Gario

Hello dear Judges, hope you're all doing well. Remixers: Chernabogue (arrangement and production), Furilas (bass), Furorezu (guitars) This track was originally made for Tuberz's Sonic Adventure project but the project itself seems to be in limbo mode for now. I still decided to finish that remix, inspired by surf rock and rock ballads, making the original way calmer than it is. Big thanks to my two collaborators for recording this one! Remix name: "Big Fish" Original track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a-wzbt-A_s Link to remix: Thanks and cheers! Let me know if you need anything else.

Oh shit, this source. Daaaaaamn I might not have time for it, but I'm glad to see so much representation for it. Good choice!

Oh hey, TWEWY remix incoming, eh? I gotta give you props for giving that source some love - one of the best soundtracks and games out there. Hard to believe ten years later and we don't have remixes for it on OCR yet... Alas. Nice approach you have on here, though - I like it. I'm listening on my phone (you could even say I 'woke up' to it, lol) so I don't have the equipment to give constructive advice. Ah well, always great hearing people giving TWEWY some love.

This is certainly a very intimate piece, to mirror what my colleagues have said, which is pretty awesome. I love bombastic, but it's nice to have something that takes a break from that, as well. The overall warm tone to this has the effect of sitting in a bar and listening to a small sextet. MindWanderer brings up a good point on the fade out ending, in that while it's actually a pretty good use of it, it DOES take some of the illusion of intimacy out of the track, which hurts it a little bit. Not nearly enough to knock you for, but just ending the line on the last note before repeating the phrase would've been a more realistic (and therefore satisfying) ending. The mixing balance could've used a little more TLC, as well, as the string trio seems to be drown a bit by the other parts. They're still easy to hear, but they seem to be more in the midground rather than the foreground of the piece. Neither of my misgivings drag my otherwise positive opinion of this track, though - it's warn, it's personal and it's full of soul. Let's get er' up on OCR. YES

This definitely has an otherworldly feel to it, which I've got to appreciate (considering it's the Moon, called the Universe, etc.). As far as theming goes, you nail this track. The orchestration is spacious, and the pointalism sounds... well, on point. Most of your instruments are well orchestrated and sound properly humanized, but I can't ignore the strings that are often the focus of the piece - the articulations are poor. Each note swells into the next, which sounds strange considering it often carries the otherwise sweeping melody. It's especially noticeable at 0:58, but it's an issue rather consistently. The choice of vocal sample at 2:52 is also pretty fake sounding against the rest of your samples, but it's strangely fitting considering the theme of space and all. Overall, it's still a pretty easy choice for me - the arrangement is brilliant, the two themes go very well together, the orchestration is out of this world (yes, I did have to do that), and the track takes care to keep things interesting at every turn. Easy vote for me, but do pay attention to your string articulations in the future. EDIT (05/31): Just a quick note on the brass at 0:22 & 2:14, whether or not one agrees with them, I saw them as intentionally sounding that way considering how wonky the source sounds. The brass sounds much better handled later in the track when that texture isn't being played, so I'm leaning on that being intentional, if perhaps a bit too much in the wonky direction. I do hear them, but I didn't think they were an issue considering the context. YES

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game(s): Final Fantasy 4 Song Title: The Universe Songs Remixed: Another Moon, Lunarians Comments: orchestra with a bit of throat singing at the beginning and some opera sample later on Also, I was trying to sort of tell a story about all the characters concerning the moon, as well as the cyclical nature of desire, power and transformation and enlightenment

Huh, well I don't think I've timestamped this one yet, Larry, since I've been a bad judge and haven't judged this yet. Just sayin'. EDIT: You fixed it, but I leave it up there because I think it's funny. All things considered, this track does a great job taking such a short theme and expanding it into such a large orchestral piece. It never really loses touch of what it's arranging, but it rarely covers the source the same way twice. Very impressive arranging in this. The orchestra sounds great, for the most part. I have some reservations on the trumpets in this, since they sound fairly hollow and tin-ny (too much high EQ, too little mid and lows to balance them). They just sound too nasally, which takes me out of the experience a bit. Since the opening is heavily brass oriented it's especially problematic there. Overall the instruments sound great, so it's particularly strange that the trumpets sound like this. Overall, this is just great stuff, though. My issues are relatively nitpicky compared to the amazing arrangement, well humanized instruments and well balanced orchestration. I'm loving this - let's send this one off! YES

