Liontamer

Gotta talk with djp about how these bios are gonna be integrated with the site's Wiki, but let me know what page the first complete (edited and ready-to-go) character profile is, and I'll start working on adding them to the Wiki fairly soon. If y'all have anything that's only partially done, please flag them off in the first post so I don't copy them over yet. Because of my Toyota Disco bias, here's the Toyota Supra as an example: http://www.ocremix.org/info/Toyota_Supra

Anything that says "Evaluated by djpretzel" did not go through the judges panel. djpretzel chose to post it directly to the site.

I don't change my vote whenever someone makes a "semi-coherent argument", I change it based on new information I didn't know about or points of view I didn't consider. Like I said, I'm not going to hold to a vote I don't agree with out of sheer stubbornness. Those aren't my principles. If someone else did the same thing here, I wouldn't complain about it. The Diggi Dis mix from a few months ago was pulled back after we collectively made the wrong call, so I feel no qualms about pulling this back to make sure this is a fair evaluation. Not in terms of genre bias (that's not what happened here), but of looking at the sub from all angles. We look worse if we let a potentially bad vote stand. This is a debatable-enough arrangement approach for a minimal source where it needs to be looked at more.

Free move & bump

Arrangement and performance was awesome. Didn't like the snare sometimes (e.g. 1:19, 2:31); tone sounded a little out of place. The vocals and harmonization are good but could use some delay so they aren't so dry. For a few seconds, the vocals at 3:06 sounded too much like they were stapled on top of the music, maybe because the background instrumentation was so light. Vocals from :31-:41 could be a little bit louder; a bit hard to hear in places. Heard an audio deformation at 2:57. Really minor criticisms, overall. David's suff is always well put together. Very very strong stuff. I'm a fan of the source tune, and you really fashioned something unique and creative out of it.

Anyone wanna resize more of the Cave Story portraits? The sprites are cool too, but get rid of the unnecessary transparent space around some of them. http://www.gameflaws.com/cavestory/characters.php

um... huh? Copy that.

ROFL?

The game is a 1997 Ubisoft PC release, so I don't have the ability to track down the original. Maybe I can bribe Christian Pacaud with some cash money to ask around for some MP3s. Sucks to have to judge it without the source material, but Nurykabe's submissions have all at least shown legitimate rearrangement so I don't worry about it; would just rather have something to compare with. Have to say that Yann certainly knows how to churn up the groove bias goodness with the beatwork and the overall flow. The delayed pattern that opens up the track is cool but tends to hang around too long and makes the track seem too samey. You do have some changeups with the synths for that pattern, but it drags and overshadows the other cool ideas you have from section to section. Percussion starting around :48-1:03 seemed to be popping/clipping a bit. There was some buzziness in the low frequencies when the strings and drums came in; it was muddying up the soundfield and prevented the string up in front to sound clean. Minor stuff, but still could be looked at. Whole not a dealbreaker, can't help but feel the production could be improved. A lot of sections have light but audible hiss, and things should sound cleaner. Cool horn segue at 1:54 to the next section, though the pulsing synth was dragging like a mentioned, plus the beat pattern was rather simplistic compared to all of the other creative stuff with the brass and bass writing. Sounds like you need some more intricate beatwork and/or another instrument to help fill out the soundfield a bit more, as things felt a little sparse in the background. Probably just personal taste, but I think the drums were too loud over the brass from 2:26-2:58. I don't think the drumbeat should be cutting through that much and that the brass should be more upfront. No idea what SFX that is at 3:24; sounded kind of like a baby noise, but anyway I liked it. Cool idea. This mix is close, relatively speaking. I like the ideas here, and the mix does evolve a great deal. Fixing/improving only a few things here would probably seal the deal. Work on reducing some of the buzziness, hiss and clutter with your sounds. It was a much bigger problem with your Guilty mix compared to this one, but still a small problem here. I think the pulsating beat from the very beginning needs to vary more so that it doesn't become so repetitive; that can be achieved any number of ways like dropping it out entirely, changing the volume on it, changing the synths for it more often, changing some notes in the pattern, etc. Work on filling out the background a bit more, as the bassline and drums aren't doing the job by themselves. Working on any or all of these potential issues, IMO, can only help flesh out the song further, make the piece seems like it develops more (and repeats less) substantially over the 3 1/2 minutes, and achieve a sharper sound. Definitely KEEP WORKING ON THIS, Yann! And resubmit that Guilty mix after reworking the production on it. Your writing and instrumentation ideas are the kind of creativity we need. I'm pulling for you to get your material up here, but especially need you to work on improving your production skills. NO (refine/resubmit)

