Emunator
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@Liontamer Kris hammered out a new master this morning that's a little softer and helped tame some of the harsh frequencies in the highs. The project file originated before this new computer build so it's dicey if I'll be able to make any mixing changes, but hopefully this sounds better to your ears! Updated in the first post.
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This is a really tightly-written ensemble, and the performances across the board are solid! That organ solo is particularly nuts, but all of the performers here are pulling their weight. The drums aren't mixed perfectly, and there's other minor quibbles that have been correctly identified, but considering how much you have going on in the mix, everything is still clear and identifiable at the right times. This is a clear and easy pass!
YES
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Ahhh, I have to say this new version sounds objectively worse. I'm not sure what happened but there's now MAJOR distortion artifacts all over the track; basically any time that the guitars are chugging, this sounds like mud. Would you be willing to share an unmastered version of this with some headroom so I could try to determine if these issues are happening during the mixing or mastering phase? I'm not a mastering expert by any means but it sounds like you basically ran your old master through a second mastering chain and it's just crushing against the limiter.
Still a no from me, but I'm 100% confident we can workshop this to a passable state!
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Quick co-sign on this. Solo piano is extremely hard to pull off in a consistently compelling way - there needs to be something special to the arrangement, performance, or sound design, and unfortunately I feel like there are parts of this that just fundamentally don't hold up in any of those categories. The arrangement, as Brad mentioned, is meandering on a macro scale and doesn't seem to have a very deliberate dynamic curve in mind, and frequently jumps between ideas that don't flow together cleanly. The performance is unfortunately sloppy, especially during the first minutes where everything is played staccato. This writing also leaves the soundscape feeling barren at many points, which just highlights the timing issues more. I felt like this was at its most successful during the last 45 seconds, when the left hand was playing more lush chords and the rhythms felt tighter.
I really admire the ambition here, and I have no doubt that y'all could get a piano remix up to the bar, but I think I agree with my fellow judges that this particular arrangement isn't it
NO
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I'd like to put my interest in for this too on the PSX side!
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Sorry about the delay on this one - when I was evaluating this in the inbox, I couldn't figure out which source you were remixing and I never followed up on my email. I'm glad Larry was able to get it sorted out!
This is an easy rubber stamp from me - you picked a quirky source tune and ramped up that quality even further. The live performances really breathe life into this in a way that sampled instruments might have fallen short with, and definitely puts this over the edge for me.
YES
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The source composition is fantastic but man, am I glad that that gnarly MIDI saxophone sample is gone
This understated, cinematic take seems to hold a reverence for what makes the original source material so memorable, but brings it into the modern age with an array of beautiful hybrid cinematic samples and vocal lines. Everything is tightly woven together and dripping in personality. It really feels like you're hitting your stride with this style here, I think everyone is going to love this!
YES
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I hate to say it, but I think Larry is absolutely right here. This does not sound like it's an improvement over the previous submissions. It feels like you are getting diminishing returns on your effort with this track and in some ways, even backsliding in the wrong direction.
I'm going to drop some general creative advice, speaking from personal experience as someone who struggled a lot during my formative years as a musician. I hope this is well-received and not taken in any way that might seem to be discouraging or out-of-line, because I would love to see you find success with your submissions and I know you've got it in you. You've clearly got an ear for arranging and writing catchy arrangements, and your passion for creating music is there which might be one of the most important qualities that anyone can have in a creative space. But I think you could benefit from rethinking your strategy here.
I've found that I grow far more as an artist from trying new ideas than I do from poring over my older attempts and trying to polish them. From what I'm hearing, you seem to be at the point in your musical journey where you've still got a lot of room to grow on certain fundamental areas such as sound design, mixing, and production, and I strongly believe you will see a greater benefit from simply practicing as much as you can. Watch video tutorials on Youtube. Seek out new free plugins and sample libraries that can help you unlock different techniques and learn how to take advantage of. You'd be amazed at what is out there for free these days - check out Spitfire Labs for some creative sample libraries that can bring some texture and personality to your tracks, or just search "Free VST 2023" on Youtube and you'll find a trove of options. Find your favorite artists on OCRemix or elsewhere, download those tracks, and put them in your DAW side-by-side with your own arrangements, and see what you can learn about mixing, balance, and effects. Then, put it all into practice and create as much music as you can, and don't spend too much time on any one idea at this point. That can come later.
