Chimpazilla

Your ReMixer name: Pixel Pirates Your real name: Tobaunta Torkelsson & Fredrik Vinterstjärna Your email address: Your website: pixelpirates.nu Your userid: 37469 Name of game(s) arranged: Megaman X Name of arrangement: Pixelman X Name of individual song(s) arranged: Stage Start - Storm Eagle - Spark Mandrill - Boomer Kuwanger - Launch Octopus - Zero's Theme - Ending Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc: Megaman X is one of my most played games from my childhood and really could not deside on what song from the game I would remix so desided to make a medley styled remix with a collections of my favorite songs from the game and it is a lot.

Initial impressions: Starts out 100% piano cover, then adds cello and violin. Orchestration is lovely, not too bad for using modeled instruments. Arrangement is still extremely conservative. Warning, there's one reeeeeally high violin note at 3:25, if you're on headphones, please beware, it's a brain-piercer.

Hello OCR Team, on to my second submission, again with Final Fantasy. Remixer Name: sui Profile ID: 24063 Game: Final Fantasy X Name of the arrangement: Yuna at Zanarkand, Her Mind on Lost Friends Name of the original song: To Zanarkand (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fp81GzKarQ) Download link: I my quest to improve my counterpoint writing I arranged FFX's "To Zanarkand" for piano trio, in this case piano, violin and cello. There were several challenges during the writing process: * No one wants to listen to the original songs just with an added cello base note and the violin playing the melody. This is supposed to be an exercise in counterpoint writing, so all instruments should be interesting to listen to. * There are only 3 instruments to work with, so you better make every note count. * Give every instrument and every instrument combination their time to lead and shine. * Make the two iterations of song sufficiently different. Copypaste is not allowed. * Keep everything humanly playable, especially the violin's multiple stops. In mean, the 4 octave jump in the piano's left hand at 3:07 should still work at that speed, right? All instruments are modeled, i.e. synthesized at runtime and not recorded samples. This was my first time handling this kind of instrument, so getting to understand their behavior and reworking MIDI CC automations accordingly actually took up most of the production time. And even then I feel that at some points getting out of the uncanny valley required too difficult of a climb for me. The advantage of modeled instruments is that they do exactly what you tell them to do, so you are never held back by the recorded samples from creating the sound you want. However, the flip side of that advantage is that they only do what you tell them to do, so you better know how to exactly draw in those CC curves to play the vibrato like a human would. In the end I think I still got it into a presentable state. If you can imagine Yuna breaking into sobbing at 2:57 and screaming her heart out in tears at 3:05, then I believe I've done an ok job. Kind regards Alex

Initial impressions: This is an impressive orchestration done by a young student. The arrangement is conservative but includes some great variations on the chord structure and writing personalization. Instrumentation isn't all that realistic and mastering is quiet.

needs real title if pass - Chimpa Dear Jury! I am Nadin Varga, 17 years old student of composition and I would like to submit a musical composition. Game details: Falcon Patrol II Commodore 64 Original C64 music: Dave Lee The game was published by Virgin Games in 1984. The arrangement was made for the 2022 Arok Party competition. I uploaded the remix to my youtube channel, here you can listen to the original music before the arrangment: https://youtu.be/4JImL9ZuF1M The music was made with CuBase. Thanks for the opportunity. Nadin Varga

OH GOD that Cisco hold music.... whenever I hear that delayed kick and clap I cringe super hard. Often, we are forced to listen to this travesty for quite a long time. Many companies use it. Then it gets stuck in my head for hours until I'm feeling rage. Who would write such a thing, whyyyy??? AND WHY DO WE ALL HAVE TO HEAR IT??? Is there no quality control in the on-hold music world, or is this just punishment? It's cruel and unusual, especially to producers!!! There oughta be a law! Now for this remix, gosh if only Wes could produce a track with feels, that'd be greeeeeat, mkay? This one ls luscious and dreamy just as it should be. The piano creaks, and the wow and flutter at the end, really add to the "hope in the face of obstacles" feel of the piece. The bells are beautiful and send shivers down my spine. Production is ace. Gosh I can relate to the imposter syndrome, perfectionism and creative block, so well that it hurts. Wes, you even made the concept of "delayed kick and clap" work beautifully well, which is impressive. Cisco be damned. All the YES there is, and then some.

