Liontamer

OLD MAN! HAPPY BIRFDAY!

OMG, HELL NO! (i.e. Sure, bro.)

Kunal sent me a revised version with some additional mastering work he had meant to do before he submitted the track. This version features better room reverb/atmosphere, and the sax sample is not longer bone dry. The arrangement content is unchanged, and the link is updated in the submission letter. Everything sounds even stronger, IMO.

Slowly getting there, sister. Get VGF #51 and #52 soon. Once they're picked up by Ormgas, #53 & #54 will be released. I still have to work on any other remaining episodes, but I'll get there eventually.

This was a decent old-school cover of the original. Solid stuff for its time, including some beefed up guitar work compared to the SID version. I can see why the guitar isn't prominent here, as it reflects the style of the original. Lead synth at :59 didn't provided a good texture at all, but this was alright.

If you really have to give up per se, I'd just link every character to an applicable Wiki character or game article.

Howdy partners! We've got some backlogged stuff for ya. Get them while they're hosted: VG Frequency #51 MP3 (181MB/4hr24min) VG Frequency #51 Playlist: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?18.10736 VG Frequency #51 Chat Transcript VG Frequency #52 MP3 (135MB/3hr31min) VG Frequency #52 Playlist: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?18.10739 VG Frequency #52 Chat Transcript OMG, will he release more ever??? (No. ... Ok, maybe.)

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 57 "Windmill Hut" (56 Ocarina ~Song Of Storms~) I always clash on the mentality of what FTs are for. If it would have hit the panel had djp gotten it, I don't feel inclined to hold it back unless it's total dogshit. (Even though I handle the majority of RESUBs,) I'm more judicious when it comes to posting those instead. I'm more about feedback. Heh. Very basic xylo-ish stuff to open things with at :03 after the rain SFX. Beats and strings coming in at :16 were very basic and synthetic sounding, along with added beats at :37. Decent amount of variation. Melody comes in at :51 with the saxomaphone. Hahaha, cool. Pretty blatty, but tons o' heart even though it's not solid at all, follow by more xylo/string stuff up from 1:18-1:32. The beats jumping underneath the sax sound pretty akward. Wish the sax actually did more with the Song of Storms theme rather than playing the same phrase over and over again, as it really drags on, despite the constant switches in instrumentation. Traded off with various combinations of the sax, strings, and xylo ad nauseum, which just leaves things samey and boring in the long run. Not bad for a joke mix, but way too repetitive with both the arrangement of the theme and the instrumentation you were using. Look to vary both of those up, and add more original or interpretive arrangement ideas. Work on sample richness & humanization as well, and using less basic sounds by using effects. ReMixing & Works should continue to be resources for you. NO

It's been longer than 2 months now, so a fall-through is fine. Sorry for the wait. Quality isn't hot at all, bros, but despite being made for Dwelling of Fools, Xenon could at least get some feedback on it and push him in the right direction.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 107 "Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World" Good intro with the piano. There some improvement here, but this still needs some work. The volume is still a bit on the loud side, but that a more subjective issue here. The sample usage still sounds rather artificial/synthetic. Some of the string movements are noticeably too jumpy going from note-to-note. The acoustic guitar sample sounds dry and also very robotic & exposed at times (e.g. 1:01-1:02, 1:13-1:14). This isn't ear-breakingly loud, like some of Alex's past work, which is good. Shows a lot more reservation. I think with the strings handling the melody, the volume is good, but the acoustic guitar he's using to accentuate things is too loud at some points (e.g. :51, 1:11, 1:13-1:14, 1:55, 1:58). The drums sound too loud and really out of place and need to be reigned in. Such a thick-sounding snare doesn't seem to mesh with the rest of the instrumentation. Plus the patterns play for too long without enough subtle variation. The bassline could use more presence to fill out the soundfield a bit more. I liked the changeup at 2:03, though the acoustic guitar again sounds too artificial. I liked the tambourine on support though the pattern shouldn't be looped for so long. It's relatively minor, but it drags out. The production is kind of off in that the combination of instruments doesn't have that great of a texture. It's not locking together well with these thick drums, reverbed strings, and dry acoustic guitar. Some of the supporting instrumentation needs to be scaled back or panned around the soundfield. Feels like the piano, strings, drums and acoustic are sometimes fighting for the same space, rather than complementing each other, especially during the last section from 4:27-4:51. There's still too much overlap without harmony and it gets messy. It's been remedied a lot from the last time around when Shnabubula and zircon cited those issues, but it's not totally eliminated and it shows. Even though I felt the guitar was too loud again, I liked the subtler sections like 2:53-3:38, where I felt the percussion and strings helped accent the background rather than crowd the foreground. That's more of the kind of sound balance that's actually working well here. Good ending. This was a genuine improvement, but needs more refinement for a pass from me. It could sound a lot more cohesive by way of the instruments being made to sound more complimentary and not so loose. Touch up some of the string and acoustic guitar work, tone down the drums in some spots, and use volume and panning to separate the instruments more. NO (resubmit)

