Hemophiliac   Judges ⚖️

You're right, I did say that I enjoyed your work in progress before, but felt like it needed more. I still feel that even though this one is pretty close right now and feeling borderline. I love the addition of the choir parts and the oboe, they sound beautiful. More adaption and parts added to this that would put this over the bar in terms of arrangement as we've had even more conservative stuff pass before. See: https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04768 for an example of such. However, in that case there was also genre adaption going on for more personalization. This one feels almost like the same genre even though the instruments are changed. The opening is particularly very close to the original, until 1:07 when the cello enters and is giving some countermelody. The humanization and rigidity is also something needs to be brought up as well. I love Seph's suggestion of adding rubato to bring some more life to the piano part, right now it's very locked into the grid. Also the dynamic range is very small, more contrast and variation would also help the expression really shine through as well. Right now it's more robotic and not as expressive as it could be. Beautiful, but not up to par. NO

I want to start out by saying there's some good personalization here and embellishment on the source material that is uniquely you. Good work there. The arrangement is ok, but definitely would not hurt from being expanded upon further more. Use of articulation was also executed well, aside from a couple of the trills. Specifically the trill at 1:01 and 1:07 both sound like they have notes in them that don't fit in with the other parts. 0:47 I'm not sure if it's the trumpet, trumpet + flute, or one of the string parts going a chromatic glissando here, but it's not sounding very idiomatic or good. For being a "treble" chamber piece, the trumpet is overpowering the other parts for most of the piece. It really makes this feel more like a solo trumpet piece rather than a chamber ensemble. Right now it feels like foreground and background parts only. Bringing that trumpet back into the ensemble so it sits amongst the other parts and is a group would be a benefit. A suggestion I would make is to consider swapping a part to a lower instrument like a cello to round out the low end some. That's not a requirement, but a nice to have. I don't have as much of an issue with the samples used as prophetik did, but having them be up front and exposed as they are now does not help them feel more realistic. With a track this short, everything would need to be firing perfectly on all cylinders to pass. Expand this out more, add more variation or another contrasting section, and work on the blend of the parts so they are working together as a group. The personalization is a good start here, but it needs more work on production and arrangement to get it over. NO

Mr. Norvak is back once again with more dark and heavy EDM. After getting through a complete listen through, the number one thing I'm happy to see is that this doesn't suffer from lack of repetition like some of the other submissions of yours I've heard in the past. Good job changing up the sections and adding contrast where it's needed. The master hits pretty hard, but I'm not hearing any over compression or artifacts. The bottom is nice and thick but not too overpowering. The biggest complaint I could make here is the relative lack of dynamics, even in the sparser sections it's still pretty loud and powerful. More dynamic changes within a section could do wonders to help evolve the soundscape. However with the overall lack of dynamic changes the contrast in sparser sections was good enough for me not to feel the piece is too static. The sound design is good with clean production, and there is lots of personalization here. YES

I was the lone yes on the first submission and this version is better still. There were two issues I called out on the first one, being the loud and forward guitar and the kick not coming through very well. To me the guitar was addressed and improved, but the kick still could come out in the mix more. The kick does feel better than the first version, but there is still some more space for it. The arrangement is still great and fun filled with the same BBQ beach vibes. Still a YES

This is pretty slick. You 100% nailed what you were going for in trying to get a FF7Remake/Rebirth boss battle vibe going. The different themes were woven together nicely, feels like one new piece of music to me. The guitar tone is really good, no problem with the leads at all. The rhythm guitars were lost some, and it might be due to what jnWake suggested. Losing some power due to not being double tracked out. I really liked the staccato choir chants as an accent to pickup the energy before getting into "Enclosure" from Metal Gear Solid. Super high energy for 3:26 and I'm surprisingly not exhausted from a lack of change of pace. Switching off to other sources did well to prevent that. YES

