Emunator

Quick co-sign from my fellow judges - this is a great start and nails the vibes you want from a Lavender Town remix, but there's just not enough substance yet. With such a slow pace and only 2:20 of runtime, you haven't given yourself enough of a runway for this song to take off and fully develop. There's absolutely a strong foundation with the sounds you've picked out, but you need to do more with the pieces you've laid down in terms of additional writing/countermelodies/fills, and in general finding ways to evolve the sound throughout the arrangement. The workshop would be a great place to take this as you develop further - you've got a great ear, now keep expanding what you can do with it! NO

Easily one of my all-time favorite sources, so I'm always eager to hear what folks have done with it. The panning in the intro is indeed awkward - I think it's okay to more intense panning in a mix but it's almost always going to sound awkward when there's nothing balancing it out in the other ear. It's not as big of a deal when the rest of the instrumentation kicks in, but you should really consider panning those elements closer to the center at least for the intro, and maybe reining them in more during the rest of the track. There's a lot of really cool sounds at play here - the big booming kick drums, the creepy mellotrons and bells... I love the sound design here. Around 2 minutes in, we get into even more interesting territory, but marred by some mixing issues that the other judges above me have correctly identified. Although you do a lot to add personalization to this arrangement via your sound design and percussive elements, I don't think there was quite enough done to the actual part writing to distinguish it from the original or keep it from becoming too repetitive. Some slight variations in the presentation of the melody would go a long way here - you don't have to go overboard with it, but the looping piano is just not holding my interest, considering how exposed and robotic the programming is. Apply some of that killer sound design creativity that you used for your bass and percussion elements to the piano as well! I really love the vibe here and wanted to pass this but it feels like it's at least one iteration away from the OCR bar. I have no doubt you can get it there! If you're having trouble, our Workshop forums are great for feedback or you can pop into the OCR Discord Server anytime - we even host weekly WIP reviews where community members can get involved with your track on an individualized basis and help you improve your craft. Hope to see you there! NO (resubmit!)

Immediately I'm hearing some frequency clashing between the choir pads and everything else - this is a pervasive issue throughout the first few minutes of the song where the low-mids of your choir are occupying the same space as the rest of your instruments and nothing is willing to cede any ground to the other, so it's coming across as severely muddy. When you strip back the choir and lean into your more traditional atmospheric black metal palette, things click better, but there's also times where the lead melody is so buried, such as the Zanarkand melody, that I have to strain to hear it. Throughout the entire 4th minute of the song, the choir is back and muddying up the soundscape - I would selectively EQ the choir in certain sections to reduce the lower frequencies when you also have the heavy guitars playing. The programming of the choir and lead guitar leaves a bit to be desired, they are both very blocky and noticeably fake, which is fine when they are buried in an ensemble, but the whole intro felt awkward because of how stiff the timing was on the choir. This also feels like an issue during the outro. As a side note, I wish the last choir note sustained a little bit longer, it peters out unceremoniously right now. There's so much ambition here, I'd say this is your most bold arrangement to date, and the fusion of sources is honestly perfect... so I'd really love to hear this polished up, but prophetik is right - it's crumbling under the weight of its own ambition right now, and the mixing and sequencing is not always keeping up, and too many times I find that you've got conflicting ideas in the writing and instrumentation that are not working great with one another. I'd love to hear a second attempt at this! NO (resubmit!)

This is definitely a huge upgrade from your previous submissions, so nice work on that! You should be proud of the rapid pace of improvement. I like the vibe you've set here, and generally feel like you picked all the right instruments to accomplish this vision. It's simple, but I can see a world where this is over the bar! There are a few lingering issues I'm still picking up on. First and foremost, the melodica is too loud in the mix, and honestly, I can't say I'm a fan of the tone either. It feels weirdly balanced to the mid frequencies without a lot of high end bite, but it still feels shrill because of how loud it is. This could be partially resolved with EQ balance but prophetik's suggestion of trying to switch up the instruments, or perhaps layer it in with another lead (I've personally layered a harmonica and melodica together before to thicken up the tone and found it to be a good option!) might be a better route. Overall, I'm hearing a lot of distortion on certain peaks, especially in the left ear. This tells me that you're running some of your instruments too loud into your master chain, and the mastering plugin just can't keep up when multiple instruments peak on the beat. Bring back the volume level of everything a little bit and gradually reintroduce some of that gain during the mastering process to avoid this - here's a great tutorial on how to do this in FL Studio that I've found tremendously helpful: The lead performance on some of the instruments comes across as overly simplistic and lacking in expression. You've done some variations on velocity and timing but there's a lack of things like grace notes in your performance that makes it feel like you're sticking too much to the grid. I'm assuming these melodies are written in with a mouse in the piano roll, so if you have access to a MIDI controller and have some basic skills with playing it, that could worth exploring to immediately introduce more of that human element to your instruments. Otherwise, I'd suggest revisiting your MIDI sequencing to see where you can add some variation to the writing to make it sound more humanized. If you listen to Dovakhiin in Jamaica, you can hear the difference - even though the songs are at a similar laid-back tempo without a lot of complexity going on, there's subtle things going on with each instrument to make it feel more alive and groovy. This is surprisingly close, but I think there's still a couple areas that need improving before this is ready to post. You should definitely consider bringing this to one of our Workshop Office Hours in the discord with the Sages if this ends up being rejected, there's definite potential here! NO (resubmit)

