prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

30 something years ago I spent many hours having fun with trackers on my Amiga 500, and last year I re-discovered the remix scene (mostly thanks to Allister Brimble and Matt Gray) and, searching for my old favorite game tunes, I couldn't find any Nebulus remix so I thought I'd give the original Dave Rogers music some love. This is the first 8bit VGM version I make and share. Even though I ran the original game in an emulator to rescue a few in-game sound FX, I got the WAV outputs of the three channels in the main tune using the Amstrad CPC Musics Ultimate Compilation by Megachur/Paradox ( https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=11166 ). Some original segments were split and processed on Audacity, and others directly on Renoise, where I did the composition, effects (principally stereo work, reverbs, compressors, some phasers and distortion) and mix. Around 60% of processed original tune sounds were incorporated, along with several percussion, bass and synth instruments to make harmony and beat more complex, and a few library elements for transitions and atmosphere. The original tune barely exceeds two minutes. Most of the additional minute in the remix happened just jamming, trying to develop a bit the fun-yet-relentless melody Rogers made for climbing those spinning towers against time. Games & Sources Nebulus was a well known game for both C64 and Amstrad CPC but the likely original, full main tune was composed by Dave Rogers for the CPC. The C64 tune was not credited, and a rather dull conversion sorted out by the Commodore lead dev himself, so the fun original track hasn't received much love in the remix scene. Here's a profile of composer Dave Rogers - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/games/credit/36495-dave-rogers And an Amstrad longplay video that starts with the full original tune I worked with.

This is my take on the track with a metal/guitar-driven focus. I recreated the chiptune elements myself from scratch to accompany the more modern guitar/bass/drum sound to blend the two eras. All guitars are performed by myself and I used the Neural Petrucci amp sim to transpose the rhythm guitars down by 10 steps to create a more 7/8-string guitar vibe, although everything was tracked on my 6-string. I felt as though that prominent bassline was crying out for a super low-tuned guitar sound and I think it came together nicely. I tweaked the timing a little to give it a bit more of a punchy staccato vibe which also lent itself well to guitar. I threw in some ad-libs to the arrangement, referencing the main theme of the game on guitar at times, with another cheeky reference at the end of the track that foreshadows the melody of the syndicate headquarters in the sequel to the game. Games & Sources Original track: "The Last Soul" (Round 8) from Streets of Rage 1, by Yuzo Koshiro.

opens with some filtered stutter synths. we get a lot more instruments at 0:14 - it gets pretty dense really quickly. a quick freq analysis sees a lot of sub-40hz content that's really clogging up the bottom of the mix. it also sounds like the hats are filtered alongside the arp - which means there's not much high content at all. so it sounds pretty condensed. dropping a significant highpass on the stuff below 40hz would be a big help. beyond that, the track is so compressed. it's very dense and oppressive. turning everything down a lot, getting volumes roughly where you want them before your compression and limiting, would be a big positive. there's a bit of a break with sfx at the 1:00 mark, and then we're back to a repeat of the first 30s of the full band sound. this is followed by another sfx break with some electro guitar in there to mix it up a bit (but the backing elements just repeat twice in a row), and then we're back to another repetition of 0:30-1:00...and, well, you get the picture. there's a lot of wholesale repetition that just gets tiring. something to change it up each time - even changing synths would help! - is really needed to avoid it just being repeated over and over again. better to repeat something once too few times than once too many. the same 30s of full band repeats like five or six times with various sfx around it until around 3:45 when the arp finally stops. the next several 16-bar sections involve the full band section repeating with various instruments added in or out, but it's the same thing overall. it repeats a few more time and then it's done with a kind of weird pitch as a final note. there's some audible static as well that just drops after a few seconds. overall i like the concept - 90s house is a specific vibe and i think that SoR would fit that a lot. what's here though is maybe one minute of material stretched over five. i know that house can be repetitious, but there's loads of examples of keeping the overall feel moving consistently by using instruments that have natural change over time. this just sounds like the same 30s repeated at least ten times, with a few breaks for sfx that also have similar backing elements. i'd suggest trimming the length way back and finding ways to never say the same thing twice the same way. add a new instrument, change a synth, use a different drum fill, etc. - it's going to add a ton to the overall package. NO

