Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Policy issue's been resolved a while ago. Would like to see this and the older YESed material get priority over the more recently passed mixes.

Someday, I'll have all the free time in the world. Until then, I plug away at the summer stuffs, this set of community releases from June 26th to July 2nd: PICK OF THE WEEK: Dj Redlight - "inhibition" [http://www.djredlight.com] Ashley Carr's mostly known for his Final Doom mixes, so to actually get the chance to hear some original work of his is a real treat. Red dropped not one, but FIVE new originals on his site this week, ensuring that if you take your time to sample things, you're highly unlikely to go unsatisfied. It's not February, but you can still enjoy the well-developed "dizzy valentine." With the sounds at Carr's disposal, he really reminds me a lot of Protricity's stuff. It's the kind of material Ari could have developed had he went more of a downbeat style and worked on integrating some acoustic guitar. For those looking for more of the techno-trance meat & potatoes, "epiphany" will hit you right. The beats were pretty tepid for some reason, but the groove be there. Sounds like something Leifo could make, only not quite as refined. Can't even stop talking yet. "inhibition" will please those of you going for melodic techno, so DO NOT pass it up. Awesome idea for the processed vox at 1:02, for example; just great development the whole way through. The key change at 2:43 might be hit or miss, but lemme say it was seamless. It was WITHOUT SEAMS. Wow, he needs to collab with any of the following OC ReMixers: bLiNd, Leifo, SGX, tefnek, or zircon. I'm just majorly impressed with the ideas here. Gotta move on to more pimpage, but go get the goods. housethegrate - Megaman X1 "Light in the Fortress" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (July 2005)] Alex stood atop the competition in a loaded free month with a SWEET take on one of the Sigma Fortress theme from MMX1, showing off some electronic range I never knew he had. Having played the game a lot after getting zSNES, I can really appreciate house for giving a very underrated theme some well-deserved attention. It's got the original in there, it's got some nice synths and beats, it's got the geetar kwak...it's the champ! Don't forget the plugs for other strong DoD track this month including the best showing ever for a solo piano piece, Dhsu with 2nd place for his CastleVania 3 entry "A Clockwork Vampire," and some nice collab action tieing for the 4th place spot with Ailsean, Chad Seiter & Victor Lawrence on one side and Ashane & LuIzA on the other. More good stuff from evilsonic, Ryan8Bit, norg, zykO, Master Hatchet, Midee & prozax, XOC, and the long-awaited (by me) "Dragon Warrior Radio Drama 2" helmed by XMark. Just Us f/DarkeSword - "One Step Forward (DarkeSword Remix)" [http://www.justusmusic3.com] Just Us is back with their usual thought-provoking, well-written verses, this time joined by resident OC ReMix judge, the deceivingly skilled hip-hop beat creator Shariq Ansari. One thing typical of Just Us, as well as other Urbanizm Music artists like Tony Montana, zyko, Malcos, and Skrybe, is that their lyrics are always so on point. Yet when you actually decide to listen to the lyrics underneath the flow, the content is there, the substance is right there on the page. With DarkeSword taking his turn adding beats, bass, e-piano and other bits & pieces, the texture is nothing but well-crafted and not your typical hip-hop instrumental. The quality of Just Us's material continues to take one step forward with each release. Those ready to enjoy a much more unique hip-hop experience are more than ready for Just Us. Malcos - "I See" [http://www.urbanizmmusic.com] Everytime I hear a new original from Stephen, I miss the understated but dedicated demeanor he had on the OCR judges panel. The first time I heard Stephen rhyme with his Street Fighter II remix "Throw Me a Tiger Uppercut," I'll admit, I didn't know he had that dimension to his material. But several Urbanizm Music releases later, Malcos's energetic, driven beats and absolutely gifted lyrics regarding the beautiful specimen known as "woman" have resulted in yet another mainstream-level original hit. The piano-driven hook that intros this track does nothing catch you off guard and leave you waiting to see how the track will unfold. The vocal harmonization here was excellent as well, and aside from wanting this to get some studio treatment (please), everything here leads me to believe that, in a perfect world, Stephen Malcom-Howell would be a UK-based multi-platinum millionaire with a womanizing reputation appropriately befitting his lady-obsessed lyrics. Miguel F. Ettema - 1942 "Orchestral" [R:K:O #2741] Ooooh, there's some spirited orchestral material from the Commodore scene. That's always the kind of stuff the C64 community needs. I'm always a fan of people there who take an unorthodox approach to material in the Commodore community, as they help broaden the offering there and help squelch the haters who bag on it for being nothing but electronica. OC ReMix knows how you guys FEEL! In any case, I never played 1942 much, but even so, Mark Cooksey's score for the game must be nothing but intriguing given the treatment Miguel's given it. All