Mr. Hu

Might be my favorite Pokémon mix on OCR. Sublime.

I'm really enjoying the "ear candy" here, especially the close sounds. But the whole piece has a nice breath to it, and there's a lot of nuance to every element.

Cool idea. I'd be down to do something from Neon White (I'm "old").

It's funny - from an OCR fan's perspective who has been listening since ~2001 but not submitting music to the site until 2019, I kind of saw djp as this VGM Morpheus, the leader of a secret circle of super cool musicians/programmer people. I guess that's what the early Internet was like to a kid before social media. But obviously people are just people who are pulled in this direction and that throughout the chapters of their lives. Still, it was a surreal moment to finally see my first OCR mix posted 4 years ago with a cool writeup from the man himself. That was very exciting and very validating, even more validating than getting approved by the judges panel, if I'm being honest. A full-circle moment for me. I always appreciated the care that he put into his write-ups for each ReMix, going back the early-mid aughts when I started downloading every other track this site would publish (sometimes I would read them and not even listen to the song because I liked the writing that much). Very happy to hear that there will be no retirement from music. Even if that wound up being the case, the existing djp catalog would speak for itself. Some of those ReMixes were parts of my formative years of being a music listener, and years after I go deaf from mixing my mids too loud I will still be humming them in my head. I can recall listening to "Love Hurts" on a burned CD on the school bus in I think 9th or 10th grade. I think he set the standard for OCR music in terms of creativity and quality (along with a few others) very early on, which helped OCR legitimize itself. So, thank you for all of that.

The idea of the noise gate activating a verb send I got from reading about the recording of Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice". When recording the vocals to the song, Steve Albini (the engineer) put a noise gate in front of a chorus & distortion combo effect, so when Kurt Cobain's voice hit a certain loudness, the effect would kick in. That's why the screaming in the chorus sounds blown-out but the rest of the vocal take (which is quieter) doesn't. I also think this was used on Mark Hollis' self-titled album, except instead of distortion, the vocal chain noise gate was in front of the reverb. If you listen to that record, the verb kicks in only when the singing reaches a certain level. I actually haven't confirmed this but the verb swells sound too smooth to be a manual punch-in to my ears.

I definitely did! All the positive feedback I've been getting on this mix in particular is somewhat surprising, admittedly, but I'm glad that others are into it.

Never heard of this game until a few years ago but it's no shock a Sunsoft title is getting so much love recently. Cool OST and cool mix.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading the feedback for this, thanks. Glad to hear DJP has bounced back, as well.

Restating my appreciation for the sound palette in this one. Wouldn't have guessed they're sourced from a hardware chip.

Very nicely polished track, and great write-up.

I'm interested in The Loser if it hasn't been claimed yet. I listened to a few of the red tracks and that one really stuck out as a song I could do something interesting with. @Darkflamewolf @Jorito

I am honored by the Zissou reference.

It's called Polar. ~18 minutes long. Out on all music streaming services (except Tidal). If you give a listen, let me know what you think. I'm interested in hearing what others' impressions of it are, musicians/producers or otherwise. I purposefully scooped out much of the low end for aesthetic purposes (to remove warmth). Surprisingly, figuring out the tracks order for a 4-song release was way harder than I expected!

Props to DJP for picking out the Merrie Melodies influence. I don't think I mentioned it but it was certainly in my mind.

I am loving how the low end is glued together here. Airtight. Then in the last minute that breakout occurs and everything glitters. Really, really creative arrangement for an EDM song.

Nice job mixing this one. Lotta resonances/verbs/delays/shakuhachi breaths in here but they all have their space.

I read the title as Lil Goron and was expecting a reggae jam, hah. I really dig Zas' deliberately hodgepodge style of stitching these songs together, almost like a patchwork quilt. I'd like to hear his finished OoT album one day.

Nice little companion piece to the original. All of the seasonal themes in Stardew are fantastic. They suit the game perfectly. Definitely worthy of an OCR album in the (perhaps distant) future.

This one is possibly my favorite from the album. Great groove, really interesting tones and sound design that stand out as nice ear candy but are still very much in line with the moodiness.

Worlds Apart, probably (the FFIX one). Great genre variety, and a lot of tracks that feel personal. I've also not listened to anywhere near all of the albums, mind you.

Dunno the source but I'm diggin' this when the vocals and piano come in. Great work on a technical (recording/mixing) level.

The two things that stand out to me are that the kick is really thin...the bass guitar is way heavier. You could probably have the kick borrow a little bit of the low end from the bass, at least from 0:19 to 1:15, when the bass part is played by that organ. The kick could also use a little more mids/highs as well. The vinyl crackle effect is also a little loud for how much upper mids/highs you have your filter settings at, and it's a bit distracting, especially at the start and end. It's actually pretty good otherwise though. The delay at 0:27 is a cool one-off. Your reverbs are mostly good. Nice tempo, too.

Thanks for your great compliments, truly. I think the stark contrasts between higher and lower frequencies, a lot of details in panning, and the consistent momentum/pulse throughout are the 3 things that make this one work despite it being fairly lo-fi. Plus, the original was pretty different for being in a Zelda game, so I only had to meet it half-way in terms of doing something experimental.

Big ups to Rexy.

Whoa, I thought I was seeing things...this is one of my favorite tracks from my early teenage years and I'm working on a remix of it at this very moment. Love all the Mendelson stuff from TS, and I wish he did more game OSTs. I like how you just went all-out with the panning, and the added bass melody. The one thing I'll critique is that you have a lot of buzz/grit in your bass, and I think if you filter that down a little, a whole lot of the midrange from other instruments will shine through much brighter. I like the "ahhhs" a lot....I usually find synth choirs to be kinda cheesy but this one sounds cool. Always great to see love for this OST, and this track in particular. Nice job.