pixelseph

Voted! ^_^
100% agree with Seph on every one of these, (so, ditto!) I wanna see them on dat Panel and passing!
I LOVED every single one of them, (and all of y'all are killin' it.) ♥
Looking forward to the Final Round! :D

This round is another hard one to vote! Both teams brought forth polished mixes and executed really creative ideas.
Infected Waters: Psytrance heaven! The gated vocal, triplet transitions, and distinct sections make this a wonderful listen. The Bloody Tears motif from Purification comes through strongly even with the syncopated line, and the Maridia theme holds tightly throughout the piece.
Pure Zebes: Enya vibes proudly on display! Despite having zero melodic correlation to it, this piece would feel right at home in RuneScape - I’m attributing that to the instrumentation (flutes and strings and pads over light percussion). Both themes are strong throughout; the 3/4 meter helps bring both ideas together.
Livin' Out Our Last Days: It's Metroidvania but if the Gorillaz did it! I love nothing more in a mashup than taking the structure of one piece and applying the melodic and harmonic content of another to it, and this track does exactly that - Feel Good, Inc is clearly the template here. I'm hearing Overture in the "theme"/verse riff and Tallon in the choruses. The organic instruments (guitars, bass, and vocals) are well performed, and the mix is tight.
Cruisin' Down Overture Blvd in the Depths of Tallon Traffic: Synthwave magic! That Tallon bassline rides through the whole piece and never once gets stale. Love the way the melody trades Overtune and Tallon back and forth, and the little chromatic splashes here and there keep the lead interesting.
Smoke and Marbles: Live jazz club sound! Great mix on the quartet throughout - the lead trade between piano and guitar on the Marble Gallery theme is brilliant. Bass and drums hold the groove tight. Environmental Mystery as the bridge is another brilliant choice for such a short source.
Gallery of Mysteries: Progressive metal time! Periphery and Tigran Hamasyan meet a sort of Darude vibe on the intro. Lots of time signature shifts for those wanting to count - 4/4, 5/8, 7/8, 5/16... math music nerds, get in the comments! Love the use of Environmental Mystery as the arp throughout the piece.
---
Great job everyone! As with round 1, I can't wait to see these pass the panel!

This round is another hard one to vote! Both teams brought forth polished mixes and executed really creative ideas.
Infected Waters: Psytrance heaven! The gated vocal, triplet transitions, and distinct sections make this a wonderful listen. The Bloody Tears motif from Purification comes through strongly even with the syncopated line, and the Maridia theme holds tightly throughout the piece.
Pure Zebes: Enya vibes proudly on display! Despite having zero melodic correlation to it, this piece would feel right at home in RuneScape - I’m attributing that to the instrumentation (flutes and strings and pads over light percussion). Both themes are strong throughout; the 3/4 meter helps bring both ideas together.
Livin' Out Our Last Days: It's Metroidvania but if the Gorillaz did it! I love nothing more in a mashup than taking the structure of one piece and applying the melodic and harmonic content of another to it, and this track does exactly that - Feel Good, Inc is clearly the template here. I'm hearing Overture in the "theme"/verse riff and Tallon in the choruses. The organic instruments (guitars, bass, and vocals) are well performed, and the mix is tight.
Cruisin' Down Overture Blvd in the Depths of Tallon Traffic: Synthwave magic! That Tallon bassline rides through the whole piece and never once gets stale. Love the way the melody trades Overtune and Tallon back and forth, and the little chromatic splashes here and there keep the lead interesting.
Smoke and Marbles: Live jazz club sound! Great mix on the quartet throughout - the lead trade between piano and guitar on the Marble Gallery theme is brilliant. Bass and drums hold the groove tight. Environmental Mystery as the bridge is another brilliant choice for such a short source.
Gallery of Mysteries: Progressive metal time! Periphery and Tigran Hamasyan meet a sort of Darude vibe on the intro. Lots of time signature shifts for those wanting to count - 4/4, 5/8, 7/8, 5/16... math music nerds, get in the comments! Love the use of Environmental Mystery as the arp throughout the piece.
---
Great job everyone! As with round 1, I can't wait to see these pass the panel!

