Liontamer

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozmmusf.rar - 108 "Clock Town - Day 1" Dunno where the traditional Zelda theme is in the Majora's Mask pack, but it's probably in there somewhere. Anyway, not bad for a first sub at all. The piano needs to sounda lot richer. There's some attempt at natural-sounding decays to thicken the sound, but this ultimately sounds very fake the whole way through, and lacks the sound of a quality human performance. I thought the piano was sampled, but DarkeSword pointed out to me that it's likely a real piano. I have to say that's unfortunate, as some of the issues regarding texture and occasionally flow seemed like sample-driven ones. As for the arrangement, it's decent, but it could carry a bit more dynamic contrast by way of some more subtle sections. Right now, the arrangement varies itself somewhat during the 3:44, but drags since it's always loud and the texture is thin. There needs to be less distortion here, as some of the volume spikes result in some nasty stuff, firstly at :43, but way worse in other instances, like 1:20-1:31, and 2:46-2:59. Most of the track had that problem duing the loud parts anyway. Some release issues at :56 & :57 hurt the feel as well. You really need to get a richer sound going and practice to maximize the best sounds out of your performance. Thinner sections like 1:34-1:47 sounded plinky, mechanical and very low grade. Needs tons of work, but you're in the right direction on the arrangement front, and just need to hang around more in ReMixing and Works to help learn more skills. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 20 "Sandopolis Zone 1" This was decent. The oboe for the intro sounded nice. Belltone-stuff, and later the strings, on melody was too quiet and needs to be more center stage. Faux-electric guitar at 1:22 is too fakey sounding to work well. Right now, the soundfield is fairly sparse/empty. Peeling back the layers of this tracks, there's ultimately not much happening. Nonetheless, the arrangement is a fairly solid cover-style piece. Too bad about this one. The samples/sounds are generally good, but the sound balance isn't where it should be and the timing is incredibly mechanical. It's like the whole track is rigid and devoid of emotion, ruining it's potential. The sounds are good, and you got the genre thing going, but even der ubersamples aren't gonna automatically win the day if they don't sound performed in a realistic manner. Fill the soundfield out more and tackle the nuances please. NO (resubmit)

Covered this in May for VG Frequency, so I'm actually surprised we got it now: My thoughts are pretty much the same giving this a full review. The rain SFX was tastefully used. The strings at :39 were really synthetic sounding, but worked fairly well in the texture. Around 1:08 when the volume picks up a bit, the track starts feeling a little buzzy and a bit too lo-fi. The strings brought in at 1:12 were panned too distinctly to one side, plus they didn't sound realistic in their performance. Drums at 1:27 were really low quality. I think keeping it so dry is a mistake given the texture the rest of the instrumentation seems to be going for, but if it's kept like that, I'd at least pull the volume back a bit so it doesn't sound pasted on top and out of place like it does now. I'm a big fan of the original, "Secure Place." I think more credit should be given for the additive way in which this theme was treated, though the piano sounding so similar was a slight hit. Nonetheless, there a lot of new writing here, so while fairly straightforward, I don't think this was too conservative at all, and compares pretty favorably to the original. I'd personally suggest sharpening up the sound a little bit while keeping the gloomy feel, scrapping the percussion, and refining the strings and piano (though they sound better than most people's attempts with it). Maybe add some more subtle instrumentation to replace the role of the percussion. Good stuff in place so far, David; this was your best submission yet. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 12 "Icecap Zone 1" http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - Chemical Plant Zone Decent stuff, although the sounds are really generic. Nonetheless, the groove bias is there. The melodic synth lead was really thin; it doesn't give any depth to the track. That little "bird tweet" effect that hangs on the melody's notes starting at :54 is slightly piercing. The piano playing the Chemical Plant Zone at 1:22 is MIDI-grade and VERY quiet. Punch it up more, and beef up the piano with some effects. It taints other parts of the track with its robotic application. The constant percussion/kick/bass synth groove starting at 1:22 gets tired by 2:10 or so; you've gotta to change the feel up a bit, but also do it sooner. Work to provide contrast so that the listener isn't burnt out on the idea so soon. Chemical Plant theme is brought in again at 2:17, before going back to Ice Cap later on. The barely-changing groove and basic synth design wears thin after a while. The groove elements generally overshadow the melodic content too much. Some of it needs to be scaled back to allow the arrangement to shine more. Decent, but it would need a fair amount of work to refine things and polish it up. NO

