Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Should be good now, thanks for the catch!

The track was 3:49-long, so I needed to hear the VGM used for at least 114.5 seconds to consider the source material dominant. :00-:33, :42-:48, :53-1:44, 2:03-2:37, 2:46-3:48 = 186 seconds or 64.35% source usage A good clip of the source usage was from the bass as a supporting part, but this was the only track among the 12 that invoked the source tune throughout most of the track. If you further explore (presumably human-made) music-making further, this was a more connected end result, relative to the original VGM, and thus the most cohesive piece of music among the group. Dynamically, the sections still felt fairly repetitive aside from different lyrics (though the GenAI vocals do a decent job of creating different variations and inflections, all things considered), all of the instrumentation and vocals had a warbly/buzzy quality throughout so the mixing quality's not strong, and the lyrics come off like trope-y GenAI again (including the spoken-word aside as a conclusion, enough already). NO ----------------------------------- Checklist: - Warbly vocals - Lyrics also feel AI-prompt generated, too on the nose with the rhyming, always extended character meta-narratives - Dynamics possibly undercut by limiter on volume Sorry if my perception of this undersells how much actual human-generated content is there, Craig. If I had to bet on it though, this comes across like prompt-generated lyrics and the song structure isn't dynamic enough to feel like it's mostly Craig's direct input on this. I definitely don't want a trend of people sending AI-generated content here, no matter how good it ends up being. The aim is to highlight skill, intention, and creativity with human-created, human-written, human-produced music. When you take human decision-making out of the equation, even if the end result sounds good, it wouldn't be people genuinely creating the music. ----------------------------- Alright, so I've listened to all 12 tracks and wanted to give some other thoughts that go broader than the submission. 1. I can't take Craig's claim at face value that these tracks weren't substantially, majority, or totally GenAI. That means compositionally, not just the lyrics or vocals. 2. I recognize that people will want to use it as a creative outlet, it makes music "creation" more accessible, and it can be made with good intentions, and we'll potentially get more AI-related submissions in the future. 3. We have already approved a track using AI elements. Synthesizer V was used for the vocals in https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04711. That was a case where a musician licensed their voice for the product (rather than AI being trained on stolen content). The arrangement had been previously made/submitted a decade earlier (the first version's linked in the writeup), and this was an upgrade in the sampled vocal quality, not generative writing. There can be ethical instances of AI usage within a product. That said, context is everything. 4. GenAI content is against the spirit of music I personally want to hear, even though it'll continue to improve and evolve. I've gone down the rabbit hole some to find VGM arrangements involving GenAI. Some sounded promising from a music quality standpoint and were, structurally, more in line with VGM arrangements we'd accept in terms of source theme usage. Even this Animal Crossing submission sounds like a viable enough concept. 5. GenAI content could eventually become sophisticated and/or ubiquitous enough that it cannot be effectively screened or identified. (What about cases where someone claims to have referenced GenAI music for creative ideas or as a mockup that's then performed by real musicians? I suppose we cross that bridge when we get there.) 6. Even if there came to be ethical GenAI music (i.e. that only legally trained on approved/licensed/permitted content and was transparent in sourcing/crediting), that wouldn't be a human-created work. 7. IMO, we should explicitly add a clarifying bullet to part 2.1 of the Standards to say that we don't want tracks involving generated part-writing, composition, or arrangement, that we only want human-created music. 8. I'm disappointed at a future where we'll need to be more forensic, more skeptical, and less trusting about the steps used to create music.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

The track was 3:14-long, so I needed to hear the VGM used for at least 97 seconds to consider the source material dominant. :01.75-:25, :26-:33, :39-:45, 1:07-1:19.75, 1:25-1:29, 2:01.5-2:03.75, 2:36.25-2:38.75, 2:48.75-3:09 = 68 seconds or 35.05% source usage The lack of direct source usage & substantive arrangement is an automatic dealbreaker for me. NO This one was, to me, the clunkiest piece of the set. "Bros." not being pronounced "Brothers" at :52 feel like an AI giveaway, but I digress. Choppy flow on much of the lyrics, and the shifts from occasional VGM references to all this unrelated stuff didn't flow together well at all. ----------------------------------- Checklist: - Minimal VGM arrangement, mostly unrelated composition - Any direct VGM arrangement is very straightforward and brief - Warbly vocals - Lyrics also feel AI-prompt generated, too on the nose with the rhyming, always extended character meta-narratives - Staid, limited drum writing - Dynamics possibly undercut by limiter on volume Sorry if my perception of this undersells how much actual human-generated content is there, Craig. If I had to bet on it though, this comes across like prompt-generated lyrics and the song structure isn't dynamic enough or connected enough to the original VGM to feel like it's mostly Craig's direct input on this. I definitely don't want a trend of people sending AI-generated content here, no matter how good it ends up being. The aim is to highlight skill, intention, and creativity with human-created, human-written, human-produced music. When you take human decision-making out of the equation, even if the end result sounds good, it wouldn't be people genuinely creating the music.

