The Orichalcon

Scary start going there. Good synth coming in over the 'storted percussion and guitar (nice by the way.) The rhythm guitar coming in sounds very eerie and powerful, the reverb is almost a little too much, but I'm willing to give it as it makes the mix sound.. larger, so to speak. I can really dig the industrial sound here. The distortion is overbearing in some sections, but it's done well overall. I was cringing expecting the mix to be a whole mess of these distorted sounds. But after 2 minutes we head into the cream of this mix. The clear guitar, wonderfully clear industrial hits. powerful synthwork still working with that crunchy sounding distortion bordering on being over the top. The sound here is another hit or miss mix. You either like this stuff or hate it. This is produced well enough that I'm pleased with it. I think the mix could have afforded to go for another minute or so to allow that mid section with the guitar to work on developing the theme a little more. The base arrangement is identical to the source up until the melody really kicks in after 2:12. The extra production work going on around the theme with the drums, guitar and distortion more than makes up for this adhesion to the source though. Also, I did have trouble hearing the clips without reading exactly what they were saying. YES from me. Nice industrial work.

Okay, let's start by saying this is by no means a bad mix. I wasn't around for the original decision. The lead guitar in this needs to be much louder and more powerful compared to the drums, bass and rhythm guitar. It's just being drowned out. The drums themselves need a little more punch to them, without becoming too loud. In terms of quality, those are the only two issues I have with the piece. The overall sound is pretty nice. The quality of everything is above average. The guitar playing is impressive to me. It heads out of timing at some stages, but it comes back so no problems there. The arrangement of the piece is pretty good. It's very close to being a cover of the original, however it breaks away from that Overworld theme to do its own little solo's often enough to please me. Mixing together the 5 themes given as the source pieces is pretty impressive too. I'll go with the other judges on the rejections for now. Pump up the guitar, rework the drums to be, as wing said, on the energy level of the guitar, and you'd have a winner here. I'd recommend running it past one or more of the judges first before resubmitting it again so you don't have to wait around only to be no'ed again. NO. Resubmit.

Well I can see the resemblance to the earthbound piece. I have trouble with this game, since the soundtrack is so weird, it usually makes weird remixes that are hard to work out. It's fairly simple in this case. There's good dissonance and there's bad dissonance (usually it's bad.) This is one of those instances. There's no real clever sound usage here, it's basically sound effects thrown together over the top of each other, with the major "melody" if you can call it that from the source playing over and over. The "instruments" used in this mix sound all right, but they're all dry, with the reliance on the "weirdness" rather than on any real attempt at a proper arrangement. I'm getting some really bad clipping in the louder sections. I can imagine there would be some people who would enjoy this style of music. But it's poorly executed in this case. Not much else to say really. Nice try, but yeah, NO

Nice clear water-sound effects at the start of the mix. The first rounded synth that comes in is clear too. The beat is reminiscent of Michael Jackson's "Why You Wanna Trip On Me." The majority of this mix is very clear, it's a chillout style mix, however it stays open most of the way through. The pads are very quiet and kept to the back of the mix, filtered down to stay low. The bassline is great. The beats are all right, some parts are kind of dry and drab, but the majority of it is more than acceptable as a chillout beat. The arrangement of the mix could have much more to it though. While it's all right the way it is, it could go much further to bring out the power behind the mix. Building up the pads/strings section and the beat around sections such as 1:29-1:45 would give the shift up necessary to give the mix some extra oomph while still keeping with the overall flow and chillout sound of the mix. The guitar is a nice touch after the 2 minute mark. I'm in agreement with DarkeSword that there should be more of that, rather than relying on that lead so much. I'm with the majority here that there is more potential behind this remix. There's room for more and I think once you've worked on it a bit more, you'll have a really enjoyable mix here. NO for now. Please resubmit.

I'd love to get on air with Larry. I can't get a line out of the country though.

I don't think he's getting your calls through, Rexy.

