Emunator

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!)

Yup, this new version has a much more massive sound to the overall mastering, only improves things as far as I'm concerned Still YES.

There's a lot of cool things going on in this mix; right from the start I'm intrigued by the music box intro and the mysterious vibe it gives off. At the same time though, I think some subtle atmospherics would really push that section over the edge. Once the dubstep bass comes in, there's some odd things going on with the mixing overall that I'm not quite feeling. Your dubstep bass sound is pretty cool and unique, but it feels strangely lo-fi, too, and lacking in any actual bass frequencies. Hearing a wobble bass and then a traditional bassline playing at the same time is a rather odd choice that I wasn't too fond of, it ends up coming off as distracting to me. I could live with the choice though, if both of the sounds were EQ'd a bit more strongly and had a more intense feel. Your drum writing is fine, but the sounds really don't have much power to them, either. It's the same issue as your bass; the kit you're using has a cheap, tinny quality that's not doing justice to the great writing that you've created. Onto the arrangement and source usage, I'm definitely hearing enough of it, but this mix has a unique issue in that some of your melody lines are chopped up and mangled so much that I'm not sure if they really even count anymore, such as the Silph Co. section It boils down to a bit of a judgement call, but in your resub if you choose to do one, I'd like to hear those sources a little bit more prominently without completely losing their glitchy character. There's a lot of issues with the track but I don't think it'd be beyond you to fix them up. With the proper level of production polish I bet there's a lot of people out there who would enjoy this kind of arrangement, but it's still lacking polish in a lot of ways. Good luck though! NO (resubmit)

Couldn't agree more with Deia here - simply put, you're just sticking way too close to the source The end result on your end is enjoyable because of how strong the original is, but this isn't really what OCR is looking for in terms of reinterpretation. NO

I'm much less sold on the arrangement than Drew. It took me a lot of listens to realize this, but your entire arrangement basically consists of the same melody line repeating (with variations, I'll admit,) for 4 minutes. Aside from the breakdown at 1:44, which only lasts for 10 seconds, there's no respite from the melody. I'll give you props for doing a bangup job of changing up your soundscape frequently and getting a LOT of mileage out of your instruments here by using them in many different contexts. However, the arrangement structure is really not working for me, there needs to be some sort of B-section melody or just SOMETHING to offer a contrast to The Prophet tune. I'll echo the critique about the mixing just sounding slightly off, but that's not the dealbreaker issue for me here. The arrangement needs something that can provide a balance to the melody that you've latched onto for just about all of the mix. You'll have my vote if you can achieve that. NO (resubmit)

I casually critted this track back when Justin was preparing to resubmit it, but after discussing it with some fellow judges and listening with a bit more of a critical ear, I will concede that there's still some work that can be done with it. Some good points: you did a really good job crafting an initial soundscape and picking out sounds that capture your attention right off the bat. The lead synth that you use for much of your mix has a lot of personality, and is sequenced pretty nicely. I also enjoyed the mixture of electro-house and old disco percussion, it makes for a nice unique blend. However, upon more critical listens, I've come to agree that this mix is pretty static and does very little to change up the soundscape as the song goes on. It just needs a bit more in terms of variations to both the arrangement (a more pronounced breakdown section would do wonders here) and the sound choices. There's a lot of great things about this mix that make me really want to see it posted, and I'm sorry for not catching this stuff earlier when you were showing it to me, but there's more that you could do to keep the song fresh all the way through. Really close though! NO (resubmit!)

Hahaha, Jordan you never fail to impress me, even with a mix like this that I don't feel is quite as awesome as some of your recent mixes, I still really enjoyed the groove and the very creative soundscape and I'm glad to see you branching out your style even more. The smorgasbord of cool retro synth sounds and the vocal chopping were definitely high points here. If I had to critique anything, it'd be that sometimes your drums get so rowdy that they start to step on the rest of the track, which is something to definitely watch out for because I've noticed in some of your other songs as well. Still, this is comfortably over the bar, production-wise, and just from a cursory listen I'm hearing the source tunes all over this. Good work dude YES

Source: I've gotta commend you on trying something that, to my knowledge, has never been done on OCR before. I also feel like you picked a really nice source for such an unconventional style. That said, the performances feel really loose to me and the track generally seem to be lacking in polish. Maybe my lack of familiarity with this particular style of music is showing through, but when you've got multiple different rhythms and melody lines playing at the same time, a lot of them are all over the place in terms of timing and very rarely line up. I hate to say it, but for the most part this just feels sloppy :\ On the technical side of things, I'm also hearing several instances of clipping when you hit some of the highest notes, you definitely need to tame those with some sort of master limiter. Also, the end of your track cuts off rather abruptly. Great effort, and the arrangement is neat (despite being pretty sparse in instrumentation, which might be an issue holding this back from passing even if the performances were spot on) but I'm not sold on the performances. Sorry NO

