Emunator

Hah! I literally had Artist in the Ambulance open in Spotify when I pulled up this thread, the Thrice influence is quite obvious! This is certainly unlike anything we've heard on OCReMix before, save for perhaps some of Moiré Effect's alt-rock covers, and it checks all the boxes well. The vocals sound professional quality, and you nailed the genre conventions in terms of tone and performance across the board. There are a few slight shortcomings in the mixing in terms of the vocals being buried, and the high-range vocals at 2:37, while super ambitious, lose a lot of volume and get lost in the mix as a result. All things said though, this rips unequivocally - thanks for bringing a severely-underrepresented genre to our catalog with style and polish! YES

Real nice tone to the guitar and piano to start things off. The writing is chilled out and cohesive, nothing crazy going on on any fronts but it really works as a whole! The beat is fine for what it is, but I think there could be a lot more movement to the percussion without sacrificing the chill vibe. The hi-hat/auxiliary percussion specifically feels very static in terms of sequencing, which inhibits the groove from really flowing. The percussion is also mixed with a lot of sharpness in the high end, specifically in the snare and hats. Typically, for a lo-fi approach, you'll want to high-shelf or lowpass filter your drums to shave off some of that high end piercing frequency, since it's poking out dramatically compared to the softness of the rest of the soundscape. Not a dealbreaker in my book, but this is definitely something to improve on your next outing in this style. Pretty easy pass, in spite of its simplicity. I could really see you evolving this style with future submissions but I have no major reservations about what's in front of me. Nice work! YES

"It feels like whatever feeling you want to find in it can be found." I could not have possible said it better myself. This speaks to Michael's talents as a sound designer and an arranger, and the beauty of the Breath of the Wild score itself. It's a blank canvas, waiting for you to imprint your own stories and memories onto its amorphous textures. I love this piece because, as I'm reading through the other judge comments thus far, I agree with every adjective and image conjured but also don't know if I would have used any of those myself. I feel serenity, weight, solemnity, weightlessness, beauty, and so much more that language can't quite capture. I can't wait to see what others hear in this. YES

This really does feel like one of your more successful sonic experiments experiments as of late - while some of your previous tracks (solo trumpet, mirrored arrangement) utilized a great concept but ultimately fell short of sounding like a complete song on its own, this really fills out the sound stage and demonstrates a full appreciation and understanding of the range of the viola, an instrument that doesn't frequently take the main stage. The intro was really well executed to build tension before the main melody drops in. I found the reverb to be a little overbearing during certain sections, but once the low strings ease up, it sounds nice! I'm not entirely sure but it feels like some surgical EQ on the reverb itself would remedy this. At the end of the day though, this is really technically impressive and also quite enjoyable as a casual listen! Great work guys YES

Credited Artists: Emunator: Arrangement, sequencing, orchestration, mixing Shea's Violin: Lead violin Additional Credits: Chimpazilla: additional mixing (bass), mastering Comments: This is my 3rd round submission for Darkesword's Game Set Mash!! competition, and I think it's my favorite of the three. Knowing that our PSX team was behind in total points leading into the final round, and that we needed to win this matchup to even stay in the running, I knew I had to go all out. No half measures here. Over the next 10 days, I put roughly 60 hours of work into this arrangement, crafting easily the most heavily-layered, orchestrated piece I've ever made. At the end of it all, both teams were tied in points, so I guess the real victory was the friends we made along the way?? My elevator pitch for this arrangement is "What if James Horner composed the score to Avatar like normal, but he dropped acid for 30 seconds in the middle of one of his sessions?" My other key influences here were the Ori and the Will of the Wisps score, specifically the Windswept Wastes theme, and E-Bison's classic Xenogears remix, Zeno Paradox (I spent so much time trying to capture the magic of the surprise bass drop featured in Elliot's track, and while I don't think I was nearly as successful here, I've always wanted to pay homage to one of my all-time favorite OCReMix arrangements.) This ended up being a fusion arrangement in the truest sense of the word, pulling influence from Chinese, Arabic and Indian composition styles as well as contemporary western film scores. I let the character of the two sources drive the arrangement initially, but didn't hold myself back from exploring other pathways as they opened up. The final project file used over 180 plugins, 250 channels, and 25,300 MIDI notes, so instead of attempting to break down the production or tools used, I'll just let the music speak for itself. After the competition was over, I went back and did some minor polishing to the mixing, tapped Shea to record a more expressive version of my sequenced violin performance, and asked Chimpazilla to lend her secret mastering magic to finish it off, but aside from that, this didn't need too much reworking to get it to its current state. I'm walking away from the competition with a sense of confidence in my ability to work quickly and decisively without having to make compromises on my vision. I'm truly grateful to Shariq for providing that avenue to expand my musical skills and meet so many wonderful collaborators and friends in the process. Team PSX for life! ?

