Gario

ReMixer Name: AfroJoe Real Name: Mev Talundzic Name of game: Battletoads (Gameboy)Name of arrangement: BattleFunkName of individual song(s) arranged: ????Link to original music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TutFIcEL4cAContributing Artist: Steven Tam (Keyboard)

Well, this is certainly an improvement from the prior submission, as far as production quality goes. The bass is far better balanced, and everything is mixed in a way where it's easy to hear things. I do agree with Larry that the saw is pretty vanilla, and the handling of that instrument is rather basic and bland, but I don't think the soundscape is too empty. As I stated in my other review, the arrangement is pretty standard fare, but there IS some pretty slick solo'ing in the middle that helps keep things interesting. It's a nice touch to change the drums when the saw lead comes back in a bit to keep things fresh, too; the arrangement doesn't get repetitive, as things are a bit different as you retread the first section to close. The guitar sounds like it's under a low pass of sorts. It's not a big deal, but when compared to the rest of the instruments the difference in sound makes it sound like a recording to a different song being slapped on top of the rest of the arrangement. It's a little strange having that low passed when the rest of the track has pretty balanced EQ levels across the board. While I definitely agree the saw lead is too vanilla, I don't see too much else to bring this down. It's tame, but it does what it set out to do. Nice work! YES

ReMixerName: mikedm92 Real Name: Michael Markie Email: Website: https://soundcloud.com/mikedm92/ UserID: 33294 Name of games arranged: Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny Name of arrangement: Get Psyched Name of songs used: Evil Incarnate, My Loved Ones Are Gone Links to songs: Evil Incarnate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkaAfYkxPeQ My Loved Ones are Gone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usidnQcehnQ Comments: A very challenging song to make! Finding space for all of the layers was tough. I wanted to try take the climax of the guitar solo and raise it on an emotional level. The original song is quite somber and I wanted to reflect that but using the loudness and power of heavy metal.

I suppose a good question is what you'd like to know about it? The form of the track is pretty standard; Intro - AABBC : repeat. Chord structure for the A section is I-bIII-ivb-bVI-v6b, B is I-bIII-ivb-bVI-vb(-I) and the C section II#-v. There is an interesting tidbit for the A section in that the chords are mostly open, so whether they're major or minor is up for debate. Due to the harmonization of the B section, though, I argue that it's a major tonic with a good deal of primary mixture throughout (that's how you get the bIII-ivb-bVI-v6b combinations; in minor that'd just be III-iv-VI-v6), though I could see the argument that the B section opens up with a primary mixture I# chord instead of the rest of the track utilizing primary mixture. Intentional or not, that's ambiguous - there's a strong argument for both cases. There are no real cadences throughout the track, as there is never a motion V-I(or i); if you're a first year theory student you might find it interesting that a lot of modern music doesn't utilize the true V-I cadence (root on scale degree 5, raised 7th scale degree), instead opting for a v-I (lowered 7th) or bVII-I pseudo-cadence instead. The production is decent for the NES. It's no Follin track, but it does utilize nifty tricks like reverb to give it life. It's uses a staple KONAMI sound, which isn't surprising since ULTRA was a branch of Konami. I don't catch any particular themes of interest (like references to the Turtles theme, for example) - it just seems like a self-contained little tune. Well produced, but self contained. There's my theory contribution of 2017!

Remix: MYSTERIOUS GOLD Edition Source(s): Mysterious Forest - Link's Awakening Original Instrumental: Awakening Mysterious Forest Remixer Name(s):Rukunetsu, Detective Tuesday (Vocals/Sorprano Sax), Yusef Kelliebrew Email Addy: Website: http://youtube.com/Rukunetsu User ID: 39313(R) and 25682 (DT) Game: The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening Name of Arrangement: Mysterious Gold Edition Name of Original Song: Mysterious Forest Original Composer(s): Minako Hamano, Kozue Ishikawa An enhanced mix of an instrumental made as a concept for the upcoming Zelda for the Wii-U (Before it had a proper name). DT's on the track AND the sax (talented dude I tells ya), along with Yusef Kelliebrew on the drums (those that overlay the ethnic sounding set). Here's hoping the wordplay combined with the somewhat atmospheric mix turns out to be a pleasant listen for you all.

