Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Wait a second... Yeah, sorry to bag, Tom, but there's just no way that even sounds sequenced. No way.

Yeah, a glib NO = a hardon. You must have it BAD for about 99% of the people that send stuff in.

Original decision: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2910 Hi, Larry! Yup, those are the 2 words, anyway, sorry about sending you another pm, but I got my track hosted here's the details again. It's a resub, so hopefully it'll get passed this time! Link: Contact Info Remixer Name: The Joker, DragonAvenger Email Address: jtown_music AT yahoo DOT com Forum ID: 16059(Joker), 33038(DA) Remix Info Remix Name: In The Darkness Lies Game: Banjo Kazooie Songs Remix: Mad Monster Mansion Original Link: Comments: The Joker - I always liked the MMM music from Banjo Kazooie. It just had this really catchy melody. I always wondered what that melody would sound like if it were darker, more "serious" in tone. So, I ended up making a really dark, gothy take on the song. I used every part of the song I could, even rearranging certain parts to make them sound more ominous. I also had the idea to use vocals, as the arrangement was rather minimalist, & I felt the song would be better fir it. So I contacted DragonAvenger, who came through in spades. DragonAvenger - -The Joker contacted me asking for vocals to his piece. I tried to focus on some elements of the stage, mainly hands that are playing a piano and a ghost that won't turn it's back to you. I wanted to contrast the higher part, the "angels", and using "demons" in a lower part seemed the obvious choice. Vocal lines (in mostly chronological order) Play your song Serenade the angels Don't turn away Don't leave me all alone Demons are watching the shadows Demons are waiting for you Play your song Serenade the heavenly angels Demons are watching the shadows Demons are waiting for you ------------------------------------------------------ Big Adventures of Banjo and Kazooie - (10) "Mad Monster Mansion (Exterior)" Thanks for providing the original, David. Except for the vocals, the soundfield was pretty balanced, and the textures clicked more with nothing ridiculously fake-sounding like the last time around. The string work in particular I harped on the last time, but here it comes through fairly well. The arrangement was already a pass to me, and the original vocals helped add another dimension to it, especially compared to the first version being sparse. Dragon's lyrics were loud enough where they added to the overall feel and weren't exposed (as some of the stuff didn't harmonize well with the music, IMO), but were too low to really be appreciated. If lyrics hadn't been provided, I would have guessed that it was just gibberish. I would have pushed 'em up a bit higher, without crowding out the music (or exposing the vocals) of course. The current levels could be tweaked but were reasonable given the style of the track, nonetheless. Nice arrangement, taking something hokey and tongue-in-cheek spooky, and giving it a much more serious edge. Best of luck on the rest of the vote. YES

Larry (and everyone else who replied after him), those posts are from August. They must be merely based on the teaser site. I know. But how does that make their comments any less ?

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF9_psf.rar - 125 "Crossing Those Hills" Man, do I love the original. It's definitely a favorite of mine from when I first heard it while a friend played FF9 many years ago. In all honestly, unless someone used similar sounds to the original, it'd be hard for me to like an arrangement of it more than the real deal. Not that it factors into my judgement, but I just like the original that much. Interesting beginning. Definitely has that X-mas feel like Lee mentioned. Yeah, those drums at :31 didn't fit well at all here, and the source melody was pretty straightforward. Also an interesting changeup at :57, though I wasn't sure what was going on from 1:04-1:05. The energy level went up at 1:11 with the original section due to more going on, but yeah, the drums still didn't fit, and the guitar stuff up until 1:25 felt flat. Didn't seem to work as a good transition into the piano-driven section; I think it you had all the elements fade down instead of just that sweeping sound, it would have made the transition smoother. The piano stuff in 5/4 was definitely sweet. Conservative, but a better personalized section of the arrangement as compared to the beginning. Not sure what was up with the production at 2:08. That vocal part sounded millions of miles away and didn't really contribute anything. It just sounded like mud stuck in the middle of the soundfield. Too bad though, I liked how the vocals sounded during the fadeout at 2:30 when you could hear them more. Make 'em a bit cleaner and punch 'em up for that section. Transitions back at 2:37 to the X-mas style arrangement again, before ratcheting back up at 2:59 with original writing similar to 1:11's section before abruptly ending at 3:42. Thematically, there feels like too much disconnect from section to section; for someone listening to this for the first time, it's pretty damn jarring. Same with the drum tone not fitting. I got more adjusted to those issues with repeated listens, enough where I felt it wasn't enough of a problem to reject. Just reviewing this, there were so many spots where something could be touched up and improved (drums, vox production, flow, ending), but overall things felt competent and above the bar. Quirky choices, but not offsetting in the big picture. Give this a number of listens and see how well it holds up. YES

