Liontamer

To say that the recent slew of comments warms the cockles of Flik's heart would be an understatement. Don't forget the groin too!

Nowadays, this would get rejected on account of not developing the quasi-industrial approach here. Not to mention there isn't anything meaningful done with the arrangement, and it has an abrupt ending. Notice how Disco Dan had his head on straight when he voted on it. Still, if you like the Temple theme, it's an easy sell even if it's only a relatively minor upgrade.

Not a bad sound for an old mix. For better or for worse, it still stands alone after all this time. Not sure what the point was of the effects from 1:45-2:14. Pretty pointless. In any case, the arrangement was pretty simple but it has it's place in the older stuff, even if overlooked.

Can't say I cared for the intro, as it was near-verbatim with the source, but once Matt picked things up at :32, he was groove-biasing it nicely for the "old days." Wish there was more development here, as there's not much to this, but thems the breaks.

Just checking out some of the stuff that hasn't been peeped here in a while. This one doesn't really hold up well, though for the time, it at least had a decent amount of gradual development. Everything's defaulty, and there's nothing in the way of texture. Certainly not a knock against Mike, as he had some much better material posted later on like "Influence of Koholint", but as the very first remix passed by the judges panel, you can see that OCR's come a long way, as this mix would be an instant rejection nowadays.

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Kraken of the Sea" (mo2-097.spc) Decent percussion and synth driven intro, though tha gated synth replicating the source tune is pretty basic. Some very weak, defaulty beats joined in at :32, joined by some drumloops at :48. Yeah, I'm getting the feeling that it's not gonna get too complicated here. A string pad comes in at 1:03 for something a little different, but the overall groove is still the same untlil 1:35 finally changes the atmosphere substantially. The low gated synth and loops gradually crept back in at 1:51 though. Piano at 3:09 was very robotic. I'm hard pressed to give a track like this much credit. It's not produced poorly, and does get by pretty well simply rotating 4 or 5 defaulty instrumentation patterns in and out in various combinations. But that's all there is to it, and you're gonna have to do more than that for any shot at the pass. Still, a promising track for a first sub. Look forward to hearing your next one, provided there's more substance. NO

Metal Gear Solid 2 OST - 01 "Metal Gear Solid Main Theme (MGS2 Version)" I wouldn't recommend encoding this at anything lower than 128kbps unless using LAME VBR. 96kbps is too low. There's virtually no high-end here. Everything sounds really dull and lo-fi. Very liberal allusions to the source until it was brought in at 1:07 with some very sparse electronic conversion. Not much in the way of polyphony. Hahahaha, using just the first few notes of the source tune from 1:31-onward was definitely not working here. Lame hand drum sample pasted on top for the first time from 1:54-1:56. Percussion dropped out briefly at 2:49, but that was only replaced by something else. Arrangement retread at 3:31, which I could have done without. Track is too long and doesn't have anything going for it. Poor job developing anything worthwhile from the original, sorry. The concept is there, but it's poorly realized. NO

http://www.zophar.net/vgm/alexkimw.zip - "Normal" Beyond the intro, any overt usage of the source material was relegated to the back, so look for it elsewhere in the piano. Given the mix title, I listened to "Janken", figuring that was arranged instead/also, but I didn't hear it here. The piano coming in at 1:08 was a very liberal-sounding yet simplified take on the source material. Almost too liberal honestly, though I hear the connection. The piano sample itself was pretty poorly used; even playing such simple parts, it was still very mechanical-sounding. The sounds are very basic and the soundfield is muddy with reverb and too much stuff attempting to co-exist in the low-end. The production is pretty cruddy, IMO. No clarity whatsoever, plus the arrangement tended to drag after the halfway point. Very basically constructed the whole way through. Too bad. The sub letter alludes to the fact that the effort was genuinely there. NO

Gran Turismo Original Game Soundtrack - 01 "Moon Over The Castle (The Theme Of GRAN TURISMO)" Hahaha! What a good name for the track. That's a pretty damn cool genre adaptation, but it needs some work to flesh out the sounds and texture. Intro's a little too widely panned until :10, but I loved the fade-in, which was pretty pimp. Electric guitar at 1:11 sounds really naked. I'm sure it's been done in classic rock before though, so it's not a huge hit, it's just barren and also a bit too distant-sounding. I feel like it would sound better with some effects on it. That wasn't an issue before 1:11, but the change in tone at 1:11 needs the guitar to have a little more meat on it. Cool vibraphone (thanks, Gray) from 1:47-2:34, though maybe a little too bright. Piano briefly at 2:34 sounds way too fake and lacking in high frequencies. Last iteration of the source melody at 2:45 is pretty much the same stuff as before with some slight additions. Really could have used some significant additions or changes there to create some development/variation and keep the track going strong, as the arrangement was dragging a little bit towards the end. Maybe add more effects/processing to the lead guitar to push it over the top. Man, this is some solid shit, and I'm gonna be pissed if this doesn't make the site down the line, cuz I want to see it there. I just can't YES it in good conscience right now, as I feel it could be refined to really trick it out and make it more expressive. Don't drop this one, Ilari; work on it a little further if this doesn't pass. Definitely keeping this. NO (borderline/please resubmit)

