Emunator   Judges ⚖️

Yup, I recognize the backing loop elements from the source - what you did sounds great, and I do hear the efforts made to chop up and personalize it, but it's not what we're looking for in terms of arrangement here at OCRemix. I'm sure this sort of thing could have an audience on Youtube or Soundcloud, but it's just not what we're looking for. Sorry! NO

OK, so I feel like I haven't heard this track yet, but I think this reflects a lot of the criticism I've given on your other synth-driven music lately so I hope you don't find this too surprising when you read this. I think the synth choices here are pretty bland and uninspired. The guitar and trumpet do add a lot of spice to the mix, and the arrangement is plenty creative and varied, but the synth sounds are just... there? :( I'm not sure what sort of vibe the introduction is supposed to be setting, especially with the awkward attack/release timing on the synth keys. Kris said this but I'll reiterate because this is exactly the issue: "The spacey pad has a similar issue; it is a sound that develops over time, and with each new note it retriggers, giving an awkward stop/start effect." The sine lead is similarly not really giving me anything to latch onto, and there's nothing in the way of expression to make it stand out as a lead instrument in the same way that TSori's trumpet does. The gradual variations in attack and decay, vibrato, and articulation is just not present. The next lead synth has a bit more harmonic character but still isn't doing much for me in terms of the way it's played or programmed. Even if you're writing with synths, think about the way it would sound on an equivalent instrument, like a saxophone or a violin. It would sound awkward without any sort of legato flow between your notes if you articulated everything as a marcato, for example, or played a violin with absolutely no vibrato (or, in this case, a completely consistent vibrato on every note) and it's going to sound similarly awkward if you articulate a synth instrument like that. The guitar is mega-quiet and the tone is fine but not really compensating for the issues I noted with the synths, either. I think there's room for this to stand out more in the mix and make more of a statement, although the performance is great and fits the bill just fine. Bass and drums are mixed weirdly too - it feels like the synth bassline doesn't have enough movement to it. Chimpazilla also touched on sidechaining and how this will really help your track groove, even with a static 1/8th note bassline and simple drums. Currently, the kick and the bass are sitting on top of each other. I can't tell for certain, but I also feel like the bass patch itself is a little too thick for this genre, and it's muddying up the low-end further. 1:38 also feels like a straight-up sour note, like Larry said. Definitely fix that as well as the drum fill timing at 2:07, it's off-beat. All this to say, this arrangement is great and I really have no notes to give on the conceptual front. I'm focusing on the negatives a lot, and I hope you know that I really do enjoy listening to this! I know we've already talked 1:1 about some of these issues and how to mitigate them, so I suspect that if this goes to a resubmission, you'll have a lot of tools in your belt to address it, but I don't feel like this is up to the bar at this point. NO (resubmit)

Quick co-sign from my fellow judges - this is a great start and nails the vibes you want from a Lavender Town remix, but there's just not enough substance yet. With such a slow pace and only 2:20 of runtime, you haven't given yourself enough of a runway for this song to take off and fully develop. There's absolutely a strong foundation with the sounds you've picked out, but you need to do more with the pieces you've laid down in terms of additional writing/countermelodies/fills, and in general finding ways to evolve the sound throughout the arrangement. The workshop would be a great place to take this as you develop further - you've got a great ear, now keep expanding what you can do with it! NO

This is a stupid easy vote - the production is absolutely incredible here. I don't know what "wave" is (and I'm at least 40% sure you're making it up) but I like it a lot. This reminds me of a mix of Clams Casino, Lorn, and a bit of Burial but with some ultra-modern, sleek production. 1:54 knocked me out of my seat when the supersaws dropped in. Queen's voiceovers fit in perfectly, what a great additional element to add some interest during the breakdown. Ending is not blowing me away but I think sometimes we overstress the importance of a really complex, involved ending - it fades out cleanly and by that point, the track has done everything it needs to do. EZ-PZ. YES

