pixelseph   Judges ⚖️

Zelda Heineken finally has a companion in my staylist! No question about source usage here; the transition between Somewhere In The Woods (:00 - 2:27) into Snow, Lots of Snow (2:28 - ~4:12) is handled incredibly well. As someone not familiar with the game or OST, it didn't even register that we'd changed sources! The hypercompressed toms is endemic to the style, so I jive with them all over the piece. I can see a world in which they are treated more dynamically (softer in the front, bigger on the tail) but the payoff @ 3:30 is so damn good that I see it more like a callback. The bottle blowing gets a bit muddy around :40 when the guitars and bass enter; same thing around 1:44. Just a nitpick though, nothing that's sinking the piece. This piece earned its gold from DoD, and earned a spot on the front page. Welcome to the orange name club! YES

I'm really impressed by how uplifting and majestic this piece is, considering how much of Metroid's OSTs are typically spooky and unsettling. And I really appreciate a song title that is exactly what it says on the tin - this is definitely a galactic, cosmic synth track! Great dynamic contour across the track, especially the build-ups and build-downs. Using the bass AND the drums to communicate the section switches is something I appreciate - long bass hits @ :09 - :34 under the Metroid title theme that sidechain under the drums when they enter; switching to a more energetic 8th-note sidechained pulse @ :52; to a quarter-note pulse that drops beat 1 when Tallon Overworld gets introduced, back to long bass hits to communicate the build, back to that 8th-note sidechain pulse. It stays well inside of "repetition legitimizes" rather than "sounds copy-pasted". The choir pad gets a bit muddy when it enters @ :52, but it's thankfully doesn't bury the leads or the bass - more like a warm blanket of mids. I think this one is comfortably above the bar - arrangement ties the two tracks together without sounding stapled on, mixing is handled well, and there's plenty of personalization. YES

I'm also a huge fan of getting fooled by the feel change @ 1:04, especially after the Big Stinky Bass Hit™️ @ :51. I so thought it was going to be slammin' half-time with the hat pattern against the kick drum, and then hell nah, it's at time! Would have loved a little more body on the snare drum, though what's here is not bad by any measure. Very tasteful use of delay on the leads and backing synth strings (:51 is a great example - strings hit and let the delay and verb use the space instead of making everything claustrophobic). The source usage breakdown is very much appreciated! No question from me there, definitely leans more on Morning Haze than Sculptor's Peak, but the two are woven together nicely. The arrangement has Gaspode written all over it, so there's no qualms about personalization either. Excellent mix work as well - every instrument is nicely separated and audible without being crunchy or overbearing. YES

From now on, when I tell people that playing and listening to music is supposed to be FUN, this is the track I'm going to reference. It's got everything - dynamically different sections (:00 - 1:42, 2:40 - 3:00, 4:10 - 4:40, 5:10 - end), tasteful key change for the B section introduction (1:43 - 2:10), surprise trill build to the drop(!) (2:11 - 2:15), and every lead voice gets a solo somewhere in the piece! The string elements are a big highlight for me, and the attention on the layering pays big dividends, especially around the 4:40 mark, where they take on the countermelody line behind the sax picking up the lead from the guitar. I can only imagine how amazing a live performance of this piece would be. No question about source usage here. Arrangement and production are pure fire, as established. Get back on the front page, bruh!! YES

I missed out on this one the first time, glad to be able to give it a go around on this version. Very cinematic opening with the swells. I do agree with Proph that the scalar pattern differences between the vocal and the rest of the track could fit together better, but aren't a dealbreaker. The flute has some digital artifacting on the vibrato that is distracting, notably audible @ :40, 1:02 - 1:05, and 1:23 - 1:33. Aside from the artifacts, the implementation also feels somewhat mechanical because of the tempo; the other Js have noted the stop-tongued marcato elements on both the flute and trumpet (later in the piece) sounds out of place and I have to agree. I don't think the marcato is a bad idea, per se - just that the current implementation takes more away from the piece than it adds. Lingering on the shorter notes longer could make the phrase sound more compelling without compromising the vision. The arrangement overall leans conservative, though there's enough here to work - the expanded cinematic intro and the rubato breaks (@ :59 and 1:34 - 1:43), combined with the melodic flourishes, are just enough to get over the bar for me. I think this idea has legs, but there's more work to be done to get it across the finish line. I'm aligned with my fellow NOs in that, for me to sign off on this one, I'd need to hear more organic expression from the lead instruments (flute, trumpet). NO (resubmit)

