Liontamer

Ha! Yeah, those Bulgarian bagpipes are pretty shrill, so I can see why it would turn off most people. Hard to digest, and kind of on the lower end as far as the arrangement, since it basically says its piece in a minute then goes for another loop. The very ending made me laugh and cringe at the same time. Props to Chris for taking a creative risk.

Piano was awfully mechanical, but this settled into a good groove based on music that was originally used in SoR2. Kinda disappointing in that I don't hear Hayden employ much string stuff, like he did in the intro. It's something I'd have liked to hear in more of his works, as he pulled that off pretty nicely for the time.

http://www.mirsoft.info/wogm_download.php?data=YTozOntpOjA7czo0OiIxODUwIjtpOjE7aToxMTM0NTk5NjkxO2k6MjtpOjM7fQ== - 07 - Guilty.MID Repeating myself from last time, the source tune is just one variation of many. Check out 03 & 06 for others, but 07 is the one that's structured the most like this mix. I pretty much covered my feelings last time around. I feel this was a significant improvement on the production side. Honestly, I'm harsher on it when I feel that a piece could greatly be improved on that level. Right now, things still sound rather dulled and lo-fi for no good reason. I'd rather hear something cleaner along with a VBR encoding of the piece to maximize the sound quality, if this is the best the source files to sound. Things sound lo-fi, but agreeable enough throughout the intro. 1:26 still has a very nice boost of intensity with the beats. I feel like the beats were just dominating over the top of the source melody from 1:53-2:13. I liked the writing on the low brass (or are those strings) coming in at 2:24. The entire sequence from 2:43-3:21 IMO speaks volumes for why the production needs reworking and where the sounds are critically imbalanced. This all sounds like I'm listening to a performance from just outside the building; things are just so muddy and indistinct, you find yourself trying to mentally create what it SHOULD sound like. The last section on piano at 4:28 just sounds like we're talking about a 64kbps encoding. I just can't pass this in good conscience when the production needs some TLC. Someone save this please. I want this mix on the site. I want to pass it. I think it's bad enough that the arrangement kicks ass and it's from an unrepresented game. But if I passed it, I'd definitely be dishonest with myself. The sound quality is dragging this down substantially, no disrespect intended, Nurykabe. Arrangement-wise, this is a wonderful piece of work. NO (refine/resubmit)

Meh. I listened to every Michiel van den Bos track in the Unreal soundtrack I DLed from Mirsoft (only available if you have a login) and couldn't find a damn thing that sounded like this, hence the holdup. (Thanks to TO for finding the soundtrack). Obviously, the sub letter offers something that's supposed to identify the original, but I couldn't find the UMX-format soundtrack, and nothing here sounds like it. Apparently, it's "Hub 5", but I dunno. Hell, I listened to everything, and no dice. Send an MP3 of the original next time. If I find anything later, I might update my comments, but otherwise I didn't think this was strong enough regardless. Decent opening, immediately messing the tempo. Synth guitar doesn't sound real at all, but the tone was decent for what it was. Percussion was also decent to start with but drags over time despite some changeups. Not too much going on in the way of dynamics as the whole basic synth guitar + beats formula gets tired after a while. Moved over into I guess a bass guitar synth with some basic beats before going right back into the whole formula at 2:10. Vox coming in at 2:10 was so quiet, it was practically a non-factor. Even that quiet though, the low quality still felt exposed to me. Past 2:45, simply more of the same formula. Promising for a beginner-level effort. The soundfield is reasonably filled out thanks to the guitar, though the construction is noticeably sparse/simplistic when you actually examine how many sounds are in play. I'd say more, but I'm frankly burnt out after trying to find the source, and thereby can't make any comparisons on that level. Decent start, but it needs more complexity in the writing, more dynamic contrast, and more variation in the instrumentation. NO