Easily one of my all-time favorite sources, so I'm always eager to hear what folks have done with it. The panning in the intro is indeed awkward - I think it's okay to more intense panning in a mix but it's almost always going to sound awkward when there's nothing balancing it out in the other ear. It's not as big of a deal when the rest of the instrumentation kicks in, but you should really consider panning those elements closer to the center at least for the intro, and maybe reining them in more during the rest of the track. There's a lot of really cool sounds at play here - the big booming kick drums, the creepy mellotrons and bells... I love the sound design here. Around 2 minutes in, we get into even more interesting territory, but marred by some mixing issues that the other judges above me have correctly identified. Although you do a lot to add personalization to this arrangement via your sound design and percussive elements, I don't think there was quite enough done to the actual part writing to distinguish it from the original or keep it from becoming too repetitive. Some slight variations in the presentation of the melody would go a long way here - you don't have to go overboard with it, but the looping piano is just not holding my interest, considering how exposed and robotic the programming is. Apply some of that killer sound design creativity that you used for your bass and percussion elements to the piano as well! I really love the vibe here and wanted to pass this but it feels like it's at least one iteration away from the OCR bar. I have no doubt you can get it there! If you're having trouble, our Workshop forums are great for feedback or you can pop into the OCR Discord Server anytime - we even host weekly WIP reviews where community members can get involved with your track on an individualized basis and help you improve your craft. Hope to see you there! NO (resubmit!)

Yeah, Brad was right - this is the easiest vote of all time. Absolute masterclass of execution and ambition. There are times that I've considered Xaleph a "genre specialist" who sticks with his preferred genre (in this case, psytrance) and this doesn't exactly dispel that impression, but it does show just how much room there is to color within those genre lines and bring something truly unique to the table. The shredding lead guitar, Zack's acoustic contributions, the kit drumming all push this beyond the bounds of a traditional psytrance arrangement. That's not saying anything of the full-blown metal breakdown in the middle, either. This is virtuosic levels of vision at work here. If I had one critique, it's that the kick drum doesn't quite feel like it nailed the genre conventions during the heavier metal section - it feels a little too clicky and electronic for me. But if that's the biggest nit I can pick here, we're doing great. YES

Pretty much falling in line with Larry and Kris here - if this were a weaker, less ambitious arrangement, the issues with mechanical piano programming or the mushy, over-crowded mixing would absolutely sink this. I also felt like the snare tone was too in-your-face for the way it was written, and again highlights the lack of realism. However, as it stands, the arrangement is really good. I also was impressed with how good the programmed guitar turned out - all things considered, that was another area that easily could have been a dealbreaker but it was pretty convincing. I absolutely hear areas this could be improved, but when I weigh them against the parts of this that you got right, I fall on the positive side here. YES

This starts off a little shaky when the samples are more exposed - I honestly didn't really like the drum tone or the programming in isolation during the intro. The brass is serviceable in my book and definitely added a lot of personality to the arrangement, and but only really sticks out negatively when it's exposed, such as the intro or at 1:45, where the decay on the chord stabs feels very obviously synthetic. Once we get into the meat of the track though, it's clear what you were going for - some good old-fashioned guitar riffage over a classic blues progression. Everything else is ancillary to that, and you stuck the landing in spectacular form on the parts that you were trying to highlight. In an ensemble format, all the pieces work great together and let you showcase your excellent guitar chops. Easy vote for easy street! YES

It's incredible how much you were able to class up a very silly source tune - this is simultaneously tasteful and showboat-y somehow, in a very pleasant way. I'll echo the sentiment that this gets by on the virtue of the clever adaptation and the extremely vibrant performance from David Russell, to the extent that any of the shortcomings in the recording quality of the instruments is a null factor. I also loved hearing the "fake Lucas audience" at the very end, I didn't realize you'd already used this idea before! Easy vote, you knew what you wanted to craft here and you left enough space for the performers to color between (and occasionally outside) the lines in spectacular fashion. YES

