Gario

Mmm, I've been chewing on this for a bit. It's a really good idea as to handle the source, and the Rennaisance flavor is oozing from this one. The orchestration is pretty on point, which I've come to expect from your work. The humanization of the instruments isn't quite up to your usual par, which does impact this track negatively. The dynamics feel much more stale than your later works you've sent, and the articulations sound mechanical (especially on your woodwinds - they all have identical attacks for each note). It makes the instruments sound like they're literally soundfonts from the Playstation era, which is unfortunately below OCR's standards. Considering the source uses a pretty similar instrumentation, the track overall sound very close to the source. It's borderline too conservative for OCR with those samples sounding close to what was used in the source, though I acknowledge that in many parts there are some parts that are added behind it that gives it a more Rennaisance faire sound to it. I'm going to lean on saying it's also too conservative, though, since the instrumentation really is close, and the themes follow the source pretty directly once the woodwinds come into play. It's an older track, and I'll say it's a great indicator of just how far you've come in two years. I'm going to turn this down on humanization issues and a conservative arrangement, but all things considered if you were interested in taking this in a similar route using the skills you've aquired over the last two years I'm sure you could give us something that we'd take in a heartbeat. Thanks for sending it our way, though! NO

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game(s): Final Fantasy 9 Song Title: Black Mage Minuet Songs Remixed: Limited Time Comments: It's one that I meant to send to you guys two years ago

Pretty straight interpretation of the source, but that's not always a bad thing. The lead guitar work is surprisingly calming, and the structure has better high/low points in energy than the source ever did. The overall bouncy nature of the source seems to have a lot of potential as a more rock/metal track, so great work exploiting this in your arrangement. The execution of this arrangement isn't up to the OCR bar, though. The overall EQ feels lacking in the higher ranges, which makes the arrangement sound stifled. Whatever low passes are being used on your processing tools are squishing your soundspace, so lighten up on that. The mixing pushes the drums very far behind the mix (save for the tambourine, which sticks out like a sore thumb), so work on bringing your drums out in the mix. The distortion on the rhythm guitar throws me off, as it doesn't have a distinct enough attack to it, which makes it sounds like guitar soup rather than a decent rhythm part. Guitar tone is a bit of a personal issue, so I'll let that slide if the other judges have no issue with it. One last issue that this has is the disparity of wetness levels in this; things like your lead guitars are very wet in this (with both some delay and reverb on them), while the drums are bare-bones dry. This makes the instruments sound like they were recorded in different spaces and slapped together rather than playing together. Give the drums a little reverb while toning down on the delay/reverb on your leads; this will help make the song sound more cohesive as a whole. As far as the arrangement goes, aside from being conservative there's only one other thing that bothers me in it, which is how the section at 0:54 (and 2:14) is approached. Traditionally in the bass a leap of a tritone tends to sound horrible, which I must say applies in this case as well. However, I will note that the source does exactly this so while I can't fault you for it (it IS following the source, after all) I would still consider easing the listener into that transition better than the source did. It sounded wonky in the source, and it sounds wonky in this arrangement as well. To be honest, the real killer on this is the lack of higher range and the overall disparity of wetness between various instruments in this. Set your reverb levels to be more consistent across the board, allow for more upper end EQ to pass through and tweak your mixing where necessary and I think this will be alright. I also suggest fixing the transition at 0:54 and 2:14, though again I wouldn't knock this track down on that due to the source also having this issue. Best of luck! NO

My remixer name was previously 'M4PLEHOODI3' but it is now 'Von Nebo'.. I've only done one arrangement for you folks in the past, "Gotta Catch A Wave And A Memory". If you could perhaps change my artist name on your site to 'Von Nebo', I would appreciate it. If you can't, it's totally fine, I'll just have to make a new account or something. So my remixer name is NOW 'Von Nebo'. I'm attempting to stay pretty anon with my music, so you can just call me Von. My email is the address from which I'm sending, My user id is 33369 . [Still has name of M4PLEHOODI3, I don't see a way to change it.] The game is Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. The name of my arrangement is "Bus Stop On A Snow Day". The name of the original song is "Shiver Star". The original composer is Jun Ishikawa. Link to the original version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGUZG8V1OMU My comments: When I got this game, I was but a youngling in school with a long walk to the bus stop. In the winter, I would have to wake up early in the morning, put my boots on, and trudge through the snow. Sometimes, in the quiet of snowfall, a driver would slow down, roll down the window, and say "HEY! It's a snow day! School has been cancelled!" After thanking the driver profusely as if they had just saved my life, I would begin my journey back home through the beautiful snowfall, all while this song blasted on repeat in my head. I mean, it's not an overly complex song. It's not 'the best song you've ever heard', but it brings with it a joy found in simplicity. I think that's why it was the song that came to mind when I would happily walk the street in the snow. It's the simple and pure things in life that you treasure. As a result of this song being part of my childhood, alongside distorted guitars with much reverb, I present to you this song. I hope that it might bring you joy as the original did for me.

