Jivemaster

Enjoyable. The chamber and wintery feel of this worked very well. Arrangement wise things didn't feel too bad as you transition to different parts, although the slow plodding pace does incite feelings that things should progress more quickly throughout the mix, especially by the time you hit the end. Happy with your mixing, parts are clear and have their place. I hear the off note that Deia mentioned, would've been great if that was sorted. Perhaps this can be fixed if it's posted? I do think the arrangement could be stronger here as it takes a while for it to get where it needs to go, but looking at this, it's still a pass for me, as the attention to detail and little nuances throughout the track outweigh the lack of overall excitement across the duration. YES

Great song choice. You have a few challenges here with your mix: Mix is very close to the original. We need more you in the arrangement. The mix repeats itself fairly regularly, such as with the guitar riff and drums. This stems back to following the original source too closely. Your track is mostly in the same gear for the duration. I enjoyed the breakdown at 3:10 but more needed to be done before that point to change things up. Instrumentation is quite basic and a little MIDI like at times, a lot of this has to do with the rigid nature of your sequencing. Drum sounds were basic and the sequencing repetitive. Felt drums needed more body/power. Enjoyed the disco toms. The sampled guitar in your mix is definitely stiff, however I did enjoy it somewhat, as to me it felt like you were going for that chopped up sampled vibe. It didn't help however that it was surrounded by a lot of rigidly sequenced parts. Lead synth is a bit generic, would've loved to hear some tweaks over time to accentuate different notes. Soloing near the end was reasonable. For me I felt there wasn't quite enough new material across the mix to justify the duration. Mixing wasn't too bad although use of stereo space could be improved. With your foundation set here, you need to enhance the arrangement and work on the way you present your sounds. As it stands, it sounds more like modernisation of the original. Potentially shorten some sections and drop in new melodies, introduce changes more often, add some humanisation to the mix in places, tweak your leads. These will build up and give you a better chance here. NO

Nice short buildup to start up the track. The arrangement here flows quite well, although the initial section after the build-up I felt dragged on a little too long. Once the track got going it was quite energetic. Instrumentation is solid, you drop different elements in and out which really keep the mix fresh. Production is pretty good. Mixing is mostly right and everything is audible. Agree with Larry's comments on the kick - while it does cut through the mix, it could do with being fuller/more bass heavy, but not a major problem. That was really the main aspect of the mix for me that could be improved, but not enough to send it back for such a revision. I don't really have any major problems with this. Nice work. YES

Been a while since I heard this. My thoughts: Mastering is tons better than before. Guitar lead panning is weird to me, it should be dead centre for something like this, especially when the centre of the stereo field isn't busy. This for me is the single biggest issue. Guitar tones are a mixed bag Rhythm guitar tone is a bit fizzy and lacking some character. Lead guitar tone is nice. Choice of sounds is good, no major problems and the mix of instruments compliment each other. After listening to this again, I'm less a fan of the arrangement here than I was previously. The first and second halves felt quite similar to me and could've been more varied, but not a major problem. Levels seem quite good, the parts feel more audible than I recall from the previous version. Drums begin to become lost occasionally during the busy sections, There is also residual bass rumble in the harder sections which verges on muddy at times. This is a close one. I don't deny there are niggling bits that need changing, like some further low end clean up, centring the leads. This has travelled a long way from the original iteration - would it benefit from more refinement? I'm not sure, it's already come a long way. I have no problems if this passes, but if it does, version 1 is my pick. NO (borderline)

Well, usually Mike and I seem to be on the same wavelength regarding our evaluations but I'm going to disagree here, I thought this mix had issues. I agree with Deia about the drastic volume changes. Yes volume changes provide suspense and impact in an orchestral mix, and there was a good contrast of moods here, but the volume changes were too much. Further on this point, the volume changes in some parts sounded more like the volume was simply being pulled down as opposed to the orchestra playing lighter. This made these particular changes sound artificial to me. Sounds are decent enough, although I felt the brass was the weakest and most "sample" sounding. Relatively strong sequencing here. As far as the arrangement goes, some sections felt like they were verging on going too long, however they did transition nicely. Ultimately, I'd be fine with this if the volume was more consistent - you can have soft sections without huge jumps up and down in volume. Fixing this would please me. As it stands, it's a NO

