analoq

blad had me going 'ho hum' when this started sounding like his previous mixes, but then he dropped the compound time and gave us a real treat. the build-up, return and conlusion to the waltz was beautiful beautiful beautiful. i can skip a dose of anti-depressants whenever blad makes a new mix yes

my gripes with this are: 1) slight clipping 2) ending cymbal crash should be complete. but these are 2 very simple things that can be fixed through the remixer without asking for another resubmit. and in this case, i'm not going to ask for another resubmit. i wanted to reject this but i'm hearing a bit too much effort in this one to toss it out at this point. this remix belongs in a time where every keyboard player owned a korg m1 and a minimoog, this has an 80s synth sound that you'd expect to hear on tv either as a themesong or a commercial background. it's not a sound i'm particularly fond of, but it's one that feels reminiscent. while it's entirely possible this wasn't what the remixer was going for, i connect with this at that level. either way, this guy had a lot of fun with the hydrocity zone music, and here he is sharing it with us. yes

my only real complaint about this is the mastering, it's a tad too loud. there's some soft-clipping going on and that piano low-end is overbearing. otherwise though i think this is 'good enough' it's got a nice groove, it expands on the original quite a bit and it has good pacing and decent variety. not too shabby. yes

i feel a little funny rejecting this mix when i passed your earlier submission that was in many ways inferior to this one. however, last time i voted too hastily and later felt like recanting my vote. clearly certain members have a piano-bias as well as a guitar-bias and groove-bias. anyways.. you always have good and emotive ideas in your submissions and while often lacking in execution, you're consistently getting better. however, there is a need for more attention to detail in your work. the little spots where you play too much ahead of the beat or behind the beat, where you hit too hard to too soft or quietly, or hit an extra key that didn't need to be hit, or have a muddy low end... go through and fix those things! your work comes off as a little sloppy because of the little details that go ignored. please take the advice of my colleagues. i do urge for a resubmission. make me cry (for all the right reasons) no

those drum samples sound familiar.. sequential circuits drum machine? oberheim DMX? eh, nevermind. wish i had more constructive things to say, but sadly this falls into noob territory and is far below the bar and enough so that i have nothing else to do but close this out. no

man, it takes 2 minutes before we get the beat? that was frustrating. i'd have walked out of the club by then. sorry, can't say i hear much skill with this submission. it's not terrible or anything, but given the repetitive nature and lack of climactic elements.. i'm left with few reasons to want to listen to this again. abrupt ending doesn't help either. no

very nice submission email. this remix is very nice as well. it's simple, but is it effective? mostly, it's enjoyable. but sadly it comes off a bit lacking. there's not an issue with showing restraint when remixing, but in this case it did not work to the overall benefit of the submission. more can be done with this no

i love logic (express). and i really like this remix. i really want to pass it. but deep inside i agree with darkesword -- this just needs an extra push. good groove, nice clear instruments, development is almost there. less emptiness, more goodstuffs. sam gives good advice for this. resubmit resubmit resubmit no (borderline)

i realize i'm 10 days late but still: and yes, this is some good electro, the kind i'd like to see more of on OCR. did you all notice R:K:O got a bit of a facelift? cheers.

you know, i really don't want to reject this. i openly admit i could not have done this better given the style. but what kills this for me is how the original is so well known, and yet this offers little in the interpretation department. what i'm saying is: there are very few surprises here. i've heard this theme so many times that i get bored quickly of the theme and the way it repeats here without any changes just makes things worse. in the places where the theme repeats, i need to hear more variation. this isn't bad or anything, a lot of people would love this -- i'm just not one of them. no

i was feeling a no when this one started, but by the end it had narrowly moved into yes territory. not the best example of using free samples to great effect, but certainly decent. in a larger view, this is kind of the thing that makes OCR so entertaining. taking a very well known piece of game music and transmogrifying it into something wild. listen to this one side-by-side with PriZm's remix of the same thing it makes you go "Dude, this scene rules." well, at least it makes me say that. yes

zyko picked the right word.. 'mundane' this isn't terrible by any means, but it's only a few steps away from the dreaded FL NOOB sound that spells death to any remix that appears on the panel. but if you keep at it you'll only be a few steps away from picking up some yes votes. no as mentioned prior, be sure to make use of the WIP forums.

