Gario

Yeah, I'm not going to add much to this since I think MindWanderer is pretty solid on this. The groove and harmonic pattern is too static, and while the flute soloing at 2:18 was a relief it isn't enough to keep the listener interested in the track. The production is light on the mid range EQ, but is otherwise alright, so it's more about breaking out of the groove that the tack establishes more often to keep the listener interested if you want to touch this up and resubmit. Short vote is short, but there isn't too much to add to it than that. NO

Solid orchestration, as usual, and you have a lot of cool, subtle changes throughout that keep a relatively overmixed source interesting. It's quiet, but that's more due to a wide dynamic range than anything else - I'm alright with that. While the production is pretty good, there are some issues with the execution that you should be aware of. Overall, the mix suffers from the instruments being particularly wet throughout. I understand that this is the 'Land of Dreams' and all, and a pretty wet arrangement is fitting, but the level of excess in this really leaves the soundscape sounding pretty messy throughout. 0:55 is a particularly egregious example; even taking the super-wet sitar out of the equation, every instrument has a release of at least a half second, which really clutters the soundscape. The vocals and bowed strings have pretty mechanical releases, as well. I've heard other songs of yours that handle these instruments better, so I know you're capable: the strings have an attack that swells too much and a release that is non-existent, both being issues that make them sound fake. The vocals only really have the swelling attack, but that still makes them sound pretty artificial. It's a tough call, but I'm leaning on the other side of the vote just a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if this passed, but there's just too many small things that add up to a NO for me. Just cleaning up the excessively wet soundscape would swing my vote, and improving the articulations on the strings and vocal parts would be a boon to the track as well. NO

Interesting approach to the source - the arrangement really does take it in a new, interesting direction. The production on the track is definitely an issue, though. MW pointed out the mechanical instrumentation (which is definitely true - the sequencing of the instruments are definitely stiff), but a more consequential issue here is that the track suffers from a great deal of overcompression. There are quite a few instruments in this that take up all of your sound space (like that bass and piano), so when other instruments come in to compensate the compressor smashes everything to compensate. If you'd like to submit this again, fix your levels on the mix so that pre-mastering there's no clipping. Putting the music through a compressor does not remove issues that are present beforehand - it only causes different issues to crop up in their place. You'll also need to pay attention to how you humanize your instruments; using volume envelops for dynamics and adjusting the attack envelop for articulation can help give a lot more life to the performances. The arrangement is pretty sweet, so I hope we can hear this again with those improvements in mind! NO

This definitely has Timaeus' usual quality in production, and while pretty straight foward the arrangement works well. The orchestration is done well, and while I could nitpick the humanization (sometimes the articulation swells too much for faster string runs), it's certainly well above OCR's bar. Nitpicking even further, I also have to mention an instrument suddenly popping out at 3:31 in the left speaker (sounds like the Didgeridoo), which is pretty distracting for headphone users, especially since there's nothing like it prior or since. Not a big deal at all, but just be careful with mixing artifacts like that in the future is all. Repeating what I mentioned in the first post, this WAS submit prior to Brandon's issues, and this IS a part of his Assassin's Creed album, so before we post (assuming this passes) we should ask Timaeus whether that affects his choice to have the track posted, but if there's no problems then I'm all for giving this front page lovin'. YES

This is really a cool track. It takes something that's creepy and transforms it into something that is chill as hell. The reharmonizations do a lot to get mileage out of so little - making the track less abrasive while utilizing the same textures does a lot of good for this. Reharmonization does make connecting it to the source a bit tricky. That combined with the fact that one of the big source connections sounds like a sample from the source brings up the possibility of this being too liberal, but at the moment I'm strapped for time to stopwatch it. I'll get back to this soon to see if it falls within site guidelines. I'll get back to this sometime soon with a proper vote. EDIT (04/14): Alright, I'm back, and got a quick breakdown of where the source recognizeably occurs in this. I am NOT including parts where the sample is the only place that connects the source. 0:27 - 1:46 - Pretty clear reinterpretation of the source in the melody, even with the reharmonization it's pretty easy to connect to the source. 2:07 - 2:28 - Background texture matches a pretty iconic texture of the source. 2:32 - 2:36 - The first two steps from the source theme in the melody 2:42 - 2:46 - The first two steps from the source theme in the melody 2:52 - 2:56 - The first two steps from the source theme in the melody 3:02 - 3:06 - The first two steps from the source theme in the melody 3:12 - 3:16 - The first two steps from the source theme in the melody Overall: 127s / 217s ~59% source The sections past 2:28 are a pretty liberal connection to the source, admittedly - if that's not considered this clocks in at about 49% source representation. At the same time, the rattling sound isn't counted at all in these interpretations (which is playing throughout the arrangement)... I think there's just enough connection to the source if we were to listen to this without the sampling, so I think this is good to go for me in that respect. EDIT (4/21): Glad to hear Liontamer weigh in on this - it's certainly a borderline case whether or not what I listed counts as source. It's nice to hear some clarifications, and while my vote holds if you don't pass the panel this time around be sure to give the arrangement more clear source connection in the other sections outside of 0:27 - 1:46, as while everything sounds inspired by the source it's a real stretch to count anything in the arrangement as source connection. When it comes to direct sampling, it's discouraged from counting something like that as arranged source, for OCR purposes; an alternative would be to recreate the sample (or something that sounds like that) and use it to give that extra bit of source connection, as well. I hope it passes, but I completely understand if it doesn't. Hopefully this will help with your resubmission if it doesn't pass. YES