http://www.mirsoft.info/wogm_download.php?data=YTozOntpOjA7czo0OiIyMzU2IjtpOjE7aToxMTM4MzI1OTA5O2k6MjtpOjM7fQ== - Level01.mid http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 318 "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" Really glad Lee found a backup of the source files on this one. Basically all this needed was a little more development/evolution/variation to go over the bar, IMO. I found it a little funny that Lee didn't like the additions he made in the piece, "overcomplicating it" in order to make something more acceptable, but that's the nature of not necessarily buying into da groove. If you have a 4 minute track that basically says its piece in 2, then I'm all for providing more substance. Felt like the recording quality on the vocals may have been a little rough, but nice job boosting your vocals to help playing up the ethereal vibe and give them more prominence. I liked the guitar-like synths coming in at 2:15 to provide a nice change of pace, and worked better than that thin piano sample last time around. Loved the breakdown at 2:49-3:05 as well with the subtle strings, which sounded a little fakey but weren't very exposed. Nice work giving them a bit more presence to fill the track out better but keep them as a background player. Lee went for a purposefully murky texture from 3:05 until the end where the pads and his vocals meshed together. Personally, I think it could have been pulled off without the vocals sounding so indistinct/muddy, but it wasn't a huge deal, just something I wasn't hot on. Fadeout at 3:44 for the end also felt too sudden. This really didn't need much work from the first version, but all the revisions here have made things more solid. The overall sound balance is better, and things coast at a very chill pace without the writing going on cruise control. Nice yo. YES

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=kss - "Gourmet Race Stage 1, 3" (kss-27.spc) Like me, many people really know this from Smash Bros. rather than the original game. Any reason why I can't find any information on you on MobyGames or IMDB? Oh well, one starts small and moves onto bigger things. Arrangement seems on point. I thought DarkeSword would be all over this already. Great genre adaptation going on in terms of the writing. Samples could sound richer and lend more emotiveness to the piece. Good crafting of tension at 1:48 for a nice change of pace. It's good to see this piece not necessarily be happy-go-lucky syrupy crud. Piece goes for a bigger last section at 2:42. Not really as grandiose in execution as you were trying to go for, as I felt the soundfield felt a bit empty most of the way through, but GrayLightning would be a better judge of that. Nice stuff at 3:10 as well working the xylophone or whatever percussion that was; you had some good instrumentation ideas throughout to keep things from getting stale. Vox entering at 3:23 was a good idea, though sounded somewhat robotic, and more importantly swamped the soundfield when it didn't have to. Solid work, Rob, and I'm looking forward to hearing more of your material in the future. YES

Do we have any other submissions? I've read through every post again just to make sure I had no other revisions I've missed, and double checked that I've gotten everything I've wanted so far. Provided the djp doesn't axe a bunch of them for being redundant, we're up to approximately 700 avatars total. I've reorganized the sorting for the avatars to go by company for some of the areas where we have a lot of images, plus I've renamed most of the existing ones so they're more easily identifiable. So when everything gets implemented, it's highly likely you'll have to reselect your avatars. I'm still taking in new images, so please keep them coming, and thanks to everyone who has helped so far.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=tit - "Technodrome ~ Let's Kick Shell!" (tit-08.spc) & "Sewer Surfin'" (tit-06.spc) Pretty much agreed with Andy on both the arrangement problems and synth design. This tries to be like tefnek's stuff, but doesn't have nearly the same amount of meat on it or sophistication behind it. But that's something you'll be able to pick up over time. zirc gave some good, broad tips on how to go about filling and fleshing out the soundfield here. Volume was pretty loud here and could stand to be toned down; some of the synths and especially the hats got blisteringly loud. The entire first 2+ minutes is all ultra-liberal stuff, only referrencing the melody from 1:35-1:48. Then 2:15 finally used the melody of the arranged Technodrome theme before going back into ultra-liberal arrangement of Sewer Surfin'. It was only until 2:57 that more of a tangible connection could be made, before moving back to Technodrome from 3:10 until 3:37. After that, it was original piano and synth wank that didn't have much connection to the original until 4:10 or so. Ending was definitely an "I-give-up" cop-out, BTW. You really gotta build a more overt connection with the source material throughout more of the mix. I hear the connections you're going for most of the way, building off the very basic framework and bassline of Sewer Surfin' and Technodrome at various parts, but they're too subtle. Interesting stuff so far, Jimmy. Looking forward to hearing this or any other future works as long as you keep on learning and keep up the improvement. You definitely have the potential here. NO

