prophetik music

is it even an OCR album if there isn't a spaghetti western track in it? i mean, the genre is in the video talking about the site. jaw harp intro with whistling sounds great. 0:35 is where it really starts to go, and MW's right in that most of the texture feels very high in the frequency range. the guitar especially is quite shrill there. when the strings come in at 1:12, the freq range fills in better, but it's still high-heavy. the instrumentation however is very good - trumpet leads, acoustic guitar and strings in the back, highly percussive vocals, flutter-tongued whistle...it's very thematic. there's a break at 2:17 that is very dramatic initially and then quickly transitions into a tongue-in-cheek hayseed section for a bit. the string pads under it sound and feel great when they come in. 3:01 starts a pretty epic build from an instrumentation and energy standpoint. banjo picking is excellent in here. this trucks (trains?) through the melodic content on a few lead instruments before really settling into trumpet and friends. there's a final high note at 4:30 and it settles down to the ending. what a neat idea for a track. i do think overall it's mixed with very little low content, and i think that's a negative that holds the track back. however, the charismatic approach really carries it - the instrumentation choices are just perfect for the style, and there's a lot of mileage from a fairly repetitive source in this very creative arrangement. excellent job. YES

interesting piano tone to start the track. drums sound great, bass is a little dense but the sax tone and mallet tones are on point. outside the bass tone, this would sound at home on an early hancock album before he found synthesizers. the sax is maybe a little loud throughout but that'd be pretty much it. the soloing gets really cooking at 0:46 when the bass goes for a walk. it's pretty much a straight blow until maybe 1:55, and then a bit more soloing from 2:06 through the ending. cutting the instruments without even a tail is really surprising too, i don't understand any case where that'd be ideal. you've got about 12s in the intro, 23s with the sax and vibes carrying it before the solos start, 23s at 1:09 where the sax and mallets are carrying the melody, and 12s at the end before it goes back to soloing. i don't hear the rest that you called out. that's not quite half but it's close enough. i'll note that this is right on the border of not having enough source for me. this is a neat idea and it's performed well. the drums especially really come through as a highlight for me. nice work to everyone involved. YES

classic original, highly repetitive. initial arp in the 'piano', and some choir comes in after a little while. we get a snare and other synth at 0:56, and there's a light chime in there too. 1:25 there's a time change, and what probably is an organ in the lower reaches. at this point the 'piano's been trucking for the entire song, and it's showing no letting up. by about the 2 minute mark, we continue to noodle through the progression with the same instrumentation, and at 2:26 it gets even slower and lower. this is plodding at this point, and it's not had notable development of the original chord structure, 'melodic' line, or instrumentation. at 3:35 the organ cuts after a few run-throughs of the chord progression, and the piano carries us out for the rest of the track. the lack of varied instrumentation or a progression of the interpretation really hurts this track. as it gets lower and slower, it doesn't hold interest, and so just gets boring. the highly repetitive chord structure and lack of a true melody to grab onto plays into that. this needs some significant additions to get it over the finish line. right now it's boring =( which is never something you want to hear about a song. find a way to draw in and hold the listener's ear, and that'll really get it going in the right direction. NO

lots of space in the intro. each layer, like MW said, is subsequently more distorted and mean, and the eventual melodic content's mostly clean sound is a real neat contrast to that. SoW has a very unique song structure in my mind due to how much space is in the original, so the heavily percussive drums and stuttering synths with tons of space in them really fit the song well. there's a break around 1:40 that features some really neat sound design. 2:08 brings back in some more sfx in a rising action only to hit a huge shift at 2:17, which was totally unexpected and a neat idea. there continues to be a variety of textural changes, until the original melodic lead and bass come back in at 2:55. we get one runthrough of the melodic material at 3:09, and then the track is over. the ending is abrupt certainly, but given the variety of abrupt changes throughout the track, not entirely unexpected. this is a pretty neat idea for a track overall. the industrial elements pair really well with an original that demands silence in a retelling, and the abrupt changes and glitches that occur in the overall timbre in turn are influenced by the game's story which is neat. i think this is pretty good. YES

