Liontamer

Within a Deep Forest OSV - "Moon" Thanks for providing the source tune. Now that I've actually had a chance to look at the game, it probably doesn't qualify for the site on account of it being a seemingly obscure freeware release, but I'll certainly let it slide. The source tune here was pretty damn catchy. Too bad the arrangement at the beginning was so similar to the original due to the writing for the lead. Not really any point keeping it near-verbatim like that, but you did do a decent job of personalizing your arrangement approach to have a different feel than the original. Beyond that, I agreed with TO that the percussion was essentially on auto-pilot, and that the track needed fleshing out, as it was pretty sparse. Clearly, more can be done with it. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=loz3 - "Overworld" (loz3-04.spc) "Dunno where the source tune is in Z64:OoT, but oh well." Repeated from last time around. Tell us what you're arranging from Ocarina of Time. You'd be doing yourself (and myself) a favor. I like the additions here, but indeed, you're basically repeating the same motifs over and over again with more time added. On that level, you weren't really developing the track much further, despite your sincere efforts. Like last time around, I liked how you varied up the harmonzing instrumentation. But for the melodic lead, try to change the focus from the layered brass at some point, as it gets pretty repetitive. Same with the drumwork; you could hear the same patterns repeating ad nauseum. The slight additions/changes from verse to verse as you repeat the melody don't create enough dynamic contrast to keep things interesting on account of the brass and drums. The overall levels are too quiet, and the sounds lack power, leaving the texture very thin and exposing the samples. A lot of the promising writing ideas you have filling the track out are simply too quiet to obtain the listener's attention or have much of an impact. Again, you need to flesh out the sounds, and you also need to vary the arrangement/instrumentation ideas more. You may want to move onto a new project now as opposed to working on this any further, but you show some talent that can be cultivated, to be sure. NO

Halo 2 Original Soundtrack and New Music Volume One - (03) Peril Interesting genre conversion, including some notable original additions, but I thought this was poorly performed overall. It certainly doesn't sound like you guys were working with each other at all during some of the denser parts, which sounded cluttered and, frankly, not very musical. BGC went into the specific weak points, so I'll leave it at that. I like the idea in principle, but the execution lacks regardless. You really need to get more interpretive on the arrangement side as well, not just doing a brass cover with some additional parts. NO

Y'all should have paid more attention to the submitter's request and not my eccentric disregard for MS default crud. Thanks to Shariq who, in between banging his head on the wall, sent me the MIDI original. Very catchy stuff. Kind of sad that the original composer wasn't credited in the file. I liked how you slowed down the arrangement in order to change the feel. Though I hated the FL Slayer lead, things were IMO reasonably personalized on the arrangement side for the most part. You still had some parts where following the original structure closely seemed rather uncreative, such as the bassline from 1:26-1:45, but it wasn't a huge issue to me. I agreed a bit with the judges though that the arrangement was too conservative. While you changed the tempo and atmosphere, the note structure was too similar to the original. You need to throw more interpretation into the mix. Going back to my original vote, the dynamics are definitely a huge issue. The arrangement basically stays at the same intensity most of the time without many significant changeups (and too much repetition), plus the energy level again wasn't very high. You need to figure out how to make the sequenced parts (the piano, the FL Slayer-ish guitar, etc) flow more in a more natural and expressive way. Again, I wish I could give you more specifics, Brendan, but I hope the specific criticisms I did give up top, as well as pointing out the core issues here, provide you enough detail yet allow you the freedom to improve the track however you see fit. Keep working on it.

Me and the lady got 20 months on those n00bs. Try a couple years! TRY!