Not much to add here - short, sweet, well produced and well performed. I have to second Larry for the lovely moment at 1:13 - I appreciated the drop in energy, as it really helps break the arrangement into bite sized pieces, which sells it for me. Great stuff! YES

Yup, duck in the corner, slash at random. Dead shadow. No point in doing that one legit.

Overall a pretty solid performance, here. When things get busy there's quite a bit of pedal mud (like at ~1:00), but the style evokes a simpler romantic style piece so it still works alright (romantic piano music and pedal mud go together like peanut butter and messy jelly ). I think Larry summed it up sufficiently otherwise - good track, if a little short or simple. Get er' up there. YES

I really like this direction you took on this one. It's ethereal, the textures and harmonies are delicious, and the use of panning space is handled particularly well. I think you took something of a strange source and for the most part made it sound much more pleasant and palatable (save for at 2:00 - that part still sounds strange, but I suppose I can let it slide). The production on this is very wet, but considering the new age sound you're going for it doesn't sound out of place. The mixing is generally good, but the themes do not pop out at all in this. Throughout the track, the synths used for your leads are mixed at around the same level as your middle-ground textures. Bring them out a little bit - you have the sound space to give them presence, so there's no reason not to. Surprisingly, though the background often sounds the same with that almost mystical backing the track avoids sounding too static by knowing when to change the harmonies and tone at just the right time... for the most part. From 3:00 - 4:40 the changing lead isn't enough to keep the arrangement from stagnating. Cutting that a little short so that it gets to 4:40 faster would help make the section less static, or you could introduce something different in the harmonies or backing texture to change it up a little more in that section. There's an odd glitch at 1:36 where the music notably skips. Either a rendering error or a place where you tried to paste something onto the track, but regardless it sounds like a mistake, so fix that up. Also, the levels of this track feel pretty quiet throughout. It's partly because something is ALWAYS playing in the background and the minimal use of sidechaining, but it wouldn't be hard to give this a quick soft limit to get another 3-4dBs out of this with minimal loss of quality. Keep that in mind, and see if there's anything on the mastering side of things that could push out a little more volume from this. I really like the approach to this, and though it's long I felt it really is a cool listen. There are a few elements that I'd like to see cleaned up, fixed up, etc., before I can pass this, though - lead mixing, static portions like 3:00 - 4:40, glitch at 1:36 and overall levels should be addressed. It's an interesting and unexpected direction for this track to go, though, so I hope to hear a resubmission soon! NO

Contact Information: Remixer Name: Almighty_Arceus (ft. VanilluxePavilion) Real Name: Jordan Email address: website: www.youtube.com/c/AlmightyArceus UserID: 33542 Submission Information Name of Game(s) Arranged: Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 Name of Arrangement: "Glaciated Horizons" Name of Individual song(s) arranged: Battle! Vs Colress! LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-6JV-M8oxE Comments: This floaty little piece is influenced by the sounds of ESPRIT as well as a mix of my own sounds and the sounds of VanilluxePavilion as featured in this remix. We wanted to make a more spaced out and fantastical take on the iconic theme of Colress from Black and White 2. We added lots of soft pastel colors to this mix, mixed with some tight snare and deep bass drum to keep the mix driving. Picture yourself flying in an airship above crystaline clouds, on a pink sky. That's the aesthetic of this mix: tough yet airy. Hope you enjoy! Please let me know if there's any problem with the attachment.

