Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/gunsmoke.zip - Track 2 Well, I appreciate the conservative genre adaptation here, I suppose. Not too much was done beyond some rhythmic alteration of the source tune, so I wasn't feeling the lack of interpretation here. The synths were pretty basic and the atmosphere was a bit too muddy. There was a glassy-sounding, almost flute-like synth on support that was completely buried thanks to the cluttering created by the huge amount of reverb The composition basically looped at 2:06, and there's not much more for me to say beyond that. The most important aspect to address with future works is to work on arrangement creativity via further interpretation. Throw more unique and personal ideas into the picture. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/gd3.rsn - "Invitation" (gd3-03.spc) Decent intro up until the source tune was brought in with a generic electrosynth at :58. The beatwork was fairly plain and didn't drive the mix forward at all. The claps in particular sounded pasted on top of the music and didn't mess well. Some of your sounds probably need some individual EQing tweaks to create some separation; everything sounded cluttered together and muddy. Without all the reverb here though, you'd be left with not a lot of elements in play; I don't like how the reverb was used to mask an otherwise thin combination of sounds. The source started up again at 1:57 with an additive supporting synth, but that wasn't really enough in terms of interpreting the theme. I appreciated the piano arriving at 2:23 but felt that more rearrangement of the actual source tune melody was needed. Nonetheless, some of the piano sections were particular creative on the composition side, even if the sample itself sounded generic and robotically sequenced. Some good ideas in the second half, but this was a relatively underdeveloped mix to me. Play around with the actual Invitation melody more if possible, check out the ReMixing forum for some advice on tightening up the production, and run your work by the WIP forum in order to get more feedback before submitting. Harmony will have some great suggestions on things you could do with this. Some potential here. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 19 The intro until :22 fooled me into thinking that this approach would be different. Too loud, relies on drumloops for the dNb hawtness, and take no liberties with the melody whatsoever. The track was also cluttered mess and desperately needed some separation of sounds. Cool for the MM2 fan who likes any mix from the game, but otherwise, you gotta be more. I didn't hate it, but from a standards and guidelines perspective, this "cover + drumloop" approach wasn't bringin' it. It does for "BigViolationWestBristol", but not for this. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 405 "Compression of Time" I'm generally gonna come down against generic sounding electronica. There was a modicum of work done to create some atmosphere to the track, but a lot of the synths were nonetheless a bit thin. Unlike most of the crappy trance style subs we get, the synths weren't too exposed. Still, some brief parts were too bare, like from 1:20-1:33. Really dislike VERY generic transitions like the overused cymbal shots and kicks from 1:27-1:33. There were some decent arrangement ideas though, particularly the composition of the keyboard-driven sections, which I hope other Js agree with on some level, though I felt the arrangement still could have been more interpretive beyond transposing it to the trance genre and applying some rhythmic alterations. Some of the more interpretive ideas, were good, but the composition as a whole simply retread itself at 2:27, which was a hit against this since it was only 3:25. Not sure it could be brought up to a passable level, honestly, but I wouldn't mind seeing you try for a resubmission, because I liked the potential here. NO (resubmit)

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 107 "Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World" Pretty much the original on strings, followed a synth lead with rhymthic alterations joined in. There were also some kicks and claps that sound pasted on. Not much in the way of anything truly driving the track forward or making the arrangement interesting unfortunately. A harp was used at 1:38, but I still didn't hear any particularly interpretive compositional ideas until 1:53, and that was a only brief respite until the compositional ideas basically looped at 2:06. Not bad for a first effort back in the day I suppose, but it would need a lot more creativity with the arrangement and the rhythms here. NO

Which was that? Ah come on, Spacebeam was the hotness. Jesse and I are gonna walk down the streets of Boston again singing that shit. "JEAH!"

