pixelseph   Judges ⚖️

As much as I'd like to see the human involvement in this piece or the other submissions by Craig, it is overshadowed by the audacity of submitting an entire album's worth of generative AI slop and lying about how large a role generative AI played in it. I have no pithy comments to make - my fellow judges summed up my feelings pretty well, and there's no need to belabor the point. NO. DO NOT resubmit anything using Suno or other such tools again and lie about it.

As much as I'd like to see the human involvement in this piece or the other submissions by Craig, it is overshadowed by the audacity of submitting an entire album's worth of generative AI slop and lying about how large a role generative AI played in it. I have no pithy comments to make - my fellow judges summed up my feelings pretty well, and there's no need to belabor the point. NO. DO NOT resubmit anything using Suno or other such tools again and lie about it.

As much as I'd like to see the human involvement in this piece or the other submissions by Craig, it is overshadowed by the audacity of submitting an entire album's worth of generative AI slop and lying about how large a role generative AI played in it. I have no pithy comments to make - my fellow judges summed up my feelings pretty well, and there's no need to belabor the point. NO. DO NOT resubmit anything using Suno or other such tools again and lie about it.

This one feels like a sketch with potential, not a fully-realized track. The drum programming lacks variation in velocities right from the start, particularly the hats - if the hats are present after the :05 mark, it's impossible to hear them through the fizziness on the reverb from the lead and the phaser on the harmony pad. I also can't hear anything in this track that isn't a 1:1 execution of the source with sample changes and a kick drum pattern added. There are definitely avenues available to build this into something special! I'm going to echo proph that Section 4.2 of the submission standards outlines the bar we're asking this to be above, as well as the Workshop forums on the site and the #workshop Discord channel to get direct feedback from peers - whether it's ways to improve the arrangement, the composition, the production, or even collaborate! I'd be happy to give this one another listen if it comes back to the queue, and I'd be looking specifically for: adjustments to the composition, whether that's a rearrangement of the source's sections or adding moments of original writing; adjustments to the mix, specifically reducing the reverb on both the lead instruments and pad to make room for the rest of the instruments; and adjustments to the programming across the board - adding variations to the velocities, durations, and humanization of notes NO (resubmit)

I remember giving this a listen while it was in the #workshop channel in the OCR Discord early on, and it's come together in a lovely way! Establishes the feel right from the start and maintains it without feeling trite or boring, which I attribute to the arrangement variations in the first half ( < 2:30) and the change to a more blocked-chord structure for the solos in the second half. There's a sense of restraint in the performances, not letting the dynamic ceiling get too high, while keeping that gentle, smoky bar feel locked down to the end. I do hear the saxes rubbing when playing unison, and while they're not totally in tune, they don't bother me enough to send this back for fixes. What's here is above the bar for me, and I'm happy to see another FFXIV track on the front page! YES

This remix is exactly the kind of thing I love about the VGM community: taking a source and reshaping it without losing its identity. Morphing the 9/8 piano arpeggio into something 4/4 and danceable is the biggest achievement here - any time the remix shifts the source's rhythmic structure, it gets much harder to track the source. As a fellow remixer who toes the line of stretching sources in strange ways, mad respect to Argle for this one! Using the melody as a hub to return to after trading solos between the instruments works well, though I do agree with proph that there are weak phrases in the piano lead. Specifically, the phrasing on 1:34 and 1:38 sounds awkward given the chord harmony, like the piano and the band aren't in agreement about where the voicings are; 1:29, by contrast, feels natural and smooth. We don't look for perfect, nor do we judge by potential; what's here is enough above the bar that lead-writing qualms can't bring it down. Can't wait to see this on the front page! YES

Signing off on this one on the same side as my fellow Js here. Leads feel a touch dull across the board, like there's a lack of excitement in the upper-mids, but I also think that what's presented is good enough to get across the bar. Love the varied use of portamento on the harmony synths, especially the intro (:00 - :28) and re-intro (1:09 - 1:23). Doesn't overstay its welcome, either - 2:39 goes a lot faster than I expected on first listen, though it's really more like 2:30 if I discount the fade-out. Still enough for our purposes! YES