I dig the intense electronica style you've got going on here, it's a very hard-hitting arrangement with some really well-executed breakdowns that I particularly enjoyed. There's a few issues holding it back, though. First off, there's an air of repetitiveness that pervades throughout the whole song. During all of the upbeat sections you use the same lead synth for your melodies, which becomes very grating on the ears considering how rough the synth sound is in the first place. It's a pretty appropriate sound for the genre, but works best when used in moderation and not as the single carrier for all of the melodies in the song. The extended outro at the end is also a little bit too much for me - I think you could have cut down about 20-30 seconds of it and still achieved the same effect. For the most part, your transitions are really cool, but there's one that appears at 2:11 and again at 4:40 that completely kills the momentum your track has going. Definitely smooth those two points out if you're gonna resubmit this. Other than that, this is a pretty solid track. The mixing is a little tight and wall-of-sound-ish, causing a loss in dynamics during the upbeat parts, and a loss of definition for certain instruments, but overall I felt like the production level here was acceptable. Just work on your transitions and changing up your lead sound more, and I think this will be okay. NO (resubmit!)

Didn't hear the original submission, but listening to this fresh I'm really enjoying it. The intro does a great job of setting the mood, and the drop is brutal! Your guitar tone and the overall production of the track is pretty appropriately crunchy for this style, it's a really nice fit. I'm at a bit of a loss for details here, but I like what I'm hearing, and it's over the bar for me. Hope to continue hearing more from you man! YES

Update, this fixes all of my concerns that made me go conditional. Good stuff

This track's really grown on me with repeat listens - despite the very simple nature of the arrangement, it's got a really accessible radio-friendly charm to it and it doesn't overstay its welcome at all. For the most part, the performances are spot-on, the mixing is pretty nice despite the guitar lead at :49 and later on in the final solo section being pretty buried (although even that contributes to the laid back feel, so I can see that being an intentional choice.) Not much to say here, I've definitely come around to the style, and it's definitely good enough for OCR as far as I'm concerned. YES

On the plus side, I really think you nailed down your EQing with this mix in a way that you haven't quite been able to achieve before. Everything sounds very rich and full, especially the piano tone, which I feel has always been too bright in your previous mixes. Overall, this has a really pleasant production sound to it and I hope you keep this up in future submissions! As for the arrangement itself, I'm still somewhat of the opinion that this is still a bit too underdeveloped as an arrangement and a soundscape. The instruments aren't entirely too generic, and the arrangement does have some flourishes and bits of original writing that really give this mix some personality, but overall this feels very simplistic to me, and shows its age as an arrangement even with the modern upgrade you've given it. I think some pervasive ambiance/pads throughout the mix would be a great first step in filling this out a bit more. The reverse effect you used on the synth in the intro is a strong point that's definitely a step in the right direction, as are the sections where the piano is soloing over the source. These moments are probably where the mix clicks most for me and sounds the most complete and personalized. I think if you could bring the rest of the mix up to this level of creative arrangement and sound design, I think this would be a great addition to OCR's library. Right now, the arrangement just feels too sparse and conservative, and the sound choices too simple. NO (resubmit!)

I've always been a huge fan of this arrangement, it's extremely expansive in the way it takes a fairly minimal and over-remixed theme and stretches it to the max. Right off the bat, the clever fusion of chiptunes and orchestral parts captures my attention, and by the end of the song I'm pretty much totally engrossed <3 Admittedly, this isn't the best produced/sequenced orchestral arrangement to hit OCR's inbox. Like Bobby said in the sub letter, his samples are definitely sounding a bit dated - the piano, strings, and flutes all have a bit of an unrealistic or un-expressive tone to them. That said, I think that the use of chiptunes alongside the orchestral instruments helped dissolve my expectations, so to speak. This mix definitely doesn't achieve a realistic orchestral sound out of these samples, but the creative liberties that Xenon took with the style/genre makes that shortcoming a lot easier to swallow. And besides, the amazing arrangement more than makes up for it, anyway YES

