Liontamer

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Forest Interlude" (dkq-10.spc) Things start out OK. Very sparse, but it can work depend on how the intro builds & evolves. Some drum work comes in at :44, but it sounds really distant and not in the same room as the lead. The melody arrives at 1:07 with a thin lead. The percussion patterns are decent, but are too repetitive. Part of that problem also is that your bassline is way too quiet as well during some parts and thereby doesn't fill out the track as much as it could. For sections like :34-1:04 and most of the way through, it's used properly and serves its role, though for sections like 1:49-2:21 or 3:34-4:15, it really should be louder and carrying more of the track to compensate for the lack of other major activity. You need to know when the presence of the bassline should be punched up (or scaled back appropriately, depending on what section you're using it for. You look at something like Tsugunai "Static Wonderland" and compare the bassline in parts of it. 1:26-2:16, it's used at moderate levels. 2:16-3:06, it takes a backseat and quietly fills out the track. 3:06-4:01, it's at its loudest and carries a large portion of that section. In this track, the bass is at the same level practically all the time, and deserves to be punched up for some of the quieter sections. Some organic drumwork comes in at 1:50 and sounds alright, but the rest of the track still sounds very spartan and the percussion patterns are still repeating. The melodic lead remains very weak-sounding. I understand the feel for the lead is supposed to be gentile, but it's not working. The phrasing for the solo at 2:53-3:13 is random and awful. Nice try, but you need to write something coherent and possessing direction. No credit for it. Decent stuff at 3:13 tackling another section of the source tune. Pretty conservative per the general approach so far, but it feels different. Percussion is STILL the same until 3:33. Notable change-ups there are critical for this piece to evolve. The chorus is handled by a xylo (Xylo? Ah, shaddap, Gray.) at 3:34, and then doubled with a flute at 3:55. It's ok, and the hand drums are cool again, but the atmosphere remains bare. The phrasing from 4:16-4:26 is also awkward and directionless. No. You get an E for effort, but that's just poorly written. You're better off riffing on the original and using your own personal touches to give it flair. I also don't like hearing that stuff not work, because, no matter how you spin it, it implies that you can't write any passages without using someone else's previously written material as a crutch. Nice last section at 5:08. The way all of the instrumentation dropped out for the quieter finish would have been more dramatic and effective if the track had been busier in the first place. The way the track sounds now, there's actually not much contrast here in the transition towards the last section. Cute "Dire, Dire Docks" reference as well for the close. Overall though, the track goes for a somewhat downbeat, almost jazzy approach, but all of the lead material needs more activity & meat on the bones to fill things out. And yes, this is from listening to the Savefile/Filefront version, not the VGMix one, so no worries about that. The percussion needs a lot more variation. The purely original solo sections need to be either fixed or scrapped. And the arrangement needs to be a bit more interpretive. Right now it sounds too simple. There's some interesting genre adaptation stuff going on, but the melodic content is still too straightforward. Decent but not ready until it gets some refinement. NO

Thanks for providing the source here, as well as giving that background for Descent's soundtrack. Good stuff, Ashley. Reminds me a lot of Protricity's electronic textures due to the sounds you used, which are slick as hell. The texture might annoy some people, but I enjoyed it. Great arrangement compared to the original in that it's not hugely interpretive on the surface, but subtely evolving much like Shna pointed out. On that point, sections like the one starting at 2:39 really showcased that understated evolution. Up until 1:40, I was somewhat worried that you just had generally original passages on top of some motifs from the original, but that wasn't the case here at all. If chill bias is wrong, I don't wanna be right. But in all seriousness, this definitely had the goods and genuinely had a great deal of expansiveness and creativity. The was appreciated much more after comparing it with the source material. YES

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Tel_Jeroen/Lemmings.sid - Subtune 3 This was pretty nice. No issues on the arrangement, as it was conservative but clearly expanded and possessed purely rearranged sections as well. The lead was definitely buried at all times here, whether it was the acoustic guitar, the flute, or the piano (which sounded too mechanical). You've gotta make those more prominent against your supporting instrumentation. The "Let's Go" and Lemming death clips were kind of out of place with the feel of the track, but were used tastefully, so I didn't have a big problem with those. Creating some changes/variation in the 1:44-2:13 section so it doesn't repeat the :30-:59 section verbatim would help. Indeed, develop the ideas further so they sound as creative as the material from 1:00-1:43 & after 2:13. Also, the high-end frequencies are noticeably absent here. I'd work on this a bit further and resubmit it. And no matter what you do, submit this to R:K:O. Good work so far, Fredrik & Daniel. NO (resubmit)

Damn, this classic mix is completely groove-biasing me. If you like chill material with some great beats, energy and atmosphere, this is it! Nice work, Mike. Hate it when the more obscure games get neglected.

