Liontamer

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.

Gave permission for the submitting artist to sub both parts now, since this was broken up into two parts - LT Link to song: ReMixer name: Shakespeare real name: Justin E. Grant remixer's email: jgrant@jegarts.com website: www.jegarts.com Featuring Guitarist: Mike Letourneau, engineer at Soundtrack Boston (axeman5403@yahoo.com) Game arranged: Final Fantasy VI Song arranged: Ending Composer: Nobuo Uematsu System: Super Famicom Comments: This is part two of a two-part arrangement. Some might recognize this from my all-sampled beta version posted about 2 years ago on VGmix. This new arrangement was recorded and re-mixed for a finished touch. I came to Mike, knowing he was a talented guitarist, with my original song and told him that it needed a serious overhaul. After playing him the old mix, I asked him if he would be willing to record all the guitar tracks and replace the existing ones. He did not even hesitate. Months later, he was done with all the tracks and I started working on the final mix. I hope this long effort of ours provides some enjoyment for the ears of others.

Link to song: ReMixer name: Shakespeare real name: Justin E. Grant remixer's email: jgrant@jegarts.com website: www.jegarts.com Featuring Guitarist: Mike Letourneau, engineer at Soundtrack Boston (axeman5403@yahoo.com) Game arranged: Final Fantasy VI Song arranged: Ending Composer: Nobuo Uematsu System: Super Famicom Comments: This is part one of a two-part arrangement. Some might recognize this from my all-sampled beta version posted about 2 years ago on VGmix. This new arrangement was recorded and re-mixed for a finished touch. I came to Mike, knowing he was a talented guitarist, with my original song and told him that it needed a serious overhaul. After playing him the old mix, I asked him if he would be willing to record all the guitar tracks and replace the existing ones. He did not even hesitate. Months later, he was done with all the tracks and I started working on the final mix. I hope this long effort of ours provides some enjoyment for the ears of others.

ReMixer Name: DJ Smooth4Lyfe ft. Marky B Real Name(s): Joey Ofori and Mark Broomell Email: djsmooth4lyfe@yahoo.com Website: - http://www.musicforte.com/member/djsmooth4lyfe - http://www.myspace.com/djsmooth4lyfe - http://www.cdbaby.com/all/smooth4lyfe UserID #: 22109 Remix Info: Name Of Game: Katamari Damacy Name of Remix: Rastamari Info about Game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katamari Link To Original Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voPx8x0-blQ Other Comments: This is a reggae and a Dub version of the theme song also with a little jam session in between. Mark Broomell did the guitar work, Joey Ofori did the synths, percussion, and all other stuff. Check out my Websites: http://www.musicforte.com/member/djsmooth4lyfe <-My Hompage http://www.soundclick.com/djsmooth4lyfe <- My Soundclick Music Page http://www.myspace.com/djsmooth4lyfe <- My Myspace Page http://cdbaby.com/all/smooth4lyfe <- My Albums http://www.sonicbids.com/djsmooth4lyfe <- My EPK Stay Smooth Joey Ofori DJ Smooth4Lyfe ---------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for providing the YouTube link. The video source of the title theme is an abridged version of the album track referenced below. Katamari Damacy Soundtrack "Katamari Fortissimo Damacy" - (02) "Katamari On The Rock - Main Theme" The beatwork just droning on and never changing up substantially was a definite negative. The arrangement was a cool concept, though some areas definitely lacked tightness in the timing. The sax sample opening this up just sounded cheap and mechanically sequenced. DarkeSword used the same one a lot if I'm correct IDing that sample, but he put more care into the sequencing. The steel drum sample was also weak, though it can't be helped. Should be better, but it was serviceable enough, I suppose. Some of the guitar noodling (e.g. 1:25-1:35) just got into aimless and clashing territory. Melodically, the electric guitar was interesting, but by halfway through I realized it wasn't gonna do anything new with the theme that it hadn't already done. The slight dropoff at 2:18 made me think something new was coming on that level, but not really. Just a bucket of reverb added, slight alteration of the beats, and the original parts being more dramatic (though the melodic interpretation level was the same as before). Mainly, you've gotta do something more interesting with the production and dynamics in terms of altering the feel throughout the 4+ minutes. What's in place is ok, but doesn't retain interest in the long-haul, because it just drones on. Adding that reverb at 2:29 would have been good in a small dose. Instead, it got tired pretty quickly and didn't signal any meaningful evolution in the arrangement. Promising stuff if y'all are willing to invest more time into it. NO (resubmit)