No cohesion or texture at all with this sparse instrumentation. Vocal clips aren't "terrible" but are a bit overused and don't add much to this emptiness. After 2:10, this just drags on. Not a terrible attempt at an industrial sound at all, but this just doesn't have any substance to it. You'd think with a nice 4:44 to work with, a lot more creativity would have been brought into play. Only a diehard fan with no standards would enthusiastically praise this. NO

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/n64/Big_Snowman3.mid Sped it up, added some stock drumloops, tacky sounds, corny ending, only 2:04-long. Lame attempt at a rearrangement. And encoded at 320kbps, like that's some sort of benefit? I guffaw at your folly. But seriously, no disrespect, but nothing to add here. Someone else can slap on the N.O. if it's that egregious. NO

Yeah, TO nailed some good issues here. The lead guitar is a little too distant. It could be more prominent, yet still have the airy/distant quality it has. Wouldn't mind some comments on that from Vigilante. The snare is too loud and the performance on it is flat, plus the cymbals are way too quiet and don't contribute to the picture. The percussion patterns don't vary much and get stale after a while. That needs to be addressed. Unfortunately a case where production issues indeed kill an otherwise well-constructed and promising effort. Hope you address the sound balance and get things sounding stronger. Right now, some very flat sounds are severely limiting the potential here. NO (refine/resubmit)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Corridors of Time" (ct-3-04.spc) Track's already too loud just to start off and some stuff is distorting with some blistering stuff. This track could retain its power and agressiveness without this ridiculous volume. Lyrics come in at :59. The male vocals are decent, but losing pitch/off-key on occasion. The female backing vocals were worked in very well, but the balance between the vocals and music is shitty. The snappy beats are fairly basic, but (mentally removing the volume/balance issues) the texture turns out decent and there were a lot of creative things going on here. Track could still use some additional instrumentation to fill out the soundfield. It's amazing how an otherwise good mix is trashable thanks to stuff that can be relatively easily addressed, because the arrangement is pulled off fairly well. No way it'll ever pass until this is fixed up, but once it is, this would be an easy YES. Nice work on the arrangement, Jovette and company; its really some excellent stuff on that level, and you did a good job of not losing focus on the source material like some of your more recent subs. Just fix this up for the peeps. NO (resubmit)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - "Fear Factory" (dkc-20.spc) Quick shot on this one. It had some decent ideas, but the execution was lacking. The usage of the samples wasn't expressive enough. The tempo wasn't bad at all, but instrumentation came off flat, particularly the piano, bassline and percussion, leaving the energy low and the soundfield somewhat sparse-sounding. The track was also too quiet, like you yourself mentioned. The sampled piano was pretty low quality. Notes were running too fast and sounded robotic, resulting in runs like the one at 2:31 that just sound bleh. Not bad, but not a really developed or strongly executed idea. Definitely the potential there to improve though with future works. NO

Yeah, I confirm the N.O. Just take a look at the guidelines. You need a lot more interpretation, variation, creativity and substance than this to submit something and have it pass.

Demon Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight Original Game Soundtrack - 20 "Lost Painting" Played this on VGF66 and was loving the feel here. It's a cool genre conversion, but the same problems apparent in most of Alex's subs are here. Too loud and the texture is bad. The strings don't move naturally, and in this case, the arrangement is relatively straightforward, though I like what was done regardless. If this didn't absolutely sound so unwieldy, I could mistake it for a collab between Alex and Vurez, what with its twangy sounds and Wild West style. I wasn't feeling much on the "wrong notes" area. /shrugs Sounded fine to me on that level overall, but the issues laid down by zircon, Gray & TO are the meat and potatoes of what's wrong with the track. This sounds like a total rushjob. It's time to stop getting rejected with the same old story time and time again and realize your potential. NO

