[*NO* NiGHTS into dreams... 'Celebration']

Can't figure out what this is mixing from the NiGHTS soundtrack, since I'm not overly familiar with it. Certainly carries some of that vibe here though. From the looks of your VGMix release comments, Andy, it looks like you're done with this one, so I'll just make/iterate some basic points.

Vig, per his usual, nailed most of the salient points:

-this lacked dynamic contrast the whole way through

-the composition/arrangement was very plain & somewhat repetitive

-the mallets were playing some bad notes (didn't affect me too badly, but I definitely heard them)

-the sounds/samples were generally weak (punch them up with more processing/effects)

-the production was also way too muffled and messy; sharpen up the sounds and create a better balance amongst your foreground and background elements

It's not terrible, but, at the same time, this would need a ton of work to get it in any kind of shape. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised the production was this poor given that your FFX-2 mix was released before this one at VGMix. Perhaps this was an older project. In any case though, definitely apply yourself more on future stuff. Looking forward to the next submission.

NO

[*NO* Shining Force 3 'Shinin n' the Ghetto']

Couldn't find any telltale sign of the source tune amidst the VGM FTPs I normally check out, so thanks for including the MIDI.

Was waiting for something to take hold during the intro. Finally got some beats in at :42. The mix lacks a bit in the high-end frequencies, but that's probably just personal taste. The percussion & bass work were both pretty sedate sounding.

I hear the attempt at "ghetto," but I live in one, and I'm not feelin' it here. There was no real presence or sharpness in the sounds. The trip-hop influence was certainly there, but it felt like the track meandered and plodded along. The source melody was pretty spartan in its usage until 2:26-2:46 switched to a piano solo-type section.

Things picked up at 3:22, but we got some um...odd...notes choices until 3:32, then more of the same old groove from before with some slight additions. The string usage at 4:02-4:26 sounded too artificial. Note-to-note dynamics were non-existent there. The performance generally came off as dull and monotonous, and that's not on account of the genre, as there is a lot of badass trip-hop out there. Keep at it, bro.

NO

[*NO* Chrono Trigger 'X-Veri-Mental']

Just wanted to give Liquid Neon some brief judging feedback on the other submissions that fell through.

Perfect Dark "Supermans In Chicago": Reliant on the vocal sampling (in this case, Eminem) and definitely a guidelines violation. Music is absolutely distorted and the arrangement is very obscured.

SoM "The Likeness Of Death": Same issues as the previous.

Timesplitters 2 "Frozen West": Don't have the original to compare to. Melody at :41 was very obscured; sounds need cleaner separation as well as some more attention to the high-end in the EQing. Strings sound fake moving from note to note when you can hear them loudly. Decent production. Composition changes enough where it might not be a rip, though it would have to have a good amount of the source tune used and interpreted here of course. I'd be willing to fallthrough that one to at least give it a proper vote.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Corridors of Time" (ct-3-04.spc)

Heh. Nice thick beats introing things. Then some downright unwieldy shit comes in at :19, and again at :32. Wow, the sound balance is ALL over the place. Everything's EXTREME and in yo face nigga.

Wow, all of sudden everything dropped out at 1:10, only to pick back up at 1:36. Reaching 2:00 of this 2:54 mix, so far only the first few chords from the source have been riffed on. Gotta throw a bit more substance on the arrangement side. 2:14 there is some serious distortion/clipping going on with one mo time fo da bass. Certainly a big detraction from an otherwise interesting track.

This is cooler than a lot of people are gonna give it credit for, but in any case, it doesn't use the source tune enough and doesn't do anything particularly interpretive to it, the sound balance/production needs to be overhauled, and the I'm not trying to squash your style, but you do need to place more focus and direction in the piece at times. It can be disjointed compositionally (e.g. Marsland Brotherhood's Speedball "Speedy Guitar"), but the various parts basically need to individually hold up to the standards here.

