prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

Yet another new DoD month, yet another new submission. This one comes from "Party Month", where you had to pick a game that can be played locally by 4 people. I picked Smash Melee and then picked a theme from a single player mode (woops!). It was kinda by accident really, I didn't think too hard about that part but it's funny. Anyway, the theme from the "Break the Targets" mode is a banger so I've been wanting to cover it for years and I took this chance to do it. It's an upbeat theme with just a few sections and for the arrangement I went with keeping the pace and adding some jazz-ish flair to it. It was pretty fun to arrange and play. It came out 1st on the competition so I assume it's good enough! From the source I want to highlight a tiny melody that plays at 0:27, since it's something I expanded a lot on the remix. When sources are short you kinda need to expand them as much as you can! Breakdown: 0:00: Intro directly based on the source's intro, although the rhytm is a bit different (basically, the original begins with a chord a 16th after the first note, I put the first chord an 8th after the first note). There's a break where the 0:27 melody plays and then we move into some more variations of the intro, with a few keyboard solos. 0:43: A quick ascending run, taken directly from the source. 0:46: Based on the second part of the source, changing chords and rhytm. 1:13: Repeat of the intro with some rhytm/chord changes. 1:28: A small break, featuring a cameo from Melee's main theme. Rhytm kinda inspired by zircon's remix of Trophy Tussle. 1:41: Synth lead based on the piano solo from the source, chord progression is "original". 1:55: A repeat of a previous part. 2:08: Another ascending run! 2:12: More variations over the main rhytm, but now I play it exactly like the source. Features a keyboard solo! 2:39: All of this is based on the 0:27 melody. 2:46: Outro. This is quoting Frost* (I've mentioned this band before), from a track called "Milliontown". Hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Source is Break the Targets from Melee:

original vote Resubmitted with several small tweaks including more varied drums, harder hitting kick and snare, vocals more front and center and less grating, small edits to the glitch effects, and overall volume balancing. Games & Sources Game: Puyo Puyo (Sega Mega Drive) Songs arranged: Brave (https://youtu.be/06tH5Qosjrc); Final (https://youtu.be/8oaDWL-1W20) Original composer: Masanobu Tsukamoto; Akiyoshi Nagao System: Sega Mega Drive mostly but also a shit ton more Year: 1992

opens with a pretty fat bass and kick, and the basic four-note motif in a higher synth. a secondary bass element comes in on the off-beat (really feels like it could have used some quant to shuffle that farther back in the beat) soon after. there's some more lfo sfx, and then we get a very interesting synth at 1:27 with a wild attack on it. we get a bit of a break at 2:07 - the bass line is still going, but the rest of the track is dropped - and soon after transition back into another additive building section. the bassline's getting a little tiresome by this point so i wouldn't have minded a shift in that break. this builds up with a variety of elements, mostly metallic-feeling, and at 3:24 hits the big blow of the track. i would have loved to hear more new stuff in here, maybe something that's more explorative of the four-note motif, but at least there's some chordal shifting in what's going on. 4:42's the beginning of the end, and we get one last representation of the motif through the chord progression before it's done on a slow, distorted sustain. i really like the rhythmic focus to the track. there's no way you were going to write some orchestral etude off of the limited melodic content of the original, so focusing on the rhythmic elements of it and translating them in various ways is a nice idea. i think we could have used some more variation in the middle third of the track, but overall this does some neat stuff and explores new areas in the original. YES

