Emunator   Judges ⚖️

Ohhh yeah, jnWake hit the nail on the head with the Tropical Freeze vibes. The kalimba and bamblong bring so much character to the table. What a cool spin on this source material from a textural and melodic perspective. The heavy rock transition later in the arrangement is cathartic and unexpected - I was surprised on the first listen, but by the second, I couldn't imagine the song without it. Critique time. The vocal choir monosynth at 1:55 is carrying a very dramatic, expressive melodic moment in the arrangement, but it feels like there's not much else going on around it in the mix, so it sticks out like quite a sore thumb. The high note swell at 2:17 does not work for me, unfortunately. I see what you were trying to go for, but since nothing else in the soundscape seems to be supporting this transition, the lead ends up getting really loud and then petering out unceremoniously a few bars later. This could absolutely work, but without any transitional sound effects or sweeps, it's very hard to tell what this part of the arrangement is going for, especially in context of the full-blown changeup at 2:40. I know it's a bit cliche for me to suggest sound design/fx (though I'm glad someone else said it before me, so it's not just "Sound Design Man Recommends Sound Design" 😵‍💫) but I think that moment could really benefit from something to help convey the intent of that transition and better signal the impending change in dynamics that is being established. The drum mix is definitely muddy and dull, despite the really intense writing, I don't think it's hitting as much as you intended. There's a lack of snap/punch in the kick and snare that, if resolved, could give the kit drums more presence without compromising the washy, consuming sound you currently have going. Without knowing what drum tools you're using, I can't suggest anything with certainty, but if the kit allows you to tweak individual kit elements, I would start by bringing some high-end back to the snare and perhaps easing off the compression, or using a slower attack, so that the transients in your drums still come through. All that said, these are more nice-to-haves than a mandate - what you have here is undeniably transformative in more ways than one, and none of the nitpicks push the song anywhere near "unlistenable" territory, so I'm fine giving this an unreserved yes and leaving these as suggestions for the future :) YES

Add this to the list of source material that I only know because of Dwelling of Duels, though my familiarity with it dates back all the way to 2006's Silent Hill month when ansgaros covered the same song. Let's see what you can do with it! Starts with some excellent mood-setting ambiance, I can tell we're going to be in this for the long haul. Wow, this arrangement goes places. I was attempting to play-by-play this at first but I got so caught up in the journey that I had to just let it play out. Seph called out Bowie as a strong parallel, and I agree with that completely, but I'll also throw out Opeth as another reference - this feels like it lives in the same stylistic realm as their more prog-oriented songs like Burden. I can't stress enough how much I loved this arrangement, I think it's one of your best. Joe brought up some really well-informed critiques about the vocal mixing, and I agree at every step. However, if I was looking at this in a bubble, I don't think the vocal harshness is enough to make me say "if the artist was unable to make any fixes, this should not be posted on the site." There's an abundance of things you get right here, and the vocals are audible and clear, and there's much more to the arrangement than just that element. I would LOVE to hear some of Joe's critiques implemented, but I'd be hard pressed to make a case that it should be held back in its current form, either. YES (but maybe we can get some tweaks to the vocal mix if it's not too much trouble? no worries if not)

