Liontamer

Just got a letter from Ms. Red this morning: "Ugh, finals" is right, that's for damn sure. Susie's requesting we hold off until she can resample the piece properly, so let's freeze it up. Anyone else feel free to comment on how we can handle this thread. I'm guessing we make it public and freeze it. Dave? Anyone else? EDIT: Dave's down with locking it and leaving it here on the panel until it's revised. It's not getting in the way, and it'll be fixed/posted sometime after Bogus finishes finals.

ye ye, I probably should have gotten more feedback then just my own opinion, but I feel (well, I know) that it's much better then the one I submitted originally. Let's list the what I did --> Different drum samples (most aren't FL defaults now =D) --> Some Notch filtering --> Different Synth Samples --> A little change up at 3:0X --> Different synth at 4:00 --> Outtro is longer --> Panning!!! --> Stereo Seperation!!! --> Beefed up the lead bell --> uhhh....I think I added 1 or 2 more synth strings --> Bitrate 160!!! --> Got rid of that other scratchy synth That's all I can think of now =\ So yes, this is a pretty big improvment over the original I submitted. All my original information can be found here. I ask that the new title be From A Dream (OCR Edit) or something like that. My original one has been around for a while now and it's appearently quite popular O_o . and, as a final comment, I'm pretty proud of this mix, and if it doesn't make it, I'll continue submitting it untill the judges break down and accept it .

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/kss.rsn Decent orchestration effort, though it needs refinement and you'll be better with further experience under your belt. Arrangement was alright based on what I remember from the original (well, I've played Smash Brothers...). Nothing particularly daring, but you did farily well embellishing the source material. Being half-Russian myself, I don't think the Russian feel was captured incredibly well, but I certainly heard the influence and it's not a bad try. The arrangement was already retreading itself at 2:15 of your 4:18 track, though the support instrumentation was different the second time around. Take more liberties with the source material beyond adding more instruments. Any further personal/unique touches would be to your benefit. 3:08-3:17 really exposed the artificial texture of your strings; tended to drag the piece down. Other parts of the samples you used were also exposed at times, but that was a particularly glaring example. Interested in commentary from the orchestral Js, but not a bad effort. Keep improving. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda2.zip I became a fan of this theme from Pixelated's Zelda 2 remix of it, "Crying Alone in the Darkness". Pretty basic/beginner synth orchestration effort. Not very realistic and doesn't possess much depth, but it's certainly not bad for someone learning the ropes and developing their skills. Needs a lot of work to really realize the potential, in terms of just the instrumentation/sound quality. The arrangement was pretty straightforward, and somewhat repetitive. Some decent additive ideas were certainly there in terms of the instrumentation, but the mix still could have afforded to take some more liberites with the actual source melody. There was a brief original section from 1:50-2:14, but that was about it. The ending was really flat and was a poor resolution. Looking forward to Gray or Dan B offering some specific tips that can help you improve your work. Aside from that, you gotta get more creative compositionally and showcase your own ideas. Please keep at it. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Shadow" (ff6-111.spc) Ah man, why'd it have to be a looping cover? Really enjoyed this a hell of lot based on the sounds and the relaxed feel. Pretty wild western; I've heard K. Pras do some really cool original material in the same vein. Some of the woodwind synths were a bit piercing, but damned if I didn't enjoy this one. Fadeout was really abrupt. Not to accuse, but it almost sounded like the track was stolen; why the track faded out in about a second and a half when another section was clearly getting started was beyond me. In any case, dammit too conservative. You gotta be more. Like Izz said, develop the composition and put your own ideas in there. Not much else to say. NO

http://www.zophar.net/vgm/alexkimw.zip Probably the same track based off of Binnie's description. I miss that guy. He smelled like curry. But yeah, this is crud. Either way, totally cutting and pasting Shariq's last sentence, I vote NO, for the reasons Binnie stated in the vote for the last one.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 310 "Frozen Flame" Been expecting this one for a bit, since I ran this one back on VGF49. Gotta go the glib route and agree with Shariq as well. Much of the left-hand activity sounded a bit too simplistic, even for someone as relatively undemanding on those sorts of things. The resolution provided by the ending was very underwhelming and seemingly came out of nowhere, as the track sounded as if it had basically run out of gas. Fixy fixy! Still the same types of issues here as were present in Tomorrow's Wake v1, only this actually sounds a bit less polished. Nothing wrong with the sample itself, though the atmosphere is kind of thin. But the main issues remain: the sample usage and lack of attention to velocites hurts any realism and potential expressiveness the track has. The timing issues on the performance made things sound hesistant and unsure. Same exact issues. Honestly, and this is not to crap on your talents as is, but as long as you have time available and keep up your progress, you'll look back on tracks like this and realize that this needs a bunch of improvement. Again, the arrangement sounds good from what I can gather, yet the performance and production lack very badly. Work on it for the resubmission if you'd like to Bev, but that would be a more involved effort than Tomorrow's Wake v2, I can tell you that. NO (resubmit)