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 118 "Besaid Island" Interesting source tune. It never stuck out to me when I listened to the FF10 soundtrack, but it's a nice understated piece. Arrangement-wise, you guys did a nice job on the interpretation front. Cool intro, though definitely swampy and overly reverby as was mentioned several times before, not only by TO, but in the WIP thread for the mix. Nice mallet percussion stuff to lead into the the drums at 1:14, though the padding effects in the back were a bit exposed and cheap-sounding. Vocals come in at 1:35, thankfully with some delay on 'em to flesh 'em out. No offense to DragonAvenger, but some of the vocals seemed a bit nasally. The delivery was a little too amateur with stuff like "Oh yeah" at 1:38. Otherwise though, pretty good stuff to start. Her voice is buried up under those bleh pads though. Bring it out a bit more. Cheesy, but smart lyrics. The changeup in the percussion at 2:29 was lacking. The drum tone really didn't gel with the e-piano and vocals and just felt out of place. I liked whatever part was added in the background at 2:50; very nice, though again, everything was suffering due to the reverb making things too indistinct. It's too hard to really hone in on the various components. Goes back to the original drum patterns at 3:11 and another verse o' lyrics. Good writing, but still the same production issues there. The changeup at 4:05 was much better than at 2:29; smoother transition, better textures. DA's vocals take center stage at 4:47 once all the percussion dropped out. The delay was a bit much, but only in tandem with the reverb being so over the top. Uh...was that a mouse-click at 5:31 caught in the delay effect? I have never used that emoticon in 4 years on these forums, and it deserves it. C'mon, y'all; that's just weak! It doesn't affect my decision, but hoo boy you gotta get rid of that. I've seen some complaints on the WIP thread about the vocals. I'll be honest in that when I heard the WIP when the vocals were bone dry, those were no good and not getting the job done. Hell, they weren't even synched up right with the music. Now though, the delay/reverb applied here helped add some needed depth to them, and the overall performance quality was passable to me. People are too hard on vocals around here. People were ripping up "Knuckleduster" for God's sake. It's as if some of y'all can't appreciate artists performing out of their comfort zone. The swampiness of this one is my main drawback here. Sure, it beefs up the soundfield, but it's overboard enough where I felt it needed to be toned down and the sound balance needed to be reexamined a bit. Tweak that stuff judiciously, and perhaps revisit the drums at 2:29 as well as the pads around 1:14 for a warmer sound. Good luck on the rest of the vote though. I'd prefer tweaks before this went up, but I don't have a problem with this passing as is. The production is on the weak side, but the arrangement gets the job done. YES (borderline)

http://project2612.org/download.php?id=53 - "Good Ending" Well, the submission having the same title as the source tune is usually a good sign that it won't pass. I mean, how creative could the arrangement be? Pretty much sounds like a MIDI rip with deeper bass, nice strings on melody and some other minor embellishments. If the original were made with higher quality sounds, it would be similar to this. Brief guitar at 1:31 was good, but there for all of 3 seconds. Not gonna NO Override, but you gotta familiarize yourself with the submissions guidelines. This is not interpretive or substantially personalized. We don't want a pure cover, Harold. Do something more creative with the theme that adds more interpretation and unique ideas into the picture. NO

These guys love the project.

criticism? yes. constructive criticism? no How is this not constructive? Simply redo the song without lyrics, and it will sound better. A lot of other reviewers seem to feel the same. "You sang. I threw it in the trash." There's really no sense in trying to defend that manner of criticism as constructive.

