Rexy

Wow, a Christmas mix from 11 years ago xD I can't pass this one up. You'd think you'd be in for a straight cover of the source with the awkward acoustic guitar patch in the intro, though it soon turns itself into a more 80s-hiphop/rock-esque setup with the kind of sounds gone for, all the way down to the reversed percussion sounds, record scratches and everything. It's all written blatantly with MIDI patches, which I emphasized with Electron's MIDI-guitar-based source that there have been live guitarists extending a few months prior to release, though for the time they could be seen as fun and lively sounds but these days can be seen as painfully aged. The arrangement itself can similarly be seen as straight forward in regards to melodic arrangement, but the genre adaptation and firm writing on the accompaniment manages to give it a good kick. So this track may have aged considerably on both arrangement and production fronts, but at the time the execution managed to feel very solid and upbeat, and should be a good checkout if you just want a fun Gerudo Valley interpretation. It's a shame JV kind of vanished off the face of the earth, as the brief encounter I had with his work back in the day was very compelling to me, but I do hope he takes what he did with pride

The great Radical Dreamers flood of 2001. I already reviewed Zeratul's track earlier this week, so why not another There's some good shakeup with the chord substitution at least, which works well for the most part, but I have to say it here; the piano and strings are heavily mechanical and didn't really fit in with the soundscape (and I'm not even sure if the sharp panning of the piano was supposed to fit at the end either), and the strings were especially without any form of release so the transitions between notes felt so awkwardly jarring. At least when the 'guitar explosion' came in, things started to get more involving; I'm admitting the texture for the synth bass was pretty cool and managed to add to a good sense of bitterness expressed towards the feel. A little undermodulated maybe, but still a neat effect. Given the nature of the source there's only so much that could be done, so arrangement-wise I thought it was a pretty cool take on the theme. Like a lot of 2001 mixes the execution felt rather weak though, but I do know that there has been some remixer growth down the line, so it can be excused. Not going to keep a hold on it simply due to its roughening with age, but it's still alright.

Trying to ignore that awkward gurgle on this one; mad props for the enveloping, but for me it just has that awkward unnecessary presence that can be grating. But alas, with that main criticism out of the way, I felt the setup was pretty neat for its time with the industralised drums and synth runs following the source reasonably well and giving it a good amount of charm with the writing. Even the string swelling at 2:20 was a good touch to give in an added sense of eerieness towards the track's timbre. Though, people have been mentioning signs of emptiness on the track. For me, aside from some of the synth echoes and the obligatory drone, it does have that non-filled feeling, though what I think this track desperately needed was a bass of some texture. We had this neat setup for something that could be akin to maybe an Aphex Twin song, but it's being held back via these empty textures and especially leaving out what I felt was the most significant component of the track. Taking aside the flaws, you might get some enjoyment out of it depending on genre preferences, but for me I just found it hard due to the emptiness and constant drone sound. It's alright for what it was at the time, but it has aged drastically simply down to the weak writing decisions, which is a shame because it seemed like a neat idea on paper. You'll need to be cautious if you're to approach this particular track

Well, I'm not going to take any fades into consideration, but I will try and listen carefully and make judgement. The real problem is, like a fair chunk of Beatdrop's mixes back then, the bass tends to sit really awkwardly; for me it tends to be doing way too much even for what can be considered an electronica song, and even then the arrangement stays really close to the source material and is riddled with off-time percussion writing (particularly at 2:15). I would've even preferred a different instrument for the melodic section other than pizzicatos as well as it just comes off as unrealistic and doesn't fit in with the rest of the instrumentation. To be fair, the only good thing I can see that's going for it is in regards to some of the synth processing; it's minimal, true, but at least the sustains involved in them helped to give the track a form of life. Suffice to say, I couldn't find much to enjoy about this one; felt really sloppy to me, even outside the "quick fadeout" that most of these guys were saying. But I have seen that Beatdrop has come a long way since then and has really shown his true colors as an arranger, so something good managed to come out of it. I'm hoping he'll come back to OCR soon especially considering his quick growth

