Liontamer

Decent job at at least setting a mood, so some OMGKronofanficzpendium fans will ultimately like this if they hear it. Not a bad idea in principle with the merging of tracks, but there's not enough development for the 5 1/2 minues. Virtually no progression of ideas until 3:16 finally broke up the monotony. 3:55 then goes right back into the exact same thing as before. This could have been 2, even 3 minutes shorter. Got really boring, and there was minimal arrangement here besides the melodic layering. Pass.

NO

NO Mega Man 3 'Da Spinz'

I was wondering where this would be going for the first 50 seconds. Tone down the percussion. Besides, there's no uniqueness to it whatsoever. Some original ideas beyond that would have been nice. Not too much rearrangement going on here besides the occasional light countermelody. Just a weak genre adaptation of Topman's theme that doesn't add a single new dimension to the source material.

NO

NO Tyrian 2000 'Dancing Achondrite'

Thanks for providing the MIDI. Unfortunately, there's not much here aside from the MIDI, as there isn't much beyond sped up, straightforward arrangement and some bland additions. Certainly did a good job of sounding cleaner than the original. Percussion was weak, and there wasn't much development to speak of. Pretty quasi-energetic. Not much else to say.

NO

NO Turrican 2 'Rain'

Though Chris tried to make the mix carry emotion and feeling, I felt it didn't achieve the melancholy atmosphere it was going for. It succeeds part of the way anyway, mainly because of the rain samples. I recognize the piano synth from plenty of other mixes, but I've heard better dynamics and more emotion. Right now it sounds dry and unemotive.

The claps coming in at 1:20 didn't seem to fit well, and the drums at 1:44 were somewhat too prominent. Percussion wasn't always a detriment though, like with the area from :55-1:12.

This is pretty downtempo and doesn't actually need much in the way of radical development, but there was virtually 0 development to be found regardless, thus it was pretty repetitive overall.

I thought there was certainly some potential here, so I wouldn't mind this being refined and resubmitted. Some more natural-sounding piano work would help this realize more of the intended emotion, along with more complimentary percussion choices, and a more noticeable development over the three minutes.

NO

NO Mega Man 7 'A Night with Freezeman'

http://www.alpha-ii.com/snesmusic/spcsets/mm7.rsn - Freezeman

Not bad, but I absolutely love the Freezeman theme, so I'm pretty demanding here. The ambiance isn't half bad, and I like some of the sound choices, although this sounds like the SPC slowed down without the arpeggiated notes (i.e. some channels/voices turned off) and with some ambiance added.

Production's not too hot. Percussion was inoffensive, but didn't really add anything. Liked the sample at the end. Couldn't tell if it was kids playing or seagulls. I'm leaning towards seagulls. (/boredom)

The overall ambiance was nice enough where I don't feel like NO Overriding, but changing some instruments around isn't enough. The Capcom Sound Team deserves more credit for this, since the source tune's so good and the structure is practically the same. Gotta do a lot more than what you got here to have even a shot.

NO

NO Chrono Trigger 'The 6th Omen'

http://www.alpha-ii.com/snesmusic/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Black Dream" (ct-3-11.spc)

Had the chance to hear this three weeks ago when Navid put this up at VGMix, since I didn't have a chance to vote on PRC19. When I first heard this one, the sounds were questionable, since they were sparse and pretty generic-sounding, so I wasn't too hot on it. You probably won't like it after one listen. After more though, I really came around to appreciating it, so don't let this one go after a quick look. It sounds much more cohesive after several listens.

The sounds at the outset are particularly sparse, and generally remain like that, but Myth adequately fills up the space with everything he's got here, even with a minimal low-end presence. Cymbals should have been toned down, and the finger snaps in the middle were too loud, but other than that, the rearrangement of the track I know as "Black Dream" is excellent, really takes the source material in a unique direction, progresses nicely, and makes up for any shortcomings in the synth choices. I'm much more solid on this one on those grounds than Haroon's recent Dream Egg mix, since the production was stronger.

The panning was fairly solid and picked up well at the end, the separation/mixdown was excellent, and the percussion was nice and varied. Great job on making the whole greater than the sum of its parts, Myth. You've improved a great deal and have some ways to go, but I enjoyed practically everything here. Quirky material with solid results.

YES

NO Sonic the Hedgehog 3 'Ice Jam'

The delivery on the lead guitar's pretty flat overall; needs some soul behind it, even the 7 Nation Army reference. Even the bass, when it was there, was too simple. Percussion needs more energy and variation to make things interesting. The whole piece didn't particularly flow well and the sounds didn't mesh together. Promising idea, but the execution wasn't strong enough.

NO

NO Ninja Gaiden 'Ryu's Escalation'

Freemind - "Olympiada 2004" [http://www.bands411.com/freemindlab] - Feedback

The vox was flat and unnatural, the percussion was too simplistic and clashed with the (semblance of) ambiance the vox had, and off-key breaks like the one from :46-:53 didn't help. Not really much momentum or build to speak of, I'm afraid.

NO

VG Frequency: U Love VGM

in Projects

Posted August 16, 2004

The column's out on Monday this week, since I got the chance to chill with Vigilante this past weekend. After chillin' around with my friends here in Connecticut, I headed back with him to Massachusetts on a whim, and had an awesome time in Boston and Cambridge. I got to see and help Jesse work on some Donkey Kong Country remix material, and despite being a fan of the scene for such a long time, I had never actually seen any mixer's setup before, so that was a pretty cool experience. Of course, the trip wasn't all about OC stuff (Béla Fleck & the Flecktones and sushi!), so we'll both post some thoughts soon on how we didn't get along at all WHATSOEVER for your amusement! One more week until I head back down to Atlanta, so I'll finally have some cable network speed dammit. Now let's pimp out what we had for the week ending August 14th:

ABG - Final Fantasy 11 "Recollection (Dynamis Mix)" [VGMix2 #2063]

Shawn Overn hasn't had too many releases on the scene, but his Res Evil 2 OC mix that came out a few months ago, "Ada's Groove", kicked ass so I had to check this one out. Here we have a nice lengthy trance mix of Nobuo Uematsu's "Recollection". Thick tracks like these could always use better separation of the sounds, IMO, but for many trance tracks with a good groove and lots of energy, the wall of sound approach works well and is easily accessible to people who like to shake their ass to this kid of music. This is an excellent representation of a dance/trance remix and, at nearly 8 minutes, one that you won't see at OCR unless an edited version is submitted, so if you're into the genre, this is an absolute must if you usually limit yourself to OCR material.