I'm a little bit more torn on this vote. In general, your string/orchestral work is pretty great. The panned brass arpeggio going in the beginning of the track feels a lot less realistic but still works with the sounds you've got going on. However, after that, the synth that comes in really isn't interesting enough to hold up as a lead sound, to put it bluntly. The same can be said for pretty much any of the synths in this song that play lead melodies in here; to me, it just cheapens the feel of the song a little bit. To clarify though, all instances of various synth sounds in a backing instrumentation/soundscape role work just fine for me, but they don't hold up to muster when they're in the spotlight role. Arrangement-wise, this is a really cool, seamless fusion of themes, though there's a few pieces of original writing in here that don't entirely fit the dramatic mood, such as the chord around 2:48. The melody gradually increases in intensity with each repetition, which fits with the very expansive, slow-building nature of the track, so that's good for me. The ending doesn't work as a fadeout though, I think you'd get much better results concluding your riff at the end of the song and leaving some sort of lingering string bow or just some ambient noise to give the conclusion of the song a chance to settle with the listener. For the most part I feel like you got it mostly right with this mix, with just a few issues bringing it down. If this track doesn't end up passing, I hope you take these criticisms to heart and work with them to improve your remix and send it back. And if it does pass, that's still good because you've got a solid mix already that I think people will enjoy. Good luck either way! NO (borderline, please resubmit!)

I like Deia's wording here, this mix does have a very anxious mood to it. Nice expansion on the original by taking it in a heavier, more dramatic direction and accentuating some of the more subdued riffs from the original, even if it plays it a bit close to the source it's still got more than enough personalization going on for my tastes. The drumwork is also really cool, a definite improvement on your previous work, particularly the samples used. That's a really cool snare tone, and it's well utilized during the rock sections. I can't help but agree, though, that the bass is probably borrowing a little bit too much from the source, since it seems like the timing/performance is taken pretty much verbatim from the original but doesn't quite fit with the new arrangement style you've come up with. OA's right in that the EQing on the bass sound itself is also problematic, to an extent. If you can work out the bass issues here, I think this would be fine in my book. There's other balancing/production issues that might be slightly present, but overall the bass is what you should really look at here. Good luck bro, you're almost there! NO (resubmit!)

Heh, this is actually not as complicated of a track to break down as I expected it to be from the list of sources. I think the general strength of DJ Mystix's arrangements is in the fact that he knows how to pick sources that flow well together and, to someone who doesn't really know the sources that well, feel like they could potentially all be from one source tune. This mix is no exception, I don't have any issue with the nature of the medley here. I find myself aligning much more with DragonAvenger's crits, though, in that the soundscape is pretty homogeneous throughout. I'm actually not a fan of the lead synth that holds up much of this arrangement. It's definitely useable in context but overall, this mix does end up feeling like it doesn't have a very diverse instrumental palette. Fortunately, there's acoustic guitar and piano breakdowns to help break up some of the samey-ness (that word looks really silly to me at 2:35 AM) whenever the synth leads start to get a little too pervasive. The same can be said for some of the other synth sounds that make brief appearances in the song. I've been going back and forth on this in my head, but overall I do feel like this is of the same arrangement caliber as DJ Mystix's other passed medleys, and I don't think the mix is as devoid of changeups as Deia is saying. It's a closer call than usual, but I really respect what he's done with the themes here and I think he pulled off that concept well enough to pass. YES

Yeah, unfortunately I do have to side with Cain and Larry on this judgment. For well over 50% of the mix, the song is simply a straight cover with no interpretation added whatsoever. The other section is pretty cool when taken in a bubble, but in context of the remix, it feels pretty detached and tacked on. The production also felt underwhelming, with nothing sounding as intense or loud as it could be. It sounds like you had some issues with getting your mix as loud as it is, so maybe this would be a good point to hit up the Workshop forums about and get some advice from other remixers The issues with this have been hit pretty extensively by the two judges before me, so I'll just leave this by encouraging you to continue to submit stuff that has better interplay between source and original writing, and get some specific feedback from other community members on how to improve your mixing/mastering on a more specific level. You've got some talent, so keep at it and see how far you can push it with a more unique arrangement structure! NO

The translation of the rather-clunky sounding sources into something super-upbeat and energetic is REALLY selling me on this mix here. I'm always impressed by the stuff that DigiE brings to the table but this mix really blows me away, in terms of style and arrangement. The cool shuffle changeup midway through is a really welcome change of pace, and does a lot to keep things from growing too tiresome. While I can see how Deia might feel like this is too repetitive/has too much filler, to me, there's a huge amount of changeups throughout the arrangement that keep things sounding fresh all the way throughout. At no two points in the song did I feel like I was listening to something I'd already heard enough times to get tired of. The balance is not always perfect, there's times when your bassline is walking all over the rest of your sounds, or the leads aren't coming through as loud as they should be, but in light of such a killer arrangement, it's small potatoes. I really like this, you guys You're a consistently welcome addition to my trance/upbeat electronic playlist whenever you submit something new. YES