Chimpazilla

Simple and lovely. It does follow the source quite closely, but as Larry said, the live performances and adaptation to string quartet are enough to distinguish it. I also would be interested to know how many performers were in on this, or if it was multi-tracked. Either way, it is glorious! YES

WOW this track is loud. Some cool ideas here for sure! I like the bass ideas you've got going on throughout the track. Nice glitching too. You've followed the source quite closely, no problems with source use here. That main saw lead is pretty loud when it first appears, but it is soon devoured by the upper end of the bass antics, as well as a lot of crashes and/or hats in the same frequency range. There's a square-ish arp that begins at 1:37 that is completely obliterated by the upper bass crunch and all these crashes and hats. Somehow the leads need to be separated from the upper end of the bass, and maybe a few less (or softer) crashes/hats, because the competition between these sounds all in the same range is exhausting. I'd suggest some very careful eq notching on the bass to let the lead come through cleanly, as well as using a nice long predelay on the lead's reverb. You have done some very nice soloing with the saw lead at points like 1:23, but the lead timbre is rather plain and during the times when the lead notes are longer, the lack of any modulation or vibrato is evident. So do some eqing to separate the sounds a bit better, maybe do some modulation on your main lead, and let's hear this again. edit: 7/30/14 This version is mixed significantly better. The upper end is still a bit busy but I can hear everything clearly now. Nice work! This is a super detailed and fun mix and I'm glad to now give it the big YES

I just added this edit to my vote (unfortunately my answer is still no on this one): edit 4/20/14: I have listened to the newer version multiple times over the past month, and as much as it pains me to say, I still find it overcompressed, and it still has some balance issues (sometimes the violins are too loud, the snare is too loud, kick is too loud/compressed). It is a great track other than that. I sure wish you could take one more stab at the mixing, but I understand that you can't, so sorry about that.

This version is definitely better. You have addressed several of the issues I had: the bass sounds louder/better, the mixing is cleaner and the leads are more up front where they should be. The drumming sounds better too. The rhythm guitars still sound extremely weak and thin, and they aren't really impressing me, but they seem to fit within the mixing of everything else and they aren't causing any mud. I think it's a pass now, and I still love the creative writing and arrangement. edit 6-4-14: Yep, this is a cool song. Production is a pass. Track is too liberal though, Larry's evaluation is correct. NO

Comparing this to the previous version, there's a lot of improvement in terms of mixing, I'm hearing a lot more separation of instruments now, it's not all crammed into the middle, and the bass is hugely improved. Nice work there. But that snare is KILLING this. Whoa, tone down the volume, take a bunch of mids out of it, and try varying the velocities. Your hats are also a touch too loud and upfront. But this is very nearly a pass now. You might want to find one or two people you really trust to help you discover mixing errors before you submit tracks, as this will save you time going through this judging process! I feel like one more trusted set of ears on this would have found your snare problem in a heartbeat. NO (resubmit)

This version is much better. Vinnie is right, you did take all our advice into account and it shows. There's more dynamic variation now. I still find that main lead a bit bright and fatiguing, but there are other softer sections that provide a brief respite from it. I agree with Vinnie it's a bit long overall. Still, it's a good track. YES

This version is SO much better!!! It's not sounding nearly as repetitive to me due to some new writing and textures. The track is mastered quite loudly, but I'm not hearing any dealbreaking overcompression issues so I'm not worrying about that. Those rogue hats have been tamed, and now the percussion fits and is nicely supportive. I love it! YES

Wow, this is super cool! So much detail in this mix, so many different textures. Awesome pounding beat and varied bass work and effects. Just enough wub wub. I love this so hard.

No Brandon, you can keep your self vote. It's ok. I just wanted to set the record straight that I said you could, not that you should. But I'd say, only do this if you REALLY feel yours is the BEST entry, and not just because you "want to win." Fair enough?

To set the record straight, it was me who said "Brandon, you could have voted for yourself." COULD have, not SHOULD have. There are no rules against voting for yourself, and Brandon's FFCC compo had the same flexibility. However, anyone who actually DOES vote for himself does so at his own peril!

Intro ripped right from the source, interesting. I like the metal interpretation of this song, and the track is quite well done, although the arrangement is rather conservative in terms of following the source rather closely. The inclusion of that "knocking" sfx from the source is good, I like that. The guitar work here is very good, I especially like the soloing at 2:36. The track is well mixed overall. Good drumming with plenty of variation. Ending is abrupt. Pretty straightforward treatment of this source, but I like it. YES

My first impression of this track is that it is very quantized and robotic (most noticeable in the intro and outro with that slow pattern). It's robotic even though we are talking about robots. I like the main lead timbre you've used, I like the way it evolves, I would have preferred to hear a different lead come in at some point but this one is working well. I love the gating when it comes in. The robot voices and sfx and bitcrushed industrial-ish drums work well here. The writing is very repetitive but there's just enough variation in the soundscape to make it work. I think more could have been done with this mix to be honest, there's untapped potential here mainly in terms of writing, this is just bordering on too repetitive, and I can see it getting some NOs for that reason. Still, it's very cool, it conveys a story and I feel sort of sorry for Carolyn! She's... different... edit 6/24/14: I'm revisiting this track. I initially gave it a yes, I like it, but the extreme repetition bugs me. Most of the mix relies on just a very brief section of the "Perfect" source, that is from 0:58-1:12, and while this is not a dealbreaker in and of itself, it does lend itself to repetition. The track has some really great moments where I feel like it is good enough to actually appear in a video game or movie. But by contrast, the intro and outro are extremely simple and plain and quantized and both feel quite undeveloped. The soundscape is also a bit muddy, the instruments can use an eq cleanup to separate the sounds better. I'm torn on this one and I've listened to it so many times that it is stuck in my brain. I'm going to vote no for now, but if the intro and outro were a little more developed and interesting, and with a careful eq cleanup, it would pass. NO (resubmit)

