Liontamer

What are you, stupid? Group X never submitted Mario Twins, so that's a non-issue. That's actually a pretty good remix, and obviously didn't take itself seriously. Obviously Music of My Groin wouldn't make it nowadays, though that's certainly a shame, cuz it's a great joke mix. I "meh" on all the haters out there.

You've obviously never driven both cars before! In all seriousness, whatever the mix's shortcomings, indict away. Feel free to give Shael and/or Roland some tips on effects and processing to use Reason more optimally, because you're right Gray in that I thought some sound aspects could have been improved. Nonetheless, the arrangement & also the production were pretty solid taking all aspects of creation into account. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna drive off in my Jaguar now...

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 113 "Leaving the Body" Very interesting choice of source tunes. Having never played CC, I never really paid any attention to "Leaving the Body" until I had to check it for this submission. Pretty hot shit for just a few hours work and a first-time remixing effort. The sounds were generic, but I thought they worked pretty well. The mix suffered the most in production though, as the whole track was very muddy-sounding (boost some high-end frequencies), you didn't have proper separation amongst your instruments, and on the performance side, the samples that really needed an authentic sounding touch (e.g. the piano) sounded very inhuman. Watch the overall volume levels as well - this was definitely way too loud. It sucks that you don't have weighted keys to work with on your keyboard. You'll want to scope out the ReMixing forum and look for information to help you with your production, as well as your sample work, which could use more processing & effects to create more unique sounds. In terms of stuff like the piano, even skilled mixers like Adhesive Boy have to manually adjust velocities on various sequenced instruments for some of their material, so try and obtain whatever advice you can on that front. Onto the arrangement, which was the highlight for me, I really liked what I heard there. Considering the slow pacing of the source tune, you really overhauled the track well going for a more upbeat style. I really liked that synth that came in at :40 and layered with the whistling-style sound lead. The claps there were too loud and generic-sounding, so see if that can be addressed. Even though the piano that came in at :54 sounded extremely fake, the source arrangement again was very well done there. Sweet move into the chorus at 1:25. If the track wasn't so excessively loud and muddy, I'd really be enjoying this a lot more. You retread the arrangement ideas you previously used at 1:52. If you had spent more time on making the mix, you could have kept things fresh by providing some further variations. It wasn't getting stale to me, but for a relatively short mix at 3:08-long you've gotta keep up the creativity. One of the most counterproductive things you can do is have some hot rearrangement ideas in place for the first half but then just put the rest of the remix in cruise control by merely repeating what you had before. Some people will complain about there needing to be more dynamic contrast as well - certainly a viable criticism, considering no time was invested into avoiding that issue - but I really thought the constant groove worked here. If the rest of the track's aspects were up to par, I wouldn't have had any problem with the composition being like that. The ending section at 2:47 worked very nicely in dropping some elements out and playing with some more delicate piano work on lead before closing up. Watch the very end there - make sure you have a nice clean fade, not a crappy ending where the music/sound abruptly cuts off (3:07). Anyway, I was really surprised with the quality of the arrangement here. I really hope you keep soaking up knowledge on how to improve so that your performance & production match the strengths of your concept. I may not be passing this, but I also won't be throwing it away. Keep improving, Evan. Hope to hear more from you. If you wanna work on this further and resubmit it, that's fine by me, though the production in particular would need a huge improvement. NO (resubmit)

Already felt the track was too loud as things opened up. Production was particularly sloppy with the opening work as there was too much reverb overall. The string samples sounded really fake. Not bad with the beatwork coming in at :41. I liked the effects on there, though the volume was definitely pushing it. Pull it back, bro. The first :54 seconds were cool for an intro, but the track really dragged on as it continued. You had the strings play some chords derived from the source tune, but you never even fashioned a melody from anything, so we were just stuck with beatwork and some non-melodic synth patterns being the entire meat of the track all the way until 1:50 of your 3:02 track. As far as the guidelines here go, there's absolutely no way that's gonna work contextually. The woodwind-ish synth on lead from 1:50-2:26 was really generic. Then 2:27 went back to the beatwork and synth patterns. I'm glad you had that original stuff in there as part of your arrangement, but the "Dragon Roost Island" melody was a fairly minor factor in the composition, and that doesn't fly. Work more directly with the source tune in future works, and hopefully the other Js can give you some substantial advice on production. Swing by the ReMixing & Work-in-Progress forums and start taking advantage of the information & criticism at each of those places respectively. NO

