Liontamer

Heh. Trying to pull off a 45-second original into a 6+ minute piece? Best of luck. Opening reverbed piano work is directly from the source, but there's lot of time to develop. UGH. Hearing tons of little audio deformations all OVER the place, and the upper mid-range & high end are completely absent. Once more sounds come in, everything gets muddy and cluttered together. Finally some higher frequencies at 1:26, but you can see how top-heavy the EQ is with the lower frequencies. Aside from these beats you added in, the instrumentation is decidedly similar to the original only with reverb added. The melody from :26 of "Triage at Dawn" comes in at 2:02 and everything sounds like a mess. Man, the ending starting around 5:46 was such an incredible mess, I dunno why you couldn't hear how poorly that came across. EQing should be your friend. While this isn't a typical MIDI-rip + drums, adding some beats and barely changing the instrumentation along with some reverb and crappy production is never gonna get you here now. Some change in the beatwork at 3:33, but it's way too late for that. Get way more creative on the actual rearrangement of the piece and read up everything you can on production so you aren't rendering stuff like this ever again. Dunno how you can remove the static, but check out the ReMixing forum PLEASE. NO

Too loud for it's own good. The high-end needs to be scaled down, and there needs to be better sound balance. The drumkit and distortion are so loud that the melody loses something in the process. But yeah, like Binnie says, I listened to the "Intermezzo" from Doom, and this sounds nothing like it. Wouldn't make it on for those porduction reason, plus, though I hear change and development within the composition, the general groove gets monotonous. Sounds NOTHING LIKE THE SOURCE TUNE either. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/ge64usf.rar - 103 Runway Pretty chill. Not quite there yet, but loads of potential. Interesting opening with such an unassuming keyboard there. The very artificial sound of the string samples (incredibly exposed there at :24-:25) may be purposeful, but their lack of realism and warmth hurt the piece. I think the guitar synth (in at :34) could use a fuller tone, but, while not sounding particularly realistic, is decent enough to work within the big picture. Someone'll disagree there. The piano synth that joined in at :58 was a great touch but sounds pretty artifical as well. Sounds like the velocities on each note are the same throughout the track. The percussion work was a little heavy on the high end for my taste, but since the bassline was a bit subdued (punch it up a little), the percussion work had to fill out most of the space. A little plodding there, but it's actually pretty laid back and gave off a good vibe. Those little guitar strums at 2:27 were pretty sweet. Really liking the arrangement ideas here a hell of a lot. Mix isn't even over and I know I'll be keeping this. Keyboard stuff at 3:35 was a little too much of a minimalist breakdown there, especially with the sudden loud return of the strings and percussion at 3:46. Might wanna add something light in the background for that brief section so the contrast isn't so jarring. As things slowed down at 4:43 for the ending, the keyboard definitely got exposed quite a bit, along with the timing feeling just a bit off. It sounded pretty weak attempting to carry the finish. Really cool shit so far, Alex. I'm loving the arrangement, but the handling of the samples needs to be refined for more of a humanized touch as the velocities sound the same for most of the instruments in play. You're pretty close, IMO, and I absolutely want to see a resubmission. Check out the criticisms, think over whatever you feel would improve the piece for yourself, and get whatever help you can get. I hope this isn't the last I've heard of this one. NO (resubmit)

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/axelay.rsn - "Unkai" (axe-03.spc) http://www.ocremix.org/detailmix.php?mixid=OCR00717 - "Kick My Axe" It's been done and it's been done a lot better. That's the cold hard truth. Not that this would have any shot now, as is, but Midee, Prozax & Jeremy Johnson have already done this in the same style, only with a hell of a lot more polish. Sound balance/clarity needs work, and you can't just repeat the Unkai melody for 4 minutes. It's not THAT hot. Feel free to upload it to VGMix, Gonzo. I don't think anyone would crap on it, but they'll all point to "Kick My Axe" and tell you the same thing I'm telling you. Even if the performance was spot on, there's not even a remote chance I'd pass this. If you're gonna do the same idea, the burden's on you to significantly outdo the last guy. Perhaps you may enjoy the Dwelling of Duels. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sd3.rsn - "Another Winter" (sd3-1-09.spc) Same rules apply today as they did a year or two ago. No mock-ups. We don't take reinstrumented MIDI/SPC rips. You certainly don't deserve to retitle this piece as if it's something unique, let alone put your own name on it. 4+ minutes, yet everything's STILL note-for-note. You should have read our rules two years ago. They're the same today: I hope you ejoyed the rigorous screening process. NO OVERRIDE