This round is another hard one to vote! Both teams brought forth polished mixes and executed really creative ideas.
Infected Waters: Psytrance heaven! The gated vocal, triplet transitions, and distinct sections make this a wonderful listen. The Bloody Tears motif from Purification comes through strongly even with the syncopated line, and the Maridia theme holds tightly throughout the piece.
Pure Zebes: Enya vibes proudly on display! Despite having zero melodic correlation to it, this piece would feel right at home in RuneScape - I’m attributing that to the instrumentation (flutes and strings and pads over light percussion). Both themes are strong throughout; the 3/4 meter helps bring both ideas together.
Livin' Out Our Last Days: It's Metroidvania but if the Gorillaz did it! I love nothing more in a mashup than taking the structure of one piece and applying the melodic and harmonic content of another to it, and this track does exactly that - Feel Good, Inc is clearly the template here. I'm hearing Overture in the "theme"/verse riff and Tallon in the choruses. The organic instruments (guitars, bass, and vocals) are well performed, and the mix is tight.
Cruisin' Down Overture Blvd in the Depths of Tallon Traffic: Synthwave magic! That Tallon bassline rides through the whole piece and never once gets stale. Love the way the melody trades Overtune and Tallon back and forth, and the little chromatic splashes here and there keep the lead interesting.
Smoke and Marbles: Live jazz club sound! Great mix on the quartet throughout - the lead trade between piano and guitar on the Marble Gallery theme is brilliant. Bass and drums hold the groove tight. Environmental Mystery as the bridge is another brilliant choice for such a short source.
Gallery of Mysteries: Progressive metal time! Periphery and Tigran Hamasyan meet a sort of Darude vibe on the intro. Lots of time signature shifts for those wanting to count - 4/4, 5/8, 7/8, 5/16... math music nerds, get in the comments! Love the use of Environmental Mystery as the arp throughout the piece.
---
Great job everyone! As with round 1, I can't wait to see these pass the panel!

This round is another hard one to vote! Both teams brought forth polished mixes and executed really creative ideas.
Infected Waters: Psytrance heaven! The gated vocal, triplet transitions, and distinct sections make this a wonderful listen. The Bloody Tears motif from Purification comes through strongly even with the syncopated line, and the Maridia theme holds tightly throughout the piece.
Pure Zebes: Enya vibes proudly on display! Despite having zero melodic correlation to it, this piece would feel right at home in RuneScape - I’m attributing that to the instrumentation (flutes and strings and pads over light percussion). Both themes are strong throughout; the 3/4 meter helps bring both ideas together.
Livin' Out Our Last Days: It's Metroidvania but if the Gorillaz did it! I love nothing more in a mashup than taking the structure of one piece and applying the melodic and harmonic content of another to it, and this track does exactly that - Feel Good, Inc is clearly the template here. I'm hearing Overture in the "theme"/verse riff and Tallon in the choruses. The organic instruments (guitars, bass, and vocals) are well performed, and the mix is tight.
Cruisin' Down Overture Blvd in the Depths of Tallon Traffic: Synthwave magic! That Tallon bassline rides through the whole piece and never once gets stale. Love the way the melody trades Overtune and Tallon back and forth, and the little chromatic splashes here and there keep the lead interesting.
Smoke and Marbles: Live jazz club sound! Great mix on the quartet throughout - the lead trade between piano and guitar on the Marble Gallery theme is brilliant. Bass and drums hold the groove tight. Environmental Mystery as the bridge is another brilliant choice for such a short source.
Gallery of Mysteries: Progressive metal time! Periphery and Tigran Hamasyan meet a sort of Darude vibe on the intro. Lots of time signature shifts for those wanting to count - 4/4, 5/8, 7/8, 5/16... math music nerds, get in the comments! Love the use of Environmental Mystery as the arp throughout the piece.
---
Great job everyone! As with round 1, I can't wait to see these pass the panel!

