Emunator

I love what you've attempted here, I feel an incredible amount of ambition and intensity in your arrangement. The variety of instruments, moods, and colors throughout the arrangement absolutely justify its length. Before I dive into any of my critiques, I want to offer my admiration for the work that you've put into this already. I'm sure it was a monumental effort to arrange and I don't want any of my crits to suggest I didn't enjoy this, because I genuinely did. However, I do need to highlight a number of small production/sequencing issues that I picked up on during my first listen that, while insignificant on their own, definitely compound and leave this track feeling underwhelming and in need of another round of polishing before it's ready for the front page. Right off the bat, you have some really cool ambient sound design and pads that feel very organic, but the piano sequencing is clearly more rigid and locked to the beat. Some minor velocity and timing adjustments, and perhaps a sustain pedal, would smooth this out and make the whole section sound more natural. With the sampled vocals, the tone is perfect for the track, but there's some very noticeable sequencing artifacts that take me out of the moment. For example, 1:25 has an extremely abrupt cut during the middle of a phrase, which needs to be ironed out. 1:06-1:08 has a similar set of issues, where the final note ends unexpectedly and then the next note fades in rather synthetically. Right now, the vocals are in this uncanny valley, so some extra TLC to smooth out those transitions would go a long way. This issue is unfortunately present later on when the solo vocals return for a second time, too. The drums that come in at 2:42 are incredibly thin, and generally feel like they should be more dramatic. That whole section has a huge gap in the low end of the frequency spectrum that just sounds unnatural, compared to the lushness of the rest of the arrangement. Layering in a bass drum would help fill that out. Alternatively, you could also go a different route to provide more contrast as you bring in the full orchestra, and put a high-pass filter on your master track that sweeps out when your brass finally comes in to make things extra dramatic when the bass frequencies return. There's a few ways you could tackle this problem, but right now that section sticks out like a sore thumb because of the frequency imbalance. The strings and choir sound pretty great to me, but the prominence of the ensemble brass does expose the weakness of the samples. When you write longer legato lines, there's not a lot of articulations to help smooth out the note transitions, leaving you with sequencing that still feels lifeless to an extent. I also want to touch on some of your transitions. The transition around 3:03 stood out to me on my first few listens as abrupt. A bigger problematic area would be 5:29, which really needs some sort of upsweep or some sort of transition sound to help smooth out the impact hit. It's simply too abrupt in its current form, and the dead air between sections comes off as awkward. These are a few of my preliminary thoughts, and in my book, resolving even some of these would leave you with a much stronger product that would elevate your concept to new heights. Again, I need to stress how much I enjoyed what you've put down, but the unnatural sequencing on many of your instruments and frequency imbalance/dead air during some parts of the arrangement are preventing this from reaching its full potential. Happy to talk more in detail offline if you'd like clarification on any of this or would like to bounce revisions off of me. I'd really love to see this posted in some form! For now though, it's not quite ready. NO (resubmit!)

I have to agree with both gentlemen above, who covered the issues with the track quite a bit. There's a lot of strength in your textures and the way that they evolve over time, but things get pretty muddy and compressed due to the pads. The buildup around the 2:30 mark, for example, should have a lot more impact but because everything is pushed against the limiter so hard, it just sounds like a wall of mud instead of a dramatic final sweep. There's simply not a lot of dynamic range in the mix, which is hurting this quite a bit because your arrangement itself really has a lot of movement to it. I will also note that the outro didn't really add anything to the arrangement in my opinion, and didn't offer much in the way of resolution. The fadeout just felt lazy to me, and given the drama of the section preceding it, I was hoping for something a bit more to close out the track. Excellent sound design and dramatic tension here, but the mixing is not doing full justice to the approach you took. Another EQ/compression pass, and possibly something more in the outro to leave listeners with a stronger final impression, would seal the deal here. Good start! NO (resubmit)

This track starts off rather understated and sparse, but with each instrument and tone standing out in its own way. For example, I thought the drumming was a ton of fun with some excellent use of fills throughout, and I appreciate the back and forth between the bubbly synths and the vintage guitar lead. The guitar tones were adeptly chosen and extremely vibey across the board as well. I see where the other judges are coming from regarding balance, but I felt like it was overstated in terms of how much it impacted the quality of the final product - overall, this is definitely above the bar in my book. Well done! YES

Wow! This is my first time hearing the version with updated mixing. Tremendous job improving an already-great track, you really knocked this out of the park with one of the strongest debut mixes I've heard in quite some time.

