Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

In focusing on criticisms first, it'll come off like I don't enjoy the arrangement. IMO, the DnB pattern droned on, because the track's mixed in a way where the breakbeats are somewhat obscured during the fullest sections, yet the core kick's much louder; it makes the writing feel more simplistic than it truly is when the soundscape was dense. The sax line introduced at 1:34 was consistantly downplayed, moreso at 1:51. Granted, it serves to mitigate the sample realism issues, but I still felt it was super quiet, especially from 2:34-2:56 (where it's a non-factor). From 1:50-2:12, there's also a light but pervasive crunchy noise going on. The breakbeats returned at 3:40, and again, you mostly hear the main beats, not the rest. If you listen to other stuff of Black Ace's like "Now the Flowers Will Grow!", those details pop a lot better. Cool break in the monotony of the beats at from 4:24-4:35. Not a sharp soundscape, but seems by design given some of the effects on the voice clips; still reasonably produced, so it's not as if this was on the bubble of acceptability. Arrangement-wise, totally appreciated the varied writing and textures; aside from the core beat feeling too repetitive, all of the other elements evolved nicely. Let's go! YES

Always interesting to hear these arrangements, with so many different ways to keep the atmosphere dark yet really dig into unique sound design choices. 2:29 & 2:40 was an opportunity to add some more spices instead of cut-and-pasting :33's bridge & chorus sections wholesale. I think there's enough interpretation of the theme to weather to repetition, but some differences in the instrumentation, effects, or textures would have been small, easy steps to give this a more varied presentation (instead of having to make an argument that it's not TOO formulaic). That doesn't make this a borderline YES for me, but it would have been a ZOMG easy peasy, why-are-we-paneling-this YES for me with observable variations. We'll see if the amount of cut-and-paste is a dealbreaker for others; the context matters for me, with the level of interpretation being so strong to begin with that this can get past that hurdle. For me, the synths, beats, and voice clips combine in a good way for a busy beat-driven piece of business that's energetic while still retaining some dark SMW vibes. Good stuff, Jordan! YES

Greetings! I couldn't get enough of Zircon's Monstrous Turtles when it came out and always wanted to remix the theme myself. This track came out in a purely inspired moment and turned out to be a fine bass house remix of the castle theme. I originally wanted to include this in my upcoming album Snesteryears but unfortunately, the source tune isn't available to cover. No loss, however, because I am sending it to ocremix. Hope you enjoy Jordan bLiNd

The four Spirit Realm themes are, surprisingly, totally unique compositions (I added them to the original post), so MindWanderer's mistaken in that conclusion. He should see if he can identify them all in this arrangement with that in mind. I only noticed Nayru's theme opening things (note the melody at :00 and :33), then Fi's theme arriving at 1:00 and staying for most of the way. Heard Din's theme at 3:02 and didn't recognize Goddess or Farore in there. Without being overly repetitive, I'll say Chimpazilla's vote matched my own, not just in terms of recognizing but accepting the flaws that were heard, but also speaking against DarkSim's inference that you need to exceed the sound quality/sample quality of the source material, which is mistaken. I'm in. YES

There are a lot more ways to interpret a source tune besides melodically. Melodically conservative doesn't discount the other arrangement techniques going on here. Nice original writing to introduce things until the source tune arrived at :23. This is definitely a creative instrumentation of the theme. As always, well-executed instrumentation tradeoffs that prevent the piece from feeling repetitive, as well as beautiful accenting parts that add that signature shimmering quality to Rebecca's pieces. Some of the samples aren't the greatest, but they generally get the job done, including the tremolo strings. As far as MindWanderer's criticism of the arrangement not being interpretive enough, there's more to interpretive arrangements than melodic variation. Hmm, whatever's playing from 1:15-1:29 had a lot of buzziness to it; same from 1:38-1:45, that stuff should not be going on at all. If we couldn't get that addressed, I wouldn't say that should hold back this piece, but I've love to see some touchups there. I could understand something that exposed the samples this badly and created a quality disparity by sounding so poor causing some NOs or conditional YESs. Not much to the ending; I've heard worse endings, but I'd just call this one unsatisfying. A extended fadeout from 3:05 until the very end could have worked well for a structure like this; it would have seemed a lot less abrupt. If the buzzy weirdness wasn't going on, it wouldn't be a close vote despite the flaws. That said, on balance, much more works there than doesn't, so count me in! YES (borderline)

