Emunator

Sounds really quiet unmastered, we should definitely get Flexstyle's mastered album version in here if Brad is okay with using that instead. This is a really surprisingly good track in a style that I've never heard proph tackle before, but it works great for the source. I can sort of tell that this one was rushed, there's lots of sections that seem directly copied/pasted, but there's plenty of solos and jazzy supporting instrumentation that dances around the melodies to keep things interesting. I don't have any serious problems with the fadeout ending here, even though it's admittedly a rather weak choice. For a 2-hour remix, this honestly feels pretty damn polished to me. It's not spotless, on both the arrangement and production side of things, but it definitely gets the job done as far as I'm concerned. I've done a timestamp check and can definitely hear all the source there used frequently (the B-melody from the source is played around :52 on the sax [i'm going by the album version so this timestamp may be a few seconds off, give or take] a bit in the background, but still audible enough to count) but if someone needs a specific breakdown I can certainly oblige. It's more than obvious enough for me to go ahead and pass this, though. Really fun arrangement, not at all what I was expecting when I went to Brad asking about this track but I think this will really sit well with listeners. YES

I'm gonna keep this pretty short because it's pretty clear to me that the production here is above the bar and the source usage definitely checks out to me as well. It's plenty personalized thanks to some really delicate, creative supporting instrumentation and variations on the melody. Cute concept too! I love it when you do these kinds of arrangements, it's really cool to hear the thought process that goes into them, as well! Keep it up, Jaka! YES

Talk about a slow-burner! This track starts off very humbly with some very subtle instrumentation that sets the mood nicely, and when the vocals come in for the first time there's not much else going on, so you can really focus on the vocalist. The accompaniment gradually builds up in a very subtle-yet-dramatic fashion. The Gerudo Valley interludes throughout the track offer a really great contrast to the vocal sections and allow for more adventurous melodies to take the stage briefly, I'm actually surprised at how well those work. The vocals are beautiful in their own right and carry the track most of the way, but having some instrumental sections is a very smart choice, IMO. I can see how some might view this as too minimal on the instrumentation, but what I see here is a very deliberate, dramatic mix that plays well off of contrast and dynamics to really accentuate the great vocal performance. Arrangement-wise, the vocals are pretty much the same as the ones in the source, which is a bit of a gift and a curse. On the one hand, I'm impressed with how well Sabrina was able to hold up against the professional vocalist on the source, her voice sounds really great here and the mixing is spot-on. However, it does push your remix dangerously into conservative territory. At the end of the day, the stripped-down approach works for me and the inclusion of the more personalized Gerudo Valley tracks pushes this over the edge, though I would have felt a LOT more comfortable passing it if there was more arrangement on the Nier sections. I still really enjoyed the remix and think this is definitely one you should be proud of, regardless of how the vote goes, but you've got my vote! YES (borderline)

Your intro is pretty conservative, and in fact I feel like the plucked string sample is a bit of a step down from the one used in the source Overall, the intro here just isn't catching my attention, it seems like a straight cover of the source without very many changes or upgrades to the sound quality aside from some expanded ambiance (which is a nice touch.) Once the tempo change kicks in after the 2 minute mark, things start to get a little more original and personalized. I like the treatment of the bassline, that's a pretty neat touch. However, by that point you've already lots me as a listener. I would highly suggest trimming down that opening section significantly as well as rewriting parts of it to make it more of an arrangement and less of a straight cover. The electronic section afterward is definitely a step in the right direction as far as personalization goes, but it too suffers from being overlong and repetitive. In fact, aside from a little bit of original soloing that happens as you're fading out, it feels like you're pretty much just looping the same few bars over and over for the duration of the track. Simply put, you're gonna need a lot more content to add contrast to the material that you've already got. You've got a few ideas but they need to evolve as the track goes on, and the rest of your instrumentation needs to build around that, too. Hit the workshop forums for some solid arrangement and production advice, I think that'd do you good They're very helpful there and can offer a lot of specific advice on how to structure your mixes and expand the ideas you've got. NO

