Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Opens up with some uncanny valley orchestration that sounds... aight. There's effects on everything to give it some depth and mitigate the realism issues, though it's not enough to prevent lack of realism from standing out as soon as this started. Hard to articulate but at 1:07 when it transitioned into the more grandiose texture with these high strings, the volume was too quiet for the energy of the part-writing, if that makes any sense; obviously, this shouldn't be clipping, and I'm not saying "just turn the knob one higher", because it's actually pretty shrill. But something about the layering of the parts should have been fuller and more cohesive. The high strings were always very exposed as being a sample, but the articulation around 1:10 was the worst offender. A little better texture at 1:32, though it's pretty muddy until 1:39. Something about the way the strings at 1:45 and winds at 1:51 were produced made them feel like they weren't in the same room, even though I hear the stereo placement being different; again, difficult for me to articulate. There's some sort of light pop at 1:59 that needs to be eliminated as well. The bar isn't "now, go find some live players!", and this possibly could have passed like this 20 years ago. That said, I do wonder how much this could be improved to humanize these sounds and make the textures less shrill, more cohesive, and with more realistic ambiance, because that's the real hangup for me, not the arrangement, which in a vacuum is fine, no problem with it. Needs some more finesse with these samples, Pipko, but it's a good concept. For something so short, this needs to be closer to firing on all cylinders. NO (resubmit)

From what I can tell here, this seems like genAI. Fuzzy overall sound, some good instrumentation in places, but it wanders around with wholly original sections that have 0 connection to Crystalis. Obviously not enough source too, which is an automatic NO. If it's genAI, begone. EDIT (9/28): Talked to RJ and apologized for mistakenly calling this AI; we don't want to discourage anyone who actually creating their music, and I'm definitely snakebit from the rash of genAI submissions we've gotten, including some that initially made it past the panel before we updated our guidelines. RJ graciously offered to share some things he looks for to help with AI detection, so I'll be sharing that with the judges when he sends that. That said, the lack of usage of the Crystalis source ultimately tanked this, so we'll reiterate that to approve VGM arrangements for OCR, we urge everyone for the majority of the arrangement to directly reference the source theme(s) for at least 50% of the track. The arrangement and interpretation of the VGM theme(s) needs to be the primary focus. Looking forward to RJ's next sub!

Says Hitoshi Ohori on sax for the Kingdom Hearts II soundtrack, but if you told me it was proph here, I wouldn't have batted an eye. :-) Beautiful theme. Definitely a straightforward arrangement, and we'll see where it goes, though offhand the reinstrumentation here does help it stand apart from the original. The light little bits of recording feedback do add some character, but not sure they should be in there. 1:31 has a subtle but noticeable shift in the energy by adding the percussive support and doubling the melody, which is the kind of stuff I was talking about in terms of needing some more personalization. Nice little guitar riffing/ornamentations from 2:37 until the end to add a last bit of flavor to close it. It's not my thing personally, i.e. I would have done something more boisterous with the theme, but that doesn't mean this isn't a substantive albeit melodically conservative arrangement approach. I disagreed with proph; sure, I'd personally like it with more complexity, but that's not required, nor do I think this approach isn't substantive enough without it. The reinstrumentation of the first half has a measure of personalization to the approach. Not enough to YES it if the style stayed like that the whole way, but then everything from 1:31 on for the second half pushed it over the line for me in terms of standing apart from the original. I don't think it should be turned down for needing more dynamics when that's more of a personal tilt to me. If I heard this on the actual OST, I'd say it did enough to feel texturally different from the other version. We ride... YES

Man, all the years I've known about Phantasy Star II, but I've never actually listened to this specific source before, this is awesome. In any case, Rick, I've gotta echo prophetik. This is under two minutes (read: underdeveloped), and it's sampling the original audio and (in your case, substantively but basically) building around it, which itself is a violation of our Submission Standards. We're looking for a true arrangement when you reinstrument & interpret the source tune, not a traditional remix where the foundation is the original in-game music/audio. No ending either, c'mon; at least make one instead of ending at a hard stop. Stick around and see what more you can learn from this community, Rick! NO

The arrangement side was previously a pass, so I'm side-stepping that and just looking at production. I'll say right off the bat, this still sounds massively cluttered. When the growling vocal word came in at :19 with no clarity, I knew this was going to be a tough hill to climb. EK's vocals at :30 sound so dry and untreated, and are getting swallowed up by the surrounding instrumentation, it really nerfs her potential impact if the vocals don't sound airier. Even Gregorio's vocals at :49 & 4:44 are really buried and I'm mainly just hearing the guitar's pushed way forward over the top of him until 1:26 & 5:03. The choruses at 1:26 & 2:41 sound noisy/cacophonous, this balancing doesn't make sense. The vocals never cut through and the guitar stuff is just massively overdriven to the point where it feels like the loudest parts are distorting. I did like the guitar parts from 2:22-2:39 & 3:37-3:55, those isolated bits were sounding aggressive without obliterating other parts. Anything texturally more busy than that was a hot mess. Vocals are buried. Guitars are overdriven. Textured are cluttered. Energy of the performances sounds strong. Arrangement's on point. As I lamented last time, Zach, I'm not a musician or producer, so I can't tell you how to rein this in, which disappoints me because I want this posted, it's a creative arrangement. Saying no may come off like I'm saying you're an incapable producer or a no-hoper when we all know differently; you're bold for working outside your wheelhouse. Though this doesn't need to have perfectly balanced, pro-level mixing, the mixing revisions still leave this far from where it should be; the parts lack clarity and they're not reasonably positioned/balanced. This is still promising, but it needs production TLC. I'd love us and/or DoD to hold a #workshop session where other community members work with you to tighten this up, because this deserves it. NO (resubmit)

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