Jivemaster

Agree with the others here, both on their critiques as well as their praise for your first remix attempt, this is a great first start. For real instruments, the sequencing here is quite stiff and could do with some humanisation. The piano is tiny and lacks weight - I understand it's more of a background element but it should still have some body to it. I also thought the guitar was a little weak, and could've been more expressive. Mixing is not bad, there are not many elements to this mix so I'd expect that. Arrangement is close to the original, with the second half not really taking us anywhere the first half hasn't already shown us. You have some nice sounds here and could take this source to some new places with the base you have built. I would like to see you take this further. NO

Given the minimalist arrangement the production you have here was fairly decent. I'm with the others that it sounds a lot like the original, right down to the style of track. There are some slight differences from the original like the pulsing bass and the SFX, but for the most part it's all similar stuff. The main melody repeats fairly regularly like the original - I would've loved to have seen your track break away from this by throwing in some original material. The small piano licks you have here and there are good but are not really enough to carry the rest of the track and establish it as an arrangement for OCR. NO

I understand where Kris is coming from with regards to the scratches in your intro - adding a vinyl sound is pretty hit and miss and is an acquired taste. If you want your song to sound old it's best to go all in and use this effect in conjunction with some EQ tricks to go authentic. Otherwise your selection of sounds were mostly good and suitable for your style of mix. Mixing was also pretty decent. Arrangement was ok but I felt the entire track was too samey with a lot of repeated elements and licks. The piano part was quite repetitive, and the reverse cymbals felt overused.The trumpet was nice but could've done with some more movement. I felt by the end of the track, the song had not really built up to anything and just ended. It also felt too long for its duration, which is not good for a track of 2.5 mins. You have some good ideas here but you need to take them further. Would love to hear some additional or new sections that change the feel up a bit and top the track from feeling so static. NO

Interesting choice of instruments. A combination of real and synthesised. Straight up, the snare is awfully low in volume and lacks body. Your base arrangement mostly works once it builds up but has some issues. I felt the chorus portion lacked impact, with the wubs not transforming the portion as intended. Agree with Mike that the wubs aren't synchronising in any real way with the beat/melodies either, and to be honest, I didn't see too much reason for them to be in here. Around 2:40 the kick/note stabs don't feel right to me, they feel out of time or are on crazy off beats which don't catch a hip-hop groove. The second half does a fairly close rendition of the first half, with a lot of reused ideas. Production isn't too bad - most things are audible and fairly easily heard, although the low end does occasionally overpower. Side-chaining doesn't snap back quickly as it should in those sections, resulting in perceived volume dips. You seem to have most of your sounds in place. There are some good and not so good arrangement concepts here. Things build up ok, but never quite go anywhere - I think some work needs to be done to strengthen the overall direction of your mix. NO

Nice intro. When your other parts come in, I'm hearing lots of unintentional crunch. This sounds to me like the lack of a limiter or the mix is being heavily brick walled. Drums are quite soft compared to the other elements (the kick drum in particular is very quiet), and they're also quite loopy. Arrangement here is quite interesting. I mostly enjoyed what you had laid down here, however when we hit the second half I'm hearing a lot of recycled elements which make the second half almost a repeat of the first. Consider changing the second half up more with some additional original material and perhaps drop into it a little differently (off the back of a breakdown or something). Production is your key problem with this mix, however I found the arrangement side to also be somewhat lacking. The concept is good and I would like to see you work on this further. NO

Straight up, the vocoded vox - while cool, is very ear-piercing at the frequency range it occupies here. This is odd because the other elements sit fairly nicely. As the others I would've liked the vocals to be clearer, there are a number of techniques to achieve this including adding more vocoder bands or bleeding some of the original vocal in amongst the vocoded signal. The vocals are also mixed a little too loud compared to the other elements. Some harmonies would been nice to hear too in some sections. Arrangement wise, the backing to the vocals is quite repetitive and a little loopy. The song keeps a fairly constant pace after it builds up from its starting point, and I felt it was a bit abrupt on its conclusion. I would've liked to hear the arrangement evolve a little more over time, perhaps with a more chorusy section featuring clean vocals or something. A think there is a bit of work to be done to this - the mixing and vocal issues alone keep this from passing, but some more exploration of the source in your arrangement would be greatly welcomed. NO