I'm going to put this one out of its misery quickly, since I know the twins are already looking to revisit this. The mixdown and especially the mastering feels incomplete and doesn't do justice to your fantastic arrangement, I know you guys can nail it better than this. See you on the other side! NO (resubmit)

PrototypeRaptor's take on this same source is an all-time classic, so let's see what you've done with it... We're treading a lot through the same 4-on-the-floor hard electro territory but you've definitely managed to bring something unique and groovy to the table. A little less hard-hitting, a little more vintage synth design. Unfortunately, the repetition at the end is too wholesale to pass the smell test - there's plenty of room to add some more substantial variation to the structure here, especially when the overall track length is so short - you've gotta squeeze a little more out of the concept here. Chimpazilla broke it down perfectly! NO (resubmit)

Any track with this many borderline votes already is going to be a challenge, so I'm going to do my best to approach this objectively without the weight of my own expectations or previous feedback I've given on Queen's other tracks. We start off with a pretty good soundscape but the mixing is very puzzling - I don't feel like there's much substance in the low end throughout much of the track outside of the kick drums, or the basses that are present are so low that they actually don't come through at all to the human ear. Make sure that you're selecting your basses strategically based on which patches work with the range that you're writing in, and keep an eye on where your bass fundamental is falling. Adding in upper harmonics by layering in other patches (being careful to cut out the lower frequencies from all but your sub, so you don't encounter phase cancellation issues) or by adding saturation to your existing bass can also help that bass come through audibly. Human hearing can span from 20Hz-20kHz, but in reality if your bass only exists down in those lowest registers, or it's not mixed properly, it's not going to be heard by most listeners on most setups, and I think that's what's happening here. The stereo spread is also problematic, and I'm definitely in agreement with Liontamer that it's sort of intangible and probably can't be diagnosed without looking at your project file. That said, it feels imbalanced at multiple points, and I also suspect that there might be bass elements like your kick/synths/snares that are panned off to the side. As a general rule of thumb, you want your low end presence to be pretty much mono, and the higher up the frequency range you go, the more you can pan to the sides without causing issues. This is where you'll need to use your tools to analyze what's going on on your bus and master level to see if things are generally balanced - currently, it feels like they're not. I also need to echo the overall balance issues that I've brought up on previous submissions and I'll say again here - you have so many great ideas but you can't have them all fighting for attention and retain that same impact. 2:55 is a great example of this - you have so much going on and so many effects that the big supersaw has to be cranked up so loud just to cut through, and that's not really the approach you want to take. 4:48 also suffers from this - some of your synths are awash with so much reverb and effects, not to mention being a heavily-harmonic synth from the start, that they leave no room for anything else. If you compare this to melodic dubstep tracks by artists like Seven Lions, for example, they use supersaws to great effect, but there's almost nothing else going on when those synths are present. Dropping out other elements through gain reduction, cutting layers, or sidechain ducking to make room for what you really want to highlight is a much better move than simply increasing the volume on your synths even further. All that said, your arrangement is really good here. There's a ton of compelling effects and sounds, and like many of your other pieces, you have a wealth of great ideas that you brought to the table. I actually find the arrangement to be pretty coherent and strong, even compared to your usual tracks - the use of chiptune sounds is well integrated, and the drum writing is strong too. On a fundamental level, if I'm not looking at production quality, this is a pass every day of the week, but the overall listening experience feels unpolished in a way that ultimately has a negative impact on my listening experience. I want to stress this - this one is absolutely salvageable and I think would take significantly less work to polish than many of your other tracks that haven't passed. I don't think this is a lost cause, but after a lot of contemplation, I think this needs another round of polish to sand off the harsh edges and achieve a better balanced mix, so that your wonderful arrangement can shine. NO (resubmit!)

