Liontamer

Considering that I'm about 6 weeks back on summer Pimp Sections, I've need to get back on the horse for a while now. I remember a year ago when it took a full day to write these damn things. I guess judging's paid off this time around, since I only spent a few hours going through everything below. Let's cover the material from the week of May 22nd to May 28th. ABG - Chrono Trigger "Children of Time" [VGMix2 #4238] Shawn Overn brings it this week with a nearly 10-minute long trance affair that screams authenticity to the genre. To me, the sound was too swamped when everything came into play, but when I say the sound is authentic to the genre, that isn't a polite way of saying it's generic. The homage to Robert Miles' "Children" was apparent here in this nice take on the often-mixed Zeal theme "Corridors of Time" that your inner Zeality will love. I wouldn't mind hearing Shawn tackle some more material that's outside of the FF/CT arena, but he nonetheless puts out some solid stuff. While I love the superlative progressive trance pieces I've encountered in the community, Shawn can really take it to you in more of a "mainstream" style. It grooves, it morphs, it develops. Perfect for the club, so check it out. AkumajoBelmont - Jazz Jackrabbit 1 "Have You Ever? (Down in Medivo)" [VGMix2 #4189] The voice intro here is so awesome, you can help but keep listening in. This is some cool spacey electronic material, so don't let the source game fool you. I thought the drums were the weak link here, very plain jane and not thick at all, but they're at least serviceable. This one's relatively short at 2:48, but the development is substantial enough where you feel that a lot has taken place in this Medivo World remix. The vocal section introing the mix repeated at the end which was a little bit of a letdown (despite the obvious usage of it to give the mix a cyclical close), but this was some solid material nevertheless. I'd love to see this tweaked some more before it hit the judges panel, but Robbie's nonetheless very dependable with this nice non-jazzy spin on the only video game jackrabbit I've ever heard of. E-Bison - Chrono Trigger "Time Management" [VGMix2 #4191] I normally don't spotlight re-releases of older material, but Eliot's not very active in the scene, so any release from him is something to look forward to. As one of the few remixers on OCR to have what's considered a legendary mix for their only remix on the site, this complete version of the classic "Time Management" now-available at VGMix is required downloading. Eliot complained that the full version of this mix couldn't be submitted due to the "stupid" no-MP3s-greater-than-6MB rule. Even some of us on the judges panel don't agree with the rule, but if anything it helps establish VGMix as the place to be in order to discover legendary but lengthy tracks that couldn't see the light of day on OCR due to their size. If you've heard the OCR version of Time Management, the extended version is literally all that and more. You won't find yourself disappointed by any of the new material found here. Fatty Acid & Sephfire - Final Fantasy 10-2 "Under a New Moon" [VGMix2 #3324 (removed) / OC ReMix #1357] I remembering hearing this one on VGMix and I'll reveal that I done a bad thing by reporting it to the admins as a remix of an already posted mix. Before y'all kill me, it was bound to happen anyway, but one thing I knew as I grabbed the mix was that it would be an undiscovered gem by the time it hit OCR due to my dutiful/evil machinations. [i grin like a cat here.] There really isn't another mix here in the Pimp Section this week that allows you to chillax, so if you're really looking for something light and downtempo, Joe & Dan's collab is where u be at and stuff, receiving the plug from zyko as being great music to slow down the speed of life with. Quite the unique piece as far as OCR's body of material is concerned, it's almost like SimCity music only a bit more active. housethegrate - Final Fantasy 6 "Seized with Fury" [VGMix2 #3932 / OC ReMix #1356] Alexander Liss has been on my radar for quite some time due to his consistently strong DoD work, so I was glad he bit the bullet and submitted the superlative "Seized with Fury". I pretty much said my piece on this one in my judging decision, but with house and his brother Ashane both subbing quality material to the site, it'll hopefully mean that more will be coming in the future. We're not so bad here, are we? In any case, "The Decisive Battle" & "The Fierce Battle" are given the rawk/rok pimpage from house, further establishing the Decisive Battle as one of the new generation of heavily mixed tracks. Alex doesn't do you dirty, including a lil' baby piece of CastleVania's "Vampire Killer" for those of you perceptive enough to catch it. Do the right thing with "Seized with Fury" and take it 2 da house! (God, that was lame.) Infamous - Xenophobe "There Are Aliens in My Closet and They Won't Leave" [VGMix2 #4121] Chris hooks it up on the Commodore 64 side with some tight electronica from yet another C64 game with cool music that I've never heard of. Infamous's production has never been poor, but I felt there was some measure of improvement here that made this mix enjoyable. The beats, buzzing synths, and sustained strings were mixed pretty damn well, and I especially loved the bassline. 3 solid minutes of well-developed electronic flavor that'll keep ya moving. Don't let the obscurity of the game for most of you make you pass this up, as Infy's quite the capable mixer representing the European side of the community. jdproject - "The Way I Feel" [http://www.joedarwish.net] Joe Darwish, another OC ReMixer with one legendary mix to his name, is someone you'd know about on the original side if you've been frequenting his website. Joe's primary expertise is in making mainstream guitar-driven pop, so if you're interested in hearing him slow things down as compared to "The Ken Song", this is where you need to be. Joe could easily pass for a mainstream pop act, which is exactly what he'd like to be in a perfect world. The mixing is pretty good, especially since Joe's been handling it himself. If this guy had money thrown behind him, he'd be pretty damn dangerous, and I can tell you that's not an exaggeration (hey, I can't listen to non-mainstream music ALL the time). Best of luck to jdproject as he continues work on his second EP. I'd love to see him make it in the big-time and sell out for the $$$. We don't deserve to hide him. Kevin Stephens - Xenogears "Knight of Fire" [splendid Performance: Audition 1 / VGMix2 #3023] Kevin continues to impress on the arrangement side with this Xeno mix featuring the piano doing its thing. The transitions at 1:08 was way too sudden, so you don't really get much breathing room or notice before ideas change, but there weren't any other sweeping changes going on here, so you may be thrown for a loop at 1:08 while listening to this, but you'll just as soon regain your footing as you