Emunator   Judges ⚖️

I love this so much It reminds me so much of some of Bladiator's old piano remixes. I can't believe there aren't more remixes of Kirby 64 out there, this perfectly captures the bubbly, quirky nature of the game. Your piano performance and arrangement skills are enviable!

I approve! Sorry I had to be a dick in the judge thread; like I said your mix sounded awesome on its own, nothing against you or your musicianship, but I feel a lot more comfortable about passing this new version with regards to the OCR standards. GG Lemon! Love it

I like the concept a lot here - I've wanted to remix Aquatic Ambiance in a trappy/futurebeats style myself and I think you're off to a fantastic start. Cool treatment of the source and lots of cool rhythmic modulations to keep it fresh. The biggest problem is how unrelenting the bass is. It's dominating the soundfield a lot right now - if you adjust the volume slightly, EQ out some of the mids/highs but keep the low-end of the bass, I think it might strike a more natural balance. I think Michael also brought up an interesting point about the delay, and I totally agree - some sort of salient riff to establish more of a rhythm would make this a lot more interesting and well-paced. I'm gonna be honest too and say that the sound effects and chanting toward the end felt mostly superfluous and didn't really add much to the track for me. Others may feel differently but I just wasn't digging that part Really liking the breakdown at 1:17-1:40, that sounds pleasant to my ears. Overall liking what you've got going here, but the trap bass definitely needs to be revisited to achieve a better balance with the track overall. Will keep an eye on this thread!

Gotta agree, that lead synth makes this fall short overall. I don't think the sound jives well with the rest of the instrumentation, and the sequencing is unexpressive. Your rhythm guitars are pretty beastly, but it suffers from the same problem I hear in a LOT of metal mixes - the lead is almost completely buried because the rest of it is so loud and compressed. This mix is also very static in terms of instrumentation... not much to be found in the way of breakdowns or instrumental changeups. This feels underdeveloped, like it just needs a couple additional ideas/variations to make this feel less stale. I'd like to see this spend a bit of additional time in the incubator and have it sent back to us! NO (resub)

Excellent, I loved your last two submissions - you have an excellent way with massive genre fusions, and the source is interesting, so let's see where you take this... This really lives up to the expectations set by your past few mixes! I think you raised your personal bar for incorporating so many disparate elements into one track without it being a total mess. In fact, this is quite cohesive and well-arranged all-around. Electronic drums, traditional orchestral instrumentation, funk bass, ethnic flutes/vocals, metal guitar... I don't know how you pulled it off but it all fits quite nicely! Source is plenty present but expanded and elaborated upon in many ways. No issue there! My only real complaint with this mix is that the big moments never seem to have as much impact as they could. This rides a comfortable dynamic level for most of the track, and although the writing itself has plenty of peaks and valleys, the mixing falls just a little bit flat. Not a big deal to me in the grand scheme of things, but I thought it was worth mentioning to see if anyone else might be able to elaborate on that, if they feel it's an issue. Additionally, some of the sequenced instruments (the ethnic flute :54 and the lead synth at 1:49) are getting buried in the mix and sound slightly muddled. This is a pretty easy call for me on the merit of the arrangement, but there is room for improvement. Naturally, with an arrangement this ambitious and dense, not everything is going to click 100%, but what you got right more than makes up for any shortcomings in my opinion. Good luck with the rest of the vote! YES