Want a copy of the source tune. Any help? Frankly, I don't think this one is that hot in the first place, but I'd also want to understand the level of arrangement here.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "The Decisive Battle" (ff6-124.spc) It's interesting how some things come around. Before VG Frequency ever started, Emperor Nakoo Hiryuu was one of the contributors to my "(Insert Name Here)" All-Originals radio show special I did back in early 2003, which featured only original tracks from artists in the VGM remixing community. Never heard of him much around the community again beyond that, but it's nice to see him still active. Even having heard the track before it hit the panel, I didn't even know Ben was a member of Powerglove until now. Played this one on VGF49, so I was already very familiar with it. Let's keep it short and sweet. This was an excellent genre adaptation piece. The mix was full and the sounds meshed together without sounding overly muddy and sloppy. The drumkit was fairly good and the guitar work was spot on. While the melodic arrangement was conservative, it was still nice and expansive nonetheless on the instrumentation. I thought the arrangement was in danger of being too repetitive as the track went on; after hearing one iteration of "The Decisive Battle" played through, I was looking for something beyond simply another playthrough of the same material at 1:37 (though with different percussion in the background). At 2:32 at the third run of the source melody I was preparing to dispense a NO, getting ready to ask for some more thorough variation, but these bros came through with even more comprehensive alterations in the support instrumentation along with some good rearrangement ideas and personal touches for the melody itself. The ending at 3:28 was fairly quick and unsatisfying as a resolution to the mix to be honest, but that didn't detract in any significant way from the big picture. The mixing could have been a little bit cleaner, but at the same time, I felt the texture was rough yet well done. Everything conveyed a good amount of power & intensity. Sounds excellent. I actually remember hearing Powerglove's Dr. Wily's Theme & Storm Eagle remixes this past summer since they posted them to the Work-in-Progress forums, and I felt they had a lot of potential. This material right here outdid those previous mixes and shows that they've dedicated themselves to becoming a solid group. In terms of community music, the style sounded like a crossbreed between The Black Mages & S.S.H. Hopefully, these guys'll keep making more. YES

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ghst_gob.zip - Track 2 Just to clarify on the source tune & game, this ain't Ghouls 'n Ghosts or the C64 version of Ghosts'n Goblins. Cool string & electrosynth intro. Was really impressed with the synth layering going on here from :09-:29 as two electrosynths handled the source tune melody, with the background synth being extremely creative and interpretively arranged. I thought the percussion could have sounded a bit thicker and more settled into the rest of the track, but the snapping drum shots were good. The bassline also could have been fuller but was also very nicely sequenced. Loving the belltone type stuff in there as well. Nice texture overall. Nice work into :40 with the source's chorus being rearranged. I felt the strings could have been a bit louder, but they didn't sound as realistic as possible, so it was better not to expose them. Nonetheless, the string breakdown at 1:19 followed by another iteration of the source melody at 1:30 were fairly strong. Felt there could have been a bit more separation there to bring the strings out, but they sounded alright. Nice minimalist, belltone-centered section from 1:50-2:09. Shael made a good move keeping the Willy Wonka samples at a reasonable volume level so that they accentuated the track without overshadowing the instrumentation. The belltone arrangement was very intelligently handled as well. The snare work from 1:50-2:29 changed up the feel of the percussion but was relatively dry and could have used a bit more varied activity - certainly had its pros and cons. Nice bassline solo area working in tandem with the SFX from 2:10-2:29. The background was a bit dry, but there were some nice scratching effects there that helped fill out the soundfield a bit and briefly add another dimension to that section. I was glad to offer commentary and criticism to Shael on the piece way back. Never thought this would have actually seen the light of day, but Shael really put the effort into making the arrangement quality. After convincing him not to keep drumloops that would have limited