Liontamer

http://s-island.mixnmojo.com/sm.html - 17 "Doug, the Moleman" Heh. The original sounds decent; thanks a lot for providing it. Never really had a chance to play Sam & Max or watch their cartoon show, but they looked cool. I was initially liking the complete non-sequitur-ness of the intro, and was feelin' it on a Shnabubula-type level, then that shizzy horn sample came in at :14. Sounds like it could be cool, but every time it comes in, the volume gets muted. Odd, but probably some issue where having X amount of sounds in play messes up the overall levels. Some beginner-ish type mistake that another J can explain, I guess. Some strings came in for a pad-like atmosphere at :35, but sounded completely disjointed. There's no sense of sound balance here, as the lead washes out from :35-:47; keep it in the forefront. Cool break with the low strings, basic beats and glassy SFX from :47-1:16 before bringing in the woodwinds and higher strings. Cool-as-hell arrangement, IMO. Then some VERY dry samples came in at 1:31 and sounded pasted on top of the track. Very ugly Fing up of whatever texture you had up to 2:04. That last SFX at 2:21 needs to go, as it messes up the resolution. The ideas are interesting to be sure, much like Sam's stuff, but the execution is just not pulled off well. Needs tons of refinement, Yann, but I appreciated most of what I heard so far. NO (resubmit)

Yoshi's Story Original Soundtrack - 02 "Yoshi's Story" Yoshi's Story Original Soundtrack - 03 "Yoshi's Song" Great live stuff, though I wish it sounded a bit sharper. Yeah, if the hiss could be cut down a bit, that would be good. Pretty basic arrangement for piano until :53 kicked the energy level up. I really like how the "Yoshi's Story" melody was played over the foundation of "Yoshi's Song" from :54-1:24, which I hope other people catch. Things went extra jazzy at 1:14 for the hotness, before moving onto the "Yoshi's Song" melody at 1:24. Good stuff with the key change and extra ornamentation from 1:48 until the end. Everything was full of life. Great mix. Truly magnifique and all that jazz. YES

Source tunes: http://melchior.djpretzel.com/ocrjudge/upload/Source%20Tunes/Yoshi's%20Story%20Original%20Soundtrack%20-%2002%20Yoshi's%20Story.mp3 http://melchior.djpretzel.com/ocrjudge/upload/Source%20Tunes/Yoshi's%20Story%20Original%20Soundtrack%20-%2003%20Yoshi's%20Song.mp3

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 318 "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" & 319 "Aeris' Theme" Yeah, this is definitely decent stuff for a first sub, but the track drones on and on. "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" just goes on forever without developing into anything. Then you just fade-out and don't even offer up a transition to the next theme. After the fadeout and changeup at 3:02, it's some drums for the longest time until "Aeris' Theme" finally (finally, bro) comes in at 4:30. Yeah, not terrible, but all of your work will be much better when you incorporate the concepts of variation and moderation. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 30 "The Doomsday Zone 2 (Final Boss)" Yeah, Harmony and I were listening to the track while chatting. I thought it was a cool track, but the sound balance was terrible on all fronts. Yeah, there's indeed some guitar-esque stuff in there that you can't hear at all that needs to be punched up. I liked the piano intro, but right at :21 was where everything went awry. I agree that there could/should be more dynamic contrast over the course of the track. Everything here is just loud and abrasive. Nonetheless, it's still a pretty good live cover concept for the melody, plus you finally went the rearrangement route at 1:00, which was very welcome. Sound balance still needs tons of work. The drums are boring as hell at 1:20. Add some creative fills or something to the picture. Back into the cover stuff at 1:38, and the levels are nasty. Some more arrangement ideas from 1:47-1:56 before the chorus. The close at 2:27 was odd with those keyboard chords. Didn't sound quite right. You've definitely got the right idea on the arrangement side, but the production is ass. If you can refine things there, José, this would be a winner. Along with the advice of other Js, get help from the ReMixing & Works forums and resub. NO (resubmit)

