Emunator

Right on Michael, this resubmission does a great job addressing my writing and mixing concerns with the original submission while also expanding on it in a few unexpected ways! I've always appreciated your pallet of different throwback sounds that transport you directly to a specific moment in time. It's not mindblowingly technical, but this fusion of different SEGA tunes was always strong on a conceptual level, and is now even more solid from an execution standpoint as well! The Emerald Hill sections get a little on the busy side, but overall this is clicking much better than before. Really happy to see this one back on the panel, thanks for sticking with it! YES

Good stuff, everything in here is clicking nicely! Production is tight, there's certainly an appropriate, if subtle, level of interpretation over the original, and the live performances add some extra flair to push it comfortably over the bar. You never sit too long on a single lead instrument either, which keeps this fresh at every turn. YES

There's some really creative ideas going on in here, and is a lot more unique than we typically see from first-time submissions. This shows a clear level of ambition that I think is absolutely commendable! There are definitely a few areas of concern that need to be ironed out on the production and performance side. First off, the mastering on this track is painfully loud at times. For example, the synth SFX that is used continually throughout the intro has a high resonant frequency at around 8kHz that spikes WAY louder than the rest of your track and is painful on the ears. That absolutely needs to come down in volume and have some EQ cuts applied to minimize the harshness of that sample. Overall, I think Rexy and Jivemaster both did a great job of breaking down the issues with the overall master - you need to bring the levels of your instruments down across the board to leave a bit of breathing room in the mix - right now it's just too loud and overcompressed. The drum sounds and the guitars don't mesh together from a mixing standpoint. Your guitar tone is more on the ethereal side, but the kick and snare drum are fairly dry, and the cymbals sound like they were recorded in an entirely different space. Overall, it sounds like you're routing through a completely different mixing chain for all of your instruments and even the different components of your drum kit. While this isn't inherently a bad thing, one approach you might consider is creating send tracks for effects like reverb or delay, and routing each of your instruments through that bus at different levels to give it a greater level of cohesiveness, then you can go back and add creative effects as needed. Compressing your drums together could also help glue them together. Across the board, there seem to be issues with note timing on this arrangement, which I'm not going to retread but I will fully support what Jivemaster wrote. If you're not already playing with a metronome or backing track, I highly recommend doing so, since right now the performance is way too loose to fit properly. Please don't be discouraged - I genuinely appreciate your approach to this remix, and it's clear that you are both talented and creative, but the technical side of things definitely needs some refinement. Best of luck with your future submissions! NO

I'm grateful for this submission and the talent that it represents, both in Rebecca's arrangement and the quality performances put forth by every artist involved. This must have been a monumental undertaking, but the effort was undoubtedly well worth it. It's hard to pick highlights, but if I had to name a few, the harp duet and the choir of voices are some of the standouts to me. Truly though, there are no weak links in terms of performances. The trove of live instruments featured here mitigates any of the sample quality issues that may have been present in Rebecca's past submissions, and even the production and mastering quality feels like a step up from previous submissions as well! The transitions between each source are solidly executed, which keeps this from ever feeling like a patchwork of different musical ideas that were stuck together at random. Overall, a stellar effort from everyone involved. Bravo!! I am hearing a number of rendering pops throughout this export however, and it marks a singular nitpick in an otherwise solid track (such as 0:05, :15, :22, :25, etc.) It would be fantastic to get these ironed out if we can. I don't hear as many of them as the track progresses, but it was noticeable enough in the intro to call attention to it. YES (conditional on fixing pops) EDIT: Changing based on LT's feedback, which I agree with - it would be lovely to get those ironed out but this track is way too good to not pass if those can't be resolved!