continue onward. The human touch on Kevin's pieces is one that others have criticized in the past, so those among you who don't like the velocities here may have qualms, but I was all about it, 'bout it here. I won't lie, as I don't quite get where the imagery of a Knight of Fire comes into play here, but that's a relatively insignificant part of the picture. I always look forward to Kevin's work. Have you downloaded this yet...? mellogear - SimCity 3000 "Sim Shitty (in-stereo)" [VGMix2 #4200] Haven't heard a damn thing in a while from Jon Delvaux, so you take the mello style and mix it with a underappreciated favorite like SimCity and you get some dope results. Hell, for a groove-biased gentleman such as myself, I don't really mind that this is mostly beat kwak. No matter what, you'll be nodding your head, even during some of the freestyle work thrown in from 2:08 to 2:50. And just to point out, the "(in-stereo)" portion of the title is far from a simple redundancy. Can you handle the drastic panning effects thrown your way fron 3:33 until the end? There's only one way to find out, isn't there? mv - "Star Wars KWAK" [http://mv.vgmix.com] Xavier drops a mere 2 hours of work making some brief but nice mixage of some John Williams Star Wars material. If Star Wars gets ya off, you'll only need 1 minute and 11 seconds when mv's done with ya. Cave in and get this ear candy. I'd tell ya what particular track this movie mix tackled by name, but hey, I don't speak dork. Ork Estral - "Rotating Room of Invisible Cats and Toking Centipedes" [http://nigel.has.it] When I think of avant garde style orchestral artists (and I'm PROBABLY grossly misusing the term avant garde, but WORK WITH ME), Shnabubula tends to come to mind, but as far as I'm concerned Ork Estral, otherwise known around these parts as Nigel Simmons was the innovator. I've always been insanely biased towards Nigel's original work as opposed to his remixes, because Ork really cuts loose on some of his original stuff, and Rotating Room was no exception. If you love off-kilter orchestration that would fit right at home in a professional movie score, download this one immediately. This original composition never stays in the same place for more than a fraction of a second. Patrick Wagstaff - Donkey Kong Land 1 "Funky City" [VGMix2 #4193] The groove is too plain, so it's not gonna kick your ass, but Pat gets a little light-hearted with Gameboy mix of muzak from the character I had the privilege of impersonating for Kong in Concert. The arrangement took an unsettling turn via a key change around the 2 minute mark, but things soon got back into the swing of things. Nothing great here, but still worth checking out, as Patrick's a name to watch on the development side, as he's not afraid to try any and all ideas with his mixes. He really needs to step it up with synth design and production here, but hey, it's better than I can do, eh? Rexy & KyleJCrb - Dragon Warrior 4 "Requiem of a Warrior" (Version 2.0) [VGMix2 #4195] Talking to Kyle on VG Frequency #60, the scene's most knowledgable rock enthusiast could only crap on his own guitar performance the first time around when this mix was entered in the Dwelling of Duels Dragon Warrior competition. While serviceable the last time around, here, Kyle's performance better accentuated the material compositionally, though for some reason the recording on it sounded a lot more lo-fi and distant this time, so it doesn't really sit well amidst the synth orchestration. Meanwhile, the synth strings could use some further work on the note-to-note movement to evoke more realism. Aside from those particular issues, you get to hear some interesting stuff as the track really does come across as one of those rock/orchestral hybrid pieces, not in the sense of most of the scene material you've heard, but more analogous to classical music being used to accentuate a rock piece. You also get to hear Bev with some brief vocal work near the end, so there's a lot to check out in one sitting. Needs some real refinement with the synth strings in particular, but this was some ambitious stuff from Bev alongside Kyle, who I also hope to hear more from in terms on actually contributing to future arrangements. tefnek - Contra 1 "Snow Field" [OC ReMix #1355] Jack Kirkpatrick surprised me with this one in my inbox, which allowed me to play it for VG Frequency #50, and the world was beautiful at that moment in time, for who among you can lay down the big beats like this man? Transposing the original Contra material to big beat did kind of take the "tenseness" out of the source material, as you're not gonna listen to this and feel like part of a crack commando squad set out to destroy alien forces with hot ass weapons and a spray power-up. But in fact, you're still on the squad. No, you're not gonna run and jump around everywhere. But you're still gonna dodge every laser and bullet fired at you. Cuz with these beats, you're gonna do it, and you're gonna do it while struttin'. zircon - "Hourglass" [impulse Prime] PICK OF THE WEEK: zircon - "Studies in Ether" [impulse Prime] Fellow OC Judge Andy Aversa dropped two more releases from Impulse Prime my way with the awesome beat-driven "Hourglass" as well as the more ambient "Studies in Ether". If you're any fan of felloe big beat ReMixer tefnek, "Hourglass" will keep your music collection some excellent company featuring some impressive synth design, some meaty production, and enchanting female vox sampling courtesy of the industry staple vocal library Symphony of Voices. Meanwhile, continue your muzak education this week with the very enveloping "Studies in Ether" featuring some more quality beatwork, modulating synths and beautiful ambient pads, all coming together to provide my personal favorite track on the album. Studies is a track you can really put on in the background that relaxes you yet remains active enough to keep your mind engaged. Hell, I'd love to drive down a long, deserted stretch highway at night with this song providing the soundtrack. Impulse Prime continues to impress me, so head over to Zircon Studios to get more information on the upcoming album. zykO - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Mysticism 2000" [zykO zone / VGMix2 #4227] weed absolutely warps the Mystic Cave Zone with this heavily distorted Sonic 2 mix. It even features some Oil Ocean references. Part of what I like about zyko's shit is that he's not afraid to absolutely cut loose and not give two shits about mixing or production when his primary concern is putting out the music as a sheer form of expression. If you're looking for refinement, weed might say "go fuck yourself", as a full minute of this was nothing but the crunchiest of crunchy guitar work. But stick around for things; 5 years in the making, this isn't meant to please ya aurally, but it's much like the car accident where you can't look away. Gotta love that plucky finish too. And with that, I bid you adieu for now. ‘Till next time (whenever that is).

