Liontamer

Greetings djp/judges, Well, it's certainly been a while since I last submitted anything (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01210/, way back in 07/2004). In order to get back into practice, I thought I'd finish off this Earthbound mix I had started some time ago before being sidetracked by a few hardware failures and a certain MMO which shall not be named. The most time probably went into some of the details, like the sequencing on the hi-hat line near the end, which I'm pretty happy about. Stylistically, it's pretty much all over the place (as usual). Anyway, here's the relevant info: Original track..: "Tessie!" from Earthbound Remix title.....: Brainshock Remixer.........: aluminum File............: MP3 192kbps CBR, 4.71MB, 3m25s Links: Primary: Secondary: Here's a reference to the original: http://www.blurringline.net/files/audio/spc/tessie%21.spc Thanks! -- aluminum ----------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=mo2 - "Tessie!" (mo2-067.spc) Man, dat shit is loud. The intro here is supposed to be based off the 9-second intro of the source. Stuff kicks in at :40, also based off the chords of the original's intro (see :04-:08 of "Tessie!"). While not derived from the melodic components of the track, those arrangement ideas are frequently the foundation of the track. Loud-as-hell strings from :50-1:08 (referencing :09 of the source) had some awkward note-to-note movements, but the energy was good. Felt like the claps first used at :41 should have had more meat on 'em; they were pretty flimsy as is and didn't fill out the track well or blend with the other sounds. Probably the third mix in this batch where I felt the drums used here (1:08-1:31) didn't click with the rest of the instrumentation. Caught the liberal referencing of :20 from the original with the lead writing from 1:08-1:26. 1:31-1:49 (referencing :20 of the source), which was a bit weak with those bleh brass and string samples, but at the end of the day you acclimate to them and the arrangement stands up. The e-piano from 1:54-2:39 was even more liberally inspired by the :20 section of Tessie!; it's original enough where I'm essentially regarding it as a wholly-original idea. Good job bringing the arrangement full circle at 2:39 while still introducing some subtle new ideas into the picture. I'm a fan of liberal mixes as long as the connections are apparent to me, but even then we seem to be going into pretty liberal territory. When you don't analyze these tracks when judging them, it's VERY easy to go "well this sounds well put together, so I've gotta assume the arrangement is fine". Regardless, once I spent the time to make the connections to "Tessie!", I was solid on the arrangement side. Volume could definitely stand to be toned down, but otherwise some solid craftsmanship. Great to have you back, alum. YES

URL: Remixer: deific-X Name: Even Alander e-mail: deificx@gmail.com UserID: 51929 Game: Sonic the hedgehog 2 Song remixed: Sky high zone Remix name: Highest sky Comment: This is one of my favourite themes from the Sonic series. The melody is just so funky and catchy there's really not so much needed to make a decent song of it. Just hope it's good enough being my first remix. I usually compose music but when I'm out of ideas it's fun to work with a remix. This is the first I've ever finnished though. ----------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/vgm/sonic2.zip - "Sky High Zone" Aside from fleshing it out with some defaulty sounds, going for some legitimately phat beats, and changing the lead from verse to verse, this is offering almost nothing that the original composition didn't already offer. You get props on selecting a really catchy Game Gear source tune, but no props for not arranging this more interpretively. As far as conservative covers go, awesome work, but you gotta create something more interpretive and unique. Read up on the Submissions Guidelines again, and compare recently posted OC ReMixes to their sources to hear more of those guidelines in action. NO

Bitrate is way too high, mix is pretty short - LT This is Select Start's Remix of Chrono Trigger's Frog's Theme. If you need to title it something different, then you can call it Theme of Frog's. This piece is coming off our new self-titled album, which can be found on www.selectstartband.com. You can order the CD off our site, and get a full track listing there. All the instruments are real, and the band consists of 2 violins, a flute, cello, piano, and guitar. Most of us have been classically trained for over 10 years, and we have been arranging VG music for over 3 years now. If you need anymore information please let me know. Thanks so much, John Cheng Cellist of Select Start www.selectstartband.com selectstartband@gmail.com P.S. I think it is great what you guys are doing for the VG music community. ------------------------------------------------------ http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Kaeru's Theme" (ct-1-19.spc) It's short. That's about the only criticism I had. Hey, what can I say, I'd enjoy a few more minutes' worth of this. Throughout the variations of the theme, there were some great changes in the texture and energy level (e.g. :26 & 1:06). The melody stays pretty conservative, but the presentation is personalized, you have all the other parts supplementing the melody with some swanky new harmonies and other new writing, plus it's played live. Brief, but it gets the message across nicely. Oh yeah, violins don't sound real at all. Lots of repeating. (Ha!) YES