Adhesive Boy - The Legend of Zelda 3 & Final Fantasy 6 "Devout Hyrulian Guttersnipe" [VGMix2 #2042]

Here's a really cool light jazz/fusion style mix of Koji Kondo's "Church" theme from A Link to the Past courtesy of Jack Ryerson. This does a great job of transplanting the source material into another genre with his trademark sounds, and this does its best to sound natural rather than sequenced. The cymbals are loud, but you don't see me complaining. Very energetic, work for light jazz, yet engaging and relaxing, and one I think Neskvartetten would be interested in hearing and critiquing. This'll be on OC relatively soon, but do AB a favor and check it now, while heaping praises upon him via VGMix reviews.

Ailsean - Final Fantasy 6 "Aria" [VGMix2 #2064]

Here's Sean's latest covering "Aria di Mezzo Carattere", which features the guitar rock that y'all like, and is dedicated to Stephen Kennedy of KFSS Studios/Project majestic Mix fame and his new wife, Jana Kennedy. And while Ailsean's harmonized vocals are a labor or love and friendship for Stephen & Jana, let's all agree that he never does it again. :-) Some of the VGMix reviews for the mix are downright skewed and/or crazy, but nonetheless, this comes through on the music side even if it doesn't on the vocals. Not what I had in mind for a song with marriage connotations, but when you dedicate something to a video game music producer, it's best to go this route. ;-)

Corran - CastleVania 64 "Tribal Center" [VGMix2 #2044]

Some of the electronic sounds are generic, but the overall premise here is strong. I'm not familiar with CV64, so I couldn't tell you how much of an rearrangement this is. Nonetheless, this is a fairly upbeat, even soundscape-ish track at times, featuring nice thick percussion and the xylophone and that bubbly-sounding thing. What the hell is that beautiful-sounding bubbly thing? Seriously though, this runs well with the percussion-heavy title's motif as several different sounds give it that tribal feel. Always good to hear stuff from Corran, who's growing more and more solid with his remix work as the weeks go by. Certainly one to give a listen.

debeerguy (Kevin "Lorenzo" Sisk) - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Vanguard Metropolis" [VGMix2 #2051]

Like I've said in the past, Kevin's a bit of a hit-or-miss guy with me, so sometimes I'll hear a new release he has and I'll pass. This one has some odd chords and is rough, but shows some good things, so for any "Metropolis Zone" fans, you can check this out for some hard-edged electrorock. debeerguy's tracks tend to need tons of polish and refinement, but you may be liking this one overall.

Digital Coma & SnappleMan - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 "Heroes in a Quartet" [OC ReMix to-be-posted] - Feedback

After SnappleMan has really come into his own as a remix guitarist in the past few months, Andy teams up with Binnie for a phenomenal collab mix featuring vocals by Coma and instrumentation by Snap. Everything comes together in the right way, with Coma's layered vocals and SnappleMan with...you know those guitars that are like double guitars? Anyway, here's some short and sweet stuff from the familiar TMNT stage select theme where you're walking around the city. This'll certainly make a huge impact when it hits OCR. God, that damn game was impossible. I'll stick with Turtles in Time myself.

Here's FM's take on ancient Greek music. If anyone would know, it's OCR resident Grecian. Named in a timely fashion for this year's Olympics, this is a nice 2-minute shot of ethnic flavor for ya, which is a musical style I at least have never heard from Freemind before. Pretty chill stuff to be sure, so feel free to vicariously experience the old days of Greece. Nice stuff to actively listen to or just have on in the background.

goat - CastleVania 3 "Emerald Ruins" [unchosen Paths / VGMix2 #2038]

Chris's latest release for his CV3 arrangement album is a break from his usual style. Of course, there's some guitar rock in there, so you don't be worrying. Yet we also get some more electronic stuff along with strings. Now, the strings and winds are noticeably unrealistic and need attention to dynamics, so this really doesn't match the quality of the goat's CV3 mixes IMO, but most of you aren't gonna mind, so I suppose you can disregard that. Keep looking out for goat as he continues to wind his way through the entire CV3 soundtrack, as the results have been impressive overall!

JAXX - "Life of Wind" [http://www.trulyradical.com] - OneUp Feedback / VGMix Feeedback

"Life of Wind" makes it as my pick of the week! Here's some very cool acoustic string stuff from Pat that carries almost a Spanish/Italian kind of feel to it. You don't get to see too much from JAXX these days, so when you see his stuff, you've gotta be sure to snap it up quickly. JAXX drops some very excellent work here featuring three layers of nicely laid guitar tracks. Be sure to check this out for some nice energy.

k-wix - Noir "Love's Betrayal" [http://k-wix.no-ip.com] - Feedback

After analoq's own Noir mix was spotlighted last week, k-wix goes for a composition of his own that, on its own, sounds rather straightforward (even though it's a medley). Dustin managed to win a competition for actual dolla dolla$ with this Noir medley solo piano mix, and more power to him for making some scratch off it. Situations like that make me wanna remix. :-P Gimme some money! I'm not one to assign broad meaning to music pieces, but I did feel like this one worked with creating imagery and successfully telling a story through music of how one's love could turn into betrayal. Very cool solo instrument work that you can expect to see on Anime Remix in the near future as it currently goes through the judging process, and one of k-wix's best efforts yet.

