Liontamer

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Battle with Ganon" (loz3-28.spc) The Legend of Zelda ~Takt of Wind~ Original Sound Tracks - 204 "Phantom Ganon" Kunal mentioned to me that this was also from Zelda 3 when I asked him about the source tune information. He wants it to be attributed to Zelda: Wind Waker, though this initially sounded more overtly like the Zelda 3 tune. The connections with the Wind Waker material are definitely there though, as Phantom Ganon's is a rearrangement of LoZ3's Battle of Ganon. Both are mentioned here for reference. Good, jazzy opening. Kunal really has everything on point per the usual. Very nice and expressive. Nice brass. The one MAJOR hit on it is the sax that comes in at :48. The way it's used and the way it sounds are...eww. :'-( I like the phrasing, but irregardless of the sample quality, the sax doesn't sound as humanly played or expressive as the rest of the instrumentation. Unfortunately sticks out like a sore thumb admist all the other material involved whenever it's in play. I'd beg Anthony Lofton with the dolla$ for a stylish live recording! In any case, the arrangement is well-varied and very creative, while the overall production is smooth and top-flight. Nice work with the bassline, BTW, since you had to take care of it yourself for this one. I thought the last section was just gonna repeat itself, but there was at least some subtle variation there, even if it could have gone in some other directions. Really wouldn't mind some tips being given for the faux-sax from DarkeSword, or the sax being improved before this is posted, but even if not, this was too solid of an arrangement to NO on those grounds. Nice work flying solo, Kunal! YES

http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/ssf2.rar - "Chun Li's Ending (3)" (ssf2-37.spc) Heh. The original honestly isn't that good. Just a 20-second loop. Sounds like a lemon of a track to me, so I'm interested to hear what you've done with it. Opens with some piano that sounds a bit distant. Almost going for a Reuben Kee-level opening. Woodwind at :10 sounds fake, and pizzicato strings at :14 sound very lo-fi for some reason. :20 in and not hearing anything really tied to the source yet. A melody comes in at :27, but it definitely doesn't sound like the source material. Some drums come in at :40 and sound like they're clipping/distorting a lille bit. The woodwind sounds flat, and the vox & bird SFX both sounds rather tacky. The production is pretty lacking, as the vox and low-end synths all crud up the atmosphere. Gray could offer the most salient suggestions there. 1:08-in and I still don't hear anything that sounds like the melodic progression from the source tune. 2:12 in, and there's more flat woodwind stuff, but still nothing that gives me a connection of the source tune. There are a lot of decent ideas here, so you get some credit for trying to keep things varied, but it took until 3:03 to finally here something that wasn't the most liberal of liberal arrangement. Then by 3:30, it went off the path yet again. Drums at 3:03 again are too loud to be tolerable, the the woodwind at 3:38 is extra shrill. Volume is way over the top for the rest of the track. Even if this sounded awesome, IT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE THE ORIGINAL, which you basically acknowledged in your submission letter. This is way too liberal. I don't know how you took a 20-second original, barely even use it in a recognizable way, and somehow think this would make it. Next time, rearrange the source tune. NO

Yeah, cool original. I swear I played something on VGF as background music that sounded very similar to this. Cool intro at :23, though TO's right in that the feel isn't much different. I think the guitar work is ok, but there's no edge to it; it's like zyko's tone, only no power to it whatsoever. The sound balance is pretty weak, in my opinion. After :34, the sounds aren't quite mud, but they do crud together in the low-end and low midrange. The guitar lead really shouldn't be so subdued compared to the various forms of percussion in there. Percussion gets really repetitive. I actually think it might not have to be changed, just that it shouldn't be so loud and should have more variation in there. It would do a fair job at filling out the soundfield. Oooh, the arrangement got retread at 1:45 like this was a PSF file. :'-( Nah, you gotta bring more ideas to the table, not loop the same idea repeatedly. Not much difference in the second iteration of the source melody compared to the first; no significant/new ideas introduced, or different arrangement brought to the picture. Gentle section at 2:43, but it's not as solid as it could be with the piano, and only lasts until 2:55. Not much going on in terms of dynamics. The drums get a lot thicker at 3:07, but the overall feel is the same. The sine wave is definitely a cool idea that overstaying it's welcome due to a lack of variation, like TO mentioned. Things wound down a bit at 3:19 for some additional contrast, but then at 3:30, we abruptly go to some reversed sound action that sounds like a decent idea for a fadeout ending, but not lasting this long. Definitely too drawn out. Don't need it for 45 seconds. More like 10 seconds. Needs a huge overhaul. NO

