Palpable

I like this concept, the funkified take on this pair of spooky themes. Some great instrument choices in this song, and I thought the rhythm changes in the melody were pretty sick (or is that slick?). Some of the sounds are cheap, especially those drums, but it has an old-school vibe to it. I do think at times the arrangement could have used something to fill out the middle a little more. There are places where you fill in the gap with a low woodwind and it sounds better. Nonetheless, what's here is solid. Larry, I'd take another look at 0:43-1:11. It matches almost exactly to 0:58-1:20 in Succession of Witches. Dunno if that changes your vote. Mine is a YES. YES

This arrangement is excellent. It's cool to see piano and strings paired with such an unusual beat and unique textures. Like Mattias, I adored the overdriven keyboard sound at 1:56, and I thought the calm at 4:12 was a nice, atmospheric way to end it. The themes are well-handled. The supporting writing at 2:59 doesn't quite fit the chords, true, but it's a continuation of an earlier section and it's a background element. I like the effect there. Overall, the song is too loud. The intro percussion is louder than it needs to be, and the woodwind instrument there gets piercing when it holds a note. When it switches to the piano at 0:45, it's a much softer sound. Mixing could definitely stand to be better. The instruments bleed into each other and sound lossy, because of the compression applied to the track. It would sound stronger with some carefully applied EQ to separate the instruments. 2:59 in particular loses a lot of power from not having enough EQ. Very close to the bar not quite over, Tyler. I think some attention to the mixing will make this an easy pass. NO (resubmit)

Yeah I really like the arrangement too. You have a great flair for part-writing, Dennis, and this song has a lot of variation and expansion for what is a pretty simple source. Very colorful and picturesque in the use of instruments and chords. I liked the incorporation of the Overworld theme for some contrast. Production niggles at me a little. There's a part here and there that I think sounds off - the drums sound a little too soft (though the cymbals afterward sound fine), the acoustic guitar at 1:21 is choppy and exposed, the string lead starting at 2:07 is thin and has an unrealistic tone, and at 2:22 the song gets too loud. A bunch of small issues that do add up. Ultimately, I think I'm still calling this a borderline YES. The parts really come together, and the majority of the time the issues are masked. If the arrangement wasn't so strong, I'd probably call this a NO. YES (borderline)

I was bummed to miss Magfest last year, but I don't see any reason why I wouldn't be able to make it this year. It's in my goddamned backyard. The date is too far away for me to confirm anything, but I'm almost certainly gonna go.

Awesome arrangement, very DJ Shadow-esque. The collection of instruments set a cool, brooding mood, while the beat chopping kept it playful. I can see where Larry is coming from with his criticisms, but I didn't feel this song was really lacking in any particular area. The source melody is kept pretty intact, but the rhythm is altered a lot, and I think there's a lot of personalization there. It's a completely different feel. All of the background elements are new, too. The textures could maybe have used a few more changes, but basically every time I thought it was going too long, you introduced a new element. You seem to have a good sense of when to change up. And even when you hold textures the same, there's a lot of subtle detail. If there's a weak part, it's the vocals. They sound a little low-quality and the mixing is strange. I like the concept, but they sound a little too muffled. But it's, what, 15 seconds out of a five minute song? For the most part, this was great, and it definitely passes my bar. YES

I think my "help" involved clarifying one of my comments on the last version, and then Doug basically making those drums sound perfect within five minutes. This version is a huge improvement over the last version. Everything is clear, balanced a lot better, and those drums really sell the song now. No matter what cranky old Larry says, I love the dissonance in this. It's integral to the piece, even. Take that, Mr. Liontamer. YES

