Emunator

Not too shabby! I wasn't totally sold on this at first, with the soundscape sounding a little exposed and dry overall, but when the track unexpectedly breaks wide open at 1:30 I was feeling it! Can I call this "glitch-funk?" The electric-piano and other funk/jazz elements juxtapose really nicely with the more traditional, chippy glitch-hop instrumentation. It's so cohesive and pleasing that I'm actually surprised I haven't heard more of this style. I'm not gonna retread over the valid critiques that the other two judges brought up. Despite a slightly underwhelming first minute of the track, this definitely found its groove and should be a wonderful addition to our catalog. Nice stuff! YES

Gario nailed it. This is an ambitious attempt and I actually love a lot of the elements of the track in a vaccuum. The strings sound like the start of a really cool orchestral arrangement, the synth patches are really moody, and the drums go through a lot of cool motions, but I think you're having some trouble getting them to gel together. Many of the sections feel like disparate concepts that don't transition properly together. To be frank, I can't really find much structure with the arrangement - just as it sounds like you're about to swell up to a really big climax around 3:15, the track tapers off and ends. The lack of a bassline, as Greg pointed out, may play a role in this. To start with, the production is pumping super-hard against your limiter, which is giving your whole track a very boxy sound. Ease up on the volume of some of your elements and lower the overall compression so your track has a bit more breathing room, and I think this will sound a lot better already. I love seeing such an ambitious take on a very commonly-remixed theme, and I think you could get these ideas to work, but the concept doesn't feel fully realized at this point. Good luck if you choose to pursue this track further! NO (resubmit!)

Excellent use of dynamics here. The mixing has been criticized on this point by other judges, but I think the dramatic rise and fall in the volume level contributes to a sense of overwhelming fear and tension. I think Gario's justification is extremely thoughtful here and I agree 100%. Otherwise, not much I can say except I'm surprised that this has boiled down to a split vote on production/humanization merits. It's not 100% perfect but the attention to detail HeavenWraith put into crafting a massive, ambitious orchestration is evident here - the strings are incredibly dynamic, and even at their worst when they take a lead melody role, the brass still sounds totally passable in my book. Good luck with the rest of the vote - this sounds great to me! YES

I think this one's finally hit the mark, and I'm so glad Faseeh was patient with the panel's feedback here! The end result here is so much stronger than the previous 2 submissions. The core concept here has always been tight, doing an excellent job of simmering down the Planet Wisp source into something more serene, evoking some beautiful late-afternoon vibes. The bassline and the funky guitar really drive home that french-house vibe. Your end result feels very Daft Punk-esque - a combination of the pounding beats of Discovery, and the disco-throwback instrumentation of Random Access Memories. I totally dig it. Production and arrangement are much tighter this time around. Faseeh did a good job of trimming the excess fat while still fully exploring his concept. I'm happy to say this one is finally over the bar in my eyes! YES

Previous Decision (Resub #1) Original Decision Remixer Name: Faseeh Real Name: Faseehudeen Email address: Website: https://soundcloud.com/gottagofas User ID: 30380 Game arranged: Sonic Colors (Wii) Name of arrangement: Misty Night Name of individual song: Planet Wisp - Act 1 Oh my, been a year since the first resubmit. The comments of the judges came in very handy and the time that has passed has really helped me improve this track. Hope the judges give it the Yes now! Imagine Planet Wisp, in all its beauty with the dew on the leaves and you among the mist, sky all purple and lost in the serenity. I wanted to keep the track somewhat true to the original source and yet give it a new musical dimension. I hope you enjoy this chill remix. This remix has really taught me so much and I'll always look back to it fondly. Hope you enjoy this remix as much as I did as I produced it. And oh, there are two small other Sonic track references, let's see if anybody catches them. Thank you so much!

Gorgeous textures and production on this one, I have been itching to remix Aquatic Ambiance into a modern Drake/Future-esque trap beat like this but you beat me to the punch Your bass is mixed great with the beats, you nailed that modern production sound, and the ambiance floats beautifully around that foundation. (The producer tag feels hella cheesy and tacked on, though. I know it's standard practice these days but my two cents is that it feels very extraneous.) I'd have loved for the rolling hi-hats to do a little bit more - they change up rhythms quite a bit but they sound completely unprocessed and ultimately feel lifeless. I don't think I would mind if there was some sort of vocal or lead element to this track, but when it's just the beat, I think the detail work needs to be dialed up a bit more for this to work as a standalone piece. For a 5 minute track, you need about 150 seconds of source to hit the 50% bar... I'm only hearing 15 second bursts of direct source usage a few times throughout the track: :09 - :27 1:56 - 1:14 3:44 - 4:00 4:18 - 4:35 What am I missing here? This feels much more like a heavily-inspired-by track than something actually remixing Donkey Kong Country. I really like the overall concept here and the vibes are top-notch, but the lack of source coupled with the overall repetitive nature of the track that doesn't have a strong melodic/vocal hook to give it variation makes it hard to stand alone as an OCReMix submission. It was an enjoyable listen either way, though! NO