Immediately I'm hearing some frequency clashing between the choir pads and everything else - this is a pervasive issue throughout the first few minutes of the song where the low-mids of your choir are occupying the same space as the rest of your instruments and nothing is willing to cede any ground to the other, so it's coming across as severely muddy. When you strip back the choir and lean into your more traditional atmospheric black metal palette, things click better, but there's also times where the lead melody is so buried, such as the Zanarkand melody, that I have to strain to hear it. Throughout the entire 4th minute of the song, the choir is back and muddying up the soundscape - I would selectively EQ the choir in certain sections to reduce the lower frequencies when you also have the heavy guitars playing. The programming of the choir and lead guitar leaves a bit to be desired, they are both very blocky and noticeably fake, which is fine when they are buried in an ensemble, but the whole intro felt awkward because of how stiff the timing was on the choir. This also feels like an issue during the outro. As a side note, I wish the last choir note sustained a little bit longer, it peters out unceremoniously right now. There's so much ambition here, I'd say this is your most bold arrangement to date, and the fusion of sources is honestly perfect... so I'd really love to hear this polished up, but prophetik is right - it's crumbling under the weight of its own ambition right now, and the mixing and sequencing is not always keeping up, and too many times I find that you've got conflicting ideas in the writing and instrumentation that are not working great with one another. I'd love to hear a second attempt at this! NO (resubmit!)

Shoutouts to the Zelda series for really encouraging people to make the most of these 15 second sources - gems like this are all over the place in the series and I love hearing what people can do with them! This is some classic Gaspode action right from the start - bright, crispy synths with some varied electro-industrial percussion loops and a meaty bassline. The big chord stabs give this more of a synthwave feel. The breathy synth lead at 1:45 was certainly a sound design highlight, which then leads into a really cool syncopated rhythm at 2:20 that also stood out to me. We're barely halfway through and you've already explored so many possible avenues to expand on the source, and there's still a brand new synth brass lead, some low piano bass notes, and a whole keychange, . None of this feels off the beaten path for you, but the way you brought it all together still feels ambitious and fresh. No notes, this is great stuff Gaspode! YES

You really are playing with fire by including the word "sausage" in your track title and then mixing/mastering it like this 🤪It's strange how audible and clear everything is, but Brad hit the nail on the head - this feels blown out, even without looking at a waveform or a frequency analyzer. It's bringing out the harshness in the transients on things like your kick or some of the crunchier synth sounds in a way that's just unpleasant. I think you could dial this back a little bit without losing the impact you were going for. Also, that ending felt really sudden to me, not from a compositional standpoint but due to the lack of any sort of tailing sound effect or impact to resolve things. The mastering on this is simply not ideal and is a dealbreaker for me in its current form, but it should be a quick fix - get this back to us! NO (resubmit!)

This original song is nuts - I had to check if I was accidentally playing multiple songs at the same time, but nope. Just a weird intro! The jazz-fusion-orchestral meat of the source is just sublime and feels right up your alley, I can see why you were drawn to this. Your arrangement wastes no time getting into it. Immediately I'm hearing the benefit of the collaborators you chose to involve here. The whole band ensemble sounds full and rich, and your keys/synths fit right in. 1:21 is a little on the loud side, and the lead at 2:42 or some of the synth bells toward the end are pretty shrill when they hit those high notes, but man... there's just so much going on here, I don't think I could fully process everything you've done here across 10 listens. It's really cohesive despite jumping between styles at a moment's notice. The performances and writing are so strong, any minor mixing miscues are a drop in the bucket. This is a slam dunk. YES