Contact Info Remixer Name: TOPiAN Real Name: Ben Hayward Email: Website: topianmusic.bandcamp.com UserID: 34458 Submission Info Game name: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Arrangement name: Electric Nature Song Name: Forest Temple Original Composer: Koji Kondo System: Nintendo 64

Ah, I remember giving the eval for this recently - by the power of my laziness I'll touch up my comments from there and give a slightly varied version of that for my judgment: An all French horn arrangement of Protoman's ballade? I'm definitely digging the idea - it has a diverse range, and the timbre is really rich. The performances are actually quite good, but I do feel there is some issue with syncing your trills from time to time. At 2:16, for example, those trill sound like a wash of sound rather than a trill because the two aren't quite lining up right. It's tough, but especially with those clusters throughout they need to be pretty precise if you want the listener to hear them as something more than background clusters as well. It's not always an issue, but your trill syncing is a bit hit-or-miss. The performance at 0:52 - 0:55 is a little too loose with the tuning, though that's about the only spot where it's problematic, so nice work on the performances in general. At 1:31 - 1:33 the theme has a note that's a step lower. It's not bad, per se, but it IS a bit unexpected. You mentioned in the WIP boards that it was intentional, so there's no issue - I figure I would still point out that it does sound a bit unnatural to my ears, there. Some of the effects are excessive in this; particularly, the reverse delay effect at 3:58 sounds strange, especially considering it's not used much prior to that point. I'd suggest either using normal delay or leaving clean at that point; without any other context or preparation, that effect doesn't work well. It's no track killer, but it does still sound strange because of the lack of context. It's a great piece, though - despite all the nitpicking I've done here, I still think it'd be a solid track for OCR. Great work! YES

Mmm, I've been chewing on this for a bit. It's a really good idea as to handle the source, and the Rennaisance flavor is oozing from this one. The orchestration is pretty on point, which I've come to expect from your work. The humanization of the instruments isn't quite up to your usual par, which does impact this track negatively. The dynamics feel much more stale than your later works you've sent, and the articulations sound mechanical (especially on your woodwinds - they all have identical attacks for each note). It makes the instruments sound like they're literally soundfonts from the Playstation era, which is unfortunately below OCR's standards. Considering the source uses a pretty similar instrumentation, the track overall sound very close to the source. It's borderline too conservative for OCR with those samples sounding close to what was used in the source, though I acknowledge that in many parts there are some parts that are added behind it that gives it a more Rennaisance faire sound to it. I'm going to lean on saying it's also too conservative, though, since the instrumentation really is close, and the themes follow the source pretty directly once the woodwinds come into play. It's an older track, and I'll say it's a great indicator of just how far you've come in two years. I'm going to turn this down on humanization issues and a conservative arrangement, but all things considered if you were interested in taking this in a similar route using the skills you've aquired over the last two years I'm sure you could give us something that we'd take in a heartbeat. Thanks for sending it our way, though! NO

RebeccaETripp Rebecca Tripp http://www.crystalechosound.com/ ID: 48262 Game(s): Final Fantasy 9 Song Title: Black Mage Minuet Songs Remixed: Limited Time Comments: It's one that I meant to send to you guys two years ago