Oh yeah, this one is definitely a tough vote. Trumpet over EDM is not a combination I'm used to hearing just yet, though Tsori's performance is excellent here. @ 2:30 - 3:15 is a great example of balancing lead voices while trading parts; while I can conceive of a mix where the trumpet is always forward, the instruments trading off the spotlight is a feature for me and not a bug. The piano break @ :57 and the bass build break @ 1:56 are tactically deployed and well-handled, even if I find myself thinking that I would handle them differently. I'm with Emunator here in that I think this isn't your magnum opus, Hemo, but it's above the bar in terms of quality and arrangement on the site. Happy to continue the split on this one with another YES

Super groovy source, as expected from a Sonic OST! Not much for me to add that hasn't already been noted by Proph and Wake, unfortunately. As a bassist, I can get behind a bass-guitar-forward mix all day - as long as what the bass is doing is meant to be the focus. As it stands, the bass is in direct competition with both the Omnisphere bells and piano (:00 - :12, :12 - :38). I definitely agree that volume-wise it could be lowered several dB and still have the presence in the mix it deserves without standing on the toes of the melodic phrases. There's nothing inherently wrong with the bass using passing tones to transition chord roots, though you'll want to be careful that the harmony you're crafting between all the layers (bass, strings, piano, pad, and all the reverb and delay) is copacetic. Wake and Proph noted the dissonance/crunchiness @ :38 - :51 where the delay FX on the piano clash with the piano itself as well as the pad/string layers. You may need to automate or duck the delay during those clashing sections or remove that effect in that section. :51 - :55 is such a highlight section, and I also would love more of that feel in this piece. :55 - 1:20 would be a cool spot to continue the tonality of that gnarly distortion guitar since you're recapping the A section here. In general, when reintroducing sections from the piece, it's a good idea to vary parts of that section to keep things from feeling stale or redundant. For me to sign off on this one when it comes back, I'd need to hear: the bass guitar reduced in volume to give space to the piano, bells the clashing/unwanted dissonant notes fixed @ :38 - :51 more variety to the sections after :55 There's a lot of opportunity here to make this one feel more like AshleyXR, and you've got a good foundation established here to build on. Feel free to bring it on back to us after spending some more time with it! NO (resubmit)

Great vibe on the source track, and instantly in love with the direction this remix goes. Like Proph, I feel like the gate on the snare reverb and kick is claustrophobic in places (:01 - :17, 1:16 - 1:26, 3:06 - 3:09, 3:48 - basically the half-time feels). Automating the gate to open for longer in those spots would be 👨‍🍳 - this is a nitpick rather than a must-fix. Otherwise, the production is excellent! Great adaptation on the melodic phrases to make them more personalized - @ 2:14 - 2:46 is a personal highlight, where the A melody comes back after the drop. This is definitely above the bar for OCR to my ear. Welcome back to the front page, Mike! YES

