Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ff6.rsn - "The Phantom Train" (ff6-116.spc) God, the original is annoying as hell. The theme's so unmemorable. Lee's managed to do some good work arranging the theme and providing it with a ghostly vibe. Wouldn't have minded hearing some train-related sound effects in there, considering the name of the remix here. The beatwork could have afforded to go in some different directions as well; heard the pattern change up at 1:53, but it was still too similar throughout. I felt things could have been more engaging just listening to it casually, but it may just not be my cup of tea since I thought the source tune was meh. Objectively speaking, this was solid enough arrangement and execution for the YES, though the mix feels kind of "safe", as I can't think of a better word. Nothing against Lee of course, as I'm a big fan of his work and his style, but I've enjoyed his other material moreso than this. Too bad we didn't have this for this past Halloween. Spoooooky! YES

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 2 Don't have the MM Battle Network 2 originals, but don't need 'em. No offense to anyone at, say, VGMusic, but the majority of MIDI stuff typically sounds terrible. We generally don't/won't take 'em because of their inferior sound quality. I realize it takes skill to make good MIDIs, but this right here was still a terrible mess. The sound balance among the instruments was godawful, and the arrangement was too brief and seemingly didn't take many liberties with the source material, as the Megaman II stuff used in there was pretty verbatim. The lack of a transition at 1:45 sounded incredibly sloppy. I'm being harsh, yeah, but get better at everything before you submit again. You're not even making solid MIDIs, so you have a long way to go. This was the epitome of rough and sloppy and should have gotten the form rejection letter. If you take DarkeSword's advice and get new music software, you better eat, sleep and breathe improvement. Make use of the WIP forum & ReMixing forum here in order to keep developing yourself. Stay diligent. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFXI_psf2.rar - 102 "Vana'diel March" Though the Prelude was referenced there, Naoshi Mizuta actually composed the source tune. And, ugh, don't co-credit yourself with Nobuo Uematsu everywhere in your MP3 tags. It looks tacky as hell and disingenuous. Some war drums opened things up - waiting for something to happen. 5 minute mix though, so there's lot of time for something to develop. In terms of the decision, it was practically over at :55 with this really muffled and tepid brass sample that came in. Everything sounded incredibly distant and had shit to do with the source whatsoever. 1:44 changed the flow. Still original material; no connection with the source. The string sample is meh. Everything's still very distant-sounding. More brass at 2:24. Still nothing to do with the source. Finally at 2:31 we got some faster-paced material and the source finally comes in at 2:46. Like DarkeSword said, it was verbatim and sped up. What a sudden, poorly conceived "I-give-up" ending at 4:41. To put it bluntly, bleh. Rearrange the source tune substantially next time, and make sure you next pieces posess a greater deal of clarity and more impactful sample usage. Read the OCR guidelines before you ever submit anything again. NO

None of the Lunar: Silver Star album information I could find even mentioned the original aside from this crud: http://mes-cd.com/detail.asp?s=COTATEL71684&c=16. (It's not the track "Burg" from other versions of the Lunar: SSS & Lunar SSS Complete soundtracks. What album is "Empty Burg" from?) The piano sample here was a MUCH weaker sample than in the clip of the original you provided, Matt. That was just a total downgrade. The arrangement was decent, but it needs more time to develop and you just gotta up the game on these samples. The piano & strings here sound way too synthetic. Expand the piece more and up the sound/sample quality. NO

Just to clear up any confusion, "Final Hours" in the USF pack is indeed "Last End" from the official soundtrack. So yeah, I loved this track. I thought it was well made and played it back on the Halloween episode of VGF, VGF38. I remember a lot of people complaining that the piece was really slow and didn't go anywhere, but I enjoyed it a lot. Too bad, however, that it's exactly like DS pointed out: doesn't sound enough like the source tune it's inspired from. Heard some light but frequent-enough audio deformations within the piece (e.g. 2:21, 2:31, 2:34, 2:37, 2:53, etc). Anyway, this piece was way too liberal. I heard some more overt reference to the original within 1:43-2:15 for example, but this was mostly original stuff that didn't carry enough similarity to the original. And the piano at 4:38 was from some other Zelda tune I don't feel like looking up. Sorry, bros. As Vig has said to other tracks like this, call this an original and sell the track for lots of $. You people that read the decisions, feel free to pick the track up at VGMix. You may like it. NO

