Chimpazilla

I like the chill vibe that is established right away, and I like the drum groove but the drums are not well balanced, the hats or shaker is loud enough but I can barely hear the kick. When the melody drops at 0:35, that lead is straight-up terrible, I'm so sorry to be that harsh, but the timbre sounds like a placeholder while you did the writing, and you forgot to replace it with something nice. It sounds like the "initialize" preset on a synth, with no effects or modulation at all, it is expressionless and dry. The lead at 1:15 is silky and gorgeous and the writing is fabulous. The lead that begins at 2:09 is better than the first lead, but I'm not sure the morphing nature of this sound is working here, for this type of writing, and it is mixed too quietly. The writing here sounds just the same as the first lead part. As the track goes on, that cool drum groove really never changes much, neither does the backing chord progression, and the padding sounds the same all the way through, leaving the track feeling repetitive despite the multiple lead solos. I feel like the soundscape needs more variation, even just for a small section, to break it up, and the first and third lead sound need to be improved. NO (resubmit)

Ugh, I struggle with medleys and medley-like arrangements. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I've been going over this one with Beatdrop for a little while here... and I have to agree with his assessment almost entirely. This is a really nicely produced track, it sounds great! But like Beatdrop, I can't identify 1:12-1:48 at all. It doesn't seem to be "The Stage Is Set" (in fact I can't identify that source anywhere in the mix.) You've mentioned that at 2:20 we hear the "main action theme of FF8." Beatdrop and I have been looking for a youtube video of that, and nothing is listed. Anyone familiar with FF8's OST, help! I have to also agree that 2:40-3:48 sounds really out of place, the track comes to a near-complete stop before and after this section, really chopping up the flow of the arrangement. This is an interesting arrangement decision, gives it a "multi-movement" kind of feel, but I'm not sure it works with OCR's standards. I have to agree that removing that section would make it more cohesive, although the track would definitely lose something that you've spent time to create. This is a super good sounding mix and I hate to do this, but I think it just doesn't fit into the standards with this arrangement. Also *gets out soapbox yet again* PLEASE PEOPLE... INCLUDE A SOURCE BREAKDOWN WITH YOUR SUBMISSION... especially when you are mixing multiple sources! It really helps us out and speeds up the judging process! NO (resubmit)

I'm finding plenty of source here, with really nice interpretation. I think this is a fun mix, very upbeat, nice soloing, mixed well. Fun little tune, works for me! It's almost too short, but doesn't outstay its welcome and wraps up to a nice conclusion. YES

Hello! I’ve long been tempted by the idea of contributing to the wonderful archive of OC-remixes, so here’s my first submission. I’ll make this short, as you probably get a lot of submissions per day. Real name - Hallvard A. Ulsund Website - www.farkaudio.no ReMixer name - Fark Userid - 53571 Name of game arranged: Zool - (Ninja of the Nth Dimension) Name of arrangement: "Ninja-Godteri” (means “Ninja Candy” in Norwegian) Additional info about the game: From Wikipedia: Zool also known as Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension is a video game originally produced for the Amiga by Gremlin Graphics in 1992. Original Composer - Patrick Phelan Links to original song: http://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/Zool Own comments - It’s been about twenty years since I both visited the Nth dimension, and heard the original theme song. I’ll never forget you, you beetle-ant-gremlin-candy nivja-thingy you <3 I hope that’s all you need. Just hit me back if there’s anything missing. Regards. Hallvard A. Ulsund Norway

Ack, my ears, those screaming saws. They sound like nails on a chalkboard to me. Not that they can't work and I know some people really like them. I'm going to have to revisit this one and check the sources, but I'm inclined toward no simply because the track is relentless, brittle, and LOUD. I wish there were a softer section somewhere. The drums never change. There are some nice details in the arrangement though. Ok we'll see about this one. edit: I'm going to go with my gut, I feel like this needs further work and Larry's vote helped me be sure of mine. So yeah, better leads, more variation in the beat, and ideally some sort of softer section or breakdown would be a great direction to take this. NO (resubmit)