three subtunes of the original game's SID file have been tackled here in a very naturally woven medley piece that makes up in creativity and dynamics what it lacks in overly expensive orchestral instrument samples. The sound quality is definitely nothing to scoff at at all and definitely fits in with other people like Jeremy Robson, who's arrangements are always strong, despite not sounding like the real thing for the people who are actually that anal. Some pieces DO manage to pull it off. Good heroic vibes here that you should check out, even if you're wholly unfamiliar with the inspiration behind it. Hey, it doesn't stop me, does it? Nixdorux - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening "The Sad Fish" [VGMix2 #4019 / OC ReMix #1370] Nicolas brings it out with the delicate touch for the orchestral enthusiasts, indeed connoting the concept of a sad fish, whatever that may be. If a fish cries in the ocean, how can you tell? It's tears can't be more salty than the water. And what about a freshwater sad fish? On a mystical, MUSICAL level, Nix actually tackles these and other tough questions. If you're looking for a rich and emotive rendition of one of the newer highly-mixed themes in the community, this one does a great job of introing sparsely and delicately before adding other instruments to the ensemble. And the peeps that like curveballs in their ReMixes will love and appreciate the turn the track takes about 3/4s of the way through. Those who want their music to tell a story, you look no further than here. The OneUps - Super Mario Kart "Koopa Beach" [The OneUps: Volume 1] After years of Mustin hoping to have a OneUp Mushrooms album, this summer has made that goal a reality with OneUp Studios most ambitious project yet. After streamlining both their name and their lineup, the OneUps attempt to bank on their reputation within the VGM remixing community and, more importantly, build a reputation and a fanbase outside of that community with their debut album. I spotlighted "Koopa Beach" for its overall swankyness and smoothness, but there's a bunch of winners on here, many of them giving off a jam band atmosphere. The Bomberman track in particular is a huge expansion of the original, and others like "Michael's Theme" from Maniac Mansion and the new classic "Katamaritaino" from Katamari Damacy are sure to grab your attention as well. There's a bunch of jazzy cuts on the album, but dem OneUps rock it out as well with a nasty rock rendition of "Koopa's Theme" from Super Mario 64. And for those of you really familiar with OC ReMix, there's even a cover of po!'s Axelay ReMix "City Lights." Along with their CD, Mustin & crew are making the summer and fall rounds at both vgXpo & Video Games Live!, looking to make an impact and score the $$$ like we all dream of but can never hope to accomplish! Support them OneUps and buy their CD before they BlowUps. Pixelated - Demon's Crest "Kill Your Children" [VGMix2 #4458] Phil is a role-model, and don't you forget that. The beats kick in at :27 after some downright "WTFux" intro material. I'm just a huge fan of the breakbeat loops and sliced and diced effects. This is definitely bringing it if you like the crazy shit. If those damn rugrats of yours are acting up again, jumping on your bed and breaking the damn mattress, you grow a pair, listen to this on loop and KILL YO' CHILLUNS! (Note: The following review conclusion is not officially endorsed by Larry Oji. Larry does not, in fact, want to kill your children. MJ does, in fact, want to touch your children.) pixietricks f/Rayza, Aurora & Fusion2004 - "RayzaMix" [http://www.vgdj.net] Hahahahaha! Oh God, yea! Friggin' awesome! Starting off with simple beats and pads, pixietricks has ROFLed it again, this time sampling your VGDJs in this conceptual sequel to The wingless's "AuroraMix." I'll never get how the guys y gals here manage to take random vocal clips and make something musical out of them. Even the clips with music in the background generally work, which is a great coincidence given that you KNOW no effort was put into making all those little details sound good. This was awesome stuff that actually built the track gradually, predominantly with Rayza samples but also some judicious yet aurally stimulating usage of VGDJ co-host Aurora. You heard it here, thine lady pixie gives The wingless a run for his dirty little mind in this gem of a joke mix. po! - Balloon Fight "da craziest balloon" [VGMix2 #4438] Posu Yan be groovin' it with the Balloon Fight. Yet another piece of original VGM I didn't know until I heard of virt, Balloon Fight has some pimp tracks that get NO coverage at OCR. The original is some of the catchiest stuff around, you dumb bastards! po tackles the theme with some of the ever-familiar Posu groove. The arrangement is pretty conservative, so the goodness of the original isn't spoiled at all. Pretty good groove for the most part, though I thought some of the ideas in the latter half weren't hot, namely 2:46. Then things started to just get repetitive. Pretty disappointing finish, but still not shabby. Balloon Fight needs and deserves your love. Roetaka - "Rebellion" [http://www.soundclick.com/roetaka] Alex get down and dirty with some thick beats and grungy, grimy synths. The intro was pretty lackluster, but things picked up at :14. Oy, dat