I think if you refocus your efforts to any or all of these areas, you'll find a lot more reward for your effort in the long run. My gut tells me that you'll be blown away by how much you've improved after 6-12 months of absorbing knowledge and focused practice.
Again, I hope you take this advice in the spirit that it's intended, coming from someone who struggled a lot during the first few years of learning music and didn't feel like I was getting a lot out of my effort. You've got some strong fundamentals and a great work ethic, but seeing the results on this string of resubmissions suggests to me that there might be a better path forward for you to get where you want to be
NO
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I was borderline in favor of this track on the first go-around on the strength of the arrangement, quality of performances, and the clever way that the non-rock instrumentation was weaved into the arrangement. All of that is still present here, but the mixing is more well-rounded and beefs up the low end considerably without sacrificing any of the intensity of the rest of the mix. I'm glad that your last submission wasn't your only shot, eh?
Nice work Lucas!
YES
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THIS IS FROM THE ALBUM PROJECT "Golden Sun: A World Reignited" - Figured it was worth noting
- Your ReMixer name: Lucas Guimaraes
- Your real name: Lucas Guimaraes
- Your email address:
- Your website: https://twitter.com/Thirdkoopa - knew nothing better to link for this
- Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: http://ocremix.org/community/profile/33965-thirdkoopa/
- Name of game(s) arranged: Golden Sun
- Name of arrangement: Isaac's Only Shot
- Name of individual song(s) arranged: Battle! Isaac
Feat: Gamer of the Winds, GuitarSVD, tibone, and StormSkugganBAHAHAHA My first ever resubmit! Though really, this was a lot of fun to do. Thanks to the helpful corrections in the judges forum we were able to get this out pretty quickly. We fixed up (almost) everything that we could without re-recording. Pretty sweet, yeah?So a bit more about the track that I missed from my last rundown:
First, some credits.Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, DrumsGuitarSVD - Classical GuitarGamer of the Winds - Flutetibone - Electric Guitar, BassStormSkuggan - Synths, MixingI got something wrong in my post: StormSkuggan mixed. I had a lot of the initial work done, but Storm was the one that brought it home. It was a pleasure to work with him again for editing and I'm excited to see what music we all make in the future!Initially, this was Moonbike's claim on the track. I started working with him on the last 2 months of the album. He ended up having to drop from the album altogether, so I took over. This, Mercury Lighthouse, and the finishing touches for Venus Lighthouse were in one of the busiest months of my life - Right when I finished graduate school. I was incredibly thankful for the people who came together at the last minute to put this iconic track together for the album. And the fact that I was able to revisit it a few years later... This arrangement is pretty simple, but it definitely goes a lot of places. I wanted to go in more of a hard rock direction, and this definitely succeeded at that. 80's hard rock, Spaghetti Western guitars, and a flute like Jethro Tull. What more could you ask for from a ReMix? A lot of my arrangements have definitely been on the slower side lately, but I definitely plan to keep making stuff that packs a punch like this.
These stems are mostly untouched from about 4(?) years ago. The original performances had some rough edges because we had little time between the completion of the arrangement to the album deadline.
The first is in the timing of the flute. Storm completely edited and nailed it on that one. The flute only appears for a short bit, but it was important for us to sell that bridge. I still can't express enough how much I appreciate him joining me on revisiting a mix from so long ago. The next is the tuning of the guitar. I handled most of the tuning by bringing the initial stems to Melodyne and tuning them up slightly. prophetik music can't go without being mentioned, though. I asked him for feedback, as he was one of the judges to vote no last time (I like to make my resubs one and done!) and he started typing out all the timestamps for me to fix the guitar solo. He realized quickly it'd be faster to do it himself, so he took the busy time out of his schedule and gave some fine tuning to the solo, mostly moving notes up or down a half step to fit the key (the 4th's and the 7th's, iirc). Yes, that does mean we have a stem that was melodyned twice. Modern tools are powerful.
With fan communities, I've been incredibly lucky to gain a bunch of amazing friends and mentors, and prophetik music is definitely up there for me with mentors. I know not everyone in the community is a fan of his posts, but he genuinely means well and he's just focused on lifting the music, and artists, up as possible. I really respect that and wouldn't have it any other way. Maybe one day I'll get to work with him proper on a track
I hope everyone enjoys! And while this is my first resubmit, it'll be far, far from my last.
