Liontamer

Yeah, the mixing isn't ideal, so we should reach out to Tony for a possible revision. While I definitely hear how supporting writing is being obscured, the leads are clear enough, and I thought this was reasonably mixed, certainly enough to meet the production standards. Sometimes, supporting part-writing just isn't clear, but in this case, it's not enough of an issue to reject on. Good EDM arrangement that I'm glad went to some more creative places as the track went on, since it started as a very straightforward genre adaptation. Good energy throughout, and a lot of fun! YES

Good deal, Danilo. YES

I gotta say, I loaded that file up and saw a 1:18-long time and literally went "Ah, fuck", because there was NO WAY this could be enough to pass as a reasonably developed arrangement. But then... original word salad lyrics with good variations in the rhythms & delivery, strong production, constant small (and some big) textural changes to change up the energy, and a sudden finish that actually wasn't disappointing. Wow. Man, what the fuck? Maybe others won't agree, but dammit, y'all pulled this off. 78 seconds, and yet... YES Color me surprised. Commendable job, and lots of fun!

Beautiful source tune choice. The piano lacks realism, but I've heard this style before in plenty of Japanese soundtracks, and I'm not put off by it because the piano sound has body to it that mitigates the realism issue. I'm surprised no one else expressly pointed this out, but once the choir came in at 1:18, the soundscape became cluttered and the choir vox & padding were lightly distorting and also eating up the rest of the instrumentation. Weird note fade on the vox at 1:54 that sounded unnatural, and I agreed with prophetik on the male choir vox sounding more unrealistic, although I would say that as long as the mud wasn't there, it could sound serviceable. Yeah, pretty much any time this vox is louder, it's just resulting in a lot of mud (e.g. 1:18-1:48, 2:00-2:28, 2:45-3:00). Arrangement-wise, this definitely was more conservative, but there's enough change in the instrumentation choices that I think this wasn't a huge deal. More of the issues for me are on production. If you're willing to revisit this, take the other Js criticisms of the piano and vox in mind, and do see if there are some additional ideas that can be sprinkled in to create further personalization of the arrangement. NO (resubmit)

In the opening, the melody was getting lost in the overall sound until :33, but we'll see what happens later on. I'm about 1:50 in, and I'm never hearing that turn where the melody cuts through more; I don't think it's just a personal taste thing, I believe the lead/melody should be more upfront to help anchor and direct the track, and that's really my only issue with it, along the lines of what MindWanderer's mentioned. Right now, the arrangement remains strong and creative, but the mixing of the parts leaves this arrangement feeling relatively directionless and ends up undermining the intended dynamics of the piece. No hate, but I thought I'd be swooping in for a quick close-out of this one, but I'm not there yet. Still very promising and we'll see how the rest of the vote goes. Definitely don't be discouraged if this doesn't make it yet, Li-Wen; the writing doesn't need to change, but the mixing could use another pass. NO (resubmit)

Hey, cool almost demake approach. LOVE this mix title, BTW. When the main melody arrived at :40, I was looking for more fullness to the textures. Some sort of padding would have been nice, as it feels like there's a lot of dry parts involved; something along the lines of the line that faded in at 1:34 would have worked nicely underneath the :40 section, so I liked hearing that then complement the melody at 1:55 (even though I felt the melody should have stayed louder, but just a personal preference). Some more delay on that backing part at 2:08 would have been great, because everything just sounds very dry, unlike what was going on from 1:42-1:55 and 3:05-3:25. Even when things are fuller and arguably cluttered, the individual parts remained pretty dry. Minor thing, but I'd let that last note at 3:32 taper off longer; as is, the ending's very abrupt and flat. The arrangement is strong, but hopefully another J can elaborate on the overall dryness I'm hearing. I think one more pass at giving this some additional body to the sound would help this sound more polished and complete. Right now, the production on this sounds like a WIP, albeit one where the arrangement's finalized and in a strong place. Knowing how "Cossack Skies" turned out, I know you're capable of making the tweaks needed to get this over the finish line and sounding stronger. Good base here. NO (resubmit)

Pretty intense genre adaptation. The mixing's was rougher/muddier than it should have been and lacked highs, but I can make out the part-writing reasonably enough. The orchestration sounded pretty fake, but was limited in use, plus couching it more in the background mitigated the lack of realism of the samples. Each theme had a creative treatment where you'd get one straightforward melodically conservative (yet expansive) rendition of the theme followed by some original writing over the foundation of the theme, so the interpretation was there. Total non-transition at 1:09 into the Sonic 3 boss theme, which was disappointing and definitely dinged this, but you had a better transition at 3:24 back into the Sonic 1 boss theme, which at least sounded more logical and flowed better. The strong performances carry this over the line even though that first theme transition at 1:09 will always be a sore spot and could easily be tweaked to flow better. Would love a revision if possible. Nonetheless, count it, Andy. YES

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At :11, it's already apparent this was mixed too hot, so you're left with a lot of muddiness and at other points crunchiness; check out 3:39-4:01 where some padding gets added in and the whole thing just becomes mud. Strings also sounded pretty fake, and when you go through more of this, pretty much all of the orchestration sounds pretty exposed. Maybe others would say it's serviceable enough, and I'd agree if the mixing were more reasonable and mitigated the realism issues. The rock part sounds pretty solid though, albeit too crowded. I think the orchestration and synth components weren't mixed very well, and I didn't get a sense that these parts really shared the same soundscape/room, e.g. the brass at 2:51, which should have had something more like a big hall sound. Pull back the volume some, let the parts breath and tweak the mixing of the orchestration to sound fuller and more realistic. A strong arrangement concept that's been hampered by the production/mixing not being sharp enough or balanced, but that's not to discount Dylan's great concept and big energy here; don't sacrifice the energy, but do make sure things aren't too cluttered. NO (resubmit)

