WillRock

A lonely lover has journeyed far indeed from a distant mountain of dreams: WillRock still brings the jams

Duel Links is one of my favourite OSTs so seeing some representation is always a plus for me.
The bass is the real superstar here. Love that sound and sequencing. It dances around the track magnificently. 
Production is clean and full and has a good balance between hitting hard and being subdued, nice work on that. I agree that the drums sound like they could have a little more oomph, that drum solo section really showcases how they don't "quite" fit, but generally I think you get away with it and it's not like I can complain about tracks not having the right drum sound hahahaha. 
Pretty solid stuff!

NO! RUN! SCURRY! FLEE!
Disappear into the woods and never look back at it! No matter how close behind you it feels or sounds, don't - turn - around! For should its eyes catch yours, you'll be forever imprisoned within its gaping mental maw... forced to live only on bad tuna.

So I decided as a bit of an experiment to listen to some of the older remixes on the site, and i've been going through them chronologically. As you can imagine, there's a lot of... variable quality tracks - much of it is amateurish and/or dated yet many of them have a charm to them, and there's some decent stuff, some novelty tracks, some have some cool humour to them... but then this one came on and I'm kinda shocked. 
This sounds like something that could have been posted to the site 10 years later. Sounds like a professional, well mixed, very ambitious remix that's executed incredibly. Yeah it almost shows it's age with some samples but it's so far ahead of everything else that you barely notice.
Listening to this along side everything on the site today, I think it's easy to take this for granted because of how the quality of fan arrangements has improved over the years, but this was posted in june of 2000, which is absolutely bonkers. 

Virt really was showing everyone up even twenty years ago huh.

Cmaj7. A C7 is an Edim over that C. Flat 5th. Tritone for the E. And that REALLY really wants to resolve somewhere, probably to an F or C# chord.

I'm late to the party on this one but I want to throw my hat into the ring and point out I never ever once considered this song to be in a minor key. 
The song starts out in C Major, it's the opening of the piece and stays in the root note chord for 8 bars, so the introduction is 100% in a major key. However, that synth part during that section puts a lot of emphasis on unresolved chords - the chords in that opening riff have an Em to Dm little riff going on, before going up to F, then back down again to Em and Dm, with Dm holding over the C root chord, which leaves some serious tension because you're expecting it to resolve to C, and it doesn't. Then it goes Dm, Em, F twice, then there's one more F chord, before it resolves on Em to finish the sequence - all over that C root. The interesting thing about the E chord is that over a C root, that creates a Cmaj7 chord, which is a very cool little jazzy thing - it's a C chord with a B on the top - it's SO close to resolving because that B wants to be a C really, but it just doesn't QUITE get there, which leaves that tension just there enough while giving things a decent resolution to the progression - however, it leaves things a little unfulfilled, which is why you don't feel "happy" when hearing it. 

Another song in the Key of C that is undeniably happy with similar ideas is Metropolis Zone - that also has some cool synthy chords playing over a C major Root - but the different there is that both the beginning and ending of those little riffs start and end with a C major chord - they unquestionably resolve completely, which makes them sound more...fulfilling? Well either way, that's the difference between why you're feeling sadder about Green Hill.

Then of course, the piece plays around with that F-Em-D-C chord sequence over that popular melody (Which is a descending sequence - much of Green Hill Zone is descending, which has been already pointed out, which I agree adds to the whole sad feel - you want something happy, move upwards and resolve with straight major chords, forget sevenths!). On top of that, you've got a cool descending arp thing in the background, which is doing descending sevenths of all those chords. So that sequence starts with F major yeah? You've got an arp thats going E-C-A-F in the background, and it's doing the same thing for all the chords in that section. So you've got a feeling of unresolved tension constantly - those chords play around a lot with F and E, but even when it resolves to C major at the end, because it's keeping that seventh in there, it's not quite resolving properly in the ear of the listener - it's very pretty, but it sounds sad.
Basically, the reason you're feeling melancholic when you listen to this song is because of all the unresolved tension created by the chords and backing elements. There's probably more to it than that but yup, throw some sevenths in there and suddenly everything feels slightly sadder. 

