Emunator

My order of operations when voting on this track went something like this: Read submission letter describing a wave of impending doom and darkness Listen to source tune, wonder how the hell you were going to get from point A to point B. Listen to remix, now fully enlightened and nodding my head along as much as I can at my work desk without drawing undue attention to myself \m/ As I've come to expect from Lucas, this is out of left field but conceptually very strong! The chugging, bending rhythm guitars are right on-brand for the doom metal genre. I'd encourage any judges not familiar with the genre to give a listen to a few points in Dopesmoker by Sleep (yep, it's a 63 minute long song) to get a feel for the frequency balance expected from this genre, since the mixing style doesn't exactly follow traditional conventions, and the arrangements can easily be interpreted as "plodding." It's not a defect, it's a feature! Your guitar tones and bass seem right on point here, though I think this could benefit from having the rhythm guitars sit a bit louder than they currently do, or adding some subtle amp distortion on your bassline so they gel more. Tonally, the detuned synth elements also fit really well. I don't have any qualms about the tone of the instruments, but the mixing feels like it needs some additional saturation and reverb to glue everything together. My big gripe with the mixing here is the drums - they feel really anemic and in some cases, the rhythm of the fills doesn't seem to line up quite right (for example, the pattern at 2:29 has an unnatural stuttering quality to it.) The mixing just isn't doing justice to the drums, especially the snare and the crash cymbals, which is incredibly dry and tinny sounding. This is the major area I feel needs to be tightened up in order for this to be a clean pass. NO (resubmit)

This has a classic trance feel all the way through - the drum machine sounds, the acid bassline, and simple synth design is all taking me back to the early days of progressive trance. It's not going to wow anybody in terms of sound design or technical mixing quality, but I don't think it needs to, either. There's plenty of movement in the arrangement by way of filtering and percussion fills so that it doesn't ever stagnate, and the core melodies are banging. There's plenty of room for growth in future submissions to flesh out your soundscape further, but I love what you've presented here! YES

Hah! I love the full-circle turn on the remix title. I did a double take before I realized that it actually was the Blue Magic submitting this. I can see why you were drawn to this source tune - in some regards, it almost sounds like something you would have made yourself! Your remix punches up the energy with some really rich piano chords and harmonies. There's an impressive level of instrumental variety for such a short arrangement without feeling even remotely overstuffed; it's quite an economical use of 2 minutes and 30 seconds that feels like nearly twice that length. No reservations on the production - some of the instrumentation doesn't feel fully humanized but there's adequate use of delay and verb so that everything still goes down smooth. I really like enjoy this and will definitely be coming back to it in my own listening rotation! YES

My heart agrees with DarkSim on what I wanted this track to do. There's so much potential for this to go absolutely wild with rhythmic ferocity, and for a greater dynamic curve by letting your percussion track ebb and flow more deliberately. However, when I separate my personal wants from what's actually in front of me, there's still a lot of merit to the rhythmic adaptation from the source material, and your harmonizing synths layer together in a really satisfying way. I love that Larry pointed out the "juice" this arrangement has, because I totally agree with that and never would have found the words to express that myself. It's groovy! YES

I'm trying to keep my Zelda bias in check here, but I like this a lot. The sequenced guitar is serviceable as a lead and doesn't build tremendously on what the original offered, but all of the percussive and symphonic upgrades you've built around that core melody are what really make this shine. The arrangement feels punctuated with drama and tension - it's a modern day cinematic upgrade that would be right at home in a modern day Zelda game. I get it, the wholesale repetition is a bummer, but I think I tend to be more forgiving on that front than other judges, as long as there's enough dynamics within those repeated sections that it doesn't feel plodding. If my ear isn't picking up on the repetition and I need to layer tracks in my DAW to see if it's actually identical, and it's not a matter of "we've been treading the same ground for 4 minutes without any variations", I'm not going to ding the track if everything else is tightly executed. In this case, I think this falls on the right side of the debate for me. I honestly don't hear what Larry is talking about with the transitions, I thought that was firing on all cylinders I realize this boils down to a matter of personal preference, but I'd like to make the case that this one is good enough as is. Best of luck with the vote, however it shakes out! YES

