Palpable

It's actually not as conservative as it appears, Wes. It reminded me a lot of Neblix's debut and similar songs in that it built vertically on a familiar riff. There's a lot of subtle additions like chord changes and harmonies. That was an excellent way to add depth because the focus here is the vocal and anything too crazy would distract from that. I found myself liking this a lot, the source was well-suited to rap. Great lyrics too. The fast section got a little sloppy and could probably have used a few more takes (I know rapping that fast is damn hard), but overall, very enjoyable stuff. YES

Definitely feeling the instrument choices and vibe, but I think you let it drift on too long before breaking into the Ke$ha electropop section. I was actually pretty surprised it busted into that given how chill you were keeping it. This ran out of steam a bit early and had a lot of repetition which really hurt. I also think you could have done more with the melody besides play it verbatim and then do your own thing. That's just one way to use the source; there are a lot more. A good start but needs more work. NO (resub)

Started off very conservative (with a worse sample), and didn't go much further than that, unfortunately. That's the biggest problem: it's too simple and too repetitive. Would have loved to hear a vocal on top of this or some other melodic elements to add some more foreground. The glitching near the middle got way too out-of-hand and wasn't that tasteful. It was used well in a couple of places where it just did some repeats and dropouts, and I suggest keeping it to that. NO (resub)

From the start, the sounds are on the weak side and the mixing is uneven. When the song fills out, the weakness of the samples is a little more masked, but the lead still sounds very flat and unexpressive. Later on, some of the same ideas get repeated. I like the chord changes, but I think this needs a lot of work still. NO

If you had asked me before hearing this if a chip/orchestra combination could work in a song, I'd be skeptical. This goes way beyond making it work - this is revelatory, this is phenomenal. You make the combination sound like it was made to go together. I truly don't understand the comments about this part working, this part not working - to me, it all sang. One of the best arrangements I've heard in the past year of judging. Sure, a few slightly weak samples and the mixing sounded too focused on the highs, but that's not even close to stopping this. YES

Let's be clear: if this didn't have vocals, there's no question in my mind it's a reject. It sounds like it was put together pretty quickly - a lot of generic sounds, muddy low-end, and not a ton of variation from the original (though there's some). The vocals... I can't stop laughing. You are entertaining. I don't know how intentional being off-key was but it absolutely added to my enjoyment, so kudos. Ultimately, I don't think I can pass this though. There's way too much I can point to as being lackluster. With some polish on the production and some more original elements, maybe... NO (resub)

Pretty sure we just get less metal then electronica, it's not at all a question of what we encourage (which is everything). I mean, I'd say the number of subs we get that feature any live instrumentation is less than the number of totally synthetic songs, though I haven't crunched the numbers.

Nearly every song in this world takes its chords from another song, intentionally or not. Even melodies are sometimes very similar. Historically, people have gotten in trouble when they borrow melodies, samples, or lyrics wholesale, not chords. I listened to the Star Fox one and it sounds different enough that I think you're in the clear.

Yeah much better than the last version. This is a great piano sound to match the arrangement. YES

Ooh, very nice. Right from the first lead coming in, this sets a peaceful, playful mood. I really liked the soundscape you made, especially when the piano entered the picture. The main drums could have been beefed up a little, but good enough for a pass, I feel. YES

Yeah awesome as this is, it's basically an original given how rarely the source comes in. Even the chorus is only like half of the riff. Fadeout is kinda awkward too. If you feel like redoing this for us and using the source more, that's awesome; if not, you've got a sweet original. NO (resubmit)

Hard not to like this one. Mario songs are very well-suited to chromatic percussion as it turns out, and this offered some cool new ideas for songs that have been done to death. It played out a little like a medley, but the flow between songs was good and the piece had a clear direction. Like the others, I thought it veered pretty close to being too conservative, but every now and then a new countermelody or chord would surprise me. Great performance. YES

The drums were pretty weak in what was otherwise a fun arrangement. Especially when the song got faster, the FL Studio default-ish drums just weren't keeping up with the power, and the timing was way off too. I really think if the drums were fuller and the timing was fixed, that would go a long way. There's a lot of other little things that Larry pointed out that would also help improve this. Hope you guys stick around and don't make this your only submission. I see a lot of promise. NO (resubmit)

The hotel has its own garage which is very expensive. The Harbor area has individual parking garages that are $11 a day. For Katsucon, we were able to park with no problem at the garage right across the street from the hotel, which was a five minute walk (if that). I'm definitely planning on leaving my car in one of the regular garages, unless there are penalties for leaving your car overnight.

