DistantJ

Yep, I used to remember Knightmare. In fact, I still watch it sometimes on Challenge. The first few series' are the best, when it's all Zelda style top down. One problem. Where's the link to your remix? I knew a guy who remixed this theme once, I mean I knew him IRL not just online, though it was mostly in FL presets, lol, he was a bit of a n00b for music making, though decent at vinyl spinning.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/plid This is the CD of my good friend Chris Patton(a lot of you probably know him from his anime voice acting)'s band PLID. I waved a couple of their songs on here before, I try to help promote them and just generally get them heard, not only because it's a friend but because I think they represent a great style of music which really hasn't had the attention it deserves recently.

One thing first - no offense here, just a pet peeve of mine - don't stick your name at the start of something somebody else wrote. I mean okay it's like 'covers' or 'vs' but you haven't gotten rights to the song nor did you write it, I consider it a thing of respect to put your name after the song title i.e. "Robert Miles - Fable (DJ SymBiotiX Phantasmagoric Mix)". Anyway, that out of the way. This is an old favourite of mine, this song, so I'll give this a listen. I love your opening. Entirely original and some GREAT synth work and pads, I love how you've not taken the easy way out and just followed the generic trance 'template' rules. Very oriental sounding. I'd like to hear if the song was to really kick off into some kind of full on trance/house piece, though, the song keeps building up like it's really promising a heavy kickdrum and some bass to appear but it never happens. Personally I wouldn't say that the pizzicato sounds which come in about halfway work, either. Still, good stuff man, nice to hear somebody remixing an old favourite. =)

http://www.animeremix.org/remix/78/?PHPSESSID=ab469dbe10c71b6215422e2f77968e0b

If I was 'The Rabbit Joint' and my song went around and millions of people around the world credited somebody else for it because of some guy misnaming the MP3 on KaZaA or something I'd be pretty annoyed.

So seeing the title of this mix I rolled my eyes. A romantic Lava Reef remix? The concept seemed pretty tacky to me, and I felt I would be unimpressed. I quickly skimmed over Pretzel's description and went to download. In fact I even saved it in my 'Temporary Files' folder, anticipating it's immediate deletion. ...But I didn't delete it. Straight away there's a great opening with warm pads which just turn the legs to jelly. Some average percussion, a guitar, and there it is - that chick with the gorgeous voice again. I don't know who this girl is, but she must have had some classical training. As usual all notes are hit absolutely perfectly. Anyways, moving on. The general feel of this track is a feel I often enjoy, it brings a somewhat exotic feel, and whilst the lyrics are written in a romantic sense the tune and underlying Lava Reef chord progression give more passionate, poetic overtones to it. I absolutely adored the use of the woodwind instrument and the guitars, but the piano really just irked me and felt like an unnecessary supplement. The male voice, while not awful, does seem to be a bit of a problem. Not to say that the voice is bad, in fact it's pretty good for the most part, but when you juxtapose a classical quality powerful female voice next to a more average, punk music suited male vocal, the contrast is a little too apparent. The poem/rap style reciting towards the end didn't work for me for some reason. Again, I just think it's the voice. At first, hearing the vocal singing in the tune of the Lava Reef theme I said "psh" and rolled my eyes, but after a few bars I realised that this actually worked. The bridge and chorus from the original theme seem to have been melded together to form the chorus for this song, which does work, but can sound awkward at first to those familiar with the original piece expecting the bridge to lead into the chorus rather than be a part of it. The lyrics of this song are quite pleasing, and they don't make the cheeseometer explode like a lot of game remixes with lyrics tend to.

Damn, didn't see this thread in time! I did a remix of Ballad of the Windfish a long time ago which everybody seemed to love, and I had been thinking about revisiting it (from scratch) now that I have so much more experience, could have been in this project, heh, nevermind, I'll still make the song. =)

That's pizzicato strings with a LOT of alteration and effects. DJ Quicksilver/Sash! inspired. (Ironically the main reason I liked the Marble Zone chorus was because it reminded me of DJ Quicksilver, but of another style of synth he uses - listen to his song called "Free", he was real big here in Europe)

Thankyou

Why does everybody who remixes the Ice Cap Zone theme insist on chilling it out?! What made it so popular was the fact that it had heavy beats going on and was one of the earliest proper house tracks to get into a videogame. If I'm correct, though, this is actually a previously existing remix, with the rap on top, isn't it? Because I'm sure somebody has sent me this background music before... The rapping is good, though, and the lyrics. Though a little angsty, not that all rap isn't. Though it sounds like the vocalist is getting a bit bored/tired towards the end. I can't really say a whole lot about it, really. It's 'okay'. A bit angsty, as I said. I always preferred rap with a bit more energy in it to the recycled stuff we hear on MTV today, though there still are the greats, Tupac Shakur (Rest in peace!) was amazing, and Marshall Mathers/Eminem is equally fantastic when he decides he wants to be serious. But this one is quite good, I mean, it's one of those which if I saw on MTV, I'd hesitate for a moment, instead of just flicking channels away from 'another boring recycled rap song' like I usually do. So it does stand out somewhat. Also I'd like to mention my respect for the lyrics. That old Knuckles rap on here we had which was all rapping about the game and stuff really made me laugh out loud. This time the lyrics are just about music, creating music, and the dream to go somewhere with it... With a few little cliché whinings about people 'not understanding'. I particularly like the "I'll be alright though. I'll be okay" and that general tone, it's nice to hear that, amongst the stupid amount of rap and metal we have about how awful life apparently is today, which causes the teens to actually TRY to be depressed. Even if it's not the most exciting or creative videogame remix in history, thanks for a nice, interesting treat, and I'd like to perhaps have a look out for more of this artist's rhymes.

