Liontamer

I'll bring this up with dave tonight and Israfel's mix as well, both of which have been gathering more mold than liontamer's fro. "I break-a yo face!" [/Lady and the Tramp]

LT Edit - Original decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=64173 Hey man, Sorry to bother you, but RoeTaKa told me I could pm you a revised edition of my DSoP track & you'd post it on the que list. I'm not really sure but I though I'd give it a shot. If by chance I can do... what I'm attempting to do here's my info. Contact Details Handle: Joker Name: David L. Puga Email: Davejkr@prodigy.net Forum Profile: 16059(?) ReMix info Game: DooM Song: The Imp's Song E1M2 Comments: So, I made the original Industrial Strength for th DSoP. But, to my slight dismay, a ,ot of people were unhappy that I strayed to far from the original. So I went back to the mix, even though I thought I was done with it. Turned out I still had some ideas for it, & with the help of TO I made the I.M.P. Edit. The first section after the intro has my own version of the original, then after the break I decided to bring in a more true to the original bassline & synth combo. It really does sound a lot different than the DSoP version, blah blahblah. I've written enough. P.S. The I.M.P. stands for "I made poopies!" So it's the "I made poopies Edit."

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Tracks 1 ("Overworld BGM"), 5 ("Invincible BGM"), 2 ("Underground BGM"), 6 ("Successfully Reached the Flag") & 9 ("Game Over") Certainly an improvement from the first version. The drums are better, but do in fact need more variation instead of just being a timekeeper, and need more power. The lead guitar is way too quiet and really needs to cut through more. Right now it just sounds too dull (not in the performance, but the sound quality), as if some of the higher frequencies were cut out. The lead also sounds too far in the back of the room, and the percussion is louder, which isn't working. Otherwise, the arrangement is where it needs to be. Still could have some fat trimmed off it near the end, but y'all are keeping the core of the song intact, and I can respect that. Personally, I think the lead guitar needs more power and agression to it for a piece of this nature, but it's ok. Certainly not bad in any way, but not superlative and certainly not distinctive. Would love to hear zyko & Vig comment, but they're rather MIA for the time being, so the main issues I had were in the first paragraph. If y'all want to let zircon take a stab from the production side, best of luck with that. Non-repetitive drums (i.e. write a creative part for it) and louder/sharper sounding guitar for the pass. Still salient issues here with this new version. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - "Boss" (Robotnik Theme.gym) Some generic-sounding, but well put together stuff for the intro. Nice gated pad going on at :13 with the gradual fade-in. Bass kicks at :23 were rather cheesy, as were the drum kicks at :37, but whatchugonnado? Beats arriving at :41 were pretty lo-fi sounding. Still waiting for something to develop by the 1:00-mark, but there's time. Melody arrives via some robotic e-piano coming in at 1:08. As soon as the lead started playing in chords and getting louder, especially at 1:28, things were just getting cluttered. Looking for the beat structure to change at least a little bit at 1:35, but it didn't happen. Realy need some variation there. Doesn't need to be drastic. Nonetheless, I liked the original section there, as there were some good ideas for the lead. You should try and punch up the foreground material from 1:35-2:16 more and give it more presence. Melody faded back in at 2:17, but took a back seat to support some other material started up at 2:29. Nothing hugely engaging there, but for the genre, this was still some good though formulaic stuff. Still not a fan of the drum kicks at 3:05, and the groove at 3:15 is still by-the-numbers, also leading to what felt like too long a stretch without hearing the source material again until 3:39. And when the melody came back in, it was played yet again by those sames sounds and was drowned out by all the electrosynth activity. Then the source usage stopped again at 4:06. Came back from 4:34 to 4:47 for the finish. The limited usage of the source material was an issue that plagued the track, especially at the end. You really had some good ideas going to kick things off, but after 2:29, the Boss theme became a really limited part of the track. Use the melody more, and develop some more arrangement ideas for it, otherwise you start moving into the "too original" category by the time the track is over. Vary up some of the instrumentation and patterns more since this is such a long piece. Don't retread the ideas here quite so much. Also, I'd like some of the other judges to weigh in on the production side, as this seemed to be missing something. The sound was rather dulled and could be sharpened up, but I can't pinpoint the issue there. Nonetheless, good work so far, JD. I hope you feel encouraged to continue some further work on the track, as this has potential and was an otherwise solid effort. I'd like to see you continue to improve your game and make it back to the front page. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - "Aquatic Ruin Zone" Decent intro, though rather sparse. The claps at :33 were a good example of that. There's a lot of above average genre stuff going on, but the overall sound is very flimsy/tacky. "The Dance of Aquarius" voice clip at :50 sounded really ghetto, like it was recorded on a crappy mic and then given some weak effects. Way too amateur and trying too hard to sound serious; no offense against you or whoever recorded the clip, but it just sounds like a young teenager recorded it and thought it would sound cool and epic. All things considered, very minor issue, but still meh. Source melody was brought in at 1:16, but the synths used on counterpoint didn't mesh well up to 1:43. There's a lot of good, non-generic ideas here for the track atmosphere, but the production is very, very vanilla and leaves the track sounding unremarkable. What the hell was that "Dance of Aqarius" clip doing in there again at 2:23?!? Then you started doing all these effects on it at 2:26 to make it a focal point of the track, when it sounds straight-up beginner-ish. Meh. All the vocal stuff is just too corny and not well-integrated into the track. Can't believe that got brought back in there; turned a minor issue into a significant one. Regardless of any of that, the main thing that put me off was that the source material wasn't an integral part of the track. Some places where the melody was used in a straightforward manner almost felt like the melody had been stapled on top. Certainly not so with the more creative arrangement like in the intro. Pretty liberal mix going on here. I can hear all the connections involved, but they start going on excessively liberal tangents. You need to actually develop the melody here, not reference it 4 or 5 times and never develop it. Complete lack of a transition at 3:06 which was very abrupt. Melody felt stapled on at 3:21 as the beats behind it had nothing to do with it, just like 1:23-1:43. It was better at :40 when you had the other beats also arranging other instrumental lines from the original in a much more noticeable way. All in all, decent, but a very disjointed track. No real sense of direction or development of the material. NO