This round is another hard one to vote! Both teams brought forth polished mixes and executed really creative ideas.
Infected Waters: Psytrance heaven! The gated vocal, triplet transitions, and distinct sections make this a wonderful listen. The Bloody Tears motif from Purification comes through strongly even with the syncopated line, and the Maridia theme holds tightly throughout the piece.
Pure Zebes: Enya vibes proudly on display! Despite having zero melodic correlation to it, this piece would feel right at home in RuneScape - I’m attributing that to the instrumentation (flutes and strings and pads over light percussion). Both themes are strong throughout; the 3/4 meter helps bring both ideas together.
Livin' Out Our Last Days: It's Metroidvania but if the Gorillaz did it! I love nothing more in a mashup than taking the structure of one piece and applying the melodic and harmonic content of another to it, and this track does exactly that - Feel Good, Inc is clearly the template here. I'm hearing Overture in the "theme"/verse riff and Tallon in the choruses. The organic instruments (guitars, bass, and vocals) are well performed, and the mix is tight.
Cruisin' Down Overture Blvd in the Depths of Tallon Traffic: Synthwave magic! That Tallon bassline rides through the whole piece and never once gets stale. Love the way the melody trades Overtune and Tallon back and forth, and the little chromatic splashes here and there keep the lead interesting.
Smoke and Marbles: Live jazz club sound! Great mix on the quartet throughout - the lead trade between piano and guitar on the Marble Gallery theme is brilliant. Bass and drums hold the groove tight. Environmental Mystery as the bridge is another brilliant choice for such a short source.
Gallery of Mysteries: Progressive metal time! Periphery and Tigran Hamasyan meet a sort of Darude vibe on the intro. Lots of time signature shifts for those wanting to count - 4/4, 5/8, 7/8, 5/16... math music nerds, get in the comments! Love the use of Environmental Mystery as the arp throughout the piece.
---
Great job everyone! As with round 1, I can't wait to see these pass the panel!

Voting Guidelines
Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Metroid game and the other from a Castlevania game.
In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance):
The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 2 Remix Pack (MP3).
For your reference, here are the source tunes for each matchup:
Super Metroid vs. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area) Purification Metroid Prime vs. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Tallon Overworld Depths Overture Metroid Fusion vs. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Environmental Mystery Marble Gallery You can also use this thread to leave comments about the tracks. Remember to be kind and constructive. Thanks for listening, and thanks for voting!

Thoughts on the round 1 entries:

Red Harvest vs. Wir Sind Team Peitsche: This one was really close but in the end it came down to production execution.  Both arrangements were very good and mashed up the sources in very creative ways.  I really liked the last section of Wir Sind Team Peitsche with the group chanting.  That was a great way to bring everyone together onto it.
A couple specific notes on Wir Sind Team Peitsche.  The brass in the first 0:36-0:58 is very "blatty".  Would like to hear more humanization on that section for the orchestral samples. 1:53-2:32, I didn't even notice there was chiptune elements here until multiple listens.
Red Harvest: 0:41-0:50 the melody for Brinstar here is very washed out, like when you turn the wet on reverb all the way up and dry all the way down.  IMO it got very buried here.
Adrift Eternal vs. Back in Cold Blood (Dracula Flow): Difficult to vote for a "joke" track.  When I say that I mean, the track was for laughs rather then to be taken very seriously.
Back in Cold Blood: The production on the background work is pretty clean and stands on it's own pretty well.  I know I mentioned it on voice to you, but changing to the Alucard audio at 3:18 of the way through was a good choice to keep the track moving forward and preventing the Dracula Flow bit from being stale.  Good call on the change.  Some percussive elements ping-ponging left/right are a little disorienting.
Adrift Eternal: This is starting to sound like the modus operandi of Emunator at this point.  I have no idea who contributed what on this.  Electronic cinematic take on both themes seamlessly transitions back and forth between sources.  Very well done.  At 4:23 it's suddenly major for some reason did feel a little odd, but I can understand wanting to change the color at the end of the piece to bring more energy.
The Heart of Atlantis vs. No Castle for Old Belmonts:  This was the toughest call of the 3 pairs.  For me I chose No Castle for Old Belmonts due to how the melody was interpreted, used, and embellished upon.  Both had good production, and it came down to arrangement/usage.
The Heart of Atlantis: The organ echoes of the guitar such as at 2:07 and 2:43 were a little awkward for having close intervals in a low register, makes them get harmonically muddy.
No Castle for Old Belmonts: I don't know why, with the title I was expecting this to be country song-like "Take me home country roads".  The bass is a little muddy, sounds like someone humming doubling the bass in the first ~minute or so.  Not sure if that is a production issue or recording thing.  The guitar playing from 2:57 to the end is fantastic and I absolutely love the embellishment here.  Whip sfx towards the end is fitting and I'm surprised I had not heard it in any of the other tracks at this point.  Production could have been a spoiler on this one, but I preferred the arrangement here.