opens with some sweeping leads. there's some distortion on them initially that's nice. there's a hard cut to beat at 0:26 with a very overtone-y bass, and soon after we get the descending motif again. i liked the gated effects on the wind synth at 1:05. the next forty seconds or so are mostly exploring textures with similar synths that we've already heard in different combinations - there's not a lot of direction to it, and by maybe 2:00 it starts to feel like we've heard things before even if we haven't heard that specific combination at that point. 2:31's got some burbling synths in the background that are pretty neat. it trucks through a bit more material before it very suddenly just ends with zero prep, just a short fadeout on a sustain. i think i have two main critiques with this track. first is that all the elements by themselves are interesting, but many of them don't really feel like they fit next to each other consistently. for example, the left-ear burbling synth that we first hear at 0:56 playing a single note for a bit comes back repeatedly, and each time it feels like it's not in the mix at all. it either has too much reverb next to the kit and bass (1:19) or like it's too dry when next to some of the other very swooshy, reverb-heavy leads (2:31). similar statement about the hats and some of the white-noise percussion. the second issue i have is that we hear, like, eight synths throughout the entire track, and they all play one thing, and that's it. they're brought in using different combinations, there's lots of variation in them individually, and there is to my ear no section that's exactly the same, but it all feels the same because we've heard everything by a minute and a half in and then it's just different combinations until the non-ending. honestly this one is pretty close despite those critiques and the entire lack of an ending. i like the synths you're using and think that they're doing interesting things individually - i just don't feel this is cohesive enough to really track overall. the lack of a focus on melodic material or a general dynamic shape to the song also hurts it. i'd love to hear another version with a stronger, more directed vision, both in the aesthetic and effecting of the synths and in the use of melody and dynamics to pull together the track. NO

immediately recognizable opening, even with the cimbalom. the track feels very early PC with the vocal patch, which is a fun coincidence. it's a very spare atmosphere you've created here - often only a few individual notes playing at any given time, and a surprising amount of unison up front in the couple of instruments you're using. 0:50 brings in some more activity, and the cimbalom really works well for this realization. 1:18 adds in the choirs in unison with the low strings, and i like the idea but think the execution isn't quite there. it's just too robotic in the cimbalom and doesn't sound particularly realistic in the strings/choir. the cimbalom-only section after this has some more velocitization on it which is nice, but it's audible where the velocity pattern repeats. the subsequent building section at 1:57 is nice, but the partwriting is pretty simplistic in here and heavily weighted towards my left ear. there's a wrong note in the bass at 2:21, and a few (probably but not sure) notes that aren't in the key soon after in the middle voices. this shifts to a new section at 2:35 and how consistently the cimbalom has been hammering away at roughly the same volume and attack speed throughout the song becomes more noticeable in here. the lack of true velocity changes (particularly to more quiet tones) is starting to grate by this part. there's some intense building action until the big hit at 3:26, and this section sounds pretty exciting. it's also very muddy and boomy due to the orchestral toms being used. there's some neat evocative feels in here but overall the use of heavy unisons and no part-writing in the supporting lines really kills the energy for me. it ends with a kangling note that is cut off, and it's done. this is a really neat idea! i think there's definitely legs in the arrangement - the combination of old-world instruments is a really neat one. i think first off that there's a lot of room for partwriting that isn't just unison strings and choir layered, especially with the richness of the chords uelman uses throughout. separately, i think that there's a lot more room for nuance in all the instruments - most of them feel like they stay in the same middle range of velocities, and there's no dynamics in the instruments as a result. a track that is so intentionally sparse in instrumentation needs to then be super careful in how it uses those instruments, and i don't track that here. i think this is a great one to bring to the workshop or a wip review and have some folks talk about how to flesh it out a bit more without losing the feel. right now though i don't think this one's where it needs to be just yet. NO

uninspiring original. it sounds like this is using a keyboard that's got a synth guitar patch and recorded on a cell phone. i can hear the buttons being pressed pretty clearly. either way it's just two minutes of meandering noodling that doesn't really relate to anything that's in the original. if indeed the right audio was uploaded, it's not anything for the game. this doesn't appear to relate to the game, and it doesn't meet most if any of our standards around sound quality, arrangement, or execution. NO OVERRIDE

this is a great original track! i have never heard of this. opens with a super chippy fm bass and kick. lots of fun filtered stuff initially until the main body comes in at 0:30. the mix has a ton of space in it - lots of open air, which is a fun reference to the game and original's title - and the super heavy sidechaining into the drums contribute to that as well. the B theme comes in the keys soon after, and gets a little funky with it. there's a transitional section at 1:42 and then a break with some voiceover sfx at 1:52 for a bit. after the break, the band gets back together for some slap bass and melody at 2:06. there's a neat solo break section on the keys before one more melodic recap and it's done. this is great! instant head-bobber. if i had to complain about anything, i wouldn't have minded hearing more melodic transformation over the course of the song, but overall this is well-realized and a fun adaptation of a really awesome original. nice work. YES