Well first thing's first. It's a very good sign that you were willing to go over the mix and try to make it better, considering how annoyingly frustrating and tedious it can be to go over and redo the same parts of a mix over and over again. There are still issues here however. The bassline of the source piece has definately been brought out much more clearly than it was in the original mix. And there are some very nice atmospheric sections. The break at 1:58 is nice, and works well in the context of the mix. The strings softly working their way in and out of the mix volume-wise is a good touch, the bassline working its way in works well as well. Around 2:30 there are samples of E3M3 (Deep into the Code) sneaking their way in there as well. The main problem with this mix is that it sounds very dysfunctional, and we don't get any resolving sections in the mix. The second half of the mix is the main culprit, with the percussion being the main source of the problem. Each industrial hit in the beat is on the 3rd half beat, for the entirety of the mix. It would have been much nicer on the ears and the overall sound of the mix if this section had simply broken away into a more varied beat where the hit was coming ON the third beat, rather than after it. It's not a major issue, and the mix survives well enough without it, it just would have kept the mix sounding fresh and flowing more lively than it does at the moment. The bassline switches up and down from F# to C# to B, however the squeaky lead synth continues to play its random little melodies without really changing to fix the key changes of the bassline. It might be a good idea to remove those squeaky synths from that second half of the mix and put something else in place that keeps in key with the melody. Maybe some guitar, maybe a more melodic synthline. There are plenty of options. After so many revisions of the mix, it's very difficult for me to make a decision on this. The mix has so many unique qualities that I love about it. The sound is crisp, clear and enjoyable to listen to. But it still doesn't sound finished to me. It has a lot more potential that I don't think Joker is quite capable of reaching just yet. My suggestion would be to put this mix aside for a few months, work on some other stuff, and come back to work on breaking out the full potential of the mix later on down the track. The other option is to perhaps seek out someone to collab with on bringing in some extra ideas to bring out the full potential of the mix, and give you some direct help on fixing up some of the issues that the mix still has. This is some nice work, Joker. I love the mix, even more so now than I did in the DSoP. But it's still not quite there. NO (One more Resubmit down the track)

This mix has a pretty decent sound, which is what one would have come to expect from Nuts. The other judges cite some pretty loud higher frequencies. While they might think it's an issue, I think it's a feature of your work, it sounds fairly enjoyable to listen to for me. I think it gives the mix a much more powerful sound. The loudness works well too. In terms of quality, it's what I expect from Nuts and it delivers well. The sounds and beats all meld together well and sound very powerful for a techno piece. The way the rain comes into the piece sounds quite nice, as the basssynth comes in, it's a little dry sounding, but it works as another synth comes in to accompany it at 0:35. The beats are crisp and clear, the beat is a little simple in terms of the way it's programmed, but that's to be expected in a techno type of song. The strings that come in sound all right. The piano soundfont is a soundfont that I personally hate. Sadorf and Nuts tend to use this piano a lot in their mixes, and in this case it works out all right, but the sound still sounds way too bright and tacky. The delay effect on it is just an attempt to cover up how out of place it actually sounds. The synth that comes in at 3:25 is by far my favourite of the lot. It fits perfectly, it's loud and powerful and I would've been happy with 5 minutes of that. The flute that comes in sounds a little out of place, but it works in the overall sound of the mix. In terms of arrangement. Some parts of the mix adopt the melody over almost directly. You've played around with some ideas that work relatively well. But this mix is lacking creativity. It sounds like a very simple job of cut and paste with your usual basic effects over the piano and the synths to give it a crisp and clear sound. You've been way more creative with your arrangement and sounds in the past, especially in PRC and ORC. I'd recommend on just working to make this sound more unique than what you have here. It's probably just edging into the yes category for me as it is, but I'd love to see it barnstorm itself into the "no-doubt" section of the site. NO for now. (ReWork, ReSubmit, ReNutS)

Very Cafe Del Mar sounding, this piece is. I love it, nice work Harmony. Let's have more mixes of this style so we can have "Cafe Del Mar: OverClocked ReMix"

