Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Bah, I thought I voted on this thang! (Lazy./Busy./Not actually lazy.) Amazing source tune. Some pitchy slips, no doubt, yet well-performed on the whole and full of heart. PINK ENERGY, a.k.a. LOVE! :-) YES

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Artist Name: Mike Norvak This is my final submission from the Doom remixes of the album. The style is really different from the rest of the EP. The first half is more 90´s EDM oriented with a tripplets beat base whilst the second half is more 80's influenced with a regular 4x4 compass, both parts driven by nostalgia. I think this is my particular way of saying goodbye to the synthwave era, at least for now... Thanks for listening! Games & Sources Robert C. Prince Endgame Music 1994

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In a vacuum, this is definitely a strong Game Boy track. It could definitely use more going on with the stereo field, so I agree with Hemo saying it would be better as chiptune+. Right now, the potential dynamics of the track aren't fully realized. The intro's really spartan, and I realize there's a build; that said, this could start at :16 and not lose anything. The percussive crash-style sounds brought in at :47 are too sizzly, IMO; I'd pull the volume of those back. The CV source usage seems very limited as mainly a countermelody/call-and-response underneath the SM arrangement, but that's not inherently a problem, it just means it's not a huge focus. The :48-1:38 & 2:08-2:40 sections should be shortened. When the channels are so limited and you have long runs of writing where the dynamics don't change, it makes these sections feel overlong and dragging out. As prophetik noted, there's too much cut-and-paste and too many areas that don't feel dynamic because of retreading. Winddown into a transition at 2:59 and then arranging the Super Metroid theme again with different sounds. The faux-string stabs have pop sounds from 3:21-3:28 & 4:02-4:09 that should be eliminated. Cool stuff, but the structuring should be tightened up and more varied up. Well in the right direction, and the transformation to Game Boy chiptune's very creative. NO (resubmit)

Artist Name: MET∆TRON Originally called "Link and the Wind Fish Go Clubbing," this ended up becoming more of a piece about Link having a nightmare about battles past, and the looming threat of Ganon's return. I had the drums done first and wasn't sure what to do with them, and I had just played through Link's Awakening again, so I dreamed up this little ditty. Games & Sources Legend of Zelda - game over Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - light world dungeon, ganon's message, final battle Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Final Boss, Miniboss, Ballad of the Wind Fish

Would suggest listening to the source theme more so that you're absolutely sure you've substantially invoking it enough instead of going for just vibes, but of course that's just keeping OCR's arrangement standards in mind rather than dictating what creative path you ultimately choose to go down, which can obviously be whatever you want it to be. At :25 it moved over into this bassline being the most prominent aspect, and it's not musical. Same with the electric guitar-like lead at :49, which is not melodious. There's the source melody at 1:04, and the notes have been changed in a way where this all sounds flat and isn't melodious. Another flat lead at 1:36 then back to that bassline. Agreed with proph that it's unfortunately all tedious and difficult to enjoy because it's not musical. There's definitely some creative SFX usage, but it's all pretty scattershot, and none of that could make up for an arrangement that isn't musical. Abrasive messiness at 4:47 that just comes off like randomness without direction. There's always latent potential, but you'll need to put the time in asking questions in music communities on where you're going wrong. In short, far from musically coherent, so you need to spend more time arranging or crafting something that sounds melodious and THEN working on all the sound design stuff would be worthwhile. NO

