Sir_NutS

I've been mulling over this track for quite some time now. I've mentioned this before to other judges, but this track seems to straight up lift some elements from Virtual Riot's "Lunar" track. The chord progression is basically identical, and the few growls thrown in here and there seem to be taken from VR's stream of the "making of" of this track. Some arrangement choices, such as the change to the faster double-time after the "Lunar" melody at around 2:46 seem way too similar to be a coincidence, imo, as well as the way the Lunar hook is presented at 0:42, with the kick emphasizing the start of each chord but then changing to the normal half beat the next measure, then the low-passed filter on the beat buildup to the drop is also very similar. The biggest clue to me here is that the "Lunar" hook is nowhere in the original, nor something even similar to that, which leads me to believe even more that the many similarities I hear are not coincidental. Using parts of a non-vgm song is something that's specified in our submission guidelines: So the question here is whether the usage of Lunar here is limited, and in my opinion, it constitutes a big enough part of this track to not be allowed. I only went through the most obvious similarities but there are also other details here and there, however what's shown is proof enough imo. Besides the inclusion of VR's track in this remix, I would have probably sided with a NO anyways. Jivemaster points out the issues I heard very well, while I will also add that I felt the lead pulse instrument felt very static, and due to the nature of being a remix of both Lunar and Pokemon MD, the structure felt blocky and sometimes transitions felt forced. NO

This mix is too compressed, sections that are meant to be calm quickly become incredibly busy. 0:34 is already very busy and muddied up by the compression bringing up so many lows to the front and making reverb/delay effects too prominent. The busiest section around 1:56 is where the mix breaks down, cymbals are crushed and the doubling of the guitars becomes quite messy. Don't get me wrong, this is a lovely arrangement, but this really needs a more relaxed mix. This may be as simple as turning down the input gain on his compressor a couple dbs, or looking into the mix, but I think it's reasonable to ask for a resub because the the mastering is hurting the listening experience enough, imo. Looking into the wave itself, the climax looks like a sausage, as expected. And that's not very good, unless you're doing certain EDM genres. EDIT: New version feels relaxed, no distortion on the second half, waveform doesn't look like a sausage. Up to the frontpage with you! YES

That bass at the start doesn't sound very natural, there isn't a natural flow from one note to the next, instead they cut each other, which sounds jarring. Going into the mix, the balance is off in almost every section. I think Jive does a great job pointing out the issues here and I agree with his observations. There are some piercing frequencies in the highs that are very noticeable, and sometimes the lead guitar goes into the background (1:52) because the drums and bass (and I'm guessing, a pad) are overpowering them. I did like the drum work you did here, it certainly keeps the arrangement interesting. On the arrangement front I didn't have many issues, I can hear the source enough to believe that this doesn't need to be source-checked, but the production needs to be addressed first because it's a very big issue. NO

Pretty cool!. On a note, it's not the original audio at all, as Larry pointed out. Anyways, solid production overall, I was worried the reverb would muddy things up too much, but it's actually handled well enough that the mix doesn't drown in it. Using the syncopated rhythm from the original around 1:03 in the context of a dubstep remix was spot-on, as this is sort of a staple you hear in many dubstep songs. This particular groove had me djp'ing my way through the mix. I didn't care much about the piano breakdown in the middle, arrangement-wise was fine, taking a stab at changing things up a bit by playing a modified version of the melody while giving us some rest from the previous busy sections, but it just wasn't too interesting to me. Not a dealbreaker though. Overall this is a solid remix with just a few issues but definitely over the bar. Plenty of transformation of the source is done here, all the while beefing it up with layers of harmonies and all those now familiar wubs that some people love to hate. YES

I really liked this idea, very minimalistic, but with a wide selection of sounds to keep things interesting. The rigidity of the performances is an issue though, and something I think we cannot overlook. Other than that, I'm with MW here in that I'm more on the fence about this one since I don't hear many issues and this is a very unique remix, the types we don't get too often, which focuses on a very distinct approach and executes it very well. Overall I would really like a resub with more work put into the performances and maybe some extra spicing up of the ambience. I think you have something with potential going on here, very unique. For now though, NO (resubmit)

When I started listening to this I was actually surprised that it was being NO'd by the other judges, but after a while the issues became pretty clear. Your drums are really cool, and everything you have going on in the background is great, the syncopation and odd time signature is something I really enjoyed, and in general the arrangement does a lot of things right. I just took a moment to read the other votes now and Gario is absolutely spot-on when he says " It's like purchasing a 5 star meal... then pouring ketchup all over it. " The detuned saw lead is probably the biggest problem here because everything else is just great, but this lead is just bland, generic and too pervasive throughout the duration of the song. I wasn't a fan of the basic wubs used as well, but those are given the spotlight briefly, so they aren't much of an issue to me, more of a nitpick. As MW mentioned, the track goes on for a while after it ends so you may want to cut all of that space out. NO

