Liontamer

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/dragonsl.zip - Track 5 Not to poo on the original track, but I didn't see what was so hot about it. Only about 33 seconds long, not really catchy. Then again, people in the community make great arrangements from bleh stuff all the time. Opened up with some quick chiptune homage, I guess direct-sampled, before bringing in some very flimsy beats and bass at :06. Source melody arrives at :21 along with a woodwind on counterpoint. The instrumentation is so lacking of energy. The percussion patterns are way too simple and plodding. The 1:43-2:03 section has the woodwind and bass taking the lion's share to change things up briefly, but the overall energy level and plodding beats meant that the dynamics didn't really change. The last section from 2:03-2:50/end was another iteration of the first part with no meaningful changes. Top off with an aburpt, non-satisfying ending and it's an easy call. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda2.zip - Track 8 Nothing really more than an overly conservative arrangement with decent instrumentation. Soundfield felt a little murky, but that was the least of the mix's problems. Instrumentation did little to vary over time. Hit another chorus at 1:18 and I was hoping it would go somewhere new... 1:30, nope. Another verbatim iteration of the theme. Finally something slightly different at 1:55 to provide some contrast. Before I could even officially bet myself that it would swing right back into the same older stuff, there it went right back into the exact same chorus at 2:21, basically rehashing everything until the end/3:31. Will he go for the abrupt ending or the fadeout...??? Abrupt ending it was. Cookie cutter, repetitive, uninterpretive arrangement approach; ho-hum sounds and processing. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff6 - "Tina" (ff6-201.spc) http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFXI_psf2.rar - 102 "Vana'diel March" Fighting a losing battle at this rate, but I played this on VGF83, so I'll bite. The arrangement was simply great. Kind of funny how "Dueling Consoles", though a great track and arrangement IMO, really suffered from some excessively crowded sections, whereas the simpler construction of this allowed the typical Shna tricks to be in play without seeming too disjoining or cluttered. I still don't reconcile a sophisticated 2A03 chiptune approach with being a guidelines violation. If production somehow leaves "much to be desired" (which I don't even remotely agree with here as it is), then a stellar arrangement should be able to get by regardless and that's what this is. Nothing but wonderful variations on a theme that I don't even like. This stupid bitch actually makes me like Terra's theme, can you believe it? I almost refuse to, but as always, there's no bias. Good dynamics like the softer sounds of 2:20 served well to provide a nice break from all the beatwork. I think the beatwork could have been more active in spots so that the track didn't feel a little empty at times, but it was a minor issue. Might has missed a theme at 2:56, but I do believe that was some FF11 snuck in there from 3:16-4:07 for the people with good ears. 3:39-4:07, I felt the volume should have been pulled back a bit, as some of it was piercing, but otherwise good stuff. Even going NO on "Dueling Consoles", I'm glad it passed in order to offer something different that the unwashed masses out there normally wouldn't have access to. It's a shame IMO that the mere base sound choices here somehow hold this back when the arrangement is nothing but interpretive, sophisticated, and accessible. YES

http://www.exotica.org.uk/tunes/archive/C64Music/Brennan_Neil/Samurai_Warrior.sid - Subtune 2/3 For the record, this game is called Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo, not just Usagi Yojimbo. Well, checking out this SID, the arrangement certainly has a LOT of creative freedom in terms of where to go, since this source is only 10-seconds long. Man, this is expanded upon nicely. With something so minimal to arrange, this somewhat liberal approach building off of the original's melody works so well. Too bad these beats and lil' bells and whistles repeat ad nauseum. "You can fly-y-y-y!" Can I? CAN I???!!! Choir sampling from 1:46-2:07 sounded really cheap, before going right back into the same groove as before. Ah man, lame. This could have gone in some other direction to keep the arrangement ideas fresh, either by writing more rearrangement or changing up some of the instrumentation. Then there's no meaningful ending either? Damn. Scrap the cruddy sampled choir and introduce more variation and dynamics into the piece and you have an easy winner. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/sectionz.zip - Track 25 Yeah, some pretty fake guitar opening things up here. Voice stuff coming in at :13 sounds so lo-fi and loops for way way way too long. Everything already sounds really lossy. Nonetheless, some decent concept for your intro based off the intro of the source tune. Source melody finally comes in at :54 working in tandem with the lil' fluttery counterpoint or whatever you'd call that second part of the source. Synth design is way too plain. Beatwork is coo in principle, but needs more power, plus it's repetitive/recycled like a motherfucker. Overall, there really aren't too many things going on at once to create a genuinely complex piece of music. As such the piece feels really underwhelming, like there's a lot of untapped potential in both the sound choices, and especially the arrangement, which didn't really develop much over the course of the 3 minutes. Cool ideas so far, but they could really be taken to another level IMO, Jesse. I'll be keeping this, as I like what you had in place so far. Perhaps keep working on it. NO

