Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://www.zophar.net/usf/ge64usf.rar - 101 "Dam" Pretty much a straightforward cover with some edge. The production on this was horrible. Sounded really low-quality, grainy and distorted. Sequenced drumwork was plain and didn't contribute to the mix. Plus those and the strings sounded too clean compared to the guitar, showing an obvious sound quality disparity. I like the meedily-me solo-type stuff from 1:09-1:30, but it drags after a bit. Track needs more rearrangement, as well as having a longer, more developed concept. A 2:08 mostly-cover track doesn't cut. Add more of your ideas into the picture, André, and work on improving your production. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/btoads.zip - Track 14 Guitar coming in at :02's kind of awkward, and definitely too quiet and lacking power relative to the other sounds. Percussion joining in at :24 sounds plain/boring and looped. The synth-based arrangement is exactly the same, which was the main reason this got NOed before. Wrong note on the guitar at 1:13. I give you some degree or credit for trying to expand this piece from the last time around and doing your own thing there, but the foundation is basically just a plain sound upgrade from the original. At least used the added instrumentation to rearrange the original more overtly. Practically everything there sounded wholly original, rather than related to the Battletoads theme in question. The added instrumentation sounds thin and doesn't add enough body/texture to the piece. On top of that, the sound balance is sloppy.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff1.zip - Track 2 Nah. Sounds are straight up MIDI-grade, thin and beginner-ish. No texture at all. Arrangement is limited with some tacky/default-y beats. Transition at 1:46 was non-existent. No sound balance at all. It's almost LOL that it's encoded at at 164kbps VBRI, considering how bad the sound quality/atmosphere is. You can't just wanna send something in; you've got to practice and get good at it. If you're a regular listener to Ormgas, you should already know this stuff doesn't cut it on any level. Wanna get decent over time? ReMixing/Works. Keep at it, I suppose. Definitely not YE. NAY

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ff3.zip - Tracks 5 (:00-:43, 3:50-4:08), 42 (:52-1:22), ? (1:24), ? (2:15), ? (2:46), ? (3:13), ? (3:34) Don't recognize the source tunes here, so some clarification would be a huge help. Could be extreme medleyitis for all I know, so unfortunately I can't comment too much on those grounds. I was just taking a stab at when certain points in the track might be the start of a new source tune. The intro here was rather abrupt/jarring. Harp-like instrument is cool, but too mechanical sounding. Arrangement already took some good turns with the woodwind stuff at :25. I really liked the xylos being brought in at :44, handling "The Dark Crystals" (melody starts at :52), though the texture and perfect timing sounded too much like the plucked string instrument. Cool tempo shift and changing of the time signature at :59. Too bad it's verbatim with the NSF. Tambourine at 1:05 is way too loud and trebly. Sudden transition at 1:23 leads into some mechanical-sounding piano work. The atmosphere sounds all lo-fi now for some reason; feels like the encoding quality dropped mid-track, especially by 1:59 when the piano came back. Where's the high-end for those parts? Drum swell at 4:15 got very trebly and distorted for a very bad finish. The EQing is bothersome, as this track was all about either low-end or (extreme) high end, with not much going on in the middle frequencies. Can't muster any specific comments on the rest of the track, as nothing particularly stuck out. Broadly speaking, the way the samples were used was a big hit. Personally, I like a lot of the ideas here in the track, and I have a grasp on the style you're going for, but the samples you're using could be used better to sound more realistic. The track is very sparse in a bad way; with a more human-sounding performance, the relatively sparse sound of a small orchestra would work. NO

