Liontamer
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Posts posted by Liontamer
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/iog.rsn - "Memory" (iog-17.spc)
Not sure if the mix uses more stuff from the game than the above, but it doesn't really matter. I recognize some of the drumloops from BenCousins' "LostWoodsSouthCentral". God bless whoever made that loop, but it's pretty stock stuff.
The wind on melody is too mechanical sounding, and has a lot of reverb on it. At places when it (abruptly) cuts out, for example :26 & 4:04, all of a sudden the track gets very empty-sounding.
The way the melody sounded at 2:12 felt odd with the note progressions. I felt there were enough changes here so that the flow changed up a few times, but none of the sections came together cohesively anyway. 1:11-2:00 & 2:12-3:00 in particular had poorly thought-out sound combinations, and each section tended to drag. Better luck next time, bro.
NO
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http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda.zip - "Title" (Track 1) & "Ending" (Track 2)
Damn, too bad. Yeah, this needs more going on with the melody as well as the percussion work in particular. Not a bad idea for the ending. You know, using the...Ending.
More variety in the performace, please. Too bad though; if this was 4 years ago, this would have been a shoe-in. If the support instruments had more going on, I could at least pull for it on some level, though you need a lot more variety applied beyond that.
Cool genre idea though. Throw this up at VGMix and get your band some additional word-of-mouth. Feel free to resubmit after some more development if you guys are willing to do that; we could use a quality surf remix.
NO
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http://www.zophar.net/nsf/metroid.zip - Track 3
Seriously, don't go that low-fi with the drums. I don't know how that would come across as anything but a very obvious disparity in sounds quality here.
Frankly, I really liked the arrangement of the melody when it was there. Straightforward and sparse though, aside from changing the notes a little.
The crashing wave were nice, but still didn't work well as a transition point to the following brief section (which actually sounded too much like the DKC Game Over jingle).
This got too reliant on the wave sounds to close it out and was too sparse on the arrangement work. You gotta be more. Keep on truckin' with this one.
NO
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Chrono Trigger" (ct-1-02a.spc & ct-1-02b.spc) & "Guardia Millenial Fair" (ct-1-06.spc)
For giving me such ear torture this batch, I'm shouldn't giving djp anything remotely usable to quote. Thus, I'm gonna intersperce my words with l33tspeak. Thi5 was 2 awesome. Jar3d did @ great job 0verhauling th!s fro/\/\ d4 /\/ear-\/erba7im Chr0n0'z t|-|eme cov3r "Generations of Time".
Seriously though, the rearrangement here is A-grade, even though the ending vox was [does a so-so hand gesture] and 7/4 Millenial Fair was DarkeSword's idea first! This is true crossover level material. If you wanna break a non-VGM fan a remix and see if they like it, this is certainly one you could try on them. Glad to see Jared's back with a new mix as this'll hit the n00bs in a big way. I smell Grammy! Well, a Latin Grammy, but that's still a Grammy...
YES
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http://www.zophar.net/nsf/dq4.zip - Track 14
This one tied for 4th in Dwelling of Duels for May/June against some stiff competition. I'm always glad to see DoD material make it's way over here. I covered this one in early July for VG Frequency.
(For anyone that'll agonize over it, the JAXX mix I was talking about is available over at VGMix.):
Liontamer]Ryan8bit - Dragon Warrior 4 "The Grief of Aktemto" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month / VGMix2 #1782]Just like JAXX, Ryan Stern is another guitar guru that hasn't dropped anything on the people in a while. And while the wait for Ryan8bit's newest release (2 months) wasn't nearly as long as the wait for JAXX's latest, Ryan's here to bring it to ya as well, with this DW4 mix that starts off with acoustic and acid guitar elements before adding to the background with some orchestral swells. And while this beginning also isn't the style one would be most familiar with Ryan's work, the halfway point brings out the electric guitar work that those OverRocked ReMix fans worship him for. A nice change of pace to hear two guitar rock mixers like Ryan & JAXX moving a bit out of their traditional bounds, both in the same week.
Like Vig said, this was excellent rearrangement with a few flubs (:51 was particularly noticeable) that didn't detract from the strength here.
