Palpable

I'm up for the group buy if such a thing is still happening. I also might just end up commuting this year - $280/night is a bit ridic.

Yeah I think one has to be careful with 100% panning if only one side plays. That kind of thing gets tiring to hear very quickly. There wasn't too much of it here, but I would have liked less. The only other complaint I had was that the song was a little thin. I wouldn't have minded some thicker samples or less dramatic EQ or more reverb, something to beef it up a bit. As is, you've got great separation between your sounds though. Actually, when you've got parts where the guitar is muted all of a sudden, the dropoff is too much, so maybe more reverb would be the trick. As far as positives: everything else. The spartan arrangement works in your favor and there's enough to stay engaging. The change-up to the sparse, moody section hit at just the right time dynamically. Greta playing/sequencing. Lots to like! YES

This is really hot, I'm quickly becoming a fan of yours, Argle. This is perfect soundtrack work - rock drums, thundering piano notes, and a smooth base of guitar and electronics to underpin it. The woodwind lead threw me a little bit, but the beautiful piano breakdown that followed it got me right back on track. This is an easy pass. YES

I also feel like I've heard the source before in something, and I haven't seen the Grinch. Let's assume for now it is ok, I checked out a few songs from the Grinch movie soundtrack and the style is completely different. I suspect it is similar to an existing song from something else entirely, but haven't been able to figure out what it's reminding me of. I thought this was a pretty solid arrangement and nothing was a big problem here. The timing got a little off, as Brandon's subs have before, but that was it. The collection of instruments was well-chosen and fit nicely around the acoustic guitar from the original. The song would be perfect to hear in a show Pushing Daisies or something. YES

Check out The Fragile onward for some similar-sounding stuff. He got pretty soundtrack-y in that time period, great stuff. Your track is excellent too!

I don't think it sounding like a concert hall is a good way to describe the problem, because this is a largely orchestral arrangement and it should sound like that. I think the problem is more with the low-quality samples that don't sound as clear as they should. But the two other votes are dead on when they say that realism is a problem. It just sounds way too rigid and flat for what is supposed to be a realistic piece. I liked stuff like the drum roll near the end because that seemed like a very "human" moment. Whereas the coda that comes after it goes back to the same flat arranging. Just like the Asterix sub of yours I heard, focus on making your production sound more realistic. NO (resubmit)

Piano sound is serviceable and the room treatment is nice for the material, I didn't have a problem on that end. If I have any criticism it's that the song could stand to stand to be a little more dynamic, in tempo and changes in the patterns you play. But flow is excellent, writing is sharp, I see a pass. YES

Love the arrangement. Lots of interesting ideas, I don't think there's anything you should change about it. It's got a lot of character and style, especially for a song that's been done so much. Unfortunately the piano sound is a bit thin. I think the song would benefit from some compression and maybe some EQing. The paino sound itself sounds fine to me, though there are sections where the playing is a tad unrealistic. Talk to one of the more experienced solo piano artists on the site and see if you can get more direct feedback. This is too good not to get posted. NO (resubmit)

Mix is very bassy with the drums not really cutting through. I'm not sure I agree with the other judges that it's on the passable side - it sounded pretty unbalanced to me. I also have to second that the 1:35 section just sounds plain bad. The harmonic overtones there really don't work. Arrangement was good but I think it doesn't account for the mixing problems and the one short but troublesome section. NO (resubmit)

The site doesn't have any metal anyway, we don't need a metal guy. Or do we only have metal? I forget.

Pretty much. This is enjoyable, but definitely not realistic enough for what we accept. The sound palette reminds me of the Banjo-Kazooie soundtrack and as fine a soundtrack as that is, production standards have gotten better since then. There are also some minor mixing problems like the kick that Vig pointed out, but there needs to be better samples or more realistic usages of the samples you have. NO (resubmit)

Arrangement is really cool, lots of energy, good ideas on the table. But as been mentioned, the mixing is a big problem. The bass is really muddy, the cymbals make everything mush together when they're in play, and there's a lot of stuff you can possibly EQ out. I think it would help to do more A-B comparisons with professional songs. Your levels are actually fairly good, but there's a lot of dead sound to eliminate. Hope you get this one back to us. NO (resubmit)

