Emunator

Not surprised, if memory serves it was OCR musician Vigilante who did a lot of the production/back-end on Zedd's latest album!

Everyone's reviews have been awesome thus far, keep it up! Except Brandon. Mirby, I owe you the WIPs package, as promised. I'll get that to you in the next couple of days, harass me if I slip up and forget!

Yup, I no can do no more Next year, hopefully!

Hahaha, awesome!

This is fucking awesome. YES

For some reason, the stereo/frequency balance in this mix really hurts my ears on headphones. I'm not sure if it's just a frequency range I'm overly sensitive to, or if there's something going on with the balance of elements in the track, but I physically can't make it through this track on headphones. Am I just high or something? Not sure what's going on here but I wasn't able to listen more than 1/4 of the way through on headphones. Can anyone corroborate or explain what might be going on? (I dug what I heard on the writing for the first part, for what it's worth!) ???

It's nice to see more of a return to classic Blue Magic style of fusing soft electronic elements with acoustic instruments, I've always been such a fan of your work. The sequencing on your lead instruments feels a bit mechanical at times, but in a weird way it actually works with the unconventional drum patterns you've employed. I'm feeling the same uneasiness that Larry pointed out, but for me it felt more deliberate and actually contributed to the overall effect. Instrumental samples are nothing special but you've worked with them well in the past, and that assessment still holds true with this track, as well. The vocal effects toward the end were really neat. I dig it! YES

Uhh, yeah Brent... this is pretty out there As usual, you demonstrate a lot of creativity, and as a fan of IDM I think you pretty much nailed the Aphex Twin sound here. However, speaking strictly from a ReMix perspective, things don't click quite as well. There's certain parts toward the end that felt more cohesive but overall I'm with OA on this, as much as I want to pass this! Really cool experimental track in a bubble, but overall I just wasn't really feeling this for the site. Sorry! NO

I'm still hearing lots of minor issues that trip this one up. I'm going to bullet point this one because a lot of it has already been covered by other judges: Piano sample doesn't jive with the soundscape, something brighter or more percussive would suit this a lot better. Drums sound hollow. Bass/rhythm guitar/drums combined create muddiness. The bass frequencies are overcrowded. Timing is very loose at times, e.g. :58 where none of the patterns seem to line up right. Acoustic guitar performance feels rough overall. It shouldn't have to be said that this arrangement is fantastically creative at this point, but I'll reiterate it again because I really do love that part of this track. One of the best arrangements I've heard from either of you. But these little niggling grievances are hurting my enjoyment of the track overall and need to be addressed before this is ready for primetime. One more pass should do it! NO (please resub!)

To any judges who are borderline on source usage, I'm also hearing source usage from this iteration of the track (for example, the drone in the intro of the remix seems to be referencing it.) Additionally, I'd also count :32 - :38 as a reference to 2:17 from the source originally linked in the OP... I think you missed that one Vinnie. Even if you don't count the intro drone or the chords, that's going to add the following timestamps to the source usage: :32 - :38 [6 sec] 1:37 - 1:58 [21 sec] 2:15 - 2:20 [5 sec] 4:22 - 4:40 [18 sec] Which puts it over the 50% mark for me, without even counting any non-melodic source usage. I can sign off on the original being plenty present in the mix. Source issues notwithstanding, I loved this. I've been waiting for a highly expansive, interpretive take on Chozo Ruins for a long time that still retains the iconic Metroid Prime sound, and you nailed it. You make the most of the limited melodic material in the very-atmospheric source track, and imbue it with direction and a more deliberate purpose. I strongly disagree with the judges that have said this is too plodding; in fact, I find it to be very driven and climactic, particularly thanks to the dynamic drum writing throughout the track. I feel like the percussion is very well-produced, well-written, and full of surprises throughout, and one of the strongest elements of this remix. Vinnie is right about the leads needing to come up during certain parts. Truthfully, I found the tapestop transitions to be the only painful part of the remix. I don't feel like those were executed very well, and 2:30 particularly could have been executed much better. Minor quibble, but that's really the only part about this mix that didn't quite click with me. I'm much less reserved than most of the other judges here, I really hope to see this on the site soon. Good luck! YES

Sci, I really love your music and I'm so pleasantly surprised to hear this on the front page. As someone who has never played any of the games you've remixed so far, your music still feels incredibly nostalgic and heartwarming nonetheless, as if it's been part of my life for ages. I can't say that about very many artists, but that kind of instant connection has drawn me to listen to this one over and over again. Incredibly fresh, unique, and comforting. A rare example of where the artist's motives resonate almost perfectly with me as a listener.

