prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

this is a -6dba version for the album master, so it'll need to be amplified before OCR mixpost if it passes. opens with a chippy arp outlining the initial chords and some pads. by 0:21 we're starting to hear strings and some hints of melodic material. 0:40 is a shift towards a new vibe but still with some of the same elements still going, until we get the first big hit at 1:01. there's a big hole around 300hz in this section so it sounds a bit hollow, but i like the heavy percussion and the lead tone. percussion quickly proves to be a loop though. there's a hard cut for the B section to a different feel, again with a percussion loop below some fun lead synths. the A theme returns at 2:01 with chips and some sfx on the instruments before a return to the original vibe from 1:01 - this sounds like a straight copy from that earlier section. there's a subtractive outro with some filtering on the percussive elements and then it's done without landing on the final chord. this is a fun energetic take on the original! you've got several distinct vibes throughout that i think are really solid. i don't think this is quite there yet though. the hollow feel to the first big section at 1:01 i think is easily fixed with some pads or a tweak to your EQs. the repetition at 2:01 was disappointing given how short the track is - maybe add in some countermelody there, or mix up the lead a bit? lastly both percussion loops being heavily used and never sliced and changed up even during fills was a disappointment - just a little shift here or there would be enough to really add even more energy to those sections. i think those are easy changes if you choose to make them! and that'll result in a much stronger track overall. NO

i played a ton of worms armageddon hotseat-style with friends back in the day. i recognized the '98 version right away. opens with a ton of gun sfx (trigger warning?) and strings outlining the initial arp that's in both versions of the game. drums, piano, and bass comes in soon after and are pretty peppy. the voiceover is solid - i like the pitch of it, it fits well into the overall feel alongside the strings. the chorus at 1:29 got a chuckle - the original worms singing in wormsong were similarly silly, so i get the idea but it still sounds so weird next to the more serious background. guitar solo into the big ritard was nice too - may have been a bit bright for the texture. i like the break after the solo, as a palate cleanser before the much more intense second half. this is a neat homage to the differences between the original wormsong and the '98 version. 2:36's transition is great, and of course the more intense backing guitar and other elements here sound great. the voiceover's a little more cluttered here - a bit more formant in the voiceover would probably have been enough to ensure it cut through enough. drums in this section are also a bit rote through maybe 3:55 or so. i liked the brass in the background, but found the guitar to be a bit treble-heavy through here, and it's hard to hear much outside of the rhythm guitar in this section. i liked the reference to the holy hand grenade and the outro sfx as well. this is a great idea and a fun track! there's some great elements in here that reference some of the more entertaining parts of the game. i appreciate the variety of styles you've got represented here in different measures as well. aside from some of the volumization and EQ notes, i think this sounds really solid from start to finish. certainly the arrangement is great. excellent work. YES edit 1/29: comments about the mixdown and plosives are correct on re-listen. lack of punch is notable and a problem. the voiceover probably needs the formant boosted in the heavier sections to help it speak. NO

wall of sound to start. big, intense opening focusing on the rising chord pattern right off the bat. the drums sound pretty weak through all of this. 0:32's use of the arpeggio element was a nice idea. melody hits at 0:47 and is in half-time, which is an idea i like given how great the melody is - lets us hear it more! there's loads of stuff going on in the background and in the drums through this whole first representation of the melody. following section with the rising arpeggiated element is a clever analogy for the track's title and topic. 2:32 is a big shift in feel. this might have been an opportunity to let the track breathe without the electric as the lead for a bit, but i like the harmonics and spacier feel in this section. there's a slam transition at 3:24 and it's appropriately intense as it builds back to another representation of the melody at 4:10. this trucks through some variations on the melodic material (i liked the hard drop at 5:02) for a bit before transitioning into outro material. one more ascent to the peak of the arpeggio - and then there's a fadeout? or something? but it still ends, so the fadeout is kind of confusing. this is a super fun track to listen to! i really appreciate your willingness to get into the melody and mix it up instead of just playing it through. for such a long track, you keep the feel pretty similar throughout but it doesn't ever get boring or tiresome. that's a challenge and you did a great job with it. one of the things i wanted to go through and check was source usage, since we only get the melody a few times in six minutes, but the original's rising action and arpeggio elements are represented throughout and are easily able to be mapped, so i've got no concern about source usage. my main concern here (outside of the fake fadeout ending - you don't need a fade there at all!) is that the mixing is kind of messy. there's a ton of sub-40hz content, and to my ears the rhythm guitar is crushing the drums and bass quite a bit. the kick is very clicky, which helps the beater tone to cut through, but it doesn't have much beef to it, and the rest of the drums sound pretty weak. before this passed, i'd want to get those drums taken care of so they don't sound so anemic. some more attention to some very intentional eq on the hats and snare especially should help, as well as being more careful with what's on the low end of your rhythm guitar and bass instrument, should help out a ton with giving the drums room to do their thing. i love this track! don't let it disappear, there's definitely a place on this site for this. NO

