Liontamer

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 07 "Hydrocity Zone 2" Waiting for something to happen with the source material. Atmosphere lacks clarity. The arranged strings at :21 and the low pad played strikingly different notes from the original melodic progression, so that threw me off a but. New stuff at :46 with the lead that made a nice connection with the source. The horns first used at 1:05 sounded very fake. 1:30 briefly shifted to the Hydrocity Zone melody. Aside from the supporting synth, the arranged material from 1:45-1:59 sounded nothing like the source. Not really gonna comment on any other specific section, because the whole way through I was just getting a lot of brief verbatim source tune sections surrounded by beatwork and then original/overly liberal sections that are inspired by Hydrocity Zone. Needs to have more melodic interpretation of the source material, rather than use this current approach. Production also needs to be sharper and livelier, because a lot of the instrumentation felt flat to me, but it's better than most subs we get. I liked the string-based ending, but I'm not sure why that gunshot ending was in there. NO (resubmit)

No offense, bro, the arrangement is ok, but I'm not gonna deeply analyze the arrangement and see how that is until we get a sub that's not ridiculously lo-fi. I dunno what you were using to listen to this, but there's absolutely no clarity here at all. The sampled instruments sound decent but need more realism. Get more feedback and advice from the WIP and ReMixing forums. If you really love this 12-minute version, VGMix is certainly a good option for it, so encode it at a higher bitrate and showcase it there. I can't speak for the the others, but I wouldn't accept anything under 96kbps unless the encoding was in VBR and had top-flight sound quality for its bitrate. Pretty much any track over 8 minutes has a near-zero shot of passing as it is. NO

I'm overly familiar with the source material, as GGX has some great music. The GGXX version of "Writhe in Pain" was slightly remixed, but, for all intents and purposes, the same as the GGX version. Thanks for providing a copy of the GGXX source tune. I definitely heard the source tune used in here, but this was still an awfully liberal mix, with a host of original ideas that had nothing to do with the source, so overall I felt you didn't use the original enough. The opening woodwind opened with a meloody similar to the source, then went into some original material at :13. I heard motifs gleaned/inspired from from the original, but the connection doesn't seem to be overt enough. I appreciate the attempt to give the instrumentation some natural-sounding performance dynamics, but the samples used here all sounded fairly flat to me. The percussion was incredibly random and stuck out like a sore thumb; didn't mesh well with the piece at all, and the constant drum hits from 2:22-2:50 were tacky and egregious. The section starting at 3:08 was average; still pretty much the same problems - flat instrumentation, overbearing drumwork, and overly liberal arrangement that I couldn't tie to the original. I'll pass on it. NO

Oh please, this is excellent. Very catchy/engaging stuff.

New Poll! Who thinks Compyfox's controller is bigger than Bladiators? The lady is full of good ideas. (see above)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 43 "Azure Lake" The notes on the pads at the outset sounded too ethereal and unfocused. By :32, the timing of the beatwork is a bit strange. The synths chosen for the source tune at :37 were obscured by the beatwork, hand drums and supporting synths. Then at 1:09, the lead changed to some generic electrosynth. The arranged melody became very random-sounding and unfocused at 1:26; it was like the notes were changed around for the sake of doing something different with the source material simply because you're required to. 1:42-2:48 was really boring with no melody to latch onto for so long, though the strings added in at 2:07 were actually a very nice touch, and were something I'd have loved to hear you build off of more and tie it into the "Azure Lake" arrangement. Still disliking the arranged melody from 3:04-3:21. The key change at 3:21 needed a lot more substantial of a transition than what you gave it, and the arrangement behind final section from 3:29 until the end was plodding and dragged out too long. I heard the effort at arrangement, but nothing was cohesive as far as a melody went, with the brief exceptions of when the "Azure Lake" theme was used verbatim. Sorry Ross, I feel bad that I can't offer much in the way of suggestions on how to rework this. Frankly, the melody was minimized an awful lot and there wasn't enough substance in either the structure or the direction of the track. I'd rather you called this one a done deal and moved onto the next project. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ed.rsn - "The Battle of the Island in the Void" (ed-02.spc) & "Last Battle" (ed-03.spc) Played this one on VGF45, and I'm actually surprised we didn't get this sooner, now that Mike brings up how he lost the submission letter he thought he sent. And indeed, if I had remembered this more vividly, I would have nagged Mike about it as well. Thanks to Mike for providing us the breakdown of how the arrangement went, though I didn't need it myself. I'm a big fan of the Lufia source material ever since hearing Arkimedes tackle the Lufia 2 version of the last battle theme. The performance here was excellent; full of beautiful, emotive energy and delicate dynamics. I liked the changes in the playing style late in the track after the arrangement hit another iteration at 1:57, though I could have gone for more variation instead. Thus for me the feel was a bit repetitive, but this was still an engaging fusion of the two source themes here. Now you've just gotta get your orchestration up there, but like I've said before, I feel you'll be able to in due time and be able to bring it on a consistent basis. For those of you out there not familiar with Darangen's original or remixed piano material, this serves as a excellent indicator of range you may not have known he had. Nice work. YES

