Emunator

I'll start off with sweeping compliments for the arrangement, vocal performance, and instrumentation - you really committed to an ambitious concept and saw it through to completion with boldness and bravado. The vocal performance and harmonies are stunning, and it's supported by a wide array of instruments that keep bringing something new to the table. The big climactic statement around the 5 minute mark was massive and perfectly executed. I'll echo the sentiment that this didn't feel like 7 minutes long AT ALL, it breezed by. The synth solo really brings me back to the mid-2000's glory days of OCReMix artists like Jovette Rivera, OceansAndrew, or Star Salzman among many others, and this feels right at home in that pantheon. The production leaves a bit to be desired in some areas, many of which were already detailed by prophetik. The vocal performances are great, but the processing is less airtight, with noticeable artifacting due to pitch correction and a very strange chorusing effect that I can't tell if it's a creative decision or an attempt to mask a non-ideal room recording setup. Either way, it inhibits the vocals from coming through and really highlighting the qualities of LadyReemz' voice. Additionally, there's some significant balance discrepancies between the harmonies and the lead vocals - the harmonies, again, are fantastically written and performed, but they are almost comically loud when they do come in, and it's a very jarring effect. The drum production also feels lacking in glue (some more compression would probably solve this) and overly loud, as others have noted. These are things to watch for on future productions, but none of it in any way diminishes the quality of what you've put forth. Really great work! YES

The stereo spread on this is wild, it feels very intentional and meticulous even if it's not. The more heavily reverbed elements work with the more dry kit instruments in a way that I wouldn't have expected. I don't have any constructive criticism to add beyond what you already know and what's already been mentioned, but you gotta finish this guy! YES (please)

Artist: Emunator feat. Hotline Sehwani In December of 2023, I spontaneously left my career job of 10+ years, intending to take a long break to recover from burnout and figure out what I was meant to do with my life. When I came home after my last day of work, I made it all of 30 minutes before I got bored and decided I needed something to do. I booted up FL Studio and started working on what would become the first single to my debut commerical arrangement album. The project would come together over the next 3 months, and it became abundantly clear that I had figured out what I should really be doing with my life. It's out now on all streaming platforms, as well as vinyl/CD/cassette tape through Curaga Records. The album is a collaborative effort between myself and the diversely-talented musical wizard, grillmaster, and all-around cool dude Hotline Sehwani, arranging 10 songs from Undertale in a nostalgic, lofi-inspired style. I'm extraordinarily proud of the work we did together and am so excited to share what I've been working on in the background! This arrangement is a more ambient, scrapbook-style variation on the opening song from that project, and uses a mix of stems from the official release and some new improvisations I recorded on piano and synths to accompany it. My goal was to not overthink anything, and just let the ideas flow. I drew heavy influence from Skrypnyk's original album Suburbia, specifically the penultimate song "A Moment of Tolerance." It's been a staple of my listening rotation for the better part of 2 decades now, and captures a feeling of melancholy, nostalgia, and optimism that I have yet to hear replicated. Hopefully I got somewhere in that ballpark here! The original vision in my head when arranging this track was this: you wake up from a nap, you feel grass beneath your back and the sun is beaming down on you. Suddenly, you're a kid again. You're at the park with your friends on a carefree summer day, and whatever stress and complexities that once occupied your over-burdened adult mind are gone. You're free to play, daydream, and truly live in the moment. We spend so much of our adult lives romanticizing this feeling, so I made this song to remind myself that you can always find your way back there again. Source:

I'm abstaining from voting on this due to my participation in the track, but in my heart of hearts, I think this would have been a yes - the dealbreaking aspect that seems to have pushed people over the edge - the atonality/disharmony of the bell arpeggio, just didn't bother me in this track as much as it has in many of Queen's other submissions. I outlined my reasoning in my YES vote on the original version of this track, where I was perhaps not as critical as I could have been, but I still stand by that rationale here and would vote YES.

