Gario

I copied and pasted my comments I submitted for the album: I was eyeing this Sonic album for quite some time, hoping to have time to jump in on a source somewhere - more specifically, a source meaningful to me. Thankfully, that opportunity presented itself when Chernabogue requested to drop the Sonic 3 credits theme and take on the S3 final boss theme instead. Jorito and Black_Doom had specified that any credits theme from any Sonic game could be chosen for the album, but they were *really* hoping to get a ReMix for the S3 credits theme, specifically. Seeing as this source has always been a favorite of mine, I seized the opportunity and created this epic/soaring progressive trance mix, doing my best to include lots of creative twists and ideas. (I also threw in, a la jazzy-Rexy style, the melodies from the opening themes from Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, as well as the beginning melody from the Sonic & Knuckles ending theme.) It's been 4.5 years since my first serious attempt at progressive trance, and judging from how well this remix turned out, I'd say I've grown quite a bit Like I said above, the S3 credits theme is one of my favorites, primarily because of how it makes me feel: accomplished, excited, hopeful, looking forward to what's next, etc. A very "I did it!" feeling, if you will, like you've made it through a very difficult ordeal. I've been dealing with many, many hardships in my life lately, so this source is even more meaningful to me now, and this is hopefully represented in the celebratory, joyous tone I attempted to create; that's also why I chose the title I did. Hope you enjoy

ReMixer name: pu_freak; ilp0 Name of game(s) arranged: Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal Name of arrangement: Morning Sunlight Name of individual song(s) arranged: Goldenrod Link to individual song(s) arranged: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVyFaYPAYRI Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: This mix started a LONG time ago. I mean really long, since it was 2009, maybe even 2008. I was part of the Pokémon album (The Missingno Tracks), but much like my posted Pokéred Gym theme, this never saw the light of day on the album. I made a guitar version of the Goldenrod theme on my (well not even mine) electric piano, and suffice to say it wasn't really up to par so, I asked ilp0 if he was willing to record the guitars for me. Luckily, he liked the arrangement and was more than happy to not just play the part on his acoustic guitar, but to give me three versions of him playing bass, lead acoustic guitars played strong, lead acoustic guitars played soft, rythm guitars, distorted guitars and slides, which was awesome! Let's just say I had a lot to choose from however, my equipment then did not permit me to do his work justice, while the guitars alone were just too little to carry the song. Flash forward to a about a year ago when I finally got my own high-end equipment. Since the guitar-only part had been on my playlist for all these years, I decided to finally do this justice and added electric piano, regular piano, strings and drums to the track. I sent it to ilp0 and he really liked the result. So, after this way too elaborate story, this collab which started in 2009 is finally done! Many thanks for ilp0's enthousiasm and skills and I hope you guys can enjoy it as well!

Submission Info: Mega Man 2 Zippo Inferno Heat Man Stage Contact info: Gridscape László Csengő http://gridscape.online 28837 Thank You!

Remixer name: Ryo Name: Ryan Schlussler Email: Website: https://www.youtube.com/user/staticlexx UserID: 34185 Game: Chrono Cross Arrangement: Other World Original Song: Dream of the Shore Near Another World

The source is clearly in this track, and the orchestration is pretty awesome - I'd argue that outside of some of the strings (like those at 1:26 that Mindwanderer brings up) the humanization is solid. There is something that's tough for me to ignore, though, and that's the balance of the instruments, and that aspect is making the track sound cluttered and confusing. Now that isn't to say much against the production otherwise, as it's well produced otherwise, but there's no sense of what's supposed to be at the front or back of the mix. This happens overwhelmingly in the first half of the track, and less so in the second. MindWanderer's timestamps seem to be on point, so I'll be lazy and refer to those for when this is most problematic. On the one hand, I agree that if this is the only version we can get it'd be better to post it than not to. However, this is certainly something that I'd send back and request the fixes to be made, if we could; the beginning issues are not minor problems, as they really do make it difficult to follow the track for 2-3 minutes. Tentatively, I'm going to give it the vote that I'd normally give it, but I think we should ask Rebecca if she has the original file on hand if this doesn't pass, even keeping what LT said on the subject. I could flip if she really can't fix this, but I'd like to check with her on that point first. NO

Not going to lie, this is an arrangement that I find myself coming back to ever since I first heard it. It's the kind of track that, while it doesn't really have that 'one moment' that really strikes you as amazing, its consistent high quality overall keeps you smiling through the whole track. As mentioned in the write-up there's a period where it gets a little stale, but the track gets right back into it and doesn't let up after that. There isn't really a mood that this track doesn't fit, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Solid work, a great track if you want to chill out OR shoot some alien scum.

