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I noticed these phenomenons quite a while ago when I loaded a few audio files into my DAW to compare certain parameters and audio measurements for different soundtracks. And I think that such technically obviously not quite clean masterings of today's era are above all the direct consequence of the constraints that the loudness war has brought with it since the beginning of the 90s with the dawn of the era of digital music production. And once the music industry sets such rather counterproductive trends for mainstream music in terms of music quality, many musicians seem to feel compelled to follow suit in order to keep up in terms of loudness or to be noticed at all. But just as - at least according to their aggressive endless advertising - the arms industry stands for peace and security in the world or the pharmaceutical industry for people's health (while the reality often speaks a completely different language), the same is obviously true of the modern music industry and music, especially the quality of many of today's music productions. And by that I don't mean the often first-class compositions, but rather these often radically messed up, because far too loud, undynamic and therefore usually not very lively masterings and remasters (if you want to hear more dynamic and lively music from certain bands, always get the original works if possible and never any remasters or even remasters of remasters). Even in today's music industry, making a quick buck is often more important than the actual thing - and then it ends up being crap again. I will show this below with corresponding negative and positive examples of soundtracks from different times in the music industry and certain forms of individual approaches to mastering and music production in general. … 1) David Guetta Feat. Sia – Titanium --------------------------------------------------------------- Soundtrack link: Visualization of the measured values for the soundtrack: While David Guetta is literally a guarantor for really groovy and impressive compositions, when it comes to mastering he is rather a real negative example of how not to do it. Here you can find massive clipping in the bass range of up to over 9 dB above the zero point (see Spectroscope/Spectrum Analyzer in the middle right of the picture), while the measurement displays are apparently no longer sufficient to capture the true extent of the mastering excesses. The true peak measurement shows a value of a whole decibel above the zero mark, which should never be exceeded in a technically clean mastering, as this leads to audible clipping in some cases. And the loudness of this mastering was driven so close to or even above the maximum limit by excessive use of compressors and limiters with a loudness value of around -8 dBFS (the exact loudness value within the complete loudness measurement is only obtained at the end of the soundtrack, but the loudness has certainly not changed much after the first half of the soundtrack and the heavy compression) that any efforts to achieve dynamics and sound quality in this soundtrack were literally beaten to death with the digital mastering club. But this is probably how it must be when the music producer sees mastering as the final boss and then shouts to the mastering engineer: "FINISH HIM!" (with the iconic "Techno Syndrome" theme from the Mortal Kombat movie playing in the background) 2) Donkey Kong Country 2 - Prismatic (OC Remix) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soundtrack link: Visualization of the measured values for the soundtrack: This is definitely one of my many favorite soundtracks from OCRemix, which combines a really beautiful, energetic composition with impressive sound design. The mastering here is also very loud with a measured loudness value of around -11 dbFS and technically not entirely flawless with similarly strong clipping in the bass range and a slight overshoot of the level peaks at 0,3 dB above zero. But at least the mastering here doesn't seem to have been completely fucked up compared to the mastering of the previous David Guetta soundtrack and offers a little more dynamics and sound quality. 3) Final Fantasy 7 Remake - Let The Battles Begin! - A Merc's Job --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soundtrack link: Visualization of the measured values for the soundtrack: This is an original soundtrack from the video game Final Fantasy 7 Remake and at the same time a really powerful, modern new composition of the standard battle theme from the old Final Fantasy 7 for the Playstation. In such a world-class production (and a Japanese one at that), I would never have guessed that there were apparently minimal technical flaws in the mastering (slight clipping in the bass frequency range and minimal exceeding of the 0 dB limit at the peak levels with a value of 0.1 dB, even if this value remained at 0 dB for a long time during the loudness measurement) and that Japanese sound engineers would let them get carried away with something like this. But I could imagine that they really had a lot of time pressure in this mammoth project and perhaps couldn't subject every soundtrack to an exact loudness measurement again. And perhaps the mastering engineers, as is often the case in the music industry, were given exactly the same guidelines by the leading developers and producers, contrary to their own aspirations and rules, and were told: "As loud as possible, but also with a sense of power and dynamics, with gentle clipping if necessary." 4) Bridges - Miss Eerie -------------------------------------- Soundtrack link: Visualization of the measured values for the soundtrack: Many people probably don't know it. But the band Bridges, which was founded back in 1978, was the immediate predecessor band of the well-known Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha, while the soundtrack "Miss Eerie" was virtually the early version of the cult hit "Take On Me". Although “Take On Me” has more impressive vocals, “Miss Eerie” has some really creative, effective compositional interludes and variations to offer. For example, I really like the melodic, multi-octave playing of the steelpan synthesizer from minute 1:36 onwards in the soundtrack, which gives the whole thing a very refreshing individual touch away from the later mainstream productions. The mastering (which may not even be the original mastering, but a remaster) is also convincing in terms of production quality - technically absolutely clean, with no critical values (neither in the spectrometer nor in the measurement display of the maximum level peaks) above the permissible limits. The maximum level peaks may still have been -3.2 dB at the time of the screenshot. But towards the end they were also just below the zero mark (which is still within the limits for a technically clean production). 