Yeah, but radio hosts always F up pronounciations. Don't give us anything that isn't phoenetic, plz!

Very, very lush. Really surprised I didn't remember this one at all considering that I've listened to everything. The drums were a little repetitive and didn't really fit with the atmosphere as much as I liked, but other than that, I enjoyed it. Nice stuff, Jay. Some engaging work.

Just listening to various material, and I'm glad I got to hear this one again. Really love the tone on this one, and have for a while. The opening riffs really bring you into it. Classic stuff, Sean.

Was looking around WIP a minute ago and saw a thread for this one. No wonder the forum link you posted didn't work. You messed up the URL. http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=62759 The next time you sample or arrange from someone else's work, explicitly state as much in your submission letter, as you did in the Works forum. Luckily this was further arranged enough to not be a violation in my opinion, but not giving that information in the submission letter to djpretzel comes across as shady. The MIDI issue wasn't a problem in the case though. The fact that you mentioned it in the WIP thread means you weren't trying to hide it, but just be aware that if we're not aware of it, and someone ELSE points it out (we can't check every WIP thread involving a submission), it has the possibility of making you look as if you're not being completely upfront on purpose.

Yup, but expect one of yours up soon too. OMJesus, stop patting each other on the back!!!~

Give him an inch and he takes 0.621371192 miles. (1 kilometer) Cuz I'm long, and I'm strong, and I'm down to get the friction on. I badgered you to plug Ormgas? Hahaha, and no reason to use all 3 calls! What is you smoking? You Canadians ain't too brite!

Shna's definitely right about using your various instruments a lot more judiciously. Same type of problems you had with MM2 "A Warmer Farewell" and Pokémon "Rest". Seemed like you had a Radical Dreamers reference with that piano intro. Decent stuff with the strings playing the source melody at :15 and then segueing into some original bits at :31. As soon as more instrumentation joined in at :40, the volume wasn't as much of an issue this time (it's still too loud), but everything sounded messy and distorted regardless. Jayde was right when he commented on that as an issue at VGMix. There's no clarity or separation anywhere as various sounds just bleed into each other. Things picked up a bit at 2:03 with another use of the Dream Shore melody, followed by some good rearrangement ideas with the piano & guitar. The string movement though needed to be smoother and more-realistic sounding. The subtle tempo changes are a good idea (e.g 4:05), but going back to what Shna said, if you don't vary up the instrumentation and atmosphere of the track the impact of tempo change is diminished. Good piano-focused ending at 4:50. You need to learn how to create better dynamics in general, as you're too reliant on unceasing interplay with your instrumentation. When you learn to scale that back, your pieces will gain more observable structure and flow. It'll also make your phrasing/arrangement sound less haphazard, though that wasn't as much of a problem as it was for other stuff. Right now everything sounds too samey over the 5 1/2 minutes. NeoS also pointed out your percussion as being too busy at VGMix, tying back again into these issues Shna & zircon elaborated on. Part of the problem here as well is that especially when the track sounds busy, the "performance" (as it were) isn't tight. Everything sounds slow and slightly off. The finer details, bro. And no, I'm not getting sick of you. I DO wish you'd take more of our criticisms to heart considering all the feedback you've gotten from older submissions though. I'm looking at older submissions like Zelda 3 "Ordeal" & Grandia "I Watch Her" from March and April, and while you've definitely improved, the same core issues of busyness, clutter, lack of structure, lack of focus continue to be there. You should be camping out in ReMixing, not in Works. I've got nothing against encouragement, but frankly I've just seen too many superlative type comments on your material from people who simply aren't critical enough or demanding enough. I'm not saying that having a VGMix Tier 1 or those people's comments are inflating your head, but I am saying that I don't think those people are being critical enough or observant enough in order to steer you towards substantial improvement. You need to get more diverse opinions from tougher critics before the material reaches us. NO

