Chimpazilla

Yep the drum balances and mixing are off, that tambourine or hat right in my face and so mechanical. The lead guitar tone is so mid heavy and has too much reverb, so the lead lacks any kind of sparkle, yet the backing chugs are mixed bright and up-front. I agree with Gario's vote pretty much entirely. Hope to hear this again though, I like the concept. NO

I see all the crits here and I don't disagree about the first half being conservative, but I love where you went with it and the arrangement flows really well. The humanization works well enough and it is a good, emotive track. Going with it. YES

Agree with all the crits here. That first one minute is ooof. The entire track's balances are off, the writing is frequently too busy, and things are not mixed to sit in their proper places. The arrangement is too good not to go with it, but please take our crits to heart for next time. Dat wakka guitar tho! YES (borderline)

I don't disagree with the criticisms listed here, but I still like this track and I feel like my issues from the last submission have been addressed. Please keep the crits in mind for next time, but this gets it done for me. YES

I like the concept, I like the interpretation of the melody quite a bit. But I'm not quite feeling this one, it is so sparse and that simple backing gets old quickly. The violin playing is competent but I dislike the right-ish panning and the sound is very dry. The piano when it enters is very simple and mechanical and feels like too little too late. Feels more like an extended concept wip to me. NO

Omg what an awesome track, great arrangement and ace production. Easily into my favorites folder, but I can't argue with Gario's source breakdown and unfortunately it isn't enough for OCR. If you wanted to throw in some other recognizable motifs from other sources (the section starting at 3:29 could almost hint at Zelda's Lullaby but would need to be made more easily recognizable) into those longer fully-original sections, that would put it over the top in terms of source use. If you don't want to revisit it, I would understand, and it sounds so great as it stands right now. Great listen, enjoyed it thoroughly. NO (please resubmit)

Wow, tricky vote here. I am listening and have read all the votes above. What I am hearing is a track that sounds overcompressed and yet not loud enough (limiter ceiling too low), all the way until 3:35, then there is this super quiet and clean piano, followed by a horrendously loud section with comically loud/dry vocals. I feel like the arrangement, odd as it is, is cool and quirky, but the balance and compression issues are ultimately putting it under the bar for me. It feels like too many cooks in the kitchen and the head chef went on break instead of overseeing this cake getting made. Needs another pass at the mixing/mastering, then it will be good to go. NO (resubmit, please)

Omg this source tho. Wow, I love music that makes you feel, especially when it makes you feel raw and shredded, I don't know why but I prefer that over "happy" music any day of the week. Ok on to the remix. Ah yes I can hear the NIN connection Gario mentioned, it's the bassline. I am loving this interpretation, this isn't an easy one to interpret but you managed to add a ton of creep factor into an already creepy source. I think the staccato strings are fine. I kind of wish the bass was a little louder, otherwise I really like this. Why does the ending cut off like that though, it sounds like your rendering range wasn't long enough to capture the final note or it's tail. Still, YES

I don't know these sources and I see that my fellow judges have gone over them in great detail, and I thought it would be fun to listen to the track in isolation before listening to the sources at all. What a cool track this is! Totally immersive. The mixing is just right for what it is trying to achieve, every element has it's place and nothing overstates itself. The arrangement is dynamite. Completely enjoyable track, great work! YES

Although I agree with both of my fellow judges here, I think MW's vote sums up my feelings best. Wow, I really think something went wrong on render here, I hear so many glitches and not the cool groovy kind. I love the concept, but wow, piercing frequencies, mid-heavy eq, and rendering errors all around. Needs work. NO

Even I am going to say there are too many sfx and vocal clips, and I'm a HUGE fan of game sfx and vocal clips. Many of the sfx are also too loud. Way too many in here, gotta take at least half of them out, and make the rest of them count, throw one in right before a big change, along with a noise sweep or something, and give us a break in between. Other than that I think the track is very good. The saw lead could use a little filter movement or something, not a dealbreaker but that would give it some more expressiveness especially on the longer notes. I like the starman interlude a lot, such fun soloing! The transitions into and out of starman are a little abrupt but I'm fine with it. It's a fun track, pretty easy pass without so many vocal clips and sfx. I guess I'm with Gario here, but since there are so many sfx I don't think conditional is a good way to go, as conditional is for super quickie fixes, and you should take your time rethinking the sfx in this track. NO (borderline, remove some vocal clips and sfx, and resubmit please)

