Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/ffa.zip - Track 1 [:00-:50] http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sd3.rsn - "Angel's Fear" (sd3-3-12.spc) [:51-2:07] I don't know/recognize the second half of the mix, but it's probably safe to say that this has medley cover-itis. I'd appreciate if another judge that's more familiar could verify that, but I can't say it's necessary in order to judge this. The percussion was too basic for the most part, and wasn't really integrated with the rest of the music. It functioned more as a beatkeeper, but that wasn't a particularly interesting role. You just gotta provide more with the overall package nowadays. Sorry, Steve. NO

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Hubbard_Rob/Zoids.sid - Subtune 1/3 The SID lasts about 3:45 if you guys wanna listen to it the whole way through before it repeats. Basically a cover at a slightly faster tempo. I'd say submit it to R:K:O instead. This had the same problem I also had with your previous submission from Thrust. The structure was the same for the most part, and the arrangement was too conservative. You changed up the feel a little bit compared to the source and presented some new ideas in places, but this was still basically a cover. That doesn't mean it's a crappy track, but there aren't many creative liberties taken here. NO

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Follin_Tim/Gauntlet_III.sid - Subtune 2/2 Dammit. I loved this track to death on VGMix and played it on VGF33 when I was doing makeup shows. I figured whatever changes made here would be an improvement, but I'm gonna have to say NO on this. The arrangement of the source tune is excellent. I like most of the additions, and the beats are hot. But the source melody, which was somewhat muted but more apparent in the the VGMix version, is really driven to the back of the track here; even the new synth that handles the mix's melody isn't enough of a presence to me. Rather, the beatwork seems to dominate over the top of everything else. From :19-:37, you can barely even hear it. A new synth joins in at :37 to handle melody as well, but again, it doesn't register much with me. The melody of the breakdown from :57-1:13, which I thought was the coolest part of the mix, got obscured by the additions put in. Not really feeling the new section from 1:33-1:50. 1:50-2:09 was the same style of thick stuff that Binster used in ICO "Icon", which I would have NOed on those grounds and asked for a resubmission if I was on the panel way back when. Maybe others may have the same problem as me, maybe not; this works for its style, sure. I'd certainly contact Martin and ask him to adjust the balance here if desired. I don't wanna seem as if I don't like the track or am NOing simply because it's different from the VGMix version. Martin, though infrequent with releases, is one of the more exciting members of the community to listen to. But I've gotta push for a resubmission here to make the melody, as done in the first version, a more prominent & integral part of the track. I don't use emoticons much, but damn. NO (borderline/please resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 18 Flying Battery Zone 1 Though the ending was very trite, the arrangement was pretty good; good vibe and nice ideas, though conservative in some places. Unfortunately, the performance here was excessively mechanical with a lack of attention to velocities. This MIDI-grade stuff doesn't sound realisitic in the slightest. You seem to have the theory knowledge, but need to learn how to apply realism to a sequenced piece. I'll leave it to the musicians to tell you how to go about improving the presentation here, but you can certainly turn to the ReMixing forum for help on that as well. If it's too daunting at the moment to get more knowledgeable & fix the problems here yourself, you may want to develop sheet music for the piece and contact a pianist to perform it if you don't play yourself or don't have access to actually recording a live performance. NO

The arrangement was too conservative and repetitive, the percussion samples came off as too basic and beginner-ish (nice substitution for "very amateur," yes?), and the multiple cymbal shots and orchestral stabs were really tacky. I liked the sound used for the lead though. Stay dedicated toward improvement and you'll come up with better material in the future. NO