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/vvnurmi/midis/Doom - "At Doom's Gate (E1M1)", "Kitchen Ace (And Taking Names) [E1M4]" & "Sinister (E2M6)" Wish people would say what the hell they're specifically mixing. Cool subtle intro and the screaming leading up to the guitar work coming in at :52 was an excellent idea, especially keeping the name of the remix in mind. I liked the expanded cover of "At Doom's Gate" coming in at 1:12, including the subtle voice effects in there to start it off. Things quickly moved into an original section starting at 1:38, including some nice progressive style soloing at 1:49 played on top of "Kitchen Ace" that reminded me of Christian Pacaud's style, though I suppose faster. Nice transition at 2:21 into the riffing, subsequently leading into some more subtle work arranging "Sinister" VERY briefly from 2:20-2:30, and then going into what I can only guess was an original section from 2:30-3:11, since none of the Doom MIDIs I listened to sounded anything like it. Sounded vaguely like "Suspense (E1M5)", but maybe analoq can break it down for us. More arrangement of "At Doom's Gate" followed from 3:21-3:56 before going to the finish. The transitions all seemed fine to me; perhaps too sudden for some, but they worked well in a progressive sense. The performance on guitar was solid, and the other sequenced instrumentation fit pretty well. The track did sound dull, so a better encoding could give it some sharpness, but I wouldn't have a huge problem with it going up as is, MINUS the 17 seconds of silence left at the end of the track as well. Unacceptable to actually post the track like that until that's fixed at least. In any case, the mastering needs a bit more work, but overall, the mixing was still done reasonably well. YES