this is a -6dba version for the album master, so it'll need to be amplified before OCR mixpost if it passes. opens with a chippy arp outlining the initial chords and some pads. by 0:21 we're starting to hear strings and some hints of melodic material. 0:40 is a shift towards a new vibe but still with some of the same elements still going, until we get the first big hit at 1:01. there's a big hole around 300hz in this section so it sounds a bit hollow, but i like the heavy percussion and the lead tone. percussion quickly proves to be a loop though. there's a hard cut for the B section to a different feel, again with a percussion loop below some fun lead synths. the A theme returns at 2:01 with chips and some sfx on the instruments before a return to the original vibe from 1:01 - this sounds like a straight copy from that earlier section. there's a subtractive outro with some filtering on the percussive elements and then it's done without landing on the final chord. this is a fun energetic take on the original! you've got several distinct vibes throughout that i think are really solid. i don't think this is quite there yet though. the hollow feel to the first big section at 1:01 i think is easily fixed with some pads or a tweak to your EQs. the repetition at 2:01 was disappointing given how short the track is - maybe add in some countermelody there, or mix up the lead a bit? lastly both percussion loops being heavily used and never sliced and changed up even during fills was a disappointment - just a little shift here or there would be enough to really add even more energy to those sections. i think those are easy changes if you choose to make them! and that'll result in a much stronger track overall. NO

i played a ton of worms armageddon hotseat-style with friends back in the day. i recognized the '98 version right away. opens with a ton of gun sfx (trigger warning?) and strings outlining the initial arp that's in both versions of the game. drums, piano, and bass comes in soon after and are pretty peppy. the voiceover is solid - i like the pitch of it, it fits well into the overall feel alongside the strings. the chorus at 1:29 got a chuckle - the original worms singing in wormsong were similarly silly, so i get the idea but it still sounds so weird next to the more serious background. guitar solo into the big ritard was nice too - may have been a bit bright for the texture. i like the break after the solo, as a palate cleanser before the much more intense second half. this is a neat homage to the differences between the original wormsong and the '98 version. 2:36's transition is great, and of course the more intense backing guitar and other elements here sound great. the voiceover's a little more cluttered here - a bit more formant in the voiceover would probably have been enough to ensure it cut through enough. drums in this section are also a bit rote through maybe 3:55 or so. i liked the brass in the background, but found the guitar to be a bit treble-heavy through here, and it's hard to hear much outside of the rhythm guitar in this section. i liked the reference to the holy hand grenade and the outro sfx as well. this is a great idea and a fun track! there's some great elements in here that reference some of the more entertaining parts of the game. i appreciate the variety of styles you've got represented here in different measures as well. aside from some of the volumization and EQ notes, i think this sounds really solid from start to finish. certainly the arrangement is great. excellent work. YES edit 1/29: comments about the mixdown and plosives are correct on re-listen. lack of punch is notable and a problem. the voiceover probably needs the formant boosted in the heavier sections to help it speak. NO

wall of sound to start. big, intense opening focusing on the rising chord pattern right off the bat. the drums sound pretty weak through all of this. 0:32's use of the arpeggio element was a nice idea. melody hits at 0:47 and is in half-time, which is an idea i like given how great the melody is - lets us hear it more! there's loads of stuff going on in the background and in the drums through this whole first representation of the melody. following section with the rising arpeggiated element is a clever analogy for the track's title and topic. 2:32 is a big shift in feel. this might have been an opportunity to let the track breathe without the electric as the lead for a bit, but i like the harmonics and spacier feel in this section. there's a slam transition at 3:24 and it's appropriately intense as it builds back to another representation of the melody at 4:10. this trucks through some variations on the melodic material (i liked the hard drop at 5:02) for a bit before transitioning into outro material. one more ascent to the peak of the arpeggio - and then there's a fadeout? or something? but it still ends, so the fadeout is kind of confusing. this is a super fun track to listen to! i really appreciate your willingness to get into the melody and mix it up instead of just playing it through. for such a long track, you keep the feel pretty similar throughout but it doesn't ever get boring or tiresome. that's a challenge and you did a great job with it. one of the things i wanted to go through and check was source usage, since we only get the melody a few times in six minutes, but the original's rising action and arpeggio elements are represented throughout and are easily able to be mapped, so i've got no concern about source usage. my main concern here (outside of the fake fadeout ending - you don't need a fade there at all!) is that the mixing is kind of messy. there's a ton of sub-40hz content, and to my ears the rhythm guitar is crushing the drums and bass quite a bit. the kick is very clicky, which helps the beater tone to cut through, but it doesn't have much beef to it, and the rest of the drums sound pretty weak. before this passed, i'd want to get those drums taken care of so they don't sound so anemic. some more attention to some very intentional eq on the hats and snare especially should help, as well as being more careful with what's on the low end of your rhythm guitar and bass instrument, should help out a ton with giving the drums room to do their thing. i love this track! don't let it disappear, there's definitely a place on this site for this. NO

