Gario

The tonation is much better overall. When you say 'Wake up!' there is still a tendancy to hit the note sharp to the point of being a different note, though (hitting a high note from the bottom like that is really tricky, actually), as well as having the tendency to dive a bit low when you get to the lowest ranges. It's much, much bettter, though - trust me, the mods won't mind giving this a listen if you put into mod review. This is close enough to OCR standard for a mod review. Sorry if I don't have any specific singing techniques that could help you out - I think I'll ask one of the singers here to see if they have anything specific to say about it.

Oh my God, Phonetic Hero, you stole my second. You bastard. Yeah, I put in the melody in it's normal Major key, yet set the harmonies in minor (at least for the very first few bars - the melody is adjusted afterwards). I thought the effect was cool, and judging by your vote, you did too.

Organization is very important to good workflow - putting a FL template for people to use is an awesome idea. Even though I can't open it, it sounds pretty nifty. If ever I convert from the dark side of DAWs (heaven forbid) I'll be sure to check it out myself.

Well, it certainly had to be because of the competition - this mix is actually pretty sexy. In a compo where that many people compete at once, it's very, very hard to pull votes in, since the whole gamut of remixers is always on the table (unlike a heads-up compo, in which this probably would have won out over plenty of people). Personally, I like the mixing in the alternate version better than the original - it sounds deeper and more sonorous. Overall, the biggest complaints that I'd have are that the arrangement sounds like it's meandering a bit too much, and the soundscape is far too static. I like this song, I like the style, the production is pretty spot on, but there seems to be little actual direction of the track. It just seems to move from one place to another without much reason to it. As for the static soundscapes, I will first say that what you have is indeed sexy and enjoyable. However, since you use most of the same textures and instruments in the same fashion this cool atmosphere gets stale and stagnant quickly. Be sure to give more variety in your mix, and it'll make your chill soundscape sound that much better. One final complaint: you should certainly make your signature represent this thread rather than the old Dive Man remix. Dive man was cool, at the time, but man... 2009?

Man, Neblix, what do you have against Jewbs?

Just got mine in, too. Gotta be a record for me, when it comes to getting started at the last possible minute. Would've loved to get more time on it, but life really does get in the way sometimes.

In this case sleep is for the disease filled and work exausted. At least I'll still be able to finish my track. And yes, it has a few chiptunes in it. 'Cause that's what I do.

Gotta... sleep... damnit. Alright, set alarm for a few hours and finish this mofo before the time is up. Urgh, it's tricky.

Oooo... It's pretty damn awesome, that's for sure. I'd imagine she knows about OCR, but hell, go invite her to chill around here, anyway - that voice/performance is certainly welcome here.

Pfft, forget that, I still need to make my remix. I'll vote at the last possible moment.

The revised black one is excellent.

Ooo, dirty synths. Gotta love those dirty synths. They really add a more somber flavor to the overall track. The use of the sonic space is good, as well - every instrument gives the central instrument it's space to breathe. The accompanying instruments stand out as being quite heavily sequenced, if one listens to them on their own for a while. Fortunately, there's a dirty synth more often than not to distract us, so it's not a big issue. The sax does try to take center stage from time to time, though, so it's a little more glaring than the rest of the sequenced instruments. The drums, while pretty full and fitting, there's very little in terms of variation. It's hard to listen to a track when the same beat is playing over and over again... Overall this is pretty swingin', though. It holds seven and a half raging streets out of ten.

Ah, more DjP. That's... a really weird looking game. I can't let the one eye'd elephant distract me, though. I'm liking the instruments and style of this one. It really catches the happy mood perfectly. The phasing, the funk bass, the disco vibe, it all works well for the track. The soundscape is a bit lacking, overall. I'm wishing that there was more bass and lower mids - right now it sounds like there's no bottom of the track. Those squares used for the harmonies... they're awesome. I don't know why they warrant a special mention, but they are indeed awesome. I'm just sayin'. The playful mood is infectious. A song that makes me happy listening to it is indeed a song worth listening to. This gets seven one eye'd elephants out of ten.

Woa, first remix that's not a DjP classic. I'm liking it, too. Nice synth combination - wet lower synths with springy, catchy dry synths. They create a nice synergy and fill the soundscape quite effectively. It's a rare thing to have an older remix where I'm perfectly happy with the sample quality, but here's such a remix. The arrangement doesn't seem to move too far, harmonically. Fortunately the textures are changed up considerably, so that keeps the mix interesting enough. Even still, more harmonic motion would've been great. Good stuff - eight destructible blocks out of ten.

Sexy salsa sounds. I'm not entirely for the dry mastering, but it works alright - it's not too distracting, due to the constant wall of instruments that are coming in. That slab bass is pretty bad sounding, especially when compared to the decent sounds used for the rest of the instruments. Overall the sample quality is pretty good, though - not perfect, but great for the time. The rhythms are stylistically fitting, and damn catchy, too boot. Certainly can't turn that aspect of the mix down. I love the variety of instruments that come into the mix. Muted trumpets, steel string guitar, nylon string guitar... it all comes together very well. Salsa, it is sexy. It earns about seven and a half sombreros out of ten.