as always, thank you for a clear source breakdown. opening starts with the title theme with a variety of transitional sweeps layered in. we start to get a beat at 0:36 and it picks up from there. this entire opening section feels pretty dull with the instrument choices - there's not much sparkle in any of them for them all being EP-like, and the kick is kind of blah - but we get some pop at 0:54 when the melody comes in. i love the time signature goofiness - the 7/8 section is absolutely the right choice there. 1:27 tones it back down again. there's a surprising amount of sustains that kind of just sit there (really expected to hear some blurbs to keep it moving through that), and the overall texture is still pretty dull outside of the sweeps. i felt like that past the 2 minute mark until about 2:10 when we started getting more percussive elements coming in and more brighter synths, and then again was in a happy place at 2:25 with the melodic material back in. this trucks through the melody of both tracks, and then it's done. the ending is a little abrupt but fits the style. this track does a fantastic job of saying "wait just a bit longer for the part you want", and then it's there and it's great, and then the track's done and i'm putting it on again. this is a great compositional technique - always repeat one less time rather than one extra time! - and when the track pops, it really pops. i think you do a great job taking a track that's kind of already in your style and making it unique and yours without copying what made it good originally. nice work. YES

if this is a brand-new project, i don't know if it counts as a resubmission. opens with some organ outlining the chords and the opening melodic line. there's a stutter synth here that doesn't really fit the organ and voices, but then an edm beat comes in so it makes more sense. beat feels pretty cluttered - the snare has a lot of low content, kick feels unfocused, there's several low synths in this section, and the fills feel like they're layered on top instead of being different things the drums are doing. 0:27 has the melodic content come in for the first time in full. i really don't care for this lead as it's very occluded and hard to hear what it's doing. i do like the call and response concept that's going on there though! there's a break right after this for a bit, and then we get a new lead at 0:55. and then another new synth bass at 1:09, and another new lead at 1:23! it's a lot of change in a short period of time. it's ok to lean on one tone to help to tie sections together - this feels a little too bouncy between ideas (although i like the ascending arp a lot, and the 404 bassline that's right after it). there also continues to be a lot of drum fills that are complex and dense, and a little less there might be ok - a few well-timed tom hits are better than the same complex fill over and over. there's a break at 1:47 - and then a bigger break at 2:02, with some sound design on the transition. this goes into an outro that repeats the opening idea, and it's done. after hearing it, i'm remembering this one from when i voted on it in 2022 (and several times before). i think you've got a lot better overall sound quality than you did last submission! i'd like to see more cohesiveness from section to section, a few of the more complex leads reined in, and a lot more work on the drums - less of the same big complex fills and more intentionality about what it's doing. NO

all five previous submissions most recent rejection It has been some time since I have taken a crack at this track. This one is a brand new project, and I tried to use some of what I learned on my Twisted Systerz submission. It's the first walkabout theme from Dragon Warrior 2. I give thanks for the time and consideration ahead of time:) Games & Sources

i wasn't sure about the instrumentation initially (maybe i'm still not?), but this has some funky ideas to it. opens with some noodling around the opening riff, and gets to the melodic material at 0:19. it's not 100% the original melody, but has some stuff modified in it while outlining the skeleton of the original. i am not a huge fan of the changes, actually, but the implementation (beat, bass, lead) are actually pretty fun and unique. i don't know what 0:49's referencing, because it doesn't sound like the B theme and doesn't use the same chord progression. 1:16 is a solo with a...floppy drive? it's got some fun stuff to say, so maybe physical media wasn't a mistake. 1:45's a little more goofy and explores some alternative stuff. we get the melody back at 2:22 after that exploratory section for one more time through, and then it's done in kind of an unexpected way without as much prep as i'd have hoped. i'm going to check with the remixer, because what's here doesn't seem to have enough source ultimately. i don't recognize what's going on at 0:49, and from 1:10-2:22 doesn't seem to have any source in it at all since it's using the altered chord progression and i don't hear melodic material. so i'll check, but right now i only hear about 65s of source (0:00-0:15, 0:20-0:42, 1:07-1:10, 2:22-2:47) if i'm being generous. ? edit 12/23: update from the op: Thanks for the detailed feedback! At :49 the stutter style lead melody is the same notes of the B section of Marble Zone, though I admit it’s not as recognizable as the lead section in my remix. At 1:47 however, while it again is using the lead notes from the B-section, it is in fact less recognizable. If it’s overall not close enough for OC Remix standards I totally understand. Either way thanks for giving it a listen! the notes aren't quite the same - the original is Am/G/F, and there's no G# (would be an A# in the key of the remix) in the original, but i catch the outlining of the B theme now without the extra repeated notes that the original has. adding in those two sections is enough to get it well over the 50% line. and i like the track overall - while i wish there'd been some different choices around the ending and the adaptation of the melody, i think what's here is unique and fun, and it's a really neat vibe. YES