The arrangement is just as dynamic and vibrant as I've come to expect from Guillaume, so that aspect is firing on all cylinders as expected. However, the instrumentation is definitely something different than expected. I've always suspected that many of your piano arrangements might function really nicely as a full ensemble, so this validates that theory quite nicely! I will agree that the mixing is overbearing in a lot of places. The flute cuts through nicely, but Chris' violin unfortunately gets almost completely lost in the sauce a lot of the time. The percussion and overall master compression is definitely the culprit, making the end product harsher on the ears than it really needs to be. At the end of the day, I fell in the same camp as my fellow judges that this is carried by the strength of the arrangement. In the future though, a less heavy-handed approach to the final mastering would definitely suit you well! YES

I agree with the rest of the team here - this is not your most polished submission but I admire the ambition put forth, even though you had to cut it short from your original vision. The accordion timing in the intro is particularly egregious, but I feel that it's too significant of a change to qualify as a Conditional YES, but also not enough of a dealbreaker to warrant a NO, either. C'est la vie! Aside from that, I also found some less-noticeable timing issues in the metal section that followed immediately after, and the ending was anticlimactic for sure. All things considered though, I think the track's strengths - skillful integration of Celtic instrumentation with a standard prog metal band setup, and slick fusion of multiple themes - are good enough to pass this even without any revisions. Good work! YES

This checks out! Not a ton to say here, but I do appreciate the frequent rhythm changes and how that was executed. The ending sections are heavy as hell. This feels way more seamless than it really has any right to be. Production is crisp and clear and carries a lot of punch, if a bit bassy as others have pointed out. To the front page with you! If we're contacting the artist about a new track title, we should also see about getting a render that trims off the silence at the front/end of the export. YES

This one starts off with some very loud synth melodies that I definitely wouldn't have mixed that loudly. In general, I found the lead synths to be lackluster and too clean for the texture you were going for. I think a synth sample with more bite and distortion would have set the stage a lot better. Later on, they're not as noticeable because there's more supporting instrumentation and the texture has more to blend in with. The samples used for the choir/orchestral instruments aren't the most sophisticated in terms of articulation, but I'd say they get the job done in terms of adding texture to the track. When we get to the guitar, that's when things really kick in for me. Both the rhythm and lead guitars sound ridiculously heavy and have an excellent tone to them, so I really dig that part of the arrangement. The solo rips, though there's some times where it almost sounds like it gets too ambitious for its own good and trips over itself on some of the faster runs. I will say that, musically, the section of the solo from 2:48 - 2:58 didn't jive quite right to my ears. I can't tell if it's explicitly out of key or just playing odd/unexpected notes, but aside from that, it was all pretty good to me. The ending fizzles out unexpectedly; I can't say I'm a huge fan of how that was executed. This is a tough call - overall, the arrangement is very strong and the guitars add a lot to the final package, but the synthetic instrumentation is not as strong. I'm inclined to say that the strengths here outweigh the detractors, none of which are absolute dealbreakers in my opinion, but it's a borderline call for me. Best of luck with the vote either way, I hope to hear this on the front page either in this form or a revised one! EDIT: Upon relistening, I do agree that this could benefit from one more pass before posting. No need to hold this up - hope to hear this back here soon! NO (resbumit)

Not all of us have the luxury of pulling old project files from 13 years ago (!!!) and still have them be worthy of submission, but I'm certainly glad you did! I actually remember this from the WIP forums and even saved it to my library in its incomplete form. I always felt such an intense sense of warmth from this arrangement, like basking in golden sunset light. This new iteration only improves on the foundation that was put down so many years ago. The few minor quibbles I had were neatly ironed out through the revision process, so I think this is ready to go. Better late than never, Brad! YES

