Emunator

Insanely good track to everyone involved, this is the kind of music I want to be making. Y'all are nuts.

Additional ears? You got it. I'm coming in cold on this one so you're going to get all of my impressions - not saying that all of this needs to be addressed to pass a resubmission, but hopefully you can make use of the brain dump.
The intro brings some really cool flavor - the noisy distorted elements remind me of Porter Robinson's Fellow Feeling (see the 3:00 mark if you're short on time.) If you're going for random blasts of noise, I think this works - if you're trying to make it sound like footsteps stomping through, it's not giving that impression at all because every stomp is exactly the same. There's no variation in the sample and it reaches uncanny valley territory fast when you play the sample multiple times in a row. This all boils down to what you are going for here, but either way, I think some subtle variation with each repetition of the sample/layer of samples (without knowing how you actually did this) would build immersion.
Some of your orchestral elements (flute, glock) are very resonant, oftentimes peaking at their fundamental frequency between 3-6db above everything else. The bells in the intro also feel comparably dry. This will probably get ironed out in your next pass, but I'm going to point it out anyway. The orchestral sequencing sounds workable for the most part, you're getting good mileage out of your samples. It's not the best but I do think you're using them effectively for the most part - the main areas that sound really noticeably fake are the half-step chromatic runs on the strings at times like 2:48. I just don't think the big ensemble patch moves fast enough to accommodate that writing, and would recommend adjusting the lead writing to fit better within the limitations of your samples.
I also feel like the intro could use some deeper sub bass presence. It's not that the stomps aren't contributing any bass frequencies, but a big cinematic sub drop or sustained bass to accompany the stomps (see Fellow Feeling) would make this feel much more dynamic, or have some risers building up tension in the low end leading into :49.
The decision to intersperse various melodic elements (glock, harmonic strings, cello) was a good one - otherwise, this intro would be way too long. It already feels a bit lengthy as-is, but those additions help pad it out quite a bit and justify the length. However, this gets to the problem of transitions and buildup, which I think is my biggest gripe currently. There is rarely much going on to signal that we're approaching a new musical idea, so even though you have some very dramatic changes throughout your arrangement (which are quite inspired and interesting, I must add!) they come on very suddenly. Cinematic risers, fills, sweeps, etc. are a part of this equation and could definitely be used to greater effect here to bridge your gaps, but there's another element I want to touch on: the idea of movement in your part writing.
You do a great job building atmosphere and have all the makings of a very dramatic song, but there's a lack of movement on a compositional level. When cinematic music is clicking well, composition and sound design have a lot of synergy. Right now, you are doing a good job building an interesting sound palette for each individual section, but the underlying chord progression feels weak. It hovers around the tonic chord for most of the time, and even when you do have chord changes, they don't feel properly supported with anything strong in the lower frequencies. This is where a bit of music theory troubleshooting could go a long way - your melody has many opportunities for powerful chord movements that build drama and tension, especially as you lead into new sections, but you're not fully capitalizing on that potential. I don't think it would even require changing up much fundamental about the rest of the parts; just identify the chord progression you're playing and make sure that there's strong support in the bass for whatever chord/root note you're trying to play. I don't know how else to suggest addressing this without studying up on some fundamentals of music theory, but certain chords just move naturally into others and can help you allude to future changes and help transition between vastly different musical ideas in a way that feels rewarding.
I think you're running up against some of the same problems I faced before I made the decision to finally start researching music theory. I had a conceptual idea in my brain for what each section of my song was supposed to do, and could support it in terms of selecting sounds and picking grooves/effects/etc., but it boiled down to luck whether or not it worked on a fundamental composition level, and I spun my wheels trying to fix that issue with every other production tool known to man.
I think if you were to pick an area to focus on, the big orchestral section starting at 2:36 would be where I'd focus my energy most. Everything else before and after that can skate by a little easier, but when you're trying to make a big melodic orchestral statement, the fundamentals need to be strong first. Figure out what chord you're playing on each measure and map them out in sequence using just a basic patch. I find that it helps to actually just plot my chord progressions out on piano so there's no temptation to get distracted by sound design. See if the song sounds strong and compelling when it's just played on a single instrument, and go from there.

Additional ears? You got it. I'm coming in cold on this one so you're going to get all of my impressions - not saying that all of this needs to be addressed to pass a resubmission, but hopefully you can make use of the brain dump.
The intro brings some really cool flavor - the noisy distorted elements remind me of Porter Robinson's Fellow Feeling (see the 3:00 mark if you're short on time.) If you're going for random blasts of noise, I think this works - if you're trying to make it sound like footsteps stomping through, it's not giving that impression at all because every stomp is exactly the same. There's no variation in the sample and it reaches uncanny valley territory fast when you play the sample multiple times in a row. This all boils down to what you are going for here, but either way, I think some subtle variation with each repetition of the sample/layer of samples (without knowing how you actually did this) would build immersion.
Some of your orchestral elements (flute, glock) are very resonant, oftentimes peaking at their fundamental frequency between 3-6db above everything else. The bells in the intro also feel comparably dry. This will probably get ironed out in your next pass, but I'm going to point it out anyway. The orchestral sequencing sounds workable for the most part, you're getting good mileage out of your samples. It's not the best but I do think you're using them effectively for the most part - the main areas that sound really noticeably fake are the half-step chromatic runs on the strings at times like 2:48. I just don't think the big ensemble patch moves fast enough to accommodate that writing, and would recommend adjusting the lead writing to fit better within the limitations of your samples.
I also feel like the intro could use some deeper sub bass presence. It's not that the stomps aren't contributing any bass frequencies, but a big cinematic sub drop or sustained bass to accompany the stomps (see Fellow Feeling) would make this feel much more dynamic, or have some risers building up tension in the low end leading into :49.
The decision to intersperse various melodic elements (glock, harmonic strings, cello) was a good one - otherwise, this intro would be way too long. It already feels a bit lengthy as-is, but those additions help pad it out quite a bit and justify the length. However, this gets to the problem of transitions and buildup, which I think is my biggest gripe currently. There is rarely much going on to signal that we're approaching a new musical idea, so even though you have some very dramatic changes throughout your arrangement (which are quite inspired and interesting, I must add!) they come on very suddenly. Cinematic risers, fills, sweeps, etc. are a part of this equation and could definitely be used to greater effect here to bridge your gaps, but there's another element I want to touch on: the idea of movement in your part writing.
You do a great job building atmosphere and have all the makings of a very dramatic song, but there's a lack of movement on a compositional level. When cinematic music is clicking well, composition and sound design have a lot of synergy. Right now, you are doing a good job building an interesting sound palette for each individual section, but the underlying chord progression feels weak. It hovers around the tonic chord for most of the time, and even when you do have chord changes, they don't feel properly supported with anything strong in the lower frequencies. This is where a bit of music theory troubleshooting could go a long way - your melody has many opportunities for powerful chord movements that build drama and tension, especially as you lead into new sections, but you're not fully capitalizing on that potential. I don't think it would even require changing up much fundamental about the rest of the parts; just identify the chord progression you're playing and make sure that there's strong support in the bass for whatever chord/root note you're trying to play. I don't know how else to suggest addressing this without studying up on some fundamentals of music theory, but certain chords just move naturally into others and can help you allude to future changes and help transition between vastly different musical ideas in a way that feels rewarding.
I think you're running up against some of the same problems I faced before I made the decision to finally start researching music theory. I had a conceptual idea in my brain for what each section of my song was supposed to do, and could support it in terms of selecting sounds and picking grooves/effects/etc., but it boiled down to luck whether or not it worked on a fundamental composition level, and I spun my wheels trying to fix that issue with every other production tool known to man.
I think if you were to pick an area to focus on, the big orchestral section starting at 2:36 would be where I'd focus my energy most. Everything else before and after that can skate by a little easier, but when you're trying to make a big melodic orchestral statement, the fundamentals need to be strong first. Figure out what chord you're playing on each measure and map them out in sequence using just a basic patch. I find that it helps to actually just plot my chord progressions out on piano so there's no temptation to get distracted by sound design. See if the song sounds strong and compelling when it's just played on a single instrument, and go from there.

I'm happy to announce a couple of staffing changes here at OCR. First up, I wanna welcome @Hemophiliac to our Judges Panel! Hemo's been putting in the work for the last few years as one of our Workshop Evaluators, and has also stepped up in the past few months to handle a lot of the visualizers for the remixes you see on our YouTube channel. He's an active presence in our community and has a lot of helpful advice in the Workshop. We're glad to add him to the panel. Look forward to getting some fresh new NO votes on your tracks!
Speaking of Workshop Evaluators, a few months ago we retired our Ready for Review process in the Workshop because we felt that it was a cumbersome extra layer of evaluation prior to submitting to the Judge's Panel. Our Evaluators did a lot of great work over the years but we're retiring that role. In it's place, we're introducing our new team called Sages! Sages are active artists in our community who'll be in the Workshop giving feedback on remixes, posting tutorials, and coming up with their own ways to revitalize and energize the Workshop. Our three new Sages are @Xaleph, @pixelseph, and @paradiddlesjosh!
We're glad to have some fresh faces on staff, and I'm personally looking forward to seeing what these folks have in store for us.
-- DarkeSword

Resident Donkey Kong Country fanboy here, sending you a DM :)

what the fuck
YESS
This is so great

I love that intro.  Are you mining for gold cuz there is some grade A Panning going on in this remix :DD

I agree with Mindwander's comments on motifs and evolution. Sometimes I get lost in the sauce trying to evolve and transform pieces but there are different ways and methods of transformations! Great insight and wonderful track.

I'm really enjoying the "ear candy" here, especially the close sounds. But the whole piece has a nice breath to it, and there's a lot of nuance to every element. 

As someone who fully fell into the Minecraft hole last year, that piano loop has been the background opening to sighs of relief and letting go of a lot of stress on some more unfortunate days on my end. So hearing this be transformed into a beautiful, calming meditation piece with chimes and such is awesome and brings me some subtle joy. 

Simply lovely.  A calm remix that has a reassuring air to it.  A welcome respite.

You're browsing OCR in between Inuyasha episodes, a Mama Celeste pizza is in the microwave. Jennifer Gardner is going to be Elektra in a new Marvel movie. MkVaff has released a techno mix of an NES game. The year is 2024.

It's interesting to see how you handle an arrangement that's not as explicitly in the realm of black metal as your previous submissions, but still applies many of the same principles of arrangement to something a little more delicate and emotional. One of the core tenants of black metal, dramatic dynamic shifts, is definitely in play with this arrangement, and perhaps unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed the sudden swings in intensity. I do agree that, with some more nuance to the sound design and some transitional signals (pick slides, drum fills, crashes) you could retain that same impact but slide into the heavy sections with a bit more grace. That said, there's beauty to be found in every corner of this piece, and even with the areas where the execution could have been tightened up, it's hard to deny that this is an inspired and tasteful take on the FF9 source material.

YES

Thoughts on the round 1 entries:

Red Harvest vs. Wir Sind Team Peitsche: This one was really close but in the end it came down to production execution.  Both arrangements were very good and mashed up the sources in very creative ways.  I really liked the last section of Wir Sind Team Peitsche with the group chanting.  That was a great way to bring everyone together onto it.
A couple specific notes on Wir Sind Team Peitsche.  The brass in the first 0:36-0:58 is very "blatty".  Would like to hear more humanization on that section for the orchestral samples. 1:53-2:32, I didn't even notice there was chiptune elements here until multiple listens.
Red Harvest: 0:41-0:50 the melody for Brinstar here is very washed out, like when you turn the wet on reverb all the way up and dry all the way down.  IMO it got very buried here.
Adrift Eternal vs. Back in Cold Blood (Dracula Flow): Difficult to vote for a "joke" track.  When I say that I mean, the track was for laughs rather then to be taken very seriously.
Back in Cold Blood: The production on the background work is pretty clean and stands on it's own pretty well.  I know I mentioned it on voice to you, but changing to the Alucard audio at 3:18 of the way through was a good choice to keep the track moving forward and preventing the Dracula Flow bit from being stale.  Good call on the change.  Some percussive elements ping-ponging left/right are a little disorienting.
Adrift Eternal: This is starting to sound like the modus operandi of Emunator at this point.  I have no idea who contributed what on this.  Electronic cinematic take on both themes seamlessly transitions back and forth between sources.  Very well done.  At 4:23 it's suddenly major for some reason did feel a little odd, but I can understand wanting to change the color at the end of the piece to bring more energy.
The Heart of Atlantis vs. No Castle for Old Belmonts:  This was the toughest call of the 3 pairs.  For me I chose No Castle for Old Belmonts due to how the melody was interpreted, used, and embellished upon.  Both had good production, and it came down to arrangement/usage.
The Heart of Atlantis: The organ echoes of the guitar such as at 2:07 and 2:43 were a little awkward for having close intervals in a low register, makes them get harmonically muddy.
No Castle for Old Belmonts: I don't know why, with the title I was expecting this to be country song-like "Take me home country roads".  The bass is a little muddy, sounds like someone humming doubling the bass in the first ~minute or so.  Not sure if that is a production issue or recording thing.  The guitar playing from 2:57 to the end is fantastic and I absolutely love the embellishment here.  Whip sfx towards the end is fitting and I'm surprised I had not heard it in any of the other tracks at this point.  Production could have been a spoiler on this one, but I preferred the arrangement here.

Messaged Jortio about this, he's going to make some tweaks based on Brad's conditional vote and Jack's feedback as well.

the chords don't map directly from what i can hear. that makes these blobs of chords inspired by, and not directly taken from, the original track. they may be highly different voicings and that's where i'm losing it. i really don't dig the idea of us trying to parse this ourselves, this should be an artist-provided breakdown to ensure we're not missing stuff in either direction.
edit 2/8: i am teh dumb

Hey Josh, I’d love to chat! I’ll send you a DM with my contact info. 

Hey Josh, I’d love to chat! I’ll send you a DM with my contact info. 

This was one of my early favorites from the FF8 album. As is the case with the source material, everything is constructed essentially from a series of loops, but the vocals absolutely elevate this to the next level. The backing chord progression is so dramatic and supports the vocals perfectly. I found the glitching at the end to be a little more hit or miss in terms of execution; some of the effects felt a little too random, and  I sometimes wished that it fell a LITTLE more in-time with the beat, but I get what you were going for so it's not a big deal in light of all the other amazing things you brought to the table.
YES

Eino's music has always had that rough, garage band-y quality to it, and this is no exception. It's a thin line to straddle though, because it can easily fall on the side of "rough around the edges by design" and "unpolished and incomplete." In this case, I think the mixing issues could be forgiven if the arrangement was a little more fleshed out and ambitious, but as it stands, there's not a lot of dynamics within the arrangement, and it fizzles out right when it feels like things are about to pick up. I think this needs a ramp up in energy to drive this piece home - right now, it feels more like an unfocused jam session that isn't bringing a ton to the table.
NO

Mmm, this is so wistful and nostalgic. Takes me back to the first time I loaded the game and just watched the chill intro with Link riding Epona through Hyrule Field. The lofi aesthetic works for such a vibe, but it's not all detuned and crackly throughout - the melody lines are clear, and that lush pad at 0:52 is like breathing new life into those memories of the game we all have.
The instrumentation in the Lost Woods section sounds very, very similar to the instrumentation in Zora's domain in the game. Intentional or not, it's another connection to the game's roots that's in there for the listener to enjoy subconsciously.
Is that a bassoon at 1:55? Lovely choice of lead whatever it is, complemented nicely by the piano and bells. Outro moves back to the detuned, modulated piano and crackly lofi percussion to bookend the track.
If I'm being hyper-critical, I might change some of the distorted crackles and pops at the beginning of the track to sound a little softer, but other than that it's a delightfully rose-tinted look back at one of the all-time classics of gaming.
YES

@Chimpazilla You were right! Parker was able to get this resubmitted within an hour of reading the decision and it addresses my only beef (pun intended) with the first submission. So glad this didn't end up lingering in rejection purgatory over that.
THERE'S THE BEEF!

never heard Everything Connected before but i love it.
intro is very slow with some sfx and intentional artifacting. the initial riff with the aug 4 from FF8 is in the keys after the first big hit at 0:48, with the subsequent progressions weaving in and out of that pattern. the clock sfx is a nice addition around the time motif. we get a beat at 2:02 after a neat transition that might be a little heavy on highs, but it's still ticking through until it finally hits after some great sidechain action at 2:27. 
around the 2:50 mark, we finally get the first red wings cameo that i've heard. there's a drop at 3:15 or so, and we start getting some more off-time content which is a neat addition. this entire section from like 3:30 onward is really intense, there's a ton going on but it mostly stays audible throughout. there's the breakdown-rebuild section mentioned above, which is pretty neat, and then we're back into the melodic content at 4:16. this is still mostly compression of time, but there's definitely some red wings content in there. 5:04 is the last big hit (with a touch of distortion, not sure it's intentional). there's some significant falling action after this section.
5:30 or so is a significant shift - it's way slower, the beat is much more plodding intentionally, and the vibe is totally different. 6:07 is kind of the beginning of the end - it's a very clear shift away from tempo sync, with a lot more flexibility as the track finishes out. there's some very languid red wings motivic stuff in here but it's pretty stretchy. 
i cannot believe you did this in one week. the breadth of complexity is nuts here. there's certainly a bit of crunch in the mastering occasionally, but the quality of content in this track is incredible. you should probably stop doing this kind of stuff for free.
 
 
YES
edit 11/7: no complaints here. this song is a triumph.

Zack will be making updates to this one, please hold on any further votes for now!
 

Dammit, fine. I’m in for Team Metroid