Sir_NutS

Ah, this one is kind of a bummer. I was enjoying the arrangement and soundscape, which although rather simple it was being executed well. That being said, the artificial extension of the arrangement by looping the first minute and a half is not something we want in an ocremix... and a fadeout outro is something I personally discourage, I think you could do better than that. The arrangement showed promise, but we need a real development past the ideas presented here, add a real second section to this with its own development and ideas so we'll take a second look at it. Aside from that, I think the transition at 1:35 could be smoothed out, as it seemed very abrupt and out of place. This section works in the original, but not in this adaptation, the way it's being presented. The snare rolls felt a bit dry and exposed, and the mix could be adjusted slightly so sections like 1:22 don't feel like you have two melodies fighting for attention (bell arp and bassy synth) NO (resubmit)

You seem to be the same Rukunetsu from whom I borrowed (rather, googled) some Run Saber art for a remix (I credited it with links tho!). Ahem. Anyways, not much to add other than this is pretty damn slick. Rapping is on point, the arrangement is smooth and expansive without getting in the way of what should be front and center: the rapping and lyrics. I didn't find the production to be muddy, rather feels moody, kinda like a rainy day in a cozy cafeteria with a hot cup of mocha. I'm getting too abstract with this, but goes to show you got the mix to speak in ways other than just melodies and harmonies. YES

Hmm very interesting usage of the time signature changes. I have to disagree with 0:25 sounding wrong, I caught on what you were doing inmediately, and I really liked it. Lead writing was pretty clever as well, I really have no issues with this on the arrangement side, most of the problems here lie in the production. Very vanilla sounding instruments, thin leads, basic drums. The mix balance seems to be off in some sections as well, with the leads being overly exposed over the mix, and the drums going to the background with the bass almost disappearing. I think your arrangement skills are up to par but you need to work on your production to get it over the bar. I must reiterate that I loved what you did with the time signatures and they don't sound wrong at all, it's pretty common in fact to hear things that may be dissorienting in odd time signatures, Dream Theater (which you mentioned as influence), Meshuggah, Gojira and Tool come to mind with that. I encourage you to use the workshop and seek for advice on getting your mix to the next level because the arrangement is already there. NO (Resubmit)

There are some really awesome guitar performances here, but there's a feeling of dryness and emptiness that permeates this mix. I'm not sure if it's the lack of bass or just dry instruments overall, but up until around 2:49 it felt like the song was always missing something. I don't think the production is quite there for OCR. The arrangement and performances are fantastic though. The mix felt a bit straightforward at the start but it evolves over time with signature and pace changes, not to mention the rich tones and articulations provided by the guitar performances. I'm definitely torn on this one, and I come back later to it, but it doesn't seem like a clear-cut decision to me.

Ah, I remember reviewing this one in the workshop. I said I liked it a lot and that hasn't changed, this is a pretty cool, groovy yet laid back track, with good production and neat performances. Not the most complex of arrangements but there is a degree of personalization of the source that makes it stand on its own from the many, many remixes of this song out there. I see no reason why we shouldn't have this on the front page. YES

Thanks for letting me know this is one of those mixes. Not that there's anything wrong with a track that lets your mind drift, not every song needs to be an attention-grabber to be good, but those are pretty difficult to judge for the reasons you just mentioned. That said, I think I agree with some of the issues brought up here. I don't think the arrangement is bad, but it just languishes for too long on the same groove and sections. Every section has unique characteristics to it, and there's some work done in the pads and ambiance to keep it evolving, but sections like 2:20 to 3:11 feel like they go on for too long without significant change. The dnb patterns are cool, but I feel like so much more could've been done with them to spice up those long-winded sections. Instead we get a set amount of patterns that play on loop without change. I feel this one is pretty close, definitely scratching the bar, but I feel that the sections could be trimmed to make each section more significant and less meandering, and more can be done to the dnb patterns to keep the groove fresh and to keep the pace from stagnating. NO (resubmit)

