Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Metal Gear Solid Original Game Soundtrack - (01) "Metal Gear Solid Main Theme" Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty Original Soundtrack - (01) "'Metal Gear Solid' Main Theme" Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater Original Soundtrack - (01) "'METAL GEAR SOLID' Main Theme (METAL GEAR SOLID 3 version)" Well, I was gonna NO it just to counter your YES, but then you actually predicted my vote, so I pull da reverse pyschology now. I go YEZ. I don't not have to explain myself. [sic]

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 901 "The Landing (Alternate)" Thanks to TO for hooking me up with the right source track, since I'm pretty unfamiliar with the soundtrack. I don' pl4y dese geek gamez 'n stuffz. Yeah, these samples are used decently, but they still sound pretty weak; you need to be really skilled at production to make those really work for you. The track did seem to hit one speed and never really change up much, but there were a few changeups in the instrumentation to at least provide some dynamic contrast. Work on providing some more of that to keep things fresh. The bass synth opening things up was really mechanically sequenced, as well as the guitar synth. Drum pattern were too basic and mechanically sequenced as well, and the piano coming in at :33 sounded extremely synthetic, thin, and rigidly performed with the notes having too similar velocities. Besides the piano, there's actually some effort put into having the sounds work well together. Decent stuttering effects in use at 1:43. Nice idea for that pad-like sound brought into the background at 1:31 to subtlely help fill things out; just be sure to vary up that effect so it doesn't get stale later on. Decent stuff for a beginner, but you've gotta learn how to use your software more powerfully. The sequencing is too rigid to make the performance on any of the instruments sound flowing and human, and learning more about production will help you flesh out the track better. Hang around the ReMixing forum more and check out the FL101 help thread. Keep at it. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 102 "Opening ~ Bombing Mission" Odd sounds coming in at :08; can't even tell what they were. The instruments didn't really combine very well, leaving this rather cacophonous at times. After :48, I agreed with the reverb issues; everything's way to flooded; you need to get things sounding much more balanced. Most times, there doesn't sound like there's any melody in the foreground. All of the your supporting instrumentation is upfront, and makes the track sound meandering and directionless. Is that supposed to be a brass synth at 1:24, I just can't tell because it doesn't sound very good. Anyway, the rest of the track basically has the same problems the whole way through. Couple of sour samples in there, sure, but the main thing that throws this mix off is the poor sound balance. The various parts don't sound like they're working together; you need to rethink what goes where and produce the track accordingly. There's at least a decent base here underneath the muck. NO

Tomb Raider - "Main Theme" Oh plz. I don't need to play a game with a big-boobed chick. I DO NOT KNOW THE THEME!!! I checked it out though. Pretty cool stuff; definitely glad I had to listen to it, so thanks for providing the source. Interesting intro for the arrangement. The instrumentation isn't too bad, but the harp on support is louder than the woodwind lead. Actually, everything seems to be a lot louder than the woodwind lead. Then it just swtiches to a lone string at 1:11 that sounds too synthetic and barren. It really should be more resonant to fill up the space a bit more. The bow movements at 1:43 sounded very off. Anyway, moving on without going into play-by-play, I agree with TO that the arrangement feels a bit disjointed; not terrible, but some of the transitions were jarring. The instrumentation is too synthetic-sounding and needs more work put into making the performance dynamics more realistic. For a small orchestra, the whole thing still sounds very sparse and vacant, so you do need to flesh it out more, either with more parts or denser sounds for your existing samples. And, like TO implied, it doesn't mean flooding it with reverb, but you should selectively use some. This is a decent base, but needs a lot of TLC (and further experience) to get it sounding its best. Keep working on it. Looking forward to hearing a revision of this, or other future submissions. Stick around and read up on how to improve at the ReMixing forum, then post your work form people to comment on at the Works forum. NO

