Chimpazilla

Wow, dem drums. I can't tell if the kick itself is distorted or if it is just causing distortion when it hits, perhaps both are the case. The track's waveform is clearly distorted and clipping on the right side, just the right side is all squared off and squashed, which is odd. I think that kick is the biggest problem, it is taking up so much headroom that I'm seeing a reading of -3.7db RMS which is so loud as to be completely ludicrous. The kick is too loud and you probably have some low-end garbage on the sample as well, causing a DC offset that is stealing your headroom. By chance do you have the kick panned slightly to the right? Check the drums, lower the kick and snare, eq any subsonic garbabe out of your kick, and also the hats are really repetitive. I agree that the arrangement needs some more polish and development, but this is a decent start. Make sure you render your entire track including any reverb tail. NO (resubmit)

Yeah this is really great but it feels like half a song. What I'd love to hear next is a soft breakdown with very minimal drums (or at least a very different groove), then a buildup and back to another verse/chorus then outro. The piano and bass here are top notch. Just needs more material to be an OC ReMix. NO (resubmit)

That organ, oof. Brass and xylophone, same. Yeah cluttered mixing for sure. The writing in this mix does tend to get too busy in some places, too many competing elements, it would be really hard to mix them all together well. I suggest going back through the mix and deleting any elements that aren't absolutely necessary at each part, leave what is important. Make sure you have a low-cut on your reverb, there's just a touch of low-end reverb mud on everything. Wow I love these sources. The arrangement does sound medley-ish but it's cohesive overall and blends the themes rather well. I don't have a problem with loose timing, actually, it's enough to give it character without sounding too sloppy, imo. Just gotta declutter the part writing, and mix it better. (That said, once you remove parts here and there, the performances will be more exposed and then you may need to address the timing of things.) Such a cool idea though! Let's hear this again! NO (resubmit)

Gotta love that Clem style, this style is 100% unique! I love the granularity and extreme sound mangling. As usual with Clem, the source is obscured quite a bit, but it's there, yes it is. The loooooong silence in the middle, while I get that it is a stylistic choice, is a dealbreaker for me. Gotta add something to string it together, even just some atmo or even some beeps or just SOMETHING so we know the song hasn't ended. This track, and Clem's style in general, is an acquired taste, certainly. I acquired a taste for Clem's style early on so this isn't a problem for me! But yeah just bridge that gap. YES (conditional on bridging the complete silence) Edit 3/17/16: I hear more source, and the complete silence is gone. This is a track that actually forces me to revisit the definition of music as the "arrangement of sounds across time" because that's literally what is happening here. This track is really more like one long atmo clip than what I'd call a "song." That said, I love it. This track punches into my chest and rips my heart out, then shows it to me still beating before eating it in front of me. YES