The stereo spread on this is wild, it feels very intentional and meticulous even if it's not. The more heavily reverbed elements work with the more dry kit instruments in a way that I wouldn't have expected. I don't have any constructive criticism to add beyond what you already know and what's already been mentioned, but you gotta finish this guy! YES (please)

This is an easy pass, not surprising considering the artist involved! I also found the soundscape to be too dense, largely as a result of the bass being mixed too loudly, which admittedly detracts from the chill vibe you were going for. That said, this gets by on the strength of the tone shaping on your guitars/synths, and some of the fun shredding around the arpeggios that ramp up the energy and keep my interest held.The soloing reminds me a bit of Tim Henson from Polyphia, especially on their latest album when it is coupled with more chill, pop-influenced backing tracks. YES

This source lends itself so well to this kind of quirky wind-focused arrangement, there's a ton of potential for fun countermelodies and harmonies and you really deliver on that. I have no qualms with the performances or arrangement itself, but the production feels, for lack of a better word, missing. Like, it feels like there was nothing in the way of space, color, or texture to the production, which leaves everything feeling very flat. Larry mentioned wanting this to sound squeaky clean, but I'd argue that this actually needs a little more grit to really bring out that human quality. It's hard to tell exactly what this needs, but in no particular order, here's where I would look: 1. Master compression to glue the instruments together better 2. Saturation on the instruments to bring some warmth and character to the recordings 3. Reverb to help give this more of a sense of place This is very vague feedback, but I think when the arrangement is so intentionally sparse, there's an onus on the producer to introduce some color and life to the mix in other ways, and I don't feel like this is there yet on that front. IMO, not a single thing needs to change about the recordings or arrangement - there's a ton of life there, but the mix doesn't reflect that yet. NO (resubmit)

Just going by memory, I recall the original submissions always showing promise but falling short on execution and dynamics. Immediately, we're met with captivating ambiance and ear candy that lays a brilliant foundation for the slow burn, ambient piano arrangement that follows. The piano sequencing still feels lethargic to an extent, but there's a lot more going on fills the space between the slowly unfolding melodies. The strings at the end also feel like a new addition, and are truly gorgeous. This is a much-needed changeup to cap off the arrangement, but doesn't feel entirely detached from what came before it. Emotion bleeds out of the writing there. All in all, the additions were just what this piece needed to push it over the edge, and I'm happy to say that the final result is worth the effort. The piano sounds a touch overcompressed and loud in overall volume, which feels overbearing for the soundscape. I feel like pulling the piano down across the board by 1-2dB max would still allow it to take center stage, but sit a little more nicely with the rest of the sounds. This is especially evident at 2:32, where we're getting some very audible distortion as you hit the higher velocities. That's the only real sticking point, and it's noticeable enough to go conditional on, but I do think this track would benefit from a slightly more delicate touch on the piano mixing overall. That said, if you can fix that unintentional distortion, this will have my unconditional YES. YES EDIT: File has been updated to fix clipping, we are good to go! The file in the form above is good to listen to.

Resub Original Submission Artist Name: Mel Decision I created this piece as part of a challenge to "write an arrangement of any video game song, but make it space-related." I immediately knew that I wanted to do a take on Dire Dire Docks. There's a thin line between deep sea and space, and I wanted to see how much I could break it. I relied on layering lots of soft pianos and synths, and drenched the whole piece in reverb. I wanted to give the feeling of drifting through space, staring out through the window of a space station into the black as ships dock or zoom by. Kind of peaceful and a little mysterious, with a touch of awe that comes from getting lost in the majesty of space. Games & Sources Dire Dire Docks from Super Mario 64, composed by Koji Kondo:

I'm going to quickly close this one out because I think the above three judges did a fantastic job expressing what works and doesn't work about this track. I love the studious approach to iterating a theme in as many different styles as possible, and keeping it cohesive along the way. But the orchestral programming needs a ton of polish to make it sound more like it was performed by an actual orchestra, rather than just a series of instruments being played off of a MIDI file. I will also add that there's some very massive dynamic jumps in terms of volume. Obviously, some degree of that is warranted, given the shifts in styles, but your quiet parts get REALLY quiet, and it doesn't sound intentional. You can still achieve this effect without requiring the listener to actively engage with the volume slider throughout the song in order to maintain a comfortable listening experience. This can start with normalizing the volume levels and automating them in certain parts, and can be further balanced out with some subtle compression on the master channel. There's so many great ideas here, but this feels like a draft rather than a polished production - I do hope we see this back someday! NO (resubmit!)

