Hemophiliac

Excellent arrangement, I was expecting it to be more similar to the guitar performance that it was supposedly based off of. It's not though! Plenty of interpretation and plenty of source represented across the board. The realism of the samples could be better, with precise midi editing outside of musescore (as the artist indicated) and switching of articulation specific patches. What is here though is good enough and has plenty of dynamic range and expression. In a real orchestral context you would not hear the harp so clearly during the forte and tutti portions without amplification. That's a nitpick though. This absolutely has a place on the front page, YES

So, I've been waffling back and forth on this one for a while now. The arrangement (aside from the sudden transition at 1:31) is good. All themes have been incorporated and have added plenty of your own interpretation to them. The macro-structure tells a story and the piece goes places, bravo. Where this needs improvement is the production and sequencing. Most of the time the samples feel like they have been handled ok (but could have been better with more attention to detail and articulation switching) and you get by with what you have. However, the sore spot is the lead cello. A few times it is too forward in the mix when it should be more blended (1:46-2:24, gets better when the male choir enters). 0:46 on the cello has a strange flanged quality to it for a moment. I think the arrangement is strong enough to overlook some of the production/sequencing issues here. YES (borderline)

I'm in agreement with my fellow J's on this one. The arrangement itself on a macro level is good and I enjoy listening to this one. The part that needs improvement is the production and mixdown. From 0:00-1:25 everything works for me, and sounds pretty good. At 1:26 a slightly different bass synth enters and takes up a lot of the space. It's got a bunch of high-end on it that crowds out the other parts from being balanced with it, some top end reduction with EQ could help to tame it. I agree with Emunator about side-chaining as well. It isn't required to have some to clean it up, but it would really help in creating a lot of space and helping to lessen the muddiness. There is some general part imbalance during the upbeat sections where I'm not sure what the focus is supposed to be because of the size of the bass. I like how both sources are incorporated and how the overall flow of the piece works very well. The production is what is holding it back unfortunately. This would be the kind of piece that could benefit from some feedback in the workshop if you need more suggestions on how to clean up the balance between parts or reduce muddiness. NO (resubmit)

Starts off with classic melody with a small unexpected change to the end of the phrase. Quickly the dnb takes over and drives the piece into top gear. Energy is not lost when we get it's first contrasting break. 3:03-3:26 and 4:23-4:46 guitar work was a highlight as the off-beat rhythm and melodic interpretation was a great mix-up to the status-quo. The bass work in the first couple minutes is fantastic too. Great work all around. YES

Like your other Mega Man 3 submission, the synths in this are very basic. Sounds like something you might hear in the early 2000s. There are a few filter sweeps I heard in various places in the track, that's good! Now you just need to use that same idea to automate effects or parameters on the synths to give them life, add sophistication, and expression. I want to hear more expression! There's mixing problems abound with this, the leads are tough to hear at times, but also extremely bright in the high end making them unpleasant to listen to. As XPRTNovice points out the snare is very forward in the mix and cuts through tremendously. It is also very static and does not change very much at all in velocity or pattern. The main organ-like lead is difficult to hear as it's buried behind many other elements of the track. 3:03 is a strange transition. The drop out in this manner can work, but it was just into another loop of much of the same we've heard. 3:03 felt like a good opportunity to change things up and show us more of "Heel Tactics" territory then just another repeat of Top Man with the continuous kick. Arrangement-wise this is fairly conservative once we get past the intro. There is much more that can be done to make it your own other than changing up the instruments and dropping into a 4-on-the-floor beat. If you haven't already, I recommend reaching out on the workshop on the forums or Discord to get more feedback so you can refine what you're working on more. NO

This sounds and feels like a throwback to the early days of OCR. It would not be out of place to have heard this back in the early 2000s. The biggest issues are the blend of parts and the mixdown. The drums are the most present part of the mix and the melodic elements are further back. The bass could be a lot fuller. As both of the previous two votes have noted, this snare is like a laser that cuts through everything. It's the number one thing you hear and not just because of volume, but it seems to be taking up much of the frequency range as well. Structurally it's not terrible, as you do have some contrasts in texture and even have a dropout around 1:42 and 3:00 that helps to break up the repetitiveness of the track, however it quickly gets repetitive again. If you keep following a drop out to just reintroduce the instruments one at a time it will get stale. The synth choices are pretty vanilla and are lacking some sophistication, could use an update to a more modern palette. As well as taming of some of their harsher upper frequencies, such as the lead that enters at 2:08. If you do consider revising this, take another look at the sound design, try to get the parts to blend together better rather than them being so separate in the mix, and see about reducing the overall repetitiveness within each section. NO

