prophetik music

intro winds sounded fine, but the supporting strings were pretty quiet. guitar and drums enter at 0:26, and the snare's really loud (the bass is also fairly quiet given that you commented on it specifically?). orchestral parts are written in a fun and aggressive manner, which is great, but literally everything after 0:26 has no bass other than what comes in from the chugs after they hit their tone. it honestly feels like something's getting trimmed out with how it keeps peeking back in occasionally. 1:28 or so the organ lead takes over, and the orchestration shows that it's not particularly real. the solo section at 1:42 is nice, and the subsequent crazy motorcycle elements are great. the less dynamic/fast writing for the orchestral parts cover the things that your sample set isn't great at which is a positive. 3:15's brass are rough, super fake, but i like what they're doing. 3:38's ending section was very sudden. some more build to it would have been really nice. i'm not passing this specifically because the bass is inaudible for most of the track. there's no guts to anything, the distorted guitar chugs at 2:15 have more bass content than the actual bass and kick throughout. that said, there are other issues here, including the very loud snare, the orchestral sample usage being pretty consistently fake sounding, and the overly quick ending. i think however that the concept is really neat and would love to see another take on it. NO

starts off with some needly synth work and synth guitar. imitates the opening of the original surprisingly well. at 0:20 we get a heavy beat with some keys mirroring the original's melody. this is pretty cover-ish, there isn't immediately any recognizable arrangement of the original here, just palette swaps. i'm at about 2:45 and this is pretty much the original in a row. there haven't been any changes of the drums (which are still very loud and don't sound at all like the rest of the soundscape), the lead instrument, keys, and synth guitar haven't changed or had any dynamic contrast to this point, and it's not changing really at all. the drums are crushingly loud and have a ton of room sound on them, and nothing else sounds like it's even close to being in the same place as them. they're all much cleaner. drums are also very boomy, lots of low mid content that just runs over the piano and guitar among other instruments. the track kind of just does the same thing for nearly five minutes before having a fadeout outro. unfortunately this isn't the kind of arrangement we're looking for at OCR. this track does not display transformational arrangement - it's the same instrumentation as the original, about the same speed, and does the same notes pretty much across the board in the same order. i'd encourage you to review the submission standards (specifically 4.2) to see more what kind of arrangements we're going for. NO

fun chippy opening. guitar and band comes in at 0:25, and goes through the initial loop. the bass and kick are sitting in the same range, so it feels extra boomy, but the guitar sounds nice and crisp. the trumpet comes in on the melodic content at 0:54, and through here the heavy bass and kick overlap is more noticeable. trumpet is sequenced nicely. there's a break at 1:20 for some orchestral parts with more trumpet on top. this is a neat idea to try something different. after that, we're immediately back into the chiptune part on top of the band accompaniment - two simultaneous copypastas! not something i expected. there's more combinations of previously sequenced material layered in different combinations for the rest of the track, and then a filtered outro. the heavy bass overlay in the first third or so and the last minute being copypasta isn't my favorite, but it's not enough to really sink this. the middle orchestral section is great and i found myself wishing there was more of that! this certainly isn't as fresh and across-the-board high quality like your more recent works, but i think this is fine. YES

harp opening is beautiful, if a little skewed off-center to the right. the initial strings aren't particularly realistic. after the swell at 0:33, though, there's a lot more richness in their tone and it sounds a lot better. there's some really nice swells and interplay in the harp parts in here. at 1:21 the cello comes in, and the audio is still skewed to the right ear a lot. it's much louder and clearly is hitting a limiter gate on that side several times. i also wouldn't have realized this was a live cello due to the doubling in the tone. there's a great brass swell going into 1:59, and the addition of percussion there was a great addition. the vocals sound great too, although the lower part occasionally has some pitchiness on a few of the sustains. there's a sustained diminuendo that's a great setup for the final big push starting at 3:14. i appreciated psamanthes's chest voice through here, it's really rich and fills in the overall timbre nicely. there's a short outro in the harp and it's done. this is beautiful! there's a few nits here and there, but my only real complaint is the heavy emphasis on the right ear through maybe 1:59. despite that complaint, it's definitely above the bar and is worth posting. there's a richness to this orchestration that's just so evocative. YES