2015 is eight years ago? say it ain't so =( big opening with loads of sweepy pads, but we get a kick at 0:33 and some more direction soon after. this is a loud mix! 0:49 is really where the progression starts to build, and there's a particularly neat arp that comes in at 1:19 as a lead/counterlead part. i'll agree that the melody is a bit buried, but it's certainly there if you know what to listen for. we get a break at 1:59 and it's well-timed. fun use of sfx in the false build. the melodic material is back in full bore at 2:29 and it's a great sound, with a variety of octaves used to convey the melody alongside a great groove. there's a runthrough of the B material, and a quick recap of the A melodic content and we're done. this is great. like kris said, there's lot's of ear candy in this one. really neat ideas. i didn't find any of the synths particularly sharp, and i felt that the big, loud mastering didn't overpower the lead parts completely. YES

thank you for the detailed timings around the source. slow burn intro. the violins initially are pretty late in their attack but sound better as they get louder. 0:54 brings in some really rich-sounding bells, i love that sample. there's a nice orchestral crescendo going into 1:25 and some simple synth work that does a lot to build the intensity of the melodic material in the horns and celli. 2:38's chord shift was just great. 2:46's aleatoric elements were really interesting. very delicate. there's a beat and some bass that come in at 3:01, and in general the drums feel like they're lacking punch compared to some of the more aggressive synths we've heard so far in the track. there's a big build into 4:05, and again the drums feel very neutered compared to the rest of the instrumentation going on here. there's definitely some artifacts at about 4:35 or so, mostly from low-end stuff that probably could be limited a bit more in that specific section. after that, there's a (probably too-quiet) outro in the piano. this is really great overall i think. there's some specific elements that, had they been handled differently, could have really turned the arrangement up to 11, but the approach and melodic material handling is excellent and for the most part your mastering is clear and allows everything to speak. YES

intro is really patient, slowing layering in some nicely-handled hand percussion alongside the santur when it comes in. the synth arp in the background simulating the traditional repeated sixteenth notes on the santur is a nice touch, as is the Prelude arp that you brought in. the bansuri at1:15 sounds pretty traditionally handled as well, with the little flips here and there. the instrumentation really comes together to make a great whole here. at 1:47 there's a falloff into some very quiet exploration in the bansuri. this highlights one of my only real concerns with the piece, which is that the dynamic range is pretty huge. it could have used some more compression to bring this up a bit in volume without sacrificing the delicate timbres that you've got displayed here. 2:40 brings in the Beyond the Wall theme, and allows some room for exploring that very simple theme. we get a recap of the original melodic material around 3:35 or so, and at this point the backing instrumentation hasn't really changed at all for 4 minutes, and this section at 3:35 is very similar if not copied from earlier in the track. it's not until you layer the melodic material with harmonies at 4:37 that it's really unique. overall, i think the word for the approach is 'measured'. there's no significant highs in dynamics, and your approach takes its time. i would have preferred less overall dynamic variation - the part at 1:47 is just too quiet - and 3:35 was a cut and paste from earlier in the track, but what's here sounds great and is a great adaptation of two themes in a thoughtful way. nice work. YES

some dense pads initially with noodly voice samples to start. the cello sample here really isn't my thing - the swell on each note sounds extremely artificial to me. the original arpeggiated guitar line comes in at 0:54, and is essentially the same as the original (sounds like a similar key, tempo, instrumentation). there's a lot of textural pad work over top to help mix it up, but the main body of this entire middle section is very much the original's writing. the cello's writing and execution was better around 2:00 mark. there's a huge build to about 2:24 and some percussion added at this point. i don't know if i'm really feeling the drums, but the 3 over 2 pattern between the drums and arp was interesting. there's more textural elements in here and a lot more exploration in the vibe, which is a neat change. the fadeout ending is a copout imo - a sudden, abrupt waking sound like you described would have been a great bookend to the piece. i'm on the fence here. the first 50ish seconds are essentially new writing. the middle minute and a half is almost entirely cribbed from the original. the last <2 minutes are solid arrangement work. ultimately i think that the volume of arranged material is high enough that i think this is over the bar, but this is close, and i think that having several tracks in a row with similarly disconnected arrangement methods from the source (ie. layering vocal noodles over top of the original as it was in the track) is not a great method moving forward. i don't think there's much blood left to squeeze from that compositional stone. i think this is over the bar. the mixing is clear enough, i have no complaints about the mastering, it's got enough arrangement, the parts that don't sound good or are super-basic are balanced well by the more complex work in the latter half of the piece. i'd say this is about as close to no as i could go without getting there though. YES

