Sir_NutS

Fantastic stuff. Great way to morph this very popular track into something completely new, which is possibly the hardest thing you can do with a track that has been remixed as much as Green Hill Zone. The mix was clean and clear, lyrics were neat, and the performances were very good. Only thing I have to say about the mixdown is that the kick is very hard to hear, it doesn't need to be boosted to edm levels but it could get a lift to have some presence in the mix. The arrangement is good as well, with the GHZ theme being very easy to recognize but also heavily modified with original content that fits like a glove, both in the backings and in the new, completely original sections added. I have to give kudos for the work on the doubling of the vocals, it's just not straight up doubling but adding harmonies and nuances, I really liked that. Overall a pretty unique and sweet sub, It's an easy pass and a great addition to OCR's library. YES

There are very evident issues in this one, which Kris pointed out very succinctly, and most of the time we auto-dq tracks with evident issues like this one but I think this one deserves some feedback as I think you have a good mind for original ideas and that deserves recognition. First and most obvious is the repetition, which is present in many of the elements in this song. The drums get very repetitive, and the backing grooves as well. The progression feels static throughout as well. I think if you threw in a wrench in the progression at some point, changing the underlying chord progression and making a section of your own that'd spice up things considerably. Second is the sounds, which are pretty basic and generic. The bass, when exposed, sounds very midi-ish. The strings are pretty bland and your lead lacks humanization, it's just a simple pulse wave. Try adding some type of modulation, tremolo, bending, sliding between notes, there are many things you can do to make your synth leads sound interesting, and like they're actually being played and not sequenced. If you look at old classic soundtracks for the NES era, you'll notice that the best always try to make the basic NES leads sound more natural. I suggest you should look into that Now for the good things, your adaptation to the genre is fantastic and you know very well what are the tropes and cues that make something sound like Disco, so props to that. I think you successfully took the original and morphed it into something else while retaining the familiarity of the source, I really like that. I think it's very important to have a good sense for how to get these transformations right to be a good remixer, and I think you have that down. I would like you to work on getting your production game up and on making things feel more lively and less on autopilot. Good luck in your future submissions, but for now this will be a NO

Hello. We didn't use our HKF name for this one because it wasn't a full collaboration, I just asked Joel for some vocal clips, and the stuff we want to do as HKF has its own, very irreverent style so this one didn't fit that bill. We have many tracks as HKF in the backburner that we're hoping to release soon-ish.

I didn't vote on the previous submission so this is new to me. Regarding the production, the drums feel crude, but they're creative and I feel you have a good grasp on how to make interesting dnb/drumstep grooves, and just need to improve the actual production by making them sound tighter together, as right now they feel too much like individual samples and not a cohesive unit. I was also not a fan of the drops at all; they felt very weak, the growls sounded muffled and the layered synth bass felt very exposed and vanilla. Really wish those delivered on the aggressiveness levels necessary to make them work. Regardless of these issues, I thought the adaptation and arrangement were pretty neat. All the other sections besides the drop worked very well for me, they're melodically rich and the synth sounds worked very well, creating a nice atmosphere that works for the adaptation. As mentioned above the drums sequencing was very detailed and never lost itself in doing too much or just going too random. I'm honestly very borderline on this one but I think the positives slightly surpass the negatives. YES (borderline)

Yeah this is not quite there yet. The synths and drums are very vanilla, and the motifs are repeated too much. Lead levels vary a lot, some feel very in your face while others seem pretty distant. There are some positives to find here though, as I enjoyed the lead melody writing, and I also have to add that the mix felt clean, although that's partly because of the basic features found in the production, but there wasn't anything that was really off-putting or that broke the mix. I don't know if I agree with the crits regarding the high end balance, I thought it was ok, and rising it too much may bring unpleasantness to the mix which is clean, for now. I'd recommend just adjusting the gain balance of your different instruments in your mix first before trying any eq changes, and see if that gets you a fuller mix, as I mentioned before I noticed some things felt like they were too much in the background. I will also add that more work can be done to smooth the transitions. I'm glad you're taking the panel's advice and trying to use it to improve, that's a great attitude. For this song though I'll have to go with a NO

I'll echo Joel on this one, in one word this was enjoyable. I liked the winter atmosphere quite a lot. The mixing was clear for the most part and performances were handled well. Some of the instruments are a bit too resonant for my taste but nothing that breaks the mix. There's a fair amount of attention to detail here, and while the arrangement doesn't go to extremes interpretation-wise, the adaptation is more than enough to distance it from the original. Repeating myself here, I'll say that this is not a perfect mix: the plodding pace may not be something everybody will enjoy, although we can put that blame onto the source which has a VERY plodding pace, so I think the remix improved on that too. This is certainly an enjoyable submission that's past our bar. YES