Dune Spice Opera: Exxos OST - 09 "Chani's Eyes" Oooh, Dune Spice Opera is badass. Thanks to Gray for the source. I'm a huge fan of track 7, "Wake Up", ever since hearing it at Song of the Week. Cool intro for the mix. The belltones at :15 were kind of bootleg, plus the volume was getting too loud. Melody comes in at :34, and the synths handling that are really vanilla and thin. The texture here is pretty sparse. Seems to be a problem with this particular batch. Melody dropped out at 1:02, leaving behind some bad support work where the phrasing didn't stand strong on its own. Decent dropping out of the sounds at 1:35. This kind of atmosphere could work nicely if it were de3veloped well. Oooh no, bad electric guitar witht the FX and shizzle at 1:49. It actually has a different tone than the typical FL Slayer guitar synth I hear, so it's actually not bad, but it definitely doesn't sound very solid. Ending was too arbupt. Pretty short arrangement; didn't really have time to develop or go anywhere, which is fairly necessary going at this slow of a tempo. A lot of the sound choices weren't good; the combinations just weren't working. Keep working on it if you're willing to change those. But if not, scrap it. In any case, I'm with Gray in that the mix needs more rearrangement vis-a-vis the source; just more creativity there all around. Right now, it unfortunately sounds a lot like the source tune with inferior samples that also aren't used very well. NO

Gray smells for bumping this again.

/shakes da butt

HEY U STAY AWAYZ AN DSHIT!

Chrono Cross OST - 315 "Radical Dreamers ~ Unstealable Jewel" Cool rain SFX to open things up with. Audio skipped at :06. Panned and everything; not bad. Faux acoustic guitar comes in at :20 with the source tune, joined by piano at :32 to add some texture. Percussion added in at :46 sounds thin and too bright compared to the other instrumentation which has reverb/delay on it; feels out of place as a result. Not much being done with the melody, plus the SFX is doing most of the atmospheric work, like a crutch. Nonetheless, using it allows you to get away with such otherwise sparse instrumentation Melody kicks in 1:11, still excessively conservative. What the hellz was up with that crappy non-transition at 2:03. VERY sloppy, plus it's not melodic at all. It inexplicably kept going until 2:27. Timing is completely thrown off, and I can't even get a grasp of what was happening there. Anyway, we get some different stuff at 2:30 with a new section. Pretty much the same sounds, plus some cheap-sounding vox coming in at 2:42. The instrumentation is still just too thin and has no texture outside of the looped rain SFX. 3:21 features some arrangement that tries to carry the feel of the original, but go in its own direction. I wasn't much of a fan of the phrasing there, to be honest. Percussion comes back in at 3:34, and again sounds out of place, like it's pasted on top of the music. Arrangement goes back to being extremely conservative at 3:34 and adds some strings on top at 3:47, which is good, but isn't adding too much. The door SFX at 4:19 & 4:25 (recycled from :11 & :18) felt out of place, considering that (just my opinion) the track didn't really tell any type of story to me. I understand what artistic imagery you're going for, so that's ok. It's not a bad idea on paper, and others may disagree with the minor gripe there. Do more a lot more rearrangement with the melody, fix/get rid of/rewrite 2:03-2:27, and have the percussion sit better in the track, and you'd have a lot more of a shot. Right now, this isn't interpretive enough to me on any level. NO

The Legend of Zelda ~Takt of Wind~ OST - 38 "Dragon Roost Island" I'm pretty familiar with the original. Decent MIDI-grade bell/percussion driven intro. Timing is somewhat off, and the samples usage sucks. Dr. Fruitcake could probably make them work. I've certainly heard Mazedude hook it up with those same sounds in "Slalomcide". Geetar shreddage come it at :40, along with some drums that just sound like they're smashing things at :47. It's comical how badly this combination of sounds doesn't work. Total mismatch of styles. The sound balance is all off and the sound quality of the belltones doesn't match the distortion of the guitar, plus the timing still sounds off. It's a mere 2:04, and like "A Nightmare Before Christmas" gone horribly, horribly wrong. NO

