Liontamer

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/LoL_psf.rar - 047 "Jeremi" Nice, LoL.psf. The percussion used to open things up or the first :24 was decent, even if the bassline and whatever other synth that was were rather sparse. Drums after :25 had some meat behind the sound, but the texture felt too sparse. That's because the bassline and faux guitar just don't fill out the soundfield adequately. It's not until :56 that something interesting's even going on thanks to the sax synth belting out the source melody. The tone of the sample is decent (reminds me of the Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike soundtrack), but lacks meat on it. The transition at 2:05 could have worked if you had drawn the transition out longer. As is, it just sounds abrupt and disjointed. Piano at 2:18 was decent, but very mechanical/inhuman in the performance and lacking richness in the sounds. The quality of the piano was already not hot, and hearing it repeat and wear out it's welcome ALL the way to the very end didn't help. The arrangement simply suffered on account of the repetition. There's just not enough rhythm/support instrumentation going on to compliment the melody and fill out the track, the sample quality sounds pretty unpolished and lacks richness, and the second half of the arrangement needs more variation in the arrangement and/or instrumentation choices of the lead. This one needs a lot of work to lift it up. NO

kik u

I see 160 people leeching the torrent at once right now. Wonder what happened. Anyway, some dedicated seeders are needed. EDIT: It's slowly dwindled down to 7. The internet probably burped.

Guilty Gear X Heavy Rock Tracks ~ The Original Sound Track of Dreamcast - (20) "Still in the Dark" Why did the synth guitar briefly brought in here sound like had a bunch of hiss at :06? Anyway, pretty generic FL-style stuff built the intro until the track got started at :39. Some ultra-basic sounding clap/percussion patterns came in at :52. We're talking old-school DarkeSword territory, only even more basic. Notwithstanding that the patterns themselves aren't interesting, they also repeat too much, so work on writing more creative, ore varied percussion. A nearly naked electric guitar synth plays the source melody at 1:10, sounding very beginner-ish. Not really much going on with the arrangement, though there were at least a brief spot like 2:13-2:26 trying to do its own thing. Still, not much going on beyond a basic-level genre adaptation. Really not much to say about the sounds and construction here other than that this was very beginner-ish. The instrumentation's pretty boring, the arrangement isn't particularly creative, the ideas are repetitive, the track lacks a good texture. Even the mix title is lame and generic. There's probably 80 other people who have said at one point in time: "What do I name my Guilty Gear mix? Oh, I know, 'Guilty as Charged.'" Thumbs down. In any case, you seem to be enjoying your time in the community and sharing your WIPs. Keep frequenting the ReMixing forum to learn more about Fruity or whatever programs you're using, and continue to make use of the Works forum for fan feedback. NO

