MindWanderer

Back in the voting thread, I made the exact same comment on the layered sections being too crowded, although I cited a different standout example (2:18-2:47).  It's still true.  I'll also repeat my comment that the arrangement is busy in a serial manner as well as a parallel one: sometimes it's so eager to move on that it doesn't fully flesh out what it's doing, such as when 0:24-0:36 and 2:12-2:23 aren't repeated.
So... yeah.  In some ways this is too much of a good thing.  Either do a lot of aggressive EQ work, or swap some layering for some call-and-return, or just simplify in general. I wouldn't hold it back on the other issue--it's more my preference than anything else--but if you're going to spend more time on this anyway, you can at least take a look.
NO (resubmit)

Sure, start with sheet music. Some of us do. Some of us use our ears and guess. Some of us download a midi file. It doesn't matter what we start with. It only matters what we end up with.
If you're just starting out, it doesn't matter anyway. It'll take you a while to get good at this stuff, so anything that helps you is a good thing. But once your skills are on the level where you can get a remix approved by the panel, you might find yourself limited by starting from something too similar from the original. This applies to sheet music, midi, and your own transcription of the original. Doesn't mean you can't do it, just that it's more difficult to make it your own arrangement. But it's a later concern. Just get started and have fun.

Oh, yeah.  A friend who moved to another state made me very jealous by playing Portal 2 with his daughter.  But my daughter just turned 2 years old, and all our current friends' kids are no older than 4, so it's gonna be a while.  Believe me, I'm constantly evaluating them to see when they might be able to handle even something as simple as a LEGO game.  I have a long list of co-op games I want to try with my daughter when she's old enough, and hope she'll be interested.

Gario pretty much nailed it, I think.  The connection to "Through the Valleys" is iffy, but it's a minuscule amount of the arrangement. Everything else plays out exactly as Gario said, including the sections of the main theme that appear in Skyrim but not Oblivion.  The melodies chosen are clear throughout, which doesn't always happen when working when either the source or the arrangement contains this much other stuff going on.  Even being borderline on the 50% stopwatch test, it's very clearly based on at least one of at least 3 sources throughout.  And the return to the main theme at the end was a beautiful, effective touch.
Strings are a tiny bit mechanical for a few brief moments, with some odd swells especially in the Watchman's Ease section, but it's barely worth mentioning.  Otherwise this pretty much nails the production.
Great arrangement with some powerful inspiration behind it.  I love it.
YES

Richter Belmont is yours, sir!

The key word is "gradually."  Streaming services do this.  I don't know of any standard software that applies any kind of volume standardization to a plain ol' playlist of MP3's.  As such, we have to make certain guesses as to how loud a track should be in comparison to similar music that exists, not only on OC ReMix, but elsewhere in the general market.  We're pretty tolerant, on the whole: unless a track has a lot of unused headroom, or is distorted, pumping, or clipping, we're likely to be OK with it (although there's certainly some subjectivity involved, as NutS and Rozo said).

Battle to the Grave: This is full of seriously clashing notes.  Timing seems out of sync in a lot of places, too--part of this is due to a lead with a really slow attack, which is really obvious with some of the quick notes that never get the chance to fully form.  I'm having a hard time picking out Mercury's theme, but that's not surprising given that what I can hear of Spectre Knight's theme is greatly distorted. The Siege of Venus: Pretty slick concept here to start off with.  The jazz works better than after Wandering Travelers starts, though--it tries to be big band, but it's a small band.  Panning is also unbalanced--it makes sense to have instruments have a "place" in the audio space, but that can become an issue when all the instruments playing at a particular time at a particular frequency range are on one side.  The arrangement was just Venus->Wandering Travelers, no integration between them, and even the genre changed. Four Against One, Sounds like Fun: Interesting take on Wandering Travelers, focusing on the late part of the song.  Arrangement is pretty good, mostly the usual production issues here--balance, overcompression--which are secondary concerns for this compo and can always be fixed given time.