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I was already a YES on the original submission, and this cleans up the mixing and adds in some subtle variation that may tip the scales for some of the judges who were previously borderline. I really appreciate the changes at :36 to give the listener a break from the arpeggio while still keeping the momentum of the arrangement going. The extended outro feels more natural and ends on a more satisfying note.
Easy signoff from me, thanks so much for being willing to revisit this track!
YES
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hello,
Thanks to Larry for his support, that's what motivated me to review the song.
This is my resubmission. Thanks
Re Mixer : Onirik Dreamer
real name : Karim Ajroud
email :
website : https://onirikdreamer.com
Link of old version vidéoclip :
user id : 38210
Name of game arranged : Castlevania (NES)
Name of original track : Poison mind (composed by Kinuyo Yamashita & Satoe Terashima)
Name of my track : Simon's madness
Additional information about game : 1986 (NES)
Link to the original soundtrack : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb2VQmWQ-J8
Your own comments about the mix : I wanted to make a more energetic and electronic version of this theme while keeping the general atmosphere of the original track. -
As expected, Larry is a hater and this track is gorgeous. The macro dynamics across the entire arrangement are incredible, and the blastbeat sections are well sequenced and appropriately massive. The clean sections provide some much-needed contrast. This all sounds exactly like it should for the genre.
I think there's an element of this that feels a little less organic than I would like because everything is presumably sequenced, so the drums don't quite have the organic variation in timing that you'd get from a live performer, but it's certainly above my personal bar.
YES (quit hating, Larry!)
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This is gorgeous across the board - like Rebecca's best work before this, this is led by some incredibly expressive performances from a variety of collaborators and bolstered by some tastefully-written orchestration and a great variety of supporting percussion. The sources are mixed organically and transition quite seamlessly. Are those bird calls being played on an ocarina or are those actual samples?
The only thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is the tambourine 1/16 notes that start at 2:55 and cut off abruptly - it doesn't feel like that was faded in or out properly. It comes back in elsewhere in the track and just felt detached from the rest of the percussion section. Very minor gripe.
I really dig this, nice work Rebecca!
YES
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You're definitely onto something with the concept here - your arrangement takes the more energetic Tikal source material and breaks it down to its core components and crafts something that's very brooding and ominous. This approach could definitely work, but unfortunately, the production quality is not up to the level that it needs to be at.
First and foremost, it sounds like there is very little processing or effects on any of the percussion, which combines with a very static groove that doesn't have a lot of rhythmic variation to give this a very unpolished feel right from the start. There's a lot of room to adjust the velocities and patterns for your drums to help build a groove that pulses and flows more, rather than riding the same energy level the entire time. Some reverb, saturation, and EQ cuts on select elements could also help the sound of the drum samples themselves shine.
The synth patches that you use throughout the arrangement are great choices and fit well together, but again, there's a lack of processing or effects to properly pad out the soundscape. The lone drum breaks with no other effects or texture on the intro/outro especially feel lacking in layers. There's a lot of empty space that could be filled with pads, additional instrumental parts, reverb, delay, or sound effects. As it is, your soundscape feels underdeveloped.
Keep working at it, and if you haven't yet, make sure to hop in our Discord Server or the Workshop forums to get more specific feedback on future arrangements. You've got a good ear for inspiration and did a good job with making Tikal's Theme your own, so keep practicing and improving your craft and you'll get there!
NO
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This was one of my early favorites from the FF8 album. As is the case with the source material, everything is constructed essentially from a series of loops, but the vocals absolutely elevate this to the next level. The backing chord progression is so dramatic and supports the vocals perfectly. I found the glitching at the end to be a little more hit or miss in terms of execution; some of the effects felt a little too random, and I sometimes wished that it fell a LITTLE more in-time with the beat, but I get what you were going for so it's not a big deal in light of all the other amazing things you brought to the table.