Gotta be honest, Gaspode's always solid based on my previous experiences, so with his stuff -- barring some sort of massive & unexpected curveball -- it's more about diving into another cool track rather than wondering whether or not it'll meet our arrangement and production standards, which he's always done. And indeed, creative arrangement ideas that blend the pair of themes well and show off cool instrumentation choices. The lead at 1:35 should have cut through more. Nothing struck me as out of place with any of the notes or transitions. A pleasure to listen to! YES

Hmmm... 2 NOs on a Kabukibear piece has definitely got my curiosity piqued. It's an acoustic guitar-based source; could it play it too conservatively or not fully fleshed out??? Let's see! Opens up sounding like a laid-back Western vibe, complete with body hits for percussion; I'm liking the vibe, for sure. Rhythmically, I appreciated this different presentation of the source. By about 1:00, the looped beats were droning on and didn't sound varied at all, so consider recording other hits to not end up with a loop that undermines the realism of the quasi-live performance. Cut-and-paste going on around 2:10 when the opening repeated. Dynamically, it's flat; structurally, it's repetitive. Surprising as it is to say, once you've gotten to about :51, you've essentially heard the entire dynamic range of the piece. There's too much that's looped throughout; sequencing/recording additional takes would allow for chorusing or stereo tricks, or even just provide more intrisically different performance dynamics. Unfortunate as it is to say, as I'm a sincere fan of your work, the others are right that this coasts for too long and isn't fully developed. You're leaning on too much cut-and-paste in a way that takes the listener out of believing this could be an organic performance. As in-game music, this totally works; if I heard this on a PS2, I wouldn't bat an eye. Intended as a standalone arrangement, however, the length isn't justified without more compositional & performance dynamics. If you're willing to revisit this, Justin, you definitely are capable of creating a rendition with different articulations that doesn't play the exact same way each and every time, and -- even within a narrower dynamic range like this one -- present more varied writing and textures that still carry this same energy level. Could be a fun challenge! It's really nice to see your name in the inbox again; I look forward to your future submissions, as always, and remain a fan! NO (resubmit)

Hmm, the instrumentation definitely sounds lower quality to start for this intro, I think because of the faux electric guitar synth coupled with the keyboard-esque (?) countermelody sounding rigid, but we'll see where it goes. Mixing seems too cluttered once the track kicks in at :15; there's not a TON going on texturally, yet it felt like there was a lot of muddiness. Cleared WAY up at 1:03... OK. By about 1:10, the beat pattern was already dragging on. It's a solid tone, but the pattern's not interesting enough; occasional variations there could spice things up. Some of that is caused by the other instrumentation crowding the soundscape and obscuring the off-beat bass writing, so you just hear the main thumps at 2 & 4. Cluttered again with the lead at 1:20; there may be some effects on it that's creating this muddiness problem. I'll also note that the bass writing is being steamrolled; I notice it if I'm actively listening for it, but it's almost a non-entity, it's so buried. When the soundscape clears up again at 2:29, you can hear it better again; it still doesn't cut through enough, IMO, but at least it's audible then. There are probably EQing issues that are allowing different parts to occupy the same frequency range. I did like how the writing changed from 1:59-2:28, as I was also getting lead fatigue at 1:59. You could vary up the lead instrument for the verses, or accent it with something other than the saw-like sound. The flute-style stuff at 1:03 & 2:29 were welcome changes. Gotta work on those endings; what you have now is too abrupt; you could let that least note trail off longer and feel like an actual resolution Yeah, a lot of this feels more like a work-in-progress without some impending writing and production refinements, and the other Js all heard the same issues I heard. Solid concept, but needs that attention to detail to carry it over the finish line. Would love to hear a further developed version! NO (resubmit)

Production-wise, I didn't have any significant issues with this; a more developed, substantive arrangement with this level of production would easily pass. Opens up super close in structure to the original, just adapted for orchestration. Leads and percussion sound very similar, and the tempo's the same, so more could be done to stand apart from the original. It comes off feeling like a MIDI transcription of the original was used as the base, then ornamented with some additional parts, but it ultimately doesn't feel particularly interpretive. Yeah, just texturally, this is beefed up, but it's too much of a cover structure without enough factors to distinguish it enough from the source tune. 3:13 sounds like a copy-pasta of 2:11 with the strings & choir brightened up some; more additive part-writing is there at 3:26, and I do notice the density's increased, but in execution it just feels like the volume's turned up rather than anything meaningful developing compositionally, since the lead instrumentation looping just continues ad nauseum. There are a lot of avenues for varying this up, whether that's changing up the leads, dropping some parts out, altering the rhythms or tempo, adding original sections or transitions. The goal here seems to be making a sound-upgraded orchestration, and there's nothing wrong with that in a vacuum. For OC ReMix, we're looking for arrangements that showcase more aspects of interpretation than this, just something to note for the future, Paul. I hope you're willing to submit something else and also tap into some more techniques of musical interpretation. NO