Badass, bro. I'll pick up the issue from my local Borders bookstore. If I mail it to you, would you be willing to sign it? (EDIT: Purchased!) Only about 8 minutes into the "Bijou Breaks August Mix" while on my lunch break (i.e. The Album Leaf - "The Outer Banks"), but this is pretty badass so far, plus some of my ole' Binster favoriies in there like "The Guards Have Found a Dead Ninja" and G'nG Poltergeist Mix. Looking forward to chillin and listening to the rest! In all seriousness, lemme know if Computer Music could use an article on OCR. pixietricks will hug you. Tightly.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=sf2 - "Guile's Ending" (sf2-26.spc) http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ssf2 - "Guile's Ending" (ssf2-31.spc) The crowd noise doesn't sound like it's from the actual performance, but it certainly produced to sound like it fits; nice job. Who's that helping with the vocals anyway. The synths and guitar work here were pretty solid, though imbalanced vs. each other AND the vocals. Loving the 8-bit stuff and deep bass synths here. Hahahahaha! "Mothafucka, whip yo dick out, son!" Just completely random, so many people will hate the song solely because of that. I liked the too-subtle bassline arranging the foundation of the source from 2:29 onward, though a really liberal move to keep some involvement of the source in the background. Ha, nice reference to the source chorus with the backing vocals from 4:07-4:11, though the second time around from 4:17-4:24 didn't sound in tune. Part of the problem unfortunately with this recording is that much of the subtleties in the background music that provide the interpretation factor for the source tune aren't really audible here. On that level, the production isn't there, and it also ends up inadvertently affecting the arrangement aspect of the track, since some of the parts arranging the Guile Ending (when compared to the album version) aren't even audible in this live version. The album version of this mix was already teetering over the edge of being too liberal/original. To me, the actual arrangement of the source tune is most evident from :01-:35 & 1:56-2:29, but then that's about it. I hate to sell the arrangement short, but what's here is going too far off the beaten path. Otherwise, I would have been down. If you ever revisit the arrangement for live performance and integrate substantially more of the Guile's Ending arrangement into the instrumentation, I'd YES it. There's only 30 seconds of source tune to work with, but I can easily see it being used here more overtly and better integrated with the rest of the song. NO (resubmit?)

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=mmx - "Sigma Fortress 2" (mmx-25.spc) Good to see this mix. The June 2005 DoD (goes to show you how long it's been since it first dropped) was particularly strong, bringing along other OCR mixes like Darangen's "Atonement", Dhsu & GrayLightning's "A Clockwork Vampire" and Midee & prozax's "The Twelfth Commandment". MMX1 is one of the few games I've actually played around them there parts in Videogame Land, so I've been a fan of the soundtrack long before I got involved with OCR. Alex did a great job personalizing the presentation and expanding the arrangement during the more conservative sections, the first minute being really cover-ish until the chorus hit at 1:14. The next iteration of the theme at 1:46 did a great job dropping out the driving beats and changing the feel before transitioning into the wank over the foundation of "Sigma 2" at 2:01. Piano at 2:15 was used nicely to cover up the syntheticness of it, as the performance on it sounded a little mechanical; great positioning of the sound there to prevent it from being exposed. Nice stuff from 2:30 until the finish with the original writing piecing together well with the previous material. If I recall correctly, I believe Alex was eagerly awaiting the voting for that Free Month, interested in the reception this mix would get due to the balance of guitar and synths here, since this was the first mix he released with so many overtly electronic elements involved. Needless to say after hearing it, he definitely rose to the challenge and illustrated not only how this combination could click musically, but also how it could click with the \m/'s that are The Shizz. YES

http://project2612.org/download.php?id=36 - Marble Zone I liked the arrangement here, and wanna stress how you went in the right direction. IMO, it was more creative and interpretive compared to most of your previous subs. Opens up with some nice piano, plus some really sparse, empty beats. The groove here doesn't sound like it's remotely in the same place as the piano, making the parts sound like they were merely glued on top of each other. Cool crud with the sitar synth or wuteva at 1:52, though it would probably be better if the sounds were allowed to trail off after the last stutter effect, rather than cutting off completely. Nice ideas though, except for the beats remaining sparse and being on auto-pilot. Piano came back at 2:24, basically repeating the same ideas as the beginning, while the beats finally changed up significantly at 2:48 before dropping out at 3:01. A little too late for that, no? zyko gave some solid advice on what you could do to avoid the disappointing repetition that occured here with the beats. Work on that, and perhaps flesh the track out with one more instrument/part, and you'd be in much better shape. NO (rework/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 12 ("Heatman Stage") Interesting lo-fi intro. Mix felt a bit empty, especially once things picked up at :17. It was actually a little weird hearing the things you didn't change around much, but sounding vastly different on account of the swamp of effects going on here. Can't say I was a fan of nearly the whole thing sounding so far-away, and I think the beats didn't really drive the song along as much as they should have. Things were empty and swamped with reverb the whole time. I also thought the original writing from :53-1:05 wasn't particularly interesting, though it was at least progressed naturally from the source. However, the original writing ideas from 3:00 until 3:33/the end, interacting with the Heatman source tune while the parts switched places a few times with background and foreground roles, were exceptional in their creativity and subtlety. The sheer personalization of the arrangement offset most of the issues I had. The effects causing most of the track to sound distant were probably "too much of a good thing", and I still felt the beats didn't drive the track along like there was a glaringly missing element there. Nothing I'd listen to much myself, but I respect the amount of effort put into this resub. You did a good job of addressing the conservative concerns by personalizing the arrangement even more than last time, which was great to hear. Hope you got more stuff to send in the future. YES

