Liontamer

The only think I don't like about Kwed's layout is that there's nothing designating game arrangements from demo arrangements. But yes, everyone should be going to RKO and DLing everything they have.

I offered it in the first post; I knew it would be fun! Yeah, Off-Top has that advice thread, but watching most of those guys in action is like the blind leading the blind.

Please Banhammer, don't hurt 'em! Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Nah, I'm right. Besides, we're not really discussing the same topic. The only thought I had walking away from your blog post, Doug, was "Man, he sure knows how to pick 'em."

It was an interpretive, well-put-together arrangement. The rules haven't changed much. I'll just attribute those last two comments to some sort of Hispanic racism versus trackers and Swedes.

Congratulations, Matt!

Doesn't matter what it is, I read them all. I don't mind when we receive lengthy submissions letters. Nah, that's a bad reason to NO a submission. Like zircon said, personal preference is just one potential bias we have to put aside. That's what intense physical attraction is. When you first meet someone, you mentally size them up. There aren't really many exceptions. If they pass your physical attraction test, they're potential dating material. That doesn't mean you'll necessarily try to move forward with that (especially if you have no other info to go on). I'm just saying that based on physical looks only, you quickly lump the person into either yes or no on whether they're potentially date-able. You're doing this whether you realize it or not. That's fine, that's what you should do. I certainly haven't said otherwise. You yourself just don't want to use dates for that; that's also fine. Many people though will ask girls out just off the physical attraction test, using dates as a forum for learning more about them and deciding if it'll go anywhere. To many, beauty is a very compelling factor; enough so, that they don't need more info than to pursue something romantic. They'll fill in the blanks later. There's nothing wrong with being friends when you're not compelled to want a romantic relationship with that person. But once you truly know you want to pursue a relationship, you have to drop the pretense of friendship now that your feelings have changed, and you ask the person out on a date. That's where most guys makes the wrong decision and stay the friend, not wanting to rock the boat. Under no circumstances should you continue playing the role of the friend and suppressing your own interest after you know you'd want to date the person. When you act as a friend despite wanting more, you're basically saying to a girl "Don't think of me as a romantic interest. We don't have those kind of interactions."

Happy birthday to former workhorse judge, Brandon "Harmony" Bush, the crooning-est black man alive, and my twin brother in the community! He's now reached the age of OOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!

Bah. Also, here's to older women! Happy birthday, Jill! Looking forward to the album!

I just got my copy of our interview in the mail this afternoon, Dan, thanks a lot for sending it my way, I really appreciate it. Maybe one of the Js can host my scan of the print article. I'm definitely looking forward to the full transcript eventually going up!

I think he knows that.

Lemme clarify. If you meet a girl, you want to pursue a romantic relationship from the start, and you try "friends first", that's stupid and only works in films. It's stupid to suppress what you're actually after and have the girl classify you as "just a friend." That's basic Ladder Theory and wholeheartedly against a "friends first" philosophy. For the following, keep in mind this is because you're honestly not interested, not because you're bullshitting with "friends first" and hiding your interest. In zircon's case, and also my own, if you meet a girl and you're not pursuing a romantic relationship with her, then it's more than fine to be friends. But if and when you realize that you now want to pursue a romantic relationship, AND you get legitimate signals from her that she wants the same (very rare, and usually something guys don't realize is required for this to work), the friend dynamic from you then needs to be dropped in favor of dating. I don't know of anyone of any age who finds someone that way. No, dating is just the courting process after you've decided to pursue a romantic relationship. It doesn't matter when, where, how or how often you've met the other person. Not to sound insulting, but meeting and talking for the first time as a date is a blind date, clearly not understood as typical dating, but a subclass of dating. Ok. Yeah, I think the nature of the submitted music has the potential to change. Many people born in the late 80s and early 90s probably got started in the 4th generation of consoles, while some younger kids that you may hear in the next 2-3 years started gaming in the 5th generation of consoles. Still, with retrogaming so strong nowadays with it going legit, I don't think people getting into ReMixing the classics will die off. Retrogaming covers this somewhat, so the more melodic older stuff should still get some attention. Also, every time I have even minor doubts about the resourcefulness of the community, they collectively come out with some good interpretive material. So on that level, working with music into the 6th generation of consoles and beyond shouldn't be a problem that dramatically messes with the amount of ReMixes we'll receive. It'll be prohibitive to a significant amount of musicians due to a lack of MIDIs compared to older games, but I think we'll be OK.

Oh don't worry, it definitely validates what I was saying. Gotta get that 1-on-1 time in and learn about one another in person. I dunno what other method Jeremy is suggesting for effectively doing the same thing.

Hookups aren't more common, they're just less taboo, so you hear of them more. Are you saying people typically don't go on dates nowadays? Because that's the only point I made. No matter how people meet (a hookup, a class, a frat party, a mutual activity, a dating service, a club), most couples end up getting their true start at learning about one another with actual dates. Andy and Jill's relationship progressed because they visited one another and went out in real life, not because they can use IRC. The internet was just how they happened to meet each other. But none of that replaces actually spending quality time getting to know about the other person. If you can't do dates, then guess what? You're doing it all wrong.