the potential of the mix, he expanding his horizons a bit by fashioning his own drumwork instead of relying on any loops to do the job for him. The SFX usage could be thought of as gimmicky by some, but I felt it was tasteful here, well mixed and apropo to the concept of the track. In terms of compositionally reworking the source material, this was very strong & spirited rearrangement. The instrumentation & arrangement were capably varied up; no uncreative retreading or looping to be found. Some of the sounds, particularly the percussion & strings should have sounded richer, but they weren't used poorly at all in my opinion, and the end result was really strong. Roland's mastering work certainly helped on the presentation side. May not have any niggagigasamples or Miroslav strings, but this was substance with style. YES

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/LoM_psf.rar - 111 "Earth Painting" Don't feel like it's worth an override. Very close to the source (the remix doesn't even have a different name either), but the synth guitar work at least played around with the melody a bit or whatever. Arrangement definitely wasn't up to par at all though, though the new brass & string composition at 2:13 was a welcome suprise late in the game. The production on this was awful when the guitar was involved and the sound was full. Just a cluttered mess from :10-:51 and other sections like it. Learn when to appropriately scale some things back. Don't feel like saying too much more beyond that. Decent attempt at a remix in concept, but the execution was awful. Research the material at the ReMixing forum and obtain feedback at the Work-in-Progress forum, where I feel some of the more obvious mixing problems could have easily been addressed. Pretty rough-sounding submission, but feel free to try again with another mix after you gain additional skills. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Sanctuary Dungeon" (loz3-15.spc) Yeah, I remember talking to Matt a few months ago about this one in #ormgas, so I'm not gonna spend too much time going over this one. The samples were pretty generic and relatively unprocessed; if the situation is anything like your previous Gunsmoke submission, zircon will be able to point out specific presets you used this time around, and you don't want judges to be able to do that so readily. Aside from having some interesting ideas for the background music and some occasional rhythmic ateration of the source tune, this was a pretty conservative affair. The structure basically went "verbatim melody, original section, original section, verbatim melody", and that's just not gonna fly. You've gotta integrate your original composition ideas with significant rearrangement. There were some cool areas, like 1:50-2:31, that I really enjoyed. Some interesting percussion sounds and decent textures there. However, the section after that had some background material that didn't sound in the same key with the melody (2:35-2:48). You've really gotta branch out and try new sounds along with more comprehensive exploration into processing and effects work to fashion sounds with more creativity and flair, and take more care to rearrange the actual melodic content of whatever source material you use. You need to camp out at the ReMixing forum and field more criticism at the Work-in-Progress forum. Really put some effort into stepping up your game in order to see some better results. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/rshinobi.rar - "My Lover" Decent ideas, but the woodwind & string sample usage sounded unrealistic. Everything was soft yet indistinct. Your background/supporting elements were so quiet and flimsy that they didn't properly accentuate the track, and your leads also had a problem being too quiet, so the texture was really weak. The dynamics were also somewhat nonexistant; same percussion pattern and plodding groove going on for most of the 3 1/2 minutes. Should have gotten some feedback from the Work-in-Progress & ReMixing forums first. You need to achieve better realism with your sample usage, create more dynamic background work that evolves along with the more important instrumentation, and achieve better balance amongst your sounds. Keep at it though, Mansoor. You show creativity in your arrangement work and genuine potential. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gsf/mmzero2_gsf.rar - 10 "Ice Brain" Initially, the mix tied somewhat liberally to the source tune. Melodically, both the opening and closing sections were a bit difficult to tie right back to the source. Assuming those were more original than remix, other sections of the mix were nonetheless a lot easier to associate with the "Ice Brain", like the ones among :45-2:15, so on the arrangement side I had no problems there. The sounds came off as somewhat basic (not amateur/n00bish, but basic), but the texture was caliente and funky fresh. The percussion, while stylish, could have been a little more varied (the snare was the main culprit), and some may call the lead synths grating though I didn't mind them. Nice lil' quasi-organ synths going on in there as well. Chill lil' number this one was. It caught me by