Yes.

Yay! Thanks a lot! Now maybe more people will notice this and contribute to it! You gotta step up recruitment at some point, Dan. That's ultimately what'll get things moving here.

Pracitcally speaking, why is the WIP deadline during Thanksgiving break?

If a move back to Site Projects is what it takes to get your Arek Mojo workin', then I second the request. Nah. The reason why is because the project needs to display actual progress before it's moved back to Site Projects, primarily in the form of completed tracks. There were too many in-progress projects languishing and not getting anything done. I'm keeping the same standard for my own project. While the project (or any project) is in G-Disc, you're either gonna get things moving, or the thread will get pruned off due to inactivity. I would recommend not bumping the thread just to have it on page 1 of GD. Contrary to popular belief, that's not the most important thing in the world in terms of gauging activity, because most of the activity and progress doesn't take place on the thread. Work hard to recruit people and get things moving on this one. If need be, y'all can start a new thread.

The Devil's Lab theme is nearly everywhere here in this work-in-progress. I was actually surprised that more wasn't done in terms of playing around with the melody itself, which was pretty conservative. At the same time though, it sounds like this one could go for another few minutes. Unlike T-Management, there weren't many buildups or breakdowns with the instrumentation to really change the feel of the track at any point, so I'm interested to see what other ideas could be added into the picture to spice it up without changing the tempo. But yeah, I originally showed up just to say that I didn't think this was too far from the source material at all. So no worries there.

Are you familiar with the concept of improvising? Good God, people. I explained why, you filth! generally, the purpose of an improvised solo is not to "integrate" with the main melodic theme of the source. My solos in LftY, Silent Progression, and Flood Plain had very little to do with the original melodies, and that was never brought up as an issue. What I'm talking about is not simply having an wholly original section, but playing original material on top of the source melody and the two parts (in my opinion) not connecting/harmonizing.

Project Chaos is out, so this vote is released. Since we couldn't ask for one beforehand (at the risk of having the track kicked off the project by Snap , I'd like to stress the panel consensus for a resubmission. This is very promising stuff, Jefferson, so definitely revist it down the line.

In order to keep reactions to "Project Chaos" focused in one place, we encourage you to post your thoughts on the album within its Comments & Feedback thread in the Site Projects forum.

Inspired by the mix, up at DeviantArt: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40975299/ Very well made art, you guys need to check it out.

That bumper is classic crap. Makes me proud. So my bro Jiggles McPuff sent me a really nice PM a few weeks back talking about how he enjoys the MP3s of the show. I should get some more out there, though my time is/has been/will continute to be pretty limited. But I'll try and sneak some in. Been meaning to work on 'em.

Nah, the white man dubbed in an S.

Contact Info * ReMixer name: MarkShell * Real name: Markus Machado * E-mail: markusmachado@gmail.com * Website: www.purevolume.com/bandaorion *Sorry, I didn't know where to find my user id, but my user name is markshell =/ ReMix Info * Name of game ReMixed: Donkey Kong Country (SNES) * Name of Individual Song ReMixed: Aquatic Ambiance * Comments: This is a metal version of the song with real guitars, FL generated drums and bass. I decided to make this based on my band's style, to play it live and have fun with it, put some wild solos and stuff. ----------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=dkc - "Aquatic Ambiance" (dkc-08.spc) Kinda sad in that the guitar is live, as it's rigidly performed enough that it might as well be sequenced. The panning in the intro is really gimmicky and not thought out well. Perhaps you need something supplementing the soundfield that's playing equally in both channels to not make the panning seem so extreme. Picks up at :20 with some really beefy, grungier geetars joining in to fill things out. Drums are weak as hell, with boring/overly simplistic patterns, no energy, and are practically drowned out by those massively loud guitars. Your supporting guitars are so ridiculously overbearing that they were nearly drowning out your lead guitar as well. What the hell's up with that? I dunno how it sounds on a different setup, like your speakers or whatever, but on headphones it sounds like muck. Does a nice changeup to some more genteel stuff handling the melody at 1:48, but that was the only cool thing I really heard; all too brief with a poor segue to the next section. Back to the supporting guitars drowning out some freestyling by the lead at 2:14. Melody's brought into the background from 2:45-3:15 while continuing the original wank, before dropping out the source melody and instead referencing of the chords of the original on the supporting guitars until 3:59. Decent ending to close things out, but it was way too little too late. Among some other things, this needs more usage of the source tune compared to original material, usage of different sections of the source tune, more interesting drum writing, and WAY more reasonable sound balance. NO