That intro high string note just stops dead at 0:13, all exposed-like, darnit. You couldn't fade that out? This is epic as all get-out. Very dramatic and exciting, and groovy at the same time. Great mix of piano, strings/brass, choir, pounding beat, harp/dulcimer, (and church organ!) and electronica. Heavy on the reverb/delay, but it's working well here. Anchors a-weigh, ya scurvy dawg! YARR

Well heck, I'm a chimp, so I'll just chime in here. I am enjoying this mix. It is simple, yet very cool. Nice panning arp in the intro, it sort of sounds like monkey talk. The melody writing throughout the track is repetitive as heck, but you've varied the instrumentation just enough and done some cool filtering so it is holding my interest. A bit more melody variation would have been preferable, but I'm ok with this. I love the screeches, cool but subtle. Drumming is good, decent amount of variation, kick could be louder though. At 1:44, your bell lead is quite loud, piercy and resonant, and sort of conflicts with the background arp. This is my only real complaint. Other than that, I'm cool with this. edit 6/18/14: I'm not going to hold this vote up. I really like this track, but I have to agree that there are balance and mixing issues, primarily too many piercing highs and competing elements in the upper range, indistinct overly-subby bass, and drum timbres lacking punch. I hope you'll take everyone's crits under advisement and resub this soon. NO (resubmit)

I think Vinnie covered the issues well. Some of the leads are thin, soft, and sound out of place and buried, while the bass is very heavy and loud, and the click of the kick is a bit too prominent. There are some very loud bass notes in the breakdown starting at 1:37. Some of the percussion (hats and similar) are too loud/dry. There are some good writing ideas here though, nice blending of themes. Nice swirling pad. At 3:44 there is some harmonic clashing that should be fixed. NO (resubmit)

Wow that's a lot of people working on this track. All the performances are quite good, but they all seem to be competing for lead position all the way through. The violin and flute and recorder are the worst offenders, instead of supporting each other and trading off, they are all playing some pretty busy writing at the same time, causing the track to lose focus and sound jumbled. The bass is also playing like crazy underneath it all. It's just too much happening. I think if you revisit each section and decide which instrument is the lead in each one, and carve out room for that instrument to take the lead (either with volume or eq automation, or both), that would help. Also the drums don't have a lot of presence, they do sound quite distant and buried. NO (resubmit)

OMG are you kidding me with this??? This is amazing! I am a lover of dubstep and also of sfx from the game being remixed, and also OoT is my all time favorite game. Source use seems fine to me, and stopwatch Larry has done his stopwatch thing here so we're all good with source use. There certainly are mixing areas that could use a bit of improvement. Yeah it's a bit busy in places, a little better eq separation of the elements would definitely help, and the track is definitely a little hot, but it's not killing it for me. If the other judges say no to this track due to these issues, I can only hope you'll quickly send back a cleaned up version. The arrangement and creativity totally carries it for me. Blending in Zelda's lullaby was a nice touch. This is awesomesauce. YES

Deia and Justin covered the issues really well here. This is a decent cover, and you seem to have the guitar chops, and I agree I like the metal take on this source. But this mix does stick a bit too close to the source to be considered for OCR. This could be easily altered by making one of the verbatim verse sections into a wicked solo, and I for one would love to hear that! The drumming would also need to be improved, the sequencing is in fact very robotic (no humanization, note velocity variation, etc.), and I agree that the snare and crash samples aren't working too well. The pad you're using here, I can't quite tell what it is, it is stringlike, but it sounds really stiff, it's a strange timbre. You may want to experiment with other samples for the background pad. I do hope you'll fix this up. NO (resubmit)

Very cool to find out that you are indeed the voice of Oscar the Grouch!

Jeff if this compo goes well and everyone enjoys it, we will most likely run it again in the future!

Please, please stop pontificating about headphones in THIS thread. Thanks. Kitty, I've pinged Will privately about you joining (in case this gets buried again) and one of us will get back to you!

Please guys, this is not the headphone thread. There is in fact a headphone thread. In fact there are are most likely several headphone threads under the Music Composition forum. Please discuss any lengthy issues you have there. Can we get back to singing compo business?

Actually, that's not what I meant at all when I posted to timaeus, although it appears I was bashing him about "not having a treated room," I was actually ribbing him rather hard about his post which went on and on and ON AND ON about specific headphones and related issues, using lots of bolded words. I'm fine with him not feeling comfortable enough with his mic setup to sing, and he in fact has NOT joined the compo. Seems we've degenerated into headphone talk anyway... *sigh* I'm sorry you didn't like Safety Dance enough to submit something, hopefully we will hear from you next round!

So??? Some of the people here are singing into their cell phones. NO EXCUSE. edit: You might wanna relax your standards a bit for, well, everything. edit again: Maybe a little bit less bolding would be good, too. and another edit: You seem to have time to write some fairly long and detailed posts, time that could have been spent on singing instead.

Are you stalking this thread, timaeus? You should have joined the compo! I was sorta hoping you would anyway.