Emunator

Artist Name: Maldivir Dragonwitch This ReMix was created for the Dwelling Of Duels monthly VGM remix contest. All of the main melody lines and synth solo were performed and recorded live, as per the contest rules. I always found the original tune very melancholic and decided to go all out with a chill, deep synthwave version of it, with reharmonization. For no particular reason, at 2:49 there's a small easter egg melody from Suikoden II's Secret Village Of The Ninja.

This really shows what a difference a proper mixdown can make. This addressed every single one of my issues with the original track, allowing the dynamics of your arrangement to shine and gives every instrument and synth a spot in the limelight. There's room to breathe now, and all of the delicate ebbs and flows that you crafted carry so much more impact. The arrangement is, and always has been, brilliant, and I'm so glad to see this back again. This is exactly how you do it, bravo! YES EDIT 7/2/2024: I'm reviewing this since my effusive praise seems to be at odds with the rest of the panel. I have since gone through a calibration process in my monitors to fix a bias towards low-frequency response and a deficient high-end, and honestly, a lot of the feedback you got here reflects critiques that have been (correctly) given about my own music, so I expected to hear a much different song when I listened to this on my new setup. And while I am hearing a much heavier amount of distortion on this track than I picked up on previously, I was actually really impressed with the amount of clarity that came through. I've listened a few times and am just not feeling the fatigue that the other judges are pointing out. And I also think that we're not giving this enough roses for how creative and well-executed the sound design and arrangement are. I came into this expecting to fall in line, but I still think this is pretty squarely in the YES camp for me.

Artist: Everybody Man *RESUBMISSION* Previous Judges Decision Hi again! I'm back after incorporating the feedback you guys gave from my first submission. I also visited the workshop where I got some great mixing advice. I believe this has really improved since the first go-around, and I hope you guys agree! A lot of the feedback was about the loudness of everything - especially the saw arp from Short Hike overpowering the other parts and the kick pumping everything against the limiter. I followed Emunators advice in the workshop about bringing each part down to -inf db and gradually bringing them up one by one. I also revisited the filtering for each part - especially the saw which was occupying way too much of the high end. I automated the gain on a few things, especially trying to keep the saw from interfering with other parts. I also panned a handful of the parts to try to get a bit more clarity/separation. I actually put some of the flute, pluck, and piano parts from Short Hike on some really slow lfos so they kind of swirl around you as they fade in and out. Prophetik suggested sidechaining the kick - I actually had it suuuper sidechained in my first submission, which I think is why it seemed to kill everything else when it hit... I brought that down to a more reasonable level. Another issue mentioned was the runtime and abrupt ending. I'm glad you guys suggested fleshing it out more, I brought in a couple more sections from See You at the Top and I think it feels way more complete. Added bird sounds! The whippoorwill and owl you hear beginning around 2:08 are samples from Short Hike - you hear them when you boot the game and near the ending. I think they really help the listener feel like they're wandering along with the song in some magical woods or something XD. The guitar at 0:50 and the mandolin strums throughout are live recordings as well. Overall I wanted to convey the wonder of exploration I felt while playing A Short Hike mixed with the awe I felt when I heard OOT's title theme for the first time. Hope you guys like it! Source Breakdown: 0:00 - 0:17 Intro with Short Hike arp 0:18 - 0:49 Main section: Short Hike saw and Title Theme intertwined 0:50 - 1:16 B section of Title Theme with guitar and modified Short Hike saw to support 1:17 - 2:05 Main section again with more layers: piano, pluck, and flute fading in and out with Short Hike parts 2:06 - 3:15 Piano melody from Short Hike (beginning at 2:52 on the source video), this time with Title Theme's piano arps doing the support 3:16 - 3:33 Layers dropout, giving Title Theme's piano and string pad some space. There's also birds! 3:34 - 3:55 A different piano melody from Short Hike (0:37 on source video) building to climax 3:56 - 4:41 Climax/ending: main section with all layers Games & Sources This is a remix/mashup of Title Theme from Ocarina of Time and See You at the Top from A Short Hike.