Original decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=64519 I've worked alot on Dreaming by Your Side now, I've been egged on alot to resubmit, so I wish to do so please. I don't believe anything else could be done to it and I'd like to resubmit please. Thanks. - RoeTaKa

Dance Dance Revolution 8th Mix -Extreme- - "xenon" Checked everything out and the source material wouldn't be a violation here; this is a Konami'>www.cheatcc.com/psx2/sg/ddrmax2.txt+%22Tomoyuki+Uchida%22+xenon&hl=en&client=firefox-a]Konami original track. Nihon mailed Gray to correct the composer info, but Tomoyuki Uchida (aka "Mr.T") made the track, not Takayuki Ishikawa (aka "D.J.Amuro"). In any case, onto the mix. This mostly worked with the original by changing the rhythms around, and featured what seemed to me to be a lot of supplemental/original ideas for the support work. Sounds were really basic. That's not a HUGELY negative hit on this mix at all, by the way. The original also used pretty generic instrumentation, though to be fair, these synths/sounds feel to me like a step down. Not cruddy or anything, just defaulty and lacking polish, which ultimately weakens the track. The intro of the mix changed up the rhythms from the intro of the original a little bit and extended the idea. Some basic beats came in at :21 to beef things up, along with a basic trance-style lead at :34. More stuff kicked in at 1:00 but the mix seemed to become very high-end heavy and a bit cluttered though nothing major on the clutter part. Things were decent. The texture got really thin and grating from 1:40-1:55. That's a problem with that synth, IMO, in that's it's too shrill at that point and stays that way when it's in use. Get really cluttered when more stuff comes in at 2:07. Good slowdown and transition into the next section at 2:20, finally getting into a new section of the source material at 2:49, before going back into the faster-paced material with some basic pads underneath at 3:18. Section from 3:32 basically repeats from :34, now with the pad underneath. Fairly weak close from 4:26 until the end; the pad and percussion are both fairly thin and sound too exposed. I feel like the source tune could have been explored more for the last minute, especially since the arrangement was pretty conservative and not overly expansive, just extended. Nonetheless, there were some good original arrangement ideas here as a result of changing the genre, and slowing the track down, mostly with the supporting instrumentation, not to mention the gated synth lead. If you can tone down some of the higher frequencies, and volume, and more importantly see what you can do to freshen up the arrangement from 3:32 until the end, I'd be more down. Primarily due to the sounds though, the track feel very samey throughout, so doing more to vary up the arrangement in that way would make this more solid for me. Good work so far, Jerome. NO (resubmit)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Battle with Ganon" (loz3-28.spc) The Legend of Zelda ~Takt of Wind~ Original Sound Tracks - 204 "Phantom Ganon" Kunal mentioned to me that this was also from Zelda 3 when I asked him about the source tune information. He wants it to be attributed to Zelda: Wind Waker, though this initially sounded more overtly like the Zelda 3 tune. The connections with the Wind Waker material are definitely there though, as Phantom Ganon's is a rearrangement of LoZ3's Battle of Ganon. Both are mentioned here for reference. Good, jazzy opening. Kunal really has everything on point per the usual. Very nice and expressive. Nice brass. The one MAJOR hit on it is the sax that comes in at :48. The way it's used and the way it sounds are...eww. :'-( I like the phrasing, but irregardless of the sample quality, the sax doesn't sound as humanly played or expressive as the rest of the instrumentation. Unfortunately sticks out like a sore thumb admist all the other material involved whenever it's in play. I'd beg Anthony Lofton with the dolla$ for a stylish live recording! In any case, the arrangement is well-varied and very creative, while the overall production is smooth and top-flight. Nice work with the bassline, BTW, since you had to take care of it yourself for this one. I thought the last section was just gonna repeat itself, but there was at least some subtle variation there, even if it could have gone in some other directions. Really wouldn't mind some tips being given for the faux-sax from DarkeSword, or the sax being improved before this is posted, but even if not, this was too solid of an arrangement to NO on those grounds. Nice work flying solo, Kunal! YES