This track was completely remade from scratch using modern drum samples along with the vst "Chipsynth MD". The very beginning of the orignal Marble Zone track is sampled along with some sound effects from the Marble Zone level in Sonic The Hedgehog. A caterkiller is a common enemy in that level that can only be defeated if you manage to hit it's head. This is the music I picture the caterkiller listening to as they slink along the grassy hills. I enjoy making tight playful tracks like these that use very little reverb. It gives the mix a very clean feel and really compliments that Genesis/Megadrive sound. Games & Sources Sonic The Hedgehog (1991) - Marble Zone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXukwNQG0uA , Orginally composed by Masato Nakamura.

opens with a kick-heavy beat and pads. there's a lot going on in the bottom 100hz and it doesn't have a ton of punch like i'd expect, and is somewhat dull. a synth bass comes in (in the same octave as the pad), and this progresses towards a break at 0:39 that adds some arps. there's some nice automation on the autopanned arp that works towards the front, although the panning is so wide it's a little confusing on headphones. this section drags a touch as it goes on as not a lot is going on during it, and there's not a lot to bring it back to the original outside that descending bassline (which isn't super unique). the remixer puts the screws in at 1:16 and we get a lot more going on and a big beat right there. again there's not a lot used from the original outside that initial descending lick (no arp, none of the actual melody line). there's another break with some guitar at 1:55 - that was pretty fast getting back to the build - and again this section feels like it drags a bit as it kind of just is a repeated pattern over and over, and there's no crescendo or anything to build energy, just adding new instruments after a few bars. i'd love to hear some more automation like what you had the first time around, adding in additional elements and building energy towards your big payoff chorus at 2:33. 2:33 hits and we get the solo that was called out in the writeup. there's some fun licks in here but overall i'd want to hear more movement and leaning into the chords themselves some more. there's some repetition in here too which is a bummer - this is your time to shine creatively! there's not really an ending, it just hits a note and it's done. there's a loud blap at the end that i think is the result of your volume automation not going to the end of the track. this is a neat idea! i like the synth-rock vibe - so many people just make lavender town creepy (or totally blasted-out EDM), so the darkwave/synth rock feel is a neat one that definitely has legs. and i like a lot of your choices for instrumentation. i feel like right now this is a great framework, and what's needed next is some more glam. i'd love to hear more from the actual lavender town original (there's only really one synth line used throughout the track - i think there's room to use more!), and i'd love to hear a lot more ear candy in each section - especially the transitions. lastly i think that the track sounds a bit dull throughout, and finding a way to keep the kick meaty without having it walk all over some of your other synth elements would really help the mix pop. i'm sure @Chimpazilla can give some suggestions about the mix. this isn't there yet! but it's a great start. the workshop discord can definitely help this get moving. NO