Yeah. I think he should have boosted up the levels on that. Otherwise, awesome mix despite the minor mistakes.

http://exotica.org.uk/tunes/archive/Authors/Game/Iveson_Martin/Jaguar_XJ220.lha - mod.moody breeze (requires DeliPlayer) Cool source tune. Pretty thin of course, but the writing was really relaxed and chill. Dayum, dat's good. Great choice for a first mix in some respects. On one hand, good, in that you chose something interesting. On the other hand, bad, in that your skills are going to be pretty limited since you're just starting out. Apropos "start your engines" voice sample and old video-game quality car noises for the intro. Things segued over to some very bread-and-butter claps and synths. Bassline was pretty nice. Man, the groove here is sweet as hell, but the texture is way too thin. Good effects though to at least fill out the track a little bit, including some strings pads at :36 and a modulating synth that almost worked like a pad at 1:09. Some straight out da box FL-style default-y synths at 1:28; the delay effect is cool, but still pretty basic. Man, beyond a key change at 1:44, all of the patterns under your lead practically never change up. The groove is nice, but the arrangement ideas aren't there. Car goes vroom at 2:32, then...back to the exact same chorus as :52. 3:06 changed up the backing percussion moving towards the finish. Where was that stuff earlier??? You've got the basics down, but structurally this is practically the source tune. Sounds like you ripped the original, then changed the sounds and added some minor stuff. Anyway, your sound textures are thin and the synths are all used in a beginner-ish way. You've gotta employ effects/processing techniques to create sounds that fill up the audio space, the soundfield. Right now, everything sounds fairly empty and sparse. On top of that, your patterns repeat too much. Personally, the groove doesn't get boring for me but, creatively speaking, this clearly lacks substance. Shameless Jaguar XJ220 and gr00ve bias prevent me from NO Overriding anything here. Nonetheless, you really need to think of creative and unique ways to interpret the original material to have a chance at being posted. Be diligent about learning how to use your equipment and software, inquire within our Works forum about your material before you submit it in the future, and keep trying to improve. NO

[GASP]

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 109 "He Sang of Feeling" Time & Space (Green) - 10 "Song of Feeling" Heh. That version off the first Time & Space was pretty rough. Not to open up old wounds and rehash things, but I can see why the OUS guys weren't quite satisfied with a track like "Song of Feeling" on the first Time & Space. Not enough to bump it off entirely, but enough to take issue with it. Though the arrangement was good there, everything sounded pretty loud and the performance of the various strings sounded fairly jerky and unrealistic the whole way. Of course, in the time since then, Dan has stepped up his skills considerably, and remains a very consistent and creative arranger in the community whose material is heard too rarely. Dan's newer, small orchestra take on the source material sounds more sophisticated and nuanced. Very nice expansive ideas for the arrangement, as well as good variation with the instrumentation combinations. At times, I felt like some of the fuller sections weren't dense. Whereas the strings at 1:15-1:18 of the T&S mix merely sounded jerky and robotic, the same writing on organ at 2:18-2:22 flowed much better this time around. Still noticeable issues with the bow movement of the lead strings sounding too fake (e.g 3:25-3:59), but at least the volume on each note wasn't them same which downplayed the issue there, plus you later had other instruments layered over them at 3:42-onward. The note at 3:59 hung for a little too long and sounded fake, but you had some nice stuff when the other strings worked back in at 4:04 for the close. It's not often that we get arrangements of already existing arrangements, but this one definitely rose to the challenge of creating something evocative of the old version while also bringing strong improvements to the table. Overall, and very appropriately, this was a lush and emotive piece. A very strong arrangement. One for the ladies even. YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Sara's Theme" (ct-3-06.spc) Not bad for a first sub. Cool opening, though the strings at :06 sounded too synthetic, and the note-to-note movement for the bass at :05 also sounded very rigid. Decent stuff though altering the rhythm of the source tune. Weak to have that stock drumloop in there from :23-:34. Anyway, things kicked in at :34, though the melody was very sparse. I liked the percussion instrumentation there, you need to flesh out the melodic content more. Cool changeup at :58, especially the piano, though the string-like stuff and vox had those rigid note movements again. The beats coming in at 1:10 are alright, but don't quite gel with the rest of the instrumentation; may need some more processing or it may merely be my personal preference. Halfway through, the instrumentation continues constantly changes up, but I'm otherwise not getting much sense of direction in the piece. Vox returns at 1:34 with those ultra-jumpy notes movements. Then at 1:57 you have some very fake-sounding bowed and plucked strings at center stage. You need to look into how to humanize the performance of those instruments so they sound more natural. The bowed strings are way too rigid-sounding and dry for being so upfront; use some effects on them so they don't sound pasted on top of the rest of the music. Decent stuff so far, and like I said pretty cool for a first mix made in only a few hours, but you gotta go for more nuanced/sophisticated production on your sounds, and present more structure to the arrangement. For arranging such a small piece of the source tune, you managed to do some decent work with it; expand the ideas further but take care to let the composition flow with more direction. Read up on the ReMixing forum, post your in-progress work in the Works forum for comments from fans, and keep at it in the community. NO

