Hemophiliac   Judges ⚖️

I could vibe out to this and just have it on in the background and tune-out and chill. That's rad. The production is also solid. The guitar and mandolin both sound good!
Unfortunately, I'm not feeling that the source is very identifiable or dominantly featured. It just doesn't seem to be coming through and I'm not picking up on where it's at. The other issue is the drums are on auto-pilot most of the way through. Give us some variation to them aside from just dropping parts in and out. Variation goes a long way to keeping a track progressing and moving forward without changing the other parts around them. 3:05 with the recapitulation would be a good time to change them up in particular as this is a time you want to bring more energy for a final repeat!
There's potential here, but I would need to hear more identifiable usage of the source as well as some work on the variation in the drums in to consider a pass.
NO

So I too have been playing this too much and it was immediately apparent how things have been used in the track. Props to tackling something so new and fresh.
Playing with time was a great approach to take and it really works well. I actually never once felt off-kilter or jarred by any time changes and it flows so smoothly.
The opening section (0:00-0:36) is probably the most modified when it comes to source recognition but it still really feels like the title screen theme. Keeping the time changes and similar motion helps in that regard.
The bass and electric guitar do a great job of filling space and making it so warm and cozy, and the synth choices also feel appropriately selected. Not much more I can say, but this is great and what I've come to expect from Truong lately. Smooth, warm, and semi-jazzy vibes. Dig it!
YES

I honestly don't recall listening to this, I'm sorry but I just don't remember it.
Ghost Castle's arp immediately cuts through and is recognizable. The melody from Ghost Castle that appears later on 0:45-1:00 is barely audible. During that part, I find that the right-panned synth pluck sound is overwhelming my focus and is distracting. I suspect this is for a few reasons: one being that it's panned (not hard right, but might as well be), and the second being it's frequency range is in that mid to high-mid range (~1.8k-2k kHz) that cuts through. I question if the synth pluck was supposed to be the melodic focus or not. It also helps when the melodic focus is center panned or close to center. And if you drive our ear to a melodic focus better, it would help alleviate the "wandering" sound that prophetik and Chimpazilla pointed out.
No concerns an amount of source used here, adequate but not necessarily the smoothest listen with the time changes.
There's a large lack of dynamic changes through the track that is making it tough to sit through. Yes, there are textural changes that help propel the piece forward with parts dropping out and being re-added or changed as it goes along. However, some softer or louder parts would help greatly. This by itself is not a dealbreaker and does not need to happen, but would improve it should you choose to revisit it.
I feel like this one is close, but would need another go to pass. At a minimum I want to see a mix that let's us know what to focus on as a listener, and less distracting panning.
NO

I can tell that zircon's work has been a huge influence on you. Both in this and much of your previous works. You still always bring your own creative inspired takes into the arrangement. This is no exception.
My only gripe is that the bass is really fat, almost to the point of muddiness. Fortunately it only toed-the-line and didn't cross.
1:13 is an unexpected chord change here but moves away pretty quickly.
Switching up to a sparser beat after having the beat drop for a while was a great choice for 2:37 it's a great way to ease it back in.
Would have loved to have more piano (other then just a melody line, maybe left hand too?) for 2:51-3:32.
In the end this is an easy pass, groovin' along.
YES

In the shadows, we stay busy. ;-)
Joining us as a Sage, we now have @Treyt, who's shown off a lot of skills, enthusiasm, and potential since his fateful forum post nearly three years ago!
We're proud to announce some staff promotions with the twin magic of Sages @pixelseph & @paradiddlesjosh stepping up to become two of our newest judges! We had some fun internally joking that they were a package deal, yet I'm happy to say they both independantly have done well and proven themselves capable to help us out in this new capacity on the panel!
We've also honored to have another judges panel addition in @jnWake, who cut his teeth in OCR way back and has massively grown since becoming a Dwelling of Duels regular! All three of the new judges should help us NO every VGM arrangement submitted to us with more speed, politeness, and class. ;-D
Be sure to use our resources in the Workshop forums and our #workshop Discord channel and you may just get some feedback from our new staffers!