Artist Name: Zanezooked I bet this is a first: in a single song I’ve remixed the complete soundtracks of two games! Okay, so those soundtracks consist of one song each, but still. Marathon is a vibe, man. Its novelistic terminal text, atmospheric Craig Mullins chapter screen artwork, and evocative title music construct an otherworldly mood that has lived rent-free in my psyche for decades, and every so often jumps up and takes control, and I find myself once again perusing the Story pages and listening to the title music on loop—or, now, remixing it. MacWorld once described the Marathon games as having a “planet-hopping, psychological thriller of a story line,” but they’re also games about an invincible cyborg shooting aliens in the face. The title songs of Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity capture this dichotomy. They’re by “Power of Seven,” aka Paul Sebastien, who at that time was frontrunner of the nineties techno group Psykosonik, and they have that nineties feel, with driving rhythms combined with spacious pads and a recessed, reverbed guitar (seriously recessed: the stem splitter I tried to use to analyze it could barely find it: it classified what it did find as “other” and it was barely more intelligible than in the original mix). I tried to respect that combination of space and aggression in my remix. I also took some inspiration from Justice, whose music was featured in the trailer to the upcoming “reboot” of Marathon as a . . . live service extraction shooter or hero shooter or something, sigh. Justice uses a lot of dirty, compressed synths, especially in the bass. Mine aren’t as compressed or gated because I wanted a spacious, reverb-y feeling, but I tried for some of that grittiness. Source breakdown: I called Marathon’s vibe “otherworldly.” The other world in question is Lh’owon, the planet on which most of the action in Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity takes place. It’s ancient homeworld of the S’pht (yeah, I know, that silly apostrophe trope), though it’s currently populated by a garrison of the Pfhor, who enslaved the S’pht a millennium ago. Its extensive ruins hide clues to the fate of a tribe of S’pht lost thousands of years before the Pfhor arrived. Oh, and the planet’s sun currently imprisons a Lovecraftian elder god of chaos which will devour the universe if freed. The first minute of my remix is about soaking in the ambience on this unspeakably ancient, largely ruinous planet. It starts with some literal ambience recorded directly from the game (and drenched in reverb, as if heard from within one of the rock-like structures you run around in). Pads and high strings play a theme that the background synths play at 0:30 in the Marathon 2 source song. The strings fade away with an irregular loss of signal. Into this planet’s system comes the rampant and only possibly insane artificial intelligence Durandal in a captured Pfhor dreadnought; he sets about bombarding the Pfhor garrison from orbit and teleporting his pet cyborg security officer (the player) around, flooding an outpost with lava over here, saving enslaved humans over there, and then going on an extended archeological dig into the ancient S’pht ruins in search of a weapon that can give Durandal the dominance and universe-outliving immortality he hungers for. At :55 we start to hear the encroaching orbital bombardment, and at 1:25 the security officer arrives and starts kicking alien appendages. A synth grinds out the guitar progression from the beginning of the Marathon 2 title music, then a recessed guitar takes up the melody. After this, a synth bass plays the bass from :30 in the source song, before the cycle repeats. At 2:39 the strings return to provide a pause in the Total Carnage, playing the theme from Marathon Infinity. The security officer is discovering the oldest remnants of the S’pht civilization, far older than humankind—and some of it is still sentient. Though he doesn’t yet know it, the fate of the cosmos is at stake. At 3:45 carnage returns with the Marathon 2 themes again. At 4:28, the guitar plunges into the Marathon Infinity theme for the conclusion, while high strings and a buried choir provide a sense of spaciousness and age. I hope you like this! Games & Sources Marathon 2: Durandal Marathon Infinity

Artist Name: The Vodoú Queen *RE-SUBMISSION* **Other Contributors / Credits: Zack Parrish - Mastering ALL INFO PERTAINING TO THE PREVIOUS SUBMISSION (Including the Original Remix from 'An OverClocked Christmas, v.16', the Old Version Submitted / Rejection Decision, Source Breakdown / Write-Up, and the Workshopping Process): # Hello all. . . This... I do not know how to properly express the journey and catharsis brought about in re-doing this remix over the lengthy span of time since its rejection (hell, since its inception)--however, my hope is that the differences between this version and the rejected version are as clear as night and day. It was...something, for sure. I am proud, no matter the decision, for doing a great deal of this venture solo, and learning so many new things every step of the way. And I pray for it, even though I am not a very religious person, (spiritual, yes, because damn did I feel the Spiritual Muse of Music flow through me in the last stretches of this...when, honestly, I was about to give up and throw it on the 'unsalvageable' pile.) Nothing more to say. Let Blizzard Buffalo be the Noble Creature of Snow he has always been; (yes, this is one of the very first MMX-related OCR remixes I heard of way back in the day [quite a few from Maverick Rising, I might add], and it has stuck with me so much to current day, it's possibly the impetus for creating my remix in the first place, outside of just loving the mood setting and tone of the source ever since a kid playing through X3 for the first > hundredth time.) I humbly am re-submitting this. Thank you for your time and consideration in re-judging it. Big shout out to the Sages, DJ Mokram, Emunator, and to all those who've helped me along the way for this finale, Judges included. ♥ --- REFINED LIST OF FOCUSED ON REFERENCES / INFLUENCES FOR THE REMIX: "Carol of the Bells" / "Sarajevo / Christmas Eve" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Swan Lake" & "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker Suite)" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and; "Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op. 66)" and Other Collections by Frédéric Chopin [Other Ideas and Leitmotif as References for Sound Design and Part-Writing are in the Workshop Link] Games & Sources 'The Frozen City (Blizzard Buffalo Stage Theme)' MEGA MAN X3 SOUND COLLECTION; Track 10 - Blizzard Buffalo (Frozen Buffalio) Stage; Artist(s): Kinuyo Yamashita; Release Date: 24 July 2018; Label: Capcom Sound Team

