DarkSim

Hi there, I'm not really a rock remixer, so take what I say with a grain of salt! Good source choice for a start, it's a catchy tune. However, I feel like the tempo is a little slow and it's neither rock nor blues. Not fast enough to be rock, and not enough swing and swagger to be blues. The drums are so rigid that it highlights the timing errors in the guitar. The bass has a nice groove to it, so try and play with the swing controller on your MIDI drums to match that. For my first remix, I couldn't find the swing control so I had to manually move the MIDI notes to make it sound like a nicer groove! Much easier when the computer can do it for you. I don't know which DAW you're using, but Google will help you with a lot of MIDI and DAW questions. It's a long way off OCR standard, but if you're new to this then don't worry, you'll improve quickly if you keep tinkering with things and learning what things do.

The sounds are quite harsh, considering it's a fairly mellow arrangement. The piano right out of the gate is very jarring - definitely work on humanising and expressing that part a little more naturally, and dropping the volume in the mix. The synth in the background 00:14-00:45 sounds a bit like a bagpipe as well - not particularly pleasant to my ear. It gets much nicer from 00:47 with that trancey-style synth dripping in delay, and those nice bells, however the bagpipe soon comes back! I like the arrangement at the moment, but the sound design could be a lot better. Consider sculpting your synths more with EQ and filtering, maybe add some more voices to the synth, phasing and LFO panning/extra width to envelop the listener in the atmosphere.

Oooh, I love this! Really cool approach to making the track, and it suits the lofi genre perfectly. Your arrangement has a really nice groove, improving on the original in every way. Great mixing, too - it's a little raw, but that's part of the genre and I actually thought at first that you'd sampled the original directly, rather than covering it first. Overall a really solid, confident mix. Very impressed!

Oh man, I remember this level. I had to give the controller to my friend to beat it for me when I was a kid! I agree with Vidilian's comments about the drums. Try looking for some higher quality samples, and take care when mixing them so that all the percussion sounds cohesive, i.e. could be part of the same kit (whether that be synthetic or sampled drums). The fill at 2:34 really exposes the weak snare. Look out for your sub-bass frequencies that could be muddying the overall volume of the mix. The bass drum seems to have a really low-end to it that may be pushing your limiter too hard. Make sure you use an EQ to check the low frequencies in your mix, in case your headphones/speakers don't expose it. I quite liked the arrangement, the little break part at 1:53 could be a good opportunity to switch up the arp, although I like that you've tried some filtering, delay and more effects on it there. The bitcrushed effect at 1:57 is cool. Really dig the last section, too, including the outro. Synths used are a good start, but could do with some tweaking to make them a little more interesting on the ear. Get the drums up to scratch first, then revisit the synths and see how they're sounding.

Coming back to OCR during coronavirus is like finding a really cosy corner of the internet to curl up in and listen to beautiful pieces of music like this. Great job with this remix, it's always hard to stray from such recognisable sources, so to keep it fairly conservative whilst still putting your own spin on it is really nice work. Didn't even notice it was 6 minutes, it felt shorter.

Thoroughly excellent take on a classic theme, somehow distilling it and rebuilding it into something different yet equally nostalgic.

Love the Advance Wars series, and I'm glad a remix has finally been posted from the game that started it off. What a great debut from Mico too, it has that authentic Advance Wars feel, with the slight rawness to the sound design, and really chugs along nicely.

I thoroughly enjoyed this! I can just imagine the little kremlings on their rollercoaster yodelling away to this. It's madness, hope you find a yodeller to realise your vision!

Now I'm just imagining Lil' Jon yelling "EXTEND"

Version without the answerphone up on my soundcloud. Thanks for the comments

Hnnnnngggggg this is just perfect for what I'm listening to right now! Absolutely love the synthwave movement/revival, and these sources are just fantastic material to work with. Not much deviation, true, but when the sources are this good, why bother?

Who knew the water temple had a theme?! Incredible job by Emunator here to not only evoke instant memories of the game using his sound design, but actually also remind me of the music in the water temple! The addition of the potion shop theme was inspired, and took me completely by surprise as I listened to it before reading the writeup. Loved the journey it took me on here, from the eerie Eastern-sounding wind and string instruments, through those epic vocals (almost like something out of Smack My Bitch Up) to that instantly recognisable synth at 3:50 that sounds exactly like the noise when you defeat the boss in the temple and step into the blue light. Wonderfully done! Finishing with the Serenade of Water just capped off this piece perfectly.

Anything by David Wise is an auto-DL for me, and this track elevates the source to its full potential, no doubt about that. Great remix, looking forward to hearing more from Light Pillar

Well it seems like you've identified most of the areas you need to touch up already! I've been listening to the Tropical Freeze soundtrack a lot recently, and that Stickerbrush flute section sounds very similar to the style of Dave Wise's version on Tropical Freeze. Not sure if that was intentional but . Not too sure about the Hot Head Bop transition, but as you said you're going to work on that. Gorgeous soundscape and instrumentation though, and if you could get them live that'd be even better. Can't wait to hear the finished thing

Really fun remix! I always enjoy obscure source tunes, especially when they're from the older systems. Nice usage of SID-style sounds, cool soloing, and that opening chord progression really reminds me of halc's First Time on Outset remix: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01917

It never ceases to amaze me how different each remix can be of the utterly godlike soundtrack that is David Wise's DKC2. This is an all-round superb composition, and the gritty, dark atmosphere that palpable sets up in the intro works so well with the melody that I get goosebumps every time it comes in. I love DiGi's rapping style, and the peaceful chorus vocals are like a breath of fresh air in amongst the intensity of the rest of the track. Doesn't get much better than this, really!

Awesome track, super-clean, energetic, and that bass synth really snarls. Love it.

Ah I remember this from the WIP boards a while back! Really happy to see it got a direct post; I love it! Your other stuff is great too, I hope it makes it onto OCR in future!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Baby!

Nice one lady and gents!

Yep, just commenting to say I loved this piece, and with some minor touches to the strings I'm sure it'd be an easy pass. Nice choir in there as well - maybe play with the attack on it just a little to make it a bit more natural/have more feel? I'd also just wind down the ending a little bit slower than the abrupt finish. Beautiful piece!

Just finish the god damned song already!

Hey, this is really good! Great sound choices, nice subtle touches of vibrato, and a really good progression through the song. That bass sounds a little "flappy", maybe try and reduce the attack on it to almost nothing, or layer it with the same sound an octave higher at slightly lower volume. Is there slight clipping at 2:43? That crash sounds a little harsh, you could scoop out some frequencies and keep the same effect there without causing it to overcompress the track at that point. Also, after that crash you should bring in some pads to fill out the low-mids and drive home those climactic bars. Just a few points of improvement you could make pretty easily there, but I think you're onto a winner with this one!

Welcome back to OCR! Thanks for sharing this WIP, it's got a lot of potential! Seems like you've got a lot of ideas and ambition for this track. I love the changeup at 2:20 - if you didn't get a vocalist, you should just have this section come in about a minute earlier and then extend it. Rockos might be right about this being too liberal at the moment, but it's a great start.

Is this the right source? Your remix is pretty cool, it's kinda hard to comment on how you've interpreted it since the overall feel of both source and remix is very similar. The source feels more dramatic, whilst the remix seems more chilled. It might be personal taste, but I'd say give it some more bass punch and snarl. Good effort so far!