Liontamer Judges ⚖️
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Posts posted by Liontamer
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So, can I get this Without the samples?
Nah.
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After looking at the judges' decisions I understand the close vote.
Well, just to clarify, after Joel read the in-progress judges decision vote that I sent him (at the time 4Y/5N), he really did a phenomenal job revising this mix thanks to some perspective from other judges as well as listening to the mix again with a fresh set of ears. If the posted form of this mix had hit the panel with the production & arrangement revisions it now has, it would have easily went 4Y, though I'd honestly say that it would have been direct posted actually.
And for those glad to see some older faces back on the OC front page, we've got another one coming back relatively soon that will make you very happy definitely.
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I dream of Judge Judy without her robe.
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um... this is over 6 megs. Did the limit increase or something?
Nope. Size: 6,219,776 bytes
Submission Instructions & Standards]ReMixes should be no larger than 6MB (6,291,456 bytes).And just to stay relevant, this mix be double dope dope.
EDIT: Bah, Gray ya smelly bum, stealing my damn thunder!
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Bah, fuggin' touching my poll! Dammit, I'm gonna kill u Gray and/or Navid!
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/smk.rsn - "Rainbow Road" (smk-12.spc)
:'-(
I've gotta say, I was really disappointed in this resub, cuz I thought it was gonna improve upon the first version and give it that nudge it needed.
The production was a lot duller this time around. The track lacked clarity and the panning/stereo placement was actually more varied the last time around.
And while I realize that other judges thought the CRAZY beats were too over-the-top, scaling them back so much took away all the power in the track. It also left the other samples sounding very thin and exposed. Small example, there's no release on one the synths at 1:50 and again at 3:01. It was covered up decently last time around, but it easily stuck out this time.
Neutering the drums/beats also made the track too empty despite the other activity going on. When you had people criticizing how the sounds were MIDI-grade, I think the last thing you wanna do is make a move where the samples are too exposed. The way the beats layered over the rest of the instrumentation filled out the soundfield and masked many of the weaker sounds. I thought the first version was the hotness but this is nothing but a step back. Sorry bro. Not trying to hold you back, but I can't say YES to this.
NO (resubmit)
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Okay, here's an on-topic thing:
Once again, in the judges panel commentary and so forth in the editorial/introduction, I'm struck by the disconnect between what this site purports to be about - "remixes" - and what it actually is. What we have here is the literal definition of a remix... and yet it was accepted only grudgingly, because OC "Remix" is more and more about creating new works that only sample or are inspired by the existing music.
That's great if you're an artist, I suppose - it gives you lots more room for personal creativity - but (and this will probably make me unpopular) I'm strictly a consumer and a fan of game music. I come here to find interpretations of music I already like. If a song is completely transformed, I have to wonder what's the point of connecting the new work with the original, except to note inspiration?
Perhaps a rename of the site is in order, to better reflect its actual content.
EDIT: I'm not saying people should stop making new stuff. I'd just like there to be a bit more acceptance of songs that "merely" rearrange what's already there in fun and interesting ways.
Plain covers/remixes are a dime a dozen. Read the FAQ. Read the submission standards. THAT's what the site is about.
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Is it original VGM, or could it possibly be derived from music from the anime? Hate to say it but...who's the panel's resident Pokémon expert? :vomit:
In any case, I reviewed this for VGF in early June:
Liontamer]Roetaka - Pokémon Gold & Silver "Rest" [VGMix2 #4264]Alex keeps it coming this week with some almost tropical-sounding chillout from a game I shall not name, for it makes me retch and gag. Charmander-char. I any case, at a lengthier 5:05, the track manages to wander aimlessly around a bit before returning to that sweet sequenced guitar melody. The support on strings, string pads, and piano was pretty solid, thought the drumkit felt rather out of place here. This was really one I appreciated for the compositional ideas rather than the production, which was downright muddy and washed out. That, and the needlessly loud volume, made it hard to really get a grasp on things, and probably went over the top with reverb in order to present a fairly ethereal atmosphere. With the mixing and mastering being reassessed, along with some other areas, this could be a winner. In its present stage, it's absolutely worth getting to keep tabs on Roe and is efforts to get onto OCR. You may still find yourself chillin' to this one.
Gonna have to run without the source on this one, but I pretty much said what I wanted to say in my Pimp Section comments. Composition was a bit meandering and repetitive, but functioned reasonably well for chillout. The production hurt this a lot, as there's no clarity or good separation of sounds. Sounded very dull and while I like reverb, there was too much of it in play. Drumkit felt out of place and was too loud, and when exposed the piano sounded very fake. The track was too loud for no justifiable reason. Keep working on it and provide the source if possible.
NO (resubmit)
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Considering that I'm about 6 weeks back on summer Pimp Sections, I've need to get back on the horse for a while now. I remember a year ago when it took a full day to write these damn things. I guess judging's paid off this time around, since I only spent a few hours going through everything below. Let's cover the material from the week of May 22nd to May 28th.
