Liontamer

What he said.

Max Payne - (02) "Max Payne Theme" The bitrate is too high at 208kbps VBR, so it would have to be reduced to 192kbps or below if it were accepted. The extended intro's based off of 1:30-2:18 of the original, starting at 1:18. Sounded like original stuff up until then. Transitions into the familiar melody of the source at 2:11. I was feeling this last time around, and still like it today. The instrumentation is decidedly minimal, but what little is there is good from 2:40-onward. It was called cheap last time, but didn't create a poor-sounding texture IMO. From about 2:11-2:40 though, things were too empty. Cool stuff like the backing string and piano plucks are still barely audible in comparison to the vocals. More (or LOUDER) instrumentation could be added to the picture to flesh out the background further without disturbing the overall vibe of the song, a very reasonable criticism from last time around. I thought the mutitracked vocals were solid. Others felt they were too rough-sounding last time, but I thought they came together well enough on both occasions. The vocal swell at 3:09 was a but much, but overall it's an unorthodox performance style that I can't recall hearing many times in the community, and one that's executed well enough despite having room for improvement. If this doesn't make it again, one reason is because the backing instrumentation is too spartan again. The vocals I had no huge issue with. I thought the concept was good, the arrangement was interpretive, and the execution was good enough. Nonetheless, Neil, you're probably gonna get nailed with the same issues here that were present the last time around, and they were reasonable criticisms the last time around. YES (borderline)

That's politics and philosophy. PPR.

For Christ's sake, not again please: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=177159&postcount=11

Space Cadet Pinball OSV - Pinball.mid Yeah, I gotta apologize too, I didn't have time to comment on this privately either when requested. The changes are relatively minor, like you said, so many of the issues that were there last time are still around. Opening piano is still too mechanical, as well as the guitar-synth sequencing. The drums are indeed too dry and plodding like BGC mentioned, thus not fleshing out the track as much as you need them to. I appreciated the attempt the change things up on the arrangement side at 1:45 for this version, but felt like the new interpretive writing ideas here weren't very cohesive, IMO. 2:13-2:33's section felt pretty weak. Sounds like you were trying to come up with something different for the sake of not being too repetitive, but the new writing wasn't melodically strong. Returned to some of the previous ideas at 2:34, heading back into the chorus at 2:52 with some additional writing put on top. Decent ideas here to create a semblance of contrast from the pervious iteration of the material, though it still felt a bit too similar. Ending at 4:10 probably should have trailed off longer; felt too abrupt IMO. I don't feel I gave the arrangement side enough credit last time around as far as personalization goes. You need to finesse the performance side of it a bit more so it doesn't sound so static, plus follow BGC's detailed criticisms on the drumwork. Definitely worth another try, and sorry again for not being more attentive to the PM box. Try to contact me or other judges on IRC for more realtime feedback if you need it, Brendan, in the event that you plan to work on it further. NO (resubmit)

Cave Story OSV - (30) "Zombie", (15) "Run!", (31) "The Last Battle", (22) "Quiet", & (35) "The Way Back Home" Cool stuff to start off with. The percussion writing's plodding in places (e.g. the sections with non-stop cymbal work and the boring snare shot repeating ad nauseum). And without a substantial bass presence, the track's incredibly empty. Definitely revisit the mixing of this one. Like zyko also mentioned, the tone is incredibly lacking, which undermines the energy level your writing is going for. Dunno why, but the lead guitar performance tends to sound stiff in some places. Not too many comments on specific areas of the track as the arrangement was generally good. Cool changeup at 3:36. Wasn't a fan of the changeup at 5:57 to "The Way Back Home" on any level, as it abruptly got really syrupy sweet and didn't fit thematically with any of the preceeding material; possibly a jarring key change, I wouldn't know. The arrangement of the various themes is aight, though I thought the overall dynamics were pretty poor. Aside from the source tunes changing, the track chugs and chugs away for 7:23 without enough significant changes in the instrumentation combinations or energy/intensity level to keep things interesting, especially in the latter half of the piece. I'm gonna leave the sub comments on the encoding quality up because there's nothing to be self-conscious about, Kris. The current encoding quality on this sub may be a bit lossy, but sounds perfectly reasonable for the site standards, BTW. LAME VBR is recommended by many for encoding purposes, so perhaps give that a shot. Try a few different VBR encodings with different bitrate ranges and see what gets the closest to the 6MB threshold. Revisit the mixing (more lows and highs) and provide stronger dynamics, and this would be in much stronger shape. NO (resubmit)

The full version was uploaded before OCR01500. There was never any announcement, I just noticed (while going through lockdown stuff) that the previous version had cut off and checked Benedikt's homepage to see if the mix was indeed only 2:16 long.

Hate to cut ya short, but unfortunately "nah". http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2360