The other judges pretty much summed it up here. It's a basic and very dry sounding mix. The bland sounds fit together all right, though they're put together in a very sparse and simple arrangement. Repetative is the word that comes to mind for most of this. You need to work on making the samples you're using sound more mixed up. Add some effects, change the sounds around a bit. Get rid of the basic drums and work on the drum programming. Work on some more complex arrangements, and you're well on your way to making some enjoyable mixes. This wasn't BAD so to speak, it's just a long way from being OCR-quality. Remixing forum is this way --> Click me <-- NO

The way this mix starts is so gentle. The ocean sounds, the giggle in the background, and the panning of the melody and rhythm guitar all fits together nicely. The mix builds in and out of the heavy sections, breaking into softer areas until it eventually builds into it's main section at 2:00. I'm not sure what's used for the background here to give it that clear distorted sound, but it works well. The original theme was a basic piece, which didn't really leave a lot open for reinterpretation from what I could imagine. What we have here is in my opinion a remarkable work of arrangement. It doesn't just stick to the original theme over and over, but rather builds around it with subtle changes and work on the acoustic guitar to give it it's own unique sound. While some parts are sloppy, they come together nicely over all. There's enough work on the theme here to convince me that this is worthy of a spot on OCR. YES

Let's start off with something of interest... Collin? I don't know what name I pictured for you, Ichi, but Collin wasn't it. Anyway, Larry hates the original, I love the original. It's cutesy, but it pays homage to a classic horror piano piece whose name I cannot remember right now. Either way it's cutesy but still has those horror elements, which I used to, and still do love. Let's go for the mix now. This is definately the Ichitootah style we've all come to know through PRC and ORC. The compressed and reverberated leads, along with the groovy swing time beats are all too recogniseable. The sound you have going here is quite cool, however it's sounding a little empty and reverb-heavy, as most of your pieces tend to do. The sequencing on the piano is creative, keeping both the source and the "horror" theme in mind. The reverb gives it a "Crystal" sound (if that makes any sense.) Either way it's a good thing. The accordion, piano and string section from 2:38 is nice. I'm not fond of the effects over the accordion, they attract away from the romantic dry sound of the instrument, and don't really add anything in this situation. However the sound is pretty good in this section as it seems to come together smoothly. The ending to the piece with the piano and rhodes is smooth and beautiful, and brings in that classic horror theme I mentioned earlier. I don't think this will end up passing, however I think there's enough here in terms of arrangement and quality for this to have a place on OCR, and it deserves at least one yes. Could use a little work, but as it is I'm happy with the sound we have here. So this is a YES from me.

Source: http://www.ioncross.com/users/the_orichalcon/other/ultima6falseprophet-U6-intro.mid - Intro (0:41) Source is courtesy of laura's midi heaven. If "Laura" ever reads this, your site is a god damn nightmare to navigate. On to the mix. I'm loving the vocal clips from the game (What was that guy called again? The Big Red Hand? He sounds like Darth Vader.) Anyway, they're a nice addition, but the mix is relying on them way too much. Around 2:30 it appears Winamp has gone into a loop: "All who oppose you." While I'm loving the homage payed here, you need to take the vocal clips back a step and focus more on the actual music. As far as the actual arrangement goes, it's not too bad from such a short source piece, however this mix goes on for 4 and a half minutes and there's only so much variation you can get for a theme as simple as this, as we find out soon enough when the mix starts repeating its ideas. While the voice clips attract attention away from this fact, the mix does become repetative quickly. The quality of the mix on the whole is fairly good, everything is balanced quite well. The quality of the drums are on the basic level. It's a good default beat, but it needs a bit better mastering to either bring out the disco/dance sound a bit more, or to at least make it sound less... basic. The synthbass plodding away through the mix sounds very basic as well, especially considering it stays the same all through the mix, just plugging away doing its job quietly. The Steel-Guitar font used for the rhythm of the mix is nice, but like the bassline stays the same throughout the mix. The strings that come in to handle the melody are basic and dry as well. On the whole, this is a cute little homage mix, which I've personally enjoyed a lot (especially since I love the Ultima series.) But it's a very basic dance sound, and the repetativeness along with the over-reliance on the vocal clips is working against it. As it is it's a very enjoyable homage mix. You should be happy with what you've made, but it's just not the kind of mix we're after for this site. NO