http://s87139486.onlinehome.us/sc2mods/H-space.mod - "Hyperspace" Just noting that I felt the arrangement approach, though similar (as alluded to in the sub letter), was different enough from Jouni's first ReMix of "Hyperspace", "Hyperspace Electro Blast", where I'm ok with allowing it on that level. The arrangement approach for that older mix though was more creative and interpretive than this one though, which was more of a cover-style approach. I'm sure people can put up a fairly fine argument that there's enough expansion here to make it a pass on the arrangement level, but this was still nagging on me quite a lot. Does a good job of filling out the original though and adding new parts, though the structure being so similar was a big turnoff to enjoying the track. The question is weighing whether it passes the test as an expansive-enough cover that distinguishes itself enough from the original. Props on another solid production job from the Euro side. It helped compensate for the fact that most of the synth design was underwhelming and made the track sound cookie-cutter at times as a result. Hearing the percussion sounding barren and generic in really prominent places like :55-1:02 honestly made me cringe a number of times. I can't help coming away from the track feeling that the sounds generally were thin despite the barrage of sounds in play at almost any given time. Sorry to say I wasn't feeling the track much when comparing it with the original. With further rearrangement ideas and some modification of the synths into more unique sounds, this would be worlds stronger, but I can objectively acknowledge the work put into writing some new parts and expanding the original. It's on the very lowest of low ends of what I'd accept from an expansive cover-style arrangement. YES (tentative/very borderline)

Man, that is pretty dated. I love how beginner-Gray was all over this mix back in the day. Source material pretty much carries it though. Had some tacky orchestral stabs in there as well for the win. Loops at :57. Decent approach, but a lot of the top names were pumping out much better quality even then.

Nah, this is too weird and everything and shizz. Me no like. This iz coo'.

Got an e-mail from the artist, regarding the N.O. vote: I hope I don't insult you by saying I find it hard to believe, since the timing is exactly the same as the original, but if that's truly the case, sorry. But it's like Protricity taught me, if you're just gonna play a track to make it sound verbatim with the original, you might as well have MIDI-ripped it, because, on a creative level, you're achieving the same result. I merely just bolded what I felt would be the most important clause in the submissions guidelines. That's not to say that the rest of what's there is unimportant or irrelevant, so be sure to read everything there. Not a problem though, lemme just bold something else...

Could have sworn I commented on this way back in the day, but I guess not. Definitely a great interpretation here of a very boring, plodding original. I loved the sounds and textures here, and this one has always been an old favorite. Wish Andy was still more involved in the community. Don't overlook this one.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ed - "Last Battle" (ed-03.spc) Bah. Didn't use the official song titles, so I could only place one source. Doesn't help that the shitty Zophar pack has both "Castle" and "Sinistrals" in it. I guess Ravi implied only one. Gonna go into asshole mode, because I'm honestly both disappointed and pissed off that we got this. This is the equivalent of an elementary school art class project with a bunch of deformed popsicle sticks pasted together with used gum. It's so abrasively loud, synthetic-sounding, and poorly put together that I have no idea how you could objectively gauge this as ready to submit. You're clearly capable of better, Ravi, but I haven't heard you improve from sub to sub and it's very annoying seeing you running in place, figuratively speaking. Sound balance is atrociously awful. Percussion is way too loud. Why would you tell anyone to turn their headphones up for this? Turn them DOWN. Everything here sounds very fake and mechanically sequenced, some synths being more egregiously and poorly used than others. The arrangement idea shows creativity and promise, per your usual, but there's absolutely 0 finesse in the execution. Zero. And that's about all I can manage to say without getting into actual time specifics and thereby completely reaming this. With patience and significant time invested into learning how to fine tune your execution so that the sounds are harmonious, balanced, and sound realistically performed, I don't doubt that you'd be a very skillfull arranger. But this is not it. This is not it at all. It's not meant to discourage or demoralize you, but if no one else is criticizing these problems, they should be. NO