I submit my rework for the amiga classic Shadow Of The Beast Level 1 theme music. I also have many more cover songs that you can hear on soundcloud (link below: Another World, Doom, System Shock, Syndicate, Alone in the dark, Zak Mckracken, Duke Nukem, Dune, etc) My project name: MASTER BOOT RECORD Videogame: Shadow Of The Beast Original composition by David Whittaker Published by: Psygnosis My original music Website: www.masterbootrecord.bandcamp.com My Vgm reworks website: www.soundcloud.com/masterbootrecordmusic Master Boot Record Heavy metal is not dead. It was just not evenly synthesized (Source starts at 3:07)

Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Archangel, HoboKa Your real name: Jaka Čibej, Alex Shtokalko Your email address: jaka (dot) cibej (at) gmail (dot) com Your website: http://www.reverbnation.com/jakacibejarchangel, https://soundcloud.com/hoboka Your userid: 23355 (http://ocremix.org/forums/member.php?u=23355), 16088 (http://ocremix.org/community/profile/16088) Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 3) Name of individual song(s) arranged: Where Angels Fear to Tread Additional information about game including composer, system, etc.: HirokiKikuta; SNES; Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site): Where Angels Fear to Tread Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: Greetings, almighty primarchs! Submission no. 15. Another one (and my last unsubmitted one) from Songs of Light and Darkness, the upcoming Secret of Mana 2 album. This is actually an unexpected collaboration between me and Alex (HoboKa). Alex made a MIDI arrangement of Where Angels Fear to Tread for the project, but didn't have any decent sample libraries at the time. Ad (Rozovian), the project director, asked me to render the MIDI with my samples, but I decided to improve Alex's arrangement with a little more humanization, additional instrumentation, and better dynamics. This is the end result. Alex says: "I really like the source tune and struggled to do it justice solo, hence why I needed to collaborate with Archangel. And I'm ecstatic that he came around to sound-upgrade and add in some much needed articulation, humanization and Stormdrum stuff." People seem to enjoy visualizing stories while listening to my submissions, so here you go: I imagined this as the soundtrack to a movie opening sequence akin to the one at the beginning of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Between 0:00 and 2:55, we see a montage of key scenes during which a narrator tells the backstoryas told at the beginning of the game (I took the liberty of improving and expanding the text): Once, when reality was still trapped in impenetrable darkness, the Goddess of Mana felled eight Eidolons, terrible incarnations of disaster that led all existence down a path of utter destruction, with the legendary Sword of Mana, and sealed each one in a monolith prison. The darkness was lifted to make way for the dawn, and the world as we know it was created. The Goddess turned herself into a mighty tree and sank into a deep slumber that would last for an age. And so the years passed, with both the jailor and her captives sleeping, ignorant of time, space, and life. But now, due to the actions of some who plot to free the Eidolons from their stone imprisonment, obtain power surpassing even that of the gods, and make the world their own, conflict breaks out, heralding the end of peace. Mana, the mysterious force of balance and harmony, a gift from the Goddess herself, is rapidly disappearing from the world. Winds are dying, singing their final laments. War bares its fangs, threatening to consume what little innocence yet remains. Malevolent forces stir in the night, and it seems that nothing will be spared from spiraling into inevitable chaos. Even the Tree of Mana has begun to wither... At 2:55, the shot moves closer to the Tree of Mana and shows four faeries, worried and weakened, but determined. The gradual disappearance of mana has already taken its toll on the surrounding life. Knowing they must act before it is too late, the faeries hold hands for one last time before taking a deep breath and flying off into the night (3:22). They soar across the lands of the Mana Sanctuary, but one by one, they're forced to abandon their quest as fatigue overtakes them. As the last of them lands in the forest (3:43), she collapses on the ground, exhausted and sobbing. She looks around in despair and sees a beautiful blossom wither into nothing right before her eyes (4:00). Reminded that everything will die if she doesn't go on, she musters all her remaining strength and takes off again (4:08). The sequence follows her shining silhouette above the clouds until she leaves the Mana Sanctuary through a blinding curtain of light, entering the mortal world (4:48). The screen then fades to black and the movie title appears. So there you go, a soundtrackish take on an already soundtrackish track. Enjoy! Here's the link to the mp3: Take care, J.

