Gario

To be perfectly honest it's probably a matter of whether we catch typical AI artifacting that occurs in things like writing and composing (odd patterns in one case, actual sound artifacts typical of generative audio in the other). Not that this should ever be in the rules, but if folk take AI generated lyrics or sound and change it enough to where it sounds completely imperceptible to human writing we're not going to catch it - we're only human, after all - but at that point the artist put in the work to make it their own anyway so I wouldn't even feel so bad about it. If you're gonna put in that effort to try and fake it though you might as well make it yourself, but I'd commend the effort nonetheless. Still just to be safe you shouldn't do it though; we've gotten pretty good at listening to things over the years and catching oddities, or so I'm told. 😉

Cheetahmen never gets old, and this does a good job giving a nice, hard coat of paint. The style feels a bit oldschool, but I'm old so I like it just fine. Great start and the bridging material does a great job at breaking things up, and the production values are up to OCR snuff. I stand with Mindwanderer and Chimp, though, in saying that the last third of the track has too much direct repetition for OCR. If you want to present a similar idea, that's fine, but give us a good reason to come back to the material, something to justify coming back to such similar material, or else it just sounds like you're stalling for time. Promising start, but this needs to give us a reason to listen to the last minute or so of the track rather than copy the first section and paste it at the end. NO

Oh shit, I legit forgot about that promise. Working on it now, believe it or not.

Haha, I've been a bit stuck on this game lately (great game, highly recommended for any roguelike fan), instantly knew the source since it only has one song playing throughout. Dunno how the source does it, but it never gets boring. Just oddly pleasant throughout, so let's see what your track brings to the table. Pretty straightforward arrangement - almost too much so. If the guitar work didn't wank out from time to time I'd have probably rejected this, but you do have a lot of fun with that guitar. I think the performance could have had a tighter performance, since it sounds like it lags behind the synths from time to time, but overall it's alright. I love the overall atmosphere - it just jams out and has a good time with the uptempo track. The timing of the source was probably tricky to work with since the time signature of the source is unusual and shifts freely, but you do a pretty good job jamming with it. I think the issue I have is pretty negligible, so nice work! YES

Well you come into another Red Brinstar mix with anticipation, since you never know what someone's gonna bring to the table with it. Seems like the flavor of the day is A T M O S P H E R E, and a good heavy dose of it to boot. I like the soundscape this provides throughout, up to and including the lovely piano bridge (and I agree with Mindwanderer that any mechanical edge it may have is softened by the overall artificial soundscape this has), and the production values are up to our bar, at least. I'll agree that some of the reverb on the instruments (like the piano) is too heavy, which does cause the arrangement to be muddy in places, but it doesn't sink the arrangement. Rarely do I comment on this particular issue when I see it in arrangements, but since the piano is as exposed as it is in the middle of the arrangement I need to point out that those chunky block chords don't do the section any favors. Open up those chords a bit, don't utilize closed triads in sequence like that since it tends to make the accompaniment sound plodding. Opening up the chords also has the added benefit of giving more flexibility with how to shape every chord, allowing each of the lines to flow better than "every note moves in tandem". Yes, this is a rare "Gario is upset about the counterpoint and parallel 5ths in the harmony" moment I tended to have a lot in the past, but it's something folks who arrange sections for solo piano (or any solo instrument that can make chords) should pay attention to since when everything is the same timbre the blocky, chunky movement is much more noticeable. It's not an unbearable issue but it could certainly be better. Counterpoint critique aside, I think this is a pretty good arrangement that certainly clears our bar. Nice work, always glad to see more Super Metroid on here! YES

Not bad at all, you'll be hearing an update in here before the end of the month.

Honestly, I've heard plenty of this genre to know that much of this is standard death metal fare - sweet complicated guitar work and incomprehensable growls that make more sense the more you listen to them. I agree with Mindwander on some of the vocals being mixed too far behind the guitars. It's so much better at 1:57 when they take center stage, but even what we have elsewhere is plenty postable on OCR; I can still hear and understand the lyrics when they're more behind the mix, just oddly mixed. Overall this is exactly what I'd imagine if someone said "Death Metal Mole Knight", and I'm more than happy to see this where it belongs. YES

I would like to mention that I now have a cat called Caligula, so it's very funny to see the review call my arrangement "Caligulan". :3

Octopath love! Some great music in that OST, so it's nice to see it getting attention in here. The arrangement is decent, especially considering how limited the source material is. Most of the instruments chosen create a nice, ethereal blend with that clean guitar and those synths that remind me of Celeste, and that opening section with the panning phased pads is brilliant. The overdrive guitar at 1:18 - 1:48 and that lead are stiff, though; the guitar sounds like the same loop on repeat, and the lead synth sticks out in the mix and doesn't have the special attention to dynamics and phrasing the other instruments have. It's the lead instrument, it's very noticeable that it plods along against such well constructed textures. At 2:19 - 2:49 the lead issue isn't resolved, and now the guitar sound sounds like static in the background. The section at 3:50 sounds considerably better; while the guitar could sound more like strumming than individually picking every note (making it sound stiff) it's not bad, and the rest of the arrangement around it sounds great. The fade-out at the end lasts about two measures too long, but that's a nitpick more than anything. The production values are pretty good in this one overall, with a nice soundscape to boot. It's a close call for me; those two sections really stand out as below the par set by the rest of the arrangement, but I don't think it's enough to sink the arrangement overall. It's not perfect, but the sum of it's parts are still quite good so I'd not want to deprive the track of an OCR audience. YES

