XPRTNovice

I have to say I really didn't expect what was going to happen at 1:25 but then it happened and I was happy. This arrangement is supremely weird in the best kinds of ways. 
My major issue with the piece is basically what many of the judges here have already said; the piece feels thin and underdeveloped. When we DO have the full ensemble, we get good balance and mixing, even if some of the timbres are a little stale, but the in-between stuff lacks depth. It doesn't have to remain powerful - it's that contrast that helps us appreciate the big booming parts - but if you listen to the first minute and a half, and the last minute in particular, it feels like we're just missing a huge part of the sound spectrum. The drums in the beginning feel sparse, as well as the lead, kind of like you were sketching the skeleton of the piece but never gave it the rest of the muscle and fat that go with making a full body, an analogy that I am going to depart from now becuase it's kind of gross. 
My suggestion might be that if you ARE going to make the choice to be intentionally thin (and I am assuming here) then make it. This tune reminded me of a Trigun track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-9iDfnBxLA - if you listen around 1:10, you hear this thin drum sound in the background with a full flute over it, but the arranger there made a clear choice, so the listener isn't confused. 
This is a good piece, and definitely exceeds the OCR bar in many ways. With some polishing, it would be a clear post. 
NO (resubmit)

MOD REVIEW
Hey there! So this is a really unique take on this tune with some really interesting sound choices. Taste wise, you might split the room a bit, but these are your choices and you should stick to them! It's a very unique sound. I enjoy the broken rhythms and the drums. 
My major nitpick is that sometimes I couldn't quite catch what the melody was supposed to be, particularly at 1:30 ish. There's the pumping pad in the back, and I think that needs to come back in the mix and have the melody ride more in the forefront. That happens again at about 2:10, where your wubbing bass kind of drowns out the interesting spooky lead you've got going on. 
Honestly, I think that's probably more of a personal taste kind of thing, and this could be ready for the judges without it. I'm marking it as complete; you can make the changes or tweaks, or submit it as is! Good luck 
 
/MOD REVIEW

Hey guys,
So this might be weird, but you know how jazz music has "standards" that everyone kind of knows the chords and melody to?  I'd like something like that for VGM as well. Some of the great staples of this awesome category of music. I went to MAG last year and found that I was scrambling in my brain when someone asked me to call a tune to jam on, and then having to look stuff up on my phone. It killed the vibe sometimes. 
What, in a jam scenario, do you think should be included? Here are some of my favorites to play in a group:
- Song of Storms (Ocarina of Time)
- My Village is #1 (Xenogears)
- Millennial Fair (CT)
- Super Mario 64 world theme
- Mario Bros theme
 
 

*MOD REVIEW*
Hey. I think I'll disagree with Gario on this one about the conservativism being too much. Is it conservative? Yes, I think it is. Do I think there's more you can do with it? I do. Trust me, I'm all for being minimalist in music sometimes, but I think with a source like this there's a lot you can do with it. Then again, you may not WANT to do anything with it, which is an artistic choice you're free to make, especially with this being a sort of horror genre piece of music. I'm going to mark as complete, and you can roll the dice with the judges on whether or not this is enough of a new take on the piece to pass. I'm more optimistic than Gario, but I still see his point.
*MR OUT*
I've reviewed your remix and have set it to Completed status, indicating that I think your remix is ready to be submitted to the Judges Panel. Congratulations!
If you feel like you still need to work on your track and want more feedback, you can change the prefix back to Work-in-Progress and we'll go through the review process again.
If you decide to submit your track, please change the prefix to Submitted after sending your email. Thank you!

[This is an automatically generated message]
I've reviewed your remix and have set it to Completed status, indicating that I think your remix is ready to be submitted to the Judges Panel. Congratulations!
If you feel like you still need to work on your track and want more feedback, you can change the prefix back to Work-in-Progress and we'll go through the review process again.
If you decide to submit your track, please change the prefix to Submitted after sending your email. Thank you!

Lot of good stuff going on here. I haven't heard previous versions, but I think you might be ready to toss this up to the panel. The only thing that bugged me a bit was the presence of the drums and some of the bassy tones throughout the whole piece seemed to be burying some of the more important parts - I know that's miserably unspecific, but it was more of an overall feel of the piece than anything else. I marked it complete because the headphones I'm currently using are definitely more on the bassy side, so I think you're pretty solid on this one. Good luck. 