Great sound choices throughout that fit together well and kept the ideas fresh. The orchestral stuff moving over into the rock work was all excellent. Started off very solemn, escalated via the orchestral builds along with the percussion just after that, and then got into what represented a much louder representation of agonized grief with the guitar work before winding down. The structure was pretty natural given the inspiration.
Ryan's a guy I feel we don't see enough of at OC, so I'm really glad he submitted this one. Sorry it had to come about under such circumstances though. Hopefully people will know the story behind it and, on that level, appreciate the emotion put into this.
YES
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Sara's (Schala's) Theme" (ct-3-06.spc)
Haven't heard this one in quite a while; heard some mid-level progress WIPs before my computer broke a month and a half ago.
Not a bad intro here composition-wise. The transition at :13 is too abrupt. Find a way to logically progress there over a few seconds so it's not as jarring. The percussion lines are VERY mechanically sequenced, with the same strength on nearly every hit, yet spastic, like Vig mentioned, which sounds really bad in combination and doesn't fit the groove here at all.
The sound balance should be examined, as the drums manage to get pretty disruptive/overbearing while you're trying to listen to everything else. The belltones that first come in at :24 are too loud as well and just get annoying after a while. The lead is constantly fighting to be heard, not to mention the other supporting elements, including some of the nicer orchestral-style touches. The orchestral influence you mentioned here is practically a non-factor.
That lead synth gets annoying after while. Just as I say that we get a brief changeup from :57-1:10, but then it comes back. Don't let it wear out its welcome. Hopefully you get some suggestions on how to improve the sound on that, as I believe it has the same problems with sounding at the same intensity the whole time.
Pretty flat performance on the sax or whatever that was at :57. Pick up the volume and energy on it. By 1:43, though the structure changes a little bit, the style is getting too repetitive and treads water. The percussion is busy as hell here and comes across as out of place with the purposeful minimalism of the belltones.
Why the key of the piece dipped down at 2:12 is beyond me, because it didn't really make sense. The resolution from 2:20-2:26 is abrupt but also boring because it sounds like a lot of other sections of the track. Not much dynamic contrast here, looking at the big picture.
In principle the arrangement is fairly promising and takes Schala's theme in a different direction, even though you're just working with the first part. But because you're going about the source usage this way, compositionally you've gotta be able to take this mix more places in your mere 2 1/2 mins.
Parsing things down to the abridged judgment, scale back the percussion and humanize it, provide either some sample changes or more instrument/sample variation (since some of these sounds don't work well for an extended period of time), reassess the sound balance, and prevent the groove here from getting so repetitive. Add more composition ideas and make the presentation more creative.
Hope that's informative, Mark. Aside from the sound balance, the production was pretty good, so you've certainly got that down. The ideas here need a lot of refinement if you're gonna keep going with this idea, but there you have it, bro.
NO
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Yeah, pretty dope for a straightforward arrangement, but if you're gonna stick this close to the melodic structure of the original, come up with even more ways to expand on this, via your various additions. I agree with Malcos on the low-fi-ness of the drums detracting a bit, and I thought the bassline was too mechanically sequenced. Also, the ending at 2:48 is WAY too abrupt and provides little resolution. In any case, your explanation of the structure was appreciated, and it's can be helpful when submitters provide that, so we have a better understand of the transitions and flow.
The genre/style isn't the same here, but perhaps check out some of Mark Vera's work here to get more of an idea on how to even further expand the source tune with your other layers of instrumentation. The additions at the moment are a little too basic in their composition for me to get behind. In addition to that, perhaps throw some melodic deviations of your own. Considering how empty the source tune, you're more than halfway toward making a viable straight arrangement in my opinion. Good foundations are certainly in place, Robbie.
NO (revise & resubmit)
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/tcx.rsn - "Shop" (tcx-07.spc)
Considering I listened to the source tune after this, I was really surprised by how much of the original's offbeat nature and vibe were present here. Would have never expected the source tune itself to sound the way it did, yet it also makes me appreciate the ideas within this one a lot more. The very beginning comes off very dry, but there were excellently used sounds here and you'll enjoy when things pick up via a new melody (:13) and countermelody (:25) placed on top of the arranged source tune, along with some additional effects at :35.