Yeah, I checked the NSF as well and don't know what the hell you're even mixing from here. The game's from no other systems, so you need to be more explicit with what track your mixing in your submission information. Helps to know WHAT you mixed. The percussion was plodding, the synths were mediocre and the synth guitar in particular was awful in both sound and note movement. The "arrangement" or whatever you're doing here was really repetitive. The opening was initially not bad for a Final Fight-type vibe, but this was really unengaging work. Even the synth guitar solo-ish sections that were supposed to be intense didn't work. I heard variation in the lead synth work, but the supporting elements were so repetitive that everything stagnated. NO

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - (103) The Legendary Hero http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 68 "Gerudo Valley" Sounds were REALLY quiet. The organ opening was boring and dragged for way too long. Sounds were thin as hell and not much was going on. I liked the hand drums, but that was about it. The melody on the synth plucked strings was excessively dry and took no creative approach with the Legendary Hero/Zelda melody. Man, there really was nothing to this. Organ, hand drums, strings & occasional drums, and the track STILL sounds really empty. We hit the Gerudo theme at 2:27. Still very uncreative. Really sparsely mixed and not interpretive at all on either theme. Gotta agree with DS's flat assessment of the track. Boring, uncreative, repetitive. I bleh on it. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gym/ps4.rar - 01 "End of the Millennium" Heh. Some cool modulating sounds kicked things off. Yeah, that was some cheesy stuff with the vox here at :21. I wouldn't really keep that. The electrosynth that also came in at :21 playing an arranged part of the source tune's opening notes was pretty tame and could use a bit more oomph. Some cool ideas for rearrangement at 1:10; I'm actually liking the vibe here, but things need to fill out. Just as I said that, some beatwork started fading in at 1:33. Good stuff. The strings that came in handling the source tune melody at 1:39 were pretty slow on the attack and had no volume. It sounded like they deserved some presence at your chorus at 2:07, but you kept their volume pretty low. Rethink the balance between your various sounds. Watch the string movements from note-to-note; sounds unnatural in some places. We had the percussion work drop out at 2:38, which seemed like a good move, but it simply faded right back in. The tempo & pacing was getting monotonous at this point. The sounds were always the same, the beats were never changing up, and there wasn't much dynamic contrast going on here though I noticed you increase the volume a bit at 3:06. By 3:30 or so, we got more string work, but again it had no melodic presence here. The electrosynths sounded as if they were handling the foundations of the melody to some degree, but there was still no overtly melodic component to the track. For the close, the percussion dropped out for good and we got some vox handling the source melody and a somewhat cool sound effect from 4:03 until the end/4:37. Again, watch the note movements of the vox; sounds a bit too fake. All in all, bring out your rearranged melodies more, as they're difficult to get a grasp on being so subdued, like DarkeSword easily noticed. Work on giving your vox & string work a more natural feel also. Look up more information at the ReMixing forum & Work-in-Progress forum for advice on how to improve. I heard & appreciated your arrangement ideas, but the composition really dragged on by the halfway point, so you also need to learn how to switch things up in order to retain the interest of the listener. zircon absolutely pegged you on that. I really liked the potential here, so you should definitely keep working at it, Algo. Maybe not with this one, but don't stop attempting to make remixes. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Track 22 http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Chrono Trigger (part 2)" (ct-1-02b.spc) I don't hate your constant beat, but it was definitely too repetitive. What the hell was goin' on with 1:19-1:53? The notes pattern was so odd here, I'm not sure what the funk you did. Ugh, you kept it as your background as the source melody returned at 1:53. Man, this just sounded bad. The beats were really obscuring everything else here in terms of the sounds, as well; that was a constant problem throughout the track. Heh, there's the Chrono Trigger reference at 2:26, and DS was totally right, it WAS the highlight of the mix. Don't list this as a medley-type mix in the submission letter though with just a brief cameo reference to CT in there. Some new pattern arrived at 2:41, and it wasn't too bad, but again these note patterns sounded really rough. The fact that you relied on the MM2 Ending theme as your melody really hurt the mix, as you didn't even play around with the source melody itself until 3:49, which was a welcome change of pace, but too little too late on experimenting with the actual source tune's composition. Lots of raw potential, but needs a lot of work. The sounds were really cluttered, but had some good energy. Another change up at 4:23 and the notes sounded weird yet again. Is it just me hearing these problems? The beats altered in an awkward, non sequitur way at 4:32 & 4:40, 4:49, etc leading towards the end. Really not sure what the hell the point was. Confusing choices here and a cop-out/fade-out ending. Needs work on sound balance, fixing awkward note patterns, and arrangement. Definitely move onto the next piece and call this one a day though. NO

