Liontamer

djp's down with this as is, so the YES doesn't need to be drawn out. We'll be waiting for Doug to wrap up any revisions he had in mind before it goes up, which I'm definitely looking forward to. Congrats on your freshman mix, bro. Whadda ya got coming up?

Uh, why would it have even been at risk to be removed?

Yeah, he should probably just start using Kompakt presets for every track he does from here on out. Ha! Clearly, he might as well just threaten to pull all of his mixes off the site due to the criticism. While he's at it, he could start shoveling out critiques based off of a subject he knows virtually nothing about! Better start paying for lessons with Vivaldi now. Need to gain some street cred around here.

Yeah, he should probably just start using Kompakt presets for every track he does from here on out. Ha! Clearly, he might as well just threaten to pull all of his mixes off the site due to the criticism.

Been a while. Malc & zirc should probably revote, given the new information we've had from the artist.

I'm just skeptical because it's just like...who the hell are you??? Never heard of you, yet you're busting out this impressive orchestral stuff. Must have stolen it from an arrange album. I'll find you out... Ok, so Andy and Wil are vouching for him, so there's seemingly no chance that he's Void. But seriously...and I mean in this with the utmost sincerity and curiosity...who the hell are you, and what brought you here? http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=top - "Hydropolis" (top-105.spc) The mix title kind of encroaches on Blake Perdue's Donkey Kong Country 2 'Set Sail', so that's lame, but no big deal clearly. Name a mix whatever ya want. Had to bump this up 6db just to hear it at a reasonable volume where everything could be appreciated, but it was worth it. (Javier should hook us up with a louder version.) The production was a little flat in terms of the soundscape; a bit distant-sounding and the panning could have been more pronounced, but those were minor issues. The track's needlessly on the quiet side which unfairly downplayed the power of the writing, but the arrangement was extremely impressive and added a lot more emotion, complexity and dynamics to the source. I didn't really associate the original with a orchestral mix, but looking over it, especially the chorus, it's cool to see how Javier completely realized the potential of that section for the genre. Great, cinematic writing, with many intelligent changes in the instrumentation to keep things fresh throughout. A true breath of fresh air. YES

The sampled ocarina has some light lossyness you can hear in the intro, but it was covered up soon enough. Gotta do more than present the same few notes of the melody several times with different samples. The arpeggiated notes at 1:42 were along the right track, but was just a staple trance move. The piano at :34 sounded very plinky, too tightly quantized, and thin. Most of the synths were pretty cookie cutter as well as generically processed. Do more creative things with changing the rhythm, the progression, the overall character of the source tune. Don't repeat the melody over and over again without something more creative to offer in the presentation. You did vary up the lead instrumentation a fair amount and sometimes dropped the beats out for some dynamic changes, but a 2:34-long piece needs to evolve more substantially than that. Work on presenting something that goes beyond the basics of both arrangement and production. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ninja_ga.zip - Tracks 18 & 13 The original's pretty repetitive, so we'll see how you attempted to expand it and achieve a standalone track. Somewhat generic opening with those synths, but decent energy. Joined by some beatwork at :16, followed by some countermelodic stuff at :36 for a gradual build. Terrible synths, and production on them, for the main verse at 1:03. The melody's buried under the beatwork & countermelodic work and doesn't stand out; adjust the sound balance accordingly to let the lead cut through a bit more. Beatwork also hasn't changed up at all so far, so it needs more variation. You could randomly click on nearly any point in the track and it would the same beatwork and the same overall groove and energy level; needs to have more evolution and dynamics rather than work on cruise control. Adding in that second source theme at 2:08 was a decent touch, but once you went for a full plate of sounds again at 2:23, it only contributed to the indistinct muck. Brought back the main source tune at 2:23 and the arrangement was literally nothing that we hadn't heard for the first couple of minutes beforehand, except with that second source tune barely audible underneath; the arrangement doesn't bother going anywhere else unfortunately. Decent stuff so far, but you basically found a comfort zone for the arrangement and wouldn't budge from it, even if it meant the track became excessively repetitive as a result. NO