The track was 4:30-long, so I needed to hear the VGM used for at least 135 seconds to consider the source material dominant. :00-:50.5, 1:35-2:12, 2:56-3:03.5, 3:20.5-3:42, 4:17.5-4:28.5 = 110.5 seconds or 40.92% source usage The lack of direct source usage & substantive arrangement is an automatic dealbreaker for me. NO Easily the most interesting genre transformation and another rarer example where the music during part the verses at least sounded adjacent to the source music, with backing patterns from the original in play on bass even when lyrical melodies weren't related to the source. This one's actually also the only example where I heard the vocals partially arranging the source theme. Much more of the source usage was from the bass usage rather than melodic arrangement. No surprise the chorus was disconnected from VGM, given the precedent of the other music. Aside from the lyrics feeling tired (because it's the same meta-narrative concept every time), this was the most interesting result, so that's something. ----------------------------------- Checklist: - Minimal VGM arrangement, mostly unrelated composition - Any direct VGM arrangement is very straightforward and brief - Warbly vocals - Lyrics also feel AI-prompt generated, too on the nose with the rhyming, always extended character meta-narratives - Staid, limited drum writing - Dynamics possibly undercut by limiter on volume Sorry if my perception of this undersells how much actual human-generated content is there, Craig. If I had to bet on it though, this comes across like prompt-generated lyrics and the song structure isn't dynamic enough or connected enough to the original VGM to feel like it's mostly Craig's direct input on this. I definitely don't want a trend of people sending AI-generated content here, no matter how good it ends up being. The aim is to highlight skill, intention, and creativity with human-created, human-written, human-produced music. When you take human decision-making out of the equation, even if the end result sounds good, it wouldn't be people genuinely creating the music.

The track was 4:16-long, so I needed to hear the VGM used for at least 128 seconds to consider the source material dominant. :05-:17, :30.5-:40.5, 1:39-1:45, 2:02-2:08, 4:00.75-4:13.75 = 47 seconds or 18.35% source usage The lack of direct source usage & substantive arrangement is an automatic dealbreaker for me. NO This is still interesting tech, but there's still a soullessness to it at this stage. 8 tracks in, my patience is thin. :-D /rhymes ----------------------------------- Checklist: - Minimal VGM arrangement, mostly unrelated composition - Any direct VGM arrangement is very straightforward and brief - Warbly vocals - Lyrics also feel AI-prompt generated, too on the nose with the rhyming, always extended character meta-narratives - Staid, limited drum writing - Dynamics possibly undercut by limiter on volume Sorry if my perception of this undersells how much actual human-generated content is there, Craig. If I had to bet on it though, this comes across like prompt-generated lyrics and the song structure isn't dynamic enough or connected enough to the original VGM to feel like it's mostly Craig's direct input on this. I definitely don't want a trend of people sending AI-generated content here, no matter how good it ends up being. The aim is to highlight skill, intention, and creativity with human-created, human-written, human-produced music. When you take human decision-making out of the equation, even if the end result sounds good, it wouldn't be people genuinely creating the music.

The lack of direct source usage & substantive arrangement is an automatic dealbreaker for me. NO Probably the most warbly instrumental this time, it's very rough. Drums were particularly quiet and bland in this one. Instead of "Who's that Pokémon?", it's "Where's the Pokémon music?", since it's only in the intro (:04-:21). -------------------- Checklist: - Minimal VGM arrangement, mostly unrelated composition - Any direct VGM arrangement is very straightforward and brief - Warbly vocals - Lyrics also feel AI-prompt generated, too on the nose with the rhyming, always extended character meta-narratives - Staid, limited drum writing - Dynamics possibly undercut by limiter on volume Sorry if my perception of this undersells how much actual human-generated content is there, Craig. If I had to bet on it though, this comes across like prompt-generated lyrics and the song structure isn't dynamic enough or connected enough to the original VGM to feel like it's mostly Craig's direct input on this. I definitely don't want a trend of people sending AI-generated content here, no matter how good it ends up being. The aim is to highlight skill, intention, and creativity with human-created, human-written, human-produced music. When you take human decision-making out of the equation, even if the end result sounds good, it wouldn't be people genuinely creating the music.

The track was 3:18-long, so I needed to hear the VGM used for at least 99 seconds to consider the source material dominant. :05-:20, :41.5-:53 (-ish), 1:16-1:28, 1:50-2:01, 3:01-3:04, 3:06-3:12 = 58.5 seconds or 29.54% source usage The lack of direct source usage & substantive arrangement is an automatic dealbreaker for me. NO Punk pop this time. For seemingly-generated music, it has solid enough pop fundamentals/tropes, and it does create variations on the repeated elements. But as a formula, this album's functioning like a one-trick pony (see: checklist). Will restate there's 0 chance these aren't generated lyrics as well. I dunno why Craig claimed he wrote them. ----------------------------------- Checklist: - Minimal VGM arrangement, mostly unrelated composition - Any direct VGM arrangement is very straightforward and brief - Warbly vocals - Lyrics also feel AI-prompt generated, too on the nose with the rhyming, always extended character meta-narratives - Staid, limited drum writing - Dynamics possibly undercut by limiter on volume Sorry if my perception of this undersells how much actual human-generated content is there, Craig. If I had to bet on it though, this comes across like prompt-generated lyrics and the song structure isn't dynamic enough or connected enough to the original VGM to feel like it's mostly Craig's direct input on this. I definitely don't want a trend of people sending AI-generated content here, no matter how good it ends up being. The aim is to highlight skill, intention, and creativity with human-created, human-written, human-produced music. When you take human decision-making out of the equation, even if the end result sounds good, it wouldn't be people genuinely creating the music.