It's me, the judge who mentioned the artifacting! The vibrato itself was not what I was referring to, just that you can hear the artifacting clearer during the vibrato compared to the other articulations. That's on me for not being clearer myself! The "digital artifacting" I was referring to was the metallicy, swishy sample-stretching sound that I hear mostly from time-stretched samples in a DAW. It's less grating in this latest mix! I was a NO on the previous vote for not enough expressive articulations on the lead instruments (flute and horn). This latest mix definitely addressed those concerns, particularly in the latter half of the piece, starting @ 1:44. The blend between horns and flute here is much richer and dynamic. The choir sounds more like a windbed and is more subdued, which works better in this context. I can't tell if that's the celeste @ 2:13 or a harpsichord, but it works great for providing the counterpoint line with the flute and horn. I'm so glad this came back to the panel, it's definitely better for the 3rd pass on it! Happy to sign off on it, and hopefully see it on the front page soon! YES

This one is a tough vote for me - I also hate this style! :D Production-wise, I do hear what my fellow Js are saying about everything washed in verb, but I'm going to side with Emu on this being a feature and not a bug. It gets the vibe right where it's supposed to be for the style. Arrangement-wise, this does a fantastic job of flipping the source into this style; no qualms about that. I have to side with Chimpa on the plodding nature of the piece, specifically because of the hat pattern on the drums. The way they establish the vibe @ :15 is great, bass entering with the slide @ :32 is also great! Bass drops out @ :49, and by the time we get to 1:05 with the guitar solo, I'm already sick of the hat pattern even with the drop. @ 2:10 not dropping the hats here with the rest of the kit is a missed opportunity to break that monotony. So the question is, is the drum writing here a nitpick, or is it sinking the whole ship? I think it sinks the ship, even though it wouldn't take much to bring it back afloat. I'm not saying y'all need to wildly alter the feel, but it's worth exploring more options inside this vibe - ride cymbal, shaker, tambourine, just something doing a different pattern with a different timbre for some of the piece. NO

It's probably heresy to say this - I'm not super familiar with any Sonic game after Sonic 3, so this source is a wild and catchy newness to me! Some of the backing elements in the source are unpleasantly cronchy to my ear, which I don't hear in this remix - that's a plus from me! Proph nailed the main points - this mixdown is quiet, and there's a big lack of mixing done on the instruments, even though there's been plenty done on the arrangement and composition side of things. I'm not against reusing the intro as the outro in concept, though I would advocate doing something with the line if it's going to be repeated. Same goes with the repeated use of the radio transition: the first time is reminiscent of the source, the next 4 times it comes off as a lazy copy-paste transition, even though I can hear there's some filter changes to it in subsequent repeats. For me to sign off on this one, I'd need to hear: a better balance of the drums in the mix - partickuarly audible kick and cymbals (or overhead mics if you have them as a channel) the snare I think is fine as it is, having the other pieces brought out would give it better context fewer wholesale repeats of the radiowave transition NO

Absolutely wild take on a 30-second source! The closest analogue to this I can relate to is my buddy DJ P-phunk chopping and smashing up samples of stuff for a club mix, where the fun is in the evolution of the "simple" idea all the way to the end. jnWake's comparison to the Castle Theme from SMW is a great shout, especially in the last third of the piece. The mix overall sounds like it was run into a limiter for some light pushing and then exported at -6dB - it's definitely got that nice club loudness if I crank up my volume knob. The bass has a peak of about 60hz, with not much below it in the sub-bass field - there are some big hits at that peak in this piece, but sub-lovers are going to be left wanting more. Nothing I'm saying here is a dealbreaker for this piece, just information for the next one. Let's get this one on the site! EDIT 9/12/25: Upon further review, I suspect the low fidelity on the drums to be artifacting from being generated via AI. There are other instruments that have some questionable harmonic artifacts as well (the piano, some of the vocal clips). If the remixer can provide proof that none of this was generated, I’ll happily rescind my vote change - otherwise, NO

