Gario

I am literally incapable of hating on a PsyNES remix, so once again thanks for sending us some more lovely remix goodness. The arrangement is bouncy and fresh, and as always the relatively basic synths are used in such a way that they never get boring, with those stutters and shifting beats. I will echo Larry's comment on the treble-heavy mixing on this, though; throughout the track the bass is noticeably lacking. It doesn't drag the piece too much, but in moments like 2:40 the build sounds lacking due to the mid/high EQ focus of the mix. Other than moar bass, I'm loving this. Get it up there on the front page. YES

Well let's also be fair, it's legit a great little album, here; it reminds me of Mutherpluckin' B's guitar work, which is literally never a bad thing. I'm glad I got to finally check it out! Times are different now than in 2005, too; maybe you should ask OCR if they could permanently host the album themselves and replace the link on the homepage? It IS listed on their album listing, so we could probably work something out if you ask the staff about it.

Downloaded for safety reasons; hopefully OCR can host the album once again. Thanks for doin' the LORD's work, Black_Doom.

I'm with MW on this one - the sounds are pretty vanilla, but they're used very well throughout, and the track never feels empty or dull because of it. Some instruments are overused (like that sine, though nice work not making it too piercing while making it audible, that's not easy to do), but overall it does change it's soundscape enough to avoid being too static. I hear Larry's concern about the lead mixing after 2:33 (it does get buried into the arrangement), but I don't think it's enough to sink the piece, nor do I think something is at all a small or quick fix to justify a conditional YES (mixing is a delicate issue to deal with - it's never something an artist can just touch up in a few minutes). If this gets kicked back, I would definitely appreciate the lead to stand out more against the rest of the track at 2:33. It's not perfect, but I don't think our bar is so high that the lead blending with the texture a little too much and one texture being over-represented is reject-worthy. The arrangement does good work, the production is pretty good, and overall the track keeps me bouncing in my chair. I say give this some front page love, with the caveat that the artist learns from our opinions and mixes the lead better next time. YES

This sounds like a nice, space-y arrangement of a classic. I like the instruments used in general - a touch vanilla, but used really well for the genre. The SNES sampled lead in the beginning has some weird dynamics going on there, though - unsure what we're going with there, but it would probably be better if the dynamics aren't so extreme, since it sounds like the instrument is just droppnig in and out, there. From the 1 minute mark on, the harmonies and textures don't sound like they're changing at the same time, which is pretty disorienting. At 2:22, the lead comes in and things line up again, which from then on it sounds pretty solid. If you're syncopating the textures and harmony past the 1 minute park, I'd advise against that; without something like a lead to ground that syncopation against, it ends up sounding like a mistake. Otherwise, some awesome stuff going on in this - lookin' forward to the next update.

Very light performance, and some excellent ocarina playing in this, slight mixing snafu notwithstanding (the ocarina is not terribly loud - it's just not perfect, is all). There's some really nice orchestration throughout, with the timbres shifting throughout the textures. The quality of instruments is quite good, too, though the opening could've focused on the other instruments pointalisticly covering the theme rather than the piano part. It's an artistic choice, though, so I won't braze the track much for something like that. Overall the quality is up to par, and it's just a lovely rendition of the source. It focuses on the high end in general throughout, but I don't think that sinks the piece at all. Lovely stuff, I love it, let's get it posted. YES

For the technical aspect brought up on the "wind" lead (more likely a synth), it sounds like a minor mixing concern - it's mixed considerably louder than the other instruments surrounding it, which makes it punch through the rest of the mix too much and gives you less sonic space to work with overall. It presents a twofold issue: it makes one item sound out too much over the other items, and it limits how loud you can make the rest of the track (since it only takes one loud instrument to hit the -0 mark for a limiter to consider it "clipping"). It's not THAT problematic an issue, but it's something that could be toned down, improving the quality of the overall track somewhat. On the bright side, it's the lead that's punching through, so at least it isn't a texture or something overpowering the lead (which is a considerably worse position to be in). Pretty gentle arrangement, and definitely a different direction to take the track. I like it, here's hoping you can get it to what you consider finished sometime soon.

