djpretzel

I definitely feel like this mix lives or dies based on EQ; it does feel very hot in the highs, and I feel like while compression was clearly used, side-chaining could have not only helped make the net effect more dramatic, but also reduced listening fatigue. I dig the arrangement and some of the rhythmic changes made to the melody to make it accommodate the form. I'm gonna say yes; even though I agree with Kris's comments in full, it's not QUITE a deal-breaker for me, though I'm curious to see how others feel. YES

Pretty cool! Kris covered most of my criticism: Basically, there's too much repetition. I think reusing the quote itself can work, but when 3'26" hit and it was the same thing AGAIN, I was overcome by a general feeling of repetition. The bones of this mix/arrangement are too good to let things sit on auto-pilot for so long... drop out, build up, add some glitch/chop fx somewhere, modulate, filter.... just do something to differentiate each section. As it stands right now, I can listen to the first 30 seconds or so and hear everything this mix has to say, in a nutshell. It's our job as arrangers to make sure that's not the case, and that the full duration of the piece introduces new ideas or reiterates previous ones in a new context. My only other more minor critique is that the overall dynamic levels are static, but that's also exacerbated by repetition, and that's one of the ways the repetition could be broken up. NO (resubmit)

Cool source, and this is definitely a genre/style approach that can work. There are bits & pieces that are clicking - the SID-style chiptune arp hits, for instance - but in general, Kris covered the major issues above: Fakey guitar lead sound hurts the overall piece. This CAN be a legit/intentional aesthetic, but in this case it doesn't sound ironic or stylized, it just sounds like a pretty obviously fake guitar. Aspects of that bell pattern are pretty conservative/verbatim, although tbh this isn't MAJOR... Ending just kinda cuts off, in a way that prevents any sort of development/resolution Overall production is below par - elements aren't well-balanced, certain components stick out, doesn't feel like a cohesive whole It's not terrible, but it needs a lot of work. NO

YES ...what they said

Very dramatic! Drums remind me of Led Zep at times with the super-heavy snare & kick sound... nice loud-soft contrast going on, although the piano on the soft bits did sound pretty little thin. Ultimately, the arrangement does a good job executing the concept of a super-heavy approach to the source, with some respite involved to aid in transition and give listeners a break. Cool concept, well-executed, and while the softer bits aren't as strong as the louder bits, the overall piece I think has very much the intended effect. YES

There are some VERY nice individual components here, especially some of the pads & winds used... very cool. Unfortunately, good ingredients still need to be cooked well, and while things click at times, for the most part this has a meandering structure. There are three basic issues that Larry's citing: Generic synth/drum patterns (more the drums, in my opinion... with the synths, I think the issue is that sometimes the synth bass sits on a given note too long, doing nothing, so it ends up sound vanilla. with the drums... that snare roll build is used like 4 times in a row without variation, and the overall groove is pretty static.) Intonation issues (there ARE some weird intonation things going on... but they are fleeting. They bubble up in some of the percolating arpeggio parts at times, but before it REALLY becomes an issue, they disappear... so it doesn't end up being a major problem, but could still stand being addressed. General cohesion (I actually think if the above issues are addressed, this will probably be fixed in some sense, as well, but some of the drops/builds just need a bit more focus and strategic placement) Definitely using an interesting blend of sounds (aside from the drums), and I like the arrangement idea, so I hope the above three issues will be considered for a resub! NO

I disagree with Larry in that I actually find the later transition @ ~4'26" just as troubling as the 0'55" transition, if not moreso. Neither of these are good transitions. Put simply, this isn't how you move from one source/structure to the next while maintaining musicality & flow, and it hurts the mix. The question is, how MUCH does it hurt the mix? Because everything else is solid... great energy, good development, solid production (a little muddy at times but not a deal-breaker), and overall a mix that I WANT to listen to... except for those two transitions. They're brief - in terms of sheer duration, they're a drop in the bucket compared to the total run-time of the track. Nevertheless, while brief, they are pivotal, as they serve as both the transition from the intro into the meat of the arrangement and also a late-breaking segue/reprise, and neither of them work. I definitely think this mix belongs on OCR, but not until the artist has taken a stab at trying to fix these two transitions... I truly hope that happens, as right now they are the ONLY thing holding it back, but I do think they're a big enough deal to do so. I'm interested in what other judges think - are two bad & brief-but-important transitions enough to hold a mix back? For me, the answer is yes, thus my vote is... NO, resub

Agreed; this is a case where the recording quality is truly prohibiting me from enjoying the piece. I always ask myself, "would I include this song on a personal playlist of my own, and if I did, would it stand out in a bad way relative to most other OCR tracks?" The answer in this case is yes; the audible hiss, which is almost made worse by fading noticeably in and out (presumably due to compression or some attempt at noise reduction), is simply too much of an issue to pass the mix. Arrangement and performance are great; some MINOR issues, but nothing that would prevent me from voting yes if the recording issues weren't so significant. As for the violin tone itself, it does sound muffled... this might be the natural tone but it also might be a result of EQing/noise reduction attempts, I'm not sure - ideally, the tone would be EQ'd *UP* a bit to bring out some higher freqs./overtones, as right now it sounds a bit like it's behind a wet blanket. None of this is meant in an insulting manner - it's quite the contrary, I think the whole panel sees the potential here and appreciates the musicianship & style of the arrangement, but we also want to see both done justice. If you've got stems, it's possible someone in the workshop forums can assist with mastering this... otherwise, I REALLY wouldn't abandon the arrangement, but I might try to re-record under more ideal circumstances. NO, resub

I agree with everything Larry wrote. This is actually pretty rare! Nothing to add beyond what he wrote. NO (resubmit)

Interesting comments on the drums being too dry; I don't think that's the real issue, from a production standpoint. The drums lack variation, are repetitive, don't have much in the way of dynamic contrast, and also seem to sit very mono relative to the stereo spectrum. In other words, I do think the drums are the main concern, but it's most than just being dry - they need a bit of retooling/rethinking, overall. Everything else seems pretty tight, but the drum work simply isn't living up to the promise of the track & pulling its weight.... feels thin and autopilot, and this is the type of arrangement that would really BENEFIT from interesting drums (perhaps a mix of acoustic AND electronic?) that develop over time. NO, resub... give the drums a bit more TLC, they deserve it!