The source tune is very short, but this used it well as the foundation of the piece. The first 1:30 is all about the subtle, gradual addition of one element after the other; in that way, the structure moved away from being too repetitive. I wouldn't have minded hearing a break in that pattern around the 45-second point that would have quickly led right back to the opening pattern, but I nonetheless like the understated buildup all the way until 1:30. While fairly low-key and subtle in the presentation, this also carries the fullness I felt was lacking in "Hunter's Community Chest", so this is a lot more where I feel tracks like this need to be in order to make the most of them. Nice work here, Sambubula.
Just as I said that, I got the switchup at 1:32 to whatever the hell this harp-style stuff is; it's great. Someone else identify whatever the hell this is. Combined with the melody, it's both haphazard and beautiful in any case, and the way the arranged melody returned at 1:50 was very well executed. Though this isn't the densest remix, this section represented very good building and progression from such sparse beginnings.
I felt the ending material (2:51-end) should have been a lot stronger as a resolution and was the low point here; it probably could have been lopped off in order to fashion an ending in the style of the previous section. Ah well. If you're a fan of very crazy perc work and effects, you'll be down. I'd be interested in seeing what a collab with The Wingless, Israfel or zykO could produce.
This was more along the lines of what I was waiting for from Sam's stuff since I heard "Red Spiders." Offbeat, moist and flavorful, but with the crunchy stuff too, much like the cornerpiece from a pan of brownies. Yeah, that made no sense. [/Wingless] All things considered, yet another mix, yet another reason to join Sam's eclectic-lovin' fanbase.
YES
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Stickerbush Symphony" (dkq-17.spc)
Not a bad trippy atmosphere, and this is all over the place, which is hilarious, but the source material is just sampled here and then built around with various effects, then you get original stuff from 2:30 until the end. In this case, I think the synths literally DID sound purple.
NO OVERRIDE
But I'm keeping it...for medicinal purposes.
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This often (but not always) had some boring stock/beatkeeping synth drums. Listening to the Minibosses' CV2 Mini-Mayhem, you can hear them using tackling a lot more of the source tune's finer aspects beyond the melody. That includes putting more thought into the percussion in particular so that you're actually accompanying the progression of the Mario theme more.
Not really worth 4+ minutes of this, as this could have been achieved in 2 1/2 - 3 and not been so repetitive. No particular twists and turns with the composition to keep it fresh the whole time. 3:04 is the verbatim with the intro. 1:45 with the use of the Underground BGM music was one of the few portions of the song that was expansive as an rearrangement. 2:45-3:04 also did a good job of fitting your original riffs to the actual theme.
Try and get the recording/production a lot sharper as well, but all things considered, trim some of the more repetitive portions and put more creativity/varation in the perc and you'd have a better shot.
NO
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Not gonna waste much time when Vig summed everything up. Sound choices are dry and poorly conceptualized the whole way through. Some of the fuller parts (5:47-whenever) buried the melody completely. This idea is not even remotely worth 7+ minutes. Next.
NO
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http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - Icecap Zone 1
IceCap's not worth 5+ minutes. The percussion is exceedingly dry/thin. Some new ideas finally around the 2:15 mark, but everything here is weak, like 2:50-3:33 using these sparse as shit leads. Whatever panning tricks you were doing starting at 3:54 with those piecrcing sounds was almost unbearable. I hate you, djp. Not enough arrangement of the theme going on here anyway. Unsalvagable. I hope you readers are paying attention to some of these decisions. There's not gonna be much love for this batch.
NO
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http://www.c64unlimited.net/games/m/Midnight%20Resistance/midnight_resistance.sid - Subtune 6/9
At least things picked up at :48 with a measure of clarity from the lead, because this intro was terrible. No need the stretch things out that long, especially since it just recycled the first few seconds of the source tune's original. Way too lo-fi. This was frequently just drums over the patterns of the original, but I wouldn't have went NO Override on it. There are some rearrangement ideas to be found, which is why I wouldn't N.O., but still not much innovation.
