prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

opens with a big, heavy approach to No Escape. the lead guitar sounds really not real in this opening section. verse transition is very sudden, right off the riff in No Escape. vocals come in right away. drums are really slamming, the snare especially sounds huge and meaty which doesn't really fit the backing elements. the mix is a little unbalanced here as well in that it's tough to tell which vocalist is the melody line (it's supposed to be the higher of the two parts, originally Ashley Barrett's voice). the backing elements are not easy to grab onto either - the guitar chords sound like they're on autowah, and the pitches are hard to grok - this is exacerbated by the reharmonization of the chords under it, which don't sound like they support the vocal lines much at all. lastly, the bass line is just arpeggios, which doesn't really provide any basis under the vocalists. i don't think i'm a huge fan of this verse's layout or execution. the chorus feels more rooted, both because of the less-effected rhythm guitar parts and because the bass is sitting on notes instead of riffing. azmodea's voice is more in front here as well which helps. there's a few pitchy notes in here in the vocal lines. i felt that the changed chords at 1:37 don't do much to support the vocal lines again. second verse is more rhythmic in the backing elements, which is a good choice to mix it up. drums are still really slamming - no dynamics. around here you really start to notice the lack of space between verses and choruses - a few bars of space after the chorus would have really allowed for some room for the mix to breathe. as it is, we're two plus minutes of constant singing into the track, and it's noticeable. a few of the cutoffs (like at 2:16) aren't in time, which also makes it hard to track the melody line. 2:30 brings back the autowah guitar - i really don't care for that, i think it's just clogging up the background without adding anything. the second chorus is straightforward beyond that and what we'd expect given the previous chorus. there's a solo break at 3:00 that is pretty clearly not a live instrument but is tbh pretty creative in approach - i just think that some more attention could be paid to the pick/hammer-on setting for the attacks of the notes on some of the runs. there's The Big Chorus after this, starting at 3:47. sounds like double kick, and the background is just staticky mess with all of what's going on back there. the vocalists sound like they're set on top of the background instead of being part of the backing elements. this section is a dealbreaker even without the issues in the other areas - it sounds pretty rough. there's one last sustained note, and the track is done. i really like the concept here. i'd say that Good Riddance as it is originally is one of my least favorite tracks on the Hades soundtrack, specifically because there's never any breaks in it and it kind of just meanders. reharmonizing it to reinforce the beautiful melody line (when it isn't wandering) is a great idea, and metal fits the genre of the game very well also. i'd say that the execution is lacking here, however, in a few major places. the first would be energy management - you've got constant singing for 2.5 minutes without breaks, you've got the drums going HAM in the middle of a verse where the singers are down low, you've got little dynamics throughout from a macro point of view. giving the track some room to breathe via more intentional, notable dynamics and a break after the first chorus (even 8 bars) would be a huge positive. the reharmonization of the verse especially does not do a lot to support the vocalists. several of the new chords don't actually fit the existing vocal harmonies, and it doesn't sound like the lower vocal line was updated to help with that. separately, especially with the wah guitar and the bass guitar in the first verse, the backing elements don't really clearly delineate the chords being played, so it's hard to map the vocal lines to what's going on underneath them. pads, keys, or more intentionally picked/arpeggiated guitar parts can help with this, so that there's not octaves between a very fast arp in the bass and singers in the middle of their range. overall, the track has a big peak at ~100hz regardless of where you look, and you can hear it it - there's a big, oofy feel to a lot of the mix without the foundation in the 30-40hz range i'd expect from metal. i can hardly hear the kick most of the time, and i think that the vocals could really use a lift around their formants (traditionally around 2.5khz for male/3khz for female voices) to help them stick out of the mix better. getting the kick to have less mud and more distinct beater tone will help as well, as will some more intentional EQ on the guitars. that's a lot of notes! i think this track definitely has legs, and just isn't there yet (similar to when i played the game for my first fifty runs or so). so chasing some of these elements down and addressing them should help craft a more complete whole when it's all said and done. NO

fade in (haven't heard that in a long time). bass comes in and isn't really the original's but is reminiscent of it. there's a lot of mud down there around the bass. the vibes with the 'melodic content' (i use that term lightly) come in soon after and the track is more recognizable at this point. i like the vibrato on the vibes, it's well-used here. 1:17's a transition to the opening feel, and the snare variation is similar to the earlier scratch work. the sax that comes in after this is a bit forward - adding a bit more room tone might make it sit back in the mix a bit more. there's a break at 2:03 with just the bass, clave, kick, and vibes. we get another chorus after this of the scratch, another 8 with the opening drumloop, and it's done with some sfx. there's some fadeout cleanup that could be done there - i can hear one of the sfx clips ending. this is an interesting approach to a highly non-melodic original. i think it does a good job representing the original without going too far afield in an effort to make something big out of it. i like the vibes especially, they make the piece. YES

opens with some filtered arps and wide synth elements - i really like this opening feel. the sfx panned to the sides might be a little loud on headphones. i don't hear any of Howling Gears in this opening section, although the arp is reminiscent of the B section as you stated. same issue at 0:36, i don't hear that pattern either, but i do catch the bassline when it comes in at 0:52. the guitar part is playing something that's reminiscent of the piano in the original after this, but to my ears the piano's playing an octave, and the guitar is playing a maj 6th. 2:35's a big shift, and shout's b melody is indeed present although i don't understand at all how it fits into the setting that's already present when it does come in. it sounds like it's in an entirely different key (the backing elements really look like Bb to me and shout's b melody is being played in Fm). the following guitar-led section is easier to understand and more obviously maps to gears. there's a big dropoff here before it gets back into gears again as interpreted earlier. there's a big filter that hits at 5:11 and doesn't sound like it goes away for a long time here - the bottom end feels like it's missing until almost 6:00 for a few seconds. this goes some pretty wide-ranging places, which is neat. my main concern is the source usage, because i don't hear it in extended stretches of the track. i am gonna need to do some timestamping on this because as-is there's not enough source. ? edit 9/4: thanks to jnwake for more in-depth analysis. even with the expanded source notes above, i just can't grok most of the connections that are called out. i would need more explicit, present instances of source material before i'd be able to consider this one. i also think the track would benefit from some more intentionality in the sections, but overall do agree that the track is generally well-produced and quite listenable. NO

this doesn't even need more comments than the source being not present elsewhere than the opening - this isn't pokemon music, it's an original track inspired by the original. this doesn't have a place on this site. NO

lot of mud in the opening section. vocals are super warbly and have a distorted tone that is an easy tell for ai vocals right now. in general the arrangement is not really based on the original at all, but more the concept of the character. there's also, again, a number of notes that are 2-3x longer than a human could hold. it's a fine original track if you like fake music, but the utter lack of source material means it doesn't have a place here. NO

those exports are low-poly, FYI, larry. source usage is a dealbreaker as liontamer mentioned. melody line on the verse for this track fits less than the vocals on the other tracks. there's a lot of weird transients especially noticeable around the 1:35-1:45 section and again the hats/cymbals sound really janky, they're just noise. NO

man, this could have been really cool if it was not so obviously fake. from a concept perspective, tying an a capella arrangement to luigi's humming in this ost is great. but the words are obviously not written by a person, and the source doesn't come back after the first 30s. NO

not enough source again. there's some fun stuff in the actual vgm sections, even if they're not real instruments. lyrics are better than some of the other tracks this dude submitted (although the whole verse around the 3m mark is nonsense), but i agree they're kind of tired by halfway through the dozen. the section at 3:33 has a bunch of conflicting notes even without the vocals going 110% over a bunch of strings, and that slide at the end is pretty silly. same with the sustain at the end of the song. NO

there isn't enough source to pass the standards. the sax parts sound generated with how buzzy they are. this is so frustrating because they're fun songs to listen to, but the artist is trying to cover up just how much they didn't do. craig stated that he played many instruments and used tools to cover the other elements, and specifically stated he didn't use genai to make the track. i do not believe him and do not believe we should accept future submissions without clear proof that he's creating future stuff himself. NO

i'll note that the 'arranger' explicitly avoided responding about who actually wrote the arrangement. they stated who played the instruments but did not clarify who wrote the overall track's arrangement. the track doesn't have enough source so it's a definite no. separately the text is word salad, like larry said (although the joke about going to call mario at the end is admittedly funny), and all of the overheads for the drums are just static. the guitar work is solid throughout, i'll note, and i liked the aggressiveness of the opening section and specifically the altered chord at 0:24 was a fun idea. it's too bad the rest doesn't have anything to do with zelda. NO

opens with some filtered synth stabs and some nice pads, very chill. melody comes in at 0:48 - i really like the lead option here. there's a heavy sidechain that's very chill and groovy. there's a break after this section for a bit before we get some of the B material. i like the choice to just use the first bit here and loop it - fits the genre well. there's some whistly bits in the background here that are really nice countermelodic opportunities. there's a big drop at 2:49. there's some FTL-like feel in some of the synths here. i'll admit i wouldn't have minded you using this opportunity to bring in some new tones to the melody parade, but the augmentation used initially here is fun and a neat idea i wouldn't have initially noticed if you hadn't pointed it out. the beat drops around the 4 minute mark and plays us out from there. i wouldn't have minded a resolution for the ending, as this does feel like it just stops. this is a real vibe, dude. i like the attention paid to just grooving through the melodic material. i particularly like the heavy sidechain and how that fits the backing stuff along the angular melodic line. nice work. YES

original is one of my favorites from FF7. opens right away with stutter synths and some recognizable samba-adjacent rhythms in the percussion. the cosmo canyon bassline is there as well but not particularly present. the melody line comes in at 0:19 in what i think is an electric guitar, and there isn't a lot of personalization. guitar doesn't have a lot of body to the tone or verb/delay/chorus to fill it out - part of this might be how it's being recorded. the chorus section of the melody line has a lot more going on, mostly in the drums (there's some really sick stuff happening here in the drums). 1:36's got a solo section which is pretty fun. there's a comp section for a bit and then the melodic line comes back in for a recap. there's a fadeout after this repetition of the entire verse/chorus structure, and it's done. the whole mix sounds like it's been recorded on a smartphone - there's a big hole around 2khz across the board, and each instrument sounds like it's missing something. i think the main issue is just the actual mics being used for the recording, or the recording technique. this is a shame because this is a badass version of the theme! there's so much fun stuff going on, especially in the performance. the original plods in a pleasing, old-world way that makes the build at the end of the chorus exciting, but your version has so much more vibrancy to it throughout thanks to the clave rhythms. i'd love to have heard more variety in the stutter synth - it keeps hammering a lot throughout without much change, and there's definitely room to mix up the backing elements the second time through the melody. a real ending would be great. i also would love to hear more personalization of the melody line, as what's here doesn't take advantage of, for example, the long sustains at the end of each line in the verses. and i'd love an ending, although a fadeout is not a huge problem. but ultimately what's keeping this one back right now is the sound quality. the individual instruments simply aren't recorded at a level that would be acceptable for this site. finding a better way to record - or instead sequencing instruments - would be needed. another option is to use this as a template and get some other folks who have the ability to record or sequence elements to replace what you can't do yourself at a high level. what a fun track! i'd love to hear it with better sound quality and a few tweaks to the soundscape. NO

really old school original here, been ages since i've heard it. opens with some wide, very forward saws. there's a lot of verb and this is really blown out so the lead instrument has an overpoweringly present sound that obliterates anything behind it. there isn't any arrangement on this opening section to my ears that isn't in the original - i think it's even in the same tempo. there's a repeat of the main chorus section with the 'kick' sfx playing faster, but aside from articulating it on sixteenths, there's no change again. so again, there's no arrangement here unfortunately. and then the loop cuts as it's about to loop back to the middle somewhere - so no ending. unfortunately this doesn't fulfill what we're looking for in terms of arrangement. i'd encourage you to take a look at our submission standards, notably section 4, and utilize the workshop forums and discord to get some guidance on how to work towards a more complete arrangement that'd fit what we're looking for on the site. NO

some sfx to start alongside the cymbals to lead in, and the band's all in right at the beginning. band sound is great - drums, bass, keys, saxes makes a nice ensemble. as the last time i heard April play, i think the alto's tone is a bit boxed up - really sounds like the mic isn't at the bell but is up by the left hand, which gives it a closed tone. tenor tone is again fantastic. there's some vibes around the 1:15 that are really nice. consider varying your vibrato speed faster and slower occasionally on the sustains - like at 1:30, slowing it down over the length of the note would really add a neat feel to it. some of the unisons/octaves in here aren't 100% in tune. 2:01's one of the aforementioned key changes. there's some fun harmonized elements in here. the saxes aren't in tune. there's a recap of the opening stuff at 2:38, and then a piano solo that focused a lot around block chords which i think really fits the feel. bass here sounds a little too forward and big. alto's got some funky notes in the solo, and then it moves into another recap of the b theme with some extra backing pads. there's the c section, and the track ends on a final sustain that's not quite where you expect. leaving the pad noise in after the last drum fill is fun. this is pretty straightforward and nails the style well. the sax intonation wasn't great (avoiding octaves can help hide that!), but the overall feel is solid. nice work. YES edit 8/20: the updated intonation fixed my biggest issue. this is still good to go.

gets right into it. panned hats and bass right off the bat, and the melody actually comes in after the vocals do. neat idea. there's a ton of ear candy as expected from something chimpa built out. the two vocal lines pace each other very well. there's a few words that sound funky (always and crawlin around 0:55 are examples), but overall the prosody is pretty solid. there's a melodic break for a bit before the second verse hits at 1:27. this whole section functions as a break, and the plucks and bass movement (and nice sustain!) at 2:06 are a really neat vibe that ultimately winds up being a false build into a bridge. really nice song development. there's some chippy synths for a bit before we get a recap of the opening lines at 3:22. there's some fun sound design to play us off, and it's done. this is a great track! probably my favorite from ad.mixx overall. i love the direction, the concept, and the story. kris of course knocks the backing elements out, there's so much to find on relistens of each section. fantastic job here. YES

opens with some beach sfx and some poppy keys. quickly gets into a melody that's built off of the arpeggiated sequence from the original alongside the expected percussion and additional instrumentation. bass is really quiet off the bat and the water sfx continues for a while which is probably at least partially why that's the case. i really like the octave doubling in the melody here. there's a bit of a break for about eight seconds and we get into a solo break at 1:18. some nice turns in here (and at least one that doesn't work, at 1:34), before a really smooth break for some mallet percussion. the main vibe comes back at 2:06. the backing keys here are a touch loud, but i like some of the extra fills being added in the percussion, and i like the personalization of the lead. there's a recap of the earlier mallet break, and then some sfx see us out the door. this is quick and fun. truly not an adaptation i would have ever expected. nice work. YES

i really prefer the normal too-many-words writeup from lucas =P opens with some spanish-style acoustic guitar and shakers, and gets to the melodic material at 0:40 alongside the addition of hand percussion and rhythm guitar. the backing elements take a few seconds to get settled in and are a bit shaky for the first ~30s, but they lock in around when the harmonized melodic elements start around 1:05. the rhythm guitars are also heavily panned which is more noticeable on headphones, but overall the band sound here is fun. the strings that come in around 1:32 are really nice and subtle, and add a surprising amount of warmth. 1:57's a recap of the Velvet Room theme section from the original, and i like the tremolos on the sustains as a method to convey the held notes. there's a nice break around the 2:48 with just the earlier strings (they sound a touch behind the beat when they're isolated like this), and the following chorus functions well as a build (the marcato strings help here) into the solo section at 3:40. sounds like dueling solos to me which is something i have always enjoyed. there's one more recap of the Velvet Room theme, and a sustained chord for the end, and it's done. this is a fun ride! the simplicity of the instrumentation really shines out here and allows the performances to be the main focus. i thought the rhythm guitar was slightly ahead of the beat throughout, which made slower attacks in the strings and the groove of the drums to sound a bit weird sometimes, but overall this is a really enjoyable take. i particularly liked the way you were able to use several different sections from an original that is pretty long and has a lot of variance between sections. nice work. YES

in my last vote, i called out the need for EQing and volumization to avoid clipping, but loved the arrangement. i love the delicate opening guitar work, with so much variety in how the instrument's being used. the fluttery, glassy burbles around the 1:00 mark are really nice. there's a bit of a break at 1:23, and we get a new feel coming out of that when the melody comes back at 1:35. the vocals are just light and distant enough to really add flavor without being able to focus on them - the spacing is really nice. there's an outro that's pretty rhythmic, and it's done. this is now a lay-up in my opinion. mix is far better, approach is simple but beautiful, and the vibe is great. nice job! YES

opens with the descending arp of the original in a funky 80s-feel synth. beat comes in at 0:15, and i can definitely hear where you're trying to go with this. the piano that comes in at 0:27 is painfully square and robotic unfortunately, and the sample isn't great either. the offbeat pops fit the concept well though. melody comes in at 0:39, and there's some nice panning on it to help it feel more organic in the way it moves. the backing is very static until 1:24 when there's a short break - i'd have liked to hear more to mix it up, especially given that there's only a few instruments playing and not much to keep it unique. the chorus uses a new beat which is nice, but the piano especially is starting to really grate as it's doing the same thing most of the time and it's tiresome to listen to. the piano solo at 2:13 is nice. there's a percussive element in the left ear that is notably far away from anything else in that side and it sticks out a lot. there's another chorus, and what initially feels like an ending until it's made more obvious that it's a transition into more of a shuffle. 4:02 brings in a lot of other elements that don't really get explored much. there's some distance put into the overall tone, and then a single chord finishes the song off. it really seems like you approached this with a goal of simplicity and a patient approach, and i think that's a cool idea for this. i really think this is too stripped back, and separately what's here isn't used to full potential. i think that adding even a single countermelodic element would add a lot to the work overall, and separately (and more importantly) there's so little personalization or velocitization applied to anything outside of the synth blats throughout. the block chords in the piano for example don't change dynamics or approach ever throughout, and the lead instruments also do not have clear examples of velocitization outside of one specific color note in the piano solo. along those lines, each major section has a clear sound that's established in the first bar which doesn't change throughout that entire section. it's too repetitive and it becomes very obvious very quick. i think there's too much repetition throughout, and not enough personalization especially to the backing parts. this needs another pass. NO

took a second to grok what was going on, but there's some really fun stuff going on in that intro. the beat is really fun too, i liked the detuned hat drop effect. lead is unfortunately pretty basic - even a little lfo over time to the sustain tone would have helped. i like the backing blurbs more. there's a break at 0:56 for a bit, and we get some gliding stuff as a neat palate cleanser for a short while before the synth/eguitar comes in at 1:24 as the lead for a short solo. there's a recap of the melodic material before a much more intense B section at 1:51. i really liked the idea here and wish it was more involved. one lil jon sample later, we're in a riding pattern that fades out to end it. i wouldn't have minded the bass there being a touch quieter. this is a neat idea! i think the leads are really boring but i love the concept beyond that. i think this would have been a favorite of a lot of folks in, like 2004-2006. i think this is pretty borderline myself, but probably would lean on the side of good enough due to the fun arrangement and really interesting beat work. i can definitely see the leads pulling down for other Js though and would focus on that if this doesn't make it. YES

really neat original. that short synth tone is really unique. opens with some bells and ambient synths. it doesn't sound like most of the things being played are the original, but rather following a similar structure. the beat comes in at 0:28, and the strings that eventually come in also are outlining a descending pattern that isn't the same notes or particularly close to the original. same with the eventual synth arp. beat drops around 1:22 for a bit, but comes back unchanged. there's a recap of what just happened, and the opening bells come in too, but still no source. we get something that's again reminiscent of the original at 2:03, but all that includes is movement from the 5 to the b6 and b7 - none of the 5 b6 4 5 pattern that permeates the original, and also none of the little 7-8 lick that stands out in the original as well. we get another break at 2:44 with some choral elements, but the same taiko and synth elements in the background are still there. we do get some more unique strings after this when the same beat comes back in again, but nothing from the original. there's a fun stutter effect in the strings near the end, and then it's done with the arps fading out (over a very long time, this probably should be shortened by half if not more). unfortunately this doesn't really appear to be a remix of the Cradle Under the Star theme, but rather something inspired by it or reminiscent of it. there's no actual original material that i can hear in the track you've submitted. so that's a dealbreaker right there. separately, it's really obvious in here where you copy/paste each individual element's block of material - the synth does the same thing every time it shows up, the beat is the same, the taiko element is the same, etc. even the fake scream transition sfx is used repeatedly. that much repetition becomes really noticeable really quickly when you listen to something more than once. spending the extra time to make each entrance of an instrument unique is absolutely worth it. if this was a complete arrangement of the original, i'd probably still reject it due to how muddy and overly dense the representation is, and how much repetition is used. i think that the original's neat and there's definitely legs for this style of arrangement. trimming the fat and making it more clearly related to the original will definitely help craft a better overall product. NO

big guitar-driven intro, as expected from the artist. it gets right after the melodic material, and there's some manipulation there. i don't her a ton of bass, which is unfortunate, but it sounds like the rhythm guitar occupies a lot of that space. there's a nice chorus break at 1:01 that, while it isn't quieter or different instrumentation, functions as a good separator between the first and second runthroughs of the melodic material. 1:34's another runthrough of the melody, and the instrumentation here is pretty empty as the rhythm guitar and bass are both pretty high relatively speaking. some pad work or mixing up the rhythm of the backing elements would make a big difference there. there's another chorus section, a solo break that's pretty solid, and then an ending that didn't make much sense to me at all - both in how it resolves to a non-root chord and in why it's so sudden without any real closing element. and it's done. i think this is pretty borderline, to be honest. the rhythm guitar work is pretty much the same throughout, the overall arrangement doesn't really take many if any risks, and the ending is blasé. but i think the overall band sound for the melodic and chorus sections is mostly fine and it's mixed aggressively and fairly clearly. there's certainly things i wish would have been done differently, but this is fun as it is and a fine representation of the original. YES

bass line to start doesn't sound great solo - the lack of difference between the attacks are very obvious. beat sounds nice and i like the other backing elements that come in as well at 0:20. the scratches are solid - i like what's done to the vocal snip before the B section for example. the keys that come in during the B section are also just the right vibe. i wouldn't have minded a bit of wah on the vibes for the B melody. there's a recap of the A section at 1:30 - i wouldn't have minded a bit less of the scratch volume here and another padding element to fill it in and keep the feel moving. C section starts at 1:55 and this is also a bit in need of a padding element. also the snare here is pretty loud compared to everything else. the autopan at D (~2:41)is a lot and disconcerting on headphones - it would have been nice to have half the distance in that pan. it settles down a bit at 3:27 and is a little easier to take there, but it's still a lot. i like the additional sustained element put into the melodic material there. we get another recap of the A material and then the track's done. overall this is a fun ride! really interesting example of the style you're going for. i wouldn't have minded for the autopan to be less and the snare to be a bit dirtier (and probably a bit quieter), but overall this is a solid take on a pretty theme. nice work. YES

i YES'd this before while commenting on the samples not being 100% across the board. i don't need to do as much of a write-up this time around as most of my positive comments stay the same. 1:57's fast movement in the low instruments is still a little sluggish (but that isn't changing without some serious cash in the samples), and the arrangement is still dynamic and exciting to listen to. part 6 (the half-time melody movement in the bass instruments) is my favorite part. this is still a clear pass for me. YES

the synth riff is immediately recognizable. i also like the big bass and the fun 90s synth guitar near the end. the arrangement itself is definitely nowhere near developed enough for us, unfortunately, although i like the changes you've added in the second half. an easy and quick way to expand the arrangement would be to have some chordal movement right away - going from the Fm to, say, a Db chord within the opening 30 seconds, then to a Bb or Eb would help move the progression along a lot and add a surprising amount of breadth to what you've got here. i actually don't think you need melodic material, although that's another easy way to add uniqueness to an arrangement - i think that just varying the chord progression (or, y'know, having one at all) earlier in the piece would be enough. that'd lead naturally into breaks and builds as well, and some level of added dynamics would also really help the track not feel same-y throughout. kick sounds a touch heavy next to the bass, and imo layering the bass with a less noisy version with more fundamental would help give it a bit of punch that it doesn't have. some window dressing and this is probably good enough for us. just needs more body to the arrangement and you'll be there. NO