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn Nothing against the genre, but if the construction is always like this, I have a hard time seeing how ANY Goa Trance would make it onto OCR. Intro stays minimal and repetitive up until 1:20, which I'm willing to take at face value waiting for things to pick up. But as soon as more generic-sounding electrosynths layered on top at 1:21, this descended into the poor category. No sound balance at all in the track, and it took until 3:18 to get to somewhere melodic. Everything sounds cluttered together and terrible. Definitely dragged on. Chrono's theme sealed things at 4:13. Now Zeality has to have this mix no matter how poorly made it is. Truly the epitome of a track dragging on aimlessly for 5:54. Wish I had the 6 mins back. Needs severe improvement. I'd be interested in Xelebes take on this one, if he's familiar at all with the stated genre, but I've got no love for poorly done generic electronica. NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/lag.rsn Played this one back on VGF45, so it was cool to see it now. Unfortunately though, I've gonna take the consensus route with Stephen & Mike. I agree with everything they said. The storm sample was cool for sounding a bit different than the usual fare, but almost sounded like something else entirely. The lo-fi drums aren't too much of an issue, but the clapping samples sound really pasted on. Indeed, the synth joining in at 2:28 was too loud in my opinion. Nothing hugely abrasive, but it could have afforded to be toned down. The synth piano close was nice, but maybe would have sounded better with richer sounding notes. Those are just production-related comments/suggestions. From what I remember of the source as well, this goes a bit too far off the beaten path doing your own thing composition-wise. Considering Izz was also a participant in PRCv2-6, he knows the source material as well. If I had the SPC in front of me, I'd point out certain more overt spots. In any case, Lee, feel free to work on this further if you're interested. Still a very cool/enjoyable piece, in my opinion. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar Can't match up the name of the source tune right now, but it's pretty likely that it's "The Successor". Tone sounded like it wanted to be a bit more powerful, but there was some good energy here. The lazy drumloop that kept repeating ad nauseum really killed the mix. It's creates bordem for the listener and stagnation in the foundation of the mix. Can't stress this enough: don't bring it on every other level and then just loop up the same perc work practically the whole way through. It looks really lazy and uncreative. Arrangement could stand to have a bit more forward direction at some points. You other judges will likely hear what I mean. I thought the production and sound balance among the instruments was actually done pretty well. Gonna have to pull an Ari and request a resubmit. The arrangement takes a bit getting used to for me, since it's not TOO exiciting (again, the drums really undercut a lot of that energy). Mix kinda drags a bit by going past 4 minutes, but from what i recall of the source material involved, everything sounded kosher and pretty creative on the whole. I may like this one significantly more than others. Don't believe I've heard of you from Dwelling of Duels at all, so be sure to check that out as well, for a high quality rock/metal game arrangement community that'll really encourage you enthusiastically to take your work to the next level. Very promising stuff, Bill. Definitely look forward to hearing more of your work. NO (definitely resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/sml1.zip As I decide to judge a few tracks sans my own computer, listening to source tunes is out of the question for now, so I'll just have to judge on the finished product. Only really recognized the Ending theme at 1:14, but I'm hoping it was used elsewhere. Pretty much the thing this needs is more processing and effects on the sounds to beef the sound up. Right now, the sounds are very generic and a bit too thin, despite setting up a laid-back vibe. Stuff from 1:35-1:50 had seemingly random note patterns that didn't sound right at all. Unfortunately can't compare it to the source, but in any case I felt the composition as presented here didn't have much in the way of note patterns that came across as sounding purposeful. Everything just meandered around a lot. Wouldn't mind hearing this one retoooled further for a resub, and the ending was decent (though it cut out abruptly), but 3:45 was way too much length with too little substance. Keep at it, bro. NO

Well ain't that a bitch! Laptop's broken AGAIN, and I've gotta get it fixed. Well...let's take a raincheck folks. Hope to be back next Saturday, the 23rd. Please check out VGF50 with djp & VGF56 with the top Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005) entries for radio goodness, and push the gears on down.

