Liontamer

I'd enter, but I don't wanna ruin if for y'all, completely winning it and everything.

The link was changed, and it works. You just haven't updated whatever link you're using.

Yeah. But nice try though. You guys stop bumping the damn threads though. Bump an UnMod thread instead.

Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten Original Soundtrack - (25) "Victory! ~ The First Victory" Thanks for providing the source. Not to diss Andy (OA)'s arrangement at all, because the arrangement portion is clearly above the bar, but this mix also goes to show how a well-produced arrangement can shine even when the samples don't sound ultra-realistic; things are balanced well and spacious here and that helps mitigate the realism issues. Not enough to prevent me from being tentative, but it still helps. Piano could have sounded a bit more realistic and richer, and I would have liked the beats scaled back a bit to let the other parts shine through more. I felt like the first verse from :37-1:00 by the e-piano wasn't nearly audible enough to really be enjoyed, so I think zirc could have pushed that up more; minor issue in the big scheme of things. Piano & harp breakdown at 1:00 was noticeably mechanical with the timing. Some of the piano's velocity changes from note to note were pretty jarring, not helped by the piano not even playing any chords. Synth guitar at 1:44 was pretty abrupt with the note changes, and didn't sound smooth at all either; I could have done without it to be honest. Ending exposes that bland saw-like sound at 3:42, and the track abruptly cuts off during the fadeout at 3:46. The arrangement had solid enough dynamic contrast given the pretty consistent tempo. Andrew definitely lent a lot more energy and drive to the original, which coincidentally didn't sound like anything I expected from the Phoenix Wright soundtrack. C'mon, it's a fucking court sim! Then again, it's a Japanese court sim. Expansive and, later, interpretive stuff. I feel working on touching up the mechanical timing going on from :12-:34, 1:00-1:22, 1:44-2:31 & 2:56-3:42 (piano/harp/electric guitar) would help put this on more solid ground for me. The e-piano has the same issue, but it didn't really hinder the e-piano's presentation like it did for the other instruments. The robotic timing's a minor detail for most, but it stood out more and more upon repeated listens. The rigid sequencing made an otherwise fine package seem that much shakier. Best of luck with the rest of the vote, but I'd need some tweaks to feel really secure on it. /Larry Butz NO (refine/resubmit)

Uhhh...

um...yeah...

Taucer's criticism is fair. However, the only parts that are "note-for-note" are the intro (source), outtro (source), and some of the structure and underscoring of the main theme. If you listen closer though there is a lot of added harmony; at that time I didn't want to touch the melody. In all fairness, I've considered how lucky I was to get this passed then. I'm sure it wouldn't get passed now, and I'm not clueless as to why, don't worry. If it stays on the site, score. If it gets dropped for QA, that's cool too. I would love to remake something more my own with my new equipment. Technologically, I couldn't do it then (AWE32, need I say more). I owe this mix getting posted to Vegas and a good engineering class, not to my equipment. Que sera sera. It's definitely well-executed. I would love to hear more of your stuff. What a coincidence... Is this going where I think it is? I hope so. To Alaska? I think not. You got some strange hopes, Jeremy

Taucer's criticism is fair. However, the only parts that are "note-for-note" are the intro (source), outtro (source), and some of the structure and underscoring of the main theme. If you listen closer though there is a lot of added harmony; at that time I didn't want to touch the melody. In all fairness, I've considered how lucky I was to get this passed then. I'm sure it wouldn't get passed now, and I'm not clueless as to why, don't worry. If it stays on the site, score. If it gets dropped for QA, that's cool too. I would love to remake something more my own with my new equipment. Technologically, I couldn't do it then (AWE32, need I say more). I owe this mix getting posted to Vegas and a good engineering class, not to my equipment. Que sera sera. It's definitely well-executed. I would love to hear more of your stuff. What a coincidence...

Make groove, not war.

For that time, that level of coverage was fine due to the personalization involved in James's instrumentation and new writing added during those sections. They also didn't take up the majority of the track, the majority being James's own arrangement ideas. I agree that nowadays, something like this probably wouldn't pass, due to borrowing too much from an existing arrangement. But it's not as if James wasn't upfront about the mix also being inspired by the Michael Huang/"Fantasy Reborn" arrangement of Forever Rachel! in the first place.

Wait a second... Yeah, sorry to bag, Tom, but there's just no way that even sounds sequenced. No way.

Yeah, a glib NO = a hardon. You must have it BAD for about 99% of the people that send stuff in.

