prophetik music

right off the bat, i noticed that there's quite a bit of headroom on this track. the glitches and electronics are fun, but they're much louder than everything else and cause the overall track's balance to be thrown off. a compression pass would really help this without requiring significant changes to the silly synths you're experimenting with. from a scoring and implementation perspective, there's a lot of really interesting instrument choices - purposefully, i think - and they make for some interesting soundscapes throughout. i'd say that i think your samples are really holding you back here - you've got a really cool cinematic harpsichord (it's almost a cimbalom sound which is really a clever choice here), and the cinematic toms, some fun phased electronics, and a ton of orchestral pad samples that seem to be from an orchestral hits pack. the pad strings have such a long swell that they really preclude use in any upbeat track like this, and while the pizz are fun and sound good, the constantly-repeated horn rips and the really not-great trumpet lead pull down what could be pretty fun. some simple humanization on the trumpet - adding in some spaces where a player'd breath, for example - really would help a lot. from an arrangement perspective, this is a pretty safe arrangement. you're essentially restating the original tracks a few times with different instrumentation. i would want to see a lot more creativity applied to the melody - maybe passing it around, some variation to the notes or rhythms, something to make it yours! - before i'd say that it's enough. beyond that, the synths that are fun early on are just constantly reused without volumization, in dramatically different dynamic situations, until they're irritating. lastly, the drum kit never changes, and doesn't sound great to begin with, so it also becomes something i'm not a fan of. from an execution standpoint, your arpeggiating synth keeps going after the last horn rip, which seems like an oversight. you'd want to have some automation to silence that channel at the end to avoid that. overall this is a great first pass! i might sound like i really don't like it, but i think there's some really fun soundscapes here that need some more touchup to make them really solid before i'd want to pass it. NO

what a fun track! i disagree that there's dragging - the variations in the backgrounds (1:01 where it widens, and the various dropouts) do more than enough to carry the very well-done soloing over the top. i'd argue that if this was a rock track with a guitar lead and no electronics, or a jazz track with a straightforward accompaniment, we'd not really comment on the background more than "eh, it's a bit bland". like larry said, the lead is just so fun and does a great job of exploring the melody via polyphony and riffs that it more than handles a straightforward background. i agree that there's not much going on aside from the melody, but the mid-range bloops that are in there either filling in the melody's gaps or appearing in pad form are more than enough for me given the consistency of polyphony in the lead. it's definitely bright mastering, but the bass has quite a bit of beef on it. i agree that it's overcompressed but it doesn't get in the way, and it's not ugly. i think this is a good pass. YES

the addition of classic battle mode allayed the one real fear i had about this release. i'm not preordering it, but i'm certainly willing to pay full price after it's out if the reviews aren't a mess.

oh man, i played this game so many times! the entire soundtrack is dope. and the game came with a limited edition card in it! that meowth was great for scraping clean an opponent's bench of injured pokes. the book on this one is pretty straightforward. the mastering is really clean (i wouldn't have minded a touch more compression, but that's me). the recording is really well-done, and is very clean and light - almost too much so, the lack of a pad or something in the middle to maintain the chords makes it feel pretty hollow throughout. the performance is note for note solid - but, that's the rub, in that there' essentially no arrangement here. it's a cover. the guitar parts are recorded to be exactly as the melody was in the original (even the harmony parts), and there's no altered chords, rhythms, or anything that could be called arrangement in there. the blues riffs were nice, and the vox parts at the end were cute, but realistically this is a cover, nothing more. i expected a lot more arrangement from the high-flying description. i love the track, but it doesn't fit the arrangement criteria even a little unfortunately. this is a great cover, but we can't accept covers at OCR. playing with some altered chords, mixing up the rhythms to make the melody more your own, or adding some new moving voices behind the melody would really transform this a lot and add a ton of interest. right now, though, this can't pass. NO