Going for glib here since the other Js have outlined the main points of this piece - repeated arp line with evolving textures and key changes. There's enough here that sets it apart from the source, though I would have liked there to be more and smaller breaks to the arpeggio. The mix is indeed thicc in the low mids, but I'm not feeling like it's too muddy either. Happy to bring this one into the site. YES

Wow, meditative is exactly the word I would have used to describe this one. It's not often I get to hear a piece shattered and scattered to the winds and hear it reconstructed in almost-real-time by the places it lands. I feel like most of the personalization in here is in the foley and sound design, both of which are handled with lots of care and attention. I agree with proph - this track feels like you're in the space with all these players and sounds, shuffling dreamlike into each environment with every turn. The hard question for me is: does this feel like 6 versions of the motif stapled together across 14 minutes, or is it a cohesive whole? I think there's a solid argument both ways, and I'm landing more toward "cohesive whole." There could be more embellishment with the melodic phrasing in each section; the moon section's whole-tone passage @ 13:21 is a great example of extending the source while staying within the realm created by the orchestration. I do wish there were more of that across the track, not just at the end, however each section has its own dynamic moments contributing to the whole. The clock tower intro, for example, lays the foundation of the piece's tonal structure without presenting the melody, the swamp section @ 2:08 builds on that with the bass voice on the log drum and harmony voice in the metallophones, the canyon @ 4:14 gives us the melody in the glock, and it expands from there. This one's just close enough to count for me! YES

Hot damn, this one is a fun journey! I didn't even realize 5 minutes had passed before arriving at the outro - very exciting, danceable piece that keeps shifting and swaying like an auditory mirage. I'm not certain what is and isn't sampled, as it's all presented in such a way to make me not care about such things! Excellent work, dude! We goin' glib so we can get this outta here! YES

Didn't get a chance to listen to this one the first time around on the panel, but I definitely remember it from last year's DoD Franchise Fusion. I recall it being super chill with a bit of hiss in the recording that I didn't mind. And it's still chill and reflective now! The chords and reverb have a sort of expectancy to them that captures traveling by plane, at least for me - that low-end presence that can be calming or distressing depending on the turbulence. The guitar and kalimba do a great job here, supporting that ambiguity and just creating a mood. Both tracks are represented here - I think it leans more Flight Simulator than Pilotwings, but the PW melody is stronger than MSFS - so source usage isn't an issue. I just know there's a no-percussion / chilled-out / travel-time 8Tracks playlist begging for this one on it! YES

TheManPF 🤝 Me Splitting the panel on every other submission I remember this one from Wise month and was surprised that it wasn't in the upper-third of rankings at the end of the vote. The arrangement is killer - a reharmonized take on a source is one of my favorite remix choices! - though the production is the elephant in the room. While reading the lyrics through and listening, I found I could understand the vocal pretty well - but without the lyric sheet, it was much, much harder to make out the words being sung. The vocals are exactly where one expects them in this kind of mix, with the instrumentation built around them for support, so it's not stereo placement interfering with the legibility, but the mixing itself. Overhead mics on the drumkit are pretty forward and compressed, which is good for the style but could stand to pull back a dB or two. I also would look at any compression you have on your low-end and dial it back by a dB or two as well. I don't think any of these not being fixed is a dealbreaker for my vote, but they would be welcome if you were to revisit the mix should this pass! I'm with Larry and Emu here; it's not perfect, but we don't vote on potential! YES

Gaspode builds on the original a greater feeling of triumph and hopefulness, with a great deal of attention paid to the soundscape throughout. I do think there is room here for more bombast and drama, particularly in the final minute - perhaps harder and tighter sidechain kicks, a big choir, something to that effect - but it would be to the detriment of the vision the rest of the piece establishes. Besides plenty of reverb used for depth, this piece highlights for me how to use delay on your lead voices to create space. Check out the square lead @ :35 and listen to the tail of the delay push into the end of the bar, fading with the triplet counter pulse - it would be really easy to let that wash carry over the bar and interfere with the chord changes. I agree with LT - A Short Hike fans are gonna be eating well this year! YES