Greetings. I would like to submit one of my remixes. Here are details about me: · My ReMixer name: DEMON ShineGami · My email address: · My userid: 53566 And about the track: · Name of game(s) arranged: Super Valis IV · Name of arrangement: Battle for Dream World · Name of individual song(s) arranged: Vecanti; Castle Vanity; Valhalla · Additional information: the game was developed by Telenet Japan and released in 1992 for PC Engine (CD-ROM) and then ported to SNES. Original soundtrack for SNES version was composed by Junta (PC Engine version has a completely different music). And since I’m using the SNES version music all the credit goes to Junta. · Link to the original soundtrack (in the order of my remixed version): 1. Vecanti ( )2. Castle Vanity ( )3. Valhalla ( )· Your own comments about the mix: this is one of my most beloved SNES games. Its graphic, gameplay and characters are simply marvelous. And so is the music. That’s why I decided to make my own arrangement of these three favorite themes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vecanti Castle Vanity Valhalla

This is a very interesting way to remix this happy little tune! I think some tightening up of this mix is needed though. The intro harp and flute are stiff and quantized, but it seems ok. At 1:00 though, you just have the flute playing by itself, it is much too exposed there playing all alone, and with no breathing breaks, it really sounds too fake. I suggest filling this section with some kind of gentle padding, like with strings maybe. Then at 1:15, there's a much louder section that starts with no transition into it, so it is too abrupt. I find your tambourine too loud. There are a few notes that don't work in the section from 1:27 to 1:32, I think the bass notes are off there. There are some more bass notes that aren't working from 2:04 to 2:10. At 2:11, that lead instrument is WAY too loud, turn it down for sure. So to summarize, cute idea, needs a bit of tightening up, would be nice for some of the instruments to sound just a bit less stiff, but the few changes I mentioned above would do it for me. NO (resubmit)

ReMixer name: Berelac real name: Karl Brown email address: website: Soundcloud.com/karlisberelac Facebook.com/karlisberelac userid: Name of game(s) arranged: Kirby Super Star Name of arrangement: Afternoon Cheesecake Name of individual song(s) arranged: Green Greens/Kirby Dance Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc: I really wanted to experiment with an orchestral sound as opposed to my normal EDM style, so I decided to take one of my favorite games of all time and do an orchestral rendition of a song from it. I've always loved the happy and beautiful sounds of harps and flutes, so they were my main focus on the song. I think this rendition really captures the happy, yet marching nature of the kirby series and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. ------------------------------------------------------

This is transcribed almost too well, the writing is the same as the source just about verbatim. However I find the soundscape completely different, I really like the sounds used (with the exception of the most detuned of the saws where they are playing lead, but that's a personal preference). The track has a nice deep bass presence. Nice filtering effects. Drums are groovy, there are some nifty hat patterns, and I like the 909 rimshot quite a bit. While it is quite a conservative arrangement, I feel like there are enough additions to this track that differentiate it enough from the original. While the instrumentation stays the same throughout, I don't find any repetitiveness in the arrangement. I am enjoying this quite a lot. edit 4-22-15: With a strong disagreement from Larry, I listen again. I'm now hearing some bits of distortion in the filtered intro that I missed before. Perhaps the track is a bit overcompressed. The hats are probably too loud, yeah they shouldn't be this much louder than the leads. I still don't care for the wide/detuned saws used as leads, Larry and I agree there, they do end up bleeding into the background. What about layering a narrower more expressive lead over the top of the detuned saw? Something with some delayed vibrato? It might make a better statement and you could add some solo-y bits to the writing. I should not have said I don't hear any repetition in the arrangement, clearly there is a lot of repetition. I feel like there is just enough variation added to keep it interesting, but it's a close call. More unique elements in the sections would really help distinguish them from each other. I'm going to flip my vote here and throw it back to have the compression addressed and a bit of an eq cleanup as well, cleaning up the bass in particular may be all that is needed to fix the distortion and muddiness. The hats need to come down in volume. While you're in there, you might want to experiment with better (and narrower, more impactful) leads. Still, I really like this! NO (resubmit)

Contact Information Checkmat3 Derrick Booth www.youtube.com/rookiemonster86 53364 Submission Information Final Fantasy VII A Bomb and an AVALANCHE Bombing Mission Nobuo Uematsu, Playstation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8NGDsnv34M (Wasn't sure of a good place to find a link, I hope this suffices.) 1:12 is where the music of my arrangement starts. I love many Final Fantasy games, but VII has my heart. It was my first RPG (I lived under a rock.) Every time that you start a new game, this is the song that you hear. I loved it and wanted to give it a proper update, but keep the nostalgia intact. Every last note in this song was transcribed from sheet music, and many sounds are of my own creation. Even the breakdown, which is mainly some wooshing noises (I was pretty proud of that. )