I recreated the production of the track from scratch, based mainly on the main melody of Lavender Town, a melody that could make us uncomfortable as children, and that currently has been the main course of most Pokémon Creepypastas. Having those two things, I started with the creation of the remix, where you can appreciate the dark and gloomy atmosphere that takes us back to that town. The remix is of the Synth Rock genre, so we can notice the characteristic Synthwave basses, synthesizers of the genre, chorus, Cubone's scream and some distorted electric guitars (although relaxed at the beginning of the song), but in the middle of the track around minute 1: 57 you can notice a change to a more aggressive guitar, accompanied by a Screamo voice that I myself had the pleasure of recording to use it in the track as accompaniment and finally around 2:34 thus entering a synth and guitar solo that would give end to the track. Games & Sources "Lavender Town", in this case named: "Ghost Town" is my remixed version of the song that we can hear in our adventure through the Kanto region within the first installments of the renowned collectible monster video game, "Pokémon", released on the Game Boy portable console in 1996 in Japan... Developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo itself. Originally composed by Junichi Masuda. Pokémon accompanied me during my childhood with its anime and video games, and motivated by those beautiful memories, I ventured to create my own Remix, reimagining the original track from scratch and in a completely different musical genre, called, Synth Rock. I would like to share the original song: (Excuse me for publishing a channel that is not directed by Junichi himself, but it is the only area where I found the original version in better quality)

sfx opening, and then we get some chips and foley for the opening out of machine gun. there's a neat vibe that comes in once the beat and everything's active, and then we get the filters dropped and the 'real' vibe hits at 0:34. this is a really head-bobbing feel, and i really like the variety of sounds used. lot of sidechain on the lead at 0:57 when the melodic line comes in. there's tons of stuff changing and coming in every few bars which is neat, and it doesn't ever lose the core of the feel. there's a big drop at 1"59, and we get the driving feel still but it's all in the bass synth. there's some noodling around with the MwtMG theme, and it builds up to a big hit at 2:56 that's a chopped up version of the upbeat section from The Landing to my ears. i like the chord changes here as well - simple patterns but really updates the feel. there's a bit of a beat change right before the ending, and then it's done. ending isn't really prepped but what's here works fine. mix on this is great, it's loud and in your face and never feels squeezed. the kick's this huge boomy roomy sound and i think it works perfectly. what an enjoyable track. love the energy and love the style. excellent work. YES

Oh it's been a long time OCRemix! I was going through old computer files and found this track I apparently made in 2016, and just never uploaded....sorry about that. Anyway, here's a track that mostly remixes "The Man With The Machine Gun", which itself is a 1980s sounding track. My remix mostly takes that and dials it all up to 11. Keep doing what you do OCR team! Sorry it's been so long, life just got in the way, but here's to another 25 years of OCR! Games & Sources FFVIII - Man with the Machine Gun FFVIII - The Landing

my original vote loved the arrangement but had concerns over the instrumentation effectiveness. my second vote called out some execution elements but really liked the improvement in the instrumentation. piano opens with some sustained strings. cello is a new tone but has a lot more personalization to it, which is neat. there's a flip in the first line that's a little unnatural, but what's here is fine. if you've got the ability to vary vibrato, consider doing that more on the start of sustained lines or in moving sections. you vary rhythm a lot to make it feel more real and less quantized, and i think it's a little on the far side of that now to where the rhythm seems a touch off. the note at 1:16 sounds wrong (second descending tone). i really like the choir entrance. it's spooky and has a cool sound to the vocals. cello here sounds great too, really rough and mean. the string drops sound a little weird but aren't wrong, just don't sound real. there's some clipping in this section, notably at 2:23 and 2:55 - this just needs an actual limiter put on it. i think you're not EQing what's going to your reverb and that might be what's causing some of the boominess, alongside the bodhran or whatever the main drum that's in this section being very fundamental-focused and right in the front left (so it's very loud). consider backing it off a bit. 2:55 feels better than before, i think, but the lightness of the strings themselves shows here as compared to the cello part. the brass coming in at 3:22 is a big help and gives the partwriting some balls which it really needed. this is a triumphant section and i like it a lot, just needs to not clip. there's one more recap and it's done. i think what's here would be enough to pass if that middle section didn't clip like mad. the main issue is, i think, the bodhan you're using. it sounds dull and lifeless, and it occupies a lot of frequency range down low. you've got a few ways to address that: scoop the heck out of everything else in that frequency range so it speaks through easier without having to crank the volume choose a different percussion instrument to that speaks higher to let it cut through easier turn it down and live with it not being so far forward either way you need a limiter that's going to prevent clipping implemented at the end of your mastering chain so that it's not hitting 0.0. i think, for me, if you did that, this'd be enough. if you wanted to go farther, i think that making the section at 2:55 shorter (maybe only running through half the theme) and then fleshing it out sooner will help with the depth of that section from a part-writing perspective, and i think that reining in the overly-dynamic rhythms on the solo cello would be a good choice. but this is real close, zanezooked! we just had an accepted track go through eight revisions, and i certainly don't see this needing that many changes to make it. NO