First off, I love the original, so anything is gonna be hard pressed to top it. Track starts at :03 rather than :00. Has some harmonica-style stuffs going on, along with some iffy choir vox and some percussion and music box instrumentation that's way too loud and bright compared to the other sounds. The piano at :30 has wonky timing; sounds really artificial, sparse, and shizzy. Some faux acoustic guitar came in around :48, but doesn't sound very realistically handled. Just a straight up weird change of the sounds at 1:07, along with a music box solo at 1:18, which I can appreciate, but ultimately sounds poorly done. The texture is poor the whole way through; very sparse and the timing is crud. Hand drums are too loud. No sense of sound balance. Piano at 1:30 is a little bit better, but whatever woodwind was used at 1:31 was awfully flat, then it had a cringingly awful resolution from 1:42-1:45. Sorry, I had to actually take a break right there, it was like a musical car wreck. Decent idea for the last section. I liked the rustling SFX at 1:54. We need more people trying stuff like that. Nonetheless, everything here just sounds off. Hell, I like how it sounds like you're using a real harmonica, but you're no good at using it on the performance level, frankly. Then the track just cuts off abruptly at 2:21. Not trying to slam you as an artist; TO had some good points with how the approach in and of itself was creative, as you're trying some good ideas. Hopefully you'll stay motivated enough to continue. But this was just poorly put together. Get WAY better at multitracking. No sense of rhythm or timing, coupled with an underdeveloped idea is an easy NO. ReMixing/Works to improve your game and get more feedback.

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 68 "Gerudo Valley" Yeah, I remember hearing this as part of Splendid Performance: With a Voice. Played it on VGF65 for the peeps to enjoy. I just listened to it again to make sure nothing had been changed. Great stuff. Mike's vocals are my main gripe, as they sound thin and a bit beginner-ish. With more practice, but more importantly time, Mike's voice will continue to be stronger. Plus, on multiple listens, the delivery style sits a lot a better in the track. I could have gone for some richer harmonies, but the harmonization here sounded pretty nice. I liked the tone when the chorus's hit, and the lyrics were really catchy. A lot of people are gonna be singing 'em. I thought the track could have sounded sharper, but I loved the arrangement here and the production was alright. The "Gerudo Valley" theme was skillfully woven with original material that pieced together very naturally. Great rock conversion with some genuine (even if unintended) pop overtones. Makes a solid follow-up to other mixes of the theme, like Dan B's & chthonic's. The way the track cut out after the warbly effects was a too sudden, but other than that, I had no other issues. Hot stuff and a nice follow-up to the vocal potential that Final Fantasy 6 "Deadly Promises" only hinted at. Keep 'em coming, bro! YES

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 405 "People of the Far North" Pretty cool stuff. zircon and I were listening to it and both commenting on how we enjoyed it. I felt it was DP myself. No criticisms against the lengthy format. Some people dont' go for it, and I'm sure it'll drag for some, but I felt it was fine. I was actually more impressed that you managed to keep things sounding sounding clear and sharp with a 107kbps VBR encoding. Props on that, Jordan. Melody kicked in at 1:12 for any fans out there that may feel inclined to fast-forward. Good genre adaptation along with some solid expansionist ideas, as well as some good original stuff at 2:07. The source melody took somewhat of a background seat to the added material, but was obviously the foundation of the track. Slick vox effects at 2:34. Some genre-staple gated trance synth stuff came in at 3:14 for a new section that was prevented the first part from getting monotonous and offered up a new set of sounds for the arrangement. Things beefed up again with some bass action stuff at 4:39 that used the bridge from the original. Somewhat cluttered-sounding for me, especially from 6:02-6:28 but ultimately not an issue with how well I feel the production was handled. Works very well for the club. Nice arrangement ideas, and good development the whole way through. There are a lot of extended passages per se, but I didn't feel anything overstayed its welcome. This arrangement concept was already well-presented for Project Majestic Mix: The Trance Album. This mix and the PMM version each do a great job of standing on their own, so I respect how you were able to give this version even more time along with the club treatment and not make the PMM version seem obsolete. Great to see you still in the game, and of course looking forward to your Bound Together/Earthbound mix. YES

