Rexy   Judges ⚖️

The mood to me feels somewhat dynamic; managed to take the edgy 80s-like nature of the original 64 Rocker to something that could be seen as something more film-score-like, maybe kind of similar to David Bergeaud's more downbeat works due to the combination of synths with more organic sounds. The atmosphere and intertwining of both the themes throughout can indeed highlight a hint of desperation for the Mario parody character in the game, indeed reflecting on its artistic merit really well. Nice going. The samples themselves were even handled with amazing quality; goodness knows how anyone can even replicate those booming bass drums along with such clean production to match; the only two qualms I tend to have though tend to be with the piano writing being somewhat stiff to me (albeit the dynamics were worked on really well for it to fit in with the rest of the sounds), and I'm not so sure about the choice of fadeout ending. But if it was written with more of an intent to be a game loop, I can probably understand the direction more. It's a good interpretation for 8-Bit Weapon's score though, and for what I've witnessed of you so far within the community you're really pushing yourself as a key arranger within the OCR clan. Outside of waiting for NiGHTS "Panzer Nightopia" to be posted, I really hope to see what you've got in the works for 2012

King Kong! All I know about Konami's handling of it is that he appeared in Wai Wai World on the NES, but that was it What you did with the source does indeed feel so much like that a movie score in a way; starting with that gentle piano intro, moving onto an interpretation of the theme that does strike similar dynamic similarities to the main theme of Pirates of the Caribbean (seemingly an intent due to the mix description), along with some nice buildup work in the middle and variation on the riff once more. It to me may sound like a straightforward arrangement, but what was handled with the source even in the lesser pronounced sections was highlighted remarkably well, and thus I approve of your passion for all things MSX with what you did. Production wise, it managed to sound very sharp and well established; the strings to me feel lush and them along with the driving percussion are seen as key components for the track's realisation. That piano to me does indeed sound very heavily snapped though, which I'm not even sure is the intent of the work, but if something like that could be more realised given the nature of it being a 'key' instrument (double meaning?), then I can see you going places for even a fourth MSX arrangement for the site. That said, hopefully you'll make a return in 2012 with more ways to honor the system! I'll be keeping a hold on this one

Hehe, old-school djp. So even then you had an ear for deviating from the source material; starts interesting with those synthetic rhythmic synths, though by the time the beat and ultimately the melody came in, things started to add more flavor, life and ultimately interpretation into the track. It might be difficult for people to see past the loose timing on the first goes-through, but in terms of what's been handled with the source material it managed to fit the feel that was going on here. Looking at the description it can be seen that the mastering process seems rather primitive now in comparison to other mixes, but in comparison to works even a couple of years after its time it actually sounds pretty polished. It may show its age now, but like a lot of djp works they tend to stand the test of time a lot more than other similar arrangements. Here's to hoping you'll provide any music for 2012 on top of your service to the site; for now, we salute you

I remember liking this when I started looking around OCR's library for the first time. So I guess by reviewing it it's taking me back somewhat. The feel for this one kind of reminded me of DJ Tiesto's early noughties works ("Suburban Train" apparently comes to mind here), and the beats managed to appropriately fit that more laid back groove going on. There does seem to be some sour note clashing in parts namely to the loops of choice in the background, but generally this is one that I felt the production managed to stand itself up for well over time, even down to the levels of the chosen instrumentation. Albeit, in regards to arrangement - aside from the familiar arpeggio that everyone knows and love, it takes a lot of liberalities with the source material. Given the minimalist scope of the source material it may be expected, but for those looking for more familiarity with the prelude it's probably not going to be found much here. To this day I still dig it now; probably not as much as I did when I first started out, mind, but FFMusicDj's early works could still be cited as part of an influence of me as a rebellious teenager. Hopefully he'll come back soon with new arrangements up his sleeve; it's been too long!

Quick, someone put the face of Toy Story's Woody over OA's mugshot on the OP and post it here for added hilarity!

Again... I SUCK WITH WORDS. I shall edit that as soon as I can, thank you Dr. Matt x_X

A 100% French collab... that isn't with CHM. But a french bassist is always cool too. So in regards to a level 3 tribute you managed to hit the mark off really well with the Golden Axe cameo in the beginning before going straight towards the source tune at hand, making sure to reference it in a very appropriate structure. With some well polished guitar solos and synth solos that could almost be mistaken as an acknowledgement of Van Halen's 80s material, I can easily see your driving passion towards the source through and through, and with it being a level 3 month for that DoD you've managed to hit the theme square on the head. Amusingly awesome. Having witnessed some of Scaredsim's work over the past year, I've come to acknowledge that his production skills have been receiving a considerable boost too, most notably with the cleanness of the more synthetic instruments. Sure, that loud snare might throw some people off, but I think we can't imagine his style without it - it's raw 80s power! Again, glad to see this got posted on the site after a very tenacious DoD back then! Surely this will mark the start of some Scaredsim goodness for 2012? We shall see