http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/ssf2.rar - "Chun Li's Ending (3)" (ssf2-37.spc) Heh. The original honestly isn't that good. Just a 20-second loop. Sounds like a lemon of a track to me, so I'm interested to hear what you've done with it. Opens with some piano that sounds a bit distant. Almost going for a Reuben Kee-level opening. Woodwind at :10 sounds fake, and pizzicato strings at :14 sound very lo-fi for some reason. :20 in and not hearing anything really tied to the source yet. A melody comes in at :27, but it definitely doesn't sound like the source material. Some drums come in at :40 and sound like they're clipping/distorting a lille bit. The woodwind sounds flat, and the vox & bird SFX both sounds rather tacky. The production is pretty lacking, as the vox and low-end synths all crud up the atmosphere. Gray could offer the most salient suggestions there. 1:08-in and I still don't hear anything that sounds like the melodic progression from the source tune. 2:12 in, and there's more flat woodwind stuff, but still nothing that gives me a connection of the source tune. There are a lot of decent ideas here, so you get some credit for trying to keep things varied, but it took until 3:03 to finally here something that wasn't the most liberal of liberal arrangement. Then by 3:30, it went off the path yet again. Drums at 3:03 again are too loud to be tolerable, the the woodwind at 3:38 is extra shrill. Volume is way over the top for the rest of the track. Even if this sounded awesome, IT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE THE ORIGINAL, which you basically acknowledged in your submission letter. This is way too liberal. I don't know how you took a 20-second original, barely even use it in a recognizable way, and somehow think this would make it. Next time, rearrange the source tune. NO

Yeah, cool original. I swear I played something on VGF as background music that sounded very similar to this. Cool intro at :23, though TO's right in that the feel isn't much different. I think the guitar work is ok, but there's no edge to it; it's like zyko's tone, only no power to it whatsoever. The sound balance is pretty weak, in my opinion. After :34, the sounds aren't quite mud, but they do crud together in the low-end and low midrange. The guitar lead really shouldn't be so subdued compared to the various forms of percussion in there. Percussion gets really repetitive. I actually think it might not have to be changed, just that it shouldn't be so loud and should have more variation in there. It would do a fair job at filling out the soundfield. Oooh, the arrangement got retread at 1:45 like this was a PSF file. :'-( Nah, you gotta bring more ideas to the table, not loop the same idea repeatedly. Not much difference in the second iteration of the source melody compared to the first; no significant/new ideas introduced, or different arrangement brought to the picture. Gentle section at 2:43, but it's not as solid as it could be with the piano, and only lasts until 2:55. Not much going on in terms of dynamics. The drums get a lot thicker at 3:07, but the overall feel is the same. The sine wave is definitely a cool idea that overstaying it's welcome due to a lack of variation, like TO mentioned. Things wound down a bit at 3:19 for some additional contrast, but then at 3:30, we abruptly go to some reversed sound action that sounds like a decent idea for a fadeout ending, but not lasting this long. Definitely too drawn out. Don't need it for 45 seconds. More like 10 seconds. Needs a huge overhaul. NO