This certainly nails that classic analog warmth from a sound design perspective, so your foundation is really strong! The arrangement is very dynamic despite a source that doesn't have much in the way of a dynamic curve at all. There are some minor technical miscues on the mixing and production that are less than ideal. For me, the extremely rigid timing on the piano actually feels like the aspect that takes me out of this the most. I'm not sure if the stilted performance was an intentional nod to the early days of sequencing, but especially with the shorter note runs like the ones at 2:13 and 2:26, it feels immersion breaking. There are other elements that stand out in the mix as too forward or dry, which Jack did a good job identifying and elaborating on. Also cosigning his suggestion that stronger sidechaining or rhythmic gating on your pad elements during the section with drums would give this some much needed verve. All that said, I think what you got right is enough to push this over the bar. It's a great arrangement bolstered by some memorable sound design, and in my opinion, whatever rust is present on the technical side is not enough to sink this. Would love to hear some improvements on the mixing to get the instruments to gel more, and humanize the performance on the piano leads, but I have no hard reservations in its current form. YES (borderline)

I also remember seeing you express doubts about this in Discord as well, but listening to this, I don't think you needed to worry. Whatever minor issues there might be with the realism or fidelity of the sequenced instruments is more than covered by your incredibly dynamic and creative arrangement. I don't know exactly where this started out, but I think the film score approach was executed masterfully, helping you stretch a lot out of a relatively minimal source tune without ever feeling like you're simply treading water. If you phoned in the arrangement, the production nitpicks might have held more weight, but thankfully, you nailed the part of this that you really needed to get right. YES

I love all of the little details that flesh out the soundscape throughout the track, it really immerses you in that Metroid atmosphere. The sub bass is thick and smooth and supports your groovy 2-step beat well. There's a lot of negative space in the arrangement, to the point where I found myself occasionally wanting just a little more padding, but your beats thicken up as the arrangement progresses, and the open space in the frequency spectrum contributes to a feeling of loneliness and mystery that works on a conceptual level. All the elements here are working well together, this is a solid debut! YES

This is loud as shit, but it's not peaking over 0.0db on standard metering. For what we're doing, I just don't think it makes sense to go conditional (and risk a track not being posted) based on the true peak technicality, which most people will never encounter in this medium. Based on that, I've got to go with my ear, which is telling me that, against all odds, you've managed to still get a super clean sounding master track without much audible distortion that falls outside the bounds of good taste. Aside from that, this is a very obvious pass - your arrangement is absolutely bonkers and manages to sustain a crazy amount of energy for over 6 minutes without ever dragging on or treading the same ground. What an incredible pallet of instrumental variety, all of your instruments and synths are wielded with a great level of technical precision. This would be a damn shame to hold this back from posting in my opinion. YES

No need to drag this one out any further - there is a LOT to love in this arrangement but it is overstuffed and messy as a result. The blastbeats come out of nowhere and don't flow naturally with the rest of the arrangement. There's a lot of conflict going on in the mixing that could be cleaned up if you so choose, and lots of great feedback to work with from other judges. I hope to hear this back, there's a great deal of potential here! NO (resubmit)

I find it funny that Larry compared this to the Spider Man track, which I also just voted on, because I feel almost exactly the same way here. I mean, the original source material is effectively just the arpeggio, so it feels valid to lean heavily on that, especially when you do subtly change up the way it's presented (key change, shifting the layering on the piano to give it a different level of prominence in the mix at different times.) I also feel like the breakdown at :49 really adds a lot to the arrangement approach, and probably tips the scales in your favor, even if the production is rough around the edges. I'm okay with this! YES

I've been listening to this one for a while and, to be honest, I can't really make up my mind. It's absolutely, squarely right in the middle of the road for me. I'm going to deliberately abstain from voting on this for the time being. ?