Hahahaha! Channel your inner Wingless, my son.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 311 "Dragon God", 308 "Dragon's Prayer", 216 "People Seized With Life" & 305 "Orphan of Flame" Pimped this one in late May for VGF: Oh, homey, you didn't hit me with the revisions & refinement. :'-( It's what allowed your Dark Cloud mix, that otherwise would have been rejected in its VGMix form, to pass the panel fairly easily. First things first: if you mix more than 2 source tunes, it REALLY helps me and others better evaluate the level of arrangement if you give us a time breakdown of when & how you used the various themes. Especially for someone who's never played Chrono Cross or been a big fan of its music, I have no damn clue what you did here, and what relates to what. Not to shit on you here, but offhand this doesn't even sound much like any of these source tunes, and I'm not exactly inclined to figure it out on my own. Sorry, bro. Help a brother OUT. In any case, Vigilane the rock ninja was spot on with some of the problems here in this mix. Everything sounded the same dynamically and therefore created the impression that there was no real development. There were some changeup in the patterns, but most of the instrumentation combinations all sounded the same the whole time, so the feel of the track never changed. The African drumloop and sustained strings were particular culprits at sounding repetitive. A lot of your instruments mushed together during the busier sections (e.g. 1:27-1:49), so you need to adjust the balance amongst them and position only a few elements prominently. The use of your string samples was particularly bad. In something like "Moon Dust" where you barely used them, their obvious syntheticness and the disparity in their quality compared to your other sounds didn't hurt that mix much. But here, they definitely killed it. You sometimes had these really unrealistic and drawn out sustained notes (e.g. 1:17-1:26 & 1:38-1:49) where there was seemingly no bow movement. And the jerky note-to-note movements with the strings from 2:32-2:58 really hurt the last section and exposed your samples. In general, you need a lot of work in terms of synth orchestration and making things sound realistic on that level. The woodwinds sounded serviceable, but the strings and brass didn't have believable performance dynamics. Definitely scope out the ReMixing forum, because these sample aren't being used at their best as all. This was definitely a step back in quality from your two posted mixes, Damon, but I wouldn't be discouraged, because like you said this was new ground for you and you're trying something different. Certainly ain't nothing wrong with that as long as you're dedicated to learning more and improving. I'm interested in particular at what Gray would have to say on this one. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/dq2.zip - Tracks 5 & 11 I didn't read Gray or Eric's opinions yet, but I'll simply say that the arrangement was good, but I was underwhelmed with the mix on a personal level, as it just wasn't my cup o' tea. I'm sure I'll appreciate it a bit more after several listens though, as it does pull off the delicate approach well. Also, the production here was solid. On the minus side, I still feel Bev's style here was rather plucky and in this case overly gentile, but I think giving the mix more reverb or the performance more sustain to fill the space out more would help give this mix a more body and presence. Nonetheless, this mix wasn't plagued with some of the rougher mistakes I've heard in Bev's past work. The performance was too plucky for my tastes, like I mentioned, but nevertheless came across as more confident and dexterous than her past work. Beyond the performance itself, I didn't hear any really sloppy stuff going on, like notes occasionally having no release, which is an annoying problem for any electronically-made piano mix. Looking at Gray's comments, I definitely agreed with him that the atmosphere was too dry, and Noir articulated very well how there was a distinct lack of dynamics in the piece as compared to what the composition suggests. SPICE IT UP WITH PIZAZZ N'SHIT! You had some performance dynamics noticeably going on, don't get me wrong, but they could have been a lot more pronounced and emotive. And nothing's changed in that your supporting work under the melody was usually thin. I liked the reference to "Unknown World" at from 2:36-2:50 by the way. Very nice way to slip it into the picture and have it fit seamlessly with the main source tune arrangement. Best of luck on the rest of the vote, and props on what likely will be the first posted DW2 mix on the site. The peepz shall lovez. Keep up the improvement, Bev.

Thanks Larry, I stand corrected. Oh, no problem yo. I once made the same mistake on a Space Harrier source tune. NSF Track 5 there was just in there later on in Track 2. Hell, I'd never played that game. Now, courtesy of Microsoft's smash hit game Zoon Tycoon 2, here's a picture of a gazelle:

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - "Mine Cart Madness" (dkc-11.spc) Damn computer had a memory dump RIGHT after I finished my vote and was about to post it. Bah, let's write it again, cuz Ty is sexy (i.e. I remembered all of the points I made). I really liked the intro here; it was stylish as hell with some nice buzzy synths and ambient sounds. The source wasn't really brought in until the guitars at :42 played some chords derived from the intro of "Mine Cart Madness." A synth playing the Mine Cart melody joined in at 1:01, though it didn't cut through well as the lead since the guitars took up most of the space here. The repetitiveness of the drums wasn't a huge hit initially, but those drum shots definitely sounded too synthetic and lacked punch. I really loved the spooky ambient transition from 1:32-1:42. Such a sweet idea moving into the guitar work at 1:42 to build things up, I loved it. The intro chords from :42 of the mix basically returned at 2:03 but they weren't as distorted this time around and allowed the melody to show through a lot better at 2:23. Nonetheless, the lead and supporting elements still mudded together and would need to good EQ work to better separate the sounds. BTW, 2:23-onward's not from "DK Island Swing", but just from later on in the source tune (:51-1:33 of Mine Cart, actually). Reading Harmony's vote after I wrote all of my own, I definitely agreed that the lack of dynamics in the rhythm guitars made them feel synthetic, which was a shame. The lead guitar work after 2:23 could have been a little tighter on the performance, especially the freestylish arrangement after 3:04, but that's nothing that couldn't have been worked on. The tone on the guitar work was rather thin, and it seemed as if the tracked relied on the supporting guitars and drums to fill up the space and give the track some power, though I felt myself that that shortchanged the track. The rhythm chords and drum pattern repeated ad naseum from 2:23 until the end at 4:20 (with only a slight alteration in the support guitars at 3:57), so that would have needed to be varied a LOT more. Sounded like the drum pattern was just a placeholder anyway, but hopefully the intent was to change that later into something that didn't have the same pattern and the same intensity drumshot every time. There was also a synth on support from 2:23-onward, but you could BARELY hear it at all, so it was almost a non-factor. The ending itself was abrupt and offered no resolution either, but that just sounded like another placeholder decision. Not sure of how much use it'll be to overview the problems, but in any case vary up the patterns in your instrumentation substantially, hook things up on the production/EQ side so the sounds are better separated, and tighten up the performance a little bit (though that was certainly decent). Meh, I know you know what to do. It's definitely a shame that the source files were lost here, as I'm sure that Ty could have easily gotten this to a passing level, and likely wouldn't have submitted this as is if the source files hadn't messed up. The world definitely needs more 4:20-long remixes. At least post this to VGMix if you want, and pimp this out on some level. This would have been an easy NO-resubmit if resubmission were actually a possibility. :'-( Maybe revisit this idea down the line? NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Overworld" (loz3-04.spc) Mix opened up with some stock boom-tss, which actually wasn't bad. Pretty decent boom-tss, though the sounds and texture were incredibly generic and lacked fullness and power. The source melody finally came in at :55 with some trance adaptation. The melody was finally played around with a bit at 1:23, but those admirable arrangement ideas only lasted until 1:37, then it was back to the verbatim melody with the dance kick and claps. 2:04 featured some different arrangement, and the boom-tss grove was definitely dragiing out its welcome at this point. You really gotta switch up the beatwork earlier and often, as the foundations of your track were detrimentally repetitive, and indeed we finally got something new at 2:59. The tempo and general atmosphere changed up as compared to the first half, though the distortion at some points was a bit much. The faster tempo returned at 3:48 and the arrangement just retread itself from 3:55-4:34, which wasn't bueno. Not a bad, miminalist idea for the ending, BTW. The arrangement as a whole needs more creativity and overt interpretation of the Zelda source material. The arrangement needs to possess more melodic interpretation than what's present here. There were some merely average ideas on that level, and there was too much of the track just using the Overworld theme verbatim while placing the beatwork and other trance sounds underneath. I agreed fully with Gray there that the synth design and processing needs to be more creative, as most of the stuff sounded pretty defaulty, though the texture wasn't abominable. And indeed, trim the song down as Shna suggested, because right now it just drags along. Hang out in the ReMixing forum and learn a lot more, as you have a modicum of potential, and use the WIP forum for feedback before future submissions. NO

Motherfucker English, speak it do yous?

Gotta fly without the source tune for this one. Too bad too; based on the Maple Story website, it looks like a really professional-grade freeware game. Maybe someone can play that shit and dig up the source tune. If you're gonna submit from a game like this where the source material is hard to find, try and record it and send it along with your submission, Tyler. Hell, give your submission a more creative name too. Oooh, I'm being groove biased so good with the intro. Loving that low synth filling out the low end. But the melody starting up at :47 had such a generic electrosynth on the lead that it failed to effectively distinguish itself from the other sounds there. Bah, it's gonna be a generic synth showcase. The chorus (if you will) starting at 1:18 left that saw wave really exposed, and it just didn't function well here. Perhaps swap that one thing out for something else and give this mix a more unique texture. Also, that chorus from 1:18-1:32 dragged like nobody's business, repeating ad nauseum until 2:52. Don't drag that one part out like that, or at least apply some variations to it instead, cuz it's part of the foundation of the track and it made the rest of the track seem too repetitive to me despite a lot of additional elements being added on top of the groove moving toward the end. Not bad I suppose, but the composition doesn't eclipse the overly generic texture of your sounds. On the plus side, I thought the production here was pretty sweet. Everything on that level sounded pretty good. Perhaps see what you can do on the synth design level by hitting the ReMixing forum. Whatever you can do beyond, say, the 1:49 mark to vary up the arrangement would help keep the track from dragging. Interesting stuff. NO (resubmit)

That makes me a saaaad panda Ha! I knew someone would get it.

