Emunator

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

While I wasn't sold on this concept from the intro, the simple kalimba arpeggio laid the groundwork for a much more developed arrangement to come. The accordion and acoustic guitar combo is one I'm quite fond of myself, and it's well used here. I strongly support the Stardew Valley comparison. The bass and light percussion give the track some movement and breaks up the repetitive arpeggio rhythm. Not a ton to say here - it's certainly not the most fleshed out or complex track, but it's a pleasant, well-produced jam that you can sit back and relax to. I'd say this accomplishes its purpose nicely! YES

Just a quick co-sign to clear this one out. I love the arrangement and instrumentation to death and your boldness in adapting such a dramatic sounding source into this genre. Bravo for the concept and execution! Mixing is not quite as tight as the actual performances, leaving this sounding more like pre-mix demo without much attention paid to compression or reverb. Improving at this will come with time and practice, and it's hard to hold this too much against you when the end result is strong in so many other ways, but a splash of reverb would go a long way in the future to glue your different instrumentalists together. Also seconding Brad's critique that a more present bass would have been much appreciated, but again... not a dealbreaker. All in all, definitely a passable product that I thoroughly enjoyed, despite the underwhelming mixing. Looking forward to hearing you level up from here! YES

I'm going to quickly rubber stamp this one as well - the source is lovely and the submission is extremely pleasant (special shoutouts to the harp, which sounds fantastic throughout) but I'm not hearing a connection between the two. NO

Immediately finding myself in agreement with the nays here - the tonal balance between left and right is very lopsided and distracting, and ultimately disqualifying on its own. Also, the lack of any song bass presence until nearly the end of the track, when a bass drum briefly enters, ends up leaving this imbalanced not just in a panning sense, but also in terms of the overall mixdown. The brief bassdrum presence at the very end really drives home the lack of punch that the rest of the track had been missing thus far. The percussion elements that are present for most of the duration are so quiet... ultimately, there's no punctuation to the arrangement, which leaves things feeling flat. I also want to highlight the robotic orchestration throughout, which isn't helping the lack of dynamics. I appreciate how you evolved the instrumentation from the source and introduced some unconventional choices like the harpsichord, which works really well with the original writing. I'm sorry to say, however, that I'm just not sold on the execution here. NO

I don't think I can access this - can you re-link this to somewhere like Soundcloud or enable public sharing through Google Drive?

Gorgeous, uplifting, dynamic, transcendent... I'm finding no shortage of adjectives to describe the impeccable work you've done here! The variety of instruments, moods, and ideas is mind-boggling! The fusion of electronic and orchestral instruments felt totally natural and never shoehorned in, and both sides were equally well-executed. My only complaint is that many of your ideas truly had the potential to be fleshed out into their own arrangement, and each time you transitioned to a new idea, I found myself a little sad because I was so caught up in each individual moment. I didn't want them to end. That's not a knock at you, but rather a testament to how great your individual ideas are! I'm sure this will get a lot of repeat listens from me

This has such a nice vintage OCR quality to it Really takes me back to the early 2010's. As someone who can get hung up on production in my own work, I appreciate the challenge you set for yourself to work with a simpler palette and focus primarily on the arrangement. At the end of the day, I'd argue that both aspects of the remix came out strong!

I'm consistently amazed by the number of ways that different artists approach this source. If I'm being totally honest, I've never liked the Lost Woods theme because (in my opinion, anyway) it doesn't capture the sense of wonder and mystery that I would expect from an endless forest maze. This is one of the reasons I so deeply appreciate remixing as an art form - it gives you a chance to re-contextualize a particular theme in a way that, to some listeners, might fit the mood of the original game even better than the original composition. I think that's exactly what you've done here - it borrows some of the rhythmic bombast of later Zelda tracks like Deku Palace, but fleshes out the soundscape with a wide array of unique instruments and rhythms that shake up the Lost Woods theme and give it new life! I constantly find myself picking up on new rhythms and riffs that I didn't catch on the first or second listen - there's a lot to love here! Kris hit the nail on the head with the mixing, which does indeed feel needlessly flat for such a dynamic arrangement, but I also ultimately agree with her final assessment that the ambitious arrangement is greater than any perceived weaknesses. While I do think you would be well-served by looking at which instruments you want to highlight at any given time, and automating your volume and EQ accordingly to highlight those focal points, I feel like it would be a mistake to pass on this as it is. Good luck with the rest of the vote! YES

This starts out just like a scene out of Bladerunner 2049, I love the bass swells, even if they are slightly on the loud and overcompressed side. Despite eventually rooting itself in a more traditional electronic style, there's a lot of small cinematic details that really sell me on this concept. I appreciated your delicate approach to building up the arrangement, and thankfully, once Kraid's theme enters the mix, it stays put so I don't have any issues with source usage overall. The dynamic curve subtly builds up to a very satisfying conclusion - when the string/choir accompaniment came in at 3:09, everything fell nicely into place, climaxing with some excellent reharmonization at 4:03. I would have liked to hear a more textured patch used for the lead - it stuck out as vanilla compared to some of the more richly textured analog sounds featured elsewhere in the arrangement, but not a huge deal. I didn't pick up on any balance issues with the leads, although as I mentioned before, some of the bass sounds did stand out as overcompressed and loud. Ultimately, while the mixing is not perfect, I do believe that the arrangement and concept is certainly strong enough to get by in its current form! YES