Liontamer

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Dark World" (ff6-305.spc) Strong stuff. Much more solid than stuff like "The Fall of Zeal" to be perfectly honest. Good simple acoustic guitar work for the first minute or so. Really loved whatever instrument came in at 1:23; very haunting yet beautiful sound from what sounds like a piano, and good fadeout from it closing at 2:00 to lead into the electric guitar and percussion work at 2:03. Liking the drum shots at 2:22 & 2:29, though I would have preferred something that sounded a bit more realistic. The vox note hanging from 2:45 until 2:58 kind of pushes the boundaries of realism as well, but it's not a big deal or anything. Great metal energy working in tandem with gentler acoustic instruments, melancholy vox & sound effects. Expansive for most sections, interpretive in others, it was a pleasure to listen to and play back on VGF38. I've liked the source tune ever since OverCoat remixed it over at VGMix, and this one does a great job putting it's own spin on the theme. Excellent work, Mike. More cohesively presented than some other rejections, this was stronger material more along the lines of "From Within". YES

You read MY mind, Stephen, lemme tell you. Sorry Francis, but no matter how much time you spent on it (and I'm not saying that 100 is too much, mind you), this is just a cover medley with some basic-as-hell stuff under it. There are some decent instrumental changes, but not much beyond that. It practically doesn't get any more simplified of a remix than this. Hope you're not too discouraged by the rejection here. I'm a BIG fan of Super Mario Bros. 2 "The DarK Underground". It's one of the first mixes I ever download from OCR and one of the ones that really illustrates how you can completely take an original track and turn it into something brand new. I'm not gonna really harp on the production. You went for the sacrifice to get it under the size limit, and that's admirable, but go for VBR next time. I've seen this mix at VGMix (with a higher bitrate of course), and honestly that's really the place for it. Nonetheless, I really hope you'll continue working on game remix material, especially since I haven't heard anything from you in over two years. Good to still see you around, and I'll check out whatever else you have at your site. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - "Shadowman Stage" (Track 9) ACK! That distortion on the geetar at :11 is purposeful but not kosher with me. Just a minor gripe. Anyway, y'all are seriously funkin' things up. I loves it! Good funk cover of the Shadowman theme that brings an energy we rarely see at this site. Excellent drum activity in the back; that was one of the highlights to be sure. I was hoping you guys would break out into some freestyle work, and there it was at 2:21. Great stuff on top of the Shadowman theme bassline that really pieced together well, including the slowdown at 3:13 to move back into the source tune coverage at 3:25. Good stuff with the organ-style keyboard doing slight variations on each iteration of the source tune during the bridge as well. Although others might focus on the general performance, I felt production was the weak point. I thought the track was too heavy on the low-end, and the lead guitar could have been louder compared to the rest of the instruments. Sloppiness on the sound balance should have been addressed with some post-production. On the arrangement side, practically everything comes together well for something that initially seems loose and unstructured, but is deceivingly cohesive. Nice energy & nice performance. I checked out your site and it looks good. Pretty unique, but memorable. Congrats on some cool shit, and I hope your fanbase gets a nice boost on account of this remix. I'll keep an eye out for your material for radio play, and good luck in the future getting your name out there inb the event this doesn't make it. Haven't seen any further game music material at your site, but I hope some additional remixes are in your future. Hot shit, boys and girls. YES