Yeah, I probably should have done that myself, but in the rush to figure out how to tell the original artists, I failed to remember. It seems a lot of people on that site don't exactly read the TOS. At all. <3 EDIT: Whoops, I imagine disabling BBCode also affects quotes. No worries. We don't need to contact Chikusho Sound Team in order to handle this properly anyway. If you'd like you file your own report on it, that's definitely appreciated. No matter what you do, I'll be following up on the situation myself as well. Thanks again; good looking out!

You can always bump review threads for older ReMixes. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. The kid's only other submission to Fur Affinity is an MP3 of the Sephiroth theme. I'll be reporting the plagarism of this ReMix to the proper people at that site in order to have the kid's account dealt with.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=top - "Mint" (top-111.spc) Now I know why the first section of Hemo's deal bothered me in this sub as compared to the WIP he sent me in February. In the WIP, the intro was just strings and woodwinds, and the atmosphere on them was good; this version though, the harpsichord synth was added in and sounded a lot drier, like it's not even in the same room as the other instruments. Now, it doesn't mesh right with the strings and woodwinds. Too bad considering that it otherwise did a good job filling the space further, and provided rearrangement value on a support level to the conservative melody. I didn't mind the sound quality of the harpsichord much; however it may have came about, the sound of it was fine to me. I actually liked the rigid structure of the performance there and felt it worked in this context. Strings were more fake in the performance, but weren't exposed too badly. The whole intro sounded like something one would here on NPR. Christian's guitar work at :55 did a good job going with a very liberal/original interpretation of the source before things got back on track with more overt arrangement via the strings at 1:29. Heard what almost sounded like a very soft audio glitch in the back from 1:49-1:51. String runs from 2:01-2:10 didn't sound good at all; they're fine for John Q. Public, but the bow movements sounded really fake. Layering the strings further (e.g. 3:07) helped offset that problem in places, albeit briefly. Though not enthusiastically so, I'm ok with these strings overall. Guitar came back at 2:20 with some wanking with extra wank sauce all the way until 2:37, before going for another variation of the source at 2:38. Pretty nice stuff. I do agree with TO in terms of the sound quality disparity between the guitar and the synth instrumentation, although didn't feel it was nearly as negatively impactful or jarring as he did. The tradeoffs in instrumentation didn't feel unexpected or abrupt to me either. Thematically-speaking, once it happens the first time (which was handled fine in the first place IMO), you can tell by the structure that it'll be happening again later on. As for the 2:21 section feeling empty, I didn't fully agree, but I can understand the issue. Bass could have been meatier. I was also expecting the drums to be more interesting and fill out the soundfield more myself. Nonetheless, I didn't have as many issues here and felt the execution was handled more than adequately. I won't lie when I say that a piece of just sequenced material by Chris could not pass on its own. I still think you have a ways to go before you can pull off realistic-sounding enough solo work, but working with Christian in tandem did a good job of providing new instrumentation ideas and creating something better than the sum of its parts. Wouldn't mind some tweaks for more realism on the sequenced stuff, but it doesn't need it for me to reasonably pass it despite its flaws. Cool stuff, y'all, and a solid contribution to KyleJCrb's "Summoning of Spirits" project. YES

