Emunator

I hate to be so blunt, but I found the sound design on this to be boring. All of the sound choices here feel bland and uninspired - there's nothing really unique drawing me to this arrangement. It's also hampered by the fact that your arrangement repeats itself frequently and there's very little variation in the way of sound choice, beats, or melody. Not sure what else to say, I think you have the skills to put together a competently arranged song but I would strongly suggest experimenting with more interesting sounds and changeups to make your arrangements sound more fresh and personalized. NO

Awww yeah. Strong concept and collab from you two. Very happy to hear some Sonic Adventure 2 becoming more prevalent on OCR, thanks to these competitions. The bass writing and production is a big highlight of this collab. At first, I felt that it was mixed too loudly, but it fell into place nicely after the rest of the instruments dropped in. The vocal processing was also done really well on the raps - Joel's got some great flow! I wasn't as big of a fan of the vocoded parts on this, but they were definitely serviceable and worked great as a background element. Wtf at the "bestiality" lyric though? Can't hate on it, but I definitely did a double-take when I first heard that. This is just the level of quality I've come to expect from you guys. A lot of the source usage seems relegated to synth parts that are pretty low in the mix, but fortunately the Lost Colony bassline is present throughout the whole track so that firmly grounds this as a remix even though the rapping is arguably the main focus. Good shit guys. YES

All of the secondary/percussive elements in this arrangement are fantastic. Really excellent bass and drum writing, some of the best I've heard in a submission recently, to be honest. Melodically, though, this is underdeveloped and pretty liberal. I can hear where you derived the chip arp from in the source, but it's modified and difficult to recognize unless you're really listening for it. The chord progression is also used throughout the track. The only truly dominant source usage I'm hearing is the plucked riff that shows up at 1:08. If it came down to it, I'd be inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt on source usage, but it took me a couple of listens before it really clicked. The bigger issue I'm having is the fact that the only direct melody usage from the original is played verbatim each time it comes up. This makes your arrangement feel extremely plodding and, for all the changeups and variations in your bass/drums, there isn't enough melodic exploration to justify the length of your arrangement. There's a ton of other content in the original that could be explored, so it's disappointing to me that this mainly relies on one single riff repeated ad nauseum. I'd suggest trimming down the length here and doing something to vary your lead melody so it's not so repetitive. This is a super-strong foundation for a remix but that's a major component that's not clicking for me. NO (please resubmit!!)

On the one hand, I like the arrangement and the fusing of your two styles. Fun soloing, and lots of chippy goodness that I would expect from you guys. To me, this track shows its age on the production side, though. Even during the higher-energy parts where the guitar lead comes in, there's a significant lack of impact and power behind the mix. The percussion doesn't seem to ebb and flow with the track like it ought to, as Kris pointed out. At 1:03 and especially 1:58, for example, sounds washed out and distant. It's like the track is drenched in reverb, but I don't think that's actually the problem. It's hard for me to isolate what's going on in those sections but they definitely don't sound right to me. I think it might be the backing pad that's giving the mix that odd quality that I'm hearing. Anyone else able to elaborate on this? This is not to knock the quality of what you do have here - like I said, there's lots of compelling writing and rhythms present, but if I had to pick a word to describe this, it would be "sparse." On repeat listens I'm noticing a lack of bass presence, as well. I dunno, I think this one has some great qualities to it but the mixing feels lackluster and doesn't hold up to muster, in my opinion. Tough call, really. I'm curious to see what everyone else has to say. NO

Haha, Xenogears sources really do all meld together so well. This doesn't have nearly as bad of a case of medley-itis as I would have expected from a track that references 22 sources. This arrangement is triumphant and really maximizes use of some of Mitsuda's best themes. Major props for utilizing some lesser-used ethnic instruments in addition to the standard orchestral pallet. That said, I think Kristina nailed down the issues with this is the plodding nature of the arrangement, and I agree that the drums are the biggest culprit. You have a lot of melodic variation going on, but the overall dynamic level doesn't vary much, so it all washes together on repeat listens. The drums are repetitive and the samples really don't feel genre appropriate, I would highly suggest a complete overhaul to that component of your arrangement. You have a lot of great melodies and instrumental parts, but the drumkit and repetitive writing aren't doing them any favors :-\ It's hard to tell how well this arrangement would work if that component were to be revisited, but this definitely needs more dynamics overall in order to justify the length of the track. NO (resubmit!)

