Malcos

I know the original is crazy, but This mix starts off weird! At 0.05 we get a taste of what is to come. At 0.13 I thought my soundcard was breaking, but it was the song. 0.45 brings a nice, albeit overcompressed groove on things. I like the breakbeat stuff a lot. The tempo change was a relevant touch. I thought that at the end you should have let the reverb tail off naturally instead of fading it out, although that's a small point. I really don't like that bit at 0.13 cause it sounds like digital clipping, even though it isn't clipping at all. Apart from that, even though this mix is loud, in your face and 'overbeaty', I like this better than the source tune, which makes me feel like I'm about to die. I'm not sure whether this will pass, but I'm saying YES

EDIT: Whoops! Must have gotten confused, had no idea what I was voting on there. Anyways, back to sanity (thanks JJT and Liontamer): I think this sounded pretty good, however, the way some instruments were used didn't make proper use of the samples (flute fluttering 0.56-1.01 and at 1.49 for example) and this makes the whole thing sound very unnatural. From 3.05 onwards, rather than sounding like the instruments were playing with a higher velocity, it just sounds like the volume was turned up - again, it just doesn't sound natural. NO

Not bad, (not much to say in terms of production that hasn't already been said, I myself think the production is ok) but I'm really unsure as to whether this should be passed by the panel. It would be an exception to what we've already done imo; this interpretation is just too liberal. NO

Glad you guys are enjoying it!

A track which was concieved with vocals in mind will always sound somewhat unengaging compared to a piece which was always meant to be an instrumental, and this is a prime example. These samples are passable, imo, with the exception of the brass sounds. Something about the attack of the strings doesn't sound right to me. I think the arrangement is good, and I particularly like the use of dynamics. However, as I mentioned before, the piece as a whole is not as interesting - this part was more than likely reserved for the vocal parts that were meant to be in this song. I really like the way this ended; I have a thing for strings getting louder and louder for the climax. Needs some more work to come up to the OC bar. NO

First thing that hit me was that the timing of the guitars in the intro was way off. The texture really doesn't seem as full as it could be. The rhythm guitar in particular is really low in the mix and hollowed out, although the solo guitar sounds good. I think more attention needs to be payed to instrument levels. The drums, while sounding unplayable by a human, work well with the other elements. Needs a lot more work. NO

Most of the issues here imo are related to performance, although it isn't dire by any means. The left hand doesn't do much a lot of the time, making the mix sound very empty. In addition, the reverb used doesn't suit the sparse style, so sections like the one starting at 1.53 sound very dead. Perhaps some sustain would have made some parts of this mix flow better and inject a little atmosphere and emotion. Not bad, but doesn't quite reach the bar. Keep working on it. NO

Done!

ADK A-51! (condenser mic) Should cost you about $250 perhaps? Cost me £100. http://www.adkmic.com/specs/A-51.html Although I agree with suzemebachi, it depends on what kind of vocals you're gonna record.

Yes! At this time, I'm near enough finished. This has been HARD work, I don't know how people who do this kind of stuff every day cope with the endless sample editing! All I've got to do is make a few combinators, finish the documentation and make a few demo songs. Should all be done by this Friday! This refill contains: * 51 Different Beatbox Mouthsounds (Redrum) * 58 Fixed-Tempo Beatbox loops * Mouth-Fx (laughing, coughing etc) * Vocal hits * 'Ooh' and 'Aah' type patches (NN-XT) * Alphabet and counting patches/soundboards (NN-XT) * Combinator effects for vocals, and.... * A patch containing various vocals, that allows you to create your own lyrics, and by using the vocoder, your own melody vocal lines! I call it the 'Vocal Lyric Machine'. As for releasing in other formats, I think soundfont would be the most appropriate, although my plan is just to release the beatbox mouthkits, beatbox loops, vocal hits and mouth-fx for that format.