Oh, this is pretty slick! I'm picking up all sorts of retro R&B and adult contemporary vibes, especially with the DX7 electric piano, but with a hint of jazz in the solos as well. This is evoking a similar mood to some of David Benoit's multi-instrumental work. This is not a genre we really see a lot of on OCR, so you're already getting points for breaking the mold and serving up something fresh. I was initially afraid that there wasn't going to be enough to sustain this concept for nearly 5 minutes with such a short source, but you really went the extra mile to continually adapt the phrasing of Zelda's Lullaby so that it never feels like you're treading water. The final chorus key change, in retrospect, was practically an obligatory decision given the genre, but the way you executed the chord change at 2:16 caught me totally off guard in the best way. From that point on, you keep building up layers and riffing further off of Zelda's Lullaby until we finally reach the (also obligatory) guitar solo, which ties everything together in perfect form. The only complaint I can really find is that the fadeout actually seems too abrupt, I wish the end of this track had a bit longer to simmer and wind down more gradually. But that's just nitpicking. This is an exceptionally-written, intelligent, and wholly-unexpected arrangement that filled me with endless joy to hear YES

This is absolutely magical! The glassy, plucky soundscape gives this a very spritely feeling, and Steven's ocarina adds a central focal point to carry the track without being overly-dominant. I think you're at your best when you're working with this kind of palette, Rebecca! I'm happy to sign off on this unconditionally; if we can fix the pop in the render, cool, but if not, I think this is good to go anyway! I actually didn't have any issue with the volume level or compression and thought this was reasonably appropriate for the genre. Well done, this one's a keeper for me!! YES

Are those opening chords supposed to be riffing off of the "SEGA" jingle or am I just imagining it? Right off the bat, there's a great amount of warmth present in the mixing, which is subtle and subdued while still allowing all the parts to be clearly heard. Panning and reverb is on point to give everything a sense of place. The clarinet is a wonderfully unconventional choice of lead instrument that I loved, Joseph nailed the performance there. All of the solos are great, in fact! However, therein lies the problem I'm hearing with this track, at least in context of OCR's submission policy. It's pretty much all soloing. The explicit usage of Green Hill Zone, to me, feels pretty minimal outside of two sections. :14-1:07 - 53 seconds 3:17 - 3:37 - 20 seconds Out of a 4:45 track (285 seconds) I'm only getting maybe around 25% of the track actually being directly tied to the source. I'm also willing to give a bit of credit to the ascending clarinet run at 4:29, which seems like it might be loosely adapted from the opening riff, but even still, we're not even close to considering the usage of Green Hill Zone as "dominant." I'd love to be proven wrong if I missed something - I love the track and the synergy between your band, but this type of arrangement isn't quite what we're looking for here. I would love to hear another submission from you guys that had more dominant source usage! NO

Brad hit the nail on the head here - the lack of sustain and some very unconventional/unrealistic arrangement choices with multiple pianos in the low registers are causing this to sound very stilted and uncomfortable. There's not much I have to add to the feedback he left other than give it a strong cosign. There's plenty of promise in the arrangement and concept, but I just don't think this execution is doing it NO

Thank you for the submission René! Happy to hear that our community has inspired you in some way When listening to your submission, I am certainly hearing some hints of personalization to make the melody your own. However, this is a very conservative mix that sticks closely to the original material, in a style that's been done by more than a few artists before. I certainly don't want to imply that we can't have multiple remixes in similar styles of the same source - each submission can stand on its own merits, to be sure. However, Fear Factory has been done in trance style many times already, so when comparing side-by-side with these other tracks, I am hearing a much lower level of interpretation and advancement beyond the source material in this submission. https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03732 https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03664 https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01009 I would encourage you to take a listen to some of these arrangements that were posted and listen to some of the subtle ways that the Fear Factory source was adapted to get an idea for where the bar would be on this particular track. You were on the right track with the gated bass and changes to the lead melody around the 1:20 mark, or the break around 2:20, but as a whole, this feels like it's built too closely to the structure and sound design of the original Fear Factory song. A few other production notes - I found that all of your monosynth leads were very dry and subdued, and not all that well suited for carrying a melody with much energy. Some reverb, distortion, or even layering of multiple synths together would help those stand out a lot more, in my opinion! I would also recommend watching the tone of your synths as you start to get into higher octaves - the synth bell at 1:14, for example, loses all of its texture by the time you've reached the top of your ascending riff, so either using a different patch or pitching that line down an octave would allow you to retain more of the textural quality of your synth patch and reduce any unintentionally-shrill frequencies. Don't lose heart - you've got strong fundamentals here and a good place to work forward from! I appreciate the enthusiasm and inspiration, but unfortunately there's not enough interpretation going on with the arrangement to clear our bar. Best of luck in the future! NO