i don't understand anything the kids are saying nowadays. opens with some wickity-wah and drum work. the melody comes in about ten seconds in, and it's oozing with vibe. the bass part especially has a lot of character. there's loads of extra little bits thrown in too which is a nice feel. transition at 0:46 is a touch out of time. i like the vocal bits - i'm surprised how well they fit into the picture actually. there's a quick fill at 1:21 and we get a bit of melodic recap. this whole section isn't copied from earlier but it's very similar - a lot of the backing elements sound very similar, and the piano flourishes especially felt really similar. 2:17's a transition into a much more open section with some key noodles and a significant vibe change. this is a fun idea to shift so hard and definitely a great time to do it. it gets into its cups a touch around 3:17 but the solo coming right after is a great idea, and i love the solo - vintage OA tone and content. i also liked the highly reactive backing parts to what was going on in the solo. the ending was right where i expected it and very much in the style by using a short phrase from the melodic material, and then it's done. this is a fun ride! the list of collaborators is superb so it's not unexpected that the track's breadth is so wide and there's so much going on. wes does a great job taking a fun, poppy original and keeping much of the same feel while fleshing out essentially every aspect of it. excellent work. YES

opens with some very active arps before a hard cut to just percussion and a muted bass. there's some very interesting effects, not the least of which is a crazy hard sidechain on the kick. there's some of the arp that the original's centered around at 0:20 but it's very far back in the mix. it noodles around a bit before we at least get the chords of the 'chorus' section at 1:00. the transitional section at 1:16 has some intentionally weird sounds, and then we get into a more straightforward representation of the opening section at 1:24 and eventually get some melody. there's a break at 1:56 before we get back into a bigger section at 2:15. this burbles through a few different representations of the melodic material. there's several interesting textures represented in here, all highly distorted (the hats sound like a typewriter, for goodness sake). there's a hard cut at 3:19, and we get some flute to play us off. the ending isn't prepped super well but it's a decent job of setting us down. i think there's some folks who will really dislike the very intentional mixing decisions made here, especially in the opening section, but i love the malformation of so many different elements. the track takes a while to get started but certainly passes the content guidelines around amount of original vs game music. i really appreciate how significantly weird it gets in several places - you weren't afraid to go there (sounds like the games) and the oddness of some of the transitions like 1:16 is really solid as a result. nice work. YES

my bad, must have overlooked it. original sounds like the opening theme in an expanded form. opening strings aren't particularly realistic in their representation - lots of swell on the attack. pizz in the bass and harp arpeggiation is nice though. clarinet carries the inital ascending melodic line, and the sustain and subsequent cutoff aren't a great sound. the oboe follows and this is more nuanced in the approach and realization. i liked the light glock below it. flute work after this is nice too. the bass clarinet lead also didn't really have a clean attack tone for the descending line. there's a bit of a break before a larger section at 1:39. this is a surprisingly sparse orchestration here - it's mostly just several sections playing in unison, with the bass still doing pizz down low and some harp/percussive elements mirroring the line as well. the voice part offers some extra color until the other winds come in after a bit but it really starts pretty spare. i wasn't a huge fan of the synth used for the voice part - the vibrato and vowel never changing feels very uncanny-valley. there's a bit of a reset before we get into the second half. there's more chord work here in this second representation of the A theme, and some more altered elements which i appreciated. this would have been easy to mail in so i appreciate the commitment to keeping it different from the opening section. i still am not a huge fan of the vocal instrument, and i think it's too loud through here. we finally get some percussion at 3:40 and i agree that the tambourine is just the right instrument for the job. we get through the B theme fairly quickly, and although there's some muddiness at 4:15 or so (is that a vibe in the left ear?), it is handled competently. there is some descending action but no real ending, just a sustain to play us off. this has some nice elements that really add to the original. i still don't care for the voice and i think that there's some over-exposed synths early on that can't quite handle what you're asking of them, but overall the arrangement is pretty and it's mixed fairly well. YES