Contact Information: Remixer name: Adnarel Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiEcODvDGbXW7rd93SpPQMg OCR Forums UserID: https://ocremix.org/community/profile/23418-adnarel/ Submission Information: Game and system: Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Game Boy Advance (2002) Name of arrangement: Madra Catacombs Name of songs arranged: Beneath the Surface Link to original material: Linky Comments: I have typically been a reflexive dissident to the larger trend within video game remixes to make 4/4 dance music (my last submission to OCR was rejected for being "too avante-garde"). But after listening to Benjamin Diamond on repeat for about 2 weeks straight, I simply had to do something house-inspired for my large body of work on Golden Sun remixes. It very much fits my usual pattern of a slower introduction followed by an energetic finish. I thought this website might find it good enough to use. Hope you enjoy. =)

I love this track - the arrangement really is just to die for, and the style chosen for this really helps everything come together. It really is quite brilliant. The production values aren't perfect (sounds like the entire track has too much low pass on it), but in general they're quite good (at least, good enough for OCR). The levels of this track, though, are concerning - it's just a very quiet track overall. It's close to hitting the limiters, though, due to how much the snare punches through. I put a picture of the waveform to show this issue in particular: This is a great example of a track that would benefit significantly from some soft limiting or compression over the track, just to bring those spikes down and squeeze 4-5dBs out of the track. It sounds nitpicky, but I think this needs to be put in Audacity (or whatever program you prefer) and have these spikes in the levels cleaned up and have the levels overall raised to better match a typical OCR track. Love the track, and I do hope this gets posted onto the front page, particularly after the levels are fixed on this. EDIT (07/26): It seems the items that I had concern with were addressed (even the somewhat excessive low EQs used throughout), so now I have no issues with this being posted. Excellent work from 744 - will be glad once this great arrangement is posted! EDIT (08/20): It still sounds solid, with some minor instrument tweaks and slightly better EQ balance. My vote's still solid. YES

EDIT (07/26): Track has been updated to address prior concerns about levels. - Gario So two of the most remixed tracks on all of OCR are Aquatic Ambience from DKC and Stickerbush Symphony from its sequel, but as of this submission, no one’s attempted to combine them yet. They’re both terrific tracks and fit their aesthetic perfectly on their own, and are easily two of the most memorable David Wise compositions so far. These themes make the games themselves much more memorable and it was cool the SNES could pull them off. From childhood, having played these two games for endless hours, I know both these themes so well, I was able to transcribe them from memory (albeit not in their original keys.) So originally this was going to be just an Aquatic Ambience synthwave mix, mostly to see if I could produce one that would meet the high standards of the mixes that were already up. While Logic was playing an early version of this back, I accidentally hit one of the media buttons on my keyboard and iTunes queued up Stickerbush Symphony by chance. At that point I decided, why not go for it — two of the most remixed tracks on OCRemix, but lump them together somehow. Both tracks in this mix borrow elements from each other; Stickerbush’s expanding bass synth and percussion play during the Aquatic section for example, while the Stickerbush section borrows Aquatic’s arpeggio and ornamentation. But I still wanted to go with a cheesy, reverb-soaked 80s snare, warbly synths, slightly glitchy pads, and punchy bass for that heavy synthwave feel. With this track I envision a dark bramble-themed underwater level full of bright neon purple grids and random yellow, green, and hot pink shapes floating around in the background. -- ORIGINAL TRACKS "Aquatic Ambience" from Donkey Kong Country -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAPpVplHiDE "Stickerbush Symphony" from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdPlcKg-qFs Remixer name: 744 Real name: Ben Brownlee e-mail: site: sevenfortyfour.bandcamp.com forum userid: 34405

Contact Information ReMixer name : Reuben Spiers Real Name : Reuben Spiers E-mail: Submission Information Game: Donkey Kong Country Name of Arrangement: OSHA Violation Name of Original Song: Fear Factory Featuring Earth Kid on harp and Sean Leffler on strings. Power drills and wine glasses will forever be my favourite instruments.