Coming in as a fresh judge on this, let's see what we've got here. Interesting source, and the arrangement changes the pace of it to sound more energetic, which is pretty cool. The arrangement is interesting for the first thirty seconds, but the arrangement repeats the sections while layering more items on top of it about three times before moving on, and returns to this same section at 3:02 to close the track out. The issue this creates is a sense of repetition that while not *exactly* repeating it *feels* like it because the same instruments are doing the same thing over and over again while adding items on top, so the textures are repeating and causing the arrangement to feel dull (it's what the judges and I call a track being "too static"). If you insist on doing something like this, at the very least be willing to drop textures out and/or have different instruments fulfill the textures that are playing, that helps keep the track interesting for longer periods of time. The section at 1:50 does a lot to revitalize the arrangement, though, so an alternative is to simply have fewer iterations of the original idea, have the layering happen faster so that there isn't as much overall repetition in the arrangement. Concerning the production values, there's mud created by the pad, the long cutoff with the lead, and the oversaturation of reverb on many of the instruments. It creates a good deal of mud throughout the arrangement. As far as the simpler instruments are concerned (like the fake guitar-ish instrument used at the beginning), while they don't sink the arrangement I would consider asking yourself if they were being used as filler while you found an instrument that best complimented the overall arrangement, as often an artist might use any instrument to fill a role so they can get the music down quicker without returning to see if other instruments might sound better in the role. Something to consider, but if that's the sound you choose at the end I won't hold it against the arrangement. The static nature of the arrangement does sink this below our standards, though; it was difficult to listen to all the way through since I was getting tired by the minute mark. The bridging material in the middle provides a fantastic breath of fresh air that I enjoyed, so either make the material getting there more interesting or perhaps trim the material approaching that section so we can get to the other good stuff faster. NO

Note: I don't believe I can produce an unbiased vote due to this being on an album I'm directing, but I will drop my thoughts on this regardless. This is a track that Voduo and I worked through quite a bit, so I know all of the iterations that it went through. It's biggest strength throughout was it's daring use of SFX to compliment the source, and the variety of harmonizations used through the mountain source. There is a little clashing between the minor harmonies and major melody sometimes, but in this stage it more or less adds flavor and doesn't detract from the enjoyment I get from the track. The production is clean, though I do hear the lack of the lowest end (anything below 50hz) upon relistening with some fresh ears. That could be solved by giving the instruments acting as the bass and kick some bass EQ balancing, since it's not *lowpassed* from what I can see in a spectrum analyzer, just lacking in that area. That'd solve both the lack of presence the bass has on neutral headphones and the overall soundscape issue this has. I wouldn't mind handing it back to her with that critique in mind, but I also do believe that it's in a state that's good enough at least for the album and possibly for the site; I'd not have accepted this track as finished otherwise. I'd likely give this a YES, even if I wasn't biased in favor of the track to begin with.

You tend to forget that this was created by HAL Laboratories until you listen to the OST, which sounds like "What if Kirby All Stars, but Medieval?"

I think it's easy to see this track's obvious strengths - the arrangement has so much fun changing up the harmonic make-up of the source, and it works deliciously well. The melody ain't changed a bit, which really emphasizes how well the arrangement works "under the hood", so to speak. It's far from a complex arrangement otherwise, and it repeats it's harmonic ideas once it's done running through them once which causes them to lose a little flavor as the track progresses, but it's a short track so it's not like it wears out it's welcome, either. The instrumentation is simple, but it works for what it is. The piano is the centerpiece of the track, being it's essentially a piano piece with some backing drums and SNES SFX, which is fine. The sequencing on the piano is acceptable for what it is - if it's not a few MIDI controller performance inputs it does a solid job of adjusting velocity to give the parts life in a believable way. The instrument choices are nothing complicated, it knows what it is and runs with it. Might've been more interesting if the arranger was willing to spice it up with other accompanying instruments, since the drums and SFX take away from it being a solo piano arrangement (and the arrangement itself would've been too repetitive had it been piano alone), but it's not bad as it is, either. I could easily see this track expand it's ideas into a more thoroughly explored arrangement, but I don't think I'd reject it just because it could have been more fleshed out. It's a short and pleasant idea, and it plays itself out and exits center stage - it does exactly what it wants to, and what it wants to do is something cool that others should be able to enjoy. YES

It's bLiNd, so the production is about as good as I can expect - pretty much without blemish - and I like the central ideas and build-up that the track is based upon. I can't ignore that 0:14 - 0:55 is the same as 1:56 - 2:37, as is 1:43 - 1:56 the same as 3:25 - 3:38, with other sections having relatively subtle changes that are tricky to distinguish unless you listen to them side by side. I'm with Flexstyle, I've sent back less repetition in the past, this isn't going above and beyond the standards to ask that there my less direct repetition; there's plenty in here to build off of to make a great track, which unfortunately sounds like half of a track that got sent on repeat at the moment. NO

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