original vote second vote there's a story in the submission notes of past votes, i recommend reading them since this is kind of a story piece but they're very long so i didn't copy them here - proph Third times a charm? :) Thank you all for your feedback on the first two drafts of this piece. This is an interesting hobby because you need to be competent in both the creative skills of writing music and in the very technical skills of mixing, mastering, and otherwise massaging the sound. I appreciate the help you’ve given me on both aspects, especially the technical side, which is a brand new world to me. I was a bit confused about the feedback on the solo cello. Some praised the tone, others criticized it. Chipzilla seemed to think that the cello used only a single articulation. In fact it used no articulations. It was a SWAM instrument, and entirely procedural, based on how I played it on the EWI. I honestly thought that was a strength of the piece, a really expressive solo cello that you don’t usually get with samples. But I guess that didn’t come across, perhaps because I played it with a wind instrument, ha. Anyway, rather than try to massage what was already there, I tossed it out and brought in the Apocalyptica solo cello from Musio instead. This turned out to be a perfect match for this piece, as the samples are performed by the Finnish cello metal group (!) Apocalyptica, and it has both a wonderfully expressive legato patch and an aggressive, grinding rhythm patch. So although I had to throw out my own performance, once I reworked the solo cello parts to “write to the samples,” I ended up much happier with the result. Other things I did: Remixed and remastered everything. Pretty sure the volume should be good now. Removed the master volume automation tweaking identified by Prophetik. Seeing that in the waveform was illuminating. Evened out the balance of octaves at the 2:57 mark, in response to Prophetik. Did this by: Doubling the strings with their common woodwind pairings at 2:57, to thicken the melody and harmony lines Tweaked which lines were played in which octaves. Adding the full cello section in unison with the solo cello, thickening the low end Added more humanization to the piano I hope this is finally up to par! Games & Sources Myth: The Fallen Lords The Siege of Madrigal, by Michael Salvatori The Fallen Lords, by Marty O'Donnell Myth II: Soulblighter The Great Library, by Marty O'Donnell

surprising how different the two versions are. opens with similar backing elements and a male version of the voice part which is really loud compared to everything else. backing parts lack some verve as compared to the original through here. at 0:14 i expected something else to happen, but it's just another loop. bass comes in at 0:28 and doesn't sound particularly idiomatic. there's some extra keys being added in occasionally, but it doesn't sound like much because the voice part is so much louder than everything else. there's an artifact at 0:57, and a guitar lead comes in. most of the backing elements are doing sustains in here - note how the original uses a lot of clever articulations to add style and power to the sound. i don't hear that here at all. additionally all the instruments are very densely populated in the low-mid range - lots of stuff between 200-400, and there is an overtone in the bass range that's heavy too (45hz is the fundamental, 90hz is the first overtone). this all combines to make it sound really dense through here. i like the guitar work, and i think there's a place where these elements come together feel vibrant and intense, but right now it sounds dull and repetitive since there's no uniqueness to each instance of the melodic riff and they're all the same. there's some voiceover at 1:53 (and that hey hey panning vocal line is still going! it's so loud!), and more sustained trumpet. the lack of stops for breaths make it really obvious that it's not real. there's a fun guitar solo after this, and then the same thing that was happening back at 1:30ish gets layered back in for a few more repetitions. 3:19's a fadeout and it's done. there's a lot of repetition in this. i don't think the bass playing the same thing stops during the entire track, the drums are the same for minutes at a time, and there's so much of the same riff used over and over. for example, look at the different drum patterns used by the original, and how constantly the instrument in front changes. the A and B sections have very different feels, and there's a lot of dynamics and space used by the original's instruments. i don't hear any of that here and that's to the remix's detriment. most of the instruments don't sound real, and they really should for this style. separately, nothing has room to breathe because of the very fundamental-centric EQing - it all sounds very dense. some more functional EQ will do wonders to allow everything to be audible without having to just crank up the volume. this is a neat idea, but needs more work across the board. i think you definitely can do a guitar-driven arrangement of this kind of swingy electro-pop track, but it's going to take a lot more flexibility and execution in the backing parts to make it really pop. NO

