Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Conservative, but well personalized arrangement. Loved the dashes of chiptune spices thrown in there. Too bad we haven't heard from DJComet again. I would have liked to observe how he's improved his game.

Classic VG arrangement goodness, and an old favorite. Even just from a historic sense, it's a must download.

Wow, those are some authentic dance/trance synths. Too bad the production behind 'em is so poor. Everything's just really flimsy here unfortunately. There's tons of room for expansion and power here; nothing fills the song out or drives it along. Definitely on the low end of what's available here, can't say it any other way.

I'm a big fan of the source tune, which has a simple but great hook. Like Andrew mentioned above me, this arrangement really does play to the original's strengths. Good fusion of synthwork, beats and chiptune, and a very loopable track. Look for more of Zyron's stuff in the Commodore arrangement scene.

After having becoming more familiar with the Speedball soundtrack (credit goes to Marsland Brotherhood), I definitely had more of an appreciation for Alex's own arrangement here. Very chill. There are a lot of "oldbies" that are no longer regulars in this scene, but hearing mixes like these I think of mutagene and go "Now THAT's someone I'd like to hear another ReMix from again."

Pretty dated and a conservative arrangement, but the changeups employed with the sounds and production made this one ok in terms of facing Lockdown 2. Would I groove to it regularly though? Naw. It's only really cool if you're ok with relatively minor upgrades.

Yeah, I only realized what we had here once Koelsch1's own Jurassic Park from the Genesis was posted and decided to check this out once again. This also arranged my favorite track from that game once I explored the soundtrack. Hearing a waltz in a decidedly unorthodox style was cool. Would have loved to have had an original melody built on top of the arranged source tune so that the piece could have more direction, but what's in place was really cool. Definitely doesn't get enough recognition. Solid work, Graham!

Damn, never reviewed this one either. I loved whatever percussion sounds were used for the intro. Back in the day, the uniqueness of the intro made me go "Whoa, what the hell is that?" and stick around for more. The beatwork is pretty slick for the olden days; this would be genuinely solid, driving writing even then. The brief synth solo at 1:25 felt kinda loosely played, but had some nice 80s-style energy. It ends too soon; felt like a few more minutes were definitely capable. But overall, a good overhaul of the original.

Overly straightforward but effective genre adaptation for the day. Good job with the original synthwork on counterpoint, though I would have liked it to be louder. Would have loved more creative twists and turns here so-to-speak, but them's the old days.

The piano and guitar sample are noticeably mechanical-sounding and dated, but the textures are what made this song IMO. Just loved the understated but skillful buildups and breakdowns here. Even way back when, John's sense of dynamics was impeccable. Wing would probably bleh on this mix now and note how he's way more talented nowadays, but this one still holds up nicely for that old-school flavor.

Though I never heard the original submission of this one, I could tell from the judges comments back then that this one had promise. I'm glad William decided to revisit the track and make it that much stronger. The sounds/textures are a bit dated, working in actual original drum patterns in place of the loops would have been good, and one can hear how the track could be filled out a bit better. But the arranagement's very creative for its day and the energy is excellent.

Yeesh, I always thought I'd reviewed this. Back in the days when I just scanned through the first 700 or so mixes, this one didn't originally stand out. Back for VG Frequency #51, Joe Cam sent me an interview he'd conducted with Zeratul and I needed some background music to accompany it. After scanning through Benedikt's stuff, I rediscovered this gem. The arrangement is just really creative and chill, one that demands a close but relaxed listen to enjoy. Great sounds chosen to make this stand apart from the original, Hülsbeck himself would be proud. In the Commodore arrangement community, the Great Giana Sisters' music attracts a ton of attention, but outside the European scene, awesome stuff like this gets no love and recognition. I wish more people would take time out to listen to mixes like these that aren't from the most widely-known games and see what they're missing.