5) Michael Jackson - They Don't Care About Us (Brazil Version) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soundtrack link: Visualization of the measured values for the soundtrack: Throughout the history of his musical career, Michael Jackson has not only stood for unique world-class compositions, but also for excellent music production at the mixing and mastering level, which has not so easily bowed to the bad trends of the modern music industry, but has gone its own way, which did not aim to win the small-minded race in the loudness war. According to my memory, Michael Jackson once mentioned somewhere that music should always be able to breathe a little. He was probably alluding to the desire to make his musical works as dynamic, natural and lively as possible. And this is only possible if the loudness is not set to such a high level during mastering, so that the level peaks can rise up freely without the forced use of compressors and limiters, which also preserves the transients and maintains the sound quality. As you can see here in the measurements for the soundtrack, the loudness measured from the beginning is only around -20 dBFS, even shortly before the end of the soundtrack (see the position of the marker at the top of the waveform after the 120th bar). This is only slightly louder than the loudness standards I use to master my own soundtracks and remixes (around -23 dBFS, or more like -23,1 dBFS). And despite the low loudness, you can clearly see from the measurements of the maximum level peaks with a value of -0.2 dB that the level peaks in the soundtrack obviously need this low loudness in order to be able to level up freely and unhindered without exceeding the 0 dB mark. Apart from the more than sufficient headroom in the spectroscope measurement across the entire frequency range, the waveform of the soundtrack also clearly shows that this is obviously a very dynamic and lively example of a sophisticated music production. 6) Treasures Of The Deep - Shipwrecked ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Soundtrack link: Visualization of the measured values for the soundtrack: “Shipwrecked” is an original soundtrack from the underwater exploration action-adventure video game Treasures of the Deep for the Playstation. Apart from the truly atmospheric, ambient composition, this soundtrack is also a positive example of successful music production in the field of video game music in terms of mastering. The spectroscope measurement makes a relatively relaxed impression along the frequency range shown. The maximum peak levels of -0.4 dB measured also appear to be within the bounds of technically clean mastering. And with the measured loudness of around -18 dBFS, no unnecessary excesses appear to have been made here either. 7) Crisis Core - Final Fantasy 7 - Wings Of Freedom (Master Mi Remix) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soundtrack link: Visualization of the measured values for the soundtrack: For comparison, these are the measured values from one of my soundtracks and remixes, which I regularly mix according to the loudness standard of the EBU R 128 norm with a target value of -23 dBFS. It's possible that I will develop my higher compositional potential over the coming years. But I believe that I'm already on a really good, future-oriented path in the area of mixing and mastering, which might be able to solve numerous problems in today's music production. As you can see in the picture with the measurements, none of the measured values shown here are even dangerously close to any limit value. The maximum peak level values show a completely relaxed peak level control at the end of the measurement with a value of -7 dB. Even the measurements in the spectrometer still show more than enough headroom over the entire frequency range, although this is already a very dynamic remix in the classical-orchestral and rock ballad music genres. I believe that the far-sighted developers and sound engineers behind the EBU R 128 loudness standard had exactly this in mind, namely to develop a uniform, universally applicable loudness standard that works for all music genres and other listening programs and at the same time allows maximum dynamics, naturalness of sound and the highest sound quality without making the listener's eardrums bleed. ... And yes, I think that such a generously designed, uniform loudness standard can solve almost all the problems in the field of music and audio production that the soulless trend of the loudness war has brought with it in the course of the modern music industry. These problems include, for example, serious loudness jumps between different musical works and other audio programs from different music producers - or sometimes even loudness jumps between different musical works and audio programs from one and the same music producer (often caused by a lack of good loudness concepts in the field of music production, where the primary focus is still on maximum peak levels). What's more, a generously designed, generally applicable and, at best, globally enforced loudness standard can also guarantee the return of high dynamics, liveliness and sound quality in musical works, regardless of the music genre or type of audio program, the respective TV and radio station, the streaming platform, etc. In the near future, it may be possible to develop playback devices that use an integrated software solution to bring music and audio programs mastered at different volumes to a uniform loudness level and play them back accordingly. If this is approached wisely, all music and audio programs in the world could be brought to a uniform loudness level (so that there are no more annoying loudness jumps between different music works and audio programs and the volume on the playback device only has to be set correctly once according to your own listening habits and loudness preferences), and at the same time the best possible dynamics, liveliness and sound quality could be guaranteed for music and all other audio programs. … And since we're in a very large, multifaceted and international musician and remixer forum here, I'm particularly keen to hear your opinions and experiences on this topic. )) But I would also be happy if you just wanted to share something about the phenomenon of clipping in certain frequency ranges or peak clipping, which I have noticed in numerous remixes from OCR as well as in many modern music productions and remasters in the field of modern mainstream music.