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/rushnatk.zip - Track 3 Opening siren is modified from Track 2 of the NSF. Hate to criticize the dance/techno genre, but this sounds awfully generic for it. But let's not discount this simply on account of the genre. Source creeps in at :29 with altered rhythms, before the whole thing picks up with some beetz at :47. Keyboard at 1:15 sounds ok. I think it would be hard to make it sound airier without toning down the beefy kicks, but making it more ethereal sounding would downplay the syntheticness of the sample. Probably just a personal taste gripe as I've heard other pro stuff in the genre where the piano/keyboard sounds almost exactly like this, so it's not a hit against the track. Yeah, you really weren't kidding about the bass track being boring. The beat work also tends drags on after a while, so while you're being faithful to the genre, it's my feeling that you should go for something a little more progressive and varied that doesn't wear thin after a minute. IMO dynamics aren't so important here as much as variation. 2:07-2:23 had a good brief gentile spot, but didn't have much substance to it. For a relatively brief mix at 3:17-long, you gotta keep the development and variation going most of the way through in order to sustain interest in the arrangement ideas. Right now it's pretty stock/formulaic for the genre and runs out of ideas for the energetic portions too early. NO

Nah, I think these MIDI guitar strums were ripped and beefed up. Vocal delivery is verbatim. Lockdown 2 material right here baby. Enjoy this while it lasts, people. Oh come on. 'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la...

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda.zip - Track 1 ("Title") Organ introing this is so flat. It's got no energy whatsoever, but it does have a little of that oldies feel to it, so like the others I could let the quality slide a little. Drum writing starting at :10 on the other hand is lame. The beats are too basic and repetitive and don't add any energy to the song. Source didn't come in until :39, going right to the bridge. Organ/keyboard performance shouldn't sound so rigid and robotic. You can barely hear the hand drums here, they're basically a non-factor this low; punch them up and make sure you're varying the patterns on those too. Soundfield is pretty sparse as a result of not using everything optimally. The only thing I thought was fine as is was the bassline, but even then it didn't really fill out the track for the first section and felt pretty buried in the back until 2:15. Uh, not feeling the runs played at 2:06 at all. Everything just sounds flat and unexpressive. 2:39 though brought a quiet belltone lead with some synths occasionally on support. Arrangement picks up with a little more ornamentation, but it's basically on cruise control and isn't really going anywhere new; I figure it'll come around later... And there we go at 3:37-4:05 with some crazy comping. Backing strings there sounded so thin and used in beginner-ish way. Some basic woodwind stuff at 4:25 almost merely sounded like an attempt to add something for the sake of adding something, but the layering of another wind instrument at from 4:35-4:44 helped move away from that. Ha! Sitar at 5:04 comes in there with no real thematic connection to any of the previous material. Ooooook. Anyway, everyone else covered the main crits, (including smellzy Vig who got in his vote while I was halfway done writing). The arrangement is monotonous and lacks energy. I disagreed that that aspect of it was even over the bar on its own. Vary the arrangement up, fill the soundfield up, and spruce up the production. NO

We are definitely aware of the issues, but leviathan directly controls the shirt orders and is currently unavailable on a regular basis due to issues he touched upon earlier in the thread. Sorry for the problems, but djpretzel and he will have to figure out how to handle the shirt issues once he's available to look into them. Keep in mind that these issues are unfortunately affecting the whole ZTNet store and not simply the OCR shirts, so it's a much broader situation than what's going on here.

http://www.exotica.org.uk/tunes/archive/Authors/Game/Joseph_Richard/Gods.lha - mod.gods17 Yeah, I gotta agree with TO. Doesn't sound any better than the original, in terms of layering up the vox, and nearly everything here is ripped from the original and beefed up, same timing and everything. Remix doesn't even have a creative name. Do not just send in a sound upgrade. Read our standards please. This is supposed to posess interpretation and rearrangement. Anything such as this particular piece doesn't represent what the site is about. NO OVERRIDE

