prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

file name is "DKC2 with Birds", which is hilariously understated. really lush pads to start. there's some nice sfx in here too that add to the texture a lot. the iconic scoopy synth is transplanted directly in at the 0:43 mark and i love that. the melodic content comes in at 1:02 with some beautiful cello work. it sits a little farther back in the texture than i think i'd like, and a bit of notch eq might have helped it come out of the background a bit more. the percussive elements at 1:26 are really nice initially as well, as are the bird sfx. we get some more cello for the B theme before a recap of the A theme again. the percussion loop here (particularly the metals) start to be a bit repetitive though here as it's been going for a while without changeup or break. there's a bit of a break at 2:27 and the texture changes at 2:47 to a more forward-focused feel. some of the rising synths here again feel like they're transplanted out of the original and grew up, which is a fun feel. there's some live flute through here interwoven with the rising arps, which is a neat feel. i'd have put the flute up front, and it'd have been the wrong choice initially - allowing the flute's fluttering bits to move around in the texture before it finally came out and did a bit of melody was a great idea. a nice settling chord at 3:46 that i thought would be the end, and instead it's moving into some new chord structures. i really like the bass movement on this new section. it definitely feels like enya when vox comes in like you mentioned in your writeup. some melodic snippets in the flute as it noodles along a bit to a Gladiator-esque wash of color and chord movement, and it's done. this is a really neat arrangement! i was kind of feeling it was played out by maybe 2:15, and then you kept it so fresh by introducing new textures and ideas throughout the entire >5m piece. excellent work there. from a mixing perspective, i find the mix clear and clean and it's easy to hear all of the tons of different little things you're doing throughout, so that's great. what a complete package. excellent work will! YES

So this remix has a bit of an interesting starting off point. David Wise came to our college to guest lecture for a few of my sessions! Rather surreal. After meeting David Wise I got inspired enough to make a remix of Forest Interlude, which has always been one of my favourites of his. So I worked on the track and got it to a reasonable level but rather unusually, I had the original composer to send it to - so send it I did, and David gave me feedback! So I got to work on putting in his feedback, which amounted to some compositional editing, and adding flute, cello and duduk as the leads, and it really elevated this track to the next level. I also added some vocal samples to give it a Now we are free/Enya vibe. Finally, I was talking to Sixto Sounds (Juan Medrano) who said "you should add some birds!" Add birds I did. So for the name, I was talking to Wes McDonald (Emunator) - about what to actually call the track - if you want someone to name a track, he's your guy, he also named Transient Shadows! - and he suggested "Dawn Chorus". So yup. A lot went into this one to make it good but I think I finally did this great source tune justice. A lot of work went into making this one - I do need to thank Emery here, he knew many of the people who directly worked on this collaboratively, even if he didn't actively work on the track himself. The track involves the instrumental talents of Christine Giguère - (DaMonz's mum!) - who played cello, and Denis Bluteau who played flute. Sèbastien Dufour (Trainbeat) also deserves special mention for transcribing and recording both the cello and the flute performances. I do feel like they are what truly elevate this track, so they deserve a lot of credit. Finally, David Wise himself needs a very special mention here. Of course, he wrote the original, but his feedback really pushed this one and inspired me to up my game to make it something that hopefully, you'll all enjoy! Credits: Christine Giguère (Cello) Denis Bluteau (Flute) Games & Sources Donkey Kong Country 2 - Forest Interlude

opens with broad pads, some plucks, and the melodic material carried first by a synth and then a nice bell tone that fades in alongside a synth. the beat drops at 0:34. it's pretty boomy here, and the kick doesn't have much beef to it. it trucks through the melodic material in order in roughly the same tempo, the synths don't change much, there's no real arrangement besides the genre adaptation, and there's no ending, just a static buzz. this is unfortunately not enough arrangement for what we normally accept at this site. this is a cover - which is fine, there's a huge market on YouTube for this kind of thing! - but it doesn't fulfill our standards for arrangement depth or breadth unfortunately. i'd expect to hear more adaptation of the melodic or harmonic material, chord changes, added solos or extra content, etc. before i'd consider this arrangement. it's also pretty short and it's hard to have transformative writing in that amount of time! please review our submission standards, particularly the arrangement section, before submitting again. thanks for sending this in! we hope you want to submit again in the future =) NO

would need a new title if passed Magna Romagna, the brainchild of Simone Gennari ("Genna") and Davide Genchi ("Enki"), is an Italian electronic dance music duo with deep roots in the Italo Disco and Italodance traditions of Emilia Romagna. The duo first connected on Gigi D'Agostino's fan forum, bonding over their shared love for electronic music. In 2004, they officially formed Magna Romagna, named after the region that inspired their sound and memories. Their music is heavily influenced by the iconic Gigi D'Agostino, with whom they've shared tracks that received widespread praise. Magna Romagna's sound captures the essence of the 80s and 90s Italian dance scene, especially the vibrant nightlife of Rimini. The duo also produces under the name "Moto Remoto" for their harder Slowstyle tracks and have launched a label under the same name. While they’ve slowed down in recent years, Magna Romagna continues to create music, with more EPs planned for release soon. Their first official release is a testament to their enduring passion for the genre that brought them together. Games & Sources Original theme by Jean-François Freitas. Another World (also known as Out of This World), is an iconic cinematic platform game created by Eric Chahi and released in 1991. Originally released on platforms like the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS, Another World took players on an unforgettable journey with Lester Knight Chaykin, a young physicist who finds himself in a mysterious alien world after a lab experiment goes wrong. The game is celebrated for its unique art style, innovative gameplay, and emotional storytelling, which have influenced countless games since its release.

i loved this soundtrack when i played the game, and i still listen to it occasionally. it's a fantastic example of electro-orchestral scoring. the glitch effects are particularly impressive. and the game is dope too! opens with sustains and some glock. this opening section isn't the most realistic-sounding samples. the arps at 0:26 are immediately recognizable, and layering in the horns at 0:37 is nice. the chromaticism introduced with the element at 0:50 is a hallmark of the original soundtrack overall, and it's fun how you were able to weave it into some of the other aggressive movement going on. 1:57's a lot more agitato, and while your samples can't quite handle what the low winds are trying to do, it's a fun concept. there's a lot of intentional dissonance not only at 2:30 but for several of the following sections as well. after all that noise, we get a much lighter representation of the chromaticism from before, and a few plucks to end it. this is a very ambitious arrangement - i admit i've wanted to arrange something from Remember Me for years but find the breadth of the original tracks intimidating. you cram a lot of clever adaptation elements into a very short package. the realization of this arrangement isn't super clean due to sample issues, but what's here is handled well considering those shortcomings., and is recognizable and interesting. nice work. YES

i've always found this original to be interesting. opening section is adjacent to the original initially, but at around 0:28 we start to get the ascending synth line that makes this section feel like the A theme from the original. the metals sound works surprisingly well to map to the rhythmic element. there's a hard transition at 1:10 to just guitars for the keys element of the B theme. there's a heavily rhythmic bass line added under this to give it more structure, and eventually some really heavy guitars in a polyrhythmic package to give it some harmonic elements. voice comes in at 2:13. i love how non-rhythmic the vocals are compared to the backing elements, what a fun contrast. the verse is so fitting to the words as well. the chorus is a lot rougher - from what i can hear, the verse is adding some notes to the bassline but roughly following that shape. i can hear the piano elements there and that's not a problem. the second verse is handled a lot lighter than the first, and then we have a section that's kind of transitional with the opening wide synth under it. the 'prog breakdown' felt pretty disconnected from the rest of the song. what's more, i didn't feel that this part (up to the solo at 5:22) really added a ton to the song. i haven't listened to TesseracT, so this might be an inspiration thing, but it really didn't make much sense in context to the rest of the song. after the solos we get the alt chorus, which is a fun soaring melodic line. i'm wondering if you could have adapted one of the other CC themes here, but i understand why you wanted to bring in original material to help finish it up. immediately following this section is an outro that has some of the metals and the intro synth tones, but nothing else from the original that i can hear. i find recognizable source from 0:05-1:51, 2:13-3:59 (the chorus is quite tentative, it's hard mapping that to anything), and 4:02-4:25. the track is 6:47 (407 seconds), so i need 204s to have enough. the above timestamps are 240s, which does put us over 50% - as long as you count the chorus, which not everyone will. i found that connection to be tenuous. in terms of realization, this track sounds great and executes on a fun concept. the vocals work well with the backing elements, the guitars sound great, the drums and bass consistently speak through the mix well, and the added synth and percussive elements work within the mix well. i found the arrangement on the verse sections to be more effective than the chorus, and like i said before i didn't care for the prog break at all. i think more could have been done on the melodic line in the remix as well to cleave closer to the original's melodic motifs throughout, which would have helped make the connections more obvious. ultimately though i think this is above the bar and an enjoyable take on one of the tbh weirder themes in the original. YES

opens with some nice wide synths alongside orchestral instruments. it really gets started at 0:24, and it's got a lot of little flourishes and bits of ear candy. it is very similar to the original though - same tempo, and really the same vibe, and there's nothing about the melodic execution, chord work, or any of that to pull it away from 'cover' territory. at 1:04 we get some repeated content for maybe 10s that mirrors 0:35 - and then, surprisingly, it's done, at less than 85 seconds total. this is super fun to listen to! i love the synth feel next to the orchestral elements and the track is executed competently. the trumpet swells a bit too much on sustains but that'd be my main complaint there. however it's just too short - at under 90s long, it's hard to really hear significant arrangement or development in that amount of time. this is essentially the original's content at the same speed as the original in a straight line with no real structural arrangement, just cover/adaptation elements. this is not enough breadth to convey arrangement as we describe it to my ears. if you added another minute of material, and that material wasn't all very similar to the original too, i'd be fine with a post, but as-is this is just not enough content. i love how it sounds and i just want more of it! =) NO

opening is just a weak bass, kick without any meat, and a lead that sounds like it's effectively just the original dumped in. the sfx helps but it's pretty blah throughout - there's little here that's really giving it uniqueness. it's the same 30s repeated twice, then a big kick dumped on top of the same thing (but the kick still doesn't have any beef to it) and repeated again. there's some clipping around 2:00. this needs some significant development before it'd be something we post here. i'd encourage you to work through some new ideas and mixing concepts on this, and then bring it to the workshop (on the forum or on the discord) to get some more feedback. NO

what an original! super fun. i've never heard it. very slow opening. most of the first 25s are empty, which is certainly a choice. 0:17 has some synths come in that feel a touch out of tune with the piano - sounds like their overtones are a little funky. they set my teeth on edge a bit. there's some nice rolled piano chords at 0:33, and then a shakuhachi comes in with the main melodic material. this is super breathy and doesn't mesh with the clean tone of the piano much at all - i think the tone'd work better with a much bigger section. there's some fm-y plucks that come in at 0:59 along some strings, and again those plucks are very loud and have a lot of high-pitched overtones that are hard to listen to. this section is over quickly and we're into a more rhythmically oriented section, at least in the bass, at 1:37. the chord progression here is driven by fifths in the string pad, and we get some drums and a lead tone coming in eventually as well. there's a lot of patience in this build which is nice, but the instruments lack punch and so the intensity isn't really there. there's a lot of dynamic elements though which i like a lot. after a big build and a fun reversed piano drop, we finally get the big kick/beat pattern at 3:06. this section is audio sausage and is mashed against the limiter. the bass notably isn't really audible. it doesn't sound like there's much sidechaining - i recommend sidechaining at least the bass if not also the string pads to help the mix breathe. the lead through here has some parts that sound out of tune again, and in general isn't always clearly audible over the string pad which seems backwards. we get an intensified section at 4:30, with the violin as the lead. this is well automated, but it's so dense in here that it's hard to hear a lot of the countermelodic elements you've got going on. there's a bit of a drop around 5:35, and another key change (and time change!) at 5:57, which is good since we had like two minutes straight of 4x4 and it was getting repetitive. this section is more intense still and has more complexity in the kick, and then we get an amen cadence and it's done. this entire last section - from maybe 3:06 onward - really meanders. it's hard keeping track of where we are at all - there's little clarity or phrasing, so it kind of just mushes together, and then suddenly it's done. this is a pretty audacious attempt at a banger original. you've got a lot going on from the arrangement perspective - but essentially you've got two songs here. i'd recommend finding a better way to integrate them to each other. beyond that, most of your synths or instruments lack punch - especially the percussive elements - and the instruments that are intended to be realistic are mostly not particularly realistically used, especially the string pads that are so loud throughout. i think this track has legs! there's a lot of work to do to mix everything better, get away from brickwalling the last half of the song, and making the arrangement flow together better instead of being disjointed or mushy. NO

opens with some quirky, heavily filtered instrumentation, and a beat drops at 0:27 (still under the filter) that's appropriately funky. nice hat work. the filter comes off at 0:41 and the groove becomes more apparent. there's some hinting at the melodic content, but it finally shows up in full at 0:55 in the muted trumpet. i can't help but notice there's no swing in this track, which i'd have assumed that a ragtime-influenced track would have - it became more noticeable with the offbeat-focused representation of the melodic material. even a little would have helped it sit back in the beat. there's a break at 1:22, and we get some of the b theme. there's something high going on here that's a little too much for me, but what the instruments are saying is fun. this transitions 1:43 which is a copy/paste of 1:08 - really surprising given how much uniqueness has already been represented in this track. the drums drop in the back part of this and we get a tape stop-ish around 2:10 as a transition using the C material from the original. i like how long this transitional section is - we've kinda done the same thing for a while, and anything turbo-peppy like electroswing can get grating if it's going on too long. there's the requisite VQ foley section, and we're into a new representation of the A melody. this is still pretty straight forward in how it's represented, but the backing elements have changed a ton here. there's a ton going on here, but you did a nice job layering it in instead of just throwing thirty countermelodic elements in at the same time. the A theme is repeated as a backdrop for a bunch of other exploration, and then it's done. i wouldn't have minded a more prepped ending, this is not much of one if at all. there is a lot going on here! i think from a mixing perspective, this has a lot going for it. the bass focus is a bit too low for my headphones to properly represent, but i like what i can hear, and it doesn't sound too dense throughout. i like the added elements that you've brought in, and the arrangement (aside from the copy/paste at 1:43) is vibrant and ever-changing. i think it's a little meandering in the middle, but overall this is a great approach to a goofy original that keeps the fun without losing track of the plot. nice work. YES

fun vibe at the start of this one. track feels like it's missing some compression and i don't hear a pad either, so the electric guitar's carrying the chord work. civla's voice fits the original's style really well. it's a touch ahead of the beat most of the time, and there's a bit of mid that could be scooped out, but i love the slow vibrato on some of the words like 'style', and the backing chord work in the vocals is perfect. coming back to the backing elements, i noticed that the electric guitar's a bit bland in tone. i would have liked to have a bit more verve on the tone. separately, there are several transitions that i felt didn't have much in the way of fills or anything (like between the first two verses). the second chorus's solo vocal part (the one doing fills, not the one doing the melody) was pretty hard to differentiate in situ. i think overall the vocals in this song are a bit loud, and there's not much you can hear there besides voices with three distinct parts going on. 2:51's a bridge section with guitar solo and some scratching. there's some fun ideas in the guitar solo, like for example the descending diminished chord riff. there's a chorus recap and then a fadeout, which normally i don't like but in this case really fits the style and how similar songs often end. this has a fun feel throughout! from an arrangement perspective this is very conservative. it's essentially the same song in an adjacent style with the same melody and several of the same major arrangement elements like the backing vocals. the best things about this remix are the vocals (which are note for note the same despite a great performance) and the melody (which is note for note the same). same chords, similar instrumentation, similar genre, somewhat lacking in a chorded element for some of the song (pad, comping piano, etc), less interesting drums and backing elements. it also has less dynamic range than the original, and feels pretty similar from start to end. from a mixing perspective, i called out a few of the issues with the vocals earlier (they're a bit dense in the mids, a bit loud as well). beyond that i think the track is mixed fairly well in that it's pretty easy to hear everything that's going on once it gets going. the first verse or two is a little thin. from a mastering perspective, the track is undercompressed to my ears and there's some density in the low mids (probably from the voice) that makes the bass not speak as well as you'd want. i might be picking here, but i feel like the lack of arrangement combined with a lot of disparate little elements on the technical side are pulling this down. if it was righteously mastered and sounded super good i'd still complain about the arrangement being so conservative, though, so i think my main concern is just that this is more of a cover than an arrangement. it's just too similar. i'd need to have seen more variation in melodic material, harmonic backing, or structure to say that this is more than that. it's still a fun song to listen! but all of the best parts are Bust-A-Move. NO

indeed starts with a bang. so much of a DT vibe on this immediately off the jump - octavarium and the astonishing both are showing up here to my ear. i really like the faster approach to the main dancing mad theme at 0:42. switching to 12/8 after that is a great idea to make those chord stabs have more impact, and it transitions back to 4/4 with those sets of three chord stabs - that's a great way to switch back and feels great in context. 2:05's a bit harder to follow, as expected. the flanged effect is nuts, it's really wild and fits kefka's laughing theme well. there's a slam transition at 2:51 to the piano for the ascending organ theme (really expected a ragtime piano tone here based on the other influences) - i didn't like that transition at all, as it felt very medleyish. the brassy lead that follows it right away too sound pretty bad, as does the organ that comes in after the ascending chord patterns. the laugh is great! what a character-filled sound. we finally get our ragtime fix at 3:31 as it gets into a solo section. the solos are excellent as expected, and while i don't think there needed to be a ton of references to the original, what's there is gravy. love the octavarium quote. 5:01's really heavy and feels very intense. the build into 5:28 is excellent and i love the prelude callout in the background of this section. this whole section is a great build into 5:50, and the switch to 12/8 is great although i really expected to have more going on in the drums here given where we are in the track at this point. there's a few notes in the right ear at 6:10 in the descending synth line that i think are not particularly in the right key. there's the intensifying chord patterns and then it's done on a non-ending, which is a bit of a disappointment. what an arrangement. this is nuts, exactly what i come back to ocr for. there's a few specific elements i didn't care for (the slam transition at 2:51, the lack of an ending, the drums are kind of boring throughout), but the highs are so high that i don't particularly care. from an execution standpoint, the guitar work is superb, and the mixing is really solid - it's very guitar-forward like the influencing track and drives forward well. i think it's not quite as punchy as i'd have liked, especially in the kick, but overall it's very solid and clear. this is a super fun addition to the catalog. great job. YES

well, ok then. opening is definitely a stylistic mashup. love the way you took metallica's vibe and make it work with these tracks so well. at 0:46, though, this is almost straight Metallica for like 30s straight. the melodic adaptation is indeed tenuous, especially when you consider it's two bars out of hundreds in the original (admittedly they are very recognizable bars). at least the chorus is more from the Rival track. the singing works great, it's realized well, and seph does a good job with it. i'm just not sure it's not too much metallica. the transition riff is back to the final battle riff, and then another verse (same caveats as before). the bridge works well to bring together the style and original into a better combination that's more in balance of the original. there's then 30 seconds of insane solo battle, because that's literally what the originals are about, and a bunch more instrumental sections that go through various elements of the sources. the end of the false chorus section at like 3:50 was pretty hip. the track cycles back to one more verse and chorus dyad, a quick riff, and it's done. the performances here are nuts, as expected. the three main performers are among the best in the local community at doing this kind of stuff, and it shows. there's a ton of synergy in the performance, it's intense and complex without being overly meandering or relying on tropes to make it work, and it's mixed very well by xaleph as well. the arrangement concept is also great. my concern is just that the verse's connection to the original works is essentially academic. it's tough to map the vocal lines to the original, although your timestamps make it clear once you've A/B'd it. i think what's here overall is probably distinct enough from Metallica to be ok. but this is the second really fun track from you guys that's come through recently that's been very, very close to a mainstream original. you need to be careful as you're treading a line here that we (the judges) don't want to more clearly define because of how subjective it can be. YES (borderline) edit 10/25: larry's numbers make it clearer than i originally thought that this is not 'probably too much Metallica', it's just plain too much. i didn't realize it was over a quarter of the track. sorry guys, sick track, but not for here. NO

Background: This one started as a random, half-joking idea in late March or early April: what if the final battle from Pokémon Gen 1 (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow) was done like "Damage, Inc" by Metallica? In my (ParadiddlesJosh) head, this is a slam-dunk arrangement: Seph and I listened to a lot of Metallica growing up and put close to a combined 300 hours in Pokémon Red and Blue, with a considerable amount of that time overlapping. Some of the riffs are kinda similar and the vibe for the source is frenetic enough. Matt (Xaleph) asked me to collab on a Mega Man arrangement he'd put together with Ryan8bit and Zack Parrish for DOD's Mega Man month (May 2024) and I'd heard the Rocket Knights do "Flash Man" from Mega Man 2 but it's "Seek and Destroy" from Metallica's debut record, Kill 'Em All. And I won't sugarcoat it: "Flash and Destroy" sounded like a very fun shitpost. I thought, "If there's a free month, a Pokémon month, or a Game Boy month coming up, I'm pitching this bonkers Gen 1/Metallica mashup." All I needed were willing co-conspirators collaborators and some lyrics. Lo and behold, July was a free month for DOD. Seph (PixelSeph) was on board to do guitars and, with some back and forth on the lyrics, vocals. Zack was on board to do bass. Matt suggested laying in some organ to pad in behind the guitar lines. But Zack had his own main arrangement commanding most of his attention and another duelist pulled him away for a collab, so he suggested a replacement: enter Cyril the Wolf. Cyril nailed the basslines. Continuing a trend of OCR heads diving into DOD, this was submitted to Dwelling of Duels during the free month in July, where it placed 12th out of 32 entries. Credits: ParadiddlesJosh (arrangement, drum programming, add. organ programming, VST guitar programming, mixing, lyrics) PixelSeph (guitars, vocals, lyrics) Cyril the Wolf (bass) Xaleph (organ, mastering) Joo *Johnnyz* Buaes on VG Music (MIDI transcriptions) Source Usage Breakdown: Lyrics: Games & Sources Pokémon Red Version: "Final Battle! (Rival)" by Junichi Masuda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXgAj5KdAC0 "Battle! (Gym Leader)" by Junichi Masuda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJKIrqO1Zas Pokémon Gold Version: "Battle! (Gym Leader - Kanto)" by Junichi Masuda; arr. Go Ichinose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJZBLs0-mEE Inspiration: "Damage, Inc" by Metallica. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdekZoYoamE

opens with a really rich panning arpeggio that feels just a touch too bright. lead comes in at 0:13 with the beat, and it's a really nice laid-back groove. i found the original's melodic content to be very meandering, so it's tough for me to map the original to your track, but i can hear the motivic elements throughout. the wide synth lead at 1:07 is a really neat adaptation of the strings from the original and are simultaneously really big and really dense, so that's neat. we get a bit of a break around 1:35, and there's a nice build into 1:46 with a focus on the arp and some other rhythmic elements in prep for some time signature changes. this is a neat way to transition and you did a great job prepping it so it doesn't feel too weird as it's happening. there's a recap of the strings section at 2:40, and a shift back to 4/4 in prep for the outro. a few more runs through the arp, a wash of bitcrushed color, and it's done. this is a pretty smoove run through a pretty wandering original. i liked the time elements you worked in, as well as the very laid-back groove you got out of your instruments. the adaptation of the melodic line wasn't anything crazy, but it works well with the feel in both time sigs. nice work. YES

Regrettably, Undertale was one of those insanely popular games that captured the zeitgeist a few years ago but failed to fully get a hold on me when I tried to actually sit down and play it. So after a few hours of getting increasingly frustrated, I put down the controller and decided to look up some videos on YouTube and discovered what a wild, emotional journey the Undertale experience could be depending on how you played it. Regardless of my enjoyment while playing it, I was still astounded to learn that the game was conceived and developed largely (if not in some ways entirely) by one person who went by the handle TobyFox. In addition, I discovered that he single-handedly composed the entire score for the game, which would already stand alone as an achievement of incredible breadth and quality on its own. I listened to the Undertale soundtrack separately, which had many fantastic pieces on it. I came across a few tracks that I enjoyed thoroughly, but I ended up choosing the rather melancholy "Waterfall" theme as inspiration for this particular remix. The original song is a combination of ponderous, sad, and also somewhat epic at points. I decided to lean heavily on various synth sounds and textures for this remix. As well, I had trouble deciding whether I enjoyed the original's more unique timing or something more traditionally 4/4 more, so I decided to incorporate both time signatures into the song at different points. I found that it helped to increase the energy of the later part of the song, and the strong structure of the melody certainly shines when presented the way TobyFox originally composed it. As always, thanks for taking the time to listen, hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Undertale

opens with some winds and bells. has a light ballad feel when the acoustic comes in as the lead element. backing brass is a little weird from a timbre perspective, it sounds really strong but is fairly quiet. i liked the rising chord pattern through 0:35 to about 0:40. the lead acoustic immediately after this is a touch stilted in some of the moving passages - there's just a bit more space between the notes than i'd expect. the countermelodic material is great though and the backing elements just keep changing and shifting, it's great. there's a goofy synth that's sliding around back there during the pizz section that's just delightful. 2:10's a bit of a shift to more live elements (and some ennio morricone glam, thanks Tsori!). i like the percussive elements in this section (maybe just a touch dry). 2:55's a shift to a much more percussion-driven section, with some great string realization behind it. the shift to a macro beat at 3:36 is also just great, keeps it moving forward. the strings take the melody after this point, and again the realization here is great. at this point though we've heard the original melodic elements in a straight line several times. i'd really have liked to hear a more personalized version of the melody to help keep it fresh. your backing work is so good that hearing the original melody with essentially no changes for six or seven minutes in a row is jarring. you've clearly got the chops to handle personalizing the melody - that'd really take it to the next level. the last minute's guitar is a touch wheedly in tone, just a little thin. might be the backing element that doubles it. regardless, the backing elements still are exciting and enjoyable, and the final crescendo and finishing note sound great. the final trumpet tone sounded the slightest bit flat, but that might be the verb and not the fundamental. this is, of course, way over the bar. it's mixed well, mastered clearly, the arrangement is excellent, and my nitpicks aren't more than that. excellent job. YES

such an inspiring original. so much done with so little. super wide dynamic range on this one. opens with winds and rain sfx. the initial flute (?) does not sound particularly realistic initially, and sounds better when it reigns back in. whatever instrument is at 0:27 doesn't sound like much of anything either. i like the wind ensemble concept for this opening section though very much, it fits the style of the soundtrack well. the traditional percussive elements that come in at 0:50 are really nice. the motif continues to be passed around until about 1:15, when we finally get a string representation of the melody and the 3 over 2 pattern. this almost immediately turns from a light rainstorm into a mudpit at 1:27, with so many instruments competing for the space between about 60 and 250hz. way too much low mid content, mostly from the pedal bass instrument (organ? or is that a string bass?). switching the faster, rhythmic elements to a glock which can through so much is a good choice, as is moving the melodic material to brass in various ways to cut through the density. there's another terraced dynamic at 1:57, and there's the addition of choir and snare. there's some more arrangement elements through this section which is nice, but it's dense and feels repetitious as compared to the first two sections. this section loses steam as it comes to a close, and then suddenly drops off with a quick recap of the opening winds before being done. this feels incomplete with no lowering action to compliment the initial terraced crescendo. after the initial few instruments were feeling a bit exposed, i felt that the realization of the instrumentation cleaned up a lot as the track went on. notably, you avoided the tendency to just layer in sustains in every instrument, and focused more on specific elements to ensure that you didn't get the wall-of-sound mess that comes with some orchestral compositions. there's some conflicting elements in the bass at 1:27 that clear up as it goes along, and i didn't care for the arrangement's ending, but i think overall this is scored competently and realized effectively. the technical side doesn't appear to get in the way of the arrangement either, which is hard to do with orchestral samples. i think this is a solid job. nice work. YES

A few months ago I collabed on a track that Xaleph did for his debut Dwelling of Duels entry, Cybernetic Skullstorm. Was quite a track and managed to pull in the bronze on it with his debut so that was pretty awesome. Then the twins, paramcdiddles or somethin, invited Xaleph and I to join them for another month of DoD. So we did, conjuring up the the track "Stay Away", a chaotic adventure into constantly changing complex time signatures. Sometimes you just need to feel the music instead of counting to 4. :) Anyway, I was supposed to collab with them again but decided to take my own chances heading a track for July's competition. It was a free month so I decided to finally arrange a piece of music that I've wanted to do for quite some time. Gusty Garden Galaxy's theme just slaps you in the face repeatedly with the catchy and memorable melodies. Anyway... I dove in right away, and sketched out the entire thing in a couple of days. Soft beginnings, big endings. That was the plan. And I stuck to it. As I worked on it I moved away from purely using guitar as the 'performance' part of DoD and started roping in more and more performers as I progressed. The track wouldn't be what it is without everybody that pitched in, and I can't thank the crew enough for their support and enthusiasm during the process. ZackParrish: Arrangement, Production, Keys, Guitar, Mixing, Mastering Emunator: Production, Keys, Sound Effects TSori: Trumpet Shea's Violin: Violin, Additional Parts Sean R. Hanson: Auxiliary Percussion GameroftheWinds: Flute Pearlpixel: Oboe Chromatic Apparatus: Cello Games & Sources Super Mario Galaxy - Gusty Garden Galaxy

An orchestral remix of "Freya's Theme" from Final Fantasy IX by Nobuo Uematsu. I wanted to make this mix have a huge dynamic range from whisper quiet solo winds to massive and bombastic full orchestra and back. I think I succeeded in that goal, and some real dramatic storytelling happens in the music as a result. Games & Sources Final Fantasy IX - "Freya's Theme" by Nobuo Uematsu

this is a pretty hip original. this kind of offset between the ears is something that you never want to see in a track waveform: separately this is also not good: so this is essentially a guaranteed NO right now. but i can at least review it to talk through what's good and what's not so good. the opening elements would be neat if they were balanced between ears, but the sharp tone in the left ear is far too much. overall it's panned really hard which makes it hard to hear what's going on until it comes more centerline by about 0:37. i wound up just changing it to mono to be able to hear what was going on. the various synths are doing really disjointed things for at least the first thirty seconds - i honestly don't know what's going on in there nor can i parse what each instrument is doing. if you're attempting to ape what the opening minute is in the original, i don't think it worked. by about 0:55, it's more balanced and there's a recognizable riff going on alongside the continuing sharp left-ear synth. i believe this is the bass riff from 2:43, but i didn't hear anything else that was fitting around that area - no melodic line, none of the rhythmic elements, etc. this continued until the woobly synth from the beginning came back in at 1:41 and did stuff that i didn't understand again. some other synths that were off-key came in after this (like at 1:52) - this doesn't sound like functional dissonance, it sounds like incorrect notes. this section continued for most of the track and then ended suddenly, and the track was done after 10s of silence. from an arrangement perspective, it's not super clear what you're doing here. it sounds like you're hoping to work with the track in the original that starts at 2:43, but the lack of percussive elements or other strong rhythmic elements outside the bassline and the constant dissonances alongside the very loud, sharp lead tones really make it hard to pick out anything cohesive from your arrangement. i honestly recommend stripping this one back to the bolts and building it back up one element at a time. i'm honestly curious if this is a misrender and some elements were supposed to be percussive but didn't get the instrument assignments or something. from a mastering perspective, the hard panning and wild volumization across the board makes this borderline unlistenable. you're going to want to take a lot more time with managing the individual elements before resubmitting. NO

nickel creek's one of my favorite bands, and TLT is one of my favorite songs by them. i love how each chorus builds on the prior. if folks haven't ever listened to 'progressive' bluegrass, i highly recommend it. opens with a bell arp. the arp's really loud compared to the melodic element that comes in pretty quickly after. the strings that eventually come in are also really not great - they don't feel N64 to me, they just sound fake. the 'full' band sound comes in at 0:43, and the lead feels a bit weak in this section as well as slow (the attack feels a touch behind). there's no real bass through here either, but there is a kick. the lack of beater tone on the kick makes it hard to hear except for where you can feel it. sad girl comes back at 1:43, and there's some weird mallet strike tones through here that would add realism if they weren't repeat strikes next to each other. the strings come back in, and i'm still not feeling them here. the eventual synth lead elements that come in at about 2:34 are really loud, and the lack of balance makes it hard to hear what's going on. i like the patience that comes with the chords after this section, although i think they should be a little closer together as they're encroaching on 'too long since sound' territory. at 3:07 we get copypasta from the opening 40s, and then subsequently more copy pasta from the band section from 0:43 to around 1:35. there's a repeated phrase at the end, one last arp, and a few sustains. i think that the combination of these two originals works really well together. i like the idea of focusing initially on bells and then building up to a bigger band tone, and i like the introspective approach and patience that you show. i think that your synths are letting you down throughout, and your DAW's letting you down from a mastering perspective. everything that isn't a bell sounds cheap and fake, and volumization throughout is a mixed bag. this needs a good amount of work, but there's good bones here. i think that the discord or the workshop forum would help a ton with this track. NO

opens with a really peppy beat right off the bat. roughly the first minute of the track appears to be a sound upgrade off the midi, with a much better drumloop and better synths throughout. it's mastered well and i can hear a lot of the different bleeps and bloops well, so that's great. there's a build section that's original with the original's bassline at 1:01, so that's where the arrangement really gets cooking. there's a fun dubstep-like section at about 1:17, but that does seems like the majority of the arrangement for the track - about 30s out of ~135. there's a copypasta section at 1:47 of 0:32, and this continues through almost the end before we see any variation again. i think this has too much that isn't Why_ in it. most of the first minute and the last thirty seconds are all pretty much straight from the midi with new synths and a nice beat over it. there's a great break section at 1:01 and the arranged A theme at 1:17 shows that you've got the chops! so i'd say to lean into your arrangement more and don't rely so heavily on the original for what you're doing through there. more personalization can only help out! beyond that, there's too much copypasta - in a track that is only 138s long, i counted about 30s of copy, which is way too much for such a short work. this is a hip track! make it more your own and it'll definitely have a place on our site. NO

opens with a really nice pad alongside some plucks and pops until the guitar comes in at 0:35. initial pilotwings source is just the arp, but there's not much else there anyways so that's fine. i can hear a little amp noise here - couldn't noise-gate that out? it's just a little though. when the msfs lead comes in at 1:01, though, i can definitely hear amp noise that's cutting in and out, and that's really distracting. it'd actually be better if it didn't drop out at all and was just consistent - i'd attribute it to the pad if that was the case. there's another transition at 1:36 and it moves back into pilotwings. the more active synth attacks here are more noticeable and not particularly pleasant like the rest of the background has been - taming those down would be a good idea. i don't mind the movement, but they're so staticky up front. there's a nice build into 2:11, and we finally get some of the bass elements that make the msfs track so fun. it's understated, though, and the higher guitar part is really loud so it's hard to hear the balance beyond that one instrument. coming out of this, the attack of the synth at 2:46 is slightly out of time. after that big section, the rest is outro and window dressing. there's a few more chords and it's done. i wouldn't have minded a slightly less long fade - like, i think 10s is fine, but 23s is excessive. i really love this concept. there's a clear connection to the style of the track and the original sources. i also really appreciate how much you shied away from percussive elements and relied exclusively on the guitar and the synths to provide rhythmic structure. i think there's some parts that have clear issues - the amp noise on the guitar lead at 1:01, the several synth attacks in a row that are so noisy at 1:36, the volume of the upper rhythm guitar at 2:11, and trimming down the last sustain a bit - but once those are addressed this one is ready to go. NO

opens with sfx and some beautiful sustains alongside some bells. 0:23 brings in the first real melodic content of the chords from the original, but the beat doesn't drop until 0:36. the shuffle in the shaker on this track is just the perfect amount of swing, it feels very organic. the dx chords used throughout fit so well too with all the bells going on. bit of a shift at 1:21 when the fairy fountain cameo comes in. this bit felt a bit more artificial to get in there, mostly due to the chromaticism required as compared to the lack of chromaticism in zora's domain normally. the transition at 1:43 was great, and the track backs off again around 2:05 just in time to feature a bunch of vox sfx for a bit. there's a shift at 2:28 and a big change in the backing elements. there's a lot of glam on this section, it's super sparkly and shines especially in the higher freq ranges. it's a nice transitional section before reprising the original arpeggiated melodic material at 3:14 one last time. there's a somewhat out-of-time outro starting at 3:37, and this does a nice job settling down the track in prep to be done. a few times through the original arp, a filtered guitar bit, and we're done. this is gorgeous as expected. really luscious soundscape throughout, and an excellent job adding to a track that's already a highlight on the BotW soundtrack. nice work. YES