Oh boy, I remember this on the WIP boards, and I see that you fixed the crowded sections that I mentioned earlier. The flute is still a touch busy for my tastes (which coming from me is pretty crazy), but otherwise that's not a big deal - it's still pretty cool. Ack, my fault on this, but I completely missed this on my mod review for this: the sections 0:18 - 1:36 & 1:36 - 1:54 sound almost like a direct repeat, with a lot of it being straight copy pasta, there. There are some small variations to separate the two (some doublings at a few points, one or two extra textures in the background), but for the most part the track repeats itself nearly verbatum, which is a fairly large no-no. I feel terrible for this since I SHOULD'VE caught this in the mod review, but I actually can't pass this as it stands. Give some more vatiation between the two sections, make the second section worth listening to when the audience already heard it the first time and we'll have some real gold, here. NO (NOTE: I'm going to share this in his thread, which he's been pretty active in, so perhaps we'll get an update sooner rather than later on this.)

Contact information: -ReMixer name: DJ Brynolf -Real name: Martin Landgren -Email address: -Website: https://www.youtube.com/user/brynolf11/videos -User ID: 34473 Submission information: -Game: Shadow of the beast -Remix name: Shadow of da fonk -Original song: Eerie forests / Plains ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqt_N5SOEIM ) A bit tough to find the name of the original song. I have several versions of it as mp3 and they are all called different things. On the official Amiga Immortal 1 CD, it is included in a medley called "eerie forests", so that's what I've been calling it. So... here comes what turned out to be a synthy, funky, flutey remix of whatever this song is called. The slappy bass came in on a late stage of the process, but it fit the Prodigy-inspired drums so well in my ears that I had to go with it. The flutes are meant to give some life and breath to the harder synthetic layers. Plus, I can't imagine a Shadow of the beast song without at least some kind of fluteyness.

Oh cool, you did indeed submit it. Glad to see that! ... Ack, my fault on this, but I completely missed this on my mod review for this: the sections 0:18 - 1:36 & 1:36 - 1:54 sound almost like a direct repeat, with a lot of it being straight copy pasta, there. There are some small variations to separate the two (some doubling at a few points, one or two extra textures in the background, etc.), but for the most part the track repeats itself nearly verbatim, which is a fairly large no-no. I feel terrible for this since I SHOULD'VE caught this in the mod review, but I think that might actually cause some issue on the panel. Give some more variation between the two sections, making the second section worth listening to when the audience already heard it the first time and we'll have an easy pass on this, though. I feel kind of terrible for missing that on my mod review, since that's, y'know, kind of my job, here. I suggest making those adjustments and sending a version that's improved to the inbox, since I suspect that'll be a deal breaker on this. Again, my apologies for failing to catch that upon my first review. Well, at least you won't have to wait long on the panel for further responses to it.

I... can't believe someone is remixing this song from this soundtrack. No kidding, first game I owned for the GB, and the only game my family and I owned for quite some time for it. It was a cool little interlude for dialogue scenes, but it didn't strike me as remix material. Shows you what I know. Even still, of all the sources, the one represented here is a looped four beat pattern, not one I'd expect something interesting and cool to be created from. For what this is, though, it delivers, taking the texture and generating new harmonies, motifs, etc., all while keeping that texture playing throughout (or at least for the 50% mark that we often look for). The source is arguably buried, but to be honest it's clear enough for me to count it here where it's present. A quick breakdown, with both a note of the sections that skip a beat (which a strict interpretation might count as only 3/4 source representation): 0:00 - 0:15.5 0:15.5 - 0:31 (a beat cut) 0:39 - 1:19 (a beat cut) 2:14.75 - 2:45.75 (a beat cut) 102 / 170 = 60% 80 / 170 = 47% (if beat cut is counted off) To be safe, I'd suggest giving one or two references in the 1:19 - 2:15 section - that part is quite devoid of source, and after a while I forget we're remixing that Spiderman source. One could call me picky on this, but at the same time it's not the judges panel's fault that the arranger picked a four beat source, eh? It was bound to be pretty tricky. There are some strange elements to this arrangement that hold this back for me aside from source, though. The arrangement first and foremost doesn't sound finished. For what's given, the track does a nice job developing and breaking up into a few sections, but the ending doesn't sound definitive. It instead ends in the middle of a phrase, letting the reverb ring out, which is... strange. Finish the thought, and either give it something that can give the listener the idea that the track has concluded or just give it a solid cut-off ending. What's here doesn't work, but you don't need to make the track much longer to make it sound complete. The background swooping synth (like at 0:23) sounds strange. I don't have anything against synths like that, but the portamento is so extreme it just sounds like wrong notes. Lighten up on that portamento sweep so it doesn't sound like bad notes. Most of the other synths are solid, though, if a little vanilla. It's a very strange source to tackle, and it's certainly a valiant attempt. With a small amount of adjustment I could see this track being a neat little novelty on the site. As is, though, it needs some work on the ending and synth portamento, as well as possibly connecting the 1:19 - 2:15 section to the source better. NO

