prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

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 It was originally made for An OverClocked Remix XVIII back in 2020.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.

i don't figure out eligibility, i just do music stuff, so i'll let someone else handle if this counts. at least the video is cute. opens with a very Outer Wilds-esque guitar arpeggio and some beautiful live instrumentation alongside sfx. maclaine's voice is superb for this, the tone is just perfect. if anything i think there's too much going on behind her voice - i don't want to listen to the (admittedly awesome) other stuff, her voice is too good. i can't speak to the pronunciation (no pun intended) but the text sounds like it's very comfortable and the language doesn't get in the way of anything. we get some percs at 0:57, and the backing elements continue to be excellent. there's a break at 1:20. the vin right away there is a touch out of tune but fixes it quickly afterwards as part of that lovely rising line. 1:48 starts the second verse, and we get back into a more simple rhythmic backing part. some drums at 2:13 kick the second chorus, suitably understated while still playing something worth listening to. another break at 2:42 for the start of the bridge section. i appreciate the space added to this section, it really adds some contrast to the very busy verses. i also appreciate that there's a lot of time given throughout, it feels like you're adding some bars in different places with how patient it is, and i like that. vocal riff at 3:29 is great. 3:40 starts some more distinct solo sections - lead guitar tone is perfect, sounds great. 4:20 is the recap of the chorus - if anything i wish that maclaine's voice is a touch more focused and intense here to fit the backing elements, but it still sounds great. there's a ton of falling action after this chorus. this was a good opportunity to mix up the chords under the vocal line imo, but what's here is fine. 5:13's got some really subtle piano lines. i actually didn't care much at all for the descending chromatic line in the plectral instrument there (pretty sure it's guitar), but it settled down nicely so that's great. this is outrageous and i can't believe it's going to be available for free. the care throughout the arrangement to constantly identify individual little bits to highlight at every second is just astounding. the performances are excellent and the vision is grand and inviting. excellent work. YES

i think the source counts, but we may have to adjust the game that it's associated with based on the info included by emu -proph Credits: Emunator: Arrangement, Piano, Programmed Instruments, Sound Design, Mixing maclaine: Vocals (lead, harmony) Zack Parrish: Acoustic Guitar (6 string), Electric Guitar (lead), Electric Bass, Mastering Pixels & Paradiddles: Acoustic Guitar (12 string), Drums (kit), Percussion Shea's Violin: Violin, Viola, Mandolin Gamer of the Winds: Alto Flute Chromatic Apparatus: Cello Theophany: Backing Vocals Artist Comments: This was made for Dwelling of Duels October 2024 Aliens Month. I'm not sure if this source is going to be kosher with OCR standards since it was created for specifically for a Pikmin commercial and was only included as a cameo in Pikmin 2 and later featured as a song representing the Pikmin franchise in the Super Smash Bros series, so feel free to take it or leave it. Games & Sources Pikmin - Ai No Uta

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.

original's pretty upbeat in its own right. opening is very similar to the original, right down to the drum beat, tempo, and lead performance. this goes on for quite a while - i A/B'd the entire length of the original on this track and indeed it's the same across the board. so this already isn't something that we'd really have a place for given the lack of original arrangement over the first half of the track. right at 2:00 we get a new section, which is clearly inspired by but isn't really arranging the original. it's a sick synth solo though! i'd like to hear more verb on it, it's pretty dry right now. guitar has a note or two that's funky in the chord that it's over, and then hits a fun chord at 2:47 before a hard cut break to the piano playing the melodic material (in a non-idiomatic way, you really should find ways to break up the left hand's block chords and velocitize the entire thing). there's another run-through the original's last section and opening, and it's done. ending is solid. i think this is a fun listen! i'd be happy to find this on youtube somewhere, but it doesn't meet the standards for arrangement that we require here. this is more of a cover with a little new section in the middle, which is hip in and of itself, but we'd expect more adaptation of the original's melody, chords, or other elements. i don't think this track would fit here without extensive modifications, but maybe future arrangements would fit more! take a look at the submissions standards i linked above (section 4 is the big one for you, the rest aren't as applicable for this) and hopefully we'll hear from you again. NO