Lix - "Snow Drizzle" Version 2.0 [Levo Lution XII]

Primarily inspired by Robert Miles 1996 album "Dreamland", Lix Exest drops a decent 7-minute dream trance piece with what (I hope) translates to English as "Snow Drizzle". I thought the overall prepense could have been phatter as it relates to the beats, but the structure is nice and most of the sound choices are relaxing while energetic. If you like what you hear with Lix's original work (AND you can read Japanese ;-P), check out his very soon-to-be-released 13-track original album Phobos and enjoy his mostly trance-oriented material. Solid original stuff from one of Japan's more prominent game music remixers.

OverCoat - Vectorman 1 "Ocean Front Property" [VGMix2 #2057]

Scott's here this week with a short, simple rearrangement of the classic "Tidal Surge" theme from Vectorman, attempting to take a slightly different approach than trance, which is how most people have attempted to tackle the theme (including Strike911 who has his own quality remix). The best part of this is the bubbly/ambient-style melody along with piano countermelody, while SOC's drumbeat and electrosynth choices at 1:01 somewhat killed off the ambient feel I got. I'd love to hear this one done with better sound combinations, but this is some cool, quick material from my bro that gets it done. (What a sweet close!)

Quinn Fox - Phantasy Star 1 "Phillibuster" [VGMix2 #2069]

Thank you God, I'm so glad Quinn Fox is back. :-D Like I mentioned last week, Quinn decided to forgo his long hiatus from the music scene. Even deciding to go back and purchase the equipment he actually sold off, Fox's return was even more unexpected than I thought, so it's great to hear him back. This Phantasy Star mix is very rough, and is thus a more WIP-like level of quality with the mastering seemingly unaddressed, yet Quinn trademark sounds and style are apparent throughout, so I'd love to see this retooled and in a more presentable package. This is a somewhat meandering piece, so it does need more focus, though I believe a re-EQing would be enough to create the separation needed to bring out the potential here and make this much more cohesive-sounding. Y'all don't know how glad I am to know that Quinn not hanging it up for good. Remember this mix as you could potentially see it improved in the future.

Rellik - Final Fantasy 6 "Dancing Mad" [VGMix2 #2056] - OCR Feedback

Adam has Kefka's theme (yes, I know you see the mix title, but that's right) done with strings and some thick dance beats, giving the source material quite the revamping. Rexy, burgeoning remixer and reviewer du jour of VGMix, felt this sounded stylistically similar to Rellik's EarthBound mix from earlier in the summer ("Dreaming on Distant Shores"), yet I thought this did a great job in sounding nothing like that mix, and I know Rellik is working to diversify his style and not fit too comfortably into a given genre or formula. "Dancing Mad" is some pretty uptempo work that's really accessible thanks to the source tune choice, and should definitely let you see Kefka's theme in a new light. I'd personally like to see the strings more humanized, but aside from that and a few other minor issues, you should be liking what's going on.

Reuben Kee - Street Fighter 2 "Ryu for Four Pianos" [VGMix2 #1662 / OC ReMix #1230]

I plugged this way back in July, and was glad to see this unique mix arrive at the OC judges' panel shortly after I joined. Firing it up again to be secure in my vote was a welcome obligation. Let's check out what I said about this one way back on June 19th:

After being in the WIP stage for a while, Reuben's released the final version of this ambitious Street Fighter remix where he played 4 different layers of piano in one take apiece and merged them to form this remix. It obviously takes a lot of effort to play each section live and have everything synch up properly, so props to Reu for making the idea work from conception to finished product. Don't be intimidated by 4 different piano tracks at once, folks. Two tracks provide background support while the third provides countermelody.

While a little scattered during some of the very active sections, everything generally comes together nicely as Ryu's melody is accompanied quite adeptly with Reu's three other piano lines. If you're looking for a very fresh take on Ryu's theme, look no further.

Ryan8bit - The Legend of Zelda 2 "All Else Failed" [Dwelling of Duels: Legend of Zelda / VGMix2 #2052]

Here's Ryan's entry from the most recent DoD compo covering Zelda music, and it's a straightforward but enjoyable rock arrangement of the Dungeon music. Not much to say on this, which is not to say that it's bad at all otherwise it wouldn't be here on the Pimp Section, but if you're looking for a quality mix with very capable axe work, nice varied percussion support that doesn't drag the energy down, and some familiar game coverage, give Mr. 8bit a DL and enjoy what he had cooking for July's Dwelling of Duels. August's compo is focusing on military games, so expect to see some attention-grabbing, high octane work from the premiere live instrument mixing competition.

Sephfire - Kingdom Hearts 1 "Above the Rising Falls" [VGMix2 #1303 / OC ReMix #1229]

Daniel Floyd finally brings some VERY anticipated Kingdom Hearts action to OCR with this suspenseful orchestral-style piece covering the Square game with everyone's favorite Disney characters. Any game where you can use Donald Duck in a combat situation is the WIN! I played this mix on VGF way back in April at Debotron's request, and knew it was OC-worthy material back then, thus I'm glad to have gotten the chance to YES it as a judge. I've pretty much said everything I wanted to say about this one via my judging decision, so go ahead and read that for the technical stuff. As it stands, this one has gotten an excellent reception that should serve to get Sephfire's name even more out there. If you've been waiting for some well-made KH material, your prayers have been answered. Snap this up immediately.