i don't understand anything the kids are saying nowadays. opens with some wickity-wah and drum work. the melody comes in about ten seconds in, and it's oozing with vibe. the bass part especially has a lot of character. there's loads of extra little bits thrown in too which is a nice feel. transition at 0:46 is a touch out of time. i like the vocal bits - i'm surprised how well they fit into the picture actually. there's a quick fill at 1:21 and we get a bit of melodic recap. this whole section isn't copied from earlier but it's very similar - a lot of the backing elements sound very similar, and the piano flourishes especially felt really similar. 2:17's a transition into a much more open section with some key noodles and a significant vibe change. this is a fun idea to shift so hard and definitely a great time to do it. it gets into its cups a touch around 3:17 but the solo coming right after is a great idea, and i love the solo - vintage OA tone and content. i also liked the highly reactive backing parts to what was going on in the solo. the ending was right where i expected it and very much in the style by using a short phrase from the melodic material, and then it's done. this is a fun ride! the list of collaborators is superb so it's not unexpected that the track's breadth is so wide and there's so much going on. wes does a great job taking a fun, poppy original and keeping much of the same feel while fleshing out essentially every aspect of it. excellent work. YES

opens with some very active arps before a hard cut to just percussion and a muted bass. there's some very interesting effects, not the least of which is a crazy hard sidechain on the kick. there's some of the arp that the original's centered around at 0:20 but it's very far back in the mix. it noodles around a bit before we at least get the chords of the 'chorus' section at 1:00. the transitional section at 1:16 has some intentionally weird sounds, and then we get into a more straightforward representation of the opening section at 1:24 and eventually get some melody. there's a break at 1:56 before we get back into a bigger section at 2:15. this burbles through a few different representations of the melodic material. there's several interesting textures represented in here, all highly distorted (the hats sound like a typewriter, for goodness sake). there's a hard cut at 3:19, and we get some flute to play us off. the ending isn't prepped super well but it's a decent job of setting us down. i think there's some folks who will really dislike the very intentional mixing decisions made here, especially in the opening section, but i love the malformation of so many different elements. the track takes a while to get started but certainly passes the content guidelines around amount of original vs game music. i really appreciate how significantly weird it gets in several places - you weren't afraid to go there (sounds like the games) and the oddness of some of the transitions like 1:16 is really solid as a result. nice work. YES

my bad, must have overlooked it. original sounds like the opening theme in an expanded form. opening strings aren't particularly realistic in their representation - lots of swell on the attack. pizz in the bass and harp arpeggiation is nice though. clarinet carries the inital ascending melodic line, and the sustain and subsequent cutoff aren't a great sound. the oboe follows and this is more nuanced in the approach and realization. i liked the light glock below it. flute work after this is nice too. the bass clarinet lead also didn't really have a clean attack tone for the descending line. there's a bit of a break before a larger section at 1:39. this is a surprisingly sparse orchestration here - it's mostly just several sections playing in unison, with the bass still doing pizz down low and some harp/percussive elements mirroring the line as well. the voice part offers some extra color until the other winds come in after a bit but it really starts pretty spare. i wasn't a huge fan of the synth used for the voice part - the vibrato and vowel never changing feels very uncanny-valley. there's a bit of a reset before we get into the second half. there's more chord work here in this second representation of the A theme, and some more altered elements which i appreciated. this would have been easy to mail in so i appreciate the commitment to keeping it different from the opening section. i still am not a huge fan of the vocal instrument, and i think it's too loud through here. we finally get some percussion at 3:40 and i agree that the tambourine is just the right instrument for the job. we get through the B theme fairly quickly, and although there's some muddiness at 4:15 or so (is that a vibe in the left ear?), it is handled competently. there is some descending action but no real ending, just a sustain to play us off. this has some nice elements that really add to the original. i still don't care for the voice and i think that there's some over-exposed synths early on that can't quite handle what you're asking of them, but overall the arrangement is pretty and it's mixed fairly well. YES

huge, aggressive opening, with some of the original arp in the background behind some very loud guitar chugs. kick doesn't have a ton of bass content (the toms might have more) but i really like the tone of the toms and snare. the chugs sound a little sparse during the verse when they're under the lead guitar, and i don't hear the bass much at all in the opening sections. 0:49 it opens up a lot and there's a ton more backing elements and harmonic parts. it's just so loud that it's hard to hear most of them - all i can hear is the kick and the chugs/rhythm guitars most of the time. 1:20's a copy of the opening section for a bit, and then we get into another melodic section. at this point the chugs are getting tiresome since we've been hearing them so much and they aren't changing much at all. the leads are panned very wide as well which makes it hard to put them together. 2:25 the rhythm guitars finally change it up and we get some double-time work in the drums which is nice before a big break at 2:40. there's some other sfx and leads in here which is a nice change after so much hearing the same stuff. we get one more blow through the chorus at 3:12 and then it's done. there's even less than no ending - there's a few more chugs, and the synth keeps playing until the pattern ends. truly feels incomplete. this is a neat idea initially, but the chugs especially become tiresome very quickly. i like the exploration of some of the weirder elements of the original in the middle third of the piece, but there's simultaneously too much going on for the middle minute or so while also not having enough energy to drive it forward - it just gets tiresome in there. and then the ending doesn't exist at all. separately, the kick and guitars (mostly rhythm) are just so loud that you can't hear the bass, the backing synth elements, or any nuance in the leads. backing them down to make a more balanced soundscape i think would help a ton, and panning the split leads when they occur back more to the middle so they're not so far apart would help a ton to make it more cohesive in those sections. i think this has a ton of potential to be really fun. fixing some of the mixing issues and utilizing less repetition in your rhythmic elements to allow for a track with more dynamic movement so as to avoid the middle third feeling dead would be a huge positive, as would adding a real ending. NO