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(ALSO ADDED TO THE ORIGINAL POST) These resources really helped me when I hadn't done any job hunting in 11 years and was super rusty and out of practice: https://youtube.com/c/DonGeorgevich - Don Georgevich: Job Interview Tools https://youtube.com/c/ALifeAfterLayoff - Bryan Creely: A Life After Layoff What I'd recommend with these two YouTube channels: Just search through the videos for each of these channels for ANY topics that directly interest you the most. It could be about résumé writing, could be about cover letters, it could be about what interviewers are actually looking for when they ask you certain questions, it could be about career changes. There's enough content on both channels that you can just pick and choose what's interesting for you. So don't feel pressured to "OMG, watch every video", but when you get some breathing room, scan around and dig in. For all jobs, order the skills/impact bullet points in the order of relevance to the type of job you want, i.e. if you want to manage people, put any managerial experiences first; if you love reviewing contracts and data, list those kind of actions first; if you love solving problems, put the instances of product development, tool creation/metric measurement innovation first or customer service experience. In other words, steer your relevant experience towards what you want going forward, and de-emphasize other stuff. Include any professional development accolades, e.g. formal trainings, certifications, presentations. If you have anything like that, that’s relevant. Lists of impactful résumé verbs: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/action-verbs-to-make-your-resume-stand-out Lists of overused résumé terms: https://www.capstoneresumes.com/remove-25-words-from-resume Without overhyping yourself or using words you wouldn't normally say when casually speaking, use more of these impact verbs instead of more passive and generic verbs like "provide", "support", “work with”, and “assist”. In other words, stay true to how you communicate, but put yourself in the best possible light with verbs that you like from the big list. You'll need to add placeholders for numbers you would fill in to help demonstrate impact. Good résumés convey your IMPACT at your jobs, not just the list of responsibilities. Your aim is to illustrate: 1) how you left each job better than you found it; and 2) what hard & soft skills you demonstrated to do it. What specific things did you accomplish? How did you make money or innovate for the company? How did you make things more efficient or effective? That said: 1) If a number wouldn't be impressive (i.e. typically 10+), then don't include it. 2) NEVER ever overstate a number. Always underestimate while giving your best guess if you don't remember something more specific (e.g. "worked with 300+ customers"). If you overstate, you risk the company contacting an employer and them being told you've embellished/lied. 3) The numbers usually should represent total impact (e.g. if you did customer service at store for 5 years, you should say either a) approximately how many total customers you worked with over the years or b) how many customer, on average, you worked with per year). 8 most requested general skills, in order, according to ZipRecruiter (July 2022) - these are important skill to both say by name (for ATS/computer screenings) and demonstrate by listing related accomplishments: Communication skills Customer service Scheduling Time management skills Project management Analytical thinking Ability to work independently Flexibility

Intro was too crunchy for my personal taste, but no big deal. I enjoyed reading the submission letter and seeing how the structure played out based on it. It's going to be REALLY difficult not crediting "Hot Pursuit" as a source tune; you're right those MJ and DKC3 themes are close. Anyway, solid! YES

Just sanity checked it for dominant source tune usage, which wasn't remotely a problem. 2:30-2:44 may be taken from the MGS2 version of the main theme, since that stuff's not found in the first one, AFAIK. Nice development throughout; no repetitive sections to be found in this lengthy exploration of the MGS main theme with some other themes thrown in to help color the overall arrangement. Didn't have any issues with this feeling overlong. Count me in! YES

