Gario

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

I like the approach to the theme, here - it doesn't go all in very often, and it doesn't start with the most recognizeable elements of the source, which is a nice change of pace from the usual arrangement of this theme. Great use of subtractive handling of motifs throughout. The mixing in this doesn't do the arrangement justice, though. The piano is especially problematic, nearly single-handedly causing compression issues throughout the arrangement. It's just mixed way too close to the front of the mix, there. The solo viola/cello sounds a little artificial in its articulations, though there certainly was attention paid to it. Just make the phrased connections more legato and I think that lead will work well enough. Overall the instruments are very dry against your wet pads and ambient sounds, so look into giving the piano and viola some reverb to help match the overall wetness of the other instruments. There's a whole lot to like in here, but the mixing is absolutely a dealbreaker here. Fix the piano levels, give some reverb to your piano and viola and this'll be a really cool addition to the site. NO

Contact Information NoTuX Damon Campbell https://soundcloud.com/notux-1 Your userid: Not sure Submission Information Super Mario 64 Dire Dire Docks, original: https://youtu.be/uqcPSbkS9TQ Composer: Koji Kondo This is an updated version of an old remix I did years ago. I was planning on submitting it back then, but I kept feeling like I could do better with it, so i held on to it until I learned better mixing and mastering techniques and found nicer samples. I've never been good at remixing in a defined style or genre, so I couldn't really tell you what this one would fall under. But, in this short mix, I attempted to replicate that sense of wonder that i felt when I first played Mario 64 twenty years ago. I used to love exploring the levels and looking for glitches and secrets. Ironically, i never actually got around to beating the game because I spent so much time messing around in it. Maybe I should do that one day... For some reason, I'm having a problem rendering WAV files in FL Studio, so I have a mp3 version posted on my SoundCloud page here: https://soundcloud.com/notux-1 Direct link: Thanks!

Pretty much can mirror what MindWanderer is saying, there - great idea, solid performances / sequencing, good production, poorly tuned panned flute at times. Most of the time the pan flute works in a jazzy sort of way, but at 1:50 and 2:48 it definitely sounds like it's clashing. I wouldn't quite call it a dealbreaker since it only really hurts the piece twice, but it does taint an otherwise great western arrangement. If you change the note of the pan flute in the background of 1:50 & 2:48 to something more palatable that'd be great, but I'd take it as is, too. Nice work! YES

I've seen a few pieces utilize the 'Variations' form on the panel, but there's a common issue that crops up - too often, it sounds like multiple pieces stringed together, and not like a single coherent track. This is a variations form piece done well - the transition from part to part sound like they're building off of one another, and rarely does the pacing get broken from iteration to iteration (save for the break at 2:09 - that was held a bit too long, there, and broke the sense of flow it had). The recording is solid, and the performance is acceptable. When it picks up speed I can hear a few errors in the arpeggios; there's a mistake at 1:32, the arpeggios are uneven (slight variations in the timing), and the pedal sometimes misses the first note which makes the arpeggio sound inconsistently hollow. I'm being a touch harsh since none of these things break what is otherwise a solid performance, but it's something to pay attention to in the future. It's a great idea, and the execution is very well done. Nitpicking the performance and the break of flow at 2:09 aside, I'm all for giving this a spot on the front page. Great work! YES

I agree this probably doesn't belong here by intent, but I'll try to give it a bit of a scholarly twist. Bear with me, Bardic! Making something go with Guile's theme has little to do with genre. In fact, it more often than not has little to do with connecting to other music, if I'm recalling the meme correctly - it has to do with rhythm of an image syncing up with the beat pattern of the music. At a BPM of 120 (which is the standard march tempo - likely why Guile's theme uses it), this means that as long as video has something happening at a rate of precisely twice a second, it will "line up" with the beats of the music (120 beats per minute = 2 beats per second = 1 beat every half second). Since this lines up well with how we sync time, this beat rate lines up perfectly with many things - from the frequency of fire alarm strobes (the standard duty cycle is either one or two flashes a second) to march patterns (all set to 120 bpm), Guile's theme will seemingly resonate with more things than it should. A study of the theme and how to precisely line it up with any other song (regardless of genre) would also be interesting, but it's not something that I'll do at work. Maybe I'll give a melodic and harmonic breakdown some other time and show what music would (theoretically) work with Guile's theme, and what music wouldn't.