Are you familiar with the concept of improvising? Good God, people. I explained why, you filth!

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 307 "Fisherman's Horizon" Some of those piano chords sounded off, I agree (e.g. :24, 2:00, 2:18). You acclimate to them over time, probably because they resolve OK; wouldn't know. Starts off at :02 (wha?) with some nice plucked strings and piano. Drums and bass fill out the track at :20. I agreed with Lee on the overall tone of the drumkit not quite feeling right. If the drums had been louder, then they would have affected the piece in a negative way. Here however, these bros left it at a low enough volume to simply supplement the other material, so I was cool with it. The bowed string arriving at :41 is the sexckz. Very emotive and it blends in extremely well with all of the other instruments. I like how Phil made the source tune much more melodious here, a quality the original frankly didn't have. Great change in dynamics at 1:01 by dropping the beats and focusing on the piano and acoustic guitar, before building right back up into the beats at 1:20, then going for the chorus again at 1:38 only with much more activity in the background for more intensity compared to the first chorus. Even though the soundscape was full, I could still pick out every major part here; solid mixing. I was admittedly disappointed by the key change at 1:56, hoping the arrangement would go in a different direction featuring new variations of the source. Nonetheless, good transition at 2:32 with the woodwinds moving toward Karl's piano close. Track cuts off at 3:05, booooooo. Nothing major, but perhaps meriting a fix. Loved the very personalized approach here for an otherwise conservative take on the theme, where nearly every sound seemed carefully selected. There's a synergy here with this collab that I haven't heard done this effectively since Lee and Karl collabed on Final Doom "Clairvoyant Elegy". Awesome job to both Karl and Phil. Even though I did judge the first submission of this way back, I unfortunately don't remember it vividly enough. What I do remember was that it was an awesome premise that turned out a swampy mess. I suggested a total overhaul, because I liked the concept and didn't wanna see it die. Thank the Jesus you didn't let this one go quietly. YES

