Chimpazilla

That's some impressive violin playing. The arrangement is mostly conservative but then goes into some really interesting territory at 1:45 with a unique breakdown and some soloing. At 2:37 there's a really interesting section where the violin becomes sfx. Love it! My big issue with the track is I don't feel like it's mixed that well. I can barely hear the bass but the kick is too loud. The violin seems muffled most of the time. The drumming is generally very stiff and I'm not sure how well the kit suits the playing style. NO

Remixer Name: Trev Wignall Email: Website: facebook.com/trevwignallofficial Game: F-Zero X Arrangement: Dream Silencer Arranged Tune: Silence (Dream Chaser) Comments: The lead is electric violin. It sounds like some sort of guitar or synth sometimes, but it really is electric violin all the way through! The effects solo 2/3 of the way through is all done in real-time using my custom effects patch in NI's Guitar Rig 5. It's an abstract violinistic interpretation of what it might be like inside one of those cockpits... Instruments: Fourness Fuse Electric Violin (Lead) NI Guitar Rig 5 (Violin FX) Waldorf Pulse 2 and Blofeld (Basses) Zoom 9030 (Bass FX) NI Battery 3 and Kontakt (Drums) Travis Bean Electric Guitar (Rhythm) Ableton Live (DAW) The Silence theme doesn't really get enough love in my opinion, compared to Big Blue and Mute City. The inspiration do this (and I've wanted to submit for a very long time) comes from the great remixers of OCRemix. Lastly, here's a video of me playing it live. Thanks and enjoy, Trev Wignall

My main reason for paneling this instead of DPing it is that the arrangement gets repetitive because the instrumentation stays the same throughout. The song feels much longer than it is because of this. I have only one other crit, at 0:58 the toy piano takes the lead and it is much too quiet while the accordion stays loud as a backing element. So 0:58-1:27 I feel isn't mixed right. And yeah, SoS melody over and over again, although there are nice little variations, speedups, time signature change, etc. I'm a sucker for anything Zelda but especially THIS source, and the accordion and toy piano combo is such a unique way to tackle it. Despite the repetition and some minor mixing issues, the creativity here carries it for me. YES

Remixer name: worldsbestgrandpa Christian name: n/a Email address: Website: facebook.com/folkyall User id: 49865 Game: Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time Arrangement: "Soggy Carousel" Original Source: "Windmill Hut" Instruments: button-box accordion, autoharp, toy-piano, pokemon card on bicycle spokes, creaky door ... Step right up go around and around a mechanical melody lifts your feet from the ground the smile is a snare the song is a spell top hats and coat tails hide the sin well what's wholesome or wicked you cannot tell beware the carousel -worldsbestgrandpa

"Blue Monday" vibe right out of the gate. Drumming is stiff. Interesting ideas, machine-gun kick is a bit much in the intro... then the lead guitar starts, it's too loud and it is very obviously fake and very stiffly sequenced. Synth at 1:58 is very generic sounding. Starting at 2:15 the guitar sounds like it could be real. Right afterward though at 2:27, it's back to the fake stiffly-sequenced sample. Hhhmm. I feel like for this to work, that lead guitar needs to be reworked to sound more human, or possibly replaced with live playing. Adding a few melody variations to the lead writing would also help. Why does the track pan all the way to the left in the outro? NO (resubmit)

Contact Info: Remixer name: Maliris Real Name: Miikka Raatikainen Email: Submission Info: Game: Touhou 4 Lotus Land Story Name of arrangement: Black Apple Original Song: Bad Apple!!

Interesting style! Right off the bat the sax is sounding great, and it sounds great all through the mix. The xylophone is much too loud and sounds extremely fake whenever I hear it in this mix. There are a couple of percussion elements panned 100% left, I really dislike extreme panning. Drums are sort of stiffly sequenced. Piano is realistic enough for me. That xylophone, though. The overall writing is blocky. The arrangement doesn't integrate the two themes, they play in turn, but the arrangement is cohesive enough. Need more time on this one, and some more opinions. edit 10/19/15: I'm going to go with my gut, I think unfortunately this mix isn't quite ready for primetime. The xylophone is the worst offender, but the stiffness of the sequencing of many elements here is bringing this below the bar. I still feel like the arrangement itself is workable, it's just the humanization aspect that's the problem. NO