This is an easy pass, not surprising considering the artist involved! I also found the soundscape to be too dense, largely as a result of the bass being mixed too loudly, which admittedly detracts from the chill vibe you were going for. That said, this gets by on the strength of the tone shaping on your guitars/synths, and some of the fun shredding around the arpeggios that ramp up the energy and keep my interest held.The soloing reminds me a bit of Tim Henson from Polyphia, especially on their latest album when it is coupled with more chill, pop-influenced backing tracks. YES

F'ing insane dude. This feels like the kind of track you've been working towards for literal decades now, and you've found a vocalist who can really eat up this style of music. This is also some of the most high-energy technical shredding I've heard from you. Drum programming is nuts. Honestly, everything is cranked up to 11 here. This feels monumental, a milestone in your musical journey and one you should be very, VERY proud of. YES

:44 - 1:25 (everything) | A melody and chord progression from Marble Gallery (0:00 in source) 1:25-1:52 (everything) | B melody from Marble Gallery (0:20 in source) 2:03-2:08 (piano) | Environmental Mystery 2:19-2:35 | Environmental Mystery 2:35-3:05 (piano) | Bridge from Marble Gallery (:57 in source) 3:20-3:31 (guitar) | Environmental Mystery 130 seconds/211 = 62% sources usage @Liontamer Feeling generous today? ;0

This source lends itself so well to this kind of quirky wind-focused arrangement, there's a ton of potential for fun countermelodies and harmonies and you really deliver on that. I have no qualms with the performances or arrangement itself, but the production feels, for lack of a better word, missing. Like, it feels like there was nothing in the way of space, color, or texture to the production, which leaves everything feeling very flat. Larry mentioned wanting this to sound squeaky clean, but I'd argue that this actually needs a little more grit to really bring out that human quality. It's hard to tell exactly what this needs, but in no particular order, here's where I would look: 1. Master compression to glue the instruments together better 2. Saturation on the instruments to bring some warmth and character to the recordings 3. Reverb to help give this more of a sense of place This is very vague feedback, but I think when the arrangement is so intentionally sparse, there's an onus on the producer to introduce some color and life to the mix in other ways, and I don't feel like this is there yet on that front. IMO, not a single thing needs to change about the recordings or arrangement - there's a ton of life there, but the mix doesn't reflect that yet. NO (resubmit)

Wicked cool fusion of prog and psychadelic - I had the privilege of seeing Lucas perform at VGM Con with an ensemble cast of other performers, and it's abundantly clear that he feels most in his bag with this style of music. I will always admire and encourage artists to push outside of their comfort zone, but it does make it all the more sweet to see them come back around to the styles where they can really flex with confidence. The mixing also feels like a substantial level up - to be honest, I didn't really even find this lo-fi in the sense that some of the other judges called out. Maybe it's just from listening to this kind of music in my spare time, but this would feel right at home on a King Gizz album, production-wise. Easily one of Lucas's most successful outings to date, it's good to see the confidence and genre expertise pay off like this! YES

Just going by memory, I recall the original submissions always showing promise but falling short on execution and dynamics. Immediately, we're met with captivating ambiance and ear candy that lays a brilliant foundation for the slow burn, ambient piano arrangement that follows. The piano sequencing still feels lethargic to an extent, but there's a lot more going on fills the space between the slowly unfolding melodies. The strings at the end also feel like a new addition, and are truly gorgeous. This is a much-needed changeup to cap off the arrangement, but doesn't feel entirely detached from what came before it. Emotion bleeds out of the writing there. All in all, the additions were just what this piece needed to push it over the edge, and I'm happy to say that the final result is worth the effort. The piano sounds a touch overcompressed and loud in overall volume, which feels overbearing for the soundscape. I feel like pulling the piano down across the board by 1-2dB max would still allow it to take center stage, but sit a little more nicely with the rest of the sounds. This is especially evident at 2:32, where we're getting some very audible distortion as you hit the higher velocities. That's the only real sticking point, and it's noticeable enough to go conditional on, but I do think this track would benefit from a slightly more delicate touch on the piano mixing overall. That said, if you can fix that unintentional distortion, this will have my unconditional YES. YES EDIT: File has been updated to fix clipping, we are good to go! The file in the form above is good to listen to.