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We'll see how this arrangement attempts to expand on such a straightforward loop. Building on top on it with original writing's not a bad approach here. The lead guitar probably doesn't need to be so loud over the bass handling the source tune until :55, but it's alright. Something about the mixing of the leads leaves this sounding cluttered. Good idea to let the lead guitars take over the source theme after :51 to vary up the presentation of the melody. Got the mid-90's Spider-Man cartoon theme brought in for a cameo from 1:13-1:32; it's a limited usage, so it doesn't tank the track for having too much non-VGM arrangement in there. [None of the other Js are nerdy enough to have watched Spider-Man? :'-( My wife and I both loved it!] Nice dropoff at 1:49 to begin winding down the track down and gradually simplify the texture to make the mood more reminiscent of the original track. The overall levels could have been pushed up more, and something about the mixing's not bright enough, but no big deal. On the short side of arrangements here, but you're arguably not going to get more length out of a concept like this without just (cohesively) adding in completely original sections. The textures never stay in one place, so even though the structure has the source tune as the foundation, the track doesn't plod by sounding overly repetitive or static with the sound combinations or energy level. Solid work, Fabio! YES

Super conservative cover to start, though at 4 1/2 minutes, there's plenty of runway to eventually play with. Nice sampled voice stuff. I feel like I'm hearing a lot of light crackling before 1:30. 1:37 finally made the instrumentation pivot I was looking for to start personalizing the sound more. 3:12 had some nice female choir vocals as well to add some original writing, definitely very anime-esque. So about 90 seconds apiece of a super-close cover, 90 seconds of more interpretive instrumentation but still melodically conservative treatment, then 60 seconds of an original choir. Unlike some others, I didn't have an inherent problem with 3:12's choir section being "disconnected" from the rest of the track. The transition to it was just fine, and structures of tracks come in all sorts of forms; it's just important to keep in mind from an OCR arrangement standards perspective that none of that original writing section's material is interpretive arrangement. That said, the development and level of interpretation applied to "Bonds of Sea and Fire" needs to be more substantial for me to feel comfortable passing this. No issues if if ultimately passes, but I think the arrangement bar is higher and requires further personalization. The final non-VGM section is fine in a vacuum and doesn't need to be altered, IMO, but because the source tune isn't being invoked there, it just means the amount of time given to more thoroughly interpreting the source track is too limited. On the production side, this sounds great, and if this didn't pass as is, I don't think it would be a heavy lift at all for HarlemHeat to get this above the bar. Now can you dig that, sucka! NO (resubmit)

Chiptune, eh? Let's see what we've got. Doesn't sound as if it's meant to be 2A03 authentic in terms of channel limitations, but the sound palette is accurate and that's what really counts when it comes to that NES chiptune feel. Mixing sounds clear enough, so I'm optomistic there. The challenge vis-a-vis OCR's standards will be substantially personalizing the arrangement while creating a full enough atmosphere. About a minute in, with the first verse arriving, the percussion pattern felt plodding, though the rest of the voices were solid and the beats themselves have a good punch. I liked the more interpretive writing from 1:24-1:33, then a slowdown arrived at 1:37; pretty smooth downshift there at 1:42 (nice faux-explosion transition sound thrown in there too), followed by some much more interpretive handling of the theme. Nice chorusing of the lead at 2:21 for the closing section, which gave a brighter sound and was a technique that hadn't previously been employed for a fresh finish. The last hanging note could have trailed a little longer, but no big deal. In the first half, they had me, not gonna lie, i.e. based on the first half, I THOUGHT this might not get interpretive beyond the chiptune adaptation. Everything post-1:24 was a lot more interpretive, and that carried this over the line, IMO. Nice job, Nedim, we'll see how the others feel! YES

Sounds good, but would love to give the fiverr-commissioned violinist proper credit if we can. Great job per your usual, Peter! Smooth and mysterious (and well-mixed) soundscape throughout, and the themes combined well! YES

It won't be for everyone, but a fun musical pointillism exercise incorporating the source tune throughout. Knew prophetik would dig it, he gets the weird stuff. YES

The source usage breakdown was very much appreciated. Nice blending of the themes by Eino; a very exotic, robotic, hypnotic take! YES