3 was the giveaway.

Was probably previously incorrect information on Wikipedia, or it could have been the B-Type for another release. It's fixed. If you don't see it immediately, it just needs to cache.

Gonna need a Magic 8-Ball for that... [/shaky shaky] "Better not tell you now"

Yeah, I would have mentioned that a game series was the clue. The hints gave Rockman away of course. Cool puzzle, Don!

In terms of tempo, structure, and mood, "Icy Peaks" was a lot different compared to its source. I didn't get that from this piece at all, which is why I NOed.

Name: DrumUltimA Real Name: Doug Perry Email: drumultima@comcast.net Website: http://drumultima.livejournal.com ForumID: 3877 Name of Game: CHRONO TRIGGER! Name of songs: World Revolution, with little bits of Last Battle, The Chrono Trigger, Fanfare 1, Robo's Theme, Ayla's Theme, Chrono and Marle, Kaeru (frog)'s Theme, and Battle with Magus So here it is: "Lavos is Inconsistent" Lavos is inconsistent when it comes to being good--because he's bad! This mix is supposed to illustrate a battle between Lavos and Chrono and his friends. They start off fighting as you normally would, and then Lavos tricks everyone into becoming friends. Then he eats them! I guess with this remix I concentrated a lot with sounds--what I could make, what I could do with pre-existing sounds, etc. Oh yeah, and as always, if this gets rejected, please leave the URL posted. http://drumultima.googlepages.com/lavosisinconsistent.mp3 Enjoy! -Doug --------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "World Revolution" (ct-313.spc), A bunch of 'em The production felt a bit rough. Would love to hear better separation of the parts for some increased clarity. I think it would benefit the complexity of the textures. Wow, the sequencing and tone on the guitar synth at 1:09 (and again at 2:01) was awful. The cymbal shots starting at 1:25 sounded gratuitous for some reason. Not sure what the point was of the building dissonance via the bubbly synth from 1:37-1:50 or using it again from 5:34-5:48 to close the track up. 2:23-2:44 felt aimless to some extent; not in a good way. Cooler stuff at 2:51, especially the harmonization and countermelody brought in around 3:03. The drums brought in at 3:18 were OK, but I would have pulled back the cymbals myself. Everything still has a cluttered, lo-fi feel to it. Went off the rails a bit at 3:48 when the two different sections of "World Revolution" worked in tandem, and everything was cluttered and clashing until 4:15. Pretty unwieldy, and there were plenty of moments like it that dragged this down and undermined the flow. Good recovery at 4:15 with a piano take of "World Revolution" followed by the synth version. More dual theme stuff at 4:46 that felt like it merely got in the way. Wasn't really feeling the changes in the percussion from 5:12-5:28, seeming busy for no particular reason. Overall, I'm liking the concept, but the execution falls flat. On the production side, the sound balance needs some work done. On the arrangement side, despite the good interpretation ideas, I'm not sure why all these jarring moments were there, but they added up. Whether it was dissonance or the drumwork being too loud and busy and preventing the textures from gelling, there were a lot of things making the structure feel sloppy and unfocused. And no, I don't think the name of the track justified it. The other votes will be interesting. I think you should go back and fine tune this one, Doug. The potential is clearly there. NO (resubmit)

Name of ReMixer: Michael Pear Real name: Michal Hruška Nane of song: Holy Nature Game title: Final Fantasy XII Name of arranged song: Romance ---------------------------------------------------------------- "Romance" is from the FFXII arrange album Symphonic Poem "Hope", but you need to know which track from the original soundtrack is being arranged and provide that information when you submit. Thanks to CHz for dredging up the "Romance" track. Symphonic Poem "Hope" - (04) "4th mov. Romance" What was recognizable from "Romance" was used near-verbatim until 1:38, with some (apparently new) piano harmonization underneath. There was more interpretation of the theme afterward, but the backing instrumentation was basically on cruise control most of the way. As far as I know, 2:37-4:54 had nothing to do with the source material, but maybe CHz or I will have a better idea checking into the FF12 soundtrack. I'd certainly update my vote if any new info came up. At 4:14, the track finally started building back up after getting sparser and sparser. The end result had a very subtle, parabolic dynamic curve, but it was there. Unfortunately though, everything after 4:14 retreaded previous ideas, basically in reverse order, building the texture back up. The arrangement ended up dragging out and saying nothing new past the first half. It would make good in-game music, but ironically enough not a good OC ReMix. As for the production side, the textures were serviceable, but the instrumentation sounded thin and mechanical. Even if the arrangement were clicking, the sequencing should be refined to sound more natural. NO