EVAL The samples are pretty clear in this: there is a great deal of sampling from the source. If you were to submit this as it stands you'd be direct rejected on those grounds before it got to the panel, since it violates the submissions standards. With that out of the way, let's give the track a look through anyway and see if I can give any more helpful suggestions. This track seems like it's missing something. The drums are nice, and the effects help make the track interesting, but it seems to be built to accomodate vocals, which aren't present - this makes the track feel empty overall. The arrangement itself also repeats that bassline throughout, so it's a bit repetitive, to boot. The little effects that you applied to the track were pretty neat, though, and the drumline & vocals sprinkled throughout were pretty slick. I like the production on it, but it does feel unfinished and repetitive, outside of the disqualifying sampling element. Hope that helps!

This track is going to be part of the Speeding Towards Adventures: Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Album (http://ocremix.org/community/topic/38162-speeding-towards-adventures-sonic-the-hedgehog-25th-anniversary-album-recruiting/) Remixer name: Jorito Real name: Jorrith Schaap Email: Website(s): YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Joeirot Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jorito Userid: 3899 Remixer name: Trev Real Name: Trev Wignall Email: Userid: 32157 Website(s): YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/trevwignallmusic Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/trevwignallmusic Bandcamp: http://trevwignall.bandcamp.com/ Website: http://trevwignall.com ReMixer name: HankTheSpankTankJankerson Real name: Aaron Christopher Schmitt e-mail: forum id: 33166 ReMixer name: TheNikanoru Real name: Mike Postans e-mail: forum id: 33729 Submission information: Name of Game(s) Remixed: Sonic The Hedgehog (GEN), Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Name of Arrangement: Gotta Start From Somewhere Names of songs arranged: Sonic 1 Title, Sonic 1 Invincibility, Sonic 3 Title Link to the remix: Comments about the mix: Jorito: Jorito: Black_Doom wanted an opening track for the Sonic Speeding Towards Adventures album, in the same spirit as previous OCR Sonic albums. He asked me to create a remix of the iconic Sonic the Hedgehog title theme that started the series, and how could I refuse? Unfortunately my ambition got the better of me and I didn’t want to settle for a short opening remix for the album. In stead I opted for a full length track, but that proved to be quite a challenge, since the source tune is only 11 seconds long. So I cheated a bit and blended in the Sonic 1 invincibility theme as well as the Sonic 3 title theme as well as some EDM style builds and drops. And of course no Sonic opening track would be complete without a ‘Sega’ opening choir, so I recorded myself and got some help from TheNikanoru (vocals) to welcome you to the album. At the time I started on this track, I was mesmerized by the track "Caravan Bowser" by Flexstyle and XPRTNovice, and I thought it’d be interesting to try that style for the title remix. I dove into the Electro Swing genre and tried to create a vibe similar to the band Caravan Palace. I’m not sure I succeeded in exactly that, but I think the overall track is very enjoyable and it’s definitely helped by the awesome performances by Trev (violin) and Aaron (clarinet, sax). It also was a good excuse to grab ye olde accordion and record some parts myself. I really dig the solo part where Trev and Aaron shred out and hype you up for the rest of the album adventure to come! Trev: Once again Jorrith asked me to play some violin and I just had to oblige! His Sonic title remix was so much fun to play and shred on, and I had a blast. It was a great change of pace to bust out a fiddle solo over an upbeat EDM style remix too! Enjoy!

Hey OCRemix Team, I've been following OCRemix for over a decade and love the community & content! This is my first submission and I look forward to submitting much more content soon! My specialty is piano arranging and I've had an active YouTube channel for several years (VGPianoMan). I've decided that it's finally time to partner with your community to share in this passion. My info: Contact Info •ReMixer name: VGPianoMan •Real name: Steven Melin •Email: •Website: http://www.stevenmelin.com •UserID: 34166 Submission Info •Game arranged: Earthbound (Super Nintendo) •Name of Arrangement: Piano Meets Girl •Name of Individual Song Arranged: Boy Meets Girl >Download the track from DropBox: This track was recorded on a Steinway B Grand Piano. It was one of the first pieces of music in a video game that sparked a passion for me to begin composing music - now my profession! This track was recorded several years ago, so the source file has a tiny bit of high-end white noise. I EQ'd it the best I could to clean it up. Thanks, | Atlanta, GA www.stevenmelin.com