We don't accept anything with a 224kbps bitrate: http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF9_psf.rar - 118 "Battle 1" & 415 "Dark Messenger" But into the meat of this. Going for the buttrock here I see. This isn't bad, but is too bottom heavy like Vig mentioned. A lot of the supporting elements tend to mush together indistinctly. Sections like 1:04-1:10, 1:16-1:23, 2:34-2:40, 2:46-2:53 just get grating. A saperate bass would have been nice, I agree. I didn't think the transitions posed any issue whatsoever, but the fluidity of the performance was lacking. Personally, I didn't like the synth guitar sound chosen at all (Dear Jesus, let it be synth - Signed, Larry). It seemed too shrill/piercing, and the melody at :32 just exposed the inhuman quality of the sound. The string samples also needed a more humanized sound. I'd suggest trying to even out the frequency range a bit more to tone down the bottom heavy feel and create some sound separation, and work on humanizing the guitar and string work. Lots of potential here, Niels. NO (rework)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Courage and Pride" (ct-1-13.spc), "Kaeru's Theme" (ct-1-19.spc) & "Wind Scene" (ct-1-09.spc) Yeah, it's not that I want to either be a snob or sound like a snob, but the sample usage doesn't sound vibrant and lacks presence like zircon mentioned. Indeed, there's absolutely no edge to this, everything sounds quiet, an though I hear panning being employed, this definitely doesn't take enough advantage of the stereo space. This really needs extra polish to sound as if it were realistically performed, not simply in terms of getting OMG-level samples, but just humanizing the performance. Everything sounds dynamically flat and overly synthetic. For example, the snare being played sounds incredibly fake when it's supposed to sounds like rapid taps (e.g. :01 and onward). I won't lie, I think anyone who doesn't mind that stuff wouldn't care about that, but it just sticks out like a sore thumb. I liked the arrangement here as well, but agreed with zircon that it didn't retain my interest and didn't really do much to stand out. The ending wasn't a total loss, but the very last brass note could have trailed off longer so the ending didn't come so abruptly and expose the samples. Sorry Ryan, the execution's just up to par. NO (rework)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Kaeru's Theme" (ct-1-19.spc) I don't see how there was a problem with the inclusion of the theme. Aside from the quiet brass from :14-:31, Frog's Theme was noticeably present at :56. You can obviously hear Chris playing the simplified chords at :40 with the brass. They were allusions, but strong enough to make a meaningful connection before 1:30. Melody prominently kicked in at 1:34. The arrangement ideas initially sounded not unlike GrayLightning's "Sacratus Bellator". Not quite sure why the area around 1:48 was as quiet as it was. I think it could have been louder and still had the same contrast, but it's personal taste rather than a big criticism. Frog's Theme came back at 2:38 seemingly with the retread action, but soon changed up into some other good instrumentation ideas even if the arrangement was relatively conservative for the genre. The writing's not quite vanilla to me, but I can see why it could be interpreted that way. By 3:18 though when the strings come back in, and also with the Frog melody at 3:34, I felt like I've heard these ideas enough. Personally I liked what was in place, but it could use more liberal interpretation. The ending at 4:02 was pretty anti-climatic/sudden/lame. Not that I'm crapping on it, but I felt you could have drawn it out longer and formed something more satisfying. The samples also felt too exposed right at those last few seconds. I don't have as major issues with the lack of complexity in the writing. Nonetheless, Jesse's right in that the voicings are flat & bland and don't convey the energy and emotion your writing intends to express. The texture is decent, but when you focus in on the individual sounds, each instrument sounds too subdued and noticeably lacks power and energy. Where's the oomph? If you drastically refined the voicings for a richer more realistic sound, I'd likely YES this, as I think the writing does a fairly authentic job of adapting the theme to a movie score style. Promising work so far, and some of the best I've heard from you Chris. Definitely don't be discouraged at this vote, and see what else you can do with this. NO (refine/resubmit)

It was a crowning achievement, believe me. I didn't know I was capable of doing 2 hours shows anymore. As for the Valentine's Day poll, ThatPaige is interested in what the boys and girls of OCR plan to do for their sig-Os this year. So vote or die. Preferably vote. (But I don't mind die.)

