Gario

Not complainin', just giving advice as is our wont in this forum - take it as you please. As long as you're just sharing and not planning on submitting to the site you can feel free to let advice roll off your back. 'Course if you do plan on submitting that's a different story, but most folk on here are just vibing and having a good time, always happy to hear fresh music regardless. And yes, I actually do have a version of Silver Surfer music in the works, can't make it public yet though - album secrecy, and all.

Gotta give you credit for tackling Silver Surfer - not at all an easy track to get a handle on. I like the synth-work on it, for sure (could probably do without the guitar sample, tho - too loud and out of place). Good game with a great soundtrack, can't complain when others take a stab at it!

Oh wow, pure chiptune, in the year of our Lord 2024? Don't mind if I do! Source is pretty catchy once you listen to it (not familiar with Odyssey's OST, myself), and this arrangement very clearly represents a version of it that could've perhaps been on a beefed up gameboy. The technical achievements in this remind me of the ol' chiptune work of Zef (a nice compliment, if you're at all familiar with his chiptunes!), and overall the soundscape makes nice use of the chips to give us a full and often dynamic arrangement (lookin' at that surprise drop at 1:00). As mentioned by Chimpzilla, this being 100% mono, while adding to some of the authenticity does cause issues of clarity. I'm feeling it hard at 0:22, where I can barely hear the lead when everything is playing - there are just too many instruments sharing similar timbres sharing the same EQ space playing at similar levels. Spreading the instruments out in the space would really help the listener pick out the parts without impacting the listening experience. And while I may be being a tad harsh, there are too many instruments for this to be 100% hardware accurate, so if we're going to compromise in that department why not provide us stereo sound so that we can hear what you crafted better? Even Rushjet1 settled with this compromise for his 2015 "Dark Depths of Wily's Castle" arrangement, and it sounds all the better for it. There are also issues of repetition in the arrangement that are hard to justify - the direct repetition of 1:51 at 2:04 is a pretty big example of it. Repeats like this sound like filler; if you need to use similar material to fill the space give the listener a reason to listen to it: embellish, play with expectations, etc.. Direct repetition turns the listener off and tires them out. Overall it's fantastic when it's firing on all cylinders, but it needs some polish on the areas that are less than it's fantastic highs. I suggest the stereo spread to help with the mixing clarity of the arrangement, otherwise you'll need to either work with the dynamics of the dense textures when the lead is drown or move the lead so it doesn't share the same space and timbre as the accompaniment. As for the more repetitive elements, either give the listener a reason to return to them with variations or leave em' on the cutting room floor, the arrangement will be a much better listening experience for it. Really enjoyed the arrangement, hope it comes back with the TLC it deserves so we can put it on the site! NO

Oh hey, Super Metroid, and a bit of an odd ball track to boot (not too many people tackle the Crateria surface very often). Concerning source usage it's pretty unmistakeable in it's usage, and it's not a straightforward arrangement so props for that. The instrumentation is throwing my ear off in a few ways, though. There are some basic soundwaves used throughout (such as that sawtooth introduced at 0:14 used as a lead) that just don't punch through the mix enough due to their more pure nature. Sawtooth synths are a good starting point, but unless there's a specific reason to leave them alone they need some sound design work done to them to make them stand out - low-pass, delays, reverb, etc., something to make it stand out, because as it is the listener can't hear it well, and turning it up where it needs to be would end up sounding painful and piercing. The backing pad has a few issues of it's own - it sounds like there's a wide band-pass on it, making it sound hollow. I also recommend against using pads with automatically layered 5ths in arrangements that have a lot of harmonic motion in them, since they often hit notes that don't gel with the rest of the harmony when they move (and if the 5ths aren't automatically layering then I suggest cutting down on their use!). Overall there is an odd blending of instruments with some delay and others that are simply dry as a bone in this one. It doesn't sound like they're a part of the same song, rather they sound almost stitched together. Unfortunately the blending of instruments just doesn't work in this arrangement. The drums sound pretty cool, but the instrumentation is not doing this arrangement any favors. It's hard to point to any one change that would need to happen to fix this up for the panel, since redoing the instrumentation from nearly scratch is a tall order. Still, a bold choice in source, and some of the arrangement ideas were cool in this. It is nice to see you branching out of your comfort zone with a more dnb styled track that doesn't lean on your orchestral strengths, though, so don't take this too hard - it takes time to get the hang of new styles, and while not for OCR this isn't a bad effort. NO

