Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/actr.rsn - "Birth of the People" (actr-15.spc) Heh. Interesting mix being made with mostly default-level sounds. I liked some of the altered rhythms here, but to me this was a glorfied cover. The intro had me thinking this might end up diffferent, but :39 sealed with me that it wouldn't. Changing some rhythms and some instruments and adding a dance kick isn't enough for me. I'm glad some new ideas were finally introduced from 1:49-2:14, but it was relatively short-lived. Genuinely cool ideas on the surface, but this could have been more. Props on creating something this good from default sounds, as I can certainly tell you're new at this. Rearrange the melodic content more substantially next time around, and head over to the ReMixing forum and learn to do even better things with what you have. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - Hot-Head Bop (dkq-14.spc) Liontamer: "Cool, original, eh Ari?" Protricity: "Yes, master." You know me, I'm not a big fan of the generitrance adaptations. Some quick references to the original were right there in the intro, but nothing really arrived melodically until :59. Beatwork changed up a little bit at 1:26. Pretty simple stuff still. I liked that synth sparingly used from 1:51-2:13. There was another change in the texture at 3:27, but nothing changed too significantly within the 4:42-long track. Overall, the groove was pretty basic & repetitive, the synths were generic, and nothing interesting was done with the melody. Ultimately that sells the mix short, because a modicum of effort was put forth here in terms of providing some relative level of variation that's not found in other trance/electronic subs we get. But that doesn't discount that fact that this was style over substance. Thinking of "progressive" material, much more creative and dynamic work comes to mind. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 22 ("Ending") Covered this one in late May for VGF: Well, now that this has hit the panel, the assessment at how well the arrangement was pulled off is in fact mine to make. I would definitely hone in on all of Dan's criticisms, Alex, because they were spot-on. There really isn't much in the way of structure or order here, and the arrangement may alter the original, but doesn't do it very coherently in the big picture. I didn't have as much trouble hearing the source tune in play as Dan might have, but I see where he's coming from, as this took some very liberal turns most of the way. The repetitive percussion would need to be addressed, and the piece would need to be given more solid structure. It's a cool freeform-ish piece, but it definitely drags on and the lack of organization was a detriment. I didn't feel it was bad or I wouldn't have pimped it, and I actually encourage others to head to VGMix to check it out. Nonetheless, I agree with Dan that, unless this could be given quite the overhaul, you should call this one a day and move onto new work. Try for something around 3 minutes long, as you're prone to making pieces that have some good concepts but nonetheless overstay their welcome. Quality over quantity. Keep at it. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - A bunch of 'em Yeesh, hitting me with a severe case of medleyitis. Source tunes changed from one idea to the next with no effort put forth in making logical/flowing transitions. They weren't overly jarring, but they were lazy. The mixing/production was actually fairly good, but the instrumentation was deceivingly sparse. The woodwinds in particular needed more work to sound more realistic/human. Scope out the ReMixing forum and see what tips/advice you can find. Just a very scattershot approach with some duly-noted rearrangement, but nothing here was given enough time or development, even within nearly 4 minutes. Ambitious ideas, but not approached in a practical way. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/btbm.rsn - "Ragnarok Canyon" (btbm-03.spc) Cover with what I guess is poorly used FL Slayer geetar. The time of 4:24 is even the same as the SPC. Totally made the original tune worse. NO Override

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - "Chemical Plant Zone" Glad I heard some original ideas from :42-1:04, but this was pretty much a techno-ed convsersion. Nice idea for layering various lines of the original from 2:17-2:41 though. I saw you were going for a purposefully muddy feel, though the low-end was a bit cluttered. Anyway, your production isn't terrible, and you put together some decent stuff, but this was too faithful to the structure of the original from my POV. Needs to be more interpretive. Keep at it, Cooper. NO