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman4.zip - Track 5 ("Pharaoh Man Stage") Definitely GM-ish strings here coming in at :14. Really kills the piece coming out of the gate, sounding so beginner-ish, as well as excessively quiet/distant. And this just boom-tss's for a little bit. Well, here come the claps at 1:04. Very generic sounds, but at least you have some semblance of an idea of going for rearrangement with the source theme. Well, that's certainly good. Oh MAN, cheesy voice sample at 1:43, and things are getting pretty repetitive on the arrangement front as I realize there's 3 minutes left. Some ambiance and claps keep things going along with bad vox samples. Finally something new on the composition side takes over at 2:41. Definitely overstayed its welcome until 3:38 when some new synth takes over. What the hell sound is that? and 11 seconds of silence at the end...Oy. Some glimmers of hope here, as some rearrangement ideas were present, but the sounds are awful, and the composition is repetitive in many places along with being terribly uncohesive in general. Anyway, you're all heart, Joe, but you gotta get out of the General MIDI stuff to make it here. Visit the ReMixing forum here and read up on further fundamentals religiously. Hopefully in a year, after you devote much more time and effort to this, you'll realize that this stuff right here really isn't that hot and that you're capable of much better. Keep at it. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - Track 1 Same old, same old cover stuff until some slight variation comes in at 1:27 finally. Same old, same old cover stuff again at 1:57 until 2:33. Same old, same old cover stuff again at 2:57 until 3:46, but with a minimalist approach until 3:33. Retreads the intro with different sounds at 3:46. I bet you thought increasing the intensity at 4:33 was a great idea. [shrugs] Same old, same old Megaman techno coverage. No risks. No real interpretation. Boring. Couldn't get any "safer" on this coverage without actually ripping a MIDI. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/fls.rsn - Menu Screen (fls-03.spc) Gave y'all the SNES version of the music. Not the PC stuff, but j00 love it, so shaddap. Not much going on here. A respectable effort at beefing up the source tune with your own original additions to provide a more cinematic-type feel, but this was HUGELY underdeveloped. You had some decent ideas with the tense wind & percussion work that came in at :25, but by 1:00 it was gone and you left us with an repetitious, empty fade-out ending for the remainder of the 1:35. C'mon, bro. Out of the new crop of mixers, I've only heard Binster, Shnabubula & Bladiator present remixes that hovered just over 2 minutes yet still presented enough variation, development and satisfying resolution to pass. This ain't it. You gotta be more, homeboy. Be more. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/smw.rsn - "Overworld BGM" (smw-10a.spc) Pff. The arrangement is icy hot. Played it on VGF38, and, yea, it was good. I better not let my girlfriend hear this one, or she'll leave me for Karl with a K. Dunno why we even got this though, I'll be perfectly frank. On the brief side, but full of excellent rearrangement ideas and a truly spirited performance. Get this out of my sight and onto the front page. B-Unit! YES

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 10 (Matoya's Theme) A little bit too much tinnyness, or whatever you'd call it, going on with the hats. Pretty solid arrangement work to me though, with a fair amount of variation. I remember it from VGF45. Good expansionist ideas to support the melody, and I enjoyed the new rhythms and occasionally off-kilter feel of things here. Things started repeating a bit on the composition side at 2:18, though some small additions were around. By the time you hit 2:44 though, I felt like the arrangement went on cruise control. Luckily at 3:10 you went for a nice string-focused close. If the beats had simply kept going, I would have NOed, but I'm willing to accept this on the borderline. Would have rather heard some more variation/more new ideas in the last minute to really solidify a YES, but otherwise, this was reasonably well-executed. Could envision it snagging some NOs though. YES (borderline)

