Emunator

First impression - really gorgeous, ethereal arrangement, and lovely source tune. Feels very airy and free-floating... I'd love to hear more of a solid arrangement/dynamic curve, but the ambient structure is pretty fascinating. Excellent percussion and instrument tone, the choir is the main point where the sequencing seems a little unrealistic to me. I'm digging this but I need to mull it over - structure is unorthodox but I think it works, and I don't really feel like the choir is a dealbreaker. I'll check back on this later.

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game: Skyward Sword Song's Remixed: Fi's Farewell/Fi's Theme Song Title: "Fi, Emissary of the Goddess" Sources:

I agree with Deia, the vintage soundscape definitely has some potential, but right now your level of re-arrangement and personal interpretation doesn't seem to go much further than that. I think if you were to work in some original melodies, harmonies, or change up the structure of the song, you could work with this sound pallet you've built, but there's just not much to go off of here. Like Deia said, take a listen to some of the other tracks that have been posted so you can better gauge the level of interpretation that we're looking for from a mix. Good luck with your future submissions! NO

This is so bad. Soooooo bad Honestly, the execution of the musical parts is actually pretty well-done, though I found the voice acting to be pretty muffled and indistinguishable a lot of the time without reading along to the submission letter. Sounds like maybe a low-quality recording on the voices or just sloppy enunciation, but the dialog seemed to get buried behind the rest of the track so that element of the track fell flat to me. Agreed with the above judges that the structure and source usage is also problematic per standards. I have to kick it back on those grounds alone, but I have to be honest and say that the voice acting or the actual script just didn't feel engaging to me Sorry dude. NO

No need to hold this one up any longer - let's close this out because the other judges have provided a lot of great feedback in addition to the panning fix that I requested. I better hear this one back on the panel! NO (resubmit!)

This piece is surprisingly vibey and understated. The drums and bass are inherently energetic and powerful, but the synth patches are silky smooth throughout. It captures and holds my attention without shouting "LOOK AT ME!" like a lot of high-energy, uptempo electronica tends to do. Despite that, it's also very nuanced - lots of fun melodic variations and processing tricks keep this fresh without compromising the overall mood of the piece. I wouldn't call this your strongest or most innovative piece, T, but it works great for what it is. Another one for the books! YES

Excellent sound design, Brent. This is a head-spinning arrangement that really captures the feeling of uneasiness that comes along with entering an unfamiliar boss's lair for the first time. I dug the minimalist beats, I couldn't pick up any discernible rhythm from the patterns so they ended up feeling more atmospheric than anything, but it worked for me regardless! I'm curious what the logic was behind the nearly-15 second-long pause in the middle of the track. I don't mind the idea of a full dropout but doing it for that long with no texture or atmosphere to fill the void just doesn't work for me. I'd love to hear the logic behind that, but I'd really love to have that trimmed down to a more manageable length. Other than that, I'm on board! YES (cond. on trimming silence)

Completely agreed - this is actually a SICK arrangement (love the choir) but the lack of articulation on any of your instruments, and lower-than-average sample quality is problematic. This is way too good of an arrangement to let slide, but you're not sequencing your instruments at a level that does it justice yet. Look up tutorials on sequencing orchestral instruments to have more realistic attack and decay, hit up our Workshop forums for some more direct feedback... whatever you gotta do to improve the sequencing on this! I really love your arrangement! NO (resubmit!)

I'm with Mike - I expected this to be WAY worse in terms of vocal mixing, but to be honest I wouldn't have even identified this as a vocal level issue. If anything, I feel like the bass is too loud and dry, and would benefit from being brought down in the mix, but there's enough space in the rest of the mix for the vocals to occupy that it's not a dealbreaker in my book by any means. The vocal performance is certainly a highlight here, you really don't hear this style on the site very frequently, so this is exciting to me. Is it sacrilege to say that I actually enjoyed your cover more than the source? Your crunchy guitar tone fits like a glove, as does the drum kit. Other than the bass tone and level, everything here fits together naturally. I dig this quite a bit. YES