It just says what's already obvious, i.e. that more popular game series are always gonna get preferential treatment from the "masses", as it were, over all other ReMixes, which I also feel is a huge problem. As a staff member at Ormgas, I wanna stress that it's not a fault of Ormgas's that its Top 100 looks like that. Nonetheless, welcome to OCR's version of mainstream vs. underground appreciation. Getting back on topic to this mix, since it would be bad form to not comment, this was a bit repetitive. The lo-fi, chiptune vibe was pretty good, though the last section went pretty over-the-top with the cymbal usage. The beats were pretty decent though. "Mach Shnell" is certainly cool for what it was back in the day.

Hahaha, this source MIDI has got the bass and the groove. Y'all are apeing it so good, kind MIDI. As for the remix, I actually liked the MIDI more. The tempo was increased, but the sample quality was weak and the sounds were actually thinner than the original; no concept of texture whatsoever. Hahaha! Bass distortion at 2:03, 2:05 and 2:15 for the win. I wish there was more to say, but there really isn't. Ape! Escape! NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/mmx2.rsn - Dangerous Reef (mmx2-09.spc) I'm just kidding. U so cool, Bubble Crab. I thought the bubbly percussion/SFX stuff was cool. Pretty basic sounds, though not put together too badly. Everything from :35-1:23 had no real direction before getting into the melody. The instrumentation was sparse particularly the drums, and the lead synth was very shrill/piercing. Pull it back, homeboy. I liked the strings though. The occasional claps were pretty out of place here, and sound very beginner-ish. Considering you didn't have many instruments in play, you really need to fill out the soundfield more with more ideas. The arrangement, like Vigilante mentioned, needs to have more going for it, though your ideas were at least heading in a positive, though conservative, direction. Not bad. Stick around and use the ReMixing & Works forums to further your improvement and see if you're headed in the right direction. NO

Ironically enough, having listened to "Sneakman" for Song of the Week, Week #34's voting today, I thought this mix took a decent original and completely improved it. There's way more energy in this ReMix as compared to "Sneakman", and I'd pick it over the original any day. If I was a Judge back when this was decided, the vote only would have only been more decisively in this mix's favor. Great job, HB.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman6.zip - Track 8 ("Knightman Stage") Aside from the fact that the submitter got the game name wrong, this was a pretty substandard cover. Very brief, very underdeveloped. Track repeats at 1:03 instead of doing anything new. Not a bad upgrade from the NSF, but the trumpet/brass samples carrying the lead were particularly bad, the percussion beats were too repetitive, and the arrangement was too conservative. Just not nearly ideas brought to the table, or the sound quality and skills to back it up. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Overworld" (loz3-04.spc), "Select Screen" (loz3-11.spc) Didn't recognize anything at all from "Kakariko", whether that be "Kakariko Village" or "Soldiers of Kakariko Village". Anyway, we break it down quickly. The sample quality is fairly weak. You've done a decent job with what you have, but it ultimately doesn't get the job done, and the sequencing doesn't always sound natural/human. The drums are one more noticeable aspect of that, and the note-to-note movements are decent, but nonetheless very artificial sounding. The woodwinds are too loud versus the rest of the instrumentation, and overall the soundfield is very very sparse. Needs to be filled out more by beefing up the supporting instrumentation. Head to the ReMixing & Works forums to learn how to improve your sounds (even for free) & how you use them, and obtain additional fan feedback on your material. NO

http://www.doom2.net/~doomdepot/music/doom%201%20&%202%20midis.zip - E2M1 - Deimos Anomaly & E3M8 - Dis Hate this MIDI pack; the names are all wrong and shizz, but those source tunes are definitely right. Anyway, the mix was nothing but cluttered and indistinct sounding. Way too distorted. "Live concert" sounds were cheap. Certainly sounds like a first try. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/tetris.zip - Track 2 ("Korobushka") and I guess one other theme Couple of things: 1) The instruments are poorly used GM, so the sound quality is an automatic NO. 2) The arrangement is too brief/underdeveloped. 3) Use the ReMixing & Works forums to improve beyond your current means. There's lot of good, FREE ways to improve your music. YES SIR, GENERAL MIDI! NO