I've wavered back and forth on this one, but I think I ultimately tip on the side of the nays here on the basis of articulation realism, primarily. It's especially noticeable since you have articulations like the panflute that are actually tremendously expressive, and it actually serves as a reminder of how rigidly-sequenced the more omnipresent instrumentation (bass, low winds, vocals, for example) is. Close call for me; while you didn't go terribly far off the beaten path, I do think there's enough going on in the arrangement to pass on that front, but the sequencing feels more like a draft than a final, polished product. NO (resubmit)

What an incredible journey this track has taken! It's been a treat hearing it evolve since its inception; I know this originated as a simple trap sketch, but your commitment to the concept and willingness to experiment with non-traditional trap instrumentation, such as kit drums, electric guitar, or brass, elevates this to much higher levels. Although it starts off unassuming enough, each additional layer, instrument, and melody introduced serves to amplify the drama. It's a wonderful contrast to the mellow new-age instrumentation beneath it. Of particular note to me are the deep brass/guitar chugs that first enter at 2:43, and the flittering that follow, and the full-blown commitment to the 4-on-the-floor trance rhythm at 3:42. When you finally reach the climax at 4:41, everything clicks perfectly into place and fully delivers on the potential that's been teased up til that point. It's such a badass, cathartic release of tension that speaks to your skills as arrangers and sound designers. Your submission letter doesn't do justice to how much work went into getting this track to this point, but I'm glad you got here! Bravo. YES

Simple and smooth, this is a no-frills melodic house approach that, despite its straightforward sound design and arrangement, still manages to check all of the boxes and craft something tasteful and vibey. The bendy bassline introduces some movement not present in the original source, and the unexpected mid-song breakdown adds some much-needed dynamic contrast before the final build. The choice to end on the triumphant Chrono Trigger melody capitalizes on the buildup that preceded it. This is a strong first submission and one I'd be happy to see on the site; I'm sure you'll be able to push future submissions further in terms of sound design, production value, but none of that should discredit the solid work you've done here! YES

I'm right on board with Rexy's assessment here - both the good and the bad. The mixing on this is surprisingly well done and rich sounding, with an excellent frequency balance from lows to highs. I think the shortcomings of this remix can be chalked up to a lack of variety in velocities, which ends up giving the track a robotic feel that doesn't match the richness of the arrangement itself. The piano section at 1:42 is by far the most noticeable offender, but I'm picking up on the same effect basically any time you have an exposed or repeated staccato riff. Bev's suggestion about performing parts in via MIDI controller, if you can, is an excellent way to naturally introduce some variation in velocity and timing, but the effect can also be achieved by tapping into the different articulations/keyswitches in your sample libraries and manually adjusting velocities and note timings, too. Either way, this shows a great amount of promise, and your arrangement is plenty expansive, but the sequencing side is not fully there yet. NO (resubmit)

Sounding great! This nicely addressed my minor qualms with the original submission without introducing any new unintended errors. I will say that I wish the filter envelope allowed a little more high-end bite to come through on the lead synth, but this approach is already leaps and bounds better. The drums feel much more lively, I appreciate how you kept the core rhythm the same while adding some subtle variations to prevent it from growing stale. This was already so close during my initial vote, so I'm glad you took the time to push it over the bar! YES

