GrayLightning

The arrangement bothers me, I mean it's very close. Otherwise I'm YES on this, tentatively. But I'd like to hear more opinions on this and if necessary be persuaded for NO. I'm really borderline. It's slick and nice sounding, but like the previous judges the arrangement is a potential issue. I'd like this vote to continue past 4 YES if necessary, due to the reservations.

Good to see you around! You've been missed. You all need to stop playing this game, it's taken over your lives.

Quality stuff all around. I have nothing more to add that the others haven't. I did think the ending was a little unsatisfactory though, it felt rushed, not up to the level of the rest of the piece in a strange ubrupt way. Easy YES in all though.

My vote from the first time applies to some degree. Did you actually lower the reverb a bit? It sounds more swamped this time for some reason at least based on recollection. In either case, as much as I love the big reverb, this is way too wet. It gives that lofi sound, especially with the quality of this reverb. If this were a high end TC or Lex you might be able get away with it, but I would reduce it by like 25-30% ultimately. Still keep that huge factor, but reduce the lofi-indisctinction issues to a degree. Otherwise great stuff it just needs some more polish/tweaking. Borderline NO.

There's some great ideas here. The violin is ace. I absolutely love the bends, very nice ornamentation there. Unfortunately this track suffers from extreme case of mechanical issues. The sequencing is so on the money it comes off as sequenced and robotic sounding. Especially of the string short bows, piano and snare later on. I'd like to hear more elements in place here with some better attention paid to the production. The piano for example has a little too much reverb considering the others don't. It almost sounds like they all are in different spaces. Good concept, now work on the execution. NO

Ugh, it's already gonna be as bad as FL presets. Automatic NO from us.

Great intro! I agree the section at :45-1:47 felt dead. It's like you couldn't figure out what to do, you have the cello/db's playing marcattos but everything else long sustains. It just felt lifeless. I'd say get rid of the marcs there, and all low end instruments should play legato or sustains there. I also agree there's too much reliance on the marcatto in the string sections considering how empty the first parts are. If the tempo were faster or if there was more going on, it could work, but for slower passages one has to be careful on how this is executed and in what context, in this, I think it needs a bit of tweaking. Orchestration in general is good. But the problem is there aren't many parts being played by other instruments until the end, which is all fine and good, if your parts are rich enough for the individual instruments. But when so little is going on in the beginning, it just sounds vacant. I would rework the chords in that area and at least make the strings play more of a prominent role all around. I don't agree things are necessarily muddy here, it's a side effect of the huge reverb you have going on here, and I think it works wonderfully. Very dark and large european sound. I would focus on adding more elements in the beginning to supplement the fast violin and dbass notes. The last passages and ending were good in my book. Needs a bit more polish to make this really over the top for me, close though, but borderline NO.

This is leaving a better impression on me the more I listen to it. My main problems are the synth leads, it sounds too acidy/shrill. The ornamentations in your lead are well composed though. I don't necessarily agree with the other no votes that this is overly liberal, however, if there are other judges that have that kind of a problem, then obviously it's a problem on some level. On some degree I feel it's overstated. The synth design is vanilla yes, but it does work. I would not compare it to tefnek too much, it's an unfair comparison. One criticism I definitely feel applies here is the texture of the piece, the synths all sound similar and have the same tonality throughout the mix. I'd like to hear some evolution in that sense. Production is fine, nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. I'd like to hear more processing and automation for some more sophisticated type sounds. Ending was definitely abrupt and kind of cheap. Polish this sucker up and resubmit. Borderline NO.

People consistently keep confusing me with darkesword and vice versa. Have no idea why...

Uh I think you have the wrong person. This is the first I've heard about this project from anyone outside epo and rexy. I never got any of your pms on this topic from you - and if I missed one, never got a follow up...and also Darkesword handles these per the instructions on the Projects forums. I've only gotten like around 7 pms from you in the last 6 something months and all were about your mixes/ft's.

No I don't, because I've been involved in these types of projects before not only as a mixer but as a moderator that helps decide which project will become an OCR project or not. So I was speaking generally from that point of view. It's obvious that the person in charge of the project must marshall the troops into getting things done and keep the momentum going, but the project coordinator can only do so much. In some cases the only thing one can do is to remove a mixer and replace them. It was a collective statement rather than a singular one. Second I brought up two points one not really relating to the other. In my case, if someone wants to spend 1-3 weeks fixing/reinstalling/reorganizing/setting up settings of my incredibly complex music set up to get all the software working in tandem again, then do work and pay my bills please let me know. Second I have had an irregular work schedule in the last half a year, so that has seriously impacted whatever free time I have. You brought up good points about motivation though, but that's not really for me to comment on, certainly at this point. You should consider talking to Aetherius about it. The only thing I can think of to move this along is to have deadlines more frequently, but there are ups and downsides to that.