Good Evening, my Name is Jens. I am from germany and I’m an ambitious music producer. Two years ago I started to produce music and my goal is to produce music for movies, videogames public locations and audioplays. Currently I’m working on a song with a female singer, and we’re planning to release an music video soon. I hope to get get some attention when I’m starting to upload remixes here as well. This remix was one of my first songs. (the first version of it was created in 2013) and a friend of mine told me to upload at OC Remix. My user ID is: 34576 The Song is the song of the Cutscenes before every stage from the gameboy game The Amazing Spider released 1990. The original composer is David Wise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNI7KpFtiX0&list=PLB0xooEkKbSbjRH0yafvOxV1c_GkOtZiy&index=7 I played this game in lot in my childhood. It’s not the best game, but I always liked this catchy tune with it’s dull sound. Just for fun I decided to make a remix of it. Here is the link to the soundfile: I’m looking forward to hear from you. With best wishes from Hamburg ExplorerAUDIO Jens Wessels Fuhlsbüttler Str. 618 22337 Hamburg Tel: 0152 0914 01 31 E-Mail: www.exploreraudio.de

Super general rule of thumb: Contrast. Contrast is everything in making an effective transition between parts. The more different the sections, the more likely it'll be considered a new section to the listener's mind. if you're having trouble making something sound like a transition, drop out more elements, change more items until things sound very different from what came prior (yet has enough motivic elements to keep the track sounding relevant to your arrangement). It's a tricky balance, but contrast is the one big item that makes one section sound different from another. A really cheap trick? At the end of one section, drop everything out, then have the next section come in at full strength again. There's really no greater amount of contrast than from going from nothing to everything. Don't overuse it or else the track sounds repetitive, but it's a nifty tool to have under your belt. You probably know this intuitively, since you use it in your latest posted track (yout Lemmings remix, at 3:15), but perhaps hearing it spelled out can help you understand how to use it in the future, as well. There's a whole study on this particular element of music theory, called Temporal Gestalt Perception (or musical segmentation). It's some heavy reading, but if you get through it there's some useful insight on how to parse music into defineable segments. For the super technical among us the theory has issues in it's applicability (since there's no way to properly weigh how much an individual count things like timbre, dynamics and harmony as 'different enough'), but the concept is pretty sound: we hear contrast as something that separates the music into sections. Hope that helps!

Yup, I totally agree, edited quote that you didn't actually say.

That's a unique way of opening this - that out of tune acoustic guitar lead really sets the tone of this track, and I like it a lot. Not enough people utilize purposeful detuning, as it's a really creepy, alienating feeling when it's done right, as it's done here. Great setup, and the idea to rock out the source is a good one. I think the arrangement works well as it is - it's a bit slow in the beginning, but it does take it to town once it picks up, there. The biggest setback this has (as others have mentioned) is the EQ and mixing on the production end of things. The rhythm rocking guitars sound distant and hollow (completely lacking in bass), the drums are mixed pretty quietly, and the overall EQ balance of this track sounds strange. The individual elements don't sound like they take up the correct EQ spaces, so when they all come together it doesn't sound right. The bass guitar is about right, but the rhythm is too focused in the mid range, the lead guitar is really lacking in the upper range, etc. I don't have too much more to say than the others have said - it's a really cool groove which is hindered by the EQ work and mixing balance. If this were polished up in those areas this would be a pretty cool track to post, but as it stands I'm afraid I must agree with my fellow judges. I hope to see it improved and polished further! NO