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 102 "Opening - Bombing Mission" (:00-1:22), 201 "Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII" (1:28-2:08), FF8 117 "Tell Me" (2:27-2:46) & 101 "The Prelude" (2:47-2:58) The intro wasn't bad, but not quite melancholy and emotive like the intention seemed to be. Just a subjective comment on the first listen, as it gets better over time. The synths aren't that hot, but do a serviceable job. Alright, we're at 1:30 and finally more noticeable things have started happening, including a swell as 1:52. At this point though, I realized the track is deliberately paced like this and it won't change. This seems to just play sections from several tracks without doing anything substantial on the arrangement. The slow pace keeps the changes from being jarring, but there's no real direction here at all. Frankly, I think the track's pretty damn cool, and I'm keeping it, but if you took out the ambiance, it's just a very drawn out, minimalist medley to me. I feel as if more original compositional ideas are needed beyond ambiance + slow renditions of several FF tracks. Maybe someone else besides me will be feeling this though. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gsf/minishcap_gsf.rar - 06 "Picori Festival" So a quick trip to GameFAQs provides the release dates for this game: Considering the latest submission e-mail from this batch was November 11th, I'm just wondering how the hell you managed to do this. A time machine?!? Anyway, it's not bad. Nonetheless, I'll sum this up in 3 points: 1. A mere reinstrumented cover 2. You didn't use "cheer samples"; you used one cheer sample twice 3. 2 minutes and 16 seconds NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 319 "Aerith's Theme" & 101 "The Prelude" A couple of the presentation ideas were similar to the FF7 Piano Collections version of the theme by Shiro Hamaguchi & Seiji Honda, such as the style of the 3 embellishing notes in each section of the chorus starting at 1:32 (found at :52 of the FF7PC track). Nothing alarming with similarities though; just had to check that angle out, though Kevin's site points out which FF pieces he arranged rather than covered. This certainly goes in a lot of places that the enjoyable but more conservative FFVII PC piece does not. Very quiet but excellent first few minutes. Great way to slowly escalate things at 1:48. Well done integration of "The Prelude" from 2:21-3:05, followed up by some excellent rearrangement of The Prelude all the way until 3:35. The abrupt/drastic change in key at 3:40 didn't work at all, but what came after that was strong. Nice activity throughout the last 3 minutes or so, before slowing things down for the dramatic finish. I'm not an FF music fan myself, but I can see how other fans could dub this as emotive. I'm interested to hear what our other piano talents like Dhsu & Bladiator have to say on this. Maybe someone can get kLuTz & MC around for comments as well. Things were conservative but still interpretive in the beginning, but picked up even more on the rearrangement department later on. Nothing much else to say, but good work. I'll certainly be checking out the other material available at your page, Kevin. (I suggest the readers out there to do the same.) Just scoping it out, I can see you're already an accomplished musician who'll achieve bigger and better things. Certainly hope to hear more from you around here. YES

http://www.outrun.org/outrun3dlastwave.mid - "Last Wave" It's not bad. Nonetheless, I'll sum this up in 3 points: 1. A mere cover 2. Everything underneath the guitar was overly simple and unengaging 3. 1 minute and 41 seconds NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 117 "Who Are You?" Now just because the original sounds "meh" doesn't mean the remix should as well. Ohhh, stuff like that sweeping synth at :14, you're hurting me. Bah, after the little swell at :27, we move into some very dry, empty, generic trance. And it just keep going like this. And let's not forget to throw in some cliched cymbal shots at :51. Finally something different and with a measure of creativity at 2:03. Um...why did the beat at 2:24 sound like Danny B's original "Orbital Resonance"? Heh. Anyway, we rinse and repeat the earlier stuff at 2:44 only with some minor additions, like the scary vox-like synth. Just plain-jane, as The Wingless would say, and uninspired throughout. Trance has the potential to be so much more than this. Keep at it, bro, and keep learning new things. Maybe it's just me associating your mixer handle with the game, but change it. That'd be like me calling myself Master Chief. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 319 "Aerith's Theme" Now seriously, what in the hell does the first 2:07 have to do with anything? That's already an instant NO. Then you just play the original with a so-so keyboard, some weak strings, some pads, and warbly trance stuff underneath it. Production from 3:21-4:55 is really poor. There's that keyboard at 5:08 again. Oy. Whatever. NO