I like the production of each and every individual element of this track - the drums are meaty and the synths are crisp. The arrangement reinterprets the source sufficiently, to boot, which helps. The track spends a great deal of time building up to the theme (0:00 - 1:38). Rarely is there an individual element that sounds out of place (the side chained synth at 0:28 being an exception - it sounds out of place against your crisp synths), but that build up repeats the same harmonic pattern over and over again, leaving the listener only texture changes throughout to keep things interesting. I've heard songs where the ONLY thing that's different are texture changes over time, which can be interesting in their own right, but as an extended intro it all feels like padding to the meat that comes in at 1:38. 2:39 to the end of the track also suffers from this issue - all texture over the same harmonic pattern, so it eventually sounds like repetitive and tired padding by the time the song ends. The mixing, while a lesser issue, does strike me as inconsistent. The bass that comes in periodically (0:14) and the guitar (0:57) are mixed too more to the front of the mix at the cost of your other elements, which makes it difficult to follow everything. Again, the individual elements sound pretty crisp, but they all sound like they're in the wrong place in the mix, either being hidden behind the loud elements, or being one of the aforementioned loud elements. Balancing the mixing of this would make this a much easier listening experience. I enjoyed the sound of this track, but I am not feeling the arrangement of this one. It stays on the same idea for very long stretches of time, which makes this sound repetitive (even though, yes, there are texture changes). Utilize the theme and harmonies from other parts of the source to break up your building textural ideas and I think you could makes something really cool out of this, but for now I'm not feeling it. NO

ReMixer name : Pixel Boyreal name : Xemail address : website : http://pixel.is.free.fr/userid profile : 34449Name of game arranged : Super Street fighter II (CSP-2)Name of arrangement : Fei long is backName of song arranged : Fei Long themeLink to my remix : link of original song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy6Du1z_S6o

Final Fantasy 3 for the DS, Dark Cloud (final boss). You need to get through the final dungeon, then boss rush five new bosses just to get to her (they're no slouches themselves), and she's hard as balls if you don't have the right setup. I wouldn't mind her difficulty if it didn't take two hours or so just to get to her (with zero save points in between, mind you), but I'm not going to spend an entire evening just to see if my current setup has a chance to beat her. Haven't finished that game to this day because of that. Also, on my first (and only) run I somehow got a super rare drop from one of the baddies (a piece of the onion set from the yellow dragon) and thought to myself 'Cool, I'll save as soon as I see another save point'... Yeah, definitely a bummer all around.

I think MindWanderer's pretty much got this one in the bag, so I'll build off of it. The arrangement is pretty good, and the handling of the piano is really good (not an easy thing, so full props!). When the full orchestra comes in, the articulations of the instruments sound mechanical - every attack swells, which causes issues when the instruments are supposed to carry the theme. On many samplers that's because of the attack setting, so decreasing that setting when swelling isn't necessary will make the orchestra sound more realistic. You have the dynamics down, fortunately, so I don't think this is too far off in the humanization aspect. The electronic/soundtrack elements that come in shortly at 3:00 and 4:41 don't quite sound like they fit. It's up to you whether or not you want them, but it might sound cleaner without, or with just a holding bass string. Up to you, though. I hear MW's crash cymbal, as well, and I think that's an artifact or left over instrument - you'd do well to cut that one out. The orchestration is great in this, but the mixing of the elements is a little muddy - once everything is together, it's often difficult to parse elements from one another, instead creating a wash of orchestra. Mix/use dynamics to bring important elements of the piece out while you keep your background elements in the background; that'll help give this track better direction. The high end EQ is pretty empty in this track, too, so if there's some sort of low pass on the track I'd suggest lightening up on that. I said a lot, but overall I think it's close. Humanize the orchestra articulations better and clean up the mix and I think this would be a pretty slick addition to OCR. NO

Sorry to hear about that. I hope things work out for you, Darkflamewolf. EDIT: Yeah, Modus, if there are new tracks that you're looking to QC, send them my way and I'll keep doing my part on here. The album has a lot of momentum behind it at the moment, it'd be a shame to see it slow down when there's a co-director capable of pushing it ever forward. No pressure, tho.

Nah, you gotta start from somewhere - reading sheet music to check your work is as good as any a place to start. With a piano background, another method that can help is to try to play music by ear, then write it down on the sheet music (or DAW). Playing music by ear takes practice, but it'll get you one step closer to dictating music on a DAW in the future. Best of luck!