I vaguely recall hearing the first version from Dwelling of Duels but didn't listen with the most critical of ears. I'm approaching this resubmitted version with fresh ears. I love anything from the original Mario Party soundtrack, and you captured and enhanced the vibe really well! The mix definitely feels rough around the edges in its current form, which I think stems from multiple different issues. From the jump, the balance between percussion feels off, and this feeling persists through the rest of the song. The hi-hats, and later the shakers, along with the hand percussion (bongos? congas?) feel substantially louder in the mix than everything else, and they don't feel like they exist in a shared space with the kit drums. I can appreciate that this may be a stylistic decision to an extent when considering things like reverb levels and tone, but the volume balance feels off at a base level and that feels distracting. The percussion and performance, however, is great - I don't think there's any problems here that can't be fixed with some re-balancing. This is harder to articulate without seeing the project file, but I feel like the kick and bass are crunching a little too hard together. This might be a combination of overcompression or sub-optimal attack settings on the compressors, too much saturation on the kick/bass, or timing issues where the kick and bass are too synced up on the transients and are causing spikes when both play at the same time. As a nitpick, 1:58 feels like we get a brief moment where the kick and bass stumble and have a sloppy rhythm, but it bounces back quickly. I love the guitar tone and performance here, it adds a ton of life and movement to the piece that I think is essential to keeping a song at this tempo from feeling plodding. The marimba also contributes to this positively when it appears, with the lone exception of 2:35, which just doesn't work well as such an exposed lead instrument from a writing level. Unfortunately, the electric piano in the intro and later at 1:53 is underwhelming - it feels notably programmed and stiff compared to the other instruments around it and is also extremely quiet in the mix. This unfortunately does not start the track with a positive impression and feels like a weak link overall. I'm not totally sold on the execution here, though the concept is surely one that is well-suited for OCR. If this doesn't pass in its current form, I'm 100% certain you can get it there - at the very least, tightening up the balance on the percussive elements and cleaning up the e. piano would be enough to push this over the bar for me, but I think there's other things you can do to bring out even more of the potential here. NO (resubmit)

This one starts off with some classic Omnisphere bells and synths that gel together flawlessly. Everything is buttery smooth about the pads, bass, and melodic elements. I can see how each of the decisions you made in the reworking process contribute to this feeling. Then, around the 1 minute mark, you slide in some incredibly fun shuffle rhythms that feels completely different from the intro, but goes down smooth all the same. No chaser needed :) The only beef I have here is the piercing high-end percussion lines, I'd love to hear that (or, not hear that?) tamped down with some high-shelf action. I also would have liked to hear a little more sound design/effects to lead into the final resolution at the end of the song, but it already works well enough as-is, so that's more of a "I would have done this differently" approach. Nice work! YES

Yerp - pretty much what my two esteemed colleagues above said. It's a wonderful concept and I have no argument that you didn't achieve exactly what you set out to do with this track. It's a brilliant demonstration of the concept of phasing and it works perfectly with this source material, but from a sound design and arrangement development perspective, this is too abstract for our catalog. I could see this concept laying the melodic groundwork for a remix that IS viable here. If you were game for that, it would be sublime - I'm sure of it. If not, this piece already does exactly what it needs to do, it would just need some sonic expansion beyond what's presented here. NO

Huh, I thought that I voted on this when it was on the panel. I definitely listened to it many times, and really enjoyed its simplicity. It leans into all the elements that I enjoy most about your music, and the extra context from the writeup makes it feel all the more special. Lovely work!

Oooohh, the opening phasing is a treat for the ears on headphones, this is starting off strong. Excellent mood setting and sound choices across the board, it was very immersive. The guitar tone is especially good here and, as I've noted on your previous submissions, is a highlight of the track, but the synths aren't slouching either. I think this is one of your most effective sound palettes that I've heard to date! When we hit 1:07, some of the problems with the mix jump front and center because you've left the problematic elements completely exposed, and once I hear them in isolation, the distracting effect persists through the whole song. I'm talking about the room reverb on the kick and snare, and how you can hear the reverb on every single hit. It ends up feeling like the reverb is its own percussive element that offsets the groove, rather than blending it with the rest of the instruments like reverb should be doing. I also agree with the drum compression issues noted by XPRTNovice, and would also agree that this critique applies to the bassline just as much. It's hard to tell precisely what's going on, but the bass presence in the song feels skewed toward the transient, and conversely feels deficient in the actual bass frequency range. It ends up with neither of those instruments doing what you really want them to do in the mix - maintain the pulse of the song and fill out the low frequency spectrum. The transitions are ambitious and, unfortunately, seem to miss the mark more often than they hit. There's already been some good advice shared to button those up with drum fills or effects, and I second that wholeheartedly. Oftentimes, I think the issue is simply that you cut off the leading elements from the previous section too quickly as you jump to the next section, and it would help glue the parts together better if you let those sustain for longer as you transition between time sigs. I'm not the expert on mixed-meter so I'll mostly defer to the other judges on the specifics here, but it's definitely an issue I felt before I even got into analysis mode. Ultimately, you've crafted a really ambitious, creative arrangement using some of your best-designed synths to date, but some of the foundational elements are letting this down. The issues with the drum/bass mixing and the transitions, unfortunately, are spread across nearly the whole track so it's harder to handwave their impact as isolated nitpicks. I do think these elements need some TLC before this reaches its full potential. NO (resubmit)