Metal Gear Solid Original Game Soundtrack - (03) "Discovery" Yeah, so TO was mentioning how he wasn't feeling the connections to the source tune in the arrangement, and after more consideration, I'm agreeing with him. The source tune is pretty minimal, but there's more substance to it than what's being arranged here.The strings at 1:11 are a really liberal take on the strings from :55 of the original, only Heath's had a progression, rather than basically playing the same note over and over again. That's a connection that I heard, but that is in fact too liberal to be of much consequence in the big picture. At 2:47, you do some straightforward trance-style adaptation of the source melody, but it only lasts until 4:10 and it's not particularly interpretive. 4:10-5:31 just plays off the string similarity again, and the overall approach just doesn't take the content of the original and work with it enough. You've got the production down, but the arrangement substance is ultimately lacking when I take another look. Develop the arrangement of the source material further so it doesn't feel like an afterthought in this piece. NO (rework/resubmit) ------------------------------------------------- EDIT (7/15): Aight, so seeing Dhsu point out the interval similarity with the string work from "Discovery", as well as how central the arranged strings of Heath's are to the foundation of the track, I'm willing to go back to YES on it and admit I was wrong on how substantive that connection was. Thanks to David for the heads-up, as Heath's strings weren't new writing liberally based off of one note, but rather an arrangement playing off of a two-note interval. Also, the progression of the writing first used from :30-:37, while not something that was really arranging Discovery directly, worked specifically with the strings coming in at 1:11. I think that confirms what Heath was saying in his complaint post: "With this song, one of the only reasonable things to do in a trance format is to reinterpret the chords into a sublead and play around with some little melodies using those chords while you build towards a breakdown where you introduce the main melody." Somewhat contrary to how Vigilante and DarkeSword asessed the track, that's indeed what Heath was doing here, so I defer back to my prior judgment. I think they should reevaluate the track, but at the same time I can see where they're currently coming from. That's the nature of a debatable mix. I think the whole business of saying "trance is unacceptable at OCR", "remove it from the list of acceptable genres" is stupid and too far-reaching when the point with the judges going NO was that they weren't hearing all of the connections to the source tune overtly (which is what ambient basically mentioned as the real problem in his own comments on the situation; props, Alex, for not handling it like a baby like NeoS or realpolitik). This case had nothing to do with whatever genre the track was, and it's foolish to attribute a NO decision here to genre bias. In this case the source material was minimal, but I better understand how Heath was meaningfully integrating the two primary elements of the source enough to carry the arrangement portion of the track. It may still feel too liberal for some of the other Js, and I don't disagree with how The Orichalcon presented his case, but I feel Heath handled the dicey question of arrangement fine. When you're working with something minimal, it's important to have the source material tangibly involved throughout the majority of the track, and I can't deny that's the case now. I certainly didn't mind revisiting this to fix my vote.

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ed2 - "Battle #2" (ed2-113.spc) Love the source tune; it's been a favorite of mine. The strings opening things up sound too thin and synthetic; harmonizing them at :23 helped mask those issues. Same problem with the piano at :12, which is coincidentally reffering to the :27 section of the original. Guitar wanks in at :32 but sounds too lo-fi. Until :57, the background elements were way too quiet compared to the guitar; fix the sound balance, please. :56 launches into the familiar source melody. The drums lack power and the patterns are really boring. Hate the rapid-fire drum pattern at 1:18, as it's meant to drive the track along but just sounds like a car is running/knocking in the background. More of the same problems the whole way through past 1:40 with thin, overly synthetic samples, poor sound balance and drums that don't gel with the rest of the instrumentation. Decent arrangement potential hampered by this subpar execution. Listen to zircon; he's giving a lot of good criticism that you can practically apply to this track as well as future works. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=sm - "Theme of Super Metroid" (sm-16.spc) "Brinstar Philharmonic Orchestra", what a pretentious name. Not to simply insult anyone, but if you're gonna name yourself that, your stuff better sound GOOOOOD. The drums alone in this one are ridiculously fake. Every drumbeat comes in at the same intensity. The samples here are all high-pitched and overly synthetic. The arrangement is hardly interpretive enough to be interesting. Hell, look at the mix title. This basically keeps the structure of the original, as stated in the submission letter, albeit more filled out. Rehash of :08's section at 1:25. Man, you're repeating the first section wholesale. You're maybe the 4th newbie person tonight I've voted on that simply took the first section of their arrangement, which was about 1 minute long, and simply looped it rather than make anything different for the second go-around. Finally at 2:37, you go for another iteration of the source, only an ultra-fake and shrill woodwind synth is thrown in there (and buried in the background). You can understand when I tell you that that's not enough to be a meaningful difference. Decent stuff for a beginner, so stick around here and make use of the ReMixing forum to learn more about what you can do with FL Studio and post any future mixes in the Works forum to get feedback on them before you submit again. NO