Listened in my car yesterday, but that's not my ideal set-up, so I didn't want to lay down a vote until I could hear it on headphones and better appreciate the soundscape. I'll firstly say though, fun source tune choice, which has a Mega Man X vibe for me in some ways with this sound palette. If this was old-school OCR, this would have been a shoo-in and looked back on fondly. As is, the breakbeats all feel very stapled in and some of the synths feel generic. But the energy's solid and the interpretation's creative; if it were 20 years ago, this would have likely made it (I was on the panel back then, so I'm pretty confident in saying so.) Good Game Boy sounds, then a nice synth at :10 and again at :21 as more elements came in for the build. Kind of murky, but no problem. More warbly at :43 with a changeup of sounds. Breakbeats start fading in around :54. Yeah, at 1:01, the breakbeats come in and the mixing choices definitely don't make any sense. The melody barely sounds out over the pad-like sounds and breakbeats until 1:22. The breakbeats sound very lo-fi like you grabbed a very low bitrate sample; the contrast between how lacking in highs & clarity the first set of breakbeats is compared to the next set at 1:42 feels very sloppy and disjointed; and I get that this is purposefully jumping around the place with different textures and big intensity, but there's ways to have other sounds and effects create logical transitions to where sudden major changes in the sound quality/clarity makes sense, but there shouldn't be quality disparities in the mixing (Speedball "Speedy Guitar" is a good example of pulling this off). The bassline from 1:22-1:33 has decent presence, but doesn't have a firm shape, so the notes it hits adds some textural body, but otherwise aren’t audible and don't register much, if that makes sense. I did like the brief chiptune transition at 2:02 before going back to the fuller texture at 2:12, which was better handled, even though again the full soundscape at 2:12's muddy until 2:34. Since I'm not a musician, and the musician Js have tried to hone in on how you can improve the production side of this, all I can say is that this has a ton of potential and doesn't need to be mucked with in terms of the writing and structure. Again, super creative approach, cosmo, and I'm fully on board with the arrangement side. To sum up the production side, look into reducing the overall muddiness and imbalance amongst the parts, ensuring you don't have such quality disparities from section to section. No more clean, then muddy, then clean, then muddy, at least not without more intentionality and transitions. Varying the breakbeat loops would be cool, and the way they don't vary much does undermine the dynamics of the piece some, but it wasn't a huge deal for me; that would be a nice-to-have, but just addressing the mixing would be enough to nudge it over the line for me. That's about it, and I hope you're willing to revisit this one! NO (resubmit)

Artist Name: Audiomancer, Aka Eric This is a ReMix I put together with a few solo instruments. It's an arrangement consisting of trumpet, violin, and flute. I had trumpet carrying the melody throughout, but paradiddlesjosh said something about switching the lead instrument in the WIP forums, so I had the violin take the lead for the B section. As always, thanks for the time taken to review this submission!:) Games & Sources Final Fantasy 6, Terra's theme. Nobuo Uematsu,

Artist Name: WhoAmI? My goal for this remix was to create something inspired by 90s happy hardcore music, which was a favorite back in my teens. For the overall structure, I wanted contrasting sections, starting off harder and darker, before transitioning to a more uplifting midsection. The source track begins with some catchy major chords, which I molded into a sinister rave stab. To fill out the track I added another stab that bounces nicely off the first one, and a galloping bassline. And of course, genre-typical drums. The next two sections are all about upbeat pianos and sweet synth choirs. My friend @fataloror helped me create the choir patch. She provided a bunch of breathy vocal recordings that were perfect for achieving that retro choir sound that I love. I didn't have a plan for the final section, but I did want to include a droning acid line somewhere and found that the chord progression there lent itself perfectly to that. As usual, it was a ton of fun to work on and I learned many new things, including: Volume automation is important and something I need to practice. Time stretched samples can become cool transition effects. Hope you like it! Games & Sources The track is called "See You Again" from the game Ys I. To my knowledge it is included in all versions of the game.

Artist Name: jnWake Another month, another DoD track! This one's from december though, as I didn't enter on january (breaking a 25 month streak... everything ends eventually!). Anyway, this is my first DoD related submission that's an ALT track, which are submissions that aren't sent to the competition. Many of them are jokes but some people send alts because they have too many musical ideas! In my case, this particular track was created as the background music for Naop's (another DoD member) interview of evilsonic (yet another DoD member, who's now the site's director). Some time ago, Naop (who hosts a podcast) started doing interviews of DoD members and since july has been submitting snippets of interviews (with background music) as ALT entries to DoD. The first one was from my own interview and had evilsonic doing background music, so for december we turned it around! As evilsonic's name comes from Shadow (the character), I thought it'd be fun to cover something from his titular game. After listening to the entire OST, I settled on "Event - Flying with Tornado", a 20 second track with one fun melody... extending that to a full cover was fun but I'm not 100% how the judges will feel about it! The source is basically one guitar melody over a G# -> F# chord progression and then some descending chromatic arpeggios to end (as Tails' ship Tornado falls to its doom). Lemme now do a quick breakdown: 0:00-0:05: Descending arpeggio from the source. 0:05-0:29: G# to F# (over G# bass but still) and some variations. 0:30-0:53: More direct cover of the source material over a chill backing. 0:53-1:17: I don't think I can pretend there's any source here, but the melodies I wrote feel fitting for the source's style! 1:17-1:30: A bridge, also "original". 1:30-2:22: Source melody on piano as we do a key change for a synth solo that begins with melodies taken directly from the source. 2:22-end: Variations over the descending arpeggio riff to end the track. Hope you enjoy! In my mind there's over 50% source but you'll be the judges (literally)! Games & Sources Game: Shadow the Hedgehog Source: Event - Flying with Tornado