The other NOs covered it, especially DarkeSword who gave an excellent checklist. YESing this mix would have been a mess. This was a great performance by Jilly on the vocals, but we're looking for more interpretive ideas beyond a cover with minor instrumental additions and the verbatim Grand Finale arrangement lyrics. I'm looking forward to hearing Jilly's Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time mix, which offhand I couldn't say would be accepted in the WIP stage I heard it in. But it'll certainly be interesting for us nonetheless. And I wanna remind everyone out there, including M1lesTeg, that when you pick a remixer handle, don't pick some stupid nickname you'll be ashamed of in a few years time. C'mon, you're basically stuck with it if you get posted here. Better luck next crime, young lovers. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/tetris.zip - Track 2 ("Korobushka") Just judging from the sound of it (which is actually pretty good anyway), this may have been recorded off a tape, not unlike Jaroban's classic Super Mario Bros. Medley (LIVE). Perhaps not, but reasonable sound quality all things considered. I'm all for giving these guys the best likelihood to be noticed if they're posted. List them as the "East Haven High School Yellow Jacket Marching Band". Research on 'em checks out, though I'm surprised there isn't more information about them around. The track title should be different from the source tune name, BTW, which it isn't. Pretty short (about 2 mins of actual performance), and the recording could be more balanced regarding the instrument levels. Good arrangement ideas as well as original additions that work well, and the performance is generally good, but could be better. The brass from 1:16-1:39 was tepid (1:26-1:27 in particular sounded flat). I didn't mind the overall intensity there being low so as to provide contrast. Just saying that the performance for that portion could have been a little tighter and more energetic. Overall though, I liked the arrangement ideas and a major majority of the performance came off well. I wish the ending didn't cut off so quickly after the performance was over, as the crowd reaction would have been good to hear. Heh. Never thought I'd YES something from...'Staven. Shit, do I feel dirty. New Haven, baby. Represent. YES

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 34 "Special Stage" The sounds came off pretty flat and could have been fuller and more expressive. The arrangement effort was there, but was too conservative. The original composition ideas were good, but I would have liked to have heard other additional ideas like that interwoven with the source tune arrangement. As it stands, there's no interplay between source arrangement and your own additions. The ending was incredibly lame & "I-give-up"-ish. Make a real one please. This would be worth a resubmission if more solid time is invested. NO

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Daglish_Ben/Terramex.sid - Subtune 1/9 The first 2 minutes or so was a sound upgrade with additions. Fine approach for a SIDtune, but it needs to be a hell of an upgrade to make it here. Arrangement was decent on the whole, I suppose. The drum support had nothing behind it at some points. 3:25-onward was a good example. The changeup at 1:53 nearly sounded like indiscriminant notes, and the organ-style synth joining in at 2:17 was just as aimless. Some will bitch at me, but just because the source tune was structured like this doesn't mean you should retain that structure. The new lead joining at 2:29 was terrible. Great...SMASH THE CYMBALS A LOT AT 2:41 IN ORDER 2 RAWK! It's tacky. I heard the rest, but that's basically enough commentary for now. I haven't heard mixing and production this sloppy in a long time on the panel. I've heard worse, mind you, but this was still frustrating. The potential's there for the artist to improve, but this was just poorly put together. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - Track 13 ("Woodman Stage") Make the track longer. If and when you do, be sure to develop further arrangement ideas instead of just repeating the same ones. Like Dan mentioned, the drum kick becomes annoying after a while. Production is alright, though most of the instruments moosh together, while the melody lack clarity at times. Go for the resubmission. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Aria de Mezzo Carattere" (ff6-208.spc) Have to check arrange albums and so forth before we get hasty on this. Where did they obtain the lyrics? The fact that they found them on the internet screams out that they're taken from some sort of arranged version. We need more information than what they gave. We'll be checking out the Final Fantasy: Grand Finale & Orchestral Game Concert 4 versions to see how close this is to those arranged tracks.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "Battle Theme" (ff6-105.spc) Yep. This absolutely got dumbed down for the genre, and the samples are weak; no power behind these sounds at all. Not much done on the arrangement side; obviously some things there, but not enough. Doesn't need to be 5:29 that's for sure, as it's not even remotely creative enough. When the piano and string work (beyond the 4 minute mark) is the highlight of a trance track, that's poorly-made trance. It's nice that you just started making music and all, but you won't be good enough to submit stuff until you subtantially improve for an extended period of time. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Corridors of Time" (ct-3-04.spc) & "Chrono Trigger (part 1)" (ct-1-02a.spc) [1:16-1:43] The arrangement of the source melody itself is way too basic. This track changes some notes/keys, but beyond that, it feels like the original plus drums, effects & etc from :36 onward. The performance, in regards to the acoustic guitar synth, needs some work. Not enough dynamics here, as coming out of the string solo area at 3:48, the intensity is the same as what was started at 1:45. Arrangement needs a ton of work relative to the site standards; direct your energy toward making the arrangement more creative & unique compared to the original. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/cv1.zip - Track 1 Heard WIPs of this one a while back. The sounds were pretty basic on the whole. The drums entering in :07 lacked any power behind them and sounded too fake; they didn't fill up the space particularly well, so as you listen to the mix, it sounded somewhat empty. There were only 2 alternating patterns for the percussion; needed more thought put into it. The synth on melody at :30 was generic as well and a poor choice. The sound choices at large turned me off to the track as a whole; not to just bag on the track, as it wasn't absolutely terrible, but this was an example where a lot of elements could be in play, yet the track felt empty-sounding despite the clutter. If you want to make the best of generic sounds and samples, the arrangement is really going to have to be exceptional, and the production and performance have to be well executed. I could hear arrangement here, but in terms of the melodic progressions, it was pretty conservative. 6:19? Y'all are getting pretty zealous for a remix here that doesn't have that many ideas in it. Needed much more variation and dynamic contrast if it was gonna go this long. This could easily have been half that length. The breakdown at 5:39 could been much earlier. Keep learning, bros. NO