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF9_psf.rar - 210 "Freya's Theme" The production work on this was pretty bad. The guitars were just too loud and cluttered, plus (while a good cover of a cool theme) the arrangement was too conservative in my opinion. The rain sound effect running throughout the background was serviceable, but if you presented some cleaner sounding guitar work the rain SFX would have sounded too lo-fi. The guitar guys among the group can give some insightful feedback on the strength of the performance itself. I genuinely enjoyed the rendention you had here, Evan, including the original material from 2:01-2:40, but otherwise there's gotta be interpretation and rearrangement here. Play around more with this theme. Also, head over to the ReMixing forum to research what you can do to achieve better recordings with the resources at your disposal, and get fan feedback from the WIP forum for future submissions. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sf2.rsn - "Ryu" (sf2-05.spc) & "Ryu's Ending" (sf2-23.spc) Aside from rhythmic alterations, the :25-:52 was pretty conservative, but I liked the beats you wrapped around the theme, and the rearrangement effort here was noticeable. Not sure why this was made so quietly; kinda sapped the energy out of this. And indeed, like you said in your submission letter, you mixed this too low. Beef the volume up. Ryu's ending theme showed up briefly at :51, then some drumloops were there at :57. The ideas are switching too quickly without providing enough substance. The arrangement ideas on each section have to be well-written and well-executed in order to pull something risky like that off. The "Hadoken", "Fight!" and death scream samples from 1:25-1:34 were really tacky. Crazy hat activity from 1:35-1:48. Some of the genre ideas were genuinely interesting, but the structure is awfully haphazard like Shna alluded to. That honestly downplays how much I liked the ideas here. This was actually pretty ambitious, and I'm a sucker for a pimp bassline. Stick around and read up on ways to improve your structure, instrumentation and production in the ReMixing forum here and/or the VGMix Conservatory and post to the WIP forum here to get more feedback before future submissions. Keep at it, bro. Dan might have some Ryu/Ryu Ending material in the works, so I'm looking forward to his possible opinion on how you treated the source material. NO (resubmit)

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/starfox.rsn - "Corneria" (sf-09.spc) Cool opening sound until :12. I didn't like the faux electric guitar type lead synth entering in at :13 at all though. Also, though that lead was the most prominent instrument, it still couldn't cut through the mass of other sounds going on. Otherwise, I felt the structure here was aight. Surprisingly solid. Everything on the production side lacked clarity and separation. The organ at :36 was being obscured by the bass and all of the beatwork going on. Yeah, I liked the big-beat type approach, but the melodic content was too obscured pretty much the entire time. The low synth arriving at 1:21 didn't mesh well with the other sounds, and IMO could have been pulled back a bit. Finally at 1:51 we get something at least reminiscent of the Wingless with some piano work, though the piano work sounded flooded. I was actually feeling the most of the crazy ideas here, but the production was definitely weak. Indeed, everything sounds even more rough and indistinct at 2:27 and moreso at 2:50. I've gotta give Ravi serious props in that I actually liked most of the arrangement ideas and he managed to present them in a much more coherent manner than I've heard in all of his previous subs. But if you're having SGX master your material (and Danny's stuff typically sounds awesome), then have him tell you what you can do to sharpen the sounds a bit in the mixing phase, bring more separation and clarity to the picture and achieve a more fitting sound balance amongst your instruments. Otherwise, the ReMixing forum is the place to go. Cool shit, nonetheless. Is John's vote in the bag? NO (resubmit)

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ed2.rsn - "Battle #2" (ed2-113.spc) Bah, I've hit "great source tune bias!" But in all seriousness, I was really disappointed by this one for simply playing it straight most of the way through and not taking any liberties with the original material. Seemed like this might be remixing an entirely different theme until the familiar intro from the source showed up at :17. The source tune was kept verbatim, the instrumentation was sparse, and the beats were too bland & repetitive. Track looped for another go at 1:29. All of these conditions result in making me a sad judge. Changing things up at 2:34, especially into such a simplistic groove at 2:56, was way too little too late. :'-( NO

