Liontamer

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman1.zip - Track 8 (Elecman's Stage) Noticed Polar's name around VGMix recently. Pretty cool offering. Let's keep it fairly short and sweet. More interpretation on the source material is needed. Desperately. Cool percussion/beats, but provide more variation. You had some good ideas there beyond 1:45 but never really realized the potential within the rest of the track. Just went back to the plain-jane stuff at 2:42. 1:36 had a nice original breakdown section. Ok, but how about some rearrangement of the Elecman theme now? Weave and integrate the source tune into your own original ideas. Some realtively minor harmonization ideas for the lead finally arrived at 2:55. Kind of annoying to get some possible arrangement ideas for the end at 3:36. Wasted potential there. Needs more work, Eivind, but I like it so far. See what else you can do to present a more interpretive arrangement. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - "Aquatic Ambiance" (dkc-08.spc) Decent opening, playing around with some sweeping sounds. and 1:03 lays it down with the BEEtZ! Man, these ambient sounds sound lifted from the SPC if you ask me. It's like Protricity always said, if you didn't copy the sounds and they still sound the same as the original, you might as well have copied them anyway. I suppose they can be recreated pretty easily. 1:19, the beat gets all off, and you can just tell this will be uninterpretive and not innovative. And just as I'm typing that, the melody kicks in at 1:51; it's definitely a NO-go. The sounds supporting the lead coming in at 1:51 were detrimental choices, IMO. Listened to the whole thing. Great for the undemanding "gimme a cover" DKC music fan. Not bad, but the structure, style and compostion of the source material carries it. Gotta be more innovative nowadays. NO

Thanks for the question/interest, sir. Except for #56, #51-#60.99 have to be edited, tagged and released, which'll progressively happen over the course of the summer. In the meantime, I'll be bringing back the weekly VGF Pimp Sections fairly soon. So in closing, Queen Caramella has some nice cans.

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/zelda.zip - Track 47 The original melody with a very whiney lead and some electronic/trancy stuff pasted underneath it not even derived from the source. Looking for a bit more involvement in the arrangement than that when it comes to the supporting elements. This at least had a slight change in dynamics at 2:28. Yep, went to a higher key at 2:46. Some layering of the melody at 3:40. Melody never changed up once. Not bad for the undemanding Zelda fan at all, but you need a lot more here. NO

Thanks a lot to Robbie for sending us a copy of the source tune. Played this back on VGF49 and was just waiting for it to finally make its way over here. Thank God we've got something to represent Bust A Groove instead of that lousy "BlueKnife SignofZeta Dub". I was shakier on "The Devil Inside (Italo Disco Mix)" because that was a lot more straightforward, but this was just an incredibly skilled genre adaptation of the original with tons of Disco Stu flavor and style. It's pretty cool hearing the original with its futuristic overtones being given a total retro overhaul. We don't have a true-to-form disco style anthem at OC, so I'm proud that this'll add that kind of depth to the site. Loved all the little touches here and there; the piano was nice, the electric guitar synth actually fit, and the phasing stuff in the background was hot. A little too trebly on the production, but it was negligible to me. There were some beatiful subtle supporting touches that were a little too muted, like that little SFX under the vocals from 1:43-1:45, 1:50 & 1:58. Continuing on the plus side, the breakdown from 2:29-2:58 in particular was icy hot in its synthetic goodness, a rare case where overly synthetic textures from realistic instruments like piano or strings work. Stephanie's vocals sounded a little too distant to me, but they were still superlative and I liked the delay and harmonization she did as well. Bring your cousin back for more mixes, bro. Some people won't like the key change at 3:08, but I can live with it. Pretty good execution on it regardless. Watch that decay on the lead synth fading out at 3:51, as it cut out way too quickly and got exposed as a result. Don't overlook details like that. Some asshole bitched about Robbie's backing vocals at VGMix and actually gave them a "0/100". JonathonStriker? You've gotta be fucking kidding me. The last thing I wanna hear is a no-talent scrub like that guy trying to tell anyone what's good music. Don't even listen to haters like that, Robbie. You did some great work, while that guy will be pumping out crap until the day he dies. Disco isn't dead, baby! I'm guilty of Bust This Groove Bias! Hell YES