Very interesting approach for you, Beth - I'm certainly used to your more vocal music, but this goes the entire time without. Very interesting indeed, but your vocal influences show with that lead that sounds like it's singing the lead. Nice solid electronic track to back the whole thing, and the production seems to be well done, to boot. I'm liking this. The sources are a bit tricky to pull from it from time to time. I hear that arpeggio from the Inner Halls pretty consistently tie things together (nice arrangement idea) and the theme from CV3 was pretty easy to recognize at 2:30, but the changes to the Abandoned castle make the connection a little more tenuous. Calling out the leaps at 2:15 as part of the source (linking up presumably to the similar leaps in the beginning of that source) is hard to justify, as you change the intervals of those leaps drastically. When you have the abandoned castle as the theme in the arrangement, though (like at 1:30), it's still reasonable to pull the source out of your arrangement, even though you hold certain notes longer and repeat notes for length. It's a bit tricky on source from time to time, but I think there's still enough here to count it as alright. I think it's good to go - nice work! YES

Mmm, slow, deliberate, and infuses a whole lot of life into the sparse source. The pacing is slow and plodding, but it sounds deliberate. The track as a whole suffers from being fairly static from 1:36 up to the 3 minute mark. Prior and past that point things shift around and keep the track as a whole varied and interesting, but that's a pretty long time to basically be doing the same thing sonically. This is chill as fuck, though, and the source references are solid. The style is delicious and the production is rock solid. I think it's more than good enough for a post - awesome work! YES

Hello Judges! Please see below for the submission info: Contact Info ReMixer name: Manji Real name: Chris Mole Email address: Website: http://www.chrismole.co.uk Userid: 16076 Submission Info Game arranged: Metroid Prime Name of arrangement: Heart of Ice Name of song(s) arranged: Samus Appearance Jingle (http://ocremix.org/song/12771, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxSkZ8ySo1o) and Ice Valley (http://ocremix.org/song/12749, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BJU_tDDBNU) Comments: As with my last remix, Prime Directive, this was largely inspired by the excellent work of Stemage and his Metroid Metal tracks- I wrote this at roughly the same time as I was writing Prime Directive, so I sort of consider it a companion piece. Phendrana Drifts is my favourite area in Metroid Prime, mostly because I'm a big fan of snow levels and the music is absolutely incredible, so I wanted to give it a heavy metal spin while emphasising that gorgeous lead melody. For the 'story' of the song, I liked the idea of Samus emerging from a save station into the howling winds of Phendrana (I have mixed in a sample of the Phendrana Drifts wind ambience from the game for this section; if this needs to be removed because it's taken from the MP soundtrack then let me know and I'll happily remove it and resubmit) so I threw in the excellent jingle that heralds her appearance at the start to kick things off in suitably badass fashion. As with my last remix, drums are sampled in Superior Drummer and all the distorted guitars/bass are played by me using a Kemper Profiler; the acoustic guitar is from a sample library. All mixing and mastering done in Ableton Live. Cheers! Comics | Fiction | Music http://www.chrismole.co.uk

EVAL Nah, Soundcloud works for here, though if you plan on submitting it either link the track to your e-mail or make the track downloadable in some form or another. I'm liking the style that you've got going here - Goat Ska works great for me. Definitely takes it to a different level, as far as tone goes, and I'm liking it. Great way to introduce yourself to OCR, that's for darn sure. Nice, solid guitar playing and tone, and the style is slick to boot. The brass sounds pretty fake and unbalanced, but once everything gets going it's less of an issue. I could go the easy route and say get some live players, but that's not always an option for people. You do get some life out of them by playing with the dynamics and articulations, but when they're exposed in the beginning the articulation makes them sound like they're honking. It doesn't sink the track, but it does sound strange. It's hard to give this anything other than a pass on the panel, though, even with the less human brass in the beginning. Welcome to OCR, by the way, and I'm hoping to see this get to the front page.