Nice source selection! I haven't heard anything from Sonic Lost World, but this is nice. I know this is going to sound like I'm coming down hard on you, but this seems to play to your strengths, but ultimately falls prey to the same issues that many of your previous submissions have had. I'll do a quick breakdown of some thoughts on this track, both positive and negative: +You've got a great ear for arranging and mixing multiple source tunes together. On an arrangement level, I feel like this is a pass. Sources are present but mixed well with original writing. +You always have a wide range of instruments that keeps your tracks sounding fresh -The whole intro sounds tinny, lacking in any low frequencies. This part should sound a lot more lush - try layering in a deeper pad or sub bass, and replacing your flute sample, which just isn't working here. -The bass seems... not so bassy? Can't tell if it's a sample issue or how you EQ'd it, but it sounds weak. -Overall, this just seems rigidly sequenced. The e-piano Green Hill section at 2:24 is a very noticeable example where everything is hard-quantized to the grid, and doesn't have the expressiveness needed for such an exposed solo section. Not sure what to say here, there's still a lot of mixing issues that you need to address. The arrangement is ace but as a whole I think you still have some kinks to work out before this can pass the bar. NO (resubmit!)

I absolutely 100% concur with all of the critiques Deia gave. I don't think there's much more I can offer in terms of feedback on the arrangement itself. I strongly suggest taking this to the WIP forums to brush up on production/synthesis tips to help improve your production. In addition, I would recommend listening to any one of these mixes (4 separate links there) that I randomly selected from the past few years that are in a similar style to yours, so you can get an idea for how the OCR quality bar has shifted in the years since your previously-submitted mixes were posted. There has been a shift in expectations and unfortunately, I don't think this submission, as it is, meets the production/arrangement standards as they stand today. Good luck! NO

You're killing me here... I LOVE how this sounds in a bubble, and the transition to swing was really unexpected and fun, but the first half of the song is pretty much verbatim from the source. I actually synced your remix and the source in two separate windows and sure enough, they fit almost perfectly. The shuffle rhythm helps personalize it, but by that point I feel like too much of the runtime has been spent treading through cover-territory. The straightforward chiptune sound pallet works just fine here, but when your instrument selection is ALSO so close to the source tune, I just don't think there's enough personalization to meet OCR standards. Love your work Ben, but I don't think this is gonna cut it for me. NO

Guys, I really want to like this... I think the concept behind this adaptation is very inspired, and it's clear you're talented performers, but as many times as I've listened to this and tried to wrap my head around it, it just comes across as messy to me. I feel like there's too many competing instruments and melodies that don't align with each other. There's a lot of harmonic clashing going on between the flutes, guitar, and cello. When one of the instruments is taking a break or only playing melody accents, such as in the first :45 seconds or from 1:42-2:02 are nice, if a bit rambling, because you guys are giving each other some room to breathe. Sections such as :57-1:20 or 2:49-3:04, however, sound like a huge jumble. I feel bad for saying this but there's times where it feels like I accidentally opened the track in two separate and the track is playing from separate start points. There's very little synergy going on between the many instruments and it's resulting in a lot of clashing. I think you need to scale this back in order for it to be more listenable. I want to stress that each of the individual performances were very solid and the concept was exquisite, but the execution is falling short because of how disjointed everything feels NO

First off, I'll say that this is pretty well produced and well-put-together, but I'm on the other side of the fence in thinking this is TOO cover-ish. I can tell by listening to this side-by-side with the source, which nearly the exact same length as your submission, and the two tracks progress almost perfectly in tandem. I don't feel like enough effort has been put into personalizing this or making it your own aside from the genre adaptation. Maybe there's some nuances to the arrangement that I'm not picking up on, but to me this seems too much of a straightforward cover to be suitable for OCR. I'm curious to see how the rest of this vote goes! NO

Whaddup dude? Long time, no see! This is really excellent, the mixing is a bit rougher than I'm used to hearing from you (choir is pretty loud), but it's an awesome listen nonetheless. Always a pleasure to hear some new material from you. I'd love to hear a bit more deep lows from your pads, too - the whole mix sounds like the lows got scooped out. Polish this up and you'll have a winner

