Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

The guitar sequencing didn't sound totally awful, but the timing was nonetheless very robotic and should have been better humanized. Right now, the stiff, overly-quantized timing undermines the energy of the track, and IMO it was dead on arrival from the production side of things already. Jebus, this was an extremely muddy soundscape throughout. What was the point of the other part-writing behind the guitar starting at :21 if it was barely audible? None of this was mixed/separated properly. There were different/original guitar chugs in the background at 2:03 , but they didn't harmonize well with the source tune, so it was a mixed bag despite adding something different to the arrangement. Then there was soloing over the top of the source from 2:23-2:46 that was energetic, but again unrealistic-sounding and hampered by the timing being so rigid. That said, the treatment of the source there was basically conservative and looped, so the track hit a wall in terms of development. There's not much varied in the way of dynamics either. Well, we all have tracks where we're too lenient, so for DA it's definitely this one. Beyond the adaptation to rock, and some additional notes to the countermelodic writing first used at :21, the arrangement's too limited and repetitive, with the "Last Battle" part of the arrangement looping at 2:03. I hate to sound like I hated the track, Karol. I didn't, and IMO, it's a decent cover of a great source tune, but for the Standards here, this was underdeveloped and lacks polish, variety, and humanization. Without more development/variation in the arrangement and more realism in the sound, we can't roll with this. NO

Opened up very similar to the source tune, so I was waiting to hear how this would begin to stand apart from it. The chorus hitting at 1:05 but retaining a lot of the same instrumentation from the start was that first change and set the interpretation factor off in the right direction going forward. The "DK Island Swing" stuff in the middle of the track was odd, but worked in reasonably well, and you get used to the transition after multiple listens. Enjoyed Johnathan's treatment of the themes overall. I definitely hear the other Js on the mixing here not being ideal with the kick sounding puny as hell like Sir_NutS pointed out, instruments mudding together and fighting for the same space (3:04's section), and then some pretty badly noticeable and extended crowding at 5:11's section, but the arrangement arguably making up for it. I'd nonetheless like to hear 5:11-6:49 tweaked before approval, if possible. The track sounded better than MindWanderer's crit that it sounded like it was "played through a stereo on the other side of a wall," but I did laugh at that and he's definitely not wrong even if it's hyperbolic to make a point. Definitely take all of the production criticisms into account to clean up your future works. We can post what's here, so I wouldn't be upset at all if this passed, but there's definitely that element of disappointment that the production ultimately undermines the arrangement. In a few years, I think Jonathan will look back at this one and wish he knew then what he knows now. We can all agree this is a sweet arrangement, but there's just too much of the track where the mixing is cluttered and messy. Looks like it could still make it, but if it didn't, definitely just address some of the mixing concerns, and this would be an easy pass. NO (resubmit)

On a small note, I have to admit I went "eww" on the flat, plunky piano that was briefly there at 2:19; it was in and out briefly, so it wasn't a big deal, but it did come back a few times in that second half. Try to better humanize that sound; while you may get by on sound quality with the higher piano notes, the lack of realism's very exposed for the lower notes. I didn't like MindWanderer saying that the 2:25-3:28 section was too simple in terms of the arrangement treatment; it did build off of a short, core idea, but I thought there was clear effort given to evolve the textures around the source reference with the original writing and changing instrumentation. If that second half had been part of an arrangement that was more interpretive overall, I don't think this section would/should have been viewed as problematic relative to the Standards here, so I don't want the artist to take away the wrong conclusion from that point. That said, I agreed with MW and Gario that while this was a great listen in a vacuum, nearly the whole the first half being so structurally and instrumentally close to the source tune was a dealbreaker as far as the level of interpretation. It's just not a fit for OCR on that level, but that doesn't mean it isn't still an enjoyable cover. If you were ever interested in revisiting this one, Rebecca, I know you could reinstrument this or otherwise add in more of your own personal flair and ideas into the first half to more substantially differentiate it from the original piece. I look forward to your submissions as always; keep 'em coming! NO

The panning's too wide to start; you really don't need to have parts in just one channel. Once the left channel picked up at :13 and the track wasn't essentially JUST in the right ear, the wide panning was no longer flat out disorienting. Sir_NutS had a very good point about the mixing being dry that I wouldn't have noticed without his critique. IMO, the track was filled out and mixed well enough where the dryness didn't kill it, but I definitely believe if this had a little more wetness to the sound, the end result would be a lot stronger. Not going to make the imperfection of the lesser production issues the enemy of the good, but something to note for future works. Wow, LOVED the changeup at 2:18 to the more resonant strums, and then changing up the rhythm of the source melody at 2:42; I was smiling and nodding my head in time with the music and really enjoying the proggy turn with the soloing from 3:07-3:30. The ending did cut out too fast and could have used just a little more time for that last note to quickly fade, but the song went to silence maybe a half-second or second too early. So yeah, this shouldn't have been so dry, but the creativity of the arrangement and the fullness & energy of the performance were all very strong. Really impressive musicianship, Rus; let's work on improving your production there, but you're already putting together great work! Welcome! YES