Super fun stuff. The original soundtrack was pure Cheddar, and this mix follows in the same vein somewhat, but makes things a hundred times more interesting by clever arrangement ideas. I don't know why but this reminds me a bit of some songs from Rygar... maybe it's that, unlike the original, it has much more of an adventurous feel to it. Anyways solid stuff, should please the Wand of Gamelon fans out there, we know those 2 guys must be in dire need of fan remixes! YES

The mix feels very messy, and the drums also have an odd quality to them. The snare has this really resonant nature... not sure I like that, and the main hats gain this swerving quality to then when the mix is going in full. As Gario pointed out, the arrangement feels pretty static throughout, and nothing really stands out to me. Perhaps a more interesting arrangement could lift this one up, along with some fixes to the way the different parts are mixed in. Gario has provided plenty of advice on the sections I think are problematic so take a close look at that. NO

I could quote-vote @MindWanderer on this one. I agree with everything on his post, I'll also add that the drum loop feels very vanilla and disconnected from the mixdown, some work on the mix/mastering side could make them mesh better with the rest of the song. The instrumentation in general is also pretty basic. I think the two gentleman before me have given enough good advice, so I won't be repeating all that. NO

Alright I voted on the previous version, but I already forgot what it sounded like, so I'm basically going in clean again. Reading my previous vote, I had issues with the bass balance, but I'm not hearing any of that in this version, the bass is audible and even stands out with some flairs in a few places so nice work there. Regarding my previous comments about the lead synth, I think they still stand. Using the same sound for the first part of the song, and reproducing the original melody verbatim makes this first section feel really vanilla. That plus the lack of humanization on the lead synth, it feels programmed rather than played by a keyboardist. The addition of tremolo in the longer legato notes helps, but it needs a bit more than that. I agree with all of Larry's vote basically, as it's not only the synth but the whole mix that feels very vanilla in nature. Now, I think Larry is really onto something with the rhythm guitars. I think it would benefit the mix immensely if the rhythm guitars were double-tracked and panned. Their presence right now is unnoticeable and I think THAT is the missing part that will take this mix up a notch. I wouldn't mind if other elements were added in the background either, but just a good, chunky rhythm guitar to drive the song along would help a ton. I think this remix has become my go-to example for people trying to do the whole synth-rock thing (including myself!). If you listen to sections like 0:29, or 0:41 in that remix, you'll see there's not that many elements going on, not very different from your own remix indeed! what makes the difference is the double-tracking of the rhythm guitars having a great deal of presence and filling all that mid frequency and harmonic space. Finally I'll add my concerns about the brightness of the guitar lead, that was also mentioned by the other judges. I think this arrangement can work, but it needs another production pass to take it from vanilla and empty sounding to front-page material. NO (resubmit)

I have to go with MW on this one. The use of the original sampling quality of Namco's hardware is cute, but it does get extremely messy at the spots MW's mentioned. When compared to other "dirty" remixes on the site, such as Mazedude's excellent MM2 remix, there's quite a difference in mix clarity. Whereas Mazedude's mix is crunchy, the mix is clear, that's not the case where, where the mix devolves into a ball of muddiness and the parts become very hard to tell apart or identify. I think the main offender here are the drums , because the actual synths are really cool, the added harmonic content caused by the low bitrate is just something I love to hear in lo-fi works like this one, but this doesn't work as well for the drums. a good example of how the mix becomes messy is 3:33, the lo-fi quality of the different elements stops being cute there, it just feels like a wall of noisy sounds. I did like the arrangement however, and I think the piano and guitar elements could work very well with the sampled sounds, but I can't pass this based on mix clarity. Maybe it could be cleared up without hurting too much the artist's original vision, but as it is now I can't give it a pass. NO

I won't be joining this one but if anyone needs an extra set of ears or some advice, hit me up with your WIPs.

It's cool that even while you're familiar with the genre, you understood right away that trap is all about them hat triplets+rolls and the correct usage of he 808 kick as your sub. I think regarding the kick you could've extended the release as a proper trap song would to cover most of the measures, without the pauses, and boost its overall presence more. So in that sense I think I agree with Deia on the kick not being quite there, but since this isn't straight-up trap, it works alright. I love me some harpsichord and this mix doesn't disappoint. The glitching towards the end keeps things interesting. I didn't find the song to be that in-your-face until the glitching and distorted sections, felt more like a slow groove that you can, uh, djp to. Production is solid, but the ending was abrupt. Overall nothing should really hold back this one from the frontpage, so up it goes! YES