I like the idea of the DnB mix but the writing here is quite repetitive, lots of copy/pasta. I like the heavy sidechaining and the lead sound especially. Good filtering and fx. The drums sound like one loop. There are some sections with badly clashing notes like 0:40-0:52, with the note at 0:48 being the worst offender. This section appears again at 2:12-2:24, verbatim. Good start on this track, but needs more writing and timbre variation and some harmonic cleanup to be passable. NO (resubmit)

ReMixer Name : Aloysius Real Name : Alex Inch Email Address : Name of Game ReMixed : Sonic The Hedgehog Name of Arrangement : Gotta Go Fast Name of Individual Song : Green Hill Zone Theme Hey, this is my first time submitting anything to the site, a friend recommended that I submit this song. It's a some what slow (150bpm) DnB remix of Green Hill Zone (Not that you ever get any of those), with a kinda chiptuney outro. I hope you like it! -------------------------------------------------

Interesting ideas here, I like the style you're going for but the production has issues. I can't tell what soundfonts are being used here, it sounds like electric guitar and also maybe a sax? All the soundfonts sound thin and buzzy and full of midrange. The writing ends up being quite repetitive as well, and the drums are an autopilot loop. I think this idea has promise, but may require a total timbre overhaul as well as a bit more writing variation. NO (resubmit)

ReMixerName: djDisasterpiece Real Name: Terrance "AEnima85" Fairbairn Email: Game Arranged: Final Fantasy 7 Name of Arrangement: The Bone Village Boys Rat Pack Special Song Arranged: Parochial Town -----------------------------------------------------------

This is really lovely, but sooooo conservative and similar to the source. It is so similar that I actually layered the track with the source to check, nope not the same but very similar, right down to the continued arp pattern on the harp (played an octave lower in this mix than the source) and the sleighbell sound. I really like this mix, but is it too conservative? I'm going to see what others think. edit 4-20-15: You're right Emu, it does sound boomy. The harp is taking up the low end for quite a good portion of the time, so it feels like the low end is missing, while at the same time having too much in the mid-lows. The instruments do need an eq cleanup, and any delays and reverbs need to be lowcut to take the mud out of them. I usually lowcut all my reverbs and delays at an absolute minimum of 100Hz, usually higher though, but it depends on the instrument. You really do not want to hear the low end of reverbs or delays, they only mud things up. Compression has definitely been applied after the reverb, this is evident because the mastering is too loud for the genre, a lot of the subtle dynamics are lost and the end result is too reverby. You're going to want to mix and volume-balance the instruments just the way you want them in the mixdown stage so you don't have to raise the gain on your master compressor and/or limiter this much to get the volume this high. I also think the samples won't sound so exposed once the mixing (re-balance, eq cleanup of instruments and reverbs/delays) and mastering (overcompression) are addressed. I'm still concerned that this is too conservative, but I still find it lovely, and there are some nice extra harmonies and details added. Please clean it up! NO (resubmit)

Remixer name: SOuNDSNC Name: Brenden Frank Email: Website: https://soundcloud.com/soundsnc userid: SOuNDSNC Game: Xenogears Arrangement: Ominous Waltz Original Song: Omen Original Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda Link to Original: Comments: This was made in Ableton Live using primarily Miroslav Philharmonic. I've always wanted to make an arrangement on this piece because of its dark tone. I have the utmost respect for Mitsuda and his ability to make an emotional impact with his music. Arranging his music gave me a deeper connection to what he was feeling while writing the piece. I would certainly say my rendition is a lot less negative but I definitely feel that the ominous tone was maintained throughout.

This mix is loud. It's a waveform sausage and is hitting -8db RMS. It isn't distorting, though. I find the writing to be pretty good, but with the instrumentation never changing it sounds pretty samey as it goes along. The instrumentation is pretty generic though. I love me some 303 bass but I can barely hear it as the lead timbre takes over the whole soundscape, smothering everything else including the drums. In the intro there is some silent-kick sidechaining which gives the lead saw some interest, but at 0:57 the sidechaining ends and the saw sounds super vanilla and super loud and also dry. The writing is pretty good so it's a shame that the saw is so loud and dominant. I like the little bits of glitching but I wish the sidechaining was still there, at least on the backing synth, and I'd like to hear the 303 bass. Ok so I've said that I like the writing, but upon listening again carefully to the source, I can't make out any source in this remix whatsoever. Other judges, can you? edit 4-20-15: Listening again with the correct source, ok so it's actually quite conservative after the long intro. My above production crits stand. The lead synth is SO loud, and so dry and a bit shrill, with zero modulation or interest added. Heck even a bit of delay would improve it. But it HAS to come down in volume. I'd really recommend you swap that lead sound out at some point for something different just to break it up. The writing ends up sounding really repetitive overall, especially since that loud saw never changes. NO