Nice mix. I think the first 1:30 is a little repetitive, but from the beautiful breakdown on, it really gets going. Quite conservative, but it shows more effort than your average trance arrangement, with some nice detail work all over. Good instrument choices, bringing in some cool traditional instruments later. I can only echo what my fellow judges have said: too muddy as it is. When it gets loud, the instruments become very indistinct, as your compressor tries to handle it all. The result is a somewhat hazy sound on the verge of clipping. You're gonna have to EQ some of the sounds down in the muddy areas, possibly cut back reverb too. The pads are a good place to start, because I think they take up a lot of space. Sure, I'll call this conditional YES because the tweaking might not take too long, but like Larry said, I think it has to be done before this passes. YES (conditional on separation)

Yeah, weird source tune. I played Sonic Adventure 2 and I remember the music being unusual, but this is pretty out there for VGM. I thought this song never cohered. It doesn't help that it has a very similar mood to the original, but the textures always seemed to have something missing. Sometimes there's not enough low-end to keep a beat, sometimes not enough grabbing your attention. Even when the song runs on full-steam at 1:37, it still sounds strange. I thought a lot of new writing was meandering and some of it was unmelodic too, like at 3:02. I also felt an overall lack of direction and didn't think the sections transition into each other well. There were some parts that worked better than the rest, like the quieter 3:44 section. Wow is this distant. Seriously, whatever effect you're trying for here, this is just too much. It sounds like you're listening to the song from down the hall. I really think pushing the elements closer to the front (this might mean reducing reverb, and increasing dry signal) will give this a much better sound. The quality of some of your samples might also be an issue, but it's hard to tell in the state this is in. :-/ Lot of room for improvement, but some decent ideas nonetheless. Some of your drum sounds were cool. Keep at it, Erik. NO

Nice concept here with the underwater effects and the hip-hop beat. I thought it was groovy and the sections you added fit well into the picture. The melodies in those new sections get a little meandering at times and I think the writing could have been tightened up a little, but for the most part, it's fine work. Biggest problem for me with the writing is that the beat gets too repetitive. I'd love to hear a section with new sounds, maybe something lowpass-filtered and delayed, to fit that underwater motif. This song is way too piercing and busy. It might be that whatever distortion you're running your parts through is adding a lot of high frequencies, but you have to tone that down. When the lead gets into the highest notes, like at 2:54, it's screeching. The phased backing pad is also too much on the ears. If you really want to keep the sound, try mixing in more of the dry, unphased signal of the pad and reducing the phased. It'll still give you that sound, but a subtler version. Finally, the overall sound is a bit jumpy. Are you compressing the master track or running it through some weird effects? You might want to ease off there. Stick with this one, Michael! It has some cool qualities to it. NO (resubmit)

Great textures in this piece. Interesting effects on the drums and percussive synths - they make a unique blend with the more traditional instruments. Love the tabla coming in at 1:42. There are a lot of little moments like that that jump out. Unfortunately... yeah. Larry's breakdown looks spot-on. I listened to this several times and barely heard India in there. Sounds like the same mode, same root, but just not much of the theme. I can see how you were inspired by it, but I'm not hearing enough connection. I would love to be wrong about the source usage here, in case another judge wants to argue in favor of this mix. NO

This is almost bursting from the seams with ideas. Plucked strings, synth arpeggios, martial drumming, that smooth laidback guitar at 2:25, the unusually-moded synth solo - somehow you make it all work, and that makes this a lot more than your standard rock arrangement. I love the hell out of this. It gets pretty liberal at times, but it always returns to that Zeal base quickly. I thought you did a great job with the mixing and the drum sequencing, especially for a song so complex. Everything is very easy to hear in the final mixdown. The only complaint I have is that the bass frequencies sound a little lacking. I think that could have given this even more power, but it's plenty strong as is. YES