http://project2612.org/download.php?id=61 - "Lava Reef Zone 2" Opens up with some pads before bringing in the source tune at :21. Beats brought in at :40 are thick, but are too loud IMO. Electrosynth comes in at 1:19 with some verbatim treatment of the source melody, before switching off to a VERY mechanical piano synth lasting until 2:16. Malcos is right that the piano sample sounds really dry and messes up the feel; beyond that, you have to adjust the timing and velocities so that it doesn't sound like a robot is playing. Same at 2:55. The drum kicks and hats are loud enough that they take the focus off of the piano and electrosynths involved, so you need to pull the beats back and let the real foreground material take center stage. Besides, after a while the beat patterns become repetitive and boring; you need to play around with the patterns more and change them up so they don't get stale. The ending section at 3:52 is rather uninspired as well and doesn't resolve the track nicely. Make sure the melodic material is in the foreground, change up the beat patterns, get the piano performance sounding more humanized, and put more work into developing the melodic interpretation. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gsf/awars.rar - ? Checked the GBA version, since I've got nothing to get a source from for the DS version. Looks like nothing matches up (though I didn't look very closely anyway). Soundfield sounds really loud and swamped. The melody at :17 barely sounds out versus all of the other stuff; the sound balance here is awful. Rinse and repeat the stuff from :02 at 1:06 until the end/2:16. Two loops? Next. 2:16-long does not cut it. Merely looping the first section because you're lazy doesn't cut it. Please listen to the recently posted stuff here and get a better a idea about how the arrangements typically develop and evolve over time so you can apply those concepts to your own material in the future. NO

http://project2612.org/download.php?id=36 - "Green Hill Zone" The beats here don't gel at all with the piano performance here. Switches over at :45 to some generic-sounding electronica stuff. 1:14's more of the same. The attempt at arrangement is observable, as you change up the rhythms of the original, but I felt the arrangement still wasn't particularly interesting or interpretive in the big picture. Besides changing the rhythms, the structure is essentially intact only the genre is different. The synth design is generic which holds this back. The beats are too basic and merely keep time, and the main synths here have no meat on them and don't fill out the space enough. You need some creative processing on these to create a denser and more unique overall sound. Whether it's FL Studio or whatever, scout out the ReMixing forum to learn how to fashion more creative sounds and effects with the software you're using. NO

http://project2612.org/download.php?id=61 - "Icecap Zone 1" First :40 seconds has nothing much to do with the IceCap Zone, though I see how the synth brough in at :14 is taken from it. Connection's more overt at :41. I can see why you were told to turn this down as it's TOO LOUD. Melody plays on some bell-like synths at :51 without any countermelodic support of any type to help fill out the track. The synth design on this is pretty basic/out-of-the-box, and the drumloops in there are disappointing. Track gradually gets busier around the 2 minute mark, but things sounded cluttered until around 2:30. Arrangement drags and drags over the 3+ minutes; tempo and overall feel never changes, parts are cycled in and out seemingly at random to create a semblance of development and evolution. Tacky key change at 2:58. What's the point of doing that when the track's 90% over? NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/superm~1.zip - Track 4 ("Underground BGM") Some tepid riffs opened things up. Drum patterns sound entirely too placeholder-ish and boring. The drums definitely don't drive the song along at all. Two guitars, bass, and drums should be enough to fill out a track, but this one's pretty empty. Source melody finally comes in at :32 and goes for a short shot before repeating at :48, and again at 1:04, the next couple of times with minor embellishments. The whole thing is markedly plodding and uninteresting so far. For such a short song, you need to develop things a lot faster. 1:36 goes off on some original riffing with the rhythm section liberally playing the source. For 2:28-long, this sure felt like it was a lot longer but nonetheless still had very little to say. There's no hook here and the arrangement is boring. Wish I could be more enthusiastic about it. NO