Normally, I'd be pickier with an arrangement that has such a static bassline, but I actually think this is a pretty creative approach to such a minimalist source tune. The way you built up a more fleshed out soundscape around that single element works better than I thought it would. Production is aight, nothing mindblowing, but the tones of your instruments all sound cohesive. The drums occasionally feel sloppy on the mixing and sequencing, but I'm okay to sign off on this! YES

This is a badass arrangement with mixing that's really not doing it any favors. I second the feeling that the drums are mixed too forward, and the lead guitars are getting absolutely lost in the sauce. Basically agree with Joe on the play-by-play, I'd love to hear a tightened up version with mixing that blends each of the elements more naturally and lets the lead shine more. NO (resubmit)

I'm also finding myself on the side of really wanting to like this one; the concept is so unique and quirky. Ultimately though, I find that too many of the timbres are just underdeveloped and uninteresting, in terms of both lead synths and drum tone. Most everything sounds very raw and unaffected, giving this an "unfinished demo" quality more than a "simple sounds used in a quirky way" one. Other judges have elaborated on what can be done to fix this, but I'm unfortunately not sold here. NO (resubmit)

This is good, goofy fun - no complaints conceptually. The execution is serviceable - while the mixing is definitely compressed and loud, I'm not hearing any audible clipping and it looks to be mastered to -0.0dB with standard metering, and all of the instruments are at least audible and there doesn't seem to be any major imbalance between parts. YES

Don't really have time to elaborate on this, but in the interest of expeditiousness, I'm cosigning with MindWanderer's vote in full here. YES

This sounds sonically (pun intended) similar to the source material in terms of writing and sound design, but the reharmonizations and additional melodic licks give it enough spice to slide over the bar for me! Fun, groovy stuff, and the production is serviceable. Definitely not too conservative in my book. I'm good signing off on this! YES

Google Drive - - This information is found in the README.md in the project folder Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Xaleph, Audiomint Your real name: Matthew Sabol, (Don’t make her name public please) Your email address: ; Your website(s): https://www.animeremix.org Your userid (number, not name) on our forums: 458 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: The Legend of Zelda Name of arrangement: Shadows of Hyrule Name of individual song(s) arranged: Underground (https://ocremix.org/song/280/underground) Tags Electronic > Synthwave > Darksynth Electronic > EDM > Trance > Psytrance Dark Aggressive Female Vocal Tempo Change (103bpm <-> 143bpm) Gdim Summary I loved the ocremix "Link's Underworld Pressure Cooker" from wRenchpilot and I wanted to create a more Darksynth / Psy-ish take on it. Also, listening to Mercenary by F.O.O.L., I realized that Darksynth is basically psytrance just slowed down from 140-150bpm to 100-105bpm. I wanted to have fun with this! I took the darksynth style and sped it up for fun Added a few psy squelches, something I haven't ever used before, so it was exciting to learn how to make those I tried some of the textures I've been wanting to add to the long break I wanted to use some new (to me) filters on Audiomint's voice which I used when she sings in the slow break For the second tempo change, I speed it up from 143 to 206, and then drop to half speed. This was to give the illusion of "going uphill both ways" - instead of slowing it back down to 103. For Hemophiliac - I added that 5/4 skip after me saying "heh". Audiomint obviously did all the singing. She had multiple recording sessions to get it the way she wanted it to sound. Details Where is the original song? To be frank, this one is a lot more obvious than some of my others - but here it is nonetheless! 0:00:583 - “Key appears” nes sound 0:17:476 - End of G diminished "arpeggio" from original 0:30:291 - 0:39:612 - G dim arpeggio routine but really really short “ticks” 0:39:612 - “I found it” nes sound 0:42:524 - 1:44:343 - The arpeggio, the main melody, something from the original song is playing in this range 1:46:034 - 1:59:555 - The arp comes back 1:59:555 - 2:13:076 - Audiomint sings the main melody very very quickly 2:13:076 - 2:53:639 - Lots of variation on the main melody 2:53:639 - 3:24:637 - The arp 3:24:637 - 3:43:278 - Sound effects from the game are played in this range 3:43:278 - 4:01:918 - Main melody variation 4:01:918 - 4:20:559 - Main melody variation sung by Audiomint 4:20:559 - 4:57:841 - Arp 4:57:841 - End - Main melody, variations and sung again by Audiomint Mastering - I used -10 LUFS as the target. If this isn't loud enough or too loud, let me know. It's an easy thing to fix. I'm sidechaining the highpass and I'm using some Ozone Element tools. I'm no expert at mastering, especially my own mixes. If something is off, let me know asap and I'll correct it. Tools Used Reason 12.5.1 Kong Radical Piano Thor NN-XT Grain Sample Manipulator Objekt (I threw this in there last minute) for Reason FX - a ton of filters, compressors, Audiomatic was used a ton, Scream 4, Pulveriser, Quartet/Sweeper, Reason's various delay/reverb Valhalla various fx (Echo/etc) xfer records - Serum 1.357 Izotope Ozone Elements 9 PG-81 and Shure MV5 for Audiomint’s voice Panorama P6

