Liontamer

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Shadow" (ff6-111.spc) Decent instrumentation concept, though the atmosphere was very muddy right off the bat and the samples were thin in texture (despite the effects in play) and very artificial-sounding, oftentimes exposed and GM quality. Track picked up with additional layers of strings at 1:21. The piano run at 1:59 was a good idea, but pretty ugly in the performance. Arrangement was unfortunately really conservative. Some instrumentation variation was there within the track, but didn't prevent the arrangement itself from dragging after essentially treading over the theme verbatim several times. Conceptually, I do like the idea of giving Shadow's Theme more zest, but the end result here is weak. Scout out the ReMixing forums for better samples you can use for free, and study there along with getting feedback from the Works forum to obtain more criticism for future works. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/conqcry.zip - Track 1 Thanks for providing the source information. Indeed, the original here is pretty catchy. Remix here is pretty basic with some generic and thin sounds, and too much volume. No sense of texture to this at all. Arrangement isn't particularly interpretive, most notably possessing some added harmonization and instrumental embellishments. You really need to get a lot more creative with your arrangement here and not just retain the melody and progression of the original wholesale. Nonetheless, you tried to add to things here, so it's not a NO Override, IMO. Keep trying to learn by reading up on the ReMixing forum and posting your material to be commented on in the Works forum. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Sara's Theme" (ct-3-06.spc) I'm not as critical of the approach per se, as it adapts Schala's Theme to trance, as is the purpose, but this still wasn't strong. For the genre, this is a fairly generic adaptation and could use some more unique ideas. Though I don't think it's terrible from a compositional standpoint, it's not distinctive and not very creative with the rearrangement. I liked the change provided by the piano and pads at 1:23 followed by the light synth joining in at 1:35 to change up the atmosphere. The panning choices alone are really confusing and a complete dealbreaker, especially listening on headphones as I do for all of the subs. The panning is just WAY too pronounced. Considering one of the cords of my headphones is on the fritz, I honestly thought my headphones were messing up at first. On top of that, the whole track sounds muddy. Looking forward to your next sub, but sorry bro, this is just not there at all. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/fzero.rsn - "Silence" (fz-05.spc) & "Select Time Theme" (fz-08.spc) Wanna point out that I like the arrangement ideas here. But I'm gonna be pretty quick on this one, as the major issues seem apparent. The percussion is basic and sloppily handled. The timing seems slightly off and it repeats too much, along with the piano on support. If it's gonna be like that, cut down the track length. The sax performance needs to sound a bit richer and stand out in the foreground more; it's being overshadowed by the percussion due to the perc being so loud in comparison. Relatively solid performance from Bev. Sax work from 4:41-4:49 felt really out of place. Fairly good switchup to "Select Time Theme" at 5:03, though 5:17-5:19 sounded a bit off. I'd like to see some suggestions from the Js on how to handle this jazzy percussion, both presentation and variation. Fix that up drastically and improve the sax presentation and I'd pass this. NO (refine/resubmit)

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 209 "Chasing the Black-Caped Man" Well, you said this would be pretty straightforward and you weren't lyin'. Pretty basic/sparse with the instrumentation. Percussion being so dry didn't help. Pretty plodding, monotonous and not significantly rearranged. Way too long without the variation to justify it. Sounds like 2 1/2 loops of an instrument swap with some basic percussion added. The time between this and the PSF only sounds off about 3 seconds. When the track isn't given any effort to substantially differentiating it from the original, you get the boot. NO OVERRIDE

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/guardian.zip - Track 8 Couldn't place the source at first, but I've heard those sections before in zyko's "The Legend of Lightning Larry" (really good) and was able to make the connection. Really glad to hear another mix of this theme, also in a drastically different style. Didn't quite get the Ace of Base vibe here, but I certainly see the influence, though I've only heard "The Sign" by them (the album, not just the single). It comes across to me more as someone else doing a DDR mix of an Ace of Base track. The intro was pretty basic/straightforward in the ideas, and things kicked in more at :29 to pick up the energy. Melody kicked in at :45 with the supporting beats and lead synth forming the original. Good changeup at 1:29 for the nice liberal arrangement stuff until 1:59. I think some more ideas could have been introduced at 2:31, as the arrangement seemed recycled from the beginning; wasn't breaking any new ground at that point, and could have used some extra subtleties to keep shit spicy. Nonetheless, the comprehensiveness of the ideas in the first place gets the job done with no problems, IMO, as there's good variation and development most of the way through. Ironically enough, I really don't think we have anything that sounds like this style on OC yet. My only big issue was with the beatwork being too straightforward, as I felt it hindered the energy level the rest of the instrumentation seemed to be going for, but the percussion patterns are tailor-made for the genre and this was a hot piece. Great stuff, Dain. Keep 'em coming! YES "Anyway anyway you do it wrong..."

