Liontamer

The intro was very flat to me so I disagree with Malc there, and the cymbals and additional synth entering in at :23 were very flimsy-sounding. No meat behind anything; thicken your sounds up. When the melody went up at :53, I said out loud, "Wow, that's just terrible". The same note progression sounds a lot better coming from the source tune. No offense, but the execution is very, very amateur-ish. None of the samples are articulated well, most noticeably the faux-strings in the background, while everything here lacks presence. The poorly sequenced vox entering in at 1:56 only reinforced this. By the 2:30 mark, I realized there wasn't much development here at all either. Very, very conservative & repetitive arrangement here and poor execution from the aenemic sounds. You've got to do everything you can to strengthen the sounds you're using and fashion more viable rearrangement ideas with further creativity. Back to the drawing board, I'm afraid. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/tetrisnt.zip - NSF Track 5 I have to agree with analoq, things were pretty cool to start off with on the arrangement side. Lots of countermelody/enhanced arrangement stuff opening up. Seemed to be developing well from :54-1:15 until you went back to the same melody again with exactly the same combination of sounds and elements. Perhaps try to more prominently rearrange the source material in your second iteration of the melody to present some fresh ideas and development. The new stuff from 1:41-2:15 wasn't bad as well, but then you went into just another iteration of the melody with another synth added. Bring that idea in earlier, but again, go for a bit more on the rearrangement side and alter some note progressions to give it even more of your own expanded interpretation. Like analoq said, there was some development, but no climax, so you're gonna have to fashion a stronger overall composition so that your ending doesn't seem so weak. On the production side, I'd prefer to hear some presence in the high-end as well as not letting the reverb and/or delay effects be quite as strong. Lots of good stuff is in place, Eon, so keep at it on this one if you're interested. NO

Can't snag a source tune for this, but I don't feel it's needed. The organ coming in at :30 sounds a bit random, which wasn't too much of a problem, but then I heard some questionable-sounding note sequences coming in at 1:07 during your melody. I also felt the shakers were a bit too loud and could have been scaled back a bit. Also, try to learn how to better articulate your organ and slap bass samples to flow more naturally. The belltones aren't bad but don't do much to cohesively enhance the mix, as the pattern for them is pretty awkward-sounding. There's kind of a different tone at 1:40, but overall not much dynamic contrast or development. Rather, at 2:00, everything became much louder for the last melodic iteration and that was about it. On the arrangement side, this has to be so much more. The ideas here were pretty brief and unexplored. Go for more on the composition end while improving the use of your sounds in tandem. NO

http://www.students.tut.fi/~judine/gk3/Emilio's%20Theme.mp3 - Emilio's Theme The Gabriel Knight 3 soundtrack is actually pretty damn sweet. Other remixers should seriously consider checking it out. A mere 1:41 generally doesn't cut it here, as songs of that length, like this one, are generally underdeveloped. This kicks in pretty fast, but it's just a cover of the source tune (the actual melody in the source tune itself gets going at :58). It's tranposed from winds to guitar, and sounds absolutely great here, but we don't do simple covers. Please rearrange this by adding your own ideas beyond simply changing the instrumentation and go for a much lengthier arrangement. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 119 "The Man With the Machine Gun" So I was just commenting to myself before I checked this one, "we sure got a higher number of (lame) MIDI mixes this time around." and it could be more true since I joined. Like Israfel has pointed out in an earlier decision from this batch, I just don't see the excuse for using such cruddy MIDI stuff when decent free soundfonts are available to help enhance your product. Go for whatever help y'all can get. This one has nothing going for it. It gets very shrill from :41-:55 (and of course later on in the mix, since stuff repeats). Anyway, there was a bare amount of rearrangement, but this is just a tame MIDI-grade remix. I suppose the style of the instrumentation or what-have-you would justify the mix title, but it doesn't work in preveting it from coming across as a poorly sequenced, very shrill cover in a different key with some off notes. No innovation whatsoever. I realize from the e-mail, Jon, that it took you work to make this, as you're starting out, but this needs way more effort at being creative on the arrangement side, along with non-cruddy sounds. Otherwise, just stick to VGMusic and see if they'll bite. NO