for context for other judges, this is when yuna reaches the calm lands and sees where her father defeated sin before. she lays down and takes in the scene, and steels her resolve to continue on, having made her decision to sacrifice herself when the time came. this is a beautiful rendition. i found your choice to use the tritone harmonies in the intro and outro intriguing, reinforcing the eerieness/wrongness that pervades a lot of FFX's plot once you know what's going on. your initial presentation of the melody is simple yet effective, and the consistent arpeggios remind me of a breeze flowing over the calm lands in this section. the harmonized melody at about 0:53 was real nice. 1:17 was a nice contrast to the initial melodic content, and the flourish at 1:35 was beautifully done. 1:54's reprise of the melody was nice, albeit a bit off in that you rushed some through this section. 2:29's ending is really nicely handled, with beautiful dynamics and a nice recapitulation of the intro. from a mastering perspective, i heard some pumping at 0:59, 1:10, and the section at 1:29, but it was minimal. beyond that, i really liked the warmth of the piano tone. this one's pretty easy. there's some rushing in the presentation, but as a whole it's a short-yet-sweet journey back to a really memorable part of the game. YES

i heard this one a while ago when the spring break set was released, so it's fun to see this enter the queue for me now. andrew's come so far as an artist since i got to know him on the Radical Dreamers project. he's always been a superb guitarist - as shown here! and i'll never forget him shredding anything that was thrown at him at jamspace every time i was at magfest - but the progression he's made as an arranger showcases his work ethic as well as anything. i love the melding of styles here - you've got some clear jazz elements represented in the chords and articulations at :39, there's the fusion of edm and rock at 1:30 when he brings in the lead on his guitar, and a real pop ballad feel at 1:44 when he brings the dotted quarter pads. the whole package is superb. my complaints are minimal. on an execution standpoint, at 0:39, the first one or two chords meld together a bit, and sound funky until i've found my footing there. it happens once or twice elsewhere, and i think it's at least partly due to the pad that's playing them not speaking right away and then moving stepwise to a new chord. a bit of an earlier release might have helped there. beyond that, i did notice that the kit has some fun fills and humanization in the hats, but as a whole the main snare that's on two and four feels loud even for edm standards by the end. i think the mix would sit easier with that being just a bit lower. lastly - and this is the one that will really matter - the ending for this version goes into the next track, and we'd need one that actually ends so it doesn't sound like it's missing content. that's an easy fix, no doubt - the song has an ending with an extended fill layered over it, so removing that fill is all that's needed. this is a fun and energetic mix that combines some great themes in a fun way that features some of the best aspects of OA's style. with a proper ending instead of the extended fill into the next song, this is an easy vote. Conditional (on the ending)

so, that's the gist of my original NO vote. let's see how this has been updated. i need to admit - it's nice to see that so many of my initial criticisms were taken to heart! you clearly adjusted the headroom, you reduced the beginning, gave it more of an ending, focused on bringing out the high end in the drums...all major points i brought up. i like the ending and the beginning a lot more now, which essentially addressed my major concerns on the arrangement side, so that's great to see. the production is still sub-par. the kit still sounds like it isn't real, but now it sounds like there's a highpass on it, cutting out all mids whatsoever. the snare is essentially a hat due to there being zero head sound, and the toms sound filtered as well. i don't hear a kick at all outside of some sub-freqs that are speaking - no beater sound whatsoever until 1:40 - and that lack really hurts the overall sound since there's nothing anchoring it. beyond that, the bass is much less quack-y, now, which is great - but it's almost unable to be heard since it's so far in the back. it needs more presence in the upper frequencies - or some adjustment to the EQ - to really speak where it is now. the whole thing is turbo-scooped too - there's nothing in the mids, it seems. there's also still what sounds like some level of distortion due to high signal at 1:30-1:31, which looks roughly like what i called out at 1:45 last time around. i definitely think this is closer. i think if you're able to square up those drums so they sound more like a dance kit and less like the drums you use in an intro before the real kit comes in, it'll fix the issue it has right now where the EQ is really mid-lacking. cleaning up that and that spot of peaking at 1:30 will really make for a much stronger overall track. NO

