Gario

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

Ooo, Valkyrie Profile as Death Metal? That can work really well. I've never played the games, but I do remember my brothers and I used to listen to music downloaded from that game. Sounds like good quality stuff, to boot.

*Ahem* Yeah, I gotcha. I think almost everyone has their tracks submitted now, so a good deal of the work left is on my end. Things have settled down now that the new judges are finally announced and doing good work for OCR (I did a lot of work behind the scenes making sure that would happen smoothly), so hopefully I can be in a position where I can make some more official announcements this weekend. Also, on the down low, much of the panel so far is pretty impressed with your track, so I'm glad it got the second chance it deserved. Thanks for the bump; here's hoping I can breath more life into this thing soon!

I am literally incapable of hating on a PsyNES remix, so once again thanks for sending us some more lovely remix goodness. The arrangement is bouncy and fresh, and as always the relatively basic synths are used in such a way that they never get boring, with those stutters and shifting beats. I will echo Larry's comment on the treble-heavy mixing on this, though; throughout the track the bass is noticeably lacking. It doesn't drag the piece too much, but in moments like 2:40 the build sounds lacking due to the mid/high EQ focus of the mix. Other than moar bass, I'm loving this. Get it up there on the front page. YES

Well let's also be fair, it's legit a great little album, here; it reminds me of Mutherpluckin' B's guitar work, which is literally never a bad thing. I'm glad I got to finally check it out! Times are different now than in 2005, too; maybe you should ask OCR if they could permanently host the album themselves and replace the link on the homepage? It IS listed on their album listing, so we could probably work something out if you ask the staff about it.

Downloaded for safety reasons; hopefully OCR can host the album once again. Thanks for doin' the LORD's work, Black_Doom.

I'm with MW on this one - the sounds are pretty vanilla, but they're used very well throughout, and the track never feels empty or dull because of it. Some instruments are overused (like that sine, though nice work not making it too piercing while making it audible, that's not easy to do), but overall it does change it's soundscape enough to avoid being too static. I hear Larry's concern about the lead mixing after 2:33 (it does get buried into the arrangement), but I don't think it's enough to sink the piece, nor do I think something is at all a small or quick fix to justify a conditional YES (mixing is a delicate issue to deal with - it's never something an artist can just touch up in a few minutes). If this gets kicked back, I would definitely appreciate the lead to stand out more against the rest of the track at 2:33. It's not perfect, but I don't think our bar is so high that the lead blending with the texture a little too much and one texture being over-represented is reject-worthy. The arrangement does good work, the production is pretty good, and overall the track keeps me bouncing in my chair. I say give this some front page love, with the caveat that the artist learns from our opinions and mixes the lead better next time. YES

This sounds like a nice, space-y arrangement of a classic. I like the instruments used in general - a touch vanilla, but used really well for the genre. The SNES sampled lead in the beginning has some weird dynamics going on there, though - unsure what we're going with there, but it would probably be better if the dynamics aren't so extreme, since it sounds like the instrument is just droppnig in and out, there. From the 1 minute mark on, the harmonies and textures don't sound like they're changing at the same time, which is pretty disorienting. At 2:22, the lead comes in and things line up again, which from then on it sounds pretty solid. If you're syncopating the textures and harmony past the 1 minute park, I'd advise against that; without something like a lead to ground that syncopation against, it ends up sounding like a mistake. Otherwise, some awesome stuff going on in this - lookin' forward to the next update.

Very light performance, and some excellent ocarina playing in this, slight mixing snafu notwithstanding (the ocarina is not terribly loud - it's just not perfect, is all). There's some really nice orchestration throughout, with the timbres shifting throughout the textures. The quality of instruments is quite good, too, though the opening could've focused on the other instruments pointalisticly covering the theme rather than the piano part. It's an artistic choice, though, so I won't braze the track much for something like that. Overall the quality is up to par, and it's just a lovely rendition of the source. It focuses on the high end in general throughout, but I don't think that sinks the piece at all. Lovely stuff, I love it, let's get it posted. YES