Uh...yeah. That certainly sounds like an obscure game I'm not gonna be able to find. Without listening to it, I can already tell you that a 1:54-long arrangement is almost assuredly too short and underdeveloped as a concept to have any chance of passing. Piano used here is VERY mechanically sequenced and sounds really lo-fi compared to the other sounds. Drums and beats are really rigidly sequenced as well. Lead synth on melody at :33 is really generic and doesn't cut through the drums like it should. The combination of sounds here doesn't manage to fill out the soundfield well. You might wanna harmonize some more stuff with the melody and beef up that bassline to give the track some more meat. Really, really beginner-ish stuff in terms of how it's put together. The timing sounds robotic and devoid of feeling, the instruments don't fill out the soundfield and the arrangement is repetitive and undeveloped. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=smw - "Koopa Junior BGM" (smw-20.spc) Who cares what I think about it? Oh, wait... Too underdeveloped. Yeesh that first synth at :02 hurts me with its defautly-ness. Seems like you're going for the "nigga crazy" approach, where you have to be an idiot savant to get this. Kinda like Shna's stuff, only this doesn't have much sophistication, especially in the supporting instrumentation. Sounds like an adapted MIDI rip to me most of the way. Texture was always pretty thin and things felt pretty sparse, but there were some shining moments in there. 1:06-1:14 had some Shna-ish moments in there where you had some decent textures going with these low-quality samples. Same with 1:28-1:58. If you learn how to fill out the soundfield, get more creative with your synth design and provide more direction and flow to the arrangement, you'd be in better shape. Right now, this mostly sounds like an undeveloped, incohesive mess. [reads submission letter in full] Oh, it's for OverLooked? Well, good job then. NO

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ff4 - "Main Theme" (ff4-07.spc) Jesus n' shit, tone down those goddamn drums. Snappin' all up in a nigga's face! Anyway, lead sounds pretty pimped out, good bassline stuffs as well for that funk 'n pr0n style. 1:16 iterates the theme but didn't really change the delivery or arrangement for the second go-around, which was disappointing. So you basically looped it. Bleh. 2:21 goes for the light ending, which was a decent idea. Decent stuff with a good framework in place, though the soundfield felt a bit empty overall (sans drums). Just needs a bit more filling out. Aside from that, you gotta actually develop the arrangement the whole way through, not lazily loop the first minute's worth of material. Think of more ways to interpret the source tune and work it into the picture. You could easily get over 4 minutes worth of ideas from this. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda.zip - Track 1 Merely 1:51-long? This better be the most interpretive, unique, creative arrangement ever. Only it's not. It's Zelda...orchestrated. Actually, the energy is pretty good, and you've expanded the theme nicely in terms of adding a lot of new supporting instrumentation. Some gimmer of hope with some slightly interpretive stuff from 1:14-1:22 instead of just expanding the parts, but that part didn't develop into anything more than a brief transition. Ending was all sorts of anti-climactic, abrupt and lazy. You clearly show skill and promise that isn't being fully realized. 1. Give your arrangement a legitimately creative, unique title. 2. Give your arrangement a legitimately creative, interpretive arrangement approach. 3. Give your arrangement a legitimately creative, developed >3 minutes, rather than an undeveloped <2 minutes. Stir, encode, submit. Once you do those things, you'll be in better shape and possess something of more substance. Looking forward to hearing more from you. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 110 "Fighting" Decent stuff, just needlessly loud and underdeveloped. Too much grungy mud in the midrange. Don't really have any comments on the production other to stop trying to break my ears. 1:40-long? Cool approach, but it ended before it started and didn't bother touching most of the theme. Make it 3 times as long and develop the arrangement further. How about a remix title that isn't cornball and indicative of the n00b as well? NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/punchout.zip - Tracks 23 & 22 ROOOOOFL at these crappy beats up to :39. Put some effort into them, even if you're going for some contrast with the rock. It IS filling up 1/3rd of the track. Percussion patterns after that were nice and beefy, but somewhat boring. Production doesn't have to sound pristine and antiseptic and all that, but it sounds a bit rough. Those obviously minor issues all mean more when you have such a short track. Cool cover, but no meaningful interpretation to speak of besides adapting the tune to the genre. 2:19-long? Didn't even develop the theme into anything, and when it ends, it's simply because y'all stopped playing, not because you wrote a meaningful ending. Rock covers are cool, especially if you don't want the theme interpreted (OMG liek dont tuch it!), but you gotta go beyond that if you wanna throw it up onto here. The mix title doesn't even have a creative name. Interpret the material more and add some original ideas here to personalize your approach further. NO

