Gario

Well, while I wasn't able to vote on the last track I am familiar with it, so I can compare what was with what's here. The mix has some improvement that helps keep the themes poping out while not drowning the interesting backing instruments. It also sounds like the synth strings have the attack tightened up a bit, and there's an additional section that plays with the material a bit to keep the listener's interests peaked. On those fronts, you're probably okay. Many of the synths are basic (raw saws and such), but I feel outside of the synth strings they're utilized in a way that keep the soundscape interesting. Not sure why, but I never quite agree'd with the synth strings - they just seem hollow and otherwise uninteresting. But hey, could be personal taste and all - not going to knock you for it much, since the other instruments have a neat, retro-synth feel to them, and them chips are pretty tasty once they come in. The drum pattern is still pretty plain, though it was broken up a bit with the additional section in place. I like it, and I agree that there could be more Legend of Mana on here. Hopefully the others on here agree; good luck with the rest of the vote. YES

Mega Man 1 has Mega Man return home to Dr. Light & Roll, if that's what you're looking for.

I'll be there with my girlfriend, already have the vacation times and room set. See y'all there.

Ooo, you're ticklin' my ears with this - a TWEWY arrangement? They don't come often enough on here. No vocals, but you do take this in a very interesting direction - like a happy electronic dance fused with some sax to cover the theme. The overall high energy compared to the source's subdue'd approach is pretty clever. You've got some cool realistic instruments in here, and though the electronic elements are vanilla they do their job. The drums and percussion don't quite blend with the style, though - they just sound too light and the snare has too much 'snare' to it - it would sound cleaner with a tighter head. The overall arrangement it pretty awesome, but it does drag a little bit toward the end (it even sounds like it's verbatum repeating material at the end, there). It's pretty cool, though - great to see people like yourself giving TWEWY music the love it deserves. You've got an interesting stylistic blend in this that I can appreciate, so nice work!

I've personally had NES systems that have survived drops to the ground from a table, and have played a Contra cartridge that was literally run over by a car. I heavily object to this notion.

Doing a quick check on the samples, if you submit as is you'd likely be alright on that front. Aside from the orchestra hits (which sound sampled from the MMX library), most of the samples + instruments used here are just different waveforms and FM synths, which can't reasonably be misconstrued as Square-Enix SFX (they can't reasonably claim ownership on FM synths and basic waveforms, after all). Rozo is correct that all artists submitting need to be careful with the samples in that regard, but I think this is alright here in that regard. Neat arrangement!

Contact Information Platonist Jonas Loman platonistmusic.com 16372 Submission Information Legend Of Mana Nocturnal Lumina PSX Composer - Yoko Shimomura This one is old, so if it sounds old, it's because it's old. Well, at least the intro loop is. I wanted to leave that part intact, because stubbornness, but I had to polish it a little bit at least. The arrangement beyond that is new and pretty straight forward; a trance beat, some strings and a pwm chip lead that I've overused :'D. I tried to make it not loud, because that's probably the most common complaint I've gotten over the years, and since the loudness wars are over anyway I decided to master it to -14 LUFS with a -1dB true peak headroom. As usual, sequenced in Schism Tracker - because I want to and you can't stop me?

Great arrangement, well produced and all sorts of awesome. I'm leaning toward MindWanderer in calling this a more naturalistic approach, but I do hear DA and LT's concerns. I wouldn't call it too extreme of panning, though; it'd be more accurate to say that the right side has more going on than the left side, which is pretty distracting. The guitar that's supposed to act as the counterbalance isn't as active as the brass is, so it doesn't successfully counterbalance what the brass is doing to leave a balanced feel. I would be alright if this passed as is (so it's non-conditional for me), but if this gets sent back as a conditional fix I could see it being fixed as easily as having the brass panning envelope by 5-6 points to satisfy the other judges. Nice work overall, I like it. YES

Not too much to add to what was said here - panning was extreme and distracting, but not dealbreaking, the ending was sudden and unsatisfying, but otherwise this is a great little arrangement from a solid but under-arranged track from Sonic 3. I can't add more to it other than my additional thumb's up. YES

