Emunator   Judges ⚖️

This is a slam dunk of an arrangement, it reminds me a lot of Pistolero by Juno Reactor with the fusion of western-style acoustic guitar and goa beats. It fits like a glove. Matt has mastered this genre and it's hard to find any significant fault in his execution. Having played Flowstone Saga a lot, I have an extra level of respect for what he did with this source! I don't have a lot of specific commentary to give here, but I'm happy to sign off on this without reservation. YES

Yeah, just hopping in for a quick co-sign with the judges above - this is a very interesting sound design experiment and I would encourage you to keep trying things like this, but it doesn't come together into a listenable final result for a couple of reasons that have already been broken down. I'd love to see you take some of these ideas and really work on the songwriting and production components behind it, but as it stands, this feels like an experiment that needs a lot more time workshopping before it's ready to stand alone as a solo piece. NO

Quick co-sign with Brad - this is surprisingly well produced, mixed, and mastered, but the arrangement hews a little too close to the original material for how short of an arrangement this is. There's a TON of potential here and the good news is that your production is already solid, I wouldn't suggest changing much about that at all. But the arrangement itself needs to differentiate itself more from the source material and/or add some more interpretive components to the mix. If you can do that, you'll have an easy winner here! NO (resubmit)

Yep, @prophetik music has the right take here, unfortunately. This is super cool and I feel like a live video of you running through this would pop off on Tiktok/Youtube Shorts, but it's not in line with our submission standards so I'm afraid this is a no. Really enjoyed the listen though regardless! NO

Artist Name: Michael Hudak I rented Sonic Heroes from Blockbuster 20 years ago, played it for one weekend and never touched it again. And yet - the main melody from Casino Park has been in my head playing on a loop for a considerable portion of these last two decades. It's one of the ultimate earworms. Thus, this ReMix. No deep dives down sound design rabbit holes here. This is the most conversative track I've ever made for OCR. I just wanted to not work on something for forever. Just get it a demo down, flesh it out with enough neat stuff to not have it be too vanilla, get the mix sounding good, and ship it out. I did end up spending triple the amount of intended time making tweaks to the drums and percussion. So it goes. I had the most fun writing the bassline, which is original. My initial ending to the song was a cartoony tape-stop thing similar to how the source tune loops back to the start, but I replaced it with a bass hoedown jig reprise. I guess it's more of a jazz bass, but at 174 bpm (same as the source), it becomes something else... The finished product sounds a little like a Smash Ultimate version of Casino Park. I'll take it.

Artist Name: Mel Decision I wrote this song for an 8Bit Music Theory discord weekly challenge to "make a mash-up arrangement from at least two SNES songs." I thought it would be kind of funny to go for two of the most widely-remixed SNES songs I could think of, Schala's Theme from Chrono Trigger and Terra's Theme from FFVI. Thinking about it, mashing up these songs felt appropriate—both Schala and Terra were women possessing vast magical talents, both used by powerful countries as weapons—Terra as a slave for the Gestahlian Empire, and Schala to power Zeal's Mammon Machine. I wanted each melody to get the spotlight, while still twining together underlying parts of each song throughout the piece. I transposed the songs into the same key so it would be easier to meld them together. I was feeling synths and a trap beat for this piece (idk why, vibes?), and I ended up experimenting with some new sounds and production techniques to fill out the arrangement. As always thanks to the amazing OCR discord community for ongoing feedback and support on this mix! Games & Sources Chrono Trigger: Schala's Theme by Yasunori Mitsuda. - Melody used 0:00–1:00, 2:30–3:03, 3:50–end - Accompaniment used throughout FFVI: Terra's Theme by Nobuo Uematsu. - Melody used 1:06–2:30, 3:03—3:51 - Accompaniment used throughout

