Sir_NutS

TBD

oh btw guys, ZENYATTA IS SO GOOD NOW!. I've always loved the guy but since they made him fragile in the beta he lost a lot of viability. He's pretty good now and I'll be using him a lot now.

Production-wise this isn't bad; the strings used felt a bit static but they're mostly background filler so that's alright. I am not totally convinced by the steel guitar, although I feel you did try to add some dynamics to it, I think you overused it throughout the track and the more you rely on it the more my attention as a listener is drawn to it, and the more I find the failings of the dynamics and articulations. Another sticking point for me are the dubstep wubs, which didn't feel like they were following the groove of the song. I take issue with people just throwing the dubstep wubs in a track without understanding why and how. The automation of your filter should make a groove that complements the beat, I feel like the automations here just get random and pointless, or the envelopes are too long and make the wubs kinda cheesy. Most of the time they just feel like they're on top of the track and not contributing to what they should: get my head bobbing with the beat. I also felt the sound used was very static outside of the filter automation used to create the wubs. I felt like the two themes segued into each other fairly well, but some of the variations on the melodies felt kinda noodly. I did like the section with the middle with the triplets variations, even though the section felt emptier than it should. I feel the song goes for a bit longer than it should, and the drums get very repetitive. Overall this is not a bad start but requires a number of adjustments to get it working. I provided some regarding the arrangement and structure which were big issues for me, but Gario also provided useful feedback. NO (resubmit)

Production is excellent, kinda surprised those left panned guitar licks on the first section worked in this slow tempo with such a deliberate pace and dark atmosphere, but they do! and that's kinda cool. Drums are really punchy and clear, the balance on the guitars is pretty good as well. The acoustic guitar was slightly sloppy but with the deliberate pace it's bound to happen, it's something I don't think that detracts from the arrangement at all. I'm having a few issues with the arrangement though. It's very conservative, and also repetitive. It's a very short source so it's understandable but I can't help but feel like more could've been done on the interpretation side of things. The break in the middle was a good change of pace but that section ends up being pretty boring, as it's just some very vanilla sounding string chords, though I did like the thin sine lead, it adds a bit of an eerie flavor to the section. The second section after this is basically the first without the left-panned guitar hook. The drum work is detailed on this section though. Overall I wasn't feeling the arrangement too much but the production is great for the most part, and I can't deny that there's variation and interpretation, however it's very minimal with a couple of same-y sections that aren't exactly copied and pasted but feel like it, and how good the original stuff added actually is falls on rather subjective territories. I'll go with a lukewarm pass as I feel the potential in the arrangement wasn't completely explored, but it's solid nonetheless. -- Edited Below 12/23 --

Yikes... ok man, you have to REALLY tone this down. Just on those grounds we will have to reject it. But to go a bit further on details on the production, it's very highs-focused and needs better eq'ing. The transients on your synths feel too strong and get piercing, coupled with the slightly resonant mid-highs. I think the mixing could be tighter, the synths feel slightly separate and dry at times, I think you can achieve a warmer mix while keeping the powerful energy by toning down the overall levels, and working from the ground up on balancing your mix, then adding your compressors but not to attain the maximum loudness possible but to give your track the proper contour, then you can proceed to maximize everything to loud, but not over-the-top loud levels. I'll agree with Gario, good ideas on the arrangement front. It's a bit conservative at first but it gets to play around with the original in different ways and there's some cool interplay between the different instruments. At this point the production issues need to be reigned in before we can consider a pass. NO

Good recap

I tried her for a while yesterday, my thoughts so far: Her unscoped shot is just as powerful as her scoped shot. If you need to be in the thick of battle at some point because there's no vantage point to defend your team from, you'll be shooting non-scoped shots for the most part at both enemies and allies, which feels really weird. There's a small delay before her damage takes place, I don't know what the purpose of this could be, felt a little awkward to me. There's 0 mobility in her kit so perhaps the video where she's up at the top of Anubis entrance was just bullshiting people? Her shot doesn't really do much damage. She can't headshot either Sleeping dart is powerful. It's sort of a mccre flashbang, harder to aim but with more payback. Even if your allies do dmg to the enemy and wake him up, the dart is still a knockdown that requires a small amount of time to stand up. It will be insane to stop most ultis in the game. The grenade is very powerful as well. The range is not too long but it does have some reach. It does a lot of dmg/healing, if you need a burst of either it's great, also in high ranks this will be a very powerful tool to stop lucios/roadhogs/s76 Nano boost is powerful, but then again all ultis are. She seems really strong to me. I still have to wait and see how she'll do but I can already say she'll be better than a zenyatta at healing, damage, utility and survivability. She won't be picking people off like a WM, but she will be a real nuisance.