Okay, I actually found this arrangement hilarious (Shootin' Dracula in the dick with lightning, lol). The hip-hop lyrics are tight, though, and it's crisp as hell. It's pretty minimalistic on the source (a hip hop beat beneath the source, for much of it), but the hip hoppin' does count as creatively expanding on the source, in my book, and that bassline that the track leans on heavily at points really compliments the style this track goes for. One issue that I've got is the heavy delay placed on the square that carries the theme, as it makes the theme sound muddy and cluttered. It would've been better off just having the square play on a clean channel. I like it - it's catchy, the lyrics are clever, and the source, while minimalistic in its use is certainly well represented. Let's do it. YES

Contact Information The Sexual intellectual Isaac Flowerday Isaac Flowerday User ID: 34155 Submission Information Castlevania III The Devil's Son In Law Demon Seed I always wanted to incorporate video game music into Hip Hop. I felt like they have so much in common. For instance, the early compositions in both types of music were both based around extreme technical limitations. The SP-12, or the drum machine favored by many early Hip Hop producers only had 2.5 seconds of sample time. The SP-1200 had 10 seconds. This limitation forced composers and producers to do a lot with very little. It lead to a lot of focus on little bits and pieces of sounds being spliced and layered on each other to form the composition. Likewise, Video game Composers only had 5 Audio Tracks to work with which lead them to do a lot more with a lot less. This is partly why game music is filled with arpeggios. They make the track sound fuller. It's two different limitations admittedly but I always liked the creativity that comes out of working with limitations and I wanted to bring the genres together as they are two of my all time favorites The attached track is an mp3 at 192 bit rate. Hope it meets the criteria and thanks for the work you guys put into expanding this genre of music. It really is invaluable.

Always neat to see a composer do an arrangement of their own music on here, and it's even better when it's an interpretive arrangement of their own work (as it is here). As far as I can tell, this is a slower paced, more dramatic rendition of the source, which is a pretty interesting approach to take. There are some key issues with the production that are holding this back, in my opinion. In the beginning there are a few concerns about humanizing your strings better than they are at present; there is a swell in every attack of that viola/cello lead that wouldn't realistically be present in a real performance. Pay attention to your attack envelope, and make sure your lines sound more like phrases by only incorporating those swells in the beginning of a melodic line, in general. The larger concern, though, involves the crowding that is present in most of this track, which evolves into compression issues later on. At 0:32 your first real synth comes in, and it's very clear that there is too much reverb on your synth, making it too wet. While it's something that could be passed as artistic license if no other issues arose from it, the more instruments you add to the mix the muddier and more crowded everything becomes. When that arpeggio comes in at 0:48, your waveform on both left and right channels are completely consumed, leaving no room for your backing strings to be heard throughout. This really comes to a head at 1:20 when the bass comes in, which actually starts to cause pumping in your backing instruments. Your subtle piano and string elements just get completely lost, and the pads just get washed by the wet synths above. I think the arrangement was decent, but the compression issues, crowding and wet instruments that contribute to those issues place me firmly on the other side of the fence, here. I would suggest cleaning up the mix so that your instruments are each identifiable throughout, hold back on the reverb with those synths, and consider incorporating more sidechaining in order to accomodate the kick appropriately. I hope to hear a cleaner version of this sometime soon! NO

This is a cute track - the SFX are fun, the production is crisp, and ultimately it takes the source in a different direction with those heavy 808 drums. The arrangement is a bit on the simplistic side, but I don't think it wears its welcome out by the end of it due to the short length so that's not too big an issue. Be careful with your variations, though, as when they more directly reflect your source it sounds stale and uninteresting (after the first repetition of this theme). Most of the time you do a pretty good job of varying it, though, so it doesn't hold my vote back much. I think I understand where MW is coming from on that supersaw, but I think it's important to look at it in a different light - the supersaw is very vanilla, has a portamento that just makes it sound out of tune, and ultimately sucks the fun out of any section that it's in, especially when it's used as a main instrument. Even if it were used in EDM it'd still be thin and uninteresting if left in the state it's in, so I don't think it counts as a mark against 'following genre convention'. It can be up to the other judges whether or not to count that as deal-breaking, but considering it's tough for me to sit through the track when that instrument is present I'm going to call it out as such. The sampled instruments (piano, flute, percussion) has a similar issue in that they don't sound humanized enough; as they stand, they sound dull and mechanical. Dynamics, attack envelopes, vibrato (flute), etc., can all help make those elements sound more realistic and interesting. Outside of the flute (which is a lead in many parts) it doesn't affect the piece too negatively, but it's something to be aware of. It's a cute piece, though. If that supersaw were either made more interesting or replaced with something less vanilla and downtuned I think this would be a fun little track to add to OCR. I suggest giving that instrument another look and humanizing the flute, then resending this our way. NO