immediate DT vibes from the intro. immediate not-DT vibes from the following 11 seconds The first presentation of the melodic material however could have easily come from any of a dozen melodic prog metal bands i can think of. the aggressive riff work with soaring melodic line is a style i just love personally. 1:47's solo work sounds great as you hand off between the synth and guitars. there's a nice break at 2:37 or so with the ep, and it ramps up nice to the melodic material in the guitar at around 2:58. there's a fairly eclectic variety of textures over the last 10s, and then it's done. mastering sounds uber-clear and balances the variety of timbres nicely. arrangement is dope as expected. nice work. YES

organ and choir and taikos for the intro. 0:15 brings in a variety of instruments, and i'll agree that it's very complex and takes a second to grok what's going on in the mix. 0:49's where it really gets cooking with the rock section, and there's still a ton of orchestrated elements on top of a an aggressive and meaty guitar-driven backing. i didn't find the bass here to be anything more than normal, nor did i think that the audible elements of the orchestra that cut through the band were less than what was supposed to be there. this is guitar-driven orchestral rock, not orchestral-driven rock, if that makes sense - the orchestra isn't the main event. 3:10's a cut down and we hear some effected sweeps and lush orchestrated elements. there's some bass soloing, and then we get a half-time section at about 3:33 that's just so fun. great idea here. the orchestral rips are starting to sound a little fakey when they're more uncovered, but the rest of the orchestration sounds great. build starts at 4:34 and i got chills quite literally at 4:45. there's one big blow through the main melodic material for about 30s and we're done. i have no concerns about the mastering. i'm rarely significantly off from MW when it comes to voting, but i truly don't hear most of his concerns on this one. the arrangement is great, it sounds great, and the orchestral balance throughout is exactly what i would expect for the style. excellent work. YES

initial hit sounds great. really channels the post-grunge alt sound that was pretty popular in the early aughts. there's a piano tone in the first fifteen seconds or so that's high-pitched and irritating, but i don't hear it after that so that's no big deal. i thought the strummed sustains in the lead guitar in the B section were wheedly too, some other ideas for how to sustain those (or put in some other licks there) might be a good idea. i liked the octaves that you do the second time around a lot better. this unfortunately doesn't really feature any transformational arrangement. it's the original's chords and melody in guitar and bass and drums, with some extra countermelodic content in the last third of the piece. we don't do covers here, but this is certainly a capable one! for this to pass, there'd need to be more attention to arrangement to mix it up more. NO

some filtro to start it, but the vibe at 0:15 is immaculate. i really liked the rhodes at 1:05, and the handoff there to let the EP take the lead was nicely handled. the keys solo through 1:45 was nice but the drums (specifically the crash) was a bit bright to hear it. the recap at 2:07 was nicely done - similar to before, but some nice personalizations to mix it up. the lush pad work at 3:00 or so is really nice, and a fun change from the earlier instrumentation. 3:33 has the menu theme start up, and it's again well-realized into the style. the vocoder stuff was fun if unintelligible. the arpeggiated section at 4:52 was just so good, what a great idea there. the melodic material comes back around 5:02 and it's just got such verve, i love the way that you've arranged this section. there's an outro at 5:38 and that's a wrap. this is a great track and shows a ton of creativity in adapting the tracks to the style. nice work. YES