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Opening Theme (part 2)" (ff6-101b.spc) I thought this was hilarious. I know not everyone's gonna agree with the humor in this mix or the mocking reason it was made, in order to somehow diss DCT, which I think was a bad reason to make this mix in the frist place. Nonetheless, I thought this was a great parody of tons of gansta rappers. The Bone Thugs parody section in particular was great. How this somehow does a good job of dissing more serious and sincere rap efforts from DCT & Just Us is beyond me. It doesn't work on that level; the two mixes are apples and oranges, as far as I'm concerned. In any case, the arrangement was a disappointment, which is a shame. Pieces of part 2 of the "Opening Theme" are just used pretty straightforwardly with these synths here, and there's not much to the arrangement beyond that. So "Shut the the Fuck Up," what the fuck's up? Needs a lot more actual rearrangement instead of these minimalist near-verbatim synths. Trick the music portion of the mix out next time, Star. Not sure if this could even pass the unofficial "decency" test, as funny as I thought it was, but hey, unless the arrangement itself even gets up to par, it's nothing I'm really thinking over. ROFL as hell to me, but in terms of passing the arrangement guidelines, you're only fucking it up...fucking it up...fucking it up... NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic.rar - 07 "Special Stage" The opening chimes sounded a bit too synthetic, but the slight delay at :10 along with more effects at :14 really thickened things up and made them sound more realistic. The strings joining in at :30 were way too thin in texture which made their synthetic sound a detriment. The cymbal shot at 1:01 as a transition was very poorly used also. The muffled drums used at from 1:22-1:31 left me scratching my head, but their return from 2:03-2:13 was even more awkward and disjointed. The bassline was nearly completely buried by mud and reverb, so while I like the ambiance, some elements could be a bit more clearly positioned. The arrangement had some rhythmical alterations to the source mostly, but had some potential. Could have developed the ideas a bit further, so keep working on this one, I'd say. Cool effort, bro. Wouldn't mind hearing analoq's opinions on this. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 219 "Gold Saucer" When those chimpmunk-esque samples came in, I literally said to myself, please don't be Liquid Neon. The sounds were generic trance synths, the track was sounded like it was clipping constantly. Hated the voiceclips used throughout here, including some chimpmunked-reggae clips. That didn't seal my vote, cuz I feel unorthodox ideas shouldn't be disqualified, but I'll admit I don't envision the day when we pass a mix with the chimpmunk effect. The overall texture was thin despite the number of elements in play. None of the sounds used had any power behind them except the drumloops you threw in. Some people may diss the arrangement here or say the track was too crazy, but I felt the DnB genre work was decent and the arrangement was fine. On the arrangement front, I definitely heard the connection throughout most of the track, so that wasn't a problem for me, but I'm not feeling the generic trance synths thrown in here. Every mix you make with those sounds will ultimately sound generic, so you need to work on synth design to take your work to the next level. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 120 "Still More Fighting" Nah. Sounded like a MIDI grade orchestration effort, with some of the instrument parts possibly taken verbatim from a MIDI. No effort put into humanization of stuff like the strings, winds, and even that misplaced saxophone. The sound quality was way below the bar, and the arrangement took little creative liberty with the source beyond tranposing it to orchestral. Sorry, but bleh. Don't send lazy efforts like this in the future. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Forest Interlude" (dkq-10.spc) Some of the ambiance and ethnic percussion work was cool, but the lead synths were disparately generic and unexpressive, sounding at times to be out of tune. The harp sample sounded fine (OMG, Giga!), but it was used robotically. There was a decent bit of arrangement in a few brief sections, but ultimately this wasn't interpretive enough by any means. Go for more creativity next time instead of basically surrounding a lousy lead with cool sounds that don't actually gel with it. Add birdcussion next time too, or the approach just doesn't work from the ground up. [/sarcasm] NO

The source material may also be used/revised in Dark Chronicle, but it's from Dark Cloud. Thanks.

Awesome as fuck! Mike has made "Terra" his bitch.

It's not "non-traditional". You can listen to something like NPR and hear their segments put together that way. It's a refreshing approach re: community radio here. I'd say keep the music clips at a minute, but lengthen them only when you need to pad the show, which doesn't sound like something y'all need to do.

