jnWake   Judges ⚖️

Begins with a drum loop and a synth bass riff. I can see what you mean by "80s" feel in the description but I'm not sure I'm getting those vibes necessarily, especially as 80s music tends to be big on room and space while this sounds quite dry. At 0:10 an organ plays the organ break from the source and is then followed by a synth string-ish sample playing the A melody. The melody gets harmonized at 0:34 and, as proph pointed out, some of the notes in the harmonized sound a tad off, although if I'm being honest they don't bother me much. There's a percussion break around 0:50 and the extra samples have a ton more reverb, making my earlier point on dryness more evident. At 0:58 a new section begins and eventually the organ melody returns and we have something of an organ solo for a little bit until it's joined my a synth melody. I liked how you had the snare return at 1:35 for a burst energy and a smart transition. Around 1:37 a new bass riff begins, joined once again by the organ melody. There's some notes and variations that sound odd in here, like 1:52 (and its repetitions). B melody plays here on synth and then, over more or less backing, C melody plays on organ until the track ends. On arrangement, this has some fun ideas, changing the track into something more rhytmically upbeat is cool. That said, there's a fair amount of repetition in percussion/bass writing, with basically 3 riffs (0:00-0:50 is one, 0:58-1:37 is the second and 1:38 'till the end for the last one) for the entire track, each getting repeated a lot (second one at least changes with the chord progression though). Some of the harmonies play notes out of the key and the 3rd riff plays some odd notes here and there, but I'm honestly not as bothered as proph was by this. Generally, I enjoyed the arrangement. Production is for me the main sticking point as the sounds are for the most part very basic. As an example, the organ has very little modulation, which is a staple of the instrument. Leads are similarly very vanilla with no modulation. Bass sample(s) is also very basic, I love synth basses but there's more you can out of the sound on the production side to make it shine. Drums are also a little basic, the snare sound is a little cheap but I think it's usable if you at least add more 80s appropiate reverb, the kick however is too bright, it needs more oomph on the lower frequencies. Overall, while this is a fun arrangement it could use extra polish on the production side. I don't think you need to outright replace all your samples, but work on adding more life to the writing through articulations on organs/leads and see how you can make bass/drums shine on production. NO

Wild World title theme is so pretty... Begins with a piano doing the chords from the intro and is soon joined by a percussion. Sound quality does a bit of a disservice to the track early, as the piano sounds low quality and the drum samples aren't great. Particularly, the snare sounds too snappy for the mood of this track, I'd imagine a warmer sound for this. Main melody enters around 0:19 on the marimba/epiano combo while the regular piano does the guitar arpeggios from the original. Source treatment seems very straightforward here and actually reminds me of the Smash Bros. Brawl cover of the theme, although yours is slower than the Smash take. Small moment to relax at 0:42 and then we continue with the B melody. Around 1:08 a second loop begins and there's a solo by the duo starting after a few repetitions of the intro. Drums doing double kick fills near 2:03 it's a little funny. 2:18 has another loop begin and there's a tease of a big change around 2:38 but we return to the main melody (there's a similar tease around 3:04). Track ends kinda suddenly on 3:23 with a lingering piano chord and I dunno why the track extends to 3:53 after it. On arrangement, you took the chill original and gave it a small burst of energy with the new instrumentation, but you didn't do particularly big changes to how it plays. Melodies and chords are kept almost intact and although that is a valid approach it makes me question if it's enough for OCR. I also feel the structure of the arrangement is rather repetitive and not particularly exciting, being basically ABABAB with the second AB being a little different as it has a solo instead of the regular melody. On production I'd say this has some shortcomings but is generally fine. I like the sound of the epiano/combo but the piano and drums leave a bit to be desired. I can tolerate the piano as the low quality nature gives it some warm characteristic but the drums don't really fit the tracks vibe, especially the snare. Overall, I think this isn't there yet, particularly I think the arrangement could be developed more to add more of your own touch and also avoid repetitiveness. I like the chill but slightly energetic vibe you went for though, so there's potential here. NO

