and snaps me back into the moment before leading into a powerful presentation of the chorus. There's tons of spirit here, and that ultimately prevails over any technical hiccups. YES

Artist: Gaspode One of the first games I played on the Amiga was Menace, a side-scrolling shooter with a great soundtrack. The main theme in the game is only about 2:45 min. long, but it contains a lot of energy, melodies and changes to play with. The title-theme is a little bit slower. And between the main and the boss theme there’s the iconic danger-sample which sets the mood for the boss. I tried to integrate all three themes in my remix. More info about the game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menace_(video_game) Games & Sources: Name of game(s) arranged: »Menace« Name of individual song(s) arranged: »Title«, »Main Theme«, »Boss Theme« (don’t know if these are the real titles) Track list: 0:23 == 1. Title - David Whittaker 3:53 == 2. In-Game - David Whittaker 6:45 == 3. Boss - David Whittaker Title Theme:

This starts off with some beautiful wintery bell textures before you chop it up into something decidedly groovier! I was thrown off at first by the sharp cutoff on the bell sounds but once the beat comes in, it works really well in context. There's a lot going on here within the 5 minute runtime, but none of it feels superfluous or overstuffed at any given point. The mixing is some of the clearest I've heard from you. It helps that the source samples you're working with are also very high quality, but this feels hi-fi in all the right places, and the lo-fi textures are used deliberately for creative effect and never come across as a shortcoming in the mixing. There's a few issues that I'll go into, but this hits far more marks than it misses, and the marks that it hits are right on target! You've created a very beautiful, unique soundscape that is brimming with creativity. I've come to expect nothing less from the artists involved! My main beef with this track is the lack of beef in the 808/bassline throughout - I totally get what you were going for, but it feels like it's playing too high on the octave to really function as a bassline and fill the role it's intended. I also appreciate the creative idea of the call-and-response panning starting at 2:11, but the sample is mixed loudly and it ends up feeling more disorienting. I also noticed that the cello in the intro felt strangely distant due to the heavy reverb, and didn't blend super well with the rest of the soundscape, in addition to being panned quite far off to one side. Not a dealbreaker but worth noting. The acoustic guitar also doesn't quite feel like it lives in the same space as the other instruments. Easy vote for me at the end of the day, despite my reservations about a few elements not blending into the soundscape quite as cleanly as I'd like. Nice work! EDIT: 12/17 - still good for me! YES