Hell yeah, another track I can point to for properly programmed guitars! Great velocity manipulation to get the most of the palm mute rhythms, especially @ :13 - 1:08. I do think it maintains that palm mute feel a hair too long personally, but the intro is excellent. Proph mentioned the gating feeling awkward @ 1:35 - 1:39; to me, the gate is nice and tight, though I think the pickup selection on the guitars are taking away from the effect. They're very dark, which works @ 1:40 - 1:42, but that upper octave needs more bite to it. Still, excellent work here! Listening to the sources to get a grasp on this one, I wish there was a little more in the way of interpretation overall across the track. It's not that there aren't moments of personalization (the Wet as a Fish segment @ 2:24 - 3:08 in half-time, the opening of The Return of the Creature segment @ 4:41 - 4:51 are great examples), it's more that this is landing more on the side of cover rather than rearrangement to my ear. A return to one of the other themes, as suggested by Wake, would help alleviate this feeling. The transitions, even the slam ones, don't feel out of place in the style - Metallica's various medleys are the gold standard for me, and this mix walks the same line. Production-wise, this is rock solid. I have gripes with the toms in The Return of the Creature being pretty much all attack with no body to them. They almost sound pitched up to bring their attack out, which gives them a sort-of tabla/conga/hand-drum tonality that doesn't gel with the rest of the presentation. However, that's a nitpick and not a must-fix - getting toms to be phat in a mix with lower-tuned guitars and bass is troublesome to begin with, and that they're audible is good enough. Like Proph and Wake, I too would love the leads to be more forward, and I wonder if they're simply being smashed by the multiband or limiter on the mixdown? I'm finding myself also on the fence here, and I think I'm going to fall on the side of Yes - this hits more than it misses, although I wouldn't mind a second pass on bringing the leads forward and adjusting the toms. YES (borderline)

Hi Goodman! What's here is an excellent mixdown of an immaculate vibe. Nothing I'm about to write in this vote is going to alter that opinion! I agree with Liontamer that this is a much more straightforward remix of the source, where our standards look for additional rearrangement to pass the bar. Below is my stopwatch timestamps for what I feel is source usage (which the sampled audio won't count toward). With 3m:28s (208s) of runtime, I'm looking for roughly 104s of recognizable material from the source track; ideally, it's using as much meat from the source as possible. This one is relying a lot on that Intro 3-note melodic motif while never really adding in the harmony voice from the source, nor diving into the arpeggio of the A or B sections fully. Aside from the transitional tag going from the A section to B section (@ 1:48, @ 2:19, etc), there's not much else that I can directly hear as a strong enough tie. We don't typically count bass note movement or the chord progression as source usage unless they are atypical, which is not the case here. Again, the execution of this track is undeniably good and I don't doubt that it would see success outside of OCR. It just doesn't have enough juice for me to sign off on it being above the bar. NO

Heya Mel! I remember the Office Hours session with Ronald Poe when he was looking at smashing these two themes together and thinking it would be a big challenge for anyone to bring it together. The Chase doesn't feel nearly as unapproachable as Mad Luca, and taking the DnB approach with it feels meant to be here. I agree with Chimpa that moar growls and harmonic excitement would be lovely to have; what's here is a clear mixdown where the bass and kick drum are in harmony with the melodic elements. I don't feel the key change into Mad Luca @ 1:12 is all that jarring, though like Proph I would have preferred a different synth handling the serpentine melody initially - moar distortion, in other words. 😜 I also agree with Proph that the fake-out ending @ 3:29 makes the outro feel disconnected from the main body of the piece. To my ear, it sounds like it's introducing another new section rather than cueing the ending; the latter feels like the intent. If this one ends up not passing, I would have another look at that transition and see what can be done to make it feel more like a finale - move the vocal forward, start the beat back up sooner, etc. As it is, I think this is enough to pass the bar. Great job working in something as challenging as Mad Luca into this chaotic bit of fun! YES