as you know, submitted song somewhere between the end of may and the beginning of april. The song remixed is: Vents of Medusa From: Ecco 2 The Tides of Time to avoid the confusion of last time... IT IS FROM THE SOUNDTRACK ON THE SEGA GAME GEAR VERSION! The original song in .vgz format is HERE! My remix of it can be found here: As you already know, i have a remix of the same song on the site already. So having to be very different with it is what i have done. uhmm thats all i got if you need more info..which i doubt, let me know bye -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/vgm/ecco2.zip - "Vents of Medusa" http://www.ocremix.org/detailmix.php?mixid=OCR01018 - "Madusa Mix" Since Allen has already mixed the same source material before for OCR, it's linked here to make the comparison over whether this sub is different enough. Though the electrosynths and claps were pretty standard, Allen made this arrangement work. I liked the layering of his melodic lines, i.e. the belltone-type synth and electrosynth (e.g. :07-:14), and the subsequent harmonizing going on (e.g. :14-:42). The volume's a little bit much for me, but it's nothing I take off points for, as the mixing is OK. Even for having the same basic groove for the first minute, things were energetic and arranged simplistically but nicely. Good thick bass shot at 1:27 that made a nice transition point to some more arrangement that didn't have to rely on beats to fill out the space until those came back at 2:02. The only thing holding me back on this is that from 2:07 until the end at 3:07, the groove and the arrangement were basically just retreading themselves. I liked some of the more subtle changes, like the lower electrosynth from 2:43-2:49, but those alterations were too little to keep things progressive and developing towards the end. Not that you can't ever repeat anything ever in the track, but at least provide something more or different with the last minute for some variation. This was, mind you, a relatively short mix, and comparing to the even shorter Medusa Mix that mix had more variation going on. As long as the last minute is worked on a bit, I'm there with a solid YES, but I've gotta ask for a resubmission. NO (definitely resubmit)

Thanks to Sam for hosting the original Landstalker material. "After Guardians" is probably one of the best-sounding examples of material that EVER came out of the Yamaha YM 2612 FM chip, it's that well-made. I'm definitely interested in hearing what else Motoaki Takenouchi came up with for the game. Moving onto the remix itself, after an intro that leaves one going "Whu?" for the first 3 seconds, the first minute or so was surprisingly cheerful-sounding & catchy. Really loved the changes in instrumentation throughout as well. 2:06 was a particularly memorable example. Most people just can't pull off style and tempo changes like Shna, so it's cool to hear material like this where ideas like that actually work. I felt this could have stood to be a little shorter, but nonetheless the variations on the source presented throughout here were excellently handled. This kind of stuff isn't for everybody...but it should be. Certainly glad to have Sam on board as the newest additional to the panel, but I would have been more disappointed if we never heard from him on the remix side again. Cool stuff, and a nice addition to the site from a very obscure Genesis title. Perhaps Sam hosting the soundtrack will lead to some more people in the community discovering what Landstalker had to offer??? YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/actr.rsn - "Birth of the People" (actr-15.spc) Heh. Interesting mix being made with mostly default-level sounds. I liked some of the altered rhythms here, but to me this was a glorfied cover. The intro had me thinking this might end up diffferent, but :39 sealed with me that it wouldn't. Changing some rhythms and some instruments and adding a dance kick isn't enough for me. I'm glad some new ideas were finally introduced from 1:49-2:14, but it was relatively short-lived. Genuinely cool ideas on the surface, but this could have been more. Props on creating something this good from default sounds, as I can certainly tell you're new at this. Rearrange the melodic content more substantially next time around, and head over to the ReMixing forum and learn to do even better things with what you have. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - Hot-Head Bop (dkq-14.spc) Liontamer: "Cool, original, eh Ari?" Protricity: "Yes, master." You know me, I'm not a big fan of the generitrance adaptations. Some quick references to the original were right there in the intro, but nothing really arrived melodically until :59. Beatwork changed up a little bit at 1:26. Pretty simple stuff still. I liked that synth sparingly used from 1:51-2:13. There was another change in the texture at 3:27, but nothing changed too significantly within the 4:42-long track. Overall, the groove was pretty basic & repetitive, the synths were generic, and nothing interesting was done with the melody. Ultimately that sells the mix short, because a modicum of effort was put forth here in terms of providing some relative level of variation that's not found in other trance/electronic subs we get. But that doesn't discount that fact that this was style over substance. Thinking of "progressive" material, much more creative and dynamic work comes to mind. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 22 ("Ending") Covered this one in late May for VGF: Well, now that this has hit the panel, the assessment at how well the arrangement was pulled off is in fact mine to make. I would definitely hone in on all of Dan's criticisms, Alex, because they were spot-on. There really isn't much in the way of structure or order here, and the arrangement may alter the original, but doesn't do it very coherently in the big picture. I didn't have as much trouble hearing the source tune in play as Dan might have, but I see where he's coming from, as this took some very liberal turns most of the way. The repetitive percussion would need to be addressed, and the piece would need to be given more solid structure. It's a cool freeform-ish piece, but it definitely drags on and the lack of organization was a detriment. I didn't feel it was bad or I wouldn't have pimped it, and I actually encourage others to head to VGMix to check it out. Nonetheless, I agree with Dan that, unless this could be given quite the overhaul, you should call this one a day and move onto new work. Try for something around 3 minutes long, as you're prone to making pieces that have some good concepts but nonetheless overstay their welcome. Quality over quantity. Keep at it. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - A bunch of 'em Yeesh, hitting me with a severe case of medleyitis. Source tunes changed from one idea to the next with no effort put forth in making logical/flowing transitions. They weren't overly jarring, but they were lazy. The mixing/production was actually fairly good, but the instrumentation was deceivingly sparse. The woodwinds in particular needed more work to sound more realistic/human. Scope out the ReMixing forum and see what tips/advice you can find. Just a very scattershot approach with some duly-noted rearrangement, but nothing here was given enough time or development, even within nearly 4 minutes. Ambitious ideas, but not approached in a practical way. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/btbm.rsn - "Ragnarok Canyon" (btbm-03.spc) Cover with what I guess is poorly used FL Slayer geetar. The time of 4:24 is even the same as the SPC. Totally made the original tune worse. NO Override

