prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

opening section has some Prelude vibes to it. 0:43's descending arpeggio is nice, and the contrast between the triplet fanfare elements and the duple left hand is a fun concept. there's a lot of patience here whereas i've always thought In Search of Light felt too fast in-game. i think that taking a bit more time gives the melodic elements more weight. 2:13's key change was nice to add some verve. bass around here was a little dense. 2:30 gets a lot louder and bolder, and trucks through some new material as well. after the big hit at 3:20, we get some layering of themes - these two fit together really nicely, and hearing the lydian harmonies of pirates ahoy against ISoL's chords is neat. after this is moves through the descending arpeggio line once more and then we get an open chord to finish it off. this is straightforward and well-done. there's some interesting adaptation done here both in dovetailing PA into ISoL, and separately with expanding a pretty straightforward fanfare theme. nice work. YES

track starts off with some sfx and some beautifully-realized harp work. if anything i wish there wasn't sfx so i could hear the tone of the harp clearer. there's some celli under it too as a pad. what a moving realization. the initial presentation of the melody is heavy on the lower strings but when it moves up higher, it really pops out of the texture. the 'storm' section starts at 1:33 and it's appropriately intense. the cello work after the storm, at 1:56 onward, is just superb. i am not an emotional listener but i truly got chills at the tight harmonic lines. i get caught writing too much sometimes. this doesn't need it. you've crafted a beautiful rendition of a great example of why EoS is one of the best pokemon soundtracks front to back. please write more arrangements of game music using this level of arranging, performing, and recording skill. YES

i wrote a bunch in the resub version of this essentially saying to trim back a lot - the tail of the reverb, the extended sections of mostly repeated material, etc. the writeup details changes that hit all the things i said, so i'm excited to hear the result. opens with some open fifths in a tight synth, the bass line, and some melodic references. beat is tight. there's a pad in the background that sounds a lot like reverb tail but isn't, and once i figured that out i think the melodic elements sound less out of place. beat gets spicier at 1:01 with the xylophone added alongside. melodic content is still focused on that first lick of the melody, but it works because there's a variety of ways you present it. 1:50 is a break, and this is a good time for it. the lead appears to be mostly in the right ear which is a little confusing, and it's pretty fuzzy so it took me a second to understand what it was saying. the ep in the background sounds like it's doing sustains which doesn't really add much other than pad noise - consider a sharper tone around that particular entry to make it clearer what it's doing. 2:31 is a downtempo section and i like the reduced instrumentation here. the 16th-note rhythmic element is nice too. would have been a good time to mix up the lead for the remainder of the track. this trucks through the melodic material a few more times until 3:26 when we get what's clearly an outro section. the pad tone at the end needs a fadeout as it just stops abruptly. overall i have a lot of nitpicks about the track. i think that the arrangement's fine although i'd not have minded hearing more of the melodic material that wasn't the initial riff that is used so much in this track. from a mixing perspective i can hear everything pretty well, and my main complaint is that the panning is a little wide. overall though i think this is over the bar. the changes you've made are in keeping with what we suggested and overall you've got a fun punchy little track that has a nice groove. YES

intro is the initial bassline in a few instruments. i like the drums here, they're very fitting for the style. 0:31's a big shift in style but the synth line fits this backing set really nice. there's a quick break and then the sax has the melody for a bit. guitar here is pretty loud and drowns the drums a touch. there's not a lot in the backing parts to hold interest either here. then 1:53 is a huge shift in style that doesn't sound super prepared, and the drums here are hard to hear. 2:12 is a recap of the first verse with some extra spice on the melodic line in the guitar, and the following section is the same as the original chorus initially, but then gets a solo to dress it up. after the solo is some more exploration around the intro bassline, and a recap of the intro, and we're done. this is a solid adaptation of the fates theme! it's kind of a spacey theme with a lot of disparate parts, and i think this is a similar remix in that you've got several different pieces that all come together to make a decent whole. i definitely think you nailed the style, and while there's a few times where instruments get buried, overall i think it sounds like what you'd expect for the style. nice job. this is fun. YES

opens with some pingpong backing synths and a nice sweep effect that's fitting given the source material's locale. beat drops at 0:25. the snare's reminiscent of a sonar ping and the verb and backing synths also are reminiscent of water, so again this is a really cool idea for how to relate the source to the mix. the original's melody is honestly really beautiful and fitting into the synth sweeps is really nice. there's a break at 1:39 and the Prelude-like arpeggios layered in here are nice, as the variety of leads used in this section. contrasting one with high reverb to one without it is a nice choice. the beat comes back in at 2:28 alongside a bit more buzz in the synths which is a nice change to dress it up a bit. 3:17 is a bit of a recap of the last line of the melody before we're on the downside of the work. there's a solid outro and then it's done. there's some static on the fadeout that just stops so that'll need a quick fade applied before we release this. this is an easy vote. the synth work is impeccable as expected, the beat is great, and the adaptation is really smooth. excellent work. YES

Artist Name: MkVaff While I was coming up with some ideas for more recent arrangements, I re-listened to the original Ecco the Dolphin soundtrack. It had some interesting music, but then I remembered that the game had a sequel on Genesis that I never had the chance to play. After checking out the music in "The Tides of Time," I was very impressed with several of the tracks, and I was surprised by the overall complexity and quality of some of the songs on the track list. The music for the "Two Tides" stage in particular jumped out to me as having a solid, laid-back beat and some great synth sections. I incorporated elements of trap music for this remix, as I wanted it to have a chill, moody, "underground" feel to it. Some of the Ecco music is pretty epic and dramatic, so I added some brassy synths in the later melody to add some excitement and to incorporate some of the "bigger" feeling of some of the songs in the Genesis Ecco soundtracks. While I've recently covered some classics from Zelda, Chrono Trigger, and the Final Fantasy series, I decided to submit this particular piece because it seemed like such a hidden gem from a soundtrack that I don't often hear in discussions compared to the more popular games that are known for their music. It was my very first time actually listening to the music from The Tides of Time, and I wanted to highlight some of the interesting, excellent material in that soundtrack. Hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Ecco: The Tides of Time (Genesis / MD)

Source breakdown: 0:00 - 0:30 - Intro (0:00 - 0:08 in source - mostly the bassline) 0:31 - 1:07 - Verse (0:08 - 0:24 in source - mostly the lead) 1:15 - 1:53 - Chorus (0:25 - 0:41 in source - mostly the lead) 1:54 - 2:12 - Bridge (0:41 - 1:08 - this is a bit obscured) 2:13 - 2:35 - Verse 2 (Same as Verse 1) 2:36 - 3:14 - Chorus 2 (Same as Chorus 1 but a solo that's all original) 3:15 - 3:36 - Post-Chorus (Bassline again baby!) 3:37 - 4:06 - Outro (Same as Intro) Roster: Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, Saxes, Mix Mattmatatt - Guitars ImAFutureGuitarHero - Drums jnWake - Keys Ivan Hakštok - Bass Once upon a time, Larry told me I needed to take more time cooking my tracks. Well, the early bones of this work-in-progress happened the same month I did Tyrano's Stash and only 10 months later I revisited it for Dwelling of Duels Free Month (Placed 10th!). How do you like that Larry?! HUH?! HUH?! Jokes aside (especially since it was some early bones), one thing that really has helped my process is separating each part of the process into a different chunk. I spent a good deal of time cooking up the arrangement, then working with performers/my own part, then mixing it at the end. But let's start back at the beginning I knew I wanted to cover some Chrono Cross for free month. I think I had some other ideas, but something was really tackling me to do a song in the style of the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. This arrangement is pretty inspired by their song Surf's Up. I roped ImAFutureGuitarHero and Cory Johnson from Tyrano's Stash. I wanted to get Mattmatatt handling some of the guitars both cause he's an awesome friend, and he rips as a guitar player AND does a lot of psychedelic/weird sound design-y stuff. jnWake and Hakštok had to be there because they love Chrono Cross, but I also know jnWake was going to be on Tyrano's Stash (there was some miscommunication) so I had to make up for that. Cory had to drop out, but we still had a blast putting this together. After all the instruments came through, I got to mixing. I could've settled for not making it very loud, but this was the first track I really got into the weaves of it with mastering and loudness. I remember I got some feedback for Cucco's Feathers about mastering and didn't really understand it at the time (and to think that was just 2 months ago...). It was frustrating to not really get it at the time, but taking some time away from that project and focusing on another one (Yes, I'll get the resub soon!) has REALLY helped me. Me going into the group chat with the first version of the master saying "I might've made this track too loud" and my friends reassuring me that -13 LUFS wasn't that loud, followed by showing how my reference track (Surf's Up) was -7.8 LUFS sent me down a whole rabbit hole. I think this track is around -8-9 LUFS? Oh the pursuit of making more psychedelic rock. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy. Both Judges and listeners. We poured a lot of chaos and love into this one! Edit: Before I forget, I must explain funny lengthy title. "FATE has no forgiveness for those who dare stand against it." is from the Game Over screen of Chrono Cross. I love this quote because it's a double entendre. It talks about how both FATE (the character) and Fate (development of a person's events being beyond their control). This might be my favorite Game Over screen. Definitely in my top 5. Games & Sources FATES - Chrono Cross

Previous decisions: original, resub 1 Really appreciated the last round of feedback. Song gets to the point a lot faster, removed 2-3 minutes of trash. Heavily revised the second half: added a bridge and dovetailed some of the elements of the bridge into the final hook. Redid all of the reverb, I think it's at least an improvement. Added a xylophone and some strings. Thanks. Games & Sources Theme of Tikal

# Cover Track Information Title: Until the Very End Arranger: Chromatic Apparatus MixingEngineer: Chromatic Apparatus Performers: Cello: Chromatic Apparatus Harp: Chromatic Apparatus ArrangementNotes: | This arrangement of "On the Beach at Dusk" is meant to mirror the arc of Explorers of Sky in microcosm. The main game starts and ends on the beach, with the tumultuous, emotional moment dividing the two. There are two harps and four cellos (live recordings) performing in this piece with additional sound effects. The opening section (0:00-1:33) takes the original theme and reduces it to the two harps, with the celli providing an occasional bed of sound for the harps to float on. 1:33-1:55 is the storm, with the celli in tremolo and a single harp improvising on the atmosphere. From 1:55 onward the storm abates, the key rises a whole step, and, with buoyed spirits, the celli take their turn with the theme. It starts with a solo cello playing the main motive, and picks up more celli along the way. 2:39, the celli slowly convert to pizzicato (think rain drops), and we end, hearing the ocean surf on the beach. EquipmentNotes: | - Cello - 2007 Romanian "Euro Standard Antique", finished at Peter Paul Prier & Sons - 2xAKG C414 (mid-side configuration) - Harp - RHarp Merlin 35-string Lever Harp - Mono mix of two mics: AKG C414 (exterior mic), Bartlett Cello Mic (taped inside harp) - Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Gen 3 interface - Mixed in Studio One 6.5.1.96553 - Sound effects (freesound.org) - shore.aif by FranCirujeda | License: Creative Commons 0 - Cloudburst n Thunder 1.wav by chimerical | License: Creative Commons 0 - Thunder Storm Nonstop Thunder by hargissssound | License: Creative Commons 0 Games & Sources # Source Track Information Game: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky ReleaseDate: 2009-04-18 Developer: Chunsoft Publisher: The Pokémon Company / Nintendo SourceAlbum: N/A (no official album exists); In-game Jukebox SourceTrack: Title: On the Beach at Dusk Disc: N/A Track: 4 Composers: - Arata Iiyoshi - Hideki Sakamoto - Keisuke Ito - Ken-ichi Saito - Yoshihiro Maeda Links: - YouTube:

starts out with some block chords that feel pretty out of time. took a second to wrap my head around that. the initial pattern (1 3 5 1) matches the pattern of the melodic line (la, do la mi, do, la) in a chorded fashion, and then we see it in retrograde (la mi do la). again at 0:37 we see a very slow version of the motif (clearer example: 0:58.5-1:04.5). this is an example of fragmentation, another motivic arrangement technique. the underlying rhythmic pattern is used regularly (1 note, 3 notes, 1 note, 1 note) as well. it continues to be spread out and weird and gets longer and longer in note value until 2:03. the remixer tones back the filter opening at 2:04 for one last motivic representation (this time with the rhythm normal but the notes in retrograde) before playing it straighter at 2:19. mister hu then hits the patch randomizer for the next several instances of this motif. there's some chordal changes, like at 3:27, but overall this is pretty straight in representation. this took a few listens to really understand what was going on, but once i recognized how the remixer boiled the motif down to component parts (the basic rhythm content, the ascending pattern following the minor i chord), then i started recognizing the different set theory techniques used to represent it. there are quite a few sections where this analysis is more tenuous than others - most of the part from 1:24-2:02 is not immediately recognizable even in the perspective of the aforementioned analysis, so that's something to consider. additionally at least some of this may venture "beyond recognition" (standards 4.3.) into graduate-level sound design class final-project inaccessibility. however, i do believe what's here - particularly in the first and last thirds of the piece - is recognizable enough knowing the source material and understanding how to listen to it. i'm willing to pass this, but i 100% understand if others aren't. this isn't a casual listening piece and the place for such a piece on OCR is understandably debatable, especially considering the above quoted element of the standards. YES

this will need a new name if it passes, as we don't allow remix names that are just the name of the original track. also, given that we don't allow any sampled audio regardless of source from square enix owned games (square enix currently owns the rights to chrono trigger) means that this is a no-go with the given samples. i'll still review it, but we can't post it even if it passes in its current state. opening has some sfx (naughty naughty!) alongside a very thin, airy pad playing the SotF arpeggio. i like the transitional effect into 0:26. the lead here is nice as well, and the beat is appropriately chill. there's a significant amount of pumping (i don't think it's sidechain unless everything except the kick is sidechained) which is notable and doesn't sound great. there's a break that features the Schala arpeggio (and eventually the melodic material when the beat comes back in). there's not much going on in this section that's not from the original track, but some brass stabs come in near the end which keeps it from being a palette swap from the original. it goes through the Schala arpeggio a bit before ending without an ending. i think this would be fairly close if i had to vote on it fo rillz, given the pumping in the limiter and the lack of original content in the second half. short tracks are hard to have enough transformative arrangement to really get themselves over the bar without everything firing on all cylinders. that said, the inclusion of sampled effects makes this a moot point. they'd have to be changed before i could vote in earnest. NO

starts off with a chippy bass tone and a solid kick. the arpeggiated octave bass is a tie to the original right away. melodic elements right away are in the sidechained lead. big build into 0:57's hit. this section is pretty loud but the limiter's doing what it's supposed to, so while it's heavily squished it isn't clipping. there's another drop right after this at 1:31 that is welcome after how wall-to-wall the previous section was, and the bass here is fun. there's another build up - 1:58-2:11 sound like the same as the earlier section, but there's a different (and also good) build into 2:21's big hit. the melody here's clear again and it's a different set of backing elements from the last time that this came around, so that's good. elements drop out after the 3:00 mark in order and then it's done. this is a solid take. the super-heavy sections at 0:57 and 2:21 may not be everyone's cup of tea, but i think they sound fine and i'm able to pick out the parts going on, so i think that's pretty well done. it's certainly an adaptive take on the original and it's got good energy. nice work. YES

Artist Name: CJthemusicdude I got new headphones! :D Games & Sources Streets of Rage (Genesis) - Beatnik on the Ship

a sixth version! this family has a lot of sisters. opens with some arpeggiating bass, an EP, and kit. the snare sounds doesn't have much tone to it, it's mostly just static. the melodic content comes in quickly and is handed off between two synths - the latter entry has a lot of really high content frequency-wise and is a bit tough to both listen to and tell what it's doing. there's a short break at 0:33 and it's back to the same synths as before doing the melodic material from before. we hit another break in the beat at 0:58, and there's a stutter hornet synth used as a lead in this quieter section. i don't know if the high-energy vibe that a stuttered saw like this adds fits this section too well. there's a build into 1:23 and then it's back to melodic content. there's more personalization here initially which is nice. 1:47's the same as earlier at 0:33 but with drums this time, and then we get one more recap of the melodic material before there's a big fall. what's left is an outro over some deep pads. the drums specifically sound really lacking. the snare is not only just static, but it also lacks punch which is an important part of an edm track's momentum. better samples are available for free all over the place and would really improve this, as well as increasing the volume of the snare a bit so it sticks out of the mix more. similarly, if there are hats, i can't hear them, and if there are cymbals used as transitional elements, i didn't notice them throughout. lastly the kick has a deep electro beater tone, which can work, but it doesn't have any bass to it that i can hear. a quick freq analysis shows that the bass peaks very highly at 70hz or so and there's just zilch underneath it, either in the bass instrument or the kick. i'd expect to her a fundamental in the 35-40hz range based on that tone, so layering the kick with something that's got more sub bass content (that's trimmed to ensure it doesn't go below that 30-35hz range and clog stuff up) would give it a lot more guts. the stutter synth used throughout as a melodic element really doesn't fit the vibe overall. stutter synths are used in other tracks to drive energy and provide a rhythmic element that's not just the boom tiss of the drums. that's not how this this used - this track has a heavy focus on melodic material, and so while the backing elements work just fine with that stutter tone, the lead doesn't really work in my opinion. a gliding synth that lets you really play with the attack and release elements would fit what you're going for more, i believe. all of your leads are very reverb-heavy, but the bass, drums, and backing synths have very little verb on them. this (along with some of the odder synth choices) serves to make the backing elements feel separate from the lead elements. taming the fade and the tail of the reverb would help a lot in terms of making them feel more adjacent. is your reverb on a send or is it individually applied to leads? a send that you can send everything to to some extent would help normalize the sound stage and make it feel more cohesive. i don't think this is there yet! but you're in it for the long haul, clearly, so hopefully some more focused feedback in this judging thread combined with you interacting with the workshop on the discord or in the forum should help. NO

prophetik note: this is version six, i believe. here's the previous five. v5 v4 v3 v2 v1 Alright, another attempt, and I think I did better this time. I imported a reference track directly into my DAW so I could AB faster. The reference track I used was MkVaff's Vega theme Pulse mix. I chose that file because it has a similar "spanish gypsy" feel to it, IMO. I tightened up the velocities and timings on some of the parts; I had received advice on humanizing, but then was told on the judges' decision that the timing was "scattershot", so I brought things to a more on grid state. I also added some very slight panning to the call and response parts in the first half. I added a "mud removing" eq to each individual track, and also eliminated the rather aggressive compression I had on my instrument busses. Instead, I put a multi band compressor with gentle attack and knee on the master, and it's only doing about 1 to 3 db gain reduction per band, before going to a lookahead limiter that's also only doing between 1 to 3 db (depending on where you are in the track). I eschewed using Ozone, and instead went totally by ear with the reference track. Again, thanks for the consideration, and thanks for your patience;) Audiomancer Games & Sources Original Above.

This remix simply titled "Secret of the Forest" is a mashup of Secret of the Forest and Schala's theme from Chrono Trigger! I had a lot of fun making this one and decided to go with a trap/wave style for the remix. Hope you like it ~ This remix was released on my EP "Whisper Tree" in 2020: Games & Sources The intro of this song also samples sounds from the game files including menu buttons, various in-game fx and the opening clock ticking sound!

Artist Name: Michael Hudak Tried not to overthink the arrangement here, and instead poured everything into the sound design. This is partially because the source tune is very short, making a potential remix fairly repetitive, at least without inserting a half-dozen different solos into it. The whole thing is played in free-time on one Europa combinator patch called "Antiformant Juno Voices" - Europa is one of Reason's wavetable synth plugins (similar to Serum, I think), with seemingly hundreds of different parameters to automate. And automate them I did. At length. Lots of envelopes and filters opening slowly as the song progresses, with tons of flourishes about, some subtle and some not. I wanted a washy kind of sound at the climax without it getting extra harsh. My definition of "harsh" is...harsher than a lot of people's though, so hopefully it's just on the cusp of being offensive without going over the edge. There are some send effects here and there, but for the most part I wanted to wring everything out of the synth itself (including the ocarina sound at 2:34, which I found accidentally from modifying the wave shape of one of Europa's engines). The source melody is very simple. At first I played a turned-around version starting at 0:37 and going to 2:00. After that, it's played straight until the end of the song, including a washed-out, reversed section the close it out. Huge thanks, as usual. - Mike Games & Sources Game: Zelda - Ocarina of Time (Koji Kondo composing) Source: Requiem of Spirit (YT link)

thank you for not making us figure out this source. i've somehow never heard it before and it's completely wild. serious DT vibes right off the bat, this sounds straight off of one of the instrumentals in Metropolis, right down to rudess playing some silly instrument on the keyboards in random breaks. the original's influence is immediately audible in the opening section. a functional melody line entering at 1:01 was a good choice - we needed something to grab onto as listeners by that point. there's a ton of great chromaticism and time changes in the next few sections but it doesn't mess with the narrative elements so that's well done. there's a huge break at 2:41 and it suddenly is far quieter and calmer. i was running out of hair to have on fire at this point so the break was welcome. 3:33's rhythmic elements and then the solo after 3:44 are just great, the solo especially has such a great shape and turn at the end. overlapping the more tonal elements of this section with some bits of the chromatic runs at the beginning is a good transitional element as well. 4:20 is just beautiful. this whole section is so good, it's a really singing line that you've written out there. having the transition be just a guitar pattern in a new tempo is again very DT, and having that lead into 5:18's distinct but angular melodic line is great. it blows through some material there until the end and ends on a high point. my only complaint across the board is that the drums are in general too quiet, and especially the kick and cymbals don't have much body. i almost missed the double kick at the end for example because there's so little presence in the kick, and the few times that the cymbals were noticeable i thought they had little presence left after being EQed to death. from an arrangement perspective, this is incredible. i don't remember the last time i heard such a transformational take on such a weird, complex original. there's all the beats you'd want in an intense track like this, both highs and lows, and it's honestly astonishing the variety that we get overall. i wish the cymbals and kick had more body to them, but overall this is absolutely way above the bar. excellent work. YES

what a stack of performers credits! excited to hear this one. percs come in at about 0:07, and we get a bass and piano groove at 0:15. more horns are in at 0:30, and we get a variety of stabs and rhythmic elements through this section the Menu theme. guitar in particular is really set into the mix well here, it's hard imo to balance an electric in a jazz stack and it's done well here. 1:25 is the next section the sax parts are more active here. drum work in here is particularly impressive. after a percussion break, there's the title material again and then the menu. i agree that the string licks could have been messy but they're well-done. the track as a whole is a lot brighter and louder in this section and it's fun to hear everyone doing their thing here after how light some of the earlier arrangement was handled. there's a final flourish and it's done. this is an interesting idea for what's essentially a melody-less remix. i think this definitely hits the mark. it's more backing track for a las vegas montage than it is standalone track, but i think that's fine given the goal here. nice job realizing the underlying potential in such an odd place. YES

wall of sound to begin. the synth stuff going on is hard to hear in the beginning. 0:41 is where the full band comes in. the arpeggio is in the lead guitar initially (a little surprising the drums didn't ape the original's rhythmic elements), and that moves into the 'melody' of the original which really isn't much of a melody. it stays balls to the wall for a while as it maneuvers through the original's theme elements. i liked how the oboe and bassoon's melodic material in the original was handled in the guitar here. we finally get a break at 2:24, really just from the beat as it's still going pretty strong. there's another tom groove coming out of this section, and we finally get a texture change when we get some harmony in the lead guitars. this guitar tone is both really loud and doesn't appear to have much room sound on it so it doesn't quite settle into the texture like the first one did. 3:27 has the melodic line in a lower octave with the faster arpeggiated line above it layered in. most of this section is recap of material from earlier without significants change to how it's presented, especially 4:00. there's a build at 4:32 and then we get one more short section of rawk before it's done. ending is a bit sudden. there's not a lot of dynamic contrast in this overall - it's pretty heavy the whole way through. that said, i think overall the mixing and mastering sounds good and only has a few nitpicks about how it's handled, and the arrangement does a decent job handling the (pretty non-melodic) source material in a way that's recognizable and isn't just a cover. so this is a pass by me. YES

neat idea for a remix. sfx and some flute to start, then oboe and harp among others come in quickly. serenade of water (or rutela, it's the same initial ascending line) is the first theme i hear, and it's realized in a moving, flowing manner that i'm assuming is influenced by the source context so that's neat. there's a notable tempo change at 1:38. flute work going into 2:39 was really nice. the percussion right after it, at 2:48 sticks out of the mix a little since it doesn't really have the same sound stage as the rest of it. there's a weird note or two at 3:32 and a few sections after it. i wondered how you'd convey the out-of-time elements of the water temple, and the live elements there really make it work. the lush orchestration continues for some time, and by this point i'm really aching for some dynamic contrast at all. the orchestration is pretty, but there's been little to hold my interest that's not just "oh, there's a theme concept there" - there's few rhythmic elements in the backing parts so the track is a lot of sustains and similar orchestration noodling around. as a backing element to a visual work, this kind of approach can work, but for a standalone piece there really needs to be some meat under all the salad. this is a typical rebecca piece, which is to say it has some beautiful orchestration, it's quiet and not fast, it doesn't have much dynamic contrast, and it competently portrays the themes represented. the themes are worked together so that transitions aren't obvious and flow smoothly. it's certainly above our bar. i appreciate the extra work done to make this much louder than previous submissions. YES

opening is sfx. guitars are highly stereo separated when they come in, it's a bit distracting especially in the right ear. when the drums come in they're playing fun stuff, but they sound extremely notched into the soundscape so it's hard to hear the kick especially. the bass is the only thing in that freq range, and a glance at the spectrum analyzer confirms that in general the bass presence is way higher than i'd expect. cymbals also are pretty bright and cut through a lot. what the drums are playing is dope however. rhythmic elements in the arrangement come in at 1:30, and we get what is kind of a chorus at 1:47. 2:31 definitely sounds like a castlevania remix all of a sudden - the galloping guitars and fast drums are just straight out of 2003 OCR for me, so that's super fun, especially when we get the arpeggiated bloody tears-esque line at 2:58. the arrangement blows through some reprise material and then is done. this is a fun track! the mixing is bass-lite overall - looks like the big peak for the bass is in the 60-100hz area, and there's a surprising amount of sub-40hz content that i couldn't hear but was apparently clogging up some of the soundscape. the piece also overall just doesn't have a ton of dynamic contrast, but consistently changing up the beat and what's going on in the backing parts really helps keep it moving forward. the arrangement itself is fun and i enjoy how it continues to weave elements together as the track goes on. i think this is a great example of each of your unique talents. YES

my last vote criticized the overall lack of dynamics caused by a blown-out master, and the lack of drive as a result. sfx to start, and then some keys in the right ear. the chair sfx is super cool, as is the contrast between the clean piano and the heavily distorted other elements. this builds with adding some percussion and the iconic arp in the background. the clave is really loud when it hits, and i wouldn't mind if that was less. the bass hits at 1:08 and it's appropriately meaty and distorted. more percs build in alongside some noisy elements until the melodic material surfaces from the grime at 1:31. lead's probably too loud here but i like the vibrato and tone on it. there's actually not a lot going on under the melody - there's the arp, some percs, and the bass. we get some organ at 2:10 which helps flesh out the soundscape some more. there's a drop at 2:25. the pingpong sfx continues here (might be a good time to let that go somewhere else for a bit), and the keys stick around and start doing some new stuff which is welcome. the lead is here too and is way too loud as a result (there's no shift in volume from the previous iteration)...this was a good opportunity to do something different with it, maybe consider that. there's a significant 'something different' right after it though, in the piano at 2:55. it's not particularly idiomatic (there doesn't appear to be any velocitization to make it realistically played) but it's some fun tones. it keeps trucking until the melodic material comes back in at 3:26, and continues going well past until we get other instruments again at 4:02. this section is probably too long as a break - it felt like switched to an entirely different piece, and i lost track of what was going on in the first third of the piece quite a bit. i like the concept a lot, but the combination of non-idiomatic playing (ie. obviously sequenced) alongside a repetition of the very loud melodic line played the same as the previous several times really lost me. moving some of the elements in the piano to other instruments as this section goes on may help tie it to the first and third section better. there's a recap at 4:06 - again, the melodic line just feels played out at this point, mixing it up really would help - and then we get sfx for the remaining 45s or so. i actually liked the outro but felt it needed to be set up better. we go from groove with percussion and instruments to just a sustained bassline almost instantly, and some subtractive work here to set us down there would have been welcome. i think this is a huge improvement over your last iteration. that had some neat ideas but was essentially unlistenable with how much clipping it had. this is a much more functional work with proper dynamics and contrast, and that's great. at this point there's still too many unintentionally rough edges to the arrangement and mix that i think need to be sanded down before they're ready for primetime, but you've got this one on the run for sure. i'd love to hear some less reuse of elements throughout (particularly the main melodic line, any updates to that as the track goes on would be great), a trimmed-back or otherwise updated bridge section so it doesn't feel like it's so different from the rest of the song, and some continued attention to volumization of the leads and percussion. NO edit 4/24: this has iterated multiple times in the last few months, so i'm back to do another read on this. i still think the piano bridge is too long (and the tail on the delay's so loud it's hard hearing what's attack and what's tail), but overall this has had a lot of nuance added that i can hear to the various elements so that they're more a part of the piece vs. layered bits. the shorter length helps control that a lot as well. i think this is over the bar but only just. YES

starts out with an absolutely slammajamma'd version of smart race. it's really loud. there's surprisingly little bass content as well. the sidechaining is so strong so as to be distracting. i didn't hear berdly (but it's close to smart race so maybe i missed it) and then it's quickly into queen. pandora's palace hits at 0:55 i think, and we're already through at least three tracks before a minute's done. there's finally a break at 1:23 that's so fast that i can't really hear what's going on, and it gets intentionally muddier as it goes along, 1:50 is big shot, with a recap of pandora's palace intermixed. this is pretty intense through here and very loud again. we get some more recap material at 2:30 with the same instruments that they showed up with the first time around. there's another filtered break at 2:54 and again it blows through some recap material quickly before berdly finally shows up in the piano at the end. i didn't catch cyber's world and the megalovania and don't starve references are short enough i don't think we'd bother registering them. this is...really loud! it's so sidechained and compressed it's hard to hear what's going on in some places. but i'll admit the way that the themes are interwoven near the end are really slick. there's some fun call and response stuff that i really enjoyed, and the pace overall of the track is solid. i think that the arrangement is good and the mastering is good enough (i believe my response to it is more personal preference than actual issue since everything can be heard pretty well). so i'll call this a yes. YES

this appears to be fifteen and a half minutes of the original audio from the games stitched together. unfortunately this isn't what we host at this website - we host arrangements of the original material, not clips of the originals mashed up. take a look at section 4.2 of the submission standards to see what kind of material we generally accept. NO