Strong tracks from both teams! Love to hear it, just like from GSM 1 :D
I find it interesting that both teams’ tracks are about the same length for each mash up as well. Twenty minutes of good listening altogether ❤️

Strong tracks from both teams! Love to hear it, just like from GSM 1 :D
I find it interesting that both teams’ tracks are about the same length for each mash up as well. Twenty minutes of good listening altogether ❤️

Strong tracks from both teams! Love to hear it, just like from GSM 1 :D
I find it interesting that both teams’ tracks are about the same length for each mash up as well. Twenty minutes of good listening altogether ❤️

Voting Guidelines
Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Metroid game and the other from a Castlevania game.
In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance):
The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 1 Remix Pack (MP3).
For your reference, here are the source tunes for each matchup:
Super Metroid vs. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Brinstar (Red Soil Swampy Area) Beginning Metroid Prime vs. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Phendrana Drifts Lost Painting Metroid Fusion vs. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Sector 4 (AQA) Heart of Fire You can also use this thread to leave comments about the tracks. Remember to be kind and constructive. Thanks for listening, and thanks for voting!

Won't say much here, considering the circumstances and can give in-depth feedback on each track if people would like me to (on here or Discord)...
...However, I wish both teams great luck, and Team Whips--lots of love and I'm cheering over here with pom-poms, for real. Unconditional support all around. :) *hugs*
Also...Dracula Flow. ♡ *kiss*

@Hemophiliac consider us even for "Steeling Hearts" ?
but in all seriousness, i loved "You're Not From This Town!"

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

@Rhanti Salut Voisin! Moi aussi je suis du Québec!
 
Concerning the judges' review:
@prophetik music  I liked the piano.  I don't know if you're familiar with old "Chansonnier" music, like Jacques Brel, Joe Dassin, Georges Brassens etc, but the piano (or the music in general) in those pieces always had that frequency-squished, analog AM-radio-like feel so I thought what @colorado weeks did there was quite on purpose.  As for the vocal range, you have no idea my friend. I can't tell you how many times I had to redo so many of the parts, it was so low, I felt like I was croaking instead of singing.  
@Liontamer I agree about the ending and the lack of dynamic qualities. I'd 100% be game to re-do it is CW is game, see where we can take this.
@MindWanderer again, absolutely right about the range. If we were to redo this, I'd ask if it was possible to raise it maybe 2 semitones.  (Unless that's a big no-no on the remix world). I'm used to singing classic opera. I have a very powerful voice but my range is unfortunately limited on both ends. I'm a very light baritone, or a very heavy tenor, whatever floats :)  I can also croon like Frank Sinatra but this was my first experience as a "chansonnier" and singing so deep in the bass range was very challenging to me. 
@XPRTNovice I agree 100% that this can be taken further.  Again, it all depends if CW is game or if she's had enough of her crazy maple syrup neighbor :D

This was a hugely fun experience to me.  I sincerely hope I can collab with more talented OC Remixers again!!
 
Thank you for the opportunity!

@aeroprism i'm game for revisiting this, transposing this to a more comfortable key for you is no issue at all! thanks to all the judges for your insight!

Glad to see this one finally make the light of day. ...Well deserved.
@aeroprism @colorado weeks
I had expressed before in GSM1 how much I loved this song, and I'll reiterate it again here. Congrats to you both, esp. Seb, for becoming a new ReMixer. If y'all do revisit it (and hope so) would be lovely to hear the extra take.
GL. HF. Hugs all around. Nice work. ♡

This song when I first heard them working on it had me in tears.  I'm so glad to see this on the front page.  What an excellent composition and vocals!

