Liontamer

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Track 2 ("Underground BGM") Not really feeling this one. A lot of the sounds came off as pretty bare; I didn't feel as if there was much cohesion amongst the sounds here. The tempo, the percussion, the overall bareness of sounds, and the sheer length all created a pretty plodding atmosphere. Can't say I heard anything here that was derived from SMB's "Overworld BGM". Like Izz, I liked a lot of the arrangement/compostional ideas here, but on the other hand the presentation was extremely lacking to me. Needs to be beefed up beyond plodding kicks and claps, with the melodic elements more prominently positioned. Anything to drive the song forward would help. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/pdusf.rar - 04 "Training Room" This flat-out reminded me of the kind of style of mixes we got maybe 3 years ago. Solid electronic/groove based stuff. Some people are gonna shit on that, but I couldn't give a shit. Reminds me of well-made older material like Taysiir's Blaster Master mix "TI Blasta Party" in particular, but for others it could remind them of something else in the same vein. The drums sounded like they used practically the same hits/loops the whole time, but the mixing on them was fine (a bit loud but not overbearing). Adding more variation to your percussion and beatwork (while not altering things dramatically) would only help the track, IMO. Nice idea for the skip at 1:25. The track could have used a dynamic change of some sort at 2:35 instead of retreading what came before. I'm voting like The Wingless in that my utterly groove-biased heart says YES, but in the interest of moving forward in terms of standards and quality, I've gotta vote NO. If other Js feel it's solid enough where passing this wouldn't feel like a step backwards, I wouldn't challenge it. The arrangement of the source tune is solid, but the last minute of the track just repeated what came before. Practically anything you could do to add some more arrangement ideas and/or variation in the last minute would gain a YES. Perhaps look into adding ideas from later on in the source tune; there's some good stuff about a minute and a half into "Training Room". Please come back with the resubmission, bro. NO (please resubmit)

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 110 "Fighting" That was some cool shit; I'll be keeping this. Pretty simple and sparse, but I liked it. In any case though, I agreed with Wingless about the drums, though I didn't feel it was quite the dealbreaker. I'm always game for a phat bassline, so definitely keep that around. I really liked the high string runs from 2:18-2:38. They remininded me of my favorite Chrono Cross track "Earth Dragon's Island." Nonetheless there wasn't much variation going on in the supporting elements of the mix. Bassline & drums need more attention there in particular. Not too much going on arrangement-wise in the handling of the source theme when it comes down to it. Would have made it on the site back in the old days, and I'm digging it, but you just gotta be more these days homey. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/rd.rsn - "Far Promise ~ Dream Shore (1)" (rd-08.spc) & "Snakebone Mansion" (rd-06.spc) Pretty sloppily done at times. Basically the source tune with original breakbeats pasted underneath, though "Snakebone Mansion" had more substantial arrangement. The beats had no power/processing behind them, leaving them very flat. The sustained string from 1:10-1:23 didn't sound right vis-a-vis the other sounds. The orchestral string runs were pretty basic in their support and didn't add much depth to the piece. The cymbal-shot-into-higher-key transition at 2:27 was very uncreative leading towards the finish. Nothing particularly creative or engaging with the arrangement. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 68 "Gerudo Valley" http://www.zophar.net/gbs/zelda.zip - Track 47 I actually liked the clap intro; thought it was a different way to intro the track. It certainly caught my attention when I played it on VGF53. Very cool combination of sounds, including a phat bassline and cool synth xylo stuff. Classy use of the Lil' Link voice samples at :53. The whole handling of "Gerudo Valley" was nothing but stylish, including the inspired-by original section from 1:13-1:44, followed by the guitar work transition into "Ballad of the Wind Fish". Things circled back into Gerudo with some additional seasoning at 2:56. Solid acoustic guitar/clap fade-out for the close. Nothing much to say but well-done. Great sophomore mix from Ben as far as I'm concerned. YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Stickerbush Symphony" (dkq-17.spc) Not feeling this. Decent effort at the live guitar work, but it didn't really have any meat behind it. The sound balance was all over the place. No meaningful attention to production, placement or panning, basically killing what could otherwise be an enjoyable cover for DKC2 fans. Just a cover of the source material with different instruments with stuff like the ambient string-like pads lifted from the SPC/MIDI. Repetitive and not interpretive. Keep at it. It seems like you don't know the standards or guidelines here, but you're young and could have some promise if you're serious about pursuing the hobby. Hit the ReMixing forum for more information and advice on working with limited resources, so you can make the most of what you currently have available. Post any works-in-progress to the WIP forum to get feedback so you have a firmer idea on where improvement is needed. NO