YES
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Too easy - you managed to squeeze a TON of juice out of these source tunes but craft it up into something wholly unique and fresh. I didn't feel the need to timestamp this, but it definitely passes the vibe check to me with regards to source usage. The melodies have been twisted up and often rely on the chord progressions to bridge the gaps, but you come back to the source material frequently enough that, even with the very jammy, improvisational approach to arranging, you're never far from Metroid material for long. Production is clean and polished, the sequenced instrumentation fills a solid supporting role, and this is generally firing on all cylinders from a technical standpoint.
You're definitely on my radar by now, your recent submissions have been consistently stunning and showcase a diverse range of talents.
YES
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I've gotta be honest, this is one of those times I look back on an older vote of mine and feel like I would have flipped if I listened to it again today. Despite the slightly weaker intro, the rest of the track is just so good. The keychange, the pulsing synths, and the lush soundscape by the time it hits the climax are just rock solid. It's a lovely remix
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Remixer: Emunator
Performer (Credited): Marissa Turnage (website: https://www.marissa-turnage.com/violin.html) Violin performance, violin arrangement
Mastering: ChimpazillaName: Ancient Relics
Game: Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) [cameo]
Sources: Aquatic Ambiance (primary), Water World (GBA) [cameo]Comments:
When considering making (yet another) remix of Dave Wise's classic "Aquatic Ambiance," it's hard not to question whether or not you actually have anything unique to contribute to the canon of legendary arrangements that already exist. Even if I did have a vision, were my skills up to the level they needed to be to execute? For a long time during the process, I didn't even have an answer to those questions for myself, but I kept trying anyway. Eventually, around mid-2019, my skills as an arranger and producer finally started to catch up to my ambition, and things started to take shape.
When composing this arrangement, I had a very clear visual in mind that influenced nearly everything about final product - one of a decaying, post-industrial civilization that had sunk to the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by marine snow and bioluminescent creatures that were slowly reclaiming this as their home. I built a sound palette that reflected this contrast, merging the organic sound of vocal pads, piano, and belltones with an array of warped and rusted industrial percussion, a warbling synth lead, and a gritty resonant bass.
From a compositional perspective, I wanted this to be a slow burn, using only glimmers of the original source material at first. It's not until nearly 2 minutes in that the iconic Aquatic Ambiance melody shows up in full. I let the lead synth fall deliberately behind the beat to capture the feeling of drifting along in an ocean current, guided only by the soft glow of the sea life around you.
Past that point, the arrangement takes a more dramatic turn, tethered by the persistent harp and piano arpeggios and the steadily rising pulse of the electronic/acoustic drums. At 3:36, a string section makes a final climactic run through the source melody, led by some stunning solo violin performances from my good friend Marissa. It's no exaggeration to say that this track would have never seen the light of day without her contributions - my sequenced strings were simply not cutting it, and the sharpness and expressiveness of her performance made all the difference. Words simply fail to express my gratitude to her for helping bring my vision to life!
From there, the arrangement closes off with a major key reinterpretation of Aquatic Ambiance's melody on the violin one last time, which serves as a grounding presence as everything else around it drifts away into formlessness and serenity.
My first demo of this track dates back to November of 2017, and since then, I've clocked over 130 hours of working time on the project file. I've learned more about the craft of music production and grown more as an artist through this project than any other I've done to date. It's no stretch to say this is the most intensive, challenging arrangement I've ever attempted, but I also think it's turned out to be my best. Now here's hoping I never spend this long on another arrangement ever again!!
Sources:
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Sharing some additional comments/arguments that I think may help contextualize my vote, as someone who listens to this genre a lot:
I would encourage everyone to use Viking Funeral For the Damned as a reference track - that was direct posted and in my opinion, is OCR's best example of orchestral black metal currently. I feel like this track actually exceeds that quality of production in a lot of respects.I think if the entire track was mixed like we hear at 3:20, I would have NO'd it on the grounds of lack of overall dynamics. However, I would argue that sections that are intentionally walls-of-sound, nested in context of a more dynamic arrangement, is a valid approach and an important component of the extreme metal formula. The remainder of the track demonstrates a great deal of technical competency, maintaining good frequency separation and balance between instruments and is much more than a smushed wall of sound.
With regards to the argument that the lead melody in that section is being buried, I'd also make the case that that's a feature, not a defect - melody lines are often, for a lack of a better word, implied during these blastbeat sections, and aren't intended to be audible in the traditional way that you would expect from a guitar lead. It's meant to sound like a cascading wash of sound that alludes to melodies but is more grounded in riffs and an overall feeling of intensity.