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 10 (Matoya's Theme) Kind of an awkward feel on things, I can't deny that. Some interesting applications of basic sounds, sure. But I have to say that if I had never heard of you, Nate, I'd be inclined to simply say you should get some stronger synth sounds. Certainly some cool ideas for expanding the theme a little bit with support work, but this was basically 5 or 6 iterations of Matoya's Theme without much creative rearrangement or interpretation beyond a plug-and-play assortment of instrument combinations. I like the track a lot and played it on VGF46, but to me I don't think Nate brings enough new/different compositional ideas to the table in the arrangement itself. I'm interested in what the other Js have to say regarding the purposeful use of these sounds. Maybe Israfel will have some good personal insight as to the strengths of this track. Hearing something attempt to run with such blatantly synthetic textures such as this makes me pipe dream about the possibilities of Fray collabbing with Israfel or Shnabubula. I think the latter two use more agreeable sounds than what was here, but in any case, I'd love to hear this idea continued by playing around with the source melody and actual changing that up a bit. If Nate doesn't wanna do that, I'll still enjoy the track. I'll always be interested in your work. NO

Decent though conservative ideas on the arrangement, though the intro almost felt like a MIDI rip + beats. Tempo and structure's a bit too similar as well, though you're at least pulling off a half-decent genre adaptation. Not much (if any) variation going into the second iteration of the arrangement starting at 1:31. Sounds are pretty beginner-ish, but check out the ReMixing forum for some ways in which you can improve your skills. Far from making the grade, but not bad for a first sub, and I hope you keep at it. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 16 Not a bad effort here. Samples need a bit more realism and depth to the sounds. Good vibe here and nice switch on the rhythm moving the time to 3/4, but a bit conservative on the arrangement as you just go through 3 runthroughs of the source melody with different instrumentation. Good expansionist ideas on the instrumentation, but get a bit more creative and rearrange things further. Lots of potential here. Look forward to hearing from you again here. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 208 "Cinco de Chocobo" You know, we get some downright "WTF?!?" NO Overrides, but this takes the cake in my 8 months on the panel so far. Read the rules, lady. I hope this evaluation was timely for you. NO OVERRIDE

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "The Day the World Revived" (ct-2-06.spc) For all the talk about hidden depth in the source tune, this sure didn't capitalize on it. This used some pretty rough original beatwork while barely even touching the source tune until 1:37 (save a brief reference at :18), and featured a disappointing piano finish that sounded really beginner-ish. Um...use the source tune. And don't send OCR anything encoded above 192kbps. 256kbps is too high. Keep at it though. NO

Haven't you heard? White's the new black.

Still have to edit up VGF48 (featuring Paige) this weekend provided I have the time. RoFL will be coming sometime after show #50, which I've gotta be preparing for next week. Still need to plan things out. Tune in this Saturday for VGF49, featuring the return of Mustin as he talks about fan reaction to the recent release of OneUp Studios' newest album Xenogears Light, further developments of the upcoming OneUp Mushrooms album and much more. j00 tune in, ok? hai!

Email sub file animal_crossing_i'minlove_oc_remix.mp3 - LT I PMed you to ask if you could just scratch my resident evil (Safe Room) song. And I would like to know if I could replace it with a completly different song, from a different game. Either way you need to scratch it, please. Thanks. LT: No problem. Ran the replacement submission idea by djp, and he said ok for this time only. Yesterday, Pat mailed me with the info for his replacement submission. Name: Patrick Wagstaff Age: 17 Bio: Bla bla bla. Original Game: Animal Crossing Original Composer: Kazumi Totaka System: Nintendo Gamecube Year: 2002 Original Title: K.K. Love Remix Title: I'm In Love I don’t know where I got the inspiration for remixing an Animal Crossing song, but I think the final result has turned out nice. I normally deal with trance songs or piano solos, so with this one I wanted do some thing different. No I didn't chose the K.K. Love (the original) for a Valentines Day mix, or because I am in love or anything, but simply because of my passion for the original. And besides, me in love, or somebody in love with ME! Ha, ha, now that's funny. It's been my style/trademark with most of my songs to through in a "Break" somewhere along the line. And this song is no exception. This is a link to a midi of the original. http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/gamecube/kklovesong.mid I hope you like it. Enjoy