Hah, reading over these votes before checking out the remix, I was wondering just how bad those oboe notes could be... yeah, there's two notes in here that sound pretty rough. If nothing else, I'd love to hear that fixed if this does end up becoming a pass because of how distracting it is. The arrangement here is quite nice, constantly evolving and adding in new elements to keep things fresh. There's a lot to appreciate on multiple listens. There are some notable production issues stemming from the level of reverb that's drenching the entire track, and some instances of slightly less-than-realistic sequencing going on, but as Mike notes, they're mitigated for the second half of the track when the instrumentation is more fleshed out. On the whole, I'd even go as far as saying that your sequencing is pretty great here for *most* of the track, aside from a few jarring exceptions. To me, the strength of your arrangement tips the scales in your favor... I'd have a much easier time rejecting this if the arrangement weren't so fantastic or if the sequencing hiccups were more consistent throughout the track, but I think even in its current form, this mix is successful in spite of its technical shortcomings. YES

Listening through, I actually don't find this as unrelenting as Shariq's saying. To me, it sounds much more like a stylistic choice than an oversight in composition, and while the percussive, plucky orchestral style really isn't a favorite of mine, I think it's really well-executed here. I'm coming in fresh on this so I don't know what the original submission sounded like, but compared to the source tune, you went well above the call of duty in adapting an instrumentally-simple source into something so expansive and adventurous. I think the production quality is a huge step up from your previous submissions that I've heard! Reading over the old decision thread, it appears that there were some issues with dynamics, but I'm definitely not hearing any of that in this version. I'm more than happy to sign off on this. YES

I had high hopes for this track based on the opening seconds - the vocal chopping and general mood of the track was really promising. It has a very Blackmill-esque vibe, which I love a lot. I like your overall approach but ultimately this fails to click into place, primarily on the production side of things. As Kris pointed out, the glitching is haphazard and doesn't actually contribute to the flow of the track in a meaningful way. The core of your drum kit isn't working for me, either. The snares are indeed the most notable offender, but in general they just feel stiff and not totally genre appropriate. The hi-hat is also very sharp and relentless, and becomes distracting on repeat listens. That needs to be toned down. I'm trying to nail down what's making this sound so off to me, and I think maybe the lack of a prominent bassline is causing your track to feel aimless and too loosely-structured. The sections that do have a bassline use a very muddy and indistinct sound that muddles up the low frequencies without cutting through or serving as a solid foundation for the rest of your track. I appreciate the approach here but there's too many prominent elements that just don't gel together. I think you need to spend more time working in this style and hone your production techniques to get a better handle on what works and what doesn't, especially with your drum/glitch writing. NO

This remix feels like a solid starting point/proof of concept for a dance-y interpretation of the Brinstar theme, but there's a lot of things missing from this that keep it from reaching OCR's bar. First off, there's a huge lack of dynamics in this track once it picks up - you don't employ any breakdowns, beat switches, or changeups once the beat comes in, it's just a relentless 4-on-the-floor groove for the duration of the song. At almost 6 minutes long, you really need to explore other territory - this feels like a 1 minute idea copied/pasted into 6 minutes. A lot of your rhythmic synths are interesting but the mixing is also very muddy and indistinct, so most of the detail work gets lost. I can barely make out any of the secondary percussion other than the kick drum here, and your pad/bells are so resonant & delay heavy that they contribute a great deal of mud... Work with the decay times on a lot of your sounds in order to free up some space and let your sounds shine through. This needs a lot of reworking in my opinion, keep at it and experiment with new arrangement ideas to help keep things fresher and more engaging. NO

Kristina definitely drilled down into the biggest problem with this mix - to be honest, until some of the bigger synths are tamed and balanced properly, it's hard to tell how this arrangement would hold up. There's a nice remix in here somewhere, but you need a serious mixing cleanup to help bring that out in order to clean this up and give certain elements in your track the time to shine. For example, I'm hearing some really cool bass and drum writing at times but it's so muddled in reverb and drowned out by other frequencies, it doesn't feel like it's even there most of the time. It actually took me 3 listens just to realize that there was a guitar in here, it's just so busy! :\ Other than that, the string outro felt like a nice stylistic change of pace but ultimately felt underwhelming because, again, the strings were blending so much that there wasn't always much distinct melody coming through. The sample set seems to be straddling the line between 16-bit srtings and high-quality strings, which is a bit strange, but again, the muddy production is hurting this part. This is a track I would HIGHLY recommend bringing to our workshop forums, we've got some talented musicians that frequent there that can give more detailed, specific feedback on how to get this working. I'd like to see this again sometime down the line! NO

