Audity

The first half is still great by today's standards, listening to the VGMix version (which is 160kbps instead of 128). But somewhere in the 2nd half, all the sounds become less distinct from each other, too much blending into one sound field. I was ready to add this to one of the best 200 game remixes of all time! It's really cool reading how enamored SGX was by this mix in 2003.

Wow, this file is still hosted. And I have no recollection of posting most of these things, or what this even is. Haha!

2021? Yes, 2000 called! It wants you to learn from AmIEviL's perfect sound design. At first I wanted the ending to not be so long. Several days later (as in just now), I was hoping it wasn't done yet. I think I broadened my EQ/headphone setup to cause this. All goes back to that production!

Did the real version of this ReMix ever replace the firstly uploaded one?

@HoboKa @RozovianEither of you still have this, 13 YEARS LATER? Ha. I know someone with Hard Drives (just daunting to go through, though it might not be on them!), so no biggie if you didn't want to keep whatever this even sounded like (don't recall). But yeah I take way too much time to develop music, and every new change is like mind-blowing to me that I could've even made anything at all. Haven't tried in a long time.

After going through 1400 OCRs so far to find favorites, I feel like this one speaks to me the most... from the point of view of FEELING GOOD, genuinely, or, as if it is speaking to me on another plane or realm than the usual, "Wow, this is a great track." It's the central pillar. But I keep abstaining from going back, waiting until the time is upon me, after finishing my OCR journey, to experience sweet bliss from a deliberately dopey guy's fitting voice singing about something on the Sega Master System, which I never owned yet have nostalgia for because of getting to play some of its games later.

I've been playing around with foobar2000's DSPs for years now, and I'm probably a bit limited in my thinking. But either way, I keep relying on Resampling (SoX, "99% Passband", "Best" quality, "allow aliasing/imaging" [not sure if this last part is good, but 99% retained the "23kHz" frequencies of virt's "Plasmatextor" according to foobar's visualization, while 95% didn't] + Noise Sharpen DSPs. This is my current fan-remastered product, from the Tsugunai "Static Wonderland" source: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yKO_cPMDAxlrs6bpiWIIyRHBPR_hdp12/view?usp=sharing I took the VGMix version of the source, since it's 128kbps CBR, instead of the lower VBR that WAS on OCR (and weirdly mastered, BEFORE I think the torrent/site changed the ReMix to be the same one as the on that was on VGMix?). Then I raised the overall, originally very quiet volume in Audacity. Then I applied resampling, and noise sharpening (via two exports of different sharpnesses depending on which part of the music sounded better, and then edited them around in Audacity), both in foobar2000. It's the first time I've exported multiple sharpens and edited them together, which I've always known would sound better (than applying a universal sharpen to the whole mix). ... One exported noise-sharpened setting was implemented generally in the first half, with the other generally in the second half. foobar2000's Noise Sharpen DSP actually generally isn't great, since I notice it gets rid of certain unique bass signatures/timbres, but in this track's case, I don't think that bass range is very prominent; and the rest of the piece is drowning in its own quietness, thus sharpening in this case generally brings out a lot more, as definitely generally a risk vs. reward scenario. I found that also to be the case with Aphrodite Oceanus, and likely a number of other mixes. I think there are still a few sections, here, that get shafted by the bass-washing. It's 24bit, 48kHz, lossless, so a pretty big file size. I tried WavPack's hybrid lossy mode to try 1000kbps, but even then things just didn't sound right (and not sure what the mechanics are or why it's called hybrid lossy instead of just lossy). I only have an i5 computer, but I feel like with a more powerful computer, I could apply higher resampling by which any DSPs would be more effective. Oh yeah, on that note, I found that Noise Sharpen DSP (in foobar) works differently depending on what sampling rate you set. If the sample rate is too high, then Noise Sharpen doesn't really do anything, so I try stacking them, but more nothingness occurs, and I think that bass-washing actually gets way worse with the giant stack. (I wish I could modify the code of Noise Sharpen actually, to not product such a vast increase in sharpness with every percentage point.) If anything, I think there should be more, different kinds of sound improvements available as DSPs for foobar. There are probably better programs for this sort of thing. So, thoughts? Is doing this a lost cause? Will these sorts of efforts always result in people appreciating the novelty but ultimately with falling back to the listening to the original mix? Unfortunately there's probably a good amount of older OCReMixes that can't be remastered aside from finding solutions like this. Not to say Static Wonderland is particularly bad, just very/quite quiet, and with a few subdued/muddy aspects both related to and irrespective of the master volume. I like the part without percussion just before the distorted flute-like sample, because you can really hear the harp etc. in a much sharper way, and I doubt I will ever prefer the original mix to it, now. (I also slightly slightly modified the amplitude surrounding that whole section.) In that way, I think Aphrodite Oceanus is a better contender, since it has very minimal percussion and has heavy use of lower quality samples—while this has a sort of variety of details in high and low instruments/samples that can get whacked out by the Noise Sharpen. Overall, I think there's an improvement?