Ahhh, I remember hearing this during the DoD listening party and immediately picking up on the Porcupine Tree influence before the vocals even came in (maybe the title gave it away?) Either way, I can see the vocal style throwing listeners off but I can confidently say that you nailed the Steven Wilson style and it's a perfect choice for this arrangement. The guitar tones, time signature changes, and even the hard-left-turn transitions feel totally on-brand. I don't feel compelled to nitpick anything here because the concept and execution, by and large, is just so strong. I've heard a lot of different songs from you over the past few months that demonstrate a wide range of styles and skills, so it really shouldn't be surprising that you had the skills to pull off a dynamic prog rock opus like this all off within the span of one song. Will be coming back to this one frequently, great work! YES

The production here is actually nuts. Kris is consistently dropping professional-quality productions across so many genres, it's stunning. That production skill is wielded perfectly here to support Aaron's incredible writing, giving it a strong foundation without stealing the spotlight. It's exactly what a good pop production should do! This is my first time listening to the source material after hearing several iterations of this track during development, and I was shocked at how different it was. Honestly, there should have been so many pitfalls along the way where this could have fallen apart, conceptually - adapting an upbeat instrumental track with a very complex melody into a downtempo breakup ballad is not an easy task, especially when you introduce original lyrics. There's a million possible points of possible failure where things could have gotten awkward or overextended, but you managed to dodge them all. There's a bullet hell analogy to be drawn here that someone who is better with words than I am can run with if they want! I don't think it's out of line to say that this is the most successful and polished collab I've heard between the two of you. I'd also like to hear the outro fade extend just a little bit longer, but no biggie either way. That's all I've got, great work to both of you! YES

I remember listening to this during the mixing process, so let's see how it holds up to scrutiny with my judging hat on! This arrangement clearly feels like a deliberate exercise in restraint, which can feel like a bit of a rug pull at first when you're expecting a big beat drop and don't get one, but the concept really opens up on repeat listens and rewards patience. There's a ton of evolution and tension created by the ebbing and flowing of different synth lines and arpeggios without needing to utilize any massive drops or dynamic changes or big moments - it still feels pretty massive all the same! You picked a perfect source to test this approach with, too - the repeating arpeggios give you so much room to play around with tension and release, and you capitalized perfectly. If I had one beef, it would be the bassline in the intro feeling just a bit too static before the sidechaining effect comes in. Some gradual decay on the volume envelope, or some very subtle filter automation would probably help that be more compelling for the first minute and a half, but hey - at least the patch itself is beefy! Unconventional and memorable without any of the showboating that typically comes with electronic music, I love it! YES

Yup, I recognize the backing loop elements from the source - what you did sounds great, and I do hear the efforts made to chop up and personalize it, but it's not what we're looking for in terms of arrangement here at OCRemix. I'm sure this sort of thing could have an audience on Youtube or Soundcloud, but it's just not what we're looking for. Sorry! NO