really patient intro. beat starts at 0:55 and really does have that squelchy late 60s sound (the sousaphone is such an eclectic choice, lol). this is actually really impressive in how you replicated some of the more traditional soundscapes with modern tools and mics. 2:27 is a shift from duple to triple, and does a nice job replicating the adjacent section in the original. there's a few dissonances i'd say are unintentional at 2:56 or so. the heavy, plodding beat at 3:05 is very fitting for the tyrano. 3:29 we get the big blow. this sounds great through here, and the guitar work feels very authentic to the style. the ending is kind of funny in how different it is. this is a fun take on a track that doesn't get enough love. nice work. YES

significant source usage. this'll be interesting. after some sfx intro work, there's a bit of the fithos theme heavily effected and pitch-tweaked. the sweeping distortion effects here are really neat as is the bitcrushing (?) on the tail of some phrases. the following section, of The Extreme, has some neat elements of macro vs. micro beats going on, although i couldn't understand a word of the vox part (this might be me, i'm terrible at understanding words in song). the section from 2:15 really has an impending-doom feel to it, it's a really neat vibe. 3:11 is a significant shift - it's much faster, and the mixing here is nowhere near as clear as the earlier sections were. notably, the booming kick has a lot of sub-40hz content that takes up the aural space and tires out my ear. the build however is great into 3:45, and the effecting on the lead is really fun. this section is a real toe-tapper and drives towards a half-time beat at about 4:17. this section was a bit heavy in the right ear. there's a true break at 5:03, with some dueling harpsichords, and we get right back on the 'train' at 5:12 for a little over a minute. the building tension into the clocktower sfx at about 6:20 was truly amazing - so many different concepts being layered in. and then at 6:40 we get another total tonal shift. this felt very sudden and completely detatched from the previous six minutes. the heavily effected vox parts were well-handled, and it's a neat idea, i just felt it was very separate from the rest of the track. the remix kind of starts back up around 7:44, and it feels again like the earlier sections with the heavy kick and driving energy. 8:27 or so feels like an ending is starting - there continues to be a lot of exploratory synth usage (and a wrench?) but it definitely feels like we're nearing the peak. there's chiptune stuff, there's ps1-sounding synths, and then we get what feels like some fadeout elements for an ending that hearkens back to the beginning. i didn't care for the last minute plus as i felt it built up but got too scattered for its own good, and then there was no real capstone to finish it off. it kind of keeps wandering through styles until there's the sfx outro and choir shout-out. i think - even if it wans't some big epic slamming blow - a more cohesive ending before the last maybe 25 seconds or so that wrapped the themes in one that was familiar to us by the time we got there would have felt more terminal. it felt like we were going there around 9:20, but it just tailed off instead of going for it. i feel like the ending was a real letdown, the rap section was pretty disjointed from the rest of the track, and there's certainly nitpicks in the mastering throughout as is expected for a track of this length. but the track as a whole is an achievement, and the overall experience is really something special. this is well above the bar. YES

this probably needs a new title. the variety of synths in the opening alone is just great. tons of creative noisy stuff going on all at the same time. 0:49's where it really gets going, and there's a ton of craziness going on in. i really appreciate the commitment to just getting dirty throughout. 1:40's shift is great - getting an extreme-g vibe from that hat sound, and the continued energy through this section is great. 2:15 does repeat the synths from earlier, but with different drums, so i don't mind the recap. if i am going to complain about any of this, it's that it really should have an actual ending instead of a hard cut like it has. the volume of repeated material is also worth a note - while i don't mind mostly repeated stuff if there's an attempt to mix it up, there are a few borderline elements in the last third of this piece, and the remixer's other track had a lot more by volume as well. that said, this is a fun take with a ton of attention paid to unique synth work and a good amount of energy. nice work. YES

