Palpable

I really don't buy the line that it was all about the characters (the one the producers have been dishing out recently that many fans have agreed with) because there were PLENTY of times over the course of the show where they sacrificed character for mystery or plot. The last season was a great example of this. Sayid did so many things that never got explained. Sure, I'm able to buy that they don't want to explain the things that happened to him, like why he came from the dead. But I thought it muddled the internal conflict they had going for him, when we couldn't tell why he would suddenly get drive to do something, then become despondant, or have him be on Smokey's side only to be against him the next episode. When they make him act like that, he's barely a character anymore, he's just a device where they make him do whatever the plot needs. Or when Kate or Sawyer would leave the group, not want to be a part of it, yet an episode later return to help. Or remember a couple seasons ago when Sun suddenly became a cold-hearted person making deals with Widmore, for like two episodes? If you want to serve the characters, explain their motivations. Tell us why they changed the way they did. To me those are clear examples where they screwed the characters "it's always been about" to maintain the plot. It's really disingenuous for them to claim the show's always been about the characters; the show has always been about the characters and the plot. In the best episodes, both were served. Too many times, such as the finale, one was served over the other.

The compression is crazy on this, it really holds back what is a nice arrangement and makes this harder to judge. From what I can tell, this combines the two sources well and has a lot of detailed parts. From an arrangement standpoint, it's above the bar. The compression alone makes this a NO (and you may have mixing problems - it's impossible to tell), but the sequencing also should be more realistic. OA covered it pretty well. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of specific advice I can give. Take off the compression, try to get it sounding as good as you can without it, and apply a little bit back afterwards. NO (resubmit)

Boxxle and (apparently) Boxxle 2. I don't think those games ever involve timing.

I definitely hear the Cowboy Bebop influence here (an excellent soundtrack), and once it gets going, this is a very fun arrangement. Tons of color, high energy, some great chords. I gotta agree with OA that the production could have been improved on this, the synth had too much on it and didn't fit what you had going. Some of the sequencing also hurt this. The piano sequencing was too stiff, especially the quicker runs, and a softer opening would have ramped into the main section better. It sounded pretty uniform volume-wise. The drums in the 1:41 section were just sloppy, I couldn't even tell whether you were going for a realistic sound there, or a chopped-up loop. There's also some minor timing issues when everything is playing together. Very close to a pass and let me reiterate that the arrangement is great. Please take another shot at it, Adam. NO (resubmit)

You laugh, Larry, but I'm gonna say the same thing here I have about Young's other subs. The stiffness of the SNES-style strings sounded off to me, though it's a better fit here than in the other subs we've heard recently from him. The reverse and slowdown effects definitely play up the purposeful angle, but I think I'd still prefer realistically sequenced strings in their place. Now that I've wasted a paragraph on that, I'll say it actually wasn't that big a deal to me, whereas the beat definitely was. The beat plods along, doesn't keep the energy going. It definitely needed more punchiness to it, I think you went too far with the compression. You could also bring it up in volume. I agree that the arrangement never gelled either, it always feels like a lot of disparate elements. The ending also lost me a bit, it got crowded and lost focus. I really am a fan of your ideas, Young, though it seems like I'm always picking on your songs. It's just the execution that gets me. I hope you resubmit this. NO (resubmit)

A shame the balance is so far off on this, the arrangement was pretty cool. It sticks to the structure and melody of the original somewhat, but I really like what was done with backing parts and solo; there's some new stuff that fits beautifully. It was personalized and well-written. The mixing is a dealbreaker. High-end is weak, low-mids are crowded, low-end not there at all. This could sound a lot more polished than it is, and needs to. If you can fix this up, PM one of us and we can try to take another look quickly. NO (resubmit)

Yeah one single birthday thread might be a good way to go since these things happen so often, though I gotta say, it's nice when someone makes a thread for you. Regardless, happy birthday to Jade, Cyril, Geeky Stoner, Scaredsim, and while we're at it, Mirby, Darkesword, myself, R. Kelly, Heathcliff, the entire starting line-up of the 1983 Chicago Bulls, President Obama (and the people who think he was born in Kenya), and anyone who ever had a birthday.

