Flexstyle

shouts to Impact Soundworks for mein piano patch. also you guys, wtf, stop being such creative and awesome people dagnabbit--these songs are, in fact, the bomb. If I end up bored (and have internets) during my 40+ hour travel sesh on Tuesday, I'll see if I can crank out some reviews.

welp, it's as done as it's gonna get...just gotta have my teammate master it and then it's ready to go, I guess.

Nearly done, although if I sub it to OCR (or release it elsewhere) it'll be severely revamped, most likely. It deserves vocals, but doesn't have them.

Nothing new to add from me after the detailed stuff above--it's solid, has a couple issues but definitely above the bar. YES

I always know I should expect something creative from you, Alex, and this is definitely no exception. Nice and cinematic, with a great atmosphere. I second Chimpa's complaint about the drums being a bit loud in comparison to the rest of the project, but it's not so much so that it kills the track. Another issue I have is that a lot of your string runs seem behind the drums a bit--that's usually due to a too-slow attack on the string patch, or just not sequencing it slightly ahead of everything else to compensate. This is obviously not done with an actual orchestra, and if it were sans drums and fun percussive work, I'd probably NO this. As it is, the entire package is cohesive enough to pass muster--to use a cliche, it's definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Mixing is adequate, arrangement is creative and solid, instrumentation is adequate--you're getting a pass from me! YES

This was basically the only possible week during this block of the compo that I could have gone, as I'm out of the country for two weeks starting next week....but I wish I had more time. This week has already been one of the busiest of my year, and I'm really glad I have two teammates for this track, haha.

Since I'm out of the country for a while starting next week, I'll be handling mixing duties for the Desert Catz this week.

Compression does not "destroy" the sound in most use cases. Without compression, we wouldn't have the classic sounds of Pink Floyd, the Beatles, or literally any other major band of the last 70 years. It changes the character of the sound, yes--duh, that's also what EQ, delay, reverb, and literally every other effect out there does. It's incredibly useful as a mix tool--without it, you wouldn't be able to hear half of most vocalists in most music. The instruments would simply drown them out, even if they themselves were uncompressed. To throw away compression completely is asinine. Heck, distortion and overdrive are just extreme compression. Without those, say goodbye to electric guitars, among other things. Enjoy your trip into theoretical la-la land: without compression, modern music sounds terrible (and 99.99% of listeners will agree). I'll be over here getting paid to do the job correctly, like I have been for years.

Awwww yeah, this is one of my favorite VGM sources ever. The arrangement you've done here is simple, but I think it's probably substantive enough to pass muster. I'm not a fan of the ultra muddy sound, though--it's really honestly kinda hard to hear at a normal volume. This could do with some mastering love for sure, at least, and (possibly) a different piano patch, if this was recorded via MIDI. Thinking about how this would sound next to other piano pieces OCR has published, I suspect the listener would have to drastically adjust their listening setup in order to make it seem as though it fit. Should be louder and brighter. Doesn't mean it needs to have its dynamics killed, by any means! Just needs to be more audible. Heck, if you have a .wav or other lossless file of this around, I'd be happy to give it a run through a mastering chain myself. As it stands though, I'm gonna vote as a ... NO (please resub!)

Everyone else has already said the good things--this thing got me ready to kick some punk all over the map with my ultra-grind-leveled team, yo. No complaints here--solid orchestral work, and definitely one of my favorites from you, Alexandre! YES

this competition is gonna rock SO HARD.

^ doesn't get the joke. also vocal haters are so 2005, c'mon, get with the program. I enjoyed this, especially with the Zappa-esque stylings. We need more of those around here.

This is still one of my personal favorite OC ReMixes of all time.

Have you pimped this to the CHIPTUNES = WIN crowd yet? I suspect they'd really dig it. Nice work!