Alright, since it's jazzy and it's Sonic 2, and my lady overheard me listening to this, I allowed her to guest judge. She gets her long-winded reviewing style from me. Paige dropped some comments, followed up by my vote: I have a lot of heart, but I'll have you people know I'm a very competent lover. You people don't get any bright ideas. Meh, the Sega intro was bootleg. Do some cool effects on it or something so it can be a cooler transition to the opening. The energy was pretty good leading in, though the brass was already out of tune at :05 for the first few notes of the Casino Night melody, which isn't the strong start you want. The horns playing the melody do need to be placed more in the foreground during the first section. Pretty much sticking to the cover route to open things up, but pulling it off more than decently. The sax solo at :47 was fairly sloppy and messy in places. It's pulled off "OK" but sounds like the player pulled off more than he could chew for the performance. Too much squeakyness, not enough smoothness. Kicks it over to the trumpet solo at 1:06 which is also decent, but has some flat spots, particularly from at 1:15-1:19. What was with that trombone solo from 1:24-1:42? I realize it's supposed to sound free, but the phrasing isn't that well written/improvised, IMO. Very flat, VERY sloppy, just not polished there. The guitar solo at 1:42 was much better pulled off. 2:00 featured a drum/percussion solo with the guitar filling out the back that was pretty good before going back to the source tune at 2:19. I liked how the instrumentation behind the solos would at least keep overtly referencing the Casino Night theme. On that level, I felt the arrangement was a pass, so I wasn't worried there. Got another iteration of the source at 2:19 that was a bit stronger the second time around. Didn't like whatever was in the background there from 2:57-3:07; interfered with the finish a bit, IMO. I gotta say, the first time I listened to this, the mistakes, slight off-timing, and rough spots were really sticking out to me like a sore thumb. Over time, the track became a lot more pleasant to listen to. For the most part things were pulled off well, and I like the ensemble feel you guys went for. Recording in pieces and then trying to synch up the various parts occasionally led to some iffy spots like Paige honed in on, but not a bad effort in trying to piece the track together that way. The sound balance between all of the instruments was a little bit rough, but nothing major to me unlike with Vigilante. But Vig's always pretty spot on, and I agreed with his comments and Paige's about the occasional bad intonation and wonky solos. There were just too many spots where things were out of tune for me to be comfortable with. I also think this has a shot as passing, so this may be able to pull off a nice comeback. If not, I'd say 1) work on adjusting the timing on things slightly so it fits a bit better, particularly the hand drum work, 2) tighten up the overall performance where possible on some of the out of tune spots, and 3) redo the sax, trumpet, and trombone solos. If you do nothing else, do #3. Personally, I thought this was cool, but still have my reservations. Sorry for being a stickler, cool cats. NO (resubmit)

Street Fighter Alpha 2 OST - "Dan Stage" The intro was thin and I didn't like the looped nature of it. Some nice Rhodes chords came in at :18 for a smooth flavor, though they sounded a little buzzy. The "Dan Stage" melody came in at :36, and I'll admit I didn't care for how mechanical the piano sounded on its own. The doubling of the piano with the string/pluck sounds from :54-1:10 did a good job of masking that and providing a little more depth. The chorus at 1:11 was nice, with Posu then taking the foreground, and seguing into the solo at 1:30, which I thought was really stylish even before I saw djp's comment up top about it. The beats felt a little too loud compared to the piano/violin combo. Another iteration of the chorus at 1:48 before going to Josh's solo at 2:06. The writing was good, but there wasn't enough realism in the sound of the performance. Most of the note-to-note movement was very robotic-sounding especially with such fast playing, so while stylish it certainly wasn't smooth. 2:25 has some nice rearrangement going on before another verse of the source tune at 2:42. I wish there was some more overt variation from one iteration of the melody to the next, but the arrangement was pretty good and was able to carry the track fairly well. 3:19 focused on the Rhodes while gradually working toward the end of the track with a steady groove. Would have liked for some more ideas to be thrown on top of the groove for maybe 20-30 seconds before going for the fadeout, just to keep that beat from dragging too long, or otherwise go for a more truncated ending. Track abruptly cuts out at 4:13 during what would have been the last few seconds of the fadeout. Needs to be fixed before it's posted. The loops here run pretty long and barely deviate from their patterns, but the overall flow of the track is good the whole way through. Without disturbing the pacing or energy of the track, I still think more could have been done with the beats/foundation of the track. But after several full listens, I feel it's getting the job done. Nothing astonishing on that level, but capable nonetheless, and luckily compensated for by the foreground material. The genre adaptation and creative solos are well-done here, so while I have some reservations on it, I'm willing to go with the borderline YES.