Yeah, it's funny; I was in a discussion about community violin players with OA the other day and he brought up James George. So I guess I could listen here and see what he did. You picked a tricky source to work with; seemed to be really devoid of substance outside of that repetitive harp, but to see it being arranged with the chords of the harp's patterns in mind takes it in a classier approach, and with James's performance matching really well on the violin leads, we have something that feels quite expressive. Of all the four different variations here, I felt happiest with the second movement; naturally I may be a sucker for more jollier performances, but that actually manages to capture the source and presented it in a very logical context given the pacing of it, not to mention I felt the violin parts were the most expressed/tightest played there for me in the mix. The fourth movement with the pizzicato playing, while not quite as tight, did make me smile with the surprised direction taken with the sounds here and was a very ridiculous yet amusing way to end what appears to be this more classically-minded take on the source. I'm not saying the other two movements stuck out as much, just didn't find them quite as memorable as the others; but it may not be a bad thing considering this might be mood music in more ways than one. Either way, a very fun way to tackle what appears to be a very restricted (harmony-wise) source. It may end up taking some people some time to digest it, but when putting in the track's context into play with the rest of the album you can see how much of a surprise element it could be in regards to arrangement. Hopefully you two will put out similarly strong works for 2012

I have a strange feeling that everyone has to contribute to that one song somehow o_O but no idea how, whether it would involve ALL robot masters or not, whether someone may take the lead like in some of the regular rounds, or anything. But yeah, I got to admit I'm looking forward to it already (and yes, wise words from Gario; this is probably what I get for not doing a knockout because I'm too scared to do one, but ah well... it's a big help )

SuperiorX, to my knowledge, Rozo's leadership in the last round gave you first place according to my tallies; don't put yourself down too But I suppose you've got a fair point in regards to this (though given C7's involvement in the community prior to this, I'm not sure if he's the right example for a "new face", but ymmv). I set out in this competition to try and up my game outside of piano arranging, as well as opening the door for some more collaborations, and in a way, I succeeded, though I often felt better about myself just making the songs rather than waiting on reactions. I know some people didn't want to see anything like this, but I've just had this locked-in frame of mind over the years as well as expectations of what I THOUGHT I could meet, and it's just really hard to shake off. But I'll remember it before the topic derails itself - never to complain before getting a rough reputation. If it helps, I might do a following gauntlet depending on how I feel but I could never see myself doing a Maverick/Robot Master battle simply because I don't have the mentality for knockouts. I thank for the responses at least, but I guess if you're eventually going to tell me to shut up, then I'll just stop writing in here x_X

I'm glad you enjoyed the gifts, Ryan! Was fun doing this first online Secret Santa thing, and I feel happy that everything went so smoothly. Hope you had a great holiday On my end, my present still hasn't arrived, but I did receive word that my Secret Santa had a shipping dilemma with the present supposed to be aimed at my house but it ended up at theirs. >_> I'll still be patient, but I hope it'll arrive here soon.

Maybe if I could understand people's motives for not voting due to there being better entries, I could've been more graceful about this. But... If people actually do that, then that just upsets me a lot. I have given it my all during these competitions, but I'm coming to the conclusion that due to the current positions for this and the Round 2 entry, people that vote for the remixer (and as a result vote AGAINST me) seem to be very common. And it's echoed with my ventures side-by-side with Brandon as well; from what I'm understanding from the votes, "Red Chamomile" received an insanely strong fan reception, while on the other hand "Liquid Metal" had more of a torn reception, which I kept assuming was because I was a guest artist on it. I can't help but see this uncanny pattern in regards to name relations and seeing it affect me no matter how many tick boxes I try to fill. The production tips I received throughout may be a plus here, but other than that this is just giving me too much grief. I can't see myself taking part in a future Mega Man competition if all it does is bring me down