opens with a pretty filtered feel to a shakuhachi and some strings, but it makes more sense when the guitars come in soon after. guitars and drums are huge volume-wise, but the strings fill in a bit and the lead is indeed a neat crunchy feel. the drums mostly are on autopilot outside of a few fills. there's some ensemble breaks for emphasis and then we're into some more copied elements, as larry calls out. i liked the half-time section at the end as a way to mix it up and help let down some of the intensity. i agree there is too much copy/paste. i'll also note that the guitars and drums are like twice as loud as they need to be to still be punchy - as it is, that's all i can hear most of the time. i think this is maybe 90s of solid material here that could easily be a three-minute banger with some more work to diversify and avoid repetition. as it is, there's too much repeated material right now. NO

BK's soundtrack is so charismatic. this track has that vibe right off the bat between the sfx and the goofy wobble lead. having the track be in a triple meter initially helps a ton to keep it swinging forward. there's a great build vibe right at 0:32 that drives it forward well into the first big beat drop at 0:46. bass and beat sound super tight in this section, i loved it (especially the triplet combo of the laugh, bass, and lead at 1:02). also, did i hear kazooie lead synths!? this just keeps getting better as it goes along. there's a bit of a break at 1:16 in feel that builds into a much more heroic fanfare-type feel at 1:30 for a bit, before we get more kazooie lead, and a choir, and all sorts of other fun interim stuff for a true break. i like the transition at 2:15 as it speeds up and goes nuts just in time for a banger of an ending chorus at 2:26. this is a straight sausage waveform and it sounds awesome, especially with the fanfare section to end it. there's a bit of a weird cut in the fade that should probably be trimmed before we post it. i love this! what a fun track. it's hard to listen to it without smiling the entire way through. there's a ton of character in this remix - just like the game, very fitting - and yet simultaneously it's not just leaning on novelty and sfx to make it through, there's a dope arrangement under it. excellent work. YES

yeah, i'm a ddrkirby truther so incoming YES OVERRIDE vote. super liquid feel once the beat comes in. agree with larry that the two representations of the melodic material simultaneously is a neat idea. 1:10's a great hit as well and feels really good. i also appreciate that you play with time constantly and mix up how you're handling the bars - often people working in mixed meter stick with a specific 2 and 3 beat combination per bar, and it sounds like you're mixing that up a lot which keeps the ear guessing. there's a drum break at 1:31 and then 1:51's a true break. well timed since it's been very frenetic until this point. the voice samples are a great way to signal the break here too, and then we're back in the sauce at 2:10 with a classic ddrkirby lead. i really liked the subtle click on the attack of this lead. the guzheng might have been a touch loud when it came in compared to everything else. after this we get into the outro action...or do we? there's a fun new vibe that's hats-driven at 3:11 for a bit, and then we're actually done. this is fantastic as expected. timmie brings the heat with this one, and the arrangement is just as good as the production. excellent work. YES

oh, i remember the other version of this. DoHS is such a terrible source. also did you listen to the Theme of Super Metroid version you linked? the first six or seven seconds i didn't expect. opens with some chips slowly chewing through the opening super metroid arp section. the initial hit at 0:47 with the kick is a nice vibe, but to me went on a bit too long doing the same thing. we do eventually get the melodic element from the track at 1:36, and i like how the arp kind of faded in near the end of that section. i was disappointed that it went back to the same vibe as 0:47 and went through that eight-bar section twice again after we'd already had a bunch of it before. 2:40 is a big transition - this is a neat effect what we get here. there's probably too much silence at 2:52 in your transition, but the sfx after it is neat. 3:28's wild - i love this section, so much creativity in how you manipulated the elements there. i believe the DoHS reference is in the big stabs at 3:30, and then the descending lines going into 4:09? that section continues to be wild, but the transition out of it is really pretty sudden, and then we just get a recap of earlier but faster. there's a recap of 0:47 but faster (it sounds exactly like the earlier section) and then it's done without any real ending. gorilla in the room - i hear very little Door of Holy Spirits in this. i'll put a note in the submission form for a breakdown but i heard very little out of one 30s section. if i'm not missing something, i'd argue there might not be enough DoHS to have it count as a source for the track. from an arrangement perspective, this is well over 5 minutes but has maybe 2:30-3:00 of content in total, and a lot of repetition. i wouldn't even mind the repetition if it wasn't very clearly copypasta when it happened. 0:47 is a ton of the same thing over and over, and then 2:09's the same thing, and so is 4:57. 1:36 is repeated at 4:43 but with the beat from 0:47 under it. there's so much straight copy throughout - in a chiptune where you can't rely on sweet synths to carry the day, the arrangement is king, and here it's just too repetitive for me. the lack of an ending doesn't help much at all either. NO

