Rexy

Aha, the more we know. I almost suspected that in the beginning but remembered the rhythm guitars in "Real American Hero" and soon thought Will contributed elsewhere. Nice insight

It's Christmas Eve... eve (lol) and we are down to 77 reviews remaining. Let's keep up the progress

Jazz and DnB eh? Different direction to expect from Mustin, but I shall take a look This chord-heavy arrangement could almost be mistaken for something borrowing from some of the rhodes-oriented artists in the Bad Dudes camp, namely Joshua Morse and Diggi Dis (whom coincidentally offered help here), in a good way mind. While it does keep with the source's original structure albeit with segments of the track spliced to fit a more contemporary setting, what seems to be the main charm here is how the track could somehow be so minimalist and yet so engaging; all the gate and phaser manipulations on the drums (and in later parts the organ as well) and the minimal melodic support has contributed to one of Mustin's more interesting productions that I've come and witnessed. The part at 2:30 where the final segment of the Kraid melody was brought down to half-speed was also very cool to see as well. I say this is a worthy Metroid arrangement; experiments with the source without going too far, and even going into territory that we may not expect Mustin to have done. Very classy, I dig this

Well I do see the uncanny resemblance to "Pollyanna", but I honestly swear I didn't reference that. On a slightly related note, music video for those who like that sort of thing.

No Ecto, it's not Earthbound and the wah guitar was panned hard left because it's a rhythm instrument to compliment the rhodes on the hard right. I've been gaining inspiration from a lot of 70s funk on this one, and just flat out trying to make it as silly as possible since I know just being serious about it in round 2 didn't work out.

Cool choice, Shariq. I'll inform Brandon about it right away as he makes the last charge for the BGR

Yes, that's how close the competition is; one minute I'd think "such and such a person should win", the next I'd think completely differently. With orlounge's theory stated above also taken into consideration, you can see how it's been hard for me to pick all week xD For example, right now my first place vote is standing at Rozovian's entry "Halite". I wasn't really won over by the production techniques when I first listened, so it didn't immediately grab my attention, but the way he handled the sources really grew on me over the course of the week and has resulted in a strong collaboration with the rest of the Mega Ballers. Considering that "Solidity" was my first place vote in Round 3, it tells me something of how Rozovian is plowing through the contest. And then there's my current second place vote, "Black Alleycat". That was one that grabbed my attention production wise, but I similarly passed over it because I didn't sense enough Shadow Man on my first few listens (then again my familiarity with Mega Man 3 is a bit faint). But I dig the mood with that one, and it should be something for Amphibious to be proud of, a very consistent performer in this contest

So briefly going back to the source, it may have split people, but to me it does face ease for me to mix. Although, if I want to hear the source as an individual song, I'd be better off citing the Powered Up version. If I had noticed sooner I could've involved some of the added backing elements of that version into the mix, but compositionally it's all too late

According to Facebook, it's k-wix's birthday as well So here's a merry happy returns to one who brings some delicious bass, and one who brings a very different delicious bass.

Entry sent off. There might be some ninja updates between now and tomorrow's deadline, but I'm pretty sure even as it stands, this track would grab the votes in an Enormous Reap.

We have 8 days left to go, and we need 103 more reviews to finish OA off. We can do this!

A minimalist source (5 measures). A studio professional. I can pretty much see a world of good coming out of this one, and major props for Aaron and bLiNd for providing the link! From what I've come to expect from people within Corsten's label, we've got this clean production that manages to work sweepingly well within the field of trance, and can be seen as compared to the cleanliness of Corsten's work himself. I was almost worried that the source might running into a little too much liberality, though given most of the build from the 1 minute mark onward was based around the rhythmic backing strings, and a lot of the buildup was indeed more based around the melody, a lot of the doubts were soon taken out as shown with Saint-Jules's grasping of the site's arrangement standards. This shifting around of elements managed to continue sharply for most of the track's duration too, so I am very firm with the idea it managed to present via delivering that feeling that may indeed lift listeners from reality (hence the appropriate direction). I may have to say it here - my tastes in trance are typically more aggressive than the direction layered out there, but the idea presented was nailed to a T and would easily satisfy fans of the genre. So, a major well done for contributing to the album, and for spreading awareness via this link with studio professionals. I'm hoping one of these days we may see more tracks of that kind of calibre, but for now it's a definite start

Given that the original was some element of oriental minimalism, I can see how it would work in a mix of a similar style, albeit with more precise sounding oriental instruments. It's a tricky one to work with arrangement wise as well, given how there seems to be so little to work with, but what he managed to do was pick apart the rhythm parts and used them as groove foundations for a more expansive electric work complete with chord substitutions to give it that lift. I do indeed sense some Linkin Park influences in there given some of the synth and piano work; does make me think a lot of their methods taken through Meteora and some of the more electric works handled in Hybrid Theory. It's a well-produced effort as well; though it didn't quite excite me as much as the arrangement did, there's definitely been some care and detail made to make the whole setting work. I think we've got a track that may split an audience due to exactly how far you can arrange such a minimalist source, but I quite dig this