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 22 "Lava Reef Zone 1" & 23 "Lava Reef Zone 2" http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - "Hidden Palace Zone" I'm gonna put it fairly short and sweet (for me, anyway). Like Malc, I liked the arrangement but I also thought that the production and sounds were lacking. The cymbal activity in particular was way too trebly and prominent. Using Lava Reef Acts 1 & 2 directly 1:30-2:00 & 5:31-6:17, I felt the arrangement there was too straightforward with just a whole bunch of muddy sounds surrounding it. (1:30-2:00 was the real culprit regarding clutter.) The guitar work at 2:00 was too muffled and needed to be more prominent, IMO. I don't mind an airy atmosphere here, but I needed a greater measure of sound separation and clarity. Obviously on the arrangement side though, there was a lot of time to go in other more interpretive directions, so I wasn't worried about that since the other ideas made up for it. The arrangement was there, and I liked how the style changed up so often here, including Lava Reef Act 2 at 5:31 (though I didn't like the thin texture again). Some may say it dragged a little long or whatever, but I felt it was fine. Based on what I heard though, the sounds were a bit too thin sounding and default-ish, creating a relatively sparse atmosphere most of the time that I felt was overcompensated for with too much reverb. Lots of these sounds sounded as if they should have been fuller and more impactful. I know it's mostly a different genre, but I felt something like Battletoads and Double Dragon "Enter the Toad" had a cleaner presentation and richer sounds. Sorry to NO, Joel, but it sounds like things need refinement/tweaking on the presentation side to give the atmosphere a little more clarity and the sounds a bit more depth. Hope you resub it, bro. As someone who appreciates the old school and the return of a former judge also, I certainly hope you're not discouraged over looking at it further, since I'd like to see you return to the front page. NO (refine/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/shatterh.zip - Track 4 Shatterhand has a badass soundtrack; check out Track 2 of the NSF as well, for example. A lot of the early 90s Nintendo game soundtracks did a great job of pushing the NES's sound capabilities to their limits. Stuff like the Shatterhand, Treasure Master, and Megaman VI soundtracks had lots of delay and harmonization present resulting in much denser-sounding material. Played this mix while highlighting the top entires for the Dwelling of Duels March Free Month on VGF56. This one got retooled a little bit along with an assist in the intro from OCR old-schooler Majin GeoDooD. The transition away from the intro had an abrupt key change, but didn't bother me much. I first heard the source tune when Homie subbed his own take on the track about half a year ago. Wish that guy would resurface; he got banned from VGMix for some reason, but I liked his stuff. Anyway, this track excelled where Homie's failed in that there was a lot more expansion and personal flair (2:00-2:38) present in this arrangement along with some nice rearranged sections (1:42-1:59, 2:39-3:09). Fairly straightforward coverage, but great shit from Rubbler adding a new dimension to things with his rhythm guitar work. Wish I could have heard it a little bit more clearly, but I could certainly hear and appreciate his backup contributions. The abrupt cut out of recording hiss at 3:43 & 3:45 was pretty weak and should have been fixed up. At least fade it out or something. In any case, solid fast-paced work per the usual from Andreas, great additional contributions from Allan, and a nice cameo intro from Brandon. Great collab work. I can see he doesn't release much material, but I'll be checking out Rubbler's other VGMix releases and hope to see him submit here again, as well as stay active over at DoD. YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Relm" (ff6-219.spc) Never heard the old version, but I enjoyed this one. I see you didn't scrap the drums! Very light but militaristic feel. It's cute and upbeat in its way. Heard a really obvious flub on the support from 1:37-1:38, but otherwise everything was engaging and flowy. The arrangement was put together nicely and the prodcution was beautiful; everything was well-seperated and clean and layered together nicely. Short and sweet take on Relm, Adam. Subtle and quaint, yet ultimately impressive. Other Js may have some comments/suggestions on where to improve, but I've got nohing particularly negative to speak of. Very capably performed. YES