The brass and flute have way too long of attacks, to the point where the track sounds sidechained and I know it isn't (or, shouldn't be). The flute especially should have a much shorter attack as it is playing lead. I agree about the rain fx, they are overused with this source generally, and in this case I agree the thunder claps are too loud when they occur. The deep drum isn't doing a good job of keeping the beat because it lacks punch, perhaps layering a proper kick in with it would help, but the big drum is also taking a ton of space in the low end and making it muddy overall. I feel like the soundscape is quite empty though throughout the piece, even with lots of stuff playing the soundscape needs different stuff to fill it out. The writing is also repetitive. I like the concept, but the execution isn't there yet. NO

I love this arrangement, it's off to the Enchanted Forest, as per usual from Rebecca! I have a few issues though. I'm not a fan of heavy panning, especially for example in the intro where there is almost nothing in the center, and the main elements are left and right. There are some percussion elements sitting all the way left at some points, and other elements sitting all the way right at other points in the piece. I find this totally distracting as it feels so unbalanced; it kills the mood for me. The birds are dealbreakingly loud for me, and they are chirping in some piercy territory. The backing harmony from 2:37-3:59 is somewhat dissonant, I can't quite tell what is going on there. The overall track volume is quite low, I just threw some mastering plugins onto the track and it sounds so much better. I gladly volunteer to master your tracks Rebecca, should you want that. This is an easy pass for me with the panning not so extreme, and the birds lowered in volume and perhaps some reverb added to the birds too, lower volume plus some reverb will put those birdies in the background where they belong. NO (please resubmit and hit me up for mastering if you want)

The clarinet is great and could be louder. The old-time piano is perfect, love it, it sounds mechanical but in a good way, like a player-piano, and the tone is great. Omg that faster section, hilarious and I love the transition. That final chord is excellent. Well done, guys! I've got rhythm, indeed. YES

I really like the variations you've done on the motif. The concept is dynamite. I agree with Gario, the piano immediately is a problem, the sample isn't great and without any sort of reverb to put it into a nice space, it just sits there flat. The sample lacks any kind of expressiveness and sounds really clunky. The viola isn't much better. They both sound like they are overpowering the soundscape instead of jiving with it. I think the viola could be fixed with eq, take some of the low-mids out and it will be less honky sounding. I'm also not totally sold on the drum groove you've chosen to go with the soundscape. I like the idea of adding a drum groove but I'm not sure this is the right one. I'm not sure if it is too fast of a pattern or just one that doesn't compliment the writing, but it feels off to me. I love the idea, but the execution isn't quite there yet for me. NO

This is fun indeed. Is the pop at the very beginning intentional? I'm going to guess not... perhaps we can just chop that off before posting. I agree with Larry about the vocal and hats competing, it is because the hats are mixed dead center and the vocal is also primarily in the center... imo the vocals are mixed well enough to get the job done, but the hats need to be much more stereo-separated, that will remove that competition, and take focus off of the repetition of the toploop. The arrangement is great, although the soundscape is quite samey throughout; a proper breakdown besides the Bowflex interlude would have really helped. The vocals are funny and well enough performed, and do bring smiles. The track could definitely use a mixing cleanup and the vocals could be mixed for much more presence and impact... but what is here works well enough and it is super fun. Gotta go with it. YES

Ok so I have been binge-playing BotW so I had to hear this. The remix is quite good. The pace feels a bit fast for what I was expecting, almost rushed. The backing elements are too upbeat and march-like for my taste, for this source material. The humanization is good enough to get the job done. The mastering is too hot, you hit -7.4db RMS in the intro and -6.9 in the outro, yikes for an orchestral track. The entire track also strikes me as a bit sizzly in the highest frequencies. All that said, I love the arrangement, it's a go, yes it is. YES