Phantasy Star Online: Songs of Ragol Odyssey: Soundtrack Episode 1 OST - 03 "Image of Hero" Oh sweet, Phantasy Star Online, so good. Never played the game at all, but I also was a huge fan of the soundtrack. The strength of the original will carry any conservative arrangement; not a bad approach of wanting to slow it down and go for a more atmospheric rendition. Things sound a bit lo-fi, but I like the strings being used like pads. Woodwind sample at 1:10 for the melody sounds very artificial and unrealistically performed. Same for the supporting instrumentation at 1:37. The melody and the countermelody are verbatim with the source tune and the strings and drumwork don't do enough to make up for that. We get a bell on lead at 2:56 to change the feel a little bit, but the strings and drums are still the same; no variation. Doubled with the returning woodwind at 3:23 and the same countermelody. Wish this went somewhere more creative with the source material, as it's awesome stuff. Some basic rearrangement ideas were there from 3:49 until the end, using some lighter instrumentation and changing the rhythms a little bit. Track abruptly ends at 5:09 with no actual ending being written. A pretty long mix that could be decent chill stuff, but needs more arrangement substance and better use of the sounds involved. Cool stuff regardless. Keep at it. NO

OLD MAN! HAPPY BIRFDAY!

OMG, HELL NO! (i.e. Sure, bro.)

Kunal sent me a revised version with some additional mastering work he had meant to do before he submitted the track. This version features better room reverb/atmosphere, and the sax sample is not longer bone dry. The arrangement content is unchanged, and the link is updated in the submission letter. Everything sounds even stronger, IMO.

Slowly getting there, sister. Get VGF #51 and #52 soon. Once they're picked up by Ormgas, #53 & #54 will be released. I still have to work on any other remaining episodes, but I'll get there eventually.

This was a decent old-school cover of the original. Solid stuff for its time, including some beefed up guitar work compared to the SID version. I can see why the guitar isn't prominent here, as it reflects the style of the original. Lead synth at :59 didn't provided a good texture at all, but this was alright.

If you really have to give up per se, I'd just link every character to an applicable Wiki character or game article.

Howdy partners! We've got some backlogged stuff for ya. Get them while they're hosted: VG Frequency #51 MP3 (181MB/4hr24min) VG Frequency #51 Playlist: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?18.10736 VG Frequency #51 Chat Transcript VG Frequency #52 MP3 (135MB/3hr31min) VG Frequency #52 Playlist: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?18.10739 VG Frequency #52 Chat Transcript OMG, will he release more ever??? (No. ... Ok, maybe.)

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 57 "Windmill Hut" (56 Ocarina ~Song Of Storms~) I always clash on the mentality of what FTs are for. If it would have hit the panel had djp gotten it, I don't feel inclined to hold it back unless it's total dogshit. (Even though I handle the majority of RESUBs,) I'm more judicious when it comes to posting those instead. I'm more about feedback. Heh. Very basic xylo-ish stuff to open things with at :03 after the rain SFX. Beats and strings coming in at :16 were very basic and synthetic sounding, along with added beats at :37. Decent amount of variation. Melody comes in at :51 with the saxomaphone. Hahaha, cool. Pretty blatty, but tons o' heart even though it's not solid at all, follow by more xylo/string stuff up from 1:18-1:32. The beats jumping underneath the sax sound pretty akward. Wish the sax actually did more with the Song of Storms theme rather than playing the same phrase over and over again, as it really drags on, despite the constant switches in instrumentation. Traded off with various combinations of the sax, strings, and xylo ad nauseum, which just leaves things samey and boring in the long run. Not bad for a joke mix, but way too repetitive with both the arrangement of the theme and the instrumentation you were using. Look to vary both of those up, and add more original or interpretive arrangement ideas. Work on sample richness & humanization as well, and using less basic sounds by using effects. ReMixing & Works should continue to be resources for you. NO