Just pointing out that all these suggestions so far are lame.

I thought this was decent stuff; not overly engaging but well-handled nonetheless. The drums were always over-the-top with power, which was generally fine, though the drums got overbearing and unbalanced with the rest of the music at times (1:21-1:41). Fairly straightforward, yet solid arrangement, featuring good ideas to alter the rhythm like zirc mentioned. Cool ending at 2:30. Feels like an original bit tacked onto the end, but it's actually arranged from the source as well. Nice touch, bro. Welcome aboard. YES

Held this FT for about a week hoping to find and talk to Brendan for feedback, since this submission wouldn't make it, but he's nowhere to be found. Nonetheless, he says he's eager for feedback and criticism, so I've decided to post it for feedback purposes. I already commented in depth on an earlier version. Some problems were addressed while others were left behind or even created. I felt like the brass coming in at :05 was too muffled and distant, ultimately cluttering up the sound, along with the bassline being so thick with 'verb. The belltones were a good addition but should have been pulled back to make room for your melody. Going for periodic addition and subtraction with the instrumentation of the mix was a good idea certainly, but the note structure, pacing, and intensity of the mix remained the same throughout. This obviously lacks dynamic contrast and build, which was something I noted with the previous version. If you're gonna just keep this layout without switching up the flow somewhere, you might as well trim the fat off this and get rid of a minute or more of simply rehashing your arrangement ideas. No sense in making one minute of viable and creative rearrangement but then essentially looping it for 3+ minutes of your 4-minute track. Just like the last version, the breakdown section featuring strings at 3:17 came way too late in the game. Why not introduce ideas like that earlier on? The last hanging note at 4:04 really exposed your synths as well, and was a poor ending. Fashion a real resolution and tighten up the actual finish so it doesn't sound so fake. Personally I'd say drop this one though and simply move onto other projects, so that you can explore new areas of mixing & music creation, and just chock this one up as a learning experience. I don't mean to say that the effort put in here to revise the mix was in vain, as it was a real improvement over what you presented to me before. Thus, I hope you picked up some things from working on this one and hope to see you enhance your work in the future. Keep at it, Brendan. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff5.rsn - WTF are you even remixing? So Oinkness asked to me to listen to this back before it was submitted. If I knew that I'd end up searching the entire FF5 soundtrack and coming up empty, I would have yelled at him to tell me what fucking source tune he used, because this was ridiculous. Anyway, the guitar wasn't terrible, though it was just blaring. The other guitar synth coming in at :20 was generic and terrible. Everything was a mess until the nice break section at 1:00. Anyway forget it. Cruddy faux-metal with a decent yet underdeveloped second half. Not even YES-worthy anyway. Can't believe I had to waste my time trying to find the original. STATE THE SOURCE TUNES IN YOUR SUBMISSION EMAILS. NO