Silent Hill 2 OST - 01 "Theme of Laura" Yeah, I remember pre-judging this one for Navid and going NO. Sounds very much like a WIP, and the samples definitely aren't used at their best. Definitely a step down in sound quality, unfortunately. Gonna rehash my #ocrwip comments, so apologies if you already saved those; most of those are still relevant. The beats in at :23 are weak, too flat sounding; the snapping idea could be good, but right now I don't think it provides the right texture. The volume's been toned down a little bit on those, and there's more of a bassline present, but the track still feels empty. The bassline is beefed up, but it's too buzzy and indistinct-sounding, and just clutters up the soundfield. Get the bass sounding more focused. The sequenced guitar at :23 is mechanical, the piano at :41 is mechanical though less so. The bass is also mechanical, and some of the very active parts like 2:15-2:25 really expose that. Keeping them more in the background now helps disguise that somewhat, but it's still noticeable how unrealistic the performances sound. The woodwind is a better on that level, but still has its cold spots. The piano is a bit better 1:56 in; still mechanical, but not as bad. The cymbals are nice and light, but since you pumped up the bassline and made it so much buzzier, the cymbals are a non-factor now. Hand drums at 2:34 are OK, but sounded a bit dry and too much in the front. Piano sounded a bit better around the 3:00 mark. Nice acoustic guitar idea from 3:07-3:10. Very stylish. The piano and woodwind still sounded mechanical; beating the point into the ground of course, but just making a note of it as I listen. 3:30 is um...meh. The sample sounds like the ocarina from Zelda 64, which (IMO) sucks. Doesn't really work here as the performance sounds more like something a keyboard would belt out, except to me the notes in that first flurry are coming too fast and mechanically performed, just like some OoT USF clip of the Zelda ocarina. Some of the phrasing sounded off at the beginning, and the e-piano (E-piano? Ah, shaddap Gray!) you're playing it with sounds all lo-fi. I like the piano writing at 3:48; lots of flair there. Personal choice, but that last chord at 4:08 seemed unnecessary. I would have liked the resolution without it. Also, the last chord fades out too quickly at 4:12; again, personal preference. Work on the humanization, and the drumbeats in particular. Those beats do a poor job of creating a cohesive sound here, as they flat-out sound like they don't belong here. Try some more effects and/or sounds, but change it up. Like I said back when I suggested you up the presence of the bassline, new effects on the beats and sample humanization are critical before you start thinking of how to fill the track out. Needs a significant amount of work to have a shot. Don't get too eager to write a sub letter for a WIP and then work on it in order to beat the system. You wanna be around 90% done on something so you have adequate time to work on the track, complete it, and get feedback for tweaks.

If your sole purpose for posting in this project thread is to exacerbate any drama, your trolling posts will continue to be deleted.

Uh, I think (rightly or wrongly, I don't care) Roland was pissed about the thread sidetracking into conversation more about Journey's End, rather than the CS portion of the Press Start interview. But anyway, y'all can chill.