Original decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2910 Hi, Larry! Yup, those are the 2 words, anyway, sorry about sending you another pm, but I got my track hosted here's the details again. It's a resub, so hopefully it'll get passed this time! Link: Contact Info Remixer Name: The Joker, DragonAvenger Email Address: jtown_music AT yahoo DOT com Forum ID: 16059(Joker), 33038(DA) Remix Info Remix Name: In The Darkness Lies Game: Banjo Kazooie Songs Remix: Mad Monster Mansion Original Link: Comments: The Joker - I always liked the MMM music from Banjo Kazooie. It just had this really catchy melody. I always wondered what that melody would sound like if it were darker, more "serious" in tone. So, I ended up making a really dark, gothy take on the song. I used every part of the song I could, even rearranging certain parts to make them sound more ominous. I also had the idea to use vocals, as the arrangement was rather minimalist, & I felt the song would be better fir it. So I contacted DragonAvenger, who came through in spades. DragonAvenger - -The Joker contacted me asking for vocals to his piece. I tried to focus on some elements of the stage, mainly hands that are playing a piano and a ghost that won't turn it's back to you. I wanted to contrast the higher part, the "angels", and using "demons" in a lower part seemed the obvious choice. Vocal lines (in mostly chronological order) Play your song Serenade the angels Don't turn away Don't leave me all alone Demons are watching the shadows Demons are waiting for you Play your song Serenade the heavenly angels Demons are watching the shadows Demons are waiting for you ------------------------------------------------------ Big Adventures of Banjo and Kazooie - (10) "Mad Monster Mansion (Exterior)" Thanks for providing the original, David. Except for the vocals, the soundfield was pretty balanced, and the textures clicked more with nothing ridiculously fake-sounding like the last time around. The string work in particular I harped on the last time, but here it comes through fairly well. The arrangement was already a pass to me, and the original vocals helped add another dimension to it, especially compared to the first version being sparse. Dragon's lyrics were loud enough where they added to the overall feel and weren't exposed (as some of the stuff didn't harmonize well with the music, IMO), but were too low to really be appreciated. If lyrics hadn't been provided, I would have guessed that it was just gibberish. I would have pushed 'em up a bit higher, without crowding out the music (or exposing the vocals) of course. The current levels could be tweaked but were reasonable given the style of the track, nonetheless. Nice arrangement, taking something hokey and tongue-in-cheek spooky, and giving it a much more serious edge. Best of luck on the rest of the vote. YES

Larry (and everyone else who replied after him), those posts are from August. They must be merely based on the teaser site. I know. But how does that make their comments any less ?

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF9_psf.rar - 125 "Crossing Those Hills" Man, do I love the original. It's definitely a favorite of mine from when I first heard it while a friend played FF9 many years ago. In all honestly, unless someone used similar sounds to the original, it'd be hard for me to like an arrangement of it more than the real deal. Not that it factors into my judgement, but I just like the original that much. Interesting beginning. Definitely has that X-mas feel like Lee mentioned. Yeah, those drums at :31 didn't fit well at all here, and the source melody was pretty straightforward. Also an interesting changeup at :57, though I wasn't sure what was going on from 1:04-1:05. The energy level went up at 1:11 with the original section due to more going on, but yeah, the drums still didn't fit, and the guitar stuff up until 1:25 felt flat. Didn't seem to work as a good transition into the piano-driven section; I think it you had all the elements fade down instead of just that sweeping sound, it would have made the transition smoother. The piano stuff in 5/4 was definitely sweet. Conservative, but a better personalized section of the arrangement as compared to the beginning. Not sure what was up with the production at 2:08. That vocal part sounded millions of miles away and didn't really contribute anything. It just sounded like mud stuck in the middle of the soundfield. Too bad though, I liked how the vocals sounded during the fadeout at 2:30 when you could hear them more. Make 'em a bit cleaner and punch 'em up for that section. Transitions back at 2:37 to the X-mas style arrangement again, before ratcheting back up at 2:59 with original writing similar to 1:11's section before abruptly ending at 3:42. Thematically, there feels like too much disconnect from section to section; for someone listening to this for the first time, it's pretty damn jarring. Same with the drum tone not fitting. I got more adjusted to those issues with repeated listens, enough where I felt it wasn't enough of a problem to reject. Just reviewing this, there were so many spots where something could be touched up and improved (drums, vox production, flow, ending), but overall things felt competent and above the bar. Quirky choices, but not offsetting in the big picture. Give this a number of listens and see how well it holds up. YES

