Palpable

Ooh, love the direction Deimos took on this one. The move to orchestral score works beautifully for such a moody, atmospheric rather than melodic source. Great arrangement that doesn't overstay its welcome.

I got a heavy Metroid feel as well, not just from the use of choir, but from the off-kilter slightly alien synths used. Great work on the drums. I was disappointed that this never busted into a balls-out industrial onslaught like it hinted, but one of Chris' strengths is to never go for the obvious play.

It starts off a little rough, but picks up with some of the variations that come along later. Like most of us, seems like back then Xaleph's ideas overmatched his production. I agree with djp that the monoglide stuff was a big highlight.

I'm playing through FF7 for the first time (having largely skipped the PS1 era of gaming) and Listen to the Cries of the Planet has stood out as a favorite. This is an amazing take on that theme. The two main parts of the source are intact, and what's added is not all that overt (at least until the guitar comes in), but the overall package is highly enjoyable and I admire the restraint in adding only what needed to be added to make this interpretive.

Excellent arrangement, but have to agree that the rhythm guitars aren't sitting perfectly in the mix. Besides being slightly too loud, I feel like they're taking up too much foreground in the way they're produced. Sometimes it's hard to hear the orchestral work because of that. It's not a huge deal though, because I can still make everything out. Let's see if Jani wants to take a stab at re-mixing, but if he said this is the final, I would still pass it. YES

Jesse and Wes said pretty much what I would. It's halfway between an atmospheric score-like track and a melodic one, because the leads used all sound like background instruments. I didn't get a good sense of what this track wants to be. Sometimes the backing strings themselves are used like a lead and they're also not strong enough. I also thought the drums were mixed down a little too far, and they never delivered the impact they were building up to, especially at 3:12. Your string work is excellent and I feel like that's a great base for the track, but the rest doesn't match that potential. NO (resubmit)

I play online from time to time (same username), but I usually just draft and sell the cards immediately to recoup tickets. So I can't really play against anyone because I don't have a collection! But feel free to add me if you want to chat. As far as tips... I don't know how much you've used the client, but practice with it a lot. It takes a while to get used to. F2 (shortcut for OK) and F6 (shortcut for auto-yield until end of turn) are invaluable for playing fast enough not to lose to the clock. Also, avoid combo decks in constructed because they are a bitch to click through and everyone will make you do it.

Yeah my vote looks a lot like Wes'. Production is not perfect - the lead could stand to be brought out a little more, and the synth could use more bite - but there was enough good stuff going on that I'm ok passing this. Great sounding drums. It felt like you were comfortable with what you were doing here, and the adaptation was smooth and effortless. YES

After reading the comments, I felt like it was worth listening to the song before the sources to get a sense if I felt like the track had a cohesive feel. I didn't think it did, I didn't get a good sense of direction from this. There's a lot of jumps (ha) in the flow. In addition, I thought the mixing was very unpolished. Some of the instruments are quite dry (and a lot of the sounds are plain), while the drums are really treated with 'verb. Sometimes the volume jumps one way or the other, from section to section. I can sum up the whole track by saying I felt like it was made quickly, without a lot of attention to making things go smoothly. Sure, there's some cool stuff going on, but this needs to cook longer. NO (resubmit)

While there's some good ideas and a good vibe, the production kind of does this in. Not only are the drum patterns on loop for a lot of it, the velocities don't change on things like the hi-hat and it's really apparent. Sometimes that kind of stuff is easily ignored in tracks where there is a lot going on, but this is such a sparse track that I couldn't help but focus on it. I don't know what you did to the bass and kick, but I would highly recommend centering both to give your track some solidness in the middle. The piano bridge was also really awkward, for the reasons Emunator pointed out. This kind of reminds me of the first version of your SoR track, and I have a feeling you can polish this one up a lot more too. NO (resubmit)

Great arrangement, the adaptation to a Chopin-esque waltz is completely natural. I thought the writing struck an excellent balance between the source and your original additions. There were a few things that could have been better, and they are significant, I'm afraid. The lack of rubato hurts and gives this a rigidness that a Chopin waltz would not have. There's a number of moments where I expected you to slow down, but it never happened. If you wanted a pause at 1:55, it should have been longer; it sounds like a mistake though a minor one. However, the most important thing I heard was the lack of dynamic range. Did you compress this? It sounds like there's a lot of compression going on, and the piano's natural dynamic range is missing. Like, I can hear quiet parts but they sound nearly as loud as the loud parts. I wonder if that easy fix would improve this a lot. As it stands, I can't sign off on this. There's a lot of great stuff going on, but the issues are dragging it down. NO (resubmit)

The solo vox definitely stuck out to me too, in what was otherwise an excellent arrangement. It sounded like it was meant for a key that shared most of the same notes but not all. I have to imagine the dissonance is intentional on Rich's part (or at least acknowledged), but it was a weak spot in my book. I was actually more bothered by the end than the intro, because the same solo vocal clip was used multiple times in a row, with the same off key note. Not a dealbreaker but I also think other people will get bothered by it. The song never builds to full bombast but does a lot with controlled tension. Very nicely executed overall. YES

For reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvfcnpJRf0Q Talking about the bass, or the weird melody that plays during the chorus? Always thought the latter sounded kind of Metroid-y, but not ripping off a particular song...

