Emunator

Not going to rehash the source usage debate at length, it checks out. I agree that the overall feeling of the production is flat, which is a shame because the arrangement is pretty dynamic and covers a lot of territory ranging from cinematic to synthwave to rock. The instruments and synths are all well chosen, but the overall mix doesn't really instill a lot of character into the parts you've written. Chimpazilla called out the lack of high end sparkle and I agree with this - some light tape saturation or an exciter on certain elements would bring back some warmth and character that this is missing, either on the master chain or at the mixbus level. In addition, the rhythm guitars feel almost pasted on, notably starting at 2:09. It almost feels like the rhythm guitars were sequenced with how rigid they are, which is a shame compared to the lead guitar which is far more expressive. I think this is something you'll look back on a year or two from now and hear a number of ways you could have improved this, but even in its current state, it's certainly serviceable! And the arrangement is very strong, so I have no problems passing in its current form. YES

Y'all, I think we're overthinking this one. It's a jam band roots rock arrangement, a little bit of slop and grit is good for the soul. The only thing that I would consider to really be worth noting on the technical side would be the overall compression/master quality, which leaves very little room to breathe and makes this sound a little less pleasant than it could. I didn't even find the ending to be too abrupt - the song has already said what it needs to say by that point. Viewing this through the lens of a jam band playing this at a dive bar or in a garage rehearsal space, this accomplishes what it sets out to achieve just fine in its current state. This isn't trying to be a perfectly pristine studio-quality recording and I don't think we should be judging it by those standards. YES

Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes, Emunator ft. Stemage, Chromatic Apparatus NOTE: THIS TRACK IS FOR THE PIXEL MIXERS SILENT HILL ALBUM. IF THIS IS APPROVED, DO NOT POST UNTIL THAT COMES OUT. Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, Master Emunator - Production, Mix Stemage - Guitars Chromatic Apparatus - Cello hey you know how I do something different for each cover? Apparently this one's twist is 'giving it a more conservative treatment'. Half-joking aside, I don't think there's a whole lot too interesting to say about this one. I grabbed Stemage, CA, and a mandolinist. My big goal with this track was to have it be my return to Pixel Mixers albums. And then, well, a lot happened during this and a lot happened after this. The very, very short explanation to a long story is I just wanted this track over with. But then I thought about it later - I don't think it was just that. I know I've often harped on other people for having their arrangements be too conservative, but there's just times where the original source tune already lends itself well as a song instead of an infinite loop. Kaze no Ne from Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is a great example of this. I've brought it up in DoD reviews that both arrangements I've heard of that track are very conservative. But I always emphasize: That's not inherently a bad thing if you know to make other elements stand on their own. Okay, that's enough talking about structure. So my original vision of this was a combo between psychedelic rock and synthwave, which we met in our weirdness. In my journey to get this track over with (delays in performers, bit of a block with the arrangement, etc), Wes (Emunator) offered to help with the mix. Funny enough it only started as drums, but it turned into the full thing. Then he passed it to me to wrap up. Also worth noting, this is my first track with Stemage since Hallucinatory Province. That's like, a 6 year gap in-between tracks. Yeah... uh, we definitely need to keep doing more psychedelic songs together (I was going to say "Psychedelic stuff" but that might have other implications.) I'm trying to make my gaps in-between working with collaborators less long, whoops. ? I hope you all enjoy!

Artist Name: BurningMagma I grew up playing the My Singing Monsters games in California ever since I was a kid, so I wanted to make a tribute for the series, and try to bring in that tropical vibe to the original songs. Also, I was inspired by another ReMix, titled Dovahkiin in Jamaica. It's amazing to see how far the franchise has come and how it impacted my childhood! Anyway, the VST plugins I used were: Instruments: Zebra 2, Kontakt 7, Kontakt Factory Library 2, Shreddage Drums, Shreddage 3.5 Stratus Free, Pearl Concert Grand, Freelodica, and Vintage Organs Effects: Fruity Limiter, SampleX v3, kHs Gain, Fruity parametric EQ 2, Fruity Reeverb 2, Raum, Initial Dynamic Eq, Ozone 11 Equalizer, Pulsar w495, and SSL Native Drumstrip v6 I hope you enjoy listening to this track as much as I enjoyed making it! Games & Sources Games: "My Singing Monsters Playground" (no quotes) by Big Blue Bubble Composers: Dylan Cole, Sam Clark, Tom Meikle 0:02 to 0:15 - the bass is a reference to the Air Island theme from 0:00 to 0:15 0:08 to 0:15 - original piano! 0:15 to 0:22 - the lead corresponds with the Water Island theme from 0:27 to 0:41 0:22 to 0:28 - the second part of this lead goes with Water Island again, but from 0:13 to 0:27 0:28 to 0:41 - in the background, you can hear a variation of the Hub World theme from 0:28 to 0:41 (hey, same timestamps!) 0:41 to 0:55 - the lead corresponds with the Air Island guitar from 0:41 to 1:08 0:55 to 1:08 - this part of the lead goes with another part of the Air Island theme, and it's from 1:35 to 1:49 1:35 to 2:01 - original melody! Sources:

Hot damn Michael. You know sometimes when you can't quite find the words for why something sounds amazingly produced, but you can feel it on a visceral level? That's what the production on this track does to me. Every single sound feels deliberately placed, and there's not a single space in the frequency spectrum that feels neglected or overemphasized. "Empty but full" is an absolutely perfect way to describe this, and I think you've made some tremendous strides in the quality of your mixing and mastering to help achieve this effect. The better frequency balance, spatial presence, and attenuation of harsh frequencies is absolutely felt here. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this sort of triumph simply wouldn't have been possible a year or two ago, and it speaks to the level ups that you've made as an artist in that time. Even the arrangement itself feels like it flows more naturally than some of your previous genre-bending mini-suite sound design experiments. Would it be going to far to even describe this as a pleasant listen? I don't think so. I'm not sure how you do it, but keep doing it. YES!!!

Honestly, I hate you guys. I don't think I will ever recover - physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually - from the smackdown this track put on me in the first GSM competition. I put out what I consider to be one of the best pieces of music I've ever made, and you just stomped all over it with your stupid synthwave bleeps and psytrance bloops. It's perfectly viable to reject a track on the grounds that it hurts my ears, so why not on the basis of it hurting my feelings? NO ... ... fine. It's good. Really good. I find that the team atmosphere of GSM lends itself to tracks that can sometimes feel like a mashup of everybody's ideas, "executive boardroom style", and I can't say that this doesn't feel that way to an extent, but you exercised such a great level of creative control over the parts that you have that it absolutely works in this track's favor. It feels like an adventure, and psytrance is the perfect musical foundation for this kind of approach. It's a genre that relishes in its buildups, breakdowns, and unexpected hard stops and left turns, and man you've got a lot of them here. It helps that every section of the track is engaging and brings something new to the table, but you transition so expertly between them that the time just flies by [Editor's Note: I wrote this out unironically and forgot the name of the remix title. Any puns are entirely coincidental.] This absolutely does not feel like 6 and a half minutes long. A well deserved victory my friends! YES

Wow, thank you all so much ? I made this track on a whim and needed convincing to even submit/publish it at all, I'm really pleased to see such a positive reaction to it.

Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes, Charles Ritz Previous Decision: https://ocremix.org/community/topic/52750 Here's my whole writeup from last time: That said, uh, what about this time. Okay, I was a bit devastated when this got rejected at first, I won't lie. But more because I didn't know *how* to approach some of these problems. My main takeaways that J's didn't like was: -Drums were repetitive -Mastering wasn't blown out enough -Ending was too abrupt I had some ideas for the ending, but frankly when I submitted this I didn't really understand the concept of pushing things through a clipper. If there's a judge comment I've learned THE MOST from, it's Prophetik specifically saying "Blown out mastering". I don't know how, I don't know why, but something about his comment made me resonate with what needed to be done. So I went back a few months later when I knew I was ready to revisit this. I reworked the drums ENTIRELY over several sessions. Emunator helped me with some awesome sound design advice. He even offered to step in on drums! That'll have to wait for another time, but I'm sure ya'll have been seeing my name with him at least a *couple* of times. After I'd got the drums locked in, I went back and redid the mix. It was mostly about raising background instruments up so more awesome background elements could have their chance to shine. Y'know, not JUST the drums. So you can actually hear the Oboe and vocal tracks now! AFTER that the mastering was pretty simple. Everyone I've shared it to dug it. I guess ear training's been paying off? I know this track definitely taught me the more creative things I can do with a compressor. ... I've got nothing else. Uh, go buy a copy of Through the Sacred Realm so you can support the Decolonizing the Music Room charity. Which honestly was half the reason I redid this track for OCR in the first place. Putting the spotlight on a good cause. :) Games & Sources Kakariko Village from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes ft. David Russell, Alejandro Espinoza & Louie Aronowitz For once I'm not really going to bother with a source breakdown since the melody is most of the time there and it barely drifts into original stuff. I'll be happy to oblige if requested. Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, Mix, Sound Design David Russell - Piano Alejandro Espinoza - Bass Guitar Louie Aronowitz - Drum Set I figured I need at least one single from my Volume 1 re-release of old tracks, yeah? This track was originally on BUDDIES: A Tribute to Banjo-Kazooie (BEAR SIDE) before being pulled from distribution. So what's the story with this one? Well, I wanted to do a jazz trio in the style of Hideaki Hori. Specifically his cover of Pure Imagination. Funny enough, I think this is the only time I've been particularly inspired by another cover. So I made the sheet music and arrangement pretty simple and gave the three a lot of room to improvise. The result? Hoh man, calling me the mix engineer on this is almost a far cry. I feel like I didn't even have to do anything. It was just some slight gluing together and adding in some sound design. That's it. One funny production story from this whole track is when I asked David Russell about doing it. I don't remember the specifics, but he was like "surprise I already did it" and I was just like "what." - I guess when the arrangement and idea is inspiring enough that really pushes people to record. One thing I love doing, absolutely *love* doing with covers by now (as clear for anyone familiar with my music) is taking a classic tune and really flipping it around. It's one where I enjoy a lot of the process behind it, like really digging deep into the source material and understanding how it works, but also the end product. Getting everyone to go "What the heck, how?!" and create something that (hopefully) inspires. I hope you all enjoy! Games & Sources

Full Credits Ridley Snipes - co-arranger, producer, engineer Xaleph - co-arranger Emunator - co-arranger ZackParrish - additional bits and bobs JSABlixer - additional bits and bobs Notes My first GSM track! ...was kind of a messy ride seeing as I wasn't even supposed to be "leading" this one originally. I use that term loosely, because I really served more as the organizational hub / engineer and because "someone had to steer the ship I guess" haha. I'm chalking that up to being just part of the learning curve of working in a high-pressure team setting (thanks GSM, hate love you). I wasn't starting from a completely blank canvas though; within the first day, Xaleph had already hooked me up with a slew of stems suitable for a suspenseful intro and the rising organ toccata. I immediately was inspired to grab a quote from Aliens and get to work on crafting some kind of drop. From here I worked mostly with Wes, trying a few different hiphop/EDM combinations before we settled on this weird spacey/worldy take on drill. But, it quickly became painfully clear that we were much more interested in just making a Red Soil Brinstar drill mix than a true mashup. And don't bring any more vampires into my office! So naturally, to remedy this, we called Xaleph back in and just started sampling the hell out of everything. Turns out Xal was sitting on a treasure trove of public domain samples from old movies (and Sesame Street) that we just couldn't resist using. I guess Ripley was talking about vampires, not xenomorphs :P About 80% of the material past the organ buildup was his design - he really saved us from this being a Brinstar-only mix. That and he was also able to recycle some cut parts from Zack and JSABlixer that had since been written out while me and Wes kept shifting gears. All in all it wasn't pretty, but we got the job done LOL. Wes and I actually had more-than-half a mind to not submit this and opt to rewind and make it the Brinstar mix it always wanted to be, but I think the spirit of GSM got to us in the end and we thought it'd be more fun just to ship it as-is. Cheers! Games & Sources

Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes ft. TSori & TheManPF SOURCE NOTES: 0:00-0:24 - Intro from original (0:00-0:12) 0:25-1:15 - Section A from the original (0:12-0:59) 1:16-2:19 - Section B from the original (1:00-1:24) 2:20-2:48 - Section C from the original (1:25-1:57) - A little more subdued 2:49-3:48 - Section A from the original but with a variation (0:12-0:59) Credits: Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, Production, Synth Solo TSori - Trumpet TheManPF - Guitars So has anyone checked out Chain Attack by Pixel Mixers yet? It's a pretty sick Xenoblade album comp. It was also my first track with coming back to Pixel Mixers. The whole story behind this track is a silly one, hoh boy, strap in. I was planning on doing it myself, but then I realized the "two collaborators" rule this track had. TSori was itching to play something on trumpet, and I knew PF would be great with guitars thanks to my experience with him in Dwelling of Duels. I gave them a lot of freedom. PF some lose instructions, leads, and chords. and TSori the melody to mess around with. And then this track picked up REALLY fast when TSori said "I know this feels uncharacteristic from me, but it feels like there's too much trumpet" so we changed the structure to fit that. Introducing the trumpet at :50 seconds in was a risky move, but it definitely paid off. Giving the trumpet a break and doing a synth solo halfway in was also DEFINITELY the right call. I was a bit uncertain about my soloing skills, but this might be one of my favorite solos I've done! I loved the master so much after spending weeks away from it that I was like "What if I did a redux for OCR". I think the original is pretty good(it's become a few people's favorites on the album ?) but this gives it a lot of that extra production oomph! And it was fun to go back and forth with Hemophiliac learning small little things to make the productions, and future productions of mine have a bit more oomph. Revisiting old tracks I've done used to be a dread, but now that I know more about the process and more about how to not overwork something that's working, I'm having a lot more fun! Rest assured, this is one of the first of many old tracks of mine you'll see reduxed. Uh... What else? Funny enough, TSori and I had a conversation about Emunator's "Gold Soul" (which might not be posted before this), and TSori was telling me about how he felt a good name for it would involve starting a journey, while mine was more like a return back to home. Enter this arrangement. I've only played a few hours of Xenoblade, so I had to brush up a bit on the Refugee Camp. I noticed a quest titled "The Road Home" and felt that was a very fitting name for this arrangement. Coming back home and seeing that nothing is quite ever the same before - picking up the pieces from where parts left off. I hope everyone enjoys this at least half as much as we loved making it! Games & Sources In the Refugee Camp - Xenoblade Chronicles

I really admire your persistence with this arrangement, and the strides you've made between versions are definitely yielding promising results. The core vibe is still intact, it doesn't seem like your sounds have drastically been altered since the first version, but you're steadily improving the quality of your processing and what you do with those sounds with each iteration. The arrangement is really strong and the additional bridges and writing are fantastic. 1:50 is a highlight for me and showcases some really great writing on your part. There's a clear dynamic curve and each section feels like it brings something new to the table. The question now is, is this over the bar in terms of production quality yet? I think this is a marked improvement, but there's still a very static quality to many of the elements in the track that doesn't align with what you seem to be trying to accomplish with your arrangement. My assessment is that the song structure is more of a brooding slow-burn that relies on subtle changes to ramp up the energy over time, rather than major jumps in dynamics. On a macro scale, you've got this down well, so I'm not suggesting changing anything about the overall arrangement, but what I'm hearing is a lack of fluidity and progression within individual segments. For example, the first minute or so feels very stagnant - once the loops come in, they stay pretty much consistent until you move onto the next section. This feeling persists across the entirety of the track. All this to say, I think this would be much more successful if there was more development and dynamics within your sections. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, but where I'd look first is with filter sweeps and subtle volume automation on your instruments or instrument busses. For the first minute of the track, for example, instead of starting off with all of your instruments at full volume, you could apply a low-pass filter to your instruments and gradually automate the frequency cutoff higher over time so that the track unfolds more gradually and keeps the listener's interest better. You can also invert this and filter out certain instruments later on in the arrangement when you're trying to wind down the energy. Or, you can find parameters within your synth patches that you can subtly adjust over a certain stretch of time. I'd especially suggest applying some of these techniques to your bassline, which simply doesn't hold my interest because the writing is so simple. Focusing on your microdynamics within smaller chunks of the song will help overcome some of the simplistic sounds you're using, and align the overall experience with what you were able to accomplish with the arrangement as a whole. On a separate note, I still find some of the drum sounds to be lacking. The clap around the 2:30 mark, for example, feels very stock and unprocessed, and I just don't think it fits what you're going for. The rest of the track is very atmospheric, but the drum sounds don't feel like they live in the same space and actually break the immersion. The hi-hat shares a similar problem, though it's masked better when you have rhythmic arpeggios going, such as 2:58. Through creative reverb (in addition to your room reverb), subtle delay, or any number of other creative effects that should be available with nearly any DAW, you can take stock drum sounds and transform them into something more interesting and suited for your track. Additionally, using unconventional percussion sounds from foley libraries or other sound sources, or layering in percussion loops that are going to have more of a groove, can also help make your drums feel more organic. I know I've suggested a lot here and don't want to be overly prescriptive with what you have to do with the arrangement, but at the same time, I ultimately feel like the combination of pretty basic sounds and the lack of movement/evolution within those parts is keeping this from reaching its full potential. You can get away with using basic, "vanilla" drum and synth sounds, but you've got to do a bit of extra work to make them sound engaging and I don't think this quite reaches that goal yet. There's a million ways to tackle this problem, and I just threw out a few possible solutions that I would personally explore, but I do feel like it is a problem that needs to be addressed. Great arrangement that's absolutely worth the work you're putting into it though, I hope to see this yet another time if this doesn't pass as-is! NO (resubmit!)

