Liontamer

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/computer/commodore/commodore/stones5.mid - "Stones" Interesting opening. Not sure what was up with the pregnant pause from :16-:21. Nice minimalist atmosphere from :21-:42. Woodwind lead brought in at :42 seemed slightly off-time when brought in, and also too dry compared to the other verby/glassy instrumentation. I think it's possibly to create separation like you've done without it sounding like the parts aren't in the same general area. I see how the arrangement seemed fairly conservative, but the personalization and interpretation in the approach is definitely there. Nice changing of the time signature here, by the way. The way the sub letter reads, it makes it look like the arrangement may have been an afterthought to a predominantly original piece, but that's really not the case here. The more exposed woodwind sequencing from 1:03-1:17 was a bit too rigid in some of the note-to-note movements; a little on the fake side, which didn't sound very good given how dry the sound was. The dryness though was more of a criticism than the realism. Some of the higher frequencies were pretty piercing and needed to be toned way down. Felt the lack of realism was a bigger problem at 2:46 when you layered more than one woodwind together, followed by the woodwinds and strings at 3:03. It's really not that bad, but considering how you really don't have much more going on, it would help this track to have that stuff be more on point. I liked TO's suggestion to beef the track up a little more with some ambient noise SFX. Either that or work on making the lead woodwinds and supporting strings less bland/defaulty. I'm close on this one, but would prefer to see a resubmission that puts this one on solid ground, Kristofer. Very nice work so far. NO (refine/resubmit)

Chaos Legion Original Soundtrack - (108) "a way to nowhere Stage ~Ruins~" & (115) "feel no fear Stage ~Sky Gallery~" Yeah, same issues I felt were there in the Metal Slug 2 remix were definitely there here, only thankfully a bit more balanced. The compression made things sound cluttered and lossy in places, but the production wasn't hurting. Much like "No Need to Reload", this was more of a case where the instrumentation and production choices were more befitting of the genre, as opposed to those choices sounding completely out of whack in a piece that's supposed to sound more organic. Awesome opening with some very nice brass, followed up by the vox; a nice buildup for the intro with great energy. That filtered synth first used at :53 was cool initially, but got lame after a while. When it came back at 3:23, I was killing for something different, frankly something more creative with the synth design there. Same issue with the bleh lead synth during the close from 3:44-4:05, but not a dealbreaker. Nice brief usage of "feel no fear Stage ~Sky Gallery~" from 2:42-2:55. The vox from 2:56-3:22 sounded pretty good, all things considered. The timing was a little rigid, but the note-to-note movement was pretty smooth overall, sounding fairly realistic. So a minor point, but still nicely done. Synth design for a few brief parts could have been more creative, and the production was a bit on the rough side, but this was solid overall. I fully agreed with TO that while the overall arrangement was arguably conservative, things were pretty personalized in terms of the approach. Honestly, this one's a strong example of retaining both the spirit and style of the source material while substantially personalizing the arrangement. Not many people around here know how to even pull that off, which earns major props. YES

http://www.zophar.net/gsf/minishcap_gsf.rar - 05 "Festival Outskirts" & 06 "Picori Festival" Instrumentation was more simplistic, and not much different than the source. If it was a MIDI rip, it wouldn't suprise me. No interpretation, repetitive, undeveloped, only 2:09-long. Did you bother reading the submissions guidelines? NO

Hate to crib, but DS sums it up. I also thought the lead was a bit obscured compared to the beats, and that the sound quality was teetering a bit too much on the lossy side despite the encoding. Sounded like there wasn't enough meat on the high end. The ending from 3:53 to the end was a bit too sparse and dragged on. Standard to the genre or not, it went on for too long. It wouldn't be a problem if the sounds weren't so thin and bland there. Anyway, you gotta be more interpretive with the material. You converted the piece to more of a dance groove and changed up the rhythms, but that was about the extent of the interpretation. It lacks. If that's the short version, then as a listener there's no reason I'd wanna hear the longer version without you bringing more creativity and personalization to the plate. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - Track 8 ("Sparkman Stage") Hate to be glib, but DS is right. Repetitive too. This was produced well enough to make it to the panel, but the interpretation factor is extremely low. A very basic genre conversion, cookie cutter synth choices, a mere 2:19-long, and not particularly interested in significantly interpreting or developing the source. NO

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.