Gario

Whoops, forgot the sources there. Thanks for pointing that out. This track is rather interesting - it seems to want to tell a story. The form of the track is pretty heavy in introductory material, though (it takes more than 50% of the track to build to the meat of it). If nothing else, this makes the arrangement sound fundamentally unbalanced - that much build should have considerably more payoff (rule of thumb: intro should be no more than 25% of the track). Aside from that, there are elements in the intro that don't quite click with me, either. The piano is pretty dry and mechanical, while the guitar & vocal parts are very wet by contrast. The reverb needs to be better balanced between the parts. The vocals are also consistently flat, as MW mentions, so beware of that. I think it's a good idea, but the imbalance of the intro-to-body ratio of the piece makes this feel incomplete. The reverb balance issue and vocal tuning also throw this off a bit. I think there's a great idea in this, though, and would like to hear it again with the issues addressed and the arrangement extended a bit to compensate for such a long intro. NO

Mmm, this is delicious. I can totally see where you took this arrangement; it does sound like something you might hear in a church choir, with how you move your voices. The harmonizations are absolutely great (ESPECIALLY at 2:08... made my hairs stand on end, there). Sounds like something from Morten Lauridsen, with those vocal clusters. The orchestration is pretty great. The choir at 0:19 is really artificial sounding, which is strangely in contrast with everything else in this track. I don't know why you chose that sample rather than going with what you used throughout the rest of the piece - it strikes me as intentional (since you show later you have a better choral sample), but I can't figure out why. The solo soprano also starts to sound artificial, as the piece goes on - it's a combination of the vibrato remaining the same and the lack of lyrics (even fake ones!) against the rest of the choir. Neither are deal-breakingly bad (hell, in most other contexts the soprano would be pretty damn good!), but it's something to be aware of. Otherwise, I've got nothing else but praise for this one: the arrangement is divine, and the production is spot-on. I absolutely love this piece - easily one of your best to date. Great work! YES

Yeah, it's pretty straight forward, but man those otherworldly sounds utilized in the source really translate well to guitar. The piano is a bit mechanical, but it's really a decorative element so that's a pretty small nitpick. It's well produced, powerful, and gets my blood pumpin'. I'm with MindWanderer 100% on this one - let's do it! YES

This has a really calming tone to it, with that chill guitar performance. It has some of the soundscape ideas from the Brawl remix in there, but it's less deliberate, less heavy and more peaceful, like something you'd listen to on the beach. Some of the sounds seem to be ripped from the game, but to be honest it's pretty minimal for the most part; I don't think that's ultimately an issue. The fade out ending is a little weak, but the arrangement is otherwise pretty strong, so I think I can let it pass this time around. It's clean, and it does enough to keep the listener engaged throughout. I like it, let's give you some front page lovin'. YES

This is such a strange source to draw inspiration from, but damn do you pull it off. There's a lot of extra material in there, but from my calculation (source at 0:30 - 1:10, 1:32 - 1:49, 2:15 - 2:33) it clocks in at about 60% source, which is plenty. The harmonization really push this source to somewhere the original could never dream (ha, pun), and changing the harmony under the source (1:32) is a GREAT way to continue to get mileage out of it without having it go stale, so kudos to that. The plucking of the harp is a little too punchy for my taste when it carries the themes, and the violin sounds a little mechanical (the attacks use a little too much detache and nothing else), but otherwise the instrumentation is pleasant. It's something that could've easily been a part of Esther's Dreams, and frankly it's unexpectedly good from what you pulled it from. Great work! YES

EDIT (8/18): Here's the WAV. RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game(s): Final Fantasy 1 and on (had FF4 and FF1 in mind mostly) Song Title: Hymn to the Crystals Songs Remixed: Prelude Comments: I was going for a sort of mystical/reverent feeling. It has spacey synths and VSTs of full choir, solo boy and solo soprano along with some background instruments.

Hello OCR judges, Below is my information. Rodok. William Rhoden userid = 32400 Submission information. Game arranged = Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Name = Lullaby of the Desert Song arranged = Gerudo Valley Inspiration: I got into Gerudo Valley not by playing the game, but by hearing djpretzel arrange the track (OCR #368). It was one of the first OCRs I heard over ten years ago, and I was hooked. This is my third attempt arranging it for OCR, and I wanted to go a different direction than most. It is a simple track with live guitar and violin (both played by me), NI's Giant piano, and a simple Sytrus synth. I tried to think of what Ganon's mother might have sung him, if he had one. As always, thank you for your continued support of video game music. Will

artist: halfwalk real name: Chris Ramey email: website: http://halfwalk.bandcamp.com title: Through the Mirror and Back game: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) songs used: "Dark Golden Land," "Hyrule Field Main Theme" soundcloud link: Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoy the remix!