This is not at ALL what I was expecting after what I've heard from your other submissions - I'm impressed to hear you step out of your comfort zone like this and execute so well on the first pass. Overall, this was a solid effort and I can see why this has split the panel. This starts off with some very immersive orchestral string swells and a well-used vocal sample to draw the listener in. No issues so far, this sounds great. To touch briefly on the arrangement, I think jnWake correctly identified that it's close to the source, though I don't think I would have immediately noticed that myself because of how much you transformed the original through different instrumentation and flourishes. I think this is a definite pass on the arrangement front. The elephant in the room is the flute - sampling yourself into a virtual instrument is a bold choice, and although it certainly lends this piece a certain "vintage rompler" quality (I've affectionately referred to this as "Playstation 1 orchestra" in the past) there's an uncanny valley feeling that we're left with that unfortunately takes me out of the experience. It's not quite synthetic enough to feel intentional, but not hitting the mark for realism on the faster runs and embellishments, or the vibrato, to pass as realistic. I could forgive the vibrato, but honestly, the grace notes sound really awkward and immersion-breaking. Would it be within your capability to record those runs directly from your flute so it captures the natural legato between notes that help blend those effects more smoothly? I think even if you went for the sampled approach for the lead instruments, patching those runs in with a live-performed sample would be a huge improvement. The mixing is also a concern - there's no MAJOR missteps, but there's some consistent volume imbalances that, if dialed in by a decibel or two, would blend the piece a lot better. The flute is loud, and I think there's probably some of the saturation automation you mentioned that's causing the flute to crunch even harder. The end result is that the flute feels abrasive in the mix when it should be feeling more smooth, so I would ease up on that effect slightly. Other than that, I agree with the balance suggestions jnWake called out. This is really close, but because the flute takes such a central role in the piece, the rest of the track would need to be really ironclad to make me willing to forgive the issues present with the flute, and it's unfortunately not tight enough to tip the scales for me. Really cool approach though, and it was great to hear you try something so different from your usual fare! NO (borderline/resubmit)

Proph has the right call on this based on our source usage guidelines, but this was wickedly enjoyable. "Yami Yugi, big piece up on the neck" killed me, love that that line made it into the chorus so I got to hear it multiple times 🤣Great delivery, great lyricism, excellent sample flip and production on the beat. Because the source usage is based entirely around direct samples from the source and isn't terribly recognizable as a Wario Ware arrangement in this form, this isn't the kind of submission we're looking for. It's a shame because I thoroughly loved listening to this, and Brad is right - if not on OCR, this will find a home elsewhere online and people will love it. If you guys are able to put together something that doesn't rely on direct sampled audio from the original game and has more substantive development on the instrumental side, I'd personally love to hear it. NO

This is a no-brainer closeout. This source material adapts PERFECTLY to this small ensemble format, which allows both the rhythmic and melodic elements of Hollow Bastion to shine equally. The performances are tight, the mixing gives it a lush sense of space while still retaining a feeling of intimacy. I'm not as picky of a listener as Brad is, so if the technical performance aspects pass his bar, it solidly leaps over my layman's expectations as well! YES

FTL_Arpeggio Clip Isolated.mp3 This is the arpeggio I'm talking about at :20-39. I have an autopanner on it so it's definitely bouncing around the stereo field but it's there. This motif is directly from the source and repeats for almost the entire duration of the remix (shown on this pattern in the screenshot) The chord connection might be easier to grasp with MIDI. These are the underlying root chords starting at :08 in my remix - the guitar is voiced differently and has some color notes, but this pattern below is direct from the source as well (the original has it played on a very detuned synth.) If it's mixed in a way that feels too removed from the source, I can live with that. The original source doesn't have much to work with, so I had to lean on chords and backing elements to make the connection. Hope this helps x2! :)

