Chimpazilla Judges ⚖️
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Posts posted by Chimpazilla
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Short and sweet, lovely performances. Definitely a cover, but this is an effective and pleasant genre adaptation. The arrangement is short. I prefer a longer, more realized arrangement than this, but what's here is enough for me. There are variations throughout the piece, the drums change just enough to give a slightly different vibe every few bars. The guitar playing is emotional. I wish there was a proper outro; dropping it off cold like this confirms for me that there hasn't been a lot of thought put into the arrangement, other than doing a soft rock cover version.
I feel like the instrument volume balancing is fine. I'm not bothered by the panning; the lead sounds about 20-25% panned right, and the rhythm guitar is panned more like 40-50% left, and the bass is centered. It sounds fine to me both on my monitors and headphones.
The master is weird! There is a peak ceiling of -1.2db which seems excessive (I prefer -0.5), and I see an RMS value of -7.4db RMS which is very loud, heavy-EDM loud. Although this limiter smashing is causing the piece to lack any kind of volume dynamics, I do not hear any over-compression artifacts at all (aside from expected "amp stuff"), either on monitors or my headphones. I'm curious @Gario where are you picking up on artifacts? If they are there, I wonder how I am missing them.
While I did have to turn my volume down to evaluate this track, I'm not worried about it being over-loud on YouTube since they do their own compression and normalizing.
Although I am somewhat let down by the short length and lack of arrangement creativity, I don't find any issues holding this lovely soft piece from being posted in its current form.
YES
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Gaspode has edited his submission with new info and a new song upload, just fyi. He explained the changes in his submission post, so click on that to see what he wrote.
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"Building beats and bassline around it" count me in for this, it's a great concept and it works! The source seems to be asking for that treatment. This is definitely a low-key chill vibe, I would not call it "lo-fi" though. The "fi" is high. Very relaxing groove, good arrangement and instrumentation, nicely produced. Nothing earth shattering, but very nice. Let's do this.
YES
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This arrangement has such a unique feel, as proph said it is full of space. Really nice 3D soundscape. The low end is full and satisfying, and there's just enough going on in the mids and highs to keep it interesting yet sparse. I love soundscapes like this. Piano sounds terrific. Such interesting sounds in the mix, like the breathy synth starting at 2:06. Balancing, mixing and mastering are on point. What a cool arrangement of this material, love it.
YES
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Well hello there! Great source tune, and I like the concept for the remix in chiptune! But I have to agree with my fellow Js that this arrangement comes off really repetitive as well as very conservative to the source tune. And the production is odd, I think the low end is broken?
There is activity below 40Hz (mostly inaudible) and a dent between 40-80Hz, I can't say I've ever heard or seen a low end like this! The inaudible low-end content makes the master overblown without even sounding loud or having any impact. This production just isn't cutting it. The reverb on the chiptune is fine, but the overall balancing and mixing isn't there; the drums are too weak and the leads are too loud. Perhaps take this track to our workshop for further feedback. MW is right, this is a good start! Now take the time to learn proper production and arrangement skills. Everyone starts somewhere, welcome to OCR!
NO
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I really like this arrangement and concept, and the synthwave instruments are used well. I understand Larry's vote though. Like most of Gaspode's productions, the sound design falls just a bit short; it could be crisper, cleaner and more impactful. It certainly isn't bad enough to sink the vote, imo, but it would be great to bump the production up to the next level on these awesome arrangements.
YES
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I love this concept (I have considered making a similar concept track or album!). This arrangement is absolutely a medley, but it plays through consistently and cohesively, no jarring transitions or wildly varied timbre changes. The intro is original, but everything is direct source from 0:40 onward.
I really enjoy Gaspode's synthwave productions, although I feel like the production could be crisper, cleaner, and more impactful overall. Everything is mixed well enough, though. And the arrangement is super upbeat and happy.
YES
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Wow this is loud and overstuffed. By 2:00 my ears are already fatigued. The guys are right, this needs to be pared back severely. Each section can be cut by half, playing different combinations of things in each section, instead of ZOMG EVERYTHING full time. Wow. My brain literally hurts from this much stimulation. Everything is the same volume, and on top of that, the track is mastered so heavily, it is clipping all over the place and sounds super over-compressed and crunchy.