NO
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http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - Icecap Zone 1
I'm such a nice guy. Felt like throwing a source tune link up there. Soundtrack's good anyway. I'd rather listen to the Mushroom Hill Zone music than do my job.
Pretty beginner level stuff, but not a bad effort at all. Not much dynamic contrast going despite the effort to do so. No treble/high-end here in the production, and some of the sound/sample choices are unappealing. The track abruptly cuts off. Others can offer some advice on the sounds and how to improve there, but it was just a bunch of genericness to me.
There's not really much more to say than go for a lot more rearrangement. This is nothing but a genre-adaptation that doesn't take any creative liberties with the source material.
NO
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No dymanics here over the course of the mix, the strings are the fullest sounding instrument, yet have too slow of an attack, and the bells and bassline are flimsy. Not much thought was put into layering the strings together with the rest. The strings are carrying your melody; position them more prominently. I thought because this was a Yogi Bear mix, this was supposed to be the bomb. I was ready for this to be the greatest remix of all time.
(...checks source tune...)
http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/yogibear.rar - Water Palaver
Oh, for the love of God...
NO OVERRIDE
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Today is VGF #29 from 5:55 - 9:55 PM EST, so head over to Ormgas to check it out and follow along with the playlist. Join #ormgas on IRC/EntertheGame (irc://irc.enterthegame.com/ormgas) to chat it up.
VGF29 features one track from each episode of VG Frequency's first season. No call-ins to distract from anything, and you get background on each track in the series. 4 hours of nothing but music and info. Please enjoy!
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For the record, Malcos's comment that the improv section was pretty "don't care" was a comment he made regarding the first/rejected version, not this version. The improv section was specifically revisted in order to fit more within the arrangement. Say what you will about the execution of the improv in this resubmitted version; some judges liked it and some didn't. It certainly wasn't perfect, but the fact is that a lot more thought was actually put into it, and the "don't care" comment doesn't apply here.
I didn't have a problem with the synth guitar lead; that comes across as a subjective taste. The piano sequencing was certainly something that objectively needed to be improved, but wasn't enough of an issue to NO on for me personally. On those two issues, particularly the mechanicalness of the piano sequencing, I respect that other judges could go either way depending on how drastically they felt those affected the overall presentation.
With regards to judges submitting material directly to the panel, this is a throwback to the older days of the panel. The other judges prefer to submit to DJP instead. We actually asked DJP about it about a week ago, and he said that there's no problem with a judge going the direct-to-panel route. As long as no one's abusing the system by posting a mix every few weeks, it's ok for a judge to post directly to the panel. We pressed for clarification and that's the standard in place for those situations.
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<fag1> i refuse to believe that "Shadow of the Horned Rat" is an actual game
<fag2> It's a Warhammer game apparently
<fag1> psh
<fag1> that doesnt sound real to me
Sound quality-wise, there certainly a lot here to like with the orchestration. This does expand on the source tune through stretching out some ideas from the original, such as your intro being a lot lengthier, and also adding some further instrumentation.
But like the others have said before, aside from a few underdeveloped deviations from the source, this structurally doesn't go in many places that the original doesn't. A little too conservative, unfortunately. Quality sounds won't make up for that.
Near the end of the MIDI, there were plenty of other ideas going on that would have made great rearrangement material. Good foundations here, Chris, but this needs to be a lot more interpretive regarding the use of the source. Take this further via additional unique directions of your own creation. And um...no offense, but perhaps think of a better remixer name. One sans numbers in it.
NO
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/fm.rsn - "Force Stall" (fm-09.spc) & "Natalie" (fm-35.spc)
Some of the wind notes in the mid-range get really shrill from 3:42 onward. Gotta tone 'em down. Raising the high-end would have allowed your strings to stand out more, as well.
Given how slow the tempo is here, this mix took a LONG time to get a grasp on. I had a very difficult time reconciling this with our standards, as it sounds great, but initially came across to me as a slowed-down sample-upgrade piece combining two tracks rather than a notable rearrangement.