Dune Spice Opera: Exxos OST - 09 "Chani's Eyes" Oooh, Dune Spice Opera is badass. Thanks to Gray for the source. I'm a huge fan of track 7, "Wake Up", ever since hearing it at Song of the Week. Cool intro for the mix. The belltones at :15 were kind of bootleg, plus the volume was getting too loud. Melody comes in at :34, and the synths handling that are really vanilla and thin. The texture here is pretty sparse. Seems to be a problem with this particular batch. Melody dropped out at 1:02, leaving behind some bad support work where the phrasing didn't stand strong on its own. Decent dropping out of the sounds at 1:35. This kind of atmosphere could work nicely if it were de3veloped well. Oooh no, bad electric guitar witht the FX and shizzle at 1:49. It actually has a different tone than the typical FL Slayer guitar synth I hear, so it's actually not bad, but it definitely doesn't sound very solid. Ending was too arbupt. Pretty short arrangement; didn't really have time to develop or go anywhere, which is fairly necessary going at this slow of a tempo. A lot of the sound choices weren't good; the combinations just weren't working. Keep working on it if you're willing to change those. But if not, scrap it. In any case, I'm with Gray in that the mix needs more rearrangement vis-a-vis the source; just more creativity there all around. Right now, it unfortunately sounds a lot like the source tune with inferior samples that also aren't used very well. NO

Gray smells for bumping this again.

/shakes da butt

HEY U STAY AWAYZ AN DSHIT!

Chrono Cross OST - 315 "Radical Dreamers ~ Unstealable Jewel" Cool rain SFX to open things up with. Audio skipped at :06. Panned and everything; not bad. Faux acoustic guitar comes in at :20 with the source tune, joined by piano at :32 to add some texture. Percussion added in at :46 sounds thin and too bright compared to the other instrumentation which has reverb/delay on it; feels out of place as a result. Not much being done with the melody, plus the SFX is doing most of the atmospheric work, like a crutch. Nonetheless, using it allows you to get away with such otherwise sparse instrumentation Melody kicks in 1:11, still excessively conservative. What the hellz was up with that crappy non-transition at 2:03. VERY sloppy, plus it's not melodic at all. It inexplicably kept going until 2:27. Timing is completely thrown off, and I can't even get a grasp of what was happening there. Anyway, we get some different stuff at 2:30 with a new section. Pretty much the same sounds, plus some cheap-sounding vox coming in at 2:42. The instrumentation is still just too thin and has no texture outside of the looped rain SFX. 3:21 features some arrangement that tries to carry the feel of the original, but go in its own direction. I wasn't much of a fan of the phrasing there, to be honest. Percussion comes back in at 3:34, and again sounds out of place, like it's pasted on top of the music. Arrangement goes back to being extremely conservative at 3:34 and adds some strings on top at 3:47, which is good, but isn't adding too much. The door SFX at 4:19 & 4:25 (recycled from :11 & :18) felt out of place, considering that (just my opinion) the track didn't really tell any type of story to me. I understand what artistic imagery you're going for, so that's ok. It's not a bad idea on paper, and others may disagree with the minor gripe there. Do more a lot more rearrangement with the melody, fix/get rid of/rewrite 2:03-2:27, and have the percussion sit better in the track, and you'd have a lot more of a shot. Right now, this isn't interpretive enough to me on any level. NO

The Legend of Zelda ~Takt of Wind~ OST - 38 "Dragon Roost Island" I'm pretty familiar with the original. Decent MIDI-grade bell/percussion driven intro. Timing is somewhat off, and the samples usage sucks. Dr. Fruitcake could probably make them work. I've certainly heard Mazedude hook it up with those same sounds in "Slalomcide". Geetar shreddage come it at :40, along with some drums that just sound like they're smashing things at :47. It's comical how badly this combination of sounds doesn't work. Total mismatch of styles. The sound balance is all off and the sound quality of the belltones doesn't match the distortion of the guitar, plus the timing still sounds off. It's a mere 2:04, and like "A Nightmare Before Christmas" gone horribly, horribly wrong. NO