DjP, you're so eclectic. Funk, jazz, chiptune, electronica and Orchestra. You're a man of many talents, I've gotta say. It's hard to get over the GM-like sounds. I know it's an old track and all, but they drive me nuts. It makes the remix sound dated, unfortunately. Though I will say that you combine the instruments together quite well, in terms of orchestration, so that helps it hold itself together, despite that fact. The peaks and valleys of the track makes it quite dynamic and easy to listen to. It shows considerable skill when an orchestrater knows to leave instruments out to achieve certain effects. In other words, you handle the orchestration like a champ. While I can't ignore the GM quality instruments, I appreciate the arrangement quite a bit. It gets a nice seven conductor batons out of ten.

Dat C64 chiptune. Fuckin' hell. I hope I don't need to say that I'm a sucker for chiptunes, but if I do then let me tell you that I'm a sucker for chiptunes. These are all so well incorporated, as well - the use of arpeggios, the fade in tracks, the instrument styles, they all work so well together. I'm particularly happy with how well all of it works in concert. The car in the beginning was fun the first time, meh the second time and annoying the third time. Use an effect too often too soon and you lose it's appeal. I love SFX as much (if not more) than the next guy, but there's a certain finess to using them that this track didn't quite achieve. That doesn't detract much from this track, though - it's a very solid, well put together track that I thoroughly enjoyed. It easily earns nine tire tracks out of ten.

Man, that caught me off guard. The gothic intro, with it's bells and choir, led me to believe this was going to be a pretty dark, chilling remix, which I was certainly down with. When the electronic instruments come in, it was sort of a let down for me. They're not bad, really, but when I was expecting one thing and got another it did disappoint me a little. After getting used to the sound, though, it's quite well put together, soundscape-wise. It lacks a little in the mids in general, but it's not too bad. The retro instruments are pretty damn catchy, overall. There's a lot of sexy envelopes used on the synths that make them stand out nicely (especially that polyphonic line from one of the synths - nice touch). I would've appreciated more variation in the beat & synths. The arrangement is a little more static than I would've liked. I was getting down to this. Certainly gets about eight ghosties out of ten.

Sexy funky electric piano. That about sums up the review - everything else is a nitpick, in comparison. No, really, the electric jazz piano pretty much dominates the entire track, and it's worth listening to based on that alone. The background harmonies are pretty neat, as well. Unfortunately, there's no real satisfying bass to complete then ensemble, in my opinion. It makes the track sound more empty than it is. The drums are a little eclectic (and not in a good way). They're a regular set with basic bass & snare on the one hand, and crazy compressed SFX on the other. They don't mesh well when they're together. The arrangement is a bit meandering, though that might come with the source not really having as much direction. I'm not familiar with the source, and DjP mentions that it's more of an ambient track, anyway, so I'm going to take his word for it. Fun track, even if it does just wander around a bit. Certainly seven dolphins out of ten.

Interesting effect in the beginning. Much wah-wah for the win, in my opinion. The accompaniment would be better if it were thicker in the beginning, though - especially the bass. When everything kicks in later, though, it works out alright. Spliced drums are quite nice. The hats are a little too far in the front, in my humble opinion, but that could just be an artifact from whatever drums you used. Then again, it's probably stupid to nitpick a song that's over a decade old. Whatever. This track is considerably more dynamic than the Ninja track from earlier, which is great. The liberal use of portamento instruments is also pretty neat. This is a pretty fun 'feel good' track. I can get down to this. Certainly earns eight rocks out of ten.

Oh boy, track #1. The song that started it all. For what it is (and especially for the time it was released) it's not a bad jam - the style is fun, and the instruments are very fitting. The flute is convincing enough (though on the dry side), and the vanilla synth adds just the right atmosphere to it. The drums have a decent beat, though they're a little too machine-like for my tastes. They also don't change that much, which makes them tiring to listen to after a while. There's a flange in the middle of the track that doesn't rest well with me - particularly because of the hard pan that comes with it. It admittedly is a good way to break the static arrangement, but that panning is too distracting for me. Otherwise, it's not a bad track. Sure, not up to the bar today, but we all have to start from somewhere. This is certainly not a bad place to start. It gets a good, solid six ninja stars out of ten.

Oh noes. I'm gonna bring his health down by over 9000. That's... over 180 reviews. Time to get started, I think. The List: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=54 http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=48 http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49 http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=50 http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51 http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=52 http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=53 http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47 http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55 http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=56

I actually made some fixes about a month ago, but I stopped working on it simply because I had other obligations (and continue to have them for the rest of the year, at least). May as well give you guys the update with the fixed drums (original link is the update). The drums aren't as punchy as you might like, but this was just an update that brought all the drums up a few notches. I wanted to ease one of the transitions a bit better, but I just can't find the time to do that right now. If y'all think this is submittable then I'll go ahead and send it in, or if it's still just the drums I can beef them up really quick.

*dusts thread* Hey guys, another month, another deadline. It's in ten days, so expect to hear me call you out in the next few days trying to push you along. I would like to hear some significant progress from some of you - I know Christmas break + MAGfest is going to take a lot of time away from you guys over the next two months, so I want something to sit on in the meantime.

Cutman is not impressed with your puns.