fade-in to start. tempo is up a bit, and the intro hits are adapted to fit into a 4x4 beat. the galaxy theme comes in right away after that, and the hit at 0:57 is the first real instance of the melodic content in a row. it's pretty straightforward, and there's some overlap of synths so it's a little tough to hear what's going on where. there's also no real pad in the middle - there's the higher string synth with the melodic material, and the bass and drums under. this changes at 1:44 for a bit, and then there's a tempo change to fit the three-note motif. this picks back up again, and bounces its way through the galaxy theme in a straightforward manner again. there's not much difference from this section and what was happening earlier, to the point i'd call this second section a copy/paste of the earlier section around 1:15 to 1:55. there's a fadeout with the three-note motif and that's it. this is a neat idea! the B material in the original has always been an interesting one, since most people tend to focus on the initial hits of the theme. i like the bouncier, string-based approach here. there's just not much interpretation yet. adding in some more material or moving things around to better fit your vision will let the best parts of the track be what you've added, rather than just the original with some new synths. right now it's too conservative of an arrangement, and the synth choices are a bit homogenous and boring. NO

waveform sausage right off the bat. the mastering is way slammed, with the kick causing compressor ducking. it's hard to hear much nuance in any of the instruments. so this is an instant no without turning literally every element down by half, turning off all master lane limiters and compression, and then slowly balancing it more appropriately. i think that it'd make a lot of sense to look into EQ work as well to get the bass/pad and the kick out of the same ranges. so, looking past that, let's go through the arrangement. the intro build towards the dovahkiin melodic line is certainly exciting. the arpeggiating synth doesn't sound like it's got any verb on it so it's a little out of sorts there. it also sounds like the chord it's arpeggiating at 0:43 is wrong, unless you're supposed to be arpeggiating the ii chord there starting in first inversion (i think, didn't sit down to figure it out). the melodic content blows through continuously until the 'break' at 1:23, which is a lot for such blown-out mastering. the break is about five seconds, and then we're into a solo section that somehow also doesn't have a clear beat despite having four on the floor. the solo started out pretty neat, but the pitch-bends at like 1:42 really make it lose energy. the lack of movement on the synth tone used is also a missed opportunity for something neat to emphasize those sustains that you're using - they sound pretty boring by themselves, but a neat LFO or filter gate would do some fun stuff there. after the solo, the melodic material blows through again in a straight line with no changes from how it was done before, except this time the synth solo is doing some stuff on top and noodling around (mostly off-pitch, from the sound of it). this switches to the handdrum beat instead of finishing strong, and does this for a while before inexplicably taking a one-second fadeout rather than a finishing chord. i would say that the underlying idea - big in-your-face synthy version of the very exciting dovahkiin theme - is a neat one. the mastering is really rough and needs a ton of work. the synth ideas are standard but effective, but they stay the same throughout a 3+ minute piece that also has essentially no dynamics, so they get tiring quick. some more variation of synth choices would help immensely, as would some more personalization of the melodic material and your approach. right now this is not passable. NO

intro takes a minute to get there, but we get melodic material at 0>36 with a beat eventually. there's not much going on here - just the bass the drums, and the melodic synth. no pads or countermelodic material. this goes through what i'd call one iteration of the melodic material before dropping back to just the bass and lead, although we start to get occasional side content. there's a shift at 1:58 (the drum fill before this is oddly out of time) to the B content of the original. there's some more expansive interpretation first, then the descending line. the doubled bass/melody line at 2:43 was nice, but then we're back to the melody over the drums and bass for about 40s before the track uses the B melodic content as an outro. there isn't enough here ultimately from an arrangement perspective - the melodic content is pretty straightforward, but specifically there's just not enough going on behind it to constitute a completed track. there's no countermelodic content, no pads, no fleshing out of the textures at all, and it feels incomplete as a result. additionally, i like the concepts behind the synth choices, but ultimately agree as well that the synth tone choices are pretty basic. i'd love to hear this have an expanded sound palette and some other stuff happening outside the bass and lead. it's just too simple right now. NO

