Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Ayla's Theme" (ct-2-19.spc) Heh. Pretty catchy theme. Not great, but all things considered, I never noticed it before this mix. Not sure why all of these synths are so lo-fi. They do an inadequate job of occupying space despite the slight delay on them. There's no power in most of these sounds (c'mon, where be da bass?) and most of them sound generic and relatively unprocessed. There's almost nothing unique in the presentation that I couldn't hear from a whole bunch of beginner mixers in the Commodore scene, since a lot of them pump out the most generic European-style techno I've ever heard although their stuff at least has a fuller, thicker texture to it. This mix here has the benefit of being more progressive and thought-out on the arrangement side however, though detrimental repetition still exists. Reminds me (in a good way) of some of the mid-90s techno/trance they'd play on the radio during the weekend club shows. Opening synth wasn't bad, but we're already encountering the generic trance sounds everywhere, like whatever you call that thing at :37. The melody arrived at :40 and the first thing I actually noticed was that your kicks were really tepid and didn't fill up the background space enough. Things were a little bit more solid at 1:08 on that front though. Unfortunately though, the production here was pretty average; not enough separation of sounds here. Without much presence in the high-end frequencies, everything sounds needlessly muddy and distant the whole way through as well. The lead synth was too shrill/grating, so on a completely subjective point, I think you could do better by dropping the lead a few steps or giving the lead a richer sound. As it stands, it sounded somewhat Megaman-ish, which was pretty cool, but that feel could be retained despite scrapping that piercing lead. Anything you can do to move away from these flat, generic synths would be a plus also. Frankly, they're limiting your potential here as it relates to the overall presentation. Wish Disco Dan was around to give you some pointers as this reminds me of some of his material; hope to see zircon give some solid input on this one. I thought the arrangement was fairly decent. Certainly was a lot more structured than Spiked Ceiling Bubble Bop, and the original sections pieced together a lot more strongly. I'd still say that you should try and rework the actual melody a bit more, though I really liked how you rearranged/adapted the drumline of the source tune to fit the trance genre at 2:10; very intelligent work there, but you retain the use of that pattern for the rest of the track, and you desperately need to change the flow up somehow to keep things from getting stale. The arranged freestyle stuff from 2:51-3:11 is still some of the random-sounding unwieldy composition that I wished you'd reign in. The ideas from 3:11-4:00 were put together a lot more cohesively; the pitch bending of the sine wave seemed to flow from note-to-note a bit more smoothly rather than jump around abruptly. The sine wave from 2:51-4:17 dragged on after a while, so I'd say shorten that idea a little bit. Perhaps cut out 2:51-3:11 and use a different sounding synth and a new composition idea. You use the idea a lot in the track (1:01-1:56), to the point where it becomes very overused and repetitive, so come up with other ideas. Also, on the tiny detail front, use that percussion pattern in the background at the very end for one more time at 4:15. Actually, use the first 3 notes in the pattern and don't use that louder snap at the end. Anyway, very promising stuff that needs sharper production, beefier synth programming and some refinement of the arrangement. Really hope to see this one worked on further to realize its potential. Frankly, I'm not sure if this can be brought up to par in one resubmission, and I know it's an older piece, but I’d say keep on this one, Dustin, and see how much it can be improved. Otherwise, what's done is done, and we look forward to the next effort. Whatever you do, your sounds have got to move away from this generic stuff or figure out how to do more with what you've got at your disposal. NO (rework/resubmit)

Hahaha! Apprently I didn't get the "OC has stuff other than techno now" memo.

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF9_psf.rar - 409 "You're Not Alone!" Bah. The sounds are cruddy and muddy. 6:19 for this? Nah, that's not what we're talkin' about. Bring some separation and clarity to the sounds with some judicious EQing. Very uncreative "original + beats" formula. The beats were actually alright at some points, so I don't mean to discount them entirely; heard some variation in there, though not enough, as they were often just keeping time. Might wanna add some musical caffeine to 'em somehow. Hit the vox solo section at 4:17. First off, don't just cut out your beats like that; very tacky and beginner-ish, with no solid transition there. Also, don't mud up the vox so much. The move back into the same old stuff at 5:43 just showed you were retreading without a well thought-out transition there as well. Malcos pretty much nailed it. Weak attempt at biasing us with the groove, weak arrangement, and weak overzealous use of effects. NO I wrote this vote while eating Mexican rice & chicken and watching the Jerry Springer show. Ghetto!