Artist Name: Chimpazilla, Emunator Credits: Chimpazilla: Original concept and arrangement, production, mixing, mastering Emunator: arrangement, production, keys, mixing Artist Comments: Chimpazilla: Once again, I think Wes and I have created something magical. "Sidon's Serenade" began as my wip; I laid out the arrangement structure with the intention of collabing with Wes, and he loved it and ran with it. The style was intended to be lo-fi to match some of his more recent arrangements, but I think the lo-fi effect was lost as we went along. (That is my fault, I'm not sure I'm good at lo-fi!) The result is a gorgeous halftime chillout song full of glassy synths, organic bells and instruments, shimmery pads and tons of ear candy. Wes and I improved our collab protocols even further with this arrangement, and I think the result is extremely beautiful and cohesive. We hope you enjoy it! Emunator: Another week, another Chimp+Emu collab, it seems! We need to officially form a band. This is sort of a sister track to our Super Mario World 'Apparitions' arrangement, but in reverse. This time, it was one of Kris' old demos from years back that I pulled out from storage and decided to finish off. Zora's Domain, regardless of the iteration, is a tremendous piece of music that contains so many lovely riffs that can be arranged in an endless number of ways, but I ended up mainly sticking with Kris' original arrangement structure. The only totally new section I added was the guitar-led outro at 3:37. The rest of my contributions involved layering a TON of sounds and textures and spicing up the transitions. That said, I'm also pretty proud of the Fairy Fountain cameo that I played on keys at 1:20 - that was entirely a happy accident that Fairy Fountain worked over the Zora chord progression! Kris alluded to some workflow collab improvements that stemmed from this piece, so I'll take a moment to elaborate there. There was a period of time where we were seemingly at odds about how the song should be mixed, and had a bit of a communication gap that we didn't immediately pick up on. Turns out, I was pulling my inspiration from the Ocarina of Time version of Zora's Domain, which features a lead guitar motif present at :45 and 3:48 in our remix that, unbeknownst to me, wasn't present in the Breath of the Wild version that she was referencing, so she had no idea it was supposed to be a lead melody. Moral of the story - make sure you and your collab partner both know which song you're supposed to be remixing! All that said, I couldn't be happier with how this turned out and with the experiencing working with Kris. See y'all again next week... probably! :) Games & Sources Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Zora's Domain (Day) Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Zora's Domain Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Great Fairy Fountain

Artist: jnWake, Emunator Mastered by Chimpazilla K, so another DoD month ends which means another submission for OCR by me! This time, the monthly theme was "Franchise Fusion" and the requirement was to mix at least 2 games from different franchises. After pondering it for a while, I decided that a good idea would be to mix 2 themes that were popular, so that people could recognize the actual fusion of themes. I quickly chose Aquatic Ambience since it's a lovely theme and I already knew it on piano. Secret of the Forest then came naturally as another iconic chill theme from the SNES era. I had never actually noticed how similar both themes are and plenty of DoDers were surprised this idea "had never done before" (it surely has, but as far as I know there's not a particularly popular mash-up on YouTube or other websites). Anyway, so about the mix. Since the theme was fusion I made the arrangement with the idea of melding both themes together as much as possible. I even began the song using the actual soundfonts from the games. Most sections of the arrangement feature the backing of one of the tunes and the melody of the other tune on top, but I'll detail that later. Quickly after beginning the arrangement I realized having a strong sound design would be necessary for this to be a hit, so I contacted everyone's favorite judge Emunator (he describes himself that way, do not blame me!) for help on that front. My initial idea was for him to listen to the arrangement and mostly provide sound design feedback plus a few stems... BUT instead he got super motivated with the idea and added much more than that. First, instead of simply using the soundfonts like I had done he investigated the origins of the sounds and replaced some of the samples with the actual uncompressed sounds from the original synths! He also replaced some other sounds here and there, added a plethora of effects, extra drum fills and rewrote the ending part of the track... and if all that wasn't enough he even did the final mix! I had never had the pleasure of had so much work taken from me on a collaboration but it was awesome (as I may have commented before, I'm not a particularly big fan of mixing, I only do it because I have to). For the final touch, Emunator also contacted Chimpazilla to handle the master. I didn't have the chance to talk with her this time, so I'll take this opportunity to thank her for her work! As usual, now comes the source breakdown. Both sources are so popular that I'll be a little less thorough than my usual breakdown: 0:00-1:00: We begin with Aquatic Ambience's arpeggios as a tease, since the first melody that kicks in is from Secret of the Forest. Idea here is that the background (pads + arpeggios) are from DKC while the rest is from CT. Section B from Secret of Forest then follows with the same idea. 1:00-1:33: Chord progression from Section C of Secret of the Forest, melody is a variation of Aquatic Ambience's one but following the chords. 1:33-2:21: Surprise percussion! I thought it'd be fun to wait a bit before the drums enter, making the shift to a chill beat more impactful. Secret of the Forest harp and chord progression play here while the melody is from Aquatic Ambience. The combination works surprisingly well. 2:21-2:34: Aquatic Ambience arpeggios over a chord progression and melody of Secret of the Forest. 2:34-3:01: Flute solo! It can't be a song by me without a solo I guess? Chord progression is from Secret of the Forest section C. 3:01-4:04: Climax of the track, chord progression is "original", while the rest of the instrumentation has elements of both tracks. Synth is playing the melody from Secret of the Forest, while the accordion is throwing quotes from Aquatic Ambience. A fun fact (for me at least?) is that for the transition to double time I transposed the melody 1 tone below, when the usual is to transpose higher to create a burst of energy, that way I attempted to mantain the chillness of the track despite the increase of the beat. 4:04-end: A chance to relax after the climax, Aquatic Ambience's arpeggio and Secret of the Forest's main melody play and slowly fade out as the track ends. Again, thanks to Emunator and Chimpazilla for their work on this, as it'd have never been as good without them! The track ended up placing #2 in DoD, which was pretty cool. Hope you like it! Sources:

Artist Name: Xaleph, Zack Parrish, Audiomint Arranger: Xaleph Guitarist: Zack Parrish Vocals: Audiomint Mastering: Zack Parrish I wanted to have an acoustic psytrance song that used sfx from the game (provided by OceansAndrew) and was thankful that Zack rerecorded the acoustic parts I initially played (I'm not nearly as good!). I really had a lot of fun putting together this mix and I hope you can feel what fun I had through the energy in this mix! I'll look at getting the lyrics later as Audiomint is at camp (she recorded right before heading out). The vocals used (the climb), I worked with OceansAndrew to make sure it's an approved rearranged version that still encompasses his vision for that motiff. Also - I really wanted to support this game on release, I love the concept and I would love to see this succeed! Flowstone Saga - Standoff and "The Climb" (motiff)

Artist Name: Emunator feat. Zack Parrish, ParadiddlesJosh Credits Emunator: Arrangement, production, programmed guitars (acoustic, tremolo), mixing Zack Parrish: Guitars (leads, distorted rhythm), electric bass, mastering ParadiddlesJosh: Drums Artist Notes I've been beta testing Flowstone Saga for several months at the time of this submission, which has generally meant that I've experienced the first 5 hours of the game about 10 times. I haven't yet made it far enough to hear this song in context, but when I was scanning through the soundtrack, I absolutely fell in love with this piece and immediately knew I had to arrange it. It's magical and emotive in a way that evokes classic JRPG soundtracks like Xenogears, and I couldn't get it out of my head. I asked Andrew if I was too late to get in on the Flowstone Saga arrangement bandwagon, and he told me I had roughly 2 weeks left before the due date. Challenge accepted - nothing motivates me like an impending deadline! If this were a speedrun, I'd be gold splitting nearly every part of this project. I knew that, after years of toeing the line around this genre, I wanted to go full post-rock on this one, and OceansAndrew set the perfect stage for that to happen. I started off with a skeleton arrangement that I littered with programmed guitars and drums along with my usual ambient synth fare. The arrangement was locked in by day 2, but in order to really make it convincing, I had to enlist Zack and Josh to bring some live band energy. I shipped off parts after lunch, took a nap, and by the time I woke up a few hours later, I was already receiving recordings from both of them. Absolutely clutch guys, your work here is impeccable and SO much better than what I could accomplish solo. From there, I spent another 10 hours or so putting layers of polish in the form of synth layers, pads, and one-shot effects all over the track to glue everything together. It all happened so much faster than normal - I really hit my "flow state" on this one ;) Regarding the title: in-game, this song is used in a location called Eden Lake, which features a flow-touched sakura tree. In doing some research for potential song names, I came across the Japanese word "hanagasumi", which translates to "hazy curtain of flowers, cherry blossoms appearing from afar like white mist." I couldn't have asked for a better hyper-specific word to capture the overall vibe of this piece, and it helped me come up with the most over-the-top post-rock-ass title I could muster. Technical note: this is my first mix that I've made since acquiring a new pair of mixing headphones and calibrating my studio monitors, and oh man, what a difference it has made! I was able to complete this track in under 20 hours, and I think it sounds far better than songs I've spent 100 hours on. I finally feel like I can trust my ears and have my mixes translate to consumer grade speakers. Chimpazilla said that this "doesn't have any of the usual problems" so I'm optimistic that this will go over well! It's one of my favorite arrangements I've ever written, thanks again to the homie OceansAndrew for letting me be a part of this and for creating this wonderful music in the first place!

