Emunator

Yo can we not derail this with Kickstarter drama? Pretty please? As for the release date question, I won't speak to that definitively, solely because every previous time I've said anything about when we're planning to release, we've ended up being way off the mark. I don't necessarily have any reason to expect that to happen this time around, but you never know and I'd rather not raise expectations at this point. The best laid plans of mice and men... But dammit, I'm trying my best to get this released soon, and I know the rest of staff is doing the same

Piranha Plant's Lullaby is the most difficult source to remix ever -__- I spent the last 6 hours coming up with a really killer soundscape and instrument set and getting the production settled, but... figuring out how to work with the chord progression/time signature is fucking challenging. Hopefully I'll figure this out soon, I *really* like where this is going...

Get your writeups finished! The project release is LITERALLY hinging on you doing this, we have every single other thing done and as soon as you get me those remaining track writeups, we can release! ___THEOPHANY STOP READING BELOW THIS LINE____ Ok, none of that is true.

Haha, glad to hear I apparently captured the essence of the game with this Shamefully, I've never played any Kingdom Hearts games so I guess I just got lucky there! Thanks for the comments all!

Glad to hear nobody's forgotten about this promise that will still be delivered upon Final prep is going great, I've got some more clerical work to do and the trailer/website still need to be finished but we're VERY close to wrapped up with the project. More news to come soon!

I'd definitely suggest finishing up OoT before actually releasing any Majora's Mask material. It might be a good idea for you to get a head-start on MM if you're definitely planning on tackling it at some point in the future, so you have some content built up ahead of time, but I think it would be kind of crazy to try and manage updating both projects at the same time. Also, weekly, consistent updates are best IMO. It gives people something to look forward to while still leaving enough space between releases that you don't burn yourself out. Just my two cents though. Been loving the output of this project so far, I can't wait to see where else you go with some of the more ambient tracks later in the OST!

Hey all, here's a mix I started working on but never got around to posting. It's a little more on the coverish side of things, probably not OCR submittable at this state of expansion and honestly I don't know where else to go with this anyway. It was more just an attempt to try out a few new sounds I got and work on my production workflow a bit more. All of the additional harmonies on the bell/oboe were improvised. It came out sounding pretty pleasant though so I figured I'd post it. Remix: http://soundcloud.com/emunator/kingdom-hearts-dearly-beloved Source: Enjoy!

Not much to say on this one. I can't say it's my favorite style, but you definitely blended the sources really seamlessly into your usual faux-chiptune style and kept the energy up throughout the song. Great soloing and synth choices throughout the track. It's pretty hyperactive and spastic but it works. Your production aesthetic is instantly recognizable here. My biggest critique here would be the transitions throughout the song, they just felt weak and not very inspired. What you have works, but I think in the future you could take a few more risks in that department and make your transitions between sections more energetic and engaging. YES

I'm catching Winnie the Pooh vibes from some of the instrumentation here Very relaxing and nostalgic. I feel like your orchestrations are so different from what I'm used to hearing, every sample has a very raw sound with a lot of personality to it. This is pretty much in the same boat as your Kakariko sub; fairly conservative, a little sloppy, but full of life and personality that far outweighs any of the issues that may exist. Love the second half when you start getting a little more expansive. YES

This is superlative. I don't think I properly appreciated just how timeless and classic this mix was until I read DJP's glowing writeup, and I must have listened to this at least a dozen times before that. However, after listening with a fresh perspective, I realized just how seamlessly Mordi has blended the source tune with his own original writing, and how absolutely flawless the production is... I'm really glad I've come around to love this as much as I do now Excellent job guys.

Vocal medleys definitely seem to be your niche, Mansoor You absolutely excel at creating consistent, memorable, and nostalgic arrangements time after time that I struggle to find any critical problems with. Production-wise, I'd say this is some of your strongest work to date. It still has a few of the minor issues that have been brought up with your previous works (some bland lead synths, and some unrealistic sequenced instruments such as the flute) but again, it's never been a dealbreaker in the past and I don't see why it would suddenly be one now. The length of the mix is justified thanks to some extended solo sections and a good variety of vocal parts, I don't feel like any of this suffers from copy/paste abuse. Claire also gives an absolutely fantastic performance here. The recording quality feels a little bit underwhelming but the raw talent here is incredibly obvious, and it fits perfectly into the backing track. No complaints here. I hope both of you continue to share your talents with the community for a long time to come, you're fast becoming one of my all-time favorite collab pairs! YES

I've taken into consideration what Vinnie and Shariq are saying here, but honestly when I listen to this I hear the connection right away. It's definitely adapted into a totally off-the-wall style that I didn't see coming, but I'm hearing it in abundance, albeit a little bit modified from time to time. It's a pretty abstract approach but it works for me. Production-wise, everything that the other judges have said rings true (I really don't like that acid arp, it feels really out of place, and the flute is a bit of a weak link) but I'm honestly enjoying this one. I'm co-signing with the YES's on this one, in spite of the creative liberties that had to be taken with the melody, I still hear the connection to the original. YES