Ah, I might answer this query about the drums. A lot of the writing was mostly inspired by a random comment from Brandon when in conversation with him a few weeks back, puzzled over arrangement preferences. I thought people were looking closer to straight covers, but he somehow countered that by thinking they were looking for "gay covers" instead. Taking that to consideration, the drum writing style throughout the track was mainly based on the playing of Roger Taylor from Queen (see what I did there?), mostly looking over at their repetoire from the early 1970s. So it might explain the more erratic style being going for here. Otherwise, thank you for your support, and we're glad you enjoyed the track

Uh-oh, OA's striking back with more reviews! Let's keep getting him where it hurts! On a side note, today marked my 100th review for this thing! Who's going to join me in triple figures?

PRC81! That was a very fun round Of all the rounds I hosted during my time dealing with the PRC, this is one of these that I remember most fondly. Highway Hunter still remains relatively unknown by many today, but the response behind it was amazing and to see even Bladiator and Suzumebachi come towards the source and work on arrangements for it really lifted the competition's profile. And in true Bladiator fashion, the core melodic elements of the source are mainly used as melodic motifs for a more interpretive tango, almost reminiscent to what he handled with "moontang" a little earlier that year. Almost everything involved - the stylistic violin lead main parts, the downbeat section led by the accordion, and even that wonderful key change right at the end - carry both elements of the source material and hints of Karl's personality, and so I felt really proud to see him take the win with this track back then! Course, even now the samples are feeling kind of old, and that's something that I stressed too much with his works when he was even active within the community, but he makes up for it with a RIDICULOUS amount of charisma within the writing. And even then they've been appropriately spaced out and levelled, and you can't help but feel somewhat cheery over this setting. I'm still glad that Karl is still making music now, though his presence isn't quite as sharp as it used to be. But I'm still looking out for his next few arrangements, both as a fellow vgpiano stablemate and as a fan of his work

Given the thunderstorm at the start, I'm not so sure if that was the "april showers" direction taken to mind. But with that aside, the rest of the instrumentation does help escalate that feel and present it in a fitting atmosphere. The flute countermelody at 0:52 does give in a good lease of life towards the arrangement setting, as does in parts the synth bass that shows up at 1:40 giving more ominousness to the piece, which is similarly carried on by the rest of the writing. It may not be the smoothest arrangement idea, but for 2001 it's a fine approach. I do however think that there could've been more stereo separation within the track. The levels themselves are good though, maybe aside from the flute countermelody being slightly too loud IMO, and the sound quality managed to preserve itself well over time. It's a good kick for Lufia fans even now; like these elder mixes don't expect anything too spectacular, but as it is for its time I found it to be not bad at all

As with these elder arrangements, I'll try and go easy on this. It starts out promising with the nice bell chimes, though by the time the rest of the instrumentation comes in it to me feels rather uncomfortable to listen to; I can't help but notice some clipping in my left speaker in particular, as well as some very minimal sound processing other than the bell chime and rhythm synth's echo and some awkward mixing in general (particularly with the bass being too loud and the drums being too quiet). Hence, to me the production feels really painful even for 2002. Credit where credit is due for the arrangement though - the mix mostly plays around with the chords for the B section of the source and uses it all the way through even with the melody for the A section, and with some light shakeup in the bells every now and again it's most likely not too bad. But for me, I'm going to find it hard to see past the awkward production to really appreciate this one much. I also feel sad that you didn't take the experience to heart and followed it up either - making remixes is a learning curve, and I had hoped that you'd be able to take the feedback and improve considerably

The Fire Ship. In my opinion, not really one of the most memorable tracks in FF5, but I have confidence in Nutritious in making something stellar out of it. And indeed it starts well with the beautiful slow attacking strings, then when the timpani and woodwinds follow the mood starts escalating itself and starts going into something more heroic in nature. The arrangement manages to stick fairly close to the source material, though there's been some lovely deviated parts like the charming glockenspiel-led intermission at 1:55, almost bearing an atmospheric similarity to some of the gentler natures of some of Sugiyama's ending pieces for the Dragon Quest series; and even then the build backup to the source in a different key in 3:15 managed to transition strongly whilst fitting appropriately with the movie-score-like ideals. Definitely something quite expansive. I know this might've been an old track though, but if there's something that kind of rubs me the wrong way it's the not-quite-as-realised brass parts in comparison to the rest of the instrumentation. I've known for years that they in particular are hard to get done right, and while the notation feels fine, it's this raelisation that should be looked into to really get them to fit within a lively orchestrated setting. But you're Nutritious, and I have trust in you with keeping on working within the genre and working with these samples to their full potential. As a result, we've got a solid arrangement of an otherwise understated source from the game. With a lot of your project commitments over the past 2 years you've been really showing yourself cohesively around these parts, and I hope you'll get to keep showing your colors as a remixer in the not-so-distant future