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Tracks 17 & 6 ("Metalman Stage") ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFL! In the hallowed and LOAL~ tradition of umarmungfreund and Fanatics Tower of Power, the community crystal ball says BlackPerson will go legit, pump out the good music, and become a staffer of the subsequent incarnation of VGMix. I look forward to when BP has a red star at VGMix3. Definitely a hot joke mix. You should go for cleaner recordings and giving more richness to your vocals and instrumentation, cuz I'm laughing my ass off otherwise. Submit it to OverLooked ReMiX. My lady laughs at SMB3 "Hurricane Katrina" every time she hears it. "We are here to discuss the plight of the refugees in New Orleans..."

The name of the group is "Crazy Crakaz". No shit they sound white. The whole thing is tongue-in-cheek, you idiot.

Check out my Ormgas.com VG Frequency forum to see playlists for every one of the shows. The episodes with complete details at least point out what transpired during the calls from ReMixers and other personalities. I'm sure other people have their highlights, but doing something like that isn't a bad idea. I should do a clip show at some point, but it would take forever and a day. Download RealAlternative from the Edskes mirror instead. That give you all the necessary RealPlayer codecs and the Media Player Classic application with which to listen to that stuff with. Free, and no bloatware included. (Get QuickTime Alternative too.) Thanks for your interest.

Under 6MB file has been swapped into the original sub letter. Someone please verify the new hotness for us.

Does that mean he sounds like Larry? That's a burn If I've ever heard one! I sound brown!

208kbps VBR = BITRATE TOO LARGE! Just hook it up with a new version later and it should be fine. Anyway... http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 12 ("Chaos' Temple") http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF1_psf.rar - 108 "Chaos' Temple" Let's not forget that FF1 actually had that next-gen arranged soundtrack action from which to draw inspiration from. Getting into the track, the percussion was immediately dry and could have sat better in the track, like TO alluded to, but that wasn't a dealbreaking issue. Still one that could stand some substantial improvement in the future, as it limits the effectiveness of the entire package. In particular, nice instrumentation from :33-:44 & :55-1:06 with that e-violin-type deal, and the whistley/sine wave lead was also nice and understated. Both helped create a nice texture to the piece when in play. Arrangement basically retreads itself at 1:30, so though the arrangement ideas were very thorough and interpretive in the first place I was a bit disappointed to hear the same sections basically repeated at 1:30, 1:51 & 2:02, though you did supplement those with the electric guitar to beef things up, which was certainly good although a bit too subtlely applied. 2:36 finally built off of the first part of the track into some new material before going back to some of the ideas of the first section to close things out at 3:16 via gradual subtraction of sounds. Seemed like the drums from 2:36-3:16 were getting crnnchy and/or distorting, but I'd need a second opinion. Regardless, I was glad to see things progressed and developed here nicely like DarkeSword mentioned after my initial repetition fears. Mike continues to bring it with some more fun material that really makes me want to compare him yet again with Ailsean. They share the same energy and enthusiasm that makes their arrangements very enjoyable to a broad portion of the community. I'd still like to see more improvement with the production on the percussion, but there's no question the sum of the parts has what it takes. Very fun. YES