Like I said in my vote for your previous Marathon submission, "Leela", the upgrade here is definitely very good, but more would need to be done in an interpretive context to either rearrange the theme or expand the ideas more substantially. I wanna stress that I thought this was a very stylish remake, and some cover tracks have the merit to pass based on criteria I mentioned just now, but in this case this isn't a significant-enough upgrade to me. It was hard to vote on this objectively, as we clearly (OMG CLEARLY) have a disgusting groove and chill bias. :guffaw: I encourage anyone that may want the track to check it out at VGMix. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Celes" (ff6-122.spc) & "Tina" (ff6-201.spc) I'm more with Izz's stance on the mix, in that the arrangement is alright, though conservative, but mostly the production and performance were hurting the piece, agreeing with Dan that production is something I wouldn't dock points from considering the circumstances. If the overall presentation was better, I'd scrutanize the arrangement more, though from several listens you can hear that many creative liberties aren't taken beyond transposing the source tunes to the genre. There are some, but not too too much. In any case, there were some particularly glaring flubs like the strings at 2:43, which were really off. I think some more playthroughs would have made this one solid. I'd hope that you could have the opportunity to to work with this community orchestra in the future on other material. Please specially give the name of the orchestra if you indeed conduct them/work with them again. Though you are the arranger/conductor, not giving a bit more info on your performers is a bit of a faux pas for me. Upload this to VGMix; it's a very cool piece, Bob. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 12 "IceCap Zone (Act 1)" Yeah, I'm not gonna waste too much time on this material. Gray & Dan already broke it down very throughly, so I'm just echoing their statements. Very default-ish sounds, repetitive compostion and thin sounds and poor production. Use the WIP forum for more feedback next time and see what information the ReMixing forum holds to become more proficient with your work. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "The Phantom Train" (ff6-116.spc), "The Decisive Battle" (ff6-124.spc) & "The Fierce Battle" (ff6-303.spc) Sure, on some level I agree that "The Decisive Battle" is overdone, but you know...meh. Up until 1:33, it's basically a cover to start, but we've had great "conservative" remixes in the past like CarboHydroM's first OC ReMix, FF7 "Still More Fighting" where the underlying/support instrumentation is sometimes the most significant change, which is what I felt was the case with the cover-style sections here. In Carbo's case as well as House's, just listening to the track casually it's easy to feel it doesn't take enough creative liberty or interpretation, but when you take a closer look, I think it does more than enough to get the job done even when not straying far from the melody itself. Good drumwork and orchestration additions really helped put the expansive touches here, and I've got nothing wrong with that from a standards context as long as the changes are thorough/developed enough within the context of the rest of the piece. Good fusion of styles, I felt. The slowed down section from 4:50-5:15 was pimp. The arranged sections were excellent the whole way through. The original and arranged material from 1:33-2:50 were nothing short of skilled. I first noticed Alex from the word of mouth created from his Dwelling of Duels Clockwork entry "La Hora es Tarde", so it's great to see him submitting material. After having his brother Dan's DoD winner Ninja Gaiden 2 "Ninjascape" passed by the panel, I'm glad I could call it the same way for Alex. Ashane & House are two guys to be aware of when visiting TheShizz.org & DoD. Some of the haters say the guitar guys are all the same, but I think they're just another example of the depth which the community as a whole possesses. No qualms on this one at all. YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Kannon's Klaim" (dkq-s-01.spc) I remember talking to Pavo briefly in #ormgas about this one being submitted, though I hadn't had a chance to check it out thoroughly until now. In any case, the production should have been a bit cleaner. Everything had an overall dullness to it. 1:25 is a pretty much a muffled sounding cover with different instruments and some minor additions. Dunno why you thought this would pass as is. I didn't hear anything from 1:25-3:16 that was substantially interpretive at all. Shouldn't be this easy to NO something so "acclaimed" but we're looking for a lot more here. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/ps4.rar - 18 "Pain" You made a mix in an hour and expected it to pass. Not in this universe, bro. First 56 seconds are a rip of the source. Some original beats and crud after that, then just the ripped original with lousy beats underneath it. I'm not gonna dignify the rest of this with a review. Just weird crud at 2:09; don't really care if you arranged anything at this point. Should have gotten the form. Don't waste our time with thrown together garbage. You can do better. If you want a nicer review, Harmony's above is a great place to start though. I bleh on this. If you stick with this and get a lot better, you'll have a good laugh and be kicking yourself thinking you could send this one off and get it posted. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/dizzy.zip - Track 1 Quality straightforward expansion versus the sounds of the original, along with a nicely done 50s-style genre adaptation with the faster tempo. Played it back on VGF56 and liked hearing something this unique. The vocals were fairly well-done for the most part - harmony was good and the lyrical deivery was pretty good, while the lyrics were pretty creative. Kinda fell apart at 2:00 as you split the vocals into the left and right channels; the lead vocals/speaking from then until the end sounded like they could have used a couple more takes. Nice stuff; short and sweet, but nicely done by Marcus per his usual. It's kind of odd that I don't even think of Makke as a vocalist mixer despite how many vocal mixes he's done. Don't miss out on his other material on R:K:O on his own or with The C64 Mafia tackling the Commodore 64 mixing scene. This will get hated on by a lot of people. Not saying it's superlative, but that's why I generally say, "F the people." YES