The mixing is not the most polished I've heard, I definitely second the notion that the drums are walking all over the rest of the track and there's a substantial amount of mud elsewhere. The sax programming isn't the most realistic in the world. The intro is quite abrupt and startling. But man, what a strong concept and a huge step up in terms of interpretation and arrangement compared to some of your earlier submissions that I remember hearing from years ago. You had a really clear vision and executed with a clear amount of passion and respect for the source material, both Donkey Kong and T-Square. All of the sounds in the band complement each other wonderfully and the arrangement is just chock full of creativity. I love this, I've never heard this source done this way before and I'm glad you chose to send this our way. Really great stuff! YES

It's The Plasmas covering Doom, I'm pretty sure I know what this is going to sound like without even reading the submission letter or clicking on it. ... yup. That's what I expected. And it rocks. The lead guitar work especially carries this through, but all the elements of the band ensemble are carrying their weight. I'm actually not sure where the complaints about the guitar tone or mixing is coming from, maybe there's a subjective preference at play here because I love it. Sounds rich but simultaneously gritty, the drums are lively and pack a punch, and the bass is audible. Nothing more to say, you're consistently churning out great work. YES

Yup, this tracks for me. Rests and negative space are a form of source usage, and that especially applies here. Love this source material and what you've done with it, it feels totally identifiable without having to bust out a stopwatch or a magnifying glass. The ramping intensity over time is palpable, even if you can't pinpoint exactly where exactly it picks up, which contributes to the feeling of unease that you were going for. Emptiness, but with urgency, is a great descriptor. YES

Let's start with the good stuff. The rhythmic expansion on both the drums and the synth arpeggios is wild and carries the song on its own. On top of that, your arrangement goes a ton of places and never feels like it grows stagnant, which is a major risk for the genre. Orchestral and piano elements are integrated with a lot of care to showcase some really great original writing that bridges together the sections of Super Metroid material. Really expansive arrangement. I recognized the Metroid Prime 2 multiplayer sounds before I even read your submission letter, that did a great job of drawing me into the Metroid universe. The arrangement is killer. I generally agree with the same nitpicks that the other judges called out - the bass is lacking in personality, movement, and harmonics to the sound itself. To put it plainly, it's just a boring bass, and because so much of it is written at higher ranges, there's just not a lot of presence. I would personally have suggested picking a different bass tone entirely with some glide/modulation to it so it can express some personality, or if you were really committed to a simple bass, consider adjusting the octaves so that you're actually hitting the sub regions, and then employ some light saturation/waveshaping/distortion to thicken up the harmonics of your bass just slightly. Aside from that, the sample quality was serviceable but not blowing me away, especially the guitar, which could have had a much thicker tone to suit the track more appropriately. Easily skates by on the merits of a super creative arrangement and some great rhythmic work all around - not without its flaws, but clearly good enough here and I'm glad to see you pushing the envelope with your own skillset. Keep em coming! YES

Fun sound palette that feels way out of your wheelhouse to start this off, but once we get to the meat of the arrangement this settles more into the kind of territory I've come to expect from Gaspode. Not a lot to say about this. While I was initially confused by MindWanderer's implication about wanting it to be more "acoustic" and less "electronic," I think I get what he's getting at. I also found the percussive and sampled elements to be the most enjoyable part of this, and found the synths to be a little static and unexpressive compared to that. The synths simply don't match the same level of energy or swing as the rest of the instruments. All that said, it comes together in the end and forms a package that's quite clearly over our bar. YES

This is stunning and immaculately produced on every level, you were able to squeeze a lot of mileage out of your instruments to not only carry the melodic aspect but also contribute texture to the piece as well. A very fitting solo debut to showcase your wicked level of talent with your instruments. CA, you are a treasure and the community is so lucky to have you involved in it! YES