A really nice source tune to tackle. Style suits for the most part. Intro build up was decent. At 0:50 when your other elements come in, that's when you begin to experience problems. Things are a bit weird here - most parts are kind of audible but at the same time there are just so many things going at once looking for attention, with elements that should be regulated to the background sitting out front instead. I think the bulk of the problems here can be alleviated by reducing the volume of the arpeggio and other non-essential parts. The leads that drop in from 1:21 do have presence and can be heard above the rest, but also drown out a lot of the underlaying elements - this is especially true from 2:21 - rebalancing your track levels should fix this naturally. To the arrangement - your mix does verge on being cover like, playing most parts out in the same way the original does. It'd be beneficial if there was more you in this mix, more original interpretation of the source with some occasional extras thrown in. The drums play a fairly similar loop through most of the song with not much in the way of fills, I'd like to hear some more variation there. I don't think you have any problems here that can't be fixed relatively easily. Your mixing levels are the first focus, once thats done some refinement to your arrangement is all thats needed. Give this another look. NO

I don't remember the original so I'm coming in fresh. Nice contrast of instruments here. I like how the lead focus is shared between different instruments. The bloopy lead synth gets a little repetitive over time, which is mostly alleviated by this round robin of leads. You add some nice complementary riffs to the original tune which are appreciated. Your drums are quite samey through the course of the track, but they didn't detract too much from the overall experience. Production quality is solid, and while some parts (like the chimes) were mixed too loud, most parts were about right and sat nicely in the mix. A few minor nitpicks: Your mix doesn't stray too much from the original style wise, playing things quite safe. I would've liked to see this evolve a bit more over time - you do change up sections and have the occasional breakdown, but these tend not to feel as significant as they should because everything stays in the same gear/pace. The duration is a bit long for what is presented here. Everything sounds nice and tight but as the track went on I felt I was listening to slight variations of earlier elements. None of these is large enough of a problem to hold the track back for but I did find it noteworthy. You have some good vibes going on here, and everything is nicely glued together and progresses well enough. YES

You've made an interesting rendition here. For the arrangement - I agree with the others that the transition at 2:00 was far too sudden and clashy with the previous section. I think if you insist on this portion staying in the mix, you need to work on your transition here so it fits more clearly. For production, I also agree that there is a little too much delay/ambience going on here, and it would benefit the song greatly if it was dialled back. I also feel the tone on the guitar is a little dull, and could do with some more brightness to it. Be sure to hit up the workshop as the others have mentioned. Not a bad start but this does need some work. NO

Really chill mix of the original source. Great to see more obscure games getting represented. I enjoy the overall instrumentation you have here, the strings, the shuffling drums, the guitar is a little loud but otherwise nicely mixed. The breakdown at 1:49 is really nice and was needed. Changing the lead up to a violin here really strengthened this transition and made it feel like a different part, even though the other elements played very similarly. The horns after this also added some nice change of flavour to reused parts of your arrangement. This also closes out nicely too. I don't have any major crits with this. As said the guitar is a little loud, and after I listened through I thought the drums could've used some variation, but these niggles weren't major drawbacks for me. YES

A great track by Mike - the moment he showed his WIP to me I was digging this. I'm glad one of us represented Sonic on the 25th anniversary, and doing green hill in his trademark 80's style couldn't have fit the bill better.

I think the main problem you have here is a bit of stiffness in your performances. The piano is quite robotic (as exemplified at the start of the track), and the drums are very to the grid. At 0:50 when we change up the pace, things continue with rigid sequencing. I don't mind the contrast of sounds you have going on here, even if some are more convincing than others. Your brass as Larry mentioned is probably the weakest link, which I think is made worse by the lack of humanisation. Your arrangement continues to change up as you go along which I'm a fan of and appreciate the work you've done there. I enjoyed the breakdown during the middle of the track to give things a breather, with the lighter instruments taking over - a great technique. I enjoyed the extended outro from 4:30 onwards, it was a nice way to wind down the track - most people struggle finding a way to end things but you did a good job here. TBH, I feel a pass of humanisation across this mix is really all you need here. Sure the samples could be better but they're largely passable in my opinion. Your sequencing is strong otherwise. Give this another look. NO

Def with Kris here, your reverb is very boomy and clouds your mix. When the electric guitar hits at 0:53 things sound crowded, largely due to the reverb, but also because the acoustic and electric are almost sitting on top of each other occupying the same space. Revisiting your mixing here (opposing EQ dips on your parts, panning etc) will help separate these instruments from each other. As far as your arrangement goes, not a lot happens - it's mainly the same source melody over and over with no real changes or other interpretation, like an extended intro to something. I noticed there are some parts from the original source missing in your mix, perhaps as a building point you could somehow incorporate an original interpretation of these and drop them in during different sections, while adding some variation to the melody over time. There is a base here for this concept to work, but more needs to be done on your arrangement, and your mixing needs to be improved (in particular your amount of reverb) for this to pass. NO