opens with an organ flourish that goes immediately into a funky, piano-driven beat around mettaton's intro. the melodic stuff from mettaton is in by 0:20. it's a little helter-skelter because the lead instrument is similar in timbre to the sax part, but once i got my head around it, it sounded hectic and fun. bass here is a bit buried but it's doing cool stuff. 0:46 is the B theme and it's a feel change after the opening section was all over the place - more focused. there's another shift at 1:13 and we get joe slaying it on the sax - tone fits this genre so well! there's some transitional elements and then smithy's here. bari also sounds great here. there's some comps in the saxes and then we get a synth cameo with some very familiar descending scalar work, followed by some actual solos. 3:24's sax lick is actually insane and i love it. sorry, minus, but mettaton wins this one. there's some more dueling despite us knowing who wins in the end, and then a mettaton recap. there's one more repetition of the groove and then it's done on a few hits. what a ride! this is a banger from start to finish, at no point was i feeling like something got stale. for the time frame you described, this is superb work. YES

thanks for the resub! i really liked the arrangement concept and some of the set pieces in the original mix, but didn't like a few of the synth choices which i found bland and thought some of it needed EQing/reinforcing elements. track opens with some really big broad strings which sound very rich, so that's fun. there's some more sfx at 0:50ish as the strings glitch their way out, and we start hearing the Durandal synth with the ascending motif. the beat comes in at 1:26 and we get into the blootering of alien backsides. i admittedly like the nastiness of the Durandal synth more than the subsequent synth choices, which still feel bland and rote. there's some repetition in this section too which i still don't care for, but i like the transition at 2:43 and that section just as much as i did before. this section is great. again, the transition into the techno section is also great. this time through the techno stuff feels a little better and less rote. there's a final hit and some sfx, and it's done. i don't care for the middle minute or so - that more upbeat section just feels really dull when it should be the energy highlight of the entire track. i get that it's a 90s feel, but at least those 90s techno vibes had more verve to them - this feels more like a framework than a finished section. i'm a bit torn on if it is offset by the great opening and the section at 2:43, which feel really expansive and introspective. i think that, in the interest of not making perfect the enemy of good, this is probably above the bar. i think it sounds solid and there's no big holes in the arrangement. YES edit 2/19: we used this track for our recent judgetest, and i spent a lot of time listening to it as a result. the more i listened to it, the more i felt that the middle was just not there. there's a lot of promise in the opening, but i think that i ultimately originally settled on the wrong side of the bar (in that it was close but not there, instead of barely squeaking by). that middle section needs more verve, better guitar tracking, and stronger instrument choices. i'm changing my vote. NO

opens with that creepy arp to start in a neat bell-like synth. melodic riff is in the pads initially with some big sweeps over top. the arp starts to double up and do some delay stuff with some rising action behind to escalate, drums that come in at 0:45 are kind of weak, but i see where they're going as you use them as an escalation element. the sausage starts to get made at 0:56 as the kick and bass elements come in more regularly. this track is super slammed in the feel despite not really having a ton of super loud elements, so it feels a bit oppressive, but i recognize that's both intentional and part of the style. it's nowhere near upbeat as i expected though given the big transition drums. 1:10-1:20 for example feels really empty, as does the section immediately following. 1:52 switches to a triplet feel (among other things), so it's a lot busier, but it's still just the beat, bass, melody in the pad, and arp repeating. i feel like there's not enough going on through most of these couple of sections. there's a big drop at 2:36 in energy, and the arp element is doing some hits in here. the off-beat part that followed was a fun feel. 3:09 hits and it's the same instruments as before but now they're doing different rhythms. still using the same synths after all this is starting to be tiresome, and the overall mastering is still super heavy so it's still feeling oppressive. to be clear - the variety you've implemented on the arrangement itself is really impressive. you're doing a ton of variety considering the melody itself is like 20s long. my issue is with the instruments being reused constantly and never changing, and with how empty several of the sections feel behind the melodic representation. we get to the end and it just kind of ends, and there's a cutoff on the synth instead of a fade. i wouldn't have minded something deconstructive to end this given how much you played with these elements throughout. i'm honestly not sure about this one. i love the arrangement. i don't like that it's four instruments throughout, and i don't like that there's a ton of room throughout for other stuff that doesn't seem to be capitalized on. it feels like this is the framework and it still needs the finishing bits. ? edit 12/3: ok, i slept on it, and i still don't dig the extended sections with so little going on, and i still don't dig the limited sound palette. kris's note about sidechaining is good too - that's why it doesn't feel like it can breathe (well, one of the reasons). so i think that a NO makes sense for me.