volume be loud, and you can't pick much apart, but the groove is there and it wants to be appreciated. Some good stuff going on during the section at :54 to change up the feel a bit. Despite the fucked up cluster of sounds, there were some other nice motifs involved, though at 2:30 the track seemed to retread itself. The basic percussion was a repetitive aspect here; heard the same beat patterns going most of the way. Nonetheless, it sounds rather Perfect Dark multiplayer style for anyone desperate for a relevant VGM analogy. Saxman - "Tequila" [http://www.garageband.com/artist/damiangrove] Damian provides some old school stuff with a double shot of classics, "The Heart of Rock & Roll" and his featured song this week, "Tequila." While I'm implore Sax to provide more sax during the verses, the "Heart of Rock & Roll" cover hit the cheesy spots well with some backing chords from that instrumental that I can't put my damn finger on. Damn keyboard styles. I'm ALL OUT OF MY ELEMENT. Sax tends to make his vocals a bit too low, so he should punch them up, but other than that, some decent stuff for those of you who remember the 80s. "Tequila" was where the REAL action was, taking full advantage of the saxamaphone you've been looking for. Very loopable and full of energy. Straightforward and fun stuff you can DL for the quick & dirty. Strike911 - Dead or Alive 1 "Helena's Trance" [VGMix2 #4388] Jase K’s got some pretty cool trance going on. The grooves are pretty basic, and the production needs some sharpness, but the energy is good, and has some tasteful voice SFX sampling. Not much else to say, but that's not on account of the track being poor at all. Certainly worth that look, and solidly put together for shakin' it in your favorite European club. The excellent tracks from the Dead of Alive series really deserve most attention. TO - "By Your Galactic Might" [Original Remix Competition 24] Lee takes down the honors for ORC24 with this winning take on one of Ichitootah's originals. The strange world of the space genre is embraced here with some driving beats, warm vox, and all sorts of phasing, warping sounds. The introduction led me to believe this wouldn't be overly hot (though I LOLed at that clip; Is that Vincent Price?), but once things kicked in at :27, it was all uphill and apropo and oui oui, and all that. A bit on the loud side, but good stuff for the groove bias lover in all of us. trickwaters - Lufia: The Legend Returns & Lufia: The Ruins of Lore "Riposo" [VGMix2 #4444] Patrick goes back to some of the more bread and butter ideas that I recall seeing him post to VGMix when I first heard his name in the scene, i.e. posting several different movements that are all mixes from one particular game or game series, in this case material arranging two Game Boy entries from the Lufia series. The instrumentation is noticeably synthetic sounding and more exposed than Miguel Ettema's aforementioned 1942 remix this week (check out that brass note hanging at the very end), but the arrangement is still great, especially for someone looking for a relaxing classical music-style piece. Aside from the instrumentation not being der uber-samples, the composition here would easily fit in with other classical and orchestral music compositions featured on the FM stations that are early, early, early on the FM dial, making this, in my opinion, a very successful genre piece. That likely isn't the intent mind you, but you never know. Very intelligent stuff for those that want to feel cultured. Good stuff from Mr. Waters with another trick up his sleeve. Ubik - Splatterhouse 1 "Graveyard Shift" [Four Mullet Tire / VGMix2 #3126] Brian leads the Auld Lang Sine 2 charge with this self-described "early 90s dance music style" cut from his latest album for Hellven's now-traditional album creation initiative. Hitting some obscureness (made up a word) from the TurboGrafx-16 (yeesh), Ubik oughta to have called this "Zombie Be Shakin' That Thang." Nice work going for that throwback feel and creating a real winner for what's sure to be a great turnout once again over at Hellven. Glad to see more material from Ubik. Much like DoD, ALS is a good vehicle for getting otherwise missing-in-action artists to take the plunge and give the peoples more material. X-formZ - Ghost Battle "The Haunted" [VGMix2 #4423] I'm never a big fan of mechanical sounding piano, so the intro's not hot to me, but the chill groove here was excellent. The melody coming in at :41 is a pure gem, and doubling it at 1:02 only served to create an even better texture. The production is a little rough and could sound cleaner, but I was really feeling the arrangement here and kept on looping it. This was actually pretty upbeat and cheerful; certainly quite the contrast with the title of this Amiga remix. Some trademark X-formZ guitar action joined in at 2:28 to keep the texture evolving. The ending was abrupt (FOR SHAME!), but other than that, the arrangement had a lot going for it. I'd love to see this one handled with more polish, definitely, but you've really gotta check it out. Dimmignatt & Floaf have some ways to go in really being a polished act, but they're consistent in bringing promising material to both the R:K:O and VGMix scenes. We'll live to pimp section another day. I'm gonna go listen to "Krystallyne" by The wingless…