Solid advice from Gario. Listening to the source, I can appreciate the problems a remixer would have in tackling this piece, it's quite short/repetitive. From what I can hear here, you give this a good go. You hit things off with a pounding bass line and a thumping kick, not bad thus far. However when the next parts hit at 0:29 I'm hearing over compression at the master level which is causing some elements to waver in a bad way. The crash cymbal hisses with some distorted frequencies, and does so through pretty much all the track - it just isn't given ample room to breathe. Things begin to become crowded at 2:00 onwards, where the highs in the crash and lead distort. When the drop hits, things start to hit breaking point with unwanted pumping across the mix. Once the crash and noise sweep disperse around 2:30 things are a little better, but still not perfect. This is unfortunate because the arrangement here is not bad - in particular, transitions you have here between piano and electronic parts work quite well and vary things up fairly nicely for the duration, breaking up what would otherwise be a mix running in the same gear from beginning to end. The additional melodies accompanying the main tune are complementary and work well. Overall, your mix is let down with mastering hitting too much of a brick wall. I strongly suggest pulling back on the compression and/or limiting you have going on at the master level, and consider rethinking the compression on some of your individual parts. You are smashing your track to bits. Easing this off will make a big difference in clarity, will make things less crowded, and will remove the mix-wide pump you have going on. I expect this will fix the majority of your problems. NO

I'm liking this one. This is a nice arrangement of the original song. While not overly ambitious in terms of changing things up, you have managed to bring the melody into a full orchestral style that for the most part feels natural to me. Yes there are some bits here and there that feel slightly blocky, but I'm not having any huge problems with what you've done. Your cycling of different instruments playing different parts was a "well played" moment for me and enhanced the orchestral illusion. Mixing is pretty good too - things feel a little crowded to me and could be separated more, but everything was audible, and parts that drew focus did so intentionally. YES

Finding it a tough one like the others. If you're doing a mix with a single instrument, that instrument *needs* to be strong. While I'm not a piano expert, I do feel the piano sound certainly isn't the greatest and does let the overall track down. It also sounds very dry, I wonder if a touch of reverb/room ambience would liven this one up? As I understand it, this is a recording of a live take, and thus, the ability to change/update the patch is not available. This is a shame because there is some great playing here and some nice changes in pace. I like the transitions to different parts. Arrangement sometimes comes across as noodley, but keeps direction most of the time. Due to the amount of changes here, I didn't find myself getting bored. Considering the arrangement is 1 instrument and over 6 mins long, this is an accomplishment. I think this mix belongs on OCR. I just wish the piano sound was stronger. Knowing this can't be updated (apart from maybe the addition of some nice reverb or something) is disappointing, although because of the performance, I think this is passable (just). YES (borderline)

There is a lot of high end on that guitar. Listening carefully it doesn't sound piercy, except during some isolated strums, but it does make the guitar feel lifted in a weird way out of the mix. If some EQ or even a simple LPF was run over this guitar part, the production would feel a lot more cohesive. Organ is also a bit loose for my tastes - especially the bars on its first entrance. This is likely due to the underlying rhythm making it feel more off the grid that it actually is, but regardless, I wish this was tighter. Solid performance on the arrangement front, no problems there. You have a slow pace, but the movement of the instruments holds interest and keeps the flow. A good level of authenticity for the style here with attention to detail that has gone noticed. Bit torn on this one - I feel the overly accentuated guitar highs do detract from the overall feel, knowing that it could be so simply fixed makes me want to see if this can be explored as it'd make the mix much better IMO. Because of this, it's a NO (borderline). Edit 26/10/2016: new version's guitar sounds better. Happy with this. Organ is a bit dull, but it doesn't detract heavily. YES

Solid mix, ok production. What struck me here was the nice positioning of your different elements. Background elements feel well placed in the background but aren't unheard, while your synths are front and centre and clearly audible. I will say the leads sometimes are too loud compared to the rest of the mix. The chippy lead sometimes grew stale during the longer lead lines, although I did appreciate the riffing. I also agree that the drums are quite generic - I particularly thought the snare should be stronger than what it is here, especially during the busier parts where it's splashiness and lack of strength makes it fall out of focus. Arrangement is ok, you have duration about right, I wouldn't have gone longer with this one, but there didn't feel like a discernible ending here. Overall I think this is ok, bar a few niggling problems. YES