Indeed, I heard this one over at RPGamer's Sound Test for Splendid Performance. I just don't like how some of the notes cut out unnaturally with no release, for example, :36, :54, :59, 1:03, 1:23, 1:28, 1:49, 2:38. It should really be addressed/fixed if possible. Some of those times were less prominent examples of that happening throughout the piece, as the reverb on other notes served well to cover those up. Really nags on me to hear stuff like that hurt an otherwise good attempt at realism and dynamics. The arrangement is genuinely engaging and enjoyable, as the two source tunes are stylishly given the solo piano treatment and fused together nicely, but it also should take more creative liberties with the melodies in my opinion. I'd scrutanize that more closely, but frankly I can't pass this as is regardless. If you could do this in a day, you can spend another day sprucing it up and making it even more Splendid! I'd like to see a new Zelda game added to the site, but you or Mustin need to fix it up for a solid YES from me, David. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/smw.rsn - "Map 3: Vanilla Dome" (smw-04.spc) Pretty much some voices of the SPC sped up and then a bunch of stuff added on top with no real effort given to make things sound cohesive or harmonized. Repetitive and obviously not interested in rearranging the melodic material. Poor. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sfx2.rsn - "Surprise Attack" (sfx2-32.spc) I linked to the SNESamp SPC pack, but I'd be remiss if I didn't also link to the SPC pack that DZ indeed compiled himself over at http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/sf2zd.rar. Short and sweet. I thought the horn sequencing was done reasonably well, I liked the sheer amount of variations of the source material pulled off in the arrangement here, and the trumpet cadenza was used effectively. Good Spanish touches were here in the performance, and while I didn't think this was superlative work (as the horn work's syntheticness was exposed a number of times), the results were good here overall. Looking forward to hearing more of your work, as well as improvement in future subs. YES

Tell that to Larry. Hahaha! Got the Simpsons on loop I see.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda.zip - Track 1 Pretty cool intro; definitely nothing wrong with it. The buildup to the melody at 1:01 was alright. Dunno why the lead there was so thin-sounding and exposed. By the changeup at 1:18, the backing percussion was getting repetitive/boring and didn't substantially change until 2:39. The arrangement ideas had some decent tradeoffs between sticking verbatim to the Overworld theme and some rearranged parts. Jovette's brief lyrics from 2:44-3:01 were cluttered and undecipherable, which was a shame. Until 3:31, I generally liked what was going on, but beyond that, the source melody was flooded out, leaving the added material too dominant and, IMO, diminishing the potential for Crono's new/original instrumentation to mesh tightly with the source material. Aside from some sound balance issues, I actually thought the production was pretty good, and it definitely surpassed some of the very poorly produced stuff I've heard from Jovette in the past. Need to hear some more creative ideas with the source tune melody during some of the conservative sections, and also have the rearranged melodic material be given more prominent placement. Others might say this drags on as well at 5+ minutes and cound stand being trimmed down. Great candidate for a resubmission, so I'd like to see this again. Crono's got some stuff going on in Japan soon trying to promote his material, so best of luck to him on that as he looks to pimp that out. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/tetris.zip - Track 2 Dan pretty much summed it up. Nothing much besides trance and solo synth piano (with the same velocity on every note) adaptatios trading off for 3+ minutes. I'd say more, but we just don't want this, so read the submissions standards next time. Be more creative; no simplistic covers. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Battle Against a Weird Opponent" (mo2-029.spc) Cover-ish stuff with some oomp-tss and other simple stuff on top until :37-1:14 introduced some new melodic content as the lead, and went back to the cover formula. Pretty sparsely constructed, too conservative in the effort to expand the original, and not developed into anything meaningful. NO

Heh. That's a pretty naive request.

Fixed.

So aside from the most important stuff like the job/career hunt and working during early evenings, I've been busy with using my free time doing OCR related stuff like judging dem mixes, writing reviews (gotta catch up) and working on updating the site's database with many new source tunes (in-progress). But I'm proud to say that my life's goal of getting a remix past the judges panel has truly arrived. That's right, the fine judging lads over at OverLooked ReMiX have enthusiastically passed the superlative Gran Turismo (Japanese Soundtrack) mix "Toyota Disco", and I encourage you, the unwashed masses, to register there and VOTE Toyota Disco to da top o' da OverLooked ReMiX charts! I count on your support to put money in my mouth and food in my wallet! So vote early and vote OFTEN (i.e. once)!