Ah, more from the Terranigma album, and it certainly has some undeniable polish to it. The source is easily there, and the choice to make it a DnB track was a great one. The drums are on point in this, with some great fills and variety to carry the track home. The track suffers from long periods of being too static. When everything first comes together at 2:08 the various elements (drums, theme, textures, harmonies) already seem worn it, and having those elements continue with little variation for another minute wears on the listener. At 4:31 it continues the same sorts of textures and harmonies, which only serves to make the piece feel tiring. The break in the middle (2:58 - 4:30) and the introductory period are great in how they break up your main idea, but when it settles in that groove it feels repetitive and uninspired. Shortening those sections or introducting some more variety to keep the listener interested would help this track along considerably. There are some strange harmonies in the texture at 3:34, 3:51 and 4:13. They come in as arpeggios, but they don't line up with the rest of the music. They sound bitonal, which if that's your thing that's cool, but in the context of the rest of the track it doesn't make sense. I like it, but it isn't quite there for me on arrangement grounds. The long stretches of static harmony and overuse of the same textures makes this arrangement sound drawn out and repetitive, and while not as big an issue as the repetitive arrangement the random arpeggios didn't do the arrangement much good, either. The production is pretty good, the drums are great, and the source is well represented, so there's a solid backbone to build off of, but there's some work to be done on this before we can post it. Best of luck! NO

Remixer Name: Trism Real Name: Troy Plain Email: Game Arranged: Terranigma Name of Arrangement: Royd Rage Name of Song Arranged: Royd Theme Original Track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I28ZgYKFsE Arrangement Link: **This track has been made for inclusion on the Terranigma Paths Less Travelled Vol. 1 album project** I have to admit; I’d never actually heard of Terranigma before Odai created the thread for the album project. After listening to a few songs from the soundtrack I was instantly hooked; there’s a really interesting theme and tone that seems to run through the whole OST that gives it a really sombre feel, even when a track itself is quite cheerful. Royd’s Theme really stood out to me though as the main melody sounded a lot like a dance track ‘hook’. My initial WIP to Odai sounded nothing like the final product though as he quickly suggested I try and turn it into a drum and bass track (not sure I quite managed that request but here we are!). The track has been brilliantly mixed and mastered by the ever-amazing Chimpazilla so I’d like to give a massive shout-out to her (and also an apology for dropping so many stems on her originally!) and also to Odai for creating the album project and for the constant coaching he provided while the song took form.

YAAAAS QUEEN! Congrats, by the way

Mega Man Zero is a criminally underrated series, with music that matches the best of the Megaman series. It kind of makes me wonder why there isn't more awesome arrangements of it... perhaps people just didn't get too far in the games of the series? They were pretty tough, after all... As far as the arrangement goes, it's pretty cool. Making the track into something of a rock arrangement fits well with the source, and the synths used in this compliment the rock elements of this track well. The rhythm guitar and drum work is pretty solid, as far as performance is concerned, so nice work on that. The lead, while serviceable, doesn't sound like a clean performance. The timing is often sloppy (like the grace notes at 1:28 & 1:35), and the notes sound like they have an unintentional degree of separation between the notes when the notes get really high. Tighten up those entrances and rhythms, and connect your notes better in the higher end. One last element is the doubling involved later in the track at 2:06 sounds strange - the lower guitar that doubles it hits on a slight delay. It sounds like the intent was to create an echo, but it instead sounds like it's just missing a beat since it's an octave lower. Line your doubling up better. The mixing of this is a larger overall concern for this arrangement - the lead pierces, and the middle elements (rhythm guitar, bass, synth) sound like soup behind it. Overall, the varying elements need to be balanced better - hold back the lead a bit, separate the middle elements so they're more distinct and bring out the kick and snare of the drums better. I think this has some solid potential, but the lead performance and mixing hold back. I hope to hear some improvements on it, because the arrangement is slick, and the transformation to rock is awesome. NO

ReMixer name: SupahForte Real name: Christian M. Swanson Email address: Userid: 34515 Name of game arranged: Mega Man Zero 2 Name of arrangement: Cerebral Glacier Name of individual song arranged: Ice Brain (Poler Kamrous) The Main reason I did this song was due to the fact that even the remastered tracks had fake guitar on it. This track is definitely one of my all time favorite tracks but I felt the remastered tracks didn't do it justice. Upon recording it I decided to not follow the track entirely. i composed mostly my own drums.The bass and guitar was recorded throgh my amp through my interface using SM57s. The programs used were "Reason" For the guitar and bass and Guitar Pro 6 to Compose the drums This would be a Rock version of this track.