First thing's first, the source tune information given was incomplete and/or inaccurate. Not sure where "Exercise Mode" came from as the listed source tune, unless that was a copy-pasta mistake from a past Mean Bean Machine sub. (EDIT: Yep, that was it.) Arrangement-wise, Sonic 2's "Mystic Cave Zone" was also used from :44-1:26, but was never named in the sub letter; not sure if it was used in Sonic Heroes, but noting that additional source here. I could just be mixing up things, but it seems like another different source tune's also being invoked at 1:36-2:36 over the top of the same backing writing as the first "Hang Castle" section before closing it out with "Hang Castle" again. Kind of sounded like Secret of Mana's "Into the Thick of It". (EDIT: "Mystic Mansion" - Thanks, Rexy!) The energy is good, but the string lead should have cut through to the foreground more. The bassline is well performed. The mixing choices make the brass presense sound so barren; same with the piano sprinkled in at 1:16. Why is the brass so upfront and dry (worst offender was 2:14-onward for the final section)? I've never heard something so energetic somehow have some parts sound so dry and exposed as such. The fadeout also seems messed up in that the track fades but the instrumentation ALSO abruptly stops cold in the middle of the volume dropping, but it didn't go to 0. That's all pretty sloppy; if you're going to fade out, the instruments still need to be playing, and the track needs to fully go to 0. I'm going to sound like I'm making the perfect the enemy of the good, and there's a lot of good here; the arrangement & performances are fun, Philemon, and I'm digging the potential here; the structure doesn't need any changes. The energy of the arrangement's solid, so I see the case for YES votes. I think the production should be tightened up so that this sounds cohesive, namely with the treatment of the brass and piano, and perhaps the string placement. It could be that me listening on headphones is making certain issues stand out more, but I'd love to hear one more mixing pass at this one. NO (resubmit)

Lovely source tune choice; enjoyed that immediately. Opens with a warm synth; not the most sophisticated, but a solid sound. Changes to a pumping electronic dance line at :31, going for a gradual buildup; cool sound design there for that line during this buildup. Definitely odd for the kick at 1:03 to come in so loud, but we'll see where the texture goes as the timing doubles and re-doubles starting at 1:17. Ooh, yep, what I was worried about happened after the track got going at 1:32; the kick stays WAY too loud, including louder than the leads. I was hoping this would get pulled back; right now, it's too much in the foreground compared to the melody and countermelody. The timing of everything isn't uniform; I could be wrong, but it seems like the beats don't properly drive this forward, because they're slightly behind the beat (most apparent when the beats are finally ever-present at 3:34). Even when the beats are a constant presense, they don't lend any movement to the track. You can hear some of the backing chords with the keyboard & orch stabs are dissonant (e.g. 1:46, 1:59). 2:49 was a barren section, and IMO doesn't work; some sort of padding there would allow the texture to thin out yet not sound empty. The keyboards at 3:04 are a staple sound in EDM, but I thought the tone was thin and mechanical-sounding. This is a creative and interpretive presentation. I dig the arrangement approach, which is giving me Mega Man X series vibes (or even the Mighty No. 9 main theme), and the attempt to vary up the sections was apparent. Unfortunately, the presentation isn't cohesive enough; the timing, texture, and dissonance issues all hold this back. MindWanderer's right about the textures feeling basic and barren, and the lack of sophisticated percussion/beat writing makes everything feel very static/plodding. It's not close to passing at your current experience level, Othello, but this definitely shows off your potential if you keep producing arrangements and refining your skills. Please keep at it! NO

The track was 3:07-long, so I needed to identify the source tune referenced for at least 93.5 seconds of the track for the source material to be dominant in the arrangement: :36-1:13, 1:48.75-2:04, 2:08.75-2:46 = 89.5 seconds or 47.86% overt source usage Based on Je's own notes on what he said was original writing vs. arrangement, I don't believe I'm missing anything here. I agreed with some of the production critiques, but it was nothing that would hold this back from being approved on that level. I didn't mind the ending; it was still a proper resolution. If someone else can identify more source usage that I somehow overlooked, I'd change my vote, but to me, this is a solid track, just a little source-light based on what I can make out, so that's an arrangement dealbreaker in all cases. If I'm correct, it shouldn't be difficult to slide in some more references to the source tune to bump this up to using the source tune for more than 50% of the track. NO (resubmit) EDIT (6/8): Re: MW's comments ("his count also skipped a 4-second break in the middle. Heck, there's even 3 seconds of silence at the end that could be trimmed out and doesn't need to count against it."), there was no silence in the middle to take into account, as I didn't count the pulsing line from 1:26-1:30 as somehow not being music, and I always take track silence at the beginning & end into account, though I can be forgetful, so I appreciate the nudge to be sure. I did listen again before reaching out to Je again and should have credited another 2 seconds for a trailing note that actually ends at 2:46, so I did account for that in the timestamping now

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