Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Not meant to be discouraging, but in all of your tracks with accordion, your accordion always sounds way too flat and stiff with the timing; you need to find a way to bring more energy and realism to that part. I thought the harping on the kazoos having some brief off-notes -- which I didn't really think stood out -- was silly. It's a silly instrument and it's meant to sound goofy, which it does well. Don't even listen to those crits about the kazoo performances. You do you. That said, definitely keep the mixing and drum-writing critiques of the other Js in mind. I agreed with them overall, but I also felt that the mixing wasn't a dealbreaker, and a more developed arrangement with more dynamic contrast would easily be over the bar even in the mixing wasn't ideal, since I could reasonable make out all of the part-writing and wasn't thrown off by the balance among the various parts. Cool concept and one that I hope you'd be willing to tweak and send back. Improved accordion and increased dynamics would be the main things to address. Really awesome, fun base here, Reuben! NO (resubmit)

Someone synthwave this up. What’s the hold-up???

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Hey, my favorite SF2 series theme! Interesting and creative take on it. The very beginning sounds like I'm listening to something on the Amiga. The buildup of the intro felt overly long into the melody at :53, but perhaps that's just a personal taste thing. Theme's verse came in at ;55; mixing felt muddy, but the track does have personality. You could trim some time off of this by condensing or icing the original beat section from 1:18-1:45 and/or the comping-style section from 1:45-2:09. That little string of notes at 1:55-1:56 felt out of place, and I'd argue the comping-style stuff until 2:09 wasn't really melodious and didn't add much to the picture. That's not to say it's poor, it's just unfocused IMO and doesn't have enough substance to justify all of that time. I liked the dynamic contrast of the chorus at 2:35; creative beat-writing behind it as well, and I liked the supporting writing gradually fading up along with more parts coming in to fill things out until the transition to the final section at 3:26. Enjoyed the chippy winddown section at 3:26. There's a lot to like here. I thought the arrangement approach was unique and I like a lot of the sounds and production techniques. Good bassline; maybe others will think it's too heavy, but I thought it was fine. That said, it's definitely right in the vein of what we post, so I'd certainly consider submitting this to be posted onto OCR as a featured ReMix if you're interested. Hopefully you can get some more feedback, because I think there's a lot of potential here. Good stuff so far!

Interesting approach to get mileage out of such a short source. Small things, but I'm not sure what's up with the "OK" voice clip; it just sounded awkward each time it was used. Also, be careful with the timing of the transition at 1:54; the next section started too early. As far as the major things, dynamically, this was very flat. The main thing holding this back is pretty static/plodding timing; the more organic-style instruments like the piano and wind samples are noticeably rigid and lack humanization, but really everything else is pretty locked to grid, which ends up being a major dealbreaker. I felt the textures were too minimalist, which isn't inherently a problem, but doesn't work when the timing of everything is so rigid. Good start, but needs more fleshing out to thicken up the textures or at least more humanized timing. NO

Good energy, albeit a crowded soundscape where the leads didn't cut through at all. Spirited and expansive rock cover though. For the second iteration of the verse at :51, the leads were at least more upfront. Laughed in a good way at the brief machine gun drums at 1:12, this is going all out. Then the djent-style chugs at 1:28 continued to pack a lot of textural contrast within such a short piece, but it was important that something so short didn't have any wholesale repetition and it ticks the box there. The ending was purposeful, though it did feel like a cop-out with no real resolution. The mixing's not ideal and lacks highs, but it's still reasonably solid and I could make out all of the parts. A little short, and the ending was definitely disappointing IMO, but that's not enough to discount the strength of the rest of the performance. It's an apologetically balls-out expansive rock cover. We'll see how the other Js feel. YES (borderline)