Link to remix : Remixer: ilp0 Real name: Ilari Nieminen E-mail: ilari.nieminen@cs.helsinki.fi Website: www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/isniemin/Musiikki Game: Final Fantasy IX Song: Crossing Those Hills (Overworld theme)

Hey there, OCReMix, Awesome to finally submit something - your site has long been a part of my musical development and has definitely played a part in me completing final year of Music Education at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada - really great job! Without cluttering up the email too terribly much, here is the good stuff! ============== Contact Info: Remix Name: siven7 Real Name: Kenley Kristofferson Email address: kenleykristofferson@hotmail.com or siven7@gmail.com Website: (none at the moment) UserID: (not sure how to find my number) Remix Info: Name of Game Remixed: Final Fantasy Name of Original Song: Matoya's Cave, Overworld Theme, Gurgu Volcano, Chaos's Temple, Temple of Chaos, Final Fantasy Theme, Victory Fanfare. Comments: Though the pieces are very heavily remix, this remix brings a sound, colour and ensemble that is rarely heard in video game repertoire, classical repertoire or even everyday life: The Euphonium Quartet. There exist trombone quartets, tuba quartets, tuba ensembles... but alas, the euphonium quartet is a beast that wakes in areas few and far between...! I study music at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, MB, Canada and, though studying to be a music teacher and composer, majored on Euphonium for my major practical study (i.e. playing lessons). In my fourth year at school, two first years and a Master's student and I put together a euphonium quartet and played two recitals. As there are very few pieces written for the euphonium quartet, there would be no better time to arrange something for us! Final Fantasy I was chosen because the music is fun, written mostly in four parts and easily lends itself to classical medium (as well as the fact that it is really, REALLY well done!). The piece begins with a solo euphonium over a drone playing Matoya's Cave; the other two join in and begin a chorale-like feel. Though the range is slightly screaming near the end (up to a high C!), the lower voices start an accelerando into the Overworld Theme. The Overworld Theme is traded between euph duets until everyone comes in with an ostinato and a thicker texture of low brass. There is a quick transition into the Gurgu Volcano (which is equally quick!) and we get to have some fun with the dynamics: Starting loud, quieting for a crescendo, then repeating at piano and growing into the transition, which takes us into the Chaos Temple theme. As polyphonic melody (the melodic figure) is tough to do on a brass instrument, we did octave shots in the first run of the melody and then elaborated the harmony underneath with trading figures (always fun in a chamber group) and this helped have the full sound of four horns. There is some fun with rhythms before slowing down with triplet figures into the Final Fantasy Theme, which is a glorious sound when scored for a low brass quartet. At the final transition, we end with a quote from the victory fanfare and an eerily out-of-tune last note (hahaha!), stand and bow! This was performed on March 17, 2005 at Eva Clare Hall at the U of M campus. The performers consisted of Nathan Beeler, Michelle Funk, Kim Lutz and myself, Kenley Kristofferson. I really hope you enjoy it, I hope to have more coming sooner! Kenley Kristofferson Composer Dragonfly Games "Don't cry because it's over - smile because it happened" ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Tracks 10 (:03), 4 (1:14), 9 (2:25), 12 (3:23), 2 (4:14) & 19 (5:27) I don't wanna sound like a hater, Kenley, because you've got the music major and the premise of this arrangement is pretty cool. I wish more people out there were doing stuff like this. But IMO the performance isn't strong enough. The recording quality is lacking, but if the performance was really that good, the recording quality wouldn't be enough of a negative to hold this back. Maybe I'm just not familiar enough with the euphonium, but the performance seemed pretty bland. Though comparable to a tuba, it's still an expressive enough instrument, and I wasn't getting that here, especially with the backing parts. What was supposed to sound moody and reserved just ended up sounding flat. I'm not expecting Steven Mead quality, but oftentimes, the harmonies weren't that tight, and the individual parts lacked in spots as well. Nothing's dismal here, but it's not as tightly performed or expressive as it should be. Even during the best parts where the four of you were clicking (e.g. 4:14-5:11), I felt like there was a lot of unrealized potential. On the arrangement side, things were pretty conservative, but it takes skill and practice to learn the various parts. With a relatively conservative take on the various themes though, you really need a tight performance to make up for that. A shame to reject this, because it's not like you guys can just rerecord this, but it's a NO. I'd like to hear another track of yours in the future though.