No collaborating credits. Soundsources from Reload, like Trilian bass and Stylus RMX were used to keep the feel, but i tried to give it a funkier feel. New basslines, drums, guitars, and a remixes brass ensemble. I also brought back the French voices. I liked them, and was sad to see them go. Games & Sources Persona 3 Fall semester theme, by Shoji Meguro. Original: Remaster:

opens with some detuned synths and a generally nostalgic feel. similar to the original, the beat subverts where the downbeat is initially and makes you realize you had the wrong feel in your mind, which is a fun throwback. the melodic content is pretty subdued and overall this is a very slow, loose rendition of the original. there's a break at 1:30 and that builds up from there for a while. the beat comes back in at 2:27 and it goes through the melody a bit more, and then there's some surprisingly ambivalent chords that play us off. this is a really low-energy track. i think that some of the j's will complain about the lack of forward drive, but i feel like this fits the feel really well. it's very patient and intentionally doesn't lean into the energy of the original, which i actually like quite a bit. i think this is over the bar. YES

This is a Christmas-themed remix to Undertale, because it just makes sense. It was originally made for An OverClocked Remix XVIII back in 2020. I wanted to submit it back then, but it was so close to Christmas that I just didn't... for some reason. I was in the mood to make something pretty and chill, something more hopeful and uplifting. You could say this a spiritual sequel to my old Zelda remix, "Solace." I released it as part of an EP back in 202, "Winter Pixels". It's a little looser and more lofi than my usual stuff, hopefully, it fits the new guidelines! Games & Sources Game: Undertale Source: Undertale Theme

your journey sounds significant, meaningful, and life-changing. i'm glad you're in a better place now. opens with a filtered flourish and some pretty wild sfx, and the track starts at about 0:27. there's a really chillout vibe to this initially. i like the choice to use detuned synths to fit the spacey feel. beat hits at 1:39 and there's all sorts of fun ear stuff going on. there's a lot of higher freqs that were a little much for my ears - mostly overtones, but the cymbals and snare both felt really bright. there's a pretty wild solo at about the 2:27 mark, and we finally get a break from the pretty thick beat at 3:15. there's some new percs that come in soon after - the contrast between the fairly clean percussion and the heavily filtered backing pad is distinct but a fun combination. we get some new stuff at 4:03, as there's some new ear candy in the build up to 4:27 and then to 4:36, and the increase in energy at 4:36 is great. you do a great job keeping a fairly static melodic line fresh and interesting through several minutes of consistent usage. there's a recap at 5:20 of the earlier vibe with some extra bits on top, and then we hit the outro material. a few pads after the 6 minute mark and it's done. this is a great arrangement! there's loads of unique stuff to keep it moving throughout. i think that i personally found the 2-3khz content in this to be bothersome on my headphones, but i don't think i'd have the same feel on other listening methods. i really appreciate the breadth of content throughout. nice work. YES

