Liontamer

I think the enthusiasts around the VGM community have a tiny bit more of a chance given the niche VGM has, but even then the odds don't become much stronger. The networking that goes on around here is at least more tangible. Great read. Tons of facts of a figures regarding the industry, which put things into a lot of perspective for artists trying to break through. Hopefully the article will be of great help to them. It was a very thorough piece.

I think he overhyped the hype about hyping overhype.

Still bummed I couldn't go (and turn it into a trip/homecoming to Atlanta). Everyone say hey to Carlson for us!

Now this is hardly an A-level article or anything like that, but I've spent much of the past day significantly beefing up Follin's Wikipedia entry. I combed through just about every meaningful interview I could find with Follin - text, video and audio. What a difference a day makes. Hopefully others will continue to work on the article with more information, as well as tightening up the formatting.

Read the judges decision. That what it's there for.

Your ReMixer name: 2Radical Your real name: Tim Schijf Your email address: tim_tim_tim_2hotmail.com Your website: n/a Your userid: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/member.php?u=16609 Name of game(s) ReMixed: Kingdom Hearts II Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: Sinister Sundown Your own comments about the mix: I just loved this track, and got bored of it, so I gave it my own twist, the original song was about 11 minutes , but after a hard time of scrapping some bars here and there I ended up with 7 mins, I used as many elements from the original as possible since all the scores just add alot to the song as a whole... some info on the games OST http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Kingdom_Hearts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Even taking down the arrangement from 11 to 7 minutes, the filesize is still too large. All subs should be exactly at or under 6MB in the future. Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack - 105 "Sinister Sundown" Some of the panning during the first minute of the intro was way too extreme. Same around 3:15. The bowed string work ended up sounding really strangely placed in the stereo field, sounding warbly at times. Things picked up more at 2:11, though that mechanical piano in the background until 2:39 sounded pretty weak. It's such a defaulty sample sound, it can't help but sound worse when not used well. The pizzicato string stuff, first used at 2:57 and first used more prominently at 3:57, was really ultra cheap-sounding and tacky, even if it's meant to sound like a real instrument. Lasted all the way until 5:09. Sounded better at 6:08 when the sample wasn't placed in the foreground and could be surrounded by the other instrumentation. Bad exposure of the vox sample at 5:33 as it faded out. Ending just abruptly cuts off at 7:04, but it could have been my download (which everyone else will be going off of, so let's give the benefit of the doubt, Js). Though some brief sections were IMO too spartan, the groove was decent. The bowed string work compared favorably to the pizz strings, but those samples weren't used well enough, leaving the overall execution lackluster. It's not awful, Tim, but it's not there yet. Definitely keep working toward improvement, you show promise. NO

Contact Info: Remixer name: Soviet Power Real Name: Grisha Kuntukov Email: greg.steamroller@gmail.com Userid: 21705 Remix Info: Game Name: Diablo Song: Into to Town (Tristram) Comments: I think that Diablo soundtrack is among my favorites of all times. It fits the game so well. It is dark and creepy and nothing sets the mood better then the Tristram intro song. I only recently started composing and playing around with music. So as soon as I found your website and listened to some remixes, I wanted to try one of my own. Naturally I picked this song because I love the original so much. I can even play it on my guitar. When I first loaded the midi in FL Studio I wasn't sure what direction I was going to take it. I knew that I wanted it to be creepy and dark just like the original and I also wanted piano sound in it. So I split the first part of the song into arp like pattern and found a piano sound that I liked. Then I attached the bass and threw in some drum loops. It went from there. I think the hardest part was doing transitions. Original song transitions didn't fit well so I came up with some time stretching and full stop parts. I also found some creepy sounding stringy sound that worked so well. I am really novice at this whole digital music world and mastering for me is the hardest part. I tried to do my best and I am reasonably satisfied with it. I know that it will get most likely rejected, but you have to start somewhere. Regards, --------------------------------------------------------------- Diablo (Game Rip) - 02 "Town" Fairly well-produced sounding out of the box, but the textures for the 1:33-long intro didn't quite gel together. Shifted over into some vox-like synth and string driven stuff at 1:33, with some beats joining in at 2:11. The beats and bassline were ok, but they also didn't gel together with the melodic work, which felt somewhat obscured and sounded a lot murkier than the much cleaner drumwork. Also, while the percussion writing wasn't poor in-and-of-itself, it doesn't drive the song along. Piano sequencing at 3:57 was robotic with the timing, but the velocity variations sounded decent. The very ending was pretty abrupt at 4:44 and could have been drawn out further. The composition's missing something to give it more direction and some sort of hook to keep the listener interested; right now, it plods along too much. Not a bad first sub though, Greg, definitely keep at it and use the Works and ReMixing forums to gain fan feedback and takes steps toward learning more about your music setup. NO