Ah, a more daring source for Jewbei this time. 6/8 + trance = any combination you want. True to his style he keeps to his four-to-the-floor tendancies, and what he ended up doing with the source was concerting it to a 4/4 time signature. In a similar way to "Final Progression" and "Above the Clouds", as linked in the writeup, it starts out fairly well with referencing to the rhythmic components of the source material within the opening build as well as in segments that don't reference to the melody upfront. And the main melody managed to come on in full swing at around 2:20, showing the source while still playing strong to Jewbei's strengths as a trance musician. This progression managed to work throughout the track with all the details placed within the builds up and down to really amplify his skills within the genre, as well as being a very neat way to handle a not-quite-so-electronica-friendly source. I can't be without criticisms though, suffice to say. First off, I noticed moments of roughness during the buildup at around 1:45; I did hear that the automation on the sidechaining felt somewhat stuttering and struggling to react smoothly. That might be down to the output latency on the soundcard, and may seem a little glaring for some, but this incident only happened for about 15 seconds or so so it may be no big deal. And on a similar note, I have to say I'm not really a fan of your acoustic guitar sample here. To me it comes off rather mechanical with no means of expression (not even any velocity alterations), and does kind of hurt the realism a bit. But I'll ride with it given the genre direction this has taken. But in spite of this, it's a solid cut off the Wild Arms album, and we're glad to have seen Jewbei pull through with this effort for the set. With his transformation as an arranger this year, 2012 could only get brighter from here

Given the original source is a battle cue, I can see how it could fit well for Flex's... ahem... style. (no pun intended) So it does start (and ultimately end) a little bizarrely with the FM radio soundset, with that laid back rhodes, though it soon shifts over to some nice clean radio-esque drum n' bass (though later shifting in dubstep elements within the second half). Faithfulness to the source is easily noted, and major props for even showing some variation to the theme by transposing the key on the go-arounds here. That breakdown at the 2 minute mark, with the velocity-varied polysynths and eerie focus on higher-ranged instrumentation, managed to show a strong sense of calm before building up that urgency again. I'd say that's a classier moment coming from his way of writing, especially considering everything that I've heard from Flex in the past through the PRC and recent unofficial albums. I don't think I can see much bad to say about this one at all - in terms of the writing, it ended up being one of Flex's best released works. He might not agree from what I've read in the writeup, but given that it shows a drastic writing evolution I can see it to be a start towards bigger things. I say keep up the strong efforts for 2012

It's December 23rd, the post came and went, and there's still no sign of my secret santa. But if it was confirmed as posted on Thursday, then I guess I'll have to wait patiently over the next couple of weeks on what appears to be a late Santa.

Thankfully, Darke seems merry (not surprising considering since it's birthday yesterday), so I'm pretty sure on that statement he's taken an Erratic Leap.

PRC 87 covered the game's title screen music, with Sir Nuts taking the win. And having done a world of service for Crash Bandicoot earlier in the year, who knows - I might do something similar with Spyro as well, time permitting

Guys, seriously. For Ecto's welfare, will you please stop arguing over "Ecstatic Seipp"?

Can't do much else with the bass as it's already bass heavy (and still dripping with cheese, in a delightful way). But yeah, I'll keep listening out for any last minute tweaks that may need doing.

You guys and your talks about ear beer and bass orgies are making me feel doubtful over mine I've been improving since the first round, sure, but I'm starting to face a lot of doubt over its stance for sure now. Guess I might as well be ready to accept merely 7th place at best.

I'm going to have to say that I'm going to have to give up on it. I've been too busy to really work on something at all this year (really sorry ), but I hope the results still turn out mightily stellar.

Oooh, E-Bison. Long time no see! (and what's with all the long electronica tracks in the mix-flood, Jade? ) I feel glad to see a return to form come through for Elliot, and indeed this comeback track demonstrates the capacities very capably well with some solid synth processing mostly within the lower-register that fit the feel of the source remarkably well, what sounds like a lot of clock-ticking sounds fitting with this etheral soundscape (leftovers from "Time Management"?) and some very classy filter/gating/envelope manipulation that have shown that his means of production have improved drastically since we last saw him. In regards to the writing, I kind of feel torn. I don't mind drum n' bass every now and again and it's definitely a brilliant way of writing within the constraints of the genre. But structure-wise it may be a little difficult to follow and understand where it's going, and it would definitely take a few listens to even remotely get to grips with the progression. Though, you know what this means to me - this might be an interesting track to Audiosurf to (!!). Either way, I offer a hearty welcome back to OCR after all this time, Elliot! If your production's up to this calibre, then goodness knows what future submissions may turn out to be like

It's Wednesday night already and I have a demo that I feel really satisfied with. I have to say though, Plant Man goes amazingly well with this source, and you'll see how come Saturday

From what I have tallied up, we still need 137 more. And even then it seems like there's a huge review drought in comparison to previous years (though thank you for chipping in Crulex); is it worth bumping up more popular tracks at the expense of leaving the lesser-reviewed that I already did to just gather dust? It's a strange philosophy