I loved the intro to this, thought the buildup was excellent and I love the haunting and unusual combination of instruments. Don't listen to OA, he's just weird. I can see why Lee passed this because there's a lot of positive to this track. Unfortunately, I have to agree with the others that this started to wear around the 3:00 mark and doesn't have enough ideas to carry it for 6 minutes. This is one of those songs where I literally might say YES if the last 2-3 minutes were chopped off. This is your best production yet (though there's still a couple tweaks you could make - vibrato on the trumpet, more low-end), and the colorful arrangement concept is solid. With a shorter second half, or alternatively, one with more detail, this would be a pass. NO (resubmit)

Heh. I like to think of it as a six-minute electronic song that becomes a gospel song in the last minute and you ask the remixer "what happened to it being electronic?" and they tell you "psh, it was always a gospel song."

[sOME SPOILERS, THOUGH SRSLY I DON'T KNOW WHO'S GONNA READ THIS THREAD AND NOT EXPECT SPOILERS] I had mixed feelings about the ending. Very emotional, satisfying conclusion for the sideways-verse. I thought the conversation between Christian and Jack at the end was actually extremely well-done, considering how heavy-handed their explanations have been this season. It was clear about what the sideways-verse was, but it didn't feel too expository. Thumbs up. It would have been nice to see more characters in the church at the end, but I have a feeling getting all those actors together at the same time might have been an issue. But in the process of wrapping that up they really sold the danger and urgency of the island-verse short. Couldn't we at least have been told once and for all that the Man in Black leaving the island would have destroyed the world? It would have made that battle at the end matter so much more. Otherwise, why the hell do they care that he's trying to escape the island? Why does the island matter at all? I'm not asking for everything to be explained, I just want some indication that in the end, their actions meant something.

This is predictable for me but Goemon would be awesome. Zero or Dr. Light would be great additions too.

I really like the approach taken here with simplifying the melodies and making them sparse. I love the catchy simplicity. Towards the middle of this, it starts to drag and really needed some sort of change-up. There was a bridge at 1:27 but nothing substantially different and after that ended, it was business as usual. Even adding one additional element to the second half, something to progress this, would have added a lot. As it stands, I gotta say NO to this, it's just too repetitive. NO (resubmit)

Yeah writing-wise, I'm liking this. It's got a catchy sound, good original writing, and the arrangement is engaging. The samples singlehandedly bring this down, from the strings that don't cut through, to the weak clap snare (maybe layer that with something else). I'd say most of the instruments sound too thin here, which really hurts this. I think collectively we've given you a clear direction on how to improve this, so please have at it. NO

The arrangement stuck close to the original melody, but the personalization was not bad. The main thing killing this was the lack of energy. The drums felt flat and held the same almost the whole song, while the e-piano lead blended into the background a lot, given how low it was. This should have been a lot more dynamic and engaging, and I'd attribute half to the writing, half to the production. The ending was also weak, could have used a more defined way to end it. Sorry, but I think this needs another take. NO (resubmit)

Very cool remix, pretty light on melody (never heard the original) but heavy on texture and atmosphere. The transition at 1:51 sounds like a laser-guided bomb.

Production was very cool, I really liked the frenetic beat and the rapid-fire synths going on. I wasn't that crazy about the direction this took though, it suffered from a lack of ideas. There's large chunks of the song where it just holds - after the beat kicks in, this stays in roughly the same place until the breakdown, and then after that it goes right back to where it was. Even a longer intro would have helped a lot in terms of spicing this up. Like OA, I didn't like the lead synth very much, it was too rounded and plain to fit into this atmospheric mix. It's close to a pass, and I'm happy to see an MK mix given that the site doesn't have one yet, but I don't think this one is ready yet. NO (resubmit)