My Producer Name(Remixer) Slick Amvdeus Darrell Howard Jr https://soundcloud.com/slick_amvdeus http://ocremix.org/community/profile/33328-slickamvdeus/ Donkey Kong County: Tropical Freeze -Aquatic Ambience The name of my arrangement: Into The Unknown It's set to private Well, I was in the middle of making a project, and I wanted to explore uncommon ground. I love ambient/drone/atmospheric/minimal type of music. I planned on making a video game OST for OC in the near future. You can kinda say that this is a single in a sense. Thanks for the this opportunity.

Remix: Overgrowth (Tallon 2/Chozo Ruins) Demo Hey everyone! Thought I'd share a remix I'm working on that's not currently finished. Feedback definitely welcomed here, especially on the mixing side of things. I'm trying my hand at swing rhythms this time. This is heavily influenced by artists like Bonobo and Emancipator. Not a ton to say - the structure is all over the place right now and I'm more focused on sound design/motifs/production at this point, but I feel like there's potential here! Sources:

I'm digging this update. Maybe I've forgotten what the kick sounded like before, like but the kick/bass combo still sounds plenty beefy to me. Production seems very clean. This time, there's a lot more focus on sound design so that the backing synths/tubular bells/fx are less ambient and more up-front which helps hold my interest a lot more than the previous version during the more sparse sections. The sound design is a definite improvement overall, and the transitions, although they all use a similar upsweep style, have some variation to them this time around so it feels a little fresher. Digging the bassline at the end, I wish it was present throughout more of the track but it helps justify the final section of the song and retain my interest. The overall progression of the track feels more effective with this update, even if it's not the strongest arrangement I've ever heard. It's still minimalist for most of the track, but that contrast has always served to accentuate moments like 2:15 more dramatically by comparison. Now that some of the other sections are more lively and detailed, I think the arrangement serves its purpose without inducing boredom during the rest of it. Maybe I'm just off my game because I haven't been judging much lately, but I think this sounds great now. Is it perfect? Nah, but it was fairly close last time around, and these revisions do more to help the track than hurt it by making the breakdown sections more engaging. Quoth the Liontamer - 'Don't make perfect the enemy of the good" - I think that applies here. Good luck with the rest of the vote! YES

Definitely hearing the bLiNd influence here, this reminds me quite a bit of his old Gradius remix but with a healthy dose of modern production techniques and flair. This does an exceptional job of bringing this "old-school major-key dance anthem style" into the modern age with lots of synth processing, layers, and rock-solid production work. I also appreciate the heavier melodic focus on this track compared to some of your recent fare - it's cool to hear the old melodic Chimpazilla style paired with her leveled-up EDM production sensibilities. It just works! YES

Original Decision Remixer Name: Faseeh Real Name: Faseehudeen Email address: Website: https://soundcloud.com/gottagofas User ID: 30380 Game arranged: Sonic Colors (Wii) Name of arrangement: Misty Night Name of individual song: Planet Wisp - Act 1 Comments about the remix: Oh, this is a resubmission! The judges liked what I had before, but it was too short aaaand I found out four months after the judges decision had been made. Alas, this remix happened. Imagine the Planet Wisp is a beautiful place, and just imagine being there with dew on the leaves, mist surrounding you, sky all purple and you're lost in the serene beauty. I wanted to do something minimalist and something that'd keep true to the original source, while giving a different musical dimension. Oh and I've added some references from other Sonic sources, I hope you can figure those out! Hope you like this remix, as much as I enjoyed producing it. Thank you

Larry, just to clarify - my usage of 'The Day the World Revived' can be found in the shakuhachi melody from :52 - 1:15 and 4:35 - 4:50, and also, the flute melody from 3:04 - 3:22 is from :07 in Schala's theme (the string pattern.) Pretty marginal, and like you said, the Schala bells are all over this thing (sometimes reversed) so it should check out on source usage regardless, but I wanted to point that usage out because I don't think a lot of people will notice the part at 3:04 Cheers everyone!