opens with some nicely filtered synths. there's some elements of the little stepwise melodic chunk initially. the feel at 0:36 is fantastic, i love the fat sixteenth note synth. i'll admit i don't hear a ton of original in this first section with the drums, but i do get more of that descending line around the one minute mark when the second drumloop comes in. definitely an intentional but bad note choice selection at 1:48. the correlation in the later sections (around 2:00) is more subtle - maybe too subtle - and it isn't until maybe 2:39 that we more consistently get melodic material for any stretch of time. there's an outro starting at 3:25 and it's done. i love the feel, i really do. you've nailed the style you're going for and it's handled well. i just don't think there's anywhere near a preponderance of original here. there's not much in Aquas to hang your hat on, and you limited yourself to an even smaller segment of it for your feel here. i think that, unless i'm missing something significant, we're nowhere near 50%. i hear overt elements of the original from 0:15-0:36, 1:02-1:24, and 2:39-3:3:24 - about 40%. so i think that'd need to change before i'd be able to think about a yes. NO

ALBUM PROJECT TRACK (STAR FOX) Hey dudes and gal dudes, this is my submission for the Star Fox album. I'll save you some time - this track only uses the first 20 or so seconds of source. I lean heavy on the first part of the melody and that little 1-5-1 arpeggio, but I think the general reharm, melodic phrasing, and overall sound palette make this a substantial-enough reinterpretation. Not as harmonically dramatic as Aquas, but more chilled out and smooth while still being a bit mysterious. ~ The ruins slowly emerge from the void as you make the crossing; a vista nearly devoid sunlight. What was this place? Your viewport isn't nearly wide enough to see everything. The auxiliary monitors aren't much better, but - from the corner of your eye, you catch a glimpse of an unknowable creature on the screen. It silently retracts into the darkness. A moment passes, heard by the low rumble of the two-stroke diesel behind you. Curiosity guides your heavy hand to the throttle lever. The vessel cruises further into darkness. ~ Really I just wanted this to ooze "submarine" - without literally using sonar and water samples, I think it's pretty effective. But that reminds me - did you catch the ingame sample? I'd forgotten about it! Lol Cheers, RS LT Edit: Source usage info given 11/25 (after prophetik reached out): I guess I would make my argument that Aquas is built on 3 main components: The melodic sequence built on parallel 5ths. It continues past the first 0:20, but the melodic cadence is exactly the same. The 'chorus' section - I'm not really using this. The 1-5-1 arpeggio that plays throughout both. #1 is the hook. #3 I would attribute the group of synth layers that bind the track, the 'living arpeggio' as it were. It's not always literally 1-5-1, but IMO it serves the same role as a constant thread from start to finish, just always modulating to make it more interesting. It's simple, but I think it's worth a mention as a main characteristic of the track. As an aside - to use a visual analogy, I would also argue that musical "negative space" in general is a real and meaningful component of an arrangement. Maybe I'm on my own here, but I don't think I've ever seen the idea really presented as such on OCR. What's right for the track is not always what's right for the guidelines. Maybe I'm just becoming more at odds with the desired output. Hopefully this makes some sense. Either way, I'm past the point of doing any revisions, so I hope this will not count as a ding against the album as far as number of viable tracks is concerned. Thanks Games & Sources

sprechstimme is a great way to put it, and i'm surprised i didn't make that connection myself.

opens with some percussion. the loop points are pretty noticeable with the first percussive element. it's super bassy and very wet to start, and there's a few harmonics (around 3.1k) that are hard to listen to in that opening section. bass comes in with the melody at 0:20 and it's just a massive blob of mass between about 45 and 200hz: it's very dense in here, and it feels pretty slammed especially in the left ear which is louder than the left. melody's in a percussive instrument, but it honestly sounds like there's more delay or verb response than there is melody. it's hard to hear where the attack is in the melodic instrument. as i listened to this opening section a bit more, i realized that i think that the original's playing real-time behind the added elements like synth, guitar, and effecting (just start the original's youtube at like 30s in). i think it's being chopped up and looped, but i think that's why it's so dense-sounding. the instrumentation elements are playing exact matches from what i can hear. we don't disallow sampling the original in remixes that we post, but we do require arrangement that is transformative. this is quite literally just the original audio with a small number of additional elements layered on top and a really, really bass-heavy master complete with huge reverb added to the entire thing. not only does not this not pass muster on the engineering side with the mix being so dense and boomy and most attacks not being able to be heard, it also doesn't pass on the arrangement side given that the arrangement is essentially not yours throughout. this isn't something that we'd be able to accept. if you wanted to rework it to feature your own instruments, and focus more on the arrangement (since there's essentially no personalization here), then that's something that we can work with. this isn't even a cover, though, it's the original track with something on it to discourage copyright detection. NO OVERRIDE