This one is a little divisive for me. On the one hand, there's clearly a lot of effort that went into keeping this arrangement fresh and interesting... the drums are energetic and there's so much chopping and filtering and processing going on, there's really a lot going on to keep my attention. There's a lot to love here and I can totally understand why this got 2 YES votes already. The downside for me, and I think it's a bigger deal than the other judges made it out to be, is the extremely vanilla synth design. Although the writing and effects are interesting, and there is a good variety of synth patches used, none of them are very interesting to me. The texture of the track just sounds plain. On another note, the ending does feel like it's lacking resolution - I don't understand the choice to cut the track off where you did. The saw basses are very loud and overpower a lot of other instrumentation, making things feel very cramped during the choruses. I would suggest bringing those down just a touch. I don't know... on repeat listens I'm really finding myself enjoying a lot of elements of this, but the vanilla sound design makes it hard for me to really get excited about this. Couple that with some of the other nitpicks, and I unfortunately feel like this is just under my own personal bar. Depending on how the rest of the vote goes, I may re-consider, because it's a very close call, but I'm on the other side of the fence right now. Good luck with the rest of the vote! NO (resubmit)

Gotta co-sign quickly with the two judges above me... I'm at a loss, I just don't think this sounds very good, musically. I can see what Kris is saying, it could be cool with a LOT more polish on the production and more space given for the instruments to breathe, but this just seems messy to me. Sorry dude NO

Very cool approach - the Water Temple is such a tough source to remix, but it's also instantly recognizable so I'm glad to see a solid effort to this. You adapted the source to a much more fluid structure, the light hand drums really give this a whole new quality. The key changes are integrated really well, I enjoyed that quite a bit. The original source worked pretty well, in my opinion, because the dissonant flute/plucked melodies are kept relatively segregated from the more tonal, beautiful opening part of the song. The downside that I'm hearing with your remix is that when you try to juxtapose the dissonant melodies the way you have here, they just don't sound good. Not sure how else to say it, but I found the flute in this track to be extremely distracting most of the time. Part of the reason for that, I think, is that your flute sequencing makes almost no attempt at realism - it sounds like you loaded the patch onto a MIDI keyboard and jammed over the original track without really getting anything to fit properly, tonally, or timing-wise. I hate to rag so bluntly on that aspect of the track, but it really feels sloppy and takes me out of the vibe you crafted. The rest of the track is a lot more pleasant, but it also rides the same tempo and groove for the full length of the song. The hand drums don't change up much and there isn't much identifiable structure to the song once they come in. The plodding structure works in theory, but some more variations to the backing instrumentation would have been nice here. I probably sound like I'm coming down really hard on this, but in truth there's actually a lot to like here, I just don't think certain elements are clicking at all. Sorry NO

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game: Ocarina of Time Song's Remixed: Water Temple (dropbox link: Song Title: Holy Water Temple Here is a YouTube link: Source:

Remixer Name: KingTiger Real Name: R. Corey Oltman Email Address: Website: kingtigermusic.com (I know I told you to take this off my profile page but I'm going to put the website back up again) Userid: 13864 Name of Game Arranged: Homeworld Name of Arrangement: Migraine (Learning Curve) remix link (192 kb/s mp3): Name of Individual Song Arranged: Heavy Radiation (Supernova Research Station) source link (Youtube): https://youtu.be/U1kPqZm6bg0 Composer: Paul Ruskay System: PC (CD-ROM) Genre: RTS Release Date: September 28, 1999 Developer: Relic Entertainment Publisher: Sierra Entertainment Soundtrack (Youtube): https://youtu.be/6WbvIEL5Iyk Remastered Version -- Publisher: Gearbox Software Developer: Gearbox Software Release Date: February 25, 2015 System: PC (digital download (Steam)) Mix Comments: This soundtrack is awesome, but since it's mostly ambient, it's a challenge to arrange. Given its six-and-a-half minute length, this 7/4 remix might seem a bit liberal simply because of the minimal source material, so here's a breakdown: - the bells that play an octave apart starting right at the beginning of the source that continue to play throughout are mimicked by the chime-y type notes in the remix that are also an octave apart and sound at the beginning of every measure starting at 0:13 and continuing until the last one sounds at 5:58, albeit the distortion & other effects on them increase quite a bit by the end - the chords that begin at 0:25 in the remix may sound too major, considering the tension of the source, but the source actually seems to be in a major key itself (chords in the source begin at 0:29). I've actually kind of flipped the simple two-chord progression of the source (alt chord / root chord, mine is root chord /alt chord), along with some different chords during 2:35 - 3:47 of the remix. - the lead from 0:51 - 2:55 in the remix has the same movement as the lead from 0:29 - 1:28 in the source, although I started stacking my lead to add another dynamic After Syllix called me "master of the LFO" when he heard my intro track to disc 3 of Temporal Duality, I remembered how much fun it is to mess with synthesizers, LFOs, and the like, and this track has a lot of that sort of thing, along with several slow-burn automation edits and other subtleties. I think it's a pretty rockin' ambient piece (as much as ambient pieces can rock), and hope you all enjoy it, regardless of the panel's decision PS. To help with source usage, I could claim that the entire soundtrack inspired me with all its drone-y bits, like the low bass in this one: https://youtu.be/0CJhFa2Y-Lw But in all honesty, I didn't have any other sources in mind besides "Heavy Radiation" when I made this remix. Source:

You've got a solid start to this track, the concept behind it is solid and you actually have some very energetic dubby synth effects going on, but there's several significant issues dragging it down. First off, the track is loud and relentless. If you look at the waveform of you track, it's almost completely "sausaged," as Kristina calls it, and there's almost no room for the listener to breathe once your track gets going. For a 5 minute track, you absolutely have to have SOME sort of reprieve so that you're not assaulting the listener with loudness the entire way through. Your lead melodies are also very robotic and stiff sounding. The opening piano is written in a very blocky fashion, and once you go into a more synth-driven direction, the same problem persists. Obviously, since you're writing electronic music you'd treat it differently than if you were humanizing a melody for an orchestral or jazz track, but there's still a lot you can do to make your leads more interesting. Sustains, subtle tremelo modulation, or just varying your note patterns more are just a few of the many things you could do to help. Right now, the melodies just feel lifeless, especially compared to the rest of the mix. There's a lot more detail I could go into, but these two issues are most noticeable to me and I feel like they would need to be addressed before the track could be evaluated further. There's a lot of potential to this track and it's clear you put a lot of effort into it thus far, but I feel that there's a long way to go to get this up to par, and it's up to you whether you want to continue hammering away at this arrangement or just take it as a learning experience for your next approach. Either way, good luck! NO

Hello to the esteemed judging panel of awesomeness. Song link: Contact Remixer Name: GlacialSpoon Real Name: Robert Kemp email: Website: happysalad.net (home of my gaming podcast The SaladCast) OCRemix userid: 52260 Submission Game: Sonic Colors Arrangement name: Wisp Inc. Songs arranged: Planet Wisp Act 1 Original link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eODArFqHbf0 About Rob: Rob has been composing and producing digital music since tracking on an Amiga was a thing under the guises of "Glacial" and more recently "GlacialSpoon" (not "GlacierSpoon" ). As a hobbyist from Suffolk in the UK, a single track can takes months to evolve and contort itself into something deemed worthy of public exposure. Listen to more at https://soundcloud.com/robert-kemp-15 or http://www.last.fm/music/GlacialSpoon Rob's notes: I always thought that the music for Planet Wisp, whilst excellent, wasn't a total fit to the massive factory nightmare created by Eggman. So here's a more industrial mix with considerably less whimsy to sort that out! It probably doesn't suit the speed of the game now but I see this as a more appropriate soundtrack to the miserable existence the enslaved Wisps might have. Thanks Source:

Cool interpretation, I'm a big sucker for jazz ensembles and this has all the right vibes. Very competent soloing, nothing flashy but it works well here! For the most part, I like what I'm hearing. Just a few things that are holding it back for me - right now, the lead guitar sounds like it has been copied and pasted several times with no variation on the articulation, so that main riff actually becomes kind of grating to hear over and over again throughout the arrangement, even though it feels like the rest of the track is changing up and sufficiently varied. Try re-recording several takes (or sequencing different variations, if this is actually a sequenced guitar... I can normally tell but this one sounds like it could go either way) to get more personality with each repetition. Even subtle differences should make a world of difference here. Lazy fadeout ending, not a dealbreaker but I'd love to hear something more conclusive. The ride cymbal pattern is weird - the swing doesn't seem to match the rest of the track, and because it repeats literally for almost the entire song on the same riff, it really gets under my skin. That needs to be addressed for sure, IMO. Very close, I think your arrangement and overall writing doesn't need much work, but those few nuances are really holding this track back from being totally successful. NO (resubmit!)

CONTACT INFO: Remixer name: HistronicsName: Antonio Santangeloemail: website: https://www.soundcloud.com/histronics User ID: http://ocremix.org/community/user/32384-histronics/ SUBMISSION INFO:Sonic the HedgehogGreen Hill Zone Jazz Arrangement Green Hill Zone Source:

First off, really cool concept! You have a nice grasp of music theory that gives this remix a strong backbone. I think this arrangement has a lot of potential. Your track has very drastic dynamic changes, which makes your quiet sections hard to hear at a normal listening volume. For almost a minute from 1:09 - 2:00, everything is so quiet. I'm definitely not suggesting that you bring that breakdown up to the same volume level as the preceding sections, but I need to be able to hear that part much better. Same deal with the piano outro. Production-wise, the samples are okay but the strings are kind of a weak link. They sound somewhat dry and unrealistically-sequenced, especially on the tremelo parts and legato runs, which breaks the illusion of realism that you really need with such an exposed, minimalist arrangement like this. Sorry to say but the string quality just isn't quite cutting it for me - I would pay special attention to your articulations on the lead string parts... it won't solve all of the issues I'm seeing, but it's a good place to start. The arrangement is also rather short - I don't think it's a dealbreaker for me, but because almost a whole minute of the track is so quiet and subdued, it would be nice to hear a little more meat and substance to your arrangement - 2:00 - 2:15 seems like it leaves a lot up in the air and doesn't totally resolve. I would love to hear more to this arrangement. Great concept, but not totally there for me yet. NO (resubmit)

REMIXER NAME: JeffMatthews REAL NAME: Jeffrey Matthews EMAIL: WEBSITE: www.soundcloud.com/jeffmatthews USER ID: 52559 GAME ARRANGED: Super Mario Bros. NAME OF ARRANGEMENT: "The Mario Scissorhands Suite - Part 1" SONG ARRANGED: "Swimming BGM" COMPOSER: Koji Kondo COMMENTS: I made this remix in Logic Pro with mostly East West instruments. This music presented an interesting challenge in that it modulates into different keys several times, my favorite being the last loud section which is B lydian to A dorian to C minor (I think). I plan on making part 2 in the next couple weeks. I don't really know what else to say about this except that I haven't felt like this much of a happy little kid since I first played the game when I was 5 years old. Thank you for listening. Source:

(again, having trouble download Box links. Not sure why.) Contact Information Username: timaeus222 Name: Truong-Son Nguyen http://soundcloud.com/timaeus222 http://tproductions.comeze.com/ ID: 39971 Submission Information Game: Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories ReMix Title: Not Just Elevator Music Consoles/Platforms: PlayStation OST Composers: Unsure; might be: Naoko Ishii, Waichiro Ozaki, Hiroshi Tanabe Sources: Password Menu (attached) ReMix: (VBR1) (WAV) This is for the Shonen Jump ReMix Album headed by Cosmic Sounds and SkyRiderX (with DarkeSword as the guy to run the mixes by). Comments: "Alright, more Yu-Gi-Oh! I've been telling myself that I should try remixing something super short at least once, kinda like how Rozovian's remixed a 4-note source tune and Chimpazilla's done it with a 6-note source tune. I was having a lot of fun getting the dynamic pads and deep bass to sound just right, but I especially enjoyed playing around with layered reverse delay effects in the breakdown section and outtro, as well as the glitch stuttering and stutter-esque sequencing. I also haven't written a solo in quite a while (over a year, actually), so it was refreshing to do two short ones in here with that square wave lead. Oh yeah, and I wrote this in three days: two consecutive days and a third day about 3 months later. :D" Extra Info: And of course, a source breakdown for you peeps. The gist of it is that notes #1-4 and #5-8 were each used to form a two-chord progression, either explicitly arpeggiated or rolled, or as actual chordal accompaniment. != : not really equal to = : basically equal to ~= : sorta equal to null: not counted 0:11.2 - 0:55.9 = Source (the note rolls and the entirety of the chord sustains incorporate all 10 notes) 0:55.9 - 1:17.5 ~= Source (the chords use notes #1-4, and the arpeggio resembles those four notes; not counting this) 1:18.2 - 1:29.3 = Source (notes #1-4 and #5-8 with altered rhythm and call/response-esque writing) 1:29.3 - 1:40.5 = Source (solo over arpeggiated notes #2-4 and #6-8 in the background, chords formed by notes similar to #1-4 and #5- 1:40.5 - 2:01.8 = Source (arpeggiated notes #1-4 and #5-8, chords formed by notes similar to #1-4 and #5- 2:02.8 - 2:14.0 = Source (notes #1-4 and #5-8 with altered rhythm and call/response-esque writing) 2:14.0 - 2:25.2 != Solo (solo over chords formed by notes similar to #1-4 and #5-8; not counting this) 2:25.2 - 2:47.5 = Dubstep Breakdown (glitched up sequencing of the 10 notes) 2:47.5 - 3:21.1 ~= Source (the chords use notes #1-4, and the arpeggio resembles those four notes; not counting this) 44.7 + null + 11.1 + 11.2 + 21.3 + 11.2 + null + 22.3 + null = 121.8 secs 121.8/201.1 = 60.6% source. Source:

Just paneling this because the source usage can get very noodly and even by T's count, it's pretty close. Otherwise I feel like this is direct-post quality. I will flesh this out more later.

