Emunator   Judges ⚖️

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

F'ing insane dude. This feels like the kind of track you've been working towards for literal decades now, and you've found a vocalist who can really eat up this style of music. This is also some of the most high-energy technical shredding I've heard from you. Drum programming is nuts. Honestly, everything is cranked up to 11 here. This feels monumental, a milestone in your musical journey and one you should be very, VERY proud of. YES

:44 - 1:25 (everything) | A melody and chord progression from Marble Gallery (0:00 in source) 1:25-1:52 (everything) | B melody from Marble Gallery (0:20 in source) 2:03-2:08 (piano) | Environmental Mystery 2:19-2:35 | Environmental Mystery 2:35-3:05 (piano) | Bridge from Marble Gallery (:57 in source) 3:20-3:31 (guitar) | Environmental Mystery 130 seconds/211 = 62% sources usage @Liontamer Feeling generous today? ;0

This source lends itself so well to this kind of quirky wind-focused arrangement, there's a ton of potential for fun countermelodies and harmonies and you really deliver on that. I have no qualms with the performances or arrangement itself, but the production feels, for lack of a better word, missing. Like, it feels like there was nothing in the way of space, color, or texture to the production, which leaves everything feeling very flat. Larry mentioned wanting this to sound squeaky clean, but I'd argue that this actually needs a little more grit to really bring out that human quality. It's hard to tell exactly what this needs, but in no particular order, here's where I would look: 1. Master compression to glue the instruments together better 2. Saturation on the instruments to bring some warmth and character to the recordings 3. Reverb to help give this more of a sense of place This is very vague feedback, but I think when the arrangement is so intentionally sparse, there's an onus on the producer to introduce some color and life to the mix in other ways, and I don't feel like this is there yet on that front. IMO, not a single thing needs to change about the recordings or arrangement - there's a ton of life there, but the mix doesn't reflect that yet. NO (resubmit)

Wicked cool fusion of prog and psychadelic - I had the privilege of seeing Lucas perform at VGM Con with an ensemble cast of other performers, and it's abundantly clear that he feels most in his bag with this style of music. I will always admire and encourage artists to push outside of their comfort zone, but it does make it all the more sweet to see them come back around to the styles where they can really flex with confidence. The mixing also feels like a substantial level up - to be honest, I didn't really even find this lo-fi in the sense that some of the other judges called out. Maybe it's just from listening to this kind of music in my spare time, but this would feel right at home on a King Gizz album, production-wise. Easily one of Lucas's most successful outings to date, it's good to see the confidence and genre expertise pay off like this! YES

Just going by memory, I recall the original submissions always showing promise but falling short on execution and dynamics. Immediately, we're met with captivating ambiance and ear candy that lays a brilliant foundation for the slow burn, ambient piano arrangement that follows. The piano sequencing still feels lethargic to an extent, but there's a lot more going on fills the space between the slowly unfolding melodies. The strings at the end also feel like a new addition, and are truly gorgeous. This is a much-needed changeup to cap off the arrangement, but doesn't feel entirely detached from what came before it. Emotion bleeds out of the writing there. All in all, the additions were just what this piece needed to push it over the edge, and I'm happy to say that the final result is worth the effort. The piano sounds a touch overcompressed and loud in overall volume, which feels overbearing for the soundscape. I feel like pulling the piano down across the board by 1-2dB max would still allow it to take center stage, but sit a little more nicely with the rest of the sounds. This is especially evident at 2:32, where we're getting some very audible distortion as you hit the higher velocities. That's the only real sticking point, and it's noticeable enough to go conditional on, but I do think this track would benefit from a slightly more delicate touch on the piano mixing overall. That said, if you can fix that unintentional distortion, this will have my unconditional YES. YES EDIT: File has been updated to fix clipping, we are good to go! The file in the form above is good to listen to.