Was busy with finals, but the mix seems to be presented as finished as is, so while Don may revise it if needed, I'm gonna vote on it as is. Pretty short and sweet, the arrangement is no longer a problem in any way, and I really liked the new twists and turns Don threw in. Very creative and catchy. Still gonna have to stick with my post above about the problems I had with production/clutter and also the way the drums don't drive the song forward and sound pasted on top. Those really seemed to hold the mix back, IMO. Otherwise, I thought it was great and have no problem with it passing. Please dont be discouraged at the votes on criticism. Frankly, I'm surprised you aren't posted already given how many excellent VGMix tracks I've heard from you. Definitely keep subbing here and work on this to just tweak it a bit further if possible. NO (borderline)

The original definitely isn't my style, but I can definitely respect it. Jennifer Stigile did a nice job on it, and I also liked the light guitar at 2:33 reminding me of zyko's performance style. The arrangement was enjoyable, but :54-2:40 went into cover mode, replacing Stigile's vocals with strings & winds. I liked the track; played it back on VGF56, and genuinely was feeling the light atmosphere, but the cover-focused aspect was too conservative. The support instrumentation had some noteworthy differences with the original, but not too much felt different in the presentation overall. On a side note, I heard some very light brass from around 2:12-2:40, but it didn't sound very realistic moving from note-to-note and was a bit too subtle. I liked what was there so far, but it needs some more interpretive and unique ideas vis-a-vis the source material to pass. If you wanna keep the melody intact, expand and change the supporting instrumentation more substantially and make things sound more unique that way. I listen to original stuff of yours like "Free as the Wind" (thanks for sending it my way, BTW) and know that creative, original composition isn't an issue for you. Knowing you don't like the system, Tim, I'm not necessarily expecting a resubmission, but frankly I'd like to see one, because I think this has the potential to interpret the source material more substantially. NO (rework/resubmit)

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/Authors/Game/Obarski_Karsten/Crystal_Hammer.lha - mod.crystalhammer Make the filename .MOD in order to play this in Winamp. Too much of the boom-tss foundations never changing up at all until 2:36-2:50. Though the production was solid and the sounds were used well, the sounds were also very generic/stock selections. The mix doesn't do a thing to distinguish itself from tons of other Euro-style techno Commodore remixes. The arrangement was too repetitive on account of sticking so steadfastly to the source. Aside from some changes in the supporting elements, the arrangement retread itself from :28 at 1:11 & 3:04. At least the intro here (00-:28) was rearranged from the first :22 of the source. Some very natural and agreeable genre adaptation ideas in there but basically nothing significantly interpretive, which to be honest is about what I expected given the track record of Commodore submissions we've gotten on the panel during my time. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/solstice.zip - Track 2 Heh. Tim Follin is so damn good. You have to get to :22 of the source tune to get the connection. I liked the ethnic drumloops more than I should have. Certainly hope you made those on your own, but who knows. Yeah, Izz is right, you can't sub stuff with terrible sounding audio glitches like :27. The freestyle-ish stuff from 1:57-2:17 sounded way too jerky and inhuman. The synthetic texture COULD have worked, and Israfel would certainly be familiar with making things like this work, but for this section the composition simply sounded too unwieldy. Actually, those light wind instruments there could have been louder and a bit less dry throughout the whole track. The ending was a bit abrupt also, so look into slowing it down or having it trail off for a longer period of time. But in any case, the arrangement wasn't interpretive enough compared to the source. Sounded like a good upgrade of how Follin may have wanted the original to sound, but you've got to rearrange things more thoroughly, bro. Pretty cool and not a cover/upgrade the whole way through, but this needs to be more personalized through more new composition ideas. I'mma keep it. NO (rework/resubmit)

