OCR04272 - *YES* Pokémon Diamond Version "Where It All Began" *FALLTHROUGH*

[Rexy]

Dear Judges at OCRemix,

 

heres is my new submission. Hope you like it!

 

Contact Info

Remixer & real Name: Chris Kohler

Email: 

Website: chriskohler.net

Userid: 34798

 

Submission Info:

Game: https://ocremix.org/game/635/pokemon-diamond-version-nds

Name of arrangement: Where It All Began

Original Song: The Pokemon Lab

Link to Original:
 

 

Best wishes,

Chris

[prophetik music]

starts off real peaceful with some pretty piano and strings. from there the flute and strings pick up the main melodic section over some rhythmic strings. this is fairly straightforward writing but it's competent and sounds nice. there's a break for the piano at about 1:04, and this is really well played/sequenced again. we get back into the full group at 1:47, and the arrangement is again in the flute and then strings. this is very similar to the earlier section from 0:25-1:04, nearly copy/paste territory. there's a fun brass chorale at 2:32, and some string ensemble work to follow that up. the solo violin isn't great quality but it's passable. a light flourish in the bells and we're done.

this feels very pokemon, which is pretty nice. the copy/paste section though is pretty egregious. the intro, piano solo section, and ensemble section at the end is really nice, however, and throughout the ensemble writing is pretty solid. this could probably go either way for me, but some more creativity in that second copy/paste section and this is an easy pass in my book.

 

 

NO

[Emunator]

There's some really lovely writing here! It feels distinctly out of the Pokémon D/P canon, full of nostalgic warmth and unconventional chord changes/melodies, but elevated by a more organic, high-quality sound palette. The sequencing is a mixed bag for me, with most of the leads feeling just a touch robotic but nothing standing out as a major dealbreaker, either. The samples themselves have pretty great tone across the board, so despite the flaws in the sequencing, it still sounds quite pleasant to listen to. Brad touched on the copy-paste section at 1:55, but the addition of the percussion keeps the arrangement progressing overall. Is it the most sophisticated, nuanced choice? Probably not, but certainly nothing that can sink the arrangement for me. 

I'm sold on this! Good luck with the rest of the vote.

YES

[MindWanderer]

My personal limit for copy-pastes is 25%.  1:53-2:32 is the repeated section, so that's 39 seconds out of 194, which is 20%.  It's also not strictly repeated; I hear some extra horns in the first half and jingle bells in the second half.  So that's not a dealbreaker for me.

Otherwise, it's a nicely full, transformative arrangement.  The original is technically orchestrated, in a very simple, shallow way, but this goes well beyond a "sound upgrade."  It's not even really a remaster, more like an orchestral score that would sound appropriate as part of of a movie soundtrack.  Much more cinematic than "Pokemon" in my opinion.  Sure, some of the instrumentation, notably the string ensembles, can't pass for the real thing, but it's in the ballpark.

Overall, it sounds great and I have no substantial complaints.  A fine track indeed.

YES

[djpretzel]

Sticks the landing. The progressive vibrato (i.e. baked into sample and not dialed in via controller, I believe) is doing a lot of the heavy lifting on the flute lead - from a certain perspective, I'm glad it's there, because otherwise the notes would just... sit. From another perspective, it comes in predictably, with the same envelope, each time... I think this could have been masked to some extent with some expression modulation (or if sample doesn't support, just modulating volume), but.... I'll live. I've certainly heard far worse, and the sequencing is lovely. Kudos for slowing the intimate, very cinematic (as @MindWanderer points out) piano bits down and giving them temporal breathing room. I don't really enjoy listening to the original, to be honest - I hear the promise, but it's on tempo rails and hits me wrong - but I dig this treatment, and found it engaging and well-conceived. Repetition/reuse wasn't flagrant, but in the future for extended passages you intend to repeat... just alter something, even if it's one interval, so we know you know, and to give the listener contrast... and, more importantly, to further explore the possibilities of the melodic line. Right on.

YES

[DragonAvenger]

This is pretty! Agreed with the others mentioning that this would fit really well in a movie or a trailer or something. The leads were definitely the part that felt the most robotic on the sequencing, but I think when put in the whole of the nice orchestration and overall personalization it's not a dealbreaker. Great use of tempo variation, though, I think that is what really sold the mix for me. 

YES