This opening sounds lovely and really got my expectations up to get things started. We then get to 0:32 and the sampled flute is introduced. The tone on flute is great and I like that, but there's other issues about it that cause problems. First off, it's placement in the mix is very forward and loud. I'd recommend to shoot for pushing it back in the mix so that it feels at a similar placement as the solo vocalist in the intro. You should be able to achieve that with careful application of the wet/dry levels on the reverb as well as some reduction of volume. Next with the flute, we come to articulation. And well, there is no legato, it's all detached. Whenever a more agile line is played (such as any of the chromatic passing tones like 0:38; I'll come back to this later) you can hear the separation between all of the attacks as well as times where the attack is too slow to keep up and the note barely sounds before being cut off by the next one. If you're able to, I'd recommend to try to record yourself playing the line. The arrangement itself is pretty conservative with a few small places were things were added, the intro is great, and the middle bridge 1:34-1:46 was nice. The melodic embellishment with chromatic passing tones in the melody are a form of personalization. I didn't necessarily agree with the chromatic notes because they do sound awkward in context, but they are making it your own thing and that is a step in the right direction. The texture is mostly homophonic throughout with a few other part having movement is the pizzicato, harp, and horns in different spots. Some of those were buried in the mix and not easily noticeable. Now that's not necessary to get a pass, but could help when thinking about future arrangements to keep the listener's interest going. The number one issue here is the balance between parts. As others have already said before me, the brass gets very big at times, and as I pointed out already the flute is very forward to cut through everything. In reality for a solo flute to cut through in an orchestral setting the backing parts would likely need to be playing softer than the flute for it to be able to project and carry out. In a digital context it's easy to just turn the volume up, but when you do that it just sounds unnatural. With all that said, it's going to sound like I hate this. That's not the case, I feel like there is space for this, but in it's current form it's not ready yet. NO

On casual listen this will feel melodically conservative. The devil's in the subtle details though. There's a lot of structural changes in this and some fun playing with time signatures. 2:06-2:44 brought the melodic interpretation, and it's a fun change-up. As far as sound quality, yeah this does kinda feel like an upgrade to Alpha 2. However, I don't know if I would have got that had I not read it from your description. That's fine, it doesn't need to be exactly sounding like a CPS2, it's your own thing. I do wish there was more dynamic changes throughout the piece as it's relatively flat dynamically. With all that said, what's here is clever and interesting as I keep catching new and different things on each listen. From time signature changes, to extending out phrase/section lengths, and playing with the overall structure the highlight is the arrangement here. Fun concept, very cool arrangement. YES

So, I really think you nailed the Sungazer vibe, I think Adam Neely would appreciate what you've done. This is a very mature arrangement despite a short section of levity and silliness of the use of some SFX. I really appreciate that the time was given to create bridges or little transitional sections to allow the listener to adjust to new time signatures and changes. Sometimes in complex music those can be unprepared and feel awkward or jarring. I have to say that was not the case here at all. You've covered all the fronts. The drumkit sounds great, especially the toms. The arrangement is great, and the source is very clear to me. The 3:47-4:16 floaty space section was a great palette cleanser and a break from the rhythm. That break also helped make the final minute have an extra oomph of energy that really closed out the song strong. My only nitpick was the background arp in the first 1:32 is really only noticeable when the arrangement is sparser with less going on. This seemed to be an anchoring idea and that could really give the listener something to hold onto when things get wild (even though this section is actually very approachable). Well, this is great and I hope people enjoyed it as much as I did. Very sweet. YES

It's party time. A chilled-out party at the beach. I actually laughed at the usage of the sneaky Mario Paint sound usage, completely unexpected. Siolfor's guitar tone is perfect for this style. Great job letting everyone also take a turn at soloing and letting them bring themselves into the piece. This slower tempo fits this very well. This is fairly conservative until 0:52 when we get some small guitar noodling before it quickly comes back into the primary source idea at 1:01. Trading off between sections of source being presented with verses where the parts get to solo and improvise was a good choice to add your own interpretation. This is especially a good choice with how conservative the other sections are. 3:37 while it's a return to the head again, the extra energy here and countermelodies are very fitting and added just enough extra "oomph" to lead to the close-out of the piece. While the kick is quiet it is there, mostly being covered up by the bass. Some side-chaining could have made the kick come through more, but that wasn't a major issue to me. Having the kick come through cleaner would be great, but turning the volume up on it is probably not the way to go as it might take away from the chilled vibe this whole piece has. The guitar is more forward than the other parts, but those two things did not kill these beach party vibes. I can see a case being made on the balance between parts not being perfect, but as is I feel this is over the bar. YES