Resub Original Submission Artist Name: Mel Decision I created this piece as part of a challenge to "write an arrangement of any video game song, but make it space-related." I immediately knew that I wanted to do a take on Dire Dire Docks. There's a thin line between deep sea and space, and I wanted to see how much I could break it. I relied on layering lots of soft pianos and synths, and drenched the whole piece in reverb. I wanted to give the feeling of drifting through space, staring out through the window of a space station into the black as ships dock or zoom by. Kind of peaceful and a little mysterious, with a touch of awe that comes from getting lost in the majesty of space. Games & Sources Dire Dire Docks from Super Mario 64, composed by Koji Kondo:

Artist Name: CJthemusicdude I love the Contra: Hard Corps soundtrack. It is absolutely incredible and one of the best video game soundtracks in my opinion. I have always felt like I wasn't good enough to remix a track from this game... until recently. This source isn't even my favorite one form this game, it's like top 7, it still bops though! I also have to give a shoutout to Out of this World, a game which legit scared me when I was a kid. The soundtrack is VERY minimal, but it is lodged in the back of my cranium and while I was making this remix I thought "Woah... that Piano would make a dope bassline." and off to the races I went. Now that I've gotten myself to a more competent level, I'm gonna stretch my wings a little bit. Hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Contra Hard Corps: Contra Overdrive (GENESIS) Out of this World - (SNES) Pretty much only :15-:30.

Credits: Emunator: Arrangement, programming, guitar/bass/percussion (programmed), mixing, mastering Psamathes: Vocals Pixels & Paradiddles: Rhythm guitars, lead guitar (e-bow), drums (kit) Ridley Snipes: Bass (live), vocal mixing Lucas Guimaraes: Guitar (clean) Chromatic Apparatus: Cello Theophany: Guitar (drone, lead), additional vocal editing (special thanks to Chimpazilla and Snappleman for extra assistance with mixing and mastering advice) Notes: This was my entry for Dwelling of Duels, where it placed 7th out of 27th for October 2023's Horror Month. I love competitions like this, because it gives me an opportunity to branch out of my comfort zone and try new things while under a deadline, which means that I actually have a chance of finishing something. This piece, aside from being my first submission to Dwelling of Duels, marks a few other firsts for me - my first time working with a lead vocalist, and my first time producing metal. My catalog of previous remixes probably doesn't imply this but I'm actually a huge metalhead, so to actually be able to pull something like this off was a dream come true. The reference for this piece was Chelsea Wolfe (specifically Twin Fawn), whose dynamic arrangements mix clean and distorted vocals with industrial, gothic, and doom metal elements. I actually had a fairly easy time with the initial arrangement, and quickly recruited a team of performers to help bring the vision to life. Psamathes was an obvious choice for lead vocalist - her entire vibe was PERFECT for the brand of gothic metal I was aiming for, and she was totally on board with the reference tracks I sent. Chromatic Apparatus and ParadiddlesJosh were also no-brainer choices - total professionals who really elevated the arrangement beyond my capabilities. CA also shared some home-brewed horror sfx that he recorded himself, which you'll hear throughout the piece! As far as guitars go, that's where we got a little more creative. I'll give a brief breakdown of how each person contributed - 5 different guitarists (if you count my programmed ones) contributed to the final product. It was truly a blast getting to mix and match everyone's contributions, and thankfully the arrangement was long enough that every part had room to breathe. Myself: Original part writing for rhythm and e-bow lead, sequenced tremolo guitars (1:33-1:56, 4:55-5:55) and feedback effects during the outro Pixelseph: Distorted rhythm guitars, e-bow lead throughout the song Ridley Snipes: Distorted bass (which was actually just a pitched-down electric guitar) Theophany: Distorted noise guitars throughout, tremolo lead guitar from 3:13-3:53 Lucas: Clean guitar riffs from 1:23-3:13 If the impending DoD deadline lit a fire under me to get the arrangement completed, it also completely torched me on the back-end production. I was working non-stop up to the day of the deadline, and only received the drums and raw vocals 3 hours before submissions were due (through absolutely no fault of my collaborators, to be clear! The procrastination was all on me.) I barely left myself with time to mix anything - I literally slapped an Ozone preset on the master, exported the song and uploaded it 1 minute before the deadline, dredging up some horrible flashbacks to uploading my college homework at 11:59pm on the due date. Because of this, the submitted version contained some pretty unfortunate technical errors, namely me forgetting to disable a gain plugin AFTER my mastering chain, effectively clipping the entire track by +5dB. I'm honestly amazed I managed to pull out a 7th place finish with how rough it sounded (it's still preserved in all its sausaged glory here, if you're a masochist.) After the competition, I enlisted some help to give this the proper level of shine that it desperately needed. I continued to polish the instrumental mix, Theophany helped me edit the vocals properly in Melodyne, and Ridley Snipes flexed his producer chops with some really creative vocal processing across the whole track. I then made several passes at the mix/master, working with Chimpazilla and Snappleman over a long span of time while I tried to perfect everything. Finally, after 7 months, it's reached its final form! A million thanks to everyone for the brilliance you contributed to this, and patience while I got it across the finish line. Silent Hill 4: The Room - Room of Angel