Certainly a fun idea doing a remix fully on a Yamaha RM1x! Begins with a fadeout straight into the source's intro. You use a standard beat here rather than whatever the percussion is doing on the original. That said, the drums sound quite dull with almost no punch and their writing isn't particularly varied (there's a snare fill you use A LOT during the track). Source usage is super conservative, with the remix following the original's structure with no variations until the break at 1:40. On the section around 0:55 I hear some artifacts on the track, almost as if it was clipping. Break around 1:40 is very appreciated as something fresh but then at 1:54 you bring a very high pitched sound that's honestly very annoying to hear... and it plays for a loooong time. There's some cool ideas and variations on this section but they're almost drowned by that one annoying sound. After this the arrangemet basically repeats itself and then on the end it noodles over the main riff. On arrangement this needs more work to fit OCR's standards. Outside of the section starting at 1:40 the entire remix is basically doing the source 1:1 with a different percussion. Besides from that the arrangement is extremely repetitive, overusing the main motifs of the source. As prophetik said, there's definitely space to either change up how you use the original's riffs or to simply cut the length. On production the track shows the limitations of the way it was made. Sounds are dated, most synths are very simple and unexciting. Drums lack punch and the writing doesn't help, repeating the same beats and fills for most of the track. There's some synth samples that are extremely heavy on high frequencies and get very grating, like the arpeggios on the main riff and the annoying sample at 1:54. Overall, this isn't near the bar for OCR yet. There's fun ideas here, especially on the 1:40 section, but both arrangement and production need refinement. NO

Random comment, I played on a cover of this same theme just a couple months ago: https://unknownpseudoartist.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-phantasia-a-metal-tribute-to-tales-of-phantasia. Anyway, this begins with a drum fill and then straight up double kick metal, nice! First part plays pretty much exactly like the source, until 0:17. From what I can you're using Shreddage for guitars here, it's always hard to do convincing fake guitars... I think you do a great job with them but I feel they sound too clean. One thing I've noticed on my attempts at making decent fake guitars is that real ones are always not that clean, there's more noise/reverb than what Shreddage produces. Second riff is also almost identical to the source, but the drum beat is different. Third riff (0:25) is also quite straight from the source until 0:45, there's some notes on the sampled lead that sound a bit odd (0:29, 0:32, 0:34). I do appreciate that you tried to make the best out of the's sample articulations though. For the final riff there's some small differences in timing, but it's still fairly conservative. From 1:01 onwards we don't follow the source on the same order anymore, there's a couple repetitions of riff 1, then a weird take of riff 2, then a repeat of riff 1, then a solo over riff 3 with some quotes of the first main melody. Around 1:45 riff 4 returns and for the ending we have a repeat of riff 1 with some variations over the main melody. Arrangement will be the sticking point here, as noted by the above judges. The first half is pretty much a straight cover from the source and, while the second has some variations, it still has fairly straight takes on most riffs... Besides from how conservative the arrangement is, it also lacks any sort of direction to me. Second half feels like random quotes of the previous riffs but it's not really leading anywhere. On production this is good enough to me. I have some nitpicks about the sampled guitars, they're honestly rarely as good as the real deal but they're fairly well programmed here. Drums I think could be punchier, both the kick and snare are a bit tame, they need more grit and snap so that the track's punchier. Bass is also fairly quiet except for riff 4, I'd like more of it on the mix. As chimp noted, the drums' hats are all very quiet, those really need a boost. Overall, this is a fun tune but it definitely needs more arrangement to get posted. Production is good enough IMO but there's still some adjustments that could make it even better! NO

I already voted on the first iteration so I won't make a long breakdown this time. My main issues at the time were the unbalanced volumes and the flute. Volume issues seem to have been fixed, I don't think there's anything catching my ear on that front anymore. That said, the track is overall a lot quieter now and it's arguably even too quiet, sitting at -15.66 LUFS. Now, on the flute issue... I remain skeptical sadly. I noticed some weird articulations are now removed but it still doesn't sound natural to me. One of the first examples is the very first articulation 0:33, it sounds extremely mechanical. 3:03 still sounds weird. There's some additional elements now as well. There's a piano on the background a few times which, as pointed out above, sounds completely unfitting. It's more of a ragtime honky tonk than something to use in an orchestral arrangement. I do appreciate the attempt to flesh out the background though. There's also now a trumpet lead replacing the flute on part of the second half and it has similar issues to the flute sadly. The articulation I pointed out from 0:33 seems almost copy pasted at 1:48 for example. I'll remain with my original vote for now. Production has improved on original issues but the orchestra in general could sound better. More natural attacks on most instruments would help, there's a distinct lack of proper legato which makes everything sound fake. NO