this is pretty similar initially but spreads out a lot more as the track goes on. there's less a focus on orchestrated silliness in the background and more on a tighter band sound, as expected given the folks contributing. track starts to drag a bit around 2:50 since it's just powering through track callouts for a while - there's no real direction for a bit there until the vocalists come back in, and then it's a pretty abrupt transition. there's some really fun vocal processing work around the 4:50-5:00 mark, that was a nice way to mix it up. the meat boy vocal parts are a bit high to my ears - having to switch to falsetto at the top really kills the line unfortunately. this track isn't quite as over-long as the original (imo that was a 3 minute song and took 5:30 to be done). it's still a long song with a lot going on, and some of it probably should have been cut down to focus it more. overall, this track is way, way loud. the limiter's going nuts throughout the band sections, complete with a bunch of loud bursts in the master like at 0:24. audacity reports constant clipping throughout - i don't hear it, but i wonder how youtube's going to like it. the elephant in the room is if this is different enough from the original remix to constitute a new work. i think that there's enough here to do that, if we apply the same criteria to this remix vs. the ocr as we do remix vs. original. there's a lot of new lines, there's some restructuring, there's a lot of altered elements and added content. so while i think the song's more uneven than i'd expect given the arranger, and the mastering's not perfect, and the performances aren't perfect, i still think this is a banger and really fun to listen to. YES edit 11/19: yeah, i used the wrong terms - what i'm hearing is the kick causing pumping. separately, i listened to it again after a few months away and after the other votes went the other way. i think i'm in agreement the mix feels bland in a lot of places and that it needs another eq pass - i over-focused on arrangement the first time around, and there's not really any issues there. i think the snare in particular feels pretty blah as does the claps. i still love the arrangement (although it's probably too long), but as it is i think it'd be a "what could this have been" if we posted it. so ima change my vote and call it done. NO

little different style right off the bat! opens with a filtered bass synth and a very resonant lead. most of the synths are in the same range and it's dense. kick and snare come in at 0:16. there doesn't sound like there's any sidechaining so the kick sounds pretty weak. this opens up a bunch at 0:32 and you can hear some fun countermelodic elements, and a bitcrushing fill. it hits its stride at 0:49 finally and it's a nice groove, the kick just has no beef at all. i like some of the added flourishes to the melody line through here. there's a break at 1:20. this might have been a chance to change up the lead a little. there's a hard cut into a filtered beat and bass right after it - this was a little sudden and took a second to get the hang of what was going on. this transitions into a bridge section that's more transitional until some repeated material from 0:49. another transition with bitcrushing into the final chorus at 2:23. there's some bass-synth focused outro, and it's done. overall i think this is a really fun arrangement! you take an original with a lot of dynamic movement and manage to represent that well in this genre. there are a few technical issues that are a big deal - the kick having no guts throughout is a really big one. layering in some samples with more sub content, sidechaining the bass and backing pads so that the kick can speak through the mix a bit, and making sure you're not scooping the bass out of the EQs so high (looks like the peak's in the 75hz range, i'd expect it to be half that / an octave lower) would help a lot. separately i was getting pretty tired of the same synths by the end of the track. there's a lot of repeated elements in here (like how you reused the opening synth riffs several times) - by changing up your leads just like you would change up what instrument in the orchestra's carrying the melody, you add engagement and interest to your listener. you have several breaks at good times in the track, so maybe consider mixing up your leads in those transitional points. NO

opens with some percussive elements (bit of machine gun in there), and some lovely swells in the strings. this section feels a touch compressed whenever the orchestral percussion hit. oboe isn't particularly realistic (reminds me of the FFXII soundtrack actually) but i like what it's saying. good use of a complex scale for some of the runs. the chromatic elements at 1:32-1:34 aren't quite there. this progresses through some more oboe noodles until we get to a break at 2:13 when the voice comes in. i think the voice part is a touch loud as it comes in - being farther in the distance i think would fit the very spare backing elements better. i like the processing on the voice however, it fits into the texture well. the oboe's a bit more exposed here as well. when the octaves come in at 3:32 it's clear that it's been heavily pitch-adjusted - make sure when you do pitch adjustment you don't take out the natural drift in your voice, or it'll sound robotic. through 3:45 we start to build back to an orchestral setting. there's some repeated elements that have showed up a lot by this point (the descending tom fill, the hand percussion loop), so the small changes you've made here are really nice. i think this section really needs a lot more to distinguish it from the first two minutes - the bass clarinet lead section is nice, but overall it feels very much like the opening section where it's string pads and an oboe noodling on top. it's also pretty hard to hear what's going on in those melodic elements in some places. more dynamic backing elements, an updated hand percussion loop, more rhythmic elements in the background - this would all help a lot to keep it moving. the track just ends after the source melody is over. there's a final note and that's it. some prep and outro after nearly six minutes of music would make a lot of sense there. i think that there's some really neat ideas here. this is definitely an interesting reimagining of a classic tune and showcases some great concept work. i think there's some execution elements that need to be corrected before it's ready for primetime. the middle third drags and needs some balancing, and the last third needs something to give it more verve. NO

