Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

I'd like to request updated versions of several avatars. The Breath of Fire 2 sprites all need to be brightened up: Need transparency on these: The Street Fighter Alpha 3 fan-art avatars suck, IMO. Can anyone make some good ones with either all transparency OR all with added background colors from these? http://www.sfgalleries.net/art/sfa3/series2/ Or simply crop appropriately and make ones based off these, provided they don't look bad with a resize: http://www.sfgalleries.net/art/st-gba/portraits/ SF3:3rd Strike or Alpha 1 anyone? Colored background would likely have to be added for 3S: http://www.sfgalleries.net/art/sf3/sf3-3s/series1/ http://www.sfgalleries.net/art/sfa/series1/

http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=74141

No headaches, just expressions of "Ok, what the fuck is that?" Wow I was expecting a response, but not THAT fast... And not with that size font!

No headaches, just expressions of "Ok, what the fuck is that?"

Ha! Nice shot with the accordian. Supporting synths coming in at 1:23 weren't my cup of tea. Simple as hell, but the lead instrumentation there was an excellent choice. Nice break at 1:54 as well to keep things fresh, along with the second changeup at 2:04. Nice groove overall, Stefan. [/groove bias]

Could have used more activity overall rather than this spartan approach. Beats coming in at 3:47 dragged this down, but aside from that, this was surprisingly impressive on the interpretation side.

Did you mean "Elven Tears"? I would like to know since I would rather tag the track with your title than djp's; since you're the artist and all. Yeah, that's clearly what he meant, so we'll hopefully retag it when OCR01500 rolls by. The tone of the arrangement here's not a favorite of mine considering how much I liked the original tune. Wish the percussion patterns were more interesting and that all of the instruments were more powerful, but as Alex mentioned way back, he felt the sounds he used were lackluster anyway, so it's a moot issue. Also wish this theme got some more coverage in the community, even just in the C64 arrangement community.

Gotta pretty much agree with Matt on this one. Solid stuff. It's too sparse for my tastes, but what IS in place works well.

Not bad for an older tune. It's short and sweet and has good energy. Nonetheless, Tim hates it, so I'll just follow along...

Rather wish the rest of the song was spun out of the beginning. The quality disparity between the intro and the rest of the intro's already been noted, so there's no need to dwell on it. "Terra" arrangements aren't really my thing, but I can at least respect Alex reworking the time signature and giving this old hat a new spin.

The beatwork kind of dragged on after a while, plus the overall power should have been greater. Right now the volume is too subdued for this type of music. A bit rigid in the performance, but a very solid arrangement for its time.

Stop wasting time on passing this.

Yeah, though the piano sounds thin, this deserves more attention. Loved the arrangement; it's got tons of energy, and the execution was top-flight for something so early in the site's history. Great stuff, Mike. I'm an even bigger fan of "Thelonius Temple Low" for it's grittier/"live recording"-type feel. Seems like most people have no idea where to get a copy of that nowadays, but my fellow Emory bro Electron was nice enough to hook me up with a copy.

Getting props from the original composer himself is always great. Arrangement was conservative, but worked well from an expansive standpoint. The extra beats added at 3:22 pretty much buried some very subtle support instrumentation ideas that had also been added at the point, so that was disappointing. Voice clip for the intro of course set this up nicely, and the racing announcer clips coupled with the racecar SFX gave the piece some tense moments. Another good execution of a trademark Rayza technique.

The gated-style "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!" intro already makes this a hot track. Does a good job of making you curious enough to listen to the rest. Fairly stock sounds/effects were in play here, but came together well with that good old-school Rayza flavor. The samples of the football announcer going crazy had me laughing. Interesting mix. Makes me wanna watch a speedrun of the game.

The Raiden series soundtracks felt a bit spotty to me; there are some decent cuts, but I never really found myself liking much on there. The execution here was definitely skillfull and stylish. A little thin in spots, but I loved the overall meaty and energetic atmosphere here. Great arrangement ideas, this really compares well with the original. Solid development throughout the course of the mix, even showcasing some new writing ideas at the end just to show he wasn't resting on his laurels. Nice work, Hayden.

