Tyler Gill

I just added a few to the spreadsheet, and have to say this is harder than I thought. I added to a few, and added XR (91), the robot from Zathura (28), Rover from Planet 51 (179), ATLAS (84), B.E.N. (124), and maybe a few others.

True that. I haven't heard or seen hardly any activity in a while. I'm hoping that just means people are quietly slaving away in the background...?

I don't have a whole lot to say, besides I think this sounds really good so far. Good job! I've heard many techno/trance/etc. versions of Dire, Dire Docks, but many of them seem to either take the source verbatim, or change it to where it's unrecognizable. You did a really good job on this - I especially like the middle section (around 2:00) where you have the piano melody mixed in. Keep up the good work!

Well, no harm in posting here as well, right? I wasn't introduced to Uematsu's music until after finding OCR, but ever since, I've been hooked. In all his work, he has an amazing ability to bind interesting melodies with beautiful harmonies, no matter how limited the hardware was. Even just getting to go to Distant Worlds would be amazing, but a chance to meet the man who created so much? Priceless.

I don't have any critiques right this moment, but I just want to second the fact that this sounds awesome. Nice work with taking this source and making it so smooth sounding and flowy...I'd really like to see this on the front page!

Is it by any chance this one? http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00827/ (Dark Tranzition, by Sine) It's an older techno LTTP dungeon mix, though it's tagged as the dark world dungeon, so it might not be the one you're looking for. But I get all the dungeon music from LTTP mixed up, so I figure it's worth a shot.

As a recent writeup said, this is probably one of my favorite songs, so it's good to see people working with it. As this is a rather early WIP, I'm gonna start by just throwing out all the thoughts I've got. First of all, the samples are weak. With a lot of work, it might be possible to make them work, but I don't really know as fixing production isn't my strength. But the production will need some major overhaul at some point. Going along with the samples, the dynamics and balance feel flat. All the instruments seem to be at the same volume the whole time, and they all take up the same space in the music. The place this was most noticeable to me was right around 0:35, where you start adding some more countermelodies, but it feels like it just mashes everything together. Something needs to be moved to the lower frequencies to balance out the spectrum, and I don't know if there's any reverb or anything yet, but it feels kinda dry, so a little might help out there. One other idea would be to pan some things around, so you have the (french horn?) original melody on the right, and the trumpets with your extra flair on the left, so they aren't competing quite so much for the same space. And for the final critique, it's going to need more original flair if this is going to end up on OCR. I know it's short so far, but this whole introduction is largely a reinstrumentation of the original. As you keep adding more to this, make sure you follow the original, but break out of it as well. Use it as an inspiration, but don't let it hold you to the same progression and flow that the original follows. I hope you can continue working on this, and continue learning some things along the way.

I'd vote for either the 1st or the 3rd ones, personally. I like the 8bit style, but IMO the smoothness on the higher resolutions looks more professional and high quality. And are you the only person working on this? I just picked up Slick and started playing around with it, as I've been meaning to learn some sort of non-Game Maker game library, and after learning C++ I realized I like Java's simplicity more than I did at first. If you want a hand, I may be able to help.

Well, I say it has quite a nice ring to it.

Well, it seems I'd better get around to posting an update, eh? These last few weeks have been really busy, and finals are this coming week, but I'll see if I can get an updated version of this shortly. From the sound of things, what I need to work on is adding some variety in the bass, and in my opinion, fixing the volume and leveling a bit. I'm not quite sure exactly when I'll get a chance to get it worked out, but don't worry - I haven't forgotten this.

I've been waiting for this to come around for a while now. My $25 are donated, and it's still probably not enough to cover everything I've gotten from here. If things are still going smoothly and I still feel guilty at the end of the month I may have to throw in a bit more to cover for previous years as well. djp, OCR staff, and all the talented people that give their time and talents to make this site what it is, thanks once again to each of you. Now lets keep making 2011 the best year yet!

Well, I'm sure not Rozovian, but I do love me some Banjo Kazooie, and so any WIP from it is welcome in my book. My big complaint so far is that the arrangement is very close to the original right now, and there isn't a whole lot of variation in that regard. Not sure what I can recommend there, but it feels like it needs more of your interpretation on the track - a change of flow or something. Second, the drum samples you have going sound kinda weak even to me, and production is about my weakest musical talent. As far as the synths go, they don't sound terrible to me, but again, production isn't my strength. Mostly, some of them just feel a little plain, and it feels like theres something missing. Not quite sure what, but it feels to me like it needs something more. The good of it IMO, there are a few places where the synths feel like they fit well to me. Mostly the ones that are more quick rather than the long sustained ones, if you understand.

I agree that instruction booklets have gone downhill in recent years, but not necessarily because of becoming digital. They just don't put any effort into them, when they can become awesome supplements to the game. Example: Donkey Kong Country's manual. I stumbled upon it, but it is awesome! Rather than just being a boring guide to the controls, it introduces the characters, the first few areas, a few enemies and their abilities, and foreshadows what will come. And the best part? Cranky Kong. Every few pages, there's a picture of him complaining about how things were better in the good ol' days. He starts off with "Look at the fancy box. Look at the size of this instruction manual. You don't think they would have gone to all this trouble of the game was any good, do you?!", and keeps on going. (Full text here: http://vgchat.info/forum/threads/23079-Donkey-Kong-Country-Instruction-Manual for any interested. Search for all the occurrences of cranky to find his quotes). That right there is proof that an instruction manual (done right), can be an asset to a game, rather than just a set of instructions.