previous decision ReMixer & real name: Eino Keskitalo e-mail: forum id: 20708 ReMixer name: Jorito Real name: Jorrith Schaap e-mail: forum id: 3917 ReMixer name: Xarnax42 Real name: Jesse Deacon e-mail: forum id: 37005 Real name: Trev Wignall (I'm assuming it's also the ReMixer name ) e-mail: forum id: 32157 Names of games arranged: Shovel Knight Name of Arrangement: Shovel's Lament Names of individual songs arranged: The Requiem of Shield Knight, A Thousand Leagues Below Source 1: http://virt.bandcamp.com/track/the-requiem-of-shield-knight Source 2: http://virt.bandcamp.com/track/a-thousand-leagues-below-iron-whale-manami-matsumae MP3 link: The arrangement: This track combines two songs from the game Shovel Knight into a sad, lamenting song with vocals. It features the songs 'Requiem of Shield Knight' and 'A Thousand Leagues Below'. It was made in one week for the Knights of the ReMix doubles compo. Composition and arrangement by Jorito and evktalo, mixed and mastered by Jorito, violin by Trev, lyrics by evktalo and vocals by Xarnax42. Arranger comments: Jorito: This was one of those crazy moments where everything falls into place naturally and gets driven by tons of inspiration and motivation. It already started at the very beginning. Initially we were debating between either a very frantic song or a calm song with orchestral elements. Inspiration struck me, and I went for a sad, lamenting piece, and within 2 hours the basic song and mood were setup. In another bout of inspiration I contacted Jesse (Xarnax42), who had to drop out in the singles tourney, through the forums and asked him if he’d be willing to do the vocals. Turned out that Jesse was eager to do some vocals again and in a stroke of luck he also had time to deliver on short notice. A few back ’n forths of the arrangement between Eino and me and some very constructive IRC sessions later with the 3 of us the rest more or less happened automagically and we all dig the end result that’s now in front of you to enjoy. Eino: Throughout the two rounds of the Shovel Knight tournament, I was amazed by Jorito's drive and work ethic - I did my best to step up my game to keep up with him! It was very educational to work on lyrics for someone else to sing. The writing process was iterative with lots of useful feedback from the whole team, getting everything to fall into place. Jesse being able to do several work-in-progress takes certainly helped with the satisfying end result. All the awkwardness in the lyric was worked out while keeping the intention intact. The lyric should be meaningful without knowing the game, while those familiar with it hopefully appreciate the references. Jorito remixed the track for the resub and also asked Trev to record live violin, and Trev delivered in spades. Everything here definitely clicked - everyone was clearly inspired to put forth their best. Very proud of this one. Trev: I'm glad Eino and Jorrith approached me about doing this as I love adding violin with a human touch wherever I can. The lilting and melancholic melody lent itself extremely well to the instrument. Thanks guys! Source breakdown is outdated (instrumentation may be a bit different, especially the violin) but the structure is the same. I don't think the source usage was an issue in the first submission so I'm not spending time re-checking 0:00-0:07 Celeste intro, based on the Requiem lead at 0:03-0:05. 0:08-0:16 Cello enters, riff is from A Thousand Leagues Below @ 0:55-0:57. 0:16-0:32 Variation of the main melody from Requiem with different bass. 0:32-1:04 Two first thirds of the first verse, based on Requiem's 0:02-0:24 (though on 0:02-0:12 more clearly); ATLB 0:55 riff from the intro features at 0:55-1:04. 1:04-1:35 Final third of the verse follows the 0:25-0:47 portion of the Requiem (ATLB 0:55 riff again ata 1:12-1:20). 1:35-2:08 The chorus is based on ATLB 0:55-1:05, which is easiest to hear 1:43-1:52 and 2:04-2:08. The vocal melody is based on 0:57 and 1:00 of the source. 2:08-2:40 The second verse follows 0:25-0:47 in the requiem. The cello adds some ATLB from 0:19-0:24 at 02:31-02:39. 2:40-3:10 The second chorus. 3:10-3:44 From ATLB 0:19-0:36. 3:45-4:00 From ATLB 0:36-0:46 (acoustic guitar), trumpet solo based on the main Requiem melody. 4:00-4:16 The same, actually. especially audible at the end. 4:16-4:32 From ATLB 0:46-0:55. 4:32-end Repeats of the chorus (neatly continuing the ATLB coverage from 0:55->). Lyrics: sky is clear the thunder gone no gold at the end of the rain we fought hard we fought long nothing left at the end of the day I'd be king you, the queen we'd beat them, we would drive them away turns out we were not the heroes we were made out to be chorus: if I lose my place you're there, you'll catch my fall promises break and you are still my all with you there shielding me I have faith, I can dig our way through we've got all the treasure we need if I lose my place you're there, you'll catch my fall promises break and you are still my all (middle part) nothing remains apart from the ash, still warm ambitions fade and you are still my all though I've lost my grace you're there, you'll catch my fall catch my fall catch my fall catch my fall That's all. Cheers!

My vote is still YES, although I totally understand where the NO is coming from. edit 12/4/15: Ok. I see everyone's point. I did have a concern about the conservativeness of the arrangement when I gave it the DP. I was won over by the coolness of the idea. But you guys are right. Switching vote. NO

This is one of the best albums I've heard on OCR. Of course it doesn't hurt that I'm a huge fan of EDM and this album contains some of the best EDM producers around! Awesome job on this album, Flex and everyone!