http://66.49.226.244/digital/miscellaneous/kq6cd/xr/kq6(13).mp3 - (13) "The Bookworm" http://66.49.226.244/digital/miscellaneous/kq6cd/xr/kq6(15).mp3 - (15) "Dangling Participle" Certainly glad to hear something from a more rarely mixed game in this community. Mostly just hear stuff from King's Quest V, and even that's once in a blue moon. Cool source tunes here, really catchy and memorable stuff. Thanks for providing the link to the originals. The synths used in the intro were pretty bleh, but had a bit of that throwback feel to them. Beats are brought in at :27 and I'm actually reminded of TO's stuff a bit, though the production's a bit lacking. Some better, more creative processing would hook this up, particularly with the beats which are pretty flimsy. Cool solo-ish section at 1:08, though it did feel like it flopped at 1:19. Good recovery though with the following part at 1:22. The claps here were too plain and merely kept the beat; they're not bad, but the boring pattern and plain tone on them makes the mix drag a bit. Play around more with how those sound. 2:05 changes the tracks feel entirely. The crossfade between sections wasn't as smooth as it could have been. Still a good idea though to at least change up the style. Cool stereo effects with the synth at 2:18 jumping from ear to ear. Synth pattern comes back at 2:32 along with some beats, which felt a little bit boring considering that most of the preceeding 2 minutes sounded similar. 3:08 replays the material from :26 without changing anything significant, which was a bit disappointing. 4:04 finally brought in some new effects on one last iteration of the melody before clocking out at 4:19. That idea for the finish was too sudden and didn't really resolve the track well, but the effects you used are one example of how you could tinker around with effects/processing to beef up other parts of the track. Especially for the first two minutes, the sounds being so similar and never changing up made the mix seem like it wasn't quite developing or evolving. If you can work further on the synth design and flesh the track out more, particularly the beatwork, this would be much stronger. The arrangement is cool, but the synths and beats sound both thin and generic, undermining the energy level you're going for with the writing. Awesome foundation here, Silas, but it needs more polish to realize its potential. It's not there yet, but I really hope you continue to work on this one and give it some improvements to really get it sounding strong. The arrangement ideas are pretty cool, and the live performance aspect of this was solid. I'd love to see this on the front page with some revisions, and genuinely look forward to hearing your future works both around here and around Dwelling of Duels! NO (refine/resubmit)