huge, aggressive opening, with some of the original arp in the background behind some very loud guitar chugs. kick doesn't have a ton of bass content (the toms might have more) but i really like the tone of the toms and snare. the chugs sound a little sparse during the verse when they're under the lead guitar, and i don't hear the bass much at all in the opening sections. 0:49 it opens up a lot and there's a ton more backing elements and harmonic parts. it's just so loud that it's hard to hear most of them - all i can hear is the kick and the chugs/rhythm guitars most of the time. 1:20's a copy of the opening section for a bit, and then we get into another melodic section. at this point the chugs are getting tiresome since we've been hearing them so much and they aren't changing much at all. the leads are panned very wide as well which makes it hard to put them together. 2:25 the rhythm guitars finally change it up and we get some double-time work in the drums which is nice before a big break at 2:40. there's some other sfx and leads in here which is a nice change after so much hearing the same stuff. we get one more blow through the chorus at 3:12 and then it's done. there's even less than no ending - there's a few more chugs, and the synth keeps playing until the pattern ends. truly feels incomplete. this is a neat idea initially, but the chugs especially become tiresome very quickly. i like the exploration of some of the weirder elements of the original in the middle third of the piece, but there's simultaneously too much going on for the middle minute or so while also not having enough energy to drive it forward - it just gets tiresome in there. and then the ending doesn't exist at all. separately, the kick and guitars (mostly rhythm) are just so loud that you can't hear the bass, the backing synth elements, or any nuance in the leads. backing them down to make a more balanced soundscape i think would help a ton, and panning the split leads when they occur back more to the middle so they're not so far apart would help a ton to make it more cohesive in those sections. i think this has a ton of potential to be really fun. fixing some of the mixing issues and utilizing less repetition in your rhythmic elements to allow for a track with more dynamic movement so as to avoid the middle third feeling dead would be a huge positive, as would adding a real ending. NO

opens with a pretty filtered feel to a shakuhachi and some strings, but it makes more sense when the guitars come in soon after. guitars and drums are huge volume-wise, but the strings fill in a bit and the lead is indeed a neat crunchy feel. the drums mostly are on autopilot outside of a few fills. there's some ensemble breaks for emphasis and then we're into some more copied elements, as larry calls out. i liked the half-time section at the end as a way to mix it up and help let down some of the intensity. i agree there is too much copy/paste. i'll also note that the guitars and drums are like twice as loud as they need to be to still be punchy - as it is, that's all i can hear most of the time. i think this is maybe 90s of solid material here that could easily be a three-minute banger with some more work to diversify and avoid repetition. as it is, there's too much repeated material right now. NO

BK's soundtrack is so charismatic. this track has that vibe right off the bat between the sfx and the goofy wobble lead. having the track be in a triple meter initially helps a ton to keep it swinging forward. there's a great build vibe right at 0:32 that drives it forward well into the first big beat drop at 0:46. bass and beat sound super tight in this section, i loved it (especially the triplet combo of the laugh, bass, and lead at 1:02). also, did i hear kazooie lead synths!? this just keeps getting better as it goes along. there's a bit of a break at 1:16 in feel that builds into a much more heroic fanfare-type feel at 1:30 for a bit, before we get more kazooie lead, and a choir, and all sorts of other fun interim stuff for a true break. i like the transition at 2:15 as it speeds up and goes nuts just in time for a banger of an ending chorus at 2:26. this is a straight sausage waveform and it sounds awesome, especially with the fanfare section to end it. there's a bit of a weird cut in the fade that should probably be trimmed before we post it. i love this! what a fun track. it's hard to listen to it without smiling the entire way through. there's a ton of character in this remix - just like the game, very fitting - and yet simultaneously it's not just leaning on novelty and sfx to make it through, there's a dope arrangement under it. excellent work. YES