Artist Name: 7DD9 As usual synthesizers taken over the arrangement and gave it a dark and cold mood exposing the dark chronicles of war and perhaps something beyond... Once again i couldn't upload the track through your upload system, i will post the track below. Games & Sources Game : Command & Conquer (1995) OST Track 13 : Rain in the Night Composer : Frank Klepacki Command & Conquer (also known by the retronym Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn) is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Westwood Studios in 1995. Set in an alternate history, the game tells the story of a world war between two globalized factions: the Global Defense Initiative of the United Nations and a revolutionary militant organization called the Brotherhood of Nod, led by the mysterious Kane.

Would need a new title if approved. - LT Artist Name: Jeremy Johnson I wrote this over the last few days, having posted my iterations @ the workshop. I feel more could be done, such as varying up the beat more than just during the break, but yeah. dig it. vague specifics of the production process: instrumentation - acoustic guitar, everything else is Roland XV-5080 patches played on a keyboard (drums are Addictive Drums being played on a cheap e-kit). Engineering done in Live! I excluded some parts of the original song, keeping just the lead parts from those sections, the rest is improv. I hope the amount of liberty I took will fall in the "he's cool" range Inspiration - the original song. it's phenomenal. ocremix. enjoy. also, I moved the locators in Live before my last render, just ignore the last 1:17, it's silent. I definitely used this great song as an excuse to make an even better one. I hope the break moves ya'll as much as it did me (and I'm quite impartial to myself) :) I almost forgot - ZANGIEF BASS!! it's a Roland XV-5080 party. Games & Sources Blaster Master 2 - Stage 7 (by Tony Williams, 1992, Sega Genesis)

Artist Name: Chimpazilla & Treyt Glorious Exercise Of Freedom - Helldivers 2 Main Theme ReMix -------------------------------------------------------------- Chimpazilla's comments: Treyt and I began collaborating when we started chatting after I mastered two of his (excellent) Star Fox tracks. I had an unfinished psytrance arrangement (Hyrulian Helminths) and I handed those stems over to Trevor (and he finished that track up, to perfection), and he had a new arrangement he had just begun writing, for the Helldivers 2 Main Theme "A Cup of Liber-Tea." He sent me the initial wip and it sounded amazing. I have not played Helldivers 2 (and honestly I had not heard of it, gimme a break, I'm a Zelda purist!) but the Main Theme that he was remixing is incredibly epic, and that theme means a lot to Trevor, having played and enjoyed the game. There are currently zero remixes from Helldivers 1 or 2 on OCR, which surprised me. Wilbert Roget II, the composer for Helldivers 2, is an OG OCReMixer, and it only makes sense that his amazing theme should be getting a remix. As much as I am surprised that no one has remixed Helldivers 2 yet, I am honored that ours will be the first one. Trevor's wip was a combination of psytrance and synthwave which sounded great. He passed me the stems (about 2 minutes of material) and I took off expanding it. Trevor's guitar additions sound so great in the mix, and he added more guitar stems as the arrangement developed. The star of the arrangement is the vocals Trevor did. My initial idea was for him to record a soft spoken vocal of something philosophical, to appear during the breakdown, but I had no idea what that would be so I left it to him to conceptualize and perform. He re-created the intense dystopian loudspeaker announcements from the game, perfectly processed, and they gave me chills. I used more of what he sent me than he expected; very little was left on the cutting room floor. The final finishing touch is the storytelling dystopian sfx in the outro. We hope you enjoy this Glorious Exercise Of Freedom. Stay calm, stay vigilant, stay free. Treyt's comments: This track started off as just a together-but-separate jam session I had with a producer I was mentoring at the time. I’ve been exploring Synthwave/80’s inspired music lately, and my experimentation eventually evolved into a 1-2 minute idea for a psytrance/synthwave remix of Cup of Liber-Tea from Helldivers 2. Apparently that was all Chimpazilla needed to finish out a nearly 5 minute remix that spreads democracy like it’s warm butter on bread. I love her take on the source material, and how her writing and production complimented the bit of atmosphere I’d written. It’s been an incredible pleasure trading ideas and collaborating with Chimpa, and I can’t wait to hear what’s next 😉 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Helldivers 2 Main Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5hCkh2AH58 Sections of source song used: Melody A 0:16-0:31 Melody B 0:32-0:45 Melody C 1:56-2:34 Remix source-use timestamps: 0:00-0:02, 0:07-0:09, 0:14-0:16, 0:22-0:24 First four notes of Melody A repeated 0:29-0:56 Melody A & B 0:58-1:26 Melody A & B 1:28-1:31, 1:35-1:37, 1:43-1:45, 1:50-1:52, 1:58-2:00 2:05-2:07 First four notes of Melody A repeated 2:31-3:00 Melody A twice 3:00-3:28 Melody C with variation in last part of the phrase 3:28-3:58 Melody B twice 3:59-4:27 Melody A twice 190 seconds source use, remix is 284 seconds long, 67% source use Games & Sources Helldivers 2 - Main Theme - "A Cup of Liber-Tea" by Wilbert Roget II

