Emunator   Judges ⚖️

Absolutely stunning expansion on a source that I actually happen to like a ton. Metroid Prime 3's soundtrack didn't resonate with me in the same way as the first two, but this is definitely a standout, and your arrangement takes the atmosphere that was present in the original Skytown and takes it on a proper cinematic journey. The massive swell at the 2 minute mark, and the organic percussion loops that follow is easily a highlight for me. Psamathes vocals blend perfectly with the orchestral elements, feeling ethereal but not totally detached or formless. Live contributions from Harpsibored and CA also elevate this even further in my book. You did this one justice Zack! YES

This track is also going on the "I can do better on the mixing" pile, I forgot to mark it earlier but I will re-open this when it's ready! I'll also see if I can address the issues that Brad brought up too!

@DarkSim @Liontamer @Chimpazilla @prophetik music @MindWanderer Zack provided a newly mixed version, please check out this new version and adjust your votes as you see fit!

New version up! Zack wasn't able to find the original files so he did what he could on the mastering front. @DarkSim @Gario @XPRTNovice @Chimpazilla @prophetik music @MindWanderer @Liontamer - please review this and update votes as necessary! My vote flip technically closes this out but I'd like to leave it up for discussion before officially closing anything, in case there's something about the new master I'm overlooking!

Zack will be making updates to this one, please hold on any further votes for now!

Emailed Zack with feedback up to now - hold on anymore votes until we hear back!

Remixer: LXE Name: Alexis Gelinas Email: Website: 38753 -- Super Mario RPG Geno Hop Beware the Forest Mushrooms I used hammered dulcimer and recorders to create a medieval lofi hip hop song about traveling through some spooky woods. Hope ya dig this arrangement Source:

Old Version Link Contact Information: Your ReMixer Name: The Vodoú Queen (ft. Zack Parrish - [LEAD GUITAR & ACOUSTIC GUITAR], CNDR - [BASS GUITAR], TSori - [MUTED TRUMPET] & Gamer of the Winds - [SOPRANO SAX]) Your Real Name: Angélique Vodoú Your Email Address: Your Website: https://thevodouqueen.newgrounds.com/ Your User ID # on our forums: 37001 Submission Information: Name of Game(s) Arranged: Super Metroid (SNES) & Metroid Prime (GCN) Name of Arrangement: "Chozodynamic" Name of Individual Song(s) Arranged: Upper Brinstar ~ Overgrown with Green Vegetation; Lower Brinstar ~ Red Soil Swamp Area; Chozo Ruins (Main); Chozo Artifact Temple; Phendrana Drifts (Main); Phendrana Drifts (Depths); Hive Mecha / Incinerator Drone Boss Theme; Metroid Prime Title Theme; Metroid Prime Main Menu Select Theme; Chozo Artifact Acquisition Fanfare; Item Acquisition Fanfare; Theme of Samus Aran / Appearance Fanfare; Tallon IV Overworld (Main); Super Metroid Title Theme; Tallon IV Overworld (Depths) Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site): 1. METROID PRIME & FUSION ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS; Artist(s): Kenji Yamamoto & Kouichi Kyuma / Minako Hamano & Akira Fujiwara; Release Date: 18 June 2003 (JAPAN ONLY); Label: Scitron; Catalogue Number: SCDC-00276~7 2. SUPER METROID OST; Artist(s): Kenji Yamamoto & Minako Hamano; Release Date: 1994 / 2014; Label/Rip By: Datschge; Developer/Publisher: Intelligent Systems, Nintendo RD1 & Nintendo Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site): 1. https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/Metroid_Prime_%26_Fusion_Original_Soundtracks 2. https://metroid.retropixel.net/games/metroid3/music/ Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: ...This was originally called "Chozo Funk"...and it rhymes with 'Daft Punk'. . . As such, this was made as a love letter to many things: one of my favorite Electro-Pop/House/Funk groups, a hero any girl should aspire to be, a franchise that well-shaped my early years, and a man who pulled a video game empire from the brink of collapse. This remix was made from the bones and strands of an earlier project from an old compo (both of which are sadly going away / getting decommissioned come the end of this year, as it currently stands ), but its origins (with 'Chozo Artifact Temple' acting as the main base of the arrangement) helped to shape what is honestly a remix that is held dear to my heart, and every step in making it was an absolute joy I'll never forget. Way too much to be said for the process, but the TL;DR of it is it's heavily inspired by Daft Punk (particularly the songs from their earlier bits of discography, such as Discovery, Homework and Human After All) and if you're an avid listener of theirs, the parallels and motifs were lovingly placed there--with a bit of ol' wildin' wah/whammy a la Jimi Hendrix (courtesy of Zack) stirred into the soup pot. And there's plenty of Metroid Easter Eggs galore, with many of the bells, whistles and cherries on top taken straight from the mood-setting, soundscaping and SFX-stylings made famous from the franchise (ex: the snare lick *pops* and much of the underlying drumline are taken from/inspired by the background sounds from Chozo Ruins!) See if you can find them all! ;3 As I have said in the Iwata Project Workshop on Discord--and I'll say as much here again--everyone who has contributed to this has helped bring to light a dream come true for me. Since my earlier remixes years back, I had the chance and pleasure to only remix three Metroid songs, two for MnP Rounds 119 & 125 and one for PRC 432...and at that time long before I didn't have the skill nor connections to truly give due justice to such legendary, timeless music from such a long-standing and prestigious video game franchise. I will probably re-visit them some day, but for now I tip my hat to my co-conspirators on this endeavour and their gracious charity and advice in producing this treat. I created it with a vast and deep respect for all Iwata had done for the resurgence of Metroid (and Nintendo as a whole), and for the first ever heroine I admired as a kid, Samus Aran. Enjoy, peeps. Hope the funky vibes are groovy with you. See You Next Mission! (**NOTE: For what it's worth, here's two honorable mentions of songs from the Prime OST that inspired certain parts, textures and moods, but were not directly included in the structural arrangement. In hindsight, I wish I did throw them into some of the (robotic) choir lines...but maybe one day when I become a part-writing maestro . . . On a technicality, they do share some writing and leitmotifs with Chozo Artifact Temple, but I'm leaning on the side of caution and letting others make the judgement if they appear in the remix: Phendrana Drifts Chozo Temple & Chozo Ruins Temple). EDIT (12/21): **ADDENDUM** pitch issues, as indicated by MindWanderer & guitar incorrect note on Brinstar run, as mentioned by Prophetik, has been fixed Sources: [Emunator Note] They're linked above, this would be a mess if I embedded all 26. But the primary sources I identified when listening, and I'm pretty sure push this above 50% source usage on its own, are embedded below. TL;DR - this thing is crawling with source usage, no concerns from me there!