Source: http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/sony/ps1/desert.mid - The Valley of the Fallen Star (3:22) This mix starts off sounding quite promising with a crisp and clear flute playing a nice intro to the mix, with what sounds like a Koto coming in to accompany. Unfortunately we quickly head into an almost direct midi rip at 0:44. The beat, the flute, the accompanying harp and string rhythm are identical to the original midi. As the choir comes in, nothing changes, and we keep going down the same path as the source. At 2:02 the mix builds up into what I'm assuming is supposed to be a rock mix (with a very tinny and fake sounding guitar.) The only thing that's changed here is the beat and the introduction of the guitar. The mix continues to play the original melody note for note. We're treated to a very nice tempo slow-down with the flute playing the melody to the end of the mix. Unfortunately I'm going to have to throw the book at you. The quality of the mix was fairly good. The flute chosen for the main melody of the mix was enjoyable, the beats were below average, as was the guitar. You'd probably want to look at getting someone to play any electric guitar you want in your mix live, unless you're willing to put a lot of time and effort into tweaking any samples you have into sounding realistic (which is possible with the right samples.) However, as this is, it's a definite NO.

Source: http://www.ioncross.com/users/the_orichalcon/other/Razor-ub.umx - Razorback (4:49) As it stands, this remix doesn't sound too bad. The drums and loops used here are crisp and clear. The guitar is almost drowned in effects to the point that it's not recogniseable. The synth lead is tucked away into the back of the mix, needs to be brought out more. The pads in the background are a nice touch too. The real issue here with this mix is it's almost a direct rip of the source. While there are differences in the guitar rhythm and the layout of the mix, the main lead melody is identical and the guitarline is very close to the source and doesn't take many risks or show enough changes to push this out into the "ReMix" classification. The overall quality of the mix is pretty smooth, it does sound a little cluttered in sections (from 2:08 is getting a little crazy) but in general it's a good flowing sound. I also would have liked to have seen a mix of this genre go for a little longer, which would have opened the path for more reinterpretation of the source as well (especially considering the source is almost 5 minutes in length itself.) An enjoyable rock-style remix, but unfortunately as it stands, it's pretty much a cover mix. NO

Source: http://www.ioncross.com/users/the_orichalcon/other/Title_Music.umx - Title Music (2:24) At 1:09 in length, there is just not enough here to warrant this for posting up onto OCR. This piece utilises a single string sample without adding anything else along the (very short) way to accompany it. The artist says this piece is classical in genre, but using a strings soundfont doesn't mean your mix instantly becomes "classical." Compared to the source material, I'm struggling to hear anything barring the slightest references from the midpoint of the original. Perhaps if this was a lot longer, and had a lot more effort put into it, it could've evolved into a good remix, but as is there's not enough. Sorry mate, but you need to put in much more effort than this to see your remix posted up onto OCR. This isn't going to pass, so I'm going to close this with a NO OVERRIDE

"Show me the beast."

Pretty basic stuff. The drums are basic, loopy and hidden in the background of the mix. I like the way the brass started off. The strings that come in have a bit too much pre-delay on them, so they're out of time. Overall the piece doesn't sound too bad, it's in tune, it's cohesive, but it's way too repetative for a 5 minute mix. It's not very different to the source material, there's a lot more room for interpretive-creativity here. The piece has a lot of reverb, and while it's used fairly well here, you can't rely on it. Also, basic drum-solo = big No-No. NO