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Ayla's Theme" (ct-2-19.spc) Heh. Pretty catchy theme. Not great, but all things considered, I never noticed it before this mix. Not sure why all of these synths are so lo-fi. They do an inadequate job of occupying space despite the slight delay on them. There's no power in most of these sounds (c'mon, where be da bass?) and most of them sound generic and relatively unprocessed. There's almost nothing unique in the presentation that I couldn't hear from a whole bunch of beginner mixers in the Commodore scene, since a lot of them pump out the most generic European-style techno I've ever heard although their stuff at least has a fuller, thicker texture to it. This mix here has the benefit of being more progressive and thought-out on the arrangement side however, though detrimental repetition still exists. Reminds me (in a good way) of some of the mid-90s techno/trance they'd play on the radio during the weekend club shows. Opening synth wasn't bad, but we're already encountering the generic trance sounds everywhere, like whatever you call that thing at :37. The melody arrived at :40 and the first thing I actually noticed was that your kicks were really tepid and didn't fill up the background space enough. Things were a little bit more solid at 1:08 on that front though. Unfortunately though, the production here was pretty average; not enough separation of sounds here. Without much presence in the high-end frequencies, everything sounds needlessly muddy and distant the whole way through as well. The lead synth was too shrill/grating, so on a completely subjective point, I think you could do better by dropping the lead a few steps or giving the lead a richer sound. As it stands, it sounded somewhat Megaman-ish, which was pretty cool, but that feel could be retained despite scrapping that piercing lead. Anything you can do to move away from these flat, generic synths would be a plus also. Frankly, they're limiting your potential here as it relates to the overall presentation. Wish Disco Dan was around to give you some pointers as this reminds me of some of his material; hope to see zircon give some solid input on this one. I thought the arrangement was fairly decent. Certainly was a lot more structured than Spiked Ceiling Bubble Bop, and the original sections pieced together a lot more strongly. I'd still say that you should try and rework the actual melody a bit more, though I really liked how you rearranged/adapted the drumline of the source tune to fit the trance genre at 2:10; very intelligent work there, but you retain the use of that pattern for the rest of the track, and you desperately need to change the flow up somehow to keep things from getting stale. The arranged freestyle stuff from 2:51-3:11 is still some of the random-sounding unwieldy composition that I wished you'd reign in. The ideas from 3:11-4:00 were put together a lot more cohesively; the pitch bending of the sine wave seemed to flow from note-to-note a bit more smoothly rather than jump around abruptly. The sine wave from 2:51-4:17 dragged on after a while, so I'd say shorten that idea a little bit. Perhaps cut out 2:51-3:11 and use a different sounding synth and a new composition idea. You use the idea a lot in the track (1:01-1:56), to the point where it becomes very overused and repetitive, so come up with other ideas. Also, on the tiny detail front, use that percussion pattern in the background at the very end for one more time at 4:15. Actually, use the first 3 notes in the pattern and don't use that louder snap at the end. Anyway, very promising stuff that needs sharper production, beefier synth programming and some refinement of the arrangement. Really hope to see this one worked on further to realize its potential. Frankly, I'm not sure if this can be brought up to par in one resubmission, and I know it's an older piece, but I’d say keep on this one, Dustin, and see how much it can be improved. Otherwise, what's done is done, and we look forward to the next effort. Whatever you do, your sounds have got to move away from this generic stuff or figure out how to do more with what you've got at your disposal. NO (rework/resubmit)

Hahaha! Apprently I didn't get the "OC has stuff other than techno now" memo.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF9_psf.rar - 409 "You're Not Alone!" Bah. The sounds are cruddy and muddy. 6:19 for this? Nah, that's not what we're talkin' about. Bring some separation and clarity to the sounds with some judicious EQing. Very uncreative "original + beats" formula. The beats were actually alright at some points, so I don't mean to discount them entirely; heard some variation in there, though not enough, as they were often just keeping time. Might wanna add some musical caffeine to 'em somehow. Hit the vox solo section at 4:17. First off, don't just cut out your beats like that; very tacky and beginner-ish, with no solid transition there. Also, don't mud up the vox so much. The move back into the same old stuff at 5:43 just showed you were retreading without a well thought-out transition there as well. Malcos pretty much nailed it. Weak attempt at biasing us with the groove, weak arrangement, and weak overzealous use of effects. NO I wrote this vote while eating Mexican rice & chicken and watching the Jerry Springer show. Ghetto!