http://www.zophar.net/usf/pdusf.rar - 20b "Chicago: Stealth" Oh, good stuff with the source. Remember from way back when Danny B made "Silent Ascent". Back then we didn't have the priviledge of having USF files to compare with, so I had to appreciate Dan's mix on it's own. The original though is nice and chill N64 stuff that works well as in-game music and of course has that GoldenEye feel due to Kirkhope's composition and samples. The lead synth was kind of plain, but I actually liked the idea for the intro and like all of the widely panned effects. The beats at :12 didn't really seem to fit, but they were decent. Whatever effect was added in at :25 and used repeatedly didn't work, so I'm glad it stopped at :35. The sound balance gets a little sloppy as more and more elements were being added. :48 went for a weird break section before bringing in a synth playing the "Chicago: Stealth" melody at :59. Right now, the lead synth is very plain, and the various beats and effects going on have nothing to do with the track in any rearrangement sense. If you remove the lead, you can't find anything accompanying or rearranging the source melody, so there's really not a lot of substance vis-a-vis the Chicago theme. 1:35-1:59 had some sampled effects I recognize from tons of other tracks, including (very gratuitously in) most of the Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact soundtrack. The beats and effects are actually louder than the lead synth. As far as OCR goes, the focus seems to be on the added content, and not the source tune, so already I'm not for this one. Nonetheless, I really did like some actual rearrangement of the source when you changed the rhythms of the melody with the synth lead at 1:59. Though it was pretty liberal, That was at least something. That ended at 2:56, and the remaining minute focused on the beats and effects doing various stuff. I liked the last section from 3:24 until the end, even though that was wholly original. On some level, I agree with Vigilante about the track seeming disjointed, but I thought the structure was fine overall and held up ok after several listens. The production was a little rough and imbalanced, but you could get something like this passed if you worked with the melody in more of a rearrangement sense. The Chicago melody was basically converted into a trance lead carried by one lone-sounding synth, but none of the other instrumentation was inspired by the original. Work more towards reinterpreting the melodic content of the source material and making that the focus of the track. Cool stuff so far. NO (resubmit)

You're the man, Kwed! Everyone fight!!

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=65727 Source MIDIs are still available in the original decision. The hiss is still getting on me because it's still significantly there, but it's been cut down dramatically. There are some good spots where there's periodically no hiss, but then hissing'll fade in or jump in, and I'm put off by it. On that level, a lot of the quieter/delicate parts are disrupted. It looks whatever was even left of the higher frequencies got cut in order to make the fix. (Side note, VERY light/non-impactful audio deformation at 3:41.) I'm gonna be the jerk and hold onto a NO borderline, but I can easily see this passing and won't have any issues there. The fixes here were good though I feel the sound quality is still lacking. Very distant and lo-fi. Anyone else that could offer further practical suggestions on eliminating the hiss would be appreciated. Nonetheless, focusing on the arrangement, this was nothing but stylish and well-crafted. Gotta give the props there, and I definitely wish you best of luck on the rest of the vote, bro. I think this has the strength to finally be your debut here.

