Chimpazilla

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.

Redg has been busy, so he hasn't worked on our track yet (my wip I sent him) but he does have some great ideas for it. He said his time will free up quite a bit in May. We won't have an update before the end of May, but we do plan to continue with Molgera, as of now.

I think Justin and Vinnie covered all the issues very well here. What a nice arrangement, it just needs some production work. The intro staccato strings sound good, but then the harp is too up-front without much velocity variation. I agree that glock is loud, up-front and dry. The legato strings and legato brass in particular need some volume automation to create realistic-ish swells. Also you may want to layer a couple of articulations for the violin lines, as the one patch you're using has a slow attack which sounds quite fake when it's the same attack each note. I'm not quite sure how you accomplished those pitch bends, but they sound very odd to me in this context. The winds, when they are exposed starting at 1:36, need some slight pauses throughout the lines, as no human can play that long without breathing, sounds quite unnatural. The cinematic percussion sounds quite good, but some of the additional percussion is too loud, up-front and dry, for example at 1:47. Also, for the climax portion, having another instrument take the lead, something that cuts through the mix a bit better than the strings do, would really add some excitement. I also agree that some kind of longer slowdown outro instead of just ending the track abruptly would really complete the arrangement very nicely. Please fix up the issues and resubmit, it's a very nice arrangement. NO (resubmit)

Ok, so a WillRock song, hhhmmm let's listen. Again. Ok dude I already gave you my feedback on this like four times. *sigh* Yeah this track is amazing. Arrangement, performances, mixing, all just great. I still can't believe those drums are sequenced, you did a great job with them. You're a terrific guitarist! Fadeout ending? I AM OUTRAGED. Still, YES

I like the idea of the extended intro, I can hear that you were trying to emulate the source's long intro. I think for your mix, it would work in the context of a much longer song, but I agree with my fellow judges that is too long here. The writing and arrangement ideas are quite good in this track. I have to agree that production is holding this arrangement back however. The synth lead work sounds good (and nice soloing btw) while the orchestral elements need quite a bit of work. You have to be so careful with orchestral samples, they need to be humanized and properly balanced, often they need to have layered articulations, and they need the right reverbs and volume automations to make them work within the context of your song. Unfortunately here they all sound quite fake, dry and exposed. The drums are suffering from similar problems, they need much better eq and effect treatments. Also agreed with my fellow judges that the entire track needs a rebalance job, and everything needs to be given it's own space in the frequency spectrum, as everything is playing over everything else. Don't be afraid to remove elements at some points where the song is too cluttered. The synth pad and vocal pad both are too present for too long. And yes, sidechaining is a great way to introduce some groove and also clear some space. I hope you'll take this as an opportunity to kick up your production game another notch, because the writing and arrangement are quite nice. NO (resubmit)

Wow T, thanks, that was really thoughtful! Sounds great, too! Thank you.

No fair if you don't have your birthday listed in your profile!!! Happy birthday, fellow "not April Fools" baby! p.s. I'm not a "sir" haha!

D'aaaawww... back at ya, friend. Not so boring to someone who secretly sucks on bananas at night.

That's not a cake drop, that's an epic cake "throw to the ground." Best cake EVAR. I'm not gonna be "part of your system," because "I'm an adult!" hehe!

It's all your fault, people. If you hadn't found so many bugs and had so many damn issues with this, we wouldn't need another year to work on it. Back to the grind, judges. Oh well!

I'm so glad you and Jooj Cat aren't totally out of a job, since the panel has been disbanded. Good deal! You guys need to do an acapella version of Toyota Disco, with Larry in the middle position on lead vocals.