DS EDIT: APPARENTLY SOME PEOPLE DON'T REALIZE THIS IS A JOKE MIX; I SHALL CLARIFY FOR YOU RIGHT NOW; THIS IS A JOKE MIX; IT WAS NOT REALLY PASSED BY THE PANEL. JEEZ. Well, I've been in the remixing community for over 3 years and have steadily improved enough to the point where I feel comfortable releasing my work. Notes on the creative process and additional details are featured in the MP3, and I hope you enjoy. This'll be the first decision in a while where I don't actually vote on it. Gran Turismo Toyota Disco OC ReMix (4:45, 160kbps CBR, 5.44MB) * Contact Info o Your ReMixer name: Liontamer o Your real name: Larry Oji o Your email address: Liontamer@ormgas.com o Your website: http://oc.ormgas.com/links.php?18 o Your userid on our forums: 1553 * ReMix Info o Name of game(s) ReMixed: Gran Turismo o Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: "Toyota" o Additional information about game including composer, system, etc.: Composer - Isamu Ohira, System - Playstation, Year - 1997 o Your own comments about the mix: So, let's do Toyota real quick or something. I heard that people wanted it, so... ----------------------- Lyrics "Toyota Disco" original song "Toyota" by Isamu Ohira (Gran Turismo OST) lyrics written/performed by Larry Oji (Liontamer) Lyrics be edited by Larry for completeness! (Nice job on these!) (spoken) Yeah, you know, I be groovin' with the Toyota, Toyota. (sung) Drivin' in a Toyota, Oh, that rhymes with Yoda. Toyota car, I be drivin'. Toyota car, I be drivin'. BOOM... cha cha cha, ZOOM... cha cha cha, MEW... cha cha cha, VROOM... cha cha cha. You press the gears on down, And the car be movin' around. You be ridin' dat car; And you go far. Yeah, Toyota! Ooh, matza-mata-Toyota, Woona-mana-mana-na-Toyota, Ma-<unintelligible attempt to sound Asian>. (spoken) I'm driving in a Toyota, Toyota... jrb... what's a Toyota car? Toyota... Celica... Toyota... da-uhh... I'm in a Toyota 4x4, and I, f... Damn, I'm drivin' over the mountains and shit. Yeah. Yeah! (sung) Drivin' a Toyota! Vroom vroom, I be drivin' a Toyota! Aaaaaaah, doo doo doo doo doo doo da doo. I be drivin' Gran Turismo style; I be drivin' for a mile! Whoa, whoa whoa whoa. Whoo-hoo-hoo Gran Turismo, You be drivin' that car. Gran Turismo, You be a star. Mmm... chh chh chh, Oom... chh chh chh, Boom... chh chh chh, Oom... chh chh, Ooh... chh chh chh, Ohh... chh chh, Umm... cha cha cha, Ahh... cha cha. Ha cha cha cha cha cha cha cha. Ha ha... <unintelligible guttural and screeching noises>. Drivin' a car, ... and, then, something... Let's eat some stuff, And uh, something... (spoken) Let's do a Terra mix in the middle of the song! (sung?) <worst rendition of Terra imaginable> Woo... chh chh, Ooh... wah wah, Ooh... vroom vroom, Ooooooh. ... doo doo doo, That make me drivin' in dat car, And I be... doo doo doo doo, Doo doo wah doo doo... (spoken) Oh, I, *ahem*, *ahem*, vroom, vroom vroom vroom, all right, uh, It's time to take the keys out of the ignition on that one. Oh my God, <gibberish>. All right, let's go for the fade out, man, Let's go for the real classy fade out, Yeah, I'm tellin' you man, ooh. (sung) Yeah, Toyota. Uhh, Toyota. Ooh, wasabi. <unintelligible rodent noises> ----------------------------------- I vote YES on my magnum opus.

http://www.dongrays.com/midi/archive/game/d2/d2map18.mid - Map 18 ("The Courtyard") Not a bad effort bro. Fairly conservative take on the material to be honest. In any case unfortunately, the source tune is actually derived from Pantera's "This Love" and is therefore ineligible for the site. Thanks very much to Doom expert TO for the hookup on that information. Better luck next time, bro. NO OVERRIDE Edit: Second Opinion needed. Larry/others, for the record, djp said there is no litmus test on derived/inspired from material. It's way too subjective. Unless the composer has admitted it was directly lifted from another composer, it's hard to make such assumptions. To be edited later on. - Gray

I could literally cut and paste my vote from Zelda 3 "Ordeal" and it would basically work for this. The samples are used very poorly and robotically; there's no appealing texture and/or humanization, and if you don't progress forward experimenting with and learning those things, your work will never get better that what it is right now. The production & sound balance among your synths & instruments are poor as well. The arrangement is alright but finds itself meandering and retreading in many places, and the track is way too long and underdeveloped to deserve 6:10. Scale down the track and learn the intricacies of refining your material. I'd give further details, but it's just that this was such a similar case of why this sub was way below the bar, that I'm not gonna spend a lot of time repeating myself. Still loving the GoldenEye mix. Keep learning at the ReMixing forum, Alex, that's all I can really say. NO

Thanks a lot for the source tune, Malc. Ok, so the source tune's pretty short from the clip that Stephen provided. The arrangement was relatively basic in that it involved the chords from the original being altered in feel and other ideas were introduced on top. The robo-vox that first arrived at 1:24 was really cheesy. Much more importantly though, the drums were the main offender here, as they sounded very pasted on top. The same with the cymbal work that showed up at 1:07. The faux electric guitar at 1:52 sounded really cheesy, not to mention robotic and distant. A lot of the sounds were very default-ish and dry. The various sfx clips & robo vox being used so repeatedly came off as tacky rather than bolstering the piece. The percussion continued to sit very poorly in the track, and the ambiance was decent but sparsely constructed on the whole. From 2:34 onward, and especially at 3:00 when you layered what sort of sounded like male choir vox, the background was especially loud and muffly. Alongside with the percussion problems, sound balance and processing/effects work are two important things you need to focus on. The arrangement wasn't a violation to me. Though it didn't function well on the interpretive side, Retro actually did a decent job with it in an additive sense. But the sounds are really flimsy, and any thickness in the sounds the track had came from a uh..."less than conservative" use of reverb and delay. Visit the WIP forum for more feedback on future submissions and consult the ReMixing forum to learn how to make better use of your sounds. NO