For the technical aspect brought up on the "wind" lead (more likely a synth), it sounds like a minor mixing concern - it's mixed considerably louder than the other instruments surrounding it, which makes it punch through the rest of the mix too much and gives you less sonic space to work with overall. It presents a twofold issue: it makes one item sound out too much over the other items, and it limits how loud you can make the rest of the track (since it only takes one loud instrument to hit the -0 mark for a limiter to consider it "clipping"). It's not THAT problematic an issue, but it's something that could be toned down, improving the quality of the overall track somewhat. On the bright side, it's the lead that's punching through, so at least it isn't a texture or something overpowering the lead (which is a considerably worse position to be in). Pretty gentle arrangement, and definitely a different direction to take the track. I like it, here's hoping you can get it to what you consider finished sometime soon.

Contact Information: Remixer name: Adnarel Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiEcODvDGbXW7rd93SpPQMg OCR Forums UserID: https://ocremix.org/community/profile/23418-adnarel/ Submission Information: Game and system: Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Game Boy Advance (2002) Name of arrangement: Madra Catacombs Name of songs arranged: Beneath the Surface Link to original material: Linky Comments: I have typically been a reflexive dissident to the larger trend within video game remixes to make 4/4 dance music (my last submission to OCR was rejected for being "too avante-garde"). But after listening to Benjamin Diamond on repeat for about 2 weeks straight, I simply had to do something house-inspired for my large body of work on Golden Sun remixes. It very much fits my usual pattern of a slower introduction followed by an energetic finish. I thought this website might find it good enough to use. Hope you enjoy. =)

I love this track - the arrangement really is just to die for, and the style chosen for this really helps everything come together. It really is quite brilliant. The production values aren't perfect (sounds like the entire track has too much low pass on it), but in general they're quite good (at least, good enough for OCR). The levels of this track, though, are concerning - it's just a very quiet track overall. It's close to hitting the limiters, though, due to how much the snare punches through. I put a picture of the waveform to show this issue in particular: This is a great example of a track that would benefit significantly from some soft limiting or compression over the track, just to bring those spikes down and squeeze 4-5dBs out of the track. It sounds nitpicky, but I think this needs to be put in Audacity (or whatever program you prefer) and have these spikes in the levels cleaned up and have the levels overall raised to better match a typical OCR track. Love the track, and I do hope this gets posted onto the front page, particularly after the levels are fixed on this. EDIT (07/26): It seems the items that I had concern with were addressed (even the somewhat excessive low EQs used throughout), so now I have no issues with this being posted. Excellent work from 744 - will be glad once this great arrangement is posted! EDIT (08/20): It still sounds solid, with some minor instrument tweaks and slightly better EQ balance. My vote's still solid. YES

EDIT (07/26): Track has been updated to address prior concerns about levels. - Gario So two of the most remixed tracks on all of OCR are Aquatic Ambience from DKC and Stickerbush Symphony from its sequel, but as of this submission, no one’s attempted to combine them yet. They’re both terrific tracks and fit their aesthetic perfectly on their own, and are easily two of the most memorable David Wise compositions so far. These themes make the games themselves much more memorable and it was cool the SNES could pull them off. From childhood, having played these two games for endless hours, I know both these themes so well, I was able to transcribe them from memory (albeit not in their original keys.) So originally this was going to be just an Aquatic Ambience synthwave mix, mostly to see if I could produce one that would meet the high standards of the mixes that were already up. While Logic was playing an early version of this back, I accidentally hit one of the media buttons on my keyboard and iTunes queued up Stickerbush Symphony by chance. At that point I decided, why not go for it — two of the most remixed tracks on OCRemix, but lump them together somehow. Both tracks in this mix borrow elements from each other; Stickerbush’s expanding bass synth and percussion play during the Aquatic section for example, while the Stickerbush section borrows Aquatic’s arpeggio and ornamentation. But I still wanted to go with a cheesy, reverb-soaked 80s snare, warbly synths, slightly glitchy pads, and punchy bass for that heavy synthwave feel. With this track I envision a dark bramble-themed underwater level full of bright neon purple grids and random yellow, green, and hot pink shapes floating around in the background. -- ORIGINAL TRACKS "Aquatic Ambience" from Donkey Kong Country -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAPpVplHiDE "Stickerbush Symphony" from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdPlcKg-qFs Remixer name: 744 Real name: Ben Brownlee e-mail: site: sevenfortyfour.bandcamp.com forum userid: 34405

Contact Information ReMixer name : Reuben Spiers Real Name : Reuben Spiers E-mail: Submission Information Game: Donkey Kong Country Name of Arrangement: OSHA Violation Name of Original Song: Fear Factory Featuring Earth Kid on harp and Sean Leffler on strings. Power drills and wine glasses will forever be my favourite instruments.