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sor1.rar - Round 3 ("Moon Beach") Heh. Pretty weird sounds. Barely sounds like the source tune to start, but I can hear it clearly alluded to starting at :23 with that warbly-sounding synth, before the melody kicks in at :47. I'm not against the approach or the sound effects being used in here, but the production quality is pretty weak. Someone helpz! The melody remains fairly muffly and indistinct here, along with everything else in a sea of low-end frequencies, which undermines a lot of the writing choices here. At only 2:11-long, this hardly did enough with the melody to meaningfully rearrange it. Already at 1:36, you're winding the track down, and the melody was involved for less than a minute. You could easily make this longer and continue to explore the source material more, Trevin. Clean up the soundfield as well. Retro atmosphere doesn't mean muddy. Keeping it nonetheless. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/ge64usf.rar - 101 "Dam" Pretty much a straightforward cover with some edge. The production on this was horrible. Sounded really low-quality, grainy and distorted. Sequenced drumwork was plain and didn't contribute to the mix. Plus those and the strings sounded too clean compared to the guitar, showing an obvious sound quality disparity. I like the meedily-me solo-type stuff from 1:09-1:30, but it drags after a bit. Track needs more rearrangement, as well as having a longer, more developed concept. A 2:08 mostly-cover track doesn't cut. Add more of your ideas into the picture, André, and work on improving your production. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/btoads.zip - Track 14 Guitar coming in at :02's kind of awkward, and definitely too quiet and lacking power relative to the other sounds. Percussion joining in at :24 sounds plain/boring and looped. The synth-based arrangement is exactly the same, which was the main reason this got NOed before. Wrong note on the guitar at 1:13. I give you some degree or credit for trying to expand this piece from the last time around and doing your own thing there, but the foundation is basically just a plain sound upgrade from the original. At least used the added instrumentation to rearrange the original more overtly. Practically everything there sounded wholly original, rather than related to the Battletoads theme in question. The added instrumentation sounds thin and doesn't add enough body/texture to the piece. On top of that, the sound balance is sloppy.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 2 Nah. Sounds are straight up MIDI-grade, thin and beginner-ish. No texture at all. Arrangement is limited with some tacky/default-y beats. Transition at 1:46 was non-existent. No sound balance at all. It's almost LOL that it's encoded at at 164kbps VBRI, considering how bad the sound quality/atmosphere is. You can't just wanna send something in; you've got to practice and get good at it. If you're a regular listener to Ormgas, you should already know this stuff doesn't cut it on any level. Wanna get decent over time? ReMixing/Works. Keep at it, I suppose. Definitely not YE. NAY

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff3.zip - Tracks 5 (:00-:43, 3:50-4:08), 42 (:52-1:22), ? (1:24), ? (2:15), ? (2:46), ? (3:13), ? (3:34) Don't recognize the source tunes here, so some clarification would be a huge help. Could be extreme medleyitis for all I know, so unfortunately I can't comment too much on those grounds. I was just taking a stab at when certain points in the track might be the start of a new source tune. The intro here was rather abrupt/jarring. Harp-like instrument is cool, but too mechanical sounding. Arrangement already took some good turns with the woodwind stuff at :25. I really liked the xylos being brought in at :44, handling "The Dark Crystals" (melody starts at :52), though the texture and perfect timing sounded too much like the plucked string instrument. Cool tempo shift and changing of the time signature at :59. Too bad it's verbatim with the NSF. Tambourine at 1:05 is way too loud and trebly. Sudden transition at 1:23 leads into some mechanical-sounding piano work. The atmosphere sounds all lo-fi now for some reason; feels like the encoding quality dropped mid-track, especially by 1:59 when the piano came back. Where's the high-end for those parts? Drum swell at 4:15 got very trebly and distorted for a very bad finish. The EQing is bothersome, as this track was all about either low-end or (extreme) high end, with not much going on in the middle frequencies. Can't muster any specific comments on the rest of the track, as nothing particularly stuck out. Broadly speaking, the way the samples were used was a big hit. Personally, I like a lot of the ideas here in the track, and I have a grasp on the style you're going for, but the samples you're using could be used better to sound more realistic. The track is very sparse in a bad way; with a more human-sounding performance, the relatively sparse sound of a small orchestra would work. NO