Recuit Smoke to do a Megaman bio and Zeality for any CT bios.

Street Fighter EX OST - "Strange Sunset" Thanks for providing us the original. Man, it kicks some serious ass too. Not really the kind of thing I'd imagine as a Guile theme, but I was loving the jazzyness, especially the more freestylish stuff I heard. Great job by Ayako Saso. I'm a big fan of catchy but lengthy tracks that don't repeat themselves too often, as there's just so much creativity involved. I'll really have to check the soundtrack out. I'm very interested in hearing the remix approach here. Synth pad opens things up. Synth pad was kind of lo-fi and inferior to the original, but I love the xylo (Xylo? Ah shaddap, Gray.) stuff at :15. Really sticking closely with the original for the intro to start things off. Yeesh, LOUD sax at :30. Sounds like frequencies got cut off too. The production on this is pretty shoddy, honestly, and really doesn't present this properly. Whatever modulating noise came in at :45 is too loud and needs to be more of a background element. Get that bassline and piano sounding more in the forefront. Guitar came in at 1:01. At that point, I'm also low on the cymbals too. The performance there is good, but the cymbal activity is too quiet. Chorus at 1:30 and the performance is decent but the sound balance is just ALL over the place and needs work to save this. Brass is loud loud loud, drums are loud loud loud, everything else is just shunted WAY in the back. Otherwise sweet electric guitar work at 1:47 just bleeds and smooshes into the other instruments. Then the guitar solo is decent but sounds all muffly, and you can't hear the xlyo-ish stuff enough. Shot of trumpets at 2:07 are pretty dry; piano solo at 2:20 sounds just as lacking in the high end for clarity's sake. Horn action at 2:32 is cool but too loud. Synth on support at 2:48 is cool but too quiet. Just all these glaring and negatively impactful production issues all over the place. Audio deformation at 2:24. Just continuing to listen on, all of the stuff is fairly capably performed, and the transposing of the piece to the live fusion style is really effective on the performance side. It's just absolutely difficult to listen to because the production is bad. I hope you'd be able to do some major work on cleaning this up. Gray, analoq, Harmony, ANYONE that can give a good breakdown of some basic ideas to balance this track out like Vig mentioned, dear God, help these guys out. By the way Matt, at least credit your co-contributors in the submission letter so that they get some props too. Also, don't give your mix the exact same title as the source tune. Give it something different. I dunno, "The Sun Sets in the East." Who cares, just something different. Too bad we can't pass this. Very stylish cover that needs some serious post-production lovin'. NO (resubmit)