Not softer. Simply more balanced. Right now, it's too difficult to distinguish among the sounds during the loud portions of the track, with the drums in particular crowding out the rest of the instruments while sounding loud and indistinct themselves. That's pretty much my call on it.

Turrican Original Video Game Soundtrack - 06 "The Great Bath" I can see TO's not familiar with the original, cuz what's listed in that Mirsoft archive definitely isn't it. I can see why he didn't make the connection though. For some reason, UnExotica's .LHA archive doesn't have "The Great Bath" in it either. This is a pretty popular source tune though in the Amiga arrangement scene. Pretty conservative take on the source, with the most noticeable interpretation being the drums, and everything pretty much being left intact with this overly simplistic and muddy atmosphere. Once stuff wasn't played by glassier leads and shifted to the synthier lead at 1:11, this sounded way way worse. There's no sense of judiciousness in terms of crafting the soundscape here. I think the piano and drums barely have any delay on them, making the muddier stuff on top seem really out of place. Murky. Muddy. Messy. NO

Loudness isn't necessarily a bad thing. Roe's naturally leaning towards a louder sound. He's done this mix in a way that it's loud, while still being technically efficient. As long as it doesn't clip and fits the genre, I don't see how you can reject it based on that. I don't think it fits this genre at all. I think a somewhat less compressed sound would sound powerful without making the loudest sections sound imbalanced and indistinct.

Metal Slug 2 Original Soundtracks - (04) "Judgement" Played this back on VGF83, so I've had a chance to hear this before. What a crappy source tune though. Those voices bug the crap out of me, and it's such a lame track in the first place. It does spell "Judgement" with an E though, so props for that. GODDAMN son, this is way too loud. Bah, it's a Roetaka piece, so it's always gonna be needlessly loud, I dunno why. Guitar at :39 went for the source chorus and sounded absolutely buried under the drums. HAHAHAHA! Comparing this to SSH is way out there, I'm sorry. Not that I'm looking for SSH-quality sequencing, as I don't mean to diss Alex, but this isn't as sophisticated and, when used without doubling, doesn't sound very good. I thought the guitar tone in places was awfully flat (e.g. :39-58). Doubling them at :59 helped alleviate some of the issues I had there. Whenever the drums are in play though, like with :59-1:12, they're just dominating over the top of the guitars and bassline and making the soundfield sound like a cluttered mess. 1:39-1:52 is just so loud and poorly balanced, I can't imagine why anyone would think it sounds ok with this ridiculous amount of sizzle. The bass sequencing done at 1:59 is alright, but isn't ridiculously strong. 2:12, again with these loud, washed out drums. Jesus, the cymbals were sizzling so loud there. I can't believe no one else is complaining about this stuff. Tons more clutter and sheer volume from 2:39-3:08 leading toward the end. Like everyone else, I feel like the overall texture and sound selection was better than most of Alex's previous pieces. But the production is still holding this back substantially. It's just way too loud, abrasive and overcompressed. Personally, I didn't feel the arrangement was strong enough or cohesive enough to make up for this kind of overly swamped, cluttered sound. I don't see why such a problematic production approach that has hurt other subs in the past seems hunky-dory in this instance when it's causing the same old problems. Even though the track's probably not clipping, that's clearly not the problem here. NO (resubmit)