http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~agashlin/usf/sets/lozmmusf.zip - "Final Hours" Not bad stuff intro in until :20. Really like the voice thrown in really quickly at :16. Works very, very well. The drums here are a little weak and needed more meat on 'em, but I'm liking the groove so far. Good simple sequenced piano stuff at :46. I think the sound could bit a bit sharper. Not a bad tempo change at all at 1:29, IMO, I just think the percussion here is too weak to make an impact here. I didn't like where things went following the abrupt transition at 2:09. Again, flesh out these synths and beats with some more meat on the bones. 2:39 with the piano runs really gets cluttered, so try and create more separation amongst the elements here. Very nice slowdown around 3:05-3:09, though the ending was REALLY abrupt to me. The tempo changes worked well to me. Wow, very promising stuff. I knew I wouldn't regret checking it out even though it had enough votes. Though technically I'm also going NO, I felt you just needed more power behind your sounds. I'd YES if this had less reverb drenching things along with fuller-sounding synths. I know this first resubmission took a while to make it over here, Mike, but make sure to contact a judge via PM (i.e. me) if you're willing to tweak things based on any criticisms you'd agree on and go for another resubmission. I know this resub got rejected, but I'd still genuinely love to hear another revision of this. Very cool arrangement that's almost there in the delivery. You don't have to listen to me, but please keep at it on this one, as I feel it's worth it.

Considering that when Beatdrop was on the panel, he was the information source for whether a DDR mix was valid for the site, I doubt he'd mix a source tune that would make his mix a violation. I'm sure it's fine.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ffmq.rsn - "Battle 3" (ffmq-25.spc) You misspelled prophecy in your filename, I see. Not really my thing per se, but this wasn't bad. Vig & zyko will be able to give the guitar the critique it deserves. Pretty good cover/upgrade, but this is too brief and needs more done here. The source has been given some more depth via instrumentation, but there's practically 0 rearrangement to speak of and you just repeat 2 1/2 iterations of the source. Put more into this and expand the composition with ideas of your own. I'm not gonna NO Override, because I feel the instrumentation deserves further commentary, but this is both too brief & too straightforward a cover. NO

The drums ain't so hot, and the guitar is pretty rough but at least has the energy up there. The musicians on the panel can dissect that more if they want to. The vocals are pretty poorly recorded, and I'm guessing there wasn't any post-production work put into it. Yeah, these vocals are pretty untrained. Raw and so forth, if you're down with that, but no thanks I've gotta say. I don't like how much the instrumentation took a backseat to the vocals when they came in. The contrast in levels for both music & vocals didn't have to be so great. The presentation is too unpolished, and for that to not dip it down to NO, the rearrangement and overall execution would have to be way up there. Definitely not the case here. In any case, I don't see why we need a NiGHTS cover that doesn't particularly expand on the original. No dice, Chris. NO

http://www.c64.org/HVSC/Hubbard_Rob/Thrust.sid - Subtune 1/1 Thanks a lot for providing the source tune, Magnus. The percussion's a little basic, but I like the groove coming in at :16. Too bad the lead's panned right with no corresponding left channel activity for no practical reason. That definitely dragging this down. The production could also sound notably sharper. This could have gone somewhere at 2:08 instead of just retreading. 2:44 totally switched up the beat with some hard drums, but they lacked power and presence due to lack of sharpness in the production, and just meandered for a while with no real substance. Kind of killed the flow actually. The melody phasing back in at 3:19 should have happened a LOT sooner. You're just hitting some already done stuff at 3:35. There was some tiny bit of additions at 4:26 that probably should have arrived early instead of repeating some of the beginning sections verbatim in the middle. It's too bad, because a notable portion of the C64 scene's approach to mixing doesn't work so much here. Pardon my ignorance if any of you out there feel that's not the case, but a lot of relatively new mixers there do stick with repetitive, conservative arrangements, which is generally not frowned upon there, yet is just a NO-go here. Good groove overall, and something I've enjoyed listening to again and again since writing this vote, but I still think this could trim the fat off and be a stronger product. The panning choices need to be revisited, the final mixdown could use some more clarity, the instruments need some more strength in places, and the arrangement needs more dynamics and less retreadting. Hope that doesn't sound like I'm bagging on it. Like analoq mentioned, I'm feeling some of the sound choices and the overall groove. I really enjoyed it for what it was and hope to hear a resubmission if you're up for it.