NO

[*NO* Final Fantasy 10-2 'Eternity for Percussion Ensemble']

http://www.noderunner.net/~llin/psf/packs/FFX-2_psf2.rar - 101 "Eternity ~Memory of Lightwaves~"

Ah MAN. Why's it gotta be a straight cover? Damn. Then it basically repeats after the halfway point. Well, fuck.

Popping sound at 1:05, along with other light pops along the way. Good atmosphere though the overall sound could be sharper, as it's a bit muffly and I'm hearing some light (not bothersome) hissing. Get some higher frequencies into the picture.

Got to 1:41 and we're basically just retreading. The drums in here sound a bit too artificial. 2:23, still essentially the same composition as the PSF. Not saying it's just a rip or anything, but get interpretive too. Even the album version of the original only goes for 2:37, so if you're going for a 3:28-long mix, bring some further creative interpretation to the table or you won't make it. That's not a real ending at 3:17 either. Bring a resolution into the picture.

Anyway, my girlfriend liked it, so she'll be hanging onto it. This was a really unique offering relative to all other music I've heard in my time in the community, but if the arrangement hits auto-pilot it's all but over. Give your production and the level of creativity on the arrangement a kick. This had the potential to be a very well-received mix, Niels, but you need to put more work into it. Come on back with it.

NO (resubmit)

[*NO* Mega Man 3 'Spark It Up' *RESUB*]

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - Track 8 ("Sparkman Stage")

Pretty cool ideas on the sound effect intro. Not really connected to the music start, but ya know, Sparkman and all so let's have some sparks. Decent groove here. Fairly basic sounding; pretty simple and straightforward sounds, but the overall vibe was well put together. Cool arrangement ideas from 1:16-1:41. Nothing particularly liberal, but some good ideas adapting the Sparkman theme to the genre and adding a few personal touches.

1:41 changes the flow with some very random electrosynths with some phaser-type effects. The note patterns on them sounded really bad when they were alone until 1:55. It was better when some other stuff joined in and obscured those sounds.

The source melody at 2:07 sounded really shrill and there weren't too many liberties taken there on the composition side. With well-layered but otherwise basic electronic/trance instrumentation going on in the additive sense, I'm also looking for the source melody itself to have further interpretation on it.

Hits a freeform section at 2:59 that really doesn't come together well. Relies on the same phasing synths and so forth that I referred to before with the iffy notes. Better use of variation on the bare bones of the source tune at 3:50.

You have some very good rearrangement ideas in there so far, especially stuff around the end (4:15-5:07) but that simply retreads a lot of what you had earlier (1:16-1:41). Keep thinking of additional variations to bring in to keep the interpretation creative and flowing before you throw in wholly original section or retrace your steps compositionally.

Wonder why it took so long to resub. In any case, you need a bit more creativity on the composition to keep things interesting/engaging for a 5 1/2 minute mix. I'm sure other Js will have some production comments as well, but overall I liked what you had in place in those regards. Certainly interested in what zircon & analoq would have to say here. Loads of potential, bro. You should probably move onto a new project (in case you were thinking of resubbing again), but still a good effort. Don't forget the WIP & ReMixing boards, keep honing your skills and keep 'em coming!

NO

[*NO* Final Fantasy 7 'Sephiroth Absolute']

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FF7_psf.rar - 416 "One-Winged Angel" & 214 "J-E-N-O-V-A"

Good fusion of the two themes here. Played this back on VGF47; Reu's always got some good ideas up his sleeve, with this one from RPGamer's Sonic Revolution contest. Wish the texture was fuller; the various lines still sounded thin together, and was an aspect I really would have wanted to see improved. It may be a purely subjective type of statement, but it seemed to me that for a piece like this, that from a composition standpoint wishes to convey tension/emotion/intensity, the pianos were all pretty sparse-sounding. I don't necessarily expect any type of consensus on that, but that was my take.