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 110 "Fighting" Dunno anything about Infected Mushroom, so I can't weigh in from that angle. Yeah, I hear the connections to "Fighting", but much like your Sonic & Knuckles submission a while ago the connections to the source are potentially too vague/tenuous to be easily recognizable. I heard a lot of what you're going for, but it's a tough sell. Good stuff from :16-:32 arranging the very beginning of the source. Melody came in at :40, but the overall texture here seemed rather simplistic. Most of the way through, it sounded like there supposed to be a lot more power and energy here, which I believe is a result of the plain synth design zircon alluded to. 1:23-2:08 had more tenuous-level connections to the source, most notably made by the brief vox (1:36-1:46). 2:08-2:27 had some more overt arrangement with some good piano-based ideas, though I felt like arranging other sections of the source would have provided more variation rather than repeating already-used portions of the source. I thought there was enough arrangement here overall to not need to be deemed too liberal in a standards sense, you just have to grasp the connections that are there. But like zirc mentioned, the mix feels underdeveloped overall because other areas of the source tune weren't explored. Overall, I liked the ideas here. I agreed with zircon in that the ending was really poor. It can work, but you have to build to that type of ending in some way. I too would suggest working more on synth design and polish, as well as expanding the arrangement. Personally, while I don't care for the genre, I thought this was pretty promising. Your subs continue to improve. NO (rework/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/usf/smashbros_usf.rar - "Congo Jungle" http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - "Jungle Groove" (dkc-05.spc) The original of course is just a straightforward arrangement of the DKC original, so both are listed. Production gets awfully murky/distorted/crunchy. This arrangement is a straightforward cover with the occasional new ideas and some jazzier instrumentation. Arrangement also retreads itself at 1:31 while only 2:52-long. Not badly put together, but lacks any meaningful interpretation or development, and relies on the original as its crutch. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/spaceha2.rar - "Illusion" (016.gym) Pretty basic instrumentation to open things off with. Really reminds me of some of the much older OCR material. Wish the percussion had more creativity here, as it's not much different or better than the original. Arrangement was basically an expansive cover like the submission letter implied. Some strings dropped in to add more to the package at 1:45, but the arrangement basically retread itself until 3:01. The synth/drum pattern first used at 1:34 droned on and on and on from 2:36 until 4:22/the end. Probably could have made it many, many years ago simply off the sound quality relative to other things being posted at the time, but the arrangement substance isn't there. Everything needs more creativity, variation and personalization. Not a poorly-made track, but not up to par. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 18 Flying Battery Zone 1 & 19 Flying Battery Zone 2 Not terrible, but somewhat unwieldy and beginner-ish. The mixing sounded a bit sloppy. Not really much to this conservative arrangement but covering Act 1, then doing a transition at 1:12 and covering Act 2. At 2:55-long, it's pretty underdevloped for a mix that's supposed to be equal parts of 2 themes. Not much else to say. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "The Decisive Battle" (ff6-124.spc) Just to point out, Adam did mention on VGDJ #3 that the "bad notes" in Little Painter Girl were indeed a flub. So eat it, Dave. Eat it. I'm pretty much echoing zircon's issues. The stuff he mentioned about spikes in the piano volume, as well as the slight panning issues were notable and I agree with them, but were ultimately not critical. Arrangement wise, things were seeming good. My main thing here was that I actually felt the drums didn't fit here at all. I hear the attempt at trying to create fills and changes like zircon mentioned, but the texture here wasn't working at all, which was also in part to the very bland production choices of the percussion. The texture here just wasn't clicking, and needs to be reworked. You may want to go for a softer feel for the percussion and scrap the snare (and its boring patterns) in favor of something else, but that's just me. Get further feedback from others on where to go from here and send it on back. You won't regret subbing this if you get it sounding stronger later on. Say hi to Wing for me. NO (resubmit)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/smk.rsn - "Donut Plains" (smk-06.spc) Cool for a first mix, that's for sure, though I'm partial to the theme. At only 2:15-long, this arrangement would have to be incredibly creative and varied to pass. Rhythm section never changes and the synthy flavor is ok but sparse. Arrangement is decent, but didn't do anything dramatically interpretive with the theme. The track basically ended before it even got off the ground. A shame; I'll hang onto it though, as I be likin' dat source material. You need more substance, more texture, and more development in your future work. Use the ReMixing & Works forums here to learn more and build up your skills. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/fzero.rsn - "Port Town" (fz-07.spc) I liked the strings and felt they achieved the sad feel you were going for, but otherwise felt the arrangement creativity was lacking. That was particularly underscored by its repetitiveness, with no original or heavily rearranged sections to speak of. Yeah, you weren't kidding about the sound quality; sounds pretty dull. Arrangement isn't bad at all, but isn't really much to speak in terms of standing out from the original. It's basically the original with some dnB drums. You gotta be more, but not bad at all for a first try. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/MarioKart64_usf.rar - 28 "Victory Lap" Yeah, Protricity does a much better job with these guitar synths. Vig did a good job with the glibness. Rhythm section never changes; at least do a little something with the drums. The samples were definitely used in a very beginner-ish manner. At 2:35-long, nothing meaningful was really going on, and this only pales in comparison with the original, which used very synthetic sounds more effectively. The arrangement needs a lot more creativity and skill. Keep at it, bro. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/fzero.rsn - "Mute City" (fz-09.spc) Sparse, quiet, repetitive, beginner-ish. Laid back doesn't mean quiet and empty. Song manages to drag for quite a while. Too bad too, because I liked many of the arrangement ideas here, though this sounded too liberal of an arrangement overall. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 305 "Drifting" The funnier part is that the original is strings-only, so hearing these strings with their near-exact tone and wonky attack only makes these sound even worse. I'll admit, I don't like trying to take a string-based original and then having string parts here that sound almost the same in tone. Nonetheless, you did try to make things sound more aggressive with the percussion and vox. Ultimately though, I don't think it really adds enough to the picture arrangement-wise to be a pass, though you're in the right direction. Like Vig said though, the samples are used pretty poorly and don't give any realism in the performance. And by 2:04, you're basically just repeating the same ideas over again with some minor additions, rather than offering anything new. 3:29-2:42 offered something new, and I really liked the synths and ideas there, but the usage was too brief and was irrelevant to the track. But play with those ideas more, and think about using stuff like that early and more often to provide contrast in the track. Decent foundation, Ronnie, but needs a lot of work. Stick around the community and use the ReMixing & Works forums here to learn more and gain fan feedback. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/lord.zip - Track 4 Uh, what is up with that sparse, repetitive percussion? The sparseness I didn't mind so much, as you wanted things to be laid back alongside the guitar work, but it just droned on like a metronome. The guitar work (thought quiet) was ok and I'm sure Vig could give some insight on how well things were pulled off, but where's the substance in the rest of the instrumentation? It's just guitar + tap tap tap. Ultimately, that's lazy and an obvious NO-go. You're definitely a lot better than that, Todd. Looking forward to hearing something from you with more substance, like your previous OC ReMix, "Inquisition", which was great. I'd definitely like to see you have a sophomore mix here.