This is such a deeply unsettling take on these sources and I'm here for it. Reminds me of a musique concrete approach that just works. The metallic flanging in the right ear around :27 might be the creepiest part of that opening section, inclusive of all the percussion elements, and the gentle turnaround @ :54 adds a nice contrast to the intro. Great use of source, the production is a full-send Hudak experience; literally can't do anything but vote YES

I have been summoned! The guitars sound properly treated to my ear in this mix. The bass living @ 80hz seems to be a mixing decision to give the sub-bass frequencies to the kick drum (which is a stylistic choice for metal that I often make as well) and so it's a feature, not a bug. The drums, though, throughout the mix lack any room tone and sound dry as a bone; the opening choruses (@ 1:27, 2:41) and the second verse (@ 2:04) really demonstrate how dry the drums are. We can expect to feel a lot of dry kick and maybe a little snare, but if there's any room/reverb on the drums, I cannot hear it. Compare this to EK's vocal, which is swimming in reverb by comparison - would love to hear this balanced better! Another thing about the drum writing here that falls flat for me is the lack of time-keeping shells or cymbals - they aren't non-existent, but for this style especially, the song loses a lot of energy by their absence. @ :49 - 1:26 is an excellent example of how much impact from the part-writing is lost from there only being a single cymbal hit (the hats) on every other bar on beat 1. What frequencies proph perceives as noisy in the guitars would be swallowed up by the cymbals in this sort of section. If there was still too much fizzy/scratchy/amp noise (basically stuff above 11khz) audible after that, a nice shelf on the rhythm guitar bus tames that up. This mix has a lot of heart and passion in the writing! The part-writing and performance from the guitars, synths, and vocals are excellent, and my main problems with this piece are the drums and the production in general. I don't think the things it needs to find a home here on OCR are quick fixes, but they are worth pursuing for the song - specifically, to pass this track, I would need to hear: drum programming adjusted to feel more natural and dynamic adjust velocities, add room or reverb to the kit as a whole, and bring some element of time-keeping back to the sections missing it (choruses, verses) vocal production adjusted to balance out the mix EK's reverb crowds out the rest of the band and her own dry vocal, making it hard to decipher what she's singing NO (resubmit)

It's safe to say that source usage isn't an issue in this one! 😉 I want to highlight the programming on the acoustic guitars, because while Trem's pieces are my gold standard for programming virtual guitars in general, the attention paid to making the articulations sound evocative (and not just natural) is excellent. The lead guitar line in particular has rakes into the starts of phrases, there's plenty of subtle trills and turns to navigate the phrases, and the rhythm line has plenty of humanization on the strums. GotW's performance is also a highlight here - it adds a gentle and warm contrast to the bright acoustic guitar, especially when the strings come in to fill the harmonic space. The drum machine sounds straight out of the late '80s, and while I'm not a fan of the robotic feel of the instrument as a whole, I think it's deployed successfully in the mix itself. Only semi-surprised to not hear any Phil Collins tom fills given the style and palette! Happy to sign off on this one - let's get it on the site! YES

LT and proph addressed the same issues I have with this remix pretty succinctly, so I don't want to beat the horse much more than we have already. There's a solid foundation in here to build on top of, but there's more personalization to this track that could be realized on your next go around, Bionic. I'll echo proph's comments specifically on stripping this back in length to the core idea (this theme but synthwave with glitchy amen breaks) and explore more with the soundscape. There's a lot of room for filtering the leads and countermelodies, working some sidechain compression on the drums to really push the limits of the groove, and introducing different harmony underneath the melodies here to give more emotional context. NO (resubmit)