Submission Details: Colin Sandquist www.colinsandquist.com Game: F Zero Music: Fire Field Looking For Work and Getting into the Video Game Industry. Best. Colin Sandquist: Game Developer + Graphic Artist + Music Composer and Performer Sandquist Games I Composer Site I Vimeo I Twitter I Soundcloud I Bandcamp Obersync I Swift Gorilla Thunder I Wakeraft I Music IMDB I Linkedin I Artstation Phone: TBD Email: Source:

Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Mel Decision Your real name: Mel Choyce-Dwan Your email address: Your userid: 18632 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Final Fantasy FVIII Name of arrangement: Net Fish and Chill Name of individual song(s) arranged: Fisherman's Horizon Your own comments about the mix: When approached to see if I was interested in participating in the last-minute bonus disc, I jumped at the chance. I wanted to rearrange something in a style I was comfortable with given the time crunch. I trawled through the OST, and when I realized Fisherman's Horizon already had a relaxed vibe, I knew that would be the one. Lofi felt like a good fit, and it's a genre I felt like I could pull off in the allotted time. Sax by Lucas (Thirdkoopa) and Bass Clarinet by GameroftheWinds really brought this to life! Credits Mel Decision: arrangement, production, mixing Lucas Guimaraes: tenor saxophone GameroftheWinds: bass clarinet