Prophetik did a great job breaking down the adaptation to a different instrumental palette and scale, but I also want to commend you on the really high-quality instrumental programming and mixing too. There's a great deal of this that genuinely sounds like a live recording, and the sense of space created is extremely immersive. I found myself lost in this piece and almost forgot I was supposed to be listening with a critical ear a few times. I say this in a positive light - this felt a lot longer than 3 minutes. Choosing to limit your sound palette was a good choice here in this case - sometimes the best creative results can come out of applying limitations to yourself. Can't find a hole to poke in this one, your concept, arrangement, and execution are all among the best I've heard from you! YES

I have no idea how you found this original but here we are! Honestly though, the translation to sax-infused heavy metal works pretty damn well, and the source connection was instantly apparent. 1:16 is indeed boomy as hell, but it's about the only issue I can find with this piece - everything else is mixed super tight, the performances are on-point, the transitions are well-executed but certainly not stock or phoned in, the saxophones are mixed and recorded perfectly. No reason to hold this one back! YES

I feel like any Mazedude track with the word "Tangerine" in the title is going to be have high standards to live up to, but immediately I hear that he's up to the task. I've been diving into a bunch of retro-inspired romplers myself this past week, and it's given me a really deep appreciation for some of these quirky sounds that haven't exactly maintained their foothold in the soundscape of modern pop music. The deeply gated drums, impossibly expressive lead synths, the gurgling basslines, and... orchestra hit synths? Is that what those are? I can't even tell, all I know is that it scratches my eardrums in a way that only Mazedude can. The arrangement is respectful of the original and expands on it. I couldn't have asked for more, we're sure lucky to have you around after all these years! YES

@Liontamer Great feedback, I re-mixed the song and scraped out some of the mud and I think we're in better shape now. Check it out!

Artist Name: Emunator, Hotline Sehwani Credits: Emunator: Arrangement, production, keys, mixing Hotline Sehwani: Arrangement, production, original concept, mastering Comments: Emunator: This track is one of four collaborations that Hotline Sehwani and I did for "Elden Ring: Tarnished Shadows," an album of lo-fi/chill arrangements from the Elden Ring soundtrack to celebrate the launch of the Shadows of Erdtree DLC. After a successful collaboration on our Undertale lo-fi release, we immediately jumped back in and got to work on some more. He sent me four initial demos with melodic ideas and rough instrumentation, which I then fleshed out into full songs, and passed back to Hotline for mastering. It was an extremely smooth collab process that yielded results that I'm super proud of! I hope you check out our three other collabs and the rest of the project, too! With this project, I wanted to explore the more acoustic side of lo-fi music, fusing traditional chillhop beats with a more melancholy, gothic sound palette. With Final Battle particularly, it was a challenge to transform such bombastic source material into something that respected the spirit of the original while still being something you could throw on as study music. I had to approach mixing differently than I would normally for an orchestral track, where you can confidently slam your peaks to the max.. I had to be a lot more delicate with the approach here, relying more on rhythmic variation to bring energy rather than massive sweeping orchestral statements. Arrangement-wise, we kept it short and sweet, with a rug-pull ending that is meant to mirror the experience of fighting in Elden Ring, where no matter how confident you are, you are always only one hit away from sudden death. Time to hit replay and try the battle again ;) Hotline Sehwani: Our goal for "The Final Battle" cover was to transform the triumphant battle theme into a more mellow and somber vibe. The song begins with subtle wind chimes, capturing the calm before the storm, and ends in a similar fashion. To listen to the album now on your favorite platform: https://music.hotlinesehwani.com/erts