Also, I'm available for quality assurance for WIPs if you'd like to hit me up on AIM sometime and send me works in-progress. Feel free to get in touch if you'd like to discuss progress or get some advice from someone who's been around the block a couple of times

Good luck! If this gets off the ground and you can't find anyone for Fungi Forest, I've got a 2 minute WIP that's semi-polished in the works that I could attempt to revive.

Cody, the tracks weren't updated, you were probably just listening to the non-gapless playback mixpost versions of those songs. The ones on the album are crossfaded at certain points.

Nope, no "deadline" or anything

The strong suit of this remix is how you've adapted the Kraid melodies into such an unusual context. It works very well for a song that sticks with such a basic sound pallet. There are some appropriate critiques here that I won't spent much time retreading, but I can cosign with my fellow judges on this. Unexpected, and surprisingly enjoyable Congrats. YES

It'd be cool of anyone to touch on the bonus tracks as well, but in order to get the bonus track perks it'd be sufficient just to cover the main album tracks

A superb album-ending track that, I must reiterate, was unquestionably worth the time we spent waiting for it. In fact, this is perhaps my favorite remix to date, period. I'm so proud that it's a part of the album I hope others can enjoy it as much as I do. Also, someone caught this on Youtube, but I'll point out the little bit of continuity for anyone who didn't notice: Kong in Concert - "Beneath the Surface" Serious Monkey Business - "Beneath the Canopy" Double the Trouble! - "Beneath the Moonlight" Each of which are ambient/rock hybrids that are all standouts on their respective album

Hope you're all enjoying! Just a reminder, I've got a nice goodie bag of extra unreleased materials waiting for anyone who's brave enough to do individual track reviews on the album! Even if you can't do that, we'd all really love to hear your thoughts on the album in as much detail as you can muster. Feedback is very welcomed here!

Just want to point out that, since it wasn't mentioned in the writeup, that this track features more credited artists than any ReMix to date. Pretty incredible that Dave Wise of all people was willing to be the one to raise that bar. It really was a pleasure working with everybody involved here. Absolutely incredible remix, here were my director comments that ended up not being used in the writeup:

It's pretty cool, I guess.