Artist Name: Gaspode Spring is coming. Time for some positive vibes. This time in form of five different hometown-themes from The Legend Of Zelda. Because the only place in a big adventure, where you can relax and don’t constantly have to fight Ganons minions, is at Home Sweet Home. Games & Sources Wind Waker Outset Island Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi, Kōji Kondō https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toTKXTRpKL4 0:40 – 0:55 1:35 – 2:08 2:08 – 2:24 (in the background) 3:32 – 3:42 (in the background) Ocarina Of Time Kokiri Forest Kōji Kondō https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ6Fq-LfDZQ 0:55 – 1:34 Links Awakening Mabe Village Minako Hamano, Kozue Ishikawa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh6Rm5Jp02U 2:08 – 2:40 Twilight Princess Ordon Village Toru Minegishi, Asuka Hayazaki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSzW0GGRGnI 2:40 – 3:12 Skyward Sword Skyloft Theme Hajime Wakai, Shiho Fujii, Mahito Yokota, Takeshi Hama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX5mYCrMm58 3:12 – 3:48

Mel Decision: arrangement, production VARIA: percussion, piano, sound design, and miscellaneous sfx Moebius: chorus Cyril the Wolf: mastering My entry for round 2 of the second Game Set Mash!! compo. When listening through the Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow OST, the dreaminess of Purification gave me instant thoughts of Enya and that "Pure Moods" album commercial I must have seen hundreds of times on TV growing up. Luckily the other team chose "Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area)" from Super Metroid, which is also pretty dreamy. I queued up some Enya and ended up using "Only Time" and "Orinoco Flow" as my main reference tracks. I transposed both of the source songs into the same key and brought in a bunch of major chords in my arrangement to lift the mood, and tried to mimic some classic Enya vibes, like reverb drenched pianos, plucky string ostinatos, and arpeggiated harps. I had intended to write and record vocals for the track, but that never came together. Instead, I layered choral parts using Spitfire Audio's "Epic Choir," and also 8Dio's "Liberis Choir," courtesy of Moebius. I relied on piano and pan flutes to carry the melody, since that felt genre-appropriate. VARIA wrote a nice piano countermelody that helped break the monotony of the flutes. They also put together several layers of percussive, harmonic, and effect tracks that gave the piece depth and polish, such as the driving snare that comes in towards the end. Finally, I passed the track off to Cyril for mastering. Had a ton of fun collaborating with folks on this track. A++ would GSM again! Super Metroid: Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Purification Games & Sources Super Metroid: Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area) 0:17–1:10: Melody (Pan pipes) 0:04–1:10: Accompaniment (Pizz strings) 2:02–2:40: Accompaniment (Pan pipes, piano, harps) 3:38–4:10: Accompaniment (Piano) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Purification 0:31–1:10: Accompaniment (Harps) 1:22–1:50, 2:40–4:42: Melody (Pan pipes, piano) 2:02–2:40: Melody (Bansuri) 3:08–3:35: Accompaniment (Harps) Those are specific quotes, the block chords and other harmony were largely drawn from the chords/arps being played in the songs, or we've written new countermelodies and harmonies to go along with the source material. There's probably some stuff I'm missing, it's kind of a jumble...and sometimes we're playing parts from both songs at once, since I transposed them into the same key.

Artist Name: LadyReemz & Marc Papeghin "Beyond the Shores" is a collaboration between LadyReemz ( known as LadyReemz86 on YouTube) and Marc Papeghin ( same name on YT). Ladyreemz wrote original lyrics for the song, envisioning a young fisherman's hopes for the future in the town of Fisherman's Horizon. She also sang lead vocals on the track. Marc Papeghin arranged the music, and sang parts during the chorus of the song. Below are the original lyrics written for the track: Verse 1 The Ocean calls me wherever I go I'd even name it my home I soar I fly, when I float under the sky Clouds endless shapes pass me by Verse 2 * Beneath the surface, treasures left unknown A curious world of its own I dream a day, where one day I'll no longer wait Live life free of all constraints Bridge Why do I wait what for? There's so much more to explore There's no turning back there is just too much to see Beyond these shores, these shores Verse 3 * Oh sturdy wood, do not dare fail me now Father awaits, and we'll make him proud I must I will, the plates tonight I shall fill How much I've grown no more doubt Verse 4 *Oh waves of strength, lull me to sleep Help me find all dreams deep When I wake, I'll know where my heart will set sail to past the horizon with the winds Bridge x 1 Chorus The Ocean calls me wherever I go I'd even name it my home I soar I fly, when I float under the sky Clouds endless shapes pass me by I soar I fly, when I float under the sky Clouds endless shapes pass me by Games & Sources "Beyond the Shores" is an original arrangement of Final Fantasy 8's "Fisherman's Horizon". There is also a few seconds pertaining to the "Game Over" music in FF8.