Hi dear Judges! Hope you're all doing great! (I think I'm stating all my sub mails like this now xD) Contact Information Chernabogue Alexandre MOUREY www.fflproduction.fr ID: 20943 Also features (on sax): XPRTNovice (ID: 48347) Submission Information Final Fantasy 6 & 10 La Ambiente Gogo's Theme (FF6) & Auron's Theme (FF10) -- Both composed by Nobuo Uematsu The inspiration behind this mix is my will to change a little my remix habits. I tend to do a lot of metal/orchestra (and even a blend of both), so trying jazz/latin music was a new challenge for me. It was done in a week, for the FFCC compo, and I recently remastered it a little. My theme was Gogo's, and I had the mix it with Auron's, which ended up in a nice and calm jazzy mix. Many thanks to the awesome Joe/XPRTNovice for the live sax recordings and tips on how to mix live instruments. If you want to check more remixes from that compo, head to my BandCamp to find my "La Buena Vista EP"!

Nice way to handle these sources (which are amazingly emotional even in chiptune form). The remix does attain a moody and sad feel and the performances are very nice including the lush backing vocal harmonies. The main problem I have with this track is, unfortunately, the lead vocal. While Jesse is on-pitch for the most part, and the vibrato is competent, there is something in the vocal quality that isn't fitting this song for me. Perhaps it is the mixing, as the track comes off feeling thin despite the beautiful instrumentation, and the lead vocal feels stiff, too loud/dry, and pasted on top, instead of sitting nicely in the mix. I'm also not convinced you got the best mastering job possible, sorry to say. As much as I can tell how much work and effort and heart went into this, I just can't see it on the site. I'm so sorry. Good luck with the rest of this vote! NO

ReMixer & real name: Eino Keskitalo e-mail: forum id: 20708 ReMixer name: Jorito Real name: Jorrith Schaap e-mail: forum id: 3917 ReMixer name: Xarnax42 Real name: Jesse Deacon forum id: 37005 Names of games arranged: Shovel Knight Name of Arrangement: Shovel's Lament Names of individual songs arranged: The Requiem of Shield Knight, A Thousand Leagues Below Source 1: http://virt.bandcamp.com/track/the-requiem-of-shield-knight Source 2: http://virt.bandcamp.com/track/a-thousand-leagues-below-iron-whale-manami-matsumae The arrangement, with MP3 download: Backup link: This track combines 2 songs from the game Shovel Knight into a sad, lamenting song with vocals. It features the songs 'Requiem of Shield Knight' and 'A Thousand Leagues Below'. It was made in one week for the Knights of the ReMix doubles compo. Composition and arrangement by Jorito and evktalo, lyrics by evktalo and vocals by Xarnax42. Mixed and mastered by Andy Booth from http://www.cheaponlinemixingmastering.co.uk/ - service recommended! ReMixer comments follow. I didn't get anything from Jesse yet, perhaps they can be sent in later if he has something to add? Jorito: This was one of those crazy moments where everything falls into place naturally and gets driven by tons of inspiration and motivation. It already started at the very beginning. Initially we were debating between either a very frantic song or a calm song with orchestral elements. Inspiration struck me, and I went for a sad, lamenting piece, and within 2 hours the basic song and mood were setup. In another bout of inspiration I contacted Jesse (Xarnax42), who had to drop out in the singles tourney, through the forums and asked him if he’d be willing to do the vocals. Turned out that Jesse was eager to do some vocals again and in a stroke of luck he also had time to deliver on short notice. A few back ’n forths of the arrangement between Eino and me and some very constructive IRC sessions later with the 3 of us the rest more or less happened automagically and we all dig the end result that’s now in front of you to enjoy. Eino: Throughout the two rounds of the Shovel Knight tournament, I was amazed by Jorito's drive and work ethic - I did my best to step up my game to keep up with him! It was very educational to work on lyrics for someone else to sing. The writing process was iterative with lots of useful feedback from the whole team, getting everything to fall into place. Jesse being able to do several work-in-progress takes certainly helped with the satisfying end result. All the awkwardness in the lyric was worked out while keeping the intention intact. The lyric should be meaningful without knowing the game, while those familiar with it hopefully appreciate the references. Everything here definitely clicked - everyone was clearly inspired to put forth their best. Very proud of this one. Source breakdown: 0:00-0:07 Celeste intro, based on the Requiem lead at 0:03-0:05. 0:08-0:16 Cello enters, riff is from A Thousand Leagues Below @ 0:55-0:57. 0:16-0:32 Variation of the main melody from Requiem with different bass. 0:32-1:04 Two first thirds of the first verse, based on Requiem's 0:02-0:24 (though on 0:02-0:12 more clearly); ATLB 0:55 riff from the intro features at 0:55-1:04. 1:04-1:35 Final third of the verse follows the 0:25-0:47 portion of the Requiem (ATLB 0:55 riff again ata 1:12-1:20). 1:35-2:08 The chorus is based on ATLB 0:55-1:05, which is easiest to hear 1:43-1:52 and 2:04-2:08. The vocal melody is based on 0:57 and 1:00 of the source. 2:08-2:40 The second verse follows 0:25-0:47 in the requiem. The cello adds some ATLB from 0:19-0:24 at 02:31-02:39. 2:40-3:10 The second chorus. 3:10-3:44 From ATLB 0:19-0:36. 3:45-4:00 From ATLB 0:36-0:46 (acoustic guitar), trumpet solo based on the main Requiem melody. 4:00-4:16 The same, actually. especially audible at the end. 4:16-4:32 From ATLB 0:46-0:55. 4:32-end Repeats of the chorus (neatly continuing the ATLB coverage from 0:55->). That's all. Cheers! http://virt.bandcamp.com/track/the-requiem-of-shield-knight http://virt.bandcamp.com/track/a-thousand-leagues-below-iron-whale-manami-matsumae