I agree with Mike here that the phaser on the beginning synth is a bit out of control. I initially liked the effect but I felt it went too long during the intro and should've been peeled back progressively as the drop approached. Nice hip-hop drums driving the mix forward, although in the second half of the song they get a little lost in the mix (especially when we move over to the poppy snare from 2:27 which is quite tiny and lacks impact). The squelchy synth in the first melodic passage was a little hard to hear in the mix, a trait shared by the other synth and flute like instrument here. Initially I was confused as to what the actual lead was supposed to be playing the main melody because of this. One of these needs to be set as the dominant part over others. Your sound placement is otherwise ok. The rising piano portions which followed felt too stiff for my liking, and could do with some humanisation. The continued breakdown into the Saturn section was nice. The choir felt weak as the samples were very basic, but they weren't a main instrument and didn't dominate the mix. The outro for me came too abruptly and could've been much stronger (such as a return to the original groove to finish things off). It almost felt like you had run out of ideas by that point. For me the arrangement has issues that I think need to be revisited. On one hand you have some nice transitions to new sections and breaks throughout, but it did feel like transitions for the sake of transitions without true direction. The mixing further lets this down, with focus not where it needs to be for certain parts. I like the overall vibe you have here, but you'd greatly benefit from tightening the mixing up, shortening and value adding to some sections instead of extending them for too long, and rolling back use of effects to keep them creative. NO

I like this piece, it invokes and brings out a lot of emotion from the original source. I enjoyed the progression of the arrangement here and felt it went for a new length overall. I agree with regards to some problems with the sounds here, such as the (thin) piano. These are exacerbated by the mechanical nature of the playing. I don't feel as strongly about this piece being overly mechanical though. It didn't feel like everything was completely to the grid, but there is room for improvement here for sure. However I don't feel this is enough for me to NO the mix outright. YES

Senpai has noticed you Def with Deia - found the voice clips during the intro a bit abstract and somewhat out of place at the start of the mix. I also found it a bit odd for that particular section to go on as long as it did. To me the intro could've achieved the same build up effect in a shorter period of time. Once the mix starts at 0:45, I'm enjoying the blipply lead you have going on. At 1:03 however, it just gets lost in the mix, which is not good because it's carrying the main melody of the song. This happens again at 2:21. Kick is ok but a little weak, and the bass could be somewhat stronger and more identifiable. The bridge transition at 1:39 and 3:11 sounded very abrupt and weird to me - for some reason it didn't sit right, like an abrupt key change or something. It also felt like there were some bad notes in there to boot but I believe these may be due to the original source tune, so perhaps this feeling is coming from backing elements, I'm not sure. Arrangement wise I'm enjoying your changes between different sections, as well as your riffy lead work dotted throughout the mix which add a personal feel. I see this mix has a few problems to solve, to try and summarise some of the above: Takes a bit too long to get going Lead is lost in the mix, especially in the "chorus" sections where it should be mixed to be fully audible The bridge transitions are abrupt Overall I think this is going ok but submission is a little premature, would like to hear a resub with the above addressed. NO

Nice intro with a good build-up. Solid choice of sounds. Mixing is ok but a bit hot in some of the busy areas for a mix of this nature, to the point where all the parts blend unpleasantly - especially the sections at 1:11, 1:57, and even more so 2:08 when the brass and strings play together. I found the drum panning a bit odd, and during the louder sections they became drowned out significantly. I thought the higher toms in this also sounded out of place compared to the rest of the mix. The arrangement here does have some changes throughout, but they're not overly significant. Although the mix is quite short, when I was listening to it felt like it was verging on being too long. Usually for me this is alarm bells that there isn't enough variation throughout the arrangement. While the arrangement could definitely be stronger, for me I feel the mixing of the louder/busier sections as well as the faint drums ultimately break this for me. I would love for this to have another mixing pass to correct these problems. NO

Lots of hard energy. I will say straight up that I wasn't a huge fan of the game SFX used here - it was fun to start with but as the mix progressed some sounds appeared quite often throughout the mix and felt overused. Conversely, I thought the samples used as one off's were a lot more effective. There were isolated notes in some of the leads that sounded a little off/dissonant in contrast to their respective background elements playing at the same time, but these occurrences were pretty minimal. You have made good use of stereo space, and alternative panning of sounds during breaks were noticed and appreciated. Although the mix was quite chaotic at times, everything mostly retained it's audibility. Some nice breaks and interludes were featured in your arrangement, which are always essential for a track like this which is regularly pounding. I did notice the track relied upon sampled vox and SFX to differentiate similar sounding sections from not sounding so similar, but I found this to be mostly creative. Some sections did sound familiar sample wise to their source tracks, and I couldn't confirm if they had been lifted from the original or just made to sound authentic to the original. Because I couldn't identify any extended lifted sections from the original, I personally can't see a problem. Overall am ok with this one. There are some problems for me but nothing is at a sticking point here for revision. YES

