Emunator   Judges ⚖️

Love the stereo presence and recording quality on this straight off the rip! The faster arpeggios at :12 feel like they're struggling, and the intensity on the backing strums just doesn't really line up. There's a general lack of dynamic management as you go between the more mellow strummed parts to the faster arpeggiated sections. I would love to hear a little more intensity in the backing strums to signal when you're going for a higher energy performance. Oof, yeah, I hear what Brad is saying around 1:27 - the timing is not locked in here :( That unfortunately sounds rough when everything is this exposed, and I do think it's in "dealbreaker" territory. Re-tracking or doing some melodyne to correct timing feels necessary here. The arrangement, while really novel, well-conceived and overall enjoyable, falls short in its execution, and because everything is so exposed, it's even more important that the performance element is completely locked in. With some re-recording or timing corrections in a few key sections you've got a winner! NO (resubmit)

Proph is right - there's a lot of great blocks laid out here - the synth selection, melodies and countermelodies, and overall arrangement are all pretty tightly executed! There is absolutely a passable remix in here, but the production is holding it back. First and foremost, the drums are lacking presence and punch, and thus leave the soundscape feeling underwhelming and lacking dynamics. I would go back to the drawing board on the drum mix to make sure that you've left enough room for your percussion and set the proper volume levels so that everything is audible. My second suggestion is to look at the different instruments in your mix and make sure you don't have any wild frequencies creating spiky resonances, or low-end buildup muddying the soundscape. For example, at 1:40, there's a strong resonance that comes in until about 1:59, and returns throughout the track. I think this might be from the guitar, but something is very obviously peaking above the rest of the instruments and needs to be tamed with some EQ. The other lead synths occasionally have similar issues - this can eat up your space in the mix and generally make it unpleasant to listen to. If you're not already, utilize a free analyzer plugin like SPAN or a paramedtric EQ which can show you where frequencies are peaking. Also check to make sure that your instruments don't have unnecessary frequency buildup in the bass frequencies (below 200hz) since these are going to severely conflict with your kick and bass and make them less distinct. These are the points I would start with to polish the mix, but this is by no means exhaustive. This would be a great candidate to hash out with the community in our Workshop forum or the Discord - we host weekly live WIP reviews on Discord as well that offer an opportunity to get into the weeds on mixing/mastering/production issues like the ones I'm hearing in your song. The good news is that the fundamentals are strong - so keep at it, we'd love to hear this one back! NO (resubmit)

This is a tough one - I feel like I have a hard time justifying rejecting a really well-arranged, well-produced track such as this one just because the arrangement style doesn't align with the expectations of OCR's catalog. The vote boils down to a philosophical one, not something quantifiable. It should go without saying that I really enjoy this in a bubble, and can easily see why it performed as well as it did in Aliens month! You accomplished the goal of taking a bunch of songs from the Super R Type soundtrack and running through them with a cohesive style and some really competent production chops. That said, I don't think this style of medley is best suited for OCR - again, I want to stress that this is in no way a qualitative judgment on the piece itself, but just a mismatch with the submission standards. The arrangement is extremely linear and the transitions leave this feeling more like a collection of mini-covers that are linked together but don't coalesce into a more fluid, singular arrangement in line with OCR's standards. I also want to cosign Hemo's production feedback - there's a level of muddiness during certain sections that complicates this decision as well. 4:41 brought some drums that sat very strangely in the mix, and might be the only part of the production that I'd say sounded really off to me. The rest (synth leads that didn't quite cut through, slightly muddy low end) were not dealbreakers but things that could be improved marginally in future submissions. I have no doubt you've got stuff in your catalog that would be well suited for OCR, and I do hope that you keep sending stuff our way and this doesn't dissuade you or suggest that we aren't digging your stuff! But I'm not sure that this one is the piece that will get you to the front page. NO