The first iteration is a sound upgrade. The second iteration feature some little modulating noise added. The third iteration features a lot more interesting effects here. I'll be encouraging and nice on this one though and forgo the NO Override, since you at did something notable for the last section. Post it to VGMix if you'd like, maybe someone will like it. Thank you for providing us with this MIDI rip upgrade. We don't accept these. Since you don't seem to understand our submissions guidelines, feel free to read them sometime. (And yes, for you intrepid regular readers, I AM just copying & pasting my now stock NO Override vote.) Like I said though, even though this is an upgrade for 2/3rds of the track, I'm being nice given the observed effort in handling the last section. If someone else feels like NO Overriding, please be my guest. I also appreciate you saying about OCR "a lot of works on that site are wack." Wouldn't wanna add to the glut of those "wack works," now would we? Of course not. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman3.zip - Track 19 This was a decent track. Navid (Mythril Nazgul) had me play it on VGF43 and it got lots of potential. The piano sample is terrible, but it's the only one Jovette uses as far as I know, so I don't really know if you're ever gonna hear him bring out anything else. This German stuff starting at 1:28, I don't like how it's inclusion was glossed over in the submission letter. "My good friend Daniel Rios is rapping in the beginning, then me and another guy take it over." That kind of implies that you know this other guy who did those, but I find it hard to believe you wouldn't even know the guy's name. You ran over his lyrics at 1:48 when the timing changed, so I'm assuming they're sampled like other foreign language lyrics you've used before. If that's the case, why not just state that? If not, what's the other guy's name? I think for just using the Protoman whistle and the first few bars from the intro theme, that the arrangement needed to offer a lot more. The instrumentation that handles the actual source usage, like the whistle and the piano in particular, are very sparse sure, but the interpretation is too straightforward. I'd certainly like to see the mix use more compositional ideas from the source or actually rearrange what's being used. Production and performance are usually shortcomings I cite with DJC's submissions and this is no exception, in contrast with zircon's vote. They weren't dealbreakers like in other past submissions though, but I will cite what I heard nonetheless. Most of the time, the lyrics obscure everything except the percussion. I liked Daniel's lyrics but felt Crono's lyrics were really dry and needed some additional depth. The layering on them was good though, but thicken the sound up on them. The performance on the lyrics from 2:11-2:31 seemed a little too fast for you to handle without mushmouthing some of the words together, but it was alright. The percussion stuff seemed fine to me but needed some pattern variation somewhere in the track. Nothing drastic mind you; I realize the genre. But the beatwork goes on pure cruise control once it starts at :24. Bring back some of the earlier percussion ideas you had there and possibly expand on them as well. The piano sounds incredibly muffled and distant. You might be able to pull that off with little complaint when someone's signing, but during music-only portions like :13-:33 and especially your close from 3:05-3:57. Get the ending to at least taper off as opposed to suddenly cutting off at 3:57. Needs more creative interpretation of the source material, and more post-production work to get things sounding fuller and cleaner is possible. Like zirc said himself though, this primarily falters on an arrangement level. NO (revise/resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - Boss (Robotnik Theme.gym) Pretty lengthy intro for only a 2:47 mix. A minute in and there still hasn't been anything from the source yet. We finally get into some strings handling the Boss theme at 1:06 with some ambient support. Pretty straightforward arrangement, perhaps too much so. Moves into the piano at 1:42 putting a (little) bit more flair into it, but it's basically repeating the same couple of bars over and over again with some subtle support. It then hits some original material at 2:06 briefly mingled with the source, before heading for the close. There wasn't really that much to this in terms of arrangement. I realize the source isn't much, but this has to be more beyond an original intro & close with the theme transposed to strings and piano. This is an older piece, so I'm hoping you've stepped up your game on that level and won't harp on this too badly. Even beyond what you used here, you could also make some cool ideas just playing around with the 6-second intro of the source tunes. Underdeveloped and full of unexplored potential. Pretty empty for an orchestral mix. zirc covered the bulk of production issues very nicely, so go over that thoroughly. NO