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/n64/T2Adia.mid - "Port of Adia" Good stuff in trying to change the rhythms of the original. Percussion and bassline coming in at :07 make the track really dull-sounding in terms of frequencies. Everything needs to be sharpened up with some higher frequencies, and the instruments need more separation, as they're mooshing into each other. The faux-guitar at :29 sounds decent but obviously artificial, plus, as previously mentioned, it bleeds terribly into the backing string samples (which are weak, honestly). The quieter section at 1:10 was a little plain-jane, but nonetheless offered some good contrast, before adding more percussion and guitar at 1:29 to spice it up. In terms of the arrangement, good stuff keeping things changing and developing with the move back into upbeat material at 1:54. The whole track manages to morph around like this, which was a large positive. Everything still sounded terribly mooshed together and dulled, but you've at least got a good framework in place. If you can clean up the soundfield/production, and get the samples sounding better or step up the actual sample quality, it would be a significant step in the right direction. Hit the ReMixing forum and see what you can find there to help you out in that effort, and don't be bashful about posting your works-in-progress to the Works forum for fan feedback. Hang around the site more and keep working on it. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/vectrman.rar - Day 11 "Stayin' Alive" Though the instrumentation/synth design seems too basic, the mix does a good job of tailoring it for its genre by filling out the original and building upon it with some good additive ideas. The production was fairly full and the sound was clean. I'd be interested in zircon's comments in particular. Work on giving the track some more activity/instrumentation in the background to fill out the soundfield. The percussion patterns are too basic and repetitive, which could be also be argued for the arrangement as a whole. Though there's some new stuff from 2:13-2:32, after you get to 1:22 you've basically heard the whole track, so fashion some new ideas to stave off unsatisfying repetition. Right now, there's not enough going on here, which I realize was the style of the Vectorman soundtrack but doesn't quite stand on it's own. Keep working on it, and take use of the ReMixing and Works forums if you haven't been doing so already. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Shadow" (ff6-111.spc) Decent instrumentation concept, though the atmosphere was very muddy right off the bat and the samples were thin in texture (despite the effects in play) and very artificial-sounding, oftentimes exposed and GM quality. Track picked up with additional layers of strings at 1:21. The piano run at 1:59 was a good idea, but pretty ugly in the performance. Arrangement was unfortunately really conservative. Some instrumentation variation was there within the track, but didn't prevent the arrangement itself from dragging after essentially treading over the theme verbatim several times. Conceptually, I do like the idea of giving Shadow's Theme more zest, but the end result here is weak. Scout out the ReMixing forums for better samples you can use for free, and study there along with getting feedback from the Works forum to obtain more criticism for future works. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/conqcry.zip - Track 1 Thanks for providing the source information. Indeed, the original here is pretty catchy. Remix here is pretty basic with some generic and thin sounds, and too much volume. No sense of texture to this at all. Arrangement isn't particularly interpretive, most notably possessing some added harmonization and instrumental embellishments. You really need to get a lot more creative with your arrangement here and not just retain the melody and progression of the original wholesale. Nonetheless, you tried to add to things here, so it's not a NO Override, IMO. Keep trying to learn by reading up on the ReMixing forum and posting your material to be commented on in the Works forum. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Sara's Theme" (ct-3-06.spc) I'm not as critical of the approach per se, as it adapts Schala's Theme to trance, as is the purpose, but this still wasn't strong. For the genre, this is a fairly generic adaptation and could use some more unique ideas. Though I don't think it's terrible from a compositional standpoint, it's not distinctive and not very creative with the rearrangement. I liked the change provided by the piano and pads at 1:23 followed by the light synth joining in at 1:35 to change up the atmosphere. The panning choices alone are really confusing and a complete dealbreaker, especially listening on headphones as I do for all of the subs. The panning is just WAY too pronounced. Considering one of the cords of my headphones is on the fritz, I honestly thought my headphones were messing up at first. On top of that, the whole track sounds muddy. Looking forward to your next sub, but sorry bro, this is just not there at all. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/fzero.rsn - "Silence" (fz-05.spc) & "Select Time Theme" (fz-08.spc) Wanna point out that I like the arrangement ideas here. But I'm gonna be pretty quick on this one, as the major issues seem apparent. The percussion is basic and sloppily handled. The timing seems slightly off and it repeats too much, along with the piano on support. If it's gonna be like that, cut down the track length. The sax performance needs to sound a bit richer and stand out in the foreground more; it's being overshadowed by the percussion due to the perc being so loud in comparison. Relatively solid performance from Bev. Sax work from 4:41-4:49 felt really out of place. Fairly good switchup to "Select Time Theme" at 5:03, though 5:17-5:19 sounded a bit off. I'd like to see some suggestions from the Js on how to handle this jazzy percussion, both presentation and variation. Fix that up drastically and improve the sax presentation and I'd pass this. NO (refine/resubmit)