Whereas I think Bev's orchestral pieces need more work overall in the execution, her solo piano stuff tends to be stronger. I don't mind the timing being a bit off as it relates to my decision. Though I nitpick over it, it was nothing major overall, and, agreeing with Gray in conversation we had about this one, I also felt it lended humanity to the piece. Some quick fix things: There was an awkward note at 2:15. There were some unnatural aburpt note cutoffs at 3:20 & 3:24 that need to be smoothed out also. I felt much of the left-hand activity was simplistic enough where it didn't fill up the space much. Of course, the left-hand actitivy was gonna be a repeat issue since the composition was basically the same. My major issue with the piece though, which may come across as subjective, but which I felt ultimately proved too much of a detriment to merely be subjective, was that the texture was awfully sparse. Agreeing with DarkeSword's vote on the previous version, I could see how the relative emptyness of the composition could discourage other Js as well. The track may simply need more sustain going on to create a fuller sound in order to compensate for any thinness in the performance, although the bass levels were a bit flooded to begin with, so it's a delicate operation. I hope others have some good suggestions here on how to tweak the production on that level. I dunno why the track sounded thinner here, but comparing the new version versus the old, that was indeed the case. The arrangement and performance are certainly on point for me, but I need a bit more tweaking for the YES. I think making the composition itself more intricate would also help, but it may be an impractical suggestion at this point. No qualms whatsoever if this passes. NO (borderline/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - Boss (Robotnik Theme.gym) There was some noted improvement here, so pardon me for focusing in on the negative aspects. Some of the jerkier note movements were effectively smoothed out. Some of the instruments still sounded a bit too synthetic, like that wind instrument at 1:00. The new horn sample at 1:30 was way too loud and muddy. The sound of the sample itself was better though, and much more realistic. At 1:50, you smoothed out the notes a little bit on whatever the lead was there, but the timing was still a bit off. Again at 2:04 the horn was too loud and muddy. Not sure why it sounds so rough now. Moving back into the whatever-dat-is lead at 2:24, the sample sounded too synthetic and thin, creating too thin a texture as well. The quiet vox at 2:50 sounded really robotic, and was particularly exposed in its note-to-note movements. The strings on lead at 3:54-4:05 sounded really fake as well. Most of the problems here were still textural (on account of some thinly used samples) or with humanization (as some of the instruments were fixed up but others were still left sounding robotic). Indeed again, the lead at 4:09 had similar note movement problems. Actually, all of the leads until 4:33 had that problem. Also, the horn layered with your lead at 4:23 that steadily rose in volume ending up being too loud and blaring from 4:30 to 4:35. In particular, everything from 3:54-onward needs to be tightened up substantially. I understand you won't be able to work on this again until you go back to university, Bev, but I still can't pass this I'm afraid. If you end up resubmitting this again, I'd get a ton of outside feedback to make sure things are solid. I realize you were under time constraints, so I don't think you should let a NO dampen your spirits here. NO (resubmit)

Well it could be interesting since I did use to give reviews in the WIP forum a while ago. Does anyone else think this would be a good idea? Very sparingly. Stick with people you know will actually finish what they've started. I'd keep the priority to mixes you feel confident could pass as well.

Considering the disparate natures of the two, the comparison is completely irrelevant and inappropriate. Uh, I realize the interweb can be a poor conduit of sarcasm, but of course that wasn't a real comparison. The two mixes are nothing alike at all. I should have added something facetious like "(birdcussion™ Ari Asulin)"!

Not to diminish this track making it, especially since I enjoyed it myself, but how we took this and NOT Joseph's even hotter "Matoya no Fuuketsu" is beyond me. Man, what a mistake y'all.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman6.zip - Track 2 ("Blizzardman Stage") This one was pretty chill, and the audience for VGF56 were definitely impressed with this one when it hit the air. Megman VI had a really good soundtrack. Not quite up there with MM2 or MM3, but it was a welcome change of pace from the lackluster themes of MM4 & MM5. Cool opening inspired by the source material, and some piano handled the rearranged melody nicely at :19. Already pretty stylish at the outset, I just knew this was gonna be solid. Some very dense strings joined in harmony with the piano at :34 and the soundfield was nice and dense. Nice acoustic guitar section at 1:10 to change the mood of the piece; it worked well to create some dynamic contrast without even changing the tempo, followed by the chorus at 1:27 on strings. I liked the sax work arrived at 2:03 in a nice original section, before sexin' the ladies down at 2:41 with the Blizzardman melody once again. Later some airy female vox handled the chorus. The instrument variation presented here was a huge plus for the track. DarkeSword pointed out that he felt as if many of the notes were too punchy, though I disagreed with that as an issue. To me, the performance style was impactful, though for others it may strain realism too much. At times, it felt like the track had a bit too much reverb, but overall everything was pulled off with skills. The arrangement was very engaging, and I'm glad Don decided to send it. Vurez has been someone I've been aware of for awhile at VGMix, as his multiple Megaman VI mixes initially caught my attention. He had a close call with his Ys VI remix, but I really hope that's resubbed as well. I hope Don keeps us in mind for future submissions, including his other MM6 material, and his Ninja Gaiden mix "Basilisk Run". Nice work, bro. YES