Laguna Tides (Besaid Island) So, I think it's done! Thanks a ton for the kind words and feedback from everyone Timaeus, I did take a listen to your demo and, while I'm it would have been great to work together on this, all of my previous remixes have, in some way or another, been collabs with someone else or someone has come in to render/record a part for me in the 11th hour. With this, I kinda wanted to prove to myself that I could handle a remix start to finish without any assistance Some other time, though! Thanks for the offer. Anyway, I think this has come a long way from the last WIP I posted, and even further since the first iteration that I only shared with a select few people! I've been slaving away at this for hours a day, fine tuning the details and toying with different arrangements (ended up cutting almost a minute of dead-weight from the last version,) and especially struggling over the last D&B section. I must have sat down for at least 2-3 hours every day this week trying and failing to write that synth solo, but I finally came up with something I'm happy with tonight!! Hope those little details and adjustments add up into a memorable finished product - at this point, I'm open to making some small tweaks if something sounds really bad, mixing-wise, but other than that I'm pretty happy with this! Pretty much all of this track was done with Zebra2 synths, Omnisphere (that's where the opening pad was derived from, Dustin) and various percussion/ambient samples I had lying around.

I'm finding a lot more issues with this than Larry. That guitar sample is SUPER weak and honestly, the string sample isn't holding up much better and unfortunately, it's exposed for so much of the song. Both of these sound like low-quality soundfonts and I don't feel like they're used in a deliberately stylistic way, either, so they stick out like a sore thumb right off the bat. I agree with Larry that the 4-on-the-floor breakdowns are a weak point, the synth rhythms and drum patterns are very bland and don't carry the same level of personalization or ear-candy as the dubstep sections. I'm also noticing that the sub-bass gets very boomy and overbearing, maybe bringing that down just a touch would help. Your dubstep bass writing is neat and consistently varied, but there's times where you fall back on overused sounds from the genre that come across as really cheesy here (the "yaahhhhh" vocal-ish synth at :55 or 3:38, for example, is one of the biggest offenders.) Not a huge dealbreaker and I can see that it might boil down to a bit of personal taste, but in my opinion some of the synths and sound choices just seem generic for the genre. I like what you've done with the source quite a bit, actually, but there's several big issues with this that are keeping it from passing in my book. NO

Huh, this definitely threw me for a loop. You did a pretty great job of capturing the silly, free-spirited nature of Grant Kirkhope's original arrangement, I can tell you had a lot of fun with this track. Right off the bat, this sounds like it's mastered real quietly, so I have to crank the volume way up for this to have the punch that it really needs. That needs to be revisited for sure. Even at louder volumes the drums still seem weak to me. Your writing is pretty cool, but they're mixed very quietly and don't cut through the mix. I can definitely see how some of the more abrasive synth choices might rub listeners the wrong way, but personally I think that, for the most part, your instrument choice is appropriate for the level of silliness that this track is going for. Really loving some of the spastic bass writing, the unexpected chiptune break, and your trancey arps toward the end of the song. Horn samples are sequenced decently, some of the longer staccato melody runs start to sound more noticeably fake but I wasn't too bothered by that. To be honest, this is a tough track to judge because of how unconventional it is, but the volume and mixing of the drums definitely needs to be addressed. I think I could get behind passing this if those two issues were fixed - I could see how some of the other elements in this mix might be points of contention for other judges, but this strikes me as a very deliberate set of stylistic choices that hits the mark more often than not. Really curious to see what others think of this! NO (resubmit!)

