Liontamer

http://www.hcs64.com/usf/downcnt.php?dk64usf.zip - (039) "Banana Fairy Isle" Yeah, the opening sequencing on the backing piano was definitely very mechanical, only drawing more attention to itself by the bar. Switched over into more genteel instrumentation at :58; cool wind SFX. The pattern being so tight works a lot more for the music box style instrument at :56 as opposed to the piano. Similar realism issues with the woodwind sequencing from :43-:58. Some geetar ripped it up from 1:19-1:43 (with a solid drum transition leading into it). Started turning sinister at 2:18, with everything going out of whack all the way until 3:15. I could understand criticisms of it going long, but even that section evolved. I didn't have any problem with it in terms of impacting the decision. 3:37 finally ratcheted things up with the source tune on lead guitar (along with some very understated guitar support). The soundfield was feeling pretty cramped, with the rhythm guitar and cymbals feeling pretty marginalized and swamped out. It's not terrible, but some better separation of the parts would really give this some more space and improve the texture. The drums were weed's usual samples, which IMO don't always fit. In this case, I'd say the snare in particular didn't sit right with me. The dryness of the snare actually seemed like more of a problem from 4:30-5:09 with the snare pattern being dry like zircon mentioned. If it were pulled back some, it would sound better IMO, more important than making the pattern more complex. Loved the transition at 5:11, dropping the snare, adding some chiptune-style lines, and moving things along nicely with the kick, cymbals and bassline. More percussion stuff added at 5:34 while the snare returned at 5:39, created more thick/crowded textures until 6:32 went for a nice acoustic close. Timestamping everything where I heard the source tune, I got :00-2:23, 3:20-3:21, 3:37-4:04, 4:29-4:36 & 4:43-4:50. In this case, 3:05's-worth of source usage within a 6:54-long track or about 44.69%. I saved that for last because there could be aspects of the source I'm missing, or another source could have been used that I'm not clear on. If I'm accurate though, I feel there needs to be more inclusion of the source material. Just applying some more of it within the background of some more sections would be fine. There were some crowded sections, but nothing that was a dealbreaker, IMO. Aside from ensuring there's more than 50% source usage (how I interpret the source material being "dominant" re: the standards), I'd say refine the instrumentation for the intro, refine the drums in those spots where the snare felt too dry and loud, and this would be all good to me. I'd definitely try to tweak it up, weed, to me this was pretty close. NO (resubmit)

Happy belated, old man!

Remix Title: Neo-Rushica Link to Remix: pixietricks edit: Link to fixed version, with no cutting off at the end: ReMixer name: tycho real name: Craig Hardgrove email address: chardgro@utk.edu website: http://www.eigenhat.com/marathon Name of game(s) arranged: Marathon Name of individual song(s) arranged: Rushing Link to the original song: Comments: Thank you for listening and evaluating --Craig Hardgrove

Contact Information * ophidic * ophidic@gmail.com Submission Information * Metroid * Title Theme * System: NES * I tried to make it sound 'alien'. Enjoy -- - ophidic --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/nsf/metroid.zip - Track 1 Some decent supporting instrumentation ideas to add a little bit to this, not to mention the alien-style sounds. The tempo change at :50 was a good idea as well. Some decent new writing from 1:51-2:06 to change the style of the ending, and get things feeling more interpretive. Overall though, structured too much like the source tune and not a developed, interpretive enough concept. The volume was also way too quiet, with the mixing leaving everything sounding too murky and lossy. Louder and cleaner is the way to go. Even if going for a more washed, spacey sound, this wasn't pulled off well, IMO. Decent first mix. Stick around the ReMixing and Works forums to learn more and get more feedback before future submissions. NO

The way of the dodo.

It's a priority of sorts. Your stance is short-sighted in that we even have some games that were Japanese-only releases and the English names we use are translations. It should work the other way. Japan is the the other hub of video games and VGM; only makes sense to make the site more accessible to them.

