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Everything posted by Liontamer
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You're a real one for this tribute; thank you sincerely for it! I only knew of Stéphane Picq's work through the 90s Dune game soundtrack (boy, you'd do a great job with any of those themes too -- check out Dune: Spice Opera!), so I appreciate being introduced to more of his work. Great energy with this original. Pretty crunchy intro; I liked the feel better when that cleared up at :51. Nice stuttering/gating/fuckery from 1:04-1:17, that was fun! As soon as I was typing out "Great rock treatment", we hit a purely electronic section at 1:30 that was also cool before a rocked out transition at 1:50. Ah man, the acoustic cameo at 2:57 was so cool. Love the back and forth integration of the guitars; this is a wonderful example of a fusion piece where seemingly disparate instrumentation goes together so well; love the chimeric style and flow here, not unlike "Speedy Guitar" or "Behold the Winged Cathedral" in its own unique way. :-) YES
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OCR04890 - *YES* Animal Well "Nightmare Glasses"
Liontamer replied to Liontamer's topic in Judges Decisions
With Michael, you learn to trust the process. Interesting and immersive sound design experimentation per his usual, that's a given. Nice mileage out of these minimal themes; how you sonically beefed them up AND built around them was impressive. :-) YES -
Pretty crunchy original dnb writing to start. Oh, bummer, at :57, it's the beginning of snippets of the source audio itself being used, then it's fully brought in on top of the beats from 1:29-2:14. It'll sound like I'm saying we dislike the track when it's a fun remix (proph means it's not an arrangement). We're called OverClocked ReMix (capital R, capital M) as more of a brand name that sounded cooler than "arrangements", so people interchangably call things "remixes" here when that's not what we're actually doing. I'm sorry to say in this case here though, Stavrin, we're *not* a traditional remixing site, we're an arrangement site, as in the source material is played back or performed on different instrumentation, not directly sampled and not just note-for-note. This falls outside of our Submission Standards, but it's still an enjoyable remix for sure! If you'd want to learn more about making VGM arrangements, join our Discord and/or use our Workshop forum resources. NO Override
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*NO* Final Fantasy 6 "Returners' Nightout"
Liontamer replied to Emunator's topic in Judges Decisions
Cool cover, Jonathon, and thank you for sending it our way. :-) I appreciate you running down the various instrumentation aspects involved, which was very creative to use here. prophetik's right that, although this is a brilliant cover, this is essentially a find-replace of the source's part-writing with your (strong) sounds there's no structural difference with this version vs. the original, including just hitting the loop point at :53 and repeating the same stuff for 2 more loops. We're looking for substantial interpretive and transformative aspects of arrangement, even if an arrangement is otherwise melodically conservative. In the writeup for this ReMix, I link 10 other examples of melodically conservative yet overall transformative arrangements we've posted https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04414. If you're ever interested in fleshing out a more developed, evolving arrangement, your instrumentation and mixing already sounded very solid! Join our Discord and/or use our Workshop forum resources if you're not against taking that kind of journey. NO -
OCR04886 - *YES* Final Fantasy 6 "I Can't Be Your Ray of Hope"
Liontamer replied to Emunator's topic in Judges Decisions
Whenever I vote, I like to pretend/assume that there's absolutely no way the track can be revised, because it forces you to decide if it's above the line or not, rather than judging it on what you think the track's potential is after a revision. I agreed with Chimpazilla on the sax mixing not feeling as integrated in the soundscape. That said, it's not something that stuck out to me without it being pointed out by her first, and I can also totally live with this. Performance sounds great for our bar, not just the sax, everything else too; though the higher notes on the piano clearly expose the sample's limitations, the piano and upright bass overall sound good as well, this completely clicks for me. When I heard this on The NO Show, I qualified things by mentioning that I'd need to hear this on my setup, as it was possible the mixing issues would stand out more; just off of that listen, it was sounding like a YES to me. Now that I hear it for myself on my headphones, this is lovely, lovely, intimate smoky jazz. Great weaving of the source themes, hugely personalized. IMO proph's higher-level sax skillz make performance flaws stand out more for him than the average bear, making him too tough on it, especially because the arrangement's very substantive, which we both agree to. This isn't HonkSax™ and this overall execution isn't anywhere below our hobbyist bar. Hyperbolic for a reason, because I'll come off like I'm browbeating Brad or flipping a table. 