TO & FIDGAF - Seiken Densetsu 3 "Electrion (Guitar Mix)" [IONCROSS: Total War OST] - ZIP of the full OST / Feedback

Lee Barber & Damon De Maio have collabed on a full soundtrack for a mod of the space-based strategy game Freelancer, with this remix of Hiroki Kiukta's "Swivel" functioning as the Rheinland theme and representing only one of three remixes in the mostly original soundtrack. I don't mind saying that this mix should eventually have to-be-posted status at OCR, so you should give it a look to preview some quality upcoming material featuring FIDGAF with some powerful guitar support and TO providing engaging ambience and beats in the front, transforming the (shitty) original into a completely different monster. After hearing this mix, there's no doubt the rest of the IONCROSS: Total War soundtrack will be good, so if you have a good connection, go ahead and download the 50MB ZIP featuring the full OST. Get more information on the full Freelancer mod from the IONCROSS development team at http://www.ioncross.com.

On the WIP side, top C64/R:K:O mixer Larsec has a cool FF7 "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" mix in the works, while fellow C64 mixer cohort Makke continues his trend of vocalized homage mixes with an Arkanoid mix in the style of Faith No More's classic single "Epic". Now let's enjoy the laundry list of works-in-progress to check out: ms0k (melody) & MaJIN_SaN (drums) - Destiny of an Emperor (history theme), ziwtra - Secret of Mana, ziwtra - Soukaigi, zircon - CastleVania Adventure, Mythril Nazgul - Xenogears, Suzumebachi - Donkey Kong Country (Kong in Concert), Ashane - Street Fighter II, Shadow - EarthBound, DCT - Silent Hill 2, Kadmium - Final Fantasy VII, Sefiros - Final Fantasy VII

I wanted to wish Haroon my best wishes after Hurricane Charley tore off part of the roof of his family's home this weekend. Tons of people in Florida, Georgia & the Carolinas unfortunately felt Charley's fury and the hurricane ripped apart tons of communities. Haroon even has some pictures of the damage to his home and around his neighborhood at the OneUp Studios boards. Here's hoping anyone in Charley's path or anyone you may know in that area came out safe and sound. We don't get many hurricanes in Connecticut, but Hurricane Hugo about 15 years ago practically decimated Hamden and parts of New Haven around where I live, so I know it's a shitty situation when it happens.

EdgeCrusher's one of those guys who's on top of the scene, so I found out from him in the #ocremix IRC channel that Stemage of Metroid Metal fame has to delay the final track of the remix project until...get this...his fingernail grows back. It seems that Grant accidentally burned off half the fingernail of his main guitar finger on his girlfriend's oven range. Shit, that's gotta hurt. So we wish Grant the best on his grueling :-) road to recovery and know that once he has time to lay down the final cut of Metroid Metal, all will be right with the world for the rock remix enthusiasts out there.

DJP and OCR finally got that mention in SPIN magazine I was hearing about with the subscriber release of the September-dated issue. Man, those guys need to do a real article and not just some bootleg timeline. Bleh on it. Any publicity is good publicity, but I would have liked some BETTER publicity. :-P Check out a scan of the video game music timeline via the OneUp Studios boards. The OneUp Mushroomss, the Minibosses, the NESkimoes & Game Over were also mentioned.

Hope everyone also had a good time at the OneUp Studios BBQ last on the 7th as well. I don't know anyone from the OneUp crew well, but it's always cool when mixers and fans of the community get together like with MAGFest, the FF: Dear Friends concert & E3. Progress is also coming along with ideas and potential contributions to the upcoming Xenogears piano album, so keep an eye out at http://oneupstudios.com for more info from Mustin and crew as it develops.

Aight bros, take care and I'll see ya next week.

VG Frequency: U Love VGM

in Projects

Posted August 11, 2004

Man I should follow this thread a bit more that I have been. I'm feeling a little guilty...

No problem, Phil. Thanks for checking it out now; there's only 3 or 4 more weeks of these Pimp Sections left, but the best way to catch up with what I'm been trying to promote is to visit my forum at Ormgas.com (the best radio station ever created) and check out the individual weeks, so you don't have to wander around this thread. There's some stuff from May on page 3 of the VGF forums, but otherwise, everything should be right there for ya.

For those of you joining us on page 55, this week's Pimp Section is on page 54 (too many damn pages, am I right). Still, keep comments coming if you liked anything you heard.

VG Frequency: U Love VGM

in Projects

analoq - Noir "amazeing!" [The People's Remix Competition: Animation 5]

Slow week in terms of side developments in the community, or at least any that I'm aware of. We're only a month away from the return of VGF on the air, so hopefully we'll get some more good stuff to fill up the very first show back. In any case, the music takes center stage, so let's see what dropped for the week ending August 7th:

Alexander Prievert - Ecco the Dolphin 2 (Sega CD), Metropolis Street Racer & Conker's Bad Fur Day "The Dolphin-Squirrel-Paris Rave" [VGMix2 #2001]

Alex hits VGMix with his latest release, which frankly sounds like very generic techno. Yet this one is ambitious in giving a very different spin on material that you'd never think could be "technosized". Not only that, but he also combines elements of music from 3 games that you'd never expect to be pieced together with Ecco 2, Metropolis Street Racer & Conker's Bad Fur Day. The first thing I noticed was that the mastering here was poor enough to dull a lot of the energy this track had, so it needs a drastic overhaul to give the mix clarity and presence. We finally get some unique stuff coming in with some weird effects entering at the 2:08 mark to give this one something particularly notable and enjoyable. It's pretty strange as this track is pretty oxymoronic to me. It's clearly innovates on the source material in a big way through its usage in the context of a wholly different genre. But as a strict techno piece independent of the material mixed, this is noticeably unremarkable work for the genre itself. In the 2 1/2 years I've been around the community, I've never quite heard a paradox like this mix right here. I wouldn't have spotlighted it here if there weren't some redeeming qualities, so it thus remains up to you how you're gonna feel about it.

Aaron won PRCA:5 handily with this cool spin on "Maze" from the Noir soundtrack, which OverCoat randomly picked to be this contest's challenge (thanxusomuch!~). Stripping away the (crappy) vocals and focusing on the melodic progression of the music itself, analoq tinkers around with the original with a light, laid-back groove before moving up the power again with electric guitar returning at the 1:47 mark. Short and sweet, and a vast improvement over the original (hey, those vocals are the epitome of an "acquired taste"). You can always trust analoq to take any idea and expertly exploit its potential. In the meantime, we'll be waiting for his choice of source material for PRC:A6.