I support this idea strongly in all it's glorious detail.

I just want to make sure you've heard this Lawnmower Man remix: Cyber Mower. I'm guessing you have, if you looked it up here on OCR, but I'm linking it anyway. I absolutely adore this mix. It's not the same sources you linked though.

The articulations on the opening strings and pad are awkward, the attacks on the notes stop the phrases from flowing like they should. I can't totally tell if it's just the pad or if it is also the strings, but I'm getting a choppy feel out of it, maybe that was intentional? It does give an eerie feel. The intro lasts for nearly half of this short song. At 1:06 that metallic scrape is ouch, and then the clanking is REALLY loud and jarring. Again, intentional? The song shifts into high gear after this, and it's pretty exciting, until 1:41 when there's an abrupt breakdown (I hear the mallet pattern from the incarnate battle). At 1:57, the track shifts back into high gear, sounds like it is leading up to something really big... and then... there is... resolution and an outro. Neato ideas here but this arrangement feels very disjointed. It feels like half of a very epic song, but it doesn't feel like a good standalone arrangement. NO

Such a great idea to combine these sources, and into such a soulful tune. I really want to like this, but I feel like it takes soooo long to get started, and I'm not sure it ever really does. It feels like the arrangement consists of multiple buildups that don't lead to any real drop, but only to another section that starts another buildup, and again, and again. The sequencing is stiff and the mixing is lifeless. I actually really like this arrangement idea for these sources, in theory, and it seems promising, but there isn't enough substance here to hold my attention ultimately. The entire track seems to be leadless... which can be fine in certain contexts (background music), but I personally need some kind of lead to maintain my interest for six minutes. The sfx are cool, but they aren't really helping to tell the story so they just seem out of place. Nearly overcompressed at 4:23, I feel like that part distorts. Lots more work to do for this to make it for me. NO

The track doesn't seem to be officially overcompressed (looking closely at the waveform), but it *sounds* overcompressed. It is definitely a wave sausage with no dynamics, everything playing at top volume. I'm finding the synths simple, and the wubs are simple too which is a letdown. The drums are simple, repetitive and mixed very quietly. I can barely hear the kick, but I hear the sidechaining, and it feels awkward, the pumping only adds to the overcompressed feel. The backing synths are making a huge wall of sound with no letup so the melody has no breathing room. The writing is repetitive as heck. The mixing is mushing every frequency together, the leads and pads are all playing in the same frequency range. I hate to sound this negative but the track ends up sounding like a very loud wall of frequency mush. The track cuts off in mid-note with no resolution at the end and certainly no reverb tail. I like this concept but the execution has a long way to go. NO

That's got to be the most nebulous source ever in the history of video games. My son plays hours of Minecraft, and even I have never heard this theme that I can recollect (it's that unmemorable). I know there is enough source here though, because this: "I layered multiple tracks of the song and pitch shifted them and essentially just played over it. Enjoy!" Are we allowing this? It does make for a very nice track, I love what he's done with it, but ultimately, it's game audio duplicated, pitched and tweaked. It sounds very raw and Burial-esque, especially with the crackle effect. Very cool concept. The clap is too loud. Dave, Larry? Are we allowing this?

That simple beat to open, oof. Simple synths, no sidechaining, no groove. Very conservative arrangement, which is fine, but it just sounds very very simple. This mix could be soooo much more interesting with sidechaining first of all, and some extra percussive elements and ear candy. I can picture this mix with a beefy kick, sidechained to the backing elements and bass, much more groovy just with that. The hat groove here is cool but it's mixed very quietly, center panned, with no highs and it sounds loop-like. Also, the track cuts off unceremoniously with no resolution of any kind, while things are still playing. Very sloppy indeed. I'm afraid this has a long way to go to be ready for prime-time. NO

