Chimpazilla   Judges ⚖️

That source tune with the 90s brass stabs! The remix does dive right in. Bass sounds great to me, as does the vibraphone. The bass is walking all over me. The balancing and mixing are fine, the master is sort of loud for this style but it's completely clean. I love this, minimal and cool! Waitress, I need another cocktail please. No, I haven't had too many already. YES

Very cool source tune, gives me Tangerine Dream vibes. It has a mixed time signature element, I hear what I think is a fast 6/4 and also 4/4 sections. Cool arps to start with, but the lower sound is boxy to my ears and very loud. This sound is super prominent at 260Hz which is making it boxy. I love the bass when it comes in. I hear what Wes is saying that some automated filter movement or filtered-in start to the sidechaining on the bass and/or other elements would help this thing groove in the intro. By the time the pads and chips come in, the soundscape is better filled in. It's a luscious soundscape, I love it. Feels like floating out in space. Also giving me a very mellow Donkey Kong vibe. When the kick comes in, I am loving this groove, because the 4-on-the-floor is totally unexpected! Great way to quickly ramp up the energy. The kick is somewhat tame and lacking beef for my taste, but it's audible. The sidechaining is heavy for this small of a kick sound, giving the soundscape a pumpy-ness that isn't warranted by this kick. In the final section/outro, that first synth returns at 3:08 with the 260Hz spike. It's not a bad sound, but it is boxy. It is boxing my ears! A few production issues, but nothing holding this back for me. Other than my mixing crits, I love this arrangement and soundscape. Very lush and spacey. YES Edit 6/12/24: New version corrects the 260Hz problem and adds movement in the first half. Sidechaining has been reduced to match the (still small!) size of the kick. Sounds better.

I sent the votes so far to Aaron today, and he told me he made some EQ automated cuts to my mastered wav, to remove two spots of loud sibilance, and he said he sent that to Larry. He should have just pinged me! I don't bite! (hard, anyway!) So we talked about it, I made the changes and re-rendered the wav. For those who have voted, this should not affect anything, as it is just 1/4 of a second of total revision. But he was right, those S's were too loud.

It does sound great! But yeah, this arrangement is much too simplistic, conservative and repetitive for OCR. We are looking for re-interpretations of the source songs, with variations and original ideas added, proper arrangements (intro, build, verse, chorus, breakdown, chorus, outro etc.). This sounds like a fun romp through the original song with a beat added. If the original song was ripped and downtuned, I can't exactly tell, but if so, that cannot be included in an OCR arrangement. I actually really like this concept and direction, just needs more personalization for OCR. NO

The intro choir does sound quite fake which is unfortunate. It plays a lot throughout the piece. Ideally, this choir patch should be replaced with something more natural if possible, otherwise perhaps just lengthening the attack on the patch for the longer notes would improve the feel of it. There is so much going on in this soundscape. I get that black metal is a wall of sound, and mostly I can handle that, but here as the other two Js have pointed out, it feels like too much, and there is no way to mix this many midrangey elements in a way that everything is audible and not painful to listen to. This is more of a problem in this arrangement because you are actually trying to convey source-material motifs and melodies over this mid-heavy soundscape. Each writing part (leads and countermelodies) is very complex so it's a lot to take in, melodically. As the guys said, it's hard to make sense of what's what. When the quiet breakdown begins at 3:00, it is very welcomed, and I find that my ears are actually ringing from the previous section. Then that fake choir begins again. This choir sample has got to be swapped for something a little more natural, since it is playing such a prominent role at the breakdown. As Wes said, when it is buried in the backing elements it works a little better, but for me that is primarily because it does not sound like a choir when it is buried, but it sounds like another instrument. Other than that, the breakdown is lovely! As for the source use, Emu and proph could not quite make sense of what was playing where, and I certainly can not either. A timestamp of the source use would be much appreciated, but I agree with the guys that somehow the actual writing has to make a bit more sense, and that can only be achieved by stripping back some of the elements playing in the heaviest sections, and making sure the countermelodies aren't overwhelming any lead writing by being too busy rather than supportive. The track is mastered VERY loudly to the point that I *almost* hear some pumping, it's just on the cusp for me. The final limiter has been pushed hard. It's a bold, ambitious arrangement, really awesome arrangement ideas and the overall track dynamics are great. This arrangement can totally work if it is mixed a bit better and the source melodies are more clear. And I do hope the choir can be improved since it is so prominent in the mix. NO (resubmit)

Wow! This is super nice. The guitar playing is lovely and so well done. Emu is right that the recording and production of this is pristine; it sounds so full and spacious while still being quite intimate. It is mastered just right, too. It is perfect. I'm a lady; consider me melted. YES