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Hot-Head Bop" (dkq-14.spc) & "Stickerbrush Symphony" (dkq-17.spc) "Hot-Head Bop" does a great job of using sound effects. This track tried to work a similar angle with all of the animal sound effects as well, which was a cool move. Anyway, played this on VGF64 to give the people their chill requirement. Track immediately starts out with a more downbeat take on "Hot-Head Bop". Percussion snaps felt a little too loud, IMO, but that's personal taste I suppose. The Hot-Head melody kicked in at :51 with "Stickerbush Symphony" on the xylo (Xylo? Ah shaddap, Gray) as support, which was a cool combination. The texture was still noticeably sparse to me; felt like things needed filling out and the bassline needed to be beefed up a bit, as it was a non-factor. By 1:42 the beats dropped out, but whatever plucked instrument was there stuck around, and made the track feel monotonous despite the effort to try and change the flow a bit, though it finally faded out by 2:31. The woodwind from the intro was revisited, though already I'm feeling like the atmosphere remains too samey so far. I hear the subtleties being changed, but there have been no significant changes in the track yet to change the style, and it left the track dragging to me. By 2:33, we came back to the Hot-Head Bop melody with some extra embellishments, followed by the Stickerbush melody again at 3:01. Melodically, I wanted this go start going in some other directions, which was why the changeup with the strings at 3:24 was LONG overdue. That's more of the kind of ideas I was looking for to change the texture/feel in a significant way, but it came a bit too late, IMO. Track also cuts off abruptly at 4:22 after some synth actually started rising in volume at 4:20. Would need a fix for that. Overall, the production was fairly good, and the arrangement definitely had something going for it. I'd say that the texture needs to be beefed up for everything before 2:07, and that the track needs to be restructured in a way that doesn't have it overstaying it's welcome. To me, it could be a half a minute to a minute shorter and still convey the same message, so more dynamic contrast is needed. This is fairly solid already, and features a weaving of the two source tunes that surprised me with how it was pieced together, but I still need more going on to secure a YES. Go for some tweaks to really get it to that level. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 57 "Windmill Hut" (56 Ocarina ~Song Of Storms~) & 44 "Temple of Time" (43 Ocarina ~Song Of Time~) Opened things up with the swirly pad activity before some hand drums and a light woodwind came in at :27. Trance stuff kicked in at :40, though the texture was thin. Buildup was decent, though I was honestly waiting for something to happen. Some bootleg sounding faux-ocarina came in at 1:22, along with another synth and some other light sounds at 1:35. Still haven't hit the source melody until 1:56 alluded to "Song of Storms" pretty heavily. 2:16 have some very generic trance/electronica synths come in handling the SoS melody, along with some average but notable arrangement focused on changing the rhythms around. Energy is still pretty low, in that there's not much texture/body in the sound chosen. Bleh, the way the notes of that pad would change (e.g. 3:28, 3:30) really didn't come across well when exposed. Some snappy percussion and whatnot came in at 3:32 before very briefly bringing in the "Song of Time" melody at 3:38. Another iteration of Song of Storms at 4:10 with thicker bass kicks is supposed to represent the track taking on more power, but wasn't much of an intensity change. Tempo/arrangement was still basically the same only with the added bass, though I appreciated how several different ideas were developed to at least offer up some changes over the entire 6:25, such as dropping out the thick percussion and going back to a more flowy atmosphere at 5:40 for the close. Needs work on fleshing out the sounds and cutting out some of the fatty/boring transitions, but it was a decent effort that could use some more work. analoq and zircon could give you way better suggestions/advice that I ever could. I'd personally move onto new material. Keep at it, and use the ReMixing & Works forums to help in that effort. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/ffl1.zip - Track 1 I still think the piece is cool, and I like how the production was changed to allow the saxs to function at different intensities. It really cleans up a lot of the soundfield here. Unfortunately, the arrangement content wasn't refined in any way (as also stated in the letter), so unfortunately, the criticisms made regarding the lack of cohesiveness and direction there still stand. Plus the hissing and pops are still there en masse and unfortunately blemish the whole thing. Sorry, bro, gotta retain a NO.

We don't accept anything with this high of a bitrate: http://www.zophar.net/gym/hang-on.rar - 02 "Winning Run" The original has such basic sounds, but it's a really pimp track; catchy stuff. I was only a fan of "Outride a Crisis" before, so this was a good find. Opened with some basic synths. :15 brought in some stuff, but the beats are really robotic and sparse. The lead is breathy but needs to cut through more. A minute in, and the texture is really lacking, even with the new kicks and beats at :59. Too many sounds in play going in no particular direction on account of everything being at similar volume levels. Melody and counterpoint need to be positioned more in the front, and not get obscured by the beatwork and other sounds, so work on adjusting the sound balance. Decent string-focused break at 1:57 before brining in the piano, though the drums were ultra-mechanical and flimsy. More decent ideas at 2:27 for an almost easy listening feel aside from the beats, though the key change at 2:43 was abrupt and awkward. Nonetheless, an alright job trying to change the feel of the track over time and have it develop, but the concepts were very disjointed, the sounds were thin/basic for the most part, and, though the rearrangement here was apparent, the mix never quite gelled melodically. Harmony mentioned to me that he was giving you guys some pointers, so keep listening to him, and continue to make use of the ReMixing & Works boards from improvement and fan feedback, respectively. NO

Thanks for providing the original. Opened with some weak FL Slayer faux geetar, which is almost always a bad direction to go in. Stylistically, it just can't pull off a believeable sound. VERY basic percussion pattern came in at :22, not really providing any texture here. Gated synth at least helped fill things out some more at :32 and worked decently with the lead, but the track was still very sparse. Glad a bassline was added at :53 though to help beef the low-end up, along with another higher pitched synth. The timing on everything is very mechanical, especially the Slayer guitar synth. Oooh, MIDI keyboard sounds at 1:25. Not bad for the texture, though the phrasing wasn't strong. Didn't sound good at all during the solo from 1:46-1:57, then another whiny synth with poor phrasing joined in. 2:08 changed up the flow a bit, but that gated synth was getting tired, plus there was still no cohesive texture or melody going on with all of the instrumentation. Piano solo at 3:01 was a weak way to end things, the piano again sounding thin, mechanical, and exposed. Decent first effort, and one to be proud of, but you'll need to use your sounds better and just gain more experience/knowledge on the writing aspect. Though I do here some of your rearrangement ideas here, right now the quality of this mix is, IMO, inferior to the original. Check out the ReMixing & Works forums to help yourself improve. NO