Ah yes, the single greatest title that I've ever seen for a remix thus far. I would LOVE to see this posted on those grounds alone. However, I do need to question the mixing on this track throughout. The lead is often buried behind the rest of the arrangement (an issue that actually gets worse as the arrangement gets more dense as it progresses), and as the track gets more dense the mix more and more crowded/muddy. As much as I like how the vanilla synths were handled in general, the mixing is indiscriminate (with the textures often overtaking the leads, an example of which can be heard at 0:40), and the resulting soundscape is too muddy. I like this track otherwise, but in order for me to pass this the track needs another pass on the mixing. The textures need to have their levels adjusted so they don't overtake the leads (or the leads should be in a different register so that they're not fighting for the same sonic space), and the pads that all fight for the same space must be either mixed down or made to be less dense, just so the arrangement has some room to breath. Fun track, great title, but I don't think this one is there yet. I do hope to hear this one come back soon, though! NO

Well, hosting the BIG compos isn't a terrible idea, might be something worth looking into. Just finished getting new Judges on the panel, so perhaps a new side-venture that can be taken? Just me thinking out loud, here. In the meantime, do go on the Discord, it's a pretty active community there still.

Don't you worry - we're still alive and kickin'. Lots of work on the back end of the site going on at the moment in order to make sure that things keep moving on the site, which while less noticeable is important in keeping the site moving along with little problem. Generally, it's easy to think that OCR isn't what it used to be, and in some ways you're correct - what OCR used to be was a monolith of a site where most VG arrangements were vetted and distributed. Today, though, we have sites like Youtube, the Materia collective, Pixel Mixers, etc., that all distribute VG arrangements elsewhere, which is only a good thing for the community at large. It does look like it shrinks OCR's contribution to the community by comparison, but it's really an illusion: take a look at OCR in 2009 and compare it to today, and you'll find that we've grown considerably in that time. Forum activity has waned, but that's true across the spectrum; a lot of communities have moved onto things like Discord (of which OCR still has an active and thriving community - check it out), so that's less telling of OCR's condition and more the state of the internet in general. Concerning albums, we generally don't officially direct any albums - that's entirely community based. If you want more albums to be made, then by all means help out with those that are already in the works (you can check em' out in the Projects forum), or you can get to recruitin' for one. Had a wonderful album come out recently from a relative newer member (who isn't a remixer herself), so it's not unheard of. Really, though, it's not a bad thing to hear fans "lament" OCR's glory days - it means we still have something to live up to, which is encouraging. That being said, don't despair, OCR is still quite an active force on the internet; we're not going anywhere.

It's a very interesting, folksy track. On the one hand, there's a lot going on in this track throughout - so many different textures, and sometimes they're quite subtle. On the other hand, there are timing issues with a few instruments (like the acoustic guitar, for example), which is distracting, once you tune into it. This becomes less of an issue as the piece comes together after the 1:00 mark, though. The mixing, while I could nitpick it (the accordion part at times, like at 1:22, does overtake the more interesting parts from time to time), isn't unbearable, and the production is pretty clean for what it is. I can see some having these little items add up, but I think the whole track is better than the sum of it's parts. If this gets sent back I would appreciate some post-production on the accordion so it doesn't overpower your more animated instruments at times, and I'd appreciate the guitar part to be more precisely in time with the other instruments. Again, though, I think this is quite a good arrangement (good enough for the front page), so I'll give it my stamp of approval. YES

Well, send over what you got and we'll talk about it. I think your airship theme was close to finished, so that should be really close by now, I imagine. Looking forward to it!

Hello, djpretzel and the OC Remix Community! I hope this e-mail finds you doing well. My name is Chris - or to use my producer name, ichordic - and I'm director of the Sounds Department at Kronotiq Media, a multimedia company in Orlando. We just released a remix of Mighty No. 9 that we'd been holding on to for a minute, and we wanted to share it with the OC community. It's our own take on the main theme song, which was originally produced by the Mega Man-composing legend Manami Matsumae (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc8aXhQFFmQ). This remix takes those feelings of hope and anticipation that the original gave us back when the Mighty No. 9 project was first announced on Kickstarter, and brings them to all-new heights (perhaps we should say regardless of the game's history). The link is below. We also created an account with OC (Kronotiq Sounds - user id 35482), so we'll be sharing this on the forums as well. We hope you enjoy! Best, Christopher "ichordic" Paul Sounds Director Kronotiq Media kronotiq.com Check out Kronotiq Sounds: Spotify | Google Play | iTunes/Apple Music | SoundCloud | Bandcamp