Right off the bat, I love the ambiance you've created, and there's enough evolution going on to warrant the extended intro, even with the lack of source connection during that time. The initial kick drum sounds very dry compared to the rest of the lush soundscape around it. When the full drums kick in, it blends more naturally because the live bass fills out the low-end better, but I would consider revisiting how the kick is used during the intro and later sections when the sample is more exposed. When we get to the meat of things, this is pretty solid. I like the mix of acoustic tonal instruments and the digital ambiance and crunchy drums. I do think this track relies a little too heavily on the DiZi plugin - for such a long runtime, it's hard to justify using the same lead instrument for the entire duration. Even though it's a really nice sound on its own, and there's a lot of changes going on in your backing instrumentation to keep the track fresh, I can't help but think how much stronger this would be with a second lead instrument serving as a counterpoint. I hate to say this, but the glitching from 3:41 through 5:14 felt superfluous and overly long. This may be some degree of personal preference at play, but it came across as a way to pad the length of the track. I think you could have easily gotten the same ideas across in about half the time. I would suggest either curtailing the length of that section, or leaning fully in the other direction and getting a bit wilder with your drum rhythms and glitching and leaning fully into the concept. Right now, that section is stuck in a limbo state where the lead is wilding out but the rest of the groove stays relatively static. Past that, the rest of the arrangement is pretty solid and things really clicked when the additional percussion came in around the 6 minute mark. Very dramatic way to close the arrangement. @prophetik music @Rexy I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the chord structure at 6:25 - I understand that you were trying to transition into a different tonality for the last stretch, but there sounds like there's a lot of unpleasant dissonance going on here. Maybe you guys can elaborate on this. Overall, your approach is ambitious and there's a lot of effort put in to justify the length. There's no wholesale copy/paste repetition, thankfully, but there's some staleness that feels baked in because of certain sections that go on longer than necessary, and due to the lack of variation in tone throughout the arrangement. I think the bones of the arrangement are very strong, but it could benefit from some reworking and editing to make the overall product tighter. NO (resubmit!)

I know I already gushed over this in my judge comment from the writeup, but this is truly a brilliant, warm, understatedly-beautiful arrangement. It's catchy like a pop song, but also extremely heady and cerebral. I still don't understand how you were able to extract all of these feelings from such an unassuming source with such minimal instrumentation. This feels like a fully-realized version of the concepts you've teased and experimented with in your previous remixes, and I'm so glad to see it posted. Bravo!!

Oh my lord I LOVE this. This combines everything I've always loved about Ivan's past arrangements - the unabashedly-happy major key melodies, meaty guitar tones, and ambitious soloing - with a few new tricks I haven't heard before, such as the various new synth patches (I LOVE that synth-flute lead) piano riffs, and more in-your face drumming. I love the diversity of instruments and ideas across the board, and the way you expanded on the instrumentation and depth of the source material without really reinventing the wheel. From a production/performance standpoint, this is easily one of the tightest, most engaging tracks I've ever heard from you yet. Although this is definitely structured more like a medley, things flow pretty seamlessly. The transition at 4:00 stood out as a sole sore spot where things felt a little clunky, but this hit the mark FAR more often than it stumbled. Count me in! YES

This is a thick soundscape, with lots of little flourishes and fills that keep throwing bits of ear candy to the listener to keep them hooked. There's really so much going on overall, I can't even begin to pick out highlights. You say that it took you "far too long" to finish this, but I can't imagine how something of this caliber could have been done without a LOT of attention to detail and persistence with trying new ideas. One of the best things I've heard from you to date, really excellent work! YES

This is a really nifty fusion track that marries some of the signature 80's and 90's synth and drum sounds that are distinctly R&B with a mixdown and pacing that evokes the same lazy, hazy qualities I'd expect from a vaporwave arrangement. I was skeptical about how you would stretch this out to nearly 5 minutes, but just on gut intuition, it never felt like things were repetitive just for the sake of padding, and it felt like the length was justified. The lead synth solos kept the melodies fresh, despite being too forward in the mix, and the rest of the supporting instrumentation all brings something warm and nostalgic to the mix. Love those chiffed synths especially! I'm not going to make these showstoppers, but before we post this track, I'd love to hear: 1.) The overall track volume brought up to normal levels 2.) The tail at the end of the track cut down - there's no reason for over 15 seconds of near silence. Otherwise, this checks all the boxes for me. Nice work! YES

My fellow judges have far more eloquently expressed the beauty of this track, so this is just going to be a quick cosign from me. The piano tone is warm and absolutely well suited for the performance, and the sample quality holds up even during the more dramatic dynamic jumps. There's so many rhythmic changeups throughout the duration of the track, it's really stunning that you managed to weave it all together so seamlessly like you did. Bravo! YES