Chimpazilla   Judges ⚖️

Wow... so dark... much depress... very creep... I love this. I'm not a huge fan of the lead at 1:35 as I feel it breaks up the mood and instrument cohesiveness just some. Something less piercing and sawlike may have been a better choice, yet it fits with the creepy ideas here. The glitching, sfx and old vinyl crackling are divine. The choir and whistley sound are great. Even the bit of distortion on the piano-esque arp is a fit. Plenty of source, very good arrangement. Love it. YES

One of the many reasons we love Larry. Good ol' Stopwatch Larry. We should all embrace our inner Larry. Everyone should be Larry. We are all Larry.

The drums sound like they were recorded in separate rooms and sound a little muffled too. Other than that, all the instrumentation is produced and mixed very well. It's a super fun arrangement, cohesive yet varied, and interesting all the way through. I think the sources are mixed together quite well, transitions could be a little better but this works. I wish the ending wasn't so sudden, though. YES

What is the little piano flourish at the beginning? Cute, but...? This is a REALLY well produced orchestral track. I'd love it to have a bit more low end but other than that, there isn't much I can critique here. (Ok the choir sounds a bit fakey starting at 2:51) Really nice arrangement, production and mixing. Sounds just a touch medley-ish, but the arrangement is cohesive overall. But how the heck do we judge source use? How many sources are even here? I count six in the submission info, but that playlist has 20 videos in it. Can we ask him for a source breakdown? edit: my vote is a YES as long as it has enough source...

Such scary images for such a sweet, non-scary guy. Wes I see you more like this: (ok maybe without dem sexy legs) We miss you around here. I know you're busy. I hope you can spend more time here once you finish school! Happy birthday, dear friend! <3

Yep, the master is a bit overdriven, but wow this track has a huge sound. That kick is just bordering on being too big/heavy/compressed. Some of the saws are just bordering on too hot/buzzy. But I love the writing and arrangement and soundscape. Source aplenty. Great sidechaining. Very nice. YES

This song is pretty epic! Moody orchestral intro, lonely trumpets, marching snare, choir, even a church organ, and of course shredding guitars. Drums are appropriate and exciting, and everything is mixed well. Very cool. I wish this track had been a little more interpretive with the source writing, the melody is played verbatim and usually by the choir/brass. I would have liked something to break up that simple line a bit more. My other big criticism is the lack of transitions. The guitars are jarring because they aren't signaled at all. Yet when they arrive, they are awesome. There's a teeny bit of drum transition but a little more would have been nice. Still, it's moody, varied and badass. edit: I'm revisiting this song, and I have to agree the piano and brass are very stiffly sequenced and written. I'm going to go no for now, the piano needs to be humanized and some of that brass should probably be replaced with something else, maybe even strings. The melody needs to be made less blocky as well, with maybe one verse with something other than choir as lead. NO(resubmit)

I agree with Andrew. This is a good arrangement, but there are just some things I think can be fixed that will make this song really shine. That guitar lead is really wide and distorted when it enters at 0:13, distractingly so for me. It competes with the backing guitars quite a bit in frequency. There is a cool little synth arp at 0:26 that is completely smothered by this huge timbre. At 0:59 you've got an organ that's really competing for space with those rhythm guitars. You've got a very nice sine lead starting at 1:10, but almost zero transition into that section, so the lead sounds out of place. How about a gated downsweep or something, signaling the softer sound? Same for the transition back to the guitar lead at 1:33, nothing there for the listener to adapt or prepare for a totally new sound. Drums are pretty good, kick is quiet though. Writing starts to get repetitive in terms of chord structure and backing guitar patterns, but you do have quite a bit of cool soloing going on. Wow that ending is sudden, but workable. This is really close to a pass, just tame some timbres, carve space for that arp to be heard, and add some transition stuff and it's golden. edit: I've just listened to this track again and have read the other votes. I will maintain the crits I've given here, but the arrangement really is quite good, and the soloing in particular is smokin'. No need to hold this vote up. Gonna give this a pass. YES

Don't forget to brush after you caaaaaake.