It's originally from SD2/SoM, but there's another similar version of the theme in SD3. There you have it.

Fixed.

Featured this one on VGF60 and also covered it during my summer writeups after it was used as a part of Splendid Performance: I wanna stress that the arrangement is sweet. The waltz pattern from :32-:38, which later served as the backing chords, was definitely in the same style of the previous "Grand Valse Mario", which is a hit or miss idea for some. To me, it sounded too similar to Valse. I'd like to think that there's some other way to provide the waltz structure there without rehashing it, but maybe I'm wrong. In any case, there's no points taken off for it, just an observation. In any case, it just seems that as a piece played to and then edited from a MIDI (correct me if I'm wrong), this had no richness to it. Beyond mainly the 2:35 point, it was a bit better, and there were earlier spots that were somewhat full as well. Yet there were too many spots where the feel was lackluster. 1:05-1:30 reminds me of Bev's stuff a little bit; plunky and thin, although this was more spirited. Nonetheless, the whole thing sounded mechanical. There's a lot more attention to general dynamics and whatnot here, but the individual notes all sound robotic. Too bad it's not a saloon-type theme where that would work. Not that I'd go easy on it, but I'd be less conflicted and leaning towards YES if I hadn't heard Karl do better with the same setup. It's a step down here, IMO. Just needs fine tuning/tweaking/TLC for the easy YES. NO (resubmit)

Certainly wondering how zyko, Vig, Harmony, and analoq would receive this. I liked the intro here. Shna disagrees, but I don't see what was so bad about "simplifying" the theme here. I heard some male vox humming the theme VERY lightly in the first section. Not sure why that wasn't played around with more to fill things out somewhere within the song. The layering of the guitars was pretty good here during the intro. Production is a bit rough at :35, when the melody picked up and things were kind of cluttered until 1:04. Possibly too much low end. In any case, there were three or four guitars going on at once, and I liked the atmosphere. It worked very well. Nice lil' strumming going on at 1:19 in the back. New section at 1:33 repeating the same melody but going for a more gentile feel and using the piano. Good stuff transitioning into the more tense/tortured electric guitar at 2:02 though it's really subdued and doesn't really convey that sense of anguish well. It needs to be louder, especially since you made the supporting elements so quiet as well. You should have amped things up, IMO. The bassline was decent, but also not much of a factor as well. Punch that up and make it more prominent to give that ghostly/ethereal section a bit more direction. Things plodded along around 2:33 as you kept running with this section being so quiet. There's a melody, and it may simply be the style, but the melody and countermelody bleed into each other so much that it becomes a mush of sound and loses direction. 2:45 at least brought back some strumming in there and gradually increased the intensity, though the idea was getting plodding because everything. By 2:59, I would have figured how to transition out of that idea, since it was lasting too long, again IMO. Seems like you gotta cut the fat, or add something more to the picture to give that section more direction. You used an SFX sample of a girl right at the beginning. Perhaps the tasteful addition of additional SFX of a girl could fill things out and play up that tenser section. I was leaning on YES until I really honed in on those spots. Decent, but somewhat awkward move back to the acoustic guitar at 3:36, as the fade-out/fade-in combo didn't really mesh well. The last section is again a little spotty on the production as a lot of sounds are mushing together from 3:50 until the close. YES or NO, Harmony might have some tips there in case he agrees on that point. Shna was right in that the performance of the various guitars not synching up actually does manage to cover up some of the repetition. I thought the melody was straightforward, but Phil nonetheless provided an evolving texture the whole way through, so I don't think the general approach to the mix should be criticized. I'd like to see some of the issues looked at, but this was very promising. Hearing some of Phil's earlier work hitting the panel, his sequencing and work with synths/samples needs a lot of work, so this mix did a better job focusing on his biggest strengths. NO (resubmit)