Oh, hell to the yes; I'm damn glad we sent this back to you the first time - the improvement to it is substantial. The sound is so much cleaner, which makes the meaty drums sound that much more distinct, and the minor issue I had toward the end actually became a highlight of the track when you put the lead up front and center. You absolutely nailed it on this one, which makes me pleased as punch considering it's from one of my favorite soundtracks from that generation. I have zero issue with source usage on this one, even in the beginning; the chords are definitely from the source, and there are themes that are added in a heavily subtracted state to keep it loosely connected to the source. It's a great way to keep it connected without beating it over your head in the beginning, and it's very clearly based on the source throughout the rest of the track. Nothin' but praise from me, here. Let's get everyone else on OCR hooked to this phat beat; I'll likely be listening to it for a while, at least! YES EDIT (08/11): Okay, there IS one thing that bothers me about the track that I've got to mention, after listening to it for a while (and it relates to Jivemaster's concern): the ending comes far too soon. The build to the meat does take some time (1:00 - 3:00 of building and developing, discounting the introductory material), and while the payoff is great, it's not quite proportional to that sort of lead time. It hits me particularly hard at 4:24, due to how this iteration of the arrangement lends itself to being expanded upon even more, but then slows it's roll at 4:39. It's teasing us with something even greater, but then decides to cut us off. How rude. It doesn't change my vote, as this issue essentially boils down to "This is a great track, but it felt like there should've been more of it", but it's something to be aware of. Proportion is important in music, so giving people miles of lead time into the heart of a track should follow with something even more substantial. Just wanted to share my thoughts on it a bit more, is all.

Mindwanderer isn't kidding here - you certainly took the suggestions to heart, and honestly it's all the better for it. The mixing is improved considerably, the bass is definitely more noticeable, and the stacking distortion is less an issue than it was when I first checked this out. It perhaps overcorrected to being a touch bass heavy (with the lead guitar being put in the back of the mix a little too much), but overall the balance is still far better. The 2:47 - 3:27 still feels too long for me. I don't hear too many changes to that section (other than the overall quality improvement in the production), which seems like a missed opportunity. It doesn't wreck the arrangement on it's own, per se, but it could've been much better with either some cutting or more salient changes. Also, while it doesn't bother me as much as MW, the wet distortion does still cause some issue with muddiness, even though it's improved considerably. I'd say it's mistaken to consider the wetness itself a mistake (as that's inherent to the whole 'surf music' genre), but you still need to be careful when writing music for that genre to keep the production clean. I could still see this being improved as far as the mixing is concerned, too (could use a little less bass, a little more lead guitar in the front), but I'd like to see this put up regardless; my issues are not deal-breaking. It's still a pretty cool representation of a genre that's under-represented on here, and I believe the overall quality hits the bar, even if it's pretty close. YES

Ditto on the unnecessary pumping with the bass. I'm about 90% sure that's intentional, but it doesn't make it any more acceptable in this case - there should be plenty of space above that bass to make that unnecessary, considering how sparce the track is. The entirety of it sounds heavily low-passed, to boot, so overall the track sounds needlessly muffled. The mix, while not terrible, does have a few strange elements to it - that bass drum punches through way too much, and the hats + clap are so far behind the mix they may as well not be there. The arrangement sounds quite a bit darker than the source material, so based on the mood and tonal shift I could see an argument saying this is interpretive enough for OCR. However, there's no doubt that the arrangement is pretty static and repetitive, which still causes enough issue on it's own. The ending is pretty abrupt as well, though that's less an issue than the repetitiveness and static arrangement. There are some great ideas in here, but overall it's not quite up to the bar yet. Thanks for sending it our way, though. NO

Funny fact I only stumbled upon when listening to this and remembered the game: The mythos from Mean Bean Machine is from the Sonic cartoon... which is a television version of the original Sonic games. No idea why they went that route, but it's pretty funny when you think about it. Anyhoo! EVAL: Gotta say, there are some very nice samples in this, and the attention to the humanization and articulations is certainly there to help flesh those samples out. Because of the repetitive patterns in the texture, though, over time I hear repetitions in the articulations and dynamics, as if the parts were copy/pasted with dynamics and articulations. Any individual phrase sounds human, but over the course of the track it makes the samples sound mechanical. Put some minor variation into the dynamics and articulation and it'll help sell the realism of this quite a bit more. That lead string texture gets pretty old in this quickly. You're working with a full orchestra, but 80% of it is strings. It makes the orchestration sound pretty bland when you have so many other tools to work with. Judges may consider the instrumentation static for long stretches because of this, which could affect the panel outcome. Don't be afraid of having other instruments cover the texture from time to time, like the piano did at 3:07. The beginning sounds oddly muffled and overcompressed for a fraction of a second, likely due to all of the instruments coming in at once, and when things get busy you can hear overcompression issues. Overall the track is well balanced, but be careful not to crowd the compressor when things are overly busy. It's a great idea, but as it stands the humanization, compression and static orchestration would likely hold this back on the panel. I like it, though, so hopefully some of my advice gives you what you need to make your epic comeback on OCR!