It's probably not the best one (I haven't gone through all the OC Remix albums) but I always had a soft spot for Project Chaos. 
Is it perfect? No, it's got a few misteps, but it's got some absolute bangers on it, many of which still hold up 15 years later. 

Holy crap. This is amazing. One or two iffy samples, but thats the minority, the sequencing and mixing are great, and the arrangement is fantastic. One of the best mixes i've ever heard ocr produce. This mix being overshadowed by zircons mix is a shame imo, particularly for a debut mix of this quality. Download this now, it really isn't to be missed.

Dire Dire Docks Green Hill Zone Gourmet Race Kens Theme

I came here for an argument. 
I thought that was the definition of an argument? An argument is a disagreement of of view points. You saying "I disagreed with his points" is pretty much you saying "I was arguing"  Also, you can say you were debating if you like. They're considered one and the same, altho Debating is generally considered a bit more formal and less aggressive I suppose but even so, You could argue (lol) that you were arguing
Ok time to stop with the tongue in cheek debatument: I prefer the Genesis/Mega Drive music. More funky. More groovy. Generally speaking. I can certainly appreciate the rock stylings of the Crush 40 stuff tho

Maybe this is the wrong reason but my primary reason for remixing was always to get an audience for my music. I succeeded, got a small following on Youtube, came to OCR and used it to improve my craft. I've been doing this for 10 years, I've got about... 80 Remixes under my belt? Probably more. It could be approaching the 3 digit mark. I've got 50 remixes on OCR, thats a nice round number imo. I don't have any incentive to remix anything atm. I'm doing my original work, I wanna become more known for that in the long term and my remixes still eclipse what I do musically. Never say never but remixing is certainly not something on my to do list and probably won't ever be again. I mean... I say that now and one day i'll probably throw an album together of links awakening remixes you know?  

That said, right now,I have no interest. Give me a few years, maybe i'll get back into it  

Based on what you just told me, it sounds like you're being quite ambitious. Why are you making a 23 track album? Why are they over 1 minute each? 
Change the rules to fit your workflow. Unless you're doing it for someone else, then let it flow naturally. YES - make your plans but if it doesn't go to that plan thats ok. Plan on making a 10 minute epic? Its ended up 3 minutes long? Ok fine, NEXT TRACK. 
You say you have an album of 23 wips. Ok. You don't need to use half of them. You could finish off 5 of them and call it an EP? How long are said tracks? Well they could be 2 minutes each if you so desired. Take it where it is heading naturally. Trying to beat out a preconceived idea is not the way to go I find. Try just... letting an idea flow and don't worry about sticking to a brief so rigidly and just see what happens. You might find you finish more stuff and you enjoy yourself more to boot. Guidelines are great... but don't let them hold you back.

You guys who named me as inspirational <3
Ok when it comes to remixers that inspired me from OCR there are 3 people who instantly pop in my head - @Sixto, @bLiNd and @zircon. Sure there are other remixers I could probably name but they were some of the most striking remixers I found here from an early age and helped shape my own style. 
Also, this is going to sound super corny but you can't have a question like this and not mention @djpretzel - Sometimes I don't think people give him enough credit, creating this site - When I joined in what? 2008? The site had already been going for 9 years, from what I have been told, the site had a HUGE surge of popularity and influence long before I even knew the site existed - when I joined it was pretty much the only place where there appeared to be a community based on this stuff, and from what I can tell, its one of the first of its type. How many of us would be where we are if djpretzel hadn't founded OCR? Honestly? What is the video game remix scene without him? If thats not inspirational, I don't know what is.