100 out of 100 times -- not 99 out of 100 -- something like this should be approved or it means our collective bar needs recalibration for being too tough. Are we gonna mess this up? :-P Pipko, April, Lampie, kudos! :-) YES -
*NO* Chrono Cross "Sailing Away from Home"
Liontamer replied to prophetik music's topic in Judges Decisions
The claps in the intro were wearing thin, so I'm glad they bowed out. JSABlixer's take in the NO Show chat was accurate for me; the first half was interesting, yet the second half didn't keep me hooked and ran out of steam. proph felt the sampled vocal integrations were solid, though they felt more stapled on top for me. The drums, which were solid samples, eventually felt like they were mostly on auto-pilot of just changing every few measures at cutoffs that just seem too squeaky clean; nothing feels organic/human about the part-writing, it's feel very gridded out, like OK a few bars of this, then change the entire patten a few bars later; I wish I could better articulate that, but I do hope you'll ask around about it. The second iteration of the melody could use more distinct variation or difference from the first besides the lead sound. The piece's overall tone doesn't distinctly stand apart from the original enough; it's not non-existent, but it's not enough. Right now, this is more about the additive part-writing, which isn't a comparatively distinct enough presentation from the original. There's definitely a place for an approach like this, as H36T has shown several times with other ReMixes; this needs more something/anything substantive/different. I'm open to whatever direction you might be willing to take this in, if interested. NO (resubmit) -
OCR04965 - *YES* Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES) "Thalassophobia"
Liontamer replied to Emunator's topic in Judges Decisions
Difficult source for me to wrap my head around; it happens. Thankfully the lil' repeating pattern anchoring the track's taken from the source and ends up being the foundation of the piece, so that makes the source usage checkbox easy. At 1:52, the repeating pattern dropped out until 2:11 and made way for some even darker, more ominous sound design choices. Loved the sound design evolution and experimentation throughout, it's a wonderful trip! :-) YES -
What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.
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Artist Name: Argle Finally a truly new remix. Not just old, or old-new, but new new. It's from my favorite ARPG and one of my very favorite games ever, Grim Dawn! GD is the perfect amount of complexity and build crafting for me, without tipping over the line into needing a master's degree in Excel spreadsheets for something like Path of Exile. Anyway, the track seeks to answer the question, "How much distortion?" To which the answer is, Yes. I may not have many through lines as an artist but a style I enjoy revisiting periodically is the "cinematic industrial" vibe of my Metroid Prime or FF6 Fanatics tracks. The moody OST of Grim Dawn seemed perfect for this. I didn't set out to use an EDM style four-on-the-floor beat from the beginning, but I gave it a try for something different than the aforementioned tracks. I think it works? To be honest I'm not actually aware of artists that make music in this combination of styles. It has to exist other than me right here. The crazy thing is I think I've remixed a game that's truly unrepresented, not just on OCR but seemingly everywhere! Terrible. I have at least 2 other source ideas that I would definitely do so mayhap I will revisit this game... I don't normally include source breakdowns but this is a bit murkier than my usual fare so here it is: 0:25-1:00 (source: 0:20-0:27 strings) 1:00-1:22 (source: 1:34-1:41 harp) 1:24-1:48 (source: 2:03-2:25 guitar) 1:48-2:12 (source: 2:25-2:31+ piano) 2:12-2:33 (source: 2:03-2:25 guitar) 2:33-2:58 (source: 1:34-1:41 harp) 3:00-3:24 (source 3:05-3:32 horns) 3:24-3:37 (source: 2:25-2:31+ piano) 3:37-3:55 (source: 0:20-0:27 strings) Games & Sources Song: No Man's Land