Is there room for the clarity of the 3:20 section to be improved? For sure. I don't disagree with the critiques given by any of the other judges here on an objective level. Particularly, I do agree that the drums are mixed too loudly and the bassiness in the kick is probably contributing more mud than necessary.
But, considering that we are a hobbyist community, without a presupposition of access to professional mixing engineers and recording studios, I would argue that this is, at the very least, good enough for our hobbyist community. I feel that expecting anything more cleanly mixed here is essentially requiring professional quality from our artists, because I don't know how much more could be squeezed out of this one without bringing in an expensive mixing/mastering engineer, or effectively compromising the intensity of the mix and no longer adhering to genre norms. I still stand by my YES vote here.
One more reference track/album that might help - Shade Empire features a heavy slew of orchestral instruments along with guitars, and employs a wall-of-sound blastbeat approach to some parts of this song. The lead guitar is definitely sidelined during those sections as a stylistic choice, and the orchestral instruments aren't always super crisp, but it demonstrates a similar level of dynamics when the arrangement is viewed as a whole, even if some individual sections are lacking dynamics and clarity on a micro scale.
Even if this ends up being rejected, maybe these reference tracks will prove helpful in adjusting the mix to clean it up further. Or, at the very least, hopefully someone reading this enjoys these songs
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Requested resubmission of Valorous Heart, Onward! Micro Mages - Heroic Remix. Judges' concerns have been addressed, and followed up with a judge to evaluate the corrected track pre-resubmission.
LT EDIT (7/10): Treyt also sent us a source breakdown in video form:
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Your ReMixer name: Lucas GuimaraesYour real name: Lucas Guimaraes
Your email address:
Your website: https://twitter.com/Thirdkoopa - knew nothing better to link for this
Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: http://ocremix.org/community/profile/33965-thirdkoopa/
Name of game(s) arranged: Chrono Trigger
Name of arrangement: Tyrano's Stash
Name of individual song(s) arranged: Tyrano's Lair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwKprnunn8c)Collaborators:Lucas Guimaraes: Arrangement, Saxophones, Synthesizers, Organ, BellsCory Johnson: GuitarImAFutureGuitarHero: Bass, Drums, Auxiliary PercussionBrandon L. Harnish: Sousaphone, Additional ArrangingThisIsJayC: MixSource Breakdown:0:00 - 1:00 - Intro from Source
1:01 - 1:41 - A section from Source
1:42 - 2:26 - B Section from Source
2:27 - 3:04 - C Section
3:05 - 3:24 - Combo of sources
3:25 - 4:12 - Chords from Intro, mostly original.
4:13 - 4:41 - Intro from Source motif returned; outro"ever since the departure of both Sixto Sounds and Danimal Cannon I have felt like there wasn't any good representation when it comes to remixes with guitars of any kind but it looks like these 3 fellows have arrived just in time to change all that for the better and what a mix to do it with I love the slow methodical playing that just lets you simmer on the awesomeness of this particular source tune it does my heart good to hear such nice playing on this remix which I already enjoyed immensely I hope these boys go on to do more, much much more"This was a comment I received years ago on YouTube for Hallucinatory Province.Okay, so, flashforward to like, 5 years ago from when I originally made that track and 3(?) years ago from getting that comment. It's April 2023 for Dwelling of Duels (it placed 25th, if you're curious), and I knew I had to do something safe for that month. Why? Two reasons. The first: I had a whole set and panel to prepare for VGM Con. The second: Moving. I wanted to do something in one of my two main genres (Synthwave and Psychedelic Rock). I didn't have time to do much other than arrange and play some instruments/program some VST's. I WANTED to throw some guitars on this one, but didn't have the time. This arrangement was very much in a "I'm tired of everything I write" phase before I sent it off to collaborators.I recruited ImAFutureGuitarHero and Cory Johnson early. JayC was down for mixing this track, and we vibed what we wanted the tone to be. We settled on something that sounds a bit 60's (ala Deep Purple, The Doors) and something like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's slower paced tracks. Once we knew the tone, ImAFutureGuitarHero recorded bass and drums as soon as he could. Cory followed with guitars quickly, and then we ended up recruiting Brandon, threw some Sousaphone, and went back and forth, from minor arrangement edits and tone, to the final mix well after DoD. I did add