I agree that it's close to the ol' "Love Hurts" as far as overall musicianship. Took me awhile to realize until the next day, since I was fatigued listening to so much other music the night before. The lead synth is more pleasing than the one in "Make Me Dance", and the overall mixing of sound is better. I think for the offbeat claps, it's better to treat the whole track as if those are always there, and then be pleasantly surprised that the constant groove is present for the rest of the piece, rather than being disappointed via the other way around! Perspective! That section is always going to be confusing to anyone who is first listening to it or hasn't listened in a long time. It's got more enjoyable sections than The Sveldt, too. Overall, it's worth your time! Especially if you love the imagery of that disastrous level of Star Fox being turned into a funk land. (Actually I beat that level first try the other year, but maybe it was dumb luck, or it could've been that it's easy. I seem to remember some bird randomness bringing quite some chaos when younger.)

Holy god, what is my other account's 2005 post even TALKING about? Anyway, I'm posting in this era on mixes if anything crosses my mind while going through every mix on this site and if they're still apart of my favorites. With that out of the way, I wanted to say a couple criticisms: the synth during the intro of the shredding rhythmic guitar entrance could be quite a bit louder, to give prominence, though not to the point of synth grate. Also, that section repeats a bit too much prior to the Flight of the Bumblebee section. It's funny how small tweaks could make the past have way more perfection. It's gotten to the point where a few extra repeats of measures makes me embarrassed to listen to something; but I have to look past it, no matter how painful that "microcosm" is.

What even IS this?

Oh boy, first complaint as a super-judgmental first listen after many years, is that the lead at 35-46 seconds sounds a little rough in the ears. When it shows up again at 52 seconds, I can begin to forgive it, because after multiple listens that higher register at 53 seconds is just more pleasing, and is mixed better with everything accumulated that far. Afterwards when it's repeated but with its appropriate new rhythms etc., I go back and forth between liking the general timbre of it and being critical of it. I think in general it's just not the most pleasing sound. Definitely a more skillful work by our favorite website author. Maybe I'll keep coming back and change my mind again and again. And again.

Somehow, just now is the most this arrangement has spoken to me. The only real downside is the ending, which doesn't add anything new compared to the playful melodic nature of the rest. Quite nice!

I'm surprised this is only on OCR. It feels like something that'd be elsewhere, like Dwelling of Duels. (It's on VGMix Archive twice actually, but both the same quality/version as this.) I'm also surprised there's basically 0 flaws here for its time! I'm floored right now. I mean, I've heard this many times before, but going through my favorites, this is one now.

Didn't see anyone else mention the glaring problem here: the lower frequencies for certain musical sections are so massive that it overbears the rest and quiets the entire thing. (It's not my setup.) It starts at 0:57, ends a bit later, and rears again at 2:00 and lasts for most of the rest. Other than that, I love listening to the beautiful C64 synth torture.

Every part of this is a bop, and holds up in TWENTY TWENTY ONE! Just the 1-minute section, which repeats at 2:15 — that lead needs to be toned down a bit to feel less grating (like, anything at all to add coolness, like a new distortion pattern effect to get something new going on). Then it'd be perfect!