These are two awesome themes to blend together! I know Phendrana pretty well from Wes's previous ReMix of it. Lovely intro, although the cello starting at 0:43 is in the uncanny valley, the attacks on the patch are too long to carry the faster notes. Growly bass and guitar sound great when they begin, then the full string section which sounds pretty great to me! Guitar lead at 1:34 could be louder in the mix, it's getting drowned by the backing elements. At 2:17, the arp in that section is louder than the guitar (which I think is playing lead?). String section and brass section are on the uncanny side, but sequenced very well in context. Awesome emotive arrangement and performances. The mix is full of surprises, beautiful instrumentation, variation and ear candy. Great mix of the two themes. Other than some minor production gripes, this is excellent. YES

Riparian Rhythms Chimpazilla's comments: This remix began with my wanting to write a track in ambient jungle style. I've never done one like that, and looking on Splice I found some Serum jungle presets that sounded so amazing that I had to do it right away. I only had to think for a moment about what source to remix: Lakebed Temple from Twilight Princess. I always loved that theme, it's so weird, haunting and totally engaging. The goal was to create a remix that captured that haunting feeling through the recreation of the big chords, while being totally upbeat and melodic rather than spooky, making it sound humongous, super groovy, and of course filling it to the brim with ear candy. As usual, I sent my first little concept wip to Wes right away. He instantly loved it. He said "This one has to be finished, and I have ideas for it already!" I ended up doing the bulk of the arrangement in just a few days, as I did on my previous submission called "Down," and Wes sent me a huge pack of unique elements to add wherever I thought they fit. This style of working together with Wes seems to be very productive and leads to an excellent track full of fun, unique sounds and writing. Nearing completion, I sent him the current wip with no outro, and Wes said he had a wild idea for an outro and asked if he should try it. Of course he should! What he did was so unique, so cool, and so beautifully executed, and it was a breeze to transition it onto the end of the track, completing it perfectly. Emunator's comments: Another month, another collab with Kris! We're getting good at this. She absolutely led the charge here, and I just went into "Emunator Splice Pack" mode where I rendered out dozens of fills, melodic layers, and textures for her to pick and choose from. The original concept came together so quickly and already sounded so tight. My biggest contribution here is the outro, where I channeled my inner DJ Shadow and took a hard left turn into trip-hop territory. 10/10 collab, as always!

Very interesting mixture of synth and metal. Some of the synths sound a bit gentler (and slightly dated) than would be ideal to fit with the guitars, but it still works. I kind of wish the heavy sections were signaled, I jumped out of my chair when the first big section started. The mixing is working well; it's a flat-ish wall of sound (and Larry is gonna bitch about that fo sho) but that's how black metal is mixed. Everything is audible. Nice arrangement and combination of these themes, very full and rich, telling a story. YES

Awesome mix of these two themes, and the performances rock! Great arrangement, although the ending is a letdown, it is so abrupt. I have to agree with MW though, the production is not doing this any favors. The volume balancing is mostly ok, but there is a significant lack of lows in the track, causing the bass to sound extremely weak, and like MW, I can not hear the kick AT ALL. The snare is there but it is so weak. I'm on the fence as MW is, because the arrangement and performances are so strong. But this is not the best mixing iteration of the track. It will have so much more impact with the lows coming through and the kick and snare really audible. That said, if the project files were gone, I would change to YES to have this arrangement on the site. NO (borderline, please fix the mixing and resub asap) edit: Changing to YES based on the last thing I said, but I'm going to share this feedback with the artist and see if we can get a better mix. YES

Sounds so huge right away, I love that! Awesome sound design here. Arrangement is full of interest, various unique sounds and timbres, and ear-candy. The bass is so badass. Excellent mix of these two themes. I love the vocal snippets. This arrangement has a smooth yet spooky vibe. The master is loud, clean and confident. Such an easy vote. YES

Wow, what a beautiful and luscious remix of this source. The cello playing is absolutely glorious and pays perfect homage to the source without replicating it. Emery's synth and instrument writing around the cello is excellent. I love the little bass reverses. I hear little clicks in the intro at the end of each reverse, but that's just part of the effect. This arrangement is sooooooo lovely, and full of varied groovy sounds, all low-key and chill, and with a super nice shuffley vibe. The drum groove never changes when it is playing, and I think some good variation could have been added with an extra layer of percussion here or there, just a very simple shaker pattern, or by at least varying the groove at some point. I do hear the crackling MW mentioned. So I decided to reach out to Emery to ask him if this was intentional. I can NOT imagine Emery would have accidentally rendered this with crackling so I'm sure it was intentional. Alright Emery responded, the entire EP has vinyl crackle in it, so it is intentional. I personally have no problem with it. Glorious, emotional track, so beautifully performed and produced. YES