For something like playing 4 lines of piano in one take apiece, things have the potential to get REALLY unwieldy, so it's commendable that for the most part that the performance was cohesive. I think think this idea was pulled off better here than in Reu's earlier Street Fighter 2 mix "Ryu for 4 Pianos," which I also liked. Nonetheless, there were certainly weaker/unfocused areas, like 1:25-1:41 for example, that didn't coalesce as strongly. Not a big hit on the overall performance though. Some may have problems with other sections along those lines, but I didn't.

Some audio distortion funkery was going on several times from 2:37-2:51. For example, some light warping of sorts was going on around 2:39 & 2:44 for some reason. Gotta fix that up if possible. I'd wanna hear some fuller textures here to give this performance some real bite. But if the panel passes this, I'd have to at least ask for a fix on the audio deformation problems if possible. Very cool piece, don't get me wrong.

NO (resubmit)

[*NO* Metroid 'Metroid Apocalypse']

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/metroid.zip - Track 1

Not a bad effort. Certainly some good additive stuff present in the mix. Good light piano rendition of the melody, as well as the string work and most of the other sounds.

Moving into 1:27, we got some distorted synth electric guitar that really didn't combine well here, along with some very basic, somewhat plodding percussion that had no punch to it. After a cymbal swell at 2:16 that sounded too loud and out of place (same at 2:36 - tone it down), the composition slowed down.

By 3:01 things remained slow in the next section. Nothing much really developed here. You don't have to start making the track loud or intense in order to create some sort of dynamics towards the end, but the already existing creativity and additive ideas went on cruise control beyond 3:01.

Scrap the distorted guitar and bring some other new instruments and ideas into the equation from 1:27-2:16. Wouldn't mind hearing some further significant reinterpretation of the actual "Title" theme, but some of that exists here and the additive components worked for the most part. Keep working on it, bro. Fairly basic ideas, but they show promise.

NO (resubmit)

[OCR01363 - *YES* Final Fantasy 7 'Beyond Midgar']

Hello again Larry,

I've rerecorded Beyond Midgar and it's not nearly as flat sounding as the first version. I don't hear any hiss in this new verson. I used a soundfont this time. With the first version I sent in, I actually outputed the MIDI from the computer to my electric piano, then recorded from the headphone port on the piano, creating a wav/mp3 type file so there was no soundfont used. The upside to that is a more realistic sounding piano but the downside is the hiss. I tried to minimize it with Adobe Audition but it wasn't enough. Anyway, here's the newest version. The link is still the same. Tell the other judges to check the date in the comments section of the ID3 tag to be sure they are listening to the newest version.

http://www.bogusred.net/mmdl/music/OCRBogusRed-Beyond_Midgar.mp3

If you would give me a couple more days, I can play around with the velocities some more to even it out a little bit. There are just a few areas that need tweeking. The ending is too quiet and there is some volume being cut off in a few areas. You mentioned an ugly key change at 3:15 in the first version (in the new version it's around 3:05), I don't think I was successful in fixing that. I hope to fix that within the next couple days. I'm not sure what to do to make that transition better.

The soundfont I used by the way is the RolandNicePiano. If anyone has suggestions for a better soundfont, let me know.

As GrayLightning and The wingless mentioned, it is still held back a bit which for me is a really rare thing. Usually I play way to fast like I did with my previous submission "through the lens of spira," which by the way was not sped up as some judges thought ::cough Vigilante cough::. I tried as best as I could to play with my heart instead of with my ego. The remix may be too much like the original sound track version but it's not always what you play; it's how you play it.

Anyway, I hope you and the other judges enjoy it and agree to post it. I'll have that cleaned version to you within a few days.

-Susie

BogusRed

Just keeping you updated. This revision will be worked on further. Please listen to it and provide some feedback to help improve the production. 3:37-onward will really need work. Suggestions on soundfonts/etc?

[*NO* Wonder Boy 3 'The Mindful Hero']

http://www.zophar.net/vgm/wonderb3.zip - "Mind of Hero"

There were some pretty static sounding synths in play here creating a very dry texture. The instrumentation, as it were, was pretty sparse. Some delayed synths, a bassline and some beats made up 90% of the track. The composition was really dragging beyond the 2-minute mark. Started recycling/retreading a bit at 2:25. Also noticed a few odd note patterns in places.