Darksynth vibe is really cool on this, with a neat atmosphere. You said it perfectly with your own description, this is "rudimentary". Static and repetitive, with not enough variation in the beat or the other parts. The 2:26 dropout did not come soon enough as I was finding myself fed up with the unchanged beat, progression, and melodic patterns. The beat picks up the energy for the final section, but you still didn't explore any other development of melodies or parts above it. The stutter in this last section is cool, but not enough to give the variation this is missing. The low end of the mix is very full and lacks clarity. A side-chain would go a long way to clean up things and create space for other interesting things to fill. Aside from the 2:26 drop, there is also a very little dynamic change throughout the piece. That contributes heavily to the energy feeling flat and not going anywhere. At 1:13 when the new synth lead comes in, it feels awkward because the attack is slower than the rest of the other parts. Coming in behind the beat slightly in an almost syncopated feel. Because the other parts are very gridlocked this comes off as unusual. I agree with introducing something different there, but specifically the attack was an unusual choice. This didn't effect my decision in the end, just wanted to point out that it felt awkward to me. The vibe is great, but this is static and lacking in variation in all parts as well as a dense mix needing space. NO

I honestly don't recall listening to this, I'm sorry but I just don't remember it. Ghost Castle's arp immediately cuts through and is recognizable. The melody from Ghost Castle that appears later on 0:45-1:00 is barely audible. During that part, I find that the right-panned synth pluck sound is overwhelming my focus and is distracting. I suspect this is for a few reasons: one being that it's panned (not hard right, but might as well be), and the second being it's frequency range is in that mid to high-mid range (~1.8k-2k kHz) that cuts through. I question if the synth pluck was supposed to be the melodic focus or not. It also helps when the melodic focus is center panned or close to center. And if you drive our ear to a melodic focus better, it would help alleviate the "wandering" sound that prophetik and Chimpazilla pointed out. No concerns an amount of source used here, adequate but not necessarily the smoothest listen with the time changes. There's a large lack of dynamic changes through the track that is making it tough to sit through. Yes, there are textural changes that help propel the piece forward with parts dropping out and being re-added or changed as it goes along. However, some softer or louder parts would help greatly. This by itself is not a dealbreaker and does not need to happen, but would improve it should you choose to revisit it. I feel like this one is close, but would need another go to pass. At a minimum I want to see a mix that let's us know what to focus on as a listener, and less distracting panning. NO

Very conservative straightforward genre adaption we have here. The source (Yoshi's Island) was always a fun one and there's a world I can see this working. However, it will take a lot more personalization from you to get this into a place where it becomes more than just a genre adaption. Add more of your own interpretation, and your takes on this iconic source. Aside from 1:00-1:10 with a quick bridge to get us back to the beginning of the track, it's the same as the source melodically and structurally. With a very short track, this also has a nearly identical first and second half of the piece. More variation and changes in the second half would prevent this from being repetitive. The best thing you've done here was the drums. Their part was handled pretty well, and change up often enough to propel the piece forward. The written part feels good, but keep an eye on machine-gunning the velocities on repeated fast notes. This could result in them feeling unreal. The lead guitar is in a weird place, very uncanny valley. Tone-wise it sounds ok, but the vibrato and rigid humanization throws you off and exposes the sample for being not a live performance. The bottom end of the mix isn't the worst but it could be cleaned up some. The bass and kick are competing for the same space and need to share and play nice. While that wasn't a huge problem for me, I do want to point out that it is there and could be improved. While this is a fun adaption there isn't enough interpretation for OCR. Let's hear more of your own interpretation, and not just Yoshi's Island in a "rock" setting. NO

Off site hosting has either expired or is no longer available as it is showing Error 404 now. Did anyone grab this and keep it?