Alright folks, got some news for this one - yes, the album is still moving along! Even better, it's been submitted in it's entirety! I've listened to the finished product with some of my fellow judge peers (as well as with Bahamut, the original director for the album) and it seems like it shouldn't have any issues under review, so I can finally say that this thing is happening, and it's happening soon. There will be some teasers and such in the coming months to get y'all excited about the album, but in the meantime I'll share what I think is the *second* most fun organ bit from the album. Ain't the whole song, but I did have a lot of fun making an organ part for one of my tracks so I figured why not spread the joy a little bit? Actually pretty excited to have this submitted, and not just because it'll be a decades-long endeavor coming to a close, but also because the album sounds great. Will it be worth the wait? ... well it was a long wait so I can't be sure, but it'll definitely be worth spending some time with, that's for sure!

Oh hello, Jewbie, sounds like you're still on your game, here! Bouncin' arrangement, and the production is crisp. I personally think the harsh highs for the lead at 1:14 sound fine, but that is coming from someone who tends to be a bit high EQ heavy in his own tracks, so take that opinion with the salt it's due. Coming in late lets me piggy back off of the analysis given by Liontamer and say the source usage is good, so that's good overall. Concerning the repetition issues, I think I hear where my colleagues are coming from: the lead that is introduced at 1:14 is distinct, in the front, and used in a few too many places in a similar manner, which gives the illusion that the parts are repeating. When I check to hear if a track is static or not I tend to bounce randomly in the arrangement to see if I can parse differences in the arrangement, and in this case there are quite a few variations throughout that do keep things interesting and fresh (even if that lead ultimately isn't, by the end). I hear what others are saying, and it probably would've been a good idea to reserve that instrument more, but I don't think that's enough to put this below the bar for me. I like it, I think it'd be a fine addition to the site. Nice work! YES

Nearly 20 years later and I still can't wrap my head around how this subdivides a 6/8 texture into a four-to-the-floor beat by just... cutting the texture in half with the beat. It's so goddamn good - it's genius in it's simplicity, in fact. It helps that the beat is really good (as expected of bLiNd, even back then), and the textures sounding so close to the source material helps sell just how much that rhythm change up the feel of the song. And then the guitar comes in. Yeah, needless to say this remains one of my absolute favorites on this site all these years later - a must listen if you like, um, music.

I said in the review that I didn't know how the original music managed to get so much mileage with the single song it has, but that isn't true anymore. Apparently the music is made up of different cells that come in and out of play depending on what you're doing in the game. In the shop? High-passed instruments to keep it subtle. Buying planet cards? Bring in the pads enriching the harmony and pull back the leads. There's almost no real "official" version of the song in the game because of how often it adjusts itself to fit the mood of the game. Just some cool little information about the game that was brought to my attention after my judgment, so I figured y'all would appreciate it. Very cool dynamic OST for Balatro (and cool ReMix, too, but y'all already know I like this one).

Hey, it's always pretty fun to recreate old arrangements of yours with everything you've learned since, and you can hear the improvement in technique and mixing between the old and new with the videos to compare. Did a similar thing recently with my FF8 Laguna album remix - it was based on an old Laguna arrangement I made in 2010 or so that was rejected. Neither here nor there, I do like the tempo fluctuations you play with, and the pedal tones you hold to keep things fresh enough for folk. The instruments all work great for what you were going for, as well. Also it's Geno's forest music, can't ever go wrong with that source, can ya?

Hello! The music is done, I had to go through a move in the meantime which stalled me for a bit. It's mostly an organizational effort on my part to give both the music and the track order to the staff for review, which once my computer equipment is set up shouldn't take too long. I'm shooting to get it out before the end of the month, since I will be presenting at a panel during MAGWest in September - would like to give good news at that point!