It looks like you went and addressed the big issue that was catching me, so that's a great improvement. That lead now sounds a little underwhelming, but if it were any louder it would hurt to listen to due to the narrow EQ range. Realize that narrow EQ leads often have the problem of having no ground that is both well balanced in the mix and doesn't hurt the listener's ears - unless there's a specific reason to do so it's often a better idea to widen the EQ range of your leads to get more volume without causing piercing (I like to use sine wave leads, so I personally know the struggle well). I don't have issue with clashing in the lead like Jivemaster did - the slightly off slides work well in the context for me. The organ bugs me somewhat due to it's consistent presence throughout the track, which gets stale over time. I honestly wasn't able to catch that last time due to the inability to listen to it in one take last time, but listening again it gets pretty stale. Outside of that, I think it does exactly what it needed to do. The lead is loose, but it fits within the style well enough, and the rest of the music around it is well performed. I could complain about the mixing a little more, but none of it is enough to sway my vote against this. Best of luck on the other votes! YES

Prior Decision Hi judges, here's the updated version for Big Fish, taking your feedback into consideration (previous version is still up if you want to compare). All the previous info is still correct. Thanks and keep up the good work! LINK:

As someone who knows the source very well, I'll say that this does cover that ground well enough. There IS one issue that will get this instantly rejected, though: those vocals are straight from the source. Normally that isn't a big issue (unless the samples make up a significant portion of the source connection), but this is sampled from Square Enix. They specifically forbade OCR's use of sampling their games, so we legally couldn't put this on the front page. Seeing that without those vocals this arrangement wouldn't work, you'll need to find people willing to record vocals that would compensate for that. Either that or impliment some clever instrumental ideas that replace the vocals entirely, but that would essentially transform this into something else entirely. Either way, no matter how good the arrangement is, if there are samples from Square Enix in there we actually can't post it, unfortunately. It's still a cool remix, though, aside from the strange mixing issues that Rozo pointed out.

Deus Ex UNATCO can't get enough awesome remixes. Psytrance really adds a lot to the cyberpunk style of the game. I like it a lot, and I like this a lot. Nice work. YES

Good Night my friends, I would submit some new remixes. There are two songs, Spring Yard Zone from Sonic 1(Mega Drive), and Chrome Gadget from Sonic 3(Mega Drive). Hope you enjoy Title: Chrome Gadget: author: Leandro Abreu Best, Leandro Abreu

Good Night my friends, I would submit some new remixes. There are two songs, Spring Yard Zone from Sonic 1(Mega Drive), and Chrome Gadget from Sonic 3(Mega Drive). Hope you enjoy Title: Spring Yard Zone: author: Leandro Abreu Best, Leandro Abreu

Submission Download Link: Contact Information:: Your ReMixer name: Mercurius FM Your real name: Borigard Mercurius Your email address: Your website: http://mercuriusfm.com Your userid: 17383 Submission Information:: Name of game(s) arranged: Chrono Trigger Name of arrangement: Chrono's Fight Dance Name of individual song(s) arrange: Battle Additional information about game including composer, system, etc.: http://ocremix.org/game/16/chrono-trigger-snes Comments: Hi, long time listener and gamer... Been producing since 2005 and finally decided to start hammering out video game remixes because regular dance music has been boring me! This is my take on the classic Chrono Trigger Battle theme. The idea came to me after listening to the SNES soundtrack for the thousandth time... I noticed I was humming the bassline still. At this point, I began writing the remix and it transformed into an electro house stomper inspired by acts such as Soulwax and Justice, complete with heavy drums and a grinding bassline. It should be great for listening, and also for DJing since I've tested the track a couple times when I do my monthly video game remix DJ gig called Gamer's Paradise Party. Thanks for listening! Regards, Bo E. aka Mercurius FM Music Producer & DJ http://MercuriusFM.com Winner of Independent Music Awards (Electronic), Toronto Independent Music Awards (USA), Phoenix New Times Best of Phoenix (Remixer), Phoenix Makes Games Jam (Composer), Phoenix Global Gam Jam (Composer), and Phoenix Comicon Game Jam (Excellence in Audio). As seen in Rolling Stone, Earmilk, Canadian Music Week, and more.