Lots of swirling around the stereo field for an interesting opening on headphones. The beat arriving at :33 felt relatively basic, but let's see what else enters the picture. The change into 1:15's section was very disappointing; the textures felt way too empty and this would only make sense as a purposeful contrast with the track then quickly filling out. Same at 1:59; you've just got some basic beats/claps under the "Another Medium" melody, the piano also feels super robotic, and there's not that shift to complexity and fullness in the writing and textures. The final three notes at 3:32 were flatter than a plate of piss; let that ending breathe more. :'-( The musicians Js could better articulate how to flesh out this piece, because you've got a lot of potential in terms of the melodic interpretation. However, there's an additional level of depth lacking in the writing. The piano sequencing was rigid, the percussion was usually too basic and texturally thin, and the overall execution felt like it never rose higher than second gear. Although you may not be able to polish up this one into a pass, Dylan, there's some potential here; definitely try your hand at improving this one if you're still open to it, otherwise I look forward to what I know would be another promising future submission. NO (resubmit)

I never heard the original submission, so I'm hearing this fresh. Pretty sinister take. I loved the dynamics and constant instrumentation changes; they never felt like a gimmick or changing/evolving just for the sake of. Minor production crit: 3:18-3:49 was definitely cramped and I would have liked the line referencing the source to be more audible there. However, it was brief and at least contrasted with other parts of the track where it was more prominent. (Small thing, but props too for making a seemingly sudden ending also fade out properly.) Very creative take on the source tune, Chris! YES

Just FYI, I've only heard the revised track. Damn. Wow. Just a jazzy tour de force. Amazing arrangement and musicianship! YES

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Gian reached out to me on his own and was looking to revise this and make the opening build stronger. I shared with him the existing votes, which he appreciated, and we were both on the same page with seeing the potential for improvement. We'll hold off on further votes until we get an updated version.

Quick props on this one. Nice approach going expansive with new part-writing to build upon such a minimal source. Cool approach! YES

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Love this source tune and looped it incessantly 15 years ago. Rebecca did a nice job applying her new age, organic-minded instrumentation approach to the source material. There were times the familiar belltones of the source were very deemphasized, so I could see some listeners wishing that weren't the case, but that was purely a subjective thing, and I can appreciate the change in textures and energy here. The track can seem directionless because the source melody is downplayed, so I wouldn't be surprised by criticisms like that either, but I wasn't bothered by that approach. Nice tempo change around the 4:20 mark towards the finish, BTW. There are things that make the presentation different, and I'm cool with that. Overall, a solid, albeit subdued, arrangement approach. YES

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game(s): Chrono Cross Song Title: Guldove Shaman Songs Remixed: Earth Dragon Isle Here’s a link:

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

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

Folding@Home has also been doing protein folds for COVID-19 research as well, so if you've dorpped off, now's a great time to get back to running the program on your computers, folks!

The bowed string articulations definitely aren't the best/most realistic, but they're serviceable enough. Rebecca always does a good job fleshing out her orchestrations and giving them plenty of character and textural variation. There's some dynamic contrast in play, but until 2:41's shift into a winddown phase, the overall energy level was flatter than it should have been despite the constant instrumental changes; playing more with tempo or rhythmic variations could have helped there. Yeesh, there's no ending though, with a very sudden cut-off at 3:24 that would need to get fixed so that it properly tails off. On headphones, I'm also hearing some very light static/pops (e.g. :20-:29, 1:22-1:25, 1:40-1:48 [big pop at 1:48], 2:15-2:18. 2:43-2:48, 2:56-2:59) all over the place that would need to be removed before we could roll with this. YES (conditional on fixing ending and pops) EDIT (7/23): /listens to fixed version Cool. Pops fixed. Ending's not totally cut off, but still fades out too quickly. Bah. YES

Yeah, I could have gone for something more melodically interpretive, but the personalization of the theme was handled nicely, so there's no issues re: the arrangement. Really smooth usage of the Gaster theme at 1:29; that's really the first time I've heard it sound mysterious yet positive as opposed to scary; beautiful touch. Not a fan of the exposed keyboard at 1:59; it's a purposeful aesthetic but still doesn't really sound good. However, it's only a dozen seconds, so we'll live. The soundscape did come off cluttered, but not in a dealbreaking way. I liked hearing that grimy backing synth adding some flavor to things throughout. The core beats ultimately ended up feeling too repetitive, but there was dynamic contrast via dropoffs, and the instrumentation & textures did change around enough to make up for the thump/clap beats dragging out. Agreed with the ending being flat and sounding like a jumpy transition to an underwhelming fadeout. Overall, Erick, the beat-writing and mixing could have been tweaked, but what here gets it done in a fun way! Count it! YES

Thanks a lot for the source usage breakdown, which made this super easy to evaluate for arrangement. Fun stuff the whole way through with fun production choices throughout. Nice, spacious soundscape, and a dynamic and fun arrangement! YES