Pretty good ambient/new-age stuff here, indeed making a lot out of a little source tune. I wouldn't even bother relating this mix to "Dreaming on Distant Shores", because, as Gray pointed out, with Rellik's mix the source tune usage was far from overt. As soon as the track opened up, the source was recognizable and the atmosphere was relaxing. I thought the lil' percussion hits up until 1:23 were too tepid, so I liked when Lee beefed things up with thicker perc work after 1:24. After around 2:00, the ambiance created by the strings felt a little too muddy to me, and the melody could have shown through better, but otherwise things were good. Wouldn't have minded some more attention to the higher frequencies to make things sound sharper, but that's not a meaningful knock against the piece. I would also like to hear Lee venture into some new percussion ideas down the line, cuz I don't quite feel that what he used gelled as well as possible with the rest of the mix. We hit some nice original material at 2:44 with some very ethereal wind SFX and wind instrumentation. I liked the light stuttering perc stuff at 3:13, which was a nice, subtle way to introduce the idea of a few more stuttering perc shots at 3:20 & 3:23. A nitpick, but I also have to wonder what the point of using that stuttering percussion just a few times without bringing it back later on in the track. The source material cycled back in at 3:24 with the thick beatwork returning at 4:06, and some nice little embellishment including additional some acoustic guitar embellishments, first prominently heard at 4:08. Good way to go for another iteration, adding some new instrumentation ideas into the mix that preserved the flow, but added some more meat for a strong finish. That's something I would have liked to have seen in OverCoat's SD3 "Path-ology" mix that worked very well here. After a string of really iffy and rushed submissions, I'm really glad to have heard something more solid from Lee right here that doesn't leave any questions as to the level of arrangement. Stay consistent with this kind of stuff, and it'll be nothing but gold. You fans out there can beg Lee for a version without the drums in there, because you gamer geeks need some good make-out music with which to woo the ladies. YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "The Hidden Truth" (ct-1-22.spc) http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 404 "Lunatic Pandora" I liked the breakbeat style intro up until :21. I suppose I can vaguely see how you changed a section of Hidden Truth (:00-:12) to create the stuff from :32-1:16, and then the new bassline-type lead from 1:16-1:38, but there's basically no real connection to Hidden Truth and is a negligible connection. Arrange the stuff in a recognizable fashion please. Also the production was awful. The treble frequencies were way too high the whole time resulting in nasty clipping and distortion any time the cymbals were in play. Everything's mixed too loud and everything just comes off abrasively, especially during fuller sections like 1:15-1:38. That new electric guitar synth at 1:06 was terrible. We finally moved over into an easily recognizable arrangement of "Lunatic Pandora" at 2:00, but unlike Shna, I don't think the approach to arranging that theme here was not fine in the spirit of what OC's about. The source material, at least for that section, was nicely interpreted here. It definitely could have used a greater portion of Lunatic Pandora, but I don't mind what you used. But again, the production and levels were awful. 2:39-3:12 was still a bit abrasive and loud but was mixed decently, and I liked how you wrote the ending there. On the OTHER hand 2:17-2:38, Jesus, it's just too damn loud for no good reason whatsoever. Look, I'm not gonna lie, I'm frustrated just listening to this, because it could be sweetly made dNb track, but you keep mixing everything too loud as if it sounds better that way. Is it really that hard to tone it down? It won't ruin the track, I can tell you that. All 4 of your posted mixes are mixed a LOT more reasonably and with more balance without sacrificing power, and I just don't understand why you were mixing those tracks nicely while these recent submissions of yours are mixed so poorly. Stop clipping and start giving me the well-produced goods. As far as this mix goes, the material until 2:00 needs to have a lot more to do with Hidden Truth, because the arrangement is practically unrecognizable. And c'mon bro, fix those levels please. You're better than that. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Fanfare 1" (ct-1-20.spc) & "Kaeru's Theme" (ct-1-19.spc) Opened up with some very plain orchestration of "Fanfare 1" followed by a slight variation on it at :22, slowing things down a bit. No idea what source tune was involved from :44-1:22. Maybe that was the sad song Brendan was referring to, but I had no idea what source tune it was based on the info he gave, since those weren't album tracknames. Gotta come correct with the submission info, please. The transition at 1:21 into the tamborines was a bit too sudden, though it's not a dealbreaker as it can work in many contexts. I respect the variation on Frog's theme brought in 1:29, though it sounded WAY too close to "Jib Jig" from DKC2. I dunno why it was written like that, either subliminally or overtly, but it just sounded too much like Blizihizake's "Set Sail". I can understand Shna's concerns about the exposed strings from 1:30-1:45, but I don't think it was anything terrible. The orchestration doesn't sound very believable, but that's only for the very descriminating ear. Brendan can certainly use more time looking into fine tuning his sounds so that they roll more naturally, but this wasn't awful by any means, and I've heard people make total crap with these sounds, which this isn't. I felt the arrangement with Frog's theme was the most promising stuff here, but the melody itself still could have been handled more creatively, and the Fanfare 1 stuff wasn't creative at all. Your ending also abruptly cut out at 3:25. The arrangement needs to be more interpretive and creative, and for this genre I don't believe the arrangement is where it needs to be. The orchestration was pretty vanilla and simplistic, I'll agree with Izz, but I think Bren at least some promise at improving there. Keep at it, sir. NO

I liked the first more than the second half, as I get my chill bias going, but this was some nice work. Certainly not one to pass up...for the ladies! Nice stuff, Dale & Pat.