http://s-island.mixnmojo.com/sm.html - 17 "Doug, the Moleman" Heh. The original sounds decent; thanks a lot for providing it. Never really had a chance to play Sam & Max or watch their cartoon show, but they looked cool. I was initially liking the complete non-sequitur-ness of the intro, and was feelin' it on a Shnabubula-type level, then that shizzy horn sample came in at :14. Sounds like it could be cool, but every time it comes in, the volume gets muted. Odd, but probably some issue where having X amount of sounds in play messes up the overall levels. Some beginner-ish type mistake that another J can explain, I guess. Some strings came in for a pad-like atmosphere at :35, but sounded completely disjointed. There's no sense of sound balance here, as the lead washes out from :35-:47; keep it in the forefront. Cool break with the low strings, basic beats and glassy SFX from :47-1:16 before bringing in the woodwinds and higher strings. Cool-as-hell arrangement, IMO. Then some VERY dry samples came in at 1:31 and sounded pasted on top of the track. Very ugly Fing up of whatever texture you had up to 2:04. That last SFX at 2:21 needs to go, as it messes up the resolution. The ideas are interesting to be sure, much like Sam's stuff, but the execution is just not pulled off well. Needs tons of refinement, Yann, but I appreciated most of what I heard so far. NO (resubmit)

Yoshi's Story Original Soundtrack - 02 "Yoshi's Story" Yoshi's Story Original Soundtrack - 03 "Yoshi's Song" Great live stuff, though I wish it sounded a bit sharper. Yeah, if the hiss could be cut down a bit, that would be good. Pretty basic arrangement for piano until :53 kicked the energy level up. I really like how the "Yoshi's Story" melody was played over the foundation of "Yoshi's Song" from :54-1:24, which I hope other people catch. Things went extra jazzy at 1:14 for the hotness, before moving onto the "Yoshi's Song" melody at 1:24. Good stuff with the key change and extra ornamentation from 1:48 until the end. Everything was full of life. Great mix. Truly magnifique and all that jazz. YES

Source tunes: http://melchior.djpretzel.com/ocrjudge/upload/Source%20Tunes/Yoshi's%20Story%20Original%20Soundtrack%20-%2002%20Yoshi's%20Story.mp3 http://melchior.djpretzel.com/ocrjudge/upload/Source%20Tunes/Yoshi's%20Story%20Original%20Soundtrack%20-%2003%20Yoshi's%20Song.mp3

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 318 "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" & 319 "Aeris' Theme" Yeah, this is definitely decent stuff for a first sub, but the track drones on and on. "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" just goes on forever without developing into anything. Then you just fade-out and don't even offer up a transition to the next theme. After the fadeout and changeup at 3:02, it's some drums for the longest time until "Aeris' Theme" finally (finally, bro) comes in at 4:30. Yeah, not terrible, but all of your work will be much better when you incorporate the concepts of variation and moderation. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 30 "The Doomsday Zone 2 (Final Boss)" Yeah, Harmony and I were listening to the track while chatting. I thought it was a cool track, but the sound balance was terrible on all fronts. Yeah, there's indeed some guitar-esque stuff in there that you can't hear at all that needs to be punched up. I liked the piano intro, but right at :21 was where everything went awry. I agree that there could/should be more dynamic contrast over the course of the track. Everything here is just loud and abrasive. Nonetheless, it's still a pretty good live cover concept for the melody, plus you finally went the rearrangement route at 1:00, which was very welcome. Sound balance still needs tons of work. The drums are boring as hell at 1:20. Add some creative fills or something to the picture. Back into the cover stuff at 1:38, and the levels are nasty. Some more arrangement ideas from 1:47-1:56 before the chorus. The close at 2:27 was odd with those keyboard chords. Didn't sound quite right. You've definitely got the right idea on the arrangement side, but the production is ass. If you can refine things there, José, this would be a winner. Along with the advice of other Js, get help from the ReMixing & Works forums and resub. NO (resubmit)