It's aggressively compressed, yes, and if Dustin wants to take a stab at dialing things back a notch, I'm all for it, but I can still make out the details just fine and it doesn't strike me as being so problematic that it's a dealbreaker. Since that's the main beef & the arrangement/energy both check out just fine, I'm going with a YES

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Neat... I'm a little concerned, though, Sam: even if the music is licensed, the funds raised via Kickstarter aren't part of that royalty arrangement. When we worked with Square Enix, they made it very clear that kickstarter/fundraiser efforts were NOT covered under standard mechanical licensing - it's a different model. Did you clear this with them?

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Neo-Soul is great - I use that + AAS Lounge Lizard.

Absolute legend; grew up on his music. He will be missed by millions.

Our biggest mystery... our unsolved "Rosebud"

Snare is fine for the uptempo sections but when the halftime melody kicks in I think it needed a dupsteppier crack/clap style snare with a longer decay. Generally speaking, when you're going faster, a short & peppy snare like this is almost a necessity, but when you slow things down, you need something to fill that space & resonate a bit more... could even have been layered in underneath, some sort of hit/fall....as-is, when exposed, snare kinda sits there and folks are staring at it for a millisecond or five and it's awkwardly looking around the room and avoiding eye contact. Not a deal-breaker, but also not entirely trivial. Everything else is dope. People still say dope, right? Aggressively compressed modern EDM stuff w/ a touch of guitar - good sound, good times, good beats. YES

To be completely honest, we haven't had amazing luck delegating project website design... there have been some exceptions, such as the rather snappy Maverick Rising & Humans + Gears sites, but we've generally found that we end up needing to step in at the last minute anyways to bring the site design & presentation up to the same standards as the music. Our newer approach is to have project directors and staff do as much of the data entry and asset collection as possible, and we'll take it from there, which usually means *I'll* take it from there, using our one page template... while this is extra work for me, I can do this specific type of work relatively quickly... I've generally been happy with the results, at least, as I feel that FF2, Seven Songs, Sonic CD, TMNT, GB25, etc. have all turned out pretty well & helped show the amazing music in the best light possible. People DO judge books by covers, even when told not to, and I feel like we owe it to the musicians involved to polish things up to a certain level. As SOON as the final art & covers are done, the main task is to see which of them could possibly be used for a masthead/background that a website can be themed around. Again, this approach has worked pretty well, and I don't mind doing it... but we definitely need help with the data entry & QA on assets, and I need to know as soon as the art is done in case there's a problem with none of it being suitable for re-purposing/usage on the site, which can sometimes be an issue (usually we can be creative with cropping/vignettes/layers and MAKE things work, but it's never a guarantee!)... hopefully this all makes sense, lemme know if there are question.

Generally speaking, art & logo are far more important than website. I can do website fairly easily if art & logo are provided. This is what I've done for the last few albums (FF2, GB25, Seven Songs, Sonic CD, TMNT, etc.) I'd be using the Bootstrap-based template we've been using, which also uses PHP & the Twig templating system - the entire FF2 site is available at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4718466/rebellion.7z Template is responsive, single-page, and relatively easy to navigate & flexible Other things we can use help with regarding the website: Getting tracks comments and artist info together Data entry of tracks & track comments (using track_comments.php in template) Data entry of artist info (using artists.php in template) Biggest question in my book - is this a site JUST for VV3, or for the entire trilogy? If VV1 & VV2 are being presented, to what extent? How far along are art assets?

Congrats!

Speak for yourself Also you're part of "it", eh? Composers aren't always the best folks to remix/arrange their own stuff, and I actually think there are many artists here who'd do a great job. That being said, if they hire Uematsu, I certainly wouldn't complain or have any doubts that he would knock it out of the park.

I believe Neblix is using it, and has good things to say! I'm holding off until they support TWO simultaneous activations without the need for iLok, just like Adobe do with Creative Cloud, because I'd want things available on both a desktop and laptop for that money.

In addition to specifying DAWs and instruments, I'd like for artists to be able to indicate on their profiles which plugins and/or sample libraries they commonly use. I don't want OCR to maintain a massive list of plugins/libraries as part of our own system though - too much maintenance. DAWs are one thing, but the number of plugs/libs out there is ginormous, and KVR do a fine job covering most of it. So, there are a few different ways we can do this: A single text field "Favorite Plugins/Libraries" where artists can simply type in something like "Kontakt, Omnisphere, Spitfire Albion, Reaktor, & Sylenth1" Two text fields - "Favorite Plugins" and "Favorite Sample Libraries" so that the two items are divided, but still involving manual text entry, comma-separated, A list of common choices for 20 or so plugins, PLUS a textbox for additional plugins/libraries - so very common plugs like Kontakt, Omnisphere, Massive, Sylenth1, Spire, etc. could be included... would want to limit this to 20 options MAX, FYI, for usability What do y'all think? Anything's better than nothing and I feel like this information could be useful. I'm also not sure if "Favorite" is the best word... theoretically someone could LOVE a plugin and not actually own it, or even use it... open to suggestions, but it might be the best option simply because no better option exists.