Gario

Not bad at all, you'll be hearing an update in here before the end of the month.

Honestly, I've heard plenty of this genre to know that much of this is standard death metal fare - sweet complicated guitar work and incomprehensable growls that make more sense the more you listen to them. I agree with Mindwander on some of the vocals being mixed too far behind the guitars. It's so much better at 1:57 when they take center stage, but even what we have elsewhere is plenty postable on OCR; I can still hear and understand the lyrics when they're more behind the mix, just oddly mixed. Overall this is exactly what I'd imagine if someone said "Death Metal Mole Knight", and I'm more than happy to see this where it belongs. YES

I would like to mention that I now have a cat called Caligula, so it's very funny to see the review call my arrangement "Caligulan". :3

Coming in as a fresh judge on this, let's see what we've got here. Interesting source, and the arrangement changes the pace of it to sound more energetic, which is pretty cool. The arrangement is interesting for the first thirty seconds, but the arrangement repeats the sections while layering more items on top of it about three times before moving on, and returns to this same section at 3:02 to close the track out. The issue this creates is a sense of repetition that while not *exactly* repeating it *feels* like it because the same instruments are doing the same thing over and over again while adding items on top, so the textures are repeating and causing the arrangement to feel dull (it's what the judges and I call a track being "too static"). If you insist on doing something like this, at the very least be willing to drop textures out and/or have different instruments fulfill the textures that are playing, that helps keep the track interesting for longer periods of time. The section at 1:50 does a lot to revitalize the arrangement, though, so an alternative is to simply have fewer iterations of the original idea, have the layering happen faster so that there isn't as much overall repetition in the arrangement. Concerning the production values, there's mud created by the pad, the long cutoff with the lead, and the oversaturation of reverb on many of the instruments. It creates a good deal of mud throughout the arrangement. As far as the simpler instruments are concerned (like the fake guitar-ish instrument used at the beginning), while they don't sink the arrangement I would consider asking yourself if they were being used as filler while you found an instrument that best complimented the overall arrangement, as often an artist might use any instrument to fill a role so they can get the music down quicker without returning to see if other instruments might sound better in the role. Something to consider, but if that's the sound you choose at the end I won't hold it against the arrangement. The static nature of the arrangement does sink this below our standards, though; it was difficult to listen to all the way through since I was getting tired by the minute mark. The bridging material in the middle provides a fantastic breath of fresh air that I enjoyed, so either make the material getting there more interesting or perhaps trim the material approaching that section so we can get to the other good stuff faster. NO

You tend to forget that this was created by HAL Laboratories until you listen to the OST, which sounds like "What if Kirby All Stars, but Medieval?"

I think it's easy to see this track's obvious strengths - the arrangement has so much fun changing up the harmonic make-up of the source, and it works deliciously well. The melody ain't changed a bit, which really emphasizes how well the arrangement works "under the hood", so to speak. It's far from a complex arrangement otherwise, and it repeats it's harmonic ideas once it's done running through them once which causes them to lose a little flavor as the track progresses, but it's a short track so it's not like it wears out it's welcome, either. The instrumentation is simple, but it works for what it is. The piano is the centerpiece of the track, being it's essentially a piano piece with some backing drums and SNES SFX, which is fine. The sequencing on the piano is acceptable for what it is - if it's not a few MIDI controller performance inputs it does a solid job of adjusting velocity to give the parts life in a believable way. The instrument choices are nothing complicated, it knows what it is and runs with it. Might've been more interesting if the arranger was willing to spice it up with other accompanying instruments, since the drums and SFX take away from it being a solo piano arrangement (and the arrangement itself would've been too repetitive had it been piano alone), but it's not bad as it is, either. I could easily see this track expand it's ideas into a more thoroughly explored arrangement, but I don't think I'd reject it just because it could have been more fleshed out. It's a short and pleasant idea, and it plays itself out and exits center stage - it does exactly what it wants to, and what it wants to do is something cool that others should be able to enjoy. YES