Wow, the orchestral and percussive bones of this track are SOLID. Some truly cinematic-quality orchestration, and the percussive groove really gives a sense of movement to the arrangement. This really boils down to volume balancing for me, and it pains me to do this to such an amazing arrangement, but there were multiple points in time where I found myself startled by the volume of various elements, and not in a good way. The spoken word vocals specifically feel like you tried to crank them up loud because they were unintelligible, but really they just need more of the dry signal in the mix, as they're getting washed out in reverb. Similarly, the lead guitar solo and acoustic parts at the end are way too boosted compared to the backing instrumentation and are jarring to me on first listen. As someone who's also been accused (and not without cause) of putting too much distortion on my tracks, I took issue with the guitar and distorted elements around the 1 minute mark. In my view, the distortion itself isn't the issue, but the fact that many of the distorted elements are hard-panned or have an otherwise wide stereo spread, and there's not always a good balance in each ear of how much distortion is happening at any given time. This is where the physical discomfort is coming from - if you were to center those distorted elements or reduce the stereo width, at least both ears are being assaulted with crunch in relatively equal proportions. Ugh, this arrangement kicks all kinds of ass but especially on headphones, these issues feel quite evident and would be worth addressing before posting. I had a lot of visceral reactions to this track, but too many of them were of the "oww, my ears hurt" variety, which puts a damper on the reactions that were "damn, that was COOL!" If you can do things to mitigate those unintentional reactions, you'll be golden. EDIT 11/4/2023: This new version fixes all of the issues I had, it sounds SO much cleaner and well balanced in the stereo field and in terms of volume leveling. Cutting out the static cleans up the mix without losing any of the impact, and the vocals are much more audible! I think you course corrected too hard on the vocal levels after the 3 minute mark, those now sound TOO loud but it's the only gripe I have. This is clearly a pass for me now, thanks for the extra work Zack! YES

I approach repetition the same way I approach source usage - instead of timestamping, I typically opt for a "vibe check" to see if a track feels like it's dragging. I actually find myself in total agreement with DarkSim on that front - it feels like a missed opportunity to do something different and exciting to cap off the arrangement, but on the whole, you switch back and forth between the repeated passages frequently enough with enough variety interspersed that those loops don't feel that bad to me. Plus, it's a short enough arrangement so it doesn't drag on in terms of length. If this track went on even a few measures longer, we'd be treading into "too repetitive, plodding" territory, but for my tastes, you fell on the right side. It helps that the synth design is all very cohesive, the groove is infectious, and the production issues that were called out don't tremendously impact my listening experience. It's closer than I'd like, but what I'm hearing here works well! YES

@MindWanderer @prophetik music @Liontamer New version of this mix is up, with massive shoutouts to @Chimpazilla for working with me to clean up the mix and master and really get this to shine! Please check out the latest version and let me know if you hear anything weird

Hey, director here - these were unfortunately tracks where a lossless version was not available, so that's why they were not included in the torrent!

Dammit, fine. I’m in for Team Metroid

I was wondering how long it'd be before this goofy niche meme genre made its way onto OCReMix! I'm fascinated by the recent explosion of phonk as a genre - it feels like a haphazard mashup of big room house and trap with the production quality of witch house, so nothing is REALLY that unconventional here that nobody has ever heard, but for some reason it almost immediately landed squarely in the category of "meme music." If I wasn't personally familiar with the phonk phenomenon, I wouldn't have even identified it as a unique genre at all. But y'all clearly found inspiration in this niche subgenre and, shitpost or not, did a really great job of translating Stone Tower Temple into this style, and even improving upon it in a lot of ways. It's short and doesn't really veer too far away from the source material, there's plenty of personalization that ensures this arrangement lands as a fully-realized idea and not just a 30 second TikTok shitpost that was lazily stretched to make it ready to cash in on those streaming royalties. I actually think that the production quality here does a good job embracing the quirks of phonk while making something that sounds like it was mixed and mastered by professionals. The textures are thick and rich, the bass is booming, and the distortion and compression feels clearly like a stylistic homage and not an oversight. I once again find myself diametrically opposed to Larry on the "too much distortion?" argument and will fight to the death on this point. Easy vote for me! YES

ReMixer Names: Ridley Snipes, Treyt Real Names: Trevor Burch, Trevor Tuls ID: 17937, 18602 Email: YT: https://www.youtube.com/@ridleysnipes Game: LOZ Majora's Mask Song: Stone Tower Temple Composer: Koji Kondo, presumably Arrangement Title: DRWNXD Last-minute spontaneous shitpost turned banger? Let's find out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So you may or may not have heard RAVE by Dxrk ダーク. This is just that, but Zelda. Phryigian cowbell phonk house nonsense crushed into oblivion. A polarizing genre perhaps, but 300+ million spotify plays says a lot. While initially just a dumb idea, it sort of became a personal production challenge learning how to crank out ridiculous loudness while still maintaining some semblance of dynamics. Takes a lot more than a clipper on the master if you want it done right, and there are plenty of artists that take the concept to an even further extreme (cough Kordhell). It could have been worse, sorry not sorry Hemo! I don't have too much else to say; the source is pretty simple and I wanted to keep this simple as well. Spooky, tribal, visceral. Props to Treyt for being so readily available and helping me crank this out in 8 days; he's a certified gamer. Cheers! something something Ben Drowned creepypasta

Whatever FINE I'm going to fix it. Pls hold on anymore votes.