My gut impression is that this would sound quite nice if it were actually performed live, or sequenced with a lot more nuance, but right now it sounds like I'm listening to a very nice arrangement that's been merely sketched out without much attention paid to humanization, expression or timing. The arrangement is nice and dynamic, and I have no doubt this would work well as an ensemble, but as a standalone piece, the leads are sequenced with total rigidity that don't do justice to your nice arrangement. NO

Remixer Name: Nadeus Real name: Daniel Bukin Email: Website: https://soundcloud.com/danielbukin User ID: Nadeus Link to arrangement: Games arranged: Mother 1 (Earthbound Zero), Mother 3, Earthbound Name of arrangement: Home Name of individual songs arranged: Title Theme (Mother 3), Eight Melodies (Mother 1), Love Theme (Mother 3), Pollyanna (Earthbound) Game Info: Original music by Shogo Sakai, Hiroshi Kanazu, & Keiichi Suzuki. Consoles: SNES, Family Computer, Gameboy Advance Original Soundtrack Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFbl3CqOzbI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85XM_Nl7_oo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idULzIIF950 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RIJ4X6vmoo Other comments: I arranged this medley as part of a commission from the Appalachian Video Game Ensemble, a new student group back at my university that performs live video game music. When I was first told of what pieces they wanted arranged for this medley, I had to think very carefully as to how to make it appropriate for the ensemble. I ended up adding several other layers (i.e., countermelodies and added harmonies) into the voices on top of the existing music to give it a little bit more pizzaz, and also to coincide with some of the conventions found in wind ensemble music. I use Sibelius 8 when composing/arranging music in order for it to be able to be mixed into a audio recording, as well as printed out in sheet music in order to be performed live.

Comments: Last October I visited my longtime friend and one of my favorite musicians of all time, Theophany, for a weekend and we had a chance to speak at length about our creative processes and some of the tricks he uses to create such organic, one-of-a-kind soundscapes. That visit gave me a huge burst of inspiration, and almost immediately when I returned home from the trip I began to work on a new remix. Roughly 50 hours of work later, this is what emerged. It features plenty of my signature bells and pads and a heavy focus on atmosphere, as always, but I think you'll agree that this is far different from my usual style. I wanted to create something dark, brooding, and extremely dramatic to really capture the larger-than-life spirit of the Chrono Trigger storyline. I took a lot of inspiration from film scores like Inception, post-rock bands like Sigur Rós and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and of course Theophany's own music. One of my challenges here was to create a track with a cinematic edge that could fit in with a movie trailer, without actually using any traditional orchestral instrumentation but still maintaining a heavily organic sound. I leaned heavily on ethnic instrumentation such as a shakuhachi, dulcimer, bells, and a bowed acoustic guitar, as well as various electronic percussion/pads to achieve this. At the time of writing this, the final 2-minute climax of this track is my favorite thing I've written to date for any song. I was particularly proud of the modulation of Schala's theme into the proper key at 4:22, as well as the distorted bowed guitar section that follows after the final climax, which was inspired directly by the live performance insanity of Sigur Rós, who is far and away the most intense and magical live band I've ever seen. I'm very proud of this remix, hope you all enjoy! Sources:

This mix is next-level stuff from Joe. I've been trying to pick out some personal highlights but honestly there are too many to narrow it down to just one - the didgeridoo, the complex ethnic drum patterns, the heavily-rhythmic flute performance, and the eerie reharmonization of the Omen theme at 3:20 are just a few notable moments. And that's not even touching on the voice acting and effects processing, which is fantastically integrated. The complete dropout of all effects at the "I will destroy it with my own hands" line gives me chills every time. I don't think I'm out of line in saying that this is one of Joe's best pieces to date. YES

I didn't have a problem with the tone of the piano here - for what Sam is doing with his streams and trying to cover many different styles in a short period of time, having a relatively simple, nimble piano patch like this gives you a lot more flexibility with improvisation. Even if it's not the most realistic sample, it's not overly dry and tinny, and there's enough velocity expression that the performance is still very dynamic. I haven't checked the arrangement so I don't want to write out a full vote yet, but I'm really surprised to see that others are considering going NO based solely on the piano tone. If anything, I initially felt like the overly noodly/directionless arrangement would be what sunk this track. I'll have to chime in with more later.