I mean more in a way to defend yourself. WM has a couple counters, tracer, genji, and winston all can get wherever she is very very safely and kill her, she may get ONE chance to escape a tracer if she acts quickly and hooks to higher ground, but genji and winston WILL get her. With Ana though, all she has to do is stun them. Since we know she can kill a wm with one shot, we can safely assume she will be able to oneshot a stunned tracer and genji. As for winston she'll have PLENTY of time to go to her team and find safety. That's why I said I would take a 6-second stun over mobility any day. Let's not forget the fact that unlike wm's mobility, her stun can be used effectively as an offensive tool if on a coordinated team. I'm hoping to see some real drawbacks to Ana when I get to the PTR, otherwise she seems like a balance nightmare. A lot of utility, damage and healing with no real counter? smells like trouble (well, a better wm/ana is a real counter I guess)

I'll take a 6 second stun (her tranquilizer) over mobility any day.

Actually, I agree. But we'll see. I'm bad at sniping so I doubt I'll play her much, just like wm, but it'll be interesting to see what they'll do with such an unique archetype mix.

This one is indeed a no-brainer. Right off the bat it hits you with the chunky guitars and soaring synth lines that are simple but actually feel rich in texture. Excellent production values here, and the arrangement is top notch as well, both sources are represented really well. Guitar performances are powerful and show excellent musicianship. This Mega Man 10 track is, in my opinion, one of the best Mega Man songs ever made, and this remix totally does it justice. I don't have much to add here since this is way above our bar. plz post. YES

Also new patch coming to the ptr: Zenyatta buffed (yay!) D.Va matrix changed (good) Mercy reworked (woah not sure about that right click dmg boost, scary.) but most importantly: 1-hero limit for competitive (fuck yes) EDIT: Another MUCH NEEDED change. Goodbye koth tracer/lucio/winston spam to keep the match going for 5 minutes on overtime. NOBODY WILL MISS YOU. Actually more changes than I expected, all pretty good! Like I said DVA was pretty OP in beta but she got massive nerfs that brought her to her current state. These buffs bring her closer to her beta state but I hope we don't get back to that point, she was really oppressive when OP. An actual very sneaky nerf here. Not the ultimate cost, since self-healing now fills ultimate and heroes are compensating for that, but the spred recovery nerf is pretty damn important. Anyone who plays S76 knows that there's no penalty for burst fire and it's the correct way to shoot 90% of the time, now it's being nerfed quite significantly, we'll see!

So she DOES shoot people to heal. Interesting. Lots of cc and utility too. Being able to snipe heal seems really op in a lot of maps on O, specially near spawn, but we'll see. I love how she looks/acts though.

Excellent textures and drum work, I'm getting some heavy Gramatik vibes here. Arrangement is top-notch, and vocoders are a soft spot of mine, so it's no wonder I love this. I do have to say that when the vocoded lyrics first come up, they aren't clear and mesh too much with the background sustained synths. I also think that the overall mix could've been clearer, in some of the heavy sections the drums duck out a little, and the vocoded section obscures some of the leads at times. I think sections like 03:00 and on would've been served better if the vododed bits "feel the beat, that make your body move" worked in a more call-and-response way with the leads, but when they play together they get a little busy. Anyways none of that would hold this track back, but there's room to improve!. Nice Work. YES

Original song: Weird selection of source, as this song in Nintendo Land is a remix of Balloon fight's bonus round theme. Usually the issue with remixing sources that are short jingles like this one is that it's very hard to build up a cohesive song that doesn't feel too repetitive. Sadly, I feel like you didn't avoid this, as this song is way too long to just survive on the same riffs and motifs that are around 15 seconds long. You did try to build around these, adding little variations and harmonies, or backing strings playing the base progression, but the repetitiveness of the base themes is just too much for the listener to handle for 6 whole minutes. Fadeout endings aren't something I like at all either. The production is so-so. It feels muddy at times, and it was a bit odd to start with such a heavy beat but have much simpler drum sequences for the majority of the song. The mix gets really cluttered on the fuller sections and the overcompression hits these sections very hard as well. The sections where the strings start showing up is a good example, as the entire track ducks at the start of every measure, giving off a very weird effect in the amplitude dynamics. I think this song needs to be severely trimmed to work. Trimmed by at least half, if you're going to keep the original motifs so ever-present. You can keep the long running time but in order to do that you would need to just ditch the repetition and bring up new original sections that don't rely on the same riffs. Even then I would still suggest to trim the track, it's going to be naturally easier to adapt a very short jingle to an average-duration song. The production will need work as well, as the mix needs clarity and cluttering/overcompression issues need to go. NO