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Original Decision RESUB 1 Artist Name: Seth Skoda Based on an online argument about genres not making a difference. I previously turned Death Egg Zone's music (also from Sonic & Knuckles) into a trap-ish beat just to prove the point, and it got a lot of attention. So... I started going in on other tunes. I zeroed in on Flying Battery Zone a little more, as that's my favorite tune from the game. Found the good future remix on VGmusic.com, thought it would be cool to include a little bit of it in my mix. The section starting at 1:22 and ending at 1:49 contains the counter melody and 8 bars of the backing from the good future remix. I hope this isn't a deal breaker, as it's otherwise my own derivative work. Was gonna mostly go EDM with some synthwave, but then I messed around with some 808 bass and it turned into much of the same modern hip-hop sound that I was using at the time. This final mix shows a little bit more of the original intent than previous mixdowns with the 80s drums and synths running alongside the more modern 808 kicks and hihats. I am very satisfied with how this turned out, and I hope it finds its way into many playlists of Sonic Music/VGM remixes. All that being said about the mix itself, I discovered this website in the mid 2000s and knew that one day I'd have what it takes to get a posted ReMix of my own on this site. This is my third time trying to get High Voltage posted; hopefully it's the charm. Games & Sources Sonic & Knuckles - Flying Battery Zone Act 2 Composer: Howard Drossin
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I'm just commenting on the revised version. It's not an apples-to-apple comparison, but I was wrong about "Hunter's Community Chest" way back and I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice. Obviously, this has more energy and dynamics to it, particularly for the 2:39 section, yet this is also a fairly low-key presentation most of the way. The time sig change and deliberate pacing were very effective, and I love the instrumentation throughout with these amazing textures. Such a smart treatment of the source, this is excellent, Brad! :-) YES
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OCR04922 - *YES* Xenoblade Chronicles X "Forest in the Night"
Liontamer replied to Liontamer's topic in Judges Decisions
Well, gawddang, I love the sources and I love this. Feels like something one of the composer bands like Zuntata could have envisioned. I’ve got nothing to say but YES. That’s gonna make this writeup tough! :-) -
Artist Name: minusworld My Dwelling of Duels entry from Forest vs. Jungle month, where it placed 4th (behind Hemo's arrangement debut at DoD!) The squad: * Xander Plute - flute * Roland N. Laracuente Martínez - bass guitar * Cyril the Wolf - lead vocals * Nalani "Unfocused in IA" Proctor - vocals, choir * me - arrangement, production, guitars, VSTs While searching for sources to cover for Forest vs. Jungle month, I actually found that I wasn't connecting with very many. Macalania Woods from FFX is one of my favorite VGM tunes, but it's a little chill for my style. Many forest themes were on the slower side, and many jungle themes were outside of my wheelhouse for the DoD deadline. I found this tune for Noctilum and was like "whoa." Now, I am actually one of maybe 10 people on the planet who played Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U, but for some reason the music wasn't something that wedged itself in my memory. But, the tune was awesome and I had actually played the game, so I decided to go for it. The daytime version of this song is already so good, so I decided my approach would be to just extend it into a listening experience you might hear on a Two Steps from Hell album. The source has a rock band, an orchestra, cool hand percussion, tons of electronic ear candy, and of course, vocals. Given the DoD timeline, I wasn't confident I would be able to do everything justice at the mix stage, so I made the decision to cut a lot of the electronic components and focus on the band, orchestra, and vocals. I ain't no Emunator. :) I knew I wanted to introduce the vocals at the end of the arrangement to elevate their impact, and I knew I wanted to add a funky flute solo because why not? With these ingredients, my initial outline was to treat the source's prominent flute melody like a "chorus" and do two build-ups to both, with the flute solo between them. If you drew the dynamics as a line from left-to-right, it would look like two right-leaning mountain peaks. The source has daytime and nighttime variants, so I borrowed some elements from the nighttime tracks to make the final arrangement. I cut the electronic, Terraria-like intro from the daytime version altogether and ended up with this. I'll label the source daytime and nighttime sections, then use them in the arrangement