This would be great on a professional Front Mission arrange album, because the orchestration was pretty solid and I liked the understated support additions and various subtle embellishments I heard. The melody and some of the support were directly taken from "Force Stall" while "Natalie" remains by the numbers as well which frankly made this a bit suspect. But I'm willing to admit I was wrong in feeling there wasn't enough expansion in other areas within this more straightforward arrangement piece.
In terms of attempting to expand the source material while staying within the same genre, this manages to give expansion to the original via the additional layers of harmonization and instrumentation involved. There's certainly a lot going on here to accentuate the melodies that the original tracks lacked. Not the most overt method of making a ReMix, and again, I wish this wouldn't have stayed so fixed on the structure of the original, but there is indeed a lot of nuanced expansion that in sum-total makes things passable...barely.
YES (borderline)
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - "Aquatic Ambiance" (dkc-08.spc)
Cool opening; some very cinematic tension as the vox built up. The very light percussion backing from :20-1:13 is kind of bleh; might wanna thicken it up a bit or scale the levels on it down if you don't want to change the sound of it, and it could also use a little bit of variation.
I like all of the elements here but wouldn't mind more clarity via separation of sounds. The compression is still a problem; things didn't get TOO loud and cluttered during the first half of the mix (some rough spots were 1:09-1:13 & 2:05-2:18). The fuller parts at the end though got fairly problematic though.
Good new/original sections from 1:58-2:42 as you built new stuff over the foundations of the source tune. The piano references to the Aquatic Ambiance melody could have been a bit louder, and the wind lead there sounded serviceable but could have used some effects on it. The sustain on it from 2:11-2:18 and the way it faded out at 2:30 both sounded very fake.
Still have the complaint others had last time about the Irish low whistle coming in at 2:42 as it sounds a bit piercing in the low mid-range and could also use some effects on it; DarkeSword said the same thing last time around. Like I alluded to earlier, 3:18-3:25 gets cluttered as you went for the big orchestral/vox finish, and needs a LOT more separation as the horns drown out the vox while the vox actually drowns out everything else, then at 3:38-3:50, the strings and brass drown the rest out again.
Sudden endings can work in the right context (e.g. virt's Shadowgate mix, "Warrior King"), however the abrupt resolution at 3:50 still functions very poorly as an ending here, unfortunately. Again, DarkeSword had a good, easily implementable option for that last time around.
That's not merely what drives it down into NO, though. I apologize if the comments all seemed to say "add ending and get easy YES", especially because we all had other comments for improvement in our comments. When I said last time I echoed Binnie's comments verbatim, it's also because he also had good observations on how the second half is weaker than the first, which I also said I was in agreement with in my last decision on this.
Look at the compression further and achieve better separation of sounds during the fuller areas (particularly at ANY point the brass comes in), sure. I'd prefer you did all those things, but just in order to get my YES, Kris, I just need some refinement on your woodwind instrument samples and a sensible resolution for the ending, which is still not something that exists here. Just like Vig, I really would prefer to YES this, but can't honestly go there yet, sorry.
NO (borderline)
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[sigh] Webstream refuses to give audio output. Time to cancel again. I'm a fickle pickle, my apologies.
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Aight, let's post crud. Still have to do make-up shows for #33-#37 & #39. That'll happen eventually. Sorry for the delay on the release of this one. Lots of stuff going on.