The Blasted Man (Hungry Joe) - Final Fantasy 8 "Kind of Breezy" [VGMix2 #1998] - OCR Feedback

Nate Jasensky's recent OCR submission was turned down, but was a mix that I personally felt was very promising and deserved more attention. This one's an energetic take on God knows what theme. ;-) If you're down with a guitar based remix with some rock undertones, then you should sign yourself up for a listen to this progressive offering. This one carries quite a number of style changes and features tons of development in those respects, almost functioning like a medley piece. With regards to the strengths and weaknesses of the track, I've written so, so much about this mix in detail as an OCR judge and that carried over into my review of "Kind of Breezy" over at VGMix, which you'll wanna check out if you're really wondering what I thought about it in ludicrous amounts of detail. It'll be interesting to see what material Nate can produce in the future with such a noteworthy effort here.

Bustatunez - "Ironbars" [CompoST 29]

BT takes the victory for the regular SoundTempest compo with this prison theme composition. The style for this one seemed to connote something terrible happening during a prison-related cutscene, and thus had the right imagery working for it, which is why it got my vote. Busta is actually a student at Yale which is about 10 minutes away from my apartment, so we'll hopefully getting together in downtown sometime before I head back to school and shoot the shit. BT burst on the SoundTempest scene, already possessing nice samples and the knowledge to use them impressively, so I'll be looking forward to any of his further work, and hopefully he may do a VG remix or four. Meanwhile, "Ironbars" does a great job in setting a tone with sinister connotations, and is an original you'd be remiss in not DLing.

Chad Seiter - "A Whimsical Being" [http://www.chadseiter.com] - Feedback

Here Chad makes a quick entrance with a slowly-paced original wind piece. It's only 1:44, so there's not much for me to say. The flow is somewhat melancholy in the right frame of mind, but very relaxing at the same time and something you could zone out to if the piece was longer. I liked what I heard, and nothing should stop you from giving this a quick peek. Check out the Feedback link to sample some more of Chad's original work, including some works-in-progress longer than this piece.

Darangen - Donkey Kong Country 2 "From Within" [VGMix2 #1988]

Here's a pretty solid rock mix done Dave Wise's mines theme for DKC2 by a name I've seen around VGMix but haven't had the opportunity to review much, Michael Boyd. As with many rock mixes, the percussion can be pretty straightforward and this uninteresting, and I believe that's the case, but Darangen's electric guitar work here is alright, and the music here sets a somewhat despondent tone, which you'll understand more once you read the details Mike gave in his mix description. This one's faring very, very well over at VGMix, currently standing in Tier 1. A little inflated of a ranking? Frankly, yes. But this one has interesting ideas and makes a whole new piece out of the original, so it's a good first look at Darangen if you're un familiar with his stuff.

DistantJ - The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time "Sand" [VGMix2 #1918]

For any fans of the Gerudo theme or Danny B's "Awakened Fears of the Gerudo", you're inevitably gonna have to head over to VGMix and check out J's latest release tackling one of the more-covered LoZ:OoT themes out there. This is some pretty energetic techno, though the production on it is such that the melody never really takes its spot in the foreground of the track over the beats, thus this production on this mix does need to be addressed, which is one area of DistantJ's mixing that I consistently highlight as having room for improvement. Despite all that, I'm liking the ideas presented here and the development here is easily observable. Once DJ finds more of the right balance amongst his sounds, he'll be in a lot better shape. As I listen to more and more of his material, I can hear him improving his game in various ways, so you'll no doubt see him on OCR in the eventual future. Not the best track of his I've heard IMO (that would be his Link's Awakening mix, "Windfish Enigma") but one that should be more easily accessible to you Zelda 64 fans out there.

Fatty Acid - Chrono Trigger "Rhodes to the Past" [VGMix2 #1502 / OC ReMix #1226]

I covered this one last week, so let's quickly see what I said for the week of July 31st:

Following up with another remix that I voted NO on is Joe's "Wind Scene" remix that managed to split the panel voting with the question of how dramatic the arrangement was. Despite the debate on that, I can guarantee you that this is one excellent sounding mix that flavors the popular source tune with some electronic sounds and thick beats, resulting in a pretty good genre adaptation mix that strictly arranges rather than rearranges. Don't forget the Rhodes either, which is the primary inspiration for this mix. You'll likely be feeling the energy here, and Fatty Acid's choice of source material is gonna ensure that he gets a notable reception with his pending OCR debut.

Now that it's out at OC, the feedback is indeed strong and the people are all "McDonald's I'm luvin' it" for the phat b33tz! Pimp this one with some subwoofers for maximum effect.

Freemind - "Passion" [http://www.bands411.com/freemindlab] - Feedback

Some dope original work as usual from OCR's resident Grecian, Thanasis, as he goes for some more ambient material accompanied by stock beats that you'll EASILY recognize from Ben Cousins' Zelda 3 mix "Lost Woods South Central". Moving into 1:29, we get some Eastern sounds to add more variety to the package along a female vocal sample introing at 1:54 that provides some more ear candy. While the piano provides activity throughout, 2:33 features the addition of some eerily-processed vox that actually went over well with me. Pretty odd, but it works. Pretty straightforward work from FM on this one, but the sounds were cool, so hit it up.

Majeliss (computermage) - Megaman 3 "Loneliness" [VGMix2 #2012]

No one's EVER started an MM3 remix with the Protoman whistle before. That's UNHEARD of.