The arrangement is unchanged from last time, so more than 1/3 of the arrangement is intro. The mixing is clean enough now, although the overall mix is lacking in low bass. But what is here is emotional and creative. The drums are mixed way too quietly. I hope you'll address mixing issues in your next submission, but this one is too lovely not to post. YES

I love that OMG IT'S THE LAST DAY AND TIME'S UP stress-inducing bell intro plus storm sounds. I don't have any issue with this arrangement being different enough from the source; the bass and drums and theramin take care of that just fine. The strings aren't the best, but I hear them as a backing pad and I don't think they need to sound real to work in this arrangement. The arrangement is short, and I wish it had a bit more development and possibly a dropout of the drums for a short breakdown somewhere in the middle, but that doesn't sink it for me. The ending is brought to a logical conclusion, with more storm sfx, which I like. Mixing and mastering work well. This one works for me, short but sweet and simple, lovely sad-yet-groovy vibe. YES

Mastering on this track is super hot. 0db limiter ceiling is allowing it to clip like crazy, and -6dbRMS is extremely loud. That said, I don't hear overcompression artifacts or unwanted pumping. Right off the bat, the intro sounds like a simplistic cover with DnB beats added. The lead that enters at 0:23 sounds rather vanilla and doesn't gel well with the bass and acoustic guitar. At 1:12 when the heavy bass kicks in, I love the bass, it's deep and gnarly and nasty. But I don't feel like the lead there is epic enough to go with that bass (although this lead is better than the one that came before, and the writing of this lead is good). As Larry said, the beats are loud and heavy but the shuffle detail is quiet and hard to hear. In the section starting at 2:11, that saw lead is so buzzy and competes with the big bass sound enough to almost obscure the top end of the bass completely. The section after the big pitch rise has some original writing that feels melodically strange and clunky, uncomfortably so, and the bass there feels weak and flabby instead of intense (after the long buildup I'm expecting a major drop). At 3:30 the big badass bass returns, but the lead writing in this section is also melodically odd and clunky. The lead timbres throughout this track are plain and underwhelming; some filter movement or other interest added would be helpful. The outro doesn't do much for me, it's just the core beat with some more lead noodling over it, and when the ideas run out there's just an 808 crash. I want to like this mix, there are many good ideas here and the deep bass in the heavy sections is terrific, but overall I find many of the timbres too simple or vanilla to hold my interest, the drum mixing needs work, and some of the original writing and/or noodling doesn't make sense to me. Larry said something feels very unfinished with this, and I tend to agree with him on that. NO

What an awesome arrangement! The themes blend together very seamlessly. I'd expect nothing less from J and I'm glad to hear this one. I love deserty arrangements, instruments and sounds. The brass and some of the synths sound thin and weak to me. I think the bass is fine, it is not too loud or heavy on my system. The mixing is fine, I think. I love the vocal clips! This is a super fun remix. The mastering is hot hot HOT wow yikes. With the 0db ceiling, the master is indeed clipping like a mofo. -5db RMS is WOWZA LOUD. That said, I am not hearing overcompression artifacts, other than some mild crunching, which as Larry said could be construed as stylistic. But I get the conditional votes. It is indeed a skill to get levels like this without major artifacts and pumping (PrototypeRaptor does the same. I've seen him go to -3db RMS. The track was clean although it had no dynamics whatsoever!). If this doesn't pass, please dial back the final limiting to give the master some more breathing room, and lower your final ceiling to something like -0.5db to make sure nothing clips, especially upon YouTube upload. But I love it. I'm with Larry, I'd rather see it on the site than have it languish waiting for fixes or not get resubbed. YES

There are definitely some balance issues here, warbly lead is on the loud/piercy side, guitar comes in too loud. At 1:16 there is one wonky note, whoops. But overall, what a lovely interpretation of this source. Guitar performances are great, part-writing is good. It's a sweet feel-good mix that makes me smile. YES

I've listened to this quite a few times now and I like the arrangement. It's a cool atmospheric track with minimal melodic content. The bassline plays verbatim throughout the track but what's on top of it keeps changing and keeping the mix fresh, although some variation in the bass writing for a section, or some sort of soft breakdown, would have been nice. The Spiderman Intro Theme fits very nicely into this arrangement. The mixing could be a little cleaner but there's nothing egregiously wrong here. The autopanning of the sustained guitar is a nice reference to the autopanning bass in Story Interlude (which makes me dizzy!). The final ending of the track is a fadeout, not my favorite type of outro, but it works well enough here since everything else has dropped out. Great guitar performances throughout the piece. I like it. YES

