Gario

Mostly just needed to touch base; we haven't had the opportunity since the project revved up again. If you could send me what you got on May 31st, that'd be good enough. (y'all watch out, his tracks ARE really cool!)

That's a pretty neat source, and the metal guitar work is definitely up to our par. Some of those lines are difficult to execute, and you handle it like a champ. The production, while sounding a little heavy on the low pass, sounds solid for a heavy metal track, with pretty good mixing to boot. The arrangement, however, is pretty conservative. Not only does it hit all of the same overall beats as the source, the melody and textures also follow the source nearly note-for-note - it even continues to repeat until fading out, as if it were ripped straight from a game OST. While it's a great cover, unfortunately it doesn't quite follow the OCR site mission of interpretive arranging of a source. It's a great cover, though, so take some pride in what you sent us - it's just not for this site. I do hope to hear more from you, though, as you've got the skills to get some music on here if you decide to expand on a source. NO

No worries! To be honest, it's the directors' responsibility to get into contact with y'all, as well. We just gotta give a bump and a nudge to people to keep em' on their toes. Thanks for the heads up!

Well I'm looking forward to it, for sure!

Shoot, you're right - I totally forgot about that one, but that game was fun as hell. I'm personally hoping they manage to put Contra Hardcorp and Golden Axe 2 on there - those miiiiight actually tip me toward a purchase, if they go there.

Sega is pulling out all of the stops on this one - Wily Wars? Bloodlines? Gunstar Heroes? Phantasy Star IV? They are not fucking around; unlike the PS Mini, I only see good things coming of this one. I wasn't even a Genesis kid and it STILL makes me want to pick one up.

Alright, I admit I've been distracted for the past few weeks working on other OCR staff projects behind the scenes, so I've neglected to properly follow up on the last WIP update. I see the next one has passed, so because this was on the head of the directors I'm pushing the last two dates back by three weeks. It won't happen again, folks, so be thankful for the breathing room. I am literally not allowed to delay this project again (it will likely simply be cancelled if it's on delay again), so please take these dates seriously even if I'm slow on updating the thread. @Moseph and @Ivan Hakštok need to get in touch with me - I would like to coordinate with you two about your tracks, since they're quite important. I also gotta bug DjP 'bout his track in a bit, but that's just project tradition. I also have to get my tracks finished, because... well, yeah.

Mmm, very space-y, and very different from your normal fare. I like the almost analogue sound this has thoughout; the instruments sound very warm, and the added crunchiness the saturation adds to this is very welcome. It has a light soundscape, but it never sounds empty - not an easy thing to do. The source checks out, so I'm all for gettin' this on the front page. Nice work! YES

Fun source choice, and honestly it's a great approach - it does lend itself well to the trance genre. The arrangement does some interesting things with the track, keeping things fresh with some subtractive arrangement midway & some fun new textures built on top of that, to boot. The ending is lackluster - almost sounds like the track is incomplete - but that's a pretty minor complaint in comparison to the strength of the rest of the arrangement itself. The production doesn't have any immediate red flags (like clipping, unintentional overcompression, etc.), but the instrument choices don't do any favors for this one. The bass is strong, but the accompanying synths don't do enough to fill the rest of the soundscape. The filtered sine arps used as texture barely have presence, the pads backing don't nearly fill the background enough, and the piano (which can nicely fill the upper end of the soundscape) sounds like it's run aggressively under a lowpass. There's plenty of space in this soundscape to let more highs pass through on this, since as is it sounds empty and dampened throughout the entire track. Either some more rich instruments should be used or the instruments present should be better utilized in order to better fill the mid/upper range of the soundscape EQ, as right now it sounds like a solid skeleton to a fully fleshed out arrangement rather than a fully realized remix. I like where you took this, I do hope to hear this get more fleshed out with the soundscape in mind on another pass! NO

The combination of this one is really good - the acoustic guitar blends with flute and e-piano so darn well. The electric guitar sounds very muted and doesn't blend quite as well and the timing of the notes is ever so slightly delayed, but it's not an unwelcome change in texture, regardless, which overall helps prevent the track's soundscape from becoming static. Some of the flute notes hit a half step sharp (like at 1:26, and similar instances), which is distracting when you know they're there (sorry 'bout that, y'all!), but otherwise the performances are quite good. A little jank here and there doesn't drag this nearly below the bar, though; I'm all for giving this one the front page treatment. Nice work from Reuben! YES

