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BIG TRANCE. this thing is a beast because it is epic and maybe that is why it will be so hit and miss. for me, it was certainly a hit. basically when you drop it like that at 2.32, you're going to either impress a person or completely smother them to death. and then maybe impress them for one, it's in motion... it grooves very well and is done with an intent for the audience to dance. secondly, it's a moving, deep trance piece with texture and a strong emotive lead. so as a piece of music, it does what it's supposed to do and more. the music is there. on the more technical side of things, the mixing is very POWERFUL and almost too powerful in the buildups and areas of heavy traffic... it sounds like it's going the mass approach where you're bringing a whole herd of instruments through the transition so it becomes a giant bottleneck stampede. that's why it has that offputting LOUD almost-clipping sort of sound. it should be brought down just a bit... maybe clear up some of the busy parts to give more singular instruments a bigger burden to carry... i've always found that doing that enables an instrument to shine. this is ridiculously close. YEScond.

no i meant it as a general impression that i'm getting from the last submission and this one. it really does sound like most of the stuff i've heard of that type of metal. i might be wrong but i trust my gut. anyways, didn't mean to single you out... i just love you like that, larry === and i had to edit "this=the drums" to clarify that i'm not happy about the drums

i'm with vinnie here. this was real neat. i was coming in strict and critical as hell on this track because i'm a huge quinn fox fan and mode serpent is legend. and i still walked away refreshingly impressed. maybe because the track, itself, is rather refreshing. yeah, anso, the note that he amps his drumps up to is a very jarring place to leave your drums for any duration but it is also particularly bold and, SURPRISE, totally works for me, i think. the instrumentation is tripped out, for sure... reminds me of a late 80's film score. this has a lot of skill in it and i can hear it through out... the production is truly top notch even if the drums are thin and repetitive, the instruments a bit cheesy (though the ambience is so ET... wait, did i actually hear ET in there?) i can hear intention, friends. i've always had that gift more than any other. i can't hear some of the frequencies and levels that my colleagues can hear and criticize but that's not what i'm good at. i'm good at smellin out bullshit and this track is legit. yeah, it's a little hard to swallow but i think and believe that this is the part of ocremix i understood and fell in love with a long time ago. the part we accept things for pushing the envelopes since this community, as a whole, is living proof of pushing the envelope. push it some more. YES

the intro slapped me in the face with how bright it is. it buzzes in my ear almost throughout. zircon said it best: harmony is often much louder than the melody in this track, giving it a very uneasy sound to it. the idea is stellar... it's far more emotive than i expected it to be (for being such a statically performed piece) and if it weren't for the terrible mixing and general lack of dynamic, this could be top notch. please do something about that soundfield... it's a mess right now. the lack of percussion is accentuated by how mechanical some of the instruments are, they're essentially the "percussive" elements here and it's drawing attention to the sample dynamics... worse yet, some of the strings are so loud and pitched, that they're exposed as well... sometimes, the trick to using samples is playing a sleight of hand of sorts balance out your orchestration, tone some of your instruments down so they don't attack the listener, and soak up some of that reverb so your piece isn't swimming in it. furthermore, an interesting point has been brought up... the original is tad more emotive than this because it is actually more dynamic... remember that when something is emotive, it is because it sounds relevant to us in a very human way... which means it has to sound at least somewhat human - i can certainly relate to a person but not likely to a computer. do that and this thing WINS. NOresub.

ugh. i'm not going to go on another metal RULES! rant here but let's be a little more reasonable here... there is very little wrong with this mix outside of the awkwardness of the "viking metal" genre. it isn't anything like the 4 on the floor trance shit we listen to every other submission where we can become accustomed to what we expect from the genre because we've heard it so much... i doubt any of us listen to "viking metal" more than once a year at most... if any kind of metal, at all. if there was ever a complaint it ought to be the drums... they can still be brought out more. they can still have a larger presence in the soundfield in parts. the chief extension of this problem is how the mix compensates for the lack of oomph in the drums by being very bass-heavy, making the whole thing sound very weird.... like an extremely topheavy structure. still, what on earth are we going to continue bashing the vocals for? sure they're fuckin funny... listen to em? it's like the cookie monster meets richard wagner. but that is precisely why this mix is so damn cool. let's avoid the "haha the vocals are funny" bit and start giving these guys some cond. votes rather than shutting the door in their face because we don't like or understand this kind of metal. YEScond. on those distant, disenchanted drums