http://jadiepoo.com/dx/OST/11%20-%20The%20Synapse%20(Hong%20Kong%20Streets).mp3 - "The Synapse" First off, thanks a lot for providing us with the actual source tune link. I'm not liking how sparsely this track opens up for the 46 second intro with this flimsy loungy lead and soft kicks. The intro of the dance beats at :30 is very abrupt. This really pales in comparison with the source's own intro. Both of these issues are present again when your repeat this stuff at 3:16 (with the abrupt reemergence of the beats at 3:30). I feel like more effort was put into these beats than the melodic arrangement at times, but you can occasionally hear some decent ambient sounds in play. I say occasionally, because the dance beats are too loud over the melodic ambiance. Whatever synth enters in at 1:57 to handle more stuff from the source is a really poor choice. Sounds pretty weak moving from note to note. And again, the beats drown it out anyway. The beat pattern that started at 1:10 is pretty cool, but basically repeats ad nauseum for a couple of minutes at a time. Use subtle beat changeups throughout the track, much like how the beats at :31 & 1:10 were different from one another, but do it more often. Short and sweet, get rid of the flatter sounds here, place the "Synapse" melody (and the supporting elements) more in the forefront instead of the beats, and create more variation in the beatwork. Not a bad genre adaptation, Kirk, but it needs some more work. I'd look forward to a resubmission though. NO (revise & resubmit)

http://remix.kwed.org/sid.php/2501/Cauldron%20(subtune%201).sid - Subtune 1/1 So yeah, not bad here. Nothing that I found particularly interesting, to be perfectly honest. I think djp will be able to highlight the strengths of the track better than I can. Heh. Cute little laughing witch samples. The drums have some decent patterns going on, but aren't nonetheless fairly plain-sounding for most of the track. The straight arrangement of the source in the first half is handled fairly well. The laughing witch samples are fairly overused around the 1:22 mark. The arrangement was pretty simple until COUCOU really played around with things at 1:33. Very engaging stuff right there. The ideas at 2:02 vaguely gave me a Wizards & Warriors vibe. In fact, the whole mix did, so if you're a fan of that stuff, you may also wanna check this out. Nice ideas for the ending at 2:42 as well, closing out with the witch laugh. Not my cup of tea, but this possesses a decent vibe, nice similarities to Wizards & Warriors in the quirky style, and, most importantly, some solid arrangement ideas relative to the source tune. Kinda funny how we managed to get Halloween tracks now. YES

Pretty straightforward cover. Fairly enjoyable, but nothing new compared to other CV2 rock covers I've heard on the site. And, no, I'm not using the Minibosses as the measuring stick, but even "MiniMayhem" plays a little bit more with the theme by having some of the support instruments do some interesting embellishments. I've heard tracks with very abrupt transitions work, like Marsland Brotherhood's "Speedy Guitar" and virt's "Warrior King", but you need to at least have some sort of sound effect or something there that marks those changes. And (I hope I get past the language barrier here) please name your remix something more creative. Impressive cover, but the bar is higher than that. Bottom line, present something more interpretive and unique. NO

Here's the original MIDI that Mike provided: http://djpretzel.com/ocrjudge/upload/Israfel/Shivers-theme.mid Attempting to find something more substantial, but the vibe I'm getting is that this soundtrack is rare as hell.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Opening Theme (part 1)" (ff6-101a.spc) & "Kefka" (ff6-108.spc) Um...interesting intro using the opening theme...which got drowned out. Yeah. Anyway, starting with the usage of "Kefka" at :41, this is just rather simplified cover stuff until 2:05, and there's not enough clarity in the production end. Samples are pretty fake at times, but workable at others. Cute stuff until 2:43 with the music box work. After that we hit some nasty distortion while the brass and winds play off one another until 3:10. Not bad stuff with fuller areas like the stuff starting at 3:10 featuring the cymbal crashes, though again the production isn't hot, so the sounds could be cleaner. Whatever you decided to do at 4:10 was the absolute dealbreaker. Ridiculously overcompressed bullshit. And it goes on like this until 5:41. More of this stuff to close it out. You've gotta be fucking kidding me. Anyway, thanks for playing. Being half-Russian with half my family being Russian immigrants, this didn't sound like anything even analogous to Stalin or Russian Communism. The rest of you Js, just make sure the volume isn't too high when you listen to this. NO

