Palpable

This should find you some of them: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/search.php?searchid=1366289

I think Mario Likes Thorazine is still my favorite of Sam's, but this has some absolutely amazing performances in it. Jazzy soloing + fun beats is usually a winner for me.

Best thing about this song is the title. I mean, the song is well put-together, has a very unique, lurching beat, and some intriguing delay that I only caught towards the end - but c'mon. That title.

I really like this one, Bobby. The piano playing is very nice, and I love the parts you added to the song. The whole song flows very well, as if your additions were part of the original song. But they're not, and there's too many of them. Larry's breakdown matches with my own, it sounds like it's about 40% source and 60% your own thing. If you can shift that balance and make it more reminiscent of the original, I could easily see this passing. One last word: the overall volume seemed a little soft and I wouldn't mind seeing a little bump there via compression. I'd be happy if you send this one back to us after a revision, but no worries if you feel it's done. NO (resubmit)

I think that's just the ID the database uses to reference them and not the order they were released. So if for some reason an album was entered into the database before an album that actually gets released first, we wouldn't have to change album IDs and the catalog number would have the correct release order. The ID is meant to be transparent to the user, is my guess.

Nice setting of mood, reminiscent of the original while adding a lot of detail. I like a lot of the sound choices here. But dropping the source at 1:59 was too long a time. (Mattias, would you mind pointing out to me what you heard there? I'm not hearing anything, and I'd like to just double-check I'm not missing something before we close this one.) The 1:08-1:33 section was a little too sparse as well, given the lengthy intro leading up to it. I wouldn't have minded seeing the harmonies you bring in at 1:33 brought in there. Robo-voice was fine. I did think the 3:08-end section was hurt by the string quality and articulations of the sample. The long lead strings feel too flat to really carry that section, whereas earlier in the song, when it was more subdued, I didn't have a problem. At 3:25 when the sharp marcato strings are brought out, it really hurts cause it just sounds too fake. What can you do to fix this one, if you want to resubmit? I'd say think about rewriting the last section. Including some prominent cameos of the six-note riff would help solidify the connection to the original. If you can get better strings, try them out; otherwise, make the articulations as realistic as you can. Despite my criticisms, this one has a lot of good stuff in place, so I'd say try for the resubmit. NO (resubmit)

I liked the arrangement, but I thought for such a similar mood and set of instruments more could have been done when handling the source material. There were differences in those source sections, but they were subtle ones. Nevertheless, the new sections you added to connect things together were good. Production was iffy, as noted. There are weak moments like the string trills that stick out badly, but the rest of it was serviceable and I think good enough for our standards. Certainly better than MIDI - the sample quality is good, just not the articulations. A more humanized production would definitely improve the piece, and actually, would set it apart from the original more. Both the original and your arrangement are a little mechanical; with more humanized playing, better dynamics, etc., it would stand apart. If I was really solid on the arrangement, I wouldn't hesitate to YES, despite so-so production. As it stands, I think you barely squeak over the line. I'd highly suggest getting accustomed to a DAW, picking up some good orchestral software, and working on articulations. You could do a lot more with this piece. YES (borderline)

Was wondering what the hell you guys were talking about with direct sampling until I watched the Youtube clip. The section with the bell pad wasn't in the source file I had. Overall, I like the arrangement. I can't pinpoint any specific moments I really liked, but it was solidly put-together, had good energy and detail, and riffed on the source melodies nicely while adding lots of new components. I'm still a little unclear on our sampling policies, I'm afraid to say (largely because our standards don't say a lot about them). I tend to think as long as the sampling doesn't play too a big role and thereby make the song too conservative, it's kosher. In this song, it starts off very prominent but by the end of the intro is somewhat drowned out by the rest of instruments. To me, that's an acceptable usage. The melody handled by the piano in the original is there most of the time, handled by a synth, so even taking out the bell lead leaves you with a connected-enough arrangement. And there's plenty else going on there. I don't want to turn this into another debate thread. If everyone else feels the sampling is too much, I'll take that into account on future decisions, and we should consider updating the standards to add a line about keeping source sampling to a minimum. Right now all that's mentioned is to not take the original audio and add drums, which this song certainly doesn't. Back to the song. Thought the production was mixed a tad hot, the intro especially showing it. A more balanced sound would have been better, but I think this is fine in its current state. YES

Sad thing is it isn't that far off.

To be fair, we've only got one May and one June on the panel right now, and both of them are split decisions waiting on a couple stragglers. Around late July/early August is when you start to see a lot of subs on the panel. That's still about three months, not really an excuse for us.

1. If you're on the East Coast and you go to the meetups, especially Magfest, you get to meet judges. I ended up meeting djp, Liontamer, Darkesword, and BGC last year at Video Games Live, and zircon and pixietricks at the next meetup. So I think most of the East Coast judges have met each other. It's only a factor in that it helps give a better sense of a person's personality. Participation on the forums, your remixing history, and of course the arrangement criticism you can give counts for far far more. 2. Every so often, Larry gives us kisses for judging. Yeah, it's pretty weird.