I think when I first came here, it took me time to come to appreciate the tremendous amount of help you guys give (call it early ignorance), but looking back, I think I was most inspired by @zircon, @WillRock, @Chimpazilla, @Gario, @djpretzel, and of course @Liontamer, who could forget him?
zircon is kind of an obvious one --- I learned most of what I know in music from studying his, from watching his streams / remix walkthroughs, etc. It has also been a pleasure and a joy to do sound design and to test Super Audio Cart (SAC) and SAC PC.
I've generally found Willrock to be someone who really made an identity for himself; he isn't afraid to express himself, and he makes music that is clearly identifiable as his own.
Chimpazilla has been a good influence on me from nearly the start, and inspired me to realize that collaboration opens you up to new ideas and really supports you in areas you still need to work on.
Gario is like a super-mod, who is also very empathetic, and eloquent. He inspires me to express my feedback in both clear-cut and respectful ways, and in essence it's great for my character.
djpretzel has a great sense of humor and writes excellent ReMix writeups, and does plenty of behind-the-scenes administration, advertisement, and legal stuff for the website, youtube, twitter, etc. while not necessarily getting the thanks he deserves. Without djp, we wouldn't even be here now, talking about... each other. Woah.
Liontamer is honest, direct, and pleasantly sarcastic.  If he had to, he could probably carry the legacy of OCR on his shoulders, and he really embodies the spirit of OCR, IMO. He's also damn funny.
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If I forget anyone, it's not a knock on you, by the way.

You guys who named me as inspirational <3
Ok when it comes to remixers that inspired me from OCR there are 3 people who instantly pop in my head - @Sixto, @bLiNd and @zircon. Sure there are other remixers I could probably name but they were some of the most striking remixers I found here from an early age and helped shape my own style. 
Also, this is going to sound super corny but you can't have a question like this and not mention @djpretzel - Sometimes I don't think people give him enough credit, creating this site - When I joined in what? 2008? The site had already been going for 9 years, from what I have been told, the site had a HUGE surge of popularity and influence long before I even knew the site existed - when I joined it was pretty much the only place where there appeared to be a community based on this stuff, and from what I can tell, its one of the first of its type. How many of us would be where we are if djpretzel hadn't founded OCR? Honestly? What is the video game remix scene without him? If thats not inspirational, I don't know what is.

You guys who named me as inspirational <3
Ok when it comes to remixers that inspired me from OCR there are 3 people who instantly pop in my head - @Sixto, @bLiNd and @zircon. Sure there are other remixers I could probably name but they were some of the most striking remixers I found here from an early age and helped shape my own style. 
Also, this is going to sound super corny but you can't have a question like this and not mention @djpretzel - Sometimes I don't think people give him enough credit, creating this site - When I joined in what? 2008? The site had already been going for 9 years, from what I have been told, the site had a HUGE surge of popularity and influence long before I even knew the site existed - when I joined it was pretty much the only place where there appeared to be a community based on this stuff, and from what I can tell, its one of the first of its type. How many of us would be where we are if djpretzel hadn't founded OCR? Honestly? What is the video game remix scene without him? If thats not inspirational, I don't know what is.

You guys who named me as inspirational <3
Ok when it comes to remixers that inspired me from OCR there are 3 people who instantly pop in my head - @Sixto, @bLiNd and @zircon. Sure there are other remixers I could probably name but they were some of the most striking remixers I found here from an early age and helped shape my own style. 
Also, this is going to sound super corny but you can't have a question like this and not mention @djpretzel - Sometimes I don't think people give him enough credit, creating this site - When I joined in what? 2008? The site had already been going for 9 years, from what I have been told, the site had a HUGE surge of popularity and influence long before I even knew the site existed - when I joined it was pretty much the only place where there appeared to be a community based on this stuff, and from what I can tell, its one of the first of its type. How many of us would be where we are if djpretzel hadn't founded OCR? Honestly? What is the video game remix scene without him? If thats not inspirational, I don't know what is.

