Palpable

I like the entrancing mood you designed here out of so many ambient, floating elements. The lead is pretty much your anchor in this song and it held down the melody end of it nicely. The song does sound like loops on top of loops, but the layering was intelligent, it never sounded wrong or bad to me. In total, it's a very interesting production paired with a tweaked Chrono Trigger melody that works beautifully. YES

I will be there!

Another great arrangement from you guys. I think I liked this one even more than your FFVIII sub. While the mixing is still cluttered and sometimes unbalanced, the soloing is crazy and the energetic writing is excellent. More importantly, you can hear everything in here so I don't have the same problem with this as your last sub. I still think you should spend more time on the mixing and getting levels more even, because there are some weird transitions here, where the volume drops out more than I expect it to. I ain't gonna say NO to this though. YES

Arrangement is very cool. Lots of hooks to draw your attention, a great blend of new writing with the old. The sudden dropoffs broke the flow IMO, but that's pretty much the extent of what I didn't like about the arrangement. Very good stuff. I thought the mixing felt very rushed, and I'm on the fence about whether the arrangement makes up for it. Eh, scratch that, I'm going NO. It's not often I come down on production more than the other guys, but this doesn't sound right to me. There's way too much reverb on some of the synths, strings, and drums, and the levels are also a little off, with some synths getting too loud. I don't think it's a lengthy fix-up for you guys, but it would greatly enhance the piece. Right now, it sounds too unpolished and the gobs of reverb makes it hard to hear the great arrangement underneath. NO (resubmit)

I'm gonna agree with my fellow judges. While a fun arrangement that has a good deal of variation for 8 minutes, there are a numerous problems with this. Foremost, there's very little interpretation of the source. For the first few minutes, it is used unchanged with supporting drums and bass; for a couple minutes in the middle, it is completely original. There were parts that combined elements of the original with your own writing, but the part added 4:35 really didn't complement the piano part. The source also gets buried by the supporting work sometimes. The production also had issues, namely the cramming of so many elements together. I think with some proper EQing and balancing, it could have worked, but there are points like 2:00 which just sound overstuffed. I'm actually gonna recommend not resubmitting this one. It's an old piece for you, the sound quality does hurt a little bit as a result of the length, and there's just too many issues to deal with. Feel free to send us some newer stuff though, something more in the bounds of what we can take. NO

A fine pairing of the two sources. The mood is the same, but the new leads add a lot and the song sounds of one piece. It's personalized and enjoyable. This falls down in the execution, I'm afraid. The mixing is off, and a lot of the leads sound too far forward, too much in the listener's face. That got alleviated at 2:00, but there were still elements like the guitar that were too loud. Compare your song to the sources (or songs in a similar style) to get a better sense of where instrument levels should be. There's also a sense that the instruments don't share the same space until that 2:00 mark. Pretty much, I would use that section as your benchmark for how the song should, and don't stray too far outside of it. The sequencing on the guitar is completely unrealistic too, which really hampers this. Not saying it has to sound professional, but when you hear repeated notes that sound identical, it takes the listener out of the experience. Sorry to get harsh, but this needs to be cleaned up in the production department. The arrangement is solid; just focus on the other half of the picture. NO (resubmit)

I'm finding it hard to decide on this one because of the possible liberalness, so I'll just point out some things and wait for some other votes on this. I have no idea what Larry's talking about with minor key version of 1 second of the source? I didn't hear anything there, maybe someone can explain that to me. The opening is a dead ringer for the castle music of Zelda 2 (pretty much just the last couple notes are different). That motif is altered a little at 3:45-3:56 and the falling arpeggios are a match for the opening of the source. I'd probably count that section. I also thought the staccato playing was a little weak at times, and the clarity got lost on the lowest notes. Probably not a deciding factor in my vote.

I'm reasonably familiar with the soundtracks and this is the stuff I definitely heard: 0:54-1:04 Lullaby 3:31-3:47 The Storm 1:04-1:07 also sounds familiar, and I feel like that's from one of the ending themes? There's a lot of things that sound Zelda-esque in here, so I might be missing a lot. Maybe we should ask him.

I like the arrangement, the mix of piano with some icy synths and a generally barren soundscape. You crafted a consistent mood and expanded on the original. There was some repetition of ideas, but my big problems were on the mxiing side. Right off the bat, the sounds get very piercing, and in general there's too much of an emphasis on the high frequencies. The levels of your instruments need to be adjusted to get a more balanced sound. The high piano notes also sounded like they were in a different space than the drums and synths, which comes down to volume, reverb and EQ settings. They need to be more settled in the mix - right now, they are right out in front. You could also sequence them less rigidly. Pretty much, if you can fix those production problems I could see this getting passed and I think your song would be the better for it even if it doesn't. NO (resubmit)

I love the stark, contemplative approach taken here. Gorgeous mood, very intimate. This could have easily been boring, but the small details in the live playing and the short length make it perfect background music that doesn't overstay its welcome. I would have loved to see some light hand percussion in the section Larry mentioned, but I'll live without it. Thanks for sharing this, guys. YES

Huh? What Randall said isn't stupid (at least, what is quoted in that article). Why wouldn't there be a market for rhythm games that don't use consoles? Obviously this is moving more in the direction of being a real guitar which I guess is the joke, but I would love it if I could plug my Fender into a TV and have the sheet music and tempo and backing track there for me to play along with. Call it Guitar Hero that's more like a guitar, or a guitar with video game-like features, but it sounds good to me.