OK, so I feel like I haven't heard this track yet, but I think this reflects a lot of the criticism I've given on your other synth-driven music lately so I hope you don't find this too surprising when you read this. I think the synth choices here are pretty bland and uninspired. The guitar and trumpet do add a lot of spice to the mix, and the arrangement is plenty creative and varied, but the synth sounds are just... there? :( I'm not sure what sort of vibe the introduction is supposed to be setting, especially with the awkward attack/release timing on the synth keys. Kris said this but I'll reiterate because this is exactly the issue: "The spacey pad has a similar issue; it is a sound that develops over time, and with each new note it retriggers, giving an awkward stop/start effect." The sine lead is similarly not really giving me anything to latch onto, and there's nothing in the way of expression to make it stand out as a lead instrument in the same way that TSori's trumpet does. The gradual variations in attack and decay, vibrato, and articulation is just not present. The next lead synth has a bit more harmonic character but still isn't doing much for me in terms of the way it's played or programmed. Even if you're writing with synths, think about the way it would sound on an equivalent instrument, like a saxophone or a violin. It would sound awkward without any sort of legato flow between your notes if you articulated everything as a marcato, for example, or played a violin with absolutely no vibrato (or, in this case, a completely consistent vibrato on every note) and it's going to sound similarly awkward if you articulate a synth instrument like that. The guitar is mega-quiet and the tone is fine but not really compensating for the issues I noted with the synths, either. I think there's room for this to stand out more in the mix and make more of a statement, although the performance is great and fits the bill just fine. Bass and drums are mixed weirdly too - it feels like the synth bassline doesn't have enough movement to it. Chimpazilla also touched on sidechaining and how this will really help your track groove, even with a static 1/8th note bassline and simple drums. Currently, the kick and the bass are sitting on top of each other. I can't tell for certain, but I also feel like the bass patch itself is a little too thick for this genre, and it's muddying up the low-end further. 1:38 also feels like a straight-up sour note, like Larry said. Definitely fix that as well as the drum fill timing at 2:07, it's off-beat. All this to say, this arrangement is great and I really have no notes to give on the conceptual front. I'm focusing on the negatives a lot, and I hope you know that I really do enjoy listening to this! I know we've already talked 1:1 about some of these issues and how to mitigate them, so I suspect that if this goes to a resubmission, you'll have a lot of tools in your belt to address it, but I don't feel like this is up to the bar at this point. NO (resubmit)

Quick co-sign from my fellow judges - this is a great start and nails the vibes you want from a Lavender Town remix, but there's just not enough substance yet. With such a slow pace and only 2:20 of runtime, you haven't given yourself enough of a runway for this song to take off and fully develop. There's absolutely a strong foundation with the sounds you've picked out, but you need to do more with the pieces you've laid down in terms of additional writing/countermelodies/fills, and in general finding ways to evolve the sound throughout the arrangement. The workshop would be a great place to take this as you develop further - you've got a great ear, now keep expanding what you can do with it! NO

This is a stupid easy vote - the production is absolutely incredible here. I don't know what "wave" is (and I'm at least 40% sure you're making it up) but I like it a lot. This reminds me of a mix of Clams Casino, Lorn, and a bit of Burial but with some ultra-modern, sleek production. 1:54 knocked me out of my seat when the supersaws dropped in. Queen's voiceovers fit in perfectly, what a great additional element to add some interest during the breakdown. Ending is not blowing me away but I think sometimes we overstress the importance of a really complex, involved ending - it fades out cleanly and by that point, the track has done everything it needs to do. EZ-PZ. YES

Easily one of my all-time favorite sources, so I'm always eager to hear what folks have done with it. The panning in the intro is indeed awkward - I think it's okay to more intense panning in a mix but it's almost always going to sound awkward when there's nothing balancing it out in the other ear. It's not as big of a deal when the rest of the instrumentation kicks in, but you should really consider panning those elements closer to the center at least for the intro, and maybe reining them in more during the rest of the track. There's a lot of really cool sounds at play here - the big booming kick drums, the creepy mellotrons and bells... I love the sound design here. Around 2 minutes in, we get into even more interesting territory, but marred by some mixing issues that the other judges above me have correctly identified. Although you do a lot to add personalization to this arrangement via your sound design and percussive elements, I don't think there was quite enough done to the actual part writing to distinguish it from the original or keep it from becoming too repetitive. Some slight variations in the presentation of the melody would go a long way here - you don't have to go overboard with it, but the looping piano is just not holding my interest, considering how exposed and robotic the programming is. Apply some of that killer sound design creativity that you used for your bass and percussion elements to the piano as well! I really love the vibe here and wanted to pass this but it feels like it's at least one iteration away from the OCR bar. I have no doubt you can get it there! If you're having trouble, our Workshop forums are great for feedback or you can pop into the OCR Discord Server anytime - we even host weekly WIP reviews where community members can get involved with your track on an individualized basis and help you improve your craft. Hope to see you there! NO (resubmit!)