Just off the top of my head, huge thanks to Joshua Morse, WillRock, zircon & Jill Aversa, Nostalvania, DDRKirby, Big Giant Circles, Flexstyle, Blind, posu yan, list goes on and on, for inspiring me to get into music production when I have time these days. If any of y'all see this, thank you so much.

To me Zircon, Sixto and WillRock, to name a few... I dig what they did (/do) and they inspired me to push myself and get my chops to a postable level in those early days. Even though I hardly interacted with them at the time (even though I did manage to bribe Sixto into a solo for reasons still unclear). Especially the composing streams by Zirc were great to get a glimpse of the chef in the kitchen, if you will. Also Eino Keskitalo for being open to collaborate with a newbie in the Shovel Knight team compo, where we did 2 lovely tracks and we still try and do some collabs every now and then. Sir_Nuts for being a fellow Italo/Synthwave enthusiast and the enjoyable chats and excellent mixing critiques and feedback.
And, dare I say it, the entire judges panel? While I didn’t always agree with all feedback, each time a track was reviewed I got something useful out of it and learned my strengths and weaknesses and was able to improve, It probably helped that I didn’t see them as scary (as some people seem to do) but rather as helpful critical listeners.
There are many many more, of course. Once I grew more confident and comfortable I collaborated with a lot of people from the community through the forums and Discord, and each collab was fun, interesting and a great experience. There’s too many to mention here, but know that you have my thanks for joining me on this ride and for being a cool person

Ehhh... Whether or not it happens with one person really doesn't say whether or not it's something that will happen with everyone. Zircon is a talented guy, and he's really made a name for himself outside of OCR with his music and business (which is a pretty awesome feat, by the way), but for every Zircon out there there's plenty of people who have Willrock's experience of virtually no audience transfer. I'm sure having an audience for your arrangements doesn't hurt your chances as a popular musician and/or accomplished composer elsewhere, but there's evidence (at least in this thread, anyway) that it can be a pretty insignificant boon for your other endeavors.
A combination of how good you are at marketing and networking is more likely going to give you better luck in having a large audience for your original work than having a large audience for your arrangements, I suspect, which Zircon also has quite a knack for. I understand that it can seem fruitless to logically discuss something like whether or not audiences transfer from one person's composition styles or not, but let's be honest - that's a pretty relevant thing for a lot of arrangers who want to make a living off their music in the future. Whether or not the audiences transfer from your free releases to your work that you profit off of could easily impact whether you're willing to arrange video game music, in the first place (which is how this topic cropped up in here).
If someone could crack that nut and figure out how to effectively transfer their audience, that'd be a very useful thing to know. It's at least an interesting and relevant topic to discuss, imo.

mmm, if I can expand on your point without derailing too much - When I started remixing, my thought process was "people who hear my remixes will be interested in what I do" - which generally isn't the case in my experience. Yes, you get people who follow you and what you do, but in general, people will just stick to where they want to be. People who find me on youtube stay on youtube, people on OCR stay on OCR, people on New Retro Wave stay there etc etc. The mistake I made was assuming that people were interested in ME, but they're just interested in whatever site I use to promote myself. Suddenly, instead of having a bunch of "WillRock fans" i've got OC Remix fans, New Retro Wave fans, Ubiktune Fans, who just happen to know about my stuff, but not enough to REALLY look into me and what else I do. As a result, it feels like i've got a selection of split up mini-fanbases who like specific things I do in specific places, and then there's the 1 in 100 who actually follow me. 
I actually remember James Landino discussing how to become popular and he said something similar to this: Stay in one place, and become known for something very specific and corner that area. Don't split everything up and get disjointed groups of people listening to your stuff who don't really know or care about you. I put a LOT of effort into my OCR rep so as a result, i'm much more known for my remixes, and as a result, my originals suffer because I can not promote them here, not in the way I would like, and my original stuff is a bit spread out due to issues getting my stuff released where I want. I would say its not silly to try and figure out what it is you want to do because that opens you up to different fanbases and if you don't force your stuff in their face, they won't look your way. You have to be as visible as you can be and if you try and spread out too much, you won't be visible anywhere