@prophetik music Sorry to be difficult - I had to make some edits to this one for Pixel Mixers and I used it as a chance to try to address some of your concerns with the mix as well. The disparity between the quantization on the drums was an intentional choice to make things sound... wonky, same with the chorusing effect you called out - it's Earthbound, I was going for jarring psychadelic effects! But I tweaked the mix across the board and did some stuff to the bass to hopefully address the other concerns. In particular the drums should be sounding a lot more cohesive in this version. New version up in the first post! Hope you dig it.

Zack asked me to just give this one a listen, so I figure I'll drop a vote on it in while it's fresh in my head. First thing that jumps out to me is the pristine recording and engineering quality on this track. There's a tremendous sense of stereo placement and depth, even though everything feels very close and intimate. The performances are exactly as on-point as I'd expect from the artists involved, and the arrangement is dynamic and really gets as much juice out of the source as one could hope to get for an acoustic arrangement. This is becoming one of the hallmarks of Zack's arranging that I've noticed after working with him personally on more projects - the arrangements are written with a composer's mindset. There's a lot of interpretation and original parts added to the source material, but it's all born from an understanding of what made the original work in the first place, so the original never feels like it is being sidelined or left behind. Really a beautiful, evocative piece all around, great work gents! YES

I'm in 100% agreement with Kris here - this is an incredible arrangement but the mixing is not suited for the genre and is contributing to a LOT of mud that makes this difficult to listen to and fully enjoy. All of the performances and the way that you integrated them into the synthwave soundscape is flawless, I wouldn't change a thing about this. The main thing that needs to happen is to clear up the soundscape by attenuating some of the unnecessary frequencies, rebalance the volume levels of your instruments with a bit more precision, and go a little bit further with your sidechaining to clean up some additional space so you don't have to crank your leads quite as loud. Unfortunately I do feel like the production issues significantly dampen the experience on this track so I'm going to send it back for another round of revisions. I hope to hear this again! NO (resubmit!)

I'm going to quickly close this one out because I think the above three judges did a fantastic job expressing what works and doesn't work about this track. I love the studious approach to iterating a theme in as many different styles as possible, and keeping it cohesive along the way. But the orchestral programming needs a ton of polish to make it sound more like it was performed by an actual orchestra, rather than just a series of instruments being played off of a MIDI file. I will also add that there's some very massive dynamic jumps in terms of volume. Obviously, some degree of that is warranted, given the shifts in styles, but your quiet parts get REALLY quiet, and it doesn't sound intentional. You can still achieve this effect without requiring the listener to actively engage with the volume slider throughout the song in order to maintain a comfortable listening experience. This can start with normalizing the volume levels and automating them in certain parts, and can be further balanced out with some subtle compression on the master channel. There's so many great ideas here, but this feels like a draft rather than a polished production - I do hope we see this back someday! NO (resubmit!)

Rad. I'm impressed by how much clarity you maintain in your mix, despite everything being pushed to the limits. I don't necessarily feel like everything is clearly audible (the orchestral elements are definitely mixed on the quiet side) but I also don't find that the marginalized elements contribute a great deal of mud that obscures the main focus, which is very clearly on bass, synths, and drums. That's an achievement in and of itself, this could have easily become a total mess. The parts that are in focus are razor-sharp and delightfully engaging all the way through, and you cycle through a number of sources with fluidity as well. Not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I love it. Rock on! YES