ReMixer Name: DS Real Name: David Sylvester Email: Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ds_music_official Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/DSMusic394 UserID: 34014 Game: Star Fox 2 Arrangement Title: The Lost Legend of Lylat Link: Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eM3_Tabpro Comments: I originally made this piano cover when Star Fox 2 was officially released on the SNES Classic since I was so hyped that after years of only being an unfinished ROM, this classic game could finally receive recognition for what it almost brought to the Star Fox franchise. In this cover, I tried to embody multiple aspects of the franchise, including the solemn sense of duty, the encroaching dread of invasion, and the overall action-packed Star Wars-esque vibes (with a little Star Wars easter egg thrown in too!), along with a look toward the 'future' with some melodic bits from the Star Fox 64 main theme blended in too.

Mmm, those are some tasty synths used throughout, and honestly the vocal clips from the game are some of the best in the business. Love me some Deus Ex, and I'm glad to hear it represented on the boards.

Ah, sniped by Meteo Xavier - took me a minute to figure it out myself, was gonna relay that info, lol. Thanks for giving the answer, here - sometimes questions like this one are missed.

Well, this IS certainly an improvement; the overall soundspace improved and some of the offending instruments (static & synth) lowered in the mix, and the stranger clashing notes seem to have been fixed. The arrangement still gets cluttered at 3:34 - 3:58, though, with the lead getting buried at 3:34 - 3:46. The dirty synths take up a lot of sonic space so they're naturally contributing to the muddiness of the mix whenever they're present. It would improve with some sculpting in the midrange EQ so they don't take up so much space, but I don't think the track gets sunk by these things, either. Nice to hear you come back with this. Muddy sections aside, I think this has a nice spot on the front page. Best of luck on the rest of the vote! YES

Yeah - when it comes to actual Greek modal music we don't have too many reliable ways to know how it sounded exactly (though I can definitely say it would be neigh impossible to apply to polyphonic music, as it predates it). Some musicologists have tried to interpret the symbols they used, but it's impossible to know whether this is how it actually sounded or not. The tuning of the instruments from antiquity and the Renaissance was also quite different out of necessity (particularly because of keyed instruments like the Organ and Harpsichord preventing Pythagorean tuning). Renaissance music utilized Mean-tone tuning, which restricted your ability to modulate as some keys were literally unusable garbage. We're leaving the realm of "short" explanation of modal music though, and honestly my education is getting rather dusty to delve into more detail than that, lol. The rules for counterpoint are varied, and the lack of harmonic structure rules do produce something that's different from tonal music, but honestly the rules we rely on today were codified in the Renaissance, and we've been touching around the edges for centuries after that, so to speak. Kinda why I could use that treatise on Counterpoint as a solid basis for my current knowledge of the subject.

I could give a short-short answer if it helps: Do not rely on harmony, stick ONLY to contrapuntal rules and voice leading, ignore the V-I (or V#-i) cadence, and end your music with the M6-Octave/m3-Unison sequence in the soprano/bass voices into the key-defining note on your final resolution (raising the 7th if that interval doesn't exist in your mode). While there's nothing particularly wrong with the Ionian and Aeolian modes, they actually came into vogue during the Baroque; Rennaisance music traditionally stuck with the Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Phrygian modes. If you want to write GOOD modal music, rely on motifs in order to achieve cohesion and not long term harmonic structure, as "harmony" doesn't make sense in traditional modal music. Tricks like Canons and Fugues are useful tools to extend your music, but not necessarily required. Obviously that leaves out a LOT of details, but that's really the basics of modal composition.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who found the use of Gangsta's Paradise so damn strange in that trailer. I mean, I think I'm still going to enjoy the Sonic movie (ESPECIALLY based on the trailer), all things being said - it looks like an absolute trainwreck, with Jim-fuckin'-Carrey going full 90's Jim-fuckin'-Carrey mode to *ahem* "carry" the whole thing in one glorious fireball, and let's all be honest, we all enjoy watching trainwrecks and fireballs from time to time. I think I might actually enjoy the Pokemon movie on it's merits as an actual movie, though, and not in the "Super Mario Bros" fashion that I expect to enjoy the Sonic movie. The Pokemon movie looks ridiculous in it's realistically stylish Pokemon, but it looks like it's putting a real effort into it's jokes and characters rather than just... well, being the joke.

Beginning of the year? Man, I'm almost there in the inbox! In all seriousness I apologize that we're that behind, on that front. I'm definitely missing out, though, since this is a pretty... Cool? Chill? Whatever pun we want to use, it's pretty neat. I think it'll have a fair shake on the panel when it gets there (which will be soon, I've been working my buns off cleaning up that inbox). Looking forward to getting to this one, I've gotta say.