Hearing these Orwellian voice clips over a classic electro beat that sounds straight out of the early 2000's is hilarious to me. I've always complimented Kris for her ability to mix with absolute pristine clarity, but one of the things I've really enjoyed about her collaborations with Treyt is how that spit-shined polish meshes so impossibly well with the gritty, distorted textures that Treyt is known for. The synths are shimmering and the beats are produced immaculately, and Treyt's guitar and (presumably) more heavily modulated and crunchy synths are the perfect foil to each other. Thank you for doing your civic duty, patriots. Your contributions to society are unimpeachable. YES

I see walls of paragraphs all above me, so there's probably no chance I'm getting through this one with a clean vote... not sure how I missed voting on this during the judge test myself! I love the foundational elements of this piece, juxtaposing a deep 808 synth with some very grimy, industrial percussion drenched in reverb and some plectral instruments that feel like they could have been pulled straight from Castlevania. On a conceptual level, we're hitting the right marks here. The end result is washy and messy, but in a way that feels appropriate - the leads don't necessarily cut through, but do they need to? I'd argue that this works perfectly well as more of a vibes-focused track where the melodies are sidelined. The 808 feels rather tame though, like it wants to be a commanding presence that grounds the rest of the ambient elements in something more concrete, but it doesn't really feel that way in the mix. This is common when you have a bass that has tremendous sub presence but little upper harmonics, and can usually be rectified by either adding some subtle saturation to the bass (preferably using multiband saturation so you don't introduce issues with the sub frequencies) and/or by cleaning up competing frequencies in the low mids from your other elements. I would imagine that the industrial/orchestral percussion layers probably have a lot of low-frequency content that doesn't need to be there. Make sure you're low-cutting your reverbs too! Low freqs can build up there and dull the presence of your bass and kick. The muddiness is the only thing that I feel actively detracts from the listening experience - the rest feels like it can be chalked up to a stylistic decision, so I personally side with the YES votes that this does enough stuff right that the bass mixing shortcomings can be a "learn from this next time" rather than a dealbreaker on this piece! YES

Source: Chords 0:08 - 0:35 are pulled from the detuned chords from 0:00-0:30 in the source (32s) Plucky backing arp from :20-:39 is the main arpeggio from the source (9s) Monosynth at :39-:59 is the same arpeggio (20s) 1:00-1:20 uses fragments of the source arpeggio across various instruments, as well as the chords from :58 in the source (the descending F#>F>D# motif). 1:20-1:42 is an original progression but the plucky chiptune arp is playing melodic material from :58 in the source 1:42-2:22 you already caught in the guitar/backing arpeggios (40s) 2:42-2:56 - the strummed guitar chords are a different rhythmic interpretation of the motif from :58 in the source 3:03-3:43 has the same backing motif there, it's just not very prominent. Your call if you want to count this! 3:43-end plays the melody from :58 in the source on the plucked chiptune synth Hope this helps! I started to count it out but realized that the source is pretty much all over this if you look at duration, so it's more a matter of whether that source usage is prominent enough in the mix when it does appear.

"I've heard plenty of tracks where the metronome-like timing is a feature not a bug, and this isn't a case where it's the same." I really appreciate this take from @Liontamer because it speaks to the dilemma I faced when listening to this. It obviously feels like it's inspired by new-wave tracks from the days of drum machines where the rigid quantization was very much intentional. I see what you're going for here, but I think the lead synth programming still has plenty of room to be more expressive without subverting that feeling, with subtle modulation and expression or fills. The lead guitar breaks out of this rigid lockstep in a way that's very satisfying, so I have an immediate reference within the song for what it sounds like when you have a very expressive lead melody on top of the machine-like drum and synths that unfortunately makes the first half of the track feel underwhelming by comparison. That said, I was already pretty borderline with the last submission, and I can't deny that you did a great job of addressing nearly everything that we brought up. The mix is much cleaner, there's no more individual elements poking out of the mix in a distracting way, and you cleaned up some of the crunchy chords. While I do think there's room for additional development, I think this now sits comfortably above the bar. Great work taking all of the feedback to heart and putting it all together to push your arrangement where it needed to be! YES