Alright, so I PMed Chris my comments and asked him to fill me in on any other arranged sections I might have missed: Well, just to make one thing clear, because I don't really like the inference; I'm not looking for or preferential towards "straightforward" arrangement of the material. I'm always preferential towards creative but recognizable arrangement of the source material involved, not conservative arrangement. As far as the aforementioned piano on support starting at 1:20, I also thought that was too liberal (and too quiet). I wouldn't necessarily throw in the towel like Chris seems to be doing already here, but unfortunately I'm a NO (resubmit) on this. Considering that I wasn't really challenged on how my vote broke down the source arrangement involved, I'm fairly sure there were no other issues to examine for me. While I respect the effort here, because this is still excellently put together, the mix should be less liberal than this, otherwise it gets by too much on liberal motifs where you can't gleam any connection to the source material. The arranged sections I recognized were beautiful, and of course original or excessively liberal material within the track obviously isn't off-limits, but the balance between those two concepts is skewed towards original and unrecognizably liberal material.

The website hosting this file seems to be unable to properly provide the download. If anyone has it, please host it on the FTP so someone can close this out with a final vote.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman1.zip - "Elec Man Stage" (Track Disliked the mechanical piano intro, but the atmosphere was good, including some solid string work in the background that didn't sound exposed alongside some pads to further fill things out. The piano was too plunky, but the intro was a good homage to the original before retaining the background instrumentation and transitioning into some beats at :41. Hit a fairly good electronica progression at :54 though the soundfield felt empty until 1:07 when the supporting instrumentation came back. Gotta be bleh on the mechanical way the piano was used again, but it nonetheless was in the forefront of some good original composition that worked seamlessly with the style of the source material. Nice subtle idea at 1:34 to quietly bring in that pad playing a piece of the Elec Man melody. Over halfway through and still waiting for the meat of the mix to develop, but this slow build was working out really nicely. The synth lead at 2:12 referenced other parts of the theme in an understated but recognizable way. Nice effects on the lead from 2:48-2:51 for the transition point. Really smart arrangement ideas this time around. It's nothing like that older Chrono Cross sub that got rejected. The arrangement was verbatim from 2:51-onward, which was a creative disappointment, and would have put the mix down if it weren't for the previous interpretive ideas, but the overall package was good, which is the most important thing. I already knew MaJIN could bring it, so congratulations to Ambient for collabbing on a track that displayed a lot more structure and focus than his previous work, and also tomatsu for what I'm sure was a critical role in the track as well. I hope that all of you keep developing so that your solo work is just as strong and well-put together. Majin in particular had some whiny/ROFL words for me when he and Ambient's Chrono Cross sub was rejected last time around: First off, I'm gonna ask that the letter be left right here in its entirety, even with all that childish shit in there. It's important to see & understand how pissed off some people get when genuinely subpar material they've made is rejected. That's how some artists feel. So on account of Majin being pissed off about "TimeLords" being rejected, he conclusively thinks there's all this political game going on with how material is judged. ambient as well. Having listened to works of theirs and given honest 1-on-1 feedback and criticism for both, and played material by both of them on my radio show, it's disappointing that when they hear something they don't like such as a NO vote, it's immediately rationalized as hating and politicking. Stop acting like babies and continue to make good submissions like this, and you won't have any reason to complain. The improvement compared to "TimeLords" was good with some stronger-sounding synths (particularly the lead), the supporting beats/elements locking together much more tightly, as well as some creative arrangement ideas most of the way through, everything that "TimeLords" should have been. You've got it all wrong, bros. Don't play politics with me. YES

Cool, a PSP submission. Too bad the source isn't available then, though I don't need it for this. Not a bad track, but definitely a good example of generic FL stuff. Pretty basic patterns & effects and a sparse atmosphere, it's nonetheless a lot more capably put together than some of the crudulence we've gotten in the past. The groove is even pretty decent. Conceptually, I agree with you that it fits well for something like a strategy/puzzle game where the music changes based on your actions. Overly repetitive, but cool stuff. Relaxing on some level; nice and downbeat. The cymbal shots were probably the biggest offender as they sounded REALLY pasted on top. Other than that, the sounds here were generic but not unpleasent, for what it's worth. Nice experiment with FL, but it's nonetheless too basic in its composition and construction to have a feasible chance at passing, and that's without even factoring in how much of arrangement this may or may not be. DarkeSword in particular may be able to give you some basic tips & tricks to mess around with for future works, but stick around and hang in the ReMixing forum to learn more about FruityLoops so you can improve your skills and try new things, Adam. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/castle~1.zip - Track 2 ("Bloody Tears") Not a terrible intro, though it's made up of generic sounds admist one other more interesting synth. Ah man, it's got the tacky overused cymbal shots. Bah. Then we get the oom-tss showcase at :38. Sorry, but as an electronica cover, this is just generic and plain in every way. At least the chorus at 1:33 was cool with that single lead on it's own briefly, but really, who gets the credit for that? Club Kukeiha does. Could have been cool based on the source tune alone, but "Bloody Shame" is more like it. Short, generic for the genre, and uncreative & undeveloped arrangement. NO