map. Daytime * Electronic intro * A section (strings, flute lead) * B1 section (tense strings) * B2 section (slap bass, flute lead) * Chorus A (vocals) * Chorus B (flute melody) * Transition 1 * C section (palm muted guitars, flute melody) * D section (female vocals + flute lead) * Outro ("whoa-oh"s) Nighttime * A section (string, flute lead) * B1 section (marimba) * B2 section (add percussion) * Chorus B (flute melody) * Chorus C (low flute + brass melody) * C section (flute melody) * D section (flute lead, quiet "whoa-oh"s) * Outro * Arrangement - Source * A section (strings, rhythm guitar, flute lead) - Daytime A * B section (strings, marimba, djent) - Nighttime B1, B2 * Chorus B (AG melody into EG + flute melody) - Nighttime Chorus B * Funky flute solo - n/a * C section (palm muted guitars, EG melody, flute solo extended) - Daytime C * D section (female vox lead) - Daytime D * A' section (rhythm guitar, synths) - blend of Daytime A and B1 * B' section (flute lead) - Daytime B2 * Chorus A - Daytime Chorus A * Chorus B - Daytime Chorus B * Chorus C - Nighttime Chorus C * Outro - Daytime Outro I asked Xander to improv the flute solo, and he extended it into the C section which I thought sounded awesome. I felt that section was lacking before I got his solo, so it was awesome to hear he had already solved the problem for me! I was planning to track bass myself but ended up traveling for 10 days of the month... Roland can handle anything and his playing style has a really nice attack that I knew would be excellent for what I wanted on this track. He totally killed it. Fun fact, the vocals in the source are actually samples. But real vocals are better, so I asked anonymously in the DoD discord for a singer and when Cyril responded I knew he would bring the lead singer energy needed here since I am familiar with his covers. And bring it he did, sending me not one, not two, not three, but seven stacked stems to give the part the energy it deserves. ONE BY OOONEE! Unfocused in IA also responded to my request, which ended up being a welcome surprise because I didn't initially plan on having female vocals. I sent her the choir VST renders and she shot me back some stems which I loved so much I mixed it as the feature for the D section! It was a complete joy to work with everyone on this track. I'm grateful to you all! I hope listeners find something to enjoy in this take on Noctilum, and check out the source if you haven't! Games & Sources Xenoblade Chronicles X - Noctilum Day, Noctilum Night These two tracks are together on the soundtrack as "N木ig木ht木L", which is also where this arrangement title comes from: > The three "木" in the track's name are a reference to the character "森" (mori), meaning "forest," which is composed of three "木" characters. cf. https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/N木ig木ht木L https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re9-5p8ApBA
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OCR04876 - *YES* Final Fantasy 9 "Ceremony at Terra"
Liontamer replied to Liontamer's topic in Judges Decisions
Very beautiful intro; this is going to be a nice interpretation, you can tell off the bat with this swung feeling to the rhythm. Cool stops of the swing at 1:25 & 1:36 for nice bits of contrast, then sounding a measure more forceful at 1:48. Smooth transition at 1:56 in the brief pivot to "Ceremony of the Gods", and then another seamless shift to "An Irrevocable Past" at 2:56. Love the delicate and measured yet personalized piano approach, Guillaume, you make it sound effortless. :-) YES -
Artist Name: Bluelighter Hi OCR, Here is a piano arrangement of some themes of ff9, composed by Nobuo UEMATSU. Theme of “Terra” was a lot declined in the game, but Terra’s version is certainly my favorite version. Uematsu managed to put a lot of emotion in this one with a minimalist instrumentation. I could play the zone in loop just to listen this melody when I played the game. So, this arrangement is mainly based on Terra. I used also the introduction of “An Irrevocable Past”, the same theme with additional ingredients. Finally I took from “Ceremony of the Gods” whose melody in fourths call back “An Irrevocable Past” About the arrangement, I’ve a little reviewed harmony of Terra’s theme. But I’ve kept haunting atmosphere with a repetitive and sad rhythm. At the middle, the arrangement wins in intensity, with introduction of “Ceremony” and “Irrevocable Past”. The melody here has religious sonorities IMO. The culminating point of Terra comes after. And the arrangement concludes by “An Irrevocable Past”. Enjoy! Guillaume Breakdown Part 1: 0'00 ("Terra" 0’00 -> 0’07) -> arpeggio Part 2: ("Terra" 0’07 -> 0’57) -> rhythm A) 0'10 B) 0’40 Part 3: A) 1’07 ("Terra" 0’57 -> 1’15) B) 1’25 ("Terra" 0’07 -> 0’57) arpeggio C) 1’47 ("Terra" 0’57 -> 1’15) Part 6: animated A) 2’03 (“Ceremony of Gods” 0’20 -> 0’55, winks to “An Irrevocable Past” 0’00 -> 0’12) B) 2’15 (“Ceremony of Gods” 0’20 -> 0’55) Part 7: 2’28 ("Terra" 1’15 -> 1’45) culminating point of the piece Part 8: (“An Irrevocable Past” 0’00 -> 0’12) A) 2’56 (animated) B) 3’07 (soft) C) 3’17 (main rhythm to conclude) Games & Sources Real Name: Guillaume SAUMANDE Game & Songs: ff9 & Terra, Ceremony for the Gods, An Irrevocable Past Composer: Nobuo UEMATSU
