Emunator

I was on the fence about this from the start about the same issues the other judges pointed out, so let's just close this one out and hopefully Joe will be willing to take another stab at the arrangement, since it seems pretty clear this isn't going to pass. Shouldn't take too much more to get this over the bar! NO

Congratulations on the successful artwork relea-- oh fuck it. Nice album dude

I agree that the mixing issues are causing some ambiguity over what you're really trying to do with the arrangement. Because everything is so subdued with heavy reverb, I can never really tell if the song is supposed to be in buildup mode or if it's in full-swing. The mixing and overall balance should reflect where you're at in the progression of the song, and I'm not feeling that. On top of that, there's a few jumps in the arrangement that I wasn't prepared for - the dubstep part in the middle just sort of dropped in there and I did a double-take and had to check if I was still listening to the same song. Ultimately, because of the lack of solid transitions or buildups, I feel like I'm listening to a set of really cool sketches that are strung together without much connection/flow. I think if you either take a few of these ideas and run with them... the chillout dub feel you've got in the first half, the more energetic dubstep half with the aggressive drums and crazy synth soloing that appears later, each one is a solid concept on its own but as a whole arrangement, it just feels jumbled. You've got a lot of promise here and I actually really enjoyed listening to a lot of this. You're obviously a pretty talented musician with some great creative ideas, but it would take some significant work to bring this remix to a point where it would pass the bar, IMO. I'm interested to hear if you're willing to take a second pass at refining what you've got here. NO (resub)

Pretty much what the good lady and gent above me said - you've got some energetic lead writing going on here throughout the track and some nice original chords, but the details aren't there to support it. The song is pretty empty overall, because of the lack of reverb and generally-sparse writing, there feels like there's some gaping holes in the track that could be filled by different sounds and padding. Production is also off-balance, leaning heavily toward the highs which gets grating on the ears. You've got some great ideas here, now bring the rest of the track up to that level and you'll be golden NO (resub)

Yikes. Personally, this is about as close to the bar as you can get as far as sample quality goes. I definitely found myself wrestling with this one for a while, and as I write this I'm still not sure whether it's a YES or a NO. On the plus side, you've got some really intricate writing going on that builds off of the mood of the chosen sources, but fuses it together in a very clever way that evokes the feeling of the originals even when the melodies aren't directly being played. Your percussion writing is great across the board, but I echo Deia's critique about the glass shattering being overused. On the other hand though, the samples are all very weak and unfortunately, the overall mix feels very puny as a result. I think I understand the sound you're trying to go for, but I feel like with stronger samples/production this could make a much stronger impact without losing the understated feeling that you've built up. The sequencing on some of the orchestral instruments isn't terrible, but the lack of any sort of articulations/expression on any of the instruments is hurting this track overall. In terms of balance, I also felt like the bassline was pretty buried when it finally made an entrance. I'll also echo the arrangement critique that the ending kind of comes out of nowhere here. Maybe it's just me subconsciously wanting to hear more of the remix, but when the song ended it caught me off guard, like the song hadn't really experienced the climax it felt like it was building up to. Gahhhh... I really do love this arrangement and I hate to start a split vote, but I know we've rejected songs for smaller sample/production issues than this, and there's a lot of small things that are adding up for me. I don't feel like this has reached its full potential yet, so I'm gonna throw in a lone dissenting vote. No hate at all if this passes, I think most listeners will enjoy it for its merits regardless of the problems, but as far as OCR's bar for production and sample quality is concerned, I feel like this falls short. We'll see how this plays out, I guess. NO (resub!)

This definitely reminded me of TheGuitahHeroe's work, your sound pallet is very bland but you do some cool stuff with it. I see what you were going for with the very dreamy, reverb-heavy soundscape but I think you overdid it. The drums particularly sound so washed out, it stops really feeling like an intentional stylistic choice and instead just seems like a production flaw. Overall, I feel like this needs some rebalancing, the mids are so muddy and crowded. Tone back on the reverb, get a little bit more separation on your instruments so everything isn't bleeding together quite as badly and you utilize more of your available soundscape to its fullest potential. Also, as much as I love your drum writing, those fills have a tendency to come out of nowhere, making your transitions really startling for a track that seems like it's supposed to be more chilled out. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but it's something that bothered me a little bit so I figured I'd mention it anyway and see if the feedback resonated with anybody else. The arrangement/writing here is killer, and I love the Mario Party-style vibes I'm picking up, but I feel like it needs some balancing and mixing polish before it's ready to go. We hope to see you again soon! NO (resub!)