All that said, I think this could be a great track! But it has to be sculpted into a workable arrangement by removing many elements from each section. In each section, one or two elements should be featured, with one or two backing elements. The featured elements can be varied in the sections, providing sonic interest and contrast. And the mastering has to be done much more gently. Right now it is mastered even more heavily than I would expect from an EDM track.
NO
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Square Enix sfx are a no-go right from the start, so those would need to be removed. But once it gets going, the arrangement is simplistic, underdeveloped and on the repetitive side. It needs further personalization as Larry said, by changing the writing, groove, instrumentation, melodies/countermelodies/solos etc. along the way. The track would also benefit from a proper outro instead of just stopping cold. The instrument volumes could also be re-balanced as the drums are all extremely quiet and the main lead is very loud. Nice vibe though, it's a decent start.
As for the pumping, I'm suspecting it is sidechaining and not master over-compression because I don't hear any crunchy artifacts, but I could be wrong. It sounds to me like the entire mix is sidechained, using one compressor. The sidechaining is too heavy-handed, and does not release fast enough, which is made worse because there are multiple kicks in a row and not just one. This is giving a pumpy effect to the track, which is exacerbated further by the drums being generally too quiet in the mix. So it is a lot of gain reduction on the entire track, and in that volume-reduced dent, there is this very quiet kick, which feels so unnatural.
In the case that the pumping is due to heavy-handed mastering, I always recommend bringing the overall volume up gently using two or three different compressors in your chain and then a final limiter. Each compressor should be using gentle settings, bringing the volume up in stages using different algorithms. This method allows more loudness with less chance of any over-compression unpleasantness.
NO
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Well, I really like this! The mix does have a ton of distortion and bitcrushing on it, but I think it is a reference to the source tune and the era in which it was written. I think the arrangement is great, instrumentation works really well. I love the vocal clips and I even like the nod to the right-panned hat in the original starting at 1:46. I love the little details such as switching the grungy guitar-synth to mono at 2:30. Nice touch.
I don't hear overcompression artifacts. I hear a LOT of bitcrushing. The master is uberloud, though. -5.2db RMS is uberloud. And because the peak ceiling is set to 0db, SPAN is showing me that it is clipping. I don't know why that is the case, but I always set my ceiling to -0.5db just to be safe, and it never clips when I do that.
Yeah this track is heavy and loud and distorted, sausage indeed! But in a good way. I dig the grittiness and energy of this. I'm passing this and not even conditional. If it does not pass however, just revisit the file and make sure things are distorted purposely and not accidentally, and don't overdo it. (Often when you distort too many elements, you lose sonic contrast and everything sounds distorted.) Then lower your master limiter gain just a hair to reduce the RMS (something more like -10db RMS is better), and I suggest lowering the final ceiling to -0.3 or -0.5 to avoid any unwanted clipping.
YES
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This is SO lovely. As with the previous H36T submission I judged a few days ago, it's too damn short!!! I could easily see this being twice this length, with something slow and contemplative in the middle, perhaps an impactful spoken or whispered vocal, followed by a section with some gentle yet groovy percussion.
BUT.... what's here is gorgeous. It's a dreamy mood; I love the rain dripping and storm sfx and the luscious female vocal pads. We'll take it.
YES
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I love this concept, the bass sounds amazing right away, full of presence. I love the clips of nature and kids playing in the park, perfect. This really is such a great idea.
Sadly though I am on board with my fellow NOs, because there isn't enough development in this arrangement. Once the soundscape and vibe are established, it is two identical loops through the same material. I checked by layering the second half together with the first and playing them simultaneously and A/Bing too, and they are identical. Then the track ends in a lazy fashion by just.... stopping... mid bass-loop. Not enough development for OCR, but I enjoyed it nonetheless!
NO
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The performances feel loose, aaaaalmost too much so, but it's so funky and matches the silly vibe of the source tune. Haha I LOVE Emu's description, a tipsy stumble over the 17th green after pounding beers all day! Nailed it, Wes!
I wish the bass had some more oomph to it, I feel like the low end is missing some beef other than the heavy kick. The overall mix is just a bit on the flat side, but generally things are balanced and mixed well enough.
What a cute, funky, and well crafted and performed arrangement, let's go. I feel my spirits lifted after hearing this a couple of times!
