Liontamer

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

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

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)

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)

[sigh] Webstream refuses to give audio output. Time to cancel again. I'm a fickle pickle, my apologies.

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 Log 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]

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)

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

Old decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=44998 Link:

Not a bad intro with the synth steel-string geetar to open things up along with some swirly pad stuffz and a phasing organ-type synth at :09. The percussion & bass guitar synth coming in at :17 sounded really flat and detracted from the groove here. I can tell the style's supposed to be laid back, but the percussion and bass plod along and drag things down. The note patterns on the bass during the melody aren't bad, but try to go for some more variation on the percussion; the cymbals and kick drum can be spiced up while still remaining laid back. Correspondingly, do what you can to give more fullness to the sound of such important support elements; they're an important part of the foundation of the track, but hindered a lot of it from getting off the ground fully. Hopefully the other judges can recommend some other things. The lead synth for the melody was also very flat, especially during the chorus from 1:10-1:27. The bass guitar and drums also sounded very dry, and I heard some subtle sixteenth note hats in the back that nonetheless sounded exposed and belied timing issues with the percussion & bass. I'd recommend just scrapping the hats for that section, as I don't feel they help fill the space well enough. To your credit though, they did work better when they were less prominent around 2:02 during your fuller-sounding piano solo. There was better sounding stuff from 1:27-1:44, though the sequencing sounded too mechanical on the steel string guitar handling the melody as well as the bongo patterns. I liked the subtle elements you had in there though; some VERY light chime, didgeridoo and xylophone-style work functioned very well to accentuate things until 2:02. That stuff could be brought up a touch. I really liked the energy there and it briefly brought some unique flavor to the picture. The piano solo starting at 2:02 was alright, and I liked that the bass guitar had some more creative activity. Again, the bass could sound a bit richer, but it had the right energy. Perhaps bring the piano levels up a bit as well. I liked the touch of reverb I heard on the last few piano notes at 2:30. Very swanky transition from 2:31-2:36 into the final iteration of your melody as well. The piano was the most natural sounding instrument within the mix, and this was probably your best overall section of the track if I had to pick one. Definitely the closest realization of the groove you were going for. Going into the last iteration of the melody, you could certainly afford to take some further rearrangement opportunities with the melody to help make the mix's climax stronger. Or do so earlier on to provide some further dynamic contrast and development. Also, the way you switched into the chorus at 2:53 from the melody, everything sounded a lot emptier as several support elements dropped out in the back. Try to prevent that kind of abrupt contrast from happening. All things considered though, I felt the actual arrangement was pretty strong. Admittedly, I'm not really down with the sound effects thrown in there around 3:10, but Israfel thought the goofy voice cracked him up, so some people like it. The resolution here was certainly ok, but I would have preferred the synth fading down alongside the strings rather than cutting out first; just a small nitpick there. Even just going for a laid-back style like with the piano solo section, most of the sounds need a bit more fullness to make the most of the intent. Just listening to the source tune, one hears a lot more effective, fuller-sounding delivery there. Definitely consult whatever help you can such as the ReMixing forum here or the VGMix Conservatory for advice on maximizing the strength of your samples, because I like most of the foundations in place. Aside from that, look at humanizing some of the more mechanical-sounding elements, as well as providing some further creativity on the bass guitar & perc sequencing during their less prominent areas. People don't pay as much attention to those things as casual listeners, but they still affect the overall presentation. This was strong stuff so far that needs a bit more fleshing out in the delivery. I liked your FF7 mix "Chinatown's Future" morseso that this, Bev, but see a lot of potential here. Keep at it, sister. NO (refine & resubmit)

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.