DA's right that the panning's too wide. I'm also a headphone-based judge, and the panning's a dealbreaker, particularly with the lead brass. We'll see if Leandro can center things a little more. Otherwise, in full agreement with Deia that this was a solid arrangement. I just voted on Abreu Project's "Chrome Gadget" mix and it ticks all the boxes of their style, i.e. a more cover-ish start, followed by nice comping and original part-writing integrated with the source tune that explores the theme's potential some more. Always love their style! YES (conditional)

The first 10 seconds of the opening definitely wasn't promising, as the plucked string "performance" sounded clunky, but the rest of the track was fine. Samey vibrato and string humanization issues were definitely noteworthy to call out, and those criticized aspects should be improved, but it wasn't below the bar for me. I didn't have the issue the others were having about parts fighting to be heard in the same space, and the interplay between the parts from 1:50-3:08 was fine to me; there wasn't any point where I felt the song got directionless or that I didn't immediately or quickly latch onto what the dominant instrumental line was. I would have liked to have heard more melodic interpretation, but the genre adaptation and additive part-writing were enough to carry the overall interpretation factor. It's solid to me, and while I wouldn't mind some touch-ups after the fact, the track's executed well enough to me. YES

Pretty flat ending without a thought out resolution, which was a letdown, but this was an otherwise strong, smooth jazzy cover with great original part-writing integrated into the picture, which is par for the course with Abreu Project for sure. Fun energy and a spirited, personalized performance as always! YES

My time's limited today, so just wanted to say I thought the rhythmic change to the theme was really smart, and the piece developed and evolved nicely. Strong production on Stephen's spoken parts as well to give them force. Cool! YES

All of the files had original album data changed and release date metadata added as well, so no matter what, you wouldn't be able to just reuse the old files. We'll eventually hit a point where there aren't improvements that affect all files, but now ain't the time.

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Not feeling the way the main LoZ theme combined with the Gerudo theme specifically at 1:21; the notes are clashing there briefly; same at 1:57, though not as egregious there. I'm not against changing the melody there just because it's different, I just thought that tweak didn't quite work. Otherwise, things were solid, and it wasn't far off the mark the first time around. Welcome aboard, William! YES

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That's on me for making the filename too long; should have cut it down; I'll circle with djp on it soon.

OC ReMix Presents Speeding Towards Adventures: 25 Years of Sonic the Hedgehog! June 22, 2017 Contact: press@ocremix.org FAIRFAX, VA... On the final day of Sonic's 25th anniversary year (gotta go fast!), OverClocked ReMix today released its 62nd free community arrangement album, Speeding Towards Adventures: 25 Years of Sonic the Hedgehog. Featuring 23 tracks from 30 artists, Speeding Towards Adventures pays tribute to numerous titles from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and is co-directed by Russian community member Stepan "Black_Doom" Sudilovsky & Dutch musician Jorrith "Jorito" Schaap. The album is available for free download at http://sonic25.ocremix.org. Speeding Towards Adventures pulls together a deep group of musicians honoring the Sega sound team's music in a variety of styles, including rock, funk, electro swing, pop, orchestral, and more. Speeding Towards Adventures was made by fans, for fans, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sega or Sonic Team; all original compositions are copyright their respective owners. "The fast-paced addictive gameplay, vivid stages, and, of course, catchy music made my first experience of diving into Sonic universe one of the most memorable parts of my childhood," recounted album director Stepan Sudilovsky. "Then I started to learn more and more about Sonic the Hedgehog games, and they were all amazing to explore, but music remained the most enjoyable part of this entertainment." The scope of the album's game coverage starts from the original Sonic the Hedgehog and works up to 2010's Sonic Colors, tackling a full dozen Sonic games. Sudilovsky underscored the album's wide-ranging approach: "My vision for this project: cover as many games as possible, as well as to represent a variety of music genres to represent the variety of Sonic's journeys." The album's artwork was designed by British artist Davy "Odai" Owen, who also designed the artwork for OC ReMix's 2015 Heart of a Gamer album memorializing the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. "I was happy to be able to contribute some of my 'get stuff done' skills, and helping guide the album and all the people who collaborated towards the final product was a blast," affirmed album co-director Jorrith Schaap. "Really proud of the final result and I'm sure you'll enjoy the album as much as I did!" Speeding Towards Adventures also marks OC ReMix's fifth Sonic series album, following 2013's Temporal Duality (Sonic CD), 2011's The Sound of Speed (Sonic 1), 2006's Project Chaos (Sonic 3 & Knuckles), and 2005's Hedgehog Heaven (Sonic 2). About OverClocked ReMix Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form. Its primary focus is ocremix.org, a website featuring thousands of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans. ### Preview it: http://youtu.be/Yemuj9HbaBE Download it: http://sonic25.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Speeding_Towards_Adventures_-_25_Years_of_Sonic_the_Hedgehog.torrent Comments/Reviews: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/45902/

