Malcos

Great submission. The acoustic emotive feel of this mix and the constant subtle changeups make this a pleasure to listen to. The piano part did sound somewhat unrealistic when compared to the guitar, however for me that was a minor point. 808 kick is nicely balanced for the soft vibe of this. YES

This is quite an original sub and will bring some diversity to the site. I'm in agreement with the comments already made, namely that the sparse background lends itself to the style of this piece. The mostly accapella style is quite gutsy and is pulled off well. It doesn't sound too polished, and that actually makes the piece more effective imo. YES

Yeah that's the name of the original, I'm sure you can do a bit of searching to find the original track, I'm not sure if it would be legal for me to host it.

Competition is now closed, and voting is over. And the winner is....Hale-Bopp! 2nd Place goes to DragonAvenger! We had 8 votes, feedback from the voting will be pmed to the entrants tommorrow. That concludes round 2 of VOCR. If you want to listen to the entries... Winning entry by Hale-Bopp, 'Over Oceans Blue' (24 Points) www.malcos.co.uk/VOCR2/Oob.mp3 www.malcos.co.uk/VOCR2/Oob.txt 2nd place entry by Dragon Avenger, 'Won't let you go' (17 Points) www.malcos.co.uk/VOCR2/Won't_Let_You_Go.mp3 www.malcos.co.uk/VOCR2/Won't_Let_You_Go.txt 3rd place entry by Broken, 'Over thoughts of you' (8 Points) www.malcos.co.uk/VOCR2/OverThoughtsofYou.mp3 www.malcos.co.uk/VOCR2/OverThoughtsofYou.txt 4th place, SwordBreaker 'with Magical Kingdom' (5 Points) www.malcos.co.uk/VOCR2/Magical_Kingdom.mp3 www.malcos.co.uk/VOCR2/Magical_Kingdom.doc Round 2: Knuckes Chaotix 'Over Oceans Blue' Here we go, my first time hosting this competition, so bear with me! Background track is a remix of the 'seascape' track from Knuckles Chaotix soundtrack. Here are the rules for this round, slightly altered from last time, but mostly copied from Pixie's rules: You must use my instrumental track for the background. The track may not be changed— only added upon with your vocals and effects, or spliced if you're going for an a cappella section. You may choose to sing the source melody as it already stands, if your range is that wide. Original melodies and harmonies are applauded, however. Don't be afraid to take some chances! You can write original lyrics or sing without words; it's up to you! Additionally, if you'd like to sing with lyrics but can't think of any, you may collaborate with someone else so long as you give them credit. No borrowing from other sources unless you run it by me first. Texts for songs with lyrics must be included in the email to me. And if your song is in a foreign language, an English translation is required. Effects are more than welcome, but the main vocals may not be vocoded. Auto-pitch correction will not be allowed. Not when I'm hosting this compo. If pitch correction has been used (and you are caught), you will be disqualified. Entries: All entries are due by 3rd March 2007, which is about a month from now. MP3 submissions should be tagged and sent to themalcos@gmail.com, and may be hosted online or included as an attachment. If you send me your track well before the deadline and then decide you wanna make some changes, that's totally cool. It's never too late to send again before the round closes. Do not post your track in this thread, however! We don't want anyone to "draw inspiration" from your original ideas, and plus... more suspense. At the end of the month, I will host all of the tracks on my website and edit the first post for everyone to see. I'm really copying Pixie's post here! Collabs: Pixie and I have discussed this issue, and have decided that, in order to keep this competition fair and somewhat balanced, collaborations will be limited to only 2 vocalists. Voting: Entries are now in, and so it's voting time! All entrants must participate as well, in the spirit of comradery, and cannot vote on their own mix. Everyone will choose their top three entries, listing them in order from most favorite to least favorite, and PM their votes to me. #1 choices will receive three points, #2 choices two, and #3 choices one. Make sense? We won't actually be rating the mixes on each of the following criteria, but I ask that you keep these things in mind while you vote: Creativity (personal flair, interesting harmonies, original lyrics, etc) Vocal execution (pitch, rhythm, confidence, etc) Production (bad/hissy recordings, dry mixing, etc) We want to reward people for getting out there, even if they think their singing could use some improvement. So don't just vote for your favorite vocalist. Everybody deserves a chance! Don't forget that with each vote, you must also write a least a sentence saying why you voted that way, what you liked about the vocal performance etc. These will be used as feedback for the vocalists when the competition is over. Voting ends Sunday March 11th, winners will be announced on the 12th.

Wow, this is sweeeeeeeeet. The only gripe is that it is really low in volume, and that it doesn't progress to anything else. This is just a long intro, like a woman who teases you to the point where you think that sex with her is inevitable, but it's not gonna happen. Where is the rest of this? As much as I like it, this would need to be fleshed out into a full arrangement. Get your sax out, and finish this. Then you'll have yourself a winner! NO (more please)

Wow super original! YES

I really like the panned guitars, makes the mix a lot more interesting. There are a lot of different guitar parts playing at different points, definitely not repetitive. I'm not a guitar player, but I loved the tone of the guitars; the sound was aggressive, but not overbearing. The re-arrangement factor here was good - recognisable, but with a lot of originality added. Definitely a YES

Liontamer got all of the issues. The synths in this weren't very interesting sounds in themselves, and there was no modulation applied to the melodic synth, although I did like the bass synth sounds. Percussive arrangement was good, but I thought that the rearrangement of the main theme got quite repetitive as the song progressed, and so were the parts that accompianied them. More work needs to be done to add some more variation to this so it doesn't become boring in the non-original sections. NO (Please resub)