There's no way this would have been passed just because it's "competent." Just because you personally didn't enjoy it, don't extrapolate that to how djpretzel or the staff viewed the mix. You'd be absolutely wrong.

Nice work, Dave. This is just a really excellent way to present stuff. Everything redone is presented a lot more effectively. It definitely highlights the work I've done in filling in the major majority of the database information, only enhancing our ability to promote the composers and original tracks that inspired the works here. For those who wonder why mixes themselves aren't posted every day or every other day, it's specifically because of the many projects djpretzel has been working on to improve the functionality of the site. I'm a fan of these new listings putting more information right at the casual viewers fingertips.

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01317/ A lot of genuine metal arrangers don't seem to be aware of OCR, or, if they are aware, submitting stuff. Maybe they don't think metal can make it. I wouldn't really know for sure. We need some more metal in our diet here. There's also stuff like http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00569/, but that's all sequenced. Not much actually here that comes to mind specifically as metal. Suzu above has a pretty good list of the edgier rock arrangers in the community.

Yeah, clearly it's not still here. Put some glasses on.

ReMixer name: Doctor Octoroc Real name: Levi eMail: jazzlevi@yahoo.com Name of game: Final Fantasy Name of song: Matoya's Realm here is the link to the file: Matoya.mp3 it is entitled "Matoya" ------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 10 ("Matoya's Theme") Opened up with some ultra-generic out-of-the-box sounds loosely based off the progression of the source, before bringing in the melody at :38. The "Matoya's Theme" melody wasn't particularly interpretive, though the backing elements did work with arranging the theme as well. The dropoff at 1:35 provided some decent dynamic contrast. Strings at 1:49 were a nice change of pace, albeit sounding lonely and dry in the soundfield. Solid re-building at 2:01. By around this time the quarter note drumshot was getting pretty tired for me and could have used some fills or variation. It's a decent but monotonous anchor. Reached a new high point at 2:39. Still some good stuff going on in the background. Another iteration of the theme at 3:11, getting repetitive. It's too bad there's nothing interesting going on with the treatment of the actual melody. Change it up a bit. The sounds were ultra thin and you definitely need to step it up, as FL can do a lot more out-of-the-box. Overall though, you're definitely moving in the right direction in terms of arranging, Levi. Especially working with an NES source, you had some good new supporting writing ideas, and a solid-enough sense of creating dynamics. The main negative here was that for about 10 iterations of the melody, it was the essentially the same thing over and over again particularly with verses. Don't just vary up the sounds playing the lead, vary up the rhythms, fuse it with some original melodic ideas, add grace notes; do something to keep the melodic content fresh, it's the backbone of the arrangement. Use our ReMixing and Works forums to learn more about your software and solicit fan feedback in order to help you improve for future submissions. If you stay diligent, you'll be creating more solid-sounding material on both the arrangement and production sides. NO

Any thoughts on this remix?

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Memories of Green" (ct-105.spc), "Secret of the Forest" (ct-111.spc), "Wind Scene" (ct-109.spc) & "Ruined World" (ct-201.spc) http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=rd - "Far Promise ~ Dream Shore" (rd-08.spc) Yeah, first impression were that the brass samples and high strings didn't sound quite realistic enough. The brass was definitely weaker, while the strings were comparatively stronger despite their own issues. The brass in particular definitely hurt both the intro and the conclusion, sounding pretty fake and exposed. The drumkit definitely plods along and usually doesn't mesh well with the other instrumentation. Agreed with DarkeSword than when you moved away from it, your percussion choices seemed a lot more fitting. IMO, it's not so much the writing, but rather the sounds choices, though I'd also say that the background could have used another element to help fill it out. It's pretty empty as is for some of these sections Arrangement-wise, I see where the criticisms were coming from. This definitely has a lot of nice embellishments to make it more acceptable, but the arrangement still lost something in holding so much to the overall feel of the originals for the "Memories of Green"/"Secret of the Forest" section. Dynamically, I can totally understand the crits there as well, but didn't have as much of a problem. The dynamics were arguably a bit too subtle for first 3 minutes, but the buildups and dropoffs were working overall, IMO. Nice stuff for a 2004 arrangement, John. (I checked the tags.) It probably would have made it back in that day, albeit with the same criticisms. Honestly, it's mostly the emptier sections with the plodding drumwork that have me not quite feeling this. They last a while and prevent much of the track from feeling cohesive enough. The arrangement is already where it needs to be. I'd just spit polish the lacking areas to really get this flying high and making the most out of the interpretation ideas in the execution. NO (refine/resubmit)