Yeah, the sequenced sound is inescapable here. It's not a bad arrangement, but the production needs to step up, the instruments need to sound more humanized, and the edm parts need to sound less vanilla. The mixing itself is not bad, although the bass is nowhere to be heard and needs a boost. The different elements can be identified even when the track is busy, but they are stiff and dry. You have a good idea here, well structured too, just needs a bump on the production side of things, I think Kris and Greg offered good advice on this. Your instruments don't need to sound uber realistic but you can do better to make them sound less mechanical, and your synths can be less generic and have some modulation and spice in them. NO

Yeah, Kris summed it up well. Some neat ideas specially in the second half, but the mix is not very good, and the drum loop is on autopilot. Even for a chip-style remix, the lead pulse synth lacks modulation to liven it up. I feel this idea would work on a more developed and balanced mix but as it stands is too basic and with very evident issues. NO

I think I could quote the entirety of Nutritious' vote as he detailed all my issues with this mix. But I'll still try and offer some extra thoughts: ^ This is some good advice to fix your note cutoff issue, as this has happened to me as well before, in different DAWs. Although I agree with Nutritious' vote, I didn't mind the repetition of the groove as much. I've been known to love some remixes that use extreme repetition as a base to build upon, however in those cases there are always layers upon layers of interesting, evolving things happening over time, as well as a structure to carry them forward, which is something I think this piece doesn't accomplish very well. As noted, the drums come up at one section but drop out promptly without establishing a proper section. Breakdowns come in when there's no need for breakdowns but for energy development, and the track ends unceremoniously. Besides the production qualms listed above, I did like your approach, and would like to hear a more refined version. NO (Resubmit)

Sweet instrumentation, love the inflection and modulation of some of the lead instruments, it's a piece that doesn't need to sound entirely realistic, which is why I didn't feel the synths' inclusion was jarring, but the detailing introduced in the performances is very appreciated. My only gripe with this rendition is how close to the source it is. The first section of the song up to 2:30 can be considered cover material, and after that there's a slight change in tone the same motifs prevail almost verbatim; that is, until the last section with the piano is introduced, which proved to be interesting but somewhat short and empty. I loved the soundscape, but the drums seemed very dry near the end at the start of the piano section. The mix was ok so I don't have many production qualms. I think that if the source was somehow expanded upon after the first introduction, instead of having it repeat several times before we're treated with minor variations of it, this could pass, as of now, I'm borderline on whether the interpretation is sufficient, and I think I'm leaning towards not. NO (borderline/resubmit)

Ah, right up my alley. There's sort of a contrast for me in this song, as it tries to sound 80s, with the drums and percussions, but the synths are screaming early 90s to me. The saw synth sounds more like a jp8k than a Jupiter 8, which is the sort of sound I expect in these kind of synthwave styles. Regardless, I think that the clash of soundstyles won't be that apparent for people who aren't geeks about this, which I guess I am, and there's really nothing wrong with the sound themselves and how they sit in the mix. The mix itself is clean, and drums feel punchy. The arrangement is somewhat conservative but helped by the style to which it was translated to, and the instrumental breaks which use small sections and motifs from vampire killer to interact, and sometimes do call and response with the varied percussion writing. YES

Unique, brooding but not without charm, and intriguing approach to the theme. The high expertise of the artist is displayed in every part of this song. Highly recommended.

A lot of Hearthstone music is "remixed" warcraft music tho, I think only the main theme is original.

I personally loved this approach, and also that the artist was very open to feedback and used it for the betterment of the song. Hope we hear more from you and your banjo again.

Pretty good, dark and mysterious atmosphere. Production is solid, and the interpretation is there even if it sticks fairly close to the original. I would've liked to hear more variation on the dubstep bass parts, as it feels like small sections such as the pitched-down, off-beat filtered bass parts were reused one too many times. But the mix is big, and not too long to overstay its welcome. Nice work overall though, I'm ok with giving this a YES

Pretty neat soundscape. Some of the synths were a bit peaky with the resonances in the mid-highs but I wouldn't say it was problematic. The beds of reverb don't get in the way of the cleanliness of the mix so that's good. The filtered bass playing the triplets around the middle section was a very cool break. You managed to do a lot to the drums to keep things interesting throughout using filtering, changeups, etc. Production overall is alright but I would've preferred something a bit quieter, given the overall feeling of the piece, it gets rather smashed at some points which is counter to what's going on in the arrangement sometimes. In regards to the arrangement, it's not exactly an usual structure, but it works here, and the source is well implemented and expanded upon. Overall, short sweet, over the bar, let's go. YES

Who doesn't like some dragonborn? it's popular for a reason. I liked your approach a lot, but I will have to agree with the votes above, humanization is something that needs a lot of work, in a track where you have this many performances it's very important to make them sound fairly realistic, and I think there's quite some room for improvement here. I also think the mix balance isn't quite there, as the rhythm guitars sometimes take more space than they should and the instruments that should be leading suffer because of this. I think you have a pretty good start here and I think this could work if there's more attention to detail put into the performances and articulations of the instruments. NO (resubmit)

Interesting. The intro seems unrelated to the rest of the track, as in, it doesn't really add anything to it. I liked the evolution from the chip elements to the chip/metal mixture. The mix seems unbalanced, the rhythm guitars sound a bit opaque and lack definition, they don't follow the groove of the drums well in the first section and sound very stale. The original portions added to the final lead solo were neat, but I think the track could be expanded further.