surprise, because I had let it loop for a while before I had even bothered to check who had made it. Good shit from my bro, Doragon, who I'm glad to be hearing from again, since it was about 8 months ago that he told me he'd be out of the game for a while. Definitely a pleasant surprise. Keep up the good work, bro. YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Flight of the Zinger" (dkq-12.spc) Nice wind FX going on to intro the track, then some clangy crud arrived at :09 and hung on for way too long. Some stuff finally started out at :41. Pretty crappy to be honest. Some synths fadeed in at 1:00. Wasted practically a third of the track, until a cool pad-style synth came in at 1:15, but it's basically just a cover of the original. Hahaha; then the a terrible generic electrosynth started up at 1:39. Sounded really bad and was just the original, only reinstrumented. That pad was probably the only cool part of the mix. 2:45 went back to the pad followed by some new percussion and keyboard synths with poorly synched usage of the melody. Nice fade style cut-out at 3:35, but this didn't do enough on the rearrangement side. Better luck next crime. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sd2.rsn - "Give Love its Rightful Time" (sd2-34.spc) Intro sounded chill; pretty nice. Some SuperGreenX-ish effects showed up at :18. Ah man; as soon as the melody kicked in at :33, the support percussion got really flat and plain. The piano sounded like it has no velocity work done on it. The percussion picked up in activity a bit at :49, but it still lacked depth. We hit the chorus on piano at 1:06 and you just gotta humanize the piano work. 1:23-1:30 hit some seriously F-ed up notes. We get to some effects 'n crud on the support synths at 1:44 and the arrangement was literally breaking down until 2:16. Really poorly structured original section there. I had no idea what was going on with it; sounded completely random. The we hit another "just hit some the same key a lot and it'll be aight" break from 2:33-2:48. Then the tempo increased...barely (and I mean barely; what was the point?)...at 2:53 and we retread the source tune melody against with some string work on top. Then we hit some brand new stuff at 3:24 and we get another new instrument/sound in there with only 24 seconds left. Um...what the hell, bro? Why did you even bother bringing it in that late? Anyway, either bring in some new sounds earlier or don't bother. In this case, whatever that was was very shrill and piercing, so scrap it. The resolution at the ending was poor also. Make a meaningful ending; build towards something there and make it satisfying for the listener. Anyway, the arrangement of the actual source tune was decent. Mostly relied on altering the rhythms of the original with some minor additions. The track was also somewhat cluttered & muffly sounding. Sharpen it up. Loads of potential for this one, but rework those messier sections (1:44-2:16 & 2:33-2:48), humanize the instruments (the piano in particular), and fill out the percussion. There were just too many pointless aspects of the arrangement that you've gotta get rid of. Hopefully you'll get some other good tips from the remaning votes. Decent work, Ross. I see improvement, so keep at it. NO (rework/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - Boss (Robotnik Theme.gym) Nah, the theme was there right at the introduction via arrangement. Then the main melody arrived at :35. Melody started again at 1:04. Indeed, Adhesive Boy & I talked a little bit about the track as we ran down the tracklist during VGF47. Some of the samples definitely hurt the mix. They're actually pretty decent overall, but the texture sounded pretty thin. For some reason, the whole track sounded slightly distant and a bit muffly. The horn that first appeared at 1:35 sounded really fake; some of the rougher note movements really exposed the sample. At times your quantizing made the timing a bit too mechanical (1:52-2:06), and that brass sample at 2:06 sounded very fake once again. At 1:55 & 2:27, I heard more obvious flubs in the timing, but most of the track had this problem. Anyway, some good original composition ideas from 1:35-3:19 that actually sounded like very liberal spins on different parts of the source material. Nice way to make your original work fit the motifs of your arranged source tune. Compositionally, it flowed very nicely there. 2:53 started the buildup to a more suspenseful, emotional section, but led by the horn there was no way this was gonna work. Again the timing sounded too mechanical, and the production made the track sound flat in performance and distant in the soundfield. Bring in some high-end action to provide more sharpness & clarity. Whatever energy was built into the composition/arrangement definitely did not translate over into the final product on account of the samples being so thin, the performance lacking the human element, the distant sound creating a muffly atmosphere, and the relative lack of dynamics. The arrangement was creative, but this needs a boatload of fine tuning, Bev. With your stuff, the arrangements tend to be hot, but the devil, as they say, is in the details. NO

Boom-shaka-laka.