VGFs 51, 54 & 55 (the Duck Hunt/April Fool's ep) have to be edited and detailed before release. 52 & 53 still have to be recorded. They're coming. Life be first. Playlist Chat Transcript MP3 (193MB/4hr41min) VG Frequency #56: Good Thing We're Strapped Larry Oji - WMRE (Emory University Student Radio; Atlanta, GA) Saturday, April 9, 2005 / 10:45 PM - 3:25 AM EST Liontamer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. CHz f/Liontamer & D-Lux - VG Frequency "Glimmering Facade" Bumper 2. Isamu Ohira - "Toyota" [Gran Turismo OST] 3. OverCoat - Famicom Detective Club 2 "Hearsay" [VGMix2 #3673] 4. Joshua Morse - "Doom Bean 2" [http://www.joshuamorse.com] 5. Kevin "Lorenzo" Sisk - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Aqua Marina" [VGMix2 #3765] 6. Sefiros - Silent Hill 1 "Reborn" [VGMix2 #3770] 7. Unknown - "Broken Asunder" [CompoST 34] 8. Kei Wakakusa - "Forest" [Elemental Gearbolt OST & Drama] 9. Isamu Ohira - "Aston Martin" [Gran Turismo OST] 10. The Jenova Project - Final Fantasy 1 "Acoustic" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005)] 11. Leis Miller - Lufia 2 "Just a Girl?" [VGMix2 #3852] 12. XMark - Final Fantasy 6 "Cyanide" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005) / VGMix2 #3795] 13. GeoHazard - Dragon Warrior 1 "Dragon Warrior" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005)] 14. Isamu Ohira - "Arcade Mode Select" [Gran Turismo OST] 15. Ryan8bit - Megaman 1 "Stab the Earth" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005) / VGMix2 #3829] 16. Patrick Wagstaff - Donkey Kong Land 1 "Tricky Temple Trance" [VGMix2 #3838] 17. Ellywu - "Slicer" [http://www.soundclick.com/carpetmonster] 18. Unknown - "The Silent Stones" [CompoST 32] 19. mv - Terranigma "Aquamarine" [VGMix2 #3473 / OC ReMix #1335] 20. Lennie Moore - "Talanzaar" [Outcast OSV] 21. Isamu Ohira - "Subaru" [Gran Turismo OST] 22. Unknown - "Walking on Inverse Shores" [CompoST 35] 23. OverCoat - "Wilson" [CompoST 36] 24. Roetaka - Terranigma "Shallow Peace" [VGMix2 #3839] 25. CarboHydroM - Kirby Superstar "Ride the Star" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005) / VGMix2 #3800] 26. OverCoat - "Maritime" [CompoST 33] 27. Isamu Ohira - "Honda" [Gran Turismo OST] 28. Kaleb Grace - Duck Hunt "HuntCrap" [Repercussions of Fowl Lamentation: Plutonium Edition (B-Side)] 29. Antonio Pizza - Duck Hunt "Skeetin' on the Cellphone" [Repercussions of Fowl Lamentation: Plutonium Edition] 30. Makke - Dizzy the Adventurer "Mix Dizz" [VGMix2 #3798] 31. Kaijin - Lunar 1 "Concerto dei Luna in B Major" [VGMix2 #3805] 32. MintJam - "A Rude Performance (Spicy Jam Mix)" [2nd GIG #Break Out] 33. BrainCells & Dennis Mott - Contra: Shattered Soldier & Super C "Spread Your Fire Against Me" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005) / VGMix2 #3598] 34. House the Grate - Final Fantasy 6 "Seized with Fury" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005)] 35. Isamu Ohira - "Chevrolet" [Gran Turismo OST] 36. AkumajoBelmont - CastleVania: Symphony of the Night "The Devil Inside (Italo Disco Mix)" [VGMix2 #3159 / OC ReMix #1334] 37. goat - CastleVania 3 "Trevor's Reflection" [unchosen Paths / Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005) / VGMix2 #3809] 38. analoq - Road Rash 1 "sierra nevada-tan" [OC ReMix #1337] 39. Vurez - Megaman 6 "Flurry of Frozen Fury" [VGMix2 #3851] 40. Hale-Bopp - Star Ocean 1 "Summer Time" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005)] 41. Isamu Ohira - "Nissan" [Gran Turismo OST] 42. Jaroban f/Chris Kottke, Nick Noonan, Francisco Cruz, David Black, Cooper White, Chris Mosley, Ana Araujo, Kuriko Tsugawa & Facundo Flores - "Preface/Thumb War/Fleabitten" [shades of Change] 43. Isamu Ohira - "City" [Gran Turismo OST] 44. FFmusic Dj - Final Fantasy 6 "Relm Electronica" [VGMix2 #3791] 45. Lasombra - "Corruption" [http://lsa.trinaural.net] 46. zykO - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening "Perchance to Dream with Waking Eyes" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005) / VGMix2 #3832] 47. Isamu Ohira - "Race" [Gran Turismo OST] 48. Dragonlord - Megaman Zero 2 "Cool Mind" [OC ReMix #1338] 49. Rubbler & SnappleMan w/Majin GeoDooD - Shatterhand "Shattered" [VGMix2 #3833] 50. Master Hatchet - Street Fighter 2 "Harboring Hostility" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005)] 51. ktriton - "Memorabilia" [http://www.ktriton.com] 52. The OneUps - Kirby's Dream Land 1 "Isle de Kirby" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005) / VGMix2 #3812] 53. Isamu Ohira - "Mazda" [Gran Turismo OST] 54. DCT - "Never Again" [http://www.thebigshot.com] 55. Darangen - Final Fantasy 6 "Deadly Promises" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005) / VGMix2 #3866] 56. Harmony - Secret of Mana "NightTime Evolution" [OC ReMix #1336] 57. Ashane - Final Fantasy 4 "Loungin' in the Giant" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (March 2005)] 58. Isamu Ohira - "Mitsubishi" [Gran Turismo OST]

