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Agreed. Not a whole lot added to the source, but the remix itself still has me bippin' and boppin' in 2024!

The intro choir does sound quite fake which is unfortunate. It plays a lot throughout the piece. Ideally, this choir patch should be replaced with something more natural if possible, otherwise perhaps just lengthening the attack on the patch for the longer notes would improve the feel of it. There is so much going on in this soundscape. I get that black metal is a wall of sound, and mostly I can handle that, but here as the other two Js have pointed out, it feels like too much, and there is no way to mix this many midrangey elements in a way that everything is audible and not painful to listen to. This is more of a problem in this arrangement because you are actually trying to convey source-material motifs and melodies over this mid-heavy soundscape. Each writing part (leads and countermelodies) is very complex so it's a lot to take in, melodically. As the guys said, it's hard to make sense of what's what. When the quiet breakdown begins at 3:00, it is very welcomed, and I find that my ears are actually ringing from the previous section. Then that fake choir begins again. This choir sample has got to be swapped for something a little more natural, since it is playing such a prominent role at the breakdown. As Wes said, when it is buried in the backing elements it works a little better, but for me that is primarily because it does not sound like a choir when it is buried, but it sounds like another instrument. Other than that, the breakdown is lovely! As for the source use, Emu and proph could not quite make sense of what was playing where, and I certainly can not either. A timestamp of the source use would be much appreciated, but I agree with the guys that somehow the actual writing has to make a bit more sense, and that can only be achieved by stripping back some of the elements playing in the heaviest sections, and making sure the countermelodies aren't overwhelming any lead writing by being too busy rather than supportive. The track is mastered VERY loudly to the point that I *almost* hear some pumping, it's just on the cusp for me. The final limiter has been pushed hard. It's a bold, ambitious arrangement, really awesome arrangement ideas and the overall track dynamics are great. This arrangement can totally work if it is mixed a bit better and the source melodies are more clear. And I do hope the choir can be improved since it is so prominent in the mix. NO (resubmit)

Quick co-sign from my fellow judges - this is a great start and nails the vibes you want from a Lavender Town remix, but there's just not enough substance yet. With such a slow pace and only 2:20 of runtime, you haven't given yourself enough of a runway for this song to take off and fully develop. There's absolutely a strong foundation with the sounds you've picked out, but you need to do more with the pieces you've laid down in terms of additional writing/countermelodies/fills, and in general finding ways to evolve the sound throughout the arrangement. The workshop would be a great place to take this as you develop further - you've got a great ear, now keep expanding what you can do with it! NO

I have to concur with the above. The approach is neat, but the harsh and loud melodica is an issue. And even though you do make use of three themes, the arrangement is only 2:40 long and leans heavily on the Water Island hook, the backing is repetitive (admittedly, intentionally), and the ending fades out, all of which combine to make the track feel underdeveloped. The judges above gave you some good advice, not the least of which was to hit up our workshop forum/Discord for more involved feedback, and I hope you take it to heart. NO

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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As promised, I said I would update things here...instead of bombarding Discord #Workshop threads like a madwoman. xD As it currently stands, this is probably my last iteration on the song, fully done now and updated with everyone's kind feedback in mind and actioned--inclusive of the old critique from the past rejection. It is unmastered, and I'm sliding it in here to see if The Sages or @Dj Mokram or @Emunator has any further ideas to glint. More-so, I think...I'm just trying to catch people for a final vibe-check (in case my ears are shot), and see if it's ready for the Panel again, regardless of result. Dunno how to necessarily master it, but I mixed it to the fullest extent I could after doing a lot of research and video watching on orchestral composition/arrangements (and practice with other work), and limiting/reassessing the reference scope to primarily TSO with hints of Tchaikovsky and Chopin. I'm being hopeful...and trying to find and instill the confidence in my solo projects to try again. As most people are aware, I've been hammering at this in-between nonsense for a good long while throughout the process since the reject. I hope...I've compressed the lump of coal into an unprocessed diamond, and now have given it the cut and polish to push it over the goal-line. :) VQ - Sorrowful Bellows WIP (UNMASTERED).mp3