First off, I love the original, so anything is gonna be hard pressed to top it. Track starts at :03 rather than :00. Has some harmonica-style stuffs going on, along with some iffy choir vox and some percussion and music box instrumentation that's way too loud and bright compared to the other sounds. The piano at :30 has wonky timing; sounds really artificial, sparse, and shizzy. Some faux acoustic guitar came in around :48, but doesn't sound very realistically handled. Just a straight up weird change of the sounds at 1:07, along with a music box solo at 1:18, which I can appreciate, but ultimately sounds poorly done. The texture is poor the whole way through; very sparse and the timing is crud. Hand drums are too loud. No sense of sound balance. Piano at 1:30 is a little bit better, but whatever woodwind was used at 1:31 was awfully flat, then it had a cringingly awful resolution from 1:42-1:45. Sorry, I had to actually take a break right there, it was like a musical car wreck. Decent idea for the last section. I liked the rustling SFX at 1:54. We need more people trying stuff like that. Nonetheless, everything here just sounds off. Hell, I like how it sounds like you're using a real harmonica, but you're no good at using it on the performance level, frankly. Then the track just cuts off abruptly at 2:21. Not trying to slam you as an artist; TO had some good points with how the approach in and of itself was creative, as you're trying some good ideas. Hopefully you'll stay motivated enough to continue. But this was just poorly put together. Get WAY better at multitracking. No sense of rhythm or timing, coupled with an underdeveloped idea is an easy NO. ReMixing/Works to improve your game and get more feedback.

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 68 "Gerudo Valley" Yeah, I remember hearing this as part of Splendid Performance: With a Voice. Played it on VGF65 for the peeps to enjoy. I just listened to it again to make sure nothing had been changed. Great stuff. Mike's vocals are my main gripe, as they sound thin and a bit beginner-ish. With more practice, but more importantly time, Mike's voice will continue to be stronger. Plus, on multiple listens, the delivery style sits a lot a better in the track. I could have gone for some richer harmonies, but the harmonization here sounded pretty nice. I liked the tone when the chorus's hit, and the lyrics were really catchy. A lot of people are gonna be singing 'em. I thought the track could have sounded sharper, but I loved the arrangement here and the production was alright. The "Gerudo Valley" theme was skillfully woven with original material that pieced together very naturally. Great rock conversion with some genuine (even if unintended) pop overtones. Makes a solid follow-up to other mixes of the theme, like Dan B's & chthonic's. The way the track cut out after the warbly effects was a too sudden, but other than that, I had no other issues. Hot stuff and a nice follow-up to the vocal potential that Final Fantasy 6 "Deadly Promises" only hinted at. Keep 'em coming, bro! YES

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 405 "People of the Far North" Pretty cool stuff. zircon and I were listening to it and both commenting on how we enjoyed it. I felt it was DP myself. No criticisms against the lengthy format. Some people dont' go for it, and I'm sure it'll drag for some, but I felt it was fine. I was actually more impressed that you managed to keep things sounding sounding clear and sharp with a 107kbps VBR encoding. Props on that, Jordan. Melody kicked in at 1:12 for any fans out there that may feel inclined to fast-forward. Good genre adaptation along with some solid expansionist ideas, as well as some good original stuff at 2:07. The source melody took somewhat of a background seat to the added material, but was obviously the foundation of the track. Slick vox effects at 2:34. Some genre-staple gated trance synth stuff came in at 3:14 for a new section that was prevented the first part from getting monotonous and offered up a new set of sounds for the arrangement. Things beefed up again with some bass action stuff at 4:39 that used the bridge from the original. Somewhat cluttered-sounding for me, especially from 6:02-6:28 but ultimately not an issue with how well I feel the production was handled. Works very well for the club. Nice arrangement ideas, and good development the whole way through. There are a lot of extended passages per se, but I didn't feel anything overstayed its welcome. This arrangement concept was already well-presented for Project Majestic Mix: The Trance Album. This mix and the PMM version each do a great job of standing on their own, so I respect how you were able to give this version even more time along with the club treatment and not make the PMM version seem obsolete. Great to see you still in the game, and of course looking forward to your Bound Together/Earthbound mix. YES

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sor1.rar - Round 3 ("Moon Beach") Heh. Pretty weird sounds. Barely sounds like the source tune to start, but I can hear it clearly alluded to starting at :23 with that warbly-sounding synth, before the melody kicks in at :47. I'm not against the approach or the sound effects being used in here, but the production quality is pretty weak. Someone helpz! The melody remains fairly muffly and indistinct here, along with everything else in a sea of low-end frequencies, which undermines a lot of the writing choices here. At only 2:11-long, this hardly did enough with the melody to meaningfully rearrange it. Already at 1:36, you're winding the track down, and the melody was involved for less than a minute. You could easily make this longer and continue to explore the source material more, Trevin. Clean up the soundfield as well. Retro atmosphere doesn't mean muddy. Keeping it nonetheless. NO