TO helped me obtain a copy of the Enigma track that Carlo got the drumloops from. Lee and I talked a bit about the significance of the drumloops as it related to the mix; please check out this additional track to draw your own conclusion.

Contact Info ReMixer name: DHS Real name: Carlo Demichelis Website: http://www.soundwavers.com ReMix Info Name of game(s) ReMixed: The Human Race Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: Subtune 4 Additional information about game if it has not yet been added to the site, including composer, system, etc.: Company - Mastertronic, Year - 1986, Composer - Rob Hubbard Link to the original soundtrack if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site: http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Hubbard_Rob/Human_Race.sid Comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: After being taking dust in my HD for at least six months, I released that remix of subtune 4 of Rob Hubbard's The Human Race. The track is reminiscent of Jarre, Vangelis, Deep Forest and.... Enigma The vocals samples are little pieces taken here and there from various sources, mainly sample cds. The Enigma drumloop has been taken from the record ("Sadeness Part 1"). The Djembe drums are from some sample cd. The other sounds are mainly from my Access Virus KC. Everything has been worked on Nuendo 2 on an Athlon 2500xp pc. Utilized plugins for the track and mastering are from my TCElectronic Powercore. Mixing has been done on a Yamaha 01x digital mixer.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ed2.rsn - "The Prophet" (ed2-114.spc) The opening strings weren't bad, but they bugged me a little. Once the other elements joined in at :14 though, the track sounded as if it was mastered too loudly. The production as a whole was way too messy I'm afraid. A lot of the instruments weren't well seperated; you're gonna have to work some magic on this so that one can actually distinguish between most of the sounds in play during the fuller sections. The woodwind at :58 & 3:57 sounded extremely dry and unrealistic, as well as pasted on top over the other reverbed instruments. The drum pattern wasn't just keeping time, but still required more variation as its repetition dragged the track down over the 4 1/2 minutes. Harmony called you on the lack of overall variation in the arrangement as a whole; it could go in some other directions. You've got a ways to go in making a mix that would pass without a guitar at center stage, but I'm certainly confident you can get there Mike. Keep at it on this one. NO (refine/resumbit)

Per my usual, I'd prefer to judge everything with the source tune in tow, but without it, I'm gonna have to make the call without it. If you know the original is scarce, send it to the submissions inbox regardless of being asked to or not. Not really having a crisis about not having the source, because I don't think this should pass regardless. Even though I be biasedly groovin' to it, the synths were really bland, the supporting elements were very sparse, and the composition wasn't engaging or interesting. The increase in intensity at 2:03 was what the track needed finally. Do what you can to the sounds to have more depth and power. The ending at 2:30 was really lazy and boring. Nothing against Pat, who I can see getting posted eventually, because he has a nice string of material that I felt was good enough to at least be played on my show when I heard it. But at the same time, I'm kind of tired of all these submissions coming in every so often that display little overall improvement. I hear people with analogous styles and I'm just seeing others pass Pat by and display actual progress from submission to submission. Generally lots of potential, but vastly underdeveloped compositionally, and not showing enough growth in synth programming or production skills. I'm not trying to demotivate you, but I don't wanna see you treading water like this. Slow it down and focus more on making solid products instead of dumping out all this average material on such a regular basis. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Battle with Magus" (ct-2-24.spc) & "Sara's Theme" (ct-3-06.spc) The production was really unpolished here. Everything sounded rough and cluttered with the electric guitar work, the percussion was plodding, boring, and very lazily done, and the Magus melody just mushed into the support work. I liked the clock tower bell and original work from 1:17-1:32. In any case, needs a lot more work on EQing. You have nothing at all in the high range frequencies at all. Arrangement wasn't particularly creative with the Magus theme or the Schala usage at 3:30. And the track abruptly cut out at 4:07. Izz nailed all of the important issues here. Needs more creativity (get some WIP forum feedback) and better presentation (ReMixing info and tips). Better luck next time. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/soe.rsn - "Introduction" (soe-02.spc) & "Fire Eyes" (soe-19.spc) I liked the opening wind FX, though that groaning synth from :20-:54 had some odd note patterns that didn't harmonize well with the other elements. Some strings brought in the melody from "Introduction" at :51. The note movements were alright, but some sounded a bit jerky & inhuman; didn't bother me after several listens though. Not really anything particularly interpretive or expansive here, though the style did switch up a bit from 1:24-1:56. Audio glitch at 1:54. "Fire Eyes" arrived at 2:02 after a complete lack of a coherent transition. No new ideas compared to the source at all; might as well have been a rip of the SPC with some of the voices muted for all I know. In any case, relatively uncreative. I really liked the chiptune-ish stuff finally brought into the picture at 2:34, but again, nothing there that wasn't lifted verbatim from the source tune. After some more quasi-transition stuff at 3:18, 3:21 featured some VERY random drum patterns until 3:36 moved back into the first section with some odd effects on it. Terrible last section. Uncreative and bleh all around, and that's being nice despite hearing the source. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/faxanadu.zip - Track 10 As soon as the track started out so muffled and washed out, I had to switch to another track to make sure my headphones weren't broken. Production needs to be sharpened up substantially. I loved the source tune after hearing it in zykO's "Sketch of a Potentially Contrived Memory" last year, and this track had a good spooky atmosphere to it, but it was a pretty plain arrangement relatively speaking. It could function in an expansive sense if there was more to it. It sounded as if there weren't very many sounds playing at the same time and that the airy stuff in the back was filling out most of the soundfield, otherwise this would have been pretty barren. The last section from 3:40 until the end was a very boring and possibly lazy way to end the track. Definitely a weak close. Keep at it, sir. Youl need work on your production and the composition in order to get things sounding both strong and interesting. Get more information from the ReMixing forum and feedback from the Work-in-Progess forum before submitting future material. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman4.zip - Track 9 Man, just listening to the Megaman IV soundtrack, everything sounds so samey. Practically none of the tracks stuck out. This was a pretty weak effort, like a poor man's Disco Dan. Generic sounds, little to no attention on the production side with very a muffled atmosphere, and not much creativity beyond trance/electronica coverage on the arrangement side. The arrangement wasn't terrible, but is typical of uncreative MM techno I've heard in the past. Be more. Much more. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Track 2 ("Underground BGM") Not really feeling this one. A lot of the sounds came off as pretty bare; I didn't feel as if there was much cohesion amongst the sounds here. The tempo, the percussion, the overall bareness of sounds, and the sheer length all created a pretty plodding atmosphere. Can't say I heard anything here that was derived from SMB's "Overworld BGM". Like Izz, I liked a lot of the arrangement/compostional ideas here, but on the other hand the presentation was extremely lacking to me. Needs to be beefed up beyond plodding kicks and claps, with the melodic elements more prominently positioned. Anything to drive the song forward would help. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/pdusf.rar - 04 "Training Room" This flat-out reminded me of the kind of style of mixes we got maybe 3 years ago. Solid electronic/groove based stuff. Some people are gonna shit on that, but I couldn't give a shit. Reminds me of well-made older material like Taysiir's Blaster Master mix "TI Blasta Party" in particular, but for others it could remind them of something else in the same vein. The drums sounded like they used practically the same hits/loops the whole time, but the mixing on them was fine (a bit loud but not overbearing). Adding more variation to your percussion and beatwork (while not altering things dramatically) would only help the track, IMO. Nice idea for the skip at 1:25. The track could have used a dynamic change of some sort at 2:35 instead of retreading what came before. I'm voting like The Wingless in that my utterly groove-biased heart says YES, but in the interest of moving forward in terms of standards and quality, I've gotta vote NO. If other Js feel it's solid enough where passing this wouldn't feel like a step backwards, I wouldn't challenge it. The arrangement of the source tune is solid, but the last minute of the track just repeated what came before. Practically anything you could do to add some more arrangement ideas and/or variation in the last minute would gain a YES. Perhaps look into adding ideas from later on in the source tune; there's some good stuff about a minute and a half into "Training Room". Please come back with the resubmission, bro. NO (please resubmit)