what strikingly emotive originals. i've never heard of this composer at all - clearly my loss. remix starts with block chords and gradually fills out the progression. 0:48 is the first section i'd call melodic content, and the characteristic ascending line comes in soon after. i appreciate the way you've picked up gao's use of grace notes and octave jumps and integrated those into this arrangement. the wider voicings you use at 2:01 really flesh out the beautiful progression the originals are based around as well, and i appreciate the space that those voicings give it. 2:42 is a break of sorts, and i felt this section was a let-down after the rich voicings of the earlier section. i felt there could have much more use of dynamics and some push-pull of tempi to replicate some of what makes the originals so striking. the intensity build here is still notable even despite the messy low end in this section, and it keeps driving towards a peak at 3:32. your wide voicings here actually play against you a bit as the low end of this piano is a bit growly, and keeping your hands 2+ octaves apart loses the richness of those middle tones that you utilized more effectively earlier. 4:01 is another shift, and functions well as a way to bring down the energy and move us towards an ending. i admit i expected a final chord in there somewhere. this is a beautiful arrangement overall. some elements - like the overly-wide voicings at 3:30ish, and an overall lack of significant dynamic contrast outside the very beginning and end - act as detractors, but they don't take away from the simple pleasures of the original, and your arrangement is transparent enough to not get in the way of that. nice work. YES

memories in green is such a timeless track. some sfx and detuned pads before we get the intiial beat at 0:16. snares feel a touch loud here even considering where they're coming from (ie. the shinra track), and the long tail is covering what else is going on. it's a super wet sound especially in the backing pads. 0:55 we get some saxccents, and we finally get some melodic content at 1:39. the subtle gated synths here are so good, and i love the heavily filtered pingpong echoes. 2:22 really feels like a big shift despite there not being a ton of changes. the choir and addition of other sustained content fills out the soundscape a lot more here. the ending is sudden - i felt it to be too much so, the track just kind of ends. the interweaving of these two tracks is excellent. my only complaint is the ending, which it certainly isn't enough for me to say no just for that. YES

name means roughly "on the other side of the mirror". loved the bass in the intro, although i wish it was clearer. keys at 0:40 were nice. whole opening reminded me of Evanescence's second album a bit. it really gets going at 1:00, with 1:20's aggressive in-your-face action being really fun. drum fills were really solid. there is indeed a render glitch at 2:07.5 or so. 2:37 was really gripping to me, nice work with the ascending chord work there. 3:15 is a 'break', for probably the first time in the track, and it's needed by that point. 3:44 kicks it back up and it's real mean for a bit before the keys come back for a little while. at 4:23 we get the last big blow for the last 40s or so, and it's done. 4:51 has another render blat. there's a lot of silence to trim from the render, both at the beginning and end. this is an aggressive, intense take on a great original track. nice work! i love how in-your-face it is throughout without ever being overwhelming. YES

what a unique submission email. i'll say that ori lost in the storm is IMO such an iconic track for this game, just love it. intro is beautiful. lots of playing with duple vs. triple, excellently handled dynamics and soundscape. the violin part was pretty but a bit high-heavy, which caused it to sound a little thin. i'd have preferred to hear more low/mid in the EQing of that instrument. 0:59 brings in more consistent drums, and the soundscape shifts to accommodate the cello is well-handled. love the violin pizz in this section. i think the cello could have definitely been much louder through this however. 1:46's change again has the leads a little quiet, but the scoring here sounds great and is appropriately epic. the flute and bells at 2:02 are great. there's some soloing and the a beautiful duet at 2:35. one last big crescendo, and it's done. this sounds great! the orchestral parts are really subdued, more than i'd have expected based on the description, but it lets the live instruments carry the track. enjoyable listen. YES

ok, a little different! the lush string pads (which are obv not intended to be realistic, they're a keyboard) swelling in the intro is a nice touch. drums at 0:19 are super present with a lot of room tone, which is a neat contrast to the tone of the bass and trumpet. the track feels really in touch with the DS roots in the instrumentation and style. we get a break at 0:59 or so with some swells that stays pretty small for a while until after the 2:00 mark. the continued contrast of textures is just great, lots of different little ensembles within the overall work. there's some copy at 2:30 or so, but it doesn't last too long. this part is particularly loud, and there definitely is some clipping in here that's being hidden by your limiter in post. we get one more break at 3:14 and then it's a short romp to the ending. this is really fun overall. i certainly wouldn't complain if you went through the entire track and turned everything down 10% to avoid the clipping, but the arrangement is just stellar and carries the few mastering mistakes over the bar, i think. tons of clever integration of the source into a variety of timbres is a great way to get posted YES edit 11/7: no change to my vote here.

very clanky piano for the intro, doing lots of block chords. synth lead that comes in is pretty bland and not particularly pleasant to listen to. the left hand of the initial piano really keeps hammering for a while, and it is not a great sound - it crushes most of what else is going on when it hits, not that there's much there. this goes on for almost two minutes and i'm already really tired of the theme. the soaring elements of the melodic line that are so interesting are really flattened by the synth choices and the hammering of the keys. we get a very significant shift in style with rhythmic synths and percussion coming in at about 1:46. the drums are pretty loud initially, but fit in later - consider taking some time to volumize what you're playing so that the fills aren't huge and the initial groove isn't so loud compared to what's going on in the melody line. i'm at three minutes and each time the first loop of melodic material ends, it starts over again immediately following the next measure. there's no breaks to the material or pauses or dynamic contrast added, just an immediate shift between the A and B material. consider giving your listeners some breaks between what you're saying so that they can absorb it before diving into the same melodic content in the same instruments at the same tempo and the same dynamic level for the fifth time when we haven't even gotten halfway through the piece. we get some age of fables at 3:47, which is a nice shift. again there's no hesitation before diving into the next set of themes, which i really do think is a mistake. this section uses similar percussion, dynamics, and lead tones as the first section, which also is a concern given that we're 4-5 minutes into the track and it's been a lot of the same. my ears are certainly getting tired of the same thing for such a long time, and there's another two minutes in the track. around the 6:00 mark, you start to reduce the textural elements playing, which is a good choice to allow the track to naturally shift somewhere else from an instrumentation perspective. unfortunately, the next minute or so is just the same progression over and over with little difference, and then suddenly it shifts to an ending that resolves a 7+ minute piece in about six seconds. and it's done. i would strongly encourage you to consider cutting half of the piece's repetition out. this is, maybe, a 3.5-4 minute pat of butter scraped over 7+ minutes of bread. there simply isn't enough unique content here to last 7 minutes without repeating yourself ad nauseum, which is what you've done. i'd also ask you to consider doubling - truly, doubling - the number of unique synths, percs, whatever that you're using throughout. the amount of same-ness is not a positive, and my ear was tired of the same six synths by the three minute mark. lastly, re-evaluate the song structure and identify more clear areas to provide breaks - both in the dynamic content, and in the melodic content. the track is roughly the same volume throughout after the intro right now and that's not a great song structure. beyond that, it's worth it to have breaks in the melodic material that you're continually throwing at the listener. rather than repeating each melody line ten times in a song, use it maybe three or four times total, and make those three or four times more awesome - make the listener want to re-listen to the entire song rather than just hearing it once and saying "that's good for a while". reducing the overall usage will make the track much more approachable and listenable. NO

neat idea shifting the engine purr into the initial synth line. the track really starts around 0:33 and features some (super hot) engine sfx throughout the first ten seconds at least. i don't hear the issue with the lead being hard to hear at 0:33 at all, same at 1:10. the faster tempo really works for this melodic material too since it's so fitting for the theme of the game. there's a 'break' at 1:39, and certainly what source material is being represented here is quieter, and doesn't speak much at the beginning. the energy kicks at 2:05 and it goes pretty good to the end when we get more engine sfx. this has a ton of energy! i don't think that the quieter leads at 1:39 are enough to sink it. it sounds great overall and i especially liked the synth guitar lead. nice work. YES

fun idea for a remix. the fade-in wasn't my favorite and the initial piano is indeed blocky (try reducing the sustain on faster passages to get a cleaner and tighter sound). flute sounds fantastic, the off-beat stuff at 0:47 is great. some nice drum fills around the 1:10 mark. the original's melody isn't particularly over-memorable but you do a nice job of picking up what makes it unique and relaying it. i certainly wasn't a huge fan of the fadeout with all the clear rhythmic content you had going on. the overblown sections sound fine. i think at least in the later one there's some vocal content in the flute tone or at least some flutter, which is why it sounds a little weird. it's just because the sound comes out of the instrument differently when you don't focus the airstream at the tone hole the same way. this is a neat idea, subpar start/end aside. great playing. YES

neat original, haven't ever heard it. the opening chords are neat, but the artificial cut on the tremolo strings is an immediate turnoff. the bells at 0:35 do indeed have a tone of attack bass tone, and they're also heavily in the right ear. there's some neat stuff they're saying but there are indeed some notes that don't appear to be represented in the adjacent chords in the choir. the flute does a similar thing. the chords under it are at least initially in a minor (with some very interesting borrowed tones later that i don't believe are 100% intentional), and the flute melody is in what sounds like B major. a guitar (?) comes in at 1:35, and is also very clicky on the attack. after some more reserved elements noodle, there's a very treble-heavy bell doing stuff at 2:17 that's just not clearly in any key again. it's also about two octaves above everything else so it's totally unrelated to anything happening around it. there is a lot going on here that is problematic. the start is simply that everything's panned so heavily - this leads to a difficult-to-listen-to mix on headphones especially. the instruments themselves don't appear to be working together, but rather doing their own thing throughout pretty much across the board. most of them also have heavy bass thumps in their attacks, which leads to a clicky, punchy tone that is not pleasing. beyond that, most of them don't appear to be playing music in the same key, which leads to it overall being pretty incoherent. i didn't get much melodic material from the original at all in this. i think this needs the drawing board. identify more clearly how you're going to relay the original's melodic and harmonic components that you're hoping to show, and craft a soundscape around that material that is both key-specific and intentional with your instrument choices. right now this is pretty far from the bar. NO

is it even an OCR album if there isn't a spaghetti western track in it? i mean, the genre is in the video talking about the site. jaw harp intro with whistling sounds great. 0:35 is where it really starts to go, and MW's right in that most of the texture feels very high in the frequency range. the guitar especially is quite shrill there. when the strings come in at 1:12, the freq range fills in better, but it's still high-heavy. the instrumentation however is very good - trumpet leads, acoustic guitar and strings in the back, highly percussive vocals, flutter-tongued whistle...it's very thematic. there's a break at 2:17 that is very dramatic initially and then quickly transitions into a tongue-in-cheek hayseed section for a bit. the string pads under it sound and feel great when they come in. 3:01 starts a pretty epic build from an instrumentation and energy standpoint. banjo picking is excellent in here. this trucks (trains?) through the melodic content on a few lead instruments before really settling into trumpet and friends. there's a final high note at 4:30 and it settles down to the ending. what a neat idea for a track. i do think overall it's mixed with very little low content, and i think that's a negative that holds the track back. however, the charismatic approach really carries it - the instrumentation choices are just perfect for the style, and there's a lot of mileage from a fairly repetitive source in this very creative arrangement. excellent job. YES