OHHHH SNAP! https://twitter.com/DeucesWildMedia/status/556305766974767104 Contact Information Username: timaeus222 Name: Truong-Son Nguyen http://soundcloud.com/timaeus222 http://tproductions.comeze.com/ ID: 39971 Submission Information Primary Game: Kirby's Dreamland 3 ReMix Title: Kirbland Consoles/Platforms: SNES, Virtual Console OST Composers: Jun Ishikawa Sources: Grass Land 2, Ripple Field 3, Sand Canyon 3 (cameo), Flower Garden (Yoshi: Touch & Go cameo) [attached] ReMix: (VBR1) (WAV) Comments: "I gotta say, this is one of the most fun ReMixes I've worked on in a long time. This started off as me saying something of the meme kind at the 'wrong' time; funny story: it was when Liontamer on OCR Talkback #49 was talking about how he occasionally sees people calling OCR out, saying something like, "Hey, OC ReMix! You don't know how to remix this! It's too good to make better!". Being the guy that I am, I wrote, "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!" in the YouTube comments as a fun 'reply' to that. Larry sees it, thinks it was directed towards @DeucesWildMedia on Twitter, and everyone's like, "OHHHHH DAMN!". So y'know what?! I went for it anyways. OHHHH SNAP! SHIT JUST GOT REAL! Over the course of 3 separate days, in about 20 hours, I ended up writing a Jazz Fusion-style track inspired by the band Weather Report---especially their song 'Birdland' (hence the title). My personal favorite part in here is definitely the solo portion at 1:47 - 2:39. Can't believe I came up with that. Essentially everything was played in 'live' (MIDI), with specifically the bass and drums being the hardest elements to really nail here in terms of the Weather Report vibe. Hope you enjoy! :D" Extra Info: Source Breakdown: 0:03.28 - 0:08.95, 0:09.77 - 0:13.84, 0:16.26 - 0:21.83 = Grass Land 2 (0:00.00 - 0:06.47) [bass and piano] 0:22.75 - 0:27.61 = Grass Land 2 (0:06.47 - 0:12.88) 0:29.24 - 0:38.96, 0:42.21 - 0:53.76 = Ripple Field 3 (0:00.00 - 0:25.36) 0:42.21 - 0:48.69 = Flower Garden (Yoshi) (0:00.00 - 0:26.70) 1:04.90 - 1:06.91 = Sand Canyon 3 (0:00.00 - 0:02.45) [Different "mood"] 1:08.15 - 1:15.58 = Grass Land 2 (0:00.00 - 0:06.47) 1:17.88 - 1:19.91 = Sand Canyon 3 (0:00.00 - 0:02.45) [Different "mood"; bass] 1:21.13 - 1:32.68, 1:34.10 - 1:45.04 = Ripple Field 3 (0:00.00 - 0:25.36) [Mostly retained bass, with solos + interpretation] 1:47.07 - 2:13.01 = Wild solos! 2:00.05 - 2:01.66, 2:06.52 - 2:13.01 = Grass Land 2 (0:00.00 - 0:06.47) 2:13.01 - 2:22.34 = Grass Land 2 (0:12.88 - 0:24.09) [bass solo] 2:25.99 - 2:31.87 = Grass Land 2 (0:12.88 - 0:24.09) 2:35.71 - 2:37.75 = Sand Canyon 3 (0:00.00 - 0:02.45) [Different "mood"] 2:42.21 - 2:47.07, 2:48.70 - 2:52.75, 2:55.17 - 3:00.74 = Grass Land 2 (0:00.00 - 0:06.47) [bass and piano] 3:01.66 - 3:06.50 = Grass Land 2 (0:00.00 - 0:06.47) 3:06.50 - 3:32.09 = Havona-style ending Grass Land 2: 5.67 + 4.07 + 5.57 + 4.86 + 7.43 + 1.61 + 6.49 + 9.33 + 5.88 + 4.86 + 4.05 + 5.57 + 4.84 = 70.23 70.23/212.09 = 33.11% Ripple Field 3: 9.72 + 11.55 + 11.55 + 10.94 = 43.76 43.76/212.09 = 20.63% Sand Canyon 3: 2.01 + 2.03 + 2.04 = 6.08 6.08/212.09 = 2.87% Flower Garden: = 6.48 6.48/212.09 = 3.06% Total (note the Flower Garden overlap): 120.07/212.09 = 56.61% Sources:

noxtherox Tiago Rio http://www.youtube.com/noxtherox 54575 Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 3 Battlefield theme remix [Metal] Battlefield Theme song Link to the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l44Yc-Xh0OU Source:

Really cool arrangement here, Jorrith. I always love your creative arrangements and how willing you are to branch out into unique styles. The production on this track, unfortunately, is falling short for me. The synth that comes in at :12 is extremely loud and dry. I could forgive the lo-fi sound for an intro, but at :26 I was hoping this would really blow wide open, and the drums/bass just didn't carry the energy that I was hoping for as a listener. I love the spastic, choppy drum writing, it's got a very original flavor that doesn't feel "typical D&B" at all. However, the drum production isn't doing it for me in this track - the kick is not giving your mix enough of a foundation and so the song structure doesn't flow naturally like it ought to. The break at 2:44 leaves me expecting the drums to come back in full force but they never do. The more I listen and write about this, the more I think that it may literally just be an issue with the kick drum in this track - perhaps if that had more body, it would be able to carry the track without needing any other substantial changes to the production. What does everyone else think? I feel like the core arrangement and writing of this track is solid but something feels VERY off about how the drums are mixed and I'm finding myself very confused. NO (resubmit???)