This is definitely a huge upgrade from your previous submissions, so nice work on that! You should be proud of the rapid pace of improvement. I like the vibe you've set here, and generally feel like you picked all the right instruments to accomplish this vision. It's simple, but I can see a world where this is over the bar! There are a few lingering issues I'm still picking up on. First and foremost, the melodica is too loud in the mix, and honestly, I can't say I'm a fan of the tone either. It feels weirdly balanced to the mid frequencies without a lot of high end bite, but it still feels shrill because of how loud it is. This could be partially resolved with EQ balance but prophetik's suggestion of trying to switch up the instruments, or perhaps layer it in with another lead (I've personally layered a harmonica and melodica together before to thicken up the tone and found it to be a good option!) might be a better route. Overall, I'm hearing a lot of distortion on certain peaks, especially in the left ear. This tells me that you're running some of your instruments too loud into your master chain, and the mastering plugin just can't keep up when multiple instruments peak on the beat. Bring back the volume level of everything a little bit and gradually reintroduce some of that gain during the mastering process to avoid this - here's a great tutorial on how to do this in FL Studio that I've found tremendously helpful: The lead performance on some of the instruments comes across as overly simplistic and lacking in expression. You've done some variations on velocity and timing but there's a lack of things like grace notes in your performance that makes it feel like you're sticking too much to the grid. I'm assuming these melodies are written in with a mouse in the piano roll, so if you have access to a MIDI controller and have some basic skills with playing it, that could worth exploring to immediately introduce more of that human element to your instruments. Otherwise, I'd suggest revisiting your MIDI sequencing to see where you can add some variation to the writing to make it sound more humanized. If you listen to Dovakhiin in Jamaica, you can hear the difference - even though the songs are at a similar laid-back tempo without a lot of complexity going on, there's subtle things going on with each instrument to make it feel more alive and groovy. This is surprisingly close, but I think there's still a couple areas that need improving before this is ready to post. You should definitely consider bringing this to one of our Workshop Office Hours in the discord with the Sages if this ends up being rejected, there's definite potential here! NO (resubmit)

I'm going to put this one out of its misery quickly, since I know the twins are already looking to revisit this. The mixdown and especially the mastering feels incomplete and doesn't do justice to your fantastic arrangement, I know you guys can nail it better than this. See you on the other side! NO (resubmit)

PrototypeRaptor's take on this same source is an all-time classic, so let's see what you've done with it... We're treading a lot through the same 4-on-the-floor hard electro territory but you've definitely managed to bring something unique and groovy to the table. A little less hard-hitting, a little more vintage synth design. Unfortunately, the repetition at the end is too wholesale to pass the smell test - there's plenty of room to add some more substantial variation to the structure here, especially when the overall track length is so short - you've gotta squeeze a little more out of the concept here. Chimpazilla broke it down perfectly! NO (resubmit)

Any track with this many borderline votes already is going to be a challenge, so I'm going to do my best to approach this objectively without the weight of my own expectations or previous feedback I've given on Queen's other tracks. We start off with a pretty good soundscape but the mixing is very puzzling - I don't feel like there's much substance in the low end throughout much of the track outside of the kick drums, or the basses that are present are so low that they actually don't come through at all to the human ear. Make sure that you're selecting your basses strategically based on which patches work with the range that you're writing in, and keep an eye on where your bass fundamental is falling. Adding in upper harmonics by layering in other patches (being careful to cut out the lower frequencies from all but your sub, so you don't encounter phase cancellation issues) or by adding saturation to your existing bass can also help that bass come through audibly. Human hearing can span from 20Hz-20kHz, but in reality if your bass only exists down in those lowest registers, or it's not mixed properly, it's not going to be heard by most listeners on most setups, and I think that's what's happening here. The stereo spread is also problematic, and I'm definitely in agreement with Liontamer that it's sort of intangible and probably can't be diagnosed without looking at your project file. That said, it feels imbalanced at multiple points, and I also suspect that there might be bass elements like your kick/synths/snares that are panned off to the side. As a general rule of thumb, you want your low end presence to be pretty much mono, and the higher up the frequency range you go, the more you can pan to the sides without causing issues. This is where you'll need to use your tools to analyze what's going on on your bus and master level to see if things are generally balanced - currently, it feels like they're not. I also need to echo the overall balance issues that I've brought up on previous submissions and I'll say again here - you have so many great ideas but you can't have them all fighting for attention and retain that same impact. 2:55 is a great example of this - you have so much going on and so many effects that the big supersaw has to be cranked up so loud just to cut through, and that's not really the approach you want to take. 4:48 also suffers from this - some of your synths are awash with so much reverb and effects, not to mention being a heavily-harmonic synth from the start, that they leave no room for anything else. If you compare this to melodic dubstep tracks by artists like Seven Lions, for example, they use supersaws to great effect, but there's almost nothing else going on when those synths are present. Dropping out other elements through gain reduction, cutting layers, or sidechain ducking to make room for what you really want to highlight is a much better move than simply increasing the volume on your synths even further. All that said, your arrangement is really good here. There's a ton of compelling effects and sounds, and like many of your other pieces, you have a wealth of great ideas that you brought to the table. I actually find the arrangement to be pretty coherent and strong, even compared to your usual tracks - the use of chiptune sounds is well integrated, and the drum writing is strong too. On a fundamental level, if I'm not looking at production quality, this is a pass every day of the week, but the overall listening experience feels unpolished in a way that ultimately has a negative impact on my listening experience. I want to stress this - this one is absolutely salvageable and I think would take significantly less work to polish than many of your other tracks that haven't passed. I don't think this is a lost cause, but after a lot of contemplation, I think this needs another round of polish to sand off the harsh edges and achieve a better balanced mix, so that your wonderful arrangement can shine. NO (resubmit!)