8db headroom on this one, lol. that's silly. proper compression is really, really needed on this track. there's way too much dynamic contrast overall once you get it loud enough too. let's take a minute and talk about pronunciation, especially considering how many versions there are out there of this song for reference. there is a significant difference in how you pronounce your vowels especially as compared to every other game-audio version out there. as a whole, your e is too wide, your u is too closed, and you sit on your nonpitched consonants (like g) too long, causing them to disrupt the flow a bit. this isn't enough to make me fail it on that alone - they're still clear, your tone is nice, and i like the characterization you give it (for example, on the first syllable of 'renmiri') - but it's indicative of not a ton of time studying the source and preparing to say these words. go and check out the comments to "the place we knew" sometime and see how people react to even a really solid presentation of japanese lyrics and you'll understand why i think it's critical to really do your best to nail this for the best reception. from a technique side, focus on keeping your teeth apart and generating a round, open sound. singing with your first knuckle on each first finger a bit between your teeth from the outside (fish mouth!) and trying to keep your mouth open (maybe not quite a perfect 'O' the whole time, but as much as you can!) will dramatically improve the roundness of your tone, since it prevents you from closing up mouth and collapsing your throat. you do a much better job with support on this track than others i've heard from you, so you've definitely got the air to really make the vocals something special. back to the arrangement: i really enjoy the attention paid to the backing track throughout. it'd be easy to write it off as minimal, but there's a lot of nuance here. plus, how often do you get to really play around with all those interesting and well-sampled percussion instruments? i liked the crotales at 2:02 especially. the pad that was added around 2:10 is nice too. i wasn't as interested in the loss of attention to the text at 2:20 however - your pronunciation was consistent until then, which matters when it's so exposed. another misstep is the flat note on the major 6th at 2:37 - that needed some lift in post (or a more confident attempt punched in). the ending is really nice - i really liked the last "Hasatekanae". there's some resonance on the first syllable of the last word ("kutamae") causing it to spike up, but the rest is a very atmospheric and nuanced fade. overall - the arrangement really is fun to listen to, and you do a great job in terms of pitch and flow. i wasn't a fan of the exacerbated vowels, as i mentioned, and i found your tone to be clear but tight. the performance is likely passable however if it wasn't for the mastering issues. even beyond the huge headroom, the utter lack of compression really, really hurts this track as it prevents any of the nuance from shining through without a hand on the speaker volume to allow you to hear the whole thing. fix the mastering (which i think will require more work than a conditional would cover for rebecca) and this is above the bar. another take on the vox and this is an insta-yes from me. NO 1/27 edit: because some other judges brought it up, i thought i'd clarify. i don't speak japanese, and i don't know the words over-well. what i do know is that many basic rules of 'how to sing letters' aren't being followed, and i found it grating. stuff like vowels being the wrong shape or dwelling on non-pitched consonants are often the result of not concentrating on a good sound and letting regional accents take over more than anything. all that said, though, i am not failing this because she isn't a classically-trained singer, although the lack of technique i felt hurt the piece. i no'd it because it's a quiet track that has zero compression and is begging for some post, and i don't think that rebecca has demonstrated enough mastering technique on her own to be able to handle it via conditional. 6/10 edit: this was brightened up considerably and the dynamic contrast isn't nearly so troublesome. the voice is probably too loud over the background right now, but this feels much more like a live performance in person and i like it. call this a YES from me.

i agree with rexy that the source fits this style really well. the original was already kind of doing that funk-house style, with a really present kit and a bop band behind it, and this definitely takes it farther down the euro road with the chord extensions you're hinting at in the guitar, combined with the acoustic bass and disco vibe. i also agree that there's just way too much sampled content in here. it's so busy, and that's saying something coming from me! the sampled sections clearly aren't in the same level of swing so there's conflicting off-beats, and the sampled content drags the overall fidelity of the track. i did like what the bass was playing, and felt that helped move it along. i'd recommend some space in there to let the instrument 'breathe' a bit. your groove got pretty dry pretty quick when it essentially played the same pattern for three minutes, so starting somewhere less full of notes and expanding throughout the track will help quite a bit, i think. lastly, while i really liked what the acoustic guitar was playing, it was so choppy due to whatever slicer you used to adjust the tempo that it sounds really disjointed. i really wanted it to speak cleaner and it just wouldn't. speaking of mastering, i found the kit as a whole to sound like it was in an entirely different soundscape than the rest of the track. it was very present and wide (the shaker in the right ear was really irritating maybe halfway through), and the continued shifting of the rest of the track's level of fidelity as compared to the static drums was really distracting. you can definitely do some work to volumize the rest of the instruments to level them out. there's definitely some fun moments in here. i'd love to hear more of the EP solo at 2:00, and i enjoyed the panned EP solos before that. i also overall enjoyed the presentation of the melody, and while more variation there would have been good, it was fun. i just can't however get past the constant sampling and lackluster mastering. part of french house is that the mastering really sparkles, which helps the common phaser effects and sampled old disco track bits shine through in spite of their age. i don't get that feeling here and it really makes for a track that isn't where it needs to be to pass. NO

