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Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

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Posts posted by Liontamer

    OCR04803 - *YES* Super Mario Galaxy "Dancing with the Wind"

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    Obviously not a spaghetti Western track, but I got some pasta Morricone vibes from this regardless, thanks to TSori at 2:09 along with the complimentary guitar and percussion, of course. Oh boy, Pearl Pixel on oboe at 4:55 was a quick treat as well with excellent interplay with the lead. Dayum, this is super smart arranging!

    I greatly appreciated the fullness in the performances. Great original writing elements & performances here throughout to bolster an already strong composition. 

    YES

    *NO* Worms & Worms Armageddon "The Legend of Boggy B"

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted · Edited by prophetik music

    Artist Name: TheManPF

    Additional artists: Zach Chapman; Angry Polar Bear (Chris Doughty)

    Worm time, I made this all the way back in 2022 for Dwelling of Duels' Dreamcast week, I never actually touched a Dreamcast, but I did play this game on PC, so it was my first pick because of familiarity. It also happened to be my highest ranking entry in DoD ever (tied with Rib Eye Rodeo), who would've thought? I didn't, I did the original version in 2 days, and it's one of my most straightforward arrangements ever, but people seemed to enjoy it.

    The original version was a solo project, however a few months after I decided to put out a "definitive" edition, something that makes this piece a little more "complete", I brought in Zach to help me with the bass, and Angry Polar Bear (how is he not in here already! how!!!) to help with some of the narrating bits of the original Wormsongs. Originally, this was just an arrangement of Armageddon's version of Wormsong, no vocals, but when I expanded on it, I added the original Worms' version to it, Chris gave it life by doing the narration for both parts, and I did some speedup tricks for the choruses to make it sound like a bunch of wormies singing (or chipmunks, whichever way you choose to look at it). In the end this feels a lot better about telling the legend of Boggy B in full, with all the drama and tension that entails.

    Arrangement wise this is as straight as it gets, I only had a week to work on this (which got reduced to a couple days because of work), and whenever I have little time, I always go back to my roots, lots of metal with symphonic bits, which is the usual style I used to make when I had a regular schedule on youtube, maybe I should go back to doing more of these? Who knows.

    Lyrics: 

    This is a story of courage, honor, and Worms
War had cast a shadow over their once-peaceful land
Gunfire filled the air, as Worm turned against Worm
Where so many had fallen, others knew they must follow
For one such Worm, this day had already come
When he was two, his father had left - never to return

Three years he had waited for his chance to fight
Three years of training, both day and night
And though he was scared as he set off for battle
He knew in his heart it was something he must do
Three inches tall and armed to the teeth, a fine soldier he made
And his name was Boggy B

(We are Worms, we're the best, and we've come to win the war
We'll stand, we'll never run; stay until it's done
Though our friends may fall and our world be blown apart
We'll strike with all our might, we'll fight for what is right
Till the end)

Many Moons have passed, since the Worms went to war
Onwards and upwards, bigger weapons than before
Boggy B took cover, he shivered on patrol
The arms race crazy, simply way out of control

Then his friend threw it, the latest device
Boggy B went and got it, against all advice
(What the...?!)
His tail was split, and his energy lost
How many more will this dreaded war cost?

Then came the Nuke, and the disease tumbling down
If the bug didn't get you, you'd probably drown
But the Worms battled on, through hunger and pain
Living to fight, just to victor again

And now it's the curtain call, the final onslaught
No better bullet could you possibly have bought
But spare a thought for Boggy and with it his friend
So fight with their honour, and fight until the end

(We are Worms, we're the best, and we've come to win the war
We'll stand, we'll never run; stay until it's done
Though our friends may fall and our world be blown apart
We'll strike with all our might, we'll fight for what is right
Till the end)
    Games & Sources

    Games: Worms; Worms Armageddon
    Songs arranged: Wormsong (https://youtu.be/c0RlZsE3o6E); Wormsong '98 (https://youtu.be/fXl4WsFfI4Q)
    Original composer: Bjørn Lynne
    System: played on PC but apparently came out for Dreamcast as well
    Year: 1995 and 1999

    OCR04833 - *YES* Shinobi 3 & Rise of the Robots "We Built an Edifice Towards a Dark Sky" *RESUB*

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    Voted on the last version, so I just wanted to see what was up with this one.

    Nitpicks: The bassline from 1:10-1:53 was SO QUIET, not sure what the point of that was. There were still some piercing highs during 2:06's section as well.