Begins similarly to the source, with a loud electric bass doing the low notes. Right away there's something off in the sound, I'm not sure if the bass sample is slightly out of tune but it's just not fitting correctly with the rest of the instruments. I'm fairly confident it's playing "correct" notes though... except for 0:12 where it plays a very unfitting C. At 0:13 a percussion enters but the bass is so loud that it gets buried quick. I'm still hearing the bass as being off here, but now I'm more confident it's actually playing at least some wrong notes. At 0:25 we move to the next section and my impressions are more or less the same. We change to a new section at 0:39 and now things are definitely not fitting together, the pads, bass and keys seem to be playing different songs entirely (0:44 for example is very dissonant). Fun breakdown at 0:52, would've been a neat way to introduce and keep a guitar for the rest of the arrangement. There's a repeat of the first part and then on the second one there's some sort of piano solo over the backing that I commented not fitting well together. The 0:52 breakdown repeats and then we get a repeat of the main melody over a spicy chord for the end. On arrangement, this is a fairly conservative take on the original. You got creative with the backing around 1:25 but other than that it seems very similar to the source, on spirit. Like I mentioned above, there's various spots with potentially wrong notes that should get a second look, especially the entire 0:39 section. On production, this is kinda getting ruined by the bass. It's so loud that it drowns out everything else and makes it hard to judge whether the rest of the mix works or not. From what I can tell, the piano tone seems overly bright but I'd need to recheck the mix on a more balanced version. Overall, this needs more work to get posted. As prophetik recommended, going to the Discord's workshop to get suggestions would be great. I'd focus on nailing the arrangement first, taking care of potentially wrong notes and finding out how to make the source "yours" by adding more original ideas/variations. NO

Original is indeed a very chill piece! Your take begins with a piano/pad combo doing the main chord progression at a faster pace. I enjoy the sound of this combo. At 0:14 the main flute melody is played on a synth, I think adapting the track to a faster pace sounds great so far... However, we eventually reach 0:27 and all balance is lost. A drumkit enters at an insanely loud volume and completely drowns everything else, with the LUFS reaching -5 (which is extremely loud), and there's even clipping on my DAW. Even the waveform looks kinda silly here: As far as I can tell, the background keeps the same parts from the intro here. There's a breakdown around 0:52 with a fairly intense snare for some reason, then a build-up and more loud drums at 1:08. I dig the rhytm idea here. There's been a recurrent synth arpeggio on this percussion sections that sounds off-tune/off-key, unsure since it's hard to hear. 1:33 has a similar break to 0:52 and at 1:43 the main melody returns and then the drums return at 1:57. We then repeat the break and build-up of 0:52 but there's a fake-out and at 2:41 we get the percussion "pay-off" again. As before, the overwhelming volume doesn't make it that enjoyable... At 3:07 the track ends abruptly, with even the tail of the sounds cutting off abruptly. In terms of arrangement this is fairly basic, I really like the idea of speeding up the original but you kinda exhaust all your tricks in the first 25 seconds. There's definitely space for chord progression variations or incorporating more of the source's melodies. I like the idea behind some of the percussion breakdowns as well, but I don't think they're enough to sell the arrangement alone. Production is, however, the main issue here. The track is extremely unbalanced, with the percussion being so loud that it makes the track very hard to listen to, even clipping at some points. It's hard to critique the mix behind this unbalanced approach but I'd take a look at the higher frequencies since the mix sounds shrill (but this may simply be a consequence of the loudness). Overall, while I think there are good ideas behind this, the production is not enough for this to pass. First, look at balancing the percussion with the rest of the track. Second, check if there are ways to make the arrangement more interesting as right now it's way too simple. NO