I think Mike meant to say that these are truly some icy hot flowz.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Boy Meets Girl (Twoson)" (mo2-046.spc) The piano velocities sounded pretty mechanical, and the wind lead was very inhuman-sounding. You sure Eccles didn't rip this? And, yeah, that was a serious question. Not too jarring but there was a strange and abrupt tempo change at 1:10 as things slowed down and the instruments suddenly changed. Whatever's handling bass is poorly used as well. BUM BUM BUM BUM over and over again. Can't really offer anything too constructive on stuff so fundamentally flawed. Too conservative of an arrangement for me as well; work a bit more with the source to see what directions it can be taken in. It's not the holy grail for getting posted mind you, but head over to the ReMixing forum and learn how to at least get better results out of cruddy samples in the future. For this one though, scrap it and start something new. NO EDIT: So I sorted the SPC pack by title and sandwiched this mix between "Boy Meets Girl" & "Burp". I've gotta admit, "Burp" tacked onto this would have really enhanced the ending, no lie.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sc.rsn - "Fired" (sc-14.spc) & "Metropolis" (sc-10.spc) You have a 1:03-long intro for a 2:43-long mix. The whole idea has likely gotta be longer/more fleshed out to deserve such a long intro, but I'll give you credit; I liked how your sounds came together a lot. Low-fi/purposefully thin/whatever you'd call it (someone give me the right word), they worked. The sitar & sound effects sounded nice as additions, even if the "Fired" beat was verbatim for a while. The arrangement on it was pretty straight, but you hear some subtle changes in the beat as well alterations in how prominent other elements are once the lyrics kicked in. 1:55 was where the most prominent rearrangement came in, as what sounded like rearrangement from part of the first 20 seconds of "Metropolis" came in on top of the beats. The groove was minimalist, but I really enjoyed what you have in place so far. Definitely work on boosting the levels of the lyrics, Stephan. Though I'm safely assuming you're Latino, the lyrical delivery actually reminded me of white dirty south rappers like the Icy Hot Stuntaz, and I DO mean that as a compliment actually, because they were pretty fucking good. Vig's suggestions are pretty solid. Again, get the volume of the lyrics up and make sure the delivery and occasional layering flows well if you rerecord anything. Try to add another verse in here over differently structured/rearranged beats, add a lyrical chorus over your musical one; anything at all that will help give more depth to what's really promising but noticeably underdeveloped so far. Really wanna see this make it, frankly. What the fuck do you people want? I'm half black. You know how we do. NO (refine & resubmit)

Like I was telling Dain a little while ago, this is mastered really loudly, enough to bug me anyway, but I'm making sure that it won't affect my vote, as other judges didn't have any issue with it. Would have still preferred a less-agressive mid-range, but it's all good as the production is pretty solid. This one really takes the source in a new direction but I hear connections to the source in the more liberal/different sounding areas starting with the note pattern at :25. Nice way to stick with the original lyrics in a new style at :57, as well as doing the same with the chorus at 1:30. Cool stuff. I thought the lyrics from :57-1:50 should have been louder as the music was obscuring them a bit, but the original lyrics coming in at 3:07 were where I felt they needed to be. Great shit here. I loved the source tune and here the arrangement is quality, the production is agressive but well made overall. I felt like this deserved more of an ending that this got at 3:56, but whatchu gonna do? No particularly noteworthy problems here to hold it back. Can't wait to play "Hysteria" back to back with this on VGF. I think it's unfortunate this didn't get more attention when it was posted at VGMix, but a lot of people aren't DDR freaks there. I'm not saying that it'll get infinitely more attention here, as a lot of people aren't familiar with DDR stuff, but I'm sure SGX can tell you that a lot of people will nonetheless come out of the woodwork to hear this. Along with some stepfiles at Bemanistyle, it'll probably show up (along with other OCR stuff) in Flash Flash Revolution if it hasn't already, and the kids who play that will bug you more than that weird guy from Chile. Great work, bro. YES

TO's another good thing out of Australia. Great work, Joe. When I first heard the old version at VGMix, I wasn't too hot on it, but it's be refined nicely swince then and I really enjoyed it. The almost Engrished lyrics make 0 sense but they're fun and flow well, and frankly that's really what counts. High quality work, bro. Hope you have more ambitious stuff like this for the future. Looking forward to playing this on my radio show.

Fairly weak percussion and ambiance intro up until 1:01. The synth lead lacks depth, and there's no real clarity in the presentation here. The synth melody plodded along until 1:45 and then went back to the ambiance before some really poor vox & bells came in at 2:01. At least the drums coming in at 2:26 had a little meat to them, but all of the sounds are thin & weak in their delivery. 2:27 until the end just held to the same patterns throughout. Very underwhelming effort overall, I'm afraid. No meaningful variation or dynamics to speak of most of the way. Just learn whatever you can to bring some energy and depth to your sounds, and don't get so skimpy with the rearrangement ideas as this was pretty minimal on those grounds. NO

Pretty cool material with fairly unique sounds, good energy, and an overall catchyness. At :32 (and a couple of other, less noticeable places), the recorder got really shrill, but otherwise the delivery on everything was pretty strong. All of the instrumental elements here came together well, with John's arrangement & Roland's production both being excellent. This was direct post material that just needed to be verified in regards to the source tune, since Compy's link was down, so there you have it. YESs should be so simple. YES

Your mom.