It's been longer than 2 months now, so a fall-through is fine. Sorry for the wait. Quality isn't hot at all, bros, but despite being made for Dwelling of Fools, Xenon could at least get some feedback on it and push him in the right direction.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 107 "Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World" Good intro with the piano. There some improvement here, but this still needs some work. The volume is still a bit on the loud side, but that a more subjective issue here. The sample usage still sounds rather artificial/synthetic. Some of the string movements are noticeably too jumpy going from note-to-note. The acoustic guitar sample sounds dry and also very robotic & exposed at times (e.g. 1:01-1:02, 1:13-1:14). This isn't ear-breakingly loud, like some of Alex's past work, which is good. Shows a lot more reservation. I think with the strings handling the melody, the volume is good, but the acoustic guitar he's using to accentuate things is too loud at some points (e.g. :51, 1:11, 1:13-1:14, 1:55, 1:58). The drums sound too loud and really out of place and need to be reigned in. Such a thick-sounding snare doesn't seem to mesh with the rest of the instrumentation. Plus the patterns play for too long without enough subtle variation. The bassline could use more presence to fill out the soundfield a bit more. I liked the changeup at 2:03, though the acoustic guitar again sounds too artificial. I liked the tambourine on support though the pattern shouldn't be looped for so long. It's relatively minor, but it drags out. The production is kind of off in that the combination of instruments doesn't have that great of a texture. It's not locking together well with these thick drums, reverbed strings, and dry acoustic guitar. Some of the supporting instrumentation needs to be scaled back or panned around the soundfield. Feels like the piano, strings, drums and acoustic are sometimes fighting for the same space, rather than complementing each other, especially during the last section from 4:27-4:51. There's still too much overlap without harmony and it gets messy. It's been remedied a lot from the last time around when Shnabubula and zircon cited those issues, but it's not totally eliminated and it shows. Even though I felt the guitar was too loud again, I liked the subtler sections like 2:53-3:38, where I felt the percussion and strings helped accent the background rather than crowd the foreground. That's more of the kind of sound balance that's actually working well here. Good ending. This was a genuine improvement, but needs more refinement for a pass from me. It could sound a lot more cohesive by way of the instruments being made to sound more complimentary and not so loose. Touch up some of the string and acoustic guitar work, tone down the drums in some spots, and use volume and panning to separate the instruments more. NO (resubmit)

Original decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=64519 I've worked alot on Dreaming by Your Side now, I've been egged on alot to resubmit, so I wish to do so please. I don't believe anything else could be done to it and I'd like to resubmit please. Thanks. - RoeTaKa

Dance Dance Revolution 8th Mix -Extreme- - "xenon" Checked everything out and the source material wouldn't be a violation here; this is a Konami'>www.cheatcc.com/psx2/sg/ddrmax2.txt+%22Tomoyuki+Uchida%22+xenon&hl=en&client=firefox-a]Konami original track. Nihon mailed Gray to correct the composer info, but Tomoyuki Uchida (aka "Mr.T") made the track, not Takayuki Ishikawa (aka "D.J.Amuro"). In any case, onto the mix. This mostly worked with the original by changing the rhythms around, and featured what seemed to me to be a lot of supplemental/original ideas for the support work. Sounds were really basic. That's not a HUGELY negative hit on this mix at all, by the way. The original also used pretty generic instrumentation, though to be fair, these synths/sounds feel to me like a step down. Not cruddy or anything, just defaulty and lacking polish, which ultimately weakens the track. The intro of the mix changed up the rhythms from the intro of the original a little bit and extended the idea. Some basic beats came in at :21 to beef things up, along with a basic trance-style lead at :34. More stuff kicked in at 1:00 but the mix seemed to become very high-end heavy and a bit cluttered though nothing major on the clutter part. Things were decent. The texture got really thin and grating from 1:40-1:55. That's a problem with that synth, IMO, in that's it's too shrill at that point and stays that way when it's in use. Get really cluttered when more stuff comes in at 2:07. Good slowdown and transition into the next section at 2:20, finally getting into a new section of the source material at 2:49, before going back into the faster-paced material with some basic pads underneath at 3:18. Section from 3:32 basically repeats from :34, now with the pad underneath. Fairly weak close from 4:26 until the end; the pad and percussion are both fairly thin and sound too exposed. I feel like the source tune could have been explored more for the last minute, especially since the arrangement was pretty conservative and not overly expansive, just extended. Nonetheless, there were some good original arrangement ideas here as a result of changing the genre, and slowing the track down, mostly with the supporting instrumentation, not to mention the gated synth lead. If you can tone down some of the higher frequencies, and volume, and more importantly see what you can do to freshen up the arrangement from 3:32 until the end, I'd be more down. Primarily due to the sounds though, the track feel very samey throughout, so doing more to vary up the arrangement in that way would make this more solid for me. Good work so far, Jerome. NO (resubmit)