Wow, it's a shame that I missed this last year. I LOVE listening to things like this, but I was never able to figure out how to do that with Genesis channels (I love doing it with NES and SNES games, though). Great handling of timbre on the Sonic track, for sure.

I'm a bit torn on this one. On the one hand, I totally get this arrangement - it's as if you're at the carnival, with all of the wild antics playing in the background. On the other hand, the crowds, horses, etc., make the track sound far too busy, creating a whole lot of clutter at the cost of being able to hear the music. Upon repeated listening the crowds end up sounding like white noise, which makes the listening experience even less palatable. If this were coming off of a soundtrack of sorts I would be wondering why they left the background sounds in there - it's all pretty distracting. The arrangement is quite good, though, if you look past the SFX. The themes work perfectly on the organ and Wurlitzer; hell, they almost sound like they were WRITTEN for those instruments. The vocals sound almost like a barbershop, and they're well executed and incredibly fitting for the theme you have going in this. Under the crowded soundscape there's a really cool arrangement, but it's difficult to hear it with the layer of carny effects (you can really hear the potential at 2:56, when the music stands alone). Some SFX periodically to help set the mood would be fine, so decrease the SFX density and shorten the intro a bit. It'd be a really cool track to post, so give this another pass our way with those alterations! NO

NOTE: Not sure if it's just me, but for some reason the track appears to be 18:47 on Windows Media Player for me, even though it's more like ~3:50. If others are affected we may need another render of it, if it passes. - Gario Remixer name: tymime Remix title: Circus of Dreams Game: Little Nemo: The Dream Master / Super Mario Bros. Source track: intro, title screen, game over / underwater Link: Comments: I've been a fan of the primary source here for a long time, even before I knew much about the game it came from (long story). It always reminded me of circus music, so I went full-on in that direction. There are lots of influences on this track, and the most obvious should be The Beatles' "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!". There are actually lots of little Beatles references in here, mostly the sound effects. If you're a huge fan like me, try and see if you recognize some of them. The lead instrument is a virtual Wurlitzer theater organ, accompanied by a steam calliope, among other things. That's myself singing in the final section, with help from my brother. Also featured is long-time carnival attraction Laffing Sal. Look her up for the full madness...

To be honest, the source is pretty clear in this case. While I would argue following only the harmonies wouldn't be enough to count as source (since harmonies by their nature are pretty universal), the background textures, tempo, rhythms of said textures, etc., all help connect the arrangement to the source quite effectively. The theme isn't present, but everything else certainly is. I have some reservation on the mixing of this, like how the snare has virtually no presence and some of the textures pop out too much (lookin' at you, arpeggio at 0:34), but overall I think the production is on point. It's a pretty cool track, which I'd totally be fine with on the front page. YES

Nearly direct-post quality stuff here, for sure - production is absolutely crisp on this one. The arrangement has a few tricks up its sleeve, even if it's a hint conservative on the source presentation. The one big concern that I have on this is the medley nature of this; some of those transitions just drop in from one theme to another without much attention paid to transitions. 1:48 stops and starts another section, for example, and 3:03 just jumps right into the next source with minimal bridging. The transitions after those, though, are pretty slick, and I thought the blending of sources at 4:48 - 5:39 was very effective. Great stuff, there - hope to hear the rest of that album when you put it out. YES