This song marks my first non-OCR project entry and my debut in Dwelling of Duels (DoD)! Participating in DoD was a super nerve-wracking experience, right up until the month's long-play, where I was utterly flattered by the community's response. While most of the track came together quickly, I spent a significant amount of time fine-tuning, with the final drop and cinematic/foley aspects coming together only in the last few weeks. I was unsure how the crowd would respond to a more Trap-based drop, especially since I rarely venture out of my typical EDM styles. Needless to say, I was blown away, not only by how well it was received, but also by the fact that it placed 5th for the month. It was truly an honor to participate, and the light-competition framework kept me glued to the process, in a way that made me feel like I really leveled up my production quality...that said, let’s ignore the fact that the live MIDI recordings were performed using my typing keyboard (special thanks to extra-clicky green switches). I wish I could point to a direct set of song references for most of the track, but most everything was pretty much from my gut instincts, except for the final drop, which was strongly guided by RL Grime's "Formula". Making a full-length submission entirely on my own and having it so well-regarded was incredible, but it’s amazing what a solid mastering from Chimpazilla can do to your track. Her work took it to another level, and she was super insightful with coaching on actionable feedback on the track; I am so grateful it gets to exist the way it does via their efforts on it. That, and they're just a super cool human being, it has been great to get to know them recently! The track wasn’t written with a specific theme in mind, but looking back, it feels like it tells a story similar to Pikmin’s—one of loss, rediscovery, and rebuilding. Over the past few years, I’ve experienced significant losses and challenges, which resonate with Olimar’s crash-landing into the unknown and starting over with only the bare essentials. The intro reflects that sentiment. If you’ve played Pikmin, you know the game can be unforgiving—you can lose a lot very quickly if you’re not careful. The track mirrors this at the midway point with the shift to Indian percussion, stripping away the Chill-Hop vibe. It also captures the feeling of regaining strength and confidence, like when your Pikmin army grows, and you feel ready to tackle any challenge. These dualities—loss and recovery—reflect my own experiences with jobs, relationships, and stability, often swinging between extremes. The overarching note of this song is the idea of landing somewhere completely unexpected, making the best of where you’re at, and then launching forward to continue where you intended to go. This is both the main purpose of the game itself and a very real experience in my own life in multiple ways. Coming to OC Remix after years of feeling like I didn’t fit in, only to have my first submission finally accepted. Moving into a house full of strangers I thought I wanted to be around, only to realize there are better people to surround myself with. Leaving a comfortable job riddled with toxicity and non-stop lies, enduring a streak of work-related low points, only for it to lead me to finding the greatest position I’ve ever held. Losing the sanctity of proper health insurance due to an undefined medical concern, facing extreme ambiguity as new coverage claimed they couldn’t help, and then receiving a last-second approval and a benign mass diagnosis. Clinging to the stress of maintaining a half-friendship with someone who only mimed the acts of caring, only to finally let go and bask in the freedom and self-respect that followed. And so forth. Life has felt like a swinging metronome of deep losses followed by tremendously fulfilling wins. Being a part of multiple OCR projects, receiving a heavily fought-for promotion, ranking high in DoD, and navigating health coverage for various specialists have all paralleled the sentiment behind making and submitting this song, as well as the emotions imbued within it. The source track, 'Forest of Hope', unintentionally complements this narrative. The game is set up as a series of trials to rebuild your ship, and sometimes that’s exactly what tackling music projects feels like: gathering the tools, knowledge, and confidence to succeed. If OCRemix and Dwelling of Duels are the 'Forest', then their communities are the 'Hope'. This song is dedicated to everyone who encouraged me to settle into the OC Remix space and the DoD community, who have been so supportive and shared amazing feedback on my tracks! I’d love to list everyone, but it would be 30+ people long, so I’ll say this: Special thanks to Wes, Chimpazilla, the (~*Super*~) Pixel Bros. + all the Workshop regulars (especially JSAblixer and Meldecision, but really everyone there), Liontamer, Hemo, Dyluck, Darkflamewolf, Xaleph, Colorado Weeks, and Prophetik, as well as so many DoD folks I still have yet to get to know better (TheManPF, Tuck, and more). Also some more indirect inspirations who probably have no idea who I am but are nonetheless inspirational forces: omega-thanks to bLiNd, PrototypeRaptor, Zircon, and Flexstyle. Games & Sources Pikmin - Forest of Hope (entire track duration)

opens with some bitcrushed synths, and the beat drops quickly. the main source usage appears to be some of the first few beats in the intro, and they're modified so it doesn't sound like quite in line. i don't think that what's in the remix here is enough to constitute source usage. the backing elements sound the same the whole time outside of adding a bell line about a third of the way through, and it's only ever that initial representation. there's some cool ideas here, but this doesn't meet our source usage guidelines (4.3 is the big one) to fit onto OCR unfortunately. i wouldn't call this identifiable and dominant. i'm sure there's a place for this track on other streaming services though and i hope it is received well! NO