Review time!
El Polar Enker: This is kind of a textbook example of a static arrangement.  There are only two leads, the guitar and the piano, and their thin and artificial character makes them sound very similar to each other.  The percussion is a simple loop that's varied very little from beginning to end, and there's very little other accompaniment; the Enker section has some mid-range piano playing a simple loop, and that's about it aside from an extremely quiet bass.  As for source usage, it's a straightforward A-B-A pattern, which works but isn't very striking. Arctic Robot Dance Party: A good effort at integrating two sources that don't lend themselves to integration in any obvious way.  Some good ideas here, although vanilla synths and simple beats do bring it down somewhat.  Some of the transitions are a little awkward, and the ending is a little abrupt. King of the Kuiper Belt: I had a very hard time identifying the source usage.  On the second listen, I caught some suggestions of both themes, but they're really far afield.  Nice approach with the style, although there was an awful lot of the organ lead that could have been switched up a little.  Bass and highs were both a little light. Pridemoor Cat: Not bad at all!  A little slow and repetitive, but it's trance.  There's an odd effect in the first main section and again at the end where the lead is pushed back a little, which almost works, except that the mid-low arp is supposed to fill in the pauses in the Pluto theme, but isn't quite beefy enough to pull it off.  I was worried about a simple A-B-A arrangement here, but then you started doing the layered thing, and it worked really well!  It was kind of disappointing when that section ended, since it was easily the best part and there was a full minute left.  Solid approach overall though. Fellow Knight: Odd how this gradually grows less melancholy and more trancey as it goes, until the end when it reverses.  The lead is a little static, but it's a good arrangement.  Nice, if brief, layering of the sources.

I'm putting my round 4 reviews here since the voting thread for that one is just for votes.
Armor Medley: Well, it's a piano medley.  Does what it says on the box.  Almost no integration of themes here, pretty much just three piano covers end-to-end. Lonely Cosmic Workshop: Nice integration of the sources.  Severe overcompression, though, and the levels could definitely use some work.  Could do without the fake orchestral instruments.  Overall, though, this definitely hits the main design goal of the compo. Shovel Power: There's a certain deliciousness in using 80's synths to remix a game designed to emulate 80's game aesthetics.  Other than some odd harmonies a little atypical for the genre, I don't have any substantial crits here.  Fun stuff! Not So Deviant Ballade: Lots of clashing notes, and the various instrumental lines don't sound like they're integrated in any meaningful way.  The vanilla saw lead and the overcompression aren't doing this any favors, either. Ghost in the Machine: As much as I hate cliche titles, you could hardly have chosen a different one here!  Accompaniment is frequently off-key.  More vanilla leads, but at least it's a couple of different ones. Tinkering on Pluto: A very static arrangement.  Instrumentation and beats hardly vary at all after the melody kicks in.  Heavily crowded in the mid-highs, making the instruments very hard to distinguish from one another.  Seems like some lengthy sections are repeated wholesale.

Battle to the Grave: This is full of seriously clashing notes.  Timing seems out of sync in a lot of places, too--part of this is due to a lead with a really slow attack, which is really obvious with some of the quick notes that never get the chance to fully form.  I'm having a hard time picking out Mercury's theme, but that's not surprising given that what I can hear of Spectre Knight's theme is greatly distorted. The Siege of Venus: Pretty slick concept here to start off with.  The jazz works better than after Wandering Travelers starts, though--it tries to be big band, but it's a small band.  Panning is also unbalanced--it makes sense to have instruments have a "place" in the audio space, but that can become an issue when all the instruments playing at a particular time at a particular frequency range are on one side.  The arrangement was just Venus->Wandering Travelers, no integration between them, and even the genre changed. Four Against One, Sounds like Fun: Interesting take on Wandering Travelers, focusing on the late part of the song.  Arrangement is pretty good, mostly the usual production issues here--balance, overcompression--which are secondary concerns for this compo and can always be fixed given time.