ABG - Chrono Trigger "Children of Time" [VGMix2 #4238]
Shawn Overn brings it this week with a nearly 10-minute long trance affair that screams authenticity to the genre. To me, the sound was too swamped when everything came into play, but when I say the sound is authentic to the genre, that isn't a polite way of saying it's generic. The homage to Robert Miles' "Children" was apparent here in this nice take on the often-mixed Zeal theme "Corridors of Time" that your inner Zeality will love. I wouldn't mind hearing Shawn tackle some more material that's outside of the FF/CT arena, but he nonetheless puts out some solid stuff. While I love the superlative progressive trance pieces I've encountered in the community, Shawn can really take it to you in more of a "mainstream" style. It grooves, it morphs, it develops. Perfect for the club, so check it out.
AkumajoBelmont - Jazz Jackrabbit 1 "Have You Ever? (Down in Medivo)" [VGMix2 #4189]
The voice intro here is so awesome, you can help but keep listening in. This is some cool spacey electronic material, so don't let the source game fool you. I thought the drums were the weak link here, very plain jane and not thick at all, but they're at least serviceable. This one's relatively short at 2:48, but the development is substantial enough where you feel that a lot has taken place in this Medivo World remix. The vocal section introing the mix repeated at the end which was a little bit of a letdown (despite the obvious usage of it to give the mix a cyclical close), but this was some solid material nevertheless. I'd love to see this tweaked some more before it hit the judges panel, but Robbie's nonetheless very dependable with this nice non-jazzy spin on the only video game jackrabbit I've ever heard of.
E-Bison - Chrono Trigger "Time Management" [VGMix2 #4191]
I normally don't spotlight re-releases of older material, but Eliot's not very active in the scene, so any release from him is something to look forward to. As one of the few remixers on OCR to have what's considered a legendary mix for their only remix on the site, this complete version of the classic "Time Management" now-available at VGMix is required downloading. Eliot complained that the full version of this mix couldn't be submitted due to the "stupid" no-MP3s-greater-than-6MB rule. Even some of us on the judges panel don't agree with the rule, but if anything it helps establish VGMix as the place to be in order to discover legendary but lengthy tracks that couldn't see the light of day on OCR due to their size. If you've heard the OCR version of Time Management, the extended version is literally all that and more. You won't find yourself disappointed by any of the new material found here.
Fatty Acid & Sephfire - Final Fantasy 10-2 "Under a New Moon" [VGMix2 #3324 (removed) / OC ReMix #1357]
I remembering hearing this one on VGMix and I'll reveal that I done a bad thing by reporting it to the admins as a remix of an already posted mix. Before y'all kill me, it was bound to happen anyway, but one thing I knew as I grabbed the mix was that it would be an undiscovered gem by the time it hit OCR due to my dutiful/evil machinations. [i grin like a cat here.] There really isn't another mix here in the Pimp Section this week that allows you to chillax, so if you're really looking for something light and downtempo, Joe & Dan's collab is where u be at and stuff, receiving the plug from zyko as being great music to slow down the speed of life with. Quite the unique piece as far as OCR's body of material is concerned, it's almost like SimCity music only a bit more active.
housethegrate - Final Fantasy 6 "Seized with Fury" [VGMix2 #3932 / OC ReMix #1356]
Alexander Liss has been on my radar for quite some time due to his consistently strong DoD work, so I was glad he bit the bullet and submitted the superlative "Seized with Fury". I pretty much said my piece on this one in my judging decision, but with house and his brother Ashane both subbing quality material to the site, it'll hopefully mean that more will be coming in the future. We're not so bad here, are we? In any case, "The Decisive Battle" & "The Fierce Battle" are given the rawk/rok pimpage from house, further establishing the Decisive Battle as one of the new generation of heavily mixed tracks. Alex doesn't do you dirty, including a lil' baby piece of CastleVania's "Vampire Killer" for those of you perceptive enough to catch it. Do the right thing with "Seized with Fury" and take it 2 da house! (God, that was lame.)
Infamous - Xenophobe "There Are Aliens in My Closet and They Won't Leave" [VGMix2 #4121]
Chris hooks it up on the Commodore 64 side with some tight electronica from yet another C64 game with cool music that I've never heard of. Infamous's production has never been poor, but I felt there was some measure of improvement here that made this mix enjoyable. The beats, buzzing synths, and sustained strings were mixed pretty damn well, and I especially loved the bassline. 3 solid minutes of well-developed electronic flavor that'll keep ya moving. Don't let the obscurity of the game for most of you make you pass this up, as Infy's quite the capable mixer representing the European side of the community.
jdproject - "The Way I Feel" [http://www.joedarwish.net]
Joe Darwish, another OC ReMixer with one legendary mix to his name, is someone you'd know about on the original side if you've been frequenting his website. Joe's primary expertise is in making mainstream guitar-driven pop, so if you're interested in hearing him slow things down as compared to "The Ken Song", this is where you need to be. Joe could easily pass for a mainstream pop act, which is exactly what he'd like to be in a perfect world. The mixing is pretty good, especially since Joe's been handling it himself. If this guy had money thrown behind him, he'd be pretty damn dangerous, and I can tell you that's not an exaggeration (hey, I can't listen to non-mainstream music ALL the time). Best of luck to jdproject as he continues work on his second EP. I'd love to see him make it in the big-time and sell out for the $$$. We don't deserve to hide him.
