Liontamer ⚖️ Posted June 21 Posted June 21 need to confirm name if accepted as artist has changed the submission record's name several times -proph Artist Name: Toxicsquall I undertook a remix project of this composition, beginning with the importation of the original MIDI data into ODESI and DJ Studio. From there, I applied structural rearrangement techniques and modern audio mixing processes. To give the piece a distinctive Brazilian influence, I incorporated local elements such as the cavaquinho, cornetas, traditional percussion (batuque), vocal layers, beatboxing, and prominent basslines. This remix serves as a personal homage to Brazil. While not aiming for hyper-stylised grandeur, I hope it provides an enjoyable and culturally rich reinterpretation of the original. Source breakdown (from comments): 00:00:00 The chordal touches originally played on piano are now reimagined with vocal samples and funk-style sounds. Words like "vai", "chão", and the made-up term "Garchãopi" are introduced. "Garchãopi" is a pun blending the Portuguese word "chão" (floor), often heard in funk music, with the Pokémon name "Garchomp" due to their similar pronunciation. 00:00:39 This part is a rearrangement of the original song, keeping the piano and other instruments but with a funk beat in the background. 00:01:11 At this point, I introduce a Brazilian accordion and use some "builder" effects to add progression. 00:01:25 Here, I transition from funk to a more pagode-style rhythm typical of Rio de Janeiro, while still retaining funk elements to maintain a consistent rhythm. 00:02:00 This is an original section of mine that blends pagode, samba, and funk, with some harmonica (gaita) flourishes added in. 00:02:29 Once again, I start with a loud "vai!" and switch instruments to cornets and saxophones, preserving the song's structure—what was once played on piano is now interpreted by different instruments. 00:03:33 An original segment using playful vocal effects like “tchu” and “tchã tchã” along with the instruments introduced earlier. 00:04:33 We return to the structure of the original track, but now include more Portuguese words, such as “vai”, “desce”, “sobe”, “chão”, and “Garchomp”. 00:05:36 Cornets are reintroduced, and I build up the tempo for a crescendo that reestablishes the song's core structure using the cornets, much like a cinematic character entrance. 00:06:22 Subtly, I introduce the word “chão” in a rhythmic pattern in the background while the cornet continues playing. 00:06:42 The style now shifts to Funk Paulista, moving away from previous references to Rio funk. Heavier bass, synthesised sounds, and distorted low-end frequencies begin to dominate. 00:07:26 I maintain the original structure, but instead of piano, I use synthesisers and merge in elements of Funk Mandelão, technofunk, heavy bass, beatbox, and syncopated hi-hats with rhythmic 2 & 4 beats (kick-snare-kick-snare). Games & Sources The original battle theme for Champion Cynthia, featured in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, was composed by Junichi Masuda, widely recognised for his work on the Pokémon series’ iconic soundtracks. I applied structural rearrangement techniques and modern audio mixing processes, incorporated local elements such as the cavaquinho, cornetas, traditional percussion (batuque), vocal layers, beatboxing, and prominent basslines.
prophetik music ⚖️ Posted July 14 Posted July 14 (edited) i listened to the other source reference that was here and then listened to all nearly 10 minutes of the remix, and was completely confounded by how wildly different they were. lo and behold, wrong source mix =) that makes more sense! opens with a vocal ascending line that fits the theme really well. a beat starts to develop over the next 30s, and around 0:38 we settle into something that is recognizable. there's an intentional lo-fi feel to this throughout - the percussion and keys especially are very low-poly and take a bit of getting used to. the track is way too long to really do a play-by-play, but essentially it's a wide exploration of the ascending riff that starts fairly early on in the source, with an occasional use of the opening descending lick as a break. from an arrangement perspective, there's an impressively broad use of that ascending riff and it's immediately apparent once you actually know what you're looking for. around the middle of the piece, there's some really exploratory outlining of that same riff while keeping it fresh, which is a pretty neat job. similar action at 5:40 or so. around 7:40 or so i started to get a little tired of the variety of repetition (bravo for keeping it unique for that long!) but then we suddenly got some interesting arpeggiated elements. the end is the middle of a phrase though and that was super bogus, i really wanted more there. i desperately want this track in our backlog. there's certainly room to improve the production of this by miles, but dang if this isn't one of the more unique tracks we've had in our inbox at any point. the ending stinks and i wish the kick was meatier, but what's here is so interesting. YES edit 9/15: if this is AI it's a no. Edited Monday at 11:51 AM by prophetik music