TO hit all the relevant issues here. The arrangement actually wasn't too bad, but it became repetitive over time, and the cheesy, overused vocals clips didn't help that perception either. Nothing but overkill. The arrangement needs a lot more variation and creativity than what's presented here. Switch up the patterns and sounds and create additional rearrangement ideas. The string samples first used at 1:35 were very artificial-sounding, thin and grating. Decent so far, but nothing I believe would ever get to a passable level. Since it's old, just move onto new work. Scope out the ReMixing & Works forms for advice on how to improve as well as additional fan feedback. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Track 2 ("Underground BGM") Yeah, I dunno what's up with this RESUB, but nah. Not much different than before. The SFX seems less gratuitous, but if anything, it sounds more cluttered. Gotta go beyond these minor tweaks, honestly. It's like you didn't read the previous decision. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/olympus.zip - Track 1 (Thank God Zophar's fixed that page and finally put their NSF archive back up) Still not really with the MIDI/beginner-sounding stuff today. I'm fine with Gray saying it's not Overrideable, as it's not, but this was still pretty weak. Samples are dull and lifeless the whole way through, and the texture is thin. Melody coming in at :31 is essentially verbatim with the original. The new instrumental parts and occasional original breaks created are all good ideas, but ultimately nothing meaningfully expansive to me. Track was way too long and repetitive as well. Needs a lot more on all levels. Like Gray said, go to the ReMixing forum, and don't forget the Works forum as well for additional feedback on future pieces. NO

Thanks, zirc! http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Kraken of the Sea" (mo2-097.spc) No idea on the game, but nah. Please provide more info next time, obviously the game being remixed as a part of that. Poor attempt at happy hardcore or whatever genre this happens to be. EDIT: Aight, so it's EB. Still a goner. Nonetheless, I love how you can listen to something and think it's completely fargone until you find out it's from EarthBound. "Oh, the original's from EarthBound? Ahhhh, ok." Anyway, zirc hit a lot of the major issues below. Right now, the ideas are...admirable...but the results aren't cohesive at all. And no, that's not hating on the genre. NO

The source tunes ("Prophecy" & "Secret of the Arid Sands") are used nearly everywhere here. So that's wrong. In every way possible. Given the creative additions as well as the interpretation involved, I'd think that you in particular would be down with it, moreso than most of the community.

I remember analoq & I checking this out last month when Brandon was going for some final tweaks on it. Absolutely loved it then, and I love it now. Top flite, without a doubt. I don't like anyone LAOS or anyone crapping on Harmony's previous "half-decent" material here. "NightTime Evolution" was a beautiful piece, and "Live at the Springyard" sealed many of the fellow Js opinions that he would be a solid contributor not only through his reviews and WIP advice, but also through his own material, which is always gonna be more scrutanized by the people/haters as someone on staff. Loved the lyrics here, and the delay on them was used well, much like Dan Baranowsky's "Invertebrate Retreat." The harmonization was excellent too. Reminded me of the Christian rock band, Luna Halo, from their album "Shimmer." The vocals at 2:48 arranging "Secret of the Arid Sands" reminded me of some of George Michael's lyrical delivery in "Kissing a Fool." Arrangement was nothing but great, tightly integrating the usage of "Prophecy" and "Secret of the Arid Sands" into something greater than the sum of its parts. Glad I finally get to play this one on my show. Can't wait for the next mix, Brandon! Props, again.