Swamp theme from DKC 2 Trickey Swamp Style, remixed by Siamey (Heath Morris) djsiamey@hotmail.com www.siamey.com OCR Forum ID 10956 thanks to openspc for the dkc2 samples i ripped. Thanks for your time, judges. ------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=dkq - "Bayou Boogie" (dkq-08.spc) Some of the synths were pretty tacky (first sound at :00, lead at :03, lead at 1:17), but it may just be a matter of personal opinion. Would have liked a cooler lead at 1:17; something less syrupy could have worked better with the other sounds, but that's a matter of opinion as well. Hahaha, nice sound effect solo from 1:47-1:59. Those samples sounded too lo-fi though, along with the rest of the track. Why's this so muddy? No good reason for it to sound like mush. Whatever's causing that, you gotta pull it back. Volume's way too abrasive, and the sounds bleed together especially during the fuller sections (e.g. :18-:33, 2:01-3:09, 3:24-3:39). Everything sounds loud, muddy, and lossy. The arrangement is creative, but reassess the production and send it back. I couldn't post this as is when it sounds like a mess. Sorry, Heath, but definitely resub. I'd like to see this posted in some form. NO (refine/resubmit)

Remix/Song Link: - - - - - - - - - - -Your ReMixer name Davirus -Your real name David Escalante -Your email address david_849@hotmail.com -Your website http://www.blackspiremedia.net/davirus/ -Your userid (number, not name) on our forums ??? - - - - - - - - - - About the remix Well, its a old remix (I did it around March). I really liked, its one of my own favorites songs. I did it one day I was playing SNES F-Zero xD This song have a some personal emotions. The song was made in 5 days with FL5 with external Plugins. Enjoy! ----------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=fz - "Mute City" (fz-09.spc) Opened up with some pretty basic synths and effects. Everything was pretty muddy, but at least the genre adaptation, while basic, seemed OK to start off. Better groove arrived at 1:12; the drums from beforehand were pretty weak. The source melody still sounded like murk and mud. Switched over to some e-piano at 1:56 that sounded nice until the beats and low synths crowded the melody out from 2:10-2:39. There were a few instances of the piano and dance instrumentation clashing. Not too much more to say about the arrangement. Overall, it's a pretty basic genre adaptation with some decent production on normally lackluster sounds. The repetitive beatwork certainly dragged over time. Too swampy also, but nothing that couldn't be refined. The arrangement really needs to go in other/new directions, though. It's conservative with little done to personalize the track other than the genre change, and even the genre change is only debateably pulled off. NO

Remixers - DragonAvenger (vocalist), Efields (arranger) Email(DA) - darlantandragonavenger@gmail.com Website(DA) - http://darlantandragonavenger.googlepages.com/home User ID - (DA)33038, (EF)49876 (I think) Final Fantasy X Besaid Island (Track 1-18) (Feel free to leave the link up!) (DA's Comments)I've been wanting to do a remix to Besaid Island for some time now. I finally got around to commissioning EFields (With dinner at Denny's) to arrange the piece for me, and I recieved a beautiful result (probably worth more than the dinner). I asked him to take the melody line twice as fast as normal, and to make it have a "pop song" feel, as well as add anything he felt like doing. The lyrics came after, based on Tidus and Yuna, the scenery of Besaid, as well as the love scene later in the game. This song has a special dedication to my parents, who just celebrated their anniversary a couple of weeks ago. HUGE thanks to The Prophet of Mephisto for doing work (reverb, echo, etc) on the vocals! (EF's Comments)After DragonAvenger gave me an outline of what she wanted (a very minimal outline, I was more or less free to use my judgement), I got to work composing the instrumental part of this song using Garage Band. It's not the best program for this sort of style, so I was limited in a small number of ways, but writing music with GB is still very manageable. I wanted a remix that was significantly different from the original composition, but one that also strongly evoked the notable characteristics of the original. I mostly used a warm synth pad, a gentle synth lead (which was later deleted and replaced by voice), an unintrusive bass, and a soft tribal beat. Unfortunately, the beat is a loop, so it comes off as a little repetitive, but I tried to blend it nicely through mixing and using different loops. The occasional high-toned bells in the background are my attempt at evoking rays of sunlight coming through the clouds. At the end of the piece, the drums cut out, leaving enveloping chords and a final repetition of the main vocal theme. The music dies away peacefully. Summoner's Love Lyrics - "Waves that lap across the beach, The soaring gulls and leafy trees. Sun, and so warm... It doesn't matter where we go, Just tell me that you love me so. I do, oh I do... Gentle hands and eyes so bright Please bring me close and hold me tight. Your arms, are so warm... Crystal lakes and waterfalls, Swimming under tiny stars. The night, So calm... Always mirthful, laughing strong Nothing ever gets you down. Please, smile, for me Tell me what you want to be Let me be in your story. I love you." Thank you, DragonAvenger, EFields

