*NO* Super R-Type "The Bydo Must Fall!"

[prophetik music ⚖️]

This is a medley of most of the main stage themes and boss battle theme from Super R-Type. Not everything is included, but it's most of the tracks. 

Recorded, mixed and mastered by me. 

---

Games & Sources

 0:00 - 1:42 --- Solo Sortie 

1:43 -  2:23 --- Counterattack '91

2:24 -  3:08 --- As Wet As A Fish

3:09 - 3:52 --- A Submerging Titan

3:53 - 4:37 --- Dream Of A Labyrinth

4:38 - 6:10 --- Return Of The Creature

5:55 to 6:12 --- To The Next Zone

 

[prophetik music ⚖️]

opens with a big wall of sound and quickly gets down to business with solo sortie. the melody comes in at 0:27, and it's pretty hard to hear initially as it's pretty low in the range. there's some compression artifacts at 0:55 from the snare to my ear. some nice changes in the drums and backing rhythm at 1:08. whatever gating is on the guitar initially at 1:36 is a bit weird.

the transition at 1:43 is a slam transition but it works pretty well considering how counterattack '91 starts. and it's off to the races very soon. this is another very straightforward adaptation - just once through, and then it's onto the fish track. as wet as a fish is a nice break from the initial beat - lots of sustains, and when it does come back in, it's got a half-time feel that functions as a nice break from the wall of sound. submerging titan is where the track goes back to normal time, but i admit this transition was too sudden for me. i'd rather have had more time to get into it before hitting the initial riff.

and before we really even get a chance to ingest this, we're onto labyrinth. the transition here again is sudden but works because of both tracks keying off of a complex riff to mark what they're doing. speaking of complex, the creature track hits with the opening riff, and then goes to town on a more complex drum pattern initially. i appreciated that you spent more time on this one, although i'd have preferred that you personalize some of the melodic work a bit more given that this is mostly straight out of the original.

there's another slam transition to the next zone track, and i'd have loved to hear the keys match better to the previous track so the transition wasn't so obvious. i'd also have loved to hear this expanded a touch since it's so sudden and then it's done.

i'm on the fence about this one, honestly! it's a big rocking track and i like the variety of drum and guitar grooves brought to the party, and there's a lot of intentionality in how you chose what tracks led to what to fit them together. the track sounds big and in your face, and i like how aggressive it in in several sections. i don't however like at all how brief some of the cameos are, nor do i like how fast some of the transitions are. i can't hear a bass essentially anywhere in the track, and i don't like that the same synth is used for the lead throughout, and similarly i don't like that it's so rote from a melodic representation standpoint.

i think i'm going to come down on the side of a no vote here. if you took a bit more time in some of the more abrupt transitions, if the ending wasn't so tacked-on and was more integrated/fleshed out after 6 minutes of rock, and if there was more personalization in the melodic representation, this would be an instant yes. as it is, i think it's just too medleyish without much of you in the arrangement.

 

 

NO

[jnWake ⚖️]

I remember this one from DoD! Deserved medal for sure.