I remember this one from DoD! Deserved medal for sure. Begins, as your breakdown says, with "Solo Sortie". There's heavy guitars and dark synths right from the start. Right away this is pretty loud, ranging around -9 LUFS. Drums seem a tad overcompressed but they still sound good. Love the guitar tone, the riff at 0:15 sounds really good. A synth lead enters around 0:27, it sounds great but it gets buried in the mix a little (especially around 0:44), maybe it'd be a good idea to automate the rhytm guitars to duck when leads are playing (or layer the leads an octave above). At 1:08 we reach the B section and my feelings are the same, sounds rocking but the leads get lost. Source usage so far is quite conservative, but the adaptation to metal adds personalization. At 1:42 we move to "Counterattack '91". We keep on kinda the same style, heavy rocking guitars with dope synths on top. Like the first source, this one is covered very faithfully. At 2:24 we reach "As Wet as a Fish", I appreciate the chord progression making the transition smoother around 2:22-2:23. We go a bit slower on this section, although the drums are still very compressed and the rhytm guitars very loud, it'd have been a nice spot for a change of sound palette. At 3:08 we move to "A Submerging Titan", a smooth transition despite not much build-up. I like how the introduction of the new riff is on "build-up" mode, makes it pay-off nicely at 3:23 (are there guitars and synths layered here? I love the tone). Finally the synth lead shines here! 3:53 introduces "Dream of a Labyrinth" seamlessly, nice job there. The riff here sounds great on guitar. Around 4:39 we move to the next source: "Return of the Creature". It's a sudden transition this time. Gotta be honest here, I really dislike how the toms sound, they're insanely sharp and sound like if someone was getting slapped. Luckily they don't last long and we move to a simpler, more enjoyable beat. I can't find much new to say here, this section keeps the same elements as most of the track. In any case, at 5:55 we move to the final source: "To the Next Zone". The triumphant mood is an appropiate send-off for a long track! On production this is top notch. I have some minor nitpicks about drum compression and the volume of the rhytm guitars but this is, no doubt, above OCR's production requirement. That said, I do wish the mix wasn't so hot all the time, it can get tiring. Arrangement will be the main point of contention for this one. As per the submission standards: "Your submission must have a strong focus and direction. Medleys must sound like a single song, not multiple songs pasted together". Is this achieved here? Most transitions are solid and don't feel jarring, which is a plus. Genre is consistent among the entire piece, another plus. If anything, the main minus I have here is that there are no recurring themes to glue the arrangement as a more cohesive whole. OCReMix has posted medleys similar to this one in that sense, like the famous Unsealed. I also wish the arrangement had more variety in sound palette, the synth samples are basically the same for the entire thing and there's no real break in the entire track, with the slowest section still having strong distorted guitars in your face. Overall, this is an amazing track! Rocking and powerful, well produced and although the arrangement is a medley I think it sounds cohesive enough to meet the criteria, as the transitions are mostly well handled. That said, for future medleys it'd be cool to introduce some form of recurring theme to glue the arrangement even better. YES

Starts with some pretty piano and strings. As a random comment, the style here reminds me a lot of an artist from Dwelling of Duels called valence (https://www.dwellingofduels.net/artists/valence/). The strings sound very washed out, it fits the mood you went for but it may be a little too much. Regarding the samples themselves, there's times when the attack between notes sounds odd and unnatural (0:19 for example), I'm not sure if there's much you can do about it but I wanted to point it out. Anyway, the arrangement for the first minute or so is very conservative, as far as I can tell it's identical to the source (with the exception of the added strings), even if played slower. Around 1:20 we get a choir added and you added some nice extra melodies for the loop transition. At 1:37 we get a repeat of the loop, now with the extra choir, wind lines on top and some modifications on the piano line. At 2:20 we get the B theme from the source again and a lot of the personalization is gone since it's back to being a very straight cover. There's some cool counterpoints on the strings though. After this second loop is done the track ends. K, so arrangement will be the main thing here. You noted it on the write-up and both me and prophetik above noted it on the reviews... this is very conservative. You changed the instrumentation, which is always nice, but the melodies, chords and structure are almost untouched (except for the transition between loops). I think there is definitely space to differentiate this more, you did a nice job in the section between 1:37 and 2:20 but I don't feel that's enough to clear OCR's bar. Personally, I'd recommend you to work on the structure of the track, right now it's "just" 2 loops of the source that don't really go anywhere. Try to imagine the track having a direction with build-ups and breaks, maybe the piano stops for a section and that changes the dynamics, I dunno, there's many things you could do without changing the soul of the remix. On production this is fine, the piano sounds pretty and everything is easy to hear but the orchestral samples are only passable. If there's any chance to get collabers on board it'd be awesome but, of course, that isn't a dealbreaker. That said, I'd take a look at how you're processing reverb, some samples sound very washed out and unnatural, like the strings and choir. Overall, while this is a pretty take on the source and has some nice sounding additional elements it's too conservative for OCR at the moment. I'd love to hear a new take with extra personalization or a more original structure. NO