This has some cool elements to it and a lot of great writing/variations to the source melody, but the piano sequencing/sample quality provides a weak foundation for the track as a whole. I think you need to revisit how you've sequenced the the piano and reign that in to allow for more dynamics in your performance. The sample quality sounds passable but each note sounds like it's hitting a consistently-high velocity. Just to name one example, 1:40-1:52 leaves your piano exposed and the rapid hammering on the low keys sounds unrealistic. There's many other instances of this throughout the track, so I think you need to revisit the sequencing on your piano throughout the mix. As for the other elements in the track, the ethnic drums sound great, but end up repetitive and don't ever evolve with the track. The rest of the arrangement is dynamic and builds up as it goes on, but the drums never seem to keep up with it. Try bringing in some bigger, more dramatic drum sounds to increase tension as your arrangement progresses. The idea to introduce synths to help flesh out your arrangement was great, but in practice, they mainly occupy the same frequency range as your piano so it ends up making the mix sound muddy and indistinct. Some selective EQ cuts, or experimenting with putting your synths into different frequency ranges in order to minimize clutter, might serve you well. I'm finding a lot of issues on the mixing/sequencing side here, but there's a ton of merit in your actual part writing, so don't give up on this! I think with a couple rounds of revisions you could get this to the level it needs to be. Good luck! NO (resubmit)

Kris, that sounds like a tubular bell to me, it's a little out of place harmonically but I don't personally have an issue with it. Onto the rest of the remix... This is absolutely gorgeous. I'm picking up a strong amount of American Beauty influence with the piano performance and overall sound design. I was afraid when I first downloaded the track and saw that it was only 2 minutes long, but your concept seems fully fleshed-out even at this length. You manage to introduce many subtle variations to the Fear of the Heavens melody, and build substantially on your sound design too so the remix doesn't end up sounding one-dimensional or static. Can't say enough good things about this, you've accomplished a lot in 2 minutes here! YES

MUCH better! This addressed nearly all of my issues with the previous submission, it feels much more focused and complete as a track, leaving all of the ideas that worked intact while scrapping some of the less successful ones from the first go-around. Your production seems to be improved across the board... really, this is just clicking so much better. I still feel that your lead synth design is underwhelming and lacking in expression, so some of the synth solos fall flat for me, but in the face of everything that this track gets right, this is an easy call for me. YES

This is a tough call, because your production is really spot-on here and I feel that there's a lot of potential with the adaptation here (despite the fact that Stickerbush Symphony in D&B style has been done a couple of times before.) However, I'm finding this to be remarkably underdeveloped from an arrangement perspective. Production-wise, you're on point, but aside from the addition of a D&B beat and the synth arpeggios that enter at 1:48, there is no original writing or personalization to be found here. The direct repetition in the second half of the song is also disappointing, since this is only 3 minutes long so it feels like I'm listening to a 1 minute concept on loop with only the slightest of variations introduced. I think this has a lot of room for growth and could be very successful with some original elements and more creative sound design introduced, but as it is this still feels like a proof-of-concept rather than a fully-realized remix. Not cutting it for me NO (resubmit!)

I don't think this counts as feedback, but... holy shit! You nailed it.

Holy hell man, this is great. I'm getting some serious Mario Kart 64 vibes (particularly Toad's Turnpike) from the chord progression, this is so silky smooth. For a track that was thrown together so hurriedly, it feels remarkably focused. If this is any indication of the rest of the soundtrack/remix album, I clearly need to check it out.

It's absurd up how talented you are, Timmie. With the amount of music that you output, and the fact that most of your music is made around the same chiptune sound pallet, it always blows me away how fresh everything sounds. You're working in a very saturated genre where it's difficult to stand out from the crowd, but you really go the extra mile on the compositional front to make something special everytime you submit. This is a really special piece dude!

This one is really growing on me with each successive listen, like most of Jon's stuff tends to do. It's mixed with just the right amount of distortion to achieve the desired effect without being rough on the ears. Granted, I don't really hear any of the post-rock djp is referring to in the writeup, but this mix does a great job seamlessly fussing multiple styles and aesthetics together. Excellent track!

Rexy! This is fantastic, far and away my favorite track from you so far! I'm constantly impressed with the level of beauty that people are able to extract from the source, which has a ton of potential but is difficult to fully appreciate with the limited sound quality of the Gameboy sound chip. This would be right at home in an HD remake of Donkey Kong Land, you really captured the source's essence.

I've been listening to this for years since I first heard it in Dwelling of Duels 3 and a half years back!! Flexstyle really had some spot-on judge comments with this mix that almost totally align with my own - the mixing on this shows its age, I don't think this is the best production work I've heard from either of you guys but the arrangement is grade-A work by both your standards and more than compensates for the shortcomings on the mix side. On a side note, this pairs so well back-to-back with OA's mix that was linked in the writeup. I love listening to the two of these in succession. Good stuff guys!