Sweet approach to this classic source. Piano focused rock is nice. I'm digging the arrangement as there's a lot of melodic personalization with embellishment and improvisation. Kudos there, this is the kind of melodic personalization I'd like to see more of in other submissions. The overall structure is pretty much the same as the source, but with the amount of improvisation and embellishment on the melody that can excuse the closeness to the source structure. As the others have pointed out, there is almost 6db of headroom available. 0:28 this guitar transition was really cool. The guitar soloing late into the track is awesome and really puts your own spin on it while not getting too far away from the source. This is the highlight of the track to me. The mix and production are the major issues here. There's a lofi or lossy quality to this piano sample used. The whole track sounds like it has a gentle high pass and low pass applied to the whole track. I think that's a contributing factor to making this sound muffled and lossy. There's also clutter in the 100-300Hz range that is contributing to an unclarity of sound overall. You've got low drums here, bass, and the left hand of the piano (and rhythm guitars somewhere?) fighting for space. When they're all going together it just clutters the soundscape and contributes to muddiness. It's awesome that you've spent so much time working on this over the years. There's some really sweet spots to this, but the production just isn't at the level we're looking for. If you need feedback or extra ears on mixing passes, I would highly encourage you to check out the discord workshop. NO

Ah, such a classic tune, definitely one of the best classic Mega Man tunes. Quick note before starting the breakdown, this seems to be mastered with a -6dB peak for some reason, we don't ask for that here so you can go ahead with a standard master aiming higher! Begins with piano doing a slightly sadder (less blues-ish) interpretation of the source's intro, lovely. Sound quality immediately catches my ears, it sounds very muffled and some notes are hard to discern (there's a left hand arpeggio around 0:04 where the left hand is basically mud). In a fun swerve the band joins in at 0:13, I really like that change since I was expecting a full piano solo rendition of the intro but instead we get an energetic feel quicker than the original. Sadly, the mix keeps sounding muffled, like proph mentions above there's a lot of content in the lower frequencies and few in the higher ones (you can easily check this with an EQ plugin and I'd recommend having a reference track to compare). After a small break we get the guitar lead at 0:30, I like how it sounds, I was expecing something bad given your write-up but I think it sounds great. Anyway, we get some source melodies on guitar after a few bars, I really like the mood you created here, it's emotional but hopeful. At 1:10 there's a repetition of the main melody on different instruments and at 1:24 a small piano break followed by a quick build-up and then a guitar solo. Still enjoying the guitar work a ton, although there's parts where the lead guitar randomly decreases in volume for no apparent reason. Another repeat of the main melody at 2:09. There seems to be some sort of glitch at 2:29 and at 2:36 I'm pretty sure there's some artifacts, is it possible you actually rendered this at very low quality for some reason? Anyway, near 2:52 we move to another piano break and the track quickly ends. I think the outro could've had a few more bars of development as it feels sudden (and you can let the final note ring longer!). On arrangement I really like this! Maybe it's my bias but piano driven rock is such a mood. You did a great job adding your own touch to a well loved original and ended up with a cool take. Not much notes from me on this, except for maybe developing the end a little more. On production, however, this really needs more work. It sounds muffled and low quality, and the mix itself is also muddy. The rhytm guitars are completely buried on the mix for example. It's usually tough to balance piano with guitars thanks to some overlapping frequencies but it's definitely possible to make it work. There's also a few glitches and audio artifacts that should be fixed. Sadly, while I love the arrangement the production is way below the standards at the moment. Please hit the #workshop channel on OCR's Discord because I need a polished version of this remix to exist! NO

