GrayLightning

I think we are all voting on different mixes! Protricity mentioned a synth? Which isn't in the AoP - A Storm in the Desert mix that Darke and vig reviewed - contained in the body of his submission. Yet at the top of the submission it's talking about another mix, Zelda Storm Rifted Sky? Which are we voting on? Storm in the Desert or Storm Rifted Sky?

I think I heard this before at Larry's show and enjoyed the sound quality for a radio stream. Nice work there, but I have quite a few issues with this mix. The beginning starts of with that sound on the right. Is that a hihat or noise patch? Whatever it is, it sounds very awkward, exposed and simply doesn't fit in. For me the main problem with this mix is the cluttered sound. You have a lot of similar frequency sounds clashing with each other. I can't say I find it pleasant at all. Also with the kind of reverb/delay you've used, this further makes the cluttered mess even worse. I think this needs to be more on the dry side given the compositional choices of the mix. I love the section that starts at 1:20. That's a better example of good mixing. Let me say I really enjoy blind's mixes, but this has too many issues for me to pass. This just sounds like something we've heard over and over at OCR before. When we have so many electronica mixes, I feel the better mixers of these genre need to start to doing more unique stuff that isn't just relying on good sounds. Borderline on this, but I'll have to give this a NO.

Fowl Jive is guaranteed to make any radio broadcast better.

There was some discussion on this mix after the yes that required possible intervention. This bears a secondary cautionary look. I don't think this is really as good as djorange's recently posted mix. But on its own merits I have to agree with the Nos on this one. The mix feels too fluid for me. It touches on some ideas then moves on to another idea far too quickly. I don't feel very situated as a listener when listening to this. My other complaints have been mentioned by the no votes. NO

There was some debate amongst some judges about this mix after the yes vote. Since it's especially close like this I thought I needed to vote on this. I don't think this is passable material. I don't think this is very polished ambience. The first half is so sparse. It feels like the occasional sounds here and there drenched in a large reverb. Where's the layers of sounds, richer pads, production, the interesting ideas? It just feels like it's the melody a deep bass and sounds here and there. I don't really feel this has a form either. Ambience music can have just as much form as any genre. The second half of the mix is much better, but still I don't think this has anything on offer that makes it stand out. It's a nice mix, but just not polished enough to be posted. NO

Samples really aren't an issue here. I think it's passable even in this context. For me this is simply too different. Being very familiar with this tune and after hearing this mix for some months now, I still don't feel like there's anything for me to cling to. It feels like a work that is based on the original, instead of an arrangement. Emperor has some great work that I'm looking forward to. Better luck next time. NO

Having done Asian Twilight, I can say I'm familiar with the source material. I see what protricity is saying with the lofi sounds, and I agree. But overall this has decent production, and very good arranging. There are a few little problems, but I see no reason to decline this mix. Good work. YES

You know my thoughts on this already, so I will just leave it with excellent work mv.

This is a cool and fun mix. I'm glad you posted it in the WIP and many people enjoyed it. I think the other judges have cited the technical issues here though that would not allow this to pass. NO

Nice mix, very good production. I agree with the others. YES

This is very good. I would like to hear the original before voting though. Has anyone found it yet?

I wanted to give this a huge YES, until I compared it to the original. This really needs much more arrangement. It sounds almost like a liberal cover. Do more arranging, add more of your personality and uniqueness to the mix. This needs more. very sad NO

Protricity is entitled to his opinion. I will slightly disagree with the eq and reverb comment though. Normally orchestral mixes are eq'd as little as possible. The reverb sounds very good in my opinion. It's very dense and rich. My only slight complaint is the reverb is slightly too wet, but that doesn't at all take away from the quality of this mix.

Excellent work Mr. Soule.

Edit: After even more listens and better rested ears after a long week, I'm changing my vote again. I think this definitely meets and surpasses the bar required for postage. YES Final vote change. ^_~

Not that it matters, but for the record I'm still unsure about this mix. I could vote either way. Undecided.

There's a problem with that. Israfel, Protricity and myself would and have rejected the Hymn of the Fayth mixes like Jared's and like our recent rejection of sephire's Hymn of the same material due to lack of melodic and harmonic arrangement or too much originality since there's possibly less to work with. Here there is less to work since it's primarily groove based with but he's used phrases and expanded on the percussion. The problem is that that was heavily reliant on the choir. The argument could be made that hymn of the fayth is just choir oriented and so it needs not much if any arrangement. Just put in some great percussion, bass and chop up things and be done? In the sephire case, I think based on our vote we concluded that some pieces of music are simplly too difficult to mix to the OC guidelines. I think we need to consider past and future ramifications of this decision.

Well here's my question, have we let through anything like this in the past? Rather than rearrangements? Can this even be considered a rearrangement rather than a remix when there's questionably this much material from the original? Where are we putting the standard as far as the reliance of material from the game? There are a lot of gray areas that need to be asked and answered. Edit: I've changed my vote to undecided. As it is, I am having a hard time determining if this is a remix or a rearrangement that is within the OC guidelines. If we consider this an arrangement then I think my vote is yes.

The problem with passing these kinds of mixes is we've rejected a bunch of similar types of these recently.

I love this! I initially voted on this as a YES too hastily. This is not a rearrangement. What we have here is a remix, that borrows a lot of material from the original. I love the new added percussion material here. But like the recent metal gear mix, and the sephire one, this mix is unfortunately out of the OC guidelines. There needs to be more melodic and harmonic arrangement. Most to all of the melody and harmony of this mix is taken from the game. Very clever mix, but not an arrangement so I am very sad to give this a ?.

Savior Sephiroth, piracy is not welcomed on the OC forums. Threads on the topic have been deleted.

Far too simple and generic. The first half is very weak. The second half gets much better and you did a nice job there. This needs a lot more work in the concept stages, execution and production to make it passable. There's just not enough here to notice when it feels like I've heard this kind of arrangement with this theme so many times before. NO

I was going to vote on this earlier, but coma and db voted first. Since there is some cause for concern I'll vote anyway. I agree with some of the issues here. The production quality by current OC standards is kind of dated. But that being said it's really kind of likeable. For me the production quality is mid 80s classic instead of what I'd classify as bad. Some of the arrangement is a close interpretation, but the new additions make it good enough. This is one of those times where this has those intangibles of what makes a fun mix. The ending solo synth section can only be thought of as a very good thing. I think this is a really fun and entertaining mix so I'll add to the YES.

I'm not sure if I'm hearing what you all did. But these samples aren't bad, in fact I can recognize a lot of cutting edge samples. The duduk bends are fairly obvious for example. Brass is as good as you might find for a nice sum as well. I agree that some of the sounds could be used better. The instrument placement on this is kind of strange at times. Also the right side is at times far stronger, it would have been nice to get a more balanced sound. Pretty nice arrangement, great production quality for that cinematic sound. Our first halo mix to be posted is now enshrined. YES

I initially voted this a no, but I'm changing it to a borderline yes. Mark Vera's style typical spacesynth, like ambient doesn't really need to build up or have crazy dynamic shifts. It's fairly consistent with the line of genre. This is a nice mix. My main problem here is it's a bit shallow sounding. This is definitely carried by the great sound quality. There's little interesting going on here as far as layering and ambiance that one would expect from music of this type. I also found the guitar very brittle sounding and I don't think it went well with the other sounds. Nice drumwork, but like dan I found the bass drums a bit too strong after a while. The guitar is also brittle and thin. For this kind of mix I think, more clever and softer percussions would allow the ambience to be more immersive. Roach and serrie are good in that department. Good production quality, and fine work compositionally, although I would have expected something more daring to go along with the sound quality. YES