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=dkq - "In a Snow-Bound Land" (dkq-25.spc) I'll admit, I thought the source sounded cool for the first few seconds, then it just hit a spot where the rest was no good. Disappointing original. Melody's completely unmemorable, so I had to let it marinate for a while. What a strange intro. I liked the string lead at :07, but the rest of the instrumentation didn't seem to really gel. You had some straight up MIDI-grade keyboard crud interspersed in their for a TERRIBLE sound quality disparity. The tone of the drums just don't fit at all, and their pattern is way too basic and repetitive. Then all of a sudden at :47 you have these gross, ultra-fake MIDIish string runs where the notes are playing too fast. Vox used briefly in the background was too subtle to play any meaning part and fill out the soundfield. Soundscape was very cluttered and imbalanced the whole way through, plus there was a distinct lack of dynamics. Too bad, because the overall energy was admirable. At 2:44 when you started another loop of the arrangement, I was like "BAH, not again", until I realized you were going for the (weak) fadeout close. Poor textures and sound balance the whole way through, plus undeveloped arrangement ideas and cruise control dynamics means NO. Definitely keep at it though, like zircon mentioned, as I'll be holding onto this piece. You show promise behind the surface, so hang around the ReMixing & Works: OCR forums to learn more about whatever programs and samples you're using and follow that up by getting feedback from the community on your next piece of music.

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 68 "Gerudo Valley" Damn, that intro was hot. Why did it have to go downhill from there? Agreed with DarkeSword that the contrabass sounds really SOOOOO mechanical. Belltones later on helped, but the track was so robotically sequenced and barren. You went from hot to not in about 37 seconds with this one. It's like reading an issue of Teen People. Finally faded some supporting strings in at 1:47, but this bass sucks, I'm sorry. Even if it sounded perfect, I don't see how one instrument would be able to fill out the soundfield well enough. You need to bring in the various other instruments/elements way sooner, especially because those ideas showed a lot of promise. The vox-focused section from 2:45-3:43 was a very nice concept, but could still use something to fill it out a bit more. Plus everything there sounded pretty lo-fi. Transition to some electronic stuff which started picking up at 3:59 and gradually built up. Didn't quite seem like things were even matching up with the beats up from 4:07-4:37, and the soundfield got flooded as you threw more and more stuff in. Pretty sloppy execution of a potentially good idea. Some thin (I guess) Middle Eastern-type lead at 4:37 came in, before gradually being swamped by more and more stuff at 4:52. Beats are off again, and everything's just too cramped and busy. Hahaha. Some SID-level synths at 5:38 for that "low-quality" retro flava. Man, this entire arrangement got so disjointed. I'm not even gonna attempt to say how it needs to be improved other than be more judicious with everything and learn to focus. Man, that intro was hot... NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman6.zip - Track 14 ("Opening Demo") & Track 26 ("Title") Admirable going for a more tense feel for the intro. That's about where the positives end. :12-:47 felt like a conservative playthrough of the "Opening Demo" with weak sounds. Segued into some very basic, repetitive claps before recycling the idea over again with some slightly different sounds with cruddy effects on them. 1:36 brings in the title and repeats the same flimsy, conservative formula. At least it ended the way it started to come "full circle." The construction is way too simple, the interpretation way too limited. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=loz3 - "Hyrule Castle" (loz3-14.spc) I crib from zircon's notes because he's correct. And really, if you're going to start off with direct sampling the original track, at least make it transition more seamlessly. Not bad for a beginner effort, but zircon explained why this has all sorts of fundamental problems. Did any of the various beat patterns ever really integrate with the rest of the instrumentation. The answer... NO

http://www.exotica.org.uk/tunes/archive/C64Music/Lowe_Dave/Garfields_Winter_Tail.sid - Subtune 1/1 Just a sound upgrade for the most part. Needs actual interpretation to have a chance. Don't send the original song verbatim with beefier sounds and some basic effects. Try more interpretive stuff like 1:09-1:49/end and run with that more. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda2.zip - Tracks 1, 2 & 8 Though the samples didn't sound ultra-realisitic here, I thought thinks were working well, and wasn't sure where the criticisms were coming from. Everything seemed to start off pretty damn hot honestly. I liked the arrangement here, which was at least well-orchestrated in spite of the flaws. 3:29 had a somewhat sudden change in tone that I didn't think quite worked. Needs to have more of a thought out transition, though it gets somewhat less jarring on subsequent listens. Just as I said that, you switched the theme even more drastically at 3:58, I think even changing the time signature. Just too awkward. Personally, I didn't mind the instrumentation methods here. I felt it was Ryan's place here if he really wanted to focus on the strings. But at the same time, if you're going to have other stuff come in on support such as the piano at 2:15, then give it a more prominent place within your background or forget it entirely. Nonetheless, it wasn't as big of a hit or faux pas with me. I'm much more positive on the concept and execution of the piece than the others are. Frankly, I think some people would think we were crazy for turning this down as is, and to a certain extent I agree. While I could have stood for more interpretation rather than expansion, there were some nice interpretive elements occasionally in there, and I didn't think the source arrangement dragged at all despite being somewhat repetitive. This is totally fine by me. I'd hate to seem like I have a mediocre orchestral standard, but I really can't see what's so lacking here. Maybe some unorthodox sound balance choices, but that's not really a problem for me. YES