opens with EPs and a funk bass feel. the melody comes in at 0:30. this section feels a bit thinner after the more lush EPs to start it, but it lets you focus a bit on some of the countermelodic material going on. there's a time signature shift at 0:49 to 7/8, which is an interesting idea given the original's surprising drop beats that it has throughout occasionally. there is a copypasta section from 0:30 at 1:04 (to my ears this is exact until about 1:21). i like the shift in chords at 1:21 to mix it up. we get a break at 1:52 to lighten up the shuffle - essentially the first time in two minutes without it - and i like the chord choices here. there's a bit more personalization of the melodic line after this and some more shuffling with phrase length, which is nice. 2:46 is a short recap of the B section of the theme, and this functions as an outro. the ending is a bit sudden given that it feels like it's just a repeated pattern and not really moving towards an ending. overall i think this is a fun take on a well-known theme. i like the genre shift and the added arrangement elements, and the track sounds good even despite the adaptation attempt towards original sound concepts. nice work. YES

This is a bit of a reimagining of Fei Long's theme from SSFIIT in the more sleek style of the Street Fighter Alpha 2 soundtrack. I rewrote the tune to fit more clearly into the mid-90s Casiopea-influence of the SFA2 soundtrack, and I produced the whole track using sounds/samples similar to those used in the CPS-2 arcade board. This is not a 100% faithful emulation of that sound (there are modern production techniques involved), but I wanted to try and capture the general vibe of that era of Capcom games. This is more or less what I think Fei Long's theme would sound like if he had been added to Alpha 2. Cheers! Games & Sources Super Street Fighter II Turbo - Fei Long's theme

I wanted to make it feel a little bit more like you were really in the space that the song is trying to manifest. The original drums were the only part of the song that I decided to sample and leave basically untouched. They are the core and driving force of the whole piece. They keep you wanting to move forward through this jungle of sounds that occupy the rest of the space. I feel like the US OST of Sonic CD is woefully underrepresented today. Of course the original JP soundtrack has plenty of hits and a ton of staying power, but Spencer Nilsen's work has always shined in my eyes ever since I first played the game on the Sonic Gems Collection waaaaay back in 2005. I wanted to honor his and his team's work without deriving too much from the original concepts and charm. Think of this as a sort of "Sonic Mania-ified" version of the OG track. Games & Sources This is an arrangement from Sonic CD's US Soundtrack, Palmtree Panic by Spencer Nilsen. Very specifically, I based the song progression off of the version heard in the Sonic The Hedgehog Boom CD from 1994 -

my previous vote on this primarily focused around the mastering issues and that there wasn't enough unique perspective on each track (ie. the focus was more on the original's positives instead of the arrangement's positives). i don't remember how the piece sounded though, it was too long ago. opens with filtered arps coming in - i like the wind sounds coming in here. the bass comes in with a martial feel around 0:12, and i think that the lead and countermelodic instrument have some nice movement on them. i can hear the schala arp behind it too which is a fun precursor. drums and other stuff that comes in at 0:36 is also neat. the hornet-adjacent lead add is a neat idea - having it have such a short sustain is a positive so it doesn't take up the entire soundscape. there's some subtle gating that starts 0:53 that i think is intentional and not limiter pumping - if so it should be a bit more obvious so that it's clear it's not unintentional. it's a cool effect. there's a break right at the 1:00 minute mark that functions as a nice dovetail. schala theme comes in at 1:18. the beat here is nice and reminiscent of the ethnic percs that are throughout CT's soundtrack, and the constant varying of elements helps the slower tempo and schala's slower pace of the melody. there's another cool transition involving gating, and we're into some VO stuff. 2:30 is the return of the Terra b theme, this section felt a little lacking in direction. i didn't like all of the countermelodic elements (some are not quite voiced well enough to feel normal), and the turbo-pan thing going on was a little much on headphones. i also felt it was lacking energy coming out of the VO break, at least partially because the bass was often not on the root. 3:03 brings back schala (and the iconic ascending harp scale) - initially pretty low energy still, but quickly escalating via a variety of percussive and synth elements. i don't know if stacking the bass with the melody works in this section, but it's an interesting change. after this is the outro, which wanders a bit through the schala arp until it hits the final notes, and then it's done. this is a vast improvement over the last version. there's a ton of variety and added content here from when i last heard it, and the mix is a lot better too. i think it lacks a bit of energy in the back half and wanders a bit more, but i love the feel of the first half and the overall track does a great job navigating these two monumental originals. great work. YES