http://www.scummbar.com/mi2/MI1-CD/01%20-%20Opening%20Themes%20-%20Introduction.mp3 - "Opening Themes" (just the first 1:34) Meh. Just MIDI-quality orchestration work here without any realism here to open up with the first 42 seconds. The transition into the techno/trance work is just sloppy, and the lead synths, I guess some saws or whathaveyou, are grating as hell and drowning everything else out. The cymbals, strings, and claps (and is that a cowbell in there?) just don't mesh well with the rest of the sounds. At least we moved away from that with the changeup at 3:14 into something that's mosr of a techno/orchestral hybrid (being generous here), before rinsing and repeating the techno stuff at 3:40. I guess it wasn't a form rejection given the um love and effort put into this. Well I mean, if YOU like it, I guess that's what's more important...oy. NO

http://www.queststudios.com/edmidi/kq3ed1.zip - Introduction Theme Please try and provide source tune information, so we can compare what you have to what inspired it. I know it's an old Sierra game, but try to hook it up. The source MIDI I found sucks. Try not to listen past :52 of it. Anyway, not to discredit the submitter, but I could only find the source tune for the second half beginning at 2:21 here, and that's a cover, so while I can't identify the first half of the track, it's somewhat safe to say it doesn't take many risks (otherwise it would be wholly original). The first half, up to 2:21, was actually pretty strong for MIDI work. I personally think it needs more work to make the most out of the format, but it wasn't bad. Again, I'm merely guessing this held fairly fast to whatever it was derived from, but otherwise it sounded fairly decent. From 2:21 on though, the GM sound is pretty exposed, especially on account of the woodwind carrying the source melody. Everything is incredibly thin, including the string activity way in the back at 3:37. Things just don't sound good at all. It's certainly a step up from the source tune I found (which sounds like ass, God bless it), but it's not up to par here. I've never heard Dr. Fruitcake attempt to create realistic orchestral sounds, but I'd still beg him for some tips on how to create fuller sounds. Besides, if you wanna get a MIDI grade remix on OCR, it's also gonna have to be way more interpretive with the source material than what I found, for example, in the second half here. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 105 "Dancing the Tokage" No offense, but what you thought was substantially "different" wasn't different enough at all. The new instrumentation is different sure, but the composition is around 85-90% Mitsuda's. Don't forget where the inspiration came from, sure, but it's nonetheless important here to fashion an interpretive rearrangement or at least a highly expansive arrangement. The distorted synth guitar that's occasionally used doesn't seem to mesh well with the other instruments, but that's just a subjective thing. The notes of the distorted guitar really don't sound right in their support role from 1:01-1:12. At 1:22, you just rinse and repeat what you had before. No dice. Needs to be more interpretive or substantially expansive relative to the source tune. Needs to not uncreatively retread the composition in only a 2:25 mix. Most of the structure is flat-out lifted from the original, and the tempo is the same. Nah, bro, you just gotta be more. Sorry, but if we took in every average cover, we'd be swimming in average covers. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Ruined World" (ct-2-01.spc) Congrats on taking a 70-second original and making something from absolutely nothing. By nothing, I mean that the source tune is very minimal. Just judging this mix on its own, one could be inclined to NO on the first listen based on its seeming repetitiveness. But with repeated listens and also comparing this to the original, this is quality work. 1:23-2:19 features the prominent usage of direct sampling from the original in the form of the ambient pads, and they're used a little bit beyond that at a lot lower volume. Some of the other odd percussion-like sounds (heard most prominently from 2:46-2:58) could have been sampled from or inspired by the clanging stuff from "Ruined World". I don't like how the manner of the fade-out ending ended the track on a lower note (the one starting at 5:58), but it was a minor gripe. Good arrangement ideas are here throughout. The additions and changes that are here are so subtle and simple that I admittedly had to double check that this wasn't simply retreading at times, which it isn't to be fair. The foundations are fairly basic, but, while the groove essentially remains the same, a very gradual building of ideas occurs over the course of the track. Solid work, Mike. I know you got discouraged over having 'A Terrible Fate' rejected, but I'd still encourage another resub of that (without needing to overhaul the idea). Even djp wanted to see given another go, so I'm pulling for you. Meanwhile, this was some solid progressive trance work that did a lot with a little. YES