There's a ton of charm in the chips right from the intro. Love the honky synth that takes over @ :24 for the melody, like a cronchy digital sax. The style overall is reminiscent of the submissions to Bishu's beat battles or Eliminate's Audio Combat where the goal is creative sample flipping inside a time constraint. I'm really enjoying the frenetic, attention-snapping transitions between the A and B lines, never really settling too long on one idea before pivoting. Happy hardcore listeners are gonna be eating good with this one! YES

This one was a particular highlight in the No Show as it fired on all cylinders from the jump, and only really started to let me down on the ending. On subsequent relistens, I'm satisfied with how it ends - it's set up by the passage right before it, though that wasn't obvious to me on the first listen through. Excellent performances from all involved in an excellent arrangement. YES

I noted during the No Show that balancing the saxes' volumes more against the rest of the band would be nice to have, but not a dealbreaker. Latest mix definitely sounds more balanced volume-wise in that regard, which is just bonus to an excellent arrangement. To me, this piece sets out to capture that sultry jazz club quintet vibe in the same vein that some of the Final Fantasy VII Remake/Rebirth tracks reimagine the pieces from the original OST - and to that end, this is a successful accomplishment that's 100% above our bar. I was already a YES, and this latest revision hasn't changed my mind. YES

Classic source on this one! That ostinato and longform A-B is a major earworm. Opens with a MkII-style EP running the arp ostinato. Initial ride cymbal hits starting @ :09 sounds like they're all the same velocity (somewhere around the 110-127 range) and very up-front in the stereo image; we call this an "exposed sample" because it doesn't sound natural to the way the instrument would be played by a performer. The next synth layer @ :23 comes in with the choir line from the source with an interesting LFO wobble. The timing on the LFO creates a dissonant rub against the rest of the instruments that's unpleasant to listen to for an extended period. This trucks through the rest of the A section, bringing in the arp counter pluck and synth string line. The drum sequencing has some fun ideas, though the lack of velocity variation is still present here (and continues to be a major problem through the rest of the track). @ 1:18, we transition into the B section with some big burly guitar hits and stanky bass guitar. This section is much more in line sonically and dynamically, though rigidly locked to the grid. The live instruments are less rigid compared to the drums and synths, but the overall presentation (while loud) lacks the compelling, groovy element. 1:51 returns to the A section. The tremolo effect on the guitars is a great texture here, and then competes with that warble synth from earlier. Because they're occupying the same role in the composition, and the effect draws a lot of attention, it's important to decide which instrument should be taking focus and which should lay back. I think the guitar is more success here with it but the decision is yours as the arranger! 2:47 gives us another tasty feel change from the drums under the continued A section. The instrumentation is feeling stale and repetitive at this point, mostly because the only changing element is the drum sequencing underneath it all. 3:13 returns to the B section, and it's a little different from last time! Love the variation here, though my earlier comments on rigidity still apply here. Cool bass groove to signal the outro and it's done. @paradiddlesjosh can speak better on to how to make the most of your kit with velocity programming to sound natural; I'm merely going to point out that the feel of the sequencing is appropriate for the style, but the lack of velocity differences cripples the groove AND what I think is the single most important job of the drums in a rock/metal context - the drummer drives the bus. The drums tell us so much about where the song, dynamically, is going. An example of this is @ :44 - the push to open hats tells us we're bringing the dynamic energy up, but the lack of groove on them hamstrings that feel. The big gnarly guitar and bass hit @ 1:00, by contrast, is damn awesome because the drums cue them up nicely! There are some great ideas on this framework, and some tactical changes would bring this up to our bar. Should you choose to take this feedback and revisit the work, I'd be listening for: humanization applied to velocities and timing on all programmed instruments, most importantly the drums; and a more compelling, dynamic arrangement (have elements rest, switch sections around, etc) If you need more ears on this (or other) piece(s) as you work on them, we recommend our Workshop forum or the #workshop channel on our Discord! I want to stress that this is a great start - would love to see this come back to the panel! NO (resubmit)