welcome back! agree that there's a hard hole between about 150hz and about 275hz, which is part of why the track feels a bit scooped. there's not much past like 1khz either, which is why it's a little dead. separately there's also some elements right away that are hard panned all the way left and right (the early keys) whereas other elements are full-center (drums), which makes some things sound a bit weird on headphones but wouldn't be noticeable on speakers. i need to stress that this sounds so much better than it did last time though. it's like they're completely different tracks. there's a big break at 0:57 which is well-timed, and then a bit of building action that goes longer than i initially expect and is more transitional into the battle theme elements. this noodles a bit before we get back to the A theme and content. the drums are a little contrived here. this trucks through the melodic content one more time before it hits the outro at 2:50, and then it's done. i think this is almost there! you're to the part now where you don't need to make significant changes, but the little things you tweak here and there will result in a vastly improved product. if you filled back in that hold around 200hz that i mentioned before, open up the top of your EQs a touch to allow some >1khz content (especially from your hats), and reigned in some of the stereo separation of your keys, i think that helps a lot. a better transition at 2:02 would help too. lastly, the section from about 1:14 through about 1:50 drags quite a bit. finding a way to instill rhythm and forward focus without losing the vibe there would be a huge help to the middle third of the piece. you're in the home stretch! what a ride so far. honestly this is really close as it is. NO

i will not be left off a yes vote! opening section takes a minute to get going, but i like the glass-esque build and intense focus. there's a (probably too long) sfx break to the melodic content which comes in at 1:20. the melodic is initially very spare, but i get that it fleshes out over time and i think it's a fun build since it's similar to the game's story. we get a big hit of everything at 1:55 and it gets trucking along nicely at that point. the change at 3:22 is a fun one - again, very steve reich/terry riley phase experimental. there's another sfx break and the b theme comes in with such a different vibe. really neat idea here too. i actually didn't like the subsequent section with how full it was - i think overall the best parts of the song to me were the ones that were more spare in their approach. 5:37 feels great for example. i'll say though that finally coming back to the a theme at 5:52 really felt great. around here i noticed that the snare and fills before were really loud and that was a little much to my ears. there's an outro section that's less naturally from an instrumentation standpoint, and then it's done. there's a few seconds of silence at the end that does a great job of actually ending the piece. there's a lot here to like. CoT is such an overdone track (i should know, i have one on the panel right now too!) that this is kind of surprising how far afield it's able to travel. i appreciate the breadth of the arrangement and how much you do to reinforce the natural beauty of the arpeggio that ties it all together. great work. YES

unfortunately this breaks a number of the Submission Standards. while 1.1 details a wav requirement with no size restrictions, it's reasonable to assume that a 1.4gb file in 192k 32-bit float is excessive. while your track does contain content up past 80khz, our ears don't, so that's not really needed. 3.1 specifies that the music for the arrangement must have been actually used in the game. this does not appear to be true. 4.2 details what constitutes an arrangement. as this is instead something original to you, none of this is fulfilled. 4.3 details a requirement around identifiable and dominant source material. there is no source material used, so this isn't fulfilled. 5.2 details production requirements. none of this appears to be followed. 6.1 details evaluation requirements. the ownership and source material requirements are not fulfilled. we aren't going to be able to evaluate this, nor does a track inspired by but not an arrangement of vgm have a place on OCRemix, unfortunately. it's an interesting exploratory piece when it's not scaring my cats away from my desk, but ultimately a mono solo improv like this isn't going to have wide reception. NO OVERRIDE

last version all six previous versions Tried the file upload, it failed. I'm baaaack, lol. I read all of the advice given, and watched the videos suggested...and as a "treat" of sorts, I did not allow myself to listen to my last submission until I thought this one was ready to submit. After all of the advice followed....wow, I can hear the issues much more clearly in that previous version. As always, I give so much thanks for the time given for consideration and the critiques given, much appreciated! I also appreciate the feedback that has been given in the WIP forum:) Originals Games & Sources Game is Dragon Warrior 4, and this is from chapter 4, Mara and Nara, the sisters of Monbaraba. The music is mainly the walkabout theme, with a section that represents the battle theme included. I've always enjoyed the original 8 bit version more than the successors....with the exception of this ReMix;) I jest. Tried the file upload, it failed. Link given in space provided, and also here.

This was the first mix I started for TimeShift, and it's far and away the most fitting for the album. I took direct inspiration from the name of the album, particularly with treatment of the source's main arpeggio. There's multiple portions devoted to layers and layers of the arpeggio offset from each other, as if they're each shifting through time. Initially, there were sections of complete silence, but after getting some feedback, I decided to add some effects there and boost my nostalgia points :3. Shoutouts to Gravitygauntlet for mixing this track, he really brought the track to the next level. Enjoy! Games & Sources Chrono Trigger - Corridors of Time - Yasunori Mitsuda