Pretty straight interpretation of the source, but that's not always a bad thing. The lead guitar work is surprisingly calming, and the structure has better high/low points in energy than the source ever did. The overall bouncy nature of the source seems to have a lot of potential as a more rock/metal track, so great work exploiting this in your arrangement. The execution of this arrangement isn't up to the OCR bar, though. The overall EQ feels lacking in the higher ranges, which makes the arrangement sound stifled. Whatever low passes are being used on your processing tools are squishing your soundspace, so lighten up on that. The mixing pushes the drums very far behind the mix (save for the tambourine, which sticks out like a sore thumb), so work on bringing your drums out in the mix. The distortion on the rhythm guitar throws me off, as it doesn't have a distinct enough attack to it, which makes it sounds like guitar soup rather than a decent rhythm part. Guitar tone is a bit of a personal issue, so I'll let that slide if the other judges have no issue with it. One last issue that this has is the disparity of wetness levels in this; things like your lead guitars are very wet in this (with both some delay and reverb on them), while the drums are bare-bones dry. This makes the instruments sound like they were recorded in different spaces and slapped together rather than playing together. Give the drums a little reverb while toning down on the delay/reverb on your leads; this will help make the song sound more cohesive as a whole. As far as the arrangement goes, aside from being conservative there's only one other thing that bothers me in it, which is how the section at 0:54 (and 2:14) is approached. Traditionally in the bass a leap of a tritone tends to sound horrible, which I must say applies in this case as well. However, I will note that the source does exactly this so while I can't fault you for it (it IS following the source, after all) I would still consider easing the listener into that transition better than the source did. It sounded wonky in the source, and it sounds wonky in this arrangement as well. To be honest, the real killer on this is the lack of higher range and the overall disparity of wetness between various instruments in this. Set your reverb levels to be more consistent across the board, allow for more upper end EQ to pass through and tweak your mixing where necessary and I think this will be alright. I also suggest fixing the transition at 0:54 and 2:14, though again I wouldn't knock this track down on that due to the source also having this issue. Best of luck! NO

My remixer name was previously 'M4PLEHOODI3' but it is now 'Von Nebo'.. I've only done one arrangement for you folks in the past, "Gotta Catch A Wave And A Memory". If you could perhaps change my artist name on your site to 'Von Nebo', I would appreciate it. If you can't, it's totally fine, I'll just have to make a new account or something. So my remixer name is NOW 'Von Nebo'. I'm attempting to stay pretty anon with my music, so you can just call me Von. My email is the address from which I'm sending, My user id is 33369 . [Still has name of M4PLEHOODI3, I don't see a way to change it.] The game is Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. The name of my arrangement is "Bus Stop On A Snow Day". The name of the original song is "Shiver Star". The original composer is Jun Ishikawa. Link to the original version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGUZG8V1OMU My comments: When I got this game, I was but a youngling in school with a long walk to the bus stop. In the winter, I would have to wake up early in the morning, put my boots on, and trudge through the snow. Sometimes, in the quiet of snowfall, a driver would slow down, roll down the window, and say "HEY! It's a snow day! School has been cancelled!" After thanking the driver profusely as if they had just saved my life, I would begin my journey back home through the beautiful snowfall, all while this song blasted on repeat in my head. I mean, it's not an overly complex song. It's not 'the best song you've ever heard', but it brings with it a joy found in simplicity. I think that's why it was the song that came to mind when I would happily walk the street in the snow. It's the simple and pure things in life that you treasure. As a result of this song being part of my childhood, alongside distorted guitars with much reverb, I present to you this song. I hope that it might bring you joy as the original did for me.

Not much to add here - short, sweet, well produced and well performed. I have to second Larry for the lovely moment at 1:13 - I appreciated the drop in energy, as it really helps break the arrangement into bite sized pieces, which sells it for me. Great stuff! YES

Yup, duck in the corner, slash at random. Dead shadow. No point in doing that one legit.

Overall a pretty solid performance, here. When things get busy there's quite a bit of pedal mud (like at ~1:00), but the style evokes a simpler romantic style piece so it still works alright (romantic piano music and pedal mud go together like peanut butter and messy jelly ). I think Larry summed it up sufficiently otherwise - good track, if a little short or simple. Get er' up there. YES