I thought this was "Overclocked ReMix", not "Overclocked sing in foreign over the top of some videogame music"? This is nice, though. It's nice and chilled. And the vocalist is pretty good. But you know what this reminds me of? Nu-RnB. You know, like, the stuff where they take some background music from somewhere else and sing over it - and the tune which they're singing in sounds almost as if it's been improvised. Okay there are changes in the background music, though, I actually think that it would have been better without them. The Forest Temple music is a FANTASTIC, atmospheric minimalist piece which I feel is somewhat overlooked because of the symphonic qualities of the other songs in the game. The take on it here is nice, and the idea of turning it into a song with vocals really appeals to me, but the new instruments and synths added into the background music kind of degrade it, and kill it's atmosphere, as they're very digital sounding, which eat away at the original's quite acoustic, wooden, pseudo-natural sounds. The new percussion is VERY nice, though. The choice to sing the lyrics in Japanese reeks of pretentiousness to me, though. Yeah, the vocalist can sing. Pretty damned well. But I think this song could have been much more of a killer if it was sang in the original language of the writers (the writers of this remix, not of the original piece) because the Japanese just comes across as pretentious and silly.

This is one helluva varying piece. So I'm going to review it in a timeline fashion. So, the beginning. Okay, I'm going to be blunt in saying that I think this beginning sucks. As plain and simple as that, in no way does it represent what's to come, and it's mainly because of the choice to use that xylophone in there - xylophones have their place in electronic/sequenced music, and that's in elevators and in the background of teletext. The organ in the background is nasty too, if you ask me. A very nice bassline comes in. Though I'm listening to this through headphones here, it would be friendly with some subwoofers. Nice sounding main riff. A lovely guitar, with some underlying strings, and a violin makes it's way in, too, which is a nice sound. Nothing super special, but still nice. Sorry to bring another downer into the review, but what we have next I wasn't fond of, either. Short string chords, a nasty sounding oscillator based synthesizer with none-too-nice equalising et cetera, and... link vocals. Well, grunting sounds and vocals from the game itself can be a nice humorous touch to certain styles of mix, particularly in dance style, but here they really don't work. Thankfully, what comes next is so good that we can forgive this. Okay, the elevator music quality has faded, and we get a quiet section, with some lovely sounding strings, and a very well performed and written(if not improvised) piano solo. Then in comes that guitar again, a fantastic original section all througout, this is so good I have completely forgotten about those Link sounds. Once we go back into the game theme it goes all elevator again, and in comes that damn xylophone again. Then, what do we have here at 2:33? I'm picturing Banjo and Kazooie walking into a haunted house now. Anyone who doesn't picture that when hearing this section, doesn't know who Banjo and Kazooie are, and are probably picturing some other cartoon character walking into a haunted house... The main riff returns again, the same as it was earlier, nice again. And a LOVELY breakdown, when the bass and drums hide away, then we go into some wonderful rythm guitar, filtered and EQ'ed to sound like it's on an old radio or something, absolutely WONDERFUL in my opinion. Sadly this section is the fadeout. Now I'm not going to say the creator of this remix should have kept that going, because that would be ignorant, and it's the fact that this is used for the fadeout of the song that's particularly artistic and works well, but it's a pity, to me, that the most enjoyable part of the song turned out to be the ironic little fadeout at the end. Uhm, well, as you can probably guess, from reading my review there, I can't really give this a sum-up. There are good parts, bad parts, fantastic parts and sucky parts. It's very varied. So I guess that's all I can say.

House? This is what I'd call electro-boogie, or disco. Or white-people-who-think-it's-still-the-seventies. Except it doesn't have the depth or bass which made that music great... Neither does it keep me interested for more than five minutes... Although I don't deny that this song was created from scratch and probably took a lot of work, the result sounds to me like someone pulling out a yamaha keyboard, choosing a disco 'style' setting and just playing the Marble Zone theme song over it in a quite badly chosen piano vox. Nothing else really happens in the song... And sections we've already heard repeat themselves with no real changes made. In the words of Mr. Horse from Ren & Stimpy - "No, Sir, I don't like it." With no offense intended to the creator of the song.