I don't crib much from other judges, but I couldn't have said it better myself. And yes, just to say it again, the drumbeats are completely pointless. If you scrapped them, and simply tried to flesh out this piece without beatkeeping percussion, this could be more interesting. The interpretation factor isn't into rip territory, but still too cover-ish. Strip out the beats, and it's easier to tell how conservative things are. Work more original ideas into the picture beyond merely changing up the instrumentation; you did that a little bit, but need to do more to personalize the arrangement approach. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 10 ("Crash Man Stage") I liked the sparker noises and the blowtorch being lit up during the intro. Too bad that bassline was lame, as the sound effects didn't really gel with it. I would have just introed with the SFX and then used some effects on it, but ah well. Beats were OK, though too dry. The changes to the melody sounded off, but you get used to them. The lead is way too thin, and the supporting instrumentation definitely isn't making up for it. The melody isn't even in the forefront of the track, as you have the supporting synth and beats completely drowning it back. 1:23 goes for another iteration of the arrangement, which is pretty boring/uncreative. 1:48 switches it up to some sluggish but otherwise cool e-piano stuff, along with a thin bassline and the same ole' plodding beats. The energy level here could be so much better just by fleshing out the sounds and not putting the beat patterns on cruise control. Gotta agree with Vigilante, that previous original section had jack shit to do with arranging Crash Man's theme, and didn't even thematically connect with the rest of the arrangement. You need to seamlessly fuse those original ideas within the arrangement. 2:47 switches back to the plodding Crash Man arrangement, only with a few more sound effects added in the background, then the guitar-like synth at 3:24. The whole thing just drags, due to repetition and the fact that the texture is sparse. Keep in mind, you have a lot of reverb and whatnot, but everything still sounds pretty empty; those effects only compensate so much. You have some cool ideas in place, and I liked some of the sounds in play, but you really need to create a more comprehensive, varied arrangement. Focus on these aforementioned criticisms and keep trying your hand at this. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=sm - "Brinstar Red Soil Swampy Area" (sm-20.spc) Decent intro up until that one synth came in at :06. Anyway, decent ideas although the texture was actually pretty empty despite the effects. Melody comes in at :38 with some dissonance that sounds awful. Then some weird roaring synth came in at :50 with slightly off timing. The way the sounds drop in and out is so awful, because it doesn't create anything in terms of dynamics; when stuffs drops out, you just get a more barren mix. 1:26 was a good example of that. The synths used on lead are typically too thin, and nothing's going on in the background to compensate. Beats at 1:48 are weak in terms of the energy, have little processing and don't even gel with the melody or drive the track along. The structure here doesn't flow at all. 2:27 goes to some really low-energy, generic electronica arrangement for the melody. Yeah, the way everything's put together isn't particularly cohesive, musical or possessing of purpose. You gotta get better at writing (leads and supporting instrumentation), and learn how to create textures from sounds that in fact work together. Then we'll talk about you're production. In any case, use the ReMixing forum to learn more about music-making with FL Studio, then post your material to the Works forum for some initial feedback from the peeps. NO

His ReMixer name IS "Unknown".

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes OST - 52 "VS Quadraxis (Long)" No wonder this sounds so lossy, you encoded at 96kbps. And this is after he encoded at 112kbps last time. You need to go VBR at least to try and mitigate the loss. I'm still of the same mind with many of the issues I had when I heard the older version months ago, but this was improved a fair deal. Sample quality is still fairly bleh, although the reverb used here on some of the parts at least tries to mask the thinness of the samples. Still, much of the sequencing sounds really rigid. Really cool drums at 1:12-1:19, nice writing bro. Source tune finally kicks in pretty overtly at 2:32. I wasn't really feeling the atmosphere here like TO did. I felt it sounded rather cheap. TO pointed out to me that the drums didn't have the huge reverb that nearly everything else had, but I thought there was too much of a disparity with the effects on some sounds vs. others. The drumkit and claps sounded REALLY thin and and could have used some selective reverb, whereas the vox, strings and bell didn't need nearly the amount of reverb they had. You gotta more selectively apply your effects. Though some of the instrumentation continued to sound thin and low-quality/MIDI-grade, I did like the effort to switch up the instrumentation style at 3:52, which was an admirable idea. The string writing was pretty solid, and the more involved parts of the drumwork stood out well. The textures aren't quite hot (the washed out low vox at 5:46 was a definite low point), but didn't sound terrible. As you continue to learn more and get a better ear for things, you have the potential to come up with some really good ideas. Section at 6:17 rehashes 2:47's section only with some subtle supporting instrumentation added underneath. You really should try to refrain from cutting and pasting previous sections wholesale. Tweak the pervious patterns and instrumentation more substantially so that you have something that's more somewhat different and/or evolved from the prior material. Ending section at 7:10 was a decent idea but the lead there almost sounded too "happy" to work write there. Something a bit more sinister would work better. Anyway, this still needs some work, but you're headed in the right direction. Perhaps keep working on this, perhaps not. Honestly, I don't think you'd be able to get this at an acceptable level with your current experience, but you sincerely show a lot of promise, and I look forward to seeing your work become more sophisticated in the future. Keep at it in the community. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/pdusf.rar - 20b "Chicago: Stealth" Not a bad opening, but everything was really imbalanced. The guitar coming in at :07 should have been in the forefront for sure. Cool synth in there at :20, but way too loud, which took the focus away from the arrangement and merely drowned out the actual arrangement content. About a minute in and things were chill, but the beats were needlessly bland and repetitive and the sounds were completely imbalanced like TO mentioned. Xylo/vibe-like deal coming in at 1:15 was in the foreground, but WAY too loud. The warbling effects and reverb were too pronounced, making everything sound too washed out at times. Sounded like everything is clipping in that section, and after the section dragged a bit by the 2-minute mark, it finally changed (via subtraction of that lead) at 2:10. Track plodded along, but there seemed to be a cool idea to fade out the beats, only they didn't fade out all the way and simply came back to the same volume by 2:32. What was the point of that? It could have been a nice way to change the feel of the track entirely. Guitar joined in at 3:03 along with the xylo-like lead. The guitar and drums here were so bland and weak, both the patterns/writing and processing. The added guitar and drums sounded so rigidly performed and pasted on top, it didn't gel with the other sounds in play at all. The abrupt cutoffs of the cymbal fade at 4:07 and the guitar fade at 4:08 sounded really cheap and beginner-ish. Some decent ideas here in terms of the genre and the atmosphere, Stewart, but the execution lacked on all sorts of levels. You really gotta spend time stepping up that game on your production and writing. NO