This arrangement is pretty cool, but isn't this mixed very very quiet? I loaded this on my analyzer and I'm reading around -15 rms on busy sections, which could be brought up a bit. Weird thing is, even if it's mixed very quiet like this I can hear it's got a fair amount of compression, as I noticed it lacked some punch when going from the empty sections to more busy ones (i.e.1:03). Outside of this issue, I think some of the instruments' performances could've been improved with some more detailing and humanization, and maybe outright choosing a better set of samples (string hits come to mind) but I think the arrangement is great and counters some of the lack of quality in the instrumentation. That buildup towards the end felt awe-inspiring! ! I however would like to see at least the loudness issue getting a second pass. YES - Conditional

I think the source connection felt tenuous for only the first minute of the song, after that it was pretty easy for me to make the connection to what was being performed vs the source. In any case, this is a pretty lovely arrangement which is well performed, and with plenty of interpretation to go around. The adaptation works very well too, and I can easily picture this as an alternate option for the real choose your character theme. The ambiance feels pretty rich, without being too busy or lacking clarity. This is a clear winner for me. YES

I started to write a vote but then realized I was just repeating Kris' comments for the most part, even to the "I dislike outros" bit. Needless to say, I agree with all of the above. I have to also touch on the comments about the track lacking direction on what should be at the front, because I disagree with that, I think the lead melodies are clearly defined, but the way this is arranged makes it so the harmonies share some of the melody lines. I don't feel like the instruments are fighting for space, but more like they are trying to work together very closely, weaving in and out to convey the ideas and emotions to the listener. Nitpicks aside I think this is solid enough to belong in the front page. YES

Hmm this is a pretty tough one. Gario pretty much said it all, the adaptation to big band really, really works here, at least arrangement-wise. But the instrument quality ranges from ok to.. not quite good. Specially noticeable in long legato holds on your brasses, and the clarinet. I don't think you will be fooling anyone, not even the most casual of listeners with this. On an added note I know this song by heart and I can say that while the arrangement was fairly transformative and the adaptation was on-point, there's not much original content added, I would've liked at least some expansion on the original, as this follows the source pretty closely besides the changes done for the genre adaptation. I will leave my comments here to conclude my vote later as I think I will benefit from a few more listens on fresh ears and the opinion of other js, but I'm leaning towards a NO based on the reasoning above. EDIT 4/13: I gave it some time and came back, and I'm more sure on rejecting this one, sadly. The arrangement and adaptation are indeed great but I cannot ignore the production and how the instruments are extremely fake-sounding and worst of all, exposed as clear as day. Your arranging chops are A+ imo, but I would like to hear this either performed by real players or with better samples/more care put into hiding its fake nature. NO (resubmit)

I was really digging this from the intro, but after the track starts evolving I start hearing issues with humanization, they start subtle but by the 2 minute mark it becomes too apparent. Everything sounds so mechanical, and the beat gets on autopilot for far too long. I dig the atmosphere you're building here, and I think the arrangement can work. You have a good sense of pacing, and I specially enjoyed the music box section and its eeriness. But this needs a major pass on humanization before we can send it up. On an extra note, you may want to watch the reverb, as it's creating quite a lot of mud and artifacts, you may want to dial the release or the wet signal down a notch so you get a cleaner mix that mantains the eerie characteristics you're trying to execute. NO (resubmit)

Very Nice! This remix is indeed a bit medley-ish sounding, but I didn't find fault in the transition, it makes sense as a single piece. Jumping from whimsical, to adventurous as it wills to without losing pace. The orchestration was pretty good! although I wasn't a huge fan of the choirs, it's such a minor thing in the context of the entirety of the track, it doesn't really matter much. This is one of those remixes that can lift one's spirit by listening to it. I have a friend who just loves whimsical orchestral songs, and I know this will be liked by her and many more ocremix listeners. So let's get you to the front page. YES

Pretty good metal rendition of these songs. Production is mostly clean and sharp, though I found the snare on the first section a tad loud, it felt better on the solo section after the breakdown, I assume because the many layers are occupying its most resonant frequencies. Not a dealbreaker here as the production is good. I thought the arrangement was alright, the first section felt like it dragged out on just rhythm guitars for too long, but that may be due to the nature of the source tracks. The track does expands melodically as it progresses, without taking out the driving energy that it brought from the start. YES

