Liontamer

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!

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 122 "Crazy Motorcycle" Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children OST - 103 "Beyond the Wasteland" <zircon> Direct sampling of 0:00 in the source is present from 0:00 in the mix too, the little "blip" synth pattern <zircon> At :13 in the ReMix you're hearing the riff from 2:28/2:31 in BtW <zircon> Lots of arrangement in the ReMix is based on :35-:45 in the original track <zircon> 1:41 and 3:59 in the ReMix are possibly connected to 1:47 in BtW... I'm thinking yes Sorry about neglecting to fallthrough this last month. No excuse, but shit has been hectic. Cool mix, but... Notwithstanding the direct sampling of a part from "Crazy Motorcycle" for a significant enough portion of the mix (already a negative), the fact that much of the arrangement is based on the non-VGM tune "Beyond the Wasteland" from FF7: Advent Children makes it a loss already to me from a standards perspective. We're definitely in that 15-25% area. There's not enough singular focus on "Crazy Motorcycle" (i.e. the VGM-inspired portion of the arrangement) to give it a pass. Sorry, Dan. You really did a great job on production relative to your earlier work and are definitely coming into your own on that level. Looking forward to your next submission, bro. NO

Fate has been cruel, and I've switched my vote up top. Be sure, Trevor, to work on this a bit and send this back. We clearly feel the potential here.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/castlev3.zip - Track 7 ("Dead Beat") Might as well post the Zophar's link, since our hosted link looks all funky and won't link properly. Ironically enough, as much as I like the CV3 soundtrack, this source tune is not one of my favorites from the game. There's much better stuff out there for my personal taste like "Rising", "Stream" or especially "Demon Seed". Damn, that's some loud stuff to start off with; pretty intense rendition of the source. Didn't like whatever e-piano-ish dealie squeaked in the left channel from :20-:26, but it was brief. Swanky changeup in the rhythm from :33-:36 & :39-:42; very smoothly done, I'm jealous. Little plainer stuff from :46-:58 that felt a little aimless, but got back to speed afterward. Weird synth-driven segue from 1:04-1:08 that didn't flow right into the more interpretive/embellished playthrough of the source by Chris. I can see what he was trying to do, but felt like the timing should have been different. Oh man, 1:32 is pure rock. Absolutely sweet solo on top of the supporting chords of the original from 1:46-1:59. Wow, beautiful concept at 2:05; had me screaming out "OH SHIT!". Loving these glassy, delayed chords, and the drumwork was well-written. Brief piano solo from 2:31-2:43 sounded really, really rigidly sequenced; I agreed with zircon that this was the weakest point of the whole thing, but we all feel it was really minor in the face of the overall execution. Loved all the tangents you went off on with the arrangement. 2:44-onward kept things strong for the rest of the track. Nice subtle speeding up of the tempo for the end, including some nice shredding seguing into the organ-driven finish. Organ was a little too rigidly sequenced as well, but again the overall skill is just too strong. Chris had several unique variations on the source and so many adept transitions where nearly everything flowed well from one concept to the next. I hate to say this is better than the original, as it might offend goat's own reasons for tributing the soundtrack. But on an individual level, I didn't care for the source tune, yet the arrangement generated an interest and respect for what could be done with it. Around here, that's when you know it's a job well done. Keep 'em coming, Chris. YES