yeah, i'm a ddrkirby truther so incoming YES OVERRIDE vote. super liquid feel once the beat comes in. agree with larry that the two representations of the melodic material simultaneously is a neat idea. 1:10's a great hit as well and feels really good. i also appreciate that you play with time constantly and mix up how you're handling the bars - often people working in mixed meter stick with a specific 2 and 3 beat combination per bar, and it sounds like you're mixing that up a lot which keeps the ear guessing. there's a drum break at 1:31 and then 1:51's a true break. well timed since it's been very frenetic until this point. the voice samples are a great way to signal the break here too, and then we're back in the sauce at 2:10 with a classic ddrkirby lead. i really liked the subtle click on the attack of this lead. the guzheng might have been a touch loud when it came in compared to everything else. after this we get into the outro action...or do we? there's a fun new vibe that's hats-driven at 3:11 for a bit, and then we're actually done. this is fantastic as expected. timmie brings the heat with this one, and the arrangement is just as good as the production. excellent work. YES

oh, i remember the other version of this. DoHS is such a terrible source. also did you listen to the Theme of Super Metroid version you linked? the first six or seven seconds i didn't expect. opens with some chips slowly chewing through the opening super metroid arp section. the initial hit at 0:47 with the kick is a nice vibe, but to me went on a bit too long doing the same thing. we do eventually get the melodic element from the track at 1:36, and i like how the arp kind of faded in near the end of that section. i was disappointed that it went back to the same vibe as 0:47 and went through that eight-bar section twice again after we'd already had a bunch of it before. 2:40 is a big transition - this is a neat effect what we get here. there's probably too much silence at 2:52 in your transition, but the sfx after it is neat. 3:28's wild - i love this section, so much creativity in how you manipulated the elements there. i believe the DoHS reference is in the big stabs at 3:30, and then the descending lines going into 4:09? that section continues to be wild, but the transition out of it is really pretty sudden, and then we just get a recap of earlier but faster. there's a recap of 0:47 but faster (it sounds exactly like the earlier section) and then it's done without any real ending. gorilla in the room - i hear very little Door of Holy Spirits in this. i'll put a note in the submission form for a breakdown but i heard very little out of one 30s section. if i'm not missing something, i'd argue there might not be enough DoHS to have it count as a source for the track. from an arrangement perspective, this is well over 5 minutes but has maybe 2:30-3:00 of content in total, and a lot of repetition. i wouldn't even mind the repetition if it wasn't very clearly copypasta when it happened. 0:47 is a ton of the same thing over and over, and then 2:09's the same thing, and so is 4:57. 1:36 is repeated at 4:43 but with the beat from 0:47 under it. there's so much straight copy throughout - in a chiptune where you can't rely on sweet synths to carry the day, the arrangement is king, and here it's just too repetitive for me. the lack of an ending doesn't help much at all either. NO

this is pretty similar initially but spreads out a lot more as the track goes on. there's less a focus on orchestrated silliness in the background and more on a tighter band sound, as expected given the folks contributing. track starts to drag a bit around 2:50 since it's just powering through track callouts for a while - there's no real direction for a bit there until the vocalists come back in, and then it's a pretty abrupt transition. there's some really fun vocal processing work around the 4:50-5:00 mark, that was a nice way to mix it up. the meat boy vocal parts are a bit high to my ears - having to switch to falsetto at the top really kills the line unfortunately. this track isn't quite as over-long as the original (imo that was a 3 minute song and took 5:30 to be done). it's still a long song with a lot going on, and some of it probably should have been cut down to focus it more. overall, this track is way, way loud. the limiter's going nuts throughout the band sections, complete with a bunch of loud bursts in the master like at 0:24. audacity reports constant clipping throughout - i don't hear it, but i wonder how youtube's going to like it. the elephant in the room is if this is different enough from the original remix to constitute a new work. i think that there's enough here to do that, if we apply the same criteria to this remix vs. the ocr as we do remix vs. original. there's a lot of new lines, there's some restructuring, there's a lot of altered elements and added content. so while i think the song's more uneven than i'd expect given the arranger, and the mastering's not perfect, and the performances aren't perfect, i still think this is a banger and really fun to listen to. YES edit 11/19: yeah, i used the wrong terms - what i'm hearing is the kick causing pumping. separately, i listened to it again after a few months away and after the other votes went the other way. i think i'm in agreement the mix feels bland in a lot of places and that it needs another eq pass - i over-focused on arrangement the first time around, and there's not really any issues there. i think the snare in particular feels pretty blah as does the claps. i still love the arrangement (although it's probably too long), but as it is i think it'd be a "what could this have been" if we posted it. so ima change my vote and call it done. NO