2ND EVAL PER REQUEST:
I really enjoy the overall improvements made in Version 2 of this tune from a production standpoint. The piece has solid mixing and sound overall, with nice support on the low end. 
I think the lead guitars can come out a lot more around 1:50-2:15. It gets lost in the background for me, particularly because, as Taucer pointed out, the arrangement is relatively conservative. Bringing the guitars more to the front might make the variation pop a bit more. Otherwise, I found my attention drifting away, even though we had some pretty great lead guitar stuff going on. 
It's likely ready for a submission. 

2ND EVAL PER REQUEST:
I really enjoy the overall improvements made in Version 2 of this tune from a production standpoint. The piece has solid mixing and sound overall, with nice support on the low end. 
I think the lead guitars can come out a lot more around 1:50-2:15. It gets lost in the background for me, particularly because, as Taucer pointed out, the arrangement is relatively conservative. Bringing the guitars more to the front might make the variation pop a bit more. Otherwise, I found my attention drifting away, even though we had some pretty great lead guitar stuff going on. 
It's likely ready for a submission. 

Erm, I wouldn't say I'm good at all, but I approach learning anything, especially art, in three basic ways:
- Do it.
- Do it mindfully.
- Accept and acknowledge crap, and move on.
Do it: You just have to sit on your ass and DO the thing you're trying to get better at. Reading 10,000 blog posts on composing isn't going to make you better; you have to compose. As a writer, I've written 5 novels in the last 2.5 years, and now I can say they're worth reading.
Do it mindfully: I used to tell my students that "Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes habits. PERFECT practice makes perfect." If you're "doing it" above but you're not being mindful about ways you can get better, you're going to stay stagnant or, worse, create bad habits. If I practice my piano scales at blinding speed with errors, I get really, really good at playing them really, really poorly. This is the part where I'm also reading, learning, asking questions of experts, and then trying to apply it to what I'm working on.
Accept crap: I have lots of unfinished projects, both in writing and in music, that are crap. But each one of those turds came with a golden nugget of learning (or corn, I never could figure that out). Those hunks of steaming poop don't define you as an artist, and you have to let them go and acknowledge that they taught you something that you can then apply to #1 and #2 (no pun intended)
The real lesson is you gotta put in the time. If you're interested in this kind of stuff, Malcom Gladwell wrote a book called Outliers where he explores "geniuses" and how in many cases it just becomes an opportunity for a person to put in monumental amounts of time into one activity.

Well, I would try to first stop thinking of us as "pros" and start thinking us as a community of people who live and grow together musically. OCR isn't just a showcase, the community forums are here specifically for this reason. 
Other than that, I can't offer too much other than platitudes about failure being the only form of success. It all boils down to: chill out. Try things. Ditch what doesn't work and keep what does. Love music. 

Shit, I never even saw that anyone was trying to reach out to me. I haven't logged into the forums very well. Gario what do you need? A finished track "this year" is what I see above, as in the end of 2017? That'll be more than doable and I would like to keep this track. 

MOD REVIEW
Hey there. 
I remember the days as a mod where I'd come in here with a flamethrower and just annihilate people's mixes. I feel like those days are ending - so much work is solidly produced now, including this one. 
Your production sounds really good, transitions are smooth and solid, the source is very well used all throughout and recognizable. Personally I could stand to feel a bit more of the mix in my chest with some more rounded out mid-lows, but altogether everything sounds really good to me. 
The one thing that threw me out of the mix - At 1:55 the kit sounds really dry, which contrasts in a stark way with the pads and leads going on as the melody. While I wouldn't recommend overdoing it, a touch of verb there might help it blend better, particularly the snare. 
Arrangement wise, at around 4:00 I was starting to get a bit of ear fatigue from repetition of the source elements. This is a very personal preference and many people probably wouldn't care, but there's enough variety in here that you could stand to maybe strip some of the repeated sections, or sections that only have a touch of variance in them. 
All of these things, though, are nitpicks. It's a professional sounding dance mix that I think is ready for the judges panel. I will caveat and saying that this style isn't my forte, so if some of the other mods want to jump in and talk about production it'd be welcome. 
Best of luck and great job. 

I remember there being some concern last year that we weren't going to be able to get an OCR suite this year as a gathering place for all of our brood. Will we have a suite this year? 

Hey guys,
So this might be weird, but you know how jazz music has "standards" that everyone kind of knows the chords and melody to?  I'd like something like that for VGM as well. Some of the great staples of this awesome category of music. I went to MAG last year and found that I was scrambling in my brain when someone asked me to call a tune to jam on, and then having to look stuff up on my phone. It killed the vibe sometimes. 
What, in a jam scenario, do you think should be included? Here are some of my favorites to play in a group:
- Song of Storms (Ocarina of Time)
- My Village is #1 (Xenogears)
- Millennial Fair (CT)
- Super Mario 64 world theme
- Mario Bros theme
 
 

Imma be there.
Imma bring soprano sax.