Hey there OverClockedReMix judges, Here's a modern & trailer-ish remix I made of "The Landing" from Final Fantasy VIII. It's my first submission ever, and it was evaluated by Gario in the forums. Contact Information: My ReMixer Name: Alex Moukala My real name: Alex Moukala My email address: My website: http://youtube.com/c/AlexMoukala My userid: 33190 Submission Information: Name of the Game Arranged: Final Fantasy VIII Name of the arrangement: "The Landing -REDUX-". If this one isn't ok, then my second choice is "Attack on Dollet". Link to the ReMix: http://smarturl.it/TheLandingOCR Link to the original track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v6BtJaBQmo Personal comments about the track & what inspired it: I can still remeber the day when I discovered OverClockedReMix. I downloaded a certain "Final Fantasy VII - Voices from the Lifestream" album, which I thought was an extension of the FF VII Soundtrack that I spent my entire childhood listening to. To my surprise instead, after pressing the play button, I realized it was an amazing compilation of remixes, which would soon mark my journey into the realm of music composition. I remember that sense of overwhelming inspiration I felt for days after witnessing the work of all those super young composers, thinking to myself, "if they can do it, well, maybe I stand a chance too!". The fact is, I've always been passionate about music, but not having any musical education or former experience with instruments, I simply felt l wasn't entitled or experienced enough to attempt to write it, that is, until that fateful day I discovered OverClockedRemix. That day I finally found some motivation to try and tackle this artistic scratch, and set to spend some time learning to produce/compose music and become good enough to have one of my tracks featured on OCR. It's been three years now, ever since I seriously committed to make music every single day. After many many hours spent composing, countless tutorials and articles digested, and after working for stock music libraries to hone my craft, I found myself composing music professionally for Hollywood Trailer Music labels such as Really Slow Motion Music & Sound Design and others. After all that experience, I'm still very far away from my highest artistic goals, but I feel like I can finally tackle one of my first ones: so here I am, submitting a track for the first time to the OverClockedRemix judge panel! I hope you guys will enjoy the track, but regardless of that, I want to take this chance to personally thank the whole crew & composers for having created such a huge embodiment of inspiration which OverClockedReMix has been to me. Much love, and sorry for the long description!

Remixer Name: Connor O.R.T. Linning Real Name: Connor Linning Email: Website: www.connorlinning.com UserId: 33771 Name of game arranged: Chrono Trigger Name of arrangement: World In Ruin Name of Individual Song arranged: World Ruin Comments about the mix: "World Ruin is one of my favorite Chrono Trigger tracks. I tried to make a kind of survival horror remix of it, and am happy with the result."

Damn, so much stuff coming at you at once, when the track gets going. It's dense, but the mix clearly annunciates every element so that it's easy to hear. It's also interesting to hear more psytrance on here - I don't hear that genre enough on here. It does take some time to get to the meat of the arrangement, though. Up until 1:13 the track is arguably pretty tame, and a little bit boring. That's not necessarily a big deal, though - the music is still pretty well produced, and there's enough meat to the drums to keep the listener on it up to that point. I don't hear too much issue with the EQ balance on this. It's lacking in the highs a little, but not enough to hint at an imbalance. Not sure what the issue is on that end. The bass drum is four-to-the-floor, which is par for the course for psytrance, and it has just the right amount of meat for it. In something like this the percussion should be providing variety, which it does quite well. I'd argue that the mixing of the other percussion is pretty quiet, though - it's easy to miss the animated percussion due to this. At worst, I'd say there are some issues with the mixing of the percussion, but I can't fault the track for not having variety. I'm digging this overall. More C64 music, plz. YES

Well, if all else fails there really isn't any harm in sending it off. Evals just give you an idea of how it'll do before you wait a few months to a year for the judges to get to it. At the very least the production quality was pretty good from what I heard - I just didn't compare to the source at all, so I can't make any promises there.

EVAL Ah, Undertale, a personal favorite soundtrack of mine. Let's see where you took it. I'm tasting some electronica, and there are some very nice vocal synths in there (wub wub WA wA), and you handle those excellently. The arrangement plays pretty straight, though - a little TOO straight. It leans on the 'Too Conservative' side of things, with the wubs being close to the only thing that isn't simply an enhancement of the source. The piano, when present, is incredibly mechanical. If you're going to incorporate instruments like that, dynamics can help a great deal in making it sound more human. For piano in particular it's a good idea to emulate the sustain as well, as that is something that makes the piano unique. As it stands, the piano is flat and less like a human played it and more like notes were plugged into a sampler. The sound design is a bit hit-or-miss on this one. I again commend your wubby and ya-ya synths (I forget the name of them off the top), but the overuse of saw and square throughout drags this down considerably. I don't have an issue with saws and squares personally (I mean, look at my music for crying out loud), but if you're going to use them it's important to utilize them in a manner that makes them interesting and flavorful, and not just to fill the space and hit the notes. See if there is anything that you can do with your sound design to make it dynamic and interesting, or take what you have and justify its use by really pushing what makes square and saw synths unique. The percussion is pretty bland, and overall is tough to hear in the mix. The bass simply hits the beat 95% of the time, and the snare is virtually impossible to hear (and if there is anything else going on outside the periodic crash I can't hear it). The drum track really needs more attention paid to it so that it doesn't sound like it's droning, and the mix needs to be overhauled to bring it to the front. If I saw this on the panel this is what I'd tell you to improve: drums, piano realism, sound design and make the arrangement a little less conservative. There are some good ideas to build off of, though, in some of your more complex synths and SFX, but it isn't there yet as far as submission goes. Best of luck!

