big giant circles

Lots of TaQ-esque elements going on in this one. BTW, I have the omgTaQbias going on here, as he's one of my preferred artists, not only in the BM/DDR series, but just as a musician in general. I can definitely see how someone could label his stuff as somewhat generic sounding, especially when they might not be quite as familiar with his work, but I guess the more you listen to him, he has a very distinct sound, and though certain parts of your remix are still quite similar, I think you've replicated a lot of it fairly well without blatantly ripping the guy off. The synth pad progression is very reminiscent to his stromatolite stuff. Nice energy flowing at 1:21 as the pace picks up a little. Pretty decent sequencing on the piano. I would have preferred that you ran some EQ sweeps and some other creative effects rather than the typical high-end-saturation and ping pong delay. The (subtractive?) synth around 2:38ish with the crazy filtering is pretty cool, again in the style of TaQ. Pixie's right about the transition. It's not bad; that being said, I think it could have been executed a little better than it was. The slower part seemed a little empty lacking any sort of bass accompaniment until... wait a minute, until the end of the song it seems. Was that intentional, or just an oversight? Wow, that's either a big mistake, or a really bold decision. Yikes. Hombre, I don't think I can quite bring myself to overlook that. It's one thing to drop the bass out for a portion of a song, but you've got 3 minutes of a track with absolutely no bass instrument support. That = a very hollow and IMO, incomplete track. Huge bummer. I was ready to drop a solid YES on this one, too. I really have no other major gripes. The only thing worth mentioning (and I've been told I have the same problem, mainly from zircon, and I think he's right) is that you've got a lot of emphasis on the low lows and high highs as far as the EQ is concerned, and as much reverb/delay as you've got plugged into this one, it makes it sound like you're sitting on a large open plate, with a sub-average sound setup, and it would definitely benefit to get a little more midrange, and keep it just a wee bit more dry. Not a huge deal. At least, nowhere near as big an issue as forgoing the bass altogether for 3 minutes. I'm gonna have to ask you to program some sort of bottom-end support to sustain your track. I'd love to hear a resubmit. I really dig this one so far, and quite honestly, the length didn't phase me one bit. Good luck with the rest of the vote, bro. Perhaps the rest of the panel won't mind so much. If they do though, be sure to bring this one back after you've tweaked it. NO

interesting. i'm not too keenly in favor of the urban-ish beat. mainly the snare. i found it pretty annoying after a while, and i think it's just because everything in the track has such a dry and stacatto feel. like when you play a song, and then decide to just screw around with the tempo just for fun. i guess this is kind of a fusion between r&b and d&b to an extent. Not really my brew of tea, but it is an intriguing take on the source. an overall pretty good interpretation--i think it's the execution that falls a little short on this one. the over-all choppiness tended to leave this one sounding a little empty. there's hardly any midrange to be found anywhere, so with only lows and highs, there's hardly any real depth to the track as far as the EQ goes. i personally found the brass rather awful; sorry man, don't know how else to phrase that. Dang, that snare--I really want something else to make an appearance. It's not that the drums were too repetitive, just that the one-shot samples were. I think it would have played out a lot better had you thrown some cool FX on the drums and switched up the samples periodically. I've been analyzing this for the past 20 minutes, so I'll just leave it at whats been said. NO

Well, upon first listen, first impressions were it seems a little too repetitive. Arrangement really should have more impact upon the final result, rather than relying on repeating what you've already done. It's redundant. Don't mean to sound really critical, but I found the log-drum-ish part to be a trifle annoying as the track progressed. This would be great as BGM, but as a standalone, it still needs some work. Production isn't too much of a problem as far as I'm concerned--the high frequencies don't really bother me so much. I'll vote *officially* after I hear the source, but as it stands, this track seems to repeat itself nearly verbatim at about 2:00, which is kind of a big red "X" on the voting ballot. Cool ideas, but I definitely think the arrangement gives this one a much more "uninspired" aftertaste. Bummer man. Arrangement really should have more impact upon the final result, rather than relying on repeating what you've already done. It's redundant. such a cheesy and obnoxious way to make a point, i know Unofficially NO till someone hooks this bloke up with some source-tunage. EDIT: k, having heard the source, i really have nothing new to add. kill the 2nd repeat, add something new. see previous vote.