This is an interesting case - I absolutely think the minimalist arrangement approach is valid, and there's some really cool synthetic textures at play. I love the sound design and palette that you've created here, but I'm identifying some balance issues that are a showstopper for me. The frequency balance is curious here. Chimpazilla correctly picked up that there's some inexplicable 20-30hz rumble but then almost never anything in the 30-60hz and very little going on from 60-100hz, so the low end feels almost completely ignored here. Conversely, there's resonant frequencies that build up heavily at specific points around the 400-800hz range that feel downright painful on headphones. This is compounded with the fact that many of the instruments are panned hard to the sides. There are definitely examples on OCR of ambient tracks with a better frequency balance out there that still feel minimalist, but still maintain a better balance in the frequency range. This can often be addressed at the arrangement level, simply by adding a sub/drone in the low end, or some backing pads/textures throughout the rest of the spectrum that hold a static note throughout certain sections and only exist to add back some frequencies in areas that are deficient. This will help prevent your most prominent instruments from feeling too sharp or painful on the ears and give them something to blend into. On a side note, the percussion also feels lifeless. There's not a lot of texture or nuance to it, and when it's this exposed and dry, you really notice the lack of velocity dynamics or round robin samples and every percussive hit sounds nearly identical and ultimately unrealistic. If you wanted to revisit this, I would encourage you to download a program like SPAN, which is a free frequency analyzer that helps you see the balance of your mix at different points. I'm certainly not saying every frequency band needs to be perfectly balanced with one another, but a visual reference can help you pick up on potential problems with an arrangement and guide you to possible solutions. NO

Giving this one a listen too. I appreciated reading the artist's follow up email. I'm always scared to see an email that long in regards to a rejection, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was well-articulated and respectful, and ultimately gave helpful insight when evaluating this track. Based on the votes above, I was honestly expecting the instrument quality to be worse than it is. I think the issues with the track boil down more to mixing and balance issues, with many of your instruments competing in the same space, and some of your ensemble sounds are very thick and have longer releases, so they can muddy up the sound stage excessively. This is especially noticeable on the staccato strings and brass - I would wager that they would sound a lot better with a sample that has a tighter attack and release, and perhaps some surgical EQ to avoid frequency masking with other instruments. I also strongly agree that the keys, organ and synth parts are way too quiet relative to the orchestral instrumentation. There's also a solo flute that pops up at 1:28 and again at 6:19, among other points, that is literally barely audible. The brass and strings step all over the rest of your instrumentation in a way that feels unnecessary - I absolutely understand keeping the orchestral elements at the forefront of the mix, but you can still achieve this with some minor tweaks to the levels and avoid overwhelming everything else you've got going on. If there's any reason I would outright reject this, it would solely be because of balancing issues. I think the repetitiveness in the arrangement and actual sample quality/realism in sequencing are worth noting but not dealbreakers in my book. As of now, I'm squarely on the fence about whether the smaller gripes are enough, when combined with the more significant mixing and balance issues, is enough to warrant a resubmission or not. I think DJP put it best - if the artist is willing to rework this, I think there's a much stronger version of this track out there, but there's so much good going for it even its current state that I'm inclined to agree that it's just barely over the bar. Going to think on this for a while longer, but ultimately, there's definitely actionable feedback to be found in these votes that wouldn't compromise the artist's vision or conflict with any of the things mentioned in the artist's email. I think solely addressing the volume levels by raising the keys/leads/flute and lowering the brass/strings, without any other surgical mixing, arrangement, or sequencing edits, would be enough to push this confidently into YES territory, but right now... YES (very borderline)