I really like this direction you took on this one. It's ethereal, the textures and harmonies are delicious, and the use of panning space is handled particularly well. I think you took something of a strange source and for the most part made it sound much more pleasant and palatable (save for at 2:00 - that part still sounds strange, but I suppose I can let it slide). The production on this is very wet, but considering the new age sound you're going for it doesn't sound out of place. The mixing is generally good, but the themes do not pop out at all in this. Throughout the track, the synths used for your leads are mixed at around the same level as your middle-ground textures. Bring them out a little bit - you have the sound space to give them presence, so there's no reason not to. Surprisingly, though the background often sounds the same with that almost mystical backing the track avoids sounding too static by knowing when to change the harmonies and tone at just the right time... for the most part. From 3:00 - 4:40 the changing lead isn't enough to keep the arrangement from stagnating. Cutting that a little short so that it gets to 4:40 faster would help make the section less static, or you could introduce something different in the harmonies or backing texture to change it up a little more in that section. There's an odd glitch at 1:36 where the music notably skips. Either a rendering error or a place where you tried to paste something onto the track, but regardless it sounds like a mistake, so fix that up. Also, the levels of this track feel pretty quiet throughout. It's partly because something is ALWAYS playing in the background and the minimal use of sidechaining, but it wouldn't be hard to give this a quick soft limit to get another 3-4dBs out of this with minimal loss of quality. Keep that in mind, and see if there's anything on the mastering side of things that could push out a little more volume from this. I really like the approach to this, and though it's long I felt it really is a cool listen. There are a few elements that I'd like to see cleaned up, fixed up, etc., before I can pass this, though - lead mixing, static portions like 3:00 - 4:40, glitch at 1:36 and overall levels should be addressed. It's an interesting and unexpected direction for this track to go, though, so I hope to hear a resubmission soon! NO

Contact Information: Remixer Name: Almighty_Arceus (ft. VanilluxePavilion) Real Name: Jordan Email address: website: www.youtube.com/c/AlmightyArceus UserID: 33542 Submission Information Name of Game(s) Arranged: Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 Name of Arrangement: "Glaciated Horizons" Name of Individual song(s) arranged: Battle! Vs Colress! LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-6JV-M8oxE Comments: This floaty little piece is influenced by the sounds of ESPRIT as well as a mix of my own sounds and the sounds of VanilluxePavilion as featured in this remix. We wanted to make a more spaced out and fantastical take on the iconic theme of Colress from Black and White 2. We added lots of soft pastel colors to this mix, mixed with some tight snare and deep bass drum to keep the mix driving. Picture yourself flying in an airship above crystaline clouds, on a pink sky. That's the aesthetic of this mix: tough yet airy. Hope you enjoy! Please let me know if there's any problem with the attachment.

I like the production of each and every individual element of this track - the drums are meaty and the synths are crisp. The arrangement reinterprets the source sufficiently, to boot, which helps. The track spends a great deal of time building up to the theme (0:00 - 1:38). Rarely is there an individual element that sounds out of place (the side chained synth at 0:28 being an exception - it sounds out of place against your crisp synths), but that build up repeats the same harmonic pattern over and over again, leaving the listener only texture changes throughout to keep things interesting. I've heard songs where the ONLY thing that's different are texture changes over time, which can be interesting in their own right, but as an extended intro it all feels like padding to the meat that comes in at 1:38. 2:39 to the end of the track also suffers from this issue - all texture over the same harmonic pattern, so it eventually sounds like repetitive and tired padding by the time the song ends. The mixing, while a lesser issue, does strike me as inconsistent. The bass that comes in periodically (0:14) and the guitar (0:57) are mixed too more to the front of the mix at the cost of your other elements, which makes it difficult to follow everything. Again, the individual elements sound pretty crisp, but they all sound like they're in the wrong place in the mix, either being hidden behind the loud elements, or being one of the aforementioned loud elements. Balancing the mixing of this would make this a much easier listening experience. I enjoyed the sound of this track, but I am not feeling the arrangement of this one. It stays on the same idea for very long stretches of time, which makes this sound repetitive (even though, yes, there are texture changes). Utilize the theme and harmonies from other parts of the source to break up your building textural ideas and I think you could makes something really cool out of this, but for now I'm not feeling it. NO

ReMixer name : Pixel Boyreal name : Xemail address : website : http://pixel.is.free.fr/userid profile : 34449Name of game arranged : Super Street fighter II (CSP-2)Name of arrangement : Fei long is backName of song arranged : Fei Long themeLink to my remix : link of original song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy6Du1z_S6o

Final Fantasy 3 for the DS, Dark Cloud (final boss). You need to get through the final dungeon, then boss rush five new bosses just to get to her (they're no slouches themselves), and she's hard as balls if you don't have the right setup. I wouldn't mind her difficulty if it didn't take two hours or so just to get to her (with zero save points in between, mind you), but I'm not going to spend an entire evening just to see if my current setup has a chance to beat her. Haven't finished that game to this day because of that. Also, on my first (and only) run I somehow got a super rare drop from one of the baddies (a piece of the onion set from the yellow dragon) and thought to myself 'Cool, I'll save as soon as I see another save point'... Yeah, definitely a bummer all around.