I will disagree with Kris on the intro sidechaining, it's really not heavy, it's fine but the problem is that when you have it affecting your leads without a beat behind it, it will sound like you're overcompressing. Having sidechaining on your saw pads without the beat will sound fine, as this will form the basis of your groove, but you should do a separate sidechain line for that so you can keep it in places where your beat is absent, and keep the lead melodies and other elements that don't need to follow the groove clear of sidechaining when there's no beat. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but seems like you are throwing sidechaining around without thinking "should I need this here?", or reacting to what your track needs production-wise. Sidechaning is a great tool to make your drums come through, and to make polyphonic harmonies such as saw pads or supersaw riffs follow certaing groove. Sidechaining rants aside, I agree with the rest of Kris' vote, and most of Gario's too, specially the part about energy management in your song, as it feels really static in structure and energy levels. I think you had 1:33 to be the "drop" or climax for the first part, but the buildup was a bit weak, and the instruments in the drop don't sound big enough to bring up the euphoric feeling you need here. The supersaw synth here sounds a bit dull and the bass synth is not big enough. I suggest beefing up your supersaw so it fills more space, and maybe adding another layer to it with a different synth, perhaps one with a little movement, either way, the drop needs beefing up. One thing I can suggest is, instead of beefing up the drop, make the buildup to it more intense. A pause before the drop sometimes adds the tension necessary, maybe some glitching up in the final vowel of the lyrics before reaching the drop, or stronger rising effects. Regarding the vocals there's room for refinement here. I think your vocals would fit a more "whisper-y" processing for this song, they sound a bit nasal. I think the parts where the harmonies are used sound great!. I think more refinement could be done in the sustained notes as well as when you slide up in pitch, it wavers a little. Your arrangement works, I think some sources were better represented than others but as long as we have enough source material, everything is fine. I think you did a good job mixing 3 different sources into a cohesive unit, it's really not easy!. The adaptation works, so on the arrangement front, I'm fine. I think you have some work to do production-wise here before I can pass this, but it's certainly doable. NO (resubmit)

She's not. Looking forwards to sombra, too. I hope they will be releasing another character alongside her, but I doubt it since they said they will take it very slow with character releases.

It's an interesting idea but I really don't know how it could be balanced, the point of a support is that they're squishy and have to be in the thick of battle to be functional, as such the other team can counter by focusing it. A sniper healing from the longest range possible seems like a balancing nightmare. I can see a hybrid working though, a real sniper that buffs/heals teammates while sniping enemies or debuffs enemies akin to the tf2 sleeper. The sleeper was always an underpowered weapon because hey, if you can headshot people why debuff them? but valve never really cared about balancing all weapons so they're competitively functional. Some kind of sleeper with a healer functionality built into it, or maybe a sniper that can accrue charges for attacking/headshotting that could be spent on a heal/buff. In the files mercy hints that the weapon could be modified to be offensive and she doesn't want that, so OF COURSE it will be modified to just do that for Sombra. Either way, I doubt it will be just a healer that will snipe allies from a safe range, but if it is I'll be very interested in how blizzard will plan to balance that.

I quite liked this. The instruments are handled with attention to detail in the performances, check the subtleties in the viola at 1:54 and on, just great. Not entirely convinced by the woodwinds, and the piano is a touch stiff, but other than that everything sounds dynamic and convincing. The arrangement is solid, and although I liked the original a lot, this adaptation works well and if the listener hasn't heard the original he wouldn't notice this was supposed to have vocals. Again, solid arrangement with a lot of soul. YES

OK I was going to post about how this is a song from an Anime, but as it turns out the visual novel came first. Anyways, I think you had good ideas arrangement-wise here, but the production is a bit of a letdown. There's a fair bit of interpretation in your remix and a nice sense of pacing, also you took care in making sure the structure is not static, which is a failing we hear often with novice orchestral arrangements. Some really good changeups, moments of tension release and a great buildup to the climax in the second section. Now regarding the production, there are several issues here, first the instruments, although of not horrible quality, are not handled very well. The performances are very stiff and calculated, very robotic in nature, and articulations are almost non-existent. It's very evident in the staccato sections but also on the legato strings which seem to have identical envelopes for each note. The busy sections get really compressed to the point of distorting the different elements in your track. I didn't have an issue with the use of silences in your mix, I think they serve the structure well, I actually loved the full stops, they add a lot of character to the arrangement. I think this needs a lot of work in the production department to earn a pass, but the artist does have a good grasp on arrangement and this adaptation works very well for me. With more believable performances and a re-balance of the mix in the busier sections to remove the overcompression and distortion this would be an easy pass for me. NO (resubmit)