Very atmospheric, ambient sounding piece. The arrangement is very engaging, with the textures ever changing. This is definitely something different, and treads that fine line between quirky and weird - I could see why Liontamer though that this could end up being an overall yes or no. I did think the hats were a touch too loud, and there were times when I thought that perhaps relying on slightly altered drumloops was making the percussion elements boring - but as soon as that thought entered my head, the groove changed. Very original, very good, very quirky. YES

This is definitely an improvement over your last submission. The production is the main issue for me - the strings and piano sounds are very unrealistic, although the guitar does sound quite good to my ears at least. The instrumentation, rather than blending in a pleasant way, mush together creating a very muddy, washy sound. The arrangement is good, but the sound quality is just too poor. NO

I think a comination of low encoding and the fact that the instruments are not as definined as they could be let this mix down quite a bit unfortunately. I would say keep working on it, and try to get the best quality out of the encoding rate that you have to use - right now it is taking a lot out of the sound quality. I agree with Vig that this needs more definition in terms of treble, as it sounds quite muffled. NO (please resubmit)

One of my favourite sonic tunes. Taken to all sorts of different places - this is a very engaging arrangement indeed! I hear the knuckles drum beat in there as well (starting at 1.40) What can I say? YES

I never did like that snare in Reason. However, this arrangement is just wow! Beat, bass, chord progression etc. Beat is a bit too loud though...and not much of an ending at all...but still, I am groove and genre biased here. So YES

Oooh piano. As everyone knows, Icecap zone is a very popular tune and at OCR we have some very good ReMixes of it posted. Only a very different Icecap mix can make it through the panel. Not always easy to work out straight away what song is being played though, as it just flows from one theme to the next. Should so many tunes have been all put together? This is primarily an Icecap zone mix, but I can't hear the Icecap melody in here. That definitely is the issue for me. The chord structure in the beginning is similar to Icecap, but where is it's melody? NO

I like this mix, although I did have a few issues with it. One of these was the distinct lack of melody for a large part of the mix. Although I knew it was coming, a large part of the time I was left wondering where the mix was going. I found it interesting that the mixer decided to have the original variation of the melody before giving us the melody in the form of part of an arpeggio pattern. I don't think this quite comes up to the bar, although it's certainly close. I think that first part of the mix definitely isn't engaging enough and so in that respect the arrangement factor is low. I'm gonna go with a NO

The strings at 0.03 were quite cheap sounding. You definitely had better string sounds later on in this mix - not the best way to start. The instrument playing the melody sounds like a clarinet to me; this instrument sounds good. This mix is a strange mishmash of good quality and bad quality sounds. The sitar sounds ok at 0.29, but bad at 1.07 - this is due in part to the unnatural way in which the instrument is used at 1.07. In addition, whilst this style hasn't neccesarily got a genre, I think that the sounds used were just too different. You've got synths with orchestral sounds, and a sitar - and the sounds that have been chosen just don't blend together imo. Level of rearrangement is ok, lots of little bits and pieces added in the background underneath the melody. However at about 1 minute in, there begins a section which has some questionable notes in it. At about 1.25 onwards it sounds much better, although there is a distinct lack of an ending. All of this adds up to a NO

Checked the spc archive at Zophar's but couldn't find a 'stream of time' within the archive. Perhaps a judge who knows the soundtrack can point me in the right direction? Assuming the level of re-arrangement is adequate: Not much to say about this really. Well mixed, good texture, all the instruments fit together (which is not always easy when doing this style). Interesting and engaging arrangement. YES

Yeah this does sound kinda oldskool. I really like the arrangement as it is very engaging, and the beat definitely pushes this mix in the right direction. At 0.32 it seems that the atmospheric chords come in too loudly, and the accompianing synth at 1.04 could have also come in a little more subtly perhaps. Still, very enjoyable to listen to. YES

I think the production on this is well done, although I do agree with the comments that the synths could have sounded more interesting. This is very borderline imo, although I'm going to go for a NO on this occasion.

Intro was kinda meh, but I suppose that was the point, in order to provide a contrast to the hectic drumbeats that come in later on. I did like this, but thought that the drums were placed too loudly in the mix. The instrumental texture isn't that thick, and apart from the drums it would sound very thin indeed. The ending is unsatisfying, although that could be down to personal taste. This is an unrefined style in it's concept, but even keeping that in mind, this still needs some refinement. NO

That could be a good concept for a kind of foot jamming session. Dance, and create the music at the same time.

Wow, treble in this is too much - I've been guilty of this myself at times. Perhaps by giving yourself some time away from this and then listening to it again, you would have been able to hear that. I found the drums to be quite mechanical, but I think that fits the feel of the source game. That said, some compression on them could have given it some more pump perhaps. Overall, a slightly warmer feel to this mix would have been much better (less treble); as it is it sounds way too harsh to the ears. NO

I agree with Vig on this - the sample quality is only compared to the original because the mix tries to use a similar approach. This doesn't add anything new to the source. That's not to say that this is a bad mix - it's that it tries to do exactly what the original did, but the original did it better. NO