Emunator   Judges ⚖️

I actually didn't have much of a problem with the production on here... maybe because I've been going on a dream-pop binge lately (or because I produce all of my music this way, too!) but the washed out reverb-y sound seems deliberate and well-executed here. Stuff is audible and coming through where it counts. For my money, I think the production and the guitar tone is ace. There's a lot of promise there. Arrangement wise, I feel like this falls short of the mark. Each time the melody is played through, it wholesale repeats almost exactly the same way regardless of which lead is playing. There's very little in the way of unique phrasing as the track develops. You need to inject some original melodic breaks or soloing to keep this fresh, and some more engaging drum riffs would also help. The synth leads that take over during the 3rd repetition of the melody are a great step in that direction, it changes up the tone and offers a bit of a breather, but the synths are SO quiet! I can barely even hear that sine lead. And after that, it's pretty much right back through the same territory again. I feel like I'm passing through the woods and I'm walking around in circles - despite the fact that I'm seeing some slightly different scenery and embellishments with each pass, I can't shake the feeling that I've already been here before. NO (resub!)

I have to be honest, I actually didn't pick up on how you adapted the source usage til about a minute in, but it put a smile on my face when things finally clicked! Very subtle and clever adaptation throughout, your arrangement feels fluid and constantly evolving... nothing ever repeats wholesale and you consistently introduce new ideas and flavors throughout. This truly feels like a live jam session despite the fact that much of it was sequenced, which is a rare feat to achieve when it's so easy to fall back on loops and copy/pasted writing. There's some production nitpicks and moments of diminished realism but I don't really even feel the need to tread back over them - this is working for me on the whole and I know the masses are going to dig this YES

This track had my support in its original form and this revision only polishes the edges even further. Production sounds rock-solid now and the minor loose ends such as the ending are right where they should be now. The futuristic Deus Ex vibe works so well with the minimalist source tune, and I'm a big fan of the unconventional soloing throughout the track. To the front page with you! YES

Absolutely gorgeous ambiance sets the mood nicely here. I love how deep your bass tones are and how enveloping your atmosphere is without becoming too crowded. I never felt like you were treading water to fill out time, either - despite the lack of a clearly-defined structure, you continued to introduce new instruments, effects, and ideas that kept things rolling along nicely. Aside from the overall soundscape, a big highlight for me was the glitching on your acoustic instruments - that had a very Jon Hopkins-esque feel to it that really grabbed my attention. The strange pitch-bent synth that popped up briefly during the last minute did not seem to fit, but not a big deal. In general I thought the lead choices were well-chosen but there are times where it felt like you just slapped the patch onto the melody without much concern for articulation or velocity, so a lot of the melodies came across sounding stiff and unrealistic. Not a huge deal in the face of everything that you did right here, but the sequencing was underwhelming to me. Small potatoes but that might be an area to address with your future submissions. I love what I'm hearing here, ambient mixes are very susceptible to becoming boring or overlong but you adeptly avoided both of those and brought something totally fresh to the table. Good stuff! YES

Excellent track here. I was apprehensive at first due to how closely it hewed to the original source during the intro section, and how many times I've heard this source adapted to various electronic subgenres in the past. Once the drop at :45 occurred though, I was sold on your concept. This is a very nuanced, liquid arrangement that, in spite of a few minor flaws that have already been pointed out, succeeds at mixing the nostalgic source tune with a myriad of modern EDM tricks. Nothing in here is too off-the-wall or experimental (though the tempo-changing arpeggio transition at 1:58 was really pro - definitely a personal highlight!) but this is well-executed, competently produced, and above all, fun to listen to. I've got no trouble signing off on this! YES

Wow, I suck. I've been getting so caught up with life that I still haven't uploaded the MP3 package for project evaluation. I'm doing that right now and then I'll drop a link in the staff forums. About 15 minutes left on the upload. Sorry!