Aw crap, I accidentally left this in my PM box since May 31. Shit, sorry Jimmy, let's get it back on here. Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=50560 I wanna apologize again to Jimmy for overlooking his resub in my PM box. He did some good tweaks on the first minute to more overtly incorporate "Go Down" into the intro, so my arrangement concerns with the track were fixed. This took a similar approach to SuperGreenX's "Kick Your A" where the source tune was generally placed in the background and a new lead melody was created on top of the source. After getting the breakdown from Jimmy on how he had used five different sections of the original within the piece, I'm glad to pass it. Let's break it down so this doesn't run into any problems this time: The supporting baseline that faded in at :11 and lasted until :56 was arranged from the intro of the source (:00-:14). The synth from :56-1:22 was arranged from :28-:53 of the source. The orchestral strings fading in at 1:32 and lasting until 2:21 were arranged from 1:40-1:54 of the source. The music from the part with the voice clip (2:22-3:16) was arranged from 1:11-1:39 of the source. The secton from 3:18-3:47 was arranged from 2:23-2:44 of the source. Like I said before, I definitely felt that the track sounded a lot like the Unreal style, but I was totally wrong about the level of arrangement the last time around, as the arranged sections taken from the source tune were used regularly throughout the track. Aside from pointing out where the actual arrangement was, the original additions made here by Jimmy definitely felt like a natural fit. I know you mentioned to Alexander Brandon that this was gonna be something you submitted, so I hope other Unreal fans appreciate it as well. Nice work on this third mix, bro, and I look forward to hearing more from you whenever you're able to get back in the game. Congratulations on the upcoming marriage! YES

Nice work, n00b! And by that, I mean Sam. As for brick, read the submissions standards sometime. This had shit to do with FF for the major majority of the track and the filesize was too large regardless. NO thanks.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 307 "Song of Prayer ~ Shiva" I appreciate the go at trying to fit this under 6MB, Shawn, but the encoding here was way too lossy. 5.46MB leaves some breathing room space-wise, so I'd go for a VBR encoding and try and get a lot closer to 6MB. The track had a lot of spots where the sound was too loud and cluttered, and the track lacks clarity, though the bitrate can't be completely blamed for that frankly. Nonetheless, the 128kbps version over at VGMix sounded decent, so I dunno why this 96kbps version sounds so much worse in comparison. In any case though, there's nothing here related to "Song of Prayer" in this track other than the sampled vocals, and that don't jive. The music itself has to be derived from the source material. I dunno where you found JJesper's piano arrangement that you based the chord progression around, but it doesn't sound a bit like Song of Prayer; probably another track like this one where the artist added original music underneath Song of Prayer vox. If you removed the sampled vox from this piece, poof, no rearrangement. NO Override I've liked your past stuff including Resident Evil 2 "Ada's Groove" and especially your CT/FF7 collab with auxiva "Lavos vs. Jenova (GTA3 Apocalypse)". Why not encode that at 128kbps or in VBR and submit that instead?

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/Authors/Game/Huelsbeck_Chris/Jim_Power.lha - mdat.ingame_3 I used DeliPlayer to check out the source material. This was a decent genre adaptation, not uncommon in the Commodore mixing scene. I liked some of the slightly altered support instrumentation ideas, and I'm certainly glad that this wasn't a rip, but aside from that I didn't feel as if there was much going for it creatively. The arrangement wasn't very expansive or interpretive overall and the track clipped like it was getting paid to. Good cover-ish mix, but it rides on the strength of Chris Hülsbeck's original material. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ninja_ga.zip - Track 9 [NES version] http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ngt.rsn - "Mine" (ngt-120.spc) [sNES version] Good stuff with this one. Played it back on VGF59, and knew it would be here relatively soon. Some of the steel-string guitar plucks really get up there in volume. Scale it back. Bah. Anyway, Don had another nice mix, this time a bit more conservative but certainly not without its personal flair and charm, and plenty of expanded instrumentation ideas. Everything was stylish and varied as far as the arrangement went, and there's not really any question about that. Dunno if DarkeSword will feel that this mix was also plagued with the punchiness of "Flurry of Frozen Fury", but in any case I had no doubts that I liked this, though the production work wasn't as solid as it was in Flurry. The mixing became an issue during some of the fuller parts, most notably the last little bit from 3:49-4:04; the volume was excessive and the sounds cluttered together a bit. Something to work on in the future. Keep 'em coming! YES

