Liontamer

We post new music to the front page every few days. We've posted about 10 more arrangements since that latest torrent, but we intend to update the torrent quarterly going forward.

Cool idea altering the rhythms of the various fragments of the source tune. Very lush soundscape, and great dynamic contrast throughout. Extremely well personalized, that's for sure. Always loved this theme, and this was something you wouldn't immediately connect back to it, but I love and respect the extreme transformation here. Nice work, Michael! YES

Bowed strings opening things up are super-exposed and too thin. Woodwind was also too thin. There are still obvious uncanny valley issues, particularly with the bowed strings, but unlike the FF3 piece of Rebecca's that I just voted on, this piece doesn't expose the samples quite as much. Arrangement's beautiful, interpretive, and personalized per the Tripp standard. Would love some more depth to the strings, woodwind, and vox, but what's here gets the job done. Wish it was a stronger YES on the production side, but it's there.

I had to turn up the volume a touch to truly hear the details. I'm OK with the looseness of the timing in parts; nothing sounded out of place. There were some flat moments with the sax, but nothing close to making this not a pass on performance grounds. Great variations of the source tune throughout; lots of great varied iterations from both Karol and Andrew, and strong dynamic contrast during the whole piece! Short and sweet, good deal! YES

Sounds pretty MIDI-rippy to start, but I did like the sound palette there. At :36 and 1:10, the melody's too quiet underneath the supporting writing, but the melody's in the foreground again at :53; I don't think the contrast quite works as intended in these sections, but maybe increasing the melodic volume a touch would still make it more audible yet still subordinate in those other sections. While prophetik had a lot of production critiques as well, and he's an accomplished musician (whereas I don't make any music), I just wasn't hearing much to take issue with on the production level; everything seemed to occupy its own space and though I took issue with the prominence of the melody in places, it's a potentially subjective thing for me there. Really nice dynamic contrast with the change in instrumentation at 1:53. 2:10 basically goes back to a rinse-and-repeat of :35 but with :52's lead. 2:53 essentially repeats 1:27 with some instrumental variation but the same beats/patterns and energy underneath. While I can hear how the arrangement isn't just doing a complete cut-and-paste for the second half beyond 2:10, the overall tone and presentation was repetitive nonetheless and things started dragging out. I wouldn't go as far as prophetik would in terms of saying the arrangement doesn't stand apart from the original source tune; the part-writing and instrumentation are significantly and meaningfully expanded here. However, the percussion patterns and overall levels generally hovering in the same place for nearly the entire track did make this feel overlong and underdeveloped. Anything else you can do in terms of creating some sort of dynamic contrast would help put this over the top, IMO. Good work so far, Marc, and I think you'd be able to refine this and get it over the top if the arrangement writing and/or sound palette evolved some more. NO (resubmit)

The instrumentation is firmly in the uncanny valley, so it's not gonna win any awards for realism and depth, but it's certainly serviceable and solid relative to our production standards. This is definitely a medley structure with brief hits of several themes, including some quick transitions, but the instrumentation and dynamics employed here do make the piece feel cohesively presented and it's obvious the transitions are thought through and purposeful. I'm willing to hear other judges opinions as well, including djp's, but I'd say this is a valid medley with care put into the transitions. The expansive part-writing and solid orchestration make it an easier sell on the arrangement side. Good stuff, Ben! YES

The brass samples in particular were in uncanny valley territory. Really bad decay at the very end that very needlessly exposed the samples. Would love to hear this using samples or production techniques that gave these sounds more depth. The arrangement's short and sweet but certainly interpretive with varied instrumentation and expansive enough with additional part-writing. Volume was also quiet, but I could hear everything. YES (borderline) EDIT (10/27): Actually, DragonAvenger's on point with the samples ultimately dragging this down. The bowed strings are also very exposed (e.g. 1:47), and areas where the brass should be pulling more weight (e.g. 1:24, 1:42, 2:14) stand out like a sore thumb. Nah. This is definitely below the bar. Let's beef up these samples and run it back. NO (resubmit)

A rejection's not meant to be painful, but sorry for the wait; it always too long, and something we're actively working on. I've moved your particular submission out to Judges Decisions; if/when you resubmit it, all resubmissions do go back on the queue as soon as we see them. I always appreciate any nudges for updating the judging process thread too. I wasn't aware of a Meet the Judges post, but if we have one, I'd be happy to ask current judges to add their thoughts into it.

I had a source breakdown of this just to double-check things and the F'ing computer ate my homework, so I'm mad. Anyway, nice work, this checked out. Boo technology. YES

Really thin synths to open this up; it felt like there was a quality disparity to them compared to the rest of the track; you probably could have cut out the first 14 seconds based off of the intro synths sounding so anemic. I liked the tone of the rock guitars added in at :39, though they had too distant of a sound. The drumwork also felt static, which is odd because I was hearing fills here and there; other judges noted overall repetition there, but the patterns themselves had good energy, so I wasn't as put off by them. Something's off with the textures despite a lot of solid instrumentation. I think the mixing was making my ear focus more on the drumming than the lead instruments at times, including the bawu, and especially the violin at 1:17. Rexy had a lot of great EQ suggestions to help carve out more space for some parts, because they do compete with each other. Very nice dropoff at 1:55 followed by an e-violin-sounding line at 2:08; man, this has such a nice range of sounds to it. It's really disappointing that the mixing's more muddy than it should be, but on the plus side it does give the soundscape more depth; I'd rather have it like this than too dry. This definitely could/should have improved mixing, but I can make out the parts well enough. The percussion and bass stuff, OK, it's repetitive, but it's energetic, and I'm hearing some variations/fills to not just seem completely droning, even though the mixing made me focus on it. At the end of the day, I look at it like this: if Tremendouz said the source files were gone, then I would want this mix as is. The personalized arrangement approach, the dynamic contrast employed in the quiet build and middle dropoff, the varied instrumentation blending organic and synth, the flawed yet still reasonable production, I think Gario's right. With the sum total of this I'm definitely on board. Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. Let's go! YES

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Totally OK.

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Not my cup of tea, but this is definitely well-made. DragonAvenger nailed it on the need for this to let up at some point, but I'm in her camp where you recognize that but can still look beyond it at the overall arrangement and presentation. No need to be so negative on yourself, Mak. I'm glad you didn't let your own POV on this piece prevent you from submitting it. YES

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