Like seph, I hadn't heard the source before, surely a banger. Anyway, this begins with a clav doing the main chord progression and is quickly joined by bass and percussion. Immediately noticeable is the low volume of the master. At 0:15 we move to the first melody of the source, played pretty straight from the source, although the bass line is different. On that note, bass is very overpowering on the mix, should be tamed with EQ, especially on the low-mid range. As a probable consequence the kick ends up being quiet on the mix. At 0:30 we move to the second melody of the source, once again played very straight. In your take, thanks to the electric piano, there's a bigger focus on the chords but I can't shake the feeling that the remix is very very similar to the original so far. 0:47 introduces the third section of the source and my feelings don't change, bigger focus on chords but still sounds pretty close to the original. Next we repeat the intro and move into a piano solo. Nice writing here. We then get an organ solo, it's less exciting than the piano one IMO but it's still fun. At 1:37 we return to the third melody and we get a couple repeats of the intro until the track ends. On arrangement, I feel this one is extremely close to the original. While you put more emphasis on the actual chords on the writing, changing the very dynamic bassline from the source into a (still dynamic) bass line that marks the chords clearly, the end result isn't a big transformation. The solos are appreciated as a change-up but IMO more should be done to clearly set this apart from the source. On production there's a couple issues. Most obvious is the mastering, the track is very quiet. Mix also needs a refinement, especially on bass/drums. A track like this needs a punchy drumline with clear kick and snare (this one manages to cut through the mix but I agree with proph that it's very heavy on the fundamental). For bass I'd advise some taming of the mids in general (especially the lower ones) and would also suggest some love in higher freqs, maybe some distortion, saturation, whatever. Overall, I think this one isn't ready yet. While I think it's enjoyable and it has fun aspects (like the solos), the arrangement is IMO generally too close to the source and the production needs polish in the bass/drums department. NO

It's probably heresy to say this - I'm not super familiar with any Sonic game after Sonic 3, so this source is a wild and catchy newness to me! Some of the backing elements in the source are unpleasantly cronchy to my ear, which I don't hear in this remix - that's a plus from me! Proph nailed the main points - this mixdown is quiet, and there's a big lack of mixing done on the instruments, even though there's been plenty done on the arrangement and composition side of things. I'm not against reusing the intro as the outro in concept, though I would advocate doing something with the line if it's going to be repeated. Same goes with the repeated use of the radio transition: the first time is reminiscent of the source, the next 4 times it comes off as a lazy copy-paste transition, even though I can hear there's some filter changes to it in subsequent repeats. For me to sign off on this one, I'd need to hear: a better balance of the drums in the mix - partickuarly audible kick and cymbals (or overhead mics if you have them as a channel) the snare I think is fine as it is, having the other pieces brought out would give it better context fewer wholesale repeats of the radiowave transition NO

Definitely not something we'd post. We're looking for full songs. We've posted short mixes before but 26 seconds is not enough. It's also wild that you said this is 54 seconds when half the audio file is just silence. Please familiarize yourself with the type of music OCR posts. We're not looking for little ringtone length clips. NO

This remix is 4 years older than the SH movie, and came out only a few years after the game. I hadn't played the games when the remix came out so it was one of my first impressions of the franchise. It part of SH legacy now. I recently released a FanMix of the movie Silent Hill (2006) and decided to use Nay Tomorrow along with a few other SH1 ost songs in the remixed audio track. It still not legal to publish remixes of movies anywhere, so DM (either forum or social) is the only method of distribution. FanEdit.org Thread Facebook

Not the worst samples in the world for a quick mockup, Hupusu, but sending a 26-second ringtone isn't a fully developed arrangement by any stretch. :-D If interested, develop it into a full arrangement and see what you can do about improving the instrumentation quality. For being a quick hit of the theme, it's a nice genre transformation. Hit the Workshop forums and our Discord if you're genuinely curious at making complete songs. NO

this is 26 seconds long with 28s of silence after it. it's a neat tech demo concept but isn't close to what we could accept here unfortunately. there's nowhere near enough development of arrangement to meet our arrangement requirements, and the instrumentation isn't what we'd expect to see either. i'd encourage you to review the Standards - notably points 1.2., 4.2., and 5.2 - as they detail what we expect for our site. if you fleshed this arrangement out some more and looked into some of the free VSTs and sample packs that are available on the web, i definitely think you could turn this into something legit! but what's here isn't there yet. consider the Workshop discord or forum for additional resources. NO

Woah, changing the melody to minor was really cool. I love it.

Oh hi. I'm that guy with that spreadsheet. Had a shower thought today, where a lot of my OCR things seem to have their beginnings... I realized from looking through the catalog that there are still quite a few sections of pre-2006 that are missing tags. So I went through this evening and marked on the spreadsheet all the ones up to the end of 2006 where it's needed. I've not looked beyond 2006 yet but I'm feeling fairly confident that there shouldn't any missing from there, unless I happen to stumble across the odd exception. I find it weird that there's some absolute classics that are missing tags... So I'm putting up my hand to finish the job. Here's the list of ReMixes missing tags: 171 312 318 - 320 339 340 365 368 371 - 375 436 460 462 466 - 470 472 473 475 478 480 - 482 484 485 490 - 493 494 496 - 499 511 512 514 - 524 526 528 - 531 535 - 539 542 - 551 553 - 556 559 - 564 568 570 573 575 577 - 580 582 - 589 611 613 615 - 620 654 656 658 - 661 663 - 668 692 693 698 - 700 702 703 705 - 716 720 - 722 724 726 728 - 735 738 740 742 743 746 747 866 - 871 874 876 878 - 881 884 - 886 889 892 - 895 897 898 900 902 - 904 906 907 910 - 916 919 920 922 - 928 930 931 933 - 935 937 - 939 941 - 943 946 - 948 951 952 954 955 987 - 961 964 965 968 - 974 976 - 978 981 - 983 985 - 987 990 992 993 996 1004 1007 1009 1012 - 1014 1016 - 1024 1026 1027 1032 1033 1035 1037 - 1039 1041 - 1045 1049 1054 1057 1060 1061 1064 1065 1067 1072 1075 1077 - 1082 1085 - 1087 1091 - 1094 1096 1097 1099 1102 - 1106 1109 1110 1112 1116 - 1121 1124 1126 1128 - 1133 1136 1140 - 1148 1150 - 1157 1159 1162 1163 1165 - 1167 1169 1285 Also, I saw that @Liontamer was responsible for the lyrics tags. If I may, I would urge putting the explicit tag on 570 and 1419, please. There's also a lot of other mixes up to the end of 2006 that I feel could do with additional tags, but I think it's more important to get the ones without tags done first. Please hit me up.

I also considered using When Hell Freezes Over as the final track of this list, right after "Cosmic Kleptomaniac". Although I will definitely have to make room on this list for "I Can't Be Your Ray of Hope" as soon as it gets posted.

i dont want to submit my remixes, just want to share them here kindly. thx for the constructive feedback!

Co-signing with Chimpazilla and proph on this one. While your arrangement hews conservatively to the source material, I think the little additions like the reduction to the piano and bells at 1:20 before building back into the A section and the approaches to the melodic material on the guitar and vocals elevate this beyond a simple 1:1 cover of the tune. The production is the one big problem that's holding this one back -- too heavy in the mids, the heartbeat is eating up all your headroom, and the -2dB limiter ceiling, while maybe not causing all your production problems, only serves to clip the louder low-end elements (namely the heartbeat and the left hand of the piano). This one's ready for the front page with some tweaks on the mix, Azina! NO (resubmit)

😎

"The bar was kinda crowded. Like the slave quarters of Rupture Farms. But that's a different story from another game. Couldn't even catch a glimpse of Robo Eggman and his big band through the thick clouds of smoke. Things were starting to get hot. So I went to the bar and ordered a hedgehog-friendly tuna shake. I sipped the glass slowly... ... and, of course, I reserved a pool table in the back corner of the bar to play a smooth casual game with my spiky-haired cutie and the affectionate, fluffy fox."

I'm with proph and Hemo on this one. This track feels too repetitive within each section to justify the 5-minute runtime, particularly the drums. Like jnWake and Hemo, I also agree about the lack of cohesion between the elements. While I'm certainly no expert on DnB, I found myself expecting -- wanting -- more bass than we've been given here; I think the wobbly bass starting at 1:40 is an interesting choice (though it lacks power and presence) and without other bass elements, the arrangement goes beyond feeling weightless to feeling ungrounded. Like Hemo, I dig the atmospheric elements and the sampling; I also love the drum patterns (especially the double-tresillo segment at 3:37 with the "weird snare sound" according to jnWake -- maybe it's weird to you, but to me, it's got a nice ring to it that's a change of pace from the tighter, snappier snares we've gotten to up that point😜). The problem for me, ultimately, is that the overly repetitive elements and the lack of low-end are enough to keep me from signing off on this one, Nobel. With some more variation on the individual patterns (or the removal of some repetitive segments) and the addition of another bass element, I'd be on board! NO

i'll let you know when i get around to finishing it!

Epic stuff, dude! And really good mixing as well. The only thing you could still fix for this really cinematic remix composition is the way too abrupt ending of the last notes. Maybe, it's just a video issue that chopped the last notes - but I'd let these notes fade out way more slowly for the final submission track. Hope you are going to submit this title, aren't you?

Definitely a worthy upgrade of the original soundtrack. But for submission to OCR, I don't think it will suffice in terms of composition efforts as a mere arrangement. If that's your ambition, I'd at least compose something like an atmosheric intro (maybe something with some sort of a knightly fanfare), at least one little break around the middle of the soundtrack (where the remix could lead into a different musical structure for a few moments), and (optionally) maybe a little outro. Mixing seems to be good so far. The only thing that seemed a bit strange to me was in the beginning after minute 0:09, where the electric guitars around the center of the panorama sound kinda squashed together with the drums.

I'm not familiar with the game or the original music in any way. But the remix sounds like a really good and humorous upgrade of the original soundtrack. The mixing also makes a really good impression. It is also something really different in terms of genre. So I would definitely submit it and give it to the judges at OCR for evaluation. ))

This guy is quite the personified one-man invasion of a multi-instrumentalist with the estimated energy supply of a faithful energizer bunny: Love the southern style with the energetic and joyful vibes, the radically lively instrumentation of the brass as well as the well-placed “eat the rich” message in the background. It might be fun to implement something like the ska genre into some future remixes on OCR to further increase the musical variety. With music like this, you can easily support the good ol' summer days or radically shake some dark warlord armies out of their stiff marching beat 'n' make 'em stumble over their own stinky cheese feet. ))

Brandish - The Cursed King Remix