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 209 "Chasing the Black-Caped Man" Well, you said this would be pretty straightforward and you weren't lyin'. Pretty basic/sparse with the instrumentation. Percussion being so dry didn't help. Pretty plodding, monotonous and not significantly rearranged. Way too long without the variation to justify it. Sounds like 2 1/2 loops of an instrument swap with some basic percussion added. The time between this and the PSF only sounds off about 3 seconds. When the track isn't given any effort to substantially differentiating it from the original, you get the boot. NO OVERRIDE

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/guardian.zip - Track 8 Couldn't place the source at first, but I've heard those sections before in zyko's "The Legend of Lightning Larry" (really good) and was able to make the connection. Really glad to hear another mix of this theme, also in a drastically different style. Didn't quite get the Ace of Base vibe here, but I certainly see the influence, though I've only heard "The Sign" by them (the album, not just the single). It comes across to me more as someone else doing a DDR mix of an Ace of Base track. The intro was pretty basic/straightforward in the ideas, and things kicked in more at :29 to pick up the energy. Melody kicked in at :45 with the supporting beats and lead synth forming the original. Good changeup at 1:29 for the nice liberal arrangement stuff until 1:59. I think some more ideas could have been introduced at 2:31, as the arrangement seemed recycled from the beginning; wasn't breaking any new ground at that point, and could have used some extra subtleties to keep shit spicy. Nonetheless, the comprehensiveness of the ideas in the first place gets the job done with no problems, IMO, as there's good variation and development most of the way through. Ironically enough, I really don't think we have anything that sounds like this style on OC yet. My only big issue was with the beatwork being too straightforward, as I felt it hindered the energy level the rest of the instrumentation seemed to be going for, but the percussion patterns are tailor-made for the genre and this was a hot piece. Great stuff, Dain. Keep 'em coming! YES "Anyway anyway you do it wrong..."

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Tracks 17 & 6 ("Metalman Stage") ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFL! In the hallowed and LOAL~ tradition of umarmungfreund and Fanatics Tower of Power, the community crystal ball says BlackPerson will go legit, pump out the good music, and become a staffer of the subsequent incarnation of VGMix. I look forward to when BP has a red star at VGMix3. Definitely a hot joke mix. You should go for cleaner recordings and giving more richness to your vocals and instrumentation, cuz I'm laughing my ass off otherwise. Submit it to OverLooked ReMiX. My lady laughs at SMB3 "Hurricane Katrina" every time she hears it. "We are here to discuss the plight of the refugees in New Orleans..."

The name of the group is "Crazy Crakaz". No shit they sound white. The whole thing is tongue-in-cheek, you idiot.

Check out my Ormgas.com VG Frequency forum to see playlists for every one of the shows. The episodes with complete details at least point out what transpired during the calls from ReMixers and other personalities. I'm sure other people have their highlights, but doing something like that isn't a bad idea. I should do a clip show at some point, but it would take forever and a day. Download RealAlternative from the Edskes mirror instead. That give you all the necessary RealPlayer codecs and the Media Player Classic application with which to listen to that stuff with. Free, and no bloatware included. (Get QuickTime Alternative too.) Thanks for your interest.

Under 6MB file has been swapped into the original sub letter. Someone please verify the new hotness for us.

Does that mean he sounds like Larry? That's a burn If I've ever heard one! I sound brown!