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 118 "Besaid Island" Interesting source tune. It never stuck out to me when I listened to the FF10 soundtrack, but it's a nice understated piece. Arrangement-wise, you guys did a nice job on the interpretation front. Cool intro, though definitely swampy and overly reverby as was mentioned several times before, not only by TO, but in the WIP thread for the mix. Nice mallet percussion stuff to lead into the the drums at 1:14, though the padding effects in the back were a bit exposed and cheap-sounding. Vocals come in at 1:35, thankfully with some delay on 'em to flesh 'em out. No offense to DragonAvenger, but some of the vocals seemed a bit nasally. The delivery was a little too amateur with stuff like "Oh yeah" at 1:38. Otherwise though, pretty good stuff to start. Her voice is buried up under those bleh pads though. Bring it out a bit more. Cheesy, but smart lyrics. The changeup in the percussion at 2:29 was lacking. The drum tone really didn't gel with the e-piano and vocals and just felt out of place. I liked whatever part was added in the background at 2:50; very nice, though again, everything was suffering due to the reverb making things too indistinct. It's too hard to really hone in on the various components. Goes back to the original drum patterns at 3:11 and another verse o' lyrics. Good writing, but still the same production issues there. The changeup at 4:05 was much better than at 2:29; smoother transition, better textures. DA's vocals take center stage at 4:47 once all the percussion dropped out. The delay was a bit much, but only in tandem with the reverb being so over the top. Uh...was that a mouse-click at 5:31 caught in the delay effect? I have never used that emoticon in 4 years on these forums, and it deserves it. C'mon, y'all; that's just weak! It doesn't affect my decision, but hoo boy you gotta get rid of that. I've seen some complaints on the WIP thread about the vocals. I'll be honest in that when I heard the WIP when the vocals were bone dry, those were no good and not getting the job done. Hell, they weren't even synched up right with the music. Now though, the delay/reverb applied here helped add some needed depth to them, and the overall performance quality was passable to me. People are too hard on vocals around here. People were ripping up "Knuckleduster" for God's sake. It's as if some of y'all can't appreciate artists performing out of their comfort zone. The swampiness of this one is my main drawback here. Sure, it beefs up the soundfield, but it's overboard enough where I felt it needed to be toned down and the sound balance needed to be reexamined a bit. Tweak that stuff judiciously, and perhaps revisit the drums at 2:29 as well as the pads around 1:14 for a warmer sound. Good luck on the rest of the vote though. I'd prefer tweaks before this went up, but I don't have a problem with this passing as is. The production is on the weak side, but the arrangement gets the job done. YES (borderline)

http://project2612.org/download.php?id=53 - "Good Ending" Well, the submission having the same title as the source tune is usually a good sign that it won't pass. I mean, how creative could the arrangement be? Pretty much sounds like a MIDI rip with deeper bass, nice strings on melody and some other minor embellishments. If the original were made with higher quality sounds, it would be similar to this. Brief guitar at 1:31 was good, but there for all of 3 seconds. Not gonna NO Override, but you gotta familiarize yourself with the submissions guidelines. This is not interpretive or substantially personalized. We don't want a pure cover, Harold. Do something more creative with the theme that adds more interpretation and unique ideas into the picture. NO

These guys love the project.

criticism? yes. constructive criticism? no How is this not constructive? Simply redo the song without lyrics, and it will sound better. A lot of other reviewers seem to feel the same. "You sang. I threw it in the trash." There's really no sense in trying to defend that manner of criticism as constructive.

Yes.

Yay! Thanks a lot! Now maybe more people will notice this and contribute to it! You gotta step up recruitment at some point, Dan. That's ultimately what'll get things moving here.

Pracitcally speaking, why is the WIP deadline during Thanksgiving break?

If a move back to Site Projects is what it takes to get your Arek Mojo workin', then I second the request. Nah. The reason why is because the project needs to display actual progress before it's moved back to Site Projects, primarily in the form of completed tracks. There were too many in-progress projects languishing and not getting anything done. I'm keeping the same standard for my own project. While the project (or any project) is in G-Disc, you're either gonna get things moving, or the thread will get pruned off due to inactivity. I would recommend not bumping the thread just to have it on page 1 of GD. Contrary to popular belief, that's not the most important thing in the world in terms of gauging activity, because most of the activity and progress doesn't take place on the thread. Work hard to recruit people and get things moving on this one. If need be, y'all can start a new thread.

The Devil's Lab theme is nearly everywhere here in this work-in-progress. I was actually surprised that more wasn't done in terms of playing around with the melody itself, which was pretty conservative. At the same time though, it sounds like this one could go for another few minutes. Unlike T-Management, there weren't many buildups or breakdowns with the instrumentation to really change the feel of the track at any point, so I'm interested to see what other ideas could be added into the picture to spice it up without changing the tempo. But yeah, I originally showed up just to say that I didn't think this was too far from the source material at all. So no worries there.

Are you familiar with the concept of improvising? Good God, people. I explained why, you filth! generally, the purpose of an improvised solo is not to "integrate" with the main melodic theme of the source. My solos in LftY, Silent Progression, and Flood Plain had very little to do with the original melodies, and that was never brought up as an issue. What I'm talking about is not simply having an wholly original section, but playing original material on top of the source melody and the two parts (in my opinion) not connecting/harmonizing.