Lovely arrangement and performance, it _feels_ very jnWake to me <3 This source feels like it moves in a way that reflects how you navigate chord changes and flowing melody lines in your other arrangements, so this is an obvious fit! Pretty much co-signing Joe's vote here - there's way too much spikyness in the low end of the piano that's eating up headroom and honestly sounds like it's being distorted when it hits the compressor. Is there some analog emulation going on or some saturation involved here? I don't think I love the effect it's having. If you want, I can take a stab at cleaning this up if you can send me MIDI! I have the same piano library you used, but I think some Soothe 2 could go a long way to reduce some of the sharp spikes on the low end of the piano. But if not, I do think that a gentle shelf on the low end of the piano to reduce that low end dominance, or maybe changing the microphone position in the library so that it's slightly further away, would be a good starting point. It sounds miniscule, but for a solo piano piece, especially one played this way, you're doing a disservice to your performance to have the left hand part taking up so much of the spotlight. I think this will sound a lot better with some cleanup! NO (resubmit!)

Artist Name: absent&undone "Listen to the Cries of the Planet" has always been a beautiful yet haunting melody. It's been a bucket list item for me to submit a work to ocremix and after finally getting off my butt and diving headfirst into working on music, I knew this would the one to work on. Everything was done in Ableton Live, with the guitars and bass recorded live and everything else programmed. I didn't want to stray too far off from the original version of the song as I love it so much, but definitely wanted to add in my own flavor.

This arrangement was originally done for Dwelling of Duels special Tornado of Solos competition. It was a required source, to be re-interpreted as desired. My approach was to try and play it as a classical guitar meets shred bits piece. Kinda inspired by Al di Meola style. The title of my arrangement literally means: "The Great Timothy Falling" (which kinda sounds like "Follin" which was the joke). The breakdown of the track is: (original mean part written by myself, source means parts from the game track) 00:00 - 00:13 - original intro part. 00:13 - 00:30 - slightly modified arpeggios from the source. 00:30 - 00:40 - original chord progression inspired by the source. 00:40 - 01:27 - melodies from the source (parts of it where re-interpreted) 01:27 - 01:38 - re-interpretation of the arpeggios from the source 01:39 - 02:02 - original guitar solo 02:02 - 02:25 - re-interpretation of the melody part b. 02:25 - end - arpeggios from the source. The entire mix and arrangement was done in a minimalistic style in order to put all the focus on the lead guitars. Every element (including the percussion) was performed live.

Artist Name: Jonathon Orsi "I have no idea where to put anything", I kept thinking to myself every time I tried to arrange my studio room. In a background tab, I usually have the Twitch streamer Mainstun doing ACE Glitchless runs of Final Fantasy 6, and I overheard him musing about having some interlude music for his stream for breaks. I imagined it might be easier to figure out how to setup a recording space while actually recording a song. It just so happened that at that moment Mainstun had arrived to the Returners Hideout. I quickly found some midi sources for the Returners theme on RPGamer, and started learning each part on the acoustic guitar I had sitting beside me. After learning the main melodies, I began taking out patch cords, headphones, and moving items around on my work desk so I could plug into my audio interface to start recording. The Ableton metronome is absolutely annoying, so I put a kick bass down on every beat, a snare on the 2 and 4, with some hihats that had an accent between each. At that moment I realized that the Returners Hideout was going to be the Returners Nightout -- and it needed to be disco. My instrument decisions always hover around having a live band sound - drums, bass, guitar, synths. The midi drums were crafted from samples the drummer of my cover band had graciously played and recorded for me years prior. The main melodies I chose to record on my two lovely guitars: a 2003 Fender Stratocaster and a 2018 Gibson Les Paul. The bass is a 2019 Fender Jazzmaster. Having all the midi notes for the instrumentation that I wasn't going to record, I started clicking through Ableton instrument presets: the Poly 60 Saw preset for Ableton's Wavetable synth ended up taking over most of the brass parts; and the Wurlii Hollow Piano preset for the Electric synth somehow felt right for the strings. Dance on, Returners!

