Palpable

Whoa wall of sound intro. I was transfixed by it. Amazing texture there, the stop-start guitar with the relentless chiptune leads. I was very happy to see that make another cameo near the end. The rest of the song isn't quite as stunning, but still, great writing and production throughout. I really like this one, guys!

Did you even THINK about the impact this would have on us?? Massive inflation, riots in the streets, money becomes worthless! Jeez, dude, what a stupid idea.

Being a HUGE fan of the Alpha and Beta mixes, I jumped on this as soon as I saw it. I think it fits in nicely with those. It's got the same swirly filmic quality yet it's more adventurous, and I like the expansion of your palette of sounds and effects. Unfortunately, it's more loosely connected to the originals than the first two parts. Here's how it breaks down for me: 0:00-0:49 - original 0:50-1:29 - melody from Flowers 1:30-1:48 - original 1:49-2:35ish - chords from A Walk 2:36-3:43 - original I can maybe hear some of The Maw around 2:42, but that's very loose and only lasts about ten seconds even if it's there. Didn't hear Flowers come back at all. I could maybe see another judge give you some chord credit for the connecting sections, but that felt too loose to me. I would have liked more direct usage like 0:50-1:29 or 1:49-2:35, some sort of persistent connection like the first two mixes had. To me, what you've got is too liberal. On the production side, the overall song was quiet and also maybe could have had less dynamic contrast. I really had to crank my speakers to hear it before the lead came in. Otherwise, fine work. This still shows off your attention to detail. I don't know if you're up to retooling this for us, but I'd obviously love it if you did. (Or if a judge could point out some clear connection I'm missing, that would be even better.) I'm certainly keeping the song in any case. NO Edit (6/25): Psych! See next page.

So a seal of approval, then. *makes mental note to work this joke into a decision thread*

It's not his fault. Alanis has confused the definition for our entire generation.

I've been a huge fan of your more recent stuff, Jimmy, but I wasn't feeling this one all the way through. I didn't like the first synth lead and the lead at the end Dave mentioned as much the guitar lead, which was kickin'. Wouldn't have minded that used all the way through. But the rest of the song - the beat and especially the effects - was awesome.

Aero the Acrobat is the big one, for me. The gameplay is decent but I really only play it to hear the awesome soundtrack. There's several other games where I play it half for the game, half for the soundtrack. Also, I bought Lemmings 3D only for the soundtrack, but ended up enjoying the game more than I thought I would.

I seriously hope Robin Shou is playing Liu Kang in this.

Haha, nice! Zangief looks like he's about to get his candy ganked by Ryu.

Even with the sources you posted, Jimmy, I'm having a hard time getting a handle on this one. I hear Unforgotten at 2:15-2:51 and 3:37-4:13, but I don't even hear the Halo chanting anywhere, other than some soloing that plays around with the same music mode. Basically I heard a lot of soloing in this song that didn't connect with the original. I get how it was inspired by Halo, but it just didn't sound enough like specific Halo songs. I feel like I'm probably missing something though, so a breakdown from someone more familiar with the source material would be lovely. Regardless, I don't think this song is a pass either way. I thought the song had a good sound and I liked the guitar playing, but I wasn't a fan of how much game dialogue was used in the intro and outro. I didn't think it added much. More importantly, the song sounds very distant and it should be produced differently. Nothing really stands out, and that guitar should be brought forward more. The track sounds like in-game music designed to be talked over and be unobtrusive. Be more obtrusive! Some EQ work would also help, because parts blend into each other too. It's a NO either way, but whether or not it's a potential resubmit depends on how much source is used. NO

Ouch, you guys weren't kidding. This really hurt my ears, and even turning down the volume down a bit, it's still mixed really hot. Take down those high frequencies! Strings take up more room than they need to, and they bury the vocals at times. In hip-hop, usually the vocals are very clear, front and center, so pulling those strings back would help. I really like this arrangement. Of all the songs to rap over, this is one of the last I would expected, but it definitely works. There's a couple points where the melody gets creative and the new chords don't quite work, but the arrangement is fine as is. Just clear up those production points. NO (resubmit)

As mentioned, we take out the link by default because we don't want people to get pissed that we linked to their private space or that everyone gets to see the song they want to fix up. If the remixer specifies that they want the link to stay, we keep it. I do keep a stash of rejected remixes! It's the stuff that I really liked, but either didn't meet the standards or didn't pass even though I said YES. I've even mentioned in decisions that I'm keeping the song. One of the perks of the job.