I can't say I'm hearing the same resonant frequencies that MindWanderer called out, and I've listened to this on three different setups. I wouldn't be surprised if there were certain frequencies that inadvertently popped out due to the nature of the arrangement and how many filter sweeps you had to employ to emulate that classic Daft Punk sound, but it's not an issue for me personally. I have to say that, in my eyes, this is one of VQ's most successful musical outings to date, and really encapsulates so many of the things I enjoy about her music. There is absolutely no shortage of ambition here - that much was evident by the 26 source breakdown (good luck to whoever ends up doing the metadata tagging on this one!) It's making a clear stylistic homage that understands what made the original reference so great, but isn't limited to just the bounds presented by the original. The addition of the acoustic guitar and trumpet/sax feel right at home in the Daft Punk cinematic universe. You clearly have a LOT of love for the Metroid canon and it shows here, but what I think I'm actually most impressed by is how focused this arrangement feels despite the myriad of sources referenced and the number of ideas thrown on the table. At just over 4 minutes, this doesn't overstay its welcome or come across as too repetitive (which, at the risk of committing sacrelige, I can't always say for some of Daft Punk's original work.) I think a major part of the cohesion is the consistent groove and the Artifact Temple arpeggio, which serves a grounding role in the arrangement that everything else can spin off of. I understand the temptation to create massive, sprawling arrangements that are loaded with ideas, and that approach has a place, but I really admire your restraint in crafting this arrangement - there were some great editing decisions made along the way. The production is imperfect, sometimes in a way that intentionally evokes Daft Punk's gritty sampled aesthetic, and other times in a way that feels like the mixing just isn't 100% there yet, but this track came a long way from the earlier demos and I can reasonably say that you got it good enough. I think this is something you'll look back on and see small ways you could improve your craft, but I don't really have any hesitancy passing this through in its current form! YES

How the hell have we not had a proper Wii remix until now? I can almost guarantee that this is destined to pop off with our casual listening audience, regardless of the quality of the piece itself. The youth loves their Wii music. Luckily, the quality is there regardless! ? This is a very intimate ensemble that enters as a mere whisper, and although I was admittedly expecting it to really blow up and go full Big Band at any moment, I think the approach you took works even better. Even when the energy level picks up around the 2 minute mark with some bigger brass chords, which are delightfully arranged and performed, it still feels extremely intimate. Greg's lead winds, unsurprisingly, are another star of the show. Really, there's not a weak link in the arrangement - I did pick up on some of the blocky sequencing on the piano, such as the run at :46, which may be due to technical limitations on the sample library, but that's such a minor nit to be picked that it's barely worth mentioning, especially when the piano tone and writing itself fits like a glove. You're destined for greatness, kid! YES