This. It's the same type of thing as CarboHydroM's one, except its solo piano (which I am a sucker for) going through pretty much every Link to the Past song. Or if guitar is more your thing, virt did a 20 minute Super Metroid compilation for Dwelling of Duels a few years back. Neither of these have much of a story going along with them, but they're the same type of mega-compilation Unsealed is. Zelda Reorchestrated was supposedly working on doing a 'Battlescapes' project a while ago, which was going to have a story voiced over Zelda music, which sounds like what you're looking for. Unforunately, that project appears to have fizzled out.

I saw it for the first time earlier this week, and as its still in the dollar theater, I'm going back tomorrow. Best new Disney movie in years . (Possibly since The Emperors New Groove). I liked how it went back to Disney's roots as a clever twist on a classic story, but even more, how the characters were so believable. More than anything, it was easy to see their motivation and emotional progression. In a lot of movies, the bad guy is just some person we just assume to be completely evil and heartless, but here, her motives were crystal clear. She didn't just go around doing pointless acts of evil to prove a point, but had a reason. It was ethically incorrect, but that believability about a character's motivations is far too lacking in movies lately. As for favorite part, the song in the tavern. First off, it shows all the tough guys as real people. Possibly a bit cliche, but it shows you can't judge everyone based on their appearance. And secondly, its just plain funny

I think I've noticed that too - some of the newer torrents have a tracker at http://bt2.ocremix.org, but I don't think I've ever seen a torrent actually be able to load that one. But on my machine, with a few random torrents attempted, I connect and start downloading just fine from the other tracker (http://bt.ocremix.org). Does it not download anything at all? If not, your network or ISP might be throttling/blocking torrents. In the worst case, if you absolutely can't download the torrents, you can get all of the mp3s through regular downloads, and just download them track by track (or in a .zip, if the album has one) in a download manager (like DownThemAll for Firefox, or tons of other ones.)

Well, this is interesting. Comparing this to the earlier version, it doesn't sound like a ton of the reverb was removed, but with the atmospheric overtones, to me it sounds a lot better. It gives it more of that airy, snowdrift feel. It makes me think of Phendrena Drifts, even without any of that source tune included (that I noticed at least). My opinion of production isn't the greatest though, so hopefully someone else can help a bit more on that side. Arrangement-wise, I just wish I could get a copy of the sheet music. It truly is fantastic.

Interjecting a bit, the main source is Super Metroid: Red Brinstar ( ), though it sounds to me a lot more like its remade counterpart in Metroid Prime 2: Torvus Bog Underwater ( ).

Speaking as another who is far from expert, let me offer my advice, more than my critique. For starters, I agree on the sound effects. I think a few sound effects can work well, but at the same time, too many of them makes it feel more like its just a straight rip from the game. My personal preference is to try to include them in the music with a little riff that alludes to them, kinda like you did with Dire, Dire Docks. Touching on that point, that little allusion you made to Dire, Dire Docks is one of the things you should keep doing. Not necessarily should you keep including parts of other songs, but remember this is your song. You need to make it original. For me, as my musical originality isn't the greatest, so this usually involves finding a similar tune or structure and trying to incorporate that into the original that I'm working with, and then as I try to blend them together, the stuff that comes out is genuinely my own. This may not work exactly for you, but create your own counter melodies, expand on the original melody, take parts that are normally hidden in the song and bring them out, or do whatever you can think of. If it helps, try to imagine that your trying to hide the original tune, and make whoever is listening search for it. Provide some easy snippits, but make some parts more original. Production wise, this could still use some work, but as I can't do that part either, I'll stick to the arrangement side Oh, and welcome to OCR. We're practically one big happy family.

I hate to simply echo what everyone else has said, but I've gotta say, this is an awesome arrangement, though I also agree with the sentiments that the piano is not the best sounding. What are you using as the sample? My current WIP is also a solo piano, and I have no production skills whatsoever, so I finally found a place I could record at (even though it still isn't a perfect setup), which helped me out a lot. Though it does sound like there are some three handed places, which may make that more difficult. As far as the arrangement goes, there are a few places where it feels a little empty, as others have said, but I think part of that could also be the reverb. But towards the end, the piano gets clouded out by the drums and feels like its buried, even though it also feels like it should be the most important part there. Keep this up! Don't give up on this remix - it has a lot of potential.

When I first saw this posts title, I thought it was a Metroid: Zero Mission mix, but I guess I read that a bit too quickly. You might want to put a link to the source, and name the game a bit more explicitly. But so far, I think it has some potential. I'm not familiar with the original of this track, so I don't know how far or how close it stays, but it does sound like it has some good variation on the same theme. Arrangement wise, as I said, I don't know the original tune here, but some of the bass part feels a bit repetitive. Also, on the percussion, you really could make a much bigger impact on the piece by utilizing it to draw to the power of some of your transitions, namely at 1:08 and 1:35. All the other instruments build up to that point, but the drums keep on pretty much the same loop. I think even just a little bit of variation there could really draw the attention to the intensity there. Production-wise, yes, it lacks quite a bit. Number one, there are quite a few sections where it sounds really muddy, and the instruments just kinda mash together. Number two, the samples are a little weak for the moment. Also, the volume feels rather constant throughout, even though you have several clearly defined sections where the intensity changes. And I'd probably say that's my opinion of the strongest part of this track - you have several places where the intensity does change around, with different instruments taking over and moving around, so it feels like a good basis. So I'd say keep building on that framework and try to polish things up, and make the dynamics of the piece have more variation. And if you can find a live guitar and work some more on synth samples, I think that would help a lot too.