Prior decision My ReMixer name: Yargami Userid: 28292 E-Mail: Game arranged: Megaman Legends ReMix title: Another Flawless Operation Original song: We're the Bonnes! Two main things have happened since I submitted this last August. First off, about a month after I submitted this song I realized that it really was kind of terrible. The leveling was bad and few of the instruments were actively painful. But I didn't feel like messing with it at the time so I set it aside. The second thing was that a few months ago several East West plugins went on sale. After playing around with the new plugins for a while I decided to try this one out again. So after reading the advice of the judging panel I decided to update this one a bit. The title comes from Tiesel's monologue during one of the title screen demos. Main changes are that the bass is now a completely different style that doesn't explode the soundscape, the beginning is much more ambient, and the percussion has been completely scrapped and reworked. This was made in Sonar X3 with the following plugins: Dimension Pro, Rapture, East West Symphonic Orchestral, East West Stormdrum 2, Studio Instruments Drum Kit, and z3ta+.

It's holding two of my favorite personal mixes hostage, too. I feel you so hard.

More LBC, more Undertale goodness! Lack of saxophone aside (why would you do this?!), this is an excellent arrangement of the waterfall. Very meaty, lots of your ecclectic style minus the sax, it's got a lot to love for everyone. There are a few points that I have issue with, though. The rhythm guitar in the beginning (0:16, 0:29) really overpowers unnecessarily - it just completely overshadows the other texture, which is a shame since that texture sets the mood up so well. It's also pretty inconsistently mixed compared to the rest of the track's guitar work, so it really stands out as strange. I love the idea of talking in this, but I'm finding it distracting that I can't hear anything they're saying due to how far in the back of the mix they stand. It just sounds like mumbling when it's mixed that far behind the arrangement. Not a huge deal, but it's something that I would've appreciated coming forward more. 1:55, 3:07 and 3:35 get very cluttered. Instruments get very loud and fight for space, which makes those sections sound like soup. A shame, because you have a lot of great things going on in the background. There is a lot to like about this arrangement (great live performances, especially that cello), and the arrangement really takes advantage of the somber tone of the source, but man that mixing is inconsistent. I think it's still a pass, but it's a borderline case for me - it would be ideal to hear a better mixed version of this, but I wouldn't want to see that necessarily hold it back from being posted. It's close, though. YES

ReMixer name: AdamSnyderBand Real Name: Adam Snyder Userid: 33761 Game arranged: Chrono Trigger Name of Arrangement: "Cape and a Cup of Coffee" Individual songs arranged: "Magus's Theme", "Lavos's Theme" Comments: Recorded this as a challenge, and my brother said I should upload it.

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game: Chrono CrossSong's Remixed: Home Marbule, Another MarbuleSong Title: "Another Marbule Homestead"

Previous decision Remixer name: Bluelighter Real name: Guillaume SAUMANDE Mail: ID forum: 21840 Game & Songs: Final Fantasy 8 & Slide Show part 2, Slide Show part 1, (Retaliation) Composer: Nobuo UEMATSU Album project: Final Fantasy 8 Links: o Slide Show p2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8m5J28Chio o Slide Show p1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rh4AF6F4tk o (a bit of Retaliation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN9m5KM-jvE) New version with more humanization on the whole piece. The difference can almost be felt : - on high arpeggio (cresh to high, and decresh to low notes, on the whole, or important notes emphasised) - on the middle section (~2'00) where high notes playing melody stand out better. I've also added a little more bass string in this section to get a more stressful result. Hoping you'll like this version *************** Breakdown Originals o Slide Show pt2 § 0 – 0'32'' Melodic line A (MLA) § 0'32'' – 0'49'' MLB o Slide Show pt1 : § 0 – 0'21 MLC § 0'21 – 0'35 : not used § 0'35 – 0'42 MLD o (Retaliation - a little in rhythm of 10 first seconds for some parts) Mix o in C o Pt1: 0 -> 20'': intro – MLA (inspired by piano collection version) o Pt2: 0'20 -> 0'48 : MLA in soft instrumentation o Pt3: 48'' -> 1'15: MLA with march band rhythm o in Fm o Pt4: 1'15 -> 1'40: MLC idem -> Bass string increased to emphasize melody (slide show pt1 more recognizable now). MLD for transition o Pt5: 1'40 -> 2'18: darker section -> few modifications to introduce next part § Some bars present the stressful rhythm by low strings (near for rythm“Retaliation”) § MLB with this same rhythm with irregularities in time signature o Pt 6: 2'18 -> 3'05: § Bass string rhythm take from “Retaliation” (discreet) § in G#m : 2*MLB and MLC together § in C#m: MLC (one time) § in F#m: MLD (to conclude and come to the next part). Rhythm of retaliation accentuated by winds. § We retrieve here the transition of the OST between SlSh pt1 end and pt2 beginning o Pt7: 3'05 -> end : in F : MLA soft and march band rhythm § Some modifications in tempo -> accelerating rhythm § Same conclusion as the last version

