Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF9_psf.rar - 101 "The Place I'll Return To Someday", 320 "Oeilvert" & 403 "Ipsen's Heritage" I'll be glad to revise/amend any opinions on this once I'm back to my usual setup, but ultimately did not want to either leave this hanging or have it closed without an opportunity to weigh in. Not quite the same animal here in terms of criticisms, but I felt this was along the lines of po!'s "rake dat snake", where there's some basic groove and notable arrangement going on, but ultimately not enough meat on the bones to really engage things. Unfortunately without my trusty headphones, can't verify any popping/artifacts. I suppose it's relatively light and everpresent. Didn't hear anything simply off my speakers, so I'd think that would indicate it wasn't a glaring issue, but certainly an inconvenient one that would have to be fixed. Definitely see where Vigilante is coming from re: the arrangement, as it feels like it doesn't really go many places. Still, I'm with Jon in that I felt there was more to like. I felt the overall groove carried out with the percussion, despite some slight variations, felt too tepid, simple and samey. Without implying that I need something bombastic here, I thought the organ sounded thin, most notably during 1:27-2:02 when it was basically filling out the track. Definitely agreed with Jon about 2:36 when another iteration of the source melody came in. Despite being a little more active than last time with some slight additions like the melody being doubled, it feels like a retread. The instrumentation is essentially the same, the beats are basically the same and on cruise control, the overall development feels very limited. As for the ending at 3:46, I think it's a fine idea but again suffers from the thin organ synth, plus not being, IMO, enough of a contrast with the part leading up to it. I like the idea of this mix with its almost low-key approach, but it needs a bit more substantial variation and development, as well as more fleshing out of the sounds. It needs some work, but sounds like it has the potential to pass given more work. NO (rework/resubmit)

Nah, this is terrible. The fact that it was named "Sand (Original Mix)" likely meant this wasn't an arrangement. And if it WAS intended as a Sandopolis arrangement, that only makes this track look worse.

Ranagazoo, let's have at you, And when I count three...

This one has enough votes to be closed up, but I'd like to say again that I hope you keep improving and submitting here. Hopefully you'll have some more recently made material coming our way, and don't forget to use the Work in Progress & ReMixing forums here to help improve that material.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - Track 19 (starts at :41) Played this on VGF71; it's a perfectly fine cover-ish piece, but I almost don't know what to say as a judge. Right now I can't listen on any headphones, so I wish I could say some specific things about the production. But regardless, I have to invoke the Vigilante Doctrine where if something is competently performed but sounds generic and devoid of creativity, then I've got to NO. The arrangement is so straightforward, undeveloped, and safe that this literally did nothing for me as a listener. It's good, but there's just nothing special or personalized about either the arrangement or the performance here. Sorry, Jorge. All you'd have to do is actually get interpretive here and this could be a much more enjoyable arrangement, much like your creative ideas with "Salsa Snake".

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 102 "In Zanarkand" I played this just recently on VGF73, but man, I'm admittedly disappointed that Karl's man-love for me didn't result in an unequivocably strong mix. 2nd place for Splendid Performance: Reborn Meaning? No way, I heard stronger material than this from several other participants. I agree with most everyone that the arrangement is pretty good. Clearly we've got the stylishness typical of Karl's works. But the production on this is definitely lacking and needs to be improved. Say what you will, but the balance between arrangement and production here is heavily skewed towards arrangement. Whereas I felt "Moontang" had a favorable balance and the fairly weak samples there were used well enough, this was not put together nearly as well. The sampled piano has no body to it, and the thin, robotic, almost MIDI-like strings push the boundaries of acceptability alone. Then there's that awful drum pattern, which was so plodding and plain that it hurt the track drastically. When I read Jon saying "metronome," that perfectly expressed my disappointment there. It almost doesn't get any simpler, and that's a shame. I think when it comes to pieces from Karl that aren't live piano, his stuff needs a lot of work on the production level to match the obvious quality of the arrangement. There really should be some improvement shown in those regards from submission to submission, and I'm not hearing it. This is as solid of a NO (resubmit) as I've ever heard. And that's no disrespect to either Karl or any of the YESs, but I feel this needs richer, more realistic sounds and better-written supporting instrumentation to compare favorably to any of the stuff recently posted here. Of course, you COULD argue that I'm pissed he stole my lady... :'-( Kik u, B-Unit.