Version 2 update notes: <**ADDENDUM: New 808 Bass VSTi, Violin VSTi and their associated written parts courtesy of Zack (once again saving my ass, LOL). TYVM for the feedback. Hope the quick turnaround and adjustments made help. ♥> COLLABORATORS [FEAT.]: Zack Parrish = *Live Acoustic Guitar, *Fretless Bass VSTi, *Glass Harp / Armonica VSTi, *Cello VSTi *Children's Choir VSTi & *Pipe Organ VSTi # Festive greetings, J's! Originally done for The Coop & Dyne's *17th* "An OverClocked Christmas" unofficial album, this is my chill take on NieR's Snow in Summer, with quite a few very appreciated, last minute collab additions courtesy of Zack. Although this will be my third year contributing to the album, (the previous years done with tracks from Snowboard Kids, Secret of Mana, and Mega Man X3--respectively), I have been wanting to remix this song since the first time I participated back in 2021. It had taken years to finally conceptualize it in full, (and giving up on a couple of not-so-great mash-up ideas for it,) but I am happy it has finally come to fruition in 2023, where now I can feel confident in creating and mixing its transformative content and executing the plan to do it with. And, honestly, I am glad I finally put my mind to the fire and kindled the courage to open up the source MIDI and take a look, otherwise I would have never known just how thoroughly complex and harmonically-driven the source was. With source usage, it is throughout the whole song, start to finish, with no repeats. I said to myself..."why break and recreate something that is already beautiful?" Instead, I elected to *add* to it, rather than *subtract*, starting by changing the instrumentation entirely to fit a whole different genre bend. This arrangement is akin to the relaxing vibes in my remixes for "A Wish" (Secret of Mana) and "Big Snowman" (Snowboard Kids), yet it is not as somber as "The Frozen City" (MMX3). I am not a huge Christmas-y person, however, I love many things that are "Christmas-spirited / adjacent", as well as a few fairly traditional ones that make an exception (e.g. "Carol of the Bells"). I tried to encapsulate those aspects of Christmas songs I do really enjoy in this mix, such as: lots of strings, pretty bells & chimes, choirs, plenty of percussive elements, pipe organs, ritzy piano, jazzy bass, etc--but, employ them with a bit of a twist; a nice undertone of Lo-Fi / Hip-Hop, indicative of the snappy percussion and plucky bass, as well as the low flute / whistle-y, whiny / minimoog saw synth that has an East-West Coast/90s flair (i.e. that "oooo-weee-ooo" you hear in a lot of Oldskool Rap tracks, such as "Big Poppa" by Notorious B.I.G.) There...wasn't really much to my creative approach this time around, as my focus was mainly considering what I could do to showcase a different spin and feeling from its original incarnation without "breaking the mold". An...iteration that had equal parts the feelings of hope and happiness, and solemnity and loneliness that could be invoked during the (generally) joyous holiday season, against the original's more depressive emotion, that filters up and crescendo into the feeling of almost...oppression--religious fervor turned into militaristic battle music midway through the song. I never got to play NieR (although I own the original and Automata), so this is me taking the raw emotion I felt from the source alone, without context or ties to the game, and changing it into something very..."me"...I suppose. I just know the first time I listened to the source, the choir pulled me in and the drumbeat lulled me to stay till the end, and I wanted to simply mimic that ebb and flow in a "me" manner. This one is probably one of my more "conservative" remixes, but I'm a firm believer in not all songs being created equal nor should get the same treatment, and I did not feel this one needed to be bombastic or as over-the-top with the sheer insanity some of my other pieces of work came to be. It's subtle, it's Xmas-inspired, and my hope is that this one can make it in for the holidays. I know I had only submitted one other Christmas-related track, and sadly MMX3 / Blizzard Buffalo was rejected and did not make the cut. I will return to it shortly, however I hope people enjoy this one, and this one has a chance. Have a Merry Christmas and thank you for the time and consideration to give this track due judgement. I pray for the best. Games & Sources: NieR Gestalt & RepliCant Original Soundtrack; Track 1 - 夏ノ雪 Snow in Summer; Composer(s): Studio Monaca & Keiichi Okabe et. al.; Release Date: 21 April 2010; Publisher / Label: Sony Music Distribution; Producer: SQUARE ENIX

Beautiful blend of acoustic instruments covering a lovely selection of source tunes to start off. Everything about this is nearly perfect, with the exception of the percussion, which just isn't working for me on any level. The drums are way too loud, not sequenced with a lot of humanization or variation, and the samples themselves are immersion breaking. If you could fix (or hell, even remove the percussion) this would be an easy pass! NO (resubmit)

I'm falling in line with @Chimpazilla on this one - you bit off a LOT with this arrangement but man, is that arrangement a triumph! Easily one of your strongest to date, especially for a solo endeavor. I am not going to pore over details here, but I did find the mixing at the :15 mark until the drums kicked in to be the most problematic. In my book, it would be a damn shame if this were not fixable and this wasn't heard by the masses. I do hope Ivan is able to make some changes to balance certain parts and clean things up a little more, but I think this is comfortably above our bar, flaws and all. YES

Right off the bat, I'm hearing some cool textures and modulation, and the cool sound design continues throughout the arrangement. There's a cool sense of dread in the pacing of the arrangement, it feels like it's constantly pulsating and brewing towards something, but never fully explodes (this is something I really appreciate, and not a critique!) The drums are probably the weakest part of this arrangement, they are mixed very dry (especially the toms!) and up-front in terms of volume, so it highlights the fact that you're working with some pretty basic samples that are not sequenced with a ton of nuance either. I notice that your tom fills consistently don't resolve to anything on the downbeat, like a crash or an impact, so they feel detached and lackluster. I also found the glitch fills, such as the one at 3:00, to be not particularly effective because the fill doesn't lead into anything - it just happens and then the track returns back to the same exact energy, with no impact or resolution. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this right, but although I like the idea, I don't think the execution lands. The mixing feels rough around the edges, particularly in terms of volume. The intro bass comes in loud and hot, and in general it feels like your levels are cranked up too high and the elements are competing with each other. Although everything is generally audible, I feel like that's more because there just isn't a lot going on in the soundscape, so it's not the most effective way of filling out your frequency range. Arrangement-wise, this is actually really good, exactly in line with what we're looking for in terms of expansion on the source material and giving it your own personal touch. But the mixing and sound choices, as well as the implementation of the drum and filter fills, leaves a bit to be desired before this is ready. Really strong start though, I hope you find the feedback useful and get this back to us! NO (resubmit!)