Artist Name: Emunator feat. Zack Parrish Emunator: Arrangement, keys/synths, programming, mixing Zack Parrish: Guitars, bass, mastering Another month, another FOMO-fueled last-minute Dwelling of Duels entry! I had to dig deep for this source tune, since this month's theme was PC Games, and I can count on one hand the number of PC games I've played in my life. FTL is not one of them - I actually knew about this source through Little V's remix from 2015, which gave me enough familiarity with the source that I felt like I could hack something together in 3 days. So I dove in and let it rip. The original source, although it is incredibly ear-wormy, has a pretty nebulous structure, so I crafted an arrangement that centered around two climactic moments and then built outward from there. Although I knew I wanted to let off the thrusters and allow this track to exist as a slow-burning melodic piece similar artists like M83 or Slowdive, I wanted at least one moment where the song could soar. Luckily, I know just the guitarist for the job - Zack dropped not only a ripping solo, but also tracked bass for the whole song as well as additional clean guitars that took the spacey vibes to another plane of existence. The voice clips throughout the song are sampled from the Apollo 8 mission, which is available through NASA's public domain archives. The funny thing is, the vocal clips were a last-minute addition because certain parts of the song still felt empty... but I had to actually check myself on that because by now, they feel like the song was built around them. I barely had to do any slicing to get the individual clips to fit with the pacing of the song, and the "let there be light" moment in particular fell right into place with the transition I'd already written. All said, this song only took about 12 hours of work total over three days - the stars certainly aligned to bring this piece together on a tight timeline! Games & Sources FTL: Faster Than Light - Space Cruise

Every so often, Michael drops a submission where I immediately feel compelled to share it with someone else, just to make sure I didn't hallucinate it. In this case, before I'd even done a source check or looked at the song through a critical lens, I messaged @Chimpazilla and said "you HAVE to listen to this." As a submissions evaluator, this is perhaps the best compliment I can give - in that moment, my personal enjoyment as a listener grabbed the wheel and superseded my role as critic. There are a few moments that resonated with me which I want to highlight. The first :50 seconds set the stage with the types of sounds and techniques you would go on to explore, but the wash of sound at :49, and the few seconds of trickling ambiance that precede it, felt like the floodgates suddenly burst open. This was the most emotionally cathartic moment of the entire arrangement and had me hooked. The simple legato melody at 2:26 similarly offered a moment of solace before delving into the most challenging, emotionally fraught part of the arrangement. Such a simple touch, but it feels like a lantern that I can carry with me through the turmoil that comes within the next minute. Then we arrive at 3:27, and as everything faded to silence, I found myself yearning for the experience to continue. I wasn't ready to leave. So it was such a pleasant surprise to realize that it did, indeed, have several more minutes of time left on the clock. The last two minutes don't necessarily introduce any groundbreaking new musical ideas or sound design techniques. In fact, what follows feels comparatively straightforward and unassuming compared to the experimentation that came before it, which on paper, could easily seem like unnecessary padding to an arrangement that already said what it needed to say. Yet somehow, by the time we actually reach the end of the final arpeggio, I found myself completely content. Something about the decision to play the rest of the song straight with nothing but uninterrupted arpeggios and field recordings for nearly two additional minutes hits perfectly. I could try for days to articulate why this all works from a compositional level and still probably come up short, which tells me that this is the kind of piece you just need to feel. YES

What are you doing all the way down here? This has all the makings of a successful track - minusworld at the helm of the arrangement, a couple of clutch collaboration partners, and a banging source tune. Mario Party 2's soundtrack has always felt like it's begging for a triumphant rock opera upgrade. I don't have the rhythmic vocabulary to describe what you're doing here, but the prog is felt on a visceral level nonetheless. The transitions are handled deftly, which is usually the primary pitfall that prog rock arrangements can fall into, but cohesiveness is not a concern here at all. There's always something exciting happening - for being a song about outer space, you left no dead air across the 5 and a half minute runtime. It makes moments like 3:45 all the more gratifying when you finally let off the thrusters for a moment and just let it coast, and although the voice clips aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea, it felt appropriately tongue-in-cheek for me! Yeah, this is ridiculously satisfying, and did everything I could possibly want a prog rock arrangement of Space Land to do. I can't find any gripes worth noting - let's get this posted! YES