Oh, I hear some Edvard Grieg in this one (0:39) - that's a fun little cameo from 'Morning Mood'. Of course that's also from the source material (Mystic Forest), so it's not like that was the intention, but still... Grieg, Morning Mood, right theeere. Small bit of fun aside, I think there's a decent amount of playfulness in this track that makes it really enjoyable. I listened to this track on its own before checking the sources, and while there's virtually no transition that I can make out the sources sound so natural together I didn't notice any change in flow to the track. It's a medley, but I'll certainly say it works well enough as a single song for me, here. Chimp and Nutricious are definitely correct on that bird tweeting (mixed too loudly), and the overall levels of the track are definitely quiet. I just put it in Audacity and got an extra 3.5dBs without any production errors. I'm pretty partial to the humanization on this one, too - the strings have that attack swell on every note. It's not too big a deal since they're all in the background, but it does make them more notably mechanical. The mixing of the instruments feel like they lose track of what's important in various places in the track, too - for the Mystical Forest part (0:38 - 1:28) the themes are drown by the arpeggios, and the Treant Forest section (2:38 - ~End) is pretty rough with how all the elements are mixed; it's like all of the instruments are trying to play in the same space at once. Overall I'd say not any one aspect of this is enough to give this a NO on it's own (and I wouldn't be upset if it were accepted at this stage, even), but everything together swings my vote. Mix down your bird noises, balance your mixing, and bring up your levels if you can. That would make this a great addition to OCR! NO

Wait, I didn't comment on this? Shame on me, I've been listening to this off and on for months, and it hasn't lost it's luster yet. Great use of Vocaloid, and some slick trance to boot. It manages to sound much shorter than 7+ minutes, which is as good an indicator of quality as any. I've never played this game, and I'm not familiar with the source, but it's a great arrangement in its own right.

The humanization (flutes & brass having too much swell in the attack), the oversaturation of the low end, the overuse of the SFX are all points I'll mirror my fellow judges on. I think the arrangement is actually really cool, though - the change from 3/4 to a marching 4/4 was effective (especially using 3+3+2 as a way to bridge the ideas - great technique there!), and really transformed the track in a way that I've never heard before. I think a lot of the impact of this track comes from the imitation of this to a marching band of sorts, so I would disagree on using a kick to tighten up the bass sound. The snare needs some more presence, though, so that it's easier for the listener to make the connection to the beats, since it changes quite often. I really like this, but the execution does need improvement before we can post this. Hopefully what was said here helps! NO

Quick sanity check on this - Sir_nutS said he couldn't quite make out the source connection on this, and on closer inspection I'm personally having some trouble making direct links to it. I'll definitely come to it at some point to try again, but if someone else can give a breakdown of sorts before I do that would be pretty sweet.

It's okay to learn from reading and recreating, but it would be a good idea to learn how to dictate the music without assistance over time simply because it's such a useful technique. Nothing wrong with using tools to help you, as long as you're not ripping things note for note and claiming it as your own.

Damn, Daniel! Back at it again with the surf mixes! Old memes aside, there's quite a bit of refinement in the performances in this one compared to the last submission (that was recently posted - nice work!). The guitar work is on point, here, and the arrangement works pretty well with the source that was given. There are some issues with the balance of the mixing and EQ levels, though. Throughout the track, there is virtually no bass presence. The guitar sounds crisp (save for stylistic distortion), but the bass is very difficult to hear. There's a lot of activity in the bass, which is really cool, but you can't hear it. Bring the bass up in the mix so it has more presence. The drums (specifically the kick, ride and snare to a lesser extent) are also similarly mixed very far behind the mix, so mix them more to the front, as well. Stylistically, I understand that there's supposed to be distortion when the lead gets higher in the range. Be careful with the lead at 1:46 - 2:17, though - the busy writing makes it sound like a bunch of clipping rather than tasteful distortion. The reason it works in other surf music is because the slower pacing doesn't let the distortion stack. Adding arps to the lead and repeating notes gets that distortion stacking, which clutters the track with too much. I get the sound you're going for, but make the section less busy. 2:53 - 3:27 really sounds like it could be half as long. Four repetitions of a similar line with the same texture is more than enough - eight repetitions (with the addition of the ride being the only notable difference) is too much of a good thing. Some trimming of the longer, more repetitive elements of this arrangement would help make it a tighter, more enjoyable experience. I like the style, and I think the performances are getting better overall. Fix up the mixing, bass EQ and production aspects of this and I think you'll have a sweet submission with this. Give it some TLC and send it our way again! NO