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sor2.rar - "Good End" (25.gym) I'm feeling extra generous today, because while I didn't own many games, SoR2 was one of them, and this is just ripped beats with live sax on top as a cover until 1:35 and is DYING for NO Override. Then we hit the freestyle section of the sax, which was alright. Nothing particularly sweet or anything, but shit, I can't play sax. The rest of music detracted from the sax work though. Somewhere out there, Prot's making fun of this being a bonus track off the Very Best of SEGA. 3:12...what the...hell?!? Why would you even do that to the ending? Rayz-duh! Yu-zo! Rip mix! But...WITH...a...sax...on...TOP! [/sonik Elektronik] NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 120 "Julia" Opened with a tranced cover of Julia with plain jane beat keeping drums underneath that plodded up the trance flavor. What was that subtle low note beat coming in at :51? It's not in the right key, obviously, and it threw things off. And there some "tick, tick, tick, tick" hat annoying the shit out of me, louder than everything else, including the vox. 1:26 keeps going with "tick, tick, tick" driving me batshit and treading water with the arrangement the whole way. By 2:00 every time the pattern repeated, I kept thinking "When the hell is this gonna stop?!? It never did. It went all the way until 3:08 of your 3:20 mix. Man, that ending was terrible; pure copout/I-gave-up-ish stuff. Anyway, good luck on future mixes. Scrap that one though. You ran nearly 2 minutes of a 3 minute mix with...ugh. Then I listened again and :17-:33 was the same thing you repeated for those other 2 minutes. Unbelievable. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/femblem.zip - NSF Track 13 Why'd this have to be tough on account of production? There's way too much reverb here and not enough sharpness. 1:42-2:09 & 3:36-3:55 are particular examples of how things sounded somewhat ok, but nonetheless mushed together. There's no high-end here whatsoever; everything's in the low and mid ranges. The thick low chords here linger for a long time once they're played and manage to obscure and wash with other notes since they all occupy the same limited space on the EQing. Since this was resequenced by Pat in the first place, I encourage him to do anything to sharpen the sound on this. There doesn't have to be less reverb, just less muddiness/more clarity. Piano-only mixes don't have to sound immaculate (e.g. Bladiator's "Chopinesque Kirby"), but there's only so low I'll judge the bar. Kevin's arrangement is more than passable, and I played Kevin's original version of the mix way back on VGF. I may just be a stickler; I'm honestly looking forward to both of you guys being posted here; you're both good names that I've been following for some time. Especially hearing Pat's other pieces at VGMix, I'm fairly sure this sound style was purposeful, but I really need a higher level of clarity than this. NO (resubmit, please)

Yeesh. Way to hang that flute note until :25. Panning effects were really bad. Way higher quality than the MIDI stuff you'd hear at a very bootleg CT fan site. Too bad that's not what this place is. VERY shrill strings coming in at 1:21. Some very minimal arrangement going on here anyway. Definitely at the level that a total n00b would think was a dramatic overhaul. 5 1/2 minutes of this? Nah, I'm good thanks. Jesus, even turning down the volume to 50% on Winamp, these shrill instruments are killing me. Sorry, bro, form rejection all the way. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Aria de Mezzo Carattere" (ff6-208.spc) Piano and strings opening this are pretty thin. Electric guitar on melody at :22 is shrill as hell in some places, grating and drowning the song out in others. Percussion coming in at :50 is plodding, muffled, and drags the piece down. Cymbals coming in at 1:15 are shrill as well and the whole song is cluttered by then. The guitar distortion is a stylistic choice, sure, but the distortion's not helping especially after 1:47. Vox coming in at 1:57 sounds alright, but completely obscured. Just a cover the whole way through; not a rearrangement. No concept of sound balance or production whatsoever. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/shatterh.zip - NSFs Track 4 & 5 Gotta echo's Prot's sentiment; the lead guitar tone was flat and really never hit that level of strength beyond the opening riff for some reason. Soon after, the lead then got really obscured by the more distorted guitar providing support; watch the sound balance there. Hook up the percussion with a bit more activity and try to get the sound quality a bit sharper. Away from the production side, this mix was a pretty strong straight arrangement/cover-style track and we do accept tracks like that, but I'd prefer to hear something on the rearrangement side to put it on firmer ground. I really enjoyed this one as well and would love to hear a resubmission, Ed. Frankly, if you're gonna do a cover, it needs to be a bit more expansive on the whole, but the second guitar did a good job on that level, so you may not need to do anything there. Primarily, taking a look at the production and delivery could bring this up a few notches. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/gunsmoke.zip - NSF Track 2 We at least get into some more thought out arrangement at 1:22 and beyond, and there was certainly work done in terms of creating support chords throughout, but this just took the source tune melody, didn't change it much, and instead applied it to 4 or 5 different sound combinations. Cool ideas for a remix, and not violation stuff to me due to the support chords that were present, but not what I'm looking for with a ReMix via rearrangement. Sounds weren't too hot either, and that prevented this idea of expanding upon the minimal NES original from realizing its potential. Keep working at it, and hopefully there will be some subsequent suggestions on how to improve the sounds. NO