i'm all about sounding raw around the edges and wouldn't have normally shot the piano down for sounding so flat on its face (lossy is what the normals will say) but then the piano shouldn't have sounded like it was being played by a robot... you can't pass the sound of the intro for anything other than technical fallout because the playing and performance is too mechanical otherwise. this is very unfortuante because the arrangement idea is fantastic. it is epic, grand... the guitar playing kicks ass, the energy is ferocious. this allie is a lucky girl to have such passionate, asskicking music written for or about her. however, your production is in a world of hurt. your drums sound as flat as paper with sizzling cymbals, the guitars often overpower coming through as a big wall of FZZZZZZZZ... the audience feels detached and you NEVER want that unless that is your ultimate intent and that wouldn't make any sense here. by the way, the lead at 6.10 playing "the theme" is tooooooo abrasive. don't do that honestly, this kicks ass and i love it. but it cannot go on this way. i'm forced to give this a NO with a resub rather than a conditional yes because there is a lot that needs to be done here before it's ready... your consolation is that you can arrange and play like a beast. just polish this up some more, encode it with something other than a meatgrinder and send it back to us. NOresub

you got somethin goin on but this is still a far ways from where it needs to be for release on the site. for one, the arrangement, like larry pointed out, is done in much of the same manner as the original... with that washed out (excellent wordchoice, mr. oji) industrial sound. i'm digging the idea but you went and simplified the original's groovy badass industrial thriller into a slowfooted stepsibling. whereas the original is upbeat, intense and creepy, the arrangement succeeds only at being creepy... but loses much of its energy all in all, this just needs a shot in the arm of some new ideas. it cannot simply try and do a different version of the same thing. i love the section around 3.50 - you need more of this. for now, it definitely is still a NO

the snare was hard to deal with but that was primarily because it was there the whole time through. the arrangement has its merits... it develops nicely, bringing in new elements in a timely fashion. the track is well thought-out if only roughly executed in the mix. this is good to go on every point but the production, where the guitars are overwhelming (though very well written and performed) and the orchestral elements in the intro swell up into a headjarring facelift. you have a great combination of textures here... the electronica, the orchestral and the metal all in one which can work (and i try all the time haha) but is heavily dependent on your ability to mix because of how different the dynamics of all three are. this track comes short only in this department, really. and that snare. otherwise, this thing is very close. the track is groovy enough, creative enough and on point in nearly every aspect outside of the mixing and that godawful snare, to warrant a conditional vote rather than a resub one from me. but i will not let my YES vote count without these changes YEScond.

niether is mine but you said you got it so i trust that

hang in there, brother

agreed. 10char

did you get mine?

this one's good to go. has elements of about 3 or 4 different flavors... a little zimmer, a little williams, a little warcraft and a lot of elder scrolls. the new version is better enough to pass it through. YES

hot - reminds me of some ol zyko songs firstly, the arrangement idea is solid as hell. i'm a huge fan of symphonic rock done without all the gaudy prog metal fanfare. this is raw and powerful but it is mixed so poorly that the orchestral elements throughout with the guitar is spaced out and thin. it needs to be meatier if it is going to compete with your biting guitars in the main mix. on their own, i like the orchestral parts a lot... sure there's a little bleeding between sections but overall, i like how it sounds given its context. secondly, your drums are far, far in the back. try compressing them more or bringing them out by simply making them louder. not sure what you're using to do your drums but if its a sampler, mess with them. the arrangement is fine. the production is a bit thin and the guitar is far too hans solo in the mix... it needs to sit with the rest of the boys, so to speak. and fix them drums! and you have a winner as the playing is creative, skilled and emotive NOresub please.

the idea you have here is cool cuz it's upbeat, ala mario kart 64 but the execution is where it falls. there isn't much variation from the source outside of the instrumentation and that isn't enough to qualify as arrangement. there are stretches of this where it gets interesting such as the synth guitar as it gives it more teeth but not much.... it really just plays what the synth was playing earlier. you're still a ways from where you need to be so i suggest you head over to the WIP forums and try and see if you can get some feedback on your track there to help you move forward with it. good luck with your track NO

interestingly enough, the very point you make here, larry, is what is happening in the other direction, i think. having remembered the track (which i No'd last time), i decided that i would listen to it without hearing any of the previous versions. i think that when a judge has heard too many resubmissions of the same track, the subjectivity changes there too. this track is considerably better than its predecessors i'm engaged throughout and while i don't like the ending at all... it sorta runs into a wall... it sounds like a coherent piece of music. there is a drop in energy but i think that's better said as a transfer of energy... this is now a very mellow dnb track... the sorta thing you'd let be your audio backbone on a shroom trip. i don't feel as lost as i did in the first one and while it is more busy in parts, i think it is a good balance, still and does not weigh it down. still, you have to fix the ending before it goes on. YEScond.