Hi everyone, Real quick here's my info: Name: Sreyas Krishnan ReMixer name: Hollidayrain E-mail address: sreyaskr@msn.com Name of Game: Top Gear Name of Track: Track 1 I'm really sorry, I don't have a website so I'm going to have to attach it. Sorry. Well, here it is, my Top Gear ReMix. One fine day, I was wandering around the web when I happened to stumble upon your website here. I looked around and eventually I found a ReMixer on this site named Rayza. I checked out a couple of his tunes and I was stunned at how great they sounded. And one of these tunes happened to be Rayza's Final Nitro Mix of Track 1 from Top Gear. I fell in love with the theme. So, I decided to give the theme a shot myself. This mix is definitely, without doubt, electronica. I don't have the heart to call it trance or plain old techno because its somewhere in between those two. My friends and parents really like this piece so I hope I did well. However, I'm not sure if my sound quality is up to par with your sites standards. I'm still learning how to mix sound properly. I just want to see what you all have to say. Hopefully, with some feedback you can help me improve as a ReMixer and maybe, if this one isn't good enough, someday I'll be able to make one that is. Thanks! -Hollidayrain ------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=tg - "Las Vegas" (tg-2.spc) That's cool that Rayza inspired this mix. Nice SFX sample for the intro. This is a decent though straightforward approach, and doesn't sound too much different on the arrangement side than Rayza's, with the exception of the blander synths and production. Piano at :47 sounded really fake, but was at a level where it wasn't exposed TOO badly. The overall atmosphere felt empty. Some harmonization and/or countermelodic support under the melody would have helped, though you did take advantage of that later on. Some light effects in there, but the synths were generally thin. Pretty much needs more development with the basics, i.e. fleshing out the soundfield more and further developing the arrangement. Right now, there's some obvious personalization/interpretation of the source, but it's not comprehensive in any way. Can't really say much more than that. NO

Sorry about your fiancée, Shawn. Along with me, I'm sure the rest of the panel here and the Shizz community all feel for you and wish you the best. Gyruss! The only reason I recognize the theme is because of the gold that is "I Am Konamic" from the May 2005 Dwelling of Duels. "BAAH! Take that, bitch!" Hahaha! I'd link to it, but can't find an active DoD mirror right now. Not to diss Shawn's style, as people like it and buy his albums, but I'm just glad this sub wasn't him playing a bunch of muddy parts on top of the NSF file. Even the actual Bayou Billy section of "I Am Konamic" was just a mish-mish of indistinct parts on top of the Bayou Billy original. As far as the standards here go, most times direct sampling the source tune itself doesn't work. Juha Kaunisto's "Zoids Revisited" is a good example though of using an original SID while having your own substantive performance/arrangement on top. Moving on... 2 (good) playthroughs of the source, no meaningful variation between them, no interpretation, and it's over. No intro, no ending, and yes the production is weak. It's not asking too much for the instruments to be more distinct so the performances can be better appreciated; the rhythm guitar in particular could barely be heard. I'm not saying the production by itself is a NO, by the way. A strong arrangement with this level of production could pass, much in the way that Zoltan Vegvari's Mega Man 3 "Intro Jazz" could. But a YES for a clearly undeveloped arrangement that's also not produced well? Sorry bro. Gotta expand the arrangement into a complete, standalone song with more personal interpretation. You've got other much stronger material out there. NO

Command & Conquer OST - 15 "Target" Sorry for not FTing this myself, Caleb. No excuses for it, but I've been way too busy the past 2 months to follow up on my PMs and mails, so I'm glad you followed up with zirc. Thanks to zirc for the source also. Woo, I am not feelin' that track. It's not terrible, but works so much better as background music. Gotta give the intro here credit for being a lot different from the source; nice atmosphere. Melody from :25 of the source kicks in at :40. Ha! Nice subtle fluttery stuff in the background doubling the melody until :54. Some really tepid beatwork came in at :54. Decent groove (I'm sure TO would have some supportive things to say about it), but the sounds are very tame and hollow for the energy level the rest of your instrumentation and writing is going for. Not really liking the simplistic synth design with the melody (e.g. 1:25 & 1:53), but it's aight. Making it less muddy, while providing some tangible measure of harmonization or countermelody, could hook this up as well. Agreed with Malc and zyko about defining that bassline more; that would be one important well you could fill out the track. Decent stuff, Caleb, but work on filling it out by developing the supporting instrumentation more. Doing something to make the lead more unique wouldn't hurt either. Certainly a workable base. NO