Co-signing after the fact. YES

Preview Speeding Towards Adventures: http://youtu.be/Yemuj9HbaBE Download Speeding Towards Adventures: http://sonic25.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Speeding_Towards_Adventures_-_25_Years_of_Sonic_the_Hedgehog.torrent Sonic has always been my favorite video game series. It has always meant a lot to me. I clearly remember the day when I asked my parents to buy some game and they bought Sonic Adventure DX. Of course, my reaction was nothing but fascination! The fast-paced addictive gameplay, vivid stages, and, of course, catchy music made my first experience of diving into Sonic universe one of the most memorable parts of my childhood. Then I started to learn more and more about Sonic the Hedgehog games, and they were all amazing to explore, but music remained the most enjoyable part of this entertainment. A few years later, I started to look for the soundtracks on the internet and downloaded almost every album existing at that time. I was listening to them on a daily basis, and I was listening to nothing but this music -- that's how obsessed I was with it! In the middle of 2012, I came across a remix of "Special Stage" theme from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, "Red Sphere, Blue Sphere" by Ben Briggs. Apparently, I had to head over to the Project Chaos website, grab the whole album and listen to it. That was another experience that changed my life drastically -- the idea of giving all-time favorite video game music a completely new life impressed me a lot. So, a few days later, I visited OCR and started to wander around. I was really surprised by how many arrangements and arrangement albums were published there! Finally, in the beginning of 2013, I joined the community. It was also the time when Temporal Duality was in development, so I was following the progress very closely. I'm a Sonic fan after all, so how could I miss something like that? So I must admit that this album inspired me to start this recruiting this album! Big shoutout to SuperiorX and Phonetic Hero! ;) Finally, about a year after registering on the OCR forums, I decided to start the album project. My vision for this project seemed to be simple: I wanted to cover as many games as possible (with up to 3 tracks per each game; yes, we ended up having 4 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 tracks, lol) as well as to represent a variety of music genres to represent the variety of Sonic's journeys. The project immediately started to gather lots of people, and that's not surprising at all, given how popular the Blue Blur is. And I understood that I needed some help, since the project was not going fast enough. This is where I asked Jorito to step in to direct the album along with me. Luckily, he agreed to help me, and that was one of those decisions that completely changed everything. From that moment, the project started to develop with immense speed. I just don't have enough words to express my gratitude -- he helped me so much! If I start to list everything he did for this album, I will probably never stop. Also, big thanks to Odai for such nice art, big thanks to the Sega composers for their work, and, finally, big thanks to all the musicians who contributed to this outstanding album. Directing it was a blast! Enjoy! - Stepan Sudilovsky (Black_Doom) Even though I have been part of this album for quite a while as a ReMixer, it was pretty late that I joined as an album co-director. And I'm glad I did, because it was an exciting and interesting experience to witness the creation of an album from "the other side." Since I'm no expert on things Sonic-related, I have to give mad props to Stepan for defining the vision for the project and doing a lot of the prep work that set things in motion and Odai for really capturing the Sonicness of Sonic. I was happy to be able to contribute some of my "get stuff done" skills, and helping guide the album and all the people who collaborated towards the final product was a blast. Really proud of the final result and I'm sure you'll enjoy the album as much as I did! - Jorrith Schaap (Jorito)

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What's going on with the clashing supporting part-writing from 1:50-1:55? The drumwork at 1:10 felt very static, looped, and metronome-y, and basically droned on with little variation for the rest of the track. I thought the brass articulations starting at 1:06 were pretty flat and unrealistic, so I didn't agree with the other Js at all there. Unlike the whistling right before it, the trumpet had near the same intensity for each note (but at least had a stylized sound that did mitigate the realism issue some). Organ/keyboard & acoustic guitar comping from 2:25-3:31 was a good change of pace and some creative writing that combined well with the main source tune, but the drumwork kept lazily looping and was more exposed as not quite sounding realistic. Arrangement-wise, this was pretty creative, Vijay, but I thought this could have used more humanization for the integral brass lead as well as more creativity/subtle variation with the percussion. Fix those clashing issues caused by the SFX as well. NO (resubmit) EDIT (8/17): I'm still a NO on the revised version due to the drum tone sounding unrealistic, as well as the brass articulations (despite the brass sounding stylized like I mentioned last time). That said, the clashing from 1:50-1:55 was gone, and I'm a fan of the arrangement, so I wish I could say the same for the production. Sorry I can't be on board myself, but provided it passes, it would still be a fine addition here.