Resub Original Submission Artist Name: Mel Decision I created this piece as part of a challenge to "write an arrangement of any video game song, but make it space-related." I immediately knew that I wanted to do a take on Dire Dire Docks. There's a thin line between deep sea and space, and I wanted to see how much I could break it. I relied on layering lots of soft pianos and synths, and drenched the whole piece in reverb. I wanted to give the feeling of drifting through space, staring out through the window of a space station into the black as ships dock or zoom by. Kind of peaceful and a little mysterious, with a touch of awe that comes from getting lost in the majesty of space. Games & Sources Dire Dire Docks from Super Mario 64, composed by Koji Kondo:

Credits: Emunator: Arrangement, programming, guitar/bass/percussion (programmed), mixing, mastering Psamathes: Vocals Pixels & Paradiddles: Rhythm guitars, lead guitar (e-bow), drums (kit) Ridley Snipes: Bass (live), vocal mixing Lucas Guimaraes: Guitar (clean) Chromatic Apparatus: Cello Theophany: Guitar (drone, lead), additional vocal editing (special thanks to Chimpazilla and Snappleman for extra assistance with mixing and mastering advice) Notes: This was my entry for Dwelling of Duels, where it placed 7th out of 27th for October 2023's Horror Month. I love competitions like this, because it gives me an opportunity to branch out of my comfort zone and try new things while under a deadline, which means that I actually have a chance of finishing something. This piece, aside from being my first submission to Dwelling of Duels, marks a few other firsts for me - my first time working with a lead vocalist, and my first time producing metal. My catalog of previous remixes probably doesn't imply this but I'm actually a huge metalhead, so to actually be able to pull something like this off was a dream come true. The reference for this piece was Chelsea Wolfe (specifically Twin Fawn), whose dynamic arrangements mix clean and distorted vocals with industrial, gothic, and doom metal elements. I actually had a fairly easy time with the initial arrangement, and quickly recruited a team of performers to help bring the vision to life. Psamathes was an obvious choice for lead vocalist - her entire vibe was PERFECT for the brand of gothic metal I was aiming for, and she was totally on board with the reference tracks I sent. Chromatic Apparatus and ParadiddlesJosh were also no-brainer choices - total professionals who really elevated the arrangement beyond my capabilities. CA also shared some home-brewed horror sfx that he recorded himself, which you'll hear throughout the piece! As far as guitars go, that's where we got a little more creative. I'll give a brief breakdown of how each person contributed - 5 different guitarists (if you count my programmed ones) contributed to the final product. It was truly a blast getting to mix and match everyone's contributions, and thankfully the arrangement was long enough that every part had room to breathe. Myself: Original part writing for rhythm and e-bow lead, sequenced tremolo guitars (1:33-1:56, 4:55-5:55) and feedback effects during the outro Pixelseph: Distorted rhythm guitars, e-bow lead throughout the song Ridley Snipes: Distorted bass (which was actually just a pitched-down electric guitar) Theophany: Distorted noise guitars throughout, tremolo lead guitar from 3:13-3:53 Lucas: Clean guitar riffs from 1:23-3:13 If the impending DoD deadline lit a fire under me to get the arrangement completed, it also completely torched me on the back-end production. I was working non-stop up to the day of the deadline, and only received the drums and raw vocals 3 hours before submissions were due (through absolutely no fault of my collaborators, to be clear! The procrastination was all on me.) I barely left myself with time to mix anything - I literally slapped an Ozone preset on the master, exported the song and uploaded it 1 minute before the deadline, dredging up some horrible flashbacks to uploading my college homework at 11:59pm on the due date. Because of this, the submitted version contained some pretty unfortunate technical errors, namely me forgetting to disable a gain plugin AFTER my mastering chain, effectively clipping the entire track by +5dB. I'm honestly amazed I managed to pull out a 7th place finish with how rough it sounded (it's still preserved in all its sausaged glory here, if you're a masochist.) After the competition, I enlisted some help to give this the proper level of shine that it desperately needed. I continued to polish the instrumental mix, Theophany helped me edit the vocals properly in Melodyne, and Ridley Snipes flexed his producer chops with some really creative vocal processing across the whole track. I then made several passes at the mix/master, working with Chimpazilla and Snappleman over a long span of time while I tried to perfect everything. Finally, after 7 months, it's reached its final form! A million thanks to everyone for the brilliance you contributed to this, and patience while I got it across the finish line. Silent Hill 4: The Room - Room of Angel