Only one review on this so far? Poppycock! I remember hearing a really bare-bones iteration of this back in the day and I'm sooo glad you brought Sir J. on to work some magic here!! The vocal stabs are tasteful, brass is excellent, and nothing feels overdone in the slightest, which isa risk that comes with trying to "jazz something up" - it's very easy to sound over-indulgent and this sidesteps that pitfall nicely! There's magic in the air when you two get together... I could listen to a whole album of your collaborations. I don't feel like the arrangement is as interpretive or ambitious as hush hour, but it's quite nice in its own respect. Please keep working together guys

Well this is really fascinating! I love the unusual style fusion, I feel like you explored a lot of new ground compared to your past work. There's a part of me that wants to hear a full arrangement of "The Goddess Appears" just based on the last 2 minutes of your track, but it bookends this nicely and gives the listener a relaxing reprieve if they make it to the end Really great, subtle integration of orchestral elements throughout the song, as well. Love the rapidfire heartbeat integration at 3:19, I felt so tense when I heard that the first time! If I had to critique anything on this, it would be the tape stop effects, which don't really seem to sync perfectly to the rest of the song every time and actually make this sound jittery in an unintentional/distracting way. For example, 2:39, 2:55, and especially 4:38 just seem... egregious, and break up the song flow without feeling deliberate, like a lot of the other glitches/fx in your song do. Also, most of the mix feels a touch dry, could very well be an intentional mixing choice but it leaves some of the more minimalist sections sounding just a bit too sparse. I've really walked away from this with a lot of respect for you as an arranger, and find myself absolutely captivated by what you've created here. Very glad to see someone like you doing something completely different from the rest of the crowd!

You're in good hands with Skrypnyk He's a master of glitchy stuff like this and should be able to do some nice polishing work on this to help it shine a bit more. Really love the groove you're working with, can't wait to see what comes of this collab!

This is really lovely! Perfect marriage of styles, your original harmonies fit flawlessly. I'm not listening to this on my mixing headphones so I can't provide much feedback there at this point, but I wanted to chime in and let you know how much I loved this! Will definitely be following this thread as you update

Having not heard the original submission for comparison, I must say that I love what you did here! Your production sounds fantastic to me, I particularly appreciate how you handled the string stabs and percussion. You've got a really cohesive sound pallet matched with a triumphant, brisk arrangement that takes a very difficult source and reigns it in rather nicely. I think the pure-Penelo sections are the strongest part of this arrangement, there's some residual awkwardness from the Edward melody at times, but overall it's a very smooth, enjoyable fusion. And yeah, it bites a LOT from Diggi Dis' style so I appreciate you being up-front about your inspiration, though you put in enough detail work to make this your own. Definitely my favorite track from you that I've heard so far, this will be seeing some airtime on my own personal playlists Great work T! YES

Easy call for me now - the only concern I had with the initial sub was the first minute and a half, and that section of the song is now showing sufficient development and personalization. The switch to a swing-rhythm was a huge highlight and very smoothly executed, and the production is just as rock-solid as last time. I'm happy you sent this back so swiftly! YES

1. Rosalina 2. Banjo-Kazooie 3. Eevee

Oh hell yes, I've been dying to hear this song remixed! No critiques here, just wanted to chime in and say that you made me a very happy listener with this track! EDIT: Upon further inspection, it turns out that all of your contributions to this album are really awesome. Keep sharing and submitting this amazing work with us, Zack! You're definitely one of the most promising up-and-coming remixers I've seen on the site in quite a while.

I like the vibe you've created here, it's a solid improvement on the original source. Good drumwork and production overall. However, this feels like more of a 1-and-a-half minute sketch that has been looped twice and fades out. I don't feel like any new ideas or anything are introduced past the 1:30 mark. This makes your remix feel more like background music to a game (which, to be fair, it would work perfectly for) than an actual arrangement. For OCR standards, you need to introduce more ideas and vary the structure of your arrangement to keep it fresh the whole way through. The fadeout at the end also doesn't do much to help this feel like a standalone arrangement. In addition to that, the sequencing on many of the melodic elements in the track seems rigid and heavily quantized. This applies mainly to your leads, but when the bassline or the e-piano chords are more exposed, the velocities feel like they need more variation so they don't feel as static. Lots of work needed on this, but you have a solid beat and a good foundation needed on this, I wouldn't be surprised to hear this at a more passable level with some more work put into the arrangement and the sequencing of some of the other instruments. NO (resubmit)