Right off the bat your mix sounds very muddy. You're throwing way too much reverb on your instruments and so nothing is sounding very distinct overall. This is probably most noticeable with the drums, which are actually very nicely written. Ease back on the reverb overall so you can focus on bringing key elements of the soundscape to the front and making the rest of them more audible, as well. It sounds like the whole second half of your song is missing a lead. I can see that being a stylistic choice but going that long with just the backing track loses my attention as a listener. Arrangement-wise, this is pretty conservative and doesn't deviate much from the original melodies at all. I like how you changed up some of the rhythms on the backing synths, that's a good start to personalizing this but it's going to need some original writing and variations on the existing melodies to really be a good fit for OCR's standards. Keep submitting stuff, you've got some great sounds here but your arrangement needs to be more personalized to be posted. NO

I'm definitely in agreement with OA that the first melody line you bring in isn't really working for me, either. It feels slightly detuned and just too rigid for me. The rigidity is present in a lot of the remix, to the point where everything feels like it's quantized exactly to the beat, so your melody lines feel static and unexpressive. See what you can do to tweak your leads to feel a little bit more humanized and varied in terms of rhythm and performance. The same advice applies to your bass and drums, which also suffer from very robotic timing. The bassline gets really muddy and indistinct at points like 2:04, I don't think the sample you're using is cut out for that kind of writing :\ Overall, there need to be more dynamics in the velocities and timing for your instruments across the board, an overhaul on that front would definitely make this sound a lot more expressive. OA's really good with this style of music so you should definitely get in touch with him and see what he can do to help, since the way you've fused the themes here is really inspired and works well with the saccharine synthpop soundscape you're working with. I think with a lot of polishing and attention to detail, you could get this up to the bar, so do what you've gotta to make it happen NO (resubmit)

Yeah, I was listening to this and was pretty afraid that it was just too close of a cover to count, and it seems that holds true Your performances are awesome and really bump up the energy of the source, but it's not for OCR. I do have a suggestion though, and that would be to really turn down your rhythm guitars to give all of your leads/drums/bass more room to breathe, they're really pushing hard and make this mix very harsh on the ears. Enjoyable stuff though! NO

Yeah, your introduction riff is really promising, it's got a lot of attitude and personality to it However, the transition between that intro and the rest of the song was pretty rough and didn't flow, I think it would suit you to gradually build off of that introductory riff instead of just dropping all of your momentum and starting new when the lead melody comes in. Overall, your arrangement is lacking in structure; it feels a lot more like a bunch of semi-linked patterns and sections arranged in a fairly random order. I think that integrating some of the other parts of the source that you didn't really use in your remix to create more distinct breakdowns/buildups/solo sections would give this a lot more direction. On top of that, I don't feel like your supporting writing really quite captures the same level of funkiness as the primary riff that this all seems to be based around. I think you should take another look at this and see if you can't come up with more creative, personalized takes on the melodies and drums that work more in sync with the main hook. You've got a good base for your track, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but the rest of it feels like it's just cut and pasted from the original song, more or less, and it's not grabbing my attention :\ I think the funky bassline is so good that it alone warrants coming back to this track, but I think it would need a bit of an overhaul to craft a more focused, directed arrangement and make the rest of your melodies more personalized and unique. I would definitely like to see this again, though! NO (resubmit)

