Geoffrey Taucer

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Wow, we've let this one go way too long without an evaluation! Sorry about that! Anyway, here goes: EVAL: Arrangement: The vox are.... well, they're cheesy as hell, but they were cheesy in the original, so I can't really fault them for it. The soundscape feels a bit too sparse for most of the mix. The lead synth is a bit too harsh to be used as extensively as you are without anything else going on. IMO, a sound that harsh can work fine in short bits, but gets tiring when it continues as long as this one does. The choppy section starting at 1:15 is kind of cool, but still a bit too sparse and a bit too reliant on the synth I mentioned earlier; it would work fine if that harsh synth hadn't had so much presence earlier in the mix, but by this point my ears already feel tired from it. Percussion needs more variation. The vox at 2:16 hit (and sustain) a wrong note, or perhaps they're off-key, or something I'm not sure what but that sustained note sounds way off. This whole vocal sections sounds out of key, but that one note is particularly jarring. Having a vocal line this exposed is a bold move and can be cool when pulled off successfully; but here it is not pulled off successfully, and the vocal performance just isn't of a quality that can stand this exposed in a mix, I'm sorry to say. Even later in the mix, when the vox are less exposed, I'm still hearing some jarring wrong notes. I love the synth line starting at 3:53 Production: The whole mix feels overcompressed, and too heavy in the high end, with not enough going on in the low end. The drums especially sound thin and mechanical. The verdict: not sub-ready. The synth tones and mastering are too harsh and tiring to the ears, there are too many wrong notes in the vocals, and the mix is too sparse in the mid and low range.

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Eval: Arrangement: The first section is kind of samey for a bit too long; I'd cut to the next section at 0:20, instead of having the additional verse. Percussion needs more variation. I love what you did with the low synth starting around 0:30. I like the additional lead harmony coming in at 1:05, but I feel it's too little, too late; that lead riff has already gotten repetitive by this point. I think this arrangement's biggest weakness is that you keep that lead riff going the entire time with almost no variation. Granted, the original track did the same thing, but for this to stand on its own as a remix, it needs more variation. The riff is catchy as hell the first few times, but it's not enough to carry the remix all the way through. The additional lead coming in around 1:10 is good; you need more of that, and earlier in the track. As-is, the focus is on the same four-second-long riff over and over, and no matter how cool that riff may be, you need more to keep the listener's attention. Consider dropping that main riff for a section and having some sort of solo over the bass progression (which itself is pretty catchy, even without the main lead riff. Also, the track needs more rhythmic variation; other than occasionally dropping out for a verse, the percussion is essentially the same for the entire mix. The speed change-up near the end is an interesting idea, but a bit too jarring, still doesn't seem like enough variation, and doesn't really lead to anything. Production: The percussion is weak, as mentioned above, and needs more variation. I highly recommend you take a look through Zircon's percussion tips to get you started on this. Otherwise, production is fine. Some cool choices of synth sounds, I feel like I can distinctly hear everything I'm supposed to hear. I don't really have any complaints at this point beyond the percussion. Verdict: not ready to sub yet. I enjoy the synth tones, and you've got some really cool stuff going with the bass synth, but the percussion and repetitive use of the same lead riff are dealbreakers.

HAHA! This mix is so weird, so creative, so eclectic, and is everything I love about VGM and remixing. Bravo!

Not familiar with the original, but oh my cthulhu this sounds gorgeous.

I'm going to change the tag on this to "complete," since xprtnovice declared it ready to sub, but I think all three of us are of the opinion that there are still minor tweaks that could improve the mix; feel free to continue tweaking and posting updates, or go ahead and sub it to the judges. Best of luck!

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Love the changes to the ending chorus. Gonna hold off a bit on doing a formal eval; this would probably benefit from a second or third opinion from some of the other evaluators, but if none of the other workshop staff evaluates this, I'll give it another full eval in a few days. My informal opinion (after listening to it once on consumer-grade headphones while working on something in another tab) is that this is hugely improved and either ready or very close, but don't put too much weight on that until I've had a chance to give it a closer listen

Regarding the percussion: honestly, this isn't my forte, but here are my thoughts: I don't think it needs a complete overhaul, just a bit more flair and variation. As for compression, again I don't have as good an ear for this as some, but it just feels like the volume doesn't change from hit to hit. Honestly, you might be able to address this with velocity variation rather than decreasing compression, but I'd play around a bit with the compression. Do you also have some sort of tube saturation on the drums? That's what it sounds like to me, and it's a cool effect but it feels like you went just a little too strong on it. Totally get what you mean with the rythm guitars, and I can hear what you're talking about as far as them not being themain thing to fill out the bass; my biggest complaint is that they just seem to disappear in the mix. A slightly dryer mix (ie les reverb) might help this, but that might also take away from the huge spaciousness of the current mix. But overall, they don't really feel like they've found their niche. Like, they kind of fill the same place as the leads but they're not as strong, and they kind of fill the same space as the percussion but they're less punchy so.... it doesn't feel like they know where to sit in the mix. Hopefully that makes sense. Looking forward to hearing the updated version!