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 201 "Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII" Nothing glaringly bad about the piece. I liked the presence of dynamics and so forth, and the performance was very spirited, but the arrangement and production were still lacking in my opinion. Arrangement had many nuanced touches like Darke mentioned, but still came across as too conservative. Adding some new support work under the melody and altering the rhythms slightly wasn't enough. Especially keeping in mind that you remixed a 6+ minute piece in the FF7 Main Theme, this really didn't take enough creative liberties with Uematsu's piece, instead following the source tune pretty closely most of the way through. Noir's Jenova for Classical Piano was more successful in adding personal flair within a conservative rearrangement. What was up with the ugly-sounding key change at 3:14-3:15? [shrug] I also didn't mind the muddy piano tone so much, but sections like 3:15-3:37 sound particularly poor and murky on the production side. You don't have to embrace the treble or anything, but give some of the higher frequencies some lovin'. Frankly though, while I liked the performance, and could live with the production, I feel that the mix wasn't as creative on the interpretation front as it could have been. Looks like it has a good shot at passing though, so best of luck on the rest of the vote, and I look forward to hearing more of your work, Susie. NO (refine/resubmit)

Mulled over this one for quite a while; definitely something I couldn't judge after only a few listens. No problem with the ideas in the rearrangement; comparing it with the original, this was a very creative application of the source material. Developed at a pretty slow and deliberate place. Little things: Nice touch with how one of the animal noises worked alongside the notes of the "Deep Jungle" melody from :45-:48 & 2:35-2:37. The fakeness of the string sample you were using was slightly exposed from 1:46-1:48 for me. I was worried I'd have to NO the track on a lack of variation, because you essentially repeated what started at :27 later on in the track at 2:17 with only very light percussion additions. I initially wasn't sure if there was enough change/development for the track as a whole, but that wasn't the case. The flute section at 3:12 was definitely shrill like DarkeSword pointed out, and I wouldn't mind that being toned down, but it otherwise worked well and was a welcome change of pace in the presentation. A bit repetitive and treading water at first glance (due in part to the ambient feel), but nonetheless a fairly cool combination of sounds creating a relaxed atmosphere and providing good rearrangement. Like DS also pointed out, the use of the nature samples was tastefully handled and blended well with the rest of the sounds. Solid work, Damon. You've really come a long way from the two submissions we heard from you a while ago. I don't mean to point and laugh by linking to those rejections, but rather recognize how you've achieved much better production and more creative rearrangement than the stuff you were submitting before. Keep improving your game and learning new things. YES

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ninja_g2.zip - Track 1 (NES version) http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ngt.rsn - Fortress (ngt-213.spc - SNES version) Seems like some pretty standard trance adaptation work. At :17, I noticed the flute on lead sounded a little loud and overbearing. If the levels on it had been like that for the whole track, it might have been an annoyance I could have coped with. After it comes back at 1:00, it's still just too loud. Then at 1:15 as you've hit the main melody, the flute lead is ridiculously loud and piercing until 1:41. The overall presentation from 1:56-2:23 sounds loud but doesn't really have enough distinction amongst the various sounds in play. The instrumentation sounds decent enough for this trance work, but I don't mean to sound insulting when I say the sounds are very generic for the most part. Nothing's wrong with staple sounds from the genre, but I don't think those elements combined well enough here. Not really liking the thin-but-loud texture of the keyboard, synth strings, flute & electrosynths working together throughout the track. Stuff with thicker sounds, like "G-Storm" or "Kick Your A" can pull their levels of loudness & mushed sounds off because the sounds are full. The hand drums were hot though. Compared to your awesome Sonic Adventure remix, "LightSpeed", I felt as if this mix was too loud during the loudest sections, featured flimsier sound choices, and poorer instrument separation/EQing. The composition for the breakdown section from 2:38-3:04 sounded like slapped together improvisation, and needs more thought put into it. The keyboard used to back up the flute is exposed and sounds really flimsy again. I liked the arrangement overall, which had good compositional ideas with the genre adaptation, the new flute line, as well as the rearrangement ideas from 3:12 until 4:07 in altering the rhythms of the melody (though again, the keyboard sounds flimsy). The arrangement was definitely passable to me and doesn't need to be worked on significantly. I'm certainly interested in analoq & zircon's takes on the piece and how well they feel the execution played out though. My suggestions would be to eliminate the piercing frequencies (flute), achieve a bit cleaner separation of sounds so you can hear the supporting elements better, beef up your synths a bit (the keyboard in particular), and make a more coherent freestyle section from 2:38-3:04. Again, those are just suggestions; certainly don't have to do too much to pass in my eyes. I'm on the borderline, Mike, so anything you'd wanna do that you feel makes the track better and achieves a better sound will get a YES from me if you have to resub. NO (refine/resubmit)