YES
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That's a LOT of content in just two minutes. I expected to be disappointed based on the length alone, but I wasn't; what is here sounds really excellent. But damn.... that's.... short. MW said it best, it sounds like a longer piece trimmed down to trailer cue length. And the intro is really stretched out, as are the few final notes of the outro.... streeeettttccchhhhhhhh and then reverb fade coasting in right at the two-minute mark. This thing is so epic, it really deserves to be a full-length piece. The combination of the two sources is creative and seamless, mixing is great (other than the weak drums that Larry mentioned), the arrangement has no repetition. Let's go with it. But H36T, don't you dare make anything this good this short ever again!
YES
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This arrangement feels completely different from every other Michael Hudak piece I have heard, and perhaps the age of the original submission has something to do with that. I certainly was not expecting synthwave!
I actually really dig the left-panned tape-fail section; what a cool idea, and I think it was executed well enough although I think center panning would have been a better choice. I can see how it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I like it a lot. I do agree with Larry though that the energy of the section that follows is somehow lacking, and I also feel the transition out of that tape-glitch section could have been more impactful with some filter automation (moving from mono to stereo) and/or sfx, swooshes or similar. I would say if this doesn't pass, at the very least shift that mono section to center-panning, and I think it will be more palatable to more people.
For me though, the rest of the arrangement and soundscape fall short. The synths sound very plain, mixing is not quite muddy but indistinct, and the writing is noodley and often uninspired. The lead at 0:41 is quite bland and the writing is not too interesting. Meanwhile, the bass is playing a fast line and it somehow doesn't jibe energetically with the rest of the sound palette. (and Emu is right that the bass patch doesn't really carry the low end, in fact quite often the pads seem to be trying to do the bass's job in the lows) Actually I think that the overall energy and cohesion of the piece could be improved by sidechaining every element in varying amounts to get everything grooving together.
The ending is rather abrupt... not a dealbreaker per se, but disappointing.
I'm sort of borderline because this piece has many good qualities, but for me the mismatch of energy in the part-writing combined with some pretty vanilla sounds and disjointed/noodley writing is enough to put this under the OCR bar. It feels almost like a B-side track on an 80s 45RPM record that doesn't quite engage the audience.
NO
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I agree with MW totally. This is a massive improvement! Intro and outro are much better. The soundscape sounds really lush, although the drum elements are still way too dry. Wow those are some dry claps!
In the section from 1:22-1:29 and again from 2:30-2:44, I feel like the lead notes clash with the bass and other element writing. Perhaps @prophetik music can elaborate on what I am hearing. I think that motif is directly from the source tune, but in the source tune the bass and countermelodic elements go better with that writing.
Overall, my complaint is that this arrangement doesn't feel fully fleshed out. It's a nice soundscape but it is leaving me flat as a full piece due to lack of motivic development, and it ends up sounding quite repetitive. I like the drum groove change at 3:39! But the same bassline, lead and pads are playing the exact same thing over and over. I think adding some kind of lead melody, either from this or another source song (preferably from the same game) or something original over this soundscape, would add a ton of interest. As it stands it's just too static and undeveloped. Please be encouraged though, you're on the right track!
NO (resubmit)
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100% mono is an instant dealbreaker. Wow that's a long and boring/repetitive intro. The 303 is very plain when it enters. The drums are completely on autopilot and very loud compared to everything else. Other than adding things slowly in (like the 303 synth, ride loop, additional percussion and synth bits), there is zero development to this arrangement. There is no lead anywhere other than quiet little bits of source motif (not that every track needs a lead, but there's nothing interesting happening other than a static soundscape).
I recommend taking this to our wip forum for further advice on how to develop this.
NO
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Gaspode is asking for this voting to go on hold for now. I shared the votes with him, and he would like to make changes based on the feedback and submit a new version. Thanks.
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I love Twilight Princess so much. The game has so many amazing and haunting themes. What is so interesting is how they re-used the primary motif again and again, in different ways. They have done this in other games too, one example is A Link Between Worlds. They used the same motif in every dungeon in Lorule, but the styles they used were so vastly different that it was hard to notice at first.