Finally. VGF50. Please enjoy. Playlist Chat Transcript MP3 (275MB/6hr40min) VG Frequency #50: Pretzel Twist Larry Oji - WMRE (Emory University Student Radio; Atlanta, GA) Saturday, February 26, 2005 / 10 PM - 4:40 AM EST Liontamer f/Joe Cam, OverCoat, Paige, Beatdrop, Antonio Pizza, Flik, Shael Riley, animefreak, Daniel Baranowsky, D-Lux, zircon, Kaleb Grace & djpretzel ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Suzumebachi - VG Frequency "One More Time For The Vox" Bumper 2. Kumi Tanioka - "Metalwork" [Final Fantasy XI OST] 3. Joe Cam is chillin' on the open road driving to New York to lay down commentary tracks for X-Strike Studios' Silent Horror DVD, and he's opening the show with comments on his upcoming album "Hits & Misses," flying Larry in for the St. Faggy's Day party and showing him how to go to jail; he'll be back later on to hook everyone up with live traffic report goodness [http://www.joecam.net] 4. OverCoat is there with the "obligatory big number call-in" to muse about Carbunk1e getting married and being a VGF content all-star pumping out tracks [http://www.neutronstar.org/soc] 5. Sephfire - Chrono Trigger "Inciting Incident" [Chrono Symphonic / VGMix2 #3507] 6. Tim Yarbrough - "Baroque Joke" [Zeiram's Medieval Original Composition Contest] 7. DistantJ - The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time "Go Around" [VGMix2 #3511] 8. Ellywu - Wizardy 1 "Shazam!" [VGMix2 #3498] 9. Beatdrop - "Maaan" [http://www.paletteswap.com/beatdrop] 10. Patrick Wagstaff - Vectorman 1 "Beat This" [VGMix2 #3497] 11. Ichitootah - "Nuts into Dreams" [Original Remix Competition 15] 12. Quinn Fox - Megaman 2 "Edit Automation" [VGMix2 #3486] 13. Naoshi Mizuta - "Vana'diel March #2" [Final Fantasy XI OST] 14. Paige breaks the fourth wall of radio before Larry calls her a "bitch," and they have a spat on the air; after she applauds remix artists she likes (i.e. not Liontamer), she opens up the boyfriend position to a new man before Larry saves it with the three magic words (either "I love you" or "Go away bitch), and somehow we get to Sir Mix-A-Lot; hey, I don't know how we got there either 15. Darangen - "At Sea" [Reflecting Pool] 16. Yoshihisa Suzuki - "Red Dragon" [sorcerian Perfect Collection Vol. 2] 17. mv - Terranigma "Aquamarine" [VGMix2 #3473] 18. Emperor - Chrono Trigger "To Lands Unknown" [Chrono Symphonic / VGMix2 #2731] 19. Oceanfire - Xenogears "Xenosphere" [OC ReMix #1319] 20. ktriton, Christian Pacaud & Marc-André Gingras - Secret of Mana "On the Day the World Changed..." [VGMix2 #3495] 21. Kumi Tanioka - "Fury" [Final Fantasy XI OST] 22. Joe Cam delivers the official VGF traffic report, and he has no idea where the fuck he is, but he hopes he isn't stranded alone while the X-Strike Studios crew is enjoying some...adult entertainment; Joe raves about Christian Pacaud's work since arriving in the OneUp Studios community, before pointing out that the Pennsylvania roads suck, covering some on-the-road mishaps, huge ass Zippo lighters, impending snow storm fury, and some final VGF50 props [http://www.joecam.net] 23. Beatdrop makes sure to tie up the line to screw with everyone else, and he makes with the gabba gabba on his new "Maaan" track and meeting a fly new lady from SuicideGirls.com before he hangs up, that bitch ass ho [http://www.paletteswap.com/beatdrop] 24. Antonio Pizza TURNS against Larry! TURNS!!! [http://ap.zapto.org] 25. goat - Final Fantasy 4 "The Sky Was Never a Limit" [VGMix2 #3462] 26. Bladiator & GrayLightning - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening "Symphonic Ballade" [OC ReMix #1318] 27. Timothy Pinkham - "Fair Eynoria - Autumn in Lomberleave" [Zeiram's Medieval Original Composition Contest] 28. ElementsGarden - "endiable" [Requiem OST] 29. Jaroban - "Junesong" [http://bantaj.flatirons.org] 30. zykO - "a piece of pretty dissonance" [Zeiram's Medieval Original Composition Contest] 31. Naoshi Mizuta - "Mog House" [Final Fantasy XI OST] 32. Flik's riding high on the Trenthian ship (LOTS of drugs), congratulating Larry on his 50th birthday, confusing VG Frequency for VGMix, and swabbin' the poopdeck [http://www.vagstudios.com] 33. Shael Riley's under the weather and muses about his full head of hair before offering the props on 50 episodes of VG remix community goodness, hating on the OCR judges in preperation of having his new Ghosts'n Goblins mix judges, filling us in on the progress of his original album "Toybox," the upcoming 5th anniversary of "The Music of My Groin," and