Kevin Stephens - Xenogears "Knight of Fire" [splendid Performance: Audition 1 / VGMix2 #3023]
Kevin continues to impress on the arrangement side with this Xeno mix featuring the piano doing its thing. The transitions at 1:08 was way too sudden, so you don't really get much breathing room or notice before ideas change, but there weren't any other sweeping changes going on here, so you may be thrown for a loop at 1:08 while listening to this, but you'll just as soon regain your footing as you continue onward. The human touch on Kevin's pieces is one that others have criticized in the past, so those among you who don't like the velocities here may have qualms, but I was all about it, 'bout it here. I won't lie, as I don't quite get where the imagery of a Knight of Fire comes into play here, but that's a relatively insignificant part of the picture. I always look forward to Kevin's work. Have you downloaded this yet...?
mellogear - SimCity 3000 "Sim Shitty (in-stereo)" [VGMix2 #4200]
Haven't heard a damn thing in a while from Jon Delvaux, so you take the mello style and mix it with a underappreciated favorite like SimCity and you get some dope results. Hell, for a groove-biased gentleman such as myself, I don't really mind that this is mostly beat kwak. No matter what, you'll be nodding your head, even during some of the freestyle work thrown in from 2:08 to 2:50. And just to point out, the "(in-stereo)" portion of the title is far from a simple redundancy. Can you handle the drastic panning effects thrown your way fron 3:33 until the end? There's only one way to find out, isn't there?
mv - "Star Wars KWAK" [http://mv.vgmix.com]
Xavier drops a mere 2 hours of work making some brief but nice mixage of some John Williams Star Wars material. If Star Wars gets ya off, you'll only need 1 minute and 11 seconds when mv's done with ya. Cave in and get this ear candy. I'd tell ya what particular track this movie mix tackled by name, but hey, I don't speak dork.
Ork Estral - "Rotating Room of Invisible Cats and Toking Centipedes" [http://nigel.has.it]
When I think of avant garde style orchestral artists (and I'm PROBABLY grossly misusing the term avant garde, but WORK WITH ME), Shnabubula tends to come to mind, but as far as I'm concerned Ork Estral, otherwise known around these parts as Nigel Simmons was the innovator. I've always been insanely biased towards Nigel's original work as opposed to his remixes, because Ork really cuts loose on some of his original stuff, and Rotating Room was no exception. If you love off-kilter orchestration that would fit right at home in a professional movie score, download this one immediately. This original composition never stays in the same place for more than a fraction of a second.
Patrick Wagstaff - Donkey Kong Land 1 "Funky City" [VGMix2 #4193]
The groove is too plain, so it's not gonna kick your ass, but Pat gets a little light-hearted with Gameboy mix of muzak from the character I had the privilege of impersonating for Kong in Concert. The arrangement took an unsettling turn via a key change around the 2 minute mark, but things soon got back into the swing of things. Nothing great here, but still worth checking out, as Patrick's a name to watch on the development side, as he's not afraid to try any and all ideas with his mixes. He really needs to step it up with synth design and production here, but hey, it's better than I can do, eh?
Rexy & KyleJCrb - Dragon Warrior 4 "Requiem of a Warrior" (Version 2.0) [VGMix2 #4195]
Talking to Kyle on VG Frequency #60, the scene's most knowledgable rock enthusiast could only crap on his own guitar performance the first time around when this mix was entered in the Dwelling of Duels Dragon Warrior competition. While serviceable the last time around, here, Kyle's performance better accentuated the material compositionally, though for some reason the recording on it sounded a lot more lo-fi and distant this time, so it doesn't really sit well amidst the synth orchestration. Meanwhile, the synth strings could use some further work on the note-to-note movement to evoke more realism. Aside from those particular issues, you get to hear some interesting stuff as the track really does come across as one of those rock/orchestral hybrid pieces, not in the sense of most of the scene material you've heard, but more analogous to classical music being used to accentuate a rock piece. You also get to hear Bev with some brief vocal work near the end, so there's a lot to check out in one sitting. Needs some real refinement with the synth strings in particular, but this was some ambitious stuff from Bev alongside Kyle, who I also hope to hear more from in terms on actually contributing to future arrangements.