jnWake ⚖️ Posted July 18 Posted July 18 (edited) I have no idea why of all themes in Pokémon you decided to transform the classical sounding piano intro to Cynthia's battle into a brazilian jam. While not an expert in brazilian music, as a fellow south american I am very familiar to a lot of the sounds in here. Anyway, this begins with some voice samples doing the chords of the section after the source's intro, soon joined by a slow percussion. At 0:32 a synth-ish accordion thing plays the section before the source's loop and the loop continues on a piano. At 1:10 we return to the accordion part before a break at 1:19 and then basically a full loop on accordion. Up to this point, source treatment is very conservative to the point I'm even wondering if it's just a MIDI of the source on the accordion sample. Luckily things change at 1:59 and the track starts becoming more unique, doing a lot of exploration of the chords from the source, first as arpeggios on accordion then as notes on wind instruments. Around 3:00 we move to some nice traditional rhytm and then at 3:33 we get some original material for a bit I believe until around 4:22 which repeats previous parts for a bit before a new take on source ideas at 4:30. I really like the source variation on this section, it sounds fresh and fun. At 5:35 a rhytmic break/build-up takes place and we return to a section similar to 4:22 in a bit but with fun harmonies. After a "Garchoooooompiii" we get a very unique take on the source at 6:40 on a slower rhytm, we then get some arpeggios on a sample that reminded me of the Castle theme from SMW. We continue for a bit until ~7:35, where the track slowly takes more of an electronic tone. There's some really cool arpeggios here played on various synths. I really like the change in mood for this section, helps justify the length of this remix. At 8:40 we get another very nice section with a steady rhytms and cool arpeggios. My only criticism of this part is that there's absolutely no build up to the ending and, in fact, the track simply ends out of nowhere, kind of a shame after almost 10 minutes! On arrangement this is (mostly) great, taking a tune like the original and modifying into a brazilian style is a really unique and fun idea. As I noted on the write-up, the first 2 minutes are the least interesting part, with the only noteworthy thing being the brazilian percussion. However, the remaining 7 minutes contain a lot of really cool takes on the source material and flow well. Most of the arrangement is clearly based on the source with only around 1 minute being original (3:33-4:22). On production I have a few notes. First, bass is very low on the mix, I understand it's not the focus but more presence would help the soundscape IMO. Second is that the drums sound very artificial, I don't know if it's the samples themselves or the way you processed them but I'd love for them to sound more natural. Overall, this is a very unique and cool take on a classic Pokémon tune. As proph said, production could use some polish but it still sounds good and the arrangement's a ton of fun. YES EDIT (18/09) Upon further checks by the judges team it seems this is AI generated (which actually would explain some of my notes in the write up). Sadly, that means my vote now changes to a rejection as we don’t allow that here. NO Edited 9 hours ago by jnWake
pixelseph ⚖️ Posted July 19 Posted July 19 (edited) Absolutely wild take on a 30-second source! The closest analogue to this I can relate to is my buddy DJ P-phunk chopping and smashing up samples of stuff for a club mix, where the fun is in the evolution of the "simple" idea all the way to the end. jnWake's comparison to the Castle Theme from SMW is a great shout, especially in the last third of the piece. The mix overall sounds like it was run into a limiter for some light pushing and then exported at -6dB - it's definitely got that nice club loudness if I crank up my volume knob. The bass has a peak of about 60hz, with not much below it in the sub-bass field - there are some big hits at that peak in this piece, but sub-lovers are going to be left wanting more. Nothing I'm saying here is a dealbreaker for this piece, just information for the next one. Let's get this one on the site! EDIT 9/12/25: Upon further review, I suspect the low fidelity on the drums to be artifacting from being generated via AI. There are other instruments that have some questionable harmonic artifacts as well (the piano, some of the vocal clips). If the remixer can provide proof that none of this was generated, I’ll happily rescind my vote change - otherwise, NO Edited Saturday at 06:29 PM by pixelseph
Liontamer ⚖️ Posted Friday at 08:35 PM Author Posted Friday at 08:35 PM On headphones, this sounds extremely fuzzy and lossy throughout. From what I get back using AI-identifying tools, this person's catalog is AI-generated. Don't have the cycles to entertain this. I don't consider AI-generated music to be arranged by the submitter, so to me it always fails OCR's ownership test. We need to add big honking text on the submission form itself saying we don't accept A.I. Human-made (i.e. human-sequenced and/or human-performed) music, please. NO
Hemophiliac ⚖️ Posted Saturday at 11:25 PM Posted Saturday at 11:25 PM Strongly suspect this entire track is actually generative AI and no arrangement/ownership was done by it's "creator". That alone gives this a NO WAY IN HELL vote. Really don't care for this track at all, the whole thing is over-compressed. Every kick drum sounds like a trash can filled with the carcasses of actual music fed into a trash compactor. This sounds like clipping and artifacting to me without actually clipping because the peak of the track is -1.9db. Tons of headroom, but this extremely loud kick is exhausting to listen to. High end of the percussion has the over-compressed slosh sound. Also there's an extremely hard cut at 15kHz because the AI stuff was trained on lossy material and lacks high end fidelity. Source usage is questionable to me. There's a similar pattern to the rhythm from the source but I barely make the connection. NO
Recommended Posts