Just listening to the opening, the sounds (mainly the brass) are somewhat lacking. Hurts when the track is supposed to sound realistic. The arrangement is basic but stylized, but the soundfield sounds sparse the whole way through. It really need something to fill out the track. Js, give suggestions on that please. No semblance of a transition at :49 to IceCap Zone, which just sounded rushed, forced, and sloppy. It's very lazily written, i.e. dropping everything out, leaving one or two sparse instruments for a few bars, then abruptly changing key and tempo with a new section. The phrasing of the harmonica at 1:02 was strange. It didn't combine well with the bassline. After hearing that pattern several times, it just sounded wrong. Needs to be modified, though when some other instruments come in at 1:19 the harmonica doesn't sound so bad. Still needs work. More of a transition at 1:49 as compared to the last one. The Sonic 2 Ending at 1:59 was conservative and the brass sounds really weak and dry. Just too synthetic and exposed. Gray and DarkeSword pointed out that sequencing trumpet is particularly difficult, but I'm still a stickler for it. It needs some effects on it to sit better in the track. Certainly not trying to be a hater, but at the same time, I've heard Frank do richer sounding stuff even with those trumpet samples. The e-piano freestyle at 2:55 was also spotty, having some strange/random phrasing that wasn't really clicking with me. As it wound down, it was more solid. Might just be personal preference. It also could have been louder, as opposed to so quiet. The transition with the bass after 3:15 sounds lackluster too, but stops that at 3:33. It's the most "thought-out" transition within the mix, but it's still plodding and saps the energy out of the track. The arrangement of Marble Zone at 3:30 was really spirited though. The sax sample is dry, but this was the best section of the track for spicing things up, and I agreed with Harmony there. The trumpets at 4:00 were still very fake, but the layering really helped downplay that, so that was more of what I was looking for. The transition towards Casino Night Zone at 4:19 was at least more upbeat and was gonna be a great idea, but then just went for the tempo slowdown at 4:37, which makes me ask why the transition then had to be about 20 seconds just for that. Sax again at 4:42 is dry and needs some more body to it. The ending at 5:05 is weak too. Write an ending, please. Nonetheless, the percussion work for that last section at 4:42 was awesome as hell. This needs work. Overall it's conservative, but Frank's at least trying to do stylish genre adaptations. They still need more development to me. Some sections are much better than others on that front. Mainly, work on getting the brass to sound richer. Also, fashioning better transitions is a must IMO as some are abrupt, some are too drawn out, and all of them dragged the track down by needlessly providing empty spots that didn't continue to drive the track along. Totally disagreed with Harmony on how well they were pulled off. If the transitions were better, the lack of any development for these source tunes wouldn't also be as much of an issue. The arrangement sounds fun when it gets going, there's no doubt about that, but the issues here are holding it back. Work on it a bit more to iron things out. NO (resubmit)

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFXI_psf2.rar - 111 "Rolanberry Fields" This was still pretty decent, but had some significant issues going on. The sound balance with stuff like the pizz strings is awful. They should be louder and not sound so far away. Makes the pizz strings sound fake and pasted underneath. For the first minute or so, there's really nothing melodic going on. Even the fade-in with that cool effect at :42 doesn't make it seem like anything melodic is happening. The guitar lead sounded too thin and mechanical while it was obviously striving to sound realistic. It does absolutely nothing to drive the track forward. Finally at 1:05 the melody meaningfully shows up. Some trumpet stabs were there starting at 1:25, but nothing's really cohesively put together with this instrumentation. You can here quiet notes from the supporting work occasionally clashing. Felt like everything's just loosely doing its own thing, as all of it doesn't harmonize well. Things picked up a bit better around 2:38 once the acoustic guitar sample took things over in the forefront. There were some odd notes in there (e.g. 2:59), and the guitar still sounded really mechanical, which hurts the track when you're placing the focus on it even further and expose the sample even more. Decent solo section in spirit though, though it didn't quite work. The pizz strings came back at 3:15 to fill things out further. Everything's still sloppy in tandem, but it's an improvement. The phrasing here just isn't very strong or well-written. 3:35 had that pad with the stuttering effects in there that I liked so much last time. That would have been cooler to use as a chorus for the mix and just change up the stuttering pattern each time to vary it up, because it was one aspect of the mix that I felt worked amidst all the other instances of things not combining together well. The bass presence was good the whole way through, and the bird SFX was used tastefully here as well. Just overall, this needed a lot more help than I could give. It's gotta sound more melodic and focused. The lead guitar needs more body and more realism in the sounds to help. The writing of some of the background elements doesn't complement the melody. The effort is there, but you just need more practice/experience and criticism. Hang in the ReMixing forum, Paul, and see if you can have someone give you a better breakdown of the various issues and offer more suggestions/advice, but I'd still just call this a done deal and move onto the next project. NO