((PART OF TIMESHIFT, PRIORITY REQUESTED PLEASE FOR PROJECT RELEASE DEC-11-2024)) I was inspired by the OCR albums of yore where the director also made a contribution to the tracklist, so it seemed appropriate that I, too, do a "captain's knock". I thought through what VGM of the last 25 years has influenced me, and it quickly became apparent that I should do the game that's ingrained in my soul. SimCity 4 has to be the sole game that I've played and metagamed the most out of any. Terrain is, undoubtedly, my favorite source from the soundtrack. The Humble Brothers created a progressive symphotronica that builds through the Locrian and Lydian modes, really pushing the modes' inherent tension, before releasing it all with a beautiful, lilting Ionian major melody played on a fiddle, and then returning from whence it came. Its percussion lines are incredibly detailed and layered. This was my natural choice; but how could I work out such a daunting source? I spent ages trying to figure out its melodic and rhythmic structure, bashing notes out on my piano until I located them. The harmony was trickier to work out, but once I discovered I could make stems in FL Studio, the way was clear: I had solved a 20-year-old puzzle I'd had (I may have even cried a little). Given Terrain's sheer majesty, there was simply no way that I could "elevate" the source, so I figured the best I could do was to pay tribute to it with my own symphotronica: take its structural elements and rework them, make references to its many highlight moments of its percussion line, and give it all a theme to work around. Jacaranda Dreams is so-called because the main city of the main region I have played in the game is called "Jacaranda". Moreover the name is an entendre: SimCity is about town planning, it led me to pursue studies of it at a university level, and the university I attended is well known for its jacaranda trees. Sadly, for various reasons, my university studies were not to bear fruit. It is from this chapter of my life that I drew the piece's theme: hope, hope lost, and new hope. I applied these three moods to Terrain, and changed its ABCBA structure to BAC — my TimeShift, if you will. The first part of the ReMix takes the suspended chords of Terrain's Lydian sections and makes them its running motif. To add variation to this section, and as a further nod to the game, I took one of the ostinatos from Jerry Martin's By the Bay, also from SimCity 4. I also took its choice of reeds to be my lead instrument: oboe. After a collection of original oboe melodies (like various attempts at getting my studies to work), the ReMix moves to the dark Locrian section. The original has a call-and-response between an electric guitar sample and a female voice, so I swapped the two and exchanged the guitar for the oboe. The lyrics are in Latin, partly as a nod to Simlish, but also thanks to my upbringing in a church choir it felt like a natural choice for the limited notes available. I panned my voice through the opening, painting with the phrase "Ubi est spes?" ("Where is hope?") like searching for it. I also emulated that grating guitar sample with my vowel changes. I've also loved distant lo-fi vocals, so that had to be done too. With the realisation, "Abeam" ("I should leave"), with the lo-fi getting dropped, the ReMix then finally reaches that beautiful Ionian melody (after a delayed build-up: I expect fans of the original will be waiting to hear that line, too). I celebrate that melody with the addition of some countermelodies, percussion references, and giving the melody to a bass clarinet at the climax for the oboe to then counter. This last section draws some inspiration (but no material) from Jerry Martin's Magic City from SimCity 3000. There's another layer to the tribute here, that to OverClocked ReMix. The kick drum that forms the booming bass fundamental is none other than zircon's from ISW's Groove Bias. And melodically...if you know, you know. ;3 90% of the samples are from Spitfire Labs, either directly or through its BBC Symphony Orchestra samples, with the bass clarinet coming from the Alpine Project. The only things I had to pay for were FL Studio 21 and Kontakt 7; the samples themselves were free. It was put together with a pencil and eraser on score to identify the original's ideas before being expanded in FL Studio. Thanks must go to my fellow artists on the project for giving me feedback all the way from the first eight-bar sketch of the string ensemble to the final version, and especially to those who've heard it in the various Office Hours sessions, particularly Seph, Josh, Hemo, Emunator, prophetik, VQ and Adrian for their ideas and criticism. This is my first time arranging with a full-blown proper DAW with samples rather than digital music paper and manually typing in MIDI values, and their guidance has been priceless. Since the very years this ReMix talks about I wanted to contribute something musically to OCR, and now I have been given the chance. I hope you enjoy. ((LYRICS: LATIN Ubi est spes? Ubi est spes? Ubi est spes? Hic non est. Hic non est. Abeam. Abeam. Abeam! ENGLISH Where is hope? Where is hope? Where is hope? It is not here. It is not here. I should leave. I should leave. I should leave! )) ((This part is for Larry's stopwatch. "Source" refers to Terrain, "Secondary" refers to By the Bay: ReMix: 0:00 - 0:06 -> Source: 5:22 - 5:36 ReMix: 0:07 - 1:47 -> Source: 2:08 - 2:46 (original material in oboe line) ReMix: 0:57 - 2:00 -> Secondary: 0:13 - 0:26 prominent, but present through the rest of By the Bay (xylophone, modified to fit harmonically) ReMix: 1:47 - 2:22 -> Source: 4:14 - 4:48 ReMix: 2:12 - 3:16 -> Source: 0:00 - 1:05 ReMix: 3:16 - 3:35 -> Source: 0:59 - 1:05 ReMix: 3:35 - 3:59 -> Source: 2:47 - 2:59 ReMix: 4:00 - 5:28 -> Source: 3:00 - 3:49 (original countermelodies, expanded harmony) ReMix: 5:29 - 5:49 -> Source: 3:50 - 4:01 )) Games & Sources SimCity 4 - Terrain (by The Humble Brothers [Ken "hiwatt" Marshall, Traz Damji]): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCfimZEArAQ SimCity 4 - By the Bay (by Jerry Martin): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6l1CsqZtnk4 Other soundtrack composers for database completeness: Anna Karney, Bob Marshall, Kent Jolly, Kirk Casey, Marc Russo, Michael Land, Robi Kauker, Walt Szalva

needs a new name if it passes Artist Name: AverageImposter I've been listening to many different styles of metal all my life, and I finally felt proficient enough at guitar to arrange something for one of my favorite games of all time. It took 3 years but we got there! Celeste is such a beautiful game that everyone should try. One of, if not, THE best platformer ever created. Also, speedrunning it is so much fun. Also highly recommend lol (not biased at all surely) Games & Sources Reach for the Summit is the theme to Chapter 7 in the indie platformer "Celeste". It was originally composed by Lena Raine. Everything was recorded, produced, and mastered by me. I used a sample library for the drums only. Original:

Persian Improv Sword Marth from Super Smash Bros. Melee. Marth was one of my favorite playable characters from this game. I bought it in February 2002. The 5:00 mark is loosely based on the oil level from Sonic 2 for Genesis. This song is roughly based on the Persian scale from The Guitar Grimoire: G-G#-B-C-C#-Eb-F#-G The book has about 40 different scales in it by the way, you should check it out. It made this song possible as I learned it in 2005. No, I am not sponsoring them or accepting any endorsements from them. Epic sword battles have taken place from Marth against Donkey Kong, Ganondorf, and Falco. Marth and the final opponent are both at 100% damage, one life left each. This is battle music folks. There’s a fire flower, proximity mines, and poké balls. Who will win? The sound bank you hear comes as MONO by default and I wanted to explore the realm of a solo improv piece using a MONO soundbank. The Lo-Fi sound here is killer like Dave’s Killer Bread (the bread even shows this guy playing a guitar lol). I just keep hearing epic sword battles from Marth, as he is one of the quickest and most agile characters as well. I am not sponsoring or endorsing that bread either people. I have perfect pitch, so I am navigating the keyboard improv MONO. Creativity is in demand by ethical people, this proves it, no? OK, so, the song is 8mins 15 seconds long, but this is an improv piece, one that I cannot really get down to a "T". Please forgive me for making the song more than 7 minutes. I hope this song will be an exception to the golden rule here. The Upper Maridia song from Super Metroid would be one of my next contenders in a song for OCRemix (besides a long-lost OCRemix tune). Thank you! — dolphin92329 Games & Sources Marth from Super Smash Bros. Melee for Nintendo Gamecube. Not a soundtrack, my interpretation of Marth. So, yes, is VGM.

This is Team Metroid's last submitted remix from GSM2. I speak for our whole team when I say we didn't expect team castlevania to choose such a strange source for the final round of the competition. Had we not chosen a track as melody driven as the Theme of Super Metroid, it would have been very difficult. Even as is, it wouldn't have gotten finished as quickly as it did were it not for the help of my team. During the first half of the mixing stage, Lunarice created a story for the remix to go along to, where Samus wanders around a derelict facility for the beginning portion, Dracula shows up at the midpoint and a battle ensues, then samus emerges victorious. Ronald, Lunarice, and I also each created some midi lines for the final remix during this stage. Then, because we didn't have much resembling a full remix, Emunator suggested I take the lead and make something out of what we had. So I did. The majority of the remix was written in two days, and it would have not been possible if not for the groundwork laid by Lunarice or if I hadn't happened to have listened to Jimtension by Big Giant Circles and C418 a couple days before I started lol, that was a huge inspiration for me. After that, we still has a few days so I made a couple of edits to make the mix more interesting and incorporated a melody by Ronald Poe to further fill out the more intense portion of the remix. dohs usage: From 0:47-2:40 (and also 4:43-the end) the only usage is in the chords, where I reharmonized the string part from dohs. Pretty loose, but it's there. At 3:28-3:42, 3:48-4:02, and 4:23-4:37, there's more of those chords, but they match the original much more closely this time The most obvious usage is at 4:09-4:23, I wager I don't need to elaborate on that one haha. I think that's it, so enjoy! Games & Sources Door of Holy Spirits - Theme of Super Metroid -