way to kick my ass at hello. i, too, am one of the stalwart few who didn't particularly like the game but are in awe of the soundtrack. the battle theme is also one of my least favorite of the game but youv'e done it quite a bit of justice which is one of my favorite goals of videogame remixing. secondly, the performance is nuts. very nice chops on the guitar, by the way. the drums bug me a lot, to be honest but it's mostly that snare, i think. the kick is a BIT too distant and it just doesn't sound like the same kit is playing the drums... imagine two different drumkits on stage... only, one is playing the snare and the other is playing the kick. change up the drums a bit and fix their production and they're set. the track is a little low on volume but not by much so that isn't the main issue. i have a problem moreso with the clutterness of the soundfield... i guess you can say it's muddy but it's more like stuffy. just clear it up a bit and you should be ok. fight for the future indeed... very fitting for where we are today in the world. the track struck me as a momentous NOW statement and i think this makes it necessary to pass... but that will come to you with a cost, friend: you have to bring us better drums and production then YEScond.

your snares are terrible. better to say it plainly, larry so there is no misconception made that they're almost where they need to be... they're so thin, they ound like you're hitting a flat disk drawer with a guitar cable. i will say, though, that your original sections are very nice. i still hate how it sounds in the soundfield with the awkward drums (where are the hats and cymbals? i can sorta hear the latter) but the writing is good. you've got a sort of tripped out prog rock thing going on but all your actual arrangement parts sound so consistently different that it is unnerving. it's like seriously listening to two completely different things. what's even worse, the transitions between the two entities is made awkward with the fact that the castlevania parts are largely unarranged... they are almost verbatim to their sources except with different orchestration giving the track the appearance that you just dropped stretches of castlevania in the middle of an original track. you have an interesting sound to your music and the ending and some of your original sections show that you do have some good musical ideas. but the arrangement and production sink this NO

it always sucks to lose any project fortunately for you, this is much improved over your original submission. the energy is fantastic and the arrangement and work in orchestration that has gone into is impressive. it's quite hot indeed in the mix but you know what, it rocks all the same. good shit. YES

honestly, you know you have a problem when someone who not only loves longwinded intros and long moody psychedelic tracks but also writes those kinds of musics thinks your track takes too long to develop. i take my time with intros because it gives me more time to bring in more things... the idea being to constantly keep your listener's attention with a changing landscape of sounds. simply put, nothing is repeated more than it ought to be in the exact same way. you're losing our attentions because you're letting things repeat too many times or go longer than they should. there were too many examples throughout to point out but many times, one of your musical ides or phrasings is repeated for upwards of a dozen bars. don't cite the genre because the best of the genre are always engaging your interest with constant change regardless of whether you're aware of it... the most classic form of this concept is Ravel's Bolero... which doesn't just meander about, it consistently alters itself while basically playing a minute's worth of music for a quarter of an hour. that's all that's wrong with this track. the idea is good, the groove is infectious and i am entertained and i'm lucky that i am into spacing out for me to have not completely moved on to something else. i don't mean this in a bad way at all but i think you should go back and shorten some of your sections or develop them differently and more coherently... it's basic composition that i'm suggesting, is all... believe me, you should want the scenario where the audience is FORCED to rewind to hear a certain stretch of music that really excites them. that is ultimately one of the biggest compliments you can get, remember. stay succinct and direct to the point and your audience will appreciate it. otherwise this is pretty close. resubmit it, please. vectorman needs more love. NO(resub)

count me in. blind is my boy and i wish i had known of this sooner. hang in there, brother.

this is freakin ridiculous genius.

this is very, very good.

oh boy, i'm still a yes on this. it still kicks my ass. the arrangement is distinctly better this time around and i don't see any problem with the original section... it's tripped out. the funky voice saying "barrel roll" is a little awkward but otherwise, this thing is spot on. like i said before... starfox and trance fans will dig this. still a YES

i agree that it seems stiff but that would be almost exclusively due to the fact that the drums are a loop here. that said, some genres benefit from that distinction and i think this is groovy at points... but ultimately that is where the track's only significant downside is. honestly, it doesn't really plod all that much... it does have some distinct parts to it and it transitions from them decently enough. furthermore, this is totally perfect dark. ========== yeah, i like it but im not yessing it outright. this needs a little more work. i don't think the drums are bad enough for an outright no... they just need to be beefier and because they're looped funny like that, they sound out of place... they need a real groove to them - the current one is too hard to get into. the loop you're using doesn't sound designed to carry a track for long stretches like that... it works, sure, but not very effectively... you should mix up the loops just a smidge... spell that one with one that grooves more straight forward, allowing your listener to follow the instrumental and then shake em up. this is very close as it already is pretty cool. YEScond.