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=dkq - "In a Snow-Bound Land" (dkq-25.spc) On the arrangement side, things were a little bit repetitive, but the interpretation was there. The overall mood is definitely different than the source, primarily on account of the original vocal writing, as well as the instrumentation choices. That SNES-style plucked string synth first used at :10 sounded out of place to me. Sounds really muddy for, IMO, no justifiable reason. Yeah, I definitely hear what you were attempting to do with these vocal ideas, but the performance aspect of this was out of your range. I agreed with Jill that stuff like the low vocals at :58 sounded flat. When you go too high or low and can't physically perform the intended notes, j00 got flat. When the flatness was occuring in spades, stuff like the harmonization from 1:03-1:45 was ballsy but definitely was NOT hitting the spot. Might wanna knock on Star Salzman's door and find out what techniques he uses to harmonize and keep his multitracked vox in tune. The timing on the harmonization from 3:43-4:24 was noticeably off in some places (3:53, 4:14-4:19), but otherwise really clicked there in terms of your pitch and harmonies as opposed to all of the other times. If you can get things synched up nicely, and get the vocal performance sounding smoother like that the whole way through, you'd be all set. I'm definitely a fan of your attitude in terms of creating these vocal mixes in order to hone your singing skills, Mike. It's the right way to have some fun while bolstering your experience. Definitely keep at it, bro. NO (resubmit)

Please update the first post with more info on the progress here. Now that you're in GD, shill, shill, shill for more people!

You need to update the first post, more notable names, and more progress. Hopefully moving to GD gives you some help. Keep it moving.

Y'all need more people. You get a GD move and bump.

Things look pretty underway here, but I recommend revising the first post to hold all of the currently relevant information for the project, including the potential roster, tracklist, and progress. Y'all get the GD move as well.

Y'all need to attract more "name" people on here to provide more obvious talent on here, but this is being moved to GD to help you out on that level.

does anyone else think that's funny? Larry, I woooooove yooooou!!!! j00 kno u can git rid o' dem, yez?

Larry, you moron, Space Cadet Pinball has been installed on every Windows machine since what, Windows 95?! It's like fucking Solitaire, except it has music! ROFL No seriously, I don't care who you are. That's funny. I've half a mind to post this on the "Currently in the J-ing process" thread. I'll try to get an actual vote in on this tomorrow. Bitches, plz. I don't waste my time installing or playing Windows default games. Minesweeper is for punks.

The soundtrack is.

If you're locked out of your main account, Quinn (seems like the case), lemme know and I'll have djp fix it as soon as I find him.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda.zip - Track 1 I agreed with zircon's crits regarding the sound balance of the melody versus the other instrumentation, as well as the overall muddiness and crappy encoding rate. Otherwise, good sounds, good concepts, but underdeveloped. Expand it and title it something more unique and creative. NO

Weakling AKA (but keep that a secret will ya!) matthewlesko@gmail.com Wounded Paw Records Spy Vs. Spy Main Stage Music NES I'm pretty high right now This shit's punk rock. I'd appreciate any and all feedback, you guys seem like you know your shit. At least put up one of those lovely "yes or no" threads. Also I'll mail you acid. Oh yeah I'm using a ghetto mp3 converter, the song's 1:35, not 3:20. Strong hits, too. ----------------------------------------------- Love that source tune. Been a favorite ever since CueB had that NSF rip up on the site a few years ago. Mix enters in with an audible click, a dirty bassline, some lame sampling from some movie that showed up a few times. The variation with the instrumentation was decent (for what it was), but the textures were pretty sparse regardless. Not much development of the ideas or interpretation of the source material here. Was basically a cover, only with crazy drums 'n shit, which'll never cut it here. You gotta do more. And indeed, the encoding was fucked up and the track was only 1:35-long. Ended before it got started. You can hang onto your acid. NO