Finally something new at 2:55 with the synth electric bass work, but this just continued to sound very spartan with no dynamics or particularly interesting ideas present. Bland execution. Keep at it, sure, but you've got a ways to go. I could certainly hear how you were attempting to follow Palpable's style from "Marble Dancefloor," though this definitely didn't pull it off.

NO

[*NO* Wizardry 'Magical Beats 2005']

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/GAMES/S-Z/Wizardry.sid - Subtune 1/9

Checking out the SIDtune, the thing sounds ugly as hell. Tons of downright ugly note choices. In any case, the sounds were very cluttered together. The strings in particular were seemingly supposed to sound grandiose but didn't get there. Arrangement hits 1:00, then rinses and repeats. Some additive ideas on top of the chorus at 1:51 in the form of a quasi-electric guitar or whatever that was, but it only served to clutter the track further. Last hanging synth guitar note at 2:23 was very out of place at the end. Learn to create better separation of your sounds.

NO

[*NO* Metroid 2 'Main Road to Ruin']

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/metroid2.zip - Track 3

I'll give you credit in altering the rhythms of the original, though the arrangement was still relatively conservative. The electrosynths chosen were very flat and homogeneous-sounding enough in their various combinations where it was a huge detriment to the track. Nothing in the way of dynamics or build was present. The section from 2:52-3:16 was pretty haphazard sounding. The ending limped to the finish. Very static and unengaging track overall.

NO

[VG Frequency: U Love VGM]

Let's go with the quickness, sirs & madames. If you want Valentine's Day-inspired radio action featuring mah lady, check dis out n' shit! Official Playlist/Chat Transcript/MP3 (129MB/188mins).

VG Frequency #48: Angle 6

Larry Oji - WMRE (Emory University Student Radio; Atlanta, GA)

Saturday, February 12, 2005 / 10:40 PM - 1:50 AM EST

Liontamer f/Paige, Trenthian, Hemophiliac, Flik, Antonio Pizza, Miss Robin & Bladiator

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

0. Paige brings the feminine touch to this Valentine's Day themed episode; be prepared for emasculation on a grandiose scale

1. OverCoat - VG Frequency "Hot Mansex" Bumper

2. Miki Higashino - Genso Suikoden 1 "An Old Irish Song" [Melody of Legend ~ Chapter of Love AST]

3. Competition - "Circus of Lies" [http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/shnabubula]

4. virt - "a kiss over ether" [http://www.hellven.org]

5. Motoi Sakuraba - "Shower of Blossoms" [star Ocean: The Second Story OST]

6. Trenthian congratulates Larry on Paige's feminine presence on tonight's show and wants to commemorate the occasion with a display of Larry's chesticles [http://www.soundclick.com/trenthian]

7. Hemophiliac dials in from work to request Funky Mokey Love (not yet, foo') and reveals "His Valentine's Tragedy" [http://onehemophiliac.deviantart.com]

8. He's Big Poppa...Dolittle!

9. Flik be chillin' in Fargo and working for Fox for da $$$, though he's trying to win a $55,000 Cadillac; he been fired as co-host and replaced with the woman, whom Flik proceeds to extract sensitive information from before shilling the Mario Brothers Quartet and reveling in single life [http://www.vagstudios.com]

10. master - Final Fantasy 9 "Rose of April" [OC ReMix #795]

11. hunz - "Sarah's Song" [http://www.hellven.org]

12. TO & reelmojo - True Love 1 "Sleepy Love" [The People Remix Competition v2-8]

13. Gwilym Wogan - "the meinpenis song" [the meinpenis zeitgeist]

14. Motoi Sakuraba - "Weathercock" [star Ocean: The Second Story OST]

15. Antonio Pizza brings "Katamara" back into Larry's life; Larry's got a KID, Katamara's demanding child support and Paige walks out in disgust [http://ap.zapto.org]