Super Mario World Snes Castle Theme Enjoy ------------------------------------------------------ http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=smw - "Sub Castle BGM" (smw-15.spc) & "Map 2: Overworld" (smw-03.spc) Fairly good intro. Interesting use of the claps there; nothing negative, although they're something I wouldn't expect here. Nonetheless, they're simply but properly produced so that they fit in the soundscape without sounding pasted on top. The soundscape felt a bit thin; most of the way, the strings should have filled out the track more. The brass samples at :51 were pretty bleh. Yes, they're tough to get sounding good, I'm aware. The brass sounded better at 1:21 for the chorus, so it's not like the usage was poor across the board. Arrangement's pretty conservative, without substantial enough additions to make up for it, IMO. There's some new writing, sure, but it's not a major contribution here. Transitioned at 2:03 into "Map 2: Overworld" arranged in basically the same conservative style before getting more interpretive with the rhythms from 2:18-2:33; fakeness of the brass was exposed for a few seconds. Went back to the Castle BGM at 2:33, but with more going on than before. Good job changing the rhythms of the bassline at 3:09, but other than that, the expansion factor and interpretation factor both felt low. Needs more depth in the soundfield during some of the emptier parts, more effective usage of the brass/strings. But way ahead of those things, it needs more interpretation. Frank could make this twice as good. NO (rework/resubmit)

Original decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2950 Hey guys and pixie, For any of you whom were judges in ye old times, I submitted an older version of this mix, which was recorded and mixing with my old software, Cakewalk HS 2002. 2 years later, after a couple requests from various peeps and one WIP that was left aside, I decided to remake the original mix, and record some shizz with my new software Reaosn and Cubase. After swindling, the one referred to as, Bladiator to perform my piano realistically with his own flair, the piece came together. It's not as raw as the original, but it's a hella lot better produced, and that was the issue last time. Same reverse guitar, delayed effects, no distortion but this time the necessity of piano. The game I've remixed is Final Fantasy VIII The original song title (which I've visited a couple times) is Fisherman's Horizon I am 17 years old, and go by Tepid, whilst Karl (age unknown) goes by Bladiator (like a vicious bodily function) My email is usually, but gmail was down at the time. Hope this see's the panel soon, I'm looking at you Larry (you heard the originals, this should amuse you) *pleads Thanks, Phil EDIT: Sorry about this, I rerecorded the rhythm guitar in the 1:00 - 1:20 section and decided to pull the ambience out in the end. The guitar has a brighter tone since I used a different pick, but I think it sounds better. My details are on the original email. Thanks, Phil/Tepid