We've got a Top Gear medley waiting to be posted. It'll be up on the front page eventually!

The website design can't create itself in a day. At the risk of stepping on TO's toes, I'd say go for it, and if it's finished soon enough and has the right atmosphere, TO would probably take it on board.

zyko One Monkey's Dream Donkey Kong 64 This offering is another guitar-driven track from this past (and surprisingly productive) summer. i've remixed this source (the banana fairy island song) once before with a track from vgmix 1, titled banana ether (sampled in stretches of this version). i never quite did what i wanted to do with it as i was very limited at the time. i wish i could say that this was a lot more in sync with the idea i had except i completely scratched the ethereal, tripped out feel for a driving, rocked out alternative. i'm very highly inspired and influenced by Yanni and one of my favorite tracks of his, One Man's Dream, has been a staple in my listening diet for over a decade. i can't bother to explain the amount of introspection (assisted and unassisted) i have survived to that piece and it was fitting for me to tribute it when writing my own audio introspection. what you get is a piece with a variety of personalities, a lot of homage to my early vgmix1 days, and, well, whatever else you might find in there. dig it.

If you sign up at the VGMdb forums, you can use the site's advanced Search function to specifically look up vinyl VGM albums, including catalog numbers. VGMdb currently 71 vinyl albums listed. You're not gonna find a better source anywhere else.

Same vote as the first here as well. Explaining how it applies to this case: even though the source tune is a medley, in order to passably arrange it for here, you would have to do it in such a way that the structure seems like one continuous, evolving idea and not just several themes strung together. I'd hazard to say that in order to actually create a passable arrangement of this theme and use every source tune, you'd need around 2 minutes per theme and nearly every theme would have to transition smoothly into the next one, building off of the previous theme. In other words, nothing that would ever fit under 6MB. That's why the others are suggesting you tackle fewer themes, with more time and development given to each theme. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff6 - "Ending Theme (part 1)" [ff6-315a.spc] & "Ending Theme (part 2)" [ff6-315b.spc] Indeed, the guitar performance from Mike was pretty good. The drum writing was only half-decent. Terribly weak-sounding and didn't drive the piece along at all most of the time. Beyond some of the cooler fills, the kit basically just kept time and felt flimsy during the most straightforward sections. Definitely a major dealbreaker to me, unfortunately. The bowed string sequencing in the background was OK, mostly covered up by the guitar being so much louder, though they could have sounded richer and more realistic. I would have layered them up some more to achieve a bigger sound. Agreed with DarkeSword on some of the cymbal flourishes being way too loud and jarring as well. Summarizing that, you need to step it up on creating interesting, sophisticated drumwork that fits more cohesively into the big picture (especially the snare patterns), and also tone down the volume on the cymbal crashes. These issues substantially hamper any kind of rock arrangement. Yeah, Justin, arrangement-wise, the structure was too close to the original. I actually would take an arrangement of the Ending Theme if the individual pieces were more interpretive and flowed together from section to section more smoothly, but they don't here. It's also highly unlikely anyone else could do so, but let me elaborate: Explaining how it applies to this case: even though the source tune is a medley, in order to passably arrange it for here, you would have to do it in such a way that the structure seems like one continuous, evolving idea and not just several themes strung together. I'd hazard to say that in order to actually create a passable arrangement of this theme and use every source tune, you'd need around 2 minutes per theme and nearly every theme would have to transition smoothly into the next one, building off of the previous theme. In other words, nothing that would ever fit under 6MB. That's why the others are suggesting you tackle fewer themes, with more time and development given to each theme. NO