CONTACT INFO ReMixer name: DaMonz Real name: Emery Monzerol email address: userid: 31308 SUBMISSION INFO Name of the games arranged: Kirby Super Star Name of the arrangement: Fluffball Rampage Links to originals: Cocoa Cave - https://youtu.be/o0UlGDsH2R4 Meta Knight's Revenge - https://youtu.be/qxhQghflIqg Taking Over the Halberd - https://youtu.be/Wj300sIS_1s Heart of Nova - https://youtu.be/sRiWShBN-j4 Gladiator Kirby - https://youtu.be/vlZokS21Bek Dynablade's Nest - https://youtu.be/0wOPQePxOT4 Marx's Theme - https://youtu.be/A3BTZDQEPn4 Gourmet Race - https://youtu.be/FAByWyvuu7s Green Greens - https://youtu.be/QCQa2tIXWok Kirby's Triumphant Return - https://youtu.be/E14JKcyTe7s Comments: So, I decided to make something big. The history of this track is basically: "I'll make a Cocoa Cave remix because I really like that track, and it's been a while since I've made music just for me. Oh, Meta Knight's music would fit nicely here! Ah, let's just throw in another. Ahhh just one more..." And then weeks and weeks of musical Kirby Frankensteining happened. And then I decided to make an EP out of it because I was having way too much fun. Now, I already feel the judges' despair from that list of sources (I'm really sorry), so let me break it down: 0:00 - 1:47 : Cocoa Cave 1:47 - 3:03 : Meta Knight's Revenge 3:03 - 4:10 : Taking Over the Halberd 4:10 - 4:48 : Heart of Nova 4:48 - 5:22 : Heart of Nova mixed with Gladiator Kirby 5:22 - 5:39 : Gladiator Kirby à la Cocoa Cave 5:39 - 5:59 : Dynablade's Nest 5:59 - 7:51 : Marx's Theme 7:51 - 9:00 : Gourmet Race 9:00 - 9:45 : Green Greens 9:45 - 10:14 : Kirby's Triumphant Return Also, I want to dedicate this remix to my amazing friend Marc-André Parenteau, for all the countless times we beat Kirby Super Star together all the way back since second grade. Best co-op couch game, best friend, 10/10 would childhood again. As usual, thank you very much for your time! P.S.: At the time of writing this, the EP I mentioned, called Kirby's Liberation Service, is still in the making (although is almost finished) and I have talked with djp and Will about releasing it on OverClocked Records. If this here submission passes, I would very much appreciate if this remix could be released simultaneously with the EP!

Holy crap, I almost gave this track such a hard time in the critique, then found out my headphones were half plugged in. Got suspicious when the source had all the exact same EQ problems I was going to hammer this arrangement for. Haa.. that would've been embarrassing... *Ahem* Funny story aside, I agree with Larry that this is a pretty sweet arrangement. I think the lead should've been brought to the front more along with the vocals (though intelligibility in this genre is somewhat optional, from my understanding). The bass, being as powerful as it is, could be tamped down somewhat in the mix to give the leads some more space, but it does a great job acting as a solid grounding for the rest of the arrangement being prominent, so it'd be wise not to over-correct the bass presence there. I agree that the mix could be better on this. The arrangement is pretty great, though, and the mix isn't too far off as presented here. Half of me wants to even give you the YES on this (solid black metal is hard to come by!), but I know Larry is correct on the mixing critiques on it. Balance your leads, vocals and bass better and we'll have a real winner on our hands. NO

Silver Surfer! Tim & Geoff Follin! Instant street cred goes to anyone giving this soundtrack remixin' love. While I agree that the track sounds similar when it repeats at 1:30, there ARE some significant differences between the sections that should get the credit that it's due: the choir is handled differently, there are portions that are repeated with variation to prolong the more active arps, etc.. To be honest, I'm not against how this one was arranged, from that aspect. It's conservative, and it recycles ideas, but it isn't what I would call a direct repetition. The criticism against the static nature of the arrangement certainly holds, though. The NES source has a whole lot more variety in the lead, so perhaps take a look at it as a guide - Follin was a master in that aspect, so this source is a perfect guide to that sort of thing. Parts like 2:48 - 3:31 would be far more effective if the lead wasn't the same for each repetition; it ends up sounding repetitive rather than being variations on the theme (which I thought was a pretty cool way to change up the arrangement). Give the source a listen and check out how Follin handles the repetitions for a great example of how to get life out of repetition: at 0:50 - 0:56 and 1:15 - 1:21 of the youtube source link every repeat has a pretty significant change to the timbre that keeps the parts interesting. Take note of that and see what you can do with the repetitions that can keep the listener engaged and interested. I like your arrangement, and I like where you're going with it - some TLC on the lead variety and execution of your ideas would make it an easy YES from me, next time around. Good luck! NO

Damn, that's some clean acoustic guitar in this. The style is calming and expressive, and the production on this is crisp - this is a pretty great track. Darren gets some great music on his albums in general, and this is no exception. The Jungle Hijinx in the middle is a surprise, but it's an interesting break from the rest of the track, and it leads into and from it well enough. The kick seems to lack presence in the track in many of the fuller sections (like at 1:04 - 1:51), which makes it feel top-heavy in the EQ when everything is going all at once. This is odd, since the kick at 3:04 seems to be well defined, so it seems to be intentional. It's strange once you notice them, but otherwise the sounds in this are pretty top notch. Yeah, I'm definitely digging this. YES

Contact Information ReMixer name: Buoyant Real name: Jonathan Reichelt Gjertsen Email address: Website: https://www.youtube.com/user/JonathanRGjertsen User ID: 34279 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Super Mario Bros. Brawl Name of arrangement: Rush of the Rainforest Name of individual song(s) arranged: Bramble Blast Comments: This was originally made for the fan album Harmony of Heroes from 2014. I still have the full rights to the track.