I like Bryan's work a lot, and played this back on VGF45, but per the usual that I've seen with his submissions here, he simply follows the source tunes too closely and doesn't create enough rearrangement ideas on his own. This was absolutely reliant on the source tune's own structure & instrumentation in terms of its appeal, and got by here by reinstrumenting some of the elements. I like both the source tune and this mix a lot, but this mix wasn't necessarily an improvement over Akemi Kimura's "Commander Yammark Stage." Finally some original wind material played over the source tune's beats starting at 2:17. Goes on for quite a while. Heard a reference to some other theme I can't remember at 3:15. Original stuff kept going until 3:33. Wholly original work there, and very welcome there in terms of changing things up, but so far we've gotten verbatim arrangement followed by almost entirely original freestyle work. Going into 3:33, it was back to the same verbatim-style reinstrumentation of the original. I love the feel of the track a lot, and listen to it more often than you'd think, but I've gotta go NO. Finally some rearrangement on the winds at 4:55 until the end. WHERE WAS THAT BEFORE, BRO? [sigh] I liked when you DID branch out, Bryan, but otherwise this was just too conservative. "ReMix," not "remix." NO

God, ugh, that source tune is fucking awful. Chipmunk-esque horseshit. Wow, those pizzicato strings coming in at :21 suck really, really badly. I'm sorry, bro, that's just some terrible application of 'em right there. Different strings at :42 and they sound overly fake as well. Now some bass strings at :50; same problem. Piano at 1:02...sounds fake. Some new idea going on with the xylo-ish dealie coming in at 1:46. Arrangement isn't terrible. Good new ideas changing up the note patterns at 2:14 and then following it up with some sweet original work at 2:29. Very nice ideas all the way until 3:11. Xylophone sounds are a little too bright, but otherwise decent. Bah, crappy strings again at 3:11. Arrangement of the source tune had some stuff goin' on, but was incredibly plodding and unenergetic. The original section was the best part. For anyone that's gonna submit stuff titles like this, don't name anything "____ Symphony" if it sounds beginner-ish like this. Real symphonies sound awesome, so please bring the awesome with you. Same goes for the words "Suite," "Scherzo," "Movement," "Etude" & "Orchestra." Look for better free samples, bro. Decent ideas, but the execution is too amateur. Hit the WIP forum & ReMixing forum to improve yourself, DJ V. You've certainly got the potential to better realize your ideas. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/btoads.zip - Track 14 DAYUM, that soundtrack has some catchy shit on there. Track 5 is sweet. You remixers, dammit, someone remix the stuff from here. Frankly, I thought this was pretty cool for what it was. Very minimalist, with a simple but catchy groove. Don't really see why Binnie was crapping on it. Too bad this was basically just a sound upgrade though. I heard the additional harmonies here, but overall the expansion was lacking and 100% of the fact that I like it is because the source tune KICKS ASS! I actually couldn't find the source tune in the GBS for a while, but listening to how this sounded the first few times, one could immediately tell this was gonna be very close to the original. Like both of my fellow Js have said, you need to provide more here. Beef up the percussion and let it mesh tighter with the track here. All the sounds need more texture, and the track needs background activity that adequately fills out the soundfield. What you have in place right now be funky 'n shit, but it's practically all lifted straight from the original and ultimately sparse nonetheless. Just because the source was like that doesn't mean you can't improve upon it substantially. That crazy bullshit at 2:58...nah, don't do that. It was a pretty jarring way to bring that synth into the picture. Ease its presence into the track, THEN go batshit with it. I'll be keeping the track, but you gotta be more. Most of this isn't even "yours" per se, as you haven't done anything meaningful with the source material. Aside from the added harmonies, this was coasting off the sweetness of the original. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, sure. But at the same token, don't BARELY upgrade it and then send it here. NO P.S. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=suppurate = ROFL