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/computer/atari/atari/3D-Galax.mid - Title theme Yeah, thanks for linking the source material. This is our second submission covering the theme, and like the first, there's not much here besides a cover. On the production side, this sounded a bit flooded and messy, with the sound bleeding together too much. This felt slightly slower and more beefed up than the original, but had no creative ideas to provide interpretation of personalization. You've gotta introduce unique arrangement ideas into the picture. 5:18, and I'm not hearing much that differentiates it from the original. NO

Haha, that's what I thought. It's just that the judges kept talking like this was a live performance. No, I wouldn't say that. Certainly not for me.

Haven't heard from Senor Mustin all day, as I asked him to send me a track to play alongside tonight's planned interview, so he may not be there or it may be too short notice to do the interview this week. In any case, I'm pretty far away from Emory right now, so I'll be starting late; hopefully sooner than 11:30PM EST, but that's a very safe time for me to say right now. If you plan on listening, hang tight for tonight please.

Yeah, "transpose" has a musical jargon context, but I meant it in a different sense of the word, i.e. to interchange. "Adapt" works just as well outside of musical jargon though, so I'll use that in order to not confuse the usage.

I had revised my vote yesterday and changed it over to YES, but no one was clear on where the change in my POV was, so we try again. After letting the track marinate a lot more, I should have went solid YES on here. Not using bLiNd as THE benchmark (as SGX certainly has his own stuff to compare with), but I listened to EarthBound "Snowbound" just to compare this with an even more dense track, and this just sounds louder yet a lot cleaner and more polished here. Not correcting a snap judgement, but I always remain willing to revisit borderline material to see if I have any new thoughts on it, especially at the recommendation of other judges but moreso of my own choosing. The "wall of sound"-type approach did bother me a little bit like Gray pointed out, but it shouldn't have been anything substantially affecting my vote. For some reason, this had struck me as a lot more messy and dull-sounding initially. There were still some piercing portions like :10-:15 & 1:42-1:55, and 2:29-2:57 & 3:39-3:54 sounded noticeably more cluttered and messy to me. Some of the loudness really managed to undermine the panning work and make things sound too centered at times, like I mentioned before. Nonetheless, I think those sections were at least better than something like Adhesive Boy's EB mix where some brief sections, IMO, unfortunately made that track simply sound unskilled. (I can respect the experimental choice, but there's no skill in simply knocking the reverb settings up to 100 and hugely overcompressing things, tantamount to arguing that anything makes for fine music simply because it's possible.) Overall though, the packed texture wasn't as bad or messy as I had initially made it out to be, so my opinion shifted the other way and I have seen the light. The light's got some intense color. The bombastic sounds are pulled off very well most of the way through. Things were clicking well, and while Gray noticed the somewhat liberal arrangement approach, I'm still a proponent of only arranging a small section of a source as long as it's done in a meaningful, substantial way. Looking forward to the Dannys and their next collab.

*shrug* It was definitely there in the first version of this resubmit. I wouldn't just compliment it if it wasn't even there.