Nutritious

Intro felt a bit stiffly sequenced, but the added elements quickly covered (up?) that issue. Ooh, I like the concept here. Definitely on the loud side, but well balanced in a way where nothing is painful or feels fatiguing. Impressive production chops on display here to saturate the soundscape yet keep an overall clean sounding mix. Things did get slightly into a bit too loud territory nearing the 3 minute mark. I can see Emu's point about a reprieve at some point would be well advised. Still, not a dealbreaker for me. Clear connections throughout the mix here - doesn't feel like a stopwatch is necessary. Man, I love the sound you've put together. Definitely a keeper. Lets go. YES

Jive nailed my thoughts here. Liking the approach a lot. Not liking the hard panning on my headphone setup - especially for how much it's used. Drums don't have a weak tone per se, but the volume/presence of the guitars is drowning them out a bit too much. Nice changeup a bit after the 2 minute mark. Liking bass writing. Guitars are pushing it out a bit more than they should again here. As mentioned, I would've liked to hear some more variation in the second half as well. I definitely feel this one can work with some production & arrangement tweaks. NO resubmit, please

Updated x3

Not much to add to the two great critiques above. I will say drums felt a bit flat on energy to me and way too repetitive. I also thing the synth parts used were a bit on the bland side tbh. The change at 3:27 didn't really do anything to add to the energy to the track and just felt like a slight change to what preceded it. Would like to hear this one get a production makeover on the sequencing and mixing as well as some work getting more energy/interest in the track (via dynamics, transitions like near the end, writing change ups, etc). NO resubmit, please

Yup, pretty much on track with Chimp here. It's hard to evaluate production or details on a track like this with things super squashed together like this. Definitely pull the levels back and give this one a fresh mixing/mastering run. What I do hear is a collection of some cool ideas that aren't yet sounding like a cohesive whole. I wasn't sold on the drum pattern in the first minute. The kit in general (and hats specifically) sounds disjointed. While it's not a straight cover by any means, much of the source is used in a pretty straight-up manner with similar backing pattern, melody writing, and supporting stab parts. I think there's more room for some arrangement personalization that could be explored. Sounds like it has the potential to be a very cool, gritty rock/industrial take on the theme, but has quite a ways to go. Keep at it. NO resubmit, please

The only gameplay I've seen of Dark Souls games are during the games done quick marathons, so I probably can't appreciate the epicness of the game as it relates to this rather cool soundtrack. As to the mix, production sounds really solid on instrumentation and writing. Good use of stereo space to get more distinction between a ton of different instruments & choir. Writing of woodwind lead at 1:40 felt a bit awkward, but soon passed. Woodwind sequencing around the 2:10 mark felt a bit choppy in places, but overall was pretty well covered. Lots of great energy here. YES I lol'd

The sound design and feel of this one is just super good. Thanks to Larry for the source breakdown. Vocal samples were very tastefully integrated here and added to the atmosphere of the track. Take note, producers, this is a great example of how to do it right. Kick used in a good portion of the track was a bit hot in the "clicky" range for my taste. Would've liked some of the highs (10khz or so and above) rolled off a bit. Same goes for one of the hihats used later on. Some of the hits had a bit of a raw feel to them that almost sounds like it's unintentional distortion, but I think it's just the effects used on them. I will concede that this one does feel like it drags a bit in places, but I'm sold on the concept and execution. Great stuff. YES

Gonna echo Kris & DA's crits on the overall EQ being high heavy as well as the occasionally out of tune lead. Both aren't dealbreaks, but can be dealth with reasonably easily in post-production. Overall, this is a short & sweet rock rendition of the theme. Boo fadeout ending. It wasn't a super smooth fadeout either with the sudden drop in volume at the very end. I feel like this one just gets by with good performances and arrangement ideas, but it also feels like it leaves quite a bit on the table with the one-and-done fadeout approach. YES

Not much to do but basically co-sign with Kris above. The guitar sounds in your face awesome. Drums are nice as well. But yeah, conceptually, this isn't what we're looking for at OCR with regards to our Arrangement Standards (Section 4). You clearly have killer music chops, so I'm really really hoping we get to hear more from you that departs from verbatum part/midi-rip territory into a personalized arrangement. NO

I love the SF2 soundtrack. Songs like this bring back the nostalgic feels for me. I admit, I'm not in love with the formant-type lead that comes in at 1:14. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but it does juxtapose pretty strongly against the big chuggas in the background. In a way, this is true of the leads in general, since they're pretty tame compared to the backing guitar & drums. Don't want to dwell on it too much, though, because it can be a valid stylistic choice. Triplet conversion is solid and a great idea. The timing change-ups were very well handled and a nice addition I wanted to single out. Performance was very tight and I can get behind the stop/start guitar style. Being nit-picky on production, I'd argue the rhythm guitar is slightly too overpowering against the drums and could be toned down slightly. Also, the mix sounded a little dull to me with regards to high-end EQ. Overall, great stuff. Very creative take on Blanka. YES

Very cool track here. The arrangement sounds solid to me. Really liked the vocal work as well. I agree with the others that this is suffering from production issues, though. Not sure if it's a stylistic decision, but rhythm guitar could be helped if the parts were at double tracked so it would get more stereo presence in the mix. Also, the part-writing on R.Guitar felt repetitive after a while. Minor nitpick: there's a audible gap in the sound at :12 where you spliced together the guitar parts (I'm assuming). May want to smooth that out a bit. Drums are sounding pretty thin and quiet, which is probably due to the way they're recorded. The kick is almost completely inaudible. It's not exactly easy to record live drums, so I understand that it's a tough one. I'm not sure this issue can be fixed in post-production, though. I second Shariq's comment about the really wide stereo separation on the drums sounding a bit odd in context. The vocal processing didn't strike me as big of an issue as mentioned by some of the others, though it could use some improvement. Don't think it's a recording issue with them as much as post-processing. Some compression could let you boost them to the forefront a bit better. Another nitpick: the transition to the vocal section at :53 has an awkward interplay between the drums and the vocals that takes a couple of bars to resolve at :57. It sounds like theres an inserted 2/4 measure where the drums play a couple extra build up notes to intro the next phrase (and the vocals hit on the downbeat), but then the song continues as if it's just the first two beats of the measure and the vocals eventually sync back up. It's not a huge deal, but it's bugging me as a listener. I don't want to get too wrapped up in the super-clean/perfect production camp because this really does have a cool, live indie feel it. I think with some tightening up of the above-mentioned issues (and not a complete rework or anything), this one would be good to go. NO resubmit, please

Can definitely hear both sides on this one. I feel like I can get behind the amount of variation preventing the track from getting overly repetative. I'm actually more concerned on the arrangement side of the house because lots of the elements (melody lines, backing synths, even bass at times closely resemble the original. I feel like I'm gonna need a bit more time to analyze this one.

Off the bat, the sample quality sounds like a bit of a mixed bag for me, with the glockenspiel and rumble bass sounding a bit basic/lo-fi. On the other hand, though, the choir and guitars are much stronger. I was a little thrown off by the heavy white noise in the intro. At first it sounded like an artifact of one of the samples, but it later became clear it was sequenced with the rest. I get the idea of going for a heavy industrial-type sound, but it just sounds pasted on top and obscures some of the other parts like the choir. Guitar performance sounds pretty on point. I would've liked to hear more high-end on them as they have a bit of a dull tone in the mix. Drums are definitely a weak point as they have a really thin tone, which makes them sound too quiet when competing with other elements. The snare and kick needs to be beefed up quite a bit IMO, whether that be compression/eq/etc with what you have here or different samples. Like Kris said, the arrangement doesn't really develop too much in this mix, which mirrors the way it was presented in the original. I would've liked to hear more expansion and personalization on the theme. As is, it feels like we get a single run-through of your ideas, then a somewhat abrupt, quick fadeout ending. Not a dealbreaker for me, but something to consider. Definitely a promising start here, keep at it! NO resubmit, please

Man, I hate rejecting songs on recording issues - especially ones arranged and performed as well as this one. But Larry's right, the recording quality is really hurting this one a lot. Definitely sounding lo fi and louder sections and I also heard the distortion in louder sections. Really hoping we can get a new recording take on this. NO resubmit, please

Probably due to all those "supplements"

Got it!

Not so fast, son! I gots to have my say. Agreed that arrangement sounds solid and performances are good. The only real question is whether or not the levels/overcompression is a dealbreaker. For me personally, I do hear some audio squashing in places and there is simply too much noise going on in the most intense sections that hurt this. HOWEVER, like Dave mentioned, despite this there is still a reasonable amount of clarity and distinction between the various parts. I don't know if I'd want to listen to this on headphones too long personally due to ear fatigue, but I think it just squeaks by on the production front. YES

I guess I'm not quite on board with this one as my fellow J's. Off the bat, the quick guitar rhythm part has trouble keeping up with the tempo of the track and frequently fall off the beat (most apparent around :38 - :43). I agree with Larry that the mix sounds lossy, especially in the Bass and Drums, but in general is workable. The kick drum, though, has almost no body and just sounds like a click when loud elements are in play. Bass guitar is low in volume and frequently gets lost among the other parts. Could certainly be a stylistic preference, but 1:31 - sounded strange/clashy with the juxtaposition of the rhythm guitar against the square lead. Not gonna deny that there are some really cool arrangment ideas and performances here. I can see this one passing for sure, but personally, I'd like to hear another pass on the production (kick, mixing) and some loose rhythm performance issues. Definitely could see this one passing as is, though. Good luck to you. NO (borderline) resubmit, please

Nice opening. Wouldn't have minded a bit more meat to the synth lead, but that's (at least partially) a preference thing. Nice use of heavy side chaining once everything kicks in. The breakdown at 1:37 was well handled, with the wubs vs mario sfx & source content. I thought the transition around the 2 minute mark seemed like an odd choice. I mean, it works, it was just odd to have a complete drop off immediately after the breakdown section. The energy was already pulled back as is. Not a big deal, though. Beat at 2:36 is pretty hawt, though could've used more variation. Even if it's a canned loop, you can slice it up fo sho. As Larry said, this is a pretty dense mix. I think it could benefit with some EQ crafting to get more clarity from the various parts (example, less mids on the synth arp in the second half, less highs and more body to the synth leads in general, etc). Cool transition back to the dance-y side-chain riff at 3:30. Really liked how you brought the track back to connect with the initial theme. I like. YES

Looks like results were posted only on the OC Records FB page a few days ago: https://www.facebook.com/overclockedrecords

Gotta say, I'm surprised by the nods here. The track is overly loud and the highs are blistering in the more intense sections. There's very noticeable artifacts/pumping from overcompression as well. Agreed with Larry on not being a huge fan of Slayer. Anyone familiar with FL will instantly recognize it. Still, there's nothing inherently wrong with using it and, as Larry mentioned, it's clearly not an attempt here to pass as a live instrument. Cool ideas for sure. If you know me, you know I can get behind dubsteppy mixes. Seriously, though, tone it down a bit so we can enjoy the track properly NO resubmit, please

So... any word on results?

Yup, not much to add to what's been said. The bass is a bit strong, but not to the point of being too distracting IMO. Felt like the woodwind lead at 1:04 was the weakest part of this mix as it's quite soft and has a pretty tiny tone to it. Liked the upbeat feel and the plucking leads really brought a lot of character to the piece. Good stuff. YES

Beautiful, lush soundscape that Zack has crafted here. Despite the song's length, I never felt like I was getting bored or that there was anything that was anything overly repetitive about how he handled the arrangement. It also never felt like it lost sight of the original source connections. I disagree on a track like this needs (or necessarily should) have more in the way of builds and payoffs. This is supposed to be an ambient mix after all and the mixer has done a great job keeping fresh ideas flowing throughout and also keeping a degree of understated energy moving through the second half. The only real disappointing part for me was that the ending was a bit sudden and could've resolved better. Otherwise, I'm really liking what I'm hearing here and hope we can hear some more tracks from you soon. YES

Definitely agreeing with Kris' crits on this one. I think mixing is the single biggest issue here. The song gets pretty cluttered at :20 when everything kicks in. The guitars have too much presence in the mid/mid-high range, which is muddying things up. Trying to brute-force the accordion on top of everything else going on just exacerbates the issue. On a more minor point, there's some looseness in some of the performances which could be tightened up a bit, but on the other hand, it does lend a bit towards a stylistic dirty rock type feel, so I'm ok with it. Arrangement is definitely on the conservative side with treatment of the melodies as well general song progression, but there's enough interpretation beyond the original (for example, later on with accordian writing; supportin patterns) to be ok for me on this point. I wouldn't mind hearing some more expansion on some of the ideas you introduced - especially given that this is a short song as is. Overall, good stuff here, but clean up the mixing at a minimum. Moar interpretive content would be nice as well. Also, needs a real song title NO resubmit, please