interesting piano tone to start the track. drums sound great, bass is a little dense but the sax tone and mallet tones are on point. outside the bass tone, this would sound at home on an early hancock album before he found synthesizers. the sax is maybe a little loud throughout but that'd be pretty much it. the soloing gets really cooking at 0:46 when the bass goes for a walk. it's pretty much a straight blow until maybe 1:55, and then a bit more soloing from 2:06 through the ending. cutting the instruments without even a tail is really surprising too, i don't understand any case where that'd be ideal. you've got about 12s in the intro, 23s with the sax and vibes carrying it before the solos start, 23s at 1:09 where the sax and mallets are carrying the melody, and 12s at the end before it goes back to soloing. i don't hear the rest that you called out. that's not quite half but it's close enough. i'll note that this is right on the border of not having enough source for me. this is a neat idea and it's performed well. the drums especially really come through as a highlight for me. nice work to everyone involved. YES

classic original, highly repetitive. initial arp in the 'piano', and some choir comes in after a little while. we get a snare and other synth at 0:56, and there's a light chime in there too. 1:25 there's a time change, and what probably is an organ in the lower reaches. at this point the 'piano's been trucking for the entire song, and it's showing no letting up. by about the 2 minute mark, we continue to noodle through the progression with the same instrumentation, and at 2:26 it gets even slower and lower. this is plodding at this point, and it's not had notable development of the original chord structure, 'melodic' line, or instrumentation. at 3:35 the organ cuts after a few run-throughs of the chord progression, and the piano carries us out for the rest of the track. the lack of varied instrumentation or a progression of the interpretation really hurts this track. as it gets lower and slower, it doesn't hold interest, and so just gets boring. the highly repetitive chord structure and lack of a true melody to grab onto plays into that. this needs some significant additions to get it over the finish line. right now it's boring =( which is never something you want to hear about a song. find a way to draw in and hold the listener's ear, and that'll really get it going in the right direction. NO

lots of space in the intro. each layer, like MW said, is subsequently more distorted and mean, and the eventual melodic content's mostly clean sound is a real neat contrast to that. SoW has a very unique song structure in my mind due to how much space is in the original, so the heavily percussive drums and stuttering synths with tons of space in them really fit the song well. there's a break around 1:40 that features some really neat sound design. 2:08 brings back in some more sfx in a rising action only to hit a huge shift at 2:17, which was totally unexpected and a neat idea. there continues to be a variety of textural changes, until the original melodic lead and bass come back in at 2:55. we get one runthrough of the melodic material at 3:09, and then the track is over. the ending is abrupt certainly, but given the variety of abrupt changes throughout the track, not entirely unexpected. this is a pretty neat idea for a track overall. the industrial elements pair really well with an original that demands silence in a retelling, and the abrupt changes and glitches that occur in the overall timbre in turn are influenced by the game's story which is neat. i think this is pretty good. YES

2015 is eight years ago? say it ain't so =( big opening with loads of sweepy pads, but we get a kick at 0:33 and some more direction soon after. this is a loud mix! 0:49 is really where the progression starts to build, and there's a particularly neat arp that comes in at 1:19 as a lead/counterlead part. i'll agree that the melody is a bit buried, but it's certainly there if you know what to listen for. we get a break at 1:59 and it's well-timed. fun use of sfx in the false build. the melodic material is back in full bore at 2:29 and it's a great sound, with a variety of octaves used to convey the melody alongside a great groove. there's a runthrough of the B material, and a quick recap of the A melodic content and we're done. this is great. like kris said, there's lot's of ear candy in this one. really neat ideas. i didn't find any of the synths particularly sharp, and i felt that the big, loud mastering didn't overpower the lead parts completely. YES