Holy hell I love this arrangement. The marriage of those strings, brass, and the stuttering, electronic trickery is perfect. I agree with Larry that there's not much of a hook here but texture, detail, and atmosphere makes this track. I love your filtered synths sweeping in and out, and Cain's guitar is just fantastic. Amazing performance, and stellar effects on it. I'm not sure there's anything that needs to change in the writing. Production... not quite there. The snare has already been picked on twice, rightfully. It barely has any sound to it, and needs to be less muted. Something with more bite and power to it. The rest of the drums too, to a much lesser extent. I think high-frequencies are lacking in the track overall, and the drums could fill that space well. I also felt that the guitar covered too much of the track, awesome as it was. Taking it down in volume a tad might actually be all it takes to fix that. The brass samples in the bridge were a little weak. Larry's description of the low brass was dead on, it was hard to make out what it was. I would love to call this a YES with a conditional like zyko, but those sticking points aren't five-minute fixes. So it's a NO, with a for-the-love-of-god-resubmit. NO (resubmit) EDIT (8/6): I can roll with this. YES

About time!

I love this arrangement. The clash between the delicate opening and concluding segments and the RAWK middle works quite well. It just feels very epic and the use of the sources was great. The solo guitar section was Chronopolis note-for-note, but in a nearly seven-minute song, 30 seconds of exact source is reasonable. The production... this hurts, dude. Right off the bat, something is off about it. The piano sounds like it might be really overcompressed, and the highs sound like they're missing from the instrument. It's also very mechanical in contrast to the guitars and drums that come in later. Moving along to the guitar section, the overall thing still feels extremely compressed and now cluttered as well. The way the cymbal crashes echo out sounds bizarre. Everything is sitting in the lower ranges and you really need to use EQ to cut some of that mud out, restore some of the high-end to the parts, and then maybe bring the compression back. Should mention that the final minute of this sounds just dandy. Hope you keep working on this, Michael. Arrangement is quite good and I think improving your production will help you a lot in the long run, not just on this song. NO (resubmit)

Yep, this is an improvement, but I feel like some new problems might have been introduced (or maybe I just didn't catch them last version). The vocals are couched better in the track and they still have that power they need, that's a plus. I should note even with the last version my problem was not with the vocal performance at all. It was with the vocal distortion and the mixing levels. There's more low-end emphasis than I remember from last version. The backing guitars should have more high-end to them. Hi-hats could use more sparkle too. With the vocals, you might want to cut unneeded low-to-mid-range frequencies. I guess in general, I still hear conflicting parts that EQ would help. There's also that dang clipping on the vocals, but I'm willing to concede that there's an effect there. The EQ problems are more clear-cut, and to me, it's not an easy enough thing for a conditional YES. Arrangement is fine, just as it was last version. Don't need to change a thing except for the mixing. Keep at it, guys! The end is within sight! NO (resubmit)

I can try to bump up the volume on this later (or we can have zircon or BGC do it better, haha). Does he have the original WAV at least, or is the MP3 all he's got left?

Oh, this is just hot. I love the introduction of new instruments as the song goes on, e.g. the flute, the organ, the wah-wah guitar. Lot of variety between sections - I totally wasn't anticipating the turn to something more jazzy around the halfway point. Definitely a keeper. Can't believe this is the first TJ&E mix from JM, it's a perfect fit for his style.

I'll mention upfront that I haven't heard any of the previous subs but maybe that will give me the kind of objectivity everyone has lost. I thought this was a really good take on a wonderful wonderful source song. I was feeling the hard beat and I thought the use of the three-note riff was really cool. The quieter sections have a great, contrasting atmosphere. Some of the backing melody lines were weird and could probably have been rewritten but it reminded me of a lot of old-school tracked stuff, very MOD like. The only time I felt it was unmelodious was 3:29-3:41. Production is a little empty but I dunno, I felt that beat, felt that mid range saw. I thought the right parts hit. I'm going with YES. Maybe the last version was better but I think this is solid enough. YES

