Emunator

This is cool, I actually prefer the way this one starts out over the older version. The vocal performance and the lyrics definitely pushes this more towards parody/satire territory and make it hard to take seriously, but the instrumental track sufficiently rocks out with some killer solos and nice source/original integration. Dig it! YES

I do really appreciate the adaptation of an oft-mixed source to something unique. There's a reason that Ice Cap Zone has been tackled so many times and I'm glad remixers are still finding new ways to work with it This is overall a pretty solid attempt. It doesn't ever reaches a proper climax to me, though. Right before the outro, it feels like those staccato strings are building up to something really awesome, but then it just sort of drops unexpectedly. Also, when the section strings are playing the lead Ice Cap melody, the attack feels way too slow and the melody doesn't quite work as you'd expect. I'd suggest tweaking the articulations instead of just using that same slow attack for each note. Production here is what I've come to expect from your work - extremely solid and engaging. I appreciate the vocal additions and the piano as well, they add some neat texture to an already-unique orchestral arrangement. I may be in the minority here but I feel like there's a few things that could be polished here, and that it would really benefit from a climax, similar to what you have going on at 1:04 but perhaps with even more of an epic drum pattern to carry it. To me, it just feels weird to have the last half of the remix at such a low energy level, considering what you achieved with that one section. I'd like to see what everyone else thinks, I might be willing to flip my vote here but I do feel like this has the potential to be an OCR classic with a little bit more tweaking on the arrangement and a few minor production polishes. NO (resub!)

Production-wise, I feel like this track definitely stands up to some of Rozo's older songs that have already passed the panel, even if you're not a fan of his admittedly-quirky sound selection. I agree with zirc's crit about the dryness of some of the leads, and additionally, the bassline sounds a little too boomy/loud... As for the source usage, I'm in agreement with Larry's breakdown. It's definitely there and identifiable, despite the liberal usage and longer ambient sections. I don't have much to add to the conversation here, I can see how it's a tough call but personally I feel like this is just as good as Rozo's older songs as far as production goes, the arrangement passes, and it's got a lot of unique, clever sound choices that give the song a lot of merit. I think it's the kind of song that has the potential to surprise people with how different it is, without really stepping that far outside of the bounds of conventional electronic music. Good stuff Rozo. YES

Haha, it's WillRock incarnate! I've gotta say, I'm extremely impressed with the sequencing and soloing going on in this track, it's like the whole song is one big synth solo that still manages to keep the source usage at the forefront. Great job with that! The obligatory Star Fox vocal clips are actually used really well, although they get pretty buried in the mix once it kicks in. I wouldn't mind hearing them brought up a little bit more. I'm also digging the unconventional breakbeats, they're reasonably powerful but not overpowering or grating on the ears. The rest of the synth sounds are pretty basic, but the insane sequencing uses them properly and keeps it interesting throughout. Overall, I'm absolutely loving the arrangement here, which takes full advantage of the detailed sequencing and panning that the artist has used to really tell a story with the mix. I like that a lot. My only substantial gripe with this track (and it's kind of a dealbreaker for me) is the normalization on the intro. I wouldn't mind if the intro was a 15-second thing, then the song kicked in at normal volume, but when the volume is extremely quiet for the first minute and 20 seconds and then all of a sudden ramps up to full-blast, it's extremely jarring, and not in a plesant way. I think I see what you were going for, and to your credit, it's a very creative technique to enhance the drama of your arrangement, but it needs to be toned down a bit so that the song is more listenable overall. Fix that up, and there won't be anything holding this back from passing. YES (conditional on volume fixes)

This track is sporting some pretty nice production and performances, but right away I can tell that it's very much a cover song. Aside from some very minor embellishments, this feels like a straight cover up until the solo section at 1:40, at which point it's just soloing over the same chords. The repetitious chord progression gets a little bit boring and feels pretty uninspired to me, but I'll concede that it works fairly well here so I'm not going to hold that against the mix as a whole. After the first verse/solo, things start to spice up a bit more and the mix goes into something a bit more creative with the melodies/arrangement. Still, I'd feel a lot more comfortable passing this if there was even a bit of interpretation going on for the entire first half of the ReMix. Arrangement aside, the drums feel slightly pushed back and devoid of energy when they're not being used for fills/transitions. Work on the levels/compression of your drums (particularly the snare, which just sounds wimpy,) or see if you can replace the kit samples outright with something a bit more energetic and powerful, and perhaps spice up the main drum writing a bit more, too. Most of this mix is spot-on: nice fusion of guitars and synths/organs, some really cool performances. Brandon has proven many times over that he's a competent musician and arranger, but the two aforementioned issues are keeping this one from being quite at the bar. Solid effort, but it could use a bit more effort, personalization, and attention. NO(please resubmit!)