Begins, as your breakdown says, with "Solo Sortie". There's heavy guitars and dark synths right from the start. Right away this is pretty loud, ranging around -9 LUFS. Drums seem a tad overcompressed but they still sound good. Love the guitar tone, the riff at 0:15 sounds really good. A synth lead enters around 0:27, it sounds great but it gets buried in the mix a little (especially around 0:44), maybe it'd be a good idea to automate the rhytm guitars to duck when leads are playing (or layer the leads an octave above). At 1:08 we reach the B section and my feelings are the same, sounds rocking but the leads get lost. Source usage so far is quite conservative, but the adaptation to metal adds personalization. At 1:42 we move to "Counterattack '91". We keep on kinda the same style, heavy rocking guitars with dope synths on top. Like the first source, this one is covered very faithfully. At 2:24 we reach "As Wet as a Fish", I appreciate the chord progression making the transition smoother around 2:22-2:23. We go a bit slower on this section, although the drums are still very compressed and the rhytm guitars very loud, it'd have been a nice spot for a change of sound palette. At 3:08 we move to "A Submerging Titan", a smooth transition despite not much build-up. I like how the introduction of the new riff is on "build-up" mode, makes it pay-off nicely at 3:23 (are there guitars and synths layered here? I love the tone). Finally the synth lead shines here! 3:53 introduces "Dream of a Labyrinth" seamlessly, nice job there. The riff here sounds great on guitar. Around 4:39 we move to the next source: "Return of the Creature". It's a sudden transition this time. Gotta be honest here, I really dislike how the toms sound, they're insanely sharp and sound like if someone was getting slapped. Luckily they don't last long and we move to a simpler, more enjoyable beat. I can't find much new to say here, this section keeps the same elements as most of the track. In any case, at 5:55 we move to the final source: "To the Next Zone". The triumphant mood is an appropiate send-off for a long track!

On production this is top notch. I have some minor nitpicks about drum compression and the volume of the rhytm guitars but this is, no doubt, above OCR's production requirement. That said, I do wish the mix wasn't so hot all the time, it can get tiring.

Arrangement will be the main point of contention for this one. As per the submission standards: "Your submission must have a strong focus and direction. Medleys must sound like a single song, not multiple songs pasted together". Is this achieved here? Most transitions are solid and don't feel jarring, which is a plus. Genre is consistent among the entire piece, another plus. If anything, the main minus I have here is that there are no recurring themes to glue the arrangement as a more cohesive whole. OCReMix has posted medleys similar to this one in that sense, like the famous Unsealed. I also wish the arrangement had more variety in sound palette, the synth samples are basically the same for the entire thing and there's no real break in the entire track, with the slowest section still having strong distorted guitars in your face.

Overall, this is an amazing track! Rocking and powerful, well produced and although the arrangement is a medley I think it sounds cohesive enough to meet the criteria, as the transitions are mostly well handled. That said, for future medleys it'd be cool to introduce some form of recurring theme to glue the arrangement even better.

YES

[pixelseph ⚖️]

Hell yeah, another track I can point to for properly programmed guitars! Great velocity manipulation to get the most of the palm mute rhythms, especially @ :13 - 1:08. I do think it maintains that palm mute feel a hair too long personally, but the intro is excellent. Proph mentioned the gating feeling awkward @ 1:35 - 1:39; to me, the gate is nice and tight, though I think the pickup selection on the guitars are taking away from the effect. They're very dark, which works @ 1:40 - 1:42, but that upper octave needs more bite to it. Still, excellent work here!

Listening to the sources to get a grasp on this one, I wish there was a little more in the way of interpretation overall across the track. It's not that there aren't moments of personalization (the Wet as a Fish segment @ 2:24 - 3:08 in half-time, the opening of The Return of the Creature segment @ 4:41 - 4:51 are great examples), it's more that this is landing more on the side of cover rather than rearrangement to my ear. A return to one of the other themes, as suggested by Wake, would help alleviate this feeling. The transitions, even the slam ones, don't feel out of place in the style - Metallica's various medleys are the gold standard for me, and this mix walks the same line.

Production-wise, this is rock solid. I have gripes with the toms in The Return of the Creature being pretty much all attack with no body to them. They almost sound pitched up to bring their attack out, which gives them a sort-of tabla/conga/hand-drum tonality that doesn't gel with the rest of the presentation. However, that's a nitpick and not a must-fix - getting toms to be phat in a mix with lower-tuned guitars and bass is troublesome to begin with, and that they're audible is good enough. Like Proph and Wake, I too would love the leads to be more forward, and I wonder if they're simply being smashed by the multiband or limiter on the mixdown?

I'm finding myself also on the fence here, and I think I'm going to fall on the side of Yes - this hits more than it misses, although I wouldn't mind a second pass on bringing the leads forward and adjusting the toms.