Very pretty, but too similar to the original for OCR standards. 80% of this is straight from the original song with your own minor grace notes and a looser playing style. I would have liked to see more varied left-hand work, new chords, or melody modifications like what you did at 3:18. (I love that little transition into your new section there, taking the original melody with it. More along those lines, where your original writing integrates into the song would be awesome.) Strings are quiet but perceivably off. I think the decay is too long and the attack too short, because it always sounds like it is playing late, sometimes messing up the chords because of it. I didn't feel like it added that much to your beautiful piano playing and it could probably be removed. If you want to keep it, try to get the timing fixed. Might take some rewriting if you're hoping to get this passed here. As it stands, I feel like it has too little of your own input in it. NO (resubmit)

Wow. This is a pretty incredible arrangement, Jay. There's so much going on here, and a lot of very clever melds between themes. I actually appreciate the breakdown to get a sense of exactly how everything is used. Very climactic ending too. The overall sound could be cleaner and clearer but I could hear things well enough, and I thought you did a fine job with balancing levels. It would benefit from another pass to do some EQ work and jiggering with compression, but this is very solid in the state its in. I think it'll be a great showcase piece for the project. YES

Nice arrangement. It's very expressive, and well put-together. In particular, the piano you added was beautiful. When I first listened to the song, I too thought it was conservative, but closely comparing it to the original revealed a lot of subtle differences in melody and arrangement. It's personalized to my satisfaction. The production holds it back. The 0:43 to 1:13 section is a weak link. The guitar (?) that comes in there makes the overall sound lossy, and a lot of clarity is lost. I think that section needs more separation between elements if you want to keep it. The string articulations could have been stronger, but something I really thought was an issue was that the lead string is fairly quiet and muted, especially when you compare it to the backing strings near the very end, which come through a lot stronger. I'd even just consider swapping those instruments, but something needs to change there so that the lead sounds like a lead. This is very close and could be seen by some as a conditional YES (I think it has a little too much to fix to be called that). I highly recommend you fix the small issues and send it back to us! NO (resubmit)

Oh man, this song. Like everyone else, downloaded it off Napster back in 2000 or so, found out years later that it wasn't SoaD. Finding out years later (now) that it was on OCR all this time. Still a great, weird-ass song.

Great arrangement, dude! I've said it before, but I'm always a fan of how organic and live your arrangements sound. This is hard-hitting and always reminiscent of the Cody theme, even when it doesn't stick that closely to it. I love these kinds of remixes. And the vocals are flat out awesome. Your playing's good but what is up with the mixing? Some of it must be intentional distortion, but the overall sound is really lossy. The drums especially just sound so trashed out. I think using a few elements like that in a song can be cool, but when everything sounds that way, it's too much. Dunno whether it's from the recording or some effects you've applied after the fact, but I'd suggest scaling it back. I wouldn't mind hearing a little more EQ too, cause a lot of information gets lost. I don't wanna wreck with your concept, but I think with less distortion it would still have the effect you want while keep a fuller, cleaner sound. I don't think I can say YES to this as it stands, but maybe others will feel differently. NO (resubmit)

Not the best quality source, but it's gonna have to do.

Haha, love the remixer name. I definitely like what you're going for here. The piano is gorgeous and the mood is smooth. I could imagine Barry White whispering over it, but he's already got a Love Theme. The drums are a weak link and they didn't fit with the rest of the piece for me. They overpower everything, especially the snare. I would have gone for a snare that's deeper and more tucked into the background. Massive reverb on it too - think about cutting that back, it gets distracting. The song is also a little repetitive but I felt reasonably engaged for the six minutes, which meant you were doing a pretty good job. Some slight details in the groove or the bass could help distinguish the verses. Song is overall a little thin, and I wouldn't have minded some fuller instruments. When the strings come in, you're doing a good job with the soundscape, but there's some moments with just the bell lead that sound awfully lonely. Maybe even just making the percussion quieter and everything else louder would help. Last thing is the slight timing issues that my fellow judges noted in the chorus. You've got some stuff to fix here, but I hope you stick with this because the idea is good. Good luck, Dennis. NO (resubmit)

Great source. Makes me want to do something immediately, and with much great energy!!! Your arrangements tend to be bursting from the seams with energy, Joren. I love that. You could probably make things a little cleaner, but I can hear everything fine. The arrangement handles the source nicely, balancing more conservative sections with good original stuff. Some crazy-ass soloing towards the end too, absolutely wild. Great dynamics in all instruments, and just solidly put together. Let's get a render where that last cymbal gets a chance to fade-out and put this one up on the front page. YES