Big AP doing his thing on the track and of course Colorado too doing her thing as well. This track makes me so happy. Congrats guys and bravo.

Here are our matchups for Round 1!
First up is Super Metroid vs. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse! You're combining
Brinstar (Red Soil Swampy Area) Beginning Next is Metroid Prime vs. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night! You're combining
Phendrana Drifts Lost Painting Last but not least is Metroid Fusion vs. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow! You're combining
Sector 4 (AQA) Heart of Fire Your team is responsible for writing three remixes, one for for each match-up. Each remix should aim to combine both tracks into a single, cohesive piece of music. Remember, you're not writing two separate remixes and sticking them end-to-end, but writing a track that captures both sources as a piece of music that stands on its own.
Remixes should be at least 1 minute in length. Every remix you submit is worth 2 points just for submitting, so make sure your team submits all three remixes or you risk falling behind.

Hey all! Just some quick updates I wanted to let you all know about.
Site & Forum Updates
If you're an artist, your forum profile now includes a link to your artist page. This also shows up in your little profile box when you post threads. I've been doing a couple of small style and layout tweaks to forum listings in an effort to reduce some whitespace. Guidelines for certain forums have been moved out of the announcements module to the forum's internal rules setting. You'll see a relevant link on forums that have specific guidelines. I did a pass on forum profile fields and deleted a lot of obsolete data (like the field for your ICQ number!). There are a couple of new fields too, like Pronouns and Discord. Make sure you head over to your account settings and keep that profile updated! Tagging has been disabled on forum threads for regular members. We (the staff) weren't seeing a lot of sensical or consistent usage, so we're in the process of cleaning those up. We may revisit forum thread tags later with predefined options. The Ready to Review process in the Post Your Game ReMixes forum has been retired. It served us well for a couple of years but after a while we found that people were not engaging with it, and it felt like another bureacratic layer to the submission process. We've gone back to the older, more open-ended format where you can just post your remixes for feedback. A similar process in the Recruit & Collaborate forum has also been retired. Vote counts on submissions in the queue have been moved out of thread titles and into tags for the purposes of some internal tooling I'd like to try, so you won't see those anymore on the Currently dashboard and I worked on fixing how that data gets pushed to the dashboard, so you'll still see vote counts. Upcoming Events
Do you have OPINIONS about REMIXES? Join us this Thursday at 8:30PM EST on Discord where we run the first-of-hopefully-many Review Bombs! We're going to get a listening party going for OC ReMixes that have gone the longest without having any reviews and rectify the situation. I've heard of Metroidvania, but METROID VERSUS VANIA?! This Friday, we're kicking off the second run of Game Set Mash!!, our long-form team-based remix competition. This run features music from two legendary franchises: Metroid and Castlevania, and two teams will compete to see who can make the best Metroidvania Mashups. They'll have two weekends to get their tracks done, so check back at the start of February and get your votes in! Speaking of competitions, I'd be remiss if I didn't shout-out the People's Remix Competition, which just ended a legendary 20 year run under the stewardship of @Bundeslang. I remember back when PRC started back in 2003 (!!) and it's been a rock solid staple of OC ReMix since then, with a lot of musicians in the community developing and honing their skills through their participation. Absolutely incredible work from everyone involved over these past two decades. Make sure you check out the thread for the last round!
Well, that's all from me for now. I'm still getting a handle on how everything works and fits together here, but slowly-and-surely we're going to continue to inch OCR ever-forward. Thanks!
- DarkeSword

Hi Josh! I had a lot of music experience but zero production experience before I joined the remix/arrangement communities. Over the past two years or so since I started contributing, I've gone from not having anywhere near the skill in production to get a YES on OCR to having several remixes posted. The collaborative, participative culture with OCR, Pixel Mixers, and Dwelling of Duels has helped me develop my production skill in a way that I didn't even realize was possible at the time I joined. Feel free to contact me on discord or twitter if you'd like to talk more.

Hey Josh, I'm asking the ReMixers on your behalf, and I'd also recommend joining our Discord server if you're not already there: https://discord.gg/ocremix
Best of luck on the paper!

Hey Josh, I’d love to chat! I’ll send you a DM with my contact info.