Rexy

Not exactly.  Material posted under GiIvaSunner is the legit in-game audio, while SiIvaGunner is about the memes.  The source picked out is fair play.

Good to see that MnP is still doing well after over 100 compos at this point.  Good luck with this week!

Not exactly.  Material posted under GiIvaSunner is the legit in-game audio, while SiIvaGunner is about the memes.  The source picked out is fair play.

Good to see that MnP is still doing well after over 100 compos at this point.  Good luck with this week!

Ooh, I can hear that Moroder influence!  Having listened to the three listed tracks, I got the idea that there's a lot more emphasis on melody and textures - and this is no different.
Right off the bat, the framework is robust and explores the first half of the source, breaks down, goes to the B section and returns to the A section for a calming finish.  The BGM is not only dominant, but there are more melody timbre combinations than I can count on one hand!  There have been plenty of opportunities to play around with them, starting simple with rhythms getting altered with the third run-through of melody A at 1:36 and the syncopated feel on the intro arpeggio at 2:08.  But when the call-and-response kicks in at 3:24, it equally experiments with melody B's timings and adds new improvisational writing, and the ideas continued to develop when melody A returned at 3:40.  These are fun changes that both keep the source's familiarity and make it sound like Moroder could've composed the source himself!
Now, I was one of those people that got asked to look out for the production values while Mike workshopped this track.  Hearing this finished form, the choice of timbres are varied and excellent for this EDM sub-genre.  They're also all identifiable in the mix, and they have contributed to this playful atmosphere going on.  Stephen's voice also made those vocoders pop as usual.  I know Mike saw it first-hand, but the pitch shift on said vocoder at 2:33 also caught me off guard in a positive way. It's a tight package that made me spontaneously do the djp - a sign that shows he's making retro grooves right.
With all this fun and attention on the arrangement and production, I can see it on the front page.  I'm also shocked that OCR hasn't received a new submission for this game in 19 years, so consider it a refresher on that part too.  Good work!

YES

@prophetik music"if this was on an OST for a game, there'd be someone out there who said that this is their favorite track."
I kind of treated this like an OST deep cut, yeah!
@Rexy"If anything, it quickly turned into the musical equivalent of a shitpost"
I need to save this quote for the back of a release one day, like the John Stewart quote for The Book of Mormon playbill.
You know, there's more humor in this than most of the stuff I do, so it's really cool to have it on OCR (especially after being a fan for almost 20 years!). And to be mentioned in the same write-up as Harold P. Warren's masterwork?!

Man, I hate this arrangement, lol.
I love the fact that it's on OCR - there needs to be more music on here that challenges my tastes.

Oh man, this is a trip back in time - so much that only Larry and Darke were in the previous decision.  I thought the arrangement was neat and serviceable even back then, but I do understand your desire to give it a considerable production overhaul.
Arrangement-wise, there are indeed some similarities between this and the 2005 original - the breakbeat style, Sadorf's treatment of the source melodies, and the structure more or less.   I did notice some subtle tweaks here:
The intro brought in more source The 7/8 [edit: oops, I meant 7/4 - thanks prophetik] part at 2:07 caught my attention as a fun breakdown The 2:45 section deviated in style and went full contemporary EDM And the ending at 3:28 also did well with combining the C section's melody and the A section's chord structure. Once again, I see it as a knack for demonstrating not only your arrangement improvements over the years but also respecting another person's ideas - in this case, your collaborator.
It's obvious to say that the difference production-wise between the two is like night and day.  The soundscape now feels vivid when the original lacked in low-end frequencies.  The instruments are all clear to pick out and layered well, and the percussion has plenty of punch.  Even the piano - an otherwise organic instrument - has a strong reverb that complements the breakbeat origins.
I am, however, with Mindwander regarding the piano getting buried under the synths, but it's no dealbreaker at all - just a well-noted observation.
All in all, this blast-from-the-past is refurbished in every possible way - hence, I can see it being front-page material.  I say this can also be inspirational for anyone else who got their work rejected years ago!