Excellent arrangement, Ronak. Expansive while always keeping a connection to the original, great part-writing. To me, this is pretty much exactly the kind of stuff OCR looks for. Larry is right that a lot of the highs are missing from this song, which makes the sound feel unnatural. I felt like I was hearing the song from a distance. Maybe you could include more of the dry signal or reduce any damping you've got going; it sounds like it could be a reverb thing. The other issue I had was that the opening piano and rhodes cover much of the same territory, sonically. You could use some more EQ to give these guys their own space. Like Larry also mentioned, the song opens quiet and you'll probably also want to boost the song's volume, maybe using some light compression. I really hope you give this one another try and resubmit it. The arrangement is perfect, and the production issues could actually be an easy fix, depending on whether things click for you. NO (resubmit)

Cool to see you sticking this one out for so long. This is an obvious improvement over the last version I heard (I didn't hear the last resubmit). Much better dynamics than the last version. The section with just your vocals is excellent and pretty much captures the Enya wall-of-voices sound. There are still problems with this arrangement but they are smaller. The piano gets marginalized very quickly, drowned out by the vocals, and still has a cheap quality to it. I think something louder and more-natural sounding would help. Certain vocal harmonies still grate on me a little, though I think that gets a little subjective. The big problem that persists from the previous version is that too many elements occupy the low-mid ranges. It's basically like you took the Enya song and moved the vocals down an octave or two. You can see how that would be a problem, right? Maybe emphasizing your higher-range singing would help mitigate that, and making the piano stronger might help too. You've really improved this one dramatically. The parts have good separation thanks to your EQing, and the dynamics of the song are solid. It's close to the border now, and I think with one more pass at it, this would be good to go. Just close it out, Bastian. NO (resubmit)

I need to get around to playing this damn game. What a weird-ass source. Never knew anything from that era of VGM was prog-rock. Nice performances, but apart from the acoustic guitar that opens the song, pretty much everything in here is from the original. The structure of the second half is identical to the source, except the very end. It needs more of your own spin on it. Right now, it's too much of a cover for OCR to accept. More along the lines of the acoustic guitar you threw in would work great. Production is really off. You've got some instruments that need to be louder, some that need to be softer, clipping on the toms, and just a general murkiness in sound. There's not a lot I can tell you here except that you need to improve several aspects of your production. Make use of the WIP forum to get close-to-instant feedback on what you're doing wrong. You might also have to do some re-recording to get some cleaner takes... sorry, man. NO

Sorry dude, but I wasn't feeling this one. Most of the rhythm and note changes came off as contrived to me, changes for the sake of having them. The song had a very unnatural flow as a result, and the lack of smooth transitions didn't help. There's a lot of repetition of ideas here too, with 2:47-3:49 pretty much straight repeating of earlier sections. You also need to spend some time working on your articulations. There's a real lack of volume changes in your parts, like the intro. It gives it a very mechanical sound. Also, when you have a section like 1:19-1:40, where you repeat the same phrase several times, it helps to modify how the notes play. Altering the note lengths (as well as volumes) would make it sound less like copy/paste. Spend some more time improving your production skills, and I think the writing may follow. The repetition in this might have been mitigated by a more natural production. The WIP forum is a great place to get feedback quicker, if you don't want to wait on getting a judge's opinion. Good luck on your future endeavors. NO

Man, what a tease this song is, just like AnSo mentioned. Seeing the title I was imagining this would be like some kind of hyper-fast DnB song. The song never even broke a sweat! Putting my expectations aside, I did like the piece. Peaceful and measured, very good building of elements in the intro, and good lead additions. I was hoping for a more substantial beat sometime, but I think what you have is something different, not necessarily worse. The source isn't the most melodic track in the world, and I was a little concerned at first how much of it was used in your song. What I can tell is the bells are used, with some modifications, and there's some heavier usage of the simple drone that filters in around 0:51 in the original. I decided it was acceptable, but I wouldn't mind a breakdown from Larry or Mattias if there is something I'm missing here. Using the lead or chord progression that starts at 1:16 in the original would have been nice to really sell the connection. Solid production, no big complaints there. Like Larry, I'd like to see those sour notes fixed before passing this. The notes are too dissonant and really hurt the piece. Very nice work otherwise. YES (conditional on sour notes) Edit (11/17): Hmm, still sounds a little off to me, but I don't have the last version to compare. I'm willing to call this a YES though. Either through fixes or me just listening to the song enough times, it sounds passable. YES

Solid arrangement of the two sources, with some cool melody alterations and dynamic changes. I like the sounds of your leads and the section where they play off each other. I actually liked the way it ended too, with a short original section. Pretty much no complaints on the writing end. Production wasn't on the same level, unfortunately. I thought overall the song was on the cluttered side, and the parts needed more space to themselves. It was hard to hear individual backing parts in the busier sections. Drums also seemed a little hollow and distant but were not bad. I think on the strength of the arrangement, I'm willing to say YES to this. The production is not bad, certainly, but there's a lot of room for improvement, which makes it a borderline call. Here's hoping you pick up the other YESes. YES (borderline)