Link to MP3: Contact Information: ReMixer name: Nightswim Real name: Fin Leavell Email address: Website: http://www.nightswim.com UserID: 34280 Submission Information: Name of game: Mega Man 5 Name of individual song arrange: Dark Man Stage Composer: Mari Yamaguchi System: NES Link to OST: http://ocremix.org/game/296/mega-man-5-nes Additional information: On this occasion Nightswim was comprised of: Fin Leavell - synthesizers, programming, piano, & guitars Felix Chang - violin Paul Lapinski - bass Tim Grisnik - drums - Mastered by Dan Suter Mixed by Paul Lapinski Engineered by Ryan Viti and Fin Leavell

Link to track: Trichotomy (Trisection) ReMixer name: sschafi1 Real name: Sean Schafianski E-mail: Submission information Name of game arranged: Final Fantasy Tactics Name of Arrangement: Trichotomy Name of Individual Song(s): Trisection Comments: As featured on the album "ZODIAC: Final Fantasy Tactics Remixed" by the Materia Collective! This is probably my most involved mix to date. I wanted to combine my love for Final Fantasy Tactics with my love for progressive metal. There are many quotes and references to Dream Theater and Opeth in here, as well as a lot of changing time signatures, hemiola, etc. Let's see how many references you can name! As always, I have to give a shout out to the players, who performed phenomenally here. This was no easy task, and they came through with flying colors. Tiago Rodrigues - Lead Guitar Daniel Woodyer (aka PirateCrab) - Rhythm Guitars Marc Papeghin - Drums Jordan Chin - Bass Please enjoy the track! This was so much fun and I hope that sentiment came through in the end!

Contact Information Cyril the Wolf Connor Pelkey https://cyrilthewolf.com 14582 Submission Information Mega Man X5, Mega Man X Drop the Facade X vs. Zero, Zero 1, Zero 2 My last few submissions have not had vocals, but when it comes to Mega Man I can't resist adding some power metal yells and over the top vocal layers along with the requisite corny lyrics. I've grown up a bit though, I was not afraid to take this song's key down a few semi-tones to make the vocals more manageable for me. I decided that layering six vocal tracks for the chorus as in my Mega Man Zero piece was not enough, so this has 11! (Insert requisite "turn it up to 11" joke here) The lyrics are just thoughts that are going through X's head as he's fighting his (formerly) best friend. On a bit more of a philosophical level it's mostly about Free Will vs Fatalism where X represents the idea that you can control your destiny whereas Zero is bowing to the purpose he was assigned by his creator. Interesting trivia: There's only one other vocal version of this song from a Doujin album back in 2012 for the 25th anniversary called "X-Buster" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5uN33IOTgk for the curious) which is utterly fantastic. I cannot claim to match it, though it did give me an idea of how to get the song a little less repetitive with the original portion at :58. I also wanted to have a noodly bass solo in there to break things up, as well as a couple extra musical references to both Zero themes from Mega Man X. I'm not the most technical lead guitarist, but I feel like it all comes together to make a polished piece. Lyrics: Destiny's call is just an excuse I don't care what star you were born under Remember then? The wars we fought together Why must we be defined by what's come before? Pre-chorus: For fate leaves us all burned in the end We should never be defined By where we were set into life Drop the facade it's always your choice Chorus: I don't want to fight but I'll kill you if I have to How many times has the world fell to war? They often believe that victory's predetermined but nothing is certain just hunger for more Bridge: Push back memories But I can't help but see The person I knew then As we exchange blows I feel my life flash before my eyes When I realized I had to raise my gun You started this for why do you run away If you're so unsure Then lets go back to us before Pre-chorus Chorus Why... Zero? *Solos* Chorus Bridge