I'm in 100% agreement with Kris here - this is an incredible arrangement but the mixing is not suited for the genre and is contributing to a LOT of mud that makes this difficult to listen to and fully enjoy. All of the performances and the way that you integrated them into the synthwave soundscape is flawless, I wouldn't change a thing about this. The main thing that needs to happen is to clear up the soundscape by attenuating some of the unnecessary frequencies, rebalance the volume levels of your instruments with a bit more precision, and go a little bit further with your sidechaining to clean up some additional space so you don't have to crank your leads quite as loud. Unfortunately I do feel like the production issues significantly dampen the experience on this track so I'm going to send it back for another round of revisions. I hope to hear this again! NO (resubmit!)

I'm going to quickly close this one out because I think the above three judges did a fantastic job expressing what works and doesn't work about this track. I love the studious approach to iterating a theme in as many different styles as possible, and keeping it cohesive along the way. But the orchestral programming needs a ton of polish to make it sound more like it was performed by an actual orchestra, rather than just a series of instruments being played off of a MIDI file. I will also add that there's some very massive dynamic jumps in terms of volume. Obviously, some degree of that is warranted, given the shifts in styles, but your quiet parts get REALLY quiet, and it doesn't sound intentional. You can still achieve this effect without requiring the listener to actively engage with the volume slider throughout the song in order to maintain a comfortable listening experience. This can start with normalizing the volume levels and automating them in certain parts, and can be further balanced out with some subtle compression on the master channel. There's so many great ideas here, but this feels like a draft rather than a polished production - I do hope we see this back someday! NO (resubmit!)

Rad. I'm impressed by how much clarity you maintain in your mix, despite everything being pushed to the limits. I don't necessarily feel like everything is clearly audible (the orchestral elements are definitely mixed on the quiet side) but I also don't find that the marginalized elements contribute a great deal of mud that obscures the main focus, which is very clearly on bass, synths, and drums. That's an achievement in and of itself, this could have easily become a total mess. The parts that are in focus are razor-sharp and delightfully engaging all the way through, and you cycle through a number of sources with fluidity as well. Not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I love it. Rock on! YES