I enjoyed this mix overall. I feel the light orchestral elements in the background didn't overly strengthen or detract from the mix. Parts feel mostly cohesive in how they compliment each other, with the main focus always on the flute to keep direction. Mixing is at times a little rough, but nothing here is causing parts to be inaudible. You're a bit heavier than normal on the mid frequencies which could've been toned back to keep things sounding more natural. Timpani's play a similar pattern when they drop in during the orchestral accompaniment sections, but they're not through much of the mix and I didn't notice this too much with everything else going on. The second half of your arrangement felt like a bit of a repeat of the first half, but it wasn't a copy/paste or anything, so that's not a major concern. I'm actually ok with this one. Your mix quality is ok enough, and while you have made some odd instrument choices, I enjoyed the blend, with the mix ending around the time it needed to. YES

Overall funky mix, with a bit of a daft feel. Enjoy your sounds, groovy bass in particular, and you've got some nice lead work going on. I didn't have a huge problem with the fakery of things like your drums, as everything around them were synthesised or had effects plastered on them in some way. I didn't have any major problems with your mixing. I agree with Deia that the biggest challenge you have here is the repetitive nature of the track. It's ok for things to repeat sometimes, but when you have your main elements doing similar patterns - like your bass and drums, it makes things become samey quickly. I think more work needs to be done here on your arrangement to add those little varied changes in notes that keep things fresh. Expansion is definitely needed here. NO

Great arrangement here - solid, nice changes in pace and emotion. No problems. I also think you've done well with your mixing, everything has a decent amount of separation and space. As for instrument quality I can see where the others are having problems. I'm not an orchestral expert in any way, but some parts to me felt like they had a MIDI feel to them in the way notes transitioned from one part to the next. The attacks of some notes also felt abrupt compared to how hand played instruments normally sound. I'm not sure how much this is attributed to your sequencing or the overall quality of your samples, especially for things like your brass. I do acknowledge however, that we do not require artists to use expensive sample packs, quite the opposite - we fully support those who have to make do with cheaper packs or even free sounds. The problem you face is, the lesser the quality of your samples, the more work you have to do by hand in the sequencer to make things feel realistic, especially if you're wanting to go full orchestral. Tough one because I don't feel I can penalise you on sample quality alone, but I feel there is space here for some sequencing improvement to bring more of an humanised element to the mix. By all means however, if you're got some alternative sample packs there, experiment with them to see if they give this more life. NO

Liked how this one started up. Intro beats were indeed thin, though I initially took this as for effect. That said the drums did not change in tone throughout the course of the mix, and IMO while still audible they need a bit more low end presence as they're too poppy and don't carry much weight for driving the mix forward. Your leads are passable though a little generic at times, but I did appreciate that you changed to different instruments for different sections to maintain freshness. Low end does get cloudy (especially in the busier parts) and could use some taming as NutS mentioned. The arrangement was a mixed bag for me - I enjoyed your breaks and changes in pace, but some of these were let down by some fairly repetitive sections which went on for too long, some of which featuring the same bar(s) of melody over and over. Changing up things a bit in the longer sections would go a long way to sorting this. This is a good start, and will be a lot closer with some tweaks to your mixing and arrangement. NO

Nice light vibes all round that builds up as the track progresses. I think you have some nice choices in instruments here taking turns at playing different parts and leading different sections. I didn't have may problems getting into this as far as the transition into different sources is concerned, parts mix together well, with no strange abrupt changes or feelings that things went too fast. Everything seems to be mixed well, everything audible nice job there. Sound quality for the most part is ok. I think the instruments could be slightly more realistic - I'm not as picky with these things as my fellow judges because I find piecing together something that sounds mostly natural already a challenge in itself and I feel you accomplish this well for the most part, even if your samples aren't the best quality out there. I will agree that some of the arrangement is stiff or feels overly sequenced and not as natural as it could be and that humanisation would go some way into taking this track to the next level. For me personally however, this doesn't detract from your tracks overall quality. YES