I've been a huge fan of this mix since it first debuted on the WIP forums because of how well it takes a downright ass-tacular source and turns it into something beautiful... so I'm gonna try and put aside my bias here for the sake of evaluation. The arrangement here is extremely classy; it's very emotional, fluid, and, despite what some judges said in the initial decision thread, I feel like it has a great sense of direction and movement as an overall piece. Doesn't feel aimless to me at all. Even with the length topping out at nearly 6 minutes long and some pretty extensive soloing, the source is still kept pretty close at hand and the original writing very rarely feels completely detached from the Mount Moon theme, either. I particularly dig the rhodes solo in the middle of the song, so major props for that! All of it falls right into place and feels like a very pleasant journey by the time it's over I'm noticing a lot of Reason default sounds, which tend to get a bad rap but I think they sound more than passable when treated right. In this case, I think the production is definitely passable thanks to some tasteful reverb and a multitude of sound effects/filtering that keep things interesting. The overall master feels a little bit too quiet, even for the genre, and it would be nice to get that boosted a bit before being posted. Compared to the last version, the drum writing feels like it's been improved greatly - it feels very involved and synchronized with the rest of the track. The samples/production itself is nothing to write home about, per se, but it's no longer a strike against the track either thanks to the improved sequencing. That flute sound at 2:24 does not sound good to me, though. Its appearance is so brief that I don't think I could justify NO'ing the track over it though, but it still doesn't sit right with me. This one definitely feels over the bar to me on the whole. It's not perfect but it's got a ton of merit that outweighs the production flaws that may be present. Excellent effort dude, this is one of the more inspired and beautiful remixes I've heard lately Keep improving your craft and you'll be up there with the OCR greats in no time if you keep bringing excellent arrangements like this to the table! YES

Holy crap, this has a really grand, driving sound to it. I really like that synth bass in the intro as well as the punchy plucked bass later on, as well as the tasteful guitar/interplay that I've come to expect from OA/Nutri collabs Insane solos. At 1:32 I started to get the feeling that the song was just getting overcrowded, there was too much going on and I couldn't find a place to focus. The synth leads in general were too quiet while they were soloing - it's probably tough to find any room at all for them with all of that insane guitar/orchestral madness going on, but still... the synth leads could stand to be brought up a bit. Honestly though, that's about the only fault I can find with this mix. It's a really killer mix with some amazing performances and writing that's clearly over the bar. Good work dudes, glad to see you working together again YES

This definitely has some of the same issues that I've noticed with all of DJ Mystix's subs, but fortunately it comes with all of the same strengths that make his other mixes so endearing. First off, the arrangement is, as always, fantastic. He's got a knack for taking some average-quality samples and using some really advanced articulations and writing to make it work. Since this has already been voted on thrice, I'm going to trust my fellow judge's assessment of the source usage. Even if it IS coverish, there's still a lot of personalization going on with the solo sections and the overall mixing of a huge number of sources. A few nitpicks: I think the kick sound you're using is a little overbearingly boomy, and sometimes it starts to impede on the low end of the rest of the mix. Some EQ cuts would probably be able to take care of that. The distortion rhythm guitar, on the other hand, when it's playing feels like it's too cramped and just ends up not really jiving with the rest of the soundscape. Keep at it, you're putting out some consistently solid medleys that feel extremely seamless. With time you'll get a better hang of how to get the most out of your sounds and possibly acquire some new, better ones, but until then you're still above the bar. Good work dude YES