Starts out really cool, love the gating effect. Snare isn't my favorite snare sound, it's flat and dry. When the melody drops at 0:18, it is so quiet I can barely hear it. Why is it panned 100% to the right? The kick is clobbering everything, especially starting with the machine-gun stuff... every hit at maximum volume. I like the idea but it's not pulled off right here. The soft breakdown and buildup are good. At 1:29 the lead is again panned, but now to both sides alternately. I'm really not a fan of this type of panning. At 1:38 the machine-gun kick is once again ridiculously too loud and un-humanized. The drumming in general sounds very fake and inhuman. The super-fast metal drumming doesn't fit with the synthy instrumentation imo. The track ending is unfittingly abrupt. I think there is a mixture of good, workable ideas here but they aren't accomplished with enough panache to make them work. NO (resubmit)

RemiXer Name: The Algorithm Real Name: Rémi Gallego Website: https://twitter.com/The_Algorithm Name Of Game arranged: F-Zero Name Of Arrangement: Super Big Blue Turbo X 7 Ultra Edition Name of Song Arranged: Big Blue

This seems like a good start to a remix but it needs more in a couple of regards. The arrangement is really simple, too simple, and quite repetitive. There isn't that much going on in the source, lead melody-wise, but I can't see a reason to do the same in the remix. There's no real lead in the remix until 1:25 (and this lead is too loud and dry), that's a missed opportunity imo. There are some decent soundchoices here in the mix but many of the actual sounds used are very generic with very little effects or processing on them. The drum loop in the intro is so dry and loud. The main kick is mixed too loud and with too much lows taking up too much frequency room. The one-note arp pattern that plays all through the song is very plain and never changes, bass is simple too. I feel like the sidechaining is too heavy on the non-bass elements, especially the lead when it enters at 1:25. Sidechaining a lead can be cool but it has to be done gently and appropriately. More work to be done here, but I do think this is a good start. Needs more variation and better mixing and sound design, also some kind of ending, as the track ends really abruptly. NO (resubmit)

Hello my name is Micah Johnson and my ReMixer name is Dr. M and I am submitting my remix of "Disco Train" from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. The name of my arrangement is "All Aboard the Disco Train".