Yeah, Brad was right - this is the easiest vote of all time. Absolute masterclass of execution and ambition. There are times that I've considered Xaleph a "genre specialist" who sticks with his preferred genre (in this case, psytrance) and this doesn't exactly dispel that impression, but it does show just how much room there is to color within those genre lines and bring something truly unique to the table. The shredding lead guitar, Zack's acoustic contributions, the kit drumming all push this beyond the bounds of a traditional psytrance arrangement. That's not saying anything of the full-blown metal breakdown in the middle, either. This is virtuosic levels of vision at work here. If I had one critique, it's that the kick drum doesn't quite feel like it nailed the genre conventions during the heavier metal section - it feels a little too clicky and electronic for me. But if that's the biggest nit I can pick here, we're doing great. YES

This starts off a little shaky when the samples are more exposed - I honestly didn't really like the drum tone or the programming in isolation during the intro. The brass is serviceable in my book and definitely added a lot of personality to the arrangement, and but only really sticks out negatively when it's exposed, such as the intro or at 1:45, where the decay on the chord stabs feels very obviously synthetic. Once we get into the meat of the track though, it's clear what you were going for - some good old-fashioned guitar riffage over a classic blues progression. Everything else is ancillary to that, and you stuck the landing in spectacular form on the parts that you were trying to highlight. In an ensemble format, all the pieces work great together and let you showcase your excellent guitar chops. Easy vote for easy street! YES

It's incredible how much you were able to class up a very silly source tune - this is simultaneously tasteful and showboat-y somehow, in a very pleasant way. I'll echo the sentiment that this gets by on the virtue of the clever adaptation and the extremely vibrant performance from David Russell, to the extent that any of the shortcomings in the recording quality of the instruments is a null factor. I also loved hearing the "fake Lucas audience" at the very end, I didn't realize you'd already used this idea before! Easy vote, you knew what you wanted to craft here and you left enough space for the performers to color between (and occasionally outside) the lines in spectacular fashion. YES

Immediately I'm hearing some frequency clashing between the choir pads and everything else - this is a pervasive issue throughout the first few minutes of the song where the low-mids of your choir are occupying the same space as the rest of your instruments and nothing is willing to cede any ground to the other, so it's coming across as severely muddy. When you strip back the choir and lean into your more traditional atmospheric black metal palette, things click better, but there's also times where the lead melody is so buried, such as the Zanarkand melody, that I have to strain to hear it. Throughout the entire 4th minute of the song, the choir is back and muddying up the soundscape - I would selectively EQ the choir in certain sections to reduce the lower frequencies when you also have the heavy guitars playing. The programming of the choir and lead guitar leaves a bit to be desired, they are both very blocky and noticeably fake, which is fine when they are buried in an ensemble, but the whole intro felt awkward because of how stiff the timing was on the choir. This also feels like an issue during the outro. As a side note, I wish the last choir note sustained a little bit longer, it peters out unceremoniously right now. There's so much ambition here, I'd say this is your most bold arrangement to date, and the fusion of sources is honestly perfect... so I'd really love to hear this polished up, but prophetik is right - it's crumbling under the weight of its own ambition right now, and the mixing and sequencing is not always keeping up, and too many times I find that you've got conflicting ideas in the writing and instrumentation that are not working great with one another. I'd love to hear a second attempt at this! NO (resubmit!)

Shoutouts to the Zelda series for really encouraging people to make the most of these 15 second sources - gems like this are all over the place in the series and I love hearing what people can do with them! This is some classic Gaspode action right from the start - bright, crispy synths with some varied electro-industrial percussion loops and a meaty bassline. The big chord stabs give this more of a synthwave feel. The breathy synth lead at 1:45 was certainly a sound design highlight, which then leads into a really cool syncopated rhythm at 2:20 that also stood out to me. We're barely halfway through and you've already explored so many possible avenues to expand on the source, and there's still a brand new synth brass lead, some low piano bass notes, and a whole keychange, . None of this feels off the beaten path for you, but the way you brought it all together still feels ambitious and fresh. No notes, this is great stuff Gaspode! YES