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/sd3.rsn - "Ordinary People" (sd3-1-03.spc) & "Can You Fly, Sister?" (sd3-3-01.spc) Short and sweet once again. I thought the orchestration of the two themes was handled pretty creatively here, much like Jeremy's previous Tetris mix. After staring with "Ordinary People", 2:16 transitioned quickly into "Can You Fly, Sister?" and worked with that for a while before going back into "Ordinary People" from 3:07 until the end. Personally, I thought the samples and overall texture could have sounded richer, but that doesn't impact my judgement. I'm impressed with the end result of these tools. The approach was more conservative to start, but certainly no issue in the big picture. Comparing this with the sources, I think Jeremy succeeded in keeping the themes recognizable, not straying too far off the beaten path, but still comprehesively interpreting the melodies from section to section. He had some pretty inspired melodic interpretations going on. Particularly with "Ordinary People", I liked hearing so many permutations of the same theme; it speaks well for the thought and effort put into the piece. As per the Tetris mix, I'm again interested in whether Danny B, Jared Hudson, and Shnabubula like this. And as per the Tetris mix, anything that's inspired by Russian music gets a free YES! ВОДКА ПЕЙ! ОПЯТЬ! ДА!

I reviewed an earlier version on the Works:OCR forum, so I'll use those comments and followup with changes I heard. http://www.zophar.net/gsf/mmzero3_gsf.rar - 26 "Trail on Powdery Snow" So since then, Colin has changed the synth lead a bit and worked on infusing some life into some of the boring percussion patterns, but I think the improvements were limited. The synth lead is still pretty grating and doesn't really fit the decidedly delicate atmosphere created by the rest of the instrumentation. A synth that doesn't sound like a saw could be better suited; just something with more subtlety. The louder snare shots during the melody need a more active sounding pattern, not the more plain-jane "THUMP *pause* THUMP" approach. Like I said, that pattern works better when the percussion instrumentation is light, not heavy. If you keep the percs patterns basically the same from section to section, it's also boring. For example, the patterns in the chorus from 2:15-2:38 are the same as from 2:38-3:00 during the piano-based section. Change up what you're doing there during the chorus to provide contrast. Aside from the synth sections, I still liked the conservative but still interpretive approach here, and I thought the other instrumentation was pulled off fairly well. The organ, piano, pads and lighter percussion were all working pretty well here, IMO, and I like the way you seem to be improving with each submission, Collin. I don't feel like you should obsess about tweaking this piece in order to somehow pass it. I think you should keep in on the shelf for a while and revisit it later while starting fresh so you don't get sick of it, but that's just my opinion. I think the other Js may have some good advice in terms of making this a more engaging listen. Keep at it, bro; on the whole, you're on the right track. NO (rework/resubmit)

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Galway_Martin/Athena.sid - Subtune 1/6 Ah, yeah, I didn't remember the source tune at all, but for some reason remembered subtune 2 from the NES version of the game. Played the VGMix version of this on VGF64, so I was glad to see this submitted as it's been a while from Wade. After not being hot on "Leanderesque", I'm glad he had something stronger. The track starts off with a sound upgrade of the original complete with pads to fill out the soundfield. Luckily, this track is 6:50 and has time to go places, but the conservative start scared me off for a little while in terms of voting on this. Cool use of "Athena" starting at :59; nice little touch. Things stayed like this in the pure upgrade/minor additions route until 1:56 when some belltones provided some more notable additions. Bells and SFX added on top of the track at 2:27, along with a lower synth at 2:35. I like all the bells and whistles added here, but I'm not seeing much done with this melodically until (finally) this takes a turn at 3:04 and more overtly at 3:15. The feel of the track changed at 3:45 with a quieter, minimalist section before fading in the melody with some effects on it at 3:56. This section basically changed some of the sounds around, but kept the source melody in part for the most part and built on top of it once again with various SFX and pad work. I'd be down with these additions more if they connected/interlinked with the source tune more strongly. If you took out the SID-like Athena melody, which is basically used verbatim, this would be a nearly wholly original track. Unlike some cover ReMixes we have, I don't feel like the additive components here make up for a lack of rearranging or expanding the source tune melody itself in a comprehesive way. I liked how the melody was played around with at 5:32, but there really wasn't much of that going on, unfortunately. Personally, I think it sucks to vote NO on this, as I like the track a lot and think it's a good remix, one that would especially be welcome at R:K:O. But I'm just not seeing it jiving with the standards as an acceptable ReMix. I feel there has to be more focus on interpretation or expansion of the melody, rather than unrelated original additions. Sorry bro, but good luck on the rest of the vote. If you're willing to resub this with a more interpretive approach, I'd be more than eager to hear it.