Over compressed is definitely what I'd use as the descriptor of this mix. The bass, while cool sounding, eats all. Mastering is hot, which is noticeable in heavier sections where things begin to waver sonically. Less busier parts are relatively clean, but individual sounds get eaten up by the bass in busy sections, especially the drums. Arrangement is not too bad - writing could be more varied in places, but the drums are definitely a stick out point here - very generic with nothing much in the way of variation or fills. Lead is a little strong in the high frequencies at times. For me, I think a lot of the issues would be solved with less compression all round, and some drum variance so things don't plod along as they do. Some further variation to the overall arrangement would go a long way but I wouldn't mandate that. As is, it's a NO

Def a borderline track for me too, as most votes here have gone. The arrangement is solid, and I mostly enjoy the performances. Certainly hearing a few odd notes here and there in this piece - some of these are slightly off-putting, while others just emphasise the character of the overall mix. Odd notes aside, I'm enjoying this, especially when the mix picks up in the second half, which feels a lot tighter than the first half. The quality of the recording is not too bad - some of the highs hit some piercing frequencies that could be ironed out easily, but they aren't constant or too distracting. Everything is mostly audible though the background elements are regulated too far to the back IMO (the guitar in particular). Very much an ok but improvements could be made mix. I'm unsure how much control you have over the recording, with the parts likely bleeding into each other, it would be difficult to make edits. On those grounds, I think I can borderline pass this, though the mix would be so much stronger with some tweaks. YES (borderline)

Nice intro build up. Arrangement is definitely strong here. Great guitar tone, and nice bass work, very enjoyable - they move around a lot which really drives the song forward. I also enjoy the changing of the instrument makeup, which adds a great level of variation to the mix. I agree that the orchestral instrument additions are the weaker portion of the performance, with the actual played instruments feeling a little separated from their sequenced counterparts. This divide is more noticeable because of the quality playing of the artists here than the samples IMO. Yes the orchestral samples could be stronger but they are used well for what they are trying to achieve. I agree with Deia that some more humanisation would help out here, although it didn't feel like a dealbreaker to me. Production wise things were solid, good use of panning. I will mention that some parts did step into the space of others pretty regularly, which made the mix crowded at times. I'm not sure if this is due to some of these instruments being stereo when they do not need to be, or there is just so much going on that there isn't enough sonic space to accommodate everything clearly. Overall though, nothing felt super lost, and parts were able to poke through and be heard when they needed to. YES

Time sig messes up me head, I feel like such a simpleton :P. Some really nice guitar work mixed with the usual obligatory blips and beeps - selection of sounds are nice and complementary to each other. Mixing is relatively clear. A bit of a Lo-fi nature to this track which adds to the retro feel, but it's kept within acceptable boundaries and works in the tracks favour. For me, I feel some of the playing - such as the bass, could have been a bit tighter. I'm not saying it should've been quantised to death, but I feel the rhythms and overall grove would be stronger with stuff closer to the beat than what's here (the last third felt a lot better in this regard than the beginning portions of the track). I would love if this was tightened up a bit, but I wont hold it back for this if the others wont. YES

A nice light hearted piece here, suits the theme quite well. Being from Australia, we were one of the few lucky countries who got this title, and I remember the music being great. Solid arrangement, great instrumentation and good attention to detail here with your mixing. Main crit I have is with sound quality at 1:00 when the electric guitar comes in - the frequencies are quite piercing, there is a lot of untamed high end there. A simple LPF and/or a small dip in the highs would tone this back to acceptable levels. Otherwise everything else sounds good to me. A bit of a safe don't take too many risks mix for this source, but whatever gets the job done. YES

Great/beautiful instrumentation here. I actually wasn't too bothered with dry nature of the violin, it's played so well, and the exposed nature of its tone lends a kind of sweetness to it. The piano provides great accompaniment and a solid rhythmic foundation - jumping around on its own at times and then backing up where it needs to. Lots of great changes in this arrangement. I do understand the other judges concerns here, for me personally nothing is dragging this down. YES

Crisp mixing and lovely open high end comes to mind when I heard the first few seconds of this mix. Because of the highs, there is lots of perceived clarity here (dare I say almost too much). The odd thing that struck me was the distinct lack of low end in this mix - almost like the bass player didn't show up to the recording session. I thought perhaps some bass would show up later to fill things out after the intro but it never showed. The mix of acoustic and what sounds like sampled drums works well for me and overall, the instrument choices complement each other in a weird way that somehow works. I'm a bit borderline here because the lack of a grounding bass element sounds real weird to me, and the crisp highs further exacerbate this absence. No-one else appears worried about this in the vote though which is making me initially question my vote. Agree samples at the end sound like they come from the original game and should be removed if posted as per the rules. I guess it's a YES (borderline - and conditional on game samples removed)