I'm, like, 2 weeks late with this but this is the part where I say thank you for your response I should've done it sooner, but I had rather been wanting for the Wild Arms and BadAss albums to sink in first before I could really make my move. The response does indeed feel mostly positive, and I do sense both Brandon and Palpable noticing the tail of the piano texture used. This actually came from my attempts to add as much "realism" to the old sample bank that I used back in my student days, which meant having to tweak some of the envelopes on the patches that I had to work with including the attack and decay. Yes, you read it - STUDENT DAYS. Believe it or not, this particular recording was established back in May of 2006 (yes, this take is nearly six years old!), when I had been working on the arrangement on and off during that year. This may explain some of my unhappiness with my life at the time really being channeled into the performance, fitting in with Aetherius's vision ridiculously well. And so when I saw him dropping the project a year later, I felt extremely disappointed at what happened, not just with the project but the fact that I felt as if I was merely on projects that were going nowhere no matter how much effort I placed in them. Over time my attachment to the track was lost, but thanks to prophetik's dedication in getting it finished through phase 3 (and with then being when I FINALLY settled on a name for this thing) and getting the album unleashed upon the world, the amount of pride I had in putting it down was steadily built back up, and was soon reflected on the faint but positive user feedback from it upon the album's release. It's a shame that I had lost the sample bank as I had been told for years that I couldn't emulate the same performance success that I had with "Tomorrow's Wake" (namely from Larry in-between talk segments on VG Frequency back in the day), and having discovered it it's all too late as I had moved onto a completely different set of gear, but I'm now game to learn with what I have now and see what I can do in what seems to be a more positive environment than years gone by. Hopefully this will be the start of a more positive comeback and not being over-confident in my abilities (when really these days, confidence in submissions tend to be lacking). Long ramble over, but you get the picture Once again, a big thanks for the responses, and I hope to push things through for the future!

Strange ambient source, but given Mark Vera's approach to Metroid in the past (being one of the first works I heard from him), I can understand the motives to adapt Star Control. It does indeed manage to capture more of an original melody on top of the rather disjointed sounding source material; not saying that's a bad thing but it takes guts to show some expansion on it for something short of 5 minutes here. The synth guitar, while not the best sound I've heard, could've easily benefitted with some modulation and envelope filtering to better realise itself; it's not too bad on its own though with the sustain and pitch bending in, so it's not too bad looking at it at a larger level./ I also have to mention that with the amount of intense double-bass kicks in there, some better kick drum realisation could've helped, most notably in the field of velocities, given the acoustic nature that the kit carries. That was easily transferred to the cymbals though, so it would've been good to hear it being carried over somewhere else. If I had more of an attachment for the game, or if the source was a more memorable one to me, I might've been more at home with something like this, but as it is it's definitely one of Mark Vera's more different works witnessed. Sadly I'm not going to keep this due to its age really sticking out with the production concerns and lack of attachment to the arrangement, but I do indeed see some good potential for the sheer amount of Star Control love given towards the site. It can be seen as inspirational if one is seen as a one-man army for covering a game like this

The Shadowgate originals feel kinda strange for me, namely due to the time signature adaptation if anything. But to hear it taken in a more interpretive 4/4 form complete with aggressive rhythm backing remeniscent of Stemage's work shows that there's some dedication in really focusing on the integrity of the melodies in this kind of structure. The guitars and bass are all very well recorded, the drums feel generally punchy (though if anything I felt the kick needed more power and more equalised separation from the bass itself), and even the solo at 2:30, while a little moist, manages to show some very strong soloing skills for the track. It's a shame it ends ridiculously quickly too; would've hoped for one last head-banging section going into the end right after the solo, but that might just be my only qualm with what to me feels like a very well done rock-driven arrangement. I dig this a lot

I remembered Usa's solo version fondly from the album. Guess it's been a long time coming to hear the updated version. To me, the piano felt rather unchanged from the original mix, and the adaptation to the source material there was still really pretty. It does capture that more serene quality to the town at the start of the game, and played well to Usa's piano arranging strength back at the VGMix days. And then hearing the moody part come in, in regards to writing, all the sweeping strings that managed to come in seemed to fit somewhat of a clarity to the quality to it. I think TheDeath's contributions seemed to be a completely different mixing down of the string part of the original, though for some reason a lot of the sound quality is very similar to Usa's original handling of it. Even back then it was a great adaptation to a minor key there, capturing the fall to the Desians to a T. And that sweep back into the happy part at the end was still pretty too, seeming to capture that moment of hoping to rise and bounce back against the Desians. I may have got my thoughts completely wrong though, even down to any mixing differences, but comparing the original album cut with the track description, there comes the $20,000 question - if TheDeath was credited even for some of the writing in the original mix, how come he wasn't credited on this track for the album cut? I went in thinking there might've been an overhaul of the soundscape, but it doesn't seem to be the case. Clarification, Kyle? Still a good track after all these years though, without doubt. Let's hope TheDeath comes back providing sweeping orchestrations soon, and similarly let's also hope Dan keeps upping his game for equally classy arrangements here