This original song is nuts - I had to check if I was accidentally playing multiple songs at the same time, but nope. Just a weird intro! The jazz-fusion-orchestral meat of the source is just sublime and feels right up your alley, I can see why you were drawn to this. Your arrangement wastes no time getting into it. Immediately I'm hearing the benefit of the collaborators you chose to involve here. The whole band ensemble sounds full and rich, and your keys/synths fit right in. 1:21 is a little on the loud side, and the lead at 2:42 or some of the synth bells toward the end are pretty shrill when they hit those high notes, but man... there's just so much going on here, I don't think I could fully process everything you've done here across 10 listens. It's really cohesive despite jumping between styles at a moment's notice. The performances and writing are so strong, any minor mixing miscues are a drop in the bucket. This is a slam dunk. YES

This is definitely a huge upgrade from your previous submissions, so nice work on that! You should be proud of the rapid pace of improvement. I like the vibe you've set here, and generally feel like you picked all the right instruments to accomplish this vision. It's simple, but I can see a world where this is over the bar! There are a few lingering issues I'm still picking up on. First and foremost, the melodica is too loud in the mix, and honestly, I can't say I'm a fan of the tone either. It feels weirdly balanced to the mid frequencies without a lot of high end bite, but it still feels shrill because of how loud it is. This could be partially resolved with EQ balance but prophetik's suggestion of trying to switch up the instruments, or perhaps layer it in with another lead (I've personally layered a harmonica and melodica together before to thicken up the tone and found it to be a good option!) might be a better route. Overall, I'm hearing a lot of distortion on certain peaks, especially in the left ear. This tells me that you're running some of your instruments too loud into your master chain, and the mastering plugin just can't keep up when multiple instruments peak on the beat. Bring back the volume level of everything a little bit and gradually reintroduce some of that gain during the mastering process to avoid this - here's a great tutorial on how to do this in FL Studio that I've found tremendously helpful: The lead performance on some of the instruments comes across as overly simplistic and lacking in expression. You've done some variations on velocity and timing but there's a lack of things like grace notes in your performance that makes it feel like you're sticking too much to the grid. I'm assuming these melodies are written in with a mouse in the piano roll, so if you have access to a MIDI controller and have some basic skills with playing it, that could worth exploring to immediately introduce more of that human element to your instruments. Otherwise, I'd suggest revisiting your MIDI sequencing to see where you can add some variation to the writing to make it sound more humanized. If you listen to Dovakhiin in Jamaica, you can hear the difference - even though the songs are at a similar laid-back tempo without a lot of complexity going on, there's subtle things going on with each instrument to make it feel more alive and groovy. This is surprisingly close, but I think there's still a couple areas that need improving before this is ready to post. You should definitely consider bringing this to one of our Workshop Office Hours in the discord with the Sages if this ends up being rejected, there's definite potential here! NO (resubmit)

I'm going to put this one out of its misery quickly, since I know the twins are already looking to revisit this. The mixdown and especially the mastering feels incomplete and doesn't do justice to your fantastic arrangement, I know you guys can nail it better than this. See you on the other side! NO (resubmit)

PrototypeRaptor's take on this same source is an all-time classic, so let's see what you've done with it... We're treading a lot through the same 4-on-the-floor hard electro territory but you've definitely managed to bring something unique and groovy to the table. A little less hard-hitting, a little more vintage synth design. Unfortunately, the repetition at the end is too wholesale to pass the smell test - there's plenty of room to add some more substantial variation to the structure here, especially when the overall track length is so short - you've gotta squeeze a little more out of the concept here. Chimpazilla broke it down perfectly! NO (resubmit)