The beatwork could have used some more power, and the flute's a bit mechanically sequenced, but the overall texture is pretty solid, and I really loved the interpretation of the melodic components here. The panning tricks going on during the breakdown in the middle were too extreme, but were used only briefly. A great first mix that illustrates the mission statement and creativity standards of OCR from day 1.

http://www.ocremix.org/info/Judges_Panel#Why_is_the_acceptance_bar_so_high.3F http://www.ocremix.org/info/Judges_Panel#Why_are_there_so_many_rejections_in_a_row.3F

All 3 links for that mix work fine. The old faces will be back eventually. It's never been a high priority.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=sm - "Maridia Drifting Sand Underwater Area" (sm-25.spc) Yeah, right off the bat, this sounds like a MIDI or SPC rip with some souped up sounds and effects. Beats entering at :31 were EXTREMELY bland with 0 meat on 'em, the electric guitar synth was really tacky, and everything's got too much of a muddy sound. Completely agreed with Vigilante's take on this, the percussion writing's the only interesting things going on, but it's too loud, cluttered, poorly produced, and doesn't distract from the fact the the melodic arrangement itself is very uninterpretive. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 301 "Cosmo Canyon" I disagreed with Jill's more positive outlook on the track. I wouldn't know why she felt the rearrangement aspect seemed alright for what it was, but maybe she was really familiar with the source made and thus didn't directly compare to the original. No big deal, but worth a revisit. The arrangement was really lacking upon direct comparison to the source. The instrumentation is an upgrade compared to the PSF, but the overall tone is way too similar to the source tune, and the interpretation and expansion factor are really low. Besides some ethic SFX and various other additive sounds, this is basically the original track verbatim. Considering the source itself is only 1:44 long per iteration, you've given this one playthrough that's not interpretive or significantly personalized enough in the arrangement. Nah, you need to read up on the standards and guidelines more. More interpretation and expansion is needed to stand out as a unique and creative rearrangement. This isn't a developed mix by any means. NO

It's capable of creating music. There's a dedicated sub-forum for the program here: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=28

Indeed. S'over.

I'd like to attend. What train station would be the closest to Peabody, BMI or Penn Station? I'm guessing Penn. Kinda spur of the moment, but The Lady and I may be down. Lemme know about feasibility, plz.

Hahahahaha! You've given him more fodder for music, believe me. http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Sara's Theme" (ct-3-06.spc) Delicate piano and strings opening things up. Kinda fakey and cheap with those string pads, but nothing too bad. Sax creeps in at :29. Some gentle escalation via the electrosynths at 1:20. The production of the sequenced instrumentation needs to be louder/stronger to mesh better with the sax; right now, the supporting stuff is too quiet. The track's short and halfway over, and the intro's not even done. Ah wait, it doesn't really build to anything beyond that. There's some subtle but noticeable dynamics, as things get more and more intense, but nothing that majorly changed the feel of the piece over time. Lots of personalized embellishment and interpretation in the sax performance. Definitely not a cover/rip, but I didn't get that vibe from Jon T.'s vote. The arrangement being decidedly underdeveloped relative to the source material is what made the others go NO. Give it a minute or two more and flesh out the arrangement further. Creatively speaking, what you have in place is aight, but you could bring a lot more than this to the table. This is cool, but only scratches the surface and doesn't feel like a fully realized idea. NO (resubmit) Really hope to hear something else from you in the future though if you choose not to resubmit this one, Brian.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ewj - "Buttville ~ The Descent" (ewj-07.spc) Glad to see this resubbed. Loved the effects and layering done with the acoustic guitar. The sequencing on the piano at :45 sounded too stiff; way too exposed despite the effects in play. Luckily it only lasted a few seconds before moving on. Still some awkwardness on the stuttering from 1:20-1:22 where the timing didn't seem to match up right, but overall I still loved the concept. Those beats are meant to be pretty loud at 1:27, but it felt like it was to the detriment of the song. I liked 'em lower. The airy strings from 1:49-2:10 were getting massacred by the distorted beats, IMO. They were getting killed so bad, it was as if you were encountering some sort of channel limitation where the strings dropped out entirely. I know that wasn't the case, but that's how bad it seemed. Nice effect at 2:21 to fade out the guitar, and a slick transition to the electrosynth effects and piano. Piano sounded too rigid and bright, but things were alright on the whole. Sweet tempo change at 3:17; you definitely needed something to keep things fresh, and that was an effective idea. Wasn't liking the bare plucked strings from 3:36, but you resolved it strongly with the final WHOOMP at 3:43. Solid stuff. I won't die if this goes up as is, but I'd like to see some mixing tweaks done just to get this in a better place sonically. I agree entirely with BGC's reasoning, but feel this is more of a case of a conditional YES, rather than a NO. Fix it up, Chris, but beyond that, congradulations bro.