This kind of reminds me of Monomer (aka the guy who did the Mummy Demastered OST), which if you know me at all that's a pretty high compliment as far as style and production goes. I think I can hear some very faint connections to the source at 0:11 - 0:50, but it is mixed very quietly into the background; I'd be hard pressed to consider it source usage since most folk ain't gonna hear it unless they really listen for those background elements hard. Gotta make it so average listeners can hear it, my man, 'cause unlike us it's not their job to listen to every element to find it! Considering the sections where you suggest the source is implied, I can hear what you were going for (lots of subtractive arranging with the melody), but it's too transformative to recognize as a part of the source. After enough changes it just sounds like the bass or lead is leaping up and down, which while something the source does is also something countless of other songs out there do. I enjoyed this arrangement, but I agree with my colleagues that this doesn't have enough recognizable source to get it on the site. NO

As long as you can keep the politics and philosophy relevant to video games and/or music, go for it. Coming from an old regular of the PPR forums, I don't believe OCR is a good place for off topic political discussion anymore, both because of the number of regular forum users (you need a lot of regular interaction to balance the topics discussed) and the effects some of the posts periodically have on those that do still use the boards, so I disagree with bringing it back to the site. PPR was fun while it lasted, it can remain comfortably in our memory. In the meantime we should stick with discussing AI and music standards, as was the intent of this thread.

Oh, this is pretty cool, love that bass instrument in particular. Spends a lot of time on the opening of the source, which I mean I can't blame you for since I did it for my own interpretation of that source a decade ago - it's just a really cool and easy to expand part of the source. Plenty of good little ideas and variations in the textures, too. The arrangement uses some nice subtractive arrangement to make sections sound different, which does keep it sounding interesting throughout. I always love a good Sparkman arrangement - thanks for sharing!

That's pretty cool - I always enjoy a good genesis arrangement of non-genesis properties, there's so much potential with that chip that so few realized during it's lifetime.

Alright, so I'll compromise my weekend and likely next week of playing Elden Ring's expansion to give this some attention, okay? Sound good? Good, let's go. Interesting style for this arrangement, I don't hear it too often on OCR. It's short (maybe a tad too short, given the style), but with the time it has it does complete a musical thought so that's not a bad thing. That first minute is rich and full of detuned piano goodness, and with the lighter accompaniment that child choir does a good job standing out. I think the second half starting at 1:08 the backing instruments are still too cluttered, though. It's a combination of things that is catching my ear - from at least three instruments sharing the same range (that piano, the strings, and the lower end of the choir), and the piano sounds like it holds the pedal for too long, letting too many notes ring all at once. At 1:35 things open up a bit, but that piano pedal is still creating a lot of mud in that lower middle range. I really like the idea of this one, but I think being too cluttered in about 40% of the track is too much for me to give a pass. I recommend lightening up on that piano sustain pedal (or not use it for a track with this density), and perhaps shifting registers for the strings so that it doesn't share the same register as the piano if it's still causes issues. I think what mixing issues it may have had have been resolved, but the middle of the track needs some breathing room in the mid EQ range so I hope some of these suggestions can help. NO

Easily the funkiest boss music from the MMX series, and I think this arrangement really ramps that factor up to 11. If you like reharmonization, jazzy chord combinations, and solid guitar performances complimented with interested synths then this is gonna be your jam. It does take a minute for one to start pulling the source out of this arrangement, but once you hear what's being done it's pretty easy to see it clears OCR's bar. The performances, mixing, and production are pretty solid to boot, as well, so I don't see how this wouldn't have a home on OCR. YES

"Despite everything, it's still You." Why is this still in here? Easiest vote of my life. YES

This is a pretty mellow arrangement, compared to what I'm used to what I've heard from Vodou Queen. Maybe we should encourage more of this, 'cause it's quite a nice listen. Easy to follow the source, and the overall style is quite different and cool. I hear the complaints about the highs being dominant in this arrangement, and while I agree they should be toned down they also do give the overall arrangement an ethereal feel throughout. Some of the instruments (I'm thinking the strings in the beginning) are dry compared to the rest of the texture so some light reverb would help the overall track blend, but these are relatively minor concerns. If the track is clipping, sure, bring the master down a notch and it'd be better for it, but to my ears there's nothing that brings this below the bar. Plenty of smaller issues here and there, but I'm not going to let perfect be the enemy of good. Nice work! YES

To be perfectly honest it's probably a matter of whether we catch typical AI artifacting that occurs in things like writing and composing (odd patterns in one case, actual sound artifacts typical of generative audio in the other). Not that this should ever be in the rules, but if folk take AI generated lyrics or sound and change it enough to where it sounds completely imperceptible to human writing we're not going to catch it - we're only human, after all - but at that point the artist put in the work to make it their own anyway so I wouldn't even feel so bad about it. If you're gonna put in that effort to try and fake it though you might as well make it yourself, but I'd commend the effort nonetheless. Still just to be safe you shouldn't do it though; we've gotten pretty good at listening to things over the years and catching oddities, or so I'm told. 😉