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=tit - "Star Base ~ Where No Turtle Has Gone Before" (tit-17.spc) Yeah, sorry to basically cut and run, but this needs a groove behind it to anchor the track, otherwise it just continues to feel very empty. Plus IMO the track isn't nearly powerful enough given the style you seem to be going for. Not just with the quiet volume, but with the way all of the percussion/beats are so subdued. The arrangement has some personalization, but again still feels like a weaker-energy version of the original. Arrangement could pass at only 2:34-long, but you'd need more interpretation than this IMO. If you get a good groove behind the track and arrange that portion as well with the source material in mind, this could stand a decent chance as a conservative but heavily personalized/stylized approach. Otherwise, move onto new works, but either way I look forward to hearing what you've got next. NO (resubmit)

The 7th Guest Soundtrack - 03 "Dolls of Doom" I have to say, "The American Album" is one of the best things to come out of the community in 2005. I loved several of the tracks on there, and this one was no exception especially on the arrangement level. Played this back on VGF72 as part of a 5-episode run where I gradually covered the entire album. Chris listed "Microscope", "Cake Music", "Dolls of Doom" and "Coffin Dance" as the source tunes, although the official soundtrack only lists "Dolls of Doom" on there. Luckily though, there's more than enough arrangement taken from just that one theme to qualify everything else here. Just loved the sound choices, loved the various voice samples, loved the time signature. I could loop this tons of times. Actually, I can and I have. The guy's a master at his craft. "COME BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK" with another submission from the album anytime, and thanks for the service you've done for the people out there with this top-flight work. YES

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ed2 - "Battle #1" (ed2-108.spc) Rather sad when even I can identify clipping. Soft clipping, I'll never be able to call out, but this kind of stuff, yeesh. You're clippin' 'n cruddin' right out of the gate. No sense of judiciousness in the sound until :25, but that was a welcome change of pace once things at least simmered down a bit. Of course, clip-clip-clip came back later, so it wasn't a total win. Arrangement was pretty conservative until we got the guitar wank at 1:08. Tone could have been meatier, and the performance more polished, but it's not bad. The main thing though is that the arrangement otherwise isn't very interpretive/creative. You did have some good supplementary ideas like the synths coming in at 1:53 to add some other dimension there, but they were pretty buried in the song and thereby didn't do much to enhance it or stand out. Glad we had some new ideas at 2:15 as the drum pattern up until then was dragging out for too long. It wasn't very creative in the first place. Damn, came back at 2:38. Play around more with the instrumentation and arrangement ideas you had from 2:15-2:38 to break up the monotony for longer. Decent stuff on the rock cover route, but it needs more creativity beyond the additions you've made. If you're sticking with the verbatim structure and tempo, you really have to do something more with the supporting instrumentation, mainly the drums, to creatively compensate for that. Also tone the levels down and balance out the sound more. Go for some additional interpretation beyond those other criticisms and you'd be in much better shape. I look forward to hearing your future work. NO

http://www.zophar.net/vgm/phanstar.zip - "Village" Yeah, the drum patterns were energetic enough IMO, right up until you slowed things down at :45. Then all of sudden, they were really basic and plodding, with the guitar not doing much to compensate for a very empty, sterile track. Not sure what the point was at 2:17-2:42; not particularly musical, and I agree with zircon, directionless. 2:53 until the fadeout ending offered a very barren, mechanical drumloop finish. The piece could use more direction sure, but more complexity for the plainer drumkit stuff and creativity during some of the staler parts would help. Decent arrangement ideas here, especially of a mere 19-second-long original, but the execution is too spotty. Some good ideas, but mostly underdeveloped. NO