Inside the Egg with rexy. She pretty much has a cool framework/far into mix done, if someone wants to collab with her. Though of course that's her choice if she wants to collab or finish it on her own.

I have to say it, that's not a slap bass. (Inside joke) Actually it is, but I couldn't resist bringing up that line from OCR lore. Onto the mix... It's a decent mix. The main problem I have here is the guitars sound really rough and crunchy. The sequencing of the synth and sample elements aren't that interesting/executed well either. Like the short brass stabs. The texture of the mix is very sparse and thin. Other than that distorted sound dominating there's not much attention paid to separating the sounds both in sonic character and the space they take up in the stereo soundfield. This whole thing actually sounds generally centered and mono-ish in my view. The arrangement is a bit too straightforward but certainly more competent than the stuff we get. Ending sounds too abrupt and cutoffish too. I think this has a lot of promise, with more work and polish done here, you can make something special. I hope you consider coming back to this with extensive reworking. Hope to hear more from you in the future, in any case. As it is now though, NO.

Agreed, the onus is on us mixers to get the job done. For my part, I've been incredibly busy in the last few months. Now all hell has broken loose where my music pc has crapped out on me. It's going to take me 1-3 weeks best case scenario to get it working again, and I have several work projects due once I get it working again. Due to all this crud going on, unfortunately I'm going to have to drop out of the project with my rexy collab. Hopefully Rexy can somehow finish it up on her own. Sorry Aetherius , I really wanted to be a part of this and finish my end of the collaboration, but right now my priority has to focus on real life work stuff once I get my music computer back working. I'm very excited to hear the completion of the project though. Best of luck Aetherius and to all the mixers involved.

This is vanilla. I think this needs more elements outside the guitar and drums. My main issue here is the production. Everything is so cloudy and muddy in a cheap way. This needs major EQ work, cut some low/mids, boost a few in the 5-8k range, and modestly at 10-16k to a lesser degree. Everything sounds so drab and dark, in a cheap way. The string stabs sound cheap too, it sounds like low quality orchestral hits. I think the drumwork generally is great though, but it needs more change ups now and then and definitely better mixing/mastering. Everything else around that needs more work, supporting material, more interesting chord and lead work would help immensely. As I see it you have a good anchor in the drum line, now polish things and work around that. Ending sounds corny with the vocal fx then one-drum-hit ending. NO

Great stuff. There are some things in the original that I actually preferred over this one, but overall this one is denser and thicker. One thing I can see some judges possibly having a problem here is the lack of dynamics and building, but for these types of genres, constancy is the name of the game, so I don't have any problem on how this was executed. Definitely reminds me of the early electronica/new age composers like enigma or tangerine dream (to a lesser extent). Having had the opportunity to look at TO's project file, I have to say I came off impressed by the creativity he has in using his tools. A lot of the sounds he used are rather unique and in a solo instance don't sound anything too interesting, but combining all these various elements together makes one one outstanding soundscape. For example how TO made the bell synth sound like a chorused electric guitar. The vocals are generally fine, I might have done a little more eqing on it, but the performance and style is wonderful and ethereal. Also I don't agree with larry about the vocals being indistinct, they're supposed to sound haunting like this - listen to any new age - electronica - groove or stuff like enya where the overdubbing/delays/multiple reverb chains give it this kind of effect. Like I said, I would have done some more eqing to clean it up a little more, but even as is, it's something that one can expect in pieces like Enigma. The beats and groove are great! TO really is so influenced by enigma and it shows here. I dub TO the groove king. Ending was a bit weak imo, but overall extremely solid and tasty work. YES.

Can you change your sig, man that's gonna cause epileptic seizures for some people. But the differences between the formats usually are the size of the samples per the programming of that format, and the programming/keyswitch (availability or not), etc type features. But the sample/audio content should be the same. I'd go for the akai format though.

Well, SSH as well, to a degree, yes. But there are much better ones out there without name recognition even in the non-pro level that have sold arranged personal albums, made personal mixes/originals and the like in the last 10-15 years. There are also plenty in the professional arena such as members in KKC, JDK, Sega especially who have pioneered the art of guitar synth sequencing. I've been a part of this game music community for around 7-10 years now and I've seen a lot of great masters of this arena come out of there and in those times - they've probably moved on to other things by now. There are so many japanese midi, etc websites out there, in addition to many of the older sequencers from Vgmusic.com (6-8 yrs ago). There's of course a lot of non-game mixing communities out there too where I've heard a lot of remarkable stuff from, and usually they tend to be Japanese as well. There must be something in the water out there.