This is a very full sounding track, which I've got to say I get a real kick out of. It definitely channels the spirit of the Journey to Silius game. It's more than a sound upgrade, but it DOES have a very similar style to the synth work. I like it. Be careful with the reverb and delay effects in this track. I get the 80's asthetic that this is going for, but there are quite a few moments that take this too far and instead create a muddy soup of sound instead. The chime at 0:12 is a pretty good example of too much delay, but the most egregious example would be at 1:32 - that lead bleeds into itself quite a bit. Don't ditch the delay; just give it some more decay so it doesn't linger quite as long. I can feel the crashes at 1:46 really overpowering everything there - mix those down, give them some more decay. It's tough to hear anything that's going on beneath it. Speaking of the mix, be careful not to drown your leads behind the accompaniment. The lead work sounds great at 1:59, but at places like 0:52 the lead isn't easy to hear above everything else. I think this is close, but the mix needs some more TLC, the delay/reverb needs to be toned down in a few spots and the crashes at 1:46 need to be toned down. Cool arrangement, and I hope to hear some fixes come back our way. NO

This is a bit of a strange case. I'm split on the samples on this one - the vocal samples are from the source track, re-sampled and rearranged above an arrangement that ISN'T sampled from the source (though still sounding sampled itself, stylistically). I'm not sure whether this counts as "Too much sampling from the original source" or not, since the sampling is basically from SFX that are in the music. We've taken tracks that sample a lot of game SFX before, and this is sort of half-way between that and sampling the music itself, so... Yeah. Not sure where we should take this one, myself, so I just said 'Fuck it' and paneled it. All that aside, as far as the track goes on its own it's a pretty cool arrangement. The samples are pretty percussive in their use, which helps fit them into the track, though I would say it's excessive at a few places - "I said it before" isn't percussive enough to repeat as much as it is in this track, in particular. Most of those samples make up a pretty cool series of patterns that is really catchy. The sampled orchestra hits are pretty weak in this - they don't have very much presence, in comparison to the other instruments, which just makes them feel weak. The production on this is pretty solid, though. The mixing could've brought the sampling vocals down a bit while bringing out the other instruments more, but it's not something that breaks the piece, either. Yeah, pending on others opinions on that sampling I could pass this, but that's honestly a make-or-break issue. Not sure how to rule on this one - other opinions on that point would be appreciated. EDIT (04/05): Larry's clarification made sense to me, so I'll go with that. I think there are elements that could be better, but I didn't think those broke the track, so I'll give it my thumbs up. If it gets sent back, though, pay attention to those thin samples that you use. YES

Link to ReMix (Attachment is there in case something goes wrong): Contact Information ReMixer Name: GCJ Real Name: Caleb Email: Website: https://soundcloud.com/gcjofficial or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4gkFBO9_FKEr_GRezitg6w Forum userid: 34256 Submission Information Games Arranged: Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future Name of Arrangement: Butterfly Spy Name of Songs Arranged: "Sneakman" and "Fly Like A Butterfly" Additional Information: Composer for both songs, Hideki Naganuma. Jet Set Radio was originally on the Dreamcast, but has been ported to Windows, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Vita, iOS, and Android. Jet Set Radio Future was only on the original Xbox. Link to Soundtracks: Jet Set Radio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGA4PilHdr0 Jet Set Radio Future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugo6ASPVu9g Link to Original Songs Used: Sneakman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VyaShl6urc Fly Like A Butterfly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfLK13n91Q8 Comments on Mix: I was very inspired by the style of music throughout Jet Set Radio & its sequel, Jet Set Radio Future. The instruments are half-sampled, half-synth in a similar style to the soundtrack of those games. There were also full drumset samples cut and chopped up inspired by some similar editing in "Fly Like A Butterfly". A note on the vocal samples: I did use vocal samples that were also used in the songs; however, I did not sample the original songs themselves. I realize that if I sampled the songs my remix would be disqualified so I'm not sure how that applies to this situation, since this style of music is heavily sample based, and the specific vocal samples used in these songs are what make them recognizable. In addition, the samples were from various sample packs unrelated to the game or company making the game, so I believe the use of those samples should be fine in this instance.