Yeah, I checked it out and Don mistakenly linked to his Tomahawk Man mix "Silver Setting Sun". I fixed the link in the submission letter.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/starfox.rsn - "Sector X & Sector Z" (sf-17.spc) Yeah, I remember this one here. I played the PRC version of this one on VGF54. If you didn't link to that MIDI from Doulifee's space though, Lee, I would have spent hours listening to the SPCs to figure out what you tried to mix. We'll see if anyone else agrees, but I found this to be another overly liberal arrangement; not enough recognizable parts of the original were in here, I felt. The sounds were fairly basic, and not very cohesive at times when the groove stuff kicked in. I finally heard the first section of the source tune recognizably rearranged at 1:39. The groove was pretty basic, and I felt that the soundclips were too much of a gimmick. Some were too quiet and even the louder ones were somewhat undecipherable. The huge disparity in volume between different soundclips came off as too amateur unfortunately. I liked the string stuff at 2:22, but it was still too liberal. Nice wind instrument layering at 3:50 for the finish. Most of the material felt "inspired by" rather than "derived from", I'm afraid, so I can only go NO.

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - "Chemical Plant Zone" This isn't anywhere near acceptable vis-a-vis the standards. The source tune melody was essentially taken verbatim the whole way through, and the synths playing it were basically the same as the original. Beyond that, there was nothing else alongside the source tune but some drums and quiet strings. The whole "Stormy Night at the Plant" motif only applied to the SFX from the first 60 seconds and nowhere else in the track. 6 minutes for this? Nah, there's just no point dragging it out this long. No significant creativity in the actual arrangement whatsoever. Not quite an Override-able submission, IMO, but you definitely need to read the standards more closely, bro: NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Sanctuary Dungeon" (loz3-15.spc) Played this one back on VGF52 and knew this was gonna need some work from the get-go in order to get it up to snuff. Decent intro, though the SFX being so grainy was kinda weak. Piano & drum intro was somewhat sparse, but a pretty unique way to build things up. The source tune kicked in at :59, but I felt it was too conservative and reliant on reinstrumenting things to change the feel without much of anything else going on. Ha! Go Go Godzilla at 1:39! Still pretty conservative stuff with the arrangement, but I liked the quiet vibe there thanks to the new instrument choices. The synths arriving at 2:11 had some really jerky not-to-note movements and the tambourine needed to be quantized badly. There were some supporting elements there like a harp and some vox that you could barely hear at all, so I'd suggest bringing those up a bit. By 2:56 the synths on lead were really straining. You may want to change/alter the lead sooner in order to not let the track get monotonous during that section. Same problems with a lack of performance realism with the wind instrument introduced at 3:04. Same jerky note-to-note movements. Heard some Super Metroid at 3:31; nice yo! The laughing SFX was a decent touch but the sound quality of the sample being so low prevents it from sitting well in the track. Perhaps use some additional effects on all of the soundclips to disguise the lower quality. The soundfield was pretty sparse from 3:04-3:55, and may need something subtle added into the picture to further fill things out but disrupt the relatively quiet setting. Source melody returned at 4:08 on strings, which comparably sounded much better than the synths and wind instrument pointed out earlier in terms of performance dynamics. The issues were still there, but were much less noticeable. The velocities of the piano at 5:02 sounded nearly the same for your close. The subtle strings in the back should be brought up in volume and then faded down just like the rest of the instruments. Good arrangement ideas, but the execution needs refinement. Not sure when you'll be able to get to this in order to rework it, but keep at it, Bev. I feel like this one needs more texture to the sounds, and refinement in how you're using your samples, but ultimately those have been recurring issues that you've been able to tackle in the past. This one needs a substantial bit of work, but I'm sure you can swing it. NO (refurbish/resubmit)

Vig & I both surmise that the source material is probably in the clear. With the soundtrack being from 1998 back before the licensing boom in VGM started, and the source tune referencing in-game stuff, I'd very likely say there's no issue. I may check further with Kaleb Grace and crew, but otherwise I'll take responsibility for it.