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 113 "Leaving the Body" I liked how you toned down the volume a little bit and eliminated some of the needlessly loud high frequencies from last time, like the cymbal activity. But aside from that, there really wasn't much difference in the production here as compared to your last version, which I kept because I liked it a hell of a lot. I see that you added panning on those synths from :40-:54 & 2:06-2:20, and I liked the idea there, but that was the only significant panning idea involved in the whole track. Nonetheless, those sounds were very clear. Same goes for that saw-like synth you added in from 1:25-1:52. You should pull back the volume on that particular synth, but that sounded clear and crisp as well. Any idea how to get the rest of your track sounding like that? The track did sound noticeably cleaner than before, but it still sounds too distant and muffled. Check it out on some good headphones. I'm glad you didn't change the arrangement though. No need to touch that gold. Sorry my man, but there's still a lot of work to be done with the mixing on this track. It really needs to be overhauled from the ground up. Really get things sounding awesome before you try resubmitting it again. Also, PM a judge to check it out for a resubmission instead of submitting through djpretzel a second time. You could have saved yourself a lot of wait time. NO (resubmit)

Hahaha, so fucking dope! Though the instrumentation obviously doesn't sound human, this was some stylish stuff, and I thought it the MGS2 Main Theme was excellently arranged for salsa. I loved simple but effective ideas like using the piano on support to play chords from the original. The movements on the intro strings strained for credibility and realism, leaving me underwhelmed, but once things kicked in at :31 things were a lot more positive. The lead horn could use some more work, but the effort there along with the effort in the rest of the instrumentation was commendable overall. Loved the baseline, shakers, and percussion. Great stuff. The sudden-stop ending left me muy triste because this could have wrapped up more strongly and creatively, but otherwise, this was some nice shit. If anyone rejects on the grounds of "make it longer" or "make a better ending", I don't have a problem with that, but I myself felt the rest of the track made up for those issues. Nicely done, Jorge. I look forward to hearing you develop and improve with future work. YES

http://www.zophar.net/usf/pdusf.rar - 26b "Air Force One: Anti-Terrorism" Not a bad original intro here for the first 40 seconds or so. The soundfield was cluttered and the mixing lacked any polish, but the groove was decent. The lead synth entering at :43 finally brought the source's melody into play. The arrangement mostly proceeded with additive ideas gradually coming into play until 1:36 removed some ideas, which didn't really retain my interest in this case. I thought the structure was too repetitive. Nothing melodic changed until 2:28, which was just over halfway through the track. At that point, there were nothing in the background driving the track along, since the bassline had been removed, but some cymbal work finally filled things out a bit around 3:03. Even just going into 3:30, the track really dragged along with further repetition. Either trim the repetitive fat off this or provide some more variation in the arrangement. Also, find out what you can do to achieve a better speration of sounds here, as well as perhaps add some other support instrumentation to give this track some drive and direction. Good stuff for a first sub; you had some good ideas and as well as the potential to make some powerful sounding stuff in the future. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/mpnt.rsn - Creative Exercise (mpnt-09.spc) I ended up not feeling anything I've heard from the happy hardcore genre so far, but I think that's because I haven't anything awesome from the genre yet. Palpable's take on it certainly has a lot of potential, but I don't think it lives up to his previous tracks just yet. Not a fan of the keyboard being so exposed like that from :12-:33 & 1:59-2:10; just sounded really tacky and default-ish. The lead coming in at :35 did a nice job of relegating it to being the support instrumentation. When the keyboard was prominent and exposed it sounded awful, but in the back it added to the track nicely. The chorus from :58-1:08 would be all kosher with me if the volume didn't get so loud the and soundfield wasn't so swamped. The texture of the synths, keyboard, claps, orchestral stabs, beats, etc, felt awfully thin to me, and I felt the arrangement should have done something more with the theme from 2:22 until the end, rather than retread what you already laid down before. Good stuff so far, but I feel as if it could be more in regards to the instrumentation, as well as the arrangement in the second half. NO (resubmit)

Opened with some MIDI-grade instrumentation with the strings; very artificial sounding. The wind stuff was a bit better, and the vox was average. Not many elements were in play here at any give time, using reverb/delay on the vox to fill up the soundfield instead. Not a bad tempo change around the two minute mark. That hand percussion stuff that came in at that time was too loud/prominent over the top of the other sounds. Finally some meat to the arrangement with some brass at 2:57, though for me that's too little too later. The soundfield was pretty swamped from that point onward. Not bad, but nothing that varied much in the arrangement or stood out as interesting. Keep at it, bro. Definitely not bad at all for a first mix. NO