The beat for flex was a sample from WarioWare Inc, which came about when I started playing the game with my son on the Switch Gameboy Advance app. I immediately heard same hot fire and was inspired to flip some of the OST. I threw the intro sample into slicex on FL Studio, chopped it up, and the rest is history. Also a little fun fact, this beat was made around the first time I ever met the rest of NKM in person. - Lemmedoya of Nerdknight Music This song man. My brotha Lemmedoya sends us a lot of beats, but this one has to be one of my favorites. It's just so energetic and unique sounding! As soon as I got it, the idea for the chorus just popped into my head and wouldn't leave until I met up with NK Sensei to lay it down and write + record a couple of VERY chaotic verses. From there we sent that to Lemmedoya for thoughts on it and HE ended up laying a verse down too. And at that point, we knew we just HAD to make this posse cut happen and put it on the album we were working on at the time. From there we thought long and hard about who else to get on the track, and ended up hitting our friends Cas Hatchett, Mercutio X, and Drip$tick, who all absolutely KILLED IT! - NK Blackimar of Nerdknight Music NK Sensei: Verse 1 NK Blackimar: Verse 2 + Chorus Cas Hatchett: Verse 3 Lemmedoya: Instrumental + Verse 4 Mercutio X: Verse 5 Drip$tick: Verse 6 Games & Sources Sampled from the intro of WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! Composed by Ryoji Yoshitomi and/or Kyoko Miyamoto. Couldn't find confirmation on which one of them did this song specifically.

my last vote complained about a hole in the freq range, suggested expanding some higher-end EQs, and fixing some plodding sections in the middle. opening has a lot more body to the beat now, good punch in the kick. transition at 0:41 is a bit busy but works. 0:58's a big break - good choice to keep the lfo movement on the pads active, so that it kept moving forward. 1:30's a real vibe change, and i continue to like all the extra transitional elements and interesting audio bits here and there. lead at 2:00 gets buried a bit. there's a dropoff and some outro at 2:49, and that's it. i think i'm to a point where i can say this is a pass now! there's a few parts i wouldn't mind hearing cleaned up, but what's here is imo over the bar. if it goes back for another bake, i'd suggest keeping the section between 1:50 and 2:00 moving better, have the transition at 2:00 be less abrupt, and increasing the lead's volume at 2:00 so it's clearer (might require something else to reinforce it). what a ride though! thanks for sticking with it. YES

new version 1/21, use this please: i've had this track on my bucket list to remix ever since i first heard it come from my tv speakers. IX's commitment to return to the roots of final fantasy was obvious right from the get-go with this nostalgic, renaissance-adjacent opening theme. the entire soundtrack has incredible music, but this is the track that's always stood out to me. despite knowing the track's melody cold and needing a reference only for part of the harmonic material, it took me a while to get going on this - my project info says that it was started at the end of august - and i didn't really have a clear direction about where i wanted to go with it for a while. i had the kalimba and interesting string chunks thing going on in the background, and a harpsichord sound that eventually became the opening, but it wasn't until i rediscovered the bamblong percussion instrument that i was able to find the feel i was looking for. from there it flowed pretty naturally. right now the file's at just about 8.5hrs, so longer than usual for me, but it reflects how it took a while to get some of the sound design elements where i wanted them. Games & Sources FF9 - The Place I'll Return To Someday

this got rejected due to feeling incomplete and needing some glam. i went through and added the following. transitional elements in several locations more percs in the opening section extra drum elements to when the beat comes in after the first minute extra atmosphere in most of the second half lots more reverb more kick throughout changed the arrangement to alter a lot of the melodic and harmonic/chord structure for the second half added some changes to the first part as well (note that this no longer features a natural minor v as i described in my initial post) i ran this by kris for a second set of ears and she felt that the changes were significant, so here's hoping this has a better shot =) Games & Sources Prologue theme from Final Fantasy Legend for the Game Boy.