Simple, but effective! (I wrote this without reading Rexy's vote but realized afterward that she used the exact same verbiage to describe this track, so I'm leaving it! ) This arrangement, although it doesn't blow me away with its technicality, serves up a very pleasant multi-instrumental jam that takes the chiptune source and adds a ton of layers of color and tone to really highlight the laid back vibe that was always present in the original. It does a fabulous job of setting the scene! The assists from Gamer of the Winds and Chromatic Apparatus are very expressive and add a level of emotional depth to the arrangement. There were some times when the instruments got in each others' way, and I also didn't feel like the drum tone or writing was particularly effective for this style. The marching band rhythms on the snare around 1:50 felt particularly out of place for me. The acoustic guitar rhythm to start the track was fairly basic and didn't capture my attention at first, but it sits very nicely with the rest of the instrumentation once it comes in. I just would have liked to hear something a bit more organic and adventurous to start the track off. Not perfect, but the strength of the adaptation, choice of instruments, and competent mixing puts this comfortably over the bar for me! YES

Michael, I'm awestruck by your approach to remixing, in the very best way. I have no clue how you hear a source like this one and end up with this result. It's a testament to your one-of-a-kind approach to remixing and your fearlessness as an artist. This track is challenging to grasp, but equally rewarding for those who give it a chance, especially on repeat listens. One aspect that particularly stood out to me was the contrast created during moments where you briefly let up on the glitching, such as from :56-1:28 or during the excellent spoken word section at 2:42, where you simply let the notes decay naturally. It gives context to the sonic madness that surrounds it, and also helps craft a more structured, dynamic arrangement. This stylistic choice makes the track all that much stronger as a complete musical statement to me. One of your strongest efforts yet, Michael! YES

This is a lovely, dynamic take, just as I've come to expect! Your piano tone is lush and full-bodied - the contrast between the deep rhythmic notes and the twinkly right-hand arpeggios plays well to the strengths of your piano sample. I appreciate how you were able to work different elements of the source into something cohesive and entirely your own. I'm going to be honest - I wouldn't have called out anything about overcompression on this track had it not been pointed out by other judges. I can hear what others are talking about, but I don't think it warrants a conditional vote by any stretch either. This sounds perfectly passable in its current form to my ears. Great work! YES

Remixers: Chimpazilla, Emunator Name: Torchlight Game: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (primary), Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Sources: Lost Woods, Shrine, Zelda's Lullaby, Final Hours Artist Comments: Chimpazilla: Torchlight marks Wes's and my third collab together, and I believe it is our best so far. I sent Wes a wip of BotW Lost Woods combined with the Shrine theme that I had started two years earlier and he loved it enough to begin expanding on it right away. We both added elements, motifs and percussions along the way. Wes and I work so well together and we often seem to share a brain while working. Wes commented to me that the mix is so cohesive that listeners would not be able to tell who did what. I replied that, honestly, even I can't remember exactly which of certain elements were mine and which were his! I believe we came up with a mix full of feels and magic and I hope listeners and BotW fans will enjoy it! Emunator: Kris did a great job covering the backstory behind this mix, but I have to stress just how seamlessly this track came together, despite the fact that our collaboration was handled 100% remotely. From the moment I heard her original WIP, which flawlessly married the Shrine theme and Lost Woods piano riff, I knew this was destined for greatness! Using a mixture of ingame sound effects and a myriad of other ambient sound design techniques, I aimed to develop that concept into a narrative arc inspired by Breath of the Wild's gameplay. Along the way, we bounced stems back and forth to gradually flesh out the soundscape, and I used some new string libraries recently acquired from Spitfire Audio to write a dramatic final climax that incorporates elements of the Final Hours chord progression from Majora's Mask. I'm particularly proud of the final build from 4:05-4:35, which should be recognizable to anyone who's played BotW. I've had the concept of using the Stasis rune sfx as a sound design technique floating around since I started working on this track, and finally found the samples I needed to execute it in the 11th hour! To say this has been a fun and rewarding collaborative experience would be an understatement, and I'm confident this won't be our last time working on a remix together!! Source breakdown: Lost Woods 0:00-2:28, 3:19-5:20 Zelda's Lullaby 0:24-1:14 Shrine: 1:14-2:28, 2:28-3:19, 3:19-4:34 Zelda's Lullaby: sprinkled in from 1:41-2:26 and again from 3:47-4:07 Final Hours: String chords from 2:53-4:44