Had to really go through the rabbit hole of decision making on this for myself. At first I was down on the idea of using GM samples, but I came to realize that you have sophisticated them in a very unique way. Playing with their note-offs and releases has created a very tight sound that created a lot of space. If I was to really ding you on anything it's that the unintended result of cutting the notes so short has created empty space at times. The arrangement is excellent and there is so much good work on swinging the rhythm and making that classic bassline funky. 1:55-2:06 is a particular highlight for me in how you lead into the wacky Witches' hut source. This is crazy and wacky piece, but with excellence of execution in the personalization of the source and sequencing of the parts. Great work! YES

Wow, this was a tough one. I don't understand the need for many of the sections to get a second or sometimes 4x repeat before it moves to another phrase. While this is a compositional/arrangement technique, the application here ends up feeling more drawn out. The original source had many of these melodies play a second time, but with definite differences to the first time they were introduced (for example: change of dynamics or instrumentation). When things get played a second time without changing anything to them, it just feels like adding length without saying anything significant. In terms of the macro-structure and how the whole piece is laid out it works, it's just the repeats within each section getting so dull. 1:25-2:11 we get the first presentation of the "chorus" as you called it from Invincible. Except you've changed it so that the first half of it (1:07-1:13 from Invincible on the YouTube video source) is the only part that we get and loop that. We recognize that as being from Invincible even though it's modified somewhat, and the amount of repetition also ingrains us into knowing it's your chorus. 2:36-3:00, 3:01-3:24 The "chorus" returns and plays 4x twice! And these 4x are identical except for an upper guitar added on the second time, but it's so buried it might as well not be there. The final time this repeats 6:25-7:00 it doesn't seem like anything is different and is copied over once again. In between the "chorus" sections and the intro I really like how you use the other parts of the source to act as bridges and create a softer contrasting texture. The production is mostly good, and you certainly know your genre very well. My only production gripes are few things being buried or taking up too much space. Such as the higher guitar during the second half of 3:01-3:24, and the sonar-like synth taking up a lot of space in the mix. I also didn't care for many of the synth choices, but that didn't factor into my decision. The downfall of this, for me; is ultimately going to be in the repetition without variation or changes. NO

So this is going to make it sound like I hate trance and don't like this piece. While the piece is very well produced, there is way too much repetition going on here. Multiple sections repeat completely, and the same identical main drum fill gets used over and over (0:29, 1:57, 2:12, 2:27, 3:26, 4:10). The backing synth bass/arp is a staple of trance and that going constantly is fine with me, but what's above it has gotta change up some. It could be melodic changes, instrument changes, different effects placement, etc. Anything that would distinguish it from it's first time playing. Similar to when you're having a conversation and speaking with someone and they ask you to repeat yourself, most people will change how they said it: increased volume, slow down their enunciation...you get the idea. If you're gonna say something more then once, make it unique after the first time. If there are tiny changes in these later sections, I'm not identifying them. I also agree with Chimpazilla about the bell lead at 1:14, it is very bright and could use a little rounding off on the top with EQ so it's not as harsh. I don't totally hate the sound itself, just needs some rounding of the edges. As is this track is very close and the interpretation of the source into trance was done well, I like the structure of the whole piece, and the production is clean. I just want to see more variation/changes on the repeated sections to help the track progress forward. SUPER borderline NO (resubmit)