Okay, I don't see a need to drag this out any longer. I'll concede that, after reading some other votes and listening again, the loose timing bothered me more than I remembered. This might be confirmation bias, but I do think some further touchups would do wonders here. I'm cool with switching my vote to a very emphatic NO (RESUB!)

Got some awesome new artists on board, I'm really happy to see some unposted/new remixers showing their talents for the project Welcome to Wiesty, Calum, and Jean of mArc who've all turned in some really killer works in progress so far! Things are still moving, but we still need a lot more people involved so if you've got a good idea, don't be afraid to submit it!

Guifrog's a personal hero of mine for many reasons, but his quirky musical style and his various tributes to the Diddy Kong Racing soundtrack are definitely one of the biggest reasons. This track is so unlike most of what you'd hear on OCR these days, and I can really respect the unique genre fusion and attempt to break out of the electronica-rock-orchestral triangle that seems to encompass the majority of the material that gets submitted to the site. This is really good stuff man, don't stop

I'm completely useless with compositional feedback but as soon as you start producing this and need advice, please hit me up This is my favorite song from Animal Crossing and so far your arrangement sounds awesome. Good job dude, can't wait to hear more!

I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the lone YES on this mix, but I really enjoyed this to the point that I find it so endearing I'm willing to forgive the fact that it's obviously not sequenced realistically, and is somewhat of a cover. The JRPG soundtrack vibe is extremely strong, and I'd argue that the lack of dynamics in the sequencing could easily be viewed as a deliberate stylistic choice. The samples themselves are pretty high quality and the whole song sounds very nicely-produced. I particularly love the panflute, that sounds absolutely ethereal and gorgeous! Your arrangement starts off sounding almost identical to the original, but fortunately your writing is a lot more expansive, and you find little ways to make it your own as the song plays out. I don't have any problem with that aspect of this mix. This is definitely an unconventional style that we don't see on OCR very often, but I invite the rest of the judges to compare this to some of Darkesword's posted mixes (that's 3 separate links) that also utilize that unique JRPG soundtrack feel, and I think you'll find that they're very similar in style, production quality, sequencing, and overall enjoyability. This is an awesome mix that I can't get enough of, and I don't think that more realistically-sequenced instruments would necessarily make it any better in the end. The way they're currently written gives this mix a great deal of its charm. I love what you've done here Patrick, this is staying on my playlist whether this passes or not YES

Honestly, I've got nothing to really add here, the production is sufficiently brutal (I love the lead guitar tone on this, Splash Woman's theme sounds awesome this way!) I think the vocals are a little bit too up-front and covering up a lot of the backing instruments, but it's not a huge issue in the grand scheme of things. The aim here is obviously silliness and humor (the lyrics are totally cornball but that actually makes them more endearing. The one fish, two fish bit is hilarious) and the genre choice works well to further that goal, but the song is still very listenable on its own thanks to some great performances on the guitar. I'm pretty impressed with how well this little experiment worked, actually. Good job you guys! YES

yeah bradon strader, stop say that. what the matter with you? EDIT: Grammar. EDIT 2: Prophecy im sorry i frustrate you, did u try turning emulator off and on again?

I think this falls under Goa more than psytrance, per se, but I'll throw in a recommendation for Juno Reactor. Tracks like "Pistolero" and "Conquistadors" (parts 1 and 2) off the top of my head take a lot of psytrance elements but mix them with a lot of world sounds and very organic instrumental performances. And yes, Shpongle is unbelievably good, too. Check out "Nothing Lasts... But Nothing is Lost" and listen in its entirety, ideally under the influence of something mind-altering.

