anosou

If a remix gives me a boner, it's an instant YES ...NO

I can't find anything named 'Sign of Evil' for the life of me so I'm going with E1M8 Phobos Anomaly, seems about right. Dark. Like, really dark. The arrangement was interesting. I especially enjoyed the thick layer of loud guitars switching into the quiet part like there's no tomorrow. Pretty much all the voices click with me, both lyrics-wise and how they are performed, except maybe the growling. I have to admit I'm not a growling fan, but this is just too dark and low for me. It's not a dealbreaker however since it obviously matches the mood. The production is what's holding this back though. The drums lack power and they're mechanically sequenced. You should look into some better, meatier samples and compress the whole kit quite a bit to get them punchy and nice. It shouldn't be that hard though. I did think the violin/viola/whatever could've been a bit more reverbed but that's quite a personal opinion. As it is now, the drums are enough for me to give it red light. But please do rework them because this is something unique that we'd certainly like to see on OCR. NO(Resubmit)

SCIV plz. That's the release I'm looking forward to the most with Fallout 3 and Fable 2 close seconds. Also, I'm an XBLA nutter. I have like 34 XBLA games, it's all I play. So I'd like to especially recommend some games (in order of awesomeness): Omega Five - Horizontal shooter with a lot of tricks up it's sleeve. Fantastic to play, fantastic to look at and great achievements. 200/200 bitches! Puzzle Quest - If you haven't played it already it's at it's best at the 360. An expansion is set for release pretty soon too. Rez HD - Durrrrh. Just buy it already. Mutant Storm Reloaded/Empire - The best of the robotron clones, addictive and challenging. Settlers of Catan - Not kidding, best boardgame to grace XBLA. Play it online and thank me later. Ikaruga - Incredibly hardcore. Incredibly rewarding. Not for the faint of heart.

Woo, progress!

Okaaay. Thanks Alastair for having downloaded photoshop! - Every Extend Extra Extreme (Q Entertainment) - Rez HD (Q Entertainment) Make the one you think is the prettiest my exclusive avatar If you think they both suck, go with the Jade Cocoon 2 one for exclusiveness. LT: Added these as general, and gave you the Jade Cocoon one as an exclusive. Thanks!

It's too bad about the strings in the intro, they really drags the piece down when exposed like that. The attacks in particular sounds really off. It's also very static and sounds almost like repeating a GM sample over and over. In other words, I agree with Larry here. Since it's 20 seconds of a less-than-3-minutes arrangement and plays such a major part I really think you could've done better. The rest of the piece is quite good. Full of surprises, twists and turns. Some interesting takes on the original theme, 00:35 had some interesting writing that went well with the percussion. Some of the transitions (1.24) into the glockenspiel-parts are a bit too abrupt for my taste but it's not a dealbreaker. The general sound quality wasn't bad. I've already mentioned the strings. The percussion was a welcome element and well done. The brass is quite nice too, especially since it can be hard to get brass right. The horn that takes the lead at 2:28 just isn't clicking with me though. It sounds unnatural to have that kind of strength in those long tones. A soft french horn sound would've sounded better and would've given some variation in the brass section. And yeah, the ending was a let down. I actually really enjoyed this though. Well thought out arrangement, decent enough instrument quality and production. Loud at parts but still very dynamic. The only major weak point is the exposed strings in the intro, they really sound horrible. Though I really want this on OCR, I can't let these strings on the site. Rework them in some way, rewrite the intro or use another sample and then it's good to go. Feel free to fix some of my other issues or Larry's issues too. For me though, the strings will push this borderline baby over the bar. See below

Not the most spastic arrangement around, and I admire that. A very Romantic feel with a bit of Jazz thrown in, well thought out and enough arrangement to make it interesting. Ending needs to be fix'd, as Larry pointed out. The piano does sound a tad clanky and fake but not enough to make it a problem for me. Sure, we could ask for a new render with better samples but chances are we'll never get that. The people needs moar piano remixes for great justice. Instead, keep this issue in mind for your next submission. To make it clear, my main issues with the piano sound was the general brightness, clickynes and lack of a fitting reverb. Anyway, good to go. YES

We'll fix that later ;P I'll send you a PM

- fix'd, thanks douli - and a new one, Jade Cocoon 2 by Genki. LT: Bueno.

Dude. What? I feel alive again!

Pretty sweet concept, def a ska-vibe. Reminds me a bit of The Specials to begin with. As Larry said, the brass lead is way too fake to take the leading role. The sawwave does leave a lot to wish for too, it doesn't really mesh well with the rest of the sounds. The drums weren't bad but mixed rather clumsily and loud. Could be EQ'd better. The arrangement is quite fun but to have the main section repeat in a 1:58 song without changes and then end it is not a good idea. Try developing your ideas more for another round and maybe add a break to keep things from getting stale. You're on your way Jeremy, but you need to work out the details and really spend time with your mix. Compare it to what's being posted today and see what can be done to get it up to that level. #ocrwip and the WIP forums should be of good help to you. Good luck with your next submission! NO

I liek Richard Jaques. Moar plz. Anyway, very chill arrangement. Very nice combination of sounds, however I did not fancy the strings on the left side at ~00:20. Sounded very fake, the static vibrato and strange attack gave them away. The rest of the instruments meshes well, interesting choice of drum sounds fo sho The arrangement is all good with a nice reference to the structure of the sources, like Larry said. I also agree that the changes at 3:12 and 3:20 could've been better theory-wise, but they certainly doesn't take away much from the piece at a whole. Production is clean and I don't think the bass is lacking much. The kick has a good punch in it and the low guitar-like bass works well. The mid-frequencies are a bit packed and some clearer separation of the melodic instruments would help but it's not a dealbreaker. Nice work. YES

My birthday is in January, I was just trying to make people forget your birthday

AUGUST 26th? OK THEN.