Hello Guys and Gals. It's been a while since I submitted anything, but here we are again. I haven't submitted anything lately because frankly it took me a while to get used to Reason after all that time using fruityloops and the stuff I have been doing wasn't really filling my expectations. Now I feel more confident and I'm getting more out of the software and out of my music. So about this mix, it's a remix of Bubble Bobble's title theme for C64. My intention was to make a dreamy kind of song, but that could boast some energetic sections while staying away from my traditional trancy stuff. Admittedly I was inspired by djp's Revival Day Impoetus for this mix, because instead of going for catchy melodies and boxed structures I kinda let loose a bit and made the melody go off by itself in some places, not concentrating on a definite theme while also not going too overboard and keeping that sweet mood. I might also add that I made this mix for PRC79. So anyways, hope you enjoy this mix. As pointed out before, made in Reason 3, with my own made-from-scratch presets and combi patches, some free refills and my trusty wav samples for the drumming. The remix can be found here: And the original song can be found here: If you need extra info, you can always pm me on the boards. Hasta pronto! Sir_NutS ----------------------------------------------------- http://www.exotica.org.uk/tunes/archive/C64Music/Clarke_Peter/Bubble_Bobble.sid - SIDtune 8/12 Intro was cool, based off the 2-second intro of the C64 version of the source. (The Amiga version uses a similar intro, but faster and with different sound). And you managed to make that intro the supporting writing within the bigger picture; nice idea. I see Mike hasn't forgotten about making things extra loud. Them beats at :32 were snapping all up in my face, followed by that bassline at :47. Didn't like the balance issues here. I know Mike is going for lots of energy here, but the supporting instrumentation and beats being so loud just causes a lot of clutter and obscured the lead writing. 1:04 refers to about 10 seconds into the source, but the wait until the actual melodic portion's pretty long. E-piano at 1:36 references the source melody, albeit liberally. Definitely bleh on the piano sound from 2:23-2:56; really cheap and mechanical-sounding, plus the tone is weak and it screams fake. Shouldn't have been brought back again at 3:45, which only weakened the dual piano interplay. The ending was also pretty weak; I dunno what the point of the last 3 notes at 4:15 was. I'm gonna sound like a hater, as this isn't a poorly-made track. But, as a standalone piece of writing, there was something disappointing about the whole thing, IMO. It's supposed to have a lot of energy, thanks to the needlessly overbearing beats. But, to me, the melodic writing seemed relatively simple and aimless overall, the dynamics didn't feel like they changed much despite the lead changing several times, and the beats carried the track too much. The lead writing should be more complex and engaging, the beatwork should be scaled back so the soundfield isn't so cluttered, that one bleh piano soundfont needs to go, and the ending needs to be stronger. Mike is already good with Reason, but I'm just not feeling the end result here. To me, it's bland despite the obvious effort to make it anything but. NO (resubmit)

http://www.exotica.org.uk/tunes/archive/C64Music/Huelsbeck_Chris/Great_Giana_Sisters_PSID.sid - SIDtune 5/8 This is the part where I yell at DarkeSword for being an idiot for not knowing where to find the Great Giana Sisters soundtrack, considered a legendary soundtrack for the Commodore 64. "grrr u idiot" :vomit: Pretty straightforward arrangement, but well-produced. Nice change in dynamics with the dropping out of the beats, the stuttering rhythm arranging the source, plus the pad fading in at 1:05. Melody finally comes in at 1:25. The beatwork was produced nicely, but felt like it could have been more impactful. Good tradeoffs between the synth lead and the stuttering synth handling the melody, as well as changing the supporting instrumentation, present throughout the rest of the track. While the track didn't introduce new sound/writing ideas after a certain point, there was still a noticeable sense of making the arrangement evolve and develop over time. The melodic leads constantly traded off, while the background combinations shifted constantly as well. The track does feel a bit too samey after a while despite EzpRado attempting to vary things up. The synths, the beatwork, etc. dragged after hearing them used so much, IMO negatively affecting the replayability of the piece. The emergence of new sounds and writing ideas, like the ending section from 4:13-4:44, should have been used earlier in the track to keep things fresh. Could have been stronger and introduced more ideas into the picture over time, which holds it back a bit, but what's here is fairly good. By my call, you squeak by. Good luck on the rest of the vote. YES (borderline)

Thanks, 'Ili. Fixed.