16. Hideaki Kobayashi - "Valentine" [Phantasy Star Online: Songs of Ragol Odyssey OST: Episode 1]

17. NoWave - "Love" [invisible]

18. Malcos - "Elusive Love" [http://www.malcos.co.uk]

19. Poets of the Fall - "Late Goodbye" [Max Payne 2 OSV]

20. Hemophiliac - True Love 1 "My Valentine's Tragedy" [The People Remix Competition v2-8]

21. Tenpei Sato - "The End of This Passionate Feeling" [Phantom Brave OST]

22. Yoshino Aoki - "Brave Heart" [breath of Fire IV OST]

23. Antonio Pizza yells at Larry to "GIVE HER THE MONKEY LOVE!" [http://ap.zapto.org]

24. Rayza f/Joëlle - VG Frequency "976-RAYZA LV" Bumper

25. Marc Star - Street Fighter Alpha 2 "Kasugano (Booty Mix)" [VGMix2 #722 / OC ReMix #1117]

26. Kae - Chrono Trigger "The Girl Forgotten by Time" [Time & Space: Blue]

27. Tenpei Sato - "The Sorrowful You" [Phantom Brave OST]

28. Shnabubula - "Lament in Eb" [signature]

29. Red Omen - VG Frequency "Brings Us Together" Bumper

30. Yoko Shimomura - "Dearly Beloved" [Kingdom Hearts OST]

31. Yoko Shimomura - "Friends in My Heart" [Kingdom Hearts OST]

32. Zeratul - "Sea of Dreams" [http://www.sarbatka.com]

33. Akari Kaida & Yoshino Aoki - "Life's a Beach" [breath of Fire III OST]

34. Dale North f/Esther Stilwell - NiGHTS into Dreams... "Dreams Dreams" [The Very Best of Sega]

35. Hideaki Kobayashi & Yutaka Minobe - "Rose Confession" [Phantasy Star Online: Songs of Ragol Odyssey OST: Episode 1]

36. Yu Miyake - "Angel Flavor's Present" [Katamari Fortissimo Damacy OST]

37. Yu Miyake - "Lovely Angel" [Katamari Fortissimo Damacy OST]

38. Peter McConnell - "Ninth Heaven" [Grim Fandango OST]

39. Akari Kaida & Yoshino Aoki - "Even the Sun's Happy" [breath of Fire III OST]

40. Rayza f/Paige - VG Frequency "Scary Larry" Bumper

41. Artdink - Zeus 2 "Cozy" [Melody of Legend ~ Chapter of Dream AST]

42. Asuka Sakai & Charlie Kosei - "Que Sera Sera" [Katamari Fortissimo Damacy OST]

43. Israfel - Shivers 1 "Cerebral Rose Jam" [VGMix2 #1165 / OC ReMix #1292]

44. Star Salzman - "Home is With You" [http://www.starblast.org]

45. Yasunori Mitsuda - "Earth Dragon's Island" [Chrono Cross OST]

46. Bladiator muscles in on Paige before regaling us with a story (oooh, dis woman's crazy) while Paige plays love doctor and giving us the status on his upcoming PRCv2-9 Kirby's Adventure collab with Hemophiliac & GrayLightning [http://filez.mustard.pointclark.net/blad]

47. Peter McConnell - "She Sailed Away" [Grim Fandango OST]

[*NO* Friday the 13th 'Use the ReMix to Light the Fireplaces']

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/friday13.zip - Tracks 5 & 1

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Why are you letting me down like this? This could have been AWESOME. Well, the source material is awesome, so this really carries it appeal from that. This was at least cool to listen to.

The intro sounded too distant. The piano sample has no attention to velocities done in the effort to sound more realistic. Same with the light string work occasionally used. Damn, this theme is cool as hell. Still an enjoyable listen.