DarkeSword, The Orichalcon, Vigilante

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=rotr - "The Supervisor" (rotr-10.spc) To be consistent, I'll judge the unmastered version like Malc did. The mastered version did sound nice and beefier, though. Arrangement was fairly conservative, but personalized with the sounds used, along with the different rhythms and new beatwork. The beat pattern was well written, but didn't vary much, so the various pattern quickly got repetitive. Something new for the melodic synth at 1:28 would have been a good change of pace. 1:42-1:53 was flooded and needlessly loud. 1:56 starts retreading some of the previous arrangement ideas, with some different beatwork and supporting spices for the main verse, but the core of the arrangement was basically repeating with minimal variation, which was disappointing. 3:05, another iteration of the main melody quickly before the finish; not really a strong or creative close. You've got a decent foundation here, especially in terms of trying to create a different feel to the source material, but the arrangement was ultimately underdeveloped. Vary up the drum patterns more, continue to personalize the arrangement of the theme but take the concept in other directions. You had some good ideas at the outset, then didn't bother to significantly change them over time. Keep at it, bro. And stop hating on the other music here. I SEE YOU! NO (rework/resubmit)

y u h8?

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 12 ("Heatman Stage") Cool intro. Some pretty tepid beats entered in at :06, but we'll see where it goes. Melody came in pretty quickly at :13, but the soundfield sounded pretty empty. Even when more elements came in at :34, the soundfield sounds like it has some serious gaps in it. Everything could use some serious fleshing out. I'm not as much against the basic sound choices as zircon seems to be, but you need some meat on the bones here. Not sure why the melodic content took a complete backseat to everything else at 1:25; the beats and countermelodic material took the foreground, and the tracks not full enough to pull that off, IMO. Things readjusted at 2:06 though, so I'll leave it be as a stylistic choice. However, the soundscape is atill way too thin the whole way through; you really need something to pad it out. I think the arrangement is a bit too conservative and underdeveloped, though I appreciate the effort give to personalizing the arrangement apporach. Like zircon said, take your more interpretive ideas for the last minute here and run a bit longer and more substantively with those. Great potential here, Sebastian. Hope to hear more from you. NO (rework/resubmit)

Metroid Prime 2 (Game Rip) - 01 "Title Theme" Interesting take on it. It removes the beat structure that drove the original along and goes for a much more ambient style on it. Soundfield is pretty good all things considered, allowing rather minimalist instrumentation to adequately fill out the track, though things were noticeably muddy and rough to me. Heard the arrangement of the phrase from :18-:28 of the source at :47 with the piano, although it seemed to awkwardly change a bit around around 1:00-1:15. Decent hollow phasing-type effect supporting that from :47-1:42. The piano performance is meant to sound ominous, although the plinky, one note at a time playing style doesn't quite click, and is a bit rigidly sequenced. Nonetheless, good attempt at varying the intensity of the notes in the attempt to humanize the performance. It may just be me, but the arrangement seemed to wander in no particular direction; it wasn't until 2:12 when the title theme played that the melodic content had more of a direction to it. From 2:39-on, the arrangement again went off into no particular direction. Not sure the phrase at 3:26 was even in the right key. Cool concept for the ending at 4:00 though; again, a bit too muddy and also too reliant on the effects to carry merely decent sequencing. The writing there could be considered a bit anticlimactic, but I thought it was reasonable. Generally, not much in the way of direction or dynamics though. It would help to have one or the other. Cutting down a bit on the swampiness of the whole thing would be beneficial, but your main focus should be reworking the arrangement first. Reading BGC's vote just now, we hit a lot of the same issues independent of each other. Keep improving, bro. 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. Why is this encoded at 80kbps? It sounds terribly warbly and lo-fi for no good reason; very weak. Otherwise, nice stuff on the arrangement side to start off. Good use of harmonization and support as well varying up the instrumentation. Brass sample at :47 was pretty thin and unrealistic; kind of stuck out (as much as that can happen under the warblyness). The drums also lack meat on 'em. Nonetheless, the texture seems reasonably ok given the sample quality; it's frankly a bit hard to tell given how awful the encoding is. Beautiful, well-crafted arrangement for the first 2:07. I disagreed with the sections being repetitive, as you made sure to vary up each instance of the melody and the material after it with some new ideas. The last section at 2:08 felt like a copout, as it simply repeated a previous section of the arrangement. You can't recycle that badly after a mere 2 minutes. Gimme something else to keep the creativity and variation going. pixie's comments on the lack of dynamics were pretty good, though I was less critical on that front myself; I think a composition like this can get by without drastic dynamic changes, and stick to the more subtle route. I also thought the fadeout was really poorly handled, but most of that had to do with repeating an older section and choosing not to develop the arrangement further. It sounds like a faux pas to fade out an orchestra, but there's no hard and fast rule here as far as I'm concerned. As long as you pull off a good fadeout, I don't care if it's traditionally used or not. Develop the arrangement for another minute or two, bump up the encoding quality, look into fleshing out those thinner, obviously synthetic-sounding samples, and fashion a real ending. Nice first sub; keep at it. NO (rework/resubmit)