I'm on Larry's side here, this doesn't feel like it's there, either. The performance flubs on the lead strings... I can see what you were going for but it totally doesn't work I can barely tell when things are out of tune, let alone out of key, but the lead strings really bothered me here. Aside from that, I feel like the transition to more traditional metal/orchestral hybrid made this arrangement lose a lot of its personality. I really liked the texture that the mellotrons, organs, and harpsichord brought to the table with your previous iteration of this song, and this version really lost that adventurous feeling as a result of changing the instruments up. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel like what you've got here is bad, per se, but if you do end up going back to touch this one up again, I would personally like to see some of those old instruments come back, albeit in a better-mixed form with higher quality samples The piano sample is really not cutting it here. The sample is fine for a lot of genres, but in this case it's way too dull and not nearly strong enough to carry a melody line in this context. I do still like the arrangement, and the production here is getting better but I'd like to see you guys strike a balance between this version and your previous sub. At the very least though, if you're gonna stick with this new style, you need to fix the lead string flubs and replace the piano sound with something more appropriate and dramatic before I can be okay with this. NO (resub!) (11/22/11 - vote changed, see below)

Yeah, my biggest beef here is just that there's a lot of layers of plucked/strummed strings going on at once and sometimes they don't always line up perfectly. The recorder solo at the end that touches on the main Zelda theme is definitely the weakest performance of the song. The way you changed up a classic Zelda theme was really cool, but the performance just feels sloppy and doesn't stand out as much as it should, both from a mixing and performance standpoint. That said, there's some solid source adaptation going on and this is a rather unique mix of instruments that we don't hear very often. The little choir background writing is really interesting, I wouldn't have guessed that that particular sample would work, but it does. Pacman riffs also are a nice fit, surprisingly. Overall, solid arrangement and pushes this over the bar for me. It's not as comfortably over the bar as I'd like, but it's acceptable to me. YES (borderline)

This is actually a super-classy adaptation that really surprised me when I first heard it on the Milkyway Wishes album. It changes up the melody in a way that makes it much more suitable for the style, while managing to keep Green Greens recognizable all the way through. Very solid arranging going on here. The performances all line up and keep pace with the song, which is refreshing to hear from a Strader submission, and the backing instrumentation is made up of solid samples and subtle but effective writing. I really like the brass writing, in particular. I thought the sound effects actually added a bit to the remix overall and I never felt distracted by it overall. Also, what's wrong with the ending? It wasn't amazing by any means, but it works as far as I'm concerned. No reason this one shouldn't pass IMO YES

Gah, I typed up a whole vote and my browser timed out >__< I'll lightning round this - I agree that the performances are often sloppy, and overall it feels like this track is just chugging away a little bit too slowly, especially during the sections with the acoustic guitar lead. This isn't a dealbreaker at all, but personally I feel like it would sound so much better with a 2-4 BPM tempo increase. Also, the mellotron strings in the intro had really boring articulation/writing, something more dynamic would definitely catch my attention more. This needs another coat of polish on the performances and the mellotrons, as well as the transition/ending, since you can tell this was a bit rushed for the compo and could have used a lot more TLC before submission. It's definitely not a lost cause but I feel like there's a fair bit that needs to be fixed before this can be posted. NO

Yep, pretty much in agreement here. This is a cool hybrid of synths and guitars but this track shows its age as I know both of the artists are more capable nowadays. This could easy be touched up with re-recordings and some rebalancing on the synths (which I felt were a bit too up-front and didn't always jive with the soundscape) but it's not doing it for me right now. NO (resub)

Yeah, this is a really close call, but in the end I feel like another run through the polishing cycle would do this a lot of good. The guitar is close but it could use a touch more reverb to sit nicely with the soundscape. Your synth choices don't always fill out the song much, either - it would be really cool to get some ambiance in to fill in those gaps with something interesting. Either that, or bring up the volume/EQ on your leads to cmopensate Lastly, your kick is good but I'd drop the sub frequencies a bit and bring up your bassline in the extra room there, and then EQ the mids/highs to give your kick a bit more punch. Very very close dude, one more revision should do it here! NO (resub!)