Just gonna be glib. Harmony really nailed all the issues here. You'd think he was getting paid to do this. I dunno if it's simply not having access to your usual setup at uni, but the EQing and production was the weakest I've heard from you, and needed to be balanced out. The arrangement was conservative, and needed to take some more risks, but off the cuff it seems fine. Performance still sounded kind of stiff and overly quantized. The left hand performance was simplistic per the usual and indeed is something you need to work on, as it limits all of your material. Keep developing things there, not for the sake of this site, but your work in general. Not being a hater, but the performance sounds needlessly simplistic as worst and empty at best on account of the left-hand. Hahahaha, quick little reference to Toyota at 2:33 is where it's at though. Yeah, you know, I be groovin' with the Toyota! It's good, but work on the production as well, flow, and the left hand performance to fill things out more. Da usual suggestions, madame. NO

http://www.doom2.net/~doomdepot/music/tnt/TNT20.mp3 - TNT Evilution Map20 http://www.doom2.net/~doomdepot/music/tnt/TNT06.mp3 - TNT Evilution Map06 Thanks a lot to Lee for providing the sources and spelling things out on the arrangement side, along with Gray for helping as well. This was a tricky one to get a grasp on, and won't please anyone looking for a conservative sounding take on the theme. Nonetheless, the "message" theme was indeed worked into a swing time form and used as the melodic base of the mix, so the crux of the arrangement was covered right there. Good stuff using the piano at :17-:24 to do the same, before moving onto some more liberal but noticeable arrangement, basing things off of the chords you mentioned. Still not really feeling the percussion and production so much, just cuz I feel like those could sound less looped and sharper respectively. To me, I'd say it's a step down from some of Lee's prior stuff, but still solid. The overall tone is good, and there was a good deal of developement here as the track evolved. The percussion did change up, but was a little too prominent for me, so sometimes the loops dragged the piece down. In any case, all the points of arrangement Lee pointed out were there, so I don't have to go through those and I'm glad he clarified that for me. Even for the liberal stuff, as long as I hear the connection overtly and the source tune is used enough, we're good to go. YES

Did a Wikipedia page for the project based on a template from CyberSkull's edits to my Relics of the Chozo Wiki entry (which I also updated). Check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_Symphonic, and of course Andrew, Zeal or anyone else that can genuinely contribute to the page is encouraged to fix any potential inaccuracies and provide additional details for the project, most notably the script, which deserves a thorough, but brief & separate section immediately after the text I wrote. If you don't have a Wikipedia account, register one so I know who's making changes. Feel free to make edits, but try to keep the formatting so far intact, to stay consistent with the other projects covered so far. I'll be checking on it of course. OMG, iz dis 0ne Sim Fonik?

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 01 "Title Theme" http://www.zophar.net/gbs/zeldaooa.zip - Track 30 The arrangement was on the borderline of reject-ability for me, because the melody was handled in a very straightforward manner, but you replaced all of the support work from the source tune with original and form-fitting left-hand activity. It's hard to make a conservative track feel "expansive" when going the solo piano route. Starting off with the intro from OoT until :15 here, that was arranged subtly before transitioning into the main source material here from Oracle of Ages. Good stuff, as the themes work seamlessly together and transitioned naturally, but still very much structured like the originals. Again, the melody was adapted well for the piano, but I'm disappointed at how it takes no meaningful liberties there. The subtle tempo changes in the performance were great, and the dynamics from passage to passage were a beauty. The last section from 2:05-2:43 featured referencing :50-1:14 of the OoT introduction, and then the Sad Theme right at the end. Not to take away from David here, but Gray's involvement really saved this one from a production standpoint. Nothing against Mustin, but the version he MP3ed for you David was nothing but a rushjob with no attention to any details. The release issues alone made it sound like crap, but at the same token I doubt Mustin would have thought it was ready for any type of submission and was just a quick sketch/WIP rather than a serious finished product. There's no way in hell you should have subbed it in that shape. This version blew the previous away. But on the arrangement front, while I appreciate the changes/expansion for the supporting work, the lack of interpretation of the melodic content was something I couldn't shake. I had some concerns about the arrangement initially but didn't press on them like I should have in my previous vote. To be honest, the fact that the first version was poor discouraged me from scrutinizing it vs. the originals further, plus I also took it for granted that the arrangement wouldn't be an issue, which is why I mentioned the issue but didn't press it further with Gray. Sorry, but this needs more interpretation going on. NO (resubmit)