Artist: Ridley Snipes, Emunator (feat. Xaleph, Lucas Guiamaraes, lunarice, JSABlixer, ZackParrish) [Emunator note: Trevor and I worked on this extensively together and would like to share co-primary artist credits, but since this was really his baby, I'd like for his name to show up first on the MP3 tags and artist listing. If that's not possible, I'd rather him take sole primary artist credits and relegate myself to a featured artist!) Full Credits Ridley Snipes - arranger, producer, engineer, vocals, "lyrics" Emunator - additional bass design, sound design, percussion, vocals Xaleph - additional bass design, vocals Lucas Guimaraes - additional vocals lunarice - additional vocals JSABlixer - additional vocals ZackParrish - additional vocals Comments After two rounds of GSM, we collectively declared the Fusion OST our nemesis and decided to dump Ridley's theme on this one solely to free up the other two picks. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition Evil Macarena! I have always thought that the synth stab in various iterations of this theme sounded like the Macarena hook...and uhh yeah. My original plan was to go full Macarena on this, complete with full verses that blended elements from both the original Los Del Rio Macarena and the Bayside Boys remix. That clearly did not happen...instead I opted for a simple structure with 3 different Ridley drops, each with their own distinct flavor, and allowing the Castlevania source to carry through the more melodic turnarounds of the first two. Mine being more intimate, followed Xalpeh's bouncy psy trappings, and the third being Emunator literally reading my mind and going full evil industrial Macarena. The chant was my substitute for the lyrical content we originally planned - the translation may not be perfect but it's serviceable haha. I wrote up some instructions and left the door open for anyone on the team to record as many wild takes as they wanted and send them my way, which culminated in a meaty 159(!) vocal tracks total that made it into the final product. Very happy to have had this level of participation in my silly blood ritual :) Lyrics Salve diablo Ofrendo mi cuerpo Entrego mi alma Al dios nuestro Dale a tu cuerpo eso vida Macarena!

Credits Emunator: Primary arrangement, piano writing and performance, vibraphone Zack Parrish: Additional arrangement, guitar performance, bass and drum programming, mixing & mastering Lucas Guimaraes: Voice & sound design (intro) Comments This is our submission from round 2 of the Metroid vs. Castlevania Game Set Mash! competition. Obviously, because nobody in their right mind would ever willingly choose to mash up these two sources. The real "mystery" is why the hell we picked this source in the first place. This piece was a bit of a rush job. The original concept for the mashup came from JSABlixer, who wanted to arrange a multi-instrument Insaneintherain-style jazz piece. Lucas also contributed a rough MIDI skeleton expanding on the idea (as well as the voices and ambiance you hear in the intro!) but after playing with it, we realized we didn't have the time or resources to do something so elaborate, and the approach just wasn't going to be feasible on a deadline. So we essentially started from scratch with roughly 2 days before the deadline. I've never written a jazz piece before, or really performed piano extensively on an arrangement before. That said, I wanted to honor the original vision from JSA and Lucas as closely as possible, even though we were starting the arrangement from scratch, so I dove in headfirst anyway. Zack quickly joined on to save the day with his mindblowingly-realistic bass and drum programming, and laid down some guitar riffs over the track as well. We worked closely together to polish everything up, and with a combined 40 hours of work over 2 days, mustered a buzzer-beater of a track that we submitted within a few hours of the final deadline. The source usage is loose and interpretive but present throughout most of the track, so for the millions of diehard fans of the perennial VGM classic "Environmental Mystery" from Metroid Fusion, you're in for a real treat here.