YES

First of all, it took me a long evening to take notes on the source tunes, so I'll provide a breakdown for my fellow judges.
0:31-1:13 - B section of Spear Pillar / Arceus motif.
1:41-2:05 - Bells from Sinjoh Ruins / Mt Coronet.
2:28-3:12 - Rhodes piano from Sinjoh Ruins / Mt Coronet; strings come in and provide the melody for the former.
3:14-3:45 - Mt. Coronet's B section.
3:55-4:17 - Rhodes piano stabs from Mt. Coronet's C section, with strings following.
4:17-4:47 - Pokéthlon Finals A section.
5:02-5:43 - Final part of C section in Mt. Coronet
5:58-6:04 - Brief reference of Sinjoh Ruins' C section.
6:08-6:40 - Distortion World's A section on muted trumpets, moving to the B section on sustained brass. (Sorry, but I didn't hear anything from the Arceus source here.)
6:48-6:58 - Last section of Sinjoh Ruins, which also references the A section of Spear Pillar and the brief Giratina melody motif.
7:02-7:17 - Distortion World's A section. 
7:17-7:39 - Sinjoh Ruins bells.
7:57-8:03 - Last reference for Sinjoh Ruins / Mt. Coronet before ending.
The sources are dominant, so I'm pleased to see you understood that part.  I also heard how you treated the meat of the arrangement as an extension of Sinjoh Ruins, while also adding in other components to weave the mood.  The Spear Pillar intro sounded neat with the tempo shift before getting into the arrangement proper.  The bass writing sounds fun and added a driving force to the backing instrumentation.  The ominous instrumentation and glitching in the Distortion World section was a fun way to add in a temporary feeling of chaos.  And most importantly, the integration of other sources into Sinjoh's structure was a neat touch and reduced the prospect of medley-itis in the track.  So you aren't wrong here - you can't have too many outside sources when arranging that kind of BGM.
There are two issues I have with the arrangement, though.  Firstly, the Pokéthlon Finals section feels so out of place and random, so this is a rare case that the track would sound more cohesive without a section dedicated to BGM.  Secondly, the source melodies have all been brought in verbatim, with only the rhythmic changeups in the Distorted World return at 7:03 having any hint of playing around with motifs.  You have an 8-minute run-time and plenty of opportunities to explore these tunes, so consider going back over the BGM integration so far and experiment with them.
The production left me mixed feelings, though.  Firstly, I respect your choice to mix dated and modern sounds - it's a neat aesthetic that I didn't think would work in theory, but it works here.  The rest of the production, on the other hand, feels rough and I need to bring a few irks to the table.
The brass and symphonic string section has no articulation.  When present in the track, these instruments all sound robotic and don't smoothly transition well from one note to another.  Modern production samples like these usually have key switches to trigger for different forms of expression, so consider looking at those and seeing what you can do.  Velocities can also get shaped up to better shape the dynamic field. There is an excessive amount of piercing frequencies here.  Your decision here makes sense as you use a lot of high-pitched synths and bells in your instrumentation.  But audio beyond at least 8k Hz is only intended to add a hint of sparkle into the track and shouldn't be used to carry a tone.  One idea I have is to transpose your offending synths down an octave.  Another is to put a low pass at around 10k on the harshest sounding ones.  Fixing this step is vital, as it made the track too fatiguing to listen to otherwise. While I'm on the subject, the mix itself feels cluttered and muddy.  It happens most often when the Sinjoh/Coronet Rhodes piano overlaps the lead(s), a lead overlaps another or the rare occasion where the bass overlaps either.  Even the percussion feels muffled and buried as a result of not enough separation between the parts.  With so many instruments and a hefty track length, the idea of going into each part's EQ settings feels daunting.  But it's worth figuring out which samples to make cuts to get others to poke through. As a concept, it's a neat idea, and it added a sense of drama to the source material not present before.  But the track itself is too painful to listen to thanks to the unhealthy high frequencies, with parts blending into each other and the real-sounding brass and strings sounding too robotic.  If you decide to revise this, cutting the highs is essential.  On the other end of the spectrum, I see further experimentation with the source melodies as desirable.  Whatever happens, Adrian, don't give up - I see potential in you.