It's bLiNd, so the production is about as good as I can expect - pretty much without blemish - and I like the central ideas and build-up that the track is based upon. I can't ignore that 0:14 - 0:55 is the same as 1:56 - 2:37, as is 1:43 - 1:56 the same as 3:25 - 3:38, with other sections having relatively subtle changes that are tricky to distinguish unless you listen to them side by side. I'm with Flexstyle, I've sent back less repetition in the past, this isn't going above and beyond the standards to ask that there my less direct repetition; there's plenty in here to build off of to make a great track, which unfortunately sounds like half of a track that got sent on repeat at the moment. NO

Welcome, hope you find a welcoming space that helps you in your craft here! If you haven't already, be sure to check out the OCR discord, as well, since a lot of members are pretty active there, as well. Hope you enjoy the space here :)

Honestly one of my favorites on the album, I've listened to this one a lot. If anyone needs a track to start with in this album, may I suggest the one with a fantastic vocalist and amazing arrangement to one of the best Nobuo Uematsu's ever made.

One of these two sources are a favorite of mine (cough Unknown Lands cough), so perhaps I come in with a little bias in saying I think the arrangement was very enjoyable. The production and instrumentation was great, as well, even if the bass was a *tad* heavy for the orchestral genre. Aside from the cut-off at the end (I agree with prophetik's comment that it should've had more of a sustained tail at the end), I also think the transition between sources was abrupt and unexpected when they happened. Not at all a deal breaker, but the sources didn't really transition in a way that made great sense. I hear the source references to one another, there's blending, but the key change and source changing is very abrupt and definitely took me out of the music for a second when it happened (at 1:42, specifically, and a bit at 3:33 as well). In contrast, that opening minute handled the two sources together gracefully and naturally, so it took me out of it when it was so jarring later. That aside, fantastic arrangement and definitely worth the front page. YES

Holy Moley, did this revision help the track out! There's actually a lot I was missing in the original due to that drone, such as that bass guitar that holds the droning bassline (plenty to link it to the source IMO). The section from 1:09 sounds buttery smooth now, and it offers a lot of great contrast to the opening drone. It also sounds even more like the iconic track that it's paying homage to. Needless to say, the 70's flair that I loved so much before is still here in full glory, with none of the unintentional mud in the production, and the synths & instruments are still top notch. Thanks for the fix - I'm actually surprised just how much this improved the track. This went from a close NO to a "Holy crap why isn't this on the front page yet" YES - fantastic work! YES

Hey, not everything needs to be for the site, this is a cool little arrangement regardless. Loved the changes you made at 1:56, it helped keep the next pass fresh. Hope others give it a listen

Reference to MHA Vigilantes makes this an instant winner. The slick FM sounds, funky arrangement, and crisp singing helps seal the deal.

I think I hear what you mean - if some of the elements were more sidechained then there would be fewer instruments unintentionally dropping in and out due to overcompression. I think we're on the same page, here; if this was fixed with more direct and intentional sidechaining to give instruments space that'd probably help address my concerns, too.

Oh man, this is a really cool arrangement - much agreed with my colleagues above that the use of the sparse source throughout is great, and the nod to Pink Floyd is top notch (from my favorite album of their, no less!). The synths used are thick and rich, and just ooze with 70's distortion and flare. I do, however, have to mirror MW's comment about that pad & organ that holds that droning note throughout the entire arrangement - it's just too loud when everything else comes in and takes all the space those instruments need to stand out. I don't mind it when it's pretty much the only instrument there, but from 1:09 onward that drone needs to be mixed down a bit to give some space to the other instruments. If you want to maintain that distortion that it gets through limiting a loud signal you can achieve that effect prior to the master bus and then mix down the master. I really do like this, I just don't think I can justify it quite like this. I hope to hear a revision with this corrected soon! NO