This is so refreshing! Truly a perfect fit for the Esther's Dreams album. Your melodic treatment of Piranha Plant's Lullaby is very interpretive, but it helps that the immediately-recognizable chord progression is consistently present, and your melodies are free to dance around it along with the bubbly backing rhythm. Adorable mix title, too :3 I've tried my hand at this source so many times to little avail, but you make this sound so effortless! YES

YASSS

Haha Larry, just to clarify, my "over-mixed source" comment was a purely off-side remark that has nothing to do with my opinions on the track or my judgment I paneled this because of the issues I'm about to go into. So, yeah. VERY creative arrangement, perhaps one of the strangest approaches I've ever heard to Aquatic Ambiance. I really love the thought that went into this, and although the genres that inspire you don't necessarily come through in this arrangement, it's cool that you're pulling inspiration from some lesser-explored realms of music. Arrangement-wise, I'd call this an easy pass. I wouldn't mind hearing a bit more variation to the hand-drumming rhythms in the intro if you can, and the last few minutes of the track felt somewhat extraneous, but for the most part that side of things checked out and I wouldn't necessarily solicit any changes there. Kris definitely has a good handle on the production issues, and for me, I think they add up to warrant a resubmission. All of the samples sound lower-than-average quality, but the sequencing and humanization is what really brings this down. I disagree with Larry that those realism issues are well-mitigated here... the pan flute and trumpet particularly stuck out to me as needing some TLC on the ADSR envelopes so that the notes fade more naturally. I think the pan flute is the biggest offender. The glockenspiel sample is piercing and has almost no expression, and the same can be said for the piano. The bass is also dominating the track quite a bit and Kris offered some fantastic advice on mixing that in better with the rest of the track. I really want to sign off on this because I do tend to give the benefit of the doubt on production issues when the arrangement is this creative, but I think this could really benefit from a second pass on the sequencing/humanization along with some mixing tweaks to help get it up to the bar. I won't be disappointed if this passes and I'm sure I'll find myself listening to it from time to time regardless, but I don't think it's ready to be posted yet. Good luck either way! NO (please resubmit!!)

I'm with Chimp on this one. The production is so washed out and leans on reverb in a way that's just too heavy. The voice clip really shouldn't be used more than once or twice, hearing the same exact voice clip repeated so many times feels extremely corny and I'm surprised that that issue alone isn't a dealbreaker for some of the other judges... The piano is also a weak point for me, sequencing-wise. Overall, I could just quote all of the feedback from Kris' vote and it would reflect my feelings here. That said, I don't think any of these are issues you can't fix with a bit more work, and I think it would be worth your time because the potential is really high here. The Ocean theme actually works really well in an uplifting trance style and I feel the energy you were going for with this arrangement, but the end result still feels like an unpolished 2nd or 3rd draft to me... not something that's quite ready for primetime. NO (resubmit!)

I've had to sit on this for a long time before I was even able to pass objective judgment on it. Ross' approach here is, as always, very abstract and holds little regard for the desires of your average casual listener, or fans of strictly-conservative remixes... which I think is pretty rad! The world needs a bit more weirdness like this. The re-harmonization of the Whiterun theme is very clever and surprisingly, really catchy - I've found this stuck in my head at random times throughout the last week. The arrangement leans heavily on the same core melody for most of the duration, but the overall dynamic curve never sits in the same place for long. The way the beat subtly progresses towards a 4-on-the-floor rhythm, or how the lead grows more heavily distorted over time are just a couple examples of how this piece develops without needing to introduce new melodic content. It's definitely not for everyone, but I'm definitely on board. Welcome back Ross! YES

This sums up my opinion better than I was able to express myself when I first listened to this track. I actually think this is pretty close - if you could clean up the timing near the intro and massage your arrangement into a more deliberate flow, I think you'd have a winner here. As it stands though, I think Larry/Kris helped solidify my gut impression here. NO (resubmit!)

@Clem, thoughts on this? Would you be willing to consider revising based on the feedback here?

I need some help discerning how Grahf's theme was used here, but other than that... dayummm. This sounds like one of Joe's best mixes to date - the voice acting is well-integrated, the drum rhythms are bonkers, and the way he handled the Omen theme at the end and all of the vocal effects suddenly cut out... shit. Next-level stuff there. Should be an easy call once we can figure out the source usage. ~ Emu This remix is for the album BADASS 3. REMIXER INFO Remixer Name: XPRTNovice Real Name: Joseph Zieja Email: Website: http://josephzieja.com Twitter: @JoeZieja REMIX INFO Games Arranged: Xenogears Name of Arrangement: The Power Name of Individual Songs Arranged: "Grahf" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N49Jy7SjdY "Omen" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYUGCGLG9jM Remixer Comments: Grahf had some of the best lines in Xenogears, and, being a voice actor, I guess, I wanted to integrate some of them into a really epic cinematic sort of remix. Grahf was so evil on so many levels, and his role in the plot of the game is just amazing. I used a lot of Middle Eastern elements, and it just sort of unfolded in this big way with creepy elements. Also, screaming "MY FIST IS THE DIVINE BREATH" in your basement when your mother in law is visiting creates interesting results.