I've been summoned twice here - once by Larry by name, and a second time, unknowingly, by prophetik by invoking Bon Iver's self-titled album, which is one of my all-time favorites. This has all the makings of a favorite of mine. The intro was quite sparse, in a way that left me wanting a little more evolution to the drone or just a single extra level of texture somewhere ( I suppose that's the role that the voice clip was supposed to fill.) After comparing both versions, I actually wish you had submitted the DoD version. I'm not totally sure but I think we've had tracks posted before with extensive sampling of spoken word so unless Carl Sagan is owned by Square Enix, I think that would be in the clear. Once the glockenspiel enters the picture, we're in some gorgeous territory. It evokes a sort of delicate Pikmin-meets-post rock vibe that, as someone who obsessed over post rock to a very weird degree back in high school and college, I knew it wasn't going to stay that way forever. You build up with a gentle dynamic curve though, leaving plenty of time to appreciate the different layers of texture that you add on piece by piece. It blows wide open at 3:24, and we're blasting off into space. You don't hold any punches back and I think the piece is all the stronger for it. The outro winds down once again with some feedback and the glockenspiel, and it's gorgeous. You could tell me that this was a B-side from Sigur Ros' album Takk and, except for the conspicuously-missing Icelandic falsetto, I wouldn't have questioned you all. I feel like the mixing is not totally ideal during the climax. I would have liked a little bit less compression overall and a level balance that allowed the lead guitar to cut through more, especially considering how beautiful that tone is, but I'm also hard pressed to argue that this isn't how the pros do it in post-rock. If you compare this to 4:30 in Glosoli, for example, those drums and bass are SMASHED. The instrumental balance could possibly favor the lead guitar a bit more, but we're bordering on personal preference territory at that point. I'm totally ready to co-sign on this, but if we can use the DoD version with the voice clips, I think we absolutely should - it's the better version of this track. @Liontamer would that be an issue? YES

Yeah, this one wastes no time getting into it, but these sort of experimental tracks have consistently been my favorite LXE pieces. Much like Koopalings or Raga Koopa, you set out on a mission and managed to achieve it without a lot of extra frills, and the underlying musicianship pulls it through. I would have liked to hear a slightly different EQ balance on the bass so that the higher notes aren't so abrasive, and the vibraphone realism leaves a bit to be desired, but the bass is, as you said, the star of the show, and shine it certainly does! YES

This really scanned more as synthwave than lo-fi at first, but once the distorted bell texture and beats come in, it's unmistakable what you were going for (as if the title didn't give it away!) I would have liked to hear a little more texture to set the stage right from the onset, especially since those opening notes were so quiet. From there, we get a very slow burn, but it's a warm, pleasant one that continues to drip-feed new ideas over the 5 minute runtime until the track is built up to something really lush and moody. I'd reckon this accomplished exactly what you set out to do. Good stuff! YES

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