I was really impressed by the quality of the piano performance in the intro here. I can't even tell if it was sequenced or performed live, so props on that The transition into the trance part of the mix didn't feel very inspired and certainly not seamless, but it's serviceable at least. I wouldn't mind hearing something a bit more creative done there though. For the most part I think you've got a good handle on the mixing side of things here. There's a few nitpicks I've got in that area, though, that would definitely be good to hit up if you want to go for a resubmission (in the event that this doesn't pass.) At 3:06, your synth writing is really cool, but the mixing is too up-front for it to be a background element but too muddy and indistinct from all of the resonance/reverb to really function as a lead synth, either. Figure out what you're trying to do there and adjust your mixing accordingly Overall, your leads could stand to come up in volume a bit, it feels like they're competing with that repeating background pattern that goes throughout almost the whole song when the pattern should be taking more of a backseat role to the new material being brought in. My bigger qualms here though are that you simply have too much repetition and not enough substance after a certain point, and it's too conservative overall. Too much of the remix is based on the same loop that first shows up at :31. I think you've got a lot of potential with the sounds you've chosen and the already-passable production quality, but your arrangement definitely needs to either be trimmed down, or mixed with more unique variations. The unique solos and transitions that you've already got included in the mix sound really good, but there needs to be more of that so that the remix doesn't play so closely to the original and doesn't rely so much on the same repeating loops to flesh out your remix. If you can rework your arrangement to cut out some of the fat and make the melodies/loops more personalized and less conservative, this could be a very good addition to OCR's catalog. Your production's already there for the most part, and you've got some great sound choices that work great for the classic source, but the arrangement itself needs some work in my opinion. NO (resubmit!)

Wow, this has changed up a lot since the first album version. I do kind of miss the chiptune intro you used to have, but this new one works too. I'm pretty much with Deia, this is definitely good enough to pass as-is, though I'm finding the beginning of the mix underwhelming in terms of interpretation and instrumentation, but it definitely works its way up there and by the time the track was done, I was really feeling it I'd like to hear this trimmed down on the first half to cut out some of the more filler-ish material so that the second half could come in sooner, but it's not a conditional vote by any means. What you've got here is good stuff. YES

haha, yeah it was cool seeing how many of you guys had reddit accounts too

Very cool take on the source, I like how the solos blend pretty seamlessly with the original source usage. Some awesome performances/writing, especially on the piano and guitar. The bagpipes didn't sit well with me when they took a role in the backing instrumentation, though I thought it was okay as a lead. Either way, it's a stylistic thing that I'm not sure I'd hold against Luiza here. The issue I had with the bass being missing is fortunately rectified here, so... sounds good to me! It's a little weird but it makes perfect sense for the source and definitely feels above the bar to me. YES

Same deal here, I'll be sure to patronize future albums from you guys when I have more money but right now, 10 dollars for 17 albums is pretty much unbeatable and I'm so happy with all the tunes I've got to listen to now Thanks you guys for taking a risk on this to bring us some awesome music, I'm glad to be able to pick up a lot of these CDs finally!

I'm still hearing it :\

Hey dude just wanted to stop by and say this is cool

So, for my resubmission I'll make sure to remove the part of the song where I ask you to vote on my mix. I wasn't sure if that part was really gelling with the rest of the mix. My bad, bro. NO (resub)

New version addresses most of my issues, something still sounds off about the tuning on the violin but I'm no expert here when it comes to analyzing the tuning of an instrument. Changing my vote to a YES unless someone with better pitch has an issue with the violin. Good shit.

Cool! The vibe here really reminds me of Kingdom Hearts music, you've got a knack for great source selections I'm very content with how this is sounding, and the arrangement is extremely dynamic and humanized. Always loved this piece but thankfully the production is now good enough to match. YES

Yeah, gotta agree with Deia on the intro, the dissonance there is not pleasant, especially when paired with such a nice set of accompanying sounds. In general I feel like this needs more instrumentation overall though; what you've got here sounds really nicely mixed and your bell sounds are particularly unique, but overall it's still very minimalist and could use a couple more backing parts to really flesh it out. As far as source usage goes, you're fine in my book, the melodies themselves are pretty much untouched but there's plenty of original soloing that goes along with the melody and, while it does feel tacked on and not entirely cohesive, it works for the most part and shows a solid level of musicianship. I really think your sound choices here are a strong selling point, and that alone warrants a resubmission in my mind. I really hope you touch this one up, but it's not doing it for me yet. NO (resubmit!)