tefnek - Contra 1 "Snow Field" [OC ReMix #1355]
Jack Kirkpatrick surprised me with this one in my inbox, which allowed me to play it for VG Frequency #50, and the world was beautiful at that moment in time, for who among you can lay down the big beats like this man? Transposing the original Contra material to big beat did kind of take the "tenseness" out of the source material, as you're not gonna listen to this and feel like part of a crack commando squad set out to destroy alien forces with hot ass weapons and a spray power-up. But in fact, you're still on the squad. No, you're not gonna run and jump around everywhere. But you're still gonna dodge every laser and bullet fired at you. Cuz with these beats, you're gonna do it, and you're gonna do it while struttin'.
zircon - "Hourglass" [impulse Prime]
PICK OF THE WEEK: zircon - "Studies in Ether" [impulse Prime]
Fellow OC Judge Andy Aversa dropped two more releases from Impulse Prime my way with the awesome beat-driven "Hourglass" as well as the more ambient "Studies in Ether". If you're any fan of felloe big beat ReMixer tefnek, "Hourglass" will keep your music collection some excellent company featuring some impressive synth design, some meaty production, and enchanting female vox sampling courtesy of the industry staple vocal library Symphony of Voices. Meanwhile, continue your muzak education this week with the very enveloping "Studies in Ether" featuring some more quality beatwork, modulating synths and beautiful ambient pads, all coming together to provide my personal favorite track on the album. Studies is a track you can really put on in the background that relaxes you yet remains active enough to keep your mind engaged. Hell, I'd love to drive down a long, deserted stretch highway at night with this song providing the soundtrack. Impulse Prime continues to impress me, so head over to Zircon Studios to get more information on the upcoming album.
zykO - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Mysticism 2000" [zykO zone / VGMix2 #4227]
weed absolutely warps the Mystic Cave Zone with this heavily distorted Sonic 2 mix. It even features some Oil Ocean references. Part of what I like about zyko's shit is that he's not afraid to absolutely cut loose and not give two shits about mixing or production when his primary concern is putting out the music as a sheer form of expression. If you're looking for refinement, weed might say "go fuck yourself", as a full minute of this was nothing but the crunchiest of crunchy guitar work. But stick around for things; 5 years in the making, this isn't meant to please ya aurally, but it's much like the car accident where you can't look away. Gotta love that plucky finish too.
And with that, I bid you adieu for now. ‘Till next time (whenever that is).
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http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/vvnurmi/midis/Doom - "At Doom's Gate (E1M1)", "Kitchen Ace (And Taking Names) [E1M4]" & "Sinister (E2M6)"
Wish people would say what the hell they're specifically mixing. Cool subtle intro and the screaming leading up to the guitar work coming in at :52 was an excellent idea, especially keeping the name of the remix in mind. I liked the expanded cover of "At Doom's Gate" coming in at 1:12, including the subtle voice effects in there to start it off. Things quickly moved into an original section starting at 1:38, including some nice progressive style soloing at 1:49 played on top of "Kitchen Ace" that reminded me of Christian Pacaud's style, though I suppose faster.
Nice transition at 2:21 into the riffing, subsequently leading into some more subtle work arranging "Sinister" VERY briefly from 2:20-2:30, and then going into what I can only guess was an original section from 2:30-3:11, since none of the Doom MIDIs I listened to sounded anything like it. Sounded vaguely like "Suspense (E1M5)", but maybe analoq can break it down for us. More arrangement of "At Doom's Gate" followed from 3:21-3:56 before going to the finish.
The transitions all seemed fine to me; perhaps too sudden for some, but they worked well in a progressive sense. The performance on guitar was solid, and the other sequenced instrumentation fit pretty well. The track did sound dull, so a better encoding could give it some sharpness, but I wouldn't have a huge problem with it going up as is, MINUS the 17 seconds of silence left at the end of the track as well. Unacceptable to actually post the track like that until that's fixed at least. In any case, the mastering needs a bit more work, but overall, the mixing was still done reasonably well.
YES
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Everything is too loud. There's no balance man. Everything is fighting for it's right to party, but its one of those crappy parties with fat frat guys and no hot chicks, just the ugly ones that date the fat frat guys.
Hahahaha! Channel your inner Wingless, my son.
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http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 311 "Dragon God", 308 "Dragon's Prayer", 216 "People Seized With Life" & 305 "Orphan of Flame"
Pimped this one in late May for VGF:
Liontamer]Blue Magic - Chrono Cross "A Warrior's Path" [VGMix2 #4067]Technically not a very unique name for a remix, but well-done nonetheless. The strings were a bit plain and inhuman sounding, but the atmosphere was pretty good. Damon's come a long way since his earlier days in the community. Noting the revisions he's done to his mixes between posting them to VGMix and subbing them to OCR, I'm confident that this one has what it takes to be Blue Magic's third mix. Needs a bit of refinement, but certainly worth checking out in its current form.