VG Frequency #38 MP3 (115MB/2hr48min)
Larry Oji - WMRE (Emory University Student Radio; Atlanta, GA)
"VG Frequency" - Saturday, October 30, 2004 / 10:05 PM - 12:53 PM EST
1. Star Salzman - VG Frequency "The Universe" Bumper
2. Yoko Shimomura - "Memory" [Parasite Eve OST]
3. analoq - Count Duckula "duckypoos" [The People's Remix Competition: Animation Halloween 2004]
4. Theophany - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask "Time's End" [VGMix2 #2601]
5. Alexander Prievert - Legend of Mana "Morphland" [VGMix2 #2593]
6. Yoko Shimomura - "Arise Within You" [Parasite Eve OST]
7. DarkeSword's hitting the books but has time to lay out the info on his new Megaman X4 mix "The Father of All", the origins of the now-infamous DarkeSword sax sample, progress and details on the Kirby's Adventure Remix Project, ideas on a future Zelda Dungeon project that would reach through the whole game music remix community, the need for some happy-go-lucky remixes, Repercussions of Fowl Lamentation, and trying to reach the fanbase of game series fans who don't know about remixes including RPGamer's Sound Test [http://www.darkesword.com]
8. Jeremy Robson - Final Fantasy 7 "Philharmonic Suite: Finale" [OC ReMix #1260]
9. BrainCells - Thunder Force 3 "Metalon" [VGMix2 #2566]
10. Carbunk1e - Naruto "Psyku" [The People's Remix Competition: Animation Halloween 2004]
11. Yoko Shimomura - "Sotto Voice" [Parasite Eve OST]
12. SgtRama is excited as shit about Duck Hunt: Repercussions of Fowl Lamentation (!), so he discusses how he & Suzumebachi saved Protricity's joke project from falling by the wayside, the amazing debut of ChloroPhil, making some track cuts, the pending release of the RoFL Plutonium Edition, along with some hot extras like the DVD case idea, the question of why there weren't any Duck Hunt sequels, and the genius that IS Doug Arley [http://sgtrama.no-ip.com]
13. MaJIN_SaN has plans for a Super Hydlide in a few months, has issue with how similar a lot of the new remixes coming out are, wants to challenge DCT for a freestyle competition, talks about how he studies other artists and styles to improve his music game, and being ready to rap battle [http://www.angelfire.com/magic/muumuu_dashiki.com]
14. Dale North - Witch Hunter Robin "Close Your Eyes" [The People's Remix Competition: Animation Halloween 2004]
15. Jeremy Robson - Megaman 7 "Shademan: A Symphonic Poem" [The People's Remix Competition 26]
16. Beatdrop - VG Frequency "Lose His Mind" Bumper
17. mp & Beatdrop - "Fornever (Dain's Edit)" [http://www.beatdrop.tk & http://mp.vgmix.com]
18. Yoko Shimomura - "Out of Phase" [Parasite Eve OST]
19. zircon's in the college hunt and describes how that's been, along with fan reactions to his Unknown collab "When All Hope Has Faded", the hold-ups on the new design for SoundTempest, the in-progress SoundTempest thematic album, upcoming remix projects, Duck Hunt: RoFL, Larry as Queen Caramella, and collabing with Digital Coma [http://www.zirconstudios.com]
20. "Nathan Lee Cunningham III" pours his heart out to his soulmate [http://www.angelfire.com/ga4/queencaramella]
21. Another secret admirer of Lawrencia's likes the pointiness of her bust [http://sithlord-aku.deviantart.com]
22. The show continues to turn into Queer Eye as drunk Emory students call in looking for Queen Caramella somewhere over the rainbow
23. Bladiator - Super Mario World 1 "Grand Valse Mario" [VGMix2 #2562]
24. ArseAssassin - Resident Evil 3 "Safe Place?" [http://www.mikseri.net/artistit/?id=28953]
25. Darangen - Final Fantasy 6 "Forsaken World" [VGMix2 #2525]
26. Ghetto Lee Lewis - Megaman 7 "Journey into Shadow" [The People's Remix Competition 26]
27. Yoko Shimomura - "Memories of Aya and Eve" [Parasite Eve OST]
28. zykO - Diablo 1 & Diablo 2 "Of Futility and Hope" [VGMix2 #2611]
29. Rayza f/Paige - VG Frequency "Scary Larry" Bumper
30. Michael Jackson VS Rayza - "Thriller (Bad Boy Beat Mix)" [http://www.rayza.net]
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http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Sara's (Schala's) Theme" (ct-3-06.spc)
Everyone else pretty much nailed it, so I'll be relatively brief. I agreed with the comments on the lack of sound balance at times, along with most of the other issues cited. I liked the principle of the violin & piano being panned to different channels (:32-1:00), but neither had much clarity.