Review time!
El Polar Enker: This is kind of a textbook example of a static arrangement.  There are only two leads, the guitar and the piano, and their thin and artificial character makes them sound very similar to each other.  The percussion is a simple loop that's varied very little from beginning to end, and there's very little other accompaniment; the Enker section has some mid-range piano playing a simple loop, and that's about it aside from an extremely quiet bass.  As for source usage, it's a straightforward A-B-A pattern, which works but isn't very striking. Arctic Robot Dance Party: A good effort at integrating two sources that don't lend themselves to integration in any obvious way.  Some good ideas here, although vanilla synths and simple beats do bring it down somewhat.  Some of the transitions are a little awkward, and the ending is a little abrupt. King of the Kuiper Belt: I had a very hard time identifying the source usage.  On the second listen, I caught some suggestions of both themes, but they're really far afield.  Nice approach with the style, although there was an awful lot of the organ lead that could have been switched up a little.  Bass and highs were both a little light. Pridemoor Cat: Not bad at all!  A little slow and repetitive, but it's trance.  There's an odd effect in the first main section and again at the end where the lead is pushed back a little, which almost works, except that the mid-low arp is supposed to fill in the pauses in the Pluto theme, but isn't quite beefy enough to pull it off.  I was worried about a simple A-B-A arrangement here, but then you started doing the layered thing, and it worked really well!  It was kind of disappointing when that section ended, since it was easily the best part and there was a full minute left.  Solid approach overall though. Fellow Knight: Odd how this gradually grows less melancholy and more trancey as it goes, until the end when it reverses.  The lead is a little static, but it's a good arrangement.  Nice, if brief, layering of the sources.

Review time!
El Polar Enker: This is kind of a textbook example of a static arrangement.  There are only two leads, the guitar and the piano, and their thin and artificial character makes them sound very similar to each other.  The percussion is a simple loop that's varied very little from beginning to end, and there's very little other accompaniment; the Enker section has some mid-range piano playing a simple loop, and that's about it aside from an extremely quiet bass.  As for source usage, it's a straightforward A-B-A pattern, which works but isn't very striking. Arctic Robot Dance Party: A good effort at integrating two sources that don't lend themselves to integration in any obvious way.  Some good ideas here, although vanilla synths and simple beats do bring it down somewhat.  Some of the transitions are a little awkward, and the ending is a little abrupt. King of the Kuiper Belt: I had a very hard time identifying the source usage.  On the second listen, I caught some suggestions of both themes, but they're really far afield.  Nice approach with the style, although there was an awful lot of the organ lead that could have been switched up a little.  Bass and highs were both a little light. Pridemoor Cat: Not bad at all!  A little slow and repetitive, but it's trance.  There's an odd effect in the first main section and again at the end where the lead is pushed back a little, which almost works, except that the mid-low arp is supposed to fill in the pauses in the Pluto theme, but isn't quite beefy enough to pull it off.  I was worried about a simple A-B-A arrangement here, but then you started doing the layered thing, and it worked really well!  It was kind of disappointing when that section ended, since it was easily the best part and there was a full minute left.  Solid approach overall though. Fellow Knight: Odd how this gradually grows less melancholy and more trancey as it goes, until the end when it reverses.  The lead is a little static, but it's a good arrangement.  Nice, if brief, layering of the sources.

Review time!
El Polar Enker: This is kind of a textbook example of a static arrangement.  There are only two leads, the guitar and the piano, and their thin and artificial character makes them sound very similar to each other.  The percussion is a simple loop that's varied very little from beginning to end, and there's very little other accompaniment; the Enker section has some mid-range piano playing a simple loop, and that's about it aside from an extremely quiet bass.  As for source usage, it's a straightforward A-B-A pattern, which works but isn't very striking. Arctic Robot Dance Party: A good effort at integrating two sources that don't lend themselves to integration in any obvious way.  Some good ideas here, although vanilla synths and simple beats do bring it down somewhat.  Some of the transitions are a little awkward, and the ending is a little abrupt. King of the Kuiper Belt: I had a very hard time identifying the source usage.  On the second listen, I caught some suggestions of both themes, but they're really far afield.  Nice approach with the style, although there was an awful lot of the organ lead that could have been switched up a little.  Bass and highs were both a little light. Pridemoor Cat: Not bad at all!  A little slow and repetitive, but it's trance.  There's an odd effect in the first main section and again at the end where the lead is pushed back a little, which almost works, except that the mid-low arp is supposed to fill in the pauses in the Pluto theme, but isn't quite beefy enough to pull it off.  I was worried about a simple A-B-A arrangement here, but then you started doing the layered thing, and it worked really well!  It was kind of disappointing when that section ended, since it was easily the best part and there was a full minute left.  Solid approach overall though. Fellow Knight: Odd how this gradually grows less melancholy and more trancey as it goes, until the end when it reverses.  The lead is a little static, but it's a good arrangement.  Nice, if brief, layering of the sources.