Remixer name (ID forum): Bluelighter (21840); Katamari (30406); Chris | Amaterasu (23512); Arvangath (33696) Bluelighter : arranger Katamari : guitar Chris | Amaterasu : violin, viola, cello Arvangath : bass (https://m.youtube.com/arvangathvgm ) Mail: Game & Songs: Dragon Quest 7 & Days of Sadness; With Sadness in Heart Composer: Koichi SUGIYAMA Links: Days of Sadness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29h1H6neu3k With Sadness in Heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j9wJKnoivU Hi OCR, Here is an acoustic remix from Dragon Quest 7. K. Sugiyama put in the game series a lot of immortal themes. But the most memorable for me are certainly these two themes, so intense and sad! These two themes have yet their orchestra version. So I've tried sthg different for the arrangement. I wanted a music minimalist, in the building and in the instrumentation. It was the best way IMO to feel the purity of the original melody and to enjoy the acoustic recordings. After introduction by guitar solo, some classical influences can be heard with the trio of strings. They are combined with a more modern rhythm by guitar, bass and hand-drum. The mix concludes by a simple theme, based on harmony of "With Sadness in Heart", repeated several times with a fade out. I really thank artists who have collaborated with me! Recordings contribute to give to this arrangement its particular atmosphere. Enjoy Breakdown : Days of Sadness - 0'00: Melodic Line 1 - 0'24: ML2 - 0'42: ML3 - 1'01: ML4 - 1'20: ML5 With Sadness in Heart - 0'00: ML6 (unused) - 0'46: ML7 - 1'19: transition TR1 - 1'25: repeat Remix: - 0'00: intro: ML1 and ML2 in guitar solo - 0'33: ML1 in 4/4 by strings; rhythm by guitar, bass and percussions - 1'00: ML7 in 3/4 - 1'29: TR1 - 1'32: ML1 in 4/4 (variation) - 1'46: ML3 in 4/4 (with guitar and viola pizz) - 2'03: TR1 - 2'06: ML4 -2'20: ML5 by guitar and bass. Rhythm with strings and percussions -2'35: outro: simple melodic line based on harmony of ML7. Two times with strings ; and three times by guitar solo with a fade out.

Hi, Attached is a submission for OCR. I am Drew Etterle (SuprMelO) and my band mate is Scott Wells (BluuMonk) and together our band is Moiré Effect. We can be reached at and our website is http://moireeffectband.com . It looks like my user ID is 34268. Our submission is a remix of the UNATCO theme from the original Deus Ex and is titled "God from the Machine". The UNATCO music is a serene but mysterious song, perfect for investigating intrigue at the virtually unaccountable global police bureaucracy. We took melodies and progressions and found they served great for examining our behaviors and habits brought on by technology, and the ease of surrendering privacy to the system. The hard rock take added weight to the themes of surveillance and corporatism we were exploring in the song. [Spoilers for Deus EX ahead] A lot of Scott’s lyrics are lifted and modified from JC Denton’s encounter with the A.I. Morpheus late in the original game. Morpheus presents itself as a system that trawls the internet for people’s information and presents it back to them for their amusement. It seems benign, but it’s not difficult to imagine it as a much more sinister system. And why would we feel the need to create such a system? We actually cut a music video for the song using footage from various trailers for other Deus Ex games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_xI3Qs9kuk Here's the lyrics: My vision is augmented y’all Check your status again for the third time tonight Your face lit up with the pale blue light Hoping for connection or some validation Got you tripping & hallucinating phantom vibrations Eyes dried out but you continue to read Can’t miss out cause you hunger the feed The world keeps spinning behind the screen Lie awake in bed as you serve the machine Just let me in, come join your friends I’ll follow your path as you carry me near and far Just let me in, share without end And smile for me as I tell you who you are Keep up appearances, mask what you truly think Them cookies keeping tabs as you click the link The ones closest only see what you want them to see But you trusting Zuck Brin and Bezos implicitly The signal goes out and it’s passed around You say you’re putting out knowledge as it’s going down Stick it to them, ya heard fate favors the bold They’re saying thanks for the data as the swallow it whole Just let me in, come join your friends I want it all, everything that can be known Just let me in, share without end Hold me up and you’ll never feel alone Just let me in, come join your friends We’re watching and we’ll try to understand Just let me in, share without end Accept your judgement from my invisible hand… I never asked for this -------------------------------------------------- Thanks for taking a listen, Drew

Contact Information ReMixer name: ChaoSynthesizer Real name: Stefano Bottarelli website: n/d userID on forum : 29189 Submission Information original game: Final Fantasy VIII arrangement name: The Man With The Synthesizer song name: The Man with the Machine Gun Composed by Nobuo Uematsu I always play the main song theme while goofing around in the studio, so I ended up recording the solo then adding the arrangements, it's a simple electronic remix