Hey guys,
So this might be weird, but you know how jazz music has "standards" that everyone kind of knows the chords and melody to?  I'd like something like that for VGM as well. Some of the great staples of this awesome category of music. I went to MAG last year and found that I was scrambling in my brain when someone asked me to call a tune to jam on, and then having to look stuff up on my phone. It killed the vibe sometimes. 
What, in a jam scenario, do you think should be included? Here are some of my favorites to play in a group:
- Song of Storms (Ocarina of Time)
- My Village is #1 (Xenogears)
- Millennial Fair (CT)
- Super Mario 64 world theme
- Mario Bros theme
 
 

WE ARE NOW FRIENDS

I remain. I'll have a WIP by 12 Sep.

[MODDILY MOD MODDED MODDERING]
- Really interesting choice of instruments (in a good way). Good vibe going on throughout.
- The cello is damaging the rest of the mix, in my opinion. I think you can do better to humanize that sample and make it sound smoother, particularly when it's up in front of the mix.
- I think the flute melody could stand to be a touch out more in front (but I find I give that critique a lot since I'm a melody snob, or something)
- I dig the harp run at 3:25 ish
- At 3:45, I do kind of lose sense of what I'm supposed to be listening to; it transitions into something that resembles ambient music and I can't find a melody in there. That's not necessarily a strike against you or anything, just a comment.
- Nice ending.
Overall, I really like this. That cello sample is what's hurting the most. If you could get someone to play that LIVE?! oooh, that would make this really sing.
[END OF MOD]

Hey guys
I dunno if you knew this yet or not, but I sold a trilogy of sci-fi books to Simon and Schuster last year, and the first one is coming out next month. To promote the book, we're combining my voice acting with my writing to start a cool contest that we're calling "Voiceover Mad Libs." Anyone can enter, regardless of whether or not they pre-order the book (though that would be awesome). You can find all the details here:
https://joezieja.com/2016/05/03/mechanical-failure-contest-voiceover-mad-libs/
Basically, you get to fill in the blanks of a commercial or a trailer script, and I will record and produce it, then upload it to SoundCloud. At the end of the 2 week contest period, we pick the funniest and you get prizes. 
Come have fun! 

Hey guys
I dunno if you knew this yet or not, but I sold a trilogy of sci-fi books to Simon and Schuster last year, and the first one is coming out next month. To promote the book, we're combining my voice acting with my writing to start a cool contest that we're calling "Voiceover Mad Libs." Anyone can enter, regardless of whether or not they pre-order the book (though that would be awesome). You can find all the details here:
https://joezieja.com/2016/05/03/mechanical-failure-contest-voiceover-mad-libs/
Basically, you get to fill in the blanks of a commercial or a trailer script, and I will record and produce it, then upload it to SoundCloud. At the end of the 2 week contest period, we pick the funniest and you get prizes. 
Come have fun! 

Do make sure you fill out the typeform, which automatically queues it for me to record

Hey guys
I dunno if you knew this yet or not, but I sold a trilogy of sci-fi books to Simon and Schuster last year, and the first one is coming out next month. To promote the book, we're combining my voice acting with my writing to start a cool contest that we're calling "Voiceover Mad Libs." Anyone can enter, regardless of whether or not they pre-order the book (though that would be awesome). You can find all the details here:
https://joezieja.com/2016/05/03/mechanical-failure-contest-voiceover-mad-libs/
Basically, you get to fill in the blanks of a commercial or a trailer script, and I will record and produce it, then upload it to SoundCloud. At the end of the 2 week contest period, we pick the funniest and you get prizes. 
Come have fun! 

Hey guys
I dunno if you knew this yet or not, but I sold a trilogy of sci-fi books to Simon and Schuster last year, and the first one is coming out next month. To promote the book, we're combining my voice acting with my writing to start a cool contest that we're calling "Voiceover Mad Libs." Anyone can enter, regardless of whether or not they pre-order the book (though that would be awesome). You can find all the details here:
https://joezieja.com/2016/05/03/mechanical-failure-contest-voiceover-mad-libs/
Basically, you get to fill in the blanks of a commercial or a trailer script, and I will record and produce it, then upload it to SoundCloud. At the end of the 2 week contest period, we pick the funniest and you get prizes. 
Come have fun! 

FoxCeption