Artist Name: dolphin92329 The source material must be identifiable and dominant. My response: my focus for this remix is the bass line from the OST. Then the downwards chromatic scale from the OST, then the slidey thing with the pitch bend from the OST. I started this remix very briefly in September, then working at it since mid-December. I really like the OST’s pitch shifter to E with the bass line pounding my mind. Nostalgic OST for me anyway. I listened to the 30-minute extended play of the OST three total times before completing this remix. I believe I have put enough of the source material in the song to justify putting the amount of “remix” in the remix. Mind you, I am not a sound engineer, but a composer. The solo at the ending is very difficult to deal with, and is either too loud or its low notes cannot really be heard. Otherwise, I think this remix turned out great. 0:00 – 0:02 = Nearly literal Intro 0:02 – 0:08 = Literal bass line only. This is more like a “progressive” complex remix before the literal full portions of the short OST. 0:08 – 0:28. = Remix on the solo bass with SFX. Note that my bass in this remix often is ascending in fashion, similar in theme to the OST bass line. 0:28 – 0:49. = Build up on the bass line near the same as the OST. Note that the bass line is kind of like the OST bass line “chopped in half” when the bass reaches the high E, down a semitone to Eb in the repeating 8th notes like the OST. 0:49 – 1:04. = 1st iteration of the descending chromatic scale portion. The OST does not reach the note B but mine does. Each iteration of these have variations of the arpeggios used in the OST as the break within these iterations used in the OST as well. I added flavor at the end of these iterations as I do not want too literal of remix. There are four more variations of these iterations in this remix. 1:04 – 1:15. =. A single repetition of the main theme with both bass and treble resembling literal OST. Future iterations of this theme include drums in this remix. 1:15 – 1:31. =. A spin-off of the treble theme which is revisited once later on. It appends in here both the bass and treble ascending in nature similar to the OST’s bass line I am hampering on. 1:31 – 1:36. = 5-second “dubstep” break! Deliberately does not play a note in key (D-natural from E harmonic minor). 1:36 – 1:50. = This is a ways off from the OST, but is fairly short. Feels kind of like jazz, then the treble resembles the ascending 8th note nature of the OST’s bass line. 1:50 – 2:05. = This section is a repetition of the bass line build up from earlier, but is ¾ in total length. This includes major introduction to the drum kit (wood block). 2:05 – 2:21. =. 2nd iteration of the descending chromatic portion. Additional elements and vibratos are added here similar to the OST. 2:21 – 2:41. =. 1st major introduction to the literal OST feel with full bass, treble, and drum kit playing almost exact from OST. Second round treble plays an octave lower. 2:41 – 2:57. = 3rd iteration of the OST’s descending chromatic portion. Basically the same as the 2ndand somewhat the 1st. 2:57 – 3:12 = I wanted to include rapid 16th notes in this section, so I began with variance on the odd-sounding snippet from earlier this remix. 16th notes begin for a bit. 3:12 – 3:30. = Then 4th iteration on the descending chromatic portion from OST until I look for harmony in not E harmonic minor but C# harmonic minor (related to E major on the circle of fifths.). Just to be sure, the OST all-in-all is in about E harmonic minor. 3:30 – 4:01 = 2nd major literal portion of the bass-treble-drums from OST. Smooth sailing here. Very literal from OST with more SFX. 4:01 – 4:24 = 5th and final iteration of the descending chromatic portion. Note the variance in the descending notes here and weight placed on the note E. 4:24 – 4:47. = One second of harsh dubstep. SFX break with bass line playing one variant repetition of the OST bass line. Bass does whatever it wants for a little bit next with more variant of the OST’s bass line. 4:47 – 5:07. = Left speaker solo is here. Right speaker plays one repetition of the main treble theme with solo and differing rhythm synth in background. Then center plays two repetitions of main treble theme but in differing octaves. Drums similar to OST but some are irregularly timed as intended. 5:07 – 5:19. = Left speaker. More of the main treble lead from OST in center as just before. Usage of small delay effects and modest pitch bending in remix of OST’s treble lead. 5:19 – 5:38 = Conclusion of song with electronic buzzing sound, tapering in gradual tempos. Cheers! dolphin92329 Games & Sources Mega Man 9 (2008). OST: Boss Theme. Composers: Ippo Yamda, Ryo Kawakami, Yu Shimoda, Hiroki Isogai.