Wow, the level of detail on this track is stellar! It is true that the background arp repeats for the majority of the track, but really it feels more like a glue than a crutch, forming some kind of solid base to tie the track back to the source while just about every other element evolves and develops around it. The solos are strong and give a lot of character to the mix, but the rest of the backing track is so compelling that it doesn't feel like you're just throwing star power at your remix to compensate for a weak concept. On the contrary, it's the little string stabs, drum fills, and other organic instruments that I find myself appreciating the most on repeat listens. Really, this one's firing on all cylinders. Super strong, ambitious track, maybe the best thing you've submitted so far Jake! Bravo! YES

I'm somewhat familiar with noise/glitch styles like this, so I appreciate a lot of what you're trying to do here. The mix of dry synths and rough, jittery drums reminds me of Crystal Castles. The chopped piano section is definitely my favorite, I though that was a pretty successful component of this experiment. The production here is just rough though, and the frequencies do not feel properly balanced at all, even for the genre you're mixing in. Everything sounds very boomy and muffled, without a lot of clarity when the drums get busier. It sounds like there's too much competing between sounds. I'm a bit at a loss for what to say other than the mixing job just isn't cutting it. Coupled with the source usage concerns mentioned above, I don't think this is working for me. Much respect for pushing the envelope and working with a lot of creative ideas, your glitching game is on-point, but I'm gonna have to pass on this. NO

I actually find myself agreeing STRONGLY with Vig on this track but I don't know if I would have been able to put my finger on it on my own. There's some really strong vibes here, and I think you've stumbled upon a REALLY cool approach to the classic Green Hill melody, but right now your part writing is too busy and the instrument lines are stepping all over each other. The end result is just cacophonous and unfortunately undermines the chill mood that you seemed to be going for It's hard to tell for sure, but I feel that you could also do some balancing work by bringing some of your backing instruments down in volume just slightly so they're not competing quite as much. Perhaps you could retain more of your complex writing with a different approach to mixing where everything isn't quite as loud? Really, I dig this a lot, like nearly all of your submissions, Paul, but this one's overflowing with ideas and needs to get parsed down a bit. (Did anyone else hear "shit shades and hues" at 1:52/3:39? ) NO (resubmit!)

Call me crazy, but I'm surprisingly okay with this track in its current form. I'm going to keep this short because both sides of the argument have been made very thoroughly, but the strength of the sound design and synth choices evoke a very deliberate mood, and the very detailed modulation on your background elements works well. The additive approach to arrangement is well-utilized here, although I totally agree with Vinnie that 4:28 would have been a great place to end the track, either with a fadeout or just letting the delays trail off and ending cleanly (I think the latter would have been more effective, personally.) The drums are a bit of a weak link, but I didn't have an issue with the drum writing itself (the swing timing in the 2nd half didn't really contribute anything to the track but I didn't really notice it on repeat listens.) As Vig said, just a touch more reverb and compression would have done the trick. Not a dealbreaker to me, though, I felt the rest of the track was strong enough to compensate. I find myself agreeing with zykO's vote the most - strong vibes, smooth sound design and a totally natural fusion of multiple sources makes this a winner for me. Whatever flaws there may be don't bother me nearly enough to stop this from passing through. Thanks for introducing me to this soundtrack too! I wasn't familiar at all but just from these source tunes, I love it. YES

Thanks for the reminder, I've actually had all the files converted and tagged sitting on my HD for the last month, but I haven't uploaded them anywhere. I'll jump on that soon, but there are several other projects in the queue ahead, so it might still be a while.

https://app.box.com/s/3j6qj5vqkr07dy7simoptf0j97zw30gq Mak sent me this version, what do you guys think? I can't take a critical listen but at first glance, it sounds better... too quiet, if anything! Will revisit later.

https://soundcloud.com/zack-parrish/bowser This is the track that Purplecowadoom is referring to, and it's excellent! I agree, the source definitely deserved the remix treatment.

This is too much fun! Love the source, and like DarkSim said, you maximized its potential with modern production sounds and a lot of cool effects that wouldn't have been possible back on the SNES hardware. Very faithful, enjoyable rendition that's brimming with personality!