Hello! I am currently reworking my remix of Life is Beatutiful for submission to OCR. Heres the original: On prior versions of this track I have had the following feedback: The kick drum was not easy to hear. Too conservative on the changes from the original. A bit hot/cramped on the mix. Sound pallete was very static throughout. More changes in dynamics. Besides trying to adress the mixing issues I did the following changes to the arrangement: Wrote an interlude loosely based on the original melody to introduce more changes. Added two lightly distorted guitars that also play the repetition of the A section and improvise some of it. Added an electric piano to get a more childish toy-like vibe. It plays the melody in the first half and the harmony in the second. Removed the whistling in the second half and only bring it back at the climax of the piece to play alongside the guitars. I would appreciate to know how well I have addressed the issues so far. :) Waltz is Beautiful Render (mastered).wav

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Hey, I've been downloading tunes from OCRemix for some years now. Just now decided to actually participate. Anyway, this song is an extended remix I made for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild. To be specific, it's the final boss battle of the BoTW Expansion DLC. Anyone who has fought this guy, or at least heard his theme music, would know about the techno-like build up at the beginning. In my personal opinion, that beginning was the best part of the song. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here's that boss battle: So, without further adieu, here is the extending remix I made. Now, I wanted to create a build up similar to the original song, and I didn't want it to sound any different than the original. So, I've sampled the original instruments and other sound samples (such as the background Ooooooohs, and the shrine-battle tunes). I wanted it to sound as authentic as possible while keeping to the original composers initial vision. Later, I converted the transition of the original song at the 1:14 mark to segway into the main drop of my rendition of the song. From there, I tried to keep the adrenaline high but adding a few mix beats. I also tried to shorten the pauses as much as possible to keep that adrenaline going (I.E. 1:37 [which is arguably a build-up], 1:56, 2:13). Toward the end, I brought all the instruments together at 3:05 to ultimately conclude the song. Wanted to make the listener aware that I didn't forget the soul of the song - so I brought everything back full circle. Anyway, please enjoy!

If only the first song were in the original Link to The Past! Very nice sounding. Sounds like you slapped some funk into that one.

I see you tried to capture that 80s drum & bass feel of the SOR soundtrack. Then you incorporate that Sega Genesis Yamaha YM2612 synthesizer. Very nice!

Count me in!

Love seeing anything from this gem i feel as if this game dose not get enough love. Now regarding this remix I kinda like it Im in no way a critic as long as they had fun making it i say Hell yeah dude!!

a chill track from an old ATLUS Game

Official name added and updated!

Never go FULL hippie. I hope instead that, as with so many previous technologies, we explore the boundaries of what is possible, democratize the creative process and open it up to a much more diverse audience, and STILL have the wisdom and depth (spiritual or otherwise) to differentiate between art across the full spectrum of "human-only" to "machine-only", including the vast majority of output which will probably sit somewhere in the middle. Of all the reasons I see articulated for hating Rogan, this at least feels like it's based on some sort of principle... but as with @Rozovian's post, it seems like the principle hovers somewhere in the vicinity of Luddism. CAN it be avoided? The ships are already sailing; furthermore, consider that whatever might be done to "avoid" what you're concerned about could end up being worse than the symptoms... Think of how many might write an entire symphony because the task is no longer overbearing; also think of all the kids who stopped learning math when calculators became cheap, etc. Not every technological development is an either-or proposition that kills human utility entirely, and usually more than a few new doors are opened. Deep Blue didn't kill chess, and the popularity of The Queen's Gambit actually prompted a spike of sorts, etc., etc. Well, make up your mind - potentially, or not? It's hard to ring the alarm bells and tell folk there MIGHT be an issue... Here's how I see it... there are many types of music. There is "free expression" music written just for the sheer fun of it, there are soundtracks written for myriad forms of entertainment/education/media, there's commercial music written in many different genres, folk music performed for rituals, etc. In the short term, from a market angle, it seems like AI is going to have the most impact on musicians doing work-for-hire stuff for smaller productions, stock music, and more "utilitarian" composition where the artist name isn't front-and-center and there tends to be more of a churn/grind dynamic. In other arenas, I think it's more likely that humans will remain relevant & involved for a good long while, but they'll be leveraging SOME of the AI tooling as part of their process. I am relatively confident kids will continue learning instruments; Esther just performed a trombone solo for her 5th grade band concert, and she killed it. Very proud. The utility of learning an instrument and performing as part of a group extends far beyond whatever market value the resultant audio recording might have - which is very little, to anyone other than the parents :) Some things don't change. Yeah I believe thinking is going to get you further than feeling, on this one. If you want to feel bad (and who doesn't?!) for a more defined, concrete reason, I think it would be something like this: Eventually AI will come for almost any profession and task you can name. On a long enough timeline, hardly any human talent or utility escapes. But on that same timeline, due to that widespread market disruption, hopefully we end up advancing technology to the point where we are all far better off, where new concerns present themselves, and where we begin the long process of transforming our systems into something Roddenberry-esque. What sucks is that art & music & writing seem like they might get hit first, a little earlier than other disciplines, and thus not benefit from the market protections I believe we will eventually see arise. So it's a timing thing, mostly. But there is plenty of tragedy to be had in matters of timing, of course. It's going to be too blurry for that; you're criticizing poor old Joe for being "cheap and binary" but I think you & many others keep on conceptualizing AI as a binary all-or-nothing proposition when I think it's far more likely that we'll be looking at a MIX of human/machine input & "collaboration" into the future. That's why I chimed in originally - a single prompt feels quite wrong, yes, but if you start adding more & more prompts, refinements, or even allow for direct input of audio (I think one of the services just added this actually), you move away from the "a machine made this" vibe and towards more human input, along a spectrum. Because literally no technology in the history of technology has waited for "the whole world" to "come together and do public philosophy"? Nuclear might come closest... The line of thinking reminds me of this: https://squareallworthy.tumblr.com/post/163790039847/everyone-will-not-just