Xcellent team effort from team SNES.
Xaleph leads with great creativity as always. At times this has more mellowness then I xpect, but that's a joy. He's a master of psytrance, so anytime he breaks it up with dipping into other genres or changing up the feel it's awesome.
The guitar was also a highlight as it injected just the oomph of energy it needed to close things out. Love it!

Super high energy take on the classic Vampire Killer and Opening from CV3.
Love the combination of genres. Orchestral and guitars have always been epic and this is no exception. The guitar solo from BMC ~2:30 was sick shredding.
Great take, super enjoyable!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!
OC ReMix = 25 YEARS OLD!
4,500 ReMixes later, video game music is STILL an art form!
We've got a celebratory Zeal mix by JSABlixer from the upcoming anniversary album TimeShift, and we'll be doing lots more over the course of the next year to celebrate the creativity and impact of this powerful community!
Thank you to everyone -- past, present, and future -- who have made OverClocked ReMix what it is.
Please share some positive memories on how you discovered OCR, artists and tracks you love (original VGM OR ReMixes), let's go! :-D

I just randomly was thinking that OCremix was started in December, and checking online, see that it says December 11, 1999.  For me right now, thats an hour and half away.
Myself finding this awesome place in 2003.  Not knowing how to make music, but as a lover of listening to it, I don't post much....but, I didn't see anywhere on here it being mentioned about the 25th anniversary.  (maybe I just missed it)
So anyways....
Just wishing this place a HUGE HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY.
And of course a huge thanks to everyone who has contributed and kept this place alive for so long.
Heres to 25 more years....

Starts off with classic melody with a small unexpected change to the end of the phrase.  Quickly the dnb takes over and drives the piece into top gear.
Energy is not lost when we get it's first contrasting break.
3:03-3:26 and 4:23-4:46 guitar work was a highlight as the off-beat rhythm and melodic interpretation was a great mix-up to the status-quo. The bass work in the first couple minutes is fantastic too.
Great work all around.
YES

I'd argue that this might actually be more of a Super Mario Bros 3 remix with how similar the first half of the Luma theme is.
For the relative lack of changing dynamics other than large dynamic jumps between sections, this has a surprising amount of emotive material in it. I think the textures you've created are good and are in the right direction overall with your personalization of the instrumentation and layering of pads/strings.
I was not feeling the complete direct recap of the head at 3:43. It's not that returning to the head is not good, it's the fact that it feels copied or is very close to the same as the first time we heard it. Changing up some of it would really help change up the energy to let us know that the end is coming. It could be more melodic embellishment, increased dynamics, or adding other instrument to layer in. It could be anything as long as it changes it up and gives more of a lift to that final recapitulation.
1:17-1:40 struggles with the lead being somewhat buried in the background elements both in volume as well as it's attack being too slow for the surrounding parts. Changing it to something that has a shorter attack could help with that.
Throughout the piece, there could absolutely be more movement of dynamics through modulation or automating volume on the background pads and strings.  We get large dynamic jumps between some of the sections and that's fine, but within the individual sections they can grow and diminish to help them feel less static and give movement to progress things forward. The filter sweeps I occasionally hear are good touches and are examples of that, but aren't quite enough to give it the heft they need.
This one isn't quite there yet, despite being a solid skeleton of a piece. The potential is there for something very nice if you can refine some of the things we all have mentioned, work on the realism of the strings, and consider sophisticating your choice of samples.
Edit: Should you need more help and have questions, consider utilizing the workshop forum or joining the discord to get help there.
NO

Very impressive arrangement you've come up with. The usage of both themes and their interweaving was handled very well.
The transition into 2:58 was handled very well and I appreciate that the build to this was a slower one and not just a sudden "Oh we're here now"
Really really like the usage of Door of the Holy Spirit because that's not a typical source you'd normally hear being used for a remix. You guys did a great job of keeping it in there while not leaning too hard on the metroid side of things.
My biggest gripe here was the audible reduction during some downbeats and heavy hits.  I suspect there's some side-chaining that wasn't as transparent as it could have been. It is not constant and only happens a few times, so it doesn't shoot a hole in this one for me.  Instead, shoot a hole in your listener's brains with the unholy and awesome team effort from "Team Whip".
YES