hot new cuts on the hot sauce scene [http://lobachevsky.homelinux.net/~sriley] 34. animefreak (Rob STEEEELE!) is here for 50th show congrats and to bask in the wonderful world of gaming, before detailing how he & Mustin picked up the finished CDs for Xenogears Light, rumors of an af, Joe Cam & Shonen Samurai bumper, e-fighting with EdgeCrusher, the hotness of Shael Riley's girlfriend (she's got a nice groin) [http://www.livejournal.com/users/the_af] 35. William Reyes - "Themes for the Past - Guitar Suite No. 1" [Zeiram's Medieval Original Composition Contest] 36. metaphist - Ikaruga "Black Ice (Polar Edit)" [VGMix2 #3238] 37. Dees - "Arctic Circle Remix" [R:K:O #2568] 38. TO - "Nutty Hardcore" [Original Remix Competition 15] 39. Mythril Nazgul - Final Fantasy 10-2 "Chauffage au Gaz" [VGMix2 #3467] 40. Yoko Ueno - PoPoLoCrois Monogatari 2 "Chiisana Hana" [Melody of Legend ~ Chapter of Love AST] 41. Nobuo Uematsu - "Airship" [Final Fantasy XI OST] 42. Dan Baranowsky's still getting snubbed on the show, but he blurts out a few words on his title track for the Doom remix project "The Dark Side of Phobos", along with the Katamari Damacy mix that'll never finish, his sexiness, wanting to remix for Hedgehog Heaven with Star Salzman, "Invertebrate Retreat" & the planned Earthworm Jim remix project, and the claims that the OCR judges aren't criticizing enough when they YES remixes; pizza's on the way [http://www.therighteous.net] 43. Bladiator - Super Mario RPG "A Dangerless Road" [VGMix2 #3525] 44. Ubik - "Last Forgotten Thing" [The Owl in Daylight] 45. Silent - Ninja Gaiden 2 "Return to the Atrium" [VGMix2 #3524] 46. OverCoat - Super Metroid "Zebesian Graveyard" [VGMix2 #3526] 47. Dennis Mott - CastleVania 2 "Cursed Bloodline" [VGMix2 #2811 / OC ReMix #1317] 48. Tim Follin - "Title" [Treasure Master OSV] 49. D-Lux the pizza guy's here, and Larry haggles for extra bacon before they harken back to the Retentions of Conflict April Fool's episode (VGF24) and wonder what the hell is up OverCoat as Gothic Fairy Princess (oh yeah, and I cut him off before he could pimp VGM: Very Good Music [http://rockbottomdlux.freewebspace.com] 50. Jeb Holland graces us with his presence from the shed to sing praises for Jim & the Holland family, stick up for the much-maligned "Daniel Barrownowsky", encourage Larry to lose the weight, create mental imagery of Jim Holland's sister, share fond memories of being taught by Larry to be a man, and demand that the hate has to stop [http://www.therighteous.net] 51. tefnek - Contra 1 "Snow Field" [http://www.tefnek.com] 52. Lix - Legend of Heroes 6 "Affect of Silvery (Skyward Pulse Mix)" Version 1.0 [Levo Lution XII] 53. Binster - Gauntlet 3 "Blue Wizard is About to Die" [R:K:O #2555 / OC ReMix #1320] 54. bLiNd - "Born for This" [http://www.thebrailroom.com] 55. Reuben Kee & Shimona Kee - "Amour Dans Morte" [Naissance Le Mort OST] 56. Naoshi Mizuta - "Voyager" [Final Fantasy XI OST] 57. zircon's going through hell trying to create a sound effects sample pack, overviews the problems of dealing with a moronic game developer, gives some background on upcoming remixes including Chrono Trigger with Unknown once again and Streets of Rage 2 with Rellik & tefnek, pimps the progress on his second album "Impulse Prime", memories of the impromptu all-interviews episode (VGF19) [http://www.zirconstudios.com] 58. Peter Klashkkov from European Brides Unlimited calls to confirm Larry's order [http://ap.zapto.org] 59. "Vigilante" (dammit Kaleb, you bastard) and claims he stole Paige ("she went black, and then she went back") [http://www.kalebgrace.com] 60. "Mustin" plugs Xenogears Light (dammit Kaleb, that impression sucks) [http://www.kalebgrace.com] 61. Drunken antics of the Emory student body, part 1... 62. D-Lux...bye [http://rockbottomdlux.freewebspace.com] 63. Drunken antics of the Emory student body, part 2... 64. Antonio Pizza gets the reveal as Larry frustrated leaks the planned djpretzel call [http://ap.zapto.org] 65. "djpretzel" gets the boot 66. Drunken antics of the Emory student body, part 3... 67. Drunken antics of Danny B, part 1... [http://www.therighteous.net] 68. Drunken antics of the Emory student body, part 4...this'll all be edited out (hardy har har) 69. 80 mintues - 1 man: djpretzel FINALLY gets through; What's he gonna say before his phone dies out? Don't know until you check it out... [http://djpretzel.deviantart.com] 70. Gecko Yamori - Streets of Rage 1 "Stage Clear" [http://geckoyamori.savagewar.co.uk]