This track features some excellent synth design that does a great job of expanding on the original sound palette, although the arrangement plays it very close to the original source material as far as writing is concerned. Not necessarily a bad thing on its own, but when viewed through the lens of OCR's standards, a little more interpretation would go a long way. The bigger issue though, as the other judges pointed out, is definitely on the production side. Although your synth choices are really well executed, the production overall feels pretty flat and lacking in dynamics. Larry nailed the two biggest issues in terms of low-energy drum writing and samples as well as many of your synths stepping on each others' space in the frequency range. I would also add that you could probably draw a little more energy by adding an exciter or some addition saturation to some of your instruments - there's just a lack of bite to many of your instruments and I think this could be a lot punchier overall with a different set of master effects. I definitely enjoyed this in a bubble, but there's some things holding this back from the OCR bar in terms of production and arrangement. Keep at it! NO

For the most part, I felt like this arrangement played well to Rebecca's strengths as an arranger - as Kris mentioned, the interplay between the shorter staccato instruments like the marimba and harpsichord and the more expressive flute legatos, courtesy of Gamer of the Winds, sounds really fabulous. Overall, this is a really breathy, spacious arrangement that expands nicely on the sources. I wish there was a bit more bite to the harpsichord on the production side, and the velocity work on the marimba is less than ideal. I also found the reverb levels to be lower than I would have liked on an arrangement with this much space between the instruments. However, this definitely gets the majority of things right and I'm happy to sign off on this. Nice work! YES

Sounds absolutely lovely I recognized some of the in-game ambiance throughout which really added to the authenticity. It's very close to the original source material as a whole, but you've done such a lovely job giving it a bit more immediacy and warmth. It's always a joy listening to your music.

This remix is incredibly ambitious in its fusion of multiple different styles that definitely works on a conceptual level. Right now, the mixing and the quality of some of the samples are holding this back. In its current form, you have huge jumps in dynamics at moments like :59, where the brass stabs are so loud that it's extremely jarring when they come in. I would suggest going back and revisiting the balance between each of your instruments so there are less dramatic jumps throughout the track. Increasing your master compression would also balance that out. From a sound quality standpoint, I thought the strings, guitar, and thicker orchestral brass stabs worked really well. I thought the ensemble brass in particular sounded good, it was just mixed too loudly. The drums were a mixed bag - when they were more exposed during the first few minutes, they sounded weak, but when the electric rhythm guitar comes in at 2:47, the drums fit in much better. For the first section of the song, try playing with some light saturation, compression, or distortion to give the drums a bit more punch. The lead saxophone was definitely the weakest element here - I'm not going to say that you need to have a live performer for that part, but in its current form, it's unrealistic to the point where it's distracting. I also second Jivemaster's observation about the ending, which felt unnecessarily long. This is truly a strong effort, and I don't think anything needs to change about the arrangement itself, but the mixing is holding it back. Hope to hear this again from you! NO (resubmit!)

Meteor Herd is a really fun, underrated track from the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack, so let's see what you've done with this. Overall, this is a really cool retro club throwback - very clean production, energetic synth writing, and no shortage of source usage throughout. Although you're working with a simple sound pallet, the production is crisp and clear and all of your synths and drums evoke a very specific moment in time, so I think this works on a conceptual level and was overall a really fun listen! My biggest gripe is the integration of the Security Hall theme, which clashes in a really unpleasant way. I can't tell if it's strictly-speaking out of key (I feel like @prophetik music would have some good feedback on this and could either confirm or deny what my ear is hearing,) but it doesn't sound good to me. 1:35 and 4:25 feature some really dry synth stacks that also don't mesh with the rest of the soundscape, and end up dominating everything else that's going on during those sections. That could work with some filtering/reverb and lowering the volume, but right now they stand out in a negative way. Aside from that, I think this sounds good to go, but those two issues are definitely getting in the way of this clearing my bar. This would be a good candidate for polishing/resubmission in my opinion! NO (resubmit)