This song has been covered and rearranged more times than I've eaten pizza but there's so much potential in music to do something new and different. I haven't heard a remix of this song quite like this before and while it wasn't perfect, there was a lot to like. The sax is the key ingredient here, really setting it apart and adding a much needed live element, but the larger track is well put-together. I agree with Jesse that the piano breakdown was a little weak, but whatyagondo. Overall this was good. YES

The first 30 seconds of piano were enough to put the kibosh on this. It's way too unrealistic - both the sample quality and sequencing could be improved. The strings have a similar problem. Pretty nice arrangement, but the production is too much of an issue. NO (resubmit)

The string and woodwind articulations were the weakest aspect here, but otherwise this was solidly put-together and relaxing. The piano by contrast was excellent - realistic sound, fit beautifully. This isn't a mindblowing arrangement or anything, but a solid sound upgrade with enough interpretation and flourish that it meets the standards. YES

Wow, this writing here is crazy. You guys have an awesome handle on how to keep ramping this song up in energy slowly and keeping things interesting. Can't imagine how long you spent on the drum programming. Sometimes ambient song submissions we get struggle to keep the listener's interest, especially songs without a strong lead like this one (although near the end the guitar takes the focus), but here with so much bubbling under, this is very engaging at all times - basically ambient prog! Yes, mixing could have been better but I'm falling in the camp of the YESes. This is so good that I could easily overlook the problems. YES

The only connection is the chord sequence, which is in this case very distinctive (almost random!). I don't think this source is unremixable but what's been done here just isn't engaging enough to me. It would be very hard to remix this source in a way that I would pass yet stays true to the simplicity of the original. This certainly tries but in spite of nice rubato, dynamics, flourishes, and different approaches to each section, there's still a lot of repetition. YMMV, I'm interested to see what others have to say. NO

I agree that this sounded a little below Chris' usual mixing standards, but that's a very high bar. Usually his work is extremely polished, whereas this was just a touch under that. It doesn't much affect my enjoyment of a great Torvus arrangement - dynamic sounds and writing, engaging programming, all the stuff I already loved about Mazedude's music is still here. YES

I wasn't feeling this one, but for different reasons than Larry. The drumwork sounded solid enough to my ears, but the arrangement itself didn't really work for me. I get that Doom is an ambient soundtrack, but there wasn't enough dynamics or detail in this to sustain my interest. The mixing contributes to that. If the guitars were mixed louder and the song had more bite, I could see it working as is, potentially. But it stays in first gear throughout. Some potential here, but can't pass it yet. NO (resubmit)

Not crazy about the drum sounds (flabby) and the mixing is a little off, but the arrangement is strong. The lead guitar has this sweet woozy sound and obviously the drifting toybox builds on that same mood. I liked what was going on, and the loose timing that sometimes hampers Brandon's songs wasn't an issue this time around. YES

Do you have to take over every project

I'm really impressed with how this project came together in the end. Here's my full review: Sixto - Cake: Though the cake isn't quite even, it has a charm that transcends the unevenness. Love the sloppy coloring of the candles, it seemed quite intentional and while that doesn't always work, it worked here. One of my favorites in the project. Brandon Strader - Cake (bonus): While there's some good ideas here (it's a cake, it has candles), this feels more like a WIP and it's obviously why this is a bonus and not part of the main project. I'd love to see Brandon keep working on this though. Also there's a spelling mistake in Stevo's name that you may want to fix. Maybe that was intentional but it didn't work for me. Overall, good stuff. I love both these artists and their talent really shone through. Also: happy birthday Stevo

I find a section of a song I love, play it over and over, analyzing it and figuring out what I fundamentally love about it. Then I shrug my shoulders and steal it outright for my song. The trick is knowing what to steal. (Only half kidding.)

Awesome to hear you like it so much. It's easy to feel in an album of so much good music that one's track gets lost, so reading something like this really makes pouring hours into a track worth it. I'm planning to do a track-by-track review too when I get some time, but in short, this album is on a different level than anything the site has released before. Unreal good.

I feel like my computer was hacked just having read it. I'm in the middle of listening to disc 3 so far - I usually save listening to OCR albums in full until they come out because it's more fun to listen at the same time as everyone else. I'm shocked at the quality of this album. Even though it's largely familiar faces, it seems like everyone really stepped up their game, perhaps wanting to match the quality of everyone else, and the result is something truly special. This is a new apex for OCR albums, and I'm only halfway through! I'll probably do a full review at some point.