To Brad's motif timestamp above (1:16-1:54 and 2:51-3:31), I will add that the first four notes in the intro (0:00-0:09) are straight from the source's intro (two repetitions of two notes). Those two notes appear again at: 0:57-1:02 and 1:07-1:12 and 2:05-2:09 and behind the fast violin run from 2:33-2:42, and again at 3:31-3:41 and 3:50-4:00, and there is motif from 4:00-4:05. The chord progressions are hinted at throughout the piece wherever melodic content is in play so I'm sure more source could be sussed out if needed. There are more instances of the two note progression but I am excluding those included in Brad's timestamps since he has already counted them (where the primary motif is playing).
I agree with Brad that source use is on the light side here, but with those extra seconds added in, the source amount is now 54%.. (Brad's motif timestamps are 78 seconds, and mine are 57 seconds, total 135 seconds out of 251)
I love the energy of this piece, the bassline sounds synthwavey, and the drums are great. The live violin is just gorgeous, I love it. The timbres Gaspode used fit the theme and vibe so well, the piece is melancholy yet groovy. Gaspode and I share a love of Zelda games, so he is my homeboy.
YES
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I agree that the piano is mechanical; the timings and velocities are all the same and grid-locked, but I like the piano tone. The fake guitar is used well enough. I don't find the production to be dealbreaker though, the mixing is fine and mastering is reasonable. I don't hear any kick pumping, although the kick itself is very sharp which perhaps is causing that effect. I hear plenty of low end and SPAN shows me the frequencies are well distributed so I'm surprised to see any comments about missing bass.
The arrangement is super creative and I love the 6/8 proggy approach! Nice filtered intro. The mix is full of varied instruments, textures, vibes, tempo changes, and unique writing.
If this does not pass, I suggest working with the piano velocities to make the piano more natural sounding, especially in the sections where it is most exposed. If you could get live guitar that would be amazing, but not necessary for my vote.
YES
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Alright, I have been putting off voting on this, because. But if I must vote, it has to be a NO. The layout of this song is: intro, build, drop, same build, same drop (no outro). I find this disappointing because the track is very cool and the production is top notch. Jordan reached out to me about the voting on the track, and I let him know that he needed to make some changes to get rid of the repetition, and what he did (in 15 minutes) is:
2:37-2:51 different buildup drum loop and added white noise sweep used over the same buildup
2:51-3:18 different neuro-bass loops over the same drop (loops sound extremely similar even though they are literally different loops)
There are no other changes made anywhere in the track. I just laid the sections together and carefully A/B'd to be sure. I love Jordan's works of course, but this one does not meet OCR's arrangement standards. I would love to hear this again with more creativity in the arrangement. A drumless breakdown with some melodic or rhythmic surprises would be so great, followed by a second drop that is different in significant ways from the first drop, then a real outro. I agree with Flexstyle, I know Jordan can do this (and Flex had some wicked arrangement suggestions!).
NO (resubmit)
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I've heard versions of this amazing piece as it developed. Not only has Wes upped his own production game, but he has a new ability to assemble a team of expert musicians to make his visions reality. There's no stopping him now!
My one gripe is that the flute lead is mixed too quietly.
YES
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LOOOOUUUUDDDDDD. I suspect there has been no mastering or even final limiting.... the peak is 3.1db. Yes, it is clipping and distorting, and also pumping unwantedly, due to loud mixing and no limiting. I suspect the bass is the worst offender here and it most likely has inaudible lows/rumble that need to be EQ'd out.
Arrangement-wise, I like the slow-burn intro although more could be added for extra interest. Once the beat gets going, there isn't much more going on. I think this is a great start! I'd love to hear this again with another section added with a faster drum groove and more melodic elements, followed by an atmospheric drumless breakdown, then another big section before the outro. This could really be something special. Right now though, it feels like an extended concept wip. Do more! (and please add a final limiter set to 0db or better yet -0.5db)
NO
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I'm afraid I'm in complete agreement with MindWanderer on this one. While the arrangement of the themes is quite creative and good, the production is problematic. There are so many elements playing most of the time, and they occupy a similar frequency range and a lot of them have heavy distortion, which is causing this to sound like a wall of fuzzy mush to my ears. Leads are often quiet and buried within this soup of sounds. Other Js have said this track is mixed well, and perhaps it is, but it is hard to tell due to the huge number of elements playing, the similarity of the frequency-range of the sounds, and all this distortion.