Malcos 'Mouth' Refill! http://www.malcos.co.uk/refill.html

This is what I said when I listened to this in the WIP forums: The only issue for me is the fact that it's the James Bond theme which is being remixed. Everything else about this for me is above bar. With much more original material, I would have not hesitated, but so many elements of the theme are there. After thinking about this for some time, I'm gonna have to go with aNO

This is a very different feel from the original, somewhat more serious! Good sense of atmosphere here, and well composed sections. Did you use Reason for this one? I think so. Excellent use of percussion. I do think that the arrangement in terms of melody was quite simplistic, however, this is vastly different from the original and so in that respect the arrangement element for me is above bar. This sounds like a boss tune now. YES

Hmm didn't I yes this last time. Oh yeah, I did. Well this has improved even more over the last version. One gripe with this is the section in the middle, where the strings are kinda pushed to the side by the phat drums. This version is a lot fatter overall, and the transition into the piano section was excellently done imo. The one thing I would say for future subs is to try and get some more dynamics going in relation to volume, as I think the sections ie.piano section, should have been somewhat quiter to better contrast the 'soft' and 'hard' sections. More melodic elements have been added here, and this relies on the stutter much less than the previous version. Good resub! YES

WOW! I can't wait for this.

Ok, this is very loud indeed. The only problem I have here is the mastering, I think it's way too loud, and all the life has been squeezed out of it. It's also clipping all over the place. Perhaps you could get a fresh set of ears to master this for you, or don't listen to it for 3 days then come back to it. I'd definitely like to see other judges opinions on this. NO

[bias]Damn, there is some bass in this submission! That's what I like to hear![/bias] Ok, great sub-bass aside (source had quite a bit of bass too), the production on this is well done. I agree with Liontamer on the points that he made here for improvement. For me the guitar that comes in at 2.05 is too loud, and the bitrate is indeed too low. For the synth work, some modulation might help them sound more interesting. This is almost a pass for me - I'd definitely like to see a resub of this. NO (Please resubmit)

Is it? I swear it's out by a few cents lol. Apart from the kick sounding like it's had a bit too much reverb on it and the sax coming in a bit loud at 2.34, I thought this was great. I personally would have liked an even more liberal approach, but that's only because I know the source so well. Ending was a bit meh, but excellent sax, good arrangement, good sense of atmosphere created here. YES

This sounds like a good idea, I'd definitely be up for that.

I can't comment on instrument levels much at the moment due to me using headphones (not the time of day that I usually do judging!). Excellent drumwork and arrangement, this is really engaging stuff. Production is good, no issues for me there at all. I like how you changed some of the notes so it didn't sound exactly like the bond theme, perhaps if you had made the notes even more different to make it obvious, people wouldn't have identified it as 'wrong'. The only issue here for me is if this will be simply identified as a bond remix, rather than a Goldeneye mix, as everyone has already said. Perhaps a more liberal interpretation of the bond melody itself (you were already half-way with that), with the bond melody as you had it at 2.33 (for 'recognisability', don't even know if that's a real word!) will give the panel a real original impression of this, which will improve your chances. Apart from that issue, I would have no reservations at all about giving this a yes.

No, no pitch correction tools used at all, my friends will tell you I hate that kind of stuff. I do often double track my vocals though (record twice), and that can sometimes my pitch sound better than it really is. I don't use pitch correction tools at all in any of my vocals - it's waaaaaay too much effort to set something like that up, and then correct it, while it takes seconds to just do another take. And if I can't reach the note, then I can't sing it, tough luck, I just come up with another melody that is in my range.

I'm so excited, this is the first time I've won anything! I didn't know track 7 was yours Zyko, I didn't know you could sing like that, it was very heartfelt. I voted you second behind pixie - we all know that she would win! Thanks for everyone who voted for me on this round!

Sorry what? Cumshot? I thought it was climax? Anyway... I really enjoyed the more acoustic parts of this mix, ie the intro and outtro. However I think that the mixing on the electronic side just didn't come up to the same standard. I think the drums should have been louder. I also feel that the higher side (right hand) of the piano section that came in at 1.45 sounded really fake. For me, the cohesion of the mix just didn't work, and the breakbeat parts sounded repetitive. NO

The intro's synths sounded quite cheap, especially compared with the good synth choices made later on in the mix. I agree with Liontamer in that it is quite mushy. There seems to be compression on the drums, and that sounds good, however I think the instrument balance needs to be addressed. Each instrument needs to have it's own place, both in terms of volume and frequency range - in the more full sections everything competes for the same place. I didn't personally think that the low fi sound was bad, it suited the style and the overall eq balance was fine. I would like to see a resub of this. I do strongly feel that changing the intro synths would give this mix a better first impression, as on their own they sound, well, cheap. NO (please rework and resub)

Hey is that the matrix ominous sound effect? This is good, ambient stuff. It does sound quite dark and we don't often get submissions in this style. The reworking did the trick. Not much to add other than YES

Yeah this is loud! This mix sounds good though, and the liberal arrangement (I only really recognised the intro on the first listen) is very liberal indeed. I do think this is borderline too liberal, this is just inside guidelines imo. However, this mix has a lot going for it. It sounds original, has some good arrangement and so the interest level for me was high. YES

Voted! Some heartwrenching falsetto from track 7, I thought I was going to cry, until the rapping came in, and I had time to compose myself.