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EVAL: Arrangement: Recognizable, sufficiently different from the original, no objections on those grounds. Really smooth, chilled-out feel. I dig it. Vocal samples seem out of place; you've got this soothing, mellow piece, punctuated by vocal samples that don't remotely fit that feel. I like what you've done with the percussion. A more active bass part would be nice. My biggest complaint is the fadeout ending; I'm sure you could do something more interesting there. Production: If it were me, I'd bring the bass level down a touch, and back off slightly on the reverb, but neither of these is a dealbreaker. If I were a judge, I'd probably give this a borderline-yes; I could see the panel breaking in either direction on this. IF it gets a "no," my guess is that their biggest complaints will be the out-of-place vocal samples and the fadeout ending. As I said, it would be nice for the bass part to get a bit more active in some sections, but that alone probably won't be a deciding factor.

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Props for attempting this; a minimal, ambient piece like this can be really hard to arrange. Let's see what you manage to do with this EVAL: Arrangement: .... well, when I listened to the source, I was expecting something experimental and avant-garde, and you certainly did not disappoint. Some cool ideas, a creative and unusual approach, which shows originality while still using the source in a recognizable fashion. I'd love to see the motifs of the original come in earlier; the arrangement takes too long to get to something that is recognizable, but once you do get there, you do a good job of it. I'd also love for this to go on longer; it ends right when it's starting to get interesting. It's very minimalistic, and honestly I'm not entirely sure how to assess it on those grounds. Generally, it sounds very sparse, and the more active parts are rather discordant, but I think both of those things are intentional, and are a (largely successful) attempt to capture the creepy feel you're going for. It's daring and creative, but I'm honestly not sure how the judges panel would react to such a minimalist arrangement. The ending is also very abrupt. Production: I think it's clear that you're making your production choices deliberately weird. In some regards, it works, and in others it doesn't. The piano in particular sounds too mechanical, and could use more variation in velocity; I also think the intro needs more going on in the upper-mids, either by bringing those up in the piano, or perhaps adding some ambient noise in this range. On the whole, I don't think this would make it past the panel. I think it's just too sparse, and too.... weird, for lack of a better way of saying it. I get that this sparseness and weirdness is deliberate; this would work well as the backing track to go along with a video, but I think it's too sparse to stand as something to be listened to on its own. If you want to get this past the judges, I'd shorten the intro, and extend the track, expanding it into something a bit more active in the later sections.

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EVAL: Arrangement is on the conservative side, but I think there's just enough variation here to clear the bar in that regard. The original soloing at 1:48 is excellent. However, the percussion could use more variation. You have a few changeups, but on the whole the rhythm is too samey throughout the mix. I'd also like to hear more in the final chorus (starting at 2:40) to make it stand out and feel different from earlier iterations. This would be a great place to add in some guitar fills, since the melody leaves plenty of space for those sorts of flourishes. Production is mostly good, but there are a few issues that stand out to me. First, back off on the compression and saturation, especially in the percussion. I'd also bump up the volume on some of the harmonic squeals (ie at 1:03). The lead guitars, while they don't sound 100% authentic, have some really pretty tone, though again I'd back off on the compression so that tone can still shine through in the busier sections. The rhythm guitars sound a bit thin by comparison. There's several ways this could be addressed; my first impulse would be to see how they sound an octave lower. If that doesn't suit your tastes, then probably double them (or at least double the bass note) with something to give it a bit more low-end punch. I like your use of reverb throughout; I think you did a good job of using it in such a way to make the mix sound big and spacious without making it too muddy. This definitely has potential, but I don't think it's sub-ready yet.