I took some of the crits and update the track, mostly eq balance regarding highs/lows kick notoriety and balance:

I'm gonna have to go against the current here. The mix gets very wonky at some points (1:31, 3:15) with the lead being overpowering, but also the other harmonies trying to compete with it for space too hard. I didn't like the sound design on this one, I think that in other mixes from Beth, her sound design has been fairly simple but mostly subtle, and enjoyable. In this mix I can't help but picture a collection of presets thrown together without quite complementing themselves or the mix. I don't like the lead, it has a very ugly, yet dull and blocky tone to it, I would change that right away first. I would try to modify or change the rest of the sounds so they mesh together more cohesively in the mix. Regarding the arrangement I have no issues there, except maybe for the somewhat abrupt transition at 3:00. I know you tried to build up to it with the riser, but I think more could've been done in terms of filtering, or regarding the arpeggio going on, to make the transition better. I think with a revision of the sounds used and some tweaks to the mix balance this should be good for the front page, but right now I can see several aspects where it's very rough. NO (resubmit)

#shamelessselfpaneling Artist: Sir_NutS Name of the games arranged: Run Saber Name of the arrangement: Break My Strider Name of the individual songs arranged: 'Renegade Saber' Link to remix: (edited) Links to originals: It's been a while since I finished a song so I thought it was about time. This is a remix of Run Saber, a game I used to rent all the time as a kid. It was a simple, enjoyable action game with great music. Kind of a Strider ripoff with multiplayer, but fun. Anyways this theme, I had been bugging Willrock to remix it almost every time we talked for over a year, because I always thought it was perfect for him, but he wasn't very interested, so I decided I should remix it myself, somewhat in the style I think Will would do it but adding my own as well. So you get a discount Willrock sort of a remix. I tried to get him to do the guitars only after I finished it, but it seems he was too busy with other projects so yeah. I ended up using Shreddage, which sounds alright in this song imo. The rest of the song was done using my usual array of synths. I had a lot of fun with the arrangement, doing some extensive soloing for some of the parts. In the end, doing synthrock with modern drum elements and techniques was a lot of fun and I may do it again soon. The track name is a double pun thanks to F4T4L as always. Enjoy!

A bit weird for me to hear the psytrance-styled beat and bass carrying this song, as the other elements don't sound much like what you would find in a psytrance song. It even sounds more like something from Eisenfunk and other EBM groups to me. But in the end I think it works in a weird way. A lot of the sounds are vanilla, but the arrangement and crazy cuts and melody lines make up for it in my opinion. This is a case of a solid and fun arrangement vs non-ideal production values... and I think I'm leaning towards the arrangement and techniques adding more value than what the production is taking away. YES (borderline)

I have to agree this is pretty solid, starts off very conservative and by-the-books, but after it goes through the first round of the source we're treated to keyboard and guitar solos running seamlessly over the original progression. I think more could've been done to expand on the source though, as the original parts don't last very long, and when the song returns to the source nothing is changed or evolved (It's a pretty short remix too). The arrangement didn't blow my mind because of this, but it's a solid delivery overall. YES

I am really loving this idea here, but the execution falls short. As Gario mentioned, the vocalist's style is really fitting for this style but sadly she does fall flat in several places, most noticeable in the lower registers. I agree that a bit of pitch correction would do wonders. Also I loved the harmonized sections. The instrumentation is also alright, though it does feel mechanical sometimes, it's not the focus of the song. As the vocals draw so much attention you can get away with a bit of stiffness/fakeness in the instruments and their dynamics. Gario is on point on the off-beat nature of the performance around 3:10. An easy fix. I'm also having issues hearing the original source in this, and I know this soundtrack by heart, sf64 being my most played n64 game. I'm not sure if the arrangement can be changed at this point but I would recommend making the source connection more evident. I think that with this kind of track with so much vocal focus, a second pass to make them shine throughout the entirety of the duration of the song would be great. When she hits her stride she gets lovely and epic results out of her voice. I would really love to see this on the frontpage so if possible, think about the suggested corrections and hit us again. NO (resubmit)

