I am currently working on the mastering for this as well. Dunno how to really effectively master orchestra-centric pieces, but I can damn sure try and use some new techs I've learned for sub-processing and organization in REAPER to experiment on / with. So... I can have a chat about either end of it, be it mixing or mastering. I think the arrangement is pretty much solid and finalized because I had taken the advice during a previous Office Hours WIP Review session at face-value, to modify MIDI so that notes didn't clash, and I have cut some harmonies and countermelodies that I wrote myself--that I really did love in the piece, and out-of-context or isolated, worked in certain situations; but because I couldn't get them to work with everything else going on (muddying up support parts and taking away from focus / front-end parts) I...had no other choice. Logic-brain / emotional-disconnect prevailed. It was for the betterment of the piece, in the end, so folks who commented on that and the disparity caused by over-complicated part-writing were, indeed, correct all along. I'm saying this to prove the point I am listening, and to apologize for stubbornness and flying too close to the sun / being too married to some of what I had wrote. It's a huge amount time/frustrations/emotions sunk, clipped, and gone now, but the raw MIDI (meta-)data is around somewhere, probably, and I learned some stuff about how to compose for left vs right hand piano concerto. :) At least there's a silver lining to be had.

Opens up with some very fakey piano, but the tone has some character. Wind lead at :17 has exposed attacks, though those also had character. Beats at :31 felt kind of hollow and the panning being so wide was questionable on headphones; I wouldn't mind it as much if things ended up being recentered after a brief instance of very wide panning, but since that never happened, that's a problem, IMO. At 1:34, the chorus line on those airy belltones was too loud relative to everything else; it sounded piercing. From 2:01-on, things were again too loud and piercing. I did like the sound design in a vacuum, but the track's too shrill and abrasive, particularly in the right ear. The countermelody added in on guitar from 3:07-3:20 felt like too little too late in terms of differentiating the melodic presentation. It'll sound like I'm saying this wasn't creative or well in the right direction. Right now, despite good, gradual escalation in the textures -- arrangement-wise, the melody was on auto-pilot, so the track still plods as a result; consider introducing other variations of the source melody, even if it's just varying the instrumentation rather than the writing. as everyone else has said, great potential here, Hitrison! I hope you're willing to see what more you can do with this and will consider resubmitting it. :-) NO (resubmit)

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!)

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