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Boy Meets Girl (Twoson)" (mo2-046.spc) More EarfBound! Also played this one on VGF68 as part of the Bound Together package. I think Jason did a good job here filling in for djp's track on short notice after he withdrew, but this could still use some more work to realize all of its potential. The volume is too loud, IMO, but Beatdrop has done similar levels before and I've been told that's fine, so...that's...fine. I love the sampled percussion opening here. We're just gonna call that a xylo for convenience. The beats coming in at :14 also carry that phattyness. Twoson melody at :28 is a bit less in the forefront than I'd want, but it's certainly there. Makes the track feel carried by the beatwork and not Twoson, but it's a different sound balance and I can run with that provided the arrangement is there on the other levels. The beats switched a little bit at :58 to some more ethnic/organic sounding drums, but the xylo pattern still stuck around. Could use some variation there to keep things interesting at the foundation of the track. Outside of the xylo base, there's noticeable variation going on in the instrumentation, though some of the melody sections are pretty barren nonetheless. For example, the Twoson melody at 2:25 is really simplistic until 2:53. Plus, the material from 2:53 onward just retreads itself with another light instrument added on top. Same xylo and drum patterns chuggin' along, same SFX repeating a few too many times. You really gotta switch these patterns up more often. If I passed this in its current form, it would pass from groove bias only. Dynamically, this didn't really go anywhere, leaving things bland. The arrangement concept is good, but aside from very minor variations, the feel is the same the whole way through and the otherwise cool arrangement goes on cruise control and eventually drags out. I think there's a solid base so far, and I realize it was made under a tight, practically unreasonable deadline, so I don't wanna sound like I'm hating on this track. Work on it further to create more dynamics and spice it up with some additional arrangement ideas to keep things interesting and developing, rather than overly repetitive. Right now, this is a 2-minute mix in a 4-minute body. NO (refine/resubmit)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Sanctuary Guardian" (mo2-040.spc) & "Welcome to Your Sanctuary" (mo2-043.spc) Gonna keep it short and sweet. Played this on VGF68 as one of the lead-in tracks to Bound Together. First section starts off as basically a sound upgrade of "Sanctuary Guardian". Thicker beats and more texture. 1:05 started hitting things with a bit more interpretation to match the expansion, but was pretty brief before going back to the expansionist formula. Needs to get more interpretive quickly. Around 2:15-onward went into some noise-based transition stuff until 2:32 moved into arrangement of "Welcome to Your Sanctuary" that was a lot more interpretive and substantial as a rearrangement than the treatment of "Sanctuary Guardian". Praise the Jesus! YESing just the treatment of "Sanctuary Guardian" would prove dicey to some, as it's merely expansionist and doesn't do much to the source material IMO than add the phat beetz and some additional sounds. It sounds hawt and gr00ve-bias and all that but lacks substance. But the second half rearranging "Welcome to Your Sanctuary" completely saved it and would stand on its own as a 3-minute arrangement, so I've got no issues. Cool stuff with the SFX starting at 4:30 that later reveealed itself to be saying "Welcome to your sanctuary" when finally exposed at 5:13. Very intelligent stuff. Arrangement (treated as a whole) and production are solid. Nice contrast between the two sections as well. Sorry the AB/Irriadin project fell through, but we still get the goods anyway, so it's all good. Keep 'em coming, Martin! YES

2. As much as everyone would like to see the animation alongside the project, it just sounds like attempting to retain the animation despite the time and personnel issues will only hamper the project's completion. Unless new guys can step up out of nowhere, I'd drop it and be content with just some storyboards or something to that effect.

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "The Brink of Time" (ct-2-13.spc) & "Guardia Millenial Fair" (ct-1-06.spc) http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 26 "Zelda's Theme" I see the track is in mono off the bat, so already this isn't going to have any semblance of placement other than background/foreground, which is gonna hurt the piece. Not a huge deal, as I think there are broader issues here than simple stereo/panning. Despite being a very subdued, delicate piece, some of the instrumentation suffers from crowding during the busier sections (e.g. 1:19). There's some slight buzziness in the low end after that point as well. Decent, delicate stuff for the first minute or so, though it lacks a certain energy to it. The production on everything is very, very dull; nothing sounds rich at all here. Too bad, it has somewhat of a Jeremy Soule/Secret of Evermore type feel to it. Some Zelda reference stuff at 2:36 that started a little oddly but resolved itself nicely. Good stuff there that was only striking on the first listen. Things remained quiet until "Guardia Millennial Fair" came in at 4:00 with some fairly basic arrangement that didn't really strike me. It's not bad, just that in comparison with the earlier material, the arrangement for "The Brink of Time" was decidedly more inspired and interpretive. The material from 4:51-5:14 sounded wholly original, I believe. I think you could do more with these samples; there's no need to change anything there, Ken, but you should be working towards giving the sound much more body and depth. Do that along with some well thought-out stereo action and some further interpretation on the Guardia Fair theme and this would have a much better chance. It's fortunate, at least in my opinion, that this doesn't sound as emotionally bankrupt as the previous version, but at the same time it noticeably needs more work on the nuances. NO (refine/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/pbdreams.rar - 16 "Nightmare Intro" & 18 "Nightmare" There's also an Amiga version soundtrack, but the Nightmare track there is 10 seconds long. Heh. Sounds are a bit dulled here, but the percussion is pretty beefy. The synth strings are kind of odd, but have that Halloween feel to them. Track really lacks on the high-end frequencies to give it some sharpness. Beef up both the low-end and the high-end for additional power and clarity in tandem. Right now, the overall sound is decent, but on the bland side. It's definitely going in more of an expansionist route, as the base of the originals (melody and beat structure) is left intact and beefed up, alongside the addition of some new melodic pieces. The arrangement seems decent and has some good ideas; Shnabubula-reminiscent with the synthetic textures of the melody and posessing potential. Personally, I'd like to see a bit less groove bias, with the actual source material being developed a bit more. The new material is a really good fit, but IMO, comes at the expense of the source material not being interpreted much. The ending fadeout was also a bit too quick. Once the source melody gets a bit more attention beyond the sound upgrade, I'd be all over this. The synth design is pretty plain, but at the same time the texture is pleasing overall; remember to beef it up a bit. I'll certainly be keeping it. Cool stuff so far, Erik. NO (refine/resubmit)