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/pokemonb.zip - Track 7 Hate to have to agree, especially with the potential here, but Lee's basically right on all accounts, at least from my perspective. I thought the arrangement got far off the beaten path of the source tune, sounding too liberal. Even the background ideas didn't sound much like the source's own. You gotta make the connections more observable, as to me this doesn't scrape by. I'd always NO something I wasn't sure about on that level. If there's something we're completely missing, we'd appreciate a breakdown of the connections with the source, but the onus is on you, the submitter, to somehow make the connections clear to the Js when things aren't clear. Though the recording sounded a bit lossy, the sax playing was indeed the seckxzs. But I also thought the sax work took center stage at the expense of the effort on the supporting instrumentation, especially the beats. The beat writing was solid; I loved the lil' almost sparking effects sprinkled in there throughout, by the way. However, the patterns there were extremely repetitive. The bassline definitely could have been selectively beefed up, and didn't contribute enough to the atmosphere and energy of the piece. Like Lee said, the general feel of the track is the same most of the way, so you need to manufacture more dynamics. A good base, but keep working on it. NO (rework/resubmit)

http://project2612.org/download.php?id=61 - "Lava Reef Zone 1" Opening is already pretty old school with these sounds. The soundscape was thin, loud, and defaulty. I agreed with zirc about the lack of polish with the various sounds not meshing well together; the beatwork/claps and some of the synths (e.g. 1:17, 2:39) were too loud compared to the other sounds. The sound balance could be reexamined. The arrangement seemed a bit scattershot, especially with the Lava Reef theme shunted way in the back. While the source tune taking a back seat to the louder beatwork and original ideas isn't a total dealbreaker, it's still a somewhat odd approach when the focus, at least in terms of the standards, should be a bit more on the source tune and not just building original stuff over the conservatively arranged original (i.e. 2:39-3:27). You have to listen to the various other parts to see what other connections are there. Sometimes (:56-1:10) the interpretive connections are more obvious, sometimes it seems like (beyond the conservative usage of the source melody in the background) there's nothing really having to do with Lava Reef. There were some sections where the melody was arranged for whatever sounds, but the progression was basically the same as the source and not interpretive. Overall though, while relatively conservative, the arrangement went in the right direction in terms of trying to fuse original writing and liberal arrangement ideas with the conservative renditions of the source. I'd move a bit away from the more verbatim renditions of the theme in the background. Keep at it, Dan. NO (rework/resubmit)

Y'all need help. Welcome to Gen Disc. Enjoy your stay.

No thanks to me originally, of course. Depending on the circumstances, I'm generally tougher on samples than the rest of these guys, but the arrangement was still strong for the original version. The tweaks made in this version push it over the borderline for me, especially now that this mastered edition adds a bit more power and depth to the sounds, and fixed some of the more noticeable issues with sample quality. While the arrangement was good, before there were sections that just sounded flat despite the strong writing attempting to convey otherwise. Props again for a strong return, and hopefully not the last VG arrangement you ever do. YES

The fate of mankind isn't at stake. You can wait.

Ikaruga OSV - Ch.3 "Faith" Intro took a while to build to something; I liked the plucked strings, nice transition to the bowed strings fading in at :35. Not really sure about that organ-like synth at :46. Moved over at 1:00 into the melody, but the instruments sounded rather flat and the texture was sparse. Some more elements came in at 1:24 to flesh things out a little more, but it wasn't enough, IMO. Dunno how the bassline was a strong point here. Several times, the bassline and/or supporting writing seemed like it didn't properly harmonize with the melodic content. Everything just continued like this, with the sounds being empty, the groove not locking together with the other instrumentation. The ending itself was pretty lackluster. Not sure on what level this is above the bar. The sounds lacked depth, and the arrangement got aimless. Wish I could be more supportive, Paul, as all of your stuff has had and continues to have genuine potential. But this presentation sounds more like a mid-progress WIP. NO (rework/resubmit)

Has a decent, calm vibe, but the sounds are pretty bland overall, like the main beat in the back. The melodic arrangement is pretty straightforward and really doesn't stand out as different enough in style/presentation to make up for the conservative take. By 1:30, I was expecting something more substantial to be going on, but it just went back to the main Schala melody at 1:45, only with some slightly different patterns and supporting writing underneath. Didn't feel like the piece was evolving in any way to compensate for the lack of dynamic contrast or new writing for the lead. Something like the lead at 2:55, only with a bit more power, would have come in handy earlier in the track to create more contrast. On the writing side though, that section didn't go anywhere before petering out at 3:30. Overall, this needs more development, direction, interpretation, and depth to the sounds. NO