Well I'm listening with proper headphones right now, and I'll see if I can let loose my anger on something quite brutal. I admit he's come a long way since some of his more overdrawn submissions to the Dwelling of Duels years back. It starts first of all with this very brutal adaptation of Epilogue 3 before seiguing quite well into Battle with the Four Fiends, then into Castle Damcyan and back to Epilogue 3; the way of handling the sources and the transitions was absolutely no problem, as is the sheer amount of skill brought in, most notably with the heavy 16th note strumming from the 2 minute mark onwards - a heavily insane transition into the Castle Damcyan section for sure. It may be a very straightforward way of adapting the sources, but it's got this brutal way of fitting into the scope of the story's progression in order to capture its relevance. Here's one criticism I have here; while the writing does indeed manage to face this angry and "traitor-ish" approach given towards it, some clarity could've been done towards the drum pieces to get them to stand out significantly more, as for me it seemed as if the rhythm guitars ended up clashing a bit too much with the cymbals in terms of equalisation for some reason, making it not as sharp as I would've wanted it to be. That said, this is some really TIGHT guitar playing here, and to see the sources intertwined in such a way that might make Children of Bodom more like the White Stripes (!!), it's a clear sign showing that Kidd Cabbage has really been pushing himself to become a well identifiable face in regards to the remix community. Here's to hoping he'd surface again in another site project after his recent BadAss contribution too

You and your barebones sources. >_> This is 8 measures long, but it's really just this etheral soundscape setting up the game's backdrop. But yeah, with the use of acoustic guitar and more atmospheric percussion it tends to add this more 'apocalyptic' feel to the source. It starts out safe to it, but it manages to play around a little bit when the electric guitars ended up coming in (though whether it would fit with the source's rhythms is another thing altogether). Yet, eventually it would crawl all the way back to the gentle acoustic nature and back again to that kind of riff; for me it seems to on the line of something more chilled and uninvolving. It may be a flossy production but when considering that most of it could've held up just fine back then, I must state that I'm not really too keen on the texture for the guitars at all though; don't know if they're live or just weakly filtered synth ones, but this constant use of high-end can be seen as a draw against on it for me. The other instruments were humanised quite well and fit the soundscape, just that due to this flossy mixing it seems to have suffered considerably in regards to age. It's a creepy take on such a minimalist source though, but in regards to the mix as a whole I couldn't really get into it. It's got some cool things that it tried to do, definitely, but all that taken into consideration I couldn't really see it as much of a keeper at all; I'm sorry

Congratulations Jake! And true to your name, it had to relate to the "snake" in your name So it starts out well with some pretty echoed square synths, probably a little overdone (might've preferred the echo feedback to be a little more reduced), but by the time the rest of the accompaniment comes in it starts providing a more mysterious atmosphere to it. It follows the source well for most of it, and manages to take some good liberties at 2:10 with some good original writing on top of the melody. I see it as a good chippy homage to Snake Man - a little simple, but it does indeed capture this peaceful "vertical" approach to the title quite well. I have to say something; I am absolutely no fan of the almost constant padded drone at all (which I'm assuming was a heavily reverbed/softened e-piano). All it seemed to do was add writing-based mud towards it, which makes it really awkward to comprehend otherwise. If you were even hoping to keep it I would've recommended changing it to a different synth-like sound (some sort of chime?), reducing the volume and equalising when appropriate to make it more identifiable within the instrument roster. But as it is I could live with it, though whether I'd be comfortable with it remains to be seen. I may have been quite critical with this one, but having witnessed some of your works since, I am sure that you're able to up your game in future submissions, especially since you also guided Snake Man through the Grand Robot Master Remix Battle 2011 and had a submission from there passed; and I have every confidence that you'd get in there and take everything you learnt into new exciting ventures. For now, welcome to the clan