This was quite a fun arrangement to listen to, I've heard jazzy arrangements and piano arrangements of Wind Scene many times before but nothing quite like this. Cool interpretation. Here's a quick source breakdown (being generous with the little bars of improvisation sandwiched between melodies, so your mileage may vary.) 0:00 - 0:54 [54s] I'm hearing a repeated melody between 0:54 and 1:54 that sounds kinda Chrono-esque, but since there's no other source mentioned in the email and I can't figure out how it's derived from Wind Scene, I'm not counting it. 2:07 - 2:24 [17s] 2:46 - 3:03 [17s] 98 sec. source / 193 sec. total = 45.6% source usage Arrangement wise, this would be a pass for me if the melodies during that long period in the middle of the track could be tied to something in the Chrono soundtrack, but as it is, that's below the line where I'd give the benefit of the doubt on source usage. Someone help me out here? There's a couple other points I'd like to make aside from the arrangement. Your piano/bass/strings/brass samples sound fine for this style and are appropriately expressive to work for a jazz arrangement. However, the drum sequencing is a weak link in the chain. The samples themselves sound a bit low-quality but serviceable at the end of the day, but the rigid sequencing becomes really noticeable when the cowbell, snare, toms, and ride cymbal (to name a few) come in and sound like they're playing the same velocity for each note. See :22 - :30 for the ride cymbal, 1:57 - 2:08 on the cowbell, and pretty much the whole entirety of 1:00 - 2:00 on the toms for a few particularly noticeable examples of what I'm talking about. The drum writing itself is fine but the way they're sequenced kills the illusion of a live jazz group and takes me out of the piece. I would scale back and/or vary your tom writing during the second minute of the track, it's pretty unrelenting and I thought it was worth pointing out. I definitely get what you're trying to do with the low-fi filter on the piano toward the end, and I think it's a stylistic good choice, but I'd recommend easing up on whatever filter/crusher you're using just a bit, because after 2:46 the distortion starts clipping and just sounds unpleasant to me. To be clear, even if that middle section does turn out to be Chrono-inspired material, I would still send this back on the basis of the drum sequencing and ending distortion, which I think is a dealbreaker, but if the source usage checks out I think this could be a pretty easy resub, as I think your source interpretation and performance is well above the bar otherwise. NO (resubmit)

I'm not sure what you did but you got Alicia's Keys sounding GORGEOUS. Perfect sample choice for this genre, I wish I could get that library sounding as nice on my own arrangements. 1:26 sounded kind of stiff on the lead melody, but I can see how that might be a stylistic choice. Other than that, I really can't find much fault in this - it's a delicate, lovely, and personalized take on a beautiful source. You nailed it YES

I have to disagree with Kristina - to be honest, this feels underdeveloped to me as an arrangement. Your performance is nice, but it plays super-close to the source until 1:13, at which point it doesn't bear any resemblance to the source at all until 1:48, when it retreads a simplified version of the main melody. The only significant variation during the source sections is in the chords, which are pretty simplistic and don't vary much in rhythm. The most interesting part of this remix to me is the improvised solo section, where your dynamics become more pronounced and your playing is much more expressive. It's not a bad cover by any means, but I feel like the interpretation on this is too basic for an arrangement that only runs 2 minutes long. I feel this needs a lot more development in terms of length and reinterpretation of the source. I also agree that the sample might be contributing a bit of rigidity to this piece, but I think with a stronger arrangement that wouldn't be a dealbreaker. Sorry to come down so hard on this, but I really don't think it's ready for primetime in this state. NO