I'm absolutely loving the first minute of this, the textures are very exotic and unique, it reminds me of something I'd see on a BBC nature documentary soundtrack for this first part. This is all pretty good as far as I'm concerned. I'm feeling what you're doing with the slow-build, but by about the 1:45 mark I feel like you could probably be doing more with the soundscape. When the more aggressive drums/bass come in, I'm a little underwhelmed by the overall mixing - the chromatic percussion still sounds fantastic, but the drums are starting to sound noticeably hollow. A more dominant bass drum to fill out those low frequencies would be very nice here. By 3:14 though, you're starting to lose me. The concept is EXCELLENT but as the other judges have said things start to get too cramped and busy. I know what you're going for with the piano but it sounds too dissonant and loud, and ultimately ends up being more of a distracting element in those sections. As I listen to this, I'm finding SO much that I like about it, and honestly I want to pass it just because of the sheer uniqueness of what you've done. The instrument choices suits my tastes perfectly, but ultimately I find myself agreeing with the naysayers here that this is just a little bit too ambitious at times, and ends up missing the mark on several points. You're 90% of the way there, but I think you need to ease up on the instrumentation in some of the busier sections, trim down the length a bit to omit or fix some of the problematic sections that have been mentioned by myself and other judges, and I think you'll have a really damn memorable mix here. I will be very sad if this one doesn't come back to the panel in the future NO (PLEASE resubmit!)

I'm with Larry, but just a little bit more reserved. It's true that this is a pretty straightforward, conservative take that doesn't necessarily tread any new ground that we haven't already heard, but I have to commend you on the very well-conceived, well-sequenced, and well-produced mix here. To be honest, I truly enjoyed listening to this piece just in a bubble, but it took me a few listens to pick out all of the little nuances that you added to the melody to help personalize it and bring it up to OCR's bar... however, they definitely add up in your favor, and I think at the end of the day this is a great example of a well-executed conservative remix that people will enjoy. YES

Ayyy... I hate to be a downer but there's small little timing errors ALL OVER this performance and it's really bringing it down for me as well. I love the arrangement and all of the various cameos, but I think you really need to scrutinize the flow of your performance, figure out where the problems lie, and remedy it with either a re-recording or by making the minor tweaks to the MIDI data itself. I had few problems with the piano tone itself but the performance here is very disjointed due to the uneven timing. Send this one back our way! NO (resub!)

Right off the bat, my interest is definitely captured with your energetic and lively writing. Even though things stay relatively simple, and there's not very many instruments going at once, the overall balance/levels sounds pretty pleasing. Fun transitions all across the board, you really cover a TON of ground before the track is over. Very cool hybrid style, I don't have much to say here but what I'm hearing definitely sounds over the bar to me. Had a lot of fun listening to this! YES

Wow, yeah, I definitely hear what Cain and Vinnie are pointing out here. Compression is way out of control here. Tone it down and resub this puppy, cause your arrangement is great. NO (resub!)

I really love this source tune and you guys couldn't have picked a better way to adapt it. I absolutely adore the very nostalgic, reminiscent mood, and I feel like every single instrument in the mix is truly contributing something memorable to the mix. I agree that there's a certain level of sloppiness in the way the live performances were stuck together in the mix, sometimes the timing between instruments feels off, and in other sections (like the outro) the writing just feels straight-up clunky. However, those moments are all fleeting and don't impact the song overall. This could have used a bit more TLC on the little details but it's still a very good remix as it is. YES

Sounds were pretty smooth from the start, but then the drums came in and I felt pretty underwhelmed by the samples used. On my first listen, my impression of this track is that you've got some great sound choices and a lot of fantastic variation on the source, as Shariq pointed out, but ultimately the weak quality of the samples (drums, piano, the buzzy synth chords) is turning me off from this. The bass and the kick occupy too much of the same space, so the low frequencies end up sounding too muddy and cramped. The kick also sounds pretty awkward when it hits multiple times in quick succession, I think you need to tweak the velocities a bit on those sections to make the patterns sound more natural. I'm really a fan of your arrangement and it grows on me with repeat listens, but I think there's a bit more production work that needs to be done here, personally. Good luck with the vote. NO (resub)

Definitely siding with Larry on this. Brutal arrangement/performances, as usual; those guitar chugs are intense! However, the balance/production feels... not quite where it should be. Like Larry said, the volume is pretty loud but there's a very thin quality to the instrumentation... can't tell if that's a compression issue or not, you'd probably know better than me anyway, Andrew But yeah, the drums sound very distorted and your snare is just weaksauce, and the levels aren't quite balanced in a way that fully fills out the soundscape when the guitars aren't there. Resub this, I've got full confidence that you can get a better sound out of this arrangement. NO (resub)

Overall I feel like this is a little bit too simple of an arrangement, even when you factor out the direct sampling issue. Nothing here is really wowing me... not to say that your work here isn't well-produced and listenable, but the writing and arrangement definitely goes through the motions without really doing much outside the box, either. Your guitar tones are fantastic and the performances are fine, but since this is going to be a resub vote anyway because of the awkward synth line, I'd urge you to take this feedback into consideration and look for other ways that you could expand this remix into more ambitious territory and really go places with your arrangement. Either way, at the VERY least rework that synth sample, it's not doing the trick for me here. NO (resub)

