Liontamer

I had revised my vote yesterday and changed it over to YES, but no one was clear on where the change in my POV was, so we try again. After letting the track marinate a lot more, I should have went solid YES on here. Not using bLiNd as THE benchmark (as SGX certainly has his own stuff to compare with), but I listened to EarthBound "Snowbound" just to compare this with an even more dense track, and this just sounds louder yet a lot cleaner and more polished here. Not correcting a snap judgement, but I always remain willing to revisit borderline material to see if I have any new thoughts on it, especially at the recommendation of other judges but moreso of my own choosing. The "wall of sound"-type approach did bother me a little bit like Gray pointed out, but it shouldn't have been anything substantially affecting my vote. For some reason, this had struck me as a lot more messy and dull-sounding initially. There were still some piercing portions like :10-:15 & 1:42-1:55, and 2:29-2:57 & 3:39-3:54 sounded noticeably more cluttered and messy to me. Some of the loudness really managed to undermine the panning work and make things sound too centered at times, like I mentioned before. Nonetheless, I think those sections were at least better than something like Adhesive Boy's EB mix where some brief sections, IMO, unfortunately made that track simply sound unskilled. (I can respect the experimental choice, but there's no skill in simply knocking the reverb settings up to 100 and hugely overcompressing things, tantamount to arguing that anything makes for fine music simply because it's possible.) Overall though, the packed texture wasn't as bad or messy as I had initially made it out to be, so my opinion shifted the other way and I have seen the light. The light's got some intense color. The bombastic sounds are pulled off very well most of the way through. Things were clicking well, and while Gray noticed the somewhat liberal arrangement approach, I'm still a proponent of only arranging a small section of a source as long as it's done in a meaningful, substantial way. Looking forward to the Dannys and their next collab.

*shrug* It was definitely there in the first version of this resubmit. I wouldn't just compliment it if it wasn't even there.

I was checking out the originals for this game, and saw that this was an arrangement of "Press Fire" from the MOD pack. This one was short, but sweet with some nice beatwork, a nice melodic lead, cool voice samples and a nice ethereal atmosphere. Nice stuff, Alex. Definitely an underrated old-school mix, I can't imagine why this hasn't gotten more attention.

anyone care to explain this one for me? I thought the drum sound chosen was too thick, but that the background texture was arguably too simplistic/sparse at times. Can't tell what Lee felt about it.

how u find dat?

No, no, no, Jeremy. Let's not try and cover up my genuine disdain for one Mr. Michael Boyd. DISDAIN! (Awesome work, per your usual, Mike!)

Fixed!

Gone! I'm not a student at Emory anymore, so *POOF*. I've still got one free webspace area, so it's not a total loss, but I can't help but feel that my time doing the show is officially winding down (for good this time). Perhaps I'll wrap it up with #80 or #85, but it's too soon to say anything definitive, so no worries for now.

Bwahahahahaha! Nigga I Noe.

We follow that up with... VG Frequency #69 MP3 (140MB/3hr24min) VG Frequency #69 Playlist: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?18.12966 VG Frequency #69 Chat Transcript This'll be hosted briefly until I find time to host VGF63 for ravon and VGF64 for Compyfox, but will be brought back later. This is a joke episode featuring ThatPaige, OverLooked ReMiX, and The Chrono Trigger Mixtape, Vol. #1 so don't miss out.

Just hooked up the stream. Everything is looking smooth and/or silky for tonight. See you there.

