Gario

Chrono Trigger, Zeal, but it's not... a Zeal remix? Tricky! Ooo, this is pretty smooth - I like the soundscape on this one, and the arrangement does some nice trickery with the texture by making that backing arp set to double time - gives the arrangement a nice kick. The arrangement is fairly clean, too, with a nice mix to top things off in the production department. The largest risk this arrangement runs the risk of getting static with many of the elements of the track being used for significant stretches of the track, but there's some decent effort taken to break up the overall arrangement so that the instruments and textures don't wear their welcome out. There's still only so much that can be done with Schala so it still feels a hair long in my humble opinion, but that's not something I'll knock. The only criticism that I can really lay down is that the ending sounds a bit abrupt. Could be intentional, but considering how wet the instruments sound throughout this could've benefitted from letting the instruments ring out for a beat longer. Otherwise, pretty solid stuff, could use a home on the front page. YES

This is a rough one, and not an easy YES or NO. The arrangement is good, and there are some really cool drops that elevate the arrangement for me (like at 3:04, with that particularly flavorful final boss theme in there), but on the other hand the mix is definitely too heavy in the mids for quite a bit of time (from 0:50 - 1:27 & 2:50 - 3:00). They're important, defining lines, to boot, so you can really feel the impact of how much is lost in the mix. In particular, the issue is that the texture, leads, and counterpoints all have a similar type of distortion that ends up cluttering the mids (as was suggested by others), so even the simple removal of some of the effects on the backing instruments when the melody comes in would improve this issue significantly. Barring that, decreasing the distortion on some of these elements and/or lowering the levels of the texture would also be a good solution to this. I would love to push this through, but I don't think I can get past the problematic mixing and clashing. Fix those issues and it'd be a quick YES from me. NO

Oh, come off it now; you did great with the tools you had. It really does hold up even today - the suppressed intro into the more texturally rich material is still something I find as great as I found it back in the day. Also, dat 'Bionic Electronica' part was always really cool (though it makes me question why you never liked vocal samples in MY music, lol - I read the old judgments, buster!). At worst, this track could've mixed a few of the lead fake orchestra parts a little more to the front of the mix, but this is a thirteen year old track; I don't think I could say anything you don't already know by now! Still one of my favorites on the site, so y'all should be giving it more love!

Huh, Parasite Eve? Definitely not a soundtrack you hear everyday. If I recall correctly, didn't this game series share the same composer as for the Kingdom Hearts series, Yoko Shimomura? Interesting game to pick from, for sure.

Man, I hate this arrangement, lol. I love the fact that it's on OCR - there needs to be more music on here that challenges my tastes.

As Rexy said, the vocals are kickin', as usual, with some slick lyrics and well timed samples to compliment them. The production is clean, as well, and with the sampling in the background it's not hard to find how this connects to the source. However, that leads to a bit of a problem: the primary way that we can identify that this is a SoR2 ReMix is the sampling, which is a bit of a no-no on OCR. I think it's safe to call this a violation of this rule: It's a particularly fabulous case of this broken rule (with excellent rapping and a few instruments sampled on top, for flair), but I think it still falls well within this rule violation. When it comes to sampling, it's not strictly forbidden, but if one can't make the source connection significantly enough without the literal source sampling to fall back on, then it hardly becomes one's own arrangement of a track and instead one's accompaniment to the original source. I like this - plenty to love with the rapping and production quality - but I don't think this is something that OCR can post. Great work, and look forward to more coming from you, as usual, even if this particular track won't likely be posted. NO

Oh, it's great to see this one on the boards again; I really enjoyed the atmosphere that this one brought with it, even in it's first iteration, so let's see what how this develops from that foundation. I'm hearing a few pads being brought in to break up the soundscape, from time to time, which is good (especially when they alone support the source at 3:28 - excellent drop of instruments there, by the way). The repeat from prior now really feels like it has a reason to be in this track, so my initial concern of repetition is definitely covered. I was on board before, but I agree that an overall stronger piece has come back to us in the end, which is great. Awesome work! YES

Alright, everyone, this is NOT a drill - this album is OFFICIALLY in the Review stage! It's actually happening. I am not joking. Get excite.

Oh, a Yakuza remix - I'm glad that we're finally getting some on here. I only got into the series recently (and by "get into it" I mean watch my fiance enjoy the heck out of it, lol). Some choice tunes on there, to boot, so let's see what we've got here. Following from what others have said, the strength of this track is definitely the production values, with it's variety of effects, gating, clean samples, etc., that really comes to life when it all comes together. I personally have no issue with the loud mixing - if you're able to pump the levels that high without sacrificing quality then I say go for it. The arrangement isn't spectacular, but it does some legwork to keep things interesting throughout a good chunk of the arrangement (often utilizing subtractive arranging to keep things moving while feeling distinct enough to not get boring). There's some copy-pasta of 0:07-1:00 at 1:06 - 1:59, which now that I've timestamped it I can easily see Chimp's point on that. A third of the piece being a direct repeat of what happened prior can drag a piece down considerably. It's a close call, and I was leaning closer to passing it before, but I don't think I can justify a third of the track being a repeat of prior material now that I see it. Either give us a reason to listen to the repeated material (with flourishes or by playing with expectations), or remove the padding & add something more substantial to the piece. It's a great track otherwise so I do hope you revisit this! NO

It's slightly held up at a choke point - namely me. I had the tracks spread across two computers, so it was giving me grief. That should be resolved now, so the review should be happening quite soon. Your track passed the panel, by the way, so there will be no problem with it passing the album review. Nice work on that one, by the way - it was a great little track!