Artist Name: Noga Project Honestly, it feels a bit heavyhearted sharing something here for the first time :) My handle is lionovsky (IRL I used nick Leva). To keep it short - spent a month crafting this, used basic FL Studio. This isn't my first cover - I previously made 8-bit arrangements though they didn't gain traction. Nowadays, after properly mastering my DAW, I started by reworking some old songs of mine before progressing to full-fledged remixes. I'd be delighted if you enjoy this. PS: I'm actively uploading to my YouTube channel, but specifically saved this cover for OCReMix. https://www.youtube.com/@lionovsky/

Artist Name: Stavrin Please note it takes a while to get to the part of the track where the Into The Zone recognisable riff from the game gets played in full, please give it a chance before thinking it sounds nothing like the game music.I wanted to make a drum & bass track around that theme song and also using sound fx from the game. Thanks for listening, happy to make any changes suggested. Title Screen Into the Zone (Options)

Just chiming in to mention that I've sent a finished mix of Resident Evil 4's Save Room theme to VQ, so that's at least one track down for this project! Excited to hear what everyone else cooks up ☺️

I still really like the intro here, it sets the stage really great without ever taking too long to ramp up the intensity. The vocal interludes add a very organic feel that the rest of the instrumentation is unfortunately lacking to varying degrees, but the programmed instruments are pretty serviceable. I actually thought the trumpet sounded more believable than the flute, although the flute was much more expressive due to the vibrato in the sampling. I really wish the flute could be played live, to really sell those legato transitions between notes, but judging based on what we've got here, it does the trick. The balance on the backing instrumentation is much better this time around, so there's no points where anything feels jarring. I do think this is the kind of track you'll look back on with more experience under your belt in orchestral programming and have a multitude of new techniques that you could use to improve this, but just looking at what's in front of us, I'd say you got it close enough to pass this time around! YES

Well, last time I dinged this for lacking verve... I hear the verve now! It's been so long that I forgot what the original one sounded like, but I can't imagine levying the same criticism against the version I'm hearing now. It's really got a lot of spunk and personality. There's a solid groove in place, the synths and drums all feel like they belong to the same space, and everything feels quite warm and cohesive. I still find the arrangement and part writing a little weird, for lack of a better word, but thanks to the overhaul on the mixdown, it feels more like an intentional kind of weird, like I'd expect from a modern-day Earthbound recreation. Surprisingly clean result for how loud it's mastered - I'd ease up on the master limiter in the future, I'm hearing just a touch of crunch here but everything is very clearly audible. Nitpick - I think you've got some low-mid buildup due to some of the synths and bass peaking in some of the same ranges, so I'd be careful to not let that range get out of control. Great job guys, this is ready for primetime! YES

Not really listening with a super critical ear right now, but in case I forget to come back to this, I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this! It started off feeling like a pretty straightforward cover but there was a lot of depth in the harmonies and buildup as things went along, I really enjoyed what you did with a theme that is very near and dear to my heart. Good to see you around again and I hope this one comes through the Judges Panel when you're ready for it :)