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/computer/commodore/commodore/stones5.mid - "Stones" Interesting opening. Not sure what was up with the pregnant pause from :16-:21. Nice minimalist atmosphere from :21-:42. Woodwind lead brought in at :42 seemed slightly off-time when brought in, and also too dry compared to the other verby/glassy instrumentation. I think it's possibly to create separation like you've done without it sounding like the parts aren't in the same general area. I see how the arrangement seemed fairly conservative, but the personalization and interpretation in the approach is definitely there. Nice changing of the time signature here, by the way. The way the sub letter reads, it makes it look like the arrangement may have been an afterthought to a predominantly original piece, but that's really not the case here. The more exposed woodwind sequencing from 1:03-1:17 was a bit too rigid in some of the note-to-note movements; a little on the fake side, which didn't sound very good given how dry the sound was. The dryness though was more of a criticism than the realism. Some of the higher frequencies were pretty piercing and needed to be toned way down. Felt the lack of realism was a bigger problem at 2:46 when you layered more than one woodwind together, followed by the woodwinds and strings at 3:03. It's really not that bad, but considering how you really don't have much more going on, it would help this track to have that stuff be more on point. I liked TO's suggestion to beef the track up a little more with some ambient noise SFX. Either that or work on making the lead woodwinds and supporting strings less bland/defaulty. I'm close on this one, but would prefer to see a resubmission that puts this one on solid ground, Kristofer. Very nice work so far. NO (refine/resubmit)

Chaos Legion Original Soundtrack - (108) "a way to nowhere Stage ~Ruins~" & (115) "feel no fear Stage ~Sky Gallery~" Yeah, same issues I felt were there in the Metal Slug 2 remix were definitely there here, only thankfully a bit more balanced. The compression made things sound cluttered and lossy in places, but the production wasn't hurting. Much like "No Need to Reload", this was more of a case where the instrumentation and production choices were more befitting of the genre, as opposed to those choices sounding completely out of whack in a piece that's supposed to sound more organic. Awesome opening with some very nice brass, followed up by the vox; a nice buildup for the intro with great energy. That filtered synth first used at :53 was cool initially, but got lame after a while. When it came back at 3:23, I was killing for something different, frankly something more creative with the synth design there. Same issue with the bleh lead synth during the close from 3:44-4:05, but not a dealbreaker. Nice brief usage of "feel no fear Stage ~Sky Gallery~" from 2:42-2:55. The vox from 2:56-3:22 sounded pretty good, all things considered. The timing was a little rigid, but the note-to-note movement was pretty smooth overall, sounding fairly realistic. So a minor point, but still nicely done. Synth design for a few brief parts could have been more creative, and the production was a bit on the rough side, but this was solid overall. I fully agreed with TO that while the overall arrangement was arguably conservative, things were pretty personalized in terms of the approach. Honestly, this one's a strong example of retaining both the spirit and style of the source material while substantially personalizing the arrangement. Not many people around here know how to even pull that off, which earns major props. YES

http://www.zophar.net/gsf/minishcap_gsf.rar - 05 "Festival Outskirts" & 06 "Picori Festival" Instrumentation was more simplistic, and not much different than the source. If it was a MIDI rip, it wouldn't suprise me. No interpretation, repetitive, undeveloped, only 2:09-long. Did you bother reading the submissions guidelines? NO

Hate to crib, but DS sums it up. I also thought the lead was a bit obscured compared to the beats, and that the sound quality was teetering a bit too much on the lossy side despite the encoding. Sounded like there wasn't enough meat on the high end. The ending from 3:53 to the end was a bit too sparse and dragged on. Standard to the genre or not, it went on for too long. It wouldn't be a problem if the sounds weren't so thin and bland there. Anyway, you gotta be more interpretive with the material. You converted the piece to more of a dance groove and changed up the rhythms, but that was about the extent of the interpretation. It lacks. If that's the short version, then as a listener there's no reason I'd wanna hear the longer version without you bringing more creativity and personalization to the plate. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - Track 8 ("Sparkman Stage") Hate to be glib, but DS is right. Repetitive too. This was produced well enough to make it to the panel, but the interpretation factor is extremely low. A very basic genre conversion, cookie cutter synth choices, a mere 2:19-long, and not particularly interested in significantly interpreting or developing the source. NO