Never really a fan of rigidly sequenced piano, even when it's got airy effects to fit into an electronic track, but it only lasted for the intro (and the close). Took a while to build up to something, but the energy was ok once things picked up around the 1:40 mark. Construction was relatively simple, as I wished the soundfield was fuller and that the synth design was more creative, but it was good for what it was. Tim was right about the key change at 2:40 breathing new life into the track; gotta say, that worked surprisingly well. Wouldn't have minded the track being placed in this key to begin with and the arrangement subsequently built off that idea. Even not being familiar with the original, this had decent old-school energy. Hayden's other Gaiares mix here is pretty tight, so check that out as well.

Dunno why this was ever named "Trance". Construction is rather simplistic, but got the job done back in the day. Piano was sequenced rather rigidly, but sounded fairly nice when mixed with the synth and pads during some points in the track. The bass kicks/thumps here felt pretty out of place, but other than that the ideas were ok. This could have used some more supporting elements to fill this out.

Yeah, this being from Xenogears, I'm rather suprised at the lack of reviews. Brief, but solid stuff for its time from Evan. Doesn't sound very realistic, but at the same time the samples were used well. Ending felt too sudden. The arrangement of course has a good amount of personalization and creativity, but I was disappointed that it didn't play off of the source melody more, as "Wings" is actually pretty good. A shame Evan's no longer a regular in the community.

Ha! Yeah, those Bulgarian bagpipes are pretty shrill, so I can see why it would turn off most people. Hard to digest, and kind of on the lower end as far as the arrangement, since it basically says its piece in a minute then goes for another loop. The very ending made me laugh and cringe at the same time. Props to Chris for taking a creative risk.

Piano was awfully mechanical, but this settled into a good groove based on music that was originally used in SoR2. Kinda disappointing in that I don't hear Hayden employ much string stuff, like he did in the intro. It's something I'd have liked to hear in more of his works, as he pulled that off pretty nicely for the time.

http://www.mirsoft.info/wogm_download.php?data=YTozOntpOjA7czo0OiIxODUwIjtpOjE7aToxMTM0NTk5NjkxO2k6MjtpOjM7fQ== - 07 - Guilty.MID Repeating myself from last time, the source tune is just one variation of many. Check out 03 & 06 for others, but 07 is the one that's structured the most like this mix. I pretty much covered my feelings last time around. I feel this was a significant improvement on the production side. Honestly, I'm harsher on it when I feel that a piece could greatly be improved on that level. Right now, things still sound rather dulled and lo-fi for no good reason. I'd rather hear something cleaner along with a VBR encoding of the piece to maximize the sound quality, if this is the best the source files to sound. Things sound lo-fi, but agreeable enough throughout the intro. 1:26 still has a very nice boost of intensity with the beats. I feel like the beats were just dominating over the top of the source melody from 1:53-2:13. I liked the writing on the low brass (or are those strings) coming in at 2:24. The entire sequence from 2:43-3:21 IMO speaks volumes for why the production needs reworking and where the sounds are critically imbalanced. This all sounds like I'm listening to a performance from just outside the building; things are just so muddy and indistinct, you find yourself trying to mentally create what it SHOULD sound like. The last section on piano at 4:28 just sounds like we're talking about a 64kbps encoding. I just can't pass this in good conscience when the production needs some TLC. Someone save this please. I want this mix on the site. I want to pass it. I think it's bad enough that the arrangement kicks ass and it's from an unrepresented game. But if I passed it, I'd definitely be dishonest with myself. The sound quality is dragging this down substantially, no disrespect intended, Nurykabe. Arrangement-wise, this is a wonderful piece of work. NO (refine/resubmit)