Begins with a few percussion hits and then comes the source's intro. Right away this sounds a little off, the bass is playing static E notes while the melody (covering the higher guitar part from the source) is on C# minor. Now, E is part of the C# minor scale so it's not like it's dissonant but it sounds odd, you'd generally have the bass on the root for a riff like this (like the source does). It's of course valid to have a different approach but it needs to lead somewhere otherwise it just feels wrong. The percussion pattern is also fairly strange, with "snare" hits on 2-3-4 but not on 1, creating a beat that's not easy to follow. At 0:27 we move into a higher pace for the second part of the initial melody. The percussion pattern is even weirder than before, it's not really fitting for any kind of EDM mood. This section continues for a bit, following the source's melodies until we reach the next part of the source at 1:01. Similarly to the intro, the bass is playing D# notes that don't really fit the melodies on top. At 1:05 we get a few melodies from the source but one of them seems to have wrong notes (the one starting at 1:08 features a regular D which doesn't fit the key this cover has attempted to be in). 1:11 has the arpeggio section of the source, which inexplicably keeps the upbeat rhytm. Finally, we move to the last section from the source. The note at 1:29 (A#) seems unfitting. Finally, at 1:49 the track simply cuts-off, without a real ending. I don't want to sound mean while saying this but this cover is way below the bar at the moment. On production, the synth samples used are all very simplistic, we usually ask for a more modern sound. Percussion samples are also simplistic but, more importantly, unfitting. The "clap" you used for snare won't really work on a proper arrangement. On arrangement there are several issues. First is the fact that the bass and melodies rarely fit well together. Second is the fact that there's several wrong notes in the arrangement. I get the feeling you got hold of some MIDI files of the original and kinda slapped them together haphazardly, not taking proper care of keeping everything on the same key, which is why the move to C# minor caught me off guard at the intro, since the original is on F minor. Third is the percussion writing, if you want to make trance or any form of EDM you need a beat that's steady and easy to follow, a snare hitting on basically every quarter or 8th note is not that. Finally, for OCR standards we ask for more interpretation, this track was very conservative in regards to source usage. As prophetik said, you should give the Discord workshop a go and ask for help there, especially regarding basic arranging and production tips. NO

I suppose I can clarify a question right? The piano is sampled, it's Native Instruments' "The Maverick". I didn't add too much processing, a tiny bit of EQ/Compression. I don't think this would change the votes so it seems fair to share haha.

Another DoD month an... wait, this track isn't from DoD! First time I submit something unrelated to the Duel in uh... probably 10 years or so... Anyway, this track comes from the "A Stop on the Route - Piano Tribute to the Pokémon Series" album by the VGM Pianists collective (which I happen to be a part of) and that you can listen to here (https://open.spotify.com/album/6lA0QMJAKHbv6hKgX4OC6x). It's a piano solo, which also makes it my first submission of this kind! Source covered is "Lake" from the 4th generation of Pokémon games, a chill theme with some fun chords. Given the nature of the arrangement I'll refrain from doing a long source breakdown since it's evident for the most part. I hope you enjoy my first true attempt at a piano arrangement! Games & Sources