This is a NO right out of the gate because the first 20 seconds is ripped right from the actual game audio (a no-no with Square Enix) but also this is a 100% midi-rip from 0:00 all the way to 4:08 (at which point the remix repeats the preceding section, while the source tune moves into something else). WOW that's a lot of midi rip, with unhumanized guitar and especially piano that sticks out like a sore thumb. OOF. The reason I even paneled this is that the guitar work IS EXCELLENT. The backing guitar work and leads here are REALLY GOOD. Dammit, why did you have to do such great guitar work over a MIDI RIP??? After the midi rip section is over, the remix opens up into some phenomenal guitar work, such as the section starting at 5:29. The drum work is pretty impressive as well, I'm not sure how much of the drum writing copies the midi (I suspect some is direct midi rip and some is not), but the samples you've used are working really well here. Oh man, after a lot of great guitar stuff, after I've almost FORGOTTEN about the midi rip stuff... at 5:49 that stiff midi piano drops back in and takes a crap onto the track.... BLARG... I hope we will hear from you again, with a remix that does not rely on a midi, at least not in such an obvious way. Wow, great guitar skillz. It's mixed well, too. Sadly, this is a NO

Remixer name: Ananassi My real name: Kalle Kaunisto e-mail: Game: Final Fantasy 8 Song Name: Time Will Not Wait Name of the original song in the game: The Extreme (Ultimecia Final Form Battle Theme) I have always loved Nobuo Uematsu's work. Well, who actually doesn't? Final Fantasy 8 was the game that introduced the whole series to me and I still find its music the best among all Final Fantasy games. This particular song is especially interesting because it has both atmospheric and energitic sections. In addition to this, it also has a very suitable tempo for metal/rock song and has incredible melodies to support heavy distorted riffing.

Starts out dark and cool. That first lead is pretty plain though, and piercing. Good buildup but the drop doesn't have a ton of impact. DnB drumming sounds cool but the pattern is pretty repetitive. Nice soft breakdown... but at 2:38 the melody starts again with that same piercing lead and identical writing to the first iteration (the sections are almost identical). In the sections from 1:19-1:41 and 3:12-3:35, I think the lead writing pattern has at least one note that's off-timed, and it shows because the pattern is used repeatedly in both these sections (used as lead and also as a backing element in a lower octave). Forgive me if that was intentional, but it just sounds off to me. The outro is the identical piano part from the beginning of the breakdown, and it doesn't really feel like a resolution other than the cymbal splash. I want to see what others think of this one before voting but I'm leaning towards resub. edit 9/16/15: The other Js have added some very good advice on this. I'm going to go with my original feeling and say please fix this up and resubmit it. The ideas are solid, just gotta add some variation and polish it up. NO (resubmit)

Hey, thanks for checkin this out! About me: - Epoch - (Ethan Norris) - - https://soundcloud.com/epochbeats Track Info: - Dark Matter (Drum & Bass) - - Inspiration from 'Undersea Palace' from Chrono Trigger

What is this... I don't even... I mean I never... well all I can say is that Rob and his seven identical twins are GREAT on the mandolin, and not too bad at mixing too! This gets an A++ for creativity even before production is considered. Interesting how he made the bass. The arrangement is conservative of course, but this amounts to a Smooth McGroove mix with mandolins which is super cool. (Mandolin McGroove?) I would have preferred a non-fadeout ending, but I'll survive. Short but sweet, this definitely hits my mark for Sofa King creative. Love it! YES

Hello, My name is Rob Wickline. I am one of Mike Worth's students at UArts. Your workshop was amazing! I did an arrangement of "Chemical Plant Zone" from Sonic 2. It is arranged for 8 mandolins. I had been meaning to start doing game remixes for a long time, and I was messing around with the melody one day in between practicing one of Bach's Violin Sonatas (on mandolin), and thought "why not just start recording a crazy mandolin very version of this tune and upload it to youtube. That's pretty much the inspiration. I had a blast! T'was a lot of fun. My real name is Rob Wickline, and my remixer name is Avoid Incorporated. I'm not part of the forums, but that is my artist pseudonym I use to release titles. One interesting that to note about the product is the bass part. Since obviously a mandolin doesn't go very low I had to think of how I was going to handle the bass. So I recorded in the part and then pitched it down one octave and doubled it into another track and dropped it yet another octave. I think it sounds pretty sweet because you get a nice sounding punch from the pitched down sound of pick hitting the string. I definitely want to use it in the future for my electronic music. Here is a link to the original tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LYB7iLZNWE Here is a link to the youtube video I uploaded in case your curious about the video quality of it: If you allow me to be on the website and if you want, I could send you the video of the tune so you could upload that. I'm not really sure if you do that or not, but I figured it's worth mentioning. I think that just about covers it, but let me know if you need anymore information. Thank you, Rob Wickline