Review time!
El Polar Enker: This is kind of a textbook example of a static arrangement.  There are only two leads, the guitar and the piano, and their thin and artificial character makes them sound very similar to each other.  The percussion is a simple loop that's varied very little from beginning to end, and there's very little other accompaniment; the Enker section has some mid-range piano playing a simple loop, and that's about it aside from an extremely quiet bass.  As for source usage, it's a straightforward A-B-A pattern, which works but isn't very striking. Arctic Robot Dance Party: A good effort at integrating two sources that don't lend themselves to integration in any obvious way.  Some good ideas here, although vanilla synths and simple beats do bring it down somewhat.  Some of the transitions are a little awkward, and the ending is a little abrupt. King of the Kuiper Belt: I had a very hard time identifying the source usage.  On the second listen, I caught some suggestions of both themes, but they're really far afield.  Nice approach with the style, although there was an awful lot of the organ lead that could have been switched up a little.  Bass and highs were both a little light. Pridemoor Cat: Not bad at all!  A little slow and repetitive, but it's trance.  There's an odd effect in the first main section and again at the end where the lead is pushed back a little, which almost works, except that the mid-low arp is supposed to fill in the pauses in the Pluto theme, but isn't quite beefy enough to pull it off.  I was worried about a simple A-B-A arrangement here, but then you started doing the layered thing, and it worked really well!  It was kind of disappointing when that section ended, since it was easily the best part and there was a full minute left.  Solid approach overall though. Fellow Knight: Odd how this gradually grows less melancholy and more trancey as it goes, until the end when it reverses.  The lead is a little static, but it's a good arrangement.  Nice, if brief, layering of the sources.

Speedrunners have gotten it down to under the 1 hour mark already.  I kind of feel sorry for them, though--for them to be grinding speedruns in the first week to master it down to that level means they're not really spending time playing the game as intended.  Well, to each their own.

Please try to avoid spoilers.  You don't learn about the other tribes' existence until possibly several hours into the game.  It's really early, but some people might still be upset.  I'm spoilerblocking everything we haven't learned from the demos already.
 

Review time!
 
For Hope and Shovelry: Oh, man, going after Gario on his electronica home turf?  That takes guts, even with the guitar help.  You clearly had lots of ideas about how to integrate these two themes!  Lots of clever blending.  It does have a few awkward moments, though: At 0:36, the arrangement begs to repeat the phrase a second time, but instead moves on.  Same thing at 2:24.  1:12 is a little strange, structurally--it starts the transition with rising notes and then drops low instead of the high climax it leads the listener to anticipate.  Some of the blends get a little too busy in the highs, e.g. 2:18-2:47, which is so cluttered the cymbals turn to mush.  Overall, though, really great job, and I hope you spend some more time on this and send it in to the site. The Wanderer: Well, it's a good start.  Reminds me a lot of Phonetic Hero's Tengu Man remixes from the last compo, which I liked a lot.  Too bad you never got a chance to finish. Boulders Wreck Rapiers: Nice soundscape, but those leads aren't strong enough to cut through it all. Interesting coincidence how the opening hooks of both themes were so similar to begin with, and you really took advantage of that, although at the expense of the rest of the sources.  The last section, where it becomes more melodic, doesn't fit very well with the rest of the arrangement or with the backing, and the transitions are a little awkward, especially with the wild portamento.  Still, lots of good stuff here. Age & Alchemist: Very thin soundscape, lacking in both low and high end and cluttered in the mids.  More importantly, this is basically a medley until 2:25, with Plague Knight followed by Saturn.  Nice effort to try to make the two play together at the end, however briefly, but there are a lot of clashing notes there.  I like where this was going, but it needed a lot of adjustments to work.

Also, only Huey has a hat.  Their "hair" is different, too.