This is really cool, interpretive arrangement, in a chamber/small group approach. The intro is silly and I didn't really care for it especially when the majority of this piece feels like it's meant be taken seriously, so to have an intro that's unserious is weird. That's no big deal when it comes to the overall track, it's just an usual choice to make. To me this sounds like physically modelled strings, a lot like was used here https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04414 . Either way samples or physically modelled, the sequencing was handled well. I particularly liked the attention to detail with how the articulations were changed, as well as the phrasing played out. As a listener you have to be cognizant of how the melody gets passed off between parts, while things may feel like a supportive part, they may actually be the melody. Such as the cello at 1:21 playing the dark world dungeon theme, and 2:04 the Zelda dungeon theme on the viola (panned on left side). Source melody is deemphasized in it's dynamic but they are still there. Rhythm augmentation was a sneaky way of putting that Zelda dungeon behind everything else while the other parts lightly fill space and arpeggio around in a detached manner. There is source in here that was not mentioned by the artist, "Gannon's Message" from Link to the Past from 0:36-0:52. All of the other 3 themes are identifiable and dominant throughout, even with much interpretation and various arrangement techniques implored to modify them. Happy to see this through, kudos on a unique interpretation of multiple themes weaved together in a tapestry in a dark dungeon. YES

Xcellent team effort from team SNES. Xaleph leads with great creativity as always. At times this has more mellowness then I xpect, but that's a joy. He's a master of psytrance, so anytime he breaks it up with dipping into other genres or changing up the feel it's awesome. The guitar was also a highlight as it injected just the oomph of energy it needed to close things out. Love it!

Dramatic, solemn, and cinematic. Hybrid-orchestral take that is very evocative. The opening string parts passing back and forth had a quality of ticking clocks. I felt this had some restraint to it, because I kept expecting it to get to a bigger and larger dynamic but it keeps the energy from getting too big and that gives an anticipatory feeling. Wish it got bigger to climax, but I can understand not going there to keep a certain feeling. Great execution, good arrangement.

Tasteful take that manages to insert energy into a source that was already very ethereal and ephemeral. The development through soloing is classic jazz combo arrangement fare, with soloing on piano and awesome vibraphone. Great arrangement, great performances. Absolutely recommended.

Super high energy take on the classic Vampire Killer and Opening from CV3. Love the combination of genres. Orchestral and guitars have always been epic and this is no exception. The guitar solo from BMC ~2:30 was sick shredding. Great take, super enjoyable!

Really cool that you both can work together on something. Family contribution should really be a more regular thing. As for the piece, the overall vibe here is cool, but there are many issues to go over. For something that seems to be subtle and groove-focused, there isn't any groove to it. The sound design choices also don't mesh well together, but I did like the filtered sweeps in the background that start at 1:12. The bass in particular feels like it's on an island by itself with the only other element nearby that is the kick. These two at least don't step on each other's toes, and both are clear against each other. The bass is rather large but doesn't have much going on, it could be more interesting with modulation. Individual parts get reused a few times and this gives a static and semi-repetitive feeling to the song. Transitions between sections are nearly non-existent and it's jarring to change things up suddenly. Even basic or simple drum fills can go a long way to smoothing things out. Ear candy could also do the trick for transitions as well. The dynamics are relatively flat, but you at least give the illusion of change through elements dropping out and coming back from time-to-time. The ending isn't great as the energy just sputters out like a single candle's flame flickering out. This feels like a rough draft missing more fine polish to the sound design, mix, and development of ideas. It could be something and has potential, but needs more work. NO

So this is fun, I enjoy the whole concept of the piece. Holy hand grenade included with that. Mr. Chapman's bass performance is excellent, and I found the voice-over fit nicely. What isn't working is the mixdown. It's lacking a lot of clarity between parts, and missing crispness. There's a tilt towards the top-end of frequencies making everything much brighter. This in turn is making the bass lose some weight. With an awesome performance from Mr. Chapman, it's a shame it gets overshadowed and overpowered by the top end. Emunator is right to point out the specific instruments that are the biggest offenders of top-end crimes. The final section 2:39-4:50 really stepped up the energy nicely (adding the synth a nice touch), but the mix is so unclear that it's tough to tell what's going on. I don't know exactly what it is but everything just isn't sitting together and feeling cohesive as it should. I suspect there's some amount of compression or something in the master that's adding to the issues. There's a few plosives in the voice-over 2:24-2:39 that could be tamed, while they were not terrible; should be addressed. The arrangement was done well, but this battle was lost in the muddy trenches of mixing. NO