Prior evaluation Remixer Name: Tonalysis User ID: 31683 Name of game: Mega Man 2 Name of arrangement: Shredding the Air (original title was "Air Guitar", but changed OCR reviewers informed me of another track by that name) Name of original song: Air Man Theme Composers: Takashi Tateishi, Manami Matsumae Link to original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu3sCv-VUYc Comments: The original is, of course, a classic from the golden age of consoles. I have fond memories of Mega Man 2 on the NES, and even occasionally grab an emulator and play it with my brother for old times' sake. This is a fun remix of the Air Man theme in a driving rock style. EDIT: This is a resubmission based on reviewer feedback. Thanks!

Slick, some dubish Chemical plant comes our way. Great production values, really fun arrangement, and the source is taken in a direction it hasn't been taken before (an impressive feat, considering it's Chemical Plant Zone). There are a few nitpicks on my end, though: the beginning pad has an elements that seems piercing in the mid-high EQ. 0:29 also seems excessively wet and muddy; I know that was purposeful, but it got to the point that it just sounded like noise. It wasn't clicking there. The mix is generally clean and easy to pull everything from, but there were one or two moments where I felt the lead punched through a little too much, making the mix feel unbalanced (such as 1:32). These are really nitpicks, though - overall I got a real kick out of the high energy levels present in this track, and it was very well produced. It should be an amazing addition to the Chemical Plant tracks that are on this site. YES

Contact Info: J-BHarmonized James High https://soundcloud.com/jbharmonized 33741 Submission Info: Final Fantasy IV What Mountain Ordeal?

Contact Information:ReMixer name: ladyWildfirereal name: Elizabeth Carteremail address: website: https://soundcloud.com/ladywildfire, https://www.facebook.com/ladyWildfire/, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9uzIBogkhkGxjFBzMMNfwg userid: 11659Submission Information:Name of games arranged: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Castlevania 3Name of arrangement: Up All NightName of individual songs arranged: Abandoned Castle (AC), Inner Quarters (AS), Inner Halls (C3) Source usage: 0:30 - Inner Quarters 0:45 - Abandoned Castle 1:00 - Inner Quarters (with small amounts from Inner Halls) 1:28 - Abandoned Castle 2:15 - Abandoned Castle 2:30 - Inner Quarters 2:45 - Inner Quarters 3:00 - Abandoned Castle 3:30 - Abandoned Castle Notes: This remix is from Round 2 of the Castlevania: Cacophony of Incarnation remix competition.

Contact Information Platonist Jonas Loman platonistmusic.com 16372 Submission Information Delta Wings Of Glass Title Another one that's been in the works for a while, but only for about a year. I've been looking through my work folders lately to find songs and/or remixes that are almost finished. I think mainly because I've reached some kind of cross roads now, after having finished mixing the band's debut album. I want to get things done and move on, I suppose. Anyway, I never played Delta myself, since I never owned a c64, but growing up in/around the demo scene/tracker scene in the late 90's and early 00's I found a .xm version of this song by wire that I listened to a lot. Once I found the originals I was even further impressed by Hubbard's take on this famous Glass work. I've always wanted to remix it, and now it's finally done. Cheers! - Jonas PS: I actually made a monophonic cover of the arpeggio part of this track on my first Nokia phone back in the day and used it as a ring tone. -- - Jonas Loman