Additional ears? You got it. I'm coming in cold on this one so you're going to get all of my impressions - not saying that all of this needs to be addressed to pass a resubmission, but hopefully you can make use of the brain dump. The intro brings some really cool flavor - the noisy distorted elements remind me of Porter Robinson's Fellow Feeling (see the 3:00 mark if you're short on time.) If you're going for random blasts of noise, I think this works - if you're trying to make it sound like footsteps stomping through, it's not giving that impression at all because every stomp is exactly the same. There's no variation in the sample and it reaches uncanny valley territory fast when you play the sample multiple times in a row. This all boils down to what you are going for here, but either way, I think some subtle variation with each repetition of the sample/layer of samples (without knowing how you actually did this) would build immersion. Some of your orchestral elements (flute, glock) are very resonant, oftentimes peaking at their fundamental frequency between 3-6db above everything else. The bells in the intro also feel comparably dry. This will probably get ironed out in your next pass, but I'm going to point it out anyway. The orchestral sequencing sounds workable for the most part, you're getting good mileage out of your samples. It's not the best but I do think you're using them effectively for the most part - the main areas that sound really noticeably fake are the half-step chromatic runs on the strings at times like 2:48. I just don't think the big ensemble patch moves fast enough to accommodate that writing, and would recommend adjusting the lead writing to fit better within the limitations of your samples. I also feel like the intro could use some deeper sub bass presence. It's not that the stomps aren't contributing any bass frequencies, but a big cinematic sub drop or sustained bass to accompany the stomps (see Fellow Feeling) would make this feel much more dynamic, or have some risers building up tension in the low end leading into :49. The decision to intersperse various melodic elements (glock, harmonic strings, cello) was a good one - otherwise, this intro would be way too long. It already feels a bit lengthy as-is, but those additions help pad it out quite a bit and justify the length. However, this gets to the problem of transitions and buildup, which I think is my biggest gripe currently. There is rarely much going on to signal that we're approaching a new musical idea, so even though you have some very dramatic changes throughout your arrangement (which are quite inspired and interesting, I must add!) they come on very suddenly. Cinematic risers, fills, sweeps, etc. are a part of this equation and could definitely be used to greater effect here to bridge your gaps, but there's another element I want to touch on: the idea of movement in your part writing. You do a great job building atmosphere and have all the makings of a very dramatic song, but there's a lack of movement on a compositional level. When cinematic music is clicking well, composition and sound design have a lot of synergy. Right now, you are doing a good job building an interesting sound palette for each individual section, but the underlying chord progression feels weak. It hovers around the tonic chord for most of the time, and even when you do have chord changes, they don't feel properly supported with anything strong in the lower frequencies. This is where a bit of music theory troubleshooting could go a long way - your melody has many opportunities for powerful chord movements that build drama and tension, especially as you lead into new sections, but you're not fully capitalizing on that potential. I don't think it would even require changing up much fundamental about the rest of the parts; just identify the chord progression you're playing and make sure that there's strong support in the bass for whatever chord/root note you're trying to play. I don't know how else to suggest addressing this without studying up on some fundamentals of music theory, but certain chords just move naturally into others and can help you allude to future changes and help transition between vastly different musical ideas in a way that feels rewarding. I think you're running up against some of the same problems I faced before I made the decision to finally start researching music theory. I had a conceptual idea in my brain for what each section of my song was supposed to do, and could support it in terms of selecting sounds and picking grooves/effects/etc., but it boiled down to luck whether or not it worked on a fundamental composition level, and I spun my wheels trying to fix that issue with every other production tool known to man. I think if you were to pick an area to focus on, the big orchestral section starting at 2:36 would be where I'd focus my energy most. Everything else before and after that can skate by a little easier, but when you're trying to make a big melodic orchestral statement, the fundamentals need to be strong first. Figure out what chord you're playing on each measure and map them out in sequence using just a basic patch. I find that it helps to actually just plot my chord progressions out on piano so there's no temptation to get distracted by sound design. See if the song sounds strong and compelling when it's just played on a single instrument, and go from there.

The analog wobble is real! There's certainly a great deal of resonance in the filter envelopes on these synths, but overall I found this to be a smooth set of sounds - because the overall mixdown was balanced with a hefty bass synth that filled out the frequency spectrum, the overall feel of the mix was totally sufficient for me. I'm seeing mud called out in other votes, but again, it feels more like deliberate warmth and less like a mixing-level oversight. The ending fizzled out, but what are ya gonna do? The arrangement has already been covered at length so I'm not going to dwell on it, but in my book, the arrangement approach is fine. The expansion in sound design keeps the first half of the track engaging so that even though it's compositionally conservative, there's something new being offered from the jump, and then you get into more engaging territory with the arrangement as well to round things out. It's a bit unconventional but I don't see any problem with it, and I personally enjoyed listening to this quite a bit! There's a lot to get lost in. YES

Insanely good track to everyone involved, this is the kind of music I want to be making. Y'all are nuts.