Additional ears? You got it. I'm coming in cold on this one so you're going to get all of my impressions - not saying that all of this needs to be addressed to pass a resubmission, but hopefully you can make use of the brain dump. The intro brings some really cool flavor - the noisy distorted elements remind me of Porter Robinson's Fellow Feeling (see the 3:00 mark if you're short on time.) If you're going for random blasts of noise, I think this works - if you're trying to make it sound like footsteps stomping through, it's not giving that impression at all because every stomp is exactly the same. There's no variation in the sample and it reaches uncanny valley territory fast when you play the sample multiple times in a row. This all boils down to what you are going for here, but either way, I think some subtle variation with each repetition of the sample/layer of samples (without knowing how you actually did this) would build immersion. Some of your orchestral elements (flute, glock) are very resonant, oftentimes peaking at their fundamental frequency between 3-6db above everything else. The bells in the intro also feel comparably dry. This will probably get ironed out in your next pass, but I'm going to point it out anyway. The orchestral sequencing sounds workable for the most part, you're getting good mileage out of your samples. It's not the best but I do think you're using them effectively for the most part - the main areas that sound really noticeably fake are the half-step chromatic runs on the strings at times like 2:48. I just don't think the big ensemble patch moves fast enough to accommodate that writing, and would recommend adjusting the lead writing to fit better within the limitations of your samples. I also feel like the intro could use some deeper sub bass presence. It's not that the stomps aren't contributing any bass frequencies, but a big cinematic sub drop or sustained bass to accompany the stomps (see Fellow Feeling) would make this feel much more dynamic, or have some risers building up tension in the low end leading into :49. The decision to intersperse various melodic elements (glock, harmonic strings, cello) was a good one - otherwise, this intro would be way too long. It already feels a bit lengthy as-is, but those additions help pad it out quite a bit and justify the length. However, this gets to the problem of transitions and buildup, which I think is my biggest gripe currently. There is rarely much going on to signal that we're approaching a new musical idea, so even though you have some very dramatic changes throughout your arrangement (which are quite inspired and interesting, I must add!) they come on very suddenly. Cinematic risers, fills, sweeps, etc. are a part of this equation and could definitely be used to greater effect here to bridge your gaps, but there's another element I want to touch on: the idea of movement in your part writing. You do a great job building atmosphere and have all the makings of a very dramatic song, but there's a lack of movement on a compositional level. When cinematic music is clicking well, composition and sound design have a lot of synergy. Right now, you are doing a good job building an interesting sound palette for each individual section, but the underlying chord progression feels weak. It hovers around the tonic chord for most of the time, and even when you do have chord changes, they don't feel properly supported with anything strong in the lower frequencies. This is where a bit of music theory troubleshooting could go a long way - your melody has many opportunities for powerful chord movements that build drama and tension, especially as you lead into new sections, but you're not fully capitalizing on that potential. I don't think it would even require changing up much fundamental about the rest of the parts; just identify the chord progression you're playing and make sure that there's strong support in the bass for whatever chord/root note you're trying to play. I don't know how else to suggest addressing this without studying up on some fundamentals of music theory, but certain chords just move naturally into others and can help you allude to future changes and help transition between vastly different musical ideas in a way that feels rewarding. I think you're running up against some of the same problems I faced before I made the decision to finally start researching music theory. I had a conceptual idea in my brain for what each section of my song was supposed to do, and could support it in terms of selecting sounds and picking grooves/effects/etc., but it boiled down to luck whether or not it worked on a fundamental composition level, and I spun my wheels trying to fix that issue with every other production tool known to man. I think if you were to pick an area to focus on, the big orchestral section starting at 2:36 would be where I'd focus my energy most. Everything else before and after that can skate by a little easier, but when you're trying to make a big melodic orchestral statement, the fundamentals need to be strong first. Figure out what chord you're playing on each measure and map them out in sequence using just a basic patch. I find that it helps to actually just plot my chord progressions out on piano so there's no temptation to get distracted by sound design. See if the song sounds strong and compelling when it's just played on a single instrument, and go from there.

The analog wobble is real! There's certainly a great deal of resonance in the filter envelopes on these synths, but overall I found this to be a smooth set of sounds - because the overall mixdown was balanced with a hefty bass synth that filled out the frequency spectrum, the overall feel of the mix was totally sufficient for me. I'm seeing mud called out in other votes, but again, it feels more like deliberate warmth and less like a mixing-level oversight. The ending fizzled out, but what are ya gonna do? The arrangement has already been covered at length so I'm not going to dwell on it, but in my book, the arrangement approach is fine. The expansion in sound design keeps the first half of the track engaging so that even though it's compositionally conservative, there's something new being offered from the jump, and then you get into more engaging territory with the arrangement as well to round things out. It's a bit unconventional but I don't see any problem with it, and I personally enjoyed listening to this quite a bit! There's a lot to get lost in. YES