Many of the synth timbres used sound quite simple and vanilla to me. The guitar work sounds great. The vocal clips are a cool idea to add to the story being told in the track, but I don't think they are processed very well. The clips sound like they were put through a cheap voice-changer app, and they are bone dry. The claps are so basic, and I can barely hear the kicks until 1:11 at which point the kicks whomp in super hard. There is cool glitching throughout the piece that is almost totally buried.
From 1:11-2:11 and again from 2:29-3:12, and again from 4:05-5:27, some of the backing arps and countermelodic patterns sound disharmonious to me as they do for MW. It's just too much going on melodically as well as frequency-wise. I know personally how easy it can be to overstuff an arrangement with ideas. There are too many here and they are clashing.
I am feeling like this track lacks cohesion; it really sounds like several different personalities are in the mix but not blended well. The arrangement feels quite long, fatiguing, and odd, with false endings and restarts, weak transitions, and no real resolving outro. The whole thing lacks focus for me and feels like a soup with too many ingredients.
The master does sound quiet, but Cubase is showing me a ceiling of -1db and RMS of -11.5, both of which are fine.
Sorry to come down so hard on this. I do think the arrangement itself is mostly solid. I suggest paring back the amount of melodic ideas in each section, keep the things in each section that go together the best and ditch the rest, let leads cut through and shine in each section, cut out things that are clashing, reduce distortions on everything but one or two elements at any given point, EQ so things don't compete so much, and smooth transitions whenever possible.
NO (resubmit)
*NO* Lufia 2 "I'm Gonna Do What's Called the World's Most Difficult Trick (Mountain Mover RE:setMix)" *PROJECT*
in Judges Decisions
Posted
I am remiss in not getting around to this one sooner, having been chimp-signaled! I know proph and I discussed this in the Discords but I failed to vote. So, now I will.
Right off the bat, I see that the peak max is hitting 1.7db so something has happened on the mastering side, either a limiter fail or a failure to limit. I don't hear any over-compression artifacts, but I wonder if YouTube encoding/compression will cause artifacts on a file that goes over 0db. I just don't know.
This song feels overstuffed to me, like there are too many elements, and too many varied ideas and sounds happening at the same time. Nothing is clashing dealbreakingly, but it just kind of feels like too much stuff, too much of the time. I feel like there is so much going on that nothing is coming through very clearly, the mixing is muddled. It is hard to get a super clean mix with this many elements.
As others have pointed out, the bass lacks presence. I agree this would probably be solved by EQing the lowest frequencies out of all elements other than kick and bass; really nothing should be playing below 150-200-ish Hz other than kick and bass. Also, sidechaining should be used so that when the kick hits, it isn't conflicting with the bass (or anything else) which causes frequencies to dogpile, which reduces mastering headroom. I'm not hearing much sidechaining in the mix, if any? I sidechain everything in my mixes, not so much for effect as for mixing clarity.
The bass playing from 2:34-3:02 does not sound good at all. The patch is playing a full octave below what it is capable of playing, and I can hear it groaning under the strain. That section is cool, but it needs a bass that can play those low/sub notes to support it. At 3:38, the bass has a similar problem; it sounds like it is trying to keep up but just can't hit those low notes, and it feels uncomfortable.
I do love the vibe and energy of this track! I recognize some of my own earlier efforts in this mix however, back when I wanted to throw too many competing ideas in together. Sometimes it makes sense to go through and remove things when that happens, and focus on the elements you really want in the mix, and make them shine.
Reading through the preceding votes, everyone digs this arrangement, and I do too! But there are tons of critiques and suggestions given regarding the sound choices and mixing. I can understand voting YES to put this track on OCR, but I am going to say that some of these issues should be cleared up first. If this passes, it will be one of those tracks the artist looks back on a few years from now and says "oof."
At a minimum, please make sure your master is limited at 0db. Also, please go through and EQ things so that nothing is playing in the low end (below 150Hz at the very least) other than your kick and bass. Replace bass patches that aren't able to carry the low notes. Do some sidechaining to avoid things competing whenever the kick hits. When this is mixed better, as everyone else is saying, this will be a tremendously good track.
NO (resubmit, borderline)