ok, i love your concept. super creative idea and i like the touches of how it influenced your remixing (like the sweeper wave you've got throughout). i also like that you just went for some interesting ways to keep it different, like bringing in the dance piano and going HAM on it in the second half (especially from 3:39 onward). i think that you ran into some limitations of the synth in that section in the piano since there's some machine-gun effect going on there, but it's still fun. i found the drum fills notably to be pretty similar throughout, which was offputting when there wasn't consistently a cymbal crash or some other beat-1 terminator at the end (like 3:25). that emphasized the drum-machine aspect of your sound software. working around that somehow would have been a positive. from the mastering side, the track was cranked pretty hard (i saw it clipping by nearly 1.5db in some places). i did like the meaty kick throughout. there was definitely some weird balance however. the keys really dominated when they came in in stacked chords at 3:40, for example, and through most of the middle of the track, the middle synths are louder than the melodic content. this is, honestly, a pretty good job considering the software limitations. if it's possible to export stems of this, having someone on a real machine (or even yourself!) mastering this in a DAW that allows for more flexibility would be a huge win. there's a few times i really wasn't into the arrangement here or there, but really the main thing influencing my vote is the mastering. i'd say that this is pretty close as-is, and a bit of attention to the details in the arrangement and mastering will really make for a great, fun, front-page track. NO

this track feels like something out of stellaris to me. the wide pads and light arpeggiated synths are so endemic to that soundtrack. arrangement-wise, i liked how you expanded the initial guitar arpeggiated chord and explored that some more. switching the time signature gave you a lot more room to explore some of those sustained tones and i like that you did. i was surprised though that at 2:24 that you chose to keep the instrumentation the same going into the double-time section, as that was a perfect opportunity to mix it up a bit. i thought the same drums/arp/bass sounds there started to get stale (drums most of all). i also wasn't a fan of the end of the track, since it just sort of ended without any real process there. from a mastering perspective, i thought that the drums overall were pretty loud - the snare snap was just really bright the whole way through in a fairly dull soundscape - and the bass was overly muddled. that made it hard to hear what was going on at 3:13. beyond that, the entire track was quiet - i show nearly 2db of headroom throughout. as a whole, i might sound like i disliked the track a lot, but that's not the case. i actually really liked the vibe of it, which was very spacey and featured those fun wide pads i mentioned earlier. i think there's some simple fixes that'd really improve the overall product here - a better ending, some cleaner and louder mastering, and maybe adjusting some of the instrumentation in the double-time section would all really help the overall feel of the track. NO

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source was not in the slightest what i expected drums feel a bit dry (the whole thing feels a touch dry), and the bass is quiet. production critiques done. arrangement comments: the primary form of arrangement done here is what's done to replicate the melody in the strings and keys. some of what worked in a chippy format doesn't work here (2:25 shows that pretty well, what worked with limited chord background doesn't work with a full band behind you every time), but as a whole this is a solid arrangement that is interesting and passes the melody around consistently while keeping the feel going. it isn't repetitive or long enough to get boring. the drum fills are uninspired but enough to keep things moving along. this one's easy. YES

oh, wow, this is really a powerful take on this track. there's so much energy and drive coming from this. i really like your choices of orchestration to keep that energy driving forward. it's too bad it's so short - when you trim out silences, it's about 1:37 long, which isn't unprecedented but it's also highly uncommon. here's the relevant part of the standards: with that in mind, i don't think this is long enough to convey the arrangement. here's why: the arrangement is - incredibly, considering the length of the entire track - repetitive. there's 30 seconds of the initial kick lead to the horn riffs, ~15 seconds of essentially an orchestral crescendo, and then we're back to the kick lead into either horn rips or choir punches. there's also about 20 seconds of the chord progression at the end as an outro that's not really tied into the original track at all from what i can hear in terms of orchestration - it uses an organ but it's a different stop from the sound of it, and it isn't effected the same way. i'm not saying that it's not represented interestingly enough, though! the overall package is exciting and entertaining. i agree with rexy that it's fairly robotic, and there's some volumization that could be done to it to balance it more, but it's a fun listen and i like it. my problem is that it's just so short and yet it goes absolutely nowhere. ultimately - this is too short to really showcase an arrangement. i agree that if it was 3 minutes of this it'd get annoying a minute into it, but realistically you just aren't showing enough material to determine if it's actually an arrangement or not here. it needs more content. NO