NO (resubmit)

Thanks Rexy for that breakdown!  Always helpful to have that for complex arrangements like this.
I've been listening to this one for a while and have been on the fence about it.  Ultimately I'm in agreement with most what what my fellow judges had to say: the vanilla synths and mechanical instruments are just unpleasant, and there's a lot of crowding in the busier sections that's causing both muddiness and some pumping.
On the plus side, I personally thought the arrangement was just fine.  It covers a lot of territory but it all seemed coherent, perfectly respectable for a long-form exploration.  As for the frequencies, I have better high-end hearing than my colleagues, so for me a melody being carried in the 2.5KHz range is fine, but I understand how many listeners would find it unpleasant, and a low pass at 10KHz will almost always do more good than harm.
I'd love to see a revision, but the sound quality for sure need another pass.
NO (resubmit)

❤❤❤❤

This is a very long track, but I can keep things short since the issues I have are pretty straightforward.  First is the vanilla samples and its usage.  Stuff like strings, brasses and other instruments seem to be lacking articulation to say the least, and they come out as extremely artificial.  Second, the mix sounds like it has a ton of highs, a lot of lows but not much when it comes to mid content.  Things like brasses have a very sharp edge, which is something that can happen naturally in a performance, but it seems like every stab here is articulated to be as sharp as possible.  Many other instruments have a piercing quality to them (i.e. the final synth is resonating so hard I had to just take my headphones off). Also, even tho there are lows, almost everything on that range sounds pretty muffled.

I'm not huge on this arrangement either, as it seems too disconnected and I don't feel it's conveying much even though it has a very long runtime, but this is mostly subjective and not my main reason for rejection.
Overall, too many issues in plain sight here for me to let this through.
NO

Yeah, Youtube links aren't a great place to host submissions for us.  I'll give the benefit of the doubt, but please host it in a cloud drive or attach to your email in the future.
Anyway, the source treatment is mostly safe and conservative, but there's plenty of subtractive interpretation that makes it stand out.  And there's so many I'll need to dish out the bullet points again!
* The intro and first run-through use the source's elements straight with the drum and bass grooves controlling the pace, varying slightly as the rack goes on.
* The pitch-bending harmonies during the second run-through (2:52) are expressive and caught me off guard.
 *The slow chugging guitars at 4:18 added a more ominous tone to lead out of the track's first half.
* The section at 4:35 had a cool use of time signatures alternating 2 bars of 4/4 and a single bar of 7/4.
* 5:40 added a dramatic rising choir that gets revisited at 7:49.
* 6:07 has the stereo-shifting guitars on the upbeats forming an effective countermelody against the piano.
* The 7:09 section revisited ideas from the first and second iterations of the source along with the latter's harmonies.
* And 7:49 also had moments where the rhythm guitars would go into triplets and occasionally have an engaging gate effect at the same pace.
As heard, these ideas all come and go with one or two getting revisited.  With the source's familiar framework, it all ties in with enough ideas to fit this track's prog-rock feel.
Even the production doesn't pull any punches.  The instruments are easy to pick out, the guitars had so many tones they didn't outstay their welcome, and the performances are all clean and tight.  I do agree with Larry regarding the lead guitar's sloppy introduction at 0:57, but it corrected itself quickly, so I don't see it as a dealbreaker.  And I do sense inconsistent writing - notably in the first half - with the drums going back and forth between working with the other instruments and working independently.  But at the same time, it doesn't grow stale and adds to the arrangement's engaging nature.
Overall, this track pleasantly surprised me despite its insane length.  The performances are on point, there's plenty of interpretation to justify the framework, and the presentation is both clean and matches this vision of loneliness.  Impressive stuff, Andy!

YES

Oh boy, I remember this!  Sir Nuts linked me to the decision thread not long after I got added to the Judges and asked which way I'd vote on it.
Here's what I thought: once the melody started at 0:21, the source clicked for me there and then.  The harmonies and effects contributed actively towards subtractive arranging, which is heard as the main arrangement attraction.  The horn performances and manipulations were spot on, added to that textural thickness and are all cleanly placed out in the mix.
And do you know what else this track brought to mind?  It reminds me of the Tortoise section of Camille Saint-Saens's Carnival of the Animals suite.  Saint-Saens used the main melodic riff of Offenbach's "Galop Infernal" (otherwise known as the Can-Can) and slowed it down by 2.5x, while here the source is brought down to 4x its speed.  This arrangement is a more extreme case, but at the end of the day, the BGM is dominant and has an interpretation approach seldom seen around the VGM scene, period.  If I were on the panel at the time, I would've been in the Yes camp.
Nevertheless, you did boldly, and I hold mad respect to the result that popped out.  The original Super Mario Bros has tunes covered a vast number of times, but this is a sign that proves there's still room to make something unique out of it.  Nice work!