Couldn't agree more with my fellow judges here - this is a really nicely produced mix that's got a very epic quality to it, but it feels more like a long series of sketches that are loosely tied together but don't really transition well into one another. I'll also second the critique about the bass drop, it really is used too frequently here to really carry much impact. The other synthetic elements were worked in really tastefully though, I enjoyed that. Maybe take some of these ideas and bring a few of your favorites more into focus and expand on them, and use less full-drop-off transitions so that the song has a bit more momentum. It's sounding good though Keep at it! NO (resub!)

You guys are right, now that I listen more carefully this is definitely imbalanced on the panning, it gets really dominant in the right ear which can be distracting if you're paying attention. The bass is a bit boomy too, not sure if that would really need any fixing since it seems like an appropriate-enough choice for the genre but it's worth taking into consideration. I don't feel bothered at all by the mechanical sequencing on the strings/brass, the samples sound nice enough and it's not far enough in the forefront to be an issue as far as I'm concerned. I guess it wouldn't hurt to touch that up too while you're at it, though. The same goes for the vibraphone - it sounds pretty good as-is but it does have a bit of a mechanical quality to the sequencing and the writing itself is not really that interesting. Throw in a few grace notes to give the "performance" a little bit more of a human character, if you feel it's appropriate. On the plus side, your live performances are all fantastic and the piano sounds SO much better than when I first started critiquing the track. This is so close, fix up a few things and send it back for an easy pass NO (resub!)

I was actually really drawn in and captivated by the intro, though I think the acoustic guitar could be brought down just a tad in favor of allowing some more sweeping ambiance to envelop the listener. Once it kicks in, you've got some nice instrumentation, despite some rather blah synth choices overall. I don't particularly feel like this gets too repetitive or too long, except maybe in regards to the piano melody. Changing up one of the repetitions would probably be enough to nullify this concern. Your drums and bass are also sorely lacking, I'd increase the compression and EQ your kick to your liking so it stands out more and bring up the rest of the drums, as well, but be sure to leave room for a bassline because the track definitely needs one of those. I'm actually rather fond of this, I think you could make something very passable out of this, it'll just take some reworking and a new approach to how you utilize your soundfield here. NO (resub!)

I touched on this one in the workshop, it's definitely sounding a lot more solid and improved since then. I still feel like there's a few points it could be touched up on. For one, the overall master could use a bit of a volume boost. I'm not really feeling an issue with the bassline as much as Deia and OA but a bit more in the sub frequencies wouldn't hurt, I suppose. I also felt like some of your leads could be brought up just a tiny bit while they're playing, there's some awesome melody lines playing but you can barely hear some of them. Check at points like the rhodes at 1:15 or 4:01, for example, and see if you can't bring some of those forward a bit. This is super-duper close! But I do feel like there's some more fixes that could be made aside from just the bass that push it out of YES (cond.) territory. Hope to see you again soon! NO (resub!)

I'm actually with Vinnie on this - the performance is right on the mark and the arrangement is, too. However, when you compare the piano tone with something like WillRock's "Above the Sky" you can hear a significant difference in how rich and thick the piano tone is. This sounds more like something you'd hear from an old ragtime jam, which I suppose works well enough for the style. It sounds best in the last quarter of the track, personally. I'm also torn here. I do have a pretty high standard for piano tones but I do feel like the strength of the arrangement and performance compensates for the just-barely-under-the-bar sample quality. I'd feel a lot more comfortable if the sample was refined just a little bit, but I'm inclined to say this is passable as-is. I'm gonna tentatively go with it but it might be good to get in touch with Rexy anyway if there's other judges who have an issue with it. YES

Yeah, I actually passed this one in evaluation but looking back on it and reading some breakdowns from other judges, I've got to revise my stance solely on the basis of source usage. On the plus side, though, your rhythm guitar work is extremely varied and fun to listen to, and those pick slides are gnarly. The lone metullllll scream was also right on point, nice work I really enjoyed this mix and I'm not even that big of a fan of metal, so if you could bring a mix of this caliber with more source usage it'd definitely be a pass NO

Some really beautiful sounds working in here, but I'll go ahead and close this out as it's not really got enough arrangement/melodic interpretation. If you take this existing soundscape that you've created but work it into a more expansive arrangement, it should be good to go. NO (resub!)