Enjoyed the minimal opening and overall trolling of the listener to keep them guessing as to when the drop will finally hit . Your track is actually quite minimal, and while I like this, I feel like it edges toward little noises a little too much instead of actual melodic content. I thought the chord portion at 2:20 was ok, but I felt it was a bit short in particular because it was the first time we were hit with a fuller soundscape. The change up at 3:00 is nice. When we get to the end we don't get too much of an outro which was somewhat disappointing. Production quality is solid, no gripes there. Prob the tipping point for me is the main melody piece that runs across the majority of track - it played over and over and became repetitive to me rather quickly, even by the halfway mark. I'd say this is probably because it's played with the same blippy instrument in the same way most of the time. While there is a lot of background variation in this track with all the flutters, blips and things like that, I felt the foreground elements were a bit sparse which made the track feel lacking to me, like it was stuck in the same gear the whole way through. Ultimately I think the arrangement needs strengthening and more direction. NO

Nice clean production with solid synth work. Arrangement seems fine. I will say by the mid point and second chorus things felt a bit samey, but there was enough fresh stuff and motif changes mixed in there to keep things going. Enjoyed the attention to detail in use of stereo space/panning of sounds, and effective yet not overused white noise drops. Kick is always audible against the bass, and leads are clear as they should be. Overall authentic rendition of the genre, not heard you do something like this before Kris. Nice work. YES

I like your take on this under represented game. There are a lot of nice instrumental touches/nuances here and there that really change the feel of the track over time and add to the source. You do fall into the trap of some repetitiveness and I can relate to Deia's point here, however for me I did not get a straight sense of copy and paste or overuse of passages to the point where they became stale or anything like that. My main complaint with this one is that the timpani drums were a bit boomy - they didn't quite break the mix, but they definitely got overpowering over time. Overall though I'm quite happy with this, more source interpretation would be nice but this seems ok. YES

Very full on intro with a lot going on. This mix is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I immediately thought the mix was a bit too full with a lot of sounds stepping on each other for space in the mix. The mix also sounds heavily pressed together with compression, would've been great if this had been relaxed to let the track breathe. Nice drum work. In particular I liked the tom rolls as they pan across the ears. Nice guitar tone, well suited. Nice choice in other instruments, they complement well, but as mentioned, fight for space. Good changes in pace, alternating between faster and slower feeling sections, which is exactly what this kind of mix needs. Solid variation across the mix, I enjoyed the cleaner guitar near the end, the pauses in sections to give the ears a break. The song felt it went by a lot quicker than its duration led me to believe, well done there. Solid arrangement. For me the primary issue is quality, which I would describe overall as muffled and too compressed. I surprisingly found myself preferring the original track and not the new master above - the new master sounded narrow in frequencies to me (likely due to the tapered bass). Conversely, the original is certainly boomy. Either way, I feel this mix needs some boosting in the highs to open it up a bit, and less compression overall. I have no idea how hard this would be considering the original project is unable to be opened properly. I feel this sits with me as a borderline NO because of the problems. NO (borderline)

Great soundscape here. While predictable, I like the lighthearted style. I enjoy the attention to deal exhibited here that is a fairly strong hallmark of Brandon's creative prowess. I thought that some of the performances could have been slightly tighter in spots, but this is only a minor complaint, and I would prefer this over rigid quantisation. I also thought this mix played it awfully safe in its style and felt a little repeaty on the final 3rd portion. Overall though, great mix. YES

Not a bad mix. I like the sounds you have used here and the light hearted nature of the track. My collection of thoughts on this mix are below: Enjoyed the plucky intro. I like the instrument choices you have made here soundscape wise, the sounds are complementary to each other and seem to fit together well. As an exception to the above I think the bass is too rumbly/strong when it comes in at 0:38, it overpowers the soundscape, and takes more of a front row seat than your leads. It should be dialled back a little and if possible, I'd recommend some of the boom of the sub portion be tapered off/reduced. Arrangement wise, things really needed a change up up by 1:50 but the same progression was continued. I would've liked to hear a bit more creative variation in the arrangement. Conversely the outro portion at 2:24 was very nice and could've perhaps happened earlier. Drum sequencing was quite static and didn't change too much. I didn't mind the sounds you used for these for the most part. As the others have mentioned, I think this could do with some more work in arrangement creativity, and some mixing tweaks. Looking forward to a resub. NO

