Vig

this is way too straightforward. the instruments are bland, the groove is generic, the arrangement is predictable. there are very few layers in the track. bass, drums, melody, oversimplified pads. nothing remotely unique or interesting going on. to top it off, there's a weak fadeout ending. NO

this track is incredibly repetitive. the melody repeats the whole time, the drums repeat the whole time. there is some slight variation in the vox/pad thing, but it's way too little. NO

There are some problems with the sax's intonation..but the arrangement aint bad. it's a little shmalzy for my tastes. However i'd say this is more than 50% desperado, and i dont think we can accept that. NO

the string parts are too fast for the sample. or the other way around. the sample is akward. the low end instruments are very unclear, the piano, low strings, etc all sound mushy. on top of that the song is 2 minutes and the arrangement doesnt go anywhere. NO

people have written plenty on the pros and cons, so as usual i'll try to step back and cover the big picture. The instruments do sound a bit cliched. i've heard them all before. with that in mind, i also feel like there were great textures and instrumentations. I wasn't a huge fan of all the leads, but overall the dynamics and the arrangement are well-planned and gripping. There's plenty going on but it never gets too crowded. the biggest problem i see is that the ending sucks. goddamnit why cant people do endings? too sudden. too long a track to just drop. sucks. goddamn it. at any rate, the arrangement is very well constructed. it's a good song with a sucky ending. YES

ack...when the melody comes in there's a bad note in the harmony. others have already mentioned it. the beat makes this song sound cluttered, but there's a definite lack of texture. the rhythm instruments add clutter without cohesive harmony. the song is spastic without direction. generally sloppy arrangement. NO

i'm not very familiar with the source material, but i've got to say the soundscape here is impressive. lots of great texture in this piece. unfortunately the melody doesnt really do justice to the atmosphere. it's just there for some reason. the arrangement isnt strong enough to warrant making this a remix instead of just writing your own song over the ambience. the bass gets particularly repetitive under the melody, by the way. NO

Do i hear mother brain? the samples all strike me as clunky, the strings, the organ, etc. The section at 2:15 or so sounds like it needs some quantization...the bass sounds off to me. The maridia allusion is sweet, but the string lead sounds really unnatural. the flute solo is also pretty akward, not only the sample, but it also plays a bad note or two. generally i think the arrangement and concept are pretty damn good, but the execution is quite sloppy. better samples needed, otherwise some studio magic to hide the crappiness. NO

wait...this isnt blizzard man...this is a different level boss's theme...cant remember which...plus this file is 6.3 megs. i'm just confused.

some of these criticisms may be overblown because i'm a jazz snob. first off, the sequencing isnt tight. The piano in particular sounds off..it sounds like it was recorded poorly then not quantized, although it's possible it was quantized not taking into account the syncopated groove. Furthermore, the piano comping is hopelessly reptitive and mechanical. jazz pianists dont play the same chords and the same rhythms over and over again. the horns are all unconvincing, and the sequencing is mechanical at times and sloppy at others. i dont get it. some quantization is a must. The concept isnt bad, but this is very sloppy. NO

honestly the samples are hurting this mix a bit. the vocals in particular sound very unnatural. the composition is quite mechanical, and the arrangement is somewhat repetitive. there is certainly a dynamic crescendo, but it doesnt really lead anywhere, and then the mix drops out after a scant 3 minutes. also the low percussion instrument sounds out of tune to my ear. could just be me. NO

This piece is really a mishmash of sparse instrumentations and atmospheric effects that really lacks in terms of arrangement. minimalism is okay when done well, but here it just sounds like there ought to be more. the music is too active to really be atmospheric, and so the fact that there is little in terms of harmony or arrangement just leaves it feeling empty. NO

The second chord of the melody: The bass descends to the dominant 7th of the first chord, as in the original. The pads descend to the major 7th of the first chord instead, thus sounding like shit. make up your mind. NO