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Forest Interlude" (dkq-10.spc) Things start out OK. Very sparse, but it can work depend on how the intro builds & evolves. Some drum work comes in at :44, but it sounds really distant and not in the same room as the lead. The melody arrives at 1:07 with a thin lead. The percussion patterns are decent, but are too repetitive. Part of that problem also is that your bassline is way too quiet as well during some parts and thereby doesn't fill out the track as much as it could. For sections like :34-1:04 and most of the way through, it's used properly and serves its role, though for sections like 1:49-2:21 or 3:34-4:15, it really should be louder and carrying more of the track to compensate for the lack of other major activity. You need to know when the presence of the bassline should be punched up (or scaled back appropriately, depending on what section you're using it for. You look at something like Tsugunai "Static Wonderland" and compare the bassline in parts of it. 1:26-2:16, it's used at moderate levels. 2:16-3:06, it takes a backseat and quietly fills out the track. 3:06-4:01, it's at its loudest and carries a large portion of that section. In this track, the bass is at the same level practically all the time, and deserves to be punched up for some of the quieter sections. Some organic drumwork comes in at 1:50 and sounds alright, but the rest of the track still sounds very spartan and the percussion patterns are still repeating. The melodic lead remains very weak-sounding. I understand the feel for the lead is supposed to be gentile, but it's not working. The phrasing for the solo at 2:53-3:13 is random and awful. Nice try, but you need to write something coherent and possessing direction. No credit for it. Decent stuff at 3:13 tackling another section of the source tune. Pretty conservative per the general approach so far, but it feels different. Percussion is STILL the same until 3:33. Notable change-ups there are critical for this piece to evolve. The chorus is handled by a xylo (Xylo? Ah, shaddap, Gray.) at 3:34, and then doubled with a flute at 3:55. It's ok, and the hand drums are cool again, but the atmosphere remains bare. The phrasing from 4:16-4:26 is also awkward and directionless. No. You get an E for effort, but that's just poorly written. You're better off riffing on the original and using your own personal touches to give it flair. I also don't like hearing that stuff not work, because, no matter how you spin it, it implies that you can't write any passages without using someone else's previously written material as a crutch. Nice last section at 5:08. The way all of the instrumentation dropped out for the quieter finish would have been more dramatic and effective if the track had been busier in the first place. The way the track sounds now, there's actually not much contrast here in the transition towards the last section. Cute "Dire, Dire Docks" reference as well for the close. Overall though, the track goes for a somewhat downbeat, almost jazzy approach, but all of the lead material needs more activity & meat on the bones to fill things out. And yes, this is from listening to the Savefile/Filefront version, not the VGMix one, so no worries about that. The percussion needs a lot more variation. The purely original solo sections need to be either fixed or scrapped. And the arrangement needs to be a bit more interpretive. Right now it sounds too simple. There's some interesting genre adaptation stuff going on, but the melodic content is still too straightforward. Decent but not ready until it gets some refinement. NO

Thanks for providing the source here, as well as giving that background for Descent's soundtrack. Good stuff, Ashley. Reminds me a lot of Protricity's electronic textures due to the sounds you used, which are slick as hell. The texture might annoy some people, but I enjoyed it. Great arrangement compared to the original in that it's not hugely interpretive on the surface, but subtely evolving much like Shna pointed out. On that point, sections like the one starting at 2:39 really showcased that understated evolution. Up until 1:40, I was somewhat worried that you just had generally original passages on top of some motifs from the original, but that wasn't the case here at all. If chill bias is wrong, I don't wanna be right. But in all seriousness, this definitely had the goods and genuinely had a great deal of expansiveness and creativity. The was appreciated much more after comparing it with the source material. YES

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Tel_Jeroen/Lemmings.sid - Subtune 3 This was pretty nice. No issues on the arrangement, as it was conservative but clearly expanded and possessed purely rearranged sections as well. The lead was definitely buried at all times here, whether it was the acoustic guitar, the flute, or the piano (which sounded too mechanical). You've gotta make those more prominent against your supporting instrumentation. The "Let's Go" and Lemming death clips were kind of out of place with the feel of the track, but were used tastefully, so I didn't have a big problem with those. Creating some changes/variation in the 1:44-2:13 section so it doesn't repeat the :30-:59 section verbatim would help. Indeed, develop the ideas further so they sound as creative as the material from 1:00-1:43 & after 2:13. Also, the high-end frequencies are noticeably absent here. I'd work on this a bit further and resubmit it. And no matter what you do, submit this to R:K:O. Good work so far, Fredrik & Daniel. NO (resubmit)

Damn, this classic mix is completely groove-biasing me. If you like chill material with some great beats, energy and atmosphere, this is it! Nice work, Mike. Hate it when the more obscure games get neglected.

Yeah, but radio hosts always F up pronounciations. Don't give us anything that isn't phoenetic, plz!