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - "Chemical Plant Zone" Glad I heard some original ideas from :42-1:04, but this was pretty much a techno-ed convsersion. Nice idea for layering various lines of the original from 2:17-2:41 though. I saw you were going for a purposefully muddy feel, though the low-end was a bit cluttered. Anyway, your production isn't terrible, and you put together some decent stuff, but this was too faithful to the structure of the original from my POV. Needs to be more interpretive. Keep at it, Cooper. NO

Indeed, I heard this one over at RPGamer's Sound Test for Splendid Performance. I just don't like how some of the notes cut out unnaturally with no release, for example, :36, :54, :59, 1:03, 1:23, 1:28, 1:49, 2:38. It should really be addressed/fixed if possible. Some of those times were less prominent examples of that happening throughout the piece, as the reverb on other notes served well to cover those up. Really nags on me to hear stuff like that hurt an otherwise good attempt at realism and dynamics. The arrangement is genuinely engaging and enjoyable, as the two source tunes are stylishly given the solo piano treatment and fused together nicely, but it also should take more creative liberties with the melodies in my opinion. I'd scrutanize that more closely, but frankly I can't pass this as is regardless. If you could do this in a day, you can spend another day sprucing it up and making it even more Splendid! I'd like to see a new Zelda game added to the site, but you or Mustin need to fix it up for a solid YES from me, David. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/smw.rsn - "Map 3: Vanilla Dome" (smw-04.spc) Pretty much some voices of the SPC sped up and then a bunch of stuff added on top with no real effort given to make things sound cohesive or harmonized. Repetitive and obviously not interested in rearranging the melodic material. Poor. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sfx2.rsn - "Surprise Attack" (sfx2-32.spc) I linked to the SNESamp SPC pack, but I'd be remiss if I didn't also link to the SPC pack that DZ indeed compiled himself over at http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/sf2zd.rar. Short and sweet. I thought the horn sequencing was done reasonably well, I liked the sheer amount of variations of the source material pulled off in the arrangement here, and the trumpet cadenza was used effectively. Good Spanish touches were here in the performance, and while I didn't think this was superlative work (as the horn work's syntheticness was exposed a number of times), the results were good here overall. Looking forward to hearing more of your work, as well as improvement in future subs. YES

Tell that to Larry. Hahaha! Got the Simpsons on loop I see.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda.zip - Track 1 Pretty cool intro; definitely nothing wrong with it. The buildup to the melody at 1:01 was alright. Dunno why the lead there was so thin-sounding and exposed. By the changeup at 1:18, the backing percussion was getting repetitive/boring and didn't substantially change until 2:39. The arrangement ideas had some decent tradeoffs between sticking verbatim to the Overworld theme and some rearranged parts. Jovette's brief lyrics from 2:44-3:01 were cluttered and undecipherable, which was a shame. Until 3:31, I generally liked what was going on, but beyond that, the source melody was flooded out, leaving the added material too dominant and, IMO, diminishing the potential for Crono's new/original instrumentation to mesh tightly with the source material. Aside from some sound balance issues, I actually thought the production was pretty good, and it definitely surpassed some of the very poorly produced stuff I've heard from Jovette in the past. Need to hear some more creative ideas with the source tune melody during some of the conservative sections, and also have the rearranged melodic material be given more prominent placement. Others might say this drags on as well at 5+ minutes and cound stand being trimmed down. Great candidate for a resubmission, so I'd like to see this again. Crono's got some stuff going on in Japan soon trying to promote his material, so best of luck to him on that as he looks to pimp that out. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/tetris.zip - Track 2 Dan pretty much summed it up. Nothing much besides trance and solo synth piano (with the same velocity on every note) adaptatios trading off for 3+ minutes. I'd say more, but we just don't want this, so read the submissions standards next time. Be more creative; no simplistic covers. NO