There's a lot of creativity here packed into a short mix! I love the driving energy, and the string performances and brass stabs. I agree with the mixing crits brought up by my fellow Js. The soundscape could be cleaned up quite a bit by using EQ to carve away unwanted lows and rumble out of each instrument that isn't kick or bass (and even on those), as low rumbles will stack together and overcrowd your master, making it sound overcompressed. This master is loud, just on the verge of being overcompressed. Other than that, I don't find anything too negative about the mixing, it's serviceable. The energy of the track stays the same throughout the piece, which gets somewhat fatiguing after awhile, but the mix is short enough to compensate for it. A lower-energy breakdown would have helped break up the repetitive feel of the overall energy. The fadeout is disappointing; I would have preferred a wrapup to the ideas and an outro. Still, it's a cute fun mix, full of creativity. YES

Well I love this. I'm a YES here and not even borderline or conditional. I find this arrangement of a relatively simple source to be full and transformative, full of a range of dynamics and emotions. The overall levels here are much better than usual. Peak max is still -3db but that is better than -8db or -10db on some other mixes. I share Larry's thoughts on the buzzy bassoon, that is unfortunate and could probably be EQd to remove the offending buzz (or, replace the sample with a buzzless bassoon), but it doesn't bother me enough to reject. I'm not the biggest fan of hard-panning things left and right, as the harp and bells/glock are here, but not a dealbreaker by any means. The more I listen to this, the more I am transported to a mystical forest in which I'm not sure if I will find friend or foe! Super lovely feels in this arrangement, love it, gotta go with it. YES

Cool source! I am finding this arrangement fantastic. I don't hear those two notes as being wrong, not at all, I like the harmony in fact. I'm with XPRT, I don't know what's going on there (weird mode?) but I like it. The vocal clip at the slowed-down section is killer although it could have been louder and with more effects/delay. I think this arrangement is interesting and cool and I love the synthwave style and the overall vibe. My biggest complaint is the mixing, I hear too much lows coming out of absolutely everything and it's muddying things up. If you cut unneeded lows out of everything that isn't kick or bass, the low end would sound cleaner and much tighter too; as it stands, the low end has this loose feel that's a little uncomfortable if that makes sense. Some of the instruments sound almost flabby, I think due to stray lows and even rumble that can easily be EQd out. The mix could also benefit from slightly stronger sidechaining, not for pumping effect but for mixing clarity and added groove. The mixing isn't optimal but it isn't a dealbreaker for me. I think the track is great. YES

Cool, if ancient, source tune! I'm loving it. The arrangement is conservative yet fully transformed into metal. The arrangement opens strongly, but the brass and strings sound fake right off the bat. When the lead guitar starts at 0:17, I don't feel like I'm hearing lead writing but instead some kind of nebulous backing material, and this writing conflicts heavily with the string writing at that point, so my mind is a bit confused. Also the mixing is flat and the lead guitar is mushing into the soundscape rather than riding above it and standing out. There is so much distortion on the lead guitar so I don't hear/feel its fundamental punching through. Starting at 1:06, the brass is trying to carry the lead writing, but the sample sounds so weak and thin and the attack is uncomfortably slow. The string that follows, playing the lead, is equally thin and anemic, with inhuman sounding attacks. The soloing at 1:33 is better mixing-wise (in terms of the lead riding above the backing soundscape), but the mixing of that lead guitar is odd to me, it is sooooo wide, it sits at the exact same space in the soundscape as the backing chugs, leaving the center empty except for the kick and snare. At 2:06, it's back to the initial lead guitar which is mixed so weakly and the writing again conflicts with the backing string writing. The drums are mixed well enough, but that crash sound is super weak and almost cartoonishly out of place with the rest of the kit. I love the concept of this, but I think there are some major mixing and instrument-sample fixes that need to be addressed before this one is ready for the front page. NO (resubmit)

This is a loud master. The 0db limiter ceiling is allowing the master to clip and register a true-peak of 3.3db. Very few dynamics in this mix (waveform sausage). Although the arrangement is quite conservative to the source in terms of writing and instrumentation, there are good harmonic and melodic personalizations. I am not hearing anything too harmonically strange, it all works for me. The drums are disappointing. The kick is weak and there isn't strong enough sidechaining for it to punch through well enough. The drum groove never changes once established, other than the occasional fill. The hat groove is simple and repetitive. The overall arrangement feels very repetitive because there is no break in the drum action and because the instrumentation never changes throughout the piece. I'm borderline on this decision. It's a good and fun mix but several things are adding up to a resub vote from me: similarity to the source in style and instrumentation, repetitive energy level, lack of instrumental variation, lack of drum groove variation, weak drum mixing and minimal sidechaining, and a hot/clipping master. I hope to hear it again though, a few changes can easily get this track on the front page! NO (please resubmit)