Maybe this is the wrong reason but my primary reason for remixing was always to get an audience for my music. I succeeded, got a small following on Youtube, came to OCR and used it to improve my craft. I've been doing this for 10 years, I've got about... 80 Remixes under my belt? Probably more. It could be approaching the 3 digit mark. I've got 50 remixes on OCR, thats a nice round number imo. I don't have any incentive to remix anything atm. I'm doing my original work, I wanna become more known for that in the long term and my remixes still eclipse what I do musically. Never say never but remixing is certainly not something on my to do list and probably won't ever be again. I mean... I say that now and one day i'll probably throw an album together of links awakening remixes you know?  

That said, right now,I have no interest. Give me a few years, maybe i'll get back into it  

I dunno, Going to play devil's advocate since I do have some different opinions on this - While I personally would say my mixes are my own to an extent (after all, I throw plenty of original content into my remixes), I wouldn't go as far as saying what we're doing are collaborations by any definition. When I'm working with another remixer on a track, or working with a friend, that to me is a collaboration. it has to be agreed on and both parties need to have some sort of impact on the final product. This idea that you think of "all artistic creation as a collaboration" - its a nice idea but to me, thats not the way it works. If they can sue you for copyright infringement its not a collaboration imo.
I also disagree with your second point for one reason: I agree with that you can bring your own ideas and people can be derivative with their original works etc etc but I think there's more to it - and that is what gets written down on paper. Something i've noticed doing both remixing and composing is that when you do remixes, your name gets lost in the shuffle because at the end of the day, its not yours on paper is it? Most people who aren't familiar with the artist already don't listen to a remix on OCR and go "man this DarkeSword remix is awesome" they'll go "Man that Wind Waker Remix is greeeeeeeeat lets find some more", because to them, the ownership is still on the original composer/game franchise.
Its the same with some labels - I mean... other than DJ Cutman, who can you name from GameChops? What I DO know is the label has an abundance of crazy popular Undertale remixes. Who made them? Dunno, I know Ben Briggs did that super popular Tem Shop thing, that said, I know Ben personally. Beyond that...
Now if I look at original works, its different, I KNOW the artists behind many original stuff on their labels because the name isn't obscured by other info, and the mentality is different - Most official remixes are credited first to the original composers and it might say in the track title who remixed it. I've seen stuff on spotify created to the original artist and then realised later its actually a remix made by someone else. Says so in the remix title but it went over my head.  To most people, I feel like ownership goes to the person who composed the original work, not the person who remixed it, so I can appreciate it when people say remixes aren't their "own". I certainly don't feel like my remixes are my own work anymore, not in comparison to the stuff I made from scratch, and I feel like when people are listening to my own music, it is more personal as a result of that, both for me, and my fans.
 

That's completely cool - no need to play devil's advocate, because I'm not prescribing my perspective for everyone else, just saying how I see things personally.
Ultimately, since I'm less motivated my marketing/commercialization, I'm doing things for myself. To me, even if it's an arrangement, that makes it more personal than if I was trying to make something marketable. I think there's a balance to be struck on all these concerns, and it can even vary from piece to piece. Having a one-size-fits-all creative ideology just makes you inflexible.
And yes, to me all art is a collaborative process, because even something shared with no one else and made exclusively for yourself is the product of a conversation your mind has had with your culture, your environment, etc. The collaborator need not be human, or even alive, but is always there to some extent. To me that's not just a "nice idea," it's a profound truth, and no amount of copyright hoo-hah or commercial consideration can change it, because it's beyond that, and it's what makes art great.
Again, my perspective.

Just remember... if you like it, it is good. At it's core don't worry about pleasing others. Please yourself. If you like it then thats fantastic. If you don't, work on it until you do. Other people don't need to be involved, but if you're struggling, a second opinion might help you make sense of what you're making. The end result makes the self-doubt worth it. Fight through it.