It pains me so much to say this but I agree with MindWanderer still. The unintelligible quality on the clean vocals is something I can look past, but some of the specific modulations that he timestamped are just not working for me at all. I think it might turn off some listeners who would then be missing out on the rest of the track, which is REALLY good. I think you need to ease up on the flourishes and bring the clean vocals back to basics, then let loose in the heavy rock section where it clearly plays more to your strengths as a vocalist. It's hard to provide critiques on vocal performances because of how inherently personal they are, but to be totally blunt here at the risk of being offensive, it sounds like you're overcompensating during the clean sections and it just comes across as awkward.The pitch work that was done with Brad definitely helped improve this, but I still don't feel comfortable signing off on this on the basis of the first minute. The rest of the track shows that you are an incredibly talented vocalist that can absolutely rip through those higher-energy passages, so I don't want this to scan as a critique on your vocal abilities overall, but stylistically, I think you need to revisit your approach to the performance during the first minute of this song. Also, the opening guitar notes from :04 through :12 feel... comically loud and forward in the mix, it was super jarring to me and a weird way to start the track. There is an incredible track here that is worth the effort you've been putting into it, but I think it needs one more pass. NO (resubmit)

I was a YES before, although somewhat reserved, and I find that this resubmission clearly addresses all of my main concerns and adds some more flair to the back half to boot. I did want to push back on the idea that the fact that it's too conservative. I do think @prophetik music correctly characterized the nature of the arrangement, but why would that not be a valid approach? H36T weaves a new set of melodies and improvisations into the melodies of the original in a complementary fashion. I think this, coupled with the dissonance introduced in the outro and at the 2 minute mark and all of the subtle flair introduced throughout the rest of the track, is enough to push this squarely into the realm of "interpretive enough for OCR." Especially since the original sections are now more closely tied to the source tune, I think it builds an even stronger case for passing. It's an unconventional approach and maybe not the most bold or ambitious, but I wouldn't identify this as simply a MIDI rip with nothing added to the equation just because the additions are largely original writing. I do agree that the leads that cover the source material are still lacking in expressiveness compared to the whistle phrases, which is a bummer, but I feel like Brad's vote undersells the additions that are present here. I'm happy to maintain my YES from last time around, but now with 100% less (borderline!) YES

Absolutely stunning sound design. This is absolutely brimming with vibes and texture, and you literally could not have picked a better set of source tunes to make this idea come to life. The mixing glues everything together with just the right amount of reverb and delay without feeling indistinct, and there's never a moment where it feels like you've exhausted your creativity and are just coasting on repeated ideas. The evolution across the arrangement is subtle but effective. Wow, I love it. Incredible work! YES

Completely agreed that the sampled instruments are not cutting the mustard here, and everything feels really locked to the grid. This applies to nearly all of the instruments - piano, drums, and especially the rhythm guitar chugs. It's like there was no velocity or timing changes on anything in the arrangement whatsoever. I don't mean to diss the arrangement as a whole, because it's really a great take and I can absolutely see this passing without any fundamental changes at all, but the sequencing feels robotic as if this was meant as a reference track for live performers. The sound stage overall feels dry and lacking a sense of place, too - more reverb and some tasteful distortion/saturation, especially on the guitars, where it would really benefit to have some more life and movement to the tone, would make this come to life! I rarely ever suggest "find a live instrumentalist" as a solution for fixing remixing issues because I do believe that with enough work, this could easily pass as a solo endeavor with purely sequenced instruments, but I do think that would be the fastest path to success here. Given your proclivity for collaborations, I don't foresee this being a problem NO (resubmit)

Zack reached out and asked about this track, so I'm going to drop my thoughts here as a vote, albeit a rushed one. I love love love the arrangement and sequencing here - this feels so on-brand for Yoshi's Island, and I love the original countermelodies and harmonic expansions on the source. The harmonic changeup around the 3 minute mark was a highlight. The mixing kinda sinks this though - there's a huge amount of mud created between the drums, piano, and bass in the mid/lower-mid ranges, and I think a lot of it has to do with the drum kit used. Whether it's a sample issue or EQ issue, the tone of the drums feels more aggressive than what is called for in this arrangement. I'm also picking up on some balance issues - if everything is loud, nothing cuts through, and I think that's what's happening here. The drums are the biggest offender and I also agree with the points MindWanderer made about the frequency balance being a little on the hot side. I don't think this is something that can simply be fixed with a remaster, since I think there's drum-specific EQ issues that would need to be addressed at the stem/mixbus level, but that would be a good start. Aside from that, kickass track so whichever way this falls, I enjoyed it on a personal level and it's ALMOST enough to tip my vote over the edge, but I really think the mixing is doing this a disservice in its current form. EDIT 11/4/2023: Wow, A/B'ing this track with the original master really shows how slammed the first version was. Giving it a little more breathing room helps it go down much smoother. I still think there are balance issues I would have loved to see addressed at the mix level, but since that's not possible, this new master at least does enough to push it over the bar. YES