Inventive arrangement here with plenty of sfx used to spice things up. I have two issues with this one, the sidechain gets a bit too aggressive at some points, and the main melody disappears behind some of the noise/airy sfx. Regarding the arrangement I'm very happy the remixer took a lot of care in the mangling and splicing of the chemical zone theme and wasn't just happy with playing the source verbatim over the new edm base, which is something you hear often in the remixing community. Regarding the production, besides the issues mentioned above, it all seemed pretty clean and well-crafted. You gave everything its own space, drums were coming up crystal clear and punchy. Overall great rendition of this classic theme in a style that I can't really place in any other edm genre, but that likes to bounce between dubstep, future bass, complextro, and others. Good stuff. YES

Beautiful. Top notch orchestration here. As mentioned, some stops, but they seem to fit the arrangement. A few Grave sections that felt a bit meandering, but when the Watchman's Ease melody hits at 4:00 I was brought right back home. The humanization overall was very natural-sounding, loved it. On the production side of things I have no qualms either, everything is clear and I didn't hear any issues. Overall this is as solid as it gets. On my first listen I thought the track was meandering a bit too much, but on the second I could get a grip of the pace you were going for and I observed many details that I had missed, making the experience much more enjoyable. Great work here. YES

Yeah this is a pass on the arrangement front. Though I have to say I feel the non-stop embellishments of the original melody kinda get too much at some points and I just wished the melody was allowed to breathe for a minute without the addition of so many flairs and arpeggiation. It may be personal preference though. I did like the addition of harmonies throughout that meshed very well into the scope of the arrangement. I didn't get to hear the previous version with the issues that were mentioned above, but I couldn't hear eq issues here so I guess those were already fixed. Overall solid arrangement here. YES

This one takes its time to develop with a very deliberate pace but everything falls into place at the climax and the build up sections didn't feel like filler but sections with their own purpose and actually interesting to listen to. Loved 2:55, this section feels very well humanized and detailed, really good stuff. The arrangement is very dynamic throughout, changing cadence as the arrangements needs to. Overall excellent arrangement, this really shows Slimy's chops. On the production side the mix is slightly low-end biased but really not an issue by any means. Instruments are clear and real. YES

Man, I SO wanted to give this a pass. Beautiful arrangement, and the ambiance and style is just lovely. The handle of dynamics and humanization was great as well, but it's just the production issues holding this back. I listened on two different setups and yeah, the frequency distribution is an issue, it's mostly concentrated in the lows/low-mids, giving the mix that wetness feel (which is great and I personally love!) but also adds tons of mud (not so great =\). When checked in my analyzer it's a steep curve downwards from 1.5khz and up. The mixdown issues here are very easy to solve, so I'm sending this back and hoping Slimy gives us a cleaner mix that retains the wet and ethereal feel of this one. It may seem like rejecting this song over one issue is unfair, but it does obscure things in several places enough to take away from the experience, sadly. I'm really looking forwards to a rework. NO (please resubmit)

I agree with the joyous chimp above me. There's not much to say here other than it's too conservative and repetitive. The mixdown is borderline, though some of the instruments sound very exposed and mechanical. I did like the use of the voice sample. The section around 1:20 sounded very bare bones, and after this breakdown the track goes into repetitive mode pretty much until the end. I think this requires more work in the arrangement side of things to make it passable. NO

I really liked this. Pretty unconventional structure and approach which works because well, what's not unconventional about Undertale? I do have a few criticisms to echo from my fellow judges: the guitars at 1:35 and 2:43 should've been brought to the front, and 1:50 sounds very muffled. The mixdown feels a bit unpolished overall, but it's not something I feel deserves a rejection, as the arrangement more than makes up for it and I don't think these issues are deal-breaker. Undertale may be starting to become one of the most remixed games around here, but there's clearly no lack of original ideas out there and this mix is proof of that. YES

Yikes, overcompressed. It feels like the whole track ducks behind that bassdrum, which would be fine for an electronic track but for something acoustic like this it ends up feeling pretty weird. For these kind of renditions a more natural and relaxed mixdown works better. I didn't mind the reverb that much, if it's there to give the track certain ambience, but even then I would agree is a bit too much. I really liked the performance here, very soothing. It changes the nature of Magus' theme significantly so kudos for that. I think this could work very very well with a cleaner mix and better balance overall. I think the excessive reverb contributes a lot to the track's feel but I feel it bleeds too much into everything. You have the performance and arrangement chops to make such an interesting adaptation, just need to polish your production up. So for now, NO

Jorito provided a Wav: [redacted]

Nice ideas on the arrangement, percussion needs humanization as well as the guitar though.

Well a good start is getting the mix balance right. The drums appear to be a bit too much in the front, and sound like they were recorded on a whole different setup/room. I know the drums weren't recorded, but the way they are mixed in makes them sound like they don't belong. The rhythm guitars are a bit too far in the back and the tone overall seems dull. I think this song is a good reference to follow: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02867 If you get the balance right and then apply some compression, eq, and other processing you can get it to sound fuller and more cohesive. This advice is a bit too general but that's the overview, good luck!

Pretty cool cover, the mixdown could be better though, but your performance on the lead guitar was pretty neat.