Added the YouTube; best I can find with a quick look. If it passes or we absolutely need an individual file, we can always ask, but the YT should suffice for now.

Well I just waited in line for 6 hours with Ridley at the Sonic Speed Cafe, so I hope he's not like "Man, F him, WTF!", but the transformation here... is too transformational. Especially the 1-5-1 pattern, where was that here? 2-6-2? (Kidding.) I hear what proph's referencing to an extent, but I'll need to be educated on this source usage as well. Rather than NO, I'll read through Ridley's breakdown, but on first blush, I'd NO this. ? EDIT (3/23/25): I don't know any theory, so I appreciate Wake's thorough breakdown. Agreed that in a vacuum, this sounds cool and is a well-made piece of music, but the connections to "Aquas" are too scant and disconnected, even for someone like me that's approved liberally arranged tracks like this and this. If there's any appetite for playing this more melodically straightforward, I'm certainly open to it, though I assume Ridley's cool with the approach he took and understanding that he went off the beaten path enough to make this a stretch, based on his comments. All good, and looking forward to your future stuff! NO (resubmit)

Very mechanical organ sequencing to open it up. Moved over into some dense beats at :11. The synth design's pretty vanilla, but we'll see where it goes. Oh man, the lead at :27 is pretty brutal; too loud and the warbling like-effects on the lead are arguably obnoxious. A decent changeup at :43, but the balance of the parts doesn't make sense; leads were so bright. Very ugly, sluggish-sounding synths at :57 and the beats behind them are pretty plain, followed by a very awkward transition into some more generic synths around 1:08. At 1:23, the louder part of the doubled melody's OK in principle, but sounds like it has too much high end volume, so it's also not pleasant to listen to. Better stuff to an extent from 1:22-1:33, but the part-writing still sound very stilted and robotic. Cool transition at 2:01, though going back to the opening organ at 2:09 was a mistake given how behind the beat the attacks were. Right now, the sound design's very unsophisticated, but at least the efforts there to texturally expand on and broaden the energy of the source. It still needs a ton of TLC, though Audiomancer did eventually get his other Dragon Warrior arrangement passed after 8 or 9 tries, so the possibility is absolutely there to refine and retool this into a success, even if it takes numerous tries to get there. Keep at it! NO

Sounds like samples, but solid ones that get the job done. The arrangement was 3:59-long, so this needed at least 119.5 seconds of identifiable source usage to have he VGM source material be dominant: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) - "Sanctuary Dungeon" - :00-:03.5, :04.75-:08.75, :10.75-:19 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) - "Ganon's Message" - :36.5-:53 (this wasn’t cited by the artist, but is a direct reference) Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) - "Dark World Dungeon" - 1:16-1:45, 3:47.75-3:59 Legend of Zelda (NES) - "Dungeon" - 2:02-2:26.5, 2:34.75-3:04.25, 3:06.5-3:11.75, 3:13-3:29.5 Adds up to about 148.25 seconds, well over the line in terms of the VGM source material being dominant in the arrangement. I didn’t mind the intro. I didn’t get it, but not everything is for me. :-) I love and appreciate how shodan shifted the themes around to being performed by the different “players”, which can make the arranging more difficult to follow, though I’d argue not by much, at least not enough to put the source usage in question. Rubber stamp for an interpretive, well done chamber concept! YES