So, the return of Jivemaster. The guy's done some REALLY enjoyable stuff which has appeared on here in the past. My views on this might be seen as a little controversial, perhaps even as herecy, but especially in comparison to Jivemaster's older submissions, I think this mp3 is going to have to go into my freezer to stop the large amount of cheese contained within from going bad and stinking out the place. Jivemaster uses quite well designed sounds, most of which sounding quite traditional, like something played with a minimoog, which is always a good thing, if you ask me. The filtering effects (mostly envelopes, so that the filter changes with each note as opposed to globally around the song or sequence) are rather predictable, though, and almost seem crude and unnecessary - everything seems to make, forgive me for the onomatopoeia, a "wow" or "bau" sound. The synths do have personality, though, and are easily distinguishable from one another. We are smashed across the head with some really nice, powerful percussion, but this has a bit of a stink of cheese in it, too, it almost seems a little too overdone, especially with the same chord pattern and background music follwing it through most of the song. Some REALLY nice drum sequence programming though, just perhaps the percussive sounds chosen/created are a little too O.T.T. Then, to my surprise, an electric guitar comes into the mix, thus maxxing out the cheese-factor. Next stop: videogame angst central. Something feels missing here, too. It gives me the feeling that this was intended to feel really heavy, but instead feels quite draggy and seems to try too hard and fails to achieve it's intention. A pretty nice transition into the Act-2 theme. This section of the song is far better, in my opinion. We get treated to a very nice, relaxed melody with minimalistic, but still complex drum sequences, which, rather than trying to spank you around the head until you think it's cool, actually lies nicely underneath the music creating an atmoshpere and rythm for the section, and nicely filtered and equalized synth voices along with a few harp-like sounds and a lovely bassline, giving us more of a chilled, Jean Michel Jarre-esque tone. This section, to me, is the song's redeeming quality. So all in all, an average song, the first half I found myself particularly unimpressed with, but transitioning into a very pleasant second half. I find myself thinking if he second half was extended and more was tried with it, and the first half cut off, I'd be speaking very highly of it in this review. (...Nothing personal, Jivemaster!)

This is great. Absolutely amazing mastering and sound quality, how do these guys do it! This trance piece has a nice rythm and synths and takes the original Sonic 3D MD/Sonic Adventure song to a more commercial level, and it sounds great. The only Niggle I have with this is that it could use a louder beat. Such quiet beats in trance create the smell of cheese, and when turning the songs up to the desired volume, the synths drown out the beat and burn your ears. Very nice otherwise though, and great to see someone make a great pro-trance statement on OC ReMix and, in turn, convince me it's still possible that I and other Dance oriented musicians may someday make it in too.

Larry, you are something stealth and ninja like. For anyone interested, I have analoq's choice for PRCA:6 and jesus, it's a doozy.... When analoq wins, everyone loses (except analoq). My entry to that competition had such ugly sample quality, I didn't realise other people we're checking them out, I'm embarassed now! Heh. Either way, I have a much improved version I'll be submitting to the AR site soon. Also DJ MetaZero did a 'remix of my remix' which we may submit as a collaboration.

Thankyou for your encouragement. It's much appreciated.

Oh, thanks loads!!! It Works!

Okay here's a pickle for you guys to fix. I attempted to make a fadeout in my song by pressing the record button and gradually turning down the master volume. Somehow it moved to the start at payback, so at the start of my song there's a pointless annoying fadeout... It's too late to undo the recording. What can I do about it? I've tried deleting the events, over-riding the recording with actual events, setting it to a controller, the reset button and everything, but it still does this stupid god damn fadeout, and it won't let me record over the top of it or anything! In fact, it's gone and messed up and faded out repeatedly through all the song, sometimes leaving it virtually silent for a long time, and just turning up and down randomly every now and then, it's completely ruined my mix!! What the heck am I supposed to do??

Scatman John, Maxx, Haddaway and Eiffel65 all rolled into one with a bit of Sonic flavouring in there. This definitely exceeded my expectations. You can just imagine DJ Bobo MC'ing occasionally in this beauty. It's like a perfect mix of all the elements that made the 90's so great, yet it doesn't sound dated at all. The gated choir chords are subtle but satisfying, and the varied saw wave riffs and melodies take you right back. Even the newly written chord sequence is so European that it's scary. This song reminded me of how pleased I am that I live in England. Big up yourself, Rayza, I won't forget this one. 5/5.

Being a fan of rap music myself I've found it kinda hard to enjoy this. The style and pace of the music is dated and the attempts at freestyle inbetween verses make me shudder a little at the kornyness. I hate to be grumpy, and I'm not saying the mix is particularly bad, but it's hard to see what everyone loves about it so much. The vocals are well done and I could imagine this guy up there rapping away with the professionals, but these are some hard lyrics to take seriously. The chanting of the zone names at the end is really pushing the cheese boundaries to the limit. I had been expecting more of a modern rap approach to the song, with an Outkast-esque beat maybe, and some more aggresive sounding vocals, so this may have come across differently to my expectations after the download was done(Ruddy 56k). A nice attempt, and a good idea, but I really can't see what you all see in it.

The slow tempo tends to make the song drag a little, and can sometimes make it hard to recgonise the tune. It'd fit nicely in a videogame as an "Act 2", or a RARE style remix theme, as it works better when you're more familiar with the theme. The end is the point where this mix gets good though, when it starts to speed up. It's a shame the song had to end so soon after the speedup.

Funny stuff! It's good when people don't take their remixes too seriously. Only an 800k download for a short but sweet little bit of comedy. I like!