Fun piece, and of course I like the theme, but the performance is too sloppy and needs to be tightened up on the timing; some of the transitions (e.g. 1:33) were very poorly executed. The lyrics need to be more prominent and could also have slightly stronger delivery. The arrangement is also pretty short and underdeveloped; it was going fine until you retread the arrangement ideas at 1:34. If you're gonna do a piece this short instended for here, you shouldn't retrace your steps. Cool source tune, and a fun premise for the mix here, but more can be done with this. NO

Yeah, thanks for providing the original, but even just being familiar with the original myself, this was basically the original adapted to new instruments. Nothing bad, but overly plain and repetitive when it comes to interpreting the compostion. The sounds/instrument samples were alright, though they sounded pretty stock. Sound balance wasn't bad or anything like that. Keep at it, but throw more interpretation into your arrangement. Some other Js might have further ideas on that as well as ways to improve your composition choice. Make use of the ReMixing forum and WIP forum to hone your skills. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/contra.zip - Track 4 Jack allowed me the pleasure of debuting this one on VGF50, and all was right with the world. Very skilled take on the theme in the now-trademark tefnek style much like previous OC ReMixes like Streets of Rage "Drop and Roll" and Raiden 2 "Airborne", and one which I felt delivered a little bit more on developing original sections as well. There wasn't too much length in the source material (:34 long), so I definitely recognize that Jack did a great job slowing down, yet expanding, the track and fitting it to the big beat style we all know and love. tefnek - "Can't stop. Won't stop." /groovebias YES

Aight, I got 5 shows to do in a day and some change. Currently recording #52, featuring Sonic 2 "Hedgehog Heaven", as I'm posting. Y'all can hang in #VGF at any time for the follies. Links and stuff are on page 1 of the thread. We'll be going for #s 52, 53, 57, 58 & 60.99/Finale if I have time. Wish me the luck, and happy radio to all. [/Engrish]