http://www.zophar.net/usf/sm64usf.rar - 32 "Ultimate Koopa" & 30 "Koopa's Theme" Heh. Not a bad concept here for the final boss theme initially. Guitar needs to cut through the rest of the instrumentation more, IMO. Can't say others would necessarily feel that way. Drums are too obviously sequenced and just sound plain and robotic. Track simply repeated itself at 1:19, which was a total letdown. Then there was an awful transition at 1:48 ("Koopa's Theme") to a bootleg/MIDI-sounding guitar/drum combo for a terrible and abrupt finish that robbed the track of anything it had going for it. Undeveloped, repetitive, disappointing. The potential is there for improvement to be sure though, so please stick around and enhance your game by studying the ReMixing forum and asking questions, and also making use of the Works forum for futher feedback. Change your mixer name too, or at least make it "Jhalkom Powder" or something more legible. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 301 "Cosmo Canyon" You've already been read your rights. Out, please. NO Override

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ninja_g2.zip - Track 3 [NES version] http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ngt.rsn - "Mountain" (ngt-209.spc) [sNES version] Decent wind-like intro, but then the generic this sounds set in. Guitar synth has no meat on it, and neither do the synths. Whole track has no depth to it. Very basic arrangement here. I liked that the style was almost chiptune-ish, but that's merely a case of the mix having a bit of charm. Ha, nice ending section at 2:14. Points just for being weird. You really gotta construct something with more body to it. Thin synths, drums, etc., don't get the job done. The arrangement was too conservative, and, at a mere 2;34, entirely undeveloped as a concept. Learn and grow. This one's old, so don't bother reworking it. Start anew with some fresh concepts. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff4.rsn - "Castle Damcyan" (ff4-16.spc) I've honestly just got no love for the MIDI/beginner-ish subs today. Very sparse sounds despite the way some of them were used. The steel drum sample was awful, and the kick-based beats were no good. The faux-vox style synth had very unrealistic note movements. The track was very sluggish and lacking energy. The melody coming in at :58 did little to help. At least a new saw came in at 1:53. Ugh, what's going on with the melody at 2:07? More instrumentation added at 2:40; while it wasn't beneficial in a huge way, it would have at least helped to have that kind of stuff in there earlier to fill out the track and not leave it so empty most of the way. Meh. Go here, please. Here too, please. NO

No source here, but I don't need it. Weak guitar...um...esque intro. Changed into something else at :29, which was better. The effects are really sloppily used here. The texture here isn't that good. Better stuff at :48 with the more instrumental-style work. The synth handling the melody from :48-1:14 should have been louder, IMO. Better sound balance at 1:41 when you used that melody again, but then once the drums and other stuff were brought back in at 1:54, the same issues were there. Dunno why you left the abrupt cutoff at the end/2:43. Good groove here; I'd certainly be interested in getting the original here that TO provided and checking that out based on this, but can't right now. The melodic content needs to be more varied and creative, and the mixing could stand some improvement. Unfortunately can't go into more details without being on my regular setup, but I felt like some frequencies were neglected. Kind of a hollow sound in the middle of the stereo field. In any case, this was actually some promising stuff from what I gather is a first submission. Genuinely look forward to hearing your future stuff if you hang around. Stick to the ReMixing & Works forums for more feedback in the future. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 22 "Lava Reef Zone 1" Intro already sounds MIDI grade with that piano, and the drum samples are just as weak. Can't even have the piano play with chords to beef things up? The timing is wonky as shit. VERY boring piano + beats stuff all the way until 1:23. Just DRAGGING the whole way through. Some new stuff though at 1:23, though it wasn't much better. All of these sounds have no texture whatsoever. Arrangement is uncreative. Ending is non sequitur. Very very beginner-ish. Pitch your tent there. NO

Sonic Adventure OST - (06) Theme of ''TIKAL'' Might as well be a total MIDI rip, though the tempo's a little faster, and there are some ultra-minor additions. Not much in the way of polyphony either. The only reason this was interesting was because the original kicked ass. Praise McVaffe for making a much cooler cover-ish mix of it. Some insignificant reverse cymbal crud was added at 2:24. Pff. NO Override

Great job, junior Js!

