GrayLightning

Excellent drum programming. Very repetitive though. I don't feel that grooves make a mix though. I can recognize the themes, but this feels simplistic outside the actual drum elements. I agree with vigilante and daniel. But to me the question is is it a good arrangement and is it technically passable? Good arrangement of the material which to me is the most impressive part of the mix. At times it's a pretty mediocre composition in terms of elements. Electronica has never had too high standards in that aspect though. Pulled off well enough to be passable. YES OMG! OC ONLY POSTS ELECTRONICA! LOAL!

This doesn't really work for me. The voice overs and original background music is a bit distracting. This isn't really musical, it sounds like it belongs in music for a scene. Average production, composition and arrangement. NO

One of the best mixes, great work binster.

This is a fantastic mix, but unfortunately it does violate several OCR guidelines since it's not a direct arrangement of a game, and secondly it uses too much of the Eurythmics piece. We have a policy to try to avoid these, as people could use too much material from tv, film, soundtrack music in their arrangements. On a personal level I would like to congratulate the mixers involved in this. The orchestration, composition, production are all great and demonstrate a level of professionalism that I can only admire. The voice overs and angelic vocals add an emotional texture to the piece. As a piece of music, perfect work. Love it. EDIT: After much personal consideration, I'm changing my vote. I'm a strong believer in sticking to the guidelines, but if ever there were a mix where I could see the rules being bent for, it would be this. A magical mix that I will be listening to for a long time to come. YES

Covered by the other judges. I think the intro is also too drawn out, you have a low pad and some uninteresting electronica kick drum going on and on. I think that section would have worked better without the drum. Then the transition to the second section at :40 is very jarring and disjointed. Sounds like a WIP at this stage. NO

What vigilante said. Also everything is very loud and piercing. The drums are pounding. Everything is very harsh and loud, all the time. The other issue here is it sounds so empty. There's a lead, there's a bass line, there's drums and that's it. This needs more instrumentation and at least a pad. Not a bad mix, but this needs a lot more to pass. NO

DJP was right. I emailed Mahoney and this was his reply.

This is pretty groovy. You did a good job of mixing the two themes *it's level 8 and title themes*. That does give it a little more variance. I think the arrangement is a little too conservative though for a mixer of Gecko's level. At times this feels like an upgrade of the original instead of an arrangement. I would have liked to seen more variation in the actual structure and form. My other issue is the ending sounds terrible, like one of those standard midis at vgmusic. It's unsatisfying and feels like you just gave up. Borderline mix, and a bit underachieving in a few areas. NO

This sounds similar to the Brad Smith SoM issue? Can someone provide the Black Mages version of this for comparison?

My first impression is it sounded fairly real. Also you can hear ambient and recording noise. It was a possibility they put it there for authenticity, but it does look and sound like real performers. I've never heard samples sound like this anyway. There's a lot of high frequencies here and they sound really sharp sometimes. I would have liked to have heard more arrangement, but it's passable. Nice work, YES

Very interesting way of putting together a piece. My main issue is take away the drums and there's really nothing here. This needs more work in all the aspects outside the drums. Work on the melody, harmony and bass and expand the concepts. This sounds like a remix, not a rearrangement. Creative work, but this doesn't have enough arrangement in my opinion. NO

OCR is about arrangements not covers. This is too close to the original. Play with the structure, form; add to the composition, add instrumentation, something more than this. Make this mix your own and add your own style to it. This brings nothing new to something that has been mixed so much. Nice guitar work, but this needs some form of arrangement. There's no need to continue the vote and repeat what has been said. NO OVERRIDE

I request Krisham's Auntie for next week's show then.