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 12 "Icecap Zone 1" Pretty generic boom-tss IceCap Zone dance remix. Something new was added at :46 (very minor), but otherwise, the same uncreative cover attempt as several where the source tune is kept 99% intact and the arrangement takes 0 creative liberties with the material. Keeps a decent minimalist groove going all the way to 1:57, which felt like too long. Sounds were very loud and clippy, and the texture wasn't hot. The familiar IceCap melody came in at 1:57, and it was verbatim. Look, I know the theme is sweet, but this was really conservative and uncreative relatively speaking. Arrangement was needlessly drawn out for the first two minutes, then conservative and repetitive for the other three minutes. You gotta be more, homeboy. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Hyrule Castle" (loz3-14.spc) Decent thick bassline and some perc opened it up. The cymbals were too trebly and mechanical. The synth at :27 was definitely all over the place. Very meandering sounding. The percussion was too thin and needs to be severely toned down; the cymbals were ridiculously loud at :55, and the synth electric guitar coming in at :53 sounds very unrealisitc and distant. The strings had no realism to them either. Very sloppy production. Beyond stuff like adjusting the sounds balance among your various instruments, you've really gotta get into the fundamentals of fine tuning. It honestly sounded like 0 attention was paid to the mastering here. The strings at 1:49 sounded completely wrong; the notes did not work well with your other instruments in place. The arrangement came across as utterly random. Ideas just came and went, but there was no progression or flow. Nothing sounded cohesive or melodic whatsoever, especially since your lack of sound balance caused the arranged melody to be very obscured. Already 3:00 in and it's just not working at all. Unstructured. Unwieldy. Unfocused. The electosynth notes on support in this section were clashing really badly with the rest. I think at 4:40, you were just retreading arrangement ideas. There's no reason this deserved 6:13. None at all. You'll hate me on some level for this, but I mean no disrespect. In any case, I'll be harsh and bluntly honest. You can do a lot better than this, Alex. I know you can. The GoldenEye rejection you had was sweet. But definitely not this. NO

No problem. He didn't actually put the "2" in the game name, but I added it in. http://www.zophar.net/gsf/mmbn2_gsf.rar - 21 "Airman's Stage" The sounds were fairly generic fading in, but they were decent. The distorted synths, including the lead were a bit too loud and all-up-in-my-face during :26-:53, and some of the mid-range frequencies got a bit piercing. Nonetheless, I really liked the arrangement, and the panning sweeps you employed there as things slowly shifted back and forth, left and right were a nice touch. 1:20 featured a generic electrosynth along with beats, but it had some good energy. 1:33-2:00's section was a bit too flat. Hard to articulate being a non-theorist, but the note sequence from from 1:35-1:40 that ends each measure was very flat & lifeless. It sounded a lot better from 2:21-2:26 when the sampled piano played it, so your low electrosynth earlier might be limiting how those notes come off. From 2:00-2:13, when you started altering the rhythms and layering some other stuff, everything got really muddy and cluttered. Some oogly mixing right there that you gotta get under control. Nice bassline type break at 2:13 joined with the piano at 2:20. You gotta do a better job at masking the abrupt cutoff of the cymbal fade at 2:21 when the sample is so exposed like that. A little detail, and one that's not found in the rest of the track, but very potentially indicative of lazy work. Anyway, the arrangement provided some variation, going all the way up into the end, including a cool synth piano break from 2:40-2:52 that was later used in the background to fill things out and move towards the finish. The mix cut out abruptly at 3:34 instead of having a proper fade. Definitely cool work, but it needs some reworking during the more sloppily mixed sections as well as some of the more monotone-sounding