previous decision I wrote this song for an 8Bit Music Theory discord weekly challenge to "make a mash-up arrangement from at least two SNES songs." I thought it would be kind of funny to go for two of the most widely-remixed SNES songs I could think of, Schala's Theme from Chrono Trigger and Terra's Theme from FFVI. Thinking about it, mashing up these songs felt appropriate—both Schala and Terra were women possessing vast magical talents, both used by powerful countries as weapons—Terra as a slave for the Gestahlian Empire, and Schala to power Zeal's Mammon Machine. I wanted each melody to get the spotlight, while still twining together underlying parts of each song throughout the piece. I transposed the songs into the same key so it would be easier to meld them together. I was feeling synths and a trap beat for this piece (idk why, vibes?), and I ended up experimenting with some new sounds and production techniques to fill out the arrangement. After a failed pass through the panel, I focused on making the piece my own, adding in some new parts and some vocals to break up the sameness. I also redid the drums to bring in more variety, and added some mechanical noises to the background. Finally, I sought out mixing and mastering feedback from the community to help polish the piece. Thanks ZackParrish, hemophiliac, and the amazing OCR discord community for ongoing feedback and support on this mix! Games & Sources Chrono Trigger: Schala's Theme by Yasunori Mitsuda. - Melody used 0:00–1:00, 2:30–3:03, 3:50–end - Accompaniment used throughout FFVI: Terra's Theme by Nobuo Uematsu. - Melody used 1:06–2:30, 3:03—3:51 - Accompaniment used throughout

immediately recognizable right off the jump. strings and choir samples aren't stunning but they're serviceable. the guitar's mixed pretty hot but i like the tone a lot for this style. first break comes in at 0:55 and it's short, but does herald a change of style. the first real change to the string parts don't show until like 1:15, which isn't great, but the updated stuff for this section do sound good and are a nice thing to emphasize. there's a change to a faster feel at 2:18 which is a cool sound. i wish there'd been a break before this, though, this is several minutes in a row of machine-gun drums and guitars, and a breather would have helped out a lot. i like the unison brass and lower guitar section at around 3:00. there's not much of an ending, just a final held chord and it's done. this is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the theme. the guitar work sounds good, and after the 75-second mark i like the backing elements a lot. nice work. YES

some interesting sfx to start us off. 0:22 opens with some rolled chords in the acoustic and electric (i really like the tone of the acoustic guitar). EK comes in right away and i have to say i like her tone a lot better than the cokehead in the original. there's a melodyne artifact at 1:08 in EK's voice on that slide. some nice flute after as well, understated but effective. PF's vocals are nice and rich in this range, so that's a nice contrast to EK. drums come in at 2:07 and sound overprocessed to me, the hats sound all highs and no tone, and the snare sounds like it's over-EQed. the vocals that come in at 2:33 also sound way overprocessed, they're super notched and nowhere near as rich as they sounded earlier. formants are too boosted as are the highs. there's a break after this at 2:59 with just the electric and flute, and we're back to EK's vocals (again, this feels so much richer than the tone at 2:33) for a bit before a great solo at 3:37. love what it's saying here. at 4:03 the vocals come back in. the harmonies are way too loud here so it's hard to pick out the voice line that should be the lead voice - turning the harmonies down by a quarter or more is needed there. the second section that is mostly in unison is a bit better mixed but still needs the harmonies turned down. 4:52's backing strings and flute is a nice contrast and fitting for this style. at 5:17 we get the requisite more-technical section from PF =) it doesn't really fit everything else that's happened until this section but it's not a dealbreaker, just a little jarring of a transition. i hear a mistake in the acoustic guitar at the end of the riff at 5:26. there's some dueling solo concepts and then we get the expected instrumental bridge right after, headlined by a singing guitar line that sounds fantastic. there's a slam break and another very quiet section at 6:09 that builds quickly back into the band sound. there's a mic pop at 6:20. the vocals at 6:22 don't quite match up. the song trucks through the chorus one more time, and we move into the outro material. there's some acoustic to play us out and it's done. this is a huge undertaking! i really like the arrangement and the overall picture of the piece. i think the mastering isn't there yet - both in terms of balance for the vocal sections and in terms of the band sound when everything's in. there's some little spots here and there (expected in a work this large!) that have some technical elements that need to be fixed. but man, is this going to be cool when it's there! NO