YES (borderline)

[paradiddlesjosh ⚖️]

Hey, I remember this one from DoD too! What a crazy time Alien Month was. 😄

This is my first foray into hearing anything from Super R-Type and now I feel like I've been introduced to the whole OST! Loud master aside, the groovin' metal adaptation of these themes fires on all cylinders. "Solo Sortie" seems to have the most overall development of any of the sections, and the transition from it into "Counterattack '91" is likewise the best in the medley. The half-time feel going into "As Wet as a Fish" in the drums is a major highlight, though, as is the shift into "A Submerging Titan" at 3:52. I dislike the sound of the toms at 4:37 (filling from "Dream of a Labyrinth" into "Return of the Creature"); it sounds like they've been aggressively high-passed. Not a fan of the slam transition into that fill, either. Overall, though, there is clear intentionality in the flow from track to track.

So having said that, you're probably going to think I hated it, Gregorio:

I'm ultimately falling in with proph. The arrangement, although carefully navigated through the various themes, plays it too conservatively. The melody lines as a whole and most of the backing elements (guitars, bass, orch hits) seem like they're playing 1:1 with the source material for the duration of the piece. Which is a shame because the performances are quite good!

If it doesn't compromise your vision, I'd YES a revision that has stronger transitional elements, more personal touches in the arrangement (like the half-time drums in "Wet as a Fish"), and/or a recurring theme or at least a callback to a previous track. (To Seph's point, both of the Metallica medleys he linked to use one source as a bookend for the arrangement.) OCR's no stranger to medleys, from CHM's "Unsealed" to TheManPF and friends' "wily theme;" "Unsealed" for its repeated callbacks to "Dark World" and "Hyrule Castle" and "wily theme" for using the "Dr. Wily Stage 1 BGM" as a through-line for all sorts of shenanigans.

NO

[Hemophiliac ⚖️]

Huge heavy metal sound here. The big metal energy is definitely a highlight here.

So I'm immediately recognizing the sources as each one comes up, thank you for the breakdown. However, this feels more like a medley than one cohesive song.  If there was more material bridging the gap between each song with more fleshed out transitions, it would be better fitting. We get fills between each, but that's not always enough development for it to not feel somewhat sudden. This kind of medley might work well in other places, but that's not what we're looking for in arrangements here.

There's a gentle low-mids to mids (~300-1.5k) range scoop and I'm feeling that the bottom end is very full. To me it's not ideal in clarity. The bottom is bigger than the leads, and my attention is more drawn there. As others have mentioned, the synth leads aren't as forward as they should be. The scoop could be partially to blame for that. The lack of clarity seems to get worse as the song progresses, 4:41-4:53 for example. There's an additional drum element here (toms?) combined with everything else just being too much fullness and contributing heavily to muddiness.

Performance of the parts sounds good, well timed, but the production and medley-nature of the arrangement are the drawbacks.

NO

[Emunator ⚖️]

This is a tough one - I feel like I have a hard time justifying rejecting a really well-arranged, well-produced track such as this one just because the arrangement style doesn't align with the expectations of OCR's catalog. The vote boils down to a philosophical one, not something quantifiable. It should go without saying that I really enjoy this in a bubble, and can easily see why it performed as well as it did in Aliens month! You accomplished the goal of taking a bunch of songs from the Super R Type soundtrack and running through them with a cohesive style and some really competent production chops.

That said, I don't think this style of medley is best suited for OCR - again, I want to stress that this is in no way a qualitative judgment on the piece itself, but just a mismatch with the submission standards. The arrangement is extremely linear and the transitions leave this feeling more like a collection of mini-covers that are linked together but don't coalesce into a more fluid, singular arrangement in line with OCR's standards.