Just feels a bit dry and empty, but I hope it passes personally. I'll likely be an outlier here. And you smell. Of naked.

As for anyone that subs over the bitrate limit (in this case, 212kbps VBR)... http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Snowman (Snow Wood Boarding House)" [mo2-063.spc] Hahaha, taking another listen on this now with my headphones setup as opposed to using the radio station speakers, there are some issues here. Overall, I like the percussion and how it was handled, and the atmosphere was well done. Sections like :35-1:12 sounded very nice on that level. There were some brief but glaring low points. 1:33-1:38 was ridiculous; the drums were so loud that they were distorting. Then more of the same from 1:47-2:05 & 2:48-2:52. Any no-name would get killed for this. So I readily take back the word "masterful". Definitely doesn't deserve that adjective, and those issues push my vote to a borderline NO. Just tweak the levels so you're not dryhumping 0db and needlessly distorting things and you'll have the easy YES from me, Abrasive_Boy.

Yo, Roland. VGF73 playlist is here: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?18.13740 No interview details of course, but I listed who called. 2 more shows for the people. Pick 'em up while you can, please, and enjoy: VG Frequency #61 MP3 (243MB/5hr54min) VG Frequency #61 Playlist: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?18.12054 VG Frequency #61 Chat Transcript VG Frequency #65 MP3 (121MB/2hr57min) VG Frequency #65 Playlist: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?18.12395 VG Frequency #65 Chat Transcript

Way to read the writeup.

Andy/Mike, anymore substantial progress continuing with the album? Just not seeing any bigger announcements lately since the deadlines have stopped.

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/dbzb2.rsn - "Vegeta's Theme" (dbzb2-05.spc) Heh. That original's pretty badass. Hope the music was created for the game. Seems like it, anyway, but it's a moot point unfortunately. Well, the lead guitar is way too quiet and distant for some of the sections. The supporting guitar and drums are actually louder until :30. Same problem from :58-1:11 and later on. You don't seem to be having that issue with the chorus though. Wish I had my headphones, as the guitars sound ok on the whole, but seem too subdued; the expressiveness is undermined by the relatively low volume. Would need some other Js to confirm or deny. Much more mission critical here is that the drums are lame and are holding the track back. They're very default-sounding and unexpressive, plus the patterns are uncreative. It's all a shame because you have some good performance going with the guitar work, including the fairly well put together multitracking. For all the flack people using synth guitars get ("OMG, get a REEL guitar playa!"), I'm almost tempted to tell some of the scene guitarists to get some real fucking drummers. But seriously, read up on what other guitarists like SnappleMan have said in the ReMixing forum about creating powerful drums that won't sound so tepid and uncreative. Address the sound balance issues and improve both the writing and the realism of the drums, and you'd be in better shape. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 20 "Sandopolis Zone 1" Friggin' 256kbps, like that's gonna hook it up. First off... Aight, now the actual track. OY, that lead at :13 is just...nah. So flat and odd-sounding; terrible groove established here. Some more absolutely ugh synths come in at :54 and barely add anything to the texture. It's all gristly synths and no beef. More additions at 1:21 don't help anything. Nothing even sounds the least bit melodic here, what the fuck? Ok, FINALLY we get something I can vaguely recognize at 1:47 (and I'm probably stretching that connection in-and-of-itself), but we're already halfway through the track. Goes right back to the original groove at 2:14. Bleh. I dumple on this in every way. This doesn't even sound like fucking Sandopolis. :'-( Wish I had something more constructive to say, but this was just hitting me in all the wrong ways. Wish I could have dropped the form letter on this. OH NO