Hey there, welcome to OCR! Just giving a heads up, I moved this thread to the VG Arrangements portion of the WIP forums - this is definitely an arrangement of a VG track, and it'll likely get more attention there, to boot. Can't really go wrong with a Chrono Trigger Main Theme cover, and you got some good sounding instruments, to boot. I suggest you play around with the levels of this track, though; it sounds really hot, like it's hitting the limiter constantly. Bypass your limiters on the master track and set your levels so that they're not clipping, then use the limiters/compressors to shape the track a little bit at the end - it'll improve the production quality significantly. Thanks for showing off, though, and I do hope you find the forums to be a friendly, helpful place. You can also join our discord if you want more personal interaction with the community, too!

Nope, have no idea who you were. I guess that's a good thing since you didn't really like your own presence on here prior? It was about ten years ago since you last posted anyway, so it makes sense that I don't remember - I've only been on here ten or so years, myself. Doesn't look like you needs any hazing, either, since Meteo's got that part covered. Anyhoo, welcome back, glad to have another person enjoying OCR and it's forums!

Nah, just send the finished WAV. You'd be the last person I'd cut, considering you literally already finished it before. Thanks for the heads up

Not too many people left to submit for the final deadline, which is great. Got a few stragglers, though, so @Ivan Hakštok, @Gario, @djpretzel, @Sil, we're going to need to hear back from y'all. It's wrapping up, so let's push to the last stretch!

Oh, a judge rules question! Here's where we'd come down on it: At the moment, there seems to be a misunderstanding of the rules built into the question (which means we should perhaps clarify on the submission requirements page). When we look for source in an arrangement (rule of thumb: at least 50% of the arrangement should reference the source), what we're looking for is the arrangement/ReMix to be referencing the source at least 50% of the time, not for the arrangement to reference at least 50% of the source. As long as it's identifiable as the source, one could theoretically make a remix that only references 25% (or even less) of the source and it would still qualify for OCR as long as the arrangement was referencing that source for a significant period of time (again, rule of thumb is 50% of the arrangement). It would be odd leaving out so much source (and people might get upset that their favorite parts were left out!), but that's not technically a Judging requirement. Concerning your actual question, though, which source would we give credit to in this case? Very likely, in this case it would be whichever source the artist claims to have been arranging since it's not technically wrong to call the arrangement a "Link Between Worlds" arrangement, even when it's similar/identical to the Link to the Past source. In the past I've sourced Dracula X's Stage 6 track for my submission (which is itself an arrangement of the Castlevania 3 "Beginnings" track), so I have some personal experience on that front to help come up with that conclusion. Forcing people to use "official" versions of the source would, I imagine, cause the staff quite a bit of headache figuring out which source is the "actual" source, which otherwise we'll only do if the VG track is in fact an arrangment of a well known non-VG track (like, say, one of Michael Jackson's songs used in his "Moonwalker" game - can't ReMix "Smooth Criminal" just because it's in his game, folks!). Hopefully that answers your question!

I went and watched it. Pretty darn solid if you ask me - go enjoy it.

Track comments would be solid, the permission form so that we know we can use your music for the album will also be necessary (which I need to go through the forms we already have). Otherwise, I'll need to talk to DjP after the project finishes up to see if there's anything else that we need from the artist.

Oh, I like this idea. The mashup element really does wonders with this track, and as far as I can tell no one else has really gone in this direction with the sources (which considering how well it works is a surprise). I'll add a minor note for the fade-out ending (would be better with just an actual ending), but that's a minor complaint compared to the solid idea you present here. As far as production it sounds a bit flat. It could use a touch of stereo spread and/or panning on a few instruments (not too much - just enough to give it space!) to help the track pop off the page, so to speak. The drums sound great, but their presence is underappreciated due to a notable lack of minor sidechaining in order to give it some more presence. Again, don't go overboard, but with synthwave it helps when those juicy drums pop out at the listener, which side chaining helps with considerably. These are some pretty basic suggestions, though; you should discuss this with the OCR Discord, see if people in there can give some solid advice on it, too. I think the arrangement is pretty spot-on, so I would like to see this in the inbox someday (touched up, of course!).