DragonAvenger

Congrats to Stevo and Val!

Thought both of these sources were pretty bleh, but you did an awesome job working with them. Love the anxiety of the entire mix, and as usual your sound choices really reflect your ideas well. Great use of the muffled effect at 1:07 as a transitional device. If I were to nitpick, I'd say that the drums did feel a bit on autopilot, and you could have worked them to a bit more into the mix, but it's a pretty small complaint. Way to take some sources that not many would touch and bring them into a new light! YES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GocUWSjt050 I will definitely say that coming from an apparently conservative approach this is definitely a big step in the right direction for what OCR is looking for in a mix. You've definitely put a lot of work to integrate the sources into a different style, and worked to change a lot of the instrumentation around and work within the confines of FL10. Arrangementally I really enjoy that you have the themes integrated throughout the mix with cameos every so often instead of being reduced to a medley with the themes being separate. Definitely an arrangement that people will enjoy hearing the themes pop in and out. The production side of things is what's pulling this down. A good deal of the synths feel a bit generic, and I didn't think they meshed as well together as they should. An example of this is at 2:46 where the lead (brass?) sound is conflicting with your response call at 2:49 (and later) that also sounds like a brass synth. Check out 4:15 as well where everything sounds like it's fighting for the main space. The overall clarity of the mix is a bit low at times as well. I'm not totally sure what's doing it, but I part of it has to do with the reverb being a little strong. Some of the better production judges will hopefully chime in on that aspect. I think your arrangement is pretty sweet, but the production has a bit of a ways to go before it's ready. Hit up our WIP forums to get some more advice and send this back to us! NO (please resubmit)

Hey, Ben, good to see you going strong in your submissions. This is a fun take on the original, and as usual there's a lot of personalization in your arrangement. Of all the mixes you've sent in, I do have to say, however, that this is the weakest arrangement I've heard from you. To me it's because the soundscape and energy never change throughout, and there's a lot of repetitive riffs that come up very often. I appreciate the dropout at ~1:10, but aside from that I felt like the drums and overall instrumentation doesn't change very much at all. Utilizing a wider dynamic range (like bringing 2:44 further down and crescendo-ing back up later) and changing our the synths more to change the overall feeling will help with this. Similarly, trimming some of the fat on the arrangement will help. In terms of samples, this is also suffering from your usual issues, although I still appreciate how much work you put into your sequencing with what you've got. I definitely think you have it in you to work these samples up to a quality that will pass, though, and I can't wait to hear it when you do! The drums overall are very detailed, and definitely stuck out as having a lot of work put into them. NO (resubmit)

Birthdayyyyy!!!

Borked judge link, so I listened to the dropbox link instead. This is a fun and upbeat take on the original, and I really like the overall happy mood you've presented here. Taking the original and changing the mood around like this gave you a good way to up the tempo and mix this a bit differently from a lot of the other mixes that come out of this song. I did feel like the mix suffered a bit from having a lot of repetitive ideas, though. The first half has a lot of elements that do drop in and out, but overall I felt like there could have been more variation either in sound choices or arrangement ideas, or both. The section after that provides a nice contrast to what you opened up with, and I think you could have even done a little more to provide a different mood from the opening. The sound choices are overall pretty vanilla, but I think you did make them mesh well overall. As I said before, I think some more variation of the sounds as things progress might help make things more interesting; using the same lead synth throughout loses it's touch. I'd also like to mention how mechanical the track sounds. The backing parts especially feel like they are running on autopilot, but the lead also felt a bit lifeless. Humanizing the parts will help things feel more interesting and engaging for the listener. Varying your drums will also help things out, as they felt pretty strongly on autopilot for a lot of the mix. Definitely a fun take on the original, and I think you've got a solid start here, but it needs some TLC to bring it up a couple notches. Focus on the humanization and adding those little variations as a start, and maybe consider some look into different sound choices as well. NO (resubmit)

Ok, had to listen to this one for a while before coming to this conclusion. The backing track isn't bad, and the section that starts at 0:46 actually has a good deal of promise. The backing behind the vocals is not bad, either, but I believe it is the same for the first and end verse. Overall the track could use some more development of the themes, partly to stretch it out a bit and partly to give the backing a little more oomph. The ending is not super effective either, since it just feels like it cuts off before you get to where you would add that development. It might work if the track was longer, though. The faster section of vocals at 1:34 are pretty good in terms of really having that metal tone and layer, but I'm not really feeling the rest of the singing. The lyrics are pretty bad, though. I'm guessing you were trying to go for a comedic effect here, but I think it misses the boat entirely and is tasteless. I'm gonna be harsh, but I'd say scrap most of the vocals (and all of the lyrics) and focus more on developing and fleshing out the song as a whole. Similarly, focusing on the 1:34 section of the vocals and using that sort of tone and consistency for more the track will have a better effect. Good luck! NO

This is beautiful. As usual, Mansoor does a wonderful job marrying a multitude of themes that really felt like they were made for one another. Transitions are pretty seamless, although to be picky I wasn't really feeling the keychange because it felt pretty sudden and (dare I say it) cliche. However, this is more than balanced out by the super expressive playing and singing from Chris, Liam, and Sabrina, and I'd love to hear a collaboration between the four of you again. YES

Larry has the official answer on this, but as long as the song is in the actual game data it's OK.