Quite a minimalistic mix sound wise. I agree with the others that the chosen sounds are a bit generic. This can be ok for some sounds but a lot of instruments you have chosen are quite static and don't really change/adapt/evolve as the mix progresses. Even some simple filter/res changes can go a long way in changing up a sound, giving it more life. For me this was a little too close to the original in a lot of areas of the arrangement and I felt more original materials could've been weaved in on top of those featured. The structure of the track felt very similar to the original piece, including it's tempo changes. This would have been mitigated somewhat had the sound choices adapted over time. I enjoyed your drums here, although they were a bit dry. Actually most of the mix is a bit dry. Clarity over cloudiness is always preferred when it comes to effects, but each part felt a bit isolated from the others due to an overall lack of reverb. I also agree that your bass in the middle and towards the end of the track was a bit out of control, it was very big and thick and began to overpower your other elements. This could do with some dialling back. Your track here IMO is better than the original. But that's also where I feel this falls short, as it sounds like an upgraded dancey version of the original as opposed to a significant re-arrangement. Some more varied sound design would have gone a long way in making this feel more like you. With the above mentioned challenges, I believe this mix can be strengthened. You're in a good place though. NO

Nice lyric work, it is well performed and sounds quite raw which suits this well. Production: Straight away I'm noticing something weird going on across the track - every time the kick hits it thuds the mix causing an unpleasant wavering. I'm not sure if this is due to a compressor/limiter or just an audible illusion due to the tremolo/wavering guitar sounds combining with the kick sample, but it's certainly distracting and I'm not a fan of it. I'd like to see this "effect" or problem fixed. Arrangement: Predominantly the song is based on a core pattern throughout, largely relying on it's vocal content for the needed originality. While this is mostly fine, I would've liked to hear some more done with the source than what was done here. I also feel the mix doesn't really lead anywhere, it has the same direction from beginning to end and maintains that for better or worse. This was missing those little changes and nuances that you get throughout a hip-hop track to keep things fresh. I'd like to see some more work done here to break up the mix and reduce the repetitive feel. NO

Drums are definitely drowned out a bit here in the mix, which I feel is mostly due to the large amount of things you have going on at the same time. You have managed to balance a lot of simultaneous parts surprisingly well, but I felt the fuller sections had diminishing returns for the amount of parts that kept layering on top. The track could use some more clarity, with perhaps some consideration given to the amount of parts playing and if they're all necessary. On a side note, I'd like to acknowledge the nice guitar playing that is showcased here. On the arrangement side of things, I enjoyed the progression, although everything was too close to the original on most fronts. The song also began to feel sameish as it got to the mid way point, due to the constant level of energy it contains. I would've liked to hear a bit more of a change somewhere to break things up, and this would've opened some opportunities to make the arrangement more original. I think the track could benefit from the drums being be more audible, more clarity, and some slight changes in arrangement to bring out some originality. You're pretty close here. NO

Nice dirty intro. First up I enjoy all the little synth bits, small percussive dings, synth modulation and other effects, etc, these are a nice touch, and they are absolutely noticed. I love when this attention to detail is given to a mix and I encourage more remixers to add these little subtleties to their mixes. Production is solid on most points - for a fairly minimal track predominantly relying on percussion, bass, lead - you guys have done well in filling the stereo field. Now there are some sticking points for me here which I'm sure others wont agree with, but I feel are big enough to be worth mentioning. On a minor note, the synth bass which the track relies upon here in the main drop sections is quite overpowering in contrast to some of the other elements (especially when combined with the trancy synth and strings you've got going on) which began to drown out things like the snare and backing synths in places like 2:00 and 2:36. A small reduction in volume of this would've been enough to give space for the other parts without having to compete. The major point of contention for me was the continuous side-chaining which while reinforcing the hard 4/4 rhythm and invoking the body to dance, also made things feel very similar sounding as the song progressed. While 10 sources are mentioned, by the midway point because of the same synths, the same rhythm and the same energy, the arrangement didn't feel like it was progressing somewhere new across its play time. This almost constant level of energy throughout was made more apparent in the absence of a major breakdown. I did appreciate 1:35 and 3:03 but with the rhythm remaining it didn't feel like we were having much of a rest in these sections, especially with the other parts starting up again so soon. Had something a bit more substantial been done here (eg: a complete change in rhythm, completely different sound) it would have swayed me easily to a resounding yes. The backing breaks were a great touch but again, absorbed by the side-chaining. This is a quality production guys, no question. Tons of great work has gone into this (especially with combining so many sources) and I do see this passing, but I found the side-chained rhythm overused (with the genre fully considered) and started to make things sound very samish which detracted enough from the piece for me to bring it up as a concern, perhaps for consideration in future mixes. Ultimately, this mix feels dance floor ready for sure, but due to the above issues, a hair short of a pass IMO. NO (borderline)