bits that were minor but still dragged the piece down. There was a lot of variation and creativity in the arrangement, and you did a fairly good job of filling up the space. Nonetheless, the piece didn't come off as quite as dynamic and engaging as it possibly could have, the reason being the foundation of the track was basically a dance kick & clap pattern that never changed up too often. Definitely didn't retain the interest for the full 3:35. The generic nature of a lot of the sounds chosen may be a bigger issue for some of the other judges. For me it was not as much of a dealbreaker, but creating some unique/personalized sounds & textures wouldn't hurt, I can say that. Keep working on this, as it has tons of potential. Malcos and the other Js should be able to further isolate and discuss the issues and provide further insight. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/blaste~1.zip - Tracks 13 & 6 Yikes. Some oogly ass production here. REALLY high on the treble. Cymbals! LET IT RIDE! Well, tone 'em down actually. Can't hear too much in the way of melody through some of the first half. Bring it up more, please. In any case, 2:19 typically isn't gonna cut it. Gotta expand the arrangement futher as well, otherwise it's just a paint-by-numbers metal cover, which can be cool, but otherwise isn't gonna deliver on the creativity front. The fact that everything sounds so rough and cluttered didn't help at all for the listening experience. Anyway, keep honing your skills and check out the Dwelling of Duels. As long as you commit yourself to improvement, you'll get some good support and advice to help develop your potential from fellow rock & metal remixers. Certainly check out the ReMixing & Work-in-Progress forums for additional arrangement, performance & production feedback & advice to step up that game. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Battle 1" (ct-1-12.spc) Yep, the intro sounds promising. About :30 in and it was still sounding strong...ah, now I see what's up. The sounds at :41 were really plain-jane & tame once you transitioned into them. The melody was really subdued versus your others sounds. Beef the melody up more, but watch the level of reverb. As is, your sounds mudded together really badly. The bassline could use some more meat on it, and the percussion was a bit flat and a bit too high in volume, though I like how it was meant to sound laid back. The string sample sounded really fake, but it was covered up reasonably well. By 2:30 the arrangement was already getting repetitive and stale. The more active strings & piano dropped out at 2:55 to focus on the groove, but this groove has been on autopilot for quite a while. Boring. Like Vig said, expand the mix with further compositional ideas and realize it's potential. The ending at 4:03 was very I-give-up-ish and lame, and you should have cut out about 2 minutes of fat from the track anyway. In terms of arranging the "Battle 1" theme though, this ain't even cuttin' it. You barely touched the theme at all. Basically took a couple of merely similar backing chords for the bassline and occasionally played out the chorus with the piano. Very mininal use of the source tune in the big picture. This would need an overhaul in both production AND arrangement to have a shot. Don't make the arrangement so liberal that you barely use the source tune. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Morning Sunlight" (ct-1-03.spc) Decent flow. You basically built some new stuff on top of the backing chord progression of the source until :39. The sounds were pretty basic. Finally at 1:35, some permutation of the brief melody of the source tune was used, though it was pretty liberal. Piano struggled to be heard amongst all of the other sounds, so watch the sound balance. Cool little modulation/effect thingermabobber at 2:20. You indeed have a lot of ideas, but the arrangement/composition felt very unstructured and lacks any melodic direction. There's absolutely no flow here because of that; definitely a hard track to get into. Cool stuff so far, bro, but it needs more effort put into it. Good start though. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/tetris.zip - Track 2 Heh. Yeah, some of the samples were decent, like the strings and piano (thought that was too loud). Others were tacky (finger snaps, shakers, horns, vox samples). Wow, 3:38-3:55 really dipped the mix down in quality, as you had some extremely generic and exposed electronic sounds attempting to go for the salsa style. Some of the weaker sounds wouldn't be so bad, except that your sound balance is way off. The volume on most of the instruments and sounds needs to drastically be toned down. I actually thought you had a great deal of variation in the arrangement on the whole. But the sounds needs improvement, and your volume and sound balance sorely needs to be examined. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ninja_ga.zip - Track 9 [NES version] http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ngt.rsn - Mine (ngt-120.spc) [sNES version] Immediately opening up, the electrosythns were very default-y and generic. The sound texture was absolutely terrible, due to crappy sounds and no concept of adequate sound balance. Everything was simply loud and cluttered. Place your melody in the foreground and work the supporting elements more in the background. The melody was absolutely overshadowed by the electronic groove. The melody came up a little more at 1:08, but it was still terrible. Synth guitar at 1:21 was really poor. Percussion was basic, boring and too loud relative to the rest of the track. The hat activity also had the same problem. Some decent work in changing up the rhythms of the source tune, and working in some level of (conservative) arrangement, but any arrangement qualities were overshadowed by the poor sounds and production. Camp out in ReMixing & the Work-in-Progress forums and learn the ropes. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Track 1 ("Overworld BGM"), Track 12 ("Ending"), Track 2 ("Underground BGM") & Track 9 ("Game Over") I'm not saying freeform-ish jazz can't have it's place here. I've certainly heard interesting material from guys like Koelsch1/The Anti-Jazz that has a lot of potential. (I'm not trying to classify the song. Vig, analoq, or DarkeSword would be better able to actually categorize what type of jazz it is.) After a brief shot from the SMB Overworld theme intro, things went with an arrangement of the "Ending" theme from :05-:17 & freestyle original work from :17-:30 before bringing in the main theme from :30-1:03. The "Underworld BGM" arrived at 1:09 and hung around until about 1:27. More freestyle stuffs, then the "Overworld BGM" chorus was back in from 1:49-2:12 before the tired (but true) "Game Over" jingle finish. The arrangement ideas were interesting, but your samples are awful. Though that's holding you back, it's not simply the quality of the samples. The primary problem is that nothing sounds humanized at all. This MIDI-grade material, with such poor sample articulation and not enough textural cohesion, is just way below par. A little cheesy, but the arrangement ideas were certainly up there for such a brief mix. Even for a medley remix, it didn't succumb to the verbatim cover trappings of medley-itis. But you'd have to work a miracle on the production side to get these samples working with some believeable velocity variation and so forth. You have no chance to humanize make your time. NO (revise/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Track 2 ("Underground BGM") Yeah, beyond everything Vig the Boner Kebab said, the instrumentation (before things filled out at :48) was really weak and generic, which was unfortunate, because I thought the texture sounded decent despite that. I also heard some odd (though interesting) note patterns with your brass. At 1:28, the use of the source tune dropped out. Normally that's not bad, but that's not a good idea if the previous usage of the source in the mix is so underdeveloped and underexplored. When dealing with such a minimalist source tune that requires rearrangement and/or expansion, you've gotta play around with it for a good deal of the mix. This needs more substance in the arrangement and more direction, alongside better sounds (though they weren't used badly). Decent effort for a more tongue-in-cheek style remix. Half a decade ago, it coulda been a contenda. [/brando] NO