DarkeSword   Administrators 🎮

I love the source tune to this song. That said, it's not a bad remix, but Larry pretty much sums things up. This is an upgrade with tricked out drums and some decent synths. Needs way more interpretation to work on OCR. NO

Guitar playing sounds really amateurish. You don't sound very confident playing those melodic lines; it's very apparent from the timing issues. The arrangement here is pretty much the same as the original tune, with a completely unrelated solo shoved in the middle. When soloing, you should try to at least play with the melody of the original, or at least use the chord changes of the source tune. NO

Flute lead is way too quiet, and the arpeggios in the back get old fast. The strings lack any kind of definition. The whole thing drags on. NO

Pretty solid mix, though I wish there was more variation in the percussion, and more of a contrast in the soundscape. A lot of the sounds are pretty buzzy, and some smoother sounds would have worked really well. That's more of a personal taste thing in this case though. Nice. borderline-YES

So, where's the rest of the mix? I mean, it finally builds up and then just ends. Sounds like and extended intro, not a full piece. The drumkit you're using doesn't fit with the dreamy feel of the mix either. The snare is too dry. NO

Reminds me a lot of the Metroid Prime soundtracks, though with more focus on melody. I really like the texutre here, and I think that your sounds are working really well together. Acoustic sounds and synth sounds have a nice synergy. No hate here. Jawesome work. YEA

Yeah, where's the depth? Everything is right at the forefront of the mix and ends up getting really messy. I agree with Larry that the synth design is pretty bland. I do like the percussion though, so rock on with that. NO

Really repetitive with boring synths. Nice drumloop work though. Hoorary for slicing and retriggers. String stuff is way too weak as far as articulation goes. You need to define your sounds more. They're all legato and run together. NO

i liek it Jammin' good time. Nice beats, nice gating, full soundscapes without overwhelming the listener. Top-notch, imo. YES!

Perfectly put. I really like the dynamics in this piece, but around the 4th minute it starts wearing thin. As I mentioned in another decision, moving lines underneath what you have can really help build a different kind of tension. NO

Vig takes the words out of my mouth. There's an attempt to make everything sound really ominous and epic here, but it ultimately falls flat because there's not enough presence with the instruments. This could actually benefit from reverb from a production standpoint and some moving lines to create tension from a composition standpoint. Needs more added to the texture to really be effective. NO

Can we try to not assume that people are using soundfonts? Let's not fall into the trap of interchanging "sample" with "soundfont." That said, I don't see much of a problem with the piece at all. I like the orchestration; it's clean, with good sequencing, and nice balance. I like it. YES

I'm in total agreement with Vig. Pretty sloppy performance and production. Everyone's already talked about that, though. My biggest issue is the arrangement. This is, for all intents and purposes, BGM. Theme just loops a few times, and then fades out. Not much of an arrangement. Some more creative ideas would help this piece out; rhymthmic variations, meter changes, etc. The arrangement is pretty simple. NO

Pretty much in agreement with the YES judges. Awesome arrangement, solid-enough production. I didn't find a problem with the drumkit used. It's fine. If you think that's a dealbreaker, you need your ears checked, 'cause that's the same kit I always use. YES

Wonderful choice of a source tune, but you hardly did anything to it. You need to actually arrange the song. This is so close it's nearly a rip. NO

While the arrangement is pretty interesting and quite liberal, sometimes I have trouble hearing the non-icecap sources. Only a few instances of Volcano Valley and Scrap Brain. In any case, the left-hand arpeggios get really old really fast; left-hand part writing is really boring save for a few instances. The performance is also pretty flat, as Vig said. NO

I think these are some of my soundfonts...though they're not really used well at all. Not enough balance between instruments, and the sequencing is very mechanical. The instrumentation is sparse. There is some original partwriting going on here, but its just not enough. There's some harmonic messiness around 1:32 too. Not a bad start, but you need to think much more about instrumentation, balance, and the pyramid of sound. NO

Well I think this is a pretty solid piece altogether. Nice beats, nice construction, good enough arrangement. I don't think it sounds "bland." It's an older-style synth design, but no less viable. I like it. YES

Gray posted a message to us in the Judge's forum officially abdicating his position on the OCR Staff.

No.

If you want to see more GenDisc topics, go to the GenDisc forum.

Just an emphasis. If you're going to reply to any of these threads in Annoucements, you must keep your post on-topic. This forum is not for idle discussion/chatter.

Thanks for the comments about your headphones. I really appreciate it.

Verified. NO Override stands.

Here's how the selection process works. 1) The Judges identify people in the community, such as remixers or frequent reviewers, that they feel have enough talent or knowledge to be a Judge. 2) The Judges debate with each other on the viability of various persons joining the panel. How would he/she judge remixes, can we interact with him/her, is he/she articulate, is he/she friendly or helpful in other areas of the site, and most importantly does he/she understand our site's standards? 3) After preliminary discussions based on our own interactions (past and present) with the various individuals, the Judges select a group that they feel should be tested, in order to help us answer the preceding questions better. These candidates are then asked if they are interested in joining. 4) Candidates are (very) informally interviewed on a range of topics, including community interaction, musical preferences, etc. 5) Candidates are sent a test batch of remixes of varying degrees of quality in terms of arrangement and production. The candidates judge these remixes as if they were already members of the panel, and then send their writeups to us. 6) The Judges review these test-batch decisions, discuss candidates, and vote on who they would like to join the panel. 7) The selected candidates are formally invited to join the Judges Panel. That is a general overview of how the Judge selection process works. We don't include the community in our decisions, really. The Judges Panel is a varied enough fellowship to ensure that different kinds of people are selected and considered. Nominations in the inital stages are constantly shot down. Viable candidates are not overlooked. If they were overlooked, they wouldn't be viable to begin with. One of our criteria to become a judge is that you stand out to us in some way from the crowd, be it through your music, your knowledge, or your community involvement. With the way our process works right now, we're never going to pick an unknown, dark horse forum-goer who happened to join a reviewing competition and win it, because we don't know this person and how we would interact with him/her, and we don't know what kind of person they really are aside from what they've written in a review competition. We've been burned by this kind of thing before. Publically campaigning for a spot on the Judges Panel is the best way to never earn a seat. The best way to become a judge is to let your musical skillset, or your passion for the site, speak for itself.