This is certainly an experimental approach to the water theme (which I couldn't pick out last night but did today!), and a lot of good experimental music divides people. But I think this remix will find/has found an audience that will appreciate it for what it is. 
YouTube is maybe the biggest forum for video game music ever, and is also the land of instant gratification. People like their EDM, chillwave, orchestral, etc (me too), and will slam that dislike button - even if they don't truly dislike it - and quickly move on. If this remix was created to be a patience-tester, you've dropped it in the right sample group!

Oh boy, I remember this!  Sir Nuts linked me to the decision thread not long after I got added to the Judges and asked which way I'd vote on it.
Here's what I thought: once the melody started at 0:21, the source clicked for me there and then.  The harmonies and effects contributed actively towards subtractive arranging, which is heard as the main arrangement attraction.  The horn performances and manipulations were spot on, added to that textural thickness and are all cleanly placed out in the mix.
And do you know what else this track brought to mind?  It reminds me of the Tortoise section of Camille Saint-Saens's Carnival of the Animals suite.  Saint-Saens used the main melodic riff of Offenbach's "Galop Infernal" (otherwise known as the Can-Can) and slowed it down by 2.5x, while here the source is brought down to 4x its speed.  This arrangement is a more extreme case, but at the end of the day, the BGM is dominant and has an interpretation approach seldom seen around the VGM scene, period.  If I were on the panel at the time, I would've been in the Yes camp.
Nevertheless, you did boldly, and I hold mad respect to the result that popped out.  The original Super Mario Bros has tunes covered a vast number of times, but this is a sign that proves there's still room to make something unique out of it.  Nice work!

hats off to you @Rexy god I love the piano here

What is with this track? I don't know but the judges were way off with this one. It's like someone turned on a noise generator and tried to pass it off as a ReMix.  
<_<  >_>

I undoubtedly see it as a more unusual Timaeus arrangement.  There's more of a focus on subtractive arranging with additional instrument layers under the primary source, which even goes as far as keeping the 6/8 time signature and general atmospheric feel.  I also like the impressive tricks with the integration of other Tangledeep BGM (and the occasional riff from Dungonmans), as well as adjusting the source to a Persian scale on a couple of occasions.  It matched the goal of a more calming mix that evolves as time goes on.
The production is also very charming.  All the instruments are well mixed, the percussion sounds gorgeous, and the pitched percussion (harp, bells, piano, etc.) had proper attention paid to dynamics.  And as an added bonus, the synth leads combining with the soundfonts generate a unique timbre that respects the pseudo-SNES nature of the source material.  The stated extra time spent mixing the track to this meticulous detail paid off, that's for sure.
It's an easy decision here - it's a lovely crafted arrangement and an equally thorough presentation.  That means a spot on the front page -  great work as usual!

YES

Feels like it could fit right into a recent remake.

My OCR listening heyday seems to stretch from near immediately after the site's inception thru the end of its first decade into the 21st century...so mostly missed Rexy's work, as I somehow never heard her mix fr '05; gonna rectify that now. Mellow, jazzy, hopeful - good stuff.

There had been, but it was one of those tracks that got erased during the pre-1500 lockdown due to a standards violation.  In fact, there's been a history of tracks that have been present on the site before, but had been removed with a clear reason.

There is a hosted archive of removed tracks and the Mega Man track in question is right there.  I hope this explains everything x)

This remix brings such a  to my face!!

Just the other day I saw the track was in the to-be-posted queue. And now here it is. Uh, merry... late summer?
(also Ophilia best girl indeed)
For Rexy's benefit: I was playing around with the 1:48 part of source from 3:18 to 4:18, followed by some minor scale variants of melody A until 4:48. (insert appropriate sneaky fox meme here)
It's worth saying I really enjoy Rexy's analyses of remixes. She's got a crazy in-depth one of Dragonfood, and I keep coming back to that one to remind myself I've made something that someone has listened _that_ closely to.

Just for the record, this isn't my arrangement @Liontamer.  It would have way more 80s synth brasses if it was mine.

