Hemophiliac   Judges ⚖️

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

Thank you for including the breakdown for a long track such as this. Nice to also stay close to the source with some of your own genre adaption to start, and then slowly start bringing in more departures and unhinged madness. Even when you do start to depart during 1:52-2:20 it still feels anchored to the original because of the similar figure being played. 3:14 was a sudden transition to a new section that has a completely different, whimsical feeling. 3/4s of the way through the song we get a few background vocal elements, not sure if they were supposed to be understandable because they are buried. If I had to guess, they are probably supposed to be background "ominous" textures rather than understandable. Mix is pretty good, with many elements working very well together and not overpowering each other. Bass and kick lock in pretty well at times and even though they are unison (sometimes) I can still hear the high beater sound on the kick. Good job adapting the original source and keeping it crazy but still grounded at the end of the day. 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

Small textural sources with very little melodic content always feel like they would be a challenge to arrange to me. I'm always pleasantly surprised when artists take them and get so much development and growth from them. It's a testament to your creativity to get so much here. Kudo's on the expansive development and growth throughout while keeping us tethered to the ambience and the 3-note motif from the original. The bass is softer then I would expect from Chimpazilla, but it's still supportive and present. Just lacking some fullness that could fill the soundscape even more. The jungle/breakbeats are handled well, and fit the rest of the ambient textures very nicely. The morph into the closing section at 3:48 is handled nicely, but it's strange to suddenly have a much more rigid rhythmic structure when it felt more fluid and organic earlier on. That's not a knock at all on the overall success of the track because in the end it's a nice listen and once again an improvement on a strange and minimal source tune. YES

Wow, I was not expecting a dark and heavy take from a light and airy source. I might be hearing the chords from the source to start out with but they are so thick and heavy that I can't tell for sure what they are playing and if it is the same progression as the source. With all the heavy chugging going on I can not hear the kick, I just barely make it out. The mids have been heavily scooped out around 400Hz as Chimpazilla has pointed out. I know removing some mids from the guitars is common practice, but here I think it is a detriment here. It's caused the mix to feel both very bottom heavy and have a very hot top end at the same time. The real problem is I'm barely making out a connection to the source. I mentioned the chords earlier, but it's hard to really connect a source by it's chords. It would have been helpful to have at least one less interpreted or modified version of the melodic content from the source to help the listener make more connection to it. I can see how they could be possibly be connected, but between the rhythm, accenting, and deemphasizing certain melody notes from the original is such a strong element, that it's very hard to connect the notes without some of that included here. I think the slides in the synth were a nice touch and the overall concept of going from bright and airy to dark and heavy was a great idea and could absolutely pay off, but the execution; both in production and presenting the source needs to be much stronger. NO

Sweet huge guitars! Fantastically MASSIVE double tracked guitars. As was said previously, this is structurally conservative. However, the usage of multiple sources and solos are great at making this your own interpretation. This definitely could have had more of your own flavors and spices on this, but to me there's just enough arrangement to put this over the bar. The production is clean and all the parts are coming through cleanly. The 2:11-2:14 stutter transition was great. The transition at 3:27 could have been smoother, but that's like asking for a hot beverage to be even hotter somehow. Again, very excellent and tasteful solos from both guitar and keytar. This brings the axes to the party and everyone has a great time. YES

I too have not got far enough in the game to have heard it in context, but with the imagery described this sounds awesome. It's so cool to hear something that is so very OA and Emunator at the same time. There is so much wonder, peacefulness, and romance in this track. This is a total slow-burn build up of dynamics and energy throughout. Slowly reaching it's peak late in the track. Not much to say here, except the execution was great and this is a slam dunk. YES

I'm immediately grabbed by this as it's immediately recognizable (I've been playing the game for the last few years). That "suspense" theme is really cool and i'm glad you gave it a very recognizable opening on the guitar here, played very well by Zack. Once we get into the electronic portion it's full-force what I would expect from Xaleph. It's his signature bass and it's always so dang good. Production is fantastic and on point. Vocal harmony during "The Climb" (1:09-1:11 and during the next phrase) was a nice touch and I liked that. There could be more enunciation in the diction but I think it's fine with this style of piece. Good pitch! At 2:54 I'm hearing a return to "Suspense" theme, but with a Xaleph spin on it, great interpretation. Big fan of acoustic elements interplaying with synth and this was a great example of them working together to create something awesome. YES

This source is right in your wheelhouse. I do enjoy your proggy-esque work. Source usage is not a problem here at all, lots of interpretation and riffing on those wild Follin lines. I like how at 1:59 you emulated the opening from the source some with the doubling of the chip lines with slightly different voices. I do agree with Liontamer that the leads are a little forward in the mix and more dry then the background elements. That can be easily remedied with varying up the wet/dry levels on the reverb to push it forward/back (And maybe -1db less in the volume mix, not much). Not a problem for me though, as that only made it slightly off of perfection. Great work. "Awesome, wild, and crazy". That's your Pictionary hint for guessing at this: YES

When I listen through this, I can think of one word that describes the arrangement and performances. Restraint. There is so much restraint demonstrated here. Things don't fly off the rails and get crazy, the mellow-but-upbeat vibe remains throughout. At any moment, the soloing or direction could have gone crazy, but it stays within a nice range. Kudos for keeping the vibe intact even in the solos. That all probably sounds weird to say, but I mean it as a compliment. Usually when I would go to the jazz lounge I would always hear the performers want to show-off rather then keep it within the vibe of the song. Semi-typical jazz form here, with head-solos-head. Energy level picks up with the final recap too. Love the tone of the guitar, not sure but sounds like a hollow body (and I don't feel like I hear much in VGM) which is where my preference lies in the genre. All of the performances in this are stellar, and the mixdown is fantastic. Everything blending very well and leads stand out in front when they are featured. Absolutely YES