Guitars sound awesome right out of the gate. Drums are excellent when they enter. Everything sounds clear to me, mixing is working well. The halftime section is a perfect break from the action, then the doubletime section really rocks!. Great arrangement, lots of great writing and drum variation, great performances, really solid mix. Easy vote! YES

That source tune. That Seinfeld bass patch! Haha! That's a VERY silly source tune. I like the bass much better in the remix. There's a great shuffle to this writing. I like the fake brass! It's cheesy but it works. Really nice groovy jazzy bluesy guitar performances and soloing here. Drums sound good, elements are well balanced. Overall mix is well produced, mixed and mastered. Super fun listen. YES

Huge mix! Map theme intro, followed by a very conservative playthrough of the Hu Lao source material. The guitar work is excellent! The production sounds great. Ooo I like the little stutter transition. I like the little interlude. Fantastic soloing! Cool proggy keys. I really like this arrangement despite its being so conservative. Each source is very clear to hear. I could almost see this getting a NO for being so similar to the primary source song, even including the little water drop noise and the stutter transition. The genre is the same so one could argue that this mix constitutes a sound upgrade, but it's a GREAT sound upgrade, wicked soloing, and the inclusion of the other two sources pushes the arrangement over the bar for me. YES

I agree with proph, really solid rock ballad. The guitar performances are great, vocals are wonderful and the singing and tone are gorgeous. The vocal could stand to have just a tad more processing because it sounds a bit up-front, but wow what a vocal performance, and it cuts through really well. I also agree with proph that the overall mix lacks some lows. Regardless, I love this. Really nice work! YES

How did this submission reach the BOTTOM of this list. WOW. Ok let's get this one wrapped up. Awesome intro, and when the psy hits it is truly excellent. The melody is played so delicately, as it should be in psy. The soundscape is huge, and the sounds vary as the piece moves along. Matt's daughter's vocals are heavenly, both plain and gated. I'm loving all the foley throughout the piece. So many snippets of sounds! Awesome varied arrangement. Mixing and mastering are the best they could be. FABULOUS TRACK. YES

This is produced extremely well. I agree with the other Js that the vocals are quiet, and hard to make out against the grunge guitars, which could be corrected by notching the guitars at the fundamental vocal frequency, and/or lowering the guitar volume slightly, whenever they both play together. I don't find this to be a dealbreaker though. The instrumental and vocal performances are extremely good. What an awesome arrangement. I love the little time-sig shifts. 6/4 intro, jumping right into (I'm not even going to try to name the time sig, I count 8-7-8-8, then it changes again to ??? and then 4/4 and then ??? and it all flows so well and sounds so goodl). Yeah, this is a bit of a medley, and the section in the middle is vastly different from the rest of the piece. But I like that kind of thing! For me, it still flows well and tells a unique story. It's a prog-rock opera, and I am totally onboard for it. The more I listen the more I like this. Let's do this. YES

This is one of the few Zelda games I have not played. (I know, the horror!!!) Yeah the intro has no source, and it's long, but it's super duper cool. Plenty of source once the intro is done. Production is great, I expect nothing less from Gaspode. Great interpretations of the melody, tons of detail and ear candy. I love the bright synths and heavy bass and meaty kick. Good stuff! YES

The piano is the star here, wowza that's a cool performance! Drums could have a tad more presence, and bass tone isn't the best ever, it's slightly mid-heavy, but it surely gets the job done. What an awesome arrangement of a very silly little tune. You gave it such a new vibe with attitude and class. The only thing missing is some soft audience atmo that would be nice throughout the piece. I feel like I need to summon the waitress for yet another cocktail. YES

How is it that I have not heard this one yet???? If Wes shared this wip with me (and he probably did at some point) it was much less developed. Wow, what a huge opening. I love that Deadmau5-esque huge synth. Oh god, here comes the evil Macarena for sure, no one can NOT hear that!!!! It's freaking excellent. The instrumentation is some of the best I've ever heard, the production is perfect. So much detail. The growly bass, dang. Those whispery vocal stacks. Evil, and groovy!!! This is crazy good/evil. This is something I'd expect to hear from NIN after Trent and friends had a night of dropping acid and summoning demons. And now I'm doing the Macarena in my chair. Good lord.... YES