Yes, it's >12MB, but it's less than 7mins. Besides, the letter was interesting - LT Hi. I'm submitting for a friend. He calls himself Crocco. He has several years of experience within composing. I knew he was good, so it was in fact I who persuaded him to try out remixing game songs. He's done three songs till now, all three was recommended by me... I quote his own word though: "I didn't give the remixes my full effort and commitment as I could've, since I didn't come up with the idea myself. However I thought it was a bright idea to widen my horizon and try something new besides composing own melodies. And I'm actually quite pleased with the outcome, especially my first remix." He composes Electronica-music, and he simply HATES Techno, Trance, Dance and similar. "Electronica was pioneer to all these subcategories, and not without a reason. Electronica must remain special and abstract, like art." I've attached the first song to this e-mail. It's from the game Rygar, and the melody comes from final stage before the "end-boss", Ligar. Therefore the name; "Ligar's Castle". The reason he doesn't submit himself, is because he's too shy himself to do it. So this is actually ment as a surprise. I just hope the verdict comes out as positive as I think it will. I'll post another one, once the verdict is placed. Sincerely, KaKistoZ ----------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/nsf/rygar.zip - Track 6 Opens up with some standard beats before being joined by the ridiculously loud NSF original completely pasted on top. Some supporting percussion joined in at :29, but was covered up pretty badly. The texture was empty despite the volume, but another part was added at :59 to further fill out the track. It's a subtle evolution, but the result still wasn't particularly interesting. Kind of waiting for something to go on to change the dynamics. 1:43 drops several parts out just leaving the basic beats, before changing entirely to a very minimal (and unfortunately bland) wholly original section at 1:57. The lil' effects in there were cool, but there wasn't anything else really going on until 2:26 with some countermelodic support and the beats coming back again at 2:42. Goes back to the saw-style stuff at 2:56 in a weak transition. Finally changed up at 5:10 with a different beat pattern ad subtraction of parts before rehashing the minimal section from 1:57. The beats never gel with any of the other music, nothing is interestingly developed or evolving, and the arrangement is nonexistant. Once you hear the first 2:42, you've basically heard the entire thing minus some various embellishments. Before you submit something for your friend, you may want to read the submissions guidelines sometime. This uses the original audio itself as a crutch to provide any material from Rygar, which we do not allow. NO Override

Okay, submitted a while back, but the host deleted it. Using google now. Also, I apologize if you recieved an incomplete version of this e-mail, I think I hit the wrong button. Sorry again, this one has a link. I feel really stupid now. Contact info: Mixer Name: Facelessman E-mail: fayceless@gmail.com Remix info: Game: Donkey Kong Country 3 Soundtrack: http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/ddt.rar Just something I made, almost a year ago actually. I haven't done much remixing since VGMix went down (doing more original music since then), hopefully I can get some newer stuff done and submit it. But anyways, it's an arrangement of the forest level(s) song from Donkey Kong Country 3. It focuses mostly on string instruments, with some echo effects and stuff. Enjoy. LINK: ------------------------------------------------------ http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=dkdt - "Treetop Tumble" (dkdt-21.spc) Interesting original. Pretty unassuming tune, not there to astound. Pretty decent string opening, featuring some nice plucked string samples at :09 handling the melody, albeit conservatively. Some pizz strings joined at :25 along with some nice bowed strings harmonizing with the other instruments at :32; nice job adding those in so that it wasn't abrupt and didn't sound pasted in. Vox fading in at :34 was a nice touch to help fill out the track. At :57, you can tell the track is supposed to escalate with those squeaky strings, but I thought the sample there wasn't used that well. The bow movements sounded really jerky and flat, making the attempt to create some dynamic contrast and energy not work as well as intended. Same at 1:29. The fuller sections all came across as flat. Moves over at 2:01 into some pizz strings in the front while the source tune played in the back, then going back to the chorus at 2:17. Despite the effects, things there sounded rather hollow and empty. I liked the gentle ending from 2:34 until the end; some ideas were repeated, but I thought they worked beforehand and brought a sense of closure to the piece. I think the sound quality and composition style is pretty reminiscent of the SNES, only upgraded; it honestly sounds like something Wise and Novakovic (Fischer) could do on the N64. But there's a significant lack of realism here that needs to be worked on before this comfortably moves over the line. Work on refining the sound of the various string parts, and perhaps think of an idea or two to pad the track out in places besides the vox. Good work so far. NO (resubmit)

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=89712 ReMixer name: AeroZ Real Name: Sebastian Freij E-mail: sebastian_freij@hotmail.com Website: www.myspace.com/freijman Game Remixed: Megaman 2 Song Remixed: Heatman's Theme Own Comments: Thanks you for the feedback about my Remix. I've have now modified it a little, but in many ways. Tried to keep the simplicity, though make it sound more open and intresting. /Best Wishes Sebastian