this is a fun approach. short remixes need to use their time extremely effectively, as the other judges have noted - repetition or extended deviations from the material need to be carefully weighed. the track feels like it needs another minute overall, if only to balance the (big and pretty fun) bridge against the repetitions of the melodic material. i hear (roughly): A B A C A, with C being like half the piece. there's a ton of room to bring back the B material in the end, at least, especially if you're willing to branch out more and change the vibe up more around that section. A and B already have a notably different feel to them, so leaning into that would be a great compositional method. from a mastering perspective, i think the track sounds great, and there's good clarity between all the stuff going on simultaneously. your synth choices are fun and solid, so it's more a matter of making sure there's enough actual material that's not repeated. i'd love to hear this one back again with more body to it and a real ending. NO

neat idea. thank you for a detailed writeup. the initial drumbeat and groove really does have a Snarky Puppy feel to it, nice work there. i'm honestly surprised that the lead at 0:25 is FH and not trumpet. i didn't have an issue with the synth - the tone is straight off of We Like It Here, even the dryness next to the other instruments (although it could have used a touch more room verb on it). same with the one at 2:06. the chord progression at 1:40 is a neat idea. i very much liked the transition to this with the back-and-forth solos. the switch to 7/8 at 2:49 caught me off guard but again, i really liked the idea. the prog influences on all of this is super clear. 3:13 is a recap of the FH section from the beginning with some new synths added in. 3:32's subsequent 4/4 runthrough of the melodic material is a great way to prep for the shuffling outro and subsequent piano noodles to finish it. arrangement is great. you really nailed the Snarky Puppy style of melodic ensemble writing with a clear direction and a lot of variety in texture. the track sounds excellent throughout as well - the drier tone is in general an SP staple, and it's hard to do imo since it's so easy to just make it a desert, so excellent job getting that balance handled well. what a great track. bravo. YES

the intro guitar tone is just perfect. what a great sound, simple but effective. the beat comes in at 0:15 and is pretty snappy, and i noticed here that the track isn't particularly balanced from section to section (would love to hear some more compression). the melodic material is well-played by the guitar, there's a wrong note in the chord at 0:46 in the middle of the background, putting a minor third next to a major from the sound of it. the break at 1:21 or so with the ep is again an excellent instrumentation selection, fitting the style very well. 1:55 is a bit of stylistic change, and there's a few funky notes from the altered chords used there. after this it kind of noodles through some melodic material and then it's done. this is pretty simple overall, but the simplicity is a feature, not a bug. it's a nice approach to an underrepresented game. YES

yeah, i agree that the piano sample is not great, and it's not used great (lots of slammed velocities, little room sound). the thing that got me throughout the arrangement is how indeed the track does feel very cohesive despite the constant changes between themes. the ensemble feels great throughout, and i never feel like there's a transition where it was awkwardly shoved in there. it feels like a prog track with the constantly shifting textures and how you constantly are passing off the lead around a small cast of characters, a critical element in making it feel all like the same track. any complaints are nits, like the synth solo at 5:38 having too much verb/delay and too long of a tail, or the common intonation issues in the horns (which were particularly bad in the last minute or so of them playing). really impressive arrangement here. love it from start to finish. YES

i'm going to guess this was from 2023, not 2013 pulsing intro is a neat idea, underneath the distortion effects and some light pads. the E&S really fits over the rich pad work. the swell at 0:57 is nice, and the chord work is interesting to listen to. the percussion that comes in at 1:10 is indeed weak-sounding, with a lot of other elements much further forward in the mix. the guitar part is nice but very treble-heavy - i'm sure that's intentional, but it sounds a bit shrill and the rhythm guitar sounds pretty staticky as a result. 1:38 brings a break, and we're back to some of the vibe from the intro until a shift at about 1:58. i liked the arp that comes in at 2:38 and thought that the understated lead in this section initially was a nice idea. 2:59's short build into the final blow-through of the melody was effective, and the soaring synth lines over this ending section sound great. the subsequent outro is handled nicely and it feels good on the ending. this is an easy vote. the track sounds great, it's got tons of source, and it's a neat idea with the two tracks being combined together. nice work. YES

