prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

starts out with octave riffs. 0:20's addition of the upper octave sounds great with the arps under it, and then it really hits at 0:29. total band sound is great. 0:50's back and forth conversational lead work was a good idea to keep it moving and not be solely guitar-dominated. 1:10 shows it's not a castlevania remix without some descending arpeggiated elements played by an organ, and that section serves as a bit of a break. it navigates some solo work and then has the conversational section again. 2:13's half-time section is again well-timed to provide a bit of a break from the faster, heavier first two minutes. this goes back into a third conversational section, which is probably too many times to go back to the well for the same thing. around here i noticed that the drums overall are pretty consistently the same and outside of fills were not really doing a lot of unique stuff. the switch to double-time at 2:51 though was a nice change though and then the subsequent double pedal stuff was also fun. the track changes yet again at 3:23 and it noodles a bit until it's done. great playing by zach on this one for sure. lots of fun back and forth. i think it ran out of ideas a bit near the end with the third back-and-forth and the end being so different from the rest, but overall it's a fun romp between the two themes. nice work. YES

classic original. also the remix really needs a name. opens with some (very very) quiet arp elements. it's a neat opening idea but really needs some compression as it's almost too quiet. bass and lead come in at 0:25 along with some static fx. this is a really cool vibe and is super patient with the melodic elements. i liked the string sweeps a lot - they're very subtle. 1:17 adds some more textural arps and still is very patient with the approach. the chordal elements that come in during the B section of the melody are again subtle and nice. 2:08's a 'break', if you can really have one when the track's like this, but there's a nice build into 2:34 which opens the filter and adds some nice countermelodic elements. i wouldn't have minded if the melodic element and main backing arp got new sounds here as they've been repeating for the entire track and probably should be mixed up. there's a nice build into 4:16 and the track's clearly on the downswing here as the melodic content drops. this section dragged and probably could have had more direction via subtractive arrangement and not sticking to the length of the original melodic loop. it ends on a confused chord that is probably a iv, which isn't my favorite choice but it's not technically incorrect. this is a really neat one. there's a ton of subtlety to the associated arrangement elements, and the countermelodic elements that are used were fun. there's a lot of low-end rumble, which is possibly contributing it to being a bit dense in the low mids, but overall i felt it sounded pretty good. my concern is with repetition, of which there's a lot. we don't ever hear the melodic material changed up - either in synth choice or in how it's presented - and essentially every element says the same thing for the rest of the track once it's introduced. it comes down to if i think that the repetition is beyond that of what'd be expected for the style, and i land on the side that says it's repetitive but not too much. so with that i think this is over the bar. YES

verby arps to start, and a really fun wide synthy lead to start. 0:40's where we start to get a beat, and it really kicks off at 0:55. i don't know if i'd call this synthwave as much as just a fun bop with synth instruments - i like the variation right off the bat in drum elements and in the nice wide bass that's being used to keep it feeling warm and fuzzy. whatever lead is introduced at 1:35 is definitely not my cup of tea, but i like what it's saying. there's some density issues around this section as the bass and really low mids are really heavy there in an abnormally wide band, so it's a bit muddy as the kick, wide bass, and some of the arps are colliding. some more intentional EQ there could definitely help with that, as well as some intentional volumizing on the snare in the following quieter section. i also heard some crunchy notes as a borrowed chord overlapped a non-borrowed chord at 2:22 in the reverb tail. there's a nice dropoff at 2:40 for ordon village - it almost sounded like auld lang syne for an instant there which was fun. using the hats and arp to keep the energy moving towards the bigger section at 3:13 was a great choice, and using the excellent skyhold theme there as a wrapping element for the higher energy parts of the piece is also a great choice. it's such a strong theme and you let it shine through well. there's some nice sustains at 3:48 which serve as a great wrapper to settle the listener down without a fadeout. this is a fun romp through some great themes. i agree with LT that some of the synth work is a bit stilted and wooden, but overall the warm vibes really come through well with all of the wide, slightly detuned elements. fun track. YES

starts out with some light drums, and clarinet and bass clarinet come in pretty quickly. they're well played and it's a fun primary idea for the track. clarinet tone is a bit stringy, and doesn't seem helped by the mic or lack of room sound. bass clarinet is more fleshed out and has a great tone, but also isn't really helped by the mic or lack of room sound. for the clarinet especially, make sure you've got enough mouthpiece in your mouth, that your reed is doing you favors in terms of hardness, and that you're really trying to keep your teeth and throat open enough to allow for the proper resonance (especially on sustains it sounds like you're clenching your teeth a bit). flutes come in at 0:29 and are both better mic'd and playing some really fun countermelodic content. they're a bit loud in the mix relative to the other elements - flutes are always hard to mix because they cut through so easily. the b section arrives at 0:53 with a lot of sustains in the clarinet that emphasize the aforementioned tone issue. there's a ton of fun window dressing here though especially in the bass clarinet. flute takes the lead at 1:16 and the singing tone really carries this nicely. this is an opportunity for volumization though, as the flute really is a lot louder than everything here. bringing the flute a bit back (counterintuitively) relative to the other elements will help it not crush everything when it gets into power range in the middle of the upper octave. i really like the clarinet countermelodic content here too, your tone fits into the backing elements really nicely. flute carries the B melody at 1:41 and there's again some fun turns of phrase by the clarinet. the bass clarinet gets lost in here a bit because it's up in the upper registers and so doesn't have the bite that was helping it cut through down lower. there's a final hit and we're done. overall this is a really fun arrangement! i really love the different countermelodic elements throughout. i really wasn't sure how i'd feel about a track that was just winds and drums, but the bass clarinet really does a great job staying active and keeping the lower end handled. this is a great adaptation, nitpicks aside, and is definitely over our bar. nice work. YES

wow, what an original! this is a great track. initial riffs is just what i expected, and i love it already. immediate head-bobber. performance is stellar. 0:42's a break, with the following band sound at 0:56 more of a fusion vibe like you'd expect to hear in a persona track. 1:18 is finally the MOAR DAKKA i was hoping for and has some plini vibes with the ascending melodic line over heavy rhythmic chugs. 1:57's recap with the two leads is great, and i like the immediate key change here to ensure there's no chance anyone will think it's getting too samey. 2:28's break is well-timed and needed after all that, and the last gasp of fresh air before the end. synth solo at 2:40 is superb. during the section at 3:00ish i was really impressed with just how clean the mix sounds - there's a ton going on, and it's all audible and punchy and vibrant. EQing here is very good. 3:17's section felt a bit tacked in there as a palette cleanser since it doesn't really dovetail into adjacent sections, but the following section with trading leads sounds great. 4:05's a straight blow through to the end, and it's done. what a track. this is super fun - there's a lot of genre shifts and style elements in here for everyone, and it just keeps on evolving as it goes along. excellent work. YES

sfx to start, then some panning mandolin and arpeggiated guitar work. the beat hits at 0:31. i like the bass tone immediately and also like the way the elements are woven together here. sax is a bit out of time in a way that was confusing at first. there's a break at 1:09 and the celli here sound nice, and the groove that comes in right after is a really energetic and pressing sound that i like a lot. melody's back in at 1:49 and it's quiet, with the (fun) guitar work covering it up quite a bit. false ending at 2:17 is really just an excuse to lean more into stemage which i think is a great decision. there's an outro that starts at 2:59 and is mostly just sfx, and it's done. this is pretty straightforward, but i wouldn't call it conservative. i like the way you've taken the individual elements of the original and pieced them back together in interesting ways. this is really solid. nice work. YES

some FF5-esque synths to open the track. 0:25's where the beat and bass come in (in a different tempo, which is an interesting choice) and it feels a little dark. wouldn't have minded more highs through here. lead is pretty much playing the original's content - i would have liked to hear some movement on the synth lead part as well as dynamics. it also just ends where tsori comes in, which is a little weird. trumpet doesn't speak over the mix right off the bat but sounds great when it gets a bit higher. i liked the doubling on the theme down the octave as well, and the shift at 1:17 to drop the hats and focus on the melodic content was a good one. again the trumpet kind of drops off suddenly at the end of that section - a more dovetailed ending would have been preferable. i really didn't care for the solo tone at first - there's a very high ringing around 4khz that really grated - but i got more into it as the solo moved along. i'd have loved to see the drums changed up for the solo section to help keep it moving forward. there's several rhythmic elements in this section that weren't quite lined up - the drum triplet's second two hits are late, the solo part at 2:04 is a bit out of time, as is 2:18. the solo ends on a non-chord tone which is a bit unsupported. overall the solo sounded pretty good, but i didn't find that it followed the chords and hit the color tones quite as much as i'd have hoped that it would have. i liked the overall rhythmic direction you went with it, however, and i'd encourage you to use space in your solos more often to help drive energy. with synth solos especially, varying vibrato and velocity can really take it to the next level - experimenting with the mod wheel, pitch wheel, and using a synth that is velocity-driven can really pump it up. there's a bigger section with some fun interplay between the different elements at 2:50. this is the climax of the piece and it's fun to hear everything interweaving, and then come together at 3:15 for the same descending lick. the piece meanders a bit over the last 25s but it eventually finds a nice closing tone. i wouldn't have minded a fade on the synth vs. a hard cut like it had. this is a pretty neat combination of ideas. trumpet and what i'd consider to be a jazz/blues guitar tone with synthwave elements makes for an interesting overall feel. i liked the adaptation of the themes, and for the most part the solos sounded good and were interesting. i think that i called out a ton of nitpicks above but overall this is over the bar. nice work. YES edit 7/23: coming back to this a few months later. the bass is really crushing everything else in the low end. LT's right that the kick doesn't have any beef, but it's because the bass is stealing it all. some sidechain or an altered bass rhythm that's not just repeated eighths would help with that. the synth solo also isn't really doing it for me - i don't like the tone still, and it spends a lot of time not doing anything, and then ends on a non-chord tone. i think LT's statement of there being a lot of little things adding up makes sense. there's a ton of nits here and i think that correcting them would help a ton. i'm going to change my vote. NO

opens with a backbeat feel. off-beat guitar is a little loud, as is the eventually melodica (??) lead. not having a pad here to fill out the chords makes it feel a bit empty in the early section. there's also a good bit of panning so the lead and organ that comes in later is a little wider than expected. there's a bit of a drum break at 0:41, and that goes right into the air theme at 0:55. that same lead finally stops playing at 1:08 and its nice to hear something else for a bit. i really didn't care for the tone of the melodica lead and it just kept going with no real break. there's a recap of the water island theme and the organ continues to do interesting things in the background. 1:35 is a shift in the drums and organ - sounds like the organ gets a chance to do a bit of a solo - and then we have a second recap of the water island theme (this is, i think, copied directly from 2:01). there's a fade-out and it's done. i think there's a lot going on here that's good. i like the overall vibe of the arrangement - i think you are pretty close to nailing the backbeat-style chill feel. i also like the use of drums and bass overall. i think the drums have a lot of copied patterns and could use a bit of variance once and a while, and i definitely found the melodica lead to be grating and over-loud - i can't help but wonder what it'd sound like with a different lead used for part or all of those sections. separately, i thought that there is a general lack of anything to help ground the chords for each section - a light pad would do wonders to help clean that up. lastly, mixing up the presentation of the water theme that's repeated several times (add some personalization each time!) and the countermelodic content behind it would be a great choice. i think this is fun, and pretty close. there's a few things to fix and then i think it's there. NO

gets right into it. there's a lot of finger noise on the bass, particularly the attack, which is partially cool to hear how organic it is and partially distracting. the vibes are spare in their application - almost too much so! i'd love to hear more! - and there's a few sections where they don't line up with the bass (like the riff at 2:00). there's some copy going on in the vibes to my ear around the :50-1:00 mark and again at 1:55-2:05. the vibes don't have much velocitization to my ear at all - i don't hear many attacks that aren't exactly the same as the previous entries. there's also some notes that are not idiomatic (like 1:49 and each time that pattern occurs before in the track). i'm with LT. it's a creative arrangement that is uncanny-valley and has some technical missteps that are unfortunate. i'd love to hear a slightly more fleshed-out version that features more attention to the vibes realism and bass attack variation. i think the clever interplay is great though and i think this is over the bar, i just wish that more was done with it. YES

chill pads to start. there's some panning FM bells and ballad drums that come in next, and the bass is there at 0:43. this is a longer intro than i'd expect to hear overall, and i didn't care for how overtone-heavy the FM bells were. the clean electric guitar that comes in next is nice, but the muted stuff that's panning is a touch ahead of the beat and really distracting given how important groove is to this style. the melodic content - really more of a motif initially - finally comes in at 1:25. the 16th hats here are a good idea to keep it different from the opening. the mixing here is a little mid-heavy (i think you've got a lot in the 250hz range to my ear, some notch EQing will help). the b portion of the melody is at 1:50 and the guitar work here is simple but effective. there's a break at 2:10 and that's well-timed. 2:29 has a guitar solo that sounds regularly a fourth off of the correct key - there's a lot of tones that don't quite fit. for example, you've got a G-A-Bm chord progression, and the first part of the riff hits an F over the G (G isn't a 7 chord here), a G over the A chord (again, not a 7), and settles on an A over the Bm chord (again, not a 7 chord), then plays A G# F# E over a Bm chord (Bm does not have a G#, the G# bites against the earlier G chord) and settles on an E - the 4th of Bm, not a natural landing tone - over that Bm. it ends better though and that resolution is really nice. 2:51 is a nice lead break with a smooth synth taking the melodic content. there's some more heavy rhythm guitar in the next run of the B theme and the guitar lead comes back for a last run through. the panning FM bells come back for a bit and the pads fade us out. this is honestly really close. i think the arrangement is pretty conservative - the original does a lot more with the melodic progression that wouldn't really fit into a synthwave track, so i get deconstructing it like this. the style is pretty solid - larry said deliberate and i think that's an apt term to describe the feel. i like layering in the guitar where you did as well. i don't think the solo sits well at all until the last few notes, and there's another sour note note at 2:24 that's a half-step off - i can't help but wonder if it could be fixed in post-processing rather than re-recording it. i also really didn't care for the muted panned guitar elements that came in a few times and weren't really on the beat. i'm not comfortable passing this. i'm going to reach out and see if we can't work out the solo though because if that's fixed i can definitely see this passing. NO edit: 4/12: we worked together to fix the solo. it's above the bar now for me!. YES

starts out with some great keys. drums and bass are in almost immediately. drums sound really muted, especially the kick is almost not audible and the toms sound pretty rough. sounds like an overhead mic only was used and the toms don't really speak through that as the other instruments do - i'm curious if it's possible to pull some of the tone of those not-cymbals out with very specific EQ notches. bass tone is also bland - there's little top-end to it and it doesn't speak well over the drum elements in the same range. keys are the spotlight here. i really appreciate the varying levels of dynamics that are represented here, and there's a hard groove that the drums are laying down that the piano really settles into. bass isn't quite as settled into the pocket 100% of the time (any time there's repeated notes or a running section, it speeds up a bit down the stretch). keys riff at 1:46 is pretty silly great. there's some interesting falling action at 2:45 as part of a recap before it's the ending. the last chord took a second or two longer than expected to hit, and it's done. this is an interesting one. i really don't care for the quality of the drum recording or the bass tone, but the keys are really solid. there's a good amount of solo material here, but there's clearly a preponderance of the A section of the main theme at least so there's no concern of the arrangement. what i can hear of the drums especially is a really clean, clear pocket that's well-used by the keys to establish a really solid groove. i think overall requiring a drummer to have a multi-mic setup to be able to accurately record a jazz kit isn't required to have a passing grade on a great arrangement, so this is a yes from me. YES

opens with sfx and gets a beat around 0:13. a few ripley quotes (ridley? ripley?) and we're into a big, expansive, wide brinstar vibe with a ton of tempo-synced elements and fat pads. drum work is really nice, especially right before 1:15. 1:30 finally shows some castlevania - what a perfect dovetail there, and then following it with the organ and choir with the same drum concepts over it is great. 2:09 is a vibe change (admittedly i didn't see it going there!) and there is a ton of sfx in this section, as well as some really wild genre changes going on. 2:35 onward has some sections that feel very empty - by design, but it's almost too much - and then it hihats through to a filtered outro and it's done. this is easy. arrangement is just fantastic as expected - the two themes really work well together, and the realization is fantastic. from a mixing perspective, the wildly different elements all fit together well and are mastered appropriately. great work. YES

lots of opening foley and neat sound design elements. love the gated vox pad with the very slow bell arp from the maridia theme - that's a really neat combination. bass here is great - i look forward to the bass work on every track xaleph's on. there's a break at 1:33 that eventually features some audiomint, which sounds great. beat's back in at 2:15 and it's really trucking this time. the purification melodic content really fits this more aggressive approach well. there's some breaks for different instruments as fills occasionally that don't quite fit the soundscape as well as others - the piano at 2:40 is really dry compared to the backing elements, for example - but overall this is really catchy. 3:10 backs off the melodic content a bit in exchange for some more sfx and storytelling. there's some...pitched water drops? this was an interesting choice, not my favorite sound for some reason. huge vibe shift at 3:50 - this is more diablo than anything, with the long-tail guitar work and arpeggiating elements. i love how this combines the two themes. the pulsing bass here helps drive this forward really well. there's some guitar arpeggiated elements at 4:46 that lead into a electro-rock section that literally had me do the pacha perfect face. the hyper-compressed vibe of this section is great, it's so robotic after all the organic sfx and sounds that have been used. there's some bleeps and bloops to finish it off and we're done. i love the story of this track. there's a ton of vibrant mind-pictures that you can hear from each section, and there's so much energy flowing throughout. it's also very refreshing to just be able to not worry about the mix or the overall master and just enjoy the flow that you've got going on. superb job, this is a new favorite. YES

opens with wet pads and some fun rhythmic pad elements. there's a beefy fifths pad at 0:20 that i really like. rhythmic elements come in at 0:38 and we get some ridley/macarena stabs (now i will never unhear that, thanks, i hate it). it's a lot meaner than the original macarena which i like a lot - there's a really strong vibe that shows through well here. the beat drops in just before the first minute mark and this whole section sounds great. there's a big break at 1:37, and we get another rhythmic vibe at 1:55. the mad forest elements are there but it's really stretched out - it took me a bit to make the correlation between the different chunks of melodic material and where they match up. there's a big break with some fun voice clips, and then we get a party-next-door style build into 3:12. this is mask-off macarena and it's such a great beat. this trucks through a bit of the vox elements and then is done. what an easy vote. this has a killer vibe throughout, it's super creative in the arrangement and influences, and it never gets stale. the mix sounds great and beefy. excellent work. YES

opens with a really dense soundscape - tons in the low mids, so it's hard to hear what's going on. the guitar/synth stuff is great, well-played. i liked the extra panning elements that showed up on the second time through the melodic material. 1:01's arpeggiated stuff is pretty excellent, and emphasizing the uprising countermelody there from the original is the right choice. there's a lighter section at 1:24 with some nice long-tail reverb doing some neat stuff. there's some call and response solo work for the last thirty seconds and then it's done. the drums spend most of the song doing one of two loops which is a disappointing choice - there's a ton of room for clever writing there and it wasn't taken advantage of. the mastering is also pretty dense throughout even after the synths and lead guitar come in - the bass synth is overwhelmingly loud, fairly high all considering, and then there's some spikes in the low mids that cause it to feel very dense (the rhythm guitar or synth, whatever that is, that's probably the culprit). i think that this is pretty straightforward, but there's a lot of little flourishes and fun elements added outside the solo work that makes this great. i wish the mastering was better but this is good enough to pass as-is. if it gets conditional'd or NO'd, i'd say that it needs some more arrangement in the drums and backing elements so it's not so repetitive there, and needs another mixing pass (at least turn down the bass synth and give it some attack so it's not so oofy). YES

hey, just a side note to a point mentioned in the writeup - i know some of us judges are more available than others, but we're always willing to talk further if you've got questions about why something landed the way it did. just message us and we'll be happy to help. most of the time =) i'm also going to be honest and say i don't like my previous vote much. i was not clear about what needed to be done and that's on me. i had some specific suggestions that i didn't write down for whatever reason and that's not good enough from me. opening run through the chord progression is a lot better on this one, through like 0:47. piano feels good and the saturation feels more comfortable than it did before. drums feel better as well if i'm remembering correctly. 1:09's transition is nice. the kicks here are a little confusing due to where they're falling initially, but when more drum bits come in it's easier to track them. 1:35 has some nice keys licks. i don't remember the vox stuff at 1:59 but i really like it. stylistically that fits really well, although i'd expect more grit on them based on the rest of the instruments. ending is fine imo, i get it based on the style and the old-record vibe that's going on throughout. me being an old head would in general prefer a normal ending of some kind but that's personal preference. this is a great track. it may not be 100% on brand with what you're trying to ape, but it's a straightforward and fun arrangement, showcasing less is more from an instrumental side. thanks for taking the time to rework this. YES

breakdown is highly appreciated. i love the timelessness of the opening sections. it initially sounds like it's going to be in time and then just immediately falls off the rails. it's clearly immediately heavily influenced by vaporwave sensibilities (ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣＳ) with the tiktok-brain switching of styles and ideas every few seconds. there's some really wild elements to this that are so far afield from the original that i can't imagine how you got there, and i'm so glad you did. combining the sound design with some of the traditional music theory techniques (like the diminution of the rhythm at 0:58, or the tapestop effects straight out of 1950s french musique concrete at 1:14) is just so fun. the breadth of innovation here is impressive. i just hope the acid wasn't too expensive. YES

"The real "mystery" is why the hell we picked this source in the first place." i admit i was wondering who in their right mind would pick EM of all tracks. it doesn't even have a triad that exists in western music theory for the entire piece. how do you arrange that? opens with some piano noodling and lucas repeating the phrase "environmental mystery" :< and then moves into a really nice loose jazz feel. guitar is sublime. the bass and drum writing is also excellent. i was amazed to hear you actually lean into the EM augmented triad by expanding it into a broken chord and then adding a 5 to ape lydian mode. what an excellent idea to make this into a real track. emu, if i had to suggest anything about your piano playing, i'd say to lean more into avoiding the I and V of any given chord. the bass is there to handle where the root of the chord. piano should be focusing more on the color tones (which is why jazz has such weird chords) throughout. what you did here is fine and does a nice job carrying the harmonic basis for everything else, but there's a lot of room for some really fun voicings if you unpin your left pinky from the root of every chord. there's a nice break at about 2:02 with some call and response before we get a big drums-driven shout section. again the drums here are just so good. there's an ensemble section immediately after this, and then we get some side-by-side work in the piano and guitar to the outro. what a great take on two diametrically opposed tracks. this works really well all the way through as an interpretive and ensemble-heavy approach to two tracks that don't really have much in common at all. i'd have thought the drums were live if i wasn't told they were programmed, and the keys and guitar really carry the track. excellent job. YES

opens with some synths and a heavily distorted lead bass tone (reminds me a bit of billy sheehan). drums are hard to hear outside of the cymbals - they're doing some neat stuff but i can't really pick them out. the marble gallery melody really works well with this kind of aggressive, forward-driving approach. 0:55 is kind of a transitional section, and then we get another instance of the melodic material at 1:09. there's a big rising tone and then it drops off for a break at 1:33 with some fun tempo synced synths. i can finally hear the drums for a bit and they do fun things! there's a bunch of proggy band-synced elements before we get back to a consistent 4/4 groove at about 2:00. this goes through the main section of melody from marble gallery and then references the end of it near the end of the track. there's some rising action and then it's over - not super prepared, but fitting given the way the original ends. this is indeed mostly marble gallery, but that's at least partly due to how simple environmental mystery is. i had trouble picking out the elements of EM actually - i'm assuming the early repeated arp pattern was a highly-transformed version of EM, and i can hear it a bit near the 1:00 mark, but that's it. as an arrangement of marble gallery, though, i think this has no issues with source usage. this is a really fun dash through the melodic material. the melody of marble gallery is sufficiently twisty that playing at the speed demonstrated here is impressive, and the various rhythmic elements really work together to make a fun whole. i wish that the drums parts that weren't cymbals were louder, and that there was a touch more rhythm guitar, but i appreciate the aggressive nature of the arrangement and the excellent performances of the musicians involved. nice work. YES

some really beautiful winds to start the track. really well-handled part-writing. vocals start at 0:22. there's some room sound here, but the singing is skillful. in general, watch that you don't combine vowels ("I soar I fly" was more "I so rai fly"). there's a bit of phasing on the vocals as well which i think is a combination of pitch correction and the verb chosen, it's kind of a weird effect - watch that you're not removing all pitch drift from a sustain, it can cause some audible artifacts if you do. second verse features some backing vocal elements which is really nicely handled. they're pretty loud and should really be turned down quite a bit, but they're performed well and do a good job of mixing up what'd be a repetitious verse. bridge was clearly punched in and sounds different. there's a resonant ring to this particular recording as well which is a bit distracting. the range displayed is really impressive though - excellent work keeping good diction all the way down to the bottom of the line. there's again some really nice winds for the transition. around here i realized that the drums are both very, very basic and the piano part is also very, very repetitive. there's little of the fills and unique elements that you'd expect to hear from the piano especially. the balance in verse 4 is a bit off as the backing organ is pretty loud relative to what's going on in the foreground as is the snare, but it sounds great when the strings come in and the harmonic elements are all firing at 3:23. the octaves sound great here. the big payoff chord at 3:50 is awesome and feels so short - i wanted more! =) there's an instrumental bridge after this with some interesting different new synths. the prelude synth was a fun idea but really needed some room verb on it so it didn't sound so far out of the mix, and there's some strings in the right ear that are panned a little far. overall the solo here is great though and builds nicely into 5:07. last big run-through of the chorus section at 5:07 is a great payoff chorus and sounds really nice. the pitch correction on the last word at 5:50 was pretty obvious - that might have been an opportunity for a better recording vs. fixing what was there. the rest of the track is outro. i liked the wordless section to finish it but may have wanted that to be a bit quieter, and to have a more consistent cutoff on the notes. this is a great arrangement! what a fun adaptation of such a timeless, beautiful original. ladyreemz does a great job with all of the various harmonic elements throughout, outside of a few nitpicks. marc, the arrangement is excellent and you do a great job of keeping the arrangement moving and creative throughout, nitpicks aside. what a great addition this will make to the site. YES

the opening plucks were a little exposed, but i got what you were going for at 0:14 with the panflute and choir. it sounds really blown out though - there's definitely some distortion in my ears around a lot of this first section. i found the melody in this earlier section to be difficult to follow as well since there's no breaks, just constant flowing through lines. 1:07's a break, but it's quickly back to mostly similar textures. we do get some rhythm at 1:19 which is helpful to keep it moving forward. this section is also more reminiscent of an Enya melodic line. there's a note at 1:43 that doesn't fit. 1:58 is a somewhat new texture, with some new instrumentation, but again it feels overly dense and hard to pick out elements. the flute drops at 3:04 and the shift in texture is nice after what's mostly been a monoculture up until now. 3:34's backing arpeggios sound really neat, but there's consistently sour notes in the transitions between chords. i like the snare percussive elements. it trucks along, does the same sour note at 4:32 that was at 1:43, and then it's done. i'm apparently missing something because i don't hear metroid hardly at all in this. either it's very transformed and i'm looking past it, or it's only used in backing elements. overall i really didn't care for the vibe that this one lays out. there's a really dense cluster of instruments in the low mids that really conflicted against each other, and the heavy reverb - which i get why you used, thematically it's really fitting! - made for a soundscape where a lot of resonant stuff lived. there's definitely some distortion to my ears in the first minute or so. beyond that, i found the realization of the melodic material difficult to follow. part of this is due to it just wheedling onward with no breaks or transitional points to hold onto, and part of that is due to the very smooth and rhythmless backing elements. for this to get a passing grade from me, there'd need to be a cleaner backing texture for most of the piece with no distortion from effects layering on each other, and there'd need to be a rework of what's going on with the melodic material. i really wasn't able to follow it much at all, and from a general song form perspective there wasn't much to hang your hat on there. NO

opens with some very delicate harp and orchestral elements. first real focused element is the cello at 0:42. the surrounding percussive elements are really nice. we get a lofi beat at 1:00, and some really filthy bass underneath the acoustic guitar. there's a bit hit at 1:16 that sounds awesome, and the iconic descending riff at 1:31. 2:25's a tonal shift as the beat gets moving a bit more and the different elements all get some neat automation to drive the tempo. the bass especially here is just so good. the voiceover is indeed a good transitional element, and the orchestral stuff at 3:25 is really rich as a second phase of the track. there's a big break at 4:00 - really the first major break in the track - and the delicate choir here is nicely handled. we get orchestral percs and horns at 4:25, and the last bit of melodic material as it trucks towards a final big chord. there's a variety of elements as the track fades out, including the iconic metroid ascending line, and it's done. this is a really neat fusion of cinematic orchestral writing alongside really meaty electronic elements. it's hard to hear something of this scope and then post a bunch of nitpicks, as if they could really drag something like this down to the level of us mere mortals. excellent job, as expected. YES

is the first thing that i hear the word 'aflac'? also, 'aping the Gorillaz' i see what you did there. opening is appropriately funky. Tallon is a surprisingly functional melody line for the verse. the vibe here is pretty solid - the guitar and bass work here is super fitting. chorus shift works well. lucas's voice on the chorus is a little overtuned imo but it fits the style really well. ridley's tone on the rap is great, and the lyrics are honestly hilarious. fat back thirst trap? spatula? i love it. the instrumental section at 2:01 needed a little synth solo or something to keep it moving forward. there's a chorus break after that takes a bit to get to where it's going, which is a nice shift. one more chorus (not much different here this time around). last rap verse doesn't lay quite as well as the first one, but at least you make fun of yourself about it right after. this is a really fun adaptation! the style lays really nicely in what you guys are trying to do, and the melodic lines fit in really well. zach's guitar and bass work really shines the most on this one to me - i didn't catch the correlations the first time through, but it's really clever how you took an auto-arping bassline from a futuristic track and that wretched melody from C3 and turned it into a really stylized and interesting backing track in such a different vibe. great job. this kind of transformative approach is what i like the most about OCR. YES

opens with a very quiet arpeggio and then a later bass hit - the contrast there might be a bit much. castlevania is referenced right off the bat at 0:20, and then the arpeggio from Forbidden Area is nicely dovetailed into the melodic line from Metroid. pretty neat idea. there's a bit of a break at 1:13 which is a nice pause in the action. 1:28 brings the groove back in alongside some more melodic content, although the stereo split on the beat here is surprising and significant and a bit of a turnoff. there's a big swell into some chippy synths at 1:48 - hearing those alongside some of the other burbles and orchestral elements was a neat idea. this gets pretty loud and overwhelms most everything else going on until there's a transition at 2:26. there's a nice sweep lead used in this break with some cinematic swells. i continue to appreciate the simple changes to the menu select theme melody throughout this section - it's very repetitive so it's great hearing how it's being personalized. there's a big build into 3:39 where the strings take over with the Metroid melodic content. this is very cinematic and layered and sounds great, even more so when the guitar comes in on the next runthrough of the content. 4:17 is a switch to a much more rhythmic feel as the chiptunes come back and we progress through to the ending. there's one final big rush and it's done. track is, as a whole, really loud. everything is well balanced - i can always hear everything, and what's being said is worth hearing - but the bass presence especially throughout is really significant and can feel overwhelming in a few places where it's more cinematic rather than electronic. outside of that, though, i really appreciated the huge variety of things going on to focus on in any given section. there's a ton of development throughout and the remix keeps changing and shifting and evolving as you go through. this is a great track in my book. nice work. YES

sfx noodling to start. remixer plays with the main theme a bit before getting into Stealthy Steps. beat comes in at 0:49 and is appropriately angular for the synths around it. bass is super FM and has some real grumble in it which is fun to hear. interesting lead comes in at 1:33 with some heavy buzz and movement to it - really liked this one. the snare's a bit bright but i get why you had it so meaty throughout. cruises through some transformations of the theme for about a minute after this section, then noodles a bit around with what sounds like a theremin. at 3:30 we get into a much more developmental/transformational section. there's some interesting chord work in here to keep it moving forward and at least one key transposition for a while. around 4:46 it starts to back off some more until we get a short recap of Stealthy Steps. it ends pretty abruptly after that. i wouldn't have minded a bit more prep going into that. this has some really interesting synth work throughout! it's muddy in spots - you forgot to roll off the sub-40hz content throughout, so there's more 5hz content than 40hz at a few places - but overall i can hear what's happening in each section and the things that are going on are interesting to listen to. this is a fun track. i'm going to conditional it simply because i believe dropping a rolloff on the main is easy, but it's definitely a pass. CONDITIONAL 3/15: updated version is cleaner down low but still has stuff happening at 10hz and below. i am still a conditional but tbh this is good enough for me to go as-is if it doesn't get fixed. 7/15: i apparently misunderstood what conditional was (that is, it's a no until fix, not yes with reservations). this is passable, i'd just prefer the low end get trimmed before release. i'm updating my vote based on this. YES