Cover Track Information Arranger: Chromatic Apparatus Performers: Cello: Chromatic Apparatus Piano: Flávio Teles Description: Broken Reflection (a cover of "Promise" from Silent Hill 2) is a track featured from the new Silent Hill tribute album Monochrome Dreams by Pixel Mixers. I confess I haven't played any of the Silent Hill games--horror games aren't my cup of tea 😅 but when I was perusing the tracks to see if I could work with something to participate on the PM album, this one track immediately jumped out to me. The simple, plaintive melody that the synth/guitar picks out over the rhythm guitar's ostinato, got stuck in my head! I could "hear" an adaptation of the soft rock vibe into a more melancholic version, both more placid and more intense, featuring two live cellos (performed by me) and a piano (many thanks to Flávio Teles for his performance on keys). The feeling I was attempting to capture is the sense of solitude and self-reflection, and the intense, spiraling self-doubt, fixation, and turmoil that can come from being alone with your own thoughts for too long. Arrangement Details The original track featured a standard Soft Rock instrumentation, with electric guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, keyboard, and drums. I reduced the band to just two cellos and a piano to give it a more intimate, pensive quality. 0:00 - The original's guitar-peggios, are the left hand of the piano--this ostinato will run through nearly the whole piece. There are no drums anymore, the piano functionally takes over the rhythm role--this changes the vibe from a restless, bar-room melancholy, to something more isolated and self-reflective. I left the tempo alone--it's one of those illusions of comparison, it feels subjectively slower (to me, at least), but it isn't. 0:13 - One cello enters, playing a short 4 bar introduction. 0:26 - The main melody begins with the cello. 0:47 - The cello is playing in its tenor range here, I intentionally tried to keep the vibrato down here, even including open A string notes (which gets beaten out of you when learning to play the cello) because it matched the raw, almost "pleading," sound I was looking for. 1:16 - In the original, the intro and melody is repeated again, with the guitar reprising its starring role. Instead of doing that with the cello, the baton is passed to the piano, and the cello pads (now with a buddy to fill out the acoustic space) during the tail end of the bridge. 1:39 - After the bridge, the main melody repeats again, the celli drop out here and the piano solos for a bit. 2:01 - One cello re-enters, playing in unison with the piano (albeit two octaves lower). 2:12 - The second cello enters during the second repetition of the wandering melody, harmonizing with the first cello. 2:24 - The big crash. In the original this transition is less of an Event than I wanted to make of it, with the introduction of distorted guitars, and more crash cymbal--the acoustic space is fuller, but burying the lead a bit. I took it in a slightly different direction, by punctuating it with an accent across the board, using intense vibrato in the first cello to draw focus, and having the piano pound away in the lower register (to keep some of that full distortion from the original). 2:44 - I loved the little gliss the bass guitar played in the original and gave it to the second cello here. 2:49 - The E section has the first cello copying the original guitar line, with the second cello providing a staccato chug just to maintain the intensity. 3:10 - In the original, the guitar starts harmonizing in thirds with itself, the original maintains this intensity through to the end, but I wanted to start backing the drive off a bit here--instead of the punctuation heard in the piano and second cello from earlier, this is section is calmer, and more legato. 3:22 - I added a little four bar piano solo here on top the repeated phrases, just to add some contrast and interest as the cellos decay. 3:34 - The piano reprises the figure it was playing so intensely at the big crash (2:24), but now it, too, is calmer and more distinct, more haunting, being played in a higher register rather than deep in the bass wires. 3:46 - I love the little harmony the second cello plays here. 4:00 - We end as we began, with that arpeggio pattern. I decided to keep the stepped slowing of the original, rather than smoothing the ritardando out because I liked the mechanical-ish wind-down--like a machine running out of steam. Links: Chromatic Apparatus Web: http://www.chromaticapparatus.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3xl7t4KyN89GYzwwPET0Dq YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ChromaticApparatus Flávio Teles Instagram: https://instagram.com/flaviotgt Gear Notes: Mixing done by Chromatic Apparatus in Studio One 6.5.0 Album mastering done by Erika Richards in Studio One 6.5.0 Cello: - 2007 Romanian Euro "Standard Antique" (Peter Prier & Sons) - Recorded using two AKG C414 XLS in mid-side configuration through a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Gen 3 Piano: - Recorded on a Roland FA-08 - Studio One 6.5.0 Stock VSTi, Presence: Acoustic Piano

Artist Name: Maldivir Dragonwitch This ReMix was created for the Dwelling Of Duels monthly VGM remix contest. All of the main melody lines and synth solo were performed and recorded live, as per the contest rules. I always found the original tune very melancholic and decided to go all out with a chill, deep synthwave version of it, with reharmonization. For no particular reason, at 2:49 there's a small easter egg melody from Suikoden II's Secret Village Of The Ninja.