Latest and greatest folks. Enjoy. Remixer: Garpocalypse Title: Eclipse of the Fourth Empire Source: Star Gladiator II Fade to Silence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqda6r-Q2dQ

Heads up: The artist has withdrawn the submission, so there is no need to vote on this track. Note from the artist: "Hi! I need to withdraw my Night in the Woods remix submission as soon as reasonably possible. Without going into detail, there was a incident brought to light in the indie game industry today, and at this time I no longer wish to support the creation of fan media related to this game. Thank you! <3 - Minnie"

I generally don't use their old links for the submissions (always upload onto the OCR server, just in case something like this happens), so it wouldn't have affected the link I had on here. It sounds like this is a new version, so my vote will reflect the changes between the two. Thanks for the heads up.

Mmm, lovin' the eclectic 80's sound you got going here, with a healthy blend of rock guitar and classic synths throughout (with heavier emphasis on them synths). I'm definitely a sucker for this style, especially with that rich, thick bass tying everything together. The car leaving in the beginning of a song about "parting" is a nice touch, too. I mentioned this on an early listen through on this track (though I wasn't specific; my last few weeks have been punishing at work and leaving me drained during the weekends, I do apologize), but one or two leads to punch through too much at certain points in the track. Specifically, at 0:37 - 0:38, 0:48 - 0:49 (as well as similar phrases) the lead sounds considerably loud in comparison to anything preceding and proceeding it, which makes it sound oddly out of place. It's not a frequent occurrence, but when it's there in an otherwise excellent track it's certainly distracting. Minor lead mixing issue aside (which again, my apologies for not getting back on that), I think this is a solid track for the album. Thank you so much for your participation on it! YES

I'm not sure what y'all are going on about on the repetition; it uses the same themes throughout, but the textures and orchestration gives it quite a bit of variety. For a five minute track it does quite a bit; at worst it feels like it drags past the 4 minute mark a bit by about 30 seconds, but that's not enough to earn a NO from me. It's quiet, but it does use the space when it needs to feel big; I'd chalk that up more to stylistic choice than actually being a mistake. Compressing a track like this by about 2-3dBs would go a long way in making it sound more full without hurting the quality much, though, so keep that in mind. I'll echo the issue with the choir samples sounding unnatural in this context, though, especially when they're mixed so close to the front of the mix. They don't sound terrible, per se, and when they're backing the rest of the track they blend well enough (like at 3:31 - 3:46), but when they're front and center they have an uncanny valley effect when compared to the other instruments. It could be that the other instrument just sound that much better, but it's an issue all the same. Honestly, the track overall is greater than the sum of it's parts. While I can see issues with the mixing of the choral samples and the unused headroom, these don't detract from the overall experience for this track. It honestly sounds like something from an Aladin movie soundtrack, and it sounds solid for what it is. YES

Yuuuup; gonna get moving on getting this into evaluation this weekend, so stay tuned, y'all!

It's funny; this arrangement really makes it sound like it's the soundtrack of a mill out in the middle of America - same tunage as the original that had more of a "mechanical malice" feel to it, but now it's more "Workin' eight 'til five, got some work to do in the mill". Really, it's just a cool transformation of the source. If we're looking for issues, I'd have to say the mixing is a little odd at times (like the banjo lead at 0:52 being too quiet), but overall the mixing isn't distractingly bad. With as much unconventional sampling and instruments used throughout it's actually a surprise you managed to make something cohesive at all, let alone sound this good. I'm all for this, and the fact that the title involves OSHA just makes this so much better in my books. I'm all for putting this up - great work! YES

If you weren't confident that this track would pass out arrangement muster, I think you had nothing to worry about; this does a nice job suspending harmonies and creating cool counter melodies and variations that really make it your own. It also does an excellent job keeping things fresh with the soundscape so it doesn't sound sound too monotonous, even with all of the relatively basic waveforms used throughout. That's not even to mention all the bends and effects used to really get the most out of your instruments - it's all quite good. There's one issue that impacts this arrangement, and it's not insignificant - the entire track sounds overcompressed. Lots of instruments sound like they're diving in and out of the mix (like backing rectangle wave at 1:56 getting drown out at 2:10 by that bass); it's really difficult to tell whether that was intentional or just a poor mixing job covered by the compressor. The issue is relatively subtle throughout the arrangement, but it's almost always there in some form or another. I'm on the fence on this - I could go either way. On the one hand it's a cool arrangement with a lot of energy, but on the other hand, dat overcompression, but on the other OTHER hand it's a Journey to Silius remix... I'll defer to the other judges for a little bit on this.