Wow, this starts off sounding so hot. Unfortunately, as Larry said, the piece does rely on the original as the background, if that was just used at the beginning and in specific parts of the mix, it wouldn't be so bad, but even in the sections where it's not prominent it's still noticeably there. The guitarwork in this is pretty good, it's not a sharp guitar sound which isn't a bad thing. I'm absoluting loving the rhythm guitar used in this. The drums have a basic sound to them as well, however in this style of track that's not a huge issue, as they're programmed relatively well. The way the mix ended came a little suddenly, holding that guitar chord at the end until it fades out would have worked well. As far as the arrangement goes, it pretty much is just a rock track being played over the top of the original C64 melody. Perhaps if the mix was more of the guitarwork and less reliance on the rip from the sid file, I would be much more inclined to give this a yes. As it is, it's a great track that's very enjoyable, but not what we're after for the site. NO

Those pads at the beginning are very nice, I'm not getting the strange panning Larry mentioned. It all fits together pretty well. The drums filter in nicely, but then once we get a clear beat going, I'm not too fond of the set chosen. Such heavy drums don't really sound like they fit with the general sound of the mix. The bass used in the mix sounds all right. However, on the initial listen through, the mix sounds like it has a slight room reverberance over it, which is giving everything a very strange background echo at times, and a general feeling of flooding over the instruments. It's especially doing this to the bass-synth for me, which just doesn't work out too well. The brass instruments used over the top of the mix do sound fake, however they're utilised well enough through the mix. The lead-synth used sounds dry and would probably benefit from adding some effects. To be frank, on the general level this mix just sounds too loud to me, and as a result it sounds like it's missing out on the opportunity to build itself up to a more complete level. In a lot of sections, we're left with just drums, a basic bassline and fake brass/dry synth playing. Later in the mix we get some very basic monotonous pads which come in to back up the mix, but this does very little for the overall sound. If the general levels of the mix were dropped down a little, there's a lot more room for development of the theme, and for work on the general cohesion of the piece. As for the arrangement. The style of the remix is very similar to the style of the original. Stretching a source material that's only 53 seconds long into a roughly 6-minute mix is no easy task, and you've done an admirable job in stretching out the arrangement here. While the cohesion of the piece isn't too crash hot, the way you've arranged the leads. The break at 3:50 was pretty cool, though the sample quality of the rhodes aren't too crash hot, the sound is nice. In my opinion, this needs a fair bit more work. The mix needs to be mastered much better, the quality of the instruments needs to be given a look at, whether they're replaced with better quality instruments or just mixed better (some clever mixing and effects-handling can cover up even the most basic free soundfonts.) Just work on making this mix feel more cohesive and pleasant to listen to, really. The arrangement is all right, it just needs that solid sound to give it that extra nudge over the line. NO (Please Resubmit)

I remember when Karl first sent this to me a while back. One of the first things I noticed was just how similar it was to the original Waltz in the game, but also how we're treated to some entirely original sections as well. The tempo in this mix is a bit faster than the original, which gives it an extra enjoyable spin. The arrangement here is remarkably good, as Karl tends to take the original and add little extra interpretations throughout, rather than just covering an entire section and then endorsing an original section. There are enough clever ideas here to well and truly qualify this as a remix, and as usual the performance is tip-top. The production here is a small issue. The piano does sound very basic, not much different to what it would sound like in midi-form. I strongly feel that the piece would sound much better and more acceptable if it was recorded live, or if Karl mastered the piece to perhaps make it sound more "live." I hate to put this on Karl specifically, but as painful as it is I'll give this a pass for now and hope that he may provide a live-played version (or at least a touched up version) to give this mix the sound it really needs to push it into that memorable-piano-remixes hall of fame. The incredible arrangement that Karl gives to his piano mixes deserves more than just being recorded with a midi-sounding piano. NO for now. (Resubmit)

Ouch, talk about loud piano. Tone that down, and tweak the volumes on the chords so they're not constantly at the same level. While the mix does sound very groovy, it does also sound very basic in terms of the quality. It's the kind of mix where you might be better off getting someone to attempt to play that piano live to give it "human qualities" as analoq said. The arrangement is quite creative. It's nice when people take a small part of a piece from a game and try to give it it's own unique shape, rather than remixing the whole thing. I was impressed with the arrangement here, but like Larry said this is probably more suited to being submittied to VGMusic as a MIDI remix. NO