With a name like Commando 64, I'm hoping you do an actual Commando mix down the line Jest aside, this is actually a strong arrangement provided within the realms of the C64 community. Oftentimes when coming towards sources like this one may be expected for something almost entirely close to the source due to their complexity, though while there has been some change-ups here and there in regards to melodic progression it retains that familiarity with those familiar with the Last Ninja source material. The harmonics work at 2:10, though a little sour sounding at one point, can be seen as a key element for expansion, as was the more down-beat section at 2:35 set to offer a slight builddown towards going towards the rest of the track. The sweeps coming in at 4:50 were also very sublime, based around the last 30 seconds of the source; and it goes to show Commando's colors as a lead player as well. This might've been a rambled paragraph, but to cut it short: C64, well personalised, nice playing chops. Production-wise we have clear recording values for the guitar, though I can't help but notice the drums felt a little flimsy and didn't quite match with the quality of the synth instrumentation. But for what they are they fit the tone of the track appropriately. What seems to be the splitting decision more than anything though, and I believe it's been said already, is the weak fade-out ending which also involves the solo in it as well. I can understand the artistic direction given the nature of the source material, but in a genre like metal you've got to find more of an explosive way to finalise it. As it is though, we've got a huge amount of promise from Commando 64, and I really hope he returns to OCR some point in the future with a stellar followup. I'll be keeping a hold on this one!

I recall this fondly from Summoning of Spirits It may not have had the most precise production, but there was something about the arrangement back then that had its charm. Right from the bat, I sense that Brad's vocals ended up making a much more significant presence than in the original, and the call-and-response between that and the saxophone feels similarly more relaxed with the saxophone not sticking out as much this time. I've also sensed that the organ parts, particularly in the mellower second verse, feeling somewhat gentler than they were as well. These elements coupled with the more subtle drum processing work have managed to help give it a more relaxed charm than the album version, which to me can be seen as a good thing. The upgrade was worth it! The straight-forward arrangement of the original still remains but given the structure of the song it's definitely not a bad deal at all. What DOES remain though was a slightly weak fade-out, which can pretty much be sensed when the volume is turned up really high; to hear the saxophone and beat just fizzle along slightly abruptly and finish without a climax is in my opinion a weak way to approach the ending, but thankfully isn't much of a problem now that the rest of the production concerns were addressed. Nice going again with the upgrade Brad! And please don't vanish from OCRemix any time soon either, between this and your various other contributions you're seen as a potent figure within the community

Yeah, thanks to the judges' decisions I guess I FINALLY understood there were FOUR versions of each main stage. Under that knowledge I finally understood the arrangement direction where this one was going, so much thanks in advance. So what we have here is a vocal arrangement that takes it in a similar direction to David Gray's electronic material, though much more upbeat and relevant to a tween audience. Blake's style managed to fit appropriately with the track, with some neat synth manipulation, filter/gate manipulation and some very careful autotune work to make it fit within the track's scope. The structure may be basic though, but what pop song isn't? The pieces were taken from the source material and structured appropriately to bring it into this form. Definitely an original direction to go for One thing I did notice though was that in spite of the tuning done to the vocals, I couldn't help but notice a flimsy recording quality behind the vocal part. Understanding that you don't record them often I could let it slide, but it could be something to think about for handling in the future should Blake take this direction again. All in all, a very fun track; possibly one of the more divisive tracks on Lucid Dreaming though, but there's always the instrumental for the vocal haters. Let's see what you got for 2012, fellow Limey!

Now this to me sounds solid; while the original "Hall of Fame" track was practically seen as a majorly triumphant piece of work, this feels somewhat more comraderic in structure and all the energy placed behind the performance and some strong rhythm guitar work seemed to work out and continue to give it that lease of life. The Pokemon Main Theme reference in the end was also pretty neat to reference to and ensure it doesn't quite outstay its welcome. In spite of this short arrangement, we've got something that works well given the nature of the source. Though I'm not sure if it's my listening setup, but I felt some low mids were missing from the track. That was what I noted with the frequency gap between the bass and rhythm guitars, so maybe a frequency boost in that section for the rhythm or an additional synth part covering that range might've helped fill it up. But outside of that qualm, the live instruments were well recorded, and the piano - albeit synthetic - managed to fit in appropriately to the soundscape. I hope the Key to Progression guys return with a new mix one day, because if they can provide a lot of promise with an 8-measure-long source (there I go, back to 'restrictive source material' again ) then they could go a long way in interpreting other songs. For now, nice work

Since when did I ever say that? Besides, as of December 11th, the only thing you've 'hogged' is me anyway. I'm always open for more to join the fun, so we can bring down the 'Phantom Topless'.