Meh. I listened to every Michiel van den Bos track in the Unreal soundtrack I DLed from Mirsoft (only available if you have a login) and couldn't find a damn thing that sounded like this, hence the holdup. (Thanks to TO for finding the soundtrack). Obviously, the sub letter offers something that's supposed to identify the original, but I couldn't find the UMX-format soundtrack, and nothing here sounds like it. Apparently, it's "Hub 5", but I dunno. Hell, I listened to everything, and no dice. Send an MP3 of the original next time. If I find anything later, I might update my comments, but otherwise I didn't think this was strong enough regardless. Decent opening, immediately messing the tempo. Synth guitar doesn't sound real at all, but the tone was decent for what it was. Percussion was also decent to start with but drags over time despite some changeups. Not too much going on in the way of dynamics as the whole basic synth guitar + beats formula gets tired after a while. Moved over into I guess a bass guitar synth with some basic beats before going right back into the whole formula at 2:10. Vox coming in at 2:10 was so quiet, it was practically a non-factor. Even that quiet though, the low quality still felt exposed to me. Past 2:45, simply more of the same formula. Promising for a beginner-level effort. The soundfield is reasonably filled out thanks to the guitar, though the construction is noticeably sparse/simplistic when you actually examine how many sounds are in play. I'd say more, but I'm frankly burnt out after trying to find the source, and thereby can't make any comparisons on that level. Decent start, but it needs more complexity in the writing, more dynamic contrast, and more variation in the instrumentation. NO

http://www.mirsoft.info/wogm_download.php?data=YTozOntpOjA7czo0OiIyMzU2IjtpOjE7aToxMTM4MzI1OTA5O2k6MjtpOjM7fQ== - Level01.mid http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 318 "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" Really glad Lee found a backup of the source files on this one. Basically all this needed was a little more development/evolution/variation to go over the bar, IMO. I found it a little funny that Lee didn't like the additions he made in the piece, "overcomplicating it" in order to make something more acceptable, but that's the nature of not necessarily buying into da groove. If you have a 4 minute track that basically says its piece in 2, then I'm all for providing more substance. Felt like the recording quality on the vocals may have been a little rough, but nice job boosting your vocals to help playing up the ethereal vibe and give them more prominence. I liked the guitar-like synths coming in at 2:15 to provide a nice change of pace, and worked better than that thin piano sample last time around. Loved the breakdown at 2:49-3:05 as well with the subtle strings, which sounded a little fakey but weren't very exposed. Nice work giving them a bit more presence to fill the track out better but keep them as a background player. Lee went for a purposefully murky texture from 3:05 until the end where the pads and his vocals meshed together. Personally, I think it could have been pulled off without the vocals sounding so indistinct/muddy, but it wasn't a huge deal, just something I wasn't hot on. Fadeout at 3:44 for the end also felt too sudden. This really didn't need much work from the first version, but all the revisions here have made things more solid. The overall sound balance is better, and things coast at a very chill pace without the writing going on cruise control. Nice yo. YES

http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=kss - "Gourmet Race Stage 1, 3" (kss-27.spc) Like me, many people really know this from Smash Bros. rather than the original game. Any reason why I can't find any information on you on MobyGames or IMDB? Oh well, one starts small and moves onto bigger things. Arrangement seems on point. I thought DarkeSword would be all over this already. Great genre adaptation going on in terms of the writing. Samples could sound richer and lend more emotiveness to the piece. Good crafting of tension at 1:48 for a nice change of pace. It's good to see this piece not necessarily be happy-go-lucky syrupy crud. Piece goes for a bigger last section at 2:42. Not really as grandiose in execution as you were trying to go for, as I felt the soundfield felt a bit empty most of the way through, but GrayLightning would be a better judge of that. Nice stuff at 3:10 as well working the xylophone or whatever percussion that was; you had some good instrumentation ideas throughout to keep things from getting stale. Vox entering at 3:23 was a good idea, though sounded somewhat robotic, and more importantly swamped the soundfield when it didn't have to. Solid work, Rob, and I'm looking forward to hearing more of your material in the future. YES