Preview it: http://youtu.be/6Kvk3jGCyzI Download it: http://dkc3.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Donkey_Kong_Country_3_-_Double_the_Trouble.torrent The Donkey Kong Country series has always held a special place in my heart. Ever since I first picked up the controller at the age of 3, I found myself in love with everything about the games… the innovative level design, the gorgeous graphics, and especially the music. I would find myself pausing the game mid-level and listening to my favorite songs for hours on end. So, as you can imagine, when I first discovered OverClocked ReMix back in 2004, when Kong in Concert was first released, I was hooked. Fast forward 6 years… as the release of Serious Monkey Business drew closer, I knew that a DKC3 album was inevitable, and I felt like I could make it happen. At the time, I was merely a lurker on the site, and had no musical talent of my own. Nevertheless, I had the vision and a limitless amount of free time at my disposal, so I took the plunge and started recruiting. After 3 years of tireless work, I couldn't be happier with that choice. Given the stellar reputation of the previous two albums, I knew that this album had to be something special. This 5-disc album contains remixes of every source from both the GBA and SNES versions of the DKC3 soundtrack. Clocking in at 77 songs and nearly 5 and a half hours of music, this is OCR's largest album to date, featuring arrangements and collaborations by the legendary David Wise himself. Words can't properly capture the scope of this album and the efforts of the artists that made it happen, so I'll let the music speak for itself. I would like to thank Cody Wedel for being the most dedicated co-director I could have ever hoped for. When I began looking for a co-director for the album, I was essentially a no-name on the forums, so it might have made sense to choose a well-established member of the site with more clout in the community. However, after meeting Cody and seeing just how enthusiastic he was about the music of DKC3, I knew there could be no choice. Your motivation and passion for this project from day one has helped push me to make the album as good as it can be. I like to think that our work here proves that, if you have dedication and the right mindset, you don't need to be an OCR veteran to pull off a successful album project. My sincerest thanks to David Wise and Eveline Novakovic for creating such an amazing set of soundtracks that have inspired us all, and for supporting this project and the video game arrangement community in general. I'd also like to thank Mike "Flexstyle" Birch and Jason "Theophany" Gallaty for going so far above and beyond the call of duty with their contributions to the project, and for their constant encouragement along the way. Thanks to Adam Aubin and José Felix for putting together such a killer visual component for the project, and to Stevo Bortz and the rest of OCR staff for putting up with my neurotic demands and making this release possible. And lastly, to every artist who contributed to the project, I'm so proud of what you've created, and I'm honored to have had the opportunity to get to know each and every one of you. Thank you for helping make this the biggest and (hopefully) the best OC ReMix project to date! Enjoy! - Wes McDonald (Emunator) I somehow stumbled upon the DKC3 project thread on the OC ReMix forums the night it was revealed. I read the intro post and saw that the album was tackling both the SNES *and* GBA soundtracks! I loved the SNES soundtrack, and DKC3 GBA was definitely my favorite game soundtrack ever, so you could only imagine how happy I was. Little did I know the album would have a predominant influence throughout the next 3 years of my life. I emailed Wes on a whim about remixing one of the SNES tracks. Having provided a 30-second WIP as well as some insight on how I intended to develop the track stylistically, I ended up getting the claim (which made me very happy)! He contacted me on AIM a short while later just to say hi & to share some of the project WIPs/finished tracks. We got to talking -- not just about DKC3, but about everything and anything. Our conversations escalated from once a week, to a few times a week, to pretty much every day. After I got a bit more involved in the project (in terms of its developmental direction), Wes asked if I wanted to co-direct the album. Needless to say, I accepted that offer with open arms. As co-director, I didn't directly talk to many of the remixers involved with the project. I instead focused mainly on the backend: that is, the tracklist, promotional media, and directional feedback. Wes would oftentimes integrate my feedback into his regarding the development of a particular track. In any case, I certainly got valuable insight on how the whole album process works, and seeing/helping the album come together over such a long length of time was simply a magical experience. My deepest gratitude goes to Wes for not only starting the project, but allowing me to be such a huge part of its success. When I first discovered OC ReMix in 2003, I never would've imagined I'd be part of it at all and here I am 9 years later co-directing the biggest project in the organization's entire history. It goes to show how little we really know, how we can't possibly know what is out there beyond the tomorrows and beyond the stars. I can only hope you enjoy Double the Trouble! as much as I enjoyed seeing the album blossom from a little seed into a huge, beautiful, colorful flower which is (in my honest opinion) larger than life! - Cody Wedel This all started so innocently -- Emunator asked me if I'd take on a single track for the project, since he'd heard a previous ReMix of mine and thought I'd fit in well. Little did either of us realize just how involved I'd get. We discovered that we lived decently close together, so we got to meet each other in person over Fuddruckers burgers. Turns out, we'd spend a lot of time eating at Fuddruckers together. Burgers are tasty, man. Wes was already a good six months into the project by the time we met, but the next couple years would see me take on another five songs on the project, plus two extra bonus songs, and also tackle the task of mastering and gapless-playback-ing the entire album. Not only that, but I ended up being one of the main quality control voices as well. Talk about a cool responsibility! By the time we finished, we'd consumed loads of burgers, stayed up all night working on the project at my house several times, and spent countless hours tweaking the songs, the mastering, and the playback to perfection. I'd say the moment I knew this album was solid gold was when I got to listen to the entire thing through, with no interruptions, during a six-hour drive from Mission Viejo, CA, to Glendale, AZ, where I live. Didn't skip a single song. That's how good this thing is, and I'm picky. This album is Wes's baby, and it really is a labor of love. However, I'd like to think that I could call myself the doctor who helped deliver it. I hope that you, the listener, can enjoy hearing this album at least half as much as we've enjoyed putting it together. Every artist, every person behind the scenes, and the OverClocked ReMix staff have poured their heart and soul into this amazingly huge mass of quality, and I hope that shines through. - Mike Birch (Flexstyle)

I don't think the album will realistically be out anytime before Q2 2013.

Most of my thoughts were covered in my vote, but I just wanted to say that this is by far my favorite mix you've put out so far Exceptional job Jamison!