Hudak was the perfect choice for a leadout track, hell yes

Very impressive arrangement you've come up with. The usage of both themes and their interweaving was handled very well.
The transition into 2:58 was handled very well and I appreciate that the build to this was a slower one and not just a sudden "Oh we're here now"
Really really like the usage of Door of the Holy Spirit because that's not a typical source you'd normally hear being used for a remix. You guys did a great job of keeping it in there while not leaning too hard on the metroid side of things.
My biggest gripe here was the audible reduction during some downbeats and heavy hits.  I suspect there's some side-chaining that wasn't as transparent as it could have been. It is not constant and only happens a few times, so it doesn't shoot a hole in this one for me.  Instead, shoot a hole in your listener's brains with the unholy and awesome team effort from "Team Whip".
YES

Killing it with the background videos lately

for those that care, i put a slightly altered new version above. i made some very subtle changes based on critiques around the opening bass drones and a freq pop that kris called out. i also backed off the sidechain just a bit to balance it better, at least partially by lowering the volume of one of the arps in the higher-energy section.

The story and journey are the great strengths of this track. I especially like how you’ve brought the Battle Theme 1 as the “B section” that starts at 3:01 and then builds back up to a recapitulation of Towering Mountain.  The main source however is the Towering Mountain theme and it’s the one that the majority of this is built on. There are some nice contrasting sections that have less going on so when we get back to the full sections they really feel big. For me a highlight of contrast is the switch to longer bass notes at 2:34, coming from the shorter length notes makes these ones feel much more impactful (that might even be a different bass sound too?)  The arrangement's structurally well put together and my only gripe with the arrangement is that the ending does lose a bit of energy as it comes to a close. Maybe the ending could have been shortened some to help keep some of that energy, start it out very quiet and have a long crescendo until the final reset, or some crazy effects build up?
There are some production issues that do need to be mentioned.  The bass is lacking presence and the mids are scooped out making the top end feel hot.  You could bring the mids up and the highs down, as this is the area they generally sit in.  That could help to give the melody more clarity. Those imbalances are there, but they aren't so off to me that it takes away from my listening to it.  I get swept up in the cacophony and hold on for the wild ride hoping that it's not going to reset on me and start over. 
YES (borderline)

That background video is cool as fuck

It was only way down the line that I forgot another level of humanizing that I didn't do, which was automating the sustain pedal.  That definitely would have helped with a couple spots that were mentioned by the judges. All I can do is learn from that and apply it to future work.
Thanks for the love all :)

This is so gorgeous! @pixelseph's comment also seems to imply it's all midi programmed, not live played, which is blowing my mind. Stunning piece.

An honor to be involved in this in any way.  Glad my minor contribution was worked in as this was an awesome team effort.  Emunator drove the car and the rest of us just hung on white-knuckled.
Love the track, it develops in such an organic way and the build up is fantastic.

Any song that mixes Mako Reactor with Terra's theme is a win in my book.  This was the perfect remix to start my morning off with.  This was a very lovely piano remix, well done!

Ooh, this is gorgeous! Well done, Hemo!

I'm pretty sure I've seen Hemo mention humanizing your MIDI velocities, durations, and timing at least once a week to someone on the forums or Discord. This track is exactly how you do that with a piano piece! It's not done to sound more real, although that's a consequence of humanizing - it's to bring the emotional weight of the writing into focus for the listener.
Don't mind me, just gonna go sob in the corner for a bit. :'-)

An honor to be involved in this in any way.  Glad my minor contribution was worked in as this was an awesome team effort.  Emunator drove the car and the rest of us just hung on white-knuckled.
Love the track, it develops in such an organic way and the build up is fantastic.