This is certainly a spirited effort, I loved the energy in the drum breakdowns and fills, and the bass writing in general. The use of ingame sound effects is really well executed as well. And in general, you can't go wrong taking your inspiration from San Holo There's some excellent stuff going on here across the board. There's a few production aspects that don't quite feel like they've fully clicked into place yet, as well as some issues with the overall mastering that definitely need to be addressed. Overall, there's a dryness to your production that I'm not quite sure suits the purpose you were going for. This lack of reverb on key elements like the snare or many of your melodic synths leaves this feeling "unglued" for lack of a better word - there's a distinct richness to the sound of your bass, but the rest of the melodic elements feel thinner and dry by comparison. Just a touch more reverb on your melody lines and your snare would probably go a long way here. It also sounds like the melodic synths end up getting buried in the mix and could benefit from some additional clarity/volume. I appreciate the fact that a bass-driven arrangement would want to highlight the bass primarily, but the level of the melodies sound a touch too quiet. I also wanted to call out the transition at 2:17 - all of the elements of the sweep are solid, but the final climax left me feeling underwhelmed due to a lack of impact. There's a single cymbal crash, but it's such a thin sample that it doesn't have the effect you probably intended. It's a shame because everything else about that transition was really well done. Lastly, when I monitor this using true peak metering, it shows that you're clipping all over the place. By standard metering, your track is still loud but it peaks right at 0.0dB, but if you bring down your limiter ceiling by just .1 or .2dB, it will ensure that this sounds good on all systems and doesn't distort on analog playback systems. I was on the fence about this as I was writing this whole vote due to the strength of your bass production and the dynamic arrangement, but there's a few things that, if ironed out, would make this a much stronger package. If this ends up not passing the panel, I sincerely hope you revisit this and send it back to us! NO (please resubmit!)

As with your other submission that I recently judged, you have all the bones of a great arrangement but the quality of the guitar samples is bringing this down. With as guitar-driven as this track is, I think you would have to get a live guitarist for at LEAST the lead, but the entire track would benefit. Right now, there's a rigidness to the timing of everything that just doesn't pass as realistic. I hate to sound like such a downer, because I can clearly tell that you did put a lot of work into attempting to sequence your lead guitar with expression, but there's only so much you can do with sampled instruments at the end of the day and I don't think this is convincing enough to meet OCR's standards of instrument realism. Arrangement is just fine as-is, but I can't pass this in its current form. Sorry! NO

Just a quick cosign from me - this is a lovely dynamic arrangement, beautiful piano tone and some unexpected rhythmic shakeups to keep things interesting. I also felt that the section starting at 1:27 was ambitious but didn't quite land right, and I think Rexy's observation that it would have functioned better within the context of a fully-orchestrated arrangement is very astute, and not something I would have identified myself, though I totally agree with it. Either way, this is a solid performance that feels just as weird as I'd expect from a Motoi Sakuraba arrangement. Let's get this posted! YES

Oh man, what a lush selection of instruments! The interplay between the rhodes and the organ are doing some wonderful things to my ears. When the brass and vocal layers build up, it's sheer bliss. And that organ solo rips. Damn. This admittedly sticks very close to the structure of the original tune, but there's a substantial level of expansion simply through the organ solo and the increase in instrumental fidelity, additional vocal harmonies and countermelodies. I thought the delay effect on the bass during sections like 1:00-1:17 felt more awkward in your version than the original, but I see how you got there and it's not a dealbreaker for me by any means. Love this so much, excellent work! YES

First off, thank you for introducing me to Eluveitie - they kicks ass, and your track is an excellent homage to their brand of Celtic metal mixed with some heavier death metal elements. This arrangement wastes no time getting to the point and stays in high gear pretty much the whole time. It was jarring at first, but the more time I spent with this arrangement, the more appropriate it felt. This is brash and unrelenting and definitely risky, but it actually works out fantastically in my opinion thanks to some incredible performances and excellent adaptations of the two source melodies. This is a bold statement that sounds unlike anything I've ever heard on OCR before. I initially had some reservations about the mixing on the track - my initial impression was that it was mixed too hot, and I actually A/B compared this to an Eluveitie track (Ategnatos was the one I went with) to get a feel for what was an appropriate frequency balance and loudness level for this genre. The comparison actually checks out! Your mix balance does skew towards the high frequencies, which contributes to some ear fatigue on repeat listens, and there are definitely some resonant frequencies that spike caused by the tin whistle. It would be nice to have those tamed just a hair, but overall none of the issues are a dealbreaker for me. Curious to hear how other judges react to this, good luck with the rest of the vote! YES