Some SLIGHT work with dynamics, but the sample usage killed most of the effect on that. And the track, after transitioning to Track 1 of the NSF, abruptly cuts out at 3:03. Who knows, maybe it was stolen from someone else. In any case, this let me down. [sniff sniff] Gonna cry over this. Wing might too. Stop making black men cry.

NO

[*NO* Chrono Trigger 'At the End of All Things']

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "The Brink of Time" (ct-2-13.spc) & "Guardia Millenial Fair" (ct-1-06.spc)

Still sounds basically MIDI-grade to me. Nothing sounds realistic given how I assume you'd want for this to sound; instruments carry no sonic depth or realism. No attention to velocities or dynamics whatsoever. Composition doesn't develop or evolve.

Vig called it well saying it was monotonous. Your ideas were promising and tried to arrange the Brink of Time in a slightly different direction, but 2:37 would have been a good point to take this in another new direction. Adding some pizzicato strings for a sec wasn't really enough.

And Izz's observation of the track sounding "emotionally constrained" was very insightful and on-point. This was devoid of nearly any and all feeling. Indeed, your execution doesn't do a thing for your ideas, which have genuine creativity and potential.

My copy just cut out at 4:25 (surely hope that's not the real finish) but that's alright. Better camp out at the ReMixing & WIP forums, bro, and significantly improve the craft.

NO

[*NO* Donkey Kong Country 'Forgotten Industry']

You're right Mike, it's not terrible. "Lame as hell" was geared on more of a guidelines point of view, as it was just the original (albeit a MIDI) with a bit of tooling around. Very disappointing on those lines.

[*NO* Final Fantasy Legend 'Legend of the Saxes' *FT*]

Hey Larry -

I submitted this a a few months ago, then again at the end of January. I'm assuming it didn't make it, based on the current load on the queue (beginning of February, right?)

This is an arrangement of the Final Fantasy Legend main theme. I arranged it for four to six saxophones (basically an Alto/Alto/Tenor/Baritone sax, if you care). All parts were recorded by me, and I recorded it all straight up and blind - no pitch processing or anything. I recorded each just with the MIDI that I made of the song, without listening to each individual part. The pitch turned out pretty good as it was. I tried to do it in the same style as a song by a vocal jazz concert called Acapella, for what its worth. There are a few parts where the parts switch up and I add a part here or there...I just recorded the little section and added it in.

I used M-Audio Pre-amps, some studio mikes from the recording studio at my college, and Audacity for the basic sequencing. Fruity for the reverb. If y'all care, I used a Selmer Super Balanced Action 80 Alto Sax, Selmer Mark VI Tenor Sax, and a Yamaha Pro Edition Gold Baritone Saxophone. You guys have the chiptune on your site, I believe. The composer was Uematsu.

One note about the song - every set of songs that I've heard from this game doesn't include this song. The song is the Opening theme - the main screen song. Its also the main theme for Legend II and III. I've got a MIDI that I sequenced from the game, if that will help, and I can rip an mp3 from the sound test if you guys want it.

Anything else, please feel free to ask.

Credit this song to the Prophet of Mephisto. That is my ID on the forums, as well. My website is at www.soundclick.com/theprophetofmephisto. Props to the crew at Remix Affiliates for their help on this song. The name of the song is 'Legend of the Saxes'.

BRAD BURR

aka the Prophet of Mephisto

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/ffl1.zip - Track 1

I remember the source tune from way back when I got into the scene and started doing radio, since it was the source tune choice for IMC5, which featured some really good tracks from guys like analoq & aluminum.

The sax work didn't sound terribly fake, but it also didn't come across as exceptionally authentic-sounding either. The performance was supposed to sound chill and laid-back but instead ended up sounding very sluggish. I heard light pops/audio deformations at points. Gotta eliminate those, but nothing was a big bother there. The arrangement showed some significant reinterpretation more in the second half, which was good. I certainly liked the ideas there.