This here is Funky Kong; Funky like a monkey. Donkey gets the ladies even though he's kinda chunky. He lays it down when Diddy's not around. Then he hops on Funky's Flights and hightails outta town. Haha! Let me hit ya up with some o' that monkey love. Heheh. C'mere girl. Yeah, boy. Lay it down, Donkey! ROFL #2.

Sounds are pretty interesting for the first 40 seconds or so, though the composition felt random. Sound quality was coming off pretty muddy headed into :48 as more elements moved in, but I liked the beats that came in to help fill things out. The overt arrangement of "Gummi Ship I" didn't piece together until :53. Waiting to hear these winds do something, but everything changed around at 1:16, so I guess we won't be hearing that. The percussion that came in at 1:15 was kind of thin but decent. Both the bow-played strings & plucked strings that started at 1:17 sounded really distant and muffled. The beats were still pretty flat in their attempt to support the sax work that started at 1:42, but again, I'm not penalizing for that. Could use a bit more thickness, but it presents a fairly unique sound I haven't heard before. I liked the light glassy noises brought in at 1:41 as well. Liked the switch up at 2:06 to "Dearly Beloved" a hell of a lot. Very smooth move into the second source tune and much more coherent arrangement ideas and cool sound combinations from thereon. If the production and sound balance didn't sound so messy and muffled, this could really deliver for that half. The ending was just the song tapering off quickly at 3:41, so you may want to come up with something a little more cohesive there. Didn't bother me too much, but it was still lacking any real resolution. If you worked hard on retooling this one, this would have a great chance at making it. I'll be glad to offer any other comments you may want if you keep working on it, Ravi. I'll be hanging onto it. NO (resubmit)

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 102 "In Zanarkand" I've heard of Kanjika; played an original of his on VGF a few weeks ago. Certainly shows some talent, but needs more time. The sounds good, sure, and you've rattled off a list of what assume are some phat samples, but this is basically an orchestral mock-up piece. It takes some minor turns in the "arrangement", but this was extremely conservative; basically a cover most of the way with different samples and some changes in the structure of the support instruments. Nothing innovative here when taking into account the complete package presented. You gotta be more, bro. You know what I'm talking about. Interpret more. Create more. Be more. NO

Don't have the source tune on-hand, but since zirc vouched for being familiar with the source tune and the level of arrangement here, I'll certainly take that. At first, I was kind of "Well, it's kind of loud. [pause] Don't see what's so wrong with anything." Then at :56-1:10 all of sudden you are WAY WAY up there. Then again I'm like "Well, that's only one short part of the mix." Then again from 1:39-2:05, we're way up there in the volume. Things stay way too loud all the way up to 2:32. 3:12-end/5:00 had the same HUGE volume. Way too loud for its own good. Wow. Anyway, definitely work on what the others criticized with the production. Clean up the cluttered soundfield, and brings those levels down. Also gotta point out alongside Malc that the ending cut out abruptly, so don't forget to fix that too and have it fade out properly. Arrangement seems to be well done, but it can't be appreciated with the vast overcompression here. NO (remaster/resubmit)