Oh please. [/ambient bias]

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 48 "Chamber of Sages" (:00-:29) & 03 "Deku Tree" (2:33-4:45) & 18 "Get Fairy Ocarina" (4:45-5:00) http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Title" (loz3-01.spc) [1:36-1:52] The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker OST - 103 "The Legendary Hero" (:44-1:35) I love how in the WIP forums, everyone's like "OMG, this is great" but they didn't scrutinize the level of arrangement at all. It's generally too basic relative to the source tunes used, thereby being too straightforward of a medley piece transposed to orchestration. Simplicity in the arrangement isn't necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, the arrangement wasn't particularly interpretive, so yes indeed, it suffers from medleyitis. Some of the themes were already orchestral to begin with, like "Deku Tree," and thus sounded too similar to the version you had. The fact that "Deku Tree" used up about half the track's time yet just ended up possessing minor creative changes hurt the track vis-à-vis the guidelines. I'll also point out briefly that the lack of thought-out transitions wasn't a big bother. New sections pieced together fine with the previous ones to me. This gave me the same issues as Shnabubula's Front Mission mix "Infinite Natalie" in that the composition was essentially the source tunes kept nearly verbatim and used very conservatively. You certainly brought forth some ideas for new instrumentation that provided support and embellishment for those themes though. That kind of approach reconciling with the standards here is still a debatable issue. My feeling is that if you transpose something to a new genre, it's gotta be bringing it on all levels to get my vote. The panning of the string work at :45 for your coverage of "The Legendary Hero" was way too drastic. Actually, for a good portion of the track, most of the sound is panned left and the right channel is nearly dead in comparison. Why would you do that though? The samples were alright, and the subdued atmosphere was obvious but it lacked texture like Binnie pointed out. The instrument layering was decent enough to mask some of the synthetic nature of the sounds, but there were points like (e.g. :05, :47, 1:05, 3:34, 3:41, 4:00, others) where the string or brass samples are exposed by very artificial-sounding starts or finishes. Js with even more scrutinizing ears for sample work like this might have even more problems with this than I did. You gotta focus some attention on details like that; hopefully you can get some tips of humanization from the ReMixing forum. The things that lacked here were sample humanization in some spots, and that did have a bit in part to do with having too thin of a texture where mistakes were too easily spotted. Hope to hear Dan and/or Gray offer their insight. Arrangement is playing it really safely as well. While it's not great in execution, I wouldn't call it mediocre. Work on this further, Mike. NO (resubmit)