So, I had a great time arranging this remix of the World 1-1, or Overworld Theme, from Super Mario Bros.! An iconic theme through and through, I decided to give this theme a 70's style funk remix. I'm excited for this to be evaluated (if it does get evaluated)! I feel like this remix has been a great step for me in learning about production. ReMixer Name: Ridiculously Garrett Name of game(s) arranged: "Super Mario Bros." Name of arrangement: "Without a Care in the World 1-1" Name of individual songs arranged: Overworld Theme Source Material: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT3NA5Q08mk

Remixer name: tymime Remix title: sleepy baby weasel dook Game: Mickey Saves the Day: 3D Adventure (http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/disneys-mickey-saves-the-day-3d-adventure) Source track: Rock-a-bye Weasel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMaF1TIY9mI) Link: Comments: I'm a big fan of the often-overlooked Disney weasels, so when I found there was a song dedicated to them, I knew I had to do something with it. There are a number of instruments that I picked to suit the mood I was going for, but the most important is the Celtic harp lead. When I was little, my mom used to play a tape of Celtic harp music to me and my brother to help put us to sleep, so I felt that this was essential to the arrangement. Also included is the music box soundfont from Yoshi's Island (more nostalgia), and at the very end, the actual sound of baby weasels playing. I don't imagine that whoever wrote the source expected anyone to take it at all seriously, but even if you picture a Disney weasel sleeping, the music to go with it has to be cute.

Contact InformationReMixer name : Reuben6Real name: Reuben SpiersE-mail: Submission information Game: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Name of arrangement: Know the Truth Name of original song: Southern Face Shrine

Mmm, those reharmonizations are tasty as hell.

You mean from this thread? Hey, you'll be a hero if you just start pushing good covers and arrangements from the ReMix Request area.

If you're not planning on submitting the track, then please don't mark it for Mod Review. That's a tool to help people get an idea of how it'll fare on he panel without needing to wait however long it may take, but if too many people mark their tracks just to get a review it exhausts the mods on here, leaving people who actually need it for its intended purpose without the tools to do so. Mark it as a WIP to get the attention of other users on here, or mark it as finished if you're simply sharing your music. Thanks.

Okay, this is actually really, really cool. Loving the use of the guitar bodies for percussion, and the overall soundscape is rich as all hell. You're in the right place for instrumental covers - we take em' all in here. Do keep posting your stuff in here, because this is awesome.

EVAL The arrangement goes in some neat directions - it sounds like it merges a bit of MMX2's intro stage toward the end, which works pretty well. It really sounds like you're trying to fit a great deal of ideas in this, which unfortunately the track can't fit. The mix is pretty muddy, especially when you start adding new instruments at 1:34. There's only so much space you have to work in; if you add too much, either you'll have clipping, your limiter will cut out or you'll experience overcompression (which is the case, here). The soundscape is pretty static, too. You utilize the same instruments through most of the track (save for the addition of a new synth at 1:34), so the listener gets tired of that soundscape before long. Don't use all of your tools at once for the entire track; cut a few instruments out from time to time, play with different combinations, etc., and only really have everything going when you must. This will also have the added bonus of helping clean up the mixing, too. If you were to submit it, it's likely be stopped at the inbox due to production issues (the mixing & overcompression issues mentioned above). Bypass whatever limiters and compressors you have over your master, turn things down until you don't have clipping and work your mix up from there. Also, pay attention to make sure you don't use all of your instruments for the same purposes throughout the entire song, as that makes the arrangement tiring to listen to. The human ear craves variety, after all! Hope that helps!

Ditto to the props, and ditto to the exposed hard panned right channel in the beginning being annoying. The production values seem to be on point, and the various guitar licks put throughout to keep it interesting works on every level. I think it's great, to be honest - not much to critique. YES