thank you for the detailed timings around the source. slow burn intro. the violins initially are pretty late in their attack but sound better as they get louder. 0:54 brings in some really rich-sounding bells, i love that sample. there's a nice orchestral crescendo going into 1:25 and some simple synth work that does a lot to build the intensity of the melodic material in the horns and celli. 2:38's chord shift was just great. 2:46's aleatoric elements were really interesting. very delicate. there's a beat and some bass that come in at 3:01, and in general the drums feel like they're lacking punch compared to some of the more aggressive synths we've heard so far in the track. there's a big build into 4:05, and again the drums feel very neutered compared to the rest of the instrumentation going on here. there's definitely some artifacts at about 4:35 or so, mostly from low-end stuff that probably could be limited a bit more in that specific section. after that, there's a (probably too-quiet) outro in the piano. this is really great overall i think. there's some specific elements that, had they been handled differently, could have really turned the arrangement up to 11, but the approach and melodic material handling is excellent and for the most part your mastering is clear and allows everything to speak. YES

intro is really patient, slowing layering in some nicely-handled hand percussion alongside the santur when it comes in. the synth arp in the background simulating the traditional repeated sixteenth notes on the santur is a nice touch, as is the Prelude arp that you brought in. the bansuri at1:15 sounds pretty traditionally handled as well, with the little flips here and there. the instrumentation really comes together to make a great whole here. at 1:47 there's a falloff into some very quiet exploration in the bansuri. this highlights one of my only real concerns with the piece, which is that the dynamic range is pretty huge. it could have used some more compression to bring this up a bit in volume without sacrificing the delicate timbres that you've got displayed here. 2:40 brings in the Beyond the Wall theme, and allows some room for exploring that very simple theme. we get a recap of the original melodic material around 3:35 or so, and at this point the backing instrumentation hasn't really changed at all for 4 minutes, and this section at 3:35 is very similar if not copied from earlier in the track. it's not until you layer the melodic material with harmonies at 4:37 that it's really unique. overall, i think the word for the approach is 'measured'. there's no significant highs in dynamics, and your approach takes its time. i would have preferred less overall dynamic variation - the part at 1:47 is just too quiet - and 3:35 was a cut and paste from earlier in the track, but what's here sounds great and is a great adaptation of two themes in a thoughtful way. nice work. YES

some dense pads initially with noodly voice samples to start. the cello sample here really isn't my thing - the swell on each note sounds extremely artificial to me. the original arpeggiated guitar line comes in at 0:54, and is essentially the same as the original (sounds like a similar key, tempo, instrumentation). there's a lot of textural pad work over top to help mix it up, but the main body of this entire middle section is very much the original's writing. the cello's writing and execution was better around 2:00 mark. there's a huge build to about 2:24 and some percussion added at this point. i don't know if i'm really feeling the drums, but the 3 over 2 pattern between the drums and arp was interesting. there's more textural elements in here and a lot more exploration in the vibe, which is a neat change. the fadeout ending is a copout imo - a sudden, abrupt waking sound like you described would have been a great bookend to the piece. i'm on the fence here. the first 50ish seconds are essentially new writing. the middle minute and a half is almost entirely cribbed from the original. the last <2 minutes are solid arrangement work. ultimately i think that the volume of arranged material is high enough that i think this is over the bar, but this is close, and i think that having several tracks in a row with similarly disconnected arrangement methods from the source (ie. layering vocal noodles over top of the original as it was in the track) is not a great method moving forward. i don't think there's much blood left to squeeze from that compositional stone. i think this is over the bar. the mixing is clear enough, i have no complaints about the mastering, it's got enough arrangement, the parts that don't sound good or are super-basic are balanced well by the more complex work in the latter half of the piece. i'd say this is about as close to no as i could go without getting there though. YES

immediate DT vibes from the intro. immediate not-DT vibes from the following 11 seconds The first presentation of the melodic material however could have easily come from any of a dozen melodic prog metal bands i can think of. the aggressive riff work with soaring melodic line is a style i just love personally. 1:47's solo work sounds great as you hand off between the synth and guitars. there's a nice break at 2:37 or so with the ep, and it ramps up nice to the melodic material in the guitar at around 2:58. there's a fairly eclectic variety of textures over the last 10s, and then it's done. mastering sounds uber-clear and balances the variety of timbres nicely. arrangement is dope as expected. nice work. YES