Interesting light jazz kind of vibe, though I don't believe all of the elements combined well. The various brass support work sounded really improvised yet meandering at times. The whole track seemed to lack any focused direction as a result. The lead needed to be punched up to provide something for the listener to latch onto. As it stands, everything layered together at basically the same volume/intensity and just mudded together. The ending had a resolution, but it came across as too sudden and undeveloped. Promising ideas, Brad, but there's loads of stuff to work on in you wanna achieve a cohesive, spirited, and focused end-result.

NO

[*NO* 3D Galax 'Mi m']

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/computer/atari/atari/3D-Galax.mid - Title theme

Poor/flat sounds, no sound balance/poor mixing, some arrangement ideas were present, but nothing too involved. Give your remix an actual title as well.

Sorry to sound glib and/or harsh, but get better at everything. Look up more information at the ReMixing forum & Work-in-Progress forum for advice on how to improve.

NO

[*NO* Donkey Kong Country 'Forgotten Industry']

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn- "Fear Factory" (dkc-20.spc)

I'm almost sure you used a midi of Fear Factory to make this because of how you left the notes unchanged and just restructured them. The trance surrounding the original song's melody is very weak and simplistic and the melody itself is sequenced badly, such as the sluggish organ starting at 1:56.

So some (not even all) new instruments playing the exact same notes in differently ordered patterns with incredibly sparse drums and synths for support. Very weak.

I think what Binnie was trying to say was that this would have made a hot B-side to Kong in Concert.

Yep, sounds like you just mucked around with a MIDI. Lame as hell. And, yes, that's not harsh enough. Maybe send it to VGMusic or something, though I wouldn't really recommend that either. Should drop a NO Override on this guy, but he tried to do a little something beyond the ripping. Wow, 6:17 for THIS? Nah, bro.

Submission Instructions & Standards]In terms of arrangement - how close or distant ReMixes should be to the original - the general rule is that the ReMix should be YOURS. We don't just mean that you were involved in its creation, but that it is different enough from the original so as to readily illustrate the contributions, modifications, and enhancements you have made. In other words, don't just take the original and drop a few drum loops on top. Also, don't simply take a MIDI file and assign new instruments to the parts, or add reverb, and expect that to pass as 'yours'. When we say 'ReMix', we actually mean something closer to 're-arrangement', if that helps clarify. If you listen to most of the pieces on the site and compare them to the originals, you should get an idea of what a ReMix is.

NO

[*NO* Killer Instinct 'Chiller Instinct']

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ki.rsn - "Main Theme" (ki-01.spc)

The opening pad was so distant and muddy, the production on it was horrible. The electrosynth beats were on cruise control and provided next-to-no variation. Malc pretty much broke it down, so all his comments might as well be my own. The arrangement was very uninspired. Well, everything was very uninspired. Not much else to say. It's not terrible, but it just needs a lot more work to get to any genuine level of quality & creativity.

NO

[*NO* Mega Man 2 'With teh Quickness']

Wait a minute I remember the WIP thread on this getting shut down too.

Bahahahaha! GTFO. I mean...don't do that again.

Submission Instructions & Standards]In terms of arrangement - how close or distant ReMixes should be to the original - the general rule is that the ReMix should be YOURS. We don't just mean that you were involved in its creation, but that it is different enough from the original so as to readily illustrate the contributions, modifications, and enhancements you have made. In other words, don't just take the original and drop a few drum loops on top. Also, don't simply take a MIDI file and assign new instruments to the parts, or add reverb, and expect that to pass as 'yours'. When we say 'ReMix', we actually mean something closer to 're-arrangement', if that helps clarify. If you listen to most of the pieces on the site and compare them to the originals, you should get an idea of what a ReMix is.

[OCR01330 - *YES* Final Fantasy 6 'The Haunted Train Disco']

Confirmed with Pretz that a tiebreaker will end up in favor of passing, so we'll lock it up.

[*NO* Sonic the Hedgehog 3 'Countertop Hero']

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 09 Marble Garden Zone 2

Love the original to death. In any case, like you said, this is just a cover done in Reason. The sounds here are too close in style to the original and pretty much a downgrade in those respects. We don't take tracks like this.