Hi H36T! As noted by the other Js here, this is two rounds of the A-B loop of the source with 3 bars to vamp into the second repeat around 1:26. The additional instrumentation on the second repeat is a lovely add; having it arrive earlier in the piece would be better from a personalization standpoint. The strings, choral voices, winds, and piano counterpoint line are doing some heavy lifting on that front (and the chimes!), but there's still more that can be done to bring more H36T to the table. Proph mentioned adding variation in the velocities of notes for more dynamic contrast in the writing, and I agree. Given the title of the track and the direction intended in the write-up, I agree with Wake that a more subtractive approach to your sections could improve the emotional dynamic curve. I'll add that some rubato (gentle deceleration of the tempo and holding the last note/rest a little longer than the metronome) on the ending of phrases would help break the rigidity of the structure and bring more of the emotional weight to the piece. Right now, it feels locked to the grid and mechanical. For me to sign off on this, I'd need to hear more personalization to the piece, primarily in the dynamics of voices or the dynamic curve of the piece as a whole a less locked-to-the-grid/mechanical feel to the presentation NO (resubmit)

Everyone has access to it, worst case is that it requires approval from admin but we will make it happen! Also put me down for “Theme of Laura” from Silent Hill 2. I’ve got a cowpunk version of it I started up for Xaleph’s 1-hour remix roulette that deserves more attention

Hell yeah! Be sure to add it to the Events Calendar 🙌

Oh yeah, that source is killer! Haven't gotten to check out Risk of Rain 2 yet but played some hours of the first one, very enjoyable. Opens with some dark chords on the rhythm guitar and some nice groove from the kit, with the bass coming in after with some filtered delay. The feel here is a bit looser than I'd like, and the delay on the rhythm guitar and bass make some sour notes in spots (:22, :30, etc). I'm a fan of the vibe, just there's some lacking here on the mixing execution that's holding this one back. One note about the delays on the guitars and basses - all the delay choices are mono, and when there's a walking groove going on in the bass (see @ :24), the notes start to clash. Consider ducking the delay while the bass is playing, and panning the delay to the edges of the stereo field (using a ping-pong delay or automating the instrument in one speaker and the delay in the other). :28 gives us the lead guitar, which has a nice neck pickup clean tone. Love the way the chord changes @ 1:01 set up the breakbeat change @ 1:13! This breakbeat section is incredibly muddy. The rhythm guitar is all but lost - some of it is from the amp tone and some of it is from where the chords are being voiced. Consider shifting the voicing up an octave here, or double-tracking the rhythm with a higher voice and separating them with panning left and right - they are competing directly with the bass here. I noticed earlier the drum mix was pretty bright (lots of information above 12khz) and while it's serviceable in the intro, here in the breakbeat section, the kit's sibilance buries everything else. The kick, in particular, is all beater and no body - is it being swallowed up by the bass and rhythm guitar? I'm hearing similar issues in the next few sections, though I'm now hearing the rhythm guitar is slightly out of tune after the second breakbeat passage around 2:40. I like the neck tone of the lead guitar during the calmer sections, but it lacks the leading presence during the breakbeats. Bridge pickup and a different amp tone would make a big difference here, though if the drumkit's mix isn't adjusted, it'll have trouble coming through. I'm going to echo Proph and jnWake here - there are some interesting ideas here that are being held down by the mix and stringed instrument performances. For me to pass this, I'd need to hear: A tighter recording of the bass and guitars Variation on the voicings of the instruments - chords, amp tones, etc Another mix pass to cut down on drumkit sibilance and make the delay FX not mask the source instruments NO