Uh, I never call? Man, I dunno wut your talking about, but I don't swing that way...uh... Mr. Weird Man. http://www.doom2.net/~doomdepot/music/doom%201%20&%202%20midis.zip - "E2M4 - Deimos Lab" Thank God it's a Doom mix where I can easily recognize the arrangement of the original. I've literally been plagued with too many liberal Doom tracks lately. Nice intro; I love the crispy SFX in there. All spooky stuff while waiting for something to kick in, but 5 minutes gives it a lot of time. Ah, here we go with the vox tackling the theme at :56. The male vox on support doesn't sound as good as the female vox, but it's very minor. The pizz strings at 1:08 are a lil' fakey, but nothing I mind; definitely a nice touch having them there. Things became dull-sounding on the EQing as soon as the drums were worked in at 1:23. And for some reason, the metal-hand-percussion-dealies (LOL! I try, folks...) you used here hit some really bright spots where they're too loud. Same at 1:49 with whatever new shaker you added there. Way too loud and overbearing. Things calmed down at 2:15 with some cool organic instrumentation along with a xylo (Xylo? Ah, shut up, Gray!). Goes on for a while as I wait for the source tune to come back in. Nice quick reference to the source from 2:57-3:11. In any case, quite the interesting section. Some may have some qualms with it, but it was carried out VERY well IMO. Very unique vs. other stuff we have on the site, the percussion-driven work here was awesome, and the pads and other light instrumentation filling it out were exactly what it needed to not sound barren. Back to the vox at 3:38 as things picked back up. The vox sounded a little muffled now, and again from 4:08-4:31 the soundfield sounded dull when everything kicked in. Fix 'er up...er. Hot close as well. The crackly almost Morse code/telegraph style SFX from the intro makes an odd but interesting close that compliments the strange atmosphere of the rest of the track. I'd really like to see some production tweaks on the sections I mentioned before this is posted. Gray could really help isolate some of the problem areas and offer tips. But other than that, this was gold and some exemplary material from the The Dark Side of Phobos. While the EQing needs some work in places, I felt this was your most impressive arrangement material yet, Navid. Nice work, bro. YES

http://www.zophar.net/gym/herzogzw.rar - "A Breach of Contract" & "A Full Retreat" Oooh, Herzog Zwei! If I'm not feeling this, you'll know it, cuz I love this soundtrack immensely. Wow, pretty beginner-ish. Sounds are very sloppy, and the arrangement isn't very creative. Original sections like 1:08-1:35 and 2:03-2:17 were filler. "A Breach of Contract" was used verbatim and "A Full Retreat" was actually simplified here. Mix with generic techno riffs and dance kicks and that's basically it. It's a shame too, because with themes like these (particularly Breach) I can fully understand how people get trapped in the whole "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality and don't take any risks or creative liberties with the source material. Gotta be a lot more though, Caleb. Keep practicing and improving through help from the ReMixing & Works forums. NO