This is going to be very well liked by many people. Combining two mega-iconic themes worked so well, so seamlessly. Using the panning throughout to keep space for the themes to work together but separately at the same time was a good idea. If the melodies were closer to center, it might have been harder to parse them as a listener. I really liked the change at 3:30 was handled very nicely, and helped inject extra energy in this final repeat. 3:01's changes here were a particularly awesome highlight for me, as this progression was an great choice to bring it home. Not a huge fan of the constant stereo ping-pong on one of the lead synths as I personally find them disorienting, but it's not making me vomit so that's it's ok What can I say, the arrangement, production, and nostalgia is off the charts and will definitely have many people swimming in the atmosphere of the woods. Excellent work. YES

This is a sweet source, I've not heard it before. Adding drums to the final section was a cool idea, and maybe consider bringing in a light drum pattern early to help increase the energy level in a different way other then dynamics or doubling parts. Your master limiter is putting in work here, and it's not doing it in your favor. I can hear many places throughout where there is audible clipping/distortion of those peaks. This must be addressed if you plan to resubmit. 0:59 the synth vocalist comes in and is slightly behind the beat with each note. Once the sub kicks into full gear around 0:48 things start to get really full and lush, but you lose a lot of clarity because of heavy overlapping of notes or just too much reverb. From 2:58 to the end it's basically a total wash of reverb and overpacked parts. Either you need to go back and work on gain-staging out the piece with a new mixdown where the different parts aren't so loud and stepping on each others toes or start taking out parts that don't add something unique (needless doubling). Prophetik hit the nail on the head in saying that this is conservative, but not without some personalization. Plenty of orchestration choices that were not in the original as well as addition and subtraction from the arrangement as it goes. So I feel like a slow burn like this can work as an overall structure and you added your own flavors to it, kudos there. However, the production on this needs to be addressed and improved upon. NO

The tempo-sync'd effect at the beginning of the track is a nice touch, it helps give a rhythmic element while the drums are playing sparsely. The adaption of the genre to a dark, brooding, and heavy metal-adjacent piece works very well for the source, and is the strongest element of this track. I would've liked to have seen more interpretation of the melodic, harmonic, or rhythm of the source in the second half. Along with less repetition in the part-writing. That said, there are some very small things that you did do to help distinguish from 1st half to 2nd half: there's slightly more drum work going on, the timbral change by going up with the guitar, and additional usage of tremolo on the guitar. Not adding something more substantial to differentiate the second half makes the piece drag. You lose energy and it feels like build-up without a pay-off. The production is good enough, even with the bass not giving the fullest punch it could have. YES (borderline)

One could equate the time changes in this to the unpredictability of lightning strikes. I think they fit really well despite catching me flat-footed every time they come about. That's the real strength of this arrangement, the masterful handling of time in a proggy manner. Good job of letting the piano cut through despite it being a rather full mix. That could easily get buried and overpowered. Melody gets attenuated at 2:20 behind other elements and the backing elements feel much louder here. Losing some of the melodic focus until 2:53. I can live with the unclarity for a short while as it is over quickly. That's my only gripe. The excellence here is the arrangement, the less than perfect production can be overlooked. Nice work! YES

Tremendouz is amongst the best at sequencing virtual instruments for realism. I'm always amazed every time I hear his work how convincingly real it is. I think most people would not know these are not live performances. Warm and luscious opening leads to a more traditional approach. I can understand Proph's comment about mud in the opening, we have the absolute bottom end of the guitar in a similar range to the bass, and they step on each other's toes a little bit. This didn't bother me because it added warmth for a short while and moved away from this into a more open voicing of parts. Production is good, with such a small ensemble of instruments, it's nice to have everything feel together in the same room. I am surprised this didn't go full bore orchestral later on in the track to really amp up the energy. The choice to keep it small and intimate was a good one, because it allows the subtle emotions to come through more. I know there's a lot of FFXIV out there and I think they'll really like this one. YES

Rubber-stamping with Prophetik and Chimpazilla here. They've already covered the key issues (disjointed and sudden transitions, low end muddiness, and other general production for a cleaner sound). There are absolutely some positives here and those should be applauded. The soloing (aside from a couple questionable notes) and interpretation of the melody was good, and that's the thing that really makes it your own. The timing of the guitars felt solid and wasn't hearing anything out of time. I'm not a fan of the fade out ending, especially with the melody playing over it. I'd recommend to either continue on the synth arp and textures without the melody to fade out, or come up with a more definitive and solid ending. I'd also like to suggest to include the some of the synth work in the middle of the track as well, it's a little strange to book-end a track with elements that don't show up at other points in the track. This is a solid start and something that has potential to be built around, but this is not ready and needs more work. NO (resubmit)