Very, very lush. Really surprised I didn't remember this one at all considering that I've listened to everything. The drums were a little repetitive and didn't really fit with the atmosphere as much as I liked, but other than that, I enjoyed it. Nice stuff, Jay. Some engaging work.

Just listening to various material, and I'm glad I got to hear this one again. Really love the tone on this one, and have for a while. The opening riffs really bring you into it. Classic stuff, Sean.

Was looking around WIP a minute ago and saw a thread for this one. No wonder the forum link you posted didn't work. You messed up the URL. http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=62759 The next time you sample or arrange from someone else's work, explicitly state as much in your submission letter, as you did in the Works forum. Luckily this was further arranged enough to not be a violation in my opinion, but not giving that information in the submission letter to djpretzel comes across as shady. The MIDI issue wasn't a problem in the case though. The fact that you mentioned it in the WIP thread means you weren't trying to hide it, but just be aware that if we're not aware of it, and someone ELSE points it out (we can't check every WIP thread involving a submission), it has the possibility of making you look as if you're not being completely upfront on purpose.

Yup, but expect one of yours up soon too. OMJesus, stop patting each other on the back!!!~

Give him an inch and he takes 0.621371192 miles. (1 kilometer) Cuz I'm long, and I'm strong, and I'm down to get the friction on. I badgered you to plug Ormgas? Hahaha, and no reason to use all 3 calls! What is you smoking? You Canadians ain't too brite!

Shna's definitely right about using your various instruments a lot more judiciously. Same type of problems you had with MM2 "A Warmer Farewell" and Pokémon "Rest". Seemed like you had a Radical Dreamers reference with that piano intro. Decent stuff with the strings playing the source melody at :15 and then segueing into some original bits at :31. As soon as more instrumentation joined in at :40, the volume wasn't as much of an issue this time (it's still too loud), but everything sounded messy and distorted regardless. Jayde was right when he commented on that as an issue at VGMix. There's no clarity or separation anywhere as various sounds just bleed into each other. Things picked up a bit at 2:03 with another use of the Dream Shore melody, followed by some good rearrangement ideas with the piano & guitar. The string movement though needed to be smoother and more-realistic sounding. The subtle tempo changes are a good idea (e.g 4:05), but going back to what Shna said, if you don't vary up the instrumentation and atmosphere of the track the impact of tempo change is diminished. Good piano-focused ending at 4:50. You need to learn how to create better dynamics in general, as you're too reliant on unceasing interplay with your instrumentation. When you learn to scale that back, your pieces will gain more observable structure and flow. It'll also make your phrasing/arrangement sound less haphazard, though that wasn't as much of a problem as it was for other stuff. Right now everything sounds too samey over the 5 1/2 minutes. NeoS also pointed out your percussion as being too busy at VGMix, tying back again into these issues Shna & zircon elaborated on. Part of the problem here as well is that especially when the track sounds busy, the "performance" (as it were) isn't tight. Everything sounds slow and slightly off. The finer details, bro. And no, I'm not getting sick of you. I DO wish you'd take more of our criticisms to heart considering all the feedback you've gotten from older submissions though. I'm looking at older submissions like Zelda 3 "Ordeal" & Grandia "I Watch Her" from March and April, and while you've definitely improved, the same core issues of busyness, clutter, lack of structure, lack of focus continue to be there. You should be camping out in ReMixing, not in Works. I've got nothing against encouragement, but frankly I've just seen too many superlative type comments on your material from people who simply aren't critical enough or demanding enough. I'm not saying that having a VGMix Tier 1 or those people's comments are inflating your head, but I am saying that I don't think those people are being critical enough or observant enough in order to steer you towards substantial improvement. You need to get more diverse opinions from tougher critics before the material reaches us. NO

Alright, so I PMed Chris my comments and asked him to fill me in on any other arranged sections I might have missed: Well, just to make one thing clear, because I don't really like the inference; I'm not looking for or preferential towards "straightforward" arrangement of the material. I'm always preferential towards creative but recognizable arrangement of the source material involved, not conservative arrangement. As far as the aforementioned piano on support starting at 1:20, I also thought that was too liberal (and too quiet). I wouldn't necessarily throw in the towel like Chris seems to be doing already here, but unfortunately I'm a NO (resubmit) on this. Considering that I wasn't really challenged on how my vote broke down the source arrangement involved, I'm fairly sure there were no other issues to examine for me. While I respect the effort here, because this is still excellently put together, the mix should be less liberal than this, otherwise it gets by too much on liberal motifs where you can't gleam any connection to the source material. The arranged sections I recognized were beautiful, and of course original or excessively liberal material within the track obviously isn't off-limits, but the balance between those two concepts is skewed towards original and unrecognizably liberal material.