Sir_NutS

Hi @Bundeslang. First, I want to sincerely thank you for keeping PRC going for as long as you did. PRC was a huge part of my development as an artist in the early days of OCR along other older competitions like IMC and I made a lot of collabs and friends in these competitions. I am no longer making music, nor I am around online much but when I saw the email about this PRC being the last I had to jump in to salute and thank you and the oher artists. I would say the absolute best part of being part of the community by far were PRC and other compos. The constraints of the competitions I felt really helped me break out of some walls, and some of the remixes I made here both as sir_nuts and as showroom dummy made the jump to the front page. Again thank you and all of those who participated over the years. Hope you are doing great and wish you nothing but the absolute best in the future.

To be honest at first I was about to drop a Borderline NO on this one, I felt the same way as Emu on this one, arrangement is awesome, great feeling throughout the track but the production aspect of it has issues. The mix overall is pretty muffled and lacks brilliance and clarity, things are a bit too messy in the low end too and overall, kinda boomy. There's a distinct lack of high frequency air here that makes the mix feel a tad claustrophobic, and some of the lead synths are not very interesting-sounding. But honestly, even if it sounds like a lot, after a couple listens I think these don't warrant a rejection when put against the rest of the mix. Very good guitar performance with some interesting intonations. It's not a track that overstays its welcome either, it has a solid structure and some very catchy phrases that stuck with me after I was done, transforming the original into a new song that sounds like its own thing. The mix isn't perfect but I didn't feel instruments were out of balance in regards to each other but more like a mastering issue. The arrangement is inventive and I wouldn't know this is a remix if I wasn't evaluating it. Let's go with a YES. Fun and catchy stuff.

Interesting idea, but I don't think it works that well. The trap beat is an interesting choice but it lacks power and catchiness, I'm just not vibing with it, and it doesn't have that much detailing either. The arrangement reuses sections and verses a lot, but there's some layering and sometimes modulation to try and keep things varied. I feel the instruments are pleasing to listen to but also are a bit simplistic and lack details. The strings machine at 2:17 has a nice sustained texture but man that envelope is really rigid. A lot of times, the track sits on just a couple elements (beats+bass, or bass + strings i.e.) for too long and the elements not being that complex or interesting, it feels like it's dragging for no good reason. The balance is a bit off, some leads are a tad loud but honestly IMO the best thing about this song are the leads and how they're utilized, even that sweet filtering modulation towards the very end was pretty cool. SO I think there are good things here, but many nitpicks. I have been listening trying to decide if all the nitpicks drag the whole thing down... and I think they do. I think the track feels a bit uninteresting for longs period of time, there are some issues with balance, and a repetition of the arrangement without much new to offer on the second time around. This is close, very close, but I'll have to ask for a more refined version. NO (resubmit)

Unsettling chords for that intro, I like it. Actually, that tense feeling is all over this track, in varying doses, this track definitely has its own identity so from that standpoint it's a win here. Arrangement-wise I love what you did here, expanding the original phrases, sometimes overlapping them in chaotic ways that work in the context of the track's progression(i.e. around 3:16). There's a lot of attention to detail here and nothing is on autopilot. Lots of care went into the structure I feel, because it jumps around from breaks and intense sections as needed and not in a typical A-B-A fashion. If I had any nitpicks, would be for the drums which feel slightly weak for what the arrangement requires in some spots but really nothing that takes away from the whole. This is excellent, and I hope to see it soon in the front page. Loved it. YES

A nice track that is pretty much a long buildup. The long, low notes for the sawwave bass in the intro sound pleasant but also pretty dry and a bit thin. When the instrument switches to the synth bass sequence it's catchy and all but still feels just a tad simplistic in its execution, and stays that way for the entire track. It feels I'm ragging a bit too much on this instrument but it's actually throughout most of the track and sometimes it's the only strong element in some sections so it's a very important piece and I don't think it's interesting enough to carry the whole thing. The choir sample is nice but is also very static throughout the track, I think it could be more powerful-sounding specially at the point it's introduced but it kinda sits in the background for long periods of time while the synth bass is trying to carry it all. There are positives here in the production though, the mix is clean and balanced and I liked the special effects used to emphasize and give variety to the beat. Overall I think the instruments here are just on the simplistic side and the track meanders for a long period of time, hanging on elements that are not strong enough to carry an arrangement. It kinda comes together near the end but I don't think it's enough. A revision could make this go over the bar perhaps. NO EDIT: One final clarification, I don't want this evaluation to mislead you into thinking you need realistic choir samples or anything, it just needs to be more interesting to listen to, that can be accomplished with arrangement changes, or production techniques used on the samples. Even just adjusting envelopes for a more natural curve and changing them depending on context helps a lot.