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 110 "Fighting" That was some cool shit; I'll be keeping this. Pretty simple and sparse, but I liked it. In any case though, I agreed with Wingless about the drums, though I didn't feel it was quite the dealbreaker. I'm always game for a phat bassline, so definitely keep that around. I really liked the high string runs from 2:18-2:38. They remininded me of my favorite Chrono Cross track "Earth Dragon's Island." Nonetheless there wasn't much variation going on in the supporting elements of the mix. Bassline & drums need more attention there in particular. Not too much going on arrangement-wise in the handling of the source theme when it comes down to it. Would have made it on the site back in the old days, and I'm digging it, but you just gotta be more these days homey. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/rd.rsn - "Far Promise ~ Dream Shore (1)" (rd-08.spc) & "Snakebone Mansion" (rd-06.spc) Pretty sloppily done at times. Basically the source tune with original breakbeats pasted underneath, though "Snakebone Mansion" had more substantial arrangement. The beats had no power/processing behind them, leaving them very flat. The sustained string from 1:10-1:23 didn't sound right vis-a-vis the other sounds. The orchestral string runs were pretty basic in their support and didn't add much depth to the piece. The cymbal-shot-into-higher-key transition at 2:27 was very uncreative leading towards the finish. Nothing particularly creative or engaging with the arrangement. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 68 "Gerudo Valley" http://www.zophar.net/gbs/zelda.zip - Track 47 I actually liked the clap intro; thought it was a different way to intro the track. It certainly caught my attention when I played it on VGF53. Very cool combination of sounds, including a phat bassline and cool synth xylo stuff. Classy use of the Lil' Link voice samples at :53. The whole handling of "Gerudo Valley" was nothing but stylish, including the inspired-by original section from 1:13-1:44, followed by the guitar work transition into "Ballad of the Wind Fish". Things circled back into Gerudo with some additional seasoning at 2:56. Solid acoustic guitar/clap fade-out for the close. Nothing much to say but well-done. Great sophomore mix from Ben as far as I'm concerned. YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Stickerbush Symphony" (dkq-17.spc) Not feeling this. Decent effort at the live guitar work, but it didn't really have any meat behind it. The sound balance was all over the place. No meaningful attention to production, placement or panning, basically killing what could otherwise be an enjoyable cover for DKC2 fans. Just a cover of the source material with different instruments with stuff like the ambient string-like pads lifted from the SPC/MIDI. Repetitive and not interpretive. Keep at it. It seems like you don't know the standards or guidelines here, but you're young and could have some promise if you're serious about pursuing the hobby. Hit the ReMixing forum for more information and advice on working with limited resources, so you can make the most of what you currently have available. Post any works-in-progress to the WIP forum to get feedback so you have a firmer idea on where improvement is needed. NO

Like I said in my vote for your previous Marathon submission, "Leela", the upgrade here is definitely very good, but more would need to be done in an interpretive context to either rearrange the theme or expand the ideas more substantially. I wanna stress that I thought this was a very stylish remake, and some cover tracks have the merit to pass based on criteria I mentioned just now, but in this case this isn't a significant-enough upgrade to me. It was hard to vote on this objectively, as we clearly (OMG CLEARLY) have a disgusting groove and chill bias. :guffaw: I encourage anyone that may want the track to check it out at VGMix. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Celes" (ff6-122.spc) & "Tina" (ff6-201.spc) I'm more with Izz's stance on the mix, in that the arrangement is alright, though conservative, but mostly the production and performance were hurting the piece, agreeing with Dan that production is something I wouldn't dock points from considering the circumstances. If the overall presentation was better, I'd scrutanize the arrangement more, though from several listens you can hear that many creative liberties aren't taken beyond transposing the source tunes to the genre. There are some, but not too too much. In any case, there were some particularly glaring flubs like the strings at 2:43, which were really off. I think some more playthroughs would have made this one solid. I'd hope that you could have the opportunity to to work with this community orchestra in the future on other material. Please specially give the name of the orchestra if you indeed conduct them/work with them again. Though you are the arranger/conductor, not giving a bit more info on your performers is a bit of a faux pas for me. Upload this to VGMix; it's a very cool piece, Bob. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 12 "IceCap Zone (Act 1)" Yeah, I'm not gonna waste too much time on this material. Gray & Dan already broke it down very throughly, so I'm just echoing their statements. Very default-ish sounds, repetitive compostion and thin sounds and poor production. Use the WIP forum for more feedback next time and see what information the ReMixing forum holds to become more proficient with your work. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "The Phantom Train" (ff6-116.spc), "The Decisive Battle" (ff6-124.spc) & "The Fierce Battle" (ff6-303.spc) Sure, on some level I agree that "The Decisive Battle" is overdone, but you know...meh. Up until 1:33, it's basically a cover to start, but we've had great "conservative" remixes in the past like CarboHydroM's first OC ReMix, FF7 "Still More Fighting" where the underlying/support instrumentation is sometimes the most significant change, which is what I felt was the case with the cover-style sections here. In Carbo's case as well as House's, just listening to the track casually it's easy to feel it doesn't take enough creative liberty or interpretation, but when you take a closer look, I think it does more than enough to get the job done even when not straying far from the melody itself. Good drumwork and orchestration additions really helped put the expansive touches here, and I've got nothing wrong with that from a standards context as long as the changes are thorough/developed enough within the context of the rest of the piece. Good fusion of styles, I felt. The slowed down section from 4:50-5:15 was pimp. The arranged sections were excellent the whole way through. The original and arranged material from 1:33-2:50 were nothing short of skilled. I first noticed Alex from the word of mouth created from his Dwelling of Duels Clockwork entry "La Hora es Tarde", so it's great to see him submitting material. After having his brother Dan's DoD winner Ninja Gaiden 2 "Ninjascape" passed by the panel, I'm glad I could call it the same way for Alex. Ashane & House are two guys to be aware of when visiting TheShizz.org & DoD. Some of the haters say the guitar guys are all the same, but I think they're just another example of the depth which the community as a whole possesses. No qualms on this one at all. YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Kannon's Klaim" (dkq-s-01.spc) I remember talking to Pavo briefly in #ormgas about this one being submitted, though I hadn't had a chance to check it out thoroughly until now. In any case, the production should have been a bit cleaner. Everything had an overall dullness to it. 1:25 is a pretty much a muffled sounding cover with different instruments and some minor additions. Dunno why you thought this would pass as is. I didn't hear anything from 1:25-3:16 that was substantially interpretive at all. Shouldn't be this easy to NO something so "acclaimed" but we're looking for a lot more here. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/ps4.rar - 18 "Pain" You made a mix in an hour and expected it to pass. Not in this universe, bro. First 56 seconds are a rip of the source. Some original beats and crud after that, then just the ripped original with lousy beats underneath it. I'm not gonna dignify the rest of this with a review. Just weird crud at 2:09; don't really care if you arranged anything at this point. Should have gotten the form. Don't waste our time with thrown together garbage. You can do better. If you want a nicer review, Harmony's above is a great place to start though. I bleh on this. If you stick with this and get a lot better, you'll have a good laugh and be kicking yourself thinking you could send this one off and get it posted. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/dizzy.zip - Track 1 Quality straightforward expansion versus the sounds of the original, along with a nicely done 50s-style genre adaptation with the faster tempo. Played it back on VGF56 and liked hearing something this unique. The vocals were fairly well-done for the most part - harmony was good and the lyrical deivery was pretty good, while the lyrics were pretty creative. Kinda fell apart at 2:00 as you split the vocals into the left and right channels; the lead vocals/speaking from then until the end sounded like they could have used a couple more takes. Nice stuff; short and sweet, but nicely done by Marcus per his usual. It's kind of odd that I don't even think of Makke as a vocalist mixer despite how many vocal mixes he's done. Don't miss out on his other material on R:K:O on his own or with The C64 Mafia tackling the Commodore 64 mixing scene. This will get hated on by a lot of people. Not saying it's superlative, but that's why I generally say, "F the people." YES

Fun piece, and of course I like the theme, but the performance is too sloppy and needs to be tightened up on the timing; some of the transitions (e.g. 1:33) were very poorly executed. The lyrics need to be more prominent and could also have slightly stronger delivery. The arrangement is also pretty short and underdeveloped; it was going fine until you retread the arrangement ideas at 1:34. If you're gonna do a piece this short instended for here, you shouldn't retrace your steps. Cool source tune, and a fun premise for the mix here, but more can be done with this. NO