Sheesh, that source material is like 90% A section, 10% B section. :P The opening has some evolving synths, putting the A section melody in the bass with a low-pass sweep. There are lots of small changes across the sound spectrum despite maintaining the actual A section for 2 and a half minutes - the filter sweeps, adding the ride cymbal to the drumkit, then ride bell for time-keeping, side-chain choral synth. There's an over-reliance on drum fills here, like Proph mentioned - I do hear different fills in places, but the majority of this early section uses that same tom run-down. I am a fan of slow burns, but I'm feeling like the piece is dragging hard by the time we reach the break @ 2:33. The change up to the B section here is great, though I can't help feeling like it's arriving late from a macro sense. The drums in the second act of this sound noticeably different, which is another welcome change, though they suffer from the same issue the earlier drum kit does in that these are one-shot samples that are static throughout. In a shorter piece, this would be less grating on the ear - 2 minutes for each section, and the snare sounds basically never change throughout, makes the whole groove feel plodding. @ 4:22 we get a more exploratory section that focuses on the side-chain choral element, feeling much more like another B section from the source. We add some sweet bends @ 5:05, and it trucks through into the outro and out. There are elements here that are working great - it's super easy to grok different instruments from one another even with the mix being loud, and I do really enjoy the filter sweeps and sidechain bounce! However, I'm in the same boat with jnWake and Proph - this one suffers a lot from overly long and repeated sections, which exposes the static nature of the sound palette. For me to sign off on this one, I'm going to echo Proph specifically and say: less repetitive drum fills, and a more compelling composition shorter sections would be preferable, but more interesting rhythmic or dynamic changes in each section would also work. NO (resubmit)

Coming to this one having not heard the first part of the suite from Supremo. I really enjoyed the pacing and dynamics throughout the piece. Plenty of time to sit and and just digest the music. I'm not an orchestral programming expert by any stretch, so I'm glad Proph, Hemo, and Joe can speak to how you used the samples from MuseScore. The composition overall is excellent - the rubato at the beginning, swelling into and out of sections without awkward tails or too-loud brass samples jumping out. But we've reached the elephant in the mix room, and it's the harsh cut to piano @ 7:22. I agree with Joe that it's hard to ignore, given how well everything goes up to that point. And while our standards do ask for a cleanly and clearly produced piece, I find this is still over the bar for quality. YES

Hellllllll yes! There’s a One-Ups album I keep coming back to (Songs for the Recently Deceased) that is super inspirational for this! Not sure what piece I’d do yet but it would be in the same vein as that record for sure

I'm a Norvak novice, and I can certainly see things to love in this work! Everything in the source is represented in this track and then some, like the key change around 1:21 and the brief polymeter phrasing around 2:52. Nice little shuffle on the hats starting @ :31 to play with the grid established by the basses at the start of the track. The change-up @ 1:21 is refreshing, though I wonder how much more dynamic shift could have been attained there - @ 2:31 gives us our first taste of a break from the oppressive beat and I would have prefered to have it a minute sooner. Just a minor nitpick, though. That syncopated bell synth @ 2:52 is cool as hell, hitting us with some 9/8 against the 4/4, and is easily my favorite part of the track. Recap of the A section @ 3:15 feels good with the additional leads on top to fill the space. Trucks around the tried-and-true "root | 4th | root | 5th | 4th | root" blues motion before dropping us into the outro @ 4:20. I'm not a fan of the lack of prep on the out, given how much time is dedicated to working around the blues harmonic motion, but it doesn't sink the whole track for me. Like proph said, we don't judge based on potential but on what is. The production is loud but clean, the arrangement is clever, and the oppressive Doom vibe is on lock. YES

Happy to see this one come back around! On the previous vote, I wanted to hear the rhythm guitars' forwardness get reined back and hear the drumkit EQ tweaked to get more kick attack and more snare body. There wasn't any doubt about arrangement cleverness or source usage there or here. :-) I can hear substantially more kick in this mix, and more snare body - it sounds like layering a kick and snare to shore up what wasn't caught by the live mics. There's less overtone ring from the original snare, but I'm glad to hear it still. Part of a good beach vibe is that ring on the rimshot and it's there where it counts! I can hear some sidechaining applied to the bass guitar so that the kick comes across more in the space as well - subtle but effective! The lead guitar is more present in the mix now with the rhythm guitars pared back to the edges, which I'm in alignment with Liontamer that they could stand to come back another dB or so. This is a minor nitpick rather than a must-have - Siolfor's leads shine more now! Happy to sign off on this one now. It's not perfect, but it's comfortably above the bar now with the changes. Pardon me, I need to find an empty green shell and a lime... YES