intro swell contains the piano loop with loads of rich string pads and bells, and some really luscious writing in the winds. it really feels like the music you'd hear in a BBC documentary talking about the sun rising on a spring morning, dew dripping off the trees and birds chirping and david attenborough wheezing his way through a soliloquy about a rare parrot or something. the suspension at 1:00 and subsequent resolution and root chord with the flutter in the flute at 1:04 is truly special. 1:53's the one part where i can really see significant shifts in the piano's writing, and it's probably my favorite part of the entire piece. it's very subtle and measured, and better for it. 2:25's choir is really nice. a simple way to reinforce the piano melody. the track, patient as it is, takes about a half-minute to truly end after it kind of finishes what it was going for, and we hear poor david walking away as the track fades out. what a patient and expansive arrangement, realized flawlessly and mastered very cleanly. superior work. YES

yeah, in general, lofi's detuning techniques really get to me. i can't listen for very long. the initial melodic hit at 0:26 is great. stylistically this sounds exactly like what i'd expect, and the little rainfall arps that drop down a few seconds later are just chef's kiss. adding in stripped-down lost woods melodic material later is also an excellent idea. 1:56's lead synth sounds incredible. what a perfect selection for the part. there's some new chords for the first time at 2:47 as part of an outro, and it's done. this sounds really solid. it's a unique, highly detailed take on two overused themes. excellent work. YES

this is a clever idea for a remix. foley work initially is solid. the initial melodic material is recognizable - putting it by itself with essentially no harmonic backing is a bold choice, especially considering how noodly it is, but it works with the weird vocal rumblings underneath it. 1:21 brings in some percussive elements and eventually an actual beat, and this is another section where the widely disparate elements work together a lot better than you'd think they would. there's some pitchiness in the live instruments around 1:56 or so. there's a big shift at 2:06, bringing in the brass and horns above what sounds like some altered time signatures through the body of premonition. 2:33's another one that feels like it should be way weirder than it actually was - keeping similar elements in the horns and sax there helped to tie those two sections together. 2:55's transition again is significant, but continues to use the horns and sax to tie together a witch's brew of different elements. 3:24's another break from melodic writing, spending time dancing through a variety of strong-attack instrumentation (bells, piano, a pretty funky organ) until it very suddenly shifts significantly at 4:09 to what feels very much like the outro on a long jazz track until it gets something more rhythmic at 4:31. there's some more fun sound design until the record skips and we get an outro for a bit at 5:02. there is a very eclectic approach here, in case it wasn't obvious in my writeup, and those always toe a fine line. for every one track that really nails the aesthetic of varied and different but approachable, there's like ten really weird space-cadet synplant randomizer AI tracks that just don't work. i think this is one of the successes. such a wide variety of approaches throughout that are way more than the sum of their parts. YES

ooh, haven't had a chiptune in ages that i've judged. it sounds great right off the bat. 1:00's the initial hit that the remixer says was the main content, and that's a great bit to build a track around. the groove immediately after is also excellent. the transition at 1:32 is actually pretty abrupt, but i didn't have concerns about the rest of the transitions - for example 2:35 is great. the flutters that come in right after this are just perfect. the beat at 3:11 was great and very catchy. that grooves out for a bit until we hit the ending, which is as MW said pretty abrupt. this is a fun listen. it sounds like i'd expect a chiptune to sound and it's got some fun elements to the arrangement. nice work. YES

the dark humor in the name is just hilarious. the triplet intro next to the duple lead initially was a little confusing for the first few seconds, but the first thirty seconds definitely have way more arrangement than any of the previous PP remixes i've heard. when the kick finally really hit at 1:02, i was really feeling it. this style definitely fits the original more than a traditional house approach. 1:32 is another break, building through melodic usage in a variety of synths to get back to a build beat at 2:24 and the full sound at 2:39. there's a short outro starting at 3:24 and it's done. it's pretty straightforward, and a good adaptation especially compared to some of the previous stuff you've submitted. it's great to continue to see progress in your craft. YES