Cheetahmen never gets old, and this does a good job giving a nice, hard coat of paint. The style feels a bit oldschool, but I'm old so I like it just fine. Great start and the bridging material does a great job at breaking things up, and the production values are up to OCR snuff. I stand with Mindwanderer and Chimp, though, in saying that the last third of the track has too much direct repetition for OCR. If you want to present a similar idea, that's fine, but give us a good reason to come back to the material, something to justify coming back to such similar material, or else it just sounds like you're stalling for time. Promising start, but this needs to give us a reason to listen to the last minute or so of the track rather than copy the first section and paste it at the end. NO

Very creative direction for this one, must've been tricky to take what's for most intents and purposes an atmospheric source and pull every bit of source out of it and come up with the material to make a fully fleshed out synthwave track. Among everything else, I give props to that. The soundscape is pretty cool, with some eclectic leads keeping the listener guessing what's going to compliment the synthwave texture next. It's definitely an interesting arrangement! There are some concerns with the mixing on this arrangement, and I'll mirror my collegues on those concerns - the leads are certainly something that could've been mixed down to better balance the arrangement. The loud leads also affect the balancing to my ear - that guitar in the beginning sounds like it pans too much to the left and thrown my sense of balance off. When there are more instruments in the mix that issue becomes less apparent, and the issue would be less of a concern still had the leads been mixed with a more levelled out balance. That being said, while I agree with them that this could've been better, there's little under these leads other than the chords, bass, and drums that lose some attention in favor of the leads, so I don't think the issue is one that sinks the arrangement below our bar. The sudden start of the arrangement surprised me, as well, but perhaps that's just me being too easy to shock in my getting-older age. I like this, it's creative and while the mix could be better it hardly is something that drags the arrangement down too much. Nice work! YES

Oh shit, I legit forgot about that promise. Working on it now, believe it or not.

Haha, I've been a bit stuck on this game lately (great game, highly recommended for any roguelike fan), instantly knew the source since it only has one song playing throughout. Dunno how the source does it, but it never gets boring. Just oddly pleasant throughout, so let's see what your track brings to the table. Pretty straightforward arrangement - almost too much so. If the guitar work didn't wank out from time to time I'd have probably rejected this, but you do have a lot of fun with that guitar. I think the performance could have had a tighter performance, since it sounds like it lags behind the synths from time to time, but overall it's alright. I love the overall atmosphere - it just jams out and has a good time with the uptempo track. The timing of the source was probably tricky to work with since the time signature of the source is unusual and shifts freely, but you do a pretty good job jamming with it. I think the issue I have is pretty negligible, so nice work! YES

Well you come into another Red Brinstar mix with anticipation, since you never know what someone's gonna bring to the table with it. Seems like the flavor of the day is A T M O S P H E R E, and a good heavy dose of it to boot. I like the soundscape this provides throughout, up to and including the lovely piano bridge (and I agree with Mindwanderer that any mechanical edge it may have is softened by the overall artificial soundscape this has), and the production values are up to our bar, at least. I'll agree that some of the reverb on the instruments (like the piano) is too heavy, which does cause the arrangement to be muddy in places, but it doesn't sink the arrangement. Rarely do I comment on this particular issue when I see it in arrangements, but since the piano is as exposed as it is in the middle of the arrangement I need to point out that those chunky block chords don't do the section any favors. Open up those chords a bit, don't utilize closed triads in sequence like that since it tends to make the accompaniment sound plodding. Opening up the chords also has the added benefit of giving more flexibility with how to shape every chord, allowing each of the lines to flow better than "every note moves in tandem". Yes, this is a rare "Gario is upset about the counterpoint and parallel 5ths in the harmony" moment I tended to have a lot in the past, but it's something folks who arrange sections for solo piano (or any solo instrument that can make chords) should pay attention to since when everything is the same timbre the blocky, chunky movement is much more noticeable. It's not an unbearable issue but it could certainly be better. Counterpoint critique aside, I think this is a pretty good arrangement that certainly clears our bar. Nice work, always glad to see more Super Metroid on here! YES

Not bad at all, you'll be hearing an update in here before the end of the month.