http://www.zophar.net/gym/etrnchmp.rar - "Introduction" Sorry, bro, but the same central issues are still present. Do more to make the arrangement unique. Same advice from the last time around applies. I also don't know why the ending is so abrupt now, but don't do that. Give it a satisfying resolution. Hopefully you already used judging comments on the first version to make some changes already. Best of luck if you decide to come back. NO (revise & resubmit) Sorry you didn't get your changes done in time, but to Robbie and anyone else that hopes to revise a track after they've already sent off their e-mail to djp, be sure to upload a revision to the exact same URL you give in your submissions letter and don't wait for too long to revise it.

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/wizwar.zip - Track 1 Some attempted realism in the performance would have been nice. No offense, but everything is lifeless and dry. The pianos, strings, and particularly woodwinds are all very default-ish, artificial-sounding and exposed. Some effects would be appreciated. At least we got a little bit of escalation at 2:31, but the way the sounds came together was very unappealing. This struggled out of the gate. Not much to say on the arrangement front either. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - "Zelda's Theme" (LoZ-OoT_26_Zelda's_Theme.miniusf) Though it's not a bad cover and creates a decent feel, this isn't interpretive compared to the original. Pretty empty at times, yet not emotive enough to make that sparseness work to the track's benefit. The winds at :45-1:14 & 1:32- are REALLY overpowering versus the other instruments. Tone 'em down a bit. Anyway, forget it. This is just a cover with relatively minor additions, so no dice, kid. NO

Thanks to Compyfox, Xerol, Species and others for gathering up all of the higher-quality released episodes and Fox for offering up torrents via his page. Check out the stuff over at http://www.studio-compyfox.de/torrent, where you can obtain copies of VG Frequency from episodes #21 to #44. Ridiculously detailed playlists for everything are always available at my Ormgas.com forums. Please download & help seed the episodes over the holiday so others can get a hold of 'em, and thanks again to Compyfox for all the work in setting this up. It's over 100 hours of stuffs from across the video game music remixing and rearrangement communities, and I hope you enjoy.

I sent Pat a PM over at VGMix. Sounds good, but hold off on any voting until we hear back. If you can track down the source tune, more power to ya:

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff4.rsn - "The Final Battle" (ff4-43.spc) I hit :57 of the source tune...just...no. Thank you for providing us with this SPC rip plus drums. We don't accept these. Since you don't seem to understand our submissions guidelines, feel free to read them sometime. (And yes, for you intrepid regular readers, I AM just copying & pasting my now stock NO Override vote.) NO OVERRIDE

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/Authors/Game/Leitch_Barry/Lotus_2.lha - Bootup (mod.bootup) Just add ".mod" to the end of the filename if you can't play it out of the unzipped archive. First things first. This could afford to be louder. The arrangement/composition isn't bad, but the energy here is really dry thanks to these generic synths and repetitive foundations. Gonna have to thicken some of these synths up with effects to help downplay how artificial they sound, like the synth acoustic & electric guitars. They give interesting sounds here, but need something more. Hitting the 1:30 mark of this nearly 3 minute mix, the composition doesn't change or progress. This isn't interesting or spirited enough to warrant not changing up the flow at all. Needs a lot more attention paid to filling out the instrumentation and being creative on the arrangement the whole way through, rather than taking some good ideas there and not changing anything round the entire 3 minutes. NO