1. Yes, we've looked at everything before Nov 13. If you submitted something before that date that didn't show up on this list, and you didn't get a direct rejection email about it, PM one of us. 2. This site is about interpretation. Anything where you're just straight copying the parts for guitar and drums is not gonna pass. 3. It might.

I'm feeling Jesse's criticisms that this is heavy on the compressor but it was pretty easy to listen to IMO and not a whole lot louder than what we normally pass. Lots of fun glitchage to make some jittery electronica. You've got some funky and unusual sounds in this and I like the package. YES

Wow, you think you've heard all people can do with Prelude and then this comes along. This is fucking fantastic, definitely the best Prelude arrangement I've ever heard. I even thought the first half was pretty good, but like everyone else said, the second half just blows it away. How you kept this going for 6:20 with a steady direction, a boatload of variations, and absolutely no loss of interest from me is highly commendable. I salute you. YES! Might suggest increasing the track loudness a little though.

Very close call on this one. I enjoyed listening to this, and after my first listen I was thinking about passing it. But after relistening, the weaknesses were more apparent. It feels like a background track because of how low the lead is mixed in. halc and Emunator kind of hit on this, and I think it's a good criticism. I also thought that this needed a tad more development. You've got a great handle on details like transitions and effects, but I heard the same patterns used over and over, and it felt like mix and match. Add in the ending that just ends and it adds up to a NO for me. Great candidate for resubmission, with just a little more work I could pass this. NO (resubmit)

Don't get too excited about half-health. I'll be disappointed if this is OA's only form...

Hmm, what a song to judge. I can see why Jesse and Wes went NO on it: the juxtaposition of the largely atonal guitars and the happy melody is hard to get my head around. It's similar to another track of Justin's that I just judged, but I felt like there was a little more cohesiveness to that one. This is more like the melody slapped on top of a totally original track. (I also agree with Jesse that my favorite parts were the brutal original sections - the source-inspired stuff was a little obvious.) There were one section that used the source chords along with original melodies (1:06) and I would have liked to see more of that. Totally understand a YES vote on this, but I'd like to see a little more cohesiveness to the arrangement. I know that can be a vague criticism, but it really feels to me like the source is not well incorporated into the larger track. NO (resubmit)

Seemed pretty solid to me, if you can look past the incongruity of the death metal and the happy melody. Production is good, and there's a decent amount of variety in how the source is handled. Great drum switch-ups when it felt like it was getting stale. I'm good with it. YES

Hai can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure this song, like his other posted remixes, is a recording of him hand-playing it on his keyboard. He probably started out on Finale but I don't think this was done in Finale. Though I'd love to see him get his own setup going, I'll continue to fix up anything else he sends me because it absolutely deserves to be up on this site.

Gotta say that I like the suggestion avaris and Dj Mokram have gone with for the University shirt. The font and the design of the shirt still spell out the collegiate reference; there's no need to have the "Overclocked University" text when we can just go with "Overclocked Remix".

I know there was a lot of talk about how the shirts should promote the site, but honestly, the only thing I'm concerned about in a shirt is whether I like it, and I think most people buy merch just for themselves. For instance, I own an Achewood shirt that has absolutely no indication it has to do with the comic, but I love the design. But because it's an interesting design, many people have asked me what it's from, and I'm happy to tell them what it is. I guess sometimes an interesting-looking shirt can spark discussion with the wearer about the thing it's about (which is promotion), but I can't say I've ever seen a shirt out in public where I went home and googled the thing written on the shirt. I guess all I mean to say is good design creates its own promotion. The instrument shirt gave me the idea for another shirt, though maybe this is too blunt. You'll have to picture it: [Picture of guitar and keyboard] + [picture of controller] = OVERCLOCKED REMIX

I was aware of the Sonic 2/Sweet Sweet Sweet connection (in fact, I have that Dreams Come True album), but I hadn't realized there were other DCT connections. Going off of the very close release dates between that album and Sonic 2, it's likely the song was written both for his group and for the game, in which case it would be eligible to remix. I'd have to do more research to be sure, but I would definitely err on the side of letting the ending theme be eligible if we can't find something conclusive. We had a similar discussion about Hikari, but it was clear from interviews that Utada had at least kept the game in mind while writing the song (though I can't find a link for you anymore), so that was conclusive enough to say it was ok for remixing.

Oh Hans Zimmer. Always good for an overblown main theme. Yeah I can see why this decision is so split. There's so much awesome going on in this song, and it's rare for me to reject a song that has good production and no problem with source usage. There's tons of wonderful little details and some excellent arrangement ideas. To be fair the production is not perfect, and the dry, upfront guitars weren't great, but that wasn't a dealbreaker on its own. The biggest problem for me is the flow. This song is broken into chunks of measures and there's little to no connection between them. IMO, once you mix up the complete dropouts with some more subtle transitions, you'll easily get something passed here. Another way to give this more coherence is to not completely switch instrument sets between the rock and electronic sections. I think having the rock sections keep the electronic drums with maybe the drumkit cymbals thrown in would have sounded pretty sweet. That would have given this much more unity; as is, it kind of feels like you're switching back and forth between two radio stations. The piano didn't sound great but only when it was isolated, which was just a few seconds. Close call, but I'd like to push for another version. I feel like with some small changes, this could be very well received. NO (resubmit)