little different style right off the bat! opens with a filtered bass synth and a very resonant lead. most of the synths are in the same range and it's dense. kick and snare come in at 0:16. there doesn't sound like there's any sidechaining so the kick sounds pretty weak. this opens up a bunch at 0:32 and you can hear some fun countermelodic elements, and a bitcrushing fill. it hits its stride at 0:49 finally and it's a nice groove, the kick just has no beef at all. i like some of the added flourishes to the melody line through here. there's a break at 1:20. this might have been a chance to change up the lead a little. there's a hard cut into a filtered beat and bass right after it - this was a little sudden and took a second to get the hang of what was going on. this transitions into a bridge section that's more transitional until some repeated material from 0:49. another transition with bitcrushing into the final chorus at 2:23. there's some bass-synth focused outro, and it's done. overall i think this is a really fun arrangement! you take an original with a lot of dynamic movement and manage to represent that well in this genre. there are a few technical issues that are a big deal - the kick having no guts throughout is a really big one. layering in some samples with more sub content, sidechaining the bass and backing pads so that the kick can speak through the mix a bit, and making sure you're not scooping the bass out of the EQs so high (looks like the peak's in the 75hz range, i'd expect it to be half that / an octave lower) would help a lot. separately i was getting pretty tired of the same synths by the end of the track. there's a lot of repeated elements in here (like how you reused the opening synth riffs several times) - by changing up your leads just like you would change up what instrument in the orchestra's carrying the melody, you add engagement and interest to your listener. you have several breaks at good times in the track, so maybe consider mixing up your leads in those transitional points. NO

opens with some percussive elements (bit of machine gun in there), and some lovely swells in the strings. this section feels a touch compressed whenever the orchestral percussion hit. oboe isn't particularly realistic (reminds me of the FFXII soundtrack actually) but i like what it's saying. good use of a complex scale for some of the runs. the chromatic elements at 1:32-1:34 aren't quite there. this progresses through some more oboe noodles until we get to a break at 2:13 when the voice comes in. i think the voice part is a touch loud as it comes in - being farther in the distance i think would fit the very spare backing elements better. i like the processing on the voice however, it fits into the texture well. the oboe's a bit more exposed here as well. when the octaves come in at 3:32 it's clear that it's been heavily pitch-adjusted - make sure when you do pitch adjustment you don't take out the natural drift in your voice, or it'll sound robotic. through 3:45 we start to build back to an orchestral setting. there's some repeated elements that have showed up a lot by this point (the descending tom fill, the hand percussion loop), so the small changes you've made here are really nice. i think this section really needs a lot more to distinguish it from the first two minutes - the bass clarinet lead section is nice, but overall it feels very much like the opening section where it's string pads and an oboe noodling on top. it's also pretty hard to hear what's going on in those melodic elements in some places. more dynamic backing elements, an updated hand percussion loop, more rhythmic elements in the background - this would all help a lot to keep it moving. the track just ends after the source melody is over. there's a final note and that's it. some prep and outro after nearly six minutes of music would make a lot of sense there. i think that there's some really neat ideas here. this is definitely an interesting reimagining of a classic tune and showcases some great concept work. i think there's some execution elements that need to be corrected before it's ready for primetime. the middle third drags and needs some balancing, and the last third needs something to give it more verve. NO