There's some really cool stuff going on with the chiptune synths here that form the bones of a great arrangement. This remix features some really fun rhythms and modifications to the Corneria theme that are fun to listen to. The mix of live instruments and chiptune synths provides excellent sonic contrast. All of this leads to an arrangement that I really enjoy listening to. The production, however, has room for improvement. One of the strangest aspects of this is the balance between instruments. I understand that you're not working with conventional drums, but the way they're mixed sounds like you put a lowpass filter on your percussion bus for the entire track. This gives a perpetual feeling that you're always about to start filter sweeping up to the full energy level, but the percussion never kicks into gear. The balance of the track suffers as a result. There's also an abundance of high-end buzz in the 10kHz-20kHz range that could probably be EQ'd down by a few decibels to minimize some harshness. Also, is there some sort of notch filter at 500Hz on the master track? There's a really noticeable dip at that frequency throughout the entirety of the track and I can't figure out how that happened. The guitar performance is solid, but the mixing is also underwhelming. I'm not a guitar expert by any means, but it sounds like it's mixed very mono and could benefit from some double tracking or stereo widening so that it fills the space it occupies a bit better. Is it being panned slightly to one side too? For a core rhythm element, its placement in the stereo field just doesn't sit right with me. Tonally, the guitar sounds garage-y but in a stylistic way, so it works for me on a fundamental level. I hope another judge can elaborate on this and identify why the guitar isn't clicking (or perhaps just tell me I'm crazy?) Also, I'm hearing clipping all over this track on my spectrometer - I would take a second look at your final mastering levels to make sure you're not peaking above 0.0dB. The arrangement checks out for me, but I would like to see another pass at mixing before this is ready for primetime. Good luck! NO (resubmit)

The overall texture of this arrangement is absolutely stunning, it really captures the feeling I got from the Lost Woods/Kokiri Forest story arc (especially the scene with Saria on the bridge as you're leaving Kokiri Forest for the first time) in a way that the actual source tune never felt like it did. Really beautiful, minimalistic approach that works surprisingly well! The live ocarina is so expressive and adds a really tangible component that sits nicely with the more ethereal soundscape around it. I also didn't have any issue with the lyrical content or the extended outro for that matter. I have to cosign with Brad's assessment of the vocals - your voice works just fine here, but the amount of gain you had to introduce to crank the vocals up to an audible level makes the vocal take sound lossy. This is much more noticeable because of the call-and-response with the ocarina, which is recorded at a much cleaner fidelity. I'm not sure how this could be addressed aside from re-recording the vocals, unfortunately. I'm also bothered by the constant pops and clicks, that would need to be cleaned up for sure, as well as a proper pass at mastering to bring the volume levels up to normal. That said, I genuinely believe this is one of your best concepts Rebecca and I really, really hope you're willing to take the time to revisit this and polish it up. Thematically, there's so much that works about this that I think it would be worth a second pass to fix the parts that aren't working. It would be a shame for this to not realize its full potential. NO (resubmit!)

Definitely not a direction that I would have expected Bonetrousle to be taken in. You're definitely onto something here with this concept, I liked the arrangement for the most part (I'm sure some of the more music theory-adept judges can speak to the chords/rhythms and verify that everything is lining up right - the harmonization at :15 between the organ and the rhodes sounds potentially problematic) but there's aspects to this that leave this remix feeling incomplete. Far and away my biggest gripe with this track, and I hope this doesn't come across as rude, is how sterile everything sounds. There's almost no bite or texture to any of the instruments, with the exception of the saxophone, which actually sounds pretty lush! The rhodes and organ are ultra-clean to the point of sounding like you filed everything down with a fine-grit sandpaper. I would love to hear some subtle saturation and reverb to give this a bit of warmth. This should be addressed on an individual track basis as well as on the overall mastering. You could also try adding some very subtle delay or distortion on the organ and rhodes, or even layer some subtle vinyl crackles in the background - nothing that will compromise the chill jazz vibe, just a little something to add texture and color to the mix. To illustrate this, I pulled a screenshot from my frequency analyzer showing how the track looks overall - there's almost nothing going on above 3kHz until about 1:30. The lack of high-end causes this to feel imbalanced and ultimately not fleshed out. Your drums could probably be mixed a few decibels louder, but any of the above techniques to bring out more of the harmonic content in the high end will help. What's going on at 2:03-2:05? There's a lot of pops and clicks for a couple of seconds that don't appear anywhere else in the mix. Definitely something worth looking into. Lastly, the ending is abrupt and leaves things unresolved, so that alone would be a dealbreaker for me. You need to have some sort of resolution for this to feel like a complete musical statement. Not a bad start, but there's still some work to be done on the production end in order for this to pass muster. NO

