Sonic CD: Temporal Duality / Sonic CD: Temporal Duality / Sonic CD: Temporal Duality

ReMixers:

Tuberz McGee (1-01, 2-11, 3-08)
begoma feat. W!SE the all.E (1-02)
Theory of N (1-03)
SuperiorX (1-04)
Kruai (1-05)
Rexy (1-06)
G-Mixer (1-07)
halc, Sir Jordanius (1-08, 5-04)
metaphist (1-09)
OverClocked Assembled (1-10, 5-03)
Main Finger feat. KingTiger, ladyWildfire (1-11)
Chernabogue feat. DusK, Furilas (1-12, 5-02)
Palpable feat. DiGi Valentine (1-13)
Syllix (2-01)
DusK (2-02, 5-01)
Amphibious (2-03)
HoboKa, Sir Jordanius feat. Xenon Odyssey (2-04)
Garpocalypse, SuperiorX (2-05)
Jivemaster (2-06)
PROTO·DOME (2-07)
Chernabogue (2-08)
KingTiger (2-09, 3-01)
Arceace (2-10)
Phonetic Hero (2-12)
Magellanic feat. PROTO·DOME (2-13)
Jivemaster feat. Rabcandy (3-02)
Andy Tunstall (3-03)
Funk Fiction (3-04)
Portanexus (3-05)
ladyWildfire feat. Level 99 (3-06)
Phonetic Hero, therex (3-07)
djpretzel (3-09)
Brandon Strader (3-10)
SuperiorX, Phonetic Hero (3-11)
W!SE the all.E (3-12)
Sir Jordanius (5-05)

Sonic CD: Temporal Duality
Comments from album director Matt Keller (SuperiorX), assistant director Pete Lepley (Phonetic Hero), and ReMixers
Album freely available at http://soniccd.ocremix.org

The Sonic the Hedgehog series has always been very special to me. Growing up, my family had an NES, but when it came time for the next generation, we decided to get a Sega Genesis. The bundled game was, of course, the original Sonic the Hedgehog. From that moment on, I was hooked. I have many fond memories playing those games, especially Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and 3, with my family, and watching the cheesy 90's Saturday morning Sonic cartoons. I remember going through the sound test menus just scrolling through all the original tunes, because they were just so much fun and so addicting to listen to. One birthday, I received a little Yamaha keyboard and was so excited to try to learn and play the Sonic soundtracks myself.

I first discovered OverClocked ReMix in the early 2000's, when I was in high school, and absolutely loved checking out the various Sonic remixes that existed at the time. It was a huge nostalgia rush. Fast-forward nearly a decade, and I had since joined the OCR forums and checked out the site much more frequently. I think I first felt comfortable undertaking this project shortly after I had hosted the Sonic Zone Remix Competition in 2012 and Rexy (Beverley Wooff) had created a thread to generate interest for a Sonic CD project. I have to admit, I never had the opportunity to play Sonic CD until it was re-released on PS3/Xbox/Steam in 2011, but I was familiar with the soundtrack and really loved both the JP/EU and US versions. After some discussions back and forth in the forums, I decided to head up the project.

Given how successful the previous OCR Sonic albums were and just how popular Sonic is in general, I knew I had my work cut out for me. This was the last of the "classic" Sonic games to receive the remix album treatment and I knew we had to deliver big-time. I wanted to arrange both Sonic CD soundtracks and re-capture the general feel of the originals, while still allowing artists the flexibility to bring their own personal touch to the album. Throughout the process, interest continued to grow around the project and I was fortunate to be able to include so many talented musicians from all around the Sonic fan community. Everyone really brought their A-game to this project and I think the end result is truly a top-quality album that spans numerous musical genres that any Sonic fan will enjoy!

There are numerous people I'd like to thank. Without their help, this project wouldn't have been possible. Special thanks to Pete "Phonetic Hero" Lepley, my assistant director, who listened to countless WIPs and provided critical feedback on numerous tracks along the way. His help and dedication really helped ensure a certain level of quality on the album. Special thanks to Jordan "Sir Jordanius" Etienne, who became more and more involved in the project as time went on. First, I persuaded him to help out on a few arrangements, which turned into a few more arrangements, which resulted in him mastering/producing a handful of tracks for the project. He also provided key insights and feedback that helped shape so many of the tracks on the project. Special thanks to Niyazi "DiGi Valentine" Sonmez, who was definitely one of the project's biggest supporters from the onset. His passion around Sonic and SEGA was so contagious, and his connections within the Sonic community were invaluable. He helped with numerous things behind-the-scenes and recruited our visual artist, TheSmai, who provided the absolutely beautiful art you see accompanying the album. Special thanks to Beverley "Rexy" Wooff for proposing the original project idea and supporting the album throughout. My sincere thanks to the original composers Masafumi Ogata, Naofumi Hataya, Spencer Nilsen, David Young, and Mark "Sterling" Crew, whose amazing original work inspired us all to create this tribute album. And lastly, my very special thanks to each and every artist who contributed to the project. It was my honor to work alongside each of you and get to know many of you very well. I'm truly proud of what each of you has created for this amazing album!

Enjoy!

- Matt Keller

Working with Matt and all the other staff and artists on the project was an absolute blast. There was lots of immense talent and a general willingness to work together to create an excellent product. It doesn't hurt that we were working with ridiculously great source material either, and even though I've never played Sonic CD personally, the tunes are really outstanding. The whole thing came together in under a year (!!), and even though it's one of the quickest album projects I've ever seen come out of OCR, the quality of the mixes doesn't skimp one bit.

This was my first project being considered staff, and I was much more present for giving feedback in the beginning of the project than I was toward the end. But seeing how receptive everyone was to the critiques and hearing new WIP after new WIP, improvement after improvement, was really an enormous pleasure and I'm very proud to have been involved in the process. Everyone giving it their all and seeing the growth as musicians was gratifying as hell, and coupled with the excellent coordination on the part of our fearless leader, SuperiorX, this was an absolutely fantastic experience. I would certainly not think twice about working with Matt on another project, and in fact, I'm very much looking forward to the day when the opportunity presents itself!

- Pete Lepley