What went good? The mood. This was successful in creating a dark and suspenseful atmosphere, that extends out for a longer period of time. As is was your initial goal you set out with. I also appreciate that the piece does have a dynamic structure to it, with it starting out quiet and ending strong. What went wrong? The execution of the production and sequencing of the parts. Also lack of focus on melody makes this wander and caused me to lose interest in it. At times this feels more like an original piece of music rather than arrangement. I occasionally pick up on fragments from the source melody, but it's not enough of an anchor. The ending also is non-existant, it just stops without a conclusion. The sequencing of the samples needs a lot of work, because most of it sounds very fake. This is achievable in numerous ways. For example, vary velocities of the notes, make sure notes next to each other don't have the exact same velocity (this is most apparent in the final section in the bass), bump the start and end times of the notes forward or back so they aren't falling perfectly on the beat, and utilize automation to add crescendos and decrescendos. There's many more things you can do as well, but that's just a few to give you an idea of where to start. Also in the final section (4:11-5:21) it gets extremely muddy with a lot of parts cluttering up the low end. The basses are super present and forward, and there are other parts written in close harmony with them contributing to the muddiness. There are also many places throughout where there are dissonances that don't feel intentional and don't work for me. Much attention is needed on the usage of the samples as well as including more anchors to the original source. NO

This is a track that's full of joy and wonder. Feels like something that would be sung to a child in a musical before sending them off on a journey for the first time. Both guitars, acoustic and electric; are performed wonderfully. The acoustic especially has such a richness to it that sets the stage so tastefully when accompanied by the tremolo strings in the intro. I was going to say something very similar to this, so I'd like to also echo what Prophetik has said. Just the expansion and support is all it takes to keep the breath from slipping through too much and getting an aspirated sound or losing the pitch. There was a few times on longer phrases and notes where the air was starting to slip too much. What's here does it's job, it could just be taken to the next level and pushed further. 1:58-2:35 sounds like this was your strong lower range and sounds great. Just wish the higher range was more mixed and strong with the breath support it needed. At the end of the day this is a joyful arrangement that adds so much original material to the backing while keeping the familiar melody from the source, and has strong performances. YES

There are some really cool ideas here and some neat chip effects as well, that make this unique. There are a lot of really cool textural changes that you do to keep things moving with a limited palette like this. Being mono is a bummer because it takes away from the awesome space that can be created for the bigger moments like at 1:01 when you get those big chord hits and unisons. The biggest hit is the drums going into autopilot and just playing the same thing for long stretches of time without variation. Not only variation in pattern but some variation on the velocities within them. Once we get past 1:01 I don't really feel like there are any changes in the dynamics either, which makes much of the track lose it's impact later. There's a lot to like here and I enjoyed the chip-take, it's really close where it is now. It needs less repetition and more variation to get over the hump. NO

This did take a few repeated listens before I was able to pick out the source within. That's simply because the nature of the source is less melodic and more chordal. The combination of different kinds of percussion worked so incredibly well. It really feels like this was constructed and really well thought-out in terms of instrumentation and structure. The approach of keeping the notes was a good one because it would be difficult to pick out heavy interpretation. Allowing accents and dynamics was a good way to signal the listener to follow the source more easily. Production is clean and I could find myself listening to this one on repeat in a meditative state. Very nice work. YES

This one got me boppin' my head along with the beat, swagger like you said. That source was definitely worth tackling. It's got something neat about it, but you improved on it. My two main criticisms are the lack of space between some of the notes during faster repeated ones in the saxes felt like they weren't really being articulated sometimes. Solo'd they probably stand out better, but in context they feel glossed over. The other is the big boomy bass during it's spotlight solo 1:14-1:33. It's played very well and the solo is cool; it's just too big for the brief moment. I really like the full band sound you get with everything playing at the same time. It's BIG, heavy and full of machismo. Arrangement is great and has plenty of the original with your own spices injected throughout. People will dig this even without knowing the source. YES