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/sega/segacd/XJ220-Indego.mid - "Indego" Thanks for providing the source information. That original sounds pretty cool, even in MIDI form. Racing games tend to have some good stuff. So to be honest, I'm letting you know we're coasting with a solid NO already. But it's on the panel, so let's check out the arrangement content and see if you had anything going on. Seems like from your letter, you're saying you wanted to arrange the material after 2:52 of the MIDI. Well, to put it short and sweet, I liked some parts of the arrangement. It sounds like the piano chords you used were just taken from the original and beefed up a little bit. Doesn't help that you're still working in General MIDI, so the sound quality is still the same. The piano is kind of piercing at times. Also, if you already knew the bass & snare were quiet compared to the hihat, I dunno why you didn't address the problem, though I suppose for practicality's sake I should assume you tried. Rather short remix. It's certainly interpretive while keeping in the spirit of the original, and I don't mean sound quality, but rather staying in the same genre. It's a cool MIDI remix, but you'd be better off submitting it as a remix to VGMusic.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/metroid.zip - Track 3 ("Brinstar") Good sounds/texture for the intro, though some are a bit fakey for the way they're being used (strings/vox). Takes a while to build up, but 1:17 introduces some melodic content. Very very subdued. The fact that there aren't more elements involved makes the fake nature of the samples stick out all the more. The guitar coming in at 2:01 is a huge victim of that, sounding exceedingly mechanical, but most of the samples suffered from that level of exposure as well. The arrangement seems to be relatively simple and could use more ideas. 2:50 starts upping the tension with some low strings and drums, followed by another crescendo at 3:15. We get more reliant on the drums at 3:17 and the pace quickened. Still very synthetic sounding the whole way though, plus the panning was strange to me up until 3:57 or so. Things slowed down again for the last minute or so going for the finish. The composition was decent, and was fairly limited on account of the samples/performance. Nonetheless, there were some good ideas here and some good uses of dynamics. Nothing superlative, but very noticeable and contributing to some nice points throughout the course of the track. Wish the arrangement was a bit more comprehensive, but it was alright. Head to the ReMixing forum to get down with humanizing your samples and working on the production so some of the sounds sit better in the track and don't sound so thin. Good first go here, Justin, but this needs a lot of works with the finer details. Hope you have more time to dedicate to this. NO

YAY! PaRappa! YAY! Aight, so we're into some speedy dNb. Where's the high-end for some clarity? Sounds like he just created some original beats with the sampled PaRappa voices. Wait a min... [reads sub letter...] HAHAHAHA! This was cool too! Damn, I wanted some PaRappa mixes! Where are you Shael??? Where are you Joe Cam??? At that same token, don't try to sub this as a PaRappa mix just because you used some "Prince Fleaswallow's RAP" PaRappa samples. Or more to the point: HWUT!!! I SPIT HOT FIRE! NO Override

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/smw.rsn - "Sub Castle BGM" (smw-15.spc) Very basic rock cover. The performance is decent enough where a typical fan would appreciate it, but the recording is of poor quality with noticeable hiss and an overall dull sound. The lead guitar has no power and the whole track sounds sluggish on the performance. The timing on everything needs to be tightened up. The sequenced drums were repetitive and had those lousy cliched cymbal shots in there. Make the percussion more creative. The arrangement was verbatim as well, though you tried to throw some personal flair in there via the performance style. Not enough though. If you're going for just a cover, expand the instrumentation substantially to even have a shot, but I'd advise you to throw your own compositional ideas in there as well. Get more fan feedback from the Works forum and find out how to improve everything about your performance and production from the ReMixing forum before you submit material in the future. zyko & Vig seriously need to give some tips here. Haven't seen you around Dwelling of Duels, but register at The Shizz and get some concentrated feedback there as well from other serious guitar enthusiasts in the scene. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - "Shadowman Stage" (Track 9) Weak synths, 4:25-long and repetitive, underdeveloped, unengaging, uncreative on the arrangement, and near verbatim with the original. Some VERY brief original ideas in here (3:28-3:42), but nothing significant or different enough to merit allowing a full vote. NO Override

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sd3.rsn - "Religion Thunder" (sd3-3-11.spc) Cool ideas to start, though the drums are way too loud. Some FL Slayer geetar kicks in at :12 and it sounds way too fake. No body or power on it. Something else gets added at :25 to further clutter up the soundfield. From the get go, there was way too much reverb on everything. Except the drums, you can't hear any of the supporting instrumentation over the guitar lead. Too bad, there was some other good stuff going on beneath the muck. Nice ideas for the next section at 1:16. The principle is good, and I'm feeling the arrangement. BAH, it stopped at 1:46 to retread the first section. [/disappointment] I liked that part. Yeah, so the first part is just rehashed for the finish, which ends on the quick "that's it, we quit" quasi-ending at 2:23. Very brief and underdeveloped, which was a shame, because I liked the arrangement for the most part and the genre was good, albeit executed in a cluttered way. Gotta separate the sounds more so they don't bleed together so much. Let the other instruments and counterpoint ideas stand out. Don't let the last section simply repeat itself from the beginning. You're gonna have to create some new arrangement ideas or enhance the last section, otherwise repeating your ideas within a mere 2:29-long mix suggest you phoned in the effort. If you can get ideas on how to enhance that FL Sayer-style guitar lead from anyone in the ReMixing forum, then do it. Continue using the Works forum as well. Very promising ideas so far, Matt, so keep working on this. NO (resubmit)