Liontamer

The beats have good intensity, but the genre adaptation of the source tune itself feels very by-the-numbers. I dug the instrumentation for the post-chorus bridge at 2:09. I liked the chiptune stuff introduced at 1:43 to add some original writing underneath the source melodies, but that also felt like a one-trick pony as the concept was brought back later as a cut-and-paste as the only real supplement underneath the melody at 3:26. Some new writing ideas there would have been better. Beats dropped out at 2:09 only to return at 2:23 and again at 3:14 with exactly the same writing and production as before, which became boring over the long haul. The leads from 3:01-3:14 were behind the beat, so watch that. The track also didn't fade to 0 at the end, so watch for small details like that. Dynamically, this was feeling flatter than intended. Once you get to 1:17, the beats essentially just coast on auto-play with the same patterns and energy, so even when things pick up more towards the finish (3:27, 3:40, 3:54, 4:06) with what's supposed to be escalating intensity, the overall dynamics feel very static as a result. See what you can do to be more interpretive and/or additive and/or more varied with this presentation. Whether it's the melody, the chiptune writing, or the beats, you have areas where more development is possible. Decent base here, but lots of unrealized potential. NO

Definitely co-signing with the fellow musician Js on the off-key stuff referencing "I'm a Spy" (which sounded awful), and then Emunator's comment on the dry synth stacks, which also stood out a lot as well. Good energy otherwise, and some creative weaving the various source themes. IMO, just fix the wrong key for the "I'm a Spy" usage and get those dry synths to not so vanilla, thin, and generic and this would be in more, better shape. Good work so far, Michael, this definitely has a place waiting for you on OCR. NO (resubmit)

Drumming plodded during some simpler sections, but otherwise sounded pretty solid and was a good foundation for the track. Accordion at 1:00 was rigid, and that's not a new criticism from me. I liked Gregory and Eric joining in at 1:22, because the flute was lively and the cello added more depth. Greg and Eric's performances pulled this over the bar in terms of the energy level, and I usually have a problem with the pacing of Reu's similar pieces feeling stilted. I won't make the perfect the enemy of the good here, but I'm waiting for the day when Reuben has that blowaway accordion performance that makes the track come alive; accordion doesn't have to sound stiff. Good stuff all around though with a laid-back version of the source here. YES

Good intensity to open things up; a bit muddy, but seems OK to start. Good build at :34 with the little tick beats. OK, at :45, you have the big rise in volume and things are so flooded until :54; need to double-check the mixing there. I could see others voting NO on a lack of melodic interpretation, but that isn't the end-all-be-all of interpretation. This was structurally conservative but focusing on instrumentation, additive writing, and sound design to provide the personalization, which is a route others have exploited well. The big booming at 2:38 was a bit much. It didn't make sense to go back to the old rhythms back at 2:48 after you briefly had some new ideas; if anything, it seemed like the intensity was ramping up for the finish, but then you decided against it. I didn't think the trade-offs with the beat patterns worked that well, even though they weren't a big negative. Overall, the arrangement's over the line, IMO, but the mixing needs to be tweaked so that the densest sections aren't so muddy and indistinct. Once that's addressed, this would be good to go. I could see others thinking I'm too harsh, and I'm also interested in other POVs on the level of interpretation of arrangement. This one's close, maybe 95% of the way for me, it just needs one more pass at the mixing, and hopefully a musician J can better articulate the lack of clarity I was hearing in the thickest sections. Very nice so far, Billy, I'm really glad I got to hear this. NO (resubmit)

The track was 3:18-long, so I needed to make out the Funky Kong theme for at least 99 seconds for the source material to be considered dominant: :00-:53, :55-1:08, 1:22-1:34.5, 1:36.5-1:39.5, 1:43.75-1:48, 2:03.75-2:15.5, 2:34-2:36, 2:42-2:43, 2:59-3:00 = 101.5 seconds or 51.26% overt source usage There was more in the latter half, but because the uses of the source melody were so low in volume, it was difficult to make out. No worries though, as the point of me timing this out was ensuring the source usage dominated the arrangement, which it did. Arrangement-wise this approach is mostly solid, and I like how you've changed the emphasis on certain parts of the theme along with your instrumentation ideas. I'd argue though that after 2:18, the references to the Funky Kong theme need to stay in play more consistently, otherwise this starts veering away from arranging the VGM, but when I timed things out, you still clearly invoked the theme for more than 50% of the duration of the track, so I'm fine with what's there. BUT, and that's a big "but", the sound is washed out, with the line that came in at :07 sounding really muddy; I liked the intensity at :27, but right from the jump, this mixing's a huge dealbreaker because none of the part-writing is properly separated. Emu also had great point on how there's dryness and clipping that need to be addressed. IMO, the arrangement doesn't need to be touched, and I agree that this needs another pass at the production before we could post this. If you can improve the mixing here, Alexander, this has a spot waiting here for you. I hope you'll take Emunator and Jivemaster's critique in mind, use the Workshop forums here for any further feedback and definitely please resubmit this. NO (resubmit)

I like the arrangement, and it gets it done with no problem as far as the interpretation. Oof, hated the brass from :31-:36 & 1:04-1:26 (not as bad elsewhere); very exposed attacks and no depth/richness to the sound, especially when it's placed so prominently. Beautiful ending section at 2:15. It's a solid arrangement, but the brass samples need a step up. It seems like small potatoes, but it's a sub-3-minute arrangement and I'd argue there was a needlessly big quality disparity in those brass sections. Let's get one more pass at this one to better realize the potential of the writing there. NO (resubmit)

The sustained strings strained for credibility but were serviceable. Maybe I'm just an oldhead, but the arrangement was fine despite being conservative. I'd definitely prefer something more distinct with the instrumentation, but this was a perfectly valid structurally conservative take that relied more on additional part-writing and ornamentation to put more meat on the bones. I don't mind the cases for voting NO, because there's a range of acceptability, but you don't need to reinvent the wheel, just reasonably put your own stamp on it. More could have been done in that respect, yes, but I still feel enough was done. YES (borderline)

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AFAIK, it did not have any album projects.