I don't care what Wave you call this, it's still a great-tsunami of awesome. The bass is thick and rich, and the portamento on it gives it so much finesse...like the ever present fog in all of Silent Hill. The effected foley/percussion in the intro gives it a creepy-yet-ethereal vibe that is just excellent. Very nice choice to bring in VQ for some brief voice-over. She fit in perfectly. As always, the production is spotless, crystal clear. Slightly disappointed by the ending, but not everything needs to be wrapped up perfectly every time. I really like how you handled the melody, you presented it in a way that I found more interesting and appealing than the original. I always consider that a major win. To develop and improve upon something existing, letting us know what it that source is, and making it your own. It's like the exact definition of what makes a ReMix on OCR. YES

I'd argue that this might actually be more of a Super Mario Bros 3 remix with how similar the first half of the Luma theme is. For the relative lack of changing dynamics other than large dynamic jumps between sections, this has a surprising amount of emotive material in it. I think the textures you've created are good and are in the right direction overall with your personalization of the instrumentation and layering of pads/strings. I was not feeling the complete direct recap of the head at 3:43. It's not that returning to the head is not good, it's the fact that it feels copied or is very close to the same as the first time we heard it. Changing up some of it would really help change up the energy to let us know that the end is coming. It could be more melodic embellishment, increased dynamics, or adding other instrument to layer in. It could be anything as long as it changes it up and gives more of a lift to that final recapitulation. 1:17-1:40 struggles with the lead being somewhat buried in the background elements both in volume as well as it's attack being too slow for the surrounding parts. Changing it to something that has a shorter attack could help with that. Throughout the piece, there could absolutely be more movement of dynamics through modulation or automating volume on the background pads and strings. We get large dynamic jumps between some of the sections and that's fine, but within the individual sections they can grow and diminish to help them feel less static and give movement to progress things forward. The filter sweeps I occasionally hear are good touches and are examples of that, but aren't quite enough to give it the heft they need. This one isn't quite there yet, despite being a solid skeleton of a piece. The potential is there for something very nice if you can refine some of the things we all have mentioned, work on the realism of the strings, and consider sophisticating your choice of samples. Edit: Should you need more help and have questions, consider utilizing the workshop forum or joining the discord to get help there. NO

Very impressive arrangement you've come up with. The usage of both themes and their interweaving was handled very well. The transition into 2:58 was handled very well and I appreciate that the build to this was a slower one and not just a sudden "Oh we're here now" Really really like the usage of Door of the Holy Spirit because that's not a typical source you'd normally hear being used for a remix. You guys did a great job of keeping it in there while not leaning too hard on the metroid side of things. My biggest gripe here was the audible reduction during some downbeats and heavy hits. I suspect there's some side-chaining that wasn't as transparent as it could have been. It is not constant and only happens a few times, so it doesn't shoot a hole in this one for me. Instead, shoot a hole in your listener's brains with the unholy and awesome team effort from "Team Whip". YES

I will be hosting a community listening party on this Friday 8/28 7:30pm E/4:30pm P. https://twitch.tv/ocremix Join us as the album director TSori and the author of the book Lucas Thomas will be present to share their thoughts, and we listen through the album! https://discord.gg/ocremix?event=1278456640982483004

A strong arrangement, with fun solos, and solid performances all around. The source is well represented and the solos all feel like the right vibe for this track. The beatboxing was a nice touch and something we don't get to hear much of around the community. The mix isn't the cleanest and that seems to be due to just clutter of parts around the mid-range. Not so much as to create a ton of mud or clutter, because I can still follow each part individually. It's just not a crystal clear glass, it's just got a little smudge on it. The other gripe I have and I suspect it may have just been one of the only places it could have cut through is the bonga. It's really cutting through with the panning placement far to the right, so it stands out and cuts through on the right when it's being played strongly. The vocals were mostly handled well, I can generally make out most of what is being said with only a couple times where I questioned what words were being specifically said. Oh and I would be remiss to not mention the bass with this being TJ&E. Excellent usage of the bass and letting it shine out when it's time for it to, like the intro and the middle section before the solos. YES