It just says what's already obvious, i.e. that more popular game series are always gonna get preferential treatment from the "masses", as it were, over all other ReMixes, which I also feel is a huge problem. As a staff member at Ormgas, I wanna stress that it's not a fault of Ormgas's that its Top 100 looks like that. Nonetheless, welcome to OCR's version of mainstream vs. underground appreciation. Getting back on topic to this mix, since it would be bad form to not comment, this was a bit repetitive. The lo-fi, chiptune vibe was pretty good, though the last section went pretty over-the-top with the cymbal usage. The beats were pretty decent though. "Mach Shnell" is certainly cool for what it was back in the day.

Hahaha, this source MIDI has got the bass and the groove. Y'all are apeing it so good, kind MIDI. As for the remix, I actually liked the MIDI more. The tempo was increased, but the sample quality was weak and the sounds were actually thinner than the original; no concept of texture whatsoever. Hahaha! Bass distortion at 2:03, 2:05 and 2:15 for the win. I wish there was more to say, but there really isn't. Ape! Escape! NO

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/mmx2.rsn - Dangerous Reef (mmx2-09.spc) I'm just kidding. U so cool, Bubble Crab. I thought the bubbly percussion/SFX stuff was cool. Pretty basic sounds, though not put together too badly. Everything from :35-1:23 had no real direction before getting into the melody. The instrumentation was sparse particularly the drums, and the lead synth was very shrill/piercing. Pull it back, homeboy. I liked the strings though. The occasional claps were pretty out of place here, and sound very beginner-ish. Considering you didn't have many instruments in play, you really need to fill out the soundfield more with more ideas. The arrangement, like Vigilante mentioned, needs to have more going for it, though your ideas were at least heading in a positive, though conservative, direction. Not bad. Stick around and use the ReMixing & Works forums to further your improvement and see if you're headed in the right direction. NO

Ironically enough, having listened to "Sneakman" for Song of the Week, Week #34's voting today, I thought this mix took a decent original and completely improved it. There's way more energy in this ReMix as compared to "Sneakman", and I'd pick it over the original any day. If I was a Judge back when this was decided, the vote only would have only been more decisively in this mix's favor. Great job, HB.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman6.zip - Track 8 ("Knightman Stage") Aside from the fact that the submitter got the game name wrong, this was a pretty substandard cover. Very brief, very underdeveloped. Track repeats at 1:03 instead of doing anything new. Not a bad upgrade from the NSF, but the trumpet/brass samples carrying the lead were particularly bad, the percussion beats were too repetitive, and the arrangement was too conservative. Just not nearly ideas brought to the table, or the sound quality and skills to back it up. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Overworld" (loz3-04.spc), "Select Screen" (loz3-11.spc) Didn't recognize anything at all from "Kakariko", whether that be "Kakariko Village" or "Soldiers of Kakariko Village". Anyway, we break it down quickly. The sample quality is fairly weak. You've done a decent job with what you have, but it ultimately doesn't get the job done, and the sequencing doesn't always sound natural/human. The drums are one more noticeable aspect of that, and the note-to-note movements are decent, but nonetheless very artificial sounding. The woodwinds are too loud versus the rest of the instrumentation, and overall the soundfield is very very sparse. Needs to be filled out more by beefing up the supporting instrumentation. Head to the ReMixing & Works forums to learn how to improve your sounds (even for free) & how you use them, and obtain additional fan feedback on your material. NO

http://www.doom2.net/~doomdepot/music/doom%201%20&%202%20midis.zip - E2M1 - Deimos Anomaly & E3M8 - Dis Hate this MIDI pack; the names are all wrong and shizz, but those source tunes are definitely right. Anyway, the mix was nothing but cluttered and indistinct sounding. Way too distorted. "Live concert" sounds were cheap. Certainly sounds like a first try. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/tetris.zip - Track 2 ("Korobushka") and I guess one other theme Couple of things: 1) The instruments are poorly used GM, so the sound quality is an automatic NO. 2) The arrangement is too brief/underdeveloped. 3) Use the ReMixing & Works forums to improve beyond your current means. There's lot of good, FREE ways to improve your music. YES SIR, GENERAL MIDI! NO