Super fun song. I agree with Andrew, the writing is exciting and the sounds work together very well. Nice arrangement and source use. Dat kick! Is too loud and overcompressed. Ah well, that's my only complaint. Enjoyable track! YES

Cool stuff! I do hear the Sasha influence, he's one of my favorite trance artists. I like how you converted this vocal track to pure instrumental and still kept the vibe. Source use seems fine. The saws used here border on generic at times, but the writing and arrangement is very nicely personalized. Very nice soundscape. The piano is the one thing I feel doesn't fit in perfectly, the tone is almost a bit sharp for this style, the playing lacks humanization (not much note-velocity variation) and the delay a bit too prominent. There isn't enough piano in the track to make it a huge problem though. I love that sine/whistle synth, and I adore that 303! Overall I feel like the track is mixed quite well, sounds could be eq-separated just a bit more but this is working well enough. The track is a tad reverby but fits the genre well. YES

Andrew nailed it. Those clean leads are almost nonexistent, please bring them up. He's right about having a bit less distortion on the rhythm guitars, hopefully you can just do a quick re-amp to get a cleaner sound there. Otherwise yeah, really nice arrangement and production, drums are punchy and tight too. Bass could have a touch more definition and clear out some low-mid mud too, just a bit. My only other suggestion would be that 2:34 sounds like an ending. It just completely stops. It would make for a better flow if something was happening during that empty space, anything at all, a drum pattern, guitar riff, sfx, just something so it doesn't sound like the song ended there. Also the ending is really abrupt, maybe end it on a chord or something, like some ambiance from the intro? Just a thought. NO (resubmit)

I agree with Andrew completely. Everything sounds great except the lead guitar, it's almost melted into the background. It needs to cut through, needs to be louder and eq'd carefully so it is distinguished from the backing guitars. You can also give the lead guitar's reverb a longer predelay (90ms or so). I also agree at least one solo section would be a fantastic addition, and the ending is really super sudden. I'd like to hear this again, though. NO (resubmit)

Sorry you had so much trouble producing this track Will, one would never know. It sounds so nice and laid back and carefree. I love it, and it's nice to hear you go outside your 80s comfort zone! Stevo, wow nice vocals! The only trouble is, I listened to this expecting to bash some bastards, and I ended up smiling and hugging them instead...

Mirby, you are the cakemaster *bows down "I'm not worthy" style* but I had to do this particular joke for Flex. I'll hand the reins back to you now!

Happy Birthday, fellow NoobJooj! Ok. So I made this thread the night before your birthday, so I could be FIRST. Childish? Nah, because:

I haven't heard the first version (can't even find it), so I'll just go by this version. I really like this arrangement. It does have a bit of a repetitive issue, the melody is mainly verbatim and simple, and a lot of the instrumentation is similar-ish, and the leads do sound just a bit generic, but there is enough personalization on the melody and lots of yummy ear candy. The high end is quite hot and piercy. Those synths are way too busy above 13-14KHz or so, ouch. Some of the higher percussion is up there, too. I LOVE the wub bass, it is simple but really well done. Could do with a touch less low mids but it's ok as-is I think. Bass writing is great. Drums are varied and also sound great. Enjoyable song! Gotta tone down that harsh high-end. It's a pass for me once that is done. NO (resubmit)

I just completed a DAMN FINE TRACK today. What did all you philosophers do, eh?

Have a happy and musical day today!

Sorry friend... I admit I got bored for a moment...

try TO craft (not try AND craft) Argle and ME (not Argle and I) Beware the grammar nazi.

You never waste time here, your replies are always short and witty (I love that tbh). And yeah if you have the ability to make music at work (or tweak or w/e), DOOOOO EEEEET.

You ARE kidding me, right? I am learning Cubase, and also attempting to learn Vienna Ensemble Pro to run inside of Cubase. Tweaking and learning routing is all I've been doing for about two weeks. But yeah, I'm doing that instead of typing about it to you guys. (oh and I'm loving it)

Now ^that^ is the first sensible thing I've seen in this thread. While you guys were spending countless hours yesterday crafting paragraphs about your processes and either patting yourselves on the back or hacking yourselves apart, some of us were actually using that time to make music.