    Definitely more attention paid to varying up the instrumentation, with 3:48's area being the most standout example of that. Thanks for the effort to remove the non-melodious cruft as well.

    Solid improvements!

    YES

    OCR04731 - Chrono Trigger & Donkey Kong Country "Ambience of the Forest"

    in ReMix Reviews & Comments

    Posted

    1 hour ago, jnWake said:

    This one got posted fast haha, always nice when that happens! I'm very proud with how it ended up, collaborating with Emunator worked out great and it was super fun.

    The writeup on the mixpost page has this line as a quote: "Hehe, there is always room for new things, even for the most "overcovered" themes. The 2 tracks go surprisingly well together, don't they?"... I'm fairly sure I never said that haha, was that Emunator?

    Some YouTube replies of yours from 2 months ago. :-D

    OCR04757 - *YES* Chrono Trigger "Corridors of TimeShift" *PROJECT*

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    image.png

    HA! Gario put that in our #judgechat and it requires being shared with the world. :-D "ChroNES Trigger" would have also been an acceptable title too. :-)

    Dropoff at 1:09 was "WTF", so nice way to catch me off guard, then shifting to Game Boy-style instrumentation at 1:18. I put a hex on you for 3:28-3:56's section, but the slow de-sync to re-sync was a fun idea. :-P

    Nice deconstruction at 4:07; not the mooooost engaging thing to listen to, though I'm trusting it to go somewhere, so I'll let it simmer. The track filled out the most at 5:00, and to me the way it essentially crescendoed here is disappointing. 5:35 though had a nice textural change to start winding down (not really, as it spun right back up).

    It'll sound like I'm saying I didn't enjoy it; to me, this is good, but the track plateaus in energy too early and then some sections feel like they go a while without saying anything new for too long. When the texture changed up at 6:27, I love it, but it also should have happened, say, at 5:00 instead and you wouldn't have lost anything, IMO. Though I wouldn't be shocked at a NO for basic production, the creativity is there for me. :-)

    YES

    OCR04777 - *YES* Final Fantasy 7 Remake "A View from the Top (of Shinra HQ)"

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    I thought Shea's Violin somehow got hired for FF7 Remake when I heard 2:07's violin solo in the source; wow.

    Onto the arrangement, just as Hemo's noted, this was very conservative tone-wise, but nicely done figuring in some new instrumentation choices and writing ornamentations. It's a perfect example of an arrangement that, energy and tone-wise, deceptively sounds more like a close cover. Kev's drums together with Andre's bass give this pure sophistication and depth, while Michelle's vivacious vocals expertly set the mood. I enjoyed Ronin's vibrant take on the violin and then newmajoe's stylish sax afterward into their leading duet at 3:20 was awesome! And jnWake's keys are luxurious with a capital LUX. Nice job on the performances, everyone, and nice job to TheManPF on steering the ship. Smoove personified!

    YES

    *NO* Dragon Warrior 4 "Twisted Systerz" *RESUB*

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    The panning's way too wide here. Perhaps on monitors/speakers it's no big deal, but it sounds awful on headphones, too many elements predominantly on one side or the other, which isn't a natural way to listen to music, and the overall sound feels substantially lossy and dull, which is a dealbreaker.

    The sound design's meaningfully improved, though I'd argue the core beats (1-2-1-2) still plod from the start despite more interesting stuff going on around them and some more variations; it could partially be a sound design thing.

    Writing-wise, finally some more interesting stuff going on with the dropoff around 1:21 and using that a rebuild into picking the beats back up at 2:01. Good job trying out different textures and sound design for the verse at 2:03; these ideas may have been introduced in some earlier revision, I'm not sure (there've been quite few), but the main point is that over time you've picked up on a lot more ways to vary up the presentation and keep these same verses & choruses fresh, which definitely wasn't happening in earlier versions.

    IMO, the beats still drag, so I'd love some musician Js thoughts on why they're still underwhelming and any creative suggestions on giving them more of a spark without needing an overhaul. Good progression though in terms of creativity and quality, it's moving well in the right direction, Eric. :-)

    NO (resubmit)

    EDIT (11/8): Saw the revised version in the submission thread comments. Definitely an improvement where the panning issues are done away with. Still need to get the plodding beats worked out a bit more, and the overall mixing cleaned up. Much better section at 2:03 with the newly-added belltone ornamentation. I'm still not there yet, but tt's definitely coming along gradually.

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