The mixing isn't great, is it. The lead guitar is the biggest offender imo. It sounds really fuzzy, quiet and distant compared to the rhythm guitars which sound cleaner, louder and more up-front than the lead. The hats and crashes have no high end and that's a shame. Larry is right, "huah" does sound stapled on top as it is quite clean. At least it is brief. I agree with Larry that while this arrangement is repetitive, the live performance aspect and it's resultant variations makes the repetitiveness workable. The guitar performances are quite good. The padding at 3:15 is ok in theory but it is mixed cleanly compared to everything else so it doesn't fit. Clean up the mixing on the lead guitar and the hats/crashes and bring some life into them, and this whole arrangement is going to come to life. I hope you can get us a render that captures the last bit of the final note and it's reverb tail. I like this, it's very close I think. NO (borderline, resubmit)

It is indeed a wave sausage, it's full but not clipping, so it's actually mastered well. I'm seeing an RMS of -7.5db and that's just fine, and it's not distorting at all. Things are balanced well. But yeah, there really could be a break from the loudness level. I've just learned this lesson myself on one of my own tracks. On my track, I actually went back and revised a full minute of relentlessness to turn it into a breakdown, buildup and drop around the halfway point, which I think was a significant arrangement improvement (and that was the feedback I got, as well). This track could benefit from that same revision. I hear plenty of source use. The intro piano is very stiff and exposed while it plays there alone, it really doesn't fit with the synth soundscape that follows. It is transitioned pretty well into the synth part, but still I would have preferred a synthetic intro timbre to this stiff and unhumanized piano. Some really great sfx would help to open the track up, even just some gated white noise or something. When the first saw lead arrives, it sounds really loud and dry to me. This saw isn't my favorite lead timbre and the writing is simple and stiff, but it works well enough, especially when it is doing call/response with the wubby fills. The bass tomfoolery is quite good I think, lots of fun detail. The little vocoded bits starting at 1:53 are awesome. Some of the bass bits and fills repeat again and again, but they are cool enough to withstand the repetition. The kick and snare groove is simple and repetitive but the hat fills make up for it imo. The kick timbre isn't the right fit for this track I think, it has a pop sound to it and not a lot of meat, I think a dubstep kick would fit better and have more impact. The snare fits just fine. Even with these criticisms, I think the track is very creative and cool! I'm going with it. YES

Agreed with Wes 100% here. That guitar could go either way, couldn't it... the repetition of the exact same take of the motif does make it sound sequenced to me. The swingy hats don't really compliment this arrangement for me either, perhaps it would work if the swing only made cameos and wasn't the entire length of the track. It could be cool as a little fill, but the rest of the track is swing-free so it feels awkward as a continuous groove. The brushed snare swirling is too loud and dry I think. I'm not honestly sure that this theme goes very well with the backing chord structure that has been set up, maybe if there was a little bit of variation on the main motif it would fit better harmonically to my ears, but perhaps I'm just grandma-ing jazz, this is a possibility. I think it is the first piano chord in each phrase that is blowing it for me. Regardless, the main theme repeats too many times verbatim for my liking. Piano sounds good to me, but the chord pattern repeats again and again. Overall I'm finding a lot more repetition in this arrangement than I'd like, but the concept is solid. I'm also not a fan of fadeout endings, I find it a cop out. NO (resubmit)

I read Wes's vote and I have to say "what he said." He covered the issues perfectly. Wow, what a concept. I love the chord structures here. Unhumanized strings are a bummer since they are so exposed. For a short mix, having nearly a minute of it be that quiet just doesn't make for a nice flow. What about adding some sfx there, or some kind of padding or filler? It doesn't have to be as loud as the rest of the track, just louder than it is now, for at least a portion of that minute-long section. As Wes said, great concept but not there for me yet, either. NO (resubmit)

Nice arrangement. I like the grungy bass timbres but I feel like they are mixed on the loud side, they obscure the leads. The lead timbres are on the vanilla side but I like some of the filter, delay and glitch effects used starting in the breakdown. Not sure why the saw that enters at 1:12 and again at 2:55 needed to be hard-panned to the right. Bass gets boomy at 1:53. I feel like the track ends abruptly, even with the laugh at the end, the melodic portion has no resolution, one final note would have been great, imo. A few mixing nitpicks, but this is cool and works overall. YES