208kbps VBR = BITRATE TOO LARGE! Just hook it up with a new version later and it should be fine. Anyway... http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 12 ("Chaos' Temple") http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF1_psf.rar - 108 "Chaos' Temple" Let's not forget that FF1 actually had that next-gen arranged soundtrack action from which to draw inspiration from. Getting into the track, the percussion was immediately dry and could have sat better in the track, like TO alluded to, but that wasn't a dealbreaking issue. Still one that could stand some substantial improvement in the future, as it limits the effectiveness of the entire package. In particular, nice instrumentation from :33-:44 & :55-1:06 with that e-violin-type deal, and the whistley/sine wave lead was also nice and understated. Both helped create a nice texture to the piece when in play. Arrangement basically retreads itself at 1:30, so though the arrangement ideas were very thorough and interpretive in the first place I was a bit disappointed to hear the same sections basically repeated at 1:30, 1:51 & 2:02, though you did supplement those with the electric guitar to beef things up, which was certainly good although a bit too subtlely applied. 2:36 finally built off of the first part of the track into some new material before going back to some of the ideas of the first section to close things out at 3:16 via gradual subtraction of sounds. Seemed like the drums from 2:36-3:16 were getting crnnchy and/or distorting, but I'd need a second opinion. Regardless, I was glad to see things progressed and developed here nicely like DarkeSword mentioned after my initial repetition fears. Mike continues to bring it with some more fun material that really makes me want to compare him yet again with Ailsean. They share the same energy and enthusiasm that makes their arrangements very enjoyable to a broad portion of the community. I'd still like to see more improvement with the production on the percussion, but there's no question the sum of the parts has what it takes. Very fun. YES

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Boy Meets Girl (Twoson)" (mo2-046.spc) More EarfBound! Also played this one on VGF68 as part of the Bound Together package. I think Jason did a good job here filling in for djp's track on short notice after he withdrew, but this could still use some more work to realize all of its potential. The volume is too loud, IMO, but Beatdrop has done similar levels before and I've been told that's fine, so...that's...fine. I love the sampled percussion opening here. We're just gonna call that a xylo for convenience. The beats coming in at :14 also carry that phattyness. Twoson melody at :28 is a bit less in the forefront than I'd want, but it's certainly there. Makes the track feel carried by the beatwork and not Twoson, but it's a different sound balance and I can run with that provided the arrangement is there on the other levels. The beats switched a little bit at :58 to some more ethnic/organic sounding drums, but the xylo pattern still stuck around. Could use some variation there to keep things interesting at the foundation of the track. Outside of the xylo base, there's noticeable variation going on in the instrumentation, though some of the melody sections are pretty barren nonetheless. For example, the Twoson melody at 2:25 is really simplistic until 2:53. Plus, the material from 2:53 onward just retreads itself with another light instrument added on top. Same xylo and drum patterns chuggin' along, same SFX repeating a few too many times. You really gotta switch these patterns up more often. If I passed this in its current form, it would pass from groove bias only. Dynamically, this didn't really go anywhere, leaving things bland. The arrangement concept is good, but aside from very minor variations, the feel is the same the whole way through and the otherwise cool arrangement goes on cruise control and eventually drags out. I think there's a solid base so far, and I realize it was made under a tight, practically unreasonable deadline, so I don't wanna sound like I'm hating on this track. Work on it further to create more dynamics and spice it up with some additional arrangement ideas to keep things interesting and developing, rather than overly repetitive. Right now, this is a 2-minute mix in a 4-minute body. NO (refine/resubmit)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Sanctuary Guardian" (mo2-040.spc) & "Welcome to Your Sanctuary" (mo2-043.spc) Gonna keep it short and sweet. Played this on VGF68 as one of the lead-in tracks to Bound Together. First section starts off as basically a sound upgrade of "Sanctuary Guardian". Thicker beats and more texture. 1:05 started hitting things with a bit more interpretation to match the expansion, but was pretty brief before going back to the expansionist formula. Needs to get more interpretive quickly. Around 2:15-onward went into some noise-based transition stuff until 2:32 moved into arrangement of "Welcome to Your Sanctuary" that was a lot more interpretive and substantial as a rearrangement than the treatment of "Sanctuary Guardian". Praise the Jesus! YESing just the treatment of "Sanctuary Guardian" would prove dicey to some, as it's merely expansionist and doesn't do much to the source material IMO than add the phat beetz and some additional sounds. It sounds hawt and gr00ve-bias and all that but lacks substance. But the second half rearranging "Welcome to Your Sanctuary" completely saved it and would stand on its own as a 3-minute arrangement, so I've got no issues. Cool stuff with the SFX starting at 4:30 that later reveealed itself to be saying "Welcome to your sanctuary" when finally exposed at 5:13. Very intelligent stuff. Arrangement (treated as a whole) and production are solid. Nice contrast between the two sections as well. Sorry the AB/Irriadin project fell through, but we still get the goods anyway, so it's all good. Keep 'em coming, Martin! YES