Oh, homey, you didn't hit me with the revisions & refinement. :'-( It's what allowed your Dark Cloud mix, that otherwise would have been rejected in its VGMix form, to pass the panel fairly easily. First things first: if you mix more than 2 source tunes, it REALLY helps me and others better evaluate the level of arrangement if you give us a time breakdown of when & how you used the various themes. Especially for someone who's never played Chrono Cross or been a big fan of its music, I have no damn clue what you did here, and what relates to what. Not to shit on you here, but offhand this doesn't even sound much like any of these source tunes, and I'm not exactly inclined to figure it out on my own. Sorry, bro. Help a brother OUT.
In any case, Vigilane the rock ninja was spot on with some of the problems here in this mix. Everything sounded the same dynamically and therefore created the impression that there was no real development. There were some changeup in the patterns, but most of the instrumentation combinations all sounded the same the whole time, so the feel of the track never changed. The African drumloop and sustained strings were particular culprits at sounding repetitive.
A lot of your instruments mushed together during the busier sections (e.g. 1:27-1:49), so you need to adjust the balance amongst them and position only a few elements prominently. The use of your string samples was particularly bad. In something like "Moon Dust" where you barely used them, their obvious syntheticness and the disparity in their quality compared to your other sounds didn't hurt that mix much. But here, they definitely killed it. You sometimes had these really unrealistic and drawn out sustained notes (e.g. 1:17-1:26 & 1:38-1:49) where there was seemingly no bow movement. And the jerky note-to-note movements with the strings from 2:32-2:58 really hurt the last section and exposed your samples.
In general, you need a lot of work in terms of synth orchestration and making things sound realistic on that level. The woodwinds sounded serviceable, but the strings and brass didn't have believable performance dynamics. Definitely scope out the ReMixing forum, because these sample aren't being used at their best as all.
This was definitely a step back in quality from your two posted mixes, Damon, but I wouldn't be discouraged, because like you said this was new ground for you and you're trying something different. Certainly ain't nothing wrong with that as long as you're dedicated to learning more and improving. I'm interested in particular at what Gray would have to say on this one.
NO
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http://www.zophar.net/nsf/dq2.zip - Tracks 5 & 11
I didn't read Gray or Eric's opinions yet, but I'll simply say that the arrangement was good, but I was underwhelmed with the mix on a personal level, as it just wasn't my cup o' tea. I'm sure I'll appreciate it a bit more after several listens though, as it does pull off the delicate approach well. Also, the production here was solid. On the minus side, I still feel Bev's style here was rather plucky and in this case overly gentile, but I think giving the mix more reverb or the performance more sustain to fill the space out more would help give this mix a more body and presence.
Nonetheless, this mix wasn't plagued with some of the rougher mistakes I've heard in Bev's past work. The performance was too plucky for my tastes, like I mentioned, but nevertheless came across as more confident and dexterous than her past work. Beyond the performance itself, I didn't hear any really sloppy stuff going on, like notes occasionally having no release, which is an annoying problem for any electronically-made piano mix.
Looking at Gray's comments, I definitely agreed with him that the atmosphere was too dry, and Noir articulated very well how there was a distinct lack of dynamics in the piece as compared to what the composition suggests. SPICE IT UP WITH PIZAZZ N'SHIT! You had some performance dynamics noticeably going on, don't get me wrong, but they could have been a lot more pronounced and emotive. And nothing's changed in that your supporting work under the melody was usually thin.
I liked the reference to "Unknown World" at from 2:36-2:50 by the way. Very nice way to slip it into the picture and have it fit seamlessly with the main source tune arrangement. Best of luck on the rest of the vote, and props on what likely will be the first posted DW2 mix on the site. The peepz shall lovez. Keep up the improvement, Bev.
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BTW, 2:23-onward's not from "DK Island Swing", but just from later on in the source tune (:51-1:33 of Mine Cart, actually).
Thanks Larry, I stand corrected.
Oh, no problem yo. I once made the same mistake on a Space Harrier source tune. NSF Track 5 there was just in there later on in Track 2. Hell, I'd never played that game. Now, courtesy of Microsoft's smash hit game Zoon Tycoon 2, here's a picture of a gazelle:
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - "Mine Cart Madness" (dkc-11.spc)
Damn computer had a memory dump RIGHT after I finished my vote and was about to post it. Bah, let's write it again, cuz Ty is sexy (i.e. I remembered all of the points I made). I really liked the intro here; it was stylish as hell with some nice buzzy synths and ambient sounds. The source wasn't really brought in until the guitars at :42 played some chords derived from the intro of "Mine Cart Madness." A synth playing the Mine Cart melody joined in at 1:01, though it didn't cut through well as the lead since the guitars took up most of the space here. The repetitiveness of the drums wasn't a huge hit initially, but those drum shots definitely sounded too synthetic and lacked punch.