This is a really tough call for me. I love the really creative harmonic sections that do remind me of Reznor. There are lots of great ideas and lots of dynamic variety. however, the mix suffers from a plodding pace..the movement between ideas isnt quite quick enough. The drums get repetitive at times, and the texture could be deeper. i think the drums are a bigger concern than the texture though. rethink the drums and hurry the arrangement along and this is good stuff. NO

not bad for a start. however a lot of typical mistakes are made. the instruments are very simple. more texture would be good. the dynamics and arrangement seem largely random. there are lots of instances of instruments coming in and dropping out kind of randomly, and the arrangement has lots of repetition and little direction. keep working NO

very positive feel to this one. This song feels extraordinarily monotonous and here's why: The dotted quarter, dotted quarter, quarter rhythm is incredibly prominent in every measure and it NEVER CHANGES. There's nothing wrong with that rhythm, but from about :20 on it defines the rhythm section and it gets soooo boring. the song is short. add some new ideas, some new rhythms. the mix is short. you can afford to explore more. also there are some bad notes around 1:40. akward. NO

this is good stuff. There is certainly a good amount of exploration as opposed to meticulously planned arrangement, but it's quite impressive. Something that struck me about this piece and about house's playing is that he understands much better than most metal guitarists the value of dynamics. He knows how to play with few notes, which makes his (very) impressive chops sound that much more tense and kickass than if he were shredding for six minutes. The song meets our requirements for arrangement no question. sure a lot of the elaboration is guitar wankery and vamping, but who am i to take off points for that? the song certainly isnt perfect; some of the eq sounds a little thin, the organ in particular sounds weak. However, nothing here would prevent a YES good stuff from House. (the castlevania nod around 2:40 was very cute. I like that kind of shit.)

yeah wtf. i'm locking it.

not 10 seconds in and i hear clipping. another artifact around :35. the saxes sound really weak and far back. intonation isnt there. phrasing isnt there. you still really need to practice your phrasing and your tone. practice long tones. before you are able to pull off the fast riffs you are shooting for, you need to get a concept of phrasing. start slow. mashing keys isnt phrasing. you need to consider not just the notes you play, but the rhythms you play as well. Nothing i havent said before about koelsh's stuff. NO

i'm at 1:30 and so far i'm hearing more or less, the original. the attack on the strings is too slow, it sounds clunky and unnatural. at around 1:20 some piz strings came in and it sounds like they are 1/16th of a beat off or something...really akward. Although the arrangement gets more original past the 2 minute mark, the rhythmic clunkiness remains. the next section is more relaxed, but it feels harmonically and dynamically flat. it really needs more depth, more layers. Somewhere around 3:45 it's back to the original. it still sounds clunky, in some spots it almost sounds like you didnt quantize. underdeveloped arrangement plus clunky execution adds up to a NO

I'm changing my vote under no one's pressure but my own. Yes, the sequencing is very synthetic and mechanical sounding, (banjo, piano, elp) but i've decided it adds to the charm of the song, and the song is charming as hell. The arrangement is perhaps repetitive and it doesnt develop as much as i'd like, but it's really quite adequate. there are plenty of dynamic changes to keep things interesting. The ending sucks, there's no excusing that. but aside from that, this song is just too cool to pass up. the production is slick, and the composition is tight, funky and catchy. YES

I dont think it would take too much to make this passable. The bigger problems are that the EQ is very mid-heavy. make it beefier at both ends. the other problem as larry stated, it could use a bit more going on at points. rather than just playing through it a few times, build it up more, like at 1;52, that rocks. do things like that more often, and perhaps throw on some other instruments and layers to contribute to the beef. almost. NO

the piano sounds a bit thin, and it really stands out in a solo piano piece. as the others have said, the performance is a bit clunky. the rhythms and velocities are somewhat inconsistent. i also think the control pedal isnt used enough, causing some of the ritards to sound choppy, along with some sections that i think could use some added sustain. generally needs to be smoothed out. NO

i agree it's slightly akward at times, but i also thiink the chromatic lines are mixed with enough subtlety that they dont really grate or clash. i actually think they give the mix some character. i think it's a positive aspect, and i think the mix perhaps wouldnt be quite as interesting without those wierd lines. keep in mind that i'm being completely subjective and if someone else tried this type of thing i very well may hate it. aside from that, this mix is pretty beautiful, it doest take any big risks aside from the chromatic wierdness, but there is adequate dynamic play going on to keep my interest. YES

meh...it's decent. it's just incredibly straightforward. verse, bridge, verse, end. no real direction, no real expansion. Not up to mazedude standards, or OCR standards. NO