Awesome direction to take! But I agree with my fellows, the soundscape sounds too muddy and lossy overall. If the backing pads are going to be fuzzy/distorted, the leads should be clean so they can soar over the soundscape, but they are distorted too so everything kind of mushes together. The arrangement works well enough, but there isn't much in the way of arrangement dynamics, because the energy stays roughly the same throughout the piece, mostly because this heavily distorted soundscape never changes, so it becomes fatiguing after awhile. If the backing pads dropped way low or out completely at any point, that would provide more arrangement dynamics. Even with the timestamp provided, I cannot hear the source connections. Perhaps someone with more familiarity with these sources can hear it more easily. I feel like the source represented here has been very heavily interpreted, and often little two-note motifs are being counted as source (which is fine to do, it just makes it harder for me as a judge). I'd love for Larry to take a listen to see if I'm massively missing it, Larry's our source-o-matic around here. But regardless, the mixing issues are holding it back for me. NO

As with all of the VQ tracks I have evaluated, I can hear and feel how much care and attention to detail went into this. As with the other submissions, there is a story behind the arrangement, the instrumentation has been carefully selected to convey a specific mood and tell an evolving story. There are so many textures, sfx and ear candy, and the arrangement never loses interest. This one is actually mixed rather well I think, compared to previous submissions. (Although as with the previous submission I voted on, something has gone wrong with the mastering because it is hitting peak 2.4db, and it needs to be limited at 0db maximum). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before I write what I have to say next, which I wrote six days ago, I need to say that the Shinobi source song is problematic for me, in that it contains unpleasant dissonance, clutter, and lack of melodic contour in its lead writing. Weird-ass source, imo. I'm having a harder time busting this remix for doing similar things as the source is doing, but here goes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The problem I am having, as with previous submissions, is that there is so much going on at once, and quite a bit of the writing sounds extremely random and often out of key too, which ends up sounding awkward. The track starts out fine up until 0:25, at which point the flute is already conflicting with the main arp, vocal patterns, and kettle drums. It's several different patterns at once, and none of it makes sense together. This problem persists throughout the piece. The worst section for me is from 2:30-2:52; the patterns are so varied harmonically as well as rhythmically that the entire section is just confusing. I don't even mind the fuzzy timbre at 3:27, I kind of like it! But the arp patterns conflicting at that section is what ruins it for me. For musical writing to make sense to a listener, lead motifs should have some sort of motivic or harmonic contour, meaning the notes don't just bounce all over the place. Also, countermelodies, arps, basslines and supporting patterns need to interplay with each other in a way that makes a cohesive soundscape, and that is not happening here. In a previous submission, Larry described the problem as a "lack of melodiousness.." I hate to say it, but that's the problem here as well. I hate to come down hard on this. There's a lot to like about the track. It has a great ethnic flavor and energetic vibe. The combining of the sources is well accomplished and the arrangement has great dynamics. The attention to detail is off the charts. The mixing as I said is even working well enough (although please use a final limiter, set to 0db maximum). But the mismatched harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic patterns are sinking it for me. Ok I am listening to some Glitch Mob tracks to try to understand what's being emulated here. Wow, their stuff is really unique, full of varied patterns and sounds. The difference is that even though they are really pushing the envelope, the patterns ultimately make sense rhythmically and harmonically even when many of them are layered together. This would be a tough style to emulate, it's a very ambitious undertaking for sure. In all honesty, and please take this in the spirit of helpfulness, I suggest you select a much simpler source song, and approach a remix in a much simpler way, so that you can learn about melodic contour, harmonies, countermelodies, rhythms, and keeping the soundscape more simple, with elements placed purposely and never randomly and never too many at a time. Don't be afraid to cut out ideas that aren't working, even if you spent time on them! Eventually you do get used to doing that! Your arrangements are already VERY good, they just need refining at this point. NO

Ooooo this isn't what I expected either, but it's great. The first verse vocals are too quiet against the guitars, could be fixed by widening the guitars in that section so they don't compete this much. The rest of the vocals are clear, and wow all of these vocals are stupidly well done and processed. Arrangement is excellent, full of variation and fun unique stuff. Really well done. YES

It sounds "primitive" because it's jungle! Haha! Nah, I hear what MW is saying, the synth patches are indeed on the weak side. The bass is huge and awesome (and I love the varied types of bass processing, distortion and bitcrushing), but it sounds overblown because the other synths do not have a similar level of beefiness and badassery. Even the snare is falling a little flat for me, it should be smacking me in the face and it isn't. The other issue is that the master is UBERLOUD. I'm seeing -4.8RMS which is like, louder than Skrillex loud. The bass is surely causing that; it probably needs to come down a few db and also be EQ'd to make sure nothing below around 25Hz is coming through. Everything else about this arrangement rocks. The two sources are seamlessly combined, and the energy of the piece has awesome dynamics. Plenty of details and ear candy. The writing is varied and cool. The drum writing is great and the filtering transitions are excellent. I do find this to be a layup, even if I think it could kick harder with better synth patches or processing on the synths and snare. YES