This is actually a source that I am familiar with... I spent a lot of time playing Yu-gi-oh! when I was younger so it's a pleasant surprise to hear this remixed, and in such quality fashion, too! This is definitely one of the more successful electronic/ethnic fusions I've heard on the site.

Excellent use of panning/glitching dude I totally agree, those X-Naut arpeggios are instantly recognizable and lend themselves to a lot of different applications. Very cohesive arrangement, I like it a lot!

This is a surprisingly personalized, detailed, and evolving remix! At first listen, I was concerned about the arrangement sounding too same-y, due to the fact that it's all based on a pretty consistent 4-on-the-floor beat and a pretty simple chord progression. It took a few listens to really appreciate how detailed your arrangement was - there's tons of synth flourishes, beat fills, and the excellent soloing mixed in with the Skull Man source. The additive approach to arranging paid off really well - by the time the track was over, I found myself lost in the groove and really enjoying the little touches you scattered throughout! Deceptively well-crafted, it took me a bit to fully appreciate it but I like this! Production is on-point to match - the only issue I had was the loudness of the sub bass in the first few seconds, but it's such a minor gripe. Everything else about this is well-polished. Great work. YES

Hello guys, this is Showroom Dummy again. Remix name is "Chipped Bone" Original is Mega Man 4 Skull Man stage. My direction with this mix was to make funky house. I played a lot of melodies of the song on my keyboard so there is little copy paste including bassline and the others . My mission was to make a song more complex with time, so after first section it breaks time signatures, extending phrases and many solos. I always want to surprise with the arrangements I make, but I keep the chiptune element in all my work. My favorite is the bassline I put much work in! I hope you enjoy Sorry for any bad english, it's translated. Source:

I agree, there's a lot of untapped potential in the House theme from Link's Awakening and I think you did a nice job exploring a lot of the different possibilities here! Your piano sample is very nice quality, very soft and appropriate for the mood you're conveying. The arrangement itself has strong dynamics, with a very natural ebb and flow as you transition between softer and heavier sections. Your track starts off strong but unfortunately the fact that this is a sequenced piano becomes readily apparent as the track goes on. It seems like there's some unnatural velocity patterns that start to appear throughout the track, but the bigger issue I'm hearing is how rigidly quantized all of the notes are. Not even the most technically-adept pianist would be able to play the notes this accurately to the metronome - you need to loosen up your timing to achieve a more natural flow. Right now, the note timing is just not convincing enough and unfortunately saps a lot of the life out of a very spirited arrangement. There's a rendering error at 4:00 that you need to fix, too! I have no issues with the arrangement or the writing itself but the stiff sequencing is not doing justice to your writing. Experiment with some less-hard quantization and introduce some timing adjustments so that it sounds more humanized, and I think you've got a winner. Good luck! NO (resubmit!)

ReMixer name: Deedubs Real name: Mike DeWeese Email address: User ID #: 52934 Game arranged: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Arrangement Name: Home Is Where the Hearts Are Song arranged: House Whenever I think of a video game tune that brings nostalgia, the "House" music from Link's Awakening seems to bring all the warm memories of childhood back to me. I first played Link's Awakening as the holiday season was coming around, and in coastal Northern California, it would rain a lot during late fall and most of winter. Rain would be falling outside as I'm playing the game on the Super Game Boy. In game, shortly after walking into one of the houses of Mabe Village, I would just stop and listen. The music that played sounded so peaceful along with the rain that was falling outside my house. I often think of calm piano music as rainy day music, so I wanted to give "House" a good piano treatment, inspired by a few tracks from the Final Fantasy IV piano album. I used Cinesamples Piano in Blue for this track because I feel it very much exemplifies the intimate feel I was going for. The arrangement title is a reference to Link's house in A Link to the Past. Thanks! Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S48yGfAksC8 -------------------------------------