This is a weird one, it's a remix of a remix, does OCR jive with that? I don't know, but let's find out. I used Silent Protag month over at DoD last year as an excuse to cover this game, Meat Boy is a silent protagonist right? But so is everybody else (except they're not protagonists, I guess). I love this game and I love Danny's music, I have the album on regular rotation but I always skipped the last bunch of tracks of the album which are all remixes, I don't know why, but one day I stopped at the last one "Power of the Meat" by Josh Welchel and Melinda Hershey and I was AMAZED by it, it's so fun, so catchy, so creative, and after finding it I kept listening to it for months on end, it's that good. I didn't know how DoD felt about covering remixes either, but I did it anyway, and I slapped in a bunch of other tracks from the original soundtrack too for good measure, the chorus of the remix is so fun to replicate, but I didn't want this to just be a straight cover (of a cover), I wanted to put a little bit of myself into it, so why not? I extended it, changed the structure a little bit and put more references in it, originally this was just a remix of Betus Blues with some Forest Funk mixed into it, in my recover however I'm structuring this way: 0:05: 0:12 - 0:18 from Hot Damned 0:19: 0:30 - 0:45 from Betus Blues 1:56: 0:00 - 0:08 from It Ends 2:04: 0:16 - 0:49 from Forest Funk 2:26: 0:15 - 0:37 from Ballad of the Burning Squirrel 2:48: 0:51 - 1:08 from It Ends 3:04: 0:49 - 1:06 from Forest Funk 3:19: 0:15 - 0:30 from Rocket Rider 5:04: 0:38 - 0:58 from The Battle of Lil' Slugger (on crack) Everything else is heavily based on Josh and Melinda's remix, I didn't touch the lyrics, I wanted to keep them intact, I only changed the order a bit from how they're presented in the original remix. Players in this one include the one and only Zach Chapman doing bass as always, he rocks it, he also does the voice of Dr. Fetus, he rocks at that too. I also included Biggoron for this one, he's a great funky keys player that fits this vibe well, he usually leans more into improv, but for this one I felt the lines were too iconic to let them slip too much. Earth Kid does the voice of Bandage Girl, her lines are pretty simple, but her delivery keeps it super catchy and addictive. I did the usual, arrangement, sequencing, mix, guitars, I also did the voice of Meat Boy. I have absolutely no idea how something like this will be received but I'm way too curious to not send this in regardless (: Lyrics: Bandage Girl: Save me Meat! Dr. Fetus: Super Meat Boy, so moronic Quixicotic (is this a real word), idiotic Taking on my way psychotic Robotic saws My name is Dr. Fetus, P.H.D. I see you lack some skin boy, which is quite fine by me Your girl is quite fair, oh she's an anomaly So the bandages come off, baby wa'tcha hiding? Bandage Girl: Save me Meat Boy, you're the one that I need Dr. Fetus he can't beat us but he's making you bleed So won't you save me boy, I know you've got what it takes It's the hour, use your power and come help save the day Meat Boy: I will save you Bandage Girl You won't have to fear no more Take my hand and you will see Behold the Power of the Meat Bandage Girl: Save me boy, I know you've got what it takes It's the hour, use your power and come help save the day Dr. Fetus: I lined the walls with my robotic saws Don't you wish you had some fingers with which left to crawl? Now, I know what you're thinking, "for a fetus he's quite smart" Well when your blood paints these walls I'll call it work of art Bandage Girl: Save me Meat Boy, you're the one that I need Dr. Fetus he can't beat us but he's making you bleed So won't you save me boy, I know you've got what it takes It's the hour, use your power and come help save the day Meat Boy: I will save you Bandage Girl You won't have to fear no more Take my hand and you will see Behold the Power of the Meat Bandage Girl: Save me Meat Boy, you're the one that I need Dr. Fetus he can't beat us but he's making you bleed So won't you save me boy, I know you've got what it takes It's the hour, use your power and come help save the day Save me Meat Boy, you're the one that I need Dr. Fetus he can't beat us but he's making you bleed So won't you save me boy, I know you've got what it takes It's the hour, use your power and come help save the day Save me Meat Boy, you're the one that I need Dr. Fetus he can't beat us but he's making you bleed So won't you save me boy, I know you've got what it takes It's the hour, use your power and come help save the day Meat Boy: Take my hand and you will see Behold the Power of the Meat! Games & Sources Game: Super Meat Boy (the original 2010 soundtrack specifically) Songs arranged: Power of the Meat (https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02118) Hot Damned Betus Blues It Ends Forest Funk Ballad of the Burning Squirrel Rocket Rider The Battle of Lil' Slugger Original composer: Danny Baranowsky; original remix by Josh Welchel and Melinda Hershey System: I played it on my puter (: Year: 2010

i heard this back in early august and loved it then, so i'm excited to hear how it changed since then. opens with some water sfx, some beautiful chords and reversed piano elements, and an out-of-time chirping that reminds me of Bon Iver yet again. the feel of not being in a specific tempo in this opening section, combined with the physical elements of some of the instruments, is just so rich and inviting. the bass comes in at 0:54 and is very enveloping as well, although i found the patch to be a touch rough down low initially. there's some fun overtone-heavy guitar elements that are being layered in through this section that i really like. there's a big crescendo into 1:29's string entrance - the strings entrance and the subsequent sustains are a little heavy for me, but i see how you're using them to drive intensity. we start to get some percs alongside the arpeggio and sustained melodic elements, and it continues to build through those elements for over a minute. the strings feel a bit forced through some of this section overall - i wouldn't have minded hearing them handing off with another lead element occasionally. there's a bit of a break with some acoustic guitar, and then we finally start to get the real build with drums. this gets pretty noisy as it gets to the climax around 3:35ish, and then we finally get the payoff hit at 3:42. guitar sounds great in here (may be a tiny bit loud), and the drums are excellent - i love how crunchy they're mastered, lots of character in the tone. there's a lot going on in this big section but i can still hear everything, which is great. it's a little heavy in the 1k range or so. i really liked the lead guitar layering in alongside the strings. the track maintains intensity for a long time, like two minutes - normally i'd say that's way too long without a break, but this feels good and strong and doesn't feel overwhelming. we finally hit the last chord at 5:18 and it's a drop from there alongside the ring-moddy guitars and some sfx. the bass cuts out abruptly mid-outro rather than fading out - i'm guessing that's accidental. this is a real journey of a piece. the melody is such that it feels a little noodly in the original, but the pathway it takes you down feels very familiar and comfortable. it's neat to see that same melody used in such a different manner, to take you down such a similar yet different path. this is an excellent example of a significant genre shift without losing the soul of the original piece. nice work. YES