This is definitely your most accessible (yet still brutal) mix yet, coming from a listener who really is not privy to most of the nuances of the genre. I don't have much to say about the mix, it still feels like it has a lot of the same issues in terms of balance that I've noticed in your previous submissions, but the general consensus seems to be that it's an appropriate choice for the genre so I'll take everybody at their word on that I too wish the ending was a little bit more cohesive with the rest of the track. Some source usage, or reworking the section so that it had more of a crescendo/climax would have made it a lot stronger of an addition, IMO. That said, I don't think it's inherently detrimental to the piece overall so I can live with it. Very solid, technical performances and a cool arrangement, I admire your craft, sir Knight! YES

Yikes, your rhythm guitars ARE really dry and up-front. Push those back a bit! Nice tone though, and some cool, unique performances/fx on the lead, I really like how they sync up with the synth elements of the track. The schizophrenic nature of the mix was a little bothersome to me, and your transitions felt like they were thrown in a little bit haphazardly or too frequently towards the end. Some work on the arrangement to keep it a LITTLE more focused, or alternatively, having more of the rock elements cross over into the electronic sections and vice-versa, would help out a lot, I think. The piano at the end just isn't fitting for me, I would seriously suggest reworking that or finding a different piano sample (or throwing a ton of reverb/fx on the current one.) Leaving some of that ambiance from the previous section would also help to mask the weak sample you've got. I had no issue with the strings, they sound about like I'd expect those super-high-octave strings to sound. Nutritious also pointed out some drum balancing critiques that I probably wouldn't have picked up on myself, as they don't seem like a huge deal to me, but it would be worth touching up. For a song that I can pull so many critiques for, I'm actually surprisingly borderline on this. It's a really solid arrangement that I enjoyed a lot, even with its flaws, and it's very close to the bar as-is. Still, I think it's a little too unpolished in its current form and could benefit from another set of revisions before posting. NO (please resubmit!)

Deia's pretty much the vocal expert here and I agree completely with her assessment of your performance, so I'm not gonna touch much more on that. The mix itself is very quietly mixed, it's like all of the non-vocal elements have been mashed together without much separation, and the reverb levels overall are pretty strong. The instrumental track ends up sounding pretty muddy and flat, I'd strongly suggest hitting up the "Post Your Game Remixes" to get some detailed critiques on how to remaster this to get a much more full-bodied sound out of it. You've got some really cool arrangement ideas and I like the idea of adapting this to a lyrical song, and I actually was really feeling the solos toward the end, but your samples, mixing, and performance all need quite a bit of work. You would do well to take this or some of your future songs to the Workshop forums if you haven't already, where people will be able to give you a lot more specific, step-by-step feedback on how to improve your production and performance, since you've already got a pretty good hang of the arrangement. Good luck! NO

Hey, it's you again! I was definitely a big fan of your older submissions, let's see how this one stacks up... Well, I do appreciate the attempt you've made to fuse your orchestral sound with something new. I'm definitely a fan of the unique style and how it fits with the sources you picked. Deia and Andrew have correctly pointed out that your track plays it pretty conservatively, but I'm personally hearing a lot of little moments of personalization that add up over time in your favor. That said, some more original writing would definitely be a good thing, even though I think the style change-up, fusion of themes, and little melodic additions here and there make it a pretty close call. Production-wise, your sounds actually seem pretty cohesive for the most part to me. The only sampled instrument that I thought was weak enough to be worth mentioning was the lead violin, which unfortunately comes in a lot and just doesn't have a very strong presence. When it plays the fastest runs, it's most noticeably fake. If you can, tweak with the sample as much as possible to get a better sound out of it... if not, there's plenty of resources on the Workshop forum that will help you out, either with replacing the sample or getting a live performance. Your synths are pretty cool, but they're sooo dry Throw some reverb on them and they should sit much nicer with the full orchestra. That said, I really enjoyed what you did here and, even if you're too busy with school to go back and touch this up, this is a keeper for my personal playlist. I hope you come back and hit some of the points mentioned here, this would be an awesome addition to OCR with some production/sample fixes and a bit more personalization on the arrangement to get it up to OCR's bar. NO (resubmit!)