Half-decent spareness to the sounds, but there's jack shit to this. Goes to 1:26. Repeats verbatim to 2:52. Fade out. The submission name is the exact same as the the source tune name; another strike. So I said to myself, "Let's go get the original." ... Nice rip. The original's better. Thank you for providing us with this inferior rip. We don't accept these. Since you don't seem to understand our submissions guidelines, feel free to read them sometime. (And yes, for you intrepid regular readers, I AM just copying & pasting my now stock NO Override vote.) NO OVERRIDE

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Secret of the Forest" (ct-1-11.spc) The arrangement is fine to me. It starts off original, but the changeup at :30 in the mix is perfectly fine rearrangement of 1:42 from the source tune. Cloud plays with that motif for a while, with interpretive rearrangement of the opening part of the original starting at 1:14 of the mix. Then coming in at 2:01, you get the more straightforward coverage. No problems on the arrangement front, personally. Very interpretive and creative. Need to sharpen up the sounds so you can appreciate the individual elements here. Everything's definitely too lo-fi here. I felt the samples were serviceable given the arrangement, so I don't mind them being kept the same. Everything sounds way better when you (finally) bring some high-end into the picture at 3:36 to fill out the sound field. Otherwise, like zirc pointed out, you've only got the lower half of the frequency spectrum. At least fill out the other half of the mid-range. The droning bassline hit some very rough spots at 2:44-2:48 & 2:59-3:03. For some reason, brigning it in again later on wasn't as glaring. Maybe one can get used to it, but it obviously works better when other sounds are in play as well and obscure it. Personally don't care for Chrono Trigger stuff most of the time, but this was alright, objectively speaking. Felt like the section from 3:36 to around 5:10 dragged on. Only a minute a half section there, but I felt like the constant development that was going on came to a halt. The ending, as it just hung there at 6:05, was kind of anti-climactic, but not bad. I'd keep the flow that occured from 6:01-6:04 and run with that a little bit longer, but it's a nitpick. Hope you weigh in whatever criticism you got here and come on back, Dan. I'd like to see this make it as your sophomore mix. NO (resubmit)

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Galway_Martin/Arkanoid_PSID.sid - Subtune 1/20 I remember talking to Chris this past summer about this mix, since I liked it so much. Pimped in back when the original version of this came out in late May, and played it on VGF30 as soon as I hit the radio again that fall. I had so in-depth critique on it back when I talked to Chris on EFNet, but lost it when the old comp died. Before I ever joined the panel, I figured this was a close shot, but not yet ready for primetime. There were basically two slight changes here compared to the first version available at VGMix & R:K:O, that being the vox was brought up more at 1:55, and the phasing notes done at 3:12 (very nice). I liked the basic construction of this; the groove was steady, but held my attention and developed in a slow but deliberate manner. I really liked how this arranged the second half of the source tune first, before moving to the first half. The one thing I told Chris about that I felt needed to be looked at was significantly punching up the more melodic bits, as they're really obscured. That never happened, as they're mostly in the back the whole time. Bringing up the vox was a cool move and filled the track more, but served to obscured the more important elements even more. onna have to place some of the more engaging, quasi-melodic compenents in the forefront in order to get a YES. Too bad; I told Chris to holler at me if and when he was going to resub this, but I didn't thear back from him. Nonetheless, go for a resub. Would love to see this make it. NO (please resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/vgm/defoasis.zip - "Long Time Ago" Loads of potential here like Wingy mentioned. I don't think the sound balance was too much of a problem. While the nature of string sequencing exposed the samples a bit, I wasn't bothered too much. Nonetheless, while I like how they sounded, they're a bit too overbearing over the melodic elements. Light audio deformations at :24 & :40; perhaps other places as well. The tracks sounds pretty good, but manages to drag on without some significant development. Just randomly seeking points in the track (e.g. 1:33, 2:30, 3:28, 4:11), everything sounds mostly the same. Aside from when you added in the strings at 1:11, the flow never really developed anywhere. I liked this a lot, and the arrangement was very nice, but it needs some more to push it over the bar. Very promising stuff, Mikhael. Sincerely hope you work on it some more and resubmit this, or at least stick around the community. NO (revise/resubmit)