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozmmusf.rar - 224 "Pirate Fortress" Man, the MIDI-ish soundset for this soundtrack is so shitty. This particular theme isn't a good example (as I don't care for it at all), but the Zelda 64 series soundtracks are a good example of the writing really being impressive to overshadow the weak sounds. The SNES had better sounds. Dunno how a 6-minute-long arrangement of a source like this could turn out, but you've piqued my interest. Intro felt like a mere sound upgrade, with too similar instrumentation and the arrangement structure basically being the same as the source, except adding those backing strings to fill it out. Like Malcos said, nothing unexpected given the sub letter. Soundfield got really buzzy, cramped and indistinct from 1:12-1:26. Moved over into 1:43 with the piano section. The way the instruments dropped out so fast moving into that section was jarring, again agree with Malc. Still, I see the potential in the just by making the transition a bit more gradual. Piano solo definitely sounded mechanical, but props on at least throwing in some decent effects to try and give the piano some body; now you've gotta work on getting the notes themselves to sound more humanized in the performance. Brass synth coming in at 2:37 sounded excessively dry and fake, not meshing well with the other instrumentation at all. Arrangement-wise, I won't lie in that I wasn't really picking up how you based that section off of the source. Violin at 2:53 was definitely really dry, and the entire third section was sparse. The brass returning at 3:16 with the source melody also sounded very dry once again, with even the brief layering of a second brass synth not adding much meat to things. 3:44-4:03 was even more barren. The drums are supposed to sound thick, but they don't really fill out the stereo field; it's worse after 4:03 where they possess no depth (best example, 4:36-4:37). On the plus side, the arrangement ideas were definitely worthwhile, as you got a lot more interpretive with the usage of the source tune. Scrapping that crappy brass lead for a more substantial change in the tone compared to the first section would also help. Good call by Malc with the transition at 4:06; you had a great opportunity to create some dynamics and make that transition more distinct and effective. Interesting writing, but the atmosphere still needs a lot more fleshing out; still too sparse here. Indeed, although the soundfield got swamped again briefly, that was a great transition back into the source arrangement at 5:17 for the finale. Malcos really broke it down and had loads of criticisms that were on point. A lot of what I had to say was merely echoing his call on this. He summed things up so well, I have to crib from him: "There were some very good parts of this mix, and I think it was arranged well, with original parts integrated nicely with original material. However, there were lots of issues to do with dynamics, volume and texture. I don't think this is up to the bar just yet, but I would like to see a resubmission of this." Stick around the community, use the ReMixing & Works forums here like mad to learn more about Reason and obtain feedback for your future work. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozmmusf.rar - 253 "Staff Roll" Before the more festive parts about 2+ minutes in, the original sounded like something straight out of Leisure Suit Larry. Anyway, French horn synth at :35 is pretty phoney and could use a bit more body, but decently sequenced. Soundfield felt too empty until the woodwind joined at 1:00. Yeah, that audio deformation from 1:24-1:25 is unacceptable. The most familiar part of the source kicked in at 1:33 with some decent orchestration, but I didn't like how similar the feel was to the original. Track felt a little empty, but there was some thick drum stuff at 2:14 to at least help fill things out a bit. 2:23 featured the main theme, which is also arranged in this style as part of the same Staff Roll source tune. 2:45 went for another iteration of the main source melody with some different instrumentation to very things up. Stylish arrangement work at 3:29-3:45 to add a dash of flair before combining the main melody and Zelda theme for a stronger, more energetic finish. Like weed said, "the arrangement is surprisingly fresh considering the main groove is very similar to the original", which was surprising once I reached the end of the track. Without reading his vote first, that had been the same conclusion I had drawn. Definitely a track carried by the arrangement, but a nice job on the sequencing for a fairly natural track from a "performance" standpoint. I though the production was decent enough, but ultimately the samples here still sound a bit bland and synthetic in a negative way. It's not until 2:05 where you finally get something filling out the background so the track didn't sound so empty. Some production tips on how to flesh out the sounds a bit more would be appreciated, since we can't post this track as is anyway (with that bad audio glitch). The production quality's nagging on me and when compared with the arrangement, there's a bit too much of an imbalance for me. Always the stickler... NO (refine/resubmit)

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Tyran Castle" (ct-3-02.spc) Not a fan of the source tune; only the chorus was solid to me. Anyway, opened with some cheap dinosaur SFX. Moved over into some sequenced strings and vox at :11, all sounding pretty rigidly sequenced, like the others have readily pointed out. Beats from :45-:53 were completely out of place, followed by a complete change in the piece's tone which made 0 sense. Yeah, I'm gonna take the quickest exit out. Everything's really empty, mechanically sequenced and unrealistic sounding, plus the arrangement is on crack. It has no flow to it whatsoever; pretty much every transition was ridiculously jarring, plus the instrumental textures didn't piece together well at all. Ambitious, but ultimately very poorly executed. I'm more disappointed in the lack of musicality with the various instrument choices than the arrangement being so haphazard. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=mpnt - "Mario Paint" (mpnt-01a.spc) Yeah, pretty cool choice of theme. Disappointing name for the arrangement though. zircon covered all the cons of the looped drum sample, which I won't repeat (except to say that he's right). Sax introing in at :08 sounds too synthetic and thin, but I appreciate the effort. Wow, that bassline at :40 is definitely distorting a hell of a lot. Piano actually sounds fairly ok; a bit fakey but it's being buried by that clippy bass so it's harder to tell what's up. Sax gets more freestylin' at 1:13, but at the expense of GREATLY exposing the sample. Piano comping at 1:30 was also a great concept that sounded fairly decent for being sequenced but, again, still greatly exposed the realism limitations of the sample. Ha, nice fuckup at 1:40 as the whole performance gradually broke down at 1:47; more people need to be daring like that and throw in an artistically creative flub like banging on the keys for some dissonance. God way to turn a potential negative (messing up the solo) into a positive. I actually feel it worked well, all things considered. Same issues coming back into a last iteration of the arrangement at 1:56; clipping bass, thin-sounding sax. But do try and very up the arrangement there for that last iteration of the arrangement. No good repeating it verbatim when you have a 3-minute mix. Ending merely exposed the sax sample badly again and didn't sound like as much of a happy accident at the piano breaking down earlier. Gotta tighten that up. Great potential, Max. Take zirc's criticisms into account, eliminate the clipping, work on varying the arrangement for that last section with some further interpretation or instrumentation changes, and refine the sample usage to flow more realistically in the performance and sound more realisitc with the tone. NO (rework/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/usf/sm64usf.rar - 14 "Cave Dungeon" Hate to glib you when you have an otherwise cool track where you tried to personalize the approach and use some different sounds, but the arrangement is basically the same as the N64 version, like Vigilante said. Creatively, it really doesn't stand apart from the original except for having more driving beatwork. The bassline sounds like an upgrade of the original, as well as the piano at 1:41. The in-game SFX usage at 2:54 was cheesy, and not enough of a factor to merit being used for all of about 3 seconds. You have the potential to really go off into some creative, personalized interpretation of the source here if you can think of further ways to have it not sound so much like the N64 version. Look forward to hearing more from you in the future, Mike; I like your style so far. Stick around here and make use of the ReMixing and Works forums if you aren't doing so already. NO