"I really just wanted to walk the core melody out into the cold sunset." What a beautiful turn of phrase that perfectly captures the intangible feeling I get from listening. This arrangement evokes such a pure sense of nostalgia and timelessness while simultaneously feeling incredibly modern in its production choices. The washed-out dream pop guitars and keys and Tame Impala-style filtered drums could genuinely go toe-to-toe with professional indie pop productions from the modern age. It's a testament to Trevor's meticulous attention to technical details and an incredible ear for building a satisfying sound palette. The arrangement itself is fairly no-frills and doesn't delineate far from the initial concept, but does exactly what it needs to, stripping back the iconic Snowman melody back to its core and reshaping that into one of my favorite OCReMix submissions that I've heard in years. YES

Hi there this is my first submission i hope i follow the steps correctly. My Artist name is : SovRin Real Name: Ralph Aldridge Email: Websites: https://www.instagram.com/djsovrin/ https://twitter.com/DJSovRin UserID: 38860 Submission Info: The orginal theme is From Monkey Island 2. The track is called" The Escape from LeChuck's Fortress" My Version of this is called Electric I think originally it's credited to Michael Z. Land I didn't find it on the site but i found this one on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwEybVtSlbM Additional Info: I grew up in the 90s and Monkey Island and it's music have always meant a great deal to me. The music to this day is often stuck in my head and has inspired not a few of my own songs. This one is the first time that i took Notes from a Midi file. It's called Mi2Escape.midi from Scummbar.com As i mainly do Chipstep or Dubstep with Video game Influences this was really fun to do, although i only took the "background" notes played from the harpsichord mainly, not to Rip off the main theme from Monkey Island which is very recognizable. This track has a lot of my own sound design in it, especially the basses of course, but i try to lead with the playful melody of the original track. It also has a little not towards Last Ninja in the Intro but that was just a gimmick. I took mainly 2 parts of the harpsichord melody and worked it into a 128BPM rhythm (the original being quite chaotic and all over the place) and switched it do D#. Overall it took roughly 13 hours to make, was quite fun and i hope the reference is audible. If not let me know. Best Wishes, SovRin EDIT (12/4): sorry for the additional email, but i noticed i sent in a "muddy" version of the song, so i wanted to send in a newer version. This one is final from my side

Name: Michael Hudak Website: https://michaelhudak.bandcamp.com/album/polar Game arranged: TLoZ - Breath of the Wild (also appears in Tears of the Kingdom) Song arranged: Purified Dragon (YouTube link) Name of my ReMix: Guided to the Infinite (Google Drive link) This is my contribution to the album accompanying the excellent The Impact of Iwata project created & spearheaded by Lucas M. Thomas of Nintendo Force. He wanted each chapter in the audiobook version of the release to have a corresponding piece of music and reached out to OCR musicians to help. I chose to write something for the final chapter, Remembering Iwata, re-imagining music from Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom (per Lucas' wishes). I chose to remix Purified Dragon; without explaining too much, I'll just say that I think its in-game importance and usage thematically reflects the essence of a "last chapter". Thanks again to all judges. This is my first submission in the DarkeSword era - neat. Time does fly. - Mike