welcome back! agree that there's a hard hole between about 150hz and about 275hz, which is part of why the track feels a bit scooped. there's not much past like 1khz either, which is why it's a little dead. separately there's also some elements right away that are hard panned all the way left and right (the early keys) whereas other elements are full-center (drums), which makes some things sound a bit weird on headphones but wouldn't be noticeable on speakers. i need to stress that this sounds so much better than it did last time though. it's like they're completely different tracks. there's a big break at 0:57 which is well-timed, and then a bit of building action that goes longer than i initially expect and is more transitional into the battle theme elements. this noodles a bit before we get back to the A theme and content. the drums are a little contrived here. this trucks through the melodic content one more time before it hits the outro at 2:50, and then it's done. i think this is almost there! you're to the part now where you don't need to make significant changes, but the little things you tweak here and there will result in a vastly improved product. if you filled back in that hold around 200hz that i mentioned before, open up the top of your EQs a touch to allow some >1khz content (especially from your hats), and reigned in some of the stereo separation of your keys, i think that helps a lot. a better transition at 2:02 would help too. lastly, the section from about 1:14 through about 1:50 drags quite a bit. finding a way to instill rhythm and forward focus without losing the vibe there would be a huge help to the middle third of the piece. you're in the home stretch! what a ride so far. honestly this is really close as it is. NO

i will not be left off a yes vote! opening section takes a minute to get going, but i like the glass-esque build and intense focus. there's a (probably too long) sfx break to the melodic content which comes in at 1:20. the melodic is initially very spare, but i get that it fleshes out over time and i think it's a fun build since it's similar to the game's story. we get a big hit of everything at 1:55 and it gets trucking along nicely at that point. the change at 3:22 is a fun one - again, very steve reich/terry riley phase experimental. there's another sfx break and the b theme comes in with such a different vibe. really neat idea here too. i actually didn't like the subsequent section with how full it was - i think overall the best parts of the song to me were the ones that were more spare in their approach. 5:37 feels great for example. i'll say though that finally coming back to the a theme at 5:52 really felt great. around here i noticed that the snare and fills before were really loud and that was a little much to my ears. there's an outro section that's less naturally from an instrumentation standpoint, and then it's done. there's a few seconds of silence at the end that does a great job of actually ending the piece. there's a lot here to like. CoT is such an overdone track (i should know, i have one on the panel right now too!) that this is kind of surprising how far afield it's able to travel. i appreciate the breadth of the arrangement and how much you do to reinforce the natural beauty of the arpeggio that ties it all together. great work. YES

unfortunately this breaks a number of the Submission Standards. while 1.1 details a wav requirement with no size restrictions, it's reasonable to assume that a 1.4gb file in 192k 32-bit float is excessive. while your track does contain content up past 80khz, our ears don't, so that's not really needed. 3.1 specifies that the music for the arrangement must have been actually used in the game. this does not appear to be true. 4.2 details what constitutes an arrangement. as this is instead something original to you, none of this is fulfilled. 4.3 details a requirement around identifiable and dominant source material. there is no source material used, so this isn't fulfilled. 5.2 details production requirements. none of this appears to be followed. 6.1 details evaluation requirements. the ownership and source material requirements are not fulfilled. we aren't going to be able to evaluate this, nor does a track inspired by but not an arrangement of vgm have a place on OCRemix, unfortunately. it's an interesting exploratory piece when it's not scaring my cats away from my desk, but ultimately a mono solo improv like this isn't going to have wide reception. NO OVERRIDE

last version all six previous versions Tried the file upload, it failed. I'm baaaack, lol. I read all of the advice given, and watched the videos suggested...and as a "treat" of sorts, I did not allow myself to listen to my last submission until I thought this one was ready to submit. After all of the advice followed....wow, I can hear the issues much more clearly in that previous version. As always, I give so much thanks for the time given for consideration and the critiques given, much appreciated! I also appreciate the feedback that has been given in the WIP forum:) Originals Games & Sources Game is Dragon Warrior 4, and this is from chapter 4, Mara and Nara, the sisters of Monbaraba. The music is mainly the walkabout theme, with a section that represents the battle theme included. I've always enjoyed the original 8 bit version more than the successors....with the exception of this ReMix;) I jest. Tried the file upload, it failed. Link given in space provided, and also here.