Jordan's tracks always sound ZOMG GOOD to me, his production is the best I've ever heard and this one is no exception.... but.... after the intro, it is two exact repetitions of break/bridge and drop, and no outro (super abrupt ending). I layered the parts over each other to make sure and both sections are identical with nothing added or removed. Are we passing arrangement like that? What's here is groovus maximus and production delight, but I'm thinking, based on our standards, NO If our standards have changed or I've gotten it wrong (as Larry thinks this level of repetition is ok), someone please let me know.

This is funky and cool and I'm chair dancing to it. Herb Alpert - Rise comes through instantly with the bassline and trumpet lines. This mix captures that late 70s funk/disco vibe well. I wish there was just a bit more variation in the overall beat; the track establishes an energy level on the first note and it stays the same all throughout. This isn't the greatest kick sample, it is all mid-and-top with very little beef, it is too sharp, and it sounds quite fake compared to the organic instrument soundscape (something softer and more natural would have been better) but I'm not super bothered by it, especially once the trumpet begins. The piano is so cool but it is mixed super flat, what a shame. The trumpet comes in loud and proud by comparison. The trumpet sounds great but I feel like the flat piano mixing is a lost opportunity for extra awesomeness. The arrangement has a repetitive feel due to the energy level never changing, but there is a lot of creativity in the performances. I feel the looseness in the performance that Larry mentioned. It almost sounds like the elements are sometimes behind the beat, and it's a little distracting. I would have really loved some additional and/or varied percussion elements coming in and out of this arrangement to vary the feel and energy, this can be a note for next time. What's here is too cool, funky and fun not to pass, but I am in borderline territory here due to the issues I've mentioned. Larry and Brad are right about that final splash... oof. Just to throw this question out there to the other Js, is there any issue with passing a mix that so closely resembles a non-vgm source? If it's all good, then YES

The plucked instruments in the first half are sheer delight! What a luscious vibe you've set up. The instrument palette is just wonderful and well executed. The mix is full and beautiful. But starting at the 2:00 mark, there is sidechaining that is too deep and long for the percussion being used, and it sounds/feels stilted and unnatural. When the kick enters at 2:56, that sidechaining is even heavier. WOW that's heavy. Clearly it is a stylistic choice (heart beat), and sometimes that works (often in a much more sparse soundscape) but I am not sure it works here. You've got such a full, beautiful soundscape and it's all dented with this intense heavy sidechaining. I think the issue for me is that every element in the mix is being sidechained this hard. In my mixes I sidechain absolutely everything but not by the same amounts. Bass and low pads usually get the deepest sidechaining, plucks and backing elements get softer/less sidechaining, leads and perc loops get minimal sidechaining (for mixing and groove purposes only). I feel like if the leads and backing plucks and percs were less heavily sidechained, this mix would still sound huge but way more natural. Often times I am telling people to sidechain their elements to make the track groove because it's not grooving without it, but in this case I feel like the groove of the track is actually ruined by this much sidechaining. I agree with MW that the mix, especially the second half, is very instrument dense. I can't quite tell if balance is a problem or not, due to the heavy sidechaining over it. Then at 4:03 you also added super heavy gating. It's just too much for me. On a third listen through, I feel like my heart is trying to beat in resonance with this and not in a good way. I also dislike fadeout endings although it's not a dealbreaker it is just a final disappointment in this case. I actually love this arrangement and the beautiful instrumentation. The sidechaining is killing it for me. If I could hear it without the heavy (everything getting the same amount) sidechaining, and with that gating also dialed back, then I could comment on the balance of leads vs. backing. I won't be upset if this passes because it is lovely, but if it doesn't pass, please structure the sidechaining so not everything is getting it as deeply; make it sound and feel just a little less jarring, and let's hear it again. You can still get a heartbeat effect without giving your listeners an actual heart attack! TL;DR - If I'm saying there's too much sidechaining, there's probably too much sidechaining NO (please resubmit) Edit 1/21/23: Listening again, I am no longer sure that the ducking at the 2:00 is intentional. It sounds like it could just be master overcompression rather than sidechaining, which is worse. In judging another track, I was linked to another mix that, in my opinion, does that super-deep sidechaining thing right. The ducks on PTR's track are extremely deep but also very fast release. Also, you can easily hear that the lead instruments are not getting ducked as hard or deep as the bass and backing plucks, which makes it sound more natural and purposeful, and less disorienting.