Well, as far as Baroque musical theory is concerned, Zarlino's Treatise was what people had, back in the day. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2307/3392823 I've read through the third portion twice (it's specifically on counterpoint - it's how I learned the subject myself). Much of it is dated even during the Baroque era (such as the strict avoidance of imperfect parallels), but if you're trying to replicate a style there's no better read for it. As a funny aside, it'd also teach you how to write modal Rennaisance music, so that's an additional plus. There's likely more to Baroque music theory and styles than that, but that's a good start. The writing is old and dry, and the tome is rather large, so be prepared for a few drowsy nights of reading if you take it on.

omg we actually nearly did what this post suggested - release the SD3 album for OCR's anniversary - but we missed it by a decade, lol. Can't wait for the actual 20th anniversary - glad I've been along for the ride for about 11+ years, myself.

Man, this is some top-notch jazz interpretation we've got going down, here, and the recording quality is something to be admired. I admit, I enjoyed this all the way through, but the liberal nature of this is concerning as far as postability goes. I'll give a timestamp to see if this hits the bar, concerning source usage. Cutting a few seconds off of the end since it's silence, we get a track that's 260s long, so we're looking for about 130s of material in here. I'm hearing source (either directly or loosely) at 0:12 - 1:10, 2:33 - 2:48, 3:09 - 3:28, and 3:38 - 4:05, which leaves us with 119s of source. That's not going to cut it, I'm afraid, and of the bits I'm counting as source a lot of it is a pretty loose interpretation of it that not all the judges are likely to agree as such. Best case scenario we've got ~46% source representation, here, and among that it's a tough call to call it source usage. Love the arrangement, but I don't think there's enough VG music in it for us to be able to host it. Thanks for sending it to us, though, it's really a cool track! NO

That "original section" ain't original material - the bassline is definitely a connection, and the material on top is subtractively based on the theme of the source - I'm going to disagree that the whole 1:19 - 3:11 is too liberal for OCR purposes, here. It DOES get static and boring after some time, though, to which the near repetition that occurs at 2:28 - 3:11 of the 1:49 - 2:28 section; that part could easily be removed without any significant impact to the arrangement. I do agree with the repetition at 3:36 - 4:20 being a poor choice, and the fact that there's no actual ending to the track doesn't help, either - it just ends on what's traditionally the middle of the source, and is unsettling. I don't mind the source sampling of the source too much - it's pretty minimal, I understand the arranger is establishing expectations with them, and they do their job well enough. The strange vocal clips in the middle of the track are pretty distracting, though, and benefit the track in no meaningful way (and this is coming from a guy who generally likes sampling in music). I think this is pretty close, but the repetition, static portion in the middle, poor ending & odd vocal samples take this one out of postability for me. Tighten up that middle section (either by removing part of the middle section or changing it up so it isn't so static), give that last portion some more variety, change out / remove the odd vocal samples and give this a proper ending and I could see this one having a nice spot on the front page. It does have a nice punch to the drums, the production is pretty good, and the synths used are crisp, so there are definitely great things about this one. Hope that helps, and I hope to hear an update on this one. NO

Love this track - great instrumentation and overall arrangement, and the rock-opera singer is pretty beast. Gotta be careful with such a singer, though - intelligibility gets lost in the mix, in part due to the lack of articulation on the consonants, and in part due to the fact that she shares the same overall range as the rest of the instruments (which obscures the vowels that she's using quite a bit). It's tricky business, but it doesn't take away from the generally amazing arrangement that we've got here. Wish I could make out the words better without the lyrics in front of me, but otherwise some great stuff, here! YES

Alas, I do not speak Portuguese (google translate for the win), but I do know at least one Brazillian who remixes - Lulza. I think Txai is from there, as well, but I'm not 100% certain. Good luck, wish I could help more. Glad you found the site against all odds, lol.

Lots of good music for it. Just keep in mind that a few of the EWJ tracks are Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (multiple movements), so one wouldn't be able to submit those specific tracks to OCR specifically, but considering they're well inside public domain it'd be hilarious to hear remixes of those tracks on an album regardless, lol. Such strange games, such good OSTs, I definitely approve. If anyone gets those rolling, they should get in touch with Tommy Tallarico; he's namedropped OCR in VG concerts he's held in the past, he would probably super appreciate such a project.