Seems as if this variation of Kefka has a heart I wonder if he's hearty enough to even answer the whole 'henchman' question above.

I've been quite a fan of this source tune since Vurez's take in 2005, so it'll be good to hear others' takes on it. Though, considering it's a 2002 mix I can understand the sample quality. The percussion feels quite involved; the main beat might be stale, but the occasional claps, retro toms and scratches do help give it a little bit of life, and while the synths don't feel all that expressive the little panning work with the bell throughout was actually pretty neat and helped with the soundscape. Otherwise, the structure follows too close to the source; the only thing that's been done with it is transposing it down a semitone and adding some additional pad/rhythm parts to it, so for some it's most likely to come off on the vanilla side. Ninja Gaiden fans may get a good kick out of it at least; it's a pleasant listen, though on both fronts I'm feeling it's been showing its age.

Dale North's works really stand the test of time well in regards to production quality. Sure, nowadays the string samples may not quite cut it, but the handling of them along with the delicate piano work had been done with such care that could almost compare it to the mellower works of Tenpei Sato. Arrangement-wise it may be straightforward, but what tracks from 2001 weren't? The structure coupled with the little Arni Village cameo at the end was more than enough to show acknowledgement for Mitsuida's PS1-era material, and coupled with the musical viaion made it a pleasant sounding track from start to finish. It's a shame you don't do music that often these days, but when you do chime in it's usually made of gold. I like a lot of other OC Remixers hope that you'll keep chipping into the site within the foreseeable future

I do remember hearing this when I started exposing myself to OCR's early work and feeling a little puzzled with this a way. And indeed I still do now; bare-bone beats, a conservative arrangement, the fact that you got the bass to play the melody as well as the lead bell (that to me really clutters up the notation if that's done consistently), not much articulation done to the synths other than the use of echo, and generally a weak sounding soundscape. Back in the day it might've been pretty cool especially considering it was done with the demo version of FL Studio, but nowadays it feels somewhat vanilla. I feel disappointed that they didn't take the experience to hand and follow it up as people would've been wanting - it's a cool experience to learn from in making music especially when side-by-side with someone else.

On the other hand, I'm strongly AGAINST this 'remix of the week' thing. Firstly, there may not be more than one remix in a week (and we've definitely had this a few times), and secondly, it actually discourages the remixers from submitting due to this sudden boost of 'favoritism'. I know I'd be discouraged at least; I'd find it hard enough to get reviews on my OWN material without worrying about popularity. >_> What I do want to see though is something that may encourage people to give feedback to works, album posts or otherwise. It seems as if the closest link we have now to mass remarks is through Youtube, but then again it's coming down to this changing web environments. Sure, Rozo's ideas may involve more video editors, but if there are people ready to spread the word, then I'm sure the people will support the cause however they can

The story sequence music from Jurassic Park. Again, I take intrique to see what people do with short loops (this one being 4 measures long), so here we go, haha. The original was indeed used note-for-note as accompaniment placement to match with the slow-attacking strings, appropriate sound effects, three-step jazz-drum work and some very eerie rhythm/gliding synth work. These days it may be seen as too safe as a way to handle the source, but as a way to build atmosphere could almost make this feel somewhat appropriate for Halloween. Even for its time the levels were decent, though I may have had suggested the sound effects to be brought down in the mix. Regardless, it has that eerie quality that in spite of modern-day shortcomings had held up reasonably well over time. I dig this

Hah, a bit of Dragon Quest coverage here. Nice. This is kind of a mixed bag to me; "Unknown World" is a restrected source that's 8 measures long, though at least there's some liberty taken towards the chord structure to give it a more personal touch. The original section at 1:35 was actually a good way to play around with the general melodic structure of the source as well somewhat, so mad props there for knowing how things work. So while in terms of arrangement you've managed to get it down, the production itself seems to have paled somewhat with the minimalist MIDI-sounding instrumentation; gentle strings and staccato work before suddenly bringing in a sudden drum beat that could give it a feel almost similar to the works of Massive Attack if handled more appropriately. Even then it ended rather sloppily with only fading the drums out, giving in quite an underwhelming feeling to the track overall. But for something dating as far back as 2001 it's quite decent for its time. If there were more attention being paid towards the minor details as well then it might've stood the test of time a lot more, but for now it could merely be seen as a little bland.