Silent Hill 2 OST - 01 "Theme of Laura" Yeah, I remember pre-judging this one for Navid and going NO. Sounds very much like a WIP, and the samples definitely aren't used at their best. Definitely a step down in sound quality, unfortunately. Gonna rehash my #ocrwip comments, so apologies if you already saved those; most of those are still relevant. The beats in at :23 are weak, too flat sounding; the snapping idea could be good, but right now I don't think it provides the right texture. The volume's been toned down a little bit on those, and there's more of a bassline present, but the track still feels empty. The bassline is beefed up, but it's too buzzy and indistinct-sounding, and just clutters up the soundfield. Get the bass sounding more focused. The sequenced guitar at :23 is mechanical, the piano at :41 is mechanical though less so. The bass is also mechanical, and some of the very active parts like 2:15-2:25 really expose that. Keeping them more in the background now helps disguise that somewhat, but it's still noticeable how unrealistic the performances sound. The woodwind is a better on that level, but still has its cold spots. The piano is a bit better 1:56 in; still mechanical, but not as bad. The cymbals are nice and light, but since you pumped up the bassline and made it so much buzzier, the cymbals are a non-factor now. Hand drums at 2:34 are OK, but sounded a bit dry and too much in the front. Piano sounded a bit better around the 3:00 mark. Nice acoustic guitar idea from 3:07-3:10. Very stylish. The piano and woodwind still sounded mechanical; beating the point into the ground of course, but just making a note of it as I listen. 3:30 is um...meh. The sample sounds like the ocarina from Zelda 64, which (IMO) sucks. Doesn't really work here as the performance sounds more like something a keyboard would belt out, except to me the notes in that first flurry are coming too fast and mechanically performed, just like some OoT USF clip of the Zelda ocarina. Some of the phrasing sounded off at the beginning, and the e-piano (E-piano? Ah, shaddap Gray!) you're playing it with sounds all lo-fi. I like the piano writing at 3:48; lots of flair there. Personal choice, but that last chord at 4:08 seemed unnecessary. I would have liked the resolution without it. Also, the last chord fades out too quickly at 4:12; again, personal preference. Work on the humanization, and the drumbeats in particular. Those beats do a poor job of creating a cohesive sound here, as they flat-out sound like they don't belong here. Try some more effects and/or sounds, but change it up. Like I said back when I suggested you up the presence of the bassline, new effects on the beats and sample humanization are critical before you start thinking of how to fill the track out. Needs a significant amount of work to have a shot. Don't get too eager to write a sub letter for a WIP and then work on it in order to beat the system. You wanna be around 90% done on something so you have adequate time to work on the track, complete it, and get feedback for tweaks.

If your sole purpose for posting in this project thread is to exacerbate any drama, your trolling posts will continue to be deleted.

Uh, I think (rightly or wrongly, I don't care) Roland was pissed about the thread sidetracking into conversation more about Journey's End, rather than the CS portion of the Press Start interview. But anyway, y'all can chill.

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Hot-Head Bop" (dkq-14.spc) & "Stickerbrush Symphony" (dkq-17.spc) "Hot-Head Bop" does a great job of using sound effects. This track tried to work a similar angle with all of the animal sound effects as well, which was a cool move. Anyway, played this on VGF64 to give the people their chill requirement. Track immediately starts out with a more downbeat take on "Hot-Head Bop". Percussion snaps felt a little too loud, IMO, but that's personal taste I suppose. The Hot-Head melody kicked in at :51 with "Stickerbush Symphony" on the xylo (Xylo? Ah shaddap, Gray) as support, which was a cool combination. The texture was still noticeably sparse to me; felt like things needed filling out and the bassline needed to be beefed up a bit, as it was a non-factor. By 1:42 the beats dropped out, but whatever plucked instrument was there stuck around, and made the track feel monotonous despite the effort to try and change the flow a bit, though it finally faded out by 2:31. The woodwind from the intro was revisited, though already I'm feeling like the atmosphere remains too samey so far. I hear the subtleties being changed, but there have been no significant changes in the track yet to change the style, and it left the track dragging to me. By 2:33, we came back to the Hot-Head Bop melody with some extra embellishments, followed by the Stickerbush melody again at 3:01. Melodically, I wanted this go start going in some other directions, which was why the changeup with the strings at 3:24 was LONG overdue. That's more of the kind of ideas I was looking for to change the texture/feel in a significant way, but it came a bit too late, IMO. Track also cuts off abruptly at 4:22 after some synth actually started rising in volume at 4:20. Would need a fix for that. Overall, the production was fairly good, and the arrangement definitely had something going for it. I'd say that the texture needs to be beefed up for everything before 2:07, and that the track needs to be restructured in a way that doesn't have it overstaying it's welcome. To me, it could be a half a minute to a minute shorter and still convey the same message, so more dynamic contrast is needed. This is fairly solid already, and features a weaving of the two source tunes that surprised me with how it was pieced together, but I still need more going on to secure a YES. Go for some tweaks to really get it to that level. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 57 "Windmill Hut" (56 Ocarina ~Song Of Storms~) & 44 "Temple of Time" (43 Ocarina ~Song Of Time~) Opened things up with the swirly pad activity before some hand drums and a light woodwind came in at :27. Trance stuff kicked in at :40, though the texture was thin. Buildup was decent, though I was honestly waiting for something to happen. Some bootleg sounding faux-ocarina came in at 1:22, along with another synth and some other light sounds at 1:35. Still haven't hit the source melody until 1:56 alluded to "Song of Storms" pretty heavily. 2:16 have some very generic trance/electronica synths come in handling the SoS melody, along with some average but notable arrangement focused on changing the rhythms around. Energy is still pretty low, in that there's not much texture/body in the sound chosen. Bleh, the way the notes of that pad would change (e.g. 3:28, 3:30) really didn't come across well when exposed. Some snappy percussion and whatnot came in at 3:32 before very briefly bringing in the "Song of Time" melody at 3:38. Another iteration of Song of Storms at 4:10 with thicker bass kicks is supposed to represent the track taking on more power, but wasn't much of an intensity change. Tempo/arrangement was still basically the same only with the added bass, though I appreciated how several different ideas were developed to at least offer up some changes over the entire 6:25, such as dropping out the thick percussion and going back to a more flowy atmosphere at 5:40 for the close. Needs work on fleshing out the sounds and cutting out some of the fatty/boring transitions, but it was a decent effort that could use some more work. analoq and zircon could give you way better suggestions/advice that I ever could. I'd personally move onto new material. Keep at it, and use the ReMixing & Works forums to help in that effort. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/ffl1.zip - Track 1 I still think the piece is cool, and I like how the production was changed to allow the saxs to function at different intensities. It really cleans up a lot of the soundfield here. Unfortunately, the arrangement content wasn't refined in any way (as also stated in the letter), so unfortunately, the criticisms made regarding the lack of cohesiveness and direction there still stand. Plus the hissing and pops are still there en masse and unfortunately blemish the whole thing. Sorry, bro, gotta retain a NO.