Artist Name: Treyt What can I say except... ...whoops? 😅 I took my sweet time submitting this. Got distracted pretty bad after the event ended, worked on different projects, work was insane, [insert 100 more excuses here], so here I am finally doing my duty. Initial idea was to make something doom themed. It kinda came across, but settles into a bit more mellow of a feeling. Until the Vylent comes in at the end anyway! Working with everyone was really cool. I've always been a fan of Mrs. Weeks' voice, so I was happy to get a bit into this track. PixelSeph has way more guitar experience than I do, and it shines through brightly in his performance. During the final chorus, I morphed his guitar performance with a huge reese for the backing instrumentation and found a new favorite technique. Definitely going to be morphing guitars with things going forward. I was particularly impressed with Josh's drum sequencing, maybe because I'm a hyperrookie when it comes to drums, but I think it's because he REALLY knows what he's doing. I may have composed the piece, but the performers brought this piece alive. And then Vylent came in and absolutely crushed it with that ridiculously hard and ending. Dude didn't know the meaning of the word "chill," and I'm so glad he brought that energy. But yeah, cool people, definitely made some great connections, and looking forward to working with them again. Thanks for the opportunity guys! Collaborating Credits: Colorado Weeks - Vocals Varia - Vocal Samples Vylent - EDM Composition and Synth ParadiddleJosh - Drums PixelSeph - Guitar Source Breakdown: Intro begins with vocal sample emulating the downwardd semitone slide from SM(Super Metroid), then low synths follow the melodic progression of CV(Castlevania) until 30s, where the opening instrumentation of SM is followed by low synths, accompanied by the violin shrieks of CV. This leads into SM's main melodic theme, followed by a bridge of guitar that follows CV until a break at 1'10" that features repeated use of SM's semitone slide. At 1'38" some variation on the CV theme occurs on guitar and synth, leading into the end of the CV theme and some more variation on it. This all leads into the final representation of SM's theme at 2'16", and lead out by more CV on guitar and synth, which drops into EDM to finish the track. Games & Sources Game Set Mash Round 3, Door of Holy Spirits x Super Metroid Main Theme Castlevania: SOTM Door of Holy Spirits Composed by Michiru Yamane Super Metroid Main Theme Composers: Kenji Yamamoto, Minako Hamano

This really shows what a difference a proper mixdown can make. This addressed every single one of my issues with the original track, allowing the dynamics of your arrangement to shine and gives every instrument and synth a spot in the limelight. There's room to breathe now, and all of the delicate ebbs and flows that you crafted carry so much more impact. The arrangement is, and always has been, brilliant, and I'm so glad to see this back again. This is exactly how you do it, bravo! YES EDIT 7/2/2024: I'm reviewing this since my effusive praise seems to be at odds with the rest of the panel. I have since gone through a calibration process in my monitors to fix a bias towards low-frequency response and a deficient high-end, and honestly, a lot of the feedback you got here reflects critiques that have been (correctly) given about my own music, so I expected to hear a much different song when I listened to this on my new setup. And while I am hearing a much heavier amount of distortion on this track than I picked up on previously, I was actually really impressed with the amount of clarity that came through. I've listened a few times and am just not feeling the fatigue that the other judges are pointing out. And I also think that we're not giving this enough roses for how creative and well-executed the sound design and arrangement are. I came into this expecting to fall in line, but I still think this is pretty squarely in the YES camp for me.

Artist: Everybody Man *RESUBMISSION* Previous Judges Decision Hi again! I'm back after incorporating the feedback you guys gave from my first submission. I also visited the workshop where I got some great mixing advice. I believe this has really improved since the first go-around, and I hope you guys agree! A lot of the feedback was about the loudness of everything - especially the saw arp from Short Hike overpowering the other parts and the kick pumping everything against the limiter. I followed Emunators advice in the workshop about bringing each part down to -inf db and gradually bringing them up one by one. I also revisited the filtering for each part - especially the saw which was occupying way too much of the high end. I automated the gain on a few things, especially trying to keep the saw from interfering with other parts. I also panned a handful of the parts to try to get a bit more clarity/separation. I actually put some of the flute, pluck, and piano parts from Short Hike on some really slow lfos so they kind of swirl around you as they fade in and out. Prophetik suggested sidechaining the kick - I actually had it suuuper sidechained in my first submission, which I think is why it seemed to kill everything else when it hit... I brought that down to a more reasonable level. Another issue mentioned was the runtime and abrupt ending. I'm glad you guys suggested fleshing it out more, I brought in a couple more sections from See You at the Top and I think it feels way more complete. Added bird sounds! The whippoorwill and owl you hear beginning around 2:08 are samples from Short Hike - you hear them when you boot the game and near the ending. I think they really help the listener feel like they're wandering along with the song in some magical woods or something XD. The guitar at 0:50 and the mandolin strums throughout are live recordings as well. Overall I wanted to convey the wonder of exploration I felt while playing A Short Hike mixed with the awe I felt when I heard OOT's title theme for the first time. Hope you guys like it! Source Breakdown: 0:00 - 0:17 Intro with Short Hike arp 0:18 - 0:49 Main section: Short Hike saw and Title Theme intertwined 0:50 - 1:16 B section of Title Theme with guitar and modified Short Hike saw to support 1:17 - 2:05 Main section again with more layers: piano, pluck, and flute fading in and out with Short Hike parts 2:06 - 3:15 Piano melody from Short Hike (beginning at 2:52 on the source video), this time with Title Theme's piano arps doing the support 3:16 - 3:33 Layers dropout, giving Title Theme's piano and string pad some space. There's also birds! 3:34 - 3:55 A different piano melody from Short Hike (0:37 on source video) building to climax 3:56 - 4:41 Climax/ending: main section with all layers Games & Sources This is a remix/mashup of Title Theme from Ocarina of Time and See You at the Top from A Short Hike.