from a production standpoint, i had to go through several sets of audio options before i found something that actually voiced your sub-bass tones properly. while that's fun, i feel like there's a lot missing in this track without those tones (it's even more empty without them), so having something that the majority of audio options can't represent is a problem in my book. beyond that, i'd argue that the main body of the track is undercompressed, in that the kick caused the mix to go 1.2db over every time it hits. adding some compression without losing the pretty nice dynamics and soundscape that you lay out is a must. i definitely don't feel that the kick is too loud, but there's room to adjust the balance so that it doesn't cause distortion. further compression, as you'd see in youtube or other media, would only emphasize this distortion more. from an arrangement perspective, i really liked the idea of ignoring the melody entirely, as the arpeggio is a clear and representative part of the source. the track's immediately recognizable, although i wouldn't complain if there was some melodic material in there. i agree with rexy though that it simply doesn't do anything. it's fun to hear it fade in and out, but there needs to be some level of transformation in order to call it 'arrangement'. i don't see that here. there is a conflicting note at 1:28 that's super distracting as well. i can't tell if it's the sub-bass playing two notes simultaneously, or just a result of the stutter synth being low, but it's obnoxious with the bass turned up (to hear those low tones in the first place). ultimately, although the track is fun to listen to, there's some issues on both the production and arrangement side that cause this to miss muster. i don't think it'd be difficult to add in some more melodic content in an arranged fashion to make this more your own, or to fix the mastering so it doesn't peak constantly, and that'll make a better track overall as a result. NO

ima start you off with this: son you shut your mouth or so help me! what a silly fun opening. i definitely feel the talk-show band feel. i love the goofy sfx you throw in there as well. i enjoy the big drum sound and the really in-your-face bass sound - i can't believe that any part of that bass is boo bass, but at least it's thematically relevant. my complaint, as it is, is that it's real, real short. it's essentially through the melody twice with some goofball noise effects thrown in before each time through. from an arrangement perspective, too, while there's some interesting application, it's essentially note-for-note with the original. i think we just can't count this on that perspective. there really needs to be more transformation applied to this, be it via some changes to the melody line, altered chords, time sigs...anything to say it's yours and not just koji with drums. i can't count the sound effects and other weirdo stuff that gives this track charm, either, because they're not source material unfortunately. unfortunately, while this is an entertaining track, i can't vote for it. the arrangement is essentially nonexistent. another take on the lead guitars changing around some of the melodic line, or some more creativity in how you're adapting this track, and this is a quick yes vote from me. NO