I think MindWanderer's pretty much got this one in the bag, so I'll build off of it. The arrangement is pretty good, and the handling of the piano is really good (not an easy thing, so full props!). When the full orchestra comes in, the articulations of the instruments sound mechanical - every attack swells, which causes issues when the instruments are supposed to carry the theme. On many samplers that's because of the attack setting, so decreasing that setting when swelling isn't necessary will make the orchestra sound more realistic. You have the dynamics down, fortunately, so I don't think this is too far off in the humanization aspect. The electronic/soundtrack elements that come in shortly at 3:00 and 4:41 don't quite sound like they fit. It's up to you whether or not you want them, but it might sound cleaner without, or with just a holding bass string. Up to you, though. I hear MW's crash cymbal, as well, and I think that's an artifact or left over instrument - you'd do well to cut that one out. The orchestration is great in this, but the mixing of the elements is a little muddy - once everything is together, it's often difficult to parse elements from one another, instead creating a wash of orchestra. Mix/use dynamics to bring important elements of the piece out while you keep your background elements in the background; that'll help give this track better direction. The high end EQ is pretty empty in this track, too, so if there's some sort of low pass on the track I'd suggest lightening up on that. I said a lot, but overall I think it's close. Humanize the orchestra articulations better and clean up the mix and I think this would be a pretty slick addition to OCR. NO

Sorry to hear about that. I hope things work out for you, Darkflamewolf. EDIT: Yeah, Modus, if there are new tracks that you're looking to QC, send them my way and I'll keep doing my part on here. The album has a lot of momentum behind it at the moment, it'd be a shame to see it slow down when there's a co-director capable of pushing it ever forward. No pressure, tho.

Nah, you gotta start from somewhere - reading sheet music to check your work is as good as any a place to start. With a piano background, another method that can help is to try to play music by ear, then write it down on the sheet music (or DAW). Playing music by ear takes practice, but it'll get you one step closer to dictating music on a DAW in the future. Best of luck!

Oh, I hear some Edvard Grieg in this one (0:39) - that's a fun little cameo from 'Morning Mood'. Of course that's also from the source material (Mystic Forest), so it's not like that was the intention, but still... Grieg, Morning Mood, right theeere. Small bit of fun aside, I think there's a decent amount of playfulness in this track that makes it really enjoyable. I listened to this track on its own before checking the sources, and while there's virtually no transition that I can make out the sources sound so natural together I didn't notice any change in flow to the track. It's a medley, but I'll certainly say it works well enough as a single song for me, here. Chimp and Nutricious are definitely correct on that bird tweeting (mixed too loudly), and the overall levels of the track are definitely quiet. I just put it in Audacity and got an extra 3.5dBs without any production errors. I'm pretty partial to the humanization on this one, too - the strings have that attack swell on every note. It's not too big a deal since they're all in the background, but it does make them more notably mechanical. The mixing of the instruments feel like they lose track of what's important in various places in the track, too - for the Mystical Forest part (0:38 - 1:28) the themes are drown by the arpeggios, and the Treant Forest section (2:38 - ~End) is pretty rough with how all the elements are mixed; it's like all of the instruments are trying to play in the same space at once. Overall I'd say not any one aspect of this is enough to give this a NO on it's own (and I wouldn't be upset if it were accepted at this stage, even), but everything together swings my vote. Mix down your bird noises, balance your mixing, and bring up your levels if you can. That would make this a great addition to OCR! NO

Wait, I didn't comment on this? Shame on me, I've been listening to this off and on for months, and it hasn't lost it's luster yet. Great use of Vocaloid, and some slick trance to boot. It manages to sound much shorter than 7+ minutes, which is as good an indicator of quality as any. I've never played this game, and I'm not familiar with the source, but it's a great arrangement in its own right.

The humanization (flutes & brass having too much swell in the attack), the oversaturation of the low end, the overuse of the SFX are all points I'll mirror my fellow judges on. I think the arrangement is actually really cool, though - the change from 3/4 to a marching 4/4 was effective (especially using 3+3+2 as a way to bridge the ideas - great technique there!), and really transformed the track in a way that I've never heard before. I think a lot of the impact of this track comes from the imitation of this to a marching band of sorts, so I would disagree on using a kick to tighten up the bass sound. The snare needs some more presence, though, so that it's easier for the listener to make the connection to the beats, since it changes quite often. I really like this, but the execution does need improvement before we can post this. Hopefully what was said here helps! NO