Artist Name: Zanezooked I bet this is a first: in a single song I’ve remixed the complete soundtracks of two games! Okay, so those soundtracks consist of one song each, but still. Marathon is a vibe, man. Its novelistic terminal text, atmospheric Craig Mullins chapter screen artwork, and evocative title music construct an otherworldly mood that has lived rent-free in my psyche for decades, and every so often jumps up and takes control, and I find myself once again perusing the Story pages and listening to the title music on loop—or, now, remixing it. MacWorld once described the Marathon games as having a “planet-hopping, psychological thriller of a story line,” but they’re also games about an invincible cyborg shooting aliens in the face. The title songs of Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity capture this dichotomy. They’re by “Power of Seven,” aka Paul Sebastien, who at that time was frontrunner of the nineties techno group Psykosonik, and they have that nineties feel, with driving rhythms combined with spacious pads and a recessed, reverbed guitar (seriously recessed: the stem splitter I tried to use to analyze it could barely find it: it classified what it did find as “other” and it was barely more intelligible than in the original mix). I tried to respect that combination of space and aggression in my remix. I also took some inspiration from Justice, whose music was featured in the trailer to the upcoming “reboot” of Marathon as a . . . live service extraction shooter or hero shooter or something, sigh. Justice uses a lot of dirty, compressed synths, especially in the bass. Mine aren’t as compressed or gated because I wanted a spacious, reverb-y feeling, but I tried for some of that grittiness. Source breakdown: I called Marathon’s vibe “otherworldly.” The other world in question is Lh’owon, the planet on which most of the action in Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity takes place. It’s ancient homeworld of the S’pht (yeah, I know, that silly apostrophe trope), though it’s currently populated by a garrison of the Pfhor, who enslaved the S’pht a millennium ago. Its extensive ruins hide clues to the fate of a tribe of S’pht lost thousands of years before the Pfhor arrived. Oh, and the planet’s sun currently imprisons a Lovecraftian elder god of chaos which will devour the universe if freed. The first minute of my remix is about soaking in the ambience on this unspeakably ancient, largely ruinous planet. It starts with some literal ambience recorded directly from the game (and drenched in reverb, as if heard from within one of the rock-like structures you run around in). Pads and high strings play a theme that the background synths play at 0:30 in the Marathon 2 source song. The strings fade away with an irregular loss of signal. Into this planet’s system comes the rampant and only possibly insane artificial intelligence Durandal in a captured Pfhor dreadnought; he sets about bombarding the Pfhor garrison from orbit and teleporting his pet cyborg security officer (the player) around, flooding an outpost with lava over here, saving enslaved humans over there, and then going on an extended archeological dig into the ancient S’pht ruins in search of a weapon that can give Durandal the dominance and universe-outliving immortality he hungers for. At :55 we start to hear the encroaching orbital bombardment, and at 1:25 the security officer arrives and starts kicking alien appendages. A synth grinds out the guitar progression from the beginning of the Marathon 2 title music, then a recessed guitar takes up the melody. After this, a synth bass plays the bass from :30 in the source song, before the cycle repeats. At 2:39 the strings return to provide a pause in the Total Carnage, playing the theme from Marathon Infinity. The security officer is discovering the oldest remnants of the S’pht civilization, far older than humankind—and some of it is still sentient. Though he doesn’t yet know it, the fate of the cosmos is at stake. At 3:45 carnage returns with the Marathon 2 themes again. At 4:28, the guitar plunges into the Marathon Infinity theme for the conclusion, while high strings and a buried choir provide a sense of spaciousness and age. I hope you like this! Games & Sources Marathon 2: Durandal Marathon Infinity