Ohhh shit! For real? Any way I can check that out? (Wish I knew if they re-ran that stuff).

Swedish you fool! SWEDISH!

Yeesh, had to move my vote to a new post just to separate from the bible of information about it. The time breakdown though from ktrition was much appreciated. This was pretty catchy stuff, and I liked it as a casual listener. I thought the production could have sounded sharper and more lively, plus I don't understand why this was presented so quietly. Had to raise the Winamp preEQ 6db just to hear things. Also need to obtain a <6MB copy of the mix. I was pretty borderline on the track. Not that this has to echo a more active, progressive approach the whole way through, 'cuz the rather minimalistic instrumentation approach for the first few minutes works for the most part, but the track felt too empty at points. The first minute or so was excellent, but when Christian entered in with the bass at 1:25, it sounded like it was just drums, perc and the harp there and things felt sparse to me. Once you hit 1:56, the organ on lead plus just the bass and drums felt a bit too empty in tandem, though I liked the harp-style activity. Nice fluttery sound at 2:26 for the ear candy. I wish Christian's bass work was a little more pronounced here, especially since there weren't too many things going on yet. The section starting from 3:47-4:02 and then 4:02-4:22 with all the SFX was a pretty WTF transition. The static was fine, but some of the other soundclips came across as cheesy/unnecessary beyond the static itself. Call me a wet blanket, but I don't really see the point of that part at all. Nonetheless, we got some of the good stuff at 4:22 and things picked up nicely and filled up the soundfield with some laid back, but strongly performed material. This is more of the vibe I was anticipating from the get-go. Nice transition at 5:17 into some nice hand-drum & piano stuff, but then at 5:35 some odd-sounding notes came in. I wasn't really phased by it too badly, but 5:50-6:10 was just...what's going on there? I was feeling the material after 6:10 though, and I liked the static coming back in for the finish. EDIT: I may sound close-minded, but I really initially thought the ideas from 3:47-4:22 & 5:50-6:10 threw monkeywrenches in an otherwise solid arrangement. They didn't impact me enough to NO, even though I initially disliked the specific ideas there, and felt they disrupted things. Otherwise, the arrangement was fine, and didn't suffer from straight medley-itis the way mixes with this many source tunes are prone to do. I'm fairly sure some will dislike how certain sections transitioned though, but over time, those sections worked fine on an artistic level as well as for switching up the flow here. And, no, that's not a free pass for anyone trying to do something strange. Not really gonna try to dissect this with so many source tunes though, so thanks to Kunal for breaking it down for us. I'd really prefer the levels raised up a bit without clipping, and those (in my opinion) out-of-place sections refined a little bit, but otherwise have a YES, with the arrangement carrying my vote.

HAHAHAHA! Awesome.

Bah. No need to hate on the old school stuff, even if it's FL-default or whatever the case may be. It's an weird piece, has some odd harmonies in spots, and the last section was bad, but I thought this was actually pretty catchy in places, and I enjoyed some parts of it 3 years ago when I first heard it.

"What seems to be the problem, sir?"

GOOD LUCK, HOMEY! JUDGEZ ON STRIKE 0R SOMETHIN'! Seriously though, apologies to Mike for this being held over so long waiting for votes that frankly just aren't gonna show up. The panel has made a decisive conclusion and, as there have not been further votes recently, the voting is closed. I hope the already provided criticisms and suggestions are beneficial, and encourage a possible resubmission down the line.

My ears have always been the greatest. But then again "that's a slap bass" and "those strings are fake". Hahaha, that TGIF commment is so true now that I think about it! Nice analogy, Blacky McBlackerton.

BAH, U THINK I'M NOT WATCHING U! GRRRRR! Karl with a K, I'm watching u. U2, Bev with a B.