These are just going to be first impressions from voting, so take this all with a huge grain of salt! The City Is a Warm, Dead Waste: I love the variety here! It reminds me of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin in some ways, it doesn't surprise me to see a few Team Whip alumni on this one! Guitars are kickass here, and there's a monster amount of synth variety too. There's a solid amount of cohesion with the sounds chosen here, though I'm somewhat less sold on the arrangement itself - lots of great ideas but I think it'll take me some time to grasp where the arrangement is actually taking me. I think there's some reverb fine-tuning to do here, a lot of the elements feel overly boomy, which takes away some of the bite from elements like the drums. Other than drums/guitar, I actually surprisingly can't pinpoint individual elements contributed by each artist - there's a lot of sounds that feel like they could have come from anyone, which is pretty neat! 🏆Duel of the Shifting Sands: Ooohhh, 8-bit plus! I'm not surprised at all by that, but I'm not used to hearing it with all the extra bits and bobs, and I gotta say... I dig it! A lot. I think there's untapped potential to process the chiptune elements a little more dynamically, but overall, the blend works pretty damn well. 3:02, hell yeah! This is a great way to drive this home. I was on the fence about which track would get my vote, but this section really clinched it for me. Overall, I saw a huge amount of potential and TONS of great ideas thrown out from both entries in this duel, but this track feels like like it has the edge in terms of focus and cohesion. 🏆Seven Fists Under the Sakura Tree: Motherfucker, you guys are not playing around. This hits IMMEDIATELY off the rip. That fill at 1:06, excuuuuse me? I think this has a bit of the same "washiness" that I noted in "Warm, Dead Waste" where there's just a little bit less clarity to the mix than I would like, but I don't think the track suffers too much as a result. Ok, and now we go into something completely different at the end that somehow also works? I was trying to write out my highlights as I went along, and I just couldn't keep up. The sound choices, writing, production... y'all are crazy for this one. This is going directly onto my Smash Bros. playlist. This is going to be hard to beat. Sakura Wa Karenai: Ok, so that's how you're gonna play this. The production on here is IMMACULATE right off the jump, I can hear some strong DJ Mokram influence on the world instruments, then some psytrance beats come in and I immediately know who's at the helm. The production on here feels a little tighter, but I'm waiting for the moments like Team Rage had in their entry that REALLY knocked me off my feet. Oh, there's 2:06 - that's more like what I'm talking about, but it still feels like you're holding back on the energy levels. We've still got time to go though, so we'll see where this goes. 2:42 really jumped out at me in a completely different way, but it was a powerful moment with the entrance of vocals and that beautiful FM piano. The sound design in this section is off the hook. OH BABY SHUFFLE RHYTHMS now we're cooking. Ahhh, this matchup is TOUGH. There's so many brilliant ideas here and there's actually quite a bit of connective tissue to bridge them all together, but will say that the energy management falls just a little short of my hopes. The mix is incredibly clean, from the instrumentation to the mixing/mastering, but it feels like there was room to push the intensity further. I still loved this a ton, and you gave the other track a serious run for their money, but Seven Fists takes the crown in this matchup for me. 🏆Only Trust Your Mix, Techniques Will Never Help You: this title sounds like something I would hear in an incomprehensible Youtube Short production tutorial, I'm curious what the title alludes to! This starts off with some pretty straightforward but catchy, bright rock that reminds me of old Sonic Adventure music, the lead performances are top-notch. I don't feel like this track was as ambitious as the other ones from Team Rage in terms of ideas, but it feels like perhaps the most cohesively-executed of the three, and just because it's more focused, doesn't mean that it's any less impactful. The seagulls are a nice touch too, reminds me even more of Sonic Adventure when we hit that part. Crazy breakdown at the end, this was really good! You Make the Sun Shine (In My Heart): Aww, so cute! This is definitely the hardest matchup so far just by virtue of the fact that each entry were clearly going for different things. The other two matchups, although executed very differently, ended up going for relatively similar energy, but this is the kind of diametrically-opposed matchup I love to see from GSM. The lead vocals are confident and fit the bill really nicely - some slightly awkward moments where the lyrics and the melodic phrasing don't perfectly sync up, but that's to be expected on a short timeline when you have to add your own lyrics to the equation. Across the board, I'm hearing brilliant synth riffs and excellent sound choices. I love the vocal harmonies that I assume colorado weeks contributed? 3:25 onward to the end of the song is when everything really clicked for me <3 The area where this struggles for me is the mixdown - it doesn't feel like it's quite baked yet, specifically in terms of relative volume levels. The lead doesn't always feel like the lead, and there's certain elements (like the synth bass at 2:40-ish, for example) that feel inexplicably louder than everything else. There's also several elements that don't quite feel glued together with appropriate level of bus compression or reverb to really give this a sense of place. When both tracks are full of great ideas but in totally different ways, I need to fall back to execution, and in this case, I have to trust the mix from Team Rage. There's no dead air this round, every team brought the heat in terms of concepts and energy! Execution was a little more of a mixed bag, ultimately I feel like any of these matchups could have been swayed with different levels of polish on the execution, which means that you all hit the mark in terms of blending the sources well. I am well familiar with the time crunch element of GSM, and it does tend to play out tougher for more ambitious, multi-genre concepts that will always take longer to polish. Even though I ended up generally voting for the tracks that felt tighter and maybe took a few less stylistic risks, it's not for lack of enjoyment of the more ambitious ones! If you didn't get my vote here, it just means that I thought the song needed a little more time in the oven - everyone did excellent work and I enjoyed it a lot!

Breaking news: that old mixdown sucked. @XPRTNovice@Chimpazilla@Liontamer@prophetik music or whoever, I updated the first post with a new re-mix and master in addition to changing out the synth sound that Brad was having a hard time hearing (it was there but it was all click and no tail, so I can see why it wasn't audible.)