For a mix that's nearly hitting on 6 minutes, this has nowhere near the variation or quality in production that's needed to keep the listener interested. The quality of the instruments used are very basic, the drums are repetative, and yes the hi-hats get old fast. They sounded all right initially, but they just keep going on and on. The lead is flat and basic, and the bass does get very punchy in the thicker sections of the mix (around 2:00.) There needs to be more variation in the lead to keep the interest up, having the same sound play for 6 minutes gets old. Even switching the lead to a different sound would have been welcome. The actual arrangement is decent enough. The drums are loopy, but there are some creative breaks in there. The wavery sound at the beginning and in the middle of the mix was pretty cool. The piece stays in key and doesn't seem to have too much dissonance in it. The major problem is repetativeness. Apart from the one break in the middle of the mix, it's the same basic theme being played over and over. A mix like this doesn't need to be 6 minutes long. NO

I'm in agreement that the echo on the piano does sound pretty cool. The FL Slayer is one tough nut to crack in terms of making it sound realistic. You've done an all right job here in making it sound less whiney than it sounds by default. But the amount of reverb over it is troubling and does drown it out, especially when you rely on it as the sole effect for the entirety of the piece. The drums are all right in the way they're programmed, there are some good variations in them. Having the crash on each beat is all right for a rock song when done right like it is here. This piece falls short in two areas. The first being the quality of the instruments being used. While not everyone can afford the uber-samples, unfortunately when you use the free samples you have to be able to utilise them extraordinarily well to cover up the quality issues. The second area is the repetativeness. This does sound like an incomplete mix, as the guitarline repeats itself over and over in each section with no variation. There's a lot more potential in expanding on the main melody in the source than what we achieve here. The fade-out of the mix sounded like a last minute attempt to end the mix. As larry said "That's it, we quit." NO

On an interesting note, the way this mix starts off sounds very similar to e1m3 from doom, and the way it ends sounds very similar to the ghost tower music from pokemon blue/red. Onto the actual mix. While there are some very clever ideas, the mix sounds very erratic and dysfunctional to me. The beats don't really flow with the piece at all, they sound like they're pasted over the top and the only thing they have in common with the mix is the same tempo. The ideas of the mix get a little more interesting and pleasing to hear toward the end of the with the piano and strings ending it. The actual quality of the sounds used in the mix are a big issue. The brass samples used to bring in the mix sound all right, as do the little synthy things playing the memorable theme from the source. Things start getting questionable from about 0:52. The drums sound very basic and dysfunctional, this isn't a major issue but they could certainly be mastered a little more coherently with the mix. I'm getting clipping from 1:10 - 1:25. The string section that comes in after that is pretty good, but then as the pasted-on drums come in at 1:45 the mix starts soundy real sloppy and random, the string jabs in this section do sound very default FL, and the brass sample that comes in at 2:14 suffers from this problem as well. The synth used to transition between this section and the next one at 2:40 works rather well. The section beyond 2:40 is nice, it sounds well mastered, apart from the very blunt kick and clap sound in the background. The piano and strings/brass go well together, the haunting voices in the background work well, and the powerful finish with the strings is very nice. Now, the use of the source in the piece is apparent to me. It's different enough that it's not immediately recogniseable, especially in the sloppier areas around the middle of the mix, but the way the mix is started, and up until 1:25, this is all reinterpretation of the source. The piano and string/brass at the end of the piece is also playing the basic melody from the source with some clever reinterpretation there. Where this mix falls short is clearly in the production department. As nice as it is to try and prove that you don't need expensive equipment and soundfonts to make a good mix, free soundfonts and samples can often be your downfall. While this mix utilises some of the samples rather well, there are enough glaring problems in here that I would recommend scrapping the mantra and trying to find some better samples. NO