I really loved the spooky ambient transition from 1:32-1:42. Such a sweet idea moving into the guitar work at 1:42 to build things up, I loved it. The intro chords from :42 of the mix basically returned at 2:03 but they weren't as distorted this time around and allowed the melody to show through a lot better at 2:23. Nonetheless, the lead and supporting elements still mudded together and would need to good EQ work to better separate the sounds. BTW, 2:23-onward's not from "DK Island Swing", but just from later on in the source tune (:51-1:33 of Mine Cart, actually). Reading Harmony's vote after I wrote all of my own, I definitely agreed that the lack of dynamics in the rhythm guitars made them feel synthetic, which was a shame.
The lead guitar work after 2:23 could have been a little tighter on the performance, especially the freestylish arrangement after 3:04, but that's nothing that couldn't have been worked on. The tone on the guitar work was rather thin, and it seemed as if the tracked relied on the supporting guitars and drums to fill up the space and give the track some power, though I felt myself that that shortchanged the track.
The rhythm chords and drum pattern repeated ad naseum from 2:23 until the end at 4:20 (with only a slight alteration in the support guitars at 3:57), so that would have needed to be varied a LOT more. Sounded like the drum pattern was just a placeholder anyway, but hopefully the intent was to change that later into something that didn't have the same pattern and the same intensity drumshot every time. There was also a synth on support from 2:23-onward, but you could BARELY hear it at all, so it was almost a non-factor. The ending itself was abrupt and offered no resolution either, but that just sounded like another placeholder decision.
Not sure of how much use it'll be to overview the problems, but in any case vary up the patterns in your instrumentation substantially, hook things up on the production/EQ side so the sounds are better separated, and tighten up the performance a little bit (though that was certainly decent). Meh, I know you know what to do.
It's definitely a shame that the source files were lost here, as I'm sure that Ty could have easily gotten this to a passing level, and likely wouldn't have submitted this as is if the source files hadn't messed up. The world definitely needs more 4:20-long remixes. At least post this to VGMix if you want, and pimp this out on some level. This would have been an easy NO-resubmit if resubmission were actually a possibility. :'-( Maybe revisit this idea down the line?
NO
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Overworld" (loz3-04.spc)
Mix opened up with some stock boom-tss, which actually wasn't bad. Pretty decent boom-tss, though the sounds and texture were incredibly generic and lacked fullness and power. The source melody finally came in at :55 with some trance adaptation. The melody was finally played around with a bit at 1:23, but those admirable arrangement ideas only lasted until 1:37, then it was back to the verbatim melody with the dance kick and claps.
2:04 featured some different arrangement, and the boom-tss grove was definitely dragiing out its welcome at this point. You really gotta switch up the beatwork earlier and often, as the foundations of your track were detrimentally repetitive, and indeed we finally got something new at 2:59.
The tempo and general atmosphere changed up as compared to the first half, though the distortion at some points was a bit much. The faster tempo returned at 3:48 and the arrangement just retread itself from 3:55-4:34, which wasn't bueno. Not a bad, miminalist idea for the ending, BTW. The arrangement as a whole needs more creativity and overt interpretation of the Zelda source material.
The arrangement needs to possess more melodic interpretation than what's present here. There were some merely average ideas on that level, and there was too much of the track just using the Overworld theme verbatim while placing the beatwork and other trance sounds underneath.
I agreed fully with Gray there that the synth design and processing needs to be more creative, as most of the stuff sounded pretty defaulty, though the texture wasn't abominable. And indeed, trim the song down as Shna suggested, because right now it just drags along. Hang out in the ReMixing forum and learn a lot more, as you have a modicum of potential, and use the WIP forum for feedback before future submissions.
NO
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Pulsewidth Modulation is I don't like here!
Triplet Eb,F,Eb first at 0:50 is out of sync and sloppy with. 1:20 Pwithmod + pitchbend = OUCH when all by itself. Repitition too much and not genre excuse. Things call too much attention for claim to be dance club genre. Repitition in that setting for hypnotic effect hence "trance" moniker but here repitition is for annoyance. 2:14 sixteenth notes chords high point in song especially Eb major triad but before long triplets from 0:50 return for crowded too much.
More things like 2:14 to help hide overwhelmingly abrasive sounding pwidthmod. If choose to stay with repetitive then more to keep things flowing needs. Right now not quite!
NO
Motherfucker English, speak it do yous?
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Gotta fly without the source tune for this one. Too bad too; based on the Maple Story website, it looks like a really professional-grade freeware game. Maybe someone can play that shit and dig up the source tune. If you're gonna submit from a game like this where the source material is hard to find, try and record it and send it along with your submission, Tyler. Hell, give your submission a more creative name too.
Oooh, I'm being groove biased so good with the intro. Loving that low synth filling out the low end. But the melody starting up at :47 had such a generic electrosynth on the lead that it failed to effectively distinguish itself from the other sounds there. Bah, it's gonna be a generic synth showcase.