like the others i don't find the arrangement too liberal. let me break it down... - right from the start (:16) we've got that recognizable background motif from brinstar. - the remixer uses this on top of a long build section which includes some choir sounds (:30) that seem reminiscent. - we get a break (1:16), then the build goes on further and we catch a glimpse of the 'B section' melody in the background (1:30). - this all builds to the 'main' brinstar theme (2:20) and we are delighted with a driving new chord progression for it. (i agree the decay-modulated synth in this section gets a little cluttered when in full swing at around the 3 minute mark) - the climax finishes off (3:08) and we get a cameo of the main metroid theme (3:20) - finally we end with an interpretation of the 'B section' melody on piano. nice! so, i think the arrangement is pretty cool. but how about the sound? the low end is too strong, there's too much delay/reverb and when you put a mix in that condition through a limiter things start to sound really unfocused. i talked to Matt and as i figured: he mixed and mastered this mix on some PC/gaming speakers. so, the sound is not ideal. but is it bad enough to reject over? i set up a test to find out! the test: i made a playlist of 4 trance tunes from well known djs and put this remix as track number 5. if i got to track 5 and i felt it sounded notably out of place or awkward compared to the first 4 tracks, then i'd reject it. the results: the transition to this remix wasn't bad at all. Matt can't compare to a pro trance act but if a deejay snuck this into his set... i wouldn't do a double take. well, at least not until the end when the beat drops out. but for a radio edit like this, that's not an issue. and that's good enough for me. yes

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahwesome!

alright, i talked to larry and gray and they agreed i should put this back on the panel for further votes. UPDATE: i've been in contact with trickwaters, and he agrees with much of the criticism and although he would like to revisit this, he's likely unable to at the moment. i've decided it best that we leave this rejected for now, and have informed him to contact me if he does come up with a resubmission in the future. sorry for the unnecessary dissent -- blame larry (:

ooh, i got really excited reading the comments for this mix. was hoping for some excellent noisecore to 'yes' but this one left me unsatisfied... bit reduction, rate reduction, distortion.. all these digital tools are used at the prospective remixers disposal to build a sound collage that works at some points, but just doesn't work at others. i've given this a few listens and i'm not convinced the remixer really knows what he's doing -- it's more like he's playing around with different effects rather then using them to execute an artistic vision. not bad, but to me it lacks vision. if i thought something like this was good enough for OCR i'd be submitting some of my 'analoq ejaculate' material... no

good to see beatdrop back for some more action, and certainly he delivers the action. lots of hard, fat synths. might give you ear fatigue if you listened on loop, but enough to keep one entertained throughout. nice interpretation, nice execution. not much more to look for... yes

yep, this one is probably more form-letter material rather than panel fodder. like others mentioned, please make use of our WIP and Remixing forums if you want to make further contributions to OCR. no

LoL~!!

i would strongly recommend prospective remixes who work in dance genres to not submit full club-mix length remixes. keep it at radio edits unless you're really good. like, paul van dyk good. (: the length brings this is over the 6 meg limit anyways. it takes about 4 minutes to get to excite bike, and once we get there the use of the theme is ok, but where's the beef? this is supposed to be hard trance! there's supposed to be more going on to give this the NRG required to make me get up and dance (or at least try to) needs to be shorter yet more-er no

ok! i remember this from OCR idol. no doubt some would find the contrast between the vocalist and the background music to be awkward, at least at first. i dig the chant-like vox over the blippy techno beat, though i think the transition to it after the introductory solo should've been smoother. vocals sound very natural, they're not overprocessed or autotuned into quantizational headaches. the singer is quite adept as well. i think the biggest problem is the pacing, sections go on for too long without something to break up the monotony or give forward momentum on the overall, there's enough creativity here for me. yes

if i may nitpick.. that's an oxymoron. this is sequenced! the difference is you sequenced it using a keyboard MIDI controller rather than entering the notes one by one with a mouse. ok, now that that's straight... this is very pleasing to listen to but i have to agree with brandon and sam: this performance has a monotony to it. there needs to be more stuff like the run at 2:52 to shake things up. let's see more runs, some modulations and more creativity in the left. no

provide sources, please.

i, for one, most certainly agree with that

i've played enough uprights and grands in my time to know that some pianos sound like this -- a bit on the plunky side. not everything has to have that bright, long (yamaha) sustain that we get accustomed to in most recordings. so, the sample doesn't bother me. like most of rexy's piano work, it's full of ideas and this one sounds notably effeminate -- maybe i'm sexist but just about every female piano player i know has written something that sounds like this. but like her other work, it's a little skimpy on the execution.. i'll pass this but please vary up your left in the future. yes