Learning an instrument or music theory is not necessary, I can't really play anything for example, but it can make your life much easier when composing. I would recommend trying to learn before spending years trying things out until things fall into place.

Very interesting... This is kind of a tough song to evaluate, on one hand, it's VERY minimalistic, but on the other hand, that performance is full of soul and feeling and oozing nostalgia. But I'lll give it a shot: first, the bubbling background sound, I wasn't a big fan of. I don't know how it fits on the theme so maybe I'm missing a reference there, but I think the sound of beach waves would've fit better. second, the bass is as minimal as you could get... but it does change over time and really, it does what the track needs it to do. The protagonist here is of course the guitar, and boy did you run away with it. You really took your time with the development of the arrangement, and for the first 2 minutes I was wondering where this was going but you did enough to keep me curious. After the lead enters in full force it never lets up or disappoints, taking the source and transforming it naturally over time. Sometime exploring feelings of nostalgia, other times just being cocky and playful. I dig. I would've liked you to keep things shorter with such a minimalist approach. Around the 4 minute mark I felt that the idea was starting to overstay its welcome, although it didn't take much longer to end after that. I would've also enjoyed other subtle elements supporting the arrangement other than the bubbling sounds. I think the potential of the idea wasn't explored completely or as much as it could've been... but imo, what was done was enough, and what was done is pretty damn good. YES

Gario pretty much said it all here. I will say first though that personally, I enjoyed this piece! it has kind of that charm that old pc game soundtracks had when midi sequencing was a thing for dos and early windows soundtracks, but although I enjoyed this on a personal level it does not meet the criteria of what we're looking for in OCR. The instrumentation is too obviously sequenced and stiff, and humanization is lacking in pretty much all fronts. I don't want to repeat the things Gario pointed out again so I'll just refer to his vote. I liked the adaptation and it's definitely a different take on the original while also not straying too far from it. The personal touches are there as I could hear changes in both structure and arrangement, so kudos on that. I didn't have an issue with the drum parts, I thought they are one of the things that changed the feel of the song compared to the original. As it stands though, the song needs a bump in production quality to get over the bar. NO

I agree there's some balancing work to be done regarding the mix. In the drums, the kick lacks low end. It doesn't need to be prominent as an EDM kick, but it's important to have low end in your kickdrum for your rock/metal songs. I thought the snare was fine though. I didn't find the bass arrangement as problematic as Gario did, although it does sound odd in some sections such as when it follows the lead/other instruments. I did find the transition to 3:00 disappointing, and this section seems aimless and jumbled. It doesn't help that the clean guitar in this section jumps out in front of the mix at random moments. I think that overall the mix could be tightened a bit further, as some of the synth parts felt dry and separated from the other elements, but fixing the balance comes first, and the clean guitar was the biggest offender here. I wouldn't mind some beef in the low end of the kickdrum, without making it louder, and maybe look into the issues Gario had with the bassline, although as I said it didn't strike me as a major issue. The last half after the transition around the 3 minute mark could definitely use some work in both mix balance and arrangement though. NO (resubmit)

I was actually surprised that this was done by Shinray, as the previous remixes were amazing but this is honestly pretty bland. I have to agree on the stiffness of the instruments, moreso on the the brasses and the strings that play in the second half. The mix is clean and the instruments themselves don't sound that bad, but the performances need work. The arrangement is also very conservative. I like the idea of mixing the rock and orchestral elements for this particular song but the delivery is lacking. Please rework it, we would love to have another amazing Shinray song on the site. NO (resubmit)

Jorito sent me a link regarding the conditional status:

I will quote-vote Jivemaster here as he summed up my feelings on this track. For the record, I hear this type of snare sound a lot in black/death metal, it's very characteristic of the genres so I don't have that big of an issue with it, but I will agree with the others in that the drums as a whole are a bit muffled. The mix though is problematic... I could compare this to a lot of underground releases and it isn't that far off really, but one key element missing here are the vocals, which usually take the main stage in a track of this genre along with the guitars, without them, the unbalanced mix grabs too much attention. I don't have an issue with the sudden start, again, I hear this a lot in many Black/Death metal tracks, but the fadeout is an issue for me, as I feel something more interesting than that could be in place. Overall although I recognize the faults in the mix this isn't really far off the bar taking the genre into consideration, and also that we don't require professionally-mixed tracks. The arrangement is good, and tbh everything here falls pretty close to what I expect out of the genre. example here. I do think some extra polishing is required to bring it up a notch; i.e. making the drums a bit more solid, perhaps trying out a different ending so we don't have a boring fadeout, and balancing the overall mix better. NO (borderline, resubmit)