I would like to say "grattis på födelsedagen" but it wouldn't mean much to you so I'll go with:

I love you 'Ili Butterfield, I really do. And because I do, I quoted that. All valid criticism. I did think the vader theme meshed quite well with the rest and it wasn't enough to disturb the arrangement. Your instruments and mixing needs some work, all instruments sound very weak and thin. Also, you need to really arrange the source in a more sophisticated fasion, and preferably for a longer time than this So all in all, evolve your concept, work on production and interpret the source moar plz. NO

I'm thinking of mixing a bit tonight, I'll keep you posted.

I definitely don't feel like you're picking on me and I do understand your concern and I share it to some extent.. but then again I went with my gut here. Though the sounds were generic they were good, but as Larry said, they weren't produced in a sophisticated way. This remix sounds very repetitive and that's my main concern, the generic sounds and lack of changes in the harmony and general sound (try just clicking through the song) just adds to this sounding repetitive. Also, I tried to adapt to the standards, the part about common presets is valid here, even though it's not an extreme case it keeps the song from achieving it's fullest potential I'm still very borderline on this.. but generic sounds did help push this to the NO side. If you feel I'm way outta line on this one, please say so and I'm going to take some more time to maybe reconsider my vote. I did think it was a cool track.

I have to agree with the nay-sayers here. Too conservative for OCR today. The mixing is a bit muddy, especially the drums that seems to lack high frequencies. Also, where's that snare? Okay, instrument choices were interesting but some generic sounds and mechanical sequencing brings them down. Not bad though. This would've rocked the house -02, well it DID rock the house -02.. just not today. NO

I agree with previous judges about the quiet intro, it feels a bit drawn out and unnecessary. When it gets going it's pretty cool though. Nice build-up and energy right from the start. I like the 4/4 adaption, it didn't feel too forced, and I enjoyed the polysynth chords during the build-up. Larry and Andy brought up some very valid points about the arrangement though. The same elements are always in the front playing mostly the same things which makes the song seem very repetitive. I hear you have some counter melodies and other ideas but you have to give these ideas more space. Try some changes in the bass too, keeping the same notes during the entire song just adds to how repetitive this sounds. Any kind of harmonic change would really help this track as it's using almost the same chordal structure throughout. This mix also suffers from generic sounds like Andy said. These are the kind of presets that come with every subtractive synth known to man, they've passed their expiration date. Most modern trance have moved past these and instead found other interesting elements, maybe even real instruments, they add to the mix. Try some free samples of weird old synths, make your own patches or process some real instruments in a creative way. Some additional percussion and variations in the drumwriting wouldn't hurt either. While the energy and general arrangement idea of this song is good, it gets old quickly. With just a couple of fixes, maybe some changes in sounds and additional harmony, this would be an easy pass. I'm also certain you would gain quite a few fans with this one In my opinion, it's just not above the bar yet because of how repetitive it sounds. I do believe this is a quite easy fix and I really would prefer a slightly improved version on OCR. You will thank me later. Good luck! NO (resubmit)

hehehehehehehehehehehe.. Honestly though this is really chill. Very laidback Hemophiliac-groove with lots of interesting and highly musical details in the arrangement. Close enough to the source for sure. The soft creamy synth leads help spice this up too. I'm not 100% on the drums. While they are good the reverb takes up a lot of place, especially when it's applied on the bassdrum too. The hi-hat also sounds a little flimsy, no real attack to speak of. A Hi-hat is not the ideal instrument for brushes IMO, but that's highly personal and definitely not a dealbreaker. The production does not concentrate on giving the piece power and volume but that's fine with me for such a laid-back jazz piece. Cleanly produced, great arrangement and superb execution. YES

For some unknown reason this is my sisters favorite VGM tune ever next to the Kirby soundtracks. What's up with that? In any case, as larry said this is just the original for the first minute or so. The synthline was very out of place and somewhat sloppy in terms of sequencing. Look into quantizing or at least polishing your playing skills. And well.. yeah I'm just gonna echo what larry said about the arrangement. Not nearly enough arrangement to speak off actually The soundquality wasn't half bad but you really need to do more than this in terms of actually modifying the source. Good luck with your next submission! NO

I always sort OCRemixes by year in iTunes. It's a fun experience and I really appreciate how much higher the quality has become. Sure, as Dave said, there were ace songs back then but now most songs are ace anyway, keep listening bladiator. this is fun to read!

I'm on it, eventually

OCDRemix