This track is an excellent treatment for a 10-second loop!  The combination of retro and modern synths sound clear and engaging, there's a healthy balance to all instruments, and no doubt the source material is present almost all of the way through.
That simple melody has also been altered and twisted in so many ways that the only way to make a case against repetition is to dissect the track part by part.
Obviously, no set of 8 bars in the chiptune intro (0:00-0:48) are identical, with the first four variations building things up slowly - drums and backing melody, a more active bassline, harmonies, then the fifth repetition had the source material mostly played straight with the drums and bass muted for the last two bars. 0:48-1:07 has the groove's foundation with the more modernized synth work coming in, with this measure of 16 bars having the first half dedicated to the melody repeating the first four bars of the source before doing the entire thing in the second half.  Also, that same melody has harmonies riding over the top. 1:07-1:26 has the harmonies of the previous section replaced with a new original melody riding over the top, and the percussion has an additional meatier hi-hat over the top of the previously established beat. 1:26-1:45 has the bass changed back to the triangle wave as heard in the intro, the secondary melody part has changed to a sweeping arpeggio, and the beat has open hi-hats brought in. 1:45-2:05 has the melody restored to the variant as already heard in the intro, with a cool call-and-response between solo voice and harmonies.  The bass is back to what it was in the central groove, but the drums instead were changed to a break to add tension for the next segment. At 2:05-2:24, the melody is almost entirely new with only the last beat of the fourth and eighth bars mirroring the source material.  It's the only segment in the track that is like that.  2:24-3:02 sounds almost just like the 0:48-1:26 section before it, but there are a couple of subtle changes.  The fill at 2:42 is a new addition that relies on open hi-hats to segue to the melody part, and the harmonies had extended over to the second half of the section rather than staying with the first. And of course, 3:02-3:23 has the previous part, but with the backing rhythm muted and the drums calming down for the ending. From what I've witnessed, I can conclude that no two variants of the theme are indeed identical and it's all of these details together that have proven the source material has had a substantial amount of arrangement.  Combined with the robust framework and clean production, it's one I can easily see on the front page - so good job with handling something so short!
YES

Ooh, I sense that Enigma inspiration!  I hear "Sadeness (Part 1)" on the radio occasionally, and that similar groove made me latch onto the idea immediately.

It does feel interesting to see the fast-paced nature of this source applied to a more downtempo and electronic feel.  The opening pattern of 8 notes also works as an effective arpeggio - whether solo, running alongside the melody, or even as part of the brief F minor breakdown starting at 2:10.
The source material has a lot of ideas going on, but this mix needed just the arpeggio and melody A - using them in a modest framework adding more layers with each repetition.  These layers are something as simple as changing the hi-hats to a 16-beat pattern (1:20) to adding more pads over time and introducing a countermelody near the end (3:05).  It's a mellow adaptation that works well, so sweet going there.
However, this is also one of those tracks where I feel needs more work regarding its mixing.  As more layers get added in each repetition, the smashed dynamics got worse, and it becomes much harder to hear the main melody.  It's most problematic under the additional pads and the countermelody as mentioned earlier past the 3-minute mark.  There are many ways to fix this within another mixdown, however.  Examples are EQ separation, transposing the lead or some of your pads, and weakening the limiter by just a touch.  All of these are possible solutions that I can suggest to achieve a less cluttered mix.
On its own, it's one of the most unorthodox Jenova arrangements I have heard in a long time.  But I'd love for you to clear up the mixing and send it back.  It's a close call, but I'm all for hearing this on the front page soon.

NO (resubmit)

I too sense a lack of realism on those instruments.  The parts sound too static, the limiter squashing dynamics down in the Dark World Dungeon section is unnatural, and a lot of your leads feel dry.  If you're going to be writing for a full orchestra, it's a good idea to:
Make it feel as if the performance is in a concert hall, with attention to the placement of parts in the stereo field and the amount of ambient space they have. Abandon the limiters and let your parts have room to breathe. And most importantly, go over each instrument and make them feel more humanized.  Loosen up the timings, vary the velocities and emphasize which ones you think are the most dynamic notes. You can even consider using the volume envelope to shape the dynamics for sustained notes. The arrangement has the source present, but there's a four-section medley going through straight interpretations of your source material.  I liked hearing Ganon's theme adapted near the end of the Dark World theme at 1:19, and similarly, Dark World reprised near the end and accommodated at Lorule Castle.  But I would've liked to have heard more of that kind of idea in other areas around the track.
That idea above is one of a few things that can be done to personalize the arrangement in a subtractive way.  Other possible suggestions include adding original parts in the background, or even some original writing to make the transitions between sources feel smoother.
It's not bad, but issues on both arrangement and production fronts have weighed this down too much.  It'll be a good idea to take it into the Workshop and experiment with new ideas, then try again.

NO (resubmit)