Capcom Music Generation: Rockman X1~6 (Rockman X4) - "Opening Stage Zero" Ah man, what are those drums that come in at :08? I definitely recognize those. Anyway, melody comes in at :08 as well played on some crystalline synths with the preset-sounding drums rather lazily affixed. Lead thankfully changed up at 1:07 to a softer sound for some contrast, which wasn't bad. Goes back to the first section at 1:45 with another low, buzzy synth added in the back. Percussion is really boring by this point and needs to be doing more than keeping time. The supporting synth introduced at 1:45 has a bit more prominent sound from 2:43 until the end, combining surprisingly well with the glassy synth. The melodic arrangement was pretty straightforward here, and really could use more ideas. The repetitive percussion, again, was a weak point, resulting in a very stagnant groove after a while. You patterns need to be more varied and interesting there. Keep at it though; this was a pretty solid sub relative to most of the other stuff we end up rejecting. If you're not already doing so, learn more on how to improve and personalize the way you're using your sounds at the ReMixing forum, and get fan feedback at the Works forum. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/metroid.zip - Track 5 ("Kraid's Chamber") 7:07 long, 64kbps, and no treble frequencies? Man, these sounds are weak, dawg. You weren't playin' when you said upgraded MIDI, that's for sure. Composition has some personalization (at least as much credit as I can give it having not heard the version of Kraid from Metroid: Zero Mission), but boy does it drag out. As this really took it's time with long, fairly minimalist sections, ultimately there's nothing particularly interesting going on. The last few minutes were particularly rough. Could go over a laundry list of shit to address, but I'm just gonna say don't send in stuff without realizing the standard of stuff currently being posted here. This ain't NewGrounds. You need a lot more skill and experience under your belt. And remember everyone. Anything can be music. Anything. But not just anything can be good. NO