Right off the bat, the clean guitar in the intro was pretty well-written and captured my attention because I really couldn't tell where you were planning on going with the song based off of that. Once the distorted guitars dropped in, it made perfect sense. Your performances are really great across the board, and they do help compensate for what I think is slightly sub-par mixing/mastering. I think you could have pushed the volume a bit more, I find myself having to turn my system volume up to hear this at a comparable volume level to most metal tracks. It's a small issue though that doesn't really inhibit my enjoyment of the song though, I think this is a pretty solid effort. Nothing mindblowing or groundbreaking here, but it'll be a strong debut nonetheless that people will enjoy. YES

I get the feeling from listening to this that the reverb is an attempt to cover up some really weak synth samples and a not-fully-fleshed-out soundscape. The mixing is an issue, with a lot of the synths sounding like they're in a totally different room when compared to the drums, for example. The synth sounds themselves are just too generic to pass my bar, unfortunately. If the production/expression was spot-on, it'd be a different story, but overall I feel like the sequencing was weak (the plucked one at the end of the mix sounds like it's completely out of time) and there was no real personality to any of the sounds except for the lead guitar. On a positive note, your drum writing was really great. The dance clap is the only sample that's not working for me, and it's sparse. The production on the drums is another story though, it has the same reverb issue as the rest of the track, except a bit more exacerbated, for whatever reason. I hate to come off so negative on a mix, but I really don't feel like this one was ready for submission. It's a pretty good foundation, but there's a lot of things to work on before this is ready for posting. NO

I don't remember listening to the original submission here, though I voted on it apparently so I must just be going senile Anyway... This is pretty decent, I feel like it's just on the cusp of passable as far as simple, generic electronica goes, and the strong arrangement and pretty neat transitions are what push it over the edge. Your production sounds much improved from some of your other submissions that I *do* remember, though I think you might have gone a little bit overboard on the sub bass frequencies in your bassline, it's a little strong on headphones. Pretty sweet though, I love the writing across the board here and the production/synths, while nothing special, definitely get the job done and don't hinder your arrangement at all. I can sign off on this. YES

Hey, thanks to everyone who's submitted WIPs. I'm going to get in touch with Theophany and be sure to get a definitive answer back to every one of you by the end of the weekend We really appreciate your patience. Suffice to say my free time isn't what it used to be and I think Theo is in the same boat, but we're trying our best to not let things slip through the cracks. As for Gerudo Valley, interest HAS been expressed in it but we're still waiting for a WIP to solidify it. I won't reveal the artists working on it, but after hearing their concept in writing, I'm confident that if it's executed properly, it'll do complete justice to the source and really stand out on the project as a highlight. Shouldn't be too much longer before that claim is official, I'm expecting a WIP pretty soon.

Yeah, it pains me to do this but I was kind of wary of whether or not it would even be possible for this kind of approach to have enough source usage. It's unfortunate, I've really loved this track ever since the early WIPs that I heard from it. The Burial-esque dubstep elements work really well and your arrangement is very intense, in an understated way. But yeah, source usage just isn't jumping out at me. Sorry bro This is staying on my playlists for sure. And if we're all wrong and you've got more stuff tucked away in there that we're not hearing, I'd love to take a second look at this. NO

I'm siding with Drew and Justin on this, this mix has a lot of merit. The flaws have already been stated so I won't really spend much time rehashing it - reverb levels, compression, and conservativeness are all present concerns, but to me they're nothing that truly inhibits me from enjoying this mix or makes it unlistenable. Despite the compression and high reverb levels, all of the different sounds are clearly audible and distinguishable, I don't hear anything bleeding together and I don't feel like my ears are being destroyed as a result of listening. It's true that this one sticks relatively close to the original, structurally, but the real magic here is in how Rockos mangles and modulates each of the different melodies & instruments in dramatic, yet tasteful ways to really set the mix apart from the source. There's only a few minor points where the glitching seems superfluous or excessive, for the most part I think this was executed very well and is one of the most classy, enjoyable dubstep mixes we've seen since the genre exploded. I'm definitely okay with this as it is. YES

Thanks for the potshot in your submission letter brah! I'm impressed with your ability to take such a simple pallet of sounds in every one of your mixes and combine them in just the right way to craft a totally unique mood. This is especially impressive considering how many times you've worked with the same source. The lazy portamento lead fits great with the jazzy groove, and the non-synth elements like the vibraphone/rhodes really help ramp up the creative factor here. Excellent solos, though the vibraphone is a rather sore spot just because of how rigid the timing/velocities are. It doesn't sound bad, objectively, but it doesn't sound like a real vibraphone performance either. Overall, one of your strongest tracks to date. This is a keeper YES

Got some updates from Ecto, this is still a YES from me!

Really touching, I tend to find mixes like this that have an actual concept and multiple levels of meaning behind them to be the most endearing, and it really helps when the actual song itself sounds so good, too Everything about this is very memorable, thanks for submitting it!