1) Nah, there's nothing like that (personal descriptions) available, though it's an interesting idea. Basically, the most the public knows about the various judges are from the tracks they've submitted to the site. 2) Not quite sure what you mean there. We download the songs, and we listen to 'em. If you're talking about the criteria we use for judging, then What qualifies as a 'ReMix' and How are submissions judged? are the principles and guidelines we keep in mind when evaluating submissions.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 319 "Aeris' Theme" I thought TO's POV was a bit dismissive. Sure the track's rough, but the concepts are alright. Decent intro joined at :07 by some distortion 'n beats. The arrangement needs to be more interpretive, as the melody's basically used verbatim whenever it's in play. Get more interpretive with the theme beyond the genre adaptation you're doing by using these sounds. Faux-guitar almost never sounds good in these arrangements, but it wasn't too bad in here, though the sequencing was pretty mechanical. Not sure what was up with 1:05's section playing the melody so strangely, but it became recognizable at 1:17. Went back to the faux-guitar at 1:25 for the last section. Ending at 2:08 was pretty "I give up"-ish. Make a real one. The textures were fairly simplistic and needed to be fuller, and the arrangement was limited due to the length. Sounds like a decent concept that doesn't have the polish or development needed to hang here. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff5 - "Ahead On Our Way" (ff5-1-01.spc) Cool opening. A bit generic with the sounds, but some reasonably good effects/processing to make things sound more unique. Beefy drums came in at :30 with some cool writing. Ooooh, nice changeup at 1:04. Very nice. Cymbals got more active at 1:36, though the e-piano doesn't really seem to be going anywhere with the comping. Just personal taste, but one reason it felt that way was because the e-piano tended to bleed into the other sounds and not stand out. Drumwork and other rhythmic sounds dragged after 1:51, before moving back to :31's section with a guitar synth added and the original lead scaled back. Yeah, I think the composition could be improved a bit, but the production is where this needs help the most as your sounds tend to bleed together. Nice first sub. NO (rework/resubmit)

"Not a site project" means this goes here now.

MAGFest 5 was the most awesome community experience ever. Everyone was incredibly cool. I'm lucky this year, because I moved to DC and was only 45mins away, but I'd recommend to ANYONE who enjoys the game music arrangement community to somehow try and make it next year. Definitely the greatest meetup of all time.

"Relatively," meaning not enough. Oopz...I r ded.

Nothin' to see here.

Hiya DJP! Here's my first submission, Let me give you some info: ReMixer name: Another Soundscape Real name: Mattias Häggström Gerdt email: Failure_02@hotmail.com website: www.anothersoundscape.tk REMIX INFO: Game remixed: Final Fantasy 5 (the overlooked one) Song remixed: Ahead on our way (main theme) My own comments: I wanted this song to remind people of the feeling when they played the game. The title "Away In My Head" reflects just that. I wanted the track to be exciting, mellow and at the same time massive and heroic so that I got as many emotions I felt from the game into the track. At the time I'm writing this I think I succeeded. I hope other people will think so too. Note that I actually played all the drum parts right away on the keyboard with a small ammount of Quantizing. in the entire song I used ONE loop and that was the guitar playing powerchords during the Rhodes solo. Enjoy, and I hope you will submit it for other people to enjoy too. Cheers // Mattias

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4589 Mixer Name: Bren Forum ID: Bren Game Remixed: Space Cadet Pinball Mix title: Braving Deep Space http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/bbennett/ocr/Space_Cadet_Pinball_Braving_Deep_Space_ReSubmission.mp3 Quite a few changes in this resub, including more arrangement, less clutter, better guitar lead, and a whole new section. Let me know what you all think. (any resemblance to other mixes is coincidental)

Aight, I'll further clarify with some slight changes. 1. For a mix that uses more than one source tune, but places the primary arrangement focus on one tune, the mix is classified by whatever game the primary source tune is from. 2. For a mix that uses two or more source tunes fairly equally, the mix is chosen to be classified under one game, usually the submitting artist's choice (e.g. World of Warcraft 'All Nations Rise'). 3. For a medley mix arranging several games from one series and with no primary arrangement focus on any one particular source tune tune in a medley, the mix is classified under the first game of the series.

NO WAY! LET"S DO DIS LIKE THE OLD WEST, NIGGA! FLIP FOR IT OR SHOOT SOMEONE OUT OF THEIR SADDLE OR DRINKZ 'EM UNDER THE SALOON TABLE or, get djp to decide.

"What the Funk?" was posted in 2001, long before an actual policy to classify medleys was in place. "Hot Ice" only has a cameo appearance of Lava Reef Zone. That's not a medley. A medley implies using more than two songs as source material, i.e. 3 or more. So for a mix that uses more than one source tune, but places the primary arrangement focus on one tune, the mix is classified by whatever game the primary source tune is from. For any mix that uses two source tunes fairly equally, the mix is chosen to be classified under one game, usually the submitting artist's choice (e.g. World of Warcraft 'All Nations Rise'). And when there's no focus on any one particular tune in a medley, then medley pieces across several games in a series are listed under the first game of the series. Hope that clarifies.

It's the Ending Theme (starting at 10:01 of that) with some Liberi Fatali during some parts of the background. The sounds are a bit flimsy, and it does sound better on headphones, but this was a good example of a conservative yet personalized arrangement approach that stands apart from the original.

Then why is it in the remixes for FF1? Medley pieces across several games in a series are listed under the first game of the series. Good arrangement ideas, but this piece definitely shows its age. Nothing against Graham, but it didn't hold up well for me.

I can see why this split the panel at the time, though I probably would have leaned against it had I been on it. I liked a lot of the instrumentation ideas here, but felt they could have been pulled off more strongly, plus the arrangement being so conservative was the main kicker here. Still, for it's time, a very cool track and still a unique approach sonically.

I almost never buy things for myself, and never ask anyone else to give me things, so I finally bought my own shit this year. Absolute Batman: Hush Absolute DC: The New Frontier Absolute Sandman: Volume 1 Batman: Hush Returns Batman: Under the Hood, Vol. 1 Batman: Under the Hood, Vol. 2 Bone: One Volume Edition Making Comics (by Scott McCloud) Top 10: Smax Top 10: The Fourty-Niners Top 10: Beyond the Farthest Precinct Sandman: Endless Nights Sandman: The Dream Hunters Superman: Red Son Superman Confidential #1 Would have gotten New X-Men Omnibus, but the release date got pushed back. Otherwise though, a good score of comic book swag.