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Man, this source is awesome, thanks for introducing me to it! Really well-produced original. Not sure why the arrangement doesn't have a unique name, but it merits giving it one. I get what you're saying about still working on production. As soon as the drums come in at :30, they noticeably lack oomph and verve compared to the original. It'll seem like I'm saying that meeting or exceeding the original's production is our bar, I'm just noting the quality disparity where there's an underwhelming emptiness to them. The stilted, stiff machine gun timing of the drum programming prevents the soundscape from sounding cohesive the whole time. The drums sound like a placeholder rather than an intended final product, and even if they were played in live via keyboard, they still don't feel humanized. Minor and very subtle, but around 1:09-1:11, it sounded like the volume ducked a few times; not sure what may have happened there. Everything lacks high-end clarity, and the vocals aren't fully cutting through to the foreground during the denser sections, whether that's Gregorio or EK. Gregorio's vocal performance is awesome. EK's vocals feel too exposed/untreated when they first arrive; I know nothing about anything, but I imagine there's a way to produce them with a fuller and steadier sound; the chorus at 1:26 sounds stronger in terms of the singing, but it's mixed in a way like it's just in the way of and subordinate to the guitar chugs, which doesn't make sense to me. On my headphones, during the densest sections, nothing takes the lead and nothing sounds distinct. The chorus from 2:41-3:18 is probably the most illustrative example. 3:37-3:55 sounds comparatively better when it's just Gregorio; his voice has more clarity and seems mixed to the front. The chorusing on EK's vocals from 4:14-4:32 sounds so much more stylized and unique, they just needed more airyness/delay, something to thicken them up. The big finish section from 5:03-5:46 was very, very cramped. I've qualified in the past where I've said if an otherwise strong arrangement were mixed/produced in a non-optimal way, I could look past it; this is a case where even a fully cohesive arrangement would still, IMO, get held back on account of the production. My biggest fear is that, as a non-musician, I'm not able to better articulate these issues or directly speak to how to address them, so my criticisms will feel like a discouraging dogpile, when to me this has a ton of potential. There's a more cohesively mixed track underneath here for sure, Zach, but the mixing's currently mud. Reworking the drums and production of this one seems like it could be a really rewarding growth opportunity and a chance to learn from experienced producers, because there's a behemoth track waiting to break out. It's a great base, but not yet fully baked. NO (resubmit)
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Artist Name: Zach Chapman Features Earth Kid on lead vocals, Gregorio Franco (who doesn't have an artist page on OCR yet) doing the harsh vocals, themanpf on guitars, and jnWake (also no artist page) on synths and keys. This song was made for Dwelling of Duels' April 2025 Rhythm Games Month. Originally this track was going to be even more faithful to the original, but I only know one female singer who can also do great harsh vocals and she was too busy that month to collab, so instead I split the vocals up between the leads and the growls, landing on Earth Kid and Gregorio for each, who are both fantastic. The other shift in the song's direction came mostly from jnWake, who took the keyboard parts I sent him and added several synths without ever being asked. Anytime you hear a synth in the song - echoing the intro riff, in the background of the interlude, the synth solo before the third chorus - is all stuff that he did entirely himself. That helped to give the track its own identity, and I love what it added to the song. TheManPF killed it on guitars as always, and also put up with me sending him about 20 different drafts of the mix for feedback over the course of the month, as I'm still pretty awful at the production side of things. Other than that it's a largely faithful cover, with some minor changes to riffing and the bass (which I played) to make it more interesting. Games & Sources This is a cover of "Stygia" from the rhythm shooter Metal: Hellsinger, composed and performed by Two Feathers, the developers of the game, featuring Alissa White-Gluz, the lead singer of the metal band Arch Enemy