wow, I wasn't expecting this for a pacman remix. Pretty ominous and dark sounding stuff. I get some blade runner vibes with some of this arrangement, like the tension-creating bassline which hangs on that note forever (but doesn't get tiresome). Excellent soundscape and use of synths. The arrangement is great, turning this classic short tune into something this epic is pretty awesome. I feel the mix is missing some mid frequencies but it's fine overall. Man I just get some nasty cyberpunk vibes from this. If there's ever going to be a Pacman: act zero, this is the song to put in that. Nothing much to say other than, bring it up to the front page! YES

Ah, right on time, as I've been kind of hooked on windows 96 lately. The production here is definitely vaporwave-y. Inbalanced mixing in vaporwave is kind of an acquired taste, as the majority of productions I've heard go for that super boomy mixdown excarcerbated by phasing, heavy compression and flanging effects. It's not as bad here, but you get some of it. It's supposed to sound a bit scuffed, as if it was recorded on an old VHS tape that had already been recorded stuff on it over and over. Of course, we have standars that should apply to everything, so we can't really go around accepting stuff that sounds scuffed on most people's setups. But luckily I do not believe this one is too bad on that front. First, regarding the kick mentioned by Larry, these kind of heavy emphasis on drum transients both for kicks and snares are sort of like a trope for the genre, though I must admit this one overdoes it a bit. The mix is mid-heavy, which I also expect from vaporwave productions but again, it cannot be overdone and I don't think it has been here, there is enough emphasis on the highs that I don't feel the mix suffers from it, and it helps keeping the warm tone. The positives are that for some reason this song fits the vaporwave adaptation perfectly, something about the original just fits nicely here, I love that arpeggio at 2:25, that's the most vaporwave thing here hah. The arrangement is very well done, if this song was shown to me as just a vaporwave original I wouldn't have noticed it was remixing anything (and I am familiar with the source). If these are default FL samples, I think they've been put to good use overall, and they all fit together pretty well. Overall I can see Larry's gripes with this one and I hear them, but I don't think they're egregious. Just taking this track as a whole, it's over the bar for me, it does what Vaporwave is meant to do: create false nostalgic memories in your mind. YES

Very quiet track, lots of headroom helped by the instrument choice, sitting in the upper registers it seems almost fine volume-wise because of how ear frequency response works. That would be my guess at least, because looking at the analyzer it should sound a lot quieter. It's a sweet track, so no surprises so far this being a Tripp rendition. This is a very minimal approach, sort of following the original in vibe, but there are extra layers of harmonization that help a bit with that, and some extra instrumental touches throughout. Everything is spread out well in the stereo spectrum with some instruments coming in and going, sometimes firmly in one side and sometimes dancing around the stereo space. I feel like the original material and reinterpretation doesn't really start to kick in until the latter half of the song, but there's not a lot of it unless I'm missing something. This is a sweet and soothing track, and outside the now familiar headroom issues I don't hear glaring production issues here. The arrangement is minimal as well as the interpretation. This feels more like an upgrade to me, like what the original would sound like in a modern remake. I think a lot more could've been done on the arrangement side but this is enough. YES

This is an underrated soundtrack in the castlevania series, so I'm always up for some more remixes for it (hell even produced one myself). This one is also one of my favorites and possibly one of the most recognizable tracks from the soundtrack. The source is utilized throughout, and while it starts a bit cover-ish it does develop substantially as the song goes on and I am digging all the inclusions and changes. Arrangement-wise, I really have no issues with it. The production however is a different matter. For some reason some instruments sound like they're drowning, or like they're really far away, (i.e. the church organ in almost every instance) There's sadly also the issue of sample quality which is not the best in most instruments used, including some of the drums. Synths are really cheap sounding and I don't know why it's this way because it's super easy to get good lead synth sounds even with free VSTs. That section at 2:14 is just not good at all, between the mechanical and fake nature of those drums and the anemic synth lead it just felt really out of place because the metal sections, outside of production issues, are not this bad. Looking at the mix here in my daw, I'm not seeing much wrong with the frequency response other than it's kinda flat but I did notice the mix sounded substantially better to me with slightly more midrange, a small dip in the upper midrange and a good boost to the highs. It is possible the mix may have an overabundance of lows and that's contributing to the drowned feeling of the instruments, but I don't want to speculate too much on this as the most I can do is try to hack some eq on it as it is. I do notice the lows become this monolithic kinda sound where the bass is really hard to make out and you just get a ball of sound playing the root. I don't like the fadeout ending, something better could be done there, but this is not 100% necessary. I have no issues with the performance, It's all good. But I can't give it a pass on production. Needs a lot of cleanup. I may have gone a bit hard on this one but it's not nearly as bad, and could be easily cleaned up and resubbed and I hope that happens. NO (resubmit)