Ah yes, the single greatest title that I've ever seen for a remix thus far. I would LOVE to see this posted on those grounds alone. However, I do need to question the mixing on this track throughout. The lead is often buried behind the rest of the arrangement (an issue that actually gets worse as the arrangement gets more dense as it progresses), and as the track gets more dense the mix more and more crowded/muddy. As much as I like how the vanilla synths were handled in general, the mixing is indiscriminate (with the textures often overtaking the leads, an example of which can be heard at 0:40), and the resulting soundscape is too muddy. I like this track otherwise, but in order for me to pass this the track needs another pass on the mixing. The textures need to have their levels adjusted so they don't overtake the leads (or the leads should be in a different register so that they're not fighting for the same sonic space), and the pads that all fight for the same space must be either mixed down or made to be less dense, just so the arrangement has some room to breath. Fun track, great title, but I don't think this one is there yet. I do hope to hear this one come back soon, though! NO

Well, hosting the BIG compos isn't a terrible idea, might be something worth looking into. Just finished getting new Judges on the panel, so perhaps a new side-venture that can be taken? Just me thinking out loud, here. In the meantime, do go on the Discord, it's a pretty active community there still.

Don't you worry - we're still alive and kickin'. Lots of work on the back end of the site going on at the moment in order to make sure that things keep moving on the site, which while less noticeable is important in keeping the site moving along with little problem. Generally, it's easy to think that OCR isn't what it used to be, and in some ways you're correct - what OCR used to be was a monolith of a site where most VG arrangements were vetted and distributed. Today, though, we have sites like Youtube, the Materia collective, Pixel Mixers, etc., that all distribute VG arrangements elsewhere, which is only a good thing for the community at large. It does look like it shrinks OCR's contribution to the community by comparison, but it's really an illusion: take a look at OCR in 2009 and compare it to today, and you'll find that we've grown considerably in that time. Forum activity has waned, but that's true across the spectrum; a lot of communities have moved onto things like Discord (of which OCR still has an active and thriving community - check it out), so that's less telling of OCR's condition and more the state of the internet in general. Concerning albums, we generally don't officially direct any albums - that's entirely community based. If you want more albums to be made, then by all means help out with those that are already in the works (you can check em' out in the Projects forum), or you can get to recruitin' for one. Had a wonderful album come out recently from a relative newer member (who isn't a remixer herself), so it's not unheard of. Really, though, it's not a bad thing to hear fans "lament" OCR's glory days - it means we still have something to live up to, which is encouraging. That being said, don't despair, OCR is still quite an active force on the internet; we're not going anywhere.

It's a very interesting, folksy track. On the one hand, there's a lot going on in this track throughout - so many different textures, and sometimes they're quite subtle. On the other hand, there are timing issues with a few instruments (like the acoustic guitar, for example), which is distracting, once you tune into it. This becomes less of an issue as the piece comes together after the 1:00 mark, though. The mixing, while I could nitpick it (the accordion part at times, like at 1:22, does overtake the more interesting parts from time to time), isn't unbearable, and the production is pretty clean for what it is. I can see some having these little items add up, but I think the whole track is better than the sum of it's parts. If this gets sent back I would appreciate some post-production on the accordion so it doesn't overpower your more animated instruments at times, and I'd appreciate the guitar part to be more precisely in time with the other instruments. Again, though, I think this is quite a good arrangement (good enough for the front page), so I'll give it my stamp of approval. YES

Well, send over what you got and we'll talk about it. I think your airship theme was close to finished, so that should be really close by now, I imagine. Looking forward to it!