Main ReMixer name: TheManPF (User ID: 35318) Additional artists: Zach Chapman; Na Daoine Laghairt (evilsonic; Ian Martyn; Ronin Op F; Andromeda; atomic; DregsHeartRender) Submission: Game: Shadow of the Colossus Name of arrangement: On the Shoulders of Giants Songs arranged: Prologue; The Farthest Land; Demise of the Ritual; End of the Battle Original composer: Kow Otani System: Playstation 2 Year: 2005 Comments: Earlier this year, on May, I worked on a supercollab for Dwelling of Duels Playstation 2 month, where me and Zach worked with the folk group "Na Daoine Laghairt", comprised of several DoD regulars who are very skilled at putting out celtic style music. We chose Shadow of the Colossus, and did a folk/metal tune that ended up placing 7th out of 23 tracks. I haven't played the original but I played the 2018 remake which stays mostly untouched and enjoyed the experience, I wanted to arrange something that would evoke that folk melancholic style while also bringing power through distorted guitars and full choirs. The song is mostly comprised of two parts, which are sandwiched by the other two sources: -First 30 seconds taken from "Prologue" -0:30 to 2:10 is taken from "The Farthest Land", with a small original section added at 1:39 to work as a transition -2:10 to 3:28 is taken from "Demise of the Ritual", the final boss of the game -3:28 to 3:55 reprises a section of "The Farthest Land" -Last 40 seconds are taken from "End of the Battle", the original is pretty dramatic, I decided to stop on the major chord to give it more of a happy ending The lyrics for the chants and choir are written in "Runic language", a fictional language written for both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, and it's mostly romanized Japanese inverted with some vowels removed. I wrote the lyrics after going through a bit of a down period I had where I was feeling musically exhausted and couldn't get to the same highs I had before, sort of a "pride before the fall" feeling, you climb to the shoulder of the giant, but then you fall again, and then you have to climb back up. Full credits: TheManPF - Arrangement, lyrics, sequencing, mix, electric guitar, vocals Zach Chapman - Bass Na Daoine Laghairt is: evilsonic - Acoustic guitar, mandolin Ian Martyn - Whistle, Irish bouzouki, percussion, vocals Ronin Op F - Violin, vocals Andromeda - Vocals atomic - Baritone ukulele DregsHeartRender - vocals Lyrics: Awie o etmotm Irkuy oppi ustz shatw Aw njoyk on atk in urbn Irkuy oppi ustz shatw Aw njoyk on atk in urbn Asid in omett iakch Amnakst on naknsh Urbn, ukgm Uansh oknk Ukgm, urch Askikm Urdm in nmij Shatw aw njoyk On atk ark urch Asid in omett iakch Amnakst on naknsh Urmazm, urmazm Onk umk ark urmazm Nnmr

Previous Decision Hi, thanks to sent this mail but I had already read it, i work on it, this is my last mix ready for a new submmit . Hi i want to send to summit this mix My name remixer : AdriánDBAremixes My real Name : Adrián Fernández Sanmiguel My Web Adress : https://deadbyaccident.bandcamp.com My user rid 38736-adriandbamixes Super Mario 64- Bowser Road

cooliscool Jeremy Johnson https://soundcloud.com/jeremy-johnson-850853006 & https://soundcloud.com/jeremy-johnson-24 (I have no personal website) 38856 Metroid II - Return of Samus My World over world Theme Ryoji Yoshitomi, for Nintendo Gameboy, 1991 I wrote this quite by accident during an improv/practice session. The chord progression came about by intuition, and I realized quickly that it would represent a great version of this wonderful tune. It is sparse, but I think the elements are quite strong in harmony. Enjoy! I also have a 7 minute long extended version available. Sorry for being g negligent in reading and following the guidelines first. Thanks for your consideration!

This is an interesting one that is going to take a bit of time to unravel. As best I can understand, Josh created an original piano arrangement of To Zanarkand which is based on the Distant Worlds II version of "To Zanarkand" but also incorporates aspects from the Piano Collections which, as best as I can tell, only exists as sheet music. I don't think his piano chops are even remotely in question - the piece sounds beautiful, but it'll be interesting to see how this holds up to scrutiny and if there's enough original adaptation to stand apart from the Distant Worlds official version.

Josh Winiberg http://www.joshwiniberg.co.uk 38855 Final Fantasy X Zanarkand - Distant Worlds Piano Version Zanarkand Nobuo Uematsu This is a solo piano reimagining of the Distant Worlds orchestral arrangement of Zanarkand. As a result, the while the structure is significant different, much of the arrangement is draws from the Piano Collections version, until the new themes and counter melodies half way through are introduced with the keychange to Bm. This arrangement was released on the usual streaming platforms on 17th November 2023. Best, Josh