Any track with this many borderline votes already is going to be a challenge, so I'm going to do my best to approach this objectively without the weight of my own expectations or previous feedback I've given on Queen's other tracks. We start off with a pretty good soundscape but the mixing is very puzzling - I don't feel like there's much substance in the low end throughout much of the track outside of the kick drums, or the basses that are present are so low that they actually don't come through at all to the human ear. Make sure that you're selecting your basses strategically based on which patches work with the range that you're writing in, and keep an eye on where your bass fundamental is falling. Adding in upper harmonics by layering in other patches (being careful to cut out the lower frequencies from all but your sub, so you don't encounter phase cancellation issues) or by adding saturation to your existing bass can also help that bass come through audibly. Human hearing can span from 20Hz-20kHz, but in reality if your bass only exists down in those lowest registers, or it's not mixed properly, it's not going to be heard by most listeners on most setups, and I think that's what's happening here. The stereo spread is also problematic, and I'm definitely in agreement with Liontamer that it's sort of intangible and probably can't be diagnosed without looking at your project file. That said, it feels imbalanced at multiple points, and I also suspect that there might be bass elements like your kick/synths/snares that are panned off to the side. As a general rule of thumb, you want your low end presence to be pretty much mono, and the higher up the frequency range you go, the more you can pan to the sides without causing issues. This is where you'll need to use your tools to analyze what's going on on your bus and master level to see if things are generally balanced - currently, it feels like they're not. I also need to echo the overall balance issues that I've brought up on previous submissions and I'll say again here - you have so many great ideas but you can't have them all fighting for attention and retain that same impact. 2:55 is a great example of this - you have so much going on and so many effects that the big supersaw has to be cranked up so loud just to cut through, and that's not really the approach you want to take. 4:48 also suffers from this - some of your synths are awash with so much reverb and effects, not to mention being a heavily-harmonic synth from the start, that they leave no room for anything else. If you compare this to melodic dubstep tracks by artists like Seven Lions, for example, they use supersaws to great effect, but there's almost nothing else going on when those synths are present. Dropping out other elements through gain reduction, cutting layers, or sidechain ducking to make room for what you really want to highlight is a much better move than simply increasing the volume on your synths even further. All that said, your arrangement is really good here. There's a ton of compelling effects and sounds, and like many of your other pieces, you have a wealth of great ideas that you brought to the table. I actually find the arrangement to be pretty coherent and strong, even compared to your usual tracks - the use of chiptune sounds is well integrated, and the drum writing is strong too. On a fundamental level, if I'm not looking at production quality, this is a pass every day of the week, but the overall listening experience feels unpolished in a way that ultimately has a negative impact on my listening experience. I want to stress this - this one is absolutely salvageable and I think would take significantly less work to polish than many of your other tracks that haven't passed. I don't think this is a lost cause, but after a lot of contemplation, I think this needs another round of polish to sand off the harsh edges and achieve a better balanced mix, so that your wonderful arrangement can shine. NO (resubmit!)

I've been summoned twice here - once by Larry by name, and a second time, unknowingly, by prophetik by invoking Bon Iver's self-titled album, which is one of my all-time favorites. This has all the makings of a favorite of mine. The intro was quite sparse, in a way that left me wanting a little more evolution to the drone or just a single extra level of texture somewhere ( I suppose that's the role that the voice clip was supposed to fill.) After comparing both versions, I actually wish you had submitted the DoD version. I'm not totally sure but I think we've had tracks posted before with extensive sampling of spoken word so unless Carl Sagan is owned by Square Enix, I think that would be in the clear. Once the glockenspiel enters the picture, we're in some gorgeous territory. It evokes a sort of delicate Pikmin-meets-post rock vibe that, as someone who obsessed over post rock to a very weird degree back in high school and college, I knew it wasn't going to stay that way forever. You build up with a gentle dynamic curve though, leaving plenty of time to appreciate the different layers of texture that you add on piece by piece. It blows wide open at 3:24, and we're blasting off into space. You don't hold any punches back and I think the piece is all the stronger for it. The outro winds down once again with some feedback and the glockenspiel, and it's gorgeous. You could tell me that this was a B-side from Sigur Ros' album Takk and, except for the conspicuously-missing Icelandic falsetto, I wouldn't have questioned you all. I feel like the mixing is not totally ideal during the climax. I would have liked a little bit less compression overall and a level balance that allowed the lead guitar to cut through more, especially considering how beautiful that tone is, but I'm also hard pressed to argue that this isn't how the pros do it in post-rock. If you compare this to 4:30 in Glosoli, for example, those drums and bass are SMASHED. The instrumental balance could possibly favor the lead guitar a bit more, but we're bordering on personal preference territory at that point. I'm totally ready to co-sign on this, but if we can use the DoD version with the voice clips, I think we absolutely should - it's the better version of this track. @Liontamer would that be an issue? YES

Yeah, this one wastes no time getting into it, but these sort of experimental tracks have consistently been my favorite LXE pieces. Much like Koopalings or Raga Koopa, you set out on a mission and managed to achieve it without a lot of extra frills, and the underlying musicianship pulls it through. I would have liked to hear a slightly different EQ balance on the bass so that the higher notes aren't so abrasive, and the vibraphone realism leaves a bit to be desired, but the bass is, as you said, the star of the show, and shine it certainly does! YES