http://66.49.226.244/digital/quest/genmidi/lsl3gm.zip - It's somewhere in there [/shrug] Provide some details on the source next time. Not gonna look though an 80-minute MIDI for the original. At 2:32-long, you're gonna have to add more ideas and variation to this arrangement. Right now, it's too underdeveloped. Sax work is pretty cool, but the backing instrumentation is too simple, quiet and sparse aside from that bass, which is too resonant. The production is lossy as hell. You know better than all this, bro, but you keep limiting yourself because you don't do anything to get better at producing. Loads of potential based off the sax work, but most of the other instrumentation is bleh, and the sound quality doesn't help. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Memories of Green" (ct-1-05.spc) Yeah, pretty cool chill track. TO will have the best idea on how well you've pulled this off, but the foundation here is pretty cool. The basic beats didn't change up at all, which is OK when you have a really extended piece that possesses some eventual changes, but just sounds like a lack of ideas at barely above 4 minutes. Maybe it's just me not being as familiar as I should be with the Z64 and FF7 soundtracks, but whatever was in here besides "Chrono Trigger" seemed negligible. It helps us judges to elaborate on what themes you're mixing from what games, especially when they have large soundtracks. I'm guessing that section at 1:41 was something from another game, but dunno for sure, so you're inevitably not gonna get all the credit you deserve for the arrangement. Nonetheless, this had a fairly smooth (albeit undeveloped) piecing together of the themes from what I could infer. 2:45 rehashes :26 verbatim. Boooooooo. Though you had some nice ideas in between, it's still lazy and lame to recycle sections wholesale. If it was more creative, interpretive, and better produced, maybe you could get away with it. Section just plods along until the trite resolution at 4:00, which was a really weak ending. The percussion and structure need more subtle variation for something so relatively short, and the arrangement simply needs to be developed further. In terms of dealing with the actual melodic content of the source tunes, even just from Chrono Trigger that I recognize, you haven't done much. Good base though, keep working on it. NO

What the hell are you talking about?

ROFL. Why I would listen to a troll like you after all your negative reviews, I wouldn't know. Frankly, I thought some of the string parts, starting at 1:16, did indeed sound too rigidly sequenced. Perhaps they were too dry, or it might have been a consequence of giving the synth strings more volume over the one's Jason was playing, I couldn't say for sure. Nonetheless, to say that the arrangement was generic, when when we have nothing like it on OCR or in the community-at-large fusing rock elements with strings and piano specifically in a British rock style, is stupid. There's not a song or artist's arrangement approach in this community that sounds like this genre of music. No one's required to like it, but when you start leaping towards baseless, flippant comments like "generic", you just look close-minded. God forbid "DJJudges" accept creative stuff on the site like this. Let's go back to the 2/3rds-techno days.