Riding in on Deia's coattails a little, but her review is spot on: mixing could use improvement at the points she mentions, the arrangement is short (a single run through the source material is all that it entails), and has an almost unfinished feel to it due to how abrupt the ending is. What IS there has very similar instrumentation and structure to the source (though admittedly of much higher quality). To be honest, it sounds like a great first half to a solid OCR arrangement, with the current end being where things really kick it off and you explore the material with your own spin on it - running through with the same structure and style once doesn't quite cut it for the sake of OCR's arrangement requirements. MindWanderer also has a great point in the production quality, since it indeed does hit the limiter quite often. Looking at the waveform, it's easy to see why: the low end takes up virtually all of your space. Toning down the bass will give you quite a bit more room to work with your other instruments. The instrument quality in this is absolutely superb, though, and the material that you added (choir, backing textures, etc.) only serve to improve what was in the source. I'm certain that you can push the arrangement side of things so it's more in line with our standards, based on what you added to this already. Pay attention to your mixing and production quality, and be careful not to push the low end too hard. Best of luck, and I hope to hear a resubmit of this. NO

Yeah, it's pretty much dead as far as new development goes, though it has been bought out by another company so it isn't impossible for it to see a resurgance someday.

Highschool? With that habit of Capsing Every First Letter it looks like he's passing through gradeschool, at best.

Pokemon! Good choice for a source, and a great choice for the direction to take. The source seems to have a more ominous, epic feel to it, while this is more intense and in your face. To be honest, I think your track would be a better fit for something like a crazy intense battle. This is a very dense track. The overall production is quite loud, to the point of having mild clipping and some limiting errors throughout the louder sections. Every synth seems to be fighting for space, and none of them really win out past the 1:02 mark. Production-wise, this needs to be redone from the ground up: turn off your compressors and limiters, rebalance the mix so clipping doesn't occur and so that the leads are always clear (but not overpowering everything else). Then one can boost the volume using a limiter or such, but even then be careful not to create issues in the process. The drums sound quite generic, and do not come through at all throughout the mix. When balancing the mix, be sure to give some special attention to the placement of the drums in the track. Some special attention should be paid to the reverb in this as well for every instrument, since everything sounds very oversaturated, and is likely contributing to the overcrowding that's occurring throughout this arrangement. I don't think the notes in the arrangement sounded too off, save for a single note at 1:27 and 1:38 sounding a half step too high in the melody (either that, or the harmony is carrying a clashing note). If you're going to raise the lead for the sake of a cadence (as the source does), make sure it doesn't clash with the backing texture or harmonies. Listen to the source again and check to see how they handle it, as it's definitely in the source. The arrangement works well enough even with the vanilla synths, and despite the production and mixing issues there is a certain amount of energy that the source is lacking. I think it's a good approach, but you've got a lot of cleaning up to do on this. I wish you the best! NO

Man, I've been sitting on this one for quite some time, here. On first listen, I thought it was amazing - the orchestration is tasteful, the instruments are humanized very effectively (minor complaint about the cello lead's attack envelop in the beginning aside), and the structure makes sense. Then I listened to the source to compare, and... well, it's hard for me to call this a "ReMix". The source is well orchestrated using virtually the same instruments, and the source structure is solid (which outside of drawing out the ending this arrangement follows to the note). I could see an argument saying this is a varied enough arrangement based on some of the backing woodwinds, a few trills on the piano and harp here and there, and the ending being a different variation of the source. For me, though, the textures mirror the source's instrumentation, the style is virtually identical, the themes share the same instruments, the pacing is the same... I'm thinking this is cover territory. My first impression still stands - it's STILL a gorgeous piece in it's own right - but going based on OCR's standards I'm afraid I've got to turn this one down. Thanks for sending it our way, though, as I still got a kick out of it. NO