I also want to cosign Hemo's production feedback - there's a level of muddiness during certain sections that complicates this decision as well. 4:41 brought some drums that sat very strangely in the mix, and might be the only part of the production that I'd say sounded really off to me. The rest (synth leads that didn't quite cut through, slightly muddy low end) were not dealbreakers but things that could be improved marginally in future submissions.

I have no doubt you've got stuff in your catalog that would be well suited for OCR, and I do hope that you keep sending stuff our way and this doesn't dissuade you or suggest that we aren't digging your stuff! But I'm not sure that this one is the piece that will get you to the front page.

NO

[Liontamer ⚖️]

Thank you for laying out the source tune order, Gregorio. Been a fan of this OST since hearing Beatdrop's ReMix of the first stage!

Right from the intro, it has an intense sound, though it feels like the soundscape's lossy and crowded; what I'm mainly hearing is the countermelodic backing parts and then the lead synth's upfront, albeit quiet. The drums are great when I concentrate on hearing them. Not ideal mixing when the guitar chugs are drowning a lot of other parts out, but I can make out stuff enough where I feel it gets by.

Nice transition at 1:42. When lots of elements dropped out and the texture was emptier from 1:42-1:57 as a contrast, things didn't sound cramped. I haven't read the other votes yet, but I hope I'm not the only one pointing this out. 

At 2:24, the transition was sudden but seemed to flow smoothly from the previous theme. The melodic synth was a lot louder and more upfront as the lead, which made me wonder why the balance of parts felt so off in the opening verse for the stage 1 theme.

3:09's theme change basically had no transition, which was disappointing. Another sudden theme change at 3:52 and the medley-itis charges feel more and more valid as this moves along. There was at least a quick transition at 4:37, but very minimal and still a big break in the flow. Whatever those snap sounds were from 4:37-4:51 were too loud yet lossy-sounding, just really coming through too loudly in my headphones.

The mixing isn't ideal and does meaningfully ding it -- it's arguably causing ear fatigue from just making this so loud yet cramped most of the time -- but I'd still pass an otherwise-cohesive arrangement mixed like this.

It already got invoked before, but I'll quote the Submission Standards again:

 

Quote

3. Acceptable Source Material

2. Submissions incorporating more than one source are allowed, but are not given special consideration or leniency with regard to the submission standards.

• Your submission must have a strong focus and direction. Medleys must sound like a single song, not multiple songs pasted together.

Here's how I felt about the transitions:

0:00-1:42 - "Solo Sortie"
smooth transition
1:43-2:23 - "Counterattack '91"
smooth transition
2:24-3:08 - "As Wet As a Fish"
abrupt transition
3:09-3:52 - "A Submerging Titan"
abrupt transition
3:53-4:37 - "Dream of a Labyrinth"
abrupt transition
4:38-5:54 - "Return of the Creature"
smooth transition
5:55-6:12 - "To the Next Zone"

In other words, 3 smooth theme changes, 3 abrupt ones. We don't require 6 smooth, developed theme changes for a pass. I'm just summarizing how a fair amount of the track felt like a basic medley structure without enough flow in the theme changes to make the overall composition feel cohesive enough.

Indeed, this is a well-performed and sequenced rock adaptation of several Super R-Type themes, but it's not presented as a cohesive & uniform enough musical concept where it doesn't primarily feel like 7 (amazingly amped up) covers stitched together without enough flow from theme to theme.

I definitely appreciate you submitting this, Gregorio, with this intensity and great soundtrack choice. I'm a NO for this fitting our arrangement Standards as is; if there was openness to fleshing out the transitions between themes, I'd love to hear this resubmitted. It'll sound like we don't want any medleys, when in fact we've got a ton of medleys on OCR, but there's more intention to making the overall track feel like one cohesive, developing, evolving idea rather than jumping quickly from theme to theme. Whether it's with this piece again or another arrangement, I hope you'll keep submitting more of what you're creating, you definitely have a spot waiting. :-)

NO (resubmit)