Yeah, Mike has access to the inbox, so posts from him might NOT be his, lol. Anyhoo... Mmm, I love me some FF6, and from Jeremy Robson, no less! Looking forward to what you've got for us this time around. The orchestration is superb, and that vocal sample really sounds great, though I do have to echo some of Larry's concerns. I won't harp on too much about the harp (I didn't think it sunk the track), but the sudden volume discrepancy at 3:05 is pretty jarring, and lasts for a significant portion of the track. The thing is, if the piano is actually being played soft it actually has a different timbre, whereas this just sounds like the mixer was turned down to make it quiet. Given the choice between having the mixer make the piano sound unrealistic or just having the piano at normal levels for the portion I'd suggest simply having the piano at levels that match the music preceding and proceeding it. While the instruments sound quite good otherwise, this could use some overall hall reverb. It would help cover 95% of the mechanical concerns one might have (like with the plucked harp portions, for example), and it would blend the sounds in a realistic manner. It sounds really good for being so dry, but add just a hair of reverb (just enough to make it sound like it's playing in a space rather than being sequenced) and it would take this over the top, as far as quality goes. There's a lot to love in this - the orchestration, the instrument quality, and the source (which is actually my favorite track from FF6 - definitely an underrated tune from the game), but the piano dropping in levels and quality affects the track significantly. Fix that and this should be good, but I also recommend giving this a little reverb as well, even in post production if you must - it would really elevate this from a solid arrangement to an excellent one. NO

Yup, you got it exactly right - Music Theory is the language you can use to speak to different people about the same song. It's more effective to talk about the V-I cadence that occurs at bar 48 signalling the transition into the new C section of the piece than it is to say "The thing that happens about two minutes into the song sounds cool". What you do with that knowledge is up to you, but now you can accurately describe what you're hearing in a concise way. It's very useful, like that. You don't NEED it to compose music, but it sure does help. You don't NEED it to play music, but boy does it help! Lovely read, I encourage more people to give it a look over before settling on an opinion on Music Theory.

Hello! About 8-9 years ago I submitted a track for evaluation, and I was fairly new to the remake process. I don't believe it met the requirements, but I've recently revisited some of my old work and made some fairly substantial changes to it (enough to hopefully qualify for a new submission). If not, that's cool too. It might be a little too close to the originals, but since I was remaking it anyways for my youtube channel I just figured it couldn't hurt to try. I've been a long-time fan of the site. Thanks for your consideration! Link to the track: *removed* I was going to attach, but the file is fairly large so I wasn't sure if I should. If you want me to respond and attach it, I can, but the link should work. ReMixer name: metalac Real name: Adam Chandler Website: none Name of Game: Journey To Silius Name of Arrangement: The Machines Must Die Name of the individual song(s) arranged: Title, Stage 1 Original Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCNJuxV5EJg Originally when I was coming up with the inspiration for the song, I kept having the title and stage 1 themes stuck in my head, but I couldn't ever remember which one was which. That made the think they might make a good melody blend, or belong in the same song. Basically I worked off that, trying to keep the original energy of the song. I'm also a sucker for melodic basslines, so I really pushed that pretty hard in this song. I think that the base has a lot of presence in the original, but I wanted it to command more presence in melody.

Contact Information ReMixer name: Reuben Spiers Real Name: Reuben Spiers E-Mail: Submission Information Game: Super Mario RPG Name of Arrangement: Fantastic Forest Frolic Name of Original Song: Beware of the Forest Mushrooms Featuring Earth Kid on harp and Sean Leffler on violin

Hey guys. Long time fan. You rejected my first submission like nine years ago. It was called Monkey Nostalgia, a rework of the Ending Credits Concerto. I've got some fresh trance for you this time on one of the classics. I hope you like it. Let me know what to tweak if it's not to your liking! I'd love to get my work on here and get some promotion for my other projects! Feel free to shout out my YouTube channel if you want to support me!

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp ID: 48262 Game(s): FF9 Song Title: Be Still, My Wicked Heart Songs Remixed: "Footsteps of Desire" AKA "Devil's Ambition", "Slew of Love Letters" AKA "Foolproof Love Letter Scheme", "Black Waltz" and "Feel My Blade" AKA "Sword of Fury"

Remixer name : jmabate Real name : abate jean marc Email : website : https://www.youtube.com/user/jmabate userid : 35644 Name of game(s) arranged : Sonic The Hedgehog Name of arrangement : The Final Zone remix Name of individual song(s) arranged : Final Zone Composer : Masato Nakamura System : Sega genesis / megadrive Original : https://youtu.be/1nVwm4aQS_E Track infos : This track was arranged and performed for a month contest on reddit VGM cover thread ! I wanted to try some indian tones with percussions and some folks instruments and my orchestral metal world. Hope you will enjoy this arrangment. Best regards Jmabate