Wow, who would enforce spoilers on a 10-year-old game? Hell, did you know the princess is in another castle?

Name: Gavin Hunter Remixer Name: Hip E E-mail: huntz_man@hotmail.com Remix Name: One for the brave souls Game Name: Soul Edge Original Track Name: Brave Folk Song (Cervantes' Theme) Link to MP3: Constructive criticism greatly appreciated. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Soul Blade (Game Rip) - 11a "Bravely Folk Song (Cervantes Stage - Original) & 11b "Bravely Folk Song (Cervantes Stage - Arranged) The sample quality was ok. Could have sounded more grandiose and realistic in light of the writing, as some of it felt a bit flat, but the execution was pretty good. Brass was on the rough side for realism, but that almost goes without saying. For a relatively intimate soundscape, this was good on many levels. Beyond slowing the original down though, the arrangement comes across as a by-the-numbers small orchestra adaptation. The melodic work has essentially no interpretation, and thereby doesn't feel different enough from the original on that level. I'm not trying to sell it short on the instrumentation changes and new part-writing done here, but the overall package doesn't feel interpretive enough. I'd go for more melodic interpretation to get this on solid ground. NO (resubmit)

ReMixer name: Gemini Black Real name: Dominic B. E-mail address: metaldivinity@gmail.com Website: http://www.projectithera.com/ User ID: 20258 ReMix info: Name of game ReMixed: Tales of Symphonia Name of song ReMixed: Shihna (Sheena's Theme song) Composers: Motoi Sakuraba, Shinji Tamura Platform: GCN Original soundtrack: Personal comments: What can I say? Tales of Symphonia is without a doubt my favourite RPG, I've played through it too many times for my own good. And while the game's entire soundtrack is fantastic, Sheena's theme song has always stuck out to me. I figured that I should try remixing this, why not, you know? I'm quite proud of this actually, since I tend to procrastinate on everything I do. This is the first remix that I've actually finished, while there's a tonne of other unfinished ones laying about. As well, as with all of my remixes, this came out nowhere near as how I had originally planned... but I like the changes made and how it's turned out better than what I had originally planned. But, I digress. Try to enjoy it, eh? -------------------------------------------------------------- Tales of Symphonia Original Soundtrack - 314 "Shihna" Sample quality definitely sticks out. The sample articulation for the piano sounded serviceable, but otherwise everything sounded pretty fake as well as rigidly sequenced. The drumming and string work in particular felt very robotic and hindered the piece. Beyond that, the drumwork was fairly repetitive, leaving the piece dynamically flat; there was no energy here. The arrangement's in the right direction, but the execution isn't there at all. If you haven't done so already, I'd post the piece to the Works forum and see what feedback you can obtain. Keep at it. NO

HullO! Name: Ryan Reilly Email: Rainman0034@yahoo.com Web: www.myspace.com/rainman7 Remix Info, 'Flying on Dry Land' (based upon 'Air Land' by Hitoshi Sakimoto) From: Tactics Ogre orchestral arrangement, with a few surprises including improvisation and drum and bass. Hope thats good! Bye! -Ryan Reilly -------------------------------------------------------------- Please note we have a 192kbps bitrate ceiling. We don't want anything at 320kbps. http://tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Tactics_Ogre_psf.rar - 24 "Air Land" The brass sequencing is ok, even though the sample sounds extra fake. It's not much of a step up from the original in those respects. The beatwork at 1:10 doesn't gel with the orchestration at all, IMO. Beyond that, the arrangement has some decent ideas, but feels underdeveloped at only 2:20-long. We have maybe two shorter submissions passed relatively recently, but I'd argue they said more despite less time. I did like the interpretation within the genre, as well as the variations from verse to verse, but the arrangement needs to be developed further. Right now it comes across as a run-through of two brief & fairly similar iterations, and then it's over. NO (rework/resubmit)

Smileys count as images.