Pretty sure I heard the voices sampled in the start of WWE's Gangrel entrance theme quietly bookending this piece, but maybe it's just me. I'm coming into this fresh, having not heard the previous submission (nor have I read anyone's votes here), but boy these Marathon sources sure are catchy; pure 90s dance energy, the Marathon Infinity track in particular. Opens with some solid strings around :05 with an extended intro that I'm not immediately recognizing, but seems taken from one of the sources somehow. I do, however, recognize that phat lead at :56 with the first few notes of "Durandal"; nice presense, it's just filling up the space in a huge and impactful way. OK, now I'm hearing how this could have gotten NOs when the (very bland & boring) clap groove comes in at 1:26 and sounds too loud/bright/upfront, then from 1:56-2:11 & 2:26-2:41, the texture is so thin and empty despite the volume. Bummer, as this is piece definitely well in the right direction; it's a shame you have corny grooves here that are making the writing seem too simplistic. The electric guitar sample at 1:41 has very stiff, quantized-sounding timing, so while the sample's tone is thin yet decent, it sounds extremely stilted and exposed; even moreso on its return at 3:43. High strings from 2:39-2:45 sounded super fake also. On the other hand, the sweeping SFX from 2:26-2:35 was a nice touch (among other well-integrated sound effects). I dug the string leads at 2:55, which had more of an e-violin feeling the way they were produced; great tone to those! 3:45 was another example where there's a great energy ramp-up, but then the mixing's imbalanced; way too much emphasis on the (vanilla) beat pattern while the bassline's registering but quiet, and the high strings are very robotic-sounding and exposed, as well as behind the beat/slightly off-time. I'm unsure if this was checked on headphones, but the issues stand out on them. For every section that sounds solid enough though, you have others that are imbalanced, so this should get another production pass for some TLC. Same with the parts that sound very robotic with their timing, mainly the electric guitar, the higher bowed strings, and the overly simplistic and plodding clap groove (which need more body and sophistication to bring energy). I can somewhat understand why this is split based on the arrangement's potential, though I think these YES are way too lenient. The arrangement structure's fine, but the mixing & production aren't getting it done at all. I'd ask a ton more question on the Workshop forums and/or in the Discord, because your current tools aren't being used to their fullest potential. Even though my vote isn't close with this as is, Zane, it's a good base here, don't drop it! NO (resubmit)

When the volume's up, this does still feel muddy, and I see how the delay/warbling effects can feel disorienting; I'm OK, but I can see why others would take issue with it, and those effects could be reduced without removing the overall sound it's meant to create. I like a fair amount of the sound design, though this still has a stilted feel, not helped in part due to the underwhelming claps, e.g. 1:42-2:38, as well as the bassline now getting pulled back too much, though I do hear it well enough that's it's genuinely contributing. It's not the most sophisticated piece, but my reservations weren't on the arrangement last time around, they were about the imbalances between the parts and that causing the piece to feel too meandering and unfocused. The finish didn't need to be grandiose, but it was flat and underwhelming; I'll chock that up to personal taste and not let that strongly color my opinion I understand the comments on the perceived lack of dynamics, but there's enough going on within a narrower curve, mostly from textural changes. Nothing about the rhythms and time signatures was throwing me off; for whatever reason, the busyness of this ultimately feels grounded to me, perhaps because I already heard the previous version. Same with the panning, nothing felt mishandled there to me. Arrangement-wise, very transformative and it creatively invokes the three source tunes, so I remain on board with it on that level. The sound design could have been more sophisticated in parts, but I want to be very careful that we're not too subjective here, when IMO this is OK with the production. I'd recommend looping this more and familiarizing oneself with the flow of it; to me, the writing's solid and I can better follow along with it now that the mixing isn't so odd. It's a solid mood piece and an overall cohesive enough piece of music to me. I buck these NOs; this is arguably too selective instead of permissive and what's here may have flaws but is more than cohesive enough to work, IMO. It's improved enough mixing-wise to push it over the line, and as much as I'm addressing potential issues, I want to be clear that the arrangement structure and creativity is actually there and the overall sound design and production are good enough for a hobbyist bar. YES

Man, I would have sworn I chimed in on this. Excellent old-school soundset from MkVaff and an incredible extended intro and build. Loved the popping-style feel of the percussive sounds in the back. The organ cameo sounded great! A great groove with just the right amount of gothic spices here and there. Dug the electrosynths and you just appreciated how fluidly MkVaff evolved the textures; very creative combinations of organic- and electronic-sounding instrumentation throughout!

Hey, quite a lot of groove for the old-school ReMixes! You could argue that it should evolve more, but it's catchy enough where that's not a substantial problem, just a subjective one where you wouldn't MIND the track having some more variation. The piano's suuuuper fakey, but has such a quaint, nostalgic quality to it, it's a total throwback. Bass has some solid tone for its day as well. Although some of the sounds show their age, LeeBro's twinkly "Hidden Palace" countermelody found in the intro sounds really posh. Holds up very, very nicely for the pre-OCR00500 side!