Nice adaptation of this source to solo piano. It is quite conservative but has good personalization. I agree with my peers that the piano does not have the most pleasant tone; it comes off as tinny, overly sharp, and missing some beefiness. I especially agree with prophetik about the overuse of the sustain pedal, most noticeable during the big chords and builds; as more notes are dogpiled on top it becomes rather muddy. I also agree with prophetik that there seems to be some quantization that is making the performance more robotic than it should be. All of this does lead to the uncanny valley. I can see how this bothered Larry enough for a NO vote, and I'm into borderline territory myself due to these issues, but I am in agreement with the other Js that the track is still over our bar. The production and mastering are competent, and the mix sounds good. YES

Clicks, pops, reverses, dry and wet sounds together yet so separate. Soundscape is empty yet full. Luscious piano mangled all to hell. Rain. Oh gosh I love this weird style. It sounds to me like the track is being broadcast through some experimental new radio that receives sonic transmissions from an adjacent dimension. Music being crunched through some unimaginable electric device. It definitely isn't for everyone, but for me, it gives me goosebumps on top of goosebumps with all the weird feels. Source aplenty; let's do this. YES

The guys are right, this mix takes too long to get going, and the sounds used are very simple and vanilla and they lack interest. That opening bassline has extreme sidechaining on it which sounds distracting with nothing else playing with it, and when the kick comes in, wow it's loud. Too loud for the soft and simple instrumentation in this mix. At the 2:00 mark there is some harmonic dissonance that is unpleasant. The arrangement itself does show promise, however. I suggest you take this track to our workshop forum and get some specific advice on how to fix this mix. Generally, you need better sounds, more varied sounds, more interesting writing (it is repetitive now), better balancing and mixing. I suggest spending some time learning how and when to sidechain. You have the bass super heavily sidechained but nothing else in the mix is sidechained so the mix lacks a cohesive groove. Make sure you are listening on good speakers in a well set up room, or on good headphones. Still some work to do to learn the techniques, but as Larry said, this arrangement shows your potential, please keep going. NO

What a glorious source tune! It has Star Wars vibes for me. I am glad the remix is as conservative as it is, since the source tune is long and non-repetitive. I find this arrangement fantastic, it's full of varied and exciting instrumentation and detail. The breakdown is utterly lovely, although I'm not a fan of the panning, I prefer things be more centered and mixed front-to-back and narrow-to-wide rather than left-and-right. That said, the arrangement and performances are excellent and an easy pass for me. The mixing is also quite good. The mastering is indeed super loud. I don't hear any egregious artifacts, but it's right on the cusp for me, it's almost-nearly pumpy but not quite. Pushing the master this hard has flattened the overall dynamics though, which is unfortunate. I don't find this mastering to be dealbreaking, but in case the track doesn't pass, I recommend the following. On your master chain, lower the input gain by several db, I lower up to 10 or 12db sometimes on my electronic mixes (I do this first thing before I even begin to write, it makes it easier to mix). Then, gradually bring the level back up gently through more than one compressor. I use three or four of them in my chain, each for a various purpose, ending with a mastering compressor and then final limiter set to -0.5db ceiling (avoids unwanted clipping especially when uploaded to YouTube). Doing it this way should allow you to still have nice full dynamics while giving the track a solid beefy sound and no overcompression artifacts or pumping. Edit 8/11/23: New version is not better but worse. It sounds even more overcompressed and now I hear artifacts and unwanted crunching and pumping. I would flip to NO if this is the version we go with. I'll stick with my YES for now while we sort through this. YES

I like the 4/4 adaptation, but the overall sound of this mix just doesn't hit the mark. The instrumentation sounds dated and the drums especially sound almost comically weak. Filtering the drums from 0:31-1:07 makes that section sound even more lo-fi and minimal but not in a good way. The arrangement sounds very conservative and similar to the source tune even with the time signature change, due to the similarity of instrumentation. This really isn't a bad remix, but I am reading the other Js' words and I agree with them pretty much completely: the lack of humanization, the similarity of the instrumentation and writing to the source tune (other than the 4/4 change), along with weak and over-filtered drums puts this just under the bar for me. I'd love to hear this again with some more unique elements added, different lead sounds, more varied and impactful drum grooves, some additional ear candy or effects, and just more interesting elements overall. NO (resubmit)