Ah, I like AJ's style, and coming pretty fresh from this game I enjoyed the source selection quite a bit. Nice and chill, but it does have some nice, chuggy metal where it counts. The production is pretty clean, to boot, which is always a good thing. The mixing is acceptable, though it's not perfect. Even with the improvements from the first version he sent, due to how wet the arrangement is, with the pads and resonant acoustic guitar in the background, the background mix tends to sound like a wash of sound. The instruments shine where it matters most (the lead punches right through), but it's difficult to hear what is actually going in behind the lead. I mean, there's a whole piano part in the background that I couldn't even hear the first few times listening - it's that tricky to parse the parts in the backing instrumentation. There is a wrong note in the lead at 1:24, which is pretty poignant due to being held in the lead guitar. That note is a half step higher than it should be, as it clashes with the harmony below as it stands. It's not perfect, with the wrong note and wet background, but I think it hits it dead on where it counts - the production is good, the arrangement is great, and it's a great representative of a newer soundtrack. I'm all for giving it some front page love. YES

Note: Although a prior version was submit that I could've paneled, since AJ had made a speedy mixing change before with his Bramble Blaster mix I decided to give him an opportunity to do so again with this track, which resulted in the version here. Just a quick FYI. - Gario AJ DiSpirito (ReMixer and real name are the same) http://youtube.com/ajdispirito userid: 33841 Fire Emblem Fates Road To Victory Road Taken (Calm) Original Track

Link to track: Variations on a Lost Soul ReMixer name: sschafi1 Real name: Sean Schafianski E-mail: Submission information Name of game arranged: Bioshock Name of Arrangement: Variations on a Lost Soul Name of Individual Song(s): Lost Soul Comments: This is a theme and variations based on "Lost Soul" from the first Bioshock, as featured on the album ENRAPTURED: Bioshock Remixed, published by Materia Collective. I've always loved this track from the OST. It is indeed short, though amazingly evocative and lends itself very well to arrangement. This arrangement uses minimalist techniques and quotes the style of Philip Glass. It was experimental at first, but it definitely grew on me, and I think it suits the track quite well! This is your classic theme and variations form with a minimalist twist! Played by the wonderful Ruby Toung (aka purpleschala), who learned this piece in under a day. I hope you all enjoy it!

Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Smooth4Lyfe Your real name: Joey Ofori Your email address: Your website: http://www.youtube.com/smooth4lyfe Your userid (number, not name): 33213 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Yoshi's Story Name of arrangement: Yoshi's EDM Story Name of individual song(s) arranged: Yoshi's Story Theme Link to the original soundtrack: https://youtu.be/nghTrcPBp3s Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: Love the theme, so I wanted to make a club/EDM variation of the track. I love EDM tracks. Smooth4Lyfe Email: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/smooth4lyfemusic YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/smooth4lyfe CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/artist/smooth4lyfe

Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Archangel Your real name: Jaka Čibej Your email address: Your website: http://www.reverbnation.com/jakacibejarchangel Your userid: 23355 (http://ocremix.org/forums/member.php?u=23355) Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Paladin's Quest Name of individual song(s) arranged: Godom Lullaby Additional information about game including composer, system, etc.: Kōhei Tanaka; SNES; Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site): Godom Lullaby Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: Greetings, almighty primarchs! Submission no. 13! This is another arrangement I made years ago, back in 2011, and never submitted until now for some reason. I don't know why I keep hoarding music and storing it for years on end. It's tremendously annoying, but as a perfectionist, I guess I have a hard time just letting go. I remember making this when I went to Sweden to study there for a year. My first month there was kind of bumpy because I didn't really know anyone, and I'm not really the outgoing type. I missed my family and was kind of worried that my nephew, who was a year old at the time, would completely forget me. I knew it wouldn't have really made a difference if he had - I'd come back, we'd play with his toys for an hour or two and everything would be back to the way it was before I left. But there was still that uneasy feeling I couldn't get rid of, and that got me thinking how horrible it must be to lose a child. To be forced to live with that terrifying feeling that something important is missing from your life and there's no way to fill that gaping void. That's when I remembered Smash, the desperate miner from Paladin's Quest who lost his son. You meet him in a bar to ask for his help, but he only finds the courage to help you if you convince the pianist to play Godom Lullaby, which was Smash's son's favorite song. When he finally hears it, Smash says: "It's as if my son's telling me: 'You have to hang in there, dad!'" Pretty heart-breaking. The fact that Godom Lullaby is incredibly melancholic doesn't really help either. All this rumination inspired me to make this arrangement that's part lullaby, part elven lament and part Native American spirit dance. For anyone out there dealing with loss - I hope this inspires you to go on. It's hard, but it's an inherent part of being human. Here's the link to the mp3: Enjoy the track and take care, J.