Odd time signature stuff? I'm immediately a fan. Love how you handled that part of this mix. Plus one to Larry's crit about the piano sound--would you consider switching over to a Rhodes electric piano patch or something instead? I think it would fit really nicely with the chill DnB textures. It's also much easier to find a usable soundfont or something that won't break the bank. I'm not sure it's too repetitive necessarily, as I think the arrangement brings some new elements on the second time around, but I do agree that it wouldn't hurt to spice it up even more. Also, there's a section where it's just drums, the ambient patch, and a very sparse bass sound that I noticed (from about 1:09-1:30)--this section needs something more. You need to add modulation to your bass patch, another new element, or something just to keep the soundscape from emptying out unnecessarily. On the sections where the bass drops out, I think I know what you were trying to go for there, but do some filtering on the beat too. You've dropped the bass synth out, so also use a high-pass filter on the drums as well, so that the listener isn't hearing the bass of the kick but no reciprocating element in the synths. One more nitpick: transitions. You need to make it more interesting than just continuing the same break on the last four bars of a measure and stopping when the next section hits. Change up your drums, give us some fills, make it exciting to the listener! A sine drop or a reverbed kick or snare would help at the beginning of the sections where the drums drop out completely, just to give the soundscape some "closure" as it were. This one's a no from me, but I think it has a lot of promise. Just take better care of the sonic energy throughout the song, maybe clean up your sound choices a bit, make the second half of the song more varied compared to the first section, and I think you'll be going places at that point. Hope to see this one back soon! NO (resub)

Hey, that was pretty cool and enjoyable. Got kinda repetitive after a while, since you used basically the same drum loop over and over, but for background music it worked nicely. Thanks for sharing!

Hooboy. This could be bad. Dude definitely is in violation of copyright himself, and then that of course screws up the copyright system...yikes. also, sucks that you have to get messed up by this. :/

Oh gosh, just a few seconds in and I'm already grinning, tapping my feet, and bobbing my head. This is a good sign. Let's see--fun brass stabs, DAT SLAP BASS, some organ, energetic groove...and hi yourself, Kirby! Yeah, this arrangement is just too much fun. None of the technical nitpicks mentioned above really stood out to me, so yeah--definitely gotta pass this one! YES

those analog synth sounds, tho. Arrangement is on point. I definitely know the original's there, but it's not a cover. Soundscape is gorgeous, I'm getting a very Vangelis sort of feel from it. Honestly, I'm gonna -NO- this one, based on one single thing--that hard-panned percussive bit acting as the off-hat in my left ear. If it were quieter and maybe if it were to alternate between left and right ears, I'd be fine. However, as-is, it makes the entire song feel off balance, and it goes on throughout most of the track, so I'm feeling off kilter nearly the entire time. Heck, even balance it out with another percussive bit on the other side and you've probably got my vote. As is, I really love the synth sounds, the mix makes sense to me aside from that, and of course the arrangement, as stated, is on point. Fantastic treatment of the funky time signature changes. I really hope you bring this one back, Ace! NO (but PLEASE PLEASE resub!)

Eh, I figure it doesn't really matter which theme I choose, to be honest--I'm unfamiliar with all this stuff, so there'll be a learning curve no matter what. I just went with stuff that seemed like it would fit with a variety of chord progressions, since I'll have to meld it with other music every time. Also, I just realized that we have a Core(y) of Michael Jordan. Booyah, prepare to get dunked on, suckas!

I like big sounds and I cannot lie. An EDM track that doesn't have a brickwall on it just doesn't fit into the rest of EDM, and that's not going to change anytime soon. Like Avaris said above, it's subjective and should be handled on a per-case basis. Meanwhile, I'm gonna be over here with my limiters and my compressors making phat and tasty sounds.

I know there hasn't been a lot of activity on this thread lately, but everything's pretty much done--we're just getting the website built and a few things ironed out. Should be seeing a release this summer!

1. Gravity Antonion (MMX8) 2. Cyber Geometry (MMX7) 3. Blizzard Wolfang (MMX6) 4. Flame Stag (MMX2) 5. Volt Catfish (MMX3) Get ready for the Desert Catz: bLiNd, Flexstyle, and KingTiger.

Can't wait!