No! Don't do that until afterward.

Most likely they just don't want to have to support a lot of outdated functionality on every new version going forward. Cuts down on development time is the big advantage, but also offering multiple methods of doing things sometimes just confuses newcomers. I definitely prefer the playlist now that I know my way around it.

I was thinking about YESing it without even listening.

Didn't agree with Jesse about the intro being too simple, but I did agree about the piano not sounding great (felt muted - probably comes down to the sample), and also that some of the block chords were muddy. A little more dynamic range in the song would have helped too, it felt just a tad restrained. The arrangement is awesome though and takes some very surprising turns in the original writing and in how the source is used. Ultimately for me, it's gonna come down to whether Rexy can fix the sound, like she did for her last song.

There's some effort in making the whole song sound unified, but the fact that the structure of each individual source is basically intact is disappointing. I felt like Mansoor hit one groove and went through each song over it, which is how a lot of medleys work. I did love the layering of the intro piano in the MM2 section and it's that kind of interpretation that is necessary for a medley to work on this site, in my mind. If this had more of that, I'd probably pass it. His Sunset Riders mix used multiple sources in a much more clear direction - one source being used for a breakdown section, another for a bridge, all contributing to a unified whole. Whereas this mostly feels like one song after another. I felt like there were more sources used in this than there needed to be. Solo guitar sequencing was fantastic, definitely a highlight. The drum sounds were a little plain and the drum track had the quality of a keyboard preset accompaniment. That's not to say it was bad, just a little boring. The piano should have been less stiff. The production issues don't matter to me much in light of the arrangement issues. NO

Yeah this is great work. I'm kind of a sucker for a good film score/electronic blend, and this delivers nicely on that front. I'll go ahead and email Cory and see if we can get a fixed version. Because of the dual issues of clipping and a cutoff ending, I would not be comfortable passing this as is. YES (conditional)

Felt like going on a little "Listen to the Cries of the Planet" run and reviewed all eight arrangements on the site, since I'm going through FF7 for the first time and that's my favorite song from the game (thus far). http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=828071&postcount=17 http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=828076&postcount=15 http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=828066&postcount=25 http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=828074&postcount=18 http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=828069&postcount=34 http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=828068&postcount=27 http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=828077&postcount=15 http://ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=828080&postcount=28

This is awesome. I think the mood created in the first minute is great, but the subtle vocal additions (these are perfect, btw) and strings do a fantastic job in keeping the song interesting and ramping up the emotion.

Didn't judge this one but it seems like a very easy pass. This is exactly how you blend multiple sources together; there was pretty much no moment where it was obvious you were switching sources. The time-sig stuff adds a lot of depth to what is already quire enjoyable. Loved the weird guitar effects in the intro.

Now that I've heard the source over and over in game (as opposed to when I judged this, which was my first time hearing the source), I can say... well, basically the same thing I was quoted as saying in the write-up. I love how the 6-note theme keeps drifting in and out on different instruments - the execution of that was brilliant. This is one of those mixes where almost all the interpretation is just in how the original pieces are used. There's little new material here, but a very distinct direction and voice.

I liked elements of this, especially the atmosphere, but I always felt like there was something missing to keep it compelling. I didn't get the point of the weird guitar synth brought in in the second half - it was asking for attention but so buried as to seem like a background element. Didn't quite fit the mood either. Not bad a debut mix, but I get the sense Daniel didn't totally know how to express himself (of course, I get the benefit of reading his comment which says almost exactly that ).