Sorry about that. Realism's not necessarily the right word to use, but I feel it's applicable on some level. I thought the percussion sounds used were really flimsy & tame and could have used some processing or different samples to beef it up. And yes, the guitar work sounding so synthetic hurt the performance in my opinion. Starting at 2:47, anything that could have been done to make the electric guitar, and later the synth guitar, more humanized would have bolstered the piece I felt. /DnB bias

Not to just shit on the track, but this really takes the original and just makes it worse. The piano/keyboard sample is absolutely awful. Strings sounded so unrealistic for what they were trying to sound like. The beats coming in at 1:09 were absolutely non sequitur; what purpose do they have in there??? Halfway through and this does nothing but add some rather minor support work under the repetitive melody in the form of the synth strings & percussion work, both of which also sound poor. The album version of the track is only 1:12. You have to realize that this repetitive stuff isn't gonna hold anyone's attention for 4 minutes. Just as I say that, you dropped some elements out at 3:32. Too little too late. And the lack of an ending, yeah that was bad too. Oy. NO

OMG NOW!!!!

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Xenogears_psf.rar - 111 "Dazil - City of Burning Sands" Echo. Nothing meaningful's been done to the piece at all in regards to the rearrangement standards. Nice remix, but not a ReMix by any stretch of the word. NO

Read. The. Rules. Ugh.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/yoshi.rsn - "Athletic BGM" (yi-13.spc) I'm familiar with the theme from the OneUp Mushrooms' take on it, "Donut Lifts". Not a bad effort here, certainly, though, though the pacing is a little bit plodding here (tik-tik-tik, tik-tik-tik, tik-tik-tik...etc). Be sure to not run with a good arrangement idea, but then barely change it up for the duration of the mix. Nearly 4 minutes of the same thing gets boring. Decent genre adaptation work along with some good ideas for instrumentation expansion. Samples are decently used, though the soundfonts definitely are at the low end of the quality spectrum. Piano & trumpet sound really fake, with no real humanization techniques employed. The bass really sounds terrible at 2:24, and the muted piano & trumpet during that section was a terrible idea, as it just sounds like a straight volume cut on those instruments rather than the "players" simply playing their instruments softly. Yep, hit the Work-in-Progress & ReMixing forums to improve your game. You've certainly got potential and a measure of creativity, so keep improving. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Track 4 ("Castle BGM") I heard the rearrangement apparent throughout the major majority of the mix, though a lot of the middle involved a very subtle bassline as well as dragging out the note pattern of the source with the slow-playing glassy-sounding notes. The samples were handled fairly well, but the sample quality itself was definitely not up to par here, as there was no realism in the sounds (the organ, vox, percussion or the guitars). For example, the synth guitar riffage at 3:24 was there in spirit but sounded really tacky. Also, the arrangement had no particular thematic direction. The changes in direction here came across as being there for the sake of being there. Learn how to get your samples sounding more realistic and focus the ideas of the arrangement more. Keep at it, bro. NO

Yeah, I remember Eric & I talking about the piece a couple of months ago to make sure this wouldn't run into any problems, like his previous Tombs & Treasure cover. I had played it on VGF45, but hadn't verified the level arrangement until I talked to EgM. Didn't save the conversation, but in my opinion things checked out. The performance was per Eric's usual quality offerings, and this time I had no problems on the arrangement front. Though still a conservative take on the material, the arrangement expanded upon the sounds of the original and provided adequate variation in the composition and instrumentation. The mix actually seems to go by faster than 3 minutes as you casually listen. Good job on this straightforward relaxation piece. May not be everyone's cup of tea, but I encourage y'all out there to check it out. YES