remix name: OA name: Andrew Luers game: Radical Dreamers Original song: Strange Presentiment http://ocremix.dreamhosters.com/songs/original/Radical%20Dreamers.rsn Remix Name: Loneliness In the event this gets accepted, this is a project track. This was somewhat difficult to remix since the source was only 31 seconds or so, but I think I did a decent job; here's a breakdown, since it is quite a bit longer than the original: 0:01 - 0:34 main theme of the original played by guitar; I modified the chord progression slightly to make it more interesting than the root in the bass note. 0:35 - 1:07 chord progression and synths inspired by the strings in the original. 1:08 - 1:39 added a verse melody of sorts to make it feel like more of a song rather than bg music. 1:40 - 2:12 return of the main theme as a foundation with a piano melody and sax counterpoint. 2:13 - 2:44 new section focusing on the slide at the end of the original piece. There are several slurs in both the melody line and the bass for this section. 2:45 - 3:16 piano playing the main theme of the original, with string hits based on the repeating vox synth used in the original near the halfway point. 3:17 - 3:50 original bridge section building up to the solo section; added to build a bit of tension. 3:51 - 4:22 the original didn't have a climax at all, so this is a solo section used to transition to the final choruses. 4:23 - 5:32 double chorus (main theme in guitar of course) with additional string and percussion counterpoint added the second time around. Peace out homies, see you at MAGfest. -Andrew

Many happy returns to our Aussie judgefgt, who turned the big 21 today! He could drink years ago, so it means NOTHING! Oy, TO! Here are some Australian cakes for you!

Agreed, if that's the only concern, that sounds like a conditional YES, not a NO. I'd just encourage everyone just to check this mix on some cans just to make sure we're all hearing the same things. I'm not gonna die over this mix passing as is, but I think there were some valid production issues that potentially got glossed over and may not have been as readily picked up on without headphones.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=revx - "Outside Club X" (revx-02.spc) & "Inside Club X" (revx-03.spc) No, the production was definitely a substantial enough weak point. It's not utterly terrible, but the mix is both too loud and too trebly. The beats being louder than the lead wouldn't have been so bad if that kick didn't seem like it was distorting from :00-1:04. Dunno what's causing that. Once things kicked in, I did feel the balance was off and the soundfield simply ended up too crowded from 1:12-1:44. The sequencing of all the leads ranged from a little robotic-sounding to very robotic-sounding. The sequencing on the faux-guitar lead from 2:00-2:24 was a bit rigid except for the flurries, followed by even more noticeably mechanical sequencing on on what felt a little a pretty cheap/exposed lead from 2:24-2:39. The sequencing on the bass from 2:40-2:55 was a bit rigid, but not too bad. Felt like the timing of the lead from 2:55-3:12 was too perfect however, a lot more exposed here for the finish as compared to the usages in the beginning. Say what you will about the Revolution X sources, but the main thing mechanical-sounding in those are the beats, not the leads. I'm a stickler, but the leads should be touched up to sound more humanized, and the various production and balance issues should be cleaned up. The arrangement concepts are pretty solid, but the execution's not so strong overall that I can look past these issues. I'd rather have some additional opinions, so I'm asking for some. NO (refine/resubmit) We still haven't figured out anything definitive as to whether the source tunes are assuredly original material, so we need to do more on that level. I knew the backstory of the game, but just ended up forgetting that Aerosmith sampled some of their mainstream stuff for the soundtrack. All my searching so far seems to imply that these sources are ok, but we'd need to know for sure.