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EVAL: The bass seems much better balanced than in previous versions. Piano and violin both sound pretty nice; you could go the extra mile by adding a bit more variation in velocity to the piano, but on the whole I think the piano is one of the strong points of this mix. Synth coming in at 0:24 still feels a bit bland, but not enough to be a dealbreaker. The biggest issue in your earlier version was percussion, and I can definitely hear that you've put some time into that. It sounds much better than in the earlier version, both with regards to EQ and arrangement. It still sounds mechanical, though. My biggest gripe is that the instruments sound a bit too mechanical; they sound like some high-quality midi samples, but won't fool anybody into thinking they're real instruments played by a real player. In some arrangements, this is fine, but this arrangement relies very heavily on "real" instruments; piano, violin, bass, and percussion all sound like they want to sound like live performances, but fall short. Bass and violin, while they won't fool anybody, are acceptable; they have room for improvement, but they aren't deal breakers, imo. Piano has gorgeous tone, but could use some more variation in velocity and timing. Percussion... still sounds pretty mechanical. It's enormously improved over earlier versions, but is still, I think, the weakest link. Where this really stands out the most is in the sections where the tempo changes. In general terms, gradual tempo changes are really hard for a live band to pull off, and when the percussion is keeping the same rhythm while gradually changing tempo and still hitting every beat exactly right, it makes the whole thing feel more mechanical. I'm not sure how best to address this, but my first impulse would be to make the tempo changes happen a little quicker, and try not to have multiple instruments playing anything complex during those changes; hopefully that all makes sense. If you haven't already, take a look at Zircon's tips for "live" instruments. For now I'm inclined to say this still needs a bit more work before resubmission; it's close, but it's not there yet.

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Ok, sorry it took me so long to get to this. Anyway EVAL: Source is easily recognizable, with more than enough original variation. The slowdown at 1:12 is awkward, but I don't think this is a big enough issue to prevent it from passing the panel. As for production, though, this is a mixed bag. The piano sample sounds gorgeous! But the bass feels a bit too loud and a bit too present; I see the judges thought the bass was too quiet in your original submission, but I think you've overcompensated in this version. The synth coming in at 0:25 feels like it could use more high-end sizzle, but the percussion is the biggest weakness in this section (and throughout the rest of the mix). Comparing this to the version you subbed to the panel, I like the older version better with regards to EQ on the drums. The percussion needs more punch, and needs more high-end; bump up the treble on the snares and hats, and bring down the low/low mids on the snare. Percussion also needs more variation in velocity to keep it from feeling monotonous. I would take a look at zircon's percussion tutorial; just spicing up the percussion would immensely improve this mix. The judges mentioned the violin was panned to the left in your submission, and it's still panned a bit left here, it's a minor issue, but I'd probably move it slightly towards the center -- it doesn't have to be dead center, but it feels too far left right now. It does sound clearer in the current version; that's a definite improvement. tl;dr: I think the percussion would prevent this from getting past the judges right now. There are a few other minor issues (the bass being too loud is the biggest one for me), but I think spicing up the percussion should be your main focus.

Do you have a link to the original source for comparison? EDIT: nvm, found the link and added it to your first post. I'll take a look when I get a chance, hopefully later tonight

JSYK, the "ready for review" tag is intended for use on tracks that you plan on submitting to the judges' panel. Since you don't plan on submitting this, I'll switch this track to "work-in-progress," though feel free to switch it to "completed" if you prefer. As for the lead tones, I agree that they sound too thin. My first impulse would be to decrease the wet/dry ratio on the reverb, and slightly bump up the level, but there's probably more that can be done. What are you using for the guitars? (ie, are you recording an amp, or using a vst amp modeler and if so which one?)

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Evaluation: Ok, before I get to anything else: the use of the lavos scream sample at 0:30 would instantly disqualify this mix, as OCR cannot accept mixes with samples from Square games. With that out of the way, let's see how the rest of the mix holds up. Production: The whole thing is very compressed and busy, and my ears feel tired long before the track ends. Go lighter on the compression, let the parts breathe. The bass synth has too much presence in the mid range. Arrangement: The melody isn't changed much, but the accompaniment/background is sufficiently interpretive. However, at 1:05, you repeat the previous section with no variation that I can detect; if you're going to repeat the main melody immediately, it should have some sort of variation to keep it interesting. The brief slowdown at 1:50 was awkward. The already-repeated section from earlier repeats once again at 2:30. The fadeout ending, while characteristic of the synthwave style, still felt disappointing. On the whole, the mix feels very busy and repetitive, but I feel like you have enough material here to make a much more interesting mix. First of all, I recommend backing off on the compression. But arrangement is, I think, where the most work needs to be done. Throughout much of the mix, you have a lot of different synths competing for the listener's attention; by allowing these various parts to take the spotlight at different points, rather than having them all going at once for pretty much the whole mix, you could use most of the same sounds and ideas to craft a much more captivating arrangement. As-is, I think this mix would very likely be rejected.

I loves me some Linkin Park, and these guys absolutely nailed the style