Somewhat jarring shot of piano at 1:08 to transition into the more sombre piano solo, but you can get used to it if your volume isn't too high. The piano work throughout 1:08-2:28 is notably flat, so I feel it could have been fuller while remaining somber, but I felt it served its purpose overall. On the other hand, the hip-hop-ish drums were unorthodox and were obviously a purposeful choice, but seemed to take away from the inferred somberness of the track here. Far be it from me to tell you how you think the percussion SHOULD go, but it was a very odd contrast. I wasn't so much opposed to them being there as much as I felt the percussion was very dry and unvaried. Hopefully zircon's suggestions hook you up to go in a bit stronger direction that won't compromise the atmosphere you want.
From 3:40-4:27, the drumbeats were a good idea in the back, but pretty flimsy-sounding. At 4:27, the melodic wind instrument you switched to needs a bit more humanization moving from note-to-note. The string instruments could use a bit of that too, IMO, but it's not a big deal. Besides the cymbal activity (obviously), everything seems to sound a lot better to me with a treble boost. Perhaps a light increase on the high-end would sharpen things up.
Sorry about your cat, by the way. I wouldn't exactly, you know, make a remix about it, but to each his own. I believe I'm a bit stronger on this than everyone else, Mike, so it won't take much more to get my YES personally, but take the rest of the judgments into a account and tweak some of the foundations in place to get solid YESs from the others. Looking forward to a resub on this one, bro. Definitely run whatever you have by us in #ocremix if you're willing to take a look at it.
NO (definitely resubmit, please)
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http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 306 "The Star-Stealing Girl"
http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Xenogears_psf.rar - 205 "Shevat ~ The Wind is Calling"
The reason I listed both themes up top was because, while you attempted to remix the first theme, the motifs inadvertently reminded me of the second. Like Israfel mentioned to me, a lot of Mitsuda's work from these games sounds similar, but I think it's a case where the attempted rearrangement has strayed too far from the source. I'm only hearing the vaguest of vague connections here with "Star-Stealing Girl".
I don't mean to be glib, Ravi, but I feel Gray gave the best feedback for production concerns, so I can only add a few more comments. You can hear where the voice sample abruptly cuts out at :16 if you're paying attention. I think all of the other voice samples had clean cutoffs though. For future reference, if you have the information at hand, you should also let us know where you obtained the samples.
I felt the structure was unorthodox (in regards to the scope of mixes at this site), but I still had some issues. Things sounded a little muddy, there was no high-end or sharpness present during any portion of the track, the cymbals are very weak, and (tying into the muddiness) there was poor overall separation of sounds, especially during your fuller sections (e.g. :40-:56, 1:43-2:00, 3:04-3:50).
Work a little on production, but reign in the rearrangement level so this doesn't become ineligible on those grounds. Point me and the others in the right direction if something is up, but I tried really hard to find Star-Stealing Girl here and ended up with more Shevat motifs than anything else. Don't get too liberal with the ideas and end up losing the melodic foundations of the original.
NO
*NO* Chrono Trigger 'Crono's Rain'
in Judges Decisions
Posted
http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Chrono Trigger" (ct-1-02a.spc & ct-1-02b.spc)
Everything up until :50 is decent on the rearrangement side, but then things got way too liberal without any tangible reference to the source material until 2:18.
These sounds are trademark ones from Jovette, but for whatever reasons, the sequencing is mechanical & lifeless, and the production is empty & sparse. It sounds like there are practically no effects used here in order to give depth to the instruments and fill up the space.
The production is terrible; it's quiet, dry, and the piano during the first 2 minutes and later around 3 1/2 minutes should have been in the forefront instead of being so muted. Half the time, the sound balance is just plain bad. Dynamic contrast isn't there at all either; just slow and plodding the whole way.
No offense to Jovette, but this was really disappointing. It's like there was no post-production put into this. This was truly the epitome of WIP. Try and get :50-2:18 to not sound so liberal without at least some more overt Crono's Theme referencing. I doubt you'll try to humanize the instrumentation, but seriously beef up these sounds with effects and processing.
I'm a fan of "Dové L'Amore", but you seriously need to learn how to step things up on production or you risk being passed by the proverbial bar. Bring your A-game, please.
NO