Some very interesting things going on here. I think you have the genre down well. The problem here for me is the lack of development. The bass and beats tend to feel like they're going on and on and on, and they're rather basic. Also there's not much harmonic support going on here, which isn't necessarily important for this genre. The key elements are in place here really. But I feel this lacks the hooks needed for music of this style, it's also somewhat lacking in sophisticated synth design, processing, beatwork, etc. I would have liked to have heard this with more development and less straightforward approaches. Of course production polish here would have been much welcomed as well. Nothing really wrong here per se, just nothing that stands out in several areas. But fairly nice work regardless of my issues with this. Keep at it. NO

Care to clarify?

Yeah this is a tough one. I think the intro was ugly sounding. It sounded like a chiptune trying to sound like an organ, bitcrushed perhaps? But once the organ and drums section evolved things got pretty good in my opinion. I really like the organ section, it does really give off the 70s feel more than the percussion/drums in my view. I can almost hear this being in a 70s tv show or trying to be a faux-Mancini (that was a compliment). Production here is underwhelming though. There needs to be quite a lot of work done on the organ, it sounds so plain, bland. I would work on eqing it at least in the mids and it needs a boost in the highs, it sounds so muddy. A little reverb would help too. Drums are plain jane. They need everything under the sun, better compression usage/color/eq/maybe even reverb. They are thin, thin, thin! Very good drum work though, it does fit the 70s era. The middle part where the organ goes into some kind of arbasque type scale was completely surprising, and perhaps not fitting, but you know what, I loved it. Also at the end where you went to the sitar out of the blue. I don't think it necessarily fits, but I'm giving you kudos points for trying. The strings are ok, I personally wouldn't want to add too much reverb to this for a 70s type sound. A lot of 70s pop stuff tends to be very dry. Maybe a small room with lots of eq to simulate the ageing sound would work better. I do agree that the flute is ugly though, it's painfully dry too. For me this was the weakest element. Flutes need either reverb or delay or they're going to sound crappy! The samples are passable in my view, now get back to work on making them shine with some production work. EQ, Reverb, Compression at the very least... NO

Too conservative, too bland and the balancing is off. Your windchimes are as loud as the strongest dynamic sections of the horn ensemble. Which is viable I suppose depending on how you want the sound to ultimately be, but I just don't feel it works well in this context. The groove needs a lot of work as it is really repetitive. It has its fun moments though, but really this needs more evolution, and less straight forward approach in the concept with more work paid to the polish. Above average though, keep working at it. NO

I hate to be glib, but Jon and Larry summed up the major problems here. There's nothing more to add. I actually did like the choir bends though. Very spooky and creative, but otherwise this is just riddled with problems. It feels like several ideas and concepts blended into one poor, transition-lacking mix. Needs a lot of work in every area, but I do appreciate the concept. Keep at it and use our Work in Progress/Completed forum in the future. NO

The main problem here is the sequencing. Everything sounds mechanical, and yes, "gamey" due to the bland sequencing. Everything is so rigid and perfect. There's very little to no humanization going on to take advantage of the samples. This is also further compounded by the faster passages where everything is painfully rigid, you can here the "machine gun" effect as well - example at 4:30 area during the build. The percussion sequencing as a whole is good, except for the snare. The snare pattern is out of place, it sounds like a rock kit trying to play in an orchestral setting but is neither played nor sounds like either orchestral or rock snares. It doesn't come off as sounding like a cool orchestral/with cool rock or electronica snare/beats either. Sounds like fake zimmer stuff. The other issue I have here, is the majority of the mix sounds centered. I would have panned things far more liberaly away from center, particularly the brass where it all sounds like one cluster of sound from one spot. Also the eqing and reverb sound muddy and a bit cheap respectively. Production and composition issues aside, this is a thoughtful concept and while it's not executed as well as it could have been, a lot of work was put in and I feel it's over the bar by a safe margin. Good work in all. YES

Well the dueling concept in the intro is great, and you executed it masterfully. The rest of the mix is hit or miss though...it's just so, unmusical. I'm sure some people will disagree with me here, but at times I felt like I was listening to a melody with harmony comprised of synth fx (even though this isn't the case, it just sounded like that due to their timbre) - especially pre 1 min, and pre 2 min time frames - after that things got a lot better. I found your melodic work fascinating personally, but everything else was a miss for me. It's too disorganized and all over the place compositionally and in execution. The harmony and supporting material here just gets in the way of the great melody expansion you have here. It's chaos. Production is in some ways better than Figaro - sound quality is not, but your processing and technical sophistication here was a lot more refined and less "vanilla." This isn't as complex and sophisticated compositionally as your Figaro mix, but it's a lot artsier and more technically inclined. I really liked the 2-4 min section of the mix. This for me was strong material and could be something you could use as an anchor to work around for a possible resub. Close one, but I'm leaning on NO as well. With some work this could probably pass even my book.