Kris has always been a wizard of psytrance, but the extra levels of grit that Treyt brings to the table make this an especially hearty meal - full health restored! Each successive section hits harder than the one before it, with my level of stank face increasing proportionally with each drop. The last one with the borderline-hardstyle sounding kick drum floored me. Liontamer used the word "kinetic" and I couldn't have put it better myself - this track goes places. The production quality is unimpeachable, mixed cleanly without lacking teeth, and the integration of orchestral instruments gives extra opportunities to go beyond a stereotypical psytrance pallet. This is a slam dunk of a submission, and just a taste of what's to come from these two. The rest of y'all aren't ready for what they've both got cooking ;) YES

Yeah, honestly "additional piano, synth bass" doesn't really capture the scope of how much jnWake's "bullshit" helped sculpt the sound and direction of this piece - it was absolutely integral to the final product and this would not have come together without his contributions. More Wake+Emu collabs in 2025 for SURE

^ what she said 😆 Seriously though, I recall giving some very in-depth feedback on earlier versions of this track, and I am happy to say that this feels much further along in terms of personality and production quality than what I remember! The pace may be slow, but you're almost always moving in the right direction, and I admire the tenacity. I'll address just a few of the most prominent things that I heard to try and give some actionable advice, since others have done a good job giving a comprehensive overview of the song and what needs to happen with it. I actually like the idea of the church organ and the choir in isolation, but there's nothing pinning it to the rest of the song, so it feels tacked on. The jarring transition into the beef of the arrangement makes this intro feel detached, and when it returns at 2:10, the fade-in feels similarly unnatural. I think the idea can totally work, but the intro doesn't have enough time to develop. What I might try is actually extending the length of your intro, and starting with just the choir and organ and then fading your synth arpeggio in gradually over the next few bars before dropping into the EDM section. This can give each of those musical ideas some space to signal the upcoming transitional change to an electronic palette, without throwing too many brand-new ideas at the listener all at once. Chimpazilla did a great job addressing the lead synths so I'm just going to agree 100% with her critique there on what you got right and what needs work. 1:10-1:15 has some squelchy synths that are mixed very loud and sharp, almost like they're clipping unintentionally. Bring those down in volume. The backing synth plucks at 1:48-2:03 cause a similar problem - they are just as loud as everything else in the soundscape, but are clearly not intended to be the main point of focus, but because of how they're mixed, my ear can't help but focus on them. The hi-hat is also very loud and panned off to the right side - it's not playing a very exciting rhythm (not that it needs to be) but the mixing makes it hard to pay attention to anything else. This leaves me feeling everything feels like it's demanding my attention, and as the old adage goes... if everything is urgent, then nothing is. I'll highlight a few things that I liked about this to point out areas where I think you're on the right track. The filter sweep synths and rolling bassline from :13-:28 was great at establishing tension. I love the variety of sounds you used in here, it shows that you're experimenting to create a unique palette of instruments that has something original to offer. Overall, the use of filter sweeps makes the mix feel kinetic and engaging, there's never any points where you're dragging on the same ideas without any variation. I think you could probably stand to develop some of the ideas further and give them room to breathe before moving onto your next idea, but a short, punchy arrangement is definitely preferable to one that drags on too long. I don't feel that this arrangement comes together cohesively yet, but I certainly feel more of your artistic voice here compared to earlier versions, and the execution is leveling up slowly but surely too. This can definitely get there! NO (resubmit)

When I first listened to this, I actually clicked off after hearing the first few seconds because I was not vibing with the mix quality... coming back and listening to the full track, I realize the joke was on me the whole time! Nice fakeout. Definitely getting the physical modeled string feel from this too, good call on that @Hemophiliac. It sounds well above our bar for realism, though if we're getting nitpicky, there's a few points where I hear unnatural note cutoffs, like 3:06 in the cello. The phasing issue was already addressed but I also heard it too. There's clearly a great deal of care put into both the arrangement and programming here, weaving a number of different themes together delicately and getting really creative with the rhythm and harmony in the process. Any nitpicks I have are only that - nitpicks. Nice work! YES