I'm familiar with Cry in Sorrow, not so much with Sazh's theme... after listening to the latter, I came away with a bit more of an appreciation for your approach here. That's DEFINITELY not an easy source to work with. I actually really love the deep house groove you have, and how the overall arrangement flows. It ebbs and flows in a very pleasant, club-friendly way. Lots of very cool backing writing and rhythmic synthwork across the board. The mixing issues actually aren't the dealbreaker for me - I think it works for the style you're going for save for a few places. Could it stand to be EQ'd more cleanly? Sure, but that's not what really bothered me about this piece. Shariq touched on this and I have to reiterate that I really don't think the lead synths work for this track. From the onset, none of the lead patches are very expressive, and some (such as the one that appears at 2:02 and elsewhere throughout the song) are thin and quite frankly, not very interesting. The writing writing itself doesn't always jive with the rest of the arrangement, and feels almost like a placeholder that just hovers over the track doing it's own thing a lot of the time. I would recommend revisiting that part of the track and experimenting with some other lead patches As I said earlier, for the most part I like your pacing here, but I found 2:32 - 2:46 to be pretty jarring. There isn't enough of a noticeable drop or transition for it to really feel like a breakdown, so it just comes across as an untimely break in the beat at a time when it seemed ready to settle into a groove for a while. Kristina caught onto the issue with the drumfill and I have to agree that it felt pasted in toward the end. It works, but because of how different it is from the rest of your instruments, it's really noticeable how often it repeats throughout the arrangement. Really dude, I think this has a lot of potential, but I don't think this has had enough time to incubate and develop... I would love to see you take another pass at this when you don't have the pressure of a competition looming, so you can better assess what's working and what's not here. Would love to see a resub, but for me, it's a NO(resubmit!)

Oh my. This entire mix is such a triumphant tidal wave of 90's-era nostalgia, I had to listen to this a few times through just to get the excitement out of my system before I tackled this with a critical ear. Like your previous Xenogears submission, there's an unbridled positive aura radiating from this arrangement that puts a HUGE smile on my face. Fortunately, this track holds up under scrutiny from a technical standpoint, as well. Your drums, guitar tone, all of the synth patches, and live performances are extremely well-selected and produced with the kind of shimmering polish you'd expect from this genre. The live bass kicks ass - you could have easily gotten away with using a sampled bass but Wild_Cat's contribution makes this sound all the better. Joe's contribution is a really wonderful wildcard that just totally clicks for me, stylistically. All of the little details make this even more enjoyable on repeat listens. There's a few minor nits I have to pick, but they're super minor. I'm actually not a fan of the synth riff from :18 - :35; the performance and writing/articulation feels clunky and I actually think it's a shame to start the track off with what I feel is the weakest component overall. Fortunately the synth writing is much smoother for the rest of the remix so I'm not going to dwell on it too much. Also, I can't tell whether this is due to the mixing or the actual performance, but I wish Joe's saxophone had a slightly sharper tone that cut through the mix better and gave it more energy. It seems most noticeable the first time it enters at 1:55, and seems less of an issue when it comes up later in the mix. Maybe another judge can help articulate what I'm getting at (or confirm that I'm crazy!) but again, it's practically a non-issue for me in the grand scheme of things. This is very clearly a YES for me, wonderful effort to all involved YES

Larry, I think the Super Mario Bros. 3 source usage can be found in the rhythm guitars in the mix at :58 and 1:42, derived from :21 in the source. It's a liberal connection but I feel it's worth noting. Not that I would have had an issue with source usage on this mix regardless (there's plenty of it even discounting the SMB3 usage) but I definitely see where he got that from. This is a very strong submission that is carried by the strength of the arrangement, performances, and diverse instrumentation. You make use of some unconventional synth patches that aren't often heard in arrangements of this style, which layer nicely with the more traditional metal instruments. It keeps this sounding quirky and original in the spirit of the source tunes, while still hitting hard when it needs to. The muddiness that Larry points out is noticeable, but I don't feel as strongly about it to make a real issue of it. The drums and synths definitely could stand to be punchier, mixing-wise, but overall the balance is there and the mud is never so bad that it obscures anything important. There's room for you to improve on your mixing skills on future submissions but at the end of the day this gets the job done for me! YES