The intro is indeed beautiful, although the harp plucks are very rigidly sequenced. The flute sequencing is interesting and detailed, but Wes is right, there is no attempt at realism, this flute player does not breathe. The hand drums are nice but the pattern is repetitive. The biggest issue is the dissonance. Dissonance has to be used carefully for effect, and I don't feel like it is working here. The flute melody and countermelodies are all over the place, stepping on each other, playing notes that are dissonant from each other and from the backing elements. The fact that the backing arp sounds so mechanical, and that it never changes, really amplifies my feeling that the dissonances don't work here. It's like one aspect of the writing attempts to be very experimental (the dissonances and extensive soloing) while another prominent aspect (the simple, mechanical arp, and even the repetitive hand drums) remains constant. I have to agree with Wes, there is a lot to like here and some solid ideas, but they aren't clicking in this form. NO

Nice conversion of a 6/8 source to 4/4, and great guitar performances here! Good original transition writing. The writing, both source and original transitions, is repetitive. The soloing beginning at 3:11 is a highlight to the track, but the rest just kind of repeats itself. Drums are repetitive. As I keep listening, the snare and hat groove never ever changes, the only changes are the occasional kick fill. The snare and hat groove are dragging this down for me. This isn't helping my feeling of overall repetition here. Jury is out for me.

I feel like the distortion problem in the intro is that the lead guitar is too fuzzy. It is making the lead disappear into the soundscape imo. The electric guitar also sounds quite different to the acoustic guitars that follow it, the acoustic guitars sound louder and it's a big contrast. The electric guitar sounds too fuzzy to my ears wherever it appears in the track, and too quiet. Perhaps a re-amp is needed? Agreed with Mike that the drums are a bit vanilla. Drums could have more volume and presence. I'm not a fan of the extreme panning in the outro, it makes me think my left speaker has suddenly failed. Definitely a conservative arrangement, but the performances are absolutely dynamite. DAT SOLO. Even with some nitpicks, this is good stuff! YES

New version up. Bump.

I like the hoofbeat percussion in the intro! They could be louder and they are a bit dry, and I think some further horse sounds could be added! Why not? How about a couple of soft whinnies and snorts? Maybe some distant chickens and other farm sfx too? I like to make a track into a story whenever possible, and this track would definitely qualify for that treatment! With enough tasteful reverb on the sfx, it would really tell the story well I think. Freesound.org is great for sfx of all kinds. This is cute and emotive but very simply and stiffly sequenced without much humanization of the instruments. The cello notes are very long and unhumanized from 0:38-1:10. The flute and oboe players don't take any breathing breaks! The high strings sound quite a bit better by comparison. I really like the arrangement even thought the melody playthroughs are conservative. I wish it were mastered a little louder overall, the dynamics are good but it's almost too quiet for most of it. The final passage is really nice! But I feel like that passage could stand to have a little more bass presence. The bass could be louder overall throughout the track. The chords at 3:07-3:12 are so gorgeous. Honestly, I really love this, it is bringing tears to my eyes. I'm on the fence here because it's just that sweet an arrangement. Gonna see what other say. Needs moar horse. And chickens. And stuff. edit 1/4/16: Listening again, I still really like this arrangement, but I feel that the simplicity of the majority of the writing absolutely demands that the articulations of all the instruments be as humanized as possible. It's not going to take too much for me to pass this personally, but I'd like one more pass at the humanization. Please also consider my sfx idea! NO (resubmit)

Wes hit every issue I would have also brought up. The track is lovely but needs to be rebalanced, most especially the metallic percussion. Turn that down and add some really nice delay. Leads are buried, sometimes it's just competing countermelodies and no focus. Bass is very quiet and lacks any kind of impact. The arrangement is very conservative. Still, there are a lot of good ideas going here. Lots of work to do but I think it's a good start so far, use this as an opportunity to bump up your production game. I'd prefer a proper ending other than a fadeout but that's just my preference. NO (resubmit)