Your ReMixer name – Navij11 Your real name – Jacob Naviasky Your email address – jnav@nycap.rr.com Your website – http://navij11.com/ Your userid - 20089 Name of game(s) arranged - Wii Play Name of individual song(s) arranged - Pose Mii: Ready? Additional information about game including composer – Shinobu Tanaka & Ryo Nagamatsu System – Wii Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site) – http://vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/wii/Ready.mid Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc. – Name of remix: “Wii Love 2 Play“. I made this remix because I thought that OCR didn’t have enough Wii remixes. I also did it because it was simple, and I love simple Midis so I have more room for creativity! Originally, this was supposed to be “80s Styled” but I sort of gave that up eventually, because people didn’t get it. I should probably have used 808s instead of breakbeats if that was the case, but I preferred it this way. Note that Skrypnyk helped out a lot, but didn’t do a significant enough portion to get credit. He didn’t want to be coauthored anyways, so I think its ok. This was created in FL7 Producer, and mastered there too. I hope you guys enjoy it! J Link: I give permission to leave the following link in the mix, if rejected: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/123119 Thanks! --------------------------------------------------------------- Wii Play: Pose Mii - Ready? Interesting source tune choice, thanks for the link. If you look up Pose Mii on YouTube, you can see the theme in action, albeit briefly. The source kicked in at :23. Right off the bat, the mixing seemed off, IMO. The treble should have been toned down, and the soundscape was otherwise murky. The separation of parts needed to be more distinct with some further EQ work, but things were serviceable. The breakdown at 1:44 was a bit spotty, but wasn't terrible, and quickly started clicking more once other elements combined with it at 2:07. The ending cut off abruptly at 4:08; gotta fix that up. Compositionally, I'm loving it. As far as the arrangement value goes, there were lots of sections loosely based on the style of the original (e.g. :00-:22) that were a natural fit with the arranged melody. When that stuff supported the arranged source, it was great. But overall, there wasn't enough direct usage of the source tune itself. Let's pull out the stopwatch with the breakdown: I heard the source used from :23-:52, 1:08-1:09, 1:20-1:43 & 3:25-3:48. Anything else that may have been derived from the source was too liberal and not an overt connection, IMO. :58-1:19's section (also used without the overt source melody from 2:31-2:43) could be the melody expanded with extra notes, retaining the core progression, but I wasn't sure. One of the theory majors can break it down, but either way I'm feeling pretty set on this vote. So we've got 75 seconds' worth of overt usage of "Ready?" in a 4:13-long arrangement, or about 29.64%. Even adding in the other potential sections I mentioned would bring this up to 108 seconds or 42.68% of the track. If there's some other Pose Mii source tune not mentioned, or I'm missing connections on other areas, let me know. But having heard this simple source tune, I've got a good bead on where I could hear it and where it wasn't recognizable. The source tune may be simple, but that means it's easier to go off the rails with it in terms of the interpretations. You need to overtly incorporate that Pose Mii theme into more of the arrangement. Use the melody with some different rhythms, that kind of thing; you were already doing that well for parts of the track. Besides that, the production needs to be tightened up if you revise this. If you like the track as is and don't want to change it, more power to you, Jacob, I definitely enjoyed it. But if you want this up on here, something's gotta give. NO (resubmit)

ReMixer Name: Veth Real Name: Nathan McDougall E-Mail Address: Windshaman@googlemail.com UserID: 23264 Game: Zelda, Ocarina of Time Song: Song of Storms Comments: This was the first piece I ever arranged. I'd visited america to see my Uncle, who was also an avid musician and he let me loose in his mini studio. I arrange the main part of the music, then asked whether he wanted to play guitar over it. He agreed and the end result was this. Although I got the underlying chord sequence wrong, and only realised after I'd finilazed the piece! The song of Storms has always been my favourite song from the Ocarina of Time, so I'm glad to finally submit my version. ----------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 57 "Windmill Hut" (56 "Ocarina ~Song of Storms~") The opening bass synth was already pretty weak, but I'll let it go. The strings were even more exposed to start, but they were better once they were couched in the background. Unfortunately, they were almost a non-factor due to being so quiet. Not sure why the electric guitar was so pushed back and subdued; could have added some more depth to the piece. The tone on it was a bit grating, and didn't seem to really gel with the bubblier style chosen for the melody. The backing e-piano, drums and light strings got repetitive so fast, it really dragged down the arrangement. Take it out of cruise control, it just gets boring. Meanwhile, the actual "Windmill Hut" melody wasn't meaningfully interpreted IMO. It's just a better sounding version of the melody. All the supporting guitar wank in the world can't change that. You need more interpretation, and more variation in the backing patterns. More appropriate balance between some of the parts wouldn't hurt. NO

hey there, here's my next mix..of another track from Ninja Gaiden 1 for the NES.. the game had many great tracks.. this is another one of my favorites that I decided to give a shot at remixing hope u like it!! -------------------------------------------- At least you didn't name the track "Emulated" this time, though your mix titles still need some work. http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ninja_ga.zip - Track 9 The changing the melody here was a bit awkward for the first couple of parts, but not a big deal. The leads here felt too thin, the overall sound quality was muddy, with the background ending up sounding too indistinct, sounding like one big pad. Needs better separation of the parts. Thought I didn't like the lead synth introduced at :39, you generally have decent enough, energetic enough ideas for your leads, Jose. It's your supporting writing that usually lacks. You've done a decent job of making the groove progressive, but the elements sounded thin, and the parts were relatively indistinct. The potential is there to really get this sounding fuller and more cohesive. NO (resubmit)

Hooray! Nice grade. Suffice to say, I definitely enjoyed this.