More Pokemon! And I admit to have waited some time to see it get posted, especially given the long history behind this one. I'm liking the eerie start, with the organ parts that kind of resemble a darker "Strawberry Fields" for me, and when the melody managed to come in I can certainly envision this darker approach to it; it could almost be as if West Kanto was facing a 1984-esuqe siege, which seems to be the vision falling into my mind when hearing it. It may be a whole different set of chords for the track, but the melody's adaptation towards it manages to adapt to that feeling to a T, so arrangement-wise we have an expansive adaptation that fits this dark work that could carry elements of Rozo's moody synth driven style and Will's 80s-influenced approach. I'm not sure if the rhythms at 3:30 were real or not but it would've helped to have been the same texture as the lead guitar (which I'm assuming is Will ) for further clarity. In addition to that, I know I keep picking on Will's drum parts in particular, but to me they seemed to come off as rather flat sounding in the mix. There could've been something done to try and equalise further punch out of it, to really give more edge to the track, but given the track's age and history it might be better off shunted aside. Otherwise, it's a pretty arrangement to compliment Blake's happier and sophisticated take on it, and to see them both co-exist on The MissingNo Tracks was pretty neat on seeing how people could adapt this simple childish melody. Good going you two!

Seeing the words "vintage drums" in a writeup like this is making me think that this might end up being rather experimental in nature, though whether it could work or not may be a different thing altogether. Hearing the familiar intro chiptune riff in the background was a firm touch, though it seemed to be bridged by this awkward detuned original section within the first minute and that kind of style was awkwardly maintained for most of it. But I felt the hip-hop segment at 2:30 managed to save it for me with some stronger writing based around the source; the piano may be awkwardly mechanical, but the amount of light echo on it at least managed to give it a fuller texture. I can at least understand what he was trying to do in interpreting the theme in as many different styles of electronica as possible, but in the end it comes off as rather minimalist and rough and almost infringing the site's vision even back then within the opening moments, which is to be understood considering this was within the site's first 100 contributions. But as a more experimental take on the source it's alright, but I have to be honest; of all the takes on this theme I heard over the holiday, I'm not really as keen on this as Israfel's and Grodan Grobi's entries, sorry to say

On the contrary, when exploring the field of CT coverage this was one that I was drawn into simply because of the raw energy provided to it. I also remember that ABG later covered it in the style of a Grand Theft Auto car radio broadcast back in the VGMix days (no idea if it exists anymore), so it seems as if he has a passion for the source for some time. It may be an ugly mono recording, but taking that concern aside it starts off taking the dangerous riffs of the source material and using it to build what seems to be a more worldly DnB take, or rather, "literal Jungle" for what seems to be made out. The xyolophone to me sounds very firm and fitting, though I would've thought some additional envelope processing to the pan flute might've done some good. The main theme cameo at 1:15 made a good builddown/bridge into section B of the source, so I'm cool with what happened there. Yet, like a lot of mixes these days it's handled almost too much like actual BGM in that we have a riff leading back to where you started and a fadeout. I know it's OverClocked "Remix", but it's not the best way to stand the test of time if it has that kind of an abrupt nature to it, even when in comparison to its bretheren. For the time, I'd say it's a cool electronica entry. It's shown a considerable amount of age now in comparison to other entries most notably in regards to production and execution, but if you can tolerate the genre then it should be worth checking out. Though these days, I know that ABG's skills as an electronica musician have improved tenfold, so the quality gap between this and even "Third Eye" is quite substantial; you're going to have to be mindful of that if you're to check out this old quickie which can still be considered a 'goodie' to the CT mix collection.

The first ever submission from Gecko Yamori. And yes, for the record I DO remember Gex; might provide a remix from one of its games down the line Onto this one though, it's basically a straightforward adaptation of the source complete with extended non-melodic sections and additional drums/pads. A lot of Gecko's works back in the day managed to play safe, so that frame of mind could be excused; though when the only real involvement given towards the synths were the same repetitive filtering patterns given towards the synth bass and some minor effects work applied to the lead synths, you can tell it's already somewhat uninspired in regards to processing. But what seems to be the biggest problem to me is that most of the song was based around buildup and hard to establish a full blown groove or anything. So for me, it felt kind of minimal in nature in comparison to even some of Gecko's later contributions for the site. So, for a first submission he did fine. However, I have known that he has really upped his game as a musician since, and especially in the field of coverage for this source, it came out through the years feeling significantly uninspired even in comparison to the site's other early adaptations for the track. But it's alright if you've come here for something that's practically considered a no-brainer entry.