Submission Instructions & Standards]In terms of arrangement - how close or distant ReMixes should be to the original - the general rule is that the ReMix should be YOURS. We don't just mean that you were involved in its creation, but that it is different enough from the original so as to readily illustrate the contributions, modifications, and enhancements you have made. In other words, don't just take the original and drop a few drum loops on top. Also, don't simply take a MIDI file and assign new instruments to the parts, or add reverb, and expect that to pass as 'yours'. When we say 'ReMix', we actually mean something closer to 're-arrangement', if that helps clarify. If you listen to most of the pieces on the site and compare them to the originals, you should get an idea of what a ReMix is.

NO OVERRIDE

[*NO* Ikaruga 'Black Ice (Polar Edit)' *RESUB*]

Lemme clarify here that this isn't a second-time direct-to-panel resubmission. The first two times this was submitted, it went through the queue and came to us from Dave's inbox. This is the first time it's been placed directly on the panel. Anyway, our policy as clarified by djp is that, for the very infrequent case of people that had a first resubmission posted directly to the panel and want to resub again, those people are required to do second resubmissions through the regular queue system (the Submissions inbox). Nonetheless, that isn't even the case here, so this argument is over.

Onto the mix, I completely disagree with Binnie's take on it. Played it on VGF50 and enjoyed it. I thought there were substantial all-around improvements made to this version as compared with Paul's first version of "Black Ice", which possessed a good vibe but an empty sound. Appreciating the source tune was actually a direct result of listening to the various versions of this remix first, and the mix does a great job of playing up some of the subtle melodies of the source tune. I don't hear any wrong notes in the belltones or the flute lead.

The way the track intro put me off initially, but that was actually a unique way to move right into the mix. Takes a while to warm up to. I liked how the strings were beefed up here compared to the previous version, as well as how the melody was brought out a bit more. Some of the glassy sounds clashed a bit until the :40 mark, but it was a minor issue to me. They should have been even quieter, but they were actually scaled down from the VGMix version.

I remember the first time that I heard this new version, I wasn't hot on the new synth flute & synth sax work added. If you wanna throw out "off-key and generally bad notes" because of that, I think it's a mistake from another listener's standpoint. My initial problem actually was that they come across as very meandering and lacking focus. At times, I certainly felt like that was the case, but overall they both provided eerily laid-back arrangements of the source material and do in fact possess a measure of focus along with purposeful structure. Whereas the flute & sax could come across as too synthetic and tepid to others, the syntheticness of the sounds was a non-factor in this type of mix, and I got a lonely, echoing, eerie vibe from them. If you give it more than a few listens, and don't flippantly dismiss them, you might come around to how well they work.

I thought the drumkit didn't sit well in the mix at times and should have possessed more stereo activity. Otherwise other aspects of the instrumentation and sounds were strong and came together well. The strings were very well-handled, the beeps, belltones, finger snaps & in-game vox and SFX were all used effectively, and the bassline filled things out nicely. The track exhibited lots of changes & development over the course of the 4 1/2 minutes while retaining a cohesive style.

I feel as it there weren't are any blatant offenders in the makeup of this mix, that the arrangement was a very creative take on the original, the texture of the instrumentation worked well together for the most part, the production was fairly solid, and the sum total success of the execution cannot be denied. I'm not saying it's a superlative YES, but I am saying that it does everything the site's mission statement wants in a rearrangement and does it fairly well. It'll be a shame if this is rejected, since I feel this could only be rejected on subjective grounds, relatively minor issues and/or a lack of listening to the track enough times.

YES

[VG Frequency: U Love VGM]

Awesome show Larry. I even tricked you into thinking I was Jesse. Ahh, how soon you forgot...

Yeah, I subconsciously knew based on the caller ID #, but you still sound way too much like him. I'll kill you for holding up the djp call. I'll kill you.

[*NO* Final Fantasy 'Tceles B Hsup Matoya']

There's just no attention to the sonics.

Fixed.