It's even sweeter hearing the music on the big screen while you're kicking ass. I downloaded the soundtrack yesterday and got to hear just how detailed some of the music is. My favorite is probably AE and Prozax's title theme. Incredible arrangement and performances - what a way to start the game. Also gotta shout out to Malcos' Dhalsim track even though it was on BotA. The original track from the game was always a little annoying to me, and Malcos managed to make it into something great.

Damn, sweet track. I love that percussive static or whatever the hell it is. I thought your version in the game was nice, but this is definitely more my style.

OK, I've done a LOT of thinking on this song, quite likely more than on any other song I've judged. After hearing the points of view in this thread and seeing Dave's decision that the sampling was not strictly against guidelines, I'm switching my vote. To come to this decision made me really rethink what OCR should be about, not necessarily what it is. Looking at precedent, there isn't a single song that uses sampling as prominently as this song does. It was on this basis that I said NO very quickly, but once I thought about it, there shouldn't be an inherent problem with sampling. It just makes the remix closer to the original. The song seemed very conservative to me for a while because I got stuck on the fact that the melodies had not changed. It seemed more like a remix in the DJ sense rather than an arrangement. But a remix CAN be an arrangement - it just depends how much has changed. In this song, a lot has changed. The remixer took the two main melodies, put effects on them, and crafted a completely new soundscape behind them, also changing the song's structure. The second half has even more changes than that. I think passing this definitely sets a new precedent, and anyone who says YES should be aware of that. But I also think it opens up avenues we should open. YES

QFE. I wasn't planning on getting the game, but I got it as a gift for my birthday, and it came with the Extra Disc yesterday when I picked up the game. Both songs sound amazing but we're only talking 6 minutes of music. Where's the rest?

Beautiful source, and I thought your song was ambitious and equally beautiful. Reminded me a lot of Iris, a favorite group of mine. Unfortunately I found it hard to see the connections too, even with your breakdown. I can hear a general similarity in chord structure and to a lesser extent, melody, but the huge number of tweakings might take it too far. When I get a chance to sit in front of a keyboard or DAW, I'll try to get a better understanding of how you used the source. Initial impression is it seems too loose, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I can get tripped up by key transpositions, and I want to be as fair as I can to your song. Like Larry, I thought the production had some issues. Vocals were too far forward and sounded dry. Instruments like the piano and a couple of the louder synths took up a lot of room when they got loud, and the overall picture was cluttered at times. EQ might have smoothed out those issues. I can tell you've put a lot of work into this so far, but a song this ambitious requires a lot of work to get everything to sound right. I'm holding off on a vote until I can get a better sense of how the song breaks down. Edit (11/27): Alright, this is how it breaks down for me: 0:00-0:15: Original 0:16-0:47: Piano plays bells from original 0:48-1:15: String part similar to violin part, chords also similar 1:15-1:41: Original but similar chords 1:42-1:55: String part plays violin part from original 1:56-2:23: Original but similar chords 2:24-3:32: Original 3:33-3:53: Earlier piano part rearranged 3:54-4:04: Original 4:05-4:32: Original but similar chords 4:33-5:09: Original 5:10-5:43: Piano plays bells from original Sorry, Justin, but I'm really not seeing the connections you're drawing. I mean, none of the vocals sound similar to any part of the source to me. The intro and outro were strong enough connections, but the meat of your song had just a chord connection (and even that you modified a little). Chorus was entirely original as far as I can tell. If you or someone else can convince me that there's more I'm missing, I'm all ears. I thought the song was excellent and I'd love to able to pass it. The production issues are noticeable but not that hard to fix - might hold you to a conditional YES, in that case. Where we are now is the song is too liberal. NO

Nice performances, but yeah, too much of a cover for OCR. Some additional new writing beyond 2:03-2:24 would help personalize this, as well as modifying the melodies, changing the structure, etc. I also wasn't a huge fan of the abrupt song transitions, but the bigger deal is the cover-ness. I thought you did a good job balancing and making all the parts clear, but the drums are a little flimsy, lacking power. I also thought the intro was muddy for the first 0:20 before the synth and piano are brought in. NO

