prophetik music

rexy's right that this doesn't have enough source. which is a shame, a little more source representation would have been enough to easily pass this. beyond that, here's my thoughts. initial presentation of the track is great. i love the triplet/french edm feel, and this is a good representation of it. i felt the first 55s or so were well paced, and didn't mind the progression to the first drop at 1:25. i do feel that it needed melodic content from the original track throughout this opening section - or, to be more precise, i need more thematic content in that early section. 1:37 is a good call out to the original but there needed to be a lot more content earlier on, which is definitely doable without sacrificing your nice opening additive progression. the smooth string synths at 1:25 were nice. the borrowed chords at about 1:40 sounded a bit funky because of their long tail, but it was nice, and moved into the mono synth arpeggio section. i liked this as a contrast but it was about twice as long as it probably should have been. bringing in the sweep and the backing synths at 2:17 were great, and a great build into 2:41. easily the best part of the mix. if anything i wanted this to bang a little harder, but the nature of this song's odd chord progression worked well with the beat you had. i also appreciated that you stuck with few sustain synths through this section and saved them for the end. that was a nice design choice. 3:17's sustained melody was a nice payoff for the end of the track. the outro isn't unexpected and was well-handled, with a smooth letdown. overall, this is a fun track that i enjoyed. my issue, like i said at the beginning, is that less than half of this is eminently tied to the original. there needs to be more representation of the source. i get that you don't want to get really complex with the chords since it's edm, but there's a ton of room to represent the melody and a countermelody without making the track sound one-dimensional. it'd be nice, for example, to hear some melody in the first minute and a half - even chunks of it, snippets here and there - to get a clearer picture of what track this will be ultimately. don't be disappointed by a 3N vote here. this is on the cusp. fix the lack of source and it's an easy pass for me. great work overall. NO

i am gonna rubber-stamp this one. i agree with rexy that there's not enough content here. the track itself is fun but there needs to be more representation of the original in order to meet our criteria. rexy gave a great breakdown on ideas for that, so i won't go into that here. from a production standpoint, the drums feel pretty thin. the kick doesn't have a lot of presence and doesn't cary anything, the cymbals don't have quite enough highs and aren't crisp enough to highlight the work you're doing with them, and the snare is really snappy and doesn't carry separate from the hats. beyond that, i felt your bass was pretty light as well - it's hard to hear throughout. i'm guessing you had some issues notching it in there next to the kick since they're in similar ranges. more snap on the kick will help make it clearer without requiring it to dominate that frequency range. aside from that, i thought the guitar sounded really great and it was just a touch dull for my tastes. i'd love to hear more highs on that as well to brighten it up. from a synthesis perspective, i like a lot of what you were doing, the arpeggiated line during the guitar solo for example was fun. i think overall i have similar complaints to the drums - they're pretty muddy since they're all in the same freq range. i'd try to notch them out a bit more, and that'll help a lot. as a side note, every time that echoed chippy synth comes in (it's the higher-pitched one at 0:13), i notice that it's not in the same key as everything else. it's ending on a non-chord tone which is distracting and sounds weird, which is disappointing because it's a fun sound. i'd take a look at the arpeggiator there and ensure it's hitting a chord tone so it doesn't sound weird. overall i liked the track but it needs some mastering love for sure. great first try though. NO

this is overall quiet and doesn't appear to have much compression applied. the intro is interesting - not my bag but i like the idea you're going for. once the track really picks up at 0:44, it's definitely nailing the r'n'b vibe you were going for. this is a pretty minimal arrangement up through 1:55, with some flourishes over a very close adaptation of the main track. the lead at 1:57 is fun if a bit loud for the background, and is well-played with some fun flips throughout. i don't mind the heavy emphasis on new content as the track moves on, since the original has so little melodic content. i felt the progression to that was pretty logical. from a timestamp perspective, at least half the song is using original content, so i don't have a problem there. overall, i think this is a fun track that accomplishes what it was going for. i thought the leads throughout were a bit loud but it doesn't detract from the quality of the overall track. we'll need to trim the tail but other than that this one is good by me. YES

hey ponks! i will pm you.

oh man, this track is boss! fantastic work. mastering is clean and on-point. performance is just what i expected seeing the names on the submission. the transitions were well-handled though i did find them a bit abrupt sometimes - that is, it's obvious this is a medley rather than a fully cohesive track, but what's here is good enough that i don't mind it. superb job. YES

i think up front my biggest issue with this is that it sounds like a lot of default sounds - like, you want a piano, so you grabbed a piano and didn't spend as much time as you could have with fitting it into the soundscape. with the electronic instruments you've got, the more realistic piano sound isn't quite as fitting. the big booming hits are also way too loud and serve to artificially reduce the volume of the rest of the track. some instrument-level work is needed here to fit everything together, and then some overall mastering with at least a multiband is needed to help get it into a cohesive package instead of how disjointed it sounds now. other than that, i'm just rubber-stamping this one. the first key change is fun and unexpected, but the arrangement overall is pretty basic if it's there at all, and the instruments and mastering really need some attention to make this approach postable work. i like the idea and the original's a great track to highlight, but it needs more from most angles right now. NO

agree with jive that the first couple bars of band sound are messy. the track quickly finds its footing and gets into a fun driving feel with some good lead playing. i thought the solo was pretty good and liked the feel that the performer had throughout that section. i agree again that at 2:09ish it got messy for a bar or two, but the band quickly found each other and kept it moving. i didn't like the band's sound overall - the lead sound is nice, but the drums are pretty dry and pretty cookie cutter, and the rhythm guitar felt like an afterthought for at least half the track. there was also a lot of mid and not a lot of highs that i noticed, which also hurt the overall package IMO. this is a fun idea, but needs some mastering move. get rid of some of the mess in the mids, fix the timing issues, and vary up and spend some time on the drums (i think a more garage-y sound would work really well here actually, and less hyper-real studio tone), and that'll help the fun arrangement shine through better. NO

the opening reminded me of vampire hunter dan's CC remix. the winds atop the harpischord and flourishes were really nice. there's some real bad samples in here, or at least used in clumsy ways. the strings in the right ear at 0:14 (heavily in the right ear, almost uncomfortably so) are very clumsy, and the subsequent trumpet at 0:33 sounds real poor. the harpischord sound is really nice, though, and the writing is very idiomatic. when it drops out at 0:59 is notable, but the writing is nice still outside of that incessant right ear string octaves that just never stop. aside from that, there's some good variance of the melodic instrument, and the feel continues to be moving forward without feeling hurried or blase. the ending arrives quickly but isn't uncomfortable. i felt overall this was a quiet mix, which is unfortunate since there was some fun nuances going on that are hard to hear at normal volume. other than that, though, the main issue i found was that the right side is very heavy, and the constant octaves in the cello (?) don't help at all. ultimately this is a nice track that is ruined by balance. i think this is pretty close but i can't pass it like this - fixing the balance issues so that the right side isn't so loud and spreading the love on that octave cello line that's through most of the song would dramatically improve the overall product. NO

i'm going to stamp this one as well. the chord progression after 0:35 isn't even from the original, let alone the melodic content or background. it's a beautifully scored track for at least the first two thirds, delicate and a lot of tempo nuance and volumization which is nice, but there just isn't near enough source. there's also a few uncanny-valley issues around 1:55 in the exposed voices that continues to the end of the track - those parts just need more support than what's there. it's also way, way quiet, much quieter than a 3.5db peak implies. NO

the band mastering as a whole just jumps out of the speakers right up front. love the band sound, it's a great tone. i'm not a fan of the flange on the lead, though, since it loses a lot of power from having a bunch of the highs cut out. there's also little verb and no delay/chorus/reinforcement on it, which makes the more rhythmic style less impactful and makes it sound less powerful. from an arrangement perspective, there's not a ton here. there's very little of the personalization of the melody line, chord structure, drums, etc. that we expect from the transition between a chip track to a band setting. there needs to be notable levels of arrangement to make it over the bar. i'll add that Little Mac's track is so simplistic by itself that the fact that there's two originals being included in this doesn't make me more impressed with the arrangement, since it's essentially tacked on the end to make the track make it past two minutes before the ending sustain. while i don't think the lead sounds great in this track, the arrangement of the actual songs beyond the transition to rock is sadly lacking in this one. there'd need to be a ton more personalization and arrangement before a track this short would be able to make it over the bar. NO

agree about the brickwall sound. the initial presentation is definitely pretty straightforward with some personalization (feels a little stardew valley, doesn't it?), but it quickly goes into a much bigger-feeling second half of the melodic content, with some fun sound design going on. i like the pickup at 0:42ish where we get the double-time beat. the vox at 1:14 fun, and you do a good job keeping the feel of the original under a bunch of new ideas. the guitar solo is super fun (if a bit of a sharp tone), and you do a nice job sitting on the altered chord tones that make Pokemon music fun. nice cameo to the main theme at 2:13. 2:39 is a great build towards the end, and the end delivers with some fun combinations of previous ideas. so the arrangement is great and i love the attention to sound design throughout. the ending is a fun homage to the original's timbre. i agree that there's lacking dynamics where it's not clearly delineated by section breaks due to the brickwall sound, and it can be a bit tiring, but the variations that do show up are appreciated. the track is clear and it's obvious what's going on where. if anything there's a bit too much going on occasionally, but it doesn't get muddy that i noticed. this is an easier vote for me. i found the arrangement to be great and the mastering to not hold the track back (although the low ceiling is certainly contributing to the loudness throughout). YES

right off the bat, there's some really verdant soundscape design, and some excellently personalized playing (love the falloff at 0:31, so well done). this is all very idiomatic of the whistles you're imitating. i did notice your vibrato occasionally would slow down to the point where it was distracting (1:03 for example) and not the spinning, singing tone you were going for, but that was an off and on thing, not consistent, and i know picc vibrato can be real difficult to keep consistent. the string swells around 1:07ish really help to support that more rhythmic section. that's a nice contrast that sounded great right away. the subsequent mallets and bells at 1:35 onward were really nice, a great compliment to the melody part. bringing in the low flute at 2:00 was just the change we needed there, as it was kind of feeling samey at that point. beautiful rich tone that is well-recorded and performed. overall the arrangement is enough to get it over the bar. i'd love to hear you really personalizing the melodic content in future mixes, since you obviously have the chops to play it. i'd also love to hear you explore more altered tonalities - this one in particular could have really benefited from some modified chords under the melody to spice it up and keep it from feeling too much the same throughout. track is quiet and probably could have used a bit more compression besides, but it's solid and a louder max is easy to do. this is a great first track. nice work. a cleaner fade at the end and some extra amp to bring up the track's overall volume, and this is an easy vote. CONDITIONAL (on the end fade being a real fade, and louder master). update 10/28: the volume was brought up and the ending faded as i asked. the tail's too long now (needs like 5s taken off) but that's easy to handle. this is a YES.

classic original track here. let's hear it. i like the concept. the intro is real atmospheric. there's some great tone and it sounds great. the chugs are also really meaty and heavy, which is fun, but it's at the expense of most everything else. i realize this is a stylistic choice, but it's real muddy sounding. i've heard a lot of really heavy stuff that isn't nearly as clogged as this is. the background instrumentation isn't particularly interesting either - if it's not exactly the same as the original it's pretty close, and the leads in the guitars are less leads and more color tones on top of the AK47s in the rhythm guitars. i'm sounding negative and it's not intentional. i do love metal arrangements of classic game tunes, and there frankly isn't much going on in the original outside the driving rhythm that keeps it moving forward and making you feel the urgency of the mission in-game. i do think that the arrangement here is enough, but it's borderline at best - there's not a ton of originality outside of the transition to the metal ensemble. the mastering is heavy to the ultramax, and that's actually to the detriment of the overall track since you're just totally overwhelming what could be some very powerful drums. however you can still hear everything at least a little, so it's not like the mastering is destroying the mix, just not enhancing it like it could. i'm pretty torn on this one. i need to wait on it a bit before i vote. ??? edit: the rhythm guitars are just too loud. the balance is not good enough. the last third or so is particularly egregious. gonna call it. NO

whoa, what a style change. arrangement is clear and over the top in terms of fulfilling the guidelines. there's a ton of attention paid to ensemble work here. i especially liked the call and response portion early on. a common issue we find with jazz tracks is that it'll be a great adaptation of the head and then ten minutes of ramen before we get back to the melodic content, and that's not the case here. there's a ton of examples of melodic content throughout, and it's showing through in the solo work. a few of the solos are a little less directed than you might want but overall the quality's high and the instrumentalists do a nice job playing their instruments and recording them in a way that sounds decent. props to the soprano sax player making the palm E at 2:43 sound like a real note that was in tune and not a death screech. i did find the piano playing to be pretty blah after a while, but that's fine because it's way in the back and was essentially just a fancy rhythmic pad for the duration of the song. the production is definitely a bit of a sticking point. the live instruments themselves all sound pretty good, and the spacing is done well. i like what the bass is playing, but found it very difficult to hear - the tone is much more of a rock sound vs. a brighter, dry sound i'd expect to hear from an electric bass playing jazz. i'd recommend listening to pastorius or some of those guys to get an idea of just how bright and alive a jazz bass tone should be. you can barely here this one ultimately, and that's too bad since it's playing some real fun stuff. the drums are definitely too roomy as well, and don't fit into the soundscape defined by everything else. you kept them back more though which was needed. ultimately i think the productions good enough, but a more realistic mastering of the drums, and some clarification on the bass would have really helped it out a lot. this is a fun track with great ideas. the mastering of the backing parts isn't great but the overall track is fun and quickly recognizable as the original. great job here. YES

this game is without question one of the funniest game dev stories i've ever heard. the idea that Wisdom Tree was going to do a Hellraiser game is by itself so silly, and the actual story/gameplay of S3NA is equally silly. wolfenstein means carl the camel, with sleeper watermelons. like what? the intro is so huge, i love it. guitars and bass sound great throughout, meaty without being cheesy or feeling fake. the drums are solid and do a good job of keeping it moving without allowing what's ultimately a slower song to drag. the super-lowered vox are a funny adaptation of the 'original' (as in, the Bible) that isn't too obnoxious. in terms of arrangement, the original doesn't have much at all beyond the initial riff represented in the guitar chugs and a bit of sustained lines up higher. this track does a nice job with expanding what's there in a stylistically interesting way without ever getting very far from the original. i wouldn't say that there's a lot of exploration here, but what is here is enough, and there's a clear progression throughout the song that continues to add energy and build towards a solid ending. this sounds great. i look forward to seeing dave's writeup on this one =) YES

wow, this just sounds fantastic. i love the fat vibe going on throughout. it really fills up the soundscape. the constant varied breaks every 4-8 bars is great too, just a ton of attention paid to each section. the energy throughout is also great and i love how it keeps pushing forward. honestly this is just a great mix and everything i want to say is echoing what the others have said. nice work. YES

hoooooooo boy. i'm going to start off with saying that there's not enough arrangement or interpretation here to call this a remix. so it's going to get NO'd from that. the arrangement is essentially two or three times through the melody with some background movement. it has no supporting structure to prop that up, and it isn't transformational enough by itself to stand on its own. so that's not there. this is an extremely explorational arrangement that features some great technique-driven composition, and isn't afraid of really settling into the story behind the music. i really like the significant attention paid to rhythmic elements throughout - you've got a ton of interesting polyrhythms in here with how you're layering duple and triple meter alongside the deconstructive/detuning elements. it makes for a track that feels really thrown together at first but then comes together on repeated listenings. i also really like the hyper-compressed sharper synths that come in right at 1:00. it's a huge contrast to the supersaw you're using for the main body of the mix and it adds a lot of vibrancy to the sound. the entire 'big' section is pretty interesting and i love the sfx and timbres you're able to pull out of everything. sitting on the fake static at 1:55 is also a pretty big leap of faith as well but i really enjoyed the timbral changes throughout to the ending section. my biggest complaint is that it just isn't long enough. if this was ten minutes long (yes, ten!), and featured some more transformational arrangement, while still maintaining the cyclical identity you talk about in your intro writeup, this is probably a yes from me. the level of exploration and development shown in barely three minutes is great. i think that really, really pressing into the identity you have created here and using a level of subtractive arrangement that you see in, like, strobe (deadmau5) with your instrumentation would make something so incredibly unique and moving. as it is, the arrangement precludes me from OKing it. but there's a lot of opportunity here. NO

you can add at least steam, xbl, and psn to your OCR account as well.

i'd love to participate. these have always been fun.

love the backstory, really fun idea. very creative. i love this source since it's one of the first original tracks i ever remixed. the intro is really atmospheric, and i like the feel of how latent the energy is. i think the synth stacks lend a lot of power to that section. the addition of distortion over time is a fun idea too. the transition to metal was handled fine and the melody is still apparent. the mastering in this section is clear and sounds good. next a shift to 12/8 and electronica. you continue to play with the melody here, which is fun, and i like the detuning to keep it weird. i found the three-step feel to be a nice shift as well to make it more yours. and then a vintage The Algorithm funky stylistic transition, utilizing both distorted kick and a time change to clearly delineate between the sections without making it take too long. i love this transition, it's really well handled and does a good job getting back to the balls of the arrangement without dawdling in transitional territory. 2:56 onward is just a rip-roaring power-metal tribute to what's honestly a really intense and driving theme despite the quiet dynamic of the original. bringing in some sustains in the guitar at 3:26 is a great idea (that i used in Facies Templum fifteen years ago!) to add interest to a source that doesn't have much of a melody. 4:13's gating (obviously post) is another big Algorithm shoutout, and i like that you didn't gate the drums too, but let them ring. the ending is kind of sudden but i like the fadeout into glitches again. it kinda just ends, but the nature of the original doesn't naturally lend itself to anything other than a fadeout so i don't think it's as egregious as it could be. this is a great track in a technical, asymmetrical style that i think really fits VGM as a whole. there's little in terms of melodic content that this original track brings on its own, so the work that's done here really demonstrates and emphasizes the underlying movement and force that makes this original so interesting. YES

@Liontamer @Gario @MindWanderer Please take another look at this one!

oh snap! i love that you fixed your music by expanding your diet of synths to be more nutritious and less empty calories! that joke was a bit of a stretch. intro is super epic. i'm a sucker for gated synths, and i love the build and interplay between the glide synth and the tutti strings. the track continues to build for over a minute and a half before we hear the actual melody, and then we get the beat finally. the beat and bass sound real good, but the rhythm guitars are obviously sampled as is the lead. this is really showcased at 2:21ish where the rhythm guitars sound really artificial, notably in how they're gated. the breakdown at 3:00 is nicely timed and executed. i really like the combo of faster strings and synth that's used to transition back to the chorus at 3:09 onward. the solo at 3:22 is solid, if obviously sequenced. it's a shame we can't get live guitar on this, as the energy would be face-melting. the ending is an interesting fadeout that ends on a V and does a pretty good job bringing down the energy without just ending. the mastering throughout is real clean. i can hear each instrument without a problem and the orchestral parts cut through where they're supposed to. overall this is a fun track with a lot of energy and a nice take on a good original track. i would love to hear live guitars, but it's not enough to hold this one back. YES

oh, that's a nice vibe when everything comes in at 0:28. the crunchy synths are fun to hear. there's some significant subbass going on too which is also really smooth. i didn't feel like the background or bass competed with the leads, so that might be more speaker/headphone dependent. it is significant so bass-boosted headphones would probably bark a lot at that. like jive i really like the digital glitchiness, and i think it adds a lot to listen to on subsequent listens. the drums are indeed fairly straightforward, it doesn't sound there's a lot of consistent change-up there but they're doing what's needed to keep it moving. i did really like at 2:45 when it really got big. this is an easy vote. the track oozes interesting things to hear alongside a good adaptation of the original. nice work. ending is a cutoff so that does need to get fixed, easy enough. YES (conditional on fixing ending) edit: updated ending is a go. YES

my original complaints were around the security hall theme usage, volumization, and the last minute or so. let's see what's changed. the security hall section is 100% better and still sounds like the original despite being significantly different from a note perspective. so that's great. i think the saws in the section at 1:34 is still too loud but it's much better than it was before. the ending is significantly better than it was before - there's more thought into what's where and how it dovetails together, which is great. i like the callbacks to earlier sections as well, it really ties the piece together. you did the things that i said would earn a positive vote from me, so here it is =) YES

interesting idea for a track here. there's a weird timing thing in the accordion right off the bat,and some timing around 0:13 that's a little off. but i love the entrance of the guitar, and the subsequent folk elements and how they balance into everything. i think there's more than enough arrangement here throughout even discounting the solo (which is awesome!). overall, there's some timing elements that come up here and there - usually guitars rushing and settling back in after a few seconds. the drums are pretty straightforward and you can only really hear the kick and snare, but that's not unexpected for the style. that said, the mastering is pretty consistent and i can always hear what i'm supposed to be hearing, so i think that this is easily over the bar. YES