This is pretty great! To my ears, it registers a little more as metal than darkwave to me but I suppose there's a lot of crossover regardless! The guitars sound thick and well-produced, both in the lead and rhythm parts, and more often than not, they fit well with the synthetic parts too. There's several instances of pitch bending throughout the arrangement that are very well-executed. For the most part, I love what I'm hearing here. This is pretty close in my book, but there's a few parts of this that feel questionable to me and push it into more borderline territory. First off, I have to say that the main synth lead that finally enters at 1:03 was a disappointment to me. It does not adequately cut through the mix, and lacks the expressiveness I was hoping for. Your first minute of the track was a great buildup to that moment when the Undersea Palace melody, but that synth patch and the way it was mixed did not feel as tight. From there, it's smoother sailing - the organ break at 1:21 was much cleaner and added some excellent textural contrast, and the lead guitar that comes in later is obviously much more expressive and also sounds more up-front in the mix. My second main qualm is the rather bland writing on the kick and snare, which follow a very standard 4-on-the-floor rhyhtm that just sounds lethargic. There's a few fills throughout the track, but I would love to hear those happen more than every 8-16 bars when you're in the middle of a transition to spice things up. I know the lockstep beat is a hallmark of the synthwave genre, but I believe you could write a more interesting, dynamic drum groove without compromising the feel you were going for. I'm pretty borderline on this, because I did enjoy just about everything you laid out, but I think this could be a much stronger first submission with a few simple fixes! NO (borderline/resubmit!)

I did not want this song to end. This could have gone on for twice the length as far as I'm concerned. Timmie, your latest remixes have been an absolute masterclass in how to take a popular source in all sorts of directions that are at once fresh and yet familiar. There are so many beautiful countermelodies and arpeggios that I can just get lost in, and the extra production work really complements the chiptune pallette that forms the base of the arrangement. Superlative work!

@Chimpazilla @Rexy @Liontamer @prophetik music Brad has been an absolute saint in helping me diagnose some of the problematic harmonies/chords and I think we've got it all sorted out. I've updated the Dropbox link for the track, if you guys wouldn't mind a quick sanity check before posting, I think it's ready!

Kris, the lead guitar at :42 that sticks around for much of the arrangement is playing the main melody from :07 in the source. Granted, it's definitely altered by virtue of the genre adaptation, but I hear it. Here's my breakdown: :42-1:17, the lead guitar is riffing off of the theme from :07-:22 in the source (35s) 1:18-1:38 is derived from :59 in the source, as you identified (20s) 1:36-1:45 has source present in the bassline (9s) 1:46-2:06 is a retread of the melody from :42 (20s) Total - 84 seconds out of a 180 second track (being generous and not counting some of the silence at the end against the total) = 46% source usage I think the big issue here is the first 42 seconds of the arrangement don't seem to have any connection to the source material. I would love to be proven wrong here if there's something I'm missing, but right now, this is very middle-heavy in terms of source usage, which gives this a more liberal feel than it would if the source was spread out more evenly, or if the main Great Bay Coast melody was introduced earlier. With my current assessment, I'm inclined to NO this on the grounds of the source not being dominant enough. Production-wise, I thought this was pretty appropriate for surf rock, although the lead guitar was just a bit too quiet. That's really my only qualm, everything else worked well for the genre you were shooting for. I'm curious to see if other judges agree with my breakdown or if they picked up on something I may have missed! Enjoyable track in its own right either way, Daniel! This would be a pretty easy resubmission in my book if the source usage was just more dominant. NO (resubmit)