Weird change in the rhythms from :12-:14 and again at :20-:22. Lead at :28 was way too loud. Melody arrived at :35, but the mixing was too cluttered. Not sure why the instruments cut off abruptly at :49 to make way for other parts, but make sure the departing instruments fade down instead of suddenly dropping out entirely. The dynamics were relatively flat here. When you just click around the track, you basically have the same core beat patterns used throughout and the same energy levels. I also thought the mixing was too bright and cluttered, but let's see what other judges say. Though the melody was interpreted, it also felt like it essentially had one arrangement/presentation style for the main verse that was just repeated throughout without further substantial variations. It's moving in the right direction and a cool usage of SAC for sure, Lauren, but it needs clearer, more balanced mixing, more variations of the theme, and more dynamic contrast to develop these ideas further. NO

Had a cool sound to it to open things up, albeit basic writing. Once things picked up some at :22, I was waiting to see what else would happen with the buildup. :37 brought in the melody, but :57 then simplified the theme, all while having relatively basic beats. Same at 1:24, the melody's simplified into chord progressions until 1:47. There's a lot of potential here, but I felt like the melody got sidelined a bit too much, and the beats were in one gear, so Emunator's right that the overall presentation was flat and ultimately felt repetitive and underdeveloped despite the clear creativity with the glitching and timing of the sounds. See what else you can do to interpret the melody, and create more areas of dynamic contrast. Not saying this needs to swing super busy or super minimal to make drastic changes, but more textural and instrumentation changes and tradeoffs would help this not feel so limited. Good base here, Jérémy, and you can really hear the potential; hope you're willing to tweak this and see what more you can bring to this promising arrangement. NO (resubmit)

Classic club stuff. Great energy and a great collab by Danny and Haroon!

Pretty chill stuff.

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Structurally straightforward but transformative enough given the different instrumentation, textures, and original ornamentation throughout. Count it. YES

Good stuff. Closing it out. YES

I WHAP the judges voting YES on "feel" despite believing the source material wasn't dominant in the arrangement. DO THE WORK! Timestamping is your friend! The track was 4:41 long, so I needed to make out source usage for at least 140.5 seconds for the VGM to dominate the arrangement. I pretty much echoed Rexy's timestamps, but counted a few extra seconds where audible notes trailed off. She overlooked the two "theme C" references mentioned in the sub letter, and I heard some brief soundalike pieces that I count as overt references to the sources. :06-:15, :18-:24, :32-1:01, 1:09-1:15 (soundalike from rhythm of :43-:51 of "The Other Promise"), 1:27-1:29 (soundalike from rhythm of :40-:43 of "Roxas"), 1:40.5-2:09.75, 2:21.75-2:33 (arranges 1:27-1:40 of "The Other Promise"), 3:18.75-3:55, 4:14-4:26 = 140.75 seconds or 50.08% source usage. Good stuff in a vacuum that tiptoes over the line for me vis-a-vis the arrangement standards due to just barely referencing the source material enough. YES

Man, this source just ain't in the pantheon of renowned MMX tracks; all my time in this scene and I'd literally never heard this theme, let alone Wire Sponge as a boss. Color me surprised. Solid cover here that altered the tempo and rhythms compared to the original to present a new feel to this. The arrangement isn't groundbreaking, but it isn't meant to be. Despite the abrupt (but perfectly valid) ending, it's a good listen the whole way through. Count it. YES

This was always actually one of my least favorite songs on this OSTs; it's nowhere near as catchy as most of the other gold on the soundtrack. I felt like the surrounding and accompanying elements were mixed in a way where they competed too much with the leads, but perhaps it's just the droning bassline that's the main culprit. Still not a fan of this theme at all, but my hangups don't change the fact that this is a creative, interpretive, and well-executed arrangement. The ending was just a cutoff for my copy, so if that's what everyone else is hearing, I'll go conditional YES for now on an ending fix. EDIT (10/13): Ending's fixed and we're good to go! YES

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I'd say this was pretty exposed orchestration that gets by on OCR but obviously is in the uncanny valley, with the early string sustains being the big offender. That said, this was a cohesively presented medley, and the production was solid enough. Some light pops/deformations around 3:55-3:57, but those weren't a big deal. I wouldn't treat 1:35, 1:38, 1:49, and some other spots as pops; those seemed to be instrumental sounds. In any case, those minor issues didn't prompt me to say we should hold this back. YES

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