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 405 "Compression of Time" This has been a favorite original game track of mine not because of the actual track, but because of Stephen Kennedy's remix of it from Project Majestic Mix (Gold). Played this one back on VGF47, and it was pretty solid, in my opinion Bryan's best work yet. I thought more attention to the mixing could made the track sound a bit clearer, with more distinct-sounding instrumentation, but on the whole, that's just a personal preference and I liked the presentation as is. Carried an almost ambient feel to it with how echo-y & dense the string work was, and that wasn't bad at all. This could get shat on for not having much dynamic range as the track really got underway. While there was subtle variation going on in terms of the composition, the piece felt like it was on cruise control; pretty samey from 1:18-4:31 on first listen. Note that I said the first listen. Subtle changes and additions in the instrumentation were in several places: 1:36 (low strings), 2:09 (drums), 2:24 (more percussion panned left), 2:41 (brass additions I believe), 2:55 (melody with harp plucks in the back), 3:12 (added more stuff), 3:29 (moves to another section of the source tune keeping the same low string backing), 4:16 went a bit lower in sound... 3:32-4:17 definitely had the string work and vox getting too loud and piercing in my headphones; looked like you were topping out the low mid-range most of the way through. Sef had some nice dropping out of instruments to focus on strings and brass at 4:31. Nice work gradually fading in some additional string work around 4:41 that kept building up all the way until it stopped getting louder around 5:50 I believe. Very creative idea I hadn't heard used before in any other mix. Stylish ending section at 6:07. Still sounded pretty samey relative to the earlier material, but I liked the tone of your string samples going solo. Very nice way to tie things up. Sounded too fake going for the extremely long hanging note during the fade from 6:36-6:48, especially since you had one string with no additional layering, but it didn't negatively impact me too much. When one listens to the piece the first time, he may go "boring" or "does this ever change?" It certainly sounds very similar throughout most of the way, and I'm sure some people will dismiss it as monotonous. But the context lies in the details, which you ought to be paying attention to. Solid arrangement, and good use of very purposeful additive and subtractive instrumentation ideas to create understated yet ever-present change within the composition. Sounds solid to me, but you NEVER know with the panel. Very cool work Bryan. Not something I initially enjoyed vis-a-vis my role as a judge, as I definitely had the (wrong) first impression of "repetitive". I can see how someone can say that about the overall tone of the piece, but the changes in the composition are what counted with me. Certainly interested to see what Gray and Dan in particular have to say on this one. YES

Can't find the source anywhere unfortunately, so I'm just gonna have to go on the track alone. Don't wanna sound like I'm flatly against gabba-gabba-hey happy hardcore tracks, but this didn't have much to it, and felt pretty gimmicky. The distorted beats and chopped up vocals sounded like a mess. Joined by some claps at :29, everything was still cluttered, until that crud finally dropped out at :35. From :35-:1:01 though, things were pretty sparse as the focus was mostly on the voice samples. The same voice sample went on ad-nauseum from 1:08-1:25 & 1:32-1:54. Felt like much longer. The part at 1:55 with the beeps at the starting line & the cars revving up was like a shining beacon of light amidst a lot of confusion. Nothing very melodic here, though that may not be something to expect in the genre, I wouldn't have any idea. Was still pretty monotone-ish if I'm not informally misusing the terminology. I'd be interested in the prospects of what a high-quality happy hardcore mix could yield, but this wasn't it. I'd be interested in hearing this one with stronger sounds, better production and less repetitive voice sampling. NO

I had recently started playing Megaman X on zSNES back in early 2003, so I was interested in checking out remixes from the game when I first found OCR. Saunders had the same view as me where this was not necessarily the mix I would have wanted with the Sigma selection theme, yet I think Jon went for something unique with the arrangement idea. Dated and quite underdeveloped, but catchy and a welcome change of pace from the other mixes, both new and old, from the site.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/metroid.zip - Tracks 9 ("Tourian"), 8 ("Item Acquisition Fanfare") & 5 ("Kraid") Heh. Well, I'll tell ya, that's certainly interesting material. I'd get my comments from The Shizz for this decision, but the Minibosses forum got pruned. Basically what it amounts to is that the arrangement is just too out there. Not too much discernible Metroid in the sax work, though the keyboard & piano thankfully use the source material more overtly. Basically looking for more thematic connection to the source tune, rather than basically going off on your own thing for most of the 3 1/2 minutes. The intro handled "Tourian," and at least for the first 32 seconds I felt Koelsch managed to apply his style to some genuine rearranging of the source. Throughout the rest of the 2:26 of the arrangement dedicated to Tourian though, the sax on lead didn't do anything but freestyle with occasional bursts of the Item music (1:01/1:30). After all that, we also got some usage of Kraid with the sax even following the piano from 2:54 until basically the end, then some more freestyle work that squeaked as it ended abruptly. One thing I was particularly disappointed with was the production being so weak. If the sax performance was more coherent and derived from the source material, this might have more of a shot as something unique given solid production, even with such a relatively sparse soundscape. Yet everything sounds too distant. Bring some level of polish to the sounds. I know you're capable of promising execution on production with a piece like "Blind Eternity" in terms of production, and I thought your remix of some of Trance-Canada's original material in "Serenade in Sweet Blue" was the nicest production yet on one of your predominantly live pieces. Step up the quality here so things sound as crisp, then work some post-production effort on making things sound moody, troubled and so forth. I'm not gonna complain much about the sax performance. If someone else wants to offer specific criticisms, they're more than welcome to. I dunno what type of sax he's using personally. Maybe run the piece by Mustin & The OneUps and see if any of the members have comments as well. I thought the sax sounded alright given the context, as it seemed to fit your concept of the track in generally sounding thin, nervous & shaky. So going full circle, what I was more concerned with was your performance mostly featuring freeform work instead of overt variations of the source material. Not to sound constricting, especially because I clearly see that the piano & keyboard were handling things on arrangement, but we also need more of that connection on the lead as well. Get the arrangement ideas into a more overtly interpretive route, even if that means modifying your performance to some degree, and work on the production. NO