Artist Name: The Vodoú Queen *RE-SUBMISSION* **Other Contributors / Credits: Zack Parrish - Mastering ALL INFO PERTAINING TO THE PREVIOUS SUBMISSION (Including the Original Remix from 'An OverClocked Christmas, v.16', the Old Version Submitted / Rejection Decision, Source Breakdown / Write-Up, and the Workshopping Process): # Hello all. . . This... I do not know how to properly express the journey and catharsis brought about in re-doing this remix over the lengthy span of time since its rejection (hell, since its inception)--however, my hope is that the differences between this version and the rejected version are as clear as night and day. It was...something, for sure. I am proud, no matter the decision, for doing a great deal of this venture solo, and learning so many new things every step of the way. And I pray for it, even though I am not a very religious person, (spiritual, yes, because damn did I feel the Spiritual Muse of Music flow through me in the last stretches of this...when, honestly, I was about to give up and throw it on the 'unsalvageable' pile.) Nothing more to say. Let Blizzard Buffalo be the Noble Creature of Snow he has always been; (yes, this is one of the very first MMX-related OCR remixes I heard of way back in the day [quite a few from Maverick Rising, I might add], and it has stuck with me so much to current day, it's possibly the impetus for creating my remix in the first place, outside of just loving the mood setting and tone of the source ever since a kid playing through X3 for the first > hundredth time.) I humbly am re-submitting this. Thank you for your time and consideration in re-judging it. Big shout out to the Sages, DJ Mokram, Emunator, and to all those who've helped me along the way for this finale, Judges included. ♥ --- REFINED LIST OF FOCUSED ON REFERENCES / INFLUENCES FOR THE REMIX: "Carol of the Bells" / "Sarajevo / Christmas Eve" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Swan Lake" & "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker Suite)" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and; "Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op. 66)" and Other Collections by Frédéric Chopin [Other Ideas and Leitmotif as References for Sound Design and Part-Writing are in the Workshop Link] Games & Sources 'The Frozen City (Blizzard Buffalo Stage Theme)' MEGA MAN X3 SOUND COLLECTION; Track 10 - Blizzard Buffalo (Frozen Buffalio) Stage; Artist(s): Kinuyo Yamashita; Release Date: 24 July 2018; Label: Capcom Sound Team

Ahhh, I remember hearing this during the DoD listening party and immediately picking up on the Porcupine Tree influence before the vocals even came in (maybe the title gave it away?) Either way, I can see the vocal style throwing listeners off but I can confidently say that you nailed the Steven Wilson style and it's a perfect choice for this arrangement. The guitar tones, time signature changes, and even the hard-left-turn transitions feel totally on-brand. I don't feel compelled to nitpick anything here because the concept and execution, by and large, is just so strong. I've heard a lot of different songs from you over the past few months that demonstrate a wide range of styles and skills, so it really shouldn't be surprising that you had the skills to pull off a dynamic prog rock opus like this all off within the span of one song. Will be coming back to this one frequently, great work! YES

The production here is actually nuts. Kris is consistently dropping professional-quality productions across so many genres, it's stunning. That production skill is wielded perfectly here to support Aaron's incredible writing, giving it a strong foundation without stealing the spotlight. It's exactly what a good pop production should do! This is my first time listening to the source material after hearing several iterations of this track during development, and I was shocked at how different it was. Honestly, there should have been so many pitfalls along the way where this could have fallen apart, conceptually - adapting an upbeat instrumental track with a very complex melody into a downtempo breakup ballad is not an easy task, especially when you introduce original lyrics. There's a million possible points of possible failure where things could have gotten awkward or overextended, but you managed to dodge them all. There's a bullet hell analogy to be drawn here that someone who is better with words than I am can run with if they want! I don't think it's out of line to say that this is the most successful and polished collab I've heard between the two of you. I'd also like to hear the outro fade extend just a little bit longer, but no biggie either way. That's all I've got, great work to both of you! YES

I remember listening to this during the mixing process, so let's see how it holds up to scrutiny with my judging hat on! This arrangement clearly feels like a deliberate exercise in restraint, which can feel like a bit of a rug pull at first when you're expecting a big beat drop and don't get one, but the concept really opens up on repeat listens and rewards patience. There's a ton of evolution and tension created by the ebbing and flowing of different synth lines and arpeggios without needing to utilize any massive drops or dynamic changes or big moments - it still feels pretty massive all the same! You picked a perfect source to test this approach with, too - the repeating arpeggios give you so much room to play around with tension and release, and you capitalized perfectly. If I had one beef, it would be the bassline in the intro feeling just a bit too static before the sidechaining effect comes in. Some gradual decay on the volume envelope, or some very subtle filter automation would probably help that be more compelling for the first minute and a half, but hey - at least the patch itself is beefy! Unconventional and memorable without any of the showboating that typically comes with electronic music, I love it! YES