VOTE ON THIS VERSION (revised April 19) Hi OCR. For some background, I was doing vgm covers on Soundcloud from 2012-2017 or so and then submitted a (rejected) remix fresh out of college around 2018. After that I focused more on original content, incl. doing music for a VN called Validate, but I thought it'd be fun to try subbing again now that I have a better understanding of producing, arranging, etc. Source Usage I've been submitting WIPs of this one in the Discord for close to a year on and off. I know the biggest point of questioning is probably going to be the source usage; I've added it up a few times and it's roughly 65% source. It's a long-ish remix of a pretty short source so here's a breakdown, timestamped: 0:00-0:45 | Ambience, then "The Street of Rage" main theme kicks off the melodic part at 0:23, then riffing. 0:45-1:11 | The synth bass and percussion from the "A" section of Stealthy Steps. 1:11-2:15 | Full arrangement of the "A" section of Stealthy Steps. 2:15-2:58 | Flourish and original bridge inspired by Revenge of Shinobi, e.g. Ninja Step. 2:58-3:30 | Full arrangement of the "B" section of Stealthy Steps. 3:30-5:05 | Mostly modulations of the source. The piano/guitar echo the "bongo" melody, and at 4:13 the theremin echoes the bass melody. 5:05-5:30 | Ending lick is riffing on the Stealthy Steps "A" section bass. There's only a few external references, all to Yuzo Koshiro: - At the 0:08 mark of Ninja Step, there's a high "charang" stab which gets referenced in the remix at 3:50 onward. - The bassline of Ninja Step gets used by the synth bass and low-octave piano starting around 4:21. - At 1:08 of Attack the Barbarian, there's a quick square lead melody which gets referenced around 3:52 and again and 4:11. Production I think Streets of Rage 1's soundtrack gets overlooked a lot because its arrangements come off as simpler compared to 2 which is why I thought it would be a fun source to expand on. Production-wise, I wanted to achieve a fidelity closer to Streets of Rage 4, but with some "90s arranged CD version" elements i.e. Sound In Action to help it feel more like a throwback. The remix also has the same BPM as the source tune (90) because I wanted to keep it downtempo/funky like Streets of Rage 1 and Revenge of Shinobi compared to 2/3/4 being more inspired by Detroit techno. The arrangement is also somewhat based on in-game context; Stealthy Steps is the BGM for Level 6 which is an industrial/factory stage. The preceding level is a sunset boat/harbor stage hence the helicopter/siren ambience, and the 3:30-5:05 section was meant to be more repetitive so it could be used for the boss fight at the end of the stage. For instrumentation, I'm using a lot of instances of FMDrive and FM8 to recreate Genesis synths; the only thing sampled directly from the game is the "bongo" loop that starts at 0:50 in the remix and it's been processed/chopped up a lot. The more original instruments are mainly using u-he's Diva/Hive/Zebra2 or a MicroKorg, and the piano is a tweaked version of the Hammer Klavier from zircon's Impact Soundworks company. I mainly do progressive electronic so this is a pretty hot/dense mix for me, and it was definitely a challenge to give everything enough breathing room. Including master bus FX it was something like 150 VST instances total. Extras I'm around on the Discord pretty often so if you need anything or have any questions feel free to let me know. I do graphics stuff too so I made track art for the remix (for Soundcloud etc), I'm not sure if it could be included anywhere on the site. Thank you for taking the time to read this! Adrian Stealthy Steps: Ninja Step: Attack the Barbarian: The Street of Rage:

Hi OCR! Here is a piano arrangement of ff5 Search of Light and a little of Pirate Ahoy. As an exercise, I tried at the beginning to play a heroic theme of ff5 in a nostalgic mood. I've found the result interesting and I’ve started to develop this to get a complete arrangement. I've begun with heroic harmonies of Search of Light’s intro, those I’ve adapted in soft arpeggios. The main theme comes after (part 2 to 4). At part 5, I continue the melodic line with some arpeggios like in intro. Parts 6 and 7 get closer to the heroic mood of the original. By using some variations in harmony, I've recognized a little Pirate Ahoy. So I’ve integrated some winks and I conclude the arrangement by Pirate Ahoy, in the same mood as the beginning. For the title, I've thought to a flag used by some warriors of the see, in the light side. Enjoy! Guillaume BREAKDOWN Part 1 : 0’00 : Search of Light intro (0’00 -> 0’03) Part 2 : 0’43 : SL 0’03 -> 0’22 Part 3 : 1’19 : SL 0’22 -> 0’30 Part 4 : 1’40 : SL 0’03 -> 0’22 Part 5 : 2’13 : SL 0’22 -> 0’30 with key transposition of 0’30 Part 6 : 2’30 : Variation of SL 0’03 -> 0’22 introducing harmonies of Pirate Ahoy and some winks to Pirate Ahoy Part 7 : 3’05 : SL 0’30 -> 0’44 Part 8 : 3’28 : SL 0’03 -> 0’22 and PA 0 -> 0’40 together Part 9 : 3’58 : PA 0 -> 0’40 Games & Sources Game & Songs: Final Fantasy 5 Composer: Nobuo UEMATSU