There's one word that keeps shooting through my mind while listening to this: more. I kept hoping this would expand on the original source more while it progressed through the track. More melodic embellishment, more original material; anything to add your own personal spin on it. One tiny way you did to it was adding the syncopation to that starts at 1:27. That was a good way to really make it feel different compared to the source, because there is no syncopation in the original. 2:27 was another good example of adding to it with the repeated notes in the melody. I could easily see 1:50 as a moment where you inject more original material and depart instead of repeating again. Overall, the vibe is nice. The drums and bass work together well and don't step on each other's toes. As far as the balance and mix, instruments are pretty close to where they should be, aside from the whistle which could come up by 1-3db. In summary, more variation and less repetition. This was very close though! NO

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Quick co-sign on the excellent atmosphere here. The piano tone has realism issues, but nothing major. Very cohesive sound for something that was a very start-and-stop process! My man tinkers too much after submitting. :-P YES

just to go full hippie: i dearly hope we grow enough as a species to find these fangled new things boring soon enough and deepen our spiritual bond in a sense that we know doing it ourselves is infinitely superior. as far as personal development. i honestly despise good ol' JRE for jumping on the "hey, can't be avoided" bandwagon (because musk is his buddy/influencer/handler?) just think how many kids will never pick up a pencil because stabul diffushun can do it betta. (not that it necessarily can but it sure will seem like it to any 10 yr old trying for realism.) i think we all need to wake up a bit to accurately portray to non-artists why this whole AI thing is so bad for the arts. or at least, potentially bad. like, i include myself. i don't wanna do a moralistic sermon. i just *feel* how bad this development is but i wanna do some deep thinking to be able to better express why i feel so very bad about this. "hey, can't be avoided someone's gonna build it anyway" is just so cheap and binary. yes they will. but everyone's philosophical stance and how they express it WILL determine how dominant these tools will become in everyday human expression. and how deeply the users will reflect on the usage. ideally, A.I. should be developed, if at all, in a peaceful period where the whole world can come together and do public philosophy over pandora's box. why, do you think, is the diametrical opposite the case? HM.

hope it don't offend no one ;) sf1_122722_6trak.mp3 1130kopop1.1.mp3 protX.mp3 1128.mp3 sf2_mezzel_1228.mp3 brab1.mp3 epep1.mp3 sure!_2.mp3 yogo.mp3 fasuch.mp3 i picked 10 tunes from the trashpile that's accumulated over the last year. some are a year old, some a week. i find these fun or funny. couldn't finish shit but hey it's *something*. ohey track 6 is finished kinda. i did that one week ago as a daily challenge thing. my soundcloud is nearly full so ty djp for da bandwidth!