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Hey there, Matt! I'm going to co-sign with proph and Emu. The production on this track is the largest contributor to its shortcomings. The drums lack punch and are just buried under the synths and, to a lesser extent, the guitars. There's a massive buildup in the low mids (around 300 Hz) that makes the whole track sound muddy and the lead guitar and synths are competing for the mids bandwidth around 1-3 kHz. There's also that sudden drop in guitar volume in the left channel around 1:02 that proph mentioned. Sounds like a floor tom is causing clipping in the first B section (1:06-1:41), then another peak clip at 2:28 from the entrance of the reverb-heavy synth lead for the solo and more clipping at 2:58 on the fill heading into the final B section. Speaking of that synth lead, it utterly dominates the mix for the entire solo. Simply put, I'd need to hear more attention paid to volume balancing, EQ, and compression for this track to be ready to post. It's worth pointing out that your arrangement's quite good! While the structure is conservative, I think your solos keep things interesting and let your voice shine through. To echo proph again, your sound palette works great for the style. The vibes are right, so let's fix the mix! I recommend joining the OCR Discord and looking for feedback in the #workshop channel and/or the Office Hours Weekly WIP Review on most Wednesday evenings. NO (resubmit)

I was tempted to name this "8Track Traveler", but I didn't want to set expectations that this was going to be an "Octopath Traveler" playlist 😂

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)

There's an energy here for sure, but there's many issues. This is a highly conservative arrangement. Outside of the percussion it's nearly identical to the original source. This is also repetitive to the point that it honestly gets tiresome before we even get to the 2 minute mark. The original isn't very long before it fully loops too (~50 seconds). I would suggest to add some of your own interpretation or change-up some elements from the source. Not only will that help with the repetition but it will add one of the biggest missing elements from this piece: your own unique interpretation and ideas. Having a drop at 1:40 was a good idea, but it's still just playing the same thing, just with less parts. The texture and dynamic contrast is good, but we need some new ideas! Consider adding more textural shifts later into the track or cut repeats to reduce the repetitiveness. The drums don't have much punch to them and honestly feel over compressed. In terms of sound design much of the synths are very plain and vanilla. They could be much more sophisticated and interesting sounding. I don't like to say anything straight up doesn't sound good, but the whistle that enters at 1:53 is unpleasant. Not only does it stand out, but it lasts a long while, it just keeps going and takes a while before we get a break from it. I like the energy you're trying to bring, but there's simply too many problems as is. 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

my emo response would be: i wasn't made a part of it, so i didn't bother to save it the real thing is i didn't even know it existed until a while after it lost steam

Nobody!?

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!)

Those last 4 tracks have been together (or very close together) in my playlists ever since I started making playlists with OCReMix tracks.

Nice list! It's great to be able to make a big stack of things you've learned and realize how far you've come.

Turrican II - Secret Dungeon Remix

I second mmpneosync, all three mirrors have this strange skip.

I feel that, lol.

Nice. This is good BGM for work.

You know how it is, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

I'll add you and H36T's choices up soon, ty for notifying me! :D ^_^ DK64 FF is baller, and would be glad for it to be on the album! If you have troubles with it, just keep in touch and keep me informed. We can work something out, I'm sure. ♡

I think there is a problem in the MP3 file. There seems to be a skip around 0:52, and when comparing to the YouTube version, the MP3 seems to be missing 3 or 4 seconds. The download file size and MD5 hash don't match the information in the download page.

Oh yeah the track I'm doing is Donkey Kong 64 - Frantic Factory I can't promise I'll actually have it done on time, but if I do that's going to be the one