Credits: minusworld - arrangement, production, electric guitar, VST programming Graham Hardaway - bass "Stunt Course on Easy Street" was one of my earliest Dwelling of Duels (DoD) entries for Fresh Month in 2022. It's a blues cover of the Training Course theme; I used the SNES version as a reference. Paperboy 2 is a silly and simple game about stopping breakaway baby carriages and gun-wielding robbers with flying newspapers at its core, but it's a game I remember fondly because my grandmother had at her house when I was a kid. The simple I-IV structure of the Training Course theme fits into a blues form easily, so I did my best Stevie Ray Vaughn impression, turned the rhythm into a shuffle, and added a horn section (Hollywood Pop Brass VST) because why not? :) Not much else to say about this one. Hope you enjoy it! Paperboy 2 - Training Course

Artist Name: Gaspode I stumbled across this beautiful melody, which is only 15 seconds long. But I tried to remix it anyway. Over time the remix grow in a strange kind of way, unlike a real song-structure this is more like meandering. Games & Sources Name of game(s) arranged: »The Legend Of Zelda – Oracle Of Ages« Name of individual song(s) arranged: »Nayru’s Song«

Resident Donkey Kong Country fanboy here, sending you a DM :)

This is an easy call. The production quality and performances are masterful across the board, and I truly don't hear a weak link. When the brass and strings come in, it's an instant classic - those sound truly stupendous. I have to especially shout out PocketCrow's mixing abilities here - you make this sort of production quality sound effortless. I really have nothing but praise to sing for this - it's a triumph from everyone involved and the artists who put it together. YES

Alright, so this might be a first - due to a misunderstanding, both Larry AND myself did full writeups for this submission without knowing it! So, here's my full commentary, now in review form! :D H36T continues his hot streak of modern cinematic reimaginings of classic JRPG themes, this time with a dramatic take on “Bonds of Sea and Fire” from Xenogears that leans into the idea of contrast on multiple levels. Although the final product that you’re hearing now is pristine and polished, the process wasn’t as straightforward as the end result might suggest - it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get here. I’ll let the artist explain: “Given everything I've learned since I've made this song, it sort of pains me that I can't revisit it easily. The original file is lost to the ether and while I could try and recreate some of it and do some new things here and there...some things are best left in the past and its time to move forward. Thus we come to this song, which if you know anything about Xenogears, sort of represents the past itself. The approach I used is mostly straightforward and adding pieces here and there that represent me as a musician and my influences. In that way, there is my past wrapped up in this song as well. The second half adds some newer elements and I see this as more of the "fire" to the first half's "sea." The end...is a bit unfortunate and I wish I could go back and fix some things and change others. But as with the past, there is no fixing this guy and he is who he is. So as god once said, "come as you are." and as such, I bring "Back to the Sea, Back to the Fire" for judgement! Maybe this old dog of a song will teach me some new tricks through evaluation.” Astute listeners may have picked up on the fact that, despite the submission letter suggesting that the project file was lost to the sands of time, what you’re hearing now is actually a resubmission. The first iteration was initially rejected by the judges panel, albeit in a split decision, with the majority of judges taking issue with the overall conservative nature of the arrangement, especially in the first half, as well as the “choir practice” at the end of the arrangement feeling detached from the rest of the piece. These are all critiques that H36T himself preemptively called out in his own submission letter, but after the first rejection, he dug deep within himself and his hard drive and was able to recover the long-lost file to take another stab at it. Nearly a year later, we got a revised version addressing the criticism from the first submission: “Another year, another resub! I've been pretty good so far at taking a second look at things and trying to correct errors and be more creative. Let's see if I can accomplish the same here. Funny story, in my original submission, I misspelled my own track. However, I actually liked the typo better! Something about blackening over the fire sounds cool. Anyway, though I thought I lost this track, it was sitting out in the open named something completely different. Unfortunately, that meant another track was lost LOL. Seeing as I don't know what track that was....I'm not too sad about it. As far as the update is concerned, I reworked the ending to be more related to the song at hand and added a bit more flavor in the middle. There are some technical mishaps here and there I'm sure but I'm not sweating them. Here is hoping you like this updated version! Until next time.” A little goes a long way here - the extra personalized touches really add a lot to the first half of the arrangement, such as the lush vocal padding, tasteful orchestral percussion fills, or the hint of tension between the flute and choir at 1:37 that alludes to the more overt dissonance that appears at 2:15 and 3:11. All of these minor additions keep the first half fresh; even though H36T plays it close to Mitsuda’s original source material, you can still feel the artist’s personal touch coming through. Around the halfway mark, we dive into a more personalized, dramatic approach featuring more original flute riffing and a very cinematic-sounding supporting string section. We finally wrap up with a grand cinematic swell of strings, choir, and flute that teeters on the edge of falling apart but ultimately finds a satisfying resolution in the end (the metaphor really writes itself here.) The contrast between original and source material, tonal and dissonant elements, relaxing and dramatic moods – between sea and fire, if you will – all adds up to a result that respects the intention of the original Bonds of Sea and Fire, while also taking it to a level that simply wouldn’t have been possible on the original PS1 hardware. On a personal level, I have to commend H36T for his persistence and willingness to approach feedback with humility and grace. Putting yourself in a position to receive intense criticism on a piece that you’ve poured your heart and soul into that ultimately results in a binary “yes or no” vote can be intensely vulnerable. However, he’s consistently proved willing to take that feedback in good faith and channel it toward becoming a better musician, while also not sweating the small stuff in the end. To me, this ReMix is a case study in what makes a successful resubmission - humility, persistence, self-awareness, and a little bit of luck all played a factor here and I hope other budding artists take note!