Looks like the Emory gods are working in my favor tonight. Tried to upload VGF84 for quite a while now. Snag it. Playlist / Chatlog / VGF84 MP3 (174MB/4hr12min) OMGcut/paste dat URLz 4 teh win! The show features all of OCR's most popular Site Project to date, Chrono Symphonic, including Compyfox's rough versions of all of Chrono Symphonic: Special Edition. WILL IT EVER ACTUALLY BE FINISHED (so we can post Chrono Trigger 'The Final Battle')? Who knows, but you'll be able to check out most of mixes exclusive to the (potentially) upcoming addendum if you snag this ep. Check out the beginning for several tracks for Shonen Samurai's "lovey album to his lady", Bolt of Blue featuring Ailsean, Kaijin, and Diggi Dis.

*pee on yo leg*

Nope. Vote's too close at 4Y/3N, IMO. I'd like to see what the others think.

Oh, you'll never be on the same Paige. I don't get kinky like dat. (Call me.)

Cool, Roland was probably able to hook you up. Once I delete my collection of OC ReMixes (since the new torrents are finally out), I can seed more stuff. Still wish I could upload the backlog of old episodes.

Heh. Pretty simple source tune. Sounds like it'll require a lot of creative interpretation or expansion to pass at a mere 2:36. Great strides you've made in your sounds since your Final Fight CD mix from way back when. Nice opening guitar riffs, though the supporting chords starting at :06 tend to just bleed together. Some really simplistic, repetitive and generic-sounding drums plopped in at :32. They sound rather weak and undermined the energy level; you need something more organic-sounding (and creative from a writing standpoint) to get a more cohesive result. Can't just plop in a basic pattern and consider it done. Decent, somewhat intense guitar work from :44-:57, but not feeling too much from an interpretation level. Still, it's at least a sincere attempt at personalizing a conservative arrangement. Similar stuff as :32-:44 from :57-1:10, before simplifying it with some decent stuff from 1:10-1:18, then adding original material on top of that until 1:36. Back to the intense chorus (like :44) at 1:37 with some new original stuff added on top yet again. Good stereo manipulation at 2:01, indeed. The escalation of the track in the second half with these new parts added in is rather simple. None of the sections are really interpreted or expanded significantly, even for a short time. Decent personalization of the theme which I'm liking, but you've gotta develop the arrangement further, especially manipulating/interpreting the main riff into something more rearranged and unique. Don't forget to work on that percussion also. Hey, good to hear another track from you bro. Stick around more and see what the ReMixing and Works forums can do for you as you continue to improve your stuff. NO

What part of "whip up in a few minutes" don't you understand, boy?!?!?!?! You stirrin' up shit! I kill!