I'll agree that the sheer lack of stuff going on in this mix is probably the biggest issue that would need to be addressed in a resub, should you choose to go for it. In addition to that, though, repetition is a big issue here as well. The whole song seemed to be comprised mainly of a few core loops without much variation or original writing going on. My suggestion would be to take the loops and the arrangement you've got and fill them in with subtle variations and some soloing of your own creation to help break things up a little bit. This goes for your drums too, which could really use some changeups. This is a nice start, you've got a super-chill soundscape and some very usable sounds that you can run with, but the arrangement needs more dynamics, attention to detail, and fleshing out. This would be a really good one to bring to the Workshop forums so you can get some more serious, in-depth critiques from people who can help you step-by-step as you work this out. Good luck dude! NO

I'm a huge fan of the Metroid Prime soundtracks, so I'm glad to hear some remixes that touch on some of the best under-remixed tracks on it. This is a pretty cool arrangement with some nice personalization going on, but the production and sequencing is going to need some work to get up to par. For starters, I'd definitely heed the other judges' suggestions about humanizing your entire track and doing what you can to vary up some of the timing. It seems like all of your instruments are playing at exactly the same velocity and that everything is quantized directly to the beat. I think changing up your melodies, throwing in some notes that don't perfectly align to a 4/4 time signature would really give this mix more of a motion and generally keep it more interesting. Your drum mixing feels pretty inconsistent here - when the rest of the mix is stripped down and simple, the kick is borderline overpowering. However, during the more energetic sections, I can barely hear it at all, which is unfortunate because you really want to create that sense of drive and movement during those 4-on-the-floor sections, and that can't happen when the kick is barely audible. You've got some cool synth sounds going, but like Deia and Andrew mentioned, they're generally way too piercing. Honestly, I'd suggest dropping your sine lead an octave and see how that sounds, it's just hitting the notes too high overall and the sample/synth isn't built to handle that, it just ends up being too thin to carry the track as a melody line. If dropping it an octave doesn't help for whatever reason, my next suggestion would be simply to exchange your lead sounds and utilize the go-to Metroid Prime sine lead as a countermelody elsewhere in the song. However you approach it, something's gotta give with the leads so they're a bit more dominant and not pushed so far into the super-high frequencies. Lots of feedback for you to internalize here, this one would take a lot of work to get up to the bar that might be better spent on new tracks that will help you keep improving your craft. However, it's doable if you really stick with it. It's totally up to you, but keep working at music and refining your technique either way! You've got some good building blocks here, so with some more practice you'll get there! NO

This definitely channels Michael's old-school OCR vibes that were present in most of his mixes, but definitely kicks it up a notch for the most part. This is definitely a rock arrangement at heart but there's a lot of personalized touches that make this very memorable. My initial impression here was that there were some balancing issues that need to be addressed, but on subsequent listens this track definitely seemed to click better. The oboe/orchestral leads feel just a touch too quiet, but it's not sounding nearly as noticeable to me as some of the judges who went NO on this track. One issue I do have that nobody else has mentioned is the outro, which seems to drag on for way too long without very much going on. It's a great way to end the track that totally fits with the mood, but I would personally cut it off at about half of the length it's currently at. I'm really torn on this track, because on the whole I do feel like this is a passable track as-is. However, it seems like almost everyone who's voted has a different set of issues that they would like addressed, so maybe this would be better to send back and get some blanket fixes that would address all of our issues. I'll flop my vote if, for whatever reason, this ends up as an as-is track that can't be updated, but let's get in touch with the remixer and see if this can be brought up to the next level. [edited below]

Definitely going to side with DA on this, for many of the same reasons that Nutritious mentioned. I don't have much to add, but I feel like with some more variation to the patterns (or maybe just flat-out cutting some length from the mix in places where varying things up isn't an option) and obviously a proper ending, this would be okay. As it stands though, this isn't up to my bar unfortunately for all of the reasons mentioned in the above votes. In my opinion, not all of them are critical issues - I could forgive the stiff sequencing and slight balancing issues, but the lack of an ending and the overall repetitiveness is a bit of a dealbreaker here. Let's see what you can do with another round of revisions NO (resubmit!)