The arrangement concept is cool, a drastically different feel to the material. But it was short, and I thought a little underdeveloped. It stuck to the original very closely, and though the new writing and drums added to the piece, it still seemed conservative. A less bombastic original section could have balanced the rest of it while adding more interpretation. And while this could be just me, I think there's too much overplaying here, adding notes unnecessarily. I'd go back over your 1:40 section and be more thoughtful with your string writing there. It sounds unpolished and not that melodic to me. The articulations weren't great, especially the strings. I'm no expert on how to fix that stuff, but folks in the Workshop forum might be able to help you. The mixing was also unbalanced, focused too much on the drums and brass. It ends up clipping, it's so loud. This isn't ready to pass here, but I like the general ideas and I hope you work on it some more. NO (resubmit)

First off, excellent beat. I liked what you had here, very easy to listen to. However, it's hard to hear the melodic content in this song. The treble gets so loud, the melodic stuff gets lost. From what I could tell, the song keeps the chords intact and transfers the harp part to a synth, somewhat. The synth part is hard to make out, so the connection to the source is weakened. I also thought the song got tiring in how it handled the source. It built up pretty nicely as a trance song, but just not so much as an arrangement of Zelda, if you get me. More direct voicing of the melody would have helped to solidify the connection and keep the song interesting. As mentioned, that treble is way too loud. It eats up all the space you have. You have to tone it down on the hats and stuff. Let the melodic parts use some of that space. Afraid that this is not ready to pass yet. Another pass at it to redo the mixing and maybe tweak parts of the arrangement could put it over the top. NO (resubmit)

Yeah, nothing wrong with the club approach taken to the material here, but it does need more variation. There's a lot of repetition of ideas and a lot of the background parts play very simply. I agree with Larry that the sounds were also on the generic side, and using a lot of them makes the arrangement less interesting to listen to. The mixing could also be improved. There was a lot of reverb here and it made the track sound distant. The leads were too loud and overpowered the rest of the track. A decent start, but I couldn't help but feel like the track could do a lot more within the parameters you've set. Hopefully we've given you some ideas on how to improve it. NO (resubmit)

Have e-mailed these guys with our comments, since it looks like we all want the mixing fixed. EDIT (7/7): They're gonna send us a new version. Here's what they said: Hey Palpable, It's Matthew. Thank you for getting back to us. Connor asked me to ask you to ignore his last email. Thing is, instead of just resubmitting the same piece with mixing revisions, we're going to take all factors on board and redo the whole thing (but of course in the same structure and style). We are both confident that we can get a resounding "YES" from you and the rest of the judges. We really appreciate the comments and remarks you've given us so far, and we will be using them to further better the piece. Thank you again Palpable, Liontamer, CHz, Vig, Another Soundscape, Fishy, OA and Darkesword. We won't disappoint! ;D - Matt (M-One)

Pretty easy YES. The opening beats did seem a little weird for some reason, but after a while it hit a groove. This is Rozovian's best production I've heard thus far, with the soundscape pretty clear and the sample quality pretty high. I liked the lead synth work a lot. Wouldn't have minded an extra element or two at times to complement it, but this had a lot of cool stuff going on, both ambient and in-your-face. Let's see some variation on your style next time, dude. YES

There is VGL at Wolf Trap this coming Friday if you need to feed the addiction. I'll be there for that.

1. Sure. We just passed a song like this. 2. Can't give you a blanket answer like that, it really depends on how good the producing or arrangement is. One can compensate for the other, but only to a certain extent. I will say we don't get that many subs with great production that are lacking musically (it's rare to see someone who can produce well but doesn't have a melodic ear), but often we get great-sounding subs that are too liberal or conservative with the source material.

That's an excellent deal. I got the Komplete/Kore package last year for a fair bit more money and I've been very happy with both of them. Lots of variety, easy to use.

Reminds me a lot of old-school OCR subs, including my own Oedo Hop. There's a playfulness with the source material that's downright infectious. You did a lot of filling in of background parts and soloing over the chords that set it apart from just being a funky cover. Sure, there are moments that get piercing and samples that are on the weak side, but it's a pretty easy YES call to me. YES

"Dance of Illusions" has been used in a few of the Castlevania games, I found out while researching it, but all the versions I listened to had the same structure and melody, that I don't hear in this arrangement at all. It's similar stylistically, and I liked the oppressive mood and sound, but this isn't something we can take. If it does turn out you just had the name of the source wrong, please let us know, but the fact that you mentioned it was heavily remixed leads me to believe you did intend this to be inspired stylistically by that song. NO

I'm a little torn on this, there's some rough spots. The quiet mixing gives a distance to this piece that I don't like, which was similar to your FFVI arrangement. In the parts where the writing is really sparse, it loses me. Not a dealbreaker, but something that detracts. I'm also not crazy about the arrangement because it's fairly conservative for the first 1:22 or so. You've got some new bass and drum action tucked into the background, but the piano and cello is pretty much straight source. But then there's the good stuff. After the first 1:22, the writing gets a lot more expansive and intricate, on all the instruments. It's a lot of fun. The playing in this one is better than your last piece, with only the occasionally flub. Production is more natural, somber mood is well-crafted. It stands apart from the Neskvartetten song pretty clearly. Rather than overthink a close call, I'm willing to throw this the YES just because I think it's a clear improvement over your FFVI sub, which the panel passed (though I said NO to). Keep sending us stuff, Bradley, I think you've got a unique style. YES

We got a Mirror's Edge sub of "Still Alive" (the other one) before the game came out, but after it was known that the song would be in the game, so yeah upcoming games are ok. We'd just want to be sure the song will actually be in the game before we pass it, and not just used as trailer music.

The last vote was a while ago, so it showed up several pages behind. Next time we do that, I'll try to bump the thread so it shows up more recently.

See? We take people's damn suggestions!