Right from the get-go, the sequencing is plain and rigid, especially the piano, which sounds quite fake. 1:03 was a turning point where it started to come into its own as a mix. I liked the combination of instruments there and the new writing, but I noticed the backing patterns were patterny and the lead still stuck to the original exactly. The gated section that followed was again pretty easy to predict and from there to the end, it didn't feel like there were new ideas. What you have is a good base, but this needs to have more to it from a macro (overall song) and micro (details and articulations) perspective. Also, you can totally pump that kick higher. NO (resubmit)

You're hearing that bass in the original, OA? I'm not, and it's a pretty simple tune. I'm hearing the source exactly where DA did, which isn't much. Also, maybe it's just me, but I wasn't really diggin' the production on this one and I usually love po's stuff. It seemed overly dry and muted, not a lot of color. It sounded somewhat intentional, so maybe it's just a subjective thing. Lack of source usage = NO

This is fairly different the last version, shorter and more focused on PEW-PEW. Unfortunately, while you fixed many of the issues from the last version and really stepped up the production (good job with that), this has its own set of problems. The source usage is a little low, and the last usage barely counts as buried as it is. The production also suffers there, there's too much happening. I also wasn't crazy about how repetitive each section was, it felt on autopilot at times. It is a little unusual that the source is used more as a breakdown, but a valid approach. Pretty much I'd like the last section to feature the source more prominently, and for there to be more variation in each section. I think you are up to it, given how you tackled our criticisms last time. NO (resubmit)

In addition to it being too close to the original, this also barely builds. It would nice to have the beat drive a little more after the first iteration rather than staying in the same gear. Sounds nice, but this needs more to it. NO

We all made a little boo-boo here judging this based on the wrong source - in fact, I'm editing out my entire original vote. You'll never know what it said, bwahahaha! I like the epic yet still subdued arrangement, this has a lot more direction than your other mixes I've heard, and Tweek's mastering sounds great. The only thing I didn't care for from an arrangement perspective was the ending, which starts taking this in a new direction but just fizzled. Wasn't awful, but was disappointing. Sequencing was certainly the weak point here, with the choir, strings, and snare roll all sounding a little rigid. Overall this still sounded pretty solid though, and I'm willing to give this to you. There is some realistic detail to the parts which makes up for some of the rigidly. A place you can improve next time. YES

Jesus. Looks like she was trying to end the rumors once and for all with that outfit. No outfit should ever make someone look like Marilyn Manson on the cover of Mechanical Animals.

Submission: Mp3 Youtube Contact Information Brandon Goins brandon@harlanwebsitedesign.com www.harlancountyphotography.com 31231 Submission Information Ico (Playstation 2) Castle In The Mist (Game and song already on OC Remix) Original: As a hobbyist musician and avid gamer I've been a huge fan of OC Remixes for many years, but strangely I never visited the site and browsed the selection until the recent month. The motivation hit me to do a remix, and after recently viewing the trailer for The Last Guardian (a presumed sequel or prequel to Ico), I found myself plucking the keyboard trying to remember Ico's "Castle In The Mist." The simple theme made for a fun performance and doing this remake was a total blast, and in the end I hope I created something different enough from the original but true enough to the spirit of the title. I am not completely satisfied with the arrangement and thought of writing it off as a practice-piece and taking another shot before making my debut submission, but after some positive feedback, as well as a sudden lack of motivation, I decided to go for it. -----------------------------------------------------------------

ReMixer name: ilp0 Real name: Ilari Nieminen Game(s) arranged: Final Fantasy 8 Name of individual song(s) arranged: Eyes on Me ReMix: I made this mix one summer night at my band's training place. I missed my last bus home and was forced to spend a night in a tiny room full of instruments and warm beer and pretty much nothing else there so I picked a VG song that first came to mind ("Eyes on Me" for some reason) and started jamming tracks to our 8-track recorder. This is the result. Silly track but I've kind of started to like it afterwards so I thought I'd give it a shot at OCR. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Eyes on Me

Quick Man, yowza. I remember the days when I couldn't even beat that stage without using Time Stop on the lasers. You're doing good work here.