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Guardia Millenial Fair" (ct-1-06.spc) Not bad bro. The mastering was a bit distant sounding and could afford to be sharpened up. I'm eagerly awaiting, and I don't mean this sarcastically, for the day when The Anti-Jazz here makes the most out of a sparsely constructed track and the ideas completely click together. Here, I felt like K1 was on the reasonably right track. I don't mind the drumwork being minimal, but oftentimes it did a poor job of flowing along with the material here to drive it along. There were some points where (timing issues aside) the minimalist drumkit worked better in conjunction with the rest of the material (e.g. :21-1:01, 2:24-3:26) and other times where the beats were too plain, lazily plodded along and didn't gel well with the rest of the music (e.g. 1:03-1:19, 1:46-1:56). 2:07-2:25 brought out the unique Koelsch freestyle stuff, and again I've gotta bring up the complaints on the lack of coherent phrasing that Jesse always has, since they're a very legit criticism. Wow, that fadeout was the epitome of bootleg. Sounds like you took the track, threw it in an free MP3 editor and told it to tack on a 3-second fadeout. Gimme a break, bro, don't make it sound so cheap. Lemme copy Harmony's suggestion - I loved it: e x t e n d i t. If the mastering were a bit sharper, the sax work had more energy and power behind it, and the blander drum sections could be livened up while retaining the fairly minimalist approach you went for here, I could see this having a legit shot. The piano in particular sounded inhuman at times, but otherwise did a great job of accenting the piece when it was in play. Aside from that brief freestyle not clicking, I liked the concept of your arrangement a lot and thought it was very well thought out. Why not try for a resub? I thought there was promise here. I'll be keeping this one. Wish you could find a way to resub Valkyrie Profile "Blind Eternity" as well. Keep at it. NO (rework/resubmit)

Pure bueno.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ki.rsn - "Main Theme" (ki-01.spc) Yeah, this was a fairly vanilla and very synthetic orchestral take on the source material. The string samples were aight, but the way they were used was lacking, with the note-to-note movement sounding unnatural. 1:45 finally started some genuine rearrangement. I liked the idea of the woodwind sample being placed in there, though once it swelled a bit louder along with some other brass samples, the samples were all too loud and exposed. Things need to blend together more naturally. The triggering on one note at 2:40 was very flubbed. There was a cymbal swell at 2:50 that decayed way too quickly as well. By around 3:15 the arrangement was getting pretty boring as I wanted for something to happen. The source returned at 3:25 for the last section, lasting all the way until 4:53. Not too much in the way of dynamic contrast or build, and the source melody wasn't developed much. Like Jesse said, the strings during the runthroughs of the main theme were slightly off with their timing. The arrangement needs more creativity beyond playing the original with strings for most of the time. Interpret the source material instead of copying it. Head over to the ReMixing forum for tips on how to improve your sound balance so that things here don't sound too muddy and you can get some ideas on how to strengthen dynamics. You can also look for information on timing and making the performance sound more natural. Post any works-in-progress to the WIP forum to get more feedback as well. NO

Nah. Should have Saved As...

Bah. Lost the first 80 minutes of the show thanks to Cool Edit's very impractical Paste function, which just pastes a copied section at the beginning of the file, replacing the length of the clip with what you paste, instead of pasting it to replace what you actually highlight. If Roland's got it, I can bootleg a stream recording and connect what I've got. Also, Kyle, I'm gonna need a copy of your first call. My sincere apologies, bros y sis'es.

'scuse me Paige, but this sounded simply... er... wrong. uhm... yeah. Oh, COME ON NOW!

Hahahaha. What do you think I'm gonna do?

One suggestion I'd like to give to people is to, beyond the SSF2 SPCs, also check out the full Super Street Fighter II Turbo soundtrack. All of the themes have been beefed up with additional support instrumentation, and honing in the patterns on those instruments could easily give you ideas on variations you could do in the background of your mixes in order to fill them out further. I'll try and snag the soundtrack and temporarily host it for y'all so that someone else can mirror it for project purposes.