I'm sure there's a handful of people who would find this to be the most absolutely l33t thing they've ever heard. Unfortunately, this track relies way too heavily on the beat and [omgbias]groove[/omgbias]. The instrumentation was awfully bland and hollow. It's the sonic version of eating a peanut butter and jelly-less sandwich (aka plain bread). Fill in the frequencies, man. Needs some midrange someting fierce. You can't always rely on a cool drum groove to carry a song into the winner's circle. Expand on the foundation you've got here. Perhaps find someone to collab on this one with you. I think you may find the right person's influence on a track like this invaluable. NO refine/rework/resub

well, to say that song of storms/windmill hut hasn't yet been remixed is a little inaccurate. it's just that none as of yet have been passed. i'm sorry to bear the bad news, but this isn't going to make the cut either, in it's present form. here's the short and simple of it. you've got a track that's six and a half minutes long. absolutely nothing changes. it's basically a loop over and over and over and over. no attention whatsoever to the "rearrangement" factor we're looking for here. at first, i thought you just had a long intro going on here, but then, after it kept going, i was thinking "man, 2:30+ is kind of a long intro" as i was expecting it to take a more emotive and refreshing direction, but it just kept it's course. right up until 6:31. Shorten this one up a bit, and don't rely so much on simply looping the source. Change up your instrumentation. And the metronome-ish cymbal ride is pretty dull. I mean, I think this does fairly well at conveying the mood of after a devastating storm, as it were, at least initially. but frankly, it's just too boring. you need to find a way to engage the listener. and i don't mean turn it into a 160bpm techno remix. even slow mood tracks can be engaging. NO on a separate note, let me just rant for a second. in regards to this source tune in general, i think it's somewhat of a pitfall for remixers to attempt. it's definitely got a catchy riff that can get stuck in your head for hours when playing the game, but it's basically about :24 seconds long. My own personal opinion is that this would either have to be extremely uniquely expanded upon as a stand alone, or else have to go hand in hand with some other LoZ tune to fill up the space and defeat the tendency of over-repetition. that is all. go back to your cyber-lives now.

I absolutely love this soundtrack. ... Wow. I know this OST like the back of my hand. Well, let me just say, this is not a smoking fresh track that you wrote. It is a blatant rip. Try reading our submission standards. Darn shame. I was really looking forward to hearing this one. NO OVERRIDE

Awfully addictive. This one grew on me further and further into the track. Terribly fun to listen to. I have no qualms that would hinder me from passing this. Fun fun fun stuff. Soitenly

I basically would be wasting valuable energy (takes a lot to type, ya know) by writing out an extensive vote, when basically I can pretty much quote TO verbatim. In fact, there is absolutely not one thing I can add that he didn't already mention, and not one single thing that I disagree on. So I'll just leave it at that. I hate to bust out the glib vote, but seriously, it's already been said. borderline YES congrats on another mix, roe. I know you've been a pretty persistent remixer despite a lot of no's. keep up the good work. just take it easy on the compression

pretty funky stuff. though i found the drums a little boring and wish to death that there was more variation in the choice of samples (same kick and snare and shaker throughout the entire song) i suppose i agree that the patterns changed sufficiently. i give this one points for creativity and execution of theme and style. the vocoded speech synthesizer is unique and refreshing. this is a pretty darn good turnout for a remix that's based on such a short and meatless source. YES

you're using FL right? what exactly are you using primarily in FL? default plugins? Sytrus? I'd like to know, exactly. I know you've gone through 2 resubs on this as well, and if you don't mind I might like to take a gander at your .flp PM me.

First thoughts--nothing too extravagant, but fairly enjoyable nonetheless. I thought 1:00-1:10 was a little hollow, but then the shortsynth jumped in to save the day. Heh, I really enjoyed the "c'mon!" throughout, though it was perhaps approaching borderline overuse. I guess after comparing to source, this is a lot like the Ambertrance mix that recently got passed. I think that though this is nothing spectacular, it's still YES worthy. It's a quality mix of a simplistic source that is produced rather well. And though it may not have the fancy embellishments that more and more mixers try to shoot for, it's nothing short of OCR-acceptable. YES oh, and by the way rofl

I liked this one quite a lot. That being said, it wouldn't take much more to nudge me over to the YES side of the fence. Here's the deal. The drum grooves are funktastic, you scored points in your pattern programming. The double edge to that sword is that for the most part, the drums are too loud and drown out the melancholy piano, which is otherwise great. The choir pad is way too quiet throughout. I could barely hear it at all. Sitar-like synth at 1:31 was pretty cool. Overall, the interpretation and genre-adaptation from source was terriffic. I just want a couple of those production issues fixed. I have no qualms with the minimalist approach. Only other quirk worth mentioning, and it's not a big one as far as I'm concerned, is what Vig had to say about drum transitions. They sounded a bit on the lazy side. I think you could have thrown in some ambient effects and more effectively utilized some fades to make the drums seem to flow a little easier rather than "Meh, I think I'm just gonna run out of steam and quit". This is definitely worth a quick tweak and resub, so I hope that's what happens. Great work, overall, and bring this one back soon! NO RESUBMIT

wasn't really sure what to make of this initially. parts of it seemed kind of rofl-ish; for instance, anywhere in the track that featured the "bop-du-wap" kind of vox. This track is saturated in the GM feel--pretty much every aspect of it. I suppose that there's some fun stuff going on in this track. 5:30ish sounded really muffled and cluttered. I personally would have preferred the track to simply end after the 5:00 mark portion was over... and even that dragged on a little longer than it should have. I dunno. This is not bad stuff, by any means, it's just too--cheesey, and I hate to say it like that, because I don't mean to sound really critical of the track in and of itself--I've heard some terrible stuff--we all have--and this isn't terrible. But the vox in addition to the extreme GM-feel of virtually every instrument, the sonic clutter during the "busy" parts and the gimmicky chiptuneish transitions have this interesting take on the SMW theme falling a few bars shy of the OCR goal. Fun stuff, just a little long, and definitely craving some better selection in terms of instrumentation, but this would be a great song on any other music tribute site as-is. NO

nice. very nice.