Hahahaha! I'm just busting Maj's balls there. The intro's actually handled in a nice way, and this was a pretty interesting take on the Bun Bun's "Ending" theme done in an electronic hip-hop style. The phatty bass presence is kept at a good level so as to not overshadow the other stuff going on, though I thought the electro-lead and the clap synth were EQed a little too high, while on the other hand the reverbed piano sounds hot. Everything here is presented nicely as Maj spends his 4 1/2 minutes tinkering around with the melodic progressions of the original and flavoring it with da hip-hop spices we be liking. The flow is capable, thus I felt it was worth a look.

mv - Final Fantasy 7 & Chrono Trigger "A Foray into the Eastern Horizons" [OC ReMix #1228]

This excellent combination of Uematsu's "Wutai" & Mitsuda's "Schala's Theme" bring you Eastern flavors from France's most prominent mixer at VGMix & OCR, Xavier Dang, whom you can always count on to deliver the goods. You're gonna have to check out DJP's writeup to get the full deal on all of the instruments, but the sum total here is that you will be able to relax your ass off with this excellent piece. Indeed, the very cliche Schala's theme is integrated well enough in the composition so that it doesn't detract from the piece for us anal-retentive people. Everything flows well, and there have already been overtures in the review thread for the mix that it's a great track for...um...love...and all that entails. Feel free to check out the original version sans a few tweaks at VGMix as well, and see why this mix's arrival at OCR was so highly anticipated.

Nixdorux (Nicolas Ferranti) - Gargoyle's Quest "Gargoyle in Broadway" [VGMix2 #2026]

It's Nicolas, and he's NOT doing Zelda. Well, damn, you know I had to check it out just to see how his skills would translate to another game's work. Here's some very beautiful and upbeat orchestral work that features a lot of movement and development, even sounding at some of the more low-key section like something that could belong in a movie featuring simpler city life in 1920/30s America. Bah, who knows where I get my mental imagery sometimes. Things even seemed like they would go towards a more militaristic slant by the 2:40 mark, and I said "Here comes the usual", yet Nix actually used that buildup very briefly to segue into his conclusion. A very cool piece from a game I'm not familiar with myself, but you orchestral fans owe it to yourself to sample this one.

Shnabubula - Solstice "Shadax the Blue" [VGMix2 #1993]

If that ain't a bitch...

Samuel Ascher-Weiss's first impression with me was his brief & off-kilter Guardian Legend OC ReMix "Red Spiders", so when I downloaded this mix of Solstice's intro muzak early in the week and put off listening to it until Saturday, I expected more of the same. Never would I have thought that instead I'd be hearing a very upbeat wind-led orchestral theme. Some of the harmonic choices in the second half of this NES-game remix are decidedly flaky and scattershot, so it's not as strong as the first half. Despite that, this follow-up release of the Shnabubulan One is worth exploring to see another side of his work and the potential he has when engaging in other remixing styles.

Sir Nuts - Descent 1 "Ascencion (Upside Down)" [The People's Remix Competition 21] - Feedback

OOOOOH, this is awesome right here. My man, Mike Molina, is back again with some good melodic techno work via reelmojo's People's Remix Competition. Taking on TO's source tune choice from Descent for PRC21, Mr. Nuts has got the dial turned up with his familiar brand o' work. I definitely wasn't feeling the piano coming in at 2:51, as the off-key melody killed the flow and deflated a LOT of energy here. [frowny face] That's gonna need to be looked at, but the bigger picture illustrates that this is some solid stuff. Hopefully we can get some tweaks done and see more of this mix in the future, if you know what I mean. Check out the brand new PRC website launched this week, which featured EVERY song ever made from The People's Remix Competition. Straightforward but swanky, head on over to http://www.peoplesremix.com and get the goods!

trickwaters - Lufia 1 "Memorie di ultima guerra: I Introduzione" (a.k.a. 'Memories of the Last War: I Introduction') [VGMix2 #2007]

Pat latest VGMix release is a straightforward string & wind-centered orchestral interpretation of Lufia & the Fortress of Doom. The flow of the notes here from the strings needed to be more humanized, but that's just me being nitpicky. The development here courtesy of trick is logical and natural sounding in it's own right, starting off gentle and building momentum toward the bigger finish in what you'd come to expect from many other great-sounding orchestral game arrangements. More good work from one of the few notable names in the American scene who's yet to be posted on OCR.

Tuba Lin - Final Fantasy 9 "Shepard Won't Alone" [OC ReMix #1227]

Ironically enough, this is the second OC ReMix of the summer that's got a title in improper English. So what does that mean? That it's from the FF series, of course. Wait, nah. Following in the titling footsteps of The Risen Daysprings's FF7 mix "Truth in Forgiveness Await", we have a nice orchestral mix that goes HEAVY on the rearrangement of "You're Not Alone!" that I enjoyed greatly at that level. GrayLightning is much more knowledgable about the sample usage here, but like I said when I voted on it, I thought the samples were subpar. Nonetheless, the arrangement is primarily what counts here, and it's top notch. More orchestral st00f with a different sound due to the samples, but very creative arrangement ideas nonetheless that certainly take the source material in an uncharted direction.

Unknown & zircon - Chrono Trigger "When All Hope Has Faded" [VGMix2 #2014] - OCR Feedback

Two of SoundTempest's heavy hitters have joined forces in this very energetic yet melancholy techno/orchestral piece that (much like "Calamitous Judgment") includes several influences, including the noticeable style of one of Jared Hudson's favorite composers, Danny Elfman. Here, my bros Ty & Andy have pulled out a lot of different tricks, starting out this mix in Unknown's style with a very nice music box with some hot female choir vox action before throwing zirc's electronic stylings into the loop with a technosynth iteration of the melody from "The Day the World Revived". The tandem does a great job trading off sounds and measures throughout the mix, definitely providing a product that wouldn't be possible from either one individually. Excellent work that any CT music fan is gonna mess their pants over via this powerhouse teamup of one of OCR's orchestral mainstays in Unknown and the site's latest "OMG, who IS that?" in zircon.