CONTACT INFORMATION Your ReMixer name: Unknown Pseudoartist Your email address: Your website(s) Official website (under construction): http://unknownpseudoartist.com/ Bandcamp: https://unknownpseudoartist.bandcamp.com/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/unknown-pseudoartist Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCuI6pSkP8kDupO64htg5mQ Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: 38631 SUBMISSION INFORMATION Name of game(s) arranged: Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 Name of arrangement: HOPE!! Name of individual song(s) arranged: Hikari no Willpower / Theme of Trunks Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site): A rather mediocre Dragon Ball Z fighting game released for the PSX in the late 90s. The composer is supposed to be Kenji Yamamoto, like most of these classic DBZ games and part of the anime soundtrack (yeah, that guy who infamously known for massive plagiarism). This specific source is also commonly known as an anime song that later featured actual lyrics sung by the mythical singer Hironobu Kageyama, but the first appearance of that song was as VGM in that PSX game. WAV DOWNLOAD LINK of this remix (MP3 192k file attached to this message too): Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site) Since the original soundtrack is real audio there's no emulation files to link to, but here's someone in Youtube who uploaded all the tracks here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5BB83550E16A796D Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, how the source material was referenced in the arrangement, etc: Hello! I know OCR for a VERY long time, it was one of the first sites I discovered dedicated to VGM covers/remixes sometime in the late 2000s when I was a kid. It wasn't until early 2021 that I decided to start becoming active in the scene, though, as I felt like I never had anything to offer anyways. And now this is my first submission to OCR, which also happens to be kinda fresh since this game is not even in the site's database yet. The first version of this was originally submitted to Dwelling of Duels (a monthly videogame music competition) for Licensed Month and it placed 13/26. A slightly improved mix was later part of "Metal Dragons", a small album / EP dedicated to more of these old Dragon Ball Z fighting games. I (Unknown Pseudoartist) did all the arranging work, programming, mix, etc but I had the pleasure to count with a team of talented musicians to play their instruments, like: Angry Polar Bear - Lead keys (sawtooth, organ and strings) Ian Martyn - Woodwinds (low whistle and irish whistle) Jett Swole - All guitars (electric and acoustic) and bass Jinx - Pianos I had some ideas for a hypothetical arrangement for a long time so that Licensed Month in Dwelling of Duels was the perfect excuse to try it serious. That piano intro in the original always gave me the feels as soon as I'd hear it while playing the game as a kid, and that's something I wanted to keep in my cover but strengthing the feels even further by extending that part and adding woodwinds, backing chorus and more stuff. Instead of going straight to the upbeat part I built the way to metal in a more progressive way, with a more orchestral bridge in between. This was originally the theme of Trunks in the game, and as such I had the story of this character in mind, with each part of the arrangement linked to specific events and things happening. That can seen more clearly in this AMV I did for Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL0rp-_7CK4 The title, "HOPE!!" is taken from what was written in the time capsule Trunks used to travel to the past with the HOPE to get the key to defeat the Red Ribbon androids that are ruining the future in Earth. Since this is about a character who travels in time, I just had the goofy idea of adding a reference to the main theme of the iconic movie, Back to the Future in the middle, to make it even more epic. I hope this don't cause any trouble to the judges regarding the prevalence of original content from the source! As it's not that long of a part anyways. The peaceful, acoustic outro with background ambient sounds is meant to symbolize the bittersweet ending that story has: the bad guys are defeated but all what was lost, was lost forever and no dragon balls can save them, but all what remains is to look forward and start a new life with HOPE to a better future (well... until another villain in the continuation, Dragon Ball Super, ruins it again, but that's a totally different story!).

Remixer name: JSABlixer Email address: Name of games: Plants Vs. Zombies/Plants Vs. Zombies 2 Arrangement name: Seedrun Individual songs: Grasswalk and Loonboon from pvz1 and Ancient Egypt Final Wave and Demonstration Mini-game from pvz2. Link to pvz1 soundtrack: https://laurashigihara.bandcamp.com/album/plants-vs-zombies-soundtrack Link to pvz2 soundtrack: Comments: The intro was inspired by an intro to an indoor percussion show, though I can't actually remember the name of it. I realized, after writing up to the main Grasswalk motif (1:00-1:11), that this arrangement would work even better if I made it a medley of sorts and tossed in a few extra themes. Ultimately, those would be Demonstration mini-game, Loonboon, and Ancient Egypt's Final Wave, in that order. I also really liked the swing in Peamix's Holiday Mashup themes, which happened to include some Grasswalk references, so that's the inspiration behind the swing section. Also Loonboon just sounds like it should have swing, even if it technically doesn't. But yeah, that's pretty much it. I hope you guys will enjoy it!

Remixer Name: xXgAr0w0Xx Game: Marvel VS Capcom Song: Staff Roll Name of the Arrangement: Staff Roll Remix Link: Genre: Electronic, Drum and Bass, Breakcore

Your ReMixer name: Pixel Pirates Your real name: Tobaunta Torkelsson & Fredrik Vinterstjärna Your email address: Your website: pixelpirates.nu Your userid: 37469 Name of game(s) arranged: Final Fantasy VIII Name of arrangement: Dancefloorphans Name of individual song(s) arranged: Truth Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc: We started by listening to the original and quickly decided that the main melody wasn't enough to hold our interest but the melody leading up to it had a certain something to it. Since one of the only EDM-styles applicable in this case was Big Room (which switches the main melody for the breaks) we decided to make a Big Room-esque track where the main melody is in all the slow parts and the so called drop consists of variations of the intro melody heard in the original. It is quite the departure from the original but that is a key part of a track from Pixel Pirates.

Original Decision Artist: SweetNES Hi there, OCRemix. Below is my resubmission for yet another ChronoTrigger Remix which, by my math, should now be suitable for your criteria for a high enough percentage of original source material. Looking forward to your feedback. Thanks as always for what you do for the VGM community!

Hey! So we most likely missed Mario/DK Priority month but either way we are super (no pun intended) happy with how this arrangement turned out. A bit of Backstory. The original ORIGINAL version of this was a dwelling of duels submission that actually had lyrics and had a much different arrangement. After a while I went back to it and totally revamped the arrangement and got rid of the lyrics. I of course mad a ridiculous puppet music video of it seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVd3IFH7PEY I’ve been meaning to submit this one for a while, and when Mario/DK priority came up I decided to take the opportunity to re re do it with real instruments. Huge thanks to Lucas Guimaraes for gathering everyone involved and also thanks to everyone involved…that was redundant but still. Alas I’m probably too late for the priority but in any event here is my Bavarian polka arrangement of Crocodile Cacophony entitled: Crocodile Kroctoberfest (Prost Mix) Game: Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Smash Bros Ultimate Name of Arrangement: Crocodile Kroctoberfest (Prost Mix) Name of Song: Crocodile Cacophony (The Smash Ultimate Version) Original Composer: David Wise Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2skbG1WHXw Artists: General Grunt - arrangement/composition Muffin Tunes - clarinets, bass clarinet Valse39 - clarinets Ian Martyn - accordion Shea's Violin - violins optimizasean - violins Nemo Fairlight - viola Lucas Guimaraes - orchestra, percussion Ridley Snipes - electric bass, drums, percussion, mix/master Attached in the email is the 320k Mp3 but I've also included a google drive link with other formats. Thanks, and we hope you enjoy this madness. ~General Grunt (Remixer ID: 16156)