a bit of Bari at the suggestion of Hemophiliac and some bells at the end.The whole track works to tell a story: They're heading into Tyrano's Lair, everything is spooky (I've always thought the original track is a *little* too fast for Uematsu trying to match Mitsuda's composing), there's a final battle, and just like the game, no matter who wins or loses, it all ends in destruction. (Who could forget the this classic Chrono Trigger ending?)To circle things back: That YouTube comment is part of the reason I've dived into psychedelic rock. I know I haven't got around to much of these psychedelic rock tracks, but there will indeed be many, many more. And the reason I started with that comment is to show the importance of commenting. I don't know how many OC ReMixes you can chalk up to "This wouldn't exist without a comment on a previous ReMix" but this is one of them.Thank you to my amazing collaborators. You all rock and I can't wait to keep making more music with each of them. I hope you all enjoy! -
Once again, Ly surprises and impresses with their ability to arrange in nearly any genre. The approach here is more understated, but the source is always close at hand, and there's plenty of sonic expansion over the original. The tone of the spoken word vocals fits really nicely, though the words themselves feel non-sequitur and cheesy, though I can't argue against the fact that cheesy is genre appropriate for synthwave.
No reason I can think of not to push this through!
YES
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Damn, the lead synth work here is stellar! There's so much going on that's worth highlighting, but this is an element that immediately jumped out to me. Crazy arpeggio fills all around. You really committed to the syncopated rhythms with some very aggressive gating on nearly all of your instruments, which gives the mix a tremendous amount of punch during the breakdowns. The guitar work is such a fantastic way to bring this home.
Absolutely sick work.
YES
OCR04533 - *YES* Super Metroid & Secret of Mana "Binary Stars"
in Judges Decisions
Posted
Remixer(s): Emunator feat. Gamer of the Winds, Shea's Violin, Lucas Guimaraes
Name: Binary Stars
Game: Super Metroid, Secret of Mana
Sources: Brinstar Red Soil Area, The Dark Star
Credits:
Emunator: arrangement, orchestration, piano, mixing, mastering
Gamer of the Winds: alto flute, shinobue
Shea's Violin: solo violin
Lucas Guimaraes: backing vocals, rhythm guitar
Comments: This remix was created for the August 2023 Pixel Mixers "Two Songs,Two Series" remix competition, though the roots of this concept really date back much further than that. Ever since I started arranging video game music, these two themes have been perpetually stuck in my head as possible source material, but I never found an approach that stuck. My hard drive is littered with half-baked takes on both themes spanning the past decade that never went anywhere. It seemed fitting that the first arrangement I managed to complete is a fusion of both! All things said, this track came together in 6 days, which I think is a personal record for fastest start-to-finish time on any remix I've submitted thus far.
I took major inspiration from the soundtracks to Hollow Knight and the Ori series, both of which feature lush, intimate orchestration that heavily relies on solo performances and small ensembles, combined with unique instruments from all around the world that aren't typically featured in an orchestral setting. It was a challenge writing an arrangement that featured a huge instrumental range while always maintaining ample room to breathe and never feeling overstuffed.
The cast of collaborators really brought this concept to life for me. Greg is an absolute rockstar on winds and has already helped me on several other arrangements (and certainly many more to come) coming in clutch with performances and improvisation on both the alto flute and shinobue. Shea's Violin is a new collaborator who also delivered a beautifully rendered solo violin line that tracked my section string arrangement, as well as original soloing during the outro. Lucas heard this WIP and offered to lay down some guitar tracks and a massive vocal stack at 1:36 - these little extra details really helped flesh out the texture of the track overall. I'm so grateful to all three of you for your contributions!!
As for the title, there's several levels going on. In astronomy, binary stars are two stars bound in orbit by each others' gravitational pull that are perceived as a single entity to the human eye. In a sense, these two sources felt intertwined to the point where they practically morphed together in my mind. The arrangement itself frequently uses call and response between the two themes played on different instruments, occasionally playing motifs from both at the same time. Also, there's the serendipitous fact that both sources happen to have "star" in their name!