Hmm, original reminds me of stage 2 of Life Force. Not the same composer, I don't think. The arrangement has too similar a vibe to the original, because a lot of parts from the original are kept intact, particularly the melodies. I did like the instrument changes, but it needs much more than that. Cool lead sound at 1:22 though. Production is iffy as well. Some of the sounds are not the highest quality, in particular, the violin used at 0:55 and the percussive instrument that begins at 1:35. There's also a lot of stiffness in the way some instruments are used. Finally, there's a little bit of clash between some sounds, like that aforementioned instrument starting at 1:35. You might want to experiment with some different sounds and pick ones with more synergy. Keep working on getting better, Anatolli. This has room for improvement in writing and production. NO

String writing had some unusual volume jumps and was a little mechanical, but for the most part, solid writing there. I love the epic intro, writing and production both. The rest of the arrangement is excellent symphonic rock, but when the guitar and drums come in, the production doesn't quite work. I don't think you need to rerecord the guitar, but it sounds too upfront, and needs to be pushed back into the soundscape a little. It covers up a lot of stuff. I agree with Larry that the drum writing is fine as is, but also doesn't sound well integrated into the soundscape. The drums have power but they sound pretty distant. Move the guitar back a little, the drums forward a little, and I think this is a pass. Close it out, Justin! NO (resubmit)

Extreme panning in the source song. My freakin' ears! Great groove, right from the get-go. Sounds like a loop, but hell, if it works, it works. I like the trickling in of the pads and staccato synths, but I think the build-up is a little long. Some more prominent details here and there would help - everything you have is super subtle. 2:12 is a cool moment when the main melody kicks in, but it was disappointing to hear to backing track remain basically the same as the first minute and a half. Like Larry said, great drop-off section at 2:57, I thought it was a strong addition. But back to the same chorus at 3:41. Overall, I like the arrangement ideas but I think it needs a little more variation. You hold the drumloop forever, maybe some higher-pitched loops or percussion layered on top could add to the song. There's also some elements in the original that you didn't use, working those in could give it more variation and a stronger source connection. Nice production. Your title is quite evocative and it suits the atmosphere here very well, ethereal and melancholy. It gets a tiny bit muddy with all the reverb and delay you use - may want to roll off some of the lower-frequencies of the pads to avoid some of the muddiness. Pretty small thing though; the arrangement is what's gonna hold this back. Please resubmit, Matt! NO (resubmit)

I always thought this was a weird, uniftting theme for this game, but I guess that's neither here nor there. There were some a couple cool ideas in this arrangement. The stop-start section was neat, and the solo following it worked very well. Unfortunately, the rest is quite similar to the original song, sounds and structure both. The opening and ending are nearly identical. It needs more personalization in texture and some new elements like that solo. You did have some original elements, but I'd like to see you go further. Definitely seconding Mattias' suggestion to upgrade your sounds. What's here sounds pretty cheap. A decent softsynth library would spruce this up a lot, but you might be able to do it with free samples, if you're choosy. The song also lacks dynamic contrast, and that comes down partly to production, partly arrangement. The overall volume needs more of a rise and fall. When the drums come in, the spectrum is nearly full already. The drums should fill in the gaps that the listener is waiting for. Finally, I'd be careful exposing the gated synth at 1:48. It's quite a bit sharp and on its own it's jarring to hear. You may just want to pitch it down anyway. You've got some room to grow. Stick around, hang out in the Work in Progress forums, and most importantly, just keep working on music. Skills grow from there. NO

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01596/ http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01652/ Not the best examples, but both of these songs of mine have a cello in it somewhere. BTW: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site:++site:www.ocremix.org+ocremix.org/remix+cello That will give you a bunch of them. Yay Google.

The last minute was what I was thinking in particular. When things dropped out at 3:30, it felt a little too empty compared to the rest of the song. Though now that I've listened to the song a few times, I think it works as a contrast to the fatttt part.

Felt a little empty at times, but I thought it was a great arrangement. Love those string stabs at the start of each measure and the subtle harp backing it up, the bass weirdness towards the end, really, the whole thing.