Scintillating intro, the mood created is similar to Ruined World meets Vangelis before finally breaking out into melodic guitar riffs supported by all of the different instrumental and synth flavors that you could hope for as a listener. The mud present in the original version has been cleaned up now and this track is far stronger for it. On the arrangement side, I actually listened to the remix first, and then found myself surprised at how little there was to go off of in the original, and simultaneously how quickly it connected. I actually picked up on the laughing sfx-to-detuned guitar plucks connection immediately and found that to be a super clever way to maintain source usage outside of just the droning chord progression. This is an immaculately produced homage to Pink Floyd that, thanks to Zach's willingness to revise, is now sitting pretty in my book! YES

New version up! @DarkSim @Gario @MindWanderer @prophetik music @Liontamer Let's see if this new one is enough to flip any votes and close this out.

Diablo I & II Tristram Theme Diablo has to Synth Diablo released in 1996 and the rest is history. Composer of the game's soundtrack was Matt Uelmen. Original soundtrack : Diablo 1 & 2 Soundtrack - Tristram Theme - YouTube In an alternate world Tristram is a cyberpunk Town. Matt Uelmen wrote this magnificent music for Diablo (video game) using his guitars (mostly).Synthesizers took over Tristram and Diablo opened a portal to a cyberpunk world, called the "80's". Contact Information 7DD9 George Karagiorgos Music | 7DD9 (bandcamp.com)

Remixer: LXE Name: Alexis Gelinas Email: Website: instagram.com/lexadex_yo 38753 -- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island Stroll in the Park Flower Garden I was learning about 7th chords in my piano lessons and was experimenting with the melody over these 7th chords and it sounded so nice and relaxing so I felt a lofi vibe would work great

Arrangement, Mastering: Lucas Guimaraes Viola Performance, Mix: Andrew Steffen of ETHEReal String Orchestra If this gets approved and could be mixposted on Final Fantasy's birthday that'd be lovely, since this is for a Final Fantasy Viola Quartet album. Oh man, this is a fun one that has a whole story. It joins the same camp as Tyrano's Stash for a ReMix that wouldn't exist without another ReMix. In this case, it was Song of the Desperado that came in at the 11th hour for the Final Fantasy 8 album to beat the record of album with the most tracks. Basically, we needed a violist, and Andrew Steffen was happy to oblige. Andrew later on showed me some of his Viola Quartet tracks that he did. I really liked what I heard, and I asked him why he hadn't released them. His answer? Because they weren't an album. We kept joking about me finishing the whole thing, or at least he was - I took it at face value. A couple of months later I finished up 6 Final Fantasy Viola Quartet arrangements. He got to recording pretty quickly and the only thing that really halted the process was me being slow on finalizing album art (oops). So the music itself. I started this off in Sibelius. All I thought was "this is absolutely unplayable" and "there's no way this will end up sounding good". I wasn't particularly proud of it, but I knew there were some parts with potential. I was sick of hearing it and sent it off to Andrew, along with the other files. Him and I have a very collaborative process, so I trusted him in bringing the rest to life. The result? ...well, that's what you're hearing. A majestic take on a theme. Sometimes hearing my arrangements with different instruments really helps remember the potential in them. The amount of things that come together in this arrangement and performance really go above and beyond. Both the fast sections and adding more slow sections, similar to Song of the Desperado. Going for a Tango at about 2:04 was certainly an inspired choice, and one that I wasn't quite sure would work, but it got pulled off brilliantly. The slow push right back into the main theme as it begs you for more. 3:09 when the track pulls you into thinking it's ready to go back to the main theme, but it's not *quite* there yet, then the beautiful reprise at 3:40 to give the end some punch. This fits the chaos of a character like Gilgamesh. I might have stayed in slow land a little too long, but after 2 minutes of punching in the face, I consider it a good break As for the ReMix title, I went with this because Gilgamesh is waiting at big bridge behind the door. Nothing *too* fancy, haha. I hope you all enjoy!