Heh. Trying to pull off a 45-second original into a 6+ minute piece? Best of luck. Opening reverbed piano work is directly from the source, but there's lot of time to develop. UGH. Hearing tons of little audio deformations all OVER the place, and the upper mid-range & high end are completely absent. Once more sounds come in, everything gets muddy and cluttered together. Finally some higher frequencies at 1:26, but you can see how top-heavy the EQ is with the lower frequencies. Aside from these beats you added in, the instrumentation is decidedly similar to the original only with reverb added. The melody from :26 of "Triage at Dawn" comes in at 2:02 and everything sounds like a mess. Man, the ending starting around 5:46 was such an incredible mess, I dunno why you couldn't hear how poorly that came across. EQing should be your friend. While this isn't a typical MIDI-rip + drums, adding some beats and barely changing the instrumentation along with some reverb and crappy production is never gonna get you here now. Some change in the beatwork at 3:33, but it's way too late for that. Get way more creative on the actual rearrangement of the piece and read up everything you can on production so you aren't rendering stuff like this ever again. Dunno how you can remove the static, but check out the ReMixing forum PLEASE. NO

Too loud for it's own good. The high-end needs to be scaled down, and there needs to be better sound balance. The drumkit and distortion are so loud that the melody loses something in the process. But yeah, like Binnie says, I listened to the "Intermezzo" from Doom, and this sounds nothing like it. Wouldn't make it on for those porduction reason, plus, though I hear change and development within the composition, the general groove gets monotonous. Sounds NOTHING LIKE THE SOURCE TUNE either. NO

http://www.zophar.net/usf/ge64usf.rar - 103 Runway Pretty chill. Not quite there yet, but loads of potential. Interesting opening with such an unassuming keyboard there. The very artificial sound of the string samples (incredibly exposed there at :24-:25) may be purposeful, but their lack of realism and warmth hurt the piece. I think the guitar synth (in at :34) could use a fuller tone, but, while not sounding particularly realistic, is decent enough to work within the big picture. Someone'll disagree there. The piano synth that joined in at :58 was a great touch but sounds pretty artifical as well. Sounds like the velocities on each note are the same throughout the track. The percussion work was a little heavy on the high end for my taste, but since the bassline was a bit subdued (punch it up a little), the percussion work had to fill out most of the space. A little plodding there, but it's actually pretty laid back and gave off a good vibe. Those little guitar strums at 2:27 were pretty sweet. Really liking the arrangement ideas here a hell of a lot. Mix isn't even over and I know I'll be keeping this. Keyboard stuff at 3:35 was a little too much of a minimalist breakdown there, especially with the sudden loud return of the strings and percussion at 3:46. Might wanna add something light in the background for that brief section so the contrast isn't so jarring. As things slowed down at 4:43 for the ending, the keyboard definitely got exposed quite a bit, along with the timing feeling just a bit off. It sounded pretty weak attempting to carry the finish. Really cool shit so far, Alex. I'm loving the arrangement, but the handling of the samples needs to be refined for more of a humanized touch as the velocities sound the same for most of the instruments in play. You're pretty close, IMO, and I absolutely want to see a resubmission. Check out the criticisms, think over whatever you feel would improve the piece for yourself, and get whatever help you can get. I hope this isn't the last I've heard of this one. NO (resubmit)

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/axelay.rsn - "Unkai" (axe-03.spc) http://www.ocremix.org/detailmix.php?mixid=OCR00717 - "Kick My Axe" It's been done and it's been done a lot better. That's the cold hard truth. Not that this would have any shot now, as is, but Midee, Prozax & Jeremy Johnson have already done this in the same style, only with a hell of a lot more polish. Sound balance/clarity needs work, and you can't just repeat the Unkai melody for 4 minutes. It's not THAT hot. Feel free to upload it to VGMix, Gonzo. I don't think anyone would crap on it, but they'll all point to "Kick My Axe" and tell you the same thing I'm telling you. Even if the performance was spot on, there's not even a remote chance I'd pass this. If you're gonna do the same idea, the burden's on you to significantly outdo the last guy. Perhaps you may enjoy the Dwelling of Duels. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sd3.rsn - "Another Winter" (sd3-1-09.spc) Same rules apply today as they did a year or two ago. No mock-ups. We don't take reinstrumented MIDI/SPC rips. You certainly don't deserve to retitle this piece as if it's something unique, let alone put your own name on it. 4+ minutes, yet everything's STILL note-for-note. You should have read our rules two years ago. They're the same today: I hope you ejoyed the rigorous screening process. NO OVERRIDE