Contact Information Remixer Username: Furorezu Real Name: Daniel Florez Preferred E-mail: User ID: 33297 Name of games arranged: Xenoblade Chronicles Name of arrangement: Surfing with Zanza Name of individual songs: Xanthe Source materials: Xanthe Comments: "Xanthe" was actually the very first song that I got serious about remixing and I've had rough drafts of it for possibly more than a year, some even on my SoundCloud. I had the idea of turning it into a surf song while I was on a cruise with my family in late 2015 because I was starting to get on a "make everything surf!" bender and I wanted to learn more about actually recording music rather than just spend my life noodling on the guitar but doing nothing with it so this is actually where I got my start. I found the melody very easy to work into a heavier surf sound that's more along the lines of Daikaiju's tone, particularly Double Fist Attack, which has a more overdriven tone and emphasis on power chords than traditional surf music like Dick Dale. and translating the piano bridges to guitar actually worked much better than I expected in my opinion. It only took me this long because I really wanted this song to sound better than my overly rushed first foray into surf remix, Hyrule's Deadly Palaces, and also because I have a special attachment to this mix being my first full-fledged composition back in the day as well as to celebrate the announcement of the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Nintendo Switch. Hope you enjoy!

MindWanderer makes some solid points, though I will give some more credit for the overall arrangement being an interesting interpretation of the source. There's not nearly this kind of detail in the Game Boy source (obviously), the style is less 'Happy-fun time' and more 'Laid back on the beach' (which is pretty cool), and the production has decent volume without limiting or compression issues. Even though I'm going to give it a NO (heads up), I would definitely say this has some potential to be postable with some work. But to get to the point, this does have quite a bit that holds this back. The lead is certainly mixed too far into the back of the mix (...is that a lap guitar?), and I fear it would have some piercing EQ if the levels were raised on it. As that's the element that best connects to the source, it really should be front and center of the mix. Bringing down elements like the rhythm guitar while bringing up the levels of the lap guitar would help give this arrangement better focus on the important elements that it has to offer (though again, you'd need to watch your mid/higher EQs for the lead instrument as you raise your levels). The 'repeat the song twice' format feels like padding, and while what you had the first time around was pretty cool a direct repetition doesn't add anything to the arrangement. Considering the track is only 1:42 long, relegating half of it to repeating the arrangement means that it's effectively a 0:50 song on repeat. You could take the arrangement in any number of directions and it would be interesting and cool, but there just isn't enough for us to sink our teeth into, right now. The arrangement sounds very wet, which is problematic for mixing purposes. I know it's the Hawaii sound you're going for, but don't overdo the style and cause yourself production issues, like a messy soundscape. Tone down the reverb so you can hear your instruments more clearly (while leaving enough to evoke that sound you're looking for). It's an interesting source - one of the very few that can uniquely be called 'Pokemon Yellow' rather than the 'R/B/Y' grouping that's traditionally given to these games, so it's something I'd love to see posted someday. However, the mixing and arrangement has some work that needs to be done before we can take the track. Thanks for sending it our way, though! NO

I think he's calling all gaming format files "chiptunes", in this case. It's the wrong term, obviously, but that's what I gather from his post. NES has the .nsf files, Genesis has .vgm files, SNES has .spc, etc.. From a small search, it looks like the Gamecube equivalent would be the .hps or .adp file format, which does need a special plug-in for Winamp to read the files. I won't link any sites here (for questionable legality reasons), but do a quick search for "gamecube hps adp" and you'll find places to get your Gamecube native soundtracks and the necessary plug in for Winamp. Hope that helps.

Yeah, going to second that notion here - the live musicianship is pretty damn good, but the arrangement leans too much on replicating the source with little interpretive flair. Many of the parts use similar samples that the SNES did (the orchestra hit and square wave being the big offenders there), and while the guitar increases in density per repetition the form is essentially two repetitions of the source. It's well performed, and the production isn't bad, but I agree with MindWanderer in saying that this isn't interpretive enough for OCR. Thanks for sending it our way, though. NO