Sound upgrade done right. This is a mostly conservative approach where the melodic elements aren't expanded upon. The layering of instruments in the background is done very well. The approach to the samples is handled well too. I love your use of dynamics and they have a solid range, including a nice contrasting section in the middle where everything pulls back. Closing out the track with a ritardando was a nice way to wrap things up without creating a big, over-the-top ending. That was such a pleasant touch, and felt very fitting for the track. The solo voice falls into the uncanny valley for me, but not so bad that it hurt the track for me. After the middle section, we get a nice layered approach to bring everything back in for a final recapitulation. A long crescendo was a nice way to get us back to the beginning. However, this is where things took a turn. There's no melodic embellishment, expansion, or development of the original idea on this second time. The solo voice returns almost at the very end to add one small new element, but that was not enough for me. There should be something new for this recapitulation to make it stand out and not be a direct copy and paste of the first A section. A few suggestions could be: melodic embellishment, passing the melody lines to other instruments, or adding countermelody (or all of the above). Anything you could add to make this final section more of your own and less of just the source/a copy of the first A section would put this over the top for me. It probably sounds like I didn't like this, but the opposite is true. It's quite a lovely piece, and I really enjoyed it. I'd like to see some more work done on it, and please send it back when you're ready. NO (resubmit)

Once again, we're in your wheelhouse smashing your keys. Your key-based prog never fails to disappoint and this one is no exception. The contrasting break at 1:28 was a great way to bring in the Smash Bros theme for a quick cameo. Plus the contrast helped the track not feel ultra-high energy for the whole way through. You know the right moment to bring in some planing chords to excellent effect, 2:09-2:12 is a great example of this plus you layered in orch hits for extra power. So cool. This doesn't overstay it's welcome and wraps up quickly, just leaving me wanting more awesome prog-riffs that subvert expectations while playing with time. Absolutely YES

This certainly is a departure from your usual soft-orchestral style. A pleasant surprise! Sparse, yet evocative. Lonely, but at the same time hopeful. The ambience in this is oppressive, and likely the biggest contributing factor to the feeling of loneliness. With very little harmonic or tonal material in the lows, the top end is left to carry the burden of the melody. In a way, I feel like this is too sparse, but at the same time you could not create the same emptiness and emotion without being sparse. I would have liked this to get fuller at some point or had more going on in the low-end tonally, but I can't argue with the result. Yes, that's a criticism, but your artistry still comes through regardless. Even though this is a relatively quiet track, the peak still gets up to -0.1, way to use that space! Full dynamic while still remaining sparse and quiet. I think people will be surprised when they hear this, Rebecca; as I was. Moving. YES

So I too have been playing this too much and it was immediately apparent how things have been used in the track. Props to tackling something so new and fresh. Playing with time was a great approach to take and it really works well. I actually never once felt off-kilter or jarred by any time changes and it flows so smoothly. The opening section (0:00-0:36) is probably the most modified when it comes to source recognition but it still really feels like the title screen theme. Keeping the time changes and similar motion helps in that regard. The bass and electric guitar do a great job of filling space and making it so warm and cozy, and the synth choices also feel appropriately selected. Not much more I can say, but this is great and what I've come to expect from Truong lately. Smooth, warm, and semi-jazzy vibes. Dig it! YES

Including the sheet was nice to read along with the performance, not necessary but nice to have, thank you. This is incredibly lovely! There's a ton of expression in this and emotion pours out of it. The rubato and playing with time really contribute to an incredible feeling of anticipation. I know you called this unembellished, and I know what you mean that it's traditionally unembellished, but for this community it's a good amount of embellishment. The original shines through while you add your own spices to the arrangement. I particularly liked how you handled measure 11 beat 3 and 4 as a suspension and let that be slightly resolved despite landing on A7 and then you give us a resolution on the downbeat of mm12 to D in first inversion. Resolved but still moving forward because it's in first inversion. That was so tasteful. If possible, I'd like this to get boosted up because there is a lot of space available for it to be louder, but if not possible it's not the end of the world. All it would take is applying some compression to make up the space, and you would not lose the strong dynamic range you've created with the performance. I really enjoyed this, and both arrangement and performance are great. YES