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic.rar - "Marble Zone" The intro was very serene. Drums were a little fakey, but the texture was good. The cymbals coming in at :23 were pretty weak though, and were irritating throughout the mix. Starting to get on me; Too exposed. Some more powerful sounds arrived at :30. The Marble Zone melody came in at :45, and the foundation was decent, but some of the added percussion and sounds were somewhat exposed, like the tambourine. I liked the shakuhachi at 1:14 of course, as we hit the original break section. There's the shaku AGAIN at 1:35 & 1;42; why are you overusing that sampled phrase like that? Don't rely on it like a crutch, as it's not THAT cool to use it as often as it's used here. Bring more ideas with it into the picture. The Marble Zone chorus was briefly reference before going to sitar-driven section at 2:15. Pretty cool stuff; I liked the source tune being referenced in the back there. 2:29 hit a more...pedestrian...original section that could have been more engaging. Cool new pad sounding instrument at 3:00 to give the track a bit more depth. Another hot riff section at 3:13 with some nice original xylo stuff (Xylo? Ah shaddap, Gray). The chorus at 3:45 felt too conservative, but the additions were good. More arrangement ideas at 4:15 to keep things changing and developing. Just liking the whole vibe for the last section at 4:43. The ending/resolution was really weak at 5:10. The synths faded out too quickly at 5:13, without any significant effects on them for a smooth-sounding fade-out. The production and texture on this came a long way from some of your previous work, Sam. You really prevented clutter and clipping from being an issue for me, and I liked the result. The arrangement really changed up a great deal, so while some may be disappointed that this didn't stay in one place very often, and some of the melodic content deserved more personal flair and interpretation, but the end result got the job done. Not necessarily superlative work, and that's certainly not to be taken as a bash, but I'm really pleased at the strides you've made with getting your material to sound more professionally put together. I hope you keep up this level of quality consistently in the future, and hope you keep improving. Nice work, bro! YES

Fixed it. Simply awesome stuff.

Get the filesize <6MB next time, BTW. Tasteful rain/thunder SFX; well-panned, and nicely transition into the opening, though a bit lo-fi sounding compared to the other sounds in play. Opening up, the beats are really plain. The energy is lacking on account of that. Just very plain in synth design. The synth string lead at :49 was rather flat as well. The synths at 1:16 were pretty generic, though they were used decently as staple sounds of the genre and possessed a lot more energy. Moving back to the strings at 1:58 just sapped more energy out of it. The beats were becoming incredibly plain as well. Gotta show some more development and variation here to last the 5 ½ minutes, though I liked the new ideas going on at 2:55. I’m not necessarily coming down on the piano for being synthetic, but nonetheless didn’t like its use at 2:28. Too mechanical sounding and punchy, especially because you used single note plucks the whole time instead of any chords. Sometimes, there were some decent performance dynamics going on, then some exceptionally loud notes occurred and things sounded too quantized and robotic. Piano was basically a cover of the original with some embellishments. Little solo piano section from 3:09-3:26 was poorly written and a weak transition idea, IMO. Awkward lack of a transition at 4:10 to some woodwind synth solo in a different key that sucks. It’s the same progression as the piano solo at 3:09. Sorry to sound like an asshole, but it’s no good. Needs to be rewritten, period. Mix started getting too loud in places after 2:28, but that’s just me, so no points taken off. Boring stuff at 4:27 after the woodwind solo with what I guess is a gated synth or whatever they call it when it stutters. Basically playing through the source melody again, except electrosynth-driven. Uninspired last section. Very bloated track, in that it was too long and not enough was going on creatively to justify the length. Some of the sounds were also generic, which isn’t a problem if the execution is well-done, which its unfortunately not at the moment. Play more with the sounds chosen, as well as the beats, and make sure everything clicks better as a unit. This was genuinely above average bros, but needs more effort put into it to provide unique arrangement ideas and sounds. The first few minutes are way better than the last few minutes, as it seems you played around with the rhythms of the source material more. Then it fell right into the whole straightforward genre conversion deal. I think you have what it takes, Mike & Daniel, to get this passed. Y'all both have the credentials, there's no doubt to me. NO (resubmit)

Careful yo. You'll start hitting the 6 hour mark in no time.

With the execpetion of chthonic offering another reply regarding his mix, any other bloated posts dealing with the semantics of arguing and other 12-year-old garbage will be deleted. Stick to reviewing the song, and not pissing contests about how "you didn't use Marquis of Queensbury Rules to make your point, so ur so rong and st00pid!" You're all wrong and stupid to me, and that's what counts.

Quoted for emphasis. Not to step on DS or Dafydd's toes, but would it be helpful to cross-promote the project and bring more people aboard that way, say at GameFAQs or GamingForce? What about locating/contacting reputable fan-sites to see if you can copy some bios (and of course include the appropriate linkage back to them)? What about using Wikipedia? It seems like a rough deal trying to handle this with anything less than 10-12 dedicated people.