Disciple of the Mix Fallthrough Linkage >> info: ReMixer: Disciple of the Mix Title: Pizzaman 2.0 Game: Mega Man Length: 5 minutes, 2 seconds Size: 4,730kb Bitrate: 128 CBR. Original song(s): Boss select screen (with portions of the ending theme). NSF tracks 1 and 16 respectively Composers: Chanchacobin M & Yuukichan's Papa

Attention paid to velocities is key here. It feels a little too static. I also think this could benefit with help of other instrumentation. I do not think it's strong enough to stand on its own as a solo piano piece. Add a string quartet and this may work. Slightly too much reverb here too. Nice mix BlueEnvy. Good concept, but this needs more. NO

I'm pretty borderline on this one. Needs more arrangement as the others noted. Good usage of pads and thickness, but it does need more subtlety and complexity as far as instrumentation. More can be done with more pads. There needs to be more layering on the harmony. Drums are cool but could use some more change up. One thing I don't like is how the lead is sometimes tiny against this large soundscape. I'd like to hear some more interesting work done to the lead. Component synthesis and processing would work very well in this case. NO

Thanks for writing your first book daniel. Did jeb help? Nothing to complain about that hasn't been covered. The voice over gets a little repetitive and old fast. Good stuff though. I'm enjoying this. Technically passable mix. YES

I'm borderline on this, I could almost go either way. But I think the other judges have definitely summed up what I think could be improved here. I want to yes this, but I think this could do with a bit more polishing up. This is a simple minimalistic electronica piece. What would work for me if there was more density here. More instrumentation going on subtley in the background. Some more effects processing and also change up the drum work once in a while. Very close one, like DJI's other mixes I like the vibe of this. But a little more could make this go a long way and then resubmit. Borderline NO.

I have to agree. Israfel's work is usually a drastic change on the original, yet at the same time still very much identifiable. I've never had any issues determining the source material in Israfel's work. I had some issues with some of emperor's other mixes being way too original.

ironic, perhaps?

I recognize this piece. Maybe wingless can tell us which exactly it is. The original played this theme in strings. I think. Pretty nice, I will come back to this.

Ok this is very cool. I like the instrumental sections. Nice usage of sound effects. Love the choice of instruments too. Gotta love the stringed instrument. The stringed instrument is apparently from the original, cut up and resequenced. Sounds very smooth. Great beats. My main complaint here is the way this was mixed and mastered. Why are all you electronica people making things overcompressed and extremely loud as well? Louder is not better. It sounds so flat and as the other judges mentioned with everything being this loud it can be messy or painful on normal volume settings. Quote from the latest issue of Electronic Musician from Tim Palmer, “The current trend for overcompression doesn't do it for me,” says Palmer. “It makes things sound very, very loud, but also very undynamic and small. Lately, even the mastering engineers seem to be bored with the cheap thrill of overcompression! If you're mastering specifically for the radio, you obviously have to make sure your songs aren't going to dip compared to your competition. But a commercial CD for home use should have some depth. Lately every CD is prepared as though it's on the radio already. I want my CDs to sound more dynamic and have more variation in sound and level.” Now that I've reduced my volume, ok this is very good stuff. Catchy. Very nice ending sections. The ethnic lead and synth textures work amazingly well. Great arrangement too. I enjoyed the original's ethnic flavor and what you did here works. One of the best mixes I've heard lately. Incredible. YES

Extremely unique. The original is a typical happy game sounding piece. Israfel turns it into a very provoking orchestral mix. The amount of complexity in this mix is amazing and typical of israfel's work. Great strings, choir and sound effects usage. I think what does this for me are the authentic percussion compositions coupled with instrumental effects. The timpani line reminds me of those great spooky scenes from 60s and 70s tv shows. The heavy vibrato choir adds even more to the autheticity of this piece. Which was typical for Hollywood music in that time period. Production, composition and arranging are all well above the line. The question is this too avant garde for OC? I don't think so. While this may not be the most accessible mix, I don't think it's that hard to appreciate. Like the recent Mana mix, I think people will ultimately end up enjoying this. I have no technical reason to decline this mix. Good stuff. YES

I'm putting this on the panel for a vote. It's Israfel's SimCity 2000 mix from last year.

Pretty decent arrangement, very nice performance. I think the source material you chose is very good, and it does help this mix. As far as the arrangement goes, I think the first half of the mix is extremely conservative, but you seem to build on that more as the mix progresses. I do like your transitions. Nice work. YES