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/Authors/Game/Iveson_Martin/Wolfchild.lha - mod.WOLFCHILD1 - Level 1 The original's pretty sparse and basic; 1:04 long, so we'll see what you did with the 5 minutes you had. Opens up in a different key with melody intact and a decent sound upgrade. Beats are pretty basic. Basically the same texture only with a little more body and some gated stuff. Essentially repeats itself about 2 1/2 minutes in, before heading home at 4:09. The groove is decent, and it's a plain but pleasant update, but it needs a lot more reinterpretation and substance. analoq might dismiss this one pretty quickly, as there just isn't much going for it beyond the bare essentials as it were. Keep submitting your stuff to AMIGAremix in order to gain some more exposure for it. NO

HALO 2 Original Soundtrack and New Music Volume One - 01 "Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix" Intro is pretty weak, with some fakey piano and VERY tepid drumloops being brought in. Everything sounds too quiet and flat. Track lacks energy, even when things are first supposed to get "heavy" at :53, as there's no real texture, body or realism with the instrumentation. Not a bad idea for the vox at 1:09, before briefly going for a gentler atmosphere from 1:19-1:30. Another guitar section until 1:52, with drums and acoustic guitar and strings joining in at 2:02 for a fairly decent idea on paper. The arrangement is fairly good and shows promise, but the instrumentation isn't up to the task. There's no energy here and tons of empty space. You really need a lot more practice and experience under your belt to fully realize an idea like this, but I like the direction you're going in, Joe. Keep using the ReMixing & Works forum to get more criticism and suggestions on how to improve. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 114 "Underneath the Rotting Pizza" Just posting real quickly that I agree with this one, since no one confirmed the N.O. by T.O. Pretty sad, considering you once subbed a solid Xenogears mix back in the day and got that posted. How are you gonna submit a 2:30-long MIDI rip and expect it to get posted now? Extremely lazy and very disappointing.

Metroid Prime & Fusion Original Soundtracks - (01) "Title" http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/sm.rsn - "Brinstar Red Soil Swampy Area" (sm-20.spc) I'm just kind of guessing at the source tunes offhand, since I'm not as familiar with the various Brinstar themes as I should be, but I certainly recognize the melodies here. Texture is really thin, though DS has a good point about it working (a little bit) in that nostalgic MD-DOS way. In any case, the texture is dry, the sounds are thin and annoying, and the arrangement is underdeveloped. Not even anything to add here. NO

See, you totally missed the point. To my understanding it's now a crime to talk about the game the project was derived from. Deleted posts because apparently they were irrelevant. Same could be said for a quite a few other posts in this thread. But i'm not going to touch base on this topic no longer. Nazi modding is nazi modding, i can't do anything about that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law (DS knows) Wonder when the project will officially be out though? Christmas wouldn't be a bad date, and many would be around to get it and enjoy it during the holiday! Then Andrew gets loads of PayPal donations to either fund the actual movie or line his pockets.

Paige will be here to delight you with sexy, tantalizing...hatred...of video game music. Much hatred. Aurora should plan to not watch.

Pow-Pow-Power Wheels (Congrats on the plug, I added the review reference to the Wiki page.)

I KILL U for leading me down the path to destrucity, DS! My earz wuz not broke!