Wasn't expecting a source like that from Doom 2! Anyway, this begins with a pad playing around some notes with a background sweep. Seems to be either B or E minor. Around 0:18 we get a kick hitting on all beats but we get a quick (maybe a little jarring?) change-up intro triplets around 0:30. Now there's a clear Em-Bm progression, which is featured on the source. I like the pad here. Chords die around 0:48 and we keep with a steady B on bass for a bit but there's now a "snare". There's some neat touches of sound design on the percussion. At 1:00 we finally get the main melody from the track with some small variations in how the melody's played (plus some slightly different chords). Pads and hats fill the soundscape at 1:15 and at 1:32 we get some more elements into the mix. There's a repeat then and I'm now noticing that the percussion has been doing basically the exact same loop (which is very short) for over a minute. Around 2:30 we reach a break with a solo synth bass doing some triplets and then at 2:50 there's a big transition into a completely different section, featuring the second main melody from the source. We're now in standard 8ths and the beat here is really cool... However, around 3:10 we're back into a triplet feel with a synth bass riff of sorts and then a little later back in a straight 8ths feel with some pads. Main melody returns around 4:01 and there's a solo of sorts at 4:30. Finally, there's another break at 5:00 for a section without percussion and a few ominous chords 'til the track ends. On the arrangement side, I'm torn. I really like the variations you did of the source material, melodies were kept very similar to the originals but you did fun stuff with the chords. However, the structure of the arrangement is a bit all over the place. It's cohesive (arguably repetitive) for the first half but from 2:30 to ~4:00 it feels very unfocused, changing between ideas without much direction. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of cool ideas in here but this feels like a collection of ideas more than one arrangement. On production I don't have many comments, I think you did a great job there. Maybe my only nitpick would be that the kick in the first section (around 0:18) is too aggressive for the soundscape, very clicky when there's basically nothing else going on so it sounds jarring. Besides from that I liked the production, a lot of fun sound design touches and nice synth samples for the most part (arguably, the least exciting sample is, ironically, the one doing the main melodies). I'm torn here because I really like how this sounds and there's a lot of cool ideas, but I feel the arrangement needs some refinement, the first section (0:00 to 2:50) could be trimmed down a little and the sections between (2:50 to 4:01) could get a little more time to breathe and develop. NO

Begins with the source's intro modified into more of a harmonic minor feel and some electronic percussion. There's a classic electronic snare roll transition and at 0:10 a bass and a lead enter for a few more seconds of build-up. We go full rave around 0:20. I'll be honest here, the clap sample isn't doing it for me, the soundscape feels very empty here. There's a small change around 0:45 into another snare build-up and at 0:56 the first main melody of the source hits, practically unchanged from what I can tell. After another snare build-up the rest of the band joins in for an additional repetition. At 1:42 we get a simple C-G#-B# transition into a piano section (seems to be based on 0:36-0:48 from the source but it's very liberal in that case), which is followed by yet another snare build-up. A synth takes up the main melody here, which I can't recognize from the source honestly. 3:02 introduces a new section, now on C minor. We begin with a fun synth and percussion combo (different samples from before, which creates a nice change of mood). A piano melody joins at 3:13, based on the source section at 1:00. After a snare transition we hit rave mode again around 3:23, this part sounds great. At 3:59 we transition into a new section that quotes the section from the source at 0:48. Somewhat fittingly, the track ends with a snare roll. On arrangement, there's a lot of interesting stuff in here. I like how you modified the intro melody to give it a darker sound. In terms of source usage this seems very clear to me, except for the section from 1:42 to 3:02. Still, even if that was original there's more than enough source in here. I have some nitpicks though, mostly with percussion. As you may have noted from the write-up above, there's A LOT of snare roll transitions, I understand they're typical of the genre but there are surely more ways you can do a build-up transition. I do appreciate that a few times you left a small silence after the snare roll, adding a bit of variety. Similarly, and I may concede this one as personal preference, there's a lot of repetition in rhytm here, with the kick hitting on each beat for what feels like 90% of the track. On production I think this is solid but I don't think the claps cut it as a percussion element since they get lost in the mix most of the time. As other comments, I feel this could use some extra compression/limiting on the master, it's fairly quiet for the genre and there's some small volume bumps due to SFX that'd be cool to iron out. Finally, although the kick is definitely present I feel it could get a bump in the <100Hz range, I'm missing that sweet low end bump from it (bass is eating most of that space). Overall, this is a solid electronic piece. I have some qualms about the arrangement and minor production nitpicks but I feel this is above the bar. YES