This is cool. I said so, and that's what's most important!

If I knew this was coming, I would have done things d-d-d-d-d-d-differently-ly-ly-ly-ly-ly.

How the hell was that mix a rip? Do you even know the originals? You clearly don't.

Apologies for providing that track with my black sexyness. You are the only person in existence that could resist. :'-(

Uncanny Orchestra - Not really feeling the drum sounds in the intro, later brought back at 1:43. The snare doesn't fit the texture of the orchestration, plus the drums are somehow just as or more prominent than the brass harmonies. I'd examine some more orchestral mixes and see how the percussion work compares to yours, both in tone and volume. Beyond that, obviously the composition itself is only in the intro stages, so more writing ideas will show up, and the drums would hopefully end up being more varied, since this was a quick WIP as you said. Some random ideas. Think of a way to incorporate or interpret the Spider-Man bassline from :03 and :24 of the SPC Don't be afraid to grab other ideas from the Spider-Man & X-Men soundtrack now that you're outside of PRC100 and this WIP isn't locked into anything. Stuff like :15 of the Title theme, :08 of Briefing, :26-:42 of Cyclops, the string synth from :08-:31 of Gambit, could be pretty interesting given an orchestral take. You could also explore other Follin soundtracks and go outside the box. Why not give Wolverine by Geoff Follin a look as well (e.g. Track 23). Ride the Sky - Obviously, this sounds closer to completion. Bassline at 1:06 should be bumped up. It's not audible and plays 0 factor after 1:11 once more instruments come in. Better at 1:45 though. I thought the dynamic change at 1:45 wasn't as effective in the execution as the writing intended. Can't put my finger on it, but I'll hit some Js for feedback; there's something about the texture of the brass with the drums that doesn't quite feel right. The brass sample still lacks in realism, though the sequencing is ok AFAIK. Perhaps listen to DZComposer's material to hear what he may be doing differently than you. It's not bad though. Better changeups at 2:21 and 3:10. Lemme see what more I can dig out of some colleagues to help you refine this.

Courtesy Gecko Yamori, our new promotional art:

BELATED! Don't bleed over it!

Most people who look at the Info area.

In the case that you feel compelled to drop Storm, I would say try to do what you can to give it an ending, because I thought what was in place was great, and very creative.

I just mentioned them in what order they appeared. Good call on the alpha, as well as sephfire with a lowercase S (my fault there). The f is sephfire is also missing though. Source in 102 still needs the fix with the - instead of the /, as it's one source track just like 305's source. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerith_Gainsborough#Development_and_reflection

Swanky. I think the primary font could be a bit more stylized, but this is pretty cool. Hopefully my corrections don't sound ungrateful. Corrections: 102 - [Opening - Bombing Mission] (same hyphenated style as [Racing Chocobos - Place Your Bets!] 103 - Sephfire, SGX 105 - SnappleMan 107 - Not sure if the needed space was there in [Turks' Theme]; currently looks like Turks'Theme, but it could be the font 110 - Keep source as Shinra Company (reasoning: 2nd para of this linked Wiki article; even if this was kept as is, it should have been "Shin-Ra") 202 - AFAIK your sources are right but in reverse order; maybe check with zircon 204 - Would be a cool bonus to revise it to Mustin (with or w/Tim Yarbrough, Lisa Leamons, Jennifer Graham), as this info wasn't given to us in time for the first art); source is also [Main Theme of FINAL FANTASY VII] with caps in keeping with the style of the original soundtrack listing (VGM soundtracks are weird like that) 307 - FFmusic Dj Nice work, Leah.

Anytime there are updates to seemingly completed bios, of course let me know. It's never a bother.

Gotta check. If you could send me a copy of the song (I'm assuming you have it on you), we'd appreciate it. Thanks for the heads-up. When this was subbed to the panel, no mention was made of that influence, i.e. it clearly should have been mentioned.