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - World Revolution (ct-3-13.spc) [:00-2:47], Chrono Trigger (ct-1-02a.spc) [2:47-3:54], Last Battle (ct-3-14.spc) [2:57-3:54] & Lavos' Theme (ct-2-05.spc) [3:54-5:00] Had this on VGF84 thanks to Compyfox hooking me up with most of the Chrono Symphonic: Special Edition tracks. Thanks a lot for the source tune breakdown, Preston, I appreciate it. Instrumentation sounded rather dry and too low in volume to me in the very beginning, but it's a 5:00-long track, so we'll see if the arrangement compensates for the sound quality. Cutoff at 1:16 was an important point in the track that could have broken it if the return of the music wasn't working, but he at least had some good force on the return of the music at 1:19. Lil' drum pattern starting from 1:31-1:52 sounded rather plain, quiet and didn't drive the track along well, exposing the syntheticness too much. Same during 2:04-2:32. Brass in the background at 2:04-2:12 really sounded like they were clashing badly and was a particular weak point; less so from 2:23-2:32, but significant. Figure out the sound balance there so your backing elements aren't clashing so much. Transition at 2:47 was abrupt and really could have used some sort of brief but proper buildup, but it may just be me. "Chrono Trigger" on top of "The Last Battle" was a definite creative high point until 3:54. Fairly conservative, but well personalized. Weak/jarring transition, IMO at 3:54 to "Lavos' Theme". Arrangement for that theme was decent. Those ultra-weak percussion patterns came back as well. 4:06-4:27 also sounded very cluttered with the brass backing parts running over each other again. I'd honestly say add some power to them, please, even if it's after a YES vote. For synthetic stuff, I feel these samples were used fairly well on the whole, though rigid. Brass was fakey, but the samples used about as well as could be, with good results aside from when some parts conflicted, which could stand to be fixed. But still, very solid brass work and I'm looking forward to hearing you use more in future works. For brass, it's good when people have the skills and are getting it right. It's not to sell the arrangement completely short, but I thought the production could use some fine tuning to make everything sound more balanced and expressive in places. Some of the flat percussion and its tone dragged the energy level down noticeably, and the overall performance should sound more fluid. The whole thing feels a little too muddy and shortchanges some good compositional ideas. I can usually go for abrupt transitions in orchestral pieces, but felt like the ones here weren't thought out well and caused medleyitis. Maybe it's me not being so moved by the arrangement, which was alright but not blowaway as it felt somewhat conservative within the genre adaptation. But I'm tougher on production when I feel it can be improved significantly and the corresponding arrangement isn't blowaway. I'm not trying to hold this back, but the best I can go is NO (resubmit) wanting some refinements. This just doesn't feel on the level of other recently passed mixes. Best of luck with the rest of the vote though. You've come a ways from your previous submission, and it's legitimately great to see the strides you've made.

NSF Track 3. Doesn't have anything I'm aware of that I can use as an official title to add into the database.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 104 "Anxious Heart" Piano sample introing things was low-quality, but could have been beefed up. E-piano entering at :31 was too robotically sequenced. Same with the (ooooh, no) atrocious GM-ish electric guitar sample at :45. The arrangement so far has had nothing interpretive. Decent sound improvement (compared to the previous stuff) at 1:13 with the change in sounds, but it wasn't by much unfortunately. Not bad for a new mixer, but still very beginner-ish. Arrangement though is still lame and uncreative, simply playing the melody on the distorted electric guitar verbatim, and by itself even from 1:35-2:21. Don't leave it like that; the track is absolutely barren. Adding other overly synthetic guitars later doesn't help. At least you got into something more upbeat at 3:04 by adding in some stock drumloops and synth guitar licks, but it's all rather lackluster. Sorry to crap on this entirely, but I didn't have much patience for a track with little rearrangement value and crummy samples. Despite that though, you at least show some effort to try and personalize the arrangement style, even if the results looked minimal. Lurk around the ReMixing forum to learn how to obtain better sounds and improve your craft, then post at the Works forum for fan feedback on future works before you submit them. NO