http://project2612.org/download.php?id=37 - 12 "Metropolis Zone" Guitar performance is REALLY rough and sounds off the entire way. Percussion patterns are boring as hell, and the various Sonic SFX taken from the game sound tacky. Sound balance and production are really unpolished. Repeating the same arrangement ideas at 1:25 and simply fading out for the finish. You could have taken the arrangement in a new direction. 2:05-long? People need to learn this short undeveloped stuff doesn't cut it. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/guardian.zip - Track 21 (also 22) Very muddy and lossy atmosphere, everything sounds too wet. There's some light warbling in there and there ain't much treble going on. Doesn't even sound like it's in stereo, but it doesn't particularly matter. For a 192kbps encoding, this sounds more like 80kbps. Arrangement evolves a bit, but the texture is very simplistic. Decent effort at personalizing the arrangement, but it's really repetitive and boring. You change the feel and tempo around a bit during the two minutes, and have some original writing via the vox and strings supporting the piano melody, which is good. But you're arranging the same few bars of the source tune over and over again. There's more to that song than that, so incorporate some of it into the mix. 2 minutes will almost never cut it here anymore. Develop the ideas further, and learn more about production techniques via the ReMixing forum. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/madcity.zip - Track 2 Too fucking loud. Too. Fucking. Loud. Moving on, this is a nice lil' dance conversion. Care to reign in this volume and substantially interpret the source material? It's somewhat personalized, but still not much more than a glorified MIDI rip with beefy sounds. Read the submissions guidelines next time. Connservative and under 2 minutes will almost never cut it. Would have kept this if it didn't break my ears. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozmmusf.rar - 111 "Milk Bar" "You can tell this is gonna be a good song." Rightz. Decent stuff, just doesn't fill out the soundfield enough, the synth design is weak, and the drumloops are even weaker. The original's arguably more catchy, and the arrangement isn't particularly creative. Needs more everything. Everything needs more. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Dark Mountain" (loz3-13.spc) Grove bias. Very bleh synth design, very stock, uncreative beats with plain-jane patterns and a lack of interesting processing. The arrangement does try to do something interpretive in terms of the overall feel, but you're basically just following the structure of the original with a poor dance/trance genre conversion. Some interesting stuff at least at 2:26-2:40 for that break section. Last part at 3:20 for the finish is a lame, barren way to close out the track. And don't throw in a tacky cymbal shot at the end. It's like branding yourself right on the ass like a cow and screaming out "I am new! Please don't hurt!" Keep at it, and read up on the ReMixing forum to learn how to use your existing software more effectively, then post the material to the Works forum to have the punwashed masses gauge your results. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 1 http://www.noderunner.net/~llin/psf/packs/FFX-2_psf2.rar - 101 "Eternity ~Memory of Lightwaves~" Uh, this sounds nice and all, but isn't very heavily interpretive, and isn't expansive enough to pass on that level. You just faded out the Prelude at 1:26 then faded in Eternity at 1:30? C'mon, write a transition or something. You didn't even develop or interpret the Prelude theme before moving on. Eternity is a least a bit different in terms of the instrumentation style, but the composition is basically the same. If you don't mean to interpret the material greatly, it has to be very creatively expanded, which this isn't. The song just cut out abruptly at 3:56, which may have just been a foul-up with my download, but nonetheless, I've really heard all there is to hear. Most of the arrangement deals with Eternity. Why even bother tacking on the Prelude like that for barely a minute? Not gonna say much else. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff4.rsn - "The Lunarians" (ff4-41.spc) Some wind SFX to kick it off, followed by piano with residual effects at :10. Piano's pretty similar to the style of the original. Melody kicked in at :29, following the original in a fairly straightforward manner. Melody and countermelody are used verbatim, so I'm hoping to hear something more interpretive develop. Some harp in there at :59, though the ambiance until 1:34 sounds extremely lo-fi and panned too hard to the left. Some major jumpiness done with the volume (forgot what you call that) starting at 1:42. I see what you were going for, but felt the effect was used a bit too extremely. Last section at 2:53 goes minimalist with the piano & wind. Overall, the source really isn't being interpreted much, as you said in your submission letter. It's just the original with better samples and wind ambiance underneath. IMO, it's not even much of an enhancement. It takes a lot more expansion than that for this site. Make something more unique and don't follow the structure and tempo of the original so rigidly. Not gonna NO Override, because you tried to do your thing with it, but it's nowhere near the interpretation that's generally accepted. I'd be interested in hearing your future work though. NO