I find this to be a good mix of the two themes, nicely done there! I think that first kick hit is unnecessary. Drums are nice and punchy. Good mix of instruments, although sometimes the leads are a bit quiet, especially the square. Good arrangement, good melodic variation in the writing. Nice use of glitching, subtle and effective and not overused. The wubs at 1:02 are so soft and quiet, I wish they had been more intense, but they are appropriate. I really like the final section beginning at 2:55, great soloing (and I love the widening at 3:17) and string stabs in the background. Overall, I like it. edit 4-22-15: Since Larry disagreed with me so strongly I decided to listen again. I can see where he's coming from about the snare, it is a unique sound and is mixed in a sort of strange way, but I don't find it out of place with the other instrumentation. I don't agree that the beats are static, I hear lots of variation, especially in the kick, with the snare keeping the beat nicely. Sorry Larry, I am not sure why you think it plods? Maybe because the snare is so prominent (and oddly mixed) and it is the anchor element of the beat. (Ok listening AGAIN... I do hear that the same pattern has been used often, but it's a good pattern and it is broken up often with glitching or effects or other things. I had to listen quite closely to get "plodding" out of it.) [Haha Larry, this beat is to me as those chimes are to you!] Anyway I do agree with Larry on two other counts, the track is dry overall and I wonder if that is what is causing the soundsape to sound thin. The synth choices are also on the generic side. But even with all of this said, I still think the track has a great level of creativity and what is here is mixed well even while being a bit on the dry side. These crits don't hold it back for me. YES

I think you did a tremendous job utilizing Shreddage, lead and rhythms and bass all sound great! I think I like your remix better than the original. Guitars and synths sound great, drums are rockin' and snare has just the right amount of snap. Nice melody/countermelody/harmony interplay. Superduper, wish it were longer. YES

Interesting concept here with the vocals. Vocals are well performed. I like the mix of instrumentation with the guitars, synths and vocals. I'm finding the bass somewhat muddy and indistinct, otherwise the mixing is working well enough. I'm hearing plenty of source and the arrangement is very good. I like the concept overall. YES

This is a gorgeous track, and the samples are used quite well. There are a couple of bendy notes in the clarinet that sound fakey, but not enough to complain about. The track is a pass on production, it sounds lovely. Mastering is quiet yet appropriate. The arrangement is very nice and includes some fitting original sections. I'm struggling with the source on this. I'm going to do a bit of a breakdown: remix 0:00-0:38 is chord progression of source 0:38-1:02 remix 0:38-0:54 is this same chord progression plus the source melody 0:06-0:32 remix 0:54-1:30 same chord progression, but a bit harder to follow, and original melody? 1:30-1:47 source melody 0:06-0:32 1:47-2:03 I can't tell if this is from the source or original 2:03-2:22 seems to be original 2:22-2:39 seems to be original 2:39-2:57 source melody 0:06-0:32 2:57-3:15 original 3:15-3:36 source melody 0:22-0:32 I come up with 146 seconds, 146/216 is 67% source, also the chord progression of 0:38-1:02 is implied throughout, ok so there's enough methinks. YES

Remixer Name: KingTiger Real Name: R. Corey Oltman Email Address: Website: KingTigerMusic.com UserID: 13997 Names of Games Arranged: Mega Man 9 & Adventures in the Magic Kingdom Name of Arrangement: Space Pirate Attack Name of Individual Songs Arranged: Mega Man 9: Galaxy Fantasy (Galaxy Man stage); Adventures in the Magic Kingdom: Pirate Island Additional Game Info for Adventures in the Magic Kingdom: system - NES; composer - Yoko Shimomura (my phone just tried to autocorrect "Yoko" to "Yolo" - epic fail); published 1990 by Capcom Soundtrack for Adventures in the Magic Kingdom - (you can ask DarkeSword all about it) Link to ReMix: Additional Comments: I made this mix for the WCRG 2013, and apparently, several people really liked it! I immediately put it up on the workshop forums and started getting some great feedback, which I put to good use. I then shelved the song for several months (as I did all my music projects, actually), and finally got back to work on it about a week and a half into the month of May. I spent a week gathering new feedback and making revisions before I was satisfied, and here it is! There's a wee bit of funk (and I do mean wee), and lots of aggressive builds and drums and so on. It hits hard and takes no prisoners (just like a space pirate)! Now, the story behind WCRG 2013 is kinda interesting... First off, DarkeSword surprised everyone (and pissed off a good number of folks) by making the competition's participants mix their chosen sources with songs not from Mega Man games, but NES Disney games that Capcom had published. I myself (and I imagine some others) found the first Disney source (Pirate Island from Adventures in the Magic Kingdom) a bit difficult to work with, but I made the best of it, and everyone was pretty pleased with the results of their efforts, if not with the means by which it all happened. After the first block of the competition, everything returned to normal (as much as you can consider anything in that compo "normal"), and I later went on to write a well-received rap for block 3 about the whole thing. (BTW, gotta give a shout out to my compo teammates, ladyWildfire and Sterling Ortiz! We were able to earn fourth place on the compo, thanks to our consolidated efforts. Also, anyone who reads this should also go check out *all* the great tracks from WCRG 2013: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44149 They're all great!) Thanks, ~r. corey oltman, aka KingTiger