ReMixer name: jnWake Name of game(s) arranged: Earthbound. Name of arrangement: Winters is Coming. Name of individual song(s) arranged: Snowman (https://ocremix.org/song/820/snowman) Even more from Dwelling of Duels! This one's from the 20th anniversary in September 2023. That one was a big month and this track placed 12/59, which is honestly pretty decent! Anyway, I'm gonna try to keep it brief this time. Unlike most of my remixes, this one wasn't born from an intention to remix. Instead, I was jamming on my keyboard and somehow came up with the somewhat unusual chord progression from the intro (FMaj7 - CMaj7x2 - GMaj7) and then. improvising over it, for some reason, I started playing the main melody from "Snowman". I thought it sounded pretty cool and archived that idea in my mind for a while. For DoD's 20th anniversary I was a little short on time so I decided to revive this idea and develop it further from my initial improvisation. Most of the track is built over doing fun chord/key variations over the source. I had a lot of fun building it so I hope you enjoy! Regarding source usage, the source "Snowman" (here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niE24aTdtns ) has basically 2 main sections (A is from 00:00 to 00:32 and B from 00:33 to 1:07). During the remix I leave the main melodies almost unchanged but I move the chords a lot... Anyway, timestamp time! 0:00-0:30 - Original intro with the chord progression mentioned above. 0:30-0:57 - Melody from A on top of the melody, plus a transition also based on A. 0:58-1:29 - Based on B, piano does a variation of the main melody and the pads are based on the backing from B on the source track. 1:30-2:15 - Another variation of A, with a slightly different chord progression from the previous one. 2:17-2:47 - Piano solo! Nothing really based on the source here, except for the final quote of the solo. 2:48-3:14 - Melody from B over a very different chord progression. 3:15-3:41 - Sort of an original bridge I guess? Chord progression is a fun chromatic descent. 3:42-3:49 - This short synth run is based on part of B's melody (0:55 on the YT link). 3:50-4:05 - Ending of B, part just before the loop. 4:05-4:20 - Repeat of the intro, but it starts speeding up and has a big change as transition to final section. 4:21-end: - Yet another variation over A's melody, followed by a synth solo over the chord progression established in this section. Hope you enjoy! As a final note, this source is technically from MOTHER originally but I first heard it on Earthbound so I linked that game as main source.

Feedback has been shared with the artists!

Emailed Zach about this track to see if he's up to make some changes. For the record, I agree that the drone pad is probably a dealbreaker in terms of how much it muddies the soundscape, so hopefully he can adjust that!

@Chimpazilla You were right! Parker was able to get this resubmitted within an hour of reading the decision and it addresses my only beef (pun intended) with the first submission. So glad this didn't end up lingering in rejection purgatory over that. THERE'S THE BEEF!

Previous Decision "Ok, here it is. Yes - it was exactly what one of the judges said it was. Let's just say this was one of the most embarrassing mistakes I've made as a producer." Original submission: Your ReMixer name: Parker Walker (I hope that my previous remixes' remixer name can be changed from SPIRAL_SYSTEM to Parker Walker, if not, then use SPIRAL_SYSTEM. Thanks!) Your real name Parker Walker Your email address Your website(s) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW1jycmYfDZYXPnL6W9DEtQ Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: SPIRAL_SYSTEM Streets of Rage 2 Can't stop me! Go Straight For this mix, I took a more conservative approach, because all the elements of the original are very "90s". Hence, I kept the 90s feel, yet didn't go for a total FM sound like my other SOR2 remix because I think that, honestly, Yuzo did it the best on this one and I can't surpass him. Instead, I went for 90s house feel using 90s production techniques, arrangements and sounds. I even used the legendary JD-990 synthesizer (produced at the time) and samples from the TR 909 to give extra authenticity and 90s feel. All the bass sounds are from Chip MD, a Sega FM emulator. All in all, it's a re-imagining of what the song would have been using state of the art production techniques at the time, and a quite conservative homage on this classic v-game track. I hope the fans enjoy!