http://www.mirsoft.info/wogm_download.php?data=YTozOntpOjA7czo1OiIxMzM3MSI7aToxO2k6MTEyODM4NTQ3MDtpOjI7aTozO30= - Meeting.mid The game here is 1993's Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold. The additions here were minor at best, but I liked them nonetheless. The strings were repetitive, but I liked them. The lil' guitar riffy riffs were cool. Liked adding more delay at 1:05 and adding some woodwinds as well. Cool cover of a very catchy Bobby Prince original. NO Override material for just being a decent sounding MIDI rip? I won't N.O. it just because I likez it, but you need more going on in with expansionist ideas if you're going for a cover mix. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic.rar - "Marble Zone" Nice, Orson Wells sounds like Robbie from Jazz Jackrabbit "Have You Ever? (Down in Medivo)". The tapering-off SFX cuts out abrupty in the right channel at :07. I liked the idea of the samples myself. The piano was delayed but kind of sparse, so I was glad to hear some pad-like stuff help fill things out at :29. The beats there were flat/plain, so I was still waiting for something good to take hold. Melody came in at :55, but the drums and beatwork is still rather plodding. The melody could be louder, but it's still pretty audible and has a good ethereal quality to it. Later though, the melody really beefs up nicely at 1:51, though the beatwork is still the same and really needs more going on with it to retain my attention. The soundfield also started getting a bit cluttered underneath the melody. Wing's right though about some of the synths occasionally being shrill/grating in this section (e.g. 1:55, 2:05-2:13, 2:18-2:23, 2:32-2:36). It's not awful, but it is all detrimental, IMO, and I'd like to hear better separation of sounds and sound balance from then until 2:46. 2:45 dropped out the beats and featured the chorus with some nice supporting instrumentation ideas. One thing I didn't like there was that stuttering transition at 2:58, since it rather Fs around with the flow and seems like a one-off idea, but oh well. Regardless, I liked the FL Slayer-like synth under the chorus, as well as the second, quieter piano providing additional accompaniment. The boring beats returned at 3:00. I go bleh on the same patterns being stuck to so doggedly. Needs some subtle changes to keep the foundation interesting. Wasn't liking the way the melody was arranged from 3:00-3:07 for some reason. Just sounds like it doesn't fit well. The soundfield was cluttered again from 3:00-3:44, so I wouldn't mind another J explaning what the situation was there. Last section at 3:42 was decent, but still the same tempo and basic structure for the whole 4+ minutes. Track dragged along without changing the flow much. Vig's right in that the track really needs dynamics. Work on varying the beat patterns ever-so-often and seeing what else can be done to prevent the track from dragging so much. It's already decent, and I understand the attempt at dramatic chillout, but this needs a bit of refinement for me to pass it. I'm always a fan, Robbie, so definitely work on this one further. Should be a genuinely easy resubmission for you if this doesn't make it. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/ps4.rar - 28 "Take Off! Landeel" Phantasy Star IV stuff, and neither Gray nor zircon have commented yet??? OMG, y U so sl0\/\/, niggas?!??? The organ-like opening with pads seemed pretty good, then these weak bass kicks and percussion came in at :14 and didn't present a cohesive texture, IMO. Nonetheless, I can understand how you went in this direction to provide your own spin on the structure and the style of the original, so I appreciate that. I just don't think it was quite pulled off. Considering this was only a 3-minute mix, I felt the nearly minute-long intro was too long; get to the heart of the track faster or extend the track. The synth line added at :57 would have been better served in the background. I also disliked the synth melody at 1:17 as it was very flat-sounding. From 1:31 until 2:14, a lot of stuff was sharing the same frequency range, resulting in a lot of clutter which you need to clean up. As Vig mentioned, the arrangement is pretty short, repetitive and underdeveloped. Not even any usage of the actual source tune melody from :13-:33 of the original? Without anything like that to actually direct the piece, I don't see any practical appeal here, because the original material you placed on top of the source tune's foundation wasn't written well. Reference the source tune more. Stick around here and use the ReMixing and Works forums to your advantage. NO

Uhhh...how about 45TB?

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Title" (loz3-01.spc) [:01-:28], "Opening Demo" (loz3-02.spc) [:29-1:43], "Sanctuary Dungeon" (loz3-15.spc) [1:44-2:47], "Ganon's Message" (loz3-27.spc) [2:48-3:06], "Princess Zelda's Rescue" (loz3-22.spc) [3:22-4:25] & "Overworld" (loz3-04.spc) [4:44-5:07] Well, well, well, sounds like a pretty sweet solo piano medley. Thanks for listing off all of the source tunes you used, by the way. The adaptation to solo piano was fairly straightforward but undeniably stylish, and the transitions were short but at the same time not rushed or sloppy-sounding. Delicate, flowy, and all that beautiful stuff. The volume could have used a boost. I have to say that the transition at 2:42 from "Sanctuary Dungeon" to "Ganon's Message" was great. Out of the bevy of source tunes involved, I was particularly impressed by the arrangement of "Princess Zelda's Rescue" into a subtle, melancholy feel. The whole package was well put together and set a good mood. And, as our community is full of overly enthusiastic fans, I expect someone in the ReView thread to note how they cried to this. Great work, John, I'm definitely looking forward to whatever else you've got on the plate. YES