This one's over the 192kbps bitrate ceiling. Watch out for that when submitting, please. F-Zero GX-AX Original Soundtracks - 227 "Infinite Blue (Big Blue)" http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=fz - "Mute City" (fz-09.spc) Good to see Evan around again in the community. I briefly reviewed an older version of this one back for a June '05 VGF Pimp Section, so I'm already familiar with it. It helps that I kept track of what material was arranged back then, since the sub letter has nothing. Watch the panning around :08; it's too extreme. Don't start cutting out entire channels! Decent intro conservatively based on "Infinite Blue", but some of those synths immediately became very annoying, especially at :13 when they carried the brunt of the sound. Compared to the original, your synth tone sounds too similar from note to note. :39 started some buildup toward the Mute City melody that we all know is coming. I liked the panning employed from :39-1:05, but with the mixing you need more distinct separation during the thicker parts. Push the supporting synths toward the back more. Right now, I felt like all the crazy sounds in that section were interfering with the melodic content rather than accentuating it. Brought back that ugly synth at 1:06, 1:46 and 2:25; oof, get rid of it for something more subtle and different-sounding that will create better contrast from section to section. Right now, it unfortunately just sounds loud and ugly, and buries the supporting instrumentation. Sounded like you had a decent bassline in there, but it couldn't be heard very well. On the arrangement side, I felt like things were underdeveloped and repetitive. Look at how many time that ugly synth was brought back, playing the same stuff from over and over again from "Infinite Blue". Feels like a good base, but unfortunately needs a fair amount of work on both the arrangement and production side to get it in a better position. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Track 1 ("Overworld BGM"), Track 2 ("Underworld BGM") & Track 6 http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 10 ("Crashman Stage") http://project2612.org/download.php?id=37 - "Sky Chase Zone" http://www.zophar.net/nsf/punchout.zip - Track 20 I was generous throwing this on the panel, because y'all played this live. But... The overall texture is empty and bland (punch up that bass), the timing between the players is too loose, and the interpretive aspect of the arrangement's pretty small. There aren't even meaningful transitions (e.g. 1:13) from section to section. Fadeout endings aren't instant death, but one can tell when they're appropriate; this isn't one of those cases. There's some attention paid to panning, but not enough to compensate for any of the issues. Needs meatier and more substiantial textures, tighter playing, and way way WAY more interpretation. These various arrangement seperated would be bleh; I dunno why merely gluing them together would make them any better. Merely offering basic backing parts underneath the verbatim melodies is BORING and comes a dime a dozen. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 204 "Silence Before the Storm" http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 19 ("Fanfare") ilp0, man. I like his style. The arrangement was conservative, but I loved the time signature change, and the instrumentation gave an upbeat and personalized take with a classic rock style. The production was a lil' rough plus I heard a little recording fuzz, but otherwise everything was cool. The mixing could have seperated the parts more, as stuff like the hand percussion tended to be buried way in the back and didn't really contribute much to the piece. Though the instrumentation combinations didn't change too much through the piece, there were enough drop-outs and returns of various parts to make the piece flow with some good dynamic contrast. Didn't like the transition over at 2:54 into the "Fanfare" theme. Felt awkward and disconnected from the rest of the arrangement. Otherwise though, pretty cool stuff and a welcome addition to the site. Keep 'em comin', Ilari! YES