Wow! I'm really impressed here, this kind of jazzy/instrumental style reminds me heavily of old-school McVaffe/Red Tailed Fox/Malcos and I, for one, have sorely missed hearing more subs like this. I really love the dynamic piano chords/melodies that dance around a relatively static backing track/groove. I would have loved to hear a bit more in the way of other instruments and solos, but what you have here is an extremely solid jam. You've definitely made the most out of a relatively-small amount of content/loops, and for a track that doesn't even reach 3 minutes I was a bit disappointed to see how repetitive it got, but I think the quality of the adaptation and production is enough to overshadow the static instrumentation/arrangement. Keep sending stuff our way, you're showing a great deal of talent in a genre that's been notably absent from OCR lately! YES

Sorry Larry, I'm going to have to be a contrary voice here. I feel like this is much too underdeveloped and sloppy, on both production and fx, to meet the bar. First off, I should preface by saying that I admire the creative approach here, there's definitely a lot of cool ideas being tossed around here and some moments of brilliance throughout. However, when comparing this production to other chiptune-influenced electro house mixes from artists like halc, the soundscape seems extremely thin. There's many extended periods in the song where there's only one or two very basic synths and the beat playing at a time. It wasn't until the VERY last section, with the sidechained synth and the lead going, that the soundscape felt like it was properly fleshed out. Most of the transitions/sweeps/drops felt pretty underwhelming; for lack of a better suggestion, the timing on your sequencing and drops doesn't really maximize the impact when a new melody or section is introduced. Sometimes I feel like the drops themselves are too abundant; for example, you've got a very dramatic, drawn out drop at :33, but then another one comes up at 1:03 and it just feels redundant. Oh man, that hard-panned synth at 1:13 hurts my ears on headphones Because of how exposed it is due to the lack of other instrumentation a lot of the time, that jarring panning automation becomes physically painful when you're not listening on speakers. Source-wise, I see how a lot of your melody lines were derived from K. Rool's theme. However, there's some periods of time where the remix goes for over a minute without ever overtly referencing the source, it loses me as a listener. From 2:20 to 4:20, I barely heard anything that even vaguely referenced the original, and at that point I nearly forgot what I was listening to. I would personally say this is too liberal of an arrangement for OCR, even without the rest of the issues I mentioned. I hope some of this feedback is useful, and you don't think I'm being too much of a dick here I think you've got some great ideas here, and no doubt you'll be able to get a mix passed the panel with some improvement, but I personally don't think submission is quite there. The arrangement would need to be truncated to remove some of the excess original writing (or tie it back to the source further) and I would also push for production improvements, such as the panning and the sequencing/timing on your buildups, before resubmitting this one (assuming it doesn't pass this time around.) NO (resubmit)

Larry's vote was pretty blunt, but he's absolutely right. There's very little in the way of expansion going on here, it sounds very much like a MIDI rip (and I should know, I tried to make a failed MIDI-rip electro house mix of this same source a few weeks ago and it ended up sounding almost exactly like this, even down to some of the samples we used ) Work on chopping up the melodies and loops in the sources instead of just recreating entire sections verbatim, and adding in your own unique sounds and melodies on top of that. Not much more to add, keep at it! NO

Original Decision: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32478 ....yeah. Your ReMixer name: Brandon Strader Your real name: Brandon E. Strader Your website: http://www.bstrader.net/ Your userid 3123 Name of game(s) arranged: Donkey Kong Country 3 Name of individual song(s) arranged: Brothers Bear (SNES) Dave Wise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JibGNrKohU Made this in a couple days for DKC3 project.. It was very fun to make due to how generic bluesy rock the source is.. I kinda stayed in that same general area with it.. I was inspired by Uprising by Muse for the drums and bassline.. but for the most part I think it is extremely true to the original... there's a couple solo breaks but they're in the style of the song and give a short break before heading back into the rock... give it a few listens and let it grow on you, this stuff is contagious.... anyway I'll make it easy on you this time with a source map instead of text. This shows exactly in the session where all the source usage is... http://www.bstrader.net/remixes/unbearablesource.png as you can see it's well over 70%... So it is a little bit on the conservative side, but I think the little change in the bassline and drums might even that out a bit. I've been getting in a lot of trouble with the panel for having too many elements in the songs... I tried to keep it simple this time... there's not a lot of pieces fighting for your attention and everything can be heard clearly and fully. A couple great blues solos that I really enjoyed playing. Anyway, I suck at write-ups so here's my copy pasta from dkc3 secret forum; "I made this song in a couple days from the source "Brothers Bear". I liked the bluesy rock sound of the original, so I stayed very true to that with the remix. The remix is very conservative, meaning that it does have a huge rendition of the source in there, but there are also a couple nice little breakdowns as well. "Unbearable" is dedicated to the highly annoying Emunator, which I severely hate and wish nothing but torment and pain for. The song proudly displays a love for live instrumentation and blues solos!" LT EDIT (9/18): Got a breakdown from Brandon: ------------------------http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEIK08yvpCU