Link Main ReMixer name: TheManPF (User ID: 35318) Additional artists: Zach Chapman; Ian Martyn Submission: Game: 3D Pinball: Space Cadet Name of arrangement: Into the Black Hole Songs arranged: Main Theme (https://youtu.be/Zyyn5rvmJ9I) Original composer: Matt Ridgway System: Windows Year: 1995 Comments: Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves... we're going to SPACE This track was arranged in October 2022 for Dwelling of Duels, theme Maxis games, I thought it would be fun to try to cover something that doesn't have "Sim" in the name, then I found out Maxis developed the space cadet pinball game that came with my Windows pc all the way back in the late 90s, I used to be a computer games kid, so I played this a lot, along with a lot of other small, shitty computer games. I never knew this game had music though. I expanded on the original motif a lot, and even sprinkled a few references to other pieces of music, namely "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss (more commonly known as that one song used in 2001: A Space Odyssey), and "Sun of Nothing" by Between the Buried and Me, I only changed the key so as to fit with the space cadet's theme (SIKE, they're actually in the same key already, what are the odds????). Everything else in the arrangement is developed from the motifs of the main theme of the space cadet, the melody is very fast, so in a lot of parts I break it down into smaller chunks or use it as a background element so as to not overwhelm, since I try to go for more of a slow burn with this. I also used a bunch of NASA recordings (they're publicly available on their website) for the intro and outro. In this story, an astronaut is tasked to explore the first ever black hole, and slowly starts up their spaceship, and blasts off into the void of space. Slowly but surely, they get closer and closer to the black hole, but just as they're about to make it, they get scared, and decide to turn around and float into the sun instead (where Sun of Nothing comes up). During this reflective moment, they try to collect themselves and decide if this is a task worth doing, but eventually, they get motivated, and regain their strength back, turning around and once again flying into the hole, getting closer and closer until everything gets distorted into a big crunch. The ending reflects that this astronaut reached the black hole, but whether they survived or not is up in the air. I actually came up with this story long after the song was done, which is a super fascinating thing to me, how you can come up with interpretations for pieces of music that weren't necessarily thought about when they were made, this is the image this song brought to me, but anyone else is free to have their own interpretation! Yay! This song placed 3rd out of 13 tracks in Maxis month, with the help of my awesome friends Zach and Ian, who played bass and synths respectively. I did everything else aka arrangement, sequencing, mix, and electric guitars.

Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Ｓｙｎｔｈｍａｇｅ░Ξｖｅｎｇｌａｒｅ (or if you prefer Synthmage Evenglare) Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged : Knuckles Chaotix Name of arrangement: Synth Into Summer Name of individual song(s) arranged: Door Into Summer

Artist Name: OceansAndrew This is a mix of few of my favorite songs from the Sumeru Rainforest area, one of the most beautiful and scenic nations in a game filled with beautiful and scenic nations. This is a combination of two themes I felt were similar enough to combine into a single song, with a few original bits sprinkled in. Sumeru is known as the nation of wisdom, and houses a large akademia that maintains a neural network known as the Akasha. I wanted to thematically combine the peaceful and natural sounds of the source songs with a bit of the technology aspect of the nation, so we've got a semi-synthwave song with acoustic and electric guitars, hammered harp, and more. Source 1: Moonlit Night in Sumeru Source 2: A Drowsy Sensation

ReMixer: janet-wallace Name: Janet Wallace Email: User id: 38384 Game: Final Fantasy IX (Square, 2000) Arrangement: Kingdom of Eternal Ran and Sorrow Song Arranged: Burmecia's Theme Composer: Nobuo Uematsu Game system: Playstation 1 Game genre: RPG DAW used: LMMS About the remix: This is a track meant to be appreciated under different states of mind. A set of Rhodes Pianos playing on both left and right channels to create a sense of urgency, followed by a 8-bit synth and a background drone that further accentuates the melancholy in order to create, or in this case, recreate the desolate, oppressive atmosphere of Burmecia, Kingdom of Eternal Rain through sound. My intention with the Rhodes percussion was to make something that sounded like water ripples clashing against the ground, and I was inspired by one of Peter Gabriel's songs, "San Jacinto'', while composing it.