Nice swells and textures. Your choice of sounds stay pretty similar throughout the mix, although they are complementary to each other and fit the genre well. The opening felt mostly solid, building things up for things to come... however by the first minute a change of pace was well overdue, but never eventuated. In fact for most of the track, things never really evolved past the first minute.
A lot of this has to do with the drum line being very repetitive - with its stop starting nature, it doesn't help drive the arrangement forward like it should. I feel even a change to a standard 4/4 beat would've helped after the intro to push things forward. During the opening they felt very fitting, but by the 3rd minute, considering how similar your overall atmosphere here is, things were really getting repetitive. After this point some breakbeats during the mid-point break are introduced, but they don't stick around long, nor to they really change the pace up required by this point, as the underlying 1 bar rhythm is still there. This creates perceived repetition, even though other parts do play different things over time.
This is a shame as the overall sound you have here is bright and optimistic. The different melodies over time were welcome, and you made great use of stereo space. Your lead sounds are solid. Your SFX are typical/expected for the genre but implemented well. There was a small problem with the low end being a bit muffled in crowded sections, which could've been easily avoided by high pass filtering some of your synths that didn't need the low end.
A tough mix for me. I don't feel the duration of the track is warranted with the amount of perceived repetition here, especially with the repeated use of short drum and melody lines over many bars. I understand the trance vibe here and what you're going for, and appreciate the changes that happen when they do, but I feel overall these transitions to new sections come in too late, and coupled with the repetitive drums the problem is exacerbated, making this fall short.
NO

Review time!
 
For Hope and Shovelry: Oh, man, going after Gario on his electronica home turf?  That takes guts, even with the guitar help.  You clearly had lots of ideas about how to integrate these two themes!  Lots of clever blending.  It does have a few awkward moments, though: At 0:36, the arrangement begs to repeat the phrase a second time, but instead moves on.  Same thing at 2:24.  1:12 is a little strange, structurally--it starts the transition with rising notes and then drops low instead of the high climax it leads the listener to anticipate.  Some of the blends get a little too busy in the highs, e.g. 2:18-2:47, which is so cluttered the cymbals turn to mush.  Overall, though, really great job, and I hope you spend some more time on this and send it in to the site. The Wanderer: Well, it's a good start.  Reminds me a lot of Phonetic Hero's Tengu Man remixes from the last compo, which I liked a lot.  Too bad you never got a chance to finish. Boulders Wreck Rapiers: Nice soundscape, but those leads aren't strong enough to cut through it all. Interesting coincidence how the opening hooks of both themes were so similar to begin with, and you really took advantage of that, although at the expense of the rest of the sources.  The last section, where it becomes more melodic, doesn't fit very well with the rest of the arrangement or with the backing, and the transitions are a little awkward, especially with the wild portamento.  Still, lots of good stuff here. Age & Alchemist: Very thin soundscape, lacking in both low and high end and cluttered in the mids.  More importantly, this is basically a medley until 2:25, with Plague Knight followed by Saturn.  Nice effort to try to make the two play together at the end, however briefly, but there are a lot of clashing notes there.  I like where this was going, but it needed a lot of adjustments to work.

Hey folks. I've decided to continue on with the compo. I'll be posting Round 3 match-ups tonight, and Round 1 and Round 2 music together tomorrow night for voting. For those wondering about my family emergency, my mom passed away last week while visiting India. While I certainly appreciate any condolences you have to offer, please do not post them in this thread; I'd like to keep the thread on-topic. A "like" on this post would be fine, though.
Thanks for understanding! I'm looking forward to everyone's entries moving forward.

Unfortunately, that's Funiculi Funicula, so it wouldn't be eligible for the site... or even be considered a VG remix by most people.

Unfortunately, that's Funiculi Funicula, so it wouldn't be eligible for the site... or even be considered a VG remix by most people.

Interesting ambient piece, relaxed despite the frenetic beat.  Somewhat similar style to the original, but very different execution.  Reminds me very much of the soundtrack to Parasite Eve.  Production is clean, no concerns there.
It does, however, get pretty monotonous.  0:24-0:47, 1:12-1:36, and 2:12-end have the same percussion and the same pad (even when that pad creates dissonance with the melody), 2:36-3:00, repeating again to fade-out, even sounds like a copy-paste of 0:24-0:47.  The fade-out especially sounds like you just ran out of ideas.
The two breaks, the use of the sax and piano the second time through the main hook, and the electric guitar the third time help, but unfortunately it really does just sound to me like the same thing repeated 5 times, with two breaks and some variation.  There's nothing in particular I don't like, but I found it hard to stay interested through the end.  As background music, I like it a lot, but as a standalone song, I don't think it holds up.
NO

Reminder:
Next (and potentially last) check-in is in two months from today. There are nine current claims.  Out of those, I have three WIPs and two are new claims. Although I'd like to get new WIPs from everyone, that means four people have been on the list for a long time and haven't turned in any music yet. If I don't get any new signups and none of those four people don't turn in a WIP, this whole project will be suspended indefinitely, probably permanently.