virt - The Legend of Zelda 2, The Legend of Zelda 1 & The Legend of Zelda 3 "Blood of Ganon" [Dwelling of Duels: Legend of Zelda / VGMix2 #1986]

Jake Kaufman's all about the return of the ROCK with "OMG, da bl00d of ga/\/on!1`~" with a literal headbanging Zelda medley piece that's the winning entry in July's Dwelling of Duels over notables like the guy whom some have deemed an "asshole personified" the outspoken Seifer. Ironically enough, some critics (and no, they aren't outspoken critics) have called virt's guitar work soulless. Though you hear an overabundance of energy here, admittedly I'd have to agree in part with those critics, as some of Jake's previous VGMix material has sounded a lot more emotive ("Warrior King" & "Wings of Gold"). There are a lot of fans out there who'll flatly disagree with that assessment, but in any case I'm all over the fact that this mix is all about kicking you in the face with some creative, sick riffs on insanely popular source material. There were tons of great style changes and transitions throughout, illustrating how Jake typically let's it all hang out when he works on his latest rock mix material. You're gonna have to check out "Blood of Ganon" yourself if you wanna hear what virt managed to do at the 5:12 mark to totally change the feel of the mix and secure DoD victory. More top tier stuff from one of the legends of the community.

The Wingless & Vigilante - Metroid 1 "Final Exam" [http://www.thewingless.com]

Jesse has been a big fan of The Wingless ever since John released his MM2 classic "Teardrinker", so, even though it took a year to finish (A YEAR!), they've finally gotten everything done with the official release of "Final Exam" over at what many call the greatest website ever, TheWingless.com. Just listening to this, you can really hear how Vigilante's involvement changed the presentation of the mix, as he and Wing put together a much more harder-edged, rock-that-shit-down offering than Wingle's general body of work. Both Jesse and John's characteristics shine through here, and you're a chump if you don't pick it up. Sample this hot stuff dropped by two of OCR's dictator-like judges.

After only a few weeks of quitting the scene for now, Quinn Fox is back, and I'm a selfish, happy happy man! Cruise on over to his homepage at http://www.quinn.50g.com and snag a MASSIVE chunk of his work while it's available to you! Meanwhile, Quinn's been seeing if anyone's interested in a collaboration over at the VGMix forums. Hope to see Fox back in the mix sooner than later. And that's all the news that's fit to report regardless, so find your way back here next week.

OCR3L33T - YES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 'Heroes in a Quartet' FT

Never thought I would ever hear a Digital Coma/SnappleMan collab. Not bad on the production at all. Sounded pretty hot actually. The sound of the lead guitar was a little odd to grasp and kinda ruined the whole thing. The decision would have at least been more difficult if it sounded better. Pretty funny hearing Binnie's vocal diarrhea again, since it was funny as hell when I played the acapella on da radioz. The freestyle section from :39-:54 was a too scattered for my taste, and the burp ending...um...aight. Kinda funny, but this ain't BEERmix. I used to judge for THAT too. :-P Way better than Zelda 64 "Epona" though, I'll give ya that. What a piece of shit THAT was...

NO

OCR01228 - Final Fantasy VII "A Foray into the Eastern Horizons"

in ReMix Reviews & Comments

This is one of the better remixes I have on my playlist, and although it's been there for nearly half a year (these days so much of what is there is not yet on OCRemixes, a telling sign that perhaps the jury has grown a bit too voluptuous feeding on these tracks-- it's time to cut the fat from this process and get these songs through the grindery a bit faster)...excellent song, but it should have been here a long, long time ago.

I cannot vouch for how long this was in the submission process. It was released in mid-January on VGMix, but as mv said in this thread, the production was tweaked before this was ever submitted to OCR, so it was likely submitted after January.

djpretzel has to listen to literally every submission before he chooses what to do with it next. If it fell through the cracks of the submissions process, it's unfortunate, but it happens. If in fact this was submitted earlier than May, generalizing this track's rare scenario as a broad edictment on the length of the submission process is misguided, especially since it's in much better shape now as opposed to in the past year.

OCR01226 - Chrono Trigger "Rhodes to the Past"

in ReMix Reviews & Comments

I apologize for partially threadjacking, but felt obligated to address the following:

I'd like to add, though, that I often feel that, in their efforts to further individualize their work, that many artists' recent submissions to OCRemix have sometimes faltered in their focus. Many of these folks of late seem to forget that they are remixing rather than composing new music, and this is a key notation made all the more obvious by this particular remix which, if nothing else, definately holds true to its core.

They are often composing new music, aren't they? [looks at postcount] Thank you for drawing uninformed conclusions while not reading the site FAQ:

The word "ReMix" was chosen but is not necessarily appropriate, as the tracks here are more arrangements than remixes (think of this as the difference between a "remix" and a "ReMix," mmmkay?). Besides, "OverClocked Arrangements" would have sounded gimp.

NO Xenogears 'Dream Egg' FT

The opening was some of Haroon's familiar sound, and sounded nice and clean until the low-end support came in at 0:15 and made things sound more muffled. When that support dropped out at areas such as the first iteration of the melody at 1:08, everything sounded clean once again. Haroon needs to look into how to tweak the bass thumps to prevent their inclusion from obscuring the rest of the sounds. Again at 2:17, I had those same problems with the bass thumps during a more uneventful section, and at 2:44 when the music thickened up with even more activity, the high-end frequencies could have been toned down a bit, yet those were all considerably minor problems I felt inclined to point out.

Otherwise, once I compared things with the original and observed the direction FF moved things in, the overall rearrangement of Mitsuda's "Shattering Egg of Dreams" worked really well for the dance/trance genre, and the production is just over the bar IMO considering the issues I had with it. No matter what Haroon says he did with the production, it will be an issue, because it needs improvement. Personally, I've heard decidedly more interesting remix material from FF's body of work with more unique structures and sound choices, but it's not difficult for me to see that he gets the job done here. I was originally gonna NO this on the production side, but putting it on the shelf and listening to it again two days later showed me that it wasn't as bad as I thought, and I felt the product was much stronger on the rearrangement side, which was more important to me and enough to change my mind. Not an enthusiastic YES, but that doesn't change the vote.

EDIT: Or does it? I'll always say that Vigilante is the best judge we've got, as he breaks everything down so easily. The lead is indeed anemic, no getting around it. I'd rather hear this polished up with sharper, non-gimpy sounds, a thickened up texture, and the harmony brought out to a more prominent position, as it does in fact do a disservice to Haroon's skills. I think the rearrangement is very passable, and the production still didn't bother me as much as it'll bother everyone else, but there IS a lot of imbalance in the production that holds this back from sounding very good, and I don't wanna improperly downplay that in my vote, which ultimately wasn't enthusiastic enough to begin with. I'll do a rare flip-flop and say NO go. I liked it, but this could and should be worked on to overhaul the sound quality and bring it to the level it should be at.

OCR01232 - YES Raiden 2 'Airborne'

Posted August 6, 2004

No prob. tef actually just mailed me back 2 hours after you posted:

fixed
i took out the rising feedback AND the cymbal, so i hope you like it!

thanks,

jack

Thanks a lot to Jack for considering the tweaks at the end there. Definitely a hot effort here, and with "Drop and Roll" and "Airborne" out I'll always be looking forward to tefnek's future stuff. Great work again!

NO Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 'Epona'

Posted August 4, 2004

Gray was probably gonna vote YES on it (you know how he be), but he didn't get here in time...

So go ahead, Dan. Drop one in his coffeepot.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Non sequitur BLACK MAN EDIT for Xerol & SnappleMan's amusement:

<SnappleMan> Also, that lead is ass

<SnappleMan> you've gotta get a more buttery, and less assy lead

<SnappleMan> and switch it up, nigre

<SnappleMan> get some variation in that mofo

<SnappleMan> as my black associates would say

<sadorf> lmao

<CXI> I've never actually heard any black person say "get some variation in that mofo"

<CXI> though I gotta say I eagerly await that day

<SnappleMan> Bah

<SnappleMan> then you dont know cool black people

<SnappleMan> Larry says cool shit like that!

Yep. Get some variation in that mofo.

NO Dreamweb 'Diary of a Madman'

Posted August 3, 2004

Not bad. I've already checked this out maybe 15 times and I actually liked it, but this could use more work. Once 1:35, the drums are cool, definitely, but the lead is obscured by them and the sounds smoosh together. Pretty damn cool overall, just hook it up with the production, especially so that droning sound is a little less pronounced. It needs to accentuate the music, not dominate over the top of it. Reanalyze the various levels and I'd be down with a resubmission.

NO

NO Final Fantasy 'Lisière de l'eau'

Posted August 3, 2004

Listen to larry; a fag who knows what he likes.

Indeed. And I like you.

NO Final Fantasy 10 'Eternity Ascending Gagazet'

Posted August 3, 2004

I wasn't getting hasty. Nonetheless, pardon me. [/listens to entire song] So 4:32 of a 7:11-long track is the original melody, tempo and instrumentation, verbatim, with a lil' sumthin'-sumthin' extra on top, like bongos. Looks like a submissions violation to me, and not hard to call either, especially given the reconsideration of Kaijin's mix which has exactly the same issue. Like I said, NO OVERRIDE.

NO Final Fantasy 'Lisière de l'eau'

Too bad about this one too, because there is tons of potential here. The intro was excellent, and I liked the choice of instruments for it a hell of a lot. Strings needed to be tightened up, without a doubt. The horns from 1:45-2:04 were both flimsy-sounding and sloppy, and then things just got so ridiculously out of sync from 2:04-2:31 that even a complete non-remixer n00b like me was screaming "QUANTIZE DAMMIT!" This one definitely didn't have any real movement and that abrupt ending at 3:04 was just not what the song needed to close out with. There were lots of promising sounds and I often heard good countermelodic activity, but try to explore more ideas for the song to move somewhere while also tightening up the timing issues.

Redevelop. Refine. Resubmit.

NO

NO Ninja Gaiden 3 'Fading from the Light'

NES version - http://www.zophar.net/nsf/ngaiden3.zip - NSF Track 8

SNES version - http://www.alpha-ii.com/snesmusic/spcsets/ngt.rsn - (Miya, K. Nakabai, L. Shigeno) "Powerplant"

Up until :48 when the melody came in, everything was pretty boring and unengaging. The intro definitely didn't work as far as building up to the meat of the mix. Now beyond :48, the lead was absolutely way too loud, topping out the frequencies and piercing my ear as it continued. By 2 minutes, this just got old. Really, really boring with practically no development. The addition of some faint strings at 2:36 was too little too late and the ending was limper than Prot's penis.

NO

NO Castlevania 3 'Vamp Club Dance'

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/castlev3.zip - NSF Track 2

Yeah, I pimped these for VGF a few weeks ago. The FF6 poem was kind of amusing actually. Pretty cool stuff if you're a Daknit fan, but yeah, this won't fly here I'm afraid. I'm not a sample whore, but the sample quality is way below what we're looking for now. In effect, the submissions standards have passed BD by. The production's very solid though, which is honestly somewhat ironic given that the actual music itself is so scattershot.

Not much going on at all regarding rearrangement; this sticks pretty close to the original. When the melody came in at :53, it just sounded completely incoherent with regards to the harmony involved. I'd go as far as saying that it's a step down from the original. After one loop, it's more of the same stuff at 2:20, so on the development side this doesn't pass either. The various voice samples were a cool idea, but didn't fit comfortably with the music like they should have. This tries to sound Gothic while also being a dance mix but ultimately ends up as a poor execution of both styles. No go.

NO

NO Zep's Dreamland 'Sorrow (ZD Mix)'