OCR01844 - *YES* Chrono Trigger 'JESUS CHRIST IT'S A DINOSAUR GET IN THE EPOCH'

[Liontamer]

Sup OCR! Three weeks have gone by, and you know what that means--- TIME TO SUBMIT AGAIN!

Remixer name: DrumUltimA

Real name: Doug Perry

email: drumultima@comcast.net

Website: http://www.myspace.com/drumultima

userid: 3877

Game Remixed: Chrono Trigger

Song Remixed: Rhythm of Wind, Sky, and Earth

Remix name: "JESUS CHRIST IT'S A DINOSAUR GET IN THE EPOCH"

So this is an all percussion remix. It was a project for my computer music class in which we could only work with audio. It was supposed to be a Music Con Crete project, but as you can see I didn't really do that All drums and stuff are played live, albeit a few samples I took from the percussion studio. If you want to see why this is a remix, I posted my notes on the internets:

http://drumultima.googlepages.com/rhythm1.jpg

http://drumultima.googlepages.com/rhythm2.jpg

http://drumultima.googlepages.com/rhythm3.png

http://drumultima.googlepages.com/rhythm4.png

Sorry about those last two, I can try to reduce the size if you'd like. Basically, first two pages are the direct transcription and some notes on that, last two pages are my planning for the remix.

I'm curious to see how this will turn out! Much thanks to bustatunez for remastering this, Geoffrey Taucer for his undying love and support, Peabody for letting me abuse the Computer Music department, as well as the fine folk of #ocrwip for "helping" me come up for a name. Oh yeah, go ahead and leave that link up if ya'll NO this.

Enjoy!

-Doug "DrumUltimA" Perry

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http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Rhythm of Wind, Sky and Earth" (ct-220.spc)

Jesus Christ, that is insane that you've tackled this theme. Great mastering by Will, by the way; it sounds excellent.

This needed 121 seconds worth of the source to pass. The source has 4 distinct sections, so the breakdown I had ended up like this:

:00-:07 of source - :03-:19, 3:39.75-3:51

:07-:23 of source - none

:23-:39 of source - :35-:51, 1:07-1:21, 2:44-3:07

:39-:47 of source - :51-1:06, 1:27.75-1:41, 3:07-3:22.5

That tallies up to 124 seconds, so even if I'm missing something outright, this is more than fine to me. If anyone needs me to go into more detail as to how the rhythms Doug used mirrored the original, let me know, but it's there. I remember listening to an early WIP of this, but I can't say I had confidence in a concept like this passing. Not from a performance standpoint by Doug, but because, with this source, it is extremely easy to go off the rails.

Lots of great expansive spices, full of grace notes while not losing site of the original rhythms. A couple of the cymbal swells felt a bit out of place with the timing, but it wasn't a big deal. For something like this with no real melodic focus, you definitely had to retain a lot of the structure of the original but expand and personalize the arrangement, which you did in spades.

Doug, you're a legend for pulling this off.

YES

[anosou]

Your handwriting is total crap, welcome to the club!

So yeah, this is hard stuff to work with and a remix that could be quite hard to listen to. I will be honest with you though, I love it. Very Steve Reich albeit no real phasing The playing is just loose enough to give off the right vibe and a lot of attention has been paid to details.

The arrangement is pretty much exactly like Larry's breakdown. Very easy to spot too. Nice work in really capturing the source, especially with this kind of material. I think the cymbal swells were fantastic and really gave you that wtf-awesome-feeeling. Full of fantastic writing in this one.

The production is great too, the instruments sound just close enough. The only thing that bothers me a bit is the timpani-style drum in the left ear, it kinda disrupts the soundscape panning it like that but that's highly personal. Otherwise everything is clear and with a pleasing ammount of reverb.

Doug. You are now an international VGM-arrangement hero and will continue to be just that until the end of time. And JESUS CHRIST, you deserve it.

YES

[Palpable]

Doug, you magnificent bastard. It definitely takes balls to remix this source, and I pretty much think you pulled it off as best as one could. Larry's breakdown looks good, and I even hear parts of 0:07-0:23 of the source in your song, at 0:19-0:35 and 3:23-3:39. Actually, my only concern is whether it's too similar to the original. The main percussion you've used has a pretty similar sound, but I think your use of other percussive elements, fills, and huge dynamic changes give this enough distance from the original.

I'll should note that it's a very hard song to judge because I don't have a standard on which to judge an all-percussion piece based on an all-percussion source. But my instinct is that this is fine. Maybe this will set the standard.

YES

[big giant circles]

Doug, you magnificent bastard.

YES

But seriously though, interesting, and I'll admit I was initially a little uncertain as how to approach a percussion only remix, but I listened to it and the source alternating for a good hour or so, and after reviewing my fellow J's votes, and Larry's painstaking breakdown, I have concluded that I agree.

Also, I feel honored to have jammed out Ice Cap & Soul with you back in B-More last year.