Robocop 3 main theme is certainly not a hidden gem, it's one of the most well-known and classic themes by Jeroen Tel for the commodore 64 (which is better sounding than the NES version, but the same arrangement). Regarding this mix, I loved that intro! although it's the same as the original I think that melody really fits a guitar solo. I have to agree with the other Js that this remix is a borderline cover, the arrangement and structure are too similar to the original, and outside of the replacement of the original pulse waves for guitars, there's little new in here. The riffing at 03:35 changes and some new elements are introduced that aren't taken from the original but I don't hear much interpretation outside of that. Also the fadeout ending, although not something that would be a dealbreaker, is not ideal. Regarding the mix I will have to agree with my peers on their comments as well, when the arpeggio, rhythm guitars and lead come together it sounds too busy and messy. The c64-style arpeggio is a cool thing to have since it's pretty unique to compositions made by c64 artists but you have to remember it was their only option for representing chords, I think that in the busy sections you could do away with them and bring in some actual sustained pad/string chords which will probably alleviate the clashing of notes a lot, but you can keep it in sections where you want the reference to be heard. Mix balance is something that could also be improved, and Jivemaster has some good advice on it. I think the original is a natural fit for a rock-style arrangement due to the way the leads play, and the drums have that rock beat to them instead of something more electronic, but you have some work to do here, I would like to hear more interpretation and differences in structure with the original so it doesn't feel like it's walking down the same path, and a better balance in the mix so it has more clarity and the elements you want to be highlighted in each section ARE highlighted instead of everything fighting for the listener's attention. NO

Interesting arrangement. Generally great ambiance and pace. I'm not sure about those coins samples though, they sounded clearly like coins being handled and not like some odd percussive element, which I think was what you were going for, in fact I noticed what they were before reading tim's writeup. They were a bit distracting for me, and i think some processing, or applied envelopes would've helped with the illusion. Weird selection of instruments aside, all the other textures and percussive elements worked for me, although some of the high-pitched percussion sounded a bit clicky. The pads never feel static and the woodwinds are handled with attention to dynamics, although nothing too interesting is done with them, articulations-wise. Overall solid, calm remix with great pacing. Certainly unique adaptation of these sources. YES

My issue with this mix in my previous vote was mainly the static nature of the structure, and that has been addressed, so I don't really have much to add that I didn't say in my previous vote. I'll agree with Larry that the mix feels a bit vanilla and the balance isn't perfect, and I think that not only the vocals but the initial instruments introduced in the intro felt a bit dry and separated, but overall, this is solid and if you compare it to the previous version it really improved a lot, so kudos for going the extra mile, I think it was worth it. YES

OK well, I really like all the individual parts of this, I really do, lovely arrangements of the sources overall, and really sweet ambiance that we usually get from your arrangements, but the issue here is that the connection between the sources is not well done, a lot of the transitions are very sudden or evident and it feels a lot like a medley, we usually discourage these in favor of more natural arrangements where sources segue into each other in smoother ways, or where the different sources' elements are mixed together to create an arrangement that grows from the marrying of those sources. I think with your talent you could easily use just a couple of these themes, and create one beautiful track from them that feels more cohesive and organic, but sadly what we have here is not what we usually look for in OCR. NO

Wow this was pretty damn cool! I really liked the tone of the rhythm guitars! The lead guitar though, sounds a bit thin in comparison, specially on high notes. As you said, the original is pretty short so you had a pretty tall task here of expanding this theme without falling into repetition, but dude you really stepped up to it. This isn't a straight-up metal arrangement either, there are quite a lot of different elements at play here, and I particularly loved the second section of the track, which cuts off to a very intense staccato strings section, which then jumps to a breakdown with industrial-style drumming before finally landing back into the guitar arrangement that started the arrangement, but with different variations and tempo changeups. Great ending too. If this is your first submission then I'm impressed. It's not perfect, the piano sounds slightly mechanical in some spots and a few sections seemed emptier than they should, but overall this is pretty solid, Nice Work! YES