Cave Story (Game Rip) - 24 "Moonsong" & 28 "Balcony" First few minutes were pretty cover-ish but had a fair amount of interpretation with the supporting work. Good stuff. 1:04-1:16 felt a bit empty in the background though. The tone of the drums was lacking, IMO, though the percussion writing was good. To me, they sounded thin and flat, undermining the energy level. Beautiful stuff at 1:34 with "Balcony", dropping out the percussion and giving a more genteel and organic rendition of "Moonsong" with a very personalized flavor at 1:48. That's awesome. Weakest point in the track was from 2:19-2:49 where the drums really stuck out as thin. Really need to see that improved so there's less of a sound quality disparity. I see where Vig's coming from, but the drums have no meat on 'em and don't quite gel with the rest of the instrumentation to me, leaving the background rather thin and tepid. Once that's improved, then I'd be solid on it. Then all of a sudden a great crescendo at 2:50-3:06; came in a bit too loud, maybe, but the performance was awesome. I wouldn't even touch the volume there; it's like a punch to the face that you find yourself liking. Arrangement was still pretty solid afterward, with lots of great comping and riffing off of the structure of the source from 3:06-3:20, followed by another straightforward iteration of the source with the supporting work carrying the brunt of the interpretation. Drums are still a weak point, sounding well written but too synthetic. Ending at 4:43 was rather abrupt and I-give-up-ish. Also seemed like it came in a few beats too fast almost to be a smooth transition. Play with it a little bit; perhaps allow it to fadeout at a slower pace and a bit more completely before using that last sound at 4:50. Awesome arrangement, but those drums sound thin, generic and bland, and are undermining the listening experience. Tweak 'em for the win. If rejected, use this as an opportunity to also work on the ending. NO (refine/resubmit) I must say though, Doug, I never heard a thing primarily from you before this, but I can't wait to see what's next. Weird to say this, but...get your mom further involved in a future arrangement to snag her some legit co-credit. Just don't saddle her with the handle "MomUltimA". Let's not go too far.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFL at that stinger. R O F L ! [end transmission]

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/tetris.zip - Track 2 Had this mostly done by the time JJT posted, so I might as well post it. I recognized some of the drum style from Ubik's Adventure Island mix, "Tribal Warfare". You did try to adapt the melody to the genre, moreso during the chorus (1:42-2:08) and during 2:14-3:05 where you adapted the source's bassline, but the source usage was that basically that one lead synth and the interpretation factor was low. You really shouldn't have a track that would sound fairly complete without the lead synth; it really did make the Tetris usage feel like an afterthought. Go for something like 3:18 where you did some observable interpretation of the melody and also had some supporting synths also arrange the source while interplaying with the melody; you need to be more in that direction from the get-go. Wish the production was a bit more balanced; zirc covered all the major issues there. NO

Thank God. Not that no one has said they liked it (far from it), but there were enough genre haters in the ReView thread to the point where I'm certainly glad someone really really enjoyed the mix, and that fact that it's here.

No one ever disses Brian for having a hand in this. Just weed.