I can't remember exactly how the previous submission sounded, so I'm also coming into this ostensibly blind. I really like the tension and atmosphere you've created with this intro, and although there's a few things I would have done differently myself, I think this intro serves its purpose capably. I don't have a lot of critiques, even the way you glitched out the string section at :53 was really cool, and signaled a change to come. When the beat drops in, my enthusiasm for the mix diminished slightly. I didn't find the sound design to be nearly as compelling or full-bodied, there's a lot of holes in the frequency spectrum that might not feel as off-putting if the intro wasn't so lush right before it . The strange thing is that, although there are relatively few things going on, it still feels muddy. It feels like you might have a lot of sub buildup from your kick drum that isn't audible, but nevertheless is muddying the soundscape. I can't tell for sure, but it might be worth looking at it through an EQ to see if there's a lot of inaudible rumble from your drums. Another thing that can help is shaping the stereo image of your low-end instruments, and making sure that the low frequencies of your bass are summed to mono. Sometimes, if you have sub frequency content bouncing around between stereo channels, it can lead to a mix that just sounds unstable. Also, check your reverbs to make sure you're cutting out low-frequency content that can clutter up a mix as well. Any of these things can lead to what I'm hearing in this mix, where your elements should feel punchy and immediate and they just don't. Once we progress further with the arrangement and you mix more of the orchestral/sound design elements with the beats, it feels better. I still think the drum programming is underwhelming, but with the strings adding some much-needed texture, it comes together reasonably well. I don't feel like anything quite reaches the highs of the intro, unfortunately, but I don't want to hold that against you as long as the rest of the track is up to the bar, and honestly, I'm borderline on it. There's a lot of great ideas here, the arrangement is dynamic and creative and shows a lot of vision, but just on a gut level, the execution still doesn't feel like it's there yet :( Chimpazilla used the word "disjointed" and, from a processing standpoint, I agree with that. This is very borderline for me, but I think I need to trust my gut here - I absolutely hear what you're going for with the 90's techno-influenced sections, but the production doesn't communicate that to me yet. I'd be happy to 1-on-1 this with you if it ends up not passing, since I'm sure I can give more actionable feedback if I can get into the specifics with you on individual elements. NO (resubmit)

Totally on Larry's side (twice in one day? What a world we're living in) in terms of the string mix - the writing is great, but the articulations used feel too sluggish and lack the proper transient to really cut through the mix. Once the rest of the instrumentation kicks in, the impact of this issue is mitigated. As I go through this, I think the overall mastering on the track needs some attention. I don't usually comment on mastering in my votes, because usually I can isolate frequency balance issues to specific instruments, but in this case, I think the whole thing is just too bright. You can hear this in the drum kit, the sibilance in the voiceover, and the harsh tone of the strings and guitar that leads me to believe that there are mixing issues being accentuated by a mastering chain that's not ideal for your arrangement. Seconding the crits on the drums, those just don't hit like they should. I don't have any issues with the writing, but the kick has a lot of audible click, the snare lacks presence in the mix and feels like it's scooped out of the midrange too much. The rest of the kit sits alright, though the cymbals are extra harsh due to the issues I mentioned in the last paragraph. The voiceover is a great addition, my only issue is with the mix - for the first half, it feels like it sits too far forward in the mix on certain words, which suggests a lack of compression and volume shaping to get more consistent peaks. Then, when the rhythm guitars enter, they are getting totally lost. I don't envy your job of having to mix that, but the VO noticeably goes from too audible, to not audible enough. I'd do some very selective EQ cuts on the rhythm guitars wherever the fundamental frequency of Chris's voice resides. The arrangement is tremendously dynamic but the mixing and mastering is causing problems. I haven't touched much on the arrangement and performances because those are rock-solid - your high placement in the month should speak to your success on a conceptual level and I absolutely enjoy everything you brought to the table here, but the mixing/mastering needs some TLC in my opinion. NO (resubmit)