ReMixer Name: Tyler Gill Email: Userid: 19188 Submission: Title: The Last Laugh Game: Banjo-Kazooie and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (with cameos from Super Mario Bros.) (Banjo-Kazooie is still the primary game though) Comments: Banjo-Kazooie and Mario & Luigi were both some of my favorite games growing up, and the music was a large part of that. I remember getting a headphone adapter for my GBA SP just so I could close the lid and listen to Cackletta's theme, and Gruntilda's theme was one of the first video game songs I figured out how to play on the piano. As the two characters are both witches, and both have quite distinctive laughs, I had the brilliant idea of a title for a song that could combine the two together - The Last Laugh. The name just fit so well, I had to write the song to go along with it. (It wasn't until this point that I realized the two songs are in different time signatures...but that just made it more of a fun challenge.) This song tells the story of the final battle between the hero and the villain: 0:00-0:05 - The hero enters the chamber with the final boss. 0:05-0:23 - The hero looks around the room, searching for the villain. 0:23-1:09 - The villain steps from the shadows - cue monologue... 1:09-1:22 - The villain knows something the hero doesn't - suspense builds... 1:22-1:34 - The villain springs their trap! A new baddie appears! 1:34-1:46 - The hero springs into action. 1:46-2:21 - The battle rages! 2:21-2:27 - The villain is getting weak... 2:27-2:34 - The villain gets their second wind! 2:34-2:40 - The hero strikes back! 2:40-3:18 - The villain falls... 3:18-3:24 - ...but will be back! The breakdown is similar to the story: 0:00-0:05 Intro (original) 0:05-1:09 Gruntilda's Lair 1:09-1:22 Bridge (original) 1:22-1:34 Cackletta's Theme 1:34-2:21 Super Mario Overworld 2:21-2:27 Gruntilda's Lair (4/4 time) 2:27-2:34 Cackletta's Theme 2:34-2:40 Banjo's Theme 2:40-2:50 Bridge (original) 2:50-3:18 Cackletta's Theme (12/8 time) 3:18-3:24 Gruntilda's Lair Source songs: Banjo-Kazooie Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga Super Mario Bros.

Contact InformationReMixer Name - DarkEcoEmail Address - YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGbDe6JrqPLoUIS9A7UbcMg Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged - Lemmings Name of arrangement - 'Extinction Party' Name of individual song(s) arranged - 'Miners and Climbers Disco' System - Megadrive/Genesis Source material - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13dpyKI3dHg Comments This is my first ever submission to OCR that i actually made almost a year ago but didn't feel confident enough to submit. After eventually posting it publicly it was receiving generally positive feedback from the kind folks on the OCR facebook group, which made me consider that i was being too hard on myself. The track itself was what i'd call a "crisis of genre". On one end i'm heavily inspired by rock music like Joe Satriani, Pink Floyd, early DreamTheater and Porcupine Tree. On the other end i'm a lover of electronic music like Infected Mushroom, Zircon and Oribital. On top of all that i love VGM and get comments from friends that everything i write (which isn't that much) sounds like it should be in a game. So i'm stuck loving genres that are at opposite ends of the music spectrum and fusing these into a sound that i want to be my own involved a lot of tricky decisions that i'm still plagued by, mainly being the drum sound above everything else. Should it be electronic or acoustic drums? Will it sound too inconsistent to my overall genre if i switch between the two? I'm sure i'm not the only one who's been in this situation. I settled on having a punchy electronic kick with acoustic snare and overheads, but i still don't feel happy with it overall. The main thing i decided before i started writing any game remixes was that i wanted my remixes to keep the spirit of the track but enhance it in ways that weren't possible when it was made. I'm sure somebody could make a killer smooth jazz rearrangement of this track, but to me that would sound too far from home. It needed to sound fun and upbeat, and fun was really my main goal. I made heavy use of Image-Lines 'Gross Beat' to spice things up. All the gating and tape stop effects on the guitar are coming from that. The entire solo near the end has been put through Gross Beat to make it more snappy and to the beat. I'm not the tightest of players so it helped fix my timing too. As a guitarist i felt like i wanted to try new things that i never hear on a guitar. The standard rock sound bores me more then ever these days, so what if i pretended the guitar was any other electronic sound? It's something i am exploring even more now after writing this track. This was very Infected Mushroom inspired. If you listen to their album 'The Legend of the Black Shawarma' it makes frequent use of gated, stuttering guitars. The breakdown at 2:03 was quite Pink Floyd and Sonic CD (US) inspired. You can probably hear the obvious Zircon inspiration during the section that starts at 1:19. I'm a huge fan of his delayed sine sounds and really wanted to give it a try myself. His music is actually the reason i persued any kind of music production myself, so i'd like to thank him for that as it was a potentially life changing choice for me. After grabbing my own copy of FL Studio it started snowballing. This mix was created using FL Studio but i've now moved on to using Presonus Studio One and i'm very happy with the switch. Truth is i'm a lazy writer if given the chance and the pattern system of FL encouraged too much copy/pasting. The workflow for audio recording didn't vibe with me either. From here i'm hoping to continue contributing to OCR and already have a couple more mixes that are about 50% finished. 'Extinction Party' will probably be quite different to anything i produce in the future as i'm heading down a more electronic rock route than a dance oriented one. As for how long it will take to finish these i can't say as i'm currently working on a degree in Sound Design at University, but i'm very excited with the progress on them so far! Peace & Love, DarkEco x