This is luscious. I adore the bird ambiance, and the bucketloads of reverb. The heavy sidechaining with the soft kick is good. Drums are a bit simplistically written but it fits the mood. Really nice relaxing track with plenty of source use. I considered this track for a DP but it is quite repetitive and there are a couple of areas of straight copy-pasta in the arrangement. It's such a mellow track that it's hardly noticeable though, it's definitely meditation material, and for that reason I give this a YES

Remixer Name: Neurophonic Real Name: Ryan Lau Email: Website: https://soundcloud.com/neurophonicdnb Forum ID: 54263 Name of game arranged: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong-Quest Name of arrangement: Forest Glade Name of individual song arranged: Stickerbush Symphony Here’s the track! It’s quite chilled. Sit back and meditate or something Ryan

This is some absolutely amazing production. I have zero to criticize. The only reason I am paneling this instead of DP is because it is... repetitive. The source is repetitive, so there's that... but this arrangement just... repeats the same phrase so many times. There are really only two backing chords in the whole mix and I wish there were more. It's a club mix, I get that. The mix does have good structure, breakdowns etc. The lead melody starts late (2:10) but it's the same in the source. There is no variation on this melody at all. So yeah, repetitive. That said, it sounds GREAT. I'm calling this "atmo house." YES

Contact Info: Name - C-Curt Forum ID - 54075 (all other info remains same) Submission Info: Arranged Game - Front Mission 3 Name Of Arrangement - Not All PDAs (Edit) Name Of Source Track - Network Game Info - Orig. Pub. 1999, Sys. PS1, Pub. Squaresoft, Composers Koji Hayama, Hayato Matsuo (lazily written down from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_Mission_3 Source - (Original Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg8JrreGQrA ; Full OST: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDf5rbhJzPT2zpJg-SuytuDoYYL3ginI_ ) Comments: The deeper shades of house music have been become pretty popular lately. For my second OC submission, (after I forgot about my first one) I decided to try to make a song to appease both the club kids and the OCR fans. The result is a storming but atmospheric house number. It isn't really a specific subgenre, so let's be trendy and call it "Vibe House." Not All PDAs was approached a bit different than A Brief Winter Trek was. I wanted to keep the feel of the original track, so I stuck to strict old school style synths and effects. Although the track has potential to rock an opening set or after party, it still retains "dem vibez" for listeners at home. This submission is an edit for OC; this edit shortens the song and reworks the "DJ-friendly" intro and outro for listener convenience. I'll probably host the extended mix privately. Once again, Dead Robot (https://soundcloud.com/deadrobotmusic) (who recently has been working for producers such as Pixl and Candyland) helped with quality control and mastering. As requested, he toned down the master compressor a tiny bit, but no loudness was harmed in the making. ---------------------------------

Good adaptation of this source! It is still eerie, but the guitars do give it more grunge. As for evil, idunno, the source is already pretty evil even without the grunge! The drone bass in the intro gets too loud. I get what you're going for here but it's drowning everything out. The guitar lead and backing sound very good when they come in. Drums sound a little quiet but the writing is good and the drums are cutting through fine. This arrangement doesn't really develop into much, but neither does the source. I think this arrangement works fine. I really think that intro drone bass needs to come down in volume though. Dealbreaker? I'm not sure yet, let's hear from other Js. edit 9/16/15: Listening again, the guitar work is really good, drums are fine. The drone bass in the intro is too loud to be sustained that long, and the white noise is very plain, could use some effects or reverb and should also be lower in volume. The rest of the song is really fine imo, but the intro goes on quite long so the drone bass issue does push this into resub territory for me. Fix it up, send it back! NO (resubmit)