Man, there is NOTHING to this source; a 4 second plucked string loop and some bowed string support. Dunno how you're gonna stretch this out for 5+ minutes. I wish you the best of luck. http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=rd - "Strange Presentiment" (rd-04.spc) Opening seemed pretty solid in terms of using the source. The distorted flourish from :34-:35 bodes nothing but bad things. :'-( The synth lead at :34 is just grating and sounds like it's got too much treble; that effect on it from :48-:50 sounds like noise you'd blast to make enemy troops surrender. Gotta swap it out for something else. zircon mentioned has mentioned headroom a few times in recent votes; when the soundscape was too compressed, very evident from 1:39-2:11, you were left with a lack of it. Dunno about this. I feel like a slide is a concept. Just because you slurred some notes in a similar manner to the original doesn't necessarily make it a viable enough usage of the source material proper. Back to the bread and butter from 2:43-3:15. Ooh, the string sound at 2:51 didn't sound natural. The main piano sounded OK, but the second, backing one supplying chords sounded a lot thinner and unrealistic. Original section at 3:15 was OK in concept, weak in execution. The pianos lagged a bit with the timing, and I thought the tone of the beatwork was all wrong. 3:54-4:12's section was definitely pretty messy. Yeah, I was talking with DS in #j a couple of days ago and agreed all the way on the production criticisms. It's gonna hurt to read this, but this is just really sloppy. I wish I could say I know what's it's like to tweak a song until you're tired of it, but the short of it is that you really need to either up the quality of the equipment you use to listen to your material and/or gain a more discerning ear. Can't help but agree with DarkeSword on the nature of the arrangement. Besides the obvious source usage from the core melody, I wasn't overtly picking up anything else you mentioned. Even in light of the breakdown, the overall arrangement approach did feel too liberal and too focused on the added original material due to the limitations of the source. But I come at it in a different way. Stuff like the final 4:19-5:23 section was OK to me in principle (since you used the source tune in the background). But from a standards perspective, it would have been better had the arranged source verse been varied more, even though it was essentially just a backing pattern. As is, the pattern was basically used the same way every time, so while the arrangement as a whole evolved and developed, the primary method of source usage did not. Hard to say where to begin in terms of this, Andy, but work on refocusing the arrangement if you were interested. Practically speaking though, since the arrangement wouldn't pass as is, you may get more growth as an artist working on the production, the track being for Thieves of Fate and all. For this case, I'd choose to work on that aspect more and see how you can improve what's in place. NO

http://www.noderunner.net/~llin/psf/packs/FFXII_psf2.rar - 207 "Game Over" No, that's dead on. Something got funked up with the production for the intro this time around; I'm not sure what happened either, but whatever you changed there only created some issues. Though the production was cleaner last time, the track as a whole has capable enough production. The middle still felt a little meandering (so I see what DS was saying about some lack of cohesiveness), but nothing was significantly wrong to me on that level, and the dynamics were subtle but nicely handled. Thanks for not mucking with the arrangement when it didn't need it, as most submitters end up doing. The percussion/cymbal usage got refined very, very nicely, and fit like a glove with the rest of the instrumentation. If you clean up the production, for the intro especially, I'm on board, as the arrangement was still all sorts of swanky to me. The ending faded out too quickly at 3:57, leaving you more than 7 seconds of silence; c'mon, details. Don't let the little things fall off your radar. I'm sure someone can work with you to spruce the first section up, as the rest was fine, IMO. Tweak that up, Shaun, and you're all good. It'll be exciting to get an FF12 piece up. YES (conditional)

Such a unique piece around here. Really glad to have it on board. Do like I do. Loop it.