i struggled for a few listens to really get the hang of the five-bar 4/4 phrase you're using. for judge reference, here's what it is. note just how janky this is. this is for two main reasons: you're still using the leading motion in the baseline (G-A-Bb, Bb-C), but you're using them in uncomfortable places. the nature of leading motion is to move TO somewhere, and having it at the beginning or middle of a bar is very disconcerting from an ear perspective. you start by reinforcing the beat, to a point, but then you essentially don't have a downbeat for the last half. the first 12 beats are on-beat, and everything after that is on the upbeat. either of these by themselves would be fine, but this sounds super weird in context - it essentially feels like you drop a half-beat in the middle of it somewhere. i don't even care about the 5-bar phrases, like rexy mentioned. the offbeats sound straight-up wrong, and it prevents me from sitting into the groove. it's exacerbated at 0:54 when you bring in the higher synth - which is still in 3/4! - layered on top of your five-bar 4/4 phrase. this is real strange too because 5-bar phrases of 4/4 will only rarely sync up with a repeated 3-beat phrase. and this is exacerbated even further because you don't make enough distinction between each 5-bar instance. so it's impossible to hear where you 'are' in each phrase. essentially it sounds really confused the entire time, like it's limping or something. and it's real difficult to listen to as a result. this doesn't take into account that the arrangement is simple if not too little. there's not enough personalization to the melody to really call it more than dumping in the theme on top of the backgrounds as it was in the original. beyond that, i found the soundscape repetitive at best, as there's essentially four or five synths used for the entire track with what sounded like two fills - one with snares and one with a ride hit. when the kick comes in for real and isn't being low-passed, the kick sounds ok but the drums as a whole don't sound quite as punchy as i'd expect. i think some of that comes from how much presence the bass instrument has - i really think dialing that back a touch and notching the kick in better into the low end would make a big difference. i really wasn't feeling this one. the arrangement was lackluster, the 5-bar background really turned me off (if that wasn't obvious), and the soundscape got really tired pretty quickly. my suggestion is to tear this back to the bolts and find a fresh and clear way to reinforce your odd phrase length, since that's the real unique thing about this arrangement. once you've got that, you can build up a background that fits that (rather than just repeats the same thing over and over). until this, this doesn't reach the bar. NO

this is short and sweet, and does a great job giving an a capella source body and weight. the other judges have said mostly what i feel, but i particularly appreciated the care taken to vary up the performance in each part, as well as from an arrangement perspective varying up the voices and what they're doing. that kept it from getting boring or repetitive. this has a real ES Posthumus feel to it at 0:49 and again at 2:01, which is a good thing (for me at least!). if i have to nitpick anything, it's that the nonstandard chords used in the pads (at, for example 0:33) don't contribute to a forward motion but instead kind of bog it down a bit. those sections do provide contrast to the more upbeat sections however. this is an easy vote. YES

some real beauty-and-the-beast feel there at the very beginning. some fun orchestration right off the bat. the initial presentation of the theme is fairly straightforward, more of a transcription or cover than an arrangement. i wasn't a huge fan of the overly-articulated melody at 0:37 as it didn't sound very realistic at all - less a staccato or marcato than a clear articulation deficiency in the sample set. if your samples can't do what you want them to do, you probably shouldn't be featuring them as the lead instrument without at least some support in the form of other instruments. in this case, a xylophone, glockenspiel, or some upper reeds would have provided punch so you didn't need to focus on a hard articulation as much. i liked the step back at 1:00. additionally, the voices at 1:14 were surprisingly functional, but there's what sounds like a mistake at 1:16 where one note is a sixteenth late, and the note overlaps as a result. 1:23 has another note spacing issue that sounds a bit funky. those combine to make the vox section go from "hey, that's pretty cool!" to "this sounds messy". at the end of the vox section, i started noticing that the brass 3-3-2 pattern had been playing for a while, so it dropping out at 1:43 was welcome. the transition section through 2:17 was good, and the surprise jump in dynamics at 2:17 was just in time. i did notice the dissonance at 2:11, which sounded intentional but a bit clumsy in execution. usually if you're going to use a third inversion chord (major 7th on the bottom, major chord over top), there's a bit more precedent for it than just tossing it in. here it's a perfectly serviceable dominant chord, but it sounds awkward due to not being used a few times and instead just the once. at 2:17, we're back to the theme being restated once through and half of it with some harmony, and then we're done. so a pretty short and very safe arrangement, clocking in at just under three minutes. i think the arrangement's enough, and while i wasn't a huge fan of the use of the brass, i don't think it's enough to hold it back. production was fine overall - there's a few sections where one ear is favored over the other, but an orchestral track requires panning, and it's not like instruments would move mid-song to balance that out. if that one goofy note at 1:16 is fixed, this is a pass from me. this is simple enough that a conditional can cover it. YES (conditional on fixing the vox mistake at 1:16) edit: since the project files are gone, this is unfortunately now a NO

this track has so much more identity to it now compared to before. the removal of some of the repetition and addition of more character in the background and percussion is great. an example of how you've reinforced this from start to finish is the consistent use of acciaccatura in the melody line (this is the accented delayed stepwise motion at the end of each phrase). using it throughout and then echoing it in the inverse in the rhythm of that great arpeggio synth that sneaks in around 3:30ish is a great payoff moment. i don't know if you did it on purpose but they dovetail really well together and i love that. this one's easy. YES

i haven't had a chance to play nier automata but it's on the list for sure - it looks really interesting.

