Liontamer

I think Mike meant to say that these are truly some icy hot flowz.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "Boy Meets Girl (Twoson)" (mo2-046.spc) The piano velocities sounded pretty mechanical, and the wind lead was very inhuman-sounding. You sure Eccles didn't rip this? And, yeah, that was a serious question. Not too jarring but there was a strange and abrupt tempo change at 1:10 as things slowed down and the instruments suddenly changed. Whatever's handling bass is poorly used as well. BUM BUM BUM BUM over and over again. Can't really offer anything too constructive on stuff so fundamentally flawed. Too conservative of an arrangement for me as well; work a bit more with the source to see what directions it can be taken in. It's not the holy grail for getting posted mind you, but head over to the ReMixing forum and learn how to at least get better results out of cruddy samples in the future. For this one though, scrap it and start something new. NO EDIT: So I sorted the SPC pack by title and sandwiched this mix between "Boy Meets Girl" & "Burp". I've gotta admit, "Burp" tacked onto this would have really enhanced the ending, no lie.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sc.rsn - "Fired" (sc-14.spc) & "Metropolis" (sc-10.spc) You have a 1:03-long intro for a 2:43-long mix. The whole idea has likely gotta be longer/more fleshed out to deserve such a long intro, but I'll give you credit; I liked how your sounds came together a lot. Low-fi/purposefully thin/whatever you'd call it (someone give me the right word), they worked. The sitar & sound effects sounded nice as additions, even if the "Fired" beat was verbatim for a while. The arrangement on it was pretty straight, but you hear some subtle changes in the beat as well alterations in how prominent other elements are once the lyrics kicked in. 1:55 was where the most prominent rearrangement came in, as what sounded like rearrangement from part of the first 20 seconds of "Metropolis" came in on top of the beats. The groove was minimalist, but I really enjoyed what you have in place so far. Definitely work on boosting the levels of the lyrics, Stephan. Though I'm safely assuming you're Latino, the lyrical delivery actually reminded me of white dirty south rappers like the Icy Hot Stuntaz, and I DO mean that as a compliment actually, because they were pretty fucking good. Vig's suggestions are pretty solid. Again, get the volume of the lyrics up and make sure the delivery and occasional layering flows well if you rerecord anything. Try to add another verse in here over differently structured/rearranged beats, add a lyrical chorus over your musical one; anything at all that will help give more depth to what's really promising but noticeably underdeveloped so far. Really wanna see this make it, frankly. What the fuck do you people want? I'm half black. You know how we do. NO (refine & resubmit)

Like I was telling Dain a little while ago, this is mastered really loudly, enough to bug me anyway, but I'm making sure that it won't affect my vote, as other judges didn't have any issue with it. Would have still preferred a less-agressive mid-range, but it's all good as the production is pretty solid. This one really takes the source in a new direction but I hear connections to the source in the more liberal/different sounding areas starting with the note pattern at :25. Nice way to stick with the original lyrics in a new style at :57, as well as doing the same with the chorus at 1:30. Cool stuff. I thought the lyrics from :57-1:50 should have been louder as the music was obscuring them a bit, but the original lyrics coming in at 3:07 were where I felt they needed to be. Great shit here. I loved the source tune and here the arrangement is quality, the production is agressive but well made overall. I felt like this deserved more of an ending that this got at 3:56, but whatchu gonna do? No particularly noteworthy problems here to hold it back. Can't wait to play "Hysteria" back to back with this on VGF. I think it's unfortunate this didn't get more attention when it was posted at VGMix, but a lot of people aren't DDR freaks there. I'm not saying that it'll get infinitely more attention here, as a lot of people aren't familiar with DDR stuff, but I'm sure SGX can tell you that a lot of people will nonetheless come out of the woodwork to hear this. Along with some stepfiles at Bemanistyle, it'll probably show up (along with other OCR stuff) in Flash Flash Revolution if it hasn't already, and the kids who play that will bug you more than that weird guy from Chile. Great work, bro. YES

TO's another good thing out of Australia. Great work, Joe. When I first heard the old version at VGMix, I wasn't too hot on it, but it's be refined nicely swince then and I really enjoyed it. The almost Engrished lyrics make 0 sense but they're fun and flow well, and frankly that's really what counts. High quality work, bro. Hope you have more ambitious stuff like this for the future. Looking forward to playing this on my radio show.

Fairly weak percussion and ambiance intro up until 1:01. The synth lead lacks depth, and there's no real clarity in the presentation here. The synth melody plodded along until 1:45 and then went back to the ambiance before some really poor vox & bells came in at 2:01. At least the drums coming in at 2:26 had a little meat to them, but all of the sounds are thin & weak in their delivery. 2:27 until the end just held to the same patterns throughout. Very underwhelming effort overall, I'm afraid. No meaningful variation or dynamics to speak of most of the way. Just learn whatever you can to bring some energy and depth to your sounds, and don't get so skimpy with the rearrangement ideas as this was pretty minimal on those grounds. NO

Pretty cool material with fairly unique sounds, good energy, and an overall catchyness. At :32 (and a couple of other, less noticeable places), the recorder got really shrill, but otherwise the delivery on everything was pretty strong. All of the instrumental elements here came together well, with John's arrangement & Roland's production both being excellent. This was direct post material that just needed to be verified in regards to the source tune, since Compy's link was down, so there you have it. YESs should be so simple. YES

Your mom.

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sor2.rar - "Good End" (25.gym) I'm feeling extra generous today, because while I didn't own many games, SoR2 was one of them, and this is just ripped beats with live sax on top as a cover until 1:35 and is DYING for NO Override. Then we hit the freestyle section of the sax, which was alright. Nothing particularly sweet or anything, but shit, I can't play sax. The rest of music detracted from the sax work though. Somewhere out there, Prot's making fun of this being a bonus track off the Very Best of SEGA. 3:12...what the...hell?!? Why would you even do that to the ending? Rayz-duh! Yu-zo! Rip mix! But...WITH...a...sax...on...TOP! [/sonik Elektronik] NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF8_minipsf.rar - 120 "Julia" Opened with a tranced cover of Julia with plain jane beat keeping drums underneath that plodded up the trance flavor. What was that subtle low note beat coming in at :51? It's not in the right key, obviously, and it threw things off. And there some "tick, tick, tick, tick" hat annoying the shit out of me, louder than everything else, including the vox. 1:26 keeps going with "tick, tick, tick" driving me batshit and treading water with the arrangement the whole way. By 2:00 every time the pattern repeated, I kept thinking "When the hell is this gonna stop?!? It never did. It went all the way until 3:08 of your 3:20 mix. Man, that ending was terrible; pure copout/I-gave-up-ish stuff. Anyway, good luck on future mixes. Scrap that one though. You ran nearly 2 minutes of a 3 minute mix with...ugh. Then I listened again and :17-:33 was the same thing you repeated for those other 2 minutes. Unbelievable. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/femblem.zip - NSF Track 13 Why'd this have to be tough on account of production? There's way too much reverb here and not enough sharpness. 1:42-2:09 & 3:36-3:55 are particular examples of how things sounded somewhat ok, but nonetheless mushed together. There's no high-end here whatsoever; everything's in the low and mid ranges. The thick low chords here linger for a long time once they're played and manage to obscure and wash with other notes since they all occupy the same limited space on the EQing. Since this was resequenced by Pat in the first place, I encourage him to do anything to sharpen the sound on this. There doesn't have to be less reverb, just less muddiness/more clarity. Piano-only mixes don't have to sound immaculate (e.g. Bladiator's "Chopinesque Kirby"), but there's only so low I'll judge the bar. Kevin's arrangement is more than passable, and I played Kevin's original version of the mix way back on VGF. I may just be a stickler; I'm honestly looking forward to both of you guys being posted here; you're both good names that I've been following for some time. Especially hearing Pat's other pieces at VGMix, I'm fairly sure this sound style was purposeful, but I really need a higher level of clarity than this. NO (resubmit, please)

Yeesh. Way to hang that flute note until :25. Panning effects were really bad. Way higher quality than the MIDI stuff you'd hear at a very bootleg CT fan site. Too bad that's not what this place is. VERY shrill strings coming in at 1:21. Some very minimal arrangement going on here anyway. Definitely at the level that a total n00b would think was a dramatic overhaul. 5 1/2 minutes of this? Nah, I'm good thanks. Jesus, even turning down the volume to 50% on Winamp, these shrill instruments are killing me. Sorry, bro, form rejection all the way. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Aria de Mezzo Carattere" (ff6-208.spc) Piano and strings opening this are pretty thin. Electric guitar on melody at :22 is shrill as hell in some places, grating and drowning the song out in others. Percussion coming in at :50 is plodding, muffled, and drags the piece down. Cymbals coming in at 1:15 are shrill as well and the whole song is cluttered by then. The guitar distortion is a stylistic choice, sure, but the distortion's not helping especially after 1:47. Vox coming in at 1:57 sounds alright, but completely obscured. Just a cover the whole way through; not a rearrangement. No concept of sound balance or production whatsoever. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/shatterh.zip - NSFs Track 4 & 5 Gotta echo's Prot's sentiment; the lead guitar tone was flat and really never hit that level of strength beyond the opening riff for some reason. Soon after, the lead then got really obscured by the more distorted guitar providing support; watch the sound balance there. Hook up the percussion with a bit more activity and try to get the sound quality a bit sharper. Away from the production side, this mix was a pretty strong straight arrangement/cover-style track and we do accept tracks like that, but I'd prefer to hear something on the rearrangement side to put it on firmer ground. I really enjoyed this one as well and would love to hear a resubmission, Ed. Frankly, if you're gonna do a cover, it needs to be a bit more expansive on the whole, but the second guitar did a good job on that level, so you may not need to do anything there. Primarily, taking a look at the production and delivery could bring this up a few notches. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/gunsmoke.zip - NSF Track 2 We at least get into some more thought out arrangement at 1:22 and beyond, and there was certainly work done in terms of creating support chords throughout, but this just took the source tune melody, didn't change it much, and instead applied it to 4 or 5 different sound combinations. Cool ideas for a remix, and not violation stuff to me due to the support chords that were present, but not what I'm looking for with a ReMix via rearrangement. Sounds weren't too hot either, and that prevented this idea of expanding upon the minimal NES original from realizing its potential. Keep working at it, and hopefully there will be some subsequent suggestions on how to improve the sounds. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - "Gang-Plank Galleon" (dkc-21.spc) Really good stuff from Andy, solid guitar work, nice production, solid arrangement. I've enjoyed this one for a while for all of those qualities. Nothing to hate on here, and not really much else to say there. Also, Andy thinks I'm a dumbass. There's NO better reason I can think of to say YES.

Yep.

If I can get the damn webstream working, which currently I cannot, tonight's gonna be a special edition of VGF, featuring the full PLUTONIUM EDITION fo da BASS cut of Duck Hunt: Repercussions of Fowl Lamentation! Don't hold your breath though.

http://www.zophar.net/gym/ps2.rar - "Mystery" I felt this was a tough one to vote on. The final mixdown was too low in volume overall. Make it louder, bro. It lost something being this muted, and for some reason "Slick Uniforms" was louder in volume. Quinn's gonna hate all of the comparisons with Slick Uniforms, as I admitted that I liked that one much better, but the dynamics and contrast here seemed a lot flatter, while the sounds themselves (particularly the drums) also seemed not as sharp, despite the claim that Boss sounds cleaner. I heard more reverb here, but the sound wasn't cleaner than Slick. I think in going for a more melancholy direction here as compared to Slick, a lot of the cooler textures such as the very cool ambient, swirling pads you used, and the bassline you used didn't come through enough to really bolster the track. The production & mixdown took a big hit compared to Slick but remains strong enough to pass. The percussion was very relaxed but could have used some more variation. And while I'm not a mixer and am admittedly ignorant of most default loop/sample usage, I easily recognized the Reason GetaRide drumloop from BenCousins' Metal Gear Solid 2 "Big Shell West Bristol". I'm not as "WTF, BOLD CAPS" as Prot was about that, as I've heard default drumloops used well before, but there's definitely got to be more effort thrown into the percussion work to express your personal flair here instead of working with more default level stuff. From 1:41-2:02, when the chorus was much more upbeat, that was certainly an opportunity to get a bit more expressive and creative with the percussion work, and then go laid back once that was over. Default samples & drumloop stuff aren't necessarily NO-able on their own but belie a lack of creativity which certainly drives a submission more towards NO territory. I'm interested in hearing others' takes on this. Judges come down on that kind of stuff in order to encourage more thorough ideas that typically lead to a stronger product. Excellent way to come out at 2:02 by placing the synth of the source tune's countermelody in a more prominent position relative to the piano handling the melody. Very nice change there that kept things from getting repetitive on that level of the arrangement. Good close with the two light pianos from 2:43 onward towards the finish. The lone 3 piano notes from 3:24-3:27 felt really extraneous. I'd rather they weren't added on like that compared to Slick, but it wasn't much of an issue. The level of sharpness and clarity of the production was lacking compared to Quinn's other posted mixes as there was too much reverb here, and I would have preferred the percussion to have more creatvity considering the default drumloop issues Prot had. Overall, I really enjoyed the arrangement, though personally I'm a fan of Slick Uniforms more, since the transposing of the track downward made this not as upbeat. I'll have the same issue if and when CastleVania 2 "Modern Problems" & NiGHTS "Something Beautiful" come over here, since I admittedly didn't like how the transposing changed the feel in each of those tracks from their WIP counterparts. In the future, the volume levels for future submissions need to be much louder, and the mixdown needs to have more attention paid to it in order to hit the direct post route so we don't have to bother listening to it. Frankly, it took more thought that I felt it should have to pass this. Like Prot said though, I'm a big fan as well. That didn't affect my vote, but like I've told you in the past, Quinn, if I actually had to pick a favorite mixer, you'd be it. I think this needed a bit more time put into it, but the end result here was over the bar. YES

Alright, not a problem. When I recalled criticizing Ari's glib YES vote in #judges, he insisted that he knew the source material involved, and I mistakenly remembered that as him confirming that he was familiar with the Arkanoid source along with Epic. Unlike Ari, I don't have a problem admitting I misrepresented what someone else said, and apologize. Like I said earlier, I don't like glib votes when more needs to be said but will stick by them while hoping for more substance. But asking for more substance was Makke's request, not mine. And me quoting you, Binnie, was more to question how you'd apply your stance on using commercial material in a remix when you had a low figure such as your stated "10%" as a reason you'd advocate NO Override in general. We already have mixes like that OneUp SMW one and Emperor's Batman one that you could NO Override on those grounds, but I don't agree with that stance, and it looks like you're applying it to anything with direct commercial homage, no matter how LOW the percentage. Anyway, that kind of thing can be a Lockdown 2 issue if you want.

We just pointed out that Batman "Gotham Symphony" wasn't a violation even though it had some references to the Batman movie score. You can't just say "commercial song references = violation". Otherwise, remove injury's SMB "8-Bit Eighties" and the OneUp Mushrooms' SMW "Super Mario's Sleigh Ride" as commercial reference violations. Makke's last posted mix, Lost Patrol "In the Air Mix" wasn't a violation as the music/arrangement was from the Lost Patrol source tune, even though the lyrics on top were in the style of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight". While the arrangement of SID No More also includes musical references to "Epic", Makke feels that there's enough Arkanoid arrangement as well. Again, for the mixer's benefit and at his direct request, not mine, elaborate your vote on how you believe the mix doesn't arrange Arkanoid enough, like Gray did. Even though I don't like Ari's incomplete-looking vote, he verified to us that he knows both source tunes and had them both in mind, so his vote counts. I'm hoping Vig has time to look at his vote as well.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sf2.rsn - Zangief (well, obviously) Little detail from the opening: I wasn't too sure on the downward note run on the bass from :15-:18, if that sounded right to me. Sounds more fitting after a few more listens. The piano got punched up compared to the first version, but was a bit too loud and mushed together with the synth guitar lead for the first phrase. Over a few listens it was less of a problem to me, and the piano got scaled back from 1:15 onward. The piano for the beginning would sound better if it had a sharper sound, but again, not too bad. I like how there was more thought and variation put into the percussion as well. Moving past 1:15, stuff is sounding good though the low-end could have been toned down a bit. I liked the swirling pad deal you had there as it filled up the space well. Nice transition into the more freestyle-ish section at 1:52. I liked 2:11-2:30 more than 1:55-2:11 for your freestyle section. Overall, the whole section tied a lot more closely to the source tune and kept the arrangement aspect I was looking for strong; much much better than what you had before. Not sure about the drop in scale of the notes from 2:06-2:11, but again, ear acclimation. I'd certainly like to hear what the others have to say about those little nitpicks I had. I honestly don't think they're off-notes, but y'all can tell me. Like I said, much better results with the freestyle work, and the transition back into the more straightforward arrangement at 2:30 flowed a lot better without the abrupt stop and slight tempo change you had before. 2:36 possessed some light, subtle piano support in the back to accentuate that iteration of the Zangief melody; nice touch. Loved the new/final section starting at 3:07. That teasing fadeout around 3:25 that leaves you wanting another 15 seconds of music. Not a bad thing to me actually, as I felt it was a very strong finish that ended on a good note. I still would have preferred if the piano sounded cleaner, but it wasn't a big issue. Good job keeping the double bass but toning it down a bit and not leaving it so loud and exposed like last time. These freestyle-type sections flow so much better now, bro. You got those to work a lot closer with the source material and thereby made the arrangement aspect of the mix that much more cohesive. So I had issue with a couple of those smaller things that I pointed out, and I think the piano was the biggest one for me, but those don't hold this back significantly compared with the arrangement. As you said, Stephen, this was a style that you've never tackled before, and it's not perfect because of that. But after taking several listens to look at the details and then broadly observing the bigger picture, I felt the overall delivery and especially the arrangement strength was now where it needed to be. Glad you resubbed this so quickly. Looking back at my old decision, I felt this would need a substantial amount of work to get over the bar, and was a little worried too many things needed to be worked on. Nonetheless, this literally tackled every concern and suggestion I had and did it well. One mo' time fo' da double bass! YES

The arrangement is certainly where it needs to be. Still needs to be work done on articulating and humanizing your samples well enough, though, as that was my primary problem with this. The string attacks are indeed too slow, and the abrupt ending really exposes your samples badly. The EQing on this is terribly lacking, unfortunately. I can't really put it any other way. Nothing sounds sharp at all which particularly affects an orchestral piece like this. I agree with Vigilante in that you desperately need to boost the low end, but the high end is also all but absent from this. Primarily though, get things sounding more natural and realistic to make the best of your samples, possibly via help from the ReMixing forum, and resubmit. It's unfortunate no one over at the Works forum pointed out the production issues in their comments when the mix was closer to completion as that could have helped as well. NO

As an aside, anyone that remixes something from EarthBound should feel obligated to provide the name of the source tune used. Give us some info; the soundtrack's got 170 tracks. http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/mo2.rsn - "The Power" (mo2-117.spc) The opening ambiance was too muffled and nothing ever sounded particularly sharp here on the production. The plodding drums seemed to interference with the atmosphere you were trying to create. The melody finally coming in at 1:11 was strange, but it's EarthBound so I had no problem with it. The reverbed string support that joined at 1:13 wasn't bad but sounded so muffled and overbearing over your lead that it interfered with things. The music box notes at 1:49 also suffered until around 2:10 when the string support drops out because of this. Work desperately on clarity, separation of sounds and proper sound balance there. The piano taking over at 2:23, though lacking any particularly overt direction, was also not terrible. But the support work underneath the piano was too empty to adequately fill in the gaps for such a sparse lead. When you dropped the support elements around 3:35 to signify the finish, it didn't mean much, as, again, the support was flimsy to begin with. Give your support sounds more substance to make that kind of compositional choice for an ending more meaningful. Keep working at it, Jordan. NO

i would not say this is atonal if you're trying to say the melody is flat in the delivery -- as atonal is used to describe melodic components that are devoid of a central key. (see your local jewish expressionist composer for an example!) can't bug prot about proper use of 'notation' on one hand and let you get away with something similar on the other No problem, bro. As the complete non-musician/non-theorist, I don't intend to overstep my bounds. Of course, now I'll have a bunch of people cite me as being unqualified for this job. Let's just say "flat like warm soda." Preferably the generic/store-brand type of soda.