FF3J, FF6J, I dunno what this is supposed to be from, so someone's gonna have to fill me in. Man, I hate to be glib, cuz you put some work into this in terms of having it sound clubby and authentic, but this was SOOO generic, it just doesn't have any uniqueness to it for the first 1:47. Thank god we got something with a different structure after 1:47 to at least give a more unique take on things, before going back to the club trance at 2:42 and repeating what was used from 1:20-1:47, only for much longer now. At least the lead was changed at 3:36, though it was needlessly abrasive from then until the finish, IMO. There's also about 15 seconds of silence left at the end. Even not recognizing the source tune specifically, you guys are just repeating a few bars of melody over and over and over with the trance genre adaption. There's just not enough about this that presents a substantially/significantly interpretive arrangement. There's just not enough depth to it. Doesn't have to be on par with a symphony or anything. Right now, it's lacking substance. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/duckta~1.zip - Track 7 ("The Moon") Not a bad mix. The arrangement takes some liberties without straying too far from the original, yet doesn't seem like it's playing it too safe, which is good. Good development of the arrangement, working well in tandem by constantly shifting the sounds and styles here. Sweet chiptune shot at 2:11. Ending from 3:25 to the close is pretty anticlimatic. Weak way to end it. Main problem though is that the supporting instrumentation (--> points to the percussion) is sparse, flat and boring, leaving the whole thing sounding mid-to-late-stage WIPish. The patterns are too simple and aren't filling out the soundfield like they should be. C'mon, let's not fight half the battle with the arrangement and then phone in the other half. It's really holding this back substantially. Spruce the percussion up and pay close attention to whatever crits the other judges may make in order to help this out, and you'd be in a much better position. It has the potential, but it's certainly not realized at this stage. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Robo Gang Johnny" (ct-2-07.spc) Believe me, I be DOWN with the chiptunes and chiptune style arrangements. /slash, RushJet1, virt, smh, they're all doing solid stuff for example. But this...is too simple. The source tune is almost too boring to allow this to work very long. Man, at :46 when you try to change some of the progression, it just sounds like some glaring wrong notes in there in a few spots. And 1:58 for any track is gonna be very underdeveloped. Anyway, just cuz it's 8-bit style doesn't mean you skimp out on making this a developed arrangement. You had that section where you changed the notes a bit, and then repeated the first section at 1:24. Nah, that's lay-zee. For an actual in-game NES tune, 1:24-long would be a nice long track. But if the standards here were that simple, we'd have a TON of chiptunes here. In terms of the instrumentation, please do more to make the most of your 4 parts. A lot more could be going on here, even for such a simple/straightforward track. Just check out Tombs & Treasure or one of the later Megamans or whathaveyou. More layering or variation or anything could make this a more engaging listen. Hell, even consider breaking it off with a few extra channels like some of the expanded NEStunes did. VRC6 is your friend. In any case, if you're down with sending in some more thorough efforts in the future, I definitely look forward to them. We need more people doing what you're doing in the game arrangement community. Just make sure you're doing it really well. Well, I'm off to listen to some Madara... NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 19 I mean, what else can I say? It's a dope MIDI/FL n00b mix, but the quality isn't that strong relative to what we have around here. You gotta be Doctor Fruitcake, Israfel or Shnabubula to really be trickin' out the "lower quality" sounds here and using them to their best potential. The instrument quality is alright for what this is. Certainly hearing some stuff that's higher quality than a lot of MIDIs, but at the same time, the texture is ultimately still lacking. And, while it has some cool ideas and sounds, the arrangement is conservative and underdeveloped. 1:51 ain't cuttin' shit. If it's a MIDI, sumbit this to VGMusic and pimp it out if you haven't already. Otherwise, FL n00bery. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Shadow" (ff6-111.spc) Certainly not bad for a first sub. Samples here are pretty thin and weak. They're definitely lacking fullness and N-R-G and all that jazz. The synth bassline in the intro is bleh, the synths and percussion coming in at :33 are plain/bland. Not a bad section there until 1:03 minimalizing the theme. But yeah, things picked up the most at 1:18, but the groove is pretty lukewarm, and the arrangement is pretty much going the straight electronica genre adaptation route, which is playing it really simple and safe at the expense of engaging my interest. Though the e-piano sample at 2:17 was a little bit robotically performed, it was a nice contrast here with the rest of the piece and a much needed switchup. Piano and techno combines decently at 2:46. Not a bad idea to go solo with the piano for the finish at 3:45. You've got at least some potential, even though right now you're stuff sounds really bland and unenergetic. Use the ReMixing & Works forums to your growth and to your advanatge though. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Singing Mountain" (ct-3-01.spc) Not bad for a live performance. I'm certainly glad the arrangement is there. I dunno, it could be because I don't have the benefit of listening on my headphones, but this doesn't sound very emotive. The performance has its moments; its not poor or beginner-ish at all so don't get me wrong, but it seems somewhat empty/sparse. I can't help but feel that it sounds simplistic on occasion. The playing seems too rigid at times, like you're not actually cutting loose during the more upbeat parts. Oooh, you be clippin' it HARD around 2:15. :'-( Too bad about the distortion there. I'll gladly reconsider with my headphones for my usual setup, but looking at how the higher frequency range is absent here and the track is in mono, I gotta go NO and I doubt it'll change. Production's gonna have to improve to have a shot. Can you add a little spice to the performance? Perhaps you simply need more takes of this to perform this arrangement at its best.

http://www.commander-keen.com/midi-music/make-it-tighter.mid - "Make It Tighter" Cool, yo. "Too bad" per se that the album came out sooner than expected so that we couldn't have posted this right on the day of release, but it's good to get the finished album out there sooner (you know what I mean, I'm sure). Gonna be brief since it's just about confirming the source material and arrangement. I'm sincerely glad to see something from The American Album get subbed, as I had a chance to start playing some of it on my show and have been casually listening to it. I was actually going to play this on VGF72 this coming Saturday, as I'm doing tracks 4-6, so I'm already familiar with the layout. Solid tracker material here and the arrangement is definitely there without a doubt. I like Chris getting back to some of the decidedly more interpretive arrangement. This is really hooking it up with the Mazedude SPICES. No issues at all; let's get it up there ASAP. Oh, it's no "maybe" at all. It's a definitely. Besides, I think you already answered your own question above... YES