I concur. Dis iz much ripz.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ewj - "Buttville ~ The Descent" (ewj-07.spc) No interpretation, this is structured too similarly to the original only with very plain, thin electrosynths and plain, boring beats. The only new thing seems to be these almost piano-style rhythms on top. Overall though, just no meat on the sounds beyond some basic effects, and no production refinement or balance. Arrangement just drags on after a while; whereas the original went for 2 iterations, this goes for 4. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=kdl3 - "Ripple Field 1" (kdl3-12.spc) Kirby 3, I had to assume Kirby's Dream Land 3 no thanks to this sub letter. Nice original. Hahaha! "Hi!" sound effect was overused a little bit for the intro, but was actually a nice touch. Reused again at 2:31, nice! Yeah, I like the groove here, but the instrumentation is thin and generic; creating a very swampy soundfield via effects helped fill it out, but other than that, there wasn't much going on. Arrangement started getting out there at 2:37 as you seemed to building some decent guitar over your base only to bust out in a terrible, off-key, non sequitur piano solo. Nonetheless, you brought it back to coherence at 3:08 once you had the source tune notes to refer too. Decent variation of your sounds in the last section here to at least have a slightly different feel than when you started. Pretty much listen to zircon with these basic but informative and critical tips he has, take advantage of the of the ReMixing and Works: OCR forums, and continue to improve. Nice effort for a first submission. You show promise provided you keep at it. NO

http://www.exotica.org.uk/tunes/archive/C64Music/Hubbard_Rob/Sanxion.sid- Subtune 1 ("Thalamusik") Yeah, read the submissions guidelines more. This is nothing but the original with slightly meatier synths and some flimsy, simplistic, boring, repetitive beats. The arrangement doesn't do much to interpret the original, and that's not what we're about. R:K:O is a better home for these ultra-conservative takes. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=sd2 - "Angel's Fear" (sd2-01.spc) Yeah right off the bat, this is very vanilla/generic in terms of the sound choices. Production left this sounding too thin. Something in the club would probably have more delay to thicken it out and go for the club-friendly-atmosphere. Source melody at :58 felt so pasted on top of these trance beats, like it was almost an afterthought, though I do hear the trance groove following the progression. Nonetheless, the plucked string synths don't really integrate with the trance material well. Rather odd changeup in the style at 1:51, but I'm willing to roll with it. Pretty ballsy actually, and you actually had a transition for it, so I'm down. Picked up with some trancy saw-type synths at 2:15 which were too loud and needed to be pulled back a little bit, though I actually liked the idea there. Back to the bread & butter trance at 2:44, which had some decent genre adaptation ideas, but the melody didn't stand out at all, so it just seemed like nothing interesting was happening all the way until 3:34. Ewww. Terrible synth choice fading up from 3:36 that didn't even seem to gel with the groove since it wasn't accomodating the melody. More trancey goodness at 4:02. I'm looking for some better sound balance here. Everything's too loud and the melody gets buried amidst all of these very abrasive electrosynths. You gotta watch the sound balance. Meahwhile the beats are dragging out too long. You could cut some serious fat out of this one and it wouldn't undercut the message here. Pretty good stuff in place overall, it just needs some refinement with the sound balance, and like zircon mentioned, some additional work with some of the synths to get them away from that overly generic level. Do those things and cut out some of the fat, and this would be much more polished and streamlined. NO

Deus Ex Game of the Year Edition OSV - (04) "UNATCO" I'm a big fan of "UNATCO" as well, though I've very biased towards "DuClare Chateau" thanks to OverCoat's arrangement of it. Ha. Goes for a creepier vibe here with some warbly type synths. I liked the lil synths skipping around the stereo field during the intro. Arrangement was conservative but ok. The boom-tss here really wasn't filling the soundfield out and sounded like a weak dance beat. After about the 1-minute mark all of the various parts you have going on around here seemed to basically be at the same level, making it hard to focus on any one particular element. Beeping dropped out at 1:55 only to be replaced by some more tame beats. What the hell was going on at 2:41? Doesn't even sound musical, sorry. Yeah, Vig's right, over time, you're not changing the groove here, just swapping some of the supporting parts while playing the delayed source and recycling this groove. I like the potential here, but you've got to further develop it. It also pays to place a little more emphasis on the melodic arrangement and not bury among this soup of synths. NO