Bumpage; anyone need helps?

I can't say I've ever seen album tracks do that on my iPhone. @Centuros @Silverpool64 Did you change anything at all about how the sorting/display works? I can't replicate this on my iPhone, but wanna look into this further.

Opened up extremely thin with super fakey-sounding instruments, but maybe it has that 90s PC game charm, we'll see. Hmm, then live sax in there at :28; no synergy there at all, IMO, because the sax sounded more expressive than everything else (though it lacked power), while the sequenced and keyboard-based stuff sounded really loose and bland. Aside from the cymbals, the drums had no life to them at all. Emunator's right that everything just lacked body and presence; let's beef this up so this doesn't sound so dry. Flat notes from 1:04-1:07; may need to just redo the comping there. Snap, crackle, pop Rice Krispies stuff all over the render from 2:03-2:05 that would need to be removed, so double-check what happened in those spots. The ending had absolutely no resolution, so it was flatter than a pancake; just betrayed a lack of ideas for the conclusion and felt like you gave up. Cool concept, Chalis, but lacked polish and richness all around. This won't be the track that makes it, but definitely ask around our forums if you haven't already for more production advice and feedback so that you can improve upon things going forward. Hope to hear more from you, especially given the uniqueness of going jazz with this tune. NO

Kick drums added in at :33 didn't sound like a good fit when they were so isolated, but it was brief. Strangely enough, I thought the faster bow movements of the chorus's countermelody (starting at :10) sounded a lot more realistic than the leads starting at :42 (when they were a lot louder). Brass at :57 also usually didn't sound good, particularly the saxophone sample. I mean, the standard here isn't that high; even something like "Jazzy NYC '99" works well enough, but the attacks in this here were extremely jarring throughout. Hopefully a musician J can better articulate what doesn't work about those particular sounds. 2:46-3:04 turned into a wall of sound, but details were getting lost. There was the chorus line in particular that might as well not have been there because it was so obscured, but 3:04-3:19 sounded much stronger and you could hear the parts more clearly. Brass re-appeared at 3:19 and dragged this down; if you can finesse those samples or get more realistic-sounding ones, go for it, otherwise consider different instrumentation. Really nice energy to the guitar on its own at 4:21 for the close. I love the ambitiousness of the arrangement; the interpretation, instrumentation choices, and textures are all strong and easily above the bar. The substance of the arrangement definitely doesn't need to be touched. The brass and cluttered mixing pull this down, but this could definitely be refurbished and make it in another form. Really strong base here, Jean Marc, and I hope you'll consider resubmitting this one in particular. NO (resubmit)

The beats definitely felt more basic and plodding than they needed to be, but I liked the padding filling things in at 1:11 and the dynamic shift until 1:41 and again from 2:09-2:38. I get that the beats are going for a more minimalist feel, but when I listen to something like Kraftwerk's "Aéro Dynamik", the sound design there is more sophisticated and there's more movement; I know the stylistic comparison isn't apples-to-apples, but I'm just thinking of something else with a relatively stripped down feel that's still employing effects. Perhaps giving the main beats more of a tail could help flesh things out, but without creating a huge contrast for the padding in the drop-off sections. I like the treatment of the source tune, and dig the approach of toning down an energetic source, but something's missing, IMO, that's making this feel underdeveloped. Will be sure to watch the other votes in case there's aspects to this that I'm overlooking. Really good base here, Mike. NO (resubmit)

Mixing seemed odd right from the get-go. Lots of hiss in the high-end that undermined the quality of the beatboxing sounds. This needs some serious EQ love. The chipsounds are also really thin (which isn't inherently a problem), but there's nothing filling out the soundscape here, so this feels barren despite the energy level; the way this sounds, it comes off like there's going to be a transition to a more fleshed out sound, yet it never gets there. Aside from the guitar in the background, the textures seem too empty, though it's a cool concept. If you can figure out how to pad or otherwise fill out the background with something else, you'd be golden; there are NES themes that don't feel texturally empty like this. Eliminate the hiss/clipping and flesh out the textures, and this would be solid. No need to change any of what's written. Really awesome concept; would love to see a revision of this posted here, so please consider a resubmission. Even if you've moved on from this, definitely keep submitting here; I appreciate the creativity of what y'all have put together. NO (resubmit)

Nice counterplay with the banjo to support the source tune and add another dimension here, and I can thankfully say the accordion and drumwork had a little more life to them this time around, since those have been recurring issues in other submissions. Good stuff throughout with the handling of the arrangement; good subtle dynamic contrast here as well. The banjo section from 1:56-2:27 seemed slightly more unfocused/off-key than intended, though it wasn't something that broke the track. The hard cut with the transition at 2:27 was extremely sloppy; you had parts abruptly cut out mid-sound instead of fading, which was a needlessly bizarre blip. Cymbal crashes starting at 3:01 didn't have synergy with the rest of the instrumentation, but it could just be a personal taste thing for me; they weren't mixed in a way that made this a big issue though, so it is what it is. The arrangement and performances were solid, and the odd moments/criticisms were minor in the grand scheme of things. Solid work from Reuben with the assist from Natalya! YES

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Asking around, but, man, that track sounds like so many different influences. Don't know the track but will try to find some others in a similar vein or using some similar instrumentation or techniques.

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