Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 110 "Fighting" Dunno anything about Infected Mushroom, so I can't weigh in from that angle. Yeah, I hear the connections to "Fighting", but much like your Sonic & Knuckles submission a while ago the connections to the source are potentially too vague/tenuous to be easily recognizable. I heard a lot of what you're going for, but it's a tough sell. Good stuff from :16-:32 arranging the very beginning of the source. Melody came in at :40, but the overall texture here seemed rather simplistic. Most of the way through, it sounded like there supposed to be a lot more power and energy here, which I believe is a result of the plain synth design zircon alluded to. 1:23-2:08 had more tenuous-level connections to the source, most notably made by the brief vox (1:36-1:46). 2:08-2:27 had some more overt arrangement with some good piano-based ideas, though I felt like arranging other sections of the source would have provided more variation rather than repeating already-used portions of the source. I thought there was enough arrangement here overall to not need to be deemed too liberal in a standards sense, you just have to grasp the connections that are there. But like zirc mentioned, the mix feels underdeveloped overall because other areas of the source tune weren't explored. Overall, I liked the ideas here. I agreed with zircon in that the ending was really poor. It can work, but you have to build to that type of ending in some way. I too would suggest working more on synth design and polish, as well as expanding the arrangement. Personally, while I don't care for the genre, I thought this was pretty promising. Your subs continue to improve. NO (rework/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/usf/smashbros_usf.rar - "Congo Jungle" http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - "Jungle Groove" (dkc-05.spc) The original of course is just a straightforward arrangement of the DKC original, so both are listed. Production gets awfully murky/distorted/crunchy. This arrangement is a straightforward cover with the occasional new ideas and some jazzier instrumentation. Arrangement also retreads itself at 1:31 while only 2:52-long. Not badly put together, but lacks any meaningful interpretation or development, and relies on the original as its crutch. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/spaceha2.rar - "Illusion" (016.gym) Pretty basic instrumentation to open things off with. Really reminds me of some of the much older OCR material. Wish the percussion had more creativity here, as it's not much different or better than the original. Arrangement was basically an expansive cover like the submission letter implied. Some strings dropped in to add more to the package at 1:45, but the arrangement basically retread itself until 3:01. The synth/drum pattern first used at 1:34 droned on and on and on from 2:36 until 4:22/the end. Probably could have made it many, many years ago simply off the sound quality relative to other things being posted at the time, but the arrangement substance isn't there. Everything needs more creativity, variation and personalization. Not a poorly-made track, but not up to par. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 18 Flying Battery Zone 1 & 19 Flying Battery Zone 2 Not terrible, but somewhat unwieldy and beginner-ish. The mixing sounded a bit sloppy. Not really much to this conservative arrangement but covering Act 1, then doing a transition at 1:12 and covering Act 2. At 2:55-long, it's pretty underdevloped for a mix that's supposed to be equal parts of 2 themes. Not much else to say. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "The Decisive Battle" (ff6-124.spc) Just to point out, Adam did mention on VGDJ #3 that the "bad notes" in Little Painter Girl were indeed a flub. So eat it, Dave. Eat it. I'm pretty much echoing zircon's issues. The stuff he mentioned about spikes in the piano volume, as well as the slight panning issues were notable and I agree with them, but were ultimately not critical. Arrangement wise, things were seeming good. My main thing here was that I actually felt the drums didn't fit here at all. I hear the attempt at trying to create fills and changes like zircon mentioned, but the texture here wasn't working at all, which was also in part to the very bland production choices of the percussion. The texture here just wasn't clicking, and needs to be reworked. You may want to go for a softer feel for the percussion and scrap the snare (and its boring patterns) in favor of something else, but that's just me. Get further feedback from others on where to go from here and send it on back. You won't regret subbing this if you get it sounding stronger later on. Say hi to Wing for me. NO (resubmit)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/smk.rsn - "Donut Plains" (smk-06.spc) Cool for a first mix, that's for sure, though I'm partial to the theme. At only 2:15-long, this arrangement would have to be incredibly creative and varied to pass. Rhythm section never changes and the synthy flavor is ok but sparse. Arrangement is decent, but didn't do anything dramatically interpretive with the theme. The track basically ended before it even got off the ground. A shame; I'll hang onto it though, as I be likin' dat source material. You need more substance, more texture, and more development in your future work. Use the ReMixing & Works forums here to learn more and build up your skills. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/fzero.rsn - "Port Town" (fz-07.spc) I liked the strings and felt they achieved the sad feel you were going for, but otherwise felt the arrangement creativity was lacking. That was particularly underscored by its repetitiveness, with no original or heavily rearranged sections to speak of. Yeah, you weren't kidding about the sound quality; sounds pretty dull. Arrangement isn't bad at all, but isn't really much to speak in terms of standing out from the original. It's basically the original with some dnB drums. You gotta be more, but not bad at all for a first try. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/MarioKart64_usf.rar - 28 "Victory Lap" Yeah, Protricity does a much better job with these guitar synths. Vig did a good job with the glibness. Rhythm section never changes; at least do a little something with the drums. The samples were definitely used in a very beginner-ish manner. At 2:35-long, nothing meaningful was really going on, and this only pales in comparison with the original, which used very synthetic sounds more effectively. The arrangement needs a lot more creativity and skill. Keep at it, bro. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/fzero.rsn - "Mute City" (fz-09.spc) Sparse, quiet, repetitive, beginner-ish. Laid back doesn't mean quiet and empty. Song manages to drag for quite a while. Too bad too, because I liked many of the arrangement ideas here, though this sounded too liberal of an arrangement overall. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 305 "Drifting" The funnier part is that the original is strings-only, so hearing these strings with their near-exact tone and wonky attack only makes these sound even worse. I'll admit, I don't like trying to take a string-based original and then having string parts here that sound almost the same in tone. Nonetheless, you did try to make things sound more aggressive with the percussion and vox. Ultimately though, I don't think it really adds enough to the picture arrangement-wise to be a pass, though you're in the right direction. Like Vig said though, the samples are used pretty poorly and don't give any realism in the performance. And by 2:04, you're basically just repeating the same ideas over again with some minor additions, rather than offering anything new. 3:29-2:42 offered something new, and I really liked the synths and ideas there, but the usage was too brief and was irrelevant to the track. But play with those ideas more, and think about using stuff like that early and more often to provide contrast in the track. Decent foundation, Ronnie, but needs a lot of work. Stick around the community and use the ReMixing & Works forums here to learn more and gain fan feedback. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/lord.zip - Track 4 Uh, what is up with that sparse, repetitive percussion? The sparseness I didn't mind so much, as you wanted things to be laid back alongside the guitar work, but it just droned on like a metronome. The guitar work (thought quiet) was ok and I'm sure Vig could give some insight on how well things were pulled off, but where's the substance in the rest of the instrumentation? It's just guitar + tap tap tap. Ultimately, that's lazy and an obvious NO-go. You're definitely a lot better than that, Todd. Looking forward to hearing something from you with more substance, like your previous OC ReMix, "Inquisition", which was great. I'd definitely like to see you have a sophomore mix here.

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/computer/atari/atari/3D-Galax.mid - Title theme Yeah, thanks for linking the source material. This is our second submission covering the theme, and like the first, there's not much here besides a cover. On the production side, this sounded a bit flooded and messy, with the sound bleeding together too much. This felt slightly slower and more beefed up than the original, but had no creative ideas to provide interpretation of personalization. You've gotta introduce unique arrangement ideas into the picture. 5:18, and I'm not hearing much that differentiates it from the original. NO

Haha, that's what I thought. It's just that the judges kept talking like this was a live performance. No, I wouldn't say that. Certainly not for me.

Haven't heard from Senor Mustin all day, as I asked him to send me a track to play alongside tonight's planned interview, so he may not be there or it may be too short notice to do the interview this week. In any case, I'm pretty far away from Emory right now, so I'll be starting late; hopefully sooner than 11:30PM EST, but that's a very safe time for me to say right now. If you plan on listening, hang tight for tonight please.

Yeah, "transpose" has a musical jargon context, but I meant it in a different sense of the word, i.e. to interchange. "Adapt" works just as well outside of musical jargon though, so I'll use that in order to not confuse the usage.

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.