Do it!! We can be Etsy bros (sistahs).

Yummm!!! Count me in!

There are fridges in the rooms. Just bring your own microwave/mini skillet and you don't have to order food!

I'd say this is a definite improvement on the arrangement side of things compared to your first submission. Lengthening the overall song and adding some more in there was a good start. I do agree with the gentlemen above that the aspect now that's pulling this down is the sound quality and some more work on humanizing/developing the parts. The drums in particular could add a lot of interest if you add some fills/variations. Looking at the ending would also help smooth things out. I think you've done some good work here, but don't get discouraged that it's not there yet. Keep working on this, and I think you can get it there with some elbow grease! NO (resubmit)

"Hey Vinnie, Here's a clip of the tune as it appears in the danish version of the movie: The changes in my rendition of the theme includes different chords, slightly altered melody and waltz-style timing." --------------- Man, if the outside source usage is OK with the higher-ups I'm all over YESsing this. The approach to a waltz-style fits perfectly, and the interplay between the instruments is beautiful. I can imagine a great galley ship slowly docking in a harbor in a busy port town (and not just from the opening sound effects). None of the instruments is blowing me away with realism, but I think you worked with them very well and it sounds great to me. The understated sounds make this come alive subtly. Love it. YES

Yeah, Larry's got this mostly right. I'd say that while the arrangement does a little long and gets a tad meandering, there's a lot of really good arrangement going on. Not a super fan of the vocals, they felt kind of awkward, but I don't think they pull away from the arrangement much as it is a personal choice. Nice work. YES

I'm wondering if you're the same Karth who was considering doing a Chrono Trigger musical. If so, hey, how are ya? There's pretty much nothing to add here. The tone of the piano is indeed not where it needs to be, but I think your work with sequencing this really does show, as it sounds very humanized. Improving the sound will really help the emotion. I can also agree with some of the transitions not being super smooth. Hope you polish this one up! NO (resubmit)

There are a lot of really sweet ideas going on here, especially for a pretty ugly (no offense to Uematsu intended) source. There are a couple things that I think are holding this back, however. I feel like some of the parts of the source aren't fitting very well into your chord structure here, and it feels a bit out of place overall. As Andrew mentioned, there does feel like there's something missing. Aside from maybe adding some percussion parts that are more interesting, I'd like something between the melody piano and the bass, which is mostly the only two melodic instruments I'm really hearing (and the occassional synth). There's a lot of open space that feels too empty. The second half is definitely better in terms of filling out with more synths, but it's still very empty feeling. I think there's a ton of promise here, but I'd like some tweaking to get the parts to fit better and to have a bit more filled in. I might be the only one on this side of things, but I wish you the best of luck on the rest of the vote. NO (Resubmit)

Nice arrangement. I like how you adjusted the rhythms on different aspects of the sources. Everything has a little bit of a bounce to it, which is overall a lot of fun. There's also a lot of little details that add to this overall, like the little squeaky synths. I don't know if I'm completely sold on the quality of the sounds you're using overall. They're on a whole a bit lo-fi. The other issue I have is that the last third or so gets a bit cluttered. There's a lot going in the same sound spaces so it's a bit difficult to get what's the strong focus. In the end I think that this squeaks by, but I am curious what the other judges think. YES (borderline)

Haven't said this before, but your teaser page is really fantastic.

I'm going! Limited edition OCR merchandise will be available too!

Neat take on the source, I liked how you opened things up. The soundscape has a good air of urgency that is present in the original and provides a few new sounds. I think it might be worth working on adding some other parts or original material that adds to what you've got, as this is pretty short overall, and doesn't feel like it gets time to really get going. Not really feeling the voice clips and the entire section from 1:16-1:40. It felt unneeded and took me a step out of the arrangement rather than into it. After that the next section to the end felt a bit of a reprise to the original, where I think you could do more to expand and open things up rather than close out. There's a good start here, but there's a ways to go. Overall I think this needs more expansion and a bit more of your own touch to the arrangement to flesh it out. I'd also look at cutting that middle section of voice clips and vamping to give more of a focus on the arrangement. NO (resubmit)

I do like the soundscape you gave this. It's very relaxing, and the flute has a good sound to it, and your synth soloing is a lot of fun. Unfortuantely, this doesn't develop once you've established your soundscape and mood, and after that the song loses it's effect. The fade-out ending comes just as I was hoping you'd expand more, and as-is feels very weak. I think you have a really good start here, but you need to expand more on what you have, and consider making a few adjustments to your soundscape to provide more variation as things go along. I suggest using our WIP forums to get some more advice as you continue to work on this! NO (resubmit)

Definitely some good playing here, and the drums are also very good. Unfortunately, with this being a straight mix based off the orchestral arrangement I don't think this can be a mix that is for OCR. Combined with that is the medley aspect, where some of the transitions are pretty rough (I'd say so of the original as well). I really hope you send something of your own arrangement our way, because you guys have some good playing chops. Otherwise, unfotunately, this is a NO

Going to agree with the gentlemen. You definitely have the production chops, and there were some neat ideas here, but things just aren't matching up for the majority of the track. Hope you send in some more stuff soon, though. NO