Fun cover, but I agree the arrangement is too conservative. Performances are indeed good, it just feels much too close to the original in every way. The track hits it's stride early on and has no change in energy throughout the piece, no breakdown, nothing very original added and no outro either. Adding a breakdown would go far in setting this remix apart from the source, as would adding a section with unique yet complimentary writing. The other thing I notice is that the master is set for 3db of headroom which makes this sound like a premaster and not a master. If you were trying to go conservative on your master, -3db peak is too conservative. -0.3 is a very good conservative limiter ceiling, that is what I always use anyway. NO

Cool blending of these sources, but I agree with the gentlemen that this soundscape is just too busy. Too much competing writing going on together at several points, melodies and countermelodies all competing for center stage. The other issue is that the leads and backing elements are all playing in the same frequency range, so that further adds to the overcrowded and competitive nature of the soundscape. You will need to do some eq work to let leads shine and push backing elements back, and also don't be afraid to delete parts outright that don't add anything to the mix. NO (resubmit)

Not much to add to what the two gentlemen have said. The arrangement is quite static, with the same backing guitar groove and drums throughout, and no breakdown or energy shift anywhere in the track. The track is too short to get enough material in there for it to be an interesting arrangement. No outro either, just one final note, which is a letdown. Also, I agree that the lap guitar isn't carrying the lead well enough, although it could stay as a layer for some stronger lead sound to play over it. Still some work to do here, but cool concept. NO

This track comes out swinging in the best possible way, but I agree with the two gentlemen that having that long fairly empty section is a dealbreaker. The rest of the track is dynamite. I love how you incorporated that Zelda dungeon theme. I suggest making that long section more interesting with additional elements or writing, and also consider adding at least one more section to the track, perhaps a very short breakdown or transition, and one more unique section after that, then the outro. The arrangement just isn't there yet, although the production is quite good. Also, your render cuts off early. NO (resubmit)

Wow, really great production, I have no complaints. The source is repetitive, and so is this, which is fine in and of itself... but I agree with the others who are saying that it is the drum groove primarily bringing this just under the bar. Throw in just one section with a surprising groove for 32 bars. The other thing you could do is throw in some interesting/surprising leadwork during one of those long sections, some cool original motif over what is already here, perhaps a soulful legato thing, something to sort of tell the story over this amazing soundscape. Damn, I do like this. Just needs a little bit of something to make it less repetitive and this will be a candidate for my favorites folder. NO (please resubmit)

This sounds like a good, short, extremely conservative cover, but it isn't striking me as a complete arrangement. The arrangement needs some kind of breakdown at some point, and/or something original thrown in somewhere. The plodding drum beat does not help with the repetitive feel of the track. The mix is also very mid-heavy. The guitar performances are good, but I agree with Larry about the mechanical feel to the drums and other elements. Not sure this is quite ready for OCR, but a fun listen nonetheless. NO

This might be one of my favorite sources of all time, idunno. Conservative take on the source, yet transformative enough. I love the icy feel. Reverb is quite heavy, but it is fitting. I think the overall dynamics of the track could still be smoothed out some, perhaps even with some volume automation on the rendered wav prior to mastering, that would avoid any compression spikes in the final product and still get the levels more consistent. This gets the job done though, for me. Beautiful. YES

Xenoblade Chronicles... one of my very favorite games... I tried to start remixes of some of these sources several times and always gave up because the OST is too good to do justice to it... I'm much closer to a YES on this remix than Gario is, if it passes as-is, I'll be fine with it. I love what you did with this source! The guitar performances and soloing are excellent. Source is well represented. I agree with Gario about the lack of bass presence, and the drums are underwhelming also. I think the drums are less about volume and more about mixing, the entire kit sounds like it has a lowpass filter on it so the life and sparkle are taken out of it. So I'll be sending this back for some very minor mixing fixes. I agree with Gario about the repetitive nature of that final passage, but I find it ok, no need to re-record the song with that part shortened. I think it will be fine once the mixing is spiffed up just a tad, this will be even more of a pleasure to listen to. Nice work, please make the subtle changes and send this back to us quickly. NO (borderline, minor mixing fixes and please resubmit)