Hola, Soy Trenthian. Tengo un remixo para los "juez mrcns" y De Jota Pe. Considering the new and improved panel, I cant wait to see them tear into this one. Esto es uno remixo pequeño para los Hombres, y uno hamburguesa gigante para lo hambre. Sadly this does not feature any form of electric recorder solo. Pero viene con su opción del topping y del premio secreto. I give you, (Le doy) Chrono Trigger - Travel Companion OC Submission The first course is a crisp "Memories of Green" Mixed ensalada with "Secret of the Forest" spice dressing. 00:00 - 03:05 The second course is our world farmous "Wind Scene" Bean Burrito. 03:05 - 04:39 The third course is our "Ruined World" Spicy Jambalaya, sure to ruin your world later in the lavatory. 04:40 - 05:52 Dessert is a light and fluffy whipped Ice Cream Dish we call "Radical Dreamer's Distant Promise" Its price promises to keep your positive financial future radically distant for some time to come. 05:52 - End Goce con el fuego y la pasión - El Castillo de Trenthia - Restaurante del Musica

Funny to read DS mentioning his little brother enjoying the mix. I haven't lived with my mother for years, but back when I started on the panel in '03, she heard me listening to a Tetris mix and told me she enjoyed it, though she did because it was based off the Russian folk music. In any case, Tetris is always a crowd favorite. http://www.zophar.net/gbs/tetris.zip - Track 2 ["A-Type (Korobeiniki)"] The intro until :37 was definitely interpretive, but really you just kept the rhythms and changed the notes. Not sure if I can really count that per se, the "faux-James Bond theme for copyright avoidance" approach where a local commercial changes the notes enough to ape a popular theme's structure without getting sued. Thinking it over, it's viable, but I just don't know how I'd feel about an entire arrangement approached that way. Anyway, the production was actually pretty poor. Bunch of the higher frequencies sounded like they were gutted, leaving a really lossy feel to the audio. When the melody arrived at :37, the audio had a bad-sounding quasi-skipping effect. As zircon mentioned, not much headroom in the piece; you could barely tell it was in stereo, it was so crowded until the last few seconds. Yeah, the supporting guitar work was basic but cool, but there was basically 0 melodic interpretation. Some additional support was added at 1:33, which was at least something as DarkeSword alluded to, but ultimately not enough in the big picture. You're definitely gonna need a cleaner recording. Only an A-grade arrangement could get away with the weak sound quality here. Use the ReMixing forum here for advice on that. As zircon mentioned, from the intro you seem like you COULD do some interpretive stuff with theme, you just ended up not doing so, resulting in a cookie-cutter cover. Nothing wrong with that if that's all you aim to do, and it's all fine and good for the undemanding. But it you aim to get it up here, read up on the Submission Standards, particularly Section 4, Part 2 regarding Arrangement. zircon alluded to several of the techniques there, so keep those in mind and add some spice to this borscht. NO

Just joining the Geico expectation train as well.

Poorly produced, but fun enough to throw up here - LT Remixer Name: MarquisMark Real name: Mark Butt e-mail address: flyttyrell@hotmail.com Game arranged: Tetris (GB / DS) Name of individual song arranged: Korobeiniki (Game A) Comments: Just a little acoustic arrangement with a couple of solos/harmony bits I made up for intro/outro parts.

Nutritious Justin Medford ID: 16520 Super Mario 64 Lethal Lava Land This song is for the Mario 64 remix project, so if accepted, please don't release it until the project is completed. I've always loved the music from Mario 64. While this definitely wasn't my favorite track from the game and wouldn't normally be my first choice to remix, I saw that the track was open on the project and had some sudden inspiration that pushed me forward. The original track doesn't seem to have any normal time signature or natural progression to the song, but instead sounds like a collection of instruments playing (seemingly) random notes around a general theme. A Indian coworker of mine pointed out that it's a type of classical Indian music (though I forget the name of the genre). Anyway, because of this, it's was a very difficult song to remix and the themes used might not be readily apparent. Here's the breakdown: :00 - :08 uses the riff that the sitar plays at the very beginning and throughout the original :08 - :32 consists of variations of that same riff with backing chords and counter melodies :48 - 1:37 is from the melody played by the flute-ish instrument that starts around :37 in the original 1:52 - 2:28 is a combination of both the sitar and flute melodies used together with different instruments