Need to get the <6MB version once it's out; definitely won't be a flood by then... - LT EDIT: Sam PM'd me that he uploaded the <6MB version -Jon Hey Overclocked people! Forgive me for I have sinned, it's been eight months since my last submission. I've been trying to have a website. 'Herograw the great' gave me a domain name and a bunch of space, which I named after my grandfather and I uploaded a whole bunch of stuff.. and wrote a ton of new original material but then I noticed.. OH YEAH!! I HAVE NO WEBLAYOUT!!! Well.. that's still the case. I'm getting help though from "Less Ashamed of Self".. maybe by the time you guys receive this submission there'll be something here: www.arnoldascher.com other than the under construction sign. I think the Nofair theme from Metroid I is pretty awesome. I missed out on this game as a kid, I was too busy playing guardian legend and zelda to get to play as a spacefaring chick that can turn herself into a chrono trigger style roly poly to fit through cracks. When I did play the game, it was via emulator, and when I got to Norfair hahahah I certainly noticed the music. Immediately I had to stop playing and f!@# around on my keyboard. When you hear something exciting, it's an itch that must be scratched to take it to the piano. Anyhow... I had lots of fun with this one. Ignore the Artist info.. I'm still shnabubula.. I just used "samuel ascher-weiss" while it's on my site. I'll always be Shnabubula @ OCR!! Anyway.. as with all my other piano stuff, it's entirely improvised.. so there is no sheet music however... if anybody ever did a transcription I WOULD BE HUGELY HONORED.. somebody once did about half of anachronism... but they didn't finish ;( PS: the file size should no longer be 7.52MB by the time you guys receive this, but if it is, I will replace it with a lower encoded one. However temporarily I need the 192kbs version to be up for a few days though I doubt there'll be a flood before then. ----------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/nsf/metroid.zip - Track 4 ("Norfair") I kind of see where Vig was coming from when he called Figaro Chiptune "compositional cockwaving" or something to that effect. There were enough times where Sam just started going off on original runs (e.g. :12-1:10) that didn't really go anywhere or thematically connect with the source arrangement. Played well, but too far off the beaten path at the expense of the source and thus not my thing on a personal level. Nonetheless, Sam did some nice stuff coming out of all that at 1:10, harmonizing the arrangement of Norfair before going into some more genteel stuff at 1:38...along with "genteel cockwaving" by ornamenting the Norfair theme with a bunch of original stuff on top from 1:53-2:23. Started getting over the top again from 2:23-2:54, where it seemed the Norfair arrangement again took a back seat to the original material, but all was good from 2:56-3:22. Even better stuff from 3:29-4:22, placing more of a focus on arranging the Norfair theme, at least comparatively speaking with other sections. Strong, energetic finish at 4:40, throwing in some cheese at the very end. I'm certainly not against adding original ideas into an arrangement. I'd argue though that some of the original sections on top of the Norfair arrangement didn't integrate with the Norfair theme, which was why I had issue with those writing choices. Despite those criticisms, the Norfair theme is substantially used throughout the track. When it's the primary focus, Sam really comes through with some intricate, and stylish arrangement ideas that only he can think up. Will it be your cup of tea, brothers and sisters? I dunno. But can it be? YES

Hi! This is my first attempt at sending a remix to OCR, and it's a short jazz/funk/fusion version of the NES Paperboy music. The theme was just screaming for some sweet rhodes chords! So to the details: Contact Info * ReMixer name: Rune Flobakk (I prefer not to use pseudonyms...) * Real name: Rune Flobakk * Email address: rflobakk@online.no * userid on the forums: 15651 ReMix Info Everything "administrative info" should be in the mandatory ID3v2 tags. Here is the original soundtrack in NSF format (not my rip): http://gilgalad.panicus.org/nsf/paperboy.zip I saw Mark Cooksey (http://www.ocremix.org/composer/id/48/ credited as the composer of the C64 Paperboy theme, and I have assumed he is also the original composer for the NES port of the game. The remix name is obviously a combination of Paperboy -> Steal My Paper -> Steely Dan -> Steely My Paper. As in ha-ha-funny So, I hope I've included everything necessary. If anything is missing, just contact me ----------------------------------------------------- http://gilgalad.panicus.org/nsf/paperboy.zip - Track 1 Thanks for linking to the original. Even kingshriek didn't have it, so I wouldn't have known where to get it. I don't think Mark Cooksey's the original composer though; he probably just did the C64 port. I like what you've got here. I'm glad the direct sampling of the source wasn't around any longer, or it would have been too much. Rhodes finally replaces the NES at :51. The drums didn't seem to fit; bit too punchy. There's something with everyone's drums not quite meshing well with their subs, but oh well. They're OK, though that one snare shot is so loud and droning, while all other percussion writing is arguably too quiet and understated. It's only until 1:59-2:11 where it's pretty audible and contributes, thanks to you upping the cymbal volume briefly. Liked the new writing accenting the conservative arrangement from :58-on, mostly with the wahs, drumwork, and brass writing. Good segue into the freestyling at 1:49-2:12, followed by going back into the source tune at 2:12 with nice brass writing until 2:21. Didn't like how it went back to the more straightforward coverage from 2:21-2:55, and then went back into the NES theme, just because it feels like a step down from the creativity of earlier. Nonetheless, it was creating notable dynamic contrast within the constant tempo, so that was a plus. 2:55 crossfades back into the original from 2:55-3:29 for the close. I think more things could have been done with the arrangement to move further away from the more conservative parts, which leaves me on the borderline. Still though, while the source structure was intact, the additions/embellishments and solos were substantial enough to put it over the top. Nice work. YES (borderline)