The chorus (if you will) starting at 1:18 left that saw wave really exposed, and it just didn't function well here. Perhaps swap that one thing out for something else and give this mix a more unique texture. Also, that chorus from 1:18-1:32 dragged like nobody's business, repeating ad nauseum until 2:52. Don't drag that one part out like that, or at least apply some variations to it instead, cuz it's part of the foundation of the track and it made the rest of the track seem too repetitive to me despite a lot of additional elements being added on top of the groove moving toward the end.
Not bad I suppose, but the composition doesn't eclipse the overly generic texture of your sounds. On the plus side, I thought the production here was pretty sweet. Everything on that level sounded pretty good. Perhaps see what you can do on the synth design level by hitting the ReMixing forum. Whatever you can do beyond, say, the 1:49 mark to vary up the arrangement would help keep the track from dragging. Interesting stuff.
NO (resubmit)
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All of these conditions result in making me a sad judge.
That makes me a saaaad panda
Ha! I knew someone would get it.
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Pretty good ambient/new-age stuff here, indeed making a lot out of a little source tune. I wouldn't even bother relating this mix to "Dreaming on Distant Shores", because, as Gray pointed out, with Rellik's mix the source tune usage was far from overt. As soon as the track opened up, the source was recognizable and the atmosphere was relaxing.
I thought the lil' percussion hits up until 1:23 were too tepid, so I liked when Lee beefed things up with thicker perc work after 1:24. After around 2:00, the ambiance created by the strings felt a little too muddy to me, and the melody could have shown through better, but otherwise things were good.
Wouldn't have minded some more attention to the higher frequencies to make things sound sharper, but that's not a meaningful knock against the piece. I would also like to hear Lee venture into some new percussion ideas down the line, cuz I don't quite feel that what he used gelled as well as possible with the rest of the mix.
We hit some nice original material at 2:44 with some very ethereal wind SFX and wind instrumentation. I liked the light stuttering perc stuff at 3:13, which was a nice, subtle way to introduce the idea of a few more stuttering perc shots at 3:20 & 3:23. A nitpick, but I also have to wonder what the point of using that stuttering percussion just a few times without bringing it back later on in the track.
The source material cycled back in at 3:24 with the thick beatwork returning at 4:06, and some nice little embellishment including additional some acoustic guitar embellishments, first prominently heard at 4:08. Good way to go for another iteration, adding some new instrumentation ideas into the mix that preserved the flow, but added some more meat for a strong finish. That's something I would have liked to have seen in OverCoat's SD3 "Path-ology" mix that worked very well here.
After a string of really iffy and rushed submissions, I'm really glad to have heard something more solid from Lee right here that doesn't leave any questions as to the level of arrangement. Stay consistent with this kind of stuff, and it'll be nothing but gold. You fans out there can beg Lee for a version without the drums in there, because you gamer geeks need some good make-out music with which to woo the ladies.
YES
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "The Hidden Truth" (ct-1-22.spc)
http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 404 "Lunatic Pandora"
I liked the breakbeat style intro up until :21. I suppose I can vaguely see how you changed a section of Hidden Truth (:00-:12) to create the stuff from :32-1:16, and then the new bassline-type lead from 1:16-1:38, but there's basically no real connection to Hidden Truth and is a negligible connection. Arrange the stuff in a recognizable fashion please.
Also the production was awful. The treble frequencies were way too high the whole time resulting in nasty clipping and distortion any time the cymbals were in play. Everything's mixed too loud and everything just comes off abrasively, especially during fuller sections like 1:15-1:38. That new electric guitar synth at 1:06 was terrible.
We finally moved over into an easily recognizable arrangement of "Lunatic Pandora" at 2:00, but unlike Shna, I don't think the approach to arranging that theme here was not fine in the spirit of what OC's about. The source material, at least for that section, was nicely interpreted here. It definitely could have used a greater portion of Lunatic Pandora, but I don't mind what you used.
But again, the production and levels were awful. 2:39-3:12 was still a bit abrasive and loud but was mixed decently, and I liked how you wrote the ending there. On the OTHER hand 2:17-2:38, Jesus, it's just too damn loud for no good reason whatsoever.
Look, I'm not gonna lie, I'm frustrated just listening to this, because it could be sweetly made dNb track, but you keep mixing everything too loud as if it sounds better that way. Is it really that hard to tone it down? It won't ruin the track, I can tell you that. All 4 of your posted mixes are mixed a LOT more reasonably and with more balance without sacrificing power, and I just don't understand why you were mixing those tracks nicely while these recent submissions of yours are mixed so poorly. Stop clipping and start giving me the well-produced goods.
As far as this mix goes, the material until 2:00 needs to have a lot more to do with Hidden Truth, because the arrangement is practically unrecognizable. And c'mon bro, fix those levels please. You're better than that.