It's so tempting to just drop everything and listen to "Snow Mountain" after this source tune finished. Lots of great memories playing that level. http://www.zophar.net/usf/sm64usf.rar - 10 "Lethal Lava Land" Yeah, the samples weren't overly hot, but the writing was rock solid and the samples were used well, IMO. Hitting the :34 mark, the dynamics were already very nice, a trend that held up the rest of the way. Really creative usage of the melody from :37 of the source from :48-1:50 here; I would have never thought anyone could integrate those section well into any arrangement, but you've proved yet again why people in this community can't be counted out in terms of creativity. What the hell was that springy sound from 1:50-1:51? Fixy fixy before it's posted. Overall though, just a really impressive choice of direction to go with the theme, executed effectively. If this guy stays hungry and continues to improve, who knows how deadly he'll be at this. Welcome aboard, Justin. Now you gotta get those excellent Follin WIPs finished, also some great concepts. YES

I actually saw this week in my Ormgas box that Tim mailed me a long time ago, really pissed off at the last EarthBound mix decision of his, because I surmised that X-Japan (an inspiration for "Scars") wasn't as droning and repetitive, only to be given a clip of the relevant track and finding out that they WERE droning and repetitive. Hey, I can't help their faults. I'll definitely never forget that. So are the days of being a judgefgt. Ha! Man, I remember when me joining the panel was a breath of fresh air. Now I'm part of the establishment, so it's like "thank God these new faces are here. Counteract Larry, that fucking asshole." Also, sorry to Tim; he was trying to hit me up for probably a week and a half or so trying to get feedback on this track, and I suppose whether or not to try submitting it. But already the feedback's been pretty solid. http://www.zophar.net/usf/afusf.zip - 061 "8 am Hourly Music (default)" & 002 "Title" Based on the arrangement, I just knew the title theme couldn't have been the only source, or this would have potentially looked too liberal. When I looked through the soundtrack though (241 USFs, so that was both a bitch and why my vote took so long), I found that the 8 am Hourly Music was actually the main unmentioned source (:08-:26 of that track), which directly accounts for Palp's thus half-true observations on the 0:36-1:09 and 2:04-2:36 section. The decision would have closed up a lot faster if I'd known, only because this was seeming fairly liberal without knowledge of this other track. Seems like most of this was plucked from theme variations in the game. With that said, this was pretty much nothing but smooth sailing. The mixing felt a little muddy with the backing strings, and I was hoping the overall sound could be sharper, so I disagreed with Palp on things being crystal clear. There could have been better separation here without hampering the effectiveness of the composition. I wouldn't have minded a higher encoding. Pretty solid dynamics and very effective changes for the genre. Great piano and organ-focused section from 1:29-2:03 was an interpretive sweet spot. The gradual escalation once the strings were brought back at 1:46 and the soundfield gradually filled out more and more was excellent. The harmonica from 2:35-2:56 was an excellent touch to close this out strongly. This track showed Tim really step it up on a creative level compared to his early arrangements, not getting rid of his penchant for staying true to the original melodies, but really expanding the piece with his own additive writing and emotive style, giving the end result a familiar yet distinctive and personalized quality. Everything we're looking for. Keep it up, bro. YES

Obviously, I mostly knew Reu through his music, not just here but on Reu's website, Pathos. I'm saddened the most by the fact that his gifts on that level won't be able to create the wonderful future works most of us knew he was capable of. In a community where too many talented people don't receive the opportunities their talents deserve, Reu was someone who, at a young age, was already slowly but surely making a name for himself as a composer as his professional works increased. Being aware of Reu's martial arts and athletic background, even being Singapore's "Most Eligible Bachelor" for 2007 as well, it's been decidedly more difficult reconciling Reu's loss while honestly feeling that he was in his prime and only getting better. My thoughts are with the Kee family, as they seek to find closure with the events that resulted in the tragic loss of whom most of us considered a shining star.