Not much to add to this - it's a touch conservative, but it does pull out some nice metal idioms (like the 1:12 pause in energy before the rhythm guitar drops again, for example) that makes this feel pretty distinct from the source. The production is pretty solid, and the performances are great. It's a solid metal arrangement that does what it needs to do, and it does it well. Not much more to say - great work! YES

My opinion of it is pretty similar to what it was for the album - very interesting arrangement, with some reservations about the lack of highs throughout that makes the track feel rather dull overall. I still feel like the production could/should be brightened up considerably with the use of more highs, myself. It's a tough call. I keep wavering between passing and rejecting this, based on the EQ issues that I still am concerned about. There is improvement between versions, but I'm not 100% sold on it being enough to post. I'll wait and see what others think about this, and make a decision then. EDIT (4/28): Yeah, I can see what Deia's saying. It's not what I consider ideal, but I'll be damned if I didn't say it sounded intentional. Since it's otherwise a pretty cool track, I think it'll be alright to pass this as is - nice work! YES

Alrighty, so the end of February has come and gone, and I've received a lot of claims to track (as well as a few WIPs!). We're moving along great! Now we're in the stage where I start ampin' the pressure on you guys a bit, so heads up! I'll likely be checking in whenever I can on your progress, so keep in touch on that. The next due date is April 31st, so if you haven't submit a WIP yet that's when I'll need to have something. As you know, as far as making a claim on a track, the period where I'll be listing your claim on here has passed. Feel free to vocalize a claim here, but if someone else submits a WIP of it, that's tough luck on your part! If you want a hold on a track, submit a workable WIP and it'll still be yours! In the meantime, I'm still hashing out ideas for a compo to hold. It needs to make sense, but it also needs to have a tangible incentive to get people to participate. I've got some ideas, but there's still some back room discussing that I need to figure out before I lay it on the table. Alright, folks - let's push this to the next stage of the project!

Alright, so I'll say the good first - I actually really enjoy this track - like, a lot. The atmosphere of it is really gripping, and those dissonances are really tastefully used (even the crashing at the end, believe it or not). Admittedly you use what's provided, but I felt it made sense given how you presented it here, and it's a clear contrast to what's normally on OCR. The performance doesn't feel stiff to me, especially with those three-against-four rhythms at 3:34 - 4:21. Very well done; if this were a stand alone piece, I would actually say it's great. All of that being said, there are some issues with pacing and source recognition that I can't ignore. First, there are some very long, plodding sections that really could be trimmed with little lost in the translation. 0:21 - 1:04 could be cut in half (only repeating the arps twice rather than four times), and 1:04 - 2:47 should cut at least four harmony changes out completely (the 12 harmony changes creates an awkward hyper meter that kills the pacing). The other sections are proportioned relatively well, but those two parts really slow the track down unbearably. The issue of source recognition is tricky on something like this. I'm not against utilizing harmony as a connection, but know that this connection isn't enough to make the source recognizeable in its own right. Sections where you utilize texture from one source with the harmonies of the other works great (like at 0:21), and incorporating the limited melody helps a great deal (like at 2:47), so be sure to make more connections throughout the track other than harmonic ones. I think it's possible to make a really solid arrangement from this, and I think the idea is spectacular. However, I don't think it fits the site requirement of making the source recognizeable quite yet, and the pacing is undoubtably slow in some portions. Fix the pacing, make the source connection using other elements in your more harmonic-only sections and I think you'll have a decent shot. NO

Mmm, I really, really liked this one. It has its share of flaws, but I'll be damned if I say the arrangement as a stand-alone piece is anything other than great. The sound design is just tasty, and the builds are breathtaking. You'd be doing yourself a disservice not listening to this one, even if you're not familiar with the source. Check it out.