NO
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Fanfare 1" (ct-1-20.spc) & "Kaeru's Theme" (ct-1-19.spc)
Opened up with some very plain orchestration of "Fanfare 1" followed by a slight variation on it at :22, slowing things down a bit. No idea what source tune was involved from :44-1:22. Maybe that was the sad song Brendan was referring to, but I had no idea what source tune it was based on the info he gave, since those weren't album tracknames. Gotta come correct with the submission info, please.
The transition at 1:21 into the tamborines was a bit too sudden, though it's not a dealbreaker as it can work in many contexts. I respect the variation on Frog's theme brought in 1:29, though it sounded WAY too close to "Jib Jig" from DKC2. I dunno why it was written like that, either subliminally or overtly, but it just sounded too much like Blizihizake's "Set Sail".
I can understand Shna's concerns about the exposed strings from 1:30-1:45, but I don't think it was anything terrible. The orchestration doesn't sound very believable, but that's only for the very descriminating ear. Brendan can certainly use more time looking into fine tuning his sounds so that they roll more naturally, but this wasn't awful by any means, and I've heard people make total crap with these sounds, which this isn't.
I felt the arrangement with Frog's theme was the most promising stuff here, but the melody itself still could have been handled more creatively, and the Fanfare 1 stuff wasn't creative at all. Your ending also abruptly cut out at 3:25. The arrangement needs to be more interpretive and creative, and for this genre I don't believe the arrangement is where it needs to be. The orchestration was pretty vanilla and simplistic, I'll agree with Izz, but I think Bren at least some promise at improving there. Keep at it, sir.
NO
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I liked the first more than the second half, as I get my chill bias going, but this was some nice work. Certainly not one to pass up...for the ladies! Nice stuff, Dale & Pat.
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Aw crap, I accidentally left this in my PM box since May 31. Shit, sorry Jimmy, let's get it back on here.
Original Decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=50560
Hey man, been a while. Sorry I haven't contributed much to the OCR scene in a while--I've been quite busy. Main reason for my absence is this:http://www.biggiantcircles.com/news.php?id=10
So I've been pretty busy what with work and preparing for the wedding and all. Fortunately, I have found some time to do some music inbetween stresses and hectic preparations. Ziwtra and I are doing our best to throw together a nice little EP for the Final Fantasy Adventure soundtrack. (You can hear the 3 tracks I've done on my site--I'm not sure if I'll submit any of them here yet. But feel free to check them out.)
Anyway, well, I had some spare time today, so I sat and decided that since it's been sitting growing stagnant at vgmix, I'd go ahead and see if I could touch up on my old Unreal Tournament mix. I checked out the judges thread, and since the main "X" against it was the lack of source material/arrangement, I tried to remedy that as best I could without completely altering the song as I'm quite fond of the old version
So I was wondering if you could give me a little under-the-table input on what I've thrown together, and if you think it's likely to pass, I would like to resubmit it. If not, let me know what I would do well to fix.
A couple notes: I changed the main bass riff to (more or less) exactly what it is in the source tune. I also threw in a little of the melody from the end toward the start of the redone version (which is a shame, because I liked the thought of saving that till the end...) I also brought out the organ, and added some chimes and piano to a couple parts to make them more frontal instead of sub-melodic.
Let me know whenever you can spare the time, bro. Thanks,
Jimmy
I wanna apologize again to Jimmy for overlooking his resub in my PM box. He did some good tweaks on the first minute to more overtly incorporate "Go Down" into the intro, so my arrangement concerns with the track were fixed. This took a similar approach to SuperGreenX's "Kick Your A" where the source tune was generally placed in the background and a new lead melody was created on top of the source. After getting the breakdown from Jimmy on how he had used five different sections of the original within the piece, I'm glad to pass it. Let's break it down so this doesn't run into any problems this time:
The supporting baseline that faded in at :11 and lasted until :56 was arranged from the intro of the source (:00-:14).
The synth from :56-1:22 was arranged from :28-:53 of the source.
The orchestral strings fading in at 1:32 and lasting until 2:21 were arranged from 1:40-1:54 of the source.
The music from the part with the voice clip (2:22-3:16) was arranged from 1:11-1:39 of the source.
The secton from 3:18-3:47 was arranged from 2:23-2:44 of the source.
Like I said before, I definitely felt that the track sounded a lot like the Unreal style, but I was totally wrong about the level of arrangement the last time around, as the arranged sections taken from the source tune were used regularly throughout the track. Aside from pointing out where the actual arrangement was, the original additions made here by Jimmy definitely felt like a natural fit.
I know you mentioned to Alexander Brandon that this was gonna be something you submitted, so I hope other Unreal fans appreciate it as well. Nice work on this third mix, bro, and I look forward to hearing more from you whenever you're able to get back in the game. Congratulations on the upcoming marriage!
YES
OCR01373 - Marathon "Neo-Pacificist"
in ReMix Reviews & Comments
Posted
Nope.