I definitely voted on the original submission but I don't recall it very clearly, so I'm going into this resubmission essentially with fresh ears. The intro hits us immediately with some tense, brooding analog buildups. The bass frequencies feel sparse and underpopulated but it leaves room to grow off of, and could easily be chalked up to a stylistic decision. I'm just used to hearing cinematic tracks like this with a bigger sub presence. Many of the synths and individual elements feel exposed and I can't help but feel like some sustained drone/ambiance used throughout the piece would help make this much more rich. At 2:15, the soundscape starts to flesh out and I'm feeling this more - it's a slow burn, but we got here. Your sound selection across the board is pretty great, feeling modern and in-line with Aquaria's aesthetic, but bringing some of your own flair to the table as well. It's simultaneously retro and modern. I do recall the previous submission feeling quite aimless in terms of arrangement, so I'm happy to say that doesn't seem to be the case here. The dynamic curve is much more deliberate and makes for a much more cohesive experience. The spoken word interlude is great from a conceptual level, but the vocals feel far too loud and don't blend in with the rest of the sounds. They feel pasted on top, and this highlights a general issue I'm having with this arrangement: I don't think that reverb and other creative mixing effects were utilized effectively to glue all of your elements together. Take the delay tail on the word "Aquaria" at the end of the poem. It feels like you're trying to create an atmospheric delay throw, but because there's so little diffusion on your delay, it actually feels more like you're just looping the sample over and over again, and it breaks the immersion for me. This is tough for me - the arrangement and sound design are strong points here, but I still am left feeling underwhelmed by the atmosphere and immersion due to certain elements (specifically the vocals) feeling too loud and inconsistently mixed with the rest of the soundscape, and a general sense of sparseness in the mix due to limited bass frequencies and lack of padding elements. I do think this gets by on the strength of its arrangement and concept, but I still think there's room for improvement on future submissions if you approach this style again. YES (borderline)

I hard-disagree with the idea of rejecting this on the grounds of the ending - I think it's fine and I've certainly heard the tape stop/record skip ending used in other contexts both in and out of the OCR sphere. "Mass of distortion" feels like a hyperbole compared to what I'm hearing, it's just some tape warble effects and saturation. That decision feels like like a stylistic decision to me, I'm very surprised to see this with a NO vote on solely that reason. Ending aside, this track represents a significant improvement over the original submission. This boasts a much fuller soundscape that better matches the production quality and richness of the material that inspired it. The drums could still stand to be a little more organic and humanized (most drum kits in this style were sampled from actual live breaks rather than sequenced, and there's certain times you can really tell that this was programmed in manually from one-shot samples) but it's lightyears ahead of where it was in the last version. Thanks to the revamped mixing, you can even hear elements like the wonderful vocla harmonies that, apparently, were always in the arrangement but never really grabbed my attention before. It's a vibe. YES