i really like the big whooshy pads and arp at the beginning, and the drums at 0:45 set a really nice mood here. i noticed that the drums repeat early, but i figured you're setting a groove that you'll work with later... ...and then, like, nothing changed for three minutes. as rexy said, you essentially are covering the source. there's some fun synth work on the melody, and there's some great tooling with the transitions from section to section, but it's a cover - and a repetitious one, because the drums are the same the whole time! it's particularly troublesome to hear this when there's such a great soundscape developed that just isn't getting used. you did a great job making a track that sounds great and has a lot of body to the soundscape. from a suggestion standpoint, there's a lot of straightforward ways to add arrangement in a functional way. varying the chord structure is a common and easy one, but even adding your own characterization to the melody (so it's not the exact same rhythm and notes as the original) would help a ton. original sections, a solo section, some exploratory work into the melodic progression...anything to give it something new, to put your stamp on it. ultimately, the lack of true arrangement means that there's just not enough here to call front page material. NO

arrangement wise, i loved what you had! i heard the FFXIII use of borrowed chords right away. there's a ton of power to this arrangement and it isn't just max-velocity orchestra soundfont on every note, which is appreciated. it just didn't have enough OST. there's some super-interesting new stuff that i enjoyed, and there's several sections that sounded like they were from the original but i couldn't place (like at 2:00 and a bit later at 3:07) which implies they're just borrowing concepts but not actual melodic content from the original. ultimately, the solid production and energetic arrangement make for a great whole, but it's not enough original to pass muster here. add some source (even a different source!) and it's an insta-yes for me. NO

i'll take you one step farther, rexy - the arrangement isn't underwhelming, it's...kind of boring. it's essentially a playthrough of both tracks, and then it ends (with less than 2:30 of real content). i'd argue that the orchestration isn't even particularly grabbing, either - it's a lot of tutti on the melody with a single bassline/background part, and that's about it. there's a little sustained pad backgrounds in the 1:00 area and that's about it. even the more energetic Hidden Village section is really tedious-sounding thanks to that really poorly-used harpsichord (of all the clavicymbalum family of instruments, the harpsichord relies on the pedal the most for it's unique sound!), and it just has machine-gun quality that set my teeth on edge right away. i might sound like i think it's terrible, and that's not the case. the sweeping strings on the melody are very evocative in the first half, and there's some interesting percussion which definitely would benefit from some reduction of boom/sustain on them (eq does wonders to orchestral toms!). but the arrangement is just very uninspired, and the use of samples doesn't help much. NO

i think it's just an E in the staff, well within a coloratura's range. i think i heard a high Db above the staff in this, and i'd expect a coloratura to be able to sing a 2.25ish octave range, which is in the A-Bb range. so actually pretty well rendered considering the dramatic change in timbre that most big-voiced sopranos have down lower as they get into their chest more. i'll start with arrangement. from the negative side, there's something weird at 3:52 in the keys, and there's some more mess a few seconds later in the reeds. it also just sort of ends. beyond that, though, this is some of rebecca's best scoring, and the care taken with that synth voice is fantastic. i agree that it needs some concert hall verb (the whole thing is a touch dry) to make it more believable and flatten out the uncanny valley, but overall this is delightful. about the pops: 0:03 is just low pizz. i'm guessing that the sampler that rebecca's using uses a messy pizz attack (which is common), and since pizz has a lot more noise to it than normal notes it sounds a bit strange that low. 0:36 is real hard to hear. 1:35 has nothing that i can hear. maybe more of the attack from the plucked strings? 1:49's is so slight that i'm thinking it's also string noise. there does sound like there's something crunchy there but i can't place it. this sounds more like a compression artifact but this is a wav. wonder if it's a render error? it's very minimal. 2:06 has nothing i can hear. 3:15's is string attack, more pizz. 3:55 has something audible in the right ear. those reeds are real out of tune - is that a live instrument? sounds like someone donked the mic when it had a low-cut on. 3:56's got nothing i can hear. there's nothing here that's causing me to say "no way". this is solid. excellent work. YES