prophetik music

lmao wtf, reuben i don't know what i expected. this is, against all odds, enjoyable to listen to! it's not good yet but it's fun. starting with the eight-hundred pound elephant in the room, yes, your performances on the kazoos are solid! the pitchiness inherent to the instrument is honestly fine most of the time. there's a few times (0:57, 1:01, 1:09 for example) where it gets pretty bad, and needs to be better, but overall it's solid and close enough. one thing i would do however is normalize the differences in volume that occur when you've got one low and one high in opposite ears. you will probably need to do that via automation vs. trying to use a tool to do it for you automatically. the arrangement itself is fairly simple, and i wasn't a fan of the second half being essentially the same as the first part. i'd love to hear some more noodles here, or at least some more creative interpretation of the melodic content. i also noticed that by roughly halfway through, the repetitious background was becoming more and more noticeable. from a mastering perspective, the drums sound flat, the bass sounds very flat and lacking in treble, and the kazoos are honestly too loud overall (if you turn the master volume way down until you can barely hear it, if you don't hear a reasonable mix and just hear the lead, then it's too loud). the drums are blah enough that it's hard to even notice them in the mix. they need a a volume boost, some compression, and probably some more attention paid to EQing them so they notch into such a spare mix better. along those lines, the accordion and bass are hard to hear when the rest of the instruments are playing. some EQing can help there too. this is a clever and fun idea, and the execution is holding it back, along with some overly repetitious backgrounds. i'd love to hear more creative backing material to compliment such a fun idea, and then some real attention paid to mastering it so it's not so all over the place from instrument to instrument in terms of volume. NO

there's a lot to like here. the intro is great, there's a really nice rhythm guitar tone overall throughout, the drums are solid if simple, and the leads are fun and well performed. the melody isn't particularly dressed up much, but the backing parts do a nice job mixing it up while holding water for the melodic content. it's definitely not perfect. the end is not good, the leads are too quiet pretty much throughout but especially before 1:12, and the song essentially ends at 1:26 or so. i like the chugs afterwards, but it needed to recap the melody or noodle some more on melodic content for me to really consider that part of the music. the mastering is also a missing some brightness in the highs. it's short but i still felt a little tired in my ears after listening to it. with that in mind, this is really short for what's essentially a few runs through a short melodic line and then some closeout at the end. i don't think there's enough here to really say "yeah, this is a complete arrangement". if it had a melodic recap at the end i'd consider it to be enough, but as it is there's just not enough actual arrangement for me to consider it as complete and ready for posting. i love the sound, and the first 1.5 minutes are great - a bit more body to the arrangement at the end and i think this is where it needs to be. NO

i didn't have these, thanks cyril! i did get the following from another member of the boards: Public Address 1-7 (three one-hour parts each) Hearts on a Shoreline/Thoughts on a Shoreline Spectrum (2008 New Year's Day mix) five assorted tracks (Drifter, Seeker, Traveler, Voyager, and an untitled one) i'm uploading to gdrive my copies, which are 192kbps CBR. i'll update when that's done. edit: link

still a ton of headroom despite a single outlier spike - at least 4db. sounds more even though than past arrangements. lot of atmosphere in the opening. rebecca continues to impress with her ability to create beautiful soundscapes. this original track is particularly suited to her style with how atmospheric it is. there's some really nice pops of color in here - particularly the section at 1:55 has a lot of beautiful flourishes. the overall feel is much more cinematic than some of your other works, and i like that a lot for this track. pretty easy vote. this is definitely over the bar. YES

mak's always got the best submission mails what an aggressive and mean intro. i love it! particularly the snare, i'm a sucker for a giant trash-can snare sound. i also love the use of phrygian dominant mode - it's such a unique-sounding mode and you really get into it regularly. great job highlighting it with the humanization on the synths carrying it as well. i also liked that such an aggressive track regularly had big breaks to allow it to not get too tiresome over and over again. the big B section at 2:50 was also a great way to emphasize the idea under a half-time beat. rexy's right, the ending's really cheesy, but the track's arrangement is great so it doesn't bother me. from a mastering side this is great. i didn't mind the guitar-forward feel of the track mainly because the synth lead was high enough that it'd cut through whatever you put under it. there's a lot of presence, it's meaty without feeling crunched down, and the breaks don't feel like i cant hear them. excellent work as always. easy vote. YES

this is pretty sausage-y at first glance, and it sounds like it too. the first thing i noticed (after a fun intro) was how crushed everything sounded. there's so much compression on everything and so much mid without highs that it feels very dense and doesn't breathe at all. this needs everything to be turned down and the compressor to be lightened up significantly, and then a solid EQ pass to notch out where everything's supposed to sit. some notable EQing issues include the heavy mid presence in the rhythm guitar sustains and the complete lack of high-end on the drums...i can't even hear if there's cymbals there at all, actually. it does sound like whatever pad you've got layered over the guitars has a lot of verb and a slow attack, and that's causing it to really swell over time and take over the soundscape as well. right now the mastering is significantly hindering the mix. from an arrangement perspective, this track is more of a cover than it is an arrangement for OCR. there's little to no real arrangement here as much as there is re-orchestration of the original into these instruments. emunator hit it on the head when he pointed out that a real breakdown would do wonders for this track to alleviate the heavy driving feel throughout. the melody has a ton of room for some real fun variations and fills as well - it'd be great to hear you really explore that some more. lastly, the drum arrangement is pretty straightforward outside of a few ensemble fills - it'd be great to hear the patterns mixing it up even within each section some more. sometimes an extra snare hit or some mid-section cymbal hits is all that's needed to keep it fresh. this has a fun sound up front and i think it'd be a great track after some fixes. i believe that a significant mastering pass and some more playing with the arrangement will really make for much better submission next time around. NO

hey, this looks great! +1 for the lavalamp and the undermount power controller =) definitely a design i'd like to replicate someday. you did a great job optimizing space.

my original vote called out the arrangement as being solid while the mastering was Astonishing-era Dream Theater guitar and drums in your face and nobody else matters level of not great. so let's take a listen to this. this was a fantastic submission arrangement-wise and was so fun to listen to originally, but everyone who voted encouraged the band to go back and remaster it a bit because while it was good, it was hard to listen to long-term. the band did us one better and even did some re-recording and updating of synth profiles to get a more cohesive and overall significantly better track. this is exactly what we hope for when we ask for a resubmit. i can't get enough of the section at 3:30. the unison leads at 4:12 are so great. the last minute is 1000% better than the original was in terms of listenability. if i nitpicked at anything, it's that the bass guitar still isn't as clear/visible as myself as a bass player would want it, but it does its job undergirding the mix and keeping it rooted, so i'm not going to count my personal preferences as a tick against this. superlative job, megalixer. easy vote. YES

ooh, this hits great right off the bat. excellent production values, a percussive opening with space, an early breakdown/filtro? i love it. you use a lot of space in your synths, and i 100% approve of this - what a great way to get a really meaty sound that hits solid and has contrast. the dub break was fun as well - not too long, showed some fun ideas, didn't lose the beat. and then you copypasta'd the entire next minute =( no melodic variation, no altered chords, no rhythmic changes, no synth changes...there is another fun dub bass solo, but then it ends, at just about 2:30. i would suggest combining your two bass solos (since there can only be one highlander, two just makes things awkward), and then fleshing out that second section some more. a synth solo (not a bass one) with a melodic recap would add some duration while keeping it moving, and some more personalization in the melodic line via rhythms, pitches, new synth timbres, or some updated backing chords would really freshen up the second half so much more. right now this is too repetitive, which is too bad because the production value is dope and you've got some really fun ideas in your backing parts that just get reused too much. give me more variation and this is a DP. NO

there is a distinct compressor engage at 0:59. you may want to lower your knee or adjust the fade a bit so that it's not so obvious when it comes in. this happens again around 1:34, but there i think the issue is the release being too tight so it pumps a bit. this happens again much more distinctly at 2:12 for quite a bit, nearly 20 seconds. beyond that, the realization is beautiful and emotive. your performance is excellent as expected. the arrangement is fairly straightforward, but it's a fun adaptation of the two themes. i like how naturally they feel like they flow together - the entire piece has a Beauty and the Beast forest soundtrack vibe, and features some great conceptualization of what you were going for. if you can fix the compressor so it's not obviously pumping so often, this is an easy yes. i believe this is easy enough to fit into a conditional. CONDITIONAL (fix pumping)

i laughed out loud at the waveform wes posted - i had exactly the same initial thought, which was "i need some onions for this sausage". this track is traumatically overcompressed and really relies a lot on copypasta at least in the melody and most of the drums to keep it moving. that said, it's got a lot going on that's actually all pretty clear, and it has some nice sound design that's fun to listen to. the ending is pretty nonexistent, but the main groove you have is nice to listen to, just to repetitive. the thing that's interesting is you do have 'breaks' worked into your track, but it doesn't feel like it. 2:43 was a perfect chance to tone down the volume slightly and let the mix breathe going into the guitar solo, but it's just as crushingly loud as the rest. give it some room to stretch out! lowering the overall volume in areas like that will reduce the pressure and make it feel like a more cohesive whole. this is a rubber stamp from me agreeing with the other judges - this needs some dynamic breaks, a compressor with a lower ratio and the gain turned down a bit, and some more arrangement to mix up the sameyness of the track. once that's done, though, this'd be an easy vote for me. NO

this is much closer to a cover than an arrangement. i need to echo darke's vote in that this feels like there's nowhere near enough transformative arrangement done here. i'm going to echo my vote for your hollow knight track, where i said that it has to say something. i definitely don't feel like this one is doing more than saying what the original did, with lower-quality sound design. there's some strange note choices as well - the scalar into chromatic gliss at 1:39 is an awkward choice to my ear, there's what i can only call a mistake at 1:56 in the backing mallets, and there's what i think is an incorrectly-triggered attack at 2:13 right before you change tempo again which causes the bass/cello pizz to sound very out of time in context. i probably sound like i think this is terrible, and i don't! there's some really fun sound design - especially all the reedy, windy instruments you use, which are a personal favorite of mine. mirroring them with xylophone is a great way to add some oomph to them and you use that technique several times. i also like that you're pretty adventurous with some of the NCTs you're using - 5:09 sounds a lot better than the notes on a page say it should, although it could be prepared much better than you did. there's definitely some fun ideas here, but there needs to be significantly more Rebecca and less Masayoshi Soken for this to pass. NO

rubber-stamping this one. emunator highlighted the problems with the lead guitar in a few places, and i also agree that the mixdown is messy and the clipping needs fixing. sounds like it was done on some closed-ear headphones that are more for listening vs. mixing - there's tons of beef in the middle and much less low end, and the highs are just cymbals. the drums actually sound pretty good considering it was a single mic that handled it all. i think my main complaint is that the guitar volumes seem to be all over the place, and EQ is very mid heavy. it gets quite tiring to listen to pretty fast. cleaner mix and this is a pass for me. NO

this track was a pleasure to listen to. you've nailed the aesthetic so well with this - synth work, percussion, the grit on everything, the mastering, it's all fantastic. there's room for the track to breathe in the arrangement, there's a clear and over-arching journey we're travelling, and there's a ton of creativity in getting from point a to point b. this would be an instant classic. i spent quite a bit of time thinking about the arrangement aspect of this one. having been told where the verse/chorus concepts come from, i can definitely hear the influence the original track has on the arrangement. i kept coming back to this in the standards, emphasis mine: so i believe the source material is dominant but not identifiable in this track. the verse section is a great example of using augmentation (a musical term used to indicate the increase of note values, and by extension as its use as the opposite of diminution, the removal of flourishes) to fit into the style. i found the verse correlation to be present but not immediately identifiable since it's so augmented. the chorus section as well uses parts of the correlating section from the original, but only part, and because it's essentially just four or five notes of that section, it isn't even as correlative as the verse section was (which was already pretty loose). counting the verse into rexy's calculations above gets it over 50%, but only just, and only with a very charitable interpretation of the timings. i think ultimately, although i initially didn't want to NO this, i'm going to have to. it's just not close enough. it'd be fine for a project mix but it isn't enough for a mixpost. adding even a little more correlation between your verse/chorus sections and the original's verse/chorus sections without losing the originality and great arrangement you're displaying will be enough for me. NO

haha, i love the initial 20 seconds or so. it's got that classic intro-build into the lead guitar. i also really appreciate the use of timbral variations/arrangement in your synths to keep it interesting without relying on just repeating the melodic theme over and over. there's some really fun little things here and there that pop out of the mix (example: the little bass synth fill at 1:58) and make for a much better package than it appears at first. the vocaloid is gonna turn a lot of people off, i think, due to personal preference. it's simultaneously not clear what's being sung while being bright enough in upper registers to bother me, especially when compared to how dense and dark the rest of the mix is. lifting that around the 2k-3k range with a notch filter will help the pronounciation a *lot*, as will rolling off the siblants in the 8-10k range of 'her' voice. i do think the fadeout's going to bother some people too. personally i don't mind fadeouts. however, it's nearly 25 seconds long and doesn't appear to follow a traditional parabolic curve so it spends a lot more time in the middle of the fade than most people like. if it was, like, ten seconds at most i wouldn't say anything, but this is too long. i think both of these fixes are simple enough to handle under a conditional. a bit of EQing on the voice and updating your fade (start it later, use a parabolic curve, then nail down the silence at the end and trim it) will make for a much more complete package. CONDITIONAL (on fixing EQ and fade)

this is a beautiful arrangement that has some really nice emotion throughout. there's some nice surprises with the arrangement and scoring, and there's some real nice variety in the dynamics. probably my only complaint is that the first 'big' section, from 1:15 through 1:52, the left hand is very dominant in the mix, and it overwhelms the melodic line under these big block chords. aside from that, though, there's some real nuance in the playing overall. pretty easy vote for me. YES

i mean, what was i expecting? of course it's good. there are some sour notes that you may want to consider cleaning up. the first is the fourth in the bass (a D) bumping against the major third in the chord (C#) in a passing tone at 0:47.5 (this happens often and never quite sounds right, possibly due to the pitch bending prevalent in this bass instrument you're using). this is followed by a pile of conflicting notes: a G# and A (7th and octave) next to each other at 0:50 in the bells/ep, and some very strange passing notes surrounding weak inversions of what sounds like a ii7 chord at 0:53 (i think you go to an A under that Bm chord...3rd inversion is best avoided if possible!) while the bass is scooping quite a bit so it's hard to hear where it lands. it was very strange because most of the rest of the the track felt so clean from a chord standpoint. one other odd part in the bass is at 1:12 and 1:36, where it sounds like that's supposed to be a string fall? it's hard to hear the body of the pitch dropping, it just kinda stops (on an upright bass, you'd make that attack much louder to allow the fall to speak a bit to show what you're doing before it faded). i don't know how i'd avoid that without using a better sample, but i didn't think it sounded intentional. note nitpicking aside, there's a lot of nuance in what's going on here for the entire first section. i liked the consistent movement of different parts, and there's a lot of ensemble rhythms which i always am a sucker for. i love the shelving of the parts, too - the entire track is very clear and pleasing to listen to, and it's easy to pick out all the little things each instrument's doing to add some touch to the piece. the transition at 1:46 was great. still very recognizable as the same track but unique and new, and the catch beat you add at 1:55 is fun and set up well without being confusing. the ending wraps the melodic content up nicely in a way that brings it back to the beginning without feeling rehashed. i wouldn't have minded a final chord to help resolve the supporting parts that were moving, but this is still real nice. overall this is a great track. there's some weird notes in the first part but easily overshadowed by a clean track that has a great vibe and fun arrangement. nice work! YES new version edit, 8/11: MORE YES

interesting concept here. i agree that the kit sounds pretty blah, and the keys aren't on the same swing as the cymbals. once the ep comes in, it's a nice take, but it feels pretty rigid. at 0:57, it picks up, and your nice guitar tone starts to come out. unfortunately it's still pretty rigid - i'd love to have more creativity there for your playing, so that you're not just limiting what you're playing to how you can sequence the keys. around here i noticed that the bass is playing some really weird patterns for this style, as well. you're spending a lot of time on repeated notes (even if it's a root, that's a no-no), and also i am expecting to hear a lot more stepwise motion instead of jumps mostly to and from the root note of the chord. i'd encourage you to get more creative with the patterns and notes you're going for in the bassline as often that's one of the most interesting parts of the background. a great example of this that i always say to check out is the bassline in the Cantina Band track in star wars episode 4. it's very stepwise, and during the turnaround gets more creative with some jumps, but it hardly ever sits on a root tone and it's always progressing forward. it's a great spot to learn from. after this, the piano comes in with some arpeggiated content for a bit at 1:12. this is real out of time, or at least more noticeable than last time - the keys have a bit of swing applied but it's nowhere what the ride has or the guitar is playing, so it sounds totally out of time. i agree that the following section is either copy/pasted or close enough that it doesn't matter. adding the saw lead at about 2:20 was a nice change-up, although i'd rather had seen more new content there. after that we're into an outro that's essentially the same as the intro with a bit of whistle bell on top, and a fun extended chord to end it. as a whole - there's some interesting ideas in the arrangement, but they're reused too much, and you're significantly held back by instrument choice/usage. i think there's several things that you could work on to get a much better track overall. adding some more content so that it's not so much copy/paste will help. another, more careful look at what the keys are playing as compared to what the cymbal is rhythmically laying down will help a lot. and another pass on the backing parts as a whole - the bass, the drum patterns, everything - will overall make a much more interesting and solid track. NO

hey, there's some great chops shown off in this! there's some real fun/interesting styles showcased too, starting right away with the switch between that aggressive intro and the jazzy interlude at 0:30. snare there is real slammed and could use a bit more nuance. i agree with rexy and emunator that the mastering is decent but a touch over-loud throughout. i get the stylistic consideration, but it's just too much over the top. i liked what you did with the arrangement. there's a ton of goofiness going on and yet you still got some real meat in the heavier sections.i like the contrast between the synth/chippy sections and the guitar as well. there's just nowhere near enough content to really call this enough, though. taking out the ending (repeated) fade, the opening several seconds of silence, and the sections which sound like they're the exact midi from the game, you're at around 1:30-1:40 of content depending on how you count it. just not enough overall. expanding on a few of these sections would significantly lengthen the track without adding too much repetition, and you'd have a much better track overall for it. right now this is just too short. another arrangement pass and maybe some attention to your output level and this is in a much better place. NO

hoo boy, that is a meaty intro. i love it. i also love how you kept the same driving, aggressive feel throughout the entire first minute and a half. it really sets the tone for the rest of the mix. the arrangement is clear and consistent throughout. i like the consistent attention to the song's overarching form, allowing time to 'rest' from the faster beat during the last section and bringing in occasional breaks to allow your listeners to reset. this is a great track. it features some great skill on the guitar and some fun ideas throughout. easy vote for me. YES

ooh, right off the bat those ensemble string articulations are exposed and not great. the faster moving parts are super-oofy as a result. it sounds better once we get into the main body of the mix, but it never goes away, and it's pretty distracting. overall this is a really interesting arrangement because it feels very Pokemon throughout. it has the whimsy i associate with those soundtracks, yet still is distinct enough from the original to call it something new. the mastering by chimpa really helps this sing out even more. ima rubberstamp this one as needing the pops mentioned by other judges and the ending clip fixed. once that's done this is good by me. YES (conditional) edit 6/29: pops fixed, ending fixed, vote fixed. YES

ooh, there's some really great themes in this arrangement. overall i agree with the other judges that this sounds like a great first pass, but not finished. a great example is the section at 2:18. this is such a great build, and it's a fun take on it, but the leads sound dull, the organ synth is kind of shrill, and the backing parts need like ten more takes to get that wall-of-sound at 2:47 that you're going for and really do that part justice. the riff at 3:03 and backing entrance at 3:08 gave me chills. there's so many fun ideas in this arrangement, it's just not really done to the same level throughout. something that'd help throughout would be beefing up your backgrounds so it's not just clearly a guitar in each ear and the bass/drums/synth combo. some more body and double-tracking will help a lot with keeping it feel as big and epic as you want it to. a critical aspect of medleys like this is that they need to feel organically combined, and that's not always the case here. something that'll help a lot is a total mastering pass to get some serious compression on the track as a whole. the bass tone is ok but it feels pretty small and dull. guitars all feel really scooped out of the highs so there's no sparkle to them. drums sound decent but i wouldn't mind some more attention paid to the kick especially. overall this track needs some significant EQ and mastering love to bring out the best of what you've got going on, and some more body to most of the backing parts. it is a great first take though and i can't wait to hear a bigger, badder, meaner, more complete shot at this. NO

a jazz piano look at this is a fun idea. i feel the whole FF7 soundtrack is real funky, especially early on, so it's a nice concept. just up front, this is a really, really loud mastering job on this mix. the drums are very much in the forefront, and with such a wet piano and very indistinct bass, everything gets cluttered quickly. i feel like if everything was turned down 3db and the compressor's ratio set to something less tight that it'd suddenly make a lot more sense and the overall volume wouldn't change much due to the compressor having some room to do what it's supposed to be doing. the arrangement here is primarily based around a runthrough of the original theme's arpeggio, and then followed by some pretty simple but enjoyable guitar soloing. i liked the interplay between the backing piano and OST arpeggio, and except for a few notes that were close to questionable the guitar soloing helps keep it interesting. the drum parts are well-designed and feel interesting without featuring a ton of polyrhythms or significant fills. there's some looping in there but it isn't egregious. i thought the guitar got exposed as not real when it started mirroring the arpeggio at the end, around 3:55ish, but other than that was well-realized. the ending is disappointing as there's no real transition other than suddenly everything stops. there's a significant amount of the track devoted to the original content the guitar's playing, but this song has a unique enough chord progression (and it was stuck to and reinforced by the piano) that i don't have a problem saying that it's clear what the original is. my biggest concern is more that the arrangement is static for roughly the last three minutes outside of a single 5-second break. there's not much in the way of dynamic contrast or truly transformative adaptation to keep it from getting a bit repetitive. this is a difficult vote. the track's arrangement is enjoyable if fairly minimal and relying on original content, and it does get a bit stale by the end. the mastering is listenable but loud and gets tiring. i like the instrumentation choices, however there's definitely room for improving the overall sound with some balancing. ultimately with another mastering pass i think this one would be OK. i don't know rukunetsu enough to know if this could be handled via a conditional or if he'd be willing to do so, so i'm going to vote a soft NO right now. i'm very willing to change that if there are conditionals coming from the other judges. NO

what a great original track. never heard it before. lush and vibrant. i love the vibe and arrangement through the entire first half. it's also very lush, there's a bunch of stuff going on, and it's very verby, but it doesn't get overly complex or hard to understand what's going on. the slower tempo gives it all a lot of weight which i really like. the build through 2:30 is fantastic and really brings to mind most of covet's effloresce album. when the recap of the melody hits with everything under it, it's got a ton of body and really sings out well. if anything i was expecting to be even heavier there, but keeping it moving and pretty light underneath kept it moving forward, which was great. the spring effect at the end was fun too. i wouldn't mind seeing the last five seconds of silence cut, but other than that this is a great track that is well-mastered and really well performed. excellent job. YES

yeah, this should be a DP =) it's liberal but not overly so, well-performed, and well-produced. the shift in backing parts at the 2:02 mark was perfectly timed and well handled. i liked the inclusion and mixing of the vocal parts as well, they stood out in that they were set into the mix really well and didn't overpower anything while adding a great change of pace when they appeared. easy vote. YES