Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

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

I checked this out for John in the #workshop area on Discord, and like I told him there, I love this concept, but the repetitive and relatively simplistic drum machine stuff dragged this down for me because they never really integrated with the brass work, IMO. AFAIK, it's all an intentional & gimmicky aspect of the way this is put together, but I thought it didn't click. That said, I could definitely see this getting support, so we'll see what happens with the rest of the vote. Otherwise, the treatment of the source tune with the brass was awesome, and I'd just like to hear drumwork that better combines with the brass. If I'm "old man-ing" my perspective here, I'll get outvoted. NO (resubmit)

I hate to be glib, because you know I dig your work, but... yep. All that above. ^^^ Solid arrangement, but the execution with these sample articulations ain't doing it. NO (resubmit)

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All set!

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

Why are you asking that when you already know the answer? http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03532 That said, we don't allow singing over the original audio; you'd have to do your own arrangement of the Sonic Mania theme like you did with the Kingdom Hearts main theme.

Just noting that I never heard the original version of this one, so I'm coming in fresh. I'm OK with a lopsided structure as long as it makes sense, so while I see what Jive's saying, the track felt fine to me, and there's nothing wrong with the build being extended as long as the writing remains creative. I thought this was mixed too loudly, but nothing was distorting, so I'll live with it. The beat-writing also should have been more sophisticated and varied, but the track was produced reasonably well overall, so I can live with that too. My socks aren't knocked off, but this was still solid work adapting this to EDM. Welcome aboard! YES

Co-signing with the others, this is just too straightforward of a cover; though there were some brief spots of original lead writing and some new backing part-writing that went in the right direction with this genre adaptation, we're looking for something more interpretive, Caleb. We're definitely OK with spirited covers, and I think Fishy's Pokémon R/B/Y mix "Battle for the Badge" is a more thorough example of the kind of approach you were going for, so check that out and see if it gives you any guidance on how you could further personalize your take on the Zelda theme. Gotta agree with the cut-and-paste sections, and the lack of an ending/resolution being an significant issue as well; the performance is solid enough, but the backing writing was relatively basic, and the arrangement isn't fully developed yet. NO

Bumping to reflect that I've now added my vote.

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From 3:23-3:40, there's a brief variation of the "Eight Melodies" theme doubled by brass and piano.

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Chiming in late because I love SMB3's soundtrack. Sweet arrangement and combination of these themes; while it's melodically conservative, the textures are expanded and nothing like the originals. I thought the highs during some portions of this were abrasive (e.g. 1:15-1:30); it wasn't quite enough to hold this back as is, but it'd be nice to get that touched up, since that also pulled back the strength of my vote some. The sound design was pretty basic, but there were lots of little sonic tidbits going on that showed the writing wasn't lazy or unsophisticated. Also, the soundscape was spacious and reasonably filled out, so I though Adrian made good use of the instrumentation he chose; it's all about the execution. YES

Normally wouldn't chime in a 4th NO, but I was planning on voting on this anyway, since "Dark Dizzy" is my favorite MMX series music. Will just quickly echo the crit about the instrumentation being too dry, and the introduction sounding jacked. There were a couple short sour notes in there, like Gario mentioned. I liked how you integrated the "Dark Dizzy" theme in there, that was pretty seamless. Lacks a fair amount of polish, but the funky energy was good, and there are some promising ideas here, Adrian. See what more you can do with this one. NO (resubmit)

I can't speak on the production aspects, but Gario had some good crits on the drums in particular. As always with Pieter's work, there's some blockiness to the piano sound, but I didn't mention it in my vote because it was basically a non-issue here and the humanization was pretty strong for the piano. The drums for 4:34's final big section did drag things down though. I disagreed on Gario feeling this effectively had little structure, as well as people saying the track hit a full stop (a full stop never actually happens around the 3:20-3:27 transition, there was just a genteel-sounding transition). Pieter's included comments on the imagery he felt was conveyed in this arrangement -- take it or leave it, sure, but there's a narrative there, and it seemed like a reasonable structure was there.

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Yeah, Pieter's timestamping didn't even count some other obvious uses of the X-Hunter theme, and everything was good to go there. Like Deia, I felt some of the "Spark Mandrill" theme usage was harder to hear, but that was mainly because you used a less memorable line from :14 of the source, and also from slowing down the tempo so much and adding some grace notes. That said, I could reasonably make it out, and certainly nothing was dancing on the line of overt source usage overall, so a stopwatching look wasn't necessary. Good work here with a more somber rendition of MMX series themes! YES

I wish the rapid-fire synth countermelody first used from :14-:37 wasn't so obscured, because I liked the writing there. Right now, the arrangement is awesome, but for the opening minute, it felt like all you essentially heard was the lead. At 1:25, the texture felt empty, again with the lead being very upfront, but the backing parts not really filling the back out completely. For example, that rising line from 1:44-1:47 was barely audible and didn't really register. As I'm listening through, there's multiple small sections where the supporting part-writing is there if you listen closely, but it's just pushed back to the point of sounding negligible, for example the warbling/double synth from 2:17-2:29. More relative emptiness from 2:45-3:08 with the background feeling empty outside of the string stabs. Gario alluded to what I'm hearing in some sense with his criticisms, so it's worth going back over them and seeing if this could be tweaked. If Andrew's willing to revise the mixing some more, cool, but this is good to go in any form. The sections that sounded more filled out were the best, IMO. That said, what did come through was strong, and the arrangement was extremely creative, interpretive, and energetic, a lot like a DDR-version of FF6 music would be. Could have been more creative with the synths, but I thought this was strong overall and made good use of the tools. YES EDIT (8/18): Checking out the revised version, this is what I'm talking about. With some added effects to thicken things up, there's a bit of clutter in places, but you didn't have dry/empty-sounding sections anymore, and I can hear the interplay with most of the great backing part-writing that was previously too subtle (1:44-1:47 being one exception). Also forgot to point out how awesome the final orch stabs were from 3:13 until the end; great stuff. Very nice work, man!

Feel free to PM me, I might be able to help with some names, or you can also ask around in the Discord.