ReMixer name: Pl511 UserID: 48825 Name of game: Halo: Combat Evolved Name of arrangement: Sierra-117 Name of song arranged: Main Theme Link To Remix Comments: This mix was conceptualised about two years ago, a long time before I had enough of the software to achieve the level of quality that would do the original track justice. Since then my orchestral writing has improved pretty significantly, and - with about 10 arrangements under my belt - I finally feel like this kind of stuff is OCR standard. Most arrangements and remixes I've heard of the track lack the emotion of the original, and with this particular arrangement specifically I've been attempting to breath a little life into what is now quite a cliché track to work on. As well as a lot of variation and artistic license used throughout, I've also composed two or three melodies to accompany and serve to enhance the original main melody. Hope you all enjoy it, it's been a blast to work on! -Pl511

Thanks for that source breakdown, Larry, appreciated. This track really does flow together quite seamlessly, almost too seamlessly, but it ends up sounding very dreamy and I can picture it in a movie about forests and fairies. It is very relaxing. The samples are indeed used well. I have one big gripe though, the chime sound is overused, it is the same chime over and over, on every (or every other) one-count, for a good part of the track. The arrangement works, it isn't quite my cup of tea because it lacks much in the way of dynamics and it drones for me after awhile, but overall it does achieve the dreamy atmo that it sets out to impart. I think I just have to throw it back at you to remove or replace some of the relentless chimes, it is just too many of the same sound and it takes me out of the mood unfortunately. NO (resubmit)

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game(s): Final Fantasy 5, 6, 7, 9 and 12 Name of Arrangement: Final Fantasy Forest Medley Individual Tracks in the Arrangement: "Legend of the Deep Forest" (FF5), "Phantom Forest" (FF6), "Chasing The Black Caped Man" (FF7), "Evil Forest" (FF9) and "Eruyt Village" (FF12) Comments: This is an original orchestral arrangement of five different forest themes from the Final Fantasy series. I've attached the file, but here is a link for you to listen to it at: This song is my pride and joy. I've remixed almost every forest theme from every game I've ever played, some of them more than once, but there are few that I feel really captured the essence of some of the gorgeous video game forest environments out there. Some of my favorite video game forests are the Phantom Forest from FF6 (the theme from this is in my medley), The Shadow Forest and Gaia's Navel from Chrono Cross, The Moore Forest from FF5 (also in this track even though I just did an "As I Feel You Feel" remix the other day), the Macalania Forest from FF10, the Lost Woods from Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past, Guardia Forest from Chrono Trigger, The Forest of Illusions from Super Mario World, Faron Woods from Twilight Princess, The Ancient Forest from FF7 (that song also made its way into this remix), the Salikawood, Feywood and other forests in FF12 (Eruyt Village is actually the basis of this orchestral cover) and many many more. Uncharted, Elder Scrolls, Donkey Kong, Far Cry and Goldeneye had some great forest levels worth mentioning as well! Anyway, my favorite video game forest of all time is the Evil Forest from FF9. That theme song is also in this track. As with all my remixes and covers, I used samples of real instruments to create the sound, and I composed the entire thing from scratch. Here is a list of the tracks included in this medley: Eryut Vullage (FF12) Phantom Forest/Mystic Forest (FF6) Evil Forest/Awakened Forest/Stirring of the Forest (FF9) Legend of a Deep Forest/Forest of Moore (FF5) Chasing the Black Caped Man (FF7) FF5: FF6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-iC0JdpDzE FF7: FF9: FF12: