Nutritious

Simple answer: Be creative with it Keep it extremely limited

1st rule of ocremix: DJP never makes a mistake.

I quit orchestral. ... But seriously, nice production work and sequencing here. You've accomplished coveying such a haunting and beautiful mood here, which you should be proud of. I did notice, though, that arrangement hasn't really been mentioned up until this point. I had trouble making a lot of connections, so I had to listen a few times and break it down: :53 - 1:52 source 2:00 - 3:00 source 3:08 - 3:51 original backing with interspersed guitar plucks from source 4:13 - 4:31 source My first attempt at a breakdown was much more slim on the source usage, but we look more than good now. YES

I loved this track in the competition and still love it now. Solid production throughout. Thumpin kick, expressive synths and creative arrangement of both sources. YES

Really with Palp on this one. Vocals were the best part here, but the backing parts were pretty bland and rigid. I can roll the early 90's cheesy rap vibe, but still gotta bring it with the synth & drum work. No, resubmit please

Very solid entry by Nebs in a round I also participated. The Pendulum influence from Witchcraft is clear here. Drums sounded good, if a bit rigid at times. Synths were solid and guitar sounds were well sequenced and produced. I remember hearing this during the competition and thinking the mix was excessively bright. It sounds like you've toned down the brightness in this version, which is good. That said, the mixing focus seems to be on lows & highs with quite a bit of room in the mid frequencies to fill this out to get a more powerful & balanced sound. Overall, mixing is good, but could be better. Arrangement wise, this hits all over both themes, with both interspesed together smartly. Way to weave all of this in, especially at the last minute. I think this really shows how far Nabeel has come in such a short time. Makes me jealous of people getting invovled in mixing so young (I didn't start until my mid 20's), so the potential for him and other like really is enormous. YES

You missed me by about 2 years

Cool take here. I'm hearing the crits already mentioned here. Bass does have a bit of a weird tone, which is pretty indistinct sounding when it's exposed. Good drum work here with plenty of variation throughout. Very competent performance on the guitars as well. I'll echo Vinnie that you come across as comfortable & confident with what you're shooting for here and genre adaptation is very effective. Andrew's just a guitar snob (jk bro we are best buds) YES

Won't beat a dead horse on the intro. It's quite a contrast with the rest of the track, though, which is much more solid. Yeah, I totally agree with Wes, there's a lot of compression once everything kicks in, which is squashing everything down. Like he mentoined, the likely culprit is the percussion work here. See if you can balance things out a bit more reasonably before mastering and try to keep your compression reasonable enough to not flatline the cool synth work. He also brings up a good point about the autopilot drums. Dance music isn't known for its variation in beatwork, per se, but I agree that some variation & fills here would really help. So, this is close in my book. There's the glaring intro, the straight up looping drums and overcompression. But overall, thing are clicking very well when all of the elements combine and the arrangement work is VERY cool for a source that's been covered a bajillion times. I'm sitting between a resub and a conditional here.... .... gah ok fix up at least a couple of those 3 things and I'll be good to go Yes (conditional on production/intro fixes) DarkeSword Edit: Per new judging practices, conditional votes will only be used for small, quickly fixable (2-5 minutes) problems. Changing this vote to a NO (resub)

Yeah, definitely digging the arrangement here. Cool modulations and ideas on a prominently known and remixed source. But I'm also feeling the same crits as the others. Most of the samples & synths are pretty stock/vanilla sounding. The lead at 2:23 is a good example of something that really feels too weak to carry the melody of a track. I'd either replace it with something else or try some effects/eq to get it to cut through a bit better and provide a little more interest. Agreed with Emu that the drum loop (especially clap) stuck out as out of place and amateurish to me. I'd work with the pattern more to get it more interesting and look at some different samples if you can. Also, there's delay on pretty much everything except the drums (even the bass). I'd recommend a little more restraint on how you use it as, while it can provide a cool washed out effect (and does at times in this mix), it can also make everything get noisy and indisctinct really quickly like at 4:50. Looking at the original decision, it looks like some of the same issues are present here as before. Not trying to be a downer on your mix, cause I really dig how you've approached the source and the wandering-type feeling you get listening to it, you just need to tighten up the production side to bring it up to the same level. No, resubmit please

Man, on the fence here. I didn't feel like this was a clear yes as Larry indicated, but I'm not necessarily in the NO camp here either... So short and quick version: -Right off the bat the mixing felt off to me, as mentioned before. Bring compression down a bit. Vocals down. Kick could use some more oomph body I think as you can only hear the "click" of it really clearly when everything rockin. -Bass sounded a bit loose at the start, but layered with everything else it sounds fine to me. -Vocal performance was the big highlight here. Nice work. -"I can run faster than Ken" is awesome -Ending was weaksauce So, on the first listen, I was leaning toward the no, resub camp. However, upon repeated listens, the mixing issues really didn't come out as such a prominent issue to me as to warrant an outright rejection. I wouldn't mind a version with levels tweaked, not to mention an actual ending . EDIT: given new judging guidelines, revisiting this conditional. Upon a fresh listen, I'm ok with this one going forward, mixing/ending fixes or not. Yes

Make sure you're on a clean, unused pattern. Go to playlist mode (as opposed to pattern mode). Go to the part of the track you want to record for, push record, then play. It'll let you record on the blank pattern as long as you have room in the playlist to keep going.

Beautiful arrangement here, Bobby. I can tell you've put a lot of thought and work into this. I don't think I've personally ever mixed an orchestral piece of this length. So yeah, samples aren't the strongest we've heard, but we've definitely passed weaker (my sm64 sub ages ago comes to mind). So, inherently, I don't see the samples as a great weakness here. That said, in general, the production was handled pretty nicely given what he's working with. There was a lot of dynamic contrast and he's effectivley intermingled various parts to make them work together effectively (eample :33 - 1:14 adds elements gradually to compliment each other). One main crit on the production side is there is an abudance of mids/high mids in a lot of the orchestra parts. Some eq work to bring them under control to keep them from resonating so loudly would be helpful. For my part, the chip/orchestra combination didn't bother me at all. It's true, you're mixing wet orchestra with the more dry sounding chip elements, but the chip parts didn't stick out over everything else, which would be the main danger here. The mixing between the two elements was pretty effective IMO. I agree that the arrangement goes on pretty long in general. However, listening through, each section brought something new and unique to the table and I never felt like I was getting the copy paste treatment. I don't see anything inherently wrong with a drawn out orchestral arrangement as long as it meets the above criteria. YES

Not a whole lot to add here. Very clean soundscape given the intensity of the arrangement. I was also worried about repetativeness in the first third of the song initially - it didn't sound like you were ever going to take on the second half of the melody. But turns out you were just saving it for later. Nice litte break at 2:20 and the changeup at 2:48 was very unexpected, but not unwelcome. Biggest issue for me was the transition to the end section, which while sudden like 2:48, wasn't as effective IMO. I would've gone with either a smoother changeover from intense to laidback or build up to some sort of big climax and then throw the listener with the quiet passage to end it. Right now the intensity just stops and the chill starts. Not a dealbreaker by any means, though. Overall, performance was excellent. Very solid guitar chops on display here, take note guys . YES

I'm feeling most of the crits mentioned in the last few judgements here, so I won't rehash them. To add, though, the arpeggio string stabs came off as mechanical and unnatural sounding to me. Take a look at your note velocities to see if you can get it a bit more organic sounding - for example, start the run with low volume, crescendo through the top and the decrescendo to the end of the run. Minor issue, but the sound cutoffs at :46, 2:18, & 3:12 transitions sounded a bit awkward to me - like halfway between gelling one section to another and a stark dropoff for effect. You may consider going with one or the other . As mentioned before, there are a lot of cool arrangement and sound ideas here. The execution just needs to be tightened up. No, resubmit please

I also didn't hear the original track, but I'm really into the most recent version. Arrangement is fantastic and varied. Performance is very expressive. Piano sounds nice and clear. Easy call here. Yes PS. Anyone else hear some random background squealing noise at 3:31 & 3:33? Sounds like some odd bleeding with certain notes in the sample perhaps.

Yeah, I can tell you from experience that it's really hard to get the mix down right with rock orchestra pieces. Orchestra does feel marginalized in the rock sections as mentoined before, but at least it's audible. The slow attack on the strings was a little distracting to me as it falls behind the beat once the rock section kicks in. The samples themselves aren't fantastic, but they're serviceable (larryism ). Great energy once it all kicks in with the rhythm guitars and performance was solid. While I'd like to hear it mixed a bit better, with so much going for it I don't want to hold it back. Yes

Wow, very creative take on a difficult source. I'd actually originally claimed this track as Jade wanted an orchestral take on it - but a few more listens to it made me think better of attempting to bring anything close to improving the OST. I just judged another track of yours and I must say I really like your use of reverb to give some spaciousness to your acoustic playing. The guitar performance is, simply put, solid. Nice use of effects to give the track a mysterious feel, making the listener want to hear more. Definitely moody in a very good way. Middle section shifts gears into a higher energy mode. It definitely felt more experimental with the glitched piano and other synthetic elements mixed with the acoustic guitar/drums. While unconventional, I still feel like it works. The lead synth did feel like it stuck out over everything. I think some reverb treatment would've pushed it back enough to blend better with the other elements. Being familiar with the source, the connections were pretty apparent to me. It's such a short tune, and pretty intricate in a sense, that I don't blame you for taking specific snippets of it and fleshing them out, rather than a more holistic approach. Again, you were very creative with the material and presented it well throughout the mix. Love it. Yes

Nice take on the source here. As mentioned, the playing overall was a little loose . Lead at :51 didn't have much high end, making it sound muffled. I guess it may have been intentional, but it makes it sound dull against the brighter acoustic and harder to cut through the mix. It couldn't potentially been a bigger issue, but it only sticks around until 1:18. Keys playing the melody from 1:19 were also pretty subtle in the mix for holding the lead melody, but I liked the atmosphere they brought & the sound design. Great creativity on a pretty short source track turning into a sort of folksy rock mix that doesn't disappoint. Yes

I agree the intro felt awkward. The different parts throughout come off to me as... rigid I guess I could say. The orchestral snare is dry and upfront. Despite various parts playing, the general soundscape feels pretty empty - especially in sections like 1:10. Sound design was a mixed bag for me. Some of the sound choices were nice, while some came off as too generic or lofi (starting pluck synth, bells piercing). I'm not sure the drum machine type beat really works with the orchestral snare - the patterns really don't compliment each other as written. Arrangement-wise, this is a fairly conservative take on the source. The first half was very much so - to the point I was getting ready to write off that aspect of the mix. There was some additional modulations and changeups in the second half that helped in this department, though. Writing near the end from 3:10 was a welcome departure and the pitch bend section was a nice touch. Still, I'd like to hear a bit more personalization on the theme beyond the brief modulations and soloing on top of the track. I think there's quite a bit of work left to do here, but I hope this doesn't come off as too daunting. Good luck to you. No, resubmit please

Thanks, dude. Assuming you're talking about the synth from 1:08 - 1:30, that was a Nutritious solo. WillRock did the guitars for this mix

I will. Yes

I don't really have much to add to what's already been said. Nice personalization and performance. It does feel a somewhat rigid as Deia mentioned and could really benefit a lot from more dynamics and rubato as Mr. Luers pointed out. A little hesitant on the transition at 1:55, but it feels minor to me and doesn't detriment the track too much. Though there's potential for more, I don't want to make the perfect the enemy of the good Yes

I like the slowed, dramatic pace you've set here. Rich always aims for the blockbuster movie soundtrack feel and with his ability and samples [/envy] he really pulls it off well. I hear what the other j's are saying on the canned vocals, but as Andrew mentioned, they resolve well so it's a minor point to me. Production for the most part is pulled off very nicely with clear separation of parts, even in the loud section. The kit felt a little small in comparison to the big orchestra/choir and orch drums - especially those cymbal crashes starting at 1:21. I guess if you're going for the live recorded feel, this could be plausible, though personally I'd recommend a little more powah. Arrangement is a very creative take on an oft-remixed track, so double props there. There's no question what's being remixed, but that doesn't mean the track is predictable by any stretch. I actually almost entered this PRC round myself as I had some arrangement ideas I wanted to try out, but time constraints kept me on the sideline - which in hindsight now sounds like a good thing. I hear what you're saying here Wes, but in my view this is more of a remixer arrangement choice vs. judge preference. If the transition doesn't work or if the arrangement choice really is off kilter to the point where it's a severe detriment to the track, I'd be on board with sending it back. As is, though, both high and low energy sections work and it's transitioned effectively in between, so personally I don't really see this an an issue with site criteria. Yes

As long as it doesn't HAVE to be that specific click sound, you can just create a pattern with a hihat hit or something on every beat and export it to wav.