http://www.mirsoft.info/wogm_download.php?data=YTozOntpOjA7czo0OiIyMzU2IjtpOjE7aToxMTM4MzI1OTA5O2k6MjtpOjM7fQ== - Level01.mid Says level 1 in the MIDI pack I found, but no matter. I'm feeling the intro; it has a nice, different sound to it than anything else we get around here. I see the harp's FF7 influence and the similarites to backing of the Raptor source. The thick kicks also coming in at :16 were a nice touch. Distorted percussion enters at :34, and sounds alright; going for another groove-based mix, I see. I think the distorted percussion is alright, but wears thin after a while. Maybe do something else similar to change it up. Finally got some vocals and the nylon acoustic guitar sample playing the source melody into the picture at 1:07 after that lengthy buildup. Your vocals (badass) sound nice and ethereal, but feel a little too far in the background, subjectively speaking. I'd like to see a way to make the vocals feel a bit more in the forefront, but it's not a hit against it. It seems to work well here, but I think placing them in the front would make the listener focus on those rather than the groove, ultimately making the groove feel less potentially repetitive. Very minimal section at 1:42 provides some contrast, but could stand to be filled out with another subtle element or two before the next section at 1:58. 1:58 sems to repeat 1:07's section with the vocals replaced by a synth piano lead. I'm liking the piano synth at 1:58, one of the few times where a non-realistic sound works fairly well on account of the effects involved. I probably would have went for a slightly thicker or airier sound, as it sounds a little thin for being in the forefront. Very subtle change in the feel moving into the next section at 2:32, though admittedly it didn't feel like the track was hitting any new territory; string sample playing at 2:33 was soft and in the background but lacked a little meat on it. Noticed a subtle bit of extra fuzz show up at 2:47 when the next voice clip was used. Very minor and almost negligible, but could stand to be fixed. 2:48 basically repeats 1:07 with a bit more intensity and some swirly pad stuff, though it didn't feel very different. I liked the arrangement a lot. The "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" usage in here was an intelligent touch given the similarites with the source's background, and you did a nice job of interpreting most of the instrumental parts of the MIDI. I feel bad that this can't be worked on any further with the source files being corrupted, but I feel like this could use some more complexity as opposed to the (somewhat) simplistic texture and overly subtle evolution of this groove. But barring that, extending the track and providing that substance via more variation and additional writing ideas would work just as well if the overall energy level remains like this the whole way through. The arrangement ideas are pretty sweet, but beyond that I feel there needs to be more development/evolution as well in whatever form that may be. The beats here felt like they were in cruise control and didn't really vary/develop. The arrangement also felt the same way in that the additions you made to repeated sections after 1:58 were too subtle (IMO) to compensate for repeating the same beat patterns. The sounds do a fairly good job of filling the space but some of the sounds/samples feel a bit thin and make the texture feel that way as well. Somewhat along the same concerns I had with po! & Joshua Morse's "Watermelon Flava", but that managed to pass so my opinion my be the minority. Shit, this would have been an easy resubmit if this in fact doesn't make it. :'-( Best of luck on the rest of the vote, bro. NO (borderline/resubmit/sorry that it's corrupted)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/kss.rsn - "Dynablade Area 2" (kss-17.spc) I be feelin' it, then...not so much. I feel like it's a case where you only needed to refine what was already in place, yet you needlessly complicated your revisions. Intro is still icy hot, and everything is still hot going into 1:35. Feeling some of the instrumental additions in there from 1:35-1:56, with what I guess is that ELP dealy. I like how the low-quality drum distortion got taken out at 1:57, good move there. 2:17-3:01's freestyle-ish section though was a no-go. The writing there seemed VERY lacking in form, and felt frantic without direction at points (2:29-2:51). The crazy hats didn't create a good texture, IMO. Better stuff after 3:01 though when the hats were toned down, though the change in percussion patterns at 3:23 made things feel a bit plodding and empty to me. Could sound a bit more complex even though you're going for a relaxed finish. Otherwise, I liked the bassline and other elements going on. Aside from the steel drums (which are fine; still pretty synthetic sounding, but clearly nothing make-or-break), the sections that worked had a very relaxed and somewhat organic feel. If you still feel like working on this further, Paul, I think you have a very nice set of criticisms here that'll really solidify this, so don't be discouraged. If this is going to be subbed again, get lots of feedback from top guys (nag for it if needed) before you hit "Send". NO (refine/resubmit)

I know' date=' I know. I can [i']tell just by listening that it truly is his work. It's just one of those things that's almost too awesome to be true. You guys must've been stoked when you got that one. I wasn't on staff at the time, but no doubt. Protricity in particular felt his own material just didn't compare. LOL

I'm glad you've bothered to actually check Soule's own homepage.

Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=68612

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 107 "Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World" The arrangement is still pretty good, just to say that from the start. Still like that intro. The string on lead at :16 was a bit too synthetic-sounding but was alright; nothing detracting in a major way. Accompaniment that joined in at :40 sounded lo-fi though. There's a rather dull feel to the production for the whole thing for some reason; seems to really lack polish. The acoustic guitar synth had some good moments, but was hit or miss in the human quality of the performance. The percussion still doesn't really mesh well for some sections, in this case :40-1:09, but I really liked the more subdued role they took from 1:09 to 1:37. Full section from 1:39-2:25 sounds pretty cluttered and seems to lack the right balance among the instruments. Without some solid-sounding percussion to provide a foundation for the track, things seemed somewhat empty until 2:02. It inadvertently prevented everything from sounded grounded and cohesive. Things felt a bit loose, but it got a bit better with more listens. Good stuff at 2:50 focusing on the acoustic guitar strumming. I was actually feeling the slowdown here. Things were gradually building up with the instrumentation starting from 3:06, though I couldn't help feel that by 3:32, things were getting somewhat cluttered going for the big finish. The string lead just got REALLY loud (with some piercing notes at 3:45, 3:57, 4:20 & 4:22), with the whole thing just sounding very swamped. I said last time around "Feels like the piano, strings, drums and acoustic are sometimes fighting for the same space, rather than complementing each other, especially during the last section", and that's still the case for the ending IMO, as well as some busier sections earlier on. For busy areas where the string lead is in play, the acoustic guitar is buried way in the back rather than complimenting the lead as seems to be the intent. But I thought this was an improvement over last time in at least creating a better texture with the instrumentation involved. The overall package was more cohesive than last time, but the sound balance is still makes things sound a bit murky and messy. Each resub has been going in the right direction though. Getting 2 YESs last time, I could see things possibly going its way this time; this could be the culmination of some hard work and practical application of past criticisms. If the sound balance could be cleaned up here to allow the instruments to work well the whole way through and sound less messy, I could YES this easily, but until then have to go borderline NO.

So I'm peeping the revised version without the vocals. I'll say that I preferred the vocals being in there as they created some nice contrast/variation in the arrangement. Not having them admittedly takes away some of the personality of the track and makes it feel like it has fewer ideas. Frank hooked Gray up with a clip of just the "I wanna lay ya down" section and I still thought that the delivery on "fiiine" sounded odd IMO, but it worked a lot better when I heard the whole clip apart from the rest of the track. Part of the reason I thought "fiiiine" sounded out of place like that was because the resolution of that line (Frank later singing "girrrl") was buried by the traffic SFX and, ironically enough, the "www.DiggiDis.com" mention. Later on with the second use of those vocals, the track completely faded out before "girl", again making it feel unresolved. Just calling it like I see it. I still had issue with that one vocal part last time around, but listening to the old version again from :44-1:06 & 1:50-2:11, I have no issues there and I have no qualms on admitting that my original criticisms there were offbase. The rhythms felt a little loose at first, and I can understand why it was hitting me wrong, but listening to the mix again with fresh ears, everything there is nice, funky, and well-constructed. I let this mix marinate in my head before it even went on the panel, since I had it earlier, so I want to make it clear that I don't sit here making impulsive or biased decisions on stuff this creative and obviously well-made. But like Shnabubula's FF9 "Hunter's Community Chest" over a year ago, I'll readily admit my first conclusion was wrong. I'm stubborn but not close-minded or willing to let a vote of mine stand that I don't agree with. Out of 1,000 votes, this is I believe only the 5th one I've ever felt was originally a mistake. Feel free to ask me what the others were sometime! Onto the revised mix, while some may understandably have an issue with the significantly left-panned piano to open things up, I liked how Frank used :20-:22 to fade into the more balanced stereo sound. It provided some nice contrast moving to the next section that wasn't present at all in the first version. I have to say, I didn't have issue with the production on this the first time around, but this revised cut actually sounds much stronger on account of more distinction among the various instrumentation like Gray mentioned. For example, the bassline and percussion have much more presence and both give off more energy. Listening to parts like the percussion from 2:12-2:35, everything sounds more balanced, and that's something apparent throughout the whole of the track. I thought the piano note at 3:42 could have trailed off a bit longer, but that's just a minor issue which I point out because it was the very end. The arrangement was definitely very solid and a great genre piece, and the production is even further improved when IMO it didn't have to be. I liked it before, and I'm glad this was deliberated further, for Frank's benefit. While I would have liked the vocal sections to remain in there, Frank still has an improved product thanks to these revisions. "I have sinned." [/Jimmy Swaggart] YES

Out of all the things though to complain about though, why is the mention of "DiggiDis.com" so taboo? While we're at it, let's make weed take out the mention of "VGMix 2.0" in Niggaz 4 Life because it's somehow "tacky and cheap". Let Frank leave the URL in there. With the way it's blended into the track, it's not slapping anyone in the face. It's meant to be a tongue-in-cheek reference anyway. If he said "OCReMix.org" in the same manner, I doubt anyone would be asking him to take it out because it wouldn't seem so jarring, and I think the urging for Frank to do so here is a mistake.

2 months on the panel, let's not CONTINUE leaving Steve hanging like this. It's disrespectful.