A strange source to cover, I sense, which I guess makes it appropriate for what seems to be a more aqueous setting. The mix to me feels rather straightforward like a lot of tracks from 2001; on top of the 15 bar source duration, it's all one build of texture over the top, starting with adding in more advanced drums, then additional melody layers over the top to fill in the space, only for it to hapen all over again at around 2:20. So arrangement-wise, nothing really too creative here. The production seems to have paled a bit over the years; the drums comes off as awkwardly distorted and there's no enveloping (other than in the ending) done towards the synths to keep themselves interesting, though the amount of sustain/decay placed amongst them was good enough to fill in the space, not to mention the bass was of a very appropriate texture for the track. I can guess it fits the rather frog-like nature of the track significantly But yes, an old mix that seems to have had its better days on many fronts, though if you're looking for a good no-brainer Blaster Master arrangement it's worth the pickup. (And I guess it reminded me that one of these days I MUST arrange the beautiful Area 6, but that's another story )

Ah, the Phantom Forest. I got to say it's one of my personal favorite songs from the score simply because of the beauty for it The recording quality may not be the cleanest all the way around, but the instruments were for the most part very well emphasized and managed to stand out well. The double bass performance comes off as ridiculously sloppy though, which makes it hard to try and keep focus here. With those qualms out of the way early, this can be seen as a somewhat classy arrangement, with some nice layering work taken throughout and some interesting panning work with various additional layers of double bass and cello being panned in various places in the stereo field, capturing what may be seen as a more mysterious approach to the forest setting. The improv skills within the second half showed a lot of great colors as well; if anyone else on that site tried to do that kind of performance on a double bass they'd probably blister in half the duration; takes some endurance and creativity to really put that together. So, not the best production setups seen, but with that kind of performance ability we can definitely see you going places. Hopefully you'll be back sooner than we think

*notices that her track wasn't in orlounge's top 3 and is currently struggling in the votes overall* Thank you so much

Sometimes, Tetris mixes are hard to really trust in regards to source tune. I believe that there needs to be a proper separation between the Nintendo and Tengen sources here, as the tune here is actually the B music from the Nintendo version and isn't present in the Tengen section. Just saying. That fickleness aside, it does start out strongly with the strings and a swift and gradual interpreatation of the source. The samples may show their age now, especially some of those MIDI sounding synths (the squares and drum kit in particular), but for what's been handled for the purpose it feels quite chill to me and fits the source quite well. The middle part was cool with the ambience as well, so credit where credit is due for some strong bridge work. Other than that, it's an old arrangement that may have been hampered a bit by the trials of time, but the weak processing and humanisation in general has also made this one age significantly more than going by arrangement. You could look it up if you're a fan of the source, but again due to the rising standards over the years your enjoyment out of it may vary.

After reading the story, I'm getting the significance on the kindness of being given food by djp, and that should make good sentiment The track manages to maintain its original atmospheric style, while at the same time it managed to emphasize the atmosphere a lot with the very appropriate room spacing and use of percussive effects. The minor chord substitutions at 2:45 and onwards were a good use to keep building up the approach you've got going, and this gradual building of tension complete with some well utilised and separated EQs have shown a very keen ear even after having taken a break from the community for so long. There are a couple of criticisms I have with it though. Firstly, that key change at 3:40 comes off as rather sudden to me; with the same type as fill as applied in most of the others in the track, I may have expected something a bit more dynamic to clash into it, like with some added concert bass drum writing as well to compliment it perhaps? In addition, the groove you have going is fine enough as it is, though I can't help but think that the main drum riff doesn't have much change done to it at all. The additional ethnic percussion was good, but maybe some more in range of the drum loop's position on the panning grid could've done some good. Otherwise, it's a nice track; not a revolutionary track by any means, but a very calm and sweet addition to the Myst coverage on OCR. Hopefully it wouldn't be another 8 years before you send something over again