C'mon, we only have six Jenova mixes. It's not THAT popular. Actually, you brought a lot of new ideas to the table. I really like the overlaying of different time signatures and the jazzy new chords and runs you added to the song. Very personalized but still clearly tied to the original. I wasn't as big a fan of the processing, volume-dropouts, and slowdowns you did because I thought it was overdone. The 1:39-2:02 section was just too much to take and the flow was lost there. I'd rework that section and make the changes a little subtler. In smaller quantities, I can see them livening the piece up. AnSo dead on with production problems. Very muddy in the bass ranges, instruments muted so that they don't fill the high ranges. Try to especially bring the piano and rhodes out more in the high frequency ranges, and those might be the same instruments you need to cut in the low ranges to bring out the bass and make the piece less muddy. This is a good 80-90% of the way there. Just fix the problem areas and I think this is a pass. NO (resubmit)

Totally with Mattias on the arrangement. Great atmosphere here, orchestral but with some wonderful textures in the intro. I like the shifts between the quieter parts and the grandiose sections. You did a lot with with a source that is fairly static. All criticisms I have are on the production side. 1:17-1:30 and 2:50-3:00 are weak, as they expose your samples too much. Something sounded off about that low brass and the strings. Not a dealbreaker though, because they are short sections and they don't sound terrible. The strings coming in at 2:14, while sounding fabulous from an arrangement standpoint, also sounded too close, like there was one string player playing too close to the microphone. Not a huge knock on your song, but these details add up. The most grandiose sections are the weakest ones, which hurts. But I'm willing to give this one to you. It just passes my bar given the strength of the arrangement. Hope you send us more, and takes our criticisms to heart on the next song you do. YES (borderline)

I really like this one. It starts and ends very conservatively, but the vast middle section has a lot of skillful changes to the classic theme. Slight melody changes and chord augmentations sneak in first, followed by some higher octave flourishes (are you three-handed?). By the middle of the song practically every element is changed, while keeping the same basic structure. Every now and then, you went a little off the rails melodically, but I thought those moments were ambitious and usually the dissonance created interesting tension, rather than just being unmusical. Probably wouldn't have hurt to vary the beginning and end more, but I think the arrangement is fine the way it is. There is a slight rigidness to the piano playing, and the tone is not as good as it could be. I also found the water sounds to be a little distracting at times; maybe a softer volume and using EQ to separate it from the piano would have worked better there. But I don't think there's really a lot to complain about. You can hear every part well-enough, there's good dynamics. I'm gonna go ahead and say this one is good enough, though it could benefit from a little production work. Good work, Kaija! YES

There's one that should be posted pretty soon. Don't fret!

I've always found this source very shrill. Thankfully I didn't need to listen to it much because it's burned into my brain. By contrast, this is quite pleasant. Well that's unfair, anything would be. I'll be kind enough as to say it's quite pleasant by any standard. I generally like your approach here, keeping it simple but offering substantial changes. The playing was really gentle, and your soloing added a lot. But all of Larry's criticisms are dead-on. The drums HAVE to be varied. If the song wasn't so minimal you might be able to get away with one measure of drums, but even then I'm thinking probably not. You don't need to go haywire with it, but maybe throw us some extra hi-hats, some open hi-hats, light crashes once in a while, maybe a few measures laying on the ride cymbal. You can keep the relaxed mood but still give the listener more to chew on. I also wouldn't mind some more substantial melodic interpretation, but I think you clearly made this your own piece anyway, and I'm ok with it on that level as is. Basically, fix the drums and you have my YES. NO (resubmit)

Very cool minimalist concept you've got going on. Listening to those piano echoes dissipate is entrancing. In addition, I think you handled the source pretty well. It's reminiscent enough of the original, while clearly deviating in terms of structure and melody. I think like Larry, I'd like to see this piece expanding a little more. Two minutes goes by awfully quickly because of how slow this is. I wouldn't have minded a short bridge and another iteration of the melody. I think you could also bump up the volume a little. Please resubmit, because I think it'd be a great addition to OCR. It's very unique in style, and the series woefully needs some attention on OCR! NO (resubmit)

Very similar to the original, even the beat. This needs to have more interpretation. Even though I liked the beat, I wouldn't have minded it changing up. You could also add some flourishes in the bass or strings, some new melody parts, or even an original section. There's a lot you can do with this source, so do something unique with it. Production was not bad. Drums were a little loud but otherwise I didn't feel there were any huge problems. Try thinking this one over, Tyler. You can keep some of the instruments you have but the song needs to stand apart more in the writing. NO