prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

intro sounds good. there's a simplified version of the melody, and then it cuts to the initial melodic content at 0:41. there's a no-bass playthrough of the melodic content, and then everything's together at 1:08 - over half the track has been essentially intro content. the play-through of the melody with everything going is fine, and there's some new stuff at 1:35, which is welcome (but doesn't seem to have the same reverb and room presence as the rest of the track). the melody, bass, and drums are all copypasta from 1:08 though. then the track very suddenly ends at not quite 2:10 in duration. a few thoughts: this is a very, very short track. a true breakdown section where the beat is totally different, the synths change, and the approach changes would be well-suited to breaking up the track and providing dynamic contrast. the synth lead is fine initially, but not changing it the entire track is tiresome. mixing that up or layering in additional (more distinct, less fuzzy) leads would help a lot. this is a short melodic snippet. there's room for transitions, new chords, and new interpretations of the melody without adding too much bulk to the track. the arrangement on this one holds it back a lot. it's essentially half intro and half repeated copypasta. adding in a lot more variation to your counterpoint and synth work would help a ton. NO

about 3db headroom, artificially from the looks of it. neat initial hit at 0:10. the bass is pretty obviously fake right away and the quant on the drums feels really rigid, but the keys feel great right away. brass comes in at 1:21, and it sounds great as well. the rhythmic echoes in the rhodes behind the brass stuff is a great accent. the piece plods some from 1:50 to about 3:00, since the guitar, bass, and drums mostly do the same thing the whole time, but adding in some brass stabs helps. the abrupt transition at 3:00 is unsupported, but it's good to get away from the first several minutes since they were pretty repetitious. there's some really fun sound design in the last minute, although most of it is an extended fade. this is a neat idea and executed competently. i'm not as effusive as emu but i think this is a pass. YES

there is a ton of clipping reported by my daw, although it's not immediately audible. this is has a hip vibe and feels great initially. the copypasta is not good since it's like 1/5th of the track length that's repeated. the solo break at 1:11 is dope, and it goes back to the main theme well. the ending is kind of blah. ultimately, the nice solo break doesn't cover that there's too much here that's essentially the original transcribed. there's not enough 'transformative arrangement' to pass. if it was longer and the remainder wasn't the first minute, i'd be good, but as-is, it's too little System Glow and too much Hirasawa. NO

this is a really insightful idea that i've never considered. i recognized the consistent flex of time but didn't really intuit how much it mattered until i'm thinking about it now.

very loud intro and overall mastering. there's not really any volume variance here. the reedy bass instrument is neat, but is quite loud and covers up a lot of some of the fun nuanced background parts. it's actually the loudest thing throughout the entire track. i think that the balance is misprioritized. there's a break at 1:55 that is welcome, but the bass arp is just as loud as before so it's even more in the forefront. it's a neat synth but isn't saying stuff that's that important. around here i realized just how repetitive the first two-thirds of the track was, as the break was just what was needed. i am really liking the bosh beat 3+3+2 vibe that this has going on throughout. it's a catchy feel and helps drive the arrangement forward. i also like the various flutey synths and how they're used - they're just very quiet. the lack of an ending is disappointing at best. i'm sounding pretty critical, but i do enjoy the track and what you've done with it. i think it's over the bar but could have been a much better overall track with some more sensitive mastering and variation in what worked in the last third. YES

i'm hearing a lot of the same issues with the last track of yours i judged (Pixelman X). there is a lack of personalization and transformative arrangement for each track - they're just transcribed with the slightest bits of change here and there, with no thought to a cohesive whole. there's the same transitional synth used repeatedly (and it is not an enjoyable sound, it's not even in the right key half the time). there's the same synth leads used for each song, which gets fatiguing even if it was a strong arrangement. the drums are bog-standard and boring. the mastering is loud and aggressive and to the detriment of the track. the ending is a fadeout with a poor volume curve so there's a cutoff still at the end that's very auditble. total lack of QC there. any of the above issues are enough for me to not pass this. all of them together shows a lack of feedback gathering and application. please use the workshop to get feedback, and act on that feedback. this is a disappointing track to listen to since we've heard some great stuff from you in past submissions - this just feels extremely unfinished. NO

extremely hot intro. the orchestral taikos/toms are absolutely overwhelming the poor limiter. there is a lot of pumping on the intro section. there's a significant tonal shift at 0:31, and the subsequent instrumentation is fun but also very loud. there's some personalization in that next 30 seconds, although not a ton. there's a 'break' section at 1:09 or so, and we get another playthrough of the melodic content...and then there's a (also very loud) harpsichordy outro, and that's that. rubber stamping gario here. this is a great tech demo but there's another minute or two of mix missing. NO

seven tracks in three minutes? this better be incredible. the initial synth is not enjoyable to listen to as anything other than a pad with an lfo filter on it. the kick is big and fat, but the associated bass instrument sounds pretty weak, and the rest of what the drums are playing is essentially a loop for each individual track. there are no transitions, little to no changes for each theme, only one run-through of the melodic content for each theme, the same transition sound for many of the transitions...at least there's a break at 2:18 with some (one) new instruments. oh man, and there's even a fadeout for an ending! i think paneling this one was pretty generous. this needs a ton of work on the arrangement side. functional transitions, transformative arrangements of each work, and some new synth choices are a must. this is on autopilot way too much to be considered. NO

gonna add a note here - The Note is absolutely a 'real' one. it's a harmonic and used regularly in violin works. in fact i'd even go so far as to say that using it to end a phrase that's trailing off is standard for the instrument. this link has great examples of a ton of them, particularly the entry from Firebird: https://www.quora.com/What-classical-pieces-have-examples-of-good-usage-of-natural-or-artificial-harmonics-on-violin

some fun FMy intro synths with lots of action going on. the initial melodic presentation is in a shorter synth that's fairly generic. this is followed by several lead changes in a very short period of time. there's a quite loud transitional effect at 0:56, and some more lead changes, and the main track feels like it starts at 1:17. the lead here has some variety in what it's playing, although the hornet lead again feels randomly chosen and not really suited to what it's playing. there's more changes (is that an oboe?) and then it kinda just ends, until it doesn't for one last chord, and then it's done. this feels pretty scattered, both in terms of the cohesiveness (or lack thereof) implied by the leads, and in terms of where you're trying to go with the arrangement. you've got some personalization in the melodic content, which is great, but your constantly changing synth choices and lack of percussive elements until much later in the piece make the first half feel disjointed and the second half feel incomplete. i recommend, as MW said, identifying a style and sticking with it until you're comfortable enough with the rules to understand when breaking them is a good idea. i'd also suggest hitting up the workshop for some more assistance on iterating your remixes instead of just waiting for us to get to them ? NO

two similar sources. intro with pads and guitars is nice. the chords have a lot of complexity and passing tones naturally, so it's nice hearing the dissonances highlighted. the arpeggiated guitar parts starting at 0:54 are nice also, continuing to outline the chord structure from the original. the use of pads with a vocal component is also nice since it reflects the organ in the original (and the overall Renaissance music concepts shown throughout the game). at about 2 minutes in, i still have only really heard the melodic content once, which is great patience. the first big hit at 2:17 is just as fulfilling as expected. it's very heavy down low, as expected from the style, with a big push on the the 100-200hz band which is probably why it feels a little more oppressive than i'd expect. the kick especially is extra boomy, sounds like there's more verb on the entire kit than you may want given the technicality of what the kit's doing. as one does, we get like a minute straight of blastbeat under the lead guitars playing melodic content. there's a break at 3:41 for some arpeggiated lead parts. this builds back up to 'just' 16th-note double kick but ultimately does start to scale back into a break that lasts until the 5 minute mark - again, impressive patience with the arrangement. the break at 4:35 has a real post-rock feel to it. at 5:01, we get Garland's theme coming in and the unique chord progression that is that track's hallmark at 5:20. this bangs its way through the chord structure a few times at varying levels of intensity before another break at about 6:24. the instrumentation here is a clear callback to the second minute of the piece, and is a good setup for the last ~1:30 which is intense in parts even considering the rest of the track. there's a real post-rock vibe here especially at about 7:20, with the lead guitar's tone sounding like it's doubled by the earlier synth lead. i didn't find the overall mastering to be problematic. honestly, i thought this did a great job keeping melodic material clear and able to be recognized, and didn't have the drums so overwhelming that it took over the soundscape. it's certainly noisy and low-mid dominant but not enough for me to vote against it. i notably didn't feel fatigued at the end of 8 minutes of track, of which probably five are audio sausage, so that's pretty impressive all told. i think that you absolutely achieved your goal here. you wanted a melancholy, broody, intense track, and you accomplished that. nice work. YES

intro has some fun bell-like stuff going on, and almost immediately gets some real funky filtering applied. at 0:40 what you might call 'the beat' hits, and the melodic content is a little too quiet to hear what's going on there, but it's still funky and fun to listen to. there's a hard cut at 1:28 with some more heavy filtration. some real neat effects as a result are shown. this builds towards about 2:01, which has some neo-downtempo bass effects going on alongside a...heavily effected trash cymbal as a hi-hat and a tom as a snare? this is incredibly unique. what a neat soundscape. this drops off again at about 2:32 and moreso at 2:41. there's an extended filter-heavy outro with some metallic, shimmery vox pads representing essentially the first real chord blocks in the entire track, and then a single recap to then initial bell tones in the original key to show how far you've gone. this is amazing. the nuance to sustain such quiet energy without ever really using any traditional-sounding instruments is great, and the command demonstrated to handle all these filters with such careful gradation is impressive and repeatedly demonstrated. YES

hard to imagine a better pairing of game tone and intro track as this. FF9's intro track is close but nothing quite captures the wistfulness of FFX's story like the melody of this track. i respect very much your approach to this arrangement. violin and cello tone are obviously sampled (and way louder than the piano), but you have taken excellent care to realize them appropriately. 1:10 is lovely. the extra space you've added in timing is appreciated throughout. there's a few times it's a bit much but overall i like letting the melodic content breath more. 2:05 surprised me since it's essentially the first time that the arrangement strays from the original. the richer tone gained by using the lower range here is great. the doublestops in the violin are probably not super attainable by one player, but still a neat idea. adding the initial melodic lick in the cello under the C theme in the violin at 2:55 is superb work. 3:10's harmonic is a great idea and sounds great. i didn't think it was too loud, it's idiomatic and handled well. this is indeed a conservative arrangement overall, from the perspective of what the original has and what's included here. i'd argue however that the contrapunctal additions and especially the performance nuances added via space, timing, and tempi changes are very much transformative. i am absolutely shattered that we're not getting a live version of this by three players in the same room (or maybe four, all told), which i think would be just incredible, but as it is this is excellent and well above my bar throughout. YES

instrumentation quality isn't good enough to pass. there's certainly enough here to at least talk through arrangement and technical aspects. intro is pretty straightforward, maybe not as idiomatic to the horn (?) as it could be. there's some nice reinforcing of backing parts once the rest of the bandcomes in. don't fall into the trap that every instrument should be playing simultaneously! it's ok to let some parts stay out as you craft the backing parts. there's some nice harmonies at 0:52, great soaring line. there's a shift at 1:04 that eventually ends on an adjacent minor. i like this shift, but would have liked to see more during that transitional period that allowed the arrangement to have some dynamic contrast. an extended transition that lasted maybe 30 seconds would give the subsequent big blow in minor some contrast. there's some extra rhythmic elements in the low brass around 1:24 that i loved. there's another big build after this to a very heroic theme. at this point we're most of the way through the track with the trumpets leading the charge for nearly the whole thing. this is where dynamic contrast really helps a lot with giving the listener new things to listen to. if one of the previous instances of melodic content was in the winds with less backing brass, the trumpets here would be a welcome return to the original lead instruments, instead of yet another instance of the same thing being played. at 2:00 we get the melodic content in major again, and that sounds great. there's some noodling to get us to the ending, and an abrupt but not unexpected ending. overall you've got some great arrangement ideas going on here! the next step is branching out in the instrumentation you're using. there are a ton of free options out there that will give you much more realistic instrument samples, and in turn will improve your overall product a lot. you could also consider working with someone who has a working set of samples and ask them to help realize your orchestration. NO

rubber stamping this. overall, the balance seems to be in the right ear more heavily, and i also didn't like the audience noise or the extended ending. that said, it's a fun take with some cute personalization that call out to other parts of the CT soundtrack. YES

classic theme. the frenzied energy is always so recognizable. first thing i noticed is that this is mastered really loud. the second thing i noticed is that it's essentially kick/bass in the way lows and then all the synths way above those bass instruments. there's not much in the middle of the track. a glance at the freq analysis reveals that there's a ton of sub-40hz content, like 10hz is louder than essentially any other band above 100hz. so a rolloff is desperately needed. there is some clipping according to my audio program (looks like it's mastered to +1.6!), but i didn't hear it specifically. my initial impression of the arrangement was that this was essentially a straight adaptation with a beat under it and little changing in the melodic or harmonic content. the more i listened to it, the more i realized that fungist added a lot of little blurbs and bits to fill in some of the less dense rhythmic areas of the original. there was also some rhythmic adaptation done (1:18 feels really, really stuttered) but i didn't care for it since it was only done in a few places and just felt incorrect vs. an intentional change. there's a fun 'break' at about 2:04 that's essentially a solo section, and i liked the attention to the original's style there. after that's a big shout section to bring the track through to the end, and a quick outro. this is a competent arrangement. the mastering is big and loud but doesn't sound bad despite the clipping. bring it down to -0.x rather than +1.6 and this is a pass by me. i don't think that adjusting your limiter will take that long (or just dropping in a rolloff so it's not so much sub content) so this is a conditional. CONDITIONAL

i love this original. one of the first MMX tracks i ever arranged. interesting opening idea. after that it's a cover for minutes (plural). it's not even different synths, and it's mastered worse with the heavy verb exacerbating volumization issues and a heavy focus on the pads in the background over the stuff in front. the other Js say what's needed to be said beyond here. i'll note that, once you add some more personalization and arrangement to this that isn't just realizing the original song, i'd suggest spending time in the workshop getting feedback. hearing others opinions on your work can only long-term benefit you - even if those opinions are bad or flat-out wrong, it helps train your inner ear for how others hear your music. i'd highly encourage you to put this in the workshop and get some other perspectives on it once you've addressed some of the things mentioned above. edit: as a note, i was rejected thirteen times before getting a track through the panel (my mixes before that were direct posts). most of this was because i didn't care what others thought about my music and figured i was the best perspective on it. it's...not a great way to make music! ? NO

i voted NO on the original submission after a lot of deliberation. i complained about the dense mastering, too-tight arrangement that didn't allow sections to really develop and breathe, and a missing ending. this has a real 2001 OCR vibe to it. the fat squelchy bass, the kick with little attack and super-verbed square, the nearly-static-sounding hats, and the synth guitar and vox pad all are super early FL sounding to me, in a nostalgic way. i still think the big ensemble parts sound really too dense. there's a ton of sub-40hz content in the mix and a big peak at 70hz, interestingly enough. i can't point to one thing that makes it feel so dense, but i think at least turning down the vox pad a bit and massaging the kick tone some will help lighten up the tone. the arrangement has a lot of noodling and space added which i liked a lot. i think the drums are pretty rote outside the fills, but the additional attention paid to making the leads both sound more interesting and say more interesting things shows through. there's a functional ending now too which is good. i think that this is still held back by the mastering, unfortunately. i don't know that i can offer a ton of commentary about how to fix it specifically - i'll leave that up to some of the other Js - but it just still sounds so dense despite there being obvious effort to handle the drums especially. NO

oh, i love the intro. feels a lot like a few of OA's past remixes. 0:21 when everything comes in, the chugs are initially too loud. giving it some stereo depth might help keep it present without making it overwhelmingly loud. in later sections (like at 0:46) it's not quite as bad, so maybe some timing-specific volumization is all you need. i also wouldn't mind some more doubling to give it more depth. for the drums, the snare is overall really loud, has a lot of drum sound, and isn't quite as snappy as i'd expect to hear for the style, and the kick especially has way too much high beater sound and not enough sub presence or even lower beater tone. some significant and intentional EQing on both the snare and kick will give them much more body without requiring them to be the only thing in the middle of the mix. the bass's attacks are essentially inaudible as well, although the presence is there. there's a decent break around 1:26, a really dramatic break at 1:46, and the machine-gun snare fill into a final blow to end it on a tape stop. it's barely 2 minutes. from an arrangement perspective, it's not long enough to do what you want. there needs to be another 30 seconds to give you the time to tape together some of your ideas into a coherent whole. one thing that can help with that would be more intentionality regarding personalizing the melodic line. even adding harmony on a last blow-through of the melody would add a ton. i'm not in either MW or LT's camps - i think that there isn't much arrangement here outside of the silliness in the last third, but i also don't think what has been done is too little to measure. you've done a lot to adapt it to the style, and really it just needs some more Treyt to really put a stamp on it. so, to recap - spend some time broadening and volumizing your rhythm guitar parts and EQing your kick and snare, for starters. i would also look at your leads and see about adding more personal touches to the overall arrangement. in a very short piece like this, even altering a few chords on one melody goes a long way. consider adding a solo break or some other expansion to the existing arrangement to give it more meat. NO

love the fretless bass in the original. that's a fun entrance. MW called out the fanfare audio clip, so i'll just reinforce that. this is a fun idea. the original had a lot forward direction, so this is a natural translation to add drums and bright synths. overall there is a lot of 'noise' in the track, mostly added by mid-range synths and pads that need less reverb and more EQ work to make them fit. limiting the ocean drone sound will help a lot with that. the drums are very static (although the initial loop is fun), and need more variety to keep them interesting. the arrangement is also very conservative - there needs to be more variety to what you're presenting. you go there a bit around 2:10, but there needs to be more Karim and less original composer in this. this is neat, but it needs a lot of workshopping to pass. NO

intro is a fanfare through the chords, with some immediately glitchy/riffy melodic material. the drums come on at 0:33 and as MW said, the snare's really loud. the mix goes straight through the initial descending melodic line straight out of the track, but then adds more harmony and runs around the one minute mark. there's some noodling and arpeggiation to drive it forward, and then more of the glitchy stuff at about 1:30. there's a ritard at 1:42 and break, and we're in a rhythmically complex section that goes through the descending melodic material using the attack of the synths to keep the drive going. there's a recap of the initial fanfare at 2:22, and the track uses this as an outro. there's a lot of complexity added here. i don't feel like this kind of 8.5-bit approach really touches some of the chiptune tracks that other big name artists have put out - volumization is critical for this type of track and the balance isn't really there throughout - but i think the arrangement is interpretive enough, and the lead choices sound fine. i feel like megalovania's excellent melody carries this more than the remixer's work, but what's here is just over the bar in my opinion. YES (megaloborderline)

what an interesting idea. initial presentation is clearly the original with some drums. the lead is kinda iffy here to me. the detuning LFO is a little slow for me. 0:55 starts to introduce some more meat to the drums and the hit at 1:06 finally gives us some bass. the audio sausage really hits at 1:13 and is a fun adaptation of the melodic content. the mix feels slightly empty in the middle ground between the bass and leads and this does persist for most of the track. there's some chippy arp stuff around 2:10 and we hit our first break at about 2:23. melodic content is still clear here. there's an extended build to a new feel with some fat square basses hitting at 3:02. this also feels empty in the middle - there's not much i can hear that's not the bass/drums or the lead. there's a drop and a hit at 3:30, and this isn't as clearly based in the original as the rest of the material. This is more motivic in approach, but we get back to the melodic content again closer to 4:00. the outro is extended and kind of blah. i found myself expecting the track to end almost a minute before it did. i agree that this track as a whole has some structural choices demonstrated that felt weird. it's a bunch of different ideas that are implemented effectively, but i never said "wow, this is the sound i was really waiting for". there's always a missing pad, or the drums sound a bit fudgy, or the melody doesn't make sense as much. i also think not changing up the leads at least a little bit throughout was a mistake - even pendulum will change octaves for their leads or filter them occasionally to mix it up. there's not many examples of that here. all that said - the track overall is produced and mastered very well. everything's clear that should be, even when things get glitchy and weird. and the arrangement itself is great, going all over the place and exploring a lot of stuff that the original doesn't even touch. so that's neat. overall i think this passes. i just with there was more body to the big hits in it. YES

big sfx initially and the aforementioned pads. drums come in at 0:30 and remind me a lot of something off of the Pyre soundtrack with the laid-back feel combined with plectral stuff and a slidey synth lead. the string pad doesn't sound very strong, i can agree with that. the drums are on autopilot for a while until maybe 1:35 with a few tom fills. this loops through the melodic line twice. there's a change-up in the drums and bassline at 1:57. at this point it's been two minutes of mostly the same synth tone doing the same thing for leads, the same string pads copied through a few sets of chords, the same arpeggiated synth doing the same thing, and one of two sets of drum grooves that were mostly the same throughout. Then it ends with some more sfx. i would argue that LT's quoting of the standards around arrangement are what sinks this, not passes it. there is a lot of repetition here in the backing parts. there's little variation from the initial instrumentation, dynamics, tempo, vibe, and direction of the work throughout the entire 2:30 duration. i think this has a neat idea. the initial drum groove is nice, i like the obviously artificial lead next to the plectral and string elements and realistic drums, and i thought the bass groove was good too. it just didn't go anywhere after that, and it needs to. adding your own elements to the lead part, changing up the string pad in the background or updating the writing (especially rhythmically, it's just whole notes for 150 seconds), passing around the plucked part or changing how it's being implemented...there's a lot of easy stuff that's not even really reliant on new instrumentation or complex theory that can be done here. as it is, i think the arrangement is not transformative, but rather pretty limited. NO

never heard of the original, it's fun. intro features some sfx and some fun eastern elements blended with synths. the first big chord shift at 0:52 was really nice. there's a bit of a break at 1:17, and we get some nice stylized guzheng echoing the earlier plucked synths. the addition of taikos at 1:59 is nice, but there's a lot of compression occurring there when the lower taiko gets hit, and it's very distracting given how clear the production up until then has been. there's a break and a big chillsteppy hit at 2:55. the heavy sidechaining here is absolutely a stylistic thing - this is every single downtempo track i've heard in the last 5 years. ducking even the melodic content behind the kick is something i've heard a lot in that style. this is a little more intense of transition between kick and everything else than i've heard, but it's not an incorrect methodology, it's a genre choice. the filtro fill at 3:49 into the block stutter chords sounds great, very evocative and intense. transitioning it to a harder stutter with less verb is a fun idea too, and you did a nice job ensuring that the guzheng and other lead instruments are still audible later in this section. there's a transition around 4:45 into a very long fade. this is another stylistic element that i hear a lot in downtempo and chillstep although i also would prefer a more standard ending. this is a great approach and a very evocative implementation of the original. clearly the heavy sidechaining is a taste thing, and i think it's handled well here. i like the progression from the initial feel to the more intense second half. excellent work. YES

love the original. love the slammed piano at the beginning. the claps are pretty loud over everything else, but i don't mind the kick initially. more band comes in with the melody at 0:50. this feels great here - for the most part, the bass is sitting back nicely, and the hats help with the feel despite being so far back in the mix. the ghost notes in the snare are noticeably ahead, but other than that it's nice. there's a natural break around 1:50. i get more Get Lucky vibes here with some of the fun bass fills. trumpet is a bit ahead when it comes in again. at 2:33 there's a bit of a feel change, especially in the keys doing a more rolling pattern. around here i noticed that the drums were really on auto-pilot, and it very suddenly bothered me a lot once i noticed it. there's just no attention paid to them. DS is right that this isn't the first time i've heard that from this artist. the ending is a fairly natural progression but does feel kind of flat/sudden. the splash at the end is almost a joke. this should have been an easy vote and it isn't. i think my biggest issue is also that the kick is the second-biggest thing in the track despite doing absolutely nothing the entire time. i agree with darksim that there's a total lack of dynamic progression in the track as well. there some super-minor timing stuff throughout but as a whole the bass and hats do a nice job sitting back, and the trumpet sounds great throughout. i think that this is borderline for me. there's just not a lot of attention to details like i'd expect, but it also is above my bar. i really wish that the percussion wasn't, like, the demo track you sent out to get the vibe for the bass player, and that the kick was a few db down. YES (ehhhhhhh)