Oh awesome, we got another rendition of this track. I'm glad we did, since this was a pretty sweet arrangement, and the source was relatively unknown. Let's see what we've got here. *Listens* Well, it sounds a whole lot better, with the overall arrangement sounding louder, while also sounding more crisp with a better balance between the highs and the lows. The singing is still impossible to understand, but again I have that issue with ALL black metal, so that's a stylistic choice. The leads in the mix are placed properly in the mix, with rhythm being places well in the middle and the bass still acting as a strong foundation to the track (though it did seem to overcorrect a little - a hair more bass would've been nice). What can I say, you went back and fixed everything. Looks like we're going to have some Cat Lady love on the front page. Let's do it. YES

Previous Decision Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Magnetic Ether Your real name: Karlyn Singh Your email address: your userid: 22769 Submission Information Name of game arranged: The Cat Lady Name of arrangement: Lady in Black Name of individual songs arranged: Don't Follow the Light Additional Information: Soundtrack composed by micAmic. Game released for PC by Harvester Games. Links to the original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msg_DMtuXVE, http://vgmdb.net/album/47168 Comments: This is a resubmission. The previous decision thread can be found here: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/45293-no-the-cat-lady-lady-in-black/. The changes I made are as follows: - Re-EQed the toms. - Removed drum pattern at 3:12 and added a snare build up to introduce the next section at 3:22. - Added a bandpass filter to the vocals to remove a nasty sounding frequency. - Added compression to guitars, bass, and toms. - Adjusted volume levels, especially on the bass, organ, and lead guitar tracks. - Slightly widened the rhythm guitars. - Re-mastered the entire track and made it louder (the original was a bit quieter than it might have been). Thanks for taking another listen!

Yup, it's definitely easier than the first, but it's still pretty ridiculously hard. I managed to beat it once years ago (on the console, no less), but I never managed to beat the first or third one. Great games and soundtrack, though.

Arrangements... as in scores? Color me interested.

Wow, considering how crisp everything is in the beginning, I was pretty shocked at the straight two NO's. Then the violin part comes in and... yeah, it's mixed quite low in the mix. Considering just how important the violin part is to the track, the mixing really impact this track heavily. All I'd be looking for in this would be a re-balancing of the violin in the mix so that it's more prominent and this would be good to go. While the ending is a little basic, I wouldn't dream of asking for a re-recording of this - just fix the mix in the post production and this would be a great fit for OCR. - EDIT (10/18): To re-affirm where I stand, and on request of Larry & DjP I re-listened to this overall to see if it changed where I stand. I hold the same place that I did before, but I'll clarify a bit on why: Everything in this is absolutely great, except for where the violin stands in the mix of this. Normally the mixing of a single instrument wouldn't cause me to reject something, but the violin is the centerpiece of the track, with it's great solos and how it carries the lead for most of the arrangement. This is less "The cool texture or one of the leads is buried in the track" and more "Van Halen's lead guitar work and solos (the whole reason you're listening to a Van Halen track) is being drown out by everything". That's wholly unacceptable, especially for something that's otherwise this great. This isn't a hard fix; hell, if I had the individual tracks I could easily fix it in three minutes by taking every track in the arrangement sans the violin and turn them down by 10-15%, then use a limiter to regain some of the volume losses (not too much to cause limiting artifacts, though). That's it - not a huge deal when it comes down to it - but it doesn't make it any less important of a fix. I gave this a NO rather than a conditional-YES (which would be normal for a single debilitating issue) because fixing mixing, ESPECIALLY making a particular instrument louder, can cause problems with the rest of the production when the loudness is at it's ideal place already; it may not be a quick five minute fix for the artist. Because I described a process that would legitimately fix the issue quickly I'll give it a conditional-YES, but this is an exception rather than a rule for me - mixing issues that pull me back from a YES will normally get a NO vote due to the reason above. It would be a mistake for the artist to not fix this issue, since it does diminish the entire track. YES (CONDITIONAL on the violin levels)