Loving the synth work on this, electro vibes all over the mix. The bitcrushing is at the forefront of some of these patches but it's never out of place. There's a clear metroid feeling all over this track, including the choral pads which sound very and properly synthesized. I love me some chorused synth bass and the minimal use of it in this track just helps it hit right when it shows up. This is just a super easy vote, this rendition of the theme is very well realized, all the instruments seem to complement each other and the mix really well, includes elements from both the tracks it's remixing where they are recognizable but brought under a different light, and I love me some electro/ambient light for sure. YES

At first I was ok with the lack of bass, not every song needs to be filling the whole sound spectrum, but as time went on it did feel like something was just lacking, some low notes to carry the progression at least, but the lack of lows leaves some sections such as 1:38-2:22 feeling incomplete. I love your transitions, and the ambiance created here. I think the various elements mesh very well, including the electric guitar. I also think you did a good job with the arrangement and you made this arrangement yours. I don't have complains about the sample quality, it's sufficient and in some spots, pretty damn good. The drum mixing could use some work blending in better with everything else. So the dealbreaker here is the lack of lows which in turns makes large sections feel lacking or incomplete. I am not sure it warrants rejection, and I'm right in the middle on this. I want to go with a borderline YES because I don't feel ok with rejecting this on a choice that seems to be stylistic, and I think it deserves to be looked into further. I will be monitoring this thread because I am also open to having my mind changed on this one. YES (Borderline)

I played Octopath last year, it was enjoyable but the music really helped this game a lot, definitely a highlight. The arrangement feels... or rather, is very close to the original even if your version leans quite a bit more into the rock elements. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying there isn't anything new here, I just don't think it's enough to feel like it's your own interpretation. The arrangement itself stays super close to the original even in structure up until the second section where things diverge but only slightly, overall it continues to follow the same beats. I would like to point out the mixing on this as well, since there's a void of highs in this which is apparent on listening, but I also went to my DAW and confirmed it visually. Not sure why but there's a high-end rolloff at 8khz that's eating a lot of brightness out of the mix, almost as if a 12dB lp filter was applied on the entirety of the mix at that point. I am no expert at mixing rock songs, but doing some A/B against some of the similar remixes we have on the site and it shows a pretty noticeable difference. It's surprising that the mix isn't overly muddy due to this, and most of the layers are relatively clean but there's still some boominess casued due to the instruments being funneled into the mids. In a vaccum this isn't bad at all. Just not for OCR. NO

I enjoy the ambiance here. There are a few issues but not so much balance-related, I think the mixing is fine, and the different elements are clear to me on my setup. I think some transitions are underwhelming, such as the introduction of the main section at 0:33 and 3:13, but they don't bring the entire song down for me. These are just nitpicks. The initial saw instrument though, it sounded almost... comical? it's definitely a bit out of place with regards to the rest of the arrangement and textures, and something with less movement would be an improvement there. But looking at the song as a whole, I think it's well arranged, and the composer has a good sense of structure. There are a lot of added harmonic layers that enrich and compliment the original arrangement which itself relies on very little. Production-wise, it is also alright to my ears. At first I thought I heard some distortion on some of the hits, but I am not seeing anything on my DAW so it's probably a weird mix of high end harmonics from the admittedly slightly loud kick sample and some of the ambience and hats, a bit more noticeable on the final push at 3:12. To conclude I think this is over the bar, it's a nice arrangement with a few issues that I don't believe are so bad as to warrant rejection. YES

Holy crap, I feel humbled anybody would like a song of mine that much, thanks!

For some reason, this arrangement feels very flat emotionally, which is weird coming from such an emotionally-charged song. I believe this is due to the piano not being performed properly, things like cadence and humanization are very spotty. Some left hand choices I don't feel like they are going along with the current expression or theme, i.e. hard chords at 1:39, which segues directly into some playful sequence giving you a bit of whiplash. This adaptation makes a lot of sense in paper, as I think a piano is perfect for carrying everything the original song wants to say, but the execution here is not there yet. I was wondering why the left hand sounded robotic and the bottom end lacking until I read the other Js pointing out the lack of sustain pedal, which makes sense. I just don't feel some of the arrangement choices work, they feel very stilted/forced at times. This needs more work, making a piano solo track is deceivingly hard. NO