We don't accept anything with this high of a bitrate: http://www.zophar.net/gym/hang-on.rar - 02 "Winning Run" The original has such basic sounds, but it's a really pimp track; catchy stuff. I was only a fan of "Outride a Crisis" before, so this was a good find. Opened with some basic synths. :15 brought in some stuff, but the beats are really robotic and sparse. The lead is breathy but needs to cut through more. A minute in, and the texture is really lacking, even with the new kicks and beats at :59. Too many sounds in play going in no particular direction on account of everything being at similar volume levels. Melody and counterpoint need to be positioned more in the front, and not get obscured by the beatwork and other sounds, so work on adjusting the sound balance. Decent string-focused break at 1:57 before brining in the piano, though the drums were ultra-mechanical and flimsy. More decent ideas at 2:27 for an almost easy listening feel aside from the beats, though the key change at 2:43 was abrupt and awkward. Nonetheless, an alright job trying to change the feel of the track over time and have it develop, but the concepts were very disjointed, the sounds were thin/basic for the most part, and, though the rearrangement here was apparent, the mix never quite gelled melodically. Harmony mentioned to me that he was giving you guys some pointers, so keep listening to him, and continue to make use of the ReMixing & Works boards from improvement and fan feedback, respectively. NO

Thanks for providing the original. Opened with some weak FL Slayer faux geetar, which is almost always a bad direction to go in. Stylistically, it just can't pull off a believeable sound. VERY basic percussion pattern came in at :22, not really providing any texture here. Gated synth at least helped fill things out some more at :32 and worked decently with the lead, but the track was still very sparse. Glad a bassline was added at :53 though to help beef the low-end up, along with another higher pitched synth. The timing on everything is very mechanical, especially the Slayer guitar synth. Oooh, MIDI keyboard sounds at 1:25. Not bad for the texture, though the phrasing wasn't strong. Didn't sound good at all during the solo from 1:46-1:57, then another whiny synth with poor phrasing joined in. 2:08 changed up the flow a bit, but that gated synth was getting tired, plus there was still no cohesive texture or melody going on with all of the instrumentation. Piano solo at 3:01 was a weak way to end things, the piano again sounding thin, mechanical, and exposed. Decent first effort, and one to be proud of, but you'll need to use your sounds better and just gain more experience/knowledge on the writing aspect. Though I do here some of your rearrangement ideas here, right now the quality of this mix is, IMO, inferior to the original. Check out the ReMixing & Works forums to help yourself improve. NO