TO helped me obtain a copy of the Enigma track that Carlo got the drumloops from. Lee and I talked a bit about the significance of the drumloops as it related to the mix; please check out this additional track to draw your own conclusion.

Contact Info ReMixer name: DHS Real name: Carlo Demichelis Website: http://www.soundwavers.com ReMix Info Name of game(s) ReMixed: The Human Race Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: Subtune 4 Additional information about game if it has not yet been added to the site, including composer, system, etc.: Company - Mastertronic, Year - 1986, Composer - Rob Hubbard Link to the original soundtrack if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site: http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Hubbard_Rob/Human_Race.sid Comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: After being taking dust in my HD for at least six months, I released that remix of subtune 4 of Rob Hubbard's The Human Race. The track is reminiscent of Jarre, Vangelis, Deep Forest and.... Enigma The vocals samples are little pieces taken here and there from various sources, mainly sample cds. The Enigma drumloop has been taken from the record ("Sadeness Part 1"). The Djembe drums are from some sample cd. The other sounds are mainly from my Access Virus KC. Everything has been worked on Nuendo 2 on an Athlon 2500xp pc. Utilized plugins for the track and mastering are from my TCElectronic Powercore. Mixing has been done on a Yamaha 01x digital mixer.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ed2.rsn - "The Prophet" (ed2-114.spc) The opening strings weren't bad, but they bugged me a little. Once the other elements joined in at :14 though, the track sounded as if it was mastered too loudly. The production as a whole was way too messy I'm afraid. A lot of the instruments weren't well seperated; you're gonna have to work some magic on this so that one can actually distinguish between most of the sounds in play during the fuller sections. The woodwind at :58 & 3:57 sounded extremely dry and unrealistic, as well as pasted on top over the other reverbed instruments. The drum pattern wasn't just keeping time, but still required more variation as its repetition dragged the track down over the 4 1/2 minutes. Harmony called you on the lack of overall variation in the arrangement as a whole; it could go in some other directions. You've got a ways to go in making a mix that would pass without a guitar at center stage, but I'm certainly confident you can get there Mike. Keep at it on this one. NO (refine/resumbit)

