prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

we need more submission memes! and this meme is very correct, they're super similar enough that i'm having trouble keeping track of which is which. the little section in the middle of the initial presentation of cyrus that switches to the V is just delightful. what great originals. initial presentation is cyrus in the flute. clarinet tone is a bit reedy and pitchy in the lower register - the higher register though is a really nice singing tone. there's a few embouchure-related pitch bends as you jump around. the dovetail into valse di fantastica is stellar, i missed it the first time through - such a great combo. the key doesn't do the clarinet any favors. my only complaints here are around the shape of the piece. the piano pretty much just is on autopilot throughout, and any dynamic variation would be driven by the keys here...so there isn't any. having some push-pull both to the tempo (difficult assuming you're not in the same place for the recording) and the dynamics (easy even if you're remote) would help a ton with conveying the whimsy that this piece feels like it has. similarly, there's a ton of little flourishes and added elements in the originals that are not conveyed in the piano part (again, because it's on a strict pattern of left hand downbeat -> chord chord in the right throughout), and that's a disappointing loss of compositional fidelity as a result simply because those flourishes would have been really nice next to the winds. that said, the performances are great and the arrangement is a perfectly serviceable reduction of the orchestral parts. i certainly wish there was more but the flute especially carries the day here. YES

dizi to start and followed by some brass and vins, with a lot of patience between each section. the piano comes in with some arpeggiated elements, and the small ensemble continues flow forward in a pretty traditional motet style until we get some (obviously) synth orchestral elements at 1:17. this builds into a pretty big orchestral crescendo to 1:45 when we get a heavy orchestral metal section. there's some nice balance between the guitar and drums and the orchestral elements. there's a break at 2:58 again focusing on the castle theme for a bit, and it moves back to the chamber ensemble-led sound for a short recap before transitioning to the battle theme around 3:33. this noodles a bit until the metal elements come back in at 4:35. this section is particularly hard-hitting which is nice. 5:04 intros a plectral synth that wasn't my cup of tea, but i like the quiet energy of this section underneath that synth. hair is again lit on fire at 5:31 for the last big blow of the piece, and there's a brickwall transition at 6:01 with a recap of the initial two eighth note pattern in the lower strings to bring us to the end. this is a great track. i definitely hear the progressive influence in the different sections and don't consider the pacing or patience of the arrangement to be a negative. the metal parts hit hard and sound good, and the orchestral elements sound fine when they're not directly compared to live performances. i think the overall master is a bit quiet which i expect will be corrected as part of the final album master. this is solid, definitely over our bar. YES

the major differences between the Distant Worlds arrangement and the original come from a few passing chords in the first half, and then from 2:22 onward there's a lot more expansive content around the ostinado - instead of it being an arpeggiated left hand, there's a running pattern that starts in the violins while the celli have the melody and progresses throughout the orchestra after that. the melodic content, song structure, and most of the countermelodies actually are original from what i can hear. the major differences in the original to the piano collections version are much more minimal, primarily focusing around highlighting the beautiful dissonances between the running left hand and the direct harmony part to the melodic content, and also highlighting the performer's artistry and skill (there's quite a few flourishes added). aki kuroda's performances on this album are imo among the best in the piano collections series, and the arrangements for X and XIII are among the most virtuosic as well - fitting, since she's primarily a classical performer. i think this arrangement made it onto the X remaster soundtrack as well, actually. onto the actual track. the opening is note for note with the piano collections entry (i always loved the dissonance in the left hand at 0:12), albeit slower which imo reduces the impact of some of the dissonance a bit. 0:33 is where the melodic content starts. this to my ears is also pretty close to the PC version, maybe adding a bit of complexity to the left hand. the rolled chord at 0:56 is deliciously long, what a great change. the first big change i hear is at 1:03, which instead of going into the second half of the Z theme goes back to the beginning and starts over with a more grounded left hand bass. left hand here is a little loud, especially given that it's mostly doing perfect intervals. i again really appreciate the patience on the rolled chord at 1:31. we do finally get the last part of the main melody at 1:43, and this is again very patient with the approach. it sounds to my ear to be roughly the same with what the PC version has, just much quieter. 2:26's entrance of the Distant Worlds ostinado in the left hand is a clear adaptation of that version, right down to passing it into the right hand and carrying the melody in the middle/low voices. we do finally get the big dynamic section we've waited the entire time for, although again the left hand is very loud and we don't sustain on the high point (similar to the DW arrangement). 3:53's movement is also from the DW arrangement, and the subsequent flourish to the top note is from the PC arrangement I think. there's some call and response for the last few notes of the original, and a new chord resolution at the end. i'm quite familiar with the piano collections version, as i've been listening to the entire series of piano collection albums for years. separately, To Zanarkand is possibly my favorite piece of game music ever and i've done three arrangements of it for classical instrumentation, so i'm intimately familiar with the piece and especially the countermelodic elements of it. i am not as familiar with the DW arrangement, but outside the aforementioned ostinado in the middle, the work is essentially the same with no new elements being introduced outside of some work in the winds. all that said: i do not believe this arrangement stands far enough from either existing arrangement to be able to be considered for this site. the performance is truly superb - the artistry just oozes out from all of the space you give the work to breathe - but there's just too much here that's from the original arrangers and not enough new arrangement from josh winiberg. it's still a beautiful rendition, just doesn't fit our criteria for arrangement. NO =(

file fails to download correctly for whatever reason. i'm doing my analysis within the drive audio player as a result. intro is with piano, bass, and kit. the piano's got some delay on it, but the kit is ultra dry and the bass is essentially fundamental content only. drums are playing basic patterns and really don't sound in the same space as the piano, and the cymbals on the kit don't sound like they're in the space of either as well. the piano is mostly functioning in an exploratory sense around the melodic line - there's certainly expansion, but it usually is staying pretty close to the original melodic line or the arpeggiated perfect fifth that we hear at the beginning of the original. there doesn't appear to be a clear direction to where the piano's going, and the drums are so much louder than everything else that it's honestly hard to hear what it's playing most of the time anyways. the file breaks at around 2:03, but i'm comfortable rendering my thoughts on just that part as i don't see this changing. overall, this needs more workshopping. first of all, there's no real dynamic direction to the work. the original starts out smaller and swells through several sections. this track doesn't change at all in terms of instrumentation or dynamics in the first two minutes i heard. there's also nothing beyond those initial three instruments. you can absolutely make a small trio work, but it requires expansive, interesting work in the piano and bass, and some more complexity in the rhythm instrument. adding some pads, a few leads, some other keyboards, or even a bass with tone that we can hear instead of it just being in the sub would add a lot to the work. beyond that, getting all the instruments in the same room from an auditory standpoint would help a lot. all three instruments sound very different and are in very different spaces in terms of reverb, EQing, and volume. balancing those out - ie. improving the mixing - would make a huge improvement. right now this needs more work. NO

nice percussive muted plectral instrument to start with a slower version of the intro of misty truth. this flows well into the first few chords of sorrows of strays. the guitars and beat come in at 0:45, and while there is some other stuff going on, the drums and guitars are the majority of what you can hear. i think the rhythm guitars here are too loud relative to everything else. there's a big drop at 1:36, and we get more of the plectral instrument and some orchestral elements. there's some conflicting notes at 1:51 where it sounds like you go to a borrowed chord in some but not all harmonic elements. the synths at 2:02 are a neat idea to again combine rock elements with the existing orchestral ensemble to build to a bigger hit at 2:24. the rhythm guitars here are again really loud and it's hard to hear the lead or other backing elements besides the drums. this builds for a bit before we get to a transition that leads to fading memories at 3:02. lots of lush sustains and some really nice acoustic guitar. this is mostly led by piano, and there's some rolling arpeggiated elements in the left hand. it sounds like there's some repeated notes in the arpeggios which is a little weird to my ear, but that's a nitpick. this flows through to a sustain for an ending. i think this is pretty nice! there's some balance stuff and a few weird note selections, but as a whole this does a great job highlighting the beautiful originals in a few different ways. nice work. YES

initial chord strums are immediately recognizable despite being detuned. there's some extra effecting that comes in at 0:44, but the first big shift is at 1:05 where the original 12-string guitar arpeggios come in. this is, i think, a direct adaptation of what the original plays. it sounds like it's the same synth throughout, albeit with some interesting LFO, EQ, and effects applied. it goes through the various sections of the original and then just kinda ends. it would be difficult to really A:B this to confirm, but i suspect that this is essentially the guitar part from the original dumped into a synth, with most of the changes that were made falling into the category of modifying the synth timbre. it is not pleasant to listen to - it isn't until the second half that we really get any variety of synth tone regularly, and what we do get is difficult to follow since the original does not have a consistent melody throughout to pin the remix to. much of the original's novelty lies in the tone of the guitar, the reverb and delay on the guitar, and the mood it sets. the synth choices and realization shown here do not carry that over, and so we're left with a bunch of disparate sections with no attempt to knit them together. i believe this arrangement is far too close to the original to really have any chance of passing as-is. separately, while eventually there's more variety in synth timbre, there's not for several minutes at the beginning. this needs some significant rework as a result. NO edit 3/5: MW's comments about the second half being farther out necessitated a re-listen. i do hear what he's saying around the second half, but like kris i lost the plot halfway through and struggled to balance the original against what was going on in the remix. beyond that, the detuning made me sick to my stomach so i couldn't listen for very long. if he's saying that there's enough source, then i'll believe him. i do agree with larry that ultimately this is not a pleasant track to listen to - there are muddy sections, and there's a lot of very abrasive elements that seem to be there just for variety vs. being intentional. i don't think that's a standards violation though. this is a functional piece with clear design behind what's going on, even if i will never listen to it again. YES

big synthy opening before the guitar came in. drums are both loud and very arena. 0:40 is the B melodic content, complete with significant scoops and MASSIVE 80's SNARES. the full drumbeat comes in at 1:12 and i do feel it's a little loud there, and i also don't hear much in the way of bass content outside the kick. the backing synths sound great though, what i can hear of them. 2:32 is a bit of a break right on cue, more in energy and in the backing parts than elsewhere. 3:20 feels like the start of the end with the recap there, but there's still quite a bit of music left. 4:08's arp coming back in is nicely reminiscent of the opening and the original. the song noodles through some soloing (and some bongos?) for another 30s and then fades out. this is a slam dunk, as expected. the style is perfect for the original and it's well-handled. nice work. YES

intro sounds like there's some randomness to the initial couple of runs until it settles down after a bit, and then it's impressively technical. the main melody comes in at 0:44, and there's a ton of personality in how it's being articulated and played which is great. some really fast harmonized runs in time are again impressive. 1:35's departure from tonality was a neat idea and well-executed. 1:58's the first really significant section that isn't close adaptation or original material, and the half-time approach is a great idea. there's a lot of complex chord work in here that's honestly pretty impressive. the section from 3:15 to 3:35 is a little too navel-gazing for me, but it quickly gets out of its feels and moves into the melodic content again. there's some exciting ending material (nice work on the accelerando into the ending...not easy to do with recorded elements like this to be in time so well!) and it's done. this is real solid! excellent work. ensembles with the same instrument can feel very dense and samey but this does a nice job of exploring the entire instrument's range. YES

when the drums come in on this one, the hats are heavily swung (practically in triplet but not quite) while the arp is actually doing triplets and rest of the drums are switching between standard eighths and some semblance of swing. this is intensely distracting to me and is almost enough for me to reject it by itself. it feels like a wobbly dance. i can barely focus on the rest of the song. it literally took five or six listens to get past that and listen to the melodic content. there's a break from the drums at 0:59, and the piano does some expansion of the B theme. the eventual tempo-sync'd synths that come in are really nice, perfect timbres. the drums are back in at 1:47 and the hats are fixed although still strangely loud in the mix. there's some fun expansion and playing with time in here. this transitions suddenly into a much faster tempo section that's more ensemble based, and features some slick piano solo chops. the bridge at 3:15 is great and does a nice job connecting these two sections together. there's an extended tension-building section, and then we're suddenly back to the intro's progression - this is kind of awkward here. 4:14 to the end is a neat little groove on the A section, and then it just ends. this is a pretty awesome adaptation overall of the snowball theme. it is not perfect - the ending is nonexistent, there's some awkward transition points, and the section from 0:15 through 0:57 is rough enough to make me just not listen - but there is some really joyous soloing and exciting realization going on in several other sections. if the hats were simplified in that first section, i think i'd be good at that point, and i do think that's a quick fix to just remove some ghost notes. i'll call this conditional based on that. YES CONDITIONAL

this waveform looks like it belongs in a pot of beer in the parking lot of Lambeau Field before a Packers game. initial synths are vanilla but immediately recognizable as quoting the theme of the original. the melody comes in at 0:26 with a particularly percussive synth, and there's a ton of verb going on through this. there's a shift at 0:44 to the B theme, and the melodic content comes in soon after. this also is drenched in verb - the backing synths are pretty loud throughout. once this B theme is done, it's been about 1:45 and there's not really much beyond adapting it to the style - little that i can hear that's new. the track goes through the A theme again in a row and then the B theme again in a row - i don't hear anything new, so this is essentially just repeating the first 1:45 or so. at 3:20 it starts the A theme again and i still don't hear anything different. so it sounds like this is just repeating the same content over and over again with no changes to the underlying work. there's a fadeout and it's done. this has way too much repetition to pass as-is. less than half the song is the first iteration of the (imo not arranged enough) loop. separately, the synths are fairly vanilla throughout, and there's no lfo on the leads or anything to keep it interesting. additionally, the drums are pretty vanilla in what they're playing too. lastly, i found the mastering to be way blown out - it's super noisy and the reverb tails are really loud, so it's tons of stuff in your face with no room to breathe. there's definitely some points where it's clipping as well. i think this needs some time in the cooker. you've got a few neat ideas but this needs significant expansion of the arrangement, more creativity on the synthesis side, and better mixing and mastering. NO

initial piano and pads hit have a really neat lower-fi vibe, and the drums, bass, and eventual vox reinforce that. nat's voice is perfect for something like this. there's some really nice swells in here like at 1:10 where the flow just carries you along. the song grooves through a few up and down sections from a dynamic perspective, and finally hits a real break at about 1:57 for a few seconds where the beat drops. the guitar in the subsequent section sounds great, and when it's layered with nat's voice both sound even better. the end isn't really prepped but it does a good job of settling down, and it's done. this is great. i really like the mixing approach actually, i think that the muzzy softness of it is calming. what a great track. YES

the initial transition from block chords to the melodic content was really nice. there's some nice ensemble elements right off the bat too. the press rolls in the snare at 0:35 were a nice touch. a few runs felt a little mechanical (like at 0:45), but it's nice piano work. there's some flute work at 1:15 that's really excellent. it's not clear to me if it's improv or written to sound like it, but it's nice either way. some more ensemble work at 1:51 - excellent dynamic work in this section. 2:35 is a bit of a shift, but continues to use the melodic material in new ways, and the ensemble work is blended really well here. there's a crescendo that you don't really realize is happening until you're there, and then it's done. this is a lovely little piece. great ensemble work and keys especially. nice job. YES

filtro intro is great. sounds so good. and the initial hit sounds great too. i believe, if i'm not mistaken, that the synth work at 0:43 is the terra theme in a diminished chord instead of minor, with the last part inverted. it's essentially the same elements that show up at 1:12, but with a vertically inverted element. the shift at 1:38 is great, tons of extra energy from the 16th patterns here. the section at 2:17 is cleverly done. there's a bit of a break at 2:32 and it's back into a new beat at 2:35 for a bit before some sfx bring us through to a big break section with some rich pads and synced leads at 3:23. 4:23 brings us to the last major section, mostly Terra-heavy, and then it's done with some kicks. i wouldn't mind a final hit given that this isn't necessarily a club version that's going to be mixed in, but what's here is fine. this is excellent. i have no concerns about source usage. superb job. YES

i love wind ensembles, so i'm excited for this one. right off the bat, i noticed the clarinet is consistently sharp at 0:13, and at least a little closed in timbre (my teacher always used to talk about visualizing a golf ball in your throat to open up your tone). there is also not a lot of overlap in the articulations - the clarinet is more legato, the bassoon doesn't use a lot of clear articulations at all (outside a few times where it's quite stuffy and choppy unintentionally), whereas the tenor's articulations are quite choppy. future arrangements should probably be more focused on correlating articulations (likely right on the page). lucas's is indeed pretty honky throughout, so i'm going to actively not talk about that so i don't take up the entire writeup. there's some lovely overlapping lines in the writing - for example 1:12 into the flute and clarinet. the shift in tone at 2:04 is also well-timed and nicely done, giving a clean break from some of the more active elements before this. the entrance at 2:51 is particularly rough, but the subsequent resolution is nice to hear if still not quite in tune. one thing i'd actively consider going forward since it's impossible to do what you'd normally do with an in-person ensemble and work on intonation on each chord - consider using pitch-adjusting software to fix intonation on sustains especially. keep in mind not every interval lands directly on 0 ct each time (major thirds are -13c, perfect 5ths are +5c, b7s are -24c, etc), but i think that would help a lot of the intonation issues i'm seeing. it's so hard to catch where everyone is in a chord on their own so some artificial assistance may be required. winds are particularly suited to pitch correction since they're "push buttons, receive bacon" for the most part when it comes to pitch - they hit a note and stay there outside of vibrato. this is a fun little work that's got some really nice interplay between the parts. i think that the tenor performance unfortunately pulls it down, but overall there's some really neat demonstrative writing in this. nice job. YES

agree with MW that we need a render that doesn't start with a loop point. intro is immediately recognizable despite the extra layering. i particularly liked the way the harmonies at 0:36 sounded. 0:55's tonal shift is really fun (tbh sounded like something from Shang-Chi). the drums got a bit stale after a few repetitions, but they shift up at 1:30 and again at 1:50 so that's a good choice. there's a few funky notes in between the bass and backing arp at 2:03 that i think is related to sustain overlaps. there's a shift again at 2:24, and it's a nice break for a bit. we get a recap of the tuvan section with some new synths under it, and then the descending theme in the flute. it's nice that these are similar but clearly not the same as earlier sections. at about 3:45 the track starts to wind down, and the last 30 seconds or so are some really nice ambience. this is essentially a rubber stamp. i loved it, great job! YES

quiet master. interesting drums to start. keys in at 0:15 and they don't sound very realistic. agree with chimpa that there are a lot of conflicting notes throughout, mostly in the backing pad which sounds like it has extra harmonics. i don't know what the pad is doing throughout actually, and most of the time it sounds wrong. the bass has some questionable stuff too and a ton of harmonics which make it tough to hear what fundamental pitch it's playing. this pretty much just does the same thing as the first 1:30 or so over and over. i think the initial drum groove is neat, and the variety of synths you use is fun, but overall there isn't much connected from section to section. the overall discordant sound palette is also a big problem and would need to be corrected. it also needs an ending. NO

track starts with some vocaloid elements over an orchestral backing part. i should admit i really didn't like this combo and it was an immediate turn-off for me. there's some kick and synths that come in soon after this and the track drives forward with a much more energetic edm feel. the melodic line comes in at 0:46 and it's quite loud compared to what's going on behind it, but overall has a Final Countdown kind of feel through here. the strings that get layered in eventually are really nice too. there's a break at 1:24 for a bit, and then the vocaloid parts come back in at 1:30. they sound much less out of place among the synthy elements of this section vs. the first part. there's a shift in the beat pattern at 1:57, which is a nice change, and the lead here is doing some fun stuff and has some nice vibrato on it. it's a touch shrill but i like how it cuts through. 2:28 brings back the first lead for some call and response work, and does some noodling around the melodic content. the glide on that first lead is nice and it shows here well. there's a significant climax at 3:48 and it drops off for a final (extended) build. the additional use of strings through this last section was nice and left me wishing there were more orchestral elements earlier in the work. 4:52 is the last big gasp (i wish this hit was a touch longer!), and then we just get a short fadeout of one of the backing synths. my personal feelings about the use of the synth voice aside, this is a fun track with a lot of energy. there's a great natural shape to the work, and a preponderance of source so no concerns there. part of me wished for a punchier mastering on the overall track to really get into the kick groove, but the way it is now really works nicely to keep it moving. nice work. YES

nearly 3dba of headroom. kick drum right off the bat sounds really weird - essentially no drum sound, just the beater without any bass. there's some sfx and the descending arpeggio in the background, and it does this for over a minute. there's some guitar that comes in at 1:05, and it doesn't appear to have any verb or room tone on it initially as compared to the backing parts. it's also much louder relative to what's in the background. this continues in the same slow, intense method until 2:05 or so. at 2:09 it switches to double time and is primarily a rhythm guitar pattern with some other stuff underneath, but the guitar crushes everything in terms of volume. there's some piano doing stuff that sounds reminiscent of the original but it's honestly hard to hear. this continues until 2:48 when it's back to being the original tempo. there's some guitar noodles above some synthy noodles, until we get a riding pattern from the guitar again at 3:18. this builds to a silence break before a brickwall transition at 3:55. the section at 3:55 continues to be all guitar. there's still no bass instrument let alone any bass tone in the kick, so it's still a bit top-heavy. it chugs through until it drops to half-time again at 4:28. it stays in this lower-energy groove until the track's end at 5:32. there's no real resolution there either, it just kind of ends. i think this track needs quite a bit of work still. i think the underlying concept - a patient, slow yet intense, expansive approach to the motivic elements of the original using heavier guitars - is definitely something that could work! there's some cool ideas here. however it's balanced very poorly throughout and there is a lot of noodling instead of intentional motivic development, so it's hard to really hear the original consistently. fixing the mastering of the individual instruments and adding a bass presence would also help ground the chords you're using which will subsequently help root what's going on in the original. NO edit 11/9: my vote will not change.

as with the other submissions i've heard from you, this is a fun idea! flute performance is appropriately charismatic in articulation and performance. i agree it's hard to hear and needs some compression on that channel specifically to control the natural variances in range vs. projection. the dulcimer combines well with the bass choice as well. 1:59 is a half-diminished vii7/V chord (flute and bass both playing a B#, melody plays F# G# A B under it), so it's technically not wrong. i think it's going to sound funky no matter what without the D# to flesh out the chord, so if you're not willing to do something there to add that into your melody line, it might not really work. as with a few of your other arrangements, this arrangement quickly runs out of legs. finding ways to extend your tracks beyond the "this is a cool idea but it's real short" stage would be great from a compositional technique standpoint for you. the repeating drums and the main instrument (in this case, dulcimer) doing pretty much the same thing for the whole song with no overarching dynamic shape is something that's come up before, and working through expanding that would be a huge benefit for future compositions. i agree with the other judges that the flute's range makes it hard to hear a lot, that there's some funky notes that don't sound right as-is, and that it doesn't quite have enough material and expansion of the themes to make this good yet. Some revisions would do a lot to improve the track. NO

twenty-six source tunes...!! starts with a pretty light beat with some funkish chords, and picks up quick at 0:15. the lead guitar sounds great as it filters in, especially layered with the backing synth line. the arpeggio at 0:47 is such a great idea with that clanky set of hats behind it - i love the sound. 1:22 got some snippets getting passed around and eventually lines up at 1:41 with the full band sound again. there's a wrong note in the guitar at 1:51 - wonder if that can be fixed in post - and then the texture thins out for a break for a bit. 2:13 the guitar comes back in, and the texture shifts to more sustains as opposed to the more angular opening sections. the fast arp comes back, this time with some automated panning, and it noodles through some more chord shifts until the whoile group is back in at 3:12. there continue to be a variety of effects on the iconic arp, until it drops and we get some more melodic playing on the guitar at 3:45. this plays through a bit and then it's done. the breadth of approach here is superb. there's a ton going on, as is expected, but the different timbres used and the variety of scope within the view of the work as a whole is great. excellent job. YES

at least four seconds of silence to start, and then it's absolutely slammed after that with a fade-in of all things. there is, at the jump, a lead synth, a bass synth, and the drums. drums sound like a loop as there's not much there besides a fill between sections. i don't hear anything that's not in the original in the synths outside of some embellishment of the riff at like 1:09 and 1:20. there's no pad to fill out the soundscape, essentially no personalization to the lead, the drums are on auto-pilot, the bass doesn't ever change, there's no breaks at all in the track, and there's no variety in sounds used. it does the main loop twice and then does a too-long fade-out. this needs a ton more arrangement for it to pass our arrangement standards. it's also clipping significantly in several places and needs actual mastering done as opposed to what's here. NO

can't find an original decision thread. i'll note that this is, to me, one of the most iconic final fantasy tracks of all time. it just nails the style an vibe so well. sfx to start. the lo-fi is strong in this one - it's really thin to start, but fleshes out a bit when lucas comes in. lucas's tone here is better than some other tracks, but not great. GotW's bass clarinet is fun to hear, but it's mic'd poorly - there's a lot more volume on lower pitches as the air column gets longer, indicating incorrect mic placement. there's also a completely gross unison with both instruments having bad tone as well as being wildly out of tune, and that's a deal-breaker right there especially when it could have been adjusted in audacity or something, not even expensive software. lucas picks up the B theme at about 1:15. the lack of vibrato really hurts his tone here. there's a solo section starting at about 1:46, and the shape of the solo is nice. it's still pretty honky throughout. GotW comes in and solos at 2:10, and the intonation throughout is rough, especially right at the beginning and another unison that's equally bad as before. 2:38ish the instrumentalists are done from the sound of it, and the track kind of just noodles along until it's done with some more sfx. i thought this ending highlights the thinness of the arrangement - the drums are pretty active actually, not really in style, and aside from that you've got a pad instrument and a guitar with no bass that i heard. this makes the intro and ending very thin and feel like they're missing something. i don't think this is up to our standards across the board. both lucas and GotW's performances have some notable flaws in intonation/timbre/execution, although i love the instrumentation choices and (for the most part) what they're playing. the backing part is simple to the point of too much, and the intro and outro both feel like they're missing stuff. NO

sfx until 0:22, and then some sustains for about 35s until we start to get some content. the themes shift through pretty fast, at least to my ears, but they do so in a way that doesn't feel overly medley-ish. the first several, for example, are more snippets and share instrumentation so they really feel like different aspects of the same thing. the overlapping combinations is a really key element to not making this feel like blocks of unfinished remixes mashed together. the themes really come together nicely throughout. this is an excellent arrangement job. the instrumentation choices are also fun - the obviously synthetic elements are modeled after real instruments which is a neat choice given the highly organic nature of the chosen theme. this is good stuff throughout. YES

cute idea. the opening is mostly sfx with some of the intro chords underneath, and it doesn't really coalesce until about 0:41. i agree with larry that the guitars initially felt pretty dry and not really in the same space as the drums, and the bass and lead synth felt somewhere else from those two as well. i think the volumization of these parts is at least partly responsible for that as the drums are really loud compared to everything else. there's a break at 1:36 that leans on the tritone a lot (i remember other tracks in this soundtrack having a heavy emphasis on the tritone too). this noodles a bit until it really doubles down on 2:17 and everything's back in. there's some choir added in as well which made me realize that the lack of pad elements in the earlier sections is part of why they felt kind of thin. the last 25 seconds or so are mostly sfx again, and it's done. this is well-realized and a strong initial concept. i think some of the mixing could be handled differently so it wasn't so drum-heavy, and some pad work would flesh out the soundscape in a few places, but overall this is a solid job. YES

big arena feel to the drums initially, with some similarly-big and wide synths to flesh it out. 0:37 did feel particularly treble-heavy - there's a bit spike around 2.5k that you may want to cut back on a bit. around 0:54 there's a backing line that comes in and is louder than the melodic line, which isn't a positive. around the shift at 1:12, i realized that the beat (which was novel initially) hadn't really changed yet, and it was becoming a bit stale. the combined section at 1:29 works from a melodic/harmonic standpoint. there is a lot going on, though, and it's hard to keep track of what's what. you may want to pare that section back a bit to make it make more sense aurally. there's a break at 1:47 with some sfx, and then the beat's back at 2:04 with fewer extra bits, so that's a nice change. 2:24 brings in more backing elements, and this is where it starts to get overly dense again - there's just too much going on. i can mostly hear everything, but it's difficult to figure out where my ears are supposed to go. the ending section is a no from me. i get where it's coming from, but the long tail on the notes, the lack of contextualization in how it's brought in and then realized, and the suddenness of it really doesn't work, and then the track's over with a sour taste in your mouth as a result. the mixing of the parts is mostly fine, but a lot of those synths are sitting in similar frequency shelves. i'd say some more specific EQing would help a ton, as well as trimming down some of the really wild freqs that are making it feel sharp and irritating to listen to. beyond that, some attention to decluttering and the ending would also be needed. NO