I'll be honest, I like the drum loop. It's groovy. Unfortunately, this track is, to quote the mighty Bilbo Baggins, "butter scraped over too much bread". Just doesn't float as acceptable by OCR standards, for exactly the reasons Larry's spelled out. That's great that you're trying to get your bud's music heard and all, but generally, it's not really good form to submit anyone's work but your own, for various reasons. I think the one that applies most to this particular situation, is that your friend (and you, it would seem) are not familiar with the submission standards and guidelines. Read them. Know them. Love them. Cherish them. (Oh, and yeah, 12MB is kind of a slight no-no.) YES (to Larry's NO OVERRIDE)

interesting... is the "dont come!" from time crisis I?

Last day for the group buy! $109 - 70 bucks off!

Who ees dis SGX? Sum n00b? ::listens to track:: Ja, definitely sum n00b. j/k. The track is awesome, btw. Very relaxing. Great work!

DS is right--too much reverb. LT is right--too little interpretation. So yeah--too dry, dull, and underdeveloped. Not to sound short/rude, but this hardly lands close to what OCR is aiming for. Keep at it, and better luck next time. NO

Source - track 3-06 "Shala's Theme" Stylistically similar to your MP2 mix, the source is built upon with a substantial degree of ambiance. Pretty chill kind of vibe throughout. Definitely seems to have more direction than your previous submission, and by that, I mean the chord progression and theme themselves seem to have a more solid structure. Lots of phasing going on in this one, almost makes it sound low-bitrate-ish at times, at least the support pads. I actually like how the percussion stays really soft throughout. The leads themselves are a little on the rigid side. Harp was a nice touch. I really dig and appreciate the effort you've put into the soundscape, here. The minimalist approach seems to fit this theme nicely. I think you've made a lot of progress on this one since the last submission Shaun, nice work. I'd say my main qualms would be the overly-mechanical melody, where I think you could have really utilized some slow pitch-bending techniques to really stir up that droning, ambient, vibe. Also, I hate to say it, but the arrangement leaves room for expansion. It didn't jump out immediately, mainly because your mix is done at a slower pace than the source, but there's plenty of room for you to take this theme and really truly make it "yours". I'd like to hear a resub on this one, for sure. Bend it, flex it, expand it, and really make a killer "avaris arrangement", in addition to the style. Do that, and you're in the green. Keep at it, bro! NO RESUBMIT

cool take on the theme, i really like it a lot. I absolutely loooove the stuttering. very creative use of the technique. guitar is beautiful, drums are ok... but kind of shallow. i'm kind of surprised at all the YES's on this one. This song has absolutely AWESOME AWESOME potential, but Larry's right. There is no meat. I repeat, NO. MEAT. The EQ has almost completely neglected the low end. This, my friend, is a WIP. I just can't get myself to be OK with this as a *completed* track. In terms of arrangement, 2:11 was kind of an awkward transition, but I liked the ambience thereafter, but I would have really appreciated more development from that point on. Rather than one 3 minute track, this seems more like listening to 2 short, underdeveloped tracks. Branch out on some ideas, fill up some more space, bring the bass and drum parts out. I think there's a great opportunity to throw a great bass riff in there. I wish "Moon Rhapsody" was already posted so I could give you an example of a track with a great bass countermelody and bass support in general. Keep at it, I'd hate for you to not resubmit this one, Chris. NO, PLZ RESUBMIT! KTHXZOMGWTFBBQBYE

i really like the *studio* version of this song. i've discussed this in #ocrjudges, because while i appreciate the *style* and intentions here, OCR has kind of evolved into a very finely-polished showcase. And while all genre's, styles, etc. are received with an open mind, some things just simply don't fit no matter how interesting the approach (Shnub's Espergirl comes to mind, which I LOVED) Quoth the submission standards: so yeah, that's pretty much it. as fun as it is to have a "live" version of your track, it's not really got that "showcase" appeal. I'm not saying I'll never YES a live track, but the deliverance is a little weak on this one. So I guess Malcos summed it up in a less-wordy fashion. I dig, man, but it's just not for here. NO

bump. $50 off and still a week to go before the group buy is over. That's about %30 off!

does anyone else think that's funny? Larry, I woooooove yooooou!!!!

Larry, you moron, Space Cadet Pinball has been installed on every Windows machine since what, Windows 95?! It's like fucking Solitaire, except it has music! ROFL No seriously, I don't care who you are. That's funny. I've half a mind to post this on the "Currently in the J-ing process" thread. I'll try to get an actual vote in on this tomorrow.