Per my usual, I'd prefer to judge everything with the source tune in tow, but without it, I'm gonna have to make the call without it. If you know the original is scarce, send it to the submissions inbox regardless of being asked to or not. Not really having a crisis about not having the source, because I don't think this should pass regardless. Even though I be biasedly groovin' to it, the synths were really bland, the supporting elements were very sparse, and the composition wasn't engaging or interesting. The increase in intensity at 2:03 was what the track needed finally. Do what you can to the sounds to have more depth and power. The ending at 2:30 was really lazy and boring. Nothing against Pat, who I can see getting posted eventually, because he has a nice string of material that I felt was good enough to at least be played on my show when I heard it. But at the same time, I'm kind of tired of all these submissions coming in every so often that display little overall improvement. I hear people with analogous styles and I'm just seeing others pass Pat by and display actual progress from submission to submission. Generally lots of potential, but vastly underdeveloped compositionally, and not showing enough growth in synth programming or production skills. I'm not trying to demotivate you, but I don't wanna see you treading water like this. Slow it down and focus more on making solid products instead of dumping out all this average material on such a regular basis. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Battle with Magus" (ct-2-24.spc) & "Sara's Theme" (ct-3-06.spc) The production was really unpolished here. Everything sounded rough and cluttered with the electric guitar work, the percussion was plodding, boring, and very lazily done, and the Magus melody just mushed into the support work. I liked the clock tower bell and original work from 1:17-1:32. In any case, needs a lot more work on EQing. You have nothing at all in the high range frequencies at all. Arrangement wasn't particularly creative with the Magus theme or the Schala usage at 3:30. And the track abruptly cut out at 4:07. Izz nailed all of the important issues here. Needs more creativity (get some WIP forum feedback) and better presentation (ReMixing info and tips). Better luck next time. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/soe.rsn - "Introduction" (soe-02.spc) & "Fire Eyes" (soe-19.spc) I liked the opening wind FX, though that groaning synth from :20-:54 had some odd note patterns that didn't harmonize well with the other elements. Some strings brought in the melody from "Introduction" at :51. The note movements were alright, but some sounded a bit jerky & inhuman; didn't bother me after several listens though. Not really anything particularly interpretive or expansive here, though the style did switch up a bit from 1:24-1:56. Audio glitch at 1:54. "Fire Eyes" arrived at 2:02 after a complete lack of a coherent transition. No new ideas compared to the source at all; might as well have been a rip of the SPC with some of the voices muted for all I know. In any case, relatively uncreative. I really liked the chiptune-ish stuff finally brought into the picture at 2:34, but again, nothing there that wasn't lifted verbatim from the source tune. After some more quasi-transition stuff at 3:18, 3:21 featured some VERY random drum patterns until 3:36 moved back into the first section with some odd effects on it. Terrible last section. Uncreative and bleh all around, and that's being nice despite hearing the source. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/faxanadu.zip - Track 10 As soon as the track started out so muffled and washed out, I had to switch to another track to make sure my headphones weren't broken. Production needs to be sharpened up substantially. I loved the source tune after hearing it in zykO's "Sketch of a Potentially Contrived Memory" last year, and this track had a good spooky atmosphere to it, but it was a pretty plain arrangement relatively speaking. It could function in an expansive sense if there was more to it. It sounded as if there weren't very many sounds playing at the same time and that the airy stuff in the back was filling out most of the soundfield, otherwise this would have been pretty barren. The last section from 3:40 until the end was a very boring and possibly lazy way to end the track. Definitely a weak close. Keep at it, sir. Youl need work on your production and the composition in order to get things sounding both strong and interesting. Get more information from the ReMixing forum and feedback from the Work-in-Progess forum before submitting future material. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman4.zip - Track 9 Man, just listening to the Megaman IV soundtrack, everything sounds so samey. Practically none of the tracks stuck out. This was a pretty weak effort, like a poor man's Disco Dan. Generic sounds, little to no attention on the production side with very a muffled atmosphere, and not much creativity beyond trance/electronica coverage on the arrangement side. The arrangement wasn't terrible, but is typical of uncreative MM techno I've heard in the past. Be more. Much more. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Track 2 ("Underground BGM") Not really feeling this one. A lot of the sounds came off as pretty bare; I didn't feel as if there was much cohesion amongst the sounds here. The tempo, the percussion, the overall bareness of sounds, and the sheer length all created a pretty plodding atmosphere. Can't say I heard anything here that was derived from SMB's "Overworld BGM". Like Izz, I liked a lot of the arrangement/compostional ideas here, but on the other hand the presentation was extremely lacking to me. Needs to be beefed up beyond plodding kicks and claps, with the melodic elements more prominently positioned. Anything to drive the song forward would help. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/pdusf.rar - 04 "Training Room" This flat-out reminded me of the kind of style of mixes we got maybe 3 years ago. Solid electronic/groove based stuff. Some people are gonna shit on that, but I couldn't give a shit. Reminds me of well-made older material like Taysiir's Blaster Master mix "TI Blasta Party" in particular, but for others it could remind them of something else in the same vein. The drums sounded like they used practically the same hits/loops the whole time, but the mixing on them was fine (a bit loud but not overbearing). Adding more variation to your percussion and beatwork (while not altering things dramatically) would only help the track, IMO. Nice idea for the skip at 1:25. The track could have used a dynamic change of some sort at 2:35 instead of retreading what came before. I'm voting like The Wingless in that my utterly groove-biased heart says YES, but in the interest of moving forward in terms of standards and quality, I've gotta vote NO. If other Js feel it's solid enough where passing this wouldn't feel like a step backwards, I wouldn't challenge it. The arrangement of the source tune is solid, but the last minute of the track just repeated what came before. Practically anything you could do to add some more arrangement ideas and/or variation in the last minute would gain a YES. Perhaps look into adding ideas from later on in the source tune; there's some good stuff about a minute and a half into "Training Room". Please come back with the resubmission, bro. NO (please resubmit)