I paneled this because there's a lot of cool interpretation to the performance here, it's very dynamic and expressive, but I'm concerned about a couple of things. First off, the recording quality has a HUGE amount of white noise in it. Way more than I would be comfortable passing on any piano mix. Perhaps this is something that could be fixed up in post-production with some help, but right now this track is DOA because of the excessive noise levels. There's some parts of the performance itself that I'm not totally enjoying, either. The transition at :50 was weak/non-existent. The section from 2:25 - 2:40 felt very out of place - I see where in the source you derived it from but honestly, that part just didn't sound good to me. Overall, the performance was a bit sloppy overall - maybe it was an intentional style because the arrangement is very carefree and loose, but I think the performance could have been tightened up, too. Personally, I still don't think this would be a pass due to sloppiness of transitions and overall performance even if the recording quality was fixed up. I thought there were some very solid, creative ideas here, but I wanted to see what the rest of the panel thought. NO

Title: Kremlings Sonota Original: Gang-Plank Galleon. Game Donkey Kong Country - SNES, author: Leandro Abreu Source:

Love how you tease the source tune with your opening ambiance without explicitly jumping into it. Cool textures start things off, though I wasn't a fan of the first synth that came in... that patch just felt plain. Your first lead at :59 was a lot better, I agree with Chimp that it was quiet but you obviously took a lot of time to write an expressive lead line. When everything kicks into full gear, the mixing is a bit... cacophonous. LOTS of midrange frequencies are getting jumbled together and there's very little clarity in those sections. The dynamic contrast between the lighter sections and those is great, but you need to clean up those passages significantly. Chimp is right about the ending too, I think there's a lot of potential to wind the track down in a more gradual, interesting way, but you missed that opportunity here. I'm not totally sure how to feel about this - maybe I'm being too harsh because this is such a frequently-mixed source, and you do have some great ambiance to give this some personality, but the conservativeness of the writing and the generic backing synth patches just don't really catch my interest here. I think with some work you could potentially have something passable on your hands, but there's definitely a lot more room to personalize and give this your own unique flavor, too. NO

This is a very cool stylistic homage that really doesn't get touched on very often, I think this is something that listeners are really going to appreciate. It's a smorgasbord of horror-soundtrack tropes that's arranged in a very clever way. I love the instrumental variety here, as well - you utilize a lot of sounds that aren't often heard in remixes. It's all very fresh. Diddy Kong Racing gets way too little love, too, so it's wonderful to see more people tackling this excellent soundtrack! My only real gripe with this track is the weakness of the drum kit. I absolutely get the style you were going for with that section, but the weakness/simple riffs of those drums make that section feel somewhat underwhelming. I really can't justify rejecting such an otherwise-strong arrangement on that merit alone, but I do feel like it's a weak link that's worth pointing out. Mastering the track with more compression might have also helped there. Other than that, solid stuff! The mixing gets the job done and the one real gripe that I have doesn't significantly detract from everything else you've gotten right with this arrangement! YES

I'm falling a little bit between Larry and Chimp on this. I personally wouldn't be as generous as her, but I think I enjoyed some of the subtleties of your arrangement more than Larry. At the core, your beats are pretty neat, although they do ride the same grooves for a while I think your beat writing is interesting, especially the hi-hat and kick rhythms. It's a cool adaptation and I felt like there were enough breakdowns that it didn't feel too static, even if those breakdowns didn't last very long. This track is very close to the original source, melodically, but the adaptation to dance style earns you some points. It's a conservative arrangement, but you've got enough going on to differentiate this from the original. The arrangement was repetitive and toward the end it did feel like you were just treading water, but I didn't find that aspect of the track to be a dealbreaker. I'm not a huge fan of the synths that Larry critiqued either, but I didn't think they were that bad! I'll agree that the sound design is underwhelming, but for the most part it works for the style you're doing, and everything is pretty cleanly articulated and sequenced. Mixing is a little troublesome, easing up on the compression and taming your bassline would give this a bit more breathing room. Maybe lower the volume on your hats just a touch. I actually feel like this is really close, I think you've got a lot of solid feedback to go off of from the judges above and I'd love to see what you can do with that input to improve this and hopefully tip it over the bar! NO (resubmit!)