I have to agree that the track gets lost in the arrangement after the first minute of source representation. The bass from the source is there most of the time, albeit sometimes slightly transformed. Another big issue is the static nature of the track. I've noticed we get a lot of funk/disco submissions that feel very static in nature, that may be because these genres tend to produce songs like that, but for ocr we need more than just a static drumline with not many structural changes in the composition. It feels more like a jamming session for the guitarrist, which I personally enjoyed, but it's not really what we're looking for. As a final note I noticed the bass had an unnatural clicking sound to it on every note for some reason. NO

Alright this one has been sitting around here for quite some time, we should get some votes in. I think this is classic Gario here, with plenty of embellishments added to the melodies, as well as splicing into more complex lead patterns. I think the track gets a bit messy in its more busy sections, somewhat heavy on the highs in those as well, but overall this is a solid remix. It's not that easy to bring new things to tracks that have been remixed by everybody on the internet, but I think Gario does a good job at that here. YES

Despite the somewhat aggressive nature of the beat and instrumentation, I found this track to be kinda laid back actually. It's not trying to melt my face, rather it seems like it's trying to be mysterious. Anyways, regarding the production, It all sounds pretty solid here, and as I'm a fan of big snares, you've won some extra good boy points there. The lead used to carry the melody is perfect for the mood, and properly performed. Around 3:35 when the track reaches a climax, it gets quite busy but I can still hear the details, which is good. No qualms with the arrangement, which can be heard throughout the song and is transformed and enhanced by this remix. YES

I agree that this song has some issues. The beginning was messy indeed, to the point where the arrangement stopped making sense to me. But after it hits 1:10 it just switches gears to awesome and never lets go until the end. Yes, the last sax lead is a bit too loud and its sudden introduction kinda enhances this issue, but I can't deny that for the majority of the duration, the production on this mix is passable and the arrangement and performances are great. The sax performance, together with the flute were a highlight for me. I am on the fence on this, but I'm thinking of sending this one to the frontpage. At the end of the day I think the issues vs good things in this mix balance out and tip off towards a pass, but I'll give this one another listen later, leaving my initial thoughts here in the meantime. EDIT 4/20 : listened again today after seeing some voting activity on this one again. I still think it's very close but I feel my initial assertion was correct and this is tipping over the bar just a bit considering the balance of messy 1st minute vs everything else. I however would encourage a revision if possible, but I'm ok with sending this one up. YES (borderline)

Yikes those high frequencies are in serious need of taming, I had to turn the volume down just to be able to listen to this. The snare splash is noticeably piercing to my ears. The mix seems pretty empty overall, with some instruments feeling very static such as the pad in the breakdown, which also has a pretty jarring envelope with no release but a noticeable attack time that's just... odd. The arrangement feels pretty repetitive as well. even though you introduced some neat tempo effects in some of the parts, they didn't help much to keep things interesting when all the other parts felt very samey. If the frequencies are balanced correctly, and more work is done in the arrangement so it's less copy-paste and more cool/quirky stuff, as well as working on making the more static/boring sounds more interesting, I could see this making it to the front page. But only then. NO (resubmit)

Yikes, this is a tough one. I wasn't as bothered by the transition at 3:12, though it is jarring. What I find odd is the rigidness and quality of the instrument, given that you're using The Grandeur which is a decent enough instrument by itself, but here it didn't seem to have much depth to it, though that may be more due to the performance than the instrument itself as I have heard very good sounding performances done with it. Somehow it also felt very mechanical specially in the higher octaves, which is weird given that this is a recorded performance and not sequenced. I don't think the reverb settings were ideal either, I think going for a warmer tone would've given the instrument a bit more body and subtlety. I thought the arrangement was ok albeit a bit conservative, didn't feel like you took many risks here. I feel like if you had gone the extra mile with the arrangement, and the performance didn't have the timing/ overuse of hesitation issues that have been pointed by my fellow judges (and I that I agree with), I could've let this one through despite the non-ideal production. So sadly, this is a NO