How about y'all shutup and stop fighting? We need to agree that the podcast ladies are phone sexy in their own vocal-related way. Not that anyone actually competes with mine..."GIANTSQUID"

Can't snag a source on such a recent game, but the main issue I had was how very minimal this sounded. Not that writing or instrumental complexity is a strict requirement, but the texture here was very thin and the instrumentation, try as it might, doesn't have the body or carry the weight needed to make things sound strong. The percussion in particular was very tepid and basic. At 2:21 when you bring in the 1931 Dracula movie sample, I can just hear others complaining that the track relied too strongly on the sampling and not enough on the music for those areas, which go even more minimalistic with the instrumentation for a time. Just listening to the amount of compositional ideas here, there just isn't enough variation or depth here to justify 4:45-worth of music. I'm sure you'll do bigger and better things with Reason in time given more experience, but this would need a lot more ideas and a lot of fleshing out of the sounds to have a chance. The substance isn't there. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/ecco1gym.rar - 17 "Ocean" I liked the relaxed atmosphere, though it did sound a little bit too busy. Obviously part of the watery feel this was meant to connote, I still couldn't help feel that the rhythm guitars cluttered the soundfield a little bit. Nothing impactful, but the patterns continued ad nauseum and couldn't retain the interest. The synching up of all of the parts never felt glaringly off, but at the same didn't gel as much as I felt it could have. Perhaps simply pulling back the volume a little bit on some of the non-melodic material would help. Sounded like there was some sort of minor flub at 1:12. By your own admission at VGMix, the arrangement here is pretty liberal, enough so that I didn't really make any connection between this and the source material. I'm sure it's there but it's not readily observable. Even barring that, the melodic portion of the arrangement is underdeveloped. For a slowly paced, ethereal track such as this, I'm hard-pressed to believe a 2:46-long mix can say enough and provide a comprehensive enough arrangement to pass, but you or anyone else are more than welcome to work towards discrediting that. And as alluded to earlier, pretty much all of the background instrumentation repeats ad infinitum which lost my interest. It was hard to keep it, when I could go to any part of the track and it was basically the same thing. If you can extend the track, make the melodic content more overtly recognizable as Ecco's source material, and create variation, this would bring a lot more to the table. Still a good track, Mike, and you also deserve credit for putting your work to the great cause of wildlife preservation. I hope to hear more from you on the panel in the future and encourage you to improve as you keep participating in Dwelling of Duels. NO

Shit, thoughts go out to Juan, I hope he'll be able to heal up in the long-run. Glad your end of the project, Andy, will still be ok.

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ed.rsn - "The Battle of the Island in the Void" (a.k.a "The Memory of the Last War") [ed-02.spc] & "The Island in the Void" (a.k.a. "The Fortress of Doom" [ed-30.spc] [production whore]There were some less critical production issues that could be looked at. The overall feel here (aside from when the percussion is too plain) is good. I'm feeling that grungy style although I think there could stand to be more separation between the various instruments. They can mush together to an extent, but some of the fuller sections sounded way too crowded. From 1:25-1:40, the supporting guitar and synth doubling in the background were really straining to be heard, and even then the lead/melody wasn't cutting through the soundfield either. Same with 2:28 or any other particularly full section. Everything's too cluttered in the mid-range, making it a little too difficult to pick out and subsequently appreciate the details you put into the instrumentation. It may not bother anyone else, I dunno, but I feel this would sound all the better with some more distinction among the various parts. It can still sound dense and strong without this level of clutter.[/production whore] I get that out the way to then talk about the arrangement/writing. Not really feeling the intro, but that's a just a personal thing; not a bad idea at all, IMO. It's different and I do like that about it. Geetar action starts at :17. I thought the drums and hats starting at :28 sounded too plain, dragging down the rest of the track for a significant portion. Some of the changeups in the complexity of the drums made things feel hot and cold. You'd briefly have some very exciting stuff going on with the percussion, then kill the creativity with stuff that comes across like placeholder material. Areas like :27-1:50, 2:11-2:20 & 2:27-3:10 felt lacking in the foundation of the track as a result. I felt the arrangement was pretty good. This is typical of Mike's style where he does a great job weaving original sections and ideas with the source material, doing so well enough that most people unfamiliar with the source material wouldn't be able to point out where Lufia passages end and original ones begin. It's a testament to his skill on that level, a skill which becomes more and more bankable as he submits more and more material. So while I have no problems with this being passed, and might catch flak from others, I need much more creativity with the percussion writing from :27-1:50 & 2:27-3:10 (more important), and a bit more separation in the instrumentation so things don't sound too indistinct in this otherwise powerful and grungy soundfield (less important). Once you spice that up, I'm solid on a YES. Nice work so far, Mike. NO (borderline/easy resubmit)