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Starts with a fully original intro that has a nice sparkle to it. Zeal melody arrives at :40 with some basic but impactful beats with it for a nice, full sound. I liked the gated vox line and padding as well. Shift at 1:38 to some overdriven, distorted kicks that feel like a stylistic thing I'll have to get over; they lasted until 2:16 (back at 2:57). Very lush textural changeup at 2:16, great choice for the lead synth. As the added beat were in play until 2:56, I liked how much space the track had to breathe, and it made the dynamics of the instrumentation changes more effective. 2:57 brought back the beats and added an original countermelodic synth line and a gated-style supporting line until 3:33. Not as much contrast/dynamic as I would have liked, but just a personal taste thing, and the relative additional complexity's dult noted, though I could imagine other judges complaining. I would have liked to have heard more dynamic evolution of the track from 2:57-on, because the continued build was very subtle and thus feeling on the vanilla, repetitive side. That said the overall transformation of the Zeal theme to this light dNb style works nicely. Definitely leaning towards what works more than getting hung up on what other potential twists or added sophistications there could have been. Nice job, Nobel, this was a cool concept. :-) YES
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Artist Name: Nobel Yoo Unfortunately, some parts of the original project file were lost so I wasn't able to re-export it for this submission. Sorry! I was struck with the thought for a drum and bass version of the Corridors of Time track after hearing it a bunch at Magfest. I was really excited by the allure of turning what's typical a pretty slow and somber song into something fast-paced and energetic. It turned out that the original song is a little too fast for an easy conversion to drum and bass. The original song is 117 BPM. I slowed down all the parts from the original song down to 100 BPM so that I could use it for a drum and bass track at 200 BPM, but that's still much faster than the typical 184 BPM that most rum and bass tracks run at, so it actually feels even faster! I really enjoyed juxtaposing instrumental/acoustic sounds with electronic sounds on this piece as well as adding some new melodies and harmonies. Hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Chrono Trigger - Corridors of Time Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda
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*NO* Final Fantasy 6 "Temporary Tina" *RESUB*
Liontamer replied to Liontamer's topic in Judges Decisions
Glad to see this back again. Opens up with a nice fade-in of strings and cool sampled female vocal line. Whoa, woodwind at :32 isn't winning any realism contests, for sure. :-D It's serviceable, but it did jar me to start. Nice addition of the low pizz strings and male vox at 1:01 behind the lead. Piano accents sounded fake, but quiet enough to not stand out too much and were tastefully produced. This is so reminiscent of my first vote nearly 21 years ago when I NOed Koelsch1 for the same kind of thing going on with his woodwind lead, though his got shrill and had some trills that majorly exposed the samples. Brass at 1:46 was also fairly anemic, but became a little more forceful not too long after coming in. Nice lil' percussive thump as a transition to the organ and vox padding up the texture after 2:13. Nice countermelodic writing going on with the brass underneath the woodwind for a stronger finish. It's not humanized-enough sequencing, so any uncanny valley criticisms are valid, but for a mockup, which is where I believe our hobbyist bar is, this is alright. If this doesn't make it as is, it's not because of the structure or arrangement, which are already well personalized and dynamic, it's for the production. This is solid enough though, I'm not being smacked in the face with any terrible-sounding samples, just cognizant enough at the fact that it could be better humanized. All that said, the instrumentation choices, particularly in tandem, demonstrated a lot of care and intention, and the execution's cohesive enough! Good job, Eric; I know you'll stay with this and improve it further if this doesn't make it, you've got the sticktuitiveness we wish everyone had. :-) YES -
*NO* Super R-Type "The Bydo Must Fall!"
Liontamer replied to prophetik music's topic in Judges Decisions
Thank you for laying out the source tune order, Gregorio. Been a fan of this OST since hearing Beatdrop's ReMix of the first stage! Right from the intro, it has an intense sound, though it feels like the soundscape's lossy and crowded; what I'm mainly hearing is the countermelodic backing parts and then the lead synth's upfront, albeit quiet. The drums are great when I concentrate on hearing them. Not ideal mixing when the guitar chugs are drowning a lot of other parts out, but I can make out stuff enough where I feel it gets by. Nice transition at 1:42. When lots of elements dropped out and the texture was emptier from 1:42-1:57 as a contrast, things didn't sound cramped. I haven't read the other votes yet, but I hope I'm not the only one pointing this out. At 2:24, the transition was sudden but seemed to flow smoothly from the previous theme. The melodic synth was a lot louder and more upfront as the lead, which made me wonder why the balance of parts felt so off in the opening verse for the stage 1 theme. 3:09's theme change basically had no transition, which was disappointing. Another sudden theme change at 3:52 and the medley-itis charges feel more and more valid as this moves along. There was at least a quick transition at 4:37, but very minimal and still a big break in the flow. Whatever those snap sounds were from 4:37-4:51 were too loud yet lossy-sounding, just really coming through too loudly in my headphones. The mixing isn't ideal and does meaningfully ding it -- it's arguably causing ear fatigue from just making this so loud yet cramped most of the time -- but I'd still pass an otherwise-cohesive arrangement mixed like this. It already got invoked before, but I'll quote the Submission Standards again: Here's how I felt about the transitions: 0:00-1:42 - "Solo Sortie" smooth transition 1:43-2:23 - "Counterattack '91" smooth transition 2:24-3:08 - "As Wet As a Fish" abrupt transition 3:09-3:52 - "A Submerging Titan" abrupt transition 3:53-4:37 - "Dream of a Labyrinth" abrupt transition 4:38-5:54 - "Return of the Creature" smooth transition 5:55-6:12 - "To the Next Zone" In other words, 3 smooth theme changes, 3 abrupt ones. We don't require 6 smooth, developed theme changes for a pass. I'm just summarizing how a fair amount of the track felt like a basic medley structure without enough flow in the theme changes to make the overall composition feel cohesive enough. Indeed, this is a well-performed and sequenced rock adaptation of several Super R-Type themes, but it's not presented as a cohesive & uniform enough musical concept where it doesn't primarily feel like 7 (amazingly amped up) covers stitched together without enough flow from theme to theme. I definitely appreciate you submitting this, Gregorio, with this intensity and great soundtrack choice. I'm a NO for this fitting our arrangement Standards as is; if there was openness to fleshing out the transitions between themes, I'd love to hear this resubmitted. It'll sound like we don't want any medleys, when in fact we've got a ton of medleys on OCR, but there's more intention to making the overall track feel like one cohesive, developing, evolving idea rather than jumping quickly from theme to theme. Whether it's with this piece again or another arrangement, I hope you'll keep submitting more of what you're creating, you definitely have a spot waiting. :-) NO (resubmit) -
OCR04879 - *YES* Okami & Okamiden "A Stroll Down Memory Lane"
Liontamer replied to Liontamer's topic in Judges Decisions
Main source melody for "Reset" arrives at :20 with a lot of personality behind the sequenced guitar, thanks to the supplement of the measured bassline. Beats at :41 didn't feel like the right fit on account of feeling too dry, but the texture got fuller at 1:12 to help mitigate the realism issues. Good dropoff at 1:45. The sequenced bowed strings from 1:18-1:44 were in the uncanny valley although it was a decent, recognizable sample. The beats did drag on by the 2-minute mark and needed more dynamic contrast. As a personal highlight, I loved GotW taking over as lead at 3:23 with his beautiful restating of the melody, including the interplay with the sequenced acoustic guitar which had VERY classy flourishes at 3